The Right's uncompromising and rigidly inflexible governance exclusively in the interests of the rich has revealed one truth clearly standing. Minority rule by the economic elites is the antithesis of democracy, and is the road to totalitarianism and economic decline for the majority.
Americans are reawakening to the essential ideas of democracy. Money is not free speech, and a corporation is not a person endowed with inalienable rights by the Creator.
At least one senator has taken a stand for democracy in America. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has introduced his "Saving American Democracy Amendment". How far it gets depends on two factors. One is how much the members of the US Senate, House of Representatives and the president support democracy. The other factor is how much they are able to act independently of the stranglehold Big Money already has on our government, politicians and elections.
Nobody is holding their breath on this one, but it is still a vital step in the unending struggle of "Operation American Freedom".
Some frequently asked questions are answered after the text of the Amendment.
RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to expressly exclude for-profit corporations from the rights given to natural persons by the Constitution of the United States, prohibit corporate spending in all elections, and affirm the authority of Congress and the States to regulate corporations and to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures.
Resolved, That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures o three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:
SECTION 1. The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the United States, or any foreign state.
SECTION 2. Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.
SECTION 3. Such corporate and other private entities shall be prohibited from making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.
SECTION 4. Congress and the States shall have the power to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own spending, and to authorize the establishment of political committees to receive, spend, and publicly disclose the sources of those contributions and expenditures.’’
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Saving American Democracy Amendment:
Introduced by Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-19) and Senator Bernard Sanders (VT)
Frequently Asked Questions:
Why shouldn't corporations have the ability to influence our elections?
Our Constitution was written by the people, for the people. Corporations are entities formed in accordance with state, local, and federal laws that were all written by the people. These for-profit enterprises are established for business purposes and their rights and obligations only extend to their business purposes.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision gave corporations the ability to drown out the will of the people by using the profits in their general treasury funds to influence elections. Now, corporations can use millions of dollars to defeat candidates that may threaten their bottom line. Everyday Americans simply cannot compete with the virtually limitless resources of corporations.
There are already Constitutional amendments out there. Why did you introduce this one?
We applaud the efforts of some of our colleagues in Congress who have introduced measures that aim to overturn Citizens United. However, passing a Constitutional amendment is no easy feat, which is why we believe we need a comprehensive amendment that truly ends corporate control of our elections.
Simply granting Congress the authority to regulate corporate spending in elections does not mean that Congress ever will act. Declaring that corporations are not people will do nothing to stop business associations, formed to promote the business interests of their member corporations, from pouring money into misleading attack ads against candidates that threaten their profits.
Citizens United undermined the very concept of campaign finance law. It declared caps on corporate spending in elections to be unconstitutional and as a result, the caps we already have in place, even for individual contributions to candidates, are also under threat. We also have corporations anonymously using nonprofit groups as fronts for their agendas. The Saving American Democracy Amendment restores to Congress the authority to write campaign finance laws that regulate and disclose all contributions and expenditures by all individuals and all types of organizations in our elections.
What is wrong with the Citizens United decision?
The Supreme Court overturned a century of precedent by ruling in Citizens United that corporations have a constitutional right to spend unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections.
Before Citizens United, corporations had to abide by the ruling in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce that limited their participation in elections to political action committees. PACS are funded by voluntary contributions from the employees of a corporation, as opposed to the general treasury fund. The Supreme Court also determined that limitations on corporate spending in elections were permissible in McConnell v. FEC, a decision that upheld portions of the McCain-Feingold reforms that aimed to reign in corporate electioneering.
Because of Citizens United, corporations are now allowed to tap into their profits to spend money advocating for or against candidates of their choosing. Even worse, they can do it anonymously.
By undermining the very concept of campaign finance laws, like the ones limiting individual contributions to candidates, the Citizens United decision even threatens a 1907 law passed by Congress prohibiting corporations from directly contributing to candidates. If we don’t take action, before we know it, the Supreme Court could rule that corporations can directly contribute to candidates for public office.
Is a Constitutional amendment really the best way to address unlimited corporate spending in elections?
Even if Congress had the political will to stand up to special interests and pass limitations on corporate spending in elections, such an effort would be unconstitutional as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. The majority opinion ruled that corporations have the same First Amendment rights as the American people and can spend unlimited amounts of their general treasury funds in elections. It is too late for Congress to place limits on corporate campaigning. The Framers of our Constitution gave us the power to amend the Constitution and it is imperative that we use it now.
Is your amendment just a giveaway to unions?
No. Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers, who are natural persons with constitutional rights that deserve protections. While the Saving American Democracy Amendment does not prevent unions from using the dues and donations of their workers, it will subject their political activities to laws limiting spending and expenditures, just as it does other private entities and all individuals.
How will people and various types of entities be impacted by the Saving American Democracy Amendment?
Natural Persons: The Saving American Democracy Amendment makes clear that the rights enshrined in our Constitution are those of natural persons. However, the Saving American Democracy Amendment reaffirms the ability of Congress and the States to enact campaign finance laws that limit the amount of money individuals can spend to influence elections and requires political action committees to disclose their donations and operate with transparency.
Corporations: Corporations are not people with constitutional rights. They are for-profit entities established for business purposes. The Saving American Democracy amendment bans for-profit entities and limited liability companies from spending money in elections, whether it be through direct expenditures or to third party groups that aim to influence elections.
501(c)(6)'s: 501(c)6’s are associations formed to promote the business interests of their membership corporations, which are not people. Therefore, these entities are also banned from spending money in elections, and they must make public any contributions to third party groups.
Unions: Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers, who are natural persons with constitutional rights that deserve protection. While the Saving American Democracy Amendment does not prevent unions from using dues and donations from the workers they represent on electoral advocacy, this amendment will subject them to laws limiting spending and expenditures, just as it does other private entities and individuals.
501(c)3 and 501(c)4 Groups: Nonprofit entities, like 501(c)(3) charities, churches, and hospitals, are not impacted by the Saving American Democracy Amendment. 501(c)(4) organizations, which are nonprofits established to promote social welfare, are permitted to participate in elections so long as it is not the organization’s primary purpose. While the American Red Cross, the Sierra Club, and most nonprofit organizations are entirely legitimate, many are props set up by corporations and their CEOs for the purpose of influencing elections. That is why the amendment enables Congress to regulate, limit, and require disclosure of these organizations' electoral expenditures. The Saving American Democracy Amendment gives us the means to effectively police corporations and a few billionaires from using nonprofits as fronts for their political agendas.
How does your amendment address the problem of corporations and very wealthy Americans from anonymously funding front groups to defeat candidates?
Our amendment bans corporations from using their profits in any election or ballot initiative before the people. By requiring that Congress include disclosure as part of our campaign finance laws, corporations that attempt to funnel money into front groups to influence elections will therefore face prosecution for violating the 28th amendment of the Constitution. The amendment also reestablishes the authority undermined by Citizens United for the States and for Congress to set limits and require disclosure of all individual contributions.
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History will not judge us kindly if we as a nation fail to defend and promote democracy.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
"Newspeak"
The wealthy, economic elites, aristocrats, or simply the rich, are what they have been known as for many years. Now through the indoctrination machinery of the Right, they are the “job creators”.
Never mind the pathetically sluggish job growth since fellow aristocrat Bush gave them all tax cuts. He never did reduce unemployment to the level he inherited in 2000. No, they are not creating very many jobs, or if they do, most of them are in Asia. This is beside the point.
The point is we are being indoctrinated. The Right’s Orwellian Ministry of Truth has been unilaterally redefining terms to tilt public policy debates to the advantage of the wealthy elites. “Job creators” is this year’s Right wing “newspeak” propaganda success.
Rather than a cautionary tale of warning, the Right embraces “1984” as a “How to Guide” on winning elections and governing. The Decider practically quoted the “War is peace” slogan when he said, “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.”
The Right likes to paint all small business owners as job creators too. There’s one so-called “job creator” who admits he never created any jobs. And Dana Milbank dares to say most others didn’t either.
Notice all the parrots now squawking on about not taxing “job creators” are the same ones who squawked hysterically about the health care act being a “government takeover of health care”. Dutiful dupes they are. So duped and dutiful they eagerly parroted Politifact’s 2010 Lie of the Year. Also dutifully parroted was the 2009 Lie of the Year, the infamous Palin-esque “death panels”.
Anybody else see a pattern emerging from these lies? Yes, they are Republican lies, proving again the only way they can attain power is by lying.
Specifically, “job creators” and “government takeover” are the products of Republican Minister of Propaganda Frank Luntz.
And Luntz is worried about the Occupy Wall Street message, as all the greedy aristocratic elites should be. In fact, he told the recent Republican Governors Association in Florida, "I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death. They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
He even suggested they avoid the word “capitalism”. "I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."
I guess they have a problem, since more and more people are waking up to the fact that the Republicans are the top defenders of Wall Street, along with generous help from corpodems. Unregulated capitalism is not only an immoral, or at least amoral, system, it has proven to be a failed system as well. As we know, there’s no such thing as the “free market” but that won’t stop them from perpetuating the lie.
For the latest on the Right’s Orwellian newspeak, see last Thursday’s Yahoo News article, “How Republicans Are Being Taught to Talk about Occupy Wall Street”.
Along with avoiding the word “capitalism” we learn that we shouldn’t say, “Government taxes the rich”. Most Americans want the rich to pay what they did before Bush. And Luntz warns about uttering the term “middle class”. “We can say we defend the 'middle class' and the public will say, I'm not sure about that. But defending 'hardworking taxpayers' and Republicans have the advantage."
“Not sure about that” indeed.
And speaking of Wall Street, one very important word on the “Do not use list” is “bonus”. Hmm...I wonder why?
It’s probably a safe bet to predict the Lie of the Year for 2011 will also be a fabrication by the Right.
Never mind the pathetically sluggish job growth since fellow aristocrat Bush gave them all tax cuts. He never did reduce unemployment to the level he inherited in 2000. No, they are not creating very many jobs, or if they do, most of them are in Asia. This is beside the point.
The point is we are being indoctrinated. The Right’s Orwellian Ministry of Truth has been unilaterally redefining terms to tilt public policy debates to the advantage of the wealthy elites. “Job creators” is this year’s Right wing “newspeak” propaganda success.
Rather than a cautionary tale of warning, the Right embraces “1984” as a “How to Guide” on winning elections and governing. The Decider practically quoted the “War is peace” slogan when he said, “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.”
The Right likes to paint all small business owners as job creators too. There’s one so-called “job creator” who admits he never created any jobs. And Dana Milbank dares to say most others didn’t either.
Notice all the parrots now squawking on about not taxing “job creators” are the same ones who squawked hysterically about the health care act being a “government takeover of health care”. Dutiful dupes they are. So duped and dutiful they eagerly parroted Politifact’s 2010 Lie of the Year. Also dutifully parroted was the 2009 Lie of the Year, the infamous Palin-esque “death panels”.
Anybody else see a pattern emerging from these lies? Yes, they are Republican lies, proving again the only way they can attain power is by lying.
Specifically, “job creators” and “government takeover” are the products of Republican Minister of Propaganda Frank Luntz.
And Luntz is worried about the Occupy Wall Street message, as all the greedy aristocratic elites should be. In fact, he told the recent Republican Governors Association in Florida, "I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death. They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
He even suggested they avoid the word “capitalism”. "I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."
I guess they have a problem, since more and more people are waking up to the fact that the Republicans are the top defenders of Wall Street, along with generous help from corpodems. Unregulated capitalism is not only an immoral, or at least amoral, system, it has proven to be a failed system as well. As we know, there’s no such thing as the “free market” but that won’t stop them from perpetuating the lie.
For the latest on the Right’s Orwellian newspeak, see last Thursday’s Yahoo News article, “How Republicans Are Being Taught to Talk about Occupy Wall Street”.
Along with avoiding the word “capitalism” we learn that we shouldn’t say, “Government taxes the rich”. Most Americans want the rich to pay what they did before Bush. And Luntz warns about uttering the term “middle class”. “We can say we defend the 'middle class' and the public will say, I'm not sure about that. But defending 'hardworking taxpayers' and Republicans have the advantage."
“Not sure about that” indeed.
And speaking of Wall Street, one very important word on the “Do not use list” is “bonus”. Hmm...I wonder why?
It’s probably a safe bet to predict the Lie of the Year for 2011 will also be a fabrication by the Right.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Mental Disorders
“Well, you know the president is getting ready to make an announcement that they’re going to put GPS chips in all the children, so they’re safe. That’s just what the Antichrist is going to do to mark everybody.’”
Are these frightening words the latest warning from Glenn Beck, or one of the other Right Wing fanatics filling the airwaves? Or are they from a paranoid schizophrenic? Hard to tell the difference sometimes, isn’t it?
This time the crazy statement is attributed to the fellow who fired some rifle rounds into the White House last week.
From some reports it seems this guy really is mentally ill.
His mother doesn’t want to accept the evidence he is psychotic, but offers some insight that could help explain why so many conservative Republicans hold on to similar delusional thinking.
She said, ““He might be saying weird stuff that sounds crazy, but that doesn’t mean (he) is crazy. He might be confused and scared.”
Confused and scared. That certainly describes many ordinary Americans who listen to FOX (R), Beck and Limbaugh. Just add some anger into the mix and we get a larger picture of the Republican conservatism being cultivated in the American people.
As we know from a Live Science poll, a large proportion, 24 percent, of Republicans believe Obama may be the antichrist. That’s pretty amusing, seen in the light of Mikey Weiner Savage’ s blatant projection that, “Liberalism is a mental disorder”.
I don’t know, there, Mikey. You’d have to find a lot of liberals who believe a lot more craziness than Righties. Stuff like, “A corporation is a person.” And “Corporate money given to politicians is not corruption, but free speech.” Or “Tax cuts for the rich will trickle down benefits for everyone,” and “Regulations for Wall Street are killing jobs.”
Then according to the poll, there are these Republican indoctrinated beliefs:
38 percent say he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns.
32 percent say he is a Muslim.
29 percent think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government.
25 percent say he was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president.
25 percent say he is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of.
23 percent say he is a racist.
Not to mention Obama being the antichrist.
Sorry, as loony as the left can appear sometimes, the vast preponderance of delusional thinking and false beliefs belongs to the Right Wing cult. Thanks to their being confused, scared and angered by the Right Wing media machine, they win in mental disorders hands down.
Mission accomplished.
Are these frightening words the latest warning from Glenn Beck, or one of the other Right Wing fanatics filling the airwaves? Or are they from a paranoid schizophrenic? Hard to tell the difference sometimes, isn’t it?
This time the crazy statement is attributed to the fellow who fired some rifle rounds into the White House last week.
From some reports it seems this guy really is mentally ill.
His mother doesn’t want to accept the evidence he is psychotic, but offers some insight that could help explain why so many conservative Republicans hold on to similar delusional thinking.
She said, ““He might be saying weird stuff that sounds crazy, but that doesn’t mean (he) is crazy. He might be confused and scared.”
Confused and scared. That certainly describes many ordinary Americans who listen to FOX (R), Beck and Limbaugh. Just add some anger into the mix and we get a larger picture of the Republican conservatism being cultivated in the American people.
As we know from a Live Science poll, a large proportion, 24 percent, of Republicans believe Obama may be the antichrist. That’s pretty amusing, seen in the light of Mikey Weiner Savage’ s blatant projection that, “Liberalism is a mental disorder”.
