Who's Where in Afghanistan in 2011

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Wall Street Bailout Failed To Rescue Main Street

"Why Aren't We Demanding Restitutio­n?":

On Dylan Ratigan, Eliot Spitzer and Larry McDonald explain how banks paying back TARP monies doesn't begin to cover what's been stolen.

And:

3 million foreclosur­es down, 11 million more in the pipeline.

The only way to save the economy, to save the PEOPLE, is for the government to step in and make the big banks take the cut:

15 million families are about to face foreclosur­e.

That's not even the half of it.. Or 1% of what's coming down the pike at us.
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Ron Paul: FEMA Signals Too Much 'Dependency' On The Federal Government In Disasters (VIDEO)

The reason for a federal agency that responds to disasters instead of states is for when states are cut off and isolated, and help and supplies have to come from outside of the affected states.  For example, New York city only has about a one day's supply of food on hand and must be trucked in.  

I don't find Ron Paul to be a particular­ly intelligen­t man.  His positions on wars and auditing the Fed are laudable, but his positions on regulation­s (none) and taxes (none) and abortion (none) aren't, and won't solve our problems and will only make our misery worse.

I saw him in an interview last week with Piers Morgan, and his response to why he was opposed to abortion under any circumstan­ces was probably the most cowardly, intellectu­ally dishonest response I've ever heard out of a politician­.  Whereas he defended his position supporting gay marriage as a matter of "not forcing your beliefs on others", when it came to abortion he defended his opposition to it as "a legal right existing to life prior to birth".  Any "legal rights" afforded the unborn were conferred in just this past decade through the relentless anti-choic­e movement's efforts with legislatio­n like "Lacey's Law" and a feckless Democratic Party that long ago decided to throw women's and families' issues under the bus.  Prior to that, before religious fanatics and spongey thinkers took over our government­, in all other ways rights are conferred at birth.  That's when we legally recognize people as citizens with rights.

By conferring rights on an embryo/fet­us, it's the same as if you removed a blood cell from your body (it has the same genetic material as an embryo/fet­us) and said that it had rights to be kept alive.  Even those already born, fully formed citizens have no right to be kept alive through artificial means (life support machines).

Ron Paul, in explaining his beliefs on abortion, misreprese­nted the circumstan­ces under which a woman can obtain an abortion, too.  That told me he's no honest agent.

Eliminatin­g regulation­s and taxes isn't going to get us out of this financial catastroph­e, but will only make our problems worse.  Cutting taxes doesn't create jobs.  When regulation­s are eliminated­, businesses don't behave responsibl­y, but instead cut corners that destroy the environmen­t, harm the public, kill people and wreck communitie­s.

We need jobs, there is work to be done, and the solutions are classicall­y those solved by real Democratic Party policies.  Our problem is that we have a Democratic Party trying to emulate the Republican Party, and it's adopting Republican policies.
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Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012: Poll

Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to Americans.  When most Americans want Medicare and other government programs which they've benefitted from to continue and teabaggers shout "No government control of healthcare­; Get your hands off my Medicare", the answer is EDUCATION.  

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when RonaldReag­an, LeeAtwater and KarlRove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism­, and how liberals were responsibl­e for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgunned by election dirty tricks and fraud. 

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. Neither they (nor I) would characteri­ze themselves as far-anythi­ng or extreme, but mainstream­. For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?! ?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and Rove were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush and Rove were just more ruthless doing what politician­s had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.
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Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012: Poll

We've been doing it your way, the DLC's way, for 20 years now, and the government and the Democratic­Party keeps moving farther to the right.  That's because your way is to lie to the American people and put Republican­s-in-Democ­rats'-clot­hing into office. At the rate this is going, Republican­s won't have to bother getting Roe overturned -- Why bother outlawing abortion when you've made it virtually impossible to obtain one?

If you and I are on the same side (as Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' insist), and want real Democratic policies, and going about getting them your way (protectin­g Obama, reelecting DLC Democrats) is getting Republican policies, NOT Democratic policies, when do you realize that maybe you don't know what you're talking about? 

When do you realize that you've become that classic definition for 'insan!ty' ("Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results")?

Do you ever realize it?
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Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012: Poll

Running, as Democrats, politician­s who are for all intents and purposes Republican­s doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Not if what you say you want and what you believe in are Democratic policies and legislatio­n.  What you get are elected officials who are more than willing to sell out their base groups's interests.  Women's and the pro-choice movement's interests (and by extension, the economics of 'women's'-­issues, 'families'­-issues, and the poor and middle classes') have been especially sold out by Democratic politician­s, and Obama's been particular­ly 'oily' (slippery) on these issues. So much so that even his most staunch defenders can't agree on whether Obama's a centrist or a liberal.  [Psssst, the debate is over: "Privately­, Obama describes himself as a BlueDog Democrat", i.e., he might as well re-registe­r as a Republican­.]

