If energy wasn’t a big deal two years ago, it certainly is today. Last December, the nation was looking at fuel shortages and unprecedented prices. Since then, the national cost of fuel has leveled somewhat with a mild increase. Americans know the reality of what we are up against in a personal sense. That is our reality. The political reality is different as government looks for new ways to control costs of the market, market consumption and garner authority. Meanwhile, the cost of travel has been in and out of control with no real relief in sight in a large, expansive country that depends on affordable transportation. New energy is the promise.
From the beginning, President Obama has painted the energy picture as a moral issue. He sees energy legislation as a chance to right U.S. lifestyle in combination with managing even thornier business concerns. He points to regulatory direction as a means to steer the way to eventual energy independence. In his view, business will follow.
President Obama supports the implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s cap-and-trade system originally required all pollution credits to be auctioned. In the past, President Obama has emphasized a 100 percent auction, ensuring that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions released, instead of giving emission rights away to coal and oil companies. He has loosely specified that some of the revenue generated by auctioning allowances will be used to support the development of clean energy, to invest in energy efficiency improvements, and to address transition costs, including helping American workers affected by this economic transition, which undoubtedly heralds more while collar and government jobs. The indication in his presentation is that extra money will be available for other ideas or other governmental purposes.
What the caps are will ultimately be determined by law makers. Know that caps will tighten over time. The whole purpose of cap and trade is to place a financial burden on emitters to force them to change. This means raising prices over time. The same principle that applies to the big polluters can be quickly applied to you, especially if you live in an air-conditioned mansion and drive gas guzzlers. To date, there has not been a mention of American citizens being forced to buy emissions permits, but the possibility is a clear and present danger.
Don’t forget, regardless of how small you think you are, you have a carbon footprint that is taxable at some later date. Emissions trading, which could become an investment banker’s next monetary haven, has won support from corporations and lawmakers, despite the admission that many of them worry that strict global warming limits could damage the U.S. economy. The truth is that big corporates aren’t worried at all. Considering the corporate mindset of moving job and plants to more friendly territories overseas, cap and trade emissions may well have a chilling effect on many American jobs and the future potential of job markets in those areas that comply fully with global movement in cap and trade legislation.
The cornerstone of cap and trade is the creation of an emissions trading system, in which “entities” are given limits for their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and then are allowed to buy and sell their excess or deficit emissions as if they were financial securities, much like the European model. In the end, regardless of the moans, big business can make money from the cap-and-trade system. The cap-and-trade on the surface is easier to manipulate. Manipulation of the system is an American favorite.
Some environmentalists also warn that environmental trading systems hurt minorities and the poor based on actions already seen in Europe. The cap-and-trade system in Europe has resulted in the concentration of pollution in low-income communities. Cap-and-trade policies have been tried in Europe and they have proven to be disastrous by admission of some European authorities. European emissions have continued to climb despite attempts to ‘control the market’. While this could be considered as a negative, an economic boom usually results in increased economic activity as well as more pollution. This is a reality of the past that environmental trading hopes to change.
The subject of all this legislation, global warming, has been the subject of considerable hype and little hard-nosed analysis. Even so, Al Gore does have the Nobel Prize. Still, politicians the world over are in favor of legislation because it designs a new power structure and means to generate operating “capital”.
Depending on legislation, American business and users of energy including the American public must pay more for the privilege of using energy. That privilege will be redefined. The cost of energy permits has been estimated at $6.7 trillion in the year 2050. The government makes money to distribute the plan as it sees fit while every American consumer pays for the entire scheme.
Cap-and-trade legislation, like free trade agreements, amounts to economic disarmament over time since U.S. maintains almost no control over business multinationals. The U.S. economy is suffering now from the loss of consumer confidence, elevated gas prices, a devalued dollar and inflationary costs. Do Americans really have to choose between economic growth and environmental protection? American politics refused to address the truth.
Cap-and-trade could theoretically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases emitted by the United States even though it has not been successful so far. Are emissions reduced in other industrialized nations? No. China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest pollution emission source. China is required to do nothing. As a result, nothing is really achieved. The pollution is simply moved elsewhere and so are jobs.
If you’ve been tuned in to the news at all, taxpayer bailout recipient General Motors has featured prominently. The United States Federal Government has used economic stimulus credit to keep GM operating because GM is too big to fail. Where would America be without General Motors, now Government Motors, considering the jobs that could be lost or considering the landscape of the American auto industry? General Motors is now looking for hundreds of millions of dollars in state government aid to locate its new small car production in the United States as thousands of job hang in the balance. Idled assembly plants in Michigan, Tennessee and Wisconsin are in the running for economic extortion as state governments are held hostage for jobs. Yet, many job seekers are jumping for joy as GM moves jobs from overseas to America, at least theoretically.
Now that General Motors is nearly 70 percent taxpayer-owned, you would think that there would be a little respect for taxpayers since taxpayers are now funding General Motor’s corporate existence. With new management hand-picked by Barack Obama himself, you might expect new thinking outside the box of corporate thought. That is hardly the case. For the American that is watching closely, the nation has a true revelation into the minds of corporate executives that seek to run the world for their own good and profit. In this case, apparently GM executives haven’t given their continued corporate existence a second thought. Apparently, egos continue to run high.
Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen quipped regarding the future of the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee: “They don’t care about tax credits and those other kinds of things. It certainly was a new look for me at how they’re approaching this thing, which is absolutely, ‘Tell me how big of a check you’re going to write.’ “
In accepted corporate style, General Motors is now seeking a bidding war over American jobs for cash incentives from state governments where GM manufacturing plants reside. It isn’t enough that corporate executives are holding a loaded gun pointed at America as we blithely accept this dilemma as part of life dictated by fascist corporates. The essence of reality is that the Federal Government is holding American jobs hostage in a new and unique way by continuing to allow big business multinationals to operate the way they do, even when taxpayers own the company. Economic judgment is no longer based simply on economics, but how much extra cash that can be extorted in the name of jobs. To carry this line of thinking to its’ ultimate conclusion, taxpayers are holding themselves hostage as GM executives seek out the best deal and who will get the prize plum of thousands of jobs via fascist extortion…all funded by the U.S. government and your tax dollars. ~ E. Manning
As Rush Limbaugh leads the Right-Wing Lunatic Fringe in the calculated spread of fear and hate, their desired outcomes are becoming a grim reality. As each corpse is laid at our feet, Americans of good character must pause to consider why and perhaps how these twisted icons find any measure of success, progress or even personal peace.
