Been listening to Noam Chomsky on You Tube. I highly recommend to all Thom's listeners to just go to You Tube and search for Noam Chomsky. Though wait until after Thom's show is over, once you start down the path of Chomsky, you'll find yourself wanting to listen to more and more of his lectures. Talk about speaking truth about the US gov.

Oh also recommend the BBC series, The Power of Nightmares.

If you want to know why things are the way they are, that Documentary and Chomsky will go a long way in educating you.

N

Quotes "... as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever" Benjamin Franklin

Has any one noticed that all these "Tea Party" candidates are using the term "Democrat" Party when referring to the Democratic Party in conversation? That is not coincidence. They are definitely in lockstep.

Tennessee Burning

Hey, those politicians in Ubion county, Tennessee can run on the fact that they did not raise taxes and those poor folks would say yeah no tax increases for me.

Why don't these Democrats including president Obama just look the constituents in the eye and say to them "listen to me, I am on your side. I am fighting for you. These republicans are using Taliban tactics to destroy the progress we are making. They want you to give up and give in to them and submit to the will of the huge corporations who are shipping all the jobs to China, Mexico, Indonesia etc.

Thom the problem with your conclusion to your analogy of how the US is killing other countries by getting them to eliminate their tariffs, and is now killing us is this. The people who are in favor of this policy in America, are not being harmed by this policy and in fact are getting just what the want, a home population ready to give up civil liberties and labor rights just to have a job. In a round about way the wealthy are trying to re-inslave the common American people.

N

A fellow named Jim Keene wrote:

The lack of understanding of economics on the Huffington Post is sad. If a store owner raises his prices will his revenue go up? Not if he has less customers because they can no longer afford to shop there. Taxes are the same way. If you tax less, people have more to spend and the economy grows. But most of all, the money someone earns is not community property to be distributed by a bunch of knuckle head politicians. Stop whining because someone has more than you. It is pathetic.

This was my response:

Mr. Keene,

Reality proves you seriously incorrect. There are a large number of issues involved in taxation and discretionary that you are either failing to understand OR intentionally ignoring.

First: ALL money belongs to the government because WE THE PEOPLE ascribed it so. All property belongs to the Commons and individuals and corporations are required to pay levies in the form of fees and taxes to continue their right to continue utilizing the property or the government can and will seize that property. Corporations are composed of and exist in law which is the providence of government. Government is not a business; it is a covenant between people to provide agreed upon services and protection of the community overseen by the agreed upon government. Taxes are the price of living within a society governed. Everyone should pay their fair share, but for some unfathomable reason you choose to display your character and low moral fiber in public by belittling folk for suggesting that all people show integrity and be responsible for the Commons they derive benefit from.

Second: While folk living on the lower end of the socio-economic use government services, you ridicule them for using those services. While folk living on the upper end of the socio-economic use government services, you ignore the dramatically higher cost and drain upon society to support their wealth gathering activities. 90% of all legal system activities support the protection of wealth, but you argue that the wealthy needs to intentionally fail to pay for those services.

If you tax folk less, you deprive them of the goods and services provided by the society through their chosen instrument of dispersal, government. If you tax folk less, you steal from people the very thing they and their forefathers strived and died to bring to them. If you tax folk less, you destroy their right to the freedoms inscribed in the basic documents of our government. Without these things, money ceases to be discretionary and people must spend their hard earned dollars upon necessities. THEY HAVE LESS TO SPEND supporting the economy.

The greatest economic boon in our country for the poor, middle-class and the wealthy is when the top tax rate was close to 71%. I’m sorry Ayn Rand and the Friedmans lied to you.

Voting

My wife and I received our absentee ballots for voting. There are people will say that absentee votes are not counted. Whether these votes are counted or not, I must still vote. My major concern about the voting process that our voting machines are rigged and no paper trail is left to challenge the voting results.

Voting is a very serious process in a democracy. Unfortunately, our country is not a democracy. Ten percent of the people have domination over the other ninety percent of Americans. Currently, in our country we have Americans mistreating other Americans through Ponzi schemes and shell games. We have also bait and switch tactics and smoke and mirrors deceptions.

We go into other countries to monitor their elections but in our own country the elections are rigged in favor of the rich and American corporations. Average and working Americans must live through endless periods of BOHICA experiences. Our country has no one who understands Economics 101 and 102. Good wages are necessary to energize and sustain a healthy economy. That is why the Depression period we are witnessing will linger for several generations.

