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Friends' blogs
« August 2011 | Main | October 2011 »
September 27, 2011
September 23, 2011
The Republican Party Debate On FOX News
'nuff said.
September 20, 2011
September 18, 2011
September 17, 2011
Saturday Musings: Knowledge Is Good
Explore this site and pass it around: YouTube EDU.
September 16, 2011
I Found The Comparison: Barack Obama = James Buchanan
“What is right and what is practicable are two different things." - President James Buchanan
Pundits on the left and right are going to be wasting our time comparing President Obama to various U.S. Presidents from Herbert Hoover to John Kennedy... well here is my vote.
September 14, 2011
Carl Oglesby Has Died. It Is A Shame We Didn't See Him On TV Every Sunday At Our Pundit Roundtables.
"Carl Oglesby, who led Students for a Democratic Society as it publicly opposed the Vietnam War but who was later expelled by a radical faction that became the Weather Underground, died on Tuesday at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 76...
“He was the great orator of the white New Left,” Todd Gitlin, a Columbia University professor who was the president of S.D.S. from 1963 to 1964, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “His voice was a well-practiced instrument.”
...Mr. Oglesby’s speech “Let Us Shape the Future,” delivered at an antiwar rally in Washington on Nov. 27, 1965, is considered a landmark of American political rhetoric. In it, he condemned the “corporate liberalism” — American economic interests disguised as anti-Communist benevolence — that, he argued, underpinned the Vietnam War...
“For all our official feeling for the millions who are enslaved to what we so self-righteously call the yoke of Communist tyranny,” Mr. Oglesby said that day, “we make no real effort at all to crack through the much more vicious right-wing tyrannies that our businessmen traffic with and our nation profits from every day.”
He bet the ranch on the movement,” he said. “He transplanted his world, radically. I think part of his power as an orator was that you could sense that he was bringing his whole self into this. He was at stake. It wasn’t a role; it was a life.”
His book The Yankee and Cowboy War was a major influence on my conspiracy theory worldview.
Here is a link to Olgelsby's famous LET US SHAPE THE FUTURE speech as SDS President from 1965.
September 13, 2011
Republican Party Making Pennsylvania Even More Useless
When the Republicans want to destroy something, they are as relentless and remorseless as The Terminator. Over the decades following World War Two, conservative policies have eroded Pennsylvania jobs, destroyed a decent standard of living for working families and now are just making the State politically useless.
"A new proposal is pushing the often-forgotten Electoral College into the spotlight as Pennsylvania officials ponder the state's role in next year's presidential race.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi is trying to gather support to change the state's "winner-takes-all" approach for awarding electoral votes. Instead, he's suggesting that Pennsylvania dole them out based on which candidate wins each of the 18 congressional districts, with the final two going to the contender with the most votes statewide.
So far, the idea has received support from colleagues of the Delaware County Republican in the state House and from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
But Democrats, who have carried the state in presidential contests since 1992, said the shift would erode Pennsylvania's clout..."
September 12, 2011
Britian Goes All Glass-Steagall On Its Banks
"There has been widespread support for a government-backed commission that has recommended UK banks ring-fence retail from investment banking.
The report recommends that ring-fenced banks should be the only operations granted permission by the UK regulator to provide "mandated services", which include taking deposits from and making loans to individuals and small businesses.
The report recommends that ring-fenced banks should be the only operations granted permission by the UK regulator to provide "mandated services", which include taking deposits from and making loans to individuals and small businesses.
It says that the different arms of banks should be separate legal entities with independent boards..."
September 11, 2011
September 10, 2011
Saturday Musings: 'I Wish All My Conspiracy Theories Would Stop Being True' Edition
Who shot President Kennedy? I can prove the official version wrong. That doesn’t mean I have all the answers, but it was a conspiracy.
Looking back we now know that leading industrialists and bankers including Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker were involved in a coup attempt against President Franklin Roosevelt. The great mystery that remains is why were the families of the perpetrators not ruined?
President Clinton fought what his wife called ‘a vast right-wing conspiracy’. It turned out to be true and the new twist at the end of the 20th century was that the media was part of the conspiracy.
In 2000 the Presidential election was stolen… that was no accident.
