Judge for yourself.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Krugman - "There will be blood"
Paul Krugman's latest article is pretty incendiary.
Note that "longer-term structural deficits" = the whole system is broke and needs to be fixed.
Note that "longer-term structural deficits" = the whole system is broke and needs to be fixed.
"The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it’s doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party’s cooperation — cooperation that won’t be forthcoming.
Elite opinion has been slow to recognize this reality. Thus on the same day that Mr. Simpson rejoiced in the prospect of chaos, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, appealed for help in confronting mass unemployment. He asked for “a fiscal program that combines near-term measures to enhance growth with strong, confidence-inducing steps to reduce longer-term structural deficits.”
My immediate thought was, why not ask for a pony, too? After all, the G.O.P. isn’t interested in helping the economy as long as a Democrat is in the White House. Indeed, far from being willing to help Mr. Bernanke’s efforts, Republicans are trying to bully the Fed itself into giving up completely on trying to reduce unemployment.
And on matters fiscal, the G.O.P. program is to do almost exactly the opposite of what Mr. Bernanke called for. On one side, Republicans oppose just about everything that might reduce structural deficits: they demand that the Bush tax cuts be made permanent while demagoguing efforts to limit the rise in Medicare costs, which are essential to any attempts to get the budget under control. On the other, the G.O.P. opposes anything that might help sustain demand in a depressed economy — even aid to small businesses, which the party claims to love.
Right now, in particular, Republicans are blocking an extension of unemployment benefits — an action that will both cause immense hardship and drain purchasing power from an already sputtering economy. But there’s no point appealing to the better angels of their nature; America just doesn’t work that way anymore.
And opposition for the sake of opposition isn’t limited to economic policy. Politics, they used to tell us, stops at the water’s edge — but that was then.
These days, national security experts are tearing their hair out over the decision of Senate Republicans to block a desperately needed new strategic arms treaty. And everyone knows that these Republicans oppose the treaty, not because of legitimate objections, but simply because it’s an Obama administration initiative; if sabotaging the president endangers the nation, so be it."
Friday, October 29, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The root of political anger - wages
The Teahadists are tapping into a very real anger, but their members are being tricked and manipulated by the same corporate forces that are hurting them, into attacking the very thing that is their only protection from global corporatism, a democratic government. I have said it before and I will say it again, the root cause of the current economic crisis is the fact that real wages are declining. Wages have not kept pace with productivity since Reagan was president and they instituted their right-wing "voodoo economics". We never hear this on television and in the corporate media, but many economists and progressives are trying their best to get the truth out.
Robert Reich's recent column, "The root of economic fragility and political anger", hits the nail right on the head.
Missing from almost all discussion of America’s dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation. Average weekly earnings rose a bit this spring only because the typical worker put in more hours, but June’s decline in average hours pushed weekly paychecks down at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent.
In other words, Americans are keeping their jobs or finding new ones only by accepting lower wages.
The old adage still holds true - "It's all about cheap labor".
America was at its most prosperous when wages were high, which was because of labor unions and progressive policies that protected American businesses and interests.
Today, 30 years after Reagan, right wing corporatist policies, such as, outsourcing and globalization, have raped and pillaged America's economy. It has hollowed out our national infrastructure and reduced unionization to the point that real wages for working Americans are falling because we are forced to compete with slave labor in foreign countries.
This is the real reason for political anger in America, even though most Americans don't even realize it. Even most politicians seem ignorant of this simple truth, including President Obama, who appears to also buy into "voodoo economics" because his nominations have been stocked with Wall Street corporatists, such as Geitner and Paulson.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Why I will vote Republican
Why I Will Vote Republican
by SergeantFreedom
I believe that tax cuts – especially for the most wealthy -- will stimulate the economy and cut the debt and deficit even though they never have before. I believe that giving Federal assistance to multinational corporations and super-wealthy individuals is good for job growth, even though these corporations we help with our tax dollars shut down their American plants and moved all the jobs to Communist countries. I believe the reason that multinational corporations offshore American jobs is because of unions, and Americans shouldn’t be able to unionize anyway. American workers dared to offend the multinational corporations, and workers are now reaping what they have sewn. Since the Supreme Court decreed that corporations are citizens, people should do whatever the multinational corporations tell us to do.
If a CEO makes FOUR HUNDRED times more than the average worker in the plant makes, THEY EARNED IT. That guy that works on the plant floor toiling away - he’s just a lazy union worker who hates America. If the foreign owned companies these CEO's are in charge of go bankrupt, it’s not their fault – it’s the workers’ fault.
As a Republican, it doesn't bother me that you can have your pay reduced, or can be fired if you are not performing, but they cannot. The CEO earned that immunity from responsibility – you didn't, so shut up.
As a Republican, I believe that Obama wants to “redistribute” the wealth so that more of the available money is spread around to people that need it most; and as a Republican I believe that this is terrible, and proves he is a godless, commie, socialist, Muslim, baby killer.
Also as a Republican, the fact that over the last eight years income has been redistributed ANYWAY, more to the top than any time in history, and the fact that wages for the middle class have remained stagnant while money from all economic growth accumulates at the very top, and the fact that this “redistribution” to the top is shown in all studies – just proves that the rich are smart and they earned it. You losing your job to a factory in India, China, or Vietnam is all your fault because you wanted 15.00 an hour. They take 61 cents an hour – you should know better.
If you work on a hot factory floor risking your life near heavy machinery and work to the sweat of your brow, you are a lazy leech for asking for 19 dollars an hour.
If you are a CEO of an Insurance Corporation which does not actually provide any health care (they are not doctors) or sit at a computer buying and selling other peoples companies on Wall Street, and you happen to make $19,000.00 dollars an hour -- you earned it and liberals just need to shut up.
