tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-150363939806634942024-03-13T23:42:09.662-07:00Free Chicken and BeerA blog dedicated to three things; the proliferation of knowledge and understanding, the provocation of dialogue and intelligent debate from both sides of the issue, and ultimately, positive bi-partisan social change.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-24688042884498309772010-12-21T17:34:00.000-08:002010-12-21T18:18:22.381-08:00Christmas in Mississippi: Three jobs, can't pay rent.Yesterday, I just finished a 2-mile run at the city park close to my house, and was waiting in line at the local grocery store. I had all the delicious nutrients of a Naked juice in hand at the cash register. I dug into my shorts pocket and pulled my EBT card from my wallet to pay for it.<br /><br />Now, I still qualify for food stamps as long as I make under $1100 a month. And believe it or not, working six days a week as a substitute teacher and waiter in the daytime, and my night job as a bouncer at a gay club in a sketchy neighborhood on Friday and Saturday nights don't add up to that. In fact, it just barely adds up to the $550 I pay per month in rent (washer/dryer included, internet, cable, big backyard for the dog). Before I finish this story, let me take you for a walk in my shoes right quick.<br /><br /><b>A day in the life of a broke Jacksonian</b><br /><br />I tell folks I live in "the nice part of the hood." The roughest part of town is just a mile or so away. All that really happens on my street is my neighbor, Phyllis, occasionally coming over at 7 AM to bum a cigarette from my roommate. And sometimes Do-Right (his real name is Dudley) knocks on my window as I'm leaving for work, asking with his noticeable stutter if he can bum a ride to the liquor store. There's bars on some of the windows on my street, but other than that, my neighborhood isn't too bad.<br /><br />Also, being a bouncer and a waiter at the same time means my weekends are hell.<br /><br />Last Friday, I subbed a 9th grade AP English class, then worked at the club from 9 PM to 4 AM. After reading the last 30 pages of "To Kill A Mockingbird" and playing djembe for my classes, I stood out in biting cold weather that night. I changed from a suit and tie in the morning to a wool trench coat at night, with a secret service-style radio in my ear, looking intimidating and holding the door for the hundreds of patrons. I'd watch the scene inside periodically to get warm, and then escort them all back to their cars if necessary and chasing off carjackers. I usually get home around 5:30. At 8:30, I came to work at the restaurant and waited tables until 3. After some coffee, I went to a friend's house in the country for a Christmas party at 5, and then came back to the club at 9. I was there until 5, and then slept a few hours before waiting tables again at 10. I'd get off around 4, take my homeboy Steven home (one of our cooks who doesn't have a car) in the hood and hang with him for a bit before heading home.<br /><br />After all that, I sit down in my chair with a tallboy in hand, a Labrador at my feet, and the Saints on TV. It's a well-deserved break after almost 40 hours of work in a 48-hour time period.<br /><br /><b>Broke on Christmas</b><br /><br />While probably 25% of this country is either unemployed or has eventually just stopped looking for employment. I'm the lucky guy in this economy; I have three jobs. I'm working like a horse. The problem is, waiting tables four days a week at a restaurant that splits tips amongst the waiters and the cooks (we get paid federal minimum wage in return) means a pitiful check at the end of the week. Subbing comes very intermittently, because certified teachers working under Haley Barbour's public sector don't want to take too many sick/vacation days knowing that their jobs may become budget sacrifices in July. Bouncing pays a c-note, straight cash at the end of a Saturday night. but when you factor in the costs of travel, along with daily costs, bills and rent, my three jobs mean I may or may not have the $550 at the end of December.<br /><br />Life is pretty rough, but life is also dealing me some really interesting cards right now. I still find time to perform slam poetry on the weekends, time to do theatre at night, time to work out in the afternoons, time for the occasional blues jam or drum circle, and even time for every 23 year-old in Mississippi's eternal pursuit of beautiful Southern women. Being young, single, childless and in good health has its advantages. Three jobs and a demanding social life means not much sleep, but I can always do that when I'm dead.<br /><br />After a run at the park, I'm standing in line at the store. Manheim Steamroller is playing obnoxious hair metal Christmas music over the speakers above us. Nobody is talking to or looking at each other. their looking at phones or grocery lists or shelves, and politely mumbling a stifled and insincere apology if they bump into another person not looking at anyone. We're all ants on a mission. Get up. Drink coffee. Go to work or look for work. Get groceries. Eat food. Go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat. There's an air of misery throughout the place. You can almost smell the desperation. And this is North Jackson, where folks are generally doing better than folks in South or West Jackson.<br /><br />The cashier gets to me and swipes my Protein Zone Naked Juice. She's done this a thousand times today. i can tell she just wants her job a little less mundane when she decides to stir the still air with some meaningless conversation with a sweaty stranger clad in shorts and a t-shirt. She and I aren't making eye contact. Her eyes are on the price on the screen, and my eyes are on the console as I swipe my food stamp card. (Yes, I buy my Naked juice on food stamps. It's three servings of fruit in a bottle. Don't judge.)<br /><br />"Finish your Christmas shopping yet?" She asks as she stifles a yawn.<br /><br />I look up at her, stunned.<br /><br />"Christmas presents?!?" I can't help but start laughing. "Who has extra money to spend at Target? I've got three jobs and can't pay my rent!"<br /><br />The cashier starts laughing too. The other customers in line behind me start to chuckle. The folks in the line next to me and shopping in the aisle behind us all start giggling. We all start exchanging pleasantries about how broke we are. About working multiple jobs and struggling just to pay the bills at the end of the month. About making mix CDs for family members this Christmas. Everyone leaves with a smile on their face; we may be broke, but at least we have money for food, and cars to drive back to the house.<br /><br />There's no middle class around here. The last of it is dying off. We all may drive cars, homes and regular jobs, but we're holding on to the very last strands of financial stability. We all know those last few strands will be taken from us soon by our corporate owners. But right now, we're living hard and doing whatever it takes to hold on.<br /><br />I'm just thankful my boss at the restaurant gave me and the other waiter and cook a voucher at Honeybaked Ham for a ham or turkey to take back home. That's my Christmas present to them this year.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-80972796841716109652010-12-11T17:23:00.000-08:002010-12-13T18:48:59.337-08:00The Republican Revitalization of Fascism<b>Defining Fascism</b><br /><br /><i>"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."</i><br />-Benito Mussolini<br /><br />Those are the words of one of the original creators of Fascism. Benito Mussolini is credited with establishing the key principles of fascism in the time he led Italy's government. He defines it as a government built upon rabid nationalism, collusion between government and corporate power, the belief in expansion, and most importantly, a nation that was anti-Communist. Mussolini heavily believed in the need for Fascism to actively <a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=465212788434">censor the media at will</a> and <a href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201012130007">distribute propaganda</a> favorable to the big business/big government establishment. Mussolini was a key Axis ally for Imperial Japan and the Tojo Regime, and was also Hitler's European ally in his own conquest for global Nazi supremacy.<br /><br />By the end of World War II, Mussolini's body hung upside-down by a gas station on public display. He had been captured and decapitated by his own people.<br /><br /><b>Calling Fascism for what it is</b><br /><br />"<i>Capitalism has defeated Communism. It is now well on its way to defeating Democracy.</i>"<br />-David C. Korten<br /><br />By the end of 2008, the Republican party was leaderless, divided and in disarray. Most political reporters claimed the Republicans had had their last gasp.<br /><br />Then just about a year ago, after the John Roberts SCOTUS ruled 5-4 in favor of Citizens United vs. FEC, which equates money with political speech, and multinational corporations as real people. Then after drinking some overly rich and bitter tea, the Republicans suddenly got a whole lot of new friends and much kinder treatment in the corporate media.<br /><br />Suddenly the teapublicans had momentum. They won the day on November 2nd after a primary and general election season filled with platitudes decrying Congressional corruption, and flooding the media with talk about changing "business as usual Washington politics."<br /><br />In the midst of their anti-DC corruption, anti-special interest rhetoric, teapublicans wrote their "<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/national-party-news/120593-gop-blueprint-bashes-special-interests-written-by-special-interests">Pledge to America</a>" with the help of corrupt DC special interests. Brian Wild, listed as the Pledge's author, made big money as a big-time lobbyist for big insurance and big oil.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, this Pledge to America was an <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-23-2010/postcards-from-the-pledge">exact carbon copy</a> of Newt Gingrich's "Contract to America" back when the Republicans made big gains in 1994. Two years later, John Boehner would later be caught <a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/GOP+LEADER+CALLS+TOBACCO+CHECK+HANDOUTS+A+%60MISTAKE%27.-a083962688">handing out checks</a> from big tobacco in the halls of Congress.<br /><br />See, Republicans have always been corporate America's pawns; the same robber barons of the gilded age who fought like hellcats to prevent FDR from passing Social Security are the same Wall Street fat cats and K Street brokers who fight President Obama's progressive goals tooth and nail. They fill the campaign coffers of their Republican Congressional allies, and in turn, those Congressmen fight for policies that benefit their corporate benefactors even if that policy harms their own constituents. <br /><br />It really shouldn't surprise any of us to hear that John Boehner, the new presumptive Speaker of the House, appointed a <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46211.html">big-time lobbyist</a> as his chief of staff. Or that the GOP's America Speaking Out project consisted of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/us/politics/12boehner.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all">closed backroom meetings</a> with K Street. Nor should it surprise us that <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/09/gop-freshmen-lobbyist-cos/">13 incoming teapublican congressmen</a> are giving corporate lobbyists control of their DC offices. Government collusion with corporations is an essential facet of fascism, and the Republicans make no bones about fighting <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/gop-blocks-democrats-jobs-outsourcing-bill/">for the wealthy few</a> and <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/04/politics/main7116715.shtml">against the rest of us.</a><br /><br />Such policy is blatant fascism. It's time to call them out for it out in the open. This new breed of Republican leadership is proto-fascist. Fascism is their ultimate intent; it always has been, back when George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott, engineered an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml">unsuccessful fascist coup</a> during the Gilded Age.<br /><br /><b>Fascism: The ultimate goal of the far right</b><br /><br /><i>"It is our conduct, our patriotism and belief in our American way of life, our courage that will win the final battle."</i><br />-Senator Prescott Bush (R-CT), grandfather to President George W. Bush<br /><br />Numerous historical comparisons can be made between the 1930s and the 2010s. It could be in the unemployment numbers, or the <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/50707728-82/percent-americans-republic-tax.html.csp">vast income inequality</a> between the wealthiest 2% of Americans and everyone else, the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/operation-broken-trust-succeeds-now-how-do-you-restore-trust/67590/">repugnant, rapacious greed</a> of today's Wall Street robber barons, or a number of <a href="http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/where_has_all_the_income_gone_look_up/">other factors</a>. Did you know that today, in what our leaders would call the most prosperous nation on the planet, literally <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/09/poverty-uninsured-rates-rise-as-recession-continues.html">one in seven</a> Americans are living below the federal poverty line? Or that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html">1%</a> of this nation's population owns 24% of the nation's wealth, up from 9% in 1976? This Great Recession is the worst economic morass we've seen since the Great Depression. Speaking of historical comparisons...<br /><br />In 1933, right-wing businessmen, including Prescott Bush back when he was a railroad executive, hatched a nefarious plan to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml">violently overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> and set up a fascist dictatorship <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar">akin to Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy</a>. These American fascists believed that being business partners with the Nazis and the Fascists was the only way to beat the Great Depression. Incredibly, Prescott Bush looked after his own pockets more than the future of our freedom fought for by our founders. Even after we entered WWII, and even after it was known that the Nazis were planning on exterminating the Jewish race, Bush maintained his foreign assets and investments in German companies during World War II until they were seized in the Trading With the Enemy Act in 1942.<br /><br />The final battle that Prescott Bush spoke of in the above quote was likely of his own collusion with Mussolini and Fascism against FDR and Democracy. Today, it is the class war waged by today's fascists against what remains of our Democracy. And as you can see from the numerous links and evidence in this piece, the fascists have almost won. Their machine of corporate money to promote corporate politicians in the corporate media to further tighten corporate America's stranglehold on our Republic has succeeded. The last elections were a direct result of unprecedented corporate influence on our Democracy, as permitted by the <i>Citizens United</i> decision. We will only see this fascist cancer spread and infect more of this nation until we pay it proper attention and systematically cut it out.<br /><br /><b>The Fascist machine</b><br /><br /><i>"I hope we shall...crush in its birth the aristocracy of our<br />moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our<br />government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of<br />our country."</i><br />-Thomas Jefferson<br /><br />I can't stop quoting Jefferson enough with that statement, because it's even more true today than it was in 1816, when he wrote those words to George Logan.<br /><br />Remember the health care debates that raged all across cable news from 2009 to early 2010? Right from the start, far-right politicians, their corporate financiers and the corporate-owned media were working together in their failed effort to defeat the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Here's how it worked:<br /><br />Initially, progressives asked President Obama for health care reform. They wanted, most of all, a single-payer system that negated the need for private health insurance companies. Progressives see health care as a human right, not as a commodity available only for those rich enough to afford care. <br /><br />When the President didn't even fight for a single payer system, progressives asked for a robust public health insurance option that folks could choose instead of a private insurance company that charged sky-high premiums. The words "public option" became a rallying cry for progressives. When the pollsters asked the people, they learned the idea of a public option was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/19/AR2009101902451.html">pretty popular</a>. The right-wing machine then went to work. <br /><br />First, AHIP, Washington's lobby for big health insurance companies, coined the term "government option." Folks liked the idea of having a public option, but focus groups learned that if you replaced the word "public" with "government," support for the idea waned. This idea worked.<br /><br />Next, AHIP instructed <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/201012090003">Fox News</a>, the mouthpiece of corporate America and the far right, to use the words "government option" when referring to the public option. This was intended to gin up anger against the president and his health care legislation. This also worked.<br /><br />Finally, with the media and the national political discourse on their side, the politicians paid for by AHIP and big insurance dollars went around the country <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/29/mitch-mcconnell-public-op_n_339191.html">demonizing</a> the public/government-run health insurance option. now, the only work left to do was for big insurance to forge an "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/tom-daschle-public-option_n_751111.html">understanding</a>" with the Obama Administration that any health care legislation that made it to his desk would not include a public option. And as we've seen, this worked as well.<br /><br />Fascism has come to America. Corporations are in bed with right-wing government officials and the right-wing media, and they are systematically taking apart everything we fought long and hard for, piece by piece. Those recently elected to our nation's highest political offices have openly pledged to <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/17/rand-paul-ada/">repeal a century's worth of progressive reforms in the name of higher corporate profits</a>. We have a right to be frightened. But we have a right to fight back, and call out fascism for what it is.<br /><br />Even though I fully expect a lot of my readers to condemn me for calling new Republicans fascists, I hope more of you will speak out against the ongoing corporate takeover of our Republic by the richest 2% of this country. I doubt, but continuously hope the media will be courageous enough to explore and shine light on this egregious threat to Democracy. More than anything, I hope my young friends in my generation will become politically engaged and make a daily habit of fighting for the greater good in society.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-53713674148308985512010-11-19T17:46:00.000-08:002010-11-19T19:13:35.749-08:00Our Economic Salvation vs. Mindless GOP Posturing<b>Driving in Ohio</b><br /><br />With all due respect to my friends in Ohio, your drivers are terrifying. If there's someone on the interstate leapfrogging from lane to line, nearly sidswiping sedans full of passengers as they fly by at 90 mph, chances are they usually have Ohio plates. <br /><br />City traffic is just as terrifying; I remember both times I was in Columbus driving two different cars, I was scared of erring at least a little bit, lest the driver behind me, who was literally an inch away from my back bumper, run right into the back of my parent's or friend's car. Driving in Ohio isn't for the faint-hearted, and I'm sure my Northern Kentucky and Ohio facebook friends can probably back me up on that.<br /><br />Now, my parents are both from Northern Kentucky and Ohio; my mom is from Erlanger, and my dad is from Cleveland. My brother graduated from Oberlin. I remember many hours spent in the backseat of a car as a kid, riding from Kentucky across the singing bridge to Cincinnati, and sometimes all the way into Cleveland. Or we'd go Northward, almost to Michigan, and drive through Columbus on the way to Oberlin. Sometimes me and my best friend from college would go visit her mom in Portsmouth, just across the river from Ashland. Drivers in Southeastern Ohio are just as erratic as in the other parts.<br /><br />One trip I always enjoyed making was the trip to see my aunt and uncle in Alexandria, VA, just outside of DC. I didn't like the 12-hour drive so much, but I always loved riding the Metro trains around DC. They're so damn convenient. A little $10 card will get you all over the city with ease, back home again, and you'll still have a few bucks left on it at the end of the day. <br /><br />As much as I loved humming along to the sound of the rubber tires on the blue singing bridge like Dustin Hoffman did in Rain Man, and as pretty and charming as Amish country may be, I always thought Ohio was far too small of a state to spend so long in a car going from place to place. As I grew older, I thought surely, there must be cheaper ways to travel other than filling up every few hundred miles, driving on taxpayer-funded interstates always cracked and in need of repair, always depending on petroleum, which isn't gonna be here forever.<br /><br />Wouldn't it be nice to have a high-speed light rail system connecting Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus? No more 6-hour car trips and frequent fill-ups from city to city. No more needless fretting in city traffic. No more unnecessary wear and tear on public roads and needless cost to Ohio taxpayers. No more harmful emissions from thousands of cars on the highway. And thousands of jobs to boot, certainly. Ohio could use it, as could lots of other states. It'd be like riding the Metro, except it would be all across the state of Ohio, and a hell of a lot faster.<br /><br />I'm sure the trucking and big oil lobbies wouldn't like it, but hey.<br /><br /><b>Land of Prosperity</b><br /><br />Sadly, the emboldened words above titling this segment are not in reference to the United States of America this time. Well, unless you're one of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/opinion/18kristof.html">the richest 10% that owns 70% of the nation's wealth</a>. Or one of <a href="http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/tabfig/05/SWA06_05_Wealth.pdf">the richest 1% that owns 34% of the country's private net worth</a>. Their prosperity is just fine, and most likely will be for a very long time. I was actually talking about our top creditor: China.<br /><br />China is in pretty good shape right now. Partly because we owe them $2 trillion for the ten years of tax cuts we gave to Paris Hilton, and other members of that elite club comprising the top 2% of the USA's wealthiest. But China is moving on up, and fast. <a href="http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/china-unveils-260mph-train-line-2394196.html">Literally and figuratively</a>. From the article:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Many of the trains plying the new railway between Shanghai's western suburb of Hongqiao and Hangzhou will travel the 126 miles in 45 minutes - about half the time trains usually take to make the trip at their fastest speeds.<br /><br />The China-made CRH380 train has been clocked at almost 262 mph - a world speed record - though it will usually operate at a maximum speed of 220 mph.<br /><br />The line was opened as China prepares to have 10,000 miles of high-speed rail in operation by 2012.<br /><br /></blockquote><br /><br />Instead of spending billions every year to just maintain asphalt roads that suffer from the regular wear and tear, China decided to get smart and move forward with their high speed rail system. And in two years, they'll have 10,000 miles of track used for both freight and passenger trains. The Swiss government's <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-15/world/switzerland.rail.tunnel.gotthard_1_longest-rail-tunnel-seikan-rail-link?_s=PM:WORLD">investment</a> in rail systems for freight is also about to hit pay dirt in the next few years. From the article:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Completion of the Gotthard Base Tunnel will cut the travel time between Zurich and Milan in Italy by 60 minutes to two-and-a-half hours and provide an easier and more economic route for heavy freight trains.<br /><br />The tunnel -- which is in fact composed of two single-track tunnels -- cost $10.6 billion (£6.6 billion).<br /><br />Since the first preparations for the tunnel were laid in 1996, over 2,500 workers have taken part in its building according to AlpTransit Gotthard, the company constructing the tunnel. It is due to be operational by the end of 2017.<br /><br />Freight traffic in the entire Alpine region will grow by as much as 75 percent by 2010, according to a study by the EU Commission.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />The Swiss have already created jobs for 2,500 people through tunnel construction, and will likely keep a fair portion of them on staff for maintenance and repair of the track and Gotthard tunnel itself. It's assumed that the rail system currently being built by China will create thousands of jobs for Chinese workers in the manufacturing, transportation, installation and maintenance of the HST cars, tracks and tunnels.<br /><br />High-speed rail is clearly the future of transportation, and is already showing dividends for the nations that chose to make the initial investment. Rail systems are revolutionizing transportation of people and goods and creating thousands of jobs in the process. It's clear that China and the EU are already leaving us behind economically. Surely the Republicans that recently got elected to state and national leadership positions are taking notice of this growing global trend and acting accordingly, yes?<br /><br /><b>Republicans- Champions of the Outdated and Irrelevant</b><br /><br />GOPosaurs wasted no time in killing jobs as soon as they took power. Remember that awesome light rail idea in Ohio I mentioned in the first part of this piece? I sadly can't take credit for that- I give props to the Obama administration for allocating funds specifically for a light rail system that connected Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. However, Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich decided that <a href="http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101103/NEWS0108/11040330/1055/NEWS/Kasich-Passenger-rail-dead-">making a political point was more important than jobs for Ohioans</a>, just 12 hours after winning office.<br /><br /><blockquote><br />"Passenger rail is not in Ohio's future,'' the Republican said at his first news conference after Tuesday's win over Gov. Ted Strickland. "That train is dead."<br /><br />He was referring to the $400 million federally subsidized project to restore passenger rail between Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, along the so-called 3-C corridor.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Not to be outdone, Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker has been eager to kill the $810 million-dollar rail connecting Madison and Milwaukee. Just days after being elected, Wisconsin's transportation chief announced that construction of the railway would be put on hold. This means <a href="http://www.channel3000.com/news/25635287/detail.html">300 workers are being let go</a> so a teapublican can make whatever oil company-funded, right-wing political point he was trying to make.<br /><br />A good number of the teabagging Republicans who won office on November 2nd made sure to mention the "Obama/Pelosi job-killing liberal agenda" they were fighting. Yet, the first thing these Republicans did was kill jobs that President Obama and Speaker Pelosi brought to their states.<br /><br /><b>How to Beat Them</b><br /><br />Isn't it frustrating? The solution to our myriad economic problems is staring us in the face, and our friends overseas in Switzerland, China and elsewhere are putting that solution to good use and already seeing incredible results. Yet, the only method our Republican elected officials will accept as a true "solution" is extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% at a cost of $700 billion. Can you hear them? <br /><br />"Seriously, those other 8 times we cut taxes for the rich were just primer- this next tax cut for the rich means that Paris Hilton is finally going to finish the blueprints for that national light rail system! And think about all the new chauffeurs, landscapers and maids rich folks will hire with another tax cut!"<br /><br />Think about the mind-numbing logic needed to be an elected Republican in 2010; keep things EXACTLY THE SAME as they have been for the last ten years, and our economy will bounce right back! Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?<br /><br />My message to Republicans: You want to create jobs? How about letting us be the job creators and using that $700 billion to...directly create jobs! What a novel concept! We could invest that $700 billion in a national light rail system that would connect every major city. And even if it was only a railway for freight, imagine all the free road space drivers would have without tens of thousands of trucks on the interstate. Or how much cleaner the air would be, or how much less we would spend on road repair and maintenance. It would be $700 billion well-spent, and the lower and middle class would benefit the most. Combine that with the wealthiest 2% paying the same tax rates they paid under Clinton (when the economy was booming) and it would paint a better picture for America as a whole.<br /><br />We have until January until the teapublicans take over the House and obstruct any hope of actual progress. That's why I'm urging you to call your Congressmen- especially your outgoing Congressmen- to extend middle-class tax cuts ONLY, let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, and instead use that $700 billion for actual job creation.<br /><br />Got a few minutes to spare? Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, ask for your congressmen and senators, and tell them what we need- jobs, not tax cuts for the rich. Save that number in your phone, call it every day; in the line for lunch, in traffic jams, whenever you can.<br /><br />A good way to get the word into the public discourse is simply by writing a letter to the editor- keep your letter under 200 words, be clear and concise, and write from the heart. When your community gets the message in their local paper again and again from fellow community members, eventually the message will stick. Change happens from the ground up.<br /><br />The problems are vast. The solutions are simple and within grasp. Let's get the word out and make sure everyone hears us.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-69782137165016392212010-11-16T13:07:00.000-08:002010-11-16T14:40:59.440-08:00The Sheriff of Nottingham Strikes Back<b>Flashback</b><br /><br /><i>"We are going to bring the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We are going to bring those who have known long years of hurt and neglect.... We are coming to ask America to be true to the huge promissory note that it signed years ago."</i><br />-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<br /><br />We all know what Robin Hood was about; stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor. FOX News would call that socialist wealth redistribution. <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/dr-martin-luther-kings-economics-through-jobs-freedom">Martin Luther King</a> would call it the Poor People's Campaign. Five years after his "I Have a Dream" speech, MLK called for poor America to build a tent city on the national mall and participate in a massive civil disobedience campaign to ask for economic justice.<br /><br />At a total of $240 billion to the benefit of the poor and middle class since 2009, the <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/29/2370419/obamas-tax-cuts-deserve-attention.html">Obama Tax Cuts</a> are well-deserved. However, poor people are still very much present today as they were in 1968. I and many others are members of that club. I've felt the unemployment blues, and still find myself counting down the days until my food stamp benefits renew. However, unlike 2,000,000 of the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">14.8 million</a> of us without jobs, I can still count on $240 a week in the state of Mississippi until I get hired again. Those 2 million other folks are about to lose that last line of help and hope in the midst of the most crippling recession since the Great Depression eight decades ago unless Congress extends their benefits. The price tag for extending benefits through 2011 is <a href="http://www.mlive.com/michigan-job-search/index.ssf/2010/11/epi_extending_federal_unemployment_benef.html">$65 billion dollars</a>, which Republican lawmakers unanimously <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A44K020101116">oppose</a> on grounds that it would increase the federal deficit. We've heard this before. But now they're taking it a step further.<br /><br /><b>Compassionate Conservatism</b><br /><br /><i>"Jesus looked at the man, and his heart went out to him, and he said, 'There is still one thing wanting in you; go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall heave wealth in heaven; then come and follow me.' But the man’s face clouded at these words, and he went away distressed, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked round, and said to his disciples: 'How hard it will be for men of wealth to enter the kingdom of God!'<br /><br />The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again: 'My children, how hard a thing it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to get through a eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'"</i><br />-Gospel of Mark, Ch. 10, v. 21-25<br /><br />It's safe to say Jesus wasn't a capitalist. If we were truly a Christian nation like the social conservatives always say, then we'd be a Social Democracy. And if this nation were truly founded on Christian principles (it <a href="http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html">wasn't</a>) then the far right would have no problem paying progressively more based on how much you earn., and they would jump for joy at social spending for the lower and middle classes.<br /><br />Of course, that isn't the American way. Not according to U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, anyway. The Sheriff of Nottingham's concern over the deficit is so great that he's willing to cut off the last string holding up 2,000,000 of his countrymen (<a href="http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/texas/dallas/">255,000</a> in his own district) if Democrats don't agree to another <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/04/politics/main6743882.shtml">$700 billion tax bailout</a> for millionaires. And he's putting the deficit gun to the head of the jobless just in time for the season of joy and giving, no less. Happy holidays to you too, Pete.<br /><br />Now, I know $700 billion is a much bigger deficit buster than $65 billion, but Republican governance doesn't require logic or reason. Nor apparently does it require proficiency at math. All it really requires is the hatred of wealth redistribution, unless wealth is being redistributed <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15923.htm">from the poor to the rich</a>. In 2005, the average CEO earned more <a href="http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060621/">in one day</a> than the average worker earned in 52 weeks. Today, that income disparity has only worsened, thanks to the class warfare being waged by Wall Street and Congressional Republicans against the rest of us. Today, there is more income inequality in the United States than in traditional <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html">banana republics</a> like Venezuela, Guyana and Nicaragua.<br /><br />I know "class warfare" is a strong term, but strong terms need to be used when Republican Congressmen would rather have 2,000,000 poor people get kicked out into the streets instead of the wealthiest 2% of the population paying modest Clinton-era taxes. Taxes, which, by the way, are still 10% lower than what they paid under their hero, <a href="http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php">Ronald Reagan</a>, during the majority of his administration.<br /><br />My point: Republicans are holding a gun to the head of 2,000,000 poor Americans over $65 billion. They won't let them go until we sacrifice another $700 billion to millionaires, who have already fattened their pockets at our expense over the last decade.<br /><br />I'm not saying we need to grab our pitchforks and torches. But we need to be loud and be heard, especially before January.<br /><br /><b>A Final Call to Action</b><br /><br />"We don't want people lingering at home. In fact, we don’t even want people to use unemployment, if they don’t have to. If you lose a job, just go out and find another job. There’s jobs out there, you’ve just got to be willing to work.”<br />-Congressman-elect <a href="http://www.mpbonline.org/news/story/special-session-likely-unemployment-compensation">Steve Palazzo</a> (R-MS)<br /><br />Republicans say they're putting an ear to working America's voice, yet they champion policies that put a boot on working America's neck. They say they're the party of Christian values, yet their policies are the exact opposite of what Christ calls us to do. They say tax cuts for the wealthy are necessary, yet the last ten years of tax cuts for the wealthy have been the <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/tab/print/">worst on record</a> for job creation. Republicans have no problem playing the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham; they'll fight to for the riches of themselves and their campaign contributions even as the rest of us suffer.