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Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
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January 29, 2011 is the date for the joke of the week. Obama made a comment on the unrest in Egypt. His number one concern was about the loss of human life. This is a comment from a person who has unleashed hundreds of drones upon Pakistan and Central Asia killing many, many human lives. I had to laugh so hard that my side began to ache.
Are you blaming progressives and complaining about this site, perchance?
No, the Tea Party is made of people who know how to get things done. Progressives only know how to blame and complain, as exampled by what is spewed out on this site. If you want to accomplish something, join a Tea Party.
"The Party" - wonder which Corporation Bank or Plutocrat will eventually buy and control this one (Already the Corporates have their hooks into the Tea Party Populists!) The Democrats are NOT the problem. The problem is the new Oligarchy/Plotocracy. Too much money in too few hands. And last I looked the majority - 80-90% - are of the Conservative persuation. Before you want to fully dismiss a political party, you may want to reassess what the real problem is. As to Thom, he does not always toe the Democratic agenda! He at times can be very dismissive of it!
"We all know what Republicans are, and they are out there and open about it, and are easy to debate and even defeat."
You are kidding right?
Mr Twisted - My request was that those who Advocate "Libertarian, no Taxes, Free Trade, no Governement" Utopias, that they provide ONE, just one example, of a real life government or country that works, or ever has, based on this ideology. Just one example. I am still waiting.
As to your comment about attacking Mr Ryan's Draconian Plan - What Plan? If you see a "Plan", please let us all know what it is. All I heard was a lot of End-OF-The-World fear mongering and nothing much else. But then again, if you know what the plan entails. again let us all know. THEN we all can argue about it.
My subscription here expires soon, and I won't be renewing. It's been discourging to see Hartmann become an Obamabat, but that's the nature of power in this country. You either align yourself with it, or you're an outsider, and apparently Thom can't bear to be on the outside looking in. Thus are people so easily corrrupted.
I liken it to metal fragments spread out on a table - run a maget over them, and the align. There is but one route to reform in this country, in it is to organize outside the two parties, which I call "The Party." We all know what Republicans are, and they are out there and open about it, and are easy to debate and even defeat. However, the insidious part of our political structure is the Democrats, who act as a catch-all for dissent. Once a popular movement is absorbed by the Democrats, it is marginalized, and eventually dissipates.
So listen carefully to Hartmann now, always wanting to "believe" in Obama despite so much evidence that this is not wise, and telling people to join the Democratic Party and get active. Probably unknowingly, he's become part of the problem.He's helping to funnel dissent into The Party, where is disappears to the margins.
I'll miss some of Thom's guests, as he has some good ones now and then, but I won't miss the chatterbox, the Obamabat, the Democratic tool.
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Because The Tea Party is created and funded by global Elites like the Koch Brothers and Progressives are not....
Thom - You mean impeached AND prosecuted ...right?
Social Security 2% cut from paycheck causes a shortfall in Social Security coffers DESPITE what they say. Now all our money put into the system will definitely not be given back to us. Eventually this all leads up to putting the social security money on Wall Street for rich folks to prosper and an intentional crash.
Obama's (in the name of Bush) Tax cuts for the exceptionally rich and the little bit for everyone else will expire in December two years from now while he is still in office and we are awaiting a new(?) inauguration in January. Sequel to be continued. Obama acts now like he had nothing to do with tax cuts for the rich. Conveniently doesn't mention it. Congress & the President received the CBO warning last September that this deficit would occur from tax cuts to the rich harming our economy. No action. December (last month) what did the President Obama do? Went solo behind closed doors with the Repubs to make our fall happen. Reality check: Now they act like they are all surprised it would hurt the deficit. Give me a break. Bush & Company is bringing the world to its knees for their own prosperity. We can walk around in rags and eat bad food from China for all they care. To the rich...the Bush 8 years plus Obama's tax cut to the rich (with the promise of more right wing agenda) is America's best time.
I thought George Lakoff's assessment of the State of the Union Address very good. I wish the President would have people like him involved in speech writing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-new-obama-narrative_b_81...
Will Obama roll back tax cuts for the wealthy as stated in The SOTU? Yes! President Obama intends to address our nation’s massive debt - back into the future, postmarked sometime later. Just last month the issue of tax cuts for the wealthy was rolled back to the future. Obama will continue to say he is against tax cuts for himself and the other wealthy people during the campaign (now till 2012) but he will actually continue to shift the burden on to the poor and middle class just like he and the party with two right wings did just a month ago. Them mean old Repblicans made him do it, they took hostages and so he paid the protection money. So the story goes...
Now we hear that Social Security is projecting a deficit this year and Thom says it was planned for decades ago. But it was not supposed to happen yet. I have heard that the SS deficit will be $50B and that the payroll tax holiday will be >$100B. In other words, there would have been a surplus this year except for the tax cuts passed last session - again - one month ago. Obama says he wants to strengthen it. What he has strengthened is the specious argument that Social Security is in trouble.
A Republican plan carried thru by Obama who proudly noted the special 100% business write-off next year in the SOTU speech. Good luck recouping that accelerated depreciation with taxes on future profits when US corps are already offshoring more jobs than they create here. There is no limit on where the investment must be to qualify - jeez - a complete write-off for continued or accelerated offshoring. Of course, the ruling class in DC knows full well what they are doing: likely zero net tax revenue from corporations next year from this brand new provision while taxes go up on the poors (fewer credits) - next comes slashing services for the poor, sick and elderly to protect the profits of corporations and to preserve the growing bankrolls of the top 1-10%. Ahh ... feel the love?
