A Rising Tide: Beyond Party and Class

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Sunday October 10, 2010 · 2:49 AM PDT

2010/10/10 · 02:49

A rising tide lifts all the boats. And a partnership, by definition, serves both partners, without domination or unfair advantage. Together we have been partners in adversity. Let us also be partners in prosperity. —John F. Kennedy, Frankfurt, Germany, June 25, 1963

For decades, medical science has studied many aspects of the quality of life, such as lifespan, infant mortality, crime, obesity, and educational attainment just to name a few; along with the correlations between those aspects and environmental, behavioral, and genetic factors. Epidemiologists are unique among health professionals in that they use powerful statistical techniques and careful research to distinguish actual causes from the mere correlations that become apparent. Perhaps because of the rigor necessary in their science, it has only been in the past decade that epidemiologists began considering how factors from economics affect the quality of human life.

Poll

40 votes Show Results

Will we as a society reach across the boundaries of class and political party to lift all boats, or will we all sink together?

40 votes Vote Now!

Will we as a society reach across the boundaries of class and political party to lift all boats, or will we all sink together?

Sink

23 votes

Swim

4 votes

Tread water

13 votes

Ask WonkRoom for Single Payer Savings

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 11, 2010 · 6:08 PM PDT

2010/05/11 · 18:08

Please ask the Center for American Progress's WonkRoom to publish a weekly estimate of the budget and consumer savings expected from single payer health care, i.e., H.R. 676 Medicare for All (Conyers.) The WonkRoom claims to be informed with facts and figures for the highbrow croud, and for the most part they do a pretty good job. But the only post they had mentioning single payer over the past year was a joke about how some Republican said it would be a good idea. Later Tim Carney -- a D.C. muck-raker who complains about establishment Democrats and (less frequently) Republicans, found out that CAP accepted money from WalMart. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Did that affect the Center's position on Single Payer? Please write these people and ask:

Please copy-and-paste to retweet (preferred) or click to retweet this:

Please RT to ask @wonkroom to publish estimated savings of #singlepayer #hr676 health care weekly @fshakir @aterkel @CAPaction @igorvolsky

Then, as importantly, please send email...

Poll

11 votes Show Results

The Center for American Progress should publish an estimate of the savings from single payer health care

11 votes Vote Now!

The Center for American Progress should publish an estimate of the savings from single payer health care

Weekly

4 votes

Monthly

0 votes

Daily

2 votes

On the WonkRoom side bar

1 vote

Why bother? The establishment will never go for single payer

3 votes

Other (explain in comments)

1 vote

Permanent 3-day weekend poll: Friday, Monday...?

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 04, 2010 · 4:06 PM PST

2010/03/04 · 16:06

This is a graph of labor capacity utilization in the US:

As you can see from the long-term trend, we could make huge progress in the unemployment problem simply by giving all regular employees an extra day off work. This diary from January recommends Friday be added to a new three-day weekend because of the Muslim faith.

Please take the poll, and please vote up the Treasury Consumers Bill of Rights which includes labor and housing capacity in Right 3. Thank you!

Poll

129 votes Show Results

Which day should be added to the weekend (or the weekly holidays)?

129 votes Vote Now!

Which day should be added to the weekend (or the weekly holidays)?

Friday

66 votes

Monday

31 votes

Wednesday

6 votes

Tuesday

0 votes

Thursday

1 vote

None of the above--I prefer a two day weekend

8 votes

I prefer working weekends and ignoring traditional days off

6 votes

Go all out for a rockin' 4 day weekend! Tuesday to Thursday! More weekend than week!

11 votes

Rush Limbaugh spanks himself silly, apologizes

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 26, 2010 · 6:43 PM PST

2010/02/26 · 18:43

Thanks to Daily Show co-creator -- and the second voter for the Treasury Consumers Bill of Rights -- Liz Winstead (@lizzwinstead)

1:30 is where... oh never mind

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 25, 2010 · 6:44 PM PST

2010/02/25 · 18:44

So, have a look at this graph from "On spending, conservatives are quite conflicted" (Salon.com, yesterday)

Is that hilarious or what? Is that a typical result from that question set or was that poll an outlier?

Poll

7 votes Show Results

Seriously, what is up with that?

