Could I Make This ANY MORE Simple?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. 

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.  No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating  deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.  If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal  government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in  Iraq and Afghanistan ...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they  alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of  them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando  Sentinel  Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it... is up to you.
This might be funny if it weren't so  true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:

                               Tax his land,
                               Tax his bed,
                               Tax the table,
                               At which he's fed.
                          
                               Tax his tractor,
                               Tax his mule,
                               Teach him taxes
                               Are the rule.
                          
                               Tax his work,
                               Tax his pay,
                               He works for
                               peanuts anyway!
                          
                               Tax his cow,
                               Tax his goat,
                               Tax his pants,
                               Tax his coat.
                      
                               Tax his ties,
                               Tax his shirt,
                               Tax his work,
                               Tax his dirt.
                      
                               Tax his tobacco,
                               Tax his drink,
                               Tax him if he
                               Tries to think.

                               Tax his cigars,
                               Tax his beers,
                               If he cries
                               Tax his tears.

                               Tax his car,
                               Tax his gas,
                               Find other ways
                               To tax his ass.

                               Tax all he has
                               Then let him know
                               That you won't be done
                               Till he has no dough.

                               When he screams and hollers;
                               Then tax him some more,
                               Tax him till
                               He's good and sore.

                               Then tax his coffin,
                               Tax his grave,
                               Tax the sod in
                               Which he's laid...

                               Put these words
                               Upon his tomb,
                               'Taxes drove me
                               to my doom...'

                               When he's gone,
                               Do not relax,
                               Its time to apply
                               The inheritance tax.

                               Accounts Receivable Tax
                               Building Permit Tax
                               CDL license Tax
                               Cigarette Tax
                               Corporate Income Tax
                               Dog License Tax
                               Excise Taxes
                               Federal Income Tax
                               Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
                               Fishing License Tax
                               Food License Tax
                               Fuel Permit Tax
                               Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
                               Gross Receipts Tax
                               Hunting License Tax
                               Inheritance Tax
                               Inventory Tax
                               IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
                               Liquor Tax
                               Luxury Taxes
                               Marriage License Tax
                               Medicare Tax
                               Personal Property Tax
                               Property Tax
                               Real Estate Tax
                               Service Charge Tax
                               Social Security Tax
                               Road Usage Tax
                               Recreational Vehicle Tax
                               Sales Tax
                               School Tax
                               State Income Tax
                               State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
                               Telephone Federal Excise Tax
                               Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
                               Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
                               Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
                               Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
                                Telephone    State   and Local Tax
                               Telephone Usage Charge Tax
                               Utility Taxes
                               Vehicle License Registration Tax
                               Vehicle Sales Tax
                               Watercraft Registration Tax
                               Well Permit Tax
                               Workers Compensation Tax


STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened?  Can you spell 'politicians?'

I hope this goes around THE USA at least 545 times!!!  YOU can help it get there!!! 
 
GO AHEAD. . .  BE A FED UP AMERICAN!!!

(Charley Reese's final column for the  Orlando Sentinel)

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Those People WE Elect

Those people we elect? They are not “leaders.”

Those people we elect? They are not “the government.”

Those people we elect? They are not “change agents.” (Gawd but are they not that…)

Those people we elect? They’re not “in charge.”

Unless we allow them to be.

Unless we get too busy, or too distracted, or too disillusioned, or too self-absorbed, or too whatever, and forget who and what we are.

We, the People.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, did ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America.

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Why Do People Accept Amerca As A Degrading Society?

No one seems to really question it. It's the conventional wisdom, and everyone seems to accept it.

"We've got to cut back."

"We can't afford what we used to."

"The government must live within its means."

What I want to know it ........ why?

Why can we no longer afford to hire enough good teachers to educate our children? Why can't we keep our roads and infrastructure maintained? Why is it getting harder and harder for working families to pay their bills? Why do local taxes go up, and up, and up, but services get fewer and farther between?

