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But plenty of prochoice activists, bloggers and writers are wondering if Planned Parenthood and other organizations are too close to Democrats to really pressure them. After a fight around private insurers covering abortion during the healthcare reform debates, Megan Carpentier reported for RH Reality Check that prochoice groups had actually cut their lobbying budgets when Obama took office, while antichoicers had ramped theirs up.
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FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists
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Another explanation is that this document is no mistake, nor is it an isolated case. It is a reflection of a coordinated campaign to target animal rights activists who, as the FBI agent notes, cause “economic loss” to corporations.
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Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category
Policy 12/24/2011
Posted by rosshunter on December 23, 2011
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Policy 12/10/2011
Posted by rosshunter on December 9, 2011
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Naomi Klein’s Inconvenient Climate Conclusions | Common Dreams
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the idea that we can win the climate fight without engaging in ideological battle over these core questions about the role of government has always been a fantasy. Trying to dodge this fight is a big part of why we lose, and we need to get over it. It’s no coincidence that the countries with the most enlightened climate policies are also, overwhelmingly, the most social democratic.
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Policy 12/08/2011
Posted by rosshunter on December 7, 2011
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In 2012 you can waste your vote on Obama or…
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In 2012 you can waste your vote on Obama pretending that the Republicans have shackled him, but as Paul Hawken points out, he could always use his voice if he had some backbone. People like Hawken and McKibben have earned my respect from their actions – they will be the ones who help address climate change. Do you really think Obama will?
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Hi Leif. I think to take this position one has to accept that changing the political status quo will take more than the 2012 election. It could take 1-2 decades of serious effort, the force of the entire Occupy generation spent in this one …thing. But we can’t address climate change without a working government. So we have to get good government.
The Democrats simply can’t address climate change. This needs to be the great call in 2012, for any candidate at every level, and the great decision-maker: can you or can you not address climate change? When I say to people don’t vote Obama or don’t vote Democrat, I’m also saying throw all your energy into studying and working in politics from the most local council race to the national, and work every day, not just once every 2 or 4 years. This way, even if we get Republicans we still know the challenge is to field our own independent candidates.
I truly believe that people who vote Democrat out of fear pf the Republican alternative are being gamed by a very cynical system.
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I also believe that people who vote Democrat out of fear of the Republican alternative are not helping to address climate change. Out of good intentions unfortunately they’re helping to delay solutions – and we know what this means, it mean…s disaster. So if we seek true solutions to climate change, and if we understand how urgent the need is, with no time to waste, then we have to start changing our long-held political habits. The Republicans are corrupted by ideology and corporate money. The Democrats are only corrupted by corporate money. But both parties are sufficiently corrupted by corporate money that this world will burn before any regular political solution emerges. It HAS to take our action, we HAVE to get political, and we HAVE to throw the Democrats away as a solution because they’ve failed consistently and nothing will change them except to see that we have the power and the will to take them out of office. Did you read Tim DeChristopher’s piece on this concept?
http://www.grist.org/politics/2011-11-14-letter-from-a-climate-activist-in-prison-tim-dechristopher
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Policy 11/28/2011
Posted by rosshunter on November 27, 2011
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DeChristopher – Obama should lose the election
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I was so glad to see DeChristopher lay this concept on the table. Voting for either of the the two main choices is NOT going to solve the climate crisis. The only solution must come from our own political action. Multitudes of deeply concer…ned good people must now begin to wean themselves away from their addiction to the Democrats, and not be afraid of the Republican bogeyman. It doesn’t matter who wins in 2012 unless it’s our own candidates – we will continue to lose, the planet will continue to lose even with a Democrat majority and Obama at the helm. Habeas corpus will still be suspended, the corporate police state will continue to encroach with approval from the White House, the planet will continue to warm irreversibly, and we will help to doom life on this planet because we couldn’t face the prospect of turning away from the Democrats and working tirelessly for political solutions of our own making.
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don’t believe that Nader split the Democrat vote. I’d argue that the Democrats have co-opted the Green vote. And when we should all be working tirelessly to build a new platform with new candidates committed to climate solutions, instead …we waste our votes on Democrats who are in pawn to the corporations the same as the Republicans. The greatest myth is that the Democrats will solve climate change – they will not. Only we can do that.
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political solution to climate crisis
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I submit that the trajectory of solution coming from the Democrats and Obama combined is woefully inadequate to solve the climate crisis – such… that another four more years simply continues the failure. We end up in disaster.
Against this failure of the climate, what comparatively can be the disaster of the Republicans in office? Under Bush the environmental lobbies fought hard and sharply. Under Obama, they recognize themselves that they’ve been lulled into inactivity (until recently). Obama’s administration continues to advance the police state, corporate rule continues unchecked – we CANNOT fix the climate without representative government, and this is severely broken across both parties.
Thus the only true answer to climate crisis is to fix politics – to get political ourselves and put in our own candidates. This can’t all be achieved by 2012 – but to move forward in the name of all the living things on this planet we have to be unafraid of Republicans, and fight regardless, instead of hoping the Democrats will help. If we blithely waste our votes on them instead of working ceaselessly in our own political actions every day then we have failed to meet the challenge.
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I’m trying to say that if you only see two choices in 2012, then I have to keep working every day until you see at least a third realistic choice, and hopefully an entire political movement that grips you like the Occupy movement has gripped us all. And it needs to be persuasive because to believe that a third option will “split the Dem vote” as the old meme goes, will only buy us four more years of climate failure. In fact the Dems and the Repubs both have split the vote of the true solution, which is trying to be born right now, and which I assume will gather force as 2012 progresses. With all respect, yours is the very opinion that any new political force needs to change. Of course I’m familiar with this opinion, it used to be mine also. I wish I had the articulation to persuade you to this other view, but thanks for the chance to try.
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Policy 11/27/2011
Posted by rosshunter on November 26, 2011
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I don’t believe that Nader split the Democrat vote. I’d argue that the Democrats have co-opted the Green vote. And when we should all be working tirelessly to build a new platform with new candidates committed to climate solutions, instead we waste our votes on Democrats who are in pawn to the corporations the same as the Republicans. The greatest myth is that the Democrats will solve climate change – they will not. Only we can do that.
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Ross Hunter Climate change says we don’t have to the time to proceed on the current trajectory. Re-electing Obama and Democrats will NOT fix climate change in time to save us. Letting the old corrupt system fall wherever it falls and working for new climate-committed candidates is the only solution.
I submit that if anyone votes Democrat simply from fear of the Republican alternative, they are being gamed by the good-cop, bad-cop system that has crushed grass roots movements for a century.