Clearly Limbaugh is the most well know and a vocal employer of outrageous tactics where radical and mean-spirited rhetoric is concerned. Even so, Limbaugh also manages to enlist support from a wide variety of his colleagues and like-minded politicians. Names like O’Reilly, Hannity, Colter, Bachman, Palin and Gingrich have become synonymous with the extreme conservative ideology that by their public statements, support inciting Americans to do harm to each other. They preach that Americans are to “kill” each other to satisfy their political, social, religious and moral arguments. So rabid are Limbaugh and so many right-wing media and political figures that they have issued a “call to arms” to the worst elements of American Society. This call to arms is plainly against America herself!
It is clear to me that the United States of America is evolving. The historic election of the nation’s new President is evidence enough of that. The most startling aspect of this new political milestone is that he was elected by a broad cross-section of our citizens. Americans of good will exercised their right to cast a vote for the leader of their choosing. Even for me, the outcome of this election was stunning. The election was also a litmus test, an indication that the old ghosts of the American psyche, ghosts of ignorance and apathy are fading.
As an event, the November Presidential Election was a magnificent social landmark. And as amazing and uplifting as it was, it is now clear, that to a segment of our society, the election result was an absolute worst-case nightmare. I cannot begin to imagine where such deep-seated fears and hatreds are rooted. As I have listened to the outrageous attacks and conspiracy theories, I am now convinced that there are those among us, other American citizens, who are absolutely convinced that there is a plot underway to destroy “their country”.
As for the concept of the proverbial “their country”, I doubt that I will ever be clear on what that means. I have repeatedly heard charges from right-wing conservatives of anti-Americanism. I have no ability to discern what that is supposed to mean either. I do believe that America is “the great social experiment”. I recognize that some in this country are extremely wary of people of different ethnicities and of people who harbor various ideologies that are not coincident with their personal beliefs. Still I must restate that the concept of American Culture and American Government is rooted in the stated purpose of recognizing the rights of all people. Truly the demographics of America have changed. The rules as applied by the Constitution have not.
I am continually baffled by those who seek to impose their moral, religious and social impressions of “their America” on other American citizens, who only seek to live their personal and very different “American Dream” according to their own personal desires. That’s all I see. Most Americans choose to live and peacefully co-exist according to their individual desires over a broad expanse of religious, non-religious, sexual, political, cultural and social morays. So what is the perceived problem with that? Where is the threat? What legal prohibitions exist for depriving such freedoms of choice and peaceful existence in America? What am I missing?
The only logical and rational conclusions I can draw from the intensifying and mean-spirited rhetoric combined with hateful and violent acts that are taking place is that they are rooted in selfishness and myopia. The thought process that many within the conservative right-wing of this nation says that Americans are not permitted these choices of freedom. They hold that the conservative right-wing ideologies represent the true spirit and model of the American way of life. Those who live outside of this political, social and intensely religiously-specific model are not good Americans. Let me rephrase that. Those who do not subscribe to the right-wing conservative ideologies are somehow anti-American. Apparently they believe that they, and only they, know the only ways Americans may look, love, live, think and worship.
This right-wing exclusive thinking is pretty simple to understand although it is not the least bit rational, and certainly not emblematic of the rich diversity that American life has evolved into. We must not fail to mention those additional small details contained in our founding documents and governing documents; “the Declaration of Independence, “the Constitution” and “the Bill of Rights”. The documents are intended to guarantee all Americans their freedoms to live peacefully according to their beliefs and desires.
I am left only to speculate. Perhaps those on the extreme right in this country missed or overlooked the social transitions that have taken place in this nation over the past forty or fifty years. Or perhaps they have simply been steaming and seething in hatred all of this time, as America has welcomed all from around the world and opened her eyes to accept broader viewpoints on lifestyle choices and sensitive social and moral issues. Perhaps they really just want to go back in history to the good ole days as one entertainer put it: “The days when TV was in black and white and so was everything else”. This was a time when certain peoples and women were treated and viewed to be some percentage less capable and less significant. I remain baffled as to how the right could reasonable imagine an American existence to be other than that which we are currently exist within. I am convinced that there will be no going back. True American ideology and freedom has a life of its own. We live in the now, not in the past.
The fear and hate mongers will continue to feed their demons. There are many frustrations and challenges that all Americans currently face even without the antagonists. But we must not pretend that the strains that some feel, due to incendiary and pointed negative verbal attacks are not now yielding deadly results. These are no longer simply selfish, power hungry ego-centric fools entertaining and manipulating people for self serving purposes, if that wasn’t shameful enough.
Now we are witnessing the awakening of the worst elements of our society on command. Right-wing conservative lunatics drone their mantras of hate and fear to the feeble, ignorant, desperate and vulnerable that they are controlling through the media and sacrificing in the name of the cause to death or imprisonment. They are knowingly doing so to further their agendas and twisted moral, social and religious arguments. As long as they can periodically shock or frighten the dormant “lone wolf” or worse, “a group” into further violent action that might cast a pall on the American psyche they will continue to feel empowered. Through these provoked violent actions, they hope these actions will somehow reflect badly on the government and obviously our President. They vainly long for the day that they might again gain control and convince the majority of a progressive population that they would really rather go back to the Bush/Cheney years or sometime into the past.
Does it really make any sense that America will voluntarily regress into the past? Does it seem that the majority of our electorate and population believe that America has been somehow hijacked as those on the right would have us believe? Or is it that they believe that we don’t understand that they are actually the ones trying to hijack our freedoms. I have never lived in small town America, but I fully support anyone’s choice to live that quaint way of life. I have never worshiped in a Synagogue, but I celebrate my American brethren who do. I also understand that the self-serving demagogues on the right are privileged to speak their manipulative minds as free Americans. I can accommodate such nonsense because it is the American Way and because ultimately I believe that the demons within these demented few will be overtaken by the better angels within our masses.
These “better angels” support the direction this nation has taken and have voiced that opinion through their votes and with their support. When murderers take the lives or our doctors, soldiers and law enforcement officers on command as they respond to the messages of hate that saturate their lives, we are hurt and sickened. America remains both watchful and resolute. That resolve is what brought us here today. That resolve and the undisputed, undeniable growing good among the people of this nation is what has changed America.
