Keith Olbermann writes: "Republicans have overplayed their hand in a way that seems startling even for them, and they shall inherit the proverbial wind. They have taken another step, neither to be retraced nor erased, towards their political suicide - an event that cannot come a minute to soon for the real America of fairness, the sanctity of a contract, rules, and equal opportunity."
Keith Olbermann. (photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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the rich and could care less about the middle class, shame on them and American workers need to wake up start voting and throw the liers out of office like they deserve.
Scott Brown won an election. GWB won one of his elections. This doesn't happen because "we are right" and "they are wrong"; It happens because voters don't know who is right and who is wrong. How do we change what we say and who we say it to, in a way that will get people to actually vote in their best interest? I'm at a loss to answer that. I forward some of what I read and the people that get it see me as an annoyance I believe.
How do we change the adage "Never try to teach a pig to sing; It wastes your time and it annoys the pig"?
The great thing is that our side does not need to lie or distort to expose the right's record and true intentions!
When seniors can be shown in bullet point fact sheets exactly how the reps want to take away their SS, Medicare etc and shown the tax breaks and gov welfare for corporations, they might not be so damn loyal to the reps.
All "we" need is the opportunity to lay it all out in black and white, in the simplest of forms side by side, comparisons and voting records, then, if they bother to check these things out they will wake up to what they have been supporting. Another big hurdle is reversing the perception of unions as evil and hard working Americans as lazy and greedy and trying to suck the life out of our country. This perception must be reversed if we are to fight the corporate takeover.
It is entirely volunteer, donation-supported and accepts no $ from the government, politicians, etc... it is one of the finest examples of a grass roots effort that is successfully accomplishing its mission.
Just look up Project Vote Smart on any search engine, it is located in Wyoming State.
Reply by David Mallory: In the interest of equity in free speech, it should behoove liberals to use a few simple, business-like catch phrases (not too many!) such as those used by non-conserving conservatives, and also businesses, but phrases that do not lie and repeat them ad infinitum, ...since our public has been "educated" into responding reflexively to prolonged media blitz for multiple decades. Like TV advertising. Perhaps borderline-income people will vote less against themselves in time.
There are pockets of progressive activity-but it is always the same pockets-(of course in northern states.)
As long as a southern/westerner mind set prevails in large segments of our population (yes that is a huge generalization) there will be no radicalization of thought. As long as Republicans have disproportionat e wealth and power their agenda, will usually prevail.
The 'mouths' are in south Florida. The rest of us are struggling, often poor, working people---the ones lucky enough to find a job.
Florida workers have NO real rights.
We have the right to work IF we are willing to tolerate anything a sadistic boss might throw at us...including withholding pay.
========================================
George, I also forward some of what I read and I get the same feeling - that my e-mail buddies don't give a damn about what is happening in Wisconsin. They're not aware that this gradual usurpation of their rights began in earnest 30 years ago with Ronald Reagan. It's now in full bloom since, by controlling so many state legislatures, the GOP has more power than it ever did nationally. And, as Wisconsin governor Scott Brown said, "This is our moment." They plan to strike while the iron is hot!
While we slept, they (with the help of some Democrats) have gradually taken control of: the media; the courts; the voting process; union activity; tax law; manufacturing; etc. Meanwhile, they have unleashed an unrelenting attack on President Obama so successfully that 51% of GOP voters believe he was born in Kenya. Our mainstream media is so afraid of these guys that they are of no help when it comes to telling Americans the truth about what is happening to us.
We already know the corporate media won't call them out on their lies, but the dems COULD call them out often enough that the masses would at least HEAR their rebuttals once in a while!
No, the dem party is just as corrupted as the reps--- but the reps are more genuine because they never pretended to be for the working people. They are doing exactly what they said they wanted to do.... run us broke and give everything to the corporations.
