Unite and Come Together – We Are Many – They Are Few #SEP17 #OccupyWallStreet

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Ishtarmuz’s rebuttal to Warof2010 posting 07/26/10 of – Our first mission, American Patriots.

This is Ishtarmuz’s rebuttal to Warof2010 posting 07/26/10 of – Our first mission, American Patriots.

The first thing you will often notice when you see a post from a bigoted Tea Party bastard is that the words are not sufficient to carry the message.  They need to colorize their words into red and blue with multiple font changes like teenage girls needing to hide their shallowness of experience, attracting narcissistic attention with whorish makeup.  Tea party English will have buzzwords and neologisms in abundance to cover their ignorance of the basic fundamentals of writing English and their lack of understanding of how to frame a rational argument.

You will see a fine example of this authoritarian narcissism exhibited by the Tea Party post shown below.  The first point that is made has to do with the number of undocumented aliens in this country.  I must first say that currently this alien issue is more a semantic one than a legal one in many cases.  My grandmother had a baby, my father, out of wedlock in 1915.  She went to Canada to have her baby and had the minister sign the birth certificate to avoid the scandal.  My father never knew this until he was forty years old. What he never knew was that she eventually married the brother of the actual father and my father had taken on his name never knowing the real story.  All my father’s life he could never prove he was a citizen without his Honorable Discharge from the Army.  Such a lack of documentation would swell the number of ‘illegals’ in this country to well over what the tea party want to contend.  They support legal measures that would make many such people non-citizens.  Some of us are bastards due to an accident of birth, some, like the tea partiers, are self-made people.

The second erudite point made below has to do with Unemployment Insurance Benefits.  Note first that insurance, by definition, is designed to pay out more than you ( via you employer) put into it for the few that need to use it.  This, like Social Security benefits RSDI (Retirement Survivors Disability Insurance), is an insurance designed so that of the large number paying into it, only a fraction actually collect, but often collect more than they paid into it.  Such measures were put into place to stabilize the frequent economic swings that put ‘free’ market capitalism into recession or depression leaving large segments of the population on the street.  The only effective method that has ever been applied to such depressive times, once in them, has been to spend money; and the only source of such willing spending has come from the government.  Short of slave labor, no self respecting capitalist would invest in labor as its value continues to fall. This brings up the other stabilizing enemy of the Tea Party, the union.  If the Tea Party had existed in the Great Depression, the 25% unemployment would still be with us today.  The unemployed would continue to own the street for the more fortunate.

The third erudite point returns to the undocumented workers.  There is a complete disconnect with reality here.  Citizenship is strictly the purview of the federal government as stated in the Constitution.  The problem of undocumented workers is a supply and demand issue and their employers need to be made felons for hiring them.  You know, all those fortunate anti-union people not on unemployment, hiring slave labor to support their way of life.  You can picket all those employers of undocumented workers if you please, but a few good court cases, a good boycott as well as your picket would be more effective.  Yet, even better, would be to have a consistent set of principles that would not promote the practices that you fight.

The article (Note that my skill at recreating the full glory of the original article is limited.  So you will have to go see it.):

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Our mission, American Patriots

the APPP, has two immediate requests/demands of Congress

#1. First, simply for your edification:

there are closer to 30 million illegals in our United States. than 12 million.

IMMEDIATELY: make it illegal, for an illegal, to illegally solicit work,

anywhere in “Our United States of America”

*In November the extended/extended/extended unemployment benefits will end again

Don’t borrow any more more more money, it simply results in more compounded debt,

You must allow American workers to own the streets,
so that more-fortunate Americans may provide them a day’s work

…

#2. in the meantime, please don’t make things any worse, between now, and then.

#3. At a point in time, We the People, will want:

Illegal immigration, federal & state, laws, to be changed.

from a misdemeanor, to a Class I Felony

http://bit.ly/a3US1J $10,000 3-1/2 yrs

*******

Facing Reality Fellow Americans

http://bit.ly/bb2Uht

this is step #1 in our platform, We are the American Patriots

Patriots: in planning PATRIOT STRIKES every precaution
will be taken to protect our forces. more to follow.

1. DHS has a list of U.S. employers employing approx. 8 million illegals

“8,000,000 Illegal Immigrant Workers Working At American Jobs”
http://bit.ly/dtHtSN

2. obtain the list

we have the list, 219 large/semi-large employers selected, so far

3. based on geographics/demographics,
and American Patriots, one business/per state,
known to be employing numerous illegals
will all be heavily picketed on a given day,
in coordination with job-seeking locals
in a quick, efficient, completely coordinated,
but unpublicized in advance, lightning strike
with every concern for safety.

…

4. Each state contingent will consist of a given-size picket team,
with an equal-size team operating in a support capacity.
(begin discussing contingent framework)

5. Calling all Patriots, from all organizations
to begin connecting, and cueing up, by state.

20-10 feedback/suggestions are encouraged

American Patriots, remember: “being right is fun”

We Won’t Back Down http://bit.ly/9DOHhM

P.S. Patriots, you may become aware, over time,
that advertising is not purchasable on your website,
nor is it permitted, in any form, with American Patriots
we must disassociate ourselves from money
our cause must remain pure in motive.

Our next mission: American Patriots
DENYING ILLEGALS THE RIGHT to solicit work on the streets of America;
this right s/b reserved for 30 million unemployed Americans

*******

ArizonaCalifornia|Arizona|New Mexico|Texas

Apprehensions|Fence|Drugs

BirthrightCitizenshi ps|GreenCards|IllegalWorkers|ImmigrationReform

*******

Here’s what we are all about:

Taking Care Of Business http://bit.ly/aBL12B

That’s what we’re saying

*******

War of 2010 American Patriots: Mandatory Read:
Regaining Our Freedom http://bit.ly/8ZJnVw

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The tweet on my twitter stream that linked this article stated, “@MalevoFreedom @rascality @PiercedTedyBear @TheRiverWanders @ishtarmuz @MightyOCD YOU ARE PUSSIES EN MASSE http://bit.ly/9dFWcS.”  Note that the Tea Party has quite an aversion to feminine qualities.  I suppose that it is a mixture of an inferiority complex combined with a fear of latent homosexuality.  One could well wonder given the name of the administrator and the Tea Party corporatist orientation, if the term fascist pig might actually be an understatement.

