...unless you're rich and want to get richer. I approve of this message:[quote]In a very clever television advertisement, Delaware Senate candidate Chri..."/>
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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Why the Tea Party is not 'you'...
Monday, October 11, 2010 7:08 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:In a very clever television advertisement, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell looks directly at the camera and says to voters: "I'm not a witch. ... I'm you." In another ad, O'Donnell says that unlike her Democratic opponent Chris Coons, "I didn't go to Yale. I didn't inherit millions like my opponent. I'm you." This statement, in a nutshell, is the message of the Tea Party movement. According to Politico, the casting call for an advertisement that was recently broadcast by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in West Virginia stated that they were searching for the " 'Hicky' Blue Collar look. ... These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miners/trucker looks." Many conservative candidates this year have been tapping into the tradition of conservative populism, a tradition that has animated right-wing politics since the 1970s. In their effort to challenge the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society programs and to overcome the image of country club conservatism, many in the GOP have argued their party best represents average Americans. They have focused on social and cultural issues and anti-establishment rhetoric to claim this mantle. In 2008, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, talked about "Sam's Club Republicans." The problem they have to overcome is there is a major disconnect between their message and the record of the Republican Party in which they are running. When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, he advanced the agenda of supply side economics and economic deregulation. His policies have defined the Republicans ever since. According to Reagan, economic policies that benefited the wealthiest Americans would have a trickle-down effect that eventually helped lower-income brackets. Regressive tax cuts that benefit wealthier Americans but generate deficits were also fine since, in the long run, more revenue would flow into the Treasury from rising wages. The voices of conservatives who were skeptical of the theory of supply-side economics rapidly faded away. That includes George H.W. Bush, who in 1980 called Reagan's proposals "voodoo economics." In his book "Unequal America," political scientist Larry Bartels has documented the effect of these policies. During the conservative era of American politics, the so-called Age of Reagan, the distribution of income and wages has become more unequal in the United States than in comparable countries. "Under Democratic presidents," Bartels writes, "poor families did slightly better than richer families (at least in proportional terms), producing a modest net decrease in income inequality; under Republican presidents, rich families did vastly better than poorer families, producing a considerable net increase in income inequality." While there are a number of factors behind these changes, public policy mattered very much. According to Bartels' persuasive account, rising inequality was not just a result of natural market forces such as globalization, but also a product of partisan choices about the direction of economic and fiscal policy. Americans, he shows, in all income brackets have enjoyed more economic success when Democrats inhabit the White House. Meanwhile, the economic policies of Republican presidents, such as regressive tax cuts, have disproportionately benefited the wealthy. In another book, political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson have reached a similar conclusion. They have shown how the mobilization of business in Washington during the 1970s profoundly effected inequality. Allying with the Republican Party, the business community pushed for the deregulation of numerous industries, tax cuts for the upper-income classes and policies that weakened organized labor. The result, according to Hacker and Pierson, were policies that left working- and middle-class Americans at the mercy of powerful market forces. Playing defense, many Democrats, including President Clinton, followed this agenda as well. Although President Obama has continued part of the centrist approach of Clinton on many economic issues, he has also pursued economic policies that have focused on working- and middle-class Americans. His economic stimulus program revolved around government spending for projects that would bring jobs to the unemployed and prevent other jobs from disappearing. His health care reform will expand coverage to more than 30 million Americans who have been left outside the market. He has pushed for an extension of the Bush tax cuts to all but the highest-income Americans. To be sure, he has been far from successful. The high unemployment rate is evidence that the success of Obama's policies have been limited, and the administration made compromises that avoided more stringent constraints on powerful interests. Given the history, O'Donnell's ad, as good as it is as a piece of political theater, has its problems. Her website suggests that O'Donnell, like most Tea Party candidates, will not depart that greatly from the GOP's economic policies of tax reductions, deregulation and the curtailment of government spending. It might very well be that O'Donnell is one of us, but her party's economic policies have tended to benefit a very narrow and well-off portion of the population.
