Founding Fathers, Founding Villains

This review is long and dense, and an excellent, informative, thought-provoking read.

I'll "Get Over It" When We Bring Back All The Dead In Iraq

I'm kind of obsessed with the 2000 election. I'm also kind of obsessed with what a humongous asshole Antonin Scalia is. I'm also amazed at how, in just 12 years, the history has been re-written, and not just by right-wing cranks.

Also, too, fuck Ralph Nader.

Monks Were Weird Dudes

At least the ones who drew these.

It Just Gets Worse

How he won't go down as one of the 3 worst Presidents this country has ever had is a mystery to me. I don't reflexively blame Bush for everything, because, well, I'm not an idiot, but this is pretty damning.

The "Self-Made" Myth

[via G&T comment section]

This looks like an interesting read. The ignorance of history and lack of common sense needed to believe the myth that America's wealthy are the product solely of their own hard work is staggering. Fair arguments can be made about the optimal extent of government involvement in the market, but the die-hard Randian types are stunningly, glaring wrong. Of course government can needlessly constrain individual achievement, and of course it can make unwise policy choices. But the harm to our society from the efforts that go too far the other way, that is, to limit regulation and and "let loose the power of the market," seems, to me, to be vastly more detrimental.

This Day In History: April 20

I submit, without any hyperbole, that this is where the anti-union radicals are steering this county:

On April 20, 1914, members of the Colorado National Guard, along with a strikbreaking militia employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, a corporation owned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., opened fire on a tent camp of strikers at Ludlow, in the coal country of southern Colorado, north of Trinidad. At least 19 people died in the tent camp that day, mostly wives and children of the strikers.

History repeats, and we're foolish to deny that fact.

First Presidential Speech Filmed With Sound

And THIS is what Calvin Coolidge did with it. Not exactly "media savvy," eh?

Low-Hanging Fruit For Misanthropes

This is horrible.

When Freedom Isn't Freedom

Must-read article about why the myth of American freedom is just that.

Tea Party - You Keep Using That Word. I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means

From ThinkProgress:

Top 5 Reasons Why The Occupy Wall Street Protests Embody Values Of The Real Boston Tea Party

What We Say And What We Do - A Study In Incongruity

In the linked article by Noam Chomsky, the following quote appears: "The U.S. and its Western allies are sure to do whatever they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world." It seems that events have shown this to be tragically prescient.

The U.S. government has taken few, if any, steps towards supporting actual democracy in the Arab world. Aside from the obvious, such as continuing support for dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, we see a failure to support a democratic government in Egypt (the military still runs that country). We chose the Saudi dictators over the people of Bahrain, and turned a blind eye the Saudi intervention against the Bahraini people. We continue to thwart Palestinian self-determination, under the guise of being a neutral arbiter of the conflict. As to that last link, I have to note that Obama's statement that “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now” is absolutely rich, in light of innumerable U.S. vetoes of Security Counsel resolutions against Israel (one example here). When one consistently throws a wrench into a machine, it quite something to make speeches about the ineffectual nature of the machine you've routinely sabotaged.

I think the reason for this American inaction (or action) is quite simple. Democracy means self-determination. And the United States government, despite all the rhetoric about wanting "freedom," has no interest in allowing certain people the right to make choices about their own government for themselves. Examples abound, too may to link here. While one can fairly argue that the U.S. ought to advance what it perceives as its interests, around the world, I suggest doing so in a nakedly hypocritical way undermines our credibility.

Link below the fold.

Boom. Roasted.

[via Instaputz]

To all you rabid anti-government types:

It is the refuge of a scoundrel to pretend to hate government, and further, to lie about the role that the American government — the richest and most powerful force for good in the long story of humanity — has played in the creation of the most profound economic engine ever, the America middle class. Notions of American greatness are inextricably intertwined with the American government, and anyone who claims that the government has only been an impediment to American progress is a liar, a fool, a rank opportunist, or a combination of the three. That GI Bill didn't create itself. That Interstate Highway System didn't build itself. Those astronauts didn't send themselves to the moon. Your grandmamma and them didn't get electricity in their farmhouse on their own initiative. Small business didn't create a vast system of free public education, because an educated population makes for good workers and consumers. That was the government. The miracle of the free market didn't end slavery, or solve the pernicious problem that followed of grotesquely institutionalized racism. Nor did the free market end child labor, and decide that food and worker safety were critical values to a civilized society, and essential to a civilized standard of living. That was the government, too. 

