Ranting of a Sarcastic Cynic

Rick Snyder's job-killing agenda

2011-05-16T12:07:00.003-04:00

Rick Snyder's senseless partisan attacks on the film industry have already cost Michigan thousands of jobs. The network officially announced they canceled the successful TV show Detroit 1-8-7 because of Rick Snyder. Marvel studios also announced they will no longer be filming the Avengers movie here in Michigan because Snyder removed the tax incentives. What is most frustrating is that tax incentives always used to be championed by Republicans but now that a Democrat successfully implemented them, Repblicans are suddenly against it. Its the worst, most harmful kind of partisan politics. The kind that does not care about the people at all. Thanks a lot Rick Snyder. May your term in office be very brief for all our sakes.

The rich don't create jobs, we do.

2011-05-14T13:49:00.002-04:00

This is a great article over at truthout.

Actually, "the Rich" Don't "Create Jobs," We Do

Simply put, jobs are created to meet demand and demand is driven by how much money the average person has to spend, which is primarily driven by wages. Its not that complicated. Jobs are not gifts bestowed upon us by the rich. There are simple economic realities to how jobs are really created.

Trickle down economics has caused the economic crisis of today by keeping wages down so demand has plumetted, which is why there are no jobs being created. Think about it, the rich are doing great yet are creating no jobs. Why? Because the rich do not create jobs. Consumer demand does.

The rhetoric of violence - "Nothing better than a dead liberal"

2011-01-09T14:33:00.008-05:00

After a political season marked by the rhetoric of violence, why is anyone surprised that we see violence?

I filmed this in 2009 at a local "tea party" protest in Michigan. At the time I found the casualness with which this woman started chanting "Nothing better than a dead liberal!" and the nonplussed reaction of the other protesters around her, chilling.

This was after we had already seen politically motivated assassination attempts against liberals, like Jim D Attkinson in 2008. In the killer's home they found books by right-wing provocateurs like Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

Tea Party darling Sarah Palin recently put a target on Rep. Gifford's head and told her followers to "reload".

The shooting yesterday took place in Arizona, right next door to Nevada, where just a few months ago Sharon Angle proposed "second amendment remedies" to her "Harry Reid problem".

Not to mention all the rhetoric of the Bush era where people like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity called liberals "traitors" for not supporting the president, called for the death sentence for liberals and said that liberals should be "physically intimidated" and reminded that we can be killed.

Yes, obviously the shooter was insane. Isn't that a given? But does that excuse everyone in the public sphere from all responsibility for what influence they may have had on sick minds like that within the public?

That kind of rhetoric in the public sphere has real consequences.

As we are seeing for what seems like the millionth time.

And once again we see those who espouse the ideology of "personal responsibility" refusing to take ANY responsibility for their own use of violent rhetoric. For now, the Radical Right is feigning surprise and sympathy for the victims but they will be back out fomenting anti-liberal, anti-Democratic hate and violence again Monday morning.

The best way for the center/left to fight against this is to shine a huge spotlight on those doing it and expose the hate mongers for what they are. Shine a light the real effects their violent rhetoric has on society. Shine a light on the mindset that spawns these people who mistakenly think they have "second amendment remedies" to their electoral losses in a civil democratic society.

Did the Bush tax cuts create growth?

2010-11-22T20:27:00.003-05:00

Judge for yourself.

Krugman - "There will be blood"

2010-11-22T20:21:00.003-05:00

Paul Krugman's latest article is pretty incendiary.

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."

40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes

2010-10-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

Remember to get out and VOTE on Tuesday!

The root of political anger - wages

2010-07-17T11:22:00.005-04:00

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.

Rand Paul reminds America why Libertarians are extremist fringe group

2010-05-25T13:09:00.002-04:00

Rand Paul reminds America why Libertarians are extremist fringe group

Posted using ShareThis

Why I will vote Republican

2010-04-21T10:43:00.002-04:00

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).

Who Really Wants Smaller Government?

2010-04-14T16:43:00.001-04:00

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.

Useful Idiots On Parade

2010-04-11T15:10:00.004-04:00

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

“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.

Wanted

2010-04-07T20:24:00.002-04:00

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.

The most fun I had in Vegas

2010-04-06T16:55:00.004-04:00

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.

Political Blog Post of the Year

2010-03-30T12:09:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine sent me this today.

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.

Tony Auth nails the GOP

2010-03-25T22:44:00.002-04:00

Conservatism is Dead

2010-03-25T13:07:00.005-04:00

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)

Strange Days

2010-01-25T14:29:00.004-05:00

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.

2009-11-25T21:42:00.002-05:00

http://www.commondreams.org/files/images/edtoon.jpg

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T13:44:00.002-04:00

Van Jones Validated By Joe Wilson

2009-09-10T21:03:00.002-04:00

Anybody else remember the Republicans whining about "respecting the President" and "showing respect for the office, even if you don't agree with the man" for the last 8 years? What ever happened to that?

Seriously, they lectured us on civility while they were arresting people for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts, now their elected officials are screaming at the Presidnt and calling him a "nazi" at town halls.

WTF is wrong with these people?

Real Canadians Talking Real Health Care

2009-09-02T22:20:00.003-04:00

This is a great video of real Canadians talking about real health care and blasting apart the lies that are being told about their system. The Canadians still get it. They still have some semblance of Christian morals that America seems to have lost and replaced with the religion of "greed is good."

The Declaration of Independence

2009-07-02T19:12:00.002-04:00

Happy Fourth of July Everyone! I hope you all get a chance to relax and spend some quality time with your family.

A Reading of the Declaration of Independence - Worth Reposting!

Jesse Ventura's Sanity Tour

2009-05-19T18:46:00.002-04:00

Jesse Ventura was doing the rounds in the media last week, speaking common sense about the issue of torture.

The Republicans think that this is an issue they can spin but they are wrong. Torture resonates with most people (except sociopaths) on a very primal moral level. Republicans seriously underestimated the damage that coming out strongly pro-torture is doing to them as a viable political party. Seriously, who wants to join the party of torture?

I am not sure in what order these interviews aired, but I saw the View clip first.

Here is Gov. Ventura on the Hannity show.

Then there was the interview on Fox and Friends that turned pretty heated when one of the right wing idiot hosts got frustrated at someone he couldn't baffle with his B.S. or bully.

Why The Right Wing's Attacks On Pelosi Are Backfiring

2009-05-18T18:02:00.003-04:00

Matthew Yglesias discusses how the right-wing strategy on torture is backfiring.

By accusing Pelosi of "knowing about" illegal torture, they are admitting by default that:
A. Torture took place.
B. It was illegal.

Republicans Show their Maturity

2009-05-16T07:49:00.001-04:00

Republicans show their maturity when asked about working with the President. This is funny stuff!

Senator Baucus Is Screwing Up Health Care Reform

2009-05-07T21:50:00.001-04:00

Its the Wages Stupid!

2009-05-03T10:51:00.006-04:00

The problem with the global economy is falling consumer demand.

Consumer demand is falling because people are buying less.

People are buying less because wages have been stagnant for 30 years. Wages have not kept pace with productivity for 30 years. It is as simple as that. Everything else is just a symptom of this root problem.

People have tried to suppliment their lack of wages with debt, but debt has to be paid off with wages. In the last couple decades the debt industry has grown faster and larger than any industry ever in the history of the world. It has exploded into a multi-trillion dollar business and they are making way too much money by screwing us over with 25-30% interest rates and hidden fees to allow us to clean our house and fix our system without a fight. The entire "credit crisis" meme that the corporate media is pushing is just an attempt to prop up a failed system and avoid talking about the real issue - stagnant wages.

The entire system of globalization was based upon a model where China and India are the world's source of cheap labor and the U.S. is the world's consumer market. It was based on assumptions that America's over-consumption was a good thing and that it was going to last indefinately. The only problem with their system is that the reason American was able to be such a thriving market during the 20th century was because we had good jobs where our wages kept pace with our productivity. Then they outsourced all our good jobs, and consumer demand went into freefall. Now they are calling a "crisis" what many economists have for years called the predictable consequences of bad economic policies.

