The Rich Get Richer...and say, "Screw the Poor!"

This blog posting from a DailyKos diary covers some familiar ground, but the writer's (Brettnet) got some fresh insights which are worth reviewing. He quotes a reporter asking Gore Vidal how it is to live full-time in the United States and Gore replies:

If you care about America it's dreadful," he said. "If you are making money you don't care.

Brettnet describes sitting next to a couple of Republicans on a plane recently and they say that they regard John Edward's "two Americas" meme as divisive because they don't see it. They are completely oblivious to the existence of the poor in this country.

I often see this same attitude among the stolid middle class. But fine friends, watch out. As long as the lower percentiles get their crumbs, they may continue to tolerate this benign and clueless neglect, but if the crumbs stop flowing, watch out. If the Right thinks that it's big and bad right now, it ain't seen nuthin' yet. If the unempowered and the disadvantaged ...ever find themselves in a real corner where food and other basic needs of life become hard to get, their anger is going to grow and then explode and we should all fear for the outcome.

It's one thing for a pack of middle class Right Wing, Limbaugh-Coulter lovers to get pissed off. Besides the fact that only they really know what they are pissed off about, they've got an investment to protect. Most of them have homes, jobs and some wealth and status. If conditions ever deteriorate for the underclasses to the point that rage develops and escalates, they have nothing to lose and the Rodney King riots in South Central LA will be just the foretaste of what kind of violence and anarchy that we might face.

Nature abhors a vacuum. And vacuums come in all shapes, sizes and socio-economic statuses. For examples, study the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, post-World War I Germany and the list goes on.

It ain't pretty, but I see us plunging headlong into the trap in much the same way that we are sublimely and blissfully plunging into a global warming disaster. To quote a very tired cliche, Denial is more than a river in Egypt.

CNN in a Nutshell

This is one of the funniest commentaries that I have read in a very long time. The butt of the humor is already a butt in other respects and deserves all of the ridicule that it gets. And that bulls eye is: CNN.

Here is Nance Gregg working over CNN...couldn't happen to a nicer _____. You fill in your own description. Click here.

The Seven Cons

Ian Welsh provides one of the best quick-reference rundowns of the seven main components of the Right Wing coalition that I have seen. His posting is at The Agonist and can be accessed by clicking here.

I slightly disagree with one element of his assessment. He assigns the lead role in the coalition to the "TheoCons" or the Religious Right. I agree that they are the muscle of the coalition, the foot soldiers, but I remain convinced that the core, the brains, the driving force is what he calls the "CorporateCons." The corporate elites provide the financing for just about everything in the Right Wing coalition, from the think tanks and their prolific publications and talking heads to the Republican National Committee with its ruthless tentacles reaching into every level of American politics.

Looking at the Reagan/Bush I era and then at Bush II, all successful initiatives benefited the Corporate elites (tax breaks, reduced regulation, laissez-faire approach to mergers, marketing tactics, “free trade” and off-shoring, etc) while a lot of noisy lip service was paid to the "TheoCon's," the Religious Right's "social issues" (abortion, gay rights, separation of church and state, school prayer, etc)without any tangible, concrete results.

In fact, my bet is that the movers and shakers among the CorporateCons are terrified that Roe v Wade might be overturned. That would de-energize the TheoCons and throw high octane gasoline on the liberal coalition's agenda and arguably give the whole Right Wing four flat tires.

Actually, none of the Religious Right’s central issues have been effectively promoted, let alone implemented, by any of the Right Wing administrations from Reagan to Bush II. I think that in addition to the above-stated reasons, the Republican Party knows that most of the Religious Right’s agenda is just too scary for mainstream America and they are playing the same slippery and cynical game with the Religious Right that they played with Southern segregationists back during Nixon’s “Southern Strategy.” They use all the code words, they make backroom assurances, but never follow through because they know well that none of it will fly in mainstream America.

