Blast from the past re-post: Bernie Sanders for President

Regular readers know EYE am undecided between Hillary and Bernie, largely due to the behavior of some (not to be confused with all) Sanders supporters.  EYE must admit, after reading and editing this blast from the past re-post EYE am leaning towards Bernie Sanders.~ RedEye

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during his filibuster speech, on 10 December 2010, against the proposed extension of Bush-era tax cuts and other measures agreed by President Obama with congressional Republicans. Photograph: Guardian screeengrab from C-Span coverage

After watching Senator Bernie Sanders courageous filibuster of the Obama compromise , I am convinced he should be our next President because he is truly a man of the people. He is not a republican, nor is he a democrat. He is my kind of people, a proud, card carrying Independent.

After listening to Sanders,  anyone who votes for the Obama compromise (yes, I'm calling it the Obama compromise, because that's what the republicans are going to call it when things go south) will show their true colors, because as Sanders said over and over today "the little guy and gals are getting screwed while the rich get richer".

Of course the Lame Stream Media is marginalizing and minimizing Sanders, calling what he did today a "rant", quoting a Gallup poll claiming a vast majority of the American people are in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts, and that's who the White House is listening to, because this will help Obama be re-elected by wooing independents (who ever they are) blah, blah, blab, blab.

The other media enabled weapon of mass distraction is former President Clinton being summoned to the White House to help an embattled President Obama sell a controversial tax deal to members of his own party.  It's like 1992 all over again, Obama is moving to the center like Clinton, blah blah blab blab.

One thing I will say about Bill Clinton, he didn't capitulate, and he certainly didn't throw his base under the bus. When the repubs said they were going to shut down the government,  he said go ahead. And we see how that worked out.

Bill Clinton also created 22 million new jobs, and made the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Bill Clinton also didn't have to fight against his own damn party.

In 2008 the pundit heads predicted the end of the republican party, but here they are two years later, bigger and badder than ever. I wonder how that happened? Yes, that was a snark.

If you have some free time this weekend, watch/ read or listen to Bernie Sanders in action, then tell me what you think about the Obama Compromise. The devil is in the details, and Sanders lays out the details loud and clear.

Pay your taxes, shut up, and die

Happy birthday Gloria Richardson (5/6/22). “A first-class citizen does not beg for freedom. A first-class citizen does not plead to the white power-structure to give him something that the whites have no power to give or take away. Human rights are human rights, not white rights.” Richardson led the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (a SNCC affiliate) in Cambridge, Maryland to fight against institutional racism.

If you were meant to have a voice you would have been born white.  This is how I feel as I type this post in the wake of HCS superintendent Casey Wardynki's meeting with Southeast Huntsville residents, organized by Huntsville City Councilman Bill Kling and community leaders.   I would describe the atmosphere as....cordial.  Unlike BOE meetings, citizens comments/questions didn't have to be written down and read by the Director of Community Engagement, also, unlike BOE meetings, the superintendent answered their questions.

Several people expressed their love and support to the Superintendent for doing the job he was hired to do.

Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu (sic) types and the entire entitlement crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either. If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

One thing I did learn as a result of the meeting is although they can't disclose who the potential buyers are for Butler High School and some of the other vacant schools in the district, residents in these neighborhoods would be happy if these deals go through.

In addition to the interest in Butler, Wardynski said, there is also a buyer interested in both Stone Middle and West Huntsville Elementary. A portion of the Stone property has already been sold off, and the school itself is being used as a storage facility by the district.
Portions of the West Huntsville building are currently being used by the non-profit Free 2 Teach and The Pinnacle Schools, the outside company that, in 2012, replaced the Seldon Center as the district's alternative school.

The current Grissom High School campus may become the site of a new southeast library and a police substation.  The current J.O. Johnson High school  facility will be used as a public safety training facility when the new school is moved less than half a mile from an active rock quarry.  It's hard to see how a public safety (police and fire) training station slapped right dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood is going to improve the quality of life and property values in north Huntsville.  But hey, it's north Huntsville, who cares?

The superintendent and the councilman did all they could to assure southeast Huntsville residents they would be pleased by the purchasers of the properties in their neighborhood, and promised they would be safe from homeless vagrants, north Huntsville residents not so much.  Speaking of security, the superintendent must have been afraid for his safety because he was there with a full security detail consisting of a HCS and HPD detail.  I thought he was the Governor of the President or something.