Now this morning, we read that wages are falling again, this time on purpose as a response to the "crisis", by the same people who created this situation in the first place. Cutting wages and jobs is only going to lower consumer demand even more and make the situation worse for working Americans.

This is not only about the war on the middle class, but it is also about redefining American society and our attitudes of hyper-consumerism. We need to reevaluate our lifestyles as Americans and do what is necessary to bring the amount of resouces we consume in line with our population and the rest of the planet.

At the same time, we need to change the rules of the game so that America is no longer economically defenseless. The rest of the world is screaming about how America must not practice any "protectionism" whatsoever, but think about this: When an American company exports a car to Japan, they put a 30% tariff on it, but when a Japanese company exports a car to America we only put a 2% tariff on it. We are being exploited by the rest of the world and they are desperate to stop us from doing anything to protect ourselves. We, as a country, must remember there is nothing wrong with rational tariffs and reasonable protection of our domestic industries.

We had better hurry though, because America doesn't have many domestic industries left to protect.

Pooh on Swine Flu

2009-04-30T21:55:00.002-04:00

GOPwned

2009-04-29T22:47:00.000-04:00

LOL!

Republicans stripped pandemic preparedness funds from the stimulus bill

2009-04-27T09:01:00.006-04:00

What comes around goes around...

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans -- led by Maine Senator Susan Collins -- aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey's attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.

And his partisan attacks on his efforts seem not just creepy, but dangerous.

This goes back to the Republican cult-like belief in "small government". Their argument has long been that government has no role to play in public health issues. Thus, they ridiculed the idea that the government should spend any money preparing for a pandemic.

Let us remember that this belief extends to disaster relief, which was why we saw the abysmal federal response to Katrina in 2005. That's why "Brownie" didn't think anything of it when he wasted 24 hours trying to find a dog sitter while a major American city was drowning. He wasn't supposed to have a role to play anyway. The Red Cross and private charities were supposed to handle that stuff. In the minds of most Republicans the federal government was only there to shoot looters.

This is just a reminder of why Republicans suck so badly at governing. They don't believe in government. A Republican in government is like an atheist being a priest.

Lawrence O'Donnell sets a wingnut straight

2009-04-26T11:40:00.001-04:00

This is an excellent smackdown of a neocon who was actually trying to defend torture.

Freed Pirate Hostage Accuses Limbaugh of "Hate Speech"

2009-04-25T12:07:00.002-04:00

This is pretty interesting.
The right wing is predictably having kittens.
They don't take criticism of their leader very well.

SEEKONK, Mass. -- Shane Murphy, the second-in-command aboard the American merchant ship seized by pirates, lashed out at Rush Limbaugh for the talk show host's racial characterization in discussing the rescue of the ship's captain by the Navy.

Murphy, who returned to his Seekonk, Mass., home Friday, called Limbaugh a purveyor of "hate speech."

In commenting on the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips by the Navy Seals who shot and killed the three Somali pirates who were holding him captive, Limbaugh generated controversy when he called the pirates "black teenagers."

"There you have it, three teenagers shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama," said Limbaugh according to a transcript of an April 14 broadcast on his Web site.

"Just imagine the hue and cry had a Republican president ordered the shooting of black teenagers on the high seas," Limbaugh said.Murphy said Limbaugh's remarks were unacceptable.

"It feels great to be home," Murphy said. "With the exception of Rush Limbaugh who is trying to make this into a race issue.

It's disgusting.""The president did the right thing. It's a war. It's about good versus evil. And what you (Limbaugh) said is evil, that is hate speech. I won't tolerate it," Murphy said.

Quote of the Week

2009-04-25T11:28:00.006-04:00

I saw this on another site and had to share it. The far right in America desperately wants to sweep the issue of torture under the rug because they are afraid of being held responsible for their actions. They really screwed themselves when they decided to become cheerleaders for torture.

"The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention . It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today....

...The core provisions of the Convention establish a regime for international cooperation in the criminal prosecution of torturers relying on so-called 'universal jurisdiction.' Each State Party is required either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution.

...By giving its advice and consent to ratification of this Convention, the Senate of the United States will demonstrate unequivocally our desire to bring an end to the abhorrent practice of torture."

Ronald Reagan in a signing statement ratifying the UN Convention on Torture, 1984

Funny cause its true...

2009-04-20T00:45:00.002-04:00

"Nothing better than a dead liberal"

2009-04-18T18:47:00.004-04:00

I made this video the other day while walking around the tea bagging event in St Clair Shores. I only had a couple of minutes but you couldn't walk five steps without running into some kind of wacko.

The first woman was holding a sign that read "Honk if you support the constitution". I asked her exactly what she thought was threatening the constitution now and then I asked her if she had been out protesting for the constitution over the last 8 years. The second person was holding a sign that read "brew the liberals" so I stopped and asked exactly what that meant.

Tea Bagging Hypocrisy

2009-04-18T18:42:00.003-04:00

This picture is worth 1000 words.

China Takes Aim at Dollar - WSJ.com

2009-03-23T22:21:00.000-04:00

Uh oh. This is not good. If the U.S. dollar loses its place as the world's standard currency for international trade, it will be a major blow to our economy and our standard of living.

China Takes Aim at Dollar -
WSJ.com: "BEIJING -- China called for the creation of
a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world's standard,
proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing
nations' growing unhappiness with the U.S. role in the world economy.
The
unusual proposal, made by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan in an essay
released Monday in Beijing, is part of China's increasingly assertive approach
to shaping the global response to the financial crisis."

Media Lies about Employee Free Choice

2009-01-30T21:17:00.002-05:00

There are a lot of lies being spread about the Employee Free Choice Act and many of them are being spread by the corporate media.

On This Day We Choose Hope

2009-01-20T12:11:00.005-05:00

This is going to be one of the classic lines that come out of President Obama's first speech. Let us hope that we can live up to that hope in the days to come. Let us hope that we can all rise to meet the challenges before us.

God Bless America.

Deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Liveblogging the Inauguration

2009-01-20T11:52:00.004-05:00

As I sit here and watch the inauguration on television I wonder, in my own cynical way, are we being played yet again by the corporate powers-that-be? Is this another huge game of 'good cop, bad cop', with Bush playing the bad cop and now Obama playing the good cop? I have high hopes, but at the same time I look around me and I do not see the organization we need to overcome the opposition to the things we need, like single payer universal health care, public financing of elections, repeal of the patriot act, etc, etc, etc...

The one thing I agree with Rick Warren on that he said in his invocation:

"And deliver us from evil.

Amen."

Cheney to spend inauguration in wheelchair

2009-01-20T10:22:00.002-05:00

I saw this one line buried in an article this morning about the inauguration.

"On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney pulled a muscle in his back, leaving him in a wheelchair for the inauguration."

This should make for an interesting image.

Why Obama's tax cut plan will not work

2009-01-07T21:47:00.006-05:00

Let me break this down.

The problem with our economy today is a lack of consumer demand.

Sales are down because people are not buying stuff anymore. The "credit crunch" is only an issue because people are so overly dependent on credit these days.

We have plenty of supply. We have supply coming over from China by the boatload till it's coming out our ears.

What we lack is demand.

Every economy runs on a balance between the forces of supply and demand.
Supply is driven by primarily by productivity; by the ability to make things.
Demand is driven primarily by wages; by people having money in their pocket to buy things.

Productivity has been rising consistently for decades, but wages have been stagnant in America for the last 30 years. The real wage has actually been falling for the last 7 years.
People make the same amount of money they did ten years ago but costs have gone up so everyone effectively has less money.

As economist Kevin Phillips reported, the real inflation rate, if calculated the way they did just 25 years ago, before the government started fudging the numbers, is actually at 12% right now.

The right wing anti-worker, anti-union, corporatist forces have been trying to drive demand with debt instead of wages since the 1980s.

