Four More Years Starts Today
By louisehartmann
As many as a million Americans gathered on our National Mall today, to watch Barack Obama be publicly sworn in to serve his second term as President of the United States. And he rides into his second term with a mandate – as the only President since Dwight Eisenhower to be elected twice with 51% of the vote. But if there’s one thing the President learned from his first term, it’s that Republicans will at all costs destroy whatever mandate he’s earned.
In fact, on this day, four years ago, Republicans gathered at a fancy steakhouse in Washington, DC, just as President Obama was attending the inaugural balls. The likes of Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, and Frank Luntz all attended this meeting. And the purpose of the meeting was simple: How to destroy the Obama Presidency and retake the White House in four years. That night – Republicans committed themselves to four years of obstruction and economic sabotage. And that’s exactly what they did – even though it didn’t work out for them in the end.
Today, the question is – what are Republicans plotting now? How will they sabotage the President’s second term? Let’s hope the President has learned lessons from the first term, and accepts that he’s facing a loyal opposition in the Republican Party. He’s facing economic terrorists – and the only way he can succeed is by taking the debate to the American people, using his bully pulpit, and shaming the fossils on the Right who serve the Billionaire Class.
Comments
#2
Quote Hartmann:
Today, the question is – what are Republicans plotting now?
Probably another 9/11 false flag operation.!
#3
Funny Palin, but that is the business of the rouge government (Military industrial complex guys). our elected masterminds would do more of maybe black boxes in every car, cameras at every corner, drones in the sky, microchip all kids and guns etc... but all this is for our own good and the good of the collective. This is just common sense moving forward stuff.
#4
1. Pass a Constitutional Amendment Confirming the Right to Vote
Most Americans believe that the "legal right to vote" in our democracy is explicit, not just implicit, in our federal Constitution. Despite two centuries in which the right to vote has been affirmed and expanded as a constitutional right, the U.S. system of elections still does not adequately protect voting rights. Indeed, Justice Scalia in Bush v. Gore claimed that, "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." (Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 104 (2000)). Because the Supreme Court made this ruling. It is easy for other citizens to interfere with your voting rights. We must work to adopt a federal constitutional amendment confirming every citizen's right to vote.
2. Guarantee a Voter-Marked Paper Ballot for All Voting verification
Every voting system in the United States must be equipped to facilitate a permanent, visible record of every vote cast, and to honor the right of the voter to mark their own ballot themselves. The public is the only realistic check on vote counts. Those in power cannot be trusted to count or process -- unsupervised -- the very ballots by which they come into office. Any system that allows secret and therefore unverifiable vote counting is unacceptable because it denies the right to vote.
Voters must know that their vote will count and make a difference. Every recent presidential election has been marred because commitees discounted millions of incomplete, provisional and absentee ballots. This discounting of votes has disproportionately impacted people of color. Election officials should wait until after any recounts have been completed to provide final certification of election results.
3. Make Election Day a National Holiday or an Election Week
Working people should not be forced to choose between exercising their right to vote and getting to work on time. Holding national elections on a national holiday will greatly increase the number of available poll workers and polling places and increase overall turnout, while making it much easier for working Americans to go to the polls, and give more time for the poll workers to count the votes. Every possible opportunity must be provided for citizens to vote, even by mail.
4. Make it Easier to Vote
Many citizens are discouraged from voting by unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and restrictions. Our current system forces millions of voters to wait up to ten hours to vote. This is unacceptable, and it disenfranchises those who cannot afford to wait. We must not discourage citizens from voting with unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and restrictions. To ensure equal access and minimize the wait at the polls, election authorities must allocate resources based upon the number of potential voters per precinct. We must put an end to the practice of allowing citizens to challenge the voting rights of other individual voters at the polls. Instead, the government must invest in campaigns designed to educate voters about how they can exercise and protect their right to vote.
5. Abolish Electoral College,
It is time to end the safe state/battleground state dichotomy and make all votes equal, no matter in what state the voter lives. We must amend the Federal Constitution to replace election of the President by the Electoral College with direct election by the voters. However, as long as the Electoral College existss, we must amend our state laws and constitutions to allocate each state's electors to the winner of the national popular vote.
We must replace the current system of partisan election administration, because partisan secretaries of state, county clerks, election commissioners, and other partisan officials are able to issue rulings and draw districts that favor their own political parties and themselves. Once the districts are drawn in favor of one party, that party may then make the rules and SPLIT the electoral votes of the state, between contestants. THIS PROCESS IS CURRENTLY BEING EXPLOITED TO DIVIDE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IN WHAT IS CALLED "RED MAPPING"!!
