Real Democrats Need to Realize

that worse than having a crazy GOP in charge is having a "Democratic" president willing to sell out to them.

The enemy is right within the Democratic Party in the guise of "Third Way" or rather neoliberal Democrats including and especially the president. There was a time and place when these types were necessary after the defeats of Mondale and Dukakis, but now they are actually functioning to the right of Reagan and George W. Bush. They are to the right of the conservative Bill Clinton.

We know that neoliberalism is destroying the country and the world economies, and the time is long overdue for a drastic return back to what we know works, and that is the "mixed economy" of private business, government, and labor sharing the burden.

As Always, Paul Street Nails Down Obama

as a neoliberal sellout who couldn't care less about traditional Democratic Party values:

When Obama’s center-right corporate-imperial presidency yielded the predictable consequence of demobilizing the Democratic Party’s “progressive base” in the mid-term elections and thereby enabling an “historic” right wing sweep in Congress, the president quickly moved yet further to the business-friendly right like a hungry shark to a bleeding seal. Claiming (falsely) that “the American people had spoken” in the Republicans’ Tea Party-fueled electoral triumph of November 2010, Obama agreed to sustain George W. Bush’s deficit-fueling tax cuts for the rich beyond their sunset date of 2010. Accepting the false business and Republican claim that “overpaid” public sector workers were a leading force behind rising government deficits and economic stagnation, Obama froze federal worker salaries and benefits. He published an Op-Ed in the plutocratic editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal – an essay that praised “free market capitalism” as “the greatest force for prosperity the world has ever known” and said that government places “unreasonable burdens on business” that have a “chilling effect on growth and jobs.” (The tone of his editorial suggested that it wasn’t neoliberal deregulation that sparked the financial collapse, but all those pesky government rules that crush growth).Obama signed an executive order calling for a government-wide review of regulations to remove or revise those that supposedly inhibited business. He appointed JPMorgan Chase’s William Daley – a leading agent of the corporate-globalist North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under Bill Clinton – as his chief of staff. He put Goldman Sachs’ Gene Sperling (another legendary neoliberal) at the head of the National Economic Council. He tapped General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head his new “President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness” – an ironic selection since fewer than half of GE’s workers are employed in the United States and less than half its profits come from U.S. activities.

Obama’s January 2011 State of the Union Address falsely claimed that American business was plagued by the highest corporate tax rate in the world and promised to slash that rate “without adding to our deficit.” He offered no bold, large-scale economic stimulus, antipoverty or public works programs to address the mass unemployment and economic destitution still stalking the land. In February, he quickly signed a “deal” that stripped $40 billion from the federal government’s 2011 outlay (the biggest losers were the Environmental Protection Agency and high-speed rail).Unbowed by a terrible summer jobs report suggesting a likely return to technical recession and the urgent necessity of major counter-cyclical government jobs and social assistance programs, Obama has responded to Republican threats to block the raising of the debt ceiling by advancing a hideously regressive long-term austerity program to the right of what even the average Republican voter wants. He hit the fairways with Republican Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to offer a “grand bargain” to reduce federal spending by $4 trillion over ten years,

News and Outrages

It's no surprise at all the economy has stalled--by design.
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Neoliberalism is the biggest threat to the entire world.
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Cartoons of the Day

How Did We Get Into This Mess?

At least Robert Reich puts a lot of the blame on our so-called "Democratic" president.

Most of it really does belong on the president and the "Democrats" who have not been willing to see the other party has gone increasingly fascistic over the past twenty years.

In fact, just the opposite. They have gone out of their way to ape the Republicans in so many ways they are almost indistinguishable from the GOP of yore.

I absolutely disagree with Reich's characterization of Obama as "intelligent" and "eloquent." He is neither. He is, however, a tool of Wall Street and the Chicago crooks who put him up for public consumption.

The Wonderful World of Want Ads

Yes, it is bad enough employers are more and more screening applicants out in order to hire only those who are currently employed or recently employed, but I would argue it is the QUALITY of current openings that's really frustrating.

There are lots and lots of shitty sales jobs or jobs that appear to be phonies, and not a lot of decent jobs paying a decent salary.

The idea that the jobless don't have "skills" is simply a bunch of shit employers peddle. The fact is it is an employers' market, and anything they can do to screen out the flood of applicants is acceptable.

Call It Treason

That's what the Tea Party bunch in the Republican party are guilty of, and the ONLY correct solution is to remove them from office by arresting them and jailing them. It's become that dire in Washington.

On top of it, Democrats should force Obama to resign for even considering putting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security on the table:

Here is the class logic that underlies the increasingly open assault on social programs for working people. From the standpoint of the capitalist class, all social benefits are deductions from their profits, a redistribution to the working people of trillions that would otherwise flow into the coffers of the bankers and billionaires. Under conditions of deepening financial crisis on a global scale, the ruling elite is driven to claw back everything it can by destroying benefits won by working people in struggle over many decades.

To fight against this policy of social counterrevolution, the working class requires above all an understanding of the class character of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party. Obama is not a too timid “progressive,” as his liberal apologists from the New York Times to the Nation magazine would have it. He is the most trusted instrument of the financial aristocracy, wholly devoted to defending the interests of Wall Street.

Treasonous bastards like the Kochs should be arrested, jailed, and their assets confiscated so that they never are allowed to pollute public discourse again with their fascistic rhetoric.

This is a totally fraudulent crisis being exploited for craven political reasons, but these politicians in both political parties cannot be allowed to pull this shit.

News and Outrages

Naturally the Washoe Education Association, a right arm of Washoe County School District, will agree to everything Dr. Superintendent of the Year Morrison wants.

Take a look at his attitude toward professionals:

The HR department, he said, is still working to fill 165 teacher vacancies.

“We’ve made dramatic changes,” Morrison said. “We’re trying to get the very best teachers … and we’re hiring for great attitudes.”

Morrison said he expects to fill those vacancies within the upcoming weeks.

Read more: Sparks Tribune - Budget cuts employee talks usher in new school year.

"We hiring for great attitudes." That is for McDonald's workers, Morrison, not for professionals who want careers in education but will probably never get them thanks to YOUR attitude.

But what does HE know about teaching? He "taught" only four years many years ago.

There should have been a wholesale firing of principals this past year and recruitment from out of state. The same garbage and poison continues to infect this district.

He's scarcely an improvement over his dipshit predecessor.
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Not content with poisoning political discourse with infecting both political parties with neoliberalism, the Koch-founded and Koch-backed Cato Institute is wanting to put in its own political party.

I agree with Joseph Cannon--libertarianism (neoliberalism) is absolutely evil.
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NYC teachers are being fucked over on tenure for either being "discontinued" and discarded like garbage or their probationary period is being extended for another year.

Even Though I Had Little "Wealth" To Begin With,

I can still be counted among the 5 million households having my wealth decimated as the school district basically stole my career from me and I have not been able to get back on my feet financially.

But of course the article is talking only about "home" wealth. Actually, a house should be a place to live, not an investment.

It Takes a Republican

to know Obama is hardly a "socialist" or "liberal" or even a Democrat:

Here are a few examples of Obama's effective conservatism:

His stimulus bill was half the size that his advisers thought necessary;
He continued Bush’s war and national security policies without change and even retained Bush’s defense secretary;
He put forward a health plan almost identical to those that had been supported by Republicans such as Mitt Romney in the recent past, pointedly rejecting the single-payer option favored by liberals;
He caved to conservative demands that the Bush tax cuts be extended without getting any quid pro quo whatsoever;
And in the past few weeks he has supported deficit reductions that go far beyond those offered by Republicans.

