I've been meaning to jump in here for a couple of days now... but first off, (and trust me when I say my intention is not to make light of a tragic situation), but given where the Republican National convention is being held next year, is there any better metaphor for the GOP than a collapsed bridge? Especially one with the letter "W" in it?

OK, that being said, I was listening to Thom talk about the documantary about FDR and almost being overthrown. I recently watched a film made in 1963/64 that had its screenplay written by Rod Serling, called Seven Days in May. Excellent film, it can be found on Amazon. It's about a possible coup by a military faction when the President is at an all-time low in the polls.

-SomeguyinWY 

Thom

It's easy to explain what happened to Bush's brain cells between the time he served as Governor and after he was appointed President.

He's gone back to drinking.

According to some economists, taxes take money out of circulation. They argue for low taxes because money goes further before being taken out of circulation. This is altogether untrue, though, because taxes go back into circulation through federal spending and investment. What matters is the total load on the economy. Money is taxed over and over again in an inifinite regress. That money does not disappear, it comes back as government spending

If accounting was no problem, the best form of taxation would be fees based on services rendered, taking externalities into account. It can be argued that corporations should be taxed based upon the load they place on the infrastructure. Corporations are by far the largest consumers of the civil justice system. They are also great abusers of public property.

Our national defense protects the property of corporations, so to a very large extent corporations should bear a large percentage of the defense budget.

The problem with the claim that costs simply get transferred to the consumer is that the externalities produce a distortion to the market because the prices do not reflect the true costs. This makes the market maladaptive.

Historians guess where they're going by looking behind them.

With all the talk about 'FREE MARKETS," is it a free market when the Fed jumps in and supports the markets with 'liquidity?' How many $Billions?
 
Can't help support the victims of the prime mortgage calamity but can support the financial market?

she has until the end of September at her job.  The law partnership is dissolving, and none of the remaining partners are able to carry her with them as they are either setting up their own office, or going to work for an existing firm.  She'll be 59 in October, and unemployment isn't enough to cover health insurance premiums (COBRA or otherwise).other than flipping burgers, job market is tight and those she would be qualified for pay crap...........................................................................................................................The Radical Fringe toons:
http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwc

 http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwc

congress do not seem to understand what the people want and polls are not the answer. i do not sit on the phone with people who call during the evenings to get my answers for a poll. poll results can be skewed to suit the outcome that is desired by the people paying for the polls. when polls give the answers that are not wanted, as in election exit polls that show show the true results of the election (as they always have) then they are dismissed as unreliable and ignored. why can we not have a national referendum or statewide referendums to really get the voice of the people? if it was proposed in congress who is going to go on record as the person who voted against letting the peiople speak, or voto it for that matter?

At least $60 was what I paid when I took one in Manchester this winter.

Calling them brilliant is exaggerating them a bit - they are really for the beginner and for those who are planning to run a more $ and volunteer intensive campaign than any I am interested in.

What I found at the New Hampshire trainings were classrooms full of students who were quite experienced at not only campaigning, but winning as Democrats in a Republican state, *taught* by people who I am not sure had accomplished that yet.

The one exception and really good class was led  by a woman from Massachusetts, and who like me, had worked on the Dean campaign in NH on '04.   She facilitated a grand discussion between all of us in her class, who she seemed to recognize as having had more experience in winning than  the leaders had.  She was great, and I sure hope there are others like her doing the DFA trainings now. 

Thom,

I am leaning with you on the takeover scenario. I think what the most of are trying to say is this. Given what Bush and Cheney have accomplished thus far, given all of the people who depended on sanity and the ability to speak out and stand up against them, look at all the damage they have done to our nation. We just don't want to get to the point where we have to find out if the people and the military will say "no". Do we really want to play a wait and see again with Bush and Cheney. I just don't know if we want to run that risk. The stakes are too high. I haven't seen any power Bush and Cheney have claimed they haven't used yet. These executive orders scare the hell out of me, given their track record of using and abusing the powers they have taken thus far. So, I ask again, do we really want to run the risk he won't concoct some scenario where he can utilize those powers he has claimed via executive order. Shouldn't we be demanding our representatives and senators deal with those issues now. If we are wrong, and they succeed, what then?

Donald Strong
Augusta, GA

Thom,

You underestimate how far along the fascist takeover of America has progressed.  I am not sure that it can be reversed by following the grass roots approach you advocate.   Conservative talk radio has brainwashed a generation of Americans to the point they do not think anymore about what is best for the country.   They are driven by greed and hatred of anyone who disagrees or is different.  They like the brownshirts take their marching orders form conservative talk radio and execute them without question when they repeat the crap to everyone they know and convince the sheep. 