Monday, October 11, 2010 8:08 AM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Monday, October 11, 2010 8:25 AM
Monday, October 11, 2010 9:15 AM
AURAPTOR
America loves a winner!
Quote: The casting language did not come from the NRSC. An NRSC vendor told the talent agency, in an e-mail provided to POLITICO: "So here’s what we need for casting ... 2 featured characters that will be talking to each other at a diner, conversation back and forth. ... One male- Age about 55.- Looking for someone to represent the middle of the country… Ohio, Pittsburgh, West Virginia area- Middle class ... One male- Age about 45- Middle class- Again, should represent the Ohio, Pittsburgh, West Virginia area of the country." Brian Walsh, the NRSC's communications director, said: “West Virginians understand that most commercials on television are produced by outside professionals with actors in studios. While it is one thing for actors to impersonate someone they’re not because it’s their job, it is entirely different when a governor is doing that so he can get promoted.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43254.html#ixzz1250AmbPr
Monday, October 11, 2010 9:48 AM
CANTTAKESKY
Monday, October 11, 2010 10:04 AM
WULFENSTAR
http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg
Monday, October 11, 2010 10:07 AM
STORYMARK
Quote:Originally posted by Wulfenstar: Why the TeaParty is not "you".. Because you don't have belief. Because you don't have imagination. Because you don't understand the basic tenants of freedom and true equality. Because you have been brainwashed. Because you don't have juevos. Because you, and your belief system(s), were disproved long ago and SHOULD have been left in the dust. :)P
Monday, October 11, 2010 10:16 AM
JONGSSTRAW
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: I will defend re-enactments to the death, and if nobdy played the Nazi's part in WWII, it would be a pretty pathetic re-enactment!
Monday, October 11, 2010 10:35 AM
THEHAPPYTRADER
Monday, October 11, 2010 10:40 AM
Monday, October 11, 2010 11:24 AM
Monday, October 11, 2010 11:34 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Wulfenstar: For the same reason some assclown put a cross in a pot of urine and called it art. Why some say that Israel has a right to exist. Or some say it shouldn't. Fred Phelps, Jesse Jackson, Story Mark, Niki.. You are free to be an asshole so long as you are not physically hurting someone. Its a big world and a big country. With a lot of different(and often stupid) views and ideas. Good thing about our home. We got room for it all. And the good sense to know whats stupid and whats not. Plus the written freedoms to back it up.
Monday, October 11, 2010 12:11 PM
AGENTROUKA
Quote:Originally posted by TheHappyTrader: I'm not terribly familiar with reenactments, but I'll draw a parallel to something I am more familiar to attempt to answer the question. Wagner, was a bad bad man. A musical genius who was extremely arrogant and racist. Also he was more than a small inspiration to what became the Nazi's. It a personal decision whether you can appreciate the aesthetic beauty of his music or whether you believe nothing good could come from such an evil man. Not everyone would be familiar with Wagner but I assume most everyone is familiar with star wars. Star Wars music is written in the Wagnerian style. Music like that may have never existed were it not for this evil genius. So concerning reenactments, I assume it's a personal decision whether you can aesthetically appreciate the portrayal of evil men regardless of you feelings towards those who created it.
Monday, October 11, 2010 1:30 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: Okay, that's irrelevant bullshit, in my opinion. I will defend re-enactments to the death, and if nobdy played the Nazi's part in WWII, it would be a pretty pathetic re-enactment! That's like saying anyone who portrayed the South in a re-enactment was pro-slavery; irrelevant and a ridiculous tactic, whoever uses it! You're REALLY reaching, Mike--so was the Atlantic!
