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I forgot where I've heard this before, but... despair is not an option.
N
Your keyboard to God's ears . . .
Citizens United merely affirmed the first amendment. The Supreme Court ruled that “Congress shall make no law” means exactly what it says. It doesn’t matter if you speak anonymously, it doesn’t matter if you choose to speak as a member of a neighborhood association, as a member of the ASPCA or as a shareholder in a corporation. Congress shall make no law interfering with the right to speak. The importance of the right to speak anonymously cannot be overstated. The Federalist Papers were authored anonymously for the same reason people need this right today. Just look at the collectivists ferocious attacks on Joe the Plumber - would anybody want to go thru that? Would he have spoken out if he'd known ahead of time what he was going to be subjected to?
The fact that corporations are considered to be artificial persons wasn’t even a consideration in the decision.
This paranoia about a particular form of business organization is at least amusing, unlike almost everything the collectivists are doing.
The victory for responsible government in Wisconsin is because an lot of Tea Partiers are reading and studying the classics of liberty, from the Road to Serfdom to Atlas Shrugged. These results give me some hope that I may soon be able to retire my sig:
Atlas Shrugged was supposed to be a warning, NOT a newspaper!
WAIT A MINUTE!
I want to see what Brad Friedman (http://www.bradblog.com/) finds out about Wisconsin's voting systems. I saw a LOT of computers involved in the film clips of the election. After the recent state supreme court fraud election, shouldn't we all be a bit leery of ANY results that have Rove involved?
Our election systems are as corrupt as the rest of our political system and we better stop ignoring this critical aspect of our democracy!
I'm tracking right with Thom...my piece today is "Trying to Slay the Citizens United Dragon" at www.wisdomvoices.com. Or also picked up by OpEdNews at www.opednews.com.
It was a sad night indeed last night.
Just because we are told that a corporation is "a person," does not make it real. It is a law,now; not a fact. Just because certain people can manipulate laws to create large wealthy multinational corporations and a very wealthy few, does not mean they are the rightful "owners" of all capital.
It is quite horrendous to pit the people against the mythical "super wealthy."
There is a major flaw in the premise: It is the premise that somehow these super-rich actually have capital that can not only pay for everything we need and eradicate poverty and inequality, but that they are actually holding it from the people. This implies that it belongs to the people, and it is up to the STATE to confiscate and redistribute it.
The origin of this thinking is quite obvious. Hint: Europe, mid to late 19th century.
Well I guess the people of Wisconsin are not unhappy with get their fiscal house in order! Time to quit whining libs!!
Good related opnion on Above Top Secret 8-10-11 reguarding the role of the military in this. Check out the replys. Best to all.
A question for John Defalque......
I can't make heads or tails out of what you say. Please explain.....
Cheers!
If you is a banksta
watch out for the gangsta
watchin' your wife's shoppins.
He ain't no Mary Poppins
but likes to do his choppins
where the unprotected jewel
on the way to private school
glitters through the windshield
as he sharpens up his tool.
Your babies could be ransom
and not returned so handsome.
Trim your bushes way down low
motion detectors set on slow
guard dogs, body guards, machine guns in a row,
is what bankstas need for gangstas,
win, place or show.
XXXXX
I am British and living near Manchester - one of the areas affected. The riots in the UK started after a protest against the police for shooting a man dead in London. What escalated this was mainly the situation being hijacked by some thugs (using this as an excuse) and subsequently other young people (some very young indeed) around the country who jumped on the bandwagon simply to loot shops and cause mayhem. Interestingly those shops looted seemed mainly to be those which appeal to youngsters and younger people i.e. those which sold sports gear and trainers or ipods and computer games etc. I seriously don't believe that they actually have anything to do with government cuts (hard though these have been for many citizens) they are more likely to be part of the generation of people in the UK brought up badly educated with no values or discipline who have never been given boundaries or been taught to think about anyone else but themselves. These groups remind me of those who cause football riots which used to be much more common in the UK. They were not football fans at all, just used to want any excuse for a fight and to cause trouble. Fortunately there were lots of good, decent, local people out the next day in these riot areas helping clean up their streets and condeming the actions of the few. To summarise, yes the current economic climate is making life very difficult for us but a lot of these rioters were just out for trouble.
Even though Rove made the Wisconsin recall elections a little cheesy, look on the bright side it forced the so called job creators to put 30 million into the economy. Maintaining Oligarchy is getting expensive, if laws don't change, let's make the purchase of Democracy so expensive it bankrupts the tyrants.
Good job: FIGHT ON WISCONSIN!
Problem is that it is not just the Republicans...it's many of the Democrats as well. Whites, then a Black...now let's try a Green. I'd say let's try a woman ...but the only women running will be even more ridiculous than Bush was...and if you thought Obama was bad....just think about what Michelle Bachman would be like....now if Elizabeth Warren were running...I'd vote for her for sure.
I've been telling friends that if things continue on the same path, we could see people in the streets. Let's start with Republicans allowing banks and Wall Street to self regulate which nearly produced the Second Great Depression and loss of jobs by the thousands, followed by loss of thousands of homes. Extension of unemployment benefits were blocked by Republicans. Republicans then cut funds for programs such as Food Stamps. Then throw in 5 million jobs exported by closing 50,000 manufacturing operations with support of Republicans in the form of tax subsidies. Next, consider the 2012 Republican Budget by Paul Ryan which would eliminate Social Security and Medicare as we know it, replacing it with a voucher system that would pay only about 50% of Medicare coverage costs. So we lose millions of jobs followed by loss of millions of our homes. We lose support for food stamps and extension of unemployment benefits. We will lose Social Security and Medicare as we know it if Republicans win in 2012. You do things to an individual without serious consequences but when you do it to a man with a family, consequences will eventually occur. The loss of hope is as bad as it gets and ups the ante. Corporate America, using Republicans as their instrument, are close to owning control of this country. The average citizen I know appear to not be cognizant of the consequence of voting Republicans into control of the government. News media has failed to do it's job to establish who does what and the consequences of what they do. Republicans as a result are controlling the messaging game. Democrats appear to not be capable of fighting Republicans under the rules layed out by the Republicans and they are too focused on being the adults in the room. In Texas we have an understood rule. When someone urinates on your leg, you do everything possible to rearrange the anatomy of the guilty party. We need someone to fight for us. If Democrats don't do it, I fear eventually their will be fighting in the streets. Our way of life is dependant upon the 2012 elections.