Why can't our generation have the same pension and health benefits our parents enjoyed?

Why is the notion of a "safe" job, and a company looking after it's employees, about as old-fashioned as a buggy whip?

Why is "stay-at-home mom" a choice only rich women get to make?

And, more than anything, why the hell does everyone just accept that this is just the way that it is? WTF is up with that?

With all the advances in technology, and the huge rise in worker productivity over the past 30 years, we should be debating on how to allocate the bounty, not fighting over the scraps.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x579856
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Obama Needs A New Pair Of Shoes

I expect our president and our Democrats to take a stronger stand on the right wing attacks on public employees, the efforts to destroy the unions by taking away any power to bargain. I did expect that. I did expect to see folks like Howard Dean who said that the unions built the middle class in this country. I have not seen him out and about saying much on unions right now.

He also said that we were losing elections because the party had turned away from its traditional constituents...

Dean said that as we crept to the right we began to lose elections.

From his book in 2004:

From his book "You Have the Power", published in fall of 2004:

Dean: "They turned their back on their core constituencies, in some cases under the guise of being "New Democrats." In fact, they relabeled their "core constituences" as "special interest groups," whose influence, they tried to tell the public, had to be avoided like the plague."

He refers to this quote from Time Magazine in 1995 in which Al From told Time that "a long-term majority will never be created around the interests represented by Jesse (Jackson) and the labor unions".

Dean further states that "the real problem, of course, is that Jesse Jackson and the labor unions form the core of the people who traditionally have elected Democrats. It is not an accident that members of labor unions and African-American voters became less interested in the Democratic Party as we crept to the right......we began to lose elections up and down the ballot with increasing regularity." END SNIP

Well, I am not seeing any major Democrats speaking out strongly in support of the Wisconsin public employees and teachers. Some have expressed as George Lakoff puts it..."tepid support."

From Alternet yesterday:

The Dems' Tepid Approach to What's at Stake in Wisc. Is Helping Conservatives Destroy Unions, Defund the Democratic Party and Take over the Country

The Wisconsin protests are about much more than budgets and unions. As I observed in What the Right-wing Assault on Women, Unions, the Environment, Health Care and PBS Is All About, the conservative story about budget deficits is a ruse to turn the country conservative in every area. Karl Rove and Shep Smith have made it clear on Fox: If the Wisconsin plan to kill the public employees’ unions succeeds, then there will be little union money in the future to support democratic candidates. Conservatives will be effectively unopposed in raising campaign funding in most elections, including the presidential elections. This will mean a thoroughly conservative America in every issue area.

The media, with few exceptions, is failing to get at the deeper issues.

.."The media — and the Democrats — also need to do a much better job on a sneaky conservative media strategy. The clearest example occurred in the NY Times. David Brooks, in his Feb. 21, 2011 column wrote: “Private sector unions push against the interests of shareholders and management; public sector unions push against the interests of taxpayers.” I turned on CNN that day and heard Anderson Cooper introduce the Wisconsin protest story as a battle between taxpayers and unions. These are massive distortions, but they are what conservatives want the public to believe.

The real issue is whether conservatives will get what they really want: the ability to turn the country conservative on every issue, legally and permanently. Eliminating the public sector unions could achieve that. Collective bargaining rights are the immediate issue, but they are symbolic of the real issue at stake. That is the story the media should be telling — and that Democrats everywhere in America should be shouting out loud.

Like the women's rights issues in which the messaging of the Catholic Bishops won...they met with Pelosi just before the vote on the health care bill.

Like the tax breaks for the rich. Right wing messaging won that also. The rich got a real deal there, and they hardly had to put up a fight. The cuts to Social Security began when the payroll taxes were cut by 2%...because the GOP will never let them be raised again.

Like the teachers having to fight so hard with no party truly standing with them.

I don't expect President Obama to physically put on his shoes and go walking. I do expect him and other Democratic leaders to take a much firmer and louder stand.
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This Is About More Than Colective Barganing Rights

Not that the bargaining rights aren't important.

