Crazy Raving Liberal

I thought this would end with the election...

2009-07-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

Once Obama won the election, I thought I wouldn't need this blog anymore. Much to my chagrin, however, the right wing nutjobs have continued to launch unsupported, inane attacks on the administration and anyone whose opinions veer to the left of fascism. While I've been following these attacks for the past several months, I never felt compelled to blog about them -- until now. And this is actually an accident. My mother in law sent us one of those reactionary spam emails and I spent a lot of time and effort debunking it. Before I could send it, however, I received a very nice email from her with a funny, nonpartisan joke. At that point I felt I couldn't very well ream her in response to the first email. But since I went to all the time and trouble, I will post what WOULD have gone to my MIL here.

First, this is the email that got me going:

545 vs 300,000,000
EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..

If the Army &Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it.......... Is up to you.

This might be funny if it weren't so darned true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge T ax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Ser vice FeeTax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge=2 0Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What in the hell happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'
And I still have to 'press 1' for English!?

I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!!!

Usually I can shrug these emails off, but that "Mom stayed home to raise the kids" just got my hackles up. Here is my response:

As requested in the email introduction, I did read the email and thought deeply about what "this journalist has scripted in his message." I also was curious about what bona fides Charley Reese had other than being a journalist for 49 years. So I did some research.

In a 1995 column urging Pat Buchanan to run for president, Reese stated:

"I am more conservative [than Pat Buchanan]. My view of the proper role of the federal government does not go much beyond guarding the coast and toting the mail. He still has faith that it can do somewhat more than that. Though, Buchanan thinks that American trade policy should not give away the store, he nevertheless believes that America should play some leadership role in the world. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the world can go to hell. I wouldn't spend a nickel outside the United States nor allow a single soldier to do ought but defend this country."

Reese went on to say:

"Nevertheless if the genial Irish-American goes for the Republican presidential nomination, I'll have to consider switching my party registration back to the GOP long enough to vote for him in the primary election. Pat Buchanan is a good man, and that's more than you can say for a lot of politicians. He has a good mind supported by a strong backbone, and that is more than you can say for most politicians."

While Pat Buchanan has been much in the news lately with his racist attacks on Sonia Sotomayor and assertion that Todd Palin should drown Levi Johnson, at the time Reese was praising Buchanan as a "good man" with a "good mind," that "genial Irish-American" had already made public the following views:

On race relations in the late 1940s and early 1950s: "There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The 'negroes' of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours." (Right from the Beginning, Buchanan's 1988 autobiography, p. 131)
In a column sympathetic to ex-Klansman David Duke, Buchanan chided the Republican Party for overreacting to Duke and his Nazi "costume": "Take a hard look at Duke's portfolio of winning issues and expropriate those not in conflict with GOP principles, [such as] reverse discrimination against white folks." (syndicated column, 2/25/89)
In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage.... Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path." (Guardian, 1/14/92)

Pat Buchanan in his own Words, 2/26/96

Personally, I'm not particularly persuaded by the opinion of a reactionary isolationist who admires racist xenophobes, even if he has been a journalist for 49 years.

Reese wrote 545 v. 300,000,000 in 1985. Presumably the author of the email updated it to include Nancy Pelosi and the Iraq War. The author also added the little poem and list of taxes at the end. Now I don't know who this person is, but have to admit that I was struck by his vehement assertion that "not one of [the 46 listed] taxes existed 100 years ago." He expects us to be appalled by this. Apparently he doesn't think we're smart enough to do the math and figure out that most of the listed taxes are on goods and services that either did not exist (or existed only in very small numbers) in 1909.

Of course, he's also just plain wrong. In 1909, there WERE property taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes.

Why is it that these ranters can never get their facts right??? And why are they always nostalgic for "good old days" in which blacks were segregated (beaten, and lynched) and "Mom stayed home with the kids"?

I haven't done any sort of investigation into this, but I suspect it's because they're all crotchety white men with inferiority complexes... and I'm pretty sure most of them drive oversized vehicles.

Eddie Izzard on election

2008-11-06T14:42:00.001-08:00

It's no secret - I love eddie izzard.

