Friday, November 22, 2013

In the Shadow of November 22


`
 "We in this country, in this generation, are, by destiny rather than choice, the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of 'peace on earth, goodwill toward men.' That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago, 'except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'"

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
November 22, 1963
From the speech he would not live to make 

I clearly remember being dropped off at the bus stop on the corner of South and Green Streets. The walk from there to the house I grew up in was brief, even for a five-year-old. I distinctly remember that in Goshen, New York on November 22nd, 1963, it was unseasonably warm for a late-Autumn day. I had just gotten home from Mrs. Annabelle Peavey's kindergarten class at Scotchtown Elementary School. My father, thirty-three at the time, had only pulled into the driveway moments before, He was returning from upstate New York, near Binghamton, where he had that morning put in an estimate for a marble restoration job on a piece of property that was owned by Joseph P. Kennedy of all people. How's that for irony? I can remember what he was wearing when he told me, "The president's been shot."

For those of us who were old enough - or even barely old enough - to remember that day, the murder of President Kennedy cast a pall over our young lives that forever ended the carefree innocence of childhood. That this handsome and popular man could be murdered - in cold blood  - left more-than-a-few of us feeling just a bit more vulnerable. I remember a few months after Dallas, riding in the back seat of an open convertible through the streets of some city, possibly New York. Looking up at all of the open windows that looked down upon the car gave me pause. Would some twisted freak try to have a pop at me I wondered? I laugh now in hindsight at the memory of my childish paranoia, but at that moment my fear was real and not-so-lightly dismissed. 

Nothing would ever be the same again. America's psyche never fully recovered from the trauma of November 22nd, 1963. The three explosions in Dealy Plaza emanating from Lee Harvey Oswald's cheap, mail-order rifle a lifetime ago still reverberate across the decades.

NOTE TO THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS: 

You may have watched a handful of forty-minute-long, exploitation documentaries on the "History" Channel or Fox "News", but I have devoted ("wasted" is the better word) years of my life researching this subject. Forgive me for sounding a tad arrogant, but I am in a better position than you to make an educated judgement on this matter. If there existed a molecule of credible evidence that a confederacy of sinister forces came together on that day to end the life of Jack Kennedy, believe me, I would be the first one raising hell about it. No such evidence exists. Oliver Stone may be a great filmmaker, but he's a lousy historian. Lee Oswald acted alone when he killed the president. Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald.  End of argument. Sorry 'bout that but it needed to be said. 

Yeah, I know what you're thinking and I agree. It's hard to accept the scenario where a demented little freak like Oswald is able to bring down so decent and beloved a leader - but that's the way it is, folks. We do need to move on.

Today is a day we need to take note of. Keep your eyes on the recollections in the media of those who remember and took part in the events of that day. On the next, significant milestone anniversary of the Kennedy assassination (the seventy-fifth) eternity will have caught up with them. Twenty-five years from now, "Camelot" will have receded into the unreachable mists of history. Time has a way of making even the mightiest of us disappear. Have you ever noticed that?

From the moment I got the news, that weekend was unlike any other I had ever experienced. My early TV icons - Chuck McCann, Sonny Fox and Sandy Becker - were given a few days off. There would be no children's programming on television for the duration. Like the rest of the country, I was tuned into the drama. I was not yet a newspaper reader in 1963. I wouldn't learn to read for another year. Every memory I retain of November 22nd 1963 is televisual. The entire country had been traumatized. The last murder of a president had taken place in 1901, sixteen years before John F. Kennedy was even born. I recall - late in the evening - watching in slow motion the killing of Lee Oswald, the only light in the room being the blue glow of the TV set. To me it looked like a surrealistic cartoon. Come to think about it, that's exactly what it was - an animated American meltdown.

That was the weekend that I first came face-to-face with the concept of death - and that I, too, would one day die. That concept would be reenforced less than three months later when my grandmother passed away unexpectedly. I had not previously understood the significance of that gated property up the street, directly across from my bus stop - the one with the stone markers sticking out of the ground. I had walked by it hundreds of times in the past. It finally dawned on me that weekend what the place was all about. In the months to follow, I would walk pass the St. James Episcopal Cemetery with a newly-acquired caution and reverence. Death would never again take a holiday. Such is life. 

"Let the word go forth from this time and place - to friend and foe alike - that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans...."

John F. Kennedy's Inaugural address
20 January 1961  

Something wonderful ended on November 22nd 1963, not only Jack Kennedy's life, but our sweet optimism. My generation still has faded memories of that America, but we were so young that it seems to us now as a ghost-like dream, a mental daguerreotype. By the time we came of age a decade or so later, this place was damaged - cynical and jaded. Maybe one day the United States will recover from what happened on November 22nd 1963, but I suppose it won't be until the last survivor with a conscious memory of those four dark days passes from the scene.

2013 has been a year filled with so many half-century milestones that it is difficult to keep track of them all. 1963 was indeed a year of historical landmarks - beautiful and not-so-beautiful. You know you're starting to get up there in years when you can clearly recall events from fifty years ago. I would only come to appreciate what a historical year 1963 was as I got older. From Civil Rights on earth, to the exploration of the heavens, President Kennedy's murder on the streets of Dallas, Texas fifty-years-ago today was merely the curtain closing on one of the most monumental years of the American Century. Wasn't that a time? 

He still matters. Fifty years later, Jack Kennedy refuses to go gently into that good night. 

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye
by Dave Powers and Kenny O'Donnell

A great and funny read by the two men who knew Jack Kennedy better than anyone. Reading this will remind you that he was - HANDS DOWN - our funniest president - privately and in public. 

Case Closed
by Gerald Posner

Posner not only makes a good case - but offers irrefutable proof - that the conspiracy theories offered up by people like Mark Lane and Oliver Stone are bunk. If you believe them, this very well-written book might possibly change your opinion on the matter. I hope that it does.

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

The Day John Kennedy Died
by Lou Reed
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb-L9EarQcA
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'Twas a drag to be sure.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

One of the fringe benefits of being Irish Catholic is that we get to refer to the late president as "Jack". So there.

77 Comments:

At 11:42 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Well I never!

 
At 11:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

could we please have a moment of silence for JFK and ObamaCare?

 
At 12:07 PM, Blogger Leslie Parsley said...

A very moving piece, Tom. I particularly enjoyed your warning to conspiracy theorists. Bleh. Like many, I can remember exactly what I was doing the moment I got the news "as if it were yesterday." Time literally stood still for days and even weeks afterwards.

I'm not sure if this "Jefferson" creep is for real but if he is, he might fit the description that the late Atlanta Constitution editor Ralph McGill wrote about in his column on the day Kennedy was murdered. A very compelling article - even today. In fact, probably even more so.

 
At 12:30 PM, Blogger Joanne Noragon said...

I'm seventy one years old. The world stood still that day, then resumed. I came out of a class room to the news; the person next to me said "Good." In retrospect little has changed. There were knee-jerk haters then as well as now.
We were fooling ourselves in those days of "innocence". Justice and decency will be a struggle forever.

 
At 12:45 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Sorry Tom. Gotta call bullshit on this one. The film CLEARLY shows Kennedy shot from the FRONT.Now maybe Oswald was not in the building they said he was, but then you still have to explain the "magic bullet". Kennedy was killed because he wanted to pull out of Vietnam, which would have cost defense contractors (war profiteers)BILLIONS over the next decade. Oliver Stone did not make the JFK movie up. The info came from years of investigation by Jim Garrison and many others. As for Anonymous, can we PLEASE have ONE thread without you whining and crying over the ACA?

