Venting re Republican (In)action

Thom Hartmann has been venting this week on the deliberate and harmful Republican obstructionism in Congress and I reposted on Facebook a Jimmy Carter quote, "If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't." I followed up by venting in a reply comment and it needs more airing. So I re-vent here:

The Republican politicians have created havoc in Congress -- nothing is being done to help ordinary people or our environment. But the polls show only 49 percent of the people know they are in charge of the House and probably fewer know they are obstructing the Senate. The GOP expect the Dems will be blamed by voters for most of our country's problems and sadly they are probably correct. Meanwhile our citizens see their jobs shipped overseas while companies continue to get tax breaks for this. The Dems tried to reverse this and the GOPS stopped it. They are playing politics and people are starving and our environment is being decimated. Scary times. Not Christian and not ethical.

The Soul of America

In America today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth, and more inequality than at any time period since 1928. The top 1 percent owns 42 percent of the financial wealth of the nation, while, incredibly, the bottom 60 percent own only 2.3 percent. One family, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans. In terms of income distribution in 2010, the last study done on this issue, the top 1 percent earned 93 percent of all new income while the bottom 99 percent shared the remaining 7 percent.
~ Senator Bernie Sanders

Bernie wants things to be more fair. So do I. Lets all talk to our Congressmembers and say this is NOT the American dream. We need an economy that works for all or at least most of us. Speak up. Please.
(For the whole article, see The Soul of America on CommonDreams.org.)

Engle advice to Rep. Carolyn Maloney

Early feminist Lavinia Engle had this advice for women speaking in public:

"Stand up, speak up, and shut up."

Would that Congressmember Carolyn Maloney had heeded that advice on today's Up with Chris Hayes -- a great show (on MSNBC Saturday and Sunday from 8 AM to 10 AM). Still, perhaps she will accept the advice of show guest Alexis Goldstein on crafting better bills.

FDR: On Monopoly threatening Liberty

Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people.

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.

Both lessons hit home.

Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.

This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.

~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt [FDR], Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies, April 29, 1938

With thanks to a photo-lead from @The_Anti_Fox on Twitter. Read more at the American Presidency Project: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15637#ixzz1pTJnso3L

"How do we change the world?"

"Change your heart, your life, your community, the system -- in that order."
~ Philip Berrigan's answer to Frank Kromkowski's question -- "How do we change the world?", 1976, Helena, Montana [wisdom hidden in a morning glory]

Compassion / Socialism quotation

“Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.”
~ Hubert Humphrey

Via the awesome compassionate comedian commentator John Fugelsang on Facebook and Twitter and live Fridays on Stephanie Miller's radio show and Nicole Sandler's Thursday show (and his parents' awesome love story on NPR.)

Facebook Quick Take

Patricia [a Catholic school lay teacher]:

Why are we so judged when circumstances keep us from living up to everyone's expectations?

Kate Anne [moi -- and her girlhood friend]:

One of the nice things about getting older is that we become more lenient about expectations. Concentrate on the positive, where there has been success (probably lots of it), and let the rest go. Breathe, release, relax, and then as my sainted mother would say, "Let the asses bray."

Robert Reich's Words of Wisdom and Insight

Found on Twitter, from Robert Reich - @RBReich, former US Secretary of Labor under Clinton:

I continue to debate radical conservatives on mainstream media because the media thinks the truth lies halfway between right and wrong.

and

The greatest threat to democracy is the silence of thoughtful citizens in the face of extremists who will stop at nothing to get their way.

and

If you respond to what's happened in DC with more cynicism and apathy, the radical right wins completely. Instead: Organize and mobilize!

and

Make no mistake: We are still held hostage by radical right. Paying ransom always leads to more extortion.

and some observations:

Behind Tea Party lie Koch bros, Rupert Murdoch, & other right-wing billionaires bent on destroying US economy and removing O from office.

All stock gains of 2011 wiped out because debt deal has made it almost impossible for govt to boost economy. Beware Friday's job numbers.

The radical right has won a huge tactical and strategic victory. Democrats have proven they have no tactics and no strategy.

Anyone who characterizes the debt-ceiling deal as a victory for the Am people over partisanship understands neither politics nor economics.

The Am public will not blame Rs for the coming double-dip jobs recession, because the deal over the debt ceiling implicates the Ds as well.

It is not the case that "both sides" gave up "sacred cows." Rs linked the debt ceiling to their demand for smaller govt. They've got it.

The heinous deal is preferable to economic catastrophe. The outrage and shame is it has come to this choice.

The hostage crisis may be over but the US economy will now suffer insufficient demand and a govt incapable of boosting it.

Ds can no longer campaign on R's desire to Medicare and Soc Security, now that O has agreed it . A tactical and strategic defeat for Ds.

Defining the problem is 95 percent of the battle in Washington. O and D's have let GOP define the problem as the nation's debt.

No tax increases on rich yet almost certain cuts in Med and Social Security, and deficit cuts when joblessness is soaring. An insane deal.

If we restore jobs and growth, the ratio of debt to GDP drops, and the so-called "debt crisis" improves. If we don't, the opposite occurs.

All this talk about shared sacrifice to balance budget diverts attention from biggest issue -- getting Ams back to work & restoring growth.

I could go on and on and on -- You must check out Robert Reich's Twitter channel and follow him.

toniD's Quote of the Day

From toniD on the BlueRootsRadio blog, her

Quote of the Day

“We had two recent tea party demonstrations in Washington, one a week before the health care vote – drew about 1,000 people. The tax day rally, by the organizers own estimate was 1,500 people. If I organized a rally for stronger laws to protect puppies, I would get 100,000 people to Washington. So, I think the media has blown the tea party themselves out of proportion.”

– Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), in an interview on Meet the Press

(And I think of all the peace and justice rallies with so many people more that the corporate media didn't cover, or hardly covered....)

End the Death Penalty

"We should not waste one instant, one day, one cent, one dime serving death."
- Gov. Martin O'Malley, (D) Maryland

Gov. O'Malley spoke out on his stand on Rachel Maddow's show last night as he continues to work to end the death penalty. Rachel noted the governor is part of Celtic Rock band, O'Malley's March.

How dare he print exact quotations?

"The one thing that this enemy's list shows is that Bill O'Reilly's biggest fear. and all the folks at Fox, is accountability and fact based journalism."

-- Media Matters for America "chief character assassin" and president Eric Burns on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, 03-19-09, honorable mention in the list of Worst Left Wing Smear Merchants

Happiness

"Happiness is the experience of living  every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

That was the PROMISES Message on a Dove chocolate that resonated, that I couldn't just read and throw away. It parallels "Happiness is a way of traveling, not the destination."

NYT Quotation of the Day: Obama on Executive Pay

"We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers."
--PRESIDENT OBAMA

New York Times Quotation of the Day

Thom Hartmann, On Privatization

"I'm telling you the reason why Republicans want to privatize all this stuff is because they want to get their hands on our money."
-- Thom Hartmann, 01/23/09

Madison: War is the Enemy to Public Liberty

Best Madison quote, per Thom Hartmann at Demos, NYC, 11-14-07:

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people... [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and... degeneracy of manners and of morals... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare..."

-- President James Madison

[Thanks.]