Iconoclastic

Whatever your political affiliation may be, we all need to speak our minds by voting - it's the American way.

The deadline to vote in California is Monday, October 20th - both in person and by mail. PLEASE register!!!

Not sure if you are registered? Go to www.votefor change.com and check - you can register here, find out if you are registered, and find where your polling place will be!

Don't wait, you don't have enough time!!!

Make sure everyone you know is registered as well. And if their not, help them to get it done!! I even brought my mom a stamp, just to make sure she sent off her voter registration!

Now, e-mail everyone you know... ask people at work/school, talk to your friends, and make sure everyone is registered to vote.

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friends,

The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There... is... no... free... lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a "bailout" bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.

It is clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known as "Mike's Rescue Plan." It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are:

1. APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money is expended, Congress must commit, by resolution, to criminally prosecute anyone who had anything to do with the attempted sacking of our economy. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse must go to jail. This Congress must call for a Special Prosecutor who will vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in the future.

2. THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT. They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class are going to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.

If they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy way they can raise it:

a) Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It's the Senator Sanders plan. He's like Colonel Sanders, only he's out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less income tax than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300 billion.

b) Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This will raise more than $200 billion in a year.

c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will go the treasury to help pay for the bailout.

d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level of the 1950s, that gives us an extra $500 billion.

All of this combined should be enough to end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions and their servants, and our United States government ("COUNTRY FIRST!") will have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools.

3. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME. There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by $100,000. Force the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay on its current value. To insure that this help does no go to speculators and those who have tried to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for people's primary residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing mortgage, the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that it can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $700 billion.

And let's set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not "bad risks." They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own. But during the Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs they had. Six million fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health insurance. And every one of them saw their real wages go down by $2,000. Those who dare to look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ashamed. We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home that they own.

4. IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A "BAILOUT," THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that's how it's done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank "owns" that house until I pay it all back -- with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk -- and necessary for the good of the country -- then you can get a loan, but we will own you. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.

5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:

"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.

"We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.

"I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."

This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they're done with that, they can restore the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.

6. IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT'S TOO BIG TO EXIST. Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No one or two companies should have this kind of power. The so-called "economic Pearl Harbor" can't happen when you have hundreds -- thousands -- of institutions where people have their money. When you have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we don't face a national disaster. If you have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can't call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!). Laws must be enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you can't explain it in two sentences, you shouldn't be taking anyone's money.

7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF "PARACHUTE" OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an outrage. We have created the mess we're in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This has to stop. Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be fired before the company receives any help.

8. STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct yesterday to propose expanding FDIC protection of people's savings in their banks to $250,000. But this same sort of government insurance must be given to our nation's pension funds. People should never have to worry about whether or not the money they've put away for their old age will be there. This will mean strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees' funds -- or perhaps it means that the companies will have to turn over those funds and their management to the government. People's private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it's time to consider not having one's retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market. Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about ending up destitute.

9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off the TV! We are not in the Second Great Depression. The sky is not falling. Pundits and politicians are lying to us so fast and furious it's hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I, yesterday, wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the news, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that's true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the '80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn't go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.

As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan this week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a single person has lost any of their money if it's in a bank or a treasury note or a CD. And the most amazing thing is that the American public hasn't bought the scare campaign. The citizens didn't blink, and instead told Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn't the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say 'Saddam has da bomb' so many times before the people realize you're a lying sack of shite. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can't take it any longer.

10. CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A "PEOPLE'S BANK." If we really are itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don't we give it to ourselves? Now that we own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a people's bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And now that we own AIG, the country's largest insurance company, let's take the next step and provide health insurance for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money in the long run. And we won't be 12th on the life expectancy list. We'll be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension, and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much misery are let out of prison so that we can help reacclimate them to civilian life -- a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with help from the People's Bank.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Call your Senators now. Here's a backup link in case we crash that site again. They are going to attempt their own version of the Looting of America tonight. And let your reps know if you agree with my 10-point plan.

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wrote earlier about the flock of donations that have been pouring into Planned Parenthood, made in the name of VP candidate Sarah Palin. Here's what Planned Parenthood has to say:

So far, the scheme seems to be getting a strong response. As of Friday, Planned Parenthood had taken in $802,678 in donations from 31,313 people, said a spokesman for the organization, Tait Sye. More than two-thirds of the individuals are first-time donors to Planned Parenthood, Mr. Sye said, and money came in from all 50 states.

