Thursday August 5th 2009
By Louise
Hour One - Should the Government rescue the endangered news industry? Thom is challenging Troy Schneider www.newamerica.net
Hour Two - Is healthcare a right or only...if you can afford it? Thom is confronting Alex Epstein www.aynrand.org
Hour Three - "Geeky Science Rocks" How happy is the internet? Do positive bloggers live longer?
Comments
#2
Is it possible to be victimized twice by the same crime? Can it be possible that a cheap $10 mp3 player would actually cost you a $1,000 and more, even though you were not injured badly enough in its theft to prevent you from returning to work? Can the actions of an office functionary with power to abuse be worse than that of some gangland punk?
I submit to you the following case: At 3 AM on Saturday, August 1, while I was walking to a Kent, WA bus stop to catch the 3:30 am bus to Sea-Tac Airport where I work, a “man” whose partner was waiting in a getaway car hidden in the shadows was to be seen loitering in the middle of street. As I got nearer, he crossed over and approached me, deliberately blocking my path. I was wearing headphones, and he demanded to know what I was listening to. When I told him, he sucker-punched me, pushed me to the ground and grabbed the headphones and the cord around my neck, and ran to the waiting car, which sped-off . The whole thing must have been some gang initiation thing to prove this so-called man’s “toughness”; he didn’t “ask” me to give him my “music” or else he’d hit me—he just hit me and took something he didn’t know he was taking: my POS ID badge that was on the cord he ripped from my neck. A short time later I contacted the police dispatcher, but this was a dime-a-dozen case; nothing was done.
But for me, this was far from trivial, and my troubles were only just beginning; after all, anyone of “ethnic” appearance must be a potential terrorist suspect and not to be trusted. Because it was a Saturday, and I work weekends, I was already losing two days of work because the airport ID Access office was closed; without my badge, I could not gain access to my work area. I reported the theft to airport security, who deactivated it so it could not be used for entry into restricted areas. When I was able to go to the ID access office, I was treated no differently than the thief. I filled out a replacement and lost/stolen report form. Twice I was turned away in order to retrieve written requests—despite the fact that the part of the application form filled out and signed by the employer already made these requests. So I was made to go back and forth, to some apparent mirth. When I returned with these letters, I was then informed that my application was still insufficient because the police report was an “on-line” report.
So I went to the Kent police station, where the admin clerk expressed surprise that the form wasn’t acceptable—perhaps it was in an unfamiliar form. I was given a two-page form that was as complete as they could provide. When I showed this to the ID office functionary, she again declared it was inadmissible because it an “on-line” report; apparently only a hand-written report wasn't "on-line." When I told her that this was what I was given at the police station, she stated that it didn’t say that an officer had personally investigated the “crime scene” so it wasn’t sufficient anyways. She went on to say that it didn’t really matter what report I turned in, because it was at her “discretion” to determine if a theft had taken place, even though the police had made that determination by filing an official case report.
Then it got worse. Because there was forty-eight hour waiting period, I was already losing another half a week’s pay. Because I didn’t have a “sufficient” police report, I would have to personally pay a $250 fee up-front; the company I work for would not cover this fee even as a payroll reduction. I didn’t have $250; I am barely surviving paycheck-to-paycheck now, and my next truncated check (because of the days I was unable to work) was all I had to my name. And this would be all I would have, because of the trouble I was being given by this office functionary with power to abuse, I would not be receiving pay for this week because I could not access my work area. And of course, I have bills to pay.
The thief, whose purpose was to conduct a “hit-and-run” theft of a trivial item (he didn’t even bother with the netbook I was carrying, or my wallet) might as well have stolen over a $1,000 and counting—and a bully of an office functionary his chief accomplice.
#3
When I attended a health care reform rally, I noticed the oppositions signs were mainly lies about what would happen if we had a single payer system. I think we should take that tactics and turn it around. What would happen if we do not have reform - and told the truth - my sign will say
"Health Care for profit, only for the rich, pay or die."
The irony is who these folks are working for, so I will try to point that out in a second sign:
"Teabaggers unite, starve the beast - end social security, medicare and medicaid"
on the flip side
"Screw widows, orphans, disabled, elderly and the poor"
#4
Has the Obama Administration sold out to big Pharma??!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/health/policy/06insure.html?_r=3&hp
#5
From the article linked in my post above -
"But failing to publicly confirm Mr. Tauzin’s descriptions of the deal risked alienating a powerful industry ally currently helping to bankroll millions in television commercials in favor of Mr. Obama’s reforms."