I don’t know, there, Mikey. You’d have to find a lot of liberals who believe a lot more craziness than Righties. Stuff like, “A corporation is a person.” And “Corporate money given to politicians is not corruption, but free speech.” Or “Tax cuts for the rich will trickle down benefits for everyone,” and “Regulations for Wall Street are killing jobs.”
Then according to the poll, there are these Republican indoctrinated beliefs:
38 percent say he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns.
32 percent say he is a Muslim.
29 percent think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government.
25 percent say he was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president.
25 percent say he is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of.
23 percent say he is a racist.
Not to mention Obama being the antichrist.
Sorry, as loony as the left can appear sometimes, the vast preponderance of delusional thinking and false beliefs belongs to the Right Wing cult. Thanks to their being confused, scared and angered by the Right Wing media machine, they win in mental disorders hands down.
Mission accomplished.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Slime Oozes...Randomly
We all know Obama’s attempts to pass legislation to create jobs have been, and will always be, obstructed by Republicans. If Obama had a plan that would cure cancer, but it would require the rich to all pay a dime more in taxes, the Republicans would obstruct it. Why? Because they made a pledge. I’m not talking about the pledge to support and defend the Constitution. They don’t care about that. The only pledge that matters is their pledge to never raise taxes.
This pledge was initiated by Grover Norquist. You may remember him as the person who claimed, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”. Drown means “kill” in normal language. This arguably treasonous goal to destroy the former government of, by, and for the people should bring shame unto a citizen of conscience. But we all know Republicans have no conscience.
There is a more than reasonable consensus among economists that Obama’s plan would indeed create and preserve jobs. The White House points to one survey by Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics. That survey concluded that Obama’s plan would add 1.9 million jobs in 2012 and cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point. Another firm Macroeconomic Advisors, weighed in with an estimate of 1.3 million jobs by the end of 2012.
Most of the lowest estimates project some job growth. Only five economists said no jobs would be created. Five.
And 34 did agree the plan would help avert a return to another recession.
But Republicans only say they want to create jobs. What they really want is more wealth for the wealthy. Period.
Let’s have a look at what one random Republican had to say recently.
At his weekly news conference Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner was asked if Grover Norquist is a “positive influence” on the House GOP conference.
According to the Washington Post:
The speaker shrugged his shoulders and paused at the podium for a full five seconds before responding.
“Listen, our focus here is on jobs,” Boehner said at last. “We’re doing everything we can to get our economy moving again and to get people back to work. It’s not often I’m asked about some random person in America.”
Asked whether he genuinely believed Norquist was a “random person” to members of his conference, Boehner replied, “Listen, our focus is on creating jobs, not talking about somebody’s personality.”
Damn that liberal media, distracting the esteemed Speaker away from his mission to create jobs. What a dirty trick! They foolishly attempted to focus on some random personality, instead of the noble mission of John Boehner.
The outrage of it all would make Lincoln turn in his grave.
Man, when the slime oozes, even randomly, it reeks.
This pledge was initiated by Grover Norquist. You may remember him as the person who claimed, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”. Drown means “kill” in normal language. This arguably treasonous goal to destroy the former government of, by, and for the people should bring shame unto a citizen of conscience. But we all know Republicans have no conscience.
There is a more than reasonable consensus among economists that Obama’s plan would indeed create and preserve jobs. The White House points to one survey by Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics. That survey concluded that Obama’s plan would add 1.9 million jobs in 2012 and cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point. Another firm Macroeconomic Advisors, weighed in with an estimate of 1.3 million jobs by the end of 2012.
Most of the lowest estimates project some job growth. Only five economists said no jobs would be created. Five.
And 34 did agree the plan would help avert a return to another recession.
But Republicans only say they want to create jobs. What they really want is more wealth for the wealthy. Period.
Let’s have a look at what one random Republican had to say recently.
At his weekly news conference Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner was asked if Grover Norquist is a “positive influence” on the House GOP conference.
According to the Washington Post:
The speaker shrugged his shoulders and paused at the podium for a full five seconds before responding.
“Listen, our focus here is on jobs,” Boehner said at last. “We’re doing everything we can to get our economy moving again and to get people back to work. It’s not often I’m asked about some random person in America.”
Asked whether he genuinely believed Norquist was a “random person” to members of his conference, Boehner replied, “Listen, our focus is on creating jobs, not talking about somebody’s personality.”
Damn that liberal media, distracting the esteemed Speaker away from his mission to create jobs. What a dirty trick! They foolishly attempted to focus on some random personality, instead of the noble mission of John Boehner.
The outrage of it all would make Lincoln turn in his grave.
Man, when the slime oozes, even randomly, it reeks.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Zero Tolerance
“I have a zero tolerance for sanctimonious morons who try to scare people.”
I wish I’d said that. Of course the sentiment has been central to my ranting for years, but that brings it to a sharp point.
I wish I had a dollar for every time Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their entire cartel invoked fictional Iraqi “nukular” aluminum tubes, weapons programs and mushroom clouds. The scary fictional links between Saddam and al-Qaeda had most Americans thinking Iraq was in on 9-11 just before Bush launched his crusade for political power and cronies’ profit. Now that was successful fear-mongering.
I’m old enough to remember LBJ’s nuclear blast “Daisy ad”. Most politicians, and especially Republicans, have a long history of using fear to coerce gullible voters into supporting them. There were never any such things as “death taxes” and “death panels” until Republicans made them up. The myth of “government takeover” of health care turned many ill-informed folks against health care reform. The list goes on.
So I wish to thank the person responsible for the above quote. I embrace it.
Unfortunately this is a very isolated comment from this individual. When placed in context with certain other remarks it becomes hysterically hypocritical.
Let’s just sample a couple meteorological references by our hero for some comparison.
(Regarding his prayers to keep Hurricane Gloria away from Virginia Beach) It was 'extremely important because I felt that if I couldn't move a hurricane, I could hardly move a nation
I apologized and I said I will be praying for him, but one day we will be staring nuclear weapons and it won't be (Hurricane) Katrina facing New Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan nuke.
Yup. That was Pat (9/11-was-the-fault-of-the-gays) Robertson.
So even a broken clock is correct twice a day, I guess.
I wish I’d said that. Of course the sentiment has been central to my ranting for years, but that brings it to a sharp point.
I wish I had a dollar for every time Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their entire cartel invoked fictional Iraqi “nukular” aluminum tubes, weapons programs and mushroom clouds. The scary fictional links between Saddam and al-Qaeda had most Americans thinking Iraq was in on 9-11 just before Bush launched his crusade for political power and cronies’ profit. Now that was successful fear-mongering.
I’m old enough to remember LBJ’s nuclear blast “Daisy ad”. Most politicians, and especially Republicans, have a long history of using fear to coerce gullible voters into supporting them. There were never any such things as “death taxes” and “death panels” until Republicans made them up. The myth of “government takeover” of health care turned many ill-informed folks against health care reform. The list goes on.
So I wish to thank the person responsible for the above quote. I embrace it.
Unfortunately this is a very isolated comment from this individual. When placed in context with certain other remarks it becomes hysterically hypocritical.
Let’s just sample a couple meteorological references by our hero for some comparison.
(Regarding his prayers to keep Hurricane Gloria away from Virginia Beach) It was 'extremely important because I felt that if I couldn't move a hurricane, I could hardly move a nation
I apologized and I said I will be praying for him, but one day we will be staring nuclear weapons and it won't be (Hurricane) Katrina facing New Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan nuke.
Yup. That was Pat (9/11-was-the-fault-of-the-gays) Robertson.
So even a broken clock is correct twice a day, I guess.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Big Lies and the Truth
Warren Buffet is right. There is class warfare, and his side, the wealthiest one percent of Americans, is winning. He pays a lower percent in taxes than his secretary.
Why is this so? It goes back to the Reagan years when the foxes took control of the henhouse. Anti-tax wealthy elites gained influence in public policy making. Business insiders began to write their own regulations, which means de-regulation in the real world.
This de-regulation continued on throughout the Bush/Clinton/Bush years and ultimately led to the financial collapse in September of 2008. The debacle drained our economy of trillions of dollars and wiped out many of our pensions.
And more recently thanks to the Big Money-friendly Supreme Court, corporate cash is allowed more influence than ever in our elections and on our elected politicians.
The entire Republican Party and many corporate-owned Democrats are not representing most Americans. The radical Right is opposed to an informed public and to democracy itself.
The Right’s war on democracy begins with propaganda, falsehoods, demonization of liberals and moderates, and advances with their campaign to suppress the right of qualified Americans to vote. This is how they politically leverage the tax cuts for the rich, corporate welfare, and coddling of the elite.
There are many lies being spread by the Far Right through the corporate media. In fact their first Big Lie is “Liberal Media”. GE, Disney, Viacom, FOX(R), etc. are not “liberals”. They are corporations.
Most Americans still want real health care reform, accountability for Wall Street, fair taxes on the rich, and even Obama's jobs bill.
Thus the Right's war on democracy must continue. They must pursue their class warfare against most Americans on behalf of Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans.
You see, it’s not enough for the top one percent to take in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income and control about forty percent of our nation's wealth. Never mind the fact that 25 years ago the corresponding numbers were 12% and 33%. Greed has no limit.
Robert Reich gives us the best breakdown I’ve seen on seven of the primary lies told by Republicans to dupe the public into supporting their exclusive agenda for the wealthy top one percent.
Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.
***
Published on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by Robert Reich's Blog
The Seven Biggest Economic Lies
by Robert Reich
The President’s Jobs Bill doesn’t have a chance in Congress — and the Occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere can’t become a national movement for a more equitable society – unless more Americans know the truth about the economy.
Here’s a short (2 minute 30 second) effort to rebut the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take America backwards. The major points:
1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and have dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.
2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth. False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they’ve been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don’t believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)
3. Shrinking government generates more jobs. Wrong again. It means fewer government workers – everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody’s economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.
4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy. Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They’ll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.
5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits. Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that’s because the nation’s health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid’s bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.
6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Don’t believe it. Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.
7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax. Wrong. There’s nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.
Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough, start being believed — unless they’re rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth – and spread it on.
*****
You heard the man. Spread it.
Why is this so? It goes back to the Reagan years when the foxes took control of the henhouse. Anti-tax wealthy elites gained influence in public policy making. Business insiders began to write their own regulations, which means de-regulation in the real world.
This de-regulation continued on throughout the Bush/Clinton/Bush years and ultimately led to the financial collapse in September of 2008. The debacle drained our economy of trillions of dollars and wiped out many of our pensions.
And more recently thanks to the Big Money-friendly Supreme Court, corporate cash is allowed more influence than ever in our elections and on our elected politicians.
The entire Republican Party and many corporate-owned Democrats are not representing most Americans. The radical Right is opposed to an informed public and to democracy itself.
The Right’s war on democracy begins with propaganda, falsehoods, demonization of liberals and moderates, and advances with their campaign to suppress the right of qualified Americans to vote. This is how they politically leverage the tax cuts for the rich, corporate welfare, and coddling of the elite.
There are many lies being spread by the Far Right through the corporate media. In fact their first Big Lie is “Liberal Media”. GE, Disney, Viacom, FOX(R), etc. are not “liberals”. They are corporations.
Most Americans still want real health care reform, accountability for Wall Street, fair taxes on the rich, and even Obama's jobs bill.
Thus the Right's war on democracy must continue. They must pursue their class warfare against most Americans on behalf of Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans.
You see, it’s not enough for the top one percent to take in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income and control about forty percent of our nation's wealth. Never mind the fact that 25 years ago the corresponding numbers were 12% and 33%. Greed has no limit.
Robert Reich gives us the best breakdown I’ve seen on seven of the primary lies told by Republicans to dupe the public into supporting their exclusive agenda for the wealthy top one percent.
Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.
***
Published on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 by Robert Reich's Blog
The Seven Biggest Economic Lies
by Robert Reich
The President’s Jobs Bill doesn’t have a chance in Congress — and the Occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere can’t become a national movement for a more equitable society – unless more Americans know the truth about the economy.
Here’s a short (2 minute 30 second) effort to rebut the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take America backwards. The major points:
1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and have dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.
2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth. False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they’ve been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don’t believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)
3. Shrinking government generates more jobs. Wrong again. It means fewer government workers – everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody’s economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.
4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy. Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They’ll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.
5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits. Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that’s because the nation’s health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid’s bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.
6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Don’t believe it. Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.
7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax. Wrong. There’s nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.
Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough, start being believed — unless they’re rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth – and spread it on.
*****
You heard the man. Spread it.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Still Amazed
I'm still amazed at the fanaticism shown by those who are so passionate in defending the economic elites.
It would appear there's no higher priority for them than to keep their wealthy masters from paying a dime more in taxes. Never mind they are exponentially wealthier than before and can easily afford it. These minions are indoctrinated to protect and defend the aristocrats' wealth until their dying breath. It really seems to be the most important thing in the world to them.
Amazing.
It's as if they worship money. Or do they just worship the wealthy, in the vain hope they too will become wealthy? No matter. Either way, or both ways, it still has all the characteristics of cult worship.
Such selfless acts of delusion in the name of dismantling democracy in favor of a powerful minority are quite a spectacle. They're like American Kamikazes, in a way. They’re willing to sacrifice, unto death it would seem, their own interests to their own infallible Emperor/god.
They are more than willing to shut down government and public services to protect every nickel of billionaires’ wealth. Fanaticism may even be too mild a term for their devotion to wealth and greed.
What else could describe the many self-identified Christians so dedicated to serving Mammon? Do they think Jesus is impressed by that? Are they so twisted to think their Savior would be down on Wall Street, a temple of Mammon if there ever was one, admonishing the demonstrators and defending the banksters? I would have to conclude they are indeed that warped out from reality.
Some things seem certain. The cult servants of the aristocracy are oblivious to the concept that taxes are the price we pay to live in a civil society. And they are oblivious, or even contemptuous, of the concept of democracy. They utterly fail to understand, or be concerned about, the fact most people disagree with their views. They have no idea they are the ones out on the fringe. But this bears little effect on the absolute certainty of the authoritarian mindset. It is with absolute certainty they hold their sacred belief in wealth and minority rule by the wealthy.
No clue.
It would appear there's no higher priority for them than to keep their wealthy masters from paying a dime more in taxes. Never mind they are exponentially wealthier than before and can easily afford it. These minions are indoctrinated to protect and defend the aristocrats' wealth until their dying breath. It really seems to be the most important thing in the world to them.
Amazing.
It's as if they worship money. Or do they just worship the wealthy, in the vain hope they too will become wealthy? No matter. Either way, or both ways, it still has all the characteristics of cult worship.
Such selfless acts of delusion in the name of dismantling democracy in favor of a powerful minority are quite a spectacle. They're like American Kamikazes, in a way. They’re willing to sacrifice, unto death it would seem, their own interests to their own infallible Emperor/god.
They are more than willing to shut down government and public services to protect every nickel of billionaires’ wealth. Fanaticism may even be too mild a term for their devotion to wealth and greed.
What else could describe the many self-identified Christians so dedicated to serving Mammon? Do they think Jesus is impressed by that? Are they so twisted to think their Savior would be down on Wall Street, a temple of Mammon if there ever was one, admonishing the demonstrators and defending the banksters? I would have to conclude they are indeed that warped out from reality.
