The Top Five Misconceptions Heading Into the 2012 Presidential Election Cycle

http://ricochet.com

#5
THAT 'OBAMACARE' IS A HOMICIDAL MANIAC IS A SICKLY MISCONCEPTION

Hundreds of millions of dollars will likely be spent by pharmaceutical, insurance, and other health care related companies to persuade the American population that a national health care system will lead to their ultimate and untimely death.  Anyone who has spent any time in London, Canada, Korea, or a host of other capitalist countries that boast a centralized health care system know that the health care is generally pretty good an far less expensive.  In fact, a national system reverses a backwards incentive structure in America, giving the system an incentive to cure rather than manage or mitigate.  Furthermore, a national health care system does not  necessitate the death of private health care.  Rather, it provides a check and balance against the private sector, ensuring that the private health care sector is at least as efficient as the public sector.  A thriving medical tourism industry has taken root within Korea's low cost private sector, for example. Finally, Obama managed to pass just a watered down version of a nationalized health care that Democratic leaders have been trying to push through since Truman.  So even the name "Obamacare" is a misconception.

#4
THAT OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST IS A TREE HUGGING MISCONCEPTION

Obama has revealed himself to be something of a conservative Democrat, which has disappointed the far left.  However, if the far left had simply paid attention during the 2008 Democratic primary, they would have saw that despite her hawkish tone, Hillary Clinton's platform was to the left of Obama's.

#3
THAT MITT ROMNEY IS A CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN IS A TEA BAGGING MISCONCEPTION

A look at Mitt Romney's record in liberal-leaning Massachusetts will reveal one of two things:  that Romney will say anything to get elected, or that he is a liberal - leaning Republican with deep ties to big business.  He's probably both.  Now that his media whore buddy, Donald Trump, has become embroiled in yet another Miss USA controversy, expect Romney to rapidly select a running mate that's more believably conservative.  As they did four years ago, birthers and tea baggers all over America will unite behind a young, idealistic conservative talking head Vice Presidential candidate.  Inevitably, the young idealist will be pushed to lob ridiculous accusations at the President which will offend the liberal media, resulting in their political suicide.

#2
THAT OBAMA HAS DONE NOTHING IS A DOER-DOING-DOES-AND-DID MISCONCEPTION

If you don't know this, then you need to pay better attention.  Just because Obama didn't produce an extravagant media event to declare Osama Bin Laden dead doesn't mean he didn't get job done.  On top of this, he refocused the war on terror in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  In addition, he signed into law an economic plan that helped save 3.6 million jobs, signed into law a landmark health care plan that has eluded Democratic leaders since Truman, signed into law landmark consumer protections and financial reforms, reformed the college loan system, rescued the American auto industry, repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and became the first "Gay President," signed into the law the Lilly Ledbetter Act ensuring equal pay for women.

#1
THAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT RESUSCITATING THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS AN EXECUTIVE CLASS MISCONCEPTION


In a private sector characterized by 475:1 pay for CEO's compared to the average worker, then CEO's must be really good at their jobs and never make a mistake.  I'm sure that's what they'll tell you.  But anyone who has held an 'average worker' position knows that there is nothing Government can do to help the economy.  A generation of entitled white collar baby boomers are waging class, sex, generation, race and any other kind of warfare  they can think of in order to keep their egregious compensation package and make 150 the new 80.

(The reality is, in most cases, their real package is kind of lacking.  But that's a private - albeit laughing - matter.)

Economically speaking, in most cases their executive compensation package is about equal to the compensation packaging of the 1000's of workers they laid off.  In most cases, their press release blames the economy or the Government or the corporate tax rate.  In most cases, they will donate to Mitt Romney's campaign hoping that he will further lower the already too low corporate tax rate.

Remember, deregulation that was rampant in the Clinton and Bush administrations put Big Business, not Government, in charge of our economy.  It is big business leaders, not Government leaders, that made the biggest mistakes that last market bubble to go "pop!"  Remember that a market is nothing but the people who make them up.  Time for the Republican party to act on their platform, and bring personal accountability into the equation.  Unfortunately that is like saying no to about 50million dollars a month in corporate donations and turning down fancy dinners with lobbyists.

Bummer for the rest of us.

LibsandCons is back.