I believe most Americans who consider themselves conservatives, spell the word with a lower case "c." I also believe that most are primarily concerned with raising their families and leading a comfortable and fulfilling life. To date, Republicans have succeeded in convincing them that they can best provide the political context in which that can happen. They have done it by controlling the media, playing fast, loose and scornfully with the truth, by pandering shamelessly with wedge issues and by relentlessly pushing hate and fear buttons.

And so far, it has worked. They are very lucky in having the disengaged and self-absorbed population that calls 21st Century America home. They are also fortunate that the preceding generation of Right Wingers effectively castrated the media and forged the entire institution into a willing and compliant tool.

Welsh's piece in The Agonist will give you good clarity on the main players on the Right.

The Media is the (Right Wing) Message

This is the text of feedback I submitted to MoveOn.org:

As Jamison Foser writes in Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org/items/200605260016),

"The defining issue of our time is the media...

The dominant political force of our time is the media.

Time after time, the news media have covered progressives and conservatives in wildly different ways -- and, time after time, they do so to the benefit of conservatives."

From Russert and Broder to the foaming mouths of talk radio, Progressives are under assault as never before. And what makes this so serious is that there is simply NO BALANCING counterweight. The So-Called Liberal Media (SCLM, thank you, Eric Alterman) is not just missing in action, it is a Right Wing red herring.

Most Americans dismiss politics as "not their thing" and as a result base their voting choices on the blather from Sunday talking heads, shameless Right-wing op-ed pages and the slanted views expressed on talk radio and cable and broadcast news.

This has to stop if Progressives are going to make any inroad into the relentless takeover of America by the Religious Right, the Corporate elites and the Neo-Con imperial expansionists.

There is only one way to address this and it's to hit them in the pocket book. I propose that MoveOn.org support existing efforts (The Daily Howler, Media Matters , Crooks and Liars, and others) to monitor TV, newspapers and periodicals and perhaps even expand their scope to include the entire media spectrum.

The results should be publicized to promote a movement to cancel subscriptions to unbalanced outlets and to focus purchasing power on Progressive-friendly media and their advertisers and away from Right Wingnut advertisers (like Domino's Pizza, Amazon.com and WalMart). Web sites like Media Matters, BuyBlue.org. should be aggressively supported. Progressives selected by Nielsen and Arbitron should be encouraged to NEVER include Right Wing-supporting media when they report their viewing and listening.

The Right has been doing this for decades with the result that they now OWN the media. NBC can get away with lionizing Ann Coulter on the Today Show and Jay Leno because there's no price to pay, there's no outcry from Progressives, their advertisers peacefully continue to advertise, their ratings remain untouched. CNN, MSNBC and Fox can maintain their stable of Right Wingnuts who cover the airwaves with venom simply because they can...there's perhaps only the slightest murmur from the Left but no other impact.

My own hometown newspaper, the San Jose Mercury-News, has been a balanced paper since I began subscribing 30 years ago. However, its parent company Knight-Ridder has recently been sold and the Mercury-News has been bought by some conglomerate I have never heard of before. I'm keeping a close eye, however, and if they start moving to the Right, my 30-year subscription is coming to an end.

I did cancel my 40-year Time magazine subscription when they put Ann Coulter on the cover with a long and supportive article.

Only with a concerted, organized and relentless effort from a group like MoveOn.org can this be effective. We can have house parties, we can have contribution drives and we can sign petitions all we want, but until we address the nature, quality and orientation of the media where most of the US population gets its news and forms its political judgements, we are simply putting out forest fires with a dixie cup.

Onward Christian Soldiers.....

There is a fascinating article by Michelle Goldberg on the Alternet, "The Tyranny of the Religious Right." Goldberg discusses the growing power and influence of evangelical Christianity:

Whenever I talk about the growing power of the evangelical right with friends, they always ask the same question: What can we do? Usually I reply with a joke: Keep a bag packed and your passport current.

I don't really mean it, but my anxiety is genuine. It's one thing to have a government that shows contempt for civil liberties; America has survived such men before. It's quite another to have a mass movement -- the largest and most powerful mass movement in the nation -- rise up in opposition to the rights of its fellow citizens. The Constitution protects minorities, but that protection is not absolute; with a sufficiently sympathetic or apathetic majority, a tightly organized faction can get around it.