Has anyone seen a TV ad from big pharma SUPPORTING health care reform? I watch WAY too much TV, and I sure haven't. Plenty of ads that push, but don't really sell, pills, but pro-reform messages? - NOT!
#6
WHEN WILL THE SOUTH STOP FIGHTING THE CIVIL WAR?
(Or, how can we miss you if you won't go away?)
Thom and Mark,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697#32305519
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker was on Hardball last night. She "connected some dots" about which I have long been thinking.
Chris Matthews asked her what she thought was driving today's (now regional only) GOP and she said, "The Confederacy." She said that sesession and distrust of the government are part of the Southern culture.
I see it as more. So much of the Confederacy seems to be reflected in today's GOP, including the existence of the relatively few wealthy corporatists (read that "plantation owners and their enablers) and their racist attitudes (to keep labor cheap.) As recent books point out, most of the pre-Civil War South was willing to sign on to the abolitionist views of the North. The plantation owners, who had the most to lose, wanted to seceed. Of course, today's corporatists are not just located in the South, but I believe that is where at least part of their worldview comes from. And that is why the attitudes of the KKK and its stepchildren of today contribute to the dialogue.
Here is Parker's Washington Post column:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR200908...
A Tip for The GOP: Look Away
By Kathleen Parker
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit.
"Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians," he once explained to an interviewer. "So, what's wrong with making smart-aleck remarks about Ohio? Nobody puts Ohio down. Why shouldn't I put Ohio down?"
Percy, the genial genius, laughed at his own remark.
Now, apparently, it's the Buckeye State's turn to poke back. In a fusillade of pique, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich charged that Southerners are what's wrong with the Republican Party.
"We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns," he told an interviewer with the Columbus Dispatch, referring to GOP senators from South Carolina and Oklahoma. "It's the Southerners. They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr.' People hear them and say, 'These people, they're Southerners. The party's being taken over by Southerners. What the hell they got to do with Ohio?' "
Down South, people are trying to figure out what "errrr, errrrr" means. Jack Bass, author of eight books about social and political change in the South, speculated in an e-mail that Voinovich really meant grrrr, grrrrr, as in "growling canines whose bark scares more than do Obama's purrs, especially with the Dow at a nine-month high."
Whatever Voinovich's sound effects were intended to convey, his meaning was clear enough: Those ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party.
Alas, Voinovich was not entirely wrong.
Not all Southern Republicans are wing nuts. Nor does the GOP have a monopoly on ignorance or racism. And, the South, for all its sins, is also lush with beauty, grace and mystery. Nevertheless, it is true that the GOP is fast becoming regionalized below the Mason-Dixon line and increasingly associated with some of the South's worst ideas.
It is not helpful (or surprising) that "birthers" -- conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama is not a native son -- have assumed kudzu qualities among Republicans in the South. In a poll commissioned by the liberal blog Daily Kos, participants were asked: "Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?"
Hefty majorities in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West believe Obama was born in the United States. But in the land of cotton, where old times are not by God forgotten, only 47 percent believe Obama was born in America and 30 percent aren't sure.
Southern Republicans, it seems, have seceded from sanity.
Though Voinovich's views may be shared by others in the party, it's a tad late -- not to mention ungrateful -- to indict the South. Republicans have been harvesting Southern votes for decades from seeds strategically planted during the civil rights era. When Lyndon B. Johnson predicted in 1965 that the Voting Rights Act meant the South would go Republican for the next 50 years, he wasn't just whistling Dixie.
A telling anecdote recounted by Pat Buchanan to New Yorker writer George Packer last year captures the dark spirit that still hovers around the GOP. In 1966 Buchanan and Richard Nixon were at the Wade Hampton Hotel in Columbia, S.C., where Nixon worked a crowd into a frenzy: "Buchanan recalls that the room was full of sweat, cigar smoke, and rage; the rhetoric, which was about patriotism and law and order, 'burned the paint off the walls.' As they left the hotel, Nixon said, 'This is the future of this Party, right here in the South.' "
That same rage was on display again in the fall of 2008, but this time the frenzy was stimulated by a pretty gal with a mocking little wink. Sarah Palin may not have realized what she was doing, but Southerners weaned on Harper Lee heard the dog whistle.
