Occupy Right Message First

More and more I keep hearing people point out the obvious about the Occupy Movement: It is flailing in the wind due to an absolute  lack of a clear, concise, powerful message. Secondly, and possibly worse than that, is how they all too often engage in embarrassing, inappropriate, doper-like behavior. Instead of a consistently focused ALL AMERICAN platform, they resort to rambling ‘hippie-style’ ANTI-American “tantrums” that distract and work against them in garnering public appeal/support.

Occupy’s clear message needs to be RED,WHITE and BLUE. Simply: Return to RESPONSIBLE CAPITALISM, not CORRUPT “CORPORATISM”…Put another way, “Return American ETHICS to Business” (By the way, it is very important to remember that was also a big specific part of Dr. Martin Luther King’s message about which he often wrote and spoke.)

What is ‘responsible capitalism’ and ‘American ethics in business’?…It simply means first and foremost, an AMERICAN corporation has a red, white and blue responsibility to America, specifically AMERICAN WORKERS. Now think about that for a second.  Instead, what have corporations done? They routinely have done the opposite!  They have operated with a LACK of such ethical, patriotic responsibility, only caring for profits, NOT American workers. And on top of that, they have routinely and with absolute corrupt impunity gone to extravagant lengths to avoid paying American taxes by going ‘offshore’, or building headquarters and/or factories in another country where they don’t have to pay as much. It’s a corporate ‘loophole’ at America’s expense.

These kinds of un-American, corrupt business practices are THE CORE REASON why the Occupy movement formed. Occasionally you’ll hear them complain of ‘corporate greed’, but more often than not they ramble off to reporters on distracting, inappropriate sidetrack issues that are too scattered, and don’t maintain the needed tight focus and ‘magnifying glass’ on what is a very dire problem in our country. The good news for Occupy though: It’s so bad, it doesn’t necessarily require a magnifying glass to clearly recognize it’s catastrophic consequences for average Americans.

We are losing access to the American dream…and that is BECAUSE of a chronic lack of ethics in business practices, supported by bought off politicians. It is becoming ‘We the Corporations’, not ‘We the People’ as our forefathers intended in their embracing of free enterprise and Capitalism.

Probably the biggest mistake The Occupy movement has made is tolerating too many of their members who promote ANTI-capitalism rhetoric. That is going to get them nowhere fast.  Capitalism is not the problem in America. In it’s appropriate form, it is what has made America the world’s leader and top innovator. Corrupt unregulated capitalism is the problem. Freedom WITHOUT responsibility is what? It equals Anarchy and Corruption. America is supposed to be about freedom WITH responsibility: “With LIBERTY and JUSTICE for all”

But the current corrupt un-American practices of most corporations as I’ve mentioned above has created an ‘injustice for all’…especially for American workers. They have been systematically and intentionally kicked out of their manufacturing jobs by the tens of millions, while corporate executives have sought to give those valued American jobs to sweatshop foreign workers in other countries. What was the corporations’ motivation? It obviously was NOT patriotism, and therein lies the problem we need to expose and correct as true patriots. They were motivated by unbridled greed for higher profits at the EXPENSE of Americans.

This is at the root of what is horribly wrong in our country for the 99%. And it is this message Occupy needs to be pounding day and night. Capitalism without proper regulation?… Well that’s like deciding to let a lion out of his cage at the zoo, if he’ll just agree to be a vegetarian.  You better get right with God, because he’s going to eat you! Needless to say that’s why zoos have zookeepers. Corporations and the politicians lured by their ‘contributions’ require zookeepers! They must be kept on a leash, with REASONABLE, not COMMUNIST regulations that prevent the un-American corrupt profiteering practices that have become the name of the game on Wall Street.

The immoral, lack of American business ethics has itself become in many ways just as bad as communism in its threat to our future as a free country. Drum circles, marijuana and Marxist calls for communism are not only ineffective and irresponsible…They are counter -productive to what is necessary to lead the revolution American workers and the 99% desperately need, if we are to have a prayer of saving the American Dream.

NPR Hiding From Truth: Growing Fear of Muslims Worldwide

The Sacramento Bee’s Oct. 26th, 2010 Oped by former KFBK talk radio host Bruce Maiman widely misses the mark. He tells us all not to “shed any tears” regarding the recent firing of longtime news analyst Juan Williams by NPR. I don’t know if any tears including Mr. Williams’  were actually shed, but as a Liberal-to-Moderate Democrat, I do know there is no question this was a severely wrongful termination. It was a classic case of neo-leftwing, knee-jerk histrionics, and it is a quintessential example of what has been wrong with the far ‘liberal left’ for a long time.  First I’d like to look at the misguided reasoning of Bruce Maiman’s assertion that Juan Williams got what he deserved. He writes that it is widely known that Juan Williams had been cautioned more than once on prior occasions regarding NPR management’s dissatisfaction with other statements he had made as a part time analyst for FOX News network. But Maiman doesn’t give us any clue or example of the content of those statements that were ‘in question’ by NPR management. On the contrary, he actually admits that Juan Williams should not have been fired on the face of these recent comments. The nature of Mr. Williams’ comments is the most relevant aspect of this entire matter, and would also be if NPR had warned him to ‘toe the ideological line’ as it were, in the past.If it was for similar honesty, there is even more cause for concern.

But giving us no idea of those important details, Maiman boldly tries to assert that Juan Williams got what he deserved. Really? Termination is what American broadcast employees deserve for speaking honestly about critical topics? Further, Bruce tries to assert that any talk host who gets fired for statements he or she makes simply deserves it due to having obviously made the wrong waves with management in the past. That also is painting with a suspiciously large brush. One should be very careful as an American, making such a ‘leaping assumption’ on behalf of executives who contrary to the CRAVING of the listening or viewing audience, often do not support honesty and candid truth from talk personalities. They diligently seek to censor them in the interest of company or party ideology at all cost and at all times, and the listener or viewer is the loser as a result. What really makes me suspect Maiman’s effort to defend NPR is that not too long ago I heard him conducting an interview on Sacramento’s local NPR station. Since Bruce’s show came to an end on KFBK, the appearance was that he has made some inroads with NPR to at least occasionally work on the air with them. That could explain his very lame editorial effort to excuse NPR’s actions, which have led to an extreme amount of BI-PARTISAN outrage – something that is truly amazing in our current politically divided climate. Let’s review again exactly what happened for a moment:

While being interviewed by FOX host Bill O’Reilly, NPR (and FOX -yes he amazingly worked for BOTH) “News Analyst” Juan WIlliams admitted that since the 9/11 attacks, if he sees Muslims aboard an airline flight in full Islamic attire, he can’t help but feel a little nervous. NPR (National Public Radio) responded to his honest candor by terminating him.  In an official statement to the press, President and CEO of NPR Vivian Schiller said “We expect anybody that appears on our air, either as a journalist or as a news analyst, to conduct themselves according to our journalistic rules of ethics — wherever they might be, in any form and in any venue.” Prior to this statement, NPR’s Vice President had officially stated that they expect their ‘news analysts’ not to say anything in any other venue that they wouldn’t say on the air on NPR.Translation: “You know what we want to hear come out of your mouth…deviate from that even if it IS the truth at your peril”.