I sent in my $20... did you??

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In honor of VP candidate Sarah Palin, this is banned book week.Here is some info I got from American Library Association:

Each year, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top ten most frequently challenged books. To ensure that we include all challenges, we wait until the very end of the year to compile the information. You can expect each year's list to appear in February of the following year at the latest.

So, without further ado, the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007:
1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language

4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism

6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,

7) "TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit

9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10) "The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

You can also look at the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Boos in 2000-2007 here: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlists/TOP_100_in_2000_2007.pdf

I really like this list! In fact I printed it, and am making it my goal to read every book on this list (not actually quite a hard accomplishment since between high school and college, I've read about 95% of them anyway). The thing I really liked though, is this may be the only reading list I've seen since my Women's Studies day that over 50% of the authors are female. It's all very interesting!

Go ahead, feel naughty, please enjoy a banned book today!

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just some random political thoughts today:

I had a friend call me last week and ask me to describe Sarah Palin in twenty words or less, ready, go. My answer flew out of my mouth before I even had a chance to think about it, “anti-Christ”. Ouch! I’ve always said I thought McCain was the spawn of Hitler and Bush, so maybe Sarah Palin is the perfect running mate…

~ ~ ~

Did anyone else watch the debate on Friday night and find themselves board to tears?

I got home from work at a decent hour on Friday so I made a wonderful concoction of food in my kitchen, poured myself a glass of wine, and sat down with my 17 year old brother in front of the television – tuned in to MSNBC – determined to force him to become interested in politics. To take an interest in his nation, and the goings on of the world. 15 minutes in I found myself drifting off to sleep. Maybe it was the topic of the debate, because at the current moment – to be honest – I’m all talked out on the war in Iraq, and Al Qaeda, and nuclear warfare. I am infinitely more concerned with the current state of the economy and how these two candidates propose to fix the mess we are in. So after they were done talking about the economy – and had moved on to stale issues – I was literally bored to tears.

Anyone else feel this way?

It would have been much better if there was some yelling, some fighting, some compassion. That would have made me feel like the candidates wanted to be there, and wanted to win my opinion of them.

I guess with all the drama, and nonsense that has thus far surrounded the campaign – I was hoping for a WWE moment, and instead I got a little Lifetime drama instead.

~ ~ ~

Dionne from the Washington Post says, “McCain, once the candidate of tested experience, must now battle the perception that he has become the riskier choice, a man too given to rash moves under pressure. Obama, whose very newness promised change but also raised doubts, has emerged as the cool and unruffled candidate who moves calmly but steadily forward. However one judges the first debate, it did nothing to block Obama’s progress.”

~ ~ ~

“We deserve more than a Saturday Night Live skit for the next four years.” Steven Reynolds from All Spin Zone – The Joke That is Sarah Palin, Obama Isn’t Laughing

~ ~ ~

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq38/SpinDentist/palintongues.gif

~ ~ ~

It is good to see major corporations taking a stand for the good of the people though:

From the Google blog:

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.
However, while there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.
Look at the language here. It is not just that the Google folks are against a measure that targets one group of individuals, but that they are out and out for gay marriage. That’s amazing for a company to come out so boldly for gay marriage, and they should be commended.

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

reposted from All Spin Zone
How do you get Americans to care what their government is doing?
Friday, September 26, 2008, 11:34:41 AM | E in MD
Americans have been through a lot of hardship in the last decade. The really sad part is that most of the hardship could have been avoided if we’d made better choices in leadership. But we allowed the guy we wanted to have a beer with to take control over the country rather than giving it to a better candidate. Whether or not the 2000 election was stolen is a separate issue. The bottom line is but WE allowed Bush to take office and WE allowed him to stay. Now as they say, we reap what we have sown.

You’ll have to forgive my amusement at all this. You see, I feel as though I have been screaming at the maelstrom for the last six years or so trying to get people to care about what their government is doing. First the election, then 9/11, then the PATRIOT act, then the invasion of Iraq, then untold billions of dollars sucked out of our nation by companies like Haliburton and Blackwater, the FISA legislation, the unconstitutional powers that the Bush regime has claimed. The list goes on. We kept quiet as more and more abuse piled on. Like the puppy that has been kicked since birth and knows no other way we just sat there and took it.

