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Thom reveals himself to be a deficit "dove"... which enables deficit "hawks."
Read this for the alternative: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/09/deficit-hawks-obama-romney-bowles-boehner-plan-to-shrink-your-economy-part-1.html
One money quote: "“Deficit doves”, i.e. left neoclassical economists and their followers, are generally more aware of the social and economic costs of cutting government spending during the current debt-deflation than “deficit hawks” and, as a group, are able to make some trenchant points against the “deficit hawks”. However they are often accusing the deficit hawks of being hypocrites about the deficit and that they, the “deficit doves”, are the people who care more sincerely about balanced government budgets than the deficit hawks. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is a relatively effective anti-austerity campaigner in the Senate, nevertheless hews to the “deficit dove” line recommending as a virtue, the reduction of deficits as a policy goal in itself.
In these beliefs, deficit doves are also mistaken, and they reinforce beliefs about the role of government and of money that in the end defeat the purpose of their protest. If “deficit hawks” are in fact insincere about deficits, which many of them are, the “deficit doves” are placing themselves into the position of “useful idiots” for believing in the importance of reducing deficits. If the actual goal of the deficit hawks is to reduce the size of or eliminate the welfare state but reserve government’s power, including its currency-issuing authority, for bailing out or funding favored industries like banking or defense, “deficit doves” are providing cover for them by reinforcing the notion that there is a fixed quota of government “scrip” which can run out."
What's needed are deficit "owls" who understand that for dollars issued by the Fed, it also issues "debt" in an equal amount. That means reducing "debt" by retrieving those dollars from the non-government sector will impoverish the private economy. The word "debt" is in quotes because it bears absolutely no resemblance to family debts.
Big Pharma is of course one of the biggest instigators where keeping their drug sales monopoly in place is concerned.bodybuilding
Thom's excellent and emotional discussion made be think of a song. I posted on Democratic Underground about the connectiion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=62913
The text:
Canadian singer-songwriter Garnet Rogers (brother of Canadian folk legend Stan Rogers) captured the feeling of loss that Thom Hartman describes ... killing the American Dream ... in a very personal tale, probably a true story...picking up a hitchhiker on the night of Reagan's reelection.
Covers most of the bases...a life, hard work, a dream, then health problems, no insurance, the losses, the sin of being poor. It could happen again...to any of us...there, but for fortune.
(couldn't find a good video/audio, so you'll have to read it as a poem)
Hannah haunts this darkened highway
Her face is pinched in the headlights glare
She has one hand to her collar closed
The other in the air
She is grateful for the dashboard heater
She rubs her hands and fusses with her hair
She lights a cigarette with a battered lighter
Blows the smoke into the air
"I'm going east to see my daughter
I've got a grandson nearly four.
They moved away to Minnesota,
No, I've never been before.
I've lived my life in the western mountains;
Work was hard but you didn't mind.
Me and my husband built our lives there
The bills were paid on time.
But he got sick three years ago,
And he took too long to die
With no insurance and just my income
The doctors bled us dry.
So I took what was left and I bought a car
To look for work and to start again
But the Goddamned thing blew up this morning
I've been standing here since then."
Hannah's in the highway café
Her eyes are on the TV screen
She says "four more years," and shrugs here shoulders
"This country's turning mean."
And an aging actor fills the screen;
His hands in triumph in the air
His eyes show sincerity and emptiness
In the TV camera's glare
She said, "I've seen elections come and go
And there's one thing that's for sure
There's one thing this country won't forgive
It's the sin of being poor."
"You can drop me here," she said, some hours later
"I want to thank you for the ride."
So she gathered up her poor belongings
Took a grip on dwindling pride
I left her standing on a corner
I never saw her face again
But the words she said went through me
And I was suddenly ashamed
For I am rich beyond all measure
Not in money, not in fame
But in love, and trust, and friendship
For her it's not the same.
I can see wild geese, like smoke, across the western sky
The gleam of sun on winter hills
Clouds like banners, crimson, in the air
When the evening sky grows still.
Hannah haunts this darkened highway
I see her face from time to time
Hidden well in darkened corners
Far from where the lights of freedom shine.
People keep on fighting for peace... Through wars? There's no way we can have peace on this world if nations just keep on fighting, killing people, killing innocent lives. The only way for us to attain peace, is love. It's crazy how government can spend billions of dollars to create weapons of mass destruction, and waste people's money to kill people. It's too disappointing. They could have just use those billions of moolahs to feed the hungry people, provide good education, provide medicines to poor countries; restore earth and make it a better place to live; just use it for a good cause, and everyone will be happy.fan facebook
So who won the T-shirt? (Oh man, a shirt with a pigeon on it, I so wish I'd seen this earlier!)