Some things seem certain. The cult servants of the aristocracy are oblivious to the concept that taxes are the price we pay to live in a civil society. And they are oblivious, or even contemptuous, of the concept of democracy. They utterly fail to understand, or be concerned about, the fact most people disagree with their views. They have no idea they are the ones out on the fringe. But this bears little effect on the absolute certainty of the authoritarian mindset. It is with absolute certainty they hold their sacred belief in wealth and minority rule by the wealthy.
No clue.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Big Surprise
The Republican’s have filibustered Obama’s jobs bill. Big surprise.
Also not surprising is the fact that about two thirds of Americans support the jobs bill. In fact, according to Gallup, “Americans Favor Almost All Proposals in Obama's Jobs Plan”. And we’ve known that approximately the same percentage favors restoring previous tax rates on the top one percent.
In a nation that values and respects democracy, the politicians would have no doubt how to proceed.
But not here.
The entire Republican Party and a couple corporatist Quisling Dems, Nelson and Tester, have killed it.
Senator Harry Reid offers his keen insight.
“The president’s plan contains many ideas Republicans have consistently supported over the years, especially when their party controlled Congress, the White House or both. Republicans oppose those ideas now. . . . I guess Republicans think if the economy improves, it might help President Obama.”
If it has taken the Senate Majority Leader this long to “guess” the obvious truth, then the Democrats may as well capitulate to the Republicans’ one-party dictatorship. What’s that? They already have?
Also not surprising is the fact that about two thirds of Americans support the jobs bill. In fact, according to Gallup, “Americans Favor Almost All Proposals in Obama's Jobs Plan”. And we’ve known that approximately the same percentage favors restoring previous tax rates on the top one percent.
In a nation that values and respects democracy, the politicians would have no doubt how to proceed.
But not here.
The entire Republican Party and a couple corporatist Quisling Dems, Nelson and Tester, have killed it.
Senator Harry Reid offers his keen insight.
“The president’s plan contains many ideas Republicans have consistently supported over the years, especially when their party controlled Congress, the White House or both. Republicans oppose those ideas now. . . . I guess Republicans think if the economy improves, it might help President Obama.”
If it has taken the Senate Majority Leader this long to “guess” the obvious truth, then the Democrats may as well capitulate to the Republicans’ one-party dictatorship. What’s that? They already have?
Monday, October 10, 2011
Defenders of Democracy
The economic elites, or as FDR put it, economic royalists, are now looking out their Wall Street windows at Americans gathering in their neighborhood. Americans who are not only waking up to the fact they were ripped off, but are assembling and drawing attention to it. Attention from the ever so reluctant corporate media, which we all know would rather cover a dozen Tea Cultists than thousands who speak for the majority. The elites are probably getting a little nervous. Nothing worries a thief like having his victim near his lair.
I still hold little hope for reform, with only a bit of lip service from politicians. Corporatism’s choked hold on our democracy is nearly complete. I hope I’m wrong.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are also giving Americans a glimpse of what democracy looks like. Unlike the corporate manufactured Tea Cult, this group is representing the vast majority of Americans who have been swindled by Wall Street and their political puppets.
It’s a good lesson for our youth. Once upon a time the majority of Americans wanted to end a pointless bloody war of aggression in Vietnam. They marched and made their wishes visible to the powers waging that war.
Now the voices of democracy protest a class war waged on 99% of Americans.
One of my favorite signs carried there reads, “It’s only “class warfare” when we fight back!” And its way past time the people fought back.
Since Reagan. Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II shifted our government rightward over the past thirty years, we’ve see the results of the “trickle down economy” they lied about. The rich have been getting very richer. Turns out it was all a “trickle up” scam.
Gradually at first, and then suddenly in September of ’08, the working class and manufacturing base of America suffered their greatest loss since the Great Republican Depression. That was also triggered by the crash of a de-regulated market back in 1929.
The lessons of de-regulation needed to be learned all over again. The problem this time is we have non-stop corporate media giving Republicans face time to insist regulation, government and taxes are to blame for everything. The Wall Street Banksters are rewarding them for that service by contributing more to their election campaigns.
We now live under the greatest income inequality any alleged democracy has seen. The top one percent takes in about a quarter of the nation’s income, and they control even a larger share of the total wealth. This gives them more political clout than a democracy can survive.
And thanks to the vast Right Wing echo chamber of FOX(R) and extremist talk radio, they have loyal legions of indoctrinated members from the very class they’ve been screwing. Their cultists are rabidly defending the elites from the “tyranny” of paying a dime more in taxes, as if they can’t afford it. Talk about a great con. The duped minions are demanding they themselves pay more of their share to cover the debt and bills, all while receiving fewer public services. Astounding.
The elites all but own the politicians as well. Few speak out against Wall Street. Why? Thanks to the corporatist Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Big Money has a lock on our elections and government. As former Senator Durban said, “They own the place”.
If someone still wonders what the protests on Wall Street are about, Former Florida Representative Alan Grayson put it eloquently.
Grayson and PJ O'Rourke were on Bill Maher last Friday. The Occupy Wall Street movement came up and the following exchange took place between O'Rourke and Grayson.
Grayson: Let me tell what they're talking about. They're complaining about the fact the Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago and nobody's held responsible for that. Not a single person has been indicted or convicted for destroying twenty percent of our national net worth accumulated over two centuries. They're upset about the fact that they have iron control over economic policies of this country and that one party is a wholly owned subsidiary of wall street and the other party caters to them as well, that's the truth of the matter as you said before. And…
O'Rourke: Get the man a bongo drum, they've found their spokesman!
Grayson: If I…
O'Rourke: Get your shoes off, get a bongo drum, forget where to go to the bathroom and it's yours.
Grayson: If I am the spokesman for all the people who think we should not have twenty four million people in this country who can't find a full time job. Who should not have fifty million people who can't see a doctor when they're sick. That we shouldn't have forty seven million people of this country who need government help to feed themselves. We shouldn't have fifteen million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of home, OK, I'll be that spokesman.
For more on the cancer of wealth concentration in hands of the few, see “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% at Vanity Fair.
It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall.
We might still have a choice between democracy or corporatocracy. But we better make it soon. We know democracy’s adversaries are unrelenting, and they are winning.
Electing more Alan Graysons and fewer Bachmanns and Ryans would be a good start.
I still hold little hope for reform, with only a bit of lip service from politicians. Corporatism’s choked hold on our democracy is nearly complete. I hope I’m wrong.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are also giving Americans a glimpse of what democracy looks like. Unlike the corporate manufactured Tea Cult, this group is representing the vast majority of Americans who have been swindled by Wall Street and their political puppets.
It’s a good lesson for our youth. Once upon a time the majority of Americans wanted to end a pointless bloody war of aggression in Vietnam. They marched and made their wishes visible to the powers waging that war.
Now the voices of democracy protest a class war waged on 99% of Americans.
One of my favorite signs carried there reads, “It’s only “class warfare” when we fight back!” And its way past time the people fought back.
Since Reagan. Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II shifted our government rightward over the past thirty years, we’ve see the results of the “trickle down economy” they lied about. The rich have been getting very richer. Turns out it was all a “trickle up” scam.
Gradually at first, and then suddenly in September of ’08, the working class and manufacturing base of America suffered their greatest loss since the Great Republican Depression. That was also triggered by the crash of a de-regulated market back in 1929.
The lessons of de-regulation needed to be learned all over again. The problem this time is we have non-stop corporate media giving Republicans face time to insist regulation, government and taxes are to blame for everything. The Wall Street Banksters are rewarding them for that service by contributing more to their election campaigns.
We now live under the greatest income inequality any alleged democracy has seen. The top one percent takes in about a quarter of the nation’s income, and they control even a larger share of the total wealth. This gives them more political clout than a democracy can survive.
And thanks to the vast Right Wing echo chamber of FOX(R) and extremist talk radio, they have loyal legions of indoctrinated members from the very class they’ve been screwing. Their cultists are rabidly defending the elites from the “tyranny” of paying a dime more in taxes, as if they can’t afford it. Talk about a great con. The duped minions are demanding they themselves pay more of their share to cover the debt and bills, all while receiving fewer public services. Astounding.
The elites all but own the politicians as well. Few speak out against Wall Street. Why? Thanks to the corporatist Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, Big Money has a lock on our elections and government. As former Senator Durban said, “They own the place”.
If someone still wonders what the protests on Wall Street are about, Former Florida Representative Alan Grayson put it eloquently.
Grayson and PJ O'Rourke were on Bill Maher last Friday. The Occupy Wall Street movement came up and the following exchange took place between O'Rourke and Grayson.
Grayson: Let me tell what they're talking about. They're complaining about the fact the Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago and nobody's held responsible for that. Not a single person has been indicted or convicted for destroying twenty percent of our national net worth accumulated over two centuries. They're upset about the fact that they have iron control over economic policies of this country and that one party is a wholly owned subsidiary of wall street and the other party caters to them as well, that's the truth of the matter as you said before. And…
O'Rourke: Get the man a bongo drum, they've found their spokesman!
Grayson: If I…
O'Rourke: Get your shoes off, get a bongo drum, forget where to go to the bathroom and it's yours.
Grayson: If I am the spokesman for all the people who think we should not have twenty four million people in this country who can't find a full time job. Who should not have fifty million people who can't see a doctor when they're sick. That we shouldn't have forty seven million people of this country who need government help to feed themselves. We shouldn't have fifteen million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of home, OK, I'll be that spokesman.
For more on the cancer of wealth concentration in hands of the few, see “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% at Vanity Fair.
It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall.
We might still have a choice between democracy or corporatocracy. But we better make it soon. We know democracy’s adversaries are unrelenting, and they are winning.
Electing more Alan Graysons and fewer Bachmanns and Ryans would be a good start.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Cult Trolls
“The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don’t mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed”. – Sarah Vowell, “The Wordy Shipmates”
This post started out as a comment under the previous post, but I think it needed to be more prominent. It also serves as a fitting follow up to the “Five Pillars”.
***
This will be my final response to an anonymous comment in this thread. Why? First, because I have previously announced I have my limit for trolls. This one gets a second and final response because he posed a reasonable interest in a source for my claim. I will offer the courtesy of providing it for him. Afterwards I will explain further why I’m finished with him on this thread.
You see, I don’t mind an occasional post from a cultist as an example of indoctrination or entertainment value. In fact I will honor this person by posting here what he wrote to me at Tom Degan’s blog.
Dave Dubya,
I won't declare you a Communist like you are complaining about being called on your blog, but you definitely belong to the general species "ism":
Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Progressivism or Nazism, etc; they’re fundamentally all the same – just separated by varying degrees of evil. Every time someone wants to “control” the population, bad stuff happens. The game-plan is always the same too, Social Engineering through Wealth Redistribution and fueled by Class-Hate.
See what I mean about both cult indoctrination and entertainment? Ok. I admit I have a bit of a sick sense of humor.
Here is the source for my statement about Republicans believing Obama is the antichrist. It is from a Harris poll discussed at livescience.com.
14 percent of Americans say President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. When split by political party, 24 percent of Republicans and 6 percent of Democrats viewed the nation's leader in this way.
Looks like some stupid Democrats go to the wrong church or something. Fear and ignorance are contagious.
Here’s more cult indoctrination:
38 percent say he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns.
32 percent say he is a Muslim.
29 percent think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government.
25 percent say he was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president.
25 percent say he is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of.
23 percent say he is a racist.
Amazing! ...And depressing at the same time, isn’t it?
We all know damn well the Anonymous types fit into this picture.
I limit my time with these cult trolls because I won't waste time with people who think the Earth is six thousand years old, or who believe Obama is a Muslim, socialist, racist, and yes, even the antichrist.
These people are cultists every bit as much as Moonies. You know, the Washington Times owner and Republican friend of the Bush family, Sun Myung Moon’s Moonie cult. Seriously, there is something wrong with them, and that reflects what is wrong with our country. They are misinformed, gullible, ignorant, fearful, hateful and pathetic human beings.
I wish we could help them, but they don’t want help. They are stubbornly devoted to their cult beliefs. And they are stooges for the rising new Amerikan fascism.
If this doesn’t shock, sicken and awaken enough sane Americans into voting against Republicans, we can kiss our freedom, democracy and standard of living goodbye.
This post started out as a comment under the previous post, but I think it needed to be more prominent. It also serves as a fitting follow up to the “Five Pillars”.
***
This will be my final response to an anonymous comment in this thread. Why? First, because I have previously announced I have my limit for trolls. This one gets a second and final response because he posed a reasonable interest in a source for my claim. I will offer the courtesy of providing it for him. Afterwards I will explain further why I’m finished with him on this thread.
You see, I don’t mind an occasional post from a cultist as an example of indoctrination or entertainment value. In fact I will honor this person by posting here what he wrote to me at Tom Degan’s blog.
Dave Dubya,
I won't declare you a Communist like you are complaining about being called on your blog, but you definitely belong to the general species "ism":
Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Progressivism or Nazism, etc; they’re fundamentally all the same – just separated by varying degrees of evil. Every time someone wants to “control” the population, bad stuff happens. The game-plan is always the same too, Social Engineering through Wealth Redistribution and fueled by Class-Hate.
See what I mean about both cult indoctrination and entertainment? Ok. I admit I have a bit of a sick sense of humor.
Here is the source for my statement about Republicans believing Obama is the antichrist. It is from a Harris poll discussed at livescience.com.
14 percent of Americans say President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. When split by political party, 24 percent of Republicans and 6 percent of Democrats viewed the nation's leader in this way.
Looks like some stupid Democrats go to the wrong church or something. Fear and ignorance are contagious.
Here’s more cult indoctrination:
38 percent say he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns.
32 percent say he is a Muslim.
29 percent think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government.
25 percent say he was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president.
25 percent say he is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of.
23 percent say he is a racist.
Amazing! ...And depressing at the same time, isn’t it?
We all know damn well the Anonymous types fit into this picture.
I limit my time with these cult trolls because I won't waste time with people who think the Earth is six thousand years old, or who believe Obama is a Muslim, socialist, racist, and yes, even the antichrist.
These people are cultists every bit as much as Moonies. You know, the Washington Times owner and Republican friend of the Bush family, Sun Myung Moon’s Moonie cult. Seriously, there is something wrong with them, and that reflects what is wrong with our country. They are misinformed, gullible, ignorant, fearful, hateful and pathetic human beings.
I wish we could help them, but they don’t want help. They are stubbornly devoted to their cult beliefs. And they are stooges for the rising new Amerikan fascism.
If this doesn’t shock, sicken and awaken enough sane Americans into voting against Republicans, we can kiss our freedom, democracy and standard of living goodbye.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Five Pillars
Have you ever been called a commie by a radical Right wing fanatic? I have, and if you are at all like me you have probably been called a commie too. Many of us who dare point to the extremism of the American radical Right have been accused of being a communist. Consider it a badge of honor. You are now a pro-democracy freedom fighter.
Seeing this happen again and again got me thinking I should discuss this issue further. People are getting fed up with all this authoritarian hate mongering on behalf of a corporatist agenda. We finally have our freedom movement taking a stand on Wall Street, not that most Americans know about it, thanks to a corporate media that would rather cover a small Tea Cult gathering than a real grass-roots popular movement.