The mass movement I've described aims to supplant Enlightenment rationalism with what it calls the "Christian worldview." The phrase is based on the conviction that true Christianity must govern every aspect of public and private life, and that all -- government, science, history and culture -- must be understood according to the dictates of scripture. There are biblically correct positions on every issue, from gay marriage to income tax rates, and only those with the right worldview can discern them. This is Christianity as a total ideology -- I call it Christian nationalism. (Read the rest)

One of the very troubling developments of the past several decades has been the emergence if not the explosion of Christian fundamentalism and evangelicalism. I say "troubling" not because I'm anti-religious although I am unabashedly areligious. However, the forces that are afoot across the land are not the benign Christians of our sunday school days or even the strict, no-nonsense nuns of my parochial school days.

These are fire-breathing, take-no-prisoners zealots who have set their sights on taking over the USA and changing it into a "Christian nation." One can only speculate that their vision has not yet happened because most of the people in the US are simply not interested in their style of living. However, the "Dominionists" and the "Reconstructionists" both proclaim their goal to be taking over the USA "for Jesus."

So if the majority of the population is not willing to jump on the bandwagon and join these fanatics in launching a "Christian nation," then one can only conclude that once they take over, conversions will be at gun-point, knife-point or by whatever means of intimidation and coercion works.

We've already seen a glimpse of this totalitarianism at the Air Force Academy. A Jewish cadet complained to his father that he was coming under increasing criticism for his religion. The criticism was coming from evangelical "Christian" cadets and the officer corps. One article that I read even implicated the Academy commandant in the move to intimidate non-Christians.

My first thought at reading about the Air Force Academy was that they were packing the officer corps with "Christian" soldiers. Then I wondered if this same scenario was playing out at West Point and Annapolis. What a perfect scheme, to infiltrate the officers' corps of the various branches. Enlisted troops do what they're told. If an officer orders them to take part in a coup d'etat, it would be hard to refuse as an individual.

All I can tell any readers that may happen along and read this is, keep your eyes open. If you see things moving in ways that you find uncomfortable, jump in and become active. These "Christians" are not just motivated, they are fanatical and literally will stop at nothing to implement their agenda. Also, I put "Christians" in quotes because that is how they describe themselves. I personally find very little similarity between 21st Century fundamentalists and evangelicals and anything that I've ever read in the New Testament. They're entire movement is about as far from anything that we hear from or see of Jesus Christ in the gospels.

The Enron Elite Meet the Street

So Ole Jeffrey Skilling and Kenny-boy Lay couldn't put one over on the jury. I would imagine that champagne corks would be popping around the nation if Enron's victims could still afford champagne.

There is no part of me that feels sorry for these two. The destruction of lives that they apparently set in motion makes them very special thugs. Their victims may number in the tens (hundreds?) of thousands and include simple workaday stiffs like you and me who only wanted to save for their retirement and now have nothing.

To me the most distasteful part has been how Skilling and Lay have been making themselves out to be the victims. How they have tried to paint their prosecution as persecution. It sounds a lot like the gang in the White House. They always have someone else to blame for their failures. It's always them who are the victims.

What a pack of despicable scum. And I don't have any more to say about these two.

Remarkable Capitulation

Senate Democrats have again jumped into their role as Bush enablers. Four Democrats on the Senate Intelligence (?) Committee voted to confirm Michael Hayden as Director of the CIA. They included my own Senator, Diane Feinstein (see separate posting). To get a full discussion on this topic (including links), see Glenn Greenwald's, Unclaimed Territory.

Feinstein Totally Blows It!

Senator Feinstein, what in God's name were you thinking??!!

How could you even think about voting to approve the nomination of Gen Michael Hayden as the Director of the CIA? This is the man who not only oversaw the illegal and unconstitutional eavesdropping on millions of Americans' phone conversation, but who designed, promoted and implemented it. He is the focal point of the whole program.