So tonight, at a public meeting held in a church, Huntsville leaders claim they want residents to contribute to the cities future plans. Call me cynical, but I believe the plans have already been made, and I have no reason to believe north Huntsville is included in said plans.  We can't even get them to listen to us about  a name change.  Why should they listen to us about anything else?  Seems like to me all they want north Huntsville residents to do is pay taxes, shut up, support the status quo, and die.

I feel like an unwelcome visitor in my own city.  Marginalized, minimized, under estimated and under valued.
Remember when Huntsville was known as the Star of Alabama?  What happened to that bright star?

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

—Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789

What Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich said about Mitt's tax returns.

"I don't know how many years I will release, I will look at what the documents are, I want to release these things all at the same time"~ Mitt Romney

"The democrats want to attack me for being successful" ~ Mitt Romney

"I pay a lot of taxes, I've been very successful"~ Mitt Romney

"If he is going to stay in the race he ought to release his tax returns."~Newt Gingrich

"If there is anything in there that is going to cause us to lose the election we need to know before the nomination"~ Newt Gingrich

It's better to do it in in the primary season so the country understands what's going on and not be surprised in September" ~Newt Gingrich 

Why won't Romney release his tax returns, as long as he doesn't aren't we going to wonder what he's hiding?

Mitt Romney is a rich man in the wrong party

Does anyone believe people who earn $21 Million Dollars a year wash their own clothes?  I mean, really?  After viewing Mitts' tax return it's obvious he's the poster boy for the 1%, and that's fine.   I'm not mad at Mitt because he's filthy rich. I'm mad at Mitt for trying to sucker the Suckers into believing "President Obama wants to raise their taxes."


Uh, No Mitt, President Obama wants to raise YOUR taxes, as well he should.  It's time to shift the burden from the working poor and the middle class who can't afford to pay more, to the mega rich  like Y-O-U who can afford to pay more.

Mitt Romney is a nice, rich, man in the wrong party.  If he were a democrat there wouldn't be a problem with him having a fortune.  Democratic Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson were all rich men. Former  Democratic Presidential candidates John Edwards and John Kerry are rich men too.  They didn't whine about paying their fair share, or try and sucker people into voting against their self interest to protect their riches.

So you see, it's OK to be rich if you belong to the right (pun) party and use your riches for good.

RedEye's Week in Review

This is something we all need to remember, especially with an election year coming up. Far too many politicians think if they tell a lie enough times, it will essentially become the truth. It won't!
h/t jobsanger RedEye's addendum, far too many media outlets enable far too many politicians to lie to us. It's time to occupy the FCC!

What do we call a government agency created to manage telephony, Internet, wireless, cable, and broadcasting in the public interest, but has been the captive of greedy corporations for decades? We call it the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission. What can we do when corrupt authorities like the FCC utterly forfeit their legitimacy, and just aren't listening? We can raise our voices. We can withdraw our consent. We can occupy their public space, which is really ours anyway.

What's that you say? Senate Republicans chose to raise taxes on nearly 160 million hardworking Americans? Who knew? Not we the people that's for sure thanks to the latest media enabled weapon of mass distraction.

So it was nice that Cain was getting attention. But the primaries are drawing near, and today he leads in some polls as the Republican nominee, the bulk of his support those very tea party types that conservative stalwarts could rely on to “get” their most decipherable dog whistles, such as Reagan announcing his run for the presidency in Mississippi, near where those legendary anti-state rights workers were killed.

Meanwhile under the radar..."You're Going To Detention!" Takes On A Sickening Sense Of Permanence

On Tuesday an ugly coalition of Republicans and mostly conservative Democrats beat back an amendment by Mark Udall (D-CO) to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The amendment, defeated 60-38 would have been a slap in the face to Obama, who threatened to veto it, so it may seem off that virtually all the Republicans backed up the president. It called for replacing the current rules on detention of terrorism suspects and called for military and intelligence officials to come up with their own blueprint on how to interrogate and hold detainees.

Psst! Occupy Austin, I know how it it feels when your Allotted Amount of Free Speech Has Expired!"

The Republican party believes government doesn't work and sets out to prove it when they're elected. Unfortunately, the more they demonstrate their thesis, the fewer people vote, making it ever easier for Republicans to get elected so that government functions even less ...

