Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
February 10, 2013

'By emphasizing drone strikes, Mr. Obama need not bother with the tricky issues of detention and interrogation because terrorists tracked down on his watch are generally incinerated from the sky, not captured and questioned.'

New York Times
February 10, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/world/obamas-turn-in-bushs-bind-with-defense-policies.html?hp&_r=0

Toon of the Day

Birds of a Feather
Clay Bennett.- Chattanooga Times Free Press

MONDAY

Quote of the Day
February 11, 2013

'Perhaps it's too much to hope for, but I'd encourage the President to call for boosting the economy: Reversing the recent Social Security tax hike by exempting the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes and lifting the ceiling on income subject to it, to make up the shortfall. Reviving the WPA and CCC, to put the long-term unemployed directly to work. Raising the minimum wage. Imposing a 2% annual tax surcharge on wealth in excess of $7 million to fund a world-class system of education, so all our kids can get ahead. Cutting corporate welfare and the military but not cutting public investments or safety nets the middle class and poor depend on. Giving tax credits to companies that create more new jobs in America. Helping states and locales rehire the teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers they need.

'This is the most fragile recovery in modern history, from the deepest downturn since World War II. Most Americans are not experiencing a recovery at all. As has been shown in Europe, austerity economics is a cruel hoax. President Obama must acknowledge this in his State of the Union, and commit to fighting those who would impose it on America.'
Economist Robert Reich
blog
February 10, 2013
http://robertreich.org/post/42671713671

Toon of the Day

Going Postal
David Fitzsimmons - Arizona Star

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day
February 12, 2013

'James L. Dolan, the owner of Cablevision Systems Corporation, sings in a rock band, hangs out along the baseline at Knicks games, and slaps hands with his multimillion-dollar unionized athletes. But in the hard-tack precincts of his empire, the guys and women who climb poles and crawl through basements, he takes pride in not stomaching union drives.

'His Fortune 500 company started an anti-union Web site and hired an anti-union law firm. Two weeks ago, a company official sent an e-mail explaining where the remaining workers could learn about decertifying their union.'

Michael Powell - Gotham
New York Times
February 12, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/nyregion/at-cablevision-norma-raes-been-escorted-outside.html?_r=0

Toon of the Day

Draconian Cuts
Rob Rogers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day
February 13, 2013

'I am deeply, deeply disturbed at the suggestion in "A Court to Vet Kill Lists" (news analysis, front page, Feb. 9) that possible judicial review of President Obama's decisions to approve the targeted killing of suspected terrorists might be limited to the killings of American citizens.

'Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours? That President Obama can sign off on a decision to kill us with less worry about judicial scrutiny than if the target is an American? Would your Supreme Court really want to tell humankind that we, like the slave Dred Scott in the 19th century, are not as human as you are? I cannot believe it.

'I used to say of apartheid that it dehumanized its perpetrators as much as, if not more than, its victims. Your response as a society to Osama bin Laden and his followers threatens to undermine your moral standards and your humanity.'

Desmond M. Tutu, winner of the
1984 Nobel Peace Prize and
archbishop emeritus of
Cape Town, South Africa
Letter to the Editor - New York Times
February 11, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/opinion/drones-kill-lists-and-machiavelli.html?_r=1&

Toon of the Day

Bon Voyage
Matt Pritchett -Daily Telegraph (UK)

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day
February 14, 2013

'So what should progressives take away from tonight's speech?

'We should be overjoyed that President Obama says he wants to lead a crusade for jobs - and even if he turns out to be too distracted (or not serious) to lead that fight and make it his biggest priority, WE should lead that battle, championing an even more ambitious agenda to create millions of jobs and robust economic growth.

'We should continue to say to Obama and Congress: "Enough with the economic austerity.  Let's declare victory on the debt and deficit front, dismantle the Congressionally-created "sequestration" cuts, and refocus on investing in jobs.

'We should fight like hell to make sure that Democrats don't support cuts in actual benefits for current and future recipients of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - and we should make sure they don't change to the "chained CPI."  Take action right now to send this message to Congress.

'And we should work hard to support all the other progressive initiatives in President Obama's speech - from universal pre-k education to immigration reform to reducing gun violence.'

Roger Hickey
Co-director, Campaign for America's
Future
February 13, 2013
http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130213/yes-to-obamas-new-jobs-focus-but-no-to-benefit-cuts-in-social-security-medicare-and-medicaid

Toon of the Day

The Next Pope Odds
David Horsey - Los Angeles Times

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day
February 15, 2013

'What I'd like to know is tell me a little bit about the last few times you've taken the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street all the way to a trial.

'... I appreciate that you say you don't have to bring them to trial. My question is, when did you bring them to trial?"

'... I'm really concerned that "too big to fail" has become "too big for trial".'

Consumer champion, newly
elected Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D - Mass.) questions put to
federal regulators concerning
Wall Street's biggest banks at
a Senate Banking Committee hearing

Yahoo! News | The Ticket
February 15, 2013
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/elizabeth-warren-grills-banking-regulators-first-hearing-161535327--politics.html;_ylt=AwrNUbCRmh5RjgMANG3QtDMD

Toon of the Day

Truth in Washington?
Jeff Danziger

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day
February 16, 2013

'Incomes rose more than 11 percent for the top 1 percent of earners during the economic recovery, but not at all for everybody else, according to new data.

'The numbers, produced by Emmanuel Saez, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, show overall income growing by just 1.7 percent over the period. But there was a wide gap between the top 1 percent, whose earnings rose by 11.2 percent, and the other 99 percent, whose earnings declined by 0.4 percent.'

Annie Lowrey
New York Times
February 16, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/business/economy/income-gains-after-recession-went-mostly-to-top-1.html?_r=0

Toon of the Day

And the Winner Is
Tamara Shopsin - New York Times