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Welcome to the July 19, 2011 edition of the Progressive Post. While we hope you find this information useful, you can unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Bill Clinton: Use Constitution to raise debt limit Former President Bill Clinton says that he would invoke the so-called constitutional option to raise the nation's debt ceiling "without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me" in order to prevent a default, should Congress and the President fail to achieve agreement before the August 2 deadline. This is the "Public Debt" provision of the 14th Amendment. By Joe Conason - The National Memo. Read More

Event Reminders: BIG BLUE North County San Diego BBQ Sunday, 07/31/2011 Sunday, July 31 from Noon to 4:00 PM San Dieguito County Park, Group Picnic Area 1 1628 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Del Mar (East of the I-5 at Lomas Santa Fe & Highland / Onsite Parking $3 per car) - — FEATURING — LIVE Music by San Diego Music Award Nominee Charlie Imes & his Hodad Surf Club Band. Democratic Candidates • Go Team Leaders • Special Guests Community meeting on creek trail plan Wednesday, 07/20/2011 The city of Escondido is holding a meeting to gather input on the Escondido Creek Trail at Escondido City Hall. The city has received a grant to develop a master plan for this project based on the acclaimed "Revealing Escondido Creek" vision created by students at Cal Poly Pomona. Free Monthly E-Waste Collection in Encinitas Saturday, 07/23/2011 Make room for your new electronic gadgets and toys! Bring your discards to The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. The Solana Center is holding monthly electronic waste drop offs at their site at 137 N. El Camino Real. These events are co-sponsored by the city of Encinitas and Recycle San Diego. Lagoon Day Sunday, 07/24/2011 A collaborative walk between all three Carlsbad lagoons to celebrate and appreciate our beautiful coastal wetland resources. It is assumed, but not yet verified, that the walk begins at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Discovery Center. Prayer Vigil Supporting Grocery Workers in Vista Friday, 07/29/2011 Please participate in urgent ICWJ North County Prayer Vigil and Delegation supporting Grocery Workers during their struggle for a fair contract. Lake San Marcos Dem Club Meets Saturday, 08/13/2011 The price of freedom is paid by our men and women in uniform. At our next meeting, two men from Veterans for Peace will speak about the "True cost of Wars". Free Monthly E-Waste Collection in Encinitas Saturday, 08/27/2011 Make room for your new electronic gadgets and toys! Bring your discards to The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. The Solana Center is holding monthly electronic waste drop offs at their site at 137 N. El Camino Real. These events are co-sponsored by the city of Encinitas and Recycle San Diego. List of Democratic events in San Diego County Tuesday, 08/30/2011 This is a list of Democratic and progressive events in San Diego County: CLICK HERE To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here NC Film Club rolls Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts Sunday, 07/24/2011 The 2011 Summer-Fall Season of North County Film Club continues with Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts. List of Democratic events in San Diego County Saturday, 07/30/2011 This is a list of Democratic and progressive events in San Diego County: CLICK HERE To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here NC Film Club rolls Oscar Nominated Live Shorts Sunday, 08/07/2011 The North County Film Club screens Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts. NC Film Club offering: Another Year Sunday, 08/21/2011 The North County Film Club screens Another Year. This 'N That Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. - John F. Kennedy What good is a house, if you haven't got a decent planet to put it on? - Henry David Thoreau I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. - John Cage We are, each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another. - Luciano de Crescenzo Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live, & as if you were to die tomorrow. - Mother Anna Lee, founder of the Shakers Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. ... Only reverence can restrain violence - reverence for human life and the environment . - Rev. William Sloan Coffin, Jr. To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. - William Blake If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. - Nelson Mandela Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. - Friedrich Nietzche We can’t become nonviolent on the basis of intellectual conviction. Commitment to nonviolence demands a very profound conversion of mind and heart. If we take the time to pray with Jesus, we too will be converted in mind and heart. It won’t work if we try to reason it out. The only way is through a change of heart, a coming into a way of being that is the way of Jesus. - Bishop Thomas Gumbleton Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. - Albert Einstein Nonviolence which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. - Mahatma Gandhi A good end sanctify evil means; not must we ever do evil, that good might come of it. We are ready to retaliate, rather than forgive or gain by love and information . . . Force may subdue, but love gains. And one that forgives first wins the laurel. - William Penn A large group of us were crowded into the Gestapo hall, and at that moment the circumstances of all our lives were the same. All of us occupied the same space, the men behind the desk no less than those about to be questioned. What distinguished each of us was only our inner attitude. - Etty Hillesum (concentration camp victim) The story of the human race is characterized by efforts to get along much more than by violent disputes, although it's the latter that make the history books. Violence is actually exceptional. The human race has survived because of cooperation, not aggression. - Gerard Vanderhaar Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is--whether its victim is human or animal--we cannot expect things to be much better in this world... We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity. - Rachel Carson I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: "Mother, what was war?" - Eve Merriam The question is not, do we go to church; the question is, have we been converted. The crux of Christianity is not whether or not we give donations to popular charities but whether or not we are really committed to the poor. - Joan Chittester, OSB Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war. - Dave Dellinger Everything, everything in war is barbaric . . . But the worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being. - Ellen Key, 1916 If you want peace, work for justice. - Pope Paul VI Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man. - Stewart Udall Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace. - Martin Luther (1483-1546) We are convinced that non-violence is more powerful than violence. We are convinced that non-violence supports you if you have a just and moral cause...If you use violence, you have to sell part of yourself for that violence. Then you are no longer a master of your own struggle. - Cesar Chavez