The members of the American radical Right are programmed to attack unions, public employees, teachers, and every other non-wealthy American who dares to think for himself, who dares to vote against the party of minority rule.
When fascism comes to America, "conservatives" will celebrate their victory over "socialism", while living in more squalor than ever before.
But they will already have been indoctrinated on who to blame. We liberals would be the equivalent of the German Jews in fascist Amerika.
The extremism of the neo-Republicans has even alienated long time conservative Republicans like former senators Chuck Hagel and Arlen Spector. So who does that leave in control of the Republican Party? Fanatics.
I suggest reading retired GOP Congressional staffer Mike Logren’s account of his finally leaving the cult. Yes cult. You see, I’m not the only “commie” calling the extremist party a cult.
He writes:
“It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.”
And:
“It is this broad and ever-widening gulf between the traditional Republicanism of an Eisenhower and the quasi-totalitarian cult of a Michele Bachmann that impelled my departure from Capitol Hill.”
This cult is the greatest threat to our freedom and democracy. They have a major political party and the power of vast wealth behind them. They must be called out for being a cult of American proto-fascism. It is beyond corporatism. They hate us for our freedom and democracy.
There are five pillars of Right Wing fanaticism shared by radical Republicans and fascists. Both promote rule by an authoritarian tyranny of the minority that is of, by and for the economic and political elites.
In addition to their mutual desire for minority rule and opposition to democracy, they also love to label their opponents as communists. This is essential to their Reich Wing ideology.
They hate unions. We’ve all seen the Tea Cult Koch brothers using their lackeys to crush unions.
The radical Right also regards public education, journalism, science, and all other endeavors to seek and share truth as threats to their radical belief system. Noted climate scientist, and oxy-moron, Rush Limbaugh is a great example.
The Nazis gave us the Big Lie. Orwell gave us, “Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. War is peace.”
Republicans have expanded the Big Lie list. Pick almost anything said by Palin, Bachmann, Coulter, Beck, Hannity, or most of the FOX(R) propagandists. No wonder millions of Americans still think Obama is a Kenyan Muslim.
Thanks to them we can add “Tax cuts for the rich create jobs,” and “Saddam has ties to al-Qaeda and is building WMD’s with his “nuklular” aluminum tubes.” We heard Bush’s mouthpiece Fleischer tell us, “Americans need to watch what they say,” and of course, Dictator Dick Cheney’s advice to voters in ’04, "If we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again." And last but not least, “Expanded health care would become “death panels”. Note the especially threatening and ominous tone of the latter three.
They’ve added so much to the list of phrases that constitute neo-fascist creed and indoctrination.
Both Fascists and Republicans love their Big Lies. They love them so much they forget to thank the “liberal” corporate media for spreading them.
So in review we see fascists and radical Republicans share these characteristics:
1. Authoritarian opposition to democracy and advocacy of minority rule.
2. Fanatical hatred of unions and scorn for workers’ rights.
3. Red baiting and scapegoating anyone who disagrees with them as a commie.
4. Contempt for education, journalism, and science that questions their radical Rightist indoctrination.
5. The proven Propaganda method of the Big Lie.
There are surely more characteristics shared by radical Rightists, but I think I’ve covered the most prominent ones.
Cultists are going to hate me for saying this, but as FDR said, “I welcome their hatred”.
It is no virtue to tolerate the intolerant. It is no vice to stand up and demand justice, freedom and democracy.
Seeing this happen again and again got me thinking I should discuss this issue further. People are getting fed up with all this authoritarian hate mongering on behalf of a corporatist agenda. We finally have our freedom movement taking a stand on Wall Street, not that most Americans know about it, thanks to a corporate media that would rather cover a small Tea Cult gathering than a real grass-roots popular movement.
The members of the American radical Right are programmed to attack unions, public employees, teachers, and every other non-wealthy American who dares to think for himself, who dares to vote against the party of minority rule.
When fascism comes to America, "conservatives" will celebrate their victory over "socialism", while living in more squalor than ever before.
But they will already have been indoctrinated on who to blame. We liberals would be the equivalent of the German Jews in fascist Amerika.
The extremism of the neo-Republicans has even alienated long time conservative Republicans like former senators Chuck Hagel and Arlen Spector. So who does that leave in control of the Republican Party? Fanatics.
I suggest reading retired GOP Congressional staffer Mike Logren’s account of his finally leaving the cult. Yes cult. You see, I’m not the only “commie” calling the extremist party a cult.
He writes:
“It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.”
And:
“It is this broad and ever-widening gulf between the traditional Republicanism of an Eisenhower and the quasi-totalitarian cult of a Michele Bachmann that impelled my departure from Capitol Hill.”
This cult is the greatest threat to our freedom and democracy. They have a major political party and the power of vast wealth behind them. They must be called out for being a cult of American proto-fascism. It is beyond corporatism. They hate us for our freedom and democracy.
There are five pillars of Right Wing fanaticism shared by radical Republicans and fascists. Both promote rule by an authoritarian tyranny of the minority that is of, by and for the economic and political elites.
In addition to their mutual desire for minority rule and opposition to democracy, they also love to label their opponents as communists. This is essential to their Reich Wing ideology.
They hate unions. We’ve all seen the Tea Cult Koch brothers using their lackeys to crush unions.
The radical Right also regards public education, journalism, science, and all other endeavors to seek and share truth as threats to their radical belief system. Noted climate scientist, and oxy-moron, Rush Limbaugh is a great example.
The Nazis gave us the Big Lie. Orwell gave us, “Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. War is peace.”
Republicans have expanded the Big Lie list. Pick almost anything said by Palin, Bachmann, Coulter, Beck, Hannity, or most of the FOX(R) propagandists. No wonder millions of Americans still think Obama is a Kenyan Muslim.
Thanks to them we can add “Tax cuts for the rich create jobs,” and “Saddam has ties to al-Qaeda and is building WMD’s with his “nuklular” aluminum tubes.” We heard Bush’s mouthpiece Fleischer tell us, “Americans need to watch what they say,” and of course, Dictator Dick Cheney’s advice to voters in ’04, "If we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again." And last but not least, “Expanded health care would become “death panels”. Note the especially threatening and ominous tone of the latter three.
They’ve added so much to the list of phrases that constitute neo-fascist creed and indoctrination.
Both Fascists and Republicans love their Big Lies. They love them so much they forget to thank the “liberal” corporate media for spreading them.
So in review we see fascists and radical Republicans share these characteristics:
1. Authoritarian opposition to democracy and advocacy of minority rule.
2. Fanatical hatred of unions and scorn for workers’ rights.
3. Red baiting and scapegoating anyone who disagrees with them as a commie.
4. Contempt for education, journalism, and science that questions their radical Rightist indoctrination.
5. The proven Propaganda method of the Big Lie.
There are surely more characteristics shared by radical Rightists, but I think I’ve covered the most prominent ones.
Cultists are going to hate me for saying this, but as FDR said, “I welcome their hatred”.
It is no virtue to tolerate the intolerant. It is no vice to stand up and demand justice, freedom and democracy.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Take My Rights, Please
The tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks has now come and gone. We’ve seen a lot of media focus on patriotic flag waving and memorials for the dead. That’s fine in itself, but something was missing. Something very serious was virtually ignored by the corporate media, that is, besides the Bush war of aggression based on falsehoods around al-Qaeda, Saddam and non-existent WMD’s.
We may survive that war, but it’s a real question whether the formerly free democratic republic of the United States of America will survive the anti-Constitutional over-reaction by politicians doing their best to look tough on terrorism. The Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Warner Defense Authorization Act, the FISA Amendment, and who knows how many executive orders have been implemented and locked into our government’s expanding abuses of power.
There was little media mention of an incident at Detroit's airport on this past September 11th.
Someone apparently got nervous on an inbound plane.
After the plane landed it was routed to a vacant area on the tarmac and greeted by heavily armed and armored officers with dogs.
An innocent woman and two men she didn’t know were shackled by machine gun carrying officers and shoved off the plane. They were taken by the SWAT team for interrogation. The rest of the passengers were also taken away by bus to be interviewed at police headquarters. Nothing was found and there were no charges against the three passengers.
Why? Who knows? No explanation was given. Some frightened passenger or crew member saw two Indian men and the woman sitting in the same row and panicked.
The woman’s name is Shoshana Hebshi, an American citizen with a Saudi father and a Jewish mother. You can read her account here.
Apparently, all it takes for fear to seize hold of a citizen in the land of the free and home of the brave is a brown passenger or two with accents on a plane.
Are we turning into a nation of cowardly sniveling snitches? Not entirely, but fear, combined with politicians’ utter disregard for the Bill of Rights is killing our country faster than al-Qaeda could have done with a thousand more attacks. If we lack the courage of our convictions and founding principles, our country we knew all our lives is doomed.
The corporate lock on our politicians is bad enough. If the voters wake up we can change that. But nothing will change for the better when we react at the highest and lowest levels out of simple fear. FDR’s words ring vividly true today, “All we have to fear is fear itself”.
And that fear is being reinforced by authorities and politicians. Mayor Bloomberg has advised New Yorkers, “When you see something, say something!"
“Like what?” asks Nat Hentoff in his piece at Cato.org. Just what is "suspicious activity"?
They won’t say.
Hentoff continues:
This call to report to police or the FBI suspicious behavior by anybody has led the American Civil Liberties Union to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (ACLU.org, Aug. 25) "challenging the government's failure to release documents about the FBI's nationwide system of collecting and sharing (with other intelligence agencies) so-called 'Suspicious Activity Reports' from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies."
I make a point of following debates and releases among Republican 2012 presidential aspirants, and never once have I heard any concern about this omnivorous tracking of, as the Constitution begins, We The People. What does Gov. Rick Perry think of it? President Barack Obama, of course, thoroughly approves of this obliteration of our privacy to protect national security — without any of us being told we've been targeted.
This eGuardian program, begun in 2009, explains the ACLU, "allows the FBI to collect information about vague and expansively defined 'suspicious activity' from law enforcement and intelligence officials across the country, as well as from the public."
Yes, from the public. If one of us utterly detests a neighbor or someone where we work, why not report him or her to the authorities for "suspicious activity"?
There's never been a better time to support the ACLU, folks. Please consider it your patriotic duty. I do.
We have now entered the Orwellian nightmare of a nation of fearful snitches running to the Thought Police whenever they imagine someone to be “suspicious”.
This is our national tragedy unfolding before our very eyes. Neither Obama nor the Republicans are even mentioning what is happening to our civil liberties.
You know what? I think the Democrats and Republicans are both guilty of “suspicious activity” and should be taken away for interrogation. In order to be released they will need to recite for us the Bill of Rights and be reminded of their oath to defend them. And if they fail to do so, send them away for indefinite detention. They are not on our side.
We may survive that war, but it’s a real question whether the formerly free democratic republic of the United States of America will survive the anti-Constitutional over-reaction by politicians doing their best to look tough on terrorism. The Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Warner Defense Authorization Act, the FISA Amendment, and who knows how many executive orders have been implemented and locked into our government’s expanding abuses of power.
There was little media mention of an incident at Detroit's airport on this past September 11th.
Someone apparently got nervous on an inbound plane.
After the plane landed it was routed to a vacant area on the tarmac and greeted by heavily armed and armored officers with dogs.
An innocent woman and two men she didn’t know were shackled by machine gun carrying officers and shoved off the plane. They were taken by the SWAT team for interrogation. The rest of the passengers were also taken away by bus to be interviewed at police headquarters. Nothing was found and there were no charges against the three passengers.
Why? Who knows? No explanation was given. Some frightened passenger or crew member saw two Indian men and the woman sitting in the same row and panicked.
The woman’s name is Shoshana Hebshi, an American citizen with a Saudi father and a Jewish mother. You can read her account here.
Apparently, all it takes for fear to seize hold of a citizen in the land of the free and home of the brave is a brown passenger or two with accents on a plane.
Are we turning into a nation of cowardly sniveling snitches? Not entirely, but fear, combined with politicians’ utter disregard for the Bill of Rights is killing our country faster than al-Qaeda could have done with a thousand more attacks. If we lack the courage of our convictions and founding principles, our country we knew all our lives is doomed.
The corporate lock on our politicians is bad enough. If the voters wake up we can change that. But nothing will change for the better when we react at the highest and lowest levels out of simple fear. FDR’s words ring vividly true today, “All we have to fear is fear itself”.
And that fear is being reinforced by authorities and politicians. Mayor Bloomberg has advised New Yorkers, “When you see something, say something!"
“Like what?” asks Nat Hentoff in his piece at Cato.org. Just what is "suspicious activity"?
They won’t say.
Hentoff continues:
This call to report to police or the FBI suspicious behavior by anybody has led the American Civil Liberties Union to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (ACLU.org, Aug. 25) "challenging the government's failure to release documents about the FBI's nationwide system of collecting and sharing (with other intelligence agencies) so-called 'Suspicious Activity Reports' from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies."
I make a point of following debates and releases among Republican 2012 presidential aspirants, and never once have I heard any concern about this omnivorous tracking of, as the Constitution begins, We The People. What does Gov. Rick Perry think of it? President Barack Obama, of course, thoroughly approves of this obliteration of our privacy to protect national security — without any of us being told we've been targeted.
This eGuardian program, begun in 2009, explains the ACLU, "allows the FBI to collect information about vague and expansively defined 'suspicious activity' from law enforcement and intelligence officials across the country, as well as from the public."
Yes, from the public. If one of us utterly detests a neighbor or someone where we work, why not report him or her to the authorities for "suspicious activity"?
There's never been a better time to support the ACLU, folks. Please consider it your patriotic duty. I do.
We have now entered the Orwellian nightmare of a nation of fearful snitches running to the Thought Police whenever they imagine someone to be “suspicious”.
This is our national tragedy unfolding before our very eyes. Neither Obama nor the Republicans are even mentioning what is happening to our civil liberties.
You know what? I think the Democrats and Republicans are both guilty of “suspicious activity” and should be taken away for interrogation. In order to be released they will need to recite for us the Bill of Rights and be reminded of their oath to defend them. And if they fail to do so, send them away for indefinite detention. They are not on our side.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Fact Checking
Darn. I missed the big Republican debate. Mildly wondering what lies I may have missed, I checked the Washington Post Fact Checker.
I was not disappointed.
Here are the lies they debunked, along with a few parenthetical remarks from the fact checker:
“It is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there.”
— Gov. Perry
(Perhaps the governor does not know the dictionary definition of a Ponzi scheme.)
“Obamacare is killing jobs. We know that from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”
— Rep. Michele Bachmann
(...the CBO did not say the health law was killing jobs.)
“We’ve had requests in for years at the Health and Human Services agencies to have that type of flexibility, where we could have menus, where we could have co-pays. And the federal government refuses to give us that flexibility.”
— Perry
(The George W. Bush administration rejected the application in 2008, saying it was incomplete and riddled with problems. As far as we can tell, the state has not resubmitted the waiver.)
“Obamacare took over one-sixth of the American economy… . If we fail to repeal Obamacare in 2012, it will be with us forever and it will be socialized medicine.”
— Bachmann
“In our state, our plan covered 8 percent of the people, the uninsured. His plan is taking over 100 percent of the people.”
