Yes We Can

“YES WE CAN”

The expression of empathy is the only effective way to address suffering’s root causes. This requires melding the cognitive component of empathy with engagement, with resistance against asymmetrical power, always an inherently political act. Otherwise, empathy has no meaning… che "yes we can" -- Obama has unabashedly aimed at reorganizing our concept of groups. Either purposefully or by coincidence, this strategy fits perfectly into a plan of increasing empathy and pro-social behavior more broadly. Regardless of one's opinions about Obama, it is difficult to argue against the fact that he has engaged the emotions of a generation of first time voters, and motivated millions of people to at least one kind of selfless behavior: donating their time and money to his campaign. Will this translate into a new age of service, in which once apathetic young people will start pitching in for their country? Obama's ideas about altruism are also not scientifically implausible. By recruiting an increase in empathy among a younger generation, he may be able to tap into a deeply ingrained, even hard-wired tendency we have to help each other.

I urge my friends and colleagues to talk about this, ask the tough questions and demand that Obama address the issues raised by his own initiative, we must be concerned about the grave constitutional and taxation implications it raises. Today's youth are drawn to public service because they are told that participation in these things is a prerequisite to getting into a decent college, and further employment. universities are pushing "service learning"

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“YES WE CAN” Now, performing public service is a good thing, I believe we have a moral responsibility to individually help our fellow man, but, Obama does not want you to serve the public, he wants you to serve the government. http://www.hithimagain.com/2008/02/02/the-federal-plantation/ And It appears President Obama, fully intends to recruit young citizens into something he calls a “national security force,” apparently a large paramilitary group “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the U.S. military. Obama made passing reference to this disturbing idea in a speech delivered in Chicago on July 2. As should be expected, the corporate media, with the exception on the Chicago Tribune, completely ignored the statement and its implications. Does Barack Obama really intend to push the idea of spending as much on the State Department as America currently spends on defense? ----This should be the No. 1 question he is asked at every press conference until we get a coherent answer. Why do transcripts of the July 2 speech in the Denver Post and Wall Street Journal fail to include Obama's statement about a "civilian national security force"? is Barack Obama's notion of a "civilian national security force" something else entirely? Does it have anything to do with the Foreign Service, or does it have more to do with some kind of domestic Big Brother program as the chilling words first suggested to me? Why did other reporters covering his July 2 speech fail to cover this big idea for a "civilian national security force"? Obviously, this was a pretty hot sound bite. Why did no one take the bait? 2 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Why was this obviously well crafted sound bite not a part of the prepared remarks handed out to reporters that day? Had it been scratched from the speech? Or was it added at the last minute? The nation has a right to know! With enormous attention focused on Barack Obama and all the insane questions asked of him by reporters, I find it almost inexplicable that no one has been able to pin him down on his own words from July 2 speech mentions a "civilian national security force"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df2p6867_pw&eurl=http://www.wnd .com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70160 you can read a transcript of the speech made available for the first time to Internet users. The only thing that will force Obama to come clean on this plan is public pressure.

“Defense department announces civilian expeditionary workforce” The DOD doesn't yet know how to use civilians ….. Civilians in the Peace Corps often wound up on economic development schemes benefiting only one rich man in a poor country.

You can call or write to the President: YES WE CAN!! The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 3 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Washington, DC 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 send email (click link below) http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ Office of Public Liaison http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/opl/ H.R. 393, a.k.a the “Universal National Service Act of 2007,” seeks to impress every man and woman between the ages of 18 and 42 into forced servitude for the federal government for a period of two years. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-393 http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00393:@@@P http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/207164/6-of-10-the-military-isjust-one-way-to-serve.jhtml#id=1580846 Thirteenth Amendment: " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. " …….Thirteenth Amendment

http://lists.powerblogs.com/pipermail/volokh/2008September/014309.html

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“YES WE CAN” Perhaps the most important question that has arisen in discussions is the extent to which his "Universal Voluntary Service Plan" is nonetheless mandatory. Because Obama calls his plan voluntary, it’s important to understand exactly what he says and doesn’t say. In the first two of his main speeches on national service – on July 2, 2008 and on December 5, 2007 – Barack Obama set his goal of 50 hours of service a year, promised that “We'll reach this goal,” and explained how he would do so for middle and high school children:

