This is the first of the podcasts I’ve been cutting over the past few days.
It’s a lot of fun to switch gears as a broadcaster into new mediums.
Though it’s become clear to me that the fun part of doing the recordings is getting addictive versus the boring part of doing the editing.
These are going to get a bit … wild … in coming updates.
If you’re catching me here then consider linking up with me over on the YT as well.
Jeffrey Sachs has posted an excellent piece on The Huffington Post regarding the only sane budget proposal floating around Washington D.C.
Just when it seemed that all of Washington had lost its values and its connection with the American people, a bolt of hope has arrived. It is the People’s Budget put forward by the co-chairs of the 80-member Congressional Progressive Caucus. Their plan is humane, responsible, and most of all sensible, reflecting the true values of the American people and the real needs of the floundering economy. Unlike Paul Ryan’s almost absurdly vicious attack on the poor and working class, the People’s Budget would close the deficit by raising taxes on the rich, taming health care costs (including a public option), and ending the military spending on wars and wasteful weapons systems.
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The fact is that the People’s Budget is the public’s position. That’s why it is truly a centrist initiative, at the broad center of the U.S. political spectrum. Ryan reflects the wishes of the rich and the far right. Obama’s position reflects the muddle of a White House that wavers between its true values and the demands of the wealthy campaign contributors and lobbyists that Obama courts for his re-election. Many Democrats in Congress have also gone along with the falsehood that deficit cutting means slashing spending on the poor and on civilian discretionary programs, rather than raising taxes on the rich, cutting military spending, and taking on the over-priced private health insurance industry. Only the People’s Budget speaks to the broad needs and values of the American people.
Now that the budget cuts have been released for public viewing I am reminded that we have a Democratic president who enjoys passing Republican policies.
This budget as it stands now is the gutting of America and the road to ruin. Slashing every domestic program in sight and leaving the wasteful military spending alone is the sort of move I would expect from a Republican, but if this is indeed the budget Obama supports then it amounts to yet another huge failure of this president to stand up for progressive values.
Gutting $415 million from state and local law enforcement, $438 from energy efficiency and renewable energy, $786 million from FEMA first responder grants, $1,045 million from HIV AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention — all of these proposed cuts represent a desire to see Americans suffer and to see this country fail as a competitive nation.
Combining these facts with the $5 billion increase in military spending illustrates to me that the whole of Washington DC is hell-bent on turning America into a war state with permanent rampant poverty. I expect such destructive and illogical policies from Republicans, they maintain the role of the uninformed saber rattlers, but to see such a ruinous and hideous budget plan being endorsed by Democrats is disgusting.
It’s obvious to me, as things stand now, that Obama along with the Democratic Party have thrown the middle class and the American worker under the bus. All the while holding up the bloodthirsty military industrial complex and the heartless desires of corporate America as paramount.
It is nothing short of a lie that the nation is “broke” and if either party was serious about trimming waste without gutting vital social services the first on the chopping block would be the Pentagon budget.
What this country has is a tax revenue problem. As any conservative will tell you GE paid nothing in taxes last year. That is only the tip of the iceberg, but a good place to start. Closing all the corporate tax loopholes combined with raising income taxes on the wealthiest Americans would free more than enough tax revenue to manage the debt while at the same time avoid gutting important government services in the process.
The failure of American Democracy is perfectly represented by the non-choice of Democrats who cave on if not directly promoting anti-American policies and Republicans who pander to racists if not openly endorse fascist laws. The choice between moderate conservatives calling themselves Democrats and extremist conservatives calling themselves Republicans is no choice at all.
(Monsivais/AP)
Just before the midnight deadline Congress has passed a temporary budget deal that will prevent the furlough of thousands of workers and ensure that U.S. combat troops do not go unpaid. Reportedly this budget contains $39 billion in cuts and the numerous policy riders proposed by Republicans (regarding Planned Parenthood and EPA funding along with taking school lunches away from kids) have been removed.
I place the majority of the blame for the possible shutdown on the shoulders of House Speaker John Boehner. His inability to control his caucus led to these abortion and environment policy riders to be attached to a budget bill in the first place, which in turn created the deadlock. (You can find a comprehensive list of all the policy riders here.) To have presented such a poison pill laden budget to the Senate represented a huge lack of leadership from Boehner, and put this matter of a government shutdown on the political map as a reality instead of a mere talking point for conservative broadcasters.