The leadership of the Republican Party has crumbled under the weight of a corrupt and ignorant Bush/Cheney legacy. The only remaining shreds of their party is the conservative Christian right-wing base. From within them come the voices that would prefer to awaken sleeping rabid dogs than to function as reasonable Americans. They are the antithesis of what the American ideal represents and ironically are boldly using a warped mantra of anti-Americanism to galvanize their forces in an effort to do what is destructive to our social fabric and counter to national interest. We will be resolute and this too shall pass. As the last bastion of white male-dominated society (to borrow a phrase from Pat Schroeder) marches toward geriatrics, their dwindling numbers are drowned in progressive liberalism. We will continue to hear their screams of horror as this nation continues to blossom socially. Rest assured the rhetoric from the right will be no less hateful, insidious or ridiculous.
Let us only hope, and pray if we must, that their orchestrated campaign of evil and violence will fail as resoundingly as their closed-minded politics due to their moral and social turpitude.
America has undergone many periods of social transition and we have survived them all. If you question our ability to endure and overcome yet another transition, I can tell you that this American believes with unwavering confidence… “Yes…we can”.
A tragedy recently evolved from an incident at the Holocaust Museum in Washington as an elderly white supremacist attacked what he hated in his distorted mind. Some perceive that the deluded von Brunn was attempting another mass-murder of Jews. Who can know fully the sickness that pervaded von Brunn’s mind beyond what he publicly espoused? What he spewed is so distasteful, I wouldn’t lower myself to read his racial pornography online as the media gleefully did. Gratefully, a security guard prevented further carnage from what could have been much worse. Even better was the idea that von Brunn acted alone in a last desperate act like the dead man that he was. This scene simply illustrates the tension of the nation in post-911 America as more and more medicated psychopaths and eccentrics have taken their own brand of justice into their own hands that they seek to imprint upon the nation with their own terrorism.
It is easy to proclaim dissenting opinion as hatespeech. This is expedient and oftens quiets all but the most heartfelt and hard core proponents of any viewpoint, no matter how noble or how rotten. As a result of this ordeal in Washington, prickles of resentment are festering into confrontational attacks against dissenting viewpoints. Republicans, no saints by any measure, are now being painted as racist hatemongers for possessing a divergent viewpoint that the attacker desires to distort into hatespeech. The attacks on diverse opinions have began to rise to the level of the very hatespeech that hatespeech seeks to defame. Hatespeech, however powerful and arresting, transcends the hackles of ordinary resentment. Like resentment, hatespeech always seeks to blame whether that blame is realistic or not. Enough resentment and hatred always results in murder or destruction of one kind or the other.
The fact remains that dissent and resentment is nothing new, perhaps as old as mankind itself. Both dissent and resentment have reared up time and time again in this nation and often for very good reasons. One aspect of dissenting views has existed for hundreds of years in slavery and the struggle for equality in America, an ideal that we have never fully achieved. Many outspoken men and women have stood out to express their views, hateful or otherwise in the course of this nation’s development. Yet, this nation prides itself on the ideals of democracy and divergent ideas. Divergent ideas, no matter how extreme, have not been branded as hatespeech until the uprising of a new breed of political thought that seeks to purify our national mind through legalistic control. Social disapproval is no longer enough. We must brand any dissent or disagreement with what is politically popular as hatespeech if possible to quiet the waters of humanity. Yet, for better or worse, dissenting opinion sometimes contains the seeds from which great and sweeping positive changes often originate.
Where does the problem lie beyond sick, twisted and slanderous words and thought? Hatespeech seeks to label in order to promote what is politically expedient and recommended at any given time. Hatespeech seeks to label without condition. Yet, most often, labeling ordinary conversation as hatespeech is simply more labeling and often accusatory slander.
There is no Environmental Protection Agency to measure hate pollution in national dialogue. Suddenly, not having a regulator of national dialogue is a bad thing. Award-winning journalist Michael Rowe penned an article today in which he hopes to cast the shadow of hatespeech and racism on the divergent opinions of Republican miscreants like Coulter, Limbaugh, McCain, Palin and now von Brunn as one and the same. Anyone that thinks independently has to find this a hard sell, even if you hate what Republicans stand for.
Didn’t the nation vote for Barack Obama in confidence, hoping for a better and stronger nation in opposition to what Bush and the Congress had brought upon the nation? Meanwhile, the nation is still being run by the same Congress. Still, Republicans lost the Presidential election. So why are Democrat sycophants and revisionists trying to continue to beat the war drums as if all is lost if the nation doesn’t walk in lockstep to the political flavor of the season? They have the strength of the nation behind their leader. How is the inflammatory hatespeech that procedes from the mouths of divergent politicos any different from the thinking of James von Brunn? The difference is that von Brunn presumably didn’t care if you agreed with him or not. Hatespeech proponents are after your heart and mind and seek to manipulate you with fear and loathing instead of righteous reason. This is the call of abusive politics devoid of all morality.
Voices of reason have long proclaimed that the only key to a decent future is a college education as we trumpet excess, luxury and credit for all. The halls of academia do not suit every temperament, nor can the world operate only through the league of white collar employment and office jobs. Who will take care of the national infrastructure, manufacturing and all those green jobs that the nation has been promised?
A sedentary, artery-clogging, boss-centered lifestyle is not a requirement to exist in America. Yet, hundreds of thousands of American youth have been or continue to buy into massive college loans if credit is available. College loans are not a guarantee of success. Nearly half of students who start college will drop out before graduating. Where will they go? What will they do? Will they roam the streets unemployed? Our country has been facing major workforce shortages for years, which have been taken up by illegals in many cases. The employment of illegals are the latest attempt by big business and government to create a new subclass of American worker in which to found a new nation based on a new societal caste system.
Without question, the nation has been suffering where jobs are concerned, brought about by nothing less than white collar crime. You can’t really talk about careers since corporates nip millions of so-called careers in the bud every year due to their own self-interest. That reality existed before the recession stripped the nation of what millions of Americans see as their only self-respect in the eyes of big business: the job.
America has been convinced that working a corporate job is the only way to live. The white collar job has been sold as the American stock and trade. The federal government has been very happy with this campaign as corporations and big business are highly complicit with federal law and the collection of taxes. As a result of this nearsighted approach, the American labor force has been selling itself short and has allowed itself to be deluded about the future and personal potential for the future.