6. Replace Partisan Election Commissions with Proportional Representation
We citizens, must replace our current "first-past-the-post" system with Approval Voting. Unlike the current system, which forces voters to reject their preferred candidate in favor of a "lesser evil" who may have a better chance of defeating the candidate they most fear, Approval Voting allows them to choose both. In this way, it eliminates the so-called "spoiler" and "wasted vote" effects and gives voters a more democratic set of choices. Under Approval Voting, each voter may mark approval on her ballot for any number of the candidates that the voter chooses to. The candidate receiving the highest count of approvals from all voters combined wins the election.
The right of representation belongs to all citizens. The current winner-take-all elections award representation to the largest factions and leave everyone else, often the majority, unrepresented. The winner-take-all system unnecessarily restricts choice, polarizes politics and limits political discourse. WE MUST ADOPT PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION (PR) for legislative elections to ensure the fair representation of all voters. Millions of Democrats in Republican areas and Republicans in Democratic areas are unrepresented in our system, and the majority of Greens, Libertarians, and other independents are unrepresented at all levels of government. A new system for the US should PROVIDE FAIR REPRESENTATION to all voters, in proportion to their numbers.
When talking about electoral reform, writers and readers can usefully distinguish single-winner elections from multi-winner elections. Currently all elections in the US are single-winner. Unless some reform fundamentally changes the nature of the US Presidency, that office will continue to require a single-winner election. The appropriate reform for single-winner elections, including that for the Presidency, is Approval Voting. For the US House of Representatives and the State lower houses, a switch to Proportional Representation should be made, instead.
The right of representation belongs to all citizens. The current US winner-take-all elections award representation to the largest factions and leave everyone else, often the majority, unrepresented. The winner-take-all system unnecessarily restricts choice, polarizes politics and limits political discourse. We US citizens must adopt Proportional Representation (PR) for legislative elections to ensure the fair representation of all voters. Millions of Democrats in Republican areas and Republicans in Democratic areas are unrepresented in our system, and the majority of Greens, Libertarians, and other independents are unrepresented at all levels of government. A new system for the US should provide fair representation to all voters, in proportion to their numbers.
When talking about electoral reform, writers and readers can usefully distinguish single-winner elections from multiwinner elections. Currently all elections in the US are single-winner. Unless some reform fundamentally changes the nature of the US Presidency, that office will continue to require a single-winner election. The appropriate reform for single-winner elections, including that for the Presidency, is Approval Voting. For the US House of Representatives and the State lower houses, a switch to Proportional Representation should be made, instead.
LEARN MORE ABOUT Fixing VOTING at the Facebook Group, Equal Access Amendment Project https://www.facebook.com/groups/152631684794770
Remember also, when your water gets cut off, or your phone gets cut off, you call to complain. Well Our government is cut off from us. CALL THEM. Put the number in your phone. They have to write down what you say and keep a count of who is saying what. SO PLEASE CALL and VOTE in 2014 in the MIDTERMS!!!!
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The Voter Bill of Rights is a product of the 2001 Democracy Summer program, a proto Liberty Tree Foundation event. It was amended for the 2004 No Stolen Elections! campaign, and amended again for the No More Stolen Elections! campaign./ It was amended again by the Equal Access Amendment facebook group after education received from the Center for Election Science google+ group.
#5
Prosecute fraud and crime perpetrated by government insiders and high officials. Our history is loaded with unsolved mysteries, unsatisfactory explanations, and incomplete investigations which never reach the top. Therefore our White House is fundamentally corrupted as long as the presence of these people persists and is tolerated or ignored by the others.
The old guys should come clean and tell what they know and the new culture should not be cajoled by the old.
Anyone who claims to be a patriot owes their country that much.
#6
I feel better, by the hour, by the day. We the People, as the owners of the Government entity, have once again elected a statesman who understands how to be the leader of a great Republic. Unlike the ideologues still serving the plutocrats in Congress, we appreciate having public officials who serve our interests as a community. We can now address the practical concerns which we face.
#7
Obama is a corporatist (much like his inauguration coordinator Chuck Schummer and his unequivocal support of hedge funders.) The underlying agenda of corporatist politicians is to preserve the plutocracy. While the Republicans would like us all to work in the plantation fields, the president and his Democratic cronies would bring some of us into the main house. While the two parties argue over who is deserving, in either poltical scenario they offer our status as Serfs remains fixed.