And anyone who thinks voting once every 4 years is enough is missing the opportunity to work ceaselessly day after day for a true political solution – our own candidates, at all levels from local to national. This will take time but it won’t even start until we start.
I used to like Obama but I prefer habeas corpus – the police state edges closer, and Obama’s record is truly scary in this arena. Republicans or Democrats, the rhetoric is different but the paymasters are the same – and they are opposed to climate solutions.
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I was so glad to see DeChristopher lay this concept on the table. Voting for either of the the two main choices is NOT going to solve the climate crisis. The only solution must come from our own political action. Multitudes of deeply concerned good people must now begin to wean themselves away from their addiction to the Democrats, and not be afraid of the Republican bogeyman. It doesn’t matter who wins in 2012 unless it’s our own candidates – we will continue to lose, the planet will continue to lose even with a Democrat majority and Obama at the helm. Habeas corpus will still be suspended, the corporate police state will continue to encroach with approval from the White House, the planet will continue to warm irreversibly, and we will help to doom life on this planet because we couldn’t face the prospect of turning away from the Democrats and working tirelessly for political solutions of our own making.
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Policy 11/25/2011
Posted by rosshunter on November 24, 2011
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‘We have lost respect’ – former US Senator — RT
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“Most people are unaware of the fact that over the last year, the Obama administration chased out of the United States… over 500,000 people. If we had a media that is all honest – this would have been front page and hotly discussed,” he reveals.
“Obama is raising a billion dollars for his re-election campaign, and he has made a statement which demonstrates what respect he has for the people. He made the statement ‘We’re not going to take any money from special interests’. I tell you – the billion dollars come from special interests,” ex-Senator Gravel accuses.
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Policy 11/11/2011
Posted by rosshunter on November 10, 2011
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Capitalism vs. the Climate | The Nation
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This is a crucial point to understand: it is not opposition to the scientific facts of climate change that drives denialists but rather opposition to the real-world implications of those facts.
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Policy 11/07/2011
Posted by rosshunter on November 6, 2011
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Points of discussion: Obama didn’t simply not get around to restoring habeas corpus – this is a policy of his administr…ation. He didn’t fix the economy, not because the republicans wouldn’t let him but because his campaign donors wouldn’t let him. Check his cabinet, compare those people (the enemy) with economists who call bullshit on this economic collapse. Even Krugman shows Obama to be less an accidental disappointment, rather more a politician who was exceptionally gifted on the campaign trail (where did the oratory go now? Answer, he can’t make those promises now in office where he would have to fulfill them).
It goes much deeper than this, to 1 crucial point: that the Democrats historically have acted to co-opt grass-roots movements into themselves, where they go to die, to become placid and toothless. The Dems play the good cop side of a two-headed monster, and we buy into it because the scare of the Repubs is so awful. The reason then that a Democratic majority doesn’t achieve anything is that most of the Dems would rather keep their jobs safely in a minority and not be called to fulfill their legacy platform.
The answer to all this lies in the activism happening at the grass roots and not yet co-opted into the Dem party. The millions of voters in environmental groups are testing Obama right now with the Tar Sands actions – he alone can stop the pipeline, without being able to blame any other forces. So by January 1, expect to see the results of this.
Watch also all the movements happening, from the Occupy actions to the Coffe Party actions, to the November 6 action – on and on great forces are shaping themselves that at any point you and I and others can join with
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If you vote for the Dems because the Repubs are terrible then you’ve been fooled for another four years. I expect plenty of pressure to be applied on me in 2012 to vote Dem, to stave off the Republican alternative – but you know what, most of the people applying that pressure step up to politics once every four years and they think that’s enough. I’m actively involved in politics, starting right here with our city council, every day of every year. Can your commenters here say the same?
The answer to all this is to stop being lazy and voting every few years, and instead to become actively involved in politics all the time – this is the eternal vigilance we were warned was necessary, this is the answer being manifested at the grass roots right now, this is the only solution that exists, and anything less than this is beneath discussion if solution is what we’re discussing.
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We thought the hour had produced the man, and this was a plausible belief but it won’t help this country or this world if we insist blindly on believing in Obama, when a serious study will show that he is not the answer. If we had a hundred… years or two, I believe we could continue to evolve past these current political logjams. But climate change says we have no time at all – so it’s up to us. What matters is, what next?
Gretchen the candidates are not completely visible to me yet but that’s not the real point. The real point is that we can no longer choose from the sorry assortment presented, as if we have no other choice. We have another choice. We will organize into voting blocs and run our own candidates, on platforms of campaign reform, political accountability and climate justice. With a responsive political machinery, actually we don’t need platforms, the right things to do are quite obvious to anyone not vested in the wrong things.
And it doesn’t matter if we get results in 2012 – this can take 10 years if it has to, and whatever authentic shift occurs in 2012 will scare the shit out of the established parties, setting them on the defensive, and forcing them into multiple mistakes. Eventually we win.
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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont shows how powerful a single independent representative can be. We’ll run independents, or whatever the party comes to be called. Consider the forces in play right now.
Bill McKibben will circle the White House with people in November, exactly one year from the election. Van Jones and his group plan to run 2,012 candidates in 2012. Occupy “Everything” is everywhere. The Coffee Party is organizing. Avaaz has ten million petitioners and is now aiming for 20 million. Everyone is mobilizing, and the only way this can come to nothing is if we think we need to give away this power to an established political party, by voting blindly for the Democrats or Obama.
Power comes from organizing. That’s all that’s needed to get power. Power is the one thing you can’t fake, you either have it or you don’t. In politics the vote is one piece of power and when we throw it away on liars we hurt ourselves and the world.
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Finally, for the moment – sorry no links for all the above references, but do listen to Annabel Park for 4.5 minutes explaining what’s actually happening in this country today. As she says, massive engagement is the answer. And it’s what’s happening. We’re making our own hope, our own change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXclZz0RbSk
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Policy 10/21/2011
Posted by rosshunter on October 20, 2011
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Points of discussion: Obama didn’t simply not get around to restoring habeas corpus – this is a policy of his administration. He didn’t fix the economy, not because the republicans wouldn’t let him but because his campaign donors wouldn’t let him. Check his cabinet, compare those people (the enemy) with economists who call bullshit on this economic collapse. Even Krugman shows Obama to be less an accidental disappointment, rather more a politician who was exceptionally gifted on the campaign trail (where did the oratory go now? Answer, he can’t make those promises now in office where he would have to fulfill them).
