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Individual liberty anywhere is a threat to the Progressive-Collectivist Cause everywhere.
(from newsrealblog.com)A couple of weeks ago, I decided to do something I should have done when then-Senator Barack Obama announced he’d run for president: I ordered a copy of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
Of course I realize that Alinsky isn’t exactly the most beloved author and activist among my fellow conservatives. He was a radical progressive who helped taught like-minded individuals how to force their progressive plans upon the rest of the nation. Although I’m not exactly a fan of the man either, the reality of the situation is that he inspired and continues to inspire many progressives. Barack Obama taught Alinsky’s concepts and methods in workshops. Without his mentor’s strategy chances are Obama would never have been president.
And Obama isn’t the only progressive greatly influenced by Alinsky. Hillary Clinton was inspired by this godfather of community organizing as well, for instance. We can be certain that Rules for Radicals serves as the political bible for many others like these two influential progressives.
Which brings me to my main reason for reading this book: to defeat one’s enemy, one has to know one’s enemy… and his strategies. You can’t fight the progressive movement if you don’t understand what they’re trying to accomplish and how they go about it.
(from watchdog.org)A new U.S. Census report released Thursday shows that even though value of the largest state and local pension plans grew in 2009, they still are at least $975 billion short.
The 10.1 percent increase — from almost $2.3 trillion in the fourth quarter ending December 2008 to almost $2.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of December 2009 “demonstrated the first positive year-to-year change since the first quarter of 2008,” the Bureau said in a press release.
Total value of the funds — a combination of holdings and investments — “continued their quarter-to-quarter climb for the third consecutive quarter, with an increase of 3.2 percent from $2,379.2 billon from the third quarter of 2009.”
However, state and local pension funds assume annual average returns of 7 to 8.5 percent when calculating how much they will need to pay retirement benefits. Private pension funds use about 6 percent.
Based on an average 7.5 percent promised return since 1999, they were $975 billion short of where they said they would be. If the current trend continues, the best-case puts them $2 trillion short by 2020.
“Hope to see you in Cochabamba!” a notably chipper Oliver Stone said at the end of a phone conversation last week.(from nytimes.com)Mr. Stone will be in Cochabamba, in central Bolivia, on June 1 to screen his documentary “South of the Border” for an outdoor crowd that is expected to include thousands of indigenous people being gathered by Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales.
The screening is part of a South American road trip intended to find what most documentaries lack: an audience.Last September, Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, showed up at the Venice Film Festival in support of the film, which explores social transformation under Mr. Chávez and his influence elsewhere in South America. Mr. Chávez and Mr. Morales, who is also featured in the film, were later on hand, along with Susan Sarandon and Courtney Love, for a screening at Lincoln Center in New York.