The Sarah Palin Primer

2008-11-02T15:25:00.000-08:00

courtesy of 236.com

I thought this was funny until I saw the WV vote flipping video

2008-10-31T19:38:00.001-07:00

It's real! It's on tape! WV voting machines DO switch votes!

2008-10-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

This is just scary - and an EXCELLENT argument why we need to stick with paper ballots.

Rachel Maddow: Excellent football analogy re election

2008-10-29T05:34:00.001-07:00

So I've got the brie, and the free range mushrooms ...

2008-10-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Huffington post has a compilation of late night jokes. Wait for Craig Ferguson's at the end -- it's worth it.

McCain denies reality

2008-10-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

I honestly cannot bear to watch the Republicans spewing crap these days, and confine myself to just looking at "highlights." So I did NOT watch McCain's lengthy interview with Tom Brokaw yesterday morning. I figure all I need to know I can find on the internet.

From crooksandliars.com:

When confronted by Tom Brokaw with the daunting poll numbers that show Senator Obama leads him (by double digits) on the issue of taxes, health care, economy, and the housing crisis, John McCain comes out and simply denies that that's what the polls say and, indeed, that polls really mean anything -- well, except for the one he agrees with.

"I don't agree with their conclusion that I'm down eleven or twelve of fourteen points, whatever it is. There's a Zogby poll showing us three or four points behind. If you to continue to refer to poll I disagree with, I have to start our conversation by saying, 'I don't agree with that.' We're closing and we have been closing."
* * *
Brokaw played two clips, one of McCain in 2000 explicitly voicing his support for increasing taxes on the wealthy, and another from 2004 when he defended his opposition to Bush's tax cuts on the grounds that they disproportionately benefited the wealthy. When McCain tries to weasel his way out by claiming Herbert Hoover was the last person to raise taxes during a recession, Brokaw is quick to point out that his hero Ronald Reagan actually raised taxes in his first two years. Needless to say McCain bumbles and stumbles in the face of reality.
SEN. McCAIN: The last time a president of the United States that did that was a guy named Herbert Hoover, protectionism and raising taxes.

MR. BROKAW: Well, Ronald Reagan raised taxes as well, after the first two years in office.

SEN. McCAIN: Not in these times. Not in times--not in economic times like these.

MR. BROKAW: Well, right after the recession he did, in the first two years of his office.

SEN. McCAIN: Well, look, I would be glad to review the Reagan record, but the Reagan record was certainly one that reined in spending.

Right. And Obama's a terrorist and paying taxes equals socialism. At least his upside down un-reality is consistent.

See the videos here and here.

Yep -- looks like I'm anti-American

2008-10-24T14:48:00.001-07:00

Jon Swift has put together a handy little checklist to tell if you're pro-American or anti-American. I'm afraid I didn't stand a chance.....

Check your status here.

Best Old Lady Blog Ever!

2008-10-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Helen is 82. Her best friend is Margaret. They have been friends for 60 years. Helen's grandson taught her how to blog. Let us all be thankful, because Helen ROCKS! Here is some of her wisdom, expressed to a young woman who was concerned that her grandparents would never vote for a black man:

So, as an old lady who has been around the block of few times, here is what
I think: Sometimes elections can be about great things… about changing the
world. Think Lincoln. Think FDR. I started out in this
election supporting Hillary Clinton because I believed our country needed a
women’s point of view in the Oval Office. I truly believe that women
approach education, war, healthcare, the environment, poverty, etc.
differently. Of course then I met Sarah Palin and realized that some women
are just bitches who only want to change their wardrobe and your religious
freedoms.

God, I hope I'm this feisty when I'm 82. (Actually, I wish I were this feisty NOW.)

Check out Margaret's blog here. (Actually, don't just check it out -- bookmark it.)

An insightful (and scary) look at the psychology of the McCain-Palin campaign

2008-10-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

In her article McCain-Palin and the Lucifer Effect, Dawn Teo effectively explains how the McCain-Palin rhetoric is designed to turn good people into evil people by dehumanizing liberals in general, and Obama in particular. It's scarily accurate.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are attempting to imbue Obama with the
characteristics of a traitor by disassociating him from "real America" and
associating him with those who are commonly accepted in our society as public
enemies. They are using rhetoric that has traditionally been reserved for
propaganda against traitors and foreign enemies.

