Friday, August 19, 2011

World of [Class] Warfare

This is awesome... but at the same time it made me want to throw up. The Tea Party Media are reprehensible, disgusting, heartless monsters. Watch and see what I mean:


A couple more links relevant to the above video for background and further information:

Friday, August 12, 2011

A few articles pertinent to the current economy

Paul Krugman - some key points:

  • "what we’re seeing now is what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it"

  • "When you’re bleeding profusely from an open wound, you want a doctor who binds that wound up, not a doctor who lectures you on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as you get older. When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability."

  • "What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending for the time being — with mass unemployment and incredibly low borrowing costs, we should be rebuilding our schools, our roads, our water systems and more."

My thoughts on this: This is one of the reasons I voted for Obama - he talked about *investing* instead of cutting. Rebuilding instead of tearing down. What happened to that guy?

  • "The usual suspects will, of course, denounce such ideas as irresponsible. But you know what’s really irresponsible? Hijacking the debate over a crisis to push for the same things you were advocating before the crisis, and letting the economy continue to bleed."
Patrick Smith of the Fiscal Times agrees with Krugman:
  • "In no case have ideology and faith proven substitutes for good, detached economic and social thinking. And this time—check the videos and news photos from Britain—we are playing with fire."

My thoughts: I believe the London riots are disgraceful opportunistic violence - people stealing things they wanted - that distortion of the dream to mere desire for money. And the violence and looting and burning are inexcusable. But at its roots, not an excuse, but an attempt to understand what happened, at its roots is that disparity between the haves and have nots. And by haves and have nots, I'm not just referring to money - also education, status, opportunity, purpose. The simmering resentment reached a flashpoint, and it could happen here, too. I'm not saying we should be afraid, but we should be aware of the harm, real harm, we are causing others by the cuts we are making. We should consider who the various measures will hurt, and try to hurt the fewest people, the least amount. There are far more poor than rich, and cuts hurt them far more than raising taxes would the rich. The least harm to the fewest people would be to raise taxes.

And while we are on the subject - let's make corporations pay their taxes - if they are "people, too" as Mitt Romney affirms, they need to pay up! Yes, we have one of the highest tax rates on corporations in the developed world, so lets reduce our corporate tax rate, but remove the loopholes so they all have to pay! Huge profits, ridiculously overpaid CEOs, combined with layoffs and tax loopholes make corporations one of the few that it would hurt least... tax them.


Brian Alexander from MSNBC hits a nerve:

  • "the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest.""

  • "Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it."
  • "a strong allegiance to the American Dream can lead even regular folks to overestimate their own self-reliance in the same way as rich people."
My thoughts on this:
In addition, the "American Dream" itself has become distorted. It used to be about creating something, being an entrepreneur, achieving a personal accomplishment. Now it's just about being rich. It's like every American baby is born with a lottery ticket, and they're all hoping to hit it big...

This allegiance is because they are actually "failed rich people" - they are delusional about their own ability to become rich someday, so they consistently vote against their own self interest in favor of the interests of the wealthy.
  • "most people could quickly tell you how much they paid in taxes last year but few could put a dollar amount on how they benefited from government by, say, driving on interstate highways, taking drugs gleaned from federally funded medical research, or using inventions created by people educated in public schools."

  • "Last year, research at Duke and Harvard universities showed that regardless of political affiliation or income, Americans tended to think wealth distribution ought to be more equal."
  • "The problem? Rich people wrongly believed it already was."

Recommended Reading for "clueless" rich people:

Nickled and Dimed - on (not) getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

The combination of ideology, playing politics, pandering to campaign contributors, and willful ignorance keeps that gap between the haves and have nots growing larger than ever.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Bill Maher Rules

I was so excited about the Rally to Restore Sanity. I really love the idea... "Bring back the civility in civil discourse!" "I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler!" During the rally, I was pleased at Stewart's attempts at impartiality, at criticizing the left as well as the right. But I temporarily forgot that the right is made up of so many complete assholes. Hard to be rational when you are dealing with poop-flinging angry chimpanzees.

Enter Bill Maher, and his "New Rules" response to the Rally - he says it so much better than I ever could!
New Rule: If you’re going to have a rally where hundreds of thousands of people show up, you might as well go ahead and make it about something. Now, with all due respect to my friends Jon and Stephen, it seems to me that if you truly wanted to come down on the side of restoring sanity and reason, you’d side with the sane and the reasonable. And not try to pretend that the insanity is equally distributed in both parties.

