Freaks Calling Freaks “Freaks”

Much like the pot calling the kettle black.

Emotional Freaks

h/t BrassCheckTV

What If Lyndon LaRouche Is Correct? And If Not, How Bad Will It Get?

I have been discussing how it is possible that the dollar will fail after the Commercial real estate hits take place in Sept or Oct. I have had discussions with many people who think this is a possibility and that many of the happenings right now in government are occurring to counter this failure when it happens. But, does anyone consider the gravity of such a thing? I don’t hear anyone on MSM, or even the blogoshere, by and large.

The stories on the TV are that we are having “green shoots” and that housing is coming back and that the economy is  ready to start coming back. I hope this is true, but when I consider all the negative factors and those government programs (like the healthcare debacle, the mandatory swine flu shots, the US military being dispersed around the country, etc), I cannot help but think something really, REALLY bad is about to happen.

Now, I have never been much of a follower of Lyndon LaRouche and don’t know much about the guy. But of the few things I have read, he has been correct in forecasts and predictions before. He now comes out with something that is mind blowing and scary as all hell. What if he is correct? Could it actually be this bad?

The Ultimate October Surprise

By LaRouche’s estimate, as things stand now, the close of the fiscal year, on Sept. 30, will mark the onset of a full-scale financial crash, by no later than mid-October, once the year-end figures have been presented, and the panic sets in. LaRouche has never been wrong in any of his long-range forecasts, and the last time he gave such a precise date for a financial shock, was in the Summer of 1987, when he warned that the financial bubble was going to burst sometime in October. He was right then, and he is right today.

Recent studies show that 48 U.S. states are fundamentally insolvent. While official unemployment is hovering just below 10%, in some former industrial states, like Michigan and Ohio, the figure is more than double that amount. Only 29% of the currently unemployed are receiving benefits, with 38 states behind, or unable to enroll the newly unemployed—because they have run out of money!

As a growing number of economists are coming to realize, LaRouche has been right: This is not a recession. It is not even a Great Depression. This is the collapse of the entire global dollar-based financial system. The insane policies of both the Bush and Obama administrations have created the greatest financial bubble in history, through the $24 trillion bailout of the banks and insurance companies. We are on the verge of Weimar hyperinflation on a global scale.

Had Congress the guts to act, when LaRouche first warned that the collapse was on, in his now-famous July 25, 2007 webcast, the system could have been reformed. LaRouche spelled out the precise steps that could have been taken then, in his Homeowners and Bank Protection Act (HBPA). State legislatures and city councils around the United States endorsed the HBPA at the time, but no action was forthcoming from Washington.

No reform of the system is possible. The entire system must be put through bankruptcy reorganization. Nothing else will work, and time is running out. Unless emergency action is taken by the second week in October, mankind is facing a living Hell, in which world population will rapidly plunge—through disease, famine, and the chaos of regional wars—to below 2 billion people.

What is to be done? The first step is to deliver a crushing defeat to President Obama’s and his economic team’s prescription for a Nazi-modelled euthanasia plan, dubbed “health-care reform.” By defeating this genocidal scheme, the opportunity will arise to purge this new administration of the likes of Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag, and the rest of the behavioral economists behind this Hitlerian scheme to declare whole segments of the population—starting with the elderly and the chronically ill—as what Hitler called “lives not worthy of living.”

On the basis of that defeat, a new team of economists, grounded in the reality of this existential crisis, can be brought in. LaRouche has spelled out how to put the current system through bankruptcy reorganization, and to reconstitute the kind of credit system conceived by Benjamin Franklin and his brilliant protégé Alexander Hamilton.

It’s either LaRouche’s solution or a Dark Age. You decide.

h/t DeProgram

Maybe things will be better, but not much. Why? Because the “Causes For The Depression Have Yet To Be Addressed“:

By Bob Chapman
International Forecaster
Thursday, July 30, 2009

As we enter August we are getting closer and closer to real disruptions with the US dollar, as well as problems with the British pound, as both economies feel the sting of rising inflation within a progressive depression. The stimulus package has exhausted itself for this year so the economy in the US can at best stay neutral at a minus 4% of GDP.

The causes of our depression have yet to be addressed as the Treasury and the Fed flood banking, Wall Street and insurance companies with funds to keep them afloat. The deterioration continues unabated as Wall Street and banking report higher earnings by laying off workers and by playing accounting games.

US debt is on it way to causing a retest of USDX to 71.18. The will cause higher interest rates. There will be a furious effort to re-liquefy the US economy causing ever more inflation. The entire international financial system is in no condition to meet such a challenge. The US Treasury is so busy trying to find buyers for Treasuries they have little time to solve anything, as unemployment at 20.5% throttles the nation. The economy is not going to recover by saving the anointed few in banking and Wall Street. Americans and Brits are no longer buying the ridiculous fairy tale of green shoots. People are catching on that the economy and the markets are being temporarily rigged. By the end of October we believe banks in the US, UK and Europe will be in serious trouble again. That should really knock markets and the world economy to new lows. It could also corrupt any improvement in GDP anywhere. The problems of 2007 and 2008 will return, because the façade of the public bailout of banking and Wall Street will crumble again. Further impoverishment is on the way. More and more will be laid off and they’ll be no new jobs available. Savings will be exhausted and most homes that have been financed will be under water.

You must put in dehydrated and freeze dried foods, a water filter and plenty of guns, ammo and clips. All stocks and bonds should be sold, except gold and silver shares and Canadian and Swiss Treasuries. All cash value life insurance policies and annuities should be sold. We’ll deal with pensions later. All IRA’s, Roth’s and 401(k)’s that you control should be in gold and silver shares, funds and coins.

The phony GDP numbers won’t fool actuality. You cannot have a recovery without an expanding jobs market and we are going the opposite way.

Devaluation and default are in the air and it is only a matter of time before it happens. Be out of dollar and pound denominated investment except gold and silver mining shares and gold and silver coins. Convert as fast as possible.

Following the collapse of both the US and UK economies, New York’s, Wall Street and the “City of London” will cease to be the centers of world financial powers. Then will come the real investigations and trials of those who stole from the people and committed treason. And, all the kings’ horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put the Illuminati together again.

Globalization has been a disaster for the US, Europe and the UK and Canada. It may have brought relative prosperity to the third world and transnational conglomerates, but overall it has simply been a method of redistribution of wealth. This deliberate policy by internationalists will eventually push us back into tariffs, a device that helped keep competition fair, not free. We found out in the late 1700s what damage British Colonialism, known as British mercantilism, visited upon our young economy.

The one-worlders who brought us free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing brought us the collapse of our financial system. Due to their control of the Fed and the Treasury Department, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase brought about the demise of Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros., and caused Merrill Lynch to be bought out. It is handy when you have the power to destroy more than half of your competition. Not that they were not broke, they were, but so were GS and JPM. All these firms and banks and many others used 30 to 50 times leverage, which has and is insanity.