Senator Feinstein, are you prepared to guarantee your constituents that this program will never be used for partisan political purposes? Because if your beltway blindness obscures that line of thinking from view, that's what a lot of people out in the real world feel that this is all about. This administration's leaders are committed idealogues who have demonstrated time and again that nothing stands in the way of their implementing their agenda...that has included the laws of the United States and even the Constitution of the United States. And many see eavesdropping as a further example of their grab for power.

I can't understand how you could vote for this man and still look yourself in the mirror and say that you are not violating your oath to uphold the Constitution. This nomination for most progressive Americans was a no-brainer. This guy is simply unacceptable.

So Senator Feinstein, the impact on me as your constituent is total. Quite simply, I will never vote for you again...and to visualize that, know that I have voted for you repeatedly going back to your days as a San Francisco Supervisor and later for mayor. Whatever mindless partisan the California Republican Party decides to run against you next time (and it will be a mindless partisan, I have no doubt), I will simply leave the ballot blank or vote for a Green or Peace and Freedom candidate. However, I will never vote for you again.

This action tells me that you "don't get it." You don't understand the idealogical nature of this administration and you don't understand their agenda to promote the interests of the Corporate Elites, the fanatical religious fringes and the paranoid militarists over the vast multitude of middle class citizens.

Real Men are...Republicans?

Francis Wilkinson, in the online American Prospect (tip of the hat to Donkey Rising) has a long discussion about how the Republicans have styled themselves as the "testosterone party." His central example is George W alighting on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in his crotch revealing flight suit. That particular example has gone down as a mix of arrogance and pandering.

This is a fairly long article, but well worth your time.

The Real Problem with NSA Surveillance

Annalee Newitz has a great article on Alternet about the NSA phone eavesdropping episode. She wonders why the polls are finding only 53% of the population who have a problem with their telephone conversations being recorded and stored by the US Government.

Here's what disturbs me: in light of recent revelations that the National Security Agency has been illegally collecting vast databases of information about every single phone call made in the United States since late 2001, only 53 percent of US citizens polled by Newsweek think the government has gone too far in its efforts to stop terrorism.

That's a majority, but not a very large one. And in the same poll, 41 percent said they thought spying on phone calls made to and from everyone in the country was necessary.

This arouses the same sinking feeling I got many years ago when I was a young graduate student at UC Berkeley, grading my very first set of papers. From that sample, and many others in subsequent courses, I learned that 70 percent of college students in an upper-division English course at a top university cannot construct a coherent argument using evidence taken from books they've read.

That's what convinced me that most people, even highly educated ones, go through their lives without ever examining the way rhetoric works, and the way evidence is used (or abused) in its service.

I can't disagree with anything that she writes. However, I was not surprised by the percentages of approval/disapproval. I've long since abandoned any hopes that my fellow citizens will do any work to inform themselves about the compelling issues of the day.

While I'm in full agreement with Ms Newitz about the complacency and/or cluelessness of 47% of the population, I have an even worse fear about this additional "crossing of the line" by the Bush crew. Two of the possible outcomes of this arrogant and illegal tactic include this type of surveillance becoming routine and commonplace, or on the other hand, for us to overreact and pass draconian legislation which hampers legitimate and legal attempts to pursue intelligence.

Whatever else we know, we must acknowledge that Planet Earth is a dangerous and a challenging place. The most powerful nation on earth is a natural target for all sorts of terrorists, loose cannons, opportunists and bad people. No one in their right mind would suggest that intelligence gathering is not vital to our security. However, the very people whose security is at stake should not be the subject of the surveillance or should the act of gathering this surveillance be done in violation of the Constitution or the laws of the United States.

Intelligence gathering must be done with due respect for our laws and our lives as well as those of law-abiding citizens everywhere. What I don't buy is that "if people do get stepped on, they're just collateral damage" in the War on Terra. BS!

The final thought on this topic is that we have no guarantee that the Bushoviks are really gathering intelligence on Al Qaida. Given their track record and their M.O. in many past capers, they may well be using this data to spy on political enemies. These are idealogues, remember, and they have consistently demonstrated in the past that they are willing to desecrate the Constitution, violate the law and otherwise trash our national integrity and whatever mores and other long-standing customs that might get in the way of them advancing their agenda.