7 votes Vote Now!

Seriously, what is up with that?

Dude, no frickin' clue what-so-EVER

1 vote

It's like a rupture in the political-linguistic continuum

6 votes

Can we harnass this effect to

0 votes

Treasury Consumers Bill of Rights (Right 5: Single payer)

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 24, 2010 · 5:44 AM PST

2010/02/24 · 05:44

The U.S. Treasury recently started a "Government 2.0" project at http://opentreasury.ideascale.com so:

PLEASE VOTE FOR THE TREASURY CONSUMERS BILL OF RIGHTS

You have to give the Treasury your zip code to vote it up, for reasons that I don't understand. Please retweet / repost / etc. to save the economy which, is, sadly, still on the brink.

The text of the Bill follows.

Poll

12 votes Show Results

Favorite right?

12 votes Vote Now!

Favorite right?

1. Don't pay banks not to lend.

2 votes

2. Refinance residential and commercial real estate.

0 votes

3. Utilize capacity; strive for a four day work week.

0 votes

4. Global tax haven elimination

1 vote

5. Single payer, more doctors, reimbursement rate reform

5 votes

6. Balance the budget by growing the middle class.

2 votes

7. Freedom from foreign and tobacco money in U.S. politics.

0 votes

8. Decriminalize drugs, sex ed, and prostitution

1 vote

9. Stop paying for pointless missle defense and worse technology

0 votes

10. Encourage the government to figure this all out

1 vote

Project Censored's Top 25 Spiked Stories W/POLL

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 14, 2009 · 9:38 AM PDT

2009/10/14 · 09:38

The 25 Top Censored Stories of 2009 according to Sonoma State University's excellent Project Censored are listed after the fold.

There is also a poll: please vote for the story you think was the most important of them all.

I agree so much with this Walter Cronkite quote: "Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism."

Poll

41 votes Show Results

Which was the most important censored story?

1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street

2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s

3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates

4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina

6. Lobbyists Buy Congress

7. Obamaâ€TMs Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past

8. Bailed out Banks and Americaâ€TMs Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions

9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza

10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate

11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine

12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connellâ€"Karl Roveâ€TMs Election Thief

13. Katrinaâ€TMs Hidden Race War

14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts

15. World Bankâ€TMs Carbon Trade Fiasco

16-25: please leave your vote in reply to "Tally 16-25" in comments, thanks!

41 votes Vote Now!

Which was the most important censored story?

1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street

14 votes

2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s

3 votes

3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates

2 votes

4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina

1 vote

6. Lobbyists Buy Congress

5 votes

7. Obamaâ€TMs Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past

2 votes

8. Bailed out Banks and Americaâ€TMs Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions

6 votes

9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza

1 vote

10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate

2 votes

11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine

2 votes

12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connellâ€"Karl Roveâ€TMs Election Thief

3 votes

13. Katrinaâ€TMs Hidden Race War

0 votes

14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts

0 votes

15. World Bankâ€TMs Carbon Trade Fiasco

0 votes

16-25: please leave your vote in reply to "Tally 16-25" in comments, thanks!

0 votes

Budget priorities meta-poll

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 29, 2009 · 10:15 PM PDT

2009/07/29 · 22:15

I was shocked that given the huge numbers Kos is reporting, after more than a day only 20 people took my budget priorities poll.

Even worse, the linked ranked ballot poll has just me so far, so you can see what I voted for. (Will the anti-Employee Free Choice Act people have a field day?)

So, I am posting another poll to see why my first set of polls had a poor response.

Poll

7 votes Show Results

Why were the budget priority polls so poorly responded?

7 votes Vote Now!

Why were the budget priority polls so poorly responded?

Not enough speech and reading education instructional technology in the items

0 votes

Posted at 10:00 a.m. Pacific when all the Kossacs are at work

3 votes

The ranked choice ballot was too hard to complete

0 votes

Forgot to tell people that a partially-ranked ballot wouldn't be invalidated

1 vote

People were too busy solving global warming in Congress

0 votes

Forgot to explain up-front that it was meant to be a balanced set of changes to any country's existing budget

0 votes

how the hell can defense be beating tuberculosis elimination 4-to-0? Isn't the latter part of the former?

