Breaking the Koch Habit | purplearth blog

Breaking the Koch Habit | purplearth blog

via Breaking the Koch Habit | purplearth blog.

Crazy Talk

Reading a friends Wall I see that he’s bombarded with the latest Right Wing Crazy Talk by well meaning friends.  He tries to argue them but it’s exhausting.  You end up just avoiding those friends.  Then over at the far left it’s just as mean and angry as it is on the far right. It’s all namecalling and mudslinging and in the end we all just get dirty.  I don’t think either extreme really understands what liberal (as in liberty) or conservative (as in conservation all you greenies) means. It’s just exhausting. They read these junk emails filled with hateful nonsense. Thirty seconds on the computer and a few clicks and I can debunk them. But it’s too late – by then there’s… two pages of hateful posts.

I’m talking about a lefty now – but it is a style perfected by the right – a friend posted some horrid thing about the Catholic Church. Well, they have done some horrible things. Nobody bothered to check up, nobody even really bothered to read the article. The headline SCREAMED “EVERYBODY GET ANGRY” but the article was seven years old and short on facts. I looked it up and debunked it. It was too late, the venom was spreading. Post after post people were enraged at Catholics and religion in general. They spewed hatred that I didn’t know existed. I think this “religious right” that is in fact neither – will have a lot to account for when they die.

Today, the people from the peaceful Occupy Movement seem unable to condemn the violence of Occupy Oakland.  They excuse the vandalism and the flag burning and try to rationalize it as “One bad apple”  But when it’s one exhausted policeman they are not so quick to be rational. 

Anyway – none of us has the time or the energy to fact check all these stupid emails and bizarre stories that land in our computers. Progressive bloggers and journalists have followed the Glenn Beck model substituting hyperbole for fact and using the Breitbart method of tape editing.  More fiction than fact their ratings soar as our blood pressure rises and we all fear each other.  I am taken by the similarities between the News and World Wrestling.  I watch a “That Girl” marathon.

There was a time when we understood that as Lincoln said, ” A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We’re so much better than our politics.
Or we should be. 

 

Rock Center with Brian Williams – Made in America: Trend against outsourcing brings jobs back from China

Rock Center with Brian Williams – Made in America: Trend against outsourcing brings jobs back from China

via Rock Center with Brian Williams – Made in America: Trend against outsourcing brings jobs back from China.

AMERICA KICK THE HABIT

I smoked for nearly 40 years. I smoked after I was diagnosed with End Stage Lung Disease. I’d pull out the oxygen tubes and light up. Once the tubing caught on fire and it burned a line in the carpet before I stomped it out. I was a “I’ll smoke if I damn well please!” kind of person. But even I knew better than to take medical advice from the tobacco companies. And I certainly didn’t like it when Rep Boehner Handed Out Tobacco Lobbyist Checks on House floor right before a Tobacco Subsidy vote:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3a_1284581246

Why then don’t people object when the National Rifle Association brags that they control elections? The NRA Even Bragged That They’ll Work Out Of President GW Bush’s Oval Office. And they did.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/050400-01.htm

In Fact the WAR ON TERRORISM (Which is war on a tactic so it will never end)has been great for business! In 2007 there were 90 guns for every 100 persons. That was before the “Obama gonna get your guns” Fear Campaign.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109260004

The gun lobby funds Republican candidates has always warned that “(fill in the blank Democrat) will take your guns!
Fox Noose had this NRA picture on it’s website for years.  It was still there the day of Gabby Giffords shooting while Shep Smith was wondering “Why people believe President Obama is going to take you guns?”

Did he take guns? NO.
No instead, Obama has allowed, on his watch, guns to be carried for the first time in the US’s national parks. He has watched as the courts have stripped Washington and Chicago – two cities troubled by high gun crime rates – of their stringent controls on handguns.

When you tell gun rights people that they tell you that according to National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, the Obama administration’s lack of action on gun control issues only proves just how diabolically anti-gun they are.

If you’ll believe that then Mitt Romney is downplaying his Mormon religion because Job One will be mandatory conversion to Mormonism.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/beck-and-nras-lapierre-warn-insidiou

Now, I know that controlling guns will NOT END VIOLENCE! I also knowthat the way the NRA reads the Constitution we should all own WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRUCTION AND A FEW DRONES. I’m not taking about that. I’m talking about the power of the NRA and the lies they tell to keep us afraid and shooting each other. The NRA is about selling guns. And selling influence.
Does it ever occur to these gun loving Ameriicans that they call them gun “DEALERS” fo a reason.

Jared Lee Loughner was suspended from college and had been in trouble with the police. And yet he could buy a gun and go on to shoot Gabrielle Giffords and kill six others.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828 

 AMERICA KICK THE HABIT!

How much ‘forced labor’ fuels your lifestyle?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/21/smallbusiness/app_forced_labor/index.htm?hpt=hp_c1

The Parable of Sheep and Goats

Capitol hill goats, devour seed corn
The beast is fed, the Lamb is scorned.

                      

                      Matthew 25:31-46       
                   The Sheep and the Goats
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will
separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right
and the goats on his left.    

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you
who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom
prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was
hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you
gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited
me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and
you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or
needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or
in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you
who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger
and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not
clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison,
and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do
for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous
to eternal life."

Republican Staw Poll Made for TV Movie

Like made for TV movie – Produced by Wall Street money and directed by Corporat Media – The lone ranger, Rick Perry comes a riding in from a Texas time warp to save America from liberal hippies of the 1960′s. 

