Freedom for Expression

Studio of Finnish local radio station “Basso radio” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I got busy around the election and had lots of time to digest the outcome.

I’m sure Romney was sad with his loss and as such, Clear Channel Communications, controlled by Bain Capital, pulled the plug on Portland’s local commercial progressive talk radio.  That station had been on the air for over 8 years but according to ownership, was pulling in a small audience.

I’m licking my wounds missing our local liberal broadcast and have some thoughts on monolithic ownership of am/fm and over the air television stations.    In the loss of this talk radio station, I see the echo of the loss of other rich and diverse local radio stations over the years.

I am a gen Xer from the mid 60s.  I grew up tasting the remnants of the heady 60s and 70s ideas and culture.   In a time without Itunes, the culture of radio was rich and vibrant.   Cities had many choices for programming because local ownership was required to receive a broadcasting license.  There was a lack of uniformity , but also there were wide swaths of completely different musical culture simply because of geography.

In some ways, the internet has changed that.  In other ways, national corporate domination of the am/fm and tv airwaves has come to the fore after the local ownership rules were eviscerated in 1996.  Now from town to town, everything is the same on the radio.  All of the stations have been bought by a select group of owners who control it all but for a small fraction of the airwaves.

There is so much that is wrong with the current state of terrestrial am/fm broadcasting.

Years ago, the DJ in the booth could choose the music and shows even had live requests and callers on the air in between songs.  Now more often than not, music playlists are programmed the same across the country by a handful of people.  I  believe it is this fact more than mp3 file sharing technology that has stymied the music industry.

This McMusic approach to radio broadcasting has really made the business about nothing more than money.   Gone are the days that most stations have the freedom to put some love out to their audience and pull in a local crowd.  At this point it is hard to argue that any of Clear Channel is in service to the public except to provide a format that satisfies the lowest common denominator across the country.  Sirius and XM have customers because most of the airwaves are dominated by lame schlocky programming.

I am lucky to live in Portland where there are several alternatives for radio programming, one is dedicated to local bands and musicians even.   I have seen these kind of stations come and go.  The stations with the higher power to have a strong signal over larger area ultimately get sold out to larger corporate owners.   If the broadcast is kind of weak, it is not as attractive.  That is why if you hear anything interesting on the radio these days, it’s on the noisy station with a weak signal.

Ultimately Portland’s former liberal talk station was a business venture that the ownership did not wish to promote or grow.  Nothing personal, it’s just dollars and cents right?  To me it seems like the McTalk approach to engaging an audience at work.

We live in a country with around 50 progressive talk radio stations on low powered stations.  They try to balance out the over 900 conservative talk radio stations, many are high powered strong signal.  The playing field is far from fair and it is this massive megaphone to broadcast lies and illusions that keeps us mired.  It is why, with such a decisive electoral victory for the Dems,  the GOP has failed to react to the election results.  They live in their loud, controlled, self absorbed bubble, to the hazard of all that contradicts their upside down view of the world.

There should be a new guarantee by the FCC to allow diverse and local ownership of television and radio across the country.  It will allow greater diversity in programming, create many jobs in broadcasting, allow for greater freedom and exchange of ideas and create a new flowering of American musical culture.   It will get rid of some of the plutocracy and bring back some Democracy to the airwaves.

Related articles

• Call the FCC today to save our media from consolidation
• Who Killed KPOJ?: The death of progressive radio and Carl Wolfsons show in Portland      (willametteweek.com)
• Who killed KPOJ? Carl Wolfson shares the rest of the story. (blueoregon.com)
• Clear Channel quietly pruning staff (toledoblade.com)
• ‘What Public Airwaves?’: Fighting the Death of Portland’s Clear Channel-owned Progressive KPOJ and Seattle’s CBS-Owned Progressive KPTK (bradblog.com)
• The Dirty Industry Practice-That’s Ruining Hip Hop (gearslutz.com)
• Sue Wilson: Will the FCC Finally Act to Enforce the Rule of Law and Protect Our Public Airwaves? (huffingtonpost.com)

Game Change or Just Another Spin of the VP Roulette Wheel?

 

Meet Paul Ryan, the GOP congressman running to keep his seat in congress.  Oh and he is also running for Vice President with Mitt Romney this year.  Talk about hedging your bets!  What a play this guy has.  I bet he buys about 50 lottery tickets at a time.   It is like playing several numbers on the same spin of the wheel.

 

What a waste of Wisconsin taxpayer’s expense to run Mr Ryan as a representative.  What if he wins both elections?  He will have to forfeit his seat in the House so he can preside in the Senate.   On second thought, maybe he could do both jobs.  After all the House has not done much of anything this year.   Make no mistake, the GOP controls the House this year and all they have done is play golf and change the names of post offices.   If things stay slow over there, he could pick up some extra hours as VP.