It goes much deeper than this, to 1 crucial point: that the Democrats historically have acted to co-opt grass-roots movements into themselves, where they go to die, to become placid and toothless. The Dems play the good cop side of a two-headed monster, and we buy into it because the scare of the Repubs is so awful. The reason then that a Democratic majority doesn’t achieve anything is that most of the Dems would rather keep their jobs safely in a minority and not be called to fulfill their legacy platform.
The answer to all this lies in the activism happening at the grass roots and not yet co-opted into the Dem party. The millions of voters in environmental groups are testing Obama right now with the Tar Sands actions – he alone can stop the pipeline, without being able to blame any other forces. So by January 1, expect to see the results of this.
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Watch also all the movements happening, from the Occupy actions to the Coffe Party actions, to the November 6 action – on and on great forces are shaping themselves that at any point you and I and others can join with
If you vote for the Dems because the Repubs are terrible then you’ve been fooled for another four years. I expect plenty of pressure to be applied on me in 2012 to vote Dem, to stave off the Republican alternative – but you know what, most of the people applying that pressure step up to politics once every four years and they think that’s enough. I’m actively involved in politics, starting right here with our city council, every day of every year. Can your commenters here say the same?
The answer to all this is to stop being lazy and voting every few years, and instead to become actively involved in politics all the time – this is the eternal vigilance we were warned was necessary, this is the answer being manifested at the grass roots right now, this is the only solution that exists, and anything less than this is beneath discussion if solution is what we’re discussing.
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Policy 10/13/2011
Posted by rosshunter on October 12, 2011
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Ross Hunter I truly think everyone has always known this, for centuries and millennia .. and if there were time remaining for a future it would be wise enough in our lifetimes to say nothing can be done to change this. But we are in a time where we have to stop this pattern or lose the entire world .. we have gone along with this exploitation forever, until now…
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Policy 10/11/2011
Posted by rosshunter on October 10, 2011
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Ross Hunter interesting point about fudging – the one thing you can’t fake is power. Everything else is posture. So what matters if they shift the perception of reality, if we in fact outnumber them then we can win, if not, then not.about an hour ago · ·
1 personAshish Java likes this. -
Ross Hunter and power comes from organizing, of course…
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”Critics are quite cross that Occupy Wall Street activists haven’t already come up with a tidy set of demands for change. They’re missing the point. Politics where people draw up a numbered list of requests for someone else to implement, please sir, plainly doesn’t work anymore. The people want to be included at the decision-making table; shockingly enough, they’re demanding to actively participate in their democracy.” BRAVO!!
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Ross Hunter”please sir” – Mary you nailed exactly what nobody cares to say, ever again…this is the huge paradigm shift.
And to Nicholas, with respect, as for electing Democrats: it speaks of electoral maturity – finally – that we are not trying to… elect the same old people who are happiest with second place under the old paradigm, who secretly prefer to lose, in the end, and after token opposition.
We see instead that we need our own representatives, held to new commitments, under new paradigms still being articulated, but none the less real for that.
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Actually the results are already becoming manifest, in the media responses to the action. The mainstream media was forced to look at this action after a week or two of deliberate ignorance – they were out-stared by persistence over time. Th…e situation has opened up for commentators to acknowledge.
But it’s very early – don’t look to congressional action at this stage. You can’t look at this as a power equation in its visible identity at this hour, you have to see the iceberg below the tip.
And you have to see how this one tip has activated all the other icebergs. The environmentalists (who number in the millions of voters) have crossed over and announced solidarity. Likewise the labor movement.
The true, inspiring message of this action is that it shows no sign of being short-lived, or of losing energy, or of fading away. Give it time, my friend, and the watched pot will eventually boil.
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Policy 10/01/2011
Posted by rosshunter on September 30, 2011
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Weighing the Cost, Building Resistance | Truthout
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The notion that the nation can be made safe by trawling through databases in search of “suspicious patterns” was vigorously debunked by an exhaustive multi-year study carried out by the National Research Council, published in October 2008. The report says that finding terrorists through data mining “is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable” and that it will result in “ordinary law abiding citizens and businesses” being wrongly treated as suspects.
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On December 25, 2009, it was the action of passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 – and a faulty explosive – that disrupted Abdulmutallab’s effort to blow up the plane, just as it was the action of passengers – and a faulty fuse – that kept the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid from bringing down American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001. In the only other known terrorist plot (as opposed to FBI sting) that was foiled in the process of being carried out, street vendors – and not the multitude of surveillance cameras – alerted police to the smoking van in New York’s Times Square on May 1, 2010.
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Policy 09/06/2011
Posted by rosshunter on September 5, 2011
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Ross HunterIt will always remain a brave thing that you did. Perhaps you don’t see what the outsiders in the environmental movements are seeing from this, because you’ve been inside it. But think of this as an early sample of the multitude of actions …and steps that will break out around the world and across the country, and come to saturate the politics of our time.
It’s certainly not the powder keg, it may not even be a blasting cap, it’s perhaps no more than a basic chemistry class showing that powder burns. Don’t look for results from this today, but look towards 2012. It’s odd that you have such ambivalence about this action when you yourself donated so much character and strength and engagement to it. All honor to you for showing up and taking it on. This is the real lesson you’ve taught here.
Much respect and gratitude.
See Moreabout an hour ago · -
Gail Zawacki Thanks Ross! I confess I am confused. I honestly don’t know what tack to take, or the best action going forward – I only know that so far if we continue unimpeded, we are headed towards oblivion.55 minutes ago · -
Ross Hunter I can’t remember now who said it – the question was, what’s the solution to climate change? And the answer is, everything. We throw everything we have at it.
So you are doing more than your part with your great act of bearing witness to the dying trees. You have no idea how you inspire us do you?
Just keep rooting for everyone and every thing. Read “Blessed Unrest” by Paul Hawken to see how we are all playing our parts. We are all called into service in our way. The patient may die. We ourselves may never live to see the result. Doesn’t matter. We do what we can and what we must.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzMPUKAXM7U
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Policy 09/01/2011
Posted by rosshunter on August 31, 2011
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Ross HunterJen I’m very much with you but I have to say I hate this hostage situation every four years of having to vote Democrat because it’s better than Republican – this is a rigged game.
If Obama doesn’t stop the Keystone pipeline then all the env…ironmental movements will begin finally to think the unthinkable and abandon the Democrats. We need our own candidates. We need our own politics. We have 10-20 years to do this and we won’t get started until we get started.