That doesn't even include his enthusiastic support of the destruction of public education.

As I said, he's the most right-wing president we have had in this country.

Outrages in the Country

As we move closer and closer to the Day of Reckoning, here are a few things going on pushing toward that happy conclusion:

Wall Street is tightening the screws of our crooked politicians in order to screw over the American people. All in the name of "austerity," of course.
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Since the country is about to be destroyed anyway, there is no point worrying about the idiotic and destructive No Child Left Behind.

The only people who will not be left behind are the rich crooks and their politicians who created the mess.
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Obituaries

Dan Peek, 60, a founding member of the band America, of undisclosed causes.

It is known he suffered from arthritis.

America is best known for the hit "Horse With No Name," a song that has made many all-time worst records lists, but it was still a big hit nonetheless.

Peek left the band in 1977, tired of the touring and so forth. A religious person, he concentrated his musical energies on Contemporary Christian music instead and was active until his death.
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Etc. and Outrages

Con man Obama continues with his crapola of "equal sacrifice" and "shared sacrifice," which we know are code words for the IMF's "austerity" plot to impoverish the masses in order to bail out the idiots responsible for tanking the economy.
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Oregon congressman David Wu is resigning from office over a sex scandal with an 18-year-old.

THIS guarantees a ruined political career, but fuck over the country? You have it made.
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Bluntly, companies not hiring the unemployed are engaging in nothing more than age discrimination.

Companies that do it are full of shit.

link

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And if that isn't enough to make a job seeker mad, now there are companies which are allowed to invade prospective candidates' privacy even more with social media background checks.
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It's not "centrism," Paul, that is the cult; it is instead neoliberals or libertarianism or Friedmanism that is destroying the world.

Speaking of which, the IMF is scared shitless the United States is going to default.

I say round up all of the scoundrels in both political parties and throw them in jail. I have another idea, too, but I can't say it here on the blog.

Etc. and Outrages

The world is indeed batshit crazy. There is no "center" for Obama, who is the most right-wing president in American history. Yep, you'd have to call Goldwater, Reagan, Nixon, or even Bush II the radical left to even put Obama near the center.

So we have a choice between a rightwing "Democrat" who isn't a Democrat at all and batshit crazy fascists to the "right" of him.

This is NO choice at all. We HAVE to take the Democratic Party away from these crooks.

Since We Have a Bunch of Neoliberal Crooks

running Washington who believe that having high unemployment is good for companies because of the downward pressure it puts on wages and salaries, we can't expect any change for the better.

The whole problem with the economy is there are too few people with too much money who don't spend and too many people with too little money who can't spend. The economy is always driven by demand, not by supply.

Don't tell a neoliberal that, though.

Democrats--Real Ones--Are Pissed Off

or at least they pretend to be at Obama.

The s.o.b. ought to change political parties.

But it's his willingness to take on entitlement programs that conjures up memories among some Democrats of the tax deal he negotiated with Republicans with the clock winding down at the end of 2010 that reportedly had House Democrats chanting "Just say no!" in a closed-door meeting before eventually voting for the package.

A CNN/ORC International Poll out Friday found that Obama's approval rating has dropped to 45%, driven in part by a growing dissatisfaction on the left with the president's track record in office -- especially the 2011 budget deal he forged with Republicans, which called for a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.

"Obama's approval rating among liberals has dropped to the lowest point in his presidency, and roughly one in four Americans who disapprove of him say they feel that way because he has not been liberal enough, a new high for that measure," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

People were warned about him, and they ignored the warning signs.

Given how both political parties are run by and for crooks, I am skeptical.

This Is Just About the Truth

From the local Craigslist:

Seeking outgoing self motivated employer with 50 years office/sales experience minimum.

Must type 4,500 wpm, ability to serve coffee while standing on ball balancing with umbrella held in right hand preferred.

Must speak at least nine languages, be willing to wash windows, sweep and mop floors, do all dishes and shine the entire staff's shoes each morning.

PHD in cabinet sanding required as well as significant expertise with Gobble2 software and at least a 2009 Lexus with full coverage insurance. A brain is not necessary as you will no longer be allowed to think for yourself.

Must be able to lift 75 lbs repeatedly while wearing roller skates. Shifts run daily from 5am-5pm, work environment includes death metal/rap played at maximum volume throughout the day, the stereo sits on your desk. Must be willing to work nights when needed.

Must pass drug test, criminal records check, be fully bondable and comply with federal DNA registration policy.

$8.50-$10.00 p/hour depending on experience; 45% wage deduction will be used to pay for your health insurance and Union dues.

Please send one page resume with detailed experience, official school transcript, proof of insurance, DMV record, DNA sample, a picture of the Lexus along with a cover letter explaining in less than twelve words why you are the perfect CEO for our company to:

PO Box 41-A Normal Ave, Ashland OR 97520

Thank you!

It's Time To Call It a Day

when you achieve the near impossible by having everybody throughout the political spectrum hate your guts and want a viable alternative.

My sisters and I don't think much of him, and we are all Democrats.

I wouldn't bet the farm he will get re-elected. I still say Mitt Romney will be the next president of the United (and Untied) States unless Obama declines to run again.

Unfortunately, the time for a viable primary opponent for this dipshit is just about past.

The LAST Thing We Need

is yet another neoliberal pile of shit political party.

Given who is pushing this harebrained scheme, it should be called the Gigolos of Billionaires Party.

Oh, This is Lovely

Given how corrupt and crooked Washington is, I wouldn't trust a "Super Congress" as far as I could throw them.

This is worse than the stupid supermajority "cloture" bullshit.

Debt ceiling negotiators think they've hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public's unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.

This "Super Congress," composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn't mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers -- six from each chamber and six from each party.

Etcetera

Take a look at the pictures of the world's tallest dog, a Great Dane named George.

He's careful around little dogs and even intimidated by some.
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Australian Cadel Evans has won this year's Tour de France.
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The so-called "Recovery" school district in New Orleans, established after Hurricane Katrina for the purpose of putting in mostly charter schools in the system, is an unabashed failure.

If you saw the video I posted yesterday, you will know one of Uncle Miltie's (Friedman) final wishes was to take advantage of the New Orleans tragedy to put in a privatized bunch of schools.

I'd piss on that fucker's grave if he hadn't been cremated and scattered.

Obituaries

Mexican actress Linda Christian, 87, has died of colon cancer. She was popular in the 1940s and was once married to actor Tyrone Power.
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We Have Criminals in Both Parties Backed By Criminals

who are deliberately killing the United States in order to enrich themselves.

It's coming very close to bloodshed, I am afraid.

Roberts hits it on the head, as usual:

This is economic destruction. It always occurs when an oligarchy seizes control of a government. The short-run profits of the powerful are maximized at the expense of the viability of the economy.

The US economy is driven by consumer demand, but with 22.3 per cent unemployment, stagnant and declining wages and salaries, and consumer debt burdens so high that consumers cannot borrow to spend, there is nothing to drive the economy.

Washington’s response to this dilemma is to increase the austerity! Cutting back Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, forcing down wages by destroying unions and offshoring jobs (which results in a labor surplus and lower wages), and driving up the prices of food and energy by depreciating the dollar further erodes consumer purchasing power. The Federal Reserve can print money to rescue the crooked financial institutions, but it cannot rescue the American consumer.

We know what needs to be done to save the economy and the country, but our politicians won't do a goddamned thing because they are either bought by crooks or they are crooks themselves.

