This brilliant clip from The Rachel Maddow Show should be required viewing for all “journalists” engaged in the reporting of news related to politics and the economy.
Please do what you can to share this here or at The Maddow Blog, holding those we count on for the news accountable for reporting and not publicizing is the least we should expect from those bound to serve “public interest, convenience and necessity.”
The GOP used reconciliation to pass the so called “Bush tax cuts”. In order to utilize the process of reconciliation, the GOP was forced to insert a sunset clause because the rules of the Senate don’t allow the reconciliation to be used if the underlying legislation will increase the budget deficit beyond ten years… Let that sink in for a moment. The GOP knew, absolutely knew that the “Bush tax cuts” would have a negative impact on the deficit and the debt. They gamed the system using techniques that they vilified to the point of hysteria during the health care debate even when they knew that it was fiscally irresponsible. They knew it, and they did it anyway…
They passed the tax cuts knowing that the tax cuts would wipe out the surpluses of the Clinton era.
They passed the tax cuts knowing that a disproportionate benefit was given to the wealthy.
They passed the tax cuts knowing that the national debt would increase despite claiming it a primary concern.
They passed the tax cuts and once again told the Average American that they can have a crumb while giving the whole damn cake to the rich.
If the GOP believed or had any credible evidence that the Bush tax cuts would not negatively impact the deficit and the debt, then why put the sunset measures in the bill in the first place? Don’t bother attempting an answer, despite the talking points, the GOP knew that the Bush tax cuts would explode the debt, they were told so and they acted accordingly all the while spewing the same old crap that Americans have swallowed for decades.
The current administration has not had the luxury of choice, the economic crisis dealt most of the cards that the administration has had to play, and yet THIS administration was able to cut the deficit in the worst recession since the depression.
So first the GOP passes irresponsible tax cuts that they KNEW were going to have a negative impact on the deficit and now the GOP says that it is irresponsible to raise taxes in a recession, that is pretty damn convenient… Functionally the GOP is saying that they were knowingly irresponsible, but the only responsible path to to double down on stupid…
Do NOT let a single Republican continue spewing the fantasy that these tax cuts will spur the economy to the point that revenue will overcome deficit pressures. The GOP knows it isn’t true, of course that won’t stop them from saying it is so…
It is time that persons of good conscience step up and have adult conversations about adult matters. Priorities must be set and policy needs to be crafted to reach those priorities. The stakes are too high to not demand that our representation in Washington D.C. cut the demonstrably false talking points and get serious about governance, it has to be a priority, we have to make sure it remains a priority.
Republicans don’t believe the things they say, they believe the things they say will get them elected. Eventually the truth will catch up to them, believe me.
Can the Democrats put aside their pathological fear of being simultaneously right and politically potent at the same time? Yes we can.
Is it possible to do the right thing and reap the political benefit of the Republicans getting it completely wrong and looking like the uberwealthy lapdogs that they truly are? Yes we can.
Could it be that the Democrats can do that which is necessary for the betterment of the country and NOT be forced to fall on their swords for the effort? Yes we can!
And how is this perfect storm of political nirvana possible? The George W. Bush tax cuts, passed (or shall I say jammed down our throats) by the Republicans leveraging the slimmest of margins using the most reviled process in democracy known to man, aka reconciliation, are, at long last expiring.
The damage of these tax cuts, two unfunded wars, Medicare part D and reckless deregulation of the financial industry will take its toll on the deficit for years, but the 700 billion given away to the wealthiest 2% of earners need not and should not continue.
True American patriots are willing to sacrifice to secure the future of the nation, if that means that I need to give up MY tax cut to force the wealthiest 2% to step up, so be it. I would rather pay more than see the people that have gained more than any other segment in the last decade shirk their responsibility to the nation that has blessed them with such fortune. I will stand up to secure our children’s future, their education the infrastructure that will make their American Dream a possibility.
I cannot and will not accept that those who are most fortunate among us cannot relieve a portion of the burden for the nation that has rewarded them so generously. I will accept the necessity to pay more myself if it means that they will not dodge this responsibility. I will not accept an extension of the tax cuts for these individuals for one moment beyond the sunset that the Republicans set when they kneecapped the budget for this foray in fiscal irresponsibility. I will not accept an extension for two years, or one year, or six months, or six minutes.
If Democrats believe that the “politics” of keeping the tax cuts for the middle class and letting them expire for the wealthiest Americans is too hard I have a suggestion… Do nothing. The tax cuts will expire and the Democrats will be responsible for plugging a huge hole in the deficit. If the Democrats feel like “do nothing” is just too “Republican” try this, pass a tax cut for people earning less than 250k in the lame duck session and let the “Bush” tax cuts die with the legacy.
The point is this, there is a line that the democratic base will not cross, we are marching right up to it and it is desperately important that our representation both in the Congress and the White House understand… We WILL accept our responsibility and pay more if we must, we WILL NOT accept the most fortunate or you shirking your responsibility… Really, we will NOT.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918 the armistice went into effect to end what was then thought to be “the war to end all wars” This is the day that America now reserves to honor the sacrifice that veterans have made in service of the nation.
