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I still like the idea of starting a grassroots group called Citizens Against Corporate America (CACA) for all the crap they've been pulling. Or, Fighting Unregulated Corporate Control of the United States. It could either be FUCCUS for what they've done to us, or leave the S off and it could be our response - FUCCU. BTW Thom, my password is the F bomb with a letter or number interjected after each letter of the word. Is that computer generated or someone having fun?
Sadly, Thom, Obama did exactly what you said he shouldn't do shortly after your show went off the air. We sent him to FIGHT corporations and the insurance, banking, pharmaceutical and fossil fuel industries, and he tried to COMPROMISE with. They don't compromise. They just cleverly give the impression that they're willing to. I've been saying for years, there's two main problems with this country. One, the amount of influence money buys at the federal level, and two, the massive corporate propaganda machine that's been assembled. We've seen perfect example of both in what's transpired over the past year. And I suspect it's only going to get worse.
From: RON HARTMAN
Date: 1/20/2010 1:01:34 PM
To: dccc@dccc.org
Subject: Re: The Dream Lives On
Want to eliminate much of the boondoggling waste in government?
We are no longer 13 little AUTONOMOUS English-based colonies, but ONE NATION, supposedly under God who is not exclusively either a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindi, or Shinto God or of any other national entity.
Introduce a bill calling for a Constitutional Convention -
Items needing amending:
1/ Abolish US Senate by 2040.
2/ Abolish state electoral college system and all States' Rights and Right to Work laws by 2020.
3/ Abolish all state laws and courts and have UNIFORM FEDERAL LAWS IN ALL 50 STATES that are administered by the 50 elected Governors, by 2030.
4/ Institute term limits for Congressmen/women - lifetime limit of three eight years terms, regardless of whether or not terms are consecutive or are for the same Congressional district - subject to popular recall referendum every 2 years to get rid of real duds
5/ One Congressman/woman for every 100,000 registered voters with all Congressional districts reconfigured every 10 years based on latest census - and all Congressional districts must be configured in a simple square or rectangle - no more Gerrymandered districts like the 11th Cong. Dist. in Illinois
6/ Party affiliation shall have no bearing on the number of signatures needed to get on one unified primary ballot - candidates need to get 5,000 signatures (5% of registered voters ) between April 1 and June 30 of election year.
7/Only top four vote-getter candidates for Congress in primary on July 15 to be on Congressional ballot for election to be held on September 1st - only 48 days after primary, with early voting from Aug. 15 - 29.
8/ Have one set of standardized election machines with a paper-trail for auditing in all precincts in all states.
9/ Abolish state licensing of all vehicles and drivers - one set of licensing laws for the entire nation - and a nationwide license plate - available only to US citizens.
10/ Abolish all current Federal taxes,levies and tariffs and replace with a standardized 'GROSS RECEIPTS AND TRANSACTIONS TAX' of 1/2 of 1% of all receipts as they are deposited into all financial accounts of all persons and entities doing business in the USA - through the revised Federal Bank of America. I estimate this tax on payment transfers should generate some $4trillion of tax revenues annually!
11/ Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and transfer ownership of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks from any ownership by commercial banks over to the Federal Bank of America, that is owned by the Federal government.
12/ Abolish all paper money and coinage by 2030 - all transactions must be done by draft, wire transfer, or electronically - and every citizen must have their own financial account when they are 18 or older, as also must every entity doing business in the USA - even foreign corporations - AND no funds may be repatriated by any foreign corporation outside of the USA until first deposited in a USA bank and the transaction tax of 1/2 of 1% is paid.
13/ Prohibit exporting of jobs to or importing of goods from any foreign nation or international corporation that does not permit full collective bargaining rights for its citizens and employees in all its overseas operations, with labor laws equal to our own that are rigorously enforced.
Re: Quote from Thoms show "that people like Lanny Davis who use to be Democrats"
I thought that the only ones who ate their own was the republicans Thom.