So when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service. We'll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities….. http://www.clipsandcomment.com/2008/09/11/transcriptservicenation-presidential-forum-at-columbia-university/ So one hurdle that Obama’s plan must vault is the U.S. Constitution, which limits the federal government to enumerated powers. Lacking the power to mandate universal community service directly, Obama candidly discloses his strategy: making federal funds contingent on schools having service programs that meet federal standards. If Obama hadn’t promised that “We’ll reach this goal” of 50 hours a year of service, one might read his proposal as indicating that he would require schools to have service programs, but that these programs might not require 5 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” 50 hours of service. Yet the only way that almost every 11-year old public school student in the country would serve 50 hours a year – i.e., the only way that Obama could reach his goal – is by doing what he seems to indicate he’s going to do: setting a federal goal of 50 hours a year for each middle school student and reaching that goal by making federal funds contingent on middle schools requiring their students to serve those 50 hours. Thus, it would be the public schools that would impose federal standards of coerced service on each child as part of their requirements for graduation. For students, service would be involuntary. Even for the public schools, their participation would be only nominally voluntary – for how many public schools can survive without federal assistance? Lest there be any remaining doubt that Barack Obama’s “voluntary” universal service plan contemplates mandatory service for children, his Service Plan praises mandatory service in the sentence that immediately precedes his call for 50 hours of service: “Schools that require service as part of the educational experience create improved learning environments and serve as resources for their communities.” Moreover, in his Plan, he promises to “develop national guidelines for service-learning and community service programs,” thus not leaving the content of service programs to the states. I suspect that Obama describes his mandatory plan as voluntary for good reasons: (1) part of his plan – i.e., participating in his many new “Corps” – is indeed voluntary, and (2) people bristle at the word “mandatory.” In the movement for national service, it is common to describe mandatory plans as voluntary. For example, Representative Charles Rangel’s National Service Act, which is languishing before Congress, provides for a universal draft with two years of service for virtually all persons ages 18-42, with no deferment for college. This explicitly mandatory service is described in the bill as “Voluntary Service” because “A person subject to induction . . . may volunteer to perform national service in lieu of being inducted.” 6 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Nonetheless, there still remain some ambiguities in Obama’s Service Plan. Does Obama intend to force states to include private and parochial school students within his scheme? Obama does not say whether private middle and high schools would also be required to impose 50 hours a year. I assume that would depend on whether they rely on federal grants. Also, how will students who defy their high schools or the state be punished? Will they be prosecuted, placed in re-education programs, or merely flunked? Obama’s proposal never says. ----------------------------------Steve Watson Friday, Jan 30th, 2009 The Defense Department has established a "civilian expeditionary workforce" that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of worldwide military missions. The move is seen by some as an initial step towards fulfilling president Obama’s promise to form a civilian national security force as powerful as the U.S. military. The intent of the program “is to maximize the use of the civilian workforce to allow military personnel to be fully utilized for operational requirements,” according to a Defense Department report. The program was officially implemented one week ago, on the 23rd January, when Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed Defense Department 7 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Directive 1404.10 (PDF), which provides a summation of the duties the workforce will undertake. The directive, which is effective immediately, states that civilian employees of the DoD will be asked to sign agreements stating that they will deploy in support of military missions for up to two years if needed. Workforce members, who are divided into different designations under the directive, will serve overseas in support of humanitarian, reconstruction and, if necessary, combat-support missions. "If the employee does not wish to deploy, every effort will be made to reassign the employee to a non-deploying position." the DoD reports states. While the directive suggests that the DoD will at first seek volunteers to serve in the civilian workforce, section 4, subsection (e) paragraph (2) states: Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees, voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission. In addition, the directive states that all workforce members will be subject to physical and psychological testing, both before and after deployment. The directive refers several times to the civilian workforce as a component of the "Total Force", which it describes as "The organizations, units, and individuals that compromise the DoD resources for implementing the National Security Strategy." This "Total Force" includes active, reserve and retired military personnel in addition to DoD civilian employees.

