Republican Greed and Fiscal Irresponsibility: A Brief Look at the Facts

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Republican Greed and Fiscal Irresponsibility: A Brief Look at the Facts

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Am I the only one becoming nauseous over the Republican Party’s claim that they’re the party of fiscal responsibility?  And what about their claim that they're the only ones qualified to save the American middle class, or that they’re the nation’s job creators, and that they have a plan to rebuild our economy? Well, since we don’t want to go back and forth with a lot of partisan bickering over this issue, let’s just take a brief look at the Republican resume. A cursory look at the facts will tell the true story.   
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Due to the freewheeling fiscal policies of conservative Republicans, between 1986 and 1989, spanning the presidencies of Reagan and Bush Sr., the FSLIC had to pay off all the depositors of 296 institutions with assets of over $125 billion.
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Then in 1988 Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $1.3 billion. It was headed by Neil Bush, brother of George W. The investigation indicated that Bush was guilty of "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." The issue was eventually settled out of court with Bush paying a mere $50,000 settlement.
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Then there was the Lincoln Savings and loan scandal in 1987, involving John McCain. The scandal was very similar to the one that is currently playing out on Wall Street. He was one of a group of senators dubbed "The Keating Five" involved in a scandal by the same name.
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In 1976 Charles Keating moved to Arizona to run the American Continental Corporation. In 1984, shortly after the Reagan era push to deregulate the savings and loan community, Keating bought Lincoln Savings and Loan and began to engage in highly risky investments with the depositors' savings. In 1989 the parent company, which Keating headed, went bankrupt, and it resulted in over 21,000 investors losing their life savings. Most of the investors were elderly, and the loss amounted to about 285 million dollars.
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After having received over a million dollars from Keating in illegal campaign contributions, gifts, free trips, and other gratuities, the Keating Five--Senators John Glenn, Don Riegle, Dennis DeConini, Alan Cranston, and Sen. John McCain--attempted to intervene in the investigation into Keating's activities by the regulators. Later, they were admonished to varying degrees by the senate for attempting to influence regulators on Keating's behalf. Charles Keating ended up being convicted for fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, for which he received 10 years by the state court, and a 12 year sentence in federal court. After spending four and a half years in prison, his convictions were overturned. But prior to being retried, he pled guilty to a number of felonies in return for a sentence of time served.
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So we mustn’t allow ourselves to be blinded by the GOP’s incendiary political rhetoric. Just take a moment to ask yourself, who was the last Republican president who DIDN’T drag America under a bus? If you answer that question truthfully, objectively, and honestly, it will become immediately clear that entrusting this government and economy to the Republican Party would be like entrusting our children to convicted child molesters.
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The Republican congress ran in the 2010 election on the claim that their number one priority was bringing economic relief, and creating jobs for the American people. As of June of 2012, here is a list of what they’ve done in that regard:

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WHERE ARE TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST ON THIS ISSUE?

WHY AREN'T THEY TALKING ABOUT IT?

ALL WE HEAR FROM THEM IS IT'S OBAMA'S FAULT.

HMMMMM . . .

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Related Post

http://republicanjobcreation.com/

Eric L. Wattree
Http:// wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Sweet Bearer of Burden’s Plate

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Sweet Bearer of Burden’s Plate

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Sweet and innocent

Ebony woman,

Proud bearer of burden's plate,

How regally

You bare your burdensome load,
The essence of dignity

With classless mate.

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Nine months

plus ten and six you bore

Your sentence from shiftless mate;

Now

All alone, you’re left to grieve,

Your gift of love,

and your child’s cruel fate.

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Tears of sorrow in the rain,

All alone

You absorb your pain;

Four years short of twenty-one,

Of God's sweet gift

You now have none.

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But
One last task yet left to do

For your gift of love

Before you're through;
Look to God,

through lonely tears,
and thank him lovingly,

for

sixteen years.

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Scott Walker Recall: A Referendum on American Democracy

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Scott Walker Recall: A Referendum on American Democracy

The effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker in tomorrow’s Wisconsin election will undoubtedly have repercussions far beyond the boundaries of the state. Walker has come to be seen as the point man in the GOP’s concerted assault on the American middle class. All across the country GOP governors and Republican-controlled legislatures have launched aggressive campaigns to obstruct voting, bust unions, make draconian cuts to the police, fire departments, education, and social programs, all in the name of deficit reduction, only to use the resulting revenue to give huge tax cuts to large corporations and the top 1% of the population.
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In August of 2011 ThinkProgress.org reported that Walker turned away more than $9 million in grants from the Affordable Care Act. The funds were intended to address the state’s problems with drug and alcohol abuse, assessing the impact of public policies on the health of its citizens, and for signing up residents who qualify for state health programs. According to the article, health commissioners were "outraged." Reportedly, Walker indicated that the funds "duplicated existing efforts." This, in spite of the fact that Walker had "slashed $500 million from Department of Health Services and instituted a $1.6 billion reduction in public school funding." In addition, "Wisconsin is also near the very bottom of states for public health funding, ranking 49th in the nation for state funding of prevention services per capita."
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And according to an article in "Labor Notes" written by Eleni Schirmer and Lenora Hanson,"When Walker entered office in January 2011, the state had a budget surplus of more than $120 million. Walker made quick work of creating a budget crisis, allocating $140 million in corporate tax write-offs and giveaways during his first weeks in office." Thus, the GOP’s ostensible concern over the deficit appears to be nothing more than a pretext to redirect funds to corporations, the top 1% of the population, and to make absolutely certain that the poor and middle class remain miserable, angry, and divided until after the next election.
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Did I say this is a concerted effort on the part of the GOP? Absolutely.
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The Republican Party has done everything in their power to ensure that the American people remain miserable, divided, and angry until the 2012 election every since Rush Limbaugh gave them their marching orders early in Obama’s presidency. Limbaugh said, "I don't want this to work . . . I hope he [Obama] fails." And the Republicans have been on a single-minded mission to ensure Obama’s failure every since - which also means America’s failure. Thus, the GOP has, literally, been on a mission to sabotage America.
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From the moment Rush Limbaugh gave the Republican Party their marching orders, every initiative that President Obama has put forward to improve the economy and create new jobs has been met with fierce Republican opposition. They could care less that America is suffering. In fact, they want America to suffer - the more the better. All the GOP cares about is making absolutely sure that President Obama doesn’t succeed in bringing relief to the misery they caused the American people under eight years of George W. Bush..To that end, the Republicans in congress have engaged in a record number of filibusters in an attempt to block every initiative that Obama has put forward to rescue the American people. Their determination is so fierce in that regard that any Republican who fails to go along with their strategy is in dire jeopardy of being banished from congress. The attack on Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who has spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate, is clear warning to all others who fail to fall in line.
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And even those initiatives that did manage to miraculously survive were being blocked from implementation by Republican Governors across the country, under the pretense that rescuing America constituted "wasteful spending." But their concern over the budget deficit didn’t prevent Republicans for a minute from holding the unemployed hostage to extend the Bush tax cut for the rich which, to a large extent, is what brought us to this point in the first place
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The Houston Chronicle reported Texas governor, Rick Perry, as saying the following regarding federal money allocated for Texas to assist the unemployed:
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"The money would come with too many strings attached. Taking the half billion would require the state to assist qualified out-of-work residents seeking part-time jobs, an idea that Perry said the state has rejected before, partly because it could discourage them from seeking full-time employment. The federal money injection would also make Texas extend benefits to more low-paid workers, and Perry said the overall expansion would force business to make higher unemployment insurance payments."
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Perry neglected to point out that the money would also be used by the unemployed to purchase goods and services. That would stimulate the economy, and the Republicans can’t have that. Yet, after initially turning down federal money targeted at creating jobs, Perry eventually took the stimulus money. But instead of using it to create jobs and bring relief to the poor and middle class, he used it to plug his budget shortfalls and save his "rainy day fund." CNN Money reports the following:
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"Texas, which crafts a budget every two years, was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years. It plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money, allowing it to leave its $9.1 billion rainy day fund untouched . . . Now that the stimulus money has dried up, state lawmakers last week unveiled an austere budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal years that cuts $31 billion in spending. Schools, colleges, Medicaid and social services for the needy will be hit especially hard."
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So while Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has undoubtedly done his part to promote the GOP obstructionist agenda, in terms of symbolism he pales in comparison to Scott Walker. Walker’s shamelessly blatant assault on the rights and livelihood of the poor and middle class makes him the walking, breathing, embodiment of the Republican effort to lower the standard of living of working-class America. That’s what makes it essential that he’s recalled in tomorrow’s election. He represents the GOP’s trial balloon. If Walker survives, the Republican assault on the rights and livelihood of the working class will go into high gear all across America.