Keith Olbermann is right when he says he’s not the equivalent of Glenn Beck. One reports facts. The other one is very close to playing with his poop. And the big mistake of modern media has been this notion of balance for balance’s sake; that the left is just as violent and cruel as the right; that unions are just as powerful as corporations; that reverse-racism is just as damaging as racism. There’s a difference between a mad man and a madman.

Now, getting over 200,000 people to come to a liberal rally is a great achievement that gave me hope. And what I really loved about it was that it was twice the size of the Glenn Beck crowd on the mall in August. Although it weighed the same.

But, the message of the rally, as I heard it, was that, if the media would just stop giving voice to the crazies on both sides, then maybe we could restore sanity. It was all nonpartisan and urged cooperation with the moderates on the other side. Forgetting that Obama tried that and found out there are no moderates on the other side.

When Jon announced his rally, he said the national conversation was dominated by people on the right who believe Obama is a socialist and people on the left who believe 9/11 was an inside job. But I can’t name any Democratic leaders who think 9/11 was an inside job. But, Republican leaders who think Obama is a Socialist? All of them. McCain, Boehner, Cantor, Palin, all of them. It’s now official Republican dogma. Like tax cuts pay for themselves, and gay men just haven’t met the right woman.

As another example of both sides using overheated rhetoric, Jon cited the right equating Obama with Hitler and the left calling Bush a war criminal. Except thinking Obama is like Hitler is utterly unfounded, but thinking Bush is a war criminal, that’s the opinion of General Anthony Taguba, who headed the Army’s investigation into Abu Ghraib.

You see, Republicans keep staking out a position that is further and further right, and then demand Democrats meet them in the middle. Which is now not the middle anymore. That’s the reason healthcare reform is so watered down. It’s Bob Dole’s old plan from 1994. Same thing with cap and trade. It was the first President Bush’s plan to deal with carbon emissions. Now, the Republican plan for climate change is to claim it’s a hoax.

But it’s not. I know that because I’ve lived in LA since ’83, and there’s been a change in the city. I can see it now. Yeah. All of us who live out here have had that experience. “Oh, look, there’s a mountain there.” Governments led by liberal Democrats passed laws which changed the air I breathe for the better. Okay, I’m for them, and not for the party that is, as we speak, plotting to abolish the EPA. And I don’t need to pretend that both sides have a point here. And I don’t care what left or right commentators say about it. I only care what climate scientists say about it.

Two opposing sides don’t necessarily have two compelling arguments. Martin Luther King spoke on that mall in the capital, and he didn’t say, “Remember, folks, those Southern sheriffs with the fire hoses and the German Shepherds, they have a point, too!” No, he said, “I have a dream. They have a nightmare.” This isn’t “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob.”

Liberals, like the ones on that field, must stand up and be counted, and not pretend that we’re as mean or greedy or shortsighted or just plain batshit [crazy] as they are. And if that’s too polarizing for you, and you still want to reach across the aisle and hold hands and sing with someone on the right, try church.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Obama's Post-Election Speech

My (moderate and quite reasonable) Republican contractor told me this speech gave him chills and hope - he really liked it and is hopeful that the government will start being able to work together... THAT gives me hope. I hope this mid-term trouncing does for Obama what it did for Clinton... I'm just so tired of the bickering. Here's the speech:



If you want to hear the rest of the questions and answers, they are in the following three videos:
  1. Q&A part 1
  2. Q&A part 2
  3. Q&A part 3
I have to say I like how calm he seems, and NOT defensive. It drove me crazy that he was sounding more and more defensive, just like Bush always did - being defensive is NOT inspirational, not leadership. I hope he can get off of the defensive for the next two years and get on with leading.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear - full videos!

The full videos (with sponsor's ads, of course) are up on Comedy Central here:

And I'll link to each below. The sponsor is the Axe "wash your balls" campaign - funny and probably NSFW (but what would you be doing watching these or reading this blog at work anyway? ha). I wish at least they didn't show the SAME commercial for every video, but oh well. The videos are great!

These may not necessarily be in the correct order of events. I'm also not sure if the musical guests are on any of these videos - I haven't watched them all yet! Anyway, ENJOY!


Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
4TROOPS - National Anthem
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or FearThe Daily ShowThe Colbert Report



Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Jon and Stephen - Stephen’s Fearful Entrance
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or FearThe Daily ShowThe Colbert Report





Here is the music - Peace Train, Crazy Train, Love Train!









Saturday, October 30, 2010

Rally to Restore Sanity!

This was awesome.

So. Awesome.

Intro:

Crazy talk - Stewart thinks we are reasonable people who can say, "I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler"! :)

Colbert Brings the Fear!

