Here are two facts for the Right Wing to remember:
- Nazis in WWII Germany were Right Wing. They denied the rights of minorities and discriminated against certain people in their country, demanding they carry papers with them at all times: does that ring a bell?
- The Republicans fought tooth and nail against the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. In fact, when LBJ, a Democrat, signed Civil Rights into law, most Southern Democrats immediately jumped parties and became Republicans.
So jump to 2010.
- You can’t label Left Wing political parties and liberal-minded thinkers as Nazis or fascist. Those are Right Wing ideologies. Just because your base is not smart enough to tell the difference does not give you the right to completely lie about it.
- You can’t reclaim a Civil Rights movement you were, and have been, diametrically opposed for the past 50 years. It is not yours to take back because you never had it. And never will. Again, if your base is too ignorant to understand these facts, it does not give you the go ahead to completely make shit up.
Stop the lying and willful misinformation. You have more in common with Right Wing dictators throughout history then you care to remember and you despise equality of all kinds, ranging from race to gender to economic to your most sickly addiction, religion.
As a Nation we need you to own up to your past, not completely forget the facts of who you are. Part of why we can’t move ahead is because you can’t admit to what you have done. Not looking for a massive apology, just know on a personal level where you stand.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
GOP Revisionism Has To Stop
Friday, September 03, 2010
Outsourcing The War: This Has Rumsfeld And Cheney Written All Over It
Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.
via nytimes.com
The Bush Administration had no foreign policy, no exit strategy: just made sure all their friends in the "business of war" good paid.
Blackwater was not just killing Iraqis, they were making a killing. Who did not see this coming?
100% Of Zero Growth Is Zero: Why Progressive Taxes Work
Cenk Uygur: God bless ‘em. It’s America, we all wanna earn one billion dollars. The question is, does it make sense for society if they get to keep a disproportionate amount of that or if we can create more opportunities for more people to earn a billion dollars, if we redistribute it for education, etc.
Robert Reich: Cenk, you’re exactly right. My position is, even the rich will stand to to do better if they have a smaller share of an economy that is growing very fast, than if they have a big share of an economy that is basically static.
via brooklynmutt.com
The point was also made that one fund manager's $1 billion income per year could finance 20,000 teachers. We are a society that will go out of it's way to create and maintain wealth for the uber-rich, yet bring an entire economy to its knees when taxation on the same uber-rich might rise 3%.
You need an entire society to grow, not just the top 1%. You need customers. You need orders. You need investors. You need capital to develop new ideas. You need growth. Shrinking everything Federal and decreasing the flow of capital, while increasing income disparity, in a expanding population is just crushing any domestic growth for the future.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett get this idea. While no one likes taxes, paying your share is good for the whole economy. Nothing trickles down. That is a fact.
James Lee: When Crazy Goes Wrong
One of the demands from the Discovery Channel Gunman:
Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it.
via oliverwillis.com
This guy was definitely nuts. And although some of his causes were left-leaning, I don't think he got his encouragement to be violent from the liberal mainstream. Getting out your gun and "taking aim" at your opponent are all part of the current Conservative and Tea Bag message.
So while his craziness seems non-partisan, his violence-as-solution is very much is step with the call to arms messaging from the Right. Jusssayin'.
Serial Iraq Misinformers Find Home At Fox
During the run-up to the Iraq war, some of the worst purveyors of misinformation about Iraq had a home at Fox News, and their ranks have swelled considerably since then. Media Matters takes a look at the track record of wrong predictions and shoddy analysis about the war in Iraq by many of Fox News' contributors and analysts.
via mediamatters.org
Karl Rove, Dick Morris, William Kristol, Newt Gingrich, Fred Barnes, Stephen F. Hayes, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller, and John Bolton are all willfully and pathologically distorting information to serve a premeditated storyline.
Fox has written the script, and these are the actors playing their roles.
Squeezing the Middle Class and Getting Away With It
"So why, then, is the middle class mad at the poor rather than the rich? This is an ironic side effect of the American Dream. Poll after poll, generation after generation, has shown the same thing: most Americans imagine themselves getting rich one day, not poor. They are far more worried about protecting their potential future wealth than worrying about their declining current condition—much less about becoming poor. In addition, Americans have an innate sense that rich people earned it—they did the work, they had the ideas, they should keep the money. This is, of course, sometimes true, but vast amounts of the wealth in the US is inherited by people who did nothing to earn it. The idle rich abound, and are really, really idle."
The Middle Class has to come to grips that the "American Dream" does not always have them becoming millionaires. The real Dream is living in a great society that allows all to pursue happiness. And for that happiness to take place, we all play our part. We don't pass the buck onto the next generations.
The Middle Class can't let identity politics divide them into groups of "us" and "them". United we stand, divided we fall.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
I Long For Debates Like This
Congressman Alan Grayson confronted by a sharp Tea Party protester. No snarky sarcasm, this is a great conversation. We need more of this.