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“YES WE CAN” Back in July 2008, Barack Obama, then the presidential front runner, called for a "civilian national security force" as powerful as the U.S. military. "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded," Obama told a Colorado Springs audience. The comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but were found to be troubling by some independent journalists who compared the idea to the formation of the Nazi Hitler Youth. Fears of "youth brigades" or civilian stasi style units increased following Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel to chief-of staff. In his book, "The Plan: Big Ideas for America," Emanuel writes: "It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service." The book also notes, "Some Republicans will squeal about individual freedom, ruling out any likelihood that they would let people opt out of universal citizen service." Emanuel is also an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies - a youth corps whose students would be trained in "civilian internship in the armed forces". 9 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Furthermore, in a rediscovered 2006 audio clip of an interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel outlined the agenda for compulsory military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at preparing Americans for a chemical or biological terrorist attack. When controversy arose over the program last November, the use of the word "required" to describe the program was removed from Obama’s change.gov website and replaced with "community service" type terminology. Though the civilian expeditionary workforce program is restricted to DoD employees, similar programs have already been established for public sector workers. One such program has seen hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and utility workers recently trained and dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for "suspicious activity" which is later fed into a secret government database.

------------Take note of the fact; Obama’s top advisor is Zbigniew Brzezinski, a close Rockefeller protégé, a founding member and former director of the Trilateral Commission, and a CFR member. Obama’s wife, Michelle, is a member of the Chicago branch of the CFR. Big donors to the Obama campaign basically constitute a who’s who of corporate and Wall Street banking interests, including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Citigroup. Disgraced former Obama advisor, James A. Johnson, former Fannie Mae CEO and consummate Washington insider, is a member of the American 10 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Friends of Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. The expression of empathy is the only effective way to address suffering’s root causes. This requires melding the cognitive component of empathy with engagement, with resistance against asymmetrical power, always an inherently political act. Otherwise, empathy has no meaning….. che # Key variables in American Capitalism. The following variables are important parts of the North American Algorithm...the set of instructions which politicians, scholars, and CEO's will have to 'read out' in order to plan and to program US policy. 1. Consumer Demand. One of the features of capitalism is that while it is a magnificent system of production, it is a lousy system of distribution...improvement in productivity tends to dis-employ workers; profit tends to separate every body from the means of distribution...capitalism is the only economic system which does so; in all other economic systems, the whole point of production was distribution...not so capitalism. So...how to renew demand...there are several solutions. 1. Parallel economic systems. There are a half-dozen economic systems in the USA which supplement/redeem the market system: the family is the most important parallel system...it re-distributes huge amounts of goods and services...especially at Christmas time. (worked that in nicely, didn't I??). Crime is a very, very important parallel system; it provides a lot of jobs for the underclass, stimulates the legitimate economy, creates evermore service sectors (private security is larger than public policing).

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“YES WE CAN” The welfare state continues to re-distribute huge sums mostly upward but still enough downward to buy a thin social peace. The church continues to be the place of last resort for the homeless, tempest-tost, poor huddled masses discarded by market, family, state and too proud to do crime...most of the time. Without these parallel economic systems, 'twould be a terrible time for hunreds of millions in North America. 2. The future of the USA capitalism depends in great part upon its military. It is the only Super-Power in the world. Many old and new capitalist countries depend upon it for the social peace both national and transnational needed for local capitalists to survive and thrive. Bill Clinton is explicit about this...along with Richard Nixon, he realized more than most presidents that the future of American capitalism depends upon the US retaining its position at the top of the global order. 3. One should watch France and the EU; France engineered the end of the link between the dollar and the gold standard in the 70's; it is trying to displace the US dollar which is now the universal currency...with the eurobill...this is one key 4. There are three or four fiscal tools which shape life variables in the global system. The USA controls the World Bank, the OEDC and AID and the International Monetary Fund...these together are used to force 3rd world countries to reduce debt at home and to US, German, British and Japanese banks. And bring home a lot of wealth/profits/food to the developed countries...without control of these tools, the US is forced to rely on the CIA and direct military intervention...very costly in terms of dollars and in terms of political legit- imacy...that is the lesson of Vietnam.