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Related Article:
THE GOP: A ONE HUNDRED YEAR RECORD OF SWINDLING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Eric L. Wattree wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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HERE’S TO THE UNDERDOG

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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TO THE

HARD WORKING AND COURAGEOUS

MEN AND WOMEN OF LITTLE CLOUT

WHOSE COLLECTIVE EFFORTS BUILT

AND DEFINES THE CHARACTER  

OF THIS GREAT NATION

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HERE’S TO THE UNDERDOG

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Here's

to the magnificent underdog,

majestic--just look at that face;

who struggle each mile, yet, manages a smile,

while the powerful spits in his face.

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Yes,

a toast!

To the illustrious underdog,

whose courage holds chaos at bay;

for the unshakable steel, which makes up his will,

to stand-up through yet one more day.

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Let’s hear

a cheer!

For the tireless underdog.

His heart firmly girdered in place;

who finds just enough to survive when life's tough,

while the "powerful" stands in disgrace.
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Let us

cherish

the heroic underdog,

who walks water routinely each day;

who braves lion Jaws and shun all applause,

then quietly goes on his way.

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*

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Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Mitt Romney: A Monument to American Gullibility

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Mitt Romney: A Monument to American Gullibility

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Every time the American people look at Mitt Romney they should get angry, because he’s the walking, breathing, personification of the biggest scam ever perpetrated on America, "trickle down" economics. Romney is the very embodiment of trickle-down economics returning to rub our stupidity in our face, right down to his cynical pauses . . . and sideways half-smile that seems to say, "Now, let’s see if you’re dumb enough to swallow this load of crap, yet again." He’s such a cynical, insincere, and obvious con man that if he didn’t exist Saturday Night Live would have created him. He’s as stiff and emotion free as Max Headroom, and just as contrived: "Yes, my good friends, and what I love most about your fair city is the height of the trees." What!!!?
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Trickle Down, or Supply- Side Economics, which came to be known as "Reaganomics," was a scheme hatch by U.S.C. economist Arthur Laffer and the Reagan crowd which was supposed to cut the deficit and balance the budget. The theory behind Reaganomics was ostensibly, if you cut taxes for business and people in the upper tax brackets, and then deregulated business of such nuisances as safety regulations and environmental safeguards, the beneficiaries would invest their savings into creating new jobs. In that way the money would eventually "trickle down" to the rest of us. Sound familiar? According to the scheme, the resulting broadened tax base would not only help to bring down the deficit, but also subsidize the tremendously high defense budget. When the plan was first floated, even George Bush, Reagan's vice president to be, called it "voodoo economics."
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Reaganomics, for the most part, sought to undo many of the safeguards put into place during the Roosevelt era and create a business environment similar to that which was in place during the Coolidge Administration. What actually took place, however, was even more like the Coolidge era than planed. Instead of taking the money and investing it into creating new jobs, the money was used in wild schemes and stock market speculation. One of these schemes, the leveraged buy out, involved buying up large companies with borrowed funds secured by the company's assets, then paying off the loan by selling off the assets of the purchased company. This practice cost the citizens of this country millions of jobs, and the country itself, its industrial base. In addition, the bottom fell out of the stock market. On Monday, October 19, 1987 the Dow-Jones Average fell 508.32 points. It was the greatest one-day decline since 1914 - fifteen years before the Great Depression.
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Even though this scheme has brought economic disaster to the American people several times in the past thirty years, the Republican party continues to repackage it and trot it back out every eight years or so. They tend to wait until after the Democrats have rescued the nation, and their previous disaster has retreated from the collective memory of the American electorate.
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Clear evidence of that is in spite of Ronald Reagan's grandiose promise to balance the budget and lower the deficit, by the time he left office he was not only the most prolific spender of any president in history, but he also added more to the deficit than all of the other presidents from George Washington to his own administration combined.
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Reagan tripled the national debt. It went from $712 billion in 1980 to $2,052 billion in 1988. And what was the Republican Party’s plan to deal with that disaster? In it’s "contract with America" (Republicans are real good with slogans), Newt Gingrich’s Republican-run congress proposed a capitol gains tax cut, for the rich.
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It took Democrat, Bill Clinton, to rescue the nation. David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers University, said the following regarding Bill Clinton’s presidency:
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"The Clinton years were unquestionably a time of progress, especially on the economy [...] Clinton's 1992 slogan, 'Putting people first,' and his stress on 'the economy, stupid,' pitched an optimistic if still gritty populism at a middle class that had suffered under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. [...] By the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive. Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged."
On September 27, 2000, CNN reported:
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President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion. ‘This represents the largest one-year debt reduction in the history of the United States."