In 2004, that same 50,000 black voters in Florida were STILL off the voting rolls AND they had to switch the Ohio votes in the middle of the night. In several Ohio districts, more people supposedly voted for George Bush than the total number of people registered to vote in the entire district! One District had 4000 (yes, FOUR THOUSAND) more votes for George W Bush than there were registered voters. That's why a whole bunch of Ohio politicians went to jail. And the guy in Tennessee whose company "handled" to vote counts? He died in a very suspicious accident just before he was deposed.
Yes like the spoiled brats they are -- taking their ball(s) and going back home, if they can't get their way!
Not to be disrespectful, but you're too kind, by far.
I realize it's scary for you, and has prompted many calls for violence and "revolution," but this is actually the wave of the future - breaking the stranglehold these public unions have on the state budgets and economies - when the People see the results, they are going to want more of the same.
How about we settle this at the ballot box and not with pitchforks?
Recall is part of the right to the ballot box!
ARE YOU RELATED TO THE KOCH BROTHERS/???
More like 10-1. They work mostly for the top 1%, plus the religious crazies.
I would like to add the great quote by John F. Kennedy, "those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable", and by far the most prescient thing Gaddafi said at his last U,N, address was "you need to reopen the investigation into the death of JFK"; did he and his Marxist buddies like Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Daniel Ortega know something most of the rest of us don't????
We miss seeing you on TV. Keep up the good fight.
Theyr are ruthless and have big money and poltics behind them and a huge supporting cast willing to do things against their best interests...just like NAZI Germany or any other Dictator like Khadafi, Pol Pot, Bush II.
We live in a Democracy and it is being broken into a Republic represented by the RICH and Powerful.
Thier quest includes ignoring the Constitution as irelevent..
Just like the Wisconsin Govenor Walker and Chrisies behavior
Never confuse our form of government with those fascist repugs!Get out of this false repug demo paradigm. Those 2 partys whipsaw us back and forth-divide and conquer.
To call them Nazis is over the top, and runs into Godwin's Law territory.
There are plenty of bad things we can say about them, but let's not start calling them Nazis.
Let me know when you think americans ever showed respect for authority , and/or a willingness to admit they ever lost a war, and your argument might gain some traction.
We might be headed towards fascism, but it won't be anything like the nazis. It'll likely be far less systematic, but far more cruel and successful. Nazism was a single flavour and america's fascism will be a rainbow of oppression at home and around the world.
By your definition all G20 countries are some kind of Nazi or other, wouldn't you say?
That's too easy; for decades the purposefully self-deluded rightwing devotees have been following the marching orders of the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Beck, and now they have 24/7 Fox News to tell them how and what to think. They see these shock-jock macho-meathead motor mouths as their father figures, and they willingly abdicate any autonomous thought to them, thus creating an entire segment of the electorate with chronic invincible ignorance, willing to believe in death panels, willing to believe that unions are the cause of all our economic woes a mere two years after Wall Street crashed the world economy, willing to support an illegal war, willing to blame Obama for all of Bush's disasters, etc., etc., etc.
So, is the argument gaining traction NOW?
Read "Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism", . It's worrisome.
Try also "Are Right-Wingers Simply Stuck in Adolescence?"
.
Your vote is a travesty and shows that Republicans like youare nothing but sheep, slaves to the unbridled greed of large corporations and piggishness of lobbyists like the voracious Koch bros.
Balancing the WI. budget on the backs of state workers --mostly women teachers, nurses, secretaries and other modestly paid workers -- and doing so in a sneaky way (=the radical rightwing Repugnican way?) shows your utter disrespect and lack of regard for our democracy. Republicans are like spoiled little boys who HAVE TO have THEIR way,. no matter what, and at ANY cost... Dishonorable. Dishonest. Indecent! You have sown the seeds of destruction of the shameless Republican party.
RECALL!
"Fascism should rather be called corporatism, as it is the merging of government and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism 2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections Fascist nations typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections."
Dr. Lawrence Britt
Some LABELS are just facades.