 
At 1:13 PM, Anonymous William Wallace said...

" There were knee-jerk haters then as well as now."
Got that right, JFK murdered by a left wing radical, liberal. It was the left that murdered Camelot.

I was cleaning up after drafting class in H.S., this was in the day when we used pencils instead of CAD. The news broke over the schools P.A. system and was the unfiltered CBS radio news coverage. My first reactions was that it was Castro getting revenge for the embargo against Cuba. I was afraid of what the left had planned next for me. Still am.

The bus ride home after school closed was a quite, somber and for some, a tearful trip. But there was no celebration.

50 years later it is clear that JFK was a classical liberal, who had continued to end segregation that Ike had started to unwind. He favored small govt, reduction of govt spending after the national defense was taken care of, and reduction of corp and personal taxes to grow our economy. JFK was replaced by his New Deal Vice President, Johnson. 11/22/1963 was the day classical liberalism started to die, to be replaced the social liberalism of FDR that we struggle under today.

The struggle for freedom and liberty from an oppressive government will be a forever be a struggle. We did lose the brightest and best that day.



 
At 2:53 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

JFK was no conservative for sure.

“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.” - JFK

"Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal promised security and succor to those in need."

And the vision for his "new frontier":

"The New Deal and the Fair Deal were bold measures for their generations--but this is a new generation....the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their lives to build a new world here in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of their own price tags. Their motto was not "every man for himself" --but "all for the common cause."

JFK July 15, 1960

"Every man for himself" Con-servatives hated him then, and still do.

 
At 3:02 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

MY THEORY:

For the record, I am not a conspiracy theorist. Although the Warren Commission got a few things wrong, they got most of it right. After years researching it, I'm convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald - acting alone - murdered President Kennedy, and that Jack Ruby - acting alone - murdered Lee Oswald. Yeah, I know what you're thinking and I agree. It hard to accept the scenario where a twisted little punk like Oswald brings down so decent and loved leader - but that's the way it is, folks. We've gotta accept it.

One of the tragedies of history is the fact that Lee Oswald never had the chance to testify in his own defense. I'm not one of these people who believe that the man was some kind of patsy who was framed for killing President Kennedy. I have no doubt that he was the one (and the only one) who pulled the trigger of the Manila Carcana rifle that ended JFK's life. But I have a theory:

Oswald was an extreme left winger - the type of which no longer exists in this country: a committed Communist. I believe that had he been living in New York or Boston or Los Angeles - or even Atlanta - when the Jack Kennedy rolled into town, Oswald never would have attempted to kill the president. But he wasn't in any of those cities. He was living in Dallas, Texas. In November of 1963, Dallas was the bat-shit-crazy, right wing capital of the nation. Just a few weeks before the Kennedy shooting, UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked and spat upon at an appearance in that city.

Lee Oswald's motive for killing John F. Kennedy was not fame and recognition. He wasn't John Hinckley or Mark David Chapman trying to add notoriety to a meaningless life. He vehemently denied having any part in the shooting.

"I DIDN'T KILL ANYBODY, NO SIR!"

That was his story and he was sticking to it! It was a story he didn't have to stick to it for very long, though. Forty-eight hours after he was busted, a single bullet from Jack Ruby's gun forever silenced Lee Harvey Oswald. What could possibly have been his motive?

Here's my theory: He killed Kennedy because he really believed he could get away with it. On the day of the murder, the Dallas Morning News ran an ad that accused JFK of treason. They even posted two photographs of the president that were positioned to look like mug shots. Nice! The atmosphere in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 was so politically toxic, Oswald must have assumed that the police and Secret Service would immediately focus on one or more of that city's illustrious right wing crackpots.

The extremism of 1963 was pretty much isolated to a few southern cities. Forty-eight years later it's gone national.

Tom Degan

 
At 4:02 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

William Wallace, you have to remember that the "Left" and "Right" are not the same as they were in 1963. When Johnson enacted Kennedy's Civil Rights bill in 1964, the bigoted southern "Dixicrats" switched to the GOP.

 
At 6:24 PM, Anonymous William Wallace said...

What evidence can you offer Tom, that
"extreme left winger - the type of which no longer exists in this country, a committed Communist" in light of the Occupy movement? Has the Communist Party USA closed up shop? I just checked and their website is still up, still supporting President Obama's policy's.

I agree with you that Oswald acted alone, he was a dirt bag left wing radical liberal who wanted to and tried to kill anyone one who was to the right of his beliefs. General Walker and JFK fit that bill.
I disagree with you that Dallas was the only place that Oswald could have killed JFK. I believe he was in Dallas to kill General Walker and after failing at that,(his not getting caught I'm sure encouraged him to act further) saw JFK as the next available target. Walker was his objective, JFK was just a opportunity. Using your logic, would you say that Boston was the only place that the terrorist bombing could take place because Boston is a hot bed of liberalism?
I think we give Oswald too much credit if we think he was smart enough to plan much of anything past his next 48 hours. I agree with you on that as well. However, if Dallas was such a hot bed of right wing crazy's, I would have thought the far right wing Dallas police would have caught Oswald by for shooting at Walker, a as far right wing nut job as there has ever been.

Which by the way brings up and interesting thought. If there are no left wingers today like there were then, could it be said there are no crazy right wingers today like there were then? 50 years later we have the most left wing President in our history who has passed the most intrusive, liberty choking bill in our Nations history. I agree with you again, extremism has expanded nation wide

Anyway, I believe Oswald acted alone, on his own agenda for his own reasons that were, quite simply, crazy. It does not require a conspiracy to change history.

And Mozart, with out the GOP the Civil Rights Bill would never have passed. The storms in Chicagoland damage anything of yours? Every one safe and sound I hope?

 
At 10:54 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Hey Chuckie,

More accurately and less deceptively, what you meant was bipartisan cooperation overcame the Southern conservatives’ obstruction of The Civil Rights Bill. Because of this, most Southern conservatives became Republicans.

Correct? And therefore we must conclude Republicans, at least Northern ones, were far more liberal back then.

So, you want to have fun with questions? Wonderful!

Since we all know you NEVER answer questions, I’d be happy to do so for you.

Ready?

1. Can you offer evidence of a commie assassin, the “type of which no longer exists”, in the last several decades?

2. Did you check the commies’ website to see where they OPPOSE Obama’s policies? Can you offer evidence?

3. Can you show us evidence of how many more of this type of “dirt bag left wing radical liberal who wanted to and tried to kill anyone one who was to the right of his belief” are around?

4. Could it be said there are no crazy right wingers today like there were then?

Answers:
1. No
2. No
3. No
4. Depends on the answers to these preliminary questions:

A. Do they STILL believe what Bush and Cheney told us in order to have their war for political gain and crony profit in Iraq?

B. Do they STILL think liberals are commies out to destroy America?

C. Do they STILL think Obama the Marxist Muslin is sending them to a death panel?

D. Do they believe it when Limbaugh and Beck tell them Obama is a racist?

E. Do they blame Obama only, for the recession and Bush policies he continues?

F. Do they really believe the “most intrusive, liberty choking bill in our Nations history” is requiring health insurance?

G. Do they really believe Obamacare is more intrusive and liberty choking than the Bush’s Patriot Act and Bush’s FISA law?