Here is exactly what Juan Williams said to Bill O’Reilly as a guest on “The Factor”:”Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot, You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”He continued, “Now, I remember also that, when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week, he said the war with Muslims — America’s war — is just beginning. The first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts…But I think there are people who want to somehow remind us all — as President Bush did after 9/11 — it’s not a war against Islam.”

It is beyond SHAMEFUL that NPR fired Juan Williams for this brave honesty. It is an effort to ‘punish the truth’ when the truth, no matter how painful or difficult it might be to hear, is what we need to hear the most right now! It is impossible to separate the Islamic fundamentalist impetus – driving force -behind the still growing major terrorism threat we continue to face in the U.S. and across the globe since the 9/11 attacks.The reason we desperately need to hear this kind of painful truth from respected news ‘analysts’, ‘commentators’, ‘journalists’, ‘talk ‘personalities’, etc., is because we need respected Muslims to start coming out of the shadows in an effective way, and do a hell of  a lot better job at mitigating this fear. In a clearly universally perceived ABSENCE of that, it is precisely due to Muslims leaders’ relatively lackluster attempts to do so that we have unfortunately seen “Islam-aphobia” growing worldwide.

It was in the news recently that top leaders in Germany have officially declared that their country’s belief in pursuing “cultural diversity” was a mistake and has been a huge  failure. Sadly these comments were made completely in the context of a widespread, growing German citizen distrust of their increasing population of Muslim residents that often don’t adopt the German culture.

IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS WAY, so why is it this way?Because, this subject is mistakingly being avoided like the plague, as though to admit we have this fear of Muslim fundamentalists due to so many recent CONNECTED acts of terror, is tantamount to sounding like a member of the former Nazi “Third Reich” or the American racist “Ku Klux Klan”.  Even Bruce Maiman in his Oped makes the mistake of referring to the fear or nervousness Juan Williams was admitting to as being ‘racist’ in context. It most certainly is not race based – It is ‘extreme religion based’, and that is a very important distinction regarding Mr. Williams’ candor. What he was saying clearly was in that context – that when he sees individuals on a plane ‘decked out’ in full “Islamic garb” as he put it -( Muslim attire would have possibly been a better choice of words) he can’t help but feel a bit nervous. He isn’t nervous at their ‘race’ or ‘ethnicity’, he’s nervous due to their heavy ‘religious’ identification as very devout Muslims. So the “nervous feeling” comes from the question that then begs to be asked: “Just HOW Devout??”

I personally had to chuckle when a day after WIlliams was fired, I heard a Muslim caller to a local talk radio show in Sacramento state that even she can’t stop herself from feeling a bit nervous when she sees Muslims on her airline flight wearing full Islamic attire…and she herself is Muslim. That’s honesty…and if I was Muslim, wearing my Calvin Klein jeans and RayBan sunglasses, flirting with the cute male steward bringing me my cocktail, I would feel a little nervous too! But I’d get over it, and everything would most likely be just fine. But, the painful truth is, there have been notable times when everything was not just fine. Race in those cases was not the prime issue. The prime issue that plays into growing “Islam-aphobia” is this religious factor: The perpetrators almost unanimously turn out to be devout “Muslim extremists”, more and more the possibility seems that they may not even be Arab by race (especially in the United States).

Part of my frustration at not finding another radio station to host my topic-driven talk show “TownTalk” since 2000, when the station in Florida where I hosted the program for 3 years was sold, is due to the incredibly UN-American cancer that has metastasized in almost all radio, television and even print media…Honest, straightforward, “REAL TALK” has become grossly undesirable, with the program directors, general managers and “suits” in the industry simply putting their  fingers up in the air, feeling which way the popular wind is blowing, and then choosing “broadcasters” and hosts who will always and only reflect the ideology of that network or radio station. It has been so painful for me to see the very sick, ‘right-wing’ takeover of AM radio in America, the result of which for millions of talk radio fans has been that you can’t find a truly Centrist, thought provoking and straight-shooting program anymore as you scan the dial. They seemingly all force their hosts to follow a strict script of talking points for any topic that arises.  And the same is true on the FM dial for Public Radio…NPR.What makes NPR even worse is that since they are partly government funded, that is where you’d LEAST expect such BIAS and anti-free speech to take root.

Bottom line: Of course we are NOT at war with Muslims, and Juan Williams went out of his way to make sure he included that point. But there is a huge PRIMARY CONNECTION between modern terrorism as we have sadly come to know it, and Islamic religious fundamentalism. So of course people all over the industrialized world who have felt its affects, are going to feel a little nervous at the site of those who are in another country’s culture, but choosing to wear full Muslim attire…especially on an airline flight.

Rather than ‘celebrating’ the firing of a respected analyst for trying to start a dialogue on this matter, progress in effectively fighting terrorism undeniably must include discussing the truth of this growing fear – Discussion with, and often hopefully led by, the majority of good Muslims.Let me repeat that last part…this painful conversation must be often LED BY and pursued by the overwhelming majority of good Muslims. Effectively fighting and ending religious terrorism from Islamic extremists will require a MUCH better PR blitz on their part to show the world that Islam is not waging “Jihad”, but on the contrary is working harder than anybody else around the clock to derail the small, misguided wacko extremists looking for their 72 virgins. The first step the Muslim community might consider taking in that vein would be to collectively call for Juan Williams’ reinstatement at NPR.

‘TEA PARTY’ HYPOCRISY

The current “Tea Party Movement” has been created mostly by disgruntled fringe Ultra-Conservatives, most of which are Republicans. Not surprisingly, they are responsible for a lot of inaccurate, hypocritical posturing, desperately trying to appear antithetical – totally opposed, to what Moderates and Liberals stand for.

Here’s an example of the hypocrisy in their rhetoric: Carly Fiorina, the Republican candidate running against Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, and the candidate most of the Tea Party Movement is supporting in that race for Senator in California,  is saying she is the candidate who will bring jobs back to California that were shipped overseas.  Even to Moderates and Liberals, that sounds GREAT, doesn’t it? But what you really need to know is Carly Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard who made the decision to OUTSOURCE thirty thousand – that’s right, 30 THOUSAND jobs overseas, taking away that many jobs from Americans. Now, when she wants the Tea Party’s and Conservatives’ support, she ‘acts’ like she’s red, white and blue…and by association, so does the Tea Party Movement. The truth is, the party that has mostly, if not exclusively, supported such extreme outsourcing to benefit corporations has been the Republican party. That is why Carly Fiorina felt totally comfortable at the time, engaging in such a JOB-KILLING measure for American workers at her company. She couldn’t be more of a hypocrite.