I've read dozens of your comments in recent months and I've NEVER read anything by you that didn't essentially say the same thing: that "yes republicans are bad... BUT..." You can ALWAYS be counted on to supply us with the false equivalencies, and the calls for us to unilaterally "tone it down"
It's a very old and insidious tactic you're using, and judging by your ratings, it doesn't seem to be working.
I give a lot of credit to my fellow RSN readers for reading through your obvious attempts at manipulation.
You can stop hiding your intentions. The cat's out of the bag.
In the greater audience, calling someone a Nazi, when you really mean something else, is lazy among other things.
After making a great argument, such as "the US Dollar is being destroyed by the FED buying 70% of Treasurys under QE2", why lose your fellow citizen by name calling?
There are many, confused in the middle right now, that might best be persuaded by avoiding the Beck approach!!
"The Constitution is just a
goddamn piece of paper!"
Google it.
Sestak was alive and well with over 2500 votes then before the doors closed he lost...votes from absentee not even counted. He was favorite, but he did not take as much money from oil/gas
The attack on the unions is reminiscent of the attack on unions started in Germany by Hitler using the financial crisis as an ready excuse to attack unions, before ever going after the Jews.
Union organizers were the first occupants of the newly established concentration camp.
We all know who followed.
Not sure what the Nazis sought to do in the beginning of their rise to power, but the puppeteers of the Repugnants just want profit and power--to turn the US into a banana republic, or perhaps an Ayn Rand paradise, with a few wealthy overlords and millions of serfs--they do seem to want to exterminate people.
I hear my parents were Republican so I am. duh... didn't you grow up to be independent? I think many Republicans are under the illusion that the party is like it used to be 50 years ago.
Today it is scary right wing and people had better learn it before they bring down this country. Bush nearly did. I am 65 years old and never in my life have I seen such destruction of our "Democracy" as under George W. I think he was drunk half the time.
He was drunk then and still is...a dry drunk but still a drunk. And those fn morons in Dallas worship him.
He spent time in Texas: He got his DUIs in Maine. If you didn't know that before, well, I just you know why!! LOL.
Quoting
The Rise and Fall Of The Third Reich,
by William L. Shirer. Excellent and memorable; also quietly horrible.
As to destruction of our democracy: we're experiencing anaphylactic politics. (Worth checking the meaning of that word.)Quoting
Their addition of the The Tea Baager party only sealed the deal.
Bring us UP TO DATE...
Their suicide started long ago.
I'd say Frank Perdue. He runs very cruel factory farms, afaik.
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12425
Please read.
The Wisconsin action exposes the sham the governor and Republican legislators were perpetrating.... how can some issue be both fiscal and not fiscal. If collective bargaining is not a fiscal issue, why make it part of a budget package? Was including it in the budget package really intended to crush unions and with them the middle class and working people? I believe it was and is the goal of the Wisconsin governor (and other Republican governors) and the Republican run legislature. They have wanted to do this since FDR brought in the New Deal and helped end the Great Depression.
If they were sincerely about reducing or eliminating deficit spending, every part of the budget would "be on the table for review"....both revenue and spending. It is not the way of American democracy to cut corporate taxes and make people who pay taxes pay for the lost revenue.;
True, but it IS the way of American Republicanism - and the republicans are in power - for the moment. Let's see to it that this moment is as short as possible!
all sides to reveal themselves. 'Til now, Republicans WANTED him to strong-arm others so they could attack his methods. Now THEY are
revealed in all their true colors.
Fascism (pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a radical, authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2][3][4] Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy.
Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong.[15]
Facist's (not Nazi's) reject individualism and advocate the creation of a single-party state[18] which forbids and suppresses opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement.[19]
Anything familiar here??
Balancing the WI. budget on the backs of state workers --mostly women teachers, nurses, secretaries and other modestly paid workers -- and doing so in a sneaky way (=the radical rightwing Repugnican way?) shows utter disrespect and lack of regard for our democracy.
