JDPriestly's Journal - Democratic Underground http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sun, 19 May 2013 10:09:38 Sun, 19 May 2013 10:09:38 Question for economists: If a country's credit rating is downgraded and that country's cost of borrowing goes up, won't that country buy less from other countries?

Won't that kind of put the brakes on "free trade"?

Won't that mean less demand for commodities like oil? imported food?

Won't that mean more demand for... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/255 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:02:00 How many years did you live in Germany or Austria yourself, ellisonz. Before I lived there, I had the impression that the German people had to be foolish or stupid or corrupt or hateful. I had seen all those traits in some of the most racist Southerners when I lived there.

But when I met German people, people who after I had known them a while, demonstrated or adm... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/254 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:38:24 True. Has he forgotten how, during the Bush administration, people were excluded from Republican meetings if they wore so much as a tee-shirt that the Republican party bosses did not like.

That was the Bush administration Mike-Check. Just don't allow anyone who might voice an opinion other than your own into your show.

Rove, finally you, a chief Mike-Checker of the Bush administration,... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/253 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 03:28:26 A rallying cry that puts Bloomberg's conduct in proper persepective. Zucotti Park is not Tianamen Square. No, indeed.

Ours is supposed to be a free country, not a Communist or Fascist dictatorship.

And, as Rumsfeld pointed out in April 2003, freedom can be "untidy."

http://articles.cnn.com/2003-04-11/us/sprj.irq.pentagon_1_looting-defense-secretary-donald-r... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/248 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:47:51 Ahhhhh! Pay no permits!!!! You mean like the mortgage companies and banks did not pay the fees required to record changes in the names of the the parties to the mortgages? That kind of not paying fees and permits.

The camping out represents a whole lot of things. And you have just put your finger on one of them.

O... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/249 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:21:27 Precisely. After all, the corporations can afford people to hang out in the capitol and lobby our representatives all day and then wine and dine and party with those same representatives at night.

The rich and their lobbyists are in a sense camping out in Congress.

That's what should not be allowed.

Camping in parks is does not cause nearly the problems th... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/250 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:17:49 Even the Supreme Court changes its mind, and here, the argument is that, in the light of Citizens United and the role that money has played in determining whose speech is heard and whose is ignored, the only way to petition the government and to compete with the money of the 1% is to camp out in public parks and speak, discuss political ideas and live democracy ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/251 Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:55:00 Such is the slow progress of the law. The Constitution guaranteed the right to be silent to those accused of crimes, but The Supreme Court did not insure that right until its Miranda decision in 1966.

Similarly, the right to counsel in a criminal case was not guaranteed until the Supreme Court's decision in Gideon in 1963.

And mos... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/252 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:55:52 Don Siegelman and Abramoff I received this e-mail from Don Siegelman yesterday:

First: Jack Abromoff, is validating what I have been saying for more than a decade!!!! Straight from the horse’s mouth: Abramoff confessed that he laundered $20 million dollars of gambling money through fake organizations to defeat me and my Ed... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/247 Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:11:20 Our government is riddled with secret committees and secret documents and secret policies and secret codes and secret communications and secret wiretaps and secret GPS and secret cameras and secret warrants and secret surveillance and top secret weapons and Secret Service and secret microphones and secret plans and secret phone calls and secret discussions and secret meetings and secret ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/246 Sun, 13 Nov 2011 12:58:13 Warning: Huge files and offensive photos, but if you are up to it, either very funny or very offensive! It's your risk. I do not approve or disapprove. I just see it as an expression of justified anger.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/douche-bags-we-dont-need-no-more-stinking-douchebags

And while you are there, read the other articles. But get your l... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/245 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:07:18 Great list. With regard to the Patriot Act.

It is especially important that the government be prohibited from reading, eavesdropping or listening in on political communications by citizens of the US.