Ishtarmuz’s Rebuttal to: Cracks in King Obama’s Armor: Winning in November

This is my Rebuttal to: Cracks in King Obama’s Armor the original post by Darla, ADMIN / National Director on July 10, 2010 View Darla, ADMIN / National Director’s blog which is full of such nonsense as I am rebutting here:

Ishtarmuz’s Rebuttal to: Cracks in King Obama’s Armor: Winning in November

The past few weeks have been like a tsunami of unfolding events that lead to the White House Steps. Everyday it seems as though we discover another hairline fracture in King Obama’s armor and a chain of connections to Marx and Alinsky followers.

Here we go again with another bogeyman article about Communists under the bed.  Don’t you know that Americans are more concerned with the real Corporate bullies backing the whole government machinery in this country?  You know, the kind that fund front groups like the Grassfire organization? If you think people are as naive and trusting as they were in the last century, then you are thankfully mistaken. It is people like yourself that are endangering this country with your fascist rhetoric, and your fear of your worldview toppling is just unfortunate.

I remember early in the presidential campaign Obama said “if you want to know who I am look at who I associate with” unlike the many who were in a deep sleep, I took that statement serious and thus began my search and quest to discover the real Obama.

President Obama’s point is that he associates with everyone, unlike exclusionary people that have decided by some label who they should not be associated with beforehand.

Between the handy research of Glenn Beck and … other[s]… these associations as none other than George Soros, The Tides Foundation, The Muslim faith, SEIU, ACORN, William Ayres, Jeremiah Wright, and the Communist Party, among many others.

Oh, I am so scared.  Now if he was associated with Rupert Murdoch on a regular basis and took money from him, then I would be horrified. Let me just say that a high graduate non-journalist misogynist antisemitic bigot as Glenn Beck is such a reputable source that I will not even question it. The proof is there for all to see.

King Obama’s associations run deep in the theology he embraces and governs from. A theology, I believe, that will lead to the demise of the Hope and Change victor from the 2008 election. The fractures in the armor are growing, the lies, the deception, the theology he clutches, the associations he supposedly never had…

This is unlike the Republicans that cost us our civil liberties and more for an unjustified war that we have spent more on than any social programs in generations. Money that will line corporate pockets for generations. Money that no doubt can be traced directly back to the conservative astroturf backers of the front groups you have so wrong- headedly decided to promote.

King Obama’s daily goals are simple… (I can’t repeat her bullshit.)

Not as simple as your goals. You want to repeat the sound bites of such incestuous fake news sources as reported by Fox News clowns that read like any other narcissistic scandal sheet of  Rupert Murdoch’s. This may have worked in the 20th century, but we are not so ignorant these days. Who knows, some of these groups might even become as successful as Glenn Beck at losing sponsors and for the very same reasons.

This dictator truly wants to reshape America into a socialistic regime of the elite and the poor, dumb, working class that is completely dependent on government. His associates have been …

You haven’t got a clue. It was just such rhetoric as yours that have always led dictators to power.  You fight against a label you think others will fear, even though it you claim it to be something it is not, and label yourself in some  flag waving names to cover up (sometimes even to yourself) what you are really doing. The Nazi’s were no more socialists than the the Soviets were Communists.  They were both dictatorial fascists, what we now know as corporatists, and that is where this country is going if the patriotic tea party has it’s way.  Who, may I ask, will stand up against corporations bigger than governments if we remove the government controls on them? I am so livid at the moment. I find it hard to write, but I will fight you with every ounce of my being.

These people are his friends, associates, mentors, advisors, czars, and his staff. The well-constructed walls of deception are starting to crumble. Honest people are stepping up and telling the truth as in the whistleblower case regarding the New Black Panthers and the Department of Justice. …

I judge a man by the content of his character and the quality of his thought.  I don’t care where he was born and I swear to God that the Republicans have been associating with the devil himself and you have bought it hook, line and sinker. You have shown yourself to be shallow, hateful and deceitful.  Your kind and those you would have ruling this country, I have nothing but contempt for.

Yes, the walls are crumbling and all those on the wall will find themselves like Humpty Dumpty, broken up and unable to repair the damage done to themselves or their careers when this is all brought out into the light of day. Well deserving too considering their plan to destroy America’s Republic, Capitalism, the Constitution, the financial structure, the global perspective of the US…

You…The Republicans, and their ilk, had brought this country to it’s knees.  President Obama has successfully kept us from disaster repeatedly, but all you seem to be able to point out are the failures that any reader can see were placed on his doorstep by Republicans.  Why do I want to blame Rupert Murdoch for this?  I would agree on one point though, to the degree that President Obama remains in bed with these corporate bastards, he has failed.  That is also well documented.  Why have you not spoken about that failure?

The most important action we can take this year is simply to “Get the Vote Out”. …

Yes America, you must vote because your life depends on it.

We can take the power away from the radical people in the House of Representatives and the Senate but it will take working an effective strategy. …

Yes, all those radicals that line their pockets with corporate money need to go.

By volunteering to campaign, making phone calls in tight races, or donating to a party, candidate, or group working on our behalf we can bring those walls down. …

Remember also that you vote with your dollars every day.

To view the schedule of primaries and candidate filing dates go here:http://www.politics1.com/calendar.htm

If you want to investigate more about Darla Dawald  and her organization then see below:

Darla Dawald, National Director The Patriotic Resistance www.ResistNet.com A Grassfire Nation Website

This is Dale West (Ishtarmuz) awaiting your decision.

What The Teuton Said

by Ishtarmuz

Consider the old bigoted canards of 19^th and 20^th Century psuedoscience suggesting a genetic underpinning to the tides of various ethnic thinking.  Is their any truth to the Teutonic character? I would say no, on principle, since I think it a stereotype, considering even ones backed by some evidence as  illusionary. . .

UkkedoerendunandKlikkaklakkaklaskaklopatzklatschabattacreppycrottygraddaghsemmihsammihnouithappluddyappladdypkonpkot.

. . . However, I am  not thinking particularly about the Teutonic authoritarian personality, but just the authoritarian personality. Maybe, the cultural ethos in this part of the world historically led to more people so characterized, maybe not. There may be some evidence that rigid upbringing might play a large role in the making of a racist expression of narcissistic rage endemic to such unempathetic worldviews. I would be loath to consider such evidence because the evidence itself rubs against the grain of my liberal view of how the world works. With that in mind, consider I must, the building of national characters with the rise of nationalism speaking more to the role of nurture rather than to nature.

Perkodhuskurunbarggruauyagokgorlayorgromgremmitghundhurthrumathunaradidillifaititillibumullunukkunun.