 

I had to laugh when I heard Paul Ryan’s first speech.  He did a John Boehner, “Where are the Jobs Mr President?”    The answer is of course, the jobs are waiting for Rep Ryan’s YES vote on President Obama’s Jobs bill back in the House of Representatives.  Of course they won’t vote on that, they would rather try to blame their inaction on Obama.   What a shill,  what a maroon!!  It was a Bugs Bunny guffaw for a minute but then I started thinking about what could happen if Paul Ryan became the next Vice President.    That will be the subject of another post, because I’m not ready to descend into the darkness that the Romney/Ryan ticket signifies.

 

We have to hand it to Romney, however, Ryan is not vapid like Sarah Palin.  Romney seems to have made a better choice than McCain in this area.  He is easy on the eyes and easy on the ears if you are stuck in the permanent state of cognitive dissonance that results from overexposure to Fox News.  He has the easy charming gaze of a rattlesnake about eat his next mouse.  He may even charm some middle road poorly informed ‘independent’ voters.
Even if the Romney wagon doesn’t ascend into the stars,  I think we will see this character on the national stage over and over until the nation figures out that the main product of the GOP is Snake Oil.

 

Related articles

• Hey girl, @PaulRyanVP doesn’t give a damn about women’s lives (current.com)
• Paul Ryan Worth Millions Thanks To Wife’s Wealth (huffingtonpost.com)
• Gallup: Low Marks for Ryan as VP (drudge.com)
• Under The Microscope: Ryan’s Plans For Medicare, Medicaid And The Budget (badgleyandassociates.wordpress.com)

 

The Multinational Takeover of American Elections

(Photo credit: kevindean)

Mitt Romney’s  overseas trip has been fodder for the press and media as quite a source of humor and more example of fumbling and mumbling we have seen from the candidate since the primary season kicked off.   Something that has been noted is that his trip was in reality a visit with potential donors for funding his silk stocking presidential campaign.  The question I ask is when did this become ok for politicians in the US to seek campaign funding overseas?

The bundlers who put together funds for campaigns such as Romneys will expect to have favorable access to their candidate should he win.  What happens when the bundlers are foreign and in direct competition with the interests of Americans?  Can we trust Mitt to keep the interests of Americans in mind when his fund raising may come directly from foreign competition?  If Mitt accepts money from mainland Chinese interests, can we trust him to represent American’s best interests if they are in direct competition with those of China?    I believe his presidency is up for auction to the highest bidder.

International fundraising is done under the rubric of collecting donations from expatriate Americans.  Expatriate Americans who happen to host $10k per plate dinners for their foreign friends to meet candidate Romney, for example.  If the host is American, no problem if he puts the 1-2 mil collected from his foreign guests under his name, right?

Under current law, anyone with citizenship or a green card may donate to a campaign, but let us be clear: that is a very low hurdle for huge bundles of money to jump on it’s way from one nation to the candidate in the pursuit of undeserved favor and alliance.  It is tantamount to bribery by a foreign entity.   Funny how times change.  A hundred years ago, that was considered a high crime.  Make no mistake, the US has excelled at this practice with buying its own puppet dictators over the years, but now the game could be played on the American people, where we elect a puppet president obedient to a dark multinational financier.

I’m not an authority on the history of campaign funding,  but I do remember a time in my life when international funds for campaigning were strictly forbidden.  Later the rules changed so that there were strict limits placed on funding so that no one donor could become the sole recipient of the benefits of their elected candidate’s authority.   Also, sources for campaign funds had to be disclosed so that voters could see who the candidate would likely favor in office.   My sense of things is that the funding from international sources has grown over the years and instead of trying to stem the tide or at least disclose the extent to which the monies flow in from over seas, we have just opened the floodgates and declared all money from overseas to be just fine.  (No thanks to the SCOTUS decision on Citizens United)

It may well be that allowing unlimited funding from foreign sources essentially puts our country up for auction to the highest bidder for the next four years.   I think Americans deserve a president who does not bend over for his British and Israeli banking benefactors.   When it comes to the American people or his rich friends, which side do you think Mitt will take?

The lack of controls over campaign funding continues to be the single most powerful factor contributing to the disconnect of the federal govt with the will of the American People.    The escalation of international funding of campaigns only widens the gulf between the will of the American people and the choices made by their leaders.

Related articles

• There’s No Hiding It: Citizens United Wasn’t About Speech, It was About the Takeover of Democracy (garyalanfinkelstein.newsvine.com)
• ‘Dark Money,’ Secret Donors Behind Half Of Independent Election Spending (huffingtonpost.com)
• Candidates look overseas for campaign cash (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• EXCLUSIVE: Romney Bundler A Registered Foreign Agent For Hong Kong (thinkprogress.org)
• Mitt bundler was ‘go-between’ in Plame outing (politico.com)
• Companies Bigger than Countries: Transparency needed for all (one.org)

Will the Votes Be Counted Fairly?

We have seen shenanigans in voting laws across the country under the guise of creating barriers to voter fraud.   The numbers on cases of voter fraud vs the instances of humans struck by lightning make it obvious that voter fraud is teeny tiny problem.   Also, we have seen how the changes in voter laws in an election year are being drummed up in the Red GOP states only.  It makes me wonder, why do only the Repubs seem to believe that vote fraud is a problem.  You only hear about this plague, this tumor on our body politic in the GOP camp.