They are.

They're very important.

But this has become about more than just that. It's about the right of people to run their own country and to not have to be servile to those who won the birth lottery.

It's about making people who were born into wealth understand that they should have no more power politically than any one of us. And it's about taking that power away if they refuse that understanding.

The kind of "freedom" the Koch's are fighting for is not freedom for you and I. What they are fighting for is the least possible government interference in the dealings of large businesses. That may sound good in principle to some people. The problem is what it leads too.

Without anti-trust laws you end up with single parties controlling multiple industries. And controlling whatever parts of our lives depend on those industries. That is not freedom for us.

Without estate taxes you end up with dynasties stretching over generations and controlling more and more wealth and power. Power over the little guy. That is not freedom for us.

Without safety nets we all end up at the mercy of raw capitalism, where we can suddenly find ourselves with no income through no fault of our own. That is not freedom for us.

Without health care we can end up at the mercy of diseases that are no fault of our own. Diseases which will either kill us or bankrupt us. That is not freedom for us.

Without pollution laws you end up with the destruction of our lands and the pollution of our air and water. The fouling of things that at one time were pure and free for everyone. That is not freedom for us.

Without campaign finance laws you end up with the few ruling over the many. That is not freedom for us.

Without unions you have no protection from capricious firings and unsafe, unbearable working conditions. That is not freedom for us.

The freedom that people like the Kochs want is the freedom for themselves to become royalty in America. The freedom to tell the rest of us the way it will be.

THAT IS NOT FREEDOM FOR US!!!

Posted by drm604 in General Discussion
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Hey America - YOUAsked For It and You Got It

So a majority of voters (not D's/Progressives) voted for Republicans last fall thinking they were voting for "jobs" and "reform" and "fiscal responsibility" and they got right wing insanity instead. (Or people "voted" for it by default by being foolish and staying home in some ridiculous funk saying Dems weren't "progressive" enough so they had to "punish" them, only it is those who refused to vote who are getting punished.)

Hm, let's see what Americans got nationally and across the country at the state level as a result of this last election:

1) a push for PERMANENT NEEDLESS AND RECKLESS tax cuts for the rich and super rich
2) no more PBS
3) no more Planned Parenhood
4) no more National Endowments For The Arts or Humanities
5) no more healthcare
6) no more workers rights
7) no more environmental laws
8) hate of anyone not ultra right and ultra white
9) massive cuts in education at all levels
10) guns on college campuses
11) no more publicly-financed clean elections
12) re-defining rape to kill reproductive healthcare benefits
13) refusal to accept funds for high speed rail and other job-creating advancements
14) NO PROACTIVE JOBS-OF-THE-FUTURE INVESTMENT STRATEGY - JUST MORE PRO-RICH TRICKLE DOWN
15) an all-out attack on women's reproductive healthcare and rights

and on and on and on

The one silver lining is that this radical right wing agenda is finally waking up many "progressives" and getting them out of their funk and putting on some balls and taking to the streets. Hopefully this will continue and grow, and come this year and 2012 they will be out there smashing down these radical TeaPublican policies on the streets, in the halls of government, and most importantly at the VOTING BOOTH. It does need to be said that it is too bad that all this recent activism didn't happen last November instead of allowing the TeaPuke right to have a wave election and then start doing things to destroy the country in order to wake people up, but ok, now we go forward.

Radical TeaPublicanism is here BIGTIME, and now the moderate to progressive SANE majority needs to decide once again if they want to return to the 1700's or move forward in this new century with a cleaner environment and a fairer and more advanced civilization which is what we have always done, generation to generation. This country is headed in REVERSE bigtime, just as the President said would happen if these TeaRadicals got in. Well, now they're in. How do you like it? Had enough yet? If so, what are you going to do about it? Me? Right now I'm working like hell to help elect a Democrat in a March 1st state House of Reps special election. This summer I'm going to work with other Dems to put together a new regional Young Democrats organization and, in other ways as well, work to build our local Dems volunteer base in preparation for 2012. There's a start.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x616384
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What IS Democracy?