Another example is their constant mantra about demanding less government. The truth is, contrary to what they’d have you believe,  Moderates and Liberals understand and share that concern. We know we are going to have to start decreasing massive spending and reduce our national debt in the interest of National Security. BUT, we also know from very recent bad experience, (INCLUDING the last two decades of popular corporate outsourcing trends that have shipped MILLIONS of our jobs overseas by Conservative CEO’s), that just like it is critical to limit government to prevent its possible tyranny, we need Government to keep CORPORATIONS  from becoming too large and tyrannical – We need effective government watchdog regulation in order to protect the accessibility of the “American Dream” for the common man, in order to prevent another immoral repeat of the excessive corruption on Wall Street that almost destroyed our nation’s economy and almost sent us into another Great Depression. I’d like to repeat a paragraph I wrote in my “Walmart” post here on my blog:

We overlook the following truth at our peril as Americans: Super corporations can be much more tyrannical than government. Therefore it is not anti-capitalism to suggest they be limited or ‘regulated’. Such a necessary common sense economic policy is NOT ‘socialism’, but merely PROTECTING free enterprise for all, not just for the elite… and absolutely in the spirit and critical context of all of our anti-trust legislation. Don’t forget that the Constitution was all about empowering the individual to achieve wealth through free enterprise and unrestricted commerce…it was not about empowering monopoly factions in business, and it most certainly was not about encouraging UN-AMERICAN outsourcing of jobs overseas, as Carly Fiorina and many other “Fiscal Conservatives” have eagerly done, in their Un-American SELF INTERESTS.

President George W. Bush turned a blind eye to the corrupt credit derivative swap/mortgage fraud practices by Wall Street and the major banks, and then when the ‘excrement came in contact with the air circulation device’ (poop hit the fan) his administration, NOT OBAMA’S, presided over our nation’s largest act of CORPORATE WELFARE, bailing them all out to the tune of just shy of ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. That is the epitomy of hypocrisy. Yet Bush was twice elected as a respected Conservative in the Republican Party. It doesn’t get more corrupt than that, by an administration that champions what these socalled ‘Tea Partiers’ champion…that being “less government”. Even a blind person can see what their mantra of “less government” translates to as described above. Don’t forget that ‘Freedom’, even in business practices, requires moral responsibility. Asking Conservative corporations to ensure that on their own is like placing a lamb in a lion’s den at the Zoo and asking the lion to convert to being a vegetarian! Market forces unregulated by government have shown that they do not strive to make a profit “morally”, with proper respect and loyalty to their workers.

Give President Obama some time to implement the necessary changes we need in America – changes in the interest of the common man, not in the interest of super corporations and corrupt bank CEO’s. I can guarantee you this, President OBama would have been an active, welcome participant in the AUTHENTIC, original TEA PARTY during the birth of our great nation’s revolution. And I can also guarantee you that if Bush Junior was around then, and had engaged in the same kind of corruption as mentioned above, he’d have been tarred and feathered by the Tea Partiers as EXHIBIT A of the problem we were rebelling against. The truth of what it means to be a patriot is in the middle, not on the extreme fringes, one of which is reflected by not all, but a significant portion of those who self identify as present day Tea Party members.

Walmart and My Craigslist Singles Ad

By Connie Bryan 12/15/08

Capitalism: 200 Years Later

In a lecture entitled “The Constitution: 200 Years Later” given to Heritage Society members on Oct. 7, 1987, Heritage Society Trustee William E. Simon stated that freedom means responsibility. He said, “True freedom is not mere absence of restraint. True freedom is not a license to do as we please. The success of the Constitution, the success of America and the American Dream hinge directly on our willingness to couple freedom with a sense of moral responsibility…responsibility to our family, responsibility to our community, responsibility to our country.” I’d like to apply this to supporting Walmart/Home Depot and other large monopolistic big box corporate chains that need to be limited, just like it is critical to limit government to prevent its possible tyranny. We overlook the following truth at our peril as Americans: Super corporations can be much more tyrannical than government! Therefore it is not anti-capitalism to suggest they be limited or ‘regulated’. Such a necessary common sense economic policy is not ‘socialism’, but merely protecting free enterprise for all, and the spirit of all of our anti-trust legislation. Don’t forget that the Constitution was all about empowering the individual to achieve wealth through free enterprise and unrestricted commerce…it was not about empowering monopoly factions in business. A monopoly faction in business (i.e.Walmart) is just as dangerous to capitalism as state control of business. And right now the alarm bells are screaming in our communities that this fire must be put out. The American Dream that Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith championed is being destroyed by unconstitutiional monopolistic corporate big box chains that profit at the expense of free enterprise for the common man, at the expense of good paying jobs for the common man, by taking jobs away from hardworking Americans and outsourcing them to third world countries, avoiding taxes as well by moving their manufacturing operations off U.S. soil, and then being allowed to sell the cheap foreign made goods here without an appropriate tariff being levied against such unfair, not to mention grossly unpatriotic market practices. I recently posted a singles ad on Craigslist, and included in my criteria for a date someone who understands it is unAmerican to shop at Walmart. Take a look now at the CL ad, after which I’ve included some very unexpected nasty responses:

 “Hi, my name is Connie, looking to meet some new friends here in Sacramento. I’m a comedian, former radio personality from Florida, and currently a comedy traffic school instructor. I really enjoy the outdoors, riding bikes and especially playing tennis, poker and really good coffee! I don’t like the bar scene. I’m interested in making some Moderate to Liberal-minded (as in POLITICAL leaning) friends who lead a healthy, non-religious lifestyle, and possibly finding a relationship with the right person.
The things I’m definitely not looking for: Religious ‘bible-thumpers’, cigarette smokers, people who drink a lot or use illegal drugs, Rush Limbaugh/Bill O’Reilly fans, and anyone who shops at Walmart,Home Depot,etc…that is sooo unAmerican and destroying small business and true free enterprise in our communities, so much so that I have to list it as a pre-requisite with anyone I would date, lol. Now that I’ve probably ruled out most of the field, thanks for reading my post and if you are one of the few who actually can still respond, please send a pic as I’ve included mine here:)”

 

Some Angry Responses:

 

Quoting rick j <richardjacobson007@comcast.net>:

 

Question: Why is a 44 year old loser, comedy traffic, school   
instructor, missplaced secular Floridian bitch with a face like a   
lesbo-butch who hates God and Walmart trying to hook up on CL?

Answer:  TOO FUCKING POOR ( IN SO MANY WAYS) TO FIND ONE ON A PAY   
SITE LIKE MATCH.COM,ETC………..LOL

CONNIE BRYAN………….GET THE FUCK OUT OF DODGE AND  GO BACK   
WHERE YOU CAME FROM.

AND WHAT THE HELL YOU GOT AGAINST THE LIKES OF BILL O’REILLY OR RUSH 
  LIMBAUGH?  JEALOUS PERHAPS OF THEIR INTELLECT AND CAPACITY TO MAKE   
ONE-HUNDRED MILLION OR MORE YEARLY?

they make more squeezing off a loaf in the shitter than you will   
make strumming your banjo on the street corner in a fucking   
lifetime. ….lol??????