Why is it only the GOP states that think we have a vote fraud problem?   The reason I ask is that the measures these states are taking far and away do more damage to a free and fair vote than they protect the system from fraud.   Could it be that the voter fraud is actually a lie perpetrated in order to disenfranchise thousands of legitimate voters from the rolls in key states that could swing the election?

How is it fair if hundreds or thousands are removed from voter rolls to protect us from the 10 or 20 people that vote fraudulently in a state?

Through the early 2000s, there have been allegations of vote mishandling through the hacking of computerized ballot and counting systems in place now.  We have some evidence but no real formal investigation to show that rigging the vote count by election officials is an actual problem.   It is well documented that some poor and minority dominated areas in red states, have suffered reduced access to voting, not just registration, but such things as numbers of voting machines and hours of operation rigged and not given due diligence.  My sense of it is that the GOP loves to play around the edges of every election and jimmy the system in as many ways to Sunday as they can invent without getting caught.

The fact that they must go to what are unfair and extreme measures to swing the vote count in their favor shows that they have very little to go on in terms of public policy and benefit to the average citizen.  I believe that some of their measures are so clumsy that they will be read by the public for what they truly are.   In a way, the fact that so much money is spent still gives me hope that the vote count is still at least conducted partially fairly.

I wish there was a mechanism in congress to remove electoral votes from states whom continue to exhibit improper voter registration and counting.   Dishonest conduct in elections is tantamount to treason and should be rigorously penalized but not at the expense of the honest average citizen voter.

Black Box Voting – America’s Elections Watchdog Group

Related articles

• Is Voter Fraud A Problem? (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Behind the Myth of Voter Fraud (washingtonmonthly.com)
• UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud (motherjones.com)
• Pennsylvania Voter-ID Law Could Disenfranchise Up To 750,000 (Talking Points Memo)

Respecting the DREAM

 

President Obama did what he could to show people the way this last week on how to deal with the massive immigration dysfunction that our US system has become.  In years past, it has been far easier than present day to enter the US and immigrate.  All the way through the late 70s, immigrating to the US was a process that had a finite beginning and end.  Today it is a maze of bureaucracy hampered by pre 911 prejudices and post 911 paranoia.

Homeland Security is a department in the executive branch and thus under the authority of the President.  The policy change is fairly simple.  Children of illegal or undocumented residents could gain at least a 2 year stay on their deportation if they :

• Came to the United States under the age of sixteen;
• Have continuously resided in the United States for a least five years preceding the date of this memorandum and are present in the U.S. on the date of this memorandum;
• Are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a general education development certificate, or are honorably discharged veterans of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States;
• Have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety;
• Are not above the age of 30.

This announcement has been widely criticized as a political move by the President, but  ask the GOP and Mitt Romney for their vision of how to handle illegal immigration.  They do not have a plan on how to deal with the millions of illegal and undocumented residents.  They do not have a plan on how to change anything from the current status quo which is onerous, cruel and unusual punishment to people for simply wanting a better life but not necessarily committing other crimes.

The children of families caught up in the ICE and Homeland Security bureaucracy are truly innocent in the situation and blameless for the choices of their parents.  This is a bad situation where the government truly needs to reorganize and restructure.

The overall policy is misguided and unrealistic as well.  If we wish to stem the tide with illegal immigration we need to address the rules of employment and the enforcement of hiring and documentation.   As long as illegal immigrants can get a job in the US, they will continue to come.    So far, it appears that Mitt Romney and the GOP want to close their eyes and continue to pretend the current state of our immigration policy is just fine.

The day that President Obama announced the change to deportation policy which is only to be a two year trial, the President was heckled during his opening statement by Neil Munro, an online reporter-blogger for the Daily Caller, a GOP newsite.   As the cameras were trained on the heckler to capture the exchange between President Obama and Mr Munro, you can see the frustration and even seething hatred as Mr Munro appeared to be trying contain himself and allow the President to speak.   Mr Munro, if nothing else is just the latest symbol of the unthinking raging hateful angry opposition which believes that the office and functions of the President is not worthy of high respect, no matter who is in that place.  Mr Munro is just another zombie of the right blinded in their rage.

 

Related articles

• theGrio editiorial: Disrespect is the story, not Neil Munro (thegrio.com)
• Obama Offers Immunity to 800K Young Immigrants (newser.com)
• Immigration reform: five Reasons Obama ordered the DREAM (thegrio.com)
• Obama move is momentous for some illegal immigrants (kansascity.com)

Don’t read this post

English: Seal of the President of the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Personal Note to the President of the United States, Monday, 6/4/2012

Dear President Obama,

I got the tweet from you the other day.  Something or other about the election in Wisconsin.  Honestly, my first reaction was, really? Your first comment on Tom Barrett in a tweet?  I know Wisconsin only has 10 electoral votes, but democrats across the country have been watching and wondering where the love is for the grass roots of the party.  Wisconsin put a lot on the line and there is barely any acknowledgement from the leader of the party.