Making excuses for these players doesn’t wash. All they are doing is borrowing money at zero interest rates from the taxpayer, and these are the people who caused this disaster. Contrary to what the banks say, it will take a lot longer to work out from under their debts. They are just starting to get hit with credit card debt, commercial real estate debt and face three more years of foreclosures in residential real estate. We might add that former Treasury Secretary Paulson, on loan from Goldman Sachs, made sure that banks and Wall Street were rescued along with a cluster of insurance companies. Very little was done to assist some of the deserving public. Those who were saved were the ones who approved subprime, no-doc and option ARM pick-and-pay loans, along with the rating services, which committed fraud jointly in the sale of collateralized debt obligations. In addition, Paulson, who threatened Congress with insurrection in the streets if his demands were not met, raised $700 billion from Congress. This is the same Paulson who strong-armed the FASB to change the accounting rules from mark-to-market from mark-to model to allow financial institutions to falsify their books. We might also add that while he led Goldman he allowed 50 to 1 leverage and he was a major player in securitizing loans.

Banking leverage over the past ten years has risen form 19% to 50% versus tangible equity and is currently about 45%. In England it is 55%. UK bank assets are 5 times GDP, whereas they are 2 to 1 in the US.

It is not cavalier to demand a purging of the system. No matter what is done by the Fed and the Treasury the music must be faced with a deflationary depression. Yes, unemployment would go to 40%, but it is going to go there anyway. Little effort is being made to deleverage the banking system and that is one of the major problems. Remember, those banks and those on Wall Street and in insurance that were rescued by the taxpayer were all elitist firms.

U6 unemployment minus the birth/death ratio is 20.5%. Job losses are now equal to or greater than at any time since WWII. All job growth since 2002 has been totally wiped out. The average workweek is 33 hours as more and more companies request employees to take unpaid leave. That government says amounts to more than 9 million people, or 5.8% of the workforce. Those figures are greatly understated as factories work at 65% of capacity utilization. The average length of official unemployment is 24.5 weeks, the longest since stats began in 1948.

Unemployment is spreading at an unprecedented rate: 92% of this year’s stimulus was spent to pay down debt, as savings jumped to 6.9%. That spells sufficiently scared. That should shortly send consumption to less than 70% of GDP. The corporate bottom line is being fattened by layoffs. These problems are going to get considerably worse before they get better.

Homeland Security is going to change their program that allowed local police to enforce federal immigration laws. The law is very effective – catching some 60,000 illegal aliens annually, most of who are deported. Now we cannot have an effective law like that can we? Thus, it is being done away with. It increased deportation by some 24%.

There is no question that special inspector general Neil Barofsky’s quarterly report to Congress made intelligent heads spin. Our projection of the government’s financial exposure at $14.8 trillion was woefully short of Mr. Barofsky’s $23.7 trillion estimate. Incidentally, all of Mr. Barofsky’s figures are official releases of data. If we had the time we’d come close to the same numbers. Regarding our estimate, we saw only two similar estimates, one at $12.8 trillion and the other at $14.5 trillion. It should also be kept in mind that all government figures are bogus, thus, Mr. Barofsky’s real figure could be $30 trillion. He said that the federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion just to save the financial sector. We ask, what is the real figure? Perhaps $8 or $10 trillion? We’ll never really know, will we? That is because the Fed, a private corporation, says it is a state secret and won’t release any information. That is why we desperately need HR 1207 passed. The Fed has to be abolished; otherwise it will totally destroy the world financial system. If you are curious Mr. Barofsky’s estimate puts every American $88,000 deeper into debt, essentially to rescue the shareholders of the Fed.

One of the things that deeply disturbs Congress and we suppose is one of the reasons Ron Paul’s HR 1207 has 276 sponsors, is that the Fed absolutely refuses in detail to discuss the quantity and quality of assets backing all of their programs. This means, at this time, losses to taxpayers could be upwards of $50 trillion. Worse yet, the Comptroller’s Office doesn’t – can’t account for $12 trillion in an audit of the Fed. They won’t even tell us who the TARP recipients are and how they used the funds. In the final analysis neither the Treasury nor the Fed have any credibility left. They either lie or stonewall on every issue. These are the people who are running the financial sector of our economy.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 broke out of a large head and shoulders reversal pattern, which dates back to last summer. The question is will the breakout persist or reverse. Industrial production and unemployment are at the lowest levels since the Great Depression. Commercial paper and bank credit have been collapsing for two years and bank non-performing assets continue to rise.

For the past year treasuries owned by foreigners has stayed steady at $1.7 trillion. T-bill holdings have increased from $226 billion to $586 billion. Custodial holdings of foreign central banks at the Fed of GSE, Agency and mortgage debt has fallen from $968 billion to $807 billion. T-notes have increased from $226 billion to $586 billion. T-notes and bond holdings rose from $412 billion to $618 billion and GSE mortgage debt has increased an eye popping $639 billion from zero. This is where the Fed is training for its demise. Could it be that foreign central banks are finally preparing for dollar devaluation and all that money the Fed and Treasury has been printing for banking and Wall Street?

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers says July sentiment fell to 66.0 from 70.8 in early June. Expectations fell to 63.2 from 69.2 in June. The current conditions index fell to 70.5 from 73.2 in June.

Our Illuminists, Treasury Secretary Geithner, says the Treasury is not in a position to give an estimate of taxpayer losses due to bailouts.

Not only is the housing market not stabilizing, but it is getting worse. The housing crisis as bad as it is shows that rental vacancies are surging and rents are declining. The bottom is a long way off at the end of 2012. Housing prices will fall 20% to 30% more.

Capital One’s shares jumped as a result of better than expected earnings. This was accomplished by not declaring costs of paying back TARP funds and by not increasing provisions for loan losses. The income was created out of thin air, a fantasy. Their earnings were really flat, or less than declared. This bank, like many other banks, has serious problems and is to be a voided like all bank shares should be avoided. This is an example of the lies and chicanery being employed to deceive by almost all large banks, probably on orders from the Fed.

This week the Treasury will borrow $203 billion. If they do that each month that would aggregate $2.4 trillion. If this happens weekly that is $10.5 trillion a year.

World economies, particularly those of G-7 countries, excepting Canada and Germany, are so buried in debt that they cannot respond positively to further economic stimulus. The current debt driven crisis within the G-7 means the euro won’t survive if Ireland, Spain, Italy and Portugal default. The mainstream economists are finally realizing that the system has to be purged, something we believe the ECB-eurozone is already attempting. The growth of their M4 will determine which direction they will go in.

Next the mainstream will finally discover the manipulation of all markets by the Fed and the outrageous suppression of gold and silver prices. That is why gold and silver are so important. They are your only safe haven.

Last week markets were pushed upward by phony earnings reports, particularly by financial institutions. The Dow gained 4%; S&P 4.1%; the Russell 2000 rose 5.6% and Nasdaq rose 4.7% as the 2-year credit crisis wears on and the economy feebly chugs along. Cyclicals rose 10.1%; transports 6.7%; consumers 3.3%; utilities 5.5%; banks 0.6%; broker/dealers 6.7%; high tech 4.5%; semis 3.6%; Internets 5% and biotech 26.9%. Gold bullion gained $14.40 and the HUI gold index rose 3.8%.

Two-year T-bills rose 1 bps to 0.96%; the 10-year notes rose 1 bps to 3.66% and the 10-year German bund rose 8 bps to 3.48%.

Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates rose 7 bps to 5.20%; the 15’s gained 5 bps to 4.68% and the one-year ARMs rose 1 bps to 4.77%.