— Romney
(It is simply not true, no matter how often candidates say that the Obama health care law represents socialized medicine or took over one-sixth of the economy. Socialized medicine is a single-payer system, in which the government pays the bills and controls costs, much like Medicare. Obama’s law was modeled closely on the law passed by Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts — an inconvenient fact that Romney tries hard to run away from. His comparison here is misleading, since both plans try to deal with the problem of the uninsured by requiring an individual mandate.)
“For the president of the United States to go to El Paso, Texas, and say that the border is safer than it’s ever been, either he has some of the poorest intel of a president in the history of this country, or he was an abject liar to the American people. It is not safe on that border.”
— Perry
(Obama did not put it quite as bluntly as Perry suggests, and calling the president an “abject liar” seems over the top for the politically tinged comments Obama actually made.)
“He only went along with the Libyan mission because the United Nations told him to.”
— Former Sen. Rick Santorum
(Actually, Santorum has it backwards. The United States requested the U.N. resolution to gain international backing for the NATO-led intervention in the Libyan uprising.)
“The idea that we would put Americans’ economy in jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just — is nonsense. I mean, it — I mean, and I told somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said, here is the fact — Galileo got outvoted for a spell.”
— Perry
(We will note he repeatedly did not answer the question at the debate about whether he could name a scientist he thought was credible on the issue.)
“As a matter of fact, what he’s done is, he’s said in fact to Israel that they need to shrink back to their indefensible 1967 borders.”
— Bachmann
(Obama never said this. The president in May did give a controversial speech, in which he said the de facto border of 1967 should be a starting point for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, with agreed swaps of territory. A few days later, he further clarified his comments to make clear he was not saying the lines should be Israel’s border, to the point that he was thanked by the Israeli prime minister in a speech to Congress.)
Whew! That was an honest day’s work for Mr. Kessler.I guess that’s one job the Republicans can take credit for.
Now, before someone accuses me of working for the DNC, I will share a fact check on Obama.
“We said working folks deserved a break, so within one month of me taking office, we signed into law the biggest middle-class tax cut in history, putting more money into your pockets.” — President Obama, Sept. 5, 2011
(John F. Kennedy seems to win the prize for biggest tax cut, at least in the last half century. Obama’s claim of having passed the “biggest middle-class tax cut in history” is ridiculous. He might have been on more solid ground if he had claimed the “broadest” tax cut, but that doesn’t sound very historic.)
And in even more fairness to Republicans I’ll point out something Eric Cantor said that was actually respectable.
He noted Americans, "have lost a lot of confidence in Washington and while they are going through such tough times they're frankly sick of the rancor in this town."
And regarding moving forward on Obama’s jobs initiative to be presented this week, "We've got to focus on areas of commonality, try and transcend differences here. I think we need to build consensus and that's going to require us all not to impugn motives or to question patriotism."
How about that? Of course, these are mere words... from a politician.
I was not disappointed.
Here are the lies they debunked, along with a few parenthetical remarks from the fact checker:
“It is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there.”
— Gov. Perry
(Perhaps the governor does not know the dictionary definition of a Ponzi scheme.)
“Obamacare is killing jobs. We know that from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”
— Rep. Michele Bachmann
(...the CBO did not say the health law was killing jobs.)
“We’ve had requests in for years at the Health and Human Services agencies to have that type of flexibility, where we could have menus, where we could have co-pays. And the federal government refuses to give us that flexibility.”
— Perry
(The George W. Bush administration rejected the application in 2008, saying it was incomplete and riddled with problems. As far as we can tell, the state has not resubmitted the waiver.)
“Obamacare took over one-sixth of the American economy… . If we fail to repeal Obamacare in 2012, it will be with us forever and it will be socialized medicine.”
— Bachmann
“In our state, our plan covered 8 percent of the people, the uninsured. His plan is taking over 100 percent of the people.”
— Romney
(It is simply not true, no matter how often candidates say that the Obama health care law represents socialized medicine or took over one-sixth of the economy. Socialized medicine is a single-payer system, in which the government pays the bills and controls costs, much like Medicare. Obama’s law was modeled closely on the law passed by Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts — an inconvenient fact that Romney tries hard to run away from. His comparison here is misleading, since both plans try to deal with the problem of the uninsured by requiring an individual mandate.)
“For the president of the United States to go to El Paso, Texas, and say that the border is safer than it’s ever been, either he has some of the poorest intel of a president in the history of this country, or he was an abject liar to the American people. It is not safe on that border.”
— Perry
(Obama did not put it quite as bluntly as Perry suggests, and calling the president an “abject liar” seems over the top for the politically tinged comments Obama actually made.)
“He only went along with the Libyan mission because the United Nations told him to.”
— Former Sen. Rick Santorum
(Actually, Santorum has it backwards. The United States requested the U.N. resolution to gain international backing for the NATO-led intervention in the Libyan uprising.)
“The idea that we would put Americans’ economy in jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just — is nonsense. I mean, it — I mean, and I told somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said, here is the fact — Galileo got outvoted for a spell.”
— Perry
(We will note he repeatedly did not answer the question at the debate about whether he could name a scientist he thought was credible on the issue.)
“As a matter of fact, what he’s done is, he’s said in fact to Israel that they need to shrink back to their indefensible 1967 borders.”
— Bachmann
(Obama never said this. The president in May did give a controversial speech, in which he said the de facto border of 1967 should be a starting point for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, with agreed swaps of territory. A few days later, he further clarified his comments to make clear he was not saying the lines should be Israel’s border, to the point that he was thanked by the Israeli prime minister in a speech to Congress.)
Whew! That was an honest day’s work for Mr. Kessler.I guess that’s one job the Republicans can take credit for.
Now, before someone accuses me of working for the DNC, I will share a fact check on Obama.
“We said working folks deserved a break, so within one month of me taking office, we signed into law the biggest middle-class tax cut in history, putting more money into your pockets.” — President Obama, Sept. 5, 2011
(John F. Kennedy seems to win the prize for biggest tax cut, at least in the last half century. Obama’s claim of having passed the “biggest middle-class tax cut in history” is ridiculous. He might have been on more solid ground if he had claimed the “broadest” tax cut, but that doesn’t sound very historic.)
And in even more fairness to Republicans I’ll point out something Eric Cantor said that was actually respectable.
He noted Americans, "have lost a lot of confidence in Washington and while they are going through such tough times they're frankly sick of the rancor in this town."
And regarding moving forward on Obama’s jobs initiative to be presented this week, "We've got to focus on areas of commonality, try and transcend differences here. I think we need to build consensus and that's going to require us all not to impugn motives or to question patriotism."
How about that? Of course, these are mere words... from a politician.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Who's Fault?
There’s no doubt there’s a fiscal mess that is suffocating the process and functions of our federal government. There’s also no doubt the economy has taken a dive when it comes to jobs and our standard of living.
Unfortunately that may be the only point of agreement Americans can find. That may prove tragic, for one party absolutely refuses to compromise on finding solutions.
The debt has been politicized by the Right, allowing them to manufacture and define a “crisis” to implement their radical agenda. Remember when Cheney said, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter”? My, how things change when Republicans are out of the White House.
Now it’s all Obama’s fault, along with those liberals who’ve had so much unchecked power over Wall Street and multinational corporations. They’re the ones who did it. Just ask a Republican.
What happens when you ask a Democrat?
Asked by radio host Tom Joyner about the current state of the struggling economy, Obama replied: “George Bush left us a $1 trillion deficit, and so it’s a lot harder to climb out of this hole when we don’t have a lot of money in the federal coffers.”
That was understating the situation. Bush left us multiple catastrophes of war, recession, torture, and the destruction of our Bill of Rights with unchecked warrantless surveillance.
The Washington Post branch of corporate media said Obama was “playing the blame game”. Yes, That's what it is to them, a game. Nothing real, no substance here, as they get all excited about a dozen tea cult members carrying signs. Now THAT would be news.
What happens when you ask the American people about who’s to blame?
In a recent AP survey, 51 percent said that Bush deserved “almost all” or “a lot but not all” of the blame for the “country’s current economic problems”. Just 31 percent said the same of Obama.
The poll also shows:
Regardless of how you might vote, do you think President Barak Obama…
Deserves to be re-elected:
November 2010: 39%
August 2011: 47%
Deserves to be voted out of office:
November 2010: 54%
August 2011: 48%
This poll is yet another example reflecting why Republicans really dislike democracy. They want to blame Obama for the mess, and want him to fail in repairing the damage. They don’t want the people’s voices to be heard in government policy, especially when the majority wants the old tax rates restored on the rich. It conflicts with the demands of Big Money.
The Right’s campaign for the destruction of the US government as an entity of, by and for the people through “starving the beast” is proceeding as planned. Debt and deficit are the tools they deliberately use for this purpose. That’s why they always jack up the debt and then scream about it when they’re out of the White House. It’s an old pattern that cannot be denied, except, of course, by the fanatical Right.
The conflict is between Corporatist Republicanism and Democracy. Corporatist Republicanism has been gaining for over three decades and Corporatocracy has never been stronger.
Democracy is losing. People who need jobs are losing.
Obama will make a speech on jobs next week. Will it be more than just words? If he expects Republican cooperation in a jobs program it will not happen.
Because Democracy is losing, Obama may lose too, unless he can find the nerve to actually oppose Corporatist Republicanism. He still has the people behind him if he cares to lead.
Unfortunately that may be the only point of agreement Americans can find. That may prove tragic, for one party absolutely refuses to compromise on finding solutions.
The debt has been politicized by the Right, allowing them to manufacture and define a “crisis” to implement their radical agenda. Remember when Cheney said, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter”? My, how things change when Republicans are out of the White House.
Now it’s all Obama’s fault, along with those liberals who’ve had so much unchecked power over Wall Street and multinational corporations. They’re the ones who did it. Just ask a Republican.
What happens when you ask a Democrat?
Asked by radio host Tom Joyner about the current state of the struggling economy, Obama replied: “George Bush left us a $1 trillion deficit, and so it’s a lot harder to climb out of this hole when we don’t have a lot of money in the federal coffers.”
That was understating the situation. Bush left us multiple catastrophes of war, recession, torture, and the destruction of our Bill of Rights with unchecked warrantless surveillance.
The Washington Post branch of corporate media said Obama was “playing the blame game”. Yes, That's what it is to them, a game. Nothing real, no substance here, as they get all excited about a dozen tea cult members carrying signs. Now THAT would be news.
What happens when you ask the American people about who’s to blame?
In a recent AP survey, 51 percent said that Bush deserved “almost all” or “a lot but not all” of the blame for the “country’s current economic problems”. Just 31 percent said the same of Obama.
The poll also shows:
Regardless of how you might vote, do you think President Barak Obama…
Deserves to be re-elected:
November 2010: 39%
August 2011: 47%
Deserves to be voted out of office:
November 2010: 54%
August 2011: 48%
This poll is yet another example reflecting why Republicans really dislike democracy. They want to blame Obama for the mess, and want him to fail in repairing the damage. They don’t want the people’s voices to be heard in government policy, especially when the majority wants the old tax rates restored on the rich. It conflicts with the demands of Big Money.
The Right’s campaign for the destruction of the US government as an entity of, by and for the people through “starving the beast” is proceeding as planned. Debt and deficit are the tools they deliberately use for this purpose. That’s why they always jack up the debt and then scream about it when they’re out of the White House. It’s an old pattern that cannot be denied, except, of course, by the fanatical Right.
The conflict is between Corporatist Republicanism and Democracy. Corporatist Republicanism has been gaining for over three decades and Corporatocracy has never been stronger.
Democracy is losing. People who need jobs are losing.
Obama will make a speech on jobs next week. Will it be more than just words? If he expects Republican cooperation in a jobs program it will not happen.
Because Democracy is losing, Obama may lose too, unless he can find the nerve to actually oppose Corporatist Republicanism. He still has the people behind him if he cares to lead.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Mystery Solved
Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove on Sarah Palin:
"It is a sign of enormous thin skin that if we speculate about her, she gets upset. And I suspect if we didn't speculate about her, she'd be upset and try and find a way to get us to speculate about her ... I'm mystified."
No mystery here, Karl. Palin possesses the emotional and intellectual development of a high school junior prom queen.
Run, Sarah, run.
"It is a sign of enormous thin skin that if we speculate about her, she gets upset. And I suspect if we didn't speculate about her, she'd be upset and try and find a way to get us to speculate about her ... I'm mystified."
No mystery here, Karl. Palin possesses the emotional and intellectual development of a high school junior prom queen.
Run, Sarah, run.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Obama's "Brown Shirts"
Tea time again already? Bless their pointed little heads; they had Republicans create a phony crisis so convincingly that Standard and Poor's has downgraded the US credit rating. Has the US defaulted on payments to earn that? No, but thanks to Poor Standard’s purely political opinion, the market has been whipsawing back and forth.
Just imagine if the Tea Cult had its way and the US actually defaulted. The “Me first, country second” crowd would be in ecstasy. They’re going to have to settle with their "the tea party downgrade” for now.
The good news is polls are showing the Tea Cult is now being downgraded itself, by the American people. Too late, unfortunately, for their damage has been done. But maybe they’ve done their worst, since more people are beginning to understand who and what they work for. We know they have nothing in common, apart from their costumes and Gadsden Flags, with the original colonial tea party. The real patriots protested against corporate tax CUTS for the British East India Company.
The truth:
Brandishing a historic moniker that symbolized rebellion against the then monarchial power, the Congressional Tea Partiers are anything but rebels against power – whether against the wars of empire, corporate welfare, sovereignty shedding NAFTA and WTO, corporate crime, the flouted war powers of Congress, or a runaway Wall Street. – Ralph Nader
Despite their moderate disappointment in not causing a complete default, the Tea Cult is still wallowing in their usual hysteria. The Tea Party Express Bozo Bus toured Wisconsin in an effort to defend the Republican union busting war on the middle class. Midway through the Fond du Lac event, Florida talk show host Andrea Shea King took the stage.
SHEA KING: This week—I wrote it down—they are blaming the credit downgrade on the tea party movement.
CROWD: Yeah! (Cheers, clapping)
SHEA KING: They are calling it "the tea party downgrade." They are objectivizing [sic] us.
Darn those evil liberals and their “objectivizing” the Tea Cult and their pride in the work they’ve done. How evil are those “objectivizing” liberals? Why, just as evil as those “objectivizing” Nazis, of course.
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips also had a message for Wisconsin’s “real Americans”. He educated them about what pro-union, working Americans really are.
A few days ago, Governor Walker showed up to open the state fair. This was not a political event. It is one of those ceremonial events that a governor is obligated to do. His remarks were not political and in fact, consisted mostly of saying, "I declare the state fair to be open." The Wisconsin Red shirts, the left's modern version of Brown shirts, were there to shout Walker down and generally ruin the fair for as many people as they could.
Got that? Pro-union American workers are the modern version of Nazis. “Union thugs” and "goons" fail to adequately describe them anymore, I guess.
Meanwhile, over at another tea cult fringe site, patriot action network, the champions of corporatism, plutocracy and greed issue a dire warning and call to action:
SEIU (OBAMA'S BROWN SHIRTS) HAVE SCHEDULED NATIONWIDE PROTESTS.... TEACHERS UNIONS PRESSURE MEMBERS TO SHOW "SOLIDARITY"
This is a CALL to ACTION for the TEA PARTY
Time to get into to gear and organize your troops at the local level in the areas listed below. Contact your tea party and anyone else who will support our side. It's time to show these big labor goons and the country we can organize without big Union and DNC money!