When Bill Clinton came to Wisconsin, I was thinking, wow, President Obama must be busy.  But for once, I have to say that Scott Walker was right when he wondered why you would come so close to Wisconsin and yet remain so far away.   The hardworking folks in Wisconsin who have put lives and reputation on the line to protect their rights deserve more than 140 characters.

I don’t know who is going to win the Wisconsin recall.  I just know how good it felt to have some old figures in the party come and advocate for the people.  I just wish you could see how it would only give you the high ground in the debate if you would just take the political upper hand in this situation.  The people of Wisconsin are correct to rise up and demand accountability from their elected officials.  In an era where a few anonymous wealthy contributors can tip the playing field 25 to 1, you have a responsibility to get in and play hard for the team .

I don’t know the entire situation you face of course.   It just seems though that by visiting the neighboring states at such a crucial time, you appear to be ‘nibbling at the edges’ and avoiding going for the goal.  If you are going to face criticism, however, it is better to face it for doing the right thing.

Addendum, Tuesday 6/5/2012

The depressing results have come in and I’ve listened to the concessions and acceptances and the pundits analyses.  I don’t blame you for not playing in the campaign.  I do think GWB would have come into the fray had the shoe been on the other foot.  Ah, but then comes back up the shoe metaphoric thing.  It’s easy to see a coldness in the regard of the President toward the Unions of Wisconsin.  I hope  we don’t see a replay of the 2010 election where a dejected progressive electorate fails to turn out.   I just think you missed an opportunity to fight the good fight and even if it was a loser, be on the correct side and help shine a spotlight on the truth.

Then again, maybe you have already decided that you cannot fight the mass of cash and media arrayed against you.

Still hoping for some change, fellow citizen, Joe Blunt

 

 

Obama Takes a Bold Stand on Equality

Barack Obama delivers a speech at the University of Southern California (Video of the speech) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This week was remarkable for the United States.  President Obama made the case for allowing marriage rights to same sex couples.   I think by doing so he expanded the boundaries of freedom and established the notion of an equal playing field for same sex orientation.  Even so, this announcement does nothing but allow the nation to see where Barack Obama believes the line should draw on this issue.

It was the beginning of a step that follows a long line of steps to bring more equality to humanity and allow equal sets of rules to be applied for an oppressed group in our nation.   Not only does it signal a greater move, but it also signals to the world that under Obama, the US is still a land of opportunity for everyone regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.   Of course, discrimination still exists throughout the world in these areas, yet the US can still provide a guiding light for all.

I’m heterosexual, but I can still appreciate President Obama’s position staked out this week.   First off, it is a bold declaration on his part.  It is politically risky.   Not only does this fire up the right wing, it pokes a stick in the eye of all the backwards goobers out there who compensate for their closeted gayness with mindless homophobia.  Some people do not understand or derive any pleasure from Obama’s revelation.   The reigning wisdom is that the people who are adamantly opposed to same sex marriage will vote against the president in November anyway.    Also, this move illustrates that President Obama’s base is ripe and receptive for this kind of an activation.  Signals like this during the campaign will continue to activate his base.   Beyond the political calculus, by taking up the struggle of LGBT people, other forms of discrimination become more outdated and barbaric.   The fight in this area only makes the injustices of racial and gender discrimination more undeniable under the law.

Personally, I’m inspired by the pronouncement because it is morally correct in the context of freedom and equal rights.  Also it is a risky move and that also gives me some new respect for the President that he could take an outspoken stand on what is right.  Pretty exceptional stuff, all in all.  It’s nice to get inspired over what has always been an American value during my lifetime, equal rights.  Much better than complaining how the GOP continues to monkey wrench economic recovery and the will of the people.  I hope this fires you up to get out and make everyone you know cast a vote in all of the years elections.

https://liberaltalkingpoints.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/liberal-maxim-14-equality/

 

 

 

Related articles

• Supporting Barack Obama’s Strong Stand for Marriage Equality (hawaiireporter.com)
• Celebrating Equal Rights (candid-cam.net)
• As President Obama visits Seattle, Executive Constantine salutes Obama for courageous stand on marriage equality (ballardnewstribune.com)
• President Obama’s on Marriage Equality (thefirstwire.wordpress.com)

Scowling at the Nation: Do We still have what IT takes?

Republicans for Obama (Photo credit: EN2008)

Why does the GOP think they can push unpopular laws through?  We have seen limits passed on access to contraception and invasive laws designed to humiliate women who are seeking abortions.   The polling on these issues is conclusive.   Why do Republicans think they can stir up these contentious issues in an election year?  The prevailing wisdom before this year of breathtaking rollbacks in womens health rights has been that these issues are pushed in off election years.  Has the Right become so drunk with power, holding the majority of assets in the nation and using significant amounts to control access to government and outcomes of elections.   Do they believe they are going to be able to buy the elections or control the vote?

Apparently, they think the time is ripe to pull back the curtain a little to bring in more followers on a moral issue that they can claim is a high ground.  It is an absolutist posture that appeals to someone who does not want to think about the issue.  Oh we’ll hear the various politicians walk back from these extremes.  Mitt is starting to pivot back to the middle but make no mistake, we got to see some holy righteous bare ankle of the extremism of the GOP during their primary.

