Libertarian Utopia

Apparently Tennessee is the Libertarian promised land. South Fulton firefighters stood by and watched an Orion County home burn down because the owners had not paid their $75 fire protection subscription fee. The homeowners offered to pay on the spot, but were refused. The family’s three dogs and a cat died.

Mayor David Crocker said, "if homeowners don't pay, they're out of luck."

Or we're all out of luck. Because if one house is on fire, the whole neighborhood is at risk. Fires are tricky devils and don't check policies or town hall records before igniting home after home. People who don't pay or can't pay -- for whatever reason -- endanger themselves, their neighbors, and even the firefighters -- it's easier to put out one small house fire than a neighborhood ablaze.

Likewise for highly contagious diseases. We can't protect ourselves piecemeal. We have to protect the entire herd equally.

Call it socialism if you want, but socialized fire care is an idea whose time has come... or came, actually, in the 19th century. The U.S. had private fire companies back then, and that system didn't work for shit. Time was wasted summoning the correct company, or none at all, and fires would spread. The public demanded some kind of central command of fire companies. Of course, I don't think anybody screamed "socialism" back then. It was just good common sense that taxes in a civilized society should go towards services for the public.

But thanks to the teabaggers and Glenn Beck, these matters are now some kind of modern debate in which compassion and the common good are open to ridicule and mockery.

Socialized Book Care

At CPAC last week, Glenn Beck encouraged his followers to educate themselves at our nation's socialized book care centers:

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I'm not sure how people can watch Glenn Beck's mental patient impersonation for hours at a time, but apparently some people do, and they take him very seriously. If you caught the recent NYT article on the teabaggers, you probably noticed that Beck and his 9/12 project came up disturbingly often:

Most of the people there had paid only passing attention to national politics in years past. “I voted twice and I failed political science twice,” said Darin Stevens, leader of the Spokane 9/12 Project.

He sounds like a typical teabagger to me along with the 66 year old Mrs. Stout who is taking a Twitter class... I'm derailing a bit here, but I had no idea such a thing was needed or I would have hired myself out as a private Twitter tutor. Moreover, I think the existence of a Twitter class suggests that many people have been left behind as the world progresses without them. They probably feel insecure and rush to catch up, but their efforts include bogus classes and Glenn Beck books... which they'll have to buy at Borders once they figure out that the libraries are a socialist thing.

Anyway, George Packer explained it better. Mrs. Stout represents a certain type of person we've seen throughout US history:

There’s nothing new about Mrs. Stout. She’s a familiar figure in American life, always latent, but coming to the surface in national emergencies. Richard Hofstadter described her mental world in detail. In the seventeen-eighties she lived in Sheffield, Massachusetts, during a period of tight credit and land foreclosures and was sympathetic to the farmers’ uprising known as Shay’s Rebellion that began there. In the eighteen-fifties she was a non-voting constituent of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. In the eighteen-nineties she was the wife of a Nebraska farmer who joined the People’s Party and voted for William Jennings Bryan and free silver. In the nineteen-thirties desperate poverty drove her to fall for the simple solutions of Huey Long’s left-wing demagoguery, or Father Coughlin’s right-wing demagoguery, which often sounded similar. In the nineteen-fifties she listened avidly to radio personalities like Fulton Lewis, Jr., and Walter Winchell, thought President Eisenhower was a knowing agent of the Communist Party, and was a passionate supporter of Senator Joe McCarthy. In 2001 she knew that the Bush Administration orchestrated 9/11. In 2008 she showed up at Sarah Palin rallies.

And that's the problem. Teabaggers think the answer to their discontent can be found in militias, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin.

Leave Them Kids Alone

It's kind of funny to watch these conservatives go all anti-authoritarian now. The latest viral e-mail from Wingnutistan begs parents to keep their children home from school on September 8. Apparently it's indoctrination day:

Word is traveling fast on the internet, between bloggers and twitter, the choice is clear : No school for kids on September 8th due to the beginning of Socialist Indoctrination of Americas children.