People stopped buying stuff with cash years ago and now it is to the point that there are actually television commercials for a credit card company that mocks people who use cash.

I grew up in a small blue collar town that had a couple auto plants in the area. 30 years ago, just about everybody who worked at an auto plant had a nice, middle class house, at least two American cars in the driveway, a cottage up north and a boat to go fishing in. The middle class was strong. 30% of the workforce was unionized. Consumer demand was high.

Now a days, people live on credit. Wages are stagnant and people have to make up for it with something, so they use their house like an ATM and they have an average of $8000 in credit card debt. Most people have long since sold their cottages up north and anyone who does still have a boat couldn't afford to take it out this summer. The average household savings in America is negative for the first time since the great depression. Only 6% of the American workforce is unionized today. Consumer demand is falling because people don't have the cash to pay for things anymore and interest rates on credit are going up even though the prime rate is at 0% for the first time ever.

The corporatists have been trying to fuel demand in the American economy with debt for the last 30 years in order to avoid raising wages. Credit cards were around for decades but their usage didn't explode until the 1980s, when the voodoo economists came to power.

Wages also work on the fulcrum of supply and demand. When there are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available, it drives down wages because people are willing to work for less in order to compete for those jobs. Conversely, when there are more jobs available than there are people looking for jobs, it drives wages up because employers are willing to pay more as an incentive to lure workers.

Our good jobs have all been outsourced and all we have left is subsistence level wages at retail stores like Wal-Mart or a McJob in the Republican "manufacturing" sector flipping burgers. They are also bringing people over from India by the boatload to compete against Americans for the same shrinking number of good IT jobs available, which is driving down wages even further.

Obama's current plan for tax cuts is a bad one because tax cuts are not going to stimulate the economy. Tax cuts cannot raise anyone's wages significantly because they cannot be very large when the government is already running at a deficit. They will do nothing to help the people who are not working and they will do nothing to raise consumer demand because their effects will be extremely finite and limited. As much as I would love a tax cut I would love to see the American middle class restored even more.

What we really need is a massive jobs creation program. That would drive wages up and restore consumer demand.

What Obama needs to do is start a huge, comprehensive jobs creation program like the New Deal that would include government works projects, rolling back the Reagan and Bush tax cuts for the rich and getting out of "free trade" agreements with poor nations that only undercut our own workforce.

Opponents of this plan will cry "but that is government spending!".
Well, I have a question for them. What the hell do you call $2 Trillion in corporate bailouts besides government spending?

We already have massive government spending. All I am saying is that we should be spending that money on the right things that will help our entire economy for the long term instead of just giving handouts and corporate welfare to millionaires and billionaires.

Tax cuts only made things worse in 1929 when Hoover tried it and they will not work now.

Change Is Already Happening

2008-11-27T10:48:00.005-05:00

The Obama family went to a Chicago food bank yesterday and spent an hour handing out wrapped chickens to people waiting in line for food. The president-elect and his wife said they wanted to show their girls the meaning of the holiday, especially when so many are struggling.

You can see a slide show of pictures here.

Seriously, when was the last time you ever saw a President of the United States volunteer at a food bank the day before Thanksgiving?

This is a man who understands the role of the President of the United States, knows how to be a good figurehead and knows how to set a good example.

He is already effectively the acting President, since he is one who's actions are now effecting the markets. Meanwhile Bush, the guy who is still technically President, is given a free pass by the media for sitting around and doing literally nothing while the economy crumbles.

Never, Ever Talk To The Police

2008-11-23T09:29:00.002-05:00

This seems counter-intuitive, especially if you are innocent, but this attorney and police officer lay out of a very convincing argument why you should never talk to the police.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The Spirit of Liberalism

2008-11-06T21:36:00.003-05:00

This is a cool set of photos I found on another site.

Party On! (Before the real work begins)

2008-11-06T21:08:00.002-05:00

Yes We Did!

2008-11-05T00:33:00.001-05:00

Election Results - President Obama!

2008-11-04T22:33:00.001-05:00

Vote!!!

2008-11-04T12:19:00.002-05:00

Remember to get out and Vote today!
If you haven't voted yet, get up right now and go vote!

Don't be complacent!
The 2000 election was decided by 537 votes!
Every vote counts!

5 More Friends

Remember all the people who risked and sacrificed everything so that we could have the right to cast any votes at all.

McCain Supporters At It Again

2008-10-28T21:05:00.000-04:00

Again with the racism and the hatred and the threats of violence from McCain supporters.

Ron Howard for Obama

2008-10-25T22:53:00.001-04:00

I never knew what Ron Howard's politics was but this video is a classic!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Are You Better Off Than You Were 8 Years Ago?

2008-10-25T10:06:00.003-04:00

A very powerful message from the original "Wasssup" guys.

John McCain on Taxing the Rich

2008-10-23T18:36:00.002-04:00

This is from the Hardball College Tour: October 12, 2000

Well Said - Worth A Thousand Words

2008-10-21T11:26:00.002-04:00

Neo and the McCain Robocall

2008-10-19T07:51:00.003-04:00

This is funny! That scene really has a different feel, watching it now in the post 9-11 security state we live in.

Obama Roasts McCain at Al Smith Dinner

2008-10-18T14:50:00.001-04:00

I didn't realize Obama could be this funny.

The Failure of Conservative Ideology

2008-10-11T23:47:00.001-04:00

What we are witnessing in this economic crisis is nothing less than the complete failure of conservative ideology that thinks "deficit spending doesn't matter" and thinks credit is enough to fuel an economy indefinitely.

Obama Knew It Was Coming All Along

2008-10-11T01:17:00.001-04:00

This one is for Sarah Palin Supporters

2008-10-08T20:05:00.000-04:00

Horney for Change - David Lee Roth to join McCain Campaign

2008-10-07T11:26:00.001-04:00

So funny...

Truth Behind Public Media

2008-10-06T18:51:00.001-04:00

So appropo...

2008-10-02T20:37:00.001-04:00

The Shock Doctrine Playing Out In Front Of Us

2008-09-24T10:12:00.005-04:00

"Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."
- Milton Friedman : US Prof.Emeritus-Economics,Univ of Chicago, Nobel prize, Hoover Sr Res Fellow Stanford
Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006)

Let me start by stating that I believe this bailout is nothing more than the biggest scam and money grab in history. This is the shock doctrine playing out right in front of our eyes. This bailout is only a short term band aid that will postpone the inevitable collapse until the next sucker can take office.

In case you aren't really keeping up with it and don't really know the backstory of this bailout, I will explain what is going on right now.

In a classical supply and demand economy, demand is driven by wages and supply is driven by productivity. Demand is driven by the ability of people to purchase things. When people have enough money left over in their pocket after they pay for survival necessities like food and housing to be able to go to the store and buy things, that creates real demand. Businesses then open to fullfill that demand and that is how real jobs are created.

In the 1980s, under Ronald Reagan, the conservative Republicans proposed that we drive demand with debt by making credit more easily available and then business owners could stop raising wages and therefore make more money, especially when they were allowed to increase productivity at the same time by outsourcing their labor to peasants and slave labor in China and Mexico. That started causing a spike in unemployment that the government has been trying to cover up, but the fact is that we now have a real unemployment rate of around 12%.

At the same time they also lowered our tariffs to the point where we are economically defenseless, in order to encourage outsourcing. For instance if we want to sell a car in China we have to pay a 30% import tariff but if China wants to sell a car here they only have to pay a 2% import tariff.

That is why starting in the 1980s we saw the rise of not just easily available credit but downright open and flagrant predatory lending and usury. Credit cards became widely available and now today the average American household has over $8000 in credit card debt. Also since the 1980s we saw a rise in people using their houses like ATMs by taking out second mortgages or refinancing in order to try and take the equity out of their homes.

And it has all appeared to work for the last 30 plus years but the problem is that if you don't raise wages then eventually people aren't going to be able to pay back all their accumulated debt and the whole thing is going to fall down like a house of cards. All it takes to tip the scales is a significant rise in inflation that outpaces income.

