The post-war explosion of wealth and the spread of basic financial security to an ever-wider range of Americans has altered the national political agenda.
In the Depression Era of the 1930s and the difficult World War II years of the decade following, working class Americans skirted poverty at best or were trapped in a hand-to-mouth existence.
But things have changed, and Republicans have been the last ones to admit it. Supporting "Freedom" requires more than listening to Toby Keith and slapping a bumper sticker on your car; it is a commitment to eradicating poverty and providing equal access to quality health care for all citizens, among other things...
A hearse bearing the remains of 25-year-old Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez came to a halt in front of his father's house in Lawrence, the scene of a 14-month vigil as the family awaited word of his fate. A memorial shrine with floral arrangements and half-burned votive candles was on the sidewalk. (7-25-08)
There is no doubt in the minds of even Sen. McCain’s supporters that most unfortunately and regrettably too this admired and veteran senator have recently set the all time record in approving the most lopsided, demeaning, unpatriotic, desperate and the most bizarre advertisement in the current political dispensation in which he attempts to characterize Sen. Obama, a fellow American and presidential rival to celebrities such as Paris and Britney.
There are now 23 states that are no longer taking Title V funds for abstinence-based education. Two more are out next year, pushing that total to 25. There is now a growing consensus that abstinence-only education is nothing more than elephant shit and religious indoctrination disguised as "education." This is typical of the Bush administration, who has done nothing but pass off propaganda as objective truth.
We Kossacks know that when it comes to mainstream issues, politicians pander. It's nice when it's in our direction, yes, but do you ever wonder how they really feel? How genuinely dedicated they are to the protection of liberty, not just to getting reelected and keeping that congressional health care plan? Sometimes, it's hard to know. Washington constantly disappoints. Even netroots heroes sometimes talk a good game, but end up sitting back, shrugging their shoulders, and voting for a compromise bill that only serves to compromise the trust we placed in them by setting them up with one of the sweetest jobs in the world. It stings, but it's politics. We shake it off and keep fighting.
Up until today, I have been under the impression that America is the land of the free. I have always thought that we were living in a free market society. As an American, I'm very disturbed about a news story I heard while driving to work this morning. According to Reuters, the LA City Council has banned the construction of new fast food restaurants in the poorest areas of the city to "control obesity". What's worse is that the measure can be extended to a second year, if it's approved by the mayor.
Our Founders formed this nation under the assumption that a large federal system was a danger to liberty and a hindrance to progress. They had a suspicion of a large centralised government, and rightly so.
If we really want to be liberals in the classic sense, we should advocate smaller government, less centralised control and more liberty for individuals. Progressive means to make progress; a large, centralised federal bureaucracy is not progress, but a regression.
With this in mind, libertarians and progressives should rightly, philosophically find themselves more in agreement.
Let's wake up! Any politician that advocates more government, more taxes and more control is against progress!
Politics in Washington become more troublesome as the decades go by. Politicians all tell a good ‘story’ but the truth is rarely do they ever effect change to benefit hardworking, middle and lower class Americans. Americans, who work hard every day, pay their taxes, raise their children and expect a government that will ‘work for them’. It has become more evident under the Bush Administration and Republican party during the past 7 and a half years, that lying has become the accepted norm. Fear mongering has become the political tactic of the decade and the disintegration of the constitution has become a process in which Republicans use to create a dictatorship in Washington.
In 1995 Republicans promised to eliminate spending on over 100 of the largest governmental programs, but under Bush and the 6 year Republican controlled Congress, these programs actually grew over 27% and the government has grown over a whopping 40%. Bush has been the biggest spending President in the last 30 years. Under the Republican Administration the surplus left in the coffers of the American public has been eliminated. Consider the following Republican financial state-of-affairs bestowed upon U.S. Citizens.
Carl Westmoreland, Curator of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center
This is the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. It spans The Ohio River at Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky. Washington Roebling worked for his father on this bridge which was constructed during The Civil War completed in 1866. Do you see similarities to the Brooklyn Bridge? Ohio was a free state and if slaves escaped from Kentucky and reached the banks of the Ohio side of the river they could be free. But if they were seen crossing, "Black Laws" compelled the persons witnessing the escape to turn the runaway slave in to authorities only to be returned to his slave master and branded with an "R" on his or her cheek or to have a finger or toe chopped off for a second offense as an example to other slaves. We are facing Kentucky and that modern tower on the left is a new luxury Condominium.