I will be voting Republican because I don’t believe in welfare - - at least the way I define it. If a poor person with no money or an elderly or sick person needs help, why should my tax dollars help them? If they’re poor or sick, it’s because God predestined them to be poor and sick and it would be a violation of God’s sovereignty and God’s will to help them. After all, Jesus said, “God helps those who help themselves.”
However, the BILLIONS handed to Corporations for free is NOT welfare. I choose to give that a different name: corporate incentives. If you have a yacht and need a bailout, that helps America.
I am a Republican because Democrats want my money for “public services”. Those Democrats want to waste my money on policemen and fire protection. If crime goes up, it’s your fault: I have a gun. I will protect myself from crime and I don’t need “government.” If your house catches on fire, it’s your fault: you can pay for your own fire protection and for the cost of the firemen putting out the fire, but I shouldn’t have to.
I am pro-life, as long as long as it's in the body of another full-grown woman. I couldn't care less about it the second it's out of the womb, which is also why I'm pro-death penalty, and anti-welfare. If that woman can't afford to feed or clothe that baby once we force her to give birth, my tax dollars shouldn't pay for it because that would be “socialism”. She can keep that baby warm with enough blankets and boxes under a bridge, and if she knew how to survive like I do, she would know how to catch and eat rats. You have to make it on your own in this world you know.
It doesn't matter to me that rich women will still be able to obtain abortions in other countries -- whether they believe in it or not. I say, if you don’t have the money, then take your America hating butt into a back alley and get your abortion “the old fashioned way” and do it with coat hangars and die.
It doesn’t matter to me that abortion rates tend to go up under Republican Administrations and down under Democratic leadership, I chose to believe what I want.
I vote Republican because I believe in the Constitution. The Constitution says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Don't give me that crap about seeking redress, right to vote, right to privacy, speech, press, warrants, probable cause, or all that other nonsense. Our country is based on firearms: you should know that, or get out of my country. You liberal moon bats need to shut up about article one and article two congressional oversight powers and checks and balances garbage (unless a Democrat is President). You must be commies or something.
As a Republican, I believe I should be able to own nukes, biological weapons, chemical weapons, and have explosives of any type to defend my house. Liberals hate America because they won’t let me have nukes, biological or chemical weapons, or explosives. I believe my seven year old should be able to carry a Glock to school for protection. The damn liberals are stopping him.
I vote Republican and support great Republicans like G. Gordon Liddy, who stated that if an American Law Enforcement Officer comes to your home, you should shoot him in the head… twice, because he will likely be wearing a bullet proof vest. As a Republican, I believe his advising us how to kill our police officers is proof of his patriotism. Real patriots know you should show hatred towards our Federal Government of the USA like Gordon Liddy - and Timothy McVeigh.
I vote Republican because that Muslim Obama went to a Christian Church for twenty years where the church pastor said "God Damn America" for the way the country treated black people. You can't vote for Muslim people who go to Christian churches where the War Veteran pastor would say such a thing, even if the pastor isn't going to be doing anything in Obama's administration or is even remotely connected to it.
I vote Republican because Sarah Palin could be President one day. I don't care that she was a member of a seditious, America-hating group that wants leave America and be its own country and whose leaders at rally's and conventions said "God Damn America" and "had no use for America or its damn institutions." It is a good thing to hate the Federal Government - unless you are a preacher. I support the fact that her husband was a member of a seditious, hate-America movement, until he had to quit so she could run for Governor. That's OK. He did what he had to do to get her elected, and now they could one day run the country they hate. Soon they will be able to finish what Timothy McVeigh, GW Bush and Dick Cheney started: the job of the dismantling of the Federal Government we hate so much.
I don't care if that makes Osama Bin Laden happy or not, or that he shares the same goals.
I vote Republican because I believe in the War on Drugs. Slogans Work -- "Just say no" -- goes a long way in preventing kids from using drugs. It doesn't matter to me that the War makes the drugs thousands of times more profitable, and that profitability provides that much more incentive to dealers and gangs. I don’t believe it when people tell me that during Prohibition in the 1920's there were gangs, drive-bys, underground "labs" and corrupt police and officials. Forget rehabilitation; you reap what you sow. I know what works, and the War on Drugs has been working very well which is why we’ve been spending billions upon untold billions of dollars on the war and putting drug users in prison for very long prison terms but drug use has continued to increase.
I believe that freedom of religion is one of the things that make this country great, which is why we need to establish evangelical Christianity as our national religion. Muslims aren’t Christians, and that is why I believe Muslims (and all non-Christians) should get the hell out of my country. I also believe it is important to prove our support of freedom of religion by giving billions of our tax dollars to Israel every year. We need the Jews to re-establish their entire territory as described in the Old Testament writings from 5000 years ago so that Jesus can come back to Rapture evangelical Christians (even though the Rapture is not mentioned anywhere in Scripture); and then God will slay all those Jews and make their blood spurt all over Israeli ground for having killed Christ.
I don't care if Jesus wanted to help the poor and the meek. I only look at the parts of the Bible that benefit me personally. I believe George Bush consulted with Jesus before ordering the shock and awe bombing of that country that didn’t attack us. Jesus is a Republican, and if you’re not a Republican you don’t believe in Jesus.
I vote Republican because I am a Christian, and I believe God gave us the earth to make money from for Corporations. I don't care about the environment: concerns about the environment will be moot after Jesus comes back to Rapture the True Christians to Heaven. I will disregard scientific evidence, because science is only a "theory." Besides, I will be dead before the consequences of our actions affect me so it’s none of my concern. My children are good Republicans, so they’ll be fine after I’m gone. Even though I don’t believe in evolution, I believe they will adapt: survival of the fittest, you know.
