Comments about Unemployed Reveal GOP's Contempt for the Poor

One of the things that has always baffled me about American politics is the blue-collar/middle class Republican. These are people who are a few paychecks away from the breadline, yet the still support GOP policies that lambaste the poor.

This is a classic case of bait and switch, because while the GOP needs the votes of working class Americans (and by that I mean anyone who works for a salary,) it's policies of tax cuts to the mega rich and kissing up to corporations end up hurting Average Joes.

To get working people to support the polices of the upper class, the GOP has a powerful array of weapons in it's arsenal, homophobia, race, religion and when those doesn't work you can always throw in the red scare (communism.) In addition, the GOP now has a whole network, FOX News, and talk radio dedicated to spreading it's propaganda.

But now the country is struggling to get out of the worst Depression since World War II. Millions of Americans are suffering from long-term unemployment. Before if you were laid off it would take three t0 six months to find employment, now we are looking at a year or more. It is not unusual to find Americans who have been out of work for up to two years.

And how does the GOP choose to respond to this economic crisis? By bashing the poor of course. According to GOP propaganda Americans are unemployed, because they're lazy, too choosy or just spoiled. Republicans seem to thinking the whopping amounts of money unemployed people make (about $200 per week) is enough for people to live high on the hog and quit searching for work. The GOP has stonewalled on a bill that would have extended unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. All of a sudden they are concerned about deficits, even though the Republican controlled Congress voted for Bush's wars and tax cuts, which inflated the deficit.

Now let's say an American worker made about $50,000 a year, which is an average mid-level salary, that works out to be about $4,000 per month. An unemployment check of $200 per weeks, works out to about $800 per month, less than a quarter of what that person would be making if they worked.

But GOP firebrands like Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle are convinced that Americans prefer couch surfing, instead of making real money. Angle implies that extending unemployment makes Americans comfortable, in an interview with a Nevada political show she said, "I would have voted no, because the truth about it is that they keep extending these unemployment benefits to the point where people are afraid to go out and get a job because the job doesn't pay as much as the unemployment benefit does. And what we really need to do is put people back to work."

If Angle would actually talk to people on Planet Earth she might realize that finding a job is anything but easy. Statistics show there are about five applicants for every job. And even if workers are willing to drop their pay demands, they face resistance from employers. Age discrimination and degree discrimination are rife. (Many workers over the age of 50 have opted to take early retirement because they know that few employers want to hire an employee who is close to retirement.)

As someone who was unemployed for more than a year, I saw personal evidence of this. I sent out about 5,000 resumes and also applied for entry-level jobs. The problem is department stores at the mall are not going to hire a 40-something professional worker for a minimum-wage job, where his supervisor is going to be half his age.

Plus many of those companies would rather hire wet-behind-the-ear high school or college kids who will be happy to work for next to nothing, and won't have the balls to complain about labour abuse.

For those working class people who still cling to Conservative principles, I ask what more will it take to come to your senses? The GOP despises you. They use wedge issues to garner your votes, but side with corporations who are always looking for the bottom line, even if it means exporting American jobs to China, where they can pay less than a quarter of American wages.

Working class Republicans are like an abused wife who keeps going back to a husband who keeps giving her black eyes. But as Albert Einstein, the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The Democrats are not perfect, but at least they seem to be trying to do something about the situation, and they are not openly contemptuous of the poor.

Saudi Prince Owns A Major Stake in FOX News

Arab Muslim is fourth largest owner of Conservatives' Favorite Channel

International politics is often like a chess game, but at times it's more like the 3-D chess that Kirk and Spock played in "Star Trek." People who come across as friends are really enemies, and enemies are often friendly with people they portray a sworn rivals.

In Craig Unger's book "House of Bush, House of Saud," he details the long-standing ties between the Bush family and the Saudi Arabian royal family. These ties go back almost 60 years and through two generations of both families.

Many journalists argue that these ties were the reason why we did not launch military attacks against Saudi Arabia, even though nine of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Unger also points out that just after 9-11 Prince Bandar, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S., was allowed to round up members of Bin Laden's family and ship them out of the country. This is also mentioned in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9-11." In addition, Unger also says that Prince Bandar had advanced warning of the invasion of Iraq, before even then Sec. of State Gen. Colin Powell.

