Monday, October 13, 2008

Tossing words around doesn't make them true

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
IN THE UPSIDE DOWN WORLD OF 2008, WEATHER UNDERGROUND, A DOMESTIC TERRORIST GROUP THAT DECLARED WAR ON THE UNITED STATES AND BOMBED MULTIPLE U.S. BUILDINGS, IS NOT TO BE SPOKEN OF.
 
NAN FREUND DELCARES OF MENTIONING WEATHER UNDERGROUND'S BILL AYERS AND BERNARDINE DOHRN'S CONNECTIONS TO SENATOR SWEETIE BARACK OBAMA, "THIS IS RED-BAITING LIKE WE HAVEN'T SEEN SINCE THE MCCARTHY IN THE FIFTIES."  TO WHICH THE REALITY BASED COMMUNITY RESPONDS, "GET REAL!"  RED-BAITING WAS TARRING AND FEATHERING ALLEGED COMMUNISTS AND COMMUNISTS FOR THEIR ALLEGED BELIEFS AND BELIEFS. 
 
HAD THEY BROKEN THE LAW, IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN RED-BAITING. 
 
BILL AYERS AND BERNARDINE DOHRN BROKE THE LAW.  REPEATEDLY.  BIG TOM AYERS WAS ABLE TO BUY THEIR WAY TO FREEDOM VIA THE CHICAGO AND ILLINOIS POLITICAL MACHINE.  THAT'S WHY THEY WERE NOT TRIED. 
 
SOME IDIOTS SAY "PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT."  THAT'S A LIE.  IT WAS MISCONDUCT ON THE PART OF THE F.B.I.  BUT THAT APPLIED TO THEIR UNDERGROUND DAYS.  THEY COULD HAVE BEEN TRIED FOR THE DAYS OF RAGE IN CHICAGO (ACTIVITIES BEFORE THEY WENT UNDERGROUND); HOWEVER, ILLINOIS MADE CLEAR THEY WEREN'T INTERESTED IN DOING THAT.  THEY COULD ACTUALLY STILL BE CHARGED FOR THE DAYS OF RAGE BUT TOM AYERS HAS BOUGHT THEIR FREEDOM.
 
 This is Red-baiting like we haven't seen since McCarthy in the Fifties," declared Nan Freund, Mr Ayers' neighbour for 25 years. "He's done a lot of good for education and for kids. They are wonderful neighbours. It's a ploy and it's going to get dirtier and dirtier as [the Republicans] fall farther behind." "If you're new in politics and someone agrees to host a 'coffee' in their house so the candidate can meet people, get some volunteers and maybe some money it's very rare you'd refuse," said Toni Preckwinkle, a black Democratic alderman [city councillor] for Hyde Park, who in other respects is quite critical of her party's nominee.
 
 
Turning to the US presidential race.  Chris Hedges (via Information Clearing House) expresses this thought: "This is a defining moment in American history.  The next few weeks and months will see us stabilize and weather this crisis or descend into a terrifying dystopia.  I place no hope in Obama or the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party is a pathetic example of liberal, bourgeois impotence, hypocrisy and complacency.  It has been bought off.  I will vote, if only as a form of protest against our corporate state and an homage to Polanyi's brilliance, for Ralph Nader.  I would like to offer hope, but it is more important to be a realist.  No ethic or act of resistance is worthy anything if it is not based on the real.  And the real, I am afraid, does not look good."  If you're asking "Polanyi?" -- Team Nader is already on it:
 
Fascism, like socialism, is rooted in a market society that refused to function.
A financial system always devolves, without heavy government control, into a Mafia capitalism -- and a Mafia political system.
A self-regulating market turns human beings and the natural environment into commodities, a situation that ensures the destruction of both society and the natural environment. 
Who is this speaking?
It is the Hungarian intellectual Karl Polanyi, author of the influential book The Great Transformation (1944).
Polanyi fled fascist Europe in 1933 and eventually taught at Columbia University.
Remembering Polanyi, former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges writes today:
"I place no hope in Obama or the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a pathetic example of liberal, bourgeois impotence, hypocrisy and complacency. It has been bought off. I will vote, if only as a form of protest against our corporate state and an homage to Polanyi's brilliance, for Ralph Nader. I would like to offer hope, but it is more important to be a realist. No ethic or act of resistance is worth anything if it is not based on the real. And the real, I am afraid, does not look good."
We live in difficult times.
But one man has shown the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the corporate state -- Ralph Nader.
For most of this year, Ralph has been barnstorming across the country -- bringing a message of hope and resilience to a troubled America.
And now it's time to step up and support Ralph Nader and the shift the power platform he has gifted to the American people.
Today, thanks to your help, we are within striking range of meeting our October Surprise Fund goal of $250,000 by midnight tonight.
We are less than $17,000 away.
And if you donate $100 or more now, we will send you an autographed copy of Ralph's classic -- The Seventeen Traditions (HarperCollins 2007).
This 150-page hardcover book details the seventeen traditions that Ralph grew up with and is the closest thing so far to a Ralph Nader autobiography.
So, don't miss out on this limited edition offer. (This offer expires tonight at midnight.)
And we will meet our goal.
After you have contributed, check out Hedges' article here.
Onward to November
The Nader Team
 
 
Ralph's running mate is Matt Gonzalez.  John McCain is the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate is Sarah Palin.  The McCain-Palin '08 campaign notes (link has video):
 