H. Do they really believe Obamacare is more intrusive and liberty choking than conservative FISA judges appointed by the conservative John Roberts, allowing the NSA to intercept and collect everyone’s electronic communications?

Since the answer to all of these preliminary questions is yes, then we can conclude the answer is:
4. No.

I agree with you again, extremism has expanded nationwide.

That makes three of us.

 
At 11:00 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

June 11, 1963

“Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only.

It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.

It ought to to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.

It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated.”

- John F. Kennedy, Civil Rights Address

 
At 4:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dave Dubya

Pretzel logic.

 
At 8:01 AM, Anonymous John said...

Regarding ‘Oswald alone’.

There was a class of people who were making an unprecedented amount of money as a result of the cold war. A nuclear test ban treaty may have been looked at as a threat to their way of life. Many of these people were the profiteers of the world wars.

One might conjure motive from those ideas. In that light, it would be rather surprising if there was not conspiracies, regardless of if a nut got there first. If Oswald was the sole gunman, it does not rule out conspiracy or his possible employment as a hit man. He certainly did not get to talk about his own motive much...

Is it a funny coincidence that the people who might have those motives also own the news and much else of the machinery that shapes public opinions?

 
At 8:35 AM, Anonymous John said...

Also remember the was a narrative as to who was responsible for 9/11 almost hours after it occurred. Soon after, psychological profiles and IDs of the perpetrators were somehow extracted from the burning rubble. Then Iraq morphed into the perpetrator when the administration had a hankering to wage their own war. Unfortunately history incorporates some of that bullshit into itself. The Kennedy assassination narrative is founded on a dead guy, a few other facts and who knows how much misinformation.
Having an opinion such as he acted alone is, well, just an opinion - and everybody's got one...

 
At 8:39 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Nice...

 
At 9:45 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Chuckie,
So a Steely Dan song is your evidence?

Nice tune, but what does it have to do with my questions about groundless assertions?

Or is it just another non-answer presented as a simple minded baseless assertion?

Then that would prove me correct.

Thanks.

 
At 1:30 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

William Wallace,I do not live in Chicago, I'm in Iowa and aside from freezing our butts off we are fine. As for Oswald there are too many IMPOSSIBLE explaination in the "lone gunman" theory for any thinking person to accept.
As for Obama, he's about as "left wing" as Ronald Reagan. The "liberty choking" bill you mention was WRITTEN by Republicans! Besides, what "liberties" have been choked? You sound like Glenn Beck, all sound and fury signifying nothing. The "GOP" that passed the civil rights bill is GONE, replaced by ultra right wingers who call for "liberty" while trying to pass laws that take it away from anyone but the uber rich. Reagan could not get arrested in a GOP primary these days. Lincoln would be called an "enemy of the free market" for ending slavery. This is NOT the same political climate as in 1963, and the deliberate killing of Kennedy by RIGHT WING warmongers was the start of that change.

 
At 2:50 PM, Anonymous Progressive Utopian Dreamer said...

"Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only."

You are so good with quotes.

Charles De Gaulle who warned Kennedy that Vietnam and warfare in Vietnam would trap America in a “bottomless military and political swamp”.

Kennedy was a War Pig just like Bush.

 
At 4:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Democrats grow and harvest Low InFormation Voters. Democrats in control of Amerika's biggest monopoly, the public school system, produce large amounts of Low InFormation Voters (LIFs). Then, at election time, these LIFs are harvested just as deliberately and delicately as a farmer harvests turnips.

Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Yes We Can give LIFs lots of free stuff, just vote for me!

Make enough people dependent on the state, and it won't be long before they start behaving and voting like … well, like Greeks.

 
At 5:52 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...


Chuckie,
Your silly crap is hilarious.

Low Information Voters could only be "LIF's" to very low information trolls.

Low information voters? Is that what the birthers are?

Or are they the informed ones, Chuckie?

Ya gotta inform us, Chuckie. If not you, then who?

Tell us, are they "LIF's" if they believe these?

A. Do they STILL believe what Bush and Cheney told us in order to have their war for political gain and crony profit in Iraq?

B. Do they STILL think liberals are commies out to destroy America?

C. Do they STILL think Obama the Marxist Muslim is sending them to a death panel?

D. Do they believe it when Limbaugh and Beck tell them Obama is a racist?

E. Do they blame Obama only, for the recession and Bush policies he continues?

F. Do they really believe the “most intrusive, liberty choking bill in our Nations history” is requiring health insurance?

G. Do they really believe Obamacare is more intrusive and liberty choking than the Bush’s Patriot Act and Bush’s FISA law?

H. Do they really believe Obamacare is more intrusive and liberty choking than conservative FISA judges appointed by the conservative John Roberts, allowing the NSA to intercept and collect everyone’s electronic communications?

Please teach us, Chuckie. We would be completely ignorant if not for you.

Make enough people dependent on the state

Yeah, right. Corporate off-shoring of American jobs, along with the Great Bush Recession have gone a long way in making enough people dependent on the state.

Too bad the "Job Creators" are failing to create jobs. They love Americans so much they send their jobs to Asia. But LIF's blame liberals, of course.

LIF's are vary frightened people who believe terrible falsehoods about their fellow Americans. What they believe is whatever the Republican Party, Limbaugh and FOX(R)tell them. They are told to be afraid, very afraid of the evil liberals. Liberals are to blame for every bad thing that has ever happened. They are told liberals hate America and have no values. They only want to take your stuff and give it to brown people.

Low information Right Wingers are living in their fearful little bubble.

I guess that does make them LIFS after all. Living In Fearful Stupidity.

What a bubble.

 
At 6:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

DD:

LIFs think the big Washington DC Plantation, run by the Democrats, has an endless supply of free stuff for them! That's a leaning forwarding progressive nation!

DD, why learn how to fish if you can have free fish delivered to your door?

 
At 6:48 PM, Blogger Moduspropogandi said...

I am working on some new Obamacare marketing. "Sign up and shut up or my Goose Stepping IRS will be contacting you!"

 
At 7:00 PM, Blogger Moduspropogandi said...

Hey Mozart1220,

"If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period."

"If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period."

 
At 7:07 PM, Anonymous William Wallace said...

Mozart,
My son is doing his Phd work at U of Iowa, I hope when he is finished he's smart enough to see through this line of stupid crap.
" deliberate killing of Kennedy by RIGHT WING warmongers."

I knew you were a Bears fan so I assume you lived near Chicago.
My bad.

 
At 8:55 PM, Anonymous Jim Foxvog said...

I also used to dismiss "conspiracy theories" but Jim Douglass, a noted peace activist I have had the privilege to working with on the "white train" make me reconsider this with his JFK and the Unspeakable.

 
At 2:41 AM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Anonymous and Modus,

Do have ANY opinions of your own or are you just water carriers for Glenn beck?

 
At 9:00 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Mozart,
Chuck Morre, Anonymous, Wallace, and now "Moduspropagandi" has "borrowed" from Modusoperandi, the same Chuckie who "borrowed" his "Chuck Morre" ID from Charles Moore.

He's used a fake Dave Dubya too. It all part of HIS MO to dishonestly mock and hate liberals.

He needs to disguise his lonely, mean-spirited, arrogant personality as more than just himself, but he can't hide his stupidity and hate.

Ignorant and hateful LIFS (Living In Fearful Stupidity) think the poor have it made and want to be that way. They think the poor get too much, and the rich deserve more tax cuts.