Let Obama go – I’d rather have habeas corpus. And if we have an evil Republican in office this is not the end of political engagement – we have to break this fixation on one voting day out of every four years – and become engaged in political action 24/7. It’s the only way we deserve the America bequeathed to us – under terms, as I recall, of eternal vigilance.
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Policy 07/08/2011
Posted by rosshunter on July 7, 2011
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5 people like this.
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Ross Huntersince you bring the subject up – I’ll vote for anyone who will restore habeas corpus, and that doesn’t seem to be Obama. His being less evil than the others doesn’t make him good enough for the heroic times we live in … in other words, th…e obvious choices don’t work – we have to create better than Obama, that’s our true task. We have to aim for better, and if we fail we have to know that voting for the same old was already a guarantee of failure anyway.
And I have to practice this concept before 2012 – didn’t expect it to arise so early. But we will discuss this again, many times yet…
See More17 seconds ago ·
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Policy 07/05/2011
Posted by rosshunter on July 4, 2011
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Climate Change and how to move forward
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Ross Hunter beyond all other considerations, climate change for sure. But I’m persuaded (by Paul Hawken’s concepts) that social justice and indigenous rights form a crucial component of same. And there are some nuances from seeing how we’ve drifted past tipping points unable to pull back – this shows our society’s architecture is at least corrupt and perhaps even wrong in its original design. So I’m greatly interested in sustainable economics and accountable politics as the necessary tools both to “recover” and to “rebuild” with whatever survives the crisis.
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Policy 05/24/2011
Posted by rosshunter on May 23, 2011
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The People vs. Goldman Sachs | Rolling Stone Politics
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Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn’t leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.
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Policy 04/30/2011
Posted by rosshunter on April 29, 2011
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Ross HunterI kind of think the premise and the frame go together. I’ve been waiting for somebody to say this, and I’m glad it’s McKibben. We have to make a new politics. I think Obama is the very best the old politics could produce, and he’s not adequ…ate – but it took time to see this.
To make headway in this battle we are going to have to elect our own candidates, in a new scheme of accountability that survives the corruption of office. Democrats from the old school (which is precisely what Obama is) will not save this situation – WE must create a new politics. And that task will either succeed or fail, but no one from the old system will help.
The thought is that not even the very worst could hinder us much more badly than the very best could fail to help us – or at least the difference is not strategically decisive, compared with the scale of what we have to create. And if we fail to create this new thing it’s all over…
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Policy 04/17/2011
Posted by rosshunter on April 16, 2011
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I’ve been pondering criminality lately, because so much of what we see in the system seems criminal. When I think of criminal activity I find the archetypal thing that doesn’t care about consequences to society. Crime is the original externalizer of costs. I think it’s time to start calling crime crime – that’s what we’re seeing in the refusal to care about the rest of society and just take what you want.
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Policy 02/25/2011
Posted by rosshunter on February 24, 2011
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this is a good view of how the U.S. mis-stepped with regard to Egypt and how – ironically – Obama’s move to conciliation and accommodation after Bush’s excesses led us to be silent instead of disapproving of dictators. Led us to side “with regimes and against peoples.”
US caught out by Egypt’s fight for democracy | The Australian
www.theaustralian.com.au
THE contours and consequences of the uprising in Egypt are still unclear. The politics of the revolt are murky, and the role and aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood unknown. The army may decide, with the government seriously wounded and robbed of any semblance of legitimacy, to do more than bring -
”I will die today…” A brief window into the struggle that has erupted across Egypt, a nation of 80 million people. Surely the Internet has been silenced there to hide the shame of the government as it falls, back to the people?
The Most AMAZING video on the internet #Egypt #jan25
www.youtube.com
Credits to Tamer Shaaban who made this video Important message to youtube and people who flag this video : If it gets flagged or removed , it will be uploaded 10 more times -
here’s a quick, hip primer on Egypt and the scale of what is happening there
Egypt: A Nation Forced Offline (January 25th, 2011 Protests)
www.youtube.com
For the first time in history, a government has shut down all national Internet and cellular access. Written by: Brittany Darwell (http://www.brittanydarwell.com/) Animation and Music by: Michael Marantz (http://www.michaelmarantz.com/) Watch live coverage here: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_n -
well, this is 23 minutes long – so you may never watch it. But I’ve said before I wish we in America could get the character & the backbone that the people in Egypt are showing. And our time is coming. But this is their story, and it’s the true story behind the current riots, if you want to know.
Egypt’s Facebook Face Off – Egypt
www.youtube.com
July 2008 For over 27 years President Mubarak has ruled with an iron fist. With protests and strikes forbidden, activists are finding new ways to fight for democracy. Through Facebook, protestors can now find a voice. -
”Social Security is a solemn promise that has been honored for decades and that reflects the investment into an insurance program over a lifetime of hard work” – Whitehouse
“For people to come forward and say Social Security is collapsing and we have to cut benefits tomorrow – is totally untrue. We will not let it happen.” – Sanders
Sanders Convenes Social Security Caucus
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Welfare for the rich and the elected. In case you wonder where most of the money goes – “According to 11 years’ worth of Environmental Working Group data that tracks $200 billion in subsidies, the wealthiest 10 percent of “farmers” have collected 75 percent of the money.”
Teabagger Queen Michele Bachmann Cashed In On $250,000 In Welfare – By Yasha Levine – The eXiled
exiledonline.com
Michele Bachmann has become known as the Queen of the anti-government Tea Baggers, protesting health care reform and slamming every other government handout as “socialism.” But what her followers don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is also a queen of another kind—a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti -
Rather than hope to come together and love each other because our President requests it, let’s fix the systemic rot: re-enact the Fairness Doctrine and restore the balance of the airwaves – a public trust belonging to the people, thus subject to our regulation.
David Morris: How America lost control of its airwaves | StarTribune.com
www.startribune.com
At the dawn of the broadcasting era, the airwaves belonged to the public..broadcasters were “public trustees.” The FCC made clear there was no room for “propaganda stations.” -
This is good perspective on the history of hate talk since the sixties – funded then, as now, by billionaires.