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“YES WE CAN” 5. US properity hinges upon the creation of new consumer goods. There have been 4 or 5 great depressions since 1800; new inventions have worked to renew demand and economic growth. The automobile, railroads, television, radio, cinema, computers and now the Internet continue to stimulate demand. 6. Political legitimacy at home is crucial. As the underclass grows; as white male workers are marginalized; as the middle class continues to bear more and more of the tax burden...to the delight of the wealthy; as political corruption and bureaucratic ineptitudes continue to dis-enchant people from the nation-state, legitimacy becomes a serious problem. There are solutions. Social justice is the best solution but it is costly to the wealthy. Racism, religiousity, the false masculinities of sports and violence, demonization of the young, gender bashing and national chauvinism still work to shape both street politics, public policy and private relationships. These are, however, short-term and self-defeating solutions which may postpone civil strife but at the expense of social and economic health of the country. Again, social justice is the best long-term solution...not criminal justice nor incivility toward minorities. Social justice... # Five futures for America. Modern science requires one predict one and only one outcome state. Postmodern science permits/requires a plurality of parallel and contrary outcomes. I predict all the following in varying unpredictable combination: 1. The Soylent Green Solution...well protected residences and working space for the affluent and their clients; a reactive police presence for the growing underclass left to parasitize upon itself. 13 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” 2. The English Model: genteel impoverishment...as was the case with Greece, Rome and other imperial countries before it, the USA may follow the English example; relinquish power and status to any one of the NICs and grow old with some grace. 3. The Serbian Model...internal/incestuous warfare in which one ethnic enclave claims superiority and tries to solve its social problems on the backs of other ethnic enclaves. 4. The Theological State...Islam and Israel are both attempting to impose an religousity and exclusivity upon those within the borders of given nationstates. In Islamic states, Islamic law provides very important solutions to poverty, housing, health care and social peace...gender inequality remains but class inequality is greatly minimized...Islam is most appealing to the poor in such countries...as is religious fundamentalism among the poor in the USA, the former Soviet Union and in Latin America. Liberation theologies may work to humanize/expand the shape of Universal Being but just now, things look like more religious conflict. 5. Democratic Socialism. With the collapse of bureaucratic/repres- sive socialism, other forms of socialism now seem more likely. The Mondragon co=ops in northern Spain; Kerala State in India; the communist cities of Italy; newly re-organizing nations in Central Europe as well as the possibility of great improvement in Cuba and perchance China hold out promise for a better way to do social justice on a global scale. I believe it was Einstein who said that capitalism is the predatory phase of human development. Capitalism, properly regulated, has fed nations, but the kind of capitalistic greed demonstrated in the recent housing bust we can do without. 14 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” "We have seen that in the massive $800 billion-plus “stimulus” program, which largely goes to directly helping the unions that backed Obama and which benefits a massive laundry list of social welfare and pork barrel spending.

A careful examination shows the stimulus is nothing more than payback to many of the special interests that supported his campaign and the Democrats in 2008.

Commentator Ben Stein estimates that almost half of the stimulus will directly benefit the private and public unions that backed Obama and the Democrats in the recent election.

Then, other hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on federal and state welfare programs. Even illegal aliens can collect checks of up to $1,000.

When I hear Obama wag his finger at bankers on Wall Street, I wonder if he really is serious about fixing our economy or simply replaying Franklin Roosevelt and the 1930s. Unsuccessful at solving the country’s economic woes, some argue FDR’s policies actually prolonged the Depression for almost a decade and shifted the public’s focus on “evil” Wall Street. During the ‘30s, FDR demonized corporate America in a skilful public relations effort that pitted Main Street against the wealthy elites." 15 jua perez *artist/filmmaker/bearer & nurturer of life* [email protected]

“YES WE CAN” Wall street and congress are both to blame. Wall St PAYS our congressmen to not exercise any oversight. Every congressmen who voted for the bank bailout plan was paid millions of $ by the bankers.

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