We are being told that only by following rules and leadership of big business, the corporate and the academic world, can Americans possibly prosper. Has this proclaimed fact proved to be true? Are you truly being prospered now? Has the nation prospered? Think for yourself. You are your own best friend and are fully capable of supporting yourself if you are willing to think outside the box that the government, big business and corporates have made for you. There is hope. Great personal success can exist outside the cubicle. You are not a slave…at least not per the founding documents of America. ~ E. Manning
When former President Dick Cheney is convicted of War Crimes and sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in prison, we, ‘the collective American people’ may finally be compelled to take time to mourn. To mourn is not for the former Vice President, but for all whom he ordered brutalized, and all those around the world that his politics condemned to an untimely death.
On the whole it appears to me that the shock and horror of what has transpired as a result of the ineptitude, hubris and greed on the part of our last presidential administration has yet to be fully absorbed within the American psyche. Many of us remain fixed on partisan ideologies that we had been spoon-fed by past leadership and even today, by the right wing media. Given the power of the fear and anger which fuel these hollow concepts, we have been comfortable with various justifications for heinous and callous acts that have had negative implications in the U.S. and worldwide. These implications are the truth that many Americans remain unwilling to acknowledge or reasonably consider.
I must admit that it is stunning to have to imagine what the likely outcomes might be where torture and the Iraq war are concerned. For many, it is inconceivable to think that a people at the highest levels of our executive branch of our government could be guilty of crimes that contributed to the deaths of untold numbers around the world. To date we know that crimes have been committed where torture is concerned. There is no longer any rational debate to be held regarding what is, and what is not torture. It seems that the most spirited discussion on this matter in Washington now centers around who knew what about the implementation and uses of these methods and when. There is no doubt that at some point this discussion may yield more information on all who may be culpable in this historic tragedy.
One painful truth is certain. Many are armed with vital information on what transpired. Those are coming forth to state their discontent with the Office of the former Vice President and the man himself. Incredibly, Mr. Cheney has taken it upon himself in recent months to make numerous public statements reiterating the importance and effectiveness of his professed program of enhanced interrogation. This program is torture to the most of the nation and the rest of the world and one of the cornerstones of the Bush/Cheney war on terror. He has continued to verify his program without any apparent concern, belief that he is verifying his own culpability or ‘the possibility’ of his direct involvement and guilt.
As intriguing as all of the news surrounding Torture Gate may be, I think it may be time for America to redirect our focus on this matter. The laws and treaties outlawing torture and the findings of the International Red Cross have painted a clear picture of the atrocities that have been wrought. As I have explained in a previous column, there are specific precedents for legal actions and subsequent convictions on record as appropriate reactions to such war crimes. It is also noteworthy to mention that if there was any confidence in Washington that charges and trials are not forthcoming, there would most probably be far less discussion about investigations, truth commissions and efforts to direct responsibility or blame.
The sanctioned program of torture that evolved under the leadership of the former administration was only a byproduct of a much bigger and sinister plot. This was a plot to carry out a war for political purposes. This war was intended primarily to craft and secure a hollow legacy of leadership. It is becoming abundantly clear to Americans and the rest of the world that former President Bush and Vice President Cheney sent thousands of our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers and friends and family members off to die in Iraq. They did so, but not because they feared a threat from Iraq. They prevailed because they wanted to impose their political will on that nation. They believed that doing so would inject a healing virus of democracy and peace in the troubled Middle East. They wanted to be remembered in history as conquering heroes. The presidential icon status they longed for would surely mirror the likes of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan. They were so confident in their misguided crusade, that they told us before they sent troops off to die that “…we will be greeted as liberators”. This route was constructed more than seven years ago. Now the toll of our American dead nears five thousand.
Fragmented and comparatively small was the coalition which supported the U.S. in the Iraq war. Other members of the coalition have welcomed home their dead. This says nothing of the people of the sovereign nation of Iraq who have died in untold numbers. When Dick Cheney goes to prison, many around the world will have to pause and ask themselves how such a thing could happen. Perhaps they will learn that the politics of fear following 911 swept a nation and that the powerful few within our own government seduced us with fearful, even hateful emotion. Sadly, they did so primarily to promote and their heighten world images in their own minds and to craft future heroic personal legacies. In this twisted ploy to become heroes, they failed as miserably as they did in the conduct of and unjust war.
The carnage continues. As is always the case, the truth continues to be unveiled. The American people and the world population deserve justice and apology for the scheme that has been thrust upon them. They need closure and vindication from this shame. There may be delays in the process, but there will be no denying that those responsible for needless death on such a massive scale must, and ultimately will, be called to answer for the delusion in judgment.
It is my belief that a domestic or world court will convene before long. Sadly, it is my further belief that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be indicted, convicted and appropriately sentenced for his crimes. No doubt, former President George W. Bush is destined to realize the same fate.
At the end of the day, the final question does not focus on Dick Cheney going to prison. The ultimate question at this point is only: Who will be going to prison with him? At some point along the way or on the day that fair judgments have been handed down, I hope that all of us, each in our own way, will take time to remember the dead…
Americans continue to root for jobs as they polish their resumes. Many are begging for anything to put a few dollars in their pockets. When listening to the media about jobs today, the federal government and ever hopeful media would have you get extraordinarily excited about yet another glimmer of hope on the economic horizon. Ongoing claims for unemployment insurance declined for the first time since January and the number of initial claims fell slightly. This is the first time in 17 weeks that the United States has not set a record in jobless claims. Is this really the good news that government sycophants claim?
Statistically speaking, the federal government reported that 6,735,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ending May 23, a decrease of 15,000 from revised figures. 621,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the week ending May 30, down from 625,000 the previous week. The appearance of moderation would seem to be a good thing, but what is reality?
Is corporate underemployment a national fate?
As a top U.S. employer, Wal-Mart Stores says it will add more than 22,000 jobs in U.S. stores this year. On the surface, this would appear to be good news, yet another glimmer of light. Two weeks ago, I interviewed employees in one of the local Wal-Mart’s in the Nashville area. Time and time again, employees complained openly and bitterly in front of customers about reduced hours and job replacement of more experienced workers by new workers at lower wages. Most of the employees interviewed disclosed that they were working fewer than 15 hours weekly with no hope of more work hours. Is creating 22,000 U.S. positions using underemployed Americans what this nation needs? Will this strategy fuel a national recovery? Hardly. In an atmosphere of job cuts, Wal-Mart feins the creation of quality employment. This is further evidence that ‘Corporate America’ continues to use the system to further oppress and use the American worker for its own ends using a short-term mentality. This kind of thinking will certainly not keep Americans from living on the streets or maintaining precious mortgage payments. Continuing to pinch workers under the guise of prospering them is little more than economic terrorism.
