As I watched the National protests in support of Unions and the people of Wisconsin, on-line, yesterday, I kept searching the teevee for evidence of coverage. The local news networks were not covering it, the national news networks were not covering it, the cable news networks were not covering it and – extremely disappointingly – CSPAN was not covering it. I even flipped periodically to Fox “News” to see if they were covering the national response to the attack on the used-to-be-middle-class. Fox had more coverage than any other network, however it was spun towards the myth of the Unions being greedy thugs and the protests as something to be feared. (CNN, sadly, were instead talking about the Tea Party and its two year anniversary.)
When it comes to the used-to-be-middle-class, we are left out of the national dialogue, despite the millions in the streets.
More on the flip side about why these protests matter,why America needs to be informed of them and about them, and why they are occurring.
This morning, watching the Sunday shows, the same black-out of the nationwide protests continued. MTP at least included Rich Trumka; a rare representative of actual people, on the Sunday chat fests. Though he was not given enough opportunity to really talk about what is occurring across the country. Emanuel Cleaver did OK but there is really crappy, if existent at all (though I find no evidence for it) Democratic messaging on the real fight here.
There are numerous reasons for these protests and numerous reasons that we all – left, right, center, independent, Democratic, Republican, Tea Party and Socialist – should be celebrating and supporting the protests and the protestors: they are fighting for the survival of our country which is contingent on the survival of its people.
First of all, this is not a budget fight. Public sector employees are not responsible for our budget deficits.
Bush tax cuts and the second Republican Great Depression are what is driving our deficits (PDF) and what created our massive National Debt. There is only one reason to even be discussing deficits now; the Right wants to blur the line and pretend that cash-strapped governments (state and local and federal) are the reason that the American people are broke. They are interrelated but the cause and effect formula is backwards.
The Right pretends that jobs are some gift from business owners and, now, governments. They have repeated the meme for so long now that business “creates jobs,” that our entire national debate centers around how best to blow the cocks of big business rather than the incredible shrinking wealth of what was once the middle class. Never mind wage stagnation “business needs certainty.” The used-to-be-middle-class would like some certainty too.
No business creates jobs just to create jobs – as evidenced by the shitload of money that the corporations are hoarding. The corporations do not “create jobs”; employees provide services to employers for a fee (payrolls); DEMAND creates jobs. There is no demand because the people are freakin’ broke. Or, I should say, the majority of the people are freakin’ broke.
In addition, lowering the deficit does not lead to jobs – unemployment leads to budget deficits. Somehow the Republicans believe that the more that they fire people, cut their benefits (which are part of a payroll package not some give-away) and lower their payrolls, the lower the unemployment rate will be. How many people do they have to fire before the unemployment rate reaches zero?
There were coast-to-coast protests yesterday. Protests of the American people standing up for the American people. Coast-to-fucking coast. My guess is that very few Americans know this and even fewer understand why the protests affect them and matter to them: Apparently THIS revolution will NOT be televised.
Update: John Nichols breaks down why this all matters much better than I did.
Read more!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Hints from Eileen
As we all get older, so do our parents. My Mom just turned 89 last week, and life sure has been interesting for my Sister Jeannie and me. I keep hearing a voice in my brain telling me to not get upset, but I must admit, there are days I long for a primal scream. All in all, I guess you can say Mom is intertaining. My only prayer these days is please God, give me and every Designated Daughter/Son strength. Anyway, enjoy these Hints from Eileen on how to test the limits of how much your girls really love you:
1. If you can't find the garbage, throw kleenex on the floor.
2. If you have dirty clothes on, deny that they are dirty, and wear anyway.
3. If you are hungry, fill up with popcorn just before dinner.
4. If someone left buns or desserts on their table in the dining room, put them in your basket on your walker and bring them home.
5. If it's ice cream, don't worry. It will spill into your walker basket, coat your money in your wallet and adhere all the kleenex and superfulous stuff in the same basket into one gruesome lump that your daughters will clean up on Mondays.