The Bushes and the Sauds have a lot in common, apart from oil. Both are powerful, dynastic families and they have both exploited religious fundamentalists to further their causes. (George H.W. Bush serves on the board of the Carlyle group along with Obama Bin Laden's brother.) Unger argues that the Sauds have played both sides of the field. They have funded Wahabi fundamentalists at home and abroad, and at the same time kissed up to the 'decadent' West. Tea Baggers like to play up images of Obama bowing to foreign leaders, but seem to have forgotten Dubya kissing and holding hands with Saudi King Abdullah.

This is one of Osama Bin Laden's main bones of contention, and he is right. The Saudi royal family is notoriously corrupt and decadent. While they ban women from driving in their country and make them wear the hijab, they are infamous for whoring and gambling in Europe. The Sauds were highly embarrassed by 9-11. Unger argues that the Saudis prefer that fundamentalist Muslims wreak havoc in America, instead of launching a revolution at home. In his book Unger cites several cases of Saudi money ending up in terrorists hands.

The Bushes' and the Sauds' real agenda is to support the oil industry and keep the money flowing. And this might explain why Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is the fourth largest stake holder of FOX News, the American propaganda channel that vigorously supported the war.

According to Think Progress, his 7 percent stake, makes him the largest stakeholder, outside the Murdoch family. But here is where it gets really bizarre. FOX News guests are renowned for their inflammatory comments about Arabs and Muslims and the war on Terror. Critics of FOX have also implied this is the reason why FOX News hosts are big-time global warming deniers. Of course a billionaire Saudi prince, who made his money from oil, would have a vested interest in shooting down global warming science which blame fossil fuels for climate change.

Bush tapped into the Fundamentalist wing of the GOP, by proclaiming himself a born-again Christian, who also had no trouble killing thousands of innocent people. At the beginning of the War on Terror, he referred to the war as a "crusade" and Osama Bin Laden as "the Evil One," language designed to appeal to Evangelicals. Some Evangelicals believed that Bush was anointed by God, and it was impossible for a true Christian to vote Democrat. Writing in a Salon.com article, titled "Battle of the Bushes," Unger says, "On the other hand was his son George W. Bush, a radical Evangelical poised to enact a vision of American exceptionalism shared by the Christian Right, who saw American destiny as ordained by God and by neoconservative ideologues, who believed that America's "greatness" was founded on "universal principles" that applied to all men and all nations -- and gave America the right to change the world."

Many Americans believe that the War on Terror is the opening skirmish of Armageddon, a final struggle between the Christian West and the Muslim East. There have been reports of gun makers inserting Bible verses into scopes of guns sent to Iraq. And Erik Prince, founder of the notorious Blackwater security company, is a fundamentalist Christian, who saw the Iraq war as a Christian holy war against Muslims. Last year, a GQ article reported that some American soldiers in Iraq had painted Christian verses on the sides of their tanks. The article also explains stated that Bush received war briefings with Bible verses sprinkled in them.

I wonder how Conservatives, who see the war in religious terms, like the idea of a heathen Muslim owning a large stake in their favorite news outlet? And it's also bizarre that an Arab owns a channel that spends much of its time demonizing Middle Easterners. But this goes to show that both the Bushes and the Sauds see the war as a battle over resources, and use religion as a smoke screen to divert the attention of the masses.

poll by twiigs.com

Crumbling Middle Class is Spawning Domestic Terrorism

Bush's $2.4 Trillion War Bill Wrecked The Economy

Sometimes I wish I was not always right. About two years ago when the American people finally came to the realization that George W. Bush had really screwed up the economy, I told a close friend that we would probably see an uptick in violence.

I suggested that white people, stripped of their homes, SUVs and Eddie Bauer clothing, would lash out violently. Unlike black and Latino, and maybe even Asian people, many white people are not used to being broke. Being broke is nothing new to people of color, most of us are only one generation from the projects. Many of us grew up in the ghetto, went to college and got out. We still have family members who live in shady neighborhoods. And who has hasn't had to send money to kinfolk who have fallen on hard times?