Keep your kids home September 8th
2009 September 1
by DanaLoesch
Take a day of vacation. Go to the zoo. Anything that would save your offspring from what I will bluntly say is just the quasi-fellating the executive branch. That cackling over a bubbling cauldron you hear is the NEA rejoicing.
Picture 4
President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009
I wouldn’t have such a problem with the Department of Education were this presented in a non-Orwellian fashion. Oh yes, it is, as the lesson plan directs, to listen to what t he president, the mayor, et al. says, to respect their "authoritah" , but there is no emphasis in here on why the president and other elected officials should listen to US. The focus is solely on authority. There is no consideration given to the authority of the American people. That’s what concerns me.
There is this mindset that those in Washington are the "elite," that we should mind our Ps and Qs and blindly follow their directives. That’s not the manner of governance upon which this country was founded – it is quite the opposite; even the hobbyist Constitutional aficionado appreciates this.
So yes, keep your kids home on September 8th and teach them that the power of America rests in the hands of its people, no one else.

NOTE TO OBAMA :

LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE !!!!

Wow. Of course, I have to wonder why any parent so fearful of government and socialism would be sending their kids to public school in the first place. But if they're going to go to the zoo instead, they better make sure it's not one of those socialist zoos.

But my next thought is, "what the hell are they talking about anyway?" The U.S. Department of Education site states, "The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning." Where's the Orwellian message?

I switched the TV to FOX News -- I bet they can find the Orwellian message! Sure enough, they tell me teachers are being commanded to make their students worship Barack Obama... or something like that. Hmm... I look around the DOE site some more. Must be under suggested classroom activities. Yep. Here is one activity only a Communist would dream of:

Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate students by asking the following questions:

• Who is the President of the United States?
• What do you think it takes to be president?
• To whom do you think the president is going to be speaking?
• Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
• What do you think he will say to you?

We can't have any of that knowledge building and question asking! And I bet this day of indoctrination includes some kind of pledge of allegiance or something.


(YouTube video)

Seriously, people who forward these e-mails need to check the sources of the information, but I'm realizing that many of the problems in our country are due to illiteracy. The kids who need to hear Obama's message the most will probably be at the zoo that day.

Operation Streisand is a Go

"Liberals must launch our plan for socialist domination immediately. Listen closely comrades. I've received word from General Soros and our partners in the U.N., 'Operation Streisand' is a go. Markos Moulitsas, you and your DailyKos controlled army of gay Mexican day-laborers will join forces with Michael Moore's Prius tank division north of Branson where you will seize the guns of everyone who doesn't blame America first, forcing them into the FEMA concentration camps; that's where ACORN and I will reeducate them as atheists and declare victory in the War on Christmas!" (If video doesn't show, click here.)

Homegrown Terrorists

Republicans tell us they have kept us safe and there have been no terrorist attacks in the US since September 11, 2001. But what do you call this? In Miramar Beach, Florida, Dannie Roy Baker shot 5 people killing two of them. Baker had a recent history of e-mailing friends about national political issues. One recipient described the e-mails as "radical" and "inappropriate."

Another acquaintance of Baker commented, "he did come up to me one time and asked me if I was ready for the revolution to begin and if I had any immigrant in my house to get them out." Baker fits my definition of a hateful homegrown terrorist. His demented dreams of creating fear in a group of people through violence and intimidation with the goal of promoting his own ideology unfortunately came to reality last Thursday.

Some people might simply call Baker an "angry white male." Strangely, we didn't hear much about this species during eight years of the Bush administration. Glenn Greenwald points out that this group is not so much fueled by anti-government sentiment but more so by a fear of losing its cultural and demographic supremacy:

What was most remarkable about this allegedly "anti-government" movement was that -- with some isolated and principled exceptions -- it completely vanished upon the election of Republican George Bush, and it stayed invisible even as Bush presided over the most extreme and invasive expansion of federal government power in memory. Even as Bush seized and used all of the powers which that movement claimed in the 1990s to find so tyrannical and unconstitutional -- limitless, unchecked surveillance activities, detention powers with no oversight, expanding federal police powers, secret prison camps, even massively exploding and debt-financed domestic spending -- they meekly submitted to all of it, even enthusiastically cheered it all on.