The History of Right Wing Hate Talk
www.youtube.com
Conservative hate talkers are not a new phenomena, and as Mike Papantonio points out on The Ed Schultz Show, hateful and violent rhetoric from the right existed back in the days of JFK, and many believe that this is what led to his assassination. -
Sharing this around if you haven’t seen it. Basic call for better messaging from progressives (ANY messaging would be a nice change) – ways to dominate the frame of reference by creating new memes…
Storytelling as Organizing: How to Rescue the Left From Its Crisis of Imagination
www.truth-out.org
In an editorial in In These Times’ November 2009 issue, reflecting on the right’s success at re-framing the healthcare reform debate in its favor, Kevin O’Donnell wrote, “When it comes to messaging, Republicans believe in science. Democrats don’t.” To their detriment, “Democrats cling to the idea, d… -
we’ve seen a master orator in the White House lose control of the messaging. Why? Because eloquence and even reasoning are not crucial – although truth is. Dominating the frame of reference is the task of marketing and messaging – nothing sinister or manipulative. The right only succeeds at “manipulation” because there is no skilled counter.
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somehow there’s a message for us in this beautiful story. In Egypt bombers divide Copts and Muslims by massacring Copts. Thousands of Muslims, including the President’s sons, then form a human shield around Copts, saying “we will live together or die together.” If only we could muster the character of the Egyptians
ThinkProgress » Thousands Of Egyptian Muslims Show Up As ‘Human Shields’ To Defend Coptic C
thinkprogress.org
On New Year’s Day, a devastating terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt killed 21 people and injured 79 others. Although the identity of the culprits was not known, it was assumed that they were Muslim extremists, intent on targeting those they saw as heretics. Religious tensions immediately -
The ironies in what she said back then, trying to be fair and balanced. It brings it home to me how over the line the tea party, fox news, and the republican scum really have been, how they’ve pushed the lines way across good taste, and now safety. I have no doubt they stand responsible.
Rep. Giffords target of harassment, threats
www.msnbc.msn.com
March 25, 2010: Reports of death threats, vandalism and harassment have Democrats on edge as they’re preparing to head home for their spring recess. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is one of the Democratic leaders targeted, discusses.
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Policy 02/06/2011
Posted by rosshunter on February 5, 2011
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Ross HunterI watched part 2 – love Noam, he seems to remember everything, names places dates. Puts it all together and of course it’s just true. He said a dozen times, “doesn’t matter if they’re seething with hatred, as long as the populace is quiet, …everything’s fine.” And as Egypt shows, when the populace ceases to be quiet, and starts to name the evil, starts to call out the owners, starts to agitate for a place at the table – then suddenly it’s not fine, and a response of some kind is called for. And the people might even win
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Policy 02/05/2011
Posted by rosshunter on February 4, 2011
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Cathy Orlando’s Photos – Wall Photos
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Jen PodvinI know how you feel Cathy; the climate denial movement is spreading like a virus: I’m so tired of talking to these people on line. It’s funny that you’ll think someone is completely reasonable but then when you bring up GW..oh well I don’y …believe in THAT!
Just know you’re not the only one; you are part of a huge movement of people who understand the danger we in, you are on the side of science and reason, you are on the right side of history. Power to the people.See Moreabout an hour ago · ·
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Jon C. HopwoodIt’s not just climate change that people are in denial of. Western people. American people are in denial of the true cost of two wars (including the lack of taxes on fossil fuels to show the costs of maintaining those foreign supplies), low… taxes on the rich (whom loot the economy and are handsomely rewarded for it as they control the political machinery), an eroding economy, the lack of any return in savings as Washington positions most American as debtors and consumers of foreign goods, etc. Orwell’s “1984″ came amidst (the illusion of) plenty, not in a bleak, impoverished, bankrupt post-WWII Britain.
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Jen PodvinAgreed Jon. Times are bleak in America. I think of leaving sometimes but then i live in the San Fran Bay area which is better than many places in this country. But CA economy is still in pretty bad shape and the cost of living is high here,… but at least I can talk to my neighbors and people in my community.
Let us stay vigilant and aware of 1984 tactics of logic twisting. I have a feeling we will be challenged on many issues in the next two years–issues we thought we had already covered like censorship, and a woman’s right to choose. Nothing surprises me in this land of corruption and ignorance any more.See Moreabout an hour ago · · 1 personYou like this. -
Ross HunterDuring the Bush years I thought seriously about moving to Europe. I had originally come here from England as a young man. But I decided that I would stay here to help – because the American people possess a strange kind of helplessness in t…heir ignorance.I too am appalled at what this land has become. But there is just this slender possibility that if we strive we can create a softer landing for the world as it collapses. I say often that the way forward lies beyond hope and despair, and is simply duty.
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Policy 01/14/2011
Posted by rosshunter on January 13, 2011
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For example, the Cato Institute, founded and financed by the Koch brothers, submitted a brief that called for “unfettered” corporate “speech” and the Institute for Justice, founded and financed by David’s brother Charles, submitted a brief claiming that campaign finance laws prohibiting unlimited corporate money “trump the First Amendment.” Koch-funded groups later lobbied aggressively to oppose efforts to provide transparency for the new tidal wave of corporate spending.
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As long as states continue to write unfettered corporate charters, corporations will be free to do as they please. Simple language in state laws requiring corporate spending to only be for uses stated in the charter application would make Citizens United moot.
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Policy 01/11/2011
Posted by rosshunter on January 10, 2011
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Dave B Beni It surprises me how Michele Bachmann can say: “I want people armed and dangerous!” over political issues, and then she acts all shocked when people show up, well, armed and dangerous.
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Leigh Horne There have been too many such “sad days” in my lifetime. This is not an isolated incident; I fear it’s a trend.12 hours ago · ·
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Rene Dussault From Sarah Palin’s cross-haired targets of political rivals on her website, to Rand Paul’s campaign manager stomping a woman who dared to protest Paul’s policies at his rally, to the consistent lies of the tea-party leader Michele Bachman to the shooting of a Democrat in AZ. who supported Obama’s Healthcare, a jack-boot, thuggish mentality is emerging on the political right. It is time to take America back, not from the government but from the extremist.
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Jeane Wolfe this has everything to do with mental illness my friends, do some research on this vast topic and you will begin to understand why consistently and publicly inciting violence is indeed an act of the criminal preying on the feeble
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George DeVinney This is no different than when people were targeting Abortion Doctors. After each assassination they would sanctimoniously say “we aren’t responsible for this”. I say yes, you were however indirectly the blood is on your hands.
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Taliesin Cochran Don’t let this opportunity to oppose hate rhetoric of the right go to waste. We owe it to the dead to fight against those who hint at violence only to wash their hands of it when it happens.
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Carole Tangney Sheehy So when do we start holding these ultra-right-wingers to the ‘shouting FIRE in a crowded theater’ standard in terms of their ‘free speech’? Elections – and words – have consequences. Their incendiary words were, if not specifically designed (which could be argued), then at the very least, could reasonably be expected to result in disastrous consequences like today’s horrific events. It’s high time to hold them accountable for the predictable repercussions of their extremist words & deeds.