"Fascism should rather be called corporatism, as it is the merging of government and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini
"The moving finger writes,
And having writ moves on,
Not all your piety nor wit,
can lure it back to cancel half a line.
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it."
Omar Khayam
I'm a 39 year veteran of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, retired in 2000. I was there before we had bargaining rights and remember it all too well. A person could be black-balled or favored for the skimpiest of reasons. Belonging to the right lodge, for example. Or the right congregation. One never knew the reason...
These Radical faux-Republicans have sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind!
ON TO RECALL (the political guillotine)!!
2000= strike 1 "W"
2010= strike 2 "Kock-brother + big $ buy our elections.
2011-2012 = Thomas / Scalia whoring for the Kock brothers will bring the cream to the top - if Kock brother's "anything" appear before the Supremes and Thomas/Scalia do not recuse. Thomas looks like a dead fish (re TAX) and if anybody appears before the Supremes for TAX anything -- THE END to the "Scalia / Thomas" reign of terror.
My sadness came when John Paul Stevens retired -- a Justice of the higest quality and fairness in every way.
Yet the rank and file GOPers and teabaggers are so brainwashed they don't realize they are slicing their own--and their children's--throats. I know some who directly voted for GOP candidates knowing those candidates pledged to destroy programs essential to those voters. When they did, the idiots still declared loyalty to the GOP.
I think they have put Republican ahead of American in their minds and hearts.
And the brainwashing continues...
I don't feel that Democrats can effectively represent the left anymore (not that they ever had, since FDR). Obama may ymean well, but he's leaned way too far to the right. Other Dems are passing tax-cuts, increasing military build-ups, etc., etc. It's time to suceed from the Democratic Party and form a grass-roots liberal movement that will actually have a pais. We need a left-wing "Tea Party"!
by Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
So please don't hesitate to boycott Wisconsin travel, goods, and services. The businesses involved are supporting this legislative fiasco.
'Keep up the great work...I thought there might be a revolution in my daughter's lifetime but I think we'll see one in my lifetime!
This is like the campaigns:
Anarchists for Jim Gilcrest (of the minutemen)
or Anarchists for Jim Torrey (mayor of Eugene)
It will be fun!
It would take less than a week to bring this Rabble to it's knees with a Country wide Unified Union Walkout. Heck, in a couple of days the lack of being able to conduct commerce and transport would certainly redefine the conversation focus about rights to bargain. Yes it is true that Money talks and is a form of power, but our Society is dependent upon people services for anything to continue to work smoothly. If the Big Ten Service unions were to flex their muscles in solidarity it would become very clear that The People Hold All Trumps when they unify to show just how true that is. America runs well because of the little common people, riling them may not be such a great idea! We are not known as the "United" States for nothing.
Absolutely love your wordplay: "Koch-sucker"~How did THAT ever get past whatever censors?
IMO, the suicide of the Rethuglicans can't come too soon~
Also, really enjoyed all of the comments~
I'm hoping the workers connect the dots and take this fight to the national level as well. Republicans are showing their hand all over the place. Sadly the DNC and our President can't seem to find a microphone. We're in it by ourselves. That's o.k. as long as we know the score.
as it is supposed to work. This isn't it.
You said it!
A demise therefore that would remove Obama from government as well.
I'm getting ready to do a poor girl/poor boy car window sticker (gets taped into the rear window). Simple job - 72 pt. Ariel Narrow in bold face works well. Might even get fancy and have a big as you can get blow-up done at Kinko's or another local print shop - costs about five bucks, and taped onto large, cheap poster boards, it'll make great yard and window signs when not being carried at demonstrations.
If the evil villainaire rulers get away with this in Wisconsin, the rest of the country will follow in short order. Time for us, regardless of party or the lack thereof, to follow Pres. Ike's old advice, and get to work to UNDO THE COUP.