In our country Americans are experiencing an economical Depression and they are also living in a state of personal depression. A feeling of hopelessness also reigns supreme in America and among Americans.

Here is why I made it emphatic and voted straight Democratic. I consider Republicans anti-American and anti- human beings.

Paul Wellstone

Linda McMahon is running for Congress and she is a multimillionaire. She would like to review and possibly eliminate the minimum wage. She doesn’t even know what the minimum wage is in our country. Why should a multimillionaire need to know what the minimum is for workers? I believe that politicians should do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/30/linda-mcmahon-we-ought-to_n_745639.html

The politician who had it right was Paul Wellstone. Paul Wellstone said that politics is not about power. Politics is not only about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives. It is about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and in the world. Politics is about doing well for people. We must work to have a Congress that is filled with Paul Wellstone’s beliefs.

As a side note! Killing only matters if it is inside the mother’s womb and not outside the mother’s womb! Obama can now assassinate Americans if they are outside the mother’s womb. He can also assassinate God’s children who are outside the mother’s womb and outside of our country.

http://harpers.org/archive/2010/10/hbc-90007665

The fact that Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize disgusts me. I consider Obama a mass murderer.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Lawless-Nation--the-Execu-by-Michael-Collins-101004-248.html

ASSASSINATION IS FASCINATION FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS!!!

Gerald’s comments are coming to you from his hideaway bunker deep inside enemy territory. He is a man without a country.

Carrie Lucas is correct . . . People have a right to choose to not work if the ownership screws then into the dirt and be homeless and allow their spouses and children to die of starvation . . . In fact, it is their obligation.

Evil IS as evil does and says we should do . . .

Secretary of Defense

I would like to share with you four articles. Bob Gates wants our young men and women to enlist into the military service. I say to you – run, run very fast away from his call. Here are some reasons to not volunteer to be cannon fodder.

http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/10/04/uncle-bob-wants-you/

Please do not let yourself be fooled by Uncle Bob!

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/foreign-policy/4765-the-real-costs-of-the-wars

The above article is a must read article.

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/10/04/study-vets-are-a-massive-unfunded-liability/

Our poor veterans!

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/10/01/america-worlds-top-military-forever/

We will always use our military power to control the world populations and their natural resources.

"We're one of you, and you're one of us, I think."

Re :#21: A Quaker meeting in California was declared a threat to national security by the Pentagon 'cause they're trying to counsel high school kids not to enlist. Quakers are among the most steadfast pacifists. a threat to national security.

Regarding James Brady quotation: The Supreme Court recently found that nobody has a right to police protection; that an emergency call does not guarantee citizens that the police will be there to protect them.. That case came down in DC after three women were terrorized in their apartment. One who was hidden called 911, but the squad car just cruised slowly down the block and did not return.

I don't have the case title, but I'll find it and "get back to ya!"

... minutes later:

The case was Warren v. D.C., http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/federal/judicial/dc/opinions/02opinions/02-...

#28: like living in Arizona

Once a Republican enters the WH, the solar panels will be history.

Wars are necessary in order to sustain American profits for the American rich and for American corporations.

Harvard Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, wrote “As I would put my personal repute behind the authenticity of this document, so would I testify to the validity of its conclusions.”

Some of the conclusions of that study include

• war produces waste, which is a way to control surpluses
• war produces jobs and industrial advancement
• war stimulates the economy
• war “is, and has been, the essential economic stabilizer of modern societies”
• war is “virtually synonymous with nationhood”
• military service has a “patriotic” priority in society
• wars "have provided...[a] state-supported haven...for the 'unemployable'"
• war can be used as a “…control device over the hostile, nihilistic, and potential unsettling elements of society…”

Guns n' Roses

I am a natural at target shooting, hit the bullseye nearly everytime. I like to go to the target range with my sons and shoot targets, and talk. However, you will never see me or anyone I know showing up at a rally with a gun, a gun belongs in a safe with a lock on the trigger. When I was a young girl, I was taught gun safety right along with my brothers, and also was taught about how true sportsmen and women, never use force or guns, to show off or intimidate people.

I was also taught about how wrong prejudice is.

Yes, I am also a non-violent pacifist, and want this war ended. It is time to stop putting people and issues in a box. Let's get rid of the "label maker" and start working on solutions.