The Politics of Fear.

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Following World War II, Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist, was granted access to all of the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. During one of his conversations with Nazi leader, Hermann Goering, Gustave said, “I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.”

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering responded. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”

Gustave countered, “There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.” “Oh, that is all well and good,” said Goering, “But, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

You could easily see this philosophy at work in Bush’s run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq when those opposed to the war were questioned for their patriotism, and our long-time ally, France, was vilified for not participating in the war.

And today, in the midst of mid-term elections, we can see Goering’s principle at work again. Despite much evidence to the contrary, Republicans like John “McNasty” McCain and Jan “Clueless” Brewer have focused anger on Mexican immigrants, blaming them for everything from crime to unemployment to our budget woes.

Led by Fox Noise Channel, Republicans have created a similar right wing outcry against Muslims for daring to propose a community center near Ground Zero. The ensuing “debate” has fueled anti-Muslim fervor across the nation, resulting in the arson of a Tennessee mosque and wingnuts calling for an “exception” to our Constitutional right to freedom of religion.

Conservatives have fueled anti-Obama hatred with vile emails accusing him of being an un-American-Socialist-Communist-Nazi-racist-Muslim. They have falsely accused him of banning prayer in military academies, of forcing the removal of crosses from military cemetaries, of promoting Muslim holidays…the list is too lengthy to continue.

As a result of this nonsense, it appears that Republicans are poised to win many more seats in Congress despite policies that led to two wars, an economic collapse and the raping of the middle class by the wealthiest two percent of this nation. I guess the lesson is that it’s easy to win elections by creating hatred toward minorities. It’s much more difficult to win elections on ideas and relevant issues.

If Democrats Renew Bush Tax Cuts, They Deserve To Lose Congress!

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Yesterday, on the McClatchy website, there was a story that many Democrats are leaning against repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The reason? Despite the fact that renewing the tax cuts will add billions to the deficit, some Democrats are worried that it will make their re-election more difficult.

So they’d rather cause long-term damage to our nation than risk losing their seats in Congress? Really?

If that’s how they feel, it’s time for them to go! Their attitude only proves what many progressives have thought for some time. A large number of Democrats are gutless wimps who cower at the first challenge from a Republican. Yet these same Democrats speak in general terms about the damage conservative Republicans are doing to this nation.

Personally, I’m sick of it! I’m sick and tired of the Grand Old Party of Liars who represent big business. I’m sick of the Fox Noise machine. I’m sick of the “I’ve got mine, you can’t have yours” whiners otherwise known as the tea party movement. I’m tired of the greed and influence of large corporations. I’m tired of obscenely wealthy conservative puppet masters like the Koch brothers who attempt to control our elections through donations to “think” tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Prsoperity, the Cato Institute, FreedomWorks, etc.

But most of all, I’m sick of the cowards who give the Democratic Party a bad name.

More Email Lies About Obama.

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I know. This is sort of like announcing “dog bites man.” But the concerted effort by the right to discredit President Obama needs to be addressed. For more than two years, emails have circulated blaming Obama for a variety of unpatriotic and even sacreligious acts. Of course, they’re not true. But that’s never stopped the wingnuts.

The real problem is that intelligent, well-meaning individuals receive the emails, read them and, like sheep, follow the email instructions to pass the email along to everyone they know.

The most recent example I’ve received is an email entitled “Snopes Confirms.” It contains a message that President Obama has directed the U.S. Postal Service to remember and honor the EID Muslim holiday season with a new commemorative 44 cent first class holiday postage stamp.” And it encourages readers to boycott the stamp and to “pass this along to every patriotic American you know to get the word out.” Of course, some of my friends did just that.

The problem with the email is that it is only partially true. There is a stamp honoring the Muslim holidays but President Obama had absolutely nothing to do with it. If any of the readers had been curious enough to check Snopes or FactCheck.org, they would have discovered that the stamp was first issued in 2001, and that President Bush encouraged Americans to purchase the stamp in order to reach out to the patriotic American Muslim community and let them know that we don’t hold them responsible for the actions of a few extremists.

Of course, that didn’t make news.

But the mere fact that the stamp was re-issued while President Obama is in office is used by the right as “proof” that Obama is a Christian-hating, anti-American Muslim. This sort of thing has to stop. Americans who receive this trash must take the time to check the validity of such emails and respond to the sender with the truth as I did. Now doing so may have cost me a friend. But if so, I don’t care. After all, what kind of friends mindlessly pass along information that isn’t true? Or worse yet, what kind of friends assume you believe as they do and share such evil, hate-filled messages as this?

POLL: What’s The Biggest Problem With Polls?

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A. Only a few are accurate
B. They may be easily manipulated in the way the questions are asked
C. The results may be used by politicians to support or “confirm” specious arguments
D. Their main purpose is to fill 24/7 news cycles
E. All of the above

If you watch Fox News Channel and CNN or visit on-line “news” websites, you are bombarded with polls. “Is the Obama administration doing enough to manage the BP gusher?” “Has the administration done enough to reign in government spending?” “Has the administration ignored job creation?” “Did Democrats go too far in passing health care reform?” “Has the Obama administration ignored illegal immigration?”