The Waltons have more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans. So what does Chuckie want? Why cut food stamps for the needy to give the Waltons more tax breaks.

That is what a "compassionate con-servative" is all about.

 
At 9:35 AM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

They also want poor people tested for drugs to get any bevefits, while the GOP congressmen who vote for it get busted for coke posession and het a slap on the wrist.

 
At 10:11 AM, Anonymous John-Boy Walton said...

Dave Dubya,

you ignore the fact that the Progressive Left is extremist, in no mood to compromise as it lurches toward its totalitarian "utopia", and in complete control of the Democratic Party.

Do you really think you can get any one of them to cut a single dime of welfare spending, when that's how they keep themselves in power?

 
At 10:21 AM, Anonymous William Wallace said...

What liberal plan has lowered our unemployment rate, and reduced our poverty rate since 2009?

Americans out of work 1/09 21.5 million, now 23.1 million
Family income 1/09 $54,962, now $50,054 (drop of 9%)
Americans in poverty 1/09 39.3 million, now 46.2 million

What liberal plan has reduced the cost of living since 2009?

Gas per gallon 1/09 $1.89 now $3.91

National Debt 1/09 $10.6 trillion now $16 trillion a 51% increase in 5 years.

Who will Blame Bush? Blame the Tea Party? Blame the Koch Brothers? Blame the GOP, Blame Conservatives?
How would any of these groups/people benefit from this decline in the American standard of living?
Which political party gains votes when more people depend on the govt for their needs?
Which party has controlled the White House and the Senate since 2009?
Which party controlled the White House, and both Houses of Congress in 2009 and 2010?
Which party claims to protect the rights of minority unless the minority's are GOP Senators?

But what every you do, do not blame the Black Guy, dont step back and ask why haven't things gotten better for Americans? What is wrong with the liberal plan that things have not gotten better?









 
At 10:24 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Chuckie, "John Boy" is projecting again. It is the Republican Party that has been taken over by the extreme Right.

If the Democrats even listened to liberals we'd have a national health care system that didn't waste billions of dollars paying insurance company middlemen who provide ZERO health care.

Instead we have corpo-dems appeasing Republicans on cutting safety nets.

47M Americans hit by food stamp cuts

Gotta hand it to Chuckie, he’s consistent. Consistently far Right Wing, and constantly Wrong-headed.


 
At 10:28 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Chuckie's still blaming Obama for Bush's Great Recession.

So what is the GOP plan to fix it?

Why, tax cuts for the Rich, cuts in safety nets, and more de-regulation.

That worked out so well in the Bush Crash of '08, didn't it?

 
At 11:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Carter’s presidency crumbled when people decided they still liked his character but had no confidence in his competence.

Obamacare’s misadventures, and Obama’s response to them, have caused people to doubt both his character and his competence.

 
At 12:25 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Character and competence are judged only for Democrats?

That's the radical, reality denying far Right, for you.

Reagan “forgot” trading arms for hostages with Iran and let unarmed Marines get blown up in Lebanon. Not to mention he changed the US from a creditor nation to a debtor nation.

And speaking of Iran, the Reagan team’s October Surprise was betraying America by using the embassy hostages as leverage in their efforts to win what was looking to be a close election.

From Wiki:

Former Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir and former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe both affirmed the allegations true, while "retired Israeli General Yehoshua Saguy, who was head of Israeli military intelligence in 1980, said Prime Minister Menachem Begin claimed American approval for Israel's secret 1980 weapons shipments to Iran. But the approval had not come from President Carter, who had angrily objected to the shipments when he learned of them."

Shamir, who was Israeli foreign minister in 1980, raised the October Surprise issue in an interview in 1993, saying that he had read Gary Sick's "interesting" book. He was asked "What do you think? Was there an October Surprise?"; "'Of course, it was,' Shamir responded without hesitation. 'It was.”
===
Barbara Honegger was a member of the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign team and Reagan White House policy analyst. Since 1995, she's been Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School. After the 1980 election, Honegger headed Reagan's gender discrimination agency review before resigning in August, 1983. While working for Reagan, she discovered information that made her believe that George H. W. Bush and William Casey had conspired to assure that Iran would not free the U.S. hostages until Jimmy Carter had been defeated in the 1980 presidential election, and she alleges that arms sales to Iran were a part of that bargain. In 1987, in the context of the Iran-Contra investigations, Honegger was reported as saying that shortly after 22 October 1980, when Iran abruptly changed the terms of its deal with Carter, a member of the Reagan campaign told her "We don't have to worry about an 'October surprise.' Dick cut a deal.", with "Dick" referring toRichard V. Allen.


Reagan was America’s tragic mistake that opened our government to greater corporate influence and greater debt.

Bush left us exploding debt, a Great Recession, and thousands dead because he lied. That’s some character. That’s some competence.

Better blame the Black Guy for everything, right?

 
At 2:48 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Carters presidence crumbled when he told the American people the TRUTH. "we have to tighten our belts and pay our bills our the economy is going to get worse."
He also got the hostages out without firing a shot, and warmongers don't like that.

 
At 2:50 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Hey William Wallace, what was the price of gas in June 2008? Why do you neocons always leave that out?

Obama has had very few economic plans pass. They have either been filibustered or blocked outright by the house.

 
At 2:59 PM, Anonymous William Wallace said...

Keep drinking the Kool Aid Dave, doing so doesn't change the abject failure of this Administration to do a thing correctly. Right down to their $600 million health care website to keeping their promises.

Americans out of work 1/2009 21.5 million, now 23.1 million
Family income 1/2009 $54,962, now $50,054 (drop of 9%)
Americans in poverty 1/2009 39.3 million, now 46.2 million (increase 15%)
Americans who have lost their health care insurance die to Obama care, 5.5 million.

That you have no other answer to the reality of what continues to happened under Obama but to blame others, is clear indisputable sign of how desperate you are to ignore it and attempt to draw the focus from these failures to other people, places and things that have had ZERO part of Obama's plan.

Unless of course, you are pleased with the decline of the American standard of living.

Ok now address the unknown chuckie, and post all the rest of your avoidance with reality tactics. Or you can let me do them for you now, to save you the time.

"Chuck Morre, Anonymous, Wallace, and now "Moduspropagandi" has "borrowed" from Modusoperandi, the same Chuckie who "borrowed" his "Chuck Morre" ID from Charles Moore.

He's used a fake Dave Dubya too. It all part of HIS MO to dishonestly mock and hate liberals.

He needs to disguise his lonely, mean-spirited, arrogant personality as more than just himself, but he can't hide his stupidity and hate.

Ignorant and hateful LIFS (Living In Fearful Stupidity) think the poor have it made and want to be that way. They think the poor get too much, and the rich deserve more tax cuts.

The Waltons have more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans. So what does Chuckie want? Why cut food stamps for the needy to give the Waltons more tax breaks.

That is what a "compassionate con-servative" is all about."

9:00 AM Dave Dubya

Did I miss anything? Oh I forgot, the problem is the democrats are not liberal enough, since none of the GOP voted for Obama care, this means the problem belongs 100% to the democrats.



 
At 4:14 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Chuckie asks, “Did I miss anything?”

LOL!

Chuckie thinks that we “have no other answer to the reality of what continues to happened under Obama but to blame others”. What for the Bush Great Recession? For Republican sabotage of our government?