Based on the FISA and the Iraq funding votes the fascists have made strong inroads into the Democratic Party.   Last fall Missourians elected Claire McCaskill to replace a Republican.    What has that done for us?    She has voted with Bush in both of those votes.    Missouri had no real choices last year between Republicans and Democrats.    It has gotten to the point where elections are like what the USSR or other despotic countries with democratic facades had.    We have only two choices due to the expense of running and both candidates are two of a kind.    

Based on my personal experience with the military I am not so sure that there would not be military personnel who would not follow Bush if he led a coup in the name of defending America.   It is sad to say that my confidence in my fellow American and our institutions has been so shaken. To change the system requires 100%publicly funded elections but any politican who comes forward to support that will be singled out by corporate donors for defeat.    Media concentration and jerrymandering only acts to make it even harder to bring true democracy to America. Look at the efforts by the media to marginalize Edwards after he cameout against media concentration.  How many times did the media play that "Dean scream" with all background sound removed  so as to marginalize that populist candidate?            

So otherwise what we really have in Iraq is
The coalition of the bribed?

Not a day goes by that I don't hear something you say that I've been saying for a long time....
GMTA or are you reading my mind?

If you are ever in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton PA area - you are welcome to our home for dinner...

If Bernie was Captain Kirk he'd say "I have to try."

One voice CAN make a difference, if it tries, and it makes for a really good fourth reel.

Impeach THEM.

Anybody know how many issues the first, second, and third congress had to deal with vs. how many issues they deal with today?
 
How about the number of issues a year after the contiguous 48 states came into existence vs. today?
 
Same for the Supreme court? 

Just can't understand what happens when even a progressive such as Bernie Sanders gets to be in the Senate and then changes and then can only look through the lens of "do-we-have-the-votes?"...what happens?  Just because one is a Senator, does one have to turn into a MILKTOAST, cowering amongst other MILKTOASTS?

If one has beliefs, one should maintain the fight for those beliefs.  Otherwise, what's the point?

If Bernie Sanders BELIEVES Bush, Cheney and Gonzales are innocent of crimes, why doesn't he just say so?  On the otherhand, if the senator suspects Bush and Cheney and Gonzales ARE  RESPONSIBLE for undermining this nation and our Constitution, how can he equivocate about available votes?!  He should STAND for what believes, one way or the other!!!

P.S.  Caller Jackie is right, the complacency is a CULTURAL expression.  Today's culture does not encourage standing up and RESISTING Bushworld!  It's a milktoast culture right now; SOUNDING sensible and rational has become more culturally important than BEING assertive and resistent and true to one's understanding of the reality of losing our freedoms and preserving our Constitition and our nation!!!  In today's American Culture, IMAGE is everything and being TRUE to what we value is secondary to how we want others to perceive us (rational/sensible).  And it is SCREWED up, because it is ultimately NOT RATIONAL or SENSIBLE to let our freedoms go just because we don't want others -- other Senators, the Republican Party, or our neighbors) --  to think we're silly and (God forbid!!) OVER-REACTING. 

These are all results of Big Pharma convincing us that depression, anxiety and unease are ILLNESS and only calmness and a Prozac Smile are "normalcy"!!!  It fits SO perfectly, doesn't it?  Because what does one feel when moved to defend the Constitution, or to speak our against Cheney and his crony War-Profiteers, or HMOs killing us for premium profits, or Corporatists polluting Planet Earth?  One feels unease, anxiety and despression -- and they can be MOTIVATORS for change except if and when one is duped to feel shame for normal emotional reactions to the THEFT and DESTRUCTION of all that's good in our nation!!!

Thom plays FDR's speech angainst the Royalists.  Please note:  There is EMOTION in FDR's voice.  He was emotionally engaged and that comes about by motivating feelings of unease/anxiousness!!!
It's OKAY for us to be emotional about stopping, controlling and containing BushCo.!

===
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.--Eleanor Roosevelt

The message needs to be spread all across the country, not just in urban areas. We need to take a page from the neo-con (artists) playbook by developing a pool of money to buy stations all across American, but not worry about making money. Many of these right-wing stations stay in business not because they are they are money-makers, but because they are there to get the message out. Do we not have people with money who have the ability to spend this kind of money?