My response:

 

Hi, thanks for the response I guess, although it was unnecessarily 
adversarial and attacking. But I don’t mind responding anyway…I hope you will take the time to read this as I read your message…
Capitalism and free enterprise are things we need to preserve and 
protect. What Walmart, Home Depot and other big box chains are doing is destroying free enterprise for small and midsize and even large businesses(still small compared to Walmart).

This is in violation of the intent of antitrust legislation designed to protect entrepreneur Americans from giant monopolies who would destroy them. Just because you can ‘save a few bucks’ by shopping at your local Walmart, does not make up for the severe cost to your community businesses who need your support and charge a little more. The way that Walmart accomplishes this undercutting is due to the NAFTA outsourcing of manufacturing to China, and not paying their employees a fair wage or benefits, now the target of thousands of labor suits because of that fact. I’ll pay a little more to support local merchants. I don’t want to support NAFTA policies. They are extremely unAmerican.
Lastly, just like we need to keep government limited, America needs to realize in order to protect true free enterprise from becoming a 
dinosaur concept, we must also limit what i call monopolistic 
‘corporatism’, not unlike a lot of what has been going on with Wall 
Street, Enron, etc, and their fraudulent credit derivitive swaps and 
dishonest bookkeeping.
What I am proposing is a bi-partisan concern that has growing support from all the well known parties, not just one or two. Walmart is not what capitalism was intended to be, it is destroying what our founding fathers intended, for the individual to have opportunity to achieve the American Dream, and for fair market competition. If we don’t wake up to this problem, we will soon wake up to a day in America where there is no middle class, only the super rich and the very poor, where you and your kids have no opportunity to own your own business because you can’t compete with the maybe 10 or less huge corporations that own everything. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to work for those guys, do you? I want to have individual entrepreneur freedom, which is one of the HUGE reasons our forefathers revolted and created America, for that very freedom. That freedom is being destroyed because of Big Box NAFTA practice in the U.S.
Best Wishes,

Connie Bryan

Their response… 

Good answer!

I owe you one big apology. I am sorry.  Please forgive me.  I was taking out my pent up anger on some person on the internet who is totally innocent and not deserving of such animosity (misdirected) and frustration at the mess I see in so much of life these days.

You actually are not bad looking at all by the way.  You are just fine!

You raise good points. I don’t know where it all will end. I do shop there because it is close to me and the people there are very nice. They are all poor though I can tell. 

Best wishes,

rj

Quoting IBRCFLYIN1@aol.com:

 > You are without a doubt clueless.  You say you are for free enterprise  yet

> you want government to regulate “fairness”.  You don’t even 

> understand  that it

> was government who promoted and required this banking mess and the

> “fraudulent” credit derivative swaps to the benefit of their 

> partisan  cronies.  You

> believe government will do the right thing, I believe they  are 

> corrupt and the

> problem and cannot be trusted.  Have you ever heard of  a successful

> government program that came in under budget and on  time?

 

Connie:

I don’t disagree with you IBR, I know there has been government complicity in the corporate corruption, just saying that doesn’t excuse the corporations derivative schemes and monopoly business plans. This issue is very nuanced, wouldn’t you agree?

I’m simply trying to cut to the chase about the end result from people not realizing the cost to their community small businesses when they shop at Office Depot (they kill the print shops) Home Depot (They kill the hardware stores and smaller lumber suppliers, lawn mower shops, plant nurseries, etc, etc.) not to mention Walmart which is the worst and destroys almost all others. What you may have forgot that I said is that we are seeing something new that our forefathers did not foresee…with the rise of the big box chains and their monopoly tactics, we now see that to protect capitalism as it was meant for all of us to have opportunity, we need to not only limit government as our forefathers correctly stated, but also limit excess monopolistic corporations which I call ‘Corporatism’. It is destroying healthy capitalism.

But you are correct that government, both parties, have been equally to blame for greedily supporting NAFTA and outsourcing, which has taken a deadly toll on not only jobs, but also retail small business and service contractors. Clueless would be someone who doesn’t see that ‘free enterprise’ and the American Dream is being destroyed by ‘free trade’ without some protectionism, antitrust violations and monopoly corporations who are more and more very unAmerican in every way, including where they move their factories and how many jobs they destroy, replacing them with 7 dollar an hour door greeter positions.

Connie Bryan

 

 

 

 

 

Why Do You Support Walmart?

Here’s a question I’ve been pondering of late…

 

Don’t we as American citizens have a ‘civil right’ to be protected against the insecurities of an unregulated, monopolized market…i.e. NAFTA, Walmart, Wall Street credit derivative schemes that jeopardize your pension and 401K? In other words, isn’t our Constitutional ‘Republic’ designed to protect the worker from a corporate monopoly “Democracy” that is clearly now effectively denying the majority of American workers access to the American Dream?

 

 

Just a quick Political Science 101 refresher for those who may have forgotten – Contrary to popular belief, the United States is not a ‘Democracy’. It is a ‘Constitutional Republic’. The difference is huge: A democracy is a form of government where the individual’s rights, or the minority’s rights, do not get any protection. They do not matter. There are two common forms of democracies:The Absolute Majority Rule is one. The other is just as dangerous, that being where an elected body like our congress rules, regardless of how or to what degree its decisions violate the people’s rights.  This is why a democracy is NOT necessarily repugnant to the muslim clerics in Iraq. A ‘Republic’, on the other hand, is a form of government that protect’s its citizens from civil rights abuse by either the majority of other citizens or an elite powerful ruling class and/or government body.

 

 

A ‘Republic’ is what our forefathers created with our egalitarian constitution. They did so because they wanted to ensure that no one powerful group or majority could take away the God-given, inalienable civil rights of the individual or minority, like what they experienced under the British Monarchy and House of Commons in England. They correctly understood that in order to enforce the truth that all men are created equal, they had to create a non-democratic constitution. The result was our ‘Constitutional Republic’ of the United States of America. That being said…

 

The current condition of our fraudulent, unregulated market (“meth” economy model) is comparable to the problems Thomas Jefferson and James Madison spoke out about in the Federalist Papers regarding the ‘despotism’ of a powerful ruling class that would seek to deny access to the American Dream for the majority…Wall Street is doing this to Main Street in America, with outsourcing of most manufacturing jobs, flooding our communities with huge corporate ‘BIG BOX’ chain stores, destroying the average American’s ability to compete as a local Mom and Pop small business, OR just to find a job that pays a fair living wage. This perversion of the intent of ‘free enterprise’ and capitalism is antithetical to our forefather’s vision of a Republic in the specific interest of the common man. Unregulated capitalism has produced so much fraud and corruption in the markets AND in government, that I feel we have reached a time where we can begin to make a powerful argument that this is a major civil rights issue for American workers.

 

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge proponent of free enterprise and capitalism! But what is currently going on with Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, NAFTA and Wall Street credit schemes is not healthy capitalism…it is an abomination of monumental proportions. It destroys access to free enterprise for 95% of average Americans. 