And in 2009, President Obama was so afraid of a coup against him by the CIA, NSA and the military that he made his first of many compromises and did not pursue criminal prosecutions of torture and war crimes during the Bush, Jr. (grandson of Prescott Bush) Administration.
So let me touch briefly on 9/11. The official story is confusing. It is either both rumor and misinformation turning into a conspiracy theory because on the incompetence and cover-up of incompetence by the Bush, Jr. Administration of its actions that day, or those buildings in New York City were set with explosives.
I hope to god it is the former… but at times, it sure looks like the latter.
And I’m never satisfied with the official answer.
September 09, 2011
Shorter Obama 'Jobs' Speech
I'm proposing more of the shit that didn't work the first time... and let's hope the Republicans nominate a Tea Bagging moron and I'm in!
They Weren't Invited 10 Years Ago, Either, But They Came Running
I wonder if there are seats for the Saudi Royal Family and the friendly Bin Ladens?
September 08, 2011
September 07, 2011
Obama Feared A Coup??!!!?!?!
"President-Elect Obama’s advisors feared in 2008 that authorities would oust him in a coup and that Republicans would block his policy agenda if he prosecuted Bush-era war crimes, according to a law school dean who served as one of Christopher EdleyObama’s top transition advisors..."
Ex-fucking-cuse me?!
The CIA, NSA and the military?
But Oliver Stone is a nut and Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy...
Why did they think this? Who said?.. or who threatened?
This is just too much, I thought it was hyperbole when I said the right wing in America are terrorists.
Prosecuting the Bush Administration for war crimes is exactly what was needed by a Democratic President in 2009. Obama's failure to do that is why his Administration is a failure and America is ripping apart at the seams... justice was not done... Hell, ask Rick Perry what to do!
And as for fearing Republican non-cooperation or maybe actively holding Obama's legislative agenda hostage... Jesus Hussein Christ!
"Galileo was outnumbered for a spell" - Wow! Maybe President Obama Really Does Have Nothing To Worry About
Do you think Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) realizes his Galileo comments makes the point for climate change... I mean Galileo, you know... said the Earth was not the center of the universe, but the Sun was... and the Church went after him... and then it turned out the science was correct and ... well the church was wrong... of forget it.
Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann and Newt Gingrich were there, too. That creepy Ron Paul guy who runs for office, but hates government... and then two Mormons and a black guy.
Maybe President Obama really does simply have to sit back and work on his acceptance speech.
This Man And Anyone Who Votes For This Man, or His Kind... Are Terrorists... Don't Trust Your Neighbors.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)... Speaks of FDR and The New Deal... oh, and Ronald Reagan...
"These programs weakened us as a people. You see, almost forever, it was institutions in society that assumed the role of taking care of one another. If someone was sick in your family, you took care of them. If a neighbor met misfortune, you took care of them. You saved for your retirement and your future because you had to. We took these things upon ourselves in our communities, our families, and our homes, and our churches and our synagogues. But all that changed when the government began to assume those responsibilities. All of a sudden, for an increasing number of people in our nation, it was no longer necessary to worry about saving for security because that was the government's job.
For those who met misfortune, that wasn't our job to take care of them. That was the government's job. And as government crowded out the institutions in our society that did these things traditionally, it weakened our people..."
This is so wrong on its face that Rubio needs to be slapped... double slapped, Jesus-style on both cheeks...
The New Deal saved America, created a country that was willing to defend itself... in the midst of a Depression... against Germany and Japan during World War Two. Why did we fight? FDR and The New Deal gave us something to fight for. America became a great nation, for a short time during the 20th Century because Corporatism was on its knees and The New Deal created the greatest, most fair and powerful and rich nation in the world... and most, if not all, of us shared in that... until the Republican Party took power again and started to tear us down. The rising tide was never allowed to raise all boats.
The Republican Party was able to do to America what neither The Empire of Japan or Hitler could do.
September 06, 2011
Favorite Books As Opposed to 'Best' Books
Here is a fun list of 'favorite' books by famous authors. I like this list because it is not asking what are 'the best' books, but what are the favorite books these authors have read. That makes a big difference and lets us see past the dust jacket into what makes up our popular writers.
