The organized disruption of town hall meetings is not about the economy and it has nothing to so with health care. This is the same ilk who went to Palin events and screamed "kill him". He's a terrorist - to which Palin winked and implied "You betcha". They are the racist wing of the Republican party led by Limbaugh and Beck that wants "it's country" back from the first non white man to be President. They are so ill informed that they say things like "Keep the government away from my Medicare." Limbaugh and Beck are telling their followers what to do and what to say in the hopes that at a minimum Obama's presidency will be diminished and at a maximum some wing nut will try to harm him. The press of all stripes loves the mess. It gets readers and viewers and that makes money. The messier the better.
I think that a national boycott can be organized by 50% of the country to boycott every single sponsor of the leading loudmouths of the wing nut crowd.
Some coverage of the tax day rally had a serious deficiency when there was no mention that the protest was a wholly owned subsidiary of the FOX cable channel.
FOX of course is run by long time Republican political activist Roger Ailes, who is the self-described 'liberal-hating' President of the "fair and balanced" FOX News Channel and chairman of FOX Television Stations Group. All of the FOX cable personalities spent the preceding month hyping this so-called citizens' uprising and then held their shows at various gatherings on the 15th. Little wonder that the rest of the media gave the FOX charade short shrift. FOX, of course pretended to be simply covering the news.
The huge deficit that President Obama inherited was a deliberate effort by the Grover Norquist "hate-all- government" wing of the Republican party which has long followed an "in-power" strategy of trying to bankrupt the United States of America by spending more money on defense than all the other countries in the world combined. (Norquist was actually mentioned in some national tax day stories. But the dots were not connected.)
Norquist's stated purpose has long been to bankrupt the United States so that there will be an excuse to eliminate all non defense programs. This includes social security, medicaid, medicare, departments of Education Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education, EPA, NASA, NOAA. Everything.
By gutting all non defense programs and instituting anti-labor anti-union policies, they presumed to drive the American workforce down to the level of third world countries. By depressing wages and eliminating health benefits, they hope to secure and widen the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of us - a gap which now exceeds that of the roaring 20's which ushered in the Great Depression.
If the Republicans had won the election we would now be seeing a massive dismantling of all non defense programs, just at a time when millions of Americans are losing jobs, health care and savings. The resulting economic catastrophe would create a pliable and desperate cheap source of labor here in the US ( lets call it "insourcing), ripe for more corporate exploitation.Currently the richest 1% of Americans control 33% of the wealth, the richest 10% of Americans control 70%. The USA is now boasts the widest income gap of all industrialized western nations. This has happened, not by accident but by the Republican tax cuts for the rich on one hand, and their union busting on the other which combines to lay waste to the middle class.
The rest of us 90% can only scrabble for the 30% that's left over. My guess is that very few of the hardworking folks milling about at various FOX tea parties, hollering about 'socialism' have even the foggiest idea that they are being targeted by this entrenched Republican core of ultra elitists whose plan for getting absolute control over every last dime was thwarted by our election of Barack Obama.
Now that I think about it, all that high pitched whining about socialism we hear, sounds very much like the squealing of a stuck pig to me.
Led by an overbearing drug taking self aggrandizing hate radio maven, The Right Wingnuts have brought us the following:
Gun deaths rates in the US are twice as high as the nearest of 49 other comparable countries.
The number of gun deaths by state is highest (LA and AK) in the RED states and lowest in the BLUE states. Lowest ( MA and HI ).
Wing Nut Approach: PROHIBIT GUN REGULATION AT GUN SHOWS. ASSAULT WEAPONS FOR EVERYONE.
The US spends more on Health Care per capita than any industrialized country in the world and has the most uninsured people and trails in key areas like infant mortality and longevity.
Wing Nut Approach: DISMANTLE MEDICAID AND MEDICARE
The US spends more money on military than ALL THE COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD COMBINED.
Wing Nut Approach: INCREASE MILITARY SPENDING
The complete lack of government regulation of the robber barons of industry has directly led to the collapse of the world economy.
Wing Nut Approach: LESS REGULATION / SLASH UNEMPLOYMENT / NO MINIMUM WAGE/
The destruction of US prestige abroad.