More Molly

Molly Ivins has two new posts that provide good information and are (as always) good reading. To see click here and here.

Mollie Gets It Right Again

There are few things or people in this world that you can count on. Molly Ivins is one of the people that always come through with valuable insight. Click on this link to be cybernetically transported to Molly-land and read what she has to say about Dear Leader and his Partei.

Five Points About High Oil Prices

Bob Higgins at http://agonist.org talks about Tyson Slocum of The Public Citizen appearing on Stephen Colbert's Comedy Central program. Click this link to go see. You'll be glad you did.

Molehill or Mt Everest?

I apologize in advance, but I just can't get worked up over the "undocumented worker" crisis in this country. Yes, our borders should be secure. Yes, foreign citizens of any stripe should not be sneaking across our borders. Yes, "amnesty" is "not fair." I "kinda" agree with everybody and also disagree with everybody.

My take: First of all, this is not a law enforcement problem. It is an economic imbalance problem. If Mexico were a country with a real economy, a real government and real political parties, then it would most certainly solve its own problems. However, Mexico is none of those things. I remember a Senator (I believe it was Daniel Patrick Moynihan) opposing NAFTA because Mexican courts were neither impartial nor honest and getting a fair judgement relies heavily on how well the palms are greased.

My own impression (however uneducated) is that Mexico, along with much of Latin America has a stark "have/have not" problem. Enhancing that problem is the "haves" unwillingness or inability to figure out how to bring more of their population into the mainstream economic process. If you are born poor in Mexico, you are likely to remain poor unless you stumble on a very lucky break, are inordinately good looking/beautiful or are a frigging genius. Otherwise, get used to tortillas and beans and perhaps a couple of grains of rice on holidays. With prospects like those, who would want to stick around?

You can extrapolate that description to much of Central and even South America. An individual not "to the manor born" can either fall in love with manual labor (when they can find it), and enjoy the rigors of hunger and the challenge of disease without viable health care. It sounds like a regular paradise.

Now that might have flown 50 years ago, but now, whatever else the poor in Mexico may lack, they do see television and movies. Also, likely many of the same gringos now bleating loudest about the "illegal problem" have built resorts along the Mexican coasts. Now the Mexican poor may view the "other side" as they luxuriate within walking distance of desperate slums. Now the poor camposinos can clearly see what they're missing and want some of it too.

The answer to the US illegal immigration problem is not to erect an iron curtain between Mexico and the USA. That didn't even work too well for the USSR. And yes, the iron curtain was installed to keep their people in, our wall would be to keep the barbarians out. However you slice and dice, a wall will become a symbol of failure for both countries, for both societies. For Mexico it will symbolize a failed economy, a failed political system and a failed society which can't or won't provide for its citizens and from all appearances, doesn't care. For the US it will mean a failure of vision, a failure as a neighbor and perhaps worst of all, a triumph of mean-spiritedness.

The Right has shown us the ugliness of intolerance and xenophobia. It has shown us the triumph of hyper-chauvinism and the embarassment of affluent paranoia. I have heard numerous Anglos spitting nails over the "wetbacks" and not one that I've met can show any evidence that they have themselves been personally injured by an illegal alien.

What we're seeing, I believe, is what was historically called "know nothing-ism." This is a blanket hatred of the group du jour. It could be Catholics, Jews, Blacks, Irish, Italians, Poles and the list goes on. It's like the survivors in a lifeboat pulling in the life savers before anyone else can climb in. They made it, screw the rest.

Unfortunately, for a country with a very short event horizon, this will not be solved in a year. And it will not be solved ever with the steps being taken so far. The only solution I can see is for Mexican society to evolve to where it can take care of its own.

It is a total and complete disgrace for a country, as rich and as blessed by nature with resources as Mexico, to keep its citizens in such abject poverty. The US needs to start using some of its resources to help Mexico find its way toward being a viable modern state.