Chuckie’s bubble cult won’t let him see that liberals are not a factor in US federal policy. House Republicans are taking legislative direction from Wall Street. Corporations are secretly writing trade agreements. Democrats listen to, and appease, Republicans while ignoring liberals.

Chuckie still blames the Black Guy for not fixing the Bush Great Recession. And what help have the Republicans been? Obstruction and shutting down the government. Yeah we want them to run the show. The Bush Recession will pale to the next Republican disaster.

Chuckie worries about the decline of the American standard of living, but can’t see how the Great Recession of ’08 and the corporate off-shoring of jobs caused it.

Instead, Chuckie still blames the Black Guy.

Chuckie worries about the abject failure of this Administration to do a thing correctly, but Obama, NOT Bush, successfully ordered the death of bin-Laden.

Obama’s Stimulus, obstructed by the GOP, went far in reducing the devastation of the Bush Recession, but the GOP operating principle was for Obama to fail and serve only one term. Serving the nation is never part of their agenda. Tax cuts for the rich, gutting safety nets, and deregulation of Big Money is their ONLY plan. And that is what led to the Bush Great Recession. Want more? Vote Republican.

Obamacare is not a liberal plan, so, Yes, Chuckie can blame corpo-dems and their appeasing the Right for Obamacare, but he can’t blame liberals, even though he does anyway.

And since Chuckie always responds to what I say, that pretty much confirms he is Chuckie.

We could call him “Witto Willy Chuck” from now on...

 
At 4:25 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Say, Witto Willy, what ever happened to "Chuck Morre"?

 
At 5:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretzel logic Dave, again.

 
At 5:32 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Yes, I love Steely Dan.

 
At 6:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Obama's policy's worked there wouldn't be so many Americans dependent on food stamps. Like job creation for starters.

The price of electricity hit a record for the month of October, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That made October the eleventh straight month when the average price of electricity hit or matched the record level for that month.

The average price of electricity in October was 13.2 cents per kilowatt hour (KWH), up from 12.8 cents per KWH in October 2012—and up from 9.3 cents per KWH in October 2003.

Americans now pay 42 percent more for electricity than they did a decade ago.

Don't blame the black guy!

 
At 7:21 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

You want to blame the Black Guy instead of the energy companies for raising prices? Of course you do. Better give energy companies more tax breaks and blame the Black Guy even more.

If Obama's policy's worked?

For one, Obama's policy of not starting new wars and not invading any more countries has worked quite well. We're still paying for Bush's waste of lives and money in his failed war in Iraq. Every hour, taxpayers in the United States are paying $824,328 for the Cost of War in Iraq Since 2003.

Thanks to Bush's Recession, wars and tax breaks for the rich, the debt shot upwards as never before. As he left office the Bush Recession was hitting us with skyrocketing unemployment that has only recently been reversed.

You want to take us back to those proven failed policies?

The stimulus reduced the negative effects of the Bush Recession. My road got paved. Jobs were saved.

Since when have Republican policies helped the American working class?

Well?

Ya got one? Any policy at all?

 
At 11:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yup,
Allow the building of Keystone Pipeline. Which will increase private employment, increase payroll tax revenues for federal government, which will start to lower the Obama double digit increase in our debt, reduce unemployment, reduce the need for food stamps, will create jobs for our vets in Obama's War in Afghanistan when they finally get home. The long range impact will be to stabilize if not reduce the cost of our energy supply that is next door and not in threaten by Islamic extremist or Venezuela socialists. Cost of transportation by pipe line is much less than by ship, much faster, much less dangerous to the environment than a oil tanker running around off our beaches.

Stop the govt waste of tax dollars by ending the funding of the failed green alternative energy programs. Wind and solar will not power America into the future. Allow the exploration for and delivery from new sources of domestic oil. See the above paragraph for the immediate benefits. Force the research of alternative energy to be private market place driven, not public.

Remove the protection of the health insurance market place, by allowing consumers to buy an insurance plan they want, that they can afford, from any insurance company in the country. Allow the market place to determine what is the best product for the best price. Allow for competition. We dont allow car companies to charge different prices in different locations of the country for the same car, why should insurance companies be given that protection? If we did, the lowest price for the best car would always be the car of choice.

Continue to fund research for possible hydrogen power for cars and trucks, focusing on how to deliver to the end user. IE: how do I buy this stuff at the pump. Solve that problem and the rest will fall into place in a market driven economy. Why do you we use gas instead of coal to fuel our cars? Because gas was a better product. Hydrogen is an even better product once the delivery system is developed.

End the war on the wealth producers in America. Stop the FEDERAL govt intrusion into the choices we make every day for our lives. End the endless war on poverty and drugs. Become more libertarian and states rights when it come sot drug laws. If the federal govt will not ban 100% tobacco, why do they at the federal level ban pot?

Lets see if anyone is serious about talking about ideas or just into this for the gotcha factor.

 
At 11:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Of those plans dont work, how about the black guy end his lying to Americans? Sounds easy enough.

 
At 1:01 AM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

THat pipeline is a boondoggle that will not bevefit ONE person in the USA outside the Texas oil barons that Canada will pay to store the oil before it ALL gets shipped out of the country. The few TEMPORARY jobs it creates will not even register on the unemployment rate. It will not do a thing for the debt (most of which is from Republicans like Reagan and Bush II)
The ACA DOES give people choices over what HC plan they want and you'd know that if you got your info from somplace other than Fox News and Limbaugh.
ANd did you know that at one point petroleum was a "failed technology" but government grants and subsidies alloewed for the research that made it a viable product? How many BILLIONS per year are we going to give the oil companies?
You REALLY need to stop carrying the Koch Bros water (among other things) you look like an idiot)

 
At 1:02 AM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Oh, and should we go back and list some of Bush's lies and compare consequenses to the nation? DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT DEBATE?

 
At 11:08 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Question:

Since when have Republican policies helped the American working class?

Well?

Ya got one? Any policy at all?


Response:

“Yup.”

Ah, nope, not an answer. Not one Republican policy is given that helped the American working class.

Instead of an answer, we got a list of demands.

“Allow, stop, force, remove, etc. “

The demands are followed by the usual lofty promises and predictions. “Trust us, we know best”.

Everything in that list of demands is geared to serving the short term bottom line for the Koch’s or some other billionaires. In other words, let Big Business have their way on every public policy. Surrender to a Republican dictatorship. Yeah, brilliant. That worked out great last time. Let’s have permanent war and another Bush Crash and Recession.

The “war on poverty”, popular safety nets like unemployment compensation, Social Security and Medicare, puts food on tables and provides health care to the poor. That is vital. Let ‘em starve and let ‘em die are not the options the American workers want. These programs have successfully helped millions of Americans.

The war on drugs is a tragic waste. End it. That is an idea worth implementing. But the rich and powerful interests haven’t figured out how to profit from legalization yet. I don’t see their Republican Party ending the war on drugs. Corpo-dems are no different really. Republicans are suppressing medical marijuana in some states though.

End the war on the wealth producers in America.

And there you go. The poor oppressed elites are miserable as they suck up the entire nation’s wealth. They can secretly pour millions into our election process, lobby and buy politicians, and write legislation. They’re richer than ever, but are somehow suffering at the hands of the poor and shrinking middle class.

The Walton family alone has wealth equal to the bottom 40% of ALL Americans, and THEY are the victims of a war? Laughable.

It’s only a war when our side fights back.

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” - Warren Buffett

 
At 12:34 PM, Blogger Kevin Swanwick said...