Wing Nut Approach: NO CONCILIATION / NO DISCUSSION / OUR WAY OF THE HIGHWAY /TO SPEAK WELL OF OTHER COUNTRIES IS UNAMERICAN
The degradation of our environment.
Wing Nut Approach: DENY CLIMATE CHANGE
Educational mediocracy
Wing Nut Approach: FORCE SCHOOLS TO ABANDON SCIENCE IN FAVOR OF BIBLE MYTHS
Destruction of government.
Wing Nut Approach: APPOINT PEOPLE WHO DELIBERATELY WRECK GOVERNMENT, THEN RAIL ABOUT THE INABILITY OF GOVERNMENT TO BE USEFUL
And here is the real agenda:
Most extreme distribution of wealth in US History. Top 1 % owns 38% while the Bottom 40% owns 1%.
Wing Nut Approach: MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH
Just watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-pzlZPRvx8
Millions of Americans on an Unlikely Journey.
Millions of Americans have committed millions of volunteer hours, donated millions of hard earned dollars, made millions of calls, knocked on millions of doors, put up millions of signs, attended millions of meetings, entered millions of voter names.
Millions of Americans posted millions of blog comments, emails, text messages filled with hopes, worries, humor, ideas, tall tales, travelogs, encouragements, enlightenments, facts, fictions, poems, prayers, minutia, magnificence. Millions of Americans have made a new community.
Millions of friends, never seen, have been made. Millions of Americans working together to evolve the American Experiment. Why did we do it? What is the community we seek?
Millions of Americans who want to vote because it matters.
Millions of Americans with no color lines carving us up.
Millions of Americans with no gender bias holding us back.
Millions of Americans embracing each other's religious beliefs.
Millions of Americans respecting one another's life styles.
Millions of Americans willing to listen.
Millions of Americans participating in our governments.
Millions of Americans welcomed from around the world.
Millions of Americans teaching their children well.
Millions of Americans caring for each other.
Millions of Americans caring for the Earth.
Millions of Americans caring for the World.
This campaign has changed how millions of Americans feel about politics. The energy unleashed by the movement has been within us all along. It just needed a way to to be useful.
We still may get upset at the other millions of Americans who don't agree with us. But we don't own all the good ideas. And we don't have to be angry. We don't have to attack them personally.
We can agree to disagree and look for the common ground. It's almost always there. Sometimes it's just under the top soil where the clay layer starts, sometimes we have to go all the way to the bedrock to find the common ground. But it's there if we are willing to dig deep.
And in the end, we are all just Millions of Americans working together to evolve the American experiment.
This should be passed around far and wide. HQ needs to specifically respond.
Blogged by Brad Friedman on 10/24/2008 5:04PM
This is just getting worse and worse. Now it's happening in Texas. (And in MO, if you read to the end of the article). And the vaunted "thousands of attorneys" from the Obama campaign and the DNC are still nowhere to be found. With every incident so far reported of touch-screen vote-flipping during early voting in this year's general election --- from county to county in WV and in Nashville, TN) --- it's been the ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machine that has failed, flipping votes from one candidate to another not chosen by the voter. In most every instances [see update below], it's been an attempted Democratic vote, flipped to a Republican, or another party. These are the same machines that lost 18,000 votes in Democratic-leaning Sarasota County in the 2006 U.S. House Race for Katherine Harris' old seat. The Democrat, Christine Jennings, was declared the loser to Republican Vern Buchanan (whose own wife had trouble voting for him that day), by just 369 votes. Several academic studies, and even the GAO, have been unable to rule out either tampering or hardware/software error for the disappeared 18,000 votes.
Lets Change This:
WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate’s history and a figure of enormous influence in his state, was found guilty on Monday of violating ethics laws for failing to report gifts and services that he was given by friends.
Must be those long winter nights that wear down the ethical fiber up there in Alaska.
Anyway by the Palin ethical standard Senator Stevens has been completely vindicated. Woot!
McCain and Palin have been ginning up their crowds with charges of Obama socialism (subtext communism).
Then, in response to new voter registration, the great leaders fire up the rabble by saying "they" are stealing your votes. The explicit call is that newly registered black voters should be put back in their place by the crowd of God-fearing all-white real Americans.