I am a Republican because I am tired of immigrants coming to this country and taking our jobs. I know a lot of hardworking American lettuce pickers. It doesn't bother me that our Corporations are shipping our jobs to other countries for cheaper labor and to avoid labor regulations. I'm tired of paying taxes, which is the only reason I can sympathize with immigrant workers who must stay undocumented. They don't have to pay taxes! Hopefully, if a Republican is elected, they will finally let me have a post office box in the Cayman Islands so I don’t have to pay taxes either, the way the corporations do.
I am a Republican because I'm tired of minorities whining. They have the same opportunities as every one else but they shouldn’t be allowed to get perfect grades, be Constitutional Law Professors, and be President (especially if they’re black). I don’t like affirmative action for poor minorities. I don’t care if the rich and super rich can get into Ivy League Universities, even with failing grades, simply through large donations to endowments “legacy” status, which is affirmative action for the rich. They earned it. Being a fortunate son has its advantages. If you want them, go earn them and stop being a lazy ass.
I hate socialism. I love the military. It doesn't matter to me that the military is provided to me by the contributions of all taxpayers, and defends me as it defends all. I don't care if the Interstate Highway System was built in this manner as well. That was then. If bridges collapse now, people that live near the bridge should pay to fix it, not me.
I believe in a strong military. I believe in our right to preemptively defend ourselves, even if that is an oxymoron. I also believe that we should have the right to bomb any country we believe might be threatening us back into the Stone Age, and that the people of those countries we are invading have no right to defend themselves. I believe a sovereign and safe America also includes annexing the countries of Canada and Mexico.
Republicans believe in an all volunteer military, and I am against the draft – because in a society that runs properly there should be a large pool of poor people with no other options whom we can attack and disparage for being lazy and not joining the military. A military composed of large numbers of volunteer minorities and rural poor whites can only be a good thing.
A country, which runs on oil cannot afford to run out, and I believe in invading countries, that have large supplies of the oil America needs. I don’t care that nearly all the Republican leadership who have ordered these wars all had deferments in past wars. The fact that the largest profits in the history of the human race - for Exxon - didn't start to happen until we invaded oil-rich countries is irrelevant.
I vote Republican because I hate Social Security. If only McCain and Bush had succeeded in getting all of our Social Security into the stock market, there may have been just enough money there to keep Wall Street from collapsing – until that source of money dried up and everybody lost their retirement savings.
I am grateful that the Republican has held the entire Congress for almost a decade and a half. I am grateful that we have a Republican majority on the Supreme Court, that Republicans run the Justice Department, FEMA, SEC, FEC, the Pentagon, Courts, Interior, DEC, etc., etc. All of America ’s problems are because Democrats have a slight Majority in the US House of Representatives for less than two years. I don’t care that the Democrats and Republicans had EQUAL amount of members in the Senate, and that the Democrats can’t pass even one single piece of legislation if all our lives depended on it without Senate Republicans allowing it to pass through unobstructed; and even if the legislation did pass unobstructed Bush would still have to agree to sign it. The collapse we are experiencing now is all Democrats fault. Rush Limbaugh said so, and I also saw it on FOX News.
I vote Republican because Sean Hannity told me that all our moral decay, and almost all of today's problems can be traced back to one man - Bill Clinton, and one woman – Nancy Pelosi. If people would just listen to Bill O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, they would know that all failures that we have experienced are the fault of the Democrats, and all the successes we have experienced are because of Republicans. Don't question why they say that, especially when the facts don’t jive with their statements. Just believe it.
The only reason America experienced the longest period of peace, equality, and personal prosperity during the Clinton years is because of Newt Gingrich, not Bill Clinton. After all, Clinton was having sex in the White House with Monica Lewinsky while Newt Gingrich was cheating on his wife and announcing his divorce from her while she was in the surgical recovery ward following cancer surgery; and Rush Limbaugh was getting the second of his now-three divorces.
These are plenty of good reasons to vote Republican.
And if you don’t vote Republican, we’ll just impeach any Democrats who are elected and remove them from office, establish “Tea Parties” fomented and organized by Republicans, and take over the country by fiat or force if necessary, but we’re going to have our way. If you’re not for us, you’re against us – and if you’re against us, that makes you a traitor (and we WILL deal with traitors after we’re back in power – permanently).
by SergeantFreedom
I believe that tax cuts – especially for the most wealthy -- will stimulate the economy and cut the debt and deficit even though they never have before. I believe that giving Federal assistance to multinational corporations and super-wealthy individuals is good for job growth, even though these corporations we help with our tax dollars shut down their American plants and moved all the jobs to Communist countries. I believe the reason that multinational corporations offshore American jobs is because of unions, and Americans shouldn’t be able to unionize anyway. American workers dared to offend the multinational corporations, and workers are now reaping what they have sewn. Since the Supreme Court decreed that corporations are citizens, people should do whatever the multinational corporations tell us to do.
If a CEO makes FOUR HUNDRED times more than the average worker in the plant makes, THEY EARNED IT. That guy that works on the plant floor toiling away - he’s just a lazy union worker who hates America. If the foreign owned companies these CEO's are in charge of go bankrupt, it’s not their fault – it’s the workers’ fault.
As a Republican, it doesn't bother me that you can have your pay reduced, or can be fired if you are not performing, but they cannot. The CEO earned that immunity from responsibility – you didn't, so shut up.
As a Republican, I believe that Obama wants to “redistribute” the wealth so that more of the available money is spread around to people that need it most; and as a Republican I believe that this is terrible, and proves he is a godless, commie, socialist, Muslim, baby killer.
Also as a Republican, the fact that over the last eight years income has been redistributed ANYWAY, more to the top than any time in history, and the fact that wages for the middle class have remained stagnant while money from all economic growth accumulates at the very top, and the fact that this “redistribution” to the top is shown in all studies – just proves that the rich are smart and they earned it. You losing your job to a factory in India, China, or Vietnam is all your fault because you wanted 15.00 an hour. They take 61 cents an hour – you should know better.