VILLAINIARES - GO TO HELL! Three good window sticker and sign board logos, but yours is best by a long shot. Now, what can we come up with to remind folks, nationwide, to force their votes to be counted and counted correctly? How about: KOCH-SUCKED & VOTE-PLUCKED - the U.S.A. today!
THE OBVIOUS HAS COME TO LIGHT: SCOTT WALKER IS AN ARROGANT LYING
SACK OF S--T ! HE IS A DISGRACE TO THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, HE AND ALL THE REPUBLICANS ,WHO VOTED AGAINST COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR WORKERS ,CERTAINLY INDICATED THAT THEY (THE REPUBLICANS ) ARE IN BED WITH BIG BUSINESS AND CORPORATIONS, THERE IS NO OTHER CONCLUSUION.
IF THEY CAN SLEEP AT NIGHT, AFTER WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, THEY WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO THE LORD ON THEIR DAY OF RECKONING.
GOD BLESS AMERICA AND FOR THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING SYSTEM FOR AMERICAN WORKERS, THAT IS THE AMERICA THAT I FOUGHT FOR.
JOE DEMARCO
WW 2 VETERAN
Kieth, SORRY THAT MY "SACK OF SHIT" DOESN'T COMPARE WITH YOUR "KOCH SUCKER" REFERENCE, YOU ARE SO RIGHT ----AGAIN!
The GOP once again showed their hand at trying to take the rights of the American people out of their own hands.
Putting this country in danger of STRIKES EVERYWHERE.
Our country will be pulled apart by the GOP!
make a personal contribution instead, like the rest of us "real" people; corporate imaginaries need not apply!
I'm a long-time fan, Keith, but this comment is beneath mud-slinging, beneath Limbaugh language.
Lesson to be learned--I hope.
Regarding the RECALL
"It doesn't matter who casts the ballots. What matters is who counts the ballots."
"I looked up the word politics in the dictionary. It's actually a combination of two words: poli, which means many, and tics, which means bloodsuckers."
Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show"
"There is no difference between the two parties. They are both Globalists, with Big Business interests, not American interests. We need Statesmen who look to the future, not Politicians who look to the hand that feeds them."
Donna Voetee
Just one point: I have not forfeited my right to be notified about what my State Government was legislating. The Open Meetings Law requires 24 hours notice and even in emergencies, which this was not, 2 hours and not the one hour 51 minutes it took to take away rights I value very much.
The consent of the governed and the accountability of my government to me, the citizen, has been valued with the very lives of others and that price I am willing to pay as well.
This is not diaper rash on the brain or having taken myself out of the right to participate in the democratic process. The doors of the capitol building were locked late yesterday, in defiance of a court order during regular business hours while inside, others were stealing my rights and disrespecting democracy.
Am I whining? Please tell me. Or should I just sit back and enjoy the tyranny under which we now live?
I'm convinced that only when we pour into the streets will anything start to change. This will happen when the Repugnatins go for the throat of Social Security and Medicare. Then and only then will the masses go to the streets. Then they will have truly over-reached. Stay tuned, you know they can't resist
Please answer this 1 question for all of us.
Why did you vote these scumbags in in the first place?
Please change typo "to" to TOO. Thanks.
I agree and was desperately trying to think of an apt description, which you now have provided. All I can add is that he gives me chills down deep into my bones. There's nothing there but a puppet who doesn't know his strings are being pulled to prop him up until....
If you understand or remember how powder is made, you will understand that the “DUST” was freshly produced POWDER and it is yet another proof! If you do not remember how then go back to high school chemistry and use the mortar and pestle. Yes POWDER is produced by grinding. It can also be produced by explosives! When will they ever learn???
Maybe we will resurrect the Royalists ....Oh, wait, we already have. They call themselves....Republicans!
The Republicans have niggerized the union workers in Wisconsin. Black people have been suffering under these Republicans since Herbert Hoover. We Blacks have known them a long time; and now a large segment of America is watching those ruthless Republicans commit political suicide in Wisconsin.
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