Fed credit fell 41.1 billion. Year-on-year it is up 128%. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury, Agency debt rose $4.8 billion to a record $2,787 trillion. Custody holdings for other central banks under a new secret formula has risen 19.3% ytd and is up 18.4% yoy.

M2, narrow money supply, fell $15 billion, up 8.5% yoy.

Total money market fund assets increased $8.9 billion to $3.656 trillion. Assets are up 8.2% annualized.

Total commercial paper fell $3.4 billion having fallen 63% annualized. Asset backed CP fell 44.5 billion yoy, a fall of $313 billion.

The dollar declined 0.7% to 78.77 this past week.

Most professionals and investors are surprised to see the Dow over 9,000 again. Stocks have again become totally divorced from reality and economic fundamentals that when the next drop comes, which it will, most will be caught flatfooted. There is a total disconnect between the equities market and the credit market. Of course, the summer’s thin volume has masked the upside moves.

The Treasury has borrowed last week and will this week some $235 billion, a colossal sum.

The Rasmussen survey tells us 25% of those polled say the stimulus helped the economy; 31% said it has hurt the economy.

The week before last the Fed pumped $80.2 billion into the bond market and other markets as well. Last week they removed $33 billion. The more important earnings releases are already history, so we ask what can the market do for an encore?

h/t PrisonPlanet

From my little old redneck perspective, it sure looks like we are living through the biggest ripoff scheme the world has ever known and it may well be the doom and damnation due us because we have ended up so stupid.

B’Man’s Marijuana Watch: The Union- The Business Behind Getting High

Please visit DrugWar Rant if interested in ordering this video. As Pete puts it:

It is the most comprehensive documentary review of cannabis policy, politics, history, myths, science, and.. humanity that I’ve seen. It’s compelling (and yes, a little overwhelming — you almost need to take a break during it to absorb everything).

It takes you briefly through the history of criminalization, debunks every bit of reefer madness nonsense from the suffocated monkeys’ lost brain cells to Walters’ marijuana treatment stats, explores the Chong and Emery cases, takes you into grow-ops and the business of black market cannabis, talks with the scientists and economists and doctors and patients and hemp activists and members of LEAP. It also vividly demonstrates the absolute lack of integrity of so many who promote continued criminalization, including Presidents of the United States.

If you are a regular here, you know that I have a very different view of marijuana usage than most rednecks. I understand many of the facts (and myths) that surround this substance and have harped on it for years. You have seen link after link that shows this to be a wonder drug in many ways, not to mention all the industrial uses Hemp brings to mankind. You have also seen many posts with links that show how “The Evil Weed” has been the catalyst for Billion Dollar industries such as the Industrial Prison Complex and how by being squashed, the Big Meds get to keep manufacturing shit that will cause you more harm than good, all in the name of saving you from the horrors of cannabis.

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times: Follow The Money. It is obvious.

Guess Who Is Blocking Single Payer Healthcare?

Man, I MUST give Russell Mokhiber at SinglePayerAction another major nod of approval. He is not letting up and I must say is becoming one of my heroes on this subject. Please visit and sign up. There should be 300,000,000 people rushing there to get on board and support them. There is 1 MILLION, already. What are YOU waiting on? The Insurance Companies to get wealthy?

John Kerry: Single Payer Would Put Insurance Companies Out of Business

Here’s your average Democratic liberal on single payer:

I’m personally for single payer.

But we don’t have the votes for it.

John Kerry said the same thing today.

Wouldn’t it be a crying shame if he didn’t have the votes to win his next election?

POS.

This reminds me of the reTHUGlicans who tell their constituency that Obama is a Socialist or Muslim or born “over there”, yet when actually held accountable, they change their tune.

Yes, it is high time we vote these corrupt bastards out of office.

Oh, and did I ever tell you to Follow The Money to know what the REAL reason is why we aren’t getting Single Payer, Not-For-Profit HealthCare?

The health sector was the No. 1 overall sector, spending $133 million during the second quarter of 2009. And within the 100-plus industries that CRP tracks, the pharmaceutical/health products industry was again the top dog on K Street, spending roughly $68 million during the quarter.

Several of the businesses and organizations within the health sector fronted multi-million dollar lobbying operations. The biggest spenders in this arena are:

Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America     $6,150,000
Pfizer Inc     $5,580,000
Blue Cross/Blue Shield     $5,171,929
American Hospital Assn     $4,160,000
American Medical Assn     $4,115,000
Eli Lilly & Co     $3,590,000
Amgen Inc     $3,400,000
GlaxoSmithKline     $2,280,000
Sanofi-Aventis     $2,213,000
Merck KGaA     $2,110,000

h/t OpenSecrets

Now for something a little different: a view into another blogger’s view of the subject. Seems like Chip sees that the Criminals who get their money from those listed above are “dumping us”. Can you imagine? How dare these people do what they always do: fuck Americans?

Any thinking person knew this was coming, or worse.

Chip links to Ralph Nader’s thoughts on the subject and explains that there is a massive Single-Payer rally tomorrow in DC (Want to wager on how much press this gets?):

Their campaign-money-greased minions on Capitol Hill and the corporatist Think Tanks and columnists are seizing on President Obama’s aversion to conflict and repeated willingness to water down what he will fight for.

The loud and cruel baying pack comes in the form of William Kristol (“This is not time to pull punches. Go for the kill.”), Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) (“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”), and Charles Krauthammer yammering wildly about medical malpractice and tort law. Krauthammer does not substantiate his claims or mention the many victims of malpractice as he gleefully predicts “Obamacare sinking.”

All these critics have gold-plated health insurance, of course…

…

Single payer health insurance is supported by a majority of the American people, majority of physicians and nurses, and nearly ninety members of the House of Representatives. (See H.R. 676 and singlepayeraction.org.)

A clear replacement of the private health insurance companies with federal insurance, as Medicare for the elderly did in 1965, allows for clear language. Twenty thousand people die in America each year because they cannot afford health insurance, according to the Institute of Medicine. Hundreds of thousands more suffer because they have no insurance to treat their diseases or injuries.

Single payer means everyone is covered from birth, as is the case now in every western nation. Imagine no lives lost or suffering due to no health insurance.

Fuzzy proposals, regularly altered and over-complicated due to the hordes of avaricious corporate lobbyists, make politicians like Obama very susceptible to lurid descriptions and lies by his vocal, well-insured opponents. Finally, the Obama people are using “health insurance reform”, rather than the misnomer “health care reform” which opened them up to charges that government would take over health care. All proposals, including single payer, are based on private delivery of health care…

…

In 1950, when President Truman sent a universal health insurance bill to Congress, the American Medical Association (AMA) launched what was then a massive counterattack. The AMA claimed that government health insurance would lead to rationing of health care, higher prices, diminished choices and more bureaucracy. The AMA beat both Truman and the unions that were backing the legislation, using the phrase “socialized medicine” to scare the people.

Fifty-nine years later, “corporatized medicine” has produced all these consequences, along with stripping away the medical profession’s independence. Today, the irony is that the corporate supremacists are accusing reformers in Washington of what they themselves have produced throughout the country. Rationing, higher prices, less choice, and mounds of paperwork and corporate red tape. Plus, fifty million people without any health insurance at all.