 

Why do you support Walmart? They are waging a literal war against what the American Dream is all about…against everything we as Americans believe in. Or have we co-opted those beliefs just to save 50 cents on a gallon of milk? Former members of Walmart management have admitted that when they come into your community, they drive around your town and estimate how short a period it will be until the Mom and Pops near them will go under because of their price undercutting. Saving 50 bucks on your new outsourced, Chinese made lawn mower or bicycle is not worth the cost of supporting this growing economic cancer in our country that is destroying good paying jobs and small business. 

 

 

Why do you support Walmart? It is not too late to stop, and begin supporting your local Mom and Pops. Otherwise, our children will never know the American Dream…in it’s place they will inherit the American Nightmare of unregulated ‘Corporatism’.

Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies On An Island Off The Coast of Alaska

I’m a former radio personality, and I am passionate about talk radio…especially local talk radio. I am not passionate about what has become of talk radio with the huge corporate conglomerates being allowed to monopolize the majority of stations and limit programming to self-serving neo-conservative content. That being said, I have forced myself to listen to Rush Limbaugh.

It isn’t at all an acquired taste…What he says always ‘tastes’ spoiled and ‘expired’. It is however, my effort to apply the wise Mafia proverb, “Keep your friends close, and your FAT enemies even closer.” Well, ok, I added one word. Speaking of which -  In a word,  the amazingly hateful and angry rhetoric I hear when I tune in to “El Flushbowl’s” paradoxically named ”Excellence In Broadcasting” talk radio debacle is – SELFISHNESS. In two words, I would definitely add UNAMERICAN.

A lady called up on the broadcast today, immediately paying homage to Rush as “Maha-RUSH-di”. She proceeded to whine just like him…not about how we can come together and meet in the middle as Americans to heal our land, but about how important it is right now for all the Gov. Palin loving neo-conservatives to break from the Republican Party and start over brand new. Of course, El Rushbo agreed with her. This is the unequivocal epitome of selfishness…no reflection or respect at all for the moderate direction of a large and growing majority of members in their party. But you know what, I think I agree with her too, and I’ll explain why…

Only a day before on Nov. 5th, Rush verbally castrated Senator McCain for his beautiful, healing concession speech in which McCain vowed to work with President Elect OBama to solve very important problems that we as a supposedly UNITED nation are all facing. We need to work together, but Rush hit McCain with a tire iron below the belt, figuratively speaking, claiming his concession speech ‘characterized’ McCain’s entire campaign…He specifically said Mccain’s entire campaign was a ‘concession speech’, and proceeded to proclaim his ABSOLUTE unwillingness to work together with Democrats. He did so in a very disturbing and angry ’Call To Arms’ fashion. This again is the pinnacle of childish selfishness.

One more important issue I want to address regarding ”Limp”-baugh relates to his rhetorical, excessively sarcastic questioning of what Barack OBama meant in his victory speech, when he told America: “We will get there…I promise you, we WILL get there!” Rush allowed no one to answer him in his repetitive rambling of: “What does he mean?”…”Just where are we going Barack?”…”Get Where, OBama?”…”You never told us where we are going!”, etc.  Silly me…I actually wanted to call in and set him straight, but so often as is the case with Rush, the phone numbers are not available. Even if they were, “S-NERD-ly” his producer would screen you out…no one makes the neo-conservative self-proclaimed prophet look like the sad, unAmerican hypocrite that he is.

But the better late than never GOOD NEWS is, Rush is angry because Rush is slowly but surely on his way out…That is because the Republican Party is changing. And the reason the Republican party is changing (by the way, Rush and his greedy chronie listeners say it is not just changing, but it is ’IMPLODING’)  is because there is a minority, angry faction within that party that doesn’t get what America and Democracy is all about.

Let me be clear what this Limbaugh ‘faction’ DOES ”get”…They get what greed is all about…They get what imposing their religious morals on others is all about…But they don’t get what ’accepting diversity’, ‘social equality’ and ‘worker value’ is all about(Red, White and Blue Constitutional Intentions). 

If some of the brighter of them do get it, they hate the thought of getting to the time where OPPORTUNITY of the AMERICAN DREAM is finally actually achievable for the common man. THAT, Mr. Limbaugh, is exactly what OBama meant.  But let’s at least for once be honest… You knew that is what he meant. It just doesn’t PAY for you to admit that. It pays for you to serve your selfish advertisers and listeners with your anti-democratic, pro neo-capitalist, greed-driven talking points at the EXPENSE of not only the huge majority of hardworking Americans, but also of your own party that is in growing vast disagreement with you.

Here, let me fill in the blanks on the destinations OBama was referring to that you whined on and on about, claiming not to understand. When he said “I promise you America, we will get there”, he meant:

A return to a government that is actually “OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people” and not “Of Wall Street, BY Wall Street and FOR Wall Street”…you know Rush, your ‘bread and butter’. In other words, getting to a time where the common American man and woman are most important, realizing you can’t have a thriving Wall Street at the expense of opportunity for Main Street. (He actually said that last part too Rush, but apparently you weren’t listening?)

He meant rebuilding a reputation with the international community of peaceful diplomacy and benevolent cooperation, rather than a reputation of unilateral bullying, invading and imperialistic exploitation of countries when we know we can get away with it, as has been the case too often in our troubled history.

He meant getting to the time when Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream is truly realized, that being a country were all races have equality, and are judged “by the content of their character and not the color of their skin”.

He meant getting to the day when we can once again feel proud about making and buying American manufactured goods, and not have Walmart, Home Depot and Costco putting most of our small business ‘Mom and Pops’ out of business with their price undercutting, cheap foreign made products, due to Wall Street’s greed-driven outsourcing.

He meant getting to a time when we use our country’s wealth and resources more responsibly and sustainably, to make life better by “promoting the general welfare” (As our Constitution’s preamble mandates) for ALL Americans, not just the elite 5% and grossly overpaid CEO’s.

He meant getting to a time when the worker who carries the biggest burden on his/her back every day is seen as MUCH more valuable and responsible for the success of a company…AND for the success of CAPITALISM by the way, than the top, all too often unethical and corrupt executives.

What “We are going to get there” DID NOT MEAN, Rush, is SOCIALISM, no matter how many times you ignorantly try to spin it that way! However,  it meant getting to a time when there was more of a proper balance between corporate welfare (currently to the tune of hundreds of BILLIONS per year) and social welfare programs that have paled in comparison.

Rush wants to have his oxycontin and eat it to, apparently. That’s exactly what it sounds like when he ignores the ‘socialism’ that is deeply in place for corporations and his advertisers, and castigates any similar use of tax dollars when it comes to social programs helping the working class. What amazes me about the huge degree of selfishness from those like Rush and his devoted sick followers is that they don’t understand the correlation between a nourished, happy, well-rewarded and healthy workforce and their all holy grail of PROFIT. Hence OBama’s powerful comment, “You can’t have a thriving Wall Street at the expense of an impoverished Main Street” (paraphrasing).