So, given a child before they are three, can you make them a Hitler or an Einstein? Within limits. This, at least, moves the idea out of the genetic to the behavioral regime, a place where the more behavioral among us would be happy to consider. Flash. Dark. Though I fear any day now to hear about a study showing convincing evidence for the existence of a genetic predisposition for all sorts of very specific behaviors, not the least of which would be the fear of thunder.

Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk.

The selective attention and reinforcement of what an in-group feels valuable to its survival can be quite over-determined by framing specific memories into the historic examples that prove simplistic bivalent beliefs. Flash. Dark. Given the right circumstances, the right narcissistic mirror could and did rise to power more than once to reflect all the rage that slumbers in the depths of generationally ingrained racist self fulfilling prophecies. Such is the manner that Hitlers are made, not born.

Those taught to not question authority, that duty and honor are more important than empathy and flexibility, and that property is more important than fraternity, all explain how nationalism has always trumped liberalism from the French Revolution onward.  So what do you say of Milgram’s experiment?  In just a simple setting with a person of authority asking you to shock someone to death on a lame pretext, over sixty percent complied. Does that not suggest that we, like in the Lord of Flies, live with just a thin veneer of civilization ready to explode into anarchy leading to a slavery promoted by the next demagogue that captures our imagination?

Thingcrooklyexineverypasturesixsixlikencehimaroundhersthemaggerbykinkinkankanwithdownmindlookingated …  Bladyughfoulmoecklenburgwhurawhorascortastrumpapornanennykocksapastippatappatupperstrippuckputtanach.

Ishtarmuz’s rebuttal to: Barack Obama’s Connections to Socialism, Communism and Racial Divisiveness

Ishtarmuz’s Rebuttal to: Barack Obama’s Connections to Socialism, Communism and Racial Divisiveness Original artical written by Dee Gerrish in http://colorfultimes.com/2010/06/society/politics/barack-obamas-connections-to-socialism-communism-and-racial-divisiveness/?ec3_listing=posts

There’s no need for a long introduction…this article will “speak” for itself. The following is a list of Barack Obama’s connections to socialism, communism, Marxism, racial divisiveness, and political corruption. If you can ignore this and still support the man who refuses to disclose much of his past, then you should not be voting in November.

Yes, it needs no introduction.  We all know that association is not evidence.  We all know that we are all free to associate as we please and that a diversity of associations, combined with an open mind that has been taught to think, leads to wisdom. Just as we know that any person that labels, fears and restricts associations as taught by those they believe unquestioningly has been led to ignorance and bigotry. The last I heard, socialists and communists have an equal right to speak and vote in this country.  I suppose the writer here is attempting to interfere with that process.  I would think that suggesting people with particular opinions should not vote suggests a cavalier attitude in regard to the infringement upon our liberty.  You might even say she was being authoritarian and dictatorial.

The Early Mentors and Influences

Barack Hussein Obama Sr. – Barack’s father was an African socialist. …

Yes, those African socialists, perhaps the most justifiably socialist peoples on Earth, are dangerous and perhaps it is in Barack’s genes. We don’t need to even consider the early influences of the bigots that make such statements even though it may seem to be logically justified to ask. However, we, unlike some people, understand the fallacy and contradiction of such arguments.  People make choices and are responsible for their thought, not matter how unthinkingly they may have adopted half baked ideas from others or that they consider it the norm that others do likewise.

Stanley Ann Dunham – Barack’s mother was a 60′s liberal feminist and an atheist – …

Oh My God.  His mother was one of those dirty fucking hippies!  She was one of those that eroded our values of lily white heterosexual couples marrying, no matter what, in the eyes of God.  Such an abomination of abominations. Give me a break.

Frank Marshall Davis – “Frank,” as Barack Obama refers to him in his book, Dreams From My Father, was a member of the Communist Party (USA). He was also a former community organizer in Chicago. As a youth, Barack was treated to many of Davis’ rants about white supremacy, white Christianity…

And what rants, and only those rants, have the bigoted Right, as our writer here, been exclusively been exposed to without the benefit of hearing and seeing both sides? I would bet none.  How do I know that this has to be true? Isn’t this very argument what I said was not evidence? The answer to both questions is no, because with exposure to both sides you could, at least, put up a reasonably believable straw man of an argument pretending that you understood the various side of the issue. I see only a one-sided coin here.

Saul Alinsky – Mr. Alinsky was an avid and open socialist and the king of social activism, commonly called the “father of community organizing.” He created many organizations that relied on street agitation tactics, such as the Industrial Areas Foundation, which trained Obama in organizing tactics. He wrote the book, Rules for Radicals, which outlined many of the tactics used today in community organizing campaigns. Barack Obama worked with the Developing Communities Project and the Gamaliel Foundation – both inspired by Saul Alinsky’s tactics and socialist philosophy. Barack even wrote a chapter on community organizing in the book, After Alinsky. …

Everyone knows our Universities are bastions of socialism and that is all they teach our constitutional lawyers.

John L. McKnight – Referred to as Obama’s “community organizer mentor,” McKnight taught Barack about community organizing while they were both working with the Gamaliel Foundation – a Saul Alinsky production. John McKnight is also a former ACLU director and sits on the board of the National People’s Action (NPA), another leftist community organizing group. He teaches at Northwestern University  and he wrote a letter of recommendation to Harvard for Obama.

I had to go get another copy of the Catcher in The Rye before I wrote this rebuttal. I am considering the number of self help books on the market and how they are written and marketed. The formula is pretty simple.  I am considering writing a self help book called Rules for Anarchists.  To do it I would need to read books like Rules for Altruists and Rules for Libertarians because they would read very much the same with a few word changes here and there even though they may be philosophic opposites. I am also considering having one of those radical universities like Harvard or NorthWestern publish it. I should be careful not to defame the Right too badly in it because the ACLU might defend them in an defamation suit against me as the ACLU has defended the rights of such Right wing groups even  as such groups continue to deny other people the same rights they demand and defame the ACLU itself. I am also considering writing a play version.  It would be in the Theatre of the Absurd genre.

Radical Faith Testimonials

Reverend Jeremiah Wright – “Uncle J” was Barack’s former pastor and mentor at Trinity United Church of Christ. The philosophy of the Church is based on the teachings of James Cone’s black liberation theology. Cone admits that his theology is a mix of “black religion and Marxist philosophy.” Wright’s fiery anti-white, anti-capitalist, and anti-United States sermons landed him in a media controversy that eventually led to Barack’s denouncement of him in the spring of 2008, after 20 years of friendship. Wright had married Barack and Michelle and had baptized their two children. The pastor has also worked with Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, and his church’s magazine, Trumpet, has given Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award with praise coming from Wright.