Now however, we have of course we have the economic meltdown occurring because Wall Street got a little too greedy. I’ve heard many right wing commentators talk about how ‘giving mortgages to coloreds’ is what caused this mess. Racism aside, that’s a cop out. The average citizen doesn’t have a multi million dollar legal or accounting department to tell them when something they’re about to do is a bad idea. So if I come to you with no job, no savings, no prospects and a ton of already bad debt it’s up to you to look all this over and say “no, I can’t give you this loan”. If there was some sort of protestation about it, the documentation stating: “no job, no savings, no prospects and a ton of already bad debt” are absolute proof as to the reason for rejection. That’s part of what all those fees you pay mortgage brokers are for.

The fact is that Wall Street, like some 1970’s cartoon bank robber saw an opportunity and couldn’t see past the big green dollar signs in their eyes. Wall Street made bad decisions and Wall Street should have known better. In truth they probably did know better, but decided to take the money and run anyway. Which makes them doubly at fault and even more certain that they should’t be reaching into our pockets to fix their mistakes.

So now we have our supposed representation sitting up in Capitol hill getting ready to give almost a trillion dollars as a first increment to Wall Street. Make no mistake, it will start off at $700 billion, but since the original plan said that they could only have $700 billion at a time there’s nothing to stop them from selling bad mortgages at a loss and then gobbling up another hundred billion a pop. Funny thing is, that figure was just picked out of a hat:

Press Gaggle Via Conference Call With Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto On The Economy

MR. FRATTO: With respect to executive pay, again, I’m not going to get into specific, point-by-point details on what our views are on that, other than the Secretary of Treasury said it would make more difficult to make this plan work and effective if you provide disincentives for companies and firms out there who are holding mortgage-backed securities and other securities from participating in the program. You have to remember, these are not all weak or troubled firms that own mortgage-backed securities. A lot of them are very successful banks and investment houses that have done very well, have been responsible, are holding performing assets that have value. They were not necessarily irresponsible players, and so you have to be careful about how you deal with them.

This represents nothing less than a callous plundering of the US economy to benefit those one percent people who already have all the money. Nothing illustrates this more than our representatives don’t give a fig about us then the arguments taking place about whether or not the CEO’s of these failing companies should still keep their multi million dollar golden parachute packages on our dime. “A lot of them are very successful…have been responsible, are holding performing assets that have value”. If they have assets that have value, then they don’t need our help. If they don’t have performing assets then they should be made to at least partially clean up their own mess before digging into Joe Taxpayer’s pocket is even contemplated. It’s not MY damned fault that these idiots gave loans to people who couldn’t pay them and if I fail to pay my own electric bill or mortgage Uncle Sam isn’t going to give ME a handout.

But now, our countrymen have had enough. Things are, as they have always been. How do you get an American to care about what it’s government is doing? Sucker punch them in the wallet.

I first heard about the protests here:
Protesters Take Their Outrage to Wall Street | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet:

Enraged by the prospect of $700 billion of their taxes going to reimburse Wall Street speculators for their dubious investments, about 500 protesters paraded through Lower Manhattan’s financial district Thursday afternoon, their chants of “You broke it, you bought it” reverberating through the narrow office building canyons and off the flag-draped wall of the New York Stock Exchange.”I’m outraged,” said Linda Greco, a 40-ish Brooklyn woman. “People are losing their homes. There’s homeless people all over the city. The schools are falling apart. And they want to bail these pigs out? It’s about time the people of this country woke up and took this country back.”

Like many others, Greco learned about the protest from an e-mail tree that sprouted like kudzu on methamphetamine. “I must have gotten 10 to 20,” she said.

The demonstration originated with an e-mail sent out Monday afternoon by Arun Gupta, an editor at the leftist Indypendent. “They said providing health care for 9 million children, perhaps costing $6 billion a year, was too expensive, but there’s evidently no sum of money large enough that will sate the Wall Street pigs,” it read. “We need to act now while we can influence the debate. With Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, the money markets and now this omnibus bailout, well in excess of $1 trillion will be distributed from the poor, workers and middle class to the scum floating on top? Let the bondholders pay, let the banks pay, let those who brought the ‘toxic’ mortgage-backed securities pay!”

