Liberals Are Killing This Country? No, We Have Taxation Without Representation!

Liberals are not killing this country. Taxes are not evil. Stop listening to the propaganda of corporate-controlled Fox News and drinking the extreme right's Kool-Aid. If you recall, Bush came into the White House with a Democratic President-created budget SURPLUS, and rapidly changed that into a deficit. FACT!

Tax = revenue. When you don't tax, you have no revenue with which to run the infrastructure of this country. As I've posted here and, especially on Facebook, multiple times with charts and graphs and actual numbers to defend my case - the true facts (not buzz words, propaganda, lies, and rhetoric), the wealthiest Americans and corporate persons pay little to no taxes and less proportional Social Security tax compared to their income than do middle class Americans. With all the tax cuts, tax breaks, loopholes, and corporate welfare for corporations making record-breaking profits every quarter, that's one heck of a lot of revenue missing from our "baseline budget." Add to that the trillions of dollars we've spent on 3 wars, thanks for the first 2 to Bush and the third to Obama, we are STILL living in a war economy. When that happens, we usually increase taxes to pay for our war spending. What did Bush do? He cut taxes!

Baseline budgeting - get out of the wars, increase taxes (progressive, not regressive as it is now) on ALL Americans and corporations (which for the wealthiest Americans after WWII was a 90% tax rate, not the current 0-15% most actually end up paying these days) to pay for the wars, then reduce the taxes once you've paid off the war debt.

Yes, it is about budgeting. You want war? You need to raise taxes to pay for it. You want a government infrastructure so your country doesn't collapse? You make sure that ALL Americans are paying their fair share in taxes, because we all benefit. Want a viable, thriving middle class and economy? Create jobs in the USA and stop outsourcing where you can get away with paying slave wages and little to no benefits in order to increase your profits and CEO wages to ridiculously high amounts - morality and ethics be darned.

If the GOP extreme right were truly interested in helping America and Americans, they wouldn't have simultaneously introduced bills in multiple state legislatures to repeal minimum wage and child labor laws, and destroy labor unions and collective bargaining that protect the average worker from economic and personal abuse at the hands of their corporate masters. Average Americans are losing jobs, are underemployed, have their salaries frozen or cut, while the Lords of Industry have increased the income disparity (Gini coefficient) in this country to be close to that of Egypt. The average CEO earned 24x the average worker's pay in 1965. By 1979, they earned 35x more, in 1989 it was 71x more, in 1999 it was 300x more, in 2005 it was 262x more. Those same CEO's pay lower income tax rates than the average worker, and pay no Social Security tax on income over $106,800.

The people in power purposefully repealed the Glass-Steagall Act with the prior knowledge that deregulation would open the door for them to rape the economy through rampant speculation and mortgage-backed securities at the risk of another depression or recession. They did the dirty deed, and they got exactly what they wanted. It was the largest transfer of financial (including the speculative dollars, securities and bailouts) and property wealth (foreclosures) in history, and the transfer of wealth is still ongoing. The S&L debacle was their dry run.

So, don't tell me the Liberals are killing this country. We live in a corporate-controlled America. If you're an average American, you live like a vassal or serf under the watchful eyes of not-so-benevolent masters. To me, that is taxation without representation!
 
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20060621/

What's Behind this Mess in the US...and Beyond? (or Feel Like You're Talking to a Wall?)

I really think what's behind all of this mess in the US and the rest of the world is a corporate cartel that includes the Koch brothers, ALEC, Big Oil and Gas, and many other corporate cronies who are using shock, fear and prejudice to sell their propaganda. It's the "it's all THEIR fault (the poor, the African-Americans, the teachers, the ____)" we work hard for our money, they just want entitlements" approach that they're using. They dangle their wealth and the (false) possibility of acceptance into their fold to their followers like a carrot on a stick. It's like what Hitler did to rise to, and increase his power, except this bloodless coup is by the extreme right.

They're playing their well-planned chess game perfectly, making certain they gut labor unions, worker's rights, repeal minimum wage and child labor laws, and cut the social safety net and other funding, while making certain they've stacked the courts in their favor by pushing tort reform, etc. This reduces people's access to the courts, and economically and politically represses the majority of the population. They've also blind-sided education with unfunded mandates that push ineffective reforms that require teachers to teach to the test, which research has shown reduces critical-thinking skills. Of course they want an uneducated populace that can't question what they're doing. All this is only part of what's been happening.