The curious Republican campaign of 2008 may have galvanized a conservative Southern base -- including many who were mostly concerned with the direction Democrats would take the country -- but it also repelled others who simply bolted and ran the other way. Whatever legitimate concerns the GOP may historically have represented were suddenly overshadowed by a sense of a resurgent Old South and all the attendant pathologies of festering hate and fear.
What the GOP is experiencing now, one hopes, are the death throes of that 50-year spell that Johnson foretold. But before the party of the Great Emancipator can rise again, Republicans will have to face their inner Voinovich and drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie.
#7
(Post 1 of 2)
WHEN WILL THE SOUTH STOP FIGHTING THE CIVIL WAR?
(Or, how can we miss you if you won’t go away?)
Thom and Mark,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697#32305519
Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker was on Hardball last night. She “connected some dots” about which I have long been thinking.
Chris Matthews asked her what she thought was driving today’s (now regional only) GOP and she said, “The Confederacy.” She said that sesession and distrust of the government are part of the Southern culture.
I see it as more. So much of the Confederacy seems to be reflected in today’s GOP, including the existence of the relatively few wealthy corporatists (read that “plantation owners and their enablers) and their racist attitudes (to keep labor cheap.) As recent books point out, most of the pre-Civil War South was willing to sign on to the abolitionist views of the North. The plantation owners, who had the most to lose, wanted to seceed. Of course, today’s corporatists are not just located in the South, but I believe that is where at least part of their worldview comes from. And that is why the attitudes of the KKK and its stepchildren of today contribute to the dialogue.
#8
(Post 2 of 2)
Here is Parker’s Washington Post column:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR200908...
A Tip for The GOP: Look Away
By Kathleen Parker
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit.
“Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians,” he once explained to an interviewer. “So, what’s wrong with making smart-aleck remarks about Ohio? Nobody puts Ohio down. Why shouldn’t I put Ohio down?”
Percy, the genial genius, laughed at his own remark.
Now, apparently, it’s the Buckeye State’s turn to poke back. In a fusillade of pique, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich charged that Southerners are what’s wrong with the Republican Party.
“We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns,” he told an interviewer with the Columbus Dispatch, referring to GOP senators from South Carolina and Oklahoma. “It’s the Southerners. They get on TV and go ‘errrr, errrrr.’ People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re Southerners. The party’s being taken over by Southerners. What the hell they got to do with Ohio?’ ”
Down South, people are trying to figure out what “errrr, errrrr” means. Jack Bass, author of eight books about social and political change in the South, speculated in an e-mail that Voinovich really meant grrrr, grrrrr, as in “growling canines whose bark scares more than do Obama’s purrs, especially with the Dow at a nine-month high.”
Whatever Voinovich’s sound effects were intended to convey, his meaning was clear enough: Those ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party.
Alas, Voinovich was not entirely wrong.
Not all Southern Republicans are wing nuts. Nor does the GOP have a monopoly on ignorance or racism. And, the South, for all its sins, is also lush with beauty, grace and mystery. Nevertheless, it is true that the GOP is fast becoming regionalized below the Mason-Dixon line and increasingly associated with some of the South’s worst ideas.
It is not helpful (or surprising) that “birthers” — conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama is not a native son — have assumed kudzu qualities among Republicans in the South. In a poll commissioned by the liberal blog Daily Kos, participants were asked: “Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?”
Hefty majorities in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West believe Obama was born in the United States. But in the land of cotton, where old times are not by God forgotten, only 47 percent believe Obama was born in America and 30 percent aren’t sure.
Southern Republicans, it seems, have seceded from sanity.
Though Voinovich’s views may be shared by others in the party, it’s a tad late — not to mention ungrateful — to indict the South. Republicans have been harvesting Southern votes for decades from seeds strategically planted during the civil rights era. When Lyndon B. Johnson predicted in 1965 that the Voting Rights Act meant the South would go Republican for the next 50 years, he wasn’t just whistling Dixie.