All of these questions may seem innocuous enough, but the very fact that the media is asking them, and the way they’re being asked, has a direct influence on public opinion. The questions, themselves, imply the desired answer. And the media know it. If they were really interested in public opinion most of those questions would be asked in a more objective way, and many of them would never be asked at all.

The inescapable conclusion is that the media, most especially Fox “News” Channel, are using polls in order to create controversy, fill airtime and shape public opinion. Moreover, politicians and their allies spout the results to reinforce their points of view regardless of the manner in which the polls are conducted. Objectivity, fairness and logic be damned.

Who’s Next?

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For some time, the Grand Old Party of Liars has resorted to a strategy of obscuring its record on the real issues by focusing hate on minority groups. In just this election cycle alone, Republican candidates have targeted Muslims, Mexican immigrants and gays.

In the past, they have targeted members of other minorities including African-Americans, abortion providers, union members, school teachers and community organizers. And that’s in addition to the scapegoating of the so-called “activist” judges and those against the Iraqi war to name but a few.

Who do you suppose they’ll set their sights on next? Could it be you?

The Border Fence.

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Throughout his primary campaign, U.S. Senator and teabagger wannabe, John McCain, has repeatedly called on President Obama to “finish the dang fence.” Of course, he’s referring to the fence being built along the border between Arizona and Mexico that has already cost billions of dollars.

McCain and Gov. Jan Brewer would have you believe that illegal immigration is the source of all our problems – crime, unemployment, the drain on social services, and the deficit. They would also have you believe that the fence, along with stationing thousands of National Guard troops in the desert will solve all of our problems. After all, who could get through a fence?

Well, for starters, how about the three escaped murderers who recently left an Arizona medium security prison by cutting a hole in a fence? Or how about the Mexican drug cartels that have breached the border fence by cutting holes in it and building ramps to drive over it? Or how about the human smugglers who have tunneled under it? How come McCain and Brewer never talk about that? And when they talk about adding National Guard troops at the border, why don’t they ever mention the nearly 10 border security guards per mile already stationed there?

Throughout history, there are plenty of examples of fences and walls that failed their purpose. The Great Wall, the Roman wall across England, the Berlin Wall…there are many more. What makes McCain and Brewer think this border fence will be any different? The point is that, if people are desperate enough, they are not going to let a fence stand in their way.

The immigration issue is extremely complex, driven by poverty on one side of the border and by the greed and need of employers on the other. In Arizona, as well as in other states, many of our homes have been built with the help of cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants. Much of our food is harvested, prepared and served to us by illegal immigrants. Many of our hotel rooms are cleaned by illegals. The list of products and services provided, wholly or in part, by undocumented workers is quite lengthy.

Who’s at fault? The workers? The employers? The Mexican government? The succession of administrations and Congresses that have failed to deal with the issue? The U.S. and Mexican economies? The Central and South American economies? Or those of us who knowingly purchase goods and services provided by undocumented workers? There is plenty of blame to go around.

Ramping up racist hatred through jingoistic campaign commercials does not help.

The Perpetual War Machine.

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As President Eisenhower was leaving office, he warned, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist … Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

Consider the warning unheeded.

For 2010, the U.S. defense budget is $692,000,000,000 – more than the total of all 194 other nation’s combined. And that doesn’t even include the money being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan! By comparison, in 2009, the 2nd largest defense budget belonged to China at $98,800,000. And the defense budget for Russian Federation stood at a paltry $61,000,000.

Yet, as our nation struggles with high unemployment and decaying infrastructure, Republicans continue to push for more military spending along with the use of more military contractors such as Halliburton, KBR and XE (aka Blackwater). All the while, they rail against the growing deficit.

What about that makes any friggin’ sense?

Well, apparently it makes sense to former President George W. Bush. According to former Argentine Prime Minister Nestor Kirchner, Bush told him that “all the economic growth that the U.S. had had, had been based on the different wars it had waged.”  Wow!

So, according to Bush, our chief economic stimulus is war?! No wonder he ignored the warnings of 9/11. No wonder he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. It was part of his plan for economic growth!

If our economy is based on war, then why, during the two longest wars in U.S. history, aren’t we thriving? Why are so many Americans unemployed? It would appear that Bush’s war theory makes as much sense as Reagan’s trickle down theory.

I have a better suggestion for improving our economy. Let’s cut our $692 billion defense budget in half. We’ll still have a budget more than three times the size of any other nation – enough to ensure our place as the biggest, baddest bully on the planet. And we’ll have money to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and invest in new industries that create jobs for people without killing others.

The Growing Underclass In America.

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There are currently 14.6 million Americans who are out of work, and that number likely doesn’t include millions more, such as the self-employed, who have seen their businesses diminish to virtually nothing. But before you blame the current Administration, take a look at the monthly unemployment claims beginning in January 2008. By the time President Obama was inaugurated, the new claims had grown to more than 750,000/month. Yet despite having to fight Republicans every step of the way, President Obama and Congress began to turn things around. In fact, in May of this year, we added 433,000 jobs.