Here is my list of favorite books. I know that if I made this list on a Thursday instead of a Sunday, the list would be different. But here goes...
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
The book that made me decide to be a writer… because it was hard. I threw this book across the room twice before finishing it, but I still remember being out of breath as I turned the last page.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The book I wanted to write most like. This man, his lesser books like ‘To Have And Have Not’ have moved me and made me feel like I actually had a connection with his mind and that the word, the sentence could be a fist.
In A Yellow Wood by Gore Vidal
I put this on as a dare to myself. I do not believe that Gore Vidal has written a novel worthy of the Top 100 list because I cannot image what would be cut to make room for… what…. Williwaw? Washington, D.C.? Julian?..... However, I have read and enjoyed more of this man’s novels than some of his contemporaries. This particular book, one of his earliest, presents us with a post-World War Two New York City that is very honest, interesting and I think denied. To work on Wall Street and live in Manhattan and to go out late at night to Times Square… to be a living breathing cell in magnificent NYC of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The lead character’s choice at the end is the complete opposite of why someone would write a novel like this in the first place… I ‘enjoyed’ it very much.
Martin Eden by Jack London
Has always been a favorite and meaningful book. It spoke to me through the artistic desires of a young, working class guy… and the ending is all too appropriate. I used to give this book as a gift.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
One of my first examples of super-powered writing and use of the English language beyond what I knew I was capable of. I love lots of Conrad.
The Gallery by John Horne Burns
I got obsessed with the novels of vets of World War Two. This jumped to the front of the line because of the lack of American propaganda…. If that makes sense. This selection, too was kind of a dare… not to include ‘The Naked and the Dead’.
From Here To Eternity by James Jones
Again, my life long battle with Norman Mailer and my guilt for leaving him off on the face of Gore Vidal, John Horne Burns and James Jones… again, here is a writer I am in awe of.
Deliverance by James Dickey
Just trying to keep to the ‘favorite’ criteria over ‘best’. The writing in this book, at the time I read it inspired me to put pen to paper.. As I was deciding I wanted to be a real writer, -before the fucking screenplay poisoned my brain – I was reading this book.
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
I had heard of Chandler, but never read him until one day I was doing home work (high school) at the Philadelphia Library and saw this book. I started to read it and three hours later realized I hadn’t done anything else but read and turn pages. I had never read words used like this before… was it tough? Yes. Was he kidding? Yes. Was he serious? Yes. I loved it.
All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
My final book on this list took some time. I left a lot of books off… this was a book given to me by a teacher who said, “if you are serious about writing, read this.” I did and loved it for all the same reasons I loved Martin Eden and still love politicians like LBJ to this day… the old prick… and love Bill Clinton.
Books left off because of the Penn Warren choice and I wanted to keep the list at 10:
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor
Song of The Lark by Willa Cather (really)
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Let us know your favorite books!
September 05, 2011
I Don't Want To Hear His Jobs Speech, Either.
"...That's not how Obama has been operating over the past year. He has instead looked for elusive common ground with Republicans, putting forward ideas that square with Republicans' economic doctrine."
Elusive common ground: Health Care Reform, Financial System Reform, Climate Change Regulations, Foreign Wars, Debt Crisis Solutions... the players did not meet on common ground. These issues were made more confusing to people with President Obama's compromises and each is or will be a disaster.
Now we are going to discuss jobs?
"You want to get rid of the deficit? Put 25 million people back to work and you won't have a deficit problem." - Richard Trumlka, AFL-CIO President
TV pundits and billionaire corporate executives love your compromises, Mr. Obama, but they are not going to vote for you in 2012, no matter what you give them.
So how do you get the rest of us to vote for you?
"...Trumka laid out a six-point jobs plan of his own that goes far beyond what Obama has endorsed to date. His proposal includes rebuilding schools, roads, ports and energy systems; reviving the manufacturing sector and stopping the flow of jobs overseas; preventing layoffs in state and local governments; and stepping up measures to avoid home foreclosures.
It seems doubtful Obama will come out with something on so dramatic a scale. Take infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that in 2009 the nation needed to invest $2.2 trillion in levees, bridges, roads, railways and schools. Overall, the society gave the nation's infrastructure a grade of "D-."