It is also imperative that the government be prohibited from reading, eavesdropping or listening in on a... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/244 Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:42:47 Let's ask Peter Schiff to meet the Warren Buffet challenge. Peter Schiff recently came to OWS and claimed that he pays 50% of his income in taxes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x629255

Let's ask him to meet the Warren Buffet challenge and release his tax returns for as many years as Buffet did.

If hi... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/243 Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:01:30 The point is that you learn to think critically by doing things, trying to make things.

If you fail to think critically as you cut out a piece of fabric for a dress or skirt, you end up with a lot of pieces that do not fit together. You have to think at each step, "What will be the result if I do this as I am doing it? What could go wrong? Could I end up with fo... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/242 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:57:52 Good night, OWS in NYC. Stay nonviolent no matter what happens. You will win through nonviolence. You will lose if you become angry or impassioned. Stay cool. Relax. You are on the winning side.

Breathe deeply and forget anger. Real courage is not red-hot. It is quietly determined. ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/241 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:54:49 Bloomberg's Notice to the Protestors I hope that DUers understand that we are seeing in Zucotti Park the ultimate goal of privatization: the destruction of democracy.

Bloomberg's message is: You cannot exercise free speech in this "Park" because this is private property.

Why is land that is used for public recreation owned by... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/240 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:55:34 This PBS report is false. Here is the video showing the police LEADING THE PROTESTORS HEADED TO AND ON THE PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY ONTO THE BRIDGE.

This is police misreporting of what happened. The police entered the street portion of the bridge first. Protestors on the walkway jumped down because they believed that the poli... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/239 Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:08:25 This is what happens when there is an impasse in an elected government about taxation. This is what happens when the upper class, the rich, decide to fight wars and try to make the middle class and poor (who cannot afford the wars) pay for them.

Something very similar happened in France at the end of the 18th century. Here is some information about it.

Whethe... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/238 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:32:39 Does Article II, section 3 give the President the authority to convene a session of Congress at a time and place that he chooses?

Alexander Hamilton advised Washington on this:

CONVENING CONGRESS: hamilton to washington 1 - Alexander Hamilton, The Works of Alexander Hamilton, (Federal Edition), vol. 8 [1774]
Edition used:

The Works of Alexander Hamilt... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/237 Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:39:58 Randi Rhodes wrong on the President's authority to convene a joint session of Congress. I just heard Randi Rhodes assert that the President does not have the authority to convene Congress in a joint session for his speech on September 7, 2011. Limbaugh apparently is also making that claim, and Boehner is apparently asserting the right to object to the President's calling off that ses... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/236 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:48:53 In response to Republicans and others who question the government's authority to maintain, to tax and distribute revenue for Social Security.

Article I, Section 8 of our US Constitution states among other things:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and [B]provide[/B] for the common Defence and [... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/235 Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:52:30 So, Starboard Tack, the values that underly your support for Obama are opportunistic. Implicitly you are admitting that Obama is a failure.

But, you are a glass-half-full kind of guy, not an idealist. So you tell yourself, "Hey, Obama is the best I can do."

That appears on the surface to be an optimistic view -- glass-half-full suggests optimism.

But in fact, it is very pes... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/233 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:56:01 Obama's love for bankers comes naturally. Family precedent: Obama's grandmother blazed trails

By Dan Nakaso, USA TODAY
HONOLULU — Barack Obama's trailblazing effort to become the nation's first black president has a family precedent.

Madelyn Dunham, Obama's grandmother, blazed a feminist trail in Hawaii banking circles in the late 19... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/234 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:49:17 Some information about taxes. Income taxes were first imposed during the Civil War.

In the late 19th century, the Supreme Court declared them to be unconstitutional, and in 1916, the 16th Amendment which authorizes the income taxes finally was ratified.

The idea of progressive taxation was essential to the success of Athen... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/232 Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:18:00 Obama has the misfortune of becoming president at a time of a great shift in our national psyche.

The crash of 2008 revealed a fault-line of enormous dimensions not just in the financial sector but in our entire society.

We are divided not just by race but by class.

Obama has attempted to deal with the new reality in our country with the concepts an... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/JDPriestly/231 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:32:05