What kind of action are they calling for? They want to infiltrate the pro-union demonstration to agitate, disrupt and distract from their message. We’ve heard the outrage from Republicans that some liberal dared consider going to a Tea Cult rally under similar pretenses, although I have not seen evidence of this actually happening. But their action goes much further, of course.
We remember Mark Williams, infamous author of a “letter” supposedly from "the Colored People" to President Lincoln praising slavery:
What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!
We have him to thank for educating us about how racist the NAACP really is. He should know, eh? He’s also the rabid crusader against First Amendment rights of Muslims to have a community center in New York, and he accused President Obama of being an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug". Now there’s a Me-first-country-second “real American”, no doubt.
He writes of his plan:
(1) I signed up as an organizer (2) with any luck they will contact me and I will have an “in” (3) in or not I will be there and am asking as many other people as can get there to come with, all of us in SEIU shirts (those who don’t have them we can possibly buy some from vendors likely to be there) (4) we are going to target the many TV cameras and reporters looking for comments from the members there (5) we will approach the cameras to make good pictures… signs under our shirts that say things like “screw the taxpayer!” and “you OWE me!” to be pulled out for the camera (timing is important because the signs will be taken away from us) (6) we will echo those slogans in angry sounding tones to the cameras and the reporters. (7) if I do get the ‘in’ I am going to do my darnedest to get podium access and take the mic to do that rant from there…with any luck and if I can manage the moments to build up to it, I can probably get a cheer out of the crowd for something extreme.
WARNING: When around these union events do NOT instigate ANY physical confrontation, walk away from anyone who tries to start one with you. These people WILL have a mob mentality and ARE dangerous.
Since I have radio shows to host in Fresno tomorrow (KMJ FM and KMJ AM) I am going to try to gin up some support from down there and salt the crowd here with more people.
Several Tea Party chapters around the country are planning to join with me, if you are a member of one in your area please contact them for details. If they are not participating get them to!
Chances are that because I am publishing this they’ll catch wind, but it is worth the chance if you take it upon yourself to act…there’s only one of me but there are millions of you and I know that you CAN do this!
Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters who just want dramatic shots and outrageous quotes for headlines. Even if it becomes known that we are plants the quotes and pictures will linger as defacto truth.
That’s really the way it works folks, time to use this weapon against the enemy.
There you have it. Pro-democracy, working class Americans like teachers, firemen, cops, etc. are the “enemy”. The enemy! Now we have admitted proof the radical Right is truly an enemy of democracy and working class Americans. They demand stripping workers of their rights to collective bargaining for wages and work conditions, in addition to denying Muslims First Amendment rights.
How “real American” can you get?
Let’s ask Tea Queen Michelle Bachmann.
Mother Jones reports on Bachmann’s “education activist” film Guinea Pig Kids II that warns of the impending “Arbeit Macht Frei” concentration camps if we don’t listen to her ideas on "Minnesota's new centrally-planned education, workforce & economic system and how citizens are trying to reverse it."
Viewed nine years later, with Bachmann the toast of the tea party and atop the polls in Iowa, the video is a testament to how far she's come—and how little she's changed. The movie, intended as an informational device as well as a fundraising tool for the MREC, depicted the duo's multimedia-friendly presentation at a suburban Minneapolis church. It was a presentation they gave frequently over a three-year period, the product of, by their count, 5,000 combined hours of research. Both Bachmann and Chapman warned that unnamed bureaucrats were covertly stripping the nation of its moral foundation and leading it down the path to totalitarianism—even, Chapman suggested, to Auschwitz.
Bachmann, the star of the show (she gets first billing in the opening credits), wholeheartedly endorsed Chapman's dire warnings in her half of the film. "As I was listening to Mike, I wondered—perhaps you had this same thought—I was wondering: Is this something that's coming?" she said. "Or is this something that's already here?"
She had bad news: "It's already here, and it's something that we have to deal with."
Mein Gott! The liberal Nazis have taken over!! And during the Bush years at that!!
The horror.
Some have attributed Winston Churchill as saying, “The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists”. Some have also attributed this to Sinclair Lewis, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
No matter who first said the words, they certainly fit somebody to a “tea”.
Just imagine if the Tea Cult had its way and the US actually defaulted. The “Me first, country second” crowd would be in ecstasy. They’re going to have to settle with their "the tea party downgrade” for now.
The good news is polls are showing the Tea Cult is now being downgraded itself, by the American people. Too late, unfortunately, for their damage has been done. But maybe they’ve done their worst, since more people are beginning to understand who and what they work for. We know they have nothing in common, apart from their costumes and Gadsden Flags, with the original colonial tea party. The real patriots protested against corporate tax CUTS for the British East India Company.
The truth:
Brandishing a historic moniker that symbolized rebellion against the then monarchial power, the Congressional Tea Partiers are anything but rebels against power – whether against the wars of empire, corporate welfare, sovereignty shedding NAFTA and WTO, corporate crime, the flouted war powers of Congress, or a runaway Wall Street. – Ralph Nader
Despite their moderate disappointment in not causing a complete default, the Tea Cult is still wallowing in their usual hysteria. The Tea Party Express Bozo Bus toured Wisconsin in an effort to defend the Republican union busting war on the middle class. Midway through the Fond du Lac event, Florida talk show host Andrea Shea King took the stage.
SHEA KING: This week—I wrote it down—they are blaming the credit downgrade on the tea party movement.
CROWD: Yeah! (Cheers, clapping)
SHEA KING: They are calling it "the tea party downgrade." They are objectivizing [sic] us.
Darn those evil liberals and their “objectivizing” the Tea Cult and their pride in the work they’ve done. How evil are those “objectivizing” liberals? Why, just as evil as those “objectivizing” Nazis, of course.
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips also had a message for Wisconsin’s “real Americans”. He educated them about what pro-union, working Americans really are.
A few days ago, Governor Walker showed up to open the state fair. This was not a political event. It is one of those ceremonial events that a governor is obligated to do. His remarks were not political and in fact, consisted mostly of saying, "I declare the state fair to be open." The Wisconsin Red shirts, the left's modern version of Brown shirts, were there to shout Walker down and generally ruin the fair for as many people as they could.
Got that? Pro-union American workers are the modern version of Nazis. “Union thugs” and "goons" fail to adequately describe them anymore, I guess.
Meanwhile, over at another tea cult fringe site, patriot action network, the champions of corporatism, plutocracy and greed issue a dire warning and call to action:
SEIU (OBAMA'S BROWN SHIRTS) HAVE SCHEDULED NATIONWIDE PROTESTS.... TEACHERS UNIONS PRESSURE MEMBERS TO SHOW "SOLIDARITY"
This is a CALL to ACTION for the TEA PARTY
Time to get into to gear and organize your troops at the local level in the areas listed below. Contact your tea party and anyone else who will support our side. It's time to show these big labor goons and the country we can organize without big Union and DNC money!
What kind of action are they calling for? They want to infiltrate the pro-union demonstration to agitate, disrupt and distract from their message. We’ve heard the outrage from Republicans that some liberal dared consider going to a Tea Cult rally under similar pretenses, although I have not seen evidence of this actually happening. But their action goes much further, of course.
We remember Mark Williams, infamous author of a “letter” supposedly from "the Colored People" to President Lincoln praising slavery:
What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!
We have him to thank for educating us about how racist the NAACP really is. He should know, eh? He’s also the rabid crusader against First Amendment rights of Muslims to have a community center in New York, and he accused President Obama of being an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug". Now there’s a Me-first-country-second “real American”, no doubt.
He writes of his plan:
(1) I signed up as an organizer (2) with any luck they will contact me and I will have an “in” (3) in or not I will be there and am asking as many other people as can get there to come with, all of us in SEIU shirts (those who don’t have them we can possibly buy some from vendors likely to be there) (4) we are going to target the many TV cameras and reporters looking for comments from the members there (5) we will approach the cameras to make good pictures… signs under our shirts that say things like “screw the taxpayer!” and “you OWE me!” to be pulled out for the camera (timing is important because the signs will be taken away from us) (6) we will echo those slogans in angry sounding tones to the cameras and the reporters. (7) if I do get the ‘in’ I am going to do my darnedest to get podium access and take the mic to do that rant from there…with any luck and if I can manage the moments to build up to it, I can probably get a cheer out of the crowd for something extreme.
WARNING: When around these union events do NOT instigate ANY physical confrontation, walk away from anyone who tries to start one with you. These people WILL have a mob mentality and ARE dangerous.
Since I have radio shows to host in Fresno tomorrow (KMJ FM and KMJ AM) I am going to try to gin up some support from down there and salt the crowd here with more people.
Several Tea Party chapters around the country are planning to join with me, if you are a member of one in your area please contact them for details. If they are not participating get them to!
Chances are that because I am publishing this they’ll catch wind, but it is worth the chance if you take it upon yourself to act…there’s only one of me but there are millions of you and I know that you CAN do this!
Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters who just want dramatic shots and outrageous quotes for headlines. Even if it becomes known that we are plants the quotes and pictures will linger as defacto truth.
That’s really the way it works folks, time to use this weapon against the enemy.
There you have it. Pro-democracy, working class Americans like teachers, firemen, cops, etc. are the “enemy”. The enemy! Now we have admitted proof the radical Right is truly an enemy of democracy and working class Americans. They demand stripping workers of their rights to collective bargaining for wages and work conditions, in addition to denying Muslims First Amendment rights.
How “real American” can you get?
Let’s ask Tea Queen Michelle Bachmann.
Mother Jones reports on Bachmann’s “education activist” film Guinea Pig Kids II that warns of the impending “Arbeit Macht Frei” concentration camps if we don’t listen to her ideas on "Minnesota's new centrally-planned education, workforce & economic system and how citizens are trying to reverse it."
Viewed nine years later, with Bachmann the toast of the tea party and atop the polls in Iowa, the video is a testament to how far she's come—and how little she's changed. The movie, intended as an informational device as well as a fundraising tool for the MREC, depicted the duo's multimedia-friendly presentation at a suburban Minneapolis church. It was a presentation they gave frequently over a three-year period, the product of, by their count, 5,000 combined hours of research. Both Bachmann and Chapman warned that unnamed bureaucrats were covertly stripping the nation of its moral foundation and leading it down the path to totalitarianism—even, Chapman suggested, to Auschwitz.
Bachmann, the star of the show (she gets first billing in the opening credits), wholeheartedly endorsed Chapman's dire warnings in her half of the film. "As I was listening to Mike, I wondered—perhaps you had this same thought—I was wondering: Is this something that's coming?" she said. "Or is this something that's already here?"
She had bad news: "It's already here, and it's something that we have to deal with."
Mein Gott! The liberal Nazis have taken over!! And during the Bush years at that!!
The horror.
Some have attributed Winston Churchill as saying, “The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists”. Some have also attributed this to Sinclair Lewis, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
No matter who first said the words, they certainly fit somebody to a “tea”.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
FOX(R), Or...
The Washington Post article started with this sentence: “Fox News’s news-aggregation Web site, Fox Nation, made an odd and many say “race-baiting” editorial decision Friday when it splashed a story about Obama’s birthday over its homepage with the headline “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs” and a photo of Obama next to three black celebrities who attended.”
What, no mention of all the watermelons, chitlins and cake-walking?
The unfair and unbalanced message was clearly intended to incite racial animosity. And it did. One “real American” posted, “Nice collection of the FBI's ‘Most Wanted’ mug shots.”
I may be going out on a limb here, but I strongly suspect FOX(R) is the favorite “lamestream” media choice of the Klan. Perhaps I should consider revising my FOX(R) term to FOX(K).
One would wonder what the Right’s reaction would have been a few years ago if CNN posted a headline, “Bush’s Aristocrat Tax Cuts Cotillion Didn’t Create Jobs.” Imagine the howls of indignation and shrill accusations of bias.
One person’s comment summed it nicely, “You know, if President Obama walked on water, the Fox News headline would read, “Obama can't swim.”
What, no mention of all the watermelons, chitlins and cake-walking?
The unfair and unbalanced message was clearly intended to incite racial animosity. And it did. One “real American” posted, “Nice collection of the FBI's ‘Most Wanted’ mug shots.”
I may be going out on a limb here, but I strongly suspect FOX(R) is the favorite “lamestream” media choice of the Klan. Perhaps I should consider revising my FOX(R) term to FOX(K).
One would wonder what the Right’s reaction would have been a few years ago if CNN posted a headline, “Bush’s Aristocrat Tax Cuts Cotillion Didn’t Create Jobs.” Imagine the howls of indignation and shrill accusations of bias.
One person’s comment summed it nicely, “You know, if President Obama walked on water, the Fox News headline would read, “Obama can't swim.”
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Radical Rightists
Well, well.
I’m impressed and flattered at the turnout of radical Rightists on the previous post. It appears my words are a threat to their radical ideology.
Never mind the fact Obama works for Wall Street as much as Republicans, it doesn’t matter. They hate him anyway, because that’s what they’re best at. Hate.
Notice how the fanatics swarm and get mean when I show most people disagree with them. The hate has been getting thick here recently, and I have decided I cannot allow hate speech here any longer. It drives away too many good people who may wish to comment without having to encounter the ad hominem attacks and inane inquisitions of trolls, who contribute nothing while demanding attention.
One troll is fond of the word “Libtards”. He is no longer worthy of my attention. I will screen trolls from now on. Polite disagreement is still welcome.
Funny how “Libtards” are now the majority of Americans who want to tax the rich, keep Social Security and Medicare, and restore democracy.
They think they have a better idea than most Americans. Tax the rich less and give them more money, more “free speech”, more representation, and more power. And they demand their tyranny of the minority now. The US credit rating has now been downgraded thanks to the fanatics of the radical Right. They are killing democracy, and Democrats are allowing them to do it. S&P used the word “brinkmanship” in their justification for the downgrading.
The radical Right Wing extremists really have a deep seated hatred for democracy and love to prove it. The Rightists claim to support the rule of law, but we know many of them would love nothing more than a law that allows them to toss “Marxist” liberals into camps or otherwise silence us. We are the enemies of their tyranny of the minority.
They hate liberals and the very notion of equal rights under a democracy.
Hatred for democracy, along with hateful scapegoating, is how Fascism grows. It will not grow here.
I’m impressed and flattered at the turnout of radical Rightists on the previous post. It appears my words are a threat to their radical ideology.
Never mind the fact Obama works for Wall Street as much as Republicans, it doesn’t matter. They hate him anyway, because that’s what they’re best at. Hate.
Notice how the fanatics swarm and get mean when I show most people disagree with them. The hate has been getting thick here recently, and I have decided I cannot allow hate speech here any longer. It drives away too many good people who may wish to comment without having to encounter the ad hominem attacks and inane inquisitions of trolls, who contribute nothing while demanding attention.
One troll is fond of the word “Libtards”. He is no longer worthy of my attention. I will screen trolls from now on. Polite disagreement is still welcome.
Funny how “Libtards” are now the majority of Americans who want to tax the rich, keep Social Security and Medicare, and restore democracy.
