tagged w/ Washington D. C.
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Only yesterday I was asking, who has heard what of Russ. Today I received your link. Kudos! You have put this site together very nicely. The help build an agenda feature is brilliant, and I see this evening that your response volume is quite respectable. I've been posting your link all over Current.Com blog pages. Your success will be a triumph that I can revel in.
You know better than anyone who hasn't been in Congress, how difficult it is to achieve meaningful reform in government, once it has gone as far off the path of government of the people, for the people and by the people, as it has. Congress is stalemated and lamed until at least the next elections. Even with a Democratic controlled government, Democrats could not get out of their own way and fear, to enact desperately needed reforms, in spite of your singular efforts! As a trend watcher, I perceive that conditions have been put into a ball and sent down a snowy hill, which is only growing larger and increasing in speed as it continues to roll down. And I ask, what will happen if that ball is allowed to reach the village at the bottom of that hill? Yet, it occurs to me that the now great big and heavy snow ball is already 3/4 of the way down that hill, leaving very little time to prevent total catastrophe, if that is even still possible.
In one day your supporters have identified an agenda that could keep a typical administration tied up in knots for the duration of it's term, and far beyond. But with Congress in a protracted state of dysfunction and ineffectiveness, how are we to even allow for hope that any of these issues could be positively addressed, particualarly with a sworn in blood obstructionist House determined to help drain the last of life force from the American public? While a few sympathetic ears in Congress may be turning towards the calls of the American people, they are far too few to be able to effect urgently needed reform.
Even though many of us not from Wisconsin, know you primarily for you efforts on campaign finance reform, that single position signals to us an attitude towards the country, and the people, that puts you more on the side of all the people, and the entire country, than not. It occurs to me that in order to be able to achieve any semblance of change in government for the benefit of the people, or healthy reform, it will require much more than sending emails to the president and members of Congress. It occurs to me that in order to achieve any semblance of change and reform in government during the next few years, we are being compelled to raise our heads, and our voices, as they have been doing in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, Egypt and Libya, to insist on immediate changes that will address the crucial issues which weigh heavily upon us now! If the snowball is left unchecked and allowed to hit the village, how beneficial to the residents of that village will be future reform? I'm sure that it is not necessary to wax poetically or plaintiffly, for you to understand the urgency that pain, hunger, cold, homelessness and other public sufferings, call out to be addressed now.
In conjunction with your overall long term strategy to deal with your official agenda, I take the liberty of asking, on behalf of those too preoccupied with the daily demands of mere existence and caring for families, for you to consider supporting an effort to continue protest marches, on every state capitol and the national capitol, while presenting the list of issues on your agenda to the government, with the insistence that those issues be resolved, continuously protesting until every issue is sufficiently resolved. We would like to begin a series of national, if not international, work stoppage days, merely to get the attention of government and to demonstrate that the corporate right is not the ultimate force determining their own profit margins. We wish to organize coordinated national boycotts of every product and service of every socially irresponsible and unfriendly corporation or business. We aspire to put those businesses, out of business.
Specifically, and as I communicated to your office earlier, we wish to begin the first work stoppage day on March 9th, if that allows sufficient time to organize a national work stoppage day. As we continue the perpetual protest on the capitols, we wish to culminate that effort with a protest march on Washington D. C. particularly, from May 5th through May 9th, with May 5th being a national work stoppage day. We believe that if all business were to stop functioning on May 5th, with much of the country on the capitol mall in D.C., waving banners of every socially irresponsible company and product, and every politician that has sold the public out for corporate money, that we will gain the ear and attention of a government, long negligent to it's employers. Can we, the public, count on your support in this effort?Only yesterday I was asking, who has heard what of Russ. Today I received your link.... more
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This piece presents a number of stunning high-resolution color photographs of Christmas at the White House, a wonderful slide show with additional photographs and two videos, including a music video.