A telling anecdote recounted by Pat Buchanan to New Yorker writer George Packer last year captures the dark spirit that still hovers around the GOP. In 1966 Buchanan and Richard Nixon were at the Wade Hampton Hotel in Columbia, S.C., where Nixon worked a crowd into a frenzy: “Buchanan recalls that the room was full of sweat, cigar smoke, and rage; the rhetoric, which was about patriotism and law and order, ‘burned the paint off the walls.’ As they left the hotel, Nixon said, ‘This is the future of this Party, right here in the South.’ ”
That same rage was on display again in the fall of 2008, but this time the frenzy was stimulated by a pretty gal with a mocking little wink. Sarah Palin may not have realized what she was doing, but Southerners weaned on Harper Lee heard the dog whistle.
The curious Republican campaign of 2008 may have galvanized a conservative Southern base — including many who were mostly concerned with the direction Democrats would take the country — but it also repelled others who simply bolted and ran the other way. Whatever legitimate concerns the GOP may historically have represented were suddenly overshadowed by a sense of a resurgent Old South and all the attendant pathologies of festering hate and fear.
What the GOP is experiencing now, one hopes, are the death throes of that 50-year spell that Johnson foretold. But before the party of the Great Emancipator can rise again, Republicans will have to face their inner Voinovich and drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie.
#9
(Post 2 of 2)
Here is Parker’s Washington Post column:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR200908...
A Tip for The GOP: Look Away
By Kathleen Parker
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit.
“Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians,” he once explained to an interviewer. “So, what’s wrong with making smart-aleck remarks about Ohio? Nobody puts Ohio down. Why shouldn’t I put Ohio down?”
Percy, the genial genius, laughed at his own remark.
Now, apparently, it’s the Buckeye State’s turn to poke back. In a fusillade of pique, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich charged that Southerners are what’s wrong with the Republican Party.
“We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns,” he told an interviewer with the Columbus Dispatch, referring to GOP senators from South Carolina and Oklahoma. “It’s the Southerners. They get on TV and go ‘errrr, errrrr.’ People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re Southerners. The party’s being taken over by Southerners. What the hell they got to do with Ohio?’ ”
Down South, people are trying to figure out what “errrr, errrrr” means. Jack Bass, author of eight books about social and political change in the South, speculated in an e-mail that Voinovich really meant grrrr, grrrrr, as in “growling canines whose bark scares more than do Obama’s purrs, especially with the Dow at a nine-month high.”
Whatever Voinovich’s sound effects were intended to convey, his meaning was clear enough: Those ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party.
Alas, Voinovich was not entirely wrong.
Not all Southern Republicans are wing nuts. Nor does the GOP have a monopoly on ignorance or racism. And, the South, for all its sins, is also lush with beauty, grace and mystery. Nevertheless, it is true that the GOP is fast becoming regionalized below the Mason-Dixon line and increasingly associated with some of the South’s worst ideas.
It is not helpful (or surprising) that “birthers” — conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama is not a native son — have assumed kudzu qualities among Republicans in the South. In a poll commissioned by the liberal blog Daily Kos, participants were asked: “Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?”
Hefty majorities in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West believe Obama was born in the United States. But in the land of cotton, where old times are not by God forgotten, only 47 percent believe Obama was born in America and 30 percent aren’t sure.
Southern Republicans, it seems, have seceded from sanity.
Though Voinovich’s views may be shared by others in the party, it’s a tad late — not to mention ungrateful — to indict the South. Republicans have been harvesting Southern votes for decades from seeds strategically planted during the civil rights era. When Lyndon B. Johnson predicted in 1965 that the Voting Rights Act meant the South would go Republican for the next 50 years, he wasn’t just whistling Dixie.
A telling anecdote recounted by Pat Buchanan to New Yorker writer George Packer last year captures the dark spirit that still hovers around the GOP. In 1966 Buchanan and Richard Nixon were at the Wade Hampton Hotel in Columbia, S.C., where Nixon worked a crowd into a frenzy: “Buchanan recalls that the room was full of sweat, cigar smoke, and rage; the rhetoric, which was about patriotism and law and order, ‘burned the paint off the walls.’ As they left the hotel, Nixon said, ‘This is the future of this Party, right here in the South.’ ”
That same rage was on display again in the fall of 2008, but this time the frenzy was stimulated by a pretty gal with a mocking little wink. Sarah Palin may not have realized what she was doing, but Southerners weaned on Harper Lee heard the dog whistle.