And that is where we are today. The thing that tipped the scales was gas prices going up. That caused the prices of everything else to go up and now we have a real inflation rate of about 11%.

People suddenly found themselves unable to pay their mortgages so over the last two years we have seen record numbers of foreclosures. That caused the value of mortgage backed securities and hedge funds to drop which is the "crisis" we have today. The owners of these securities are saying that without money from the government they will have to stop making loans to people who can't afford them in the first place.

The real solution to this crisis is to get more money into the hands of the citizens at the bottom directly instead of sitting around hoping for some to "trickle down".
Raising wages means strengthening and supporting unions. It means protecting American industries with Tariffs like we did for the first 200 years of our nation's history.

At the same time what they should be doing with that $700 billion is making it available to American citizens who are facing foreclosure on their mortgages in the form of interest free loans. That will stop the foreclosures, boost the prices of the mortgage backed securities and solve this "crisis" for the long term instead of just bailing out those at the top for the short term.

Also, at the same time we need to save people from the skyrocketing costs of private health insurance by offering non-profit public health insurance. That alone could help save half the personal bankruptcies in America.

The whole thing has to be offered as a package like FDR did with the "New Deal" because individually no one thing is going to really save our economy and our country.

Lady Quayle = "The Last Minute Desperation Pick"

2008-08-30T14:30:00.003-04:00

John McCain is excited about her, but that's a dangerous thing for a man his age.

Too bad nobody else is very excited.
"He is reaching out to the Eskimo vote"

Brian Schweitzer's Barn Burner

2008-08-28T10:28:00.003-04:00

Governor Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) speaking at the Democratic National Convention.

Dennis Kucinich * WAKE UP AMERICA!!!* Dems Convention 2008

2008-08-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Thom Hartmann Blasts Neo-Con Insanity

2008-08-20T09:50:00.004-04:00

Thom blasts the Bush administration for taking us to the edge of a depression and world war three.

Memo to Democrats - This Is How You Do It

2008-08-18T17:59:00.003-04:00

Here is Gov. Tim Kaine kicking the crap out of Karl Rove in 90 seconds. My favorite part is the "Karl Rove?!?" you hear off screen when David Gregory first mentions him.

The Real John McCain

2008-08-02T09:38:00.003-04:00

Watch this and then pass it on!

Barack Obama in Berlin Today

2008-07-24T22:50:00.004-04:00

These are two of the most iconic photos of the Obama and McCain campaigns I have ever seen.

Obama in Berlin today:
McCain was also represented:

As Matt Littman put it so well:

McCain Makes the Biggest Political Mistake of Our Lifetimes
Mondale promised to raise taxes. Dukakis was in the tank. Kerry was for the war before he was against it. All mistakes, mistakes that should never have been made and errors that turn the course of an election. We hear about them all the time. But now, just as the memory of Bill Buckner's error took a backseat for Red Sox fans when their team finally won the World Series, John McCain has made the biggest mistake in politics, an error of such magnitude that he has probably cost himself a shot at the White House.
Senator McCain, knowing that he held an edge on Barack Obama on the "Commander in Chief" question, badly overplayed his hand. He taunted Senator Obama on his lack of foreign policy experience and he challenged Obama to go to Iraq. He sneered at Obama for formulating an Iraq policy prior to traveling to the war zone. He even offered to go with him to Iraq, as if Obama needed his hand held by the man with military experience.

McCain wanted the public to believe that Obama was a novice, a whipper-snapper who would jeopardize our nation's security.

Obama listened to McCain's attempted bullying and said, "You know what? I'll go to Iraq. And Afghanistan, Israel, Germany -- I'll make this a big foreign policy trip abroad. I'll show the voters back home that the world still really does love the United States, they just don't love President Bush or John McCain."

And Obama went abroad, with the world's press following him, clinging to his every word, oohing and aahing at his every jump shot, hoping to catch a glimpse of his every smile.

The trip: the biggest success of the campaign. The Commander in Chief question: negated. Heck of job, McCain.

Naomi Klein Debunks Bush's Offshore Drilling Plan

2008-07-19T11:13:00.003-04:00

And she does it from within the belly of the beast.

Irony

2008-07-19T10:57:00.004-04:00

Last week, after the Supreme Court's ruling on the 2nd amendment, a gun activist decided to sue Disney and challenge their gun ban claiming that he has a constitutional right to bring firearms to Disneyworld.

This week, another guy shot himself with his own gun at Downtown Disney while taking his son to a movie.

Oh, the irony...

McCain Campaign Kicks Out Little Old Lady For Holding A Sign

2008-07-11T21:28:00.006-04:00

From the Denver Post:

It was Sen. John McCain's staff who asked security at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to remove people holding protest signs at the venue -- not U.S. Secret Service agents, who were not involved in Carol Kreck's ouster from the galleria.
A video of the incident circulating widely on the Internet shows a DCPA security guard saying that he was told by the Secret Service to remove Kreck, who was holding a paper sign that said "McCain = Bush."

But Thursday, after two days of being vilified by bloggers, letter writers and others, the Secret Service emphatically denied involvement.

"Contrary to some recent reporting, the Secret Service had no involvement in Ms. Kreck being removed from the area," said Malcolm D. Wiley Sr., spokesman for the Secret Service. "It was not done at our request or suggestion. Any assertion to the contrary is inaccurate and inconsistent with our established policies and procedures."

She asks a great question at the end. Why would a Republican be offended by a sign that says "McCain=Bush?"
Personally I think she is lucky she didn't get tasered.

UPDATE: Carol Kreck, the little old librarian herself, wrote a blog over at HufPo about this.

Republicans Drove Up the National Debt

2008-07-10T20:08:00.003-04:00

Check this out. A chart of the national debt broken down by who was in office, Democrat vs Republican.

Notice a trend?

Click on the chart for a larger version.

Rove avoids subpoena by fleeing country

2008-07-10T19:59:00.002-04:00

The People of the United State vs George W. Bush, et all.

2008-07-10T19:18:00.003-04:00

Why do people pretend Corporate Media has any credibility?

2008-07-10T19:12:00.003-04:00

Gore Vidal: Since Bush, "We No Longer Have A Republic"

2008-07-06T22:45:00.002-04:00

This is an interview with historian, Gore Vidal, on what appears to be a European television show.

4th of July - The Declaration of Independence

2008-07-04T13:12:00.003-04:00

This is a great reading of the Declaration of Independence by Thom Hartmann on his show the other day.

U.S. Rep calls for Impeachment hearings after McClellen testifies

2008-07-04T12:40:00.002-04:00

Check out the story. They have video of Representative Wexler questioning Scott McClellen.

McClellen said that he doesn't think Bush was involved in the outting of Valerie Plame but that he would not defend Cheney and that he "would not rule out" that Cheney is responsible for the worst national security breach since 9-11.

Wexler closed by thundering: "The vice president's own hand betrays him, and Libby, and implicates the President of the United States. These facts in your testimony, Mr. McClellan, are more than enough, in my view, to open up impeachment hearings."

Happy Fourth of July, Muppets!

2008-07-03T16:56:00.002-04:00

Obama Speaking With Iraq War Vets

2008-07-02T17:57:00.003-04:00

This is an interesting video of Barack Obama meeting with a group of young Iraq war veterans where he lays out his strategy for Iraq.

I prefer Obama's strategy over John McCain's rhetoric.

General Wesley Clark Is Right!

2008-07-02T17:34:00.005-04:00

Here is General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander for NATO, speaking the simple and absolute truth, John McCain's war experience does not make him qualified to be President of the United States.

General Clark does not word it as bluntly as I would, but he is speaking from exactly the right frame, that John McCain is a victim. While John McCain has my greatest sympathy for what he went through and I honor his sacrifice, that doesn't mean I want him to be my President.

George Carlin on Death

2008-06-23T18:16:00.003-04:00

I am really going to miss George Carlin.