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Nick Ruark Tragic and sad, indeed. Perhaps now Americans will begin to recognize the power of words and suggestions made by the likes of Palin, Limbaugh, Beck and others when such words and suggestions are taken out of context and designed to extract the very type of extream violence witnessed today. May the Lord God have mercy on our country.
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Stefnie Hawley If a Muslim had posted that map with guns of the states and a list of officials they would be in jail and held for questioning on terrorist activity. Sarah Palin needs to be detained and questioned. isnt this why we have these laws?
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Shaun Fletcher We need to become more aware of the terrorists among us: the extreme rhetoric, tragic lack of education, and legal trafficking of arms that fuels them.
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Dolores Ann CovingtonI have been complaining for two years about Sarah Palin and her violent rhetoric. During the ’08 campaign, she whipped the crowds into such a frenzy people were shouting ‘kill Obama!’ Did she tell them to stop? NO! The ‘Don’t retreat, reloa…d’ was just another example of her penchant for violent words. At that time, I posted lots of times complaining, never got ANY responses supporting my outrage. I said then and I say today…WORDS MATTER, WORDS CREATE STRONG EMOTIONAL RESPONSES, WORDS HAVE RESULTS, SOME OF THEM TRAGIC! And I don’t know where to begin about those evil men Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Shame on them all!
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Dave B Beni Giffords: I think it’s important for a lot of leaders, not just Republican leaders … to say look, we cant stand for this. We need to realize that the rhetoric, and the firing people up and … for example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s “targeted” list, but the thing is, the way she has it depicted, we’re in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve gotta realize that there are consequences to that action.
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Kirsten Burgard When does the spewing of hate speech from journalists, talking heads and an entire network qualify for more than just hand wringing? From the shooting in TN at a church, to the killing of Pittsburgh cops to this, when is it going to stop?
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Cassie Powers Bernie, I’m sorry, but I”m losing faith in America and our people. I’ve been depressed for the past few hours and I could not quite put my finger on it, but for a while now, I just hate where America is going. I CAN just see the fall-out on this., The hatewing blowhards are going to blame the hate on those who speak out against it on the radio and TV… Lets not let them get away with it.
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Ted Asher When they ask, “is this what you meant by ’2nd amendment remedies’,” or “is this what you meant by ‘putting targets on their backs’,” what will the answers be? “We didn’t mean it literally,” they will say as they wipe the blood from their hands.
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Octavio Narvaez I hope Sarah Palin and Mr. Beck take a good look in the mirror and reflect on what happened in Arizona today !!!! Stop fueling the fire with your Hate Talk. !!!!!!! I for sure, hold both of you partly responsible for what happened in Arizona today !!!!
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William RossVermonter, I’m a sixties radical. I never killed anyone. Our cause was just, as history has shown. If we would have gotten the upper hand earlier on, tens of thousands of Americans would have been saved, billions of dollars would have not b…een wasted, a million innocent civilians would not have died. What is wrong with you? As for the radicals in the White House, please. The Administration is center right corporatists. Radical my ass. The only radicals anymore are on the Right. They are leaches on our society. Taking all they can and leaving havoc in their paths. Socializing their loses and capitalizing their profit.
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Ross Hunter Look, we of the middle ground know we can’t fight back with violence – but we can fight back with anger. Fox and the Palin and the Tea Party and the Republicans have poured filth into the public discourse deliberately for years. I call them on this. We should have shouted down this trash talk long ago, and now is the time to catch up.
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Robert Craig Baum It’s classic bait and switch brown shirt rhetoric. Blame the jewish shop owners before Reichskristallnacht and then stomp heads, break windows, burn the motha down. 18mths of Koch family sponsored political advertisements and direct action (rallies, speeches, lobbying, etc.) have resulted in a climate ripe for this kind of violence. And here we are. Now what?Yesterday at 8:07pm · · 8 peopleLoading… ·
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Robert Craig Baum I’m not convinced that it’s time for MLKing tactics or X’s approach. It’s time to understand the power of BOTH — seeking direct action through peaceful means knowing that if push comes to show, we will defend this great nation from fascist threats from within. Clearly, the Tea Party and Republicans who support them know EXACTLY what they are doing. What they don’t know are the statistics of vermont progressives who ALSO support the second amendment.
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Matt Chassinsara palin should be arrested as an accomplist. Giffords was one of the congresspeople she had in her “sights.” So is congressman Sanders.
And the pro gun nuts on the right are already saying that we on the left are making an issue out of t…heir craziness… -
Douglas McintyreArrest our own ‘Aussie reject’, RUPERT MURDOCH, and incarcerate him in Guantanamo on ‘suspected’ TERRORIST activities – charge FoxNews with ‘encouraging internal terrorism’ and ‘unethical journalism’ in an attempt to force it to actually be…‘FAIR AND BALANCED’ and if people don’t tune-in to ‘hate-mongers’ like Bill O’Reilly they will very quickly be ‘off-air’. The danger is that many actually believe the ‘b***sh**’ that these “extreme fundamentalists’ peddle.
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Mark Rupert America should be better than this, the question is: can we get there from here? Or will we continue on the path toward a wasteland of public squalor populated by increasingly desperate and heavily armed people?
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Ivo Skoric Well, hopefully, America will show to be better than that. Weimar Germany succumbed to this kind of political violence and pressure, with horrible consequences.
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Sharon Batson Sen. Sanders, you have hit the nail on the proverbial head! Those who rail against the government can act as provocateurs for the unstable. The tragic result was seen today in Arizona.
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Will Roth I am stunned, but I`ve wondered when something like this was going to happen with all the crazy Tea Partiers out ther
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Jon Kilburn@$ Bub Cole $@y$ – “Anyone who commits this kind of act is suffering from mental illness. To lay blame on rhetoric, politics and worst of all specific figures, only serves to further divide us.”
How much further can we be divided ??? Nut…s want to kill us because we don’t agree with them – we just ain’t ‘Christian’ enough for their taste. I say that the ‘specific figures’ that incite this should be held accountable. Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, all the other ‘wing nuts’ and the Fox ‘News’ organization, starting at the top with the owner/CEO. Only I suggest that the Law handle their prosecution, not individuals with guns.
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Pamela Hampton Why haven’t Palin, Beckkk and the others been taken into custody for their calls to violence?
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Willy Hersman Since Fox News sponsors lies, hate, venom and acts of violence, their license to broadcast should be revoked, as we would do to any other terrorist organization.