Have you ever noticed that the bricks of religion are made from the brothel? If history told a story that excluded me, then upon reading the subtext, the deconstruction might say that those that exclude me are practicing an evil which needs to be overcome. If I say God Damn America, if I believe God Damn America, I may even be right in the context I say it. Blacks were lynched up to 50 per year up until the 1930s in this country.  If my grandfather was lynched by a group of black men in hoods for looking at a black woman, then I might have a pretty jaundiced view of blacks due to trauma alone.  If I saw the same irrationality in the grandchildren of these black men, even in minor matters, then I can understand clearly how such words, feeling and beliefs are triggered.  The writer of this article is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy with her language and thought process here. I will not debate her long.  To do so would foment the very entrenchment of hatred that I am explaining.

…

Domestic Terrorism and Social “Reform”

William Ayers – Mr. Ayers is an unrepentant domestic terrorist and an anti-capitalist. He was a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960′s and one of the militant spin-offs, the terrorist Weather Underground organization. These organizations were comprised of communist (“small ‘c’”) and anti-capitalist radicals. Part of Ayers’ Weather Underground strategy was to align with black revolutionary organizations like the Black Panther Party because among other things, they felt “white America” exploited black people and they were taken to the military-like discipline exhibited by those groups. Their activities included bombing police stations, the Capitol Building, and the Pentagon….

When I watched the events on the Danziger Bridge during Katrina, I wondered if the weathermen had done enough myself.  Since it has taken this many years and federal intervention to make a case speaks volumes. I did not have a jaundiced view then or now, I saw reality.

Bill Ayers served for six years on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) with Barack Obama. Both men headed up separate branches of the CAC that worked together on project funding. He also served on the board of the Woods Fund with Obama for three years. In 1995, Ayers hosted the event at his house which would become the kick-start to Obama’s political career. In that “meet-and-greet,” Alice Palmer handed over her Illinois State Senate reins to Barack (more on that later). Ayers wrote a book on the juvenile justice  system which Barack endorsed warmly, then the two were on a panel set up by Michelle Obama to discuss the merits of the book and current (at the time) legislation on the subject – which both Ayers and Obama opposed, as well as Bernardine Dohrn. Barack also taught classes at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where Ayers is a faculty member. In 2002, the Black Radical Congress (BRC) hosted a panel discussion at the University of Illinois-Chicago called “Intellectuals in Times of Crisis.” Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, and three endorsers of the BRC were on this panel. Contrary to the protestations by the Obama campaign, Bill Ayers is more than “just a guy” who lives in Barack’s neighborhood.

Hitler was considered Man of the Year in 1938 in Time magazine. He was able to so influence history with lots of help from those around him. It suggests to me that rigid bigoted thinking can lead to authoritarian personalities that could help elect a demagogue to exercise absolute authority over subservient blind followers to influence even those that know better to blindly obey changes in laws that in more rational times would be considered unconstitutional.  This sounds much more to me like George W. Bush than Barack Obama.  The first step in this process of facistization is to label those abuses as those in the mouths of your opponent until you can unquestionably argue that all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. I will grant you this, Barack Obama needs to dismantle many more of the Bush policies than he has, to the degree has not, we are still trampling on too many peoples’ rights. Most of the socialist style democracies around the world developed in reaction to dictatorial fascism which backed corporate profits to drive economies to fund wars. Such dictatorships used with equal ease such terms as communism as socialism to mask what they were, but they never were either in form or reality.  To the degree that this country appears to be moving in such fascist directions, the quicker the likes of our author will drive our country into a system she most fears. Lay on, Macduff.

Bernardine Dohrn – She is the wife of Bill Ayers and a former radical herself. Dohrn was the leader of the Revolutionary Youth Movement of the SDS and the Weather Underground. … Dohrn is now an adjunct professor at Northwestern.

She does go on. Here we have one of those radicals that shaped the attitudes of modern America, one that turned the country against the Viet Nam War just to see it return with a differnt face with the same weak pretexts, one of those that is responsible for all the regulatory agencies that were emasculated by the Right for everyone to see the return of pollution, depression and death, one of those radicals for whom human values trumps corporate values.  Dirty fucking hippie.

Mike Klonsky – He was a Maoist, a former SDS national chairman (1968), and formed the “October League” when the SDS broke into several factions. The October League later became the Beijing-recognized U.S. Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), of which Klonsky became a leader in the 70′s, traveling to China and praising the Maoist leadership. He took over the Small Schools Workshop which was created by Ayers, when Ayers headed up the CAC in 1995. The CAC, with Barack as one of its chairs, continued to fund the Workshop throughout the CAC’s existence. Klonsky was also an official blogger for the Obama presidential campaign website in 2008.

Marilyn Katz – She oversaw security for the SDS, where she met Ayers. She was part of the Committee of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which organized the 2002 anti-war speech in Chicago where Barack Obama famously spoke out against the Iraq War…

Carl Davidson – He was a former leader of the SDS and a Maoist, like Klonsky. He was also one of the organizers for the 2002 anti-war speech. Davidson is the webmaster for the website, Progressives for Obama, which posts blogs from other 60′s radicals like Tom Hayden and Bill Fletcher, who created the website and its agenda.

Bill Fletcher – As mentioned, he was a 60′s radical (a Maoist) and is one of the creators of the Progressives for Obama website. While there is no evidence of a direct connection to the Obama campaign, he has endorsed the call of the Black Radical Congress along with Obama advisor Cornel West and has connections to others that are directly involved with Obama and his campaign.

Incestuous Relationships and Friendly Donations

Woods Fund – In 1993, Barack Obama became a board member with the Woods Fund. A man named Ken Rolling was a program officer with the fund at the time. During the late 80′s the Woods Fund gave grants to the Developing Communities Project, where Obama had worked as a community organizer. At the time, the Woods Fund was supporting the Chicago Local School Councils (LSC’s) which were created from the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act. …

She still goes on.  The author probably would not want to talk about the incestuous sources of her information and the conservative astroturf front groups that support activity such as hers. Although as an authoritarian personality toadie she need receive not a dime.

Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) – Bill Ayers played a seminal role in the creation of the CAC. One of the main goals of the Challenge was to build on the 1988 Reform Act and the LSC’s, which he supported and in which his brother was involved. In 1995, the CAC began its operations with Barack Obama as Chairman of the Board. Bill Ayers was co-chair of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, one of three branches of the CAC – the Board being another. Ken Rolling was brought in from the Woods Fund as Executive Director. In the first year a 5,000 grant was awarded to the Small Schools Workshop which was founded by Ayers but control was turned over to fellow radical, Mike Klonsky, once Ayers began the CAC. Obama and Ayers worked together in the CAC from 1995 until its end in 2001. That year, the CAC came to an end but handed startup funds over to Penny Pritzker and the Chicago Public Education Fund (CPEF). Pritzker is now part of the fundraising operation in the Obama campaign. In 2003, the CAC’s own report admitted that the ultimate goal of the CAC – to improve academic achievement – was a failure. …

Sidley & Austin – This is the Chicago law firm that brought in Obama as a summer associate in 1989. It’s also the firm where Michelle Obama worked and reportedly met Barack for the first time. Sidley had been outside counsel to Tom Ayers’ company, Commonwealth Edison. Howard Trienens, the partner that handled Commonwealth Edison, hired Bernardine Dohrn at Sidley. Trienens was on the board of trustees at Northwestern with Tom Ayers, Dohrn’s father-in-law, and Newton Minow, another Sidley partner.

ACORN – Obama has extensive ties to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, as do his two prominent spiritual influences, Wright and Pfleger. Obama’s Developing Communities Project and his “Project VOTE” campaign worked closely with ACORN. Both the Woods Fund and Joyce Foundation – where Obama sat on both boards – gave frequent donations to ACORN. …

Yes, get involved to show the inanity of writers like this one, and put them back on the fringes where they belong. Don’t just register to vote, bring your neighbors and get involved in community building.  Radical stuff.

What is ACORN’s record? In St. Louis, eight local ACORN workers were indicted on charges related to voter fraud from fake information on registration forms in 2006. One of the eight pleaded guilty in March. Seven workers were indicted on felony charges in Seattle because of phony registration forms and some of the workers already had criminal records. Three workers pleaded guilty in 2007 and ACORN eventually settled the largest case of voter fraud in Washington State history, paying ,000 in restitutions. Similar problems are being investigated in at least twelve other states. ACORN’s political action committee (PAC) has endorsed Barack Obama for president.

The writer doesn’t have a clue what voter fraud is and may even have less of a clue of what is the real source of her information.

Notable Friends and Advisors

Linda Darling-Hammond – Currently an education advisor to the Obama presidential campaign, Darling-Hammond has some less obvious connections to the leftist agenda, so it will take a little longer to define them. She has writings and has supported the notion of an “education debt” which is said to plague minority communities. This concept is a product of another educator, Gloria Ladson-Billings. Ladson-Billings is one of the pioneers of the phrase “education debt,” which is apparently the by-product (at least in part) of a reparations agenda pushed by people like the factually-incorrect and racist, Randall Robinson and books like, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. In 2006, Ladson-Billings gave her Presidential Address to the leftist-tainted American Educational Research Association (AERA) in which she spoke about repaying the “education debt.” She also announced the selection of Darling-Hammond to the Association’s governing council that same week. As it turns out, Bill Ayers was recently elected as an AERA vice-president (but for some reason, he no longer appears on their website as a VP of curriculum studies.)

Yet, Bill Ayers does seem to put out newsletters.

Darling-Hammond and Ladson-Billings also appear together in two different liberal education programs, the Forum for Education and Democracy (FED) and the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) “Bold Approach.” Both of these programs preach the concept of “social justice,” which seems to be code for socialist redistribution programs. …

You tell me what part of public education in a public school is not socialist?  More bogeymen under the bed, duck and cover.

Laurence Tribe – Mr. Tribe was one of Barack’s professors/mentors at Harvard. He co-founded and is on the board of advisors of the American Constitution Society (ACS), a leftist counter to the Federalist Society. …

Charles Ogletree – He is another one of Barack’s Harvard professors/mentors and an advocate for reparations for slavery, despite the fact that he believes reparations could cost the government trillions of dollars – and the fact that those trillions would come from the taxpayers, including other black people. He has also been accused of plagiarizing, like his colleague Laurence Tribe, and is currently an advisor to the Obama campaign.

Cornel West – Mr. West defines his political ideology as “non-Marxist socialist.” He is an anti-capitalist and honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. He is a contributor/signatory to the Progressives for Obama website and has endorsed the Black Radical Congress’ (BRC) call for a “renewed struggle.” He … has many other connections to the racist and anti-Israeli, Louis Farrakhan.

Alice Palmer – She is a former executive board member of the U.S. Peace Council (a communist front group), which is an affiliate of the World Peace Council (a Soviet front group). In 1983, she attended the World Peace Council’s Prague Assembly. Palmer wrote an article in the People’s Daily World – a CPUSA newspaper – describing how impressive the Soviet system was when she attended the 27th Congress of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. When she decided to give up her Illinois Senate seat in an effort to win an election for U.S. Representative, she identified Barack Obama as her successor in the State Senate. She held a “meet-and-greet” at the home of Bill Ayers for Obama’s introduction into the Illinois political arena.

Antoin “Tony” Rezko – The relationship between Obama and Rezko goes back to 1990. That year, Tony Rezko offered Obama a job with his housing development business, but Obama declined. They remained friends ever since and Rezko became one of Obama’s biggest campaign contributors. … Tony Rezko was recently convicted of several felonies involving corruption and kickbacks to various Chicago politicians.

In June 2005, Barack Obama and Tony Rezko purchased adjacent properties on the same day and from the same owner in Chicago. Obama paid 0,000 below the asking price while Rezko paid full price. At the time, it was already known that Rezko was under investigation for criminal charges. In January of 2006, Mrs. Rezko sold a ten foot strip of property to Obama. When asked about the questionable circumstances surrounding the purchase of the two properties, Obama apologized and said his actions were “boneheaded.”

Rashid Khalidi – Mr. Khalidi is a Palestinian political activist and a professor at Columbia University. For six years in Beirut, he was the director of WAFA, the official Palestinian press agency where his wife had also worked as chief editor of the English section. … Khalidi has also held fundraisers for Obama and the Obama’s have had many dinners at the Khalidi’s home in Chicago. Khalidi also started the website Electronic Intifada – an anti-Israeli site – with Ali Abunimah, another Obama associate. Both Khalidi and Abunimah have considered Obama a friend and ally to their cause.

