Left Agenda

If you bought a “Support Our Troops” license plate in Minnesota then you might have been donating money to something besides veterans.

Here, at Left Agenda, we support our veterans and military personnel wholeheartedly and this kind of crap pisses us off!

$30,000 was taken diverted stolen from the “Support Our Troops” program and instead given to some low-life working in the governors office for faith-based initiatives.  Incredulous!  Disgusting!

If you’d like to share with Pawlenty how pissed off you are:

Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Telephone: (651) 296-3391
Toll Free:    (800) 657-3717
Facsimile:   (651) 296-2089
E-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

Even Jessica Simpson is smart enough to support our troops!

This so eloquently sums up many of the debates we’re having here in the U.S. Of course, I understand that some of the Liberals’ comments are complex and take a certain amount of rational thought. I offer an apology to any conservapukes that don’t quite understand and also a helping hand in translating these words to 2nd grade grammar and vocabulary.

Go here to see a blown up version.

The RNC wants more officials in federal office, there’s no doubt about that.  But, to what lengths are they willing to go?  Well, they need money to run a campaign.  Elections cost money, too much as far as I’m concerned.  What was released today, though, shows how scandalous the RNC is concerning how they will convince people to contribute to them.  These slides are part of a Power Point presentation given for RNC financiers. They had a little pow-wow on how to get more money, and someone left a hard-copy of the presentation lying around at the hotel.  They’re not denying it, but they are trying to separate Steele from the fall-0ut.

Now as the RNC points out, there are two main types of contributors.

The two types are Direct Marketing and Major Donors.  This translates into Main Street contributors and Big Business/extremely wealthy contributors.  That’s all fine and good.  Those are two completely different groups and I’m guessing that most of my readers and guests would fall into category 1, Main Street contributors.  So, how does the RNC propose to get more Main Street contributions?

First, they note why people give.  Again, category 2 contributors are covered.  We know why Big Business and extremely wealthy people contribute, because they want something in return or as the RNC shows in the above slide, they’re Calculated Givers, i.e. they’ve calculated what their contribution will get them in return.  Let’s get back to the regular people like you and me.  Category 1, Main Street contributors, are called Visceral Givers.

Merriam-Webster’s definition of visceral:

Main Entry: vis·cer·al

1 : felt in or as if in the viscera : deep <a visceral conviction>
2 : not intellectual : instinctive, unreasoning <visceral drives>
3 : dealing with crude or elemental emotions : earthy <a visceral novel>
4 : of, relating to, or located on or among the viscera : splanchnic <visceral organs>

Notice the terms used: “not intellectual”, “crude or elemental emotions”, “unreasoning”.

Hello!  Republican Main Street people, the RNC is talking about you.  This isn’t some liberal, elitist Democrat calling Republican voters “not intellectual” or stupid, it’s the RNC!

So, these people, the Visceral Givers need to be sold on the idea of giving the RNC money.  Hmm, how do they sell the idea to visceral people?

That’s right in order to “sell” the idea of contributing to the RNC, the RNC has chosen Visceral Givers, or non-intellectuals and people that react from raw emotions as the buyers.  Republicans, that’s you! Not in my words, not by some liberal elitist but by the very party that you are supporting.  They’re calling you idiots.  And what are they selling to these idiots?

Obama = Socialism.

Now, Republicans, Main Street voters, Real Red Blooded Americans,… are you buying what they’re selling?  The RNC is selling Americans lemons, let’s make lemonade out of their mess.  Friends don’t let friends contribute to the RNC.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

(Preamble to the Constitution of United States of America, emphasis added)

In the turmoil of Washington, in all the protests and boycotts across the nation there is a single notion that tends to be lost on some American people and more than one political party(here, here, here). The option given, at the root of many debates, is who can we trust? The government, or the corporations and small businesses. While this debate will continue for decades, the basic notion of these debates can be clarified through the following rationale.

1. For many Americans the only power we have over American policy making choices is our vote.  We vote for our city, county, state, and federal representatives.  We vote on laws that reach the ballot.  The call to arms for the American people and for Democracy in general is, “Let’s put it to a vote!”

-Who watches the government to make sure they do as we elect them to do?  The American people: we can impeach them, we can not elect them for another term, we can find other people to represent us, or even decide to run for office ourselves.  We can also form ‘watchdog groups’ that continuously watch over government actions; there are many.

2. For many Americans the only power you have over small or big business is to not purchase their products, if that is even an option.  Voting power goes to only a small group of people called the shareholders.