#8
Glob: So, you think treasonous murderer's actions are funny?
Oh, I get it, you don't think 9/11 was an inside job! Before long they'll be putting listening devices in our refrigerators and toasters, according to our last CIA Director. I wouldn't be surprised that they will be able to monitor our vital signs like heart rate and breathing as we watch TV to detect how we really felt about things. Remote detection of these things would be harder to accomplish than just requiring each of us to have an injection of a "Digital Angel" - like device that would be in constant contact via either local cell towers or satellite. Currently, they have these devices to inject, not much bigger than a piece of rice, into the body to monitor vital signs but you have to be scanned by an RFID sensor at close range. It's not too popular because of the 666 factor...good thing our cows don't believe in demons..because they are the ones, and other animals, who are getting injected with these things.
It's so odd how the Democrats screamed about how Bush was violating the constitution when he was President; but now, Obama is violating them even more...but, I guess that's ok with them as long as their man is in the White House. We're all up sh1t creek without paddles under both parties.
#9
Here's the problem IMHO: Obama DID have a mandate in 2008. To have simply overcome the racial barrier was a phenominal achievement. He mobilized old white guys like me to actually contribute for the first time to a political campaign. He did it with lofty rhetoric and a level of intelligence and apparent sensitivity to all that was wrong with the Bush/Cheney fiasco. It didn't hurt his campain that Bush was an obvious cretin and pawn to the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Neocons. There is no denying that the Republican leadership threw down every roadblock at their disposal to ensure that he was a "one term president". BUT he had the mandate and the momentum. The Republicans were on their backs. He had both houses of congress, plus a super majority in the senate. He could have rammed through a single payer health care system and his base would have had his back. He could have unilaterally shut down Guantanimo, stopped warrantless wiretapping, prosecuted those responsible for the economic meltdown, restored the damage done to civil liberties under Bush .... etc., etc .... But no. He Retained Larry Summers (Mr. Wall Street insider) as his chief economic advisor. He named boy wonder Tim Geithner (head of the New York Fed while all the hankey pankey was going on) as Treasury Secretary, and he set his man Eric Holder off in a direction to consolidate and strengthen all of the agregious civil liberties violations started under Bush. Yes, he bailed out Detroit (and a lot of Wall Street elite including Mitt Romney got a very nice bonus in the process). Yes, he got some semblance of a health care reform package passed (and the Insurance companies got 30 million new customers that are now required by law to subscribe or pay penalties while big pharma continues to gouge US customers with impunity). He wound down Iraq but escallated Afghanistan. Now he's setting up bases in Africa and expanding our military footprint in the Pacific to counter some imagined threat from China. He's declared himself "Decider" when it comes to dropping a bomb on anyone, anywhere, anytime, without due process, if that individual constitutes a threat in his personal opinion. I'm not making this up! So I'm a little disappointed. I think Barack Obama is and never was what we had hoped him to be. This second term will tell the story. I believe the only hope for this country, long term, is for people to realize that neither of the two major parties is working in the best interest of the American People. We desperately need a third party to offset the process that started over 30 years ago to consolidate the wealth in the hands of the few and co-opt our political institutions and the media. God help us if we don't wake up.
#10
Thom,
Did you misspeak? Loyal opposition? This has been the most DISloyal opposition in American history.
#11
"facing a loyal opposition in the Republican Party"?
What on earth makes you thiink the Republican Party is a "loyal" opposition? They are only loyal to their hatred of democracy and their love of wealth and power. The Democratic Party does not fare much better as Obama does as much as Bush to undermine our civil liberties and support the wealth of Wall Streeters. It is not hyperbole to point out that the people who jointly controll the Republican and Democratic Parties are united in their support of our American Brand of Fascism.
#12
Bad figure of speech on my part palin, not funny, and yes I am believing more and more that 911 was an inside job. Building seven is one convincing piece of evidence To go along with many other things. We must resist government domination in our lives in order to strip them of over bearing power and our dependence on it.
#13
All excellent suggestions that are endorsed by the Green Party but not by either the Democratic or Republican Parties.
#14
LOL! I was writing my response to the use of the word "loyal" just as you were and you posted one minute before me.
Like minds!
#15
keylawk, perhaps you didn't notice, but Obama is the frontman for the plutocrats. Just ask soon to be ex-EPA chief, Sheila Jackson, who Obama pushed to resign because she wouldn't cave in to the plutocrats..
#16
Old Blue: Absolutely, 100% true...everything you said!