Make no mistake, the GOP/Tea Party almost just furloughed thousands of Americans and put a question mark above combat troop pay all in the name of federal funding for abortion which is already covered by the Hyde Amendment and the unconstitutional attempt to strip previously passed legislation regarding not only the EPA but also the Consumer Protections Bureau, Medicare and legislation dating as far back as FDR’s school lunch program.
(WATCH VIDEO: Crooks & Liars “Glenn Beck ‘You’re Going To Have To Shoot Them'”)
I see Glenn Beck as actually dangerous, and not just abrasive and dishonest like other right-wing media pundits.
I first became mildly aware of Beck when he was scathing the Bush White House, but back then he never ever called himself “conservative” and only called himself “libertarian.” Today he has fashioned himself a New Media Joe McCarthy and wants to teach the children of America a distorted and fictitious version of U.S. History.
What has actually risen to the level of public danger is centered on the TV show aspect of what he has done with his career. If anyone doesn’t already know he has mocked setting people on fire, shown a shaky rape video for no reason beyond fear mongering and to cap it all off he called a sitting president a racist on live TV.
Because television gives the illusion of credibility putting the character (I believe he is playing everyone, he said so in an interview around when he got all freaky) of Glenn Beck out there has sent horrible and extremely dangerous repercussions into the nation that can never be taken back.
Without pulling out a pack of URLs it’s quicker to just say that historically the U.S. has kind of “self-policed” this kind of extremism and incitement to violence disguised as free speech when it has happened before and always the figure that resembles Glenn Beck of today had a fall from grace. Usually getting fired. The best recent example is “Dr.” Laura getting the axe: she went into something from a KKK rally and that was the “the line.”
It sounds too simple, I know, but the most serious offender here is News Corp and Fox News.
Glenn Beck is only especially dangerous because his bosses won’t fire him no matter what “line” he crosses. If you minus Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers from this situation then Beck would have been canned for being disrespectful to a sitting president or too libel for his “here’s some violence, but don’t do violence” message he delivers regularly. Since this heartless media empire keeps him alive the kind of normal “quality controls” are not coming into play.
In the wake of the Tucson shooting, another act of domestic terrorism that the mainstream media refuses to label as such, and the moving speech delivered by President Obama there is a strong need to assess ourselves in our words and also more deeply to our mind state. This cannot, however, negate the need for people to speak their opinions about the current state of the nation.
America is on a road of a long, slow decline into moral ambiguity and a complete lack of ethics, and Glenn Beck combined with Fox News and the tea party is the first step toward this destruction of all that is good and decent in America. I don’t say these things to get a rise out of anyone or to single out Glenn Beck, but rather only because I see these words as the simple truth.
If Beck and those similar to him would only stop the incitement to violence, racism and bigotry then I would never raise issue with them beyond to merely disagree. Since this next evolution of political dialogue looks more like McCarthyism and Nazism combined I simply refuse to call it anything else.
I will come over to the notion that President Obama is the best thing since sliced bread when I see him put down the hammer on big business and all these bad practices.
Obama has thus far favored too moderate a position when it comes to dealing the aspects of the private sector that caused the recent market crash.
If this tax deal is part of a larger strategy that is yet to unfold, then when I have something to look at other than just this kiss on the cheek to Republicans & big business I will assess the situation from there.
The point I have is not about the entire social progressive movement, it doesn’t always have to be. It’s just my one voice, and that’s it.
And frankly I’m at my limit with Bush policies hanging around after we elected a Democrat who ran expressly against Bush policies in ’08.
It’s not any one item for me, this tax compromise was so predictable I felt compelled to call the whole thing in advance like I did for health care reform. It’s hard to be all surprised and pissed when you can read the writing on the wall and know (more or less) what course things will take in Washington. It’s that gradual and eventual effect that Obama has taken on me with all this Centrism policy instead of Progressive policy at a point in our nation’s history when truly one path exists that will get us out of this mire and not one ounce of that strategy involves doing anything the GOP or the conservatives want.