I (and the millions we've killed or enslaved) am not so sure about the "force for good" thing, but this is otherwise spot on.

A Little Homework Assignment

Let me start by saying I do not advocate a 90%, or even 70% top marginal rate. Now, I will repeat myself: I do not advocate a 90%, or even 70% top marginal rate. Now, I will put it another way: Top rate of 70% or more? No!

Winning

Sorry to give in to the Charlie Sheen thing but I had to.

From this site, here's a partial list of what we as a nation have done since 9/11 [emphasis mine]:

(A)Historical Tidbit Of The Day

The First Amendment doesn't apply to Muslims cuz there weren't none in America when Jesus wrote it.

Myth Busting: The Good Old Days

The spin and lie machine that is employed to keep you ignorant and complacent would have you believe that  this country had an economic "Golden Age" in the 1950s, and that the last 40 years have seen the decline of economic growth. The machine will tell you any number of lies about why that is, such as the social unrest of the 60s, the Unions, and a long list of inevitabilities that you cannot do anything about, so just relax and take it. Not so. The relative stagnation of the bottom 90% of income earners is no accident, and it isn't inevitable (except to the extent that we continue to choose to remain ignorant and helpless).

Over at Lawyers, Guns & Money, Paul Campos has this informative post about the facts of economic growth in this country since WWII, and the facts about who has gained from that growth.

I'll give you a hint: It isn't the Teachers' Unions.

Tom Tomorrow Is Awesome

A history lesson from the Tea Party

A New Assault In The War On Labor, Wisconsin Front [Updated Twice]

[Update #2: Politifact has checked the claim that Gov. Walker created the budget problem, and that there was a surplus, which I repeated belwo (see highlights). Not so.
[Update #1: The right-wing Club For Growth has run a deceptive ad calling for public employees to "sacrifice." Fact-check here. The forces of anti-labor are strong, indeed. (Bonus idiocy, their website has climate-change denial on it).]

It is my considered opinion that the Republican claims to care about fiscal responsibility are, at least in large part, based not on budget concerns, but on a fundamental antipathy to the modern welfare state. Analysis of almost any issue concerning balanced budgets will show that the Republican position, in full, is obviously not designed to promote fiscal responsibility or balance. It is designed to provide a pretext for the destruction of social programs and institutions that their ideology opposes. This topic has been written about extensively at several of the blogs on the links page here.

Newly-elected Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has provided one of the most stark examples of this deceitful propaganda by proposing to eliminate collective bargaining rights for 175,000 state employees. He also wants state employees to pay half the cost of their pensions and at least 12.6% of their health care premiums. Story linked here. Another story here. In essence, he wants to override an agreed-upon contractual obligation of the state, and then eliminate the right of workers to collectively bargain ever again for such terms.

Lazy Sunday Blogging [Updated Once]

St. Ronnie Raygun's 100th Anniversary. It's too overwhelming a task for me to begin to take this one on, so I'm outsourcing to TruthOut. Be sure to read the links in this article to get the flavor (Warning: Very Bitter) of what this twisted monstrosity of a man did to this country. It boggles the mind how much theft and criminality his administration was able to pull off. The Bush That Ate America grew from the seeds of Reagan. Rot in hell, Ronnie.

[UPDATE:] More on the moron here.

English Is Not Our Offical (sic) Language

We don't have an "official" language. In case anyone cares, about 9% of Americans don't speak English. I don't know if that includes people like this:

Being from California, and being a BIG fan of the contributions of immigrants, I have no tolerance for nativist crap. "Oh noes, their (sic) coming to take over my country" won't fly with me. Does anybody think the huddled masses from Europe arrived speaking English? Or that at least 9% didn't speak it at any given time?

Morans.