I'm really surprised at the way the story seems to be sticking. I had assumed that the old IOKIYAR principle (It's OK If You're A Republican) would work here as it has worked for the past 32 years. I'm almost, but not quite, ready to vote "yes" on this one.
We start with the premise--and this is a sad commentary on what the Republican Party has become--that the decision will be strictly based on political benefit or liability. Whether it is right or wrong to impeach, or whether or not there are legitimate grounds, will not enter the picture at all.
If the Republicans not only hold the House but get a two-thirds majority in the Senate, the temptation will be strong, and I won't be surprised if they go through with it. The only thing that might hold them back would be the possibility of political backlash, but I don't know how worried today's Republicans are, or indeed need to be, about that. After all, we're talking about the same electorate that gave them back the House and effective veto power in the Senate less than two years after they dragged the country to a second Great Depression.
But if I had to make a prediction, I'd say it won't come to that, not in the next two years anyway. I do expect Republicans to expand their House majority and retake the Senate, but probably not with a supermajority, not yet in this election. And this would be one vote that I don't think any Democrats would cross the aisle on. In this scenario, I think Republicans might actually find it useful for Obama to serve his second term as a President powerless to do anything much beyond vetoing some of the worst legislation to cross his desk. They could then blame him, and by extension all Democrats, for all the stagnation and disaster of those four years, and unfortunately the corporate media and most Americans will buy that story.
In The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, pg 8, Thom s the dinosaurs went extinct 205 million years ago but everywhere I look scientists say they went extinct 65 million years ago. Is your info correct?
Do you have one bit of factual evidence that Obama wants to strip US citizens of gun rights? Everything I have seen or heard indicates he doen't even want to introduce policies that 70% of the NRA members want.
Where would you find any factual data to prove what you say?
Since this is the tactic of the right, you really need to prove your radical progressiveness.
From my view, Huckabee is Lucifer’s other commander of terror. America has finally found itself in the uncharted worlds called the right wing dimension; part of the Persian Islamic Empire fixed on the premise that Americans are infidels and should be banished from the earth.
America is on the shores of a special place, bitterer than the hell typically characterized in the bible. That old King James hell is sweet compared to this Persian stuff. A reign of terror delivered with endless sleigh bells, magic moments, gifts that always give, with a pocket full of Wahhabi money, or endless fear with waterboarding to know the truth, which way to war for the religious right.
Anyone who knows, or is experiencing today’s Fox News should beware. The News Corporation half owned by Richard Murdock, the other half by the Arab Wahhabi family. One of the seven families that rule Arabia oil. The Bin Laden family being one of the most powerful. It should have been expressed by the media a long time ago that Bush and Company has been closely connected to this money profiteering affair for decades. Making money through war profiteering is treason. Though a huge political struggle because America has not experienced such condemnation or conviction to a whole political party or family to record in history of prosecuting its leadership. A huge international embarrassment. One that will likely have to happen for America will never have a golden age because of this continued charade of hiding crime, torture, and swindling.
The media may well be on that verge of doing just that. That alone is enough to exempt Obama from impeachment. Worse, can one imagine the struggle publically? All know the media has lied too, so much so in unholy ways, ways that demand public apologies, resignations, and treason charges with convictions of America’s media itself. The lies are a proof of no ethics, no ethics, no laws, there by a dysfunctional government. The Goal of the Wahhabi.
The ideal must be stated out right! What exactly is the impeachment statement? What does it say? Of course not enough protection ? Form my view those massive data files given by Private Bradley Edward Manning given to Wiki leaks could very damaging in the sense it exposes that Bush administration with what is exactly what is happening in Afghanistan likely was happening in Iraq for years…
But look at Afghanistan, for almost a decade America has trained and trusted locals. Then with intentional timing turn on our Americans to kill our solders one by one or in small groups. Then even a shorter war, in Egypt actually a civil war one active with money from any ware, considering Al Qaeda, and friendlies mixed in the population anyone could have turned on anyone. But in Iraq America trained up locals. This begs the question did trained Iraqi forces kill Americans in the one or two’s or by groups? Did locally trained Iraqi’s intentionally turn on Americans, was there a cover up?
Then a whole new game.
Yes, the Rs have shown they will do whatever is nccessary to accomplish their goals.
We need to reclaim our money (Nationalize the Fed) to heal this rift.