The angry white male is only pacified when one of his own tribe is in the White House.

Unfortunately the angry tribe has its own political party which is proving itself to be completely out of touch with the American public and reality. Tonight the Daily Show covered the endless hate and malice spewed at last week's CPAC (if video doesn't show, click here):

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Though Jon Stewart is awesome, I can't laugh. I can't laugh at the CPAC audience laughing at a nuclear bomb being dropped on Chicago. The whole joke -- based on misquoting President Obama -- was too disturbing. The Republicans are cheering for another terrorist attack in the US. And I fear they are trying to inspire such an attack. This is the new Republican Nihilism.

Because they say socialism is the enemy, or "islamofascism" is the enemy, or immigration is the enemy, they are moved to broadcast creepy fantasies about a coming civil war. It's only a matter of time before more disturbed people take these war games as prophecy. Now I know what Republicans really imagine when they say they want Obama to fail.

I keep waiting for somebody in the Republican party to stand up and stop this vitriol for the sake of the nation.

From Russia With Love

If I understand it correctly, this letter should be scandalous. I have copied and pasted the text of the October 20, 2008 letter here, but you can read the letter and header for yourself on the UN Member States Portal.

STATEMENT

20 October 2008

ON FUNDRAISING LETTER FROM

JOHN MCCAIN ELECTION CAMPAIGN

We have received a letter from Senator John McCain requesting financial contribution to his Presidential campaign.

In this connection we would like to reiterate that Russian officials, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations or the Russian Government do not finance political activity in foreign countries.

Ok, so what's up with this? I knew McCain was desperate, but this is insane. How did it happen? Did they ask Sarah Palin to help out and send letters to "red states"? Oh, no. McCain's campaign is saying it was a computer glitch. Is there any way they can blame this on David Kernell, the email hacker?

Also, the solicitation was illegal according to the Washington Post:

It is illegal for an American political candidate to accept campaign contributions from a foreign government. "It was just a mistake. We don't solicit folks who can't give," said McCain-Palin spokesman Brian Rogers. Asked whether there were any other ambassadors that they planned to solicit, Rogers laughed and said, "I hope not. Maybe we'll find out tomorrow."

But nobody ever gets prosecuted for these transgressions. What I really want to know is how does this help promote McCain's Red Scare? He's certainly getting plenty of voters worked up over socialism as demonstrated by a diner yelling at Obama, "Socialist, socialist, socialist — get out of here!"

I scratch my head, and I want to ask them, "do ya'all understand what socialism is? Do ya'all understand this bailout bill that Bush signed?"

If the next president creates a modern-day WPA, I think ya'all start liking a little socialism.

A Plumber or a Plant?

During last night's Presidential debates, we all learned about Joe the Plumber. We were told that Joe was the common hard-working man who would be hurt by Obama's tax plan. Throughout the rest of the debate, McCain and Obama both addressed Joe the Plumber more than 20 times as if he was some kind of stand-in for the whole entire nation.

As Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (that's his real name, but I'll call him Joe) enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame today, we were treated to a smorgasbord of his opinions on issues ranging from social security to the war in Iraq. Watch this collage of Joe's greatest hits from the Daily Show, and then tell me if Joe really represents you. He doesn't represent me:



The Daily Show hit on some of today's revelations about Joe: he's not an undecided voter, his real first name is Samuel, he doesn't have a plumber's license, never completed an apprenticeship and does not belong to the plumber’s union, which has endorsed Barack Obama. Also, Joe, who owes back taxes, is unlikely to have an income level that would qualify him for a tax increase under Obama's plan, and if he does make over $250,000... well, then I think he should count his blessings.

Anyway, I don't understand the uproar over Obama's comment regarding "spreading the wealth around." You can watch the entire conversation between Obama and Joe on YouTube. I realize that any talk about redistributing wealth freaks out conservatives, but we've had a progressive tax in this country since the passage of the 16th Amendment, and 81% of economists support progressive taxation. So whether we have Obama's plan or McCain's plan, we're still spreading the wealth around!