<br /><br />Such blatant hypocrisy is not unusual for Republicans- we should expect it by now, and not just about the deficit. For example, take Maryland's <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/freshman-goper-hey-wheres-my-health-care.php">Andy Harris</a>, a physician and newly-elected Republican who campaigned on repealing "Obamacare." He had a hissy fit when he found out he wouldn't be getting his government health care until a month after being sworn in. He'll fight like hell to take your health care reform away, but he'll fight like hell to get his own government health care.<br /><br />The mantra of the teapublicans? Please, don't redistribute any wealth, unless it's from the poor to the rich! Please, no government health care for the uninsured, just for me!<br /><br />Are you mad yet? Good. use it. The Democrats have control of both chambers until January. Only a majority vote is needed to extend unemployment benefits, to extend middle class tax cuts, and to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The final session of the 111th Congress started this week.<br /><br />Call the White House and tell your president that he must fight for the other 98% us. Call your congressmen and senators and tell them to listen to the other 98% of us.<br /><br />White House- 202-456-1111<br />Capitol Switchboard- 202-224-3121<br /><br />Call now. Call tomorrow. Call often. Be heard. Make them hate their jobs. That's what we pay them for.<br /><br />Peace.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-24475213282670627952010-11-12T12:40:00.000-08:002010-11-13T13:34:07.924-08:00Letter to President Obama: Where's Our Commission?Dear President Obama and Democratic Leadership,<br /><br />Have you ever looked in your empty fridge, the needle on your gas tank meter getting dangerously close to the E, the two digits in your checking account and then at the calendar, counting down the days until your food stamp benefits renew? <br /><br />Have you ever gone a whole day without food, and then made a stop behind your neighborhood grocery store that night after a fruitless day of jobhunting to see if there was anything good in the dumpster to eat?<br /><br />Have you gotten the letter from your energy company telling you that they're going to have to resort to a collection agency if you can't pay your $65 light bill within two weeks?<br /><br />Have you ever brushed the dust off of your bachelor's degree and looked at it proudly before putting it back in one of several cardboard boxes that you have lying around because you've been changing addresses like you've been changing socks? <br /><br />Now, I know it's been a rough few years for you guys. Every time you break your backs to achieve another groundbreaking progressive accomplishment, you have to battle the right-scream media while they call you Socialists, Marxists, Kenyans, Muslims, Nazis, Fascists, Communists, and every other name under the sun. And I know that accomplishing great change in times like these where the American people have a shorter attention span than ever, and a 24-hour mindless news cycle that leaves valid stories in the dust while over-hyping nonissues is probably frustrating. <br /><br />You created and saved millions of public sector jobs with the stimulus program, and now that the Small Business Act has been passed, the SBA is giving out loans to help small businesses grow more private sector jobs. PPACA, while it leaves more to be desired, is certainly a step in the right direction toward getting more Americans' health insured. You guys are actually getting a whole lot done in a very short amount of time against tremendous odds and infinite money being spent to go against your agenda. And you are still succeeding. And yet, nobody gives you any credit. I can't imagine it, but I'm sure that's rough.<br /><br />But all that being said, it's time for you all to throw us a bone. Something. Anything.<br /><br />Remember us? The people who went door to door in our neighborhoods with armloads of your literature, telling people they should believe in you in November? That they should support you and your message of helping the lower and middle class? That if elected, you would put an ear to neighborhoods, working families and small businesses instead of Wall Street and K Street? That you would fight for us if given the chance to govern?<br /><br />We're still here. And we're hurting. And while there's anywhere between 12 to 20 percent of the population on the record as not working, there are 40 percent of us who are literally one pink slip away from tumbling into poverty. And of those not working, there's folks who have been out of a job for so long that they've stopped looking all together. We're working hard at our job and possibly a second one just to feed ourselves and keep the lights and the heat on. <br /><br />In the land of prosperity, most are fighting just to hold on to their property. Many of us are looking at poverty directly in the eye. And believe it or not, we're also the folks who went through four to six years of debt for a degree that we were told would make us employable in a globally competitive 21st century economy. We worked hard and sacrificed our whole lives to try and win in the system you provided for us. We stayed in school. We ate our vegetables. We listened to our parents. We went to our Friday morning classes at 8 AM despite partying the night before so we wouldn't miss our exams.<br /><br />And then we entered a world where playing by the rules didn't get you anything except an inbox full of rejection emails from employers we're more than qualified to work for. We entered a world where employers, thanks to a lack of regulation and a generous helping of greed, shipped all the jobs that used to be for folks like us to China and India and told us, "tough luck."<br /><br />We entered a world where people who took home more than a million dollars a year gripe about four extra percentage points on their tax form and get coddled. It's the same world where a clean-cut, college-educated, rule-abiding citizen has to dig through garbage cans for food because there's no jobs for him. We want YOU, our leaders, the people we broke our backs to support time and again, to fight for us. And what did we get?<br /><br />We got a commission of panelists telling us that the deficit is more important than jobs. These panelists that you appointed tell us to tighten our belts, that they're going to start chipping away at the future we've been saving for with each paycheck earned. The same rightful future of ours that requires a lawyer and hefty legal expenses just to access. These panelists all say they've harpooned every fish, and a few minnows, yet somehow missed Wall Street, the hulking whale devouring all of the sea's resources. These are the same people who literally have their salaries paid by groups that lobby for lower taxes for the rich and less social spending for the other 98 percent of us.<br /><br />Forgive me if I'm a little upset that you listened to the bloviating radical right instead of us, who said fiscal austerity was more important of an issue than the citizens' prosperity. I'm a little upset that you put together a deficit commission instead of a jobs commission. Or an environment commission. Or a commission to save the middle class. Forgive me for the cliche, but where's our bailout?<br /><br />Mr. President, we're hurting. We're on our last breath. We're tough, and we're fighters, but we're getting beat up hard and fast. We urge you to listen to us, and fight our fight. It may seem daunting to take on big money and the established status quo, but if you do, we will fight for you and with you by your side, as we always have. <br /><br />I'm not asking you for a fat government check or an eternity of food stamp benefits. I'm not asking you to pay my rent or my light bill or for a tank of gas. I'm not even asking you for single-payer health care, a new WPA program to build light rail infrastructure or throwing BP and Goldman-Sachs executives behind bars, although those would all be nice. <br /><br />I just want you to fight for the American way. To fight for more jobs and less greed. To fight for the idea that living a virtuous life and trusting in an education will pay off in the end.<br /><br />Please think of me and the millions of others like me, Mr. President. Fight for us, and we'll fight for you. We don't have much time left.<br /><br />Respectfully Yours,CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-82461913708039567262010-10-23T14:01:00.000-07:002010-10-23T18:50:56.692-07:00Austerity vs. Prosperity- What Germany is Teaching the Rest of Us<b>The Other Half of the Story</b><br /><br /><i>"It's the economy, stupid."</i><br />-President Bill Clinton<br /><br />The midterms are almost here. And while all the networks are simultaneously refusing to cover the biggest crowds President Obama has drawn since his inauguration, the "liberal" media, from FOX News to the BBC, loves to endlessly beat the same dead horses of pre-conceived narratives for millions of viewers. You've heard them. You know, like how the the president isn't connecting with voters. Or how Republicans are going to take majorities in both houses of Congress because after 8 years of Republican rule, the Democrats somehow didn't make the rivers flow with milk and honey after two years of Obama in the White House. Or the narrative that because the $787 billion stimulus package didn't fix all of our problems, government spending in a recession is somehow useless. That voters are blaming double-digit unemployment and no money in the bank on Democratic majorities, instead of corporate greed made possible through Republican deregulation and big money owning Congress.<br /><br />And not surprisingly, the "liberal" mainstream media isn't telling the whole story. After all, the whole story doesn't sell nearly as much as a pre-conceived narrative does.<br /><br />One place where the anti-government, anti-liberal narrative doesn't mesh with reality more than anywhere else is Germany. But what's so hot about Germany right now?<br /><br /><b>Beating the Recession with Big Government</b><br /><br />In the second quarter, the US economy grew by 0.6% in terms of raw GDP. Germany, in the meantime, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/german-second-quarter-growth-confirmed-at-22-2010-08-24">grew</a> by 2.2%, their strongest growth in two decades. This growth is unlike China's recent <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/10/21/china.gdp.announce/">9% 3rd quarter growth</a>, because China is growing their economy by <a href="http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/09/29/house-acts-to-stop-currency-manipulation/">devaluing their currency</a> and then overloading the global market with their exports, made by people who are working because of the West's outsourcing of manufacturing jobs.<br /><br />Germany, in the meantime, grows their economy through the underlying principle of keeping German workers working no matter what. When the recession hit everyone, America and most of Western Europe chose fiscal austerity. Germany, on the other hand, is faring quite well due to <a href="http://www.worldwide-tax.com/germany/germany_tax.asp">progressive taxation</a>, business <a href="http://www.rudo.de/new/index_gbl.htm">regulations</a> that favor the employee and strong <a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices/12905881-1.html">labor unions</a>; coincidentally, all of which have been demonized by the champions of Reaganonomics and the "liberal" mainstream media.<br /><br />The benefit of a strong domestic workforce and a prosperous middle class is not lost on the German government, as it seems to be in the USA. Germany's chief fiscal policy during this recession has been to <a href="http://www.dailymarkets.com/forex/2010/07/29/germany%E2%80%99s-unemployment-rate-falls-to-the-lowest-level-since-november-2008-3-month-euribor-rate-climbs-to-fresh-yearly-high/">keep unemployment numbers low</a>; after all, the more people there are working, the more money gets spent in local economies. Not to mention the revenue gained from more people paying income taxes.<br /><br />Germany's export market is also a chief factor of her <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/08/22/gps.what.in.the.world.germany.cnn">prosperity</a>. When demand for American products goes down in the global market, firms are quick to cut wages and drop workers from the payroll, so profit margins aren't lowered by paying their employees a fair salary. But Germany has instead relied more on furloughs instead of firings, meaning that manufacturing plants still stay open, and when demand improves again, there are still trained workers ready to do the job productively. And the demand for German-made products has indeed gone up, so Germany gets the benefit of nearly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/germany-economic-recovery-recession-lessons_n_692534.html">$800 billion in export revenue</a>, with plenty of high-salaried workers with benefits and job security protected by unions, to make those products. Germany is a workers' paradise. This economic growth will eventually result in population growth, meaning increased tax revenue, meaning better government infrastructure for all, meaning an overall more prosperous nation as a net result.<br /><br />The United States and other nations, like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/spain-strikes-over-auster_n_743014.html#146799">Spain</a>, for example, have chosen instead to scale back stimulating the economy, and cut budgets even more. This means less loans for small businesses starting up, which means less people working, which means less people spending, which means a weakened economy and a less prosperous nation as a net result.<br /><br />Some fiscal conservatives might like to blame the economic downturn on "big government" interference in the private sector. But the fact is, big government has yet to be tried here like it's been tried in Germany. Big government has been proven to be a force for job creation and economic prosperity for all, both for FDR during his tenure as he led us from depression to the introduction of the American middle class, and for Germany as they prosper in the midst of global recession. Pragmatic socialism, while the word has been demonized by the far right, is a tried-and-true way to overcome a stale economy.<br /><br />So how could a social market economy save the United States?<br /><br /><b>How Obama can Save the US Economy</b><br /><br />Germany's already found prosperity by taxing progressively, although interestingly enough their top income tax rate is 45%, which is still lower than <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213">Reagan's rate of 50%.</a> And I've mentioned Germany being called a "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/world/europe/14germany.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=german%20growth&st=cse">workers' paradise</a>" because of its dedication to keeping its domestic workforce strong and healthy, as well as its labor unions. These measures can come over time, although the Obama administration lacks the political capital to implement those right now. But Obama need only to launch one major project to regain that political capital and launch the US from broke to rich.<br /><br />That project must be a new, WPA-style program aimed at building an efficient light rail system across the nation. We could do it by simply building 30 to 40-foot platforms with tracks on highway medians. There would be rail stations in every city, just like there are exits on the interstate. We would create literally millions of jobs in the manufacturing, installation and maintenance of both the railway itself, the rail cars and the renewable, sustainable energy sources that could power them. And we could get the funding to finance the project by taxing the top 1% of the richest in the country, who currently own 95% of the nation's wealth. Traveling by car would eventually be a thing of the past. I'm sure Big Oil would lobby against it tooth and nail, which is why it will take electing progressives to Congress to make sure it happens.<br /><br />Think about it- FDR stimulated the economy with his New Deal programs that created millions of jobs for folks who had none during the worst economic crisis in history. There was the Civilian Conservation Corps (courtesy of the Unemployment Relief Act of 1933), where young men from their late teens to mid-twenties from unemployed households were given construction jobs, and expected to share their wages with their families. There was the Public Works Administration, which used $3.3 billion to improve public infrastructure and promote economic growth in places that weren't suited for economic growth. The Works Progress Administration created 8 million jobs in and of itself, and rejuvenated downtrodden urban environments. There were numerous other projects in the New Deal that stabilized the economy through stimulus and regulation, all of which eventually resulted in the biggest economic boom in history, from 1949 to 1973. The media likes to push the narrative that World War II was what spurred such growth, while ignoring the fact that us currently being involved in not one, but TWO overseas conflicts has only bankrupted us.<br /><br />But big government spending to create jobs isn't merely a Democratic idea; Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower took the White House and oversaw the creation of the Interstate system. While these roads were originally intended for quick evacuation from a potential nuclear attack, it ultimately resulted in millions of jobs created and a highly-efficient system of travel. However, we now have the technology to transcend beyond ribbons of concrete and a dependence on petroleum- a light rail system built in similar fashion to the Interstate system would revolutionize both the energy and transportation of this nation as well as catapult us to economic prosperity.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br />Conservatives might suggest that if government stimulus actually stimulated the economy, the ARRA failed miserably, as we're still facing high unemployment and job losses even after its passage. But as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=1&hp">Paul Krugman</a> notes, the "stimulus" package was almost completely made up of tax cuts and bailing out broken state governments, not any real stimulus programs to create jobs. Sure, there might have been several billion dollars allocated for road repair and teacher rehiring, and the stimulus that we did get certainly helped in those aspects. But the ARRA lacked any legislation or funding allowing for the mass creation of jobs.<br /> <br />Could you imagine, a week before the midterm elections, President Obama and the Democratic Caucus in the House and Senate standing behind him on the Capitol steps, on all of the networks to announce a major economic initiative? Could you imagine the "American Job Security and Energy Independence Act of 2010," consisting of progressive taxation to fund a light rail system, and an infusion of funds into the private renewable energy sector to power it? It would be an out-of-the-park grand slam for Democrats, Obama, and Progressive economic policy. It would reverse the media narrative about the midterms. Democrats would sweep the 2010 elections as they did in 1934, increase their majorities instead of lose them, and our nation would witness a period of economic growth not seen since the 1950s.<br /><br />History has spoken in favor of stimulus overpowering recession, while simultaneously not rewarding austerity with anything but wealth and income stagnation. Will we listen to it once more, or will we continue with the failed status quo?CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-47609517851610669882010-10-11T11:06:00.000-07:002010-10-11T12:41:10.340-07:00They Are Buying Our Elections<b>GOP: Best Friend of Foreign Multinationals</b><br /><br />Remember when Republicans at least pretended to be looking out for the common man? When they at the very least put on a show every two years to convince you that they were, indeed, still the party of the working class folks, looking out for American families and jobs? Let's recap the last few months of Republican activities, just in case you might be unclear on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an6D2w_HKwQ">where</a> they stand.<br /><br />Since the Citizens United decision, any regard for the working man has gone out the door. They're done even pretending to be your friends. They want to make sure the United States government is government by and for the wealthy. Just in the last few months, the right-wing Republican politicians in the pocket of corporate America have openly <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR2010092806143.html">protected</a> companies who outsourced American jobs overseas. They voted against providing <a href="http://washingtonindependent.com/93079/republicans-filibuster-small-business-bill">loans</a> to small business trying to create more private sector jobs. They voted against help for states and protecting endangered public sector jobs because it might raise<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/us/politics/11cong.html">taxes</a> on big Pharma's offshore bank accounts. They voted <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/unified-gop-to-block-sena_n_540823.html">against</a> regulating the big Wall Street banks that <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article1007445.ece">ate</a> our 401ks and rewarded themselves with obscene <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4870266n">bonuses</a>. They voted against helping familes and children of homeless<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/republicans-object-to-bil_n_629332.html">veterans</a>. They even voted against giving healthcare to sick and injured 9/11<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/29/politics/main6726612.shtml">responders</a>, for chrissakes.<br /><br />But what have they done?<br /><br />They <a href="http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=191125">jumped</a> in bed with a British company that polluted American waters and completely destroyed an entire region's <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/oil-spill-threatens-to-smother-gulf-coast-food-cultures/">economy</a>. They've pushed candidates to the fore running for prestigious national offices who advocate against<a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/christine-odonnells-1996-anti-masturbation-campaign-on-mtvs-sex-in-the-90s.php">masturbation</a>. Who want to repeal Social Security and Medicare. Who want to eliminate social safety nets that keep the hungry fed and the jobless from becoming<a href="http://alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/politics/7050-joe-millers-wife-took-unemployment-benefits-after-working-for-him">homeless</a>, at least for everyone to whom they aren't directly<a href="http://www.andrewhalcro.com/searching_for_joe_millers_character">related</a>.<br /><br />Just in case we still aren't clear on where the GOP stands in its relations to the working public vs the corporate special interests, they had a Pledge to America written by a former <a href="http://climateprogress.org/2010/09/23/gop-pledge-to-america-big-oil-exxon-lobbyist-brian-wild/">lobbyist</a> for Big Oil. And their entire network of "grassroots organizations" that push a pro-corporate, anti-regulation agenda, from Freedomworks to Americans For Prosperity, are funded from the pockets of two arch-conservative oil<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer">billionaires.</a><br /><br />The Republican party is the party that pledges to protect millionaires and billionaires, at the expense of you and me.<br /><br />And this is exactly why those millionaires and billionaires are giving them <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42989.html#ixzz11ObF9Tss">unprecedented amounts of money</a> to make sure they retake Congress this November.<br /><br /><b>Elections For Sale</b><br /><br />The most money ever spent on an election in the United States was $1B, back in 2008. One billion dollars for one race. And a billion dollars is not a small chunk of change. Of course, this was before the Citizens United vs. FEC 5-4 ruling by the John Roberts Supreme Court, back when corporations could only donate so much to a political campaign.<br /><br />Since that decision, the floodgates have been opened on corporate spending, and a record <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/us-politics/8042691/US-mid-terms-set-to-break-spending-records.html">$4B</a> is being spent on the 2010 midterm elections. And it's mostly on <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100928/el_yblog_upshot/gop-groups-outspending-dems-on-tv-ads">negative</a> attack ads focusing on Democratic candidates in US Senate races.<br /><br />Now, in terms of party committee spending, the Democrats actually win in that category. It was reported fairly recently that the RNC was <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/98625/rnc-has-only-55m-left-for-midterms.html">drastically</a> short of funds needed to take them all the way to November 2nd. This new flood of spending comes from corporations, not campaign committees. And some of those corporations aren't even based in the United States. which, by the way, makes political donations from them illegal.<br /><br />The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a fiercely right-wing lobbying organization for corporate America, is allegedly funneling<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/foreign-chamber-commerce/">money</a> from foreign multinationals to the 2010 races. This money is specifically being used to attack progressive Democrats who pledge to fight for the people, not for corporate profits. Since the U.S. Chamber is a 501(c)(6) organization, they don't have to <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2010/10/the-chamber-and-foreign-contributions/">disclose</a> who their donors are. Because business is done globally in the 21st century, and because the Chamber represents multinational companies, it's hard to imagine that foreign multinationals aren't using the Citizens' United decision to throw money at flooding airwaves with <br />negativity. Tax laws allow for lots of leeway. Here's ThinkProgress' <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/foreign-chamber-commerce/">take</a>:<br /><br /><i>These foreign members of the Chamber send money either directly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the foreign members fund their local Chamber, which in turn, transfers dues payments back to the Chamber’s H Street office in Washington DC. These funds are commingled to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account which is the vehicle for the attack ads.</i><br /><br />So how can we stop this? It's simple.<br /><br />Get. Out. The. Vote.<br /><br />A Republican majority in Congress means that when the corporate boot is on the neck of the American people like it is right now, what the people will get is a kick in the face instead of a hand up. If you're tired of conservative leadership in Congress that votes <a href="http://washingtonindependent.com/93079/republicans-filibuster-small-business-bill">no</a> on job creation and yes to coddling the rich with trillion-dollar<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/05/foreign-chamber-commerce/">deficits</a>, if you're fed up with half of America's children <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5huS1aDImykHCJxUuyNW-fbMSAbMA">depending</a> on food stamps while <a href="http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/api-we-our-handouts">billions</a> of tax dollars go to Big Oil, or if you're just tired of government by and for the wealthy, then PLEASE vote Democratic in November. <br /><br />America NEEDS you at the polls. Put the car in Drive, not Reverse.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-53167089572527358112010-09-09T09:42:00.000-07:002010-09-09T12:41:22.890-07:00What do Soulja Boy and Fox News have in common?<b>What Soulja Boy did to Hip-Hop</b><br /><br /><i>"She call my phone like<br />(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)<br />We on the phone like<br />(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)<br />We taking pics like<br />(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)<br />She dial my number like<br />(da da dadadada da da dadadada da da..)"</i><br />-Soulja Boy, "Kiss Me Thru Tha Phone"<br /><br />If you read that quote without managing to laugh or facepalm, then you are probably a Soulja Boy fan. <br /><br />But if you did laugh or facepalm, then you might, like me, also be wondering what the hell happened to Hip-Hop music since Soulja Boy's debut in the Rap game.<br /><br />You see, Soulja Boy is what Hank from the Sugar Hill Gang would refer to as a "sucka MC." Since his inception, radio-played Hip-Hop and Rap have been corrupted with total garbage like his collaboration with Gucci Mane on "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXMtXE0SWLY">Waka Flocka</a>" and Drake's "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyv4Bjja8yc&ob=av2e">Find Your Love</a>." Hip-Hop and Rap have sadly degenerated into much like what Afrika Baby Bam of the Jungle Brothers described in the oldschool hit "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qcvwPBEEAs">Doin' Our Own Dang.</a>"<br /><br /><i>"The industry's filled with copycats<br />R and B mixed with sloppy raps<br />Tribes like us always open doors<br />But what for, so you can get yours?<br />You ain't into it, all you want is profit<br />So I ask you please to stop it."</i><br />-Jungle Brothers/Q-Tip/De La Soul/Monie Love, "Doin' Our Own Dang"<br /><br />Hip-Hop, back in its golden days, used to be about inspired collaboration with fellow MCs, writing creative rhymes to go with dope-ass beats, breakdancing, graffiti, and lyrical expression of the struggles of inner-city life.<br /><br />This is not to say that good Hip-Hop still doesn't exist today- you can find some really amazing lyrics and beat work in the music of MCs like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C99iG4HoO1c">Common</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvNRaF9YLU0">Talib Kweli</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFyTzjJDeCk">Mos Def</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psdgRH_p3XI">Dead Prez</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk5TgFu-wyg">Nas</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Et1siZhTk&feature=channel">Lupe Fiasco</a>, and a great many others who keep the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhkOPNRV8Pk">founding principles</a> of Hip-Hop sacred. For example, consider the brilliance of these lyrics, both in their meaning and their rhythmic flow-<br /><br /><i>"I sell rhymes like dimes<br />The one who mostly keep cash but brag about the broker times<br />Joker rhymes, like the "Is you just happy to see me?" trick<br />Classical slap-stick rappers need Chapstick<br />A lot of 'em sound like they in a talent show<br />So I give 'em something to remember, like the Alamo<br />Tally-ho! A high Joker like Spades game<br />Came back from five year layin' and stayed the same<br />Sayin' - electromagnetic feeling blocks all logic, Spock<br />And G- shocks her biological clock"</i><br />-MF DOOM, "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgZX71tbr3w">Rhymes like Dimes</a>"<br /><br />Even Rap music, an offshoot of Hip-Hop music made more for the sake of dancing in a club than for mere listening purposes, has MCs who make hits perfect for dancing in a loud, dark room with dozens of scantily-clad strangers. I may not be able to sit and listen to Lil Jon with some headphones, but if I'm crunk in the club and the DJ doesn't spin some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jyk4YkvCJ8">Lil Jon</a>, I'd be outraged. And if you've been in a club when Notorious B.I.G.'s "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds-ok_rY5HM&feature=related">Get Money</a>" was being played, or even 50 Cent's "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRcnnId15BA&ob=av2e">Candy Shop</a>," you've had the full experience of what Rap music was intended for.<br /><br />But that all changed with the advent of 17 year-old Soulja Boy, with his hit "Crank Dat Soulja Boy." It came in a complete package; a song, a video, and a catchy dance so its complete novelty would catch on from the youngest of kids all the way up to Greek parties at colleges. Most of us have heard the inane, mindless lyrics in songs like "Crank Dat" and "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQV4vNFywyU">YAAAHHH</a>," right?<br /><br /><i>"Ain't got time for chit-chat,<br />I'm tryin' ta get dis money<br />So get up out my face<br />You doo-doo head dummy</i><br />-A-rab and Soulja Boy, "YAAAHHH"<br /><br />The effect Soulja Boy has had on popular Rap music, and indeed, the perception of Hip-Hop and Rap outside of the music's longtime fan base, is perhaps irreversible. Those of us in my generation who grew up with good Hip-Hop hardly have anywhere to turn when looking for good new music; we have to dig deep these days to find the good stuff. And as far as convincing someone outside of the fan base to consider an open mind when listening to good Hip-Hop goes, forget about it. Older generations are completely turned off to even being introduced to Hip-Hop and Rap even by aficionados because of the garbage that gets airtime on the radio.<br /><br />Hip-Hop pioneers like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1glaTFFCSk">Snoop Dogg</a> have gone to great lengths to disparage the crap that Soulja Boy puts out and labels as "Hip-Hop." And fans of oldschool Snoop, are dumbfounded that Snoop even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiskYjJl0LE">shares the stage</a> with Soulja Boy. Ice-T calls Soulja Boy the MC who "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tilKe0Z8B7M">singlehandedly killed Hip-Hop.</a>"<br /><br />"This ain't no East Coast/West Coast...Ain't no North or South, I love the Dirty South. If there's any war, it's gonna be good Hip-Hop, against WACK Hip-Hop."<br />-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTj4-Q6NAzo&feature=related">Ice-T</a><br /><br />Soulja Boy tarnished his genre so much that not even its reputation is salvageable to the masses, at least not yet. It'll take a lot of work and a balance of excellent Hi-Hop to even begin to counter what Soulja Boy has done to the genre.<br /><br />So what does any of this have to do with Fox News, you might be asking?<br /><br />Soulja Boy singlehandedly killed Hip-Hop.<br />FOX News has singlehandedly killed the news media.<br /><br /><b>What Fox News did to the Mainstream Media</b><br /><br />"And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama...uh, uh, Obama. (laughs) Well, both, if we could."<br />-FOX News guest commentator <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirvIAs_5Cw">Liz Trotta</a><br /><br />Fox News likes to boast that its "Fair and Balanced" coverage makes it the most-watched news network. They love to repeat "We Report, You Decide" on their network ad nauseum. However, a close analysis of their coverage reveals Fox to be overly favorable to right-wing commentators, viewpoints, stories, and coverage in general. <br /><br />For example, <a href="http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/oil_spill_has_been_tv_story_was_different_cable_vs_network">this study</a> shows that for all of the major cable networks, stories about the BP gulf oil spill was dominating the public discourse, as it should have been. There were hundreds of angles to report on; from the sheer size and scope of the disaster, to the wanton abuse of federal oversight, collusion with oil companies and lack of regulation on the part of MMS, the lack of regard for safety on the part of Transocean, and the egregious greed and lack of compassion from BP CEO Tony Hayward. There are still stories pouring out of the gulf from the shrimpers, oysterers, restaurant owners, charter boat captains, and other generators of economic activity who are now largely broke, unemployed and hopeless thanks to the damage from the oil gusher. While CNN dedicated 42% of their coverage to the event, and MSNBC a third of their coverage, FOX contributed merely 18% of their airtime to covering the biggest story of the country. They were too busy framing liberalism as "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCwPQLgt35k&feature=related">tyranny</a>" and framing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51">Park 51 community center</a> as the "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pspuVVdQxM">Ground Zero Mosque</a>."<br /><br />But Fox's negligence of the truth in favor of being the propaganda arm of the GOP goes far beyond their oil spill coverage- a prime example of their incompetence was brilliantly highlighted by <a href="http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/the-daily-show-debates-is-fox-news-evil-or-stupid-video.php">Jon Stewart.</a> Through dissecting their favorable coverage of opposition to the Park 51 mosque, Stewart found that the guy funding what FOX called the "terror mosque" is a Saudi Arabian who is the biggest shareholder of FOX news next to the Murdoch family. TPM has taken the liberty of <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/photofeatures/2009/11/crack-down-on-this-a-catalog-of-foxs-mistakes.php?img=1">cataloguing</a> FOX's most notable mistakes.<br /><br />FOX's most-watched pundit, Glenn Beck, a man who makes his living by throwing <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUqR9stMBSk">hatred</a> and insults at anyone from 9/11 victims, Katrina victims (he calls them "scumbags"), <a href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005260036">veterans</a> wounded in combat, and countless others, has the audacity to urge us, "<a href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201008270016">don't hate</a>." While posturing for a self-aggrandizing rally he dubbed "restoring honor," which basically amounted to a chest-beating "God and Country" rally in Washington, he spent time on airwaves <a href="http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201008290007">insulting</a> the President's Christianity. This is the same man who accused President of Obama of being a "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maH0nQDw0X4">racist</a>" with a "deep-seated hatred for White people and White culture." Katie Couric <a href="http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2009/09/glenn-beck-refuses-to-define-white-culture-video.html">exposed him</a> for the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz1YlpK6ZvM">charlatan</a> he is, while FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiA8tC3ea0g">defended</a> what Beck said. Beck finally <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/29/glenn-beck-regrets-callin_n_698580.html">retracted</a> this statement months after the fact. Folks can say that TV pundits don;t have power and that mere speech is meaningless, but Beck drew a crowd of 90,000 to the national mall for his "Restoring Honor" rally. His upcoming 9/12 rally could likely draw similar numbers. He may be a hatemonger and a peddler of fear, lies, historical revision and hatred, but people still take him seriously. And that is a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073003254.html">dangerous</a> thing.