Tom, you were in Mrs. Peavey's class and I was in the class next door with Mrs. Fields. I was dropped off in front of the house and my mother walked in a few minutes later with a single brown bag of groceries from the Grand Union to tell me "I just heard that the president was shot" as she placed the grocery bag on the kitchen table. She was very pregnant and due that very day, November 22, 1963. She was late and as it turned out, she gave birth to my little brother, John Fitzgerald Swanwick on December 2nd.

In keeping with the confusion surrounding JFK's assassination, my brother has some documents listing his middle name as "Francis" and others, "Fitzgerald." Must have been a last minute change.

 
At 1:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"TEMPORARY jobs"
The only jobs that are not "TEMPORARY jobs" are govt jobs?

The stimulus spending to be used to fix our infrastructure IE roads and bridges, once fixed that would make them TEMPORARY jobs.
What you dont understand Mozart is all jobs are TEMPORARY jobs. But while they exist they produce capital that the workers spend which creates other jobs that are needed to fill the demand. This is the same argument that Nancy P uses when she said unemployment benefits improve the economy. That you say Keystone will not benefit anyone expect the oil barons, is insane! Are the oil barons going to be welding, or using a backhoe when the pipeline is built? it is clear to me that you hate the American worker so much that unless they work for the govt, you do not believe they are doing worth while work. Why else would you turn your nose up to good paying union jobs that would come about with the building of Keystone?

Ok, I answered your question, I gave you my plan, and since you disagree with it, how about your plan? How about an out line of your plan for the oppressed underclass American blue collar worker? More months of unemployment pay? Seriously, what is your plan to reduce the unemployment rate DOWN to where Obama promised it would be by now, to reduce the national debt, to make us energy independent, to raise the average income back to where it was before Obama became our President?

Waiting.



 
At 1:59 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

The stimulus spending to be used to fix our infrastructure IE roads and bridges, once fixed that would make them TEMPORARY jobs.

Yeah, but that job is NOT finished. It is ongoing. It cannot be "once fixed". There is always a need for construction and maintenance.

Those needs are not fully met and will always be present.

Nothing is permanent, including people. We live in a temporal reality.

You want a plan? If the private sector fails to provide jobs, then government is the only remaining option. This is just logic and reality here.

The above needs, along with other public works, were accomplished by government after the Republican Crash of '29 and the resulting Depression.

But the Republican Party, aided by the appeasing corpo-dems, represents only the economic elites, so this cannot happen. They prefer a neo-feudalist solution of a poor labor force, preferably with no minimum wage, serving the profit machinery of the ultra wealthy.

And Lords and Serfs ain't workin' for America. Just the Lords.


 
At 2:57 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Anonymous, I would go back to the tax system of the 50's Tax the rich "job creators" at 90% and THEN give them big deductions for actually hiring AMERICANS and building stuff. We don't actually MAKE anything in this country anymore. It's all speculation and outsourcing the actual jobs out to countries with cheap slave labor to increase profits. I would do what FDR did. Put people to work fixing roads, bridges, planting trees, etc. Look at the East coast after Sandy, PEOPLE NEED HELP and getting them working to rebuild the area, (not to mention New Orleans and Tornado ravaged areas of the midwest)would help on both ends! Building a boondoggle pipeline so a few people can get rich would do NOTHING. The only ongoing jobs from that would be cleaning up the inevitable leaks and spills across out heartland, but given the efforts made afterthe gulf spill and after the EXXON Valdeez, I wouldn't count on too much effort there. I have no problem paying taxes if the money goes to actually help the country move forward and thrive. I have no problem giving people a chance to buy healthy food (I would also promote GOOD nutrition over fast food)I would put a TON of money into actual education and helping our public schools instead of the crap "No child left behind" nonsense of the Bush administration. EDUCATION IS EVERYTHING. As part of a public education I would include a two year college degree. Those things are all just a start.
Watch now as Anonymous finds a way to shhot that dowen because it would hurt the poor abused uber rich.

 
At 4:27 PM, Anonymous William Wallace said...

"If the private sector fails to provide jobs, then government is the only remaining option. This is just logic and reality here."

What are the reasons for the private sector failing provide jobs? Is the the duty of the private sector to provide jobs or provide goods and services, which to do, creates jobs?

How does the GOVT raise the money needed to meet their payroll for the jobs they create? What could the former money owners spent their money on if they had been allowed to keep instead of the govt taking it from them?

I understand that the answers to the above are already known. I ask then rhetorically. I dont expect answers, just claims that I'm listening to Beck, Limbaugh, Koch, Fox news etc. Actually that is not the truth, they stem from my basic Economics 101 class in college. So give the never answer question claim a rest.

MOZART do you know that the 90% tax rate of the 50's produced the recession that Kennedy ran on and said that a tax cut was needed to end? "Put people to work fixing roads, bridges, planting trees, etc" Who is putting these people out work? And once completed, who creates their next job?
Do you agree that we should not ask what our country can do for us but instead ask what we can do for our country?
=================================================================================================
I disagree with the treatment of Keystone as creating jobs that have less value than jobs provided by the GOVT or even part time jobs at a fast food business. What gives you or the GOVT the power to declare which jobs are acceptable over others or for that matter, less superior than collecting unemployment? (the same power that allows the declaring which insurance plan is substandard and which one is not?) Why would any work be deemed as insignificant? To the person working the job surely it isn't.

Reality check time, the number of Americans out of work now vs 2009 is up 1.6 million, yearly family incomes now vs 2009 is down $4900 or 9%.

The number of Americans who now are in poverty is 46.2 million vs 2009 39.3 million.

What I am trying to get across is the truth that GOVT is not allowing the private sector to create the jobs needed by the unemployed. There are reports almost daily about jobs cuts due to costly Obamacare Tax. There are reports daily about hours being cut to avoid the costly Obamacare Tax. We read here today the reaction to the jobs created by allowing the building of the Keystone pipeline. It is fact that Govt in the past five years has declared war on the coal industry and the private sector jobs it creates. Is it no surprise then that there are more of us unemployed now, that our average family income has dropped 9% in less that 5 years?

The only question I would like an answer for:
IS THE GOVT PREVENTING THE PRIVATE SECTOR FROM CREATING PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS?





 
At 4:39 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

So give the never answer question claim a rest.

Sure, Willy Chuck. So what was the question you answered?

 
At 10:35 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

William Wallace, the 50s were a time of the highest prosperity America ever knew. NO ONE actually PAID the 90% so don't act like it broke anyone. But people had jobs!
And maybe, just MAYBE if the House would actually pass one of the several jobs bills Obama sent to them there wouldn't be so many people out of work. MAYBE if places like Wal mart and McDonalds paid a living wage, there wouldn't be so many people on food stamps (which the GOP just cut funding for, what humanitarians) And how is the government preventing the private sector from "creating jobs"? Bush cut their taxes THREE TIMES, and unemployment went up every time. What do they want? NO TAXES? And paying people so little they have to go on welfare while they are working doesn't help, especially when the CEO gets a multi million dollar bump in HIS salary (McDonalds, Hostess)
No sir, we will no longer cry for the poor abused billionares.

 
At 11:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The only question I would like an answer for:
IS THE GOVT PREVENTING THE PRIVATE SECTOR FROM CREATING PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS?

 
At 11:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The green automaker Fisker Automotive filed for bankruptcy last week as the Obama administration sold off the financially troubled firm’s loan guarantee for a $139 million loss.

