Chuck Lasker's Open Salon Blog

Rich Republicans Defend Wall Street Buddies

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:04:46 -0400

The media is all abuzz about the GOP's statement that, like health care reform, they prefer to block legislation than work with Democrats. Some wonder why. Why would they risk their very jobs defending the masterminds behind the 2008 collapse of the American economy? Why would they fight to maintain the status quo that put trillions of dollars from hard-working Americans into the gold-plated safes of the super wealthy?

The photo above tells the tale. The Republicans are massively wealthy themselves. Here is the net worth of each of the top 15 richest Republican Senators:

James Risch (R-Idaho) $19,290,000.00
Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) $17,090,000.00
John McCain (R-Ariz.) $13,780,000.00
Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) $12,130,000.00
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) $11,850,000.00
Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) $6,370,000.00
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) $6,150,000.00
Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) $4,430,000.00
John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) $3,250,000.00
Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) $3,110,000.00
Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) $3,040,000.00
James Inhofe (R-Okla.) $3,000,000.00
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) $2,760,000.00
John Ensign (R-Nev.) $2,210,000.00
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) $2,190,000.00

And who do wealthy old white men hang out with? Other wealthy old white men. None of them would be caught dead being friends with a Tea Party protester. Instead, they hang with the Wall Street fat cats they are risking their next elections to protect.

FoxBusiness.com reported the following: "About 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers, sat down for a private meeting Thursday afternoon with two of the most powerful Republican lawmakers in Congress: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas who runs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, one of the primary fundraising arms of the Republican Party."

No, there's no question as to why they are being obstructionist again. They and their buddies stand to lose billions from regulations that would disallow them from screwing you and me any further. Follow the money.

The New Priorities of the Republican Party

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:09:38 -0400

I posted here almost a year ago my thoughts about the Republican Party and their new principles. Amazingly, I was more prophetic than I thought, as the GOP has moved even further towards the extremist right wing. As another year has gone by, I wanted to list what I believe are Republican Party priorities.

As a 2009 Republican:

I COMMIT TO protect my personal income as highest priority, even if the Party represents none of my other principles.

I COMMIT TO scorn the needy as lazy, drug addicted or criminals.

I COMMIT TO concern myself with self first. I got mine, screw everyone else.

I COMMIT TO fear, hate or scorn all non-Americans because they either hate America or are trying to steal our jobs.

I COMMIT TO call all proposals by the Democratic Party Socialist or Fascist, even if the same idea was proposed by Republicans in the past. If necessary, I'll call Obama a Nazi or Hitler or Chavez.

I COMMIT TO equate Socialism to Communism so people fear it, ignoring the examples of Canada, Australia and all of Europe.

I COMMIT TO attempt to convince everyone that Socialism is a political system, not an economic system, so they think it eliminates voting and means government oppression.

I COMMIT TO lie about the health care systems of other nations and, regardless of the facts, declare that America has "the best health care system in the world." When I hear people from countries with universal health care state that they love their health care system, I will place my fingers firmly in my ears, yell "neener neener neener," and watch 4 hours of Glenn Beck to clear my head of information that does not support my current beliefs.

I COMMIT TO calling Medicare a failure even though it gets over 90% approval ratings from Medicare recipients, to calling the Post Office a failure while paying only 42 cents to send a letter 3,000 miles away, and to using the department of motor vehicles as an example of bad government because they were terrible many years ago.

I COMMIT TO assume Americans are gullible and stupid, easily falling for soundbites, catch phrases and visual images of us dressed up like rebels while we tear open Lipton tea bags over a Midwestern river.

I COMMIT TO accuse those who disagree with us of being unpatriotic, Socialist and anti-American, while acting offended if the same tactic is used against me. The difference is, we're right and liberals hate America.

I COMMIT TO never doubt that Jesus was a white Republican and that He preached guns, small government and government-enforced Christianity.

I COMMIT TO believe everything Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity say and to do whatever they tell me to. I will declare this godly triad to be impartial, educated and not drug addicted.

I COMMIT TO lie and exaggerate when necessary, like saying there were 1 million people at the September 12 DC protest when the official estimates were around 70,000, knowing the ends justify the means, and that Jesus will forgive me.

I COMMIT TO defend the racist things I do by saying, "There you go again with the race thing. It's not about race." This will silence my enemies, even though they will still know I'm racist.

I COMMIT TO attempt to convince other American workers that it is in their best interest to defend the wealthy, letting them think we are the Party of the little guy. Even though deregulation and the Bush tax cuts for the rich failed and caused a massive worldwide economic crisis, I'll still call for more of the same because it worked in the 1980s.