<br /><br />Despite their claims of being "Fair and Balanced," FOX News' parent company, Newscorp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, recently gave a <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0810/Fox_parent_gives_1_million_to_RGA.html">million-dollar donation</a> to the Republican Governors' Association for their 2010 efforts. Along with news coverage favorable to right-wing politics, FOX now puts its money where its mouth is. If FOX is deserving of a title other than "propaganda arm of the GOP," I'm all ears.<br /><br />But I guess most of you already knew most of this. And if you're still reading, you may be asking why I'm comparing FOX News to Soulja Boy, yes?<br /><br /><b><big>Just as Soulja Boy is busy killing Hip-Hop with his simpleton lyrics and FruityLoops beats, FOX News is killing all credibility Americans still had in their news media. I believe FOX News' ultimate goal is completely undermining the news media in being the one entity Americans depend on for reliable information.</big></b><br /><br />Think about it- since the mid-nineties (FNC began operations in 1996), we've seen a growing distrust in the American news media. It used to be that we could take what we got from the news at face value when Cronkite was at CBS- this is the information of the day, do with it what you will. Cronkite's only hints at being personally involved with his news coverage were his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDNJL0mTHWI">editorial</a> on the effectiveness of the Vietnam War, and the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CjWbemTNcw">dramatic removal of his glasses</a> when announcing that President Kennedy had been assassinated. Today, the news is a completely different beast.<br /><br />Now, the mainstream networks have followed FOX's lead instead of dismissing them for the propaganda artists they are. Networks from CNN to MSNBC to FOX all are now geared more towards pundits and opinion instead of newscasters delivering the news. After all, sensationalism and shouting matches make for better ratings; nobody is interested in watching some suit prattle on about facts and happenings with no emotion attached. Because everybody watches FOX, from conservatives who take what Hannity says religiously, to liberals who enjoy fact-checking Glenn Beck. And the rest of the cable news networks want a share of the massive ad revenue FOX gets from their increased ratings.<br /><br />So, networks match FOX pundit for pundit, screaming match for screaming match. Admittedly, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann and Rick Sanchez are all incredibly tame compared to Beck and Hannity, because those four still choose to rely on facts and documented evidence to support their opinions. But Hannity and Beck still garner the ratings, because blatant lies attract viewers from both sides of the aisle.<br /><br />So, now that the rest of the networks have given FOX credibility by allowing their news coverage to also degenerate into sensationalism and opinion shows, FOX is now taken as a legitimate news organization. Political candidates get interviewed on their shows. FOX has a second-row seat in the White House press room, and was a contender for a front-row seat just months ago. <br /><br />Much like Soulja Boy transformed Hip-Hop from a once unique and creative genre of music into a breeding ground for materialist, empty lyrics, FOX has transformed the news media from news anchors who deliver reliable information to the public into sensationalist opinion-givers and pundits.<br /><br />So what does this mean for society in general? Why did I spend hours writing this in hopes that you'll read what I say and take heed?<br /><br /><b>Dire Consequences</b><br /><br /><i>"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power."</i><br />-Malcolm X<br /><br />Soulja Boy's ultimate goal isn't destroying Hip-Hop, although he has indeed done plenty of damage to an entire genre of music; his goal is just to make money. But FOX's goal, as I stated earlier, is not merely to enable the Republican agenda with right-wing news coverage posing as "journalism," but a more nefarious goal. They seek to destroy all integrity in mainstream media.<br /><br />By undermining the media's credibility and generating an atmosphere of apathy and distrust, which they have succeeded in doing, FOX news has driven the American public away from a key source of information. Now, most Americans don't strive to be informed in this age of constant and unlimited information; they just want to be left alone. And when Americans are no longer interested in keeping up with current events, this enables the oligarchs who run the world's economy and governments to continue getting away with murder. <br /><br />What's to stop an oil company from completely disregarding safety standards and ignoring red flags to make money, when nobody is paying attention to the only folks who call them out on it? <br /><br />What's to stop multinational corporations from buying elections if nobody pays attention to which company it is, and the candidates to which they're throwing millions of dollars? <br /><br />What's to stop right-wing extremists and bigots from engaging in religious persecution, if there's no honest media to report on it and no public to watch or care?<br /><br />The media is an essential part of Democracy, because it informs the public on important events and the activities of leaders in politics and business. Democracy fails when there is no longer an educated voting public to select the best candidates to represent them, and to demand accountability from those who undermine founding principles, those who harm human beings, and those who destroy the environment for higher stock numbers.<br /><br />Soulja Boy's damage to Hip-Hop can be overcome in time. But I fear FOX News' damage to the media and to public discourse is irreversible unless we all decide to collectively stop watching FOX, and until our politicians stop giving them legitimacy by appearing on their network.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-21143582421126193962010-09-04T21:05:00.000-07:002010-09-04T23:33:38.156-07:00I Picked Up My First Hitchhiker Today<b>A Long Drive</b><br /><br />He always dreaded the trip back home. Not being home, of course. But just driving there. It was a 9-hour drive from Mississippi to Kentucky, and all he had to keep him company was the satellite radio and the stack of 100 CDs at his feet. He always silently thanked a heavenly power before each trip for even having the choice of music to play, much less 100 funky jams he's been collecting since high school and XM's myriad music stations. And today was a Saturday, and a Saturday on Labor Day weekend means college football. So if all else fails, at least there'd be a game to listen to while making the monotonous slog up the interstate.<br /><br />There were only two choices he could make- either take the I-20 East to Birmingham and then ride the I-65 North all the way up to his hometown's exit, or take I-55 North to Memphis, I-40 East to Nashville, and ride the 65 the rest of the way. The 55 route was a smidge longer, but at least he felt like he was getting somewhere. That trip was in three legs, while the I-20/I-65 route was just an endless stretch of concrete for hours and hours, before an even more endless stretch of concrete. For an energetic and easily-distracted guy like him, the best trip was the one with the most turns and most cities to drive through. So he made the decision to take the Memphis route.<br /><br />It was about 11 AM CDT, and he figured that accounting for the time zone change, he'd be home by 9 or so if he drove the speed limit. He sipped his mug of coffee and riffed through his CD stack before settling on Too Short's "Get In Where You Fit In," the loud, explicit rap lyrics pleasantly blasting from his open windows into the tamed suburban ears of his tame, suburban neighbors. The trip may be a long one, but good music, as always, will ultimately prevail.<br /><br />He sang along to the insanely outrageous lyrics until all of the album's good songs had been played, and he casually pressed eject, waiting for the CD to pop out while using his free hand to turn the XM knob to the blues station. The air conditioning was starting to slightly chill the tips of his nose and fingers, so he shut it off and pressed the DOWN button on the power windows instead, both driver and passenger side. <br /><br />Muddy Waters' "Big Leg Woman" blared over the car speakers, and he then shifted his free hand to the sunroof and pressed down on the rooftop button until the sunroof had fully extended outward. <br /><br />There, much better.<br /><br />He somehow couldn't stand the closed-off feeling of a car when all the windows were rolled up and the sunroof not in use, especially on a beautiful Southern Summer morning like this one. He turned the stereo up as loud as it could go, and unabashedly crowed out Muddy Waters' lyrics while others drove by, ogling.<br /><br />It would always surprise him that other people were so serious in their cars all the time, especially by themselves. The way he saw it, if you can't have fun and let loose in your own car with nobody in there but you, then when can you ever be free? Why were people so serious while driving? Why weren't they also blasting their favorite tunes, singing loudly and foolishly, belting out their own harmonies with nobody else to judge them? And more importantly, why are people judging other drivers having fun behind the wheel? Whether it was at a red light or on the interstate, he always found it quite off-putting that whenever he looked at a passing driver while in the midst of musical reverie, they always had an astonished "well-I-never" sort of expression. He felt life was too short to be so unhappy all the time. If you've got good music, enjoy it. Wanna dance in your seat at a red light? Play air guitar? Drum along to that drum solo? Go for it. And screw anyone else who hates on you for having fun in your own vehicle.<br /><br />He'd been on the road for about three hours at this point, and was getting near Memphis. Usually a little after passing through Memphis was when he made his first bathroom break/fillup of the long way home. The line marking how much fuel was left in the tank lingered just under the 1/4 mark. Maybe another hour or so to go before the next fillup. He wasn't in any hurry. It was a beautiful day, and he wouldn't be home until nightfall. Maybe he'd stop for food before getting to Memphis- the next exit had a chinese buffet close by. Eat at one of those around one, and he'd be good until 9 that night.<br /><br /><b>A Long Walk</b><br /><br />At a gas station outside of Memphis, Tennessee, the man giving young Dillon a ride from Little Rock opens the door of his truck, and steps outside to pump. Dillon sighs, runs a hand through his hair, slings his backpack over his shoulder, puts Ruby in the re-usable Wal-Mart tote bag, and thanks the man who drove him Eastward on the I-40.<br /><br />It was a brutally hot one today; the heat index had to be in the nineties, which shouldn't be happening in September. Back in Maine, where Dillon was from, even the hottest August days rarely reached 80. And even then, there was always a cool breeze blowing down from Canada. Here in the South, all Dillon had to go with the oppressive heat was the sweltering humidity; the sun pounded down upon his long hair and pale face, while the black asphalt, reeking of a fresh layer of tar, blasted the heat collected from the sun upwards into Dillon's makeshift denim shorts, which used to be jeans once upon a time. <br /><br />To make matters worse, poor Ruby looked up at him with those adorable 4 month-old puppy dog eyes and whimpered as they set out on foot from the gas station to the exit ramp. She was a trooper, and could walk for about a mile or so before simply stopping, cocking her head, and whimpering for Dillon to pick her up and carry her more. She made for good company on the road, and was extremely protective. The nights he spent sleeping in the woods were a little easier with her love and comfort, and safer too, as she growled when even a squirrel came within a 30-foot range of her master. Ruby was also the deciding factor in a carload of 17 year-old girls picking up the 21 year-old long-haired hitchhiker with the smelly green t-shirt, torn jeans and scraggly beard. He loved his dog, and she loved him.<br /><br />Dillon found out right away that Tennessee was not the friendliest state toward hitchhikers. It was somehow even worse than Spokane, where the police officer had told him straight away while waiting on the ramp that if he came by again and he was still trying to hitch a ride, he'd be arrested and jailed. At least in Spokane, people acknowledged Dillon's existence. In Memphis, Dillon had been lucky to even get a bird flipped at him from drivers passing by on the ramp. He did his best to make sure people saw that he was wearing a backpack, meaning that he had some semblance of a destination in mind and had made preparations for the trip. He also made sure people saw Ruby. He figured having a cute puppy in his arms would make drivers more apt to at least slow down and look.<br /><br />After more than an hour in the oppressive Tennessee heat, Dillon decided to start walking. Maybe people at the next exit ramp were a little friendlier. Surely they would react to the puppy, and be more receptive to Dillon's best attempts to look non-threatening. The walk started off optimistic; Dillon didn't bother sticking his thumb out. The drivers whizzing by at 70 miles per hour, even if they were the kind of folks who picked up strangers, just didn't have the means to pull over immediately, let Dillon aboard, and merge back into the path of thousands of cars traveling at 100 feet per second.<br /><br />One mile became two. Two miles became four, and five, and then six. Dillon passed another ramp, but this one didn't have any nearby gas stations or restaurants, so trying to thumb a ride there would likely be futile. The heat only seemed to build in intensity. The cars that flew by only cast more warm air at him, his matted, oily hair becoming more disheveled, Ruby huddling deep inside of the bag, the sound of the monstrous diesel engines of the 18-wheelers undoubtedly making her squirm. <br /><br />All Dillon wanted was to get home to his parents; this trip had been three or so years off and on, from East Coast to West Coast and back. His open-minded New England family was surprisingly encouraging when he told them of his plans to see the country via hitchhiking and depending completely on the hospitality and altruism of total strangers. Sure, there were come creeps out there, but Dillon's friends who had hitchhiked before just told him to trust his gut. If the driver who wants to pick you up seems like the kind of guy who would rape, stab and rob you, then don't get in. If it's too dark, pitch your bedroll and find a scattering of trees out of sight from where anybody would see you. Drink lots of water. He'd be just fine, they all said. And so since age 18, Dillon had enjoyed his life on the road. It was somewhat stressful not knowing how or when your next meal would come, but it was also incredibly liberating to be off the grid, to not pay rent, to not worry about day-to-day obligations with which the career-oriented folks were consumed. And every once in a while, Dillon would make it back home to Maine, and always had a bed to sleep on, family to love on him, plenty of food to eat, and familiar faces around the community. He hadn't been home since May, and the last few months had been especially trying. <br /><br />By mile thirteen, Dillon's energy and patience had slowed to a trickle. It was mid-afternoon, and Dillon's body ached from the walk. His water jug had emptied around the ten-mile mark, and his thighs started to chafe from the same boxer shorts rubbing the insides of his legs raw. His belly rumbled, but his pockets were empty. He felt like he should be sweating more considering the weight on his back and the convection oven of heat he was trudging through, being attacked on all sides, from above and below, by triple-digit temperatures. Nobody even showed the slightest interest in even slowing down, let alone stopping.<br /><br />He finally stopped on a ramp just outside of an Exxon station outside of Memphis. It was still another 50 or 60 miles to Jackson, TN from here. Easy. All he wanted to do was get to Knoxville; his map showed that there was a road there that connected to I-69, and if he hopped on that, he could miss Virginia entirely and head straight to Pennsylvania. But first, he had to wait and hope a car getting back on the road would be willing to open its doors to a smelly stranger with a ponytail, a dog and a backpack.<br /><br />Two and a half long, hot hours passed, and not one driver even looked his way. Dillon was on the verge of once again slinging his bag over his shoulder and trekking along the interstate, having to be content with making incremental progress and sleeping off a day of stomping on concrete. Would he ever get out of Tennessee?<br /><br /><b>Taking the Risk</b><br /><br />The needle hit the empty line, and his car beeped annoyingly as his mileage meter was replaced with a message proclaiming "LOW FUEL." The driver pressed the trip reset button on the dash to clear the message, grumbling.<br /><br />"I KNOW I'm out of gas, baby, just hang with me," the driver said to himself, oblivious to the absurdity of talking to machinery. The next exit was the Arlington/Collierville exit, just a few miles outside of Memphis. He figured it was good enough for a stop, as the bulk of the Memphis traffic had thinned out at this point. It was a good 50 or 60 miles to Jackson, TN from here, and it'd be another 100 or so to Nashville. And after Nashville it was easy as pie to cross over to Kentucky and drive the final leg to Elizabethtown.<br /><br />The clock on his dash read 2:55 PM. It was on Central time, albeit 25 minutes later than the actual time. He figured this stop and maybe one more down the road, and he'd be home right like he'd scheduled.<br /><br />He stepped out of the Saturn and briefly admired the collection of bumper stickers he had accumulated over the months thanks to the number of online grassroots issues and causes he aligned himself with. He hoped the "BOYCOTT BP" and "BP: Billionaire Polluters" stickers would serve as a healthy balance of public discourse on the road, considering the number of "DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS" stickers he'd seen in Tennessee.<br /><br />After a quick trip to the bathroom, he impulsively bought a green tea tallboy before prepaying for gas.<br /><br />"That'll be $1.08," the cashier informed him. "That gonna be all for y'all?"<br /><br />"Naw," the driver replied, doing quick math in his head. "Lemme get this and...$23.92 on pump 4."<br /><br />"25 even, bud." The cashier swiped his card and handed the driver his receipt, which the driver politely declined with a wave of his hand as he made his way toward the door.<br /><br />The driver held his finger lossely on the pump's trigger as the gas flowed into his tank, careful not to squeeze too much air into the tank. He recalled reading somewhere that squeezing the pump too hard means more air and less gas, meaning less bang for your buck. Unemployment and bills were squeezing him pretty tight as it was, so he was content watching the numbers tick upward slower than usual. The man at the pump behind him gave him a glare as they made eye contact. The young driver told himself it was either his Mississippi license plate or one of his bumper stickers. Hell, maybe it could've been the soccer jersey he was wearing. Or maybe the guy glaring at him was just a dick.<br /><br />The pump stopped at $23.92, just under 9 gallons. At 32 mpg on the highway, 9 gallons would take him almost all the way home. Awesome. The driver hung up the pump, dilaed around the XM dial to find the SEC channel where Kentucky and Louisville were facing off in the second quarter, and started off down the exit ramp.<br /><br />The driver noticed right away a guy wearing a plain-looking green t-shirt, with long, greasy hair and a backpack. He was carrying a puppy in his arms. The driver remembered the words of a couchsurfer from the Czech Republic he hosted, who had made his way from New York City to Mexico by thumbing rides.<br /><br />"Never pick up a guy who isn't carrying anything. Chances are likely that he's shady. But I can guarantee you that just about everybody carrying a backpack has somewhere to go, and someplace to come back to. So they aren't gonna kill you, because they actually need a ride."<br /><br />Even though the driver never picked up a hitchhiker before, he felt strangely at ease as he pulled up onto the shoulder and rolled down the passenger side window.<br /><br />"Where you headed, my brotha?"<br /><br />"Knoxville, man," the hitchhiker said. "But I'll go wherever you're going."<br /><br />"Well, I'm headed East to Nashville, and the 24 picks up there and takes you right to Knoxville. Hop in, dude!"<br /><br />And with that, the hitchhiker climbed inside the Saturn, put his backpack in his lap, and cradled the puppy in his arms while the driver took off down I-40, putting more miles between them and Memphis.<br /><br />"Man, thank you SO much for picking me up. You have no idea how long I waited," the hitchhiker said.<br /><br />"No prob. You looked like you could use a hand. And I figure a dude carrying a backpack and a dog can't be all that dangerous. You know you're the first hitchhiker I've ever picked up?" The driver said to his new passenger.<br /><br />"That's cool, man. I'm glad you did. I was seriously about to start walking down the 40. I just walked 13 miles from Memphis, dude. I'm wore out. My name's Dillon, by the way."<br /><br />The driver shook his hand and told him his own name.<br /><br />"What about your little buddy there?" The driver asked, scratching the tired puppy's head as she dangled it over her master's lap. "What's his name?"<br /><br />"Her name's Ruby. I got her while I was on the road; there was a father and son selling a whole litter of puppies, so I got the cutest one."<br /><br />"Sheeit, I'll bet that gets you all kinds of rides, eh?" The driver chided.<br /><br />"It depends, man. Certainly not in Tennessee. Nobody picks up hitchhikers here. You're the first one since Little Rock."<br /><br />And with that, Dillon filled in the driver on the details of his trip, how he'd chosen vagrancy and travel since age 18, and about which places were better for hitchhiker's luck, and which ones weren't. The driver sat entranced, listening to the hitchhiker's stories while he riffed through his CD collection, looking for a mix that he felt would vibe most harmoniously with Dillon's style.<br /><br /><b>Making a New Friend</b><br /><br />"Hey man, you like the blues?" The driver asked.<br /><br />"I don't know much about it, but I like what I hear so far, I guess."<br /><br />The driver popped in a homemade CD, and a simple, almost tribal-sounding wailing blues guitar riff blared over the car stereo.<br /><br />"This is T-Model Ford. Probably one of the coolest bluesmen still alive. He's 90 years old, doesn't remember his birthday, can't read or write, did time on a chain gang for killin' a man, and didn't pick up a guitar until he was 58."<br /><br />"No shit? Where's he from?"<br /><br />"Forest, Mississippi," The driver said proudly. "Mississippi's the home of the blues. Memphis tries to claim the blues and Elvis, but they got nothin', because both of those things came from The Sip. T-Model was probably one of the coolest interviews I've ever had with anyone."<br /><br />Dillon asked the driver his story, and as the miles piled on the odometer, the driver told his new friend the story of him moving to Mississippi to take a job and falling head over heels in love with the state, her people and her culture in the meantime.<br /><br />The CDs rotated in and out of the player, one by one, and the mid-afternoon haze steadily morphed into the milky gold of early dusk, where the sun is right in one's line of vision. The flat Western Tennessee landscape soon transformed into steady rolling hills dotted with the lightest accents of early Autumn on the very tips of some of the trees as they drew nearer to Nashville. The driver took time relaying the last few months of current events to his passenger, who sat silently as his ride prattled on about the Gulf oil spill, the state of the economy and his own projections for what would come out of the upcoming midterm elections. He told Dillon about the book he had written, and the one he planned on writing if he ended up going on a grand bohemian adventure of reckless vagrancy of his own.<br /><br />At the driver's request, Dillon, in turn, filled him in on what his family was like, his part of Maine, his likes and dislikes, what he carried in his pack for a cross-country hitchhiking journey and the various blessings and hardships of life on the road. Much of the time Dillon simply spent sitting quietly, enjoying the feeling of air conditioning on his unwashed face and of Ruby's affection. Occasionally she would climb over to the driver's lap, lean against him and lick his face while he drove. The driver would eventually hand her back to her master when she started putting her paws on the steering wheel. <br /><br />Before long, darkness had set in and the two had talked their way through Nashville and all the way to the Kentucky/Tennessee border.<br /><br />"Hold on, I'm gonna call my boy real quick," the driver said, pulling out a cellphone.<br /><br />After a short conversation, the driver informed Dillon that they would be meeting his friend at "a hellacious BBQ joint" just outside of Elizabethtown, in nearby Munfordville, just across the time zone border. Time was meaningless to Dillon, who hadn't owned a watch since age 18. After telling his ride, the driver laughed in disbelief. The driver told Dillon he thought it remarkable that two people living in the same country, speaking the same language, could have such vastly different lives.<br /><br />The two made excellent time, Munfordville being their first stop since Dillon had first gotten picked up outside of the service station roughly five hours ago. Neither had been hungry or thirsty or needed to use the bathroom, and Ruby slept soundly the entire way. Dillon had a brief conversation with the driver's friend from Munfordville, while the driver walked into a small shack just off the exit ramp, sporting a sign that read "BIG BUBBA BUCK'S BELLY-BUSTIN' BBQ- TASTES SO GOOD YOU'LL SMACK YA MAMMA!"<br /><br />The driver emerged carrying a sandwich wrapped in foil and a handful of napkins.<br /><br />"It's pulled pork, hope you're not a vegetarian or anything," the driver said. "The barbecue here is really good, you'll see cars from all kinds of states in the parking lot here."<br /><br />The air outside was much cooler, compared to the blistering mid-afternoon heat in Memphis. The driver, clad in shorts and a soccer jersey, shivered slightly. Ruby, restrained to a leash, was suddenly energetic after eating a bite of Dillon's sandwich. She jumped on the driver, eager to be petted and glad to walk around. The three of them stood outside of the restaurant, Dillon smoking a cigarette he had bummed from the driver's friend. Night had fully set in at this point, and the only lights around were the faint glow of the fluorescent lights of nearby gas stations and the moon overhead. <br /><br />"Is your sleeping bag warm enough?" The driver asked. "It's a lot colder up here that it was in Mississippi this morning."<br /><br />"I'm from Maine, so this is nothing," Dillon assured the driver.<br /><br />After a few more minutes of conversation, the driver wished his friend well and climbed back into the car with Dillon and the puppy, heading down the road.<br /><br />"So how does one hitchhike at night?" The driver asked. <br /><br />"You don't," Dillon said with a polite chuckle. "You don't want to ride with anyone who would pick up hitchhikers at night, and no normal driving at night would stop to pick up a hitchhiker. I just sleep in the woods. Ruby keeps me company."<br /><br />The driver put on a Jazz CD, and the two rode on in silence as the sound of ride cymbals and saxophones pierced through the night air and the steady hum of the tires on the road. Dillon watched the different signs go by as the Saturn traveled onward through Southern Kentucky- Kentucky Down Under, Horse Cave, Glasgow, Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace. The driver filled Dillon in proudly about his home state's claims to fame; the Kentucky Derby, Bourbon whiskey, fried chicken, tobacco and college basketball.<br /><br />"Kentucky is a state that bases its economy and culture on gamblin', drinkin' and smokin'," The driver had said casually. "That's why we're all so crazy."<br /><br />The driver maneuvered the Saturn onto exit 94, going up the ramp toward Elizabethtown. The Saturn stopped at a red light a half mile down the road, the turn signal blinking almost exactly in time with the beat of the Jazz in the background. Ruby whimpered softly in Dillon's lap, sensing that she was about to leave the comfort of the warm car where she'd been for the bulk of the day.<br /><br />"This is home for me, bro. I'd say you can come on in and sleep on the couch and be warm, but I'm not sure how my parents or my cats would feel about me bringing in a hitchhiker and his dog late at night. But I'm gonna drop you off at a trailhead down the road, you should be alright there."<br /><br />"Oh, don't even worry about it, man. This ride really helped me out. And all I need is a sleeping bag and some tree cover anyway," Dillon said.<br /><br />And just as soon as he had climbed in the car in Memphis, Dillon climbed out, puppy in his arms, backpack on his shoulder, and opened the passenger door. The driver offered his hand and told him his name once more.<br /><br />"Stay safe, bro. Hope you get back to Maine in one piece."<br /><br />Dillon thanked the driver once more, and disappeared into the woods.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-67087796824026894992010-09-02T12:24:00.000-07:002010-09-02T13:00:17.444-07:00The People's Tax Cut: How the Democrats Can Win in 2010<b>Sick of the Deficit Hawks</b><br /><br /><i>"Deficits don't matter."</i><br />-Dick Cheney, former Vice President<br /><br />Who else, besides me, is sick of hearing the far right moan and gripe about the deficit, after completely disregarding the deficit for their eight years in power? It's mind-numbing to consider the fact that Congressional Republicans cite the deficit as reason for denying the unemployed and their families the only safety net they have, along with their desire to punish the elderly with the <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/08/paul_ryans_plan_would_end_medi.html">rationing of Medicare</a>, not to mention their goals of privatizing social security (which is funded from our paychecks, not from federal tax dollars), and leaving the financial future of my generation in the hands of highway robbers like Goldman Sachs.<br /><br />However, Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had no problem at all turning Clinton's surplus into a multi-trillion dollar deficit with the legislation they championed. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014851-503544.html">$2.5 trillion</a> in ten years. Two wars of aggression. <a href="http://www.costofwar.com">$1 trillio</a>n to date. The Medicare prescription medication donut hole. Another <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Prescription_Drug,_Improvement,_and_Modernization_Act#Costs">$550 billion</a>. Not to mention their annual "cost of living" salary increases they give themselves- we may be unemployed, desperate dumpster-divers thanks to the recession that Republican policies created, but our federal lawmakers are <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/116489-wealthy-lawmakers-increased-their-riches-as-economy-sputtered-in-2009-">making out like bandits</a>. <br /><br />The people have <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014851-503544.html">spoken</a>- we want to stop fronting hundreds of billions of our hard-earned dollars to put a cushion under the rich, who used our money to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196.html">fatten their own pockets over the last ten years instead of create jobs</a> with the extra dough. The right's only economic plan is to <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/116295-savings-in-boehners-spending-cuts-would-be-canceled-by-tax-cut-extension">continue the disastrous economic policies we had under George W. Bush</a>. Cut spending on social welfare programs. Give millionaires even more tax cuts. By the way, this plan would add billions to the deficit, not reduce it.<br /><br /><b><big>The bottom line: The Republicans' desires to extend tax cuts for the wealthy is <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014851-503544.html">more than DOUBLE</a> the amount spent in the Democrats' health care reform legislation.</big></b><br /><br />It's time for the right to put up or shut up. One brilliant economist has come up with a way for Congressional Republicans, who wave the populist banner at every opportunity and advocate the importance of tax cuts, to eat their words.<br /><br />Robert Reich calls it "The People's Tax Cut." It's a bomb the Democrats need to drop this month, in preparation for the November midterms.<br /><br /><b>The People's Tax Cut</b><br /><br /><i>"When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals."</i><br />-John Maynard Keynes<br /><br />Robert Reich <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/tax-jujitsu-why-democrats_b_693046.html?ref=twitter">contends</a> that because 80 percent of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes, a great number of us could do the economy a lot of good with a little more change in our pocket. His proposal is simple; eliminate payroll taxes for all income under $20,000 (the federal poverty line for a family of four is $21,874) and make up for the lost revenue by adding to the payroll taxes of all incomes over $250,000.<br /><br />Even though Social Security's funds are at a $2.5 trillion surplus, benefits will have to start being decreased incrementally <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3262">beginning in 2037</a>. Which means that by the time my generation retires, we won't be getting our fair share of all the money we put in while we were working and being productive. The people's tax cut would insure our future, and it'd also be a great burden lifted from the shoulders of the working poor when they're at the most risk. The extra money in people's pockets would likely benefit local businesses, as opposed to tax cuts for the wealthy being invested overseas. It would be great fun to watch the Republicans explain why they're go against the People's Tax Cut, especially so close to the midterm election.<br /><br />And if the Democrats want to show they're serious about the deficit, they need only look to eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and slashing military spending; these two are by far the biggest drains on federal revenue, which needs to instead be spent boosting the green energy industry, job growth in the public and private sectors, and providing more loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs. <a href="http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf">$960 billion</a> could be slashed from the Pentagon's budget over a ten-year period by simply phasing out Cold War-era programs, putting off hastily thought-out missions and ending expensive, unnecessary weapons programs.<br /><br />Everything is at stake this November; we cannot allow the Teapublicans to govern. As I explained here their brand of government is far too extreme and far too dangerous to allow them any more power than they already have. However, if the Teapublicans are soundly defeated this November, I believe we'll see the right steadily become more moderate, finally convinced that unbridled extremism only loses elections and divides the population. The key to defeating the extreme right is for Democrats to fly the populist flag and claim the moral upper hand.<br /><br />Call the Capitol switchboard, right now. Pull out your cellphones, punch in (202) 224-3121, and ask for your Congressman and Senators. Leave a message at their office saying you support ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and that you support eliminating payroll taxes on the working poor.<br /><br />Will you do it? More importantly, will you spread the word and get all of your friends to do it?<br /><br />Our voices will not be ignored.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-31264428327228989722010-08-20T18:20:00.000-07:002010-08-27T05:38:48.884-07:00How climate change is burning Russia and flooding Pakistan<b>Disclaimer</b><br />This will not be a happy post, but it is nonetheless important, and thanks for taking the time to read it. As I stated <a href="http://poultryandspirits.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-urgent-plea-for-your-help.html">here</a>, I am no longer debating whether or not climate change is happening or if humanity has an effect on the climate. Like with evolution and the theory of biological reproduction, an overwhelming consensus of scientists with expertise on the subject have reached the conclusion that yes, the planet is warming, and yes, we are adversely affecting the atmosphere. And we need to move the discussion forward. <br /><br />I welcome all comments, and understand that in science, new evidence can always overturn old evidence. But just like with <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/there-is-no-consensus/">climatologists around the Earth</a>, the theory of anthropogenic global warming is established, and findings to that conclusion have been around since 1896. Instead of, "<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#Exxon_funding">My oil company-funded think tanks</a> disagree with your scientists," the discussion now needs to be, "how can we help?" <br /><br />Awareness is the first step, and I like to think that's where this post comes in. Hopefully with awareness, comes action. And with action comes solutions.<br /><br /><b>August's Deadly Heat</b><br /><br /><i>"These are the most bitter days of my life."