The Labor Department agrees with my findings. Steeper job cuts by companies, coupled with reduced working hours ‘boosted productivity in the first quarter.’ This would indicate that ‘productivity’ has little to do with decent American employment or national prosperity, but rather corporate prosperity. This is a poor economic measure relating to anything meaningful, little more than a lie.
‘Rises in productivity in the first quarter’, while encouraging on the surface, does not necessarily correlate to declines in jobless benefits as the media would dictate. The majority of American workers are likely to drop off of the unemployment chart when benefits run out, if the worker loses his home mailing address, phone, internet or all of them. The reality is that little is required to lose job benefits. All that is required is that you disappear in the night or are vanquished to the ‘tent cities along the Cumberland River.’
Government specialists are patting the nation on the back as the appearance of turning the corner in jobless claims comes into view. The end of the recession must be near the sycophants declare.
Even as U.S. employers have aggressively cut payrolls to protect costs in the face of plummeting demand, analysts are looking forward to statistics showing new applications for unemployment benefits will drop below 600,000 weekly. This has nothing to do with the real plight of Americans, who have become thoroughly dependent on corporate employment. If you doubt, examine the articles on employment on the TNTalk! America job page for a more accurate view of being unemployed in America. ~ E. Manning
It is often the one who quietly delivers warnings of betrayal who is also responsible for having planted the seeds of that betrayal. It may appear to some that Former Vice President Dick Cheney does not believe or understand his reality or the stature of his betrayal. It is my belief that he clearly knows his betrayal all too well, but that Cheney also knows that he has a much bigger problem confronting him. His mental reality compels him to openly feign concern over the nation’s safety and discontent over the alleged flawed leadership of our new President. Although Cheney must desperately continue to ply his politics, he also knows that his powers of manipulation over the American public and others around the world were exhausted long before he and George W. Bush left office.
There is a very clear and simple explanation for Mr. Cheney’s actions. Perhaps Mr. Cheney is smart enough to know what many of us are beginning to suspect what he already knows. Cheney is a condemned man. He is desperate to create a diversion or perhaps even delays that will slow his inevitable walk to the figurative political gallows. He still desires to be relevant in some way while he has a shred of influence.
It was in July of 2008, having learned that the “International Red Cross”, the pre-eminent body on such matters, had ruled that the United States of America had engaged in a sanctioned program of torture, that I recognized the magnitude of the problem. It was at that time that I came to realize that the proverbial genie was out of the bottle. I came to the full realizaton that at that point that the “Court of Public Opinion” and the curious analysis in the media no longer made any difference in the reality that stands before the world. As entertaining and compelling as it may be to attempt to distribute blame along political lines, the attempt to assign blame will ultimately all be irrelevant. I quickly came to understand that there would be consequences for many. Among those that will pay are those who have been at the highest levels of our government.
There are only three truths that Americans must confront at this point. First, the findings of the International Red Cross absolutely cannot be disputed. Second, torture took place at the hands of the United States of America breaking many international treaties and domestic laws. Third, the world will not stand by indefinitely and allow this to be ignored or mishandled for a prolonged period before bringing the matter before an international court. Mr. Cheney knows this reality and so does all of Washington.
As the typical finger pointing, accusations and political games continue surrounding this matter in Washington and compounded in the acutely biased and partisan media, few politicians seem to have grasped the full measure of their veritable helplessness. As much as they would prefer to occupy themselves with the typical pledges to hold hearings and inquiries into torture and who knew what and when, Washington collectively fails to realize that time is not on their side. America’s National Leadership at the executive, judicial and legislative levels have lost control of this very serious matter regarding their moral compass before the world.
Perhaps, given the timing of the election and the seating of this new administration, Washington never had control of the reality they face. What is worse, unless they act swiftly, justly and soon, they will only make what may be the most horrible moral and diplomatic travesty in modern American history considerably worse.
This reality is not Watergate, Iran-Contra or Lewinsky. The reality may be for many in this national leadership and many of our citizens simply too shocking and ghastly to fully absorb. Recent discussions about what is and what is not torture, detainment categories, treatment of terrorists versus enemy combatants, who kept the country safe and for how long, who knew what and when, are evidence of the incapacity by many to process the magnitude and global scope of our national moral and political dilemma.
Allow me speak more clearly. It may be that the former President and former Vice President of the United States, among others, do bear responsibility for war crimes under the letter of international law. No amount of political posturing and no amount of partisan rhetoric will stop many Americans and “nations around the world” from applying continued pressure for answers and more importantly, for those responsible to be brought to justice. This is not an internal domestic embarrassment that can be watered down with politics or impeachments, truth commissions or dismissed with Presidential pardons.
Political or moral reality is rapidly slipping out of America’s control! Unless, we move swiftly to investigate, charge, bring to trial and severely punish any found responsible or guilty, the nation may find itself protecting international criminals from extradition. Even worse and more humiliating, the nation may face sending the miscreants off to spend prison sentences in foreign countries. I wonder what sort of credibility this nation would hold around the world should that happen. The best thing our Justice Department can do is to order a Special Prosecutor and do a sweeping and deep investigation. This would be the best case scenario for all concerned including those found guilty.
It is now conceivable that after nearly three thousand Americans were killed on 9/11, the same former President and former Vice President sent another four thousand off to die in Iraq due to sheer ineptitude or the most vile and callous personal or political reasons. As twisted, shameful and diabolical as such a thought may be, if proven, even this in not at the root of the torture discussion. The precedents for responding to charges of war crimes have long ago been set along with examples of historically appropriate punishments. It saddens that we are compelled to entertain such matters in this country. It pains me to think that we have been reduced in the eyes of many around the world to something other than a proud model of fairness and democracy that has been our long legacy.
Clear your minds America. Remember these truths. We tortured. Someone ordered that torture. Those responsible must be held accountable. They are responsible for both blood, shame and for breaking the law. Mr. Cheney knows this. He dwells in the center of the national shame.