Whatever happened to the Democratic Party of a year ago being "A Big Tent" ?
Obviously you don't really believe that cliche' but it's a nice campaign slogan until it's time to draw the ol' proverbial line in the sand in the face of defeat and make dems whip out their progressive credentials huh?
To employ a cliche, you can't strike while the iron is hot if some idiot like Bayh or Lanny Davis keeps pouring water on the iron. Those two are part of the Democratic hackocracy.
Thanks! Megan M.
The column is great. Lots of truth and insight.
@ Dave (S-Wood)
Dead on. Come to see Thom Sat. night in Mpls. I'll buy you an adult beverage.
-
There continues to appear evidence in election documents -- CENSORED in MassMEDIA -- informing us that the Touch-the-TV voting tallies (in computer-program 'rigged' black boxes) are SUSPECT -- not proven accurate and true, not proven inaccurate and false. NOT PROVEN true OR false since there is NO PAPER TRAIL.
SHOW US the BALLOTS -- this time in Massachusetts.
The fraction of ballots which WERE paper ballots (in MA), and ARE tangible and ARE hand-counted, have a tally count showing Coakley WINS.
The computer-programmed votes from Touch-the-TV, without PAPER TRAIL, can ACTUALLY and IN REALITY be -- and IN FACT have been -- totally false and fraudulent fictional numbers.
Unless and until State elections can and do SHOW US the BALLOTS, well, without PROOF of which candidate got the majority of votes, then ALL the ANALYSIS about any supposed 'MEANING' or 'MESSAGE' or 'RESULTS' -- which political broadcast pundits (such as you, Thom) keep on blowing in the smokey airwaves -- is nothing more than hooey, imaginary, made-up propaganda.
So here is some facts BEING CENSORED from TV and radio 'reports' this morning after Massachusetts:
Credible and VERIFIABLE source
Bev Harris, BlackBoxVoting.ORG
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/8/80830.html
BIPARTISANLY YOURS: COAKLEY WON THE HAND COUNTS
This article is about our right to know .....
Back to Massachusetts, I think you have a right to know that Coakley won the hand counts there.
That's right.
According to preliminary media results by municipality, Democrat Martha Coakley won Massachusetts overall in its hand counted locations,* with 51.12% of the vote (32,247 hand counted votes) to Brown's 30,136, which garnered him 47.77% of hand counted votes. Margin: 3.35% lead for Coakley.
Massachusetts has 71 hand count locations, 91 ES&S locations, and 187 Diebold locations, with two I call the mystery municipalities (Northbridge and Milton) apparently using optical scanners, not sure what kind.
ES&S RESULTS
The greatest margin between the candidates was with ES&S machines -- 53.64% for Brown, 45.31% for Coakley, a margin for Brown of 8.33%. It looks like ES&S counted a total of 620,388 votes, with 332,812 going to Brown and 281,118 going to Coakley. Taken overall, the difference -- 8.33% Brown (ES&S) added to 3.35% Coakley (Hand Count) shows an 11.68% difference between the ES&S and the Hand Counts. Of course, as Mark Twain used to say, there are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics. These statistics don't prove anything, and probably shouldn't be discussed without a grain of salt handy before examining more detailed demographics.
As a point of reference, however, in the Maine gay marriage issue recently there was no significant overall difference between machine count and hand count locations.
DIEBOLD RESULTS
Diebold's results are 51.42% for Brown, with 791,272 Republican votes counted by Diebold, vs. 47.61% for Coakley, with 732,633 Democratic votes counted by Diebold, for a spread of 3.81% favoring Brown.
LATE-REPORTED RESULTS
It's always interesting to watch hand counts beat machine count results to the newspaper.
In the Massachusetts special senate election, results from six of 71 hand count locations were reported about 2 1/2 hours after the polls closed, with the remaining 65 hand count locations in right away. The slower hand count results represent 8.45% of all hand count locations.