Obituaries

A few to note. A couple of people I have heard of:

Former South Vietnam premier Nguyen Cao Ky, 80, had been treated for a respiratory ailment.

He was younger than I thought he was.

When Thieu's government in Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops in 1975, Ky fled by piloting a helicopter to a U.S. Navy ship. He and his family eventually settled in the United States, where he led a quiet life largely away from politics. He made headlines in 2004 when he made a controversial visit back to his homeland, praising the communists, his former enemies.

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Retired general John Shalikashvili, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Clinton, 75, from complications of a stroke:

The native of Poland held the top military job at the Pentagon in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, when the general retired from the Army. He spent his later years working as a visiting professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Clinton pointed out that "Gen. Shali" made the recommendations that sent U.S. troops into harm's way in Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf and a host of other world hot spots that had proliferated since the end of the Cold War.

"He never minced words, he never postured or pulled punches, he never shied away from tough issues or tough calls, and most important, he never shied away from doing what he believed was the right thing," Clinton said.

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The so-called "27 Club" got a new member today as singer Amy Winehouse died. Frankly, I had never heard of her, so that goes to show you how much I follow current music.

She was certainly far less famous than other "27 Club" members Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Jones, and even Cobain, but she rivaled them in self-destruction:

Increasingly, her personal life began to overshadow her career.

She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication. Soon accounts of her erratic behavior, canceled concerts and drink and drug-fueled nights began to multiply.

Photographs caught her unsteady on her feet or vacant-eyed, and she appeared unhealthily thin, with scabs on her face and marks on her arms.

There were embarrassing videos released to the world on the Internet. One showed an addled Winehouse and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty playing with newborn mice. Another, for which Winehouse apologised, showed her singing a racist ditty to the tune of a children's song.

Video of the Day

The 2009 documentary, The Shock Doctrine, based on Naomi Klein's book.

I read some of her book, but it isn't the best written in the world. However, her thesis is pretty much on the mark about neoliberalism and "disaster politics":



link

I'd say skip her book and watch the documentary instead. This explains how and why our (world) economy got so fucked up.

News, Etc.

I can hardly stand to hear anything coming out of Washington anymore because I know they are doing the bidding of the banksters and international organizations like the IMF with its "austerity" garbage.

"Tough choices" my ass.
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The death toll is now up to 92 in the Norway bombing and massacre.
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This "gang of six" should be charged with treason.

Surprise, Surprise!

The country might go into the ditch after all now that House Chief Nitwit John Boehner walked out of the budget negotiations with fellow Republican Obama.

link

Report:

House Speaker John Boehner has walked away from negotiations with President Obama over a deal to raise the debt limit.

"In the end, we couldn't connect. Not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country," Boehner said in a letter to colleagues. He said Mr. Obama " is emphatic that taxes have to be raised" and "adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs."

They're actually tea peas in a goddamned pod. But it's a fun theatrical exercise.

Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon,

not my representative, unfortunately, as we here in southern Oregon are mostly stuck with Greg Walden, should run against Obama for the Democratic Party nomination for president next year:

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) on Friday morning complained that President Obama is reportedly pursuing a last-minute agreement with House Republicans that would mostly rely on significant cuts to federal spending as a condition for raising the debt ceiling.

Speaking on the House floor, DeFazio said Obama is reportedly "preparing yet another great cave."

"He cuts taxes to create a crisis, and then we cut spending to protect the tax cuts because tax cuts create jobs, except they haven't created jobs, but we've got to continue to protect them," DeFazio said. "It's all very, very sad."

Time for Obama to step down and let a REAL Democrat run for president.

Gangster Politics

James K. Galbraith takes on this awful mess going on in D.C.:

Since Obama is NOT a Democrat,

it's little wonder he feels no tinge of conscience about gutting basic Democratic Party principles. Hell, he doesn't feel any conscience about dismantling the past 150 years.

As I said, we have a bunch of gangsters running D.C..

Fast forward to 2011: it is now beyond dispute that President Obama not only favours, but is the leading force in Washington pushing for, serious benefit cuts to both social security and Medicare.

This week, even as GOP leaders offered schemes to raise the debt ceiling with no cuts, the White House expressed support for the Senate's so-called "gang of six" plan that includes substantial cuts in those programmes.

The same Democratic president who supported the transfer of $700bn to bail out Wall Street banks, who earlier this year signed an extension of Bush's massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and who has escalated America's bankruptcy-inducing posture of Endless War, is now trying to reduce the debt by cutting benefits for America's most vulnerable – at the exact time that economic insecurity and income inequality are at all-time highs.

Where is the "epic shitstorm" from the left which Black predicted? With a few exceptions – the liberal blog FiredogLake has assembled 50,000 Obama supporters vowing to withhold re-election support if he follows through, and a few other groups have begun organising as well – it's nowhere to be found.

Apathy is going to kill the United States of America. These crooks, Obama included, are counting on mass apathy or trying to make us afraid of the nitwit right-wing that they could be worse.

Nothing is worse than a fraud posing as a savior to the people.

Nice Interview

demonstrating this "debt crisis" is just a pile of shit just so Obama can force a neoliberal agenda on the American people--the "austerity" plan of impoverishing millions so the tiny number of rich can get richer.

Our country really is in the hands of organized crime that would shame the Mafia.

I May Have to Buy "Impeach Obama" Bumperstickers

at the rate this president is going.

Paul Krugman offers some explanations as to why Obama is hellbent on destroying everything Democrats--and for that matter Americans--have held dear for the past 75-plus years, but it simply boils down to one thing: Obama is a tool of literally gangsters who would put the mob to shame.

Robert Rubin and the international banking organizations are calling the shots, to the detriment of everybody else.

One Veteran Teacher Decided to Get the Hell Out of Her "Career"

and go into nursing, which arguably has even worse working conditions than teaching and is no longer a shortage occupation.

I am sure the bean counters in her district are tickled pink she decided to quit. She was too expensive, even at her rotten salary.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development data from 2007 said the United States ranks 20th out of 29 for starting teacher salaries, and 23rd out of 29 for teacher salaries after 15 years.

But it's not just the pay, DeRegnaucourt said, "It's the way we're treated."
Her colleagues have waited until just before school starts to learn what courses they'll be teaching, she said. Uncertainty makes it impossible to prepare, hard to succeed.

"Five years ago, 10 years ago, kids would ask me, should they become teachers? I was like, 'Oh, God, yes, I love what I do,' " she said. "Now, I tell my kids, 'You're really, really bright. Why don't you think about going into (this or that?)' They have the potential to be doctors, lawyers, nurses, CEOs and scientists . Why would I recommend to my kids, who I absolutely love, to struggle for years?"

This year, she's finishing the prerequisite courses needed to enroll in nursing school. DeRegnaucourt hopes to spend a couple of more years learning, then work in emergency care nursing to gain experience.

Apparently Unqualified Teach for America Types are "Great" Teachers,

but according to one fraudulent education group, the National Council on Teacher Quality, those who go into the traditional student teaching route are crappy and they are supervised by crappy teachers and field supervisors.

NCTQ is a neoliberal "reform" group with an agenda not beneficial to students or to teachers.

Who is funding it?