Veterans Day means different things to Americans based on their relationship to service and relationships to those who have or are serving in uniform. As I have not served this post is admittedly and necessarily naive but my father served in Vietnam and my wife’s youngest brother is currently serving in the Air Force so my thoughts and words are not devoid of a frame of reference.
My father was a veteran, there is nobody that he ever knew that was surprised for one moment when they discovered that he directed planes on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, the way that he moved his hands, gestured, shuffled a deck of card, precise, specific and decidedly unambiguous. I never knew how much my father’s military service shaped his perceptions of himself until I discovered that he wanted to be buried in a Veterans National Cemetery with the honors that he had earned with his service a service that he literally barely mentioned my whole life.
President Woodrow Wilson declared the first armistice day (the celebration that would become Veterans Day) with these words.
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
This is the spirit with which Veterans Day was declared and the spirit with which it should be celebrated. There is no more just manner to celebrate the spirit of national military service than to defend the intelligent application, the deliberate, wise, considered, studied deployment of that force in the name of justice, peace and in the honest council of the nations, our nation.
The callous manner in which George W. Bush and Dick Cheney plunged this nation and many others into war in Iraq defiles the spirit of that service. I find no fault with any member of the armed services that prosecuted the war that they were charged with waging. However, I cannot see how we honor military service unless we call out those who would utilize the finest of our youth as though they were cannon fodder, pawns…
“good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they’ll fill a pit as well as better [men]…” - William Shakespeare
I will honor the service of those who step up to defend this nation by acknowledging the enormous sacrifice they have made and vowing that such sacrifices shall only be requested when required and after every viable alternative has been exhausted.
I have news for both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, they were all better men than you.
Jon Stewart wrapped up the Rally for Sanity with an interesting if irrelevant analogy… He equated the American people cooperating with each other by the traffic entering a tunnel going into New York city. The idea is that we cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal because we all have to merge for any of us to merge, we all have to get to work and collect a paycheck, we all have to plow our way through the tunnel… Except we ALL don’t. There are a select few that are swept by helicopter to the rooftop of the building they need to be at minutes before they need to arrive. They don’t sweat the commute on a daily basis, they spend tens of thousands of dollars per week to stay in the city in the lap of luxury should their schedules require it.
The reason that Stewart’s analogy fails is that there really is a philosophical difference with how the left and the right approach the role of government and ultimately how that philosophy manifests their actions and policies… The left still believes that government can perform vital and necessary functions for the American populace. The right is convinced that only the private sector can rule the world and in the last thirty years they have almost completely relegated control to corporate interests… The brutal truth is that “you go and then I’ll go” is really the fleecing of the American people by the most powerful companies in the world:
Wellpoint and then Halliburton – You go and then I’ll go…
Mosanto and then BP – You go and then I’ll go…
Exxon-Mobil and then Wal-Mart – You go and then I’ll go…
Merck and then Wells Fargo – You go and then I’ll go…
You go and then I’ll go, you go and then I’ll go.
When will we go? When will we recognize the American dream were being sold now is stamped “made in China”? Corporations in a global economy are global… Government of, by and for the people is OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE!
The realization of Republican economic policies has the American people being repeatedly slapped by the largest, most profitable and powerful corporations that do business in this nation… You go and then I’ll go, you go and then I’ll go.
Sanity was not restored Oct. 30th 2010, it was not evident Nov. 2 2010, it is not likely to return in the near future…
I will however struggle with all my might to bring it back. I will blog, discuss, tweet, argue. You can too, have a conversation, diffuse a delusion. I’ll spread the truth and you can too.
You go and then I’ll go, you go and then I’ll go.
Progressive angst, irritation and ultimate victory…
When I was a very young man it was still shocking to the general population to see interracial couples, the civil rights amendment was shiny new and almost all homosexuals were deep in the closet.
Almost my whole life I have known that it wasn’t cool to treat people differently based on the color of their skin. People who love each other should be allowed to love each other even if they came from divergent racial backgrounds.
Almost my whole life I recognized that individual qualifications were exactly that, individual! Skills, knowledge and talent were a factor of luck and desire and had no connection to race other than access. I knew that it was wrong to deprive anyone the access and opportunity of fully realizing potential.
From very early on I recognized that homosexuality wasn’t about a perversion it was about self and identity. People say “be true to yourself” yet shrink when that truth is at odds with what their religion says about human behavior. I knew that that these humans were just as American, honorable, fragile, human, valuable and necessary as any other in our union and that perfection of that union would never be complete until they enjoyed the same rights, freedoms and respect that every other member of this society should enjoy.
The point is that enormous progress has been made in all these issues, and though it has been frustratingly slow and ridiculously uneven, (particularly from the standpoint of KNOWING what the right thing was), progress has been made. We always knew that eventually a majority of people would come to the same conclusion but that didn’t make the struggle any less difficult or painful.