These latecoming hand-counted results favored Coakley very heavily (she got 55.68% of these, earning 4,610 votes to Brown's 42.9%, representing 3,552, a 12.78% margin) Whether the reports came to the media late or the media posted them late is unclear.
ES&S SLOWPOKE VOTES
ES&S had 12 of its 91 locations reported at least 2 1/2 hours after polls closed, a total of ...
----
... continue reading full report at the link (above).
Broadcasters MUST SAY no one knows which candidate got the most votes BECAUSE there are NO BALLOTS, no paper trail, TO COUNT ON.
Responding to: Doctorlatte post at 9:07 AM today, regarding 49% suffering at the tyranny of the 51%....let me tell you a little story!
Here in MN, we have a Governor, Tim Pawlenty, (with presidential aspirations), who has NEVER been elected by a majority. He always plays to his middle class roots, Dad was a truck driver, bla, bla, bla.The state is headed for the ditch with T-PAW at the wheel! We always have an independent in the race, hence, a Gov.with minority support of the rich and greedy!
T-PAW signed "a pact with the Devil", (Grover [no new taxes] Norquist), in his plan to run for President! Note; Grover doesn't live in MN, he doesn't vote here, so as you can see, it's ideology over the people of MN. He hasn't raised STATE income taxes, but fees (taxes) have gone up, local gov. aid (LGA), has been cut, transferring costs to local gov. units without adequate resources, in many cases.
T-PAW, thinks he's King! Despises unions, teachers, the poor (30,K will loose GAMC [access to health care] March 1, 2010), and anyone without a "R" behind their name (with lots of money)! Our "King" is having to go to court over his misuse of the "Unallottment" law in MN....
So, BOO HOO to the 49% vs. 51%. What we need are Federally funded elections, and State funded elections! No other funding, at all! No corporate money, no private money, no PAC money. Then possibly, we would see better outcomes, i.e. government by and for the people.
It seems that it's time for reconciliation and the "nuclear option"!
Prop 8 won (just barely) in California because the opposition ran a wimpy campaign, that, at the same time, had almost no contact with the grass roots.
Progressives can't put their Progressivism under a bushel basket.
this race never should have been in doubt. the democrat should have won easily if she put some work in this race, and she didn't even do that. but what makes me even madder is that this race should never have been a factor in passing healthcare. this process should have gone through by reconciliation and if the bill got 61 or 60 votes that would have just been the cherry. i have absolutely no idea who put out the meme that the democrats had 60 seats and could therefore thwart republican filibusters because there are at least 4 DINOs in the senate now, and no lie-berman isn't included in that list. but because the obama administration craves bipartisanship over doing good government and harry reid is a feckless milquetoast kittykat jellyfish scared of his own shadow (and when i say kittykat, i don't mean kittykat), this bill that has wasted 7 or 8 MONTHS of time just to get the vote of every corporate democrat bought off by the healthcare industry or the vote of queen olympia I is going to fail. it is going to fail spectacularly. and what's worse off is that there are some good democrats in the house that are going to pay for the sins of the undemocratic senate and weak senate leader.
the people of nevada will be doing this country a great favor by sending someone to the senate not named harry reid.
Great column in the Worcester, MA paper regarding the election: http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100120/COLUMN44/120...
I too, hope for change. I just don't have any expection that Mr. Obama has any intention of providing it.
Once more, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, Mr. Obama?
You could take Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" and replace the word "Bell" with "Job" and have very nearly the perfect speech:
"IV
Hear the export of the jobs-
Offshored jobs!
What a world of solemn thought their departure compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within our throats
Is a groan.