I’ve got an idea for Rush and all his hatemongering “Maha -RUSH-di” followers. Let’s give them all a large island off the coast of Alaska… One where Palin can see Russia even without her glasses! They truly need to separate from their party…and not stop there. They need to separate from this country entirely! An island close to Russia would be fitting as unAmerican as their views are! Let me speak directly to “Maha – RUSH -di” and all his whacko neo-capitalist followers: Your hatred and non-democratic selfish greed are truly UNAMERICAN, and not welcome here anymore. That point was made clear on Nov. 4th, 2008, and reinforced more clearly on Nov. 5th, as you loudly vowed repeatedly and obstinately NOT to cooperate with the new destination America is headed. America will be much better off if we just give you ‘reparations’ and help you get out and start your little Maha-Rush-di empire somewhere new…in your perverted Land of Oz where you can overpay CEO’s, make religious laws based on your Bibles and outsource jobs to your hearts content.

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: Christian Science Monitor Replaced by “Uncircumcised Jewish Times”

I’m a Comedy Traffic School instructor in Sacramento, California. It seems there’s been a BIG misunderstanding about this new cell phone law we passed in our state. It doesn’t allow ‘hands free’ DRIVING! It allows ‘hands free’ CELL PHONE use! But it seems everyone is still either texting, grooming or reading the morning paper on their daily commutes.

So what publication do you read while driving? The Sacramento Bee? The Wall Street Journal? Personally, I’ve taken to reading the Christian Science Monitor. I want to reward and encourage progress, and any religious group that adds the word “Science” or “Scientist” to their religion, that’s major progress if you ask me!

 

Here they are, a controversial Christian faith with a history of letting people die because “prayer” didn’t work, but the real “scientist” part of their identity has somehow managed to produce a well-read, objective INTERNATIONAL newspaper. Unlike the disturbing trend of a growing number of major newspapers like “The Santa Barbara NewsPress”, The Christian Science Monitor actually HIRES objective, dedicated ‘journalists’ rather than FIRING them for not printing what the owner of the paper wants…

 

What is this ‘walking on the water’? Come on, what are you smoking? 3 days inside a whale?? Water to wine? Please, we’re Journalists! We’re Christian SCIENTISTS! Take that crap down to the National Enquirer!

 

Unfortunately as you may have heard, because of the competition of the internet, they’ve had to stop the daily edition of the Christian Science Monitor, replacing it with an online publication and a weekend print magazine edition. So now I’ve got to find something else to read in the car on my commutes. What I’d love to find is something like “The Southern Baptist Pragmatist”, or the “Catholic Atheist Reporter”, or even the “Uncircumcised Jewish Times”.

 

Yes, “The Uncircumcised Jewish Times”, that would be perfect! They could make big scoops about the truth behind the horrifying stories we were taught in Sunday School… like the one where Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on an altar. After researching newly discovered ancient manuscripts and the Dead Sea Scrolls, (which by the way, did you know the Dead Sea Scrolls was actually the predecessor to the New York Times?) they could report that the age old story of Abraham trying to sacrifice Isaac has been found to be greatly distorted.

 

It is true that Gabriel the Archangel had to make an emergency appearance and stop Abe just in the nick of time. But he was quoted by witnesses saying, “You deaf old man, we told you to CIRCUMCISE him, not SACRIFICE him!!”

Gov. Palin:”I Can See SAKS 5th Ave From My House”

Politico has recently reported that the McCain campaign spent $150,000.00 on clothes and accessories for his relatively unknown, self-proclaimed ‘soccer mom’ running mate Sarah Palin. This is an indictment of everything that is wrong with America. Palin claims to be a ‘maverick’, down to earth American woman, but she’s wearing more makeup than some circus clowns, and buying an image overhaul reportedly at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Barneys and Bloomingdales. Just to be clear, there is NO Saks 5th Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Barneys or Bloomingdales in Alaska! Next thing you know though, she’ll be claiming to see Saks from her house.

Buying new clothes to run for VP of the highest office in the land is not the issue. Spending $150 grand of campaign contributors money to re-shape and fabricate a glamorous, elite image of not only Palin, but her family members as well is the issue. Would that the makeover just stopped with a visit to Pearl Vision for some contacts to replace Palin’s trend-chasing glasses that ironically make her look like she was initially imitating Tina Fey, and not the other way around!

This revelation should make it clear to anyone who hasn’t already been keenly aware, that McCain and Palin represent the interests of Wall Street, not Main Street. More specifically, they are absolutely pining for the votes of those, ESPECIALLY WOMEN, who shop at the very same high priced expensive clothing stores.

What they forget is, mainstream American women are craving a White House that truly can RELATE with them, not one that seems ABOVE them. I’m just going to take a chance and speak for my readers here, directly to Governor Palin: “We the People expected you to be real…to be yourself. The LAST thing we want is for you to be conforming to a different image than who you were before you were tapped as the V.P. candidate on the McCain ticket!”

In a Politico article by Sarah Abuzzese, she quotes one Lauren Rothman, a Washington stylist with the fashion consulting firm “Styleauteur” saying, “She is dressing appropriately for the job she is going after.” Let me ask you a question. Do you think this Lauren Rothman ‘fashion consultant’ represents soccer moms and most down to earth women in America? The job Gov. Palin is going after is primarily to represent the masses in America who are shopping at K-mart and Target (sadly I have to include WalMart, but more and more Americans are boycotting that un-American Mom and Pop small business killer). That’s IF they aren’t shopping for clothes at GoodWill and local thrift stores because they are trying so hard to barely make their mortgage payments! So people like Ms. Rothman don’t get it! They don’t get it at all, what the highest office in the land is about.

But can you blame them when you think about how long that highest office has been abused and perverted by both parties, playing a corrupt game of serving wealthy special interests instead of serving the American people. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is one of the biggest examples of this. Supported by both Clinton and Bush, it has all but destroyed access to ‘free enterprise’ by the average American, and continues outsourcing and erradicating manufacturing jobs, destroying and crippling communities all across this land, after which WalMart moves in pretending to be a ‘knight in shining armour’ to provide jobs and cheap goods, undercutting the small businesses who remain in business.  Walmart is able to do this ONLY because of NAFTA, primarily selling outsourced manufactured products that used to be made in America, which is how they can afford to undercut Mom and Pops and ultimately put them out of business. The American Dream is dying because of this system created by NAFTA, recent White House occupants of both parties, and the Wall Street elite. 

Back to the image created with the 150 grande makeover of Palin…It primarily accomplishes the objective of symbolizing to the elite that McCain and Palin will continue serving them. I’ve thought a lot about it. If I ever run for public office, I’m going to do everything I can to relate with the common folk who are the vast majority. I am not going to pretend that I am not one of them. I would likely need to get a new wardrobe for the campaign,  and oh how I’d LOVE to purchase it at Sears or J.C.Penney, maybe Macy’s… But I too, would probably end up having to spend a fortune. Only it would be to a seamstress because I am 6 feet, 3 inches tall and nothing at either Sears or Saks fits!… except for the occasional maternity outfit. Maternity clothes are comfy and underrated… but definitely not a turn on to the guys.  Sometimes when I’m waiting to cross the street at an intersection wearing my floodwater pants, a motorist will hand me a dollar and ask me to promise I’ll spend it on clothes!  