Peace Train!! (or Crazy Train! Or wait... Love Train? :)



Final Speech:

"Most Americans don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often something they do not want to do. But they do it. Impossible things [are accomplished] every day that are only made possible through the little reasonable compromises we all make."



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

November 2010 Election Help

A friend, voting for the first time and bewildered by the choices (and more than the choices - frustrated by all the obfuscation from the media), got me thinking about where to find good advice on how to vote. First of all - ads can't be trusted. Of course, if an ad is spreading fear and lies about the opponent, it makes me think much less of the candidate! So pay attention to ads, but look into their claims. News can't be trusted. Pick your channel to have opposing perspectives and get thoroughly confused. Of course, generally if it is being endorsed by the far right, the "tea party," wing nuts, I would seriously question it!

So, how do you get good information? Well, start with reading the ballot information, pros and cons, and then pay close attention to who is supporting or opposing various measures and candidates. And look beyond the name! Some groups have very misleading names. Follow the money - who is funding it, and what do they have to gain or lose?

A simpler solution, after you've read the basics, is to go to organizations you trust and review their recommendations. Choose several organizations, and read their reasoning behind the endorsements and opposition. Try to find opposing viewpoints among organizations whose values you also share. Weigh the ideas presented. As always, think for yourself! If you really don't know (or care) about an issue or candidate, maybe you should leave that one blank - it's legal to do that! :)

Here are some resources I've found to help with unraveling the ballot this November:
  • California Choices - this one is a new one to me - it shares a whole list of organizations' recommendations and endorsements all on one page! You can then make it easier to compare by checking only the organizations and/or the measures you want to see. Very useful.
  • Calvoter.org has information about the propositions including the top 5 donors for each. AND it has "The Proposition Song"! :)
  • Ballotopedia is another new-to-me resource, and it's especially useful to see the donors for the various propositions - follow the money! This site would also be useful if you want to study the measures and don't have your voter information booklet.
  • Smart Voter is another non-partisan resource you may find helpful.
  • I always check the California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, NRDC, and other environmental groups' recommendations. Most all of these are represented in the California Choices page, but you can get more in depth rationale behind the recommendations at their individual websites.
  • League of Women Voters and NOW are good to check
  • Other organizations like the ACLU, Equality California, or any other groups you like and respect are also good to check.
Once you've rounded up the opinions of others, have fun making up your own mind!!

And don't forget to vote!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Immigration Problems

From The Manitoba Herald

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they’ll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.

Canadian border farmers say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, news paper writers, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night.

“I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,” said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota . “The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?”

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. He then installed loudspeakers that blared Rush Limbaugh across the fields. “Not real effective,” he said. “The liberals still got through and Rush annoyed the cows.”

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Subarus and drive them across the border where they are simply left to fend for themselves.

“A lot of these people are not prepared for our rugged conditions,” an Ontario border patrolman said. “I found one carload without a single bottle of imported drinking water They did have a nice little Napa Valley cabernet, though.”

When liberals are caught, they’re sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about plans being made to build re-education camps where liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer, watch NASCAR, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture.

In recent days, liberals have turned to ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have been disguised as senior citizens taking a bus trip to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half- dozen young vegans in powdered wig disguises, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizens about Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to prove that they were alive in the ‘50s. “If they can’t identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we become very suspicious about their age,” an official said.

Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and are renting all the Susan Sarandon movies. “I really feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can’t support them,” an Ottawa resident said. “How many art-history, women's studies and, English majors does one country need?”


(I first saw a version of this in 2004 - it's still funny. We'll see how far the "Tea Party" GOP faction gets next election - please stick around at least until after you vote!)

Monday, September 27, 2010

People For the American Way: Palin-Beck 2012: Vote on the Best Campaign Slogan!

Palin-Beck 2012: It's a No-Brainer
People For the American Way: Palin-Beck 2012: Vote on the Best Campaign Slogan!

Vote for the best Palin-Beck 2012 slogans! These are awesome! Which one do YOU like best?

Click the link and vote for your favorite, and you'll get a bumper sticker of the winner!



Friday, September 24, 2010

Stephen Colbert's Testimony Before Congress

After spending a day as a migrant farmworker, through the Take Our Jobs campaign by United Farmworkers, as part of his series "Stephen Colbert's Fallback Position," Colbert testifies before congress. He does this in character, manages to be really funny, and yet make a powerful point at the same time. Watch it:




I found it on this blog post: Shit that Bugs Smart People: C-Span Entertainment (oh boy, a new blog to check out!)