“It tapped into an enormous reservoir of anger,” Gupta told the crowd that gathered at the bull statue on Bowling Green. The e-mail inspired similar protests in almost 200 cities and towns, from Greensboro, N.C., to Henderson, Nev. Though phone calls and e-mails to Congress have been running nearly 1,000 to 1 against the bailout, he added, “it’s clear that the fix is in.”

Here’s there best part! The Wall Street billionaire types LAUGHED AT THEM:

Many Wall Street types greeted the protesters with contempt. “Just look at these people,” sneered one broker as the march neared the Stock Exchange. Another group held a “Get a Job” sign in an office window, and one man dropped a few dollar bills out of his. They fluttered down short of the marchers, landing in a construction site.

This is all a big joke apparently. I imagine it would be to someone with twenty million dollars in their bank account when the rest of us are barely able to scrape by each month. “Get back to your hovel proles! Shut up and give us your money!”

You want to talk about class warfare? We don’t have paid lobbyists up in Congress trying to get bills passed to favor us. We don’t have millions of dollars socked away in secret Swisse and Cayman accounts. We’re just the regular working joes who get crapped on in every corrupt regime. We had jobs, at least until greedy morons decided to ship them over seas so you could give themsevles CEO’s another diamond studded gold plated Caribbean island without figuring out if they’d actually earned it or not. This is the 21st century of ‘Let them eat cake!”. The fact that more people aren’t out on the street protesting is just an example of how effective their brainwashing has become.

Gothamist: Wall Street Protest Over Bailout Plan:

Aside from lawmaker protest over the government’s $700 billion bailout plan, there were a number of protests across the country over the bailout. Labor unions organized a protest on Wall Street yesterday. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said, “The Bush administration wants us to pay the freight for a Wall Street bailout that does not even begin to address the roots of our crisis. We want our tax dollars used to provide a hand up for the millions of working people who live on Main Street and not a handout to a privileged band of overpaid executives.”United Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten said, “We know that he economic situations has to be solved. But we want a a responsible rescue, not an opportunistic bailout.” And Reverend Jesse Jackson said afterward, “The homeowners need long-term, low interest rates and the restructuring of loans, not the repossession of homes.”

Bailout protesters plan day of action Thursday - Sep. 25, 2008:

“People all over the country are up in arms about this,” said David Elliot, a spokesman for grassroots advocacy group UsAction. “Our members are livid, and they’re hitting the streets.”TrueMajority.com, an online forum for activists, said its members had organized 251 events in more than 41 states to protest the bailout.

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | On Wall Street, Union Members Protest Corporate Bailout:

Near the New York Stock Exchange this afternoon, more than 1,000 union members and other activists rallied against giving Wall Street a blank check in a financial bailout that leaves Main Street taxpayers deserted.Speaking at the rally, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said:

Our nation is facing a real crisis and we should move swiftly, but we cannot afford to compound our problems with bailout legislation that is hasty at the expense of thoughtfulness and common sense.

We want our tax dollars to provide a hand up for the millions of working people who live on Main Street and not a handout to a privileged band of overpaid executives on Wall Street.

Even now, your representatives, are sitting in back rooms somewhere debating your future. Debating your children’s future and their children’s future. We’ve already lost almost a trillion dollars to the Iraq war. We’re about to lose another trillion dollars to keep the Rockefellers in caviar and Faberge. Yet we can’t provide health care for our children, our bridges are falling down, and we are still vulnerable to hurricanes and floods and terrorist attacks but what gets our representatives up in arms to the point where McCain has to ’suspend’ his campaign despite the fact that he hasn’t voted on anything since April isn’t any of these things. What gets them motivated is that Edward S. Lampert ( who made $1.02 billion in 2004) has to buy one less Lamborghini this year. Oh my, the scandal!

My fellow Americans, if you did not stand up against torture or kidnapping or war or the gutting of the Constitution then ask yourself when will you stand up? What line is too much for them to cross? Do the jackbooted thugs of Wall Street employ need to actually be standing on your throat before you bother to defend yourself? This is no different than if some guy in a ski mask pulled you into an alley, put a knife to your throat and demanded your wallet. At least in that case you can go to the police. These guys will make sure that this robbery is all perfectly legal because they have the capitol and enough of Congress in their pockets.