It is clear neither Joe the Plumber nor Jane the Teacher are represented by a V.P. candidate who spends this kind of money from political contributions on an image from Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales. It is sad to me that there are still so many Americans who are fooled by Republicans like Palin and McCain when they say that they represent their interests, when it is SO OBVIOUS that they don’t! 

Lately McCain has been trying so hard to say that ‘Joe the Plumber’ is going to benefit from his policies, but he is lying through his dentures! The small businesses like Joe the Plumber don’t make anywhere near $250,000.00 a year. Everyone making less than that is going to be RESCUED by an OBama administration. His policies are going to turn things around, give them a big tax break, and place a tax increase on the upper 5 to 10% of the extremely wealthy and corporate elite. Joe the Plumber is going to be greatly harmed by McCain’s policies, which will continue in the vein of George Bush, his father and Ronald Reagan, who believed in what they called “Trickle Down Economics”. They tax you, the hardworking Joe the Plumber, and give tax relief and tax loopholes to the elite and wealthy who contributed immensely to their campaigns. The name “Trickle Down Economics” comes from their tounge-in-cheek assertion that your benefit is the ‘trickling down’ of the $7.00 to $10.00 an hour job(s) you get to work at for the rest of your life for the elite…and sadly, that is not even a partial exaggeration of the truth. 

Palin’s high priced makeover says it all…she’s a liar. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to get away with returning all the clothes the day after election day when they lose. She’d have to do it quickly in the big city before she returns home, ’cause Lord knows there probably won’t be a Bloomingdales in Alaska for a long time…even if she is kneeling in her evangelical church, crossing her fingers praying for global warming.

Dogs Are Democrats, Cats Are Republicans

90% of Americans are low income and middle class, hardworking people struggling to pay their living expenses…many of them struggling so hard they can’t even AFFORD to get swindled into a bad mortgage scheme by the corrupt lending institutions that got us into this current ‘financial crisis’. Let me ask you a question. Which party places the 90% of hardworking, “JOE THE PLUMBERS” as their priority? If you say Republicans, you know you are lying. C’mon, you KNOW you are…If you don’t know you are lying, you are either smoking some serious weed or your head is buried in your neo-capitalist sandbox.

The Democrats are the party that cares about the worker and the common man. They approach their jobs every day asking the question, “What do 90% of Americans need?” Republican politicians get up in the morning angry that they have to share anything with anybody, let alone Democrats. (They don’t even want to share with other Republicans unless it’s sharing the boneheaded, greed-driven rhetoric of that day’s Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh radio show.) No, Republican leaders approach their job each day asking the question, “What do the elite 10% of Americans need on Wall Street, and what can we do to avoid helping ANYBODY BUT THEM?”(They like to call it fancy terminology like “Trickle Down Economics”, when what is really ‘trickling down’ is their drooling over how much money they are making at the common man’s expense.)

What do 90% of Americans need? The last time we had a leader who completely knew the answer to this question, he was assassinated. Of course I am referring to John F. Kennedy. There were three men at that time who had the answers and the courage necessary to give Main Street America the American Dream come true. They were JFK, Robert Kennedy his brother and Dr. Martin Luther King. It is no coincidence that they were all assassinated within a 5 year period. Question: What political party do you suppose the assassins of these men were most closely affiliated with? That’s of course a rhetorical question, because you and I know the answer.

The hate-speak, racism and vitriolic foaming at the mouth by Republican voters toward Barack OBama is scary and astounding to say the least. The more he calmly aligns himself with what 90% of Americans need, the more Republicans (amazingly INCLUDING many who will have their lives helped immensely by his policies) have a childish fit, call him racial slurs and even shout out “kill him” at a rally where Gov. Sarah Palin spoke. Inexcusably, she said and did nothing to stop or at least address these whackos in her audience.  Sometimes something SO conspicuous in it’s absence speaks volumes about a person.

I was performing in a bar in Virginia City during the primaries for this election, and Barack OBama’s image appeared on the bar tv screen. An individual who was sitting at the bar, was not drunk, and who also WORKED there hollered out proudly, “Someone needs to shoot that son of a bitch!” I wanted to take my guitar and knock him off his barstool. Since then I have lost 3 gigs where I performed because of racist comments made by patrons where the bartender would not speak up to stop it.

Recently a Republican voter at a gig where I perform in Elk Grove, California, told me this ‘financial crisis’ has been created entirely because of “all the black people who HAD to have a house”. He went on to say that “All black people are going to vote for OBama because they are ALL racist.”(Rush Limbaugh has specifically been helping to instigate this kind of garbage mentality) Needless to say I explained that such comments were untrue and only made HIM appear to be the racist. The owner found out about the exchange and instead of talking to me about it, just made sure I wasn’t on the schedule anymore.

It is not worth it to me to keep my mouth shut just so I can make money. It is worth it to most Republicans to do whatever it takes just to make money. That is the difference between most Democrats and most Republicans. Let me draw a quick metaphor here using dogs and cats:  If pets had political parties, cats would mostly be Republicans…I say mostly because there are a few exceptions where an occasional cat I’ve met would probably be a Democrat. But by and large, their species behavior and character is that of a Republican: They act kind of snobby and elitist, finicky, and only care about themselves. They want to sink their claws into everything they can. They are always stalking on the prowl as an Imperialist, marking everything as their ‘territory’. If you were to slip and fall in the shower and couldn’t move, they’d only come and find you when it was clear you hadn’t remembered to feed them. Then when they found you, they’d just snub their nose at you and walk away, shaking their heads at how it was your own fault – you made your own bed, now you can lay it it.

On the other hand, dogs would be Democrats. There are a few exceptions, I readily admit, but usually this is because of how their owners trained them not to be kind. Dogs would clearly be Democrats because they are man’s best friend. They want to help any way they can to make your life better, including getting the paper for you in the morning, protecting you from others who would mean you harm, etc. If you slipped in the shower, they’d know it and run to your aid. Unfortunately all they will do is repeatedly lick you and bark trying to tell you that they’d surely dial 911 for you but the key pad buttons are too small for their paws! Think about it, all you Republican cat lovers: dogs even lay around on the couch all day waiting for a handout. Don’t you consider that a democratic quality? But thats harmless compared to how these CEO cats, friends of Bush and Fed Chairman Bernanke, scratched up your brand new leather couch screaming in heat for  this latest corrupt bail out. So both sides do a fair amount of ‘waiting for handouts’, and the handouts Democrats get pale in comparison to the handouts Republican Wall Street types get.  

The question is, who needs the handout the most? Who deserves help from American tax dollars? The answer is unequivocal: 90% of Americans need it. 90% of Americans need some kind of basic healthcare program provided by the government. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN’T GET YOUR OWN BETTER PROGRAM! A national healthcare plan will not mean your private one will suffer or diminish. I’m so sick of this stupid argument by the conservative right. 90% of Americans need and deserve tax relief and mortgage assistance. 90% of Americans need all this ‘Free Trade’ garbage that outsources all our manufacturing jobs under NAFTA and CAFTA to go away forever. 90% of Americans need regulations that prevent huge big box chain, monopolizing corporations like Walmart and Home Depot from crippling and destroying Mom and Pop small businesses in our communities. 90% of Americans need college to be paid for at least for an Associates Degree if not for a full 4 years, and why in the world don’t we guarantee a full ride to any state college for all veterans? These programs could be implemented at a FRACTION of the cost of this unnecessary debacle in Iraq. (Notice I did not include Afghanistan, as it is a different issue there, and we had G-7 and United Nations support for going after Al Qaeda there. We did not have G-7 or United Nations support for invading Iraq because the whole world knew Iraq posed no threat and had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11.)

