Daily Topics - Tuesday March 30th 2010
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It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds -- Samuel Adams
Hour One - Is America failing because we don't have enough socialism? Peter Ferarra www.theacru.org
Hour Two - Should citizen activism take the form of a coffee party or a shotgun?
Plus...Paul Loeb www.soulofacitizen.org "Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times"
Hour Three - Elizabeth Ames Jones Texas Railroad Commissioner, running for U.S. Senate (R-TX) www.jonesfortexas.com Why do Texas politicians always want to suck up to “Big Oil” and ignore the cost to the rest of the country?
Comments
Perhaps Thom can tell us more about these anti-government militias in Michigan, which according to a NY Times story are so commonplace that most people there don’t regard their existence as a “big deal.” One might recall last spring when a DHS report on the potential for domestic terrorism was derided by the right, and Janet Napolitano felt obliged to downplay it (you always have to be aware of the tender sensitivities of right-wing terrorists). The arrest of nine members of a Michigan militia calling themselves the “Hutaree” apparently stopped a plot to kill a police officer, and then bomb the subsequent police funeral procession in the hopes of starting an anti-government “war.” One wonders if this had been successful who the initial “suspects” would have been, but with federal involvement the right people were caught in time.
On the Hutaree website, there are blogs entitled “Evil Jew Forum” and “Weapons—the things you kill with.” You have to admit people who belong to groups like this are either really dumb or really “courageous,” because they make no attempt to hide their intentions and are still able to walk the streets unmolested; the Weather Underground people themselves were never caught, they just got tired of outwitting the FBI and turned themselves in. The “surprising” thing is that groups like the Hutaree exist in a climate where they are not only tolerated but often supported and even given unsubtle encouragement by public figures like Sarah Palin..
@harry What was a pigeon doing in your pajamas?? =)
@Wendy: I think it was the "Funky Chicken."
ROFL
I was listening to Ed Schultz yesterday when a caller began talking about the hate-filled rhetoric on the radio, and she was waiting for the Arbitron ratings to come out on the station she called the worst offender, and her hope that a low-rating would force this hate-filled filth off the air. She identified the station as AM1090, which coincidentally happens be the local progressive talk radio station in Seattle. Schultz cut her off, because he was afraid that he was about to tell her where she could put her observations. It never ceases to amaze me how haters like this caller hate being called haters.
Schultz does have his weaknesses, however. Like Stephanie Miller, who refers to Pat Buchanan as her “daddy,” Schultz has more than a passing fondness for this “friend.” Why is it that so many white people on the left regard this xenophobe and racial bigot a “friend?” This man literally shakes with suppressed rage and hatred on air whenever he defends bigotry or attacks all forms of “multiculturalism.” Is it because he’s “affable” to other white people? Or he is simply stating things that they secretly believe? Last year I wrote a long post detailing just a fraction of Buchanan’s sins, which he habitually spews forth with little push-back. Schultz talked to him yesterday concerning the tea party “movement,” and allowed him to deny, despite all empirical evidence, that social, cultural and racial paranoia motivated in large part this almost wholly white, fringe-right enterprise.
Schultz didn’t ask Buchanan why he defended the tea baggers who acted indecently toward Bob Letcher, a disabled man (Buchanan thought he was deliberately “dragged” there by lefties to cause an embarrassing video bite), nor did he ask him if tea partiers felt they were “marginalized,” why they didn’t come out during the Bush years when there was a net growth of 2 million jobs, while their predecessors came out in force during the Clinton administration, when 22 million jobs were created. Perhaps because Bush gave then objects to channel their hate, like Muslims and Mexicans? Because now they see a black man trying to take over “their” country? Buchanan himself has written whole books on how America’s Anglo-Saxon-Arian-Nordic “heritage” is under threat by dark-skinned “barbarians.” I found it interesting that when a steel union representative mentioned yesterday that a solar panel manufacturing plant had been moved to China, it barely registered with Schultz; yet a few months ago when a caller fulminated about jobs going to Mexico, Schultz enunciated “Mexico” as if it was a word almost too filthy to speak. No doubt his “friend” Pat Buchanan helps him along with this attitude, which does Schultz no credit—or anyone else who engages in it. Buchanan’s race hatred (as well as that of his sister Bay’s) unlike that of clowns like Beck and Hannity is real and palpable.
re: hour 3: " Why do Texas politicians always want to suck up to “Big Oil” and ignore the cost to the rest of the country?"
answer: 'cause they want to get elected.