They think they have a better idea than most Americans. Tax the rich less and give them more money, more “free speech”, more representation, and more power. And they demand their tyranny of the minority now. The US credit rating has now been downgraded thanks to the fanatics of the radical Right. They are killing democracy, and Democrats are allowing them to do it. S&P used the word “brinkmanship” in their justification for the downgrading.
The radical Right Wing extremists really have a deep seated hatred for democracy and love to prove it. The Rightists claim to support the rule of law, but we know many of them would love nothing more than a law that allows them to toss “Marxist” liberals into camps or otherwise silence us. We are the enemies of their tyranny of the minority.
They hate liberals and the very notion of equal rights under a democracy.
Hatred for democracy, along with hateful scapegoating, is how Fascism grows. It will not grow here.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
One More Thing
I want to apologize for my lapse in passing this along. Our new friends Fred and Jed at the Fred and Jed Radio Show on Blog talk radio were gracious enough to invite me onto their show for an interview. You can hear the archived recording.
They are live at 5:30 pm Central on Saturdays. They're great gentlemen and there's a lot of humor in their show.
Thanks, guys. Hope to talk with you all again soon.
They are live at 5:30 pm Central on Saturdays. They're great gentlemen and there's a lot of humor in their show.
Thanks, guys. Hope to talk with you all again soon.
Why They Hate Democracy
The tea brains now have a choke hold on our democracy, and they are holding the nation for ransom. They’re about to drag the US into a new low; quite likely to be downgraded by defaulting on our obligations.
Gotta love those “patriots”. They’re all about flag waving, costume wearing, country first, and... hold on thar pardner..., except for MY wallet.
Make that country second.
They want freedom, alright, freedom to plunge their country into default.
“Don’t Tread On Me, Just Downgrade Me”.
They can’t get what they want legislatively because we still have a little too much democracy for their liking. They want their way or the highway. Like spoiled brats growing into thugs, they have become a serious threat.
Every sane person knows we need to pass the stupid debt ceiling to continue functioning. The Tea Baggers have blown a common procedure into a crisis. They’re acting like bullies on a tantrum. Like the Gingrich Gang of the’90’s they don’t care what happens. Consequences are for other people to worry about.
Like Gingrich, they too, will soon be kicked out of the House. But not before doing their damage.
Americans have agreed for quite some time how to deal with the deficit. And they don’t agree with the Republicans. And they certainly don’t agree with the tea brains. They are now feeling buyers’ remorse with the extremist Tea Party’s attempt at minority rule.
Former Reagan advisor Bruce Bartlett compiled polls taken the past year reflecting a clear mandate by the people for a tax increase, along with spending cuts to address the deficit.
We the People still support higher taxes.
Polls and support for tax increase:
Washington Post/ABC News (7-19-11) – 66%
NBC News/Wall Street Journal – 62%
CBS News – 69%
Quinnipiac – 67%
Gallup (7-13-11)– 73%
Washington Post/ABC News (6-9-11) – 61%
Bloomberg – 61%
Ipsos/Reuters – 61%
Gallup (4-29-11) – 76%
USC/LA Times (California only) – 62%
New York Times/CBS News – 66%
Washington Post/ABC News (4-20-11) – 62%
Washington Post/ABC News (3-15-11) – 67%
Washington Post/ABC News (12-12-10) – 62%
This is not a passing phase. This is the consensus over most of the past year. The people have spoken. Boehner and the Republican Party are not listening to the people.
Geez, I wonder who they are listening to.
Ka-ching! Who else?
But now the Ka-ching Machine is worried their bratty little pets have grown into a Bear in their China Shop, sending the market down the tubes.
Ah, ya get whatcha ya pay for, eh?
Meanwhile we the people want jobs. Jobs the Republicans campaigned on. Jobs the Democrats campaigned on. We the people want the rich to pay to fix the problem they helped create. We have overwhelmingly expressed our position.
Yeah, thanks a lot, Boehner, Cantor, minions and thugs. We see how much jobs and governing by compromise matter to Republicans. We know who you really represent.
And too many of you Democrats are even more pathetic, cowards and appeasers, instead of representatives of the people. Surrender to the Tea Cult and we all lose.
Democrats, do you want to know how to win? Here’s a secret. Serve the people. Represent us like your jobs depend on it.
Embrace democracy for a change.
Gotta love those “patriots”. They’re all about flag waving, costume wearing, country first, and... hold on thar pardner..., except for MY wallet.
Make that country second.
They want freedom, alright, freedom to plunge their country into default.
“Don’t Tread On Me, Just Downgrade Me”.
They can’t get what they want legislatively because we still have a little too much democracy for their liking. They want their way or the highway. Like spoiled brats growing into thugs, they have become a serious threat.
Every sane person knows we need to pass the stupid debt ceiling to continue functioning. The Tea Baggers have blown a common procedure into a crisis. They’re acting like bullies on a tantrum. Like the Gingrich Gang of the’90’s they don’t care what happens. Consequences are for other people to worry about.
Like Gingrich, they too, will soon be kicked out of the House. But not before doing their damage.
Americans have agreed for quite some time how to deal with the deficit. And they don’t agree with the Republicans. And they certainly don’t agree with the tea brains. They are now feeling buyers’ remorse with the extremist Tea Party’s attempt at minority rule.
Former Reagan advisor Bruce Bartlett compiled polls taken the past year reflecting a clear mandate by the people for a tax increase, along with spending cuts to address the deficit.
We the People still support higher taxes.
Polls and support for tax increase:
Washington Post/ABC News (7-19-11) – 66%
NBC News/Wall Street Journal – 62%
CBS News – 69%
Quinnipiac – 67%
Gallup (7-13-11)– 73%
Washington Post/ABC News (6-9-11) – 61%
Bloomberg – 61%
Ipsos/Reuters – 61%
Gallup (4-29-11) – 76%
USC/LA Times (California only) – 62%
New York Times/CBS News – 66%
Washington Post/ABC News (4-20-11) – 62%
Washington Post/ABC News (3-15-11) – 67%
Washington Post/ABC News (12-12-10) – 62%
This is not a passing phase. This is the consensus over most of the past year. The people have spoken. Boehner and the Republican Party are not listening to the people.
Geez, I wonder who they are listening to.
Ka-ching! Who else?
But now the Ka-ching Machine is worried their bratty little pets have grown into a Bear in their China Shop, sending the market down the tubes.
Ah, ya get whatcha ya pay for, eh?
Meanwhile we the people want jobs. Jobs the Republicans campaigned on. Jobs the Democrats campaigned on. We the people want the rich to pay to fix the problem they helped create. We have overwhelmingly expressed our position.
Yeah, thanks a lot, Boehner, Cantor, minions and thugs. We see how much jobs and governing by compromise matter to Republicans. We know who you really represent.
And too many of you Democrats are even more pathetic, cowards and appeasers, instead of representatives of the people. Surrender to the Tea Cult and we all lose.
Democrats, do you want to know how to win? Here’s a secret. Serve the people. Represent us like your jobs depend on it.
Embrace democracy for a change.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Shared Sacrifice
President Obama, on creating a deficit-reduction deal that includes increased tax revenue:
"This idea of balance, this idea of shared sacrifice, of a deficit plan that includes tough spending cuts but also includes tax reform that raises more revenue, this isn't just my position. This isn't just a Democratic position. This isn't some wild-eyed socialist position."
That’s right, Barry, it is not. In fact it is both a rational socialist position and the consensus of the vast majority of Americans.
Those are very nice words, though, as you prostrate yourself to gut public programs and safety nets while appeasing the Republican Greed Machine.
Gotta love that “bi-partisan” deal making where this “idea of balance” gets thrown under the bus so you can be seen as a...as what, exactly?
"This idea of balance, this idea of shared sacrifice, of a deficit plan that includes tough spending cuts but also includes tax reform that raises more revenue, this isn't just my position. This isn't just a Democratic position. This isn't some wild-eyed socialist position."
That’s right, Barry, it is not. In fact it is both a rational socialist position and the consensus of the vast majority of Americans.
Those are very nice words, though, as you prostrate yourself to gut public programs and safety nets while appeasing the Republican Greed Machine.
Gotta love that “bi-partisan” deal making where this “idea of balance” gets thrown under the bus so you can be seen as a...as what, exactly?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Defending Democracy
We learned from last month’s CNN poll that an overwhelming 86% of Americans agree that, “Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive on issues from major campaign contributors”.
This number has increased over the past decade and is a hopeful indication that most Americans want their democracy back, despite the Right’s hysteria about “wanting their country back”, whoever “their” means, and whatever “country” means. We may reasonably suspect they don’t mean us, or the majority of Americans.
The good news is Americans are waking up.
There are growing grass roots efforts to defend democracy from corporate personhood and money as free speech. Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap serves as Field Organizing Coordinator on the Executive Committee of Move To Amend, a “a national coalition of hundreds of organizations and over 113,000 individuals”. She tells us, “In April, voters in Madison and Dane County, WI overwhelmingly approved measures calling for an end to corporate personhood and the legal status of money as speech by 84% and 78%respectively.”
At their website we see the statement of their mission:
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:
* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.
* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.
The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
They are at the front of our struggle for democracy and freedom, with the mission to “end corporate rule” and “legalize democracy”.
Please check them out and help them however you are able to do so.
There are more signs of an “American Awakening” in today’s release of a Washington Post-ABC News Poll under the headline, “Obama Tops GOP on Helping Middle Class”.
Asked who cares more about the financial concerns of middle-class Americans, Obama has a big advantage, 53 percent to 35 percent, over the Republicans in Congress. He’s up 47 percent to 37 percent when poll respondents were asked about themselves and their families. On protecting the interests of small businesses, 48 percent of Americans say Obama cares more; 39 percent say so of the GOP.
Majorities across party lines see the GOP as caring more than Obama about Wall Street and big business.
I find this quite encouraging, especially knowing how difficult it is to get our message out in an environment where most national media are under the control of Corporate America.
As We the People rise to the task of defending democracy, we can expect the forces of plutocracy and tyranny of the minority to resist the will of the people even more tenaciously. They will not surrender. They must be defeated. If today’s Americans love freedom and democracy as much as our Founders did, we will prevail.
”I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”- Thomas Jefferson
This number has increased over the past decade and is a hopeful indication that most Americans want their democracy back, despite the Right’s hysteria about “wanting their country back”, whoever “their” means, and whatever “country” means. We may reasonably suspect they don’t mean us, or the majority of Americans.
The good news is Americans are waking up.
There are growing grass roots efforts to defend democracy from corporate personhood and money as free speech. Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap serves as Field Organizing Coordinator on the Executive Committee of Move To Amend, a “a national coalition of hundreds of organizations and over 113,000 individuals”. She tells us, “In April, voters in Madison and Dane County, WI overwhelmingly approved measures calling for an end to corporate personhood and the legal status of money as speech by 84% and 78%respectively.”
At their website we see the statement of their mission:
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:
* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.
* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.
The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
They are at the front of our struggle for democracy and freedom, with the mission to “end corporate rule” and “legalize democracy”.
Please check them out and help them however you are able to do so.
There are more signs of an “American Awakening” in today’s release of a Washington Post-ABC News Poll under the headline, “Obama Tops GOP on Helping Middle Class”.
Asked who cares more about the financial concerns of middle-class Americans, Obama has a big advantage, 53 percent to 35 percent, over the Republicans in Congress. He’s up 47 percent to 37 percent when poll respondents were asked about themselves and their families. On protecting the interests of small businesses, 48 percent of Americans say Obama cares more; 39 percent say so of the GOP.
Majorities across party lines see the GOP as caring more than Obama about Wall Street and big business.
I find this quite encouraging, especially knowing how difficult it is to get our message out in an environment where most national media are under the control of Corporate America.
As We the People rise to the task of defending democracy, we can expect the forces of plutocracy and tyranny of the minority to resist the will of the people even more tenaciously. They will not surrender. They must be defeated. If today’s Americans love freedom and democracy as much as our Founders did, we will prevail.
”I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”- Thomas Jefferson
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Democracy In Decline
Thanks to the Corporate Cronies on the Supreme Court deciding in “Citizens United v FEC” that it is fine for Big Money to secretly spend fortunes on election ads, democracy sinks lower into its grave.
All is not lost yet, however. We the People are not entirely the foolish dupes that Corporatist Republicanism needs in its war against democracy. More of us are waking up to the true picture. As I reported in my last post the people are way ahead of the politicians and the bureaucrats on medicinal marijuana.
The people are also figuring out who is really represented in our anti-democratic Corporatist Republic. Guess what? It is not the people.
Last month a CNN poll showed most Americans think elections are bought by Big Money.
“Most Americans are cynical about the effect of money on politics in the U.S., and that cynicism is significantly higher than it was in the 1990s...” and “86 percent of the public thinks elected officials in the nation's capital are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive from campaign contributors.”
This is not news to most of us, and it is great that more Americans are waking up to this destruction of our democracy. This is why we advocate democracy-enhancing Constitutional Amendments to rescind corporate personhood and provide public funding for public elections. At this time the forces against democracy are too powerful for real change to occur. Perhaps the lesson that the struggle for democracy never ends will be learned by the new generation of Americans after all.
Here are some results of that poll:
June, 2011-
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by what is in the best interests of the country - 12%
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive on issues from major campaign contributors - 86%
Oct. 1997
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by what is in the best interests of the country - 19%
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive on issues from major campaign contributors - 77%
June, 2011
Elections are generally for sale to the candidate who can raise the most money 67%
Elections are generally won on the basis of who is the best candidate 30%
Oct. 1997
Elections are generally for sale to the candidate who can raise the most money- 59%
Elections are generally won on the basis of who is the best candidate - 37%
***
Who knows when this expanding consciousness will finally enlighten enough of the people to realize that there is class war against them, and their democracy? It is good to have such a glimmer of real hope.
All is not lost yet, however. We the People are not entirely the foolish dupes that Corporatist Republicanism needs in its war against democracy. More of us are waking up to the true picture. As I reported in my last post the people are way ahead of the politicians and the bureaucrats on medicinal marijuana.
The people are also figuring out who is really represented in our anti-democratic Corporatist Republic. Guess what? It is not the people.
Last month a CNN poll showed most Americans think elections are bought by Big Money.
“Most Americans are cynical about the effect of money on politics in the U.S., and that cynicism is significantly higher than it was in the 1990s...” and “86 percent of the public thinks elected officials in the nation's capital are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive from campaign contributors.”
This is not news to most of us, and it is great that more Americans are waking up to this destruction of our democracy. This is why we advocate democracy-enhancing Constitutional Amendments to rescind corporate personhood and provide public funding for public elections. At this time the forces against democracy are too powerful for real change to occur. Perhaps the lesson that the struggle for democracy never ends will be learned by the new generation of Americans after all.
Here are some results of that poll:
June, 2011-
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by what is in the best interests of the country - 12%
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive on issues from major campaign contributors - 86%
Oct. 1997
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by what is in the best interests of the country - 19%
Elected officials in Washington are mostly influenced by the pressure they receive on issues from major campaign contributors - 77%
June, 2011
Elections are generally for sale to the candidate who can raise the most money 67%
Elections are generally won on the basis of who is the best candidate 30%
Oct. 1997
Elections are generally for sale to the candidate who can raise the most money- 59%
Elections are generally won on the basis of who is the best candidate - 37%
***
Who knows when this expanding consciousness will finally enlighten enough of the people to realize that there is class war against them, and their democracy? It is good to have such a glimmer of real hope.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Corporatist Republicanism or Democracy?