The GOP trifles with these moral quandaries and does nothing to recover the economy .  Also, they have taken the fight to contraception, the very practice that helps reduce abortions.  They must think we’re pretty dumb huh?  Maybe they just think they have the whole election thing ‘locked up’.  Make no mistake, just like Scott Walker, all these GOP players are wearing long frocks before entering office.  We don’t get to see the whole show until they make it there.  We only get to see their ugly proselytizing souls bared after they attain office.  We have seen enough to say there is definitely a misogynist,racially biased and homophobic agenda lurking behind the curtain.

The GOP is working all the angles and the Dems are days late and billions short.  It is a nearly vertical challenge, but rubber on the road, sweat and tears may still prevail.  If the people do not come together to solidly reject the GOP this years election, we will see the rollback of the 20^th century and the ascendency of the robber barons of the new millennium.

Related articles

• Is the GOP Establishment Leading Us Over a Cliff? (markamerica.com)
• Obama Campaign Fears Uphill Climb Raising ‘Super PAC’ Money – New York Times (nytimes.com)
• Republicans whine about election fall-out from nasty primary campaign (dailykos.com)

Teapartiers are Suckers

US Representative Michele who? (R-Minn) addressing a Tea Party Express rally outside the Minnesota state capital building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The modern day tea party movement is just a hollow leg in the GOP meant to channel all the recent angst and fury in the right leaning grass roots over the disaster left behind by GWB.  Tea Party members are complete tools expressing true grievances but looking to the wrong party and wrong leaders to change the situation.  They are minions full of righteous outrage but caught up in the blame games that the GOP loves to play.  Irrationally, they look to the culture that created the mess for the answers to the problems.  They are happy to hand the keys to the car right back to the same group of drunk drivers that put the car into the ditch.

Should we pity the portion of the American public who have access to nothing but Faux news?  Can you blame someone who knows nothing else?  Its amazing when you sit back and look at all the catch phrases they seize on.  Then again there is something unfortunate for someone who lets others tell them how to think or what to believe.

The Tea Party was a construction of Dick Armey and a consortium of right wingers to mobilize their grass roots after a demoralizing loss of the presidency.   They bred a herd of dingoes that may not be easily controlled locally, but tea partiers mostly know who the head hyena should be when it comes to the presidency.  It will be interesting to see if Romney tries to boost his standing with the pack.

Many Tea Partiers don’t seem to realize they are just a subsect of the GOP.  They get all outraged about circumstances but they mostly fold into the mainstream GOP, the main source of much of the outrage.  We have seen the Tea Party have great sway in the GOP but also it seems to be an unbalancing force within the GOP because the Tea Party is at odds with the mainstream GOP.   This will continue to cause a ruckus for progressives at the local level and frustrate the GOP on a national level for years unless more fox zombies come out of their stupor and examine the cold hard facts.

To those who still fancy themselves members of Tea Party, it is not too late to go furthur afield and seek better leadership.  Ultimately, if you are a Tea Partier to this day, I do not know how you can bring yourself to vote for Romney.     You are a tool of the elites if you do.  Catch phrases like “Anyone but Obama” are from the same stuff that brought you GWB.

Parents, Stand Your Ground

MLK Jr Memorial (Photo credit: alvesfamily)

I should not have been shocked when I learned that George Zimmermans father is a retired judge.  There is a long history of bubbas backhand overlooking the excesses of their progeny.   It is easy for a racist mindset to rationalize the killing of an unarmed kid and then stand behind a law supposed to protect people in their home.

Some people say that George Zimmerman is lucky to have a retired judge for his father.  Talk about some kitchen table legal advice.   I wonder how involved Robert Zimmerman has been with the lack of an investigation.  So far, it looks like this law is being used to stand down expensive investigations when the injustices may be better swept under the blind rug of hypocrisy.  The plan was for this story to go away.  Maybe there is hope for our news media if it can shine a light on what looks like a pile of rats chewing on goobers.

My kids are not African American but as MLK said ‘Injustice anywhere, is a threat to Justice everywhere.’   It sounds like the wild west has gone south and east.  Our children deserve better.

Related articles

• Witness: Zimmerman Straddled Trayvon (newser.com)
• Stand Your Ground poster by Tes One (lostateminor.com)
• Trayvon Martin Case: ‘Solid Grounds to Arrest’ Zimmerman, Legal Expert Says (inquisitr.com)

Hope Springs

Winter is over, time to spring into action.  I believe the spring of occupation will provide a sea change in our political discourse.  When the movement awakens from a seasonal hibernation, the nation will move.  An undeniable mass of people is an undeniable force. It will be awesome to see as well, much more fun than the tired old debates and listening to politicians try to outmaneuver each other.

It will go viral this spring.   It has to.  There is no choice but for the occupy movement to become a cottage industry.  The pols will have to get serious very quickly about engaging the issues that the occupy movement is kicking up.

