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This Really Isn't "News"

Trey Smith

Conservative groups across the US are planning a coordinated assault against public sector rights and services in the key areas of education, healthcare, income tax, workers' compensation and the environment, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The strategy for the state-level organisations, which describe themselves as "free-market think tanks", includes proposals from six different states for cuts in public sector pensions, campaigns to reduce the wages of government workers and eliminate income taxes, school voucher schemes to counter public education, opposition to Medicaid, and a campaign against regional efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

The policy goals are contained in a set of funding proposals obtained by the Guardian. The proposals were coordinated by the State Policy Network, an alliance of groups that act as incubators of conservative strategy at state level.

The documents contain 40 funding proposals from 34 states, providing a blueprint for the conservative agenda in 2014.
~ from State Conservative Groups Plan US-Wide Assault on Education, Health and Tax by Ed Pilkington and Suzanne Goldenberg ~

A lot of liberal and alternative media pundits are acting like this leaked information is big, B-I-G news, but is it really? Which of these policy initiatives is new? Which one hasn't been part of the conservative agenda in year's past?

Let's get real here, folks. This agenda doesn't look much different from the one pursued 10 or 20 years ago. Yes, some of the specific targets (issues) change with the generations, but the overall aim is the same. The elite want to eliminate the social safety net as much as possible and shift public monies into their own pockets. They also want tight controls placed on the unwashed masses, while, at the same time, they want to be freed from almost any degree of constraint.

I suppose the difference between now and twenty years ago is that this agenda is out in the open for all to see. In the olden days, the elite pursued such policy initiatives behind the scenes and the general public was none the wiser. These days, however, it's getting harder to keep one's activities under the radar...even for the elite. Someone always is ready to spill the beans.

Unfortunately, just because we know the parameters of their current blueprint, this doesn't mean we have much chance of stopping them. They hold most of the cards and they know it. In some ways, they probably don't care that we know what they are up to because we pose so little of a threat.

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Black and White

Trey Smith

In the early 1980s veteran pollster Stan Greenberg, conducted a focus group in Macomb County, a Detroit suburb, of former Democrats who had switched allegiance to the Republican Ronald Reagan. After he read a statement by Robert Kennedy about racial inequality, one participant interjected: "No wonder they killed him."

"That stopped me and led to a whole new analysis of Reagan Democrats," wrote Greenberg in a recent report, Inside the GOP. "I realised that in trying to reach this group of people race is everything," he told me.

While conducting a focus group with Republicans over the summer he had a similar revelation, although it came not from a sole outburst but almost throwaway comments, often left on cards after the session.
~ from Race Is Central to the Fear and Angst of the US Right by Gary Younge ~

It is quite normal for opposing political parties to try to block each other's paths. It is also typical that the minority party will try their darnedest to impede the agenda of the president. What is abnormal this time around is that the rabid right is so bent on thwarting this particular Democratic president that they are more than willing to turn even non-controversial issues into controversial ones.

Though the mainstream media predominantly refuses to state the obvious, anyone paying attention should know what fuels this type of behavior. Those on the far right simply cannot accept the fact that Americans twice elected a black president!

Many of these same sorts of people went after the prior Democratic president (Bill Clinton) too, but they didn't do it with such vitriol. While they may have viewed Clinton as a tax-and-spend liberal -- it is hard for me to fathom how -- he has one thing going for him: he's a white guy. Obama is not and so they have not been constrained in the least.

While I find this sort of attitude despicable, I also understand that these folks are in the minority. This is certainly not to suggest that racism is dead -- far from it -- but, just like with the issues of homosexuality and marijuana, the younger generation appears to be far more accepting than the old guard. And that goes a long way toward explaining WHY the old guard is being so loud and onerous today. They realize this might be their last gasp.

Let's Not Write Those Obituaries Yet

Trey Smith

All the recent headlines sound dire. We're told that, after another failed attempt to block the Affordable Care Act, the Republican Party is in complete disarray. They have caused themselves a serious self-inflicted wound. Their poll numbers are so way down that they might be unable to recover in time for the 2014 mid-term elections. Yes, the federal shutdown debacle could mean that the GOP might lose control of the House.

Come on now, let's get real! Political amnesia is rampant in this country. Political mistakes and miscalculations of today are easily forgotten by tomorrow. Remember back in 2004? President George W. Bush's hold on the White House was said to be in jeopardy. His administration had been caught illegally eavesdropping on Americans and the "certain" Weapons of Mass Destruction had been exposed as a grand hoax. Early in the campaign season, a lot of pundits were ready to write Mr. Bush's political obituary.

And yet, Bush won. Not only did he handily carry the Electoral College tally, but he won the popular vote by almost 2.5 percent. Despite all the controversy that surrounded his first term, the American voters handed him a second one and gave control of both chambers of Congress to the GOP.

Look at recent political history. Officeholders have been involved in sex scandals, bribery, campaign finance shenanigans and a host of other controversies and yet, time and time again, they get reelected. One year or months before the election, the pundits declare certain candidates dead in the water and yet those campaign don't drown.

So, let's not write those obituaries for the GOP yet. What took place these last 3 weeks will be all but forgotten when the 2014 campaign season rolls around. Sure, the GOP still has time to muck things up even more, but that still doesn't necessarily spell their doom. It hasn't before and it probably won't next year.

After All Was Said and Done

Trey Smith

Over the past two weeks, I haven't made that much mention about the federal shutdown. Why? Because I viewed it as little more than political theater! After all was said and done, the necessary bill was passed and, as far as I know, it didn't include anything particularly controversial. After all the debate and rancor, we're pretty much back to business as usual.