LibsandCons is back for the new election cycle pitting candidate Mitt Romney against incumbent President Barack Obama.  Smart money's on Obama.

Libs and Cons: On a Break

Thank you for your interest in this blog. Libs and Cons at libsandcons.blogspot.com will resume posting new material in October 2010, as I will be living abroad in Seoul, South Korea.

Have a happy and prosperous year!

Dustin Newcombe
libsandcons.blogspot.com

Libs and Cons Help List: Federal, State, and Local Resources for Tough Times

Times is tough. Your Government's here to help!

Health Services

• Medical Assistance at http://www.findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov
  
• Mental Health Assistance at http://www.whatadifference.org
• National Alliance on Mental Illness at http:// www.nami.org

Housing Services

• Public Housing near you at http://www.hud.gov/local/index.cfm
• Shelters near you at http://www.socialsecuritylaw.com/CM/Custom/TOCLowCostHousingResources.cfm
  

State Help

• State Benefits Programs at http://www.govbenefits.gov
• Social Welfare Services at http://www.socialwelfareservices.org
• Human Services Office at http://www.hhs.gov

Food Stamps

• Your local office at http://www.fns.usda.gov/FSP/outreach/map.htm
• An application at: http://www.workworld.org/wwwebhelp/food_stamp_state_application_forms_online.htm

Community Help

• United Way at http://www.liveunited.org
• Salvation Army at http://www.salvationarmy.org

Take Action: Write Your Representative

• Find your representative at http://www.congress.org (searchable database by zip)

A Broken Record: Decomposing the Music of the Right

Dear Phantom de Comment,

As I've said, I don't mind the comments; keep them coming. But you're increasingly a coward masked by anonymity, afraid to own his fractured ideology.

It's a sad comment on our education system that you fundamentally do not understand basic economic pinciples, let alone those of the international variety.

I'll give you this: you understand your own bank account. So manage your own bank account up right and let somebody who understands economics talk about economics.

If your taxes happen to increase because you make $250k a year or more, work a little harder or a little smarter. Fortunately for you, with Obama in office, you you can probably maintain or even work a little less and your wealth will still grow. And just a little heads up, if you happen to be part of an ever decreasing population with disposable income, now would be a superb time for you to invest. In about five years, you'll be a very rich man.

But an economist you are not. Under an economic system of international opportunity funded by the developed world, even if your wealth were to decrease, you will experience little difference -- and perhaps even an increase --in your real standard of living. Do you understand what real means, like economically, or even in general? Spending money on other people may seem irrational and wasteful, but over time it expands the international consumption base.

For you this translates to an increase overall in your REAL standard of living. Furthermore, as the demand for the shit you sell if you are a salesperson or the shit you manufacture if you are a manufacturer increases, your earning potential increases, exponentially.

This is not rocket science. It's not brain surgery. It's not Reagonomics, Keynesanomics, or Socialism. It's not international charity or economic catastrophe. It is economics boiled down to its most basic and fundamental relationship: SUPPLY & DEMAND. If you do not understand the inverse relationship between supply and demand, you might go back to ninth grade and sit in on an economics class or two.

But perhaps its not the real standard of living that you gives you your rise.

Perhaps your rise is from the pedestal that you create for yourself by holding others down. Maybe your position on this pedestal makes you feel like a big man who can point big condescending fingers at others and say, "I'm right because I am not wrong." And despite how buffoonish this sounds it makes you feel good. That and the viagra-inspired dream of being wrinkle free and hard as a rock in the geriatrics ward may well be your driving force in life.

For me this isn't about being right, it's about doing what's right. Call it my bleeding heart, but I just care. I guess that's what makes me a lib and you a con. I care and you don't.

Some people measure experience in years, and others measure it in experience. I may be younger, but I have experienced a lot. Nevertheless, I've never been on welfare, I've never collected an unemployment benefit, I've worked hard since I was sixteen and haven't worked less than two jobs since I was a Freshman in college.

Even when I lost my job last year, I worked two shit jobs. When these jobs couldn't quit make the ends meet, I moved into my friend's living room and saw my car get repossessed. I've felt the consequences of my mistakes exacerbated by the fallout from others' mistakes. I'm a better person today because I made mistakes and felt the consequences of those mistakes. I'm lucky, too, because I got to go to college. And when things got really bad financially for me in 2008, I had family good enough to help me out with a loan when no one else would. So let me be clear in say how lucky I am.