Vicious cycle, and we need to find a way out of it. h/t mooncat

I agree, but suppressing effective progressive voices is NOT who can counter the right wing, spin, machine is NOT the way out.

You can be sure: Republicans are willing to use legislation, our language, and our emotions--and not so much our intellect--to achieve their ends. We don't have to operate in the same fashion as they do, but we do have to be willing to expose their tactics, and deploy a counterattack to their attacks, lest the whole nation ends up in an oversize body bag. h/t Black Disapora

RedEye over and out..... for now.

I heard it on the radio, but is it true?

I was listening to the Joe Madison talk show on XM 169 The Power this evening when a female caller from Dothan,Alabama called in to comment on Herman Cain's 9% sales tax proposal. I don't remember her name, but she said they were already paying 9% sales tax in Dothan, in addition to a 10% surcharge at the grocery stores in the black community, for a total of 19% on groceries.

Madison asked her what the surcharge was for and she replied they were told it was to keep the price of groceries down. Huh?

I hope it's not true the city of Dothan,AL added a 10% surcharge to Piggly Wiggly and Save a Lot stores in the black community. Please tell me if there is a 10% surcharge it's across the board.

I noticed in Atlanta last week gasoline was $2.39 per gallon in the inner city (black neighborhood) and $2.13 in the suburbs (white neighborhood)

Why are those with the least paying more than those who have the most for goods and services? What's wrong with this picture?

Monday Shock, Shame and Awe

I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you! Soon to be former 7th district Congress Critter Artur Davis (DINO) has a pregnant idea for moderate (conservative) democrats....they should run as independents!!!

Southern voters "see the Democratic Party as a liberal institution that wants to spend their money recklessly, that doesn't honor their social values and that has a very different view of the world," said Alabama Rep. Artur Davis (D).

"It's hard for local Democratic candidates to break clear of that," Davis added. "Some [of those candidates] who are thinking about competing in the South may have to look at running as Independents."

Not true Artur. Southern voters see the Democratic Party as the party of them there minorities, baby killers, teachers and unions, and you're darn Skippy DEMOCRATS don't honor their *cough cough* social values. Sure don't. BTW, why are we hearing more from the out going 7th district Congress Congress Critter than the incoming 7th district Congress Critter? Where in the world is Terri Sewell? Anybody know? Anybody care?

Shameful and Awful! New Orleans gets table scrap in GO Zone lending feast.

As Louisiana wraps its Gulf Opportunity Zone lending program, only 3 percent of the $7.8 billion went to projects in New Orleans, a review of state records show.

Though the program was intended to generate recovery and jobs in the areas most affected by the storm, analysis of Louisiana lending shows that the prime beneficiaries are far from the primary disaster areas.

Hmmm..wonder how this is going to work out? Are we finally going to some Justice for all? Reported victim of Bush-Era DOJ to Head DOJ's Internal Watchdog Group

Last year, Obama promoted to U.S. Attorney a federal prosecutor whose had been discriminated against by Goodling because of his wife's Democratic ties and rehired Leslie Hagan, who had been dismissed by Goodling because she was rumored to be gay.

Ashton is taking over an office that has come under fire because of what critics say is weak punishment of attorneys who are found to have committed prosecutorial misconduct. Holder has defended the office and resisted calls to give the more independent Inspector General's office more power to investigate such allegations.

I wonder why Holder is resisting calls to give the Inspector Generals office more power to investigate such allegations? He can start right here in Sweet Home Alabama. I'm just saying...

Legalize, regulate and tax gambling....now where have we heard that before? Oh I know....we heard it from the man who should be the Governor of Alabama...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks fashioned a campaign platform for governor that calls for taxes on the gambling industry and the creation of a state lottery to provide tax cuts for Alabama families and college scholarships for their children.

Voices crying in the wilderness and candidates campaigning on the same old same old indeed....

Deja Vu All Over Again?

As the Senate draws closer to passing the Obama Compromise, I have the same sick feeling of helplessness I felt when our Congress Cowards gave George W. Bush a blank check to take our troops to war in Iraq. Us hard core, professional lefty, tree hugging, Birkenstock wearing, Latte drinking, hybrid car driving, liberals tried tell everyone Bush was using 911 as an excuse to go to war in Iraq. We tried to tell everyone there was no WMD in Iraq. We tried to tell everyone Saddam had nothing to do with 911. We tried to tell everyone there was no exit and our troop would be plan sound the alarm. But did they listen? Noooo. We were called anti Bush, anti Troops, anti American and told to STFU and stop whining for the good of the country. Never mind that we were right (pun intended), there was no WMD in Iraq and our troops are still there.

