This is an excellent piece adding a little perspective:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-barney-frank/is-there-an-antidote-to-t_b_176538.html
19 March 2009
18 March 2009
Clown Limbaugh
President Obama has REAL responsibility. Limbaugh is an entertainer, just like Michael Jackon or Sammy Davis Jr.... an Entertainer like Jerry Lewis. If Clown Limbaugh wants to be taken seriously he'll have to run for president himself.
Progressive Patriots
Become a Progressive Patriot, the WackoRight has been wrong about everything from Slavery all the way through to Dubya's Torturing Random Afghans. It is not too late to become a liberal and start loving America. :-)
Kept us safe???
There is NO evidence that Bush prevented any significant terrorist attack on US soil before or after 9/11.
Health care debate
I read this exchange about the coming socialization of health care on a net discussion site. I thought it was funny:
Someone else is going to pay for my health care…that's great, but I would prefer to man-up and pay my own way, thanks.
Yup, mee too. and if my mother or my son needs an operation that cost more than I have in the bank, screw 'em. They'll just have to tough it out. Cus I'm a tough guy. Ain't nobody payin for MY healthcare. Heck my brother didn't have no money for the amputation he needed, so he done died of Gangrene. Left seven orphans too. But hell that's better then being a leach on society.
We here, down where we live... we're real men, why if my house caught fire, I'd be a man and fight it myself instead o having them Govmint socialists spend Taxpayer dollars on firefighters, like a liberal wimp. I don't need on Socialist Govmint tellin me how ta save my kids from no inferno.
Grover Norquist
If you drown your government in the bathtub, don't be surprised when New Orleans goes under too.
17 March 2009
Marijuana Prohibition
Someone else's commentary:
Abraham Lincoln once said two quotes about prohibition, "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes," and "A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." I believe that he is right for stating that we have rights and they should not be taken for granted. He may have not been thinking of marijuana when he made his speech, but it involves prohibition, meaning prohibition in general and of any kind.
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My commentary:
The social cost of Marijuana Prohibition is HUGE.... almost as bad as Alcohol Prohibition's cost was. It so far outweighs the benefits that it defies belief. Don't smoke weed. That's dumb. But the massive resources we put into screwing up our society based on goofy "gateway drug" theories which make no sense at all... Let's stop it NOW.
Abraham Lincoln once said two quotes about prohibition, "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes," and "A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." I believe that he is right for stating that we have rights and they should not be taken for granted. He may have not been thinking of marijuana when he made his speech, but it involves prohibition, meaning prohibition in general and of any kind.
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My commentary:
The social cost of Marijuana Prohibition is HUGE.... almost as bad as Alcohol Prohibition's cost was. It so far outweighs the benefits that it defies belief. Don't smoke weed. That's dumb. But the massive resources we put into screwing up our society based on goofy "gateway drug" theories which make no sense at all... Let's stop it NOW.
What would Reagan do?
What would Ronald Reagan do?… Here we are quickly falling into the second Great Depression of the last hundred years. Not a bad time to stop and think. What do we do now? 'Publicans, before making major decisions, like to ask “What would Ronald Reagan do?” Surely he would do the exact opposite of what Franklin Roosevelt did, right? He would stick with small government principles (like Herbert Hoover did) and watch unemployment go up from one in twenty Americans to one in four (like Herbert Hoover did). No. Not quite. If you look at reality, and not at right wing delusions, you find that Ronald Reagan greatly admired FDR and voted for him 4 times. Ronald Reagan was a Democrat back then, and he had his reasons. Were Ronnie alive today, he would do EXACTLY what Barack Obama is doing.
They were too smart
There has been a whole lot of idiocy written about the banks going belly up. One of the worst cases is the often repeated „They are idiots“
Let's make an analogy:
Say there's a dude who took a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Five years later you find out that he has made about ten times what the previous dishwasher made… and you think “Wow, this guy must have worked hard.” Then you find out that he managed to do it, without washing any dishes. You think “Surely no Christmas bonus for him this year”. But then you find out that not only does he get a bigger bonus than ever before, but he has also broken all the dishes, so that the government has to step in buy new dishes quick so that the restaurant can operate, and the dishwasher pockets another few months of his huge salary.