</i><br />-Iltaz Begum, 15 year-old Pakistani orphan<br /><br />In August of 2003, <a href="http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/plan_b_updates/2006/update56">52,000 people died</a> after a brutal heat wave that spread across Europe. In France alone, 15,000 people died, most of them elderly. Because of a usually temperate climate there, Summers are mild, and even in August, the nights are cool, so air conditioning wasn't seen as a necessity there. But combine 104-degree fahrenheit temperatures with metal and tin roofs on Parisian homes with no air condtioning, and the inside of the home becomes an oven. Bodies cooked and rotted in the August sun, some of them not collected until almost a month after the heatwave, as many government employees were on their August vacation.<br /><br />In August of 2010, a brutal heat wave has left large swaths of Russia <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iX-16FttPkCulMdckFjFJyOJCXlAD9HKJ1VO0">charred from unprecedented wildfires.</a> It's been three weeks, and fires are still raging across the country. Approximately 10% of Russia's land mass was on fire at one point, and 500 conflagrations still blaze through the country's forests. So far, the wildfires have killed 50 people and torched 2,000 homes. A third of the country's wheat crop is gone, which has raised grain prices sky-high across the globe as the Russian government has temporarily banned exports.<br /><br />But what is being called the worst environmental disaster to date also happened in August of 2010. While Russia burns to the north, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100816/wl_yblog_upshot/one-fifth-of-pakistan-under-water-as-flooding-disaster-continues">6 million of their neighbors in Pakistan</a> are without a stable water supply after massive flooding destroyed homes and crippled an already unstable infrastructure. Children are without parents, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/pakistans-orphans-now-face-their-most-bitter-days-20100816-126w3.html">left to fend for themselves in government refugee camps</a>, while rushing waters and a continuous downpour leave 1/5th of the country underwater. 20 million Pakistanis have been affected by the flooding. It's estimated that $460 million is needed for flood relief, but only $93 million has been gathered. Pakistan is in desperate need. These floods are worse than the Haiti earthquake, worse than the 2004 tsunamis, and worse than the 2005 earthquake in the same country.<br /><br />So why is all of this happening?<br /><br /><b>Climate Change Comes Home to Roost</b><br /><br /><i>"Life was always so difficult, but now we're doomed."</i><br />-Abdul Ghani, 14 year-old Pakistani orphan, oldest of seven siblings<br /><br />Extreme weather patterns are becoming the norm. Heat waves are capable of killing tens of thousands of people used to temperate climates. And in the wintertime, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2010-02-11-nationwide-snow_N.htm">49 US states all had seen snowfall at one point</a>. Even in Texas. Even in Florida. Even in Mississippi. Some climate change deniers said this was proof that global warming wasn't real, which as Bill Maher pointed out, is kind of like saying the sun doesn't exist at night because it's dark outside.<br /><br />The millions in Pakistan are the latest of a group we'll be hearing a lot more of- environmental refugees. U.N. figures estimate there to be close to 25 million worldwide displaced because of ecological disasters. And with events like the 2004 tsunamis, flooding in Mozambique, the recent quake in Haiti, and the millions now homeless and wandering Pakistan, that number is on track and is expected to swell past <a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37860">150 million in the next 40 years.</a> And in 10 years, an ice sheet in Greenland could break off into the Arctic ocean if the temperature rises between 2C and 7C, which could happen under current rates of consumption, fossil fuel use and overpopulation. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/10/greenland-ice-sheet-tipping-point">This would cause sea levels to rise by 23 feet,</a> and that 150 million number could very well double or even triple in size should coastal cities see similar floods.<br /><br />So, again, how is all of this causing the floods and the fires?<br /><br />As sea levels rise with things like <a href="http://current.com/news/92593106_100-square-mile-ice-sheet-breaks-off-of-arctics-petermann-glacier-260-square-kilometers-one-fourth-of-its-ice-shelf-satellite-image.htm">100-mile ice sheets breaking off,</a> that causes changes in the jetstream, thus changing the way winds blow. Take a look at the picture below.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_URx0ibyOQ5o/TG87q6woNmI/AAAAAAAAAB8/8YqP-8rxbRY/s1600/jetstream.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 146px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_URx0ibyOQ5o/TG87q6woNmI/AAAAAAAAAB8/8YqP-8rxbRY/s320/jetstream.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507686477811168866" /></a><br /><br />On the left, you see wind patterns in the Russia/Pakistan area under normal jetstream conditions. From 1968 to 1996, these conditions remained largely the same. There's a polar jetstream on the Northern side, and a tropical jetstream on the Southern side. But in the 2010 graph, we see a very oddly strong polar wind blowing North of Russia around Moscow, going directly South into Pakistan. So how do these jetstreams affect weather patterns?<br /><br />The Northern polar jetstream usually brings extratropical lows and cyclones that make up the bulk of the precipitation in that geographical region of the world, and serves as the boundary between cold Northern air and hot Southern air. When it goes suddenly Northward like this past July, that leaves those exposed areas unusally hot and dry and prevented necessary rain, making the area ripe for conditions like the wildfires currently raging in the forests near Moscow.<br /><br />So where did those rain patterns go? Follow the graphic, and you see that after blowing far Northward, they dove suddenly Southward toward Pakistan, causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding, in the midst of their already rainy monsoon season.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br /><i>"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew."</i><br />-Marshall McLuhan<br /><br />Does anybody see a pattern here? I'll lay it out very simply.<br /><br />-Excessive amounts of CO2, <a href="http://breathingearth.net/">emitted largely by industrialized countries who burn fossil fuels,</a> are becoming mired in our atmosphere, channeling the sun's heat on the North pole.<br />-Warming of the arctic causes ice to melt, which causes oceans to become warmer and saltier, which leads to more ice melting.<br />-Ice melting leads to changes in sea level.<br />-Changes in sea level lead to changes in the jetstream.<br />-Changes in the jetstream lead to drastic ecological crises like the fires in Russia and the floods in Pakistan.<br /><br />If, for some reason, you still doubt the theory of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming, even after reading this post and perusing the links I cited to back up my claims, can we at least agree that our environment is worth preserving for future generations? <br /><br />Can we agree to bike more, and drive less?<br />To turn off and unplug unused appliances?<br />To swear off plastic bottles?<br />To shut off the A/C when we leave home?<br />To grow our own food, or buy locally-grown food? Or to eat out less?<br />To buy cars that get good gas mileage, so we pump less gas?<br />To call our senators and congressmen and tell them that you, their constituent, support legislation to mitigate the effects of climate change?<br /><br />True change starts with ourselves and our communities. What are you doing to help?CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-43874697137870593202010-08-18T13:13:00.000-07:002010-08-18T15:03:59.772-07:00Former Marine: "I am sorry for the monster I once was."<b>An Unwinnable War on Terror</b><br /><br /><i>"This man was innocent. I don't know his name...He was walking back to his house, and I shot him in front of his friend and father."</i><br />-Jon Michael Turner<br /><br />Picture this, if you can-<br /><br />It's 3:00 AM in a neighborhood just outside of Baghdad, and you're a 12 year-old Iraqi child fast asleep in your home. Perhaps you're the oldest, and you're sleeping in the same room as your siblings. All of you huddled together to share whatever blankets and pillows you may have.<br /><br />Then without warning, the wooden door of your home shatters, splinters of wood exploding outward into the living room while giant, hulking men wearing alien clothing and wielding fearsome-looking automatic rifles stomp into your home in combat boots, shouting in a foreign tongue. They look American, but they aren't wearing flags on their shoulders, but instead the emblem of a private corporation that answers to no government. <br /><br />They force you and your terrified younger brothers and sisters against the wall with your mother. Your father rushes up to the men to stop them, and they grab him by the throat until he can no longer breathe. Or maybe they slam his head into the wall and he falls to the ground, limp, while the armed men ransack your home, accusing you of terrorism. They leave just as quickly as they had entered, without apology, without explanation. Do you try and go back to sleep after such an experience? Do you stay awake, telling your little brothers and sisters that the men are gone, to stop crying? Do you rush to check on your father's wounds?<br /><br />What would happen the next day, if you were approached by a man who asked if you wanted to get back at the Americans? That you could join a growing movement to push out the imperialists by force if they chose not to leave? What would you do? Would you go back home, powerless and afraid, always fearful of another late-night invasion? Or would you grit your teeth, nod somberly and ask the man what you could do to help?<br /><br />The war we are waging against terrorism is unwinnable, because the method in which it is waged fosters more terrorism. The only goal this war is meant to accomplish is to continue feeding our addiction to cheap oil, and the military-industrial complex's addiction to money. The "surge" never worked, it just exacerbated already <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/04/us-iraq-rebranding-occupation">deplorable conditions</a>. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are dead. 4 million more are wandering refugees. Tens of thousands are jailed without trial and tortured. Women's rights are even more at risk in Iraq than ever before. Health care and education for the Iraqis are still in shambles. Trade unions are banned. Baghdad is now divided by 1,500 blast walls and checkpoints. Utility infrastructure is in complete disrepair. The streets are more unsafe than ever. The U.S. embassy in Iraq is now larger than Vatican City. And as we phase out American enlisted soldiers, we phase in private mercenaries; killing machines paid with U.S. tax dollars who answer to no flag. <br /><br />This war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be sustained.<br /><br /><b>Daily Atrocities for Corporate Cash</b><br /><br /><i>"We were all congratulated after we had our first kills...my company commander personally congratulated me as he did everyone else in our company. This is the same individual who had stated that whoever gets their first kill by stabbing them to death gets a four-day pass when we get back from Iraq."</i><br />-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkN1xL6GIkE&feature=related">Jon Michael Turner</a>, former Marine<br /><br />To accomplish the military-industrial complex's goal of sustained warfare, they need a constant supply of fresh, warm-blooded men and women to guard Iraqi oilfields. These young men and women are trained daily to turn off their morality and conscience so they can become effective killers, and continue to kill in spite of no clear end objective and under growing resistance from the local population. While the president states that we're winding troops down, and while that may be true, our permanent occupation of Iraq has just begun.<br /><br />Last year, a dozen foreign companies won <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/04/us-iraq-rebranding-occupation">20-year contracts</a> to control Iraqi oil fields. According to the above article, 60% of Iraq's oil reserves are now under foreign control, and the market can be manipulated to slash global oil prices to the point of breaking OPEC state's control on Middle Eastern oil. We're keeping 50,000 troops there for now for "advising" and "providing security" although most of them are stationed near oil fields, or "<a href="http://bossip.com/272584/obama-prepares-to-withdraw-troops-from-iraq/">protecting U.S. interests,</a>" as the Pentagon would prefer us to say.<br /><br />While the Iraqi government told us that U.S. troops had to be gone by 2011, our occupation will continue through a coming surge of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/37877/iraq-withdrawal-obama-and-clinton-expanding-us-paramilitary-force-iraq">private contractors.</a> When you wage endless wars where an average of 6 die every month with no draft, eventually someone needs to be there to do the dying so oil companies can continue exporting Iraqi crude. So who does the dying right now?<br /><br />I linked above to a video of Jon Michael Turner, a former Marine who became disgusted with the war and how it transformed him into someone else. He continues, his voice audibly choking up during certain parts.<br /><br /><i>"A lot of raids and patrols we did at night around 3:00 in the morning...And what we would do is just kick in the doors and terrorize the families...If the men of the household were giving us problems, we'd go ahead and take care of them anyway we felt necessary, whether it was choking them or slamming their head against the walls."</i><br /><br />When describing his first confirmed kill, Turner talked about shooting an innocent unknown person he called "the fat man" in the neck, in front of the man's father and friend. He described the man's screams after being shot, looking at his buddy and saying, "Well, we can't have that," and finishing the job with one more shot.<br /><br />Turner's third confirmed kill was an innocent man riding a bicycle. The entire video is basically him admitting to wanton murder of innocents, but this is particularly chilling.<br /><br /><i>"We were excited about the firefight we had just gotten into, and we didn't have a cameraman with us...Anytime we had embedded reporters with us, our actions would change drastically...the man on the bicycle was in the street for about ten minutes before we realized we needed to leave where we were...his body was thrown behind a rock wall, and his bicycle was thrown on top of him."</i><br /><br />I think it's telling that these enlisted men admit to acting differently when they're being videotaped, and how much differently they must act when there's no media around to videotape any potential war crimes. And it makes me wonder how different the coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are compared to the coverage of the Vietnam war, which spurred massive street demonstrations. When the blood and guts are whitewashed from your TV screen and when corporate media outlets can dictate what can and can't be shown, it's no wonder the media hardly ever does any stories about war crimes that don't come from a wikileaks post.<br /><br />Late in the video, Turner talks about how after being attacked by insurgents and one of their own suffering wounds, they take their aggression out by shooting up the minaret of a mosque. It's illegal to shoot at a mosque unless you're sure that you're being fired upon from the inside. 6 minutes into the video, Turner shows footage of a minaret being completely decimated by bullets and artillery due to sheer hate and bottled-up aggression, not out of any fear for their own safety. The ex-Marine ended his testimony with tears in his eyes and emotion thick in his voice.<br /><br /><i>"I am sorry for the hate and destruction that I have inflicted on innocent people...I am no longer the monster I once was."</i><br /><br /><b>What Must Follow</b><br /><br /><i>"we went to the market where all the hadji shop,<br />pulled out our machetes and we began to chop,<br /><br />"we went to the playground where all the hadji play,<br />pulled out our machine guns and we began to spray,<br /><br />"we went to the mosque where all the hadji pray,<br />threw in a hand grenade and blew them all away."</i><br />-Marine <a href="http://sheehan.streamguys.org/SoapboxInternet08082010.mp3">Ethan McCord</a>, reciting a marching cadence<br /><br />In a truly free society where Democratic principles were upheld, there would be accountability for sending young men and women off to die in a war that was never meant to end. There would be accountability for stripping these human beings of their humanity, sending them thousands of miles away from their families and reducing them to beasts who kill innocents without remorse. In a free society, anyone who was caught lying or manipulating evidence to justify invading a sovereign nation would be tried in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. A free society would call that imperialism, or colonial occupation. They certainly wouldn't call it freedom.<br /><br />In a free society and a just world, at least one person would be rotting in jail for putting corporate profit margins above life, culture, family and religion.<br /><br />And one group of Iraq Veterans is calling for <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/08/10-7">the indictment and prosecution of the Bush administration</a> for doing what they did. From the article above:<br /><br /><i>"The growing body of evidence, including testimony from British officials in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry, indicates that Bush officials could be charged with criminal offenses against the United States and violations of international law for making false claims to national self-defense.<br /><br />"Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution vests the power to authorize use of military force in the Legislative Branch, not the Executive. In order to do so responsibly the Congress must be provided with accurate and objective intelligence. Bush officials' alleged distortion of the intelligence picture created a climate of fear and uncertainty in which the constitutional power of Congress was subverted."</i><br /><br />IVAW also comes out swinging against the Bush regime for violating international law in drafting a new Iraqi constitution that favors U.S. corporations, and also through violating Geneva Convention rights given to prisoners. These are all very serious war crimes, and there is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S76UbI1y0c&feature=player_embedded#">more than enough evidence</a> to at least indict top Bush officials, if not convict them.<br /><br /><i>IVAW further alleges that the Bush administration's alterations to Iraqi laws were made for the intended benefit of U.S. multinational corporations and are illegal under international law. Efforts to pressure Iraqi officials to open up the country's oil industry to foreign investment exacerbated the insurgency and undermined the U.S. military's ostensible mission there.<br /><br />IVAW finally asserts that senior Bush officials are responsible for the illegal treatment of Iraqi and Afghan officials in U.S. custody and that this treatment was detrimental to the security of American citizens.</i><br /><br />If we are to truly repair our international reputation, if we strive to be the free society our founders intended us to be, if we as a people truly value freedom, then we must all collectively demand our leaders be held accountable for their actions. And we must stop deluding ourselves into thinking that oppressing people thousands of miles away somehow makes our country safer.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-31280674451027573742010-08-04T12:32:00.001-07:002010-08-09T15:55:55.868-07:00GOP: More For Me, Less For You<b>More for Me, Less For You</b><br /><br /><i>"This upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world. In its place they are determined to create an oligarchy in which a small number of families control the economic and political life of our country."</i><br />-Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4945988/London-banker-to-be-questioned-in-US-over-25m-Merrill-Lynch-bonus.html">Andrea Orcel</a> is one of the guys who Republicans are fighting for. He's a millionaire banker who worked for Merrill Lynch for a few days before it was bought out by Bank of America. To reward his few days of work, Orcel was given a $25M golden parachute. He's used that to buy a $37M apartment on Park Avenue in New York City. He made $558M in 2008 alone. Republicans in the House and Senate want to extend Bush's tax cuts, which only really cut taxes for guys like him. And it costs the rest of us hundreds of billions in tax dollars per year to give a cushy tax break for the wealthiest two percent.<br /><br />Know who the Republicans aren't fighting for? You.<br /><br />House Republicans unanimously voted down the compromise jobs bill, which included $282B in tax cuts for middle-class and upper middle-class families. Working people with jobs, homes, kids, 401Ks and car payments. It was the largest middle-class tax cut in history, and the money folks like us could have saved from taxes would have gone to local businesses and restaurants, instead of offshore tax havens in Switzerland. Every single roll call vote on the measure was <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.html">rejected</a> by Republicans in the House. Senate Republicans will likely follow suit after the recess.<br /><br />Essentially, the party that talks about wanting to cut taxes and the importance of tax cuts will only cut them for the richest 2%, not for you.<br /><br />Know who the Republicans fight for? Rich tax evaders.<br />Who aren't they fighting for? 9/11 heroes.<br /><br />Citing the budget deficit and the potential for <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hbFu_USPHXmnxTOR0tOnrbYrckcwD9H942U80">a tax increase on the pharmaceutical industries who stash away their holdings in Switzerland</a>, House Republicans also voted down a bill that would provide $7B for health care to 9/11 responders. Despite a wide majority vote, Dems failed to get the 2/3rds needed to pass the bill using the procedure they opted for. While Anthony Weiner (D-NY) gave the GOP a good <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XsQg3JoMZ0">tongue-lashing</a> over their preference for saving rich tax evaders over heroic firemen and police officers, those folks will be on their own when it comes to injuries they sustained while putting their lives at risk to save others.<br /><br />Who are the Republicans fighting for? Oil companies and the military-industrial complex.<br />Who are they not fighting for? Senior citizens, teachers, firefighters, policemen and public employees all over the country.<br /><br />Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/40636.html">refuses</a> to let Congress go home until they vote on $26B in state aid that was rejected in the compromise jobs bill that Republicans struck down. The bill would help save hundreds of thousands of jobs that would otherwise be cut due to strained state budgets. Most states are reeling from recession, and drastic budget cuts that put public employees like teachers and police out of work not only endanger our kids and our streets, but also strain local economies with nobody spending any of their money. This state aid bill will help regular working folks continue to do jobs they have been trained for, so they can clothe their children, put food on the table, and prop up local businesses.<br /><br />House Republicans like minority leader John Boehner (R-OH), in the meantime, don't support that kind of spending, calling it a <a href="http://washingtonindependent.com/93733/house-might-return-to-vote-on-state-aid-bill">"special interest bailout."</a> There are lots of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8REyNvSDAQo&feature=player_embedded">teachers</a> who would disagree with Rep. Boehner that they are "special interests" looking for "bailouts."<br /><br />However, some special interests that Republicans are quite fond of include <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv0siXm2cpc">oil companies like BP.</a> They've kept mum about the $35B in subsidies we collectively throw at Big Oil every year. And a study group representing 116 House Republicans criticized Obama for <a href="http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=191125">making BP pay for the disaster it helped create</a>.<br /><br />Republicans are NOT for helping seniors in retirement; in fact, Rep. Boehner has proposed raising the retirement age by 5 years and <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/rep_paul_ryans_daring_budget_p.html">Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)</a> has proposed a budget that would effectively gut Medicare and privatize social security, despite the latter having a $2T surplus and in no need of any reduction in benefits. Boehner has said that the rationing of health care for seniors and killing social security is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/john-boehner-accuses-demo_n_629265.html">necessary</a> for fueling wars on two countries that didn't attack us and for giving tax cuts to millionaire bankers.<br /><br />Oh, but Republicans just don't want to add to the deficit! Right?<br /><br />Right?<br /><br /><b>More Republican Hypocrisy</b><br /><br /><i>"There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy."</i><br />-Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)<br /><br />Mitch McConnell apparently feels he is entitled to his own facts, as well as his own misguided opinions. The CBO <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=966">established</a> five years ago that tax cuts have a much more adverse effect on the economy than any kind of domestic spending. The bi-partisan <a href="http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/">Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget</a> estimates that tax cuts are even more costly than waging wars overseas. While <a href="http://www.costofwar.com">Iraq and Afghanistan</a> have cost us over a trillion dollars so far, the <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1249">Joint Tax Committee</a> estimated that tax cuts for the wealthy will have twice that much impact. To add to the absolute falsehood of Sen. McConnell's statement about the Bush tax cuts, the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2004/1018taxes_gale.aspx">Brookings Institute</a> has concluded that those tax cuts have deprived us of much-needed revenue and vastly increased the federal deficit.<br /><br />Republicans like Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2mG3SDunVE">refused to say</a> how they'll keep paying for the Bush tax cuts, especially when confronted with the fact that they refuse to pay for an extension of unemployment benefits for victims of the recession. And they staunchly agree that they will block any attempt to let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011. Tax cuts and wars are exponentially more costly and add much more to the deficit than any domestic stimulus programs that actually help working folks here in the states. Yet all manufactured concern over the deficit dissipates if it means Republicans can pander to Wall Street, the military-industrial complex and multinational corporations.<br /><br />Republicans have made it very clear- they are NOT fighting for you, unless you're a multimillionaire banker or corporation. They are NOT fighting for the working poor, the unemployed, the middle class, working families, 9/11 heroes, or senior citizens. Republicans are only interested in carrying on the failed policies of George W. Bush, which voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2006 and 2008.<br /><br />So in November of 2010, if you'd like to throw the bums out who promise only to fight for the richest and give a middle finger to everyone else, then pull the lever in the vote box for Drive, not Reverse.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-43419430812496103182010-07-28T19:45:00.000-07:002010-07-28T23:07:42.427-07:00Plan on Voting Teapublican in November? Tell Me Why.(<b>Disclaimer:</b> I'm not pulling any punches here. Teapublicans plan on destroying America, and I'm going to spend this note both calling them out on their dangerous extremism and on proving that the Democrats are our last hope as a society. Regardless of where your politics lie, I want you to read this over, and if you still disagree with me or any of the dozens of links of evidence I have here, come out in the open about it and tell me why. I expect you to have evidence of your own to back up what you say. And I expect your evidence to come from legitimate sources- i.e. not from FOX News or Andrew Breitbart.)<br /><br /><b>The Rise of the Teapublicans/The Downfall of the GOP</b><br /><br />If nobody has yet coined the phrase "Teapublican," then allow me the honor. I think the word is a lot easier than saying "Tea Partier," or "Republican," since the Tea Party and the Republican Party have become synonymous with one another. Tea Party candidates like Rand Paul and Sharron Angle have seemingly spent the last few months trying to outdo each other in who can be the looniest. Rand Paul believes the president criticizing BP on their handling of the Gulf oil gusher is <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37273085/">"un-American,"</a> and openly advocates <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQbecjKCKW8">lowering already stagnant and insufficient wages</a> for the middle class, but not for the banksters and oil company executives, of course. In Nevada, Sharron Angle has insinuated that she would be in favor of <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/06/sharron_angle_floated_possibil.html">armed insurrection.</a> Concerning her hard-line stance against abortion, she believes that God always has a plan. And sometimes, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/29/angle-abortion-god/">God's plan includes rape and incest.</a> Hey, she said it- not me.<br /><br />Rather than denounce such unpatriotic ideology, DC Republicans are embracing the extremism wholeheartedly. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Energy Committee, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2660">apologized to the CEO of BP</a> after President Obama told the company to set aside $20 billion to clean up the mess they created. Shortly after that, the Republican Study Committee, which represents 116 Republicans in Congress, couldn't wait to take BP's side, calling the $20 billion escrow account a <a href="http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=191125">"Chicago-style shakedown."</a> <br /><br />House Republican leader John Boehner has openly said that if Republicans retake Congress and he becomes Speaker of the House, he would <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20009192-503544.html">raise the retirement age by 5 years,</a> and put Social Security, the most successful social welfare program in the history of this country, in the hands of proven professional thieves like Goldman-Sachs and J.P. Morgan. Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, has proposed a budget that would <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/rep_paul_ryans_daring_budget_p.html">ration Medicare</a> for seniors. <br /><br />Despite all of the GOP fearmongering about health insurance reform, Teapublicans, to borrow their language, have actually fronted policy that would leave health care for ailing seniors in the hands of government bureaucrats. Essentially, the <a href="http://teapartywire.com/nogovernmenthealthcare/">"Don't Kill Grandma"</a> party is proposing that we pull the plug on granny to save money. The Teapublicans propose the outright elimination of social safety nets for the poor so we can continue to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/12/jon-kyl-extend-bush-tax-c_n_642862.html">give tax cuts to the richest 1%</a> who don't need them, and <a href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_688102.html">fund two endless wars on countries that didn't attack us</a>. And yes, the Teapublicans are still <a href="http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100628/OPINION02/100625025/Republicans-vote-against-unemployment-benefits-for-workers">against a $350 a week pittance for victims of a recession</a> that their policies effectively <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/opinion/01krugman.html">created.</a> Rep. Boehner compared the financial crisis that left 8,000,000 Americans without jobs to an <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_06/024496.php">ant</a> while explaining his opposition to reigning in the Wall Street fat cats who pillaged our 401Ks and pension.<br /><br />So what's the alternative?<br /><br /><b>18 Months of Progressivism</b><br /><br />Teapublicans claim these regressive policies are necessary to end Democratic policies they compare to "Armageddon." But is the world really ending under the Democrats' watch? Is the "stop the spending" mantra really sound economic policy, or brainless fluff?<br /><br />-After a $17 billion bailout of the American auto industry, the Big Three have come back in full swing, and are <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10431659">making good</a> on paying the government back. And despite the tough recession, these companies are now in good enough financial standing to start <a href="http://www.detnews.com/article/20100727/OPINION03/7270360/1336/OPINION0322/Big-Three-on-track-to-give-profit-checks#ixzz0uw52tqnl">sharing their profits</a> with their hourly workers.<br /><br />-Speaking of the car market and the economy, <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20100727/BUSINESS01/100727043/1318/July-car-sales-head-for-strongest-month-since-09-clunkers-program">people are buying cars again</a>. A lot more. Almost as much as during the "Cash for Clunkers" program. July car sales are set to either equal or outdo all of the extra business car companies had after the wildly successful 2009 program. Despite what the right-scream media (thanks, Monty) may have told you, there is good news on the horizon for the car manufacturers. They can credit their successes to federal government intervention.<br /><br />-Speaking of federal intervention in the market, economic advisers to both Republican and Democratic administrations have concluded that despite how bad things are now, they would be infinitely worse had President Obama not immediately taken direct action with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/economy/28bailout.html?_r=1">stimulus spending</a>. A new study, <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~blinder/End-of-Great-Recession.pdf">conducted by a formal Federal Reserve vice chairman and by one of John McCain's economic advisers</a>, finds that without federal action in this recession, there would be 8.5 million less jobs than there are now, that national GDP would 6.5% percent less than current levels and that we would be experiencing deflation instead of mild inflation.<br /><br />After just 18 months in office, President Obama has already enacted health care reform legislation, which 7 presidents from both parties couldn't do. He has signed into law the most sweeping financial regulations since the New Deal. His Democratic Congress has passed crucial legislation that has kept the economy afloat, despite an endless onslaught of Republican filibusters at every single piece of progressive legislation. The Democrats have already made astronomical progress. <br /><br />But because the country is in such dire straits, there is still a long, long way to go before we've fully recovered from the havoc wreaked by Republicans. And this new breed of Teapublican, where the radical fringe right-wing has effectively taken over a major political party, seeks to undo not just the recent progress made, but an entire century of Democratic achievements that lifted up the poor and middle class.<br /><br /><b>The Teapublican Plan for America</b><br /><br />If Teapublicans win majorities in the House and Senate, they have openly pledged to-<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39220.html">Repeal Health Insurance Reform.</a> <br />-<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40043.html">Repeal Wall Street Reform.</a><br />-<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/rep_paul_ryans_daring_budget_p.html">Get rid of Social Security and Medicare.</a><br />-Cut taxes for the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/12/jon-kyl-extend-bush-tax-c_n_642862.html">wealthiest Americans</a>.<br />-Funnel $35 billion in taxpayer money to <a href="http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/06/16/welch-tax-expenditures/">Big Oil</a>.<br />-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv0siXm2cpc">Protect</a> those <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsSuqTOJM3s&feature=player_embedded">responsible</a> for the Gulf oil spill.<br />-<a href="http://coloradoindependent.com/44247/norton-wins-over-tea-partiers-with-call-to-eliminate-department-of-education">Abolish</a> the <a href="http://our.gop.com/forums/Topic4244010-3722-1.aspx">Department of Education.</a><br />-Abolish the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38580.html">Department of Energy.</a><br />-Abolish the <a href="http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13523&posts=1">Environmental Protection Agency.</a><br />-Abolish the <a href="http://www.decaturdaily.com/detail/58335.html">Occupational Safety and Health Administration.</a><br />-Abolish the <a href="http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13523&posts=1">Internal Revenue Service.</a><br />-Outlaw <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/28/montana-gop-gay/">homosexuality.</a><br />-<a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/tea-party-call-to-repeal-the-17th-amendment-causing-problems-for-gop-candidates.php">Take away your right to vote</a> for U.S. Senators.<br />-Give the middle finger to the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/30/politics/main6635900.shtml">unemployed</a>.<br />-<a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_07/024922.php">Prevent a vote on legislation</a> aimed at making corporate donors to political campaigns identify themselves.