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Then came George W. Bush, with his huge tax cuts for the rich, and reinstituting the Republican philosophy of trickle-down economics and reckless deregulation. That led to the 2008 economic crash, bringing the nation within a hair’s breath of a second Great Depression, and creating the conditions under which we are currently suffering.
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The primary reason that the American people continues to be stiffed by the Republican Party is because the average American fails to understand that we don’t have just one economy, we have two. We have one economy that governs the prosperity of the investor class, and yet another that governs the prosperity of working class. And both classes are in direct competition for their part of the same economic pie.
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Thus, the problem is, in order for the investor class to prosper, they must squeeze every penny and concession out of the working class. So when Wall Street is celebrating a robust economy, that means they are producing more product with fewer jobs, fewer work hours, and lower pay for the workers. That’s how they make their profit.
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You see, in the past when the United States had a strong internal industrial base, the investor class and the working class complimented one another. The corporate community provided the working class with, essentially, lifetime jobs with solid security and a living wage. As a result, the working class could afford to purchase the goods and services that the corporations produced. So the working class and investor class had a symbiotic relationship. One insured the prosperity of the other.
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But now, in the new global economy, where what used to be considered American corporations have become international conglomerates that have to compete with countries that are paying their workers less per week than most Americans spend on lunch per day, the American worker has become a liability. Thus, the corporate community has a vested interested in lowering the standard of living of the American middle class.
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In order for them to make ever greater profits, they feel that they must squeezing every concession that they can get out of America, and the American worker. That accounts for the aggressive assault on our educational system. They need more worker bees and fewer thinkers - or trouble makers. It also accounts for the assault on collective bargaining, and all manner of corporate regulations and employee rights. In short, they’re on a mission to convert America from a democratic republic, to a corporate sweatshop.
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Now enter Mitt Romney. If we elect Romney, we’ll not just be electing an Republican politician who is highly sympathetic to the investor class, we’ll be electing, indeed, the poster child of the investor class, and the old trickle-down economics crowd. In fact, the Chairman of the Board, as it were. It would be like entrusting our child to one of the most infamous child molesters in the country.
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The New York Post reported in the Josh Kosman article, "Romney’s Past is More a Working Class Zero," "Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, bought companies and often increased short-term earnings so those businesses could then borrow enormous amounts of money. That borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends. Then those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts." But of course, the businesses generally couldn’t manage that, so workers were laid off and the businesses would go into bankruptcy.
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The article goes on to list some of the businesses that Mitt Romney squeezed the profits from, then sent into bankruptcy:
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"* Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

* Bain in 1997 invested $46 million when buying Details, and made $93 million from stock offerings. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003."
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So say what you will about President Obama, but it seems to me that the credentials of Mitt Romney and his Republican cohorts’ as job creators makes the president look like Santa Claus. If you agree, go tell a hungry Republican. He might be Black, but that IS a pork chop in his hand.

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Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that - God does.

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Dr. Boyce Watkins on Gay Rights

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Dr. Boyce Watkins on Gay Rights

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"If gay is the new black, then black must have been the old gay . . . I don't really know what that means either . . .

I support gay marriage, but it's mainly because I just don't care one way or the other."

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The author of the "enlightened" quotation above is Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University. He presents himself as a public intellectual and a dedicated civil rights advocate. He’s also the driving force behind "Your Black World," a popular website that seeks to keep Black people politically enlightened. Dr. Watkins goes on to say the following:
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"I wonder what it means to simply say that everyone deserves civil rights, and to use that as a blanket justification for gay marriage. So, if I wanted to marry my sister and someone said I couldn't, would that be a violation of my civil rights? I support gay marriage, but it's mainly because I just don't care one way or the other. But if I were deeply religious and considered marriage to be a spiritual union solely designed to be between a man and a woman, I might be offended by someone asking me to support the notion of same sex marriage. Civil rights doesn't mean that every person can do whatever they want, whenever they want with whomever they want. If that were the case, then a mother could decide to terminate her child's life after the baby was born....after all, it's her baby, right[?]"
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So-called public ‘intellectuals’ of Dr. Watkins’ ilk never cease to amaze me. I can’t help but wonder how he could possibly have obtained a PhD without ever learning to think? Shouldn’t we be able to expect a Phd, at the very least, to have the intellect to formulate an argument that’s not totally filled with irrelevant non sequiturs?
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Equal civil rights mean that gays deserve the right to marry the one that they love just like straight people. But his response implies that gays are asking for MORE rights than straight people. Watkins' comments would only be valid if gays were demanding the right to marry their sisters. No one can marry their sister, so that represents equality.
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So in response to his question, yes, it would be a violation of his civil rights if he wasn’t allowed to marry his sister, but only if others WERE allowed to marry their sisters. The fact that this guy has a PhD and can’t see that the issue of equal rights under the law, and his right to marry his sister are far from analogous is a serious indictment against our educational system - after all, he's charged with the responsibility of educating others. But much more important, it’s also clear evidence of the dire need of Americans to become independent and self-sufficient thinkers.
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Again, Dr. Watkins presents himself as a public intellectual and a fierce advocate of civil rights. Yet, when it comes to the civil rights of gays he’s using the very same kind of irrational argument that racists used to try to block Black civil rights legislation of the past. They’d say things like, "Okay, if we allow a change in the law to allow White people to marry Black people, what’s to stop us from passing laws in the future saying that people should have the right to marry their dogs?"
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Both are equally stupid analogies, and although I’ve heard Watkins say outrageous things in the past, for some reason I’m totally shocked to hear him say something as dumb as this, not only because it's a ridiculous attempt at syllogistic logic - "All dogs have fleas, and my cat has fleas, therefore, my cat is a dog"- but it is equally shocking to see that he fails to recognize the racist history of such a stupid argument.
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But what his attitude clearly illustrates more than anything else is that Black people are the product of the very same racist and socially bigoted environment as White people, and as a result, we can be just as racist and socially bigoted toward other Blacks and minority groups as any racist Hillbilly. That accounts for much of the flak that Obama is getting from some of Dr. Watkins’ Black colleagues, namely, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West.
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While many of these so-called Black "intellectuals" try to cloak their hostility toward President Obama in the language of Black activism, they’re actually upset with Obama for the very same reason that many conservative Republicans are - they consider him ‘Uppity.’ What they’re actually saying is, "Who does this spook think he is, struttin’ around like he thinks he has as much sense as White folks? He’s just another ignorant nigga, just like me." So in short, it’s self-hatred and "bligotry" (Black on Black bigotry).
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For this reason, I’ve dropped all pretense of journalistic detachment on this issue, and I’ve gone on a single-minded mission against these people, as should every journalist, but Black journalists, in particular.  We need to recognize that some things are much more important than some arbitrary rule of journalism about not getting personally involved in a story. White journalists routinely recognize that fact every time this country goes to war, and the fact is, the Black community is now literally in a state of war. It’s currently being besieged by a group of Black, self-serving demagogues that constitute a severe threat to its survival, and we shouldn’t just sit back and let it happen, any more than we would sit back and simply chronicle the events attendant to a drowning child.
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In this case, Watkins, this so-called Black "intellectual," has betrayed an attitude toward gay minorities that parallels that of a member of the Tea Party. That should be a call to arms to all Journalists in the Black community who feel a vested interested in the principle of equal rights under the law. At the very least we must start alerting the community of the importance of  Black people to start thinking for themselves, instead of relying on self-professed intellectuals to help them formulate their view of reality.
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The Black community needs to understand that they should NEVER give anyone else’s ability to think priority over our own, regardless to the hype that precedes the person, or the academic credentials that supposedly attests to the person’s ability to think. Because in many cases, as we saw in the 2000 election that brought George W. Bush into our lives, the credentials of many ‘intellectuals’ only attest to the fact that they’ve spent so much time learning to regurgitate the thoughts of dead White folks that they’ve never taken the time to learn to think for themselves.
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Thus, Black people should always seek to educate themselves, because that’s the only education that we can, unfailingly, depend upon.
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RELATED ARTICLES