I hope Obama spends time engaging with the Occupiers.   He needs to understand the outcry and speak to it even more.  They will lift him on their shoulders if he does this and carry him right back into the white house.

If the movement rears up as I think it will, the whole paradigm will shift on a dime into our time, the future is now.

Fair Game: What we didn’t find in Iraq or Afghanistan

Its been nine years and the past is definitely blurry, unless you served.  Not every one served in the theater.

I know I’m way behind.  I finally saw the movie Fair Game, depicting the Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson story.    Holy crap this is a great movie although it depicts a sad reality.  Kudos to Sean Penn and Naomi Watts who were both outstanding in their craft.  I love how the story is shown from the perpective of the family of Ms Plame and Mr Wilson, something I doubt most people considered at the time.  At the time, they were parents of four year old twins and coping with the loss of career, public defamation and desire to shed light on the lies that were leading an angry grieving nation into a war on a country that had nothing to do with 911.

After seeing this film, I am wishing that the real Joe Wilson would enter politics.   He strikes me as a good leader, someone with a conscience.   Also, I wonder if the gender roles had been reversed if the Bush administration would have been so flip as turn on their own agent.

In chess, sometimes it is a good move to lose a pawn to gain the advantage, ultimately Ms Wilson was used as a pawn in the game of going to war that can be played in the white house.   She was robbed of her career, bottomed out, as the ‘fall girl’ for the Bush administration.  There does seem to be a tragic injustice in the end with the family moving to New Mexico to escape DC , while no justice is served to the executive branch out of control.  Scooter Libby, an agent of Cheney, barely served time for his lies and no one else was held to answer for blowing her cover in the press.

In many ways, Valerie Plame was fighting the war on terror before the military even got started.  After the dust clears, it will be units like hers that are left to clean up the mess.  She suffered a huge injustice and paid a high price for putting her duty in front of everything for years.   She is a living hero in my book.  Joe too is a hero for trying to speak the truth to the power that was revving up the engines on a machine that just mows stuff over rightly or wrongly.

Of all the reasons we went to these two wars, it cannot be denied that we waged war on Iraq based on layers of  lies and deception.  Iraq did not have anything to do with 911, yet we were easily led into believing it was so.   At the heart of the reasoning for going to war was the so called weapons program in operation in Iraq.  By the time it was obvious to most informed and reasoning folks, we were embroiled in a second war mostly because it seemed closer to the target.

It is not easy to draw a greater conclusion or gain a moral to the story, but here it is: the GOP in control of our military and intelligence complex will put it to work on expensive and immoral  operations  in order to create a political advantage and/or support their big business cronies.  That’s what happened with Iraq.

Looking at the future, I cannot figure out what the mission in Afghanistan is but to get out.  I think we went there to get Osama but now it’s truly a mission accomplished.

Related articles

• Time Line of a Leak (New York Times)
• Afghanistan Is Turning from a War to a Madhouse (esquire.com)
• Doug Liman’s FAIR GAME Set to Play on November 5th; THE DARKEST HOUR 3D slated for August 5, 2011 (collider.com)
• Summit sets date for ‘Fair Game’ (variety.com)
• Valerie Plame is employed by the Central Intelligence Agency (tabacamacher.wordpress.com)
• Chris Hayes on the Iraq War Architects: Where Are They Now? (crooksandliars.com)

El Rushbo Speweth Over?

Rush Limbaugh - (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

I was just graduating from college in the Midwest  in 1991 when I remember becoming aware of Rush Limbaugh.    A good friend of mine listened to him regularly and had become quite partisan to the right back in the days when politics were almost like cryptography, the era for me when anything to do with politics was ‘wonky’.   I checked in with El Rushbo then and sampled his offerings and it did not take long before I was thoroughly disgusted by the content that was alternately misogynistic, racially degrading, menacing, self aggrandizing pomposity and never ending foul tasting ?humor?  Further, the ‘news’ and opinion was full of easily debunked mendacity.   Never truly challenged, Rush’s conservative brand of ‘entertainment’ apparently was embraced by a mostly white male audience.   Being a new graduate, I was moving around through out the Midwest as I started my own career and was able to sample various radio markets while looking for work.  Exploring the radio dial across the midwest was a pasttime and I was amazed by the reach Rush had established already and the lack of any true counterpoint to all of his outrageous claims.

Being curious about this new exciting conservatism and whether there was a fair debate available on his broadcast, I personally spent time calling in to his show to present points in contention with his arguments of the day.   It took only two attempts before I realized there would be no fair debate with liberals on his show.  Anyone who made it to the airwaves was cut off as soon as was convenient and then thoroughly excoriated and marginalized.  Most liberals will never get past the call screener filtering callers so Rush doesn’t have to face the ‘unwashed unruly’ masses with inconvenient and embarassing questions.

Rush established a platform and echo chamber in which only right conservative ideas were allowed and no rigorous debate with consensus beyond that of the right wing could form.  He is an architect of the polarized political environment we now find ourselves in where neither side can have a fair discussion with the other.   He allowed and encouraged conservatives to believe they do not have to concede anything in a debate with the left and that they do not even need to engage in a debate at all with counterpoint from the middle and poverty stricken classes.