6. If the two paces to your closet are too far to walk to hang your clothes up, just walk 8 paces to the chair in the corner and throw them there. Your daughters will pick them up on Mondays.
7. If someone wants to get serious and try to talk logic, just laugh and throw them off.
8. If you have to be 89 and living the life of the "Queen of quite a lot", who thinks life is just a chair of bowlies, remind your girls that it's better than being 89 and a shrew.
9. If you think you might be hungry later, take food off other people's tables as you leave the dining room. Afterall, they aren't going to eat it anyway.
10. If your daughters ask you to not visit the ice cream palor 7 times a day, just deny the number 7. Then tell them that you "only have a tiny little cone, with just a little ice cream in it." They are sure to believe you.
11. If that doesn't work, start to fake cry and tell them they are being critical of you. That one actually works almost 100% of the time.
12. If you want a new winter wardrobe, increase your visits to the ice cream palor. Guaranteed to jump you 3 dress sizes. Presto, new wardrobe.
13. If you can't get out of your bras, cut the straps off with the scissors.
14. If you have chocolate candy on your fingers, wipe on nearest piece of furniture.
15. If you have finished with your toothpick, throw it anywhere you want.
16. If you don't want to take a shower, argue that you have bathed every morning at the sink. Seriously, who needs more than one bath a week?
and lastly, my favorite hint from Eileen,
17. Take your shoes off in the middle of the front room so you will be sure to trip over them. This will send you to the Emergency Room (for the third time) where you will get all the attention you want.
Read more!
1. If you can't find the garbage, throw kleenex on the floor.
2. If you have dirty clothes on, deny that they are dirty, and wear anyway.
3. If you are hungry, fill up with popcorn just before dinner.
4. If someone left buns or desserts on their table in the dining room, put them in your basket on your walker and bring them home.
5. If it's ice cream, don't worry. It will spill into your walker basket, coat your money in your wallet and adhere all the kleenex and superfulous stuff in the same basket into one gruesome lump that your daughters will clean up on Mondays.
6. If the two paces to your closet are too far to walk to hang your clothes up, just walk 8 paces to the chair in the corner and throw them there. Your daughters will pick them up on Mondays.
7. If someone wants to get serious and try to talk logic, just laugh and throw them off.
8. If you have to be 89 and living the life of the "Queen of quite a lot", who thinks life is just a chair of bowlies, remind your girls that it's better than being 89 and a shrew.
9. If you think you might be hungry later, take food off other people's tables as you leave the dining room. Afterall, they aren't going to eat it anyway.
10. If your daughters ask you to not visit the ice cream palor 7 times a day, just deny the number 7. Then tell them that you "only have a tiny little cone, with just a little ice cream in it." They are sure to believe you.
11. If that doesn't work, start to fake cry and tell them they are being critical of you. That one actually works almost 100% of the time.
12. If you want a new winter wardrobe, increase your visits to the ice cream palor. Guaranteed to jump you 3 dress sizes. Presto, new wardrobe.
13. If you can't get out of your bras, cut the straps off with the scissors.
14. If you have chocolate candy on your fingers, wipe on nearest piece of furniture.
15. If you have finished with your toothpick, throw it anywhere you want.
16. If you don't want to take a shower, argue that you have bathed every morning at the sink. Seriously, who needs more than one bath a week?
and lastly, my favorite hint from Eileen,
17. Take your shoes off in the middle of the front room so you will be sure to trip over them. This will send you to the Emergency Room (for the third time) where you will get all the attention you want.
Read more!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
An Open Letter to Joey B
Dear Sir,
Recently, during the Gulf Oil spill hearings, you said the following:
“I do not want to live in a county where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, [it is] subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown."
I found your remarks disgusting and shameful, and I am shocked that your constituents actually voted you into your current position. Had they seen you for what you nakedly are--an industry shill--I doubt they'd have so rallied behind you.
You say you don't want to live in a country where industry can be held accountable for its misdeeds? Well, sir, the proverbial door is "that way." I hear Juarez is quite lovely this time of year.