I COMMIT TO believing that the wealthy and corporations have the best interests of America and the little guy, while volunteers, non-profits and community organizers want nothing but to destroy America.

I COMMIT TO crying out for "small government" without defining it when the Democrats are in power, then defend massive spending by Republicans when we are in power. If a liberal calls me on this, I will claim that I "was the first person to speak out against Bush and the massive government spending," without any evidence of this, such as a single tea party or DC protest.

I COMMIT TO forgive all Republican sexual indescretions, even the homos, while still acting like it's the Democrats that lie and cheat on their wives.

I COMMIT TO using opposites to confuse the stupid, like saying the public option will reduce our options, and saying, "I don't want the government between me and my doctor" while calling for laws to put the government between a pregnant woman and her doctor.

I COMMIT TO put up token minorities in figurehead positions to distract from racist and xenophobic policies. Black men are preferred to them Mexicans.

I COMMIT TO say I want "the government out of our lives," while forcing others to obey my rules on marriage, abortion, sexuality, and anything else that I believe is right.

I COMMIT TO watch only Fox News. If someone calls me on that, I'll say that I watch CNN, too, even though that's only to watch Larry King.

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Right wingnuts can disagree with this, but they'll have no evidence or facts to justify their opinions. Most likely they'll call me names, call me unAmerican, or threaten me.

The Blame Obama First Crowd

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 23:09:59 -0400

There is a small but loud segment of the U.S. population that will take every opportunity to blame President Obama, and "the liberals," for everything from national debt to their own hangnails. My aunt is one of them. She sends me anti-Obama and anti-liberal emails on a regular basis.

The latest email is below, indented in black, with my comments after it in blue. I don't have a source for this email, but I suspect it's a 75 year old southern male with a Reagan portrait on his wall next to his authentic Confederate sword and his dial telephone.

The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 - they've had 234 years to get it right; it is broke, and even though heavily subsidized, it can't compete with private sector FedExp and UPS services.

Social Security was established in 1935 - they've had 74 years to get it right; it is broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - they've had 71 years to get it right; it is broke. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; it is broke. Together Fannie and Freddie have now led the entire world into the worst economic collapse in 80 years.

The War on Poverty was started in 1964 - they've had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our hard earned money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 - they've had 44 years to get it right; they are both broke; and now our government dares to mention them as models for all US health care.

AMTRAK was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; last year they bailed it out as it continues to run at a loss!

This year, a trillion dollars was committed in the massive political payoff called the Stimulus Bill of 2009; it shows NO sign of working; it's been used to increase the size of governments across America, and raise government salaries while the rest of us suffer from economic hardships. It has yet to create a single new private sector job. Our national debt projections (approaching $10 trillion) have increased 400% in the last six months.

"Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009 - - after 80% of the cars purchased turned out to be produced by foreign companies, and dealers nationwide are buried under bureaucratic paperwork demanded by a government that is not yet paying them what was promised.

So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that each and every "service" shoved down our throats by an over-reaching government turns into disaster, how could any informed American trust our government to run or even set policies for America's health care system - - 17% of our economy?

Maybe each of us has a personal responsibility to let others in on this brilliant record before 2010, and then help remove from office those who are voting to destroy capitalism and destroy our grandchildren's future.

Now it's my turn.

Yes, we should take everything out of the hands of failed government, and instead depend on the private sector, who is doing a MUCH better job. For example:

Enron · Countrywide Financial · GM · Chrysler · Wells Fargo · JPMorgan · Citigroup · Goldman Sachs · Frontier Airlines · New Century Financial Corporation · Woolworths · American Freedom Mortgage · American Home Mortgage · Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC · Charter Communications · Lehman Brothers · Linens 'n Things · Mervyns · NetBank · Terra Securities · Sentinel Management Group · Washington Mutual · Icesave · Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander · Yamato Life · Circuit City · Allco Finance Group · Waterford Wedgwood · Saab Automobile · BearingPoint · Tweeter · Babcock & Brown · Silicon Graphics · Conquest Vacations · General Growth Properties · Thornburg Mortgage · Great Southern Group · Eddie Bauer · Nortel

Which of these company's CEOs do YOU want to trust American health care with? And where did these companies go when they failed to succeed in the free market? The government, that's where. Maybe you would prefer the CEOs of the health insurance companies that DO control your options. This is a partial list, with salaries:

H. Edward Hanway, Chair/CEO, Cigna Corp., $30.16 million
Ronald A. Williams, Chair/CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834 (2007)
David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc., $20.06 million
Jay M. Gellert, President/CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529 (2007)
Raymond McCaskey, CEO, HCS, (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million (in 2007; up 78% from 2006)
Angela F. Braly, President/CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771

When you think we can't afford a public option, look above so you can understand why premiums are increasing so quickly and why we can't afford to continue with our current failed system. These are the CEOs that are spending billions of company dollars that could be paying for life-saving surgeries to fight health care reform. What I think is hilarious, and I believe the above CEOs laugh about, is that the very people these companies are screwing - the working class - are the ones screaming down representatives and having teabagging parties in order to defend their ridiculous salaries. As always, the ignorant are used as pawns for the rich and powerful, unknowingly playing into their propaganda campaigns.