So how’s that war-on-drugs-thingy worked out over the last forty years?
They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same action in hopes for a different outcome. The drug war could be classified as such institutionalized insanity, but it is not. It has been a calculated effort by powerful political players originally intended to suppress minorities, and more recently, to enrich the prison/industrial complex, and preserve the dominance of their own peddling of politically correct, and often more toxic, psychoactive products.
In the wake of a new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy that states the "war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," we see a small glimpse of enlightenment in our US Congress.
At last we have a Democrat and a Republican introducing a bill in Congress to take the Feds out of their cruel and wasteful war on cannabis. The bill introduced last Thursday by Barney Frank and Ron Paul would allow states to "legalize, regulate, tax and control marijuana without federal interference."
We know the chances of passage are less than slim to none, but it is a bold start.
With each passing year more of the public are realizing the need to end much of the drug war debacle.
Veteran police officers also share this enlightened view.
"Since President Nixon declared 'war on drugs' four decades ago, this failed policy has led to millions of arrests, a trillion dollars spent and countless lives lost, yet drugs today are more available than ever," said Norm Stamper, former chief of police in Seattle and a speaker for legalization-advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
"When President Nixon declared the 'drug war' in 1971, we arrested fewer than half a million people for drug offenses that year. Today, the number has skyrocketed to almost two million drug arrests a year," said former Baltimore narcotics officer and LEAP executive director Neill Franklin. "We jail more of our own citizens than any other country in the world does, including those run by the worst dictators and totalitarian regimes. Is this how President Obama thinks we can 'win the future'?"
We the people are way ahead of corporations and their politicians on this, as most other issues.
As we see more voters approving medicinal marijuana through ballot initiatives, it provides a clear contrast between the application of democracy and the anti-democratic forces of corporate and political conservatism.
History has shown us authoritarian and corporatist conservatism has always opposed every effort towards democracy, equality, freedom, civil liberties, and prosperity for minorities and the working class. Slavery, poll taxes, “literacy” tests for minorities, voter disenfranchisement, purging of rolls, minimum wage, warrantless surveillance, torture, military aggression, and the war on drugs are all hallmarks of the Right Wing authoritarian corporatist conservatives.
Right Wing corporate "free speech" money is used by tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical corporations to continue prohibition through the politicians they buy, proving again, corporatist Republicanism is antithetical to all vestiges of democracy.
The choice is simple. Corporatist Republicanism or democracy. We cannot have both.
They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same action in hopes for a different outcome. The drug war could be classified as such institutionalized insanity, but it is not. It has been a calculated effort by powerful political players originally intended to suppress minorities, and more recently, to enrich the prison/industrial complex, and preserve the dominance of their own peddling of politically correct, and often more toxic, psychoactive products.
In the wake of a new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy that states the "war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," we see a small glimpse of enlightenment in our US Congress.
At last we have a Democrat and a Republican introducing a bill in Congress to take the Feds out of their cruel and wasteful war on cannabis. The bill introduced last Thursday by Barney Frank and Ron Paul would allow states to "legalize, regulate, tax and control marijuana without federal interference."
We know the chances of passage are less than slim to none, but it is a bold start.
With each passing year more of the public are realizing the need to end much of the drug war debacle.
Veteran police officers also share this enlightened view.
"Since President Nixon declared 'war on drugs' four decades ago, this failed policy has led to millions of arrests, a trillion dollars spent and countless lives lost, yet drugs today are more available than ever," said Norm Stamper, former chief of police in Seattle and a speaker for legalization-advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
"When President Nixon declared the 'drug war' in 1971, we arrested fewer than half a million people for drug offenses that year. Today, the number has skyrocketed to almost two million drug arrests a year," said former Baltimore narcotics officer and LEAP executive director Neill Franklin. "We jail more of our own citizens than any other country in the world does, including those run by the worst dictators and totalitarian regimes. Is this how President Obama thinks we can 'win the future'?"
We the people are way ahead of corporations and their politicians on this, as most other issues.
As we see more voters approving medicinal marijuana through ballot initiatives, it provides a clear contrast between the application of democracy and the anti-democratic forces of corporate and political conservatism.
History has shown us authoritarian and corporatist conservatism has always opposed every effort towards democracy, equality, freedom, civil liberties, and prosperity for minorities and the working class. Slavery, poll taxes, “literacy” tests for minorities, voter disenfranchisement, purging of rolls, minimum wage, warrantless surveillance, torture, military aggression, and the war on drugs are all hallmarks of the Right Wing authoritarian corporatist conservatives.
Right Wing corporate "free speech" money is used by tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical corporations to continue prohibition through the politicians they buy, proving again, corporatist Republicanism is antithetical to all vestiges of democracy.
The choice is simple. Corporatist Republicanism or democracy. We cannot have both.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Beck: Redux
When Bill Maher featured Andrew Breitbart as a guest on “Real Time”, he asked if it was possible that people were racist without their knowing it. Breitbart responded, “I don’t understand the question”. I believe that perfectly answered the question.
For any reader who still wonders, “Where has Beck spewed any racism?”, and would rather disingenuously assert we “repeat this crap because they read it on Daily Kos but have never listened to one minute of Beck”, I will dedicate this post towards answering that question.
I’ve listened to Beck, and so have others. Unfortunately, some of those who listen to Beck are not too bright and became very angry.
Fortunately there are others at MediaMatters and elsewhere who listen and document what Beck and fellow neo-fascists say. We thank them for shining the light into the darkness of Beck World. While former Republican David Brock accused Beck of being arguably “responsible” for three assassination attempts last year, I would say Beck surely inspired these ignorant and frightened dupes. Beck has proven to be a racist, fear-mongering, and dangerous, radical Right Wing ideologue.
His hate speech is finally ending on FOX(R) TV due in part to some corporations having the sense to pull their advertising from his show.
Here we see the rogues’ gallery of Beck fans: Thank you MediaMatters.
David Brock accused Glenn Beck of being "responsible for three thwarted assassination attempts this year." Indeed, in each of the three examples Brock cited -- Gregory Giusti, Charles Wilson, and Byron Williams -- the incendiary and often violent rhetoric spewed by the Fox News host and elsewhere on the network was said to be a motivating factor, if not the inspiring factor, in the men's actions.
On July 18, 2010, Byron Williams was stopped by California Highway Patrol and engaged in a shootout with law enforcement. He later said he was on his way to murder individuals at the Tides Foundation and ACLU.
During an interview with reporter John Hamilton after his arrest, Williams said: "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind. I said, well, nobody does this."`
In October 2010, Charles Murray was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for threatening Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) with "violence" in phone calls to her office.
A relative of Wilson said in publicly available documents filed in federal court that Wilson's "fears were grown and fostered by Mr. Beck's persuasive personality" and that Wilson's actions occurred because he "was under the spell that Glenn Beck cast."
In December 2010, Gregory Lee Giusti was sentenced to a year and nine months in federal prison for threatening to destroy former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home if she voted in support of the health care reform law.
During an interview with the local San Francisco ABC affiliate, Giusti's mother, Eleanor Giusti, stated that Fox News was a factor in her son's actions.
Here we have more of Beck’s racism documented by MediaMatters, showing the tip of the iceberg of Beck’s racist spew:
Beck said of the 2008 election: "You were voting for - not change, but change, I think, in race. You were like 'Hey, let's put this behind us.' I think a lot of people were there. They weren't necessarily for his policies because his policies and everything else are - what are they?"
"This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."
"He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?"
“The health care bill is reparations. It's the beginning of reparations. He's going to give -- if you want to go into medical school, the medical schools will get more federal dollars if they have proven that they are putting minorities ahead."
"Everything that is getting pushed through Congress, including this health care bill, are transforming America. And they are all driven by President Obama's thinking on one idea: reparations. ...”
Throughout his career in Top 40 radio, Beck was known for his imitations of "black guy" characters and racist tropes. According to Beck's former colleagues in the late 90s, this included mocking unarmed blacks shot and killed by white police officers. Such was the case of Malik Jones, the victim of a controversial killing that took place in 1997.
"After the shooting, Beck sometimes did a racist shtick," remembers Paul Bass, a former radio host and Beck colleague at a Clear Channel station cluster in New Haven. "Glenn did routines about Jones' grandmother being on crack. Generally he made fun of his family and the loss of life--as joke routines."
Beck's racially tinged tirades did not disappear after he switched formats in 1999. During his first talk radio stint in Tampa, he often referred to the Rev. Jesse Jackson as "the stinking king of the race lords."
Beck forced to apologize for "mocking Asians." In 1995, Beck and his co-hosts at KC101 in Hartford, Connecticut were made to apologize for mocking an Asian man who called into the program. The Hartford Courant reported in October 20, 1995: "When [Zhihan] Tong telephoned WKCI- FM to protest the broadcast as a racial slur, disc jockeys Glenn Beck and Pat Grey made fun of him. The two played a gong in the background several times, and Papineau, the executive producer, mocked a Chinese accent."
On his June 4 radio program, Beck promoted The Red Network by Elizabeth Dilling, saying of the 1934 book: "This is a book -- and I'm a getting a ton of these -- from people who were doing what we're doing now. We now are documenting who all of these people are.
The Red Network is rife with racism and anti-Semitism. As Media Matters noted, Dilling's book contains numerous passages that espouse anti-Semitism and racism. At various points throughout the book, Dilling attacked "racial inter-mixture" as a communist plot, referred to "un-Christianized" "colored people" as "savages," called Hinduism and Islam "debasing and degrading," and blamed Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism on "revolutionary Russian Jews."
Dilling herself was a Nazi sympathizer. Dilling visited Germany in the late 1930s, and attended Nazi party meetings and praised Adolf Hitler's leadership. She also spoke at rallies hosted by U.S. Nazi organizations after the outbreak of World War II. Following the war, she leveled anti-Semitic attacks against several U.S. presidents, calling Dwight Eisenhower "Ike the Kike," attacking Richard Nixon for his "service to the synagogue," and calling John F. Kennedy's New Frontier program the "Jew frontier."
What do you know? The Daily Kos didn’t make this stuff up after all.
For any reader who still wonders, “Where has Beck spewed any racism?”, and would rather disingenuously assert we “repeat this crap because they read it on Daily Kos but have never listened to one minute of Beck”, I will dedicate this post towards answering that question.
I’ve listened to Beck, and so have others. Unfortunately, some of those who listen to Beck are not too bright and became very angry.
Fortunately there are others at MediaMatters and elsewhere who listen and document what Beck and fellow neo-fascists say. We thank them for shining the light into the darkness of Beck World. While former Republican David Brock accused Beck of being arguably “responsible” for three assassination attempts last year, I would say Beck surely inspired these ignorant and frightened dupes. Beck has proven to be a racist, fear-mongering, and dangerous, radical Right Wing ideologue.
His hate speech is finally ending on FOX(R) TV due in part to some corporations having the sense to pull their advertising from his show.
Here we see the rogues’ gallery of Beck fans: Thank you MediaMatters.
David Brock accused Glenn Beck of being "responsible for three thwarted assassination attempts this year." Indeed, in each of the three examples Brock cited -- Gregory Giusti, Charles Wilson, and Byron Williams -- the incendiary and often violent rhetoric spewed by the Fox News host and elsewhere on the network was said to be a motivating factor, if not the inspiring factor, in the men's actions.
On July 18, 2010, Byron Williams was stopped by California Highway Patrol and engaged in a shootout with law enforcement. He later said he was on his way to murder individuals at the Tides Foundation and ACLU.
During an interview with reporter John Hamilton after his arrest, Williams said: "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind. I said, well, nobody does this."`
In October 2010, Charles Murray was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for threatening Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) with "violence" in phone calls to her office.
A relative of Wilson said in publicly available documents filed in federal court that Wilson's "fears were grown and fostered by Mr. Beck's persuasive personality" and that Wilson's actions occurred because he "was under the spell that Glenn Beck cast."
In December 2010, Gregory Lee Giusti was sentenced to a year and nine months in federal prison for threatening to destroy former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home if she voted in support of the health care reform law.
During an interview with the local San Francisco ABC affiliate, Giusti's mother, Eleanor Giusti, stated that Fox News was a factor in her son's actions.
Here we have more of Beck’s racism documented by MediaMatters, showing the tip of the iceberg of Beck’s racist spew:
Beck said of the 2008 election: "You were voting for - not change, but change, I think, in race. You were like 'Hey, let's put this behind us.' I think a lot of people were there. They weren't necessarily for his policies because his policies and everything else are - what are they?"
"This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."
"He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America -- you don't take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?"
“The health care bill is reparations. It's the beginning of reparations. He's going to give -- if you want to go into medical school, the medical schools will get more federal dollars if they have proven that they are putting minorities ahead."
"Everything that is getting pushed through Congress, including this health care bill, are transforming America. And they are all driven by President Obama's thinking on one idea: reparations. ...”
Throughout his career in Top 40 radio, Beck was known for his imitations of "black guy" characters and racist tropes. According to Beck's former colleagues in the late 90s, this included mocking unarmed blacks shot and killed by white police officers. Such was the case of Malik Jones, the victim of a controversial killing that took place in 1997.
"After the shooting, Beck sometimes did a racist shtick," remembers Paul Bass, a former radio host and Beck colleague at a Clear Channel station cluster in New Haven. "Glenn did routines about Jones' grandmother being on crack. Generally he made fun of his family and the loss of life--as joke routines."
Beck's racially tinged tirades did not disappear after he switched formats in 1999. During his first talk radio stint in Tampa, he often referred to the Rev. Jesse Jackson as "the stinking king of the race lords."
Beck forced to apologize for "mocking Asians." In 1995, Beck and his co-hosts at KC101 in Hartford, Connecticut were made to apologize for mocking an Asian man who called into the program. The Hartford Courant reported in October 20, 1995: "When [Zhihan] Tong telephoned WKCI- FM to protest the broadcast as a racial slur, disc jockeys Glenn Beck and Pat Grey made fun of him. The two played a gong in the background several times, and Papineau, the executive producer, mocked a Chinese accent."
On his June 4 radio program, Beck promoted The Red Network by Elizabeth Dilling, saying of the 1934 book: "This is a book -- and I'm a getting a ton of these -- from people who were doing what we're doing now. We now are documenting who all of these people are.
The Red Network is rife with racism and anti-Semitism. As Media Matters noted, Dilling's book contains numerous passages that espouse anti-Semitism and racism. At various points throughout the book, Dilling attacked "racial inter-mixture" as a communist plot, referred to "un-Christianized" "colored people" as "savages," called Hinduism and Islam "debasing and degrading," and blamed Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism on "revolutionary Russian Jews."
Dilling herself was a Nazi sympathizer. Dilling visited Germany in the late 1930s, and attended Nazi party meetings and praised Adolf Hitler's leadership. She also spoke at rallies hosted by U.S. Nazi organizations after the outbreak of World War II. Following the war, she leveled anti-Semitic attacks against several U.S. presidents, calling Dwight Eisenhower "Ike the Kike," attacking Richard Nixon for his "service to the synagogue," and calling John F. Kennedy's New Frontier program the "Jew frontier."
What do you know? The Daily Kos didn’t make this stuff up after all.
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