The National Council on Teacher Quality receives all of its funding from private foundations. Here is a list of our funders:

Aaron Straus and Lillie Straus Foundation
Abell Foundation
B & L Foundation
Barksdale Reading Institute
Barr Foundation
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Boston Foundation
Bower Foundation
Brookhill Foundation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Chamberlin Family Foundation
Daniels Fund
Doris and Donald Fisher Fund
Edythe and Eli Broad Foundation
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Finnegan Family Foundation
Foundation for the MidSouth
Garner Foundation
George Gund Foundation
Gleason Family Foundation
Goldsmith Family Foundation
Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust
Houston Endowment
Joyce Foundation
Longfield Family Foundation
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education
Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation
Osa Foundation
Phil Hardin Foundation
Polk Bros Foundation
Rockwell Collins, Inc.
Searle Freedom Trust
Steans Family Foundation
The Teaching Commission
Walker Foundation

That's all you need to know.

Petition of the Day

Here is a petition urging the Department of Education to change its role away from the testing mania that is killing public education.

Text:

To be delivered to: The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate and President Barack Obama

“Change the U.S. Department of Education from a dictator of school policy to that of a research, advisory and resource organization.”
The DOE has wasted millions trying to impose counterfeit reforms on public education. High stakes testing has demoralized teachers, narrowed the curriculum and leave parents on the sidelines. Student achievement has not improved. The DOE could make a difference by becoming a research, resource and advisory organization. As stated in the 10th Amendment, we should leave public education as a state responsibility.

Etcetera and Outrages

It's become quite obvious both Democrats and Republicans are on the same side, with the American people on the outside and being forced into impoverishment. One political party plays the good cop, while the other party plays the bad cop. The bad cops have NO intention of putting their extreme ideas into practice, but they depend on the good cops like Obama to do their dirty work for them.

It happened during the Clinton era with "ending welfare as we know it," and it is continuing today.

The Democratic Party is now riddled with frauds.

link
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Since third parties almost always get nowhere in our system, we who are liberals have no choice but the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, the party is being killed from within because there is at the helm a fraud who is actually a Republican to the right of Bush II or Reagan.

Purge Obama from the party and there might be hope.
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"Eat your peas and shut up" is the attitude of this so-called Democrat we have in the White House. More and more congressional Democrats are pissed off royal Obama is about to give away the store and frankly using the phony debt crisis as a way to ram through "austerity" measures no doubt supported by banksters like Rubin and the IMF.

link

The bastard needs to be impeached if he dares destroy the New Deal.

People, Those Signs, Rails, and Ropes Are There for a Purpose

Yet idiots still continue to disregard them in national parks, and yet more tragedies result, as in the most recent Yosemite accident.

Since there was a ton of precipitation during the winter, and "winter" lasted a lot long in the Sierra than normal, the falls are full at Yosemite this time of year. People are absolutely crazy for tempting fate.

When I went to the Grand Canyon four years ago, it was the same thing. The canyon didn't scare me that much, but it was the goddamned idiots who were on the rocks at the very edge who scared the crap out of me. Anything to get a picture despite the fact any slip up at all would cost them their lives.

And those who had kids and allowed THEM to get close to the edge should have been jailed for child endangerment.

A video of Vernal Falls from about a month ago tells the story of how dangerous it is.

There is Nothing Like a Chihuahua

They are absolutely fearless (and at the same time comical), as this widely-circulated video demonstrates:



Chihuahuas rule the world.

Etcetera

The debt ceiling is a bunch of phony baloney, but the only reason it exists is it serves as a political football.

With Obama selling out the American people, of course, on behalf of his Wall Street masters.
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Here is a good piece describing various ways our country is "thriving."

At least the pawnshops are doing better than ever.
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With a fake Democrat in the White House, the economy and country will be further down the shitter.

Obama HAS to be sent packing.

Only Teachers Know the Climate of Fear

rampant in almost every public school district in the United States. Since administrators are gods, to run afoul of them is tantamount to career destruction.

To do what these administrators want is tantamount to career destruction--and possibly prison--anyway, so teachers have to waste tons of energy trying to avoid becoming targets.

In Atlanta, that was almost impossible. Even principals were treated with humiliation, which they then turned around and did to teachers.

I seriously doubt Dr. Hall was in the dark about the rampant test cheating in her district. She has now retired:

Investigators described how Dr. Hall had humiliated principals who didn’t reach their targets. Every year she gathered the entire district staff at the Georgia Dome. Those from schools with top scores were seated on the Dome floor; the better the scores, the closer they sat to Dr. Hall. Those with low scores were relegated to sitting in the stands.

Principals, in turn, humiliated teachers. At Fain Elementary, the principal, Marcus Stallworth, had teachers with low test scores crawl under a table, according to the report. At Parks Middle School, teachers who refused to join “changing parties” that were organized by the principal, Christopher Waller, to doctor answer sheets were isolated or let go, the report said.

A couple of comments following the article point to the hopeless situation teachers find themselves in:

I am not defending cheaters; what those "educators" did was reprehensible. But I do feel sympathy for teachers who are put in the position of choosing between unethical behavior and unemployment. It's easy to say, "Quit and find another job" or "Report it to authorities." Reality is more complicated. Principals *are* the authorities (who likely instructed those teachers to make the changes) and can make sure you never work in a classroom again, even if you did the honorable thing. I'm glad I don't have to decide whether to participate in massive fraud as a condition of my employment in the middle of one of the worst job markets in decades. The price of martyrdom might be homelessness.

Another:

Unfortunately, NCLB has created an atmosphere of fear and resulting deception in many places. It is heartbreaking to hear of teachers losing their license over a situation where they had very little control. What other job requiring a college degree routinely humiliates their employees in public simply because they cannot entirely control learning outcomes of other people. These teachers had families - mortgages to pay and children to feed. If their administrators told them to cheat - or be publicly humiliated and/or fired - then they did what they were told. Teachers are no longer seen as professionals since the implementation of NCLB. They are held accountable for the entirety of student learning. Parenting, home environment, and student attendance, ability, and willingness to learn are all discounted.

Etcetera and Outrages

It's the class warfare, stupid, when it comes to the phony debt ceiling debate:

Why is the demand for “deficit reduction” now being voiced so unanimously in every quarter of official American politics? What are the fundamental class issues that underlie this campaign?

The American ruling elite is engaged in the greatest robbery of working people in US history. In the bank bailout of 2008-2009, the financial aristocracy effectively transferred to the federal government its bad debts and losses from a decade of reckless speculation. Now the working class is being compelled to pay the price for Wall Street’s looting of the Treasury through the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs in education, the environment, transportation and housing.

Those responsible for the economic mess should be in jail, not being given handouts on the backs of everybody else.
_____

Elizabeth Warren ought to consider running for president herself. She would do better than the shitbag who is in the White House now.
_____

The Rupert Murdoch hearings can be viewed here, if one is interested.

Apparently he was the recipient of a shaving cream or cream pie earlier. I missed it.

Edit: It was a plate of foam. The video doesn't actually capture the attack, but it is evident Murdoch was hit with something, as foam can be seen on his clothes viewing from the back.
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This Is a Unique Take

on the thinking of education "reformers," comparing them to the eugenics advocates of a century ago.

However, I don't think the "reformers" are "well-intentioned." They are liars because they have an ideology which says public schools must be abolished simply because they are public. Replacing experienced, senior teachers with Teach for America nitwits has little to do with a concern with "quality" and everything to do with creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

News, Etc,

Naturally no teachers were invited to an "education" summit rigged with know-nothings from the business world.

Of course Obama doesn't know anything about public education.
_____

Turner Classic Movies (the best cable channel bar none) is having an all-day birthday tribute to Red Skelton (1913-1997), one of my all-time favorites. I used to watch his television show religiously in the 1960s. The best thing about him was he refused to stick to the script. In this classic live clip from the 1950s, Red wasn't the only one who refused to stick to a script:



They don't make comedians like this anymore. Now it's all shock value and obscenities.
_____

News, Etc.

