U.S. needs its own democracy movement. February 11, 2011 By BOB HERBERT As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only. While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can’t afford them.
The poor, who are suffering from an all-out depression, are never heard from. The corporate and financial elites threw astounding sums of money into campaign contributions and high-priced lobbyists and think tanks and media buys and anything else they could think of. Home. Tea Party Splits Over Obama/Hitler/Lenin Comparison. So on one hand this is almost a story about how the Tea Party has vestigial sense of shame; on the other hand, the mere fact that they thought it was a good idea until enough people complained shows the inherent problems with the group’s political philosophy while also highlighting their historical ignorance.
If you hadn’t heard, the Iowa Tea Party covered up a billboard this Wednesday that featured a photo of President Obama flanked by Adolf Hitler on the left and Vladimir Lenin on the right. Besides being adorned with the phrases “Live Free or Die” and “Radical Leaders Prey on the Fearful and Naïve” the billboard also had the following phrases: under Hitler “National Socialism, under Obama Democratic Socialism, and under Lenin “Marxist Socialism.” Where should I begin? These people put up the President’s face next to two people guilty of committing mass genocide and they have the audacity to say Obama is playing on people’s fears??!!
What’s next? Dump Michele Bachmann: Chris Matthews Calls Bachmann a "Balloon-Head" Eugene Robinson: Reagan’s Democrats. Reagan’s Democrats Posted on Feb 8, 2011 By Eugene Robinson As we mark the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth, one of our major political parties has become imbued with the Gipper’s political philosophy and governing style. I mean the Democrats, of course. The Republican Party tries to claim the Reagan mantle but has moved so far to the right that it now inhabits its own parallel universe. Some Republicans, I suppose, might be so enraptured by the Reagan legend that they are unaware of his actual record. When he took office as governor of California in 1967, the state faced a huge budget deficit. When Reagan moved into the White House, he brought with him a theory that critics derided as “voodoo economics”—the idea that the way to balance the budget was to lower taxes, not raise them.
What eludes the GOP’s selective memory is that Reagan subsequently raised taxes 11 times, beginning with the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. Democrats sound and act almost like Reaganites. The Disastrous Legacy Of Ronald Reagan In Charts. The last three decades have seen a monumental decline in virtually every qualitative measurement in America. This can be directly linked to the conservative political paradigm that was ushered into dominance starting with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Stagnant wages, rising costs, decreasing benefits, ballooning national debt, and a loss of freedoms have been the keynote of the Reagan Era. The Drug War, Social Repression, and Incarceration Where to begin? Let’s start with the colossal failure known as the drug war. Many states had decriminalized marijuana by the 1970s. While a Harvard Study claims that legalizing drugs could save $76.8 billion per year, and 53% favor marijuana legalization, there are some vested industries at stake now, particularly the for-profit private prison/security complex who are entrenched in the bureaucratic establishment and hire powerful lobbyists to keep the drug war going.
Taxes, Economics, and Standard of Living Deficits and the National Debt. What You Need to Know About the Muslim Brotherhood | World. February 11, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. As the revolutionary upsurge in Egypt builds toward its conclusion, some of the key questions involve the role of the Muslim Brotherhood—the Islamic movement that has been characterized as anything from a benign prodemocracy force to a terrorist-inclined radical group with designs on establishing a global Caliphate.
What, exactly, is the Brotherhood? How strong is it inside Egypt? If the regime falls, will the Brotherhood take over, or is Egypt too modern, too secular, and too diverse to tolerate an Islamist-dominated government? Teachers, Players, Assassins, Spies The group known formally as the Society of Muslim Brothers was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, who from the very start promoted the slogan: "The Koran is our constitution. " For the next five decades, the Muslim Brotherhood would serve as a battering ram against nationalists and communists.