U.S. Senator John McCain delivered the following remarks at the McCain-Palin 2008 rally in Virginia Beach, VA: 
Three weeks from now, you will choose a new President. Choose well. There is much at stake.
These are hard times. Our economy is in crisis. Financial markets are collapsing. Credit is drying up. Your savings are in danger. Your retirement is at risk. Jobs are disappearing. The cost of health care, your children's college, gasoline and groceries are rising all the time with no end in sight. While your most important asset -- your home -- is losing value every day.
Americans are fighting in two wars. We face many enemies in this dangerous world, and they are waiting to see if our current troubles will permanently weaken us. 
The next President won't have time to get used to the office. He won't have the luxury of studying up on the issues before he acts. He will have to act immediately. And to do that, he will need experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action to take this country in a new direction. We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now. We have to fight.
I've been fighting for this country since I was seventeen years old, and I have the scars to prove it. If I'm elected President, I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it. 
I'm not going to spend $700 billion dollars of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess. I'm going to make sure we take care of the people who were devastated by the excesses of Wall Street and Washington. I'm going to spend a lot of that money to bring relief to you, and I'm not going to wait sixty days to start doing it. 
I have a plan to protect the value of your home and get it rising again by buying up bad mortgages and refinancing them so if your neighbor defaults he doesn't bring down the value of your house with him. 
I have a plan to let retirees and people nearing retirement keep their money in their retirement accounts longer so they can rebuild their savings.
I have a plan to rebuild the retirement savings of every worker. 
I have a plan to hold the line on taxes and cut them to make America more competitive and create jobs here at home. 
Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands and strengthens our economy. 
The explosion of government spending over the last eight years has put us deeper in debt to foreign countries that don't have our best interests at heart. It weakened the dollar and made everything you buy more expensive. 
If I'm elected President, I won't spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money, on top of the $700 billion we just gave the Treasury Secretary, as Senator Obama proposes. Because he can't do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I'm going to make government live on a budget just like you do.
I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren't working for the American people. And I will veto every single pork barrel bill Congresses passes.
If I'm elected President, I won't fine small businesses and families with children, as Senator Obama proposes, to force them into a new huge government run health care program, while I keep the cost of the fine a secret until I hit you with it. I will bring down the skyrocketing cost of health care with competition and choice to lower your premiums, and make it more available to more Americans. I'll make sure you can keep the same health plan if you change jobs or leave a job to stay home. 
I will provide every single American family with a $5000 refundable tax credit to help them purchase insurance. Workers who already have health care insurance from their employers will keep it and have more money to cover costs. Workers who don't have health insurance can use it to find a policy anywhere in this country to meet their basic needs.  
If I'm elected President, I won't raise taxes on small businesses, as Senator Obama proposes, and force them to cut jobs. I will keep small business taxes where they are, help them keep their costs low, and let them spend their earnings to create more jobs. 
If I'm elected President, I won't make it harder to sell our goods overseas and kill more jobs as Senator Obama proposes. I will open new markets to goods made in America and make sure our trade is free and fair. And I'll make sure we help workers who've lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away. 
The last President to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Senator Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover. That didn't turn out too well. They say those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Well, my friends, I know my history lessons, and I sure won't make the mistakes Senator Obama will. 
If I'm elected President, we're going to stop sending $700 billion to countries that don't like us very much. I won't argue to delay drilling for more oil and gas and building new nuclear power plants in America, as Senator Obama does. We will start new drilling now. We will invest in all energy alternatives -- nuclear, wind, solar, and tide. We will encourage the manufacture of hybrid, flex fuel and electric automobiles. We will invest in clean coal technology. We will lower the cost of energy within months, and we will create millions of new jobs.
Let me give you the state of the race today. We have 22 days to go. We're 6 points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them. 
What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her. I have fought for you most of my life. There are other ways to love this country, but I've never been the kind to do it from the sidelines.  
I know you're worried. America is a great country, but we are at a moment of national crisis that will determine our future. Will we continue to lead the world's economies or will we be overtaken? Will the world become safer or more dangerous? Will our military remain the strongest in the world? Will our children and grandchildren's future be brighter than ours? 
My answer to you is yes. Yes, we will lead. Yes, we will prosper. Yes, we will be safer. Yes, we will pass on to our children a stronger, better country. But we must be prepared to act swiftly, boldly, with courage and wisdom. 
I know what fear feels like. It's a thief in the night who robs your strength. 
I know what hopelessness feels like. It's an enemy who defeats your will. 
I felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. I'm an American. And I choose to fight. 
Don't give up hope. Be strong. Have courage. And fight. 
Fight for a new direction for our country. 
Fight for what's right for America. 
Fight to clean up the mess of corruption, infighting and selfishness in Washington.
Fight to get our economy out of the ditch and back in the lead. 
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. 
Fight for our children's future. 
Fight for justice and opportunity for all. 
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. 
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. America is worth fighting for. Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history. 
Now, let's go win this election and get this country moving again.
 
 
Truest statement of the week Truest statement of the week II A note to our readers Editorial: Precious Time TV: Some moments should stay undercover Roundtable Rehabilitated The winner and top ten runner ups Bombing of the Pentagon doesn't bother Barack? Spectacular Dumb Ass Moments from Dumb Asses Highlights
"The Common Ills"
"Team Obama insists it's the new McCarthyism"
"THIS JUST IN! BARACK AND DAVIS CRY RACISM!"

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