But there are those who are far less privileged than me; I talk to them everyday in my current job as a case manager for a law firm specializing in Social Security Disability Benefits.

It is not uncommon to talk to disabled veterans who can't even get a disability benefit for conditions earned defending our country. I speak quite often with the hard working Americans who've done the grunt work that somebody's gotta do for the past 30 years and now suffer from degenerative disc diseases and spinal conditions that won't get any better over the two years they'll likely wait to get disability benefits and pay for treatment. Helplessly, they watch their prognosis deteriorate from "fair" to "poor" while they await a benefit to go get treatment, because in America you can't get treatment without a job, and you can't get a job with a disability. It's a vicious catch 22.

And the lucky few with terminal cases that actually do get awarded in a timely fashion would probably be shit out of luck had the Bush administration been successful in privatizing Social Security instead of merely sabotaging it for eight years. F*** me, frankly, because this blog isn't not about me versus you and your cronies. You may find peace of mind knowing that far worse things have happened to far better people than what happened to me last year.

And if I draw on my personal experiences experiences occasionally, it is because I'm just writing about what I know about. That's what make this my blog. So let me just say it again, clearly: this blog is not a pity party for me or any of my middle class friends. Yes, I occasionally decry a failed economy created, ironically, by a baby boom generation that benefited from Roosevelt's New Deal and access to affordable college and affordable health care. I may occasionally allude to an economic meltdown that will leave much of this greedy baby boom generation reliant on my generation to sustain a quality of life they feel they deserve. But these days I'm feeling ready and up to the lofty challenge.

I acknowledge that there is a bluff inherent in this blog that glorifies the Libs and marginalizes some Cons. But we as a nation have been failed by the Cons. And I make no secret that I have some fundamental problems with the Republican party, and specifically an undercurrent of "American exceptionalism" that sounds increasingly like a chorus sung by Klansmen of the Ku Klux variety.

Make no mistake, I am not Anti-American; I am anti-Dick Cheney, anti-Rush Limbaugh, and anti -Karl Rove and anti-their klan of designing henchmen.

I am pro-REAL AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, characterized by opportunity for those who work hard being able to achieve their full, individual achievement within the framework of widespread socioeconomic opportunity.

So to the phantom de blogger, whomever you may be, continue singing the music of the right if it makes you feel better... if it makes you feel somehow "right!" But I can assure you the only threat to your safety and precious bank account is your own experienced and shortsighted thinking.

Think of me, and think of me fondly,
The Lib Who Writes This Blog

How To Fight Terrorism

Here are my top ten tools for fighting Terrorism:

1. Bring home our troops and secure our borders as we can try to control others actions but we can truly only control our own
2. Replace advanced interrogation techniques with advanced surveillance techniques
3. Lead the world in relinquishing nuclear weapons to the United Nations with unprecedented transparency
4. Exercise sound diplomacy and allow our perceived enemies to have a voice internationally
5. Eliminate religious doctrine from Government, and embrace religious freedom for all people
6. Spread socio-economic opportunity to those countries cast indefinitely in the shadows of the developed world
7. Advance and update the Geneva conventions to respond to terrorism today
8. A strong national guard and a united, synergistic international Army capable of swift action
9. Set concrete goals for international peace
10. Take all action necessary up to and including the last resort of military action tounderstand and eliminate the roots of terrorism

Dick Cheney's Implication: Let's Fight Terror with Terror

RE: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/us/politics/11cheney.html?_r=1&hpw

His name sounds like a title character leftover from a gay bondage superhero porn that went way over budget.

He rides saddle back with Karl "Messenger of God" Rove, like the ambiguously gay duo back to the future part two. Thet work to guarantee that Cheney's own gay daughter never gets to marry. They proliferate a notion of American morality viz a viz the legal eradication of "same marriage."

Daddy makes up for little Mary Cheney's troubles with the promise of a fat inheritance courtesy, no doubt, of Halliburton whose board he sat on prior to his position as VP of the United States of America. As VP, Cheney awarded some phat oil contracts in Iraq to this company despite the obvious conflict of interest. But there's was no time for Halliburton-gate in times of war, much less those that no no end.