Global: Thank you, Global! Yes, that Building 7, among so many other things, was a dead giveaway that 9/11 was an inside job.
Jeffthinx: The way I read that was: the opposition that is loyal to the Republican Party.
Gregory Wonderwheel: Yes, I believe you are correct...and well said....Obama is the front man for the plutocrats. He's making statements on such a "wondrous occasion" that sound like he is going to start working for the majority of Americans....but he did that before he was elected the first and second time. We'll see how much of a front man he will prove himself to be in the next four years. Unfortunately, many of us may not have four more years....just because of Obama's giveaway to Insurance companies and big pharma.
#17
I love this President and his agenda, his speech today was the most inclusive speech ever given by a president. BUT unfortunately, so long as the Tea Party Republicans have a strangle hold on congress not much will get done. Those guys seem to be living in a past that never was and refuse to be brought into the future even kicking and screaming. We love to think our president can actually change things but presidents don't make laws, the congress does, and they are not going to change their views. They believe in their class system that support the rich and entitled and seem to have interpreted their version of Christ as a man who did not spend his life and lose it in support of the poor, the ill and the downtrodden.
So as much as I loved President Obama's speech I am a bit cynical about there being any real change in the next four years. I hope I am wrong.
#18
We have a constitutional republic? Oh, so that would explain why Bush violated our constitution so many times, such as starting a war on the basis of lies and southern-fried personal revenge ("that man tried to kill my daddy- now you go and prove that he was behind 9-11"), imprisoning people without trials, "legalizing" torture, tapping your phone, reading your emails, finding out what books you took out of the library, groping you at the airport, and recess appointments of fascists to various positions and lacing our federal courts with right wing legislate-from-the-bench traitors. And I suppose it would explain why, instead of going after Saudi Arabia because it was almost all Saudis who did the 9-11 attacks, Bush had himself photographed kissing Saudi royals on the mouth and going for strolls holding hands with them, like schoolgirls in love. Because that's what a real man does when his country is attacked.
I can certainly see why republicans would feel that Obama doing one recess appointment is much, much, much worse than Bush doing lots of them. And I suppose it would also explain why Bush took about 270 vacation days while Obama took 28.
And Obama signing some executive actions? Oh, I just hate when he does that. I don't hate it when a republican does it, but I sure do hate it when a black democrat does it.
I'll tell you what I want. I want the people who have outsourced millions of American jobs to foreign countries to run America. Elections? Ha! Who needs elections when we have plenty of rich old white traitors to run our country? Now THAT is a totalitarianism I am willing to call a constitutional republic. I just really hate it when the American people elect who they want for president. They shouldn't be allowed to do that. They should have to vote for a rich white draft-dodger who hides his money in foreign countries. I mean, it's just impossible to have a constitutional republic when the people elect a black man.
And health care? I don't need any health care. If I get sick and can't afford to pay $500,000 in hospital bills, I want to my house go into foreclosure and I want to die in the streets, just like every patriotic American wants to do. I just hope one of those rich white men walks past me while I'm dying in the streets, so I can lick his patriotic boots. Boo-yah!
Public education for our children? Don't make me laugh. Children get all the education they need by watching people get killed on tv, playing video games where you shoot people in half, and going to strange church-run charter schools that are owned by billionaires, where the kids are plunked down in front of computers that spew hateful, judgmental, sanctimonious religious crap at them. Praise God!
Social Security? I don't care that I paid into it, it's still socialism, and I don't want it! Why is it socialism? Well, if you have to ask a question like that, you're not from around here; in fact, I can tell from here that you are some kind of socialist or communist or even worse. But I'll tell you why Social Security is socialism. It is socialism because the rich old white men on Wall Street want the money that is in the Social Security fund. And we should give it to them! When I get old I don't want no Social Security, I want to live on dog food! Yes sir!
And that Obama has some nerve, wanting to end the war in Afghanistan just when it was starting to get real fun. Ok, so several of my relatives came back from there without an arm or a leg or whatever, but they're glad it happened, and so am I. Shoot, my cousin said he wasn't using that arm anyway, and besides he's got another one just like it on the other hand. Can I get another boo-yah?
#19
Green TZM, that's a wonderful set of very reasonable, highly patriotic goals.
I especially like the idea of having the elections run for a full seven-day week, so everyone has a chance to vote, and it should be law that everyone who works gets a paid day off for voting.
Election Day should be the most important holiday in America.
#20
Yes, it's true- based on what he has done as president- that Obama is a corporatist. But he is not as bad a corporatist as Bush/Cheney were, or as bad as Romney/Ryan would have been.