When you hear the politicians and media pundits groping in the dark for excuses, scapegoats and dealing the worn and faded fear card, keep your eye on the ball and do not be distracted from the facts. When former Vice President Cheney speaks, remember this truth. Beware the Messenger.
You’ve probably heard all about the Medicare panic that resurfaces every few years. Finally, government has quickly slipped in a measure to better control health care measures. President Obama and our lawmakers, under the cover of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, enacted law that, among other things, fundamentally changes America’s health care system.
Interestingly, these health care changes have little to do with the sworn purpose of the Recovery Act, which was to help solve America’s current financial crisis. By burying health care changes in the Recovery Act and by fast-tracking the legislation to President Obama’s desk for a signature, lawmakers were able to sidestep the public outcry which derailed President Clinton’s failed effort in 1994 to increase federal control over health care. America wanted change and now we have it.
Previously, Medicare was bound to pay for medical care that is considered safe and effective based on set standards. The Recovery Act changes this reality and imposes a cost effectiveness standard set by a new bureaucracy, the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. Is the idea of change in health care just fear-mongering, a slippery slope or something else? Tom Daschle, now in the wings and out of the running for cabinet posting reflects what is likely the current attitude towards the value of Americans and life itself outside the personal sphere of Congress. “Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.” If that were the case, Teddy Kennedy would probably already be entombed.
While Daschle’s statement is not an open policy promoting euthanasia ‘a la Soylent Green’, a strictly utilitarian view of life in a nation that has been so prosperous on the backs of the American workforce that is now retired is reprehensible. Continually rewriting the rules that America must live by for the advantage of a few is little better. Somehow, 12 per cent of the American population is now breaking the nation’s back. Never mind that as of this year, 54 per cent of working America is paying for everyone else, including the burgeoning government debt that lawmakers are ringing up. Seniors are easy fodder and easy to silence.
According to the philosophy of utilitarianism, human beings are to be looked at in terms of how useful they are to society. Youth is valued and seen as useful, productive and pliable, while the old and terminally ill are marginalized. The basic qualities of health care changes in the Recovery Act clearly favor the young and healthy over the old and less healthy. The national politic has descended into a giant flesh factory of political and social convenience.
Government has known about the bankruptcy deal breaker of Medicare for decades. Like the banking debacle, the federal government acknowledges the tragedy and continues to massage figures and statistics without detailing any kind of reasonable approach. Medicare bankruptcy is simply an asteroid on a collision course with the nation because good health care is deemed to be the best that the world has to offer. Could the Democrats be onto something this time? One might reach that conclusion IF evidence showed that our national government cared anything about a budget whatever. Clearly that isn’t the case.
Escalating health care costs have prompted a variety of results in Europe, including health care rationing in England and legalization of euthanasia in other nations. The elderly are being singled out. In the case of America, a new bureaucracy has been given broad and vague enforcement powers to insure that doctors comply with the new federal cost containment controls, whatever those might be. America now has its own health care slippery slope and the beginnings of a new world of governmental control.
Cost containment through Medicare is commendable, but focusing on 12 per cent of the population is hardly the breaking point for national health care. A 21 percent portion of the national population known as the disabled remain verbally unscathed by politics, yet are certainly due to be impacted by changes in Medicare. Old folks are the focus. Undoubtedly, the nation could save millions by denying oxygen to those that have smoked themselves into a personal health care crisis. Perhaps we should. Who is going to make the choice? Now, we have a yet another government agency that must be funded that will eventually make those choices for us without apology.
The federal government cares about health care because they are living by old rules and are making the payments on old policies and human expectations of a prosperous nation. Perhaps we are no longer that nation. Still, the government has made itself the financial guarantor for the health of millions of ’spoiled pampered Americans’ with the idea of securing some voting power. Government isn’t entirely comfortable with the reality it faces today. Like everyone else, we like bringing home the bacon, but don’t always want to pay the bills. We want to ignore the little white legal statements that come with the bills. Americans are expected to live by those white slips of paper. When government is inconvenienced, it just changes the law.
The reality is that government lawmakers and administrators are no different than other human beings, but the government has a distinct advantage. The government holds the cards. For example, the government already tells corporate health care how much it will pay for services for the elderly and disabled, so what is the problem with the system? Simply put: ineffective government administration and the unbridled lust for power. ~ E. Manning
The American media has been trying to expunge the righteous or moral anger of millions of Americans toward AIG, banker types and politicians like Chris Dodd. This anger festers across the nation as public good humor and patience grows weak. Today, Barbara Walters and the ladies on ‘The View’ talked to America’s stay-at-home moms, retirees and disenfranchised workers in an attempt to quell the festering anger against the likes of AIG, Congress and lawmakers that have recently been caught with their political pants down. America is firmly entrenched in a philosophical crisis.
ABC's The View
What is especially troubling is the rationale used in the attempt to placate the national furor of Americans. The argument used is nothing less than moral bankruptcy and new age diversity training, a case of moral swine flu. The girls on ‘The View’ and much of the public media simply paste a smiley face on the corporate wrongdoing of bankers, politicians and their own flawed ideology. There is no accountability. In fact, Barbara Walters attempted to argue that that there is no wrongdoing in human behavior and given the same opportunities that you would have done the same. There is no right or wrong. There is no responsibility for conduct. We must justify schizophrenic and antisocial behavior as wholly acceptable and a sign of a progressive world.
In order to placate the citizens and the possibility of any inflammatory language whatever, the press and public media are generally avoiding any moral argument. Don’t risk stirring up the populace. Find a straw dog. Choose to paint the demon of class envy on the poor plight of bankers and accountants racked with the results of their moral hazard.
Envy in America is a problem in what has been one of the wealthiest nations on the planet. Americans are no saints. However, regular American citizens, if nothing else, want the same rules that apply to them to apply to the hierarchy of politics and money. They want accountability for their own selfish reasons rather to establish any moral cause for religious or ethical reasons. However, even this view of ethics is met with resistance at the top as the nation pretends to forgive the ‘unforgivable’ corporate conduct at the top.
