I just love these right-wing bloggers...

www.thewideawakes.org

Wow! What a great website. It is like this guy is reading my very thoughts. NOT! I just love the way right-wingers just regurgitate the party line. The more they put Liberals down, the better they feel about themselves. I am also always amazed by the black-white way they look at the world.

Of course, I must admit that I agree with some of what the blogger writes about Hezbollah and terrorism. Hezbollah has been much more of a threat to the U.S. for many years than, oh say, IRAQ! The ties between Hezbollah (Shiite) and Iran should also be an indication of what the U.S. still has to face in Iraq with the existing and growing Shiite militias (the best example of this is the Sadr militia outside of Baghdad).

The other thing that strikes me is the way the right cites liberal and progressive thinkers to support their positions. Take, for example, the blogger's citation of JFK's position on reduced taxes. What the right forgets is that JFK followed a Keynesian model of government economics -- when the economy is strong, the government should tax heavily to increase revenue; when the economy is weak, the government should cut taxes and spend the saved revenue to help invigorate the economy. The right chooses to cut taxes, which cuts revenues, and continue to spend at the same levels. The right forgets that CLINTON is also a Keynesian! Bush, et al, is NOT.

The other example I would note is the "Eternal Vigilance Society." They quote Jefferson, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance," but they fail to understand that Jefferson was referring to the importance of being vigilant in the preservation of civil liberties. Jefferson believed that above all else, the government's responsibility was in protecting and defending the Bill of Rights. Obviously something that this administration has trampled all over!

Quote of the Day

"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." --Sir Francis Bacon

Do we not all do this? When we read a book, or listen to a lecture, we appreciate those things that we feel most strongly represents the truth of the world. We first determine what we feel should be true, and then we determine what are beliefs are to be. Often, when we go to our sacred texts, we look for those passages that will support the things we already believe to be the truth. We tend to agree with others who already share our sense of truth because we feel they most closely reflect our own beliefs.

BUSHISM of the day

"Obviously, the violence in Baghdad is still terrible, and therefore there needs to be more troops." --President Bush, NYTimes, 26 July 2006

Okay, Dubya. Here's my question for you: where was this sentiment in 2003 when most of the brass at the Pentagon, Tommy Franks, Colin Powell, and Richard Armitage were saying publicly that in order to invade and successfully control Iraq there would need to be AT LEAST 250, 000 troops on the ground? In fact, most of the experts were saying we would need closer to 350,000. Where were you when your SecDef was arguing the experts down to 125,000? Why did you not speak up then to say that we would need more troops to successfully control Iraq, to prevent looting, to keep the electrical grid up, and to stave off the inevitable insurgent attacks by disgruntled Sunni Baathists? Looks like another Bush flip-flop. Where were your big ideas when this country really needed them?

Stop letting Rumsfeld and Cheney run the country. Step up and fulfill your duties as President. Listen to those who have been there -- like your own FATHER! Like your former SecState, Colin Powell, whom you essentially ran off the job because Rumsfeld and Cheney told you to. You are a sad excuse for President of the United States.

An interesting little tidbit from 'News of the Weird' by Chuck Shepherd

General Motors executives, trying to explain the dwindling stock market value of the company, have repeatedly complained of oppressive pension benefits owed under United Auto Workers contracts; however, according to a June Wall Street Journal investigation, GM's fund for worker pensions is "overstuffed with cash," while its fund for executive pensions is $1.4 billion in the red and getting worse. [Reuters, 6-22-06] [Wall Street Journal, 6-23-06]

Under the subheading 'Chutzpah!', Mr. Shepherd placed the above quotation. My reactions to this short paragraph are two-fold. First, does this really qualify as news of the weird? And, second, does this really surprise anybody who really understands how modern corporate economic policy works in this country today?


Should we classify information like this as weird news, or should this little blurb actually go on the front page of the newspaper? I find it ironic that the modern corporate world wants to blame their troubles on the working class, who earn 1/300 of the average CEO salary, while ignoring the complicity of Boards in escalating CEO salaries to an unmanageable level. Haven't we been hearing about this escalating problem for several years now? Shouldn't one of these corporate boards at some point ask itself why a high-profile CEO (who is not responsible for producing any of the corporation's goods or services) make an average salary that is 300 times the salary of the average worker (who IS responsible for producing the corporation's goods and services)?

The Republican party wants to argue that Americans as a whole have become dependent on the entitlement programs provided by the federal government. When liberals argue, however, that corporate America has become dependent on the government largesse for tax breaks, institutionalized subsidies, and other forms of corporate welfare we are derided for failing to understand the importance of propping up these huge salaries for CEOs.

Perhaps it is time for corporate America to police its own actions in paying out these huge sums of money to individuals who, with a few exceptions, have largely failed to uphold their promises of fat profits and smaller production costs. When a baseball team signs a free agent for a large sum of money, they generally expect that player to continue to be successful on the field. It seems that corporate boards, however, pay large sums of money to CEOs who have not previously performed up to expectations. What has so greatly influenced these boards to fail in their feduciary duty to the company, and to the American ideal of SUCCESS bringing great rewards?

Thoughts On The Republican Dream: A Poem

your american dream?

ten thousand dead
people unfed

mothers crying
children dying

save the unborn
forget the new born

OH, and keep those gays from getting married

HATE -- BIGOTRY -- CLASS WARFARE

we gotta get rich
i love that coulter bitch

morality only has two issues
just give those poor folks a box of tissues

why can't everyone be like me
living off of daddy's money

i don't really have to work
but watch me fuck these minimum-wage clerks

i want my aristocracy
why don't we try theocracy?

if you idiots would just listen to me
the whole world would be more free

your american dream?

Paranoia

Do you think it is crazy for me to think the government is eavesdropping on my phone calls? Every time I pick up my phone to make a call, before I hear a dial tone, I hear a double click. It reminds me of the sound my old analog answering machine would make as it began to record. I know what you are thinking, "Why in god's name would the government eavesdrop on me?" THAT is an excellent question. After all, why would the government eavesdrop on any citizen of the United States?

Because as long as we allow this administration to erode our civil liberties, the government can apparently do any damn thing it likes.