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"The Republican sequester is wreaking havoc on our economy. Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced a huge revision to previous estimates of economic growth. Initially, the BEA estimated our economy grew by 2.5 percent during the first three months of this year. Now they say our GDP only increased by 1.8 percent."
The sequester didn't cut in until March 31--so it did not affect the first three months of the year.
Our government has become so corrupt, arrogant, and self-serving...we need to throw the whole thing away and get another one. Hmmm, anyone know where we can buy a good, used, AND HONEST, government? On this planet?
This appears more like the End Game for the Oligarchal power brokers. Both the right and left have either been manipulated or convinced to play their roles in this takeover by our economic rulers. Once the economy is totally trashed and there is a willing low wage workforce the elite will be united in dumping condescendinggoodness on the rest of us.........pitiful souls that we are. Methinks the game may at extreme risk at this time. Before the White House is no longer the Obama Whitehouse. They will have their villain for history. B.H.O.
I have never been a pessimistic person. Today, I am pessimistic about the USA.
Ken Ware: Congratulations on the arrival of your new grandson! I wish you and yours all the best!
Aside from that...in reference to the other things you said concerning the Republicans and the Democrats..I must say that I had the same thoughts as I read Hartmann's piece...appearing to blame everything on the Republicans without mentioning the damage that the Democrats have done is really being very dishonest to those of us who read these blogs. I don't think too many people are going to continue to buy it that the Democrats are not also a very big problem. And might even be considered our worst enemy...because they pretend to represent us while stabbing us in our backs by siding with the criminal ruling elite. The Republicans are like a poisonous snake that we can see and avoid whereas the Democrats are like a poisonous snake in the grass that bites us. Those who continue to walk through the grass repeatedly, after having been bitten repeatedly...I don't know...what do you call them?....stupid?...retarded?...insane? Or, maybe they are just too scared to try anything different for a change? Maybe they are all like a deer frozen in the middle of the road by the on-coming headlights..too afraid to do anything drastically different.
Both parties do not truly represent the vast majority of the people. It's time to shake both parties up and put in someone totally different who are not part of the "good-ole-boy", "business-as-usual", "smoke-and-mirrors" lying scoundrels who have gotten us all into this mess.
The two-party system is rigged to solely benefit the wealthy ruling elite and to play the rest of us off as fools who will believe anything and then shrug it all off after they realize that they have been fooled...just to continue playing the same rigged game. Too many people are too easily manipulated by those who pander false hope.
I guess, unlike what has been happening in the rest of the world where the people have massively taken to the streets, the majority of people in America have not yet felt the pangs of hunger, distress, alienation, and total loss of hope. They will!
I have chosen not to comment on Hartmann's blog; due to the fact I really have a hard time being civil with people like DAM, but the statement made by Hartmann that the Republinuts are solely responsible for the Sequestration legislation being put into the Budget Act is misleading at best. Sequestration originated in the Obama Whitehouse and was pushed along by Reid and Pelosi, as well as the Republicans in Congress. The Sequestration is a sneaky form of Austerity that Washington has imposed upon the working class and the poor. When it affected the Wealthy Americans and those in Washington who fly home every week, suddenly the Democrats and the Republicans came together and allowed the F.A.A. to move around funds in order to keep the towers in our airports fully staffed, thus eliminating the waiting time Washington was experiencing. Had the delays only affected the rest of us, Washington would have done nothing about the problem, as they have done with the cuts to social programs and the military. I have read articles that Washington has found ways to help the military skirt around certain funding problems, unfortunately I cannot find those articles and therefore they can only be considered hear-say. Sequestration has had a negative effect on our working class and poor citizens, with virtually no effect on the wealthier Americans, as is usually the case in America. The poor families that depend on Housing assistance to house their children have been left out in the cold (LITERALLY) by Washington. Perhaps when it starts to affect the middleclass and their jobs Washington will do something, but I highly doubt it will be the case. Initially the news agencies were reporting the negative effects that Austerity was imposing on our nation, but they have been lacking in any follow-up to the problem. As usual the poor and working class poor and their CHILDREN will be the citizens of our nation that take the brunt of this attack on our society. As usual Obama and Congress will blame each other for what is happening to our economy and the fabric of our nation, when in reality they are all to blame for sticking it to us all. As usual, Hartmann has tried to lay the blame for this sickening legislation at the feet of the Republicans, when in REALITY, Sequestration better known as Austerity has been imposed upon the American Society by both parties. By using the term Progressive's, the Democrats and their media spokes people like Hartmann who use this word to describe themselves is nothing more than a smoke screen to hide the fact the Democrats have not progressed any further than the Republicans, when it comes to protecting the poor and working class citizens of our Great Nation. At least the Republicans do not try to hide the fact they could care less about those in need in our nation. As a moderate Independent, I find both Parties equally repulsive when it comes to protecting our Children, Poor, Elderly and Disabled. Washington is nothing more than a cesspool laden with people who will do anything to retain their political and financial power, even if it sacrifices those who have the least in our country. The Republicans and the Democrats should be labeled as domestic terrorists when it comes to the people they are supposed to serve and protect.