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Yvette Wechsler Sedlewicz The hate mongers such as Glenn Beck need to be put out of business…the business of making money by spewing hate.
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Carol Imper I am trying so hard not to be angry and reactionary right now. However, anyone who calls themselves a member of the “Tea Party” should be held accountable by anyone who knows them, for their nasty signs and political outbursts during the past year. Those people are responsible for what happened today. This is not the America I grew up in. What has happened to us?
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Psyched ForumAdmin Its time for all of our Gov. Representatives, on both sides of the isle, to begin to openly condemn the hate rhetoric we have been subjected to over the past couple of years. Not until those in power begin to speak with full awareness of how their words will be digested by others will we begin to heal as a Country from all the hate.
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Angela Gipson This is a sad day for America and a sad commentary on political rhetoric and extremism gone too far. Sad but not surprising given what we’ve seen over the last two years. When is enough, enough?
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Dennis Gullion Better buckle your seatbelts…the right wing believes in violence.
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Ulrike Ch BergerWhat outrages me, is that any highschooler who would have published a “target map” with gun crosshair and names on it, would have been expelled from school immediately and interviewed by police. But the right-wing extremists here in this c…ountry do this, and they can’t find anything wrong with it. Now, the map has been quietly removed from Sarah Palin’s PAC website. Too late because we’ve all seen it and copied it. Instead, if she really means it, Ms Palin would need to come forward, apologize and take due responsibility for inciting such horrible, senseless violence. She who claims to be the uber-patriot, uses tools and propaganda like the worst Pakistani warlords.
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Alicia Perez-Gonzalez I am sad to say it, but – will have to agree with some of the previous commenters. When, as a nation, we allow people such as Palin, Bachmann, Beck and the like, to have positions of power, notoriety and influence, without anyone calling them on their hatred and stupidity, well…I think it proves that no, we are NOT better than that! The realization is crude, but true, nonetheless.
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Tara Crowley RinaldiDave, I see outrage and upset, and a little bit of hate. What people are saying here is, that young man does not live in a vacuum, and they have been aware for a long while that hate speech that passes for journalism in this country is one… contributing factor. We all need to take a good look in the mirror, including you Dave, if you can’t fathom the environment that may have very well inspired this man to act.
Maybe not. But isn’t this a good opportunity for all of us to ‘check’ ourselves before spewing violent rhetoric? -
Nemesio Mike CabanIt’s a shame that we “the people” have short memories. When Clinton was President there were a number of radio and TV right-wing personalities spewing the same violent and hateful rhetoric about our government, and then Oklahoma City happe…ned. Within a week after Oklahoma City – Rush Limbaugh was suddenly taken off our local TV station. I wonder why? Incitement has consequences. No hate here, just historical fact. People in power have a responsibility to curb their rhetoric, and if not – they need to know that they will be held responsible for what they say, when something like this happens.
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Janice D’AgostinoMichael, please re-read the posts and stop reacting to what you see as personal assaults upon your politics. If you at any time said re-load, shoot, cross-hairs, take back “our” country, then yes, you may have inspired violence in the men..….tally unstable. That is what happened today. Take it back a notch and accept that rhetoric played a part, please. One only needs to look at the posts on this young man’s social pages to see that he was Fox News and Tea all the way. Here’s one sampling: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/08/arizona.shootings.suspect.social/index.html?hpt=T1
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George Andrew Westover Look across the aisle for the accomplices…the Right has been stiring up the crazies to get votes and now the chickens are coming home to roost. Sarah, Glen, Rush and the Republicans are guilty even if they do not get charged in a court of law.
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Ben Bosley This is an example of how Jesse Kelly’s hate talk radicalizes the Arizonan Right
http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/06/jesse-kelly-event-is-this-wording-intentional.html
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Cherylann Brown APPLIES TO THE TEA PARTY, HIGHLIGHTS THE DANGER…
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Voltaire
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the attack on Congresswoman Giffords
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Amy BraunsteinFOXNEWS and the Tea Party bigots have consistently used violent language, bordering on incitement to violence and have told outright lies about their political opponents beliefs and motives. This is not the first event a tea party bigot has… brought a weapon to. To ignore that connection is to invite more violent attacks against the political opponents of the tea party and far right.
I believe in universal healthcare, is there a bullet out there with my name on it? WAKE UP America! Dont let the far right squirm away from their language of violence fear and lies -
Ross Hunter Larry it turns out you may be the troll here. The civilized middle ground is where the people you think of as liberals have been trying to talk with conservatives. Where were you with your indignation when the conservative organs turned the discourse foul with people like Beck and Reilly and the documented stream of actual lies from Fox? Where were you? Point to your footprint and show that you’ve opposed Palin and the gunsight innuendos. Show it.
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Gale Buchanan Fisher Apparently Larry does not even know what a troll is! Again, I ask what acts can you cite that the “left wing fringe” have committed. Still waiting for an answer. “Fringe of BOTH parties”, I think not. The words ” left wing fringe” does not even make sense.
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Ross Hunter Larry well stand with us now and bear witness to the lies and filth that have come from Beck and Reilly and Palin and many, many Republicans and the inciters of the Tea Party anger – all of which has pointed to attacking and intimidating those who support the rule of law and the notion of the commons which was the civilized platform on which this Republic rested.
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Ross HunterAnd Larry, talk and guns are not two different things when the talk is of guns. That’s like saying “just kidding” – don’t you hate people who say that?
I fully support our right to bear arms.
But TALK is the first violence and who lies to me …harms me and I don’t forget.
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Gale Buchanan FisherFurther Larry, why are you even a friend on a liberal senator’s fb page? All your comments are inflammatory. Every time the Senator makes a comment on his achievements or lets his supporters know what is going on in Washinton you have nega…tive comments.
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Ross Hunter Thanks Gale, I’m new here so I didn’t know Larry had a history. So he’s part of the problem. We should have shouted these people down, but we were busy being reasonable. We’ve been too reasonable. I think justice obligates us to speak up. We can call for compassion and equality, but we can also manifest wrathful energy to send the sociopath corporations and their dupes back to the corner.
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Ross Hunter Larry missed the point again – talk has an effect. Inflammatory talk actually IS illegal. Incitement is done through words usually. Anyway, sorry for encouraging him.
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Ross HunterI want to say that in my comments here I haven’t been addressing this grievous action, or the shooter, or the dead and wounded. All along I was talking about something else, which is the climate of polarization and animosity in our public d…iscourse.