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/07/dr-cornel-west-and-intellectual-rice.html

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/09/once-again-nader-and-west-team-to-elect.html

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-defense-of-my-stance-against-cornel.html

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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YET, ANOTHER GRINNIN' THOMAS - WHEN WILL WE LEARN!!!!?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

YET, ANOTHER GRINNIN' THOMAS - WHEN WILL WE LEARN!!!!?
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I got up thinking about Anthony Thomas this morning, yet another dumb, Republican-leaning Black man that I ran across on Facebook the other day. I cut off communication with him after I lost patience with all of his obfuscation and evasions to avoid recognizing facts that were splattered all across his face. I’m sure you know the type - the kind of person who would rather engage in logical contortions to embrace a lie than to modify their clearly erroneous beliefs.
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People like Thomas seem to feel a vested interest in remaining blind, so I don’t waste my time with them, because it’s counterproductive. They tend to give their ideology priority over truth, so if you tell them the Sun is hot, they’ll say something like, "Well, it depends on what you mean by hot." So it’s just a complete waste of time trying to have a rational discussion on any issue with such people.
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But I’ve come to the conclusion that the internet has the potential to be the most powerful educational tool that man has ever known, so I’ve set upon an agenda of trying educate the people who may not follow politics to what’s going on behind their backs. I also take advantage of the opportunity to allow myself to be educated by others regarding the erroneous beliefs that I may hold. After all, I’ve long since recognized that I don’t corner the market either wisdom, knowledge, or intelligence.
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So I’ve decided that it’s a mistake to ignore people like Anthony. I’m making the very same mistake that the Democrats continue to make with respect to responding to Republican nonsense. Democrats often assume that the many gross misstatement of the facts made by Republicans are so stupid and counterintuitive that it’s not necessary to respond, because anyone with any sense should be able to see through them. But that’s both an unwarranted, and unwise assumption, because there are many people who do not - far too many people, in fact. So even though it may seem like a fool’s errand to argue back and forth with people like Anthony, we should always take the time to do it, or at the very least, take the time to cut the legs off their basic premise before we dismiss them.

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In that regard, while Anthony CLAIMS not to be a Republican, the basis of his argument seems to hinge on the fact that being partisan is never a good thing, and it’s unwise to take sides with one political party over the other. That’s become a basic Republican talking point. They have to push that position - particularly among the poor, middle class, and minorities - because they know that their scorched earth policies toward these groups are antithetical to everything America stands for. They are out to recreate the very kind of society that America’s forefathers left Europe to get away from - an aristocracy, in this case, based on corporate feudalism. If they have their way, instead of living in New York City, you’ll be living in New Halliburtia. You won’t have the right to vote, and Blackwater will enforce what will be called ‘the law.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX69a45LFLI

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What many anti-government people are failing to realize - due to the brutal assault on educational system - is when you get rid of government it’s going to create a vacuum of power, and vacuums are never left dormant. So that void is going to be filled by the most ruthless and powerful international corporations. Thus, we’ll be left with a form of corporate feudalism where we won’t have the right to vote, or have any say-so in the way we are governed. Oh, did I say governed? There will be no government, which means no rules, no laws, and no protection against our abuse. That’s exactly what the Republican anti-regulation propaganda is about. They are currently conditioning us to be open to such a system, in fact, they have some clamoring for it.
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That explains their stance against organized labor and their assault our educational system. They don’t want any entity in place that has the potential to organize the people against them. And they want to privatize our educational system so they can gain control and condition the minds of our children - sort of like the old Nazi youth camps, where the children are so severely brainwashed that they’re informing on their own parents (http://www.kochbrothersexposed.com/education).

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So the Republican Party’s goal is to destroy our educational system’s ability to produce independent thinkers. They also intend to handpick students they deem most susceptible to promoting the corporate agenda, while leaving the majority of students so undereducated that they only have two options - either sheepishly accept the crumbs that the corporations decide to throw their way, for what will essentially be slave labor, or go into the military and become cannon fodder in an endless series of mercenary assaults on the national resources of other countries. Anyone who doubts this should consider the fact that even at this writing the children of the rich are no longer even expected to go into the military to fight America’s wars. Dying is for the ‘little people.’
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So Thomas’ position on the need for bipartisanship is a laughably ridiculous position to take in this current political environment. If the Democratic Party was in a political battle against the Nazi Party, would we try to be nonpartisan and politely listen to the Nazis Party? Of course not. That would be stupid. Well, it’s just as stupid to listen to anything coming from the Republican Party, because they are just as insidious as any political group in modern history. They're out to completely revise our American ideals, and undermine the American way of life.
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Clear evidence of that is the Republicans are currently obstructing any and all legislation that has anything to do with protecting the interest of poor and middle class people in this country. In addition, they’ve mounted an aggressive effort to undermine everything that President Franklin Roosevelt put in place as the ‘New Deal’ to save the American people from the ravages of the Great Depression. And further, they are trying to reverse everything accomplished during the Civil Rights movement that Martin Luther King and millions of others fought so hard for during the sixties, including taking away the people’s right to vote.
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Now this guy, Anthony, is trying to put forward the position that we should feel obliged not to take sides in pursuit of our own interest. He must be out of his Goddamn mind - as is Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins. They have to be either dumb, or duplicitous. These people don’t seem to have sense enough to realize that the coming election has absolutely nothing to do with our love for either Obama, or the Democratic Party. This election is about keeping corporate fascists from gaining power, and their most potent weapon against us is getting us to hate one another more than we love ourselves. Thus, it is essential for us to understand that anyone who promotes division among the people, be they Black or White, is the enemy - and that includes Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and their new recruit, Boyce Watkins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRYV0V8q-BU

.