In turn, conservatives came to worship at the platform he created and maybe even mistook it for a town square of sorts.  Rush became so elevated in their eyes, that there is nothing the the Rushbo can do that could be wrong or indefensible.  Megadittoes became the code word for everything you say is true and we surrender our critical thoughts over to you Rush.

I say Rush deserves to be able to speak his mind freely, as loudly and as noisily as he wishes — on a street corner.  He should be able to go out on the internet and blog all he wants and podcast all he wants even.  I do not think he deserves however, the benefit of the American public’s am or fm radio air waves.  There is nothing in the bill of rights about the freedom to speak on the radio.  We have something in the US called the FCC that settled that years ago.

 

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Falling into the Cracks on Memory Lane

Slaves, Puritans and Poisoned Wheat (Photo credit: drurydrama (Len Radin))

Sometimes when I look at the push by conservatives to pass restrictions controls and private invasions over rights to choose and contraception, I think the GOP would be happy taking us back to some Victorian 1800s form of culture or maybe back to the pilgrim days when the ladies got scarlet letters and witch trials.  Our country has taken years to evolve, but we have evolved as a society and culture.   It never fails to surprise me how much our GOP counterparts yearn for days of yore when the ladies wore long gowns and men nearly creamed at the sight of a mere bare ankle.

Speaking of the pilgrims, they left their country, bloody old britain,  to escape the power of a religion that wielded the power of the State in their personal lives, religion and society.   The State enforced an adherence to a particular belief system that was in disagreement with the beliefs of the puritans.   This was the conflict that birthed the concept of separation of church and state in our own constitution.   Funny how ‘freedom of religion’ is now being used by the GOP to allow a church to wield the power of the State.

Are the evangelical conservatives really that backwards?  I guess it’s time to dust off the frocks and chastity belts.

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barriers to contraception for adults

Rick Santorum's image of women and mothers

The logical conclusion of Rick Santorum  and the catholic church’s abhorence to birth control is something like the above picture carried out on a human scale.

Do we really need bigger families at this time in America?  Just saying , it costs money to raise a child.  Do we really need more poor people at this time?

You don’t see rightys get too upset when an innocent person is executed.   Yet they seem to  want to carry the ‘save every baby’ philosophy down to the legality of the sperm swimming upstream to the egg.

Ultimately they are advocating for more poverty by pushing on this issue.   I want to hear them talk all about it though.  I want to hear a whole GOP debate on contraception. Nearly every sentence uttered on the subject by the right is  b-s crazee!

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Liberal Maxim 14: Equality

Suffrage Paraders, N.Y. (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)

Liberals believe in equal opportunity.

We would not have fair employment and fair housing laws without liberals in government pushing for rules that discourage discrimination based on race, religion, gender.   Some of the big impact in governance through liberal philosophy have been the rules that protect opportunity and the right to vote.

It is one of the finest qualities in liberal philosophy.  Conservatives try to turn this positive into a negative by complaining about political correctness, impositions to the existing (stratified) social order.   They even claim we are trying to guarantee equal outcomes beyond the concepts of equal opportunity.  We need to remember that freedom and political power for all were enshrined in laws by liberals to protect from discrimination based on race, religion and gender.

Soon we may add orientation the that list.   It was impossible for the slavers of the 19^th century to see the wisdom of the abolitionists.   Men in power could not hold back the tide of a generation of women pushing for suffrage.  Each of the turns of the struggles for greater equality among the people has only marked the beginning of larger shifts toward freedom within our culture.  There have been long drawn conflicts over how to approach the matters of equality but liberals have always been on the side of equality and freedom for all the People.

Elmer Fudd vs Coyote

I don’t envy conservatives who have to choose between Newt and Mitt.  I was posting on another blog tonight and hit on the notion that choosing between them is like having to choose between Warner Brothers antagonists Elmer Fudd and Coyote.

Now don’t get me wrong, both Elmer and Coyote have some endearing qualities, but ultimately, Fudd never gets Bugs Bunny and Coyote never catches the Roadrunner.

Take Elmer,

He makes good use of known method.  He is a dogged hunter but has no staying power because he is not very smart and always misses his prey by a misstep or two.

 

Then you have Coyote.

He has yards of faith and inches of food. 

He is a simple humble genius who can architect the most epic methods of falling flat and far behind the Roadrunner.  Everytime he comes close to the roadrunner, something blows up in his face or an elaborate trap backfires.

 

 

 

 

Oh, yeah don’t forget.

Sylvester the cat.

Sylvester is always ready to pop that Tweety in his mouth when no one  is looking.

Sylvester ends up taking a wailing from a boxing kangaroo.  Karma is real.