Now, back to the email...

The US Postal Service - where else can you pay less than 50 cents to send a letter from New York to Hawaii?? Not UPS or FedEx. The post office is independent from the federal government and gets NO federal funds beyond money to cover government-mandated free and reduced rate postage for government mailings, non-profits, the blind and overseas voters. However, UPS and FedEx have gotten federal stimulus money. Moreover, the post office is price-regulated by the government so they can't charge more for longer distances or for rural deliveries. In spite of all that, and even when gas prices tripled, the USPS has posted losses that are about equal to what they have to pay into their employee retirement fund that was established by the government. In other words, while private organizations simply file bankruptcy, rob their pension funds, and screw retirees, the USPS is continuing to pay into retirement benefits. So the USPS is a perfect example of how WELL a government program can succeed.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were PRIVATE companies in September 2008, when, even though they were both solvent and profitable, the Republican government determined they were over-leveraged and took control of them. Yes, the Republicans admitted the government could do a better job than a private company. If the government had been running those two organizations, they would NOT have done the mortgage game-playing that caused the economic crisis of today. It was PRIVATE companies that caused that, and the government who is fixing it. Score another one for an anti-government email missing their mark completely.

I'm not sure what the writer means by the "War on Poverty." Maybe welfare? And how does he conclude it "hasn't worked?" I don't see Americans starving in the streets, like they are in pure-capitalist-democracy India. I don't see churches having to cut back on their new buildings and wings and pastor salaries because they have to use those funds to help those less fortunate. To me, that means government programs have worked. The reason there's still poverty at all, though, is because 10% of Americans control over 70% of our wealth, and, for the sake of stock prices, corporations have been screwing American workers for decades. Wealth disparity is higher than it was even during the 20s, right before the Great Depression. The money is not trickling down because Reagan's ideas no longer apply in an international financial system. Poverty continues to exist in America not because government programs have failed, but because the government has allowed excessive greed and corruption to flourish.

Amtrak is a private organization that takes federal funds. It is totally corrupt and a large part of those federal funds go to lobbying for MORE federal funds. Amtrak should be eliminated, and, like the successful rail systems throughout Europe, the federal government should operate a nationwide light rail system. The comments above about Amtrak are actually GOOD arguments for government doing a better job than private industry.

Cash for Clunkers did not go broke. It was funded with $1 billion, then $2 billion more. Americans loved it so much it reached its funding limit and was ended - under budget. That's like saying that when a concert sells out and doesn't sell any more tickets, the fact that no more tickets are for sale shows it failed. "That concert is such a failure, you can't even buy tickets if you want to!"

Moreover, stats show that about 42,000 American jobs were saved with this successful program. What do you think it would have cost taxpayers if those jobs were lost? Just the federal income tax loss would have been over a billion dollars. And Japanese cars only counted for 41% of the program, with the vast majority of those Made in America by American workers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/31/ap/government/main5278170.shtml

If Medicare is so bad, then why do people who get it defend it so much? Why aren't older Americans fighting to end Medicare? Why isn't the AARP fighting to end Medicare? The answer is because, until Bush created the retail-price-for-prescription-drugs add-on to Medicare, it was going very well and it worked. The Republicans always say government programs fail. When the aren't failing, the Republicans MAKE them fail to prove their point. If Bush had added a prescription drug program to Medicare, and allowed Medicare to negotiate bulk rates on drugs, as all private insurance companies do, then Medicare would be just fine. Score another against the Republicans.

The stimulus bill shows NO signs of working? Let's see - the Dow dropped from over 11,000 to 8,500 under Republican control due to their deregulation. With the Democrats in power, the stimulus bill was passed in late February. Money started paying out from the stimulus funds in March. What happened to the Dow? Look at it yourself. It's almost back to 10,000. The ONLY change was the stimulus bill and "Cash for Clunkers."

Jobless rates are improving in the last two months, and economic indicators are improving worldwide. Yes, the stimulus plan is working. And we did it without drill-baby-drilling. It's still a bit early for me to be totally optimistic (unlike the right wingnuts, who were declaring the stimulus bill a failure before it was passed), but it looks to me like that young black guy with the foreign sounding name is doing a good job.

