Hypocritical Oath

"I am not a racist. I am simply a person speaking up to make sure patients don't get hurt by the government and by insurance companies...Because I've been so effective in pointing out how the government plans are going to hurt patients in very serious ways ... the only way they can neutralize my message is to discredit me personally."

David McKalip
Florida surgeon
Sender of image below via e-mail


"...The image is a pastiche. Obama's head is grafted onto a picture of a man wearing nothing but bead necklaces and a loincloth, his legs spread wide, his long, thick fingers grasping a stick in front of him. There's a bone through his nose and a confection of feathers and flowers on his head. The picture evokes the world of National Geographic that once gave children a guiltless excuse to indulge their curiosity in the flesh. Under the witch doctor picture is the slogan "Obama Care," with the red, white and blue campaign symbol serving as the O and a sickle and hammer as the C.

The statement McKalip and his cohort were making is thus a political pastiche as well: Obama is foreign, strange, not "natural born"; half-naked, he is a figure of danger, seductive perhaps for his exoticism, his magic--the promise of cures--but ultimately loathsome, at once clownish, somehow thrilling to confront but also frightening, certainly not someone a white man would want to leave alone with his daughter... and a communist to boot..."

Joann Wypijewski
Read more of Red Scare, Black Scare at The Nation.



"I genuinely regret the decision I made in passing this e-mail message along. Directly to President Obama, I sincerely apologize for offending him. This was, in no way whatsoever, my intention. The image has nothing to do with my feelings or thoughts on any race or culture. I recognize that this image is offensive and hope that the nation refocuses on assuring all Americans have access to high-quality, affordable health care with no party interfering in the patient-physician relationship. My intention is to focus directly on the issue at hand, which is putting financial and decision-making power into the hands of patients and taking it from government and insurance companies."

David McKalip's apology

Turn Your Head And Cough

"The amount of death and disease would be less, if all disease were left to itself."

Dr. Jacob Bigelow
1835

Nobody Said It Was Going To Be Fair

"Millions of people — in small islands, least-developed countries, landlocked countries as well as vulnerable communities in Brazil, India and China, and all around the world — are suffering from the effects of a problem to which they did not contribute."

Angelica Navarro
Chief climate negotiator for Bolivia

"Privately, we already hear the simmering resentment of diplomats whose countries bear the costs of our emissions. I can tell you from my own experience: It is real, and it is prevalent. It's not hard to see how this could crystallize into a virulent, dangerous, public anti-Americanism. That's a threat too. Remember: The very places least responsible for climate change — and least equipped to deal with its impacts — will be among the very worst affected."

Senator John Kerry


"That, in a nutshell, is the argument for climate debt. The developing world has always had plenty of reasons to be pissed off with their northern neighbors, with our tendency to overthrow their governments, invade their countries and pillage their natural resources. But never before has there been an issue so politically inflammatory as the refusal of people living in the rich world to make even small sacrifices to avert a potential climate catastrophe. In Bangladesh, the Maldives, Bolivia, the Arctic, our climate pollution is directly responsible for destroying entire ways of life — yet we keep doing it."

Naomi Klein
Read Climate Rage @Rollingstone


“Man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Senator Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)
Senate Committee on the Environment

"There are very few objections to the theory as a whole; everyone in the scientific community agrees that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is on the rise, and almost everyone believes that it cannot help having some effect. To declare, as some editorialists have done, that the warming has not yet appeared and therefore the theory is wrong is like arguing that a woman hasn't yet given birth and therefore isn't pregnant."

Bill McKibben
The End of Nature

"The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability."

Jerry Falwell
Religious Capitalist

When Two Roads Collide

“It’s time to heed the call from General McKiernan and others for more troops. That’s why I’d send at least two or three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan. We also need more training for Afghan Security forces, more non-military assistance to help Afghans develop alternatives to poppy farming, more safeguards to prevent corruption, and a new effort to crack down on cross-border terrorism. Only a comprehensive strategy that prioritizes Afghanistan and the fight against al Qaeda will succeed, and that’s the change I’ll bring to the White House.”

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
2008 Presidential Campaign

"The Taliban often came into the village to ambush convoys, and then almost immediately the foreign air strikes hit us. Our children were killed; our crops were destroyed; our homes were damaged. There was nothing left for us there."

Afghan Villager


"The foreigners would bombard us, and the Taliban would come in and demand that we give them our sons...The Taliban have swarmed the village and have established checkpoints and outposts everywhere. Believe me, if there were even a slight possibility of return, I wouldn't be here. But there is none."

Sultan Mohammad
Afghan father


"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

President Barack Obama

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

Lewis Carroll

Walls Of Dreams & Nightmares

"America was and is the immigrant's dream."