One last topic before I attempt to close the door on Joe the Plumber. Was he a plant? I mean is he really an ordinary guy looking for an honest answer, or did the GOP put him up to this? A few blogs are saying he has a relationship to Charles Keating. Of course, guilt by association sucks, but McCain's campaign should have vetted this guy before making him their mascot.

Updated 11/13/2008: Ooops. The entire Keating relationship was a hoax started by a man who is himself a hoax. The MSM also fell for his tricks, so I guess I'm in good company or bad company depending how you look at it.

Plate of Pork

So is the Emergency Economic Stabilization bill a bailout, a bribe, a rescue, or a rape?

The legislation that aims to save Wall Street was originally criticized for costing $700 billion. How did lawmakers make it more appetizing? By adding pork! (About $100 billion in pork also known as earmarks.) Congress then overwhelmingly passed it and Bush quickly signed it.

What are we getting for our money? I'll just cut and paste a few portions of the bill:

TITLE III--EXTENSION OF BUSINESS TAX PROVISIONS

• Sec. 301. Extension and modification of research credit.
• Sec. 302. New markets tax credit.
• Sec. 303. Subpart F exception for active financing income.
• Sec. 304. Extension of look-thru rule for related controlled foreign corporations.
• Sec. 305. Extension of 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements and qualified restaurant improvements; 15-year straight-line cost recovery for certain improvements to retail space.
• Sec. 306. Modification of tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt organizations.
• Sec. 307. Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property.
• Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
• Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
• Sec. 310. Extension of mine rescue team training credit.
• Sec. 311. Extension of election to expense advanced mine safety equipment.
• Sec. 312. Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
• Sec. 313. Qualified zone academy bonds.
• Sec. 314. Indian employment credit.
• Sec. 315. Accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations.
• Sec. 316. Railroad track maintenance.
• Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
• Sec. 318. Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
• Sec. 319. Extension of work opportunity tax credit for Hurricane Katrina employees.
• Sec. 320. Extension of increased rehabilitation credit for structures in the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
• Sec. 321. Enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions.
• Sec. 322. Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
• Sec. 323. Enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory.
• Sec. 324. Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
• Sec. 325. Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.

I've only highlighted the ones I found most crazy. But the craziness doesn't end there.

TITLE V--ADDITIONAL TAX RELIEF AND OTHER TAX PROVISIONS

Subtitle A--General Provisions

• Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
• Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
• Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
• Sec. 504. Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.
• Sec. 505. Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as 5-year property.
• Sec. 506. Modification of penalty on understatement of taxpayer's liability by tax return preparer.

Subtitle B--Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008

• Sec. 511. Short title.
• Sec. 512. Mental health parity.

TITLE VI--OTHER PROVISIONS

• Sec. 601. Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.
• Sec. 602. Transfer to abandoned mine reclamation fund.

Again, I'm just highlighting the ones I found most crazy. They are all crazy because they have little or nothing to do with bailing out Wall Street! They were thrown in without any debates. I think something like mental health parity should have been discussed.

This bill was rushed because we were told it was urgent. I heard very few voices questioning the urgency. We were told something needed to be done. When the original bill failed, the Dow lost a record 777 points. But after the new bill was approved by Congress, the Dow ended down 157 points. We're so fickle!

What doesn't the bill have? There is little about new oversight, little to rescue families facing foreclosure, and little to curb executive pay.

Can you remember back about a month ago when John McCain and Sarah Palin wrote a piece for the WSJ titled We'll Protect Taxpayers from More Bailouts? Can you remember back when McCain vowed that as president he would veto every single bill with earmarks? But by casting his first vote in months, he broke those vows.

I guess he shouldn't criticize Obama now for voting on that earmark-laden energy bill that included tax breaks for oil companies while also providing investment for alternative energy.

There are many reasons to criticize this bill and the politics that brought it to us, and I just can't bring myself to call it a bailout or a rescue. That only leaves my other two choices.