Billionaires Push GOP Populism
via tumblr.com
The rich want to dismantle the social programs for the less fortunate and cut taxes for themselves. At what point does the Tea Bagger making $40,000 realize he is not in their tax bracket and is getting shafted?
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Loses Her Mind
via brooklynmutt.com
The bar is set so low for Republicans these days. Just say Obamacare, Federal Government, a few other rambling sentences are you're in.
Her opening statement was sheer Palin-esque word salad
Manufacturing Survey Spikes Wall Street
Manufacturing reports that showed growth in the United States and China helped propel stocks on Wednesday, providing an upbeat start to a new month.
via nytimes.com
America is ready. Pessimism from the Right can only last so long. It's time for the Democrats and the Left to push through.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
The Republican Iraq Victory Lap Is A Joke
"The record is unambiguous. These misguided ideologues made the worst mistake imaginable, and thousands have died as a consequence of their ignorance, incompetence, and hubris. They launched a war for reasons that weren't true, and then screwed up the aftermath in ways that were hard to even imagine. This wasn't some minor misjudgment -- the Republican failures in Iraq carry the kind of human, economic, diplomatic, and security costs that are so severe, they're hard to even calculate."
Watch this Maddow clip to refresh just how bogus everything Bush did in bringing America into war.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Loyal Bushies like Stephen Hadley, Doug Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, and Ari Fleischer are all over the media trying to convince America that false intel, lies about bomb/poison gas/WMD facilities, massive civilian deaths, failed foreign policies, prisoner abuse scandals, torture usage approval and trillions wasted somehow equals a victory.
Their credibility is absolutely non-existent.
EARTH TO REPUBLICANS
EARTH TO REPUBLICANS
YOU CAN’T CLAIM CREDIT FOR VICTORY IN IRAQ TWICE!
via brooklynmutt.com
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Truclent And Bullying
"The word ‘appeasement’ is not popular, but appeasement has its place in all policy. Make sure you put it in the right place. Appease the weak, defy the strong.”Churchill argued that “appeasement from strength is magnanimous and noble and might be the surest and perhaps the only path to world peace.”
And he remarked on the painful irony: “When nations or individuals get strong they are often truculent and bullying, but when they are weak they become better-mannered. But this is the reverse of what is healthy and wise."
- Winston Churchill in 1950
Watch this clip from 2008. Intellectual dishonesty from the Right in it's pure form.
The least intellectual and least inquisitive are the easiest to radicalize. They believe the propaganda the quickest. No objectivity. No research.
Just like the host in the video clip, he makes a disparaging statement and has no understanding of its meaning. It's mental candy floss and the GOP has a massive sweet tooth for it.
How Does Jesus The Advocate Of The Poor And Sick Have Relevance To The Right?
"If you wish to be perfect, sell all you have, and you will have treasure in heaven, and follow me." - Jesus, Gospel of Mark
via tumblr.com
Jesus was a massive advocate of the poor and the sick. Spent his time on Earth as Son of God telling his followers such behavior will be rewarded.Now you have corrosive conservative leaders like Glenn Beck pushing the notion that working and advocating on behalf of the poor and sick are anti-American values, at the same time, claiming Christianity to be restored as the moral compass.
Sadly, Beck's followers see no illogic with the position. Acquire wealth, fuck the poor. Just do exactly the opposite of what Jesus said, and, in his name. Unreal.
Preserve Social Security = Let Bush Tax Cuts Expire On Time
via oliverwillis.com
Letting taxes go back to where they should be for 1% will take care of the other 99% of America. Or conversely, extend the toxic cuts and give more help to the richest 1% and hurt 99% who really need it.
Is everyone paying into Social Security now willing to take a cut to help the top 1% get richer?
America is one vindictive culture when this reasoning is considered liberal.
New Left Media Covers Beck's Rally
via newleftmedia.com
I guess Civics class was not a requirement. Or facts.
The Beck crowd has perfected the dissemination of misinformation to the point these people don't know the facts and proport to know, not an opinion, but the truth.
ex: Takes 21 years to apply for residency for parents of children born in the US. The whole "anchor baby" issue loses all meaning. Pro-Life becomes anti-brown baby.
The Pakistani Rubix Cube
"Economic growth is not a panacea for social ills or political disarray, but policies designed to unleash Pakistan’s economy during the next decade are far more likely to reduce the threat of Taliban-inspired revolution than are military operations and drone strikes. Examples of success exist: Indonesia, which, like Pakistan, has a large Muslim population and implausible borders left behind by imperialists, suffered badly a decade ago from separatist violence, Al Qaeda-linked Islamist terrorists, and poisonous civil-military relations. By riding Southeast Asia’s economic boom, Indonesia has become a comparably bland, democratic archipelago." - Steve Coll
You can lump Iraq and Afghanistan in with Pakistan for this example. People need something to live for, not live in fear of. Bullets and bombs do nothing. It's jobs and schools and markets that will have lasting effects.