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"HEY, EVERYBODY!  HERE'S AN IDEA!  LET'S VOTE TO CUT OUR THROATS TO TEACH OBAMA A LESSON!"

 That's easy for these brothers to say. They get paid to tell starving people how hungry they are, so the hungrier YOU are, the more THEY get paid.

THINK ABOUT THAT.

*

Related Links:
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-defense-of-my-stance-against-cornel.html
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/10/herman-cain-black-people-are.html
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2010/10/gop-one-hundred-year-record-of.html

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Beneath the Surface of a Lifelong Friend

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Beneath the Surface of a Lifelong Friend

ANTOINETTE

ANTOINETTE

*

She walks alone, sweet woman-child, her sobs flow warm against the dark; Her need is love, not merely passion, a mighty fortress, her broken heart..
Quivering bodies, and breathless moans,
she remembers with great delight,
but the heat of love is the only flame,
her lusting soul craves late at night.
.
Hungry arms yearn for her shuddering body,
to embrace her tenderly with all their might;
shivering lips lust for her succulent passion,
as she cries out desperately into the night.
But only true love can quench the thirst
that burns red hot inside,
so she faces the pain, again and again,
and late at night she cries.
.
Masculine shadows of delusion and lust
caress their egos more than her pain,
for her convulsing body quivers
not for them, but for the fantasy
of a gentle and earnest man.
.
Thus, head held high, by light of day,
yet, mournful eyes, that do betray,
unspent love, a breaking heart,

and the fear of sobs, when day turns dark.
.

Eric L. Wattree

.

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Wattree Defending Tavis Smiley and Cornel West - What is this World Coming to?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Wattree Defending Tavis Smiley and Cornel West - What is this World Coming to?

Okay, so maybe Hell can freeze over. If someone had told me yesterday that I’d be sitting here defending Tavis Smiley and Cornel West today I would have assured them that such a thing would only happen the day after Adolph went snowboarding through the pits of Hell.

But one must learn to prioritize one’s demons. While Tavis and West constitute a bitter threat to the poor, middle class, and Black communities in their effort to enrich themselves through yet another tour featuring self-service, demagoguery, and disinformation, it seems that the Washington Examiner has found themselves another grinnin’ young deludetant in the person of Ms. Star Parker, so we thought we'd nip this distraction in the bud.

In her article, "How to Keep the Poor Poor," she says, "Media personality Tavis Smiley and Princeton philosophy professor Cornel West have just published their latest contribution to American poverty propaganda, ‘The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto’ . . . To the extent this book is taken seriously by anyone, the result will only be more entrenched poverty."

While I make it a point to never go anywhere near any of Tavis and West’s personal enrichment pamphlets, if they’ve remained true to form, I find no reason to doubt any part of what Ms. Parker has said above. But then she goes on.

"Smiley and West's message is simple. America today consists of a few powerful, rapacious rich people and a lot of unfortunate, exploited poor people. The rich are rich because they are lucky. The poor are poor because they are unlucky. And the only way to solve the problem is for an activist government to manage the economy and redistribute wealth."

That’s where the red flag went up. Even though I consider these two hustlers the quintessential demagogues, unless they’ve made a radical change in their bamboozlery, they never say that the rich are rich because they’re lucky and the poor or poor because they’re unlucky. In order for their flimflam to capture the imagination they have to be accurate in their premise, so they rightly point out that many of the rich are rich due to corruption, and many of the poor are poor due to social manipulation.

You see, Tavis and West understands that it’s very important that they maintain accuracy and not overgeneralize during the setup, so when they drop their false resolution on you they’ll seem like reasonable men, not clumsy and transparently idiotic like Ms. Parker does when she voices her corrupted version of their corruption of reality.

Ms. Parker’s spin on the Tavis/West resolution is, "the only way to solve the problem is for an activist government to manage the economy and redistribute wealth." We know that’s a lie because liberals don’t talk that way. The entire sentence is nothing more than a string of conservative talking points tied together - ie, ‘activist government,’ ‘manage the economy,' 'redistribute wealth.' Liberals have more finesse than that - even duplicitous liberals. The kind of gross inarticulation that Ms. Paker has engaged in has the glaringly obvious print of conservative clodhoppers all over it. So we know they didn’t say that, or even allude to it.

Tavis and West would say something more like, the majority of the rich (except for ourselves, of course) got that way through corruption and social manipulation, and the poor are poor because Barack Obama (that jive, Johnnie-come-lately-sucka who butted before us in line and won’t invite us to the White House or return our phone calls) won’t do nothing to help you. But for you Obama-lovin book-buyers, we want to point out that we love our dear brother.  So we're not saying vote Republican - just don't vote for Obama, and let the Lord decide the election." Then they’ll proceed to tell us everything that’s wrong with the country (primarily, Obama), but fail to tell us what’s wrong with us, or them.

Then Ms. Parker goes on to criticize Tavis and West for saying, "The 150 million Americans in or near poverty are there as result of unemployment, war, the Great Recession, corporate greed, and income inequality." What? Is she denying that? That’s one of the few things they’re saying that’s true.

One of the things that drives me up the wall about ultraconservative ideologues is how they can look you dead in the eye and spew hordes of total nonsense, inaccuracies, and flat out lies, then look at you like you’re the one that’s crazy. How can anyone with a brain say that we’ve got to keep the rich on a national welfare program because they're the one’s who are creating the jobs? Can’t they see that the only way that people are going to be hired to make tennis shoes is if the poor and middle class have the money to buy them? No one is going to hire anyone to make tennis shoes that they can’t sell. So it's the poor and middle class who create jobs.

So while Tavis and West might be greedy and self-serving bogeymen, the Republican Party is the Devil, and if Ms. Parker can’t see that, she’s a fool.