So now we stand on the edge of the most recent battle looking at the carnage and we ask, (logically, cause that IS what progressives do), what now?
What now?
You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because you didn’t win the argument
You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because someone else convinced enough people that we were just not ready for that truth
You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because someone bet the American people would vote emotionally and not logically, and won that bet.
You don’t stop fighting for the things you know are right until enough people acknowledge that it IS right and you can take up the cause further down the road to progress.
They beat us back this time. They beat us back with hate. They beat us back with fear. Most of all they beat us back with a relentless assault on the truth, a media enhanced, fact optional, trigger phrase, dog whistle assault on the truth. Eventually we will win, we know it, they do NOT. They have not the vision, they have not the imagination, they have not the facility to escape their fear to recognize the awesome potential of human beings…
Truth will eventually prevail… The earth is not flat, it is also not the center of the universe, Galileo would have had to lived almost four hundred years to experience an acknowledgment of that with respect to the Church. Hopefully we won’t have to wait so long…
I’d like to leave you with a thought from The Talking Heads…
Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
It is not enough to be right… we still have to struggle to MAKE IT RIGHT!
We still fight because it is our calling, our curse and our quest (Monty Python reference deliberately avoided…)
I’m not dead yet! (damn!)
“This chick man, Dr. Kübler-Ross, without the benefit of dying herself…” some of us will remember the line from All That Jazz, some will not, all that care will relate to where we find ourselves now.
Let us suppose for a moment that the “common wisdom” (aka media narrative which frequently bares no resemblance to fact) is that Republicans in general and the Teaparty specifically are going to sweep away the Democrats in a tidal wave of electoral frustration Tuesday next and they will “take their country back” presumably to the early 1800′s… How the hell are we rational folk going to reconcile ourselves to life after the midterms should the asshats prevail?
If necessary, we will all deal with it in our own unique manner but for the most part we will travel the same path.
Denial – “This isn’t fucking happening in MY country!, have these people paid no attention to what these idiots have been spouting? There is no way that these people actually won, there must be massive election fraud! ACK!” The fact of the matter is that most people don’t pay attention to the midterms and have very little concept of just how pathetic these candidates are and how difficult and serious the challenges are that face this nation.
Anger - ”Fine, this is just perfect, now I’m going to have to move to Italy where the politicians are horrifically corrupt but at least they have more than three firing brain cells to rub together!” There is no putting a positive blush on this phase, should it be required I guarantee I will wallow in this shit…
Bargaining – “Oh God I promise I will never skip another election! I never thought it would come to this! I never in my wildest dreams believed it was possible! Can we get a do over, I promise I’ll be ‘enthused’ (and besides the Democrats pissed me off…)” This phase will last micro seconds as everyone knows these morons would rather crash the government and abolish the Dept. of Education than admit that they are the least exceptional among us and we have just asked them to LEAD…
Depression – “FUCK” That pretty much sums it up, the sentiment will likely last until the next election, or until the House holds it’s first impeachment hearings or they take up abolishment of the Fourteenth Amendment…
Acceptance – “Arrgh!” The fact of the matter is that the arc of history bends towards justice, this too shall pass, the electorate will snap out of their media induced delusion and discover that American exceptionalism cannot possibly be promoted by lowering the bar to the least common denominator. America will survive, the only question is how much more will the American people have to overcome after another stint of governance at the hands of the GOP. As if the decade wasn’t bad enough.
Of course I remain optimistic that the actual majority in this country will get out and save us all from needing the guidance of Dr. Kübler-Ross.
It’s showtime folks.
Keith Olbermann provided this stunning argument against the insanity that is the teaparty movement and by extension, the Republican party.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Know someone that hasn’t quite engaged in this election cycle? Someone who is apathetic or indifferent to the result? Please get them to watch, give them the opportunity to understand exactly what is at stake this election. Time is short and the shadows deepening, turn on the light.
If you haven’t yet seen this video of a 23 year old girl representing MoveOn.org was pulled to the ground and literally stomped on by teaparty supporters of Rand Paul, you need to watch it to fully appreciate this post… You can do that now.
This is verbal art in response to the aforementioned video, actual literary poetry, sheer fucking brilliance (note, if you cringed just now DO NOT click through to the link)
The Rude Pundit Regarding the Kentucky Stomping and Juan Williams
Please share this with anyone willing to see how far we have yet to go.
Rachel Maddow takes the GOP advocacy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and boils down what it means to our democracy in terms so concise that one cannot fail to deduce that ordinary citizens should be horrified that these people have any influence on our elections. Politicians of all persuasions and the media that continue to treat this issue as a non-starter better take heed. Americans get a tad testy when overtly abused by the elite and if you think the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t qualify, think again.
Share this with everyone you know, this election may be that last time we have a chance to stem the tide of corporate cash drowning out the voices of the electorate.
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