On a lighter note my grandson, Aiden Kenneth (Irish names), was one month old yesterday and we have been blessed with a healthy 10lb. 6oz. beautiful (and BIG) baby boy at birth. Perhaps that is why I have tried not to comment on this blog site, I do not want to carry any anger or stress around my new grandson and this site and some of its commenters have a way of bringing out the worse in me! (ha!) So have a great day and I wish the best of luck to you all. K.W. You can Google Sequestration to get the facts.
It's just throwing "us" a bone to wag the dog. The issue was important to some LBGT people who are a very tiny fraction of the population. But, to most of the rest of us, the other issues are way more important. I wonder if Scrotus would have come up with a different decision were it not for Snowden and his revelations of government crimes. Snowden is a hero. People like John Kerry are two-faced twerps that should be ashamed of themselves.
Hurray for the Gay Community!!! But now is not the time to start dancing in the street. Todays SCOTUS ruling against D.O.M.A. was just them tossing a bone to the angry mob, while other pressing issues that adversley affect ALL AMERICANS - gay & straight - continues to go on. What issues you ask??? Well for starters Corporations are still recognized by the Supreme Court as a Person with a voice ($$$) and Civil Rights Protected under the U.S. Constitution. While Unions are stripped of collective bargaining power, and more jobs are shipped overseas. Secondly, and this is a spin off from the formentioned, organizations such as Americans for Prosperity, Citizens United, and ALEC, just to name a few have sprung up, do to the Supreme Court ruling that Corporations are a People and Money is a Voice. These organizations with there flag waving patriotic names are actually more evil than good that they use money secretly donated by the multi-billion dollar corporations to lobby against issues such as; Increasing Minimum Wage, Workers Rights, Universal Health Care, Renewable Energy, etc. They also support a Paramilitary Police, & Voter Surpretion Laws. In a nut shell such organizations and the corporations that fund them are truely Enemies of a Democratic system Of, For, and By the People...Real People like you and me...Not McDonalds, Wal Mart Verizon, Haliburton, etc.
Secondly the United States Government is still sanctioning deadly Drone Strikes against innocent people. And as we have just recently learned thanks to the brave and selfless act of one young man Snowden - that our own government has been illegally collecting masses of personal information from law abiding citizens. Now for some of us this wasn't a real shocker to find out...More so the issue is how Waashington is reacting...Which is not infavour of do good whistleblowers.
So have a cheer that the LGBT Rights are acknowledged and intact but don't yet rest...WE the People need to rally and in every nonviolent way, Petition, Protest, Boycott, Vote.
On a local level my wife and I have a list of products/brands we no longer purchase, companies we no longer patron, and just recently we closed our bank accounts, both personal and buisness, as well as became contributing members of our local chapter of Transition America, all in protest of fraud, unjust policies, and unethical behaviours, by Corporations and government that we as a community, a society, a nation, have been obedient to for far too long. Our objective is to be the change that we and others want.
namasté
David Abbot ~ Warning! Do not make this recipe! I have followed the instructions perfectly and no one in my family could swallow it. In fact it made them gag and upset their stomachs.
However, it did work perfectly in the cat litter box. This stuff absorbs CS just as fast as it absorbs BS. Go figure!
sandlewould ~ Now that's a fair question.
This is a great day for the United States of America. I have long suspected that the main fears many conservative heterosexuals have toward gay marriage is both the 'closeted' fear that gay legal unions would threaten their own mislabeled sexuality; as well as, the possibility that the divorce rate amongst gay couples may be drastically lower than heterosexual couples. Whatever the case may be it is refreshing that now that all the cards are on the table we may have the opportunity to learn the truth about these relationship mysteries and advance our civilized social understanding by leaps and bounds.