It is a shame that we have to choose between not-particularly-good politicians, and foaming-at-the-mouth traitors.
But there is still a chance that Obama will be more proactive in doing the job he said he would do.
#21
Quote David Abbot: "Bush had himself photographed kissing Saudi royals on the mouth and going for strolls holding hands with them, like schoolgirls in love."
I'd bet that's not all he did....I've heard stories!
#22
Get the money out of politics.
In order to reclaim our Democracy, we have to get the money out of politics. No other single issue is as important as this one. Without free and fair elections unfettered by vested interest cash, we will never get government policies aimed at the benefit of the nation as a whole. Rather we will get what is in the interests of the political donors. So far, that has worked out swimmingly for the donors, but disastrously for the rest of the country and the wider world in general.
Regardless of Obama's rhetoric, he is still a captive of wealthy interests and he will only go so far in his reforms. Still, we will be far better off if he manages only a fraction of what he's proposing, than if the Republicans had been returned to power. The Republicans in the House can make NO claim to a mandate, given that their majority is a result of gerrymandered districts, NOT votes. There was no 'vote of confidence' for the Republicans as there was for Obama. The number of votes tells the real story, not the fiddled electoral college numbers.
#23
Why not just have the election on a Weekend? Friday night through to Sunday night. That why no production is lost and it gives everyone a chance to vote.
#24
Senate 1st, Impeachment 2nd
The republicans will try to capture the senate in 2014, by any means imaginable.
A move to impeach Obama will follow afterwards. The repugnuts have nothing else to do but to try to seize power.
#25
Good evening David! Just got off of work. Sorry for the late arrival.
I guess I must be a racist. I sure feel like one, working on this special of days. I imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. was white, his birthday would carry more weight. Perhaps I'm just impatient and unhappy because I had to work today; and, judging from the traffic, I was in the minority! I'm sure in time MLK Jr. will receive his due of the respect he's earned from us all.
That being said, I think you raised an interesting point the other day. Hate is something we must all rebuke. I've argued that Labels such as "Conservatives" is offensive. I've been told that it accurately describes a philosophical world view. I submit that notion is erroneous.
The Southern Strategy infamously plays on the Racial Hatred of the south in order to obtain support for the Republican Agenda that is conveniently labeled "Conservatism." I submit to you, that the irrational thought associated with Racism makes a great many Southern Voters susceptible to any philosophy associated with a group that is sympathetic to their hatred. The average "Conservative" doesn't actually believe the "Conservative" philosophy they readily accept; due to the fact that their racial hatred interferes with their rational thought.
In this way, any rational assault on the "Conservative" philosophy is met with aggression and irrationality. The only way I see to reach such individuals is through calm redress of their racial hatred. In my opinion--and the opinion of Alexis de Tocqueville's great work, "Democracy in America"--the emissary for such a task should be a racially mixed person. Therefore despite any inadequacies President Obama stands a tremendous opportunity to heal a deep wound that this country was founded upon. I extent to him my best wishes on his second term. May God bless his Presidency and our country.
#26
Oh no you don't Palindromedary... "I've heard stories!". Pray tell!
#27
Now Kend, I agree with that notion 150%. Weekend elections. Or why not an entire week. We could make a National Holiday out of it with Parades, Fanfare, free concerts, public picnics. We could close the streets and have a National Party. Makes great sense to me. What a great way to generate participation. Kudos to you Kend!!
#28
DanneMarc, only a radical liberal thinks of racism in this context. All conservatives are racist? I guess with your logic all liberals are baby killing abortionist. You are watching way too much MSLSD. Back away from the propaganda machines.
#29
"Radical Liberal"???
Global! My dear, dear friend. Your passionate attack on my condemnation of Labels by Labeling me only proves what I am saying. Thank You!!
#30
Global, just wondering. Do you think all these Liberals will be happy if they get the same this four years As they did the last four. A tax on the rich again and ah, ah, ah ok I guess that's it.
#31
DAnneMarc: My lips are sealed...I want to live a little longer...besides that's what the internet is for....
#32
This is definitely off topic but I was wondering how many people get lots of unwanted phone calls. I was getting a lot of unwanted phone calls some time back and had my phone # changed (now I get way more unwanted phone calls) but also got caller id blocking and some devices to hook up to my phone that tells me the phone number and, sometimes, the name of the caller.