A friend of ours forwarded an email to my husband's and my email from one of her wingnut relatives. It contained the usual argument against horrible "big government" and all the giveaways that are turning America towards socialism, blah, blah, blah. Same old stuff. Well, my husband decided that he'd heard that argument one too many times, and he decided to reply to the orginal sender and when I read his reply, my first thought was that I should share it with all of my friends here on DKos...and he gave me permission to do it, so below the fold is the email that my hubby sent to the wingnut--I think I'll also send it to other friends and foe alike. It's a great rant......I'm encouraging him to sign up and become a Kossack....he'd contribute a lot--ok, I'm biased......
A mere handful of people read my diary yesterday, "Freedom is not just another word for nothing left to lose" thus illustrating, if not proving my case that America is on life support, heading for the grave if we do not act immediately to change our mindset of blind adherence to authority.
An enemy is one who wages a two-fold war against your mind with propaganda and brainwashing and against your physical body with the intent to harm, maim, kill, subjugate, conquer, control, or enslave you and all of your substance. This enemy whereof I speak, is totalitarianism, despotism, police state, and slavery. Call it by whatever name or label you wish. They all result in freedom's suffocation, starvation and death. Follow me under the fold for the rest of this call for the dead to awaken and rise up...
I read once, "funny how people get peaceful once dead".
If our Congress' capitulation to Bush is supposed to somehow sate his thirst for total power over us, and if by surrendering or acquiescing to his demands we are to believe that by scrapping the 4th Amendment he will not make any more assaults against our Constitution, then we are truly dead. Surrender equates to the death of our republic-and us, just a surely and as quickly as standing in front of a firing squad.
And all the rationalizing away of the consequences of the FISA capitulation and saying, "we'll get him next year" when Obama takes office is a copout, and well, it's simply living in a dream world or alternate reality. It shows a total ignorance of the lessons of past history. Follow my rant under the fold...
It's best to begin this installment with the end. I was in the airport waiting for the plane to board, and I decided to get myself a Coke®, so I did. The lady at the counter said "two hundred" so, I took on of the few two thousand ryal notes I had left out of my pocket, and gave it to her. "No," she said patiently, "Two hundred Thum. That's 20,000 Ryals." What the heck is a thum, and why hadn't I heard of this thing before?
Someone once described courage as not never being afraid, but going on in spite of the fear. As a nation and as elected officials we seem to be running dangerously low on courage. Oh we have the tough talk down, we have the posturing, but do we really have true courage? Since 9/11 when at least 2,985 people died from the terrorists attacks I think that what has been lost in all the hype is some perspective. While this was surely a tragedy, the population of the United States in the year 2001 was somewhere around 290 million people. Based on those numbers the terrorist attacks killed less than .02% of the population, yet since the attack we have responded by invading sovereign nations, torturing our fellow human beings, and gutting our Constitutional protections.
The last few days actually years we have seen the need for a new distributed information network solution as a backup source for sites like DailyKos, etc. The erosion of the political will to protect our civil liberties in the public and private sphere have made it critical that we investigate and start to develop a distributed Friend to Friend network of information that can be used by sites such as Kos or alternative sites should the government crack down on information sharing or freedom of speech out of an excessive desire to make us safe.
Imagine, if you will, a private organization - let's call it the United States of America Foundation (assuming the name isn't already taken). Suppose that it is made up of a group of citizens who would like to "model" the United States government as it's supposed to be, bound by the Constitution and human rights, and who regularly elect/appoint "models" of all the three constitutional branches.
I didn't spend my Fourth of July in celebration the way I usually do. I had a lot of other things going on; it was the first time in a very long time that I hadn't partaken.
Last night and this morning, I had a lot of time to reflect on what the holiday meant, and means, to me.
Juxtaposition: July 4th Deadly Duality1
A comment I happened across on Delphi Forums struck me as particularly significant. It was this:
On this date in 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each other. Today, it's Jesse Helms and Bozo the Clown. Gives you pause for reflection, yes it does...