In a less dire situation for America I would herald President Obama as a great healer of a nation lost in partisan ramblings and falsehoods run amok. But since this country is on the verge of losing all of its moral fibers from mass corruption and just plain collapsing from within with nothing spent on infrastructure and nothing invested into this country in terms of the workforce or new business endeavors the path is all too clear to me. And sadly Obama continues to play hop-scotch between Democratic policies and Republican policies.
I’m convinced that just like Clinton he is Centrist Democrat and not a Liberal Progressive so really one needs to just learn to not hold it against these people that they just don’t see the situation in the same light.
The price tag is too high in my estimation. Perhaps I’m mistaken but the way I read this we get to decide if we want increased deficit into eternity with soon-to-be permanent tax cuts for the top 2% (if things follow the course I see) or if we want to start making fiscal policies that make sense in the long run and not just the short term.
Whole thing stinks like rotten meat. I’m not eating it, I don’t care of they raise JFK from the dead and put him in front of the White House Presscorp. I’m still not going to support a Bush tax policy, because I’m not into this country going to ruin in the next few years just so a random amount of capital will be injected into it right now.
(Watch President Obama’s Weekly Address here.)
We might have our priorities all backwards in this country. Education is important, no doubt. But more and more the reality is looking like education doesn’t help anyone get a job. Job training and job skills seem more important than any amount of education. We all have heard the stories of Phds who can’t get work and college graduates in the same position.
The question is: does a degree equal a job?
More and more I’m seeing the answer is: no.
That’s not to say education is not important, but perhaps one can just educate themselves whenever they have time in their life and this rush to college when right out of high school might be just a waste of time in the American Economy.
Success seems more linked to job training and attaining job skills immediately. A resume builder looks more like a series of internships and/or a long, stable work history. Not a series of degrees lined up.
That’s just my impression of what is going on in this new economy.
Some have made the point that because Glenn Beck did not join in on the most recent right-wing witch hunt designed to stir up racism that this somehow means he should be given credit.
I find this sentiment disgusting, to say the least.
This is the same man who calls the President of the United States a “racist” and fails utterly to define what exactly he meant by the “white culture” that Obama apparently hates. This is the same man who touted daily the previous witch hunt founded in racism, which came in part from the very same source of the Sherrod witch hunt.
Cutting Glenn Beck slack just because he didn’t join in this most recent attempt to destroy American democracy is like giving praise to a serial rapist for letting one of his victims go in a moment of humanity after destroying the lives of countless women prior to that.
This man leads the charge of vile hatred for progressives, spreads thinly veiled racism on the mainstream media, gleefully destroys the lives of poor black families helped by ACORN and atop all that cannot answer simple questions about what exactly he was trying to communicate when he publically defamed the sitting president.
Imagine, if you would, that a black cable / radio broadcaster was expressing the opinion that George W. Bush was a racist after the Katrina disaster. Would we all sit around and debate the merits of this point of view? Would we bring in Katie Couric to interview this person and try to suss out what they were saying in more specific terms? Or would we find it so disgusting as a nation that this person would be thrown off all widely accessed media sources?
It’s the last one, if you hadn’t figured that out on your own. If Americans had even one shred of common decency the likes of Glenn Beck would have been thrown off the air and become persona non grata to all except the most fringe media outlets after making such a vapid claim.
Instead some want to give him praise for not joining in what is only the most recent installment of anti-black sentiment brought forward by immoral conservatives and their corrupt media machine. Instead he leads his unpatriotic teabaggers on another rally designed to stir up hatred and racial animosity.
Some people are evil, there is no other word for it. Beck is such a person.
The day I bend knee to evil is the day I stop being a human being.
For all the lies told up until this point in regards to Shirley Sherrod’s supposed “racism” it might have been wise for some of these conservative race baiters (Sean Hannity, Andrew Breitbart) to actually talk with the “white farmer” (Rodger Spooner) in question before they report this non-story as anything but Chapter Two of the Racist Witch Hunts via Breitbart.
Just like the racist witch hunt against ACORN, and prior to that Van Jones, this is all a perfect example of why conservatives are not to be trusted in the media. They will lie at the drop of a hat and care nothing for the consequences of spreading hatred, racism and bigotry. If even one person checked out the facts before running this story on any cable news network, it never would have aired in the first place.