Robert Malley – This former “informal” foreign policy advisor to the Obama campaign resigned in May 2008 due to allegations that he was meeting with members of the terrorist organization, Hamas. Malley dismissed his meetings with these contacts as simply being part of his job. But he is also anti-Israeli with a long list of op-ed articles – … Not surprisingly, Malley’s father was a fervent anti-Western, “Third-Worldist” who wrote about liberation “struggle” – leftist code for anti-capitalism and pro-socialist/communist movements.

Other Supporters of Obama and/or His Policies

Hugo Chavez – Venezuelan dictator
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – President of Iran
Fidel Castro – Cuban dictator
Party of European Socialists
Louis Farrakhan – Supreme Minister, Nation of Islam
Democratic Socialists of America
Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
Frank Chapman – Member of U.S. Peace Council Executive Committee (an FBI-identified communist front group)
Mark Solomon – National co-chair, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
Joel Wendland – Managing editor of CPUSA online magazine Political Affairs: Marxist Thought Online
Pepe Lozano – Leader in the Chicago Youth Communist League and editorial board member of CPUSA newspaper, People’s World Weekly

Closing Thoughts

These are not just associations. All of these connections are family members, close friends and “mentors,” and affiliations/organizations that Obama willingly participated with and in – and financially supported. If Barack doesn’t know about their past and their political ideologies, then he is oblivious to his surroundings and does not belong in the White House as the leader of our country. If he knew about these things but didn’t think they mattered, then he is beyond naïve and does not belong in the White House. If he knew about these things and openly welcomed it, then he’s just downright dangerous and does not belong on a local school board, let alone in the White House.

I once sat in the middle of a Texas Barbecue and listened to the son of a Grand Dragon of the KKK explain proudly how his daddy hung niggers off a particular bridge up the road.  On the way to this event we saw a quote from Revelations on the walls of a junk yard.  If we were drinking we could have had an open container in the car with the loaded shotgun hanging from the back window of the trunk.  I could relay more such stories, but suffice to say that the same colonial spirit of God, Guns and Glory that made this country great in the distant past using tobacco, alcohol and slaves, thrived in the heartland in the not too distant past.  This author would have to do much more than give the details she has listed, which I am not even going to trouble myself much to question, to convince me that Barack Obama is unqualified for anything. Anyone with open eyes can see the words do not fit the facts.  For my money Barack Obama should have held to his more progressive principles and not embraced the fascist ones inherited from the previous administration.

All of these incestuous relationships directly place Barack Obama deep inside the socialist/communist movements in Chicago. His plans and policies are radical and his associations and partners are mostly on the very far left of politics. Socialism and communism are not – and shouldn’t be – acceptable philosophies in this country, especially from a person running for president. …

So she is concluding that we can elect fascist turning Republicans, but socialist leaning Democrats should be barred from running.  Think much?

Is this guilt by association? Not at all. These associations demonstrate a pattern of relationships with leftist radicals, criminally corrupt developers, and racially divisive activists. These relationships are not a matter of happenstance either. Barack sought out these groups from his early days. He did not grow up in Chicago – he chose to live there. His associations are a direct result of his decision-making and his chosen path to political power. He willingly participated in socialist-minded groups and worked with radicals and unrepentant criminals. He is beyond dangerous to this republic of ours and his policies are beyond destructive.

And when nothing but good comes from his policies are you going to rewrite this article or are you just going to say we were lucky?  Either he is going to bring down this county with his evil socialist plans or what he does will work.  If you want him to be responsible for the destruction, then when he averts all the destruction created by the previous administration, he will also be responsible for saving the country with those nasty socialist policies, no less.

For all of the voters going to the polls in November to vote for change:

You have been warned.

Yes, you have been warned.

Dee Gerrish has been writing articles since 1996. She is the author of the original article appearing in colorfultimes.com 06/26/10 as can be seen here: http://colorfultimes.com/2010/06/society/politics/barack-obamas-connections-to-socialism-communism-and-racial-divisiveness/?ec3_listing=posts

I have quoted more than I would usually and more than I really wished, but i do believe it is fair use and properly linked and credited. The reason for so much of the authors long article being quoted here, even without comment, is that I, like her, believe that the same words speak for themselves and should be read as she intended, but to opposite effect.  She has only demonstrated to me a narrow sheltered parochial view and that more reasonable people would not draw the conclusions she thinks are so obvious.

Ishtarmuz

Are Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Thomas Sowell taking the U.S. down a Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

By Ishtarmuz  Posted 06/26/10

In rebuttal to:  Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

Not this guy: View Enlarged Image Thomas Sowell

Adolf Hitler built up the Nazi movement in the 1920s by activating people who did not normally pay much attention to politics by his loud emotional appeals to patriotism (the fatherland), scapegoats, and all manner of fallacies in the manner of Glenn Beck and Thomas Sowell.

The value of people who blindly follow the political base of the tea party, like the Nazi party, is that  they are particularly susceptible to Hitlerian rhetoric and have far less basis for questioning Glenn Beck’s or Thomas Sowell’s assumptions which lead to their unwarranted conclusions.

“Useful idiots” was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin, but really was invented by the McCarthyites, to describe liberal thinkers that considered socialism, but were painted as red sympathizers of  the Soviet Union. This is much like what Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Thomas Sowell do today in regard to supporters of the Barack Obama administration.

Put differently, the tea party movement needs to disinform citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

In our times, the tea party movement is attempting to dismantle the protections of the citizens from corporate greed, piece by piece, before our very eyes. This by the very people that claim to love those freedoms most, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

The tea party numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with their half baked ideas, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond any particular half baked idea .

Many Presidents from Jefferson on down have warned the nation of the power of corporations taking away the rights of individuals. Today the multinational corporations have more power than nations and the President has the authority to bargain with nations. So just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to make a deal with a corporation? I don’t know, but in the BP incident I would have preferred the President to have asked the solicitor general to seize BP’s assets and put it into receivership until the crisis had passed, rather than allowing BP to voluntarily put aside any amount of money to be administered by an independent third party.  The BP damage is as much an attack as the terrorists and we thought nothing of freezing the assets of suspected terrorist around the world without due process.

The  $20 billion voluntary fund provided by BP to compensate people is in no way an abrogation of their due process, but rather it is BP’s wise decision to avoid due process where they risked a lot more.