Kudos for SCOTUS! Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
sheilach2: We need you in the House of Representatives! There's a little Tea Party problem there that I think you'd have some fun with!
sandlewould, When the heck are you folks down in KY gonna get rid of Turtleman?
David, You forgot the Cheney- brand yellow cake uranium.....without it the dough won't rise or should I say disappear by the pallet full.
Oh the tangled web we weave.
I certainly do appreciate the wit...It's just sometimes so true that it's overwhelmingly tragic...Even scarry!!!
SHF: I suspect if the whole truth ever really came out - if our bought-and-paid-for media ever went back to telling the whole truth - there would be few left to govern this country. Of course, it would probably be up to the Senate to start doing the digging, taking testimony, putting the pieces together, and then we'd probably see Diane Feinstein go down and a good number of members of the Senate as well, and probably the prez and his cabinet (most having come from Bush's cabinet), joint chiefs - oh goodness, it would be ugly.
But I agree with you, and even Putin said it himself. Putin also said something a while back that I found to be very profound. He said, Why is it when someone opposes the American government they are considered to be Terrorists, yet when someone opposes the Russian government, Americans deem them to be dissidents? I don't believe Putin is a saint, but I don't believe he's the devil incarnate that this country would have us believe. It's much like what the American government tried to make out Hugo Chavez to be when in fact, he cared very much for the downtrodden of his country and developed a socialist society to make sure they were taken care of. He also kicked out the American oil industry (except for Chevron) and the bankers, and formed a sort of loose union among himself and other South American countries such as Ecuador and others to no longer do business with America. In other words, he pissed on us.
I see no reason for the conflict. Just compare the treatment Daniel Elsberg received when he leaked Nixon's Pentagon papers with the treatment received by Bradley Manning. When Elsberg was arrested, the judge let him out of jail ON HIS OWN RECOG. That's a far cry from the torture Manning received in the first 8 months after his arrest, then the next few years waiting for his case to come to trial. That's the difference between have the NSA run by the government and our security being farmed out to be run by a bunch of corporate moguls who could not even stop the bombing in Boston when they had a heads-up from Putin in Russia.
The quick answer is (1) give our national security back to the government to handle, and (2) stop calling EVERYTHING classified or in the interest of national security. Not EVERYTHING is in the interest of national security. Some things are in the interest of what's right for the American people. Ed Snowden knew the difference. God bless him.
Funny thing.....a gay co-worker/friend of mine said the same thing to me today, and she's one of the more intelligent people I know.
"The only marriage I approved of was my parents." Don't remember where the quote came from.
I never thought the tax advantage married couples had was fair.
The federal statute was never valid because it discriminated against citizens already protected by state laws intended to prevent such discrimination. I think that's what Kennedy was trying to say!
A victory for all humanity!
I've thought about that myself stecoop. What keeps turning around in my mind is that I hope that Snowden takes a lessen from Osama Bin Laden. Never, never let his whereabouts be known. But I do wish he'd prepare a video tape and have someone forward it from an unknown location to either Wikileaks, or FSTV for it to be broadcast. I'd like to know that he's okay.
And the audacity of John Kerry to call Snowden a traitor. As far as I'm concerned, more than half of our congressional leaders, the cabinet, the Supreme Court and our president are the traitors. They've walked all over the Constitution with impunity. Had it not been for Snowden, I'd never have known just how bad the eavesdropping and spying went, and I also would not have known that it wasn't even the NSA but a PRIVATE corporation from whom we can't even demand information from under the FOIA.
Kend, apparently you have never heard of Bradley Manning who was tortured for 8 months in a jail without benefit of counsel or all the other niceties you seem to trust that our American leaders lavish on whistle blowers these days. His crime was to report that there was massive abuses to prisoners, including waterboarding, and he went through the proper channels to report it. Now he's on trial for his life. What happened to the people who were abusing the prisoners? Nothing! So stop believing in the tooth fairy. She's not in this country anymore.
I thought Snowden's point was that Booz-Allen (the Carlisle group) coud get the data without warrant, but the NSA (govt) could not. No one here seems to addressing the issue from that viewpoint.
On same-sex marriage and all marriage: DON'T DO IT!!!
I think just impeaching (not convicting) Scalia would set the court straight. His statement that the congress is listening to the people and therefore SCOTUS can strike down any law it wants seems impeachable to me.