If you work on a hot factory floor risking your life near heavy machinery and work to the sweat of your brow, you are a lazy leech for asking for 19 dollars an hour.
If you are a CEO of an Insurance Corporation which does not actually provide any health care (they are not doctors) or sit at a computer buying and selling other peoples companies on Wall Street, and you happen to make $19,000.00 dollars an hour -- you earned it and liberals just need to shut up.
I will be voting Republican because I don’t believe in welfare - - at least the way I define it. If a poor person with no money or an elderly or sick person needs help, why should my tax dollars help them? If they’re poor or sick, it’s because God predestined them to be poor and sick and it would be a violation of God’s sovereignty and God’s will to help them. After all, Jesus said, “God helps those who help themselves.”
However, the BILLIONS handed to Corporations for free is NOT welfare. I choose to give that a different name: corporate incentives. If you have a yacht and need a bailout, that helps America.
I am a Republican because Democrats want my money for “public services”. Those Democrats want to waste my money on policemen and fire protection. If crime goes up, it’s your fault: I have a gun. I will protect myself from crime and I don’t need “government.” If your house catches on fire, it’s your fault: you can pay for your own fire protection and for the cost of the firemen putting out the fire, but I shouldn’t have to.
I am pro-life, as long as long as it's in the body of another full-grown woman. I couldn't care less about it the second it's out of the womb, which is also why I'm pro-death penalty, and anti-welfare. If that woman can't afford to feed or clothe that baby once we force her to give birth, my tax dollars shouldn't pay for it because that would be “socialism”. She can keep that baby warm with enough blankets and boxes under a bridge, and if she knew how to survive like I do, she would know how to catch and eat rats. You have to make it on your own in this world you know.
It doesn't matter to me that rich women will still be able to obtain abortions in other countries -- whether they believe in it or not. I say, if you don’t have the money, then take your America hating butt into a back alley and get your abortion “the old fashioned way” and do it with coat hangars and die.
It doesn’t matter to me that abortion rates tend to go up under Republican Administrations and down under Democratic leadership, I chose to believe what I want.
I vote Republican because I believe in the Constitution. The Constitution says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Don't give me that crap about seeking redress, right to vote, right to privacy, speech, press, warrants, probable cause, or all that other nonsense. Our country is based on firearms: you should know that, or get out of my country. You liberal moon bats need to shut up about article one and article two congressional oversight powers and checks and balances garbage (unless a Democrat is President). You must be commies or something.
As a Republican, I believe I should be able to own nukes, biological weapons, chemical weapons, and have explosives of any type to defend my house. Liberals hate America because they won’t let me have nukes, biological or chemical weapons, or explosives. I believe my seven year old should be able to carry a Glock to school for protection. The damn liberals are stopping him.
I vote Republican and support great Republicans like G. Gordon Liddy, who stated that if an American Law Enforcement Officer comes to your home, you should shoot him in the head… twice, because he will likely be wearing a bullet proof vest. As a Republican, I believe his advising us how to kill our police officers is proof of his patriotism. Real patriots know you should show hatred towards our Federal Government of the USA like Gordon Liddy - and Timothy McVeigh.
I vote Republican because that Muslim Obama went to a Christian Church for twenty years where the church pastor said "God Damn America" for the way the country treated black people. You can't vote for Muslim people who go to Christian churches where the War Veteran pastor would say such a thing, even if the pastor isn't going to be doing anything in Obama's administration or is even remotely connected to it.
I vote Republican because Sarah Palin could be President one day. I don't care that she was a member of a seditious, America-hating group that wants leave America and be its own country and whose leaders at rally's and conventions said "God Damn America" and "had no use for America or its damn institutions." It is a good thing to hate the Federal Government - unless you are a preacher. I support the fact that her husband was a member of a seditious, hate-America movement, until he had to quit so she could run for Governor. That's OK. He did what he had to do to get her elected, and now they could one day run the country they hate. Soon they will be able to finish what Timothy McVeigh, GW Bush and Dick Cheney started: the job of the dismantling of the Federal Government we hate so much.
I don't care if that makes Osama Bin Laden happy or not, or that he shares the same goals.
I vote Republican because I believe in the War on Drugs. Slogans Work -- "Just say no" -- goes a long way in preventing kids from using drugs. It doesn't matter to me that the War makes the drugs thousands of times more profitable, and that profitability provides that much more incentive to dealers and gangs. I don’t believe it when people tell me that during Prohibition in the 1920's there were gangs, drive-bys, underground "labs" and corrupt police and officials. Forget rehabilitation; you reap what you sow. I know what works, and the War on Drugs has been working very well which is why we’ve been spending billions upon untold billions of dollars on the war and putting drug users in prison for very long prison terms but drug use has continued to increase.
I believe that freedom of religion is one of the things that make this country great, which is why we need to establish evangelical Christianity as our national religion. Muslims aren’t Christians, and that is why I believe Muslims (and all non-Christians) should get the hell out of my country. I also believe it is important to prove our support of freedom of religion by giving billions of our tax dollars to Israel every year. We need the Jews to re-establish their entire territory as described in the Old Testament writings from 5000 years ago so that Jesus can come back to Rapture evangelical Christians (even though the Rapture is not mentioned anywhere in Scripture); and then God will slay all those Jews and make their blood spurt all over Israeli ground for having killed Christ.
I don't care if Jesus wanted to help the poor and the meek. I only look at the parts of the Bible that benefit me personally. I believe George Bush consulted with Jesus before ordering the shock and awe bombing of that country that didn’t attack us. Jesus is a Republican, and if you’re not a Republican you don’t believe in Jesus.