Casey Anthony walked out of one prison today only to be in another prison, thanks to nonstop media hype. I like this sentence:

Her acquittal was met with shock and derision by much of the public, egged on by outraged television commentary.

Of course I wasn't shocked at all by the verdict because there was no evidence to show how Caylee died, and without that, this case should have never been brought to trial.
_____

Neoliberalism always paves the way to the road to serfism.

Slavery is the ultimate goal.

Our country is being run by and on behalf of gangsters.
_____

Since Wall Street calls the shots, no way are the Republicans not going to raise the debt ceiling and allow the U.S. to default.
_____

Obituary: Rex Bell, Jr., son of actors Rex Bell and Clara Bow and former Clark County (Nevada) district attorney, 76. He died July 8 of cancer.

Only a Teacher Can Truly Understand

the pressure he or she feels to violate the law and ethics and cheat on standardized testing.

Cheating is never right and not worth risking one's career for, but teachers often--with justification--feel they will lose their jobs or risk harassment if they don't do what their administrators tell them to do.

In Georgia, teachers complained to investigators that some 11-year-olds could only read as well as 6-year-olds. But, they said, principals insisted those students had to pass their standardized tests. Teachers were either ordered to cheat or pressured by administrators until they felt they had no choice, authorities said.

One principal forced a teacher to crawl under a desk during a faculty meeting because her test scores were low. Another principal told teachers that "Walmart is hiring" and "the door swings both ways," the report said.

Principals are invariably protected by school districts although in the Atlanta case, a number of them were forced to resign or were fired as a result of scandal.

That's only because they were caught.

Insanity Has Taken Over Capitol Hill,

and even if a blatantly right-wing president whose only constituency is Wall Street is proposing policies which would resonate with these dipshits, they reject them solely because an alleged "Democrat" is sponsoring it.

But of course Obama is such a dipshit he thinks he can actually work with these cretins. He can't.

News, Etc.

It's been thirty years since entertainer Harry Chapin died in an auto accident on the Long Island Expressway, but his charitable work lives on.

He'd REALLY be busy with helping the less fortunate if he were alive today.

“He established the first food bank on Long Island,” says Pachter. “In 1980 there were only two other food banks in downstate [NY]. He was also so accessible. If you saw him, he stopped and he spoke to you. That resonates with Long Islanders. He influenced people to be that way. Harry was just there and he was tremendously passionate about this island. This was his home.”

Just one year after founding Long Island Cares, Inc., Chapin was traveling in the right lane of Long Island Expressway on his way to a free concert he scheduled at Eisenhower Park when, after passing exit 40 in Jericho, he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of mechanical issues with his Volkswagen Rabbit. Chapin slowed to about 15 miles per hour and swerved in the center lane directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck rear-ended Chapin and his car burst into flames, and while the driver of the truck was able to remove Chapin from his vehicle, he could not be revived. Officially, Chapin died of cardiac arrest, but there was no way of telling whether it was before or after the accident.

_____

Nitwits on the right always complain about the "government," but EVERYBODY, from Bill Gates to yours truly, gets help from it.

There are a lot of idiots out there. Democratic politicians haven't helped matters by trying to educate the public as to why government programs are necessary, especially like the president who parrots the right-wing talking points.
_____

I've said it 10,000 times on this blog, but it bears repeating that Obama is a no-good son of a bitch:

Emphasizing the scale of the cuts he has already accepted, he declared, “I am willing to take down domestic spending to the lowest percentage of our overall economy since Dwight Eisenhower.”

This is a staggeringly right-wing position: The Eisenhower administration, 1953-1961, presided over a much different America, in which the only significant federal social program was Social Security. (Although the top tax rate for the wealthy was over 90 percent—a fact that neither Obama nor the Republicans would care to recall).

He's a stupid bastard and probably doesn't even know anything about Ike. Ike, like Nixon, would be a flaming liberal today.

Hell, Bush II and Reagan would be flaming liberals today thanks to these fascistic pieces of shit overtaking both political parties.

This asshole's ONLY constituency is the Wall Street brigade headed by the likes of crooks such as Robert Rubin and Timothy Geithner.

You No-Good Son of a Bitch

Leave the goddamned Democratic Party, you asshole, if you DARE try to turn Medicare into Medicaid and thus force people who are "too rich" to buy scam insurance policies, assuming ANY of them will insure older people.

He is a motherfucking sack of shit. Get the hell out, Obama.

link

You "means test" Medicare, you turn it into Medicaid. Medicaid is means-tested, not Medicare.

What a rotten sack of shit he is.

Later the White House had to issue a "clarification" to all of the outraged masses:

Currently, Medicare premiums for doctors and for prescription drugs are already means tested, meaning that couples making over $170,000 or singles over $85,000 (about 5% of Medicare beneficiaries) already pay somewhat higher Medicare premiums. What the President referenced today was his openness, as part of a potential big deal, to asking Medicare recipients over those high-income thresholds to pay modestly higher premiums. At no point did the Administration express openness to raising premiums on Medicare beneficiaries below those income levels. (Note that the Affordable Care Act already included a nominal freeze of those high income thresholds through 2019, resulting in modestly greater means-testing for high income Medicare beneficiaries).

Don't use the term "means test" which is used to determine eligibility for a program. Especially when referring to so-called entitlements.

Etcetera and Outrages

The Koch brothers are up to their eyeballs in ALEC.
_____

What is the real shame in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal?
_____

Obama thinks he is copying Clinton by shitting on the American people, but he won't get a second term because he isn't doing jack shit about jobs.

Obama Always Was a Brazen, Right-Wing Fraud,

who supported the policies of Ronald Reagan and even of Bush II, and is just using the current debt ceiling "crisis" as an excuse to repeal the Great Society and New Deal.

I told people what this guy was, and few listened. He never should have made it to Iowa given the fact he was a total fake.

These facts and figures demonstrate the real class axis of the policy being pursued by the Obama administration. The Democrat in the White House is carrying out the dictates of Wall Street to devastate the living standards and destroy the lives of tens of millions of the most vulnerable in American society
.
This is not simply because Obama is caving in to pressure from the Republican right. The Democratic Party as a whole, and Obama in particular, view the attack on entitlement programs as an urgent necessity to defend the class interests of the financial aristocracy—just like their counterparts in Greece, Portugal, Ireland and throughout the world.

Even supporters of the Obama administration have been compelled to admit this political reality. Liberal columnist Harold Meyerson wrote this week, “President Obama has moved so far to the right that he has picked up many of the ideals the Republicans have jettisoned and embraced them as his own. It’s Obama who’s now the deficit-and-debt hawk and who has proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.”

If Obama pulls this shit, he may find himself run out of town.

In This Debt Ceiling Nonsense,

Obama's capitulation will basically be the end of his presidency, and I say good fucking riddance.

It's time for a REAL Democrat to take hold, provided we the people can cut through the financial elites' stranglehold on Washington:

The Obama administration is committing political suicide with its debt negotiations, and it’s not entirely clear that there should be much of a protest from the American people. Obama’s center-right attempts to “compromise” by seeking major cuts to Social Security (a program that is currently not in financial trouble, but in fact running a surplus) and Medicare (in which hundreds of billion in cuts are being sought) will inevitably harm the American middle and working classes. Obama claims that the “sacrifices” (which he will not be forced to endure) are necessary in order to come to an agreement with Republicans over deficit reduction. He is wrong. If he continues to push this agenda, we should organize around an alternative, progressive candidate for 2012.