On Thursday, July 30, 2009, there will be a mass rally for a single payer system in Washington, DC. It is time to put what most Americans want on the table. (See www.Healthcare-Now.org for more information.)

h/t AfterDowningStreet

BTW: Chip lists the folks who are screwing us and gives links and numbers so you can contact them.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from left, stands with House Democratic “leaders” Steny Hoyer, Pete Stark, Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, and John Dingell to announce health-care legislation on Tuesday. These guys are dumping us. Email or call them NOW!!
Pelosi
Hoyer
Stark
Waxman: 1-800-828-0498
Rangel
Dingell:1-800-828-0498
Email President Obama

Click here for complete list of Congressional email contacts

Now, what are you waiting on?

B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: TN State Senator Paul Stanley

My friend, Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors highlights in their News Briefs series another Religious Hypocrite from the Bible Belt (Imagine that):

Affairs of State: TN state senator Paul Stanley has resigned after admitting to an affair with a 22-year-old staffer. A hellfire and brimstone born again Xristian, Stanley was a staunch advocate for family values. (He just never said whose family.)

Tennessee has some real winners, eh, that will change the scope of state politics?

What Will Ass-Kissing Sycophants Do If Single Payer Is Implemented?

Hell, he don’t mind browbeating a nincompoop like Billy Boy Kristol, but my question is, “where the hell have YOU been, Johnny Boy Amato“?

I’ll tell you where he has been: sucking up to the power elite in the Dem Party and complicit MSM by bowing down to snuggle his little nose in the ass crack of the wealthiest thieves in American Political history.

Yeah, Johnny Boy, what happens if Single Payer actually gains ground and people start pushing their congressmen for it, while this entire time you have been awash in the bullshit “Public Option” (which is dead) and NOT using you “Mighty” blog to push these criminals into doing the right thing?

Let me tell you what he will do: he will say he was for it all along, but…

The “but” is that you are a sycophantic pussy, Johnny Boy. You should have been a man… a Patriot. But you are a coward that will try to take some credit for something I hope comes, when in truth you are a part of the problem that has caused this thing to be beaten down thus far.

I am working as hard as possible at this little puny blog to make the right choice for America.

Again, where the hell have you been (and wipe that shit off your nose)?

Can You Say Posse Comitatus?

My friend and Patriot, David Fleetwood, gives us another history lesson in his ongoing series, “This Day In The USA”. This is my favorite “social network” (I am not the most active member, admittedly). Check out Operation Itch and join, if you feel kindred attachment.

BONUS ARMY ♦ This Day in the USA ♦ July 29
It was the summer of 32, the great depression was tightening is group on the nation, and veterans of War World I took up residence in a shanty town on the coast of the Anacostia river with a beautiful view of downtown Washington DC.
But by the morning of July 29, Gen. MacArthur and the US ARMY would have set the shanty town ablaze.

Health “Care” Reform Vs Health “Insurance” Reform: Red Herrings For The Gullible Americans

What will it take for all you lemmings to get full of the herrings being forced fed you. Do you like the taste so much or are you truly that stupid? Do you consider those elected into office to be more deserving of good, quality Single Payer healthcare than you? Did you know that those fighting against this, use it, even tho “Socialized medicine” (read as “Devil’s Healthcare” in the mind of fools) is Sooooo bad? Or are you aware that the brainwashing is so deep that the elderly and others on Medicare are being brainwashed into thinking that their beloved Medicare is actually “Socialized Medicine”?

When will you think for yourself? Ever?

These criminals, with the exception of a very few, use the Devil’s healthcare and don’t want you to have it… all the while lining their campaign pockets with the very ones that cause your bankruptcy or sickness and death due to limiting or denying your care when the worst comes? Ask your old Mama to give her “Socialized Medicine” up and see what happens. She’ll slap the shit out of you. Ask a vet to give up his VA healthcare for the private plans and watch out for the M16. ask a Congressman to give his up and watch out for the… (crickets chirping).

Single Payer: Listen to the Doctors!

What a concept! Listening to the people who work in our broken healthcare system every day and can tell you exactly what needs to be done from a first hand perspective!

h/t JohnPerryOnline

And please watch John’s Homework assignment in a RealNews segment down below highlighting Glen Ford as he explains how they are pulling off Health “Insurance” Reform, when what we need Health “Care” Reform. We do not need health “insurance” reform, unless you call cutting the head off of health insurance companies all together, “reform”. THAT is what is needed and any sane person knows this.

For you “conservatives” out there that keep insisting Obama is “liberal”, consider that he has played to the conservatives at each and every turn in this debate (and virtually every other debate). This man is no more a liberal than YOU are. You fall for the Kabuki Dance and look very stupid doing so, for the most fiscally conservative way to health “CARE” is Single payer. For you “liberals” or “progressives” out there, when will you begin to understand what those terms are and actually mimic their meaning? I’m just asking, because otherwise you are just as foolish and ignorant as your despised two-party headed counterparts in the dance.

Health reform: dead or alive?

Ford: By excluding single payer plan, Obama allowed the right to dominate the reform debate

Maybe all you need, Mr Conservative, is for one of your very own heroes to admit the truth. Is Jon Stewart really this brilliant or is Billy Boy Kristol as stupid as I think he is? Maybe Billy has come to his lying senses, or maybe he just got caught in a trap. Either way, watch some truth come out and explain why the Armed Services “deserve” superior treatment and other Americans don’t. I mean, don’t they say that your reward is the “adventure”, not the job (including benefits)?

more about “Bill Kristol | The Daily Show | Comed…“, posted with vodpod

h/t AfterDowningStreet

I wonder if the following segment from Countdown (guest hosted by Governor Dean) interviewing Wendell Potter, the CIGNA insider who has been forthcoming with the truth about healthcare, would help you understand why the Kabuki Dance moves on and how, if the congress is allowed to carry forward, we will see an even worse situation arise.

more about “Countdown:Fighting to keep the public…“, posted with vodpod

WTF? It’s a sick, sick world!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534940,00.html

This person had better of been mentally ill and I mean severly ill… way prior to this.. because if what they did was due to being a druggie… well, fry her yesterday!

Why are we still doing this sh-t?!

By Deborah Hastings, Associated Press

There are now nearly as many private contractors in Iraq as there are U.S. soldiers — and about half of them are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters and bullet-proof trucks.
They operate with little or no supervision, accountable only to the firms employing them. And as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war, this private army has been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close to their heavily armed convoys.
Not one has faced charges or prosecution.
There is great confusion among legal experts and military officials about what laws — if any — apply to Americans in this force of at least 48,000.
They operate in a decidedly gray legal area. Unlike soldiers, they are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under a special provision secured by American-occupying forces, they are exempt from prosecution by Iraqis for crimes committed there.