Articles & News: Michele Bachmann's Holy War Article "Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government." Article by Matt Taibbi with make you snicker, laugh and tremble with fear. Marriage Equality: Obama calls for repeal of DOMA News In nod to gay rights, Pres. Obama backs repeal of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and withholds federal benefits from gay married couples. "This legislation would uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections as straight couples," Mr. Carney said. The repeal law would mandate that the 1,100 federal rights, privileges, and benefits currently available only to heterosexual married couples must be guaranteed to same-sex married couples as well. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is major sponsor of the bill. Civil Liberties under Obama Article "Suffice it to say that it is acknowledged and recognized across the political spectrum that Barack Obama has continued virtually all of George Bush and Dick Cheney's once-controversial terrorism and civil liberties policies... Ironically, the only thing that could really stop this kind of growing assault on civil liberties and the militarism that accompanies it is a weakening of the United States to the point where they're no longer sustainable. And the weakening is happening precisely because of these very policies." Speech by Glenn Greenwald What happens if Greece defaults? Article "Greece's state finances are badly broken, and another intervention by the troika will only worsen the overall economy, while temporarily putting off a default... In short, a Greek default would likely trigger a new global financial meltdown. Commentators have begun referring to the scenario as a "second Lehman"--in reference to the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank, the event at the heart of the financial panic of late 2008." It's a sure thing that Greece will default. By Zack Jill - Socialist Worker. OBAMA: The Evil of Two Lessers Article Black editor critical of Obama on Social Security: - by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley. "Not only is Obama keeping the country in a perpetual state of war," but he abandons core Democratic programs "at the first sign of Republican resistance." As a consequence the GOP, which has fought and schemed for decades to "starve the beast" by cutting social programs while fattening the military and the wealthy, "are closer than ever to seeing their dream realized." No longer can it be said that the Democrats are the "lesser of two evils," since they are the party in charge that is making the evils possible. Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath Article Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis. It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases. [Maybe Ryan is paid too much govt. paid salary.] By TalkingPointsMemo 6 Atlanta officers fired over Atlanta Eagle raid Article Six Atlanta police officers were fired Friday for lying about what happened on the night of the 2009 raid on a Midtown gay bar, APD spokesman Carlos Campos said. Nine other officers were also disciplined and three have hearings next week. "Honesty goes to the very heart of a police officer’s credibility," Chief George Turner said. "The public must be able to trust its police officers and expects them to tell the truth at all times. COLUMNISTS: 'Israel races into Fascism' Article Ben Caspit, one of Israel's most influential and centrist thinkers, a columnist for Ma'ariv, writes this regarding Israel's anti-boycott law: "This is a blatant and a resounding shutting of people’s mouths. This is a thought police. There is no choice but to use this word. Fascism at its worst is raging." Columnist Alon Idan from Haaretz wrote: " The widely held view that the slew of anti-democratic laws legislated by the 18th Knesset is a slippery slope to Fascism in the future is disingenuous. The Boycott Law is Fascism: it is a categorically anti-democratic law whose goal is to annul any possibility of legitimate protest. There's no slope to slide down here; we're not talking about symbols, or process. We are instead witnessing purposeful, palpable manifestations of Fascism." Environment: The wrong man is going to jail. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: "Why Is Tim DeChristopher Going to Jail While Massey Energy's CEO Walks Free? Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher is going to jail, but Don Blankenship isn't -- despite the fact that he illegally destroyed an entire mountain range. Why? Because he's the CEO of Massey Energy Company—and has completely bought off the judicial system in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky." (Time 4:25) Wall St. banks will kill Congress before default Dean Baker from the Center for Economic and Policy Research says that what has become "pretty much protocol" isn't that big of a deal. In a worse case scenario, says Baker, the most damaging result would be the destruction of Wall Street, and that, he says, is not going to happen, because Wall Street calls the shots in Congress. Late-breaking news: This just in ... News News that did not make our deadline: Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians Army intel analyst Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking this video of a U.S. helicopter attack killing 11 civilians and wounding two children in Baghdad, Iraq. The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal. INFO CLICK HERE: Hiroshima: A criminal act on epic scale Article 65 years ago - Historic Ignomy The US dropped the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a criminal act on an epic scale. It was premeditated mass murder that unleashed a weapon of intrinsic criminality. For this reason its apologists have sought refuge in the mythology of the ultimate "good war", whose "ethical bath", as Richard Drayton called it, has allowed the west not only to expiate its bloody imperial past but to promote 60 years of rapacious war, always beneath the shadow of The Bomb. By John Pilger Ted Olson Interview With Fox News Chris Wallace Wallace, insinuating that Gay Marriage is judicial activism, asks where is it in the Constitution that permits gay mariage. "Where is the right to interracial marriage in the Constitution" asked Ted Olsen of Wallace. Brilliant arguments by Olson. When Wallace insists the voters have the right to outlaw gay marriage, Olson asks if it would be constitutional for the voters to force blacks to drink at separate water fountains. Bombing of Hiroshima, a day of historic infamy Article 65 years ago the US killed over 150,000 Japanese in the bombing of Hiroshima - Aug. 6, 1945. This video demonstrates the horror of that event. Cartoons of the Week News Economy back on track Little boys playing with matches Debt Negotiation? Health Care: No pubic option? Airport Secuity dope The value of Tea Parties Latinos' love for Arizona! Gov. Walker wants the whole cow! Gay people can quote the Bible, too. Bombs for Peace Unions & the Middle Class Obama plays poker with GOP Arlington West - Memorial to our dead soldiers Independence Day, July 4. View this short film. Remember our dead from the two present wars. Please honor the living vets. Invite one out to dinner. At least thank one for their service. May there be no more wars. Late-breaking news: This just in ... News News that did not make our deadline:

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