This may not be the end for Fisker, though, as the bankruptcy filing was done with plans to be acquired by the same Chinese group that also bought the company’s loan from the Obama administration.

Last week, the government sold its $192 million Fisker loan to the newly formed Hybrid Technology — a group formed by Chinese billionaire Richard Li — for $25 million. After taking into account what the government was able to recover from Fisker, taxpayers were left with a $139 million bill for the failed automaker.

Way to go Obama, keep creating those green energy jobs for Americans.

 
At 4:03 AM, Blogger Gary said...

Posner was the conservative intelligence elite's goto guy when they wanted a PR book that would carry their views.

When he was finally fired as a journalist because of plagiarism and ethical violations and he couldn't get another media job they got him his present job as the American PR representative of the Afghanistani leader and family which he holds now.

Posner's Case Closed because of it's hysterical over-the-top tone, it's reliance on intelligence officials that the conspiracy community has implicated in the assassination and cover-up, it's total non-mention of evidence that doesn't support his pre-shaped conclusion, and it's hand-waving away of intelligence connections as "just coincidences" actually convinced me there was/is a cover-up.
Someone I gave the book to described the opening well. "After the first couple chapters I thought Oswald was the worst sociopath that was ever born, and then I realized Posner hadn't reached high school."

 
At 10:44 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

I hear Willy Chuck yelling. Is this because he's still not answering questions?

 
At 6:10 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Attention “Free Market” Worshippers! (We know who you are.)

Pope Francisdenounces “trickle-down” economics

Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded.... In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.

..... One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules... To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.


Oh, dear, Time for the Tea Party to fetch their muskets! Someone needs to defend “Trickle Down” from the evils of Christianity.

 
At 8:09 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Ananypous..NO the governmetn is not preventing private industry from creating jobs, they woul;d appreciate it though, if they'd create a few in the USA. As for green energy, the looses you are whining about are less than EXXON/Mobile loses down their couch in change,and that after we give them BILLIONS EVERY YEAR in taxpayer funded subsidies. If the petrolium industry would get out of the way, green energy could thrive. Global warming real? NAAAAH. Enjoy your winter storms and ever increasing hurricanes.

 
At 12:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ever wonder where Dave Dubya gets his ideas, his terms, his phrases for his posts and blog?

"But this newly acquired momentum turned out to be far more momentary than most anticipated, myself included. In fact, it lasted only a few days. Why? Because Republicans seized the opportunity provided by the big problems with the rollout of the Affordable Health Care Act. They were all over it, with the help of COMPLIANT CORPORATE MEDIA.

Now, if the health insurance exchanges are running smoothly by the end of the year, as they appear to be in many states, much of the furor will die out. But if they aren’t, Obamacare will be turned by the FAR RIGHT into a metaphor for “broken government” and the prospects of unseating Republicans in Congress and statehouses next fall will become problematic.

Which means that GRUMBLING about the problems of the health care rollout heard in some progressive and left circles needs to give way to actively resisting the right wing’s campaign to kill Obamacare and regain the initiative leading into the midterm and 2016 elections.
A SOCIAL RIGHT – to millions who up to now have none, and partially CURBS THE POWER of the HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY, while its defeat would set back the STRUGGLE for health care for all much longer than I would care to think. That’s why the FAR RIGHT is fighting it so hard!

Thus, energizing, uniting, and raising the understanding of ever more people to oppose RIGHT-WIND EXTREMISM in every arena of struggle – not least of which is defense of the Affordable Health Care Act – is the order of the day.

Of critical importance in this regard is the fight against RACISM in its material and ideological forms. RACISM was the main vehicle used to bust up the New Deal coalition and fuel the ascendancy of the RIGHT WING over the past three or more decades. By the same token, the struggle against it is at the core of building a movement with the ideological, political, and organizational capacity and unity to dislodge the right and usher in an era of deep going progressive, even radical, change."

Communist Party, USA Chief Sam Webb

"Oswald was an extreme left winger - the type of which no longer exists in this country: a committed Communist."
TOM DEGAN

(Except for Sam Webb and maybe a few others?)

 
At 8:59 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Ever wonder where Dave Dubya gets his ideas, his terms, his phrases for his posts and blog?

I know! I know! And it isn't from commie blogs.

One great idea for a post is what I posted about the Pope above.

Did you read it Chuckie?

Is the Pope a commie, too, now? I suppose if ANYONE speaks the truth, he's a commie to the Bubble Cult, right, sport?

 
At 11:07 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Where's Willy Chuck's condemnation of the "commie Pope"?

C'mon out Chuckie, we need your enlightened vision to exorcise the Pope's commie ranting about economic tyranny.

Why doesn't he condemn Obamacare as tyranny Chuckie? He's sounding like a liberal, Chuckie.

Look at what the Pope said, Chuckie.

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules... To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions.

What are going to do about it?

Better blame the Black Guy and Dave Dubya. Better blame somebody fast, Chuckie.

If not you, then who can save us, Chuckie?

Calling Chuckie!

Here, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck Chuckie.

Is Chuckie too chicken to discuss the Pope's sane and compassionate assertions on the tyranny of an inhuman and cruel economic system?

Bwaawck, buck, buck, buckaaw.

Save us, Chicken Chuckie. You can even pretend to be Willy if you need to.



 
At 11:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Quinnipiac University’s poll in bellwether Ohio gives him the lowest rating the university’s polling institute has ever found anywhere.

According to the survey released Wednesday, Obama is underwater by 27 points in the Buckeye State, which has voted for the eventual presidential winner in every election since 1964 and has been within 2 percent of the national vote since 1996.

He has a negative job performance rating of 34 percent to 61 percent among registered voters, 10 points worse than the last time Quinnipiac asked the same question in June. That time his negative rating was 36 percent to 59 percent.

His previous worse figure in any state was last week in Colorado when he had a negative 36 percent to 59 percent.


Must be due to all the good paying jobs that Obama's administration is creating.

 
At 11:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...


NEWS FLASH, COW FARTS CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING.
In response to this terrifying news, Mozart will boycott eating steak. Chick-a-fl CEO says "I told you so, eat more chicken".

A new study of methane emissions finds that the U.S. is spewing 50 percent more methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere than the Environmental Protection Agency previously assumed. Several factors contribute to the accumulation of methane gas in Earth’s atmosphere, such as the burning of fossil fuels and leaks from oil and gas refining and drilling, but one contender stands out above the rest as particularly repugnant: cow farts.

“Overall, we conclude that methane emissions associated with both the animal husbandry and fossil fuel industries have larger greenhouse gas impacts than indicated by existing inventories,” the authors of the study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, wrote.

According to the new research, livestock’s noxious flatulence accounts for a large portion of the methane gas being released into the atmosphere. Researchers say cows are producing twice as much methane gas as scientists previously believed. The states producing the most methane gas were Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas – which also happen to have a lot of cows, oil and gas.

 
At 11:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dave, Mozart and Sam Webb agree, then sing in three part harmony, "Bwaawck, buck, buck, buckaaw."

The Obama administration moved on Tuesday to rein in the use of tax-exempt groups for political campaigning.

The effort is an attempt to reduce the role of such loosely regulated yet influential super PACS as Crossroads GPS, which was co-founded by GOP political strategist Karl Rove, and Priorities USA, which ran searing ads against rivals of President Barack Obama to support his re-election last year.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department proposed new rules that they said would prohibit such groups from using “candidate-related political activity” like running advertisements, registering voters or distributing campaign literature as activities that qualify them to be tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations.

