Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Hey, Democrats, I'm with the Stuffed Bear...





Thanks ndintenfass. At YouTube, of course...

The 'BenBernanke' and us: How Our Tax Money Still Lined Goldman Sach's Back Pockets



Masses, educate thyself on the mystery of the Fed and how our tax money  find its way, unimpeded as we speak, to the people that are still laughing on their way to the bank at lonely Bernie Madoff: Goldman Sachs. Wait! They own the bank!

I understand we have to spend. I know that deflation is a wicked, slow, vicious spiraling down the tube of an economy. I'm totally for monetary measure that ease credit lending to small businesses and individuals (if the different banks and creditors involve decides one day to lend again, which they haven't done yet, sitting instead on enormous mass of liquidity. Probably waiting for the Repug to take power before opening the floodgates again, all the while giving credit to the party of 'No, hell, no!') And please, taxes for the middle class are lower now than before.

So, of course, take this video with a grain of salt. Some of the most debilitated elements from the anarchist fringe of the tea drinker party repeat those same talking point memo item as religious truth and reason enough to take down the government.

But, still : Goldman Sachs!!!! Anyway you put it, we are royally screwed...

All the same, a very funny 5 minutes of your time. It all starts by a beautiful day of quantitative easing...

Letter to Obama: Please Read, Mr. President, About What Will Be Done on Your Watch...



I do see your need, Mr. President,  to not let the crazies run the asylum and to resist the lowering of the public debate to the basest level where Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Rove, O'Reilly, Politico, half of the AP and 'new bestselling author' Bush are thriving but resisting alone won't change the debate.

There is a communication vacuum in the Democrat's camp. First, because the right-wing media are owning and shaping every debates, but also because the democrats themselves are scared of their own message. They are afraid of the political price to pay to embrace a socially responsible agenda. They do not even make a concerted effort to redefine or repackage those ideas into more palatable fare to the scared right wing extremists.

Nonetheless, one thing is certain, when we said change, we did not mean 'Kiss up to every republican shill, shady economists or fraudulent health care industry's lobbyists you met.' It meant: 'For once, let there be somebody on Capitol Hill that fights for us instead of his private club buddies.' It meant: 'You have a blank check and ammunition: now fight!'

Unfortunately, we discovered that we did not elect a fighter nor a leader but a Master of Compromises. Patient, earnest, hardworking, Mr. Smith has finally arrived in Washington. What irony! The Nobel Peace Prize WAS indeed well deserved. Anybody facing the horde of foaming at the mouth two-headed monsters created by this new bizarre Republican/Tea Party hybrid and who still tries to create equitable, level-handed solutions through sane, reasonable dialogue do deserve it.

There's very little time left to combat all the lies by omissions, insinuations or pure fabrications of the Murdoch/Aile/Koch brothers Tribe however: time to forget the Peace Prize and get dirty.

When the Republicans will get back at the trough, guess who's going to get blame for every single mess? Who will be left standing but emptied, chewed and spit out? You and us, both.

Your only friends left then, Mr. President, are the one who elected you. We might sound unreasonable to you. Socially conscious. Progressive even. But wait and see and compare with the rest. Wait and see who's ready to lend you a hand. And who's too busy selling everything from the chandelier to the crystal cup to the highest bidder to even look at you drowning.

For this a-coming group of 'concerned, fair, balanced, independent, true, patriotic, free enterprise-loving, papa, mama, baby, BS selling, dancing, Alaskan Bears' paid citizenry, bipartisanship means one thing only: 'Give all government funds to corporate interests. No strings attached.' The dialogue you yearn for is pretty much a one way street.

They are ready to do what they did best before: restructuring (read bankrupt) America. After selling the country's jobs and technology on the cheap to outside interests - incongruously strengthening and enlarging those nations' middle class all the while shrinking ours - they are now at the point of dismantling basic services.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the department of Education.... All will be hollowed out and the funds allocated to lawless, unsupervised private corporations. Costs will soars, the rich/poor divide widen. They see it as a 'business cycle'. The pendulum will swing while they drink champagne. We all can see it as madness.

I know it's hard for you to see that they do not care. Really, believe us,  they do not. But you do. So try not to play the role assign to you by their well funded think-thanks and believe in your own word: you can make a difference. 
You still can, Mr. President. But you do need to wake up and get some fighting Rambo-style help....