That dishwasher is certainly not stupid. He got rich by doing basically nothing. He is not going to jail. And he hasn't even been fired. There may be some moral issue with him implicitly agreeing to wash the dishes (which he apparently never intended to do) which were not washed and were more often broken, but the man is NOT an idiot. He operated in his own self-interest, which the extreme free-marketeers will tell you brings the greatest good to all. The current banking crisis is proof positive that Ayn Rand was dead wrong.
Let's make an analogy:
Say there's a dude who took a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Five years later you find out that he has made about ten times what the previous dishwasher made… and you think “Wow, this guy must have worked hard.” Then you find out that he managed to do it, without washing any dishes. You think “Surely no Christmas bonus for him this year”. But then you find out that not only does he get a bigger bonus than ever before, but he has also broken all the dishes, so that the government has to step in buy new dishes quick so that the restaurant can operate, and the dishwasher pockets another few months of his huge salary.
That dishwasher is certainly not stupid. He got rich by doing basically nothing. He is not going to jail. And he hasn't even been fired. There may be some moral issue with him implicitly agreeing to wash the dishes (which he apparently never intended to do) which were not washed and were more often broken, but the man is NOT an idiot. He operated in his own self-interest, which the extreme free-marketeers will tell you brings the greatest good to all. The current banking crisis is proof positive that Ayn Rand was dead wrong.
Protect the Taxpayers Act
Forget this one little drop in the bucket. The 150million to AIG traders in bonuses is tiny. The real problem is much much bigger than that.
We need a new ClawBack law. We will call it, Protect the Taxpayer Act of 09. It will say that All employees of All companies that required Federal funds to avoid bankruptcy will return all remuneration, bonuses, stock options etc, received from the Taxpayer funded company in excess of 400,000 dollars per year, retroactively for the past Three years. Any company exec who fails to return the money... will get 5 years in prison.
We need a new ClawBack law. We will call it, Protect the Taxpayer Act of 09. It will say that All employees of All companies that required Federal funds to avoid bankruptcy will return all remuneration, bonuses, stock options etc, received from the Taxpayer funded company in excess of 400,000 dollars per year, retroactively for the past Three years. Any company exec who fails to return the money... will get 5 years in prison.
13 March 2009
10 March 2009
The Price of Freedom
But really let's think for a minute about Japan at the end of WWII... there were three really ugly incidents,,, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Firebombing of Tokio [which killed more people than the two atomic blasts combined]... about a million lives were lost and I don't know how many wounded and maimed for life, but let's say lots...
Democracy, rule of law, stable democratic institutions, principles of justice, one person one vote, etc. were established and allowed to grow after the Japanese defeat.
Was it worth it? If a slaughter like that could create what we call freedom [this is hypothetical I know], would we prefer it? or would we prefer tyrrany? our lives safe but our freedom gone? cowering under the iron fist of a despot? Maybe I would take the slaughter so that the survivors could live free and with dignity.
Bolton, or one of the Neocons who created the current diaster in foreign policy thinks that Obama is not taking the threat seriously and that maybe he will when the terrorists nuke Chicago... the crowd went wild with happiness [I guess they love living in terror]... but to me, if we get hit again, it will be a small price to pay for our civil rights. Civil rights are freedom. Liberty is the right to NOT be spyed on by your own government. If some of us die because we live in freedom and unafraid then that is fine. I will never support turning this country into a police state just because the right wing is chickenshit about the NEXT TERROR ATTACK. I will NOT.
Democracy, rule of law, stable democratic institutions, principles of justice, one person one vote, etc. were established and allowed to grow after the Japanese defeat.
Was it worth it? If a slaughter like that could create what we call freedom [this is hypothetical I know], would we prefer it? or would we prefer tyrrany? our lives safe but our freedom gone? cowering under the iron fist of a despot? Maybe I would take the slaughter so that the survivors could live free and with dignity.
Bolton, or one of the Neocons who created the current diaster in foreign policy thinks that Obama is not taking the threat seriously and that maybe he will when the terrorists nuke Chicago... the crowd went wild with happiness [I guess they love living in terror]... but to me, if we get hit again, it will be a small price to pay for our civil rights. Civil rights are freedom. Liberty is the right to NOT be spyed on by your own government. If some of us die because we live in freedom and unafraid then that is fine. I will never support turning this country into a police state just because the right wing is chickenshit about the NEXT TERROR ATTACK. I will NOT.
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