Well here we go again. Us hardcore liberals are trying to sound the alarm about the Obama Compromise and again we're being told to STFU.

the package that has outraged many progressives -- and not a few conservatives -- is a baited trap, a Trojan Horse for the "entitlement" cutting crowd that could lead to disaster for working families over the long haul.

It's true at face value that the Republicans supporting the deal are guilty of rank hypocrisy. After years screaming that we face a looming fiscal crisis that will doom the nation in short order, Republicans won the House on a pledge to repeal the Democrats’ health care reforms, a move that would add $455 billion more to the federal deficit over the next decade (PDF) and before even taking the Speaker’s gavel, they held benefits for the long-term unemployed hostage in exchange for a tax deal that would add another $854 billion in red ink over that same period.

The Rude Pundit breaks it down (warning link contains graphic language)

So after backing President Obama on compromise after compromise on various bills, on the stimulus, on health care reform, after supporting and advocating for deals that were not only far from perfect, but were in some ways detrimental to the cause for which the bills themselves were created, after watching the President reach out again and again to Republicans, only to be told he wasn't reaching out enough and only to watch Obama say that he needs to do more to compromise, after seeing Republicans drub Democrats in an election because many Democrats were too afraid to stand for anything Democratic for fear of seeming too "partisan," after listening to Obama justify doing almost everything that George W. Bush did in the name of national security and, in some cases, going further, after years and years of watching Democrats allowing Republicans to set the terms of all arguments, whether in the majority or minority, after investing in Barack Obama the modicum of hope he asked for in changing the terms of that long, ongoing American political fistfight, only to see the whole thing twisted again by the right as they put forth the most obnoxiously anti-American candidates they could find and obstructed progress in an unprecedented way, finally, on this one thing, on absolutely opposing allowing the tax rate for the wealthiest 2% of Americans to rise by a small margin, we on the left are told by people across the political spectrum that we want too much and that we need to back down and that we need to be happy because this is the best we're gonna get.

Isn't it ironic the main ones who fell for the get government out of out lives spin are the main ones pushing for the tax cut for the rich? That's right (pun intended) the main ones without access to health care are the main ones pushing the repeal of Health care reform, by those who have access to government health care I might add. I wonder if the Tea Baggers realize they've been punk'd? Naaah.

I'm sure in 2012 you'll fall for the same old shit sales pitch about how the Democrats and black people and Hispanic people and Gay people and Muslims and Big Government are to blame for everything wrong in your life. You'll fall for the tried and true attack ads that worked this year; the ones that claimed Obama and his Black Panther Socialist Nazi Army is out to kill you, burn your house down and take away your guns, your right to practice the only true religion (Oh Jesus!) and your freedom to hate anyone Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck tell you to hate.

Don't get me wrong, just because I oppose the Obama compromise doesn't mean I don't support President Obama, however as Katrina van Heuvel notes h/t Legal Schnauzer;

Forget about electoral mandates or campaign promises. This president has a historic mandate. Just as Abraham Lincoln had to lead the nation from slavery and Franklin Roosevelt from the Depression, this president must lead the nation from the calamitous failures of three decades of conservative dominance. This requires beginning to reverse the perverse tax policies that have contributed to gilded-age inequality and starved the government of resources needed for vital investments. This demands correcting destabilizing global imbalances, laying a new foundation for reviving American manufacturing and shackling financial speculation. It means ensuring the United States leads rather than lags in the green industrial revolution. And it requires unwinding the self-destructive military adventures abroad. The president must strengthen America's basic social contract in a global economy, not weaken it.

I can't shake this feeling of Deja Vu....that we the people are heading for another Q"W"agmire. I wish our elected officials would listen to the people this time and not the polling pollsters. I fear this is a trap.