Insist on the words sanity, decency, common good. Keep on saying that you will fight for the middle class until your last breath. Put the tea drinkers on the defensive: they're not even sure why they are there themselves. Give Howard Dean a call, thank him for a fantastic BBC interview where he defended your position eloquently and forcefully. Give Krugman and Nouriel Rubini a call. Bernanke was wrong and they were right, there's not much more to be discussed here, really. Call Clinton - can't escape him, he's the oasis President between two Desert Storm campaigns- and the new DLC chairman, Harold Ford, tell them you won't go in the middle.  Nothing in the middle but dead possum. Triangulation satisfies no one but corporate interests. The 50 states strategy worked. It's now or never the time to be on the message in the party. Tell them that a parrot could do what the Republicans do: repeat, repeat, repeat until we hear nothing but their voices and all else is dwarfed.

Just repeat a different message: 'As for the Republicans attack on the middle class: the buck stops here!'

Oh, by the way, speaking of Truman: don't forget that China was behind North Korea in the 50's. they still are.

Good Luck, Mr. President. We still love you: who could replace you? Seriously, with Hillary gone, who can? Don't be a stranger: meet us on Huff Post.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Inverted Cannibalism: How the US is Eating its Young By Chris Hedge




We all have seen the signs, the strange discomfort is changing into outright disbelief, but not too many can argue now that everything is well in the Republic of Palin and Snookie.

The Right is doing its job all right but the Left is seen as impotent, even thought all the political capital in the world were thrown at it so as to shake up, shape up and reaffirm this thing called democracy in a society that should not shudder at the mere mention of empathy and that assuredly should regard compassion and justice as valuable human principles.

TruthDig Chris Hedge's talk on 'The Death of the Liberal Class' go further into the dissection of the disease that seems to erode all the Left's political endeavors.

An eye opener and a somber take on the history, as well as the uncertain future, of a broken republic.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

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  • Senator sees hope for Obama-led tax code reform| Reuters

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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

More Good News: We're Not Insane!

 

Sarah Palin, Tea Party are not viewed favorably by most Americans, latest poll finds

Thursday, September 16th 2010, 9:40 AM

Sarah Palin may have a magic touch with candidates she endorses, but nearly half of American voters aren't impressed by the former Republican vice presidential candidate.

The Tea Party isn't a hit with voters, either, a new poll finds.

Just 21% of those asked have a favorable view of Palin, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll, which also found that 19% support the Tea Party.

Despite drawing large, raucous crowds wherever she speaks, the number of voters who view Palin unfavorably rose six points since August to 46%.

Meanwhile, 33% say they are undecided on Palin or don't know enough about her positions.
Still, Palin's endorsements seem to matter.

So far this primary season, Palin has backed 43 candidates and 25 of them have won, 11 have lost, with the rest not having had a primary race.

Most recently, she helped lift Republicans Christine O'Donnell and Kelly Ayotte to Senate primary wins in Delaware and New Hampshire, respectively.

However, two in three voters say Palin is just looking for attention with her endorsements, according to the poll.

The former Alaska governor has not said whether she will run for president in 2012. However, a poll from last month shows 59% of the country thinks she would be an ineffective commander-in-chief.

As for the Tea Party, 63% do not support it, though voters who are familiar with the party are more divided.
The poll finds 29% have an unfavorable view, opposed to 23% who see the party in a favorable light.
Still, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a champion of the Tea Party, thinks the budding political movement can be a force in Washington.

"The Tea Party represents a broad cross-section of the American people," DeMint told NBC's "Today."
"You can't change Washington unless you change people who are here," DeMint said. "People are ready to throw out the bums."
salfano@nydailynews.com


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/09/16/2010-09-16_sarah_palin_tea_party_are_not_viewed_favorably_by_most_americans_latest_poll_fin.html#ixzz0zkN8uVsS


Nearly Half of You Loves the Rich Enough...




Seriously, I haven't been blogging for awhile but it doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying the ride.

Obama seems poised to finally say all those things we wanted him to say at the very beginning of his presidency, finally remembering that he wasn't  elected to play nice with the Good Old Boy's Club (now with spunky hostesses!) but to protect the interests of his base, the middle-class.

The Republicans have found more callous and twisted than them and are a bit surprise. And annoyed. 

Yahoo has erected itself as the Fox News of the internet, doctoring main stories distribution and choosing elements of coverage that only reflect Tea party/GOP allegiance. The comments section itself is nothing more but a gathering of strident bullies, a motley crew of GOP zombies repeating that they want nothing more than to let the Tea Party loose on the world and let the theocracy that the Saintly Anointed Founding Fathers OBVIOUSLY wanted for this country  triumph at long last! This victory will usher a new dawn of God fearing prosperity, where women are women and paid less, men are tools and paid less and children that have the money get educated and the rest are paid less or sent to war! Imagine! They'll get a gun!  EACH! For free!… la-la-la la-la-la!!