I know it may be off topic, but it's still Friday and I thought I'd do my part by informing as many as I can about the injustices corporations - apparently even the most benign seeming - inflict upon their workers.  I posted this blog first on the Freep (The Detroit Free Press blog site) in an article about St. John now offering free parking and tv.  I got all these facts from an AFSCME letter sent to my wife.  I'm gonna try and spread the word on all the blog spots I frequent.

Did you know that after Riverview closed, St. John initially refused to allow the union members to participate in the company's job fair to find jobs elsewhere in the St. John system? They only eventually relented after constant demands from the union. Even conceding to this, St. John still demanded that the union cancel its negotiated contract or else the union members would not be allowed their rights to severence pay and job placement. This contract imparted rights to union members for recall rights, retirement, a more decent vacation time accrual rate, among other things. But St. John wanted all of that cancelled.

Eventually, as the union would not relent to such malicious intent, St. John recanted on their demands for contract cancellation. But only late in the negotiations and in the meantime, union members were not allowed their severence pay. St. John Riverview employees accrue what's called Smartime (a combination of vacation/sick time) while they work. However, St. John informed the Unemplayment Insurance Agency to consider the laid-off union employees to have accrued this time AFTER THE LAYOFF. This was a malicious attempt by "Saint" John to reduce the total unemployment benefits of the laid-off union employees. The union then filing a grievance against St. John, was given a catch-22 ultimatum. In a nutshell, "drop the grievance against us or the employees get no severance due to your stubborness".

Plunging further into depths of depravity, St. John Riverview's "Work Life Services" (Human Resources) dept. has investigated complaints from employees that were denied placement rights for reasons of disability (i.e. cancer) or FMLA claims. How did Work Life Services handle this? By asking these employees to waive their rights to legal recourse in order to recieve their severance pay. These wronged employees were placed in a situation by an organization that dares to put "Saint" in their name, to make a choice: fight the illegality of what we've done to you OR receive your severance pay.

Even lower still, the union was informed by the Unemployment Insurance Agency that the UIA was to halt payment of benefits to all laid-off union employees while the issue of severance pay was being negotiated at behest of St. John. Furthermore some employees even had difficulty receiving their retirement benefits from St. John Riverview's benefits administrator. This in effect, seems as though St. John is trying to choke off all means of payout and thus get a free ride out of the deal. (Aren't free rides supposed to be what every conservative hates?) The union not only filed grievances but filed "Unfair Labor Practice charges" with the National Labor Relations Board. The George W. Bush-appointed-Republican-ran federal agency dismissed the charges (big surprise, huh?).

So with this happening to the very people who assist in my care should I ever get sick; you mean to tell me that I am to be happy just because now my folks can park for free to visit me as I'm being cared for by overworked and undervalued health care providers?! While the nurse who's checking to see if my blood pressure and heart rate are steady is worried and distracted over possibly being fired because her hair isn't pretty enough, I'm supposed to feel like I'm in good hands? Because now I can catch the Tiger's game on tv???!!! Boy, if I worked so hard at making enemies of the very ones I depend on to keep my business afloat, I'd beef up the security presence on campus too.

"Education is dangerous - Every educated person is a future enemy" --Hermann Goering

It's really Monday in New York. Dillon is hot, and music is BIG, here in New York. The 'banker' who Thom took on and HAD to emasculte, for the sake of propriety, brought out two things which I had reflected upon over the weekend 1) we are less than animals- Aha! Gotcha? Well, they fly higher(?), run faster, leap greater ditances, swim more rapidly, dig deeper, and get into smaller places! Don't they??? 2) a female dog is NOT HUMAN, but all animals deserve our respect!!!
      But for Thom's decency...that idiot will have, say, demolished a local church, to put up a high-rise condo, for the middle class to suffer. (because this evil procedure was started by Trump, last year!)
      Have a good week!!! :bug:

Rudolf Giuliani isn't one of the first responders at 911. That is obvious because he doesn't have the scars to prove it.

Friday 10 August '07

Upcoming Events: Thom will be attending screenings of Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie THE 11TH HOUR on August 17 in Los Angeles, CA (two), August 20 and 21 in New York City, and August 24 in San Francisco. For details see Thom's schedule.

"Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.

"Anything goes" Friday.

The blue dog Democrats giving the Republicans the majority. What we can do.

When would the hard right wing, the armed survivalists, be side by side with the left?

Impeachment.