But with white people it is not necessarily the same. I am not saying that all white people are rich. But poverty is less common among whites. Although this is changing as the American nuclear family crumbles. Rising divorce rates and out of wedlock birth rates mean we are seeing more white families struggling with poverty as women try to raise children on single incomes. Statistically there are more white people on welfare than black people.

However for many white people, we are talking about two or three generations of middle-class incomes. Maybe some of their grandparents remember the Great Depression, but their parents went to college, or had white-collar jobs. There are kids who get brand new cars on their 18th birthdays, trust funds and college tuition paid for. I once worked with a lady who was surprised that most people went into debt to pay for college.

The Great Recession has decimated the middle class. In fact we are seeing many people tumbling out of the middle class and into poverty. When homes are foreclosed those families may end up homeless or in shelters. Unlike people of color, white people often don't have close social networks. Black people always know they can bunk on their mama's couch, until they get on their feet. But many middle class white people, are estranged from their families and find it difficult or darn near impossible to ask for help.

So it's not surprising we are seeing more case like Joe Stack, who crashed a plane into the IRS building in Austin, Tx. This is one of many recent cases of domestic terrorism from angry white men. And with FOX News, the Tea Party movement and people calling for the execution of the the first black president, I fear it's only going to get worse.

The worse thing about the Tea Baggers movement is that it misdirected anger. Tea Party protesters say they are mad at legislation like the banking bailout, because it overlooks the little guy, and yet they are throwing their weight behind the party which has an even more corporate-friendly agenda than the Democrats.

Unfortunately, the powers that be have always used race and religion to misdirect the anger of blue-collar white people. Tea Baggers are mad at Barack Obama, but they really should be directing their anger at George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whose disastrous policies wrecked the economy. Bush signed the banking bailout and was an advocate of the same kind of deregulation that caused the financial crisis in the first place. (Obama took money from Wall Street so he really isn't that much better.) Consider this small fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the final cost of the Iraq War will be about $2.4 trillion! (Where were the Tea Baggers was Bush was pushing his bill through Congress?), while the Stimulus bill, cost about $780 billion. So if we had not invaded Iraq we could have sunk that money into the American economy and prevented the Great Recession from ever happening! By the way, Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist, Princeton professor, and Noble prize winner, also agrees with this idea.

poll by twiigs.com

Right Wingers Call for Obama's Impeachment

High Crimes Include Auto Bail Out, Health Care, Stimulus

You got birthers, tea baggers, and tenthers, now we need a name for conservatives who are calling for President Obama's impeachment. (Maybe we can call them "peachers?")

In this video from Think Progress, Caleb Heimlich, spokesman for the Impeach Obama campaign, explains why he thinks the president needs to be removed. He quotes Gerald Ford, who said that "anything is an impeachable offense." Actually what Ford said, was "an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."

Well since, the House is currently controlled by the Democrats, it is unlikely that they would pass a vote for an impeachment. You would have though that the Republicans would have learned from the last time they tried to impeach a Democrat. Obama is accused of high crimes like bailing out the auto companies, health care legislation, and the stimulus bill. (Although all three pieces of legislation were voted on by Congress, so they should also be held responsible.)

It ironic, that some Republicans want to impeach Obama who has been in office for about a year, yet they said nothing when the Bush-Cheney administration was committing high crimes such as war profiteering, torture and holding an American citizen without trial!

poll by twiigs.com

Far-right News Site Says Obama is Planning Second Civil War

Someone once said that if you follow the extremes of both the left and the right, they will eventually meet. It might be true, because towards the end of the Bush administration, rumors were going around on the left that Dubya was planning to declare martial law and extend his presidency.

That turned out not to be true, but now we have a Democrat in the White House, the people on the right are scared because they think Comrade Obama is going to launch his private army against the United States. That is the gist of this story from the European Union Times, a web site that looks legit, but is actually a news organization supporting a white supremacist agenda. It also features stories talking about "European pride" and the dangers of the rising Muslim birth rate.