Since I got these devices, I check the number and name and if it is no one I recognize..I don't answer. But, I also look them up on the internet and found that the daily calls I get pestered with are collection agencies. I have never had a problem with paying my bills and believe that whoever owned that number before must have.
But I have refused to even pick up...there's no law that says I have to...and I certainly will not give these people even the information that I am not who they are trying to contact. From what I've learned from others...these callers do try to fish for information from you...they even play tricks to get you to give them information...like winning a prize. The best thing is to just not answer the phone. If you answer just once...and even tell them not to call again...they will anyway.
The phone company, even though I have phone blocking, won't block anything but local calls. I found this is typical of phone companies. These calls are all long distance. I know who they are because I found that many other people are pestered by the same callers. I have put my number on a do not call list...but that doesn't do any good. So, I have to endure these robocalls hoping they give up..yeah right! The way it works is their computers automatically dial all the numbers they want called and when you answer, it switches you to a real person.
Anyway, I found out that there is a scam using the telephones..something called TDOS (Telephone Denial of Service)...kind of like the DDOS (with computer sites) but instead of tying up a web site..they tie up your phone and empty out your bank accounts at the same time and you can't even notify your bank because you're being blocked. This is mostly done to people who bank on-line.
Quote transcript:"The purpose of the malicious phone call is to occupy the victim’s phone number on record with the financial institution, so when the institution tries to contact the victim to notify them of the change, they can’t because the phone line is busy. Consequently, the victim has no idea what’s really transpired until it is too late.”
If you want to read more about this in more detail go to the FBI website where there is a podcast and transcript of an interview about this scam:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/podcasts/inside/tdos-telecommunication-denial-of...
#33
Wow, what a great inaugural speech!
I agree, President Obama is facing a loyal opposition, in other words a partisan, biased and emotional allegiance of the opposing Party.
What are the Republicans plotting now? I don't know....maybe how to rid themselves of the Tea Party? If they don't, in my opinion 2014, "could be their Waterloo." More likely they're trying to plot how to increase spending on contracts for Lockeed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, and the like, while at the same time whine about out of control entitlement spending. But none the less, blame Obama for all of the spending.
#34
Come on Palindromedary. I respect your fears, but seriously...
I will submit one word, ethnocentrism. I think you mistake a foreign custom for more than meets the eye. LOL It does look cute, however.
PS I'm glad to see the return of Fluffy!
#35
Greetings Kend! Let me anwer for Global.
He's probably grinding his teeth right now, and since I'm supposed to be a "Radical Liberal", I'm probably a far better source for the answer you seek.
In truth, however, before I answer, no I don't consider myself a "Liberal". I can't answer for those who consider themselves liberals.
For myself, no, I will not be happy if I get the same in the next four years. I want The Patriot act repealed. I don't want President Obama to ever again mention the idea of Indefinite Detention. I want Single Payer Health Care Instituted officially. I want Tariffs on foreign imports reinstated, I want our troops removed from all foreign nations, and I want a full investigation of President Bush's nefarious activities in office, and full disclosure of every federal secret since Dallas Texas, November 22, 1963.
Personally I feel President Obama failed us during the first few days of his first administration when he failed to declare a national emergency, repeal the Patriot Act, and investigate the Bush Administration for war crimes. He said he would which I suppose would make him a liar. Personally, I expect far more out of him as a Constitutional Scholar than I got in his first administration. Also, personally, I hope he does raise taxes on the rich, but it is not an important concern of mine. Not reducing aid to the poor, elderly, and infirmed is far more important to me.
I also would like to see public funding of Mental Institutions reinstated.
I hope that answers you inquiry.
#36
I am not sure how anyone could think Obama is any different than Romney. They both have been bought and paid for by the Corporations. Where do you think he got $400,000,000 to run his campaign against Romney? It wasn't from donations from the middle class and poor! Everything Obama said he would do, he hasn't. Everything he said he would not do, he has done. How does a guy win the Nobel Peace Prize while he has increased the number of troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 and has a kill list for his drones? He gets on prime time and gives a speech on what he is doing by executive order to stop shootings and it does nothing to actually stop the killings. Taking 30 round clips off the market resolves nothing. All you have to do is tape two 15 round magazines together and whammo you have a 30 round clip. You hit magazine release and simply turn the clip upside down, shove it in and you have a 30 round clip in 4 seconds. Enough of my babble for one day. Vote Independent and get rid of these clowns for good.
DAnneMarc - I called you and Annabelle girls because I thought you were a female. After watching the video of you cat I thought it was you in the footage. And when I said girls it was not out of disrespect, I often refer to my daughters friends as girls and they 35!