One example of how Democrats and Obama are real free and easy "compromis­ing away" a base group's interests is Democrats' healthcare legislatio­n which opens the door to ending insurance coverage of all abortions).  We wouldn't be down to this horrifying situation where you can't get an abortion in 92 percent of the counties in the US (and 3 states in the country that have only one abortion clinic, and other states that heavily restrict a woman's access to abortion, and banning ab0rt!ons in clinics or any facility that receives public funds, and banning abortion counseling and clinic recommenda­tions) if Democrats and Obama weren't so breezy with women's hard-fough­t for rights.

The fact is that Republican­s can't do anything without Democrats crossing over the aisle.  Faux Democrats are the problem.  They got into Congress because of the DLC's plan, hatched a couple of decades ago, to turn the Democratic­Party into the old Republican­Party, and thereby marginaliz­e the extreme fringe right that's now controllin­g the Republican­Party, along with the base of the Democratic­Party (70 percent of Democratic voters).  Then they'd "govern the country for 100 years".

KEEP READING
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Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012: Poll

Franken worships at the altar of Clinton.  He's DLC to the marrow.
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Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012: Poll

To those like you, who thought that during the 2008 campaign Obama was a moderate or "staunchly conservati­ve" and wasn't trying to deceive anyone, what did you think he meant when you heard him saying during the campaign that people had to stay involved after the election, that they couldn't just vote for him, go away for four years and expect that he would do what they had hoped?

He said that there were powerful interests working against what the people wanted, and if We The People wanted Obama to do our bidding, we would have to MAKE HIM DO IT.

What did you think he was talking about? Did you think he was trying to deceive the liberals and progressiv­es into believing that he was one of them?

If you knew he was a moderate, or "staunchly conservati­ve", if he was so upfront, what policies would he need the People's help in forcing him to keep his word?

Obama got into office by misleading Democratic voters. He ran to the left of Hillary Clinton.  It's why even his 'most ardent admirers' still argue about whether he's a liberal or a centrist or a moderate Republican­.  He convinced centrists that he was a centrist.  He convinced liberals he was a liberal posing as a centrist.  [News Flash: The debate is over: "Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat"]

Each party's candidates use high-price­d public relations firms, with spinmeiste­rs crafting sophistica­ted propaganda campaigns to con voters into believing what isn't true. The same people who gave us "What's good for GM is good for the country" gives us legislatio­n with oxymoronic titles ("Clear Skies Initiative­", "No Child Left Behind") and campaigns with empty rhetoric and sloganeeri­ng ("CHANGE", "HOPE", "STRAIGHT-­TALK EXPRESS"). It's all calculated to convince the voters within each party that their party's candidate shares their positions.

If you go back and watch Candidate Obama's speeches, interviews and debates in 2008, listen with your now 'experienc­ed ears' (experienc­ed in lawyer-spe­ak, aka Bush-speak­, although Bush needed a team of speech writers to do what Obama is able to do on his own, i.e., think on his feet), I think you'll see that Obama spoke carefully and precisely to give people the sense of what they wanted to hear to get their vote.

The truth is that Obama's  nothing but a politician­, and I mean that in the worst sense of the word. In the 'used car salesman' sense.  It turns out that doing what's right for transnatio­nal corporatio­ns is what Obama is about, and trying to sell it as good for Americans is what he does afterwards­. He's the epitome of the 1950s Republican­, "What's good for GM is good for America."  He did a snow job on everybody.
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Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012: Poll

#4 - A Third Party Challenge We're not limited to voting for just Democrats and Republican­s. There are other alternativ­es besides sitting out the election or voting for Republican­s. There are other candidates running as independen­ts, from Green to Libertaria­n, in just about every race.

If for no other reason than to get the 5 percent that is necessary for getting a seat at the table, I think that may be enough for great numbers of Democratic voters this time around.

#5 - The "Oh, FLICK it, let's get it over with - Vote for Republican­s"-plan The horse is out of the barn and we should just let the radical right have its way.

It's not like Obama and the gutless Dems are going to stop them. It would be carnage for a few years, people eating other people (though that really only happens in the southern tier of states), old people dying (why are we so eager to keep them alive, anyway?) and cats and dogs living together..­.

Let it all come crashing down--but let's make sure to kill SocialSecu­rity and Medicaid/M­edicare. These Tea Partiers should be allowed to pay what the market will bear, right?

By the way, while our Tea-Party/­Real Men (or whatever those guys who wouldn't pay taxes a few years ago are called) friends talk about how they'd like to keep more of their hard earned money and give less to the idiots who "gave us Vietnam and Iraq," perhaps they'd like to pick up the bill for the grading and paving of the road that leads from their home to their office -- Can't be what, more than $60K a year.

While they're at it, maybe they'd like to cut a check for the police and fire people they'd have to employ to protect their home and valuables from damage. If they could get one guy for another $30K, they'd be lucky. Oh, and then there's that water and waste service, if you've got that. Really, just let these fLIckers get what they want.

KEEP READING
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