-Who watches over those running a small or large business?  Shareholders have a vote, the Board of Directors has the final say.  The American people get bupkis.  You don’t like what a company is doing, don’t use their goods (As corporations grow, they use many names and titles.  Understanding which goods belong to which companies is becoming exceedingly difficult without prior research.  What looks like choice could actually all be the same thing with different names.).  There is no vote for the American people.

3. We enact laws over ourselves for society’s protection.  We use government to uphold these laws.  Why should businesses be exempt from also having laws to protect society from them?  Can businesses not also harm people, society, the common good?

4. By using government, we can regulate businesses much like we regulate ourselves.  Do we all need to be regulated?  No, but for the common good we agree to these regulations.  Do all businesses need to be regulated?  No, but for the common good they should agree to regulations.

- Corporations have the privilege of being people in the eyes of the law; they have many of the same rights as every individual American.  But, they do not have the same responsibilities.  Their responsibilities nor their desires should trump our freedom.

5. By using government, by voting, we, the American people, can have power over ourselves, government, and businesses.  We can control the government, we can allow businesses to control government, or we can allow our government officials to control themselves and us.  There is no purer system than the Democratic/Republic system of America, but only if we use the power we have over the entities that seek to take power from us.

-Many people still don’t vote.

yellow: all people over 18; green: all eligible voters

-Furthermore, many people vote against the interests of the American people and instead for the interests of American businesses.

6. How much power do you have over businesses? Little to none.  How much power do we have over government? As much as we want.

-Many corporations are part of a large web of companies.  While we may protest one company, their revenue and their power can easily be segued to another thread on the web.

7. The government IS the American people.  They are, by definition, representatives of the American people.  When someone says they want government to have no power, they are saying that they want Americans to have no power.

- We formed the government for the betterment of all people.  By dismantling and weakening our government to a size small enough to “drown in [a] bathtub” we weaken the American people’s power and freedom.

8. Businesses are… well, businesses.  Obtaining more money is their goal.  They do not represent anyone or anything, unless it makes them money.  Is this evil?  No, they should be free to pursue their riches, especially if in doing so they provide some needed service to the American people.  Does this make them someone that we should have faith in to protect the American people?  No, their goals are entirely dominated by money, not freedom for the American people.

9. So, what power do Americans have?  We have power over our government, and we have no power over other people, or businesses.  But, we can use the government, as it’s designed to do, to protect ourselves from other people and from businesses by enacting laws and regulations.

These ideas are not foreign to the American people.  We constantly debate which laws we should have over each other and how strict these laws should be.  Why is it then that so many Americans, and entire political parties continue to want Americans, and therefore the government, to turn a blind eye to the affairs of businesses?  Are businesses somehow more important than the American people?  Are businesses more trustworthy than the American people?  The answer is simple, no.  We need laws and we need regulations.  To preserve the freedoms and the power that the American people have we must create laws to keep other forces from taking those powers, and from taking our freedom.

Can you imagine the idea of a BLACK MAN actually trying to tell these WHITE Senators how to do their jobs?

OK, maybe it’s not so difficult for you, but it seems outrageous to Cons, Faux News, and the GOP.  While GOP appeals of “start from scratch,” and going, “step by step,” with the HCR bill were ignored, what really seems to inflame many of the RWL (Right Wing Lunatics) is the fact that Barack Hussein Obama thinks he has a right to speak as if he’s equal, or gosh-darnit, even superior to these white Republican Senators.

Of all the hats President Obama tried on at Thursday’s seven-and-a-half-hour health care summit, it appeared the one he was most comfortable wearing was that of the prickly professor.

How dare the President of the United States, commonly referred to as the Most Powerful Man in the World, talk to these people, correct their factual errors, or call for less campaigning and more substance.  How dare he!

The Party of No isn’t named so simply because of their obstructions in the House and in the Senate.  They’ve earned that title because if it were up to the GOP there would be NO social services of any kind, NO civil rights, NO labor laws, NO minimum wage, NO regulation of private enterprises, NO freedom without money to back it up, NO law without money to back it up, NO rights without money to back it up, NO America unless it was renamed America, Inc.

Here’s what the GOP really thinks of Obama:

And who could forget the music to play at all your Klan rallies:

No, Mr. President the Republicans aren’t interested in bipartisanship.  They’re not interested in making America a better place for ALL Americans.  What they’re interested in is taking America back to the 19th century; back to when minorities ‘knew their place’, women stayed in the kitchen, the middle and lower class had absolutely no say in government, and if you were White and Rich than you were above the law.