I vote Republican because I am a Christian, and I believe God gave us the earth to make money from for Corporations. I don't care about the environment: concerns about the environment will be moot after Jesus comes back to Rapture the True Christians to Heaven. I will disregard scientific evidence, because science is only a "theory." Besides, I will be dead before the consequences of our actions affect me so it’s none of my concern. My children are good Republicans, so they’ll be fine after I’m gone. Even though I don’t believe in evolution, I believe they will adapt: survival of the fittest, you know.
I am a Republican because I am tired of immigrants coming to this country and taking our jobs. I know a lot of hardworking American lettuce pickers. It doesn't bother me that our Corporations are shipping our jobs to other countries for cheaper labor and to avoid labor regulations. I'm tired of paying taxes, which is the only reason I can sympathize with immigrant workers who must stay undocumented. They don't have to pay taxes! Hopefully, if a Republican is elected, they will finally let me have a post office box in the Cayman Islands so I don’t have to pay taxes either, the way the corporations do.
I am a Republican because I'm tired of minorities whining. They have the same opportunities as every one else but they shouldn’t be allowed to get perfect grades, be Constitutional Law Professors, and be President (especially if they’re black). I don’t like affirmative action for poor minorities. I don’t care if the rich and super rich can get into Ivy League Universities, even with failing grades, simply through large donations to endowments “legacy” status, which is affirmative action for the rich. They earned it. Being a fortunate son has its advantages. If you want them, go earn them and stop being a lazy ass.
I hate socialism. I love the military. It doesn't matter to me that the military is provided to me by the contributions of all taxpayers, and defends me as it defends all. I don't care if the Interstate Highway System was built in this manner as well. That was then. If bridges collapse now, people that live near the bridge should pay to fix it, not me.
I believe in a strong military. I believe in our right to preemptively defend ourselves, even if that is an oxymoron. I also believe that we should have the right to bomb any country we believe might be threatening us back into the Stone Age, and that the people of those countries we are invading have no right to defend themselves. I believe a sovereign and safe America also includes annexing the countries of Canada and Mexico.
Republicans believe in an all volunteer military, and I am against the draft – because in a society that runs properly there should be a large pool of poor people with no other options whom we can attack and disparage for being lazy and not joining the military. A military composed of large numbers of volunteer minorities and rural poor whites can only be a good thing.
A country, which runs on oil cannot afford to run out, and I believe in invading countries, that have large supplies of the oil America needs. I don’t care that nearly all the Republican leadership who have ordered these wars all had deferments in past wars. The fact that the largest profits in the history of the human race - for Exxon - didn't start to happen until we invaded oil-rich countries is irrelevant.
I vote Republican because I hate Social Security. If only McCain and Bush had succeeded in getting all of our Social Security into the stock market, there may have been just enough money there to keep Wall Street from collapsing – until that source of money dried up and everybody lost their retirement savings.
I am grateful that the Republican has held the entire Congress for almost a decade and a half. I am grateful that we have a Republican majority on the Supreme Court, that Republicans run the Justice Department, FEMA, SEC, FEC, the Pentagon, Courts, Interior, DEC, etc., etc. All of America ’s problems are because Democrats have a slight Majority in the US House of Representatives for less than two years. I don’t care that the Democrats and Republicans had EQUAL amount of members in the Senate, and that the Democrats can’t pass even one single piece of legislation if all our lives depended on it without Senate Republicans allowing it to pass through unobstructed; and even if the legislation did pass unobstructed Bush would still have to agree to sign it. The collapse we are experiencing now is all Democrats fault. Rush Limbaugh said so, and I also saw it on FOX News.
I vote Republican because Sean Hannity told me that all our moral decay, and almost all of today's problems can be traced back to one man - Bill Clinton, and one woman – Nancy Pelosi. If people would just listen to Bill O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, they would know that all failures that we have experienced are the fault of the Democrats, and all the successes we have experienced are because of Republicans. Don't question why they say that, especially when the facts don’t jive with their statements. Just believe it.
The only reason America experienced the longest period of peace, equality, and personal prosperity during the Clinton years is because of Newt Gingrich, not Bill Clinton. After all, Clinton was having sex in the White House with Monica Lewinsky while Newt Gingrich was cheating on his wife and announcing his divorce from her while she was in the surgical recovery ward following cancer surgery; and Rush Limbaugh was getting the second of his now-three divorces.
These are plenty of good reasons to vote Republican.
And if you don’t vote Republican, we’ll just impeach any Democrats who are elected and remove them from office, establish “Tea Parties” fomented and organized by Republicans, and take over the country by fiat or force if necessary, but we’re going to have our way. If you’re not for us, you’re against us – and if you’re against us, that makes you a traitor (and we WILL deal with traitors after we’re back in power – permanently).
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Who Really Wants Smaller Government?
Whenever someone asks a conservative what exactly they believe, they predictably bring up a sound byte most of them don’t give a second thought: “smaller government”.
The problem with this sound byte is that it isn’t really a conservative belief. It is only something they give lip service to and it is designed specifically to avoid talking about what they really believe. What conservatives really believe, simply put, is that that the sole role of government is to “protect property”, which means their idea of government is nothing more than police and a military. Their vision of government is little more than a king and his army. If they can’t see a King doing it, they consider it an “entitlement” and don’t want the American government doing it. They can’t imagine a King providing unemployment insurance, social security or health insurance so they oppose all the American government doing any of those things. The problem with that is the preamble of the Constitution specifically states the purpose of our government is to do a lot more than merely protecting property, like providing for the general welfare, but conservatives who claim to support the Constitution conveniently ignore that fact.