If you did not stand up before then now is the time, people. Now is the time to take the advice of the late Molly Ivins:

“We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war…We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, ‘Stop it, now!’”

Call your representatives and tear them a new one. Get out there on bridges and highways and protest. Contact your local radio station. Drop by your Congressman’s office and give their staff an earfull. Call up CSPAN. Write your newspaper editor. Blog post this everywhere you can think of. If you do not choose to stand then you choose to kneel. Our founding fathers and mothers would have not tolerated this and neither should you.

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 09:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rocky Mountain News:

Planned Parenthood is suddenly a lot richer because of Sarah Palin.

And the Republican vice presidential nominee will soon be receiving tens of thousands of thank-you notes.

A three-week-old Internet campaign is asking abortion-rights activists to send donations to Planned Parenthood in honor of the Alaska governor.[..]

One e-mail making the rounds on the Internet says: “Instead of (actually, in addition to) all of us all sending more e-mails about how absolutely horrible she is, let’s all make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin’s name.”

Katie Groke Ellis, field manager for the Planned Parenthood of the Rockies Action Fund, predicts that the five-state chapter of the group alone could draw $100,000 in donations.[..]

Planned Parenthood sends a handwritten thank-you card to the donor. If a donation is made in someone’s name, he or she gets one, too.

In this case, the Palin cards will go to Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s national headquarters.

Never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for Sarah Palin!

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

reposted from All Spin Zone
By Walter Brasch

It was Monday evening and the phone rang—again. It was probably the fifth time in two hours. A pleasant voice said she was from the—oh that really doesn’t make any difference. Both presidential candidates have volunteer minions on the phones and Internet day after day, month after month, for what seems like years.

A half-dozen or more e-mails a day from candidates, surrogates, and candidate support groups flood our in-boxes; letters and oversized postcards clog our mail boxes. They all give us information, or ask us to fill out a poll that has no value, and then beg for donations, every plea making it seem as if the fate of western civilization will be determined by our bank withdrawal slips. In August alone, the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama spent about $3 million a day, according to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). By the end of this presidential campaign, each presidential candidate will have spent more than $500 million; by the end of August alone, more than $380 million has been spent on House races, more than $200 million on Senate races, according to the FEC.

But, here’s some other numbers. About 9.4 million Americans are unemployed, up 2.2 million from last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation’s history. For those with jobs, effective buying power has decreased, as inflation has taken any pay increases. The cost of consumer goods is up almost 6 percent from a year ago, the sharpest increase since 1991, according to the Department of Labor. The value of worker paychecks, adjusted for inflation, is down about 3.1 percent over the past year, also one of the sharpest declines since the early 1990s. About 2 percent of all mortgaged homes are now in foreclosure; owners of about 3.6 million homes are now significantly past due with their payments, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. To try to keep their houses and to pay routine bills, millions of Americans have withdrawn funds from their retirement accounts, reluctantly paying taxes and penalties in order just to keep from falling further in debt. The value of home prices has declined by about 7 percent nationally and there has been almost an 8 percent decline in the number of building permits, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Forty million Americans, one-third of them children, are living in poverty. About 46 million Americans don’t have health insurance. About 800,000 Americans, at least 150,000 of them veterans, are homeless, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

For more than a year, with the Bush–Cheney Administration in denial, the nation has been in a Recession.

During the past month, the bottom has fallen out of our nation’s financial system. At least another $700 billion is now needed, according to President Bush, to shore up the financial moguls. Once again, taxpayers are being asked to save multi-million corporations and their million dollar executives from the foreclosure and unemployment the rest of us face. Any help to individuals is just an after-thought by politicians in an election year. There aren’t any contribution drives, any government programs that target those who have lost their homes, their jobs, and their self-worth and self-respect. Humanity is not a campaign issue for either party.

It is callous and shallow for both the Obama and McCain campaigns to be begging for money while Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and dozens of mega-financial institutions, by their own incompetence and greed, assisted by the government’s “asleep-at-the-switch” deregulation, brought the nation into the greatest financial freefall it ever experienced since the Great Depression of 1929.