<br /><br />Despite such an anti-American, anti-Democratic ideology, Teapublicans still boast about the majorities they plan to gain in the midterm elections. Through talk radio and FOX News- the echo chambers of hate and fear- misguided Teapublican supporters likely haven't considered the consequences their votes could have this November. In their desperation and ignorance, Teapublican voters have even started to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22320444@N08/4833749838/">steal campaign slogans from 4chan</a>, a <a href="http://boards.4chan.org/b/">festering pool of porn, gore and racism</a>. <br /><br />If you support these views and plan to vote for candidates who proudly espouse these principles, just tell me why.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-13397318544467379262010-07-07T08:56:00.000-07:002010-07-10T13:34:52.365-07:00The Trampling of Jdimytai Damour/Corporate Callousness 2.0<b><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html">Friday, Nov. 28, 2008</a></b><br /><br />(The following story is based on a true event.) <br /><br />It was a cold, cold New York morning. Jdimytai Damour's belly was still full from yesterday's Thanksgiving Dinner, and his insides had been quite disagreeable since he had woken up that morning for work, for the dreaded Black Friday shift. Damour rubbed a chunk of sleep still glued to his eye, the 2:00 AM din of the alarm clock robbing him of any hopeful feelings about the next few hours to come. The 34 year-old left his apartment in Jamaica, Queens, and boarded the Long Island train, still groggy from the lack of sleep and abundance of food breaking down in his belly. Jdimytai still considered himself young and full of life, and not even an early-morning 12-hour shift could stop him. He'd have plenty of cash to blow after the next check came through, and that kept his spirits up.<br /><br />Damour, the temporary maintenance worker, had been instructed to arrive at 3:00 AM in anticipation for the 5 AM opening, and stand just inside the door of the Wal-Mart supercenter where he worked to maintain the crowds that were expected to swarm the place for doorbuster deals on plasma screen TVs, video game systems and personal computers. First come, first served. There was a handwritten sign by the entrance clearly marked "BLITZ LINE STARTS HERE." Wooden barricades accompanied Damour at the front.<br /><br />Damour watched scads of cars fill the parking lot not long after his own arrival. Shoppers clad in thick layers briskly rubbed their hands together, their breath rising in clouds, preparing to wait for hours in the fierce cold of the pre-dawn Long Island November to spend their hard-earned dough on the shiny gadgets that lie inside waiting, marked down for the lucky few who made it there first.<br /><br />The shoppers got antsy as more of them showed up. The line had started to grow disordely, and Damour nervously chewed his lip, observing his watch as he observed the rapidly increasing crowd, whose patience seemed to dissipate proportionally to the increase of its number.<br /><br />4:25. Still more than a half hour to go. The Valley Stream Wal-Mart told Damour that the doors would open exactly at 5:00 sharp, and that he would be the one to usher crowds inside. He was, however, but one man. Other security had been hired to stand by, but that didn't ease the growing fear settling in his gut. The handwritten sign and barricades had since been rendered meaningless; the once-orderly line had now turned into a sea of people slowly budging closer to Damour, who firmly held his hands out in front of him.<br /><br />"Hey pal, how much longer are we gonna have to wait?" One customer angrily shouted through the glass.<br />"Let us in! It's cold!" Said another.<br />"Move outta the way!" Another yelled.<br /><br />The crowd had now swelled to about 2,000 people. The sign was now on the ground, lying under the feet of the pissed-off shoppers. The cold coming through the glass was no longer an issue for Damour; his blood ran hot, and sweat beaded his forehead from the proximity of the crowd, the unsettling ache of his bowels, combined with a slight delirium from a lack of sleep.<br /><br />"Just wait," Damour yelled out to the shoppers in front. "The store opens at 5. Please be calm, we'll be opening shortly."<br /><br />Damour's watch read 4:47 AM. Still far too early for anyone to be up on a holiday, yet the Wal-Mart parking lot was full. Cars buzzed by on the road nearby, undoubtedly heading out to grab early bird deals at other stores hoping to capitalize on the Black Friday rush. All the gloom and doom over the recent economic collapses had really caused the media to amp up "Black Friday" into a holiday of its own, business owners eager to get shoppers inside the stores and keep them there until their holiday bonuses were nestled in the cash registers. Damour's manager had told him that he'd be needed until probably 4 or 5 that day, and to expect more 12-hour shifts as Christmas loomed closer.<br /><br />It was 4:54 AM now, and the crowd had morphed into a mob. Shoppers no longer cared about the words they used in front of children, or about bumping into and elbowing one another. The doorbuster deals were a straight line to the back of the store in the Electronics department, and shoppers looked prepared to fight one another to be first in line to get a $20 discount on the big screen TV. Still the mob pushed and shoved and elbowed and swore. Other employees, notiving the havoc that was escalating outside, had joined Damour and formed a human chain in front of the stoor entrance.<br /><br />"PUSH THE DOORS IN! PUSH THE DOORS IN! PUSH THE DOORS IN!" The mob bellowed.<br /><br />Then, two things happened, almost simultaneously, just before 5 AM.<br /><br />Damour saw the glass pane in front of him start to bend in the middle from the force of the crowd. He pushed to get it to stay upright, but the glass had bent back too far. <br /><br />The door burst off its hinges. Damour fell helplessly backward, and the mob pushed on. They no longer noticed the man in the hooded sweatshirt and gloves and blue vest serving as the last barricade between them and the deals that lie beyond the glass. As Damour fell, hordes of boots and sneakers fell upon him, compounded with the weight of the shoppers who wore them. There was nowhere else but the shoppers to go but forward. Shoes continued to pound and squash Damour into the hard tile floor, bloodying his face, breaking his bones, pulverizing his insides as shoppers leapt over one another and on top of the man who lay helplessly on the floor, buried under the feet and weight of thousands.<br /><br />The doorbusters had been picked up almost as soon as Damour met his swift death. Customers squabbled with each other, punching and shoving those who had made it to the first deals on the shelf. Emergency crews were rushed in to perform CPR on Damour, but even they were not immune to the consumer-hungry rage of the mob still pouring in from the dark, cold New York morning. Even four other shoppers couldn't escape injury from the ensuing mayhem, including a 28 year-old woman eight months pregnant.<br /><br />Not more than 45 minutes after Damour was trampled, the manager's voice instructed shoppers on the intercom that a worker was killed, that they would have to leave.<br /><br />"Aw, man! I've been in line since 4 this morning!" One shopper yelled in protest.<br /><br />The Wal-Mart would re-open that day at 1 PM, and shoppers filled the building within minutes. Damour would not be there this time to help guard the door.<br /><br />The discounted gifts that customers endured for hours in the cold just for a few bucks off sticker price, like a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28 and Men's Wrangler Tough Jeans for $8 would eventually be wrapped and placed under trees, and would be torn apart and opened to excited screams and shouts on a Christmas morning that 34 year-old Jdimytai Damour would never see. A morning that his 41 year-old sister Danielle would spend quietly without him, weeping uncontrollably with other grieving family members like 37 year-old cousin Ernst, instead.<br /><br /><b>Corporate Callousness 2.0</b><br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_Safety_and_Health_Act">Occupational Safety and Health Act</a> was enacted by Congress in 1970 in the event that if something happened like the event above, there would be some accountability. OSHA has the authority to levy penalties to companies who knowingly put their workers in hazardous situations. Such regulations meant to ensure corporations consider the safety of their employees as the highest priority, even above profits.<br /><br /><i>29 U.S.C. § 654, 5(a)1: "Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees."</i> <br /><br />But thanks to decades of the corporate special interest lobbying that has been polluting congress relentlessly, and even much moreso since the Reagan Revolution, these corporations are now only responsible for a mere $7,000 pittance if a "foreseeable death" occurs. The penalty for a "willful death" is $70,000. One Wal-Mart store makes about $250,000 per day. That's a conservative estimate. <br /><br />However, Wal-Mart, in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/07walmart.html">ultimate act of corporate defiance of laws</a>, has spent $2 MILLION fighting OSHA's $7,000 fine for a Wal-Mart worker dying on the clock. That's $2,000,000. Spent to not pay a $7,000 fine for something they knew could very possibly happen. They claim that OSHA doesn't have the constitutional authority to levy penalties against private corporations. Which is complete nonsense, as corporate accountability for wrongdoing to workers is precisely why OSHA was created. But OSHA's legal department has complained that Wal-Mart, with its infinite resources and money, is draining OSHA's resources to the point that a full third of their legal department is dedicating all of their time to try and get Wal-Mart to follow the law.<br /><br />Clearly, this isn't about money. This is Wal-Mart waging a war of attrition against the federal government, in an ultimate effort to discourage them in the future from pursuing large corporations and holding them accountable when they put lives at risk for the sake of profit. Wal-Mart, a company that let a worker die while working for them, is challenging the federal government for having the audacity to make them pay for their callousness.<br /><br />If this isn't enough to get people to stop giving Wal-Mart their money, I don't know what is.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-87870720251575672012010-06-24T11:19:00.001-07:002010-06-26T19:30:37.825-07:00The Destruction of America: It's What They Want<b>Introduction</b><br /><br /><i>"Government can't solve the problem. Government is the problem."</i><br />-Ronald Reagan<br /><br />No, the title is not referring to the terrorists. At least, not the ones in other countries, who commit conventional terrorism with bombs and airplanes and vans. These terrorists are a small group of elitists who wish to bring America to its knees unconventionally; through the Democratic process, of all things. Not because they necessarily hate their country, but because they love their money, their power, and their campaign contributors more than their country. And if making the country weaker makes them more powerful, you'd better believe they'll do it.<br /><br />So who are "they?"<br /><br /><b>The Reagan Revolution</b><br /><br /><i>"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."</i><br />-Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform<br /><br />America's resounding wish 30 years ago materialized through the "Reagan Revolution." One of unfettered, deregulated, unrestrained capitalism, compounded with "starving the beast." The "beast," of course, being government. Even if that beast was educating our children and caring for our poor and our sick, the American people wanted that beast out of their lives. And they elected Ronald Reagan the the presidency by overwhelming margins in both 1980 and 1984, and they even liked him so much that they elected one of his deputies, George H. Bush, after Reagan's two terms were up. <br /><br />And the two Democratic presidents who have followed both tread carefully when stumping for social welfare programs, because the "GOVERNMENT BAD, CORPORATIONS GOOD" mantra had been stuck in the heads of constituents for a generation and was there to stay. <br /><br />President Clinton deregulated banks by repealing the Glass-Stegall Act of 1936 in his second term as per the advice of Rubin and Summers, a decision he now <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/president-clinton-i-was-wrong-listen">openly regrets</a>. And President Obama doesn't dare raise top income tax rates to what they were under <a href="http://the-wawg-blog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/tax_rate-chart.gif">other Republican administrations</a> (50% under Reagan, 70% under Nixon, 91% under Eisenhower) for fear of a corporate lynch mob. Barack Obama is already being called every demeaning term under the sun for letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011 (39.6 top tax rate after Bush tax cuts for the wealthy sunset), so it isn't likely he'll impose higher taxes on the richest, at least in his first term.<br /><br />So the people have spoken, right? Taxes are bad? Government is bad? Corporations, deregulation and obscene profits are all good? If you have absurd amounts of wealth, then you obviously worked for every penny and any taxation on those profits is socialism/communism/fascism/nazism/terrorism? The only reason poor people are poor is because they don't know how to work hard?<br /><br />Well kids, the Reagan Revolution has come true in every way. We are reaping the fruits of our labor, of the seeds we have sewn three decades ago. I invite all of you to read on, and see just exactly where the Reagan Revolution and 30 years of fiscal conservatism and libertarian unfettered free-market philosophies has led our country.<br /><br /><b>The Dawn of the Re-Gilded Age</b><br /><br /><i>"The only social responsibility of corporations is to make a profit."</i><br />-Milton Friedman, economic adviser to President Reagan<br /><br />Take a look at any economic chart graphing just about anything in this country after 1981, and you'll notice a pattern. That pattern is usually a line that takes a sudden drop, or a sudden rise.<br /><br />For example, after 1981, when Reagan was sworn in, we steadily went form the world's largest creditor, to the world's largest debtor.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.angrybearblog.com/2009/10/labors-share.html">Working people's share</a> of the profits from increased productivity also took a sharp turn for the worst.<br /><br />This led to increased concentration of wealth <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/09/04/27/CongratulationstoEmmanuelSaez/">at the top.</a><br /><br />Because of this, working folks had to <a href="http://www.demos.org/inequality/numbers.cfm">deplete their savings</a> just to get basic needs.<br /><br />Without a reserve of savings, this soon led to increased <a href="http://bonddad.blogspot.com/2009/05/bernankes-happy-talk.html">working-class debt</a>, which has only worsened since the Reagan Revolution.<br /><br />Obviously, none of this helped <a href="http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/gateway.asp">economic growth</a>, because the majority of working Americans were cutting back their spending, which hurts local economies and jobs.<br /><br />Do you see the pattern yet? The source of our economic woes should be painfully obvious right now, but the vested powers that be like it that way, and have plenty of money to lobby Congress so they can make sure the cards remain in their favor. Even if that means the rest of us get the short end of the stick.<br /><br />So why complain? According to today's conservatives, this sort of economic inequality is not only sustainable, but it is just. And they're going to fight as hard as they can to make sure the status quo stays. But what is that status quo today, after three decades of Reaganomics from both parties?<br /><br /><b>The Status Quo</b><br /><br /><i>"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.<br /><br />"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.<br /><br />"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."</i><br /><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/tv/w/000499/">-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936</a><br /><br />The status quo today is one that is slowly <a href="http://www.mybudget360.com/24700000-unemployed-or-underemployed-americans-job-losses-accelerate-with-6-million-unemployed-over-last-year-real-unemployment-rate-now-at-158-percent/">destroying</a> the American middle class, to where nearly one in five of us are unemployed, underemployed, or have just stopped looking for work. <br /><br />The gap between the richest and everyone else is slowly turning into a chasm, thanks to fiscal policy that fills the pockets of the rich while the working class toil longer hours for lower wages. The debt mentioned in the previous section has grown to such an alarming rate that one in 9 working families can't even make the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58E6LH20090915">minimum payment</a> on their credit card debt. The housing situation hasn't improved much since the subprime bubble burst in late 2008; now, one in eight <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/11/mortgage_defaults_hitting_reco.html">mortgages</a> is either in foreclosure or default, and homes are still emptying all over America today, and it's estimated we'll have <a href="http://www.realtytrac.com/contentmanagement/realtytraclibrary.aspx?channelid=8&ItemID=6675">ten million more</a> foreclosures before 2012.<br /><br />While Wall Street bankers used our bailout money to give themselves obscene bonuses, Americans who suffered from their greed had <a href="http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/tg296.htm">$5 TRILLION</a> of their pension and savings <a href="http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/wealth_2008_07.pdf">wiped out.</a><br /><br />Sure, the 1960's saw a boom where median income rose for working families by 33%, but the economic surge that was celebrated by the end of the Clinton presidency was only a 1.5% jump for <a href="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/123204/original.jpg">folks like us</a>. However, the real gains were made on Wall Street- champagne corks were popping through the latter half of the 20th century as productivity has steadily been on the rise while middle-class wages have been relatively flat since the 1970s.<br /><br />The top 10% of the country has seen great gains in their wealth since 1980, thanks to Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush policies. However, prices have continued to rise while wages have stagnated for the other 90%. Now, the hunger rate in this country, arguably the most wealthy on the planet, has increased by 37 million in just <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/145950/our_dirty_little_secret%3A_who%27s_really_poor_in_america?page=entire">the past year.</a> And here in the South, it's estimated that nearly half of the children in 15 states are undernourished. And according to the article above, a third of Americans- 100 million people- are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level of $21,834 in annual income for a family of four. And as the author said, that figure really should be adjusted, because that amount of money isn't capable of supporting a family of four today. And as if that wasn't enough, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-11-02-food-stamps_N.htm">50% percent of kids</a> growing up today will require food stamps/EBT just to eat three meals a day.<br /><br />So despite the astonishing levels of disparity and income inequality in America, the likes of which we haven't seen since pre-1929, the Republicans in power and the Libertarians making up the majority of the Tea Party would have you believe that such a lack of income and crippling poverty is your own fault. Their meme is that if you live on food stamps/EBT cards, then you're a lazy, good-for-nothing government mooch. Their reasoning for earning insufficient wages is that you just don't work hard enough.<br /><br />If that seems like an over-generalization, read on and see just how the Republicans in power feel about the poor and unemployed who survive only on a government-provided safety net. Since the onset of the Reagan Revolution, they have sought to not only abolish all regulatory agencies, but to eliminate all social welfare programs.<br /><br />They are succeeding.<br /><br /><b>The Right-Wing War on the Poor</b><br /><br /><i>"Tough shit."</i><br />-Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) after being asked to drop objections to 30-day unemployment extension<br /><br />In February, Jim Bunning drew the <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/bunning-objects-over-and-over/">scorn</a> of Democrats across the country for his callousness toward the plight of America's jobless. Republican senators Jon Kyl and Bob Corker had lukewarm support for his viewpoints, but the rest of the Republican caucus turned their heads in shame, refusing to join their colleague in blocking emergency aid to the poor.<br /><br />Fast-forward to Thursday, June 24th, when an up-or-down vote on an emergency spending bill to extend unemployment insurance through December 30th was blocked- not just by Sen. Bunning, but by the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128092037">entire Republican caucus</a>. Conservative Democrat Ben Nelson (D-NE) joined the Republicans, and "moderate" Republicans like Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Scott Brown (R-MA) voted in lockstep with their party.<br /><br />Along with keeping the safety net for millions of jobless Americans intact, the bill also included $16 billion in state government aid, aimed at preserving public sector jobs that would otherwise be lost. Governors of 47 states, including top GOP strategist Haley Barbour (R-MS) all signed a letter <a href="http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/governors-urge-congress-extend-fmap-funding">begging Congress</a> to extend them the $16 billion to save their state employees. Already, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/18/news/economy/state_employees_layoffs/">231,000 state government employees</a> across the nation have lost their jobs since the beginning of the recession because of severe budget cuts.<br /><br />As if this wasn't enough, in their never-ending, fruitless effort to reach across the aisle, Senate Democrats even <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/23/unemployment-jobs-bill-grim_n_623553.html">compromised</a> the bill down from $190 B to $30 B. However, Senate Republicans vowed to filibuster regardless of the amount in the bill. The only alternative offered by the Republicans would be to severely cut the budget to where the federal government would effectively shut down for almost 80 days. For the GOP, a compromise means that the Democrats do what the Republicans want.<br /><br />The GOP casts themselves as martyrs, saying that blocking UI is necessary to save the federal deficit from exploding. However, worrying about the deficit while people are starving and losing their homes is a lot like worrying about the furniture on the Titanic if it gets wet. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joked about the emergency spending bill, calling it the "Deficit Extenders Act."<br /><br />Mind you, Mitch McConnell is the same deficit hawk who gleefully voted with the rest of his caucus to spend $4 TRILLION that we didn't have on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Growth_and_Tax_Relief_Reconciliation_Act_of_2001">tax cuts for the rich 1%,</a> <a href="http://www.costofwar.com/">two wars</a> on countries that didn't attack us, and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Prescription_Drug,_Improvement,_and_Modernization_Act">Medicare package</a> that put money into the pockets of Big Pharma at the expense of America's senior citizens while George W. Bush was president. He is the same senator who voted to give himself a <a href="http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/agencies/a/raise4congress.htm">"cost of living"</a> pay raise while America was reeling from the deficits created by irresponsible spending from those in his party. <br /><br />Mitch and his Republicans in the US Senate won't cut anything from the <a href="http://www.costofwar.com/">$1 trillion</a> spent on wars overseas since 2001, but he draws the line when it comes to keeping a safety net intact for 15 million Americans suffering from an economic crisis created by his party's failed fiscal policies.<br /><br />It isn't just Bunning being a mean old curmudgeon now- every Republican is now Jim Bunning.<br /><br /><b>The Destruction of America: It's What They Want</b><br /><br /><i>"I want Obama to fail."</i><br />-Rush Limbaugh<br /><br />Eliminating the only source of income left for 15 million Americans will only lead to even more widespread poverty; the lack of money coming into local businesses will have a ripple effect in every state. No longer will the jobless have money coming in so they can buy shoes for their kids, put food on the table, make copays to see the doctor, or change the oil, or even put gas in their cars. The Republicans would like us to believe that this will somehow further enable the jobless to find work, despite the fact that <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-06-21-morehours21_ST_N.htm">corporate profits are up while hiring is down.</a> The jobs just aren't out there.<br /><br />When families are pushed out onto the streets because they no longer have UI checks coming in to pay rent, when they lose the money they were getting to gas up their car so they can drive around town and drop off resumes and fill out job applications, when local mom-and-pop grocery stores, hardware stores, shoe stores and service stations go belly-up because there's no money being spent, the economy will likely crash again, just in time for the 2010 midterm congressional elections in November.<br /><br />The average American doesn't have the time to follow political news- they don't see Republicans crassly voting against emergency aid for millions of families and households. They don't see a vow by the Republicans to filibuster any and all legislation that helps spur job growth. The average American will only see "Congress" sitting on their thumbs, accomplishing nothing while people starve. And come November, the average American will be in an angry, throw-the-bums-out, anti-incumbent fervor. And since the Democrats have the majority, they will be saddled with the blame, despite the Republicans purposefully failing to govern in the people's interest.<br /><br /><big><i>This is not about fiscal policy. This is simply the Republicans playing politics with people's livelihoods.</i></big><br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br />The Republicans seek not to create jobs, or help the economy recover, at least not while the Democrats are in charge of the White House and the Capitol. They want this president and this congress to fail, so they can win more seats in the next election. Their political strategy is to break the economy, increase poverty, widen the gap between rich and poor, and then point the finger at the Democrats and say, <br /><br />"See? We told you they couldn't get anything done!"<br /><br />If voters refuse to stay informed on legislative affairs, if voters become apathetic with the political process and decide to stay home on election day, then the Republicans will get what they want. And they will continue to fight against the interests of the working poor as long as Barack Obama is in the White House. They will continue to side with their corporate contributors and Wall Street in their class war against the dwindling middle class and impoverished. <br /><br />But don't take my word for it- let them say it for you. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcyxAzdMAn8">They are not on your side.</a><br /><br />It's a risky political strategy, but they will succeed unless the Democrats come out with guns blazing. The extreme right has taken over the Republican party, and they are waging war with anyone not in line with their philosophy of "screw you, I got mine." The Democrats ignore this partisan warfare at their own peril.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-57930140519794708872010-06-18T22:08:00.000-07:002010-06-19T00:10:50.303-07:00My Final Plea For Your Help<b>Intro</b><br /><br /><i>"Die with your boots on. Gonna try? Well stick around. Gonna cry? Just move along. The truth of all predictions is always in your hands."</i><br />-Iron Maiden <br /><br />I just need to convey a point here. And I try not to be known for vulnerability, but I am openly scared for the future. Not just of this country, or our generation, or our society, but for our posterity and our planet and for all living things. I am frightened, and I'm asking for your help. Why?<br /><br />Because all logic points to the conclusion that we are accelerating quickly down a path that is becoming rockier and steepier and narrower. Unless we find a way to stop and find a better, safer way to travel, I fear the human species will tumble right off the side. This fall will be gradual at first, but it will nonetheless become cataclysmic, and will remain irreversible for generations. And we will doom this planet's life along with us. This could all happen within a 5 to 10 year window at our current pace.<br /><br />I'm just going to list some recent happenings in the news, then a few facts afterward. There are many more than what has been listed here, but these are just the few that come off the top of my head from paying attention to the news for the past few weeks or so. Then I will lead you to the extremely logical and simple conclusion I've come to, and hopefully you'll have come to the same conclusion by the time you've finished reading this.<br /><br /><b>Major Environmental Disasters in America Since 4/20/2010</b><br /><br /><i>Ice age coming<br />Ice age coming<br />Let me hear both sides<br />Let me hear both sides<br />Let me hear both<br />Ice age coming<br />Ice age coming<br />Throw them in the fire<br />Throw them in the fire<br />Throw them in the<br /><br />We're not scare mongering<br />This is really happening<br />Happening<br />We're not scare mongering<br />This is really happening<br />Happening<br />Mobiles quirking<br />Mobiles chirping<br />Take the money and run<br />Take the money and run<br />Take the money</i><br />-Radiohead, Idioteque<br /><br />Mind you, this is simply MAJOR disasters. Since April 20th. In America. I define "major" as one where human beings are killed or injured or otherwise directly affected. I will not be including things like the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska just two decades ago. Or the massive oil spill in the Persian Gulf during the Iraqi/Saudi conflicts back in Saddam Hussein's heyday. Nor will I discuss the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8679981.stm">Venezuelan oil rig</a> that sank in the Caribbean this past May. Or any of the ten <a href="http://www.chrisheier.com/?p=20">world's worst oil spills,</a> none of which have happened in the USA. Just major happenings, here in the states, in the past 60 or so days.<br /><br /><u>April 20, 2010</u><br />BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded deep in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people. Estimates by the oil company started at 5,000 barrels a day (around 200,000 gallons of oil per day) and then independent and government scientists analyzed the drilling depth, the amount of oil in the well, and the consequences of a major blowout, and placed that figure around 10,000 to 20,000 barrels a day. Now that figure is between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels a day. It could be higher. But it's already gushed more than four Exxon Valdez-sized spills into the Gulf of Mexico. And that's a very, very conservative estimate. <br /><br />This will effect undersea plant, fish, bird, turtle and whale species, local economies, tourism, and the country's domestic seafood supply very likely for the rest of our lives. And if, God forbid, a major hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico, which scientists say is very likely this year, then imagine miles and miles of concrete ribbons of expressway closed down indefinitely because they're covered in oil. Lost homes. Lost cultures. Lost ways of life. For at least a generation. Maybe more.<br /><br /><u>June 6 2010</u><br />A natural gas well leaked toxic gases into water supplies for 16 hours in Pennsylvania, due to <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/06/inspectors_try_to_find_what_ca.html">a failure in the well's blowout preventer</a>. A plume of polluted water and gas shot 75 feet into the air at the time of the incident, and crews were evacuated until the next day.<br /><br /><u>June 7, 2010</u><br />A natural gas line in Cleburn, Texas ruptured, <a href="http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/06/natural_gas_line_blast_in_texa.html">ending one worker's life and sending seven to the hspital.</a> Nobody could walk through the area for several hours, and the worker's charred remains were found later in the day, a good distance from the site.<br /><br />Also on this day, in <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/06/natural_gas_well_explosion_bur.html">Moundsville, West Virginia</a>, a natural gas line drilling project ran into a pocket of methane, injuring 7 people. A 70-foot pillar of flame shot from the gas line, and the flames were still 40 feet high several hours later.<br /><br /><u>June 8, 2010</u><br />Two men digging clay out of a pit in the Texas panhandle were killed when <a href="http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/06/a_second_texas_natural_gas_exp.html">a natural gas line suddenly exploded.</a> Three other workers bulldozing near the blast were hospitalized. <br /><br /><u>June 13, 2010</u><br />Creeks and nearby water supplies were polluted after a Chevron oil well dumped <a href="http://kcpw.org/blog/local-news/2010-06-17/salt-lake-city-hires-private-agency-to-help-with-oil-spill-cleanup/">33,000 gallons of crude oil</a> near Salt Lake City, Utah. Chevron takes responsibility for this one, and reports are surfacing of oil-soaked wildlife emerging from surrounding waterways.<br /><br /><u>June 15, 2010</u><br />A natural gas pipeline <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-pipeline_15bus.ART.State.Edition1.1d26f2a.html">exploded</a> in the Dallas area, taking a man's life and injuring 8 others. Authorities are still trying to figure out what caused the fatal blast.<br /><br /><b>Rapid Climate Change</b><br /><br /><i>"Can you read signs? Can you read stars?<br />Can you make peace? Can you fight war?<br />Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars?<br />Can you survive, against all odds?"</i><br />-Damien Marley, "Patience"<br /><br />At the Bonnaroo music festival this year, in a treeless field an hour South of Nashville, Tennessee, one attendee actually <a href="http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2010/06/13/bonnaroo-cma-festival-see-2-deaths-weather-keeps-music-staffs-busy/">died</a> from the heat. I remember heat indices reaching past 100 on Friday, and climbing steadily on Saturday and Sunday. The brief rain we got Saturday just compounded Sunday's wet, sticky humidity, not to mention exacerbating the prevalent stink of 80,000 unwashed bodies of myself and other hormone-ridden hipsters, rastas, peaceniks and other such scalawags in Manchester. <br /><br />But that's something we're just going to have to get used to, just like these environmental disasters that keep sticking their ugly heads up in the news each day. Because this year is on track to be the <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100615_globalstats.html">hottest year on record</a>. The <a href="http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/03/nasa-giss-james-hansen-study-global-warming-record-hottest-year/">facts</a> are bearing out all over the place.<br /><br />-Did you know that global surface temperature records have been <a href="http://img710.imageshack.us/i/amsusattemp25may10ch4.png/">shattered every week</a> since the second week this past January, when compared to the year before?<br /><br />-Did you know that ocean temperatures are currently at their <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100615_globalstats.html">second-hottest of all-time</a>, other than 1998? And that record <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/2010-has-been-hottest-year-on-record-noaa.php">temperature anomalies</a> are now being reported on all of the world's majorly-populated continents?<br /><br />-Did you know that <a href="http://img709.imageshack.us/i/iceextn17824861793513.jpg/">arctic sea ice</a> volume has <a href="http://psc.apl.washington.edu/ArcticSeaiceVolume/IceVolume.php">drastically declined</a> over the last two months, far beyond what would be considered normal in the planet's climate cycles? That temperatures in the arctic are <a href="http://img710.imageshack.us/i/arcticseaicesome0004528.jpg/">ten degrees fahrenheit warmer</a> today than the norm? And that this past brutal winter and what is predicted to be an historically destructive hurricane season are being <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51826">directly linked</a> to this arctic meltdown?<br /><br />-Most importantly, did you know that scientists are estimating that <a href="http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jun/04/slide-show-1-world-environment-day-2010-water-shortage-grim-future-for-indian-cities.htm">half of the WORLD</a> will suddenly find themselves in a severe water shortage 20 years from now?<br /><br />This cycle compounds and becomes worse, exacerbated by an overabundance of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere, which lingers above, absorbing sunlight and focusing it on the arctic areas. Before the industrial revolution's onset, the Earth naturally equalized atmospheric CO2. Now, the Earth has far more CO2 than it knows what to deal with. When arctic ice melts, seas grow warmer and ice becomes more isolated. Warmer, saltier water then flows into the arctic from the North Atlantic, <a href="http://bulletin.mercator-ocean.fr/html/produits/bestproduct/welcome_en.jsp?nom=bestproduct_20100526_22060&zone=arc">which causes more ice to melt.</a> Lather, rinse, repeat.