“This proposed guidance is a first critical step toward creating clear-cut definitions of political activity by tax-exempt social welfare organizations,” said Mark Mazur, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for tax policy. “We are committed to getting this right before issuing final guidance that may affect a broad group of organizations.

“It will take time to work through the regulatory process and carefully consider all public feedback as we strive to ensure that the standards for tax-exemption are clear and can be applied consistently,” Mazur said.

 
At 1:00 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

One more accurate prediction come true:

Look at what the Pope said, Chuckie.

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules... To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions.

What are going to do about it?

Better blame the Black Guy and Dave Dubya. Better blame somebody fast, Chuckie.


Chuckie the Chicken can ONLY blame the Black Guy from his cult bubble.

Keep blaming the Black Guy. It's the racist thing to do.

C'mon out Chuckie. For a "tough guy" you sure are chicken.

I agree with the Pope.

How about you Chuckie? Who's gonna save the "free market" from the commie Pope?

Chuckie says, "Bwaawck, buck, buck, buckaaw. It's all the Black Guy's fault! Bwaawck, buck, buck, buckaaw."

 
At 6:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

By Lewis Dovland

We've all heard the "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" statements -- statements that now are being admitted to even by the administration as knowingly false when first made. We all know about the much higher premiums and deductibles faced by individuals, due in large part by the coverage mandated by the law.

What is being overlooked is the new and higher deductibles and total annual out-of-pocket expenditures, especially in the Bronze and Silver plans. The amount of these greatly exceeds the ability of most individuals and families to pay, thus providing the real possibility of personal bankruptcies due to medical bills and high losses for providers who cannot collect.

Here is an example from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network:

The Peters a family of four earns $100,000 a year. They're all pretty healthy, so they purchase a bronze plan because the premiums are relatively low, $700 per month. However, in April their son Carl is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia that requires aggressive treatment and hospitalization. The bronze plan requires a deductible of $7500, as well as co-insurance on cancer drugs of 20%. During the course of the year the Peters exhaust their deductible and reach the out-of-pocket limit ($11,900) imposed by the law. Over the course of the year, the Peters spend $20,300 on premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs - over 20% of their income.

As the example says, the medical expenses would represent twenty percent of their gross -- probably more like 25% of their after-tax income. This is impossible for most families to bear in our current economy.

So what will happen? The family, being responsible citizens, will initially try to pay the bills, but that will soon prove impossible. They will ultimately default. And in any case, they will most likely end any college planning or retirement savings they were working toward.

But -- and this is the big but -- the entity chasing them for the money is not the government. Rather, it is the provider -- the doctor, hospital, lab, radiologist, etc. This permits the government to stand on the sidelines and shrug at the dastardly situation that government itself caused in the first place.

Once enough patients face this crisis, the provider will be painted as the devil, hurting all these working Americans and their finances. First there will be restrictions on how much the provider can ultimately collect. Eventually, providers will be eating a large portion of any of the money they don't collect at the point of service.

The government will neatly sidestep the mess they've set up on purpose, will be able to demonize the providers (who end up not getting paid), and can step in to "save the day." And saving the day means taking over the now-bankrupt assets of the provider side of the health care delivery system. Bingo: a full single-payer and provider system, under government control, without even having to fire a shot.

This is a main reason why the PPACA law is so bad. It is health insurance reform, not health industry reform. It does nothing to fix the cost problems we have in the delivery of health care. It addresses a nonexistent problem (lack of insurance) instead of the real problem (making health care affordable for all). All planned with an eye to wrecking the system from the bottom up.

There is a better solution -- one that uses the free market, transparency, HSA accounts and other tools -- that neither space nor topic permits me to review here. The first step is to stop this runaway train, then put in place the real reforms needed to ensure a stable and affordable health care delivery system for all.

 
At 12:04 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Obama administration today announced a one year delay of online enrollment for small businesses looking to purchase health coverage through federal Obamacare exchanges, another high-profile setback for HealthCare.gov.

It’s the second delay for online small business enrollment, which the administration had said would begin this month.
Continue Reading
Site deadline quickly approaching

The White House is trying to get the troubled enrollment website on track for individuals and families seeking coverage, which is a higher priority. It set this Saturday, Nov. 30, as a target date for getting HealthCare.gov working for the “vast majority” of users.

The delay of the small business exchanges comes as little surprise, as the administration had said earlier this week it would offer alternative ways for small businesses to enroll. Still, it undercuts the White House message that it’s beginning to turn around the disastrous rollout of the health care law.

 
At 9:54 AM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Anyone notice Chuckie can't comment on the Pope's words? It shuts him up as if we were discussing the 'nukular" aluminum tubes.


It's like a miracle.

 
At 12:55 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Dave Dubya: "It's like a miracle."

It's a Thanksgiving miracle!

 
At 1:20 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Tom Degan: "NOTE TO THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS: You may have watched a handful of forty-minute-long, exploitation documentaries on the 'History' Channel or Fox 'News', but I have devoted ('wasted' is the better word) years of my life researching this subject."

Sorry, Tom, I can't bite my tongue on this one. I've read every bit of evidence regarding this, as you have, yet my conclusion is not the same.

Even the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations, in 1978, concluded that it was very likely a conspiracy.

I've noticed a trend in news reporting, in recent years, that reverts back to placing faith in the Warren Commission and the dubious lone killer theory. You know, if you've read all the available evidence as you claim, that the single killer theory just doesn't hold up. I have no doubt that Oswald was an integral part of the plan to murder JFK, I just don't believe he was the trigger-man.

Please don't buy into, and revert back to, the improbable beliefs that they tried to get the American public to swallow in September of 1964. You're more sensible than that.

 
At 8:56 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

BREAKING NEWS!! Something that was long suspected, but could never be confirmed. Well, until now.

Oswald was (is) defined as a malcontent, a communist, a loner, and probably hundreds of other descriptors designed to portray him as the probable (and lone) killer. But one thing that the corporate mainstream media have never tagged him with is his association with personnel contracted by, and for, the CIA. This is a new piece of information to add to the growing list of evidence compiled by the assassination researchers that helps discount the "lone gunman" theory, and lends probability to a conspiracy.

Maybe by the 100th anniversary, the truth of what really happened in Dealey Plaza will be common knowledge.

 
At 2:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It fits perfectly well within American character and culture, that some lone nut was responsible.
No evidence of any other kind of bullet except Oswald's bullets, was found. The expert ballistic evidence showed all physical damage to Kennedy and Connoly came from those bullets.
Modern enhanced ability has proven the alignment of Kennedy and Connoly's bodies to be exactly correct, to prove the one bullet theory.
Kennedy's head exploded out from the front right, clearly a bullet that came in from the back of his head.
Any hunter can tell of the echo affect from a rifle shot. It seems to come from everywhere. The grassy hill with it's cement formations, and slight "valley" effect are perfect for echos, coming from the grassy hill.
Given Oswalds past, I would not believe for a second anything he said including, "I didn't do it."

 
At 12:43 PM, Blogger Americulchie said...

Though I am a little older than you I agree with your analysis. I would in fact go farther,since that day in November 1963, we have been awash with nothing but Grey Men in the Oval Office. Our last chance of recovering a sense of magic in our country was ended forever by the death of the brother Bobby. On the whole this is a good read.

 

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