As expected the Republicans in the Senate said no to those whose livelihoods they gutted when they controlled Washington. Forget the fact that men like Mitch McConnell and yes, Ben Nelson who is a Republican and should get out of our party soaked up huge salaries while soaking the middle-class with policies that decimated them while enriching Corporate fatcats and the Chinese Communists. Of course the whole Republican Party, Mitch McConnell and Ben Nelson want you to forget. What they do not want is to bear any of the responsibility of their actions both in the past and now as working Americans who paid the price from Republicans and Corporate Democrats and the robber-barons in Corporate America getting fat, crashing the economy, and getting bailed out.
It is no secret that in this current environment with so many workers unemployed, underemployed and making less money that anger is rampant among American workers. It is understandable as working America watches the bankers who crashed our economy costing them millions of jobs get bailed out while in every town in America they are still hurting. This on top of the fact that Corporate America has stagnated wages on jobs they have not shipped overseas to virtual slave markets. Yes, anger is justified and rampant in many unemployment lines and workplaces. However, working America must be very careful of how to channel this understandable anger. You see, just like in past days forces of hatred are seeking to divide workers keeping them from forming a united front to really change this country and their own lots in life.
Much has been written about and discussed regarding the Republican Party. God's Own Party. The Party of Greed. The Party of Family Values (minus the values). Yes, you all understand the rank hypocrisy that permeates and smells up their whole "values" bumper sticker slogan. But what is it that is causing this incredible hypocrisy?
From what I have discerned, much of what was written in the Apostle's Creed gives these holier-than-thou hypocrites their backbone to do their worst here in life and expect a rosy and happy reunion with their loved ones in the afterlife.
In what has become a recurrent theme the big banking industry is setting it's site on fleecing yet another group of Americans. As if crashing our economy and being bailed out by the taxpayers for their own greed were not bad enough, banking institutions have set their sites on the fleecing of American students, and are attempting to keep them in recurrent debt for the rest of their natural lives, much less their careers. Well, now it is time to fight back against these crooks who care little for their country and the people within as long as the bottom line is preserved.
When Jesus heard that, he said to them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor; those who are sick do. I've come to call sinners, not people who think they have God's approval."
(emphasis added)
GOP Health Care Obstructionists, are you Listening???
The Pharisees, thought they were doing God's work too.
Imagine their surprise when this upstart Carpenter, from the old neighborhood, dared to stand up to their blatant self-righteousness ... and dish back to them some cold, hard truth ...
Man, sometimes you really have to wonder just what planet Mitch McConnell and his ilk in the Republican Party are from. It seems to be some wild fusion of Alice's "wonderland" and Hitler's Germany. Mitch McConnell as a "leader" in his party has shown time and time again that he simply does not care about the fate of his country. His only obligation is to make himself and his handlers who have propped him up and made him rich more and more money, and to hell with everyone else. The man simply cannot be as stupid as he sounds, so one must that he really does not care about anything but protecting powerful interests.
In last year's elections Progressives everywhere gave their time, money and passion to do several things to change this country for the better. One of them was to take over the White House with a historical new and inspirational candidate. Another was to hold our newly won majorities in the House of Representatives. Lastly, we fought to give our leaders in the Senate a fillibuster-proof majority and end their slide towards becoming an American version of the "House of Lords".
As one of the almost 50 million Americans that does not have health insurance I have been following the fight for healthcare very closely. Lately, with even a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress seeming to take single-payer off the table, I have watched with much more disgust than hope. Now, it seems as if even a public option is at risk.
Everyone's heard the expression "whitewashing" -- it's defined as "a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts, especially in a political context."
"Greenwashing" is the same premise, but in an environmental context.
It's greenwashing when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be "green" through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It's whitewashing, but with a green brush.
A classic example might be an energy company that runs an advertising campaign touting a "green" technology they're working on -- but that "green" technology represents only a sliver of the company's otherwise not-so-green business, or may be marketed on the heels of an oil spill or plant explosion.
Throughout its history, but especially during its ascendency in the 19th century, capitalism has had certain key characteristics. First, basic production facilities-land and capital-are privately owned.
[...]
Consumers are free to spend their incomes in ways that they believe will yield the greatest satisfaction. This principle, called consumer sovereignty, reflects the idea that under capitalism producers will be forced by competition to use their resources in ways that will best satisfy the wants of consumers. Self-interest and the pursuit of gain lead them to do this. [...]
if competition is present, economic activity will be self-regulating.
Capitalism assumes Self-interest will lead to Self-regulation. But what do Current Events really tell us, about this basic assumption that in Capitalist systems, consumer-driven "course corrections" will naturally lead to "the well-being of society" as a whole?
(aka. The theory of the Invisible Hand, promoted by Adam Smith, and others)
(yep - the new idea - more of those failed policies... - promoted by poligirl)
You know, they say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Under that same criteria, it seems that the Republicans in the House of Representitives should all be lining up for their weekly shock treatments. Despite being the party of no, they have now become the party of absolutely no new ideas to move our country foward.