"All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand." -steven wright
Socialism vs Privatization
To the folks who think the private sector can always do it better; isn't the Bank bailout, and the need for Health Care reform, examples that the private sector can really mess things up as well. The main difference with the private sector is that a CEO can get really rich screwing things up!
Chomsky: Obama is ‘delivering, but for financial institutions’
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0329/chomsky-banks/
Democrats, Republicans, it really doesn't matter; the Corporations own them both.
So, I thought I would do a search on Don Siegelman and clicked on the news icon...
Is Rahm Emanuel Providing Cover for Karl Rove and GOP Thugs?
Roger Shuler
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Is-Rahm-Emanuel-Providing-by-Roger-Shul...
hmm.
Rove was on Leno last night, reportedly.
"A Hippie is someone who walks like Tarzan, looks like Jane and smells like Cheetah." -ronald reagan
There is an article in WSJ (link below) that tries to defend the Tea party by going deeper into a recent poll to show how the media distorts these people. I think it only shows how discombobulated they are. LOL
The part I like best.....
"A government-run health care plan"--described as socialism by 72%
However....And this is where their minds must completely blow up...
Fewer than 10 percent say the Veterans Administration is definitely socialist, 12 percent identify management of national parks and museums, and 36 percent say expanding Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor and Social Security amount to socialism.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230437030457515176065847261...
As Garrison Keillor says, "if you're of average intelligence, you're smarter than half the people you meet."
Boehner eats 80 - 90 carrots a day. :D "Bugs" Boehner"
I think Boehners healthy orange glow comes from carotene overdose.
Whenever Boehner takes a leak, all Syracuse graduates salute!
@DRichards re: Socialism vs Privatization, I agree with your point. Perhaps bank fees, and health insurance costs should be simply renamed so people understand that essentially they're paying regardless. So I propose instead of paying bank fees, you're paying the bank a tax, instead of paying your health insurance bill, your paying your health insurance tax.
I know this may not be so well thought out. But my point being, too many people think if they're not paying a tax, they're getting to choose to pay or not pay, but they're not. Simpletons need simple language, I guess.
Woman tries to make citizen's arrest of Karl Rove at book signing
By WIRE SERVICES
Story Published: Mar 30, 2010 at 1:03 AM PDT
BEVERLY HILLS -- Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove left a book signing in Beverly Hills early Monday night because of disruptions by opponents of U.S. involvement in the Iraq War.
Jodie Evans, a co-founder of Code Pink, tried to make a citizen's arrest of Rove, and advanced toward him with a pair of handcuffs at the Saban Theatre.
Jay Leno invites Karl Rove to bondage club
By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 -- 11:48 am
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0330/leno-invites-rove-bondage-club/
Rove had a busy night...
@Zero G. At least Rove left the Tonight Show to go to a more wholesome place..
@Zero G. At least Rove left the Tonight Show to go to a more wholesome place..
@Zero G. At least Rove left the Tonight Show to go to a more wholesome place..
Oh, the horrors of war: " Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans" - headline from leftwingwacko.com
Anybody have a link or reference for that breakdown on the little girl's debt apportioned to the various presidents?
Thanks,
Rick
On Language (with a bow to the author of natering nabobs...)
The Hutaree do appear to be alleged terrorists, however improvised explosive devices, even shaped charges are not WMD...
Term: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Definition:
Weapons of mass destruction are weapons capable of inflicting massive destruction to property and/or population, using chemical, biological or radioactive material. Weapons of Mass Destruction are also known by the abbreviation WMD.
http://www.army-technology.com/glossary/weapons-of-mass-destruction.html
Never agreed with Mr. Safire, but I learned alot about the use of language from him.
re: Thom's Coffee Party or Shotgun which is the better way for citizen activism?
Well all I know is that violence is an answer.... a bad answer that generally devolves into a distorted perverse mockery of a solution to the problem that spawned it.
Head start on April 1st?
Sad part is it will become Fox-Gospel..
http://www.thefoxnation.com/global-warming/2010/03/29/global-warming-act...
Check Snopes; it was crap three years ago..
Feh,
Rick
(Hear about the climate change denier posing for a picture, crushed by a calving glacier? Irony.. thayats whut a blacksmith does, right?)