This neglect or outright refusal to understand and recognize our own human behavior as having results or accepting any measure of responsibility has continued to water the seeds of our own national self-destruction. Whatever greatness that existed is gone. We are an empty shell. The nation and the people now rest on a very shaky foundation indeed as we have discarded whatever principles that we previously held or that may have built the nation. We have sold our souls in the name of capitalism in the eternal pursuit of money and self as we ignore the destruction that we are reaping. The evidence in this moral and ethical war strongly suggests that America has crossed a new philosophical bridge that it has summarily destroyed in the war of secular politics and corporatism. We cannot go back and will not go back. We will make every excuse to justify what will ultimately be our own destruction as a whole nation. We no longer hold the same values and we will no longer make apology for our modern, advanced thinking. There is no blame or even sound reason that is superior. Tolerance dictates that we are all right unless an ordinary American is considered to be breaking the laws that Washington built. There is no responsibility on any level. There is no heaven or hell, except our own on earth. We are our own gods at our own hand without apology.
moral swine flu
We have taken the seeds of American me-ism to new heights and have made a new national god that will result in the ultimate demise of American life as we have ever known it. I do not refer to a person, but to a philosophy of self-service and self-centered ideology through deceptive thinking. Yet, the thinking American has no right to stand in judgment of anyone. If Barbara Walters says it, it must be true. All thinking is equally right and we must respect each other regardless of the crime. We must validate greed and dishonesty for the sake of humanity in the name of human rights. Meanwhile, the nation has taken on a new form of leadership philosophy without a soul or purpose beyond its’ own power. Enjoy the nation while it lasts good citizen. ~ E. Manning
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If energy wasn’t a big deal two years ago, it certainly is today. Last December, the nation was looking at fuel shortages and unprecedented prices. Since then, the national cost of fuel has leveled somewhat with a mild increase. Americans know the reality of what we are up against in a personal sense. That is our reality. The political reality is different as government looks for new ways to control costs of the market, market consumption and garner authority. Meanwhile, the cost of travel has been in and out of control with no real relief in sight in a large, expansive country that depends on affordable transportation. New energy is the promise.
Now that General Motors is nearly 70 percent taxpayer-owned, you would think that there would be a little respect for taxpayers since taxpayers are now funding General Motor’s corporate existence. With new management hand-picked by Barack Obama himself, you might expect new thinking outside the box of corporate thought. That is hardly the case. For the American that is watching closely, the nation has a true revelation into the minds of corporate executives that seek to run the world for their own good and profit. In this case, apparently GM executives haven’t given their continued corporate existence a second thought. Apparently, egos continue to run high.
Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen quipped regarding the future of the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee: “They don’t care about tax credits and those other kinds of things. It certainly was a new look for me at how they’re approaching this thing, which is absolutely, ‘Tell me how big of a check you’re going to write.’ “
Voices of reason have long proclaimed that the only key to a decent future is a college education as we trumpet excess, luxury and credit for all. The halls of academia do not suit every temperament, nor can the world operate only through the league of white collar employment and office jobs. Who will take care of the national infrastructure, manufacturing and all those green jobs that the nation has been promised?
Without question, the nation has been suffering where jobs are concerned, brought about by nothing less than white collar crime. You can’t really talk about careers since corporates nip millions of so-called careers in the bud every year due to their own self-interest. That reality existed before the recession stripped the nation of what millions of Americans see as their only self-respect in the eyes of big business: the job.
On the whole it appears to me that the shock and horror of what has transpired as a result of the ineptitude, hubris and greed on the part of our last presidential administration has yet to be fully absorbed within the American psyche. Many of us remain fixed on partisan ideologies that we had been spoon-fed by past leadership and even today, by the right wing media. Given the power of the fear and anger which fuel these hollow concepts, we have been comfortable with various justifications for heinous and callous acts that have had negative implications in the U.S. and worldwide. These implications are the truth that many Americans remain unwilling to acknowledge or reasonably consider.
I must admit that it is stunning to have to imagine what the likely outcomes might be where torture and the Iraq war are concerned. For many, it is inconceivable to think that a people at the highest levels of our executive branch of our government could be guilty of crimes that contributed to the deaths of untold numbers around the world. To date we know that crimes have been committed where torture is concerned. There is no longer any rational debate to be held regarding what is, and what is not torture. It seems that the most spirited discussion on this matter in Washington now centers around who knew what about the implementation and uses of these methods and when. There is no doubt that at some point this discussion may yield more information on all who may be culpable in this historic tragedy.
As intriguing as all of the news surrounding Torture Gate may be, I think it may be time for America to redirect our focus on this matter. The laws and treaties outlawing torture and the findings of the International Red Cross have painted a clear picture of the atrocities that have been wrought. As I have explained in a previous column, there are specific precedents for legal actions and subsequent convictions on record as appropriate reactions to such war crimes. It is also noteworthy to mention that if there was any confidence in Washington that charges and trials are not forthcoming, there would most probably be far less discussion about investigations, truth commissions and efforts to direct responsibility or blame.
It is my belief that a domestic or world court will convene before long. Sadly, it is my further belief that former Vice President Dick Cheney will be indicted, convicted and appropriately sentenced for his crimes. No doubt, former President George W. Bush is destined to realize the same fate.
There is a very clear and simple explanation for Mr. Cheney’s actions. Perhaps Mr. Cheney is smart enough to know what many of us are beginning to suspect what he already knows. Cheney is a condemned man. He is desperate to create a diversion or perhaps even delays that will slow his inevitable walk to the figurative political gallows. He still desires to be relevant in some way while he has a shred of influence.
There are only three truths that Americans must confront at this point. First, the findings of the International Red Cross absolutely cannot be disputed. Second, torture took place at the hands of the United States of America breaking many international treaties and domestic laws. Third, the world will not stand by indefinitely and allow this to be ignored or mishandled for a prolonged period before bringing the matter before an international court. Mr. Cheney knows this reality and so does all of Washington.
This reality is not Watergate, Iran-Contra or Lewinsky. The reality may be for many in this national leadership and many of our citizens simply too shocking and ghastly to fully absorb. Recent discussions about what is and what is not torture, detainment categories, treatment of terrorists versus enemy combatants, who kept the country safe and for how long, who knew what and when, are evidence of the incapacity by many to process the magnitude and global scope of our national moral and political dilemma.
It is now conceivable that after nearly three thousand Americans were killed on 9/11, the same former President and former Vice President sent another four thousand off to die in Iraq due to sheer ineptitude or the most vile and callous personal or political reasons. As twisted, shameful and diabolical as such a thought may be, if proven, even this in not at the root of the torture discussion. The precedents for responding to charges of war crimes have long ago been set along with examples of historically appropriate punishments. It saddens that we are compelled to entertain such matters in this country. It pains me to think that we have been reduced in the eyes of many around the world to something other than a proud model of fairness and democracy that has been our long legacy.