Trumka would invest $400 billion a year over 10 years on public works projects. Thus far, Obama has called for an infrastructure "bank” that would use $30 billion to help restore the nation's network of roads, bridges, tunnels and ports.
For those worried about the deficit, Trumka insists that job creation and deficit reduction go hand in hand..."
What Was It He Said? Even Being Only Half-Right Means We're Screwed.
"More profoundly, Marx understood how capitalism destroys its own social base - the middle-class way of life. The Marxist terminology of bourgeois and proletarian has an archaic ring.
But when he argued that capitalism would plunge the middle classes into something like the precarious existence of the hard-pressed workers of his time, Marx anticipated a change in the way we live that we're only now struggling to cope with.
He viewed capitalism as the most revolutionary economic system in history, and there can be no doubt that it differs radically from those of previous times.
Hunter-gatherers persisted in their way of life for thousands of years, slave cultures for almost as long and feudal societies for many centuries. In contrast, capitalism transforms everything it touches.
It's not just brands that are constantly changing. Companies and industries are created and destroyed in an incessant stream of innovation, while human relationships are dissolved and reinvented in novel forms.
Capitalism has been described as a process of creative destruction, and no-one can deny that it has been prodigiously productive. Practically anyone who is alive in Britain today has a higher real income than they would have had if capitalism had never existed.
The trouble is that among the things that have been destroyed in the process is the way of life on which capitalism in the past depended..."
Don't worry. Ameican pundits aren't going to be hitting the old text books... your kids are safe... only in ole' London town would they still write something about Karl Marx.
September 04, 2011
September 03, 2011
Saturday Musings: "LBJ All The Way"
President Obama is paralyzed with fear and has developed a re-election strategy of staying perfectly still, hoping the Republican Party nominates a candidate that America just can’t vote for.
That is pretty cynical, but President Obama's biggest mistake was in running for President completely unprepared to work at it. What was he thinking?
An America that was bold enough to vote for him was bold enough to fight. It was time to fight. Eight years… eight fucking years of Bush, Jr. / Cheney and this country was ready for bold change and even radical action. The American people voted for Barack Hussein Obama despite FOX News and we were ready to charge the ramparts only to turn around to find our President wasn’t behind us. President Obama didn’t have our backs. President Obama didn’t arrest anyone or stop anything.
He invited his enemies to the table and they stole the silverware. He invited them back and they wrecked his agenda… yes his agenda… all those promises in 2008 and all that promise.
The Republican Party, Wall Street Bankers, TV Pundits became terrorists in America and President Obama does not see it. The collapse of the World Trade Centers was followed by a more horrific, home grown plan to destroy the America we all grew up in… Middle Class America.
The election of FDR and the new Deal saved this nation from the bad choices the rest of the world was making… Communist Dictatorships or Fascist Dictatorships… America chose to trust its workers and created a Working/Middle Class that was willing and able to defend it against both Fascism and Communism when the time came. Without the New Deal there would have been no American Middle Class to go fight World War Two. And that would have been just fine with some Americans… like Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker... and did they come back with a vengeance.
Whether Barack Obama likes it or not, he is not the heir of Nixon and Reagan… his support comes from the base that supported FDR, Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and yes… Bill Clinton. His is the Democratic base… the Working/Middle Class.
After three years in office… we knew what these previous Presidents where about… Nixon was our long, national nightmare and a liar. Reagan, after three years was raising taxes and proving that everything he said after becoming a Republican was a wrong. President Roosevelt, after three years was the savior of the World. Johnson was no Jack Kennedy and was letting his legacy be hi-jacked by the Rightwing… as tough as he seemed to be, he gave up all he believed in… but had the decency to quit. Clinton, well Bill threw back the cover on the vast right wing conspiracy… and guess what… he was right.
But Barack Obama… after three years I do not know who you are or what you stand for, but if actions speak louder than words… you are a Rightwing tool. That kind of behavior by President Johnson led to Democratic politicians deciding they had to challenge him for the Democratic nomination in 1968... which led to LBJ deciding it was best not to run for re-election.