The security firms insist their employees are governed by internal conduct rules and by use-of-force protocols established by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq for 14 months following the invasion.
But many soldiers on the ground — who earn in a year what private guards can earn in just one month — say their private counterparts should answer to a higher authority, just as they do. More than 60 U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been court-martialed on murder-related charges involving Iraqi citizens.
Some military analysts and government officials say the contractors could be tried under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which covers crimes committed abroad. But so far, that law has not been applied to them.
Security firms earn more than $4 billion in government contracts, but the government doesn’t know how many private soldiers it has hired, or where all of them are, according to the Government Accountability Office. And the companies are not required to report violent incidents involving their employees.
Security guards now constitute nearly 50% of all private contractors in Iraq — a number that has skyrocketed since the 2003 invasion, when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said rebuilding Iraq was the top priority. But an unforeseen insurgency, and hundreds of terrorist attacks have pushed the country into chaos. Security is now Iraq’s greatest need.
The wartime numbers of private guards are unprecedented — as are their duties, many of which have traditionally been done by soldiers. They protect U.S. military operations and have guarded high-ranking officials including Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Baghdad. They also protect visiting foreign officials and thousands of construction projects.
At times, they are better equipped than military units.
Their presence has also pushed the war’s direction. The 2004 battle of Fallujah — an unsuccessful military assault in which an estimated 27 U.S. Marines were killed, along with an unknown number of civilians — was retaliation for the killing, maiming and burning of four Blackwater guards in that city by a mob of insurgents.
“I understand this is war,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., whose efforts for greater contractor accountability led to an amendment in next year’s Pentagon spending bill. “But that’s absolutely no excuse for letting this very large force of armed private employees, dare I say mercenaries, run around without any accountability to anyone.”
Gunfire incidents
Blackwater has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq, and at least $800 million in government contracts. It is one of the most high-profile security firms in Iraq, with its fleet of “Little Bird” helicopters and armed door gunners swarming Baghdad and beyond.
The secretive company, run by a former Navy SEAL, is based at a massive, swampland complex in North Carolina. Until 9-11, it had few security contracts.
Since then, Blackwater profits have soared. And it has become the focus of numerous contractor controversies in Iraq, including the May 30 shooting death of an Iraqi deemed to be driving too close to a Blackwater security detail.
“The shooting of that Iraqi driver has intensified tensions,” Schakowsky said. “The Iraqis are very angry.”
Company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell, in an e-mail to The Associated Press, said the shooting was justified. “Based on incident reports and witness accounts, the Blackwater professional acted lawfully and appropriately,” she wrote. There was no response to AP inquiries seeking further details.
Other alleged shootings involving private contractors include:
An incident in which a supervisor for a Virginia-based security company said he was “going to kill somebody today” and then shot at Iraqi civilians for amusement, possibly killing one, according to two employees.
The two, former Army Ranger Charles L. Sheppard III and former Marine Corps sniper Shane B. Schmidt, were fired by the company, Triple Canopy, and responded with a wrongful termination lawsuit. Their suit did not identify the shift leader they said deliberately opened fire on civilians in at least two incidents while their team was driving in Baghdad. He was described only as a former serviceman from Oklahoma.
On its Internet site, the company said all three were fired for failing to immediately report incidents involving gunfire. Triple Canopy, after an initial investigation, reported no one had been hurt and handed its information to the U.S. government.
Patricia Smith, a lawyer representing Sheppard and Schmidt, said the U.S. Justice Department declined to investigate. The Justice Department declined comment on the case.
On Aug. 1, a Fairfax County, Va., jury ruled that Triple Canopy did not wrongly fire the two men. But jury forewoman Lea Overby also issued a scathing note on behalf of the panel, saying the company displayed “poor conduct, lack of standard reporting procedures, bad investigation methods and unfair double standards.”
The judge’s jury instructions, Overby said, left no choice but ruling against the former employees. “But we do not agree with the Triple Canopy’s treatment of (them),” she wrote.
Disgruntled employees of London-based Aegis Defence Services, holder of one of the biggest U.S. security contracts in Iraq — valued at more than $430 million — posted videos on the Internet in 2005 showing company guards firing automatic weapons at civilians from the back of a moving security vehicle.
In one sequence, a civilian car is fired on, causing the driver to lose control and slam into a taxi. Another clip shows a white car being hit by automatic weapons fire and then coming slowly to a stop.
In the videos, the security vehicle doesn’t stop. It speeds on, leaving the civilians and their shot-up vehicles behind.
After initially denying involvement, Aegis, run by former Scots Guard Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, issued a statement saying the shootings were legal and within rules-of-force protocols established by the now-defunct CPA. Those guidelines allow security guards to fire on vehicles that approach too close or too quickly. U.S. Army auditors, in their own investigation, agreed with Aegis.
In the chaos of Iraq, where car bombings and suicide attacks occur over and over on any given day, such contractor shootings are commonplace, military officials say. The numbers of Iraqis wounded or killed by private guards is not known.
Sixteen American security guards were arrested and jailed by U.S. Marines in battle-scarred Fallujah in 2005 following a day of shooting incidents in which they allegedly fired on a Marine observation post, a combat patrol and civilians walking and driving in the city, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.
The guards, employed by Zapata Engineering of North Carolina, were imprisoned for three days. “They were detained because their actions posed a threat to coalition forces. I would say that constitutes a serious event,” Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said at the time.
The contractors, who were eventually released and returned to the United States, claimed the Marines humiliated and taunted them in prison, calling them “mercenaries” and intimidating them with dogs. The private guards denied taking part in the shootings.
Last year, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service closed its criminal investigation of the case “for lack of prosecutive merit,” a spokesman said. None of the 16 men were charged.
But days after the shootings, Marine Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, commander of western Iraq, banned the 16 contractors from every military installation in the area.
In letters to each man, the general wrote: “Your convoy was speeding through the city and firing shots indiscriminately, some of which impacted positions manned by U.S. Marines.
“Your actions endangered the lives of innocent Iraqis and U.S. service members in the area.”
Military resentment
Since American contractors first swarmed into Iraq, animosity has run high between soldiers and private security guards. Many of the latter are highly trained ex-members of elite military groups including Navy SEALS, Green Berets and Army Rangers.
“Most military guys resent them,” said former Marine Lt. Col. Mike Zacchea, who spent two years in Iraq training and building the Iraqi army. “There’s an attitude that if these guys really wanted to do the right thing, they would have stayed in the military.”
Zacchea, now retired in Long Island, N.Y., said that as a senior battalion adviser, he was offered jobs by several security companies, with average salaries of $1,000 a day. He wasn’t interested. “I didn’t want to go to Iraq as a mercenary. I don’t believe in it. I don’t think what they’re doing is right.
“Really, these guys are free agents on the battlefield. They’re not bound by any law. They’re non-uniformed combatants. No one keeps track of them.”
In late 2004, the Reconstruction Operations Center (ROC) opened in Baghdad. Its purpose was to track movement of contractors and military troops around the country and to keep records of violent incidents.
Participation, however, is voluntary.
Military leaders say the government should demand that contractors report their movements and use of weapons. Last year, officials of the 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad told visiting GAO auditors that lack of coordination continued to endanger the lives soldiers and contractors. Private security details continued to enter battle zones without warning, the military leaders said. In some cases, military officers complained they had no way of communicating with private security details.
Many large contractors say their guards coordinate with the ROC, and file “after-incident reports” of shooting episodes. But government auditors in Iraq reported last year that some contractors said they stopped detailing such shootings because they occurred so often it wasn’t possible to file reports for each one.