The American Dream has become an American Nightmare under the fraudulent, unregulated, excessively greed-driven policies of Wall Street, the Bush Administration and the Republican Party.  Their hypocrisy astounds me. Republicans have a very loud ‘meow’ mantra they consistently proclaim, that being that they are all about keeping government out of business. Oops, wait…that is only until their fraudulent business practices cause them to take a big loss. Then they ’meow’ ten times louder FOR government to step in…more specifically you the hardworking taxpayer, giving them a handout to the tune of a TRILLION dollars. It’s called “Privatizing Profit, Socializing Losses”. It’s hypocrisy on STEROIDS. It’s a scheme that harms 90% of Americans beyond belief, literally stealing your money to serve the elite 5 to 10% of Wall Street.

A revolution is at the door, because an overwhelming majority of truly patriotic, hardworking Americans are waking up and seeing this corrupt double standard by the Republican Party. They are clearly seeing that what Wall Street has been up to is NOT patriotic, and does not have the interest of the average American at it’s heart. Barack OBama does, and thanks to his courage and leadership, we have hope to once again be proud of America…the kind of patriotic, populist pride our founding forefathers brought to the first American Revolution against ‘taxation without representation’. (Oh, and by the way, it’s a historical fact that our founding forefathers were dog lovers. You knew that, right?  Hope you’ll share your comments here as well

Marriage Does NOT Require a CHURCH

The Pope has decreed that the Catholic Church “cannot bless gay marriage”. However, some progress has been made. The Pope has announced the church will continue to bless gay sneezes.

Connecticut just became the third state in the Union to grant the constitutional right of marriage to gay citizens as well as straight. All the angry, vitriolic people who foam at the mouth at the passing of every new law legalizing gay marriage,  are really angry because they haven’t been able to REPLACE the U.S. and state constitutions with their King James Bibles. They are really angry because deep down they know, but don’t want to admit, that marriage does NOT require a church OR a religion.

It enrages them when you bring this up. “Excuse me, but it seems you are forgetting the argument-destroying fact that marriage is a legal institution, and that we don’t create laws based on your church doctrine.” They ignore you and rant on quoting Old and New Testament scripture spelling out God’s vengeful condemnation he has planned for gay people…eternal torment and burning in Hell(Forever?? I mean, wouldn’t a week or two of just making them wear out of style early 90′s fashions be enough?). Ask them about the obvious contradiction of a picture of such a vengeance-driven, torturous God and they will either ignore you again or get even madder.

Marriage does not require a church. It DOES require a license. You can get married by the captain of the Love Boat, remember? Two Christian heterosexuals can get married by a meth-dealing, half-drunk notary at Guido’s Marriage Emporium and Casino in Downtown Vegas. That is because marriage is a LEGAL institution. Christians ALWAYS ignore this and ignorantly insist that they corner the market on marriage. (To ignore this is the equivalent to ignoring your car alarm in Oakland, California…you’ll be walking for a while!). 

Basically, the adding of a religious vow-based ceremony to a marriage is nothing more than ‘icing on the marriage cake’ - PERIOD. It is both secondary and unnecessary to the primary non-religious legal institution of marriage.  This kind of blind, angry hate ignores the law, the constitution of the United States (specifically the 14th Ammmendment that guarantees equality for every citizen under the law), not to mention each state’s constitution which reflects the same principles. 

It was this same kind of hate ignoring the law and constitution, fostered again by the same CHURCH, that fueled the Jim Crow era, violent racism and separate water fountains for blacks in the 50′s and 60′s. It was this very same kind of hate fostered by the same CHURCH, that sought to deny women and blacks the right to vote, again ignoring the law and the constitutional mandate of equality for all. These rights became reality after overcoming the hateful, un-American obstacles all too often created by religious institutions.

It is clear that people who dogmatically cling to this kind of biblical hatred and condemning beliefs-who speak of God as a ’God of Love’ out of one side of their mouth, and then proudly describe God as a vengeful torturer out of the other side… it is CLEAR these people have not just an unhealthy religion, but actually a mental illness or disorder.

They might as well be 45 years old and still believing in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. (I still believe in the Easter Bunny, so I can’t criticize them too much). They are eagerly awaiting Jesus Christ returning from the clouds (literally) and floating down to earth (literally) and then condemning to Hell all those who they hate, supported by their “Godly inspired scripture” that they use as their excuse for their hatred. “God said it, I didn’t”, they will keep repeating to ease their conscience.  

I grew up in a family just like this. I knew something was wrong as far back as I can remember, but these were people I loved and needed more than anything. I needed their love and so I tried so hard to believe the garbage they were surrounding me with in church. I could not reconcile the picture of God I constantly would read about in the Bible. For example, that he would kill all the Egyptian first born babies because he was mad at the Egyptian adults and the King who would not release his ‘chosen people’ the Jews (and this ‘chosen people’ is nothing more than a racist concept also, which also wasn’t lost on me early on).

If God is love, he or she loves all equally, none are above others, or preferencial, or ’special’. Yet Christians truly believe they are ‘special’ and at the expense (or dispense) of all others are going to be with God forever. My family was no exception, teaching me these things as the “inerrant Word of God”. This caused me more pain and damage psychologically than I can begin to describe in words here. Eventually, I had to make it clear that they were wrong and I could no longer support their judgmental, harmful, unloving beliefs. I told my mother that God could not possibly be as she was expecting me to believe in him. What do you suppose the result was to my taking such a stand?…Love?… Agreeing to disagree? Not a chance. 

It was absolute and total rejection- Ignoring of all Mother’s Day and Birthday and Christmas cards I’d send. Actually telling me I was dead to them. It is important to raise an awareness of the sickness organized religion often reflects- Catholicism, Islam and Judaism included, not just evangelical Christianity. It is not only un-democratic and un-American, it is truly a mental illness, and too many people are walking around every day in society, showing the proof they are very sick, and yet they are too often unchallenged and allowed to be accepted as though they are normal. 

If we need to be dogmatic about anything, we should be dogmatic about equality, diversity, democracy and HUMANITY – not Christianity or whatever other religion or similar judgmental teaching you choose to insert in the blank. They all do not preach LOVE and equality, but are crammed full of hate instead.

(One last thing I remember from the Christian church that I want to share here. When I would ever be asked, “What religion are you”, I was taught to tell them, “I don’t have a religion. Religions aren’t of God. Christianity is not a religion. It is the only word of God.” This is the common response to that question you will hear from most Christians today as well.)