Amen to that. I was over Obama before he ever ran for president.

Obama is a Neoliberal Pile of Shit,

a disgrace to the Democratic Party and to America, and during this trumped-up "crisis," he's proven he is willing to destroy every social program of the past century:

Half or more of the Congressional Black Caucus will do whatever the White House asks of it, will sacrifice anything and everything dear to African American interests in order to preserve this particular Black family in the executive mansion for as long as possible. But many of Obama’s white groupies are facing the fact that they backed a corporate Trojan Horse. Paul Krugman, the columnist for the New York Times, should not have needed a Nobel Prize in economics to realize that Obama “basically shares the GOP’s diagnosis of what ails our economy and what should be done to fix it,” or that the president’s eagerness to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid “is something Mr. Obama and those he listens to apparently want for its own sake.”

In other words, this guy works for the other side because that’s where his soul is – if he has one. He advocates policies that serve corporate pigs because he’s one of them. He harms poor people because he is contemptuous of them, just like his Wall Street friends and patrons. His administration is negligent or hostile to Black aspirations for the same reasons as his white business buddies, with whom he shares a worldview. He is every bit as much a war criminal as Bush, and as morally debased.

The Rich Really Are Different,

and while people get mad as hell at public employees for daring to have decent pensions and benefits, the real assholes, the filthy rich, get off scot-free.

But if you want to see a real asshole, you have to somehow get invited to things like the $5 million birthday party of another guy on Sirota's list, private equity creep Steven Schwarzman. After throwing his elaborate fete for himself, Schwarzman -- who is said to make $400 million a year, and made $600 million when his company went public -- compared Barack Obama to Hitler for even considering rolling back his carried-interest exemption, which, again, allows him to pay 15% taxes while some of the rest of us pay twice that or more. "It's a war," he said. "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland."

link

David Sirota's piece on the filthy rich is here.

Since Government is Not Profit-Oriented, It CANNOT Be Run Like a Business

Case in point is public education, of course, but that hasn't stopped the privatizers from trying to do it.

NCLB, for example, was specifically designed to dismantle public education by putting in an idiotic requirement all students must be "proficient" (meaning being at grade level) by 2014. As this is impossible because of second-language learners, special education students, and just plain variation among the general population, this was a setup for failure. ALL public schools will be eventually shut down.

Why? Because they are public, that's why, and that's unacceptable to the neoliberals.

The Not-So-Great Triangulator

Obama is clearly trying to pull a Bill Clinton on the debt ceiling negotiations, but all he really has to do is invoke the 14th amendment and the whole bogus "crisis" would be solved.

The problem is Obama cannot be trusted even with this game of "chicken." This is the man who is privatizing public education in this country and has made noises in the past about a so-called "crisis" in Social Security and appointed a "commission" rigged with anti-SS people.

I completely agree with this:

If in the end Obama does make a deal that includes cuts in social security, Medicare and Medicaid and doesnt include a large tax increase on corporations and the upper 5% income earners, his next decision should be the only time in his presidency he will ever be compared to LBJ -- he should make a speech saying "I will not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party to be your president". Because he wouldnt have a chance in hell of winning anyway.

The piece of shit never should have been nominated.

Another view.

Entertainment of the Day

Two pit bulls go at it:

Etcetera and Outrages

At least this California employee wasn't a teacher or even a school administrator:

Rohlfing isn't the only doctor in California's cash-strapped prisons earning big money to shuffle paper. Dozens have been relegated to the chore in recent years, according to Kincaid, who said it's the standard assignment given to physicians when questions arise about their clinical ability. Some eventually return to treating patients, some quit and others are ultimately fired, she added.

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Tax cuts do nothing to help the economy. Tax cuts don't work. Period.
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Slimeball senator Mitch McConnell may end up on top during this "crisis," thanks to a wimp for president.
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If anybody should be blamed for the various education cheating scandals in the U.S., it is the Obama administration.

Obituaries

Rob Grill, 67, lead singer of the underrated sixties band The Grass Roots, of complications from a fall a month ago, according to his wife Nancy.

Grill suffered from other health problems in recent years. He toured around the country fronting different musicians as The Grass Roots. I saw him in Reno two years ago in Sparks as part of the Hot August Nights celebration.

The group’s longest-serving member, Mr. Grill appeared with the Grass Roots for more than four decades: first in the group’s heyday and again as the band has enjoyed a renaissance on the oldies circuit. His voice — high, sweet and supple — was memorably urgent and beseeching in the group’s many songs of love.

He also played bass and wrote some of the group’s songs, though the Grass Roots’ best-known material was written primarily by nonmembers.

A very, very underrated band.
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Counterculture author Theodore Roszak, 77, died of cancer July 5.

McConnell is a Corrupt S.O.B.

and like the rest of them should be in jail:



link

It looks like he is backing down.

News, Etc.

Since Obama is a Republican and holds Republican ideas about jobs, he won't do anything about creating more of them.
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Goodbye and good riddance.
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The Republicans have no intention of bargaining with fellow Republican Barack Obama when it comes to the idiotic debt ceiling, but business interests are becoming pissed off:

A source who worked on the letter said privately that the missive is the tip of a much larger, behind-the-scenes lobbying effort to educate Members of Congress, particularly freshman Republicans, on the perils of not raising the debt limit. The chamber’s Bruce Josten and other top business lobbyists have been privately meeting with Members for months, the source added.

The source said the letter Tuesday has been in the works for a couple of weeks.
Chamber President Tom Donohue said in a statement announcing the letter that an “unprecedented default on the nation’s bills would have dire consequences for our economy, our markets, and Main Street Americans.”

We will soon find out who REALLY calls the shots: the Tea Party extremists or the U.S. Chamber of Horrors.
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I am glad somebody had the guts to say a home is a lousy investment. Homes should NOT be seen as investments anyway but as places to live and to put roots in a community.

Many, many people were shut out of the housing market because of the mentality of a house being a giant credit card or something to get rich on.
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Vast wasteland television show creator Sherwood Schwartz, 94, has died.

He created the sitcomes The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island. Enough said.

OF COURSE Raising the Medicare Benefit Age

is a benefit cut.

Why don't Obama and his fellow fascists raise the eligibility age to 90? That'll save a LOT of money with all of the people having died off.

I never thought I'd be nostalgic for Bush and Cheney, but there it is. The Republicans talk a good game, but it is so-called "Democrats" who actually put in rightwing policies.

Look at Clinton and so-called "welfare." What a disaster that was. I had thought of voting for Nader in 1996, but the way the GOP were going after Clinton on bogus charges, I voted for him instead.

This ain't gonna happen with Obama.

John Nichols:

Democrats had their most significant victory in the past two years when Kathy Hochul won the special election in New York's 26th District. Hochul grabbed a traditionally Republican seat by campaigning as a stalwart and unyielding defender of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. She offered real alternatives for voters who were concerned about deficits and debts: arguing for fair taxation and a broad examination of waste, fraud and abuse in federal programs.

That was a powerful, winning argument. But it cannot be made by a president or a party that imposes deep and unnecessary cuts in Medicare. Accepting that so-called “entitlement” programs are the source of America’s fiscal challenges effectively endorses House Budget Committee chairman Ryan’s false premises.

Obama needs to switch parties.