<br /><br />These greenhouse gases, largely put in the air by humanity's industrialization, consist of carbon dioxide and methane. Both of which humans excrete just by sitting still, which the Earth can normally equalize if kept at manageable levels. But with so much rapid melting of sea ice, methane pockets in the Siberian shelf are starting to <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/data/327/5970/1246/DC1/2">seep into the atmosphere</a>. Methane stays in the air for much longer and channels much more heat than regular CO2, and climate scientists warn that this is steadily increasing global temperatures incrementally over the years, to where we are literally starting to see catastrophic effects of climate change take place worldwide before our own eyes. <br /><br />-Like the Aral Sea drying up to a fraction of what it was <a href="http://shipbright.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/aral_sea_1989-20081.jpg">just twenty years ago.</a> <br /><br />-Like <a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48347">glaciers collapsing</a> in Argentina, killing three tourists and their guide.<br /><br />-Like water supplies in one of the world's most populous countries suddenly <a href="http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jun/04/slide-show-1-world-environment-day-2010-water-shortage-grim-future-for-indian-cities.htm">drying up</a> because of rapid glacial melt.<br /><br />-Like how we're already seeing conflicts in the hottest parts of the world not over religious, ethnic of political differences, but because <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/27/world/la-fg-climate-conflict27-2009nov27">there's not enough food and water to go around.</a><br /><br />Like the recent environmental disasters, the effects of climate change are numerous in the media, and I could devote pages to just sharing links and figures and data. But that isn't what I came here to do tonight. I came to ask for your help.<br /><br /><b>My Final Plea For Your Help</b><br /><br /><i>"Come mothers and fathers, throughout the land.<br />And don't criticize what you can't understand.<br />Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.<br />Your old road is rapidly agin'.<br />Please get out of the new one,<br />If you can't lend your hand,<br />For the times, they are a-changin'."</i><br />-Bob Dylan, "The Times, They Are A-Changin'"<br /><br />This is usually the part where I ask you to call your congressmen and senators and urge them to push for strong climate legislation for the sake of our planet. But I'm going to just start small here, and hope you, the readers, will take it upon yourselves to make a collective call to action in government and society. My plea?<br /><br />Climate change is NOT to be up for debate any longer. <br /><br />Evolution used to be an issue up for debate. As did the Earth being the center of the universe. Or the Earth's shape. Or the origin of the universe. But eventually, a scientific consensus concluded that the facts were overwhelmingly on their side, and they moved on.<br /><br />This is the part where the deniers come out of the woodwork and link me to studies put out by the Heritage Insitute, or the Heartland Institute, or some other think tank funded with oil company money scoffing at proven climate science. Or to a petition from the religious right-wing's Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, where 30,000 scientists who DON'T study the climate deny that climate change is man-made, or that it's even happening. <br /><br />Or maybe the deniers reading this are fuming under their breath, preparing a lengthy response chastising me about ignoring the economic implications of a strong climate bill. Please don't waste your time. Any economic implications of a carbon tax or ban on oil drilling are outweighed by far by the economic implications of 3 billion starving people in Africa and Central/Eastern Asia. Or by every major coastal American city underwater by the midpoint of the 21st century.<br /><br />It could be that the climate change deniers are about to post links to the "climategate scandal" at the University of East Anglia, where tens of thousands of private emails between climate scientists were illegally hacked and taken out of context by those working in the interests of Big Oil. Where, in reality, the actual conclusions about drastic climate change came to by a consensus of climatologists were never thrown into question, despite so much manufactured outrage and nonsense.<br /><br />Or maybe it's just the sad cry of the FOX news watchers and Glenn Beck-ites and Rush Limbaugh dittoheads of "B-b-but...AAAAALLLLL GOOOOOOORRRRREEEE!" <br /><br />I've wasted far too much time repeatedly debunking those petitions, those studies, those faux scandals and those organizations and I'm tired of debate, for once. I'm thirsty not for debate, but for action, and our planet needs us. And I'm moving on. We all must move on.<br /><br />We must plead for our media to stop pitting scientists vs. non-scientists against one another and framing it as a legitimate debate. The debate is over. Like evolution, climate change is no longer up for debate. It is happening. It is real. Our actions are directly influencing the climate's rapid change. And incidents like the ones above are all indicative that we are very quickly hurtling down an unsustainable path, and that the only thing that can come of it will be a very swift, sharp, painful end for all of us.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br /><i>"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"</i><br />-Henry David Thoreau<br /><br />Our generation will either be remembered as the ones who finally swallowed our pride, wised up and organized a collective effort to reverse our planet's inevitable decay before it was too late, or the ones who got lazy, who consumed with reckless abandon, who spat in the faces of the more knowledgeable among us. And if a fraction of humanity does survive the pending crises that will already await us in the not-too-distant future, they will look back on us with scorn, and tell their progeny of how our laziness and apathy caused species to die off en masse, for soil to only become fertile again once our decomposed corpses were taken back into the Earth.<br /><br />I'm asking for your help. What will you do for the planet? For yourselves? For your grandchildren?<br /><br />How will you be remembered?CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-68269978056672438402010-06-18T19:31:00.000-07:002010-06-18T19:33:05.823-07:00New Age Charlatans and the Overton Window(Disclaimer: There are far too many sources to individually link to, and I frankly don't have the time for the tedious task of hyperlinking every claim made in this note. However, should anything I say here make you scoff, feel free to point me to where you'd like to see sources backing me up, and Id be more than happy to provide you with links.)<br /><br /><b>The Power of the Media</b><br /><br /><i>“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”<br />-Malcolm X</i><br /><br />Here's how dictionary.com defines the word "charlatan."<br /><br /><i>–noun <br />a person who pretends or claims to have more knowledge or skill than he or she possesses; quack.</i><br /><br />Pretty harmless, right? That word can describe thousands of people. I imagine some of my more critical readers would probably love to associate that word with me. But I'd like to use this space to focus that word on the cable news demagogues that plague our public discourse with blatant and outright lies and misinformation, and a general poisoning of the public discourse.<br /><br />Sure, there are the minor-league pundits like Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough, Lou Dobbs in his heyday, and the like. But they don't even hold a candle to the voices on right-wing morning talk radio like Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and of course our friends on FOX news like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. The FOXers don't even make an effort to hide their bias. Right-wingers could argue that MSNBC is the liberal equivalent of FOX, but as John Stewart put it in a baseball analogy, MSNBC is like the Toledo Mud Hens to FOX news' New York Yankees. There really is no equivalence between the two.<br /><br />Maybe a lot of you are sighing or slapping your foreheads, and wondering why I'm dedicating a piece to blasting cable news demagogues instead of researching and tackling more presing issues. But this IS a pressing issue, because our political discourse, since the inauguration of President Barack Obama, has become posionous to a most extreme level. I fully place blame on Glenn Beck/Sean Hannity/Rush Limabugh's hate speech and misinformation campaigns, and how they've skillfully shifted the Overton Window to the far right.<br /><br />I've always said that the media is the fifth branch of American government (the Federal Reserve has earned the title of the fourth branch after the bailouts, their autonomy and lack of transparency and accountability) and in many ways, has more influence over the public than the other four. We in the media decide what the public talks about. We are in charge of creating the public discourse. What you discuss at parties, in coffee shops with the cute girl sitting at the table next to you, with your parents over the phone, with your friends at the bar after work, all comes largely from what the media puts on the airwaves and in print. We are a force to be reckoned with, although many of us are unaware, as we all complain of being overworked and underpaid. And of course, media folks are in one of the most hated professions in America; we're right there at the bottom with congressmen, seedy car mechanics and lawyers. But our power is prevalent and far-reaching.<br /><br />Which brings me to this point- when you are a pundit with your own cable TV show watched by millions, and you knowingly mislead the public and propagate extremism, you create an environment where millions suddenly find such hate speech and posionous dialogue as acceptable discourse. Particularly when these pundits parade themselves as legitimate journalists who are "just asking the hard questions."<br /><br />Look at Glenn Beck, for instance. Here is a man with a primetime cable show on the most-watched cable news network, who-<br /><br />-has attacked the president's deceased mother and grandmother, calling them "Marxists," <br />-has openly endorsed an anti-semitic author, <br />-has once used his radio talk show to harass a woman who had a miscarriage, <br />-has called a caller on his show (along with Sec. of State Hillary Clinton) a "bitch," <br />-has called Katrina victims "scumbags,"<br />-has said he openly hates 9/11 victims' families,<br />-has asserted that the United States is not a Democracy, but that progressives are trying to make it one, and that that's a bad thing. (Which leads to the assertion that we're a Republic, not a Democracy, leading to the unspoken assertion that Republicans are the only true Americans, and that Democrats are un-American and un-patriotic, among other such nonsense)<br />-has called for his audience to leave their churches if they advocate social justice or economic justice,<br />-has called the president a "racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred for White people" and the "White culture," <br /><br />He does this through contrived tears, choking up out of a fear that our country's very principles are under attack by an evil, oppressive, liberal agenda by those who want to take your guns, jobs, bibles, and babies. While chastising liberals for poking fun at Bristol Palin's pregnancy despite her mother being an advocate for abstinence-only sex education, he has used airtime on his program to blast Melea and Sasha Obama, the president's two teenage daughters. In spite of so much hatred and hypocrisy, his TV show and radio program garner millions of listeners and viewers every day.<br /><br />Anyone with an ounce of sanity knows Glenn Beck is a clown. Many of you have scoffed at my calling Beck's hate speech a threat to Democracy, because clearly, there can't be that many people who take him seriously. But the thing is, there are. And they are being woefully lied to and misled every day, being fed a steady diet of hatred and fear and ignorance. It is poisoning our dialogue, and it is shifting the Overton Window to the extreme right. Beck, in and of himself, is harmless. But he is succeeding in a larger goal of manipulating the shift of the Overton Window, which is indeed a very dangerous thing. <br /><br /><b>The Overton Window</b><br /><br /><i>"The most effective propaganda is simple- stick to a few certain points, and repeat them over and over again until they are accepted as fact.<br />-Joseph Goebbels</i><br /> <br />So what is the Overton Window? Political gurus describe it as the realm of acceptable public discourse in society. The more extremism, hate speech, and outlandish claims get broadcast to millions upon millions of listeners across the country each day, the less extreme those claims sound. thus, the Overton Window moves steadily to the right. We've heard these guys call liberals, the president, his administration, and his policies Nazi/Communist/Fascist/Anti-American for so long that they don't sound extreme anymore. <br /><br />Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh have been at the forefront of extreme discourse since the Democrats took control of Congress and the White House. Since the onset of the Obama presidency, we've seen the onset of the corporate-supported Astroturf (fake grassroots) effort, the Tea Party. the Tea Party has managed to get the majority of poor, uneducated, underserved white Americans to vehmently rail against their own self-interests, citing Democratic social welfare policies like Health Care Reform, Wall Street Reform, Immigration Reform and Campaign Finance Reform as "socialism," "communism," "nazism," and the like. The Tea Party, despite being exposed a front group established by the mainstream GOP, despite being funded by Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Insurance, has managed to get away with touting a populist label, and has had its principles extolled 24/7 as virtuous by the FOX news pundit regime.<br /><br />Now, approximately just 17 months into Obama's presidency, where he has historically accomplished far more than any other president has at that point in their tenure, where he has made good on nearly all of his campaign promises to this point, where taxes are at their lowest since the Truman administration, a paranoid, knee-jerk, reactionary 24-hour news cycle on FOX has managed to convince their viewing public of the exact opposite. Their pundits have insinuated that the president is a secret Muslim who wants to place the United States under Sharia law, that taxes on the poor and middle class are rising far higher and quicker than at any other point and time in history, that he has accomplished nothing since holding office, and that his agenda is succeeding in converting us from a Republic to a Socialist haven. <br /><br />Such extreme dialogue, when forced down the throats of millions every day, is now not so extreme. The Overton Window has shifted. And the far right has succeeded in their dominance of this country's political discourse once again. <br /><br /><b>Consequences of a Rightward Overton Window Shift</b><br /><br /><i>"Those who control the access to the minds of children will set the agenda for the future of the nation and the future of the western world."<br />-Rev. James Dobson</i><br /><br />We've seen bricks thrown through congressmen and congresswomen's campaign office windows, gas lines cut at the home of a Congressman Tom Perriello (D-VA) brother, tea partiers collectively mocking and throwing money at a man with Parkinson's who advocated for universal health care, cheering when being referred to as "Tim McVeigh wannabes," a plane flown into an IRS building in Texas, and a gathering in Washington, DC of tea partiers, all heavily armed, threatening to stage a violent revolt if their right-wing agenda was not adhered to in Washington. <br /><br />Simultaneously, Democratic successes in passing Health Care Reform and moving on other items in their legislative agenda has invited an onslaught of racial slurs, death threats, threats of armed insurrection, sedition, secession, and other hateful acts by the Tea Party activists. These acts have been encouraged and spurred on by right-wing talk radio and FOX news pundits. For example, Ann Coulter said the man who crashed his plane into the IRS building should have flown it into the New York Times building instead. This is the same woman who has openly called for liberals to be shot in the streets. A former pastor and armed serviceman has talked about grabbing his guns and "doing what has to be done" if Washington continues to move forward with a progressive agenda.<br /><br />With a right-wing media and blogosphere cheering on such extremism, and with a mainstream Republican establishment in Congress and the Senate who has refused to denounce hateful extremist acts, America has fostered a climate where violent extremism is encouraged. And until something is done to regulate such hate speech, it will only get worse from here.<br /><br /><b>What Can Be Done to Fight Extremism</b><br /><br /><i>"For the first time ever, everything is in place for the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ."<br />-Ronald Reagan</i><br /><br />Currently, it is not against the law to lie to the public in the news media. This was the ruling of the Florida appellate court, when two investigative reporters sued their former employer, a FOX affiliate, for manipulating a scathing report they had done about BGH in milk products to make it more corporate-friendly. Journalists have a responsibility to uphold the truth, and to tell the story as accurately as possible. However, so many are parading as journalists while simultaneously lying to and deceiving millions of Americans on a daily basis. They use their influence on the networks to spread misinformation and obstruct necessary progress and reforms in Washington. They are waging a war on both the truth and on our Democracy, but nothing is currently stopping them from from spreading lies, fear and hate and masking it as journalism.<br /><br />Our president and speaker of the house are too timid to support a reinstatement of the "Fairness Doctrine," which would require broadcasting outlets to equally air differing points of view on their stations. Thanks to the right-wing talk radio monopoly, millions of people are privy to hate radio for several hours each morning, with nothing on the other side to balance it out. As controversial as it is for me to say, I believe the Fariness Doctrine is a necessary first step to combat the charlatans' manipulation of the Overton Window and extreme right-wing dominance of our political discourse. And of course, nobody will pay attention to it unless you, the reader, take the time right now to take two minutes and call the Washington switchboard (202-224-3121), ask for your congressmen and senators, and urge them to sign on their support of the Fairness Doctrine. It's a long shot, but a crucial first step in restoring our political discourse back to an acceptable level.<br /><br />What about you? Do you care enough about American discourse to help save it from the far right?CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-66722988860319766852010-05-31T14:29:00.000-07:002010-05-31T16:23:13.396-07:00War Profiteering: The Biggest Threat to Democracy<b>Opening Statement</b><br />(Disclaimer: I have nothing but respect for our troops and our veterans. I did want to write this piece on Memorial Day, to give everyone else something to think about while we're honoring the memory of our fallen heroes. This is a discussion that should be renewed not just on Memorial Day, but every day that we're entrenched in two pointless wars. I hope that what you read here will shock you, and will cause you to scoff. Feel free to read any of the links posted here to learn more. I'm just scratching the surface.)<br /><br /><i>Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.</i><br />-Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower<br /><br />The beloved Dwight D. Eisenhower, WWII general and two-term Republican president, made a chilling, cryptic prediction in his 1<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY">961 farewell speech. </a> One can imagine that Eisenhower put much importance in conveying this message, as he chose these words to be the last he would ever say as leader of the free world, to a free people.<br /><br /><i>"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. <b>The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.</b> We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizen can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense, with our peaceful methods and goals. So that security and liberty can prosper together.</i><br /><br />Eisenhower was a five-star general, or General of the Army. It is the second-highest rank in the Army, next to the honor bestowed upon George Washington and General John Pershing, General of the Armies. If anyone knew the inner complexities of the defense sector and the grave implications of a power-grab by the arms manufacturing industry, it was Eisenhower. And his warning to us was grave. We did not listen, and we grew complacent. And now, nearly 50 years after the speech, the military industrial complex is alive and well, and has taken hold of our government, and indeed, the global economy as well. In this piece, I'll be delving into exactly how much power the military industrial complex wields in Washington, and what we can do as citizens to restore democracy.<br /><br /><b>A Brief History of War and Money</b><br /><br /><i>"...As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."</i><br />-Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21st, 1864<br /><br />As Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II, Eisenhower was likely privy to the onset of corporate war profiteering through John Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company. More specifically, Standard Oil's sister company, <a href="http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/">IG Farben.</a><br /><br />At the time, IG Farben was the fourth-largest company in the world behind General Motors, U.S. Steel, and Standard Oil. IG Farben had a facility near Auschwitz, and manufactured Zyklon B, which was the gas that murdered millions of Jews in concentration camps during the holocaust. Meanwhile, Standard Oil provided the fuel for both American military strikes on German arms factories, and for the Luftwaffe as they bombed Britain. Rockefeller profited from all of this, as IG Farben was the <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~thistle/v13/3/oil.html">next largest stockholder</a> in Standard Oil behind the Rockefeller family. Essentially, John Rockefeller was making big bucks off of World War II from both the Allied and Axis forces. From the above link-<br /><br /><i>"...The planes that made up the Luftwaffe needed tetraethyl lead gasoline in order to fly. At the time, only Standard Oil, Du Pont, and General Motors had the ability to produce this vital substance. In 1938, Walter C. Teagle, then president of Standard Oil, helped Hermann Schmitz of I.G. Farben to acquire 500 tons of tetraethyl lead from Ethyl, a British Standard subsidiary. A year later, Schmitz returned to London and obtained an additional 15 million dollars worth of tetraethyl lead which was to be turned into aviation gasoline back in Germany."</i><br /><br />Rockefeller's war profiteering was the first most egregious example of a wealthy corporate entity lining its pockets with money made from the blood of thousands. This is perhaps what led Eisenhower to urge the citizenry to become aware and take action against such corruption and greed. <br /><br /><b>The Influence of Today's Military Industrial Complex</b><br /><br /><i>"You know it's funny when it rains it pours<br />They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor<br />Say there ain't no hope for the youth and the truth is<br />it ain't no hope for the future."</i><br />-Tupac Shakur, Oct. 28, 1993<br /><br />While teachers are <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61K2I520100221">losing their jobs</a>, children are being pushed into <a href="http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Big-Classrooms-Big-Problem/140920">larger classrooms</a>, states are <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100529/ap_on_re_us/us_states_passing_the_buck">cutting budgets</a>, closing facilities and terminating <a href="http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/government-and-politics/article_e3c82592-629e-11df-b771-001cc4c002e0.html">public sector jobs</a> all across the nation, when America is still in dire need after bankers ran off with billions of our tax dollars, Congress has just approved $600 billion in <a href="http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0531/sad-milestone-cost-wars-passes-1-trillion/">war funding</a> for Afghanistan and Iraq. These two wars that have lasted almost ten years, and arguably very little progress has been made. Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, is still suffering from bad PR after he was embroiled in a scandal where he essentially rigged the election in his favor. We are withdrawing troops in Iraq, and are on target for the Iraqi government's demand that we vacate their borders by 2011. However, withdrawing troops and equipment still takes time and money, and Iraq still manages to eat into the budget, even with a new administration and different objectives.<br /><br />Here are a few examples of <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/41083/">astonishingly corrupt war profiteering</a>, just in Iraq.<br /><br />(Gruesome and disturbing content ahead)<br /><br /><b>1.</b> At the <a href="http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Abu-Ghraib-Prison-Photos11jun04p02.jpg">Abu Ghraib</a> prison, private intelligence contractors <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33834-2004Aug25.html">CACI and Titan</a>, paid with US tax dollars, were caught torturing, beating and sexually abusing prisoners.<br /><br /><i>"We believe that CACI and Titan engaged in a conspiracy to torture and abuse detainees, and did so to make more money," says Susan Burke, an attorney hired by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), whose lawsuit against the companies is proceeding into discovery before the Federal Court for the District of Columbia.</i><br /><br /><b>2.</b> Bechtel, contracted to build Iraqi infrastructure, was awarded a $2.4 billion contract by the Bush administration, but went wildly over their budget while far exceeding time constraints to complete those projects. <br /><br />Additionally, Bechtel neglected to train Iraqi operators in maintenance of these facilities, and many of them have since fallen into disrepair. However, Bechtel still <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/44251/">ran off</a> with billions of profits made from American tax dollars for not doing their job.<br /><br /><b>3.</b> Because there's no draft, private contracting of security and military forces has led to 48,000 such mercenaries in Iraq, doing jobs normally done by US Armed Forces, all paid for by US tax dollars. It's estimated that these mercenary contractors will be a $200 billion industry by the end of this year. <br /><br />Most of us know about the notorious Blackwater (now known as Xe) firm, where mercs <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/07/iraq.main/index.html">massacred Iraqi civilians</a> in a city street, and whose founder, Erik Prince, has personally spoken about Blackwater being used as a <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/08/erik_prince_and_the_last_crusa">religious crusade</a> against Muslims. But one contractor not mentioned much is Aegis Defense Services.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=1402">Aegis</a>, a U.K. based firm, was awarded a $293 million contract (taxpayer money) to supply forces in Iraq, despite lower offers from American competitors. With public money going toward the private sector, and with a private company not operating within the states, it could be argued that Aegis was chosen specifically to avoid accountability for any Blackwater-like incidents.<br /><br />However, as one can see in <a href="http://globalresearch.ca/audiovideo/Aegis-PSD.wmv">this video</a>, these mercenaries are clearly firing on civilian cars in Iraq. From the link above-<br /><br /><i>"...Moreover, An audit of Aegis activities conducted in April 2005 had reported that several of Aegis recruits had not received appropriate training in the use of weapons. In fact, 11 out of 20 surveyed were considered to be inadequately trained with regard to the handling of an AK 47.<br /><br />...In addition to criticizing Aegis Defence Services Ltd., the audit took aim t the Army's contracting office in Iraq for poor oversight. It reported that the official who was supposed to keep watch over Aegis's contract had not been trained in either monitoring contracts or security. The office was also severely short-staffed: At the time of the audit, 41 officials were administering 6,500 contracts and task orders.<br /><br />...A random survey of 20 Aegis employees who had been issued weapons -- including AK-47 and M4 assault rifles -- showed that the company did not have the needed weapons training documentation for 14 of them. As a result, auditors could not say whether "all contractor personnel are qualified on the weapons that they had been issued."<br /><br />Despite these shortcomings, Aegis was found to be in compliance with its contract.</i><br /><br />Additionally, Aegis and the Pentagon have yet to apologize to families of the civlians killed in that video. Aegis has defended its actions, saying they were operating under the rules of engagement. Untrained mercenaries, killing civilians, being paid with US tax dollars. And we're seeing more of this, not less.<br /><br />There are numerous other examples of corporate malfeasance and criminal activity overseas. But let's take a look at how those guys operate in Washington.<br /><br /><b>Corporate Lobbying For More War</b><br />At the time President Obama announced the Afghan troop surge, top defense contractors had reported spending $27 million <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/top-defense-contractors-s_n_431542.html">pushing for more war</a>. In fact, their spending had gone up by $7 million in the 4th quarter of 2009, according to lobbying records. This, coincidentally, is around the time the president announced the deployment of 30,000 more young men and women to Afghanistan.<br /><br />One of those contractors, Northrop Grumman, has even recently announced that it's <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/northrop-grumman-to-move-headquarters-to-dc-area-2010-01-04">moving</a> its corporate HQ to Washington DC, in order to be closer to legislative action. As congress approved a $635 billion war appropriations bill in December, lobbyists for defense firms cited "appropriations" as their chief objective in <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/lobbying-contracts">public records.</a> <br /><br />As of January, the number of private contractors in Afghanistan have <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/number_of_private_security_contractors_in_afghanis.php">doubled</a> in just a four-month span. Mercenaries purchased with tax dollars now account for 30% of all forces in Afghanistan. The military industrial complex is paying top-dollar for control of defense policy. And they're getting what they've paid for.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br /><i>"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our<br />moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our<br />government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of<br />our country."</i> <br />-Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816.<br /><br />Eisenhower's prediction has come true. The military industrial complex has usurped the democratic process, and private companies can legally make absurd profits directly from the murdering of young men and women. With war now seen as a business opportunity instead of a country's last line of defense of freedom from agressors, the military inudstrial complex can bypass international law and make money. To them, war is not the wanton destruction of lives, homes, and natural resources, but simply as another way to get rich.<br /><br />As citizens, we have the power to stop this. We must do as Eisenhower asked us, and get informed about the complexities and dangers of the military industrial complex's erosion of freedom and democracy. Hopefully, reading this piece and the links within have helped you reach that step.<br /><br />And as I implored all of you to do in my last piece, I urge all of you once again to find your Congressman and Senators, put their office numbers in your cellphones, and call them every day to end these wars. Ask your lawmakers to write and sponsor legislation that forbids the outsourcing of war. Vote for politicians who promise to make war a last resort, instead of succumb to the influence of war profiteers. Organize call-in days to Washington in your community. Bombard congressional offices with calls from constituents, and demand that your voice be heard and understood.<br /><br />As we remember and honor our veterans today, let's take a stand as taxpaying Americans, as defenders of liberty, and demand our elected leaders put a stop to the corporate cheerleading of war.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-69501713711933436672010-05-25T14:53:00.000-07:002010-05-25T16:55:19.866-07:00The Death of the Gulf Coast, and What Must Come<b>The End of All Gulf Life</b><br />Unlike my last piece on the oil volcano in the gulf, this article doesn't offer a small glimmer of hope. It's great that Bobby Jindal wants to build sand dunes to protect beaches, and that hair salons are donating used hair for more booms, and while that all may prevent the billionth gallon from leaking ashore, the damage has already been done. The Gulf Coast isn't dead yet, but by the time this leak is finally stopped, the damage will be irreversible. I would be highly surprised if even a fraction of the life that was in the Gulf of Mexico will be able to live in the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127012041">toxic bile</a> created by millions of gallons of oil and harmful chemical dispersants. This oil slick could very possibly kill every living thing that doesn't escape its perimeter. By the way, the slick is now estimated to be <a href="http://www.wfn.tv/news/index.php?blog=404714">45,728 square miles.</a> To put that into scale, that's 728 square miles more than the <a href="http://www.gadsdenpurchase.com/images/gadsdenmap.gif">Gadsden Purchase</a>, which is basically the Southwesternmost corner of Arizona all the way to about halfway through New Mexico. The entire state of Mississippi is 48,430 square miles.<br /><br />Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has Louisiana's marshes, the prime breeding ground and hatchery for the country's fishing industry. We're confronted now with pictures of oil-covered birds in the news media. A <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/25/869745/-Diving-into-the-OilFinally-Seeing-under-the-Water">toxic mixture of dispersants and oil</a> could now be even more threatening to the already fragile ecosystems of the Gulf Coast. In fact, even if just three of the Gulf Coast's 1400-1600 sperm whales are killed by oil, that <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100521-science-environment-gulf-mexico-oil-spill-sperm-whales/">could endanger the Gulf's entire sperm whale species</a>. That's an entire species, at risk of being wiped out because of an oil rig exploding 30 miles from the shore, and with no clear end to the leak in sight.<br /><br />A lot has developed from the spill since I last wrote about it; the 5,000 barrel a day estimate is likely merely a tenth of what is actually being belched into the ocean each day. And that's <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126809525">a generous estimate.</a> This spill could be gushing an Exxon Valdez-sized figure each week. BP and the government had been saying 5,000 barrels per day (42 gallons of oil in each barrel) and the media had been repeating that figure ad nauseam until a video emerged showing a natural gas and oil gusher. Through particle analysis, comparing scale of distance between the camera and the strength of the gusher, to be much, much more than the 5,000 barrel figure. It could actually be between 50,000 and 100,000 barrels. That's up to 4.2 MILLION gallons of oil leaked <b>every day.</b> At the time of this writing, May 25, oil has been gushing from the Deepwater Horizon well for 35 days. Which means so far, the oil volcano a mile undersea could have regurgitated up to 147,000,000 gallons into the Gulf Coast ecosystem. That's about 12 Exxon Valdez-sized spills. And counting. <br /><br />And there is MUCH more natural gas leaking than there is oil, and you can see the natural gas via the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/tv/w/002699/">video</a> of the spill released by BP after pressure from the Coast Guard and the Obama administration. Natural gas sucks oxygen out of the ocean, which is a problem for all of us because the ocean and trees produce the world's oxygen. Along with sea life dying by the truckload, the ocean's natural functions are also in danger due to the Deepwater Horizon gusher. (If you've notice, I refuse to call it a "leak." This is far worse than a "leak" or a "spill." Can we phase those words out now when referring to this disaster?)<br /><br />This oil volcano will affect marine species in the gulf for literally the rest of our lives. It may very likely wipe out all marine life in a 50,000 mile radius. And you can imagine the residual effects this will have on people who make their living through fishing, renting out charter boats, or through tourism. The damage is already done. And it is literally incomprehensible.<br /><br /><b>What We Can Do, Post-Oilpocalypse</b><br />A few months ago, in a 5-4 decision in the Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission ruling, the Supreme Court decided that because corporations are legally people, they can donate as much money as they want to a political campaign. My question is this- if corporations are people, then can we give them the equivalent of a death sentence if they commit acts that warrant such punishment?<br /><br />Now, first of all, I sincerely hope that the "topkill" method of shooting mud and concrete into the pipe will work, and cap the flow of oil still gushing into the ocean. BP says there's only a 60-70 percent chance that it will work, because it's never been tried at a mile below sea level before, where up to 15,000 psi of pressure will have to be quelled. If this doesn't work, BP will likely follow through with their plan to drill an alternate well from another rig and siphon the oil that way, which means the oil gusher will continue for possibly several more months before it's finally stopped.