RIP George Carlin

2008-06-23T08:18:00.005-04:00

George Carlin in an interview earlier this year talking about the Obama phenomenon.

Do you think that over the past years of the Bush Administration - the FCC stuff and Nipplegate with Janet Jackson and the focusing on 'morality' and the rise of the Evangelicals, all of that - do you see that as being a direct correlation with the American situation as you've observed it?

Well, there are a number of things you've brought up here. First of all - let me go back to an idea that I usually express in a different way, okay? And then I'll get back to your question. I don't believe anymore in my fellow human, or my fellow American. I divorced myself from these two groups a long time ago, somewhere around 30 years ago. I found myself feeling completely outside of the human race and the American experience. Abraham Maslow, the psychologist said, the fully realized man does not identify with the local group. And when I read that it really hit me. I said, "That's me." I really don't identify with these people, I don't feel a part of this - I've never, never felt a part of this. And by "this" I mean - the human race yeah I know, I'm human, by definition I'm in it, I mean feeling like I'm in it. I mean feeling like I'm American. I just don't give a shit anymore. I stopped giving a fuck. And because I did that, it gave me a great deal of artistic freedom - it gave me emotional detachment from which I could operate with a more even-handed look at everything. I didn't have a rooted interest. I didn't have an outcome I was interested in. I didn't have a rooted interest. I wasn't a cheerleader. I was really just an observer. When you're born in the world you're given a ticket to the freakshow; when you're born in America you're given a front-row seat. And some of us in the front row have notebooks and pencils. That's you, Rachel, that's me. We sit there and we say, "Look at the fucking shit that going - look at this. Do these people know what they look like? Let me write this down." And so, that kind of divorces me from any of these attachments. Yeah, underneath it all I'm a disappointed idealist. Yes, I think the Obama story is an inspirational story, it's a wonderfully unique American story and it's exciting and fun to watch but even if he's elected and makes a lot of changes I still retain the right not to belong.
I just like it out here. And I understand that the flame of the idealist flickers underneath, and that's fine - I can't deny that - but I kind of like it the other way because it kind of gives me the freedom to point at everything.

Wow. Okay, so let me ask you this: You brought up the Obama thing, and you seemed to have done so sincerely and not with irony or being jaded. How do you view that as a phenomenon, even as one you don't want to belong to?

Well, it's an exciting story to watch. What's exciting is that it doesn't happen in this country very often. There were moments in the history of the American people - and by the way, one of the reasons I got off the train of the American experience is I think - I'll get back to Obama in a minute - I think that human beings were given great gifts and had great potential and they squandered it all on goods, possession, power, territory and on a superstitious God that watches everything and controls. These things, I think, crippled the human animal to the extend that we never lived up to their potential. The same thing happened in this country. We were given great potential. We were given this great system of self-government, the best one that had been devised so far.
And we've given it all up for gizmos, and goods, and toys and possessions, and - in this country - God, overlooking everything and spoiling everything. So... there have been moments in this country when people have, leaders have emerged who were inspirational, and who could carry the people with them because — in order to effect change in their lives and experience as a group, they need to be led, and they need to believe in something and they need to believe in themselves, and they need to believe that they can change things. And they way that happens is through an inspirational leader. FDR was that, Franklin Roosevelt - he gave people something to believe in, and mainly it was themselves, that they could weather the storm, and he got them through the Depression and a fuckin' World War. So, these things happen and they're interesting to notice - I don't know how much overall meaning it has, I do respect what's going on as a true American phenomenon, this rising up of someone who - maybe, I don't know - has the quality to inspire people.

My Response To An Obama Smear Video

2008-06-20T23:32:00.003-04:00

This was my response to a friend of mine who forwarded me an Obama smear video and asked me if I thought it was all lies. I think it is worth sharing.

Sorry it took so long to respond, but I wanted to watch the whole thing before I responded to it. I have been busy lately and it took me a while to get the time to sit down and watch it all.

In an interview last year Karl Rove said that the reasons his tactics work are not because Republican voters are stupid, but because they have "short memories" and they "don't pay attention to the news." That video plays off of both those qualities.

The short answer to your question is yes, that video is full of lies. You can tell the guy who made it is an experienced rightwing propagandist because of his opening shot "I invented the internet", which references a popular fallacy that Al Gore supposedly said he "invented the internet". The truth, as I am sure you already know, is that Al Gore said in an interview that he "was instrumental in creating the Internet" and the fact is, he sponsored the legislation that privatized ARPANET and created the Internet. Without his legislation, the internet you and I are using to communicate right now would still be just another "big government" project. (which, incidentally, was started under the last Republican who understood the role of government, Eisenhower)

A better description for that video is "propaganda", because it is more insidious than a mere lie. It will take one true fact and draw a bunch of false conclusions from it. It gathers and propagates all the worst lies about Barack Obama and tries to slip them in randomly to make them seem more legitimate. It also just cherry picks the most unflattering clips and pictures they can find and strings them together to paint the person in an unflattering light. You can find thousands of videos like this about both the Clintons and Bushs all over the internet. It is a very common propaganda tactic.

Basically it piles the bullshit so high, you have a hard time picking out individual pieces anymore. It just becomes one big stinky pile of bullshit.

It partakes in what is called "molehill politics". Taking something insignificant and trivial and theatrically trying to blow it up into a much larger issue than it really is.

"Flag-pins" for example. Seriously, who really cares about flag pins? How does wearing a cheap flag pin made in China mean you are a patriotic American? With everything else that is going on right now, inflation, gas prices, outsourcing, unemployment, forclosures, credit crisis, the falling value of the dollar... who is really concerned about flag pins? Seriously.

It seems to me that if you were a politician who really secretly wasn't patriotic, you would be wearing one 24x7 to cover for it.
Patriotism is caring about the welfare of your country and I think that means caring about the real issues instead of wasting time on meaningless theatrical bullshit like flag pins.

The "National Anthem Photo" is another example, you don't have to put your hand over your heart for the national anthem. All you have to do is stand. You are only supposed to put your hand over your heart for the pledge of alliegence. ...because its a pledge... The national anthem is just a song. Just look around the next time you are at a sporting event, everyone stands and takes their hats off and some people put their hands to their hearts and some do not. The announcer even says it at the beginning of almost every sporting event "Please stand for the national anthem".

Do you see? They take a true photo and draw all sorts of false conclusions from it. They mislead the viewer into drawing the specific conclusion that they want you to draw. That he is supposedly insufficiently patriotic.

Another example is the "danger" that his middle name supposedly represents. They spend quite a bit of time trying to evoke some fear from the viewer because his middle name sounds like the name of a dead bad guy. Even Karl Rove asked Republicans to stop saying his middle name all the time because he said it sounds racist.

It also uses blatent race baiting, even going so far as using a clip of a radical extremist, Ann Coulter, talking about his "three muslim names". Barack and Obama are actually African names, not Islamic. Hussian is actually a very common Arabic name which means "Blessed one". Islam is a religion not a nationality or ethnicity. She is using that term to lump Arabs, Persians and Africans into one group... basically, "brown people". We should all fear the brown people. Thats the real message.

The Rev Wright thing was all just the attempt to redefine Obama as an "angry black man". Before that whole boondoggle, the question that was asked was "is he black enough". They are trying to do the same thing to his wife Michelle. Tell you what, watch her appearance on the View from this week and tell me if you think she is the radical they try to paint her as.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59twO1fJwtQ

It does state some blatently untrue things, obviously.
The claim that there is no information available about Obama's background is a lie. How lazy can they get? He wrote two autobiographies for pete's sake. All anyone has to do is read them. A good portion of his life is already public record. He has been a public figure in Chicago for decades so the facts of his background have been gone over with a fine tooth comb.

Also the claim that he was raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. Thats a lie.
He spent most of his childhood in Hawaii and Kansas. He only visited Indonesia when he was a kid. He also traveled all over Africa, Europe and Asia. By the time he was a teenager, he was more well traveled than a lot of Congressmen.