Don DeLillo

"As you know, I'm an immigrant. I came over here as an immigrant, and what gave me the opportunities, what made me to be here today, is the open arms of Americans. I have been received. I have been adopted by America."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Reagan went to Berlin and said, ‘Tear down this wall.' We went to San Diego and said, ‘Build a fence.’ It was just stupid. You have Hispanics saying, ‘I’m not going to vote for those guys because they don’t like me.’ ”

Dick Armey
Freedom Works lobbyist

Read Dick Armey Is Back on the Attack
@ New York Times Magazine


"...José and Victoria don’t like talking about their journey into America - that episode in their life is over. But the kids can’t keep from recounting the story, and the memory of the blisters on their feet walking north through the desert with their mother.

Ask José why he came here, and he will say he wanted a job with a wage that could support his family. He entered the U.S. legally with a work visa, but decided not to return after it expired.

Ask him why he stayed, and the undocumented Mexican sounds more like a patriot than an alien..."

Read more of A delicate existence: Undocumented and living on a Wisconsin dairy farm
at Wisconsin Watch

“I love this country (USA) because there are many opportunities, many jobs — not like in Mexico, and it’s more beautiful. Wherever one goes, one sees beautiful pastures.”

Jose
Undocumented worker living in Wisconsin

Tea'd Off

“Nobody has ever lived on this earth with the prosperity, the tranquillity, the safety, the security, the freedom and the peace that we Americans have enjoyed. Europe is governed by a concern for the well-being of the collective. That’s what they care about. What makes us different is we begin with the liberty of the individual. We got it right, and they got it wrong.”

Dick Armey
Former Republican House Majority Leader
Currently paid $500,000 annually as a Freedom Works lobbyist and TEA Party organizer

Political Fore Play

"Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people."

Paul Wellstone


"Only two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle, those with absolute power and those with none and no desire to get any...everyone else who wants to be effective in politics has to learn to be ‘unprincipled’ enough to compromise in order to see their principles succeed."

Saul Alinsky
Community Organizer

Dobbs Stories - The Turd Degree

“You know, I discern more of a difference between then, which was under the Bush administration whom I was criticizing, and now, when it is the Obama administration and an entirely different tone was taken."

Lou Dobbs
Former CNN Commentator

Bootstrap Mentality

"The reason people are poor in America is not because they lack money, it's because poor people in America lack values, character, and the ability to work hard."

Bill Cunningham
Conservative Radio Talk Show Host



"Every American kid should be required to watch videotape of the poor in New Orleans and see how they suffered because they couldn't get out of town. And then every teacher should tell the students, "If you refuse to learn, if you refuse to work hard, if you become addicted, if you live a gangsta life, you will be poor and powerless just like man of those in New Orleans."

Bill O'Reilly
FOX News Talk Show Host and Former War Correspondent

Cutting The Mustard -- Grey Poupon Economics

"We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all."

Brian Griffiths
Goldman Sachs

Fiasco Conservatism

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."

John Stuart Mill
Economist (1806-1873)

A Room Without A View

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.



So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Kumbaya My Elephant

“Support our troops—bring them home” and “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

“No conservative reads those bumper stickers and thinks, ‘Hmm . . . so liberals are patriotic! We liberals are universalists and humanists; it’s not part of our morality to highly value nations. So to claim dissent is patriotic—or that we’re supporting the troops, when in fact we’re opposing the war—is disingenuous.

“It just pisses people off.”

Jonathan Haidt
University of Virginia

“Liberals tend to have a very optimistic view of human nature. They tend to be uncomfortable about punishment—of their own children, of criminals, anyone. I do believe that if liberals ran the whole world, it would fall apart. But if conservatives ran the whole world, it would be so restrictive and uncreative that it would be rather unpleasant, too.”

Jonathan Haidt
University of Virginia

“They’re driven by the idea that God gave man dominion over the earth, and keeping the planet healthy is our sacred responsibility. If we simply rape, pillage, destroy, and consume, we’re abusing the power given to us by God...The climate crisis and the economic crisis are interesting, because neither has a human enemy. These are not crises that turn us against an out-group, so they’re not really designed to bring us together, but they can be used for that. I hope and think we are ready, demographically and historically, for a less polarized era.”

Jonathan Haidt
University of Virginia

Read Liberals-Arent-Un-American-Conservatives-Arent-Ignorant by Tom Jacobs @ Utne Reader.

Red State Values

"A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions, so as to consolidate the collective life of the Party and the masses; he should be more concerned about the Party and the masses than about any individual, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a Communist.

Every comrade must be brought to understand that the supreme test of the words and deeds of a Communist is whether they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people. "

Mao Zedong
The Little Red Book

"Reagan Conservatives are those who don't compromise their values. The Republican party needs that these days...yet it seems difficult to find them. Republicans also need someone who can actually orate--someone who is not like a McCain. The Democrats seem to find plenty of skilled salesmen for their cause...but the Republicans are the ones who need them...

"...Conservative values are backed up by historical precedent, logically derived principles, and prudence (practicality). Conservatives love facts. Liberals, Socialists, Communists, and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists hate facts, because to them facts are pernicious things that get in the way of a good ideology--and their irresponsible actions. Speaking of facts, anyone who checks into them will fairly quickly learn that it's Conservatives who make up the intellectual party in politics. Liberals co-opted--that is, stole--that concept in order to grab power..."

Read more @American Conservative Values.