John McCain’s actions this week speak volumes about the problem. In an attempt to convince Americans he cares about the economy, he tried unsuccessfully to pre-empt the Obama campaign. He “suspended” his own campaign, said he would not accept campaign contributions, and would not be available for the nationally-televised debate until an agreement was reached. But, it was McCain who led Senate Republicans to deregulate numerous industries. Even if McCain takes no money for a few days, he willingly accepted $84 million in public funds; Obama is taking no public funds. Obama says he intends to be in Oxford, Miss., for the debate because “this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who . . . will be responsible for dealing with this mess.” Besides, says Obama, “it’s going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.” There may be another reason why McCain wanted to delay the debates. Bob Schieffer, CBS-TV’s most experienced political reporter and analyst, says he has strong information that delaying the first presidential debate would also delay the first vice-presidential debate the following week, and that the McCain camp may not believe Sarah Palin is ready for a debate on foreign policy issues.

We have almost no voice in the bailout, but we do have one option. Jesse Unruh (1922–1987), speaker of the California Assembly for eight years, said that “money is the mother’s milk of politics.” We can stop producing milk. We’re going to tell whoever calls or e-mails us, begging for money for their grand and glorious campaign for the presidency, that calling for even more money for election costs is truly un-American when the average person is going to be expected to pay for this debacle caused by a lax Administration and ineffective Congress.

We know who the candidates are, and what their positions are. The cost-per-vote in October for each candidate will be mega times the cost of just three months ago. If Sens. McCain and Obama are in touch with the average American as their campaign ads claim, they would realize that many of us don’t have an extra $25 to throw into a pool of money that will be used to send even more campaign ads at us. Those of us who vigorously support our candidate and do have a few extra campaign dollars also know that the government bailout, no matter how many “protections” are built into it, will probably take care of whatever extra we have. If someone wearing a flag pin and campaign buttons comes around with her hand out, give her your heating bill.

If ever we need to be united, it’s now. Make the phone banks and e-mail serve the average American. Protest the candidates’ unending calls for more and more money from a public which has less and less. Refuse to support companies or organizations whose political action committees have already spent more than $2.5 billion this election cycle in lobbying expenses. And let all candidates know that the next time to contribute to any campaign will be when government, no matter who is in charge, makes the lower- and middle-class individual its priority before corporations and the wealthy.

[Walter Brasch’s latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush, available through amazon.com, bn.com, and other stores. You may contact Rosemary or Walter Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu, or through www.walterbrasch.com]

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 07:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

comment posted by Kyle:

So this is another interesting one here.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/

Looks like McSame has been taking his job seriously!

Okay, McSame is running for the head job, but he still is missing 20% more than Obama.

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From Jon Soltz at Huffington Post:

So, because there's a financial crisis, Senator McCain cannot take 90 minutes to address how he will face challenges around the world, including how and when he will send American troops to fight, and possibly die.

Wow. Troops would sure love that luxury.

Unfortunately, though, insurgents in Iraq don't stop shooting at us, or setting IEDs, because our Commander in Chief needs a breather to figure out Wall Street.

Al Qaeda in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region don't send our troops notes that read, "Hey, I hear you guys are tied up with Wall Street. Your President needs to concentrate on other things, so we'll give you a break. So, to make things easier on you, here's our coordinates."

Nor do our troops get a few days to figure out how to hold onto an area we've secured, if there's an unexpected attack. Sometimes we need to deal with multiple flare-ups at once in any warzone. We'd sure love a time-out, but sadly, the world isn't such a nice place that it gives us that kind of pity.

When you're Commander in Chief, I don't think there'd be a worse signal to send to our troops in harm's way than to say, "Hey, hold on guys. I know you're getting killed over there, but I have to get a time-out here to deal with Wall Street."

If troops need to multi-task without a break, is it so wrong that we demand that a potential President-in-waiting prove that he can manage a financial crisis, and still address crises around the world for 90 minutes? And, if a potential President-to-be can't manage that, is it wrong to think that maybe he ought not just suspend a debate and the campaign, but move aside and get out of the race?

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Out of 523 economists fromthe U.S. and members of the American Economist Association.... interesting!!

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reports are coming out from all over the U.S. on other divices we should credit to John McCain - please go here for a complete list.