And shame on Obama for bending over backwards in each of these cases to people who obviously are nothing but fascist, racist scum.
The sooner Obama sees that no conservative anywhere wants anything but to lie and deceive the better off we will all be. Anyone not sick of this bullshit at this point is obviously not interested in truth, democracy or freedom. They have their racist talking points and their scape goats and they will burn the United States to the ground before they give them up.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Warren Buffet has presented a rosy sunshine picture of the U.S. Economy to contrast against the desolate landscape in Paul Krugman’s warnings of “the early stages of a third depression.”
I believe Buffet may be practicing the concept that psychology rules a large part of every economy. As strange as it is, it might help change a ‘fragile recovery’ to a ‘full recovery’ just by beating the drums of “we are coming back.”
The stimulus is working, though more money should have been allocated directly to the states that need it the most. And in the next two or three years is certainly the time frame in which we will know if Krugman or Buffet was right.
The University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race & Sexuality just completed a new survey regarding the ‘tea party.’
Ever since the Tea Party phenomenon gathered steam last spring, it has been plagued by charges of racism. Placards at rallies have depicted President Barack Obama as a witch doctor, denounced his supposed plans for “white slavery,” and likened Congress to a slave owner and the taxpayer to a “n—-r.” Opponents have seized on these examples as proof that Tea Partiers are angry white folks who can’t abide having a black president. Supporters, on the other hand, claim that the hateful signs are the work of a small fringe and that they unfairly malign a movement that simply seeks to rein in big government. In the absence of empirical evidence to support either characterization, the debate has essentially deadlocked. Until now, that is.
A new survey by the University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race & Sexuality offers fresh insight into the racial attitudes of Tea Party sympathizers. “The data suggests that people who are Tea Party supporters have a higher probability”—25 percent, to be exact—”of being racially resentful than those who are not Tea Party supporters,” says Christopher Parker, who directed the study. “The Tea Party is not just about politics and size of government. The data suggests it may also be about race.”
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If Tea Party supporters are doing relatively fine, what are they so riled up about? These studies suggest that, at least in part, it’s race.
The country that the Tea Partiers grew up in is irrevocably changing. Last month, new demographic data showed that minority births are on the verge of outpacing white births. By 2050, Hispanics are expected to account for more than a quarter of the American population. The Tea Partiers “feel a loss … like their status has been diminished,” says David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which examines issues of race. “If you listen to [their] language, it’s always about ‘taking our country back.’ But it’s really not taking the country back as is. It’s taking the country back”—as in time.
Bositis finds the movement’s arguments about reckless federal spending unpersuasive. Why, he asks, weren’t they up in arms when President George W. Bush launched two costly wars and created a new unfunded mandate with his Medicare prescription-drug plan? Why didn’t they take to the streets when he converted a surplus into a massive deficit? “I don’t like to be in a position where I’m characterizing people as being racially biased,” says Bositis. “But when the shoe fits, what do you do?” Given modern societal norms, “they know they can’t use any overtly racist language,” he contends. “So they use coded language”—questioning the patriotism of the president or complaining about “socialist” schemes to redistribute wealth.”
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It really makes me mad,” says Tom Fitzhugh, a Tea party activist in Tampa. “They have tried to portray us as a bunch of radical extremists.” He considers Obama an abomination—possibly “the most radical-voting senator that ever was” and someone likely to “take us down the path of destruction.” He believes the administration is intent on taking away his guns, trampling on states’ rights, and opening the borders with Canada and Mexico. He has serious doubts that Obama was born in the U.S. and suspects that the president is a closet Muslim. (There’s no evidence to support any of these accusations.) But his anger has nothing to do with race, he says. The real issue is that Obama is “taking down the Constitution and the way it’s governed us for [hundreds of] years.” All he wants, in other words, is to take his country back.
This case presented of Tom Fitzhugh is what I would draw your attention to here.
This is exactly the mentality not just the ‘tea party’ but the entire conservative movement has come to treat as anything but fringe extremism. This John Birch Society and “Birther” brands of racism being disguised as anything but the right-wing thuggery it is is why this taint of racism follows them wherever they go.
It should make them angry, and they should also be called out in the first place for doing this Southern Strategy-style racism in 2010.
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