That means it is not politically correct to hold a black man in contempt it is racist. The race card is always played by the dis-information from the left. Racism would be merely a distant memory if it was not continually regurgitated by the left each time they need to distract from the subject at hand.
First there was no "case against Holder", the Over-site committee was seeking answers which Attorney General Eric Holder refused to give. He lied under oath to congress, he refused to comply with subpoena's served. He "IS" in contempt of congress. The author of this article may be a professional dis-information monger. None of the statements in this article are factual. The only apology necessary is the one from Eric Holder to the American People.
If you had told me one week ago that I would be endorsing a 911 Truth video I would not have believed you. I happened upon a PBS documentary online while researching 911 with my 11 year old. I saw that the documentary was for 911 Architects and Engineers and along with the PBS connection watched. I have no interest in conspiracy theories..
I believe now that there needs to be an investigation re-opened regarding the events of 911. I always felt a pang watching the buildings come down both live on the day and in all of the images after. Something nagged. Honestly I did not know or see that Building 7 had also collapsed in the same manner late that same day.
It is impossible that these buildings collapsed in the manner that they did for the reasons and conclusions made in the official 911 reports. There is no conspiracy theory, however there is no acceptable reason why we cannot critically examine and question the 911 investigations and reports that fall so far short. This event remains the single most important in recent American History and we deserve a full and impartial scientific investigation into the details of this event.
funny. nothing racist 'bout it at all. matter of fact if i was a practicing actor and was cast tomorrow to play a white 67 year old mississippi bluesman that never got farther then 4th grade? thats pretty close to how i'd do the bit. I come from a very mixed 70s upbringing in my hood? You'd be amazed, truly, at how some people talked. pretty sad actually because our education system spills out even more and more young people who are incabable or choose not to articulate with any sense of intelligence. it has absolutely nothing to do with skin color!! just go to a subway "sangwich" shop some time and order a "sangwich" and listen to the way the young person preping your "sangwich" talks. that very word "sangwich' its annoying, huh?
yeah!lol
Remember when the republicans held Clinton's presidency up with impeachment just by attacking his sexuality. As a single parent I had a rough time explaining why our country was in crisis over a cum stain on a dress. Republicans are ruthless people willing to do anything it takes to obtain power.
Don't forget how Roosevelt and Eisenhower took on the ruling upper class power elite. We must take heed to their warnings that the military industrial complex will take over our society and we will end up working for them.
Why were there no impeachment hearings during Bush? The biggest failure of our intelligence community in our entire history and not even a hearing? Instead of determining what went wrong we build another new intelligent service? Ask yourself, why are we paying $45 billion more each year to protect us from someone with an assault weapon and a laptop living in a cave?
Why are we letting Americans die without healthcare or shelter? We are not going to die from a terrorist. Our society is killing us.
You meant Mike Huckabee, not John, right?
How quickly they forget about Iraq, Enron, etc. Don't the Republicans realize that they too have a performance record? Or should I say "Reckless Performance."
Actually, you're right when you say that there is lots of medicare fraud. And interestingly, most of the people who defraud medicare, are republicans, who have bribed congress to make it easier for them to defraud medicare. And if those republicans were not defrauding medicare, the program would have a lot more money to use for helping people who need help.
So you lost all credibility when you criticized medicare. In fact, odds are, the people who pay you to post republican-type comments on this site, could very well be involved in defrauding medicare. And if they succeed in stealing enough money from medicare that it can no longer help people, they will say, "See? The government can't run anything right, we need to privatize medicare," and then when they get control of medicare, they will steal the rest of the medicare money. They are common thieves. No, wait, they're not common thieves, because common thieves are often people who are hungry and can't find work in the republican-dominated business climate of outsourcing jobs, and so they steal in order to have food to eat. The republican thieves already have enough food to eat; they are stealing so they can buy third, fourth, and fifth houses, so they can buy 200 - foot boats. Stealing is a hobby for them, a lifestyle choice.
I wouldn't be surprised if they try it. The Clinton impeachment was a joke and this is another instance of Repub hypocrisy and where they blame the Dems for the very things they do. Nevertheless, Obama should probably be impeached. I agree with Gregory Wonderwheel as to the reasons. Altho, I think Benghazi may also be a reason. Bush should have been impeached and so should Obama. Nevertheless, I'd prefer that Obama not be impeached. In fact, Lyndon Johnson, Bush 1 & 2 and Obama are probably all war criminals.
Some of the Justices tried to warn us that Roosevelt was tampering with the law and with the courts. He was trying to bring in a new order, a new procedure for the law of the land. Lyons Snyder Fort Lauderdale Personal injury attorney