In fact, the McCain-Palin campaign is systematically invoking the image
of an accepted enemy for each currently living generation, systematically
creating an "us versus them" framework:
Communist and Socialist --- for the
older generation, those who were reared with fears of Stalinism and Marxism and
Maoism

Terrorist and Muslim --- for the younger generation, those whose fears
center around the religious extremism, guerrilla warfare, or suicide
bombers

McCain, Palin, and their surrogates have chosen to use words that are
associated with the accepted enemies of each generation and each targeted social
group, and they have applied those words to Barack Obama.

The McCain-Palin campaign is using what social psychologists call
images of the enemy to create a hostile imagination. With words like "dangerous"
and "terrorist" and "socialist," the McCain-Palin campaign relegates Obama to an
"outgroup"; they imbue him with the characteristics of otherness (he is not a
"real American"); and they characterize him as an accepted enemy of the state
(he is a "socialist" who "pals around with terrorists"). This language makes it
seem acceptable to regard Obama as less than ingroup members and as the
enemy.

McCain, Palin, and their surrogates are effectively engaging in psyops
traditionally used during times of war (or cold war). It is not the mere
characterization, though, of Obama as the other and as the enemy that is so
potentially destructive. Rather, it is when people feel that their core values
or way of life are/is threatened that passive fear and hostility transform into
hostile action.

Read the entire article here.

Rachel Maddow and John Hodgman Talk Politics

2008-10-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

George Washington -- the ideal "bridge" candidate because he was "at once a Virginia aristocrat AND a toothless farmer." Hee!

Now we know where McCain got his debate strategy

2008-10-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

More GOP hypocrisy

2008-10-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

In response to a question about Sarah Palin's $150k wardrobe, Republican strategist Bill Blakeman blasted Obama for taking his campaign jet to visit his sick grandmother:

"Forget about the energy that is wasted, what about the hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a private trip when this guy should be humping his bags on a commercial plane or taking a smaller plane. Taking a 767 of campaign money from people who could least afford it is more of an outrage in my opinion."

I think I would have been more outraged had anchor David Schuster not been laughing the whole time. Watch it here.

Undecided voters

2008-10-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

From David Sedaris' recent piece in The New Yorker:

I don’t know that it was always this way, but, for as long as I can remember, just as we move into the final weeks of the Presidential campaign the focus shifts to the undecided voters. “Who are they?” the news anchors ask. “And how might they determine the outcome of this election?”
Then you’ll see this man or woman— someone, I always think, who looks very happy to be on TV. “Well, Charlie,” they say, “I’ve gone back and forth on the issues and whatnot, but I just can’t seem to make up my mind!” Some insist that there’s very little difference between candidate A and candidate B. Others claim that they’re with A on defense and health care but are leaning toward B when it comes to the economy.
I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?

McCain's ACORN ties

2008-10-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Ron Howard gets patriotic (and nostalgic)

2008-10-23T19:02:00.001-07:00

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Keith Olbermann rips McCain-Palin Racist Rallies!

2008-10-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

THIS is what a future president sounds like

2008-10-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

Rachel Maddow -- Sarah Palin, Queen of Denial

2008-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show -- 2000 Bush/2008 McCain -- McSame!

2008-10-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

The entry that started it all

2008-10-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have another blog where I set forth what I thought was a cogent argument as to why thinking conservatives were abandoning the GOP ship and going to the Obama camp. Somewhere in there, my husband's family decided that I was calling them fascists, and all hell broke loose. For those who care, this is the offending entry:

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Morally Reprehensible

I bought this bumpersticker over a year ago -- back when Alberto Gonzales was denying all recollection of things he clearly knew about, and it was obvious to anyone with a brain that the entire Bush administration was corrupt. I never actually put it on my car, however, because I thought that it might be a little harsh to indict the entire Republican party over a few bad apples in admittedly high places.

I no longer have such qualms. While McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was laughably inappropriate for a while, there's not much to laugh at now that Palin and McCain have started whipping their followers into a violent racist frenzy. Have you seen the clips? At a Palin rally in Pennsylvania a follower shouted "Kill him!" when Obama was mentioned. Closed-minded rednecks all over the country happily pronounce Obama to be a terrorist and voice their "fear" of an Obama presidency. They are hanging Obama in effigy. This is a mob, people. A racist hate-mongering mob who believe everything they are told by by an ignorant redneck who has been found guilty by a bipartisan committee of abusing her power. If she can abuse her power as governor of Alaska, just imagine what she can do in Cheney's position.

