March 26, 2010 archive

Don’t Panic! Social Security will be there for you.

By Ashley Carson, the Executive Director of OWL- The Voice of Midlife and Older Women and www.SocialSecurityMatters.org

This week the New York Times decided to scare the bejeezus out of everyone by publishing several articles with slanted statements about Social Security.  I’d like to revisit some key points in Williams Walsh’s piece from March 24 – statements from her article are in bold below.

“The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security.”

First of all, the real estate bubble was predicted and no one listened.  In fact, it was predicted, ignored, and it is a large cause of the economic downturn and part of the larger deficit.  We had to bail out banks and other financial institutions because everyone ignored the warnings about the real estate bubble. The bursting of the housing bubble doesn’t hurt Social Security the program, in fact, Social Security, the program, is designed to withstand just such miscalculations by our nation’s top economists.  

The causes of our deficit are approximately $1.5 trillion to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $1.2 trillion due to the Bush-era tax cuts, $0.9 trillion for financial rescues and recovery measures including TARP, Fannie and Freddie.  As indicated by the above figures, clearly Social Security is not causing the deficit.  

CBPP_graph.jpg

“…payments have risen more than expected during this downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned.”

Friday Philosophy: Say “No” to transploitation

Back in the early 1970s, there was a new genre of film, called Blaxploitation.  Remember it?  The movie would be set in the ghetto and all the characters would be hit men, drug dealers, pimps or narcs.  One may recall the films Foxy Brown and Blacula.  And who could forget Blackenstein?  Try as we might.

In the late 70s, there was a film called I spit on Your Grave, in the Rape and Revenge genre, trying to situate women’s rights the same way Blaxploitation did for African-American rights.  I Spit on your Grave is apparently being remade, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about Ticked Off Trannies with Knives.

Synopsis of I Spit on your Grave 2010:

The story of a woman who is brutally attacked, raped, and left for dead in the wilderness.  She survives to hunt down her assailants and methodically, graphically takes her vengeance.  Based on the 1978 film.

Espresso Party USA

ESPRESSO PARTY MISSION STATEMENT: The Espresso Party Movement gives voice to Americans who are fed up to fcuking here with the bullsh*t in government.

We recognize that the federal government is the enemy of the people, not the expression of our collective will, and that we must all participate in the process of tearing the system down and kicking ass in November 2010 in order make room for building something fcuking useful to address the challenges that we face as Americans.

As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and we will mercilessly hunt down and politically destroy those who obstruct them.



A Message From Our Founder

Wild Wild Left Radio #58 – Right Wing Nuts and Nuts-anyahoo

(reminder: Next week, we have a serious interview with honored guest Richard Gage, AIA, speaking about the irregularities in the 9/11 case. Mark your calendars!)

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Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth.


Join us tonight as we examine the complete insanity that the pathetic Health Care Non-reform has caused amoung the undereducated wingnuts of our fine Land.

It has become a veritable Hate Rampage, that threatens to become extreme violence, in a way that Melissa Harris-Lacewell writes: “The relevant comparison here is not the mid-20th century civil rights movement. The better analogy is the mid-19th century period of Reconstruction,” adding that “We must now guard against the end of our new Reconstruction and the descent of a vicious new Jim Crow terrorism.

Speaking of State terrorsim, did Netanyahu just get a well deserved slap down?

Whew.

Lots of Nuts to talk about tonight!

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Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Vatican urged to end ‘secrecy’ over abuse

by Michele Leridon, AFP

2 hrs 6 mins ago

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – As Pope Benedict XVI struggles to stay above the paedophilia priest scandal engulfing the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican faces growing calls for an end to its “culture of secrecy.”

The pope is at a “crossroads,” said Vatican expert Marco Politi the day after Benedict was implicated for a second time in the snowballing scandal, accused of helping to keep the lid on the case of an American serial abuser.

“Either he proceeds on the path of greater transparency” or he hunkers down with defenders who claim he is being unfairly targetted, said Politi of the left-wing Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.

Open Passage

Photobucket

Muse in the Morning

Back in the early 1970s, there was a new genre of film, called Blaxploitation.  Remember it?  The movie would be set in the ghetto and all the characters would be hit men, drug dealers, pimps or narcs.  One may recall the films Foxy Brown and Blacula.  And who could forget Blackenstein?  Try as we might.

In the late 70s, there was a film called I spit on Your Grave, in the Rape and Revenge genre, trying to situate women’s rights the same way Blaxploitation did for African-American rights.  I Spit on your Grave is apparently being remade, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about Ticked Off Trannies with Knives.

Synopsis of I Spit on your Grave 2010:

The story of a woman who is brutally attacked, raped, and left for dead in the wilderness.  She survives to hunt down her assailants and methodically, graphically takes her vengeance.  Based on the 1978 film.

Jingo-Kitsch and Hypocrisy of “AmericanDad”

AmericanDad2

At last count, AmericanDad’s “Open letter to Conservatives” had accumulated 778 recommends on TPMCafé, a site where the most recommended diary typically accumulates 20, and it isn’t hard to see why.

I was ready to cheer as soon as I saw AmericanDad’s Christmas-card of an avatar…

“Me and JonBenet on Her Fourth Birthday”

Hurrah!

And Russell King, aka “AmericanDad,” isn’t just any kind of dad!

He’s an American Dad!

Cue the music from Grand Funk Railroad, and try to memorize the inspiring chorus, America!

He’s an American Dad!

He’s an American Dad!

He’s an American Dad!

He’s an American Dad!