0 votes

too few good diary tags

1 vote

the proposed budget priorities don't go far enough

0 votes

other (please describe in comments)

2 votes

Budget priorities POLLS

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 28, 2009 · 9:56 AM PDT

2009/07/28 · 09:56

The following polls ask what you think is/are the most important underfunded budget priority(s). I have been studying reports from Davos and other reports concerning economics, medical care, climate change, education and science in general. I selected the choices from the priorities found in and from comparing those sources.

Ideally I would ask you to rank these, but sadly ranked polls (such as you can get from http://demochoice.org/ ) are not available here on dKos. However, it was very easy for me to copy the choices to demochoice.org, so you can rank them!

So: PLEASE ALSO TAKE THE SAME POLL WITH RANKING HERE

If you have any questions about the poll options, please ask in comments.

Poll

27 votes Show Results

Which is the most underfunded budget item?

27 votes Vote Now!

Which is the most underfunded budget item?

homeowner bailouts and re-financing for asset price stability

2 votes

plug-in hybrids

0 votes

education (e.g., free college, increased teacher salaries, lower class sizes, physical plant)

6 votes

tax simplification (e.g., transition from sales and property to two bracket income tax with 0% lower bracket)

2 votes

tuberculosis elimination

0 votes

space exploration

1 vote

wind power

0 votes

wind power support (e.g., http://ice-energy.com/ , grid wire upgrades, pumped hydro storage)

1 vote

coal liquefaction for petroleum independence and plastics stock for carbon sequestration

1 vote

universal health care

9 votes

defense

4 votes

diplomacy

0 votes

tax enforcement

1 vote

elimination of tax havens

0 votes

other (please describe in comments)

0 votes

Twitter or Wikipedia More Useful for Progressive Change?

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 16, 2009 · 9:10 PM PDT

2009/07/16 · 21:10

I lost access to my dKos account twice now because I forgot to renew domain names on time. Let that be a lesson to me.

While I was away, I thought about how to maximize my influence. My first stop was Wikipedia. Did you know that the Wikipedia article on the Iraq War was viewed 164,101 times last month? Or that plug-in hybrids were looked up 13,672 times in the same period? How about the Wikipedia article on depleted uranium? viewed 25,508 times in June. Here's what I learned about Wikipedia: Anything goes, as long as your first priority is to improve the quality of the encyclopedia. That is, believe it or not, one of the oldest and still-standing official Wikipedia policies ("WP:IAR" as Wikipedians say.)

But recently I discovered Twitter. Who have I been able to influence there? After the fold....

Poll

34 votes Show Results

Which is the most useful for progressive influence

34 votes Vote Now!

Which is the most useful for progressive influence

Twitter

6 votes

Wikipedia

14 votes

DailyKos

8 votes

other (in comments)

6 votes

UN revisiting depleted uranium

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday April 12, 2008 · 5:48 PM PDT

2008/04/12 · 17:48

The UN General Assembly is taking another look at depleted uranium. Detail on the reason why follows.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

Have you talked to your congressperson(s) about depleted uranium

19 votes Vote Now!

Have you talked to your congressperson(s) about depleted uranium

Yes

3 votes

16 votes

FBI lawyer: "numerous investigations" violate right to freedom of association

jsalsman

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 14, 2008 · 7:14 AM PDT

2008/03/14 · 07:14

I was hoping that smintheus's front page post (The FBI: Retroactive blanket immunity in action) would have touched on this aspect of the story, but surprisingly there has been no discussion of the implications of the FBI General Counsel's disagreement with the FISA court about the First Amendment. The court said that someone can not be investigated merely because they are associates with an existing subject of an investigation, because that would violate the First Amendment right to freedom of association. The FBI illegally circumvented the court's decision, and in defending that decision, the FBI admitted that violating the right to freedom of association is a common practice. The following is from the AP story:

Poll

36 votes Show Results

Should people who are no more than associates of suspicious people also be investigated?

36 votes Vote Now!

Should people who are no more than associates of suspicious people also be investigated?

No; that's against the law.

28 votes

Sometimes; it depends on the circumstances.

8 votes

Yes; the right to association should not apply to criminal investigations.

0 votes

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