Radical Rethugs & Media To Blame - The Most Telling Picture - What Supporting the Troops Really Means

Dumbya-loving Joe Klein is not a source I quote - ever - (heck - I don't like the (admitted and well-known) liar's persona enough to give him credit for anything, and I'm pretty sure that he's only out there on this issue due to a desire to quickly capitalize on what must be the beginning of a major movement of talking heads who are finally seeing the light (truth) about these criminals' agenda - now that they've gotten just about everything they could ever want) but today I am because it seems that he's trying to get out in front of a change (a tiny one, I'm sure) in reporting from the MSM (on what the Rethugs are up to) that bears some serious public in(tro)spection. Yes, he calls them " reactionary radicals," although I thought the oddest part of his article was his continued refusal to comment on the divorced-from-reality logic (and understanding of the intent of these programs) of these new Radical Rethuglicans. He reports what they are saying, but refuses (for the first time!) to characterize it in light of his past amiable reporting of such. But maybe I'm being too tough. You decide. (Emphasis marks added - Ed.)

Jim Bunning is doing all of us a favor. As this comment from the Number 2 Senate Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, makes clear, the Republicans are turning toward a form of reactionary radicalism that is well to the right not only of traditional conservatism, but also of post-Victorian concepts of government and - not to put too fine a point on it - of common decency as well:

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working." Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work. . . ."

The idea that those who have lost their jobs in this Wall Street/mortgage-scam recession are simply deadbeats, choosing to stay on unemployment rather than look for work, seems more appropriate to Scrooge's London than the 21st century.

But Kyl has spoken his version of the truth, and we should be grateful for that: this is what the Republican Party is now all about. The America they - and the Tea Partiers - want would have no Medicare or Medicaid or Social Security (just ask the rising Republican star, Paul Ryan, who would privatize them all), no social safety net, no environmental or workplace regulations, no highway or infrastructure building. It would (be) more Hume than Adam Smith, who would be considered a socialist by current Rush/Beck standards. This is what they are selling and, according to CNN, what 56% of the American people are currently buying - the idea that the federal government is a threat to their freedom. This is not conservative government, but the absence of government.

And so, again: Let's call the roll. Let's see how many allies Jim Bunning and Jon Kyl have.

Let's find out their names and remember them. This is so important that we should stop all other business: Let them filibuster...and spend hours telling us exactly what else they would abolish.

Go Joe. (Away.)

I saw a story and a picture yesterday that every one of us here in Blogtopia should be emphasizing in our Hyde Park haranguing corners. David Glenn Cox speaks for all of us and gets the credit for courageous reporting (emphasis marks added - Ed.). With the government and financial institutions firmly in the hands of the internationally wealth bandits, is there a way out?

Feb. 24, 2010 - I want you to look very closely at this picture and try and keep it in your minds eye. This was a perfectly healthy twenty two-year-old young man who in the service of his country got half of his head blown off. I think that’s important, I think that’s newsworthy. Let me tell you how newsworthy I think it is. I think that it’s more important than chocolate cake recipes and far more important than comic book reviews. It is more important than who fell and who's swell at the winter Olympic games. It is far more important than any self-serving load of crap banged out by Pseudo doctor Amy. It is more important than American Idol or Lost or any other mindless goat droppings the public chooses to chew on. This is some American mother’s son, her little boy, he may be gay or straight or transgender but his life is fucked forever. How did this come to happen to this poor mother’s son? It came to happen because the people in the media who are supposed to foster a public debate on such public issues as war instead used their franchise to promote articles about chocolate cake and comic book reviews. They see their free press as free to choose not to look when bad thin(g)s happen. They feel no need to explain to his parents or to anyone that the war that blew off half of this poor boys head was based on out and out lies. It was a war perpetrated by people who hoped to gain from it be it in oil or pipelines or service contracts and like the media they don’t care that this mother’s son is mangled and mutilated. Do you care? I’ve been married twice for a combined twenty-five years and in that time I doubt my wives ever baked a chocolate cake. I don’t read comic books or watch goat crap TV but you see I’ve got a son about this boy’s age. My heart aches and my mind fills with rage because the people that have the power and authority to show this picture would rather talk about American Idol and from where I sit that makes them an accomplice to a war crime. Because not content to ignore the current victims they support more crimes and call for more wars. Several years ago in Iraq parents waited for their children at a bus stop. An errant coalition missile struck the bus stop and blew the elementary school age children to pieces. Needless to say this wasn’t widely reported but the parents in a frenzy began fighting over the body parts of their children. Little arms and legs, little headless torsos identifiable only by the shirt or dress they were wearing. Imagine the horror, imagine the type of people who could do such a thing. How do they live with themselves? How do they sleep at night? They do it by watching Lost and American Idol and by eating chocolate cake. They read comic books and watch sports. It makes life easy because the media will not intrude on their fantasy world but instead will promote the fantasy. Oh, but who won the gold metal in curling and who was eliminated on American Idol. Iraq war Coalition Deaths 4,696 Injured 30,000 Iraqi civilian deaths and injured, 1,366,650 Afghanistan coalition Deaths 1,659 American taxpayers bill as of today $964,044,305,874

It's hard for me to see those figures and not want to corral any representative in Congress within grappling distance and demand an end to this empire of snakes nightmare. After reading the next essay, you'll probably be asking yourself (once again) "How did we let these obvious (and proud) criminals ruin our lives?" From Washington's Blog we learn what we have lost in not having a decent country with guaranteed (non-Diebold-controlled), fair elections not bought-and-paid for by special interests.

How big do you think the banks should be? Especially after the catastrophic effects we've suffered from their hubris up to 2010? Simon Johnson has some figures you might like to inspect at your leisure. I recommend it. (Emphasis marks added - Ed.)

Simon Johnson gives a . . . broader perspective on how big the too-big-to-fails have gotten:

"Fifteen years ago, the combined assets of our six biggest banks totaled 17 percent of our GDP. By 2006, that number was 55 percent. Right now, it stands at 63 percent."

Johnson also points out that:

"The big four have half of the market for mortgages and two-thirds of the market for credit cards. Five banks have over 95 percent of the market for over-the-counter derivatives. Three U.S. banks have over 40 percent of the global market for stock underwriting."

As I've previously noted, the government created the mega-giants (they are not the product of free market competition), and their very size destroys the real economy like a massive black hole destroys the matter around it.

And as Johnson and many others have pointed out, the very size of the giant banks enables them to easily capture politicians . . . about as easily as the Great Attractor captures galaxies.

Calling Dr. Who?

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Pretty please? Suzan ________________