Sorry, I think I have developed an allergy to hopium. I remember the tax deal of one month ago where the administration's ire was reserved for the people who opposed continued tax cuts for the rich. The Senate minority was able to force their plan through. The Senate rules were not addressed. They had two years. Could have used the issue to counter the Citizen's United cash flood in the mid-terms. Totally ignored the blue ribbon deficit commissions (raise taxes). Wont pass any change except more tax cuts for the wealthy corpses through the House now. A Progressive tax rate will most likely be restored sometime after hell and high water come our way, but then again maybe ... just a faint possible maybe ... maybe there is a true Third Way that will emerge outside the corporate partisan headlock on power in DC.
I think the two choices in the poll are unfair. I believe, if Obama were the one and only person who had the say so, he would already have rolled back the Bush cuts for the rich, Don't you? Unfortunately, there are, (especially now), too many (rich and greedy) Republicans in the way of such a move. Also, I find it hard to believe that those who insist on continuing these cuts for the wealthiest aren't aware, or "are blind," (to) the fact that they do nothing to create jobs or help the little people. It's the little people that the GOP lie to that are being blinded.
dnarnadem,
That's an interesting request. How about, before asking for that, you provide one, just one -- pretty please, as you put it -- example of a serious libertarian movement that advocates "0 taxes" being "de facto the greatest thing since White Bread."
I'll be waiting.
To the commenter that said Rep. Ryan's plan is "fear mongering," how about -- like I suggested in one of my other comments -- you attack the plan, not the person, okay?
Attacking the person is what one does when they have no valid argument.
Thom loves his cat Higgins but here is something his cat can't do.
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/01/28/staticky-cat-vs-balloon.aspx
Re: "Egypt has shut off the internet."
Obama may get power to shut down Internet without court oversight
A bill giving the president an Internet "kill switch" during times of emergency that failed to pass Congress last year will return this year, but with a revision that has many civil liberties advocates concerned: It will give the president the ability to shut down parts of the Internet without any court oversight.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/power-shut-internet-court-oversight/
Just in case the US population...
I'm very disheartened, puzzled, and a bit angry that the "loyal opposition" seems to only apply to Republicans anymore! Where did the backbone of Democrats go, why do they sit back & let go of all the abuses & crimes committed by the previous administration, including such blatant & self-confessed ones as wiretapping w/o warrants, & using torture, only to have the new GOP congress threaten to do all kinds of witch hunting, armed only with vague accusatory rhetoric?
Why have a black president & attorney general not done anything to correct the decades long racist enforcement & incarceration of young black males, via drug laws, something that has devastated black communities & families? What's it gonna take guys?
How can any one, Democrat or Republican, with any sense of justice & fair play, stand silent as these Supreme Court Justices shred the Constitution, and in the case of Alito & Roberts, be guilty of lying, under oath, to the Senate, in their testimony during their confirmation hearing? Yet they do, the right wing demanded Earl Warren's impeachment ardently & vocally for years, yet today, when impeachment of these liars is warranted, nothing but deafening silence....
Seems the only way we'll ever get out of this morass is a real sweeping out of congress, get rid of all the dead weight, and replace them with some willing to truly represent the people! The Tea Party got a whole slew of their candidates elected, why can't the progressives?
Anyway, apparently "the shooter wins" if we do anything at all about this. We should just ignore it and pretend it didn't happen - and so let it happen again. Anybody call Mike Lee on such patent ridiculousness?
The shooter wasn't trying to get us to tone down the rhetoric. He was fine with it and riding its wave.
If he was - causing it to happen to prevent it from happening - then he's too dumb to worry about pleasing; or Mike Lee is; or Lee thinks we are; or one of those.
Re: Judicial Corruption article.
It is too little, too late. We are already past the turning point and have become a fascist state so corporate control of all the government and both political parties is complete. We must just pretend all is OK and continue as we have as long as possible. I really wish I am wrong, but afraid not.
I know a place to cut if Republicans vote against the raising the debt ceiling. The Federal government should:
1. Immediately defund by 1/3 all Federal monies paid into the Congressional District of any Representative voting against the unfettered raising of the debt ceiling and
2. Immediately defund by 1/3 all Federal monies paid into the State of any Senator voting against the unfettered raising of the debt ceiling.
Tea Party states would get their fondest wishes . . . A lower deficit and less Federal government interference.
I have a difficult time understanding why our economic situation has to be at least as bad as the Great Depression to call our current economic situation a depression. It seems to be a political 3rd rail to suggest it. However, how can we, as a country on the whole, begin to address the problem if we don't admit we have the problem?
Hello, I'm America and I have a Depression. Its been x years since my last bubble, and I'm finding it almost impossible not to inflate another. Even though I know it hurts me more in the long run, the rush of the quick fix is too tempting to ignore. I need help.
N
bicyclingjroad, I agree with you, isn't it disgusting, people getting out of jury duty by telling the truth when asked question about how or what they may think. I on the other hand would lie, if selected set through the trial, and then if warranted, vote to release these nonviolent people.
Our prisons are more than full with these types of nonviolent offenders. No matter how you slice it, legislating morality is next to impossible. An industry has been created around this flawed idea and the money spent combatting this would go much further in treating it.
Justice of the supreme court is one of the most prestigious and influential offices in our government. The actions of the supreme court affect the lives of millions of people for multiple generations. That there would even be the mention of the possibility of such unsavory behaviour by the holders of such an esteemed office is deplorable. Having three members involved in such blatant misuse of this esteemed office is an absolute travesty. They should absolutely be investigated thoroughly, and if guilty, impeached, and prosecuted to fullest extent of the law. Such a disgraceful betrayal of the public trust is unspeakable.
Thank you for your interview of Ms Warren.