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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When Will the Black Community Recognize that We Can’t Whine Cancer Out of Our System?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

When Will the Black Community Recognize that We Can’t Whine Cancer Out of Our System?

IT DON'T LOOK LIKE MANHOOD TO ME
(Beggin' America to love you won't work)

I was recently involved in a "discussion" regarding the prison industrial complex with an extremely intelligent young woman by the name of Lydia. I placed the word discussion in quotes because the moment she started quoting the statistics on the Black experience with the prison industrial complex relative to the rest of society, I began to overtalk her, and I didn’t let her get a word in edgewise thereafter.  But thanks to her cool head and grace under fire, after our discussion I immediately began to question my behavior. The fact is, even though she didn’t get to say much, she outclassed me, and as a result, I’ve decided to never use that strategy again, because it’s not only rude, but it’s counterproductive. Under such circumstances neither party is listening to the other, so no useful information can be exchanged.
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But what set me off was that I’m so sick of hearing people in the Black community substituting complaints for solutions that when I hear people starting to slip into that forty year-old mantra it immediately makes my eyes roll to the back of my head. Why constantly state the obvious as though you’re saying something new? Constantly giving statistics on the fact that there’s institutional racism is like trying to prove that the Sun is hot. We know that. So what we should be discussing is what we’re going to do about it. But then, maybe that’s where she was headed and I didn’t give her a chance to express herself. So what I should have done was sat quietly and heard her out. Maybe then I could have walked away from the discussion more informed.
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In the future I intend to do just that. Not only would it provide me with the possible opportunity for growth, it would also force those who thrive on muddled communication and making a living off of anger and complaints to have to come up with rational solutions for change. But many like myself have become impatient, because so many in the Black community have been listening to people like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and others of their ilk for so many decades that they’ve begun to confuse whining, beggin' and finger-pointing with educating the Black community to the need of taking effective action.
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People like Malcolm and Martin Luther King - those sincere activists who these latter-day ‘saviors’ are trying to impersonate - weren’t just complaining for the sake of complaining. During their era, pointing out the abuse of the Black community was a part of the educational process. During their time, Black people were so use to being abused that Malcolm and Martin had to educate the community, and society as a whole, to the extent of the injustice toward Black people, as a prelude to taking effective action against it. And back then, that educational effort was a dangerous process, as their eventual murders clearly attests.
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But today, we have fraudulent imitators living off the legacy and words of these great men as though they too are doing something heroic. But the difference is, they're under absolutely no personal risk. In fact, the forces that promoted the deaths of both Malcolm and Martin encourage the activities of these latter-day frauds because they’re not saying anything new, revolutionary, or educational. They're simply regurgitating the words of a different era that are completely out of context with respect to the current Black condition. The fact is, the forces that led to the death of both Martin and Malcolm are actually delighted by their activities because they serve to divide the Black community, and thus, help to maintain the status quo.
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These people routinely ignore the greater good and purposely sabotage our agenda, along with all of the causes that they’re supposed to be so passionate about, for their own selfish interests. And this is not merely speculation or opinion, it can be documented. We’ve already lived through a perfect example of it during the 2000 election when Cornel West teamed up with Ralph Nader to hand the presidential election over to George W. Bush. Thus, they are all but directly responsible for the situation that we currently find ourselves in - the very situation that West is now complaining that President Obama is not fixing fast enough. As I pointed out in a previous article, "Once Again Nader and West Team to Elect a Republican President", these people don’t give a damn about either the Black community, or the poor and middle class. All they care about is their own self-interest:
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"But if you confront members of the Nader/West coalition with these facts, they’ll immediately begin to obfuscate and engage in intellectual gymnastics in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the horrific fate that they brought upon the country. They’ll say things like, "It’s not our fault that Gore lost. He just didn’t fight hard enough for a recount." But by using such arguments what they’re actually saying is, ‘Gore just didn’t work hard enough to undo the damage that we’d done.’ But the bottom line is this – Gore lost the 2000 election to Bush in Florida by 537 votes, and the Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So don’t take my word for it – you do the math."
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Thus, the activities of these frauds only serve to divide our vote to the benefit of those who seek to keep us subjugated. Then when their job is done, our continued subjugation enhances the careers and bankbooks of the frauds themselves, because much of their enrichment is based upon complaining about our misery. Therefore, it would be an economic disaster for the Smileys and Wests of the world if we ever did, in fact, find true justice.
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So it should be obvious to anyone with eyeballs and a clear head that what Tavis and West are actually engaged in is promoting themselves, their radio and television shows, their books, and Cornel’s reported $10,000 per speech speaker’s fees. Their last "Poverty Tour" just happened to coincide with Cornel West’s Memoirs (published by Tavis Smiley), and as we speak they’ve started yet another tour to promote their newest book (published by Tavis Smiley), "The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto."   On April 15th they started a tour of twelve cities. (the city of Detroit, Mich., one of the cities hardest hit by Black unemployment and poverty, was conspicuously missing from their current itinerary, since they were met with hostile demonstrations and boos on their last tour to Detroit). But what I want to know is, what do they mean by "us?" Thanks to US, they’re rich themselves, so they’re no longer a part of US. Thus, even the title of their new book is a gross deception.
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If these people were truly sincere, instead of spending their time complaining and lining their pockets, they'd be discussing what we can do to resolve the problems that we’re complaining about.  They need to be discussing ways to go about teaching young Black men that knowledge is power, and that they can’t be cool and ignorant at the same time. They also need to be teaching them that they don’t have the right to demand respect while going around referring to the very womb of their culture as bitches and whoes (sic), and that they can’t measure their manhood based on how many other Black men they can kill, or how many minds of Black children they can poison with drugs and the ignorance of disinformation. If the frauds actually cared about the Black community, those are the things they would be preaching, instead of trying to drag down the first Black president of the United States.
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But let me end by taking my own advice, and taking this opportunity to extend my sincere apology to a young woman who I disrespectfully dismissed while she was trying to express her views. I want to assure her that while my disdainful attitude was not directed toward her per se, what I did was stupid nevertheless - period. I could tell by her very first sentence that she was a very intelligent woman, so I might have benefited by listening to what she had to say. But my stupidity was a fueled by my deep frustration that the frauds in our community have even misdirected the thinking of the intelligent and insightful among us.
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I also want to assure her that I fully understand that considering the selfless and unappreciated role that Black women have played in sustaining our culture over the centuries, a Black man should ALWAYS afford a sister the utmost respect in any and all situations. She has EARNED the right to voice her opinion, whatever it is. So in order to reinforce this apology and make it more meaningful, she has my solemn word that I’m going to use the disrespect that she had to endure at my hands as a learning experience. I will never use that tactic again, toward anyone.
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So, my good sister, due to your class, wisdom, and grace under fire, you managed to teach me something in spite of my male arrogance and stupidity, and I'll never forget it.
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Thank you, Lydia.

