Tag: Triangulation

Friday: Weasel Words

Weasel,short tailed weasel


The Hill

10/12/2010

http://thehill.com/homenews/ca…

But centrist Democrats say the draft recommendations from the fiscal commission co-chairmen are reasonable. They note the money saved from the proposed reforms would be used to strengthen Social Security and not go toward the general Treasury deficit.

“The recommendations on Social Security fall well within the mainstream of what most progressive organizations that care about Social Security solvency think should be done to save it,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. “Everyone believes there should be increases in the retirement age, some adjustment to the cost-of-living adjustments and some increase in revenues.”

Third Way’s Board of Trustees work for companies including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Palladium, DGZ Capital, Ospraie Funds,  etc.

Third Way Honorary Co Chairs include: Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas*, Evan Bayh of Indiana*, Thomas Carper of Delaware, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Mark Udall of Colorado, Melissa Bean of Illinois* Artur Davis of Alabama*

*will no longer be in elected office as of January 2009 due to loss or retirement


The Hill

11/12/2010

Poll Shows Majority Wants Tax Cuts for Everyone

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-th…

A majority says tax cuts should be extended for everyone, which is in line with what Republicans have argued for the past several months, according to a recent poll.

About 53 percent said the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year should be extended for all workers, including higher earners, according to an Associated Press/GfK Poll conducted after last week’s elections.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Nov. 3-8 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications, and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 adults chosen randomly from across the U.S. It has a margin of sampling error of 4.1 percentage points.

“AP” in AP- GfK is the Associated Press.

Nation Branding: making the country’s values better known, minimize accidents, promote tourism, or attract investors.

  Simon Anholt is a consultant who advises countries on their national identity “brand,” and who invented the phrase “nation branding” in 1998.  Anholt regularly conducts two global surveys known as the Anholt – Gfk Roper Nation Brands Index and Anholt- Gfk Roper City Brands Index. Nation branding is practiced by many countries to manage their international reputations and enhance the perceived value of their exports.  GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media is the official polling partner of the Associated Press and is home based in NYC, offering services to make “market decisions.”

One Year Ago:


Press Release

http://www.gfk.com/group/press…

New York, October 5, 2009 – Brand America is now ranked #1 by global citizens, according to the GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, a division of GfK Custom Research North America. Results from the 2009 Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index(NBI), which measures the global image of 50 countries, show the United States taking the top spot as the country with the best overall brand, up from seventh last year.

“What’s really remarkable is that in all my years studying national reputation, I have never seen any country experience such a dramatic change in its standing as we see for the United States in 2009,” explains Simon Anholt, NBI founder and an independent advisor to over a dozen national governments around the world. “Despite recent economic turmoil, the U.S. actually gained significant ground. The results suggest that the new U.S. administration has been well received abroad and the American electorate’s decision to vote in President Obama has given the United States the status of the world’s most admired country.”

One Month Ago:


http://www.gfk.com/group/press…

Press Release

New York, USA, October 12, 2010 – The United States continues to lead the world in global image, according to GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications…..

Mr. Anholt points out the importance of understanding not only the overall reputation standing of nations, but also individual attributes: “While the United States ranks No. 1 on the overall NBI, it ranks much lower on a few individual questions such as “behaves responsibly in world peace and security” (21st) and “behaves responsibly in protecting the environment” (26th).

Two Months Ago:


http://www.gfk.com/group/press…

Press Release

New York, USA, September 22, 2010 – The United States is one of the more environmentally cynical nations in the world with only 62% of the population believing that environmental pollution is a serious issue according to the findings from the new Green Gauge Global report from GfK Roper Consulting, a division of GfK Custom Research North America. This ranks the US 24th out of 25 markets around the world – close to dead last.

Whoops.

Feel like your amygdala’s been massaged enough yet ?

Morning Migraine: Democrats Finally Go For Jobs Program & Peace

United States to  Spend $7.5 Billion on jobs program on water, energy, and health.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

…. a vision of a future in which all people can live safe, healthy, and productive lives; contribute to their communities; and make the most of their own God-given potential.”

Clinton said the U.S. will complete two hydroelectric dam projects to supply electricity to more than 300,000 people in areas near the Afghan border, will renovate or build three medical facilities in central and southern Pakistan and will embark on a new initiative to improve access to clean drinking water in the country.

These projects and several others focused on promoting economic growth will cost some $500 million and will be funded by legislation approved by Congress to triple nonmilitary aid to $1.5 billion a year over five years.

Vice President clarifies what it means to be elected because your country wanted a change in foreign policy after 7 years of war.   12 months x 103 per month = 1236 more fatalities by next July in Afghanistan, when we’ll…..  slow down.  


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Vice President Joe Biden is taking a more cautious approach when it comes to next summer’s planned military U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan.

He once predicted the drawdown next July would mean “a lot of people moving out.”

But he tells ABC’s “This Week” that the number of U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan “could be as few as a couple of thousand troops.”  



Biden says it’s too early to judge whether the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan will succeed, but he says there is progress.

A record 103 NATO troops were killed in June, the deadliest month of the nearly 9-year-old war for international forces.

I know we can fix the international financial crisis and the domestic 20 out 10 Depression with more of the same.  And this should help the Democrats with their message fine tuning during the fall campaigns.

Whew.  And here I was worried about that oil well developing a little leak.  

Bad Pragmatism in Theory (pt.4): Gramsci vs. the Republicans

There are two models of the acquisition of political power discussed here:

1) the Republican model, in which an “aestheticized” politics is promoted (in this case, it’s the “aesthetics” of the War on Terror and of insecurity in general) in order to capture power for an elite (the Bush administration and its neoconservative cronies, and its financial backers in the oil and defense industries)

2) the model proposed by the Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci, in which a coalition comes to power in order to support the claims of working people.

Here I will try to suggest that the former is “bad pragmatism” and the latter is real pragmatism, and suggest that the Democratic Party stop imitating 1) and find a way to subscribe wholeheartedly to 2).

(crossposted at Big Orange)

From politics of hope to politics as usual

An editorial from http://socialistworker.org: http://socialistworker.org/200…