Some of my favorites are:

the cotton gin

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

hot pockets

and wooden teeth

PLEASE REMEMBER TO REGISTER TO VOTE: www.voteforchange.com

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "No, really... I mean it!" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Continue reading "Dollars and Sense, another look" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

'Sarah Palin Feminism'? More Like Sarah Palin Sexism
By Sarah Seltzer, RH Reality Check
Posted on September 15, 2008, Printed on September 15, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/98651/

Have you heard the news? After years of mocking us, the right wing has discovered "feminism!" Well, sort of. In their Rovian factories of deceit, they've minted a new kind of feminism that shoves those of us who have actually been working for women's rights out of the picture (we're in the dreaded community organizers demographic). They've taken the proverbial F-word, the term we love, fight over, continually redefine, and work ourselves to the bone for, and re- appropriated it into: "Sarah Palin feminism."

"Sarah Palin feminism" means something very different.

Actual feminism means fighting against genuinely sexist slurs, some of which have been used against Palin, like the "VPIL..." meme, the "can a mother be a politician?" question and the sexist action dolls. These are genuine, if surface-skimming, instances of sexism, because reducing a woman to her body, or her motherhood, make her less than a full person. And the attitude behind the dolls and the bikini photos is connected to anti-women policies that don't just make us feel bad, but curtail our freedoms.

We've heard lots of complaints against this actual sexism from real feminist quarters, and not much from the right wing. On the other hand, what they have complained about loud and clear are the attacks on Palin's qualifications. "Sarah Palin feminists" claim to believe that the media's aggressive questioning of her record as Mayor of Wasilla and Governor of Alaska is sexist. Nothing sums this up more clearly than Jon Stewart's montage of conservative figureheads scoffing at claims of sexism from the Clinton camp, and then turning a 180 to cry "sexist!" once Palin arrived in their corner.

Unfortunately, while feminists believe in voting for a candidate based on what he or she will do for women, "Sarah Palin Feminists" also believe that female voters will flock to Palin merely because she is a woman. The callous reasoning behind the Palin pick was partly the idea that women voters will say "You have a uterus? I have a uterus! Let's get together!"

Now it seems their calculation may have had some success. One widely-seized-upon poll seems to show a gargantuan shift in female support to Palin from Obama, voters in the much-coveted "white women" demographic. (The Obama campaign disputes this polling.) Chris Matthews is titillated beyond belief because the "regular folks" (aka white folks) are back in play.

One month ago, a different poll conducted on behalf of the National Women's Law Center showed that "women are significantly more pessimistic than men in their attitudes about the status quo in America, both on a societal level and in terms of their own lives." On issues like health care, reproductive rights, and the economy, women in this poll would seem like the prime Obama demographic: hungry for change, eager for a just government to help level an unfair playing field. Have women been so wooed by the Palin hype -- or offended by the Palin controversies -- that they're moving against their self interest?

We don't know which poll has better predictive value. But as the election draws near, we must take feminism back. We have to shake off distractions like the nothing-doing story that is Barack Obama using the "pig with lipstick" colloquialism. That's not sexism. Making rape victims pay for their own rape kits is sexism. Calling a candidate out on lies is not sexism. Abstinence-only education is sexism.

And reproductive rights are not just a feminist pet issue, but rather a genuine threat to the autonomy and health of all American women. The NWLC's press release reminded us of the following statistics:

One in four girls drops out of high school. More than 14 million women live in poverty, and more than 17 million women have no health insurance. Women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.

These kinds of statistics may not reveal the most glamorous aspects of the feminist agenda, like fighting cleavage-gate, but most self-described feminists (including this pop-culture columnist) agree that issues like poverty and health care are what underlie our movement. We fight against attacks on women's bodies on TV and on the street, we fight for women's rights in presidential debates and in shelters, because they're connected. We can't follow the "Sarah Palin feminists'" lead, and focus on the spin of sexism without remembering the substance, on the ground, in our lives.

Are women so excited by Palin's presence that we don't remember the laissez-faire at best and hostile at worst approach a far right agenda would include when it comes to our rights? Can we forget the women who will lose their bodily integrity, maybe die, if women's reproductive rights are lost?