I knew there was something really weird going down when I spoke with lots of Republican state legislators this past Spring Break up in my state capital, and they all answered my budget question with the same, exact, rehearsed, canned reply...down to the dead expressions on their faces. I could have videotaped one, and the rest would have been as identical as the verbatum bills attacking education and labor that they and their colleagues submitted across multiple states at once. Yes, the bills were exactly the same. That did not happen by chance, nor were their Stepford Republican replies. It was really freaky and unnatural. There have been multiple bills submitted across multiple states in this same way, all in some way reducing our rights, including our right to vote.

Another hint is their unwillingness to compromise. They keep pushing and pushing until the Dems give in, then they take more steps back and force the Dems to compromise more. There has been no Rep. compromise. They are close to getting what they want, and that really scares me. They've also timed this well. In an era of abject, unaware voter apathy, we've let them take away our rights and our power (Citizens United).
 
The most telling clue about the existence of a corporate cartel is the revolving door through which those in the upper echelons of corporations move between their jobs and jobs in government. First, they have in-house corporate meetings, during which they determine the policies, laws, and regulations or deregulations that will most benefit their company. Then, they slide on through that door to whatever particular job they need to acquire in or to make those policies, laws, and regulations or deregulations happens. Of course, they don't recuse themselves, either. After that, they just slip right on back around into the corporate world, in which they are often rewarded with a more lucrative and powerful position or higher compensation and benefits. This is what happened with Dick Cheney's son-in-law Philip Perry.

The American public wonders why the financial market is deregulated or the environmental and consumer protections have evaporated. How could the financial meltdown have possibly "just" happened? It's all happened as planned! All because "we the people" have been apathetic and bought into the lies, propaganda and product defense of the corporate cartel. We're too "busy" to read between the 'lyings' to save our own Democratic Republic, and ourselves.

The Human Rights Paradigm Shift to End Violence, Especially Against Women and Children

All humans and the societies in which they live are different, yet they all have beauty. When all people are valued equally in thought and deed, all people benefit. The impetus for implementing cultural education to end violence against women and girls is coming from honor killings committed in Western countries. Many cultures still consider killings based upon family honor as legally legimate. Honor killings, as these are known, are the murder of women because they have been raped, had sex outside of marriage, wanted to pursue a higher level of education, or refused an arranged marriage. Honor violence and killing is usually committed by fathers and brothers, and has generally been legally categorized under the umbrella of domestic violence in Western countries.

Women from Arabic and South Asian countries are the predominant victims of this form of gender-based violence. When people from these cultures immigrate to Western countries, they also bring their long-held cultural beliefs with them. Many of these women do not have access to the social services of their host countries. They are also trafficked against their will as "brides" back to their former countries. There is a need to be culturally sensitive towards immigrants, up until the point at which another human being's basic human rights are violated. At this point, the interactive acculturation of people from these societies must become a legal and educational priority in those host countries to which they immigrate.

Violence against women is not only found in the original countries from which immigrants bring their belief in honor killings, but in their host countries, as well. All countries have a high level of violence against women and girls, and boys, including murder. As reported in the Daily Telegraph, the UK has committed to an age-appropriate K-12 education program to teach gender equality in the wake of many honor killings. Police from EU member states have recently met with women's organizations, social groups and educators at Europol at the Hague to strategize, seek solutions and crack down on those committing honor killings and the trafficking of women.* No matter the impetus, the education of all people of all countries of the equality, value and rights of all people, especially women and children, is needed. It should also extend to adults, and become a real presence in the media and conversations of all people, in all countries.

Women, children and other marginalized people are often caught between a rock and a hard place, with very little room or the basic human rights with which they may move beyond to a path of freedom to pursue their lives.