Many people think this issue is simply whether BP’s oil gusher has done damage to those who ought to be compensated. If that was the case then they could deny blame in court and tie up any pay out for years. No, it is much more than just a legal haggling over such unconscionable minutia.

When the tea party say that our government is supposed to be “a government of laws and not of men ” and they speak of the rule of law and tort reform, they are really talking about limiting the rights of the individual and increasing those of the corporation by the same pettifogging they use on all other issues.  Sadly this is the exact twisted process that our legal system has gone down for years. Law meant to protect people have come to protect corporations.

If our laws and our institutions determine what we ought to do, according to the tea party, then like the laws made in Nazi Germany should we sterilize imbeciles and homosexuals if such a law was passed? Or should we take up arms against such a government as the second amendment clearly was intended to allow?

The tea party says that the Constitution states that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without “due process of law,” but fail to mention that such a right was used to justify slave ownership and deny women property rights. When a man has a gun in his hand, I will take it, and he should be thankful that I did not lawfully blow his head off.

BP has agreed to the confiscation of the gun pointed at the head of the American people, this means they have agreed for us to not blow their head off, a wise move.

With vastly expanded rhetoric of the tea party available at the discretion of  each day’s events,  if accepted, we will see private individuals forced into accepting the imposition of a world of robber barons again, a power removed from the Constitution long ago.

If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you believe in the values of the tea party, not the Constitution.

Open Letter to Congress (or how to end fascism) #FYW

Open Letter to Congress (or how to end fascism)

The financial crisis in this country existed for the working poor long before it hit the people in the suburbs. When the same issues that effected the working poor started to effect the suburbs, then the GOP became concerned.  Their concern centers around stopping attempts to help the working poor which are now disproportionately no longer working and have less than the nothing that they had while they were working. Somehow for the GOP, the upper middle class, who pay actually a smaller proportion of their income in taxes than the working poor, have more of a vote.  Clearly Congress does think that we vote with our dollars because they seem to only listen when a lobbyist bellies up to the bar with a suitcase full of money.  I say this with a bit a reservation because the having of things, mostly due the manufactured need of corporate interests, is the bigger problem and independent of any current party that appears to be in the majority or what agenda they espouse. So Congress is just reflecting the values of the people it purports to represent.  I just happen to think this is more true of the GOP.

I would certainly say to the party of NO that the Democrats are indeed debating all the wrong issues first.  The first issues that I would be fighting from now until elections are those that effect the Congress’s personal pocket book.  I would be fighting for election reform that limited terms, allowed only public funding for campaigns along the lines of the UK and created laws ensuring that that they could never obtain personal gain from their unique position from other than their salary while running, during or after their limited term in Congress. I submit that a major real push in this area would change a lot of bluster that is being voiced on the other important issues on which a show of reform is being played out, but will never really happen no matter what appears to be passing in Congress.

Once this real economic debate of election reform was accomplished, then I would expect that Democrats would start acting like Democrats and the GOP would have some real issues to argue about.  This would be because the next logical move for Democrats is to then propose laws to achieve real regulatory reform in all the alphabet soup agencies in Washington by barring the revolving door regulators from private industry nullifying every regulation enacted. This is only real way to have a safe, healthy, sustainable environment and true health care reform that will not bust the budget. However, as long as there is money to be made by making a big show of reform, but leaving the profitable loopholes, then that is all that will be done in Washington until they allow the country (but not the legislators or Wall Street) to go bankrupt. Short of this their is no good faith effort being shown by either party on any issue.

I suppose Republican and Democrats will just go on calling each other corporatists, read fascists, while they each pocket corporate money until some viable alternative parties reveal the real truth, show a viable alternative and come to power. The best options I see are a Progressive opposing a Libertarian party. They both express equal disdain for the ties of government to the corporation from opposite points of view. Most people would be willing consider these opposing views when they are informed by facts and expressed rationally, but slogans used by  doubleplusgood duckspeakers of the current body politic just can no longer pass muster with an informed electorate.

To All Those Would-be Constitutional Scholars of Health Care Reform

An honest reading of the preamble of our constitution says all that needs to be said about our right to health care in this country.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We the People of the United States?  This is an expression that all the people as one voice declare what is to follow. In Order to form a more perfect Union?  This expresses the intention to come together as a single community.  Establish Justice?  To equitably do what is right for all. Insure domestic Tranquility?  To keep the peace amongst ourselves. Provide for the common defence?  To defend ourselves against common enemies. To promote the general Welfare?  To see to the needs of the citizenry that which they cannot do themselves. To secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity? To ensure that our freedoms are not taken away from us or our descendants. Do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of America?  What is ordained and established in these words is the intent of all that follows.

The intent is clear. The intent is that all the people unite as a community in a just, peaceful manner under a government that would protect them, their freedoms and promote their welfare.  This is why we still have a country.  On the one hand you could say that the federal government is only there to promote these ideas and it is up to the states to carry them out, but then if it can’t or won’t do so, then what is a federal government to do? On the other hand the federal government is to establish justice? Is it just to let the helpless die? It is to insure domestic tranquility?  Is it insured if we allow inequities to fester to the point of domestic violence? It is to provide for the common defense? Not all our enemies carry a gun from without.  Some live in gated communities and have a sense that they are more entitled than others. It is to promote the general welfare?  This is a clear statement of providing those things that states and individuals cannot. Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity?  Is there anything that endangers your liberty and your posterity more than illness or threat of illness? Among the many things that it has been decided appropriate that the federal government needed to intervene to provide, the provision of health insurance (read care) will go down in history as the one that made the most sense.  The one that had the most documented need.  The one that was covered in every phrase of the preamble of our constitution.

It is only a twisted libertarianism that would suggest that we should let people die that cannot provide for themselves. It is only a self-absorbed selfishness that cannot see beyond their own strength to what others might take as weakness.  It is only a perverse sense of entitlement that suggests the fruits of your labor should not be shared with the community even though it was the community that allowed you to reap those fruits. No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent. No one does it alone.

We don’t succeed by ourselves, but also we don’t fail by ourselves either. If the public option fails, then we all fail as a country.  The fiscal conservative Representatives have failed this country. They have failed on moral and economic grounds.  They are oath breakers, liars and have sold out their constituency.  A little math will suffice to show you the degree of the lie. Between fourteen to twenty percent of this country works in government depending on how you count.  Most have taxpayer provided insurance.  To expand the public option would lower that cost to the taxpayer of this insurance adding to the bottom line  every cash strapped state.  If all government employees were added to public option ( or asked to pay extra cost for private insurance) that could  save $600,000, 000.  This could end stalled union contracts across the country by taking health insurance off the table.  What might this do for other sectors of the economy? What might this do put people back to work? What could this do to end the recession? When are we going to see the conservatives for what they are, fascists?