Short term, I don't think that anything will work. This problem has been long in the making and will likely take long to resolve.

NSA Spying Scandal

BobcatJH at Democratic Underground has another posting that asks THE big question...are they really listening for Al Qaeda or is this really just domestic political spying. You know, with this crowd anything is not just possible, but probable. Read his posting for a lot more.

Lions and Tigers and Bears!! OH MY!!

Another visit to Democratic Underground to see what BobcatJH wants to ask the administration. He's afraid that George W and minions may have some "shock and awe" up their sleeve to help get their groove back.

I sure hope not, but with this crowd, I've learned to expect not just the worst, but the worst imaginable and beyond.

Wow!! You Gotta Read This One!!

Democratic Underground has a real champagne cork popper at this URL. I've been hoping for this article for a very long time.

Update: The posting that this links to has been called into question. It hasn't been totally discredited, but obviously the predicted events have not as yet transpired, and until they do, caveat lector!

Second Update: This issue is continuing to evolve. Click here and here for the latest.

How to Start a War

This is a fascinating (and too true) post which gets right into the NeoCon game plan.

The Colbert Effect

What is left to say about Stephen Colbert's tour de force at the White House Correspondent's and Stenographer's Association black tie dinner? The outraged Right appears to be so tongue tied that only raspy barking is coming from their pet carriers.

Most of the outrage that I have read about is coming from the Press. A good overview is presented in the Chicago Sun Times (thanks to AmericaBlog for the link) I guess that they are the one with the most to be ashamed of. Bush is just being Bush and his minions are just being good storm troopers, but the press is supposed to be (dare I say it?) fair and balanced. Well, as we all have known since early in the Clinton Administration, they are anything but.

So all in all, I would like to extend my profound gratitude and hearty salutation to Stephen Colbert, for his courageous and ballsy performance (click for video) (thanks to Crooks and Liars for the link to Google Video). I encourage all to watch it.

The Repug spin seems to revolve around it "not being funny." Well, maybe not, but I know that I wasn't looking for "funny" as much as "effective." Let's be real clear, Stephen Colbert stood feet away from George W Bush and proceeded to skewer him and his pack of jackals and their long trail of misdeeds every way but loose. In short, he did what the news media should have been doing all the while, but haven't.

Again, thanks to Stephen Colbert for speaking up for all of us...where it counts and to whom it counts.

Another Fine Mess

Well, you'd never know it by reading the daily newspaper or listening to the broadcast news or (gag) cable news, but the Bush era is exploding in a dizzying array of scandal. It's hard to know where to begin, so I won't. I'll add some links to other blogs who cover it much better than I possibly could such as Talking Points Memo, Glenn Greenwald, and Hullabaloo. There are many, many more, but I'll let you find those.

The first cynical thought that jumps into my mind, harking back to the (wink wink, elbow in the ribs) Clinton "bimbo eruptions," is "scandal eruptions." And the word on the street is that you ain't seen nuthin yet! Couldn't happen to a nicer group of creeps.

This now seems to involve the entire Repugnican experience...Congress, the Executive and of course the owners of the above, the Corporate Elites. I thought that I was pretty well jaded after living though the JFK assassination, Vietnam, Watergate, Iran hostages, Reaganomics and the right wing rabies epidemic during the Clinton administration, but I stand humbled. I am daily flabbergasted by the latest news from the front lines.

There appears to be no depth to which they won't descend. The chutzpah of Rumsfeld staring into the camera lens saying, "I'm not a liar," harks back to Nixon's, "I'm not a crook." Now we find out after Goss resigned from the CIA this week, that we've got "Hookergate." Apparently "the Dukestir's" defense contractor friends provided limousines, prostitutes and suites in (where else?) the Watergate complex in Washington. I've read that for these paragons of the anti-gay Right even may have enjoyed the services of male prostitutes. Just when you thought that this bunch had hit bottom, something else comes along that blows that bar away.

So fasten your seat belt, stow your tray tables in their original upright position and enjoy the turbulence.