September 22, 2008
The Milkman’s Son
By Tracy C. Baker
Milked Dry#131
“Just shut up and open your wallets.”
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants you to open your wallets and bail out companies like Goldman-Sachs. Why? Because when Mr. Paulson was running Goldman-Sachs he committed fraud, increasing the debt of the company through derivatives, speculation, and sub-prime paper. He, like every other CEO and the Bush Administration, knew the game wouldn’t last forever, but as long as he was pocketing millions and billions of dollars what did he care? This is a case, as talk radio host Randi Rhodes says, of privatizing profits and socializing losses. Isn’t it amazing how much Republicans, including John McCain, love to scream “Free Markets!” “No Regs!” etc but when it comes time to pay the piper the run to the government for protection.
The ridiculous proposal before Congress now reminds me of an old Joke that went, “What is foreplay to a Redneck? ‘Shut up and get in the truck.” In this case it is shut up and open your wallets. Republican economics has for years been based on the axiom, “I have mine, now I am going to make sure you can’t have yours.” The proposal to “rescue” the economy continues that axiom. It is only three pages long and widely available on the web (forget seeing anything about the specifics on TV news) so read it if you can. Basically, it boils down to this – give me nearly one trillion dollars (that is trillion with a “T”) and then leave me alone and I will come back in six months and tell you how I am doing.
Rrriigghht!
The administration who out right lost 10 billion dollars in Iraq; who gave, from what we know, over one billion dollars to contractors like Bechtel and Haliburton for projects they never, ever completed, and then refuses to prosecute them; who has borrowed so much money from China, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and hundreds of other countries that we are on our way to third-world economic status; who aided and abetted international corporations to move jobs and their tax money off shore to the point that we now have NO manufacturing (and no manufacturing translates into no value in an economy in case you didn’t know) now wants you to hand over the money, get your nose out of “their” business and they’ll let us know whether it worked or not later…after the election.
Oh, by the way. That means no money will be left for any of those social programs you would like to see like health care, schools, food stamps, veterans benefits etc etc. Just what the Republicans have been trying to do for decades. Yeah, tell me they didn’t know this was coming.
Fini
Tracy
Monday, September 22, 2008
Monday, September 08, 2008
Milk Duds!
September 4, 2008
The Milkman’s Son
By Tracy C. Baker
Milk Duds #130
Fear and Smear
Ah, the Republican Convention. Where else can you gather a bunch of idiots who, lemming-like, will vote against their own best interest.
The Constitution has been shredded over the last 8 years and yet they quietly acquiesce because “Al Qaeda is gonna get us!”
The middle class has been brought to its knees economically and yet they listen to Bill O’Reilly and nod because “them damn gays are taking over the country!”
They have raided the treasury of this country and sold our future to China and yet conservatives cry and wail that “the Democrats will raise taxes” as our infrastructure and our dollar crumble into dust.
Oilmen and defense contractors have stolen funds meant for our soldiers who fight two wars/occupations under-equipped and under-armed (nearly 30 billion dollars in Iraq war funds are still unaccounted for.) and yet they line up in lockstep and cheer because we are “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.”
Thousands of our Veterans are ignored, disgraced and denied the rights they fought for as Republicans in Congress (including John McSame) block every attempt to get them the mental, physical, and financial help they deserve as they claim to be the true patriots (and even when a bill slips by, such as the updated GI Bill did recently, they turn-coat and claim it was their idea all along!) yet the conservative masses ignore what is before them and proclaim “God and Country come before anything else!”
Millions have lost jobs while those who haven’t have seen their incomes shrink to the lowest percentage since the Great Depression and yet they applaud and yell out “It must be the Democrats’ fault!” despite controlling all branches of government for 6 of the last 7 ½ years.
Obfuscate, Lie, Cheat, and Steal
As with the last two Presidential elections, the Republicans have no chance to win. Their desire is to simply keep it close enough to cheat their way into office. Evidence is overwhelming that Karl Rove and his minions stole the Ohio vote in 2004. As I write this, tens of thousands of ballots sit uncounted in Ohio, voting machines were tampered with, caging (removing likely Democratic voters from the roles and/or challenging voters at the booths), as in Florida in 2000, was rampant and unchecked by the Republican-controlled Secretary of States’ office, and even more voters were simply denied that chance to vote as heavily Democrat districts were shorted the machines and staffing necessary to conduct the vote.
Sadly, nothing has changed since 2000 or 2004…and we can expect more of the same in 2008. Unless the percentage of voter turn-out is overwhelming, be prepared.
Lies and obfuscation abound on the Republican side – Sarah Palin, the Dan Quayle of 2008, fit right in with her Right-wing colleagues by claiming in her acceptance speech that Community Action is nothing special (Obama helped people who lost their jobs when the steel plant they worked in was closed), being located next to Russia is Foreign policy experience (At least she could help John McSame with his geography – remember “The growing troubles on the Pakistan-Iraq border?”, and Barrack Obama has never authored any major legislation (he has authored or co-authored 7 major bills including an ethics reform bill in his first seven weeks of office.) This gay-bashing, ultra-conservative religious end-timer, who is being kept under wraps from the press while the right-wing talk shows spin her questionable background and attacks those asking legitimate questions is just perfect for a Republican candidate.