The curious Republican campaign of 2008 may have galvanized a conservative Southern base — including many who were mostly concerned with the direction Democrats would take the country — but it also repelled others who simply bolted and ran the other way. Whatever legitimate concerns the GOP may historically have represented were suddenly overshadowed by a sense of a resurgent Old South and all the attendant pathologies of festering hate and fear.
What the GOP is experiencing now, one hopes, are the death throes of that 50-year spell that Johnson foretold. But before the party of the Great Emancipator can rise again, Republicans will have to face their inner Voinovich and drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie.
#10
Thom,
My family was active for Goldwater, too.
AUH20
#11
Quark,
A question for you.
I can understand why you would have addressed your 2 part post to Thom; he's the host of this show and someone you look to for insight and leadership. But why did you also address it to Mark? Why is Mark so important?
#12
B Roll, Quark - Yeah ... I wondered about addressing Mark, too.
Re: my post above about allegedly pro-reform ads financed by big pharma - maybe they're just not running in NY media market? Anyone outside of NY Metro seen one?
Anybody ... anybody ... Buehler... ?
#13
B Roll,
I addressed my comments to Thom because I just wanted to share ideas from one political observer/activist to another. (I was active LONG before I ever started listening to Thom.)
I addressed my comments to Mark because his world is so heavily marked by racism. I just wanted to add a little discussion of some of its roots in this country.
#14
B Roll,
You sound irritated...
#15
B Roll and mstaggerlee,
I wish I could do something to help Mark. (I guess I often tend to think of people as being part of my family.)
#16
Prominent Financial Writer: The Big Money Boys Call the Shots, The President is Just a "Figurehead" and All Politicians "Mere Pawns"
Long-time MarketWatch writer Paul Farrell explains in a new essay
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-8-point-goldman-socialist-manifesto...
that the big money boys call the shots, and that one of their basic strategies for maintaining control is to use the president as a "figurehead" and politicians as "mere pawns":
Always elect a figurehead president.
Putin skirted term limits by getting Medvedev elected president. Then Putin was appointed party leader and prime minister, the real power behind the throne. That's one way power stays in power playing the game. Wall Street is a master at playing this game, as the single largest money donor to political campaigns. Donations assure continued control behind an illusion of democracy, where all politicians are mere pawns.
#17
Caller 'Ray' was giving me some turbulence, a skillfull warning from the sophisticated right? Did you hear him try to demonize doctors - was this in preparation for the next battle? Drs are getting out and speaking out now, of course they are going to have to begin demonizing 'greedy doctors.'
#18
TFF,
Yes, that concurs with what Obama's former Dr. said, that if most of the docs became active, they would overwhelm the corporate anti-healthcare reform attempts.
#19
All the fear-mongering about health-care "socialism" is actually a strategic smoke screen, a brilliant counterattack, a sneaky political cover-up of the GOP's recent historic takeover of America using taxpayer-funded bailout money against us. Get it? The Right's making Left turns into "socialism."
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-8-point-goldman-socialist-manifesto...
#20
Here is something to do- copy and paste this into your right wing friends email list:
The Official Health Care Parameters
…see no one is trying to kill your grandparents-
No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
No cost-sharing for preventive care
No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
No gender discrimination
No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
Extended coverage for young adults
Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid
http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-insurance-consumer-protections/?e=9&ref...
Here is a web site designed to battle the lies about health care reform http://www.pleasecutthecrap.com/
#21
Thom mentioned "The rise and fall of the Third Reich" at the end of hour 1, a digitized version of Shirer's book is available on UMICH's website:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=genpub;view=toc;idno=AB...
There's an audiobook out there on the internets too, for the caller who might have trouble r-e-a-d-i-n-g.
#22
I hate to see non-linguists try to make a linguistic argument. I did a search for the nonsense about "Barack Obama" being mentioned in the Bible with the phrase "Satan is lightning". The President's name comes from the Arabic word for "bless", "baraka". The Hebrew word has the same root consonants. The Hebrew word "baraq" means "lightning", and in Arabic is "barq". K and Q are not the same thing in these languages. They're basically trying to hang Obama on a pun. One could make a better case that a brand of root beer is Satan.
Also, the website predicated its case on the presumption that Jesus spoke Hebrew, whereas he actually spoke Aramaic, which is more distantly related to Hebrew than Arabic is.
#23
THX Rak and Mathboy- content like this is why I come here.
