What the "do nothing" Obama is up against - from the left and right

"How's it feel to receive my friend?  And I do mean that.  I do talk to my friends like this.  And they aprreciate it."

What do your friends say when your curfew is up?

Sleep well.

I agree, RP.  The wealthy of both parties in the United States are essentially at fault, because a more egalitarian society would ensure that the bastards could not get away with it...and there would be far more people reading with understanding.  In fact, the media themselves could not get away with their misinformation in the name of their owners. 

My parents didn't have a pot to pee in, but public schooling in Victorian England had left them with the message that the only way out was by being informed.  They got the hell out of a class-ridden society in 1921 and starved through the 30s and raised four boys who were given the means to  find out what made their world tick.  I will always be class conscious. But after many years of knocking on many doors I have come to the conclusion that ignorance is the greatest barrier to the kind of structural change we need to head off disaster.  So I get very frustrated, afraid for my family, and really determined not to be hoodwinked or bullied. 

When things get desperate enough out there, environmentally and socially, I just hope that enough people have read about the misfortunes of those in the past who let fascism take control.  Victor Klemperer's diaries are a must read.  But there I go, proletizing again. Sorry, but that's what I believe will save my family.  And that is what I will put forward.

The majority of academics have the same effect on me, RP.   Ever since reading Robert Lynd's Knowledge for What? and coming to the realization that Homo Sapiens is screwing it all up for its descendants, that question is my template for thought and action. 

This old fart has to get his beauty sleep now. Running down like a clock. 

Take care.

I'd be pretty embarrased to associate with this opinion sheet DW...particularly its attached petition ...which opposes a very progressive attempt to halt attacks on the union movement:

Constituent's Petition to:
My Representative & U.S. Senators
I am writing to encourage you to oppose the draconian policies being pushed by Big Labor. These union bosses are seeking to subject workers to intimidation and strip them of their rights, all in an effort to increase their own power and influence.

It is vital that you oppose all legislation that strips workers of their rights, or expands the oppressive power of Big Labor.

Whereas: The overwhelming majority of Americans believe it is just plain wrong to force workers to pay union dues; and

Whereas: The Card Check Forced Unionism Bill would do away with the secret ballot election and allow the union bosses to intimidate one-on-one a majority of workers into signing so-called "union authorization cards"; and

Whereas: The Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill would force all police officers and firefighters under union boss control and is just the first step towards forcing all public employees under Big Labor's thumb; and

Whereas: Legislation repealing Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act would automatically wipe out all state Right to Work laws, forcing hundreds of thousands of American workers to join and pay dues to a union just to get or keep a job;

Therefore: In the interests of freedom, a healthy economy, and a productive job market, I urge you to oppose any effort to advance Big Labor's forced-unionism agenda.

It would seem that the GOP is taking a page from Steve's book of strategy on how to reduce the information going to the electorate...the better to manage them.

From today's NYTimes:

August 19, 2010

Census Survey Asks Too Much, G.O.P. Says

By SAM ROBERTS

"The Republican National Committee is demanding that the Census Bureau stop being so nosy, or at least stop requiring that Americans comply.

The Republican Party isn't taking on the census itself, the count of the United States population made every 10 years, but the more comprehensive American Community Survey.

Conducted annually by the bureau, the survey replaced the long version of the census form. It is sent to millions of American homes to collect information on income, education, mortgage debt, marital status, race, religion and more. Burton Reist, a bureau official, said Thursday that it is the nation's "official statistical portrait," used by governments to allocate resources, by businesses to make labor force and investment decisions, and in the distribution of federal money.

Privacy concerns about the 2010 census never grew into a boycott. (In fact, about the same proportion of people returned their forms as in past years.) But the Republican National Committee resolved this month that the Census Bureau behaves "exactly as a scam artist would, asking very personal questions," and called the survey "a dangerous invasion of privacy," and "overreaching and intimidating." The committee said the Census Bureau was "spending millions of tax dollars to violate the rights and invade the personal privacy of United States citizens."