Please visit my website to view these stunning photographs and slide show, and to watch the cheerful holiday videos.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/im-dreaming-of-a-white-house-christmas/This piece presents a number of stunning high-resolution color photographs of... more
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If you thought it was going to be a long time before you ever witnessed Lady Gaga make a grandly gay appearance on the C-Span television network, well you’ll just have to think again! Our Lady Gaga of the Immaculate Penis spoke before thousands in attendance at The National Equality March on Washington today. And there were two very memorable parts: first, when they placed a riser behind the podium for her to stand on and speak, and second, when she wooed the audience with a Judy Garland joke. Reminders: Obama makes Lady Gaga joke, Gaga makes Judy Garland joke. Oh yes…America, the Beautiful!!
This includes color photographs and the video of Lady Gaga's speech.If you thought it was going to be a long time before you ever witnessed Lady Gaga make... more
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Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is hoping to put in place a major new lending program that would be run by the Federal Reserve and aimed at unlocking the frozen consumer credit market.
The program, still in the planning stages, would for the first time use bailout funds specifically to help consumers instead of banks, savings and loans and Wall Street firms.
Treasury officials said they hoped to invest about $50 billion from the bailout fund into the new loan facility, with the aim of helping companies that issue credit cards, make student loans and finance car purchases.Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is hoping to put in place a major new lending... more
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday said he was backing away from buying troubled mortgage assets using a $700 billion bailout fund, instead favoring a second round of capital injections into financial institutions that would match private funds.
Paulson, in an update on the Treasury's financial rescue efforts, said his staff has continued to examine the benefits of purchasing illiquid mortgage assets under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program.
"Our assessment at this time is that this is not the most effective way to use TARP funds, but we will continue to examine whether targeted forms of asset purchase can play a useful role, relative to other potential uses of TARP resources," Paulson told a news conference.
When Treasury was selling the $700 billion bailout plan to Congress, it initially promoted it as a vehicle that would purchase illiquid mortgage assets from banks and other institutions to cushion potential losses.
But it became quickly apparent that setting up such purchases would take time, and Treasury opted for the faster method of injecting capital directly into banks by buying preferred stock. The Treasury has allocated $250 billion of the fund to such purchases so far.
Paulson said the Treasury is evaluating a second program that would provide government investments that would match private investments in capital raisings.WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday said he was... more
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The soybean rust fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi may meet its match, thanks to a gene-silencing technique that scientists of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plan to deploy to identify genes that enable plants to naturally resist this fungal foe.
Molecular biologist Kerry Pedley, at the ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit at Fort Detrick, Md., will use gene silencing to discover plant genes that play a role in orchestrating defense responses to P. pachyrhizi in resistant soybeans. The fungus causes substantial losses to soybeans worldwide, and its September 2004 detection in the continental United States has accelerated efforts to protect the $18 billion U.S. soybean crop.
Gene silencing allows scientists to identify a gene’s function by disabling that gene in plants or other organisms, challenging the organism in some way — such as with exposure to a pathogen — and observing the consequences that result from that gene having been “missing in action.” In Pedley’s studies, the gene-silenced plants will be inoculated with spores of P. pachyrhizi, and monitored for a breakdown in resistance.
Pedley’s research plan was the top-ranked in a total of 450 proposals recently submitted to the ARS Postdoctoral Research Associate Program. In honor of his top ranking among the proposals, Pedley has received the agency’s T.W. Edminster Award, named for a former ARS administrator, plus $120,000 to fund a postdoctoral associate position for two years.
The ultimate goal of Pedley’s research is to streamline the development of new soybean cultivars that can withstand P. pachyrhizi, which causes a foliar disease that severely weakens the plant and diminishes its seed yields and quality. Pedley is collaborating with Iowa State University scientists, and this award will expand upon those efforts.
ARS officials also selected 50 other research proposals for two years of funding at $100,000 per proposal under this year’s Postdoctoral Research Associate Program. Other plans approved for funding include research on development of molecular-based pesticides for control of varroa mites in honey bees, methods to produce antimicrobial cotton wipes, use of remote sensing to monitor rangelands, and replacing fish meal with grain-protein concentrates in feed for Atlantic salmon production.The soybean rust fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi may meet its match, thanks to a... more
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(Nov. 11) - You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.
In lifting lyrics from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.
"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."(Nov. 11) - You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.
Ads... more
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