What's next? A massive civil disobedience movement is certainly preferable to the global violence we're seeing. Although I have to admit things are looking pretty grim, especially considering we live in a country where unregulated capitalism has allowed a concentration of wealth to the extent that a mere 400 citizens have as much as 150 million citizens combined. Some of these 400 have assembled a band of flying monkeys called the Tea Party and they are successfully diverting attention away from what the bad witch is up to.
A message from Jesus for Rick Perry: Matthew 19:21 "If you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give it to the poor.........."
On a serious note: "When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it always." / Mohandas Gandhi
these riots are all about hopelessness for those kids.this was a poor area economically and it was just killed by the austerity measures taken by the conservative british govt.youth centers closed and the ones left open began charging admission even though these centers are supposed to be free at all times.trade schools were closed and social programs slammed.i hate to say it but we may be seeing a dress rehearsal for such a series of events in the U.S.all it will take is a spark to start the flame.I DO NOT support this type of lawlessness but i can understand how it can happen.i mean it seems so clear to me that an austerity program is absolutely the wrong way to go and am very certain they will do more harm than any possible good to the vast majority of WE THE PEOPLE .i am also certain that having the rich pay their fair share on taxes,particularly large corporations that pay nothing would benefit all of us for decades to come.i am certain that if we pull out of all these insane free trade agreements that have cost us 50 thousand factories and millions of jobs just in the last 10 years it would give a big boost to U.S.employment coast to coast and i mean-OUR COAST!!but yet we have the tea bagg/tea party/republicon party that says-hell no we cant do any of this-it harms the job creaters!!!God better help us because the republicons wont!!
With 99% of the citezenry of Canada either impoverished or well on their way to such a state of deprivation, the govt is losing it's legitimacy.In 27 yrs, I voted Liberal (in name only) once, NDP 20 times and Marxist Leninist twice. With the NDP having considered labeling the word socialist as passe and drop it's usage.They changed their minds, but I am so angry that I will join the 42% of Canadians who no longer vote.It would be more humane to give us all cyanide capsules if we can't make enough through work or welfare to have a decent, dignified life.I am half past fed up-down with kaputalism!!!!
On a side note, if a story sounds too good to be true, like China hacking our companies, guess what? It probably is a sub contractor of our own defence contractor hired by the CIA to cause some leverage with out any proof.
Since 9-11 we have created many agencies which spy not only on other countries but on our own citizens, all under the NSA's idea of trying to know everything without claiming credit. You got hacked, must be the Chinese. Downgraded, must be the climate in D.C. It couldn't be a government agency which is being targeted to get its own budget cut, trying to prove once again just how needed they are, right?
Whats the saying? Trust but verify
Seems the best answer is always overlooked.
Canadian banks are the safest in the world, the American banks are the ones funding corruption and legally stealing in many ways. American banks are also guilty of money laundering mexican drug cartel money, which then ends up funding elected officals in the good ol U.S.
Lets get the money out of banking and have the Canadian banks buy out our banks, then we can at last have a sensible banking system, which wouldn't steal retirement funds, etc... The money which would be used to buy our banks would go to solving our budget issues, since the banks themselves are actually the ones who caused alot of our curret issues.
What disturbs me about these riots is that it is being "branded" as youngsters and misfits rabblerousing and causing trouble. In other words and not that I am terribly surprised (frustrated, but not surprised), they are down playing the connection between poverty, helplessness and the links to the austerity measures and just a growing, global unrest. Student/teacher riots in Chile, the North African spring, Greece. The world is waking up.
@Learnyerfacts, the sentence in question does not directly refer to the downgrade, but implies it. Using basic logic, it's a>b>c, therefore a>c, where a = "the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues"; b = "our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place"; and c = "We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process."
In other words, Louise has it essentially correct. This may be hard for those not used to logical thinking, but go over it a few times and you'll probably catch on.
confound those corpreate bacon strips of greed
from the walled street they lead
all of us
to the edge of the abyss
pushing us off the cliff
as they loot our purse
and run off with the loaf
we'd scraped and saved all our lives for
to feed our old bones
now to the gutter they cast
as a new breed of minions and political hacks
put all the load on
the working stiffs backs.
yeah I'm a little pissed too!
I will admit US has a very large share of low information voters who are ignorant of actual facts Much of it due to corp media's lack of serious professional reporting- keeping us well informed Talking heads give opinions Who cares ? Fox faux news sways Tea Baggers GOP daily but .not much by way of facts or truth. Same with Rush Fox's Hannity & Beck ..Bachman has her own version of US history.. Rick Perry may run which is great Another smirking Evangelical TX governor is just what US needs NOT .
as Tom says We must all hammer reps &BO till they listen www.whitehouse.gov www.congress.gov speal out now
End wars End Bush cuts End corp loopholes End SS tax cap asap Not in 2 - 3 yrs Afghan war is Obama;s Nam
Thanks for the heads up - we'll look into it.