The reality is, during the last decade, conservative Republicans oversaw the largest expansion of the federal government since the new deal. They created a brand new massive government bureaucracy, the department of homeland security. They also started not one, but two multi-trillion dollar unfunded and unending wars. Then they also passed another massive corporate welfare package, Medicare Part D, also unpaid for. So despite their rhetoric, what America actually gets when we elect Republicans is a LOT more government and a LOT more government debt, but since their expansions are in the narrow realm of what they think government should do, police and military, they have no problems with massively expanding the size and cost of government. Predictably, as soon as the newly elected administration started talking about reforming health insurance, something conservatives don’t think government should do, they pretended to be outraged at the national debt and refuse to admit their own role in growing it to its current size.
Consider that military spending in all its forms now constitutes 53.3% of total US federal spending. Consider that we have over 140 military bases on foreign soil, many of which serve no purpose except to cost us trillions and anger the locals as was the case with the Saudis who attacked us on 09-11-2001. We have an easy and obvious path to save trillions of dollars but conservatives oppose any cuts to military spending. Conservatives talk a lot about smaller government but they know to actually do it would negatively affect millions of average Americans, making it political suicide, therefore after a decade of being in control of all three branches of government they utterly failed to deliver on it.
The reality is that Liberals are the ones who truly want smaller government and are willing to make that happen.
The problem with this sound byte is that it isn’t really a conservative belief. It is only something they give lip service to and it is designed specifically to avoid talking about what they really believe. What conservatives really believe, simply put, is that that the sole role of government is to “protect property”, which means their idea of government is nothing more than police and a military. Their vision of government is little more than a king and his army. If they can’t see a King doing it, they consider it an “entitlement” and don’t want the American government doing it. They can’t imagine a King providing unemployment insurance, social security or health insurance so they oppose all the American government doing any of those things. The problem with that is the preamble of the Constitution specifically states the purpose of our government is to do a lot more than merely protecting property, like providing for the general welfare, but conservatives who claim to support the Constitution conveniently ignore that fact.
The reality is, during the last decade, conservative Republicans oversaw the largest expansion of the federal government since the new deal. They created a brand new massive government bureaucracy, the department of homeland security. They also started not one, but two multi-trillion dollar unfunded and unending wars. Then they also passed another massive corporate welfare package, Medicare Part D, also unpaid for. So despite their rhetoric, what America actually gets when we elect Republicans is a LOT more government and a LOT more government debt, but since their expansions are in the narrow realm of what they think government should do, police and military, they have no problems with massively expanding the size and cost of government. Predictably, as soon as the newly elected administration started talking about reforming health insurance, something conservatives don’t think government should do, they pretended to be outraged at the national debt and refuse to admit their own role in growing it to its current size.
Consider that military spending in all its forms now constitutes 53.3% of total US federal spending. Consider that we have over 140 military bases on foreign soil, many of which serve no purpose except to cost us trillions and anger the locals as was the case with the Saudis who attacked us on 09-11-2001. We have an easy and obvious path to save trillions of dollars but conservatives oppose any cuts to military spending. Conservatives talk a lot about smaller government but they know to actually do it would negatively affect millions of average Americans, making it political suicide, therefore after a decade of being in control of all three branches of government they utterly failed to deliver on it.
The reality is that Liberals are the ones who truly want smaller government and are willing to make that happen.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Useful Idiots On Parade
Hey Teahadists,
Multinational corporations would like to thank you for your support.
You must watch the videos. They show that the Oakland Press is not trying to make these people look stupid, they just are that stupid.
I would like to point out a couple of things.
First, Linda Comis a supposedly "conservative Republican" had the nerve to complain
Linda, the only president in my memory who ever talked about a "new world order" of a one world government was George HW Bush, another conservative Republican.
Then Linda actually said out-loud, in front of other adults:
Once again, Reality and Linda seem to be strangers. Linda seems to be ignorant of the fact that conservatives, especially conservative Republicans, support, as her host said, "true capitalism" which is, "globalization", a fancy way of saying "shipping American jobs overseas." I have a chart for you Linda.
You notice a problem with your claims? They don't match reality. Yes, the reality is American jobs have been getting shipped overseas for decades for the most part with the full support of every conservative Republican in the country. Conservatives are the ones who claimed corporations were people in the first place and allowed them to start gathering such unprecedented power.
Why the sudden change in direction toward populism? It is very unlike a conservative Republican. Obviously you have had an awakening to the reality of America in decline, as many progressives, like Dr. Paul Krugman and Professor Ravi Batra have been warning you about for decades. America is in decline because of the attack on the Middle Class by Conservative Republicans. Have you noticed that the decline of the American middle class and economy has mirrored the decline in unionized workplaces? Are you aware that those miners in Virginia would not have had to die if they had been unionized, because the workers would have had the right to refuse to go down into known dangerous conditions collectively. Instead the mining company, Massey Energy, was able to get enough workers who were desperate enough or scared enough of losing their job that they were willing to go down and the predictable yet preventable tragedy occured.
It didn't have to be that way. If the workers had a union, they would have had the right to say, "No, we won't go down there until you pay the money to make the working conditions safe". But alas, 30 years of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and their ilk corroding the collective gray matter of "conservative Republicans" with lies about how unions and progressives are their enemy and put up straw men racial stereotypes like "welfare queens" while their own corporate masters quietly took over the world.
The reality is Carl Knaus, Fox News and the conservative media are lying to you. They are manipulating you and using you for their own multi-national corporate ends.
Jobs have not been shipped overseas because of "socialism", like our fire departments. Or because of some conspiracy to make you stop driving an SUV.
American jobs were shipped overseas because labor there is cheaper for multi-national corporations. The same multi-national corporations who own the media and the military-industrial complex. The same multi-national corporations who benefited from your attacks on labor unions over the last 50 years. They are the "new world order" otherwise known as "Wall Street", although they exist on multiple international exchanges, and are the same people who received the "bailout" Linda Comis claims to be so angry about. This is an excellent website for seeing their web of power, and how it all inter-connects.