The right wing is trying to redefine racism (which has genuinely been present in the anti-Obama attacks and largely ignored) as something a black preacher said, and sexism as attacks on political record of a right-wing woman. It's classic Orwellian double-speak from the folks who brought you "compassionate conservatism," "time horizons," "No Child Left Behind" and yes, "Pro-Life." We have to fight back now, and hard, to keep in mind what sexism truly is, and where it hits the hardest.

Sarah Seltzer is an RH Reality Check staff writer and resident pop culture expert. Sarah is a freelance writer based in New York City. Her work has been published in Bitch, Venus Zine, Womens eNews, and Publishers Weekly among other places. She formerly taught English in a Bronx public school.

© 2008 RH Reality Check All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/98651/

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Continue reading "Dollars and Sense" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "I'm so over Palin" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 08:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

reposted from www.democrats.com:
Submitted by Bob Fertik on September 10, 2008

It may be two months until Election Day, but the Presidential campaign ended today. Why? Because the McCain campaign decided shameless serial lying was perfectly ok. So from now on, we will hear nothing but shameless serial lies from the McCain campaign.

There is no point in paying attention to the news. Just decide your most important reason for election Barack Obama and defeating John McCain, and devote your efforts to persuading everyone you know to vote with you.

As usual, Hunter says it best:

is this really what we had devolved to? That, quote, "these little facts" are secondary, in elections, and there's not a dam thing we can do about it? Candidates for teh presidency can silmpy lie through their teeth, and it is a good thing, because the ability to affect the narrative via a repeated lie is much more useful than any possible blowback for telling that lie?

Then what do we have elections for? If I can simply stand up and say "so-and-so's tax policy will cost you all one million dollars each," when it wont' or "so-and-so is a supporter of infanticide," when he isn't, or "so-andso wants to show your children dirty pictures," when it's not true, or "I was against this bad thing" when we've got freakin' film of you supporting it -- what's the point? It is impossible to have a democracy without informed voters, and it is impossible to have informed voters when you are going out of your way to lie to them.

I said it yesterday, and I'll say it again. Crooks. That's the only word for it. There's no noble or higer purpose here, there's nothing admirable about it, not even in the most brutal, Machiavellian sense. They're liars. They're crooks. It is taken as a Republican given that anything that can gain power is justifiable, regardless of how loathsome it is or how depraved the fabrication.

If we welcom open, direct lies into our political discourse, it's not political discourse anymore -- just the oratorical equivalent of an organized crime ring. McCain knows he can lie through his teeth and almost nobody will truly call him out on it -- at least, not compared to all the people who will hear the lie. That's been the strategy for every election involving the old Nixonites, from then until now, and there's no chance it's going to go away until there is a price to be paid for being a nationally televised liar. So when's that going to be?

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Continue reading "On the 7th Anniversary" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 05:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Continue reading "Rock The Vote" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

check out this video Posted by Meagan Dixon at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is being reported all over - Fox News' (which is a VERY liberal use of the word) has once again covered an almost laughable story during their broadcast.

"...the flame throwers at Fox News added their own bit of fearmongering accelerant when on yesterday's Fox & Friends broadcast, they discussed an FBI memo stating interest of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization in setting these sorts of massively destructive wild fires like those playing out in California."

To see actual coverage of this story, download the clip here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Download/22774/1/Countdown-Maddow-Fear.wmv

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is being reported all over - Fox News' (which is a VERY liberal use of the word) has once again covered an almost laughable story during their broadcast.

"...the flame throwers at Fox News added their own bit of fearmongering accelerant when on yesterday's Fox & Friends broadcast, they discussed an FBI memo stating interest of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization in setting these sorts of massively destructive wild fires like those playing out in California."

To see actual coverage of this story, download the clip here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Download/22774/1/Countdown-Maddow-Fear.wmv

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are a number of blogs I like to visit on a semi-weekly basis, to check up on the goings on of other people's worlds, to catch up on polotics, or just to get a good laugh. One of my favorites is Comments from Left Field, a brilliant liberal political blog. Today, they quoted a book, and although I have not yet read this book, I found the quote to be very interesting, and thought reposting it here would be appropriate.

Continue reading "You say tomato, and I say tomahto - let's call the whole thing off!" »

Posted by Meagan Dixon at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)