Rick Perry PROMISES America that if  he is elected President  he will ‘work everyday’ to destroy MEDICARE, MEDICAID, SOCIAL SECURITY and he will sell off our treasured PUBLIC LANDS, National parks, forests to his corporate friends from Texas.

And all those Texas jobs – well war and oil that’s the way to get folks working.  WAR and OIL. 

Meet Your Unelected Overlords on Twitpic

Meet Your Unelected Overlords on Twitpic.

Texas Is a Shining Example of Right-Wing Governance in Action and That’s Why It’s a Complete Basket-Case | Economy | AlterNet

Texas Is a Shining Example of Right-Wing Governance in Action and That’s Why It’s a Complete Basket-Case | Economy | AlterNet.

An American Pragmatist

It’s not that there’s a shortage of good ideas.  It’s not even that there’s a shortage of funds.  It may be that there’s a shortage of willpower, of determination or even a shortage of hope.  But if we are willing to take an idea from here and mix it with some funds from there and a volunteer or two, then maybe we will solve this thing.  Not with a big WPA project.  Fighting the political battle to win approval for such a massive undertaking would deplete our resources.  In the end, the problems would remain the same.  We would have won the battle and lost the war.  I have some ideas – they are ideas and organizations that are already out there.  Some have Federal funding already, some have private funds and some would need Congressional approval.  All would, in small but very significant ways, bring us together to solve community problems.  Lets start with the smallest folks.  

School Upgrades

Our economy is frozen because Wall Street is sitting on trillions of dollars  afraid to invest. Let’s invest in our schools. Once schools were safest place in town.Where community gathered in crisis. It’s time to rebuild schools and use local labor, so that the children of those who build the schools will attend them.   When you renovate the schools, you invigorate heart of a community.  You give it a sense of pride.  At the same time you give all our kids a 21st Century place to learn.  Give them schools that are equipped with WiFi, that are Energy Efficient, a Disaster Safe Zone, and a Community center.

We don’t have to look very far to see what happens when you send your children off to dilapidated or shoddily constructed buildings.  They are our most valuable asset and we have short-changed them long enough.  Thow some money at these schools, thirty years of neglect is long enough.

The terrible earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan province in 2008 resulted in the deaths of many children, often due to the collapse of their shoddily constructed schools.

http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2010/10/eco-schools-usa-attends-first-ever-green-schools-national-conference/

http://www.ncef.org/school-modernization/

Homes for our Heroes

What if we buy up the foreclosed homes that are eyesores and bringing down the value of the surrounding homes – renovate them and make them ADA compliant for our disabled Vets. These men and women have given the best of themselves for us and it is our moral responsibility to look after them.  Regardless of how you feel about the wars, our warriors do not have the luxury of questioning orders.  The Commander-in-Chief, regardless of party, tell them the mission is a go – and they go. 

Some have suffered traumatic brain injury and will need care and assistance for many years to come.  As a disabled person myself, I know a bit about this.  The most difficult part is finding suitable housing.  If a house is ADA compliant I am more independent and less of a burden both physically and financially on family and government help. 

The eyesore of foreclosed homes drags down the property value of most American cities and towns.  Maybe what’s left of the TARP funds could be used to buy up these homes and allow our Disabled Vets to purchase them.  Funding already exists to refurbish them.  It is another way a problem could become a source of pride in a community as they welcome these heroes into their neighborhoods.  win win.

They could be single family homes or make them group homes w/ caregivers for those who have significant injuries. It’s the very least we can do for these guys. #Homes4heroes.

http://www.homesforourtroops.org/site/PageServer

http://www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/sah.asp

Paying Down the War Debt

While we are busy cut, cut, cutting, we ignore the biggest reason for the deficit – OUR WARS! Unfunded War that Bush kept “off book” .  It wasn’t until President Obama ended the use of “supplemental budgets” that Bush used to hide the burgeoning deficit that we realized how deep in debt the nation was.  Because of the secret cost, we  have failed to pay for the wars the way other generations have.

We were promised that this war would “pay for itself” with lower oil prices. IT DID NOT! In fact the Big Oil companies took the oil and jacked up the prices again.  They use oil prices as a campaign tool to ensure that only “oil men” live in the big White House.  If we tax petro products (not just gas) til this war is paid for then we will never again be fooled by the promise of “cheap gas!”  We easily ignore the cost in blood but  when it hits our wallets, we’ll notice. 

It would also be a means of defunding the terrorists – both domestic and foreign.  Most of the Petro products are manufactured by the Koch brothers cabal.  

Cost of War to the United States | COSTOFWAR.COM.

 http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/161/end-the-abuse-of-supplemental-budgets-for-war/

http://inspirationgreen.com/koch-brothers-products.html

The Medicare Option

I know the Progressives hate the idea. But why should I fund medical insurance for Rupert Murdoch? If we “means test” Medicare and allow people to enroll on a sliding scale fee.  People would join because it would still be cheaper than other insurance because Insurance charges an extra 25% for profit. The extra funding in the Medicare program would help put it in the black.  The program would thrive because – as you probably know – anyone on Medicare would rather die than go back to the hunt for private health insurance.  It is one step closer to open enrollment. which I prefer because I just hate mandates.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/15/obama-medicare-means-testing_n_899839.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/robert-reich-explains-the_n_280639.html

There!  American Pragmatism. When times are tough, and the Lone Ranger, Cavalry, Superman and the WPA are no where in sight – we do it ourselves.  One school, one house, one dime and one patient at a time.