<br /><br />But frankly, the president has surprised me in how he let BP control the oil cleanup efforts, given that they <a href="http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978242011">frequently overlooked several red flags</a> that showed the well they were drilling wasn't safe. And the fact that they grossly misunderestimated the severity of their mistake at 1,000 barrels a day being leaked daily. Of course, Mineral Management Services (MMS), the federal agency that was supposed to inspect the Deepwater Horizon rig at least once a month failed miserably at their job, as well, and allowed BP to get away with a vast array of safety violations.<br /><br />But what's most surprising is that the strongest action that the federal government CAN take, legally, under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_Pollution_Act_of_1990">Oil Pollution Act of 1990</a>, has yet to be taken. That is, completely <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/if-top-kill-fails-obama-must-take-reins/?partner=rss&emc=rss">kick BP off the site</a> and take over cleanup efforts. By allowing BP to clean up the site, and by failing to not deploy the national guard, or to divert extra military and civil resources to booming, barricading, and doing all they can to protect the marshes and the shores, damage has been caused that might not have had to happen. EPA Director Lisa Jackson can also push to debar BP from any further federal contracts, which would cost them about $12 billion per year.<br /><br />Bush's historical legacy will likely be dominated by both his decision to invade Iraq in spite of international outrage, and by his administration's gross mishandling of Hurricane Katrina relief. Obama's legacy, while he's already accomplished far more in his first 16 months than any president in recent memory, has his legacy in jeopardy because of his lackadaisical, play-it-safe attitude towards BP and this oil spill. Even when I talk to die-hard Southern Republicans, they all talk about how they wish the government would do more about BP and the oil slick. The American people, conservatives included, all want the president to take a liberal, forthright, tough stance on the oil giants who all share responsibility for this catastrophe. Politically, there is everything to gain and everything to lose for this president when it comes to this crisis. I don't know what Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are telling the president to do, but I have a feeling he needs to stop listening to them and act like the progressive he was when he was campaigning, instead of being a play-it-safe centrist to BP and Big Oil.<br /><br />Speaking of shared responsibility, I want to close with this.<br /><br /><b>Point the Finger at the Mirror</b><br />BP is guilty. Transocean is guilty. Halliburton is guilty. But this is not their fault, at least not directly. (Here's the part where a lot of you will stop agreeing with what I say and type something angry in the comment box.)<br /><br />This incomprehensible disaster which will literally ruin the Gulf Coast's life for decades to come, is <i>all our fault.</i><br /><br />Maybe not you and I individually, but our lifestyle and extravangant petroleum-based culture, and our collective outrage whenever gas prices go up a dime, is what caused this mess. If you drive a car, fly in an airplane, or drink from plastic bottles, this is your fault. <br /><br />If you live in America, this is your fault, because while <a href="http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm">we are 5% of the world's population, we use 24% of the world's energy.</a><br /><br />If you live in a rural area, this is your fault, as city dwellers use less energy per capita than those who live in the hinterlands but still depend on city-provided utilities and electricity and drive cars. <br /><br />And if you have children, this is also your fault, because your kids are also born and bred into a culture that encourages excessive consumption of resources, and will grow up consuming like we do unless our generation collectively decides to drastically change our lifestyle.<br /><br />We can point fingers at BP and the government all we want, but there's still sludge dripping from our outstretched fingers. As long as our carbon footprint is what it is, then companies like BP, Exxon, Texaco, Citgo, Chevron, Shell and others will continue to drill deeper and deeper out into the ocean in order to satisfy consumer demand. As long as we demand cheap gas to fuel our excessive lifestyles, these companies will continue to engage in environmentally unconscionable acts so their stock prices will stay up. So we can keep living unsustainably.<br /><br />To put this all in perspective, let me offer three key points-<br /><br /><b>-Exxon Valdez spilled 11,000,000 gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound.</b><br /><b>-So far, the Deepwater Horizon gusher is spewing up to 2,000,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day.</b><br /><br />And here's the kicker-<br /><br /><b>-The United States <a href="http://www.economist.com/images/ga/2007w27/Petrol.jpg">consumes</a> 350,000,000 gallons of oil <a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html">per day</a>.</b><br /><br />So, as bad as the BP oil gusher is, it's still only about half a percent of our DAILY consumption. <br /><br />Do you see a problem here yet?<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br />This is our fault. And if something good is to come from the death of the Gulf of Mexico, it must be comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. We must fight for it like the progressives fought for health care and financial reform. And unlike those two pieces of legislation, it cannot be seen as a child's vitamin (hard to swallow without being immensely watered down) but as vital to our survival and progression as a culture, as a society and as a species. We must become stewards of our planet.<br /><br />This could mean sharply increasing the gas tax and using that money to put bike lanes on all highways. It could mean a tax on carbon emissions, forcing us to depend on energy sources that don't emit CO2. It could mean electing leaders who promise to uphold the environment for our future generations, instead of look out for the profits of Big Oil. It should definitely mean NOT electing <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100521/ap_on_bi_ge/us_rand_paul">candidates</a> who say it's "un-American" for the government to criticize an oil company over their mistakes. Candidates and political parties who support unregulated, privatized, "free market" ideologies that showcase such an astounding disconnect with reality shouldn't be getting votes from any seriously concerned citizens. Period-point-blank.<br /><br />Whatever the solution is, we must actively work towards it and not become lazy, cynical, apathetic, depressed, or discouraged. The 24-hour reactionary news cycle will, of course, put this story on the backburner after awhile when some new crisis arises, when an innocent is affected by tragedy, when some celebrity has a lusty affair. We'll be tempted to mindlessly drool in front of our TV screens, shrug our shoulders, say "well howabout that" and go on about working and shopping and playing.<br /><br />Not taking action means that this environmental genocide will have meant nothing. And that history will likely repeat itself down the road. So vote. Keep the DC offices of your congressmen and senators in your cellphone, and call them every day and tell them to fight for clean energy legislation. Make phone calls for concerned candidates. Knock on doors. Sign petitions. Spread awareness. <br /><br />We must not grow complacent.<br /><br />We must fight.<br /><br />We must change.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-71776878624805879112010-05-04T12:52:00.000-07:002010-05-04T14:00:43.057-07:00The American Chernobyl: Causes and Consequences of the BP Oil Spill<b>Intro</b><br />21 years ago, when Exxon's Valdez tanker spilled 10 million gallons of oil into the Alaskan shore, it was referred to as the worst man-made ecological disaster in history. That was 10,000,000 gallons, which made the ocean look like this. But it's looking right now like BP's Deepwater Horizon spill is going to be exponentially worse before the leak is finally contained. <br /><br />So yes, there are undoubtedly going to be severe, long-lasting environmental problems that will take decades of recovery for the Gulf Coast. But as you dig deeper into the gritty truth of this massive catastrophe, one can't help but be paralyzed by the loathsome greed that was ultimately behind this particular disaster.<br /><br /><b>Comprehending the Magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe</b><br /><a href="http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwater_horizon_secret_memo.html">The BP oil spill</a> has been leaking at a rate of about 5,000 barrels per day since the rig blew up about a week and a half ago. There's a small wellhead on the pipes that stops oil from leaking anything more than that, although 200,000 gallons of oil per day is still extremely hazardous. But if that wellhead breaks from the erosion of the pipes, then that 5,000 barrel figure could instead mean 50,000 barrels per day. That's an Exxon Valdez-sized spill each week into the Gulf of Mexico, and it could still be months before the spill is contained. In the link above, the phrase "order of magnitude" basically means a multiplier of ten. That means as bad as it is now, if this wellhead breaks, this spill will literally become exponentially worse.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/01/MNNJ1D87IL.DTL">Nobody really knows</a> how much oil is going to spill into the Gulf, because of how deep the drilling had gone. However, even more alarming comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), whose <a href="http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwater_horizon_secret_memo.html">leaked report</a> fears a worst-case scenario of 2.1 million gallons of oil per day being leaked into the Gulf. Gov. Bob Riley (R-AL) says he is fearing even 150,000 barrels of oil leaked per day, or <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FE5OIO3">6 million gallons</a>. Again, it could be almost a quarter of a year before the oil stops leaking.<br /><br /><b>Choosing Between Bad and Worse</b><br />No matter how you look at the containment efforts currently underway, we can only choose between a bad scenario or a worse scenario. There could be a 4-story, 70-ton <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15011027">dome</a> that would be placed underwater to contain the oil leak, where the oil would be pumped out from above the surface. However, positioning the dome is going to be tricky, seeing as going that deep underwater would mean that dome has to be incredibly resistant to pressure. And by the time it gets there, the damage could already be too great for the dome to have any effect.<br /><br />Gov. Barbour (R-MS) told me about <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/bond05042010.html">"dispersing"</a> the oil. But as others have pointed out, dispersing is a term that basically means breaking up the oil slick into particles that will settle on the ocean floor. the oil doesn't actually go away, but instead just settles on the bottom of the ocean. Much of the Gulf Coast's economy revolves around the shrimping industry, and shrimp, along with much of the oceanic food chain, relies on bottom-feeding. There's no telling what kind of disasters, both for species and for the economy, could come from miles of oil on the ocean floor.<br /><br />There's talk of drilling an <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/04/gulf_of_mexico_relief_well_dri.html">alternate well</a> that would funnel the oil out from the source through another pump. However, the source is 22,000 feet deep, and drilling down that far would take 3 to 4 months, even at the quickest possible pace. By that time, there's no telling how much oil will have leaked, and it could very well be a too little-too late endeavor. <br /><br />No matter how you cut the cake, it's gonna be real hard to swallow for folks in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas. And given the pattern of the winds and Gulf currents, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/01/MNNJ1D87IL.DTL">other states</a> along the Eastern seaboard could be put in danger if the oil leaks around the Florida peninsula.<br /><br /><b>The Unconscionable Greed of Big Oil</b><br />No disaster like this has ever occurred in any other part of the world where oil drilling is done, because every country has a certain regulation that keeps something like this from happening. Every country <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/william-galston/forget-offshore-drilling-until-we-get-some-answers">except the United States</a>, anyway.<br /><br />That regulation is a $500,000 device called an "acoustic shutoff switch," which shuts off the flow of oil at the source in case of an emergency. Oil companies who drill in the United States have Dick Cheney to thank for the removal of that regulation. Dick Cheney, Bush's Vice President, used to be an executive of the <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/william-galston/forget-offshore-drilling-until-we-get-some-answers">Halliburton</a> energy company. And you can bet Halliburton's stock went several points above the competition when the acoustic shutoff switch regulation was removed.<br /><br />Let's also consider that the estimated cleanup figure for BP in this oil spill is <a href="http://www.newsoxy.com/bp/oil-spill-cost-12988.html">$12.5 billion</a>, which they have grudgingly said they would pay for out of their own pocket. To put that in perspective, BP's annual profit was <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/02/03/bp.profit.rise/index.html">$25.6 billion</a> in 2009. I'm not the best at math, but let me try to break this down.<br /><br />$25,600,000,000-$12,500,000,000=$13,100,000,000<br /><br />So, to set the record straight, BP, whose CEO was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/business/30bp.html?hp">quoted</a> as saying, "What the hell did we do to deserve this?" is going to have to forgo just under half of their 2009 profits to clean up the worst man-made ecological disaster in the history of Planet Earth. A disaster that will take decades to clean up and recover. That will ruin fishing and tourism industries in the South, and potentially along the East Coast. That thousands of species and ecosystems will possibly never fully recover from. Just under half of one year's PROFITS. Which means after all the operational and personnel costs have been paid out from their total revenues, they'll still cash an 11-digit check at the end of the year.<br /><br />As mentioned earlier, the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded was drilling at a depth of 22,000 feet. <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15011027">Their federal permit</a> only allowed them to drill at a maximum depth of 20,000 feet. So not only was BP allowed to bypass a law that had to be followed by every other oil-producing country in the world, but they were breaking oil-drilling laws in the country with the most lackadaisical regulations on the planet. So they could make $25,600,000,000,000 a year.<br /><br />And by the way, I wouldn't have needed to write this if Dick Cheney didn't feel that $500,000 was too much of a burden for BP to bear before it started drilling offshore.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br />I don't have a positive or hopeful way to end this post. I could say that no matter how much the spill's cleanup will cost, or no matter the damage already done, the 11 families of those who died on the oil rig will never get back what they lost.<br /><br />I could choose to mention how the oil spill will kill or taint the food eaten by species like shrimp or red snapper, which humans buy and eat themselves, which means we'll be eating tainted seafood. <br /><br />I could mention that an Exxon Valdez-sized spill per week for 12-16 weeks will ruin beaches in the South and maybe the East, and will hurt the tourism/hotel/restaurant industries in coastal states. But we've all already heard the gloom and doom from the media, and repeating it won't make anyone feel any better, or reverse the damage that's already been done.<br /><br />However, I can at least offer a glimmer of hope; maybe this will shake America out of its addiction to fossil fuels, and finally illustrate that a fierce dependence on finite resources can only lead in destruction such as this. <br /><br />Maybe this will make Americans realize that the mild convenience of our petroleum-driven culture is of little importance when it comes to preserving the planet for our posterity. Maybe this disaster will finally scare our policymakers into incentivizing growth of green energy jobs in solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, hydroelectric, or even nuclear power.<br /><br />Maybe American voters will overcome their apathy towards our political system and work to elect leaders who put the environment first, and corporate greed second. <br /><br />And maybe those tax breaks can grow our economy into a green one that not only provides jobs and powers our homes here in the USA, but spurs other oil-dependent nations to do the same. <br /><br />After all of this, I can still say I'm hopeful.<br /><br />Are you?CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-48700969288438048182010-02-28T13:00:00.001-08:002010-02-28T13:00:51.619-08:00Republicans Sure Do Love them Some Big Government<b>Opening Statement</b><br /><br />(If you don't feel like reading, watch Rachel Maddow dismantle the GOP's stimulus hypocrisy <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JOfL7soZww">here</a>. You can also see the complete list of hypocritical Republicans on the stimulus <a href="http://liberalforum.org/liberalforum/index.php?/topic/81585-republican-recovery-act-hypocrisy-hall-of-fame/">here</a>.)<br /><br />Anti-government Republicans love big government. Yep. It's true.<br /><br />I was surprised too, when I found out.<br /><br />See, I had just assumed that when someone is elected to a national office to vote on national policy, they'd do it, for, you know, the good of the country. Or at the very least, the good of their district. I reckon that still holds true for most elected officials, unless you happen to be a Republican. Particularly if the policy in question is the $787 billion stimulus package. Or national health care reform.<br /><br /><b>February 2009</b><br />About a year ago, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act of 2009, which was comprised of hundreds of billions of dollars in public works projects, aimed at getting people back to work in the midst of a recession. And, in doing so, bettering our infrastructure at the same time. And we all remember how Eric Cantor (R-VA) and John Boehner (R-OH) led the charge against the stimulus bill, even clapping for themselves when the vote had come through. Not one Republican voted for the stimulus. All of them who spoke on it spoke against it. They called it wasteful, pork-barrel, big government spending that wasn't going to do any good for jobs, or infrastructure, or the economy. Just more big nasty government.<br /><br />Cue right-wing talk radio pundits and FOX news anchors decrying this bill as a Stalinist, Fascist, Marxist, Communist, elitist policy that hurts America and helps the terrorists. Cue the national dialogue reaching a fever pitch about how these mean nasty Democrats are shoving government down our throats and gosh gee golly willikers let's throw some tea bags to show how mad we are.<br /><br />Well, that's what they <span style="font-style: italic;">said</span>.<br /><br />Here's what they actually <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span>.<br /><br /><b>Unabashed Republican Hypocrisy</b><br />Now, when that money goes to their home districts, the story about the stimulus is a lot different. All of these Republicans voted against the stimulus after repeatedly trashing it as wasteful pork-barrel spending. These Republicans applauded themselves in the House chamber when the vote tally showed that zero Republicans voted for it. But all 23 of these Republicans loooooove them some big government spending. Keep in mind, I'm only using these as examples. There are plenty more where this came from. <a href="http://liberalforum.org/liberalforum/index.php?/topic/81585-republican-recovery-act-hypocrisy-hall-of-fame/">About 91, to be exact</a>. One of the stimulus' biggest opponents?<br /><br />That'd be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/business/economy/17mississippi.html?emc=eta1">Republican Governor Haley Barbour</a> (R-MS), who had been <a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/feb/03/gov-shuns-stimulus-stuns-lawmaker/">unwilling</a> to take $2.6B in stimulus funds for health care, education, and public works. He has an impressive resume as a chief GOP strategist.<br /><br />-Barbour is one of the national GOP's big boys, and was the national RNC chairman when the Republicans took over congress for the first time ever, back in 1994.<br />-He was the most profitable lobbyist on K Street before running for Governor.<br />-He's even been found to be the engineer behind the GOP's total obstruction of anything progressive in Washington, encouraging Republicans to not unveil any policy of their own, but to instead just bash democratic policy and <a href="http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/02/barbour_embrace.php">completely abandon bipartisanship.</a> This is all a devious political effort to win votes in 2010, to frustrate voters with democrats being unable to get anything done, even though Republicans are doing all of the obstruction.<br /><br />All of this gives the impression that if anyone is against a big spending program from big government, it'd be Governor Barbour. Well, if you click on Haley Barbour's name a few paragraphs above, you'll be taken to a NYT article on the Mississippi STEPS program, which uses stimulus funds for the private sector to hire employees. Barbour is in full support of this program, which wouldn't be possible without federal stimulus dollars.<br /><br />"It’s welfare to work...The real economy that generates jobs generates private-sector jobs, from whence come taxes and quality of life for people."<br />Gov. Haley Barbour<br /><br />Even though he goes on to bash the federal money coming to the state, Barbour grudgingly admits that Mississippi needs the help. From the article-<br /><br /><i>Now the problem facing Mississippi and other states is the calendar: The welfare money in the stimulus bill must be in the process of being spent by the end of September. Mr. Barbour said he hoped the program would be extended so more jobs could be created.</i><br /><br />But Barbour isn't alone. There are plenty of Republicans who see the value of big government when it helps their constituents.<br /><br /><b>GOP Hypocrisy on the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act of 2009</b><br /><br />-<a href="http://www.cedartownstd.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Cedartown+receives+federal+stimilus+funds+for+Streetscape+project%20&id=3828309-Cedartown+receives+federal+stimilus+funds+for+Streetscape+project&instance=home_latest_right_first">Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA)</a> called this "worse than wasteful" and a "boondoggle." That was before he handed out a $625,000 check to the Cedartown City Commission, made up of funds that he voted against giving out.<br /><br />-<a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2009/02/mica-stimulus-plans-isnt-all-bad-.html">Rep. John Mica (R-FL)</a> is glad that some of the $787 billion will go to his district, to fund a beleaguered commuter rail project.<br /><br /><i>"The timing couldn't be better.</i><br />-Rep. John Mica<br /><br />-<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2009/10/post_385.html">Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)</a> was mad that Gov. Tim Kaine was slow on spending stimulus finds that had been allocated to his district.<br /><br /><i>We could use that money desperately...there are a lot of things up here that money could be used for.</i><br />-Rep. Frank Wolf<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/bill-shuster-bashes-the-s_n_374341.html">Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA)</a> brought some stimulus funds to his cash-strapped district back home, praising the bill for giving jobs to several dozen new workers in a sewage treatment plant.<br /><br />-<a href="http://olson.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=34&sectiontree=21,22,34&itemid=192">Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)</a> and the rest of the Texas delegation pushed for $3 billion in stimulus dollars for NASA, to help retain thousands of aerospace jobs.<br /><br /><i>"...This funding will spur growth in Texas communities."</i><br />-Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison<br /><br />-<a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/63857-senate-democrats-to-hit-burr-on-stimulus-check">Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)</a> was a <a href="http://burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=1f191d2f-c76b-ebd3-b29c-4ae3501e2928&Region_id=&Issue_id=">big opponent</a> of the stimulus, until money went to his state.<br /><br /><i>"[ARRA is] a great thing for this county. we're not accustomed to federal dollars of that magnitude finding its way to North Carolina."</i><br />-Sen. Richard Burr<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.connecttristates.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=261224">Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)</a> said a lot of things about the stimulus. Like this little <a href="http://bond.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=720f91de-0398-e88c-50a4-0fc64ff11fbb&Region_id=&Issue_id=">tidbit</a><br /><br /><i>"“Hold on to your wallets folks because with the passage of this trillion-dollar baby the Democrats will be poised to spend as much as $3 trillion in your tax dollars,” Bond said. “Unfortunately, this bill stimulates the debt, it stimulates the growth of government, but it doesn’t stimulate jobs,” Bond insisted.</i><br /><br />Well, that was before Bond decided to tour his state and talk about how great all that $2B of stimulus money was for low-income housing for the elderly and impoverished. Getting federal government money is great, but only for Missouri, apparently. Bond said the stimulus would "create jobs and ultimately spur economic opportunities."<br /><br />-<a href="http://thestatecom.typepad.com/ygatoday/2010/02/report-rep-wilson-asked-for-stimulus-cash-.html">Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)</a> is also a big fan of big government. Now before you shout "YOU LIE!" at me, take a look at Wilson, wanting federal stimulus money for his district from the Department of Agriculture.<br /><br /><i>"We know their endeavor will provide jobs and investment in one of the poorer sections of the Congressional District," Wilson wrote to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in an August 2009 letter excerpted by the Times.</i><br /><br />-<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-09-bennett_N.htm">Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT)</a> is the state's junior senator who <a href="http://bennett.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=12c8386c-6371-4a9e-8f10-5dd03195783d">vehemently opposed</a> the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act.<br /><br /><i>"The only thing this bill will stimulate is the national debt."</i><br />-Sen. Bob Bennett<br /><br />But he had requested $50 billion in stimulus money for his state from the EPA and the USDA before voting NO to it. Which Bob Bennett do the Utes like? The chest-beating no-to-big-government blowhard, or the senator who is looking out for his state, which is suffering from recession?<br /><br /><i>""I recognize the extensive demands being placed on these funds and, therefore, greatly appreciate any funding considerations you give to the projects of Utah...The addition of federal funds would maximize the stimulative effect on the local economy."</i><br />-Sen. Bob Bennett<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2010/02/10/copy/patdough.ART_ART_02-10-10_A3_JKGI49Q.html?sid=101">Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH)</a> was a big stimulus opponent who also noted that federal stimulus dollars for broadband internet expansion would help his district's economy.<br /><br />"The project could support numerous jobs in Ohio."<br />-Rep. Pat Tiberi<br /><br />-<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123759908731101583.html">Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)</a> was also one of the 111 House Republicans who voted NO on the stimulus package, and then toured her district talking about how great the stimulus was after she had requested $4.2 million to fight homelessness.<br /><br /><i>"This funding will provide much-needed assistance."</i><br />-Rep. Mary Bono Mack<br /><br />-<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123759908731101583.html">Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)</a> decried the $787 billion spending package as wasteful, but still requested $3M for harbor improvements in his district.<br /><br /><i>"Safe and navigable harbors are economic engines that drive the communities that surround them."</i><br />-Rep. Peter Hoekstra<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/09/stimulus-foes-see-value-in-seeking-cash/print/">Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE</a>), the former Governor of Nebraska, and Secretary of Agriculture under George W. Bush, was one of the senate's <a href="http://johanns.senate.gov/public/?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=70a634f0-a7c3-493c-bbf3-ec7624052c0f&ContentType_id=bc82adff-27b4-4832-8fd6-aecbe3e7d8e3">loudest critics</a> of Obama and the stimulus package. Which Mike Johanns did Nebraskans vote for? Was it this guy-<br /><br /><i>Mr. President, I rise today to say that rarely has a crystal ball proved so regrettably accurate. Many warned, as did I, that the stimulus would amount to a mountain of wasted money. It produced record deficits and thus far, little else."<br /><br />"The money would simply never reach the economy."<br /><br />"It would be hard for me to imagine that we are going to be creating many jobs here." </i><br />-Sen. Mike Johanns<br /><br />...Or was it this guy, who requested stimulus money for Nebraska from the USDA?<br /><br /><i>"The proposed project would create 38 new jobs and bring broadband to eight hospitals, five colleges, 16 libraries and 161 K-12 schools."</i><br />-Sen. Mike Johanns<br /><br />-<a href="http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2010/02/alexander_denounces_stimulus_t.php">Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)</a> joined in the anti-stimulus chorus in Washington, before requesting stimulus money to go back home.<br /><br /><i>"This is spending, not stimulus."</i><br />-Sen. Lamar Alexander<br /><br />...Although a letter he sent to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack tells it a little differently.<br /><br /><i>"It is anticipated that the project will create over 200 jobs in the first year and at least another 40 new jobs in the following years."</i><br />-Sen. Lamar Alexander<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/09/stimulus-foes-see-value-in-seeking-cash/print/">Rep. John Linder (R-GA)</a> requested dirty, dirty stimulus money from that wasteful, pork-laden bill go to his district. After he voted against the bill. In early 2009, Linder, ranked by the ACU as one of the most conservative in the House, crticized the stimulus.<br /><br /><i>"(new unemployment numbers) only reinforce the fact that the $787 billion 'stimulus' signed into law eight months ago has done nothing for job growth in this country."</i><br />-Rep. John Linder<br /><br />But Linder might have a bone to pick with Linder, who later said-<br /><br /><i>"The employment opportunities created by this program would be quickly utilized."</i><br />-Rep. John Linder<br /><br />-<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/07/castle-stimulus-hypocrisy/">Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE)</a> went around handing out <a href="http://www.delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/07-02-09-ARRA-check.JPG">fat checks </a>in his district, which were <a href="http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=463841776346">made possible</a> through $5.2M in federal stimulus dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to fight homelessness.<br /><br />"It is imperative we provide those programs serving Delaware’s most disadvantaged families and individuals with the resources necessary to house, feed, and protect those in desperate need."<br />-Rep. Mike Castle<br /><br />-<a href="http://newsok.com/tar-creek-cleanup-gets-25-million-in-federal-stimulus-money/article/3361699">Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)</a> once called the stimulus bill a "<a href="http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.News&ContentRecord_id=b89ccb38-802a-23ad-41e0-1e517404fd8f&Region_id=&Issue_id=">giant welfare package.</a>" But that didn't stop him from requesting $25M in stimulus money from the EPA for the Tar Creek cleanup in his state.<br /><br /><i>"This funding not only completes the relocation phase being conducted by the Lead Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust but provides the necessary funds to clean up this area."</i><br />-Sen. James Inhofe<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/gop-wont-turn-down-165913.html">Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)</a> joins the rest of the Georgia delegation as a congressman who voted against the stimulus package saying it was "wasteful," before requesting some of that wasteful money for their own district because it creates jobs/repairs public infrastructure. Here's what he had to say about it last February.<br /><br /><i>"(The ARRA is) fundamentally flawed and doesn’t represent the change we deserve or the stimulus we need."</i><br />-Rep. Jack Kingston<br /><br />But ol' Jackie boy requested money from the stimulus go to Alma and Jesup Counties, so those police departments could hire more entry-level officers to fight crime on the streets. And he has the gall to take credit for that stimulus money by not once mentioning the word "stimulus" in statements to his district. And manages to even bash the federal government after he requested federal money.<br /><br /><i>“We’ve seen from experience that local initiatives go a lot further toward solving local problems than policies set in Washington...This funding will provide tax relief by saving local tax dollars.”</i><br />-Rep. Jack Kingston<br /><br />Mind-boggling as it is, Kingston's office says that he remains opposed to the stimulus package.<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/space/6653790.html">Rep. John Carter (R-TX)</a> distributed <a href="http://carter.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=40&sectiontree=6,40&itemid=1138">press releases</a> talking about how bad the stimulus package was, how we should repeal it and give the money back to the taxpayers. Thing is, Carter is completely aware that the stimulus is giving money back to the taxpayers in his district. Specifically through $3B for NASA, requested by the entirety of the Texas delegation. Carter himself also requested $621 million in hospital projects in his district.<br /><br /><i>"(ARRA is) a victory for the economy in Central Texas."</i><br />-Rep. John Carter<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/02/19/bill_to_create_local_jobs.aspx">Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA)</a> made no bones about his opposition to the stimulus, along with the rest of his colleagues. But that didn't stop him from recognizing that there are hurting people in his district who could use some jobs and some federal investment in local public works projects. Here's a sample from the article I linked to above, that talks about the 7,500 jobs to be created or saved in Pennsylvania's 5th district.<br /><br /><i>Congressman Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Howard, who represents the 5th District at a national level, said he hoped the residents within the county would benefit from the plan's massive spending and tax cuts.</i><br /><br />Like Pennsylvania's 5th district, there are places all over the United States that are benefiting from the recovery packages. And we can track all of the spending for the next year or so, courtesy of the <a href="http://www.recovery.gov/">internet.</a> Looks like that big bad stimulus may not be so bad after all, according to these Republicans who voted against it.<br /><br />Well, maybe that's just the wishy-washy, on the fence Republicans not extreme enough for the most extreme Tea Party extremists on the fringe of the far right? Let's look at some House GOP leadership!<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php?/contents/comments/john_boehner_continues_to_advance_the_gops_strategy_of_opposition/">House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)</a> has been, without a doubt, the biggest critic in Congress on the stimulus package. He even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvnwOjDjnH4&feature=player_embedded">threw the bill on the floor</a> during a debate. Here's what he had to say about it just recently, on the anniversary of the bill's signing into law.<br /><br /><i>"The trillion-dollar stimulus was put together so quickly and so secretively that no member of Congress had a chance to read it before it passed, and it shows. Yet, as poorly conceived and badly executed as the trillion-dollar stimulus was, President Obama and Democrats in Congress still think that Washington is the answer to everything."<br /><br />“When it comes to slow-moving government spending programs, it’s clear that it doesn’t create the jobs.”</i><br />-Rep. John Boehner<br /><br />You tell 'em, John! That big bad federal government <a href="http://boehner.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=132281">can't do anything right!</a> Right?<br /><br /><i>"With Ohio’s unemployment rate the highest it’s been in 25 years, I’m pleased that federal officials stepped in to order Ohio to use all of its construction dollars for shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs.”