The "Debt Crisis"

is another more than another example of political bullshit:

Today this bad-faith law is pressed to its absurd extreme, to force massive cuts in public programs as the price of not-reneging on the public debts of the United States. Never mind that to force default on the public obligations of the United States is plainly unconstitutional. Section 4 of the 14th amendment says in simple language that public debts, once duly authorized by law and including pensions, by the way, “shall not be questioned.” The purpose of this language was to foreclose, to put beyond politics, any possibility that the Union would renege on debts and pensions and bounties incurred to win the Civil War. But the application is very general and the courts have ruled that the principle extends to the present day.

What is going on in Congress at this moment already violates that mandate. It is an effort to subvert the authority of the government to meet and therefore to incur obligations of every possible stripe. It is an attack on the concept of government itself – as the “Tea Party” by its very name would no doubt agree. It therefore paints those deficit hawks who are using the debt ceiling to take budget hostages as enemies of the United States Constitution.

They are just using it as an excuse to destroy public programs popular with the voters.

That's all.

Like Flies to Shit, the Koch Brothers Are Everywhere

thanks to using its right arm, ALEC, to impose libertarian crackpottery on governments, to the detriment of the vast majority of people:

ALEC contends that government agencies have an unfair monopoly on public goods and services. To change that situation, it has created a policy initiative to counter what it calls “Publicopoly.” ALEC’s stated aim is to provide “more effective, efficient government” via privatization—that is, the shifting of government functions to the private sector. ALEC lists its initiatives on its website (alec.org/publicopoly).

Though the specifics are secret and “restricted to members,” ALEC openly advocates privatizing public education, transportation and the regulation of public health, consumer safety and environmental quality including bringing in corporations to administer:

• Foster care, adoption services and child support payment processing.

• School support services such as cafeteria meals, custodial staff and transportation.

• Highway systems, with toll roads presented as a shining example.

• Surveiling and detaining convicted criminals.

• Ensuring the quality of wastewater treatment, drinking water, and solid waste services and facilities. (After all, when someone mentions a safe and secure public water supply, the voter’s next immediate thought is: “Only if it’s cost-effective!”)

These fuckers are treasonous and should be locked up and their assets seized.

News, Etc.

This article could be titled "The Decline and Fall of a Parasite", for that is an apt description of Rupert Murdoch.

Wall Street Crooks Are Up to Their Eyeballs

promoting sham "public" schools called charters. These "schools" are actually private schools skimming public money which should be earmarked for real public schools.

Of course private school vouchers are seldom brought up anymore. Now the emphasis is on "competition" and charters.

It's all a big fraud, with educators and students being collateral damage:

The education industry, the bank concludes, represents the largest market opportunity since health care services were privatized during the 1970s. While college education can offer “attractive investment returns, the larger developing opportunity is in the K-12 EMO [Education Management Organization] market,” it observed. “The K-12 market is the Big Enchilada.”[3]

While virtually every state in the US is facing draconian cuts in public schools, charters have been a mechanism, a Trojan horse, through which large profit concerns have taken over substantial and growing segments of kindergarten through grade 12 education.
This offensive is now receiving hundreds of millions of dollars of direct underwriting by the Obama administration. Of a piece with the bailout of banks, Obama is providing what little “education” money the federal government is allocating to facilitate the privatization of education.

When You Don't Have a Job,

you are invisible, and you are a useful tool for the powers that be only because you help drive wages and benefits down for those who are still employed.

These people number in the millions, but nobody cares about them.

link

All of this joblessness is a direct result of Washington policies. Period. While the problem is easy to fix, our politicians have no desire to do so.

Cartoons of the Day

An obituary of note:

Because Obama is a Neoliberal Sack of Shit,

he couldn't care less whether or not Social Security is part of the deficit.

I saw this over at the dipshit site DU, with one person trying to make sense of the whole thing:

Why is it even being mentioned in this debate over the Debt Ceiling as 'something to cut' or 'something to slash' or better question, why is it even 'on the table' during this debate?

Social Security had absolutely zero to do with the deficit.

I'd like someone to explain how cuts to SS will contribute anything to reducing the deficit.

By 'cuts' I mean:


1) Raising the Retirement Age

2) No COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) for Seniors

3) Obviously any kind of cuts in benefits earned regardless of age of retirement.

4) Chain-weighted CPI

Or any other deceptive plans to take away money from those who earned the benefits they are receiving or will receive in the future.


The Social Security Fund belongs to those who paid into it. Anything 'saved' by any kind of cuts, goes into that separate fund. The only way it would help pay down the debt would be if it taken out of the fund and 'borrowed'. Is that what they have in mind? I hope not.

It should not even be mentioned in the same paragraph, speech, sentence as the words 'Deficit' 'Debt' 'Debt Ceiling'.

So, why do we keep hearing about Social Security?

Why are we not hearing more about creating jobs?

Why are we not hearing a lot more about the Bush Tax Cuts which contributed 2 Trillion $$ to the Deficit?

Why are we not hearing a lot more about the other major cause of the problem, the Wars/Military Spending?

And has anyone even mentioned The Economic Meltdown, the Bailouts etc. as a major cause of the current fiscal problems and/or starting investigations into those who caused it, as recommended in the recent findings of the bi-partisan Senate Committee to the DOJ?

Iow, why is it even being considered that the most vulnerable Americans pay the debts of the most corrupt, the most wealthy who are actually responsible for them?

'Shared Sacrifice' 'Austerity'! This sounds like the US is being subjected to the same programs implemented in Greece, in Ireland and elsewhere by Global Entities whose main goals appear to be to protect those who created the problems from taking any responsibility for them.



Anyone who ties Social Security to the current problems with the Debt Ceiling should be ashamed of themselves.

Edited to add:

And regarding the President's statement that 'SS is not a major driver of the deficit'. Someone needs to tell him that it is not any kind of driver of the deficit.

In fact, someone has: Obama: WH deficit meeting constructive


But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said she would "absolutely" vote against any package that included savings in Social Security spending. "Social Security has zero to do with the deficit. Nothing. It is a completely separate discussion," she said.

She said she opposed "the very idea of having these essential programs on the table, being forced to put them on the table by Republicans who want to protect the wealth of the wealthiest Americans."


The President however has not been clear at all on this subject:

Obama ignored a question about Social Security during a photo session at the beginning of the meeting. Carney also declined to discuss options before the negotiators.


I think we need clarification on this from the WH and from Congressional Democrats since only a few so far have made clear statements such as the one above from Rep. Jan Schakowsky. It's not that hard.

The IMF and World Bank are calling the shots instead of being dissolved and the bankers who created the mess jailed. Obama doesn't give a shit about the American people.

link

News

How DARE these people want to better themselves instead of working in minimum wage jobs with no benefits or future, provided they even have those jobs.

Ford plans to add 1,800 jobs at the plant, but it’s unclear how many of those will be open to the public because many are reserved for veteran UAW Ford workers eligible to transfer from plants elsewhere.

These thousands of people may have wasted their time, in other words.
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The "99ers" are out of sight, out of mind to our elected officials.

It's all part of the plan to turn this country into a third world country.
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Can Rupert Murdoch's media empire survive? Should it?

The Opening Sentence

is just a lot of shit. Few jobs even require any education beyond high school, and therefore any cuts to vocational education is just plain idiotic.

College is NOT for everybody. We need to go back to vocational education.

There is nothing wrong with learning a skilled trade or working in an office.

Obama is the typical elitist idiot who hasn't a clue about education.

Public Education is a Public Institution Designed for the Public Good

It is not--repeat NOT--a "family business." This article, while well-intentioned, really pisses me off because the writer has this attitude she and her family are entitled to public employment jobs such as teaching, not realizing nepotism is a corrupting influence on any institution.