Teddy Roosevelt On Limited Corporate Suffrage: 100 Years Ago
"We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs."- former President Teddy Roosevelt on Aug 30, 1910
via tumblr.com
Adding: "For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation."
Justice Roberts' Right Wing court has given this idea the big "fuck you". His activist court ruled from the bench and has allowed unlimited campaign financing by corporations.
D'ya think fake limited government Tea Baggers and strict Constitutionalist give a shit?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Rewriting History Beck-Style
via tumblr.com
The oppressed Glenn Beck rewrites another chapter in history. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin approve.
Dick Morris: GOP Will Shut Down The Government Again
Republican pollster Dick Morris told conservative political activists that newly elected Republicans should shut down the government next year. Morris said the party must elect lawmakers who will stand up and say "No" to President Obama's requests for more government spending and predicted a repeat of how Republicans forced a shutdown under President Clinton after they won control of Congress.
The GOP wants to repeat the same mistakes. Wake up, America.
Why is Dick "I Pay To Suck Hooker's Toes" Morris even relevant to conservatives?
Hitchens On Beck-apalooza: Waterworld Of White Self-Pity
"At the last “Tea Party” rally I attended, earlier this year at the Washington Monument, some in the crowd made at least an attempt to look fierce and minatory. I stood behind signs that read: “We left our guns at home—this time” and “We invoke the First Amendment today—the Second Amendment tomorrow.” But Beck’s event was tepid by comparison: a call to sink to the knees rather than rise from them. It was clever of him not to overbill it as a “Million”-type march (though Rep. Michele Bachmann was tempted to claim that magic figure). The numbers were impressive enough on their own, but the overall effect was large, vague, moist, and undirected: the Waterworld of white self-pity.…In a rather curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one. What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in America or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned? It’s not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary."
- Christopher Hitchens
via brooklynmutt.com
Beck Thanks The Masses For Making Him Richer
Beck striking his Jesus pose to his clueless followers.
Libertarians Are Scared By The Right To Be Left
"The Right of the 1980s was not obsessed with bigotry. What did happen, however, is that the Christian fundamentalists abandoned the Democratic Party. Until the 80s the fundamentalists were Democrats, since Southern Democrats were the most consistently hatefully, bigoted politicians around. But when the national Democratic Party adopted the civil rights movement white fundamentalists abandoned their natural home for the GOP. Unfortunately they brought with them the stilted, bigoted views that they always held. They eventually, for the most part, came to accept black people as their legal equals but they still harbor a natural tendency to find scapegoats to hate. At the moment their favorite targets are gay people and immigrants. The reasons for the old libertarian-conservative alliance simply don’t hold true anymore. Sure, the Right is attempting to revive that alliance by inflating the “Islamofascist” threat. But the Right is always searching for bogeymen with which to terrify people into supporting them. Given that the political Left is the natural home of libertarians, given that the modern Left is today more libertarian than their fathers were, given that the threat of authoritarian communism is gone, given that the Right has adopted a policy of hateful theocracy, it makes senses that libertarians would return to their first political alliance: one with the Left."
via azspot.net
Boogie men are Republicans specialty. So is the actor-as-politician who will fight all these boogie men.
Einstein: Private Capital Becomes Concentrated
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
— Albert Einstein in “Why Socialism”
Where Did Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh Go To College?
Where did Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh go to college?Don’t think too hard: it’s a trick question. Neither went to college.
The Rodeo Clown and The Pill Popper have no use for higher education. The game of life and slight of hand are all they need in the fact-free "d'ya ever wonder" verbal diarrhea they dish up for every show.
Beck Donations Pay For Event First, Troops Second
How do we know this? The fine print buried at the bottom of the official Glenn Beck website:
"All contributions made to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) will first be applied to the costs of the Restoring Honor Rally taking place August 28, 2010. All contributions in excess of these costs will be retained by SOWF."Suckers. Courtesy of Heather at C&L, here's Beck getting all weepy about a $600,000 donation which ostensibly would go to the troops, but actually will help pay for the concert.
via bobcesca.com
All the donations go to stroke Beck's ego first, pay all the speakers like Palin, pay for the event, then the leftovers go to SOWF.
Ironic that the National Park Service rented them the land. Those evil progressives.
Beck Recants "Obama Is Racist" Remark
"It shouldn’t have been said. It was poorly said … I have a big fat mouth sometimes and I say things, and that’s just not the way people should behave. And it was not accurate."
Glenn Beck said that he regrets once having called President Obama a racist who hated white people. - Fox News Sunday via PoliticsDaily
(Beck had made the statement about Obama last year on Fox & Friends during a discussion of Obama’s criticism of Cambridge, Mass. police. Obama had said they had acted “stupidly” in arresting Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, an African-American, outside his own home after receiving a call reporting a possible break-in: “This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don’t know what it is. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”)
via brooklynmutt.com
Beck may recant, but like most hucksters, too little too late. Still has "dick" status with me.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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