The European Union Times recylcles the idea of Igor Panarin, a Russian political scientist who has been pushing a 10-year old theory that economic pressures will cause the United States to fracture. Glenn Beck will be interested to know that he shares the same ideas as a Russian crackpot.

http://www.eutimes.net/2009/11/obama-orders-1-million-us-troops-to-prepare-for-civil-war/comment-page-5/#comment-4387

poll by twiigs.com

CIA Used Phony Software to Detect Terrorist Messages

Former CIA Director George Tenet

It's only now that we are learning how messed up the Bush administration's War on Terror was. First it was the failure to capture Osama Bin Laden at Tora Bora, and then it was the erronous invasion of Iraq, in search of non-existence Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Well, here another doozy. A Playboy story reports that sometime around 2003, the CIA started using software developed by Dennis Montgomery of eTreppid, which claimed it could decode terrorists messages hidden in Al-Jazerra television broadcasts. Yes, really.

The software was later discredited by French intelligence, but not before Homeland Security had issued several warnings. If the CIA had investigated Montgomery, they would have learn that he only had two years of college training, no science background and was a veteran conman with a gambling problem. His own lawyer described him as "habitual liar." With these guys protecting us, it's no wonder that the 9-11 attacks happened.

http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-man-who-conned-the-pentagon-dennis-montgomery/index.html?page=1

poll by twiigs.com

Bush's Katrina Flyover Named Tactical Blunder of the Decade

Newsweek recently listed it's Top 10 blunders of the 2000s. President George W. Bush managed to make it there twice. He came in at no. 1 with his Katrina Flyover and no. 4 with his Mission Accomplished sign. (I think the Iraq debacle was the bigger disaster) Is it any surprise that Bush had two blunders on the list? Time recently named the 2000s as the Decade from Hell, and looking back on the financial screw ups, military blunders and natural disasters it's no wonder. I know people might be getting on Barack Obama, but I think people fail to appreciate the state that Dubya left us in. I doubt it Obama will have this cleaned up in eight years.

http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/tactical-blunders/bush-katrina-flyover.html

poll by twiigs.com

Cheney Rumors Show GOP Desperation

Recently several right-wing writers at publications like the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report and the Wall Street Journal have floated the idea of former veep Dick Cheney running for president. If they are really serious about this idea, it just shows how out of touch with reality the GOP is.

I know things are desperate, but when you start reaching back to the genius behind the last eight years of disasterous policies, you have officially lost it. But recently everyone from Sarah Palin to Glenn Beck has been named as a potential 2012 candidate.

Whoever the Republicans run for president needs to have broad-based appeal that can bring in independents and even conservative Dems, and Cheney is not that person. He has a whole army of fresh skeletons in his closet, that he really does not want the press digging into. Maybe this time they can ask him about his health.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2009/06/02/cheney-for-president-in-2012-republicans-have-no-one-else.html

poll by twiigs.com

Time Names 00s 'Decade From Hell'

I thought this was a bit harsh when I first read this headline, but when you sit down and consider the 00s, it was pretty bad. The worst terrorist attack to hit the United States, two disasterous wars, two stock market crashes (let's not forget the one that happened at the beginning of the decade,) corporate fraud, state-sanctioned torture, voter fraud, war profiteering -- do I need to go on? And let's remember most of this was done during eight years of the George W. Bush administration.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834,00.html

poll by twiigs.com

Liberal Commentator Blames Ft. Hood Shooting on Bush

Thom Hartman, a liberal commentator, puts the blame for the Ft. Hood shooting squarely on former president George W. Bush's shoulders. In this article posted on Alternet.org, he successfully argues that the Bush administration turned the war on terror into a battle between good and evil, and Osama Bin Laden, into a comic book supervillain.

Hartmann argues that just like in comic books, a great hero needs a great villain. Bush cast himself as Superman and Bin Laden was his Lex Luthor. Hartmann says that Bill Clinton had the right idea, by dealing with Al-Quaeda as a small band of criminals and targeting them with police agencies, special forces teams and cruise missiles.

Hartmann argues that Bush's large-scale wars only boosted Al-Quaeda's image in the eyes of the Muslim world and stretched the American military to it's breaking point.

poll by twiigs.com