Every Act of Rebellion Helps Tear Down Our Corrupt System Chris Hedges

Edited~ Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States

Regular readers know EYE am undecided between Hillary and Bernie, largely due to the behavior of some (not to be confused with all) Sanders supporters.  EYE must admit, after reading and editing this blast from the past re-post EYE am leaning towards Bernie Sanders.~ RedEye

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during his filibuster speech, on 10 December 2010, against the proposed extension of Bush-era tax cuts and other measures agreed by President Obama with congressional Republicans. Photograph: Guardian screeengrab from C-Span coverage

After watching Senator Bernie Sanders courageous filibuster of the Obama compromise , I am convinced he should be our next President because he is truly a man of the people. He is not a republican, nor is he a democrat. He is my kind of people, a proud, card carrying Independent.

After listening to Sanders,  anyone who votes for the Obama compromise (yes, I'm calling it the Obama compromise, because that's what the republicans are going to call it when things go south) will show their true colors, because as Sanders said over and over today "the little guy and gals are getting screwed while the rich get richer".

Of course the Lame Stream Media is marginalizing and minimizing Sanders, calling what he did today a "rant", quoting a Gallup poll claiming a vast majority of the American people are in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts, and that's who the White House is listening to, because this will help Obama be re-elected by wooing independents (who ever they are) blah, blah, blab, blab.

The other media enabled weapon of mass distraction is former President Clinton being summoned to the White House to help an embattled President Obama sell a controversial tax deal to members of his own party.  It's like 1992 all over again, Obama is moving to the center like Clinton, blah blah blab blab.

One thing I will say about Bill Clinton, he didn't capitulate, and he certainly didn't throw his base under the bus. When the repubs said they were going to shut down the government,  he said go ahead. And we see how that worked out.

Bill Clinton also created 22 million new jobs, and made the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Bill Clinton also didn't have to fight against his own damn party.

In 2008 the pundit heads predicted the end of the republican party, but here they are two years later, bigger and badder than ever. I wonder how that happened? Yes, that was a snark.

If you have some free time this weekend, watch/ read or listen to Bernie Sanders in action, then tell me what you think about the Obama Compromise. The devil is in the details, and Sanders lays out the details loud and clear.

You get the Batsh#t crazy you vote for

Only in America is bad behavior rewarded. The republicans blocked the extension of unemployment insurance and the middle class tax cuts then got the heck out Dodge quicker than a New York Minute.

I agree with Booman, there should be NO Christmas for the U.S. Senate

I think there should be no Christmas for Republicans. This morning the GOP voted against extending tax cuts to the middle class and then they voted against extending tax cuts to everyone who earns less than a million dollars a year. To be more accurate, they voted against cloture on those two amendments, meaning that the Senate was unable to hold an up or down vote on extending the tax cuts. We can expect them to repeat this trick on almost everything remaining on the Senate's agenda.

I wonder what part of tax cuts usually lead to higher unemployment don't they understand?

The legacy of trickle down economics.
More wealth for the rich, fewer jobs for the rest of America.

Senator Al Franken (D. MN) calls out the big fat hypocrites for the Scrooges they are.

Franken asserts that if the Republicans cared about “mom and pop” operations, they would have supported the Small Business Jobs Act as well as the Hire Act to find jobs for the unemployed. But the Republicans scare tactic is to rally concern among their base for “small businesses” (using spin and technicality) when the businesses they are really protecting are the likes of Bechtel, 1/5 largest company in the US, or the Koch brothers $100 billion company or the Wall Street high flyer's, etc., etc., etc.

No yelling. No name calling. Just the truth.

Watch Alan Grayson (Balls, he haz dem) expose Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush as crooks who want a FAILED tax policy that only benefits themselves.

It's time to sharpen your pitchforks.

Monday Morning Talking Points

Hey Alabama Democrats! Stop worrying about what the republican party might complain about. See that's part of our(democrats) problem, we spend far too much time worrying about what the gop might do, say or complain about. Who cares what they think? I mean,really. They have ZERO creditability. Think about it. What have they been right (pun intended) ever? When have they been on the right (pun intended) side of an important issue? What right (pun intended) do they have to choose our leaders and set our agenda? Are they sitting around worrying about giving Democrats something to complain about? Heck no. While we're wasting time and resources worrying about them they are organizing, planning and plotting on how to turn the winners into the losers and the losers into the winners.

When are folks going to stop judging black people by stereotypes?

The myth that black people are failures academically, unemployed, and lazy has a strong grip in the minds of whites who buy into that falsehood. In the eyes of some white folks professional and smart academic black people like you do not exist. Why do they think that? Because it is drilled into their heads day and night through msm media, television, radio, and books.