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Hail the Union of Laborers

Image via Wikipedia

 

 

Conservatives love cheap labor.  They are not concerned if a laborer working a 40-60 hour work week earns enough to live and avoid debt.  Henry Ford was a conservative in his day but even he understood that his business would flourish if his employees could afford to purchase the products they produced.  Conservatives today love to talk about the problems caused by illegal immigration but ultimately do not want to make any changes.  They might even talk about jobs being outsourced to foreign nations, but you’ll never see them move on this issue in law.  They are numb to the raw deal of capital spasms in the economy.   They keep the labor market in a constant churn with unemployment dragging down wages.   Though they would never say it, high unemployment is not that big of a deal to the conservatives.

Why do conservatives hate unions, and almost for the very same reasons, why are unions good for the middle and lower class?  They have pushed up wages for everyone.  They democratically represent the views and interests of the employees.  They protect employees from inhumane demands placed by management.  Conservatives want people to be desperate for a job so they will accept lesser working conditions, lower pay, few perks like medical coverage.   Unions help workers by giving them a voice in the workplace that forces employers to remunerate for the cost of labor.

Unions have traditionally been supportive of the democratic party and this is another reason they are targeted by conservatives.  It is politically and financially convenient.  When you sit back and look at the legislation being pushed by the various GOP controlled states this year, it is hard not to conclude that the GOP has initiated an undeclared war on unions.  Arizona is the latest battleground.  “Right to work” laws seem to neither protect rights nor the ability to work yet we must have more legal backsliding to the early 1900s for these conservative states.

You also hear a lot of braying over corrupt union officials and seeds of mistrust sown on this brave lot that takes on the sorry job of dealing with the mgmt.   I like to say at this point, you have no further to look than the k street lobby, super pacs,  our elected leaders constant fundraising, barely paying attention to the American people.  That’s the real corruption that no one is fighting.  In the meantime, I appreciate personally if there is a group that speaks for the interests of employees.  There is no choice but to have unions.

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Sometimes a picture is worth more than a 1000 Talking Points

Elizabeth Eckford goes to school

President Obama goes to work

Thanks Melissa Harris-Perry!  Smart cookie!

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Obama saved the American auto industry

Image by Toban Black via Flickr

note:  This started as a reply to the last comment from spreadeagle72 but it became so long and full of import that I had to post it.   Thanks for the conversation Spread, you spawned a post!  

Here is his last comment so you can get the gist:

‘I hate to see anyone lose their job. I’ve lost a few jobs in my life but didn’t need the government to “bail” me out. If the feds would have stayed out of the automobile industry in the first place and allowed the free market to fend for itself there would have been more than 3 or 4 manufacturers in the country and we would not be in this mess to begin with.
It doesn’t have anything to do with democrats or republicans…..
Bad business is just that….whether you do it with the burden of union pentions, labor costs, or the Hill with all it’s taxes and regulations it’s always bad business practices that end jobs.

All you have to do is look across the pond to figure out that bailouts no matter how small are never the answer. It always bites you one way or the other.’

The Blunt Response:

Today, Chrysler and GM are among the most successful auto companies for the year 2011.  In 2008, Chrysler and GM would have closed down their shops and sold anything of value to the still standing victors and tens of thousands of automotive jobs would now be gone.  We would have been down to one, that’s right, ONE American car company with other FOREIGN owned manufacturers doing some part of their business in the states (especially the states where employers do not have to provide health care or negotiate collectively with employees for better pay).  The banks and right wing conservatives were ready to let them fail but Obama and a Democratic Senate and House saved the American automotive industry with a federal program.

Also, it was not a ‘bailout’.  The banking industry with it’s comparatively small but very well paid staff qualified for massive massive give aways so they could continue the foreclosures and multimillion end of year bonuses.  GM and Chrysler could only qualify for loans.  That’s right, the federal money given to GM and Chrysler were structured as loans and much has already been paid off, plus interest to the US treasury.   Here, we have proof that the government saved jobs and still conservatives scoff and try to spin a success into a failure.  It perplexes me when the facts are in front of people and they do not see them.  Spreadeagle must be seeing ideological smudges on the eyeglasses of reality and thinking the world is cloudy.

Also, it’s perplexing to hear conservatives complain about government ‘bailouts’ yet they don’t complain when we subsidize the oil industry to the tune of billions of our tax dollars per year.  We don’t just give them tax breaks, but we also give oil giants billions in ‘credits’ per year.   Why don’t you ever hear about that on False News or Rushinta Limbo?   You certainly don’t hear them talk about actual bailouts that occurred under former GOP presidents.

You also hear a lot of carping about a free market taking care of things.  A ‘free’ market implies a competitive market with a variety of suppliers competing for customers, not a hand full of players agreeing in private how to set pricing, crowding small businesses out or buying them off.  Conservatives seem to think creating  jobs and a free market means loosening clean air and clean water regulations so the oil business can get down and dirty again.  Why is the US exporting oil overseas if we need it here so much?  We can drill baby drill, but that is not going to lower gas prices like truly free markets protected from a multinational industrial monopolistic trust.

Conservatives speak with a forked tongue when they say they ‘hate to see folks lose their jobs, but don’t let the government do anything to protect them’.  It’s time for people like that to look more clearly at how far backward we have gone in this decade.  It didn’t start with Obama, it started right around the year 2000.

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