The claim that sitting down and talking to the leaders of countries we don't like is "radical". That's a blatent lie.
Every President before George W. Bush practiced more open diplomacy and they very often met with the leaders of countries we didn't like. George Washington parlayed with leaders of the British Army. George Washington also met with and enlisted Pirates to help the revolutionary army. John Madison talked to the British and Indians during the war of 1812. Jefferson signed a treaty with the Barbary Pirates. They founding fathers all would have talked to King George if they had the chance, but the King had a policy that he did not talk to his enemies.
How did that work out for him?

FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Reagan all talked to the Soviets.
Nixon met with the Red Chinese.

Anyway, I think you get my point. The claim that talking to our enemies is a "radical" idea is a big steaming load of crap.

That video is a lot of things, but true is not one of them. I would think that most people would find their intelligence insulted by a video that tries to make all three assertions, that Obama is 1. a radical muslim, 2. a Marxist (athiest), and 3. a radical Christian, all the in same video just a few minutes apart. How stupid does this guy think his audience is?

Anyway if you are curious about doing any fact checking, you should check out these sites:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

http://factcheck.barackobama.com/

By the way, if you are curious about my take on Obama, you can read about it on my blog.
http://thesarcasticcynic.blogspot.com/2008/06/defining-candidates-professor-obama.html

Your friend,
Kyle

Good News for Michigan - Drolet Fails Again

2008-06-17T14:08:00.005-04:00

This is good news for Democracy and for the rule of law. The far right wing fringe in Michigan failed to get enough signatures for their frivolous recall petition for House Speaker Andy Dillon. Their attempt to disrupt the state legislature would have been harmful to Michigan, especially at a time when we need constructve progress, not chaos from some angry extremists who don't understand how taxes or economies operate.

Drolet and ilk, such as far-right radical Grover "drown government in a bathtub" Norquist, are a group of anti-tax zealots who offer only criticism and negativity and present no solutions of their own to the many problems faced by the citizens of Michigan.

All they have to offer is exactly the kind of minimalist, ineffective government we saw respond to Katrina.

They have a very narrow, ideological view of taxation that is not based in reality or pragmatism. They obviously do not have the best interest of the citizens of the state at heart because they offer no constructive solutions to any of the real problems we face, such as record layoffs and foreclosures.

On the other hand, Andy Dillon has been instrumental in the bill earlier this year which created 29,000 new jobs by investing in Michigan and brought the movie industry to Michigan by offering the best incentives in the nation.

What people like Drolet and Norquist do not understand is that taxes are merely the mechanism by which government generates revenue and that governments are non-profit, so if they really wanted to lower taxes they would offer meaningful ways to lower costs so we can cut spending and thereby legitimately and responsibly lower taxes.

The sad, inescapable truth is that Leon Drolet is more interested in pushing a failed ideology than in helping the citizens of Michigan.

Defining the Candidates - Professor Obama

2008-06-07T12:31:00.008-04:00

As the Republicans make their inevitable attacks on Barack Obama as "inexperienced", there are some things the voters should be aware of, but that the conservative corporate media is not going to tell them.

First lets remember that many of the scandals of the Bush administration came out of the fact that he neither knows nor cares about the law. Bush is a CEO president with a background in business. He has open disdain for lawyers, who are the primary mechanism for we the people to redress grievances with business. Bush's ignorance and disdain for the law is reflected in his actions and his exercising of illegal powers, like torture, or the pushing through the Patriot Act which gives the President the unconstitutional power to take away any citizen's rights. This illegal and unconstitutional power-grab by the executive branch is a serious threat to our freedoms and our Democracy. This is understood by all liberal activists and many lifelong conservatives, but because of the partisan "division" which is perpetuated by the corporate media in this country, there is not yet enough reaching across the aisle to work together toward what we know are common goals that would benefit all Americans.

The conservative corporate media has been promoting the idea that Barack Obama is an "unknown" and they used the Rev Wright "scandal" to start referring to Senator Obama as "the black candidate". Instead of fulfilling it's responsibility to the public to inform us and tell us who he is, the corporate media choose instead to lead us along with nebulously scandalous declarations that the people "don't know who he is". Of course they don't know who he is, because after a year and a half of campaigning the media still hasn't properly informed the public about who he is!

Why?

Because simply informing us is not as profitable as sensationalism.

Here are some of the facts about Barack Obama that the corporate media has been ignoring that may help you understand who he is:

Barack Obama is the son of a black father and a white mother. He is as much a "white candidate" as he is a "black candidate".
Barack was raised by his mother in a lower middle class household in a mostly white community in small town Kansas.
Barack Obama put himself through college with his own ability and hard work, using scholarships and working numerous jobs to pay the bills.
Barack Obama is an attorney and a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.
Barack Obama started in politics as a community organizer in Chicago and his whole campaign has been founded on the values of community organizing and citizen involvement in politics.

Because of its foundation in community organizing, the Obama campaign is more than just a campaign to elect one person. It is a movement to get citizens involved in the political process which is so necessary for us to take back out Democracy. Voting is not enough! If you want your Democracy to work right then you have to get involved! Getting involved means a lot of things. It could mean getting involved by joining a party, participate in setting the agenda and picking the candidates. Getting involved also means learning how to organize with our fellow citizens effectively and one you organize, how to effectively lobby our representatives to pursue your causes. Our represenatives can only represent us if they know what we want.

Hillary lost because she made her campaign about mostly one individual... Hillary. She constantly talked about herself, her experience and what she would do for us. Barack Obama's campaign is about us... all of us. It is about America and it's future and empowering We the people to take back our Democracy. That is why the Rev Wright attacks did little to slow down Obama's growing support, because his campaign is not about one man alone. Many Republicans still have not figured this out and they will continue with character attacks that just will not work. As one Republican talking head who does get it said, "Obama is not a butterfly, he is bulletproof."

If you are one of those people who believes that if only we could get the right people to run for office, they would fix all our problems and everything would be better, then I have news for you.

It is never going to happen.
There will never be one person who gets elected and solves all our problems.

It is when We the people get involved in our own Democracy, that our problems get addressed.

There is a historical pattern here that most people are not seeing. The cycle of freedom in America has not been about the individuals we read about in history class, like Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln or FDR. The thing that happened at the same time those people were in office was a great influx of public participation in the political process.

The Tax Acts from British Parliment effected the daily lives and local economies of many American colonists and thus motivated a large number of people to find some way to act out. The Boston Tea party wasn't committed by founding fathers alone. The 13 states were not each convinced to join in union against the British by just a few men, but rather because enough people got involved who also demanded change.

The same thing happened when slavery because such a hot issue that the nation erupted in a civil war. People did more than fight during and after the civil war. Again, the daily lives of so many average citizens was so impacted that many of those who came home from fighting or didn't fight got involved in the political process and started movements of people for causes.

Again, after the depression and into WW2, so many people's lives were effected that they wanted to do something, to act somehow, and so they got involved in their communities and the political process. Many movements were started or gained surges in membership during and after that period. FDR's many public works projects also brought many citizens into the workings of government and got then involved. Thus the period from WW2 to the 1980s was the greatest period of prosperity and wealth America has ever seen. In the 1980s, government became the enemy and the people stopped participating in our Democracy. Ronald Reagan famously declared that "Government is not the solution, government is the problem."

People who do not believe in government cannot govern effectively. That is why Reagan ran up the largest national debt in history at the time. He has since been overshadowed in fiscal irresponsibility by G.W. Bush because he took the same conservative anti-government ideology one step further. Now we have an era of private mercinary armies that pose as much a threat to our freedoms as any rouge nation.

Barack Obama knows history and he understands this cycle and he knows that what needs to happen for America to make the recovery we all want to see, we are all going to have to start getting involved in our communities. Barack organized his campaign in such a way to help enable the kind of community organization that empowers us. That is why his campaign has been about inspiration and he spoke so much not about himself, but about the possibilities of what we can achieve if we work together.