#24
Guest is operating on the assumption that the health care plan will force him to have health care.
This guy is a total Ass HOLE
#25
The problem with Republicans and Libertarians is that they continually portray the government as an evil entity with an "us against them" attitude.
Why can't they understand that in the US, we have a representative democracy where the government is more of a consortium, or co-op, of the citizens of the US and is in place to act in the interests of all US citizen? Single payer health care would be basically a co-op that includes all Americans rather than smaller co-ops that represent a smaller number of people.
I'm sick of the "government is evil" attitude.
#26
Society is communal. It requires human interaction. Human interaction is founded in the ultimate communal force: language. The ability to form concepts is part and particle of language.
Society is not a collection of individuals. The ‘collections of individuals’ concept precludes interaction. All other humans are, by necessity of that mindset, simply randomly self-motivated objects that poise obstacles for the only true being . . . Oneself.
Unfortunately for the idiots purveying this bull??it, the very ability to frame this bull??it betrays their insane ramblings.
#27
Thom,
I have the feeling that the woman who called re. Scahill and Blackwater wanted to tell you that Scahill was outraged that Blackwater or whatever they call themselves these days, is still being paid by the Obama administration. I think we all agree this should stop ASAP.
#28
Right on Richard - are you listening to the news about the lady who drove the wrong way in NY? was it? We first learned it was Vodka and pot, but now lawyer is saying she also had a painful mouth abcess/. If its anything like the pain I am feeling today- perhaps this explains her need for pain relief.
BTW- I without insurance did find a Dentist advertizing for folks just like me locally and offered deals to pay cash with. Then, the pharmacy charged me only a third when they learned I had no health insurance for the anti biotics. Maybe that lady might have asked for help but so many of us have too much pride to say what is really going on with us.
ps- herbal care was working, but too time intensive to make, apply etc, if I wasnt working the number of hours I do- I am sure I might have stopped it as I have in the past, when unemployed.
#29
Trading Polyester Suits for Sweaters. . . Speaking of Faux Noise . . .
I don’t know if you missed the exchange between Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller regarding the Cash/Cars for Clunkers program. O’Reilly and Miller were speaking in ‘code’ – that not-so-thinly veiled, recycled (stale) bigotry similar to the crap that has been coming outta Pat Buchanan for the last several months.
Much similar to the much repeated mantra: “Don’t wear white after Labor Day.” (The ‘rule’ came about because many traditional Jews wear all white on Yom Kippur . . . BUT it is cool for snow bunnies to dress all in white to ride the slopes. Sigh).
Long Version: In the mid 1700s, Jews were forced to Ghetto of Venice. By law, one of the few trades open to the Erbraica was the reselling of garments, the ‘Schmatta’ (rag) trade. In a number of the Southern, agriculture-oriented States, there were similar laws on the books under the 14th Amendment made those laws (mostly still on the books but unenforceable) illegal. At least they didn’t use the old punch-line, “It’s new to Jew.” (the pun based loosely on the phrase “It is new to you.” which implies that only the bitter dregs are good enough for Jews).
In short: Our good friends O’Reilly and Miller were belittling the ‘Cars for Clunkers’ program by calling it “Jewish”.
The bigots of the South would not have missed the reference . . . Many are repeating this piece of wit at water coolers all over the place. Whereas, folk of the more enlightened areas tend to totally miss this crap.
#30
On Obama and Big Pharma:
I know that progressive-types lied themselves into believing that the just-right-of-middle-of-the-road, corporatist Senator from the Great State of Illinois was one of them BUT selling out does not apply to folk already bought by an industry and a dogma of corporate supremacy.
President Obama is not We, the People,’s President. He is just not single-minded, knee-jerk recessivist.
#31
Oh did I say I loved Ellen Radtner (spelling) but she still needs a better telephone!
#32
Richard L. Adlof -
Actually, I don't think of Obama in either of the ways in which you characterized him. I think he's just a pragmatist.
Not that I support any deal with Pharma, but I can see where it'll be easier to enact reform with their passive support than with their active hostility. Whereas I have yet to see any of those alleged pro-reform ads from Pharma, neither have I seen any anti-reform ads from them.
As I've stated here before, the ads that we do see from drug companies are NOT about selling pills. They're about leveraging the media and controlling the message. So, while I object to any deal that prevents negotiating drug prices, I can see where the administration might take the position that some kind of deal, with a BIG player, might be a necessary evil.