When you hear the politicians and media pundits groping in the dark for excuses, scapegoats and dealing the worn and faded fear card, keep your eye on the ball and do not be distracted from the facts. When former Vice President Cheney speaks, remember this truth. Beware the Messenger.
You’ve probably heard all about the Medicare panic that resurfaces every few years. Finally, government has quickly slipped in a measure to better control health care measures. President Obama and our lawmakers, under the cover of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, enacted law that, among other things, fundamentally changes America’s health care system.
Previously, Medicare was bound to pay for medical care that is considered safe and effective based on set standards. The Recovery Act changes this reality and imposes a cost effectiveness standard set by a new bureaucracy, the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. Is the idea of change in health care just fear-mongering, a slippery slope or something else? Tom Daschle, now in the wings and out of the running for cabinet posting reflects what is likely the current attitude towards the value of Americans and life itself outside the personal sphere of Congress. “Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.” If that were the case, Teddy Kennedy would probably already be entombed.
While Daschle’s statement is not an open policy promoting euthanasia ‘a la Soylent Green’, a strictly utilitarian view of life in a nation that has been so prosperous on the backs of the American workforce that is now retired is reprehensible. Continually rewriting the rules that America must live by for the advantage of a few is little better. Somehow, 12 per cent of the American population is now breaking the nation’s back. Never mind that as of this year, 54 per cent of working America is paying for everyone else, including the burgeoning government debt that lawmakers are ringing up. Seniors are easy fodder and easy to silence.
Government has known about the bankruptcy deal breaker of Medicare for decades. Like the banking debacle, the federal government acknowledges the tragedy and continues to massage figures and statistics without detailing any kind of reasonable approach. Medicare bankruptcy is simply an asteroid on a collision course with the nation because good health care is deemed to be the best that the world has to offer. Could the Democrats be onto something this time? One might reach that conclusion IF evidence showed that our national government cared anything about a budget whatever. Clearly that isn’t the case.
Envy in America is a problem in what has been one of the wealthiest nations on the planet. Americans are no saints. However, regular American citizens, if nothing else, want the same rules that apply to them to apply to the hierarchy of politics and money. They want accountability for their own selfish reasons rather to establish any moral cause for religious or ethical reasons. However, even this view of ethics is met with resistance at the top as the nation pretends to forgive the ‘unforgivable’ corporate conduct at the top.
Seed Newsvine
Leon Walker 
Hatespeech, Resentment & the Holocaust Museum
June 11, 2009 by tntalk
A tragedy recently evolved from an incident at the Holocaust Museum in Washington as an elderly white supremacist attacked what he hated in his distorted mind. Some perceive that the deluded von Brunn was attempting another mass-murder of Jews. Who can know fully the sickness that pervaded von Brunn’s mind beyond what he publicly espoused? What he spewed is so distasteful, I wouldn’t lower myself to read his racial pornography online as the media gleefully did. Gratefully, a security guard prevented further carnage from what could have been much worse. Even better was the idea that von Brunn acted alone in a last desperate act like the dead man that he was. This scene simply illustrates the tension of the nation in post-911 America as more and more medicated psychopaths and eccentrics have taken their own brand of justice into their own hands that they seek to imprint upon the nation with their own terrorism.
It is easy to proclaim dissenting opinion as hatespeech. This is expedient and oftens quiets all but the most heartfelt and hard core proponents of any viewpoint, no matter how noble or how rotten. As a result of this ordeal in Washington, prickles of resentment are festering into confrontational attacks against dissenting viewpoints. Republicans, no saints by any measure, are now being painted as racist hatemongers for possessing a divergent viewpoint that the attacker desires to distort into hatespeech. The attacks on diverse opinions have began to rise to the level of the very hatespeech that hatespeech seeks to defame. Hatespeech, however powerful and arresting, transcends the hackles of ordinary resentment. Like resentment, hatespeech always seeks to blame whether that blame is realistic or not. Enough resentment and hatred always results in murder or destruction of one kind or the other.
The fact remains that dissent and resentment is nothing new, perhaps as old as mankind itself. Both dissent and resentment have reared up time and time again in this nation and often for very good reasons. One aspect of dissenting views has existed for hundreds of years in slavery and the struggle for equality in America, an ideal that we have never fully achieved. Many outspoken men and women have stood out to express their views, hateful or otherwise in the course of this nation’s development. Yet, this nation prides itself on the ideals of democracy and divergent ideas. Divergent ideas, no matter how extreme, have not been branded as hatespeech until the uprising of a new breed of political thought that seeks to purify our national mind through legalistic control. Social disapproval is no longer enough. We must brand any dissent or disagreement with what is politically popular as hatespeech if possible to quiet the waters of humanity. Yet, for better or worse, dissenting opinion sometimes contains the seeds from which great and sweeping positive changes often originate.
Where does the problem lie beyond sick, twisted and slanderous words and thought? Hatespeech seeks to label in order to promote what is politically expedient and recommended at any given time. Hatespeech seeks to label without condition. Yet, most often, labeling ordinary conversation as hatespeech is simply more labeling and often accusatory slander.
There is no Environmental Protection Agency to measure hate pollution in national dialogue. Suddenly, not having a regulator of national dialogue is a bad thing. Award-winning journalist Michael Rowe penned an article today in which he hopes to cast the shadow of hatespeech and racism on the divergent opinions of Republican miscreants like Coulter, Limbaugh, McCain, Palin and now von Brunn as one and the same. Anyone that thinks independently has to find this a hard sell, even if you hate what Republicans stand for.
Didn’t the nation vote for Barack Obama in confidence, hoping for a better and stronger nation in opposition to what Bush and the Congress had brought upon the nation? Meanwhile, the nation is still being run by the same Congress. Still, Republicans lost the Presidential election. So why are Democrat sycophants and revisionists trying to continue to beat the war drums as if all is lost if the nation doesn’t walk in lockstep to the political flavor of the season? They have the strength of the nation behind their leader. How is the inflammatory hatespeech that procedes from the mouths of divergent politicos any different from the thinking of James von Brunn? The difference is that von Brunn presumably didn’t care if you agreed with him or not. Hatespeech proponents are after your heart and mind and seek to manipulate you with fear and loathing instead of righteous reason. This is the call of abusive politics devoid of all morality.
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