The presidential campaign of Howard Dean was a similar precursor of this phenomenon and as a result the Dean for America movement survived the 2000 election cycle and grew into Democracy for America, which is now a nationwide organization going around teaching citizens how to get involved in our Democracy. They hold classes regularly and if you are one of those who is waking up and wants to find out how to get active, I recommend you check them out.

When the Republicans inevitably attack Barack Obama on "experience", ask yourself this: What kind of experience do I want a President to have?
Do I want a President who knows and respects the law, like Barack Obama? Or do I want a President who is willing to break even a law bearing his own name, as John McCain is doing? Do I want a President who wants citizens to get involved in the political process or one who just wants us to go shopping?
Do I want a President who's campaign is full of corporate lobbyists, like John McCain's? Or do I want a President who's campaign is staffed and funded by We the people, individual citizens acting out of a sense of social responsibility?

We have tried the President we wanted to have a beer with and who ran the country like a business, now America knows it is time we try a President who could teach a class in Constitutional law and who represents the unique and varied nature of modern American society.

After 8 years of a President with open disdain for the law America is ready for a President who knows and respects the law.

Barack Obama has the right kind of experience for America.

The Mother's Day Proclamation

2008-05-10T21:43:00.004-04:00

This is worth reposting. Especially this year.

The Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

John McCain is a Victim, not a Hero

2008-05-02T13:39:00.002-04:00

John Sidney McCain III is not a “war hero”.

John Sidney McCain III is a victim.

John McCain is a victim of torture and a broken man who has demonstrated repeatedly that he is willing to sell out his principles for political power.

That is the frame that Democrats and progressives need to aggressively push if they want to win in November. That is how they need to redefine McCain.

Barack Obama only hurt himself when he opened a speech in Ohio with “John McCain is a great American hero.”

What he should have said was “John McCain has my greatest sympathy for what happened to him in Vietnam, but his policies are bad for America.”

It is not even dishonest like the “Swift boat” attacks were; it is the absolute, documented truth. Right now John Sidney McCain III is running around the country touting his “war hero” image and getting a free pass by the media, who appear too busy buying him his favorite doughnuts to ask any tough questions.

I have written in other essays about framing and how it is the most vital skill Democrats and progressives need to learn in order to win in modern politics. One of the most key elements of framing in politics is to define your opponent and define yourself in the public’s mind. Democrats have a very bad habit of buying into Republican frames and thus allowing Republicans to define themselves, their opponents and the entire debate in the public’s mind. This is why we have the common media narrative of Republicans as ‘macho’ and Democrats as ‘weak’ even though the facts do not match the story. It is a testament to how good cons have gotten at framing and to the inherent bias by the conservative corporate media.

John Sidney McCain III is no more of a hero than every other soldier who actually did go fight in Vietnam.

John McCain is a victim of torture, a victim of bad policies that put him in Vietnam in the first place and ultimately a victim of his own hubris that comes from his elite status in society as the son of an Admiral.

There is a difference between feeling really sorry for someone and considering him or her a “hero”.

Sure there is some argument to be made that everyone who goes to war at all is a “hero” in some sense of the term. But no one can expect that to be enough to warrant the title “war hero” when running for national political office, yet John McCain is trying to do it based on his story that he got shot down in Vietnam, taken prisoner and held captive for five years.

What exactly is a “Hero” anyway?

The root of the word is the Greek word “Heros” which in Greek mythology was someone who was blessed by the gods.

The dictionary says a hero is:

1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal:

Generally a hero has come to mean someone who as the second definition states, “performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal”.

Martin Luther King, Jr. for example, is rightly considered a hero for his non-violent approach to civil rights and his unwavering courage in sticking to his message in the face of threats that ultimately were fulfilled.

So what exactly is John McCain’s story?

John Sidney McCain III is the son of a Navy Admiral and Grandson of a Navy Admiral. He was born into moderate wealth but great power and ultimately married into great wealth with his mistress-turned-second wife, Cindy.

According to Wikipedia:

“John McCain’s capture and imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam, when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi. McCain fractured both arms and a leg, and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi. After he regained consciousness, a mob attacked him, crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt, and bayoneted him; he was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Loa Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".”

Wikipedia also notes this about John McCain’s time in the Hanoi Hilton:

“In August of 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery, and McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession". He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."”

What does being broken do to a person’s psyche? How long can the effects from a traumatic experience like that last? A lifetime? How much of John McCain’s infamously unstable temper comes from his experience as a victim of torture? Is that a person we really want with his finger of the nuclear button?

Ok, now I feel very bad for McCain and he has my deepest sympathies for what he experienced, but that does not qualify him for status of “hero”. Especially when McCain just recently voted against banning torture!

If we are supposed to consider John McCain a hero by virtue of him being held captive and tortured until he was broken then what are we supposed to think about all the people we are doing that to now? Are they also heroes? What does that say about us now that we are doing it to others?

Getting shot down, captured, and tortured and being broken both physically and mentally does not strike me as someone “blessed by the gods”. Neither does bombing runs on villages or creating propaganda videos for the enemy strike me as particularly “noble” and it certainly is not something I think should be regarded as a “model or ideal”.

Now lets look at the story of another Vietnam veteran who shares his first name, John Kerry. This is just one story of how he earned one of his medals in Vietnam. Also from Wikipedia.

“Eight days later, on February 28, 1969, came the events for which Kerry was awarded his Silver Star. On this occasion, Kerry was in tactical command of his Swift boat and two others. Their mission included bringing a demolition team and dozens of South Vietnamese soldiers to destroy enemy sampans, structures and bunkers. Running into an ambush, Kerry "directed the boats to turn to the beach and charge the Viet Cong positions" and he "expertly directed" his boat's fire and coordinated the deployment of the South Vietnamese troops, according to the original medal citation (signed by Admiral Zumwalt). Going a short distance farther, Kerry's boat was the target of an RPG round; as the boat beached at the site, a VC with a rocket launcher jumped and ran from a spider hole. While the boat's gunner opened fire, wounding the VC on the leg, and while the other boats approached and offered cover fire, Kerry jumped from the boat and chased the VC and killed him, capturing a loaded rocket launcher.”

So what I want to know is, if John Kerry’s war record was not above reproach, why do Democrats act as if John McCain’s is? The one thing that Karl Rove was right about was the tactic of taking your opponent’s strength and turning it into a liability. John McCain’s war record is his greatest strength and it is the reason the media is treating him with kid gloves. If Democrats want to win this they are going to have to take off the kid gloves and bring up the hypocrisy of someone who was broken by torture turning around and voting against banning the same behavior by Americans. They are going to have to bring up the fact McCain cooperated with the enemy and made anti-American propaganda for them.

John McCain’s low moral standards and questionable judgment have been repeatedly shown by his behavior. From the fact he was one of the infamous “Keating Five” to the fact he is breaking his own campaign finance laws right now by taking public financing and then going over the spending limits and by using his wife’s corporate jet for free, we have seen examples again and again of a man who is willing to sell out his principles for political convenience.

Hypocrisy is also a serious issue with John McCain. His record as a Senator shows a pattern of opposing Veteran and POW/MIA issues.

John Sidney McCain III opposed the Missing Personnel Act and the POW/MIA Rescue Act, which would have granted political asylum to any Southeast Asian national who brought a living American POW to freedom.

How can a former POW oppose that?

John McCain disagreed with the findings of the 1990 Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which concluded that our government had indeed abandoned some of our men when the war ended.
John McCain then went on to single handedly undermine the Senate Select Committee created to investigate the issue.

“During the course of their several month-long investigations, they heard unbelievable testimony from hundreds of people. No less than four former Secretaries of Defense testified that men were left behind. National Security analysts testified that they tracked the movements of our men long after the war ended. Radio transcripts of American POWs being moved in Laos were recorded in the early 1980s:

There were satellite photos of pilot distress signals taken as recently as 1992, complete with pilot name and authenticator code numbers. Former Soviet Commanders testified that they debriefed our men in the Soviet Union, and even Boris Yeltsin admitted American POWs had been transferred there.