Public education is based on the civil service system although it is frequently violated with rampant nepotism. I think of all of the highly qualified teachers who cannot get jobs, even when times are good, because districts hire some teacher's kid for a job. It isn't fair, and these jobs are not hereditary titles to be passed on from generation to generation.

The writer of the piece misses the entire point. She is NOT a good example of what we want in education. I don't want public schools turned into or remain family businesses like the mob. We already have too much of this now.

The Trojan Horse Republican

There really isn't any doubt at all Obama is a fraud and a Republican neolib in disguise.

Time and again he is implementing the very things the American voters were against when they elected him to office in November of 2008.

But of course few saw the warning signs this man was and is a fraud.

Now the New Deal is in great danger, as Obama is taking his cues from the neolibs at the World Bank and the IMF.

He cannot ever be trusted.

Inherent in that ideology is the assumption that Americans -- and particularly Democratic voters -- are either too stupid to see the heist in process, or if they do see the heist, are too entranced by their president's power/fame/celebrity/charisma to want to do anything about it, even if what's being pilfered is Democrats' Social Security crown jewel.

The assumption, in other words, is that ignorance and fealty will permit a president to serve as an accomplice to the very grand larceny he was explicitly elected to office to oppose. Should the assumption prove true -- should Obama now be cheered on for doing to Social Security what no Republican president has ever been able to do -- the date on the calendar may say 2011, but it will really be 1984.

He and ALL of the neolibs need to be purged from the Democratic Party. Hell, they need to be purged from ALL of world politics.

Cartoon of the Day #2

Cartoon of the Day

Etcetera and Outrages

Obama continues to sound like a Reaganite with his horseshit about how government must "live within its means." Translated this means the American people are going to bend over and take it while those who have stolen from the United States continue to bleed this country dry.
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Progressive should NOT mean "progressively worse," but Obama is proving himself to be progressively worse than any president in history, and that includes George W. Bush:

Now the same people who were instrumental in getting Obama elected are still refusing to own up to their mistake. And they, and the rest of rank and file Democrats, Democratic members of congress, and the country are paying a terrible price. And will continue to unless they do something. And they can.

Since being elected Obama has betrayed every promise, every pledge and every position he took to win the votes of the gullible who voted for him in the first place, successfully playing their desire to make a statement on race more important than the content of his character.

But now that all of Obama's well documented duplicity have come home to roost in failures of both principle and policy "progressive" organizations are still refusing to acknowledge that Obama has been their problem, not the Republicans, and so have ignored the problem and become as ineffective as the president they supported.

link

It's LONG overdue for Democrats, and by Democrats I mean REAL ones and not the "third way" neolibs, to ditch this son of a bitch. I'd prefer he be pressured to resign.

Obituaries

Former first lady Betty Ford has died.  She is remembered for her candor and support for women's causes back in the days when Republicans weren't the shitassed maniacs they would ultimately become.

She was 93 years old:

She soon made headlines, discussing abortion, pre-marital sex and equal rights on CBS' "60 Minutes" and being named as Newsweek's 1975 "Woman of the Year."

But in 1978, just over one year after leaving the White House after her husband lost his campaign to remain president, Ford made headlines of a different kind. She entered the Long Beach Naval Hospital to be treated for alcohol and prescription painkiller abuse.

That same year, she published the first of two autobiographies, entitled "The Times of My Life." Ford would go on to become a high-profile example of someone who battled substance abuse issues, as well as a tireless advocate for treatment.

Famous 60 Minutes clip from 1975:

What Did You Expect,

Paul, when Obama was such an unabashed admirer of Ronald Reagan that he has been using the same rhetoric about the economy.

Obama is totally hopeless; Democratic voters were sold a con.  Obama was insurance beholden to the financial elites just in case the GOP didn't win in 2008.

Anyway, I don’t believe that it’s all political calculation. Watching Mr. Obama and listening to his recent statements, it’s hard not to get the impression that he is now turning for advice to people who really believe that the deficit, not unemployment, is the top issue facing America right now, and who also believe that the great bulk of deficit reduction should come from spending cuts. It’s worth noting that even Republicans weren’t suggesting cuts to Social Security; this is something Mr. Obama and those he listens to apparently want for its own sake.

Which raises the big question: If a debt deal does emerge, and it overwhelmingly reflects conservative priorities and ideology, should Democrats in Congress vote for it?

Mr. Obama’s people will no doubt argue that their fellow party members should trust him, that whatever deal emerges was the best he could get. But it’s hard to see why a president who has gone out of his way to echo Republican rhetoric and endorse false conservative views deserves that kind of trust.

He can't be trusted--ever.

Etcetera

Since all  our politicians in Washington are of the same political party, the neoliberal party, don't expect them to do anything about rising unemployment.  The 9.2 rate and the stalling of hiring is just what these jerks want.
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The chancellor of NYC schools is supposedly going to look into wrongdoing by principals against teachers, but like the blogger, I will believe it when I see it administrators are made to pay for their misconduct.

Teachers rarely risk their licenses to cheat; it is usually under pressure from administrators.  Teachers who refuse to change grades risk harassment and ultimately termination if they don't go along with these sociopaths in charge.

Administrators are rarely held accountable for their actions and few are fired.

Because of the culture of fear, few if any teachers will go to the head honcho and report abuse.
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Just like we who detested Obama always knew, he was going to put Social Security on the chopping block.
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The ending of the teaching of cursive writing in one state is indicative of the dumbing down of education.  Hell, a lot of teachers don't even know how to write in cursive, let alone how to spell or punctuate properly, so why should the kids?

The Final Word on the Casey Anthony Case

comes from the World Socialist Web Site, of all places.  It is a stinging rebuke to the media for its desire to railroad a troubled individual to the execution chamber.

And worst of all, for ratings.

The jurors, to their credit, applied law and reason, not emotions, to reaching a verdict. They proceeded conscientiously, considered the instructions they had been given, and weighed the very serious outcome of finding Casey Anthony guilty when no conclusive proof had been presented that a crime had even occurred.

The tabloids and cable channel hosts, such as Grace, are not interested in “justice” in any modern, evolved sense of the word. Their conception is a quasi-religious one, rooted in vengeance and vindictiveness. Why not reinstitute trial by combat or trial by ordeal? Asked about Grace in an interview on ABC News Thursday, juror Jennifer Ford remarked, “I have no comment on Nancy Grace ... it’s not fit for television.”

Even the Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, who led the prosecution, acknowledged in an interview on NBC Today Show Thursday morning that it had been a difficult case and that no one would ever know for sure what happened to Caylee Anthony. He said the jury’s decision “came down to the evidence. I think ultimately it came down to the cause of death.”

Exactly.  The case should have never been tried.  I am sure Ashton felt pressured to do it because of the media-induced public frenzy, but he guaranteed acquittal by prosecuting a case he couldn't even prove was a crime.

Obama MUST Step Down

He's a Ronald Reagan devotee, Paul.

To those defending Obama on the grounds that he’s saying what he has to politically, I have two answers. First, words matter — as people who rallied around Obama in the first place because of his eloquence should know. Yes, he has to make compromises on policy grounds — but that doesn’t mean he has to adopt the right’s rhetoric and arguments. The effect of his intellectual capitulation is that we now have only one side in the national argument.

Second, since Obama keeps talking nonsense about economics, at what point do we stop giving him credit for actually knowing better? Maybe at some point we have to accept that he believes what he’s saying.

He's a fucking University of Chicago fraud.  Period.

What is it going to take for people to say "enough"?  Next election is too late.

Obama must be run out of town on a rail.