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Are the Democratic and Republican Parties One and the Same?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Are the Democratic and Republican Parties One and the Same?

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Those of you who like to go around saying that there’s no difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties should pause a moment to take note. The Republican led United States Supreme Court is currently poised to give you some of that good old-fashion Republican love. They’re currently considering whether they can get away with taking away your healthcare, just as they all but disenfranchised you by declaring that corporations are people in their ‘Citizens United’ decision, and completely overruled your vote by appointing George Bush President in the 2000 election after you clearly voted for Al Gore.

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The Republican Party’s only platform and sole purpose in life is to make absolutely sure that the American people hate one another more passionately than they love themselves. That’s why Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and other Republicans are defending George Zimmerman after he killed Trayvon Martin. But that’s not surprising, since they created the environment that led to Zimmerman killing Trayvon in the first place. They’ve done that by convincing many undereducated and weak-minded Whites that ALL Black men are out to kill their sons, steal their possessions, and rape their daughters. So for all of you who claim that Democrats are no different from Republicans, take a moment to ask yourself, "Who’s disseminating that message, Democrats or Republicans?"
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The Republican leadership benefits from the Black, public outrage over this atrocity. That’s why conservative pundits eagerly fan the flames of the anger in the Black community over the obvious injustice of this incident. The case is clear. Zimmerman, a full grown man, arm with a 9 mm pistol and weighing, reportedly, a hundred pounds more than his victim, stalked and killed a Black child armed only with a bag of Skittles. And that was AFTER being instructed by the police to remain in his vehicle. Thereafter, Zimmerman, the son of a retired judge, was routinely released as though he’d been picked up for a traffic ticket. It should have been an open and shut case, but they didn’t even bother to collect a shred of evidence. Imagine what the consequences would have been for Trayvon if the situation was exactly reversed - in fact, under the given circumstances, Trayvon would have undoubtedly been jailed if he had managed to kill Zimmerman even in self-defense after being stalked.
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But by continually inserting red herring defenses and other justifications for Zimmerman’s deadly assault on Trayvon - the fact that Trayvon was wearing a hoodie, he had been suspended from school, showing a picture of Trayvon wearing a gold tooth, etc. - conservative pundits are purposely further enraging the Black community, and thereby, planting the seed in the White community’s mind that Black people are being both racist toward Zimmerman and unreasonably hateful toward White people in general. That serves to drive a wedge between the Black and White communities and distract them away from the recognition that the throats of both communities are being cut by Republican policies.
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If the middle class, and indeed this nation, is to survive, it is incumbent upon us to realized that we are now engaged in a class war, in which race is merely a tool to drive a wedge between us to keep us divided - and anyone who perpetuates that effort, including Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, is the enemy.
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Sure there are poor and middle-class racists in both communities. Racism has been built-in and carefully nurtured into our society, but we’ve been conditioned to be racist and divided by the social manipulation pointed out above. Thus, the only way that the poor and middle class are going to save themselves is for them to start doing more thinking, and stop allowing the social manipulators to control their thoughts through manipulating them into caving in to knee-jerk reactionism.
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The fact is, the corporate powers that be don’t care any more about White people than they do Black people. The attack on Social Security, Medicare, and organized labor isn’t race specific. It’s an assault on the poor and middle class of all races. Of the millions of people across this land who were thrown out of their homes, they weren’t just Black. They were people of every race, creed, and color. And when Bush and Cheney sent our troops to Iraq without the necessary equipment to protect their lives, neither was that race specific. That was a direct assault on poor and middle class America as a whole. In fact, the children of the rich are no longer even expected to defend this country. Dying for America has now become the job of the "little people." Thus, the Republican Party is trying to drag America back into a social structure that our founding fathers left Europe to get away from - one based on class and social status.
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As a result, our government institutions have now morphed into facades designed to give us the ILLUSION of justice. Anyone who doubts that should try suing any major corporation. So in order to save ourselves we must ban together to FORCE American institutions to function as they are suppose to, and a huge part of that effort is coming together and learning to recognize demagoguery.
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A prime example of the demagoguery that we must be on the alert against comes in the form of idiots running around claiming that there’s no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. That’s a flat-out lie that benefits no one but the social manipulators themselves. Granted, there are problems within the Democratic Party and there are more than a few Democrats that need to be thrown out of office, but that's a result of a combination of factors, including human greed, selfishness, and the public’s tendency to be inattentive and apathetic. By allowing ourselves to become solely preoccupied with our own self-interests we've allowed politicians to become a class within themselves, a class that’s become a subset of the class that we’re fighting. That’s an issue that we must address through taking another look at political salaries and perks. So it's more a problem of the emergence of a new political class than it is the philosophy of the Democratic Party itself.
.

The primary reason that the Democratic Party has moved farther to the right is because that's where the votes are. Idiots like Ralph Nader, Tavis Smiley, and Cornel West have confused the left so badly that politicians can't depend on our votes. Then once the left suffers the resulting loses attendent to our confusion, the people mentioned above simply go back to their lucrative hustles of complaining about the peoples’ misery until the next election - completely ignoring the fact that they are a major cause of that misery.
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The bottom line is, the more the poor and middle class are abused, the more people like Nader, Tavis and West are paid to complain about it. So if the poor and middle class ever did achieved true justice, it would be West's worst nightmare, because he’s reportedly paid $30,000 a speech to complain about our condition.
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So we, the people, are just not getting it. We're being blinded by West’s woolly hair and carefully nurtured persona. We're suffering from a superficial view of reality - "If he looks that Black and the White folks at Harvard says he's brilliant, he must be the man!" That’s a bunch of crap! Cornel is the one who’s the puppet. He and Tavis are not the darling of the corporate establishment for nothing - they play an indispensable role in maintaining the status quo by keeping us divided.
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Once Again Nader and West Team to Elect a Republican President

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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TRAYVON MARTIN

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

TRAYVON MARTIN

(February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012)

*

MURDERED FOR THE UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF BLACK SKIN

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Is President Obama a Slave to Wall Street?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Is President Obama a Slave to Wall Street?