Democracy is a form of political organization in which all people, through consensus, direct referendum, or elected representatives exercise equal control over the matters which affect their interest.

Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of 'democracy', equality and freedom have been identified as important characteristics of democracy since ancient times. These principles are reflected in all citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to power. For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has equal weight, no restrictions can apply to anyone wanting to become a representative, and the freedom of its citizens is secured by legitimized rights and liberties which are generally protected by a constitution.

This description supposedly characterizes the United States, and its citizens are continuously led to believe that that is the case. But there are two major and related respects in which the US currently abysmally fails to live up to this description. Although it is true that the good majority of US citizens have the right to vote for their representatives, it is absolutely NOT true that they all “exercise equal control over the matters which affect their interests”. That is because a great many of the representatives whom we elect represent the interests of those who give them money much moreso than they represent the interests of the vast majority of their constituents. In a country characterized by vast disparities in the wealth of its citizens, that means that a wealthy minority exercise vastly greater “control over the matters which affect their interests” than do ordinary people.

Those who believe our current government to be legitimate would counter that assertion by asking, “Then why not elect representatives who serve our interests? Almost all of us have the right to vote? What stops us from using that right to throw out those representatives who support the interests of a wealthy minority, and replace them with those who serve our own interests?”

What prevents us from doing that is that the wealthy have a tremendous amount of control over public communications in our country. They use their wealth to buy control of the “public” airways, which our government allows by granting them licenses to do so. They then use that control to shower praise on those who do their bidding, marginalize or destroy those who threaten their interests, and confuse American citizens as to where their interests lie. In short, they use the power of propaganda to keep most of us in great ignorance as to where our interests lie. And they disguise their propaganda as news.

Some would counter this by asking, “Then doesn’t the fault lie with the mass of citizens who allow themselves to be fooled?” Yes, to a certain extent it does. But that does not negate the fact that our whole system of government is in desperate need of reform. When enough Americans recognize that, they will demand that reform.

One thing that we must keep in mind when considering our current problems is that they are not new. They were greatly exacerbated by eight years of Bush administration misrule, but they did not start with Bush and Cheney. The citizens of America have bee duped FAR too long and have been giving up their power AS CITIZENS to the corporate interests that are trying to control the world.

All but the most naïve of the American citizenry know that the wealthy and powerful in our country routinely influence our local and national elections through huge campaign contributions. And they also know that they are generally well rewarded for their “contributions”. And they also know that bribery is presumably against the law in our country. Yet, on the rare occasion that our politicians are actually accused of bribery, our news media makes a great big deal over it, as if bribery is actually a rare event in American politics.

The end result is that a great many of our politicians do everything they can to make their wealthiest constituents happy with them, at the expense of everyone else. They do that with the knowledge that the voters they lose in doing so will be more than compensated for by the disinformation that will be paid for by their wealthiest constituents.

There are a few dots to connect here, but any reasonable assessment of American politics tells us that bribery is routinely used to buy and sell elections in our country. So routine is it that it is actually built into our system and legalized. But that fact is never overtly spoken of. To do so would imply that our system of government is as much or more an aristocracy than it is a democracy. 

The root of the whole problem is that in our so-called “democracy”, individuals and corporations have the legal right to contribute money to political campaigns. Perhaps that fact sounds benign to some people. But when the ability of powerful corporations to contribute to political campaigns is virtually unlimited, then what we refer to as “contributions” are actually bribes – in every sense of the word. They are accurately referred to as bribes because our elected officials rely on those campaign contributions to get elected and to remain in office. Therefore, a great many of them simply sell themselves out to the highest bidder. Ordinary people don’t stand a chance.