I find that many people are talking in threads across the nation about this second thing rather than the shooting event itself. We come to realize we’ve felt somewhat helpless to prevent or counter the lies and hatreds propagated largely by people paid to do so by people with a vested interest in crippling public debate.
So that’s what I’m talking about, with all those who care to be civil and at the same time sad for America, this nation that we’re losing to corporate greed and closed hearts. We may have one chance to rebuild a nation that cares about truth. And perhaps that struggle started yesterday.
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Ross Hunter sharing – because this is a nuanced situation. It’s important to understand that the Koch’s are not really libertarians – they’re vampires drinking deeply at every exposed vein. They use every philosophy to exploit its adherents.
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Policy 01/05/2011
Posted by rosshunter on January 4, 2011
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yes he was a fighter. The real tragedy is the one paragraph in the NYT that says Grayson believes the Dems lost votes because they weren’t being Dem enough. The next para reveals that NYT believes they lost for being TOO Dem. We know better, but what a tragic mis-reading Obama, Emanuel and all the politicians have made. This election wasn’t a swing to the right, but they all believe it was. How sad, how pitiful.
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Policy 05/15/2010
Posted by rosshunter on May 14, 2010
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y’know, ALL the economists have embraced the notion of limits to growth at the limits of natural resources.
I think that the only future left to us – if any future is left to us – is steady-state economics: sustainable enterprises working in stable cycles unto the nth generation without impacting the planet other than by growing its natural resources.
5 minutes ago ·
Ross HunterSo I’m opting for a green party. Any political platform that fails to include sustainability at its bedrock, and as the dynamic engine of its planks, is failing the needs of this time, in my opinion.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Policy 04/04/2010
Posted by rosshunter on April 3, 2010
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well Sebastian I didn’t expect to be writing in support of you when you started but you made your case well. I like your picture of the Dems being the representatives of the liberal wing of the ruling class.
Those who prefer a more American mainstream observation might try William Greider explaining how the Democrats are bought and sold right now (3.5 minutes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU8Z-Olvv30
… See More
it flows more from the simple corruption of money than from a cultural mindset I believe – not quite the imperial view inside the country as it appears to the world outside where the rubber bullets meet the road.Sebastian I agree the best thing we could do would be to change the party system. This is possible, and people are discussing it. Imagine multiple parties and the Australian system where you vote for your first choice and then your 2nd and 3rd, so you don’t waste a vote, say, by voting Green – if Green loses your vote rolls over to your next choice, say Dems.
It’s called alternative voting. I’m not big on Tom Friedman but he explains it well in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/opinion/24friedman.html
he also mentions redistricting, and I would mention campaign finance reform, which is actually a bill in the works.All this is possible, and will combat the actions that give rise to the appearance of imperialism. We can change America, and help the world.
Beyond this, we need economic changes, which we can best begin perhaps with Slow Money and Local Economies.
Sorry I can’t get links to all this right now, gotta go – but the message is, nothing is over, everything is doable.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Policy 03/29/2010
Posted by rosshunter on March 28, 2010
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More on Frum – Swampland – TIME.com
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The survival of the GOP is in no way beneficial to democracy in the USA. It isn’t that they’re a party with no ideas, it’s that they’re a party with ideas that are so unpopular they aren’t willing to be open about what they are. The entire GOP narrative as told on Fox News is fiction, and fiction masquerading as news is not something democracy needs.
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There’s no equivalency to be drawn here. The left isn’t as manipulative and deceitful as the right. Hippies aren’t as ignorant and malicious as teabaggers. Policies promoted by progressives wouldn’t universally be improved if they had to make concessions to Rupert Murdoch. And in regards to the main point of your post, if the GOP were to finally lose all credibility and vanish, you wouldn’t have single party rule, that vacuum would be filled pretty quickly, and almost certainly by something with a more cohesive and rational point of view than the modern GOP.
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Perhaps the Green party would emerge as a labor/consumer counterweight to the Democrats, who are more than willing to continue representing business interests as they do now. Maybe the Libertarians would emerge as advocates for an actual return to a state-centric union (as opposed to the GOP’s occasional lip service to that perfectly valid notion). Democracy requires debate, but that doesn’t mean all debaters are valuable or productive. I could find plenty of people to disagree with in a world without Glenn Beck or Newt Gingrich.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Policy 03/26/2010
Posted by rosshunter on March 25, 2010
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The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.
So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished.
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The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.
So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.
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Op-Ed Columnist – A Tea Party Without Nuts – NYTimes.com
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How best to promote these hybrid ideas? Break the oligopoly of our two-party system. Diamond suggests two innovations. First, let every state emulate California’s recent grass-roots initiative that took away the power to design state electoral districts from the state legislature and put it in the hands of an independent, politically neutral, Citizens Redistricting Commission. It will go to work after the 2010 census and reshape California’s state legislative districts for the coming elections. Henceforth, districts in California will not be designed to be automatically Democratic or Republican — so more of them will be competitive, so more candidates will only be electable if they appeal to the center, not just cater to one party. (There is a movement pressing for the same independent commission to be given the power to redraw Congressional districts.)
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Second, get states to adopt “alternative voting.” One reason independent, third-party, centrist candidates can’t get elected is because if, in a three-person race, a Democrat votes for an independent, and the independent loses, the Democrat fears his vote will have actually helped the Republican win, or vice versa. Alternative voting allows you to rank the independent candidate your No. 1 choice, and the Democrat or Republican No. 2. Therefore, if the independent does not win, your vote is immediately transferred to your second choice, say, the Democrat. Therefore, you have no fear that in voting for an independent you might help elect your real nightmare — the Republican. Nothing has held back the growth of independent, centrist candidates more, said Diamond, “than the fear that if you vote for one of them you will be wasting your vote. Alternative voting, which Australia has, can overcome that.”
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Policy 03/18/2010
Posted by rosshunter on March 17, 2010
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Murdoch has been a known pig since his Fleet Street days when I was a teenager – a long time ago. Back then being a pig involved sex and scandal, now it involves oligarchic conservatism and climate-change denial.
Denial of truth is just the mechanism. We who look to the truth for benchmarks along our way always tend to think the deniers are actually against the principles or facts we’re processing. In fact, they don’t even consider these facts in the same way.
It’s just a mechanical thing, they see facts just clearly enough to obfuscate them. Their purpose is to score. Only to score. Bill Clinton said this once in his early days of being attacked by the opposition.
At the higher levels of this scoring activity, points are redeemed for money. At the lower levels, points are shown to be empty promises, the players merely dupes. Why pay for your downstream if you can get it for free?
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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