The crowds roar with hate and anger. Their sacred vote is being stolen by (non white) communists.
As is happening in early voting in North Carolina today, look for Republican condoned intimidation and violence at voting places with rigged 'law enforcement' looking the other way. This will be harmonized with McCain sponsored Reverend Wright attacks on Senator Obama for the next two weeks.
The messier and more violent it is, the more illegitimate the election outcome will be. And the more intimidated new voters will be. It's a desperate losers last ditch strategy.
Can you say 'banana republic(an)'?
Once again civil rights conscious Americans will be subjected to the violence and hatred spewed forth by these domestic terrorists who pal around with Republican Party leaders, John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Both McCain and Palin have repeatedly stated that they are enormously proud to pal around with these 'real Americans' who come to hear them spew.
Once again Americans will have to endure the venom and hatred that the Republican Party has cultivated since Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy".
But it's not going to work. Not this time.
And if it's to never happen again, after the election is over, it will be our job to help the proponents and instigators of these outdated and hysterical views to join in rebuilding our country from the ground up.
It's a good bet that virtually all of the people holding these views are not too well off, were taught to believe in such garbage as little children, and are frantically fearful about their futures.
We don't have to all agree. No one wants than. But over time, and with as many helping hands as can be organized we can bring people together.
After all, it's our job as 'real Americans' isn't it.
Please share this video with everyone you know. What a Great Answer to the Smears Against Obama
Link
It's obvious that the McCain campaign has decided that they are going to lose. They know that attacking Senator Obama as a terrorist drives away independent voters in droves. Yet McCain, on his stump speech, is asking crowds that he has warmed up with untruths about Senator Obama: "Who do you think he is?"
From within the all white crowd someone screams: "A terrorist".
McCain smiles. Permission to hate.
Plain fires up her all white crowd by stating that Senator Obama is "not like us" and implies that he hates America, and then she charges that he "pals around with terrorists". From within the all white crowd someone screams: "Kill him".
Palin smiles. Permission to hate.
"A terrorist" and "Kill him" are not random responses. Without these responses these speeches don't work.
The Republican strategy is now to get the most rabid of their base stirred up into a frenzy. They have taken the right wing-nut talking points of Limbaugh and Hannity and lob them like red meat to the crowd.
The Republican Goal:
Create a post election environment where the rabid base is so furious that bringing people together and governing becomes as difficult as possible. As party leaders, they are deliberately encouraging and giving permission to millions of Americans to feel justified in hating a new president President Obama. The stage is set to blame President Obama from 'day one' for the mess the Republicans have made over the last 8 years.
Our job is to follow Senator Obama's example. We need to continue to calmly reach out to our friends, neighbors and relatives who support Senator McCain by acknowledging their right to their opinions, see where there is common ground on some issues and tell them the truth about Senator Obama. Then let it go.
Be awake, Democrats! When Republicans have winning Presidential and Vice Presidential tickets they have a perceived-as-qualified candidate and a 'peoples choice' candidate. We Democrats always make the mistake of thinking that the peoples choice candidate is SO unqualified that the Republicans will surely lose. THIS IS A BIG MISTAKE. HIstory shows that it is the exact opposite. The more outrageous the peoples choice is, the more LIKELY it is that they will win. The SOLE purpose of the peoples choice end of the ticket is to reassure voters that the Republicans are not smarter than the voters and, will not "look down at them". The more they convey that to their base, the better chance they have. The LESS the peoples choice knows about anything the more effective they are. A key trait is to be demonstrably NOT CURIOUS and decidedly anti science. The message is reinforced by the media which treats the 'peoples choice' as though they should know something, anything, anything at all. This allows the Republicans to run against the 'liberal press' who are snobs and look down on the peoples choice and of course look down on YOU as well. Please note that ten seconds after Palin finished her convention speech, the Rovian right was ALREADY attacking the press in the spin room for being against her. Go back and check it out. It's such a tried and true tactic that it's institutionalized. From that instant forward all the right wing-nuts have spewed daily Norquist talking points bashing the media for being unfair to Palin.