Palindromedary - you are starting to sound a little crazy again.
Abbot - when I questioned what Alice had said about military suicides, I was referring to Vietnam, not Afghanistan and our troops there.
#37
No problemo Ken. Actually, I thought your referal to my cat was a sarcastic review of my guitar playing. That was what I really wanted to share with you, I forgot about the cats on the blog. LOL The voice in the cat clips was my wife. The first entry was me. Maybe you didn't get it? Or maybe your just being nice? Either way, Thank YOU!!
#38
Wow I agree with KenW again what the hell is going on.
#39
First, to answer Thom's question: I haven't a clue what tactics the Teapublicans next plan to use , while furthering their mission of petty sabotage and obstructionism. But I'd bet everything, including the shirt on my back, that whatever they're up to is no good.
PD- Awww, Fluffy's back! Uglier & cuter than ever. And a lot more fun to look at than all those stupid airplanes (particularly the warplanes!).
PD said "This is definitely off topic but I was wondering how many people get lots of unwanted phone calls...." Count me in! Like you, I've tried the Do-not-Call List more than once, to no avail. The calls that really drove me nuts were the ones with nobody on the line; just silence, then "click". Sometimes I'd get five or more of those per day. And to block off this irritant, I've done two things: first, I turned off the ringer on the phone. Second, I got another message machine. With my husband's help I figured out how to set it so that only the caller hears my recorded greeting. Ahhh... RELIEF! - Aliceinwonderland
#40
DAnneMarc - I listened to your solo performance with your guitar, but somehow I thought you were referring to the cat! Sometimes things go right over my head without me realizing it! No I was not being sarcastic.
Palindromdary - I believe Bush is capable of doing just about anything to start a war. But the risk to benefit calculations seems that the payoff of starting a war by killing thousands and blaming it on Bin Laden just does not make sense to me. Even Bin Laden said he was surprised when his plan killed so many people. Claiming Saddam Hussein was trying to build a nuke and we had proof when Bush didn't is one thing, but to believe Bush and his gang planned and actually was responsible for the destruction on 9-11 is too far for me to reach in my logic. The war in Afghanistan started in Oct. 2001. What does Afghanistan have that Bush wanted so bad, that would prompt him to kill 3,000 people and destroy the Towers and almost the Pentagon? The fourth airliner was headed for the White House when the passengers helped bring it down in a field. I just cannot connect the dots on this one.
Kend - Stranger things have happened than you agreeing with me! I am not a Dem. or a Repub. and on some issues I agree with the conservatives (rarely) and sometimes with the Liberals and there are times I disagree with both sides.
#41
We need to actually prepare for a peaceful revolution, so the people can eventually, ceremoniously, withdraw their consent from a corrupt and obsolete government and economic system, after first accomplishing a talking thru of an alternative set of institutions, complete with an alternative economic system based on respecting full human dignity, transparency, sustainability.
I propose we push for a government in waiting to conduct such a new national narrative, with folks onboard like Thom Hartmann, Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Chris Hedges, Jim HIghtower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Melissa Harris-Perry, . . .
We need to rescue our culture from the commercial mentality which is inherently lacking in morality, and aim for a moral, rational, and just social order.
Revolution by discussion and articulation, the next step for Occupy.
#42
Ken what is that crest?
#43
Every Vote Counts!?!?
Had more...ALL...of those who cast "fear votes" for Obama or Romney and joined those who voted couragously for Jill Stein...At the very least the next 4 years would be different - a change in course - than I have ever know. Good or Bad...We'll never know; at least not for another 4 years.
#44
I listen to your show just about every day and would love to hear you interview an economist that has an alternative view of our monetary system. Her name is Stephanie Kelton. She is an Assistant Professor at UMKC and blogs at New Economic Perspectives. She, along with others at the school and elsewhere promote a school of thought referred to as Modern Monetary Theory. Basically, it is a new way to look at money and government debt. I recently attended a presentation she made to the Financial Planners Association and was very pleased to see many shaking their heads in agreement as she explained how our monetary system works. I assure you, her explanation is easy to understand and your audience would be very receptive. If I were to sum up Modern Monetary Theory (or MMT) in a few sentences I would go to a colleague of Stephanie Kelton who developed the theory;
"Federal government spending is in no case
operationally constrained by revenues, meaning
that there is no “solvency risk.” In other words,
the federal government can always make any and all
payments in its own currency, no matter how large
the deficit is, or how few taxes it collects" ~ Warren Mosler, Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy
The important underpinning of this is that the U.S. is a sovereign currency that acts like we are on the gold standard when we are not. Stephanie Kelton is an excellent proponent of this and will bring a perspective to our economic system that will change the conversation. Her blog is New Economic Perspectives and on twitter she is known as @deficitowl Please, please, please, have her on your show. I promise you will not regret it.