And the people- ah, the people-
We who gather by the steeple,
All Alone
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
... Offshored jobs, jobs, jobs:
To the tolling of the jobs,
Offshored jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs-
jobs, jobs, jobs-
To the moaning and the groaning of the offshored jobs."
http://rewinn.blogspot.com/2010/01/jobs-by-edgar-allen-poe.html
A small bit of good news:
A Small Victory for Shock Resistance http://www.naomiklein.org/main
By Naomi Klein - January 20th, 2010
In response to the wave of criticism, the IMF has just issued a statement saying that they will try to turn the $100-million loan to Haiti into a grant. This is unprecedented in my experience and shows that public pressure in moments of disaster can seriously subvert shock doctrine tactics. They are also now saying that they will not put conditions on the emergency loan—another popular victory, since this is not what they were saying last week. Of course people have to keep up the pressure to make sure Haiti's debts really are cancelled as the IMF is now predicting they will be. Something to hold them to!
I was just listening on Green 960, and heard a guest talking about SSN as "unfair taxation" and not an "insurance payment". His reasoning was essentially that if we removed the cap (which would solve the problem), those now paying their fair share would never draw "one penny" from SSN.
First, your guest obviously does not know what the difference between insurance and retirement are. You pay your insurance premiums regardless of whether you ever make a claim. I do not get my home insurance premiums back if I never make a claim, but that is exactly what your guest seems to think.
Second, it is not "unfair taxation" because if, for some reason, those millionaires and billionaires become poor and destitute, they would receive SSN. It very much applies to them, as it does EVERYONE else.
I also wanted to address the healthcare debate. One of the biggest arguments I hear against universal healthcare or a public option is "How are we going to pay for it?". Well, one thing I never hear talked about is that we are paying for it right now, just instead of the much cheaper preventative care, we are paying for the much more expensive emergency care. The only two differences are
1. if we get some of the premiums through taxes, some of these people that are using the system would actually have paid into it AND
2. we could save the lives of people and pay less for it if we weren't treating severe diseases/conditions in the emergency room and prevented them instead.
Let me reiterate for the right wing talking machine...WE ARE PAYING FOR THE UNINSURED RIGHT NOW. If we tax EVERYONE for healthcare, we all get better healthcare for much cheaper. No one has the option not to pay into the system.
So let's finally abolish that outdated anachronism, the filibuster. If the Repubs could push through tons of toxic legislation for 12 years without a 60-vote Senate majority, then the Dems have no reason to fear a Senate without it. As Thom shows, the Constitution did not provide for a filibuster, so let's be done with it and get back to work.
Under the rubrick of "reinventing government" Clinton Gore cut 252,000 government positions:
"The Vice President presented the report to President Clinton on September 7, 1993. The President and Vice President made a tour of the country to promote the report. The President issued directives to implement a number of the recommendations, including cutting the work force by 252,000 positions, cutting internal regulations in half, and requiring agencies to set customer service standards." from: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/whoweare/history2.html
Re: Obama to move left in 2011
That sounds about right; campaign on the left & move center right to govern.
Works every time!
While is remains my firm and fervent belief that the point of view Mr. Gainor chooses to express here on Thom’s show tends to be heinous, venomous and so vile it sears and curtails other mortal souls in these ideas proximity . . . I recognize that he has the right to hold and express them. We can co-exist in the harmony of this universe.
I must confess that I, now, press the mute button for fifteen minutes for the sake of my blood pressure.
Lets see who did we get after Clinton and his new Democrats... was it another Democrat or was it just a Demon?
Re Is smaller government possible without giving up services?
I moved to Virginia 9 years ago. When I went to the courthouse to pay my taxes, I had to see three people. One to hand write the information, which I then handed to the second person to enter into the computer, and then to a third person who actually took my payment. It seems to me that we can indeed have smaller government without giving up necessary services.
In my neck of the woods, Dan is what we call a "tool". In Yiddish, it would be "putz" or "Schmuck".
How's this for division - is it safe to say the Sky People are the Republicans and the Pandorans are the Democrats.....!
Hey Thom ask Gainer how he feels about Libraries. I'm betting he believes that we should give them over to private companies and pay to rent the books.