Hootery? Is that the Republican group that meets at the strip clubs?
Rick
@Rick..hear the one about the misguided protester who laid down in front of a think tank?
Me neither.
"Abraham Lincoln went to school for less than a year. He taught himself to read and write. " -that'swierd.net
Seditious conspiracy is a serious charge. You do not have to commit an attack against the American government to be considered a terrorist. You can plan an attack to be considered a terrorist. It seems to me the Teabag Movement is a terrorist organization that can do great harm to our country.
A mortal sin is similar. You do not actually have to kill a person to commit a mortal sin. You can plan or desire great harm to another person or persons to commit a mortal sin.
We can learn a great deal from evil and terrorist organizations, like the Teabag Movement, the Republican Politicians, and the Radical Christian Fundamentalists.
Here is my prediction. Unless there are re-regulations in controlling the banksters and the crooks and thieves on Wall Street and higher tariffs on incoming products and drastic tax increases levied on the rich, we will experience a deep and massive depression that will take three or four generations to resolve. The reason why I believe our depression will linger for sixty to eighty years is that we do not have good-paying manufacturing to help bring relief from a long-lasting depression. Is Max Baucus reinventing him as the saint who saved health care reform? The corruption in our country is making me continuously nauseous.
@Rick. i don't understand the blacksmith reference?
Harry,
Just 'iron-working'.. irony etc..
Cheers,
Rick
@Rick, sorry, missed that one. Wrought steam iron for sale.
LOL! guess what I just did! I became a fan of Sarah Palin on Facebook and I typed this into her post today asking us how we all are:
Woah, the progressive radio shows are really after Sarah- Here are links to listening online. Call in and give them hell! http://www.progressiveradio.blogspot.com/
A Journalist's Gamble with Indonesia's Special Forces
by Damien Kingsbury
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/30-2
American journalist Allan Nairn's game of cat and mouse with the Indonesian military is a brave attempt to show that it continues to represent the greatest challenge to Indonesia's process of reform and democratisation. It is also one that could well see him spending time - potentially up to six years - in an Indonesian prison.
Nairn recently detailed how the Indonesian military's special forces, Kopassus, continued to be involved in illegal activities, including murdering civilians. His report comes at a time when the US is considering renewing direct support for Kopassus, after having banned working with it more than 10 years ago.
US President Barak Obama says that the US military should resume full military to military co-operation with the Indonesian armed forces, the TNI, as a result of their reform. Military contact was broken off in 1996, following the 1991 Dili Massacre in which 300 or more people were murdered by the Indonesian military. Nairn was in Dili during the massacre and was himself seriously beaten by TNI members.
Rosa Parks was actually the 2nd. Unfortunately the woman who did it a few weeks before is unknown to most of us.
@KMH, going in as a covert Palinista. That's funny, keep sowing discord among them.
Two strikes for me from this guy. !- I acted alone by posting on Sarah Palin's Facebook Page and 2- I acted behind my computer!
Well....
@Nels- help me out bro -- al we need to do is lure them over here.... Thom'll take care of them then :) 'Give me your yoke'
@KMH, I don't even have a facebook account. I've never been very keen on the social network sites.
@KMH and Nels: I doubt the efficacy of that tactic 'cause you would have to lure people out of the warm dark waters of denial.
@harry, why do I get the feeling that those waters were relatively cold and shallow until moments after they jumped in adding their own personal water to the pool?
@harry, wendy - sorry got in late today -
When did Groucho sign up with Thom Hartmann.com?
@Nels...urine the right neighborhood!
@mstaggerlee sorryi don't get the groucho reference. do you, wendy?
I don't get the groucho reference either-
@Nels- get on Facebook!
Tip when signing up for Facebook - dont use your real name. I am stuck with using mine because I lack the time to sign up a second time. Once they have your IP- you cant fool them with an alias.
@Mark K -Buchannan often gets a pass for his overt racism because he does lean towards progressive economics, and he publicly voiced opposition for GWB's Iraq war policies. If you ever watch The McLaughlin Group on Sunday mornings, it is absolutely AMAZING how often Buchannan seems to be "the voice of reason".
Why a duck, why not a pigeon...
@KMH, I don't even think I can from behind my firewall. Those type of sites are blocked (heck I have a hard time getting simple images to download from different sites)
I just shot a pigeon in my pajamas!