Damn! Where's Poland when you need it?!

Well, yes, all that would be tempting and enticingly suicidal but I prefer my Democracy lunatic-free and anti-totalitarian. I know, old habits die hard… So I still go back to Yahoo to get my GOP sponsored news page and I sill read the AP news wire everyday. And everyday I wish I could laugh it all off as an elaborate punk hoax by George Orwell  but, no, doublespeak is the new official language of the United States. For exemple:



Isn't that pretty? Nearly half! Well that couldn't mean that (counting on my fingers)... let's say, more than half?... So.. the majority?  By Jove, my man, the majority are for tax hikes for the Rich (with a capital R)! 

I would have given a bloody Pulitzer to any decent journalist that would have wrote a simple, reality based headline: Majority of Americans are for the Repeal of Bush tax cut for the Wealthy.

Less sexy to the lunatic fringe, I guess…

Posted by Julie Hollar on 09/16/10 at 11:36 am

An AP piece published across the Web today (9/16/10) carries this headline: AP-GfK Poll: Nearly Half Oppose Tax Hikes for Rich.
Well, that's one way of looking at it--just like you could report the results of the 1988 election by saying that Michael Dukakis got "nearly half" of the popular vote. The more logical way of putting it would be that more than half support letting tax cuts expire for the rich: 54 percent to 44 percent. But framing it instead around the minority position lets them focus on how Democrats might worry about "provoking the 44 percent who say the reductions should include the wealthy," as opposed to worrying about provoking the majority who don't feel that way.
And that majority is particularly strong among Democratic voters (three quarters), who are presumably the ones Democratic lawmakers need to be most worried about, particularly given the sharp drop in enthusiasm among those voters.


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Arianna Discovers Wal-Mart....























 Well, let's say she discovered what we've meant for years about the Wal-Martization of America.

She explains it well, in an articulate, crystal-clear smart piece that suggest we turn our boat around.

That would be a fantastic idea, if it wasn't a tad too late.

Let's be frank: the 'too big to fail' are also too big to fight. Obama has 671 billion dollars worth of guns pointing at his head to continue the mess we are in in Afghanistan and Iraq, Wall Street is one of the biggest contributor to the Democrat's party purse and despite the Republicans being outrageously Grand-Guignolesque in their pursuit of idiocy, bad taste and openly racist agenda, the Dems can barely make a dent in public opinion that's positive and lasting.

The seeds where sowed with Reagan, his deregulation process and hallowing out of Federal agencies. It consequences where obvious and they were not in anyone's favor but a handful of corporate casinos and their gambling-addicted brokers.

This process involved creating two very distinct classes, the have and the have-not, so that the working pool  stays affordable and 'flexible' and the United States copies the 'amazing successes' of 'emerging' giants like China and India.


With the manufacturing jobs go the manufacturing unions. With affordable and equitable education goes an informed and active middle-class. With a swift and organized recognition and integration of immigrants go a new citizenry access to the American Dream.

Instead, religiosity, self-aggrandizement and military might popularized by a fabricated network  of right-wing superstars, constantly present in the 'News', are pushed down our collective throat. The Federal government and all those 'brown wetbacks' are presented as scapegoats explaining the decline of the country and the economical hardships felt by what's left of the middle class. And finally, the service sector, principally non-unionized from McDonald to Wal-Mart, keeps wages low and upwardly mobility expectations lower. Don't forget that Wall Street, more often than not, owned the market place, your workplace.

I have seen the future and it's in Dubai: no taxes, no minimum wage, no minimum working hours, second-class citizenship accorded only to those who can afford real estate, immigration of individual on (paid) sponsorship only and with bank accounts in the sponsors' names that can be seized at any infraction. No family reconstitution. And God help you if you rear-end a Saudi limo or, Heaven's forbid, if he rear-ends you. On both cases, you're screwed. Well, guess where's Halliburton moving...

Arianna is right but how many Democrats are thinking long term solution and long term fight. How many thought 'We voted Obama, he'll clean that mess up.' and are now disillusioned because it is a process that is taking much longer than ONE term. How many will vote with spite on the next election and bring back the Republicans in power so they can finish what they started.

Hope we can reverse the trend created after 24 total years of Republican distortion and extortion. Hope it's not too late. So  I hope I'm wrong. I really hope I am.