Regards,
Milo Freeman
Read more!
Recently, during the Gulf Oil spill hearings, you said the following:
“I do not want to live in a county where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, [it is] subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown."
I found your remarks disgusting and shameful, and I am shocked that your constituents actually voted you into your current position. Had they seen you for what you nakedly are--an industry shill--I doubt they'd have so rallied behind you.
You say you don't want to live in a country where industry can be held accountable for its misdeeds? Well, sir, the proverbial door is "that way." I hear Juarez is quite lovely this time of year.
Regards,
Milo Freeman
Read more!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Modern Media
I don't like modern news. I don't. Especially not cable news. The fecklessness of the 24-hour news cycle in America just makes me feel dumber every time I watch it. I get my news from online sources mostly: BBC and Reuters, HuffPo and Raw for my political fix. My problem with cable news is the polarity: I hate Fox, and I can only take so much MSNBC. I like Rachel Maddow for her investigative journalism, but everything else just seems a shoutfest.
CNN prides itself on being the most nonpartisan of the three major cable outlets, but to achieve that they have to pick the EXACT golden mean between the two extremes of contemporary public dialogue. And as a result, they assume that ALL arguments are equally valid, and that every story really DOES have two sides. And when they do that, shit like THIS happens:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0407/cnn-asks-is-homosexuality-cure/
Look. My problem is not with the political leanings, or lack thereof, from CNN. My problem is with the sheer slack-jawed credulity with which they do their reporting. There is no difference, in their eyes, between the weight given to a licensed expert and some quack kicked out of an organization years ago for breaches of ethics.
Read my lips: American cable news is STUPID. You simply DO NOT see this kind of garbage on CNN International. What happened to news that challenged authority, of any stripe? What happened to journalists that risked their lives to bring corruption and injustice to light? I turn on the news now, and all I see are talking heads. People in power promise exclusivity for favorable coverage, and types like John King, or Judith Miller, or Bob Novak deliver. Doesn't matter whether it's a D or an R on the end.
Do you get it, America? Your news is not biased. It is simply for sale.
Read more!
CNN prides itself on being the most nonpartisan of the three major cable outlets, but to achieve that they have to pick the EXACT golden mean between the two extremes of contemporary public dialogue. And as a result, they assume that ALL arguments are equally valid, and that every story really DOES have two sides. And when they do that, shit like THIS happens:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0407/cnn-asks-is-homosexuality-cure/
Look. My problem is not with the political leanings, or lack thereof, from CNN. My problem is with the sheer slack-jawed credulity with which they do their reporting. There is no difference, in their eyes, between the weight given to a licensed expert and some quack kicked out of an organization years ago for breaches of ethics.
Read my lips: American cable news is STUPID. You simply DO NOT see this kind of garbage on CNN International. What happened to news that challenged authority, of any stripe? What happened to journalists that risked their lives to bring corruption and injustice to light? I turn on the news now, and all I see are talking heads. People in power promise exclusivity for favorable coverage, and types like John King, or Judith Miller, or Bob Novak deliver. Doesn't matter whether it's a D or an R on the end.
Do you get it, America? Your news is not biased. It is simply for sale.
Read more!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Anyone Watching?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
This is amazing television. Truly amazing.
Though I have it on the SPAN because I get sick of the MSNBC bastards thinking that their comments on what is going on are more important than what is actually being said.
Dammit. Work phone rang when Slaughter was speaking. Louise Slaughter is my hero...I will have to watch her later.
Use the thread to tell me what you think. Are you pissy? Do you think that Obama is losing this debate?
Or, are you keeping an open mind and listening to what the experts are saying?
Let me know.
I believe that real health care reform will be passed. I believe that it will happen because the Dems know that they will lose their shit in November if it doesn't. I just hope that they heed the words of Dr. Dean and make it go into effect now!
President Obama is looking like the adult and the Pukes, of course, look like the tools that they are. Heh.
Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