And I have more news for Linda Comis and Carl Knaus... Progressives are not your enemy. Progressives are your neighbors and your countrymen. They are your class-mates and your coworkers.
Contrary to Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and all the corporate hate mongers trying to distract you and misdirect you. Socialism is not some conspiracy of a "new world order", the new world order is already in control and they are shilling for it whether you know it or not.
Your real enemy are the people who sent our jobs overseas and profit from violating our fourth amendment rights by selling our information, and profit from locking us up in their private prisons. The real enemy are multi-national corporations and the small elite group of people who sit on their boards. They are the very new world order you claim to dislike but who benefits by people like you running throwing bricks through the windows of your elected Representatives.
Multinational corporations would like to thank you for your support.
You must watch the videos. They show that the Oakland Press is not trying to make these people look stupid, they just are that stupid.
I would like to point out a couple of things.
First, Linda Comis a supposedly "conservative Republican" had the nerve to complain
“We don’t need a one-world government; we weren’t founded that way,”.
Linda, the only president in my memory who ever talked about a "new world order" of a one world government was George HW Bush, another conservative Republican.
Then Linda actually said out-loud, in front of other adults:
“We’re shipping our jobs to other countries and bringing in their garbage ... and throwing us out to the wolves.”
Once again, Reality and Linda seem to be strangers. Linda seems to be ignorant of the fact that conservatives, especially conservative Republicans, support, as her host said, "true capitalism" which is, "globalization", a fancy way of saying "shipping American jobs overseas." I have a chart for you Linda.
You notice a problem with your claims? They don't match reality. Yes, the reality is American jobs have been getting shipped overseas for decades for the most part with the full support of every conservative Republican in the country. Conservatives are the ones who claimed corporations were people in the first place and allowed them to start gathering such unprecedented power.
Why the sudden change in direction toward populism? It is very unlike a conservative Republican. Obviously you have had an awakening to the reality of America in decline, as many progressives, like Dr. Paul Krugman and Professor Ravi Batra have been warning you about for decades. America is in decline because of the attack on the Middle Class by Conservative Republicans. Have you noticed that the decline of the American middle class and economy has mirrored the decline in unionized workplaces? Are you aware that those miners in Virginia would not have had to die if they had been unionized, because the workers would have had the right to refuse to go down into known dangerous conditions collectively. Instead the mining company, Massey Energy, was able to get enough workers who were desperate enough or scared enough of losing their job that they were willing to go down and the predictable yet preventable tragedy occured.
It didn't have to be that way. If the workers had a union, they would have had the right to say, "No, we won't go down there until you pay the money to make the working conditions safe". But alas, 30 years of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and their ilk corroding the collective gray matter of "conservative Republicans" with lies about how unions and progressives are their enemy and put up straw men racial stereotypes like "welfare queens" while their own corporate masters quietly took over the world.
The reality is Carl Knaus, Fox News and the conservative media are lying to you. They are manipulating you and using you for their own multi-national corporate ends.
Jobs have not been shipped overseas because of "socialism", like our fire departments. Or because of some conspiracy to make you stop driving an SUV.
American jobs were shipped overseas because labor there is cheaper for multi-national corporations. The same multi-national corporations who own the media and the military-industrial complex. The same multi-national corporations who benefited from your attacks on labor unions over the last 50 years. They are the "new world order" otherwise known as "Wall Street", although they exist on multiple international exchanges, and are the same people who received the "bailout" Linda Comis claims to be so angry about. This is an excellent website for seeing their web of power, and how it all inter-connects.
And I have more news for Linda Comis and Carl Knaus... Progressives are not your enemy. Progressives are your neighbors and your countrymen. They are your class-mates and your coworkers.
Contrary to Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and all the corporate hate mongers trying to distract you and misdirect you. Socialism is not some conspiracy of a "new world order", the new world order is already in control and they are shilling for it whether you know it or not.
Your real enemy are the people who sent our jobs overseas and profit from violating our fourth amendment rights by selling our information, and profit from locking us up in their private prisons. The real enemy are multi-national corporations and the small elite group of people who sit on their boards. They are the very new world order you claim to dislike but who benefits by people like you running throwing bricks through the windows of your elected Representatives.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Wanted
I remember seeing this ad in the back of a paper in the 90s. I never answered it but now I'm more curious than ever.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
The most fun I had in Vegas
This is too bad. It was the most fun I had in Vegas, especially the HUGE drinks they served at Quark's bar at the end of the tour. It got more fun each time we did it.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Political Blog Post of the Year
A friend of mine sent me this today.
Below is what would be my nomination for political blog entry of the year:
Below is what would be my nomination for political blog entry of the year:
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory. I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to send via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.
After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.
I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Conservatism is Dead
According to the research of Dr. George Lakoff, the way we look at government is strongly influenced by the way we look at family. Conservatives tend to subscribe to the "strict father" model of a family, which holds that a strict authority figure with strict gender roles is necessary to impose order and stability. Translated to government means basically that they see government as no more than a King and his army. They will openly admit they believe the only role of government is to protect property, which means they only believe in police and a military. It could be argued that they can support fire departments because they can imagine a soldier picking up a bucket to "fight" a fire. Aside from that, they don't think the government should provide any services outside police and military. That's why they oppose social security, medicare, unemployment, etc. They can't see a King offering his subjects unemployment insurance. Their tag line these days is "smaller government" yet they are willing to borrow trillions of dollars to wage endless wars and grow the size of government in the areas of military and security. They are not against government spending or big government, they are against government spending on anything except things they believe in.