Meanwhile, McSame jumps up there and tells the world he is a reformer (who voted with President Smirky more than 90% of the time), he is patriotic (which is why he voted against Veterans Administration funding reforms 11 times, including the revised GI Bill of Rights that Smirky gave him credit for!?!), and he will never lie to you…like when he said he was for a woman’s right to choose, immigration reform, against the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and against off-shore oil drilling right up until the time he realized he couldn’t win the Republican nomination with those views so they all magically went away. In fact, if all you knew of McSame was tonight’s speech and video, you’d think he was always for the exact opposite of those things and anyone who dared prove him wrong with the cold hard facts was an unpatriotic liar and a supporter of Al Qaeda!
Just Remember, Before The Republicans Took Control…
…we had a budget surplus.
…we had the lowest unemployment rate in 3 decades.
…we were actually doing something about our crumbling infrastructure.
…real wages were rising, not declining.
…we actually had health insurance.
…we had a Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Fini
Tracy
The Milkman’s Son
By Tracy C. Baker
Milk Duds #130
Fear and Smear
Ah, the Republican Convention. Where else can you gather a bunch of idiots who, lemming-like, will vote against their own best interest.
The Constitution has been shredded over the last 8 years and yet they quietly acquiesce because “Al Qaeda is gonna get us!”
The middle class has been brought to its knees economically and yet they listen to Bill O’Reilly and nod because “them damn gays are taking over the country!”
They have raided the treasury of this country and sold our future to China and yet conservatives cry and wail that “the Democrats will raise taxes” as our infrastructure and our dollar crumble into dust.
Oilmen and defense contractors have stolen funds meant for our soldiers who fight two wars/occupations under-equipped and under-armed (nearly 30 billion dollars in Iraq war funds are still unaccounted for.) and yet they line up in lockstep and cheer because we are “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.”
Thousands of our Veterans are ignored, disgraced and denied the rights they fought for as Republicans in Congress (including John McSame) block every attempt to get them the mental, physical, and financial help they deserve as they claim to be the true patriots (and even when a bill slips by, such as the updated GI Bill did recently, they turn-coat and claim it was their idea all along!) yet the conservative masses ignore what is before them and proclaim “God and Country come before anything else!”
Millions have lost jobs while those who haven’t have seen their incomes shrink to the lowest percentage since the Great Depression and yet they applaud and yell out “It must be the Democrats’ fault!” despite controlling all branches of government for 6 of the last 7 ½ years.
Obfuscate, Lie, Cheat, and Steal
As with the last two Presidential elections, the Republicans have no chance to win. Their desire is to simply keep it close enough to cheat their way into office. Evidence is overwhelming that Karl Rove and his minions stole the Ohio vote in 2004. As I write this, tens of thousands of ballots sit uncounted in Ohio, voting machines were tampered with, caging (removing likely Democratic voters from the roles and/or challenging voters at the booths), as in Florida in 2000, was rampant and unchecked by the Republican-controlled Secretary of States’ office, and even more voters were simply denied that chance to vote as heavily Democrat districts were shorted the machines and staffing necessary to conduct the vote.
Sadly, nothing has changed since 2000 or 2004…and we can expect more of the same in 2008. Unless the percentage of voter turn-out is overwhelming, be prepared.
Lies and obfuscation abound on the Republican side – Sarah Palin, the Dan Quayle of 2008, fit right in with her Right-wing colleagues by claiming in her acceptance speech that Community Action is nothing special (Obama helped people who lost their jobs when the steel plant they worked in was closed), being located next to Russia is Foreign policy experience (At least she could help John McSame with his geography – remember “The growing troubles on the Pakistan-Iraq border?”, and Barrack Obama has never authored any major legislation (he has authored or co-authored 7 major bills including an ethics reform bill in his first seven weeks of office.) This gay-bashing, ultra-conservative religious end-timer, who is being kept under wraps from the press while the right-wing talk shows spin her questionable background and attacks those asking legitimate questions is just perfect for a Republican candidate.
Meanwhile, McSame jumps up there and tells the world he is a reformer (who voted with President Smirky more than 90% of the time), he is patriotic (which is why he voted against Veterans Administration funding reforms 11 times, including the revised GI Bill of Rights that Smirky gave him credit for!?!), and he will never lie to you…like when he said he was for a woman’s right to choose, immigration reform, against the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, and against off-shore oil drilling right up until the time he realized he couldn’t win the Republican nomination with those views so they all magically went away. In fact, if all you knew of McSame was tonight’s speech and video, you’d think he was always for the exact opposite of those things and anyone who dared prove him wrong with the cold hard facts was an unpatriotic liar and a supporter of Al Qaeda!
Just Remember, Before The Republicans Took Control…
…we had a budget surplus.
…we had the lowest unemployment rate in 3 decades.
…we were actually doing something about our crumbling infrastructure.
…real wages were rising, not declining.
…we actually had health insurance.
…we had a Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Fini
Tracy
Copyright 2008, The Milkman's Son, Tracy Baker
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