The real question is, without enormous structural changes to our nation, what kind of jobs will be available?

Even before the Great Recession, most of our jobs were in the so-called service sector. And most of these jobs pay less than $25,000/year. The list includes fast food workers, restaurant workers, hosts and hostesses, dishwashers, cashiers, amusement park attendants, movie theater ushers and ticket-takers, farm workers, gaming dealers, bartenders, personal and home care aides, parking lot attendants, lifeguards, ski patrol, garment pressers, laundry & dry-cleaning workers, child care workers, maids, and elderly caregivers, receptionists, secretaries and maintenance “engineers”.

The result is that approximately 35 percent of the U.S. workers make $25,000/year or less! (The national poverty level is $21,756 for a family of four.) And many careers that were once considered good jobs, such as construction, don’t pay much better. Construction workers make only $11/hour to $15/hour.

Our nation has been bleeding relatively high-paying manufacturing jobs since the 1980s (7.7 million between 1986 and 2001). However, under the Obama Administration, the U.S. economy has actually begun to reverse that trend. New data shows that we have added more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs in 2010. Still, the majority of good jobs are in medicine, law and government. Indeed, of the top 15 highest paying jobs in America, 14 are in medicine.

Lowering taxes for corporations and the wealthy as Republicans demand won’t help create new higher-paying jobs. That will only ensure that the wealthy will make even more money and pay fewer taxes. It will also relegate even more of our citizens to the growing underclass.

A better option is to follow the path of FDR, Truman and Eisenhower – raise taxes on the wealthy and the “too big to fail” by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire then use the additional revenue to rebuild our infrastructure and to create energy alternatives to foreign oil. That would create opportunities for construction companies, manufacturers and suppliers of materials. It would also incentify our corporations to invest their hoards of cash, and it would encourage our banks to open their vaults and make loans to small businesses. More important, it would put people back to work.

A Look Back At The Shirley Sherrod Story.

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After the fraud committed by a right wing blogger and his co-conspirators at Fox Noise Channel, there are lingering questions we should be asking each other.

Would the same thing have happened if it was a white woman accused of racism? Would the white woman have been fired? If she had been, would the Administration have been pressured to hire her back? Would any of the media cared?

My point is that discrimination against black, brown and yellow people takes place all of the time. They face discrimination with regard to the money allocated for education. They face discrimination with regard to property taxes (it has been proven that those in the inner cities pay a disproportionate amount compared to those in the exurbs). They have long been discriminated against by the police. They are discriminated against by the court system. (If you doubt this, look at the difference in sentencing for those using crack cocaine and those using powder.) And politicians have blamed them for nearly every problem our nation faces.

Yet you seldom see reports of their abuse. And you almost never see the kind of furor generated by Fox. Why? To some degree, it can be explained by the theory that “dog bites man” is not news while “man bites dog” is. But a more troubling explanation is that those on the right, who generated the story of Shirley Sherrod, don’t care about discrimination of others. They’re merely ideologically opposed to our mixed race President and they’re pulling out every stop in repeated attempts to discredit him. In other words, they’ve pulled out the playbook used against President Clinton (with the accusations of “Travel-gate”, Whitewater, “Trooper-gate”, etc.).

Shirley Sherrod was simply a convenient pawn in their evil game.

© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.

Immigration Update From The Front.

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Whatever happens to Arizona’s notorious SB 1070 in the courts, I believe the real problem with illegal immigration is that corporations continue to hire undocumented workers. (After all, why pay $10/hour to a US citizen, when you can hire an illegal for $6/hour or less? And the illegal won’t complain about the hours, demand benefits or expect raises.)

To deal with this problem, the tough-talking AZ State Legislature passed the “Legal Arizona Workers Act” in 2007 which then-Governor Janet Napolitano signed into law.  This law demands that all Arizona employers verify a prospective employee’s status before hiring. The penalty for hiring an undocumented worker is a fine for the first violation and the revocation of the company’s business license for the second offense. Yet two and a half years after the law went into effect, The Arizona Republic states that “only about half of new hires in Arizona have been vetted by a federal system that checks their status.” And lest you government-haters start blaming Obama, the newspaper also found that only “about a third of the state’s estimated 100,000 employers have signed up for the E-Verify program.”

So where is Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe, the so-called “nation’s toughest sheriff” when you need him? He’s big on arresting and deporting illegal workers. But, apparently, he could care less about the businesses that hire them. In Maricopa County (the county that encompasses most of the Phoenix metro), only two businesses have been sanctioned for hiring illegals. And none have lost their licenses. This despite Homeland Security estimates of more than 460,000 illegals living (and working) in the state.

So the magnet that draws illegals to Arizona is still in place.

But if, like me, you’re thinking that preventing businesses from hiring undocumented workers would be more effective and less costly than building multi-billion dollar fences along the border, or maintaining a force of 10 border patrol agents per mile, Gov. Brewer and Senator McNasty would tell you that’s Socialist thinking. Like most Republicans, they believe businesses should be unencumbered by regulations to feed their greed.