"Americans will respect your beliefs if you just keep them private."

Bill O'Reilly

The International Democracy Conspiracy Continues...

An International Democracy Conspiracy?

"A proper measure of democracy should be put into effect in the army, chiefly by abolishing the feudal practice of bullying and beating and by having officers and men share weal and woe. Once this is done, unity will be achieved between officers and men, the combat effectiveness of the army will be greatly increased, and there will be no doubt of our ability to sustain the long, cruel war.

Anyone should be allowed to speak out, whoever he may be, so long as he is not a hostile element and does not make malicious attacks, and it does not matter if he says something wrong. Leaders at all levels have the duty to listen to others. Two principles must be observed: (1) Say what you know and say it without reserve; (2) Don't blame the speaker but take his words as a warning. Unless the principle of "Don't blame the speaker" is observed genuinely and not falsely, the result will not be: "Say what you know and say it without reserve."

Both in the army and in the local organizations, inner-Party democracy is meant to strengthen discipline and increase combat effectiveness, not to weaken them."

Mao Zedong
Little Red Book

On Second Thought...

"The socialist system will eventually replace the capitalist system; this is the objective law independent of man's will. However much the reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, sooner or later revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph.

There is a serious tendency towards capitalism among the well-to-do peasants. This tendency will become rampant if we in the slightest way neglect political work among the peasants during the co-operative movement and for a long period after.

Apart from their other characteristics, the outstanding thing about China's 600 million people is that they are "poor and blank." This may seem to be a bad thing, but in reality it is a good thing. Poverty gives rise to the desire for change, the desire for action and the desire for revolution. On a blank sheet of paper free from any mark, the freshest and most beautiful characters can be written, the freshest and most beautiful picture can be painted."

Moa Zedong
Little Reb Book

Vampire Capitalism

"Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks."

Karl Marx

Are The Times A Changin'?

“As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing”

Karl Rove
"The man who is not a socialist at 20 has no heart, but if he is still a socialist at 40 he has no head."

Aristide Briand
French Prime Minister

"We must help all the young people to understand that ours is still a very poor country, that we cannot change this situation radically in a short time, and that only through the united efforts of our younger generation and all of the people, working with their own hands, can China be made strong and prosperous within a period of several decades. The establishment of our socialist system has opened the road leading to the ideal society of the future, but to translate this ideal into reality needs hard work."

Moa Zeddong
Little Red Book


"The political party that will benefit from the coming realignment is not preordained. The campaigns, candidates, and events of the rest of this decade will determine which party gains the lifelong allegiance of this new generation and, with it, a dominant advantage in the next civic era of American politics."

Morley Winograd & Michael D. Hais
Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics

...and the walls came tumbling down

“In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.”

Fran Lebowitz

Grave Times For Dead Economists

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Economist ,journalist, financier

The Incredible Disappearing Elephant

Reporting on the new ABC/Washington Post poll has mostly focused on support for a public health care option. But the poll also shows that, while Republicans have succeeded in stonewalling Democratic initiatives in Congress, they have not managed to rebuild their party.

Only 20 percent of respondents identified themselves as Republicans -- the lowest number since 1983.

Read more @Huffington Post.

...not mention of where the TEA Party stands in the numbers.

Becking To Differ

“That's right. Our march to socialism. You know, some say that Barack Obama, that cat's a socialist, man. Others say, no, no, he's just really unlucky. Every policy he happens to support just, dumb, stupid luck, brings us toward socialism. That's it. I mean, brings us there quickly, like at a trillion times the speed of light. And I know the number "Trillion" because we seem to be using it an awful lot lately. I believe that it's just luck myself, dumb, hapless luck. Sometimes that luck works out perfectly.”

Glenn Beck


Concerning Bush's $3.1 trillion budget for 2009:

"Under the Bush administration proposal, they are building a wall of debt. At the end of his first year, the gross debt of the United States stood at 5.8 trillion [dollars]. If you look at the end of his eight years of responsibility, we see the debt as over $10.4 trillion. That is almost a doubling of the national debt on his watch."

Ken Conrad - Democrat
Senate Budget Committee Chairman

"Obama's a market guy. He's not any kind of socialist at all. He's not challenging the of corporations. The banking reforms that have been suggested are not particularly far-reaching...I mean it's laugh out loud, really."

Frank Llewellyn
Democratic socialists of America

Notes From The Ahmadinejad Wing of the GOP

"There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves."

Edwin Merwin Jr. and Jim Ulmer
GOP Party Officials From South Carolina
In newspaper op-ed piece


"...the image of the Jew as penny-pincher was a praise of Jewish frugality. In fact, it dates back to the centuries of anti-Jewish persecution in Europe, when Jews were forbidden to own land or conduct any business other than money-lending, which was closed to Christians by Church law. It is an image of a kind and of a time with forcing Jews to wear a badge on their clothing or enclosing them in ghettos, cutting them off from religious, social, and economic freedom."

Matthew Brooks
Republican Jewish Coalition

TEA Party Pooper

Hudson TEA Party