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Whenever I hear a person claim that President Obama is a slave to the corporatist Wall Street culture, I know immediately that he’s one of three things - he’s either ignorant, blind to reality, or he’s promoting his own agenda. Of course Obama is a slave to Wall Street - we all are.
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You can’t live in this society without being a slave to Wall Street. But there are two kinds of slaves. There are slaves who are subservient and content to simply do what they’re told, and then there are slaves who engage in a constant struggle to free themselves and their people. So, while I’m not always happy with some of the day-to-day decisions that President Obama makes to promote our cause, I’m convinced that Obama is one of the latter. If he wasn’t, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to get rid of him.

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The fact is, if you’re a casual observer sitting at home and keeping score based purely on your attitudes, prejudices, and feelings, it’s easy to pass your uninformed judgment on every decision that any politician makes. But the reality is, anyone who decides to go into politics has to be practical, and a huge part of that practicality entails recognizing the fact that you’re going to have to dance to the music that’s being played, and it’s Wall Street that leads the band. So regardless to who we elect, they’re going to have to have, at the very least, a working relationship with the corporate establishment - and ironically, it’s our own fault.

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The primary reason that every politician in this country is forced to play footsy with the corporate establishment is because we, the people, are so lazy, undereducated, and disengaged from our own political well being that we allow the corporations to use money to control our minds. So the only way that a politician like Obama can even get through to us is by way of the corporate establishment.

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The reason that money has such a large influence on our political system is because it’s used to tell us what, and how, to think. From the time that most of us get up in the morning until the time we go to bed at night, we spend most of our free time with corporate voices whispering in our ear. It could be the radio, television, or even the billboards that we don’t think we’re noticing as we’re driving in to work, but the fact is, they are all having a profound subliminal effect on our thinking and attitudes. They’re conditioning us to think, and to do, what they tell us to. Corporations spend billions of dollars a year to convince wimps with severe cases of acne and horrendous body odors that if they buy a certain kind of car, the beautiful model that’s sensuously stroking its hood, or someone just like her, is going to fall in love with them - and they influence out vote in exactly the same way. Thus, every politician must remain cogizant of that fact. 

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My personal favorite is the National Rent-A-Car commercial. They have a businessman walking through the air port in slow motion with dramatic music playing in the background. Then when he gets to the counter, they have the lady behind the counter making goo-goo eyes at him like she can barely restrain herself from jumping over the counter and attacking him. Then the clincher is, at the end of the commercial they have a deep, authoritative voice saying, "YOU DESERVE THIS!"

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That commercial servers two purposes. First, it entices the traveling businessman to believe that using National Rent-A-Car makes him seem more important. But it also sends a message to the public - that big business is powerful, and that’s a good thing, so the concept of big business should be seen in a positive light because, "THEY DESERVE THIS!"

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Since the public is manipulated like this 24 hours a day, any politician who doesn’t have a working relationship with corporations can’t survive. The reason for that is simple. The very same corporation that runs commercials on Monday that convinces an unthinking electorate that "Obama is a big-government socialist who’s trying to put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor," can turn around on Tuesday and convince that very same unthinking electorate that it’s appropriate to create a government small enough to crawl up a woman’s uterus. That explains why we have people walking around saying things like, "Obama is un-American - he’s engaged in a socialist plot to insure my family’s healthcare and send my kids to college." It sounds like hyperbole, but as we see on a daily basis, people are actually that brainwashed.

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Thus, the problem in this country is not the amount of money flowing through the system, that’s only secondary; the primary problem is the apathy, selfishness, and ignorance of the people. Money is merely a tool used to feed that apathy, selfishness, and ignorance to our severe disadvantage, and to make sure that we remain that way - both ignorant, and disadvantaged.

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While the corporations can’t use their money to literally buy a political office, they can, and do, use it to convince us to GIVE it to them by repeatedly reelecting those politicians who are willing to promote corporate interests. Their primary method of doing that is by playing on our ignorance and selfishness through the use of conflation. That keeps the poor and middle class so angry and divided that we fail to come together to protect our mutual interest.

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The corporate manipulators will conflate liberalism with socialism, communism, and un-Americanism, then tell everyone else who doesn’t subscribe to liberal philosophy that the liberals are trying to take away their way of life. Then they’ll target Blacks and initiate a campaign to convince everyone else that Blacks want to rob and steal from them, murder their sons and rape their daughters. Thereafter, they target every segment of the poor and middle class, one by one, and associate them with some threat to everyone else. That keeps the poor and middle class in turmoil. It causes them to be so angry, fearful, and divided among themselves that they fail to recognize that they’re being manipulated, while all their throats are being cut by a common foe - corporate greed.
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But corporate greed is not the only foe. We must also add the misery leeches and poverty pimps who also have a vested interest in keeping the people angry and divided. These are the self-appointed "defenders of the poor and put-upon" who make a fortune by manipulating the people’s anger. Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West immediately come to mind in that regard. Every time Smiley has a book to promote, wants a boost in his television ratings, or has any other snake oil to promote, he tours the country stirring up the very division that keeps the people impoverished. And West, who has teamed up with Smiley - just as he did with Ralph Nader during the 2000 election that gave us George Bush - also has a vested interest in the peoples’ misery. He reportedly pulls in $10,000 a speech complaining about our misery, while at the same time promoting the division that keep us that way. Thus, if the people ever did "overcome," it would be economically devastating to both of these hustlers.

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The only remedy for this situation is education, and through education, enlightenment. Because through a true education and its attendant enlightenment - as oppose to mere literacy - we’re more prone to become independent thinkers. As a result, we wouldn’t be nearly as susceptible to the unsubstantiated claims of snake oil salesmen. We would examine what we were being told, and we would consider the motives of those who were going out of their way to spread negative generalizations about others. Then, and only then, will we be able to defend our individual interests, and come together to defend the nation against the widespread and rampant corruption that’s currently dragging this country under the bus.

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Thus, if we want to save this nation for the benefit of our children, and their children, it is incumbent upon the American people to wake up to reality - and in a hurry. The world is changing faster than it ever has before, so we may not have but one or two elections left before the damage to this country is irreversible.

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We’ve got to start thinking of this country like it’s a business, we’re the owners, and the politicians are our employees. Only then will we begin to recognize the importance of our full engagement in running that business. Because the fact is, if the United States was a business, and as owners, we simply lounged around at home watching BET, MTV, and ESPN while allowing our employees (the politicians) to run it in the ground by giving themselves unwarranted raises in the middle of the night, and squandering and away our profits, it wouldn’t be the employees’ fault. It would be ours.

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So again, is President Obama a slave to Wall Street? Of course he is. We all are, and it’s way past time to correct that situation. But any president, regardless to who we elect, is going to need our help in that regard.

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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