Medical Tourism

Six months on from successful surgery on his spine in Poland, the American author Timothy O’Grady, examines the growth in the popularity of medical tourism.
Every year, thousands of patients roam the planet in search of medical care which is either unaffordable or unavailable back home.
Medical tourism has become a multi-billion dollar industry, involving governments, travel agencies, investment banks, patients and medical personnel all over the world. Fifty countries now name medical tourism as one of their national industries.
The system which ancient Greeks initiated when they travelled to the Saronic Gulf to be treated by the god Asklepios, has been taken up with great enthusiasm in the modern world.
Timothy O’Grady talks to patients, doctors and health brokers about its inexorable rise.
audio:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p003qgcb/Health_Check_27_07_2009

The Bait and Switch, Single Payer Pussies, And Single Payer Works

For those “Progressives” (read as “Ass Kissing Sycophants”) out there who are lovin’ the “Public Option”, let me be the first to call you America’s Biggest Patsies. What is a patsy, you ask? The ones that fall for the ‘Bait and Switch’:

BAIT AND SWITCH ON THE ‘PUBLIC OPTION’

Kip Sullivan, Physicians for a National Health Plan – The people who brought us the “public option” began their campaign promising one thing but now promote something entirely different. To make matters worse, they have not told the public they have backpedalled. The campaign for the “public option” resembles the classic bait-and-switch scam: tell your customers you’ve got one thing for sale when in fact you’re selling something very different.

When the “public option” campaign began, its leaders promoted a huge “Medicare-like” program that would enroll about 130 million people. Such a program would dwarf even Medicare, which, with its 45 million enrollees, is the nation’s largest health insurer, public or private. But today “public option” advocates sing the praises of tiny “public options” contained in congressional legislation sponsored by leading Democrats that bear no resemblance to the original model.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the “public options” described in the Democrats’ legislation might enroll 10 million people and will have virtually no effect on health care costs, which means the “public options” cannot, by themselves, have any effect on the number of uninsured. But the leaders of the “public option” movement haven’t told the public they have abandoned their original vision. It’s high time they did.

“Public option” refers to a proposal, as Timothy Noah put it, “dreamed up” by Jacob Hacker when Hacker was still a graduate student working on a degree in political science. In two papers, one published in 2001 and the second in 2007, Hacker, now a professor of political science at Berkeley, proposed that Congress create an enormous “Medicare-like” program that would sell health insurance to the non-elderly in competition with the 1,000 to 1,500 health insurance companies that sell insurance today. . .

Hacker predicted that his proposed public program would so closely resemble Medicare that it would be able to set its premiums far below those of other insurance companies and enroll at least half the non-elderly population. These predictions were confirmed by the Lewin Group, a very mainstream consulting firm. In its report on Hacker’s 2001 paper, Lewin concluded Hacker’s “Medicare Plus” program would enroll 113 million people (46 percent of the non-elderly) and cut the number of uninsured to 5 million. In its report on Hacker’s 2007 paper, Lewin concluded Hacker’s “Health Care for America Plan” would enroll 129 million people (50 percent of the nonelderly population) and cut the uninsured to 2 million. . .

Here is what the CBO had to say about the HELP committee bill:

The new draft also includes provisions regarding a “public plan,” but those provisions did not have a substantial effect on the cost or enrollment projections, largely because the public plan would pay providers of health care at rates comparable to privately negotiated rates – and thus was not projected to have premiums lower than those charged by private insurance plans. (page 3)

Obviously the “public option” in the Senate HELP committee bill (zero enrollees; 34 million people left uninsured) and the “public option” in the House bill (10 million enrollees (maybe!); 17 million people left uninsured) are a far cry from the “public option” originally proposed by Professor Hacker (129 million enrollees; 2 million people left uninsured).

h/t UNDERNEWS

And let me address those of you who think Single Payer is the best option, but find agreement with those who say, “We don’t have the votes”. You are a pussy, just like this chicken shit pussy:

Single Payer Action Confronts Congressman Barney Frank

h/t Single Payer Action

And the sad fact is, you spineless chicken shit pussies, is that Single Payer actually WORKS, as opposed to the lies and propaganda you swallowed; just like the way you swallow that load of shit emanating from Barack Obama’s assmouth whenever he speaks:

Neil R. Hughes: Single-payer health care works

A brief letter on the front page of the Banner-Herald’s Sunday opinions section decrying the possibility of a public health-insurance option in this country included the admonition, “To find out what government-run health care is all about, look at the U.K. and Canada … (Random Thoughts, ‘Don’t touch health care’).”

I say “right on,” but when you do look, make sure you’re looking at the facts and not the gross exaggerations, oversimplifications and downright propaganda about those systems that have been shoved down your throat by the U.S. health care industry and other vested interests for the past 40 years.

I grew up in Canada an insulin-dependent diabetic from the age of 8, and I had excellent care. My parents chose my specialist (still the norm there), I got the most up-to-date care available anywhere in the world (still true), and my parents didn’t pay a penny beyond the low quarterly premiums charged by Alberta’s provincial government. When I moved to North Georgia in 1986, my diabetes specialist in Atlanta marveled at how healthy I was, considering I already had been diabetic for 23 years by then.

My father had successful quintuple-bypass heart surgery in the late 1980s, and again, didn’t have to pay anything out-of-pocket. And we enjoyed a middle-class lifestyle that many of America’s uninsured millions of people would envy.

Of course there are problems in the Canadian health care system, including too-long waits for some elective procedures. But for every serious problem one may find in the Canadian system, I can point out 100 here in the United States, which actually has no “system” at all. A government-run, single-payer system can work, if we’re smart enough to do it right.

Neil R. Hughes

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Saturday, July 25, 2009

h/t AfterDowningStreet

And for you blithering ReTHUGlican idiots who would rather suck off Howdy Doody than get the straight facts, read this (you bunch of ignoramuses):

33.7 million Canadians are not Shona Holmes

To my American friends: I sincerely hope you’re not taken in by the GOP propaganda featuring Canadian Shona Holmes trashing our system of universal healthcare. The problem is both that Ms. Holmes and her Republican masters misrepresented her condition and that the tactic itself is reprehensible. The GOP can’t produce any logical argument against a system that is entrenched in every Western society except yours, so they resort to fear-mongering and lies, claiming that one Canadian’s skewed view trumps the experiences and beliefs of the rest of us.

There are almost 34 million Canadians and it’s true, not every one of them supports universal healthcare. It’s not a perfect system and we too debate its reform and worry about its cost. But it is also integral to our identity as Canadians. Ask what makes us a people and the majority will cite government-administered, publicly funded healthcare. Along with the French fact, it is also what differentiates us from you – though we wish, for your sake, that it didn’t.

Like our Conservative Party, your Republicans really do take the people for fools. The GOP expects you to believe that one woman denigrating Canadian healthcare speaks for all of us. Even if her story were factually accurate – and apparently it is not – opponents of healthcare reform have claimed that her experience is typical. It’s a surreal if sadly unsurprising experience to watch Republicans in Congress stand up and outright lie about my country, but that’s what’s happening. So if you have the sense that Canadians routinely rush to the U.S. for MRIs and that those who don’t are dropping dead on a daily basis, well, think again.