Of course the email ends in the usual Republican fear-mongering scare tactics; The liberals want to destroy capitalism! The liberals want to destroy our grandchildren's future! They're sending out letters to veterans encouraging them to commit suicide! Health care reform means the liberals want to kill grandma and autistic babies with death panels! It's so pathetic and so 1980s. It didn't work to get McCain elected, and it won't work to stop health care reform. If it does anything, it will be to incite one or more psycho militia-types to try to assassinate President Obama. If that sounds good to you, be prepared for the backlash if it happens, because liberals have guns, too.

Back to Work - Criticizing the Right for Ongoing Idiocy

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:04:22 -0400

I haven't blogged here for a while. Obama won, I felt positive for my efforts, and I moved on to the "real world" outside politics. Well, events of late have brought out the activist in me again, as I watch members of my former party, the Republican Party, take their idiocy to new levels.

For those who don't know, I was a Republican for 27 years before deciding to support Barack Obama for President this past election. I got a lot of flack, but continued to call myself a true Republican. After President Obama took office, watching the Republican Party continue its shift to the extremist right and choose a path of obstructionism, I decided to leave the Party and become an Independent. While I still hold to the founding principles of the Republican Party, I feel I can no longer associate with the ignorance and extremism of the current Party leadership.

With that said, I feel I have a level of insight that allows me to criticize the newest explosion of idiocy from the Republicans, these so-called protests that they are calling, much to my happiness, "Tea Bagging Parties." Even though I want to join in the fun of laughing about the term, "tea bagging," I'll just let you click on this link to watch Rachel Maddow have the fun.

The Boston Tea Party was one of this nation's founding protests, a precursor to the Revolutionary War, based on taxation without representation. Trying to bring the emotions we Americans have had embedded in us through our public educations about this event into the current day, the Right is calling their anti-Obama protests "Tea Parties." They're sending tea bags to Democrats in Congress and President Obama, they're gathering and polluting rivers and oceans with teeny bags of Lipton tea, and they're gluing up the Internet with their ravings of over taxation and government spending abuses. It's an embarrassment to the memory of the patriots who risked their lives at the Boston Tea Party for freedom to see these arm-chair activists "play patriot," with their zero-risk photo opps, patting each other on their backs for taking a couple hours out of their year to "fight."

How can I criticize Americans for gathering together to protest government waste? Certainly I agree with the idea that spending is out of hand. However, these partisans are late to the party, so to speak. President Bush was the biggest-spending president in world history. Yet, these partisans were silent then, except for a few anti-stimulus blog posts. These Republican-Party-first-America-second twits were happy to allow their party to spend spend spend. Only now, when it's a Democratic president, do they come out and act all appalled at spending. The hypocrisy, which was so obvious during the 2008 presidential campaign, continues unabated and unrecognized by their own party members and leaders. These "protests" are actually bitter Republican "we are still angry that Obama won" protests, not taxation protests.

I don't blame Republican political organizations like the Republican Party and FoxNews for jumping in front of this moron-parade and trying to get some traction out of it. It's the closest thing they have to an agenda or purpose. Floundering around for the past year with no vision, no ideas, no coordination, no leaders and no brains, the Republican Party is effectively dead (something I declared last October).

Ten years ago I would have joined in with this "movement." I was a typical Republican, gladly smearing the opposition, knowingly lying and laughing about the idiocy of my statements. I was a typical elitist, thinking the masses were stupid, and participating in propaganda designed to push the stupid masses to vote the way we wanted. But the last eight years changed me. I realized that there was another level of elitist that thought I was stupid, and used me for their own purposes. So I started thinking for myself, turned the channel away from FoxNews, and changed my radio station away from Rush Limbaugh. What happened was amazing. As anyone who has left a cult will tell you, it is a difficult process, but one that makes you stronger than you ever were, smarter and more observant. I started seeing reality, and I become disgusted by it.

Yesterday I was invited by the Indiana Libertarian Party to participate in one of these pseudo-protests in Indianapolis. As a libertarian at heart, I've always hoped the LP would organize like adults and become a true third party I could support. So, seeing this, I criticized their participation. I was informed, however, that they are planning to "crash" the party, distribute literature, as opposed to joining the idiocy. That is a good thing, and I might go to help them. Anything that can put actual information instead of propoganda into the hands of these misguided patriots is a good thing. I only worry that the type of Republicans who will be attending this event are too far gone, too closed minded, and possibly too illiterate, to be changed by facts.