“Money bundling” is the process whereby a single person, typically the CEO, owner, or other high level personage of a powerful corporation, collects money from hundreds of individuals and hands it over to a political candidate as a “campaign contribution”.

Although the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (better known as the McCain-Feingold Act) among other things established inflation-adjusted individual contribution limits for political campaigns, corporations use a loophole called “money bundling” to get around those limits. By this means, corporate officials collect huge donations, running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and present the whole bundle to a political candidate. The political candidate doesn’t much care about the original source of the money. All he knows is that the corporation gave him the money. Since the corporation gave him the money, he owes a favor to that corporation. The ultimate effect can be as if there were no limit whatsoever on individual contributions.

There is no substantive difference between this process and bribery of an elected official. There is no need for a written or verbal agreement. It is simply understood that large campaign contributions will be repaid with favors by the office holder. What place does such a process have in a “democracy”?

Wake up people!

A government is an oligarchy, not a democracy, when elected officials can be legally bought and sold.
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The republicunt Strategy

by Robert Reich Fmr. Secretary of Labor


The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class -- pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don't believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.

By splitting working America along these lines, Republicans want Americans to believe that we can no longer afford to do what we need to do as a nation. They hope to deflect attention from the increasing share of total income and wealth going to the richest 1 percent while the jobs and wages of everyone else languish.

Republicans would rather no one notice their campaign to shrink the pie even further with additional tax cuts for the rich -- making the Bush tax cuts permanent, further reducing the estate tax, and allowing the wealthy to shift ever more of their income into capital gains taxed at 15 percent.
The strategy has three parts.

The Battle Over the Federal Budget
The first is being played out in the budget battle in Washington. As they raise the alarm over deficit spending and simultaneously squeeze popular middle-class programs, Republicans want the majority of the American public to view it all as a giant zero-sum game among average Americans that some will have to lose.

The president has already fallen into the trap by calling for budget cuts in programs the poor and working class depend on -- assistance with home heating, community services, college loans, and the like.

In the coming showdown over Medicare and Social Security, House budget chair Paul Ryan will push a voucher system for Medicare and a partly-privatized plan for Social Security -- both designed to attract younger middle-class voters.

The Assault on Public Employees
The second part of the Republican strategy is being played out on the state level where public employees are being blamed for state budget crises. Unions didn't cause these budget crises -- state revenues dropped because of the Great Recession -- but Republicans view them as opportunities to gut public employee unions, starting with teachers.

Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker and his GOP legislature are seeking to end almost all union rights for teachers. Ohio's Republican governor John Kasich is pushing a similar plan in Ohio through a Republican-dominated legislature. New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie is attempting the same, telling a conservative conference Wednesday, "I'm attacking the leadership of the union because they're greedy, and they're selfish and they're self-interested."

The demonizing of public employees is not only based on the lie that they've caused these budget crises, but it's also premised on a second lie: that public employees earn more than private-sector workers. They don't, when you take account of their education. In fact over the last fifteen years the pay of public-sector workers, including teachers, has dropped relative to private-sector employees with the same level of education -- even including health and retirement benefits. Moreover, most public employees don't have generous pensions. After a career with annual pay averaging less than $45,000, the typical newly-retired public employee receives a pension of $19,000 a year.
Bargaining rights for public employees haven't caused state deficits to explode.

Some states that deny their employees bargaining rights, such as Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona, are running big deficits of over 30 percent of spending. Many states that give employees bargaining rights -- Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Montana -- have small deficits of less than 10 percent.
Republicans would rather go after teachers and other public employees than have us look at the pay of Wall Street traders, private-equity managers, and heads of hedge funds -- many of whom wouldn't have their jobs today were it not for the giant taxpayer-supported bailout, and most of whose lending and investing practices were the proximate cause of the Great Depression to begin with.

Last year, America's top thirteen hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion each. One of them took home $5 billion. Much of their income is taxed as capital gains -- at 15 percent -- due to a tax loophole that Republican members of Congress have steadfastly guarded.