As former Liberal health minister Ujjal Dosanjh has pointed out on CNN, the Canadian system is not run by nameless, faceless bureaucrats who decide whether or not you are worthy enough to receive treatment. Actually, that sounds rather closer to a description of how your HMOs operate. In Canada, where healthcare is not private enterprise, medical decisions are made by doctors. Of course, when you or a loved one is sick, it’s a scary time, and everyone would prefer to be treated right away. And I know from personal experience that if your life is in danger, that’s exactly what happens.

Half a lifetime ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor did not put her on a waiting list. She did not go south to receive more timely, better treatment in the U.S. Instead, she was diagnosed late one Monday afternoon then had a mastectomy the very next day. That’s the way it works in Canada: her condition was deemed so serious that she received immediate care – and of course her operation, stay in hospital, and subsequent treatment were paid for by the state. No one asked if my mother had insurance or ran a credit check to ensure she could afford to stay alive.

The Canadian healthcare system is not flawless. Particularly in rural areas, we have shortages of doctors. It can sometimes take a while to get an appointment if your condition isn’t acute. We don’t do a great job of promoting preventative medicine. But despite what you’ve heard from Shona Holmes, most Canadians believe that our system is one of the best in the world, and we’re rather horrified that millions of Americans are uninsured.

As a proud Canadian I’m sick and tired of the lies Republicans tell about our healthcare system to avoid reforming yours for ideological and partisan political reasons that we consider perverse. They did the same thing when the Clinton administration made its attempt, and alarmingly, the tactic seems to work: Bill and Hilary failed in ‘94 and now polls are indicating that Obama’s popularity is slipping, that his push for reform is stalling.

It wasn’t any easier for us to muster the political will needed to implement universal healthcare in Canada. In the 1960s both provincial and federal administrations faced determined opposition; in Saskatchewan there was even a doctor’s strike. But both the Saskatchewan government of Premier Tommy Douglas and, subsequently, the Canadian government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson persevered to the benefit of all Canadians. Now doctors are among the most vocal supporters of universal healthcare.

Don’t squander the opportunity to do what’s right because of Shona Holmes. Shona Holmes does not speak for Canadians. I’m sorry the woman was sick, but that doesn’t make her an expert on healthcare or give her the right to condemn our system. I don’t know Ms. Holmes personally so I can’t really comment on what motivates her, but rest assured, the other 33.7 million of us Canadians are not Shona Holmes. The Republicans paid that woman to lie to Americans about Canada, and both of us deserve better than that.

h/t Beyond The 140, The Political Carnival and yes, one of the semi-sane ones at C&L.

Criminals With Badges

Things are getting out of hand with law enforcement officers. At least he got some time off. I wonder if they would dock him some pay had he shot the person?

Denver Police Officer Charged After Allegedly Demanding Fast Service at McDonalds at Gunpoint

Denver police officer Derrick Curtis Saunders, 29, allegedly wants his fast food faster. Saunders is “on leave” to deal with criminal charges after reportedly pulling his weapon at a McDonald’s to speed things up behind the counter.

Saunders was with another police officer in the drive-through line when Saunders became impatient and allegedly decided it was better to brandish his weapon than speak with a manager. He is now charged with menacing, prohibited use of a weapon, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.

Read the rest at Jonathon Turley’s blog.

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Clifton Hicks and Jason Hurd

Clifton’s message is hard to take in, but must be true for many returning patriots who were sent to this bullshit occupation in Iraq. Jason shows his humanity by telling the truth and apologizes to the Iraqi people. Very different viewpoints from two of America’s Patriots.

This Is Where We Take Our Stand

more about “Episode Two: Rules of Engagement“, posted with vodpod

As testimony continues, the question “What about the Iraqi people?” takes center stage. When you are part of an occupying army and most of them want to kill you, who do you blame? Clifton Hicks recounts a deadly assault his unit made on a civilian neighborhood while struggling with his inability to identify with their pain. Jason Hurd argues, though, that this war will never end until people know the suffering we have brought to the people there. For him, Winter Soldier is a way to apologize to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is Where We Take Our Stand – The Series

Where’s the debate?

Are we watching passively while Barack Obama carries out the same policies as George W. Bush?

When an American bombing raid this May killed over two hundred civilians in a village in Afghanistan, it was met with a deafening silence. When Obama’s promised “withdrawal” from Iraq leaves 130,000 troops there for at least two more years and 50,000 permanently, it’s hailed as an end to the occupation. And who is demanding to know just what the mission really is when 30,000 more troops are sent to Afghanistan?

Where’s the debate?

In March of 2008, two hundred and fifty veterans and active duty soldiers marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by gathering in Washington, DC, to testify from their own experience about the nature of the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. It was chilling, horrifying, and challenging for all who witnessed it. Against tremendous odds, they brought the voices of the veterans themselves into the debate. That was then.

This is now.  Today, we present to you This is Where We Take Our Stand, the inside story of those three days and the courageous men and women who testified. And we present this story today, told in six episodes, because we believe it is as relevant now as it was one year ago. Maybe more.

Here is our challenge to you: Watch the series; spread it far and wide; and ask yourself is this about the past, or the present and future. Then add your voice.

If you are a veteran or active duty, present your own testimony. If you are not, but you are still a living, breathing member of the human race, then do whatever you can to join and fan the flames of debate.

Displaced Films and Northern Light Productions

When Did Obama Become “Liberal” and Bush “Conservative”?

My blog is neither “right”, nor “left”; “liberal”, nor “conservative”, “Dem”, nor “Rep”. You can tell that by how I hold them all accountable and would never defend the paradigm either wants me to defend, just for defense sake. You will read me attack the so-called “liberal” blogs that are nothing more than Ass-Kissing Sycophants, just as much as the “conservative” Ass-Kissing Sycophants.

I visited (by accident) a blog called The Provocateur, who’s owner (I assume), or at least one of the bloggers there (Mike Volpe) wrote the following article (I must say well written, altho he is truly far off base in his analysis. He was kind enough to let this gruff old bear share a few words with him that didn’t get too heated, but were poignant and significant for the paradigm he is trapped in. I am tryng desperately to speak with these people (being I am from SW TN and around many of these people daily). I am a conundrum for them and was even called a “Paulian” (when perhaps “Kucinichian” is a bit more apt). I like Paul for his anti-war conservatism, but Dennis is just as anti-war as Paul is, maybe more.

Check out the dialog at the end to see how it ended up and let me know if you think it is worth the time online (for in person, things are generally easier to express face to face).

The Obama Presidency and Liberalism

I think it’s fair to say that the Obama presidency could be viewed as a controlled experiment on the worthiness of liberalism. With a very liberal president and overwhelming Democratic majorities, America is going to get a heavy dose of liberalism until at least 2010. (unless that is the President has a moderate epiphany as I suggested) Yet, if the president continues on his current path, he will also lead an imprint for history to judge liberalism in America.

So far, that judgment is incomplete but it’s also near an incomplete failure. We first started with the stimulus. On the economy, the president famously said, “only government has the resources to jolt our economy back into life”. He went on to say, “Tax cuts alone can’t solve all of our economic problems” and so totally rejecting the conservative fiscal solution to an economic recession. Nothing could be more liberal than seeing the government as the driver of economic growth. So, he passed his $787 billion stimulus. Its results so far have been well documented. Our unemployment rate is inching toward ten percent. Our deficit is nearing two trillion dollars and we’ve only spent one tenth of it. Meanwhile, the president took over several banks, two auto companies, and an insurance company. One way or another, the outcome of all this government intervention will also be a historical judgment on liberalism as well.