Rather than try to calm the mob, McCain and the RNC thought it would be a good idea to fan the flames instead, launching a telephone campaign to call hundreds of thousands of voters just to let them know that "Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers" and that "Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take over Washington."

Never mind that Obama's only connection with Ayers was to serve on a charity board with him to further the education of Chicago schoolchildren - apparently being on the same charity board with someone (even if that someone has been rehabilitated and was awarded Chicago Citizen of the Year for his efforts to improve the education system) is sufficient to make you a terrorist. "We need to know the details of this relationship," McCain said recently. Well, those are the details, Senator -- there is no there there. Ironically, the same cannot be said for McCain's own much closer ties (and recent) ties to terrorists.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is dividing the country between pro-American and anti-American localities (according to Palin, small towns are pro-American; apparently those of us in the suburbs must be godless terrorists). Never mind that her husband belonged to the Alaskan Independence Party, an organization founded with the goal of seceding from the US. I'm not sure you can get much more anti-American than that. (Along those same lines, according to the GOP there's a "real Virginia" separate from the "communist Virginia" near DC; if I still lived in Virginia I would be incensed that the GOP apparently believes that "real Virginians" are racist rednecks. A, being a "real Virginian," does take such offense.)

The scary thing is that these tactics are working. Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, who firmly believes that liberals are "anti-American," has urged the media to launch an intensive investigation to identify "anti-American" members of Congress. Welcome back, Senator McCarthy.

And back to the robocall, just what, pray tell, is the "extreme leftist agenda" that the Democrats will impose? God only knows - they may do something as un-American as, say, restoring habeas corpus, an act that would be downright constitutional. Never mind that it was a Republican administration that eliminated habeas corpus from the constitution, and sanctioned warrantless wiretapping and waterboarding. It's a sad commentary that the Republican administration has so thoroughly trounced constitutional rights over the past 8 years, that their followers see any attempt to restore those rights as "anti-American."

Thinking conservatives are rejecting the McCain-Palin ticket in droves - newspapers that supported Bush in 2004 are endorsing Obama in 2008, indeed, the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a democratic candidate for the first time since its founding in 1847.

Long-time conservatives and GOP supporters are switching sides, thanks in large part to the hateful, negative race being run. Christopher Buckley and now Colin Powell have endorsed Obama. Even George Will has seriously questioned McCain's suitability to be president.

Again -- thinking conservatives and conservative institutions are abandoning McCain-Palin, leaving the GOP to pander to the racist and ignorant - which it is doing with great flair.

The McCain-Palin rallies have all the subtlety of a Nuremburg rally. The crowds froth at the mouth while the speakers label their opponents "terrorists" and "anti-American." This campaign strategy of pandering to the worst in people -- playing on racist fears and encouraging witchhunts -- is inexcusable and morally reprehensible.

It is impossible for someone to vote for McCain without tacitly endorsing these tactics. Trying to do so would be about as successful as arguing that a vote for Hitler had nothing to do with his pro-Aryan agenda but instead showed confidence in his fiscal responsibility. You just can't do it. And before any conservatives get all bristly about my analogy, I'd like to point out that Hitler had a "country first" agenda, too.

John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann may not have figured this out yet, but I'm pretty sure that fascism is anti-American.

Why I'm here

2008-10-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hello. I have a normal blog. One which talks about what's going on in my life, movies I've seen, comedians I like -- the usual innocuous stuff. I made the mistake, however, of posting a commentary on the negative, divisive campaigning done by the McCain-Palin folks. This was not a mistake in the sense that I didn't believe what I said, but only insofar as it gave my conservative in-laws the opportunity to call me a marxist, a bad parent, and other wonderful things.

So I decided to go off-line from my usual blog, and create an oasis where other thoughtful, responsible, liberal-types could go to find all the good stuff in this election. Clips from the Daily Show? I've got 'em. Insightful commentary from pundits? Got that, too. Who knows if I'll continue this past the election, but in the meantime, just think of this as one-stop shopping for all your liberal election needs.