If the earnings of those thirteen hedge-fund managers were taxed as ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers. Who is more valuable to our society -- thirteen hedge-fund managers or 300,000 teachers? Let's make the question even simpler. Who is more valuable: One hedge fund manager or one teacher?

The Distortion of the Constitution
The third part of the Republican strategy is being played out in the Supreme Court. It has politicized the Court more than at any time in recent memory.

Last year a majority of the justices determined that corporations have a right under the First Amendment to provide unlimited amounts of money to political candidates. Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission is among the most patently political and legally grotesque decisions of our highest court -- ranking right up there with Bush vs. Gore and Dred Scott.

Among those who voted in the affirmative were Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Both have become active strategists in the Republican party.

A month ago, for example, Antonin Scalia met in a closed-door session with Michele Bachmann's Tea Party caucus -- something no justice concerned about maintaining the appearance of impartiality would ever have done.

Both Thomas and Scalia have participated in political retreats organized and hosted by multi-billionaire financier Charles Koch, a major contributor to the Tea Party and other conservative organizations, and a crusader for ending all limits on money in politics. (Not incidentally, Thomas's wife is the founder of Liberty Central, a Tea Party organization that has been receiving unlimited corporate contributions due to the Citizens United decision. On his obligatory financial disclosure filings, Thomas has repeatedly failed to list her sources of income over the last twenty years, nor even to include his own four-day retreats courtesy of Charles Koch.)

Some time this year or next, the Supreme Court will be asked to consider whether the nation's new health care law is constitutional. Watch your wallets.

The Strategy as a Whole
These three aspects of the Republican strategy -- a federal budget battle to shrink government, focused on programs the vast middle class depends on; state efforts to undermine public employees, whom the middle class depends on; and a Supreme Court dedicated to bending the Constitution to enlarge and entrench the political power of the wealthy -- fit perfectly together.

They pit average working Americans against one another, distract attention from the almost unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the top, and conceal Republican plans to further enlarge and entrench that wealth and power.

What is the Democratic strategy to counter this and reclaim America for the rest of us?

Correction: An earlier version of this post erroneously stated that the revenues generated from the top 13 hedge-fund managers would pay the salaries and benefits of 5 million teachers. This typo has been corrected in the post.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
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A CALL TO ACTION!!! - PLEASE RESPOND

We all have those crazy family members who feel it’s their duty to forward on every single ridiculous piece of political garbage that hits their inbox to everybody on their mailing list.

Unfortunately every time we see another email from some "friend" you cant stand,  it’s a 50/50 chance it’s either a rundown of how their day went with pictures you can give less than a shit about  or some terrible forwarded chain letter that usually describes Obama as a baby eating Nazi Muslim who will put granny in a death camp while swallowing your soul. Many of us probably even set up their computer enabling this and a good chunk wish we could go back and maybe write them hand written letters some more so they wouldn’t feel they had to get the internet in order to keep track of the family.


Oh well, damage done.

This thread is going to serve two purposes:

A. A repository of all the crazy we get emailed so we can laugh at them.
B. A place for you to write out thoughtful “canned” responses to mail back so maybe, just maybe, some of them can be reached with logic and reason.

Oh well at least we can still have some laughs.

~How this works~

If you receive an email from granny that is one of your typical lunatic fw:fw:FW:You won't believe this but it's true!!! style emails we want you to post them in this thread by submitting a comment. We'll all have a good laugh at them but more importantly some of you will write out a reasoned cited response which we will then link in the OP. People will inevitably get the same email since these go around in cycles and you'll then have a ready response for when you inevitably get the same one in your email.
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WAKE THE FUCK UP AMERICA!!!!!

As the Obama administration gets ready to unveil its budget on Monday, it appears that the president – like Republicans – will be calling for cuts to programs that are popular.

According to supporters of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), President Obama will propose cutting in half the budget for the program, which helps people pay their heating and cooling bills. This calendar year, some 8.9 million people are expected to ask for help with their utility bills, at a cost of $5.1 billion.