Quote:The Waffen-SS (German pronunciation: [ˈvafən.ɛs.ɛs], Armed SS) was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich.[1] It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel ("Protective Squadron") or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside the Wehrmacht Heer regular army, but was never formally part of it. It was Adolf Hitler's will that the Waffen-SS never be integrated into the army, it was to remain the armed wing of the Party and to become an elite police force once the war was won.[2] During time of peace, it remained under the control of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's SS organization, through the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office). Upon mobilization, however, the SS handed over its tactical control to the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht).[3] At first membership was open to "Aryans" only in accordance with the racial policies of the Nazi state, but in 1940 Hitler authorized the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts, and by the end of the war ethnic non-Germans made up approximately 60% of the Waffen-SS.[4] After the war at the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organization due to its essential connection to the Nazi Party and its involvement in war crimes. Waffen-SS veterans were denied many of the rights afforded to veterans who had served in the Heer (army), Luftwaffe (air force) or Kriegsmarine (navy). The exception made was for Waffen-SS conscripts sworn in after 1943, who were exempted due to their involuntary servitude. In the 1950s and 1960s, Waffen-SS veteran groups successfully fought numerous legal battles in West Germany to overturn the Nuremberg ruling and win pension rights for their members.
Monday, October 11, 2010 4:09 PM
Quote: The casting language did not come from the NRSC. An NRSC vendor told the talent agency, in an e-mail provided to POLITICO...
Monday, October 11, 2010 4:31 PM
FREMDFIRMA
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 1:28 PM
JEWELSTAITEFAN
Quote:Originally posted by canttakesky: She's not talking to the tens of millions of Americans who are working 2 jobs so their children won't wear clothes to school that look like curtains, who are 2 weeks away from being on the street, who have to budget their food stamps (1 in 8 Americans are on food stamps). She is not talking to the 15-25% of Americans who are unemployed and underemployed. And she is certainly not talking to the 1.5 million homeless Americans.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 1:40 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Jongsstraw: Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: I will defend re-enactments to the death, and if nobdy played the Nazi's part in WWII, it would be a pretty pathetic re-enactment! I can't think of any possible reason for a person to do that. Re-enact both sides of the Civil War, fine. Re-enact both sides of the Revolutionary War, fine. But to dress up as a Nazi soldier to re-enact WWII is beyond the pale of good taste. I wonder if they re-enact the activities of the SS Einsatzgruppen soldiers. They were the rear guard to the advancing SS Waffen troops. They would come in later, after the fighting, and round up every Jew, Gypsy, homosexual, etc. Typically there would be a festive opening pogrom, where just a few thousand would be beaten, whipped, and raped to death in the streets, while the whole town watched and/or participated in the fun. Then the other 10's of thousands would be led out of town, forced to jump naked into their own mass graves in a nearby ravine, and then get machine gunned til they were all dead. Babi Yar was the name of a ravine in the Ukraine. 38,000 people were shot to death there in 2 days. Row after row, machine-gunned, then had dirt poured on top, then the next row of victims right on top of the last. Three people actually crawled out and survived out of 38,000. As the Waffen SS swept across Ukraine, southern Russia, and the Balkans, if there wasn't a ravine or pit handy, then the Germans simply had them taken to Chelmo or Treblinka, or any of over 3000 death camps and had them gassed. So why would a person want to dress as a Nazi and re-enact any of that? Sickest of the sick only.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 3:24 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Jewelstaitefan: Incorrect, that is who she is, that is why she took a very long time to pay back her student loans,...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 3:36 PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 4:10 PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 6:09 PM
Quote: I don't know why all the stuff about reenactment is over here...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 9:17 PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 9:54 PM
Quote:Originally posted by TheHappyTrader: Sorry, I guess evil was just my opinion of him. He was an ass and wrote essays and such on how Jews were inferior and couldn't make real music and the like (I know I'm paraphrasing something fierce). I suppose it doesn't help that my music history professor really hated the guy. She pointed out areas of the world where his music is still banned and how Wagner lived to see the beginnings of what would eventually become the NAZI philosophy and seemed to endorse it. You learn somethin' new everyday. I remembered what my professor told me (which colored my initial opinion) and enough to pass the test. I didn't do any additional research (hard to find that kind of time and motivation when juggling several performing ensembles and other classes) and didn't even know anti-semitism was en vogue and acceptable at Wagner's time. Thank you for the correction and I humbly bow before your superior knowledge in this area. Still, my original point of appreciating aesthetic quality in spite of moral disagreements stands.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:08 AM
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:19 AM
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