The Star Spangled Banner
Jimi Hendrix
Dear C,
Thanks for sending the link. "Follow the money."
Poking around the webpage, I learned "the following" from Paul Krugman:
ndy Rosenthal, our editorial page editor, notes that Mitt Romney likes to quote from "America the Beautiful", and tells us something I for one didn't know:The lyrics were written in 1894 by the Massachusetts poet Katharine Lee Bates, an ardent feminist and lesbian who was deeply disillusioned by the greed and excess of the Gilded Age.
Her original third verse was an expression of that anger:
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
***
Here's Wikipedia's "take" on "America the Beautiful" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_beautiful
I propose a campaign to sing "America the Beautiful" -- with the original third verse -- at sporting events and civic functions.
The National Anthem would also be sung -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_National_Anthem -- but would be followed by the better song.
Such initiative is a perfect fit for "Occupy-99%" as well as America's gay-lesbian community.
Pax on both houses
Alan
PS Later, we can replace the national bird-of-prey with Ben Franklin's favorite, Meleagris gallopavo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)
Which provides opportunity to quote the most successfully entrepreneurial fellow among America's designated founders:
Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris
25 December, 1783
Writings 9:138
"The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People's Money out of their Pockets, tho' only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors' Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell'd to pay by some Law.
All Property, indeed, except the Savage's temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it."
On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 7:25 AM, C wrote:
Alan -
I would like to see a website that breaks it down, from city hall up to the nation's crapital. Here's a start:
If you click "Next" on the links, this website has some information. Notice how much Paul gets from exmilitary. Other than that, I think his biggest donor is ... Ron Paul. He went to Duke Medical School, but nobody is perfect.
- C
On Jan 7, 2012, at 3:01 AM, Alan Archibald wrote:
Dear C,
Thanks for your email.
I would like to know how much money every candidate receives from Big Money. On both sides of the aisle.
Years ago Hal Crowther pointed out that the most salient feature of our political culture is the massive influence that can be bought for "chump change." http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/ArticleArchives?category=1179077
The bribes necessary to suborn federal politicians are so small that Big Money can buy off both party's candidates by splitting donations 70-30, or 60-40, thus enhancing the electability of the guy most beholden to The Golden Calf. Even so, "the malefactors of great wealth" - to borrow Teddy Roosevelt's terminology - keep "the other party's" candidate in their back pocket. And so, we have the best government money can buy.
The return on these piddling investments is staggering.
Here is an insightful article that focuses Jon Huntsman's criticism of Mitt's entanglement with Wealth. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01- 07/huntsman-says-romney-would- be-status-quo-on-wall-street- issues.html
For all I know Obama himself may receive more money from the banking industry than Romney.
Still, it is to Obama's advantage that Huntsman is on record saying:
“It becomes very difficult when you’ve taken tens of millions of dollars from the banking community, from Wall Street, and for many, many years, to have a discussion that fundamentally alters their course,” said Huntsman, 51. “It can only be done, I would argue, by someone who isn’t a captive, a subsidiary of Wall Street.”
Criticisms are always more barbed when voiced by friends of the opposition.
Pax on both houses,
Alan
On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 11:51 PM, Cwrote:
Let the games begin. - C
Begin forwarded message:
The liberal media is having a field day with Rick Santorum, and I have to admit that I don't mind occasionally piling on. But if one looks to whom the candidates are beholden, a review of Mitt Romney's contributions should have the OWS folks' blood running cold. These figures probably cause the President's advisors' blood to run cold. Here is a list of Romney's contributors. Read it and think:
Tom Nelson
MITT ROMNEY (R)
Top Contributors
This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2012 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organizations' PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families.Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.Because of contribution limits, organizations that bundle together many individual contributions are often among the top donors to presidential candidates. These contributions can come from the organization's members or employees (and their families). The organization may support one candidate, or hedge its bets by supporting multiple candidates. Groups with national networks of donors - like EMILY's List and Club for Growth - make for particularly big bundlers.
Goldman Sachs $367,200 Credit Suisse Group $203,750 Morgan Stanley $199,800 HIG Capital $186,500 Barclays $157,750 Kirkland & Ellis $132,100 Bank of America $126,500 PriceWaterhouseCoopers $118,250 EMC Corp $117,300 JPMorgan Chase & Co $112,250 The Villages $97,500 Vivint Inc $80,750 Marriott International $79,837 Sullivan & Cromwell $79,250 Bain Capital $74,500 UBS AG $73,750 Wells Fargo $61,500 Blackstone Group $59,800 Citigroup Inc $57,050 Bain & Co $52,500 Percent of Contributions Coded
Coded $20,882,176 (73%) Uncoded $7,846,560 (27%) Total $28,728,736
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