Funding for LIHEAP is not likely to be the only discretionary spending pared by the administration. There are also reports that the Obama administration will propose sharp budgets cuts in community-action programs, which fund such things such as Head Start, as well as community block grants, which are federal monies that can be used for almost anything a locality needs...

“People will be horrified at the scale of the cuts the House is considering, if they are implemented,” says Elizabeth Lower-Basch, senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, a Washington group that works to help the poor. “What we are hearing is that the cuts will be for the most vulnerable.” http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0210/Among-O... 

At the same time we hear of these cuts w see AIG is gtting another $2 BILLION bailout.

What will it take for Americans to take to the streets in an Egyptian -like protest? 

We've watched our politicians hand the country over to their corporate masters for thirty years, even at the expense of the planet itself.

Following the lead of our party, Democrats rolled over when the Supreme Court installed W in the White House - and when the same body made the corporate take-over official with its Citizens United decision, the nation snoozed.

Now both parties seem ready to feign balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class while the torturers hawk books, the banksters continue the habits that brought our economy down, and the military industrial complex insures that more and more people "hate us for our freedoms."

Really, wtf will it take?

I no longer believe that the change we need will come through the Democratic party since they seem to be republicans of a different name - but if the country ever wakes up enough to take to the streets, I'm in.
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If We Dont Act NOW We Will Be Doomed

The loss of the rule of law

During the Bush Presidency I often argued that he should be impeached for his many crimes. Now that he can no longer be impeached, I have argued that our Justice Department should prosecute him for those crimes, and if it fails to do so then the International Criminal Court (ICC) should step in.

While Bush was still President, President Obama weighed in against impeachment, saying that impeachment should be reserved for only the most serious crimes. Now that he is President he has thus far given little or no indication that he intends to have his Justice Department prosecute George Bush or any other high level Bush administration official for their crimes. But if widespread torture, an illegal war of aggression, spying on American citizens, suspending of the right of habeas corpus, and numerous other violations of our Constitution don’t constitute serious crimes, then what does?

What would people say if a prosecuting attorney failed to prosecute a rapist and murderer simply because he had high level political connections? Who would accept that? Then why when far more serious crimes are committed by a President of the United States are there so many people who seem to think that it is ok to sit passively by and make no attempt to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes?

I’ll tell you why. It’s like I said earlier in this post. Saying that a former U.S. President might be guilty of prosecutable crimes is simply against the rules of the GAME. Given that and the failure to hold the Reagan administration accountable for its Iran-Contra crimes, George Bush and Dick Cheney connected the dots and thought that they might be able to get away with just about anything. Testing that assumption by moving ahead with prosecutions might be politically risky for the Obama administration. The Republican Party would no doubt raise holy hell if there was an attempt to prosecute high level Bush administration officials.

Consequently, we live in country in which, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, certain people are indeed above the law. That fact, taken together with all of the impediments to democracy discussed in the first part of this post, means that democracy and the rule of law in our country are in grave danger. Indeed, some believe that we narrowly averted a military coup perpetrated by the Bush administration.

The American people and their leaders need to reassess what our country stands for. Is our democracy important enough to take steps to remove the role of money in politics, reform our election system, break up the corporate monopoly on our news media, require government actions to be much more transparent than they now are, and dare to look more objectively at who we are and what we do? Can we give up imperialism and warfare for the sake a world in which nations live and work together to further the cause of peace and justice? Can we make our nation one in which all of its citizens truly have the opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? And do our laws apply to all people, not just to those who lack the political influence to avoid them?

If we think that these things are important we have a great deal of work to do, lest our country sinks into a tyranny from which it may never recover.
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The Illusion Of Democracy

Are presidential elections rigged?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x371745

I'm really leaning toward the idea that they are.

It's certainly not an impossibility. Most people vote on some sort of electronic voting machine, many of which aren't even capable of being audited. The votes go up into "thin air."