In all societies, including Western, the value of women and children is still obviously less than that of men because their very safety and lives are continuously and disproportionately jeopardized by violence, domestic or otherwise. This is also evidenced by the continued devaluing of traditional "women's jobs" and the wage gaps between men and women found in all societies. During the current US recession, many people in higher paying jobs are unemployed, and most of those are men. Yet those workers in lower paid, necessary service industries have retained their jobs, and most of them are women. Obviously society cannot exist without these jobs. So, now, we see lower-paid women supporting their families on low wages that are often not high enough to support themselves and their families. Now, the economic impact of this wage gap is finally being felt by large numbers of men, although it has long been felt by women and children for centuries, in poverty.

What all members of our society are living and grappling with right now is not just an economic, political or legal phenomenon. It is the direct result of a social phenomenon based upon cultural attitudes of the lower value of women and children, whether or not they are as extreme as those in societies that legitimize honor killings. Economic, political, health care, educational, and legal systems don't define a society's cultural and religious beliefs; a society's cultural and religious beliefs defines its economic, political, health care, educational, and legal systems. What is valued is priced high, has high political power, better health care and education, and is well-legislated; what is not valued is priced low, has little political power, health care, and education, and is inadequately legislated.

Economic, political, health care, legal, and educational reform must take place to ensure the equal value of all people, including women and children, as equal members of human society. Legal reform must use a zero-tolerance approach to the marginalization of and violence against any human, especially women and children, in the laws and courts of all countries. Economic reform must also highly value those jobs that perform direct service to individual members of society and society in general, even though the results of that service are not directly and rapidly felt in the economy. This must include such jobs as home health aides and teachers. Political power must be equal for all, and seen and felt in political representation, rather than the marginalization currently found. Educational reform must include teaching all people, and must teach the value and rights of all, to all. This educational reform must also include mediation and conflict resolution training, so all members of humanity can learn more effective ways to solve any problem, rather than resort to violence. Health care reform must grant all people a high basic level of health care, especially women, whose ability to bear and birth healthy children is necessary for the very existence of the human species.

Research has shown it takes three generations to make such major changes in a society. The very lives of billions of women and children are at risk, as well as the basic well-being and rights of all members of humanity, so the current generation must quickly implement these changes now. When all people are highly valued members of humanity, the myriad benefits of this reform will create a win-win situation. This will lessen the need for violence to demand basic human rights and social services. People will abhor the use of violence by one group of people against another, which will decrease violence, war and genocide. When people realize all humans are of value and utilize mediation and conflict resolution to resolve differences, we will see increased political and economic stability because we will work together to find win-win solutions, rather than compete for resources and power. When all governments adjust their legal, political, economic, health care, and educational systems to honor in thought and deed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they will respect the value and equality of people, while at the same time, retain what is unique and beautiful within all of their independent cultures. Empowerment creates positive change through cooperation, rather than the will to compete, which creates violence and war. This is a win-win solution to a win-lose problem. When all people are valued equally in thought and deed, all people benefit. All we have to do is step into the light of human rights.



*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6655561/Honour-based-violence-is-biggest-problem-facing-women.html

The California Court's Unconstitutional Proposition 8 Ruling

When basic human rights are allocated to one group, and withheld from another, human rights are being violated. It's unconscionable that human rights violations are STILL, not only being committed, but legally enabled by our courts. This is a clear violation of our Constitution, fueled by intolerance, prejudice and religious beliefs.

Any religion can determine what groups of human beings they'll marry, and that is their perogative. They can also state that marriage between a man and a woman is natural. We all have freedom of speech, however, this doesn't make what they say either factual or correct. The State, on the other hand, is secular and is charged with ensuring that all human beings receive equal rights and protection under the law. When the test of the rule of law determines inequality, it is the obligation of the court to rule on the side of equality.

This is neither a religious question nor a question of tradition. Tradition and religious beliefs, justified by scriptural interpretation, were used to pronounce the "fact" that the "negro" wasn't human and could be owned. If neither belief system had been challenged, segregation would still be legal and interracial marriage would still be against the law. It would still be illegal for women and African-Americans to vote and own property, for women to actually control their own bodies, and to pay a woman less than a man for doing the same job. These and many other human rights issues would still be alive, well, and legally "justified" in this country.

The moment someone believes that human rights can be bestowed upon one group of people at the exclusion of another, there's already an inequality. Human rights cannot be bestowed, they simply exist, should be respected and, if not, enforced by the rule of law. Human rights belong to all humans!