What do you think of these Tea Baggers? Is it a much-needed positive galvanization of patriots, or a simple idiot parade meant to disrupt the Obama agenda? You know what I think, but, after changing my political views several times in my life, I am convinced that I could be wrong again. If you don't agree, please try to change my mind.

A Grassroots Inaugural Event Takes Hold

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:01:04 -0500

Millions of Americans will be heading to Washington, DC, next week to celebrate President Elect Obama's inauguration. The wealthy, the politically connected, and the famous will be rubbing elbows and downing Appletinis with politicians at various invitation-only luxury Inaugural Balls.

Two grassroots volunteers took it upon themselves to take what they learned working within Obama's campaign on the ground to attempt to create a Grassroots Ball for "regular" Obama supporters. "I launched an email the Friday after the election and the first person to respond is now my co-organizer, Mary Ritter," said organizer, Jacqueline de Floris. "By the end of the weekend, we had a committee."

The original idea spread through the MYBO Groups (lists of Obama supporters within groups signed up at my.barackobama.com) and lead to hundreds of respondents expressing interest. The idea ebbed and flowed, up and down, and this is Jackie's story:

It has been a roller coaster ride, days and nights of work, moments of excitement and disappointment, but always that Hope that first found a little spark when Obama spoke at the DNC in 2004.

Over the weeks, we considered a hotel ballroom, and a former NYT journalist who had heard about the event from friends and loved the idea, put us in touch with Barbara Boggs at Washington Link. It looked like we were all set to go at the Ronald Reagan Building, but that's when things started to complicate for us, like they did, we learned, for just about everyone else. Right around Thanksgiving.

Our major sponsor -- a prominent African-American lawyer from Mississippi and member of the Obama National Finance Committee -- on the brink of making a wire transfer -- sent an email that carried a whiff of menance, "On conference call now. PIC said to be looking to hold free events for the people." By the end of a couple more days, he was talking about bringing us on to the planning of a major stadium event, if our sponsors would come with us. We had raised some $20,000 from our contact list. I wasn't convinced. It wasn't what we had intended to do, and it didn't suit our mission.

But looking back, we now see that moment as our turning point. It likely was for the many who cancelled events, including BTE due to layoffs in their company right at that time, and MTV for the Reagan Building, too, we just learned. They lost a hefty deposit, having held the building for two days. We preferred not to commit, but The Ritz-Carlton called to offer their grand ballroom and worked with us to create a menu that allowed prices in line with The Peace Ball, the closest to our own in philosophical and political identity.

Nonetheless, time had passed. A lot of time. The euphoria of the post-Election days had passed, the reality of the economic situation was dampening even the greatest enthusiasm, not to mention concern for the crowds and the sheer impossibility of getting around in Washington for those courageous to make the trip. We were up to $25,000 in individual sponsorships from our own group, but the union that was considering sponsoring us wasn't giving an answer. They wanted to, but there were budget constraints, and a decision languished while we approached our deadline to sign a contract.

A major beverage company that had contacted us wishing to sponsor the event caved when asked for a definite reply.

Then we were able to talk directly with someone on the PIC. It confirmed everything we imagined. They acknowledged they couldn't do the event we are, couldn't help us in any way, and were terribly challenged just raising the money to pay for the inauguration with the restrictions President-elect Obama had placed on inaugural fundraising. We knew they wanted to offer events for ordinary people and the volunteers, what neither they nor we could know was if they would succeed. If they did -- which we could only hope they would do -- then it could very well broadside us and take the wind out of our sails.

The Ritz-Carlton's patience and consideration of our needs alone were enough to indicate that the market was soft. We decided to return our sponsors' money and make the announcement: the Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009 for MYBO members would not happen. It was a terribly decision to make, and a harder announcement to send out.

Still, as so often is the case, our disappointment and the many emails of support and appreciation that we received motivated us to try again. We weren't against radically changing the nature of the event. Simplifying. Cutting to the essentials. The Universalist National Memorial Church offered its parlor and community hall again, and we thought, "Why not?"

"Why not?" Why ever not?" So, here we are, and here we go. If you will be in Washington for the inauguration and should find yourself near Dupont Circle, in the neighborhood of Universalist National, it would be a great delight to offer you a glass of wine, or champagne, should we have some on hand and say hello.

We will also be at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library with DC for Obama in association with Mayor Fenty's office's Day of Service, distributing food to those needier than we. Ann Crittenden, my biggest source of encouragement and support throughout the organization, cannot be with us that evening, but she might also stop by the library and join us in our response to Obama's call to service.

For more information about the MYBO Grassroots Inaugural Ball 2009, the Social and to sign up, click here.