#33
I will never forgive the fascist overlords for turning something impolite and homo-erotic into sullied and despicable by lying to the more ignorant and huddled of the masses. will never forgive the fascist overlords for turning something impolite and homo-erotic into sullied and despicable by lying to the more ignorant and huddled of the masses.
In the late 1970s, tea-bagging was a sex act between to consenting (usually both males) adults. In the mid 2000s, video games and pro-wrestling turned tea-bagging into an insult over the defeated. Now the corporate media and ultra-right wing-nut have flipped the Boston Tea Party (a populous uprising against corporate tax breaks by the royal stock holders for their own company) into defending cartel profits by those with IQs under the 50th percentile.
#34
THX Thom- I just set up all our area town meetings per the AFL Challenge and informed our giant email list and gave out the recess rally site- thx for all the info!
#35
Darn it . . . I read THURSDAY August 5th and shoulda realized that that Thursday is AUGUST 6TH.
#36
Quark,
Sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. Rather than have this buried at the end of Thursday's page, I'll try to get a post together for Friday's page. That way, more people will see it and if anyone disagrees, there will be plenty of time to post their views.
I want you to know that my comment wasn't in any way a criticism of you. It was more of an expression of frustration that no one seems to notice the negativity, divisive nature and bigotry that frequently comes out in Mark's posts.
The difficulty will be in trying to keep my post to a reasonable length. I try to back up my comments with facts and there's such an abundance of evidence to back up my comments.
I think you know that I think the world of you because of your energy, commitment and good heart. And since your recent post to Thom dealing with some of the personal struggles you've had to overcome, I consider you a hero.
It's precisely your kindness and your open minded attitude that I appreciate about you and that I find totally lacking in Mark's posts. I hope I'll be able to make my point clearly and concisely on Friday's blog.
#37
Thom, you missed your chance to tell Epstein that people can't afford to work for low wages if more things are not covered in "The Commons". I can't afford to wait tables for 8 dollars an hour if I have to build the road from my house to the restaurant. If people are required to cover so many of their own costs and be responsible like Epstein demanded we will have to adjust pay so that working Americans can AFFORD health care and be "responsible". We certainly don't expect businesses to run making less than they spend to run the business. But we expect millions of working people to work for less than it costs to "run" a person.
Otherwise, to demand that wages remain low with low minimum wages that do not provide an individual with the means to buy the basic necessities to live safely is to demand that a Slave Class is built into the system for the use of the economic enjoyment of another class. Slave Class being defined as a group of people that are agreed upon by the group as lawful to exploit.
So Republicans need to put their money where their mouths are and demand that working people are paid a wage that can accommodate these high health care costs.
#38
B Roll,
Thank you for your kind words. You are so extremely generous in your comments toward me and, though I am not a hero, I do try to walk through life one step at a time. So much of life is just enduring... and trying to comprehend.
My dear mother-in-law grew up in extremely difficult/abusive circumstances, too, but was an orphan as well. Somehow, she kept her soul and heart. I love her and we spend our time together laughing. btw, she is an extremely intelligent, capable person. I learn from her all the time.
You don't need to say any more. Thank you so much for what you did say. I take you at your word regarding Mark's attitudes. Mark is obviously so smart, I have hope that he will come to understand and appreciate other more positive, less bigotted points of view. So much of life's true wealth comes with age and experience, I think.
Let's hug and have a good weekend! Thanks so much for your friendship.
#39
B Roll,
I will paste my previous post on the Friday blog, in case you don't read it here.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Mueller's favorite place to pray (written about in "Prophet's Way"), and the roof of the room where the Last Supper is reputed to have happened.
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From Screwed:
"The powers that be are running roughshod over the powers that OUGHT to be. Hartmann tells us what went wrong — and what you and I can do to help set American right again."
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
Complexion--or complexion? Which word did that Valley Swim Club president mean when he forbid black children from entering that swimming pool? And now we have that Boston police officer suing the city after his suspension, claiming that "banana-eating jungle monkey" refers to "behavior" not a descriptive racial caricature. Are we to be taken for fools? If a normal person recognizes the context in which these terms are used, are we to assume that those people who used these terms and deny that they meant the commonly understood contexts are "abnormal?"
Anyways....