The resolution invokes the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and notes that the Constitution mandates a count only every 10 years - to reapportion seats in the House of Representatives. The party is demanding that the bureau either scrap the American Community Survey or make participation voluntary.

The resolution endorses legislation introduced by Representative Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, to require the bureau to stick to the basics: name, contact information, date and the number of people living at an address. A spokesman for Mr. Poe said on Thursday that the bill had attracted 34 co-sponsors.

The committee's resolution says that the census's long form was eliminated because of "objections by the American people to this intrusive questioning." In fact, it was replaced with the American Community Survey to simplify the census and collect data in a more timely manner.

The bureau says the questions are required by Congress to manage or evaluate government programs. Income information, for example, is used by, among others, Social Security, the National School Lunch Program and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, and by the Department of Education to allocate grants.

To the resolution's complaint that the survey asks "even if the respondent has given birth to any children in the past year," the bureau explains that the question is "a measure of fertility that is used to project the future size of the population, a basic planning tool for agencies of the government," and to research child welfare and the need for voluntary family planning services."

The observations of an Africal-American NYTimes columnist today:

August 20, 2010

Oy Vey, Obama

By CHARLES M. BLOW

"Is President Obama good for the Jews? For more and more Jewish-Americans, the answer is no.

In a Pew Research Center report issued on Thursday and entitled "Growing Number of Americans Say Obama Is a Muslim" (tragic in its own right), there was another bit of bad news for Obama: the number of Jews who identify as Republican or as independents who lean Republican has increased by more than half since the year he was elected. At 33 percent it now stands at the highest level since the data have been kept. In 2008, the ratio of Democratic Jews to Republican Jews was far more than three to one. Now it's less than two to one.

This is no doubt a reaction, at least in part, to the Obama administration having taken a hard rhetorical stance with Israel, while taking "special time and care on our relationship with the Muslim world," as Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, put it in June. If that sounds like courtship, it is.

(It should be noted that the Pew poll was taken before Obama's bold support for the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque a few blocks north of ground zero.)

Some of the president's most ardent critics and some of Israel's staunchest American defenders - two groups that are by no means mutually exclusive - have seized on what they see as the administration's unfair and unbalanced treatment of Israel and have taken their denunciations to the extremes.

In September 2009, Obama went before the United Nations and declared, "America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." It was a line that the president had used a few months earlier in a speech in Cairo, but this time it threw critics into a tizzy. John Bolton, an ambassador to the United Nations during George W. Bush's administration, responded: "This is the most radical anti-Israel speech I can recall any president making."

In March, while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting, Israel announced it would move ahead with plans to build housing in East Jerusalem. The administration was not amused. Biden condemned the decision as undermining "the trust that we need right now" in order to have profitable negotiations.

In other words, "You announce this now? You can't be serious!"

In April, after President Obama urged Israel to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Representative Eric Cantor, the House minority whip and the lone Jewish Republican in the chamber, lashed out: "The administration's troubling policy of manufacturing fights with Israel to ingratiate itself with some in the Arab world is no way to advance the cause of Mideast peace."

And, the Gaza flotilla incident in May that left nine people dead and drew international condemnation of Israeli tactics only added to the tensions."

Yeah, that's how the teapartyers read it too. They too need a simplified explnation for life.  But how could he be so evil as to say he's trying to help keep a roof over their heads when he knows that the yardsticks of lenders still rule ( :(   Cheer up old sock, Jed Bush will fix things...for us all.

quote: "If Obama's as good as his fans claim, he should be clobbering the Republicans like Mickey Mantle would a pack of Little Leaguers.

Here's his opposition:"

Now I understand al-Q. You have understood Americans to be an enlightened electorate, demanding news from sources that are not slanted...where you can distinguish news from editorial. Just read the posts preceding this one, starting from the top. Everyone else is wondering how they can be that dumb. But thenthey show us why. Do some catchup.

Clearly Sarah is beginning to wear, but her fans don't read.