In fact, though, the greatest judgment against liberalism so far has been the president’s total inability to move his agenda going forward. In fact, despite overwhelming popularity, he barely got the stimulus through. Since then, he’s been totally impotent. Things don’t look to get any better. Cap and trade barely passed the House and the Senate has no plans to take it up anytime soon. Health care reform is in even worse shape. What sort of a judgment on liberalism is it if the liberal party has veto proof majorities in both chambers and still can’t pass a liberal agenda? One might ask if liberalism can’t pass now when will it pass.

Even lesser known policies like his $75 billion loan modification plan have been colossal failures. It’s important to point out again that this judgment is still incomplete. The economy could have a stunning turnaround and by this time next year our unemployment might be in the 6′s. GM and Chrysler might both be profitable by 2012 and the government will have sold its shares by then. In light of all of this, the president will then be able to pass sweeping health care, energy, and education reform. In 2012, we’ll be a liberal nation and history’s judgment on liberalism in America will be a glowing success. It’s still early and so the judgment is incomplete.

There will also be those liberals that will claim that the Bush presidency was a failing referendum on conservatism. That is a popular and totally inaccurate argument. There are some liberals that claim the tax cuts caused the recession we are in now. That’s just ludicrous. The tax cuts were enacted in 2001-2003. The recession didn’t occur for five years. The two have nothing to do with each other. Others proclaim that deregulation caused the meltdown. Of course, it wasn’t a lack of regulation but a lack of enforcement that lead to the crisis. It isn’t a conservative policy to look the other way on mass fraud, but a bad policy. In fact, most of Bush’s biggest problems came from embracing liberal ideas, big budget deficits, bloated government programs and bailouts. In fact, history’s judgment on conservatism should already be written with the wildly successful Reagan presidency. Yet, those with an agenda attempt to cloud the issue. Our economy came out of a recession because government shrank, regulations were slashed, and taxes were cut. Yet, some cloud the issue and leave that debate open still.

Make no mistake, by November 2010, and certainly November 2012, history will be ready to judge liberalism as well. While its currently incomplete, the judgment so far is a total failure.

B: If you think Obama is a liberal, you don’t know what the word means.

mike volpe: Enlighten me, how am I wrong? What does the word mean and who was and is a liberal if not Obama?

B: He voted lockstep with Bush’s policies and McCain during the POTUS run.

It is but one party with two perceived differences, but in actuality, it is the detriment to our country.

They do and act the same… both “liberal” and “conservative”, “right” vs “left” Dem vs Repub; and only the ignorant feed from it and agree.

This isn’t rocket science, yet too many are too gullible and/or brainwashed to know the difference. Much to my chagrin and the consternation of the Founding Fathers.

mike volpe: Bush wasn’t actually acting like much of a conservative in the last six months. Obama certainly didn’t vote in lock step the whole campaign. They did in the last couple months but that’s because Bush turned into a liberal in the last few months.

B: Mike,

Come now. Bush was never conservative, except in the “shiny little object that gathers your attention” realm. Abortion (even tho he wasn’t die hard) is one of those wedge issues they use to divide us, but that is meaningless.

Bush spent money like a drunken sailor. This is no secret. He lied to get us into wars to propagate the war profiteers and the PNAC agenda.

Mike, what I am saying is that they have their kabuki dance that many Americans fall for. But by and large it is bogus.

There is but one really socially liberal in the all of congress: Dennis Kucinich (and Bernie Sanders). There is but one truly fiscally conservative in the all of congress and that is Paul.

Most every other dance the dance. Look at their votes, especially the leaders. Every so-called “liberal” leader voted lock-step on the most prescient issues. Every Republican leader voted lock step with war funding, eliminating rights left and right.

All of this is obvious.

Follow the money and the votes.

I view myself as fiscally conservative, but look how Bush spent the money. Sure, he cut back the taxes on the wealthy and look what that got us. But he spent money on ginned up and bogus wars.

I am Socially liberal, in that I believe that each and every American should be taken care of as our own. Especially medically.

They all bow to the Corptocracy, verging on Fascism. Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama. All the same, with just enough of the kabuki dance differences to keep Americans divided and fighting (thanks to the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, Olberman and the like). They all play for their masters and we are too stupid to make them stop.

Obama spends money in the same fashion and look at his rhetoric regarding abortion and gay rights, etc. Telecom immunity. Patriot Act.

These are NOT liberal views, but just the portrayal of the dance.

Please stop watching the magician’s right hand, because it is the left hand that holds the secret. Americans are fixated on the sleight of hand.

Patriots will know the difference and speak to it.

Read my blog some and you will realize I cut NONE of them any slack because they are all full of malarkey.

Again, Opensecrets can show you so very much. Follow the money.

Thanks for your time…

B’Man

mike volpe: Now it all makes sense. You’re a Paulian. That’s why you are so conspiratoria.

That doesn’t mean that Obama is NOT a liberal. Obama is still a iberal and frankly you proved it, you just seem to think that the rest of the government is also liberal. That’s true to some extent though not entirely. Of course, I wasn’t talk about the rest of government. I was only talking about Obama.

B: Mike,

I am not “Paulian”, whatever you think that is. Do you deny that he is conservative? The MOST conservative in all the congress?

Look at the votes and where they get their money.

Let me explain something that you can’t seem to grasp, spending money on bogus wars does not make one “liberal”, it makes one a criminal.

War profiteering is that. A crime, and all of the past presidents, since Kennedy are guilty.

Allowing the Federal reserve to rule this country is not “liberal” or “conservative”, it is criminal.

Just as I said, you don’t know what the word means, except in the mind of Limbaugh.

I can enlighten you, but you may be too far gone.

That isn’t surprising, for it is rampant on both “sides” that fall for their show.

Enjoy the show Mike, but as for this real Patriot, I’m working to to fix things. I need your help, but not if you can’t shuck the brainwashing.

Take care,

B’Man

PS: If you will not delete these posts, I would love to link back to forward the discussion and to show that it is possible to have a decent conversation with a person like you. Few and far between.

UPDATE:

OK, I tried and it shows that the ignorance runs so deep that it is likely impossible to have any meaningful discussion with such a personality:

mike volpe: By Paulian, I mean you voted for and supported Ron Paul. I am guessing you did given how cynical you are toward everyone except Paul. Yeah, Paul is a conservative except when it comes to earmarks for his district and then he’s very liberal. It’s funny how that works. He’s ideologically pure except when it comes to pork in his district and then he’s one of the most liberal folks in the Congress.

It’s easy to be ideologically pure when you’re a back bencher legislator your entire career and never lead to get a law passed. When you’re actually passing laws, you have to legislate and then it’s much more difficult. That’s the main difference between McCain and Paul. McCain actually got things done while in the Senate while Paul criticized everyone else and got nothing done. He is ideologically pure though. That’s why not a single law has his name on it.

As for war profiteering and the fed, I know the conspiracy theories. Libertarians are full of them and it’s corrosive to the philosophy.

http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2009/06/libertarians-downfall-conspiracy.html