Of course, as Congress has done in the past, the political divide between the quasi sane people and the rabid right hasn't been quelled in the least. The bill passed is only a temporary measure which means we all get to watch this circus again early next year. In fact, until Obama leaves office, those zany Tea Party reps will continue to try to defund the Affordable Care Act every chance they get.

As I have noted several times before, I am NOT a fan of Obamacare. That being said, trying to defund legislation that has already passed and been signed into law is not the way to go. Instead of trying to sidetrack the Act, our representatives should try to improve it! Unfortunately, almost all of the so-called "improvements" favored by the Tea Party crowd are not improvements at all.

Straight To the Dump!

Trey Smith

As I'm sure you are aware, the federal government is in shutdown mode. We have reached this point not only because the rabid right loathes Obamacare (as I have noted before, I'm not a big fan of it either), but they keep demanding more and more draconian cuts from the federal budget. With this in mind, take a look at this blog post from Jonathan Turley.

We are buying huge planes at $50 million a pop only to roll them directly from the factories into mothballs because no one wants them. To make this even more incomprehensible, we are not even making the cargo planes. Like the Russian helicopters that the Afghans cannot fly, we are buying the cargo planes from Italy . . . and we are continuing to order more as we struggle to find places to dump them.

The dozen Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard.” We are ordering five more, which are expected to be immediately sent with the others into mothballs. The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes which will join some 4,400 other aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles at the boneyard — more than $35 billion of unused airplanes.

Is that crazy or what? We have wasted $567 million dollars on airplanes we have no use for! If the rabid right genuinely is concerned with wasteful spending, why don't they target purchases like this?

Of course, we all should know the answer to that question. Those wasted dollars serve a corporate purpose and that's all that really matters.

TYT - Politicians Caught On Mic Discussing Shutdown Strategy

Sticking It to Us Again and Again

Trey Smith

If a government shutdown genuinely shut the entire government down, you might be able to trace a few silver linings from an otherwise bad situation. Military conflicts might end (or at least be temporarily suspended), the destructive drug war might grind to a halt, mass surveillance might be put on hold and congressional legislators might be financially punished for their malicious behavior. But a government shutdown is mostly just a shutdown of good things — stuff like Head Start and food assistance to low-income moms and kids. Indeed, because of the way shutdowns are structured, the only silver lining from a budget stalemate is that you might get to hear a few curse words and see some nudity on television.

Of course, there is an insidious method to the madness of government shutdowns. In general, the dividing line between what gets shut down and what doesn’t is a similar dividing line between what America’s political culture typically venerates as The State and what that culture lambasts as The Government. Consider what will not be shut down:

• The State’s war machine is largely exempted from the shutdown. Sure, the Armed Forces’ football season is in jeopardy. But our wars will press on unabated and many military paychecks — including to private contractors — will continue to be issued, even as other federal workers are furloughed.
• Many key parts of The State’s surveillance apparatus are exempted from the shutdown. That’s not to say the shutdown affects nothing at the NSA. The agency cannot, for instance, respond to the public’s Freedom of Information Act requests (which is convenient for the NSA). And some of its employees are, in fact, furloughed. But a lot of the spying will still go on.
• Despite its failures and rampant waste, much of the Drug War is exempted from the shutdown. So are many of The State’s other police-related activities.
• The government shutdown does not affect the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to collect taxes. It only means you can’t get your tax questions answered.
• The lawmakers who orchestrated the government shutdown are exempted from the government shutdown. Yes, they will still be getting handsomely remunerated, without having to worry that they might lose their paychecks like other federal employees.

So, in sum, major portions of The State — aka the Military-Industrial Complex, the Police State, the revenue-generating apparatus of the IRS and professional politicians in Washington — are somewhat exempted from the effects of the shutdown. Meanwhile, The Government — aka the Safety Net, the Regulators and the Inspectors — gets hit hard.

At a practical level, this institutionalized double standard creates incentives for government shutdowns — at least on the political right. That’s because while conservatives loathe The Government, they love The State.
~ from GOP's Massive Fraud: The Shutdown Isn't Really a Shutdown! by David Sirota ~

There's really no need for much comment here. What Sirota basically is pointing out is that the parts of The State that might impact the corporate benefactors keeps humming along DESPITE the so-called shutdown. The parts that don't impact those same corporate behemoths in a substantial way are the ones that get shuttered or massively reduced.

Put another way, those who already slurp up egregious amounts of public dollars will still be paid, while those of us who rely on government services to survive will be punished even more than usual!

TYT - Wall Street Deregulation After Government Shutdown Ends

TYT - How Republicans Win On Budget Cuts

TRNN - Gov't Shutdown Reflects Struggle Within Capitalist Republican Elite

The Current "Hostage" Situation in DC

Trey Smith

While I certainly am not happy with the efforts of ultra conservative Republicans to shut down the federal government over their opposition to Obamacare, unlike a lot of people, I don't see anything wrong with their many votes to repeal it. Just because a bill is passed and becomes law doesn't mean that those opposed to the legislation should throw up their hands and move on to other concerns. If you believe that the direction the country is headed is wrong, you SHOULD continue to fight to steer it in the direction that you believe is better.

Let's say that a Tea Party candidate wins the presidency in some future year AND this group garners enough seats in Congress to set their agenda. If they then passed legislation that mandated that every person must own a gun OR they mandated that fundamentalist Christianity was enshrined as the national religion, I would HOPE that more progressive-minded members of Congress would try to repeal it at every opportunity. They might offer up legislation 50 times and lose all 50 votes. But I would hope that they wouldn't simply throw in the towel, shrug their shoulders and say, "Gosh, it's the law of the land now and so why fight it?"