Why don't conservatives oppose the war on drugs? Do you think the reason might be HERE?

The criminal justice approach to drug use has contributed to the increasing numbers of African Americans that are subjected to the American criminal justice process. This increase can be attributed to a justice system that disproportionately incarcerates African Americans for drug law violations. Most of the people being locked up in American prisons are African American drug offenders.

I guess it depends on what the definition of a small business IS. Debunk the right wing spin that taxing those who earn over $250,00 a year will hurt "small business".

It's a standard Republican response to nearly anything -- equal pay, access for the disabled, worker safety -- but the cause du jour is ending tax cuts for the wealthy. Obviously, America can't afford to reduce the deficit and keep giving millionaires a pass on taxes, but Republicans cry "It will hurt small businesses" to end those juicy tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

Instead of making the rich richer by extending the Bu$h tax cuts, here is a Deficit Reduction Plan that doesn't shaft we the peeps. I wonder what part of trickle down, vodoo economics don't work doesn't the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party understand?

With democrats like this, who needs republicans?

Time to stop playing nice. Light up the phone lines and let ‘em have it

Yes it is!
Yes we can!
Yes we will take our country back from the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party!

The winners vs the losers, the new American Way

That's right (pun intended), America the Beautiful is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all, It's America the Corporation, land of the haves and the have nots, with liberty and justice for the fortunate few, the rest are on their own. Where the rich get richer and the rest get the shaft. God Bless the New American Way!

According the people in control of our state and national government, the federal government is trying to "redistribute the wealth" by taking from the winners and giving to the losers. Asking the winners to pay their fair share of taxes means the federal government is punishing the winners for being successful. According to the powerful privileged, the winners are winners through hard work, and the losers are losers because they are lazy and want the government to take care of them. The losers don't deserve to have access to quality affordable health care if they get sick because they are well...losers. The losers should just go somewhere and STFD and STFU. And to think, this comes from the family values, compassionate, christian, conservative crowd. There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.

So, how and when did this happen? When did the United States of America morph into the United States of the Rich vs Middle Class/Poor? How did the billionaires convince the have nots they were their friend?

In the next month, despite all their loud rhetoric about the "deficit crisis," the Republicans want to add $700 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years by extending Bush's tax breaks for the top 2 percent. Families who earn $1 million a year or more would receive, on average, a tax break of $100,000 a year. The Republicans also want to eliminate or significantly reduce the estate tax, which has existed since 1916. Its elimination would add, over 10 years, about $1 trillion to our national debt and all of the benefits would go to the top 0.3 percent. Over 99.7 percent of American families would not gain a nickel. The Walton family of WalMart would receive an estimated tax break of more than $30 billion by repealing the estate tax.

Bob Herbet says all we are good at is bulldozing money to the very wealthy

We’ve become a hapless, can’t-do society, and it’s, frankly, embarrassing. Public figures talk endlessly about “transformative changes” in public education, but the years go by and we see no such thing. Politicians across the spectrum insist that they are all about job creation while the employment situation in the real world remains beyond pathetic.

The winners are obsessed with so called deficit spending/reduction, constitution reform and ethics reform because it's a convenient weapon of mass distraction from the real issues, facing real people

In a recent poll, only 4% of Americans identified deficit reduction as the most important issue to be addressed in Congress right now. By comparison, 56% of Americans identified jobs and the economy as the most important issues. These polling results are one reason that it is important, as we explained previously, for the Democrats to avoid getting caught up in the current obsession in the D.C. media and political circles with the deficit.

How is it the winners have any creditability anyway?

What is it, exactly, that the Republican Party stands for? They have a PR rep for being strong on the military, strong on fiscal discipline and strong on traditional values. The problem is that over the last couple of years we have seen that, as a group, they really don’t have any credibility on any of these issues.

The idea that a part who is calling for 700 billion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, money that will have to be borrowed, while at the same time braying about the size of the deficit is not one that can truly be credible on the issue of financing the government. The tax breaks they are ready to defend, at the cost of raising the taxes on the middle class in the middle of the worst economic climate in more than two generations. Not a single Republican would answer what they would cut to pay for this windfall for the ultra wealthy prior to the election or even now.

When are the real republicans going to take their party back from the winners?

Boehner weeps for his dad. Cantor mumbles. Palin communes with bears. One of the least diverse, least intellectually-equipped group of freshmen Congressmen invades Washington soon--to lead, create, fix? Nah, to attack and tear up.