Oh wait, maybe it is unconstitutional because the government can’t force you to pay for insurance.  Their is nothing in the constitution that allows that to happen and the Supreme Court would never let it stand.  OK, suspend all social security deductions and programs. Or maybe, pass the law and take it to court, if you are so sure.

The way I see it, this health care debate will become a moot point in the coming years.  I see two-thirds of the States passing a form of universal health care of necessity.  When that happens, it will be a short step to making it a federal constitutional amendment beyond the reach of the Supreme Court, even though the Court would never have overturned a universal health insurance law anyway.  Sometimes you just have to say stick a sock in it.

The Obsession of the Right with Fascism?

The back story on this post is that it started in response to a post on another site that began, “The left is obsessed with the public option…”  I am not sure any more if this is exactly what it said since it appears the right wing rant was removed by the writer, but it served its inspirational purpose. I would have liked to have it remain as counterpoint to my piece, but here is the link to my less thoughtful original version.

The defeat of the public option is an obsession of the right even though it is clearly needed to ensure that everyone gets health insurance coverage and that skyrocketing costs are brought down to manageable levels.

The the reason that the right is so obsessed is due corporate influence. That influence has created a situation just the reverse of what the right claims to honor.  The free market which they claim to be preserving, no longer exists. The hegemony of the corporation has left free market competition as no more than a propaganda slogan existing only in the mouths of right wing lobby machines. The right insists on the public option defeat by any means and at all costs, even the furtherance of our economic decline, loss of any of our remaining freedoms and the smashing of our moral compass. They see the left as encroaching on their Godly profit motive, seeing the public option as a Trojan horse to all sorts of left-wing socialist agendas, something they see the left as being in love with, and a real threat to their profit-without-product.

The right says that the pubic option is the road to Barack Obama forming a one world government that they have already achieved via the transnational corporations. The right thinks that once a public option is in place, then there will be a domino effect of reinstating government regulations they worked so hard to dismantle , and that their New World Order (NWO) idea reserved for business interests will be usurped by the left. Though there is no leftist plan for a NWO, the public option will allow the government to undercut the private insurance industry’s monopolistic price gouging and will ultimately move on to other business cartels. They will actually regulate the private insurance, making it possible to force them to charge  fair market based premiums that produce only just profits in real competition with the public option. The private insurance monopoly will be forced to do business with the government instead of the reverse. How this might be socialism I am not sure, but that is what the health insurance industry would have you believe.

I do see the current state of affairs as akin the fascism, however.  The public option could indeed morph into single payer universal health care, but only if the health insurance industry refuses to comply with these more just policies. I cannot see health insurance industry actually complying.  So one can only hope that when the private insurance industry refuses to comply that the government will have the sense to see this and rescue our democracy and our economy before we go completely bankrupt; economically, politically and morally. If not, single payer universal health care will become just one more moral imperative ignored by America and our country will slip into an even more openly fascist state and our private insurance industry will continue ration health care to feed their out-of-control profits, with the elderly and disabled being those who are most left out in the cold. How do I know that the right would allow this?  Because they already do. Unfortunately, I am having less and less trust in the left as well, thinking that the smoke and mirrors in this debate is all about maintaining corporate control with the best public face.

I begin to look forward to the rise of a new Progressive party.

Opt Out of Nationhood?

The idea that a state has the option to opt out of anything for which there is a legitimate interest to enact federal legislation is an oxymoron.  The federal government should for the most part only be enacting legislation in which it has an overriding federal interest to enact. The idea that the federal government has an interest in the public health and welfare of the citizenry of this country is well established. Yet, much of the existing legislation enforcement is predicated on federal funding, not on a federal interest per se. So any state can opt out of most federal programs by refusing federal money and so this is what the health care reform opt out option will entail.  The problem with this is that people move and sick people with no insurance move quickly.  Any opt out provision should include a state charge for all applicants for insurance for those moving from a state without public option to one with a public option. This is still the public option on the cheap for those states that opt out removing the “dogs” from the risk pool of any local insurance plans.  It will cost the rest of the country more money for the opted out states’ decision. When individuals opt out of a group plan they are often assessed a percent of the contribution they would have paid had they opted in. If this is sound private insurance philosophy, then maybe it should be incorporated into the public insurance philosophy.  Not just for this bill, but also for Medicaid in all it’s incarnations which has weak unenforced versions of this idea in place now.

This opt out option is only an issue because the single payer option was all but rejected sight unseen so early.  The opt out option could ensure that many people will go without and others pay more just because they live in an opt out state if the federal law allows the state to decide how to opt out. States should not be allowed to opt out without a state constitutional amendment or referendum requiring the people of the state to vote on it. It would also be more ethical if they provided a local option of their own. I don’t agree with Paul Krugman that the opt out option will be mostly benign for most of us and maybe even be needed by some small states, and that these states will be under pressure to opt in if it works.  There are states that haven’t bought into federal programs for years and there are no signs of change any time soon. How is it that the federal welfare reform law had no opt out? It is not moral to allow large segments of the population to die just because we can. I believe in everyone’s right to suicide when such a choice is individual and informed.  This is not the choice of most of those that happen to live in these potential opt out states.  They have been unable to enjoy many other federal programs available to date due to the failure of their state to opt in. Why would it happen now, on this issue?  If you don’t think this is deeply rooted in the history of this country from the beginning, you are misinformed.

The intellectual history of the thugarchy driving the opt out option may actually flow from the middle ages where chivalry was the protection of the aristocracy.  That moneyed aristocracy has always existed in this country and their values have been grafted onto our political system via a corporatism, the warnings of which go back to Andrew Jackson and even further.  Today the corporate elite can make money from anything without the burden of actually having to produce a product and that money is being bundled into ever larger spheres of control.  The danger in this is a centralizing power (i.e., money) that is clearly what  Andrew Jackson had in mind when he warned of allowing the monopolistic control of capital to manipulate the real sources of wealth in this country. He said we would be giving up our freedom to the corporation. So the fair and equitable distribution of anything that such a monopoly as the health insurance industry has taken away would be a restoration of freedom and a move away from the existing fascism.