</i><br />-Rep. John Boehner<br /><br />Oh. Well, nevermind. Maybe the House Minority Whip can do a better job standing up for his principles?<br /><br />-<a href="http://www.politicalarticles.net/blog/2009/11/26/stimulus-hypocrite-rep-eric-cantor-hosts-another-job-fair-that-promotes-jobs-fueled-by-the-failed-obama-economic-recovery-act/">Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)</a> is the House's #2 Republican, and even organized the effort for all House Republicans to vote against the ARRA.<br /><br />Well, that was until he was caught <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/69231-cantor-talks-jobs-in-virginia">hosting a job fair</a> where half of the employers there had been given money from the stimulus to give jobs to the unemployed. And at this same job fair where 30 organizations who directly benefited from the bill were putting his district to work, he called the stimulus an "<a href="http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/200911240002">utter failure</a>." All of this coming from a guy who repeatedly attacks the president for not doing enough about job creation.<br /><br /><b>Closing Statement</b><br /><br />Like it or not, these Republicans cannot deny that the American economy has been on life support, and the stimulus package is the plug that keeps it running until the economy recovers from the recession. Here are some <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/business/economy/21stimulus.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1267381089-oFbyebn1pq42EFm08V4LDw">raw facts</a> that cannot be ignored, no matter how hard these history revisionists and hypocrites may try.<br /><br />-Over 2 million jobs have been saved or created since the bill was signed into law, with only a quarter of the money spent so far.<br />-President Obama's claim that 3.5 million jobs will be saved or created by the end of this year is still on track.<br />-Even though the economy is in a tailspin, economists readily agree that without the stimulus, things would be much, much worse.<br /><br />And let's remember when Ronald Reagan, savior of modern-day Republicans, faced 10.8 percent unemployment and a 35 percent approval rating because of a bad economy back in 1983. This had came a full year after he had cut taxes for the richest 1 percent, which had increased the deficit even more. Republicans had lost 28 seats in the House in the midterm elections because of voter frustration over jobs. Here are the unemployment numbers from the onset of Reagan's swearing in.<br /><br />01/1981 - Unemployment rate 7.5% .... Reagan sworn in.<br />02/1981 - 7.4%<br />03/1981 - 7.4%<br />04/1981 - 7.2%<br />05/1981 - 7.5%<br />06/1981 - 7.5%<br />07/1981 - 7.2%<br />08/1981 - 7.4% *Reagan cuts taxes for top 1% & says unemployment will DROP to 6.9%.<br />09/1981 - 7.6%<br />10/1981 - 7.9%<br />11/1981 - 8.3%<br />12/1981 - 8.5%<br />01/1982 - 8.6%<br />02/1982 - 8.9%<br />03/1982 - 9.0%<br />04/1982 - 9.3%<br />05/1982 - 9.4%<br />06/1982 - 9.6%<br />07/1982 - 9.8%<br />08/1982 - 9.8%<br />09/1982 - 10.1%<br />10/1982 - 10.4%<br />11/1982 - 10.8%<br /><br />President Obama, on the other hand, has seen unemployment drop from 10.2 percent to 9.7 percent at the beginning of his second year. Gross National Product has gone up 3.5 percent as of the last quarter's reports. This year, the stimulus is expected to grow the economy by anywhere from 1.4 to 4 percent. It could bring down unemployment anywhere from 0.7 percent to 1.8 percent. Obama's approval rating remains around 50 percent, whereas Reagan's had dropped to about 40 percent by that period of his administration.<br /><br />The stimulus is a great idea. It's keeping this economy afloat, and even Republicans who voted against it are openly praising the good things it's doing for local economies and public works projects. Barack Obama is handling this recession to the very best of his abilities, and is doing a good job so far.<br /><br />I'll bet Reagan would have been ridden out of office at this point if there was a reactionary, paranoid 24-hour national news cycle back in the eighties.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-83361453765482215902010-02-23T08:03:00.001-08:002010-02-23T15:24:49.234-08:00The Case for Financial Reform, and How to Do It<b>Disclaimer</b><br />If you read anything I write about the economy or the current recession, please read this. A lot of what I say is going to shock you, and will undoubtedly cause you to furrow your brow and scoff, so I've taken the liberty of painstaking including links and information to back up what I say. Read on and discuss!<br /><br /><b>Robin Hood Reversed</b><br /><br /><i>"The war against working people should be understood to be a real war.... Specifically in the U.S., which happens to have a highly class-conscious business class.... And they have long seen themselves as fighting a bitter class war, except they don’t want anybody else to know about it."</i> <br />— Noam Chomsky<br /><br />I think most Americans would agree that a prominent middle class is necessary in every true democracy. The extreme polarization of wealth, with a very few having everything while a great majority are impoverished, is reminiscent of oppressive societies in years past, in other parts of the globe. America, the land of opportunity, should be seen as a place where people who make median incomes can thrive comfortably, raise families, work good jobs, and be healthy. But don't take my word on that. Just ask <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aristotle134193.html">Aristotle.</a> Or <a href="http://www.inventchina.com/lianchao/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=34">Seymour Lipset</a>, a known scholar on democracy.<br /><br />But this middle class is being endangered by what I wouldn't hesitate to call a class war between the super-rich and everyone else. The bank bailouts, endless federal reserve money, zero percent interest rates, and tax dollars going toward extravagant Wall Street bonuses for the bankers who caused this mess is all Robin Hood in reverse. Take from the poor, give to the rich. I'm going to list some facts and figures that will shock you. These numbers come from the United States of America, the land of opportunity, and not a third world country.<br /><br />-<a href="http://rawstory.com/2009/2009/10/americans-poverty-study-finds/">50 million Americans live in poverty.</a><br />-<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5huS1aDImykHCJxUuyNW-fbMSAbMA">Half of all American children will depend on food stamps to eat at some point in their childhood.</a><br />-<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111601598.html?wpisrc=newsletter">Hunger is at an all-time high in the USA.</a><br />-<a href="http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0579922.htm">Of the 1.4 million Americans who filed for bankruptcy in 2009, 60% of them did so because of medical bills.</a><br />-<a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/07/29/foreclosure-chart-of-the-day/">Before the recession ends, 13 million more Americans are going to lose their homes.</a><br />-<a href="http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=16455">We throw more people in jail than any other country in the world.</a><br />-<a href="http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=16455">We open a new jail in this country every single week</a>.<br /><br />And in my own state of Mississippi, child poverty is <a href="http://www.prb.org/Articles/2008/childpoverty.aspx">rampant</a>. It is <a href="http://www.savethechildren.org/countries/usa/facts-and-figures.html">oppressive</a>. It is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56070-2004Jul16.html">disgusting</a>. And it is worsening. 6 out of 10 children in Holmes County are living in poverty. 56% of children in Issaquena County are impoverished. 54% in Coahoma and Sharkey Counties. 53% in Bolivar County. Even half of Leflore County's children are living in poverty. Washington, Yazoo, Sunflower, Jefferson Davis, Quitman, Tallahatchie, Noxubee, Pike, Wilkinson and Jefferson Counties are all also in the top 100 worst counties in America when it comes to child poverty. And these numbers aren't looking to improve anytime soon. If anything, they're going to get worse. <br /><br />The <a href="http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2008/03/populist-interpretation-of-latest-boom.html">class war</a> against the working class has been going on a lot longer since the 2008 recession. If we go back to 1972, almost 40 years ago, and check the consumer price index, you'd see that the average worker made $738.48 per week. That figure in 2008 was %598.18.<br /><br />And if you want to know the true depths of how deep the <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/the-growing-underclass-jobs-gone-forever/?em">damage</a> is to the middle class, just look at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196.html">job creation</a> in the last decade, where we had ZERO net job growth. Middle class families made less in 2008 than they did in 1999. It hasn't been this bad in 70 years.<br /><br />But that's how the middle class is faring in this economy. Surely Wall Street is feeling the pain, too?<br /><br /><b>The Rise of the Oligarchs</b><br />It's <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17675">REAL good</a> to be rich right now. There hasn't been a better time to be in the rich 1% of this country since the Gilded Age, pre-1929.<br /><br />While the poor and the middle class have been languishing since the 1970s, we've seen after-tax income <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/04-7">TRIPLE</a> for the top 1% since 1980. Likewise, the bottom 90% has seen their after-tax income go down by 20% in that same time period. Since 2002, this trend has <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/17">rapidly increased.</a><br /><br />Also, did you know that <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/17">the richest 1% owns 70% of all financial assets?</a> And that this is an all-time high throughout history?<br /><br />Did you know that 40 years ago, the average CEO made 25 times as much as the average worker? And now, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/3592881?cookieSet=1">CEOs make 500 times as much as we do?</a><br /><br />Here's one more for you. If you can stomach it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/17">400 people in this country have more wealth than 155,000,000 people COMBINED.</a> And that gap is increasing as I write this sentence.<br /><br />Obviously, one can see our tax structure, both in-state and nationally, is skewed against the poor and toward the richest 1%. It's easy to see how progressive taxation would create income equality, lower child poverty rates, and spur the rebirth of the middle class. However, being that taxing the rich is such a touchy topic for politicians who get their money from the rich people who would be taxed, nobody wants to talk about that. But if you don't raise taxes, budgets have to be cut. And budget cuts are devastating local governments.<br /><br /><b>Wall Street's Plunder of Main Street</b><br /><br /><i>"For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."</i> <br />— George Orwell<br /><br />There's a little town in Alabama called <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/143485/nightmare_in_america:_after_the_billionaires_plundered_alabama_town,_troops_were_called_in?page=entire">Samson</a>. It's a small town where, last March, a disgruntled worker at a chicken plant killed 11 people. While tragic, there was another happening in Samson that didn't reach the attention of the news media; the national guard was called in to keep order, and patrolled the streets. While this directly defies the Posse Comitatus Act, there was no other choice. Cuts made to the Sheriff's department were so deep that the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8249839">local law enforcement</a> had been rendered completely unable to do their jobs.<br /><br />This same chicken plant got hundreds of billions from former Wall Street giants Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch to buy out a rival manufacturer. This deal was put together by a banker hired by J.P. Morgan & Chase. And J.P. Morgan came up with the derivatives that bankrupted Jefferson County, Alabama over a sewer project. In that instance, the sharp increase in sewer rates caused people to have to <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_0708_trim2.html">choose between having water or having heat.</a> <br /><br />In order to make this purchase and hand out subsequent executive bonuses, workers' wages at the chicken plant were cut. However, the debt the company incurred forced it to declare bankruptcy. Thus, the greed of predatory capitalism caused massive layoffs at the plant, completely dismantling the local tax base of Samson. Meanwhile, Wall Street gets richer, fattening their own pockets on the backs of unemployed, disadvantaged middle class workers. And this continues today. Sounds eerily similar to what the corporatocracy (World Bank, IMF, USAID) has done to Latin America for the past 40 years, no?<br /><br />But this isn't just in America; British officials are saying that their bankers are fueling a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/6516579/Bank-of-England-says-financiers-are-fuelling-an-economic-doom-loop.html">"doom loop,"</a> and that massive reforms will be necessary to end the plundering that has been victimizing the middle class.<br /><br />As we continue to coddle the rich 1% and cut public sector budgets that the majority of Americans depend on for jobs and services, we risk putting ourselves in situations like Samson, or in <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14303473">Colorado Springs, CO, the home of Ted Haggard and the Tea Party movement.</a><br /><br />From the article:<br /><br /><i>More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.<br /><br />The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.<br /><br />Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that. Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.</i><br /><br />No land-use planning, building inspection, zoning, transportation, parks & recreation, community centers and public pools. Because of drastic budget cuts. States across the union can expect similar situations if progressive taxation continues to be ignored in favor of budget cuts.<br /><br /><b>The Myth of the Free Market</b><br />(It gets a little complicated here, so bear with me.)<br /><br /><i>The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth."</i> <br />-Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman<br /><br />Banks started pulling the same stunts here in 2008 that they've been pulling for 40 years in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. After the $700 billion bailout and interest rates being slashed to zero by the Fed with <a href="http://www.counterpunch.com/whitney08072009.html">money being printed in abundance</a>, banks like <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32255149/wall_streets_bailout_hustle/">Goldman Sachs</a> used that free cash from taxpayers to buy all of our foreclosed property for pennies on the dollar. They then <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-4wpoBIYjU">took advantage</a> of the poor real estate market (hampered by the bubble which they caused through predatory lending and excessive subprime loans) and made thousands of percent of profit selling those properties back to us. This is all because <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/priceless-how-the-federal_n_278805.html">the Fed literally has our economy in a stranglehold</a>. Societe Generale Chief Strategist Albert Edwards is <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/article/scandal-albert-edwards-alleges-central-banks-were-complicit-robbing-middle-classes">openly accusing</a> the Federal Reserve and England's central bank of robbing the poor and middle classes of the USA and the UK.<br /><br />But we can't completely blame the Fed for the financial meltdown; when Goldman Sachs said they needed $700 billion of our money to stay afloat and loan capital to small businesses, they refused to lend any of it out. The Fed was then forced to slash interest rates and <a href="http://www.counterpunch.com/whitney08072009.html">print even more money</a> for the banks. This causes speculation, which leads to more reckless trading and lending, which leads to bubbles that inevitably burst to create another recession. Bubbles exist to move wealth from the working class to the richest .01% through risky investments and toxic asset trading.<br /><br />Big investment banks also operated as commercial banks, which allows them to get even more money from the federal government. While Goldman got $10 billion in TARP (bailout) money, that's a drop in the bucket when compared to how much federal aid they qualified for as a commercial lending bank. JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America were among some of the other financiers who lined up at the federal trough to stuff our tax dollars into their wallets to continue <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32255149/wall_streets_bailout_hustle/4">doing the same things</a> that caused the global meltdown in the first place. In fact, without the Fed, all of these banks would have been rendered insolvent.<br /><br />However, a deregulatory policy called the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program allowed nearly-insolvent banks to shed their disastrous credit histories and borrow on a clean slate, on top of all of the TARP money and Fed money. They were also allowed to gain interest on reserve accounts they are required to keep with the Fed. Basically, our government gave banks more money to reward the banks for existing.<br /><br />These banks, in turn loaned money back to the Fed through the purchase of treasury bills, paying a 3 to 4 percent interest rate. Sort of like attaching an ATM to the federal reserve, to be used exclusively by Wall Street bankers. Collectively, these big banks borrowed trillions of dollars, sat on it, and refused to loan it out to small businesses and entrepreneurs once the money was given out. In fact, they demanded even MORE money. Essentially, money is going from the government back to the government, but the banks step in every once in awhile and fill their hands with our money.<br /><br />While this has all been going on, the Fed and the Treasury have been frequently consulting with private advisory boards comprised mainly of Wall Street fat cats. Take, for example, the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, where a J.P. Morgan executive and a Goldman-Sachs executive sit as chairman and vice chairman, respectively. the board advising the Fed includes major players from Bank of New York Mellon and from Capital One. Basically, these big bankers know when they'll be getting truckloads of free money so they can put themselves in position to make the most profitable investments. Kind of like a rigged poker game where the dealer and other players are all in on the scheme, and don't stop until they've taken all of your money.<br /><br />The Fed has even become brazen in their openness about <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aym.uZNnjd78&pos=6">tight associations</a> with <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a_uR69EhwZFA">Wall Street bankers.</a> In the above articles, the Fed has been exposed in covering up their role in the AIG bailouts, and about their involvement in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy debacle.<br /><br />Now, the nation's six largest banks have set aside a collective $140 billion in bonuses while <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">14.8 million Americans stand in the unemployment line</a>, and while <a href="http://business.theatlantic.com/2010/02/the_one-fifth_element_20_of_america_is_underemployed.php">one fifth</a> of this country is out of work or looking for more work that can actually pay for things like rent, food and bills. We need to care about this, because <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/125960/Underemployed-Report-Spending-Less-Employed.aspx">underemployed people spend 36% less</a> than gainfully employed Americans. This quickly takes a toll on local economies and small businesses, affecting even more jobs and cash flow.<br /><br />So really, there is no "free" market. Not when our economy is in the hands of a few greedy bankers who have free access to our tax dollars, who can hold businesses that need credit hostage, and who can claim to be "too big to fail" when their unscrupulous practices catch up to them.<br /><br /><b>Solutions</b><br /><br /><i>"A corporation cannot be ethical; its only responsibility is to turn a profit!"</i> <br />—Milton Friedman, Economic Adviser to Ronald Reagan<br /><br />Through the rape of the free market with the help of big banks, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Treasury Secretaries Hank Paulson (TARP guy, former Goldman-Sachs executive) and Tim Geithner, we have essentially privatized government in and of itself. Our economy is no longer under popular control, and our businesses and jobs are completely at the mercy of the Wall Street fat cats who hold all the cards. But there are things that we can do.<br /><br /><u>Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.</u><br />This legislation from the 1930s drew a clear line between commercial banks and investment banks. When Clinton repealed it in 1999, that gave the big Wall Street banks the green light to do what I've just described. Obama putting this back in place would reign in how much federal support big banks are allowed to get. And hopefully keep them honest so they won't rely on the Treasury to fill their pockets.<br /><br /><u>Institute a Robin Hood Tax</u><br />This would be a .05% tax on all bank transactions that don't include members of the public, i.e. bonds, currencies, speculation, derivatives. This would generate hundreds of billions of dollars each year to be used for shoring up the public sector. Essentially, by keeping the banks honest, and taxing them for engaging in risky behavior, it'd be like a new stimulus package every year, directly from Wall Street to Main Street.<br /><br /><u>Reform our Tax Structure to include a "Fat Cat/Rich Brat" Tax Bracket</u><br />When 50 to 60 percent of Americans can't keep up with rising inflation, health care costs, energy costs and grocery costs, it's time to turn the tables against those earning $5,000,000 per year, rich brats thriving off of trust funds, and other wealth that gets passed down through generations that builds simply because it is there.<br /><br />Did you know that up until Reagan was president, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#History_of_top_rates.5B20.5D">our top income tax rate was never lower than 70%?</a> Or that 2007 (pre-recession) tax returns never showed more than 46,000 earning $5,000,000 or more per year? This tax would effect about half of one percent of this country, and would generate over $100 billion per year in revenue. The total taxable income on all of those tax returns was $670 billion, and about $150 billion of that was income tax, at a 23% rate.<br /><br />23%. That's the most glaring reason why we need a Fat Cat/Rich Brat tax. If you have taxable income exceeding $10 million, you paid at a lower tax rate than anyone with taxable income between $200,000 and $9,999,999. We could also tax all non-wage income. Why should people who work hard be taxed higher than those who are sitting on their butt, getting money off of accumulated wealth that most people don't have the luxury to have?<br /><br />The Fat Cat/rich Brat tax could also be a makeup of the estate tax, and we could even exempt family businesses and family homes, as well as farms. The catch would be that the home has to have been lived in 5-10 years before death, lower the threshold and make it a tax on inherited and untaxed wealth. And if the rich brats and fat cats don't like the name of the Rich Brat/Fat Cat tax, we can call it the Trust Fund Baby tax, or the Leech on Society Tax, or the Lazy Brat tax. This would only effect the wealthiest of the wealthiest of the wealthiest, as there were <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/content/pdf/deaths.pdf">under 14,000 taxable returns filed in 2008.</a> It would be 1/6th of 1% of all income earners. And it would generate billions. Besides, <a href="http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=210646,00.html">stock, cash, and cash-type assets make up the bulk of all taxable income</a>, so exempting businesses, homes and farms would even further single out trust fund babies.<br /><br /><b>And what's more, this tax would only apply to 5,000 to 10,000 families in the entire United States. It would force lazy trust fund brats to do something with their lives while allowing homes and businesses to be passed down without worry. Fat cats and rich brats should have to step up and pay their fair share, at least while the rest of us are working two or three jobs so we can pay rent and have food in our fridge.</b>CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-31556399855847651472010-01-23T16:36:00.000-08:002010-01-23T19:13:38.102-08:00MSM's Haiti Narrative Ignores Biggest, Glaring ProblemImagine if, after we drove out the British and drafted our Constitution in 1787, that the British suddenly decided that we owe them a debt totaling more than twice the amount of our total national net worth, and that if we didn't pay, all of our allies would place a trading embargo on our newly-founded nation, and we may even be attacked. That would be all kinds of wrong, would it not?<br /><br />Well, that's exactly <a href="http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/headline3-28-07.pdf">what the French did to Haiti</a> after they drove out Napoleon.<br /><br />In 1806, all major players in the global trading game, including the United States under President Thomas Jefferson (then serving his second term), had agreed to embargo the newly-independent, mostly Black nation in the Caribbean. Napoleon had encouraged world leaders to antagonize the newly-freed "pearl of the Antilles" by propagating fear around what would happen if similar slave nations also demanded their freedom, inspired by the Haitians. Thus, Haiti was forced to pay 150,000 francs (equivalent to $21 billion today) in reparations to France for the lost economic productivity of the formerly-enslaved population that was now free. France was not solely complicit for such oppression; the United States had also sent over <a href="http://www.utwatch.org/archives/subtex/haiti_issue3.html">$750,000</a> to quell the initial slave revolt in 1791. For 58 years, the US <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2004/feb/26/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1">refused to acknowledge</a> Haiti's existence. When we finally did acknowledge Haiti, it was through invading, and then occupying the nation from 1915 until 1934 because we were afraid that populist movements would endanger our efforts at enriching our economy at Haiti's expense.<br /><br />Only after Haiti agreed to pay reparations to their former oppressors in 1825 did other nations allow the Haitians into the global financial arena. To add insult to injury, Haiti had to borrow some of the debt to pay France back from France itself, at a 6% interest rate. The debt Haiti owed their former occupiers was ten times the amount they made in export revenue, so paying it off would be an eternal effort. Thus, slavery had begun again. And that financial slavery continues to this day.<br /><br />Sure, the earthquake this month that ravaged Port-Au-Prince was terrible. And it's great that we can send our money to Haiti, and that the media has us all crying over the tragedy in Haiti. But one must remember that Haitians, despite living in a destabilized country with no food or resources, are still not allowed to seek refuge here. We can support their aim of democracy all we want, but only if they let our corporations have unrestricted access to their people and resources.<br /><br />(One small example of Haitian exploitation is the multitude of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/scahill">mercenary</a> companies providing "security" at a high cost. One group currently operating in Haiti is partially-owned by the controversial head of Blackwater, who charged US taxpayers <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/scahill/single">$950 per person per day</a> in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those same people are disaster profiteering under the guise of "humanitarian efforts.")<br /><br />The mainstream media has been pushing the flawed narrative of the Helpless Haitians, victims of their corrupt government. But the media fails to ask the questions of how such oppressive regimes were able to sustain themselves as long as they did. When digging beneath the surface, one can see the bulk of Haitian oppression and debt was incurred under the Duvalier dynasty, led by Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, and then by his son, Jean-Claude, who incurred $500 million alone during his last six years in office. <br /><br />Their regimes, backed by both France and the US because of their stance against Communism, consisted of brutal political violence exacted by what the locals called the "Tonton Macoutes," a creole term lossely translated to "Uncle Gunnysack." This term was used as parents would warn children of the boogeyman who would stuff them into his gunnysack to disappear forever if they didn't behave. However, the voodoo term stuck, as the regime's secret police was known to imprison political dissidents in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/01/world/mission-haiti-troops-auschwitz-haiti-for-3-decades-gives-up-secrets-its-dark.html?pagewanted=1">Fort Dimanche</a>, known by many as the "Dungeon of Death." The Tonton Macoutes, under the order of the US-backed Duvalier regime, killed and tortured thousands by brutal means.<br /><br />We had supported President Jean-Bertrand Artistides' election in 1990, and helped him regain power in 1994 after a coup had driven him out of power. The US, however, required that the newly re-established administration <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2004/feb/26/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1">incur unpayable debt</a> brought on by arms of the global corporatocracy such as the World Bank, IMF and USAID. Thanks to that continued indebtedness, Haiti still spends a bulk of her annual budget on debt service, rather than needed services like education and health care.<br /><br />While the death dungeon is empty today, western powers have yet to apologize to Haiti for suppressing her efforts at a democratic government, and the western media has yet to focus their narrative upon the oppression that we supported, which has led to why Haiti has never had the money to bring herself from poverty to prosperity.<br /><br />So yes, give freely to help Haiti in her time of greatest crisis. But let's ask our media to report the full story, instead of pushing forced, pre-conceived narratives that ignore the real issues. If you really want to help Haiti out of poverty and despair, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/73llq/tollfree_number_to_congressional_switchboard/">call your elected officials</a> and push for them to forgive Haiti's debt.<br /><br />To end this, I'll cite <a href="http://simplifythepositive.blogspot.com/2010/01/media-promotes-flawed-haiti-narrative.html">Brown Man Thinking Hard</a>, who originally inspired me to write this:<br /><br />"If we are saving people today so they can die in sweatshops for our corporations later, THAT is a travesty."CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15036393980663494.post-55236322600059146172010-01-16T12:24:00.000-08:002010-01-16T12:54:31.586-08:00The United States of America- The Only Industrialized Country Where Health Care is Not a RightThe United States has long had the most advanced and powerful and well-funded military in the history of the world. Our quality of life is unparallelled, as is our consumption of resources, as is the availability of those resources. However, our health care system is ranked #37 in the world. The other 36 countries ranked above us are not as wealthy nor as powerful as we are. But the difference between us and them is that they provide health care for their citizens, and see health care as a human right, not a for-profit industry.<br /><br />Just to put this in perspective, <a href="http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-lack-health-coverage">44,000 people</a> die EVERY YEAR in this country, the richest, most powerful country in the world, <a href="http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/harvard-medical-study-links-lack-of-insurance-to-45000-us-deaths-a-year/?scp=2&sq=harvard&st=cse">because health care is not a right</a>.<br /><br />Now, this note will require some small participation from you. Don't worry, I'm not asking you to call your congressmen and senators and tel them to push for a single payer system, although that'd be nice. I just want you to watch a few short videos.<br /><br />I want you to tell all of these people below, who could only get health care through a free clinic that happened to be open in their town for a few days, that health care shouldn't be a right. That they should only be able to have health care if they have enough money. That it's perfectly okay for health insurance CEOs to get hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and bonuses while they have to pray not to get sick, because a hospital visit would bankrupt them.<br /><br />Watch these videos of these people. Then tell them that.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyRtfIoaEc&feature=player_embedded">Here</a> are people waiting in line to get some sort of care at a clinic that is already above capacity even for those who have made appointments.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNsD9dQzwic&feature=player_embedded">Victoria Moss</a>, who was laid off from Citibank. She doesn't want a handout, just a mammogram.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNh_fiqlGNA&feature=player_embedded">Rand Hodson</a> is a cardiac patient with no insurance.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWjZalaS5Yw&feature=player_embedded">Nicole Abel</a> has type 1 diabetes and no insurance.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LymEladMARQ&feature=player_embedded">Carol Dale</a> is a working-class American who simply can't afford the insurance premium for herself, nor her daughter.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4waKQYxcfhY&feature=player_embedded">Gina Williams</a> works for Hilton Hotels, and has three children. One of those children has state insurance, but the other two have no coverage. Her mother has unaffordable junk insurance.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab3eaM34P3E&feature=player_embedded"><br />Diandria Pigese</a> lost her job and her health coverage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3wCtdZao7E&feature=player_embedded">Diandra Owens</a> had been suffering excruciating pain from a tooth that needed to be pulled, but she couldn't afford a trip to the dentist.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEl24EfFZys&feature=player_embedded">Diane Smith</a> lost her job, her health insurance, had unaffordable insurance, and no health care. She hadn't been able to see a doctor in SEVEN YEARS before the free clinic.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPojdZPVJBM&feature=player_embedded">Dennis Cahill</a> had two heart attacks with no medication. And he is uninsured.<br /><br />Natasha Stevenson has <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq8n8zKj97E&feature=player_embedded">three kids</a> who need dental care. One was a 7 year-old who had never been to a dentist.<br /><br /><b>Kayla: "I have cavities."<br />Eve: "Why didn't they get filled?"<br />Kayla: "We didn't have the money."</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkHhparMpi4&feature=player_embedded">Sara Clark</a> lost her job. She got a new one, but that job doesn't have health coverage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqvB-Er401Y">Keith Hitchcock</a> is an amputee without health insurance, who needs a prosthesis.<br /><br />Little Rock, Arkansas resident <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuWC1nMCBJk">Oneida Whiteside</a> had a stroke. Her health insurance company dropped her coverage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CazEVg9zpvg&feature=related">Cindy Howell</a> is from Dallas, Texas. She drove 5 hours to the free clinic in Arkansas to get free health care. She's put herself into $30,000 worth of credit card debt solely because of her insurance premiums. Tell her that she doesn't have a right to health care.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RXoK81NhU&feature=related">59 year-old Frank Wood</a> visited the Little Rock free clinic to get treated for his hernia. His job is very physically demanding, and he has no health insurance. Before the free clinic, he had to labor with a hernia.<br /><br />Meet <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3IWgs-I5e0">Michelle and Sheila.</a> Michelle is jobless and needs health care for a medical problem she doesn't want to disclose. Her friend, Sheila, has heart problems, fibromyalgia, and needs a hip replacement. She is also without health insurance.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFQH69BJXaY&feature=player_embedded">120,000 square-foo</a>t convention center that held the free clinic couldn't accommodate everyone in Kansas City, even at its size.<br /><br />The Kansas City clinic ran all day, morning to evening. At 5 PM, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVLyR-8-5Rk&feature=player_embedded">this</a> was the line. These people would have to be turned away.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMjN63hjzJ8&feature=player_embedded">This</a> is the check out, where they also give free blankets. Free blankets for Americans who lost their jobs, who don't have homes, who may have to sleep on the streets.<br /><br />This is ALL happening in the USA, the greatest, richest, most powerful country in the world. These people aren't welfare queens or trailer trash or any of the things the FOX news anchors would like us to believe. They're regular, hard-working Americans who are victims of a system that believes in profit before people. <br /><br />Tell them all that they don't have a right to health care. Tell them that they deserve to suffer until they have the money to fork over to the corporate fat cats who run the private insurance industry. <br /><br />Tell them that.CeeGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05604522737581067758noreply@blogger.com0