In my own sorry state of Alabama, we use "optical scan voting," which, on the surface, seems a little bit better. There are physical ballots that can be examined, if the occasion arises. When did the last occasion arise?

It's interesting to note that Alabama went from solid Democratic, to solid Republic at the same time votes began to be collected electronically.

The Republicans come in and rob the country, wreaking havoc with wild tax giveaways and corporate welfare to the warmongers, then a Democrat comes in, supposedly, to try to solve the fiscal mess, promising some "HOPE AND CHANGE," for which they are vilified as "tax-and-spend" liberals, whether they raise taxes or not.

It almost seems like the Democrats are just another wing of the corporate party, playing the hapless stooge.

Clinton did a few good things. But he also did a lot of bad things. He carried out the corporatist mission of destroying any semblance of an American welfare state... to use blunt, frank language.

And Clinton moved the American political center decidedly to the right.

And I see Obama doing the very same thing. I think the whole system is poisoned.

I was elated when Obama won in 2008. I was walking on air. I thought things were finally going to change.

Alas, I was wrong.

It's just more of the same. The rich taking from the poor. And the continuing consolidation of wealth into the velvety hand of fewer and fewer patrons, that control the machinery with which we vote.

The only things that matter are your connections... where you went school... what fraternity you were in... forget sororities for now.

We are ruled by an oligarchy now, and that ain't gonna change anytime soon. Unless we see some serious action in the streets, and I don't envision that happening in my lifetime.

21st century Americans are a lazy bunch.
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WHY is the USA BANKRUPT?

You think the war in Iraq  was costing us too much?  Read this

1. 
$11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.

Verify 
at: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters7fd8 <http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters7fd8> 


2. 
$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

Verify 
at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML <http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML> 


3.
$2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.  

Verify at:  
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML <http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML> 


4. 
$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!

Verify 
at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt..0.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt..0.HTML> 


5. 
$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.

Verify 
at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML> 


6. 
$3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.  

Verify at:  
http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML> 
http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML><http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML> >  



7. 
30% percent  of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.


Verify 
at: http://transcripts.CNN.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML> 
<http://transcripts/ <http://transcripts/%3E; .... <;; 



8. 
$90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American  taxpayers.


Verify 
at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.HTML <http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.HTML> 


9.  
$200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by 
the illegal aliens.


Verify 
at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSC RI  PTS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSC%20RI%20PTS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML> 



10. 
The illegal  aliens in the United States  have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens.  In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US . 


Verify
at: http://transcripts.cnn./.com/TRANscriptS/0606/12/ldt..01.HTML <http://transcripts.cnn/.com/TRANscriptS/0606/12/ldt..01....HTML%3E; 
<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0606/12/ldt..01.HTML%3E;%C2%A0 <;



11. 
During the  year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens 
from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of  drugs, cocaine, meth, 
heroin and marijuana, crossed into the  US   from the Southern  border.


Verify 
at: Homeland Security  Report:


12. 
The National policy Institute estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annuallyover a five year period.


Verify 
at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute./.org/PDF/deportation.PDF <http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute/.org/PDF/deportation...PDF%3E; 


13. 
In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.


Verify 
at: http://www/. <http://www/..rense.com/general75/niht.htm> rense.com/general75/niht.htm <http://www/..rense.com/general75/niht.htm> 
<http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm%3E;%C2%A0 <;


14.  
The  Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes are committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United  States . 

Verify 
at:  
http: // www.drdsk.com/articleshtml <http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml> 
<http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml%3E;%C3%82%C2%A0 <% 20w.drdsk.com/articleshtml <http://20w.drdsk.com/articleshtml> 
<   
<


The total cost is a whopping  <
$ 338.3 BILLION  DOLLARS A YEAR AND IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY; IT IS  $338,300,000,000.00 WHICH WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THIS  COUNTRY. 

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