I want my Democracy back. You know, the one where there are no red states and blue states, but the United States of America, with liberty and justice for ALL not for some. The United States of America where black, brown, red children have equal opportunities. I want my American Way back. The American way of helping people who need help. The American Way where everybody has the inalienable right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of race, gender, circumstance or political party.

Redeye's Week in Review~edited

If you are not a millionaire you shouldn't be a republican.
Isn't it funny how the republican status quo is using the poor to wage a war against the middle class and to get out of paying their fair share of taxes? There are some republicans who argue the poor should pay the same if not more taxes than the rich, and to ask the rich to pay their fair share is "punishing them for being successful" and, that tax cuts for the rich increase revenues and create jobs. Uh, if that were true the Bush tax cut for the rich wouldn't have resulted in a multi trillion deficit and 22 million jobs lost.

It's getting to the point where it's hard to shovel the gop hypocrisy.
Republicans are pro life and pro war.
They are pro life and anti welfare.
They are pro life and anti public education
They are pro life and pro death penalty.
They are anti government but want to tell you how to live, how to die, who to marry, who you can have sex with, and who to worship.

The ALA GOP is up in arms because the democratic candidate for Attorney General quipped how can anyone be a Christian and a republican. I guess the same way they can not be rich and be a republican. Either they don't know the rich are getting richer and the rest are getting the shaft or they don't care. I don't know which is worse.

The war against public education and public school teachers escalated this week with a full court press in the media.

We are seeing a concerted and organized effort to make the new film "Waiting for Superman" the means of defining the discussion on education. When combined with the corporate sponsorship and interconnections with NBC's Education Nation effort, it is perhaps worthwhile to examine some of the interconnections which are tying all this together.

Let the media tell it, public schools for all should be replaced with charter schools for a few. Public school teachers/unions and tenure laws are the reason public schools are failing. The National Education Association says they don't make the state and federal budgets and that charter schools aren't the cure all, as a matter of fact they are the problem.

Despite the heavy promotion of charter schools in Waiting For Superman, research shows that they are no panacea. (Read the full statement of NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on the movie.) Improving lower-performing schools does not require a silver bullet, but a multi-faceted approach that involves teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, and community members. This holistic approach has yielded results in places like Putnam City West High School in Oklahoma City, where educators have engaged parents and the community to boost the graduation rate of Hispanic students by 70 percent; and Denver, where the teacher-led Math and Science Leadership Academy is taking a collaborative approach that focuses on mentoring and professional development to boost student achievement; and in Las Vegas, where a teacher empowerment program has led to remarkable gains, including at Culley Elementary School, a “high achieving” school where only five years ago, less than a quarter of students were at grade level.

The media is ignoring the elephant (pun intended) in the room. Charter schools' growth promoting segregation.

"We don't want the Race to the Top to become a race to the past," said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, alluding to the era of enforced segregation.

Of course if they really wanted to fix the economy they would invest in public education instead of bashing public education.

Last week, the Republicans released their so-called “Pledge to America.” This pledge contained more glossy photos than policy proposals, much like $290,900 taxpayer funded mailers my opponent, Congressman Lance, sent out in August. Their entire promise to America is that they will systematically undo what Democrats have done in Congress during the past two years. No new ideas, no proposals to actually help the millions of Americans struggling everyday.

In America being a macho man and a professional homophobe is big business,

In America being a macho man and a professional homophobe is big business, one that jeopardizes the lives and mental health and wellness of thousands of gays and lesbians. Regardless of whether the allegations against Long are true or not, his prosperity gospel of gay-bashing and robber baron profiteering at the expense of poor black people is another indictment of the moral injustice that happens on "God's" watch.

Is there a Psychiatrist in the House?
The more I read the latest of Glen Beck and Teabagger's insane babblings and what they are about the more I think that they might need to see a good head shrink. And to think they represent those on the right's values and ideals. Scary! Or are Americans that stressed out that they are just not thinking straight these days.

Under the radar, California just took a huge step in ending the drug wars.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Thursday signed into law a bill that decriminalizes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. The bill reduces simple possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction.

Rham Emmanuel is out Pete Rouse is in as Chief of Staff to President Obama. Let's HOPE it's some change we can believe in. Will Press Secretary Robert Gibbs be next? God I hope so.

Have a great weekend!