2008: Qualified: McCain.......Peoples Choice: Palin (Creationist, hockey mom soap opera family)
2004: Qualified: Cheney.......Peoples Choice: Bush (Fractured syntax, pretend good old boy, thumbs nose at world)
2000: Qualified: Cheney.......Peoples Choice: Bush (Never traveled abroad, like to have a beer, bankrupted everything he touched)
1988: Qualified: Bush (sr).....Peoples Choice: Quale (Vapid and empty, Deer in the Headlights, looked pretty)
1980 Qualified: Bush (sr).....Peoples Choice: Reagan (movie actor in Bedtime for Bonzo could read one-liners..Well, there you go again.)
1968: Qualified: Nixon....Peoples Choice: Agnew (took bribes and went to jail, Scorned anti-war movement)
When John McCain shows up for tonight's debate he will pivot 180 degrees and attack Senator Obama for being a George Bush ally yearning to WASTE the hardworking taxpayers' dollars on a 700 billion dollar Fat Cat bailout.
The McCain message will be: Obama & Bush vs McCain & The Middle Class.
McCain will blast the "Liberal Democrats" and Bush while he (McCain) stands shoulder to shoulder with the hardworking (white) middle class working folks in opposition to "bailing out Wall Street". He will call it putting his country first. He will do it in a few short catch phrases.
No amount of explaining the deal or citing the FACTS that the Republicans caused the mess will counteract this simplistic McCain ploy.
Look at it this way - the entire so-called unravelling of the economy was overseen by Republicans for Republicans. The timing was geared to the election with a seeming advantage to Obama. But McCain's phony suspension of his campaign and his trip to Washington and his pretend 'no debate' ploy was a total political set up to tonight's pivot.
McRove's goal is to transform his lobbyist ridden campaign effort into a shoot-from-the-hip populist movement. Remember that McCain is running against himself, so running against Bush is a natural (White House sanctioned) extension. Cementing Obama to Bush is the goal. The Republicans are not stupid. They need this 'crisis' to give McCain a Houdini escape out from under Bush. So Bush proposes a preposterous plan- Dems bite, McCain bolts and Dems are left holding Bushs hand in a revised deal - that still stinks.
Senator Obama can not be bogged down in nuance, defending the Bailout.
Senator Obama must be ready to simply and directly lay out the gross hypocrisy of this McCain ploy. Senator Obama needs to say - From where the American taxpayer sits, Senator McCain's 28 years of deregulation are the Cause of the problem. McCain can not be trusted to SOLVE the problem. Cite that McCain has 133 lobbyists working for his campaign and has supported deregulation hundreds of times, and has voted NO on more regulation hundreds of times. Case Closed. Keep it short and sweet.
McCain: "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s."
OK presumably the right wing-nuts will be all over McCain for not loving his country until he was 30 years old and being tortured!!!!!! Right?
No reason to fall in love with his country love before that?
What's good for the goose....
Oh right, I forgot that they OWN patriotism.
PS
This is not taken out of context.
McCain: "I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you."
I suppose technically the sentence is correct. He doesn't work of A special interest. He works for 134 special interests. To see the list of McCain's lobbyists that he doesn't work for, check the link. Maybe he meant that they work for him. That must be it. Just think of all the regulatory jobs he can appoint them to while still spouting that he doesnt work for A Special Interest.
And by the way, the party he doesn't work for just ordered him to put Gov. Palin on the ticket instead of his choice, Sen. Lieberman. That party threatened to wreck the convention with a floor fight unless he picked the person anointed by her minister to be Governor of Alaska as part of God's Plan to save Alaska as a refuge for the end of times. Coming to a planet near you sometime soon.
And as far as working for himself? He doesn't have to, since he dumped his wife and married the beer heiress that he was having an affair with. Nice non-work if you can get it.
I think he's well covered on the "I work for you" part. After all, McCain's view of his lobbyist cronies? "They are just ordinary Americans working on behalf of the American people."
Now isn't THAT special?
http://mccainsource.com/corruption?id=0006
Please read this for some insight on Governor Palin. It's written by a resident of her town who was part of a group opposing Mayor Palin's attempt to fire the librarian, because she wouldn't ban books that Mayor Palin told her to get out of the library. Citizens of the town rallied in defense of the librarian and the Mayor backed down. Share it with people who think she is just an OK regular mom after hearing her speech. http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html