#45
KEN WARE...Most people of your generation have a difficult time wraping their head around the accusation that "your" government would plot such a deadly event like 9/11.
The main reason for this is infact based on generation ideology. Most people are patriotic without question. It's how were raised..."If the U.S. is 'doing it' than it must be Just". History - if you read the books that tell the truth - shows us that the majority of the time, most people resist going to war.
It strikes me as sad that you - a Vietnam Vet - has such a hard time understanding "why" & "how" a corrupt and greedy Empire would enact such evil upon innocent people, even its own.
WAKE-UP MAN! You aren't unAmerican if you question the government. You aren't unPatriotic for not beating the War Machine Drum.
The American Government is Of, For, and By the People. It is not only our Right to question the government of suspect and unjust actions it is our duty.
Patriatism is the last refuge for the scoundrel.
Lastly you are right Ken...Bush and didn't single handly plot 9/11; the Goons he worked for did.
#46
David Abbott,
Your naivete is showing! "...But he is not as bad a corporatist as Bush/Chenny were or as bad as Romney Ryan would have been...But there is still a chance that Obama will be more proactive in doing what he said he would do."
You too funny!!
#47
Imaude - Not being an economist I can't refute MMT in technical terms, but common sense would dictate that at some point simply printing more money, without bound, would eventually devaluate our currency to zero through inflation. I read everything Paul Krugman writes on our fiscal policy and view his as the the most reasonable voice in the field. There is a balance to be had between spending for stimulus and outright irresponsible spending. What the issue really boils down to is priorities. When either political party speaks of our fiscal jeopardy, the first words out of their mouths relate to "entitlement" spending, spending on social programs, raising more revenue to support our spending, etc. When the numbers are tossed around the units are always expressed in saving tens or hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. If my math is correct, saving $700 billion over a decade translates to saving $70 billion a year. That's a big number, but is absolutely dwarfed by the $Trillion plus we currently spend on so called "defense" and those expendatures are accelerating. Do you suppose there's a reason why there is no discussion of this by either Obama or his antagonists? It's been frequently mentioned that the US spends more on "defense" than the next fifteen countries on the planet combined. This includes all of the "rich" nations plus China and Russia. If we cut back on defense spending by even a modest twenty percent over time we could solve all the rest of our fiscal problems within a generation, or so I've read. But no, this doesn't align with the priorities of those who gain materially by maintaining a constant state of fear, ignorance and support for our current policies and control those who execute those policies. So no, Imaude, I don't think firing up the printing presses is going to get us out of this. As Joe Friendly indicated above, we need to create a whole new social mindset in this country. Everything I've read about empires that have reached this state of decay, however, tells me that this will be no easy task. Sorry to be such a constant party pooper :-(
#48
KEYLAWK, Where are you from???
No disrespect to you as a person, but I find your perspective sophmoric, even down right idiotic!
Please share your confidence...How does President Obamney have your communities best intrests at heart.
Please explain how/why you think Obamney is not serving a plutocrate agenda?
#49
Global...In response to your statement; "We must resist government domination..."
Countrys uneasy,
feeling betrayed.
We the people are paying
for the mistakes others have made.
The time is coming
for us to realize;
We must break out from
these corrupt government ties.
We must resist the urge for power.
Who can you trust?
Who is in control?
History shows us
all governments do decline;
From healthy ideas,
which in time are tread upon.
Let us begin to learn
from the mistakes of the past.
Change our way of thinking
so people and planet last.
we must resist the urge for power
Who can you trust?
Who is in control?
#50
ken ware: crazy? well, maybe there's a little 'crazy' in all of us and it leaks out sometimes!
Aliceinwonderland: Great idea! Just shut off my ringer and just check my device periodically, for who called, and call them back if I want to speak to them.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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Oh how exciting, four more years of Obamanomics and probably 6 trillion dollars of additional debt. Do you think the democrat senate will actually put out a budget? Don't know how you can classify his election as a mandate when over 63 million Americans voted against him. I hope some of these weak kneed politicians will stand up for the principles of individual sovereignty and stand against a totalitarian rule. We still have a constitutional republic form of government.