Liberals, on the other hand, subscribe to the "nurturing parent" model of a family, so they view government as having an obvious role in supporting and nurturing the citizens like a nurturing parent. Liberalism grew out of the same Enlightenment that inspired the founders to start the American revolution. The idea that the people can govern themselves is in itself a liberal idea. That is why liberals support the government having a role in "providing for the general welfare" of the people. (as it says in the Constitution). This is why you see so much anger from conservatives about health care reform, because they do not believe government should be providing anybody health care. Unfortunately for them, their message gets twisted in the reality that government provided health insurance works and is very popular so they try to argue against government run health insurance while at the same time claiming they will protect Medicare. That's why we saw so many confused "conservatives" last August demanding the government keep out of their medicare.
Traditional conservatism, going back to before the American Revolution, has stood for the stability of society as the highest value. Sir Edmund Burke argued that the experiment of Democratic government will fail because it is inherently unstable and Alexander Hamilton declared that Monarchy is the best form of government, because it is so stable. They were very open about the fact that they consider classes in society important to maintaining stability of society. Burke and Russel Kirk, who wrote "The Conservative Mind" argued that class mobility is a threat to the stability of society and thus should be discouraged and minimized. The working poor need to remain the working poor and Burke used to argue that allowing them to even participate in government only hurts society.
Today however, conservatism has lost sight of its philosophical roots and has been reduced to the sound bytes - "small government" and "strong military" and most self-described conservatives cannot say coherently what those sound bytes really mean. They are now the textbook example of the angry mob that conservatives used to oppose on principle as a threat to the stability of society. Today we see conservatism standing for obstructionism and violence when they lose a democratic election. Today conservatives are the ones running around threatening the stability of society by talking about revolutions and assassinations.
There are a lot of people who still claim to subscribe to conservatism even though they cannot articulate what conservatism means beyond what they hear on Fox or from Rush Limbaugh, both of which are just corporatist perversions of conservatism. If you confront one and ask them to explain in detail what they mean by "small government" they will only occasionally stumble across the truth, and then it will be accidental and they will deny the obvious implications of their own beliefs. (which is - they are not rich and don't have property to be protected so they would be left out if their own philosophy held real sway)
Liberals, on the other hand, subscribe to the "nurturing parent" model of a family, so they view government as having an obvious role in supporting and nurturing the citizens like a nurturing parent. Liberalism grew out of the same Enlightenment that inspired the founders to start the American revolution. The idea that the people can govern themselves is in itself a liberal idea. That is why liberals support the government having a role in "providing for the general welfare" of the people. (as it says in the Constitution). This is why you see so much anger from conservatives about health care reform, because they do not believe government should be providing anybody health care. Unfortunately for them, their message gets twisted in the reality that government provided health insurance works and is very popular so they try to argue against government run health insurance while at the same time claiming they will protect Medicare. That's why we saw so many confused "conservatives" last August demanding the government keep out of their medicare.
Traditional conservatism, going back to before the American Revolution, has stood for the stability of society as the highest value. Sir Edmund Burke argued that the experiment of Democratic government will fail because it is inherently unstable and Alexander Hamilton declared that Monarchy is the best form of government, because it is so stable. They were very open about the fact that they consider classes in society important to maintaining stability of society. Burke and Russel Kirk, who wrote "The Conservative Mind" argued that class mobility is a threat to the stability of society and thus should be discouraged and minimized. The working poor need to remain the working poor and Burke used to argue that allowing them to even participate in government only hurts society.
Today however, conservatism has lost sight of its philosophical roots and has been reduced to the sound bytes - "small government" and "strong military" and most self-described conservatives cannot say coherently what those sound bytes really mean. They are now the textbook example of the angry mob that conservatives used to oppose on principle as a threat to the stability of society. Today we see conservatism standing for obstructionism and violence when they lose a democratic election. Today conservatives are the ones running around threatening the stability of society by talking about revolutions and assassinations.
There are a lot of people who still claim to subscribe to conservatism even though they cannot articulate what conservatism means beyond what they hear on Fox or from Rush Limbaugh, both of which are just corporatist perversions of conservatism. If you confront one and ask them to explain in detail what they mean by "small government" they will only occasionally stumble across the truth, and then it will be accidental and they will deny the obvious implications of their own beliefs. (which is - they are not rich and don't have property to be protected so they would be left out if their own philosophy held real sway)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Strange Days
2009 was a very strange year. It started on a positive note with Barack Obama's election to President of the United States, and his inauguration, which I attempted to live-blog.
Then things got weird for me personally when I started getting cyber-stalked and threatened by some angry right wing fringe lunatics who said they wanted to "hold me accountable" for my "liberal opinions". I was mostly getting it from a few people from message boards I used to frequent, but things got especially ugly after I filmed some right wingers at a "tea party" here in my home town dancing and chanting "nothing better than a dead liberal". That really got the attention of more right wing radicals. I started getting messages on youtube from people in the "tea party" movement, including someone named "july4patriot".
Those are some real winners, aren't they?
Despite all that craziness, 2009 was one of the best years of my life. My child was born in April and it changed my life. I had always been told that it would be the greatest thing to ever happen to me and now I think it was undersold.
I have been neglecting this blog because I have not had a lot of time but one of my 2010 resolutions is to try and post here more often.
Then things got weird for me personally when I started getting cyber-stalked and threatened by some angry right wing fringe lunatics who said they wanted to "hold me accountable" for my "liberal opinions". I was mostly getting it from a few people from message boards I used to frequent, but things got especially ugly after I filmed some right wingers at a "tea party" here in my home town dancing and chanting "nothing better than a dead liberal". That really got the attention of more right wing radicals. I started getting messages on youtube from people in the "tea party" movement, including someone named "july4patriot".
Those are some real winners, aren't they?
Despite all that craziness, 2009 was one of the best years of my life. My child was born in April and it changed my life. I had always been told that it would be the greatest thing to ever happen to me and now I think it was undersold.
I have been neglecting this blog because I have not had a lot of time but one of my 2010 resolutions is to try and post here more often.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)