He’s an American Dad!

You get the idea.

Or maybe you don’t, because reading AmericanDad’s diary wasn’t much different from hearing a Grand Funk chorus 778 times in a row, and by the time you had read one of approximately 778 links in it, you might just as well have read them all, because the very same awesome idea appeared and reappeared in all of them.

For example…

You can’t fight against your own ideas just because the Dem president endorses your proposal.

Don’t criticize Obama for doing exactly what conservatives already did!

And likewise throughout AmericanDad’s almost unending litany.

You can’t call for a pay-as-you-go policy, and then vote against your own ideas.

Are they “unlawful enemy combatants” or are they “prisoners of war” at Gitmo? You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t rail against the bank bailouts when you supported them as they were happening.

You can’t enjoy socialized medicine while condemning it.

Forget that Obama acts almost exactly like a neo-con!

Forget that Obama also “enjoys socialized medicine while condemning it.” Single-payer was off the table from the get-go!

Forget that Obama also supported and continued humongous bailouts for the mega-banks, while millions of American families went into foreclosure with almost no help at all.

Forget that Obama also wants to “have it both ways” about enemy combatants/prisoners of war, and waffles all over the map about how and where to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Forget that Obama also endorsed “pay-as-you-go” and capped domestic spending while unemployment soared and millions of American families lost everything.

That’s not the point!

The point is that neo-cons criticize Obama for acting like a neo-con!

The point is distracting Democrats from the miserable hypocrisy of their corporate-conservative sell-out of a President!

And they love it!

 

Re-enacting the Past to Serve the Future

The stereotypical definition of Feminists held by many is that they are frigid, miserable, depressed, angry, and obsessed with finding systemic fault in every man and under every rock.  I find evidence of this sentiment no matter who I ask or where I search.  In response, I will say only that every activist movement has a tendency at times to let anger at the status quo threaten to overshadow its altruistic policies predicated on compassion.  However, this characterization isn’t exactly justified for a variety of reasons.  With the passage of time the radical, reactive voices within Feminism have been held up to highest scrutiny—the implication being that they must surely speak for the whole.  The ultimate fault in why this assumption has been allowed to thrive and grow is not easily assigned, but a drop off in active involvement within the movement as a whole is regrettably a big part of the problem.

Institutional memory in American liberalism is often in short supply.  We frequently forget the trailblazers and fostering mothers and fathers that guided us because so many of the rank-and-file have left or devoted their attention toward other things.  Feminism once was quite fashionable, as was participation and proud membership within groups like NOW, along with the omnipresent subscription to Ms. magazine.  Looking specifically at membership in a wide cross-section of left-wing movements, I note with some trepidation that we are now neither losing, neither are we gaining.  As one person leaves, another springs up to take his/her place.  But when this happens, the newcomers find themselves severely challenged by the ability to use the breakthroughs and lessons of the past and put them in their proper context.

Every ideological movement or group based on common identity feels a compulsion to look back into the past to find both a means of pointing to supreme authority or for help in its own discernment of ideas.  As much as we embrace the future as the bellwether of the needed systemic changes to advance our agenda, we also rely heavily upon the past to grant us guidance and underscore our values.  This is not a paradox in terms, but it nonetheless is a facet of Progressive thought that often times goes overlooked.  Speaking specifically to the Feminist movement, this is accomplished for some by constantly alluding back to Feminist history.  However, without a common memory, these names and accomplishments seem like ghostly apparitions pulled from the shadows.  Without a collective sense of continuity, the most abrasive, strident voices easily rise to the top and end up dominating the entire message.            

An Idiot’s Guide to Handling Radical Right Hate

We old codgers have to smile at the surprise and near panic on the Left generated by some recently publicized instances of Radical Right hate and violence directed at supporters of the health care bill.  Radical Right terrorism is older than the horseless carriage, and so is a media and government response that emphasizes looking the other way.

There’s another thing that’s been around as long as Radical Right violence, and that’s Left Wing courage.  If we’re going to do our ideological ancestors proud, people ranging from Eugene Debs to W.E.B. DuBois to Walter Reuther to Martin Luther King, Jr., we need to follow a little four-step plan to counter this hate with the firm love of Leftist solidarity.

Four steps is all it takes, and you can begin today:

1) Know the history.

2) Build your courage.

3) Demand justice.

4) Organize.

Details after the break.

Blind Side Hurt Locker

Call me slow on the uptake on what I think of as a zero order species but yesterday I watched Blind Side.  Reduced to a teary eyed mass of jello in spite of the recent news of health destroyment in this country, well what can I say.  Even the cancer in my right lung went away.

They want to tell you race is man’s highest evil.  I think not, perhaps gullibility is though.  

What is your future?

A SWAT team breaking into your house over an overdue library book or a back to the future flying car.

Docudharma Times Friday March 26




Friday’s Headlines:

South Korea pushes to recycle nuclear power plant fuel

Wee Rex found in Australia

USA

Accusations Fly Between Parties Over Threats and Vandalism

Obama readies steps to fight foreclosures, particularly for unemployed

Europe

Merkel hardball tactics pay off in Greece aid deal

EU opens internal borders to long-stay visa holders, sparking security fears

Middle East

Allawi’s strength in Iraqi election shows country is still divided

Obama squeezed between Israel and Iran

Asia

China cracks down on reporting of Google conflict

Face to face with Pakistan’s most wanted

Africa

‘No evidence’ WFP’s Somalia food aid diverted

Niger coup: Can Africa use military power for good?

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