No less than four committee investigators provided the Senators of their estimates ranging from a low of 150 to as many as 600 men who they believed were still alive and in captivity. This doesn't even include the testimony they heard behind closed doors that supposedly endangered our national security.

The conclusions of this committee was that "no credible evidence was provided to support the possibility that Americans were still alive and in captivity," This, despite documents from Soviet Archives that showed that the Vietnamese were holding more than 1,200 American POWs, and released less than 600, John McCain signed his name on this incredibly flawed report.”

John McCain opposes Senator Jim Webb’s New GI Bill, which would become the military’s greatest recruiting tool, because he says he thinks it would encourage soldiers to leave the military. God forbid they should leave the military to pursue an education! Who would occupy Iraq for 100 years if they do that?

John Sidney McCain III is not a hero by any standard of measure. He is an old, rich elitist with an infamously explosive temper and very questionable morals, which he has a record of selling out for political convenience. John McCain is a victim of torture, a victim of crimes against humanity, a victim of war crimes and a victim of bad policies and poor judgment that put him in that position in the first place. Probably worst of all, John Sidney McCain III is a victim of his own hubris.

That is a person I feel very sorry for, but I do not admire that person and I do not think that qualifies that person to be any kind of a leader.

That is not the kind of person we need leading this country at this time in history.

We don’t have to wait for the media to pick this frame up before we start using it either. That is not how it actually works. We the people, individual progressives and Democrats, can set the frame in the public debate by using it ourselves. If we get in the habit of actively re-framing the issues instead of passively accepting whatever frame the media is putting out. That is how we change the discussion in America, by refusing to have the discussion the cons want to have and steering the conversation toward the issues we want using our frames for them.

Cedar Fest 2008 - Michigan State University

2008-05-02T12:42:00.003-04:00

I was at East Lansing during the first Cedar Fest back in 1989 after the Michigan/Michigan State football game. It was crazy and it looks like it hasn't changed much except the police response seems a lot more militant now. 52 rounds of tear gas were fired at the kids assembled.

Bush Sending "Stimulus" Checks Early - Economy Worse Then Expected

2008-04-25T10:39:00.005-04:00

This is why the economy is going to be a huge factor in this year's elections. With everything that is going on, the Republicans seriously think the answer to the average American's problems is a $600 check and more tax cuts for the wealthy.

The underlying story here is that the economy is slowing down faster than they expected. By November we may be in a full blown recession.

Bush hails early delivery of stimulus checks
President expresses hope tax rebates will boost weaker economy

WASHINGTON - President Bush says the economic-stimulus tax rebates will begin going out Monday and will help people cope with lofty energy and food prices, as well as giving the economy a jolt.
...

“This money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we’re seeing at the gas pump, at the grocery store, and will also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown,” Bush said Friday in brief remarks at the White House.
...

“It’s obvious our economy is in a slowdown,” Bush said.
Earlier this week, the president denied the nation was in a recession, instead saying, “We are in a slowdown.” But many economists believe the economy may already be in a recession.
A trio of crises — housing, credit and financial — has threatened to plunge the economy deep into recession.
The economy grew at an anemic 0.6 percent in the final three months of last year and is believed to have gotten even weaker in the first three months of this year. The government will report on the first quarter’s performance next week. A growing number of analysts believe the economy is shrinking now.

The Supreme Court gets the telling off they deserve

2008-04-24T12:10:00.005-04:00

But of course it doesn't happen in real life. This is an awesome scene from Boston Legal where Alan argues before the Supreme Court against the death penalty for a non-homicide case. He also takes time out to say what millions of Americans are thinking about their job performance lately.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Fameous McCains

2008-04-22T22:18:00.002-04:00

The Democrats had better learn how to define John Sidney McCain III and quick or they are going to lose this election. John McCain is not a "war hero"; he is a victim of torture.

He is victim of torture who was broken, physically and mentally and cooperated with the enemy because of it! That makes him someone I feel very sorry for but it doesn't make him a hero.

Governor Jesse Ventura Speaking his mind

2008-04-09T08:17:00.002-04:00

This is a really interesting interview with Jesse Ventura on Hannity and Colmes.

The Conservative Corporate Media and Framing the Debate

2008-04-04T10:45:00.004-04:00

I have to give the Cons credit where it is due, they mastered the art of Framing the Debate years ago and the corporate media has been using it unseen in plain sight for decades. In his book, "Don't Think Of An Elephant", Dr. George Lakoff explains that framing the debate is the most important political trick that the Democrats and Progressives need to become familiar with if they want to compete with the Cons. In his book, Dr. Lakoff uses the example of the Frame of the "Tax Burden" and how that simple phrase immediately puts taxes in the position of being something unwanted that needs to be reduced and how that has effected public perception of the debate over time.

Lets look at another more recent example in today's news:

Economy Sheds 80,000 jobs in March

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The employers cut payrolls for a third month in a row in March, slashing 80,000 jobs for the biggest monthly job decline in five years as the economy headed into a downturn, government data on Friday showed.
The Labor Department revised the first two months of the year's job losses to a total of 152,000 from a previous estimate of 85,000. The March unemployment rate jumped to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, the highest since a matching rate in September 2005.

The March job report was more bleak than expected. Economists polled ahead of the report forecast a decline of 60,000 in non-farm payrolls and a rise in the unemployment rate to 5 percent.

During the first quarter of this year job losses averaged 77,000 a month, compared to average monthly gains of 76,000 in the last half of 2007, according to Keith Hall, Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner.

Job losses were widespread during the month, with the biggest losses in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
(Reporting by Joanne Morrison; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

huh?
Now... My dog "sheds" her extra fur.
I may "shed" my coat if I get hot.
We all try to "shed" some extra pounds.

This headline makes it sound like the economy was just getting rid of some extra jobs it didn't need or want anymore.

The thing is, more people read just the headline than will ever read the entire article, so everybody in the newspaper business understands the importance of the headlines and how they can be used to frame things, even if it is contrary to the content of the actual articles.

I found that part at the end particularly interesting because I am curious to know who is responsible for that headline, the reporter or the "editor".

A quick google of "Joanne Morrison" found another example of her writing, this time without the "editing".

U.S. recession could be worse than recent downturns

Nope, I don't think she was the one who came up with that deceptive headline.

Then I did a quick search on "Neil Stempleman" which revealed these examples of his work:

Financial system may need public funds-IMF's Lipsky

Bernanke repeats economy in difficult period

Personal income rises, inflation moderates

This one was particularly funny since the first paragraph reads as follows:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. personal income rose more than expected in February as the economy teetered on the brink of a recession, while both personal spending and a key price measure increased only slightly, a government report showed on Friday.

Obviously there is someone at Reuters who believes that they need to "moderate" the headlines they put on their newswire, thus the conspicuous "editing" in so many of their articles by people like Mr. Stempleman.

Apparently the people at Reuters don't think we, the American people, can handle the unvarnished truth and they think they need to sugar-coat everything to the point of twisting its meaning in the headline.

Of course this beggars the question, Who owns Reuters?

Well, it turns out they just recently got bought by the Thompson Corporation, a Multinational Conglomerate who makes about $3 Billion worth of profit in the Financial sector each year.

Isn't Media Consolidation wonderful?

ugh.

An Interesting Photo Of Rev. Wright

2008-03-23T13:06:00.002-04:00

This is an interesting photo I found. It shows Rev. Wright treating President Johnson when he was in the Navy and shows the letter he got thanking him for helping the President.

Obama Speech From Today - "A More Perfect Union"

2008-03-18T13:45:00.002-04:00

Vietnam Vets Against McCain

2008-02-14T21:14:00.001-05:00

Watch the video and judge for yourself.

Mythbusting Canadian Health Care

2008-02-14T19:35:00.003-05:00

Sara Robinson wrote a great piece over at Campaign for America's Future, debunking the right wing lies about health care in Canada and here in America.

Check it out.