Of course, who can forget this all occured following invasion of Iraq on the threat of a hoax that Dick Cheney perpetuated; to this day, we have not found a weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, much less one that presents a clear and present danger to the United States of America. Nonetheless, Dick Cheney advanced a policy in Iraq made America, by definition, a terrorist nation. I wonder if Dick Cheney chuckled to himself late at night at how easy re-branding and marketing terrorism can be in America; "pre-emptive strike" isn't even that catchy of a campaign. But I guess catchiness isn't necessary when you have the federal budget, degrees of legitimacy, and the media at your disposal.

If it weren't enough to simply fight terror with terror, Vice President Dick Cheney then took unprecedented action to authorize internationally illegal interrogation techniques against prisoners of war that the Geneva conventions define as torture. He then led a similar semantics quelling campaign to redefine torture in America under the less emotionally inciting banner of "advanced interrogation techniques." Again, catchiness means little in marketing campaigns with limitless channels of distribution and the federal budget.

Today, in defiance of his own questionable definition of patriotism, Dick Cheney has become the de-facto leader of a campaign against President Obama. This is nothing short of a concentrated campaign discredit President Obama's authority as the leader of the free world and continue the fear-mongering that he orchestrated from behind the curtains of President George W. Bush as if America were Oz and he himself is the great and powerful wizard hereof.

(Somewhere between then and now, W realized that he had had been fooled too often by the old gas guzzlin' fart he appointed Vice President. W grew a brain somewhere and has since teamed up with Bill Clinton to give speaches domestically; internationally he triest to make it up to Canada here and there for a solo gig.)

Meanwhile, the Dickmeister continues to talk. In fact, he talks more now than he ever did when he ran the country. He's like the micro-machine guy back in the 80's only he's talking about more than toy cars. He's actually attempting to sabotage a sitting President who's doing a far better job of managing America in 100 days than old Dicky and his great and powerful President could manage in 2,920 days.

Unfortunately because of unacceptable behind-closed-doors policies like torture and terrorism, Dick Cheney's prophecy could well be of the self-fulfilling variety. I think even Cheney himself underestimated President Obama's ability to advance hope and change as quickly as he has. But America is not in the clear, and we should be ready to unite as a nation behind our President as he undertakes the necessary measures to restore America position as a nation of diplomacy and high moral standard internationally.

Democratic Senators Ignore Constituents, Vote for Banks

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Don't Be Distracted: Torture and Flu Claim Their First Presidential Casualty‏

From Phil Gaskin, http://thepointsbeyond.blogspot.com/

Early last week I sent a message urging everyone to stay focused on the main goals of the President and to not get distracted by the side conversations like torture and now the flu.

What occurred last night is what happens when distraction to which President Obama has referred since the campaign occurs. Last night the Foreclosure Relief Bill was defeated in the Senate with 11 Democratic Senators voting against the Bill. The Banks bought out the Senators. The same banks that got money from the government. This defeat is a stinging blow to many Americans who are in need of help to avoid losing their homes. These include people with good intentions that have always paid on time and did not participate in irresponsible practices .

It is on Bills like this the Administration needs our voices and calls/emails to Congress, but this time the voices did not speak up. And due to the distractions exacerbated by mostly the far left including Olbermann, Maddow, Hartmann, Move On, etc. TV screens, email boxes and phone lines were filled with torture and flu conversations instead of things like this Foreclosure Bill. As I have said before torture punishments can and will be handled by the DOJ in due time as they should be. Regarding the flu, I think people are now seeing the overreaction and the distraction this was/is. The other pressing matters in the moment like the survival of American jobs and American's ability to keep their homes etc. are the key subjects on which we have to make sure we stay laser focused. Otherwise we are not working to support the agenda we want. We are not paying attention to Congress, and putting pressure on them to support the bills that help us, the American people.

Here is a list of the Democratic Senators that voted against the Bill. I am trying to get a list of the banks that fund these Senators. Please feel free to call their switchboards or email if so inclined. It is unconscionable that in the face or our crisis and with the bailout money gone to these banks that these Senators voted against this Bill.

The main number is 1-800-962-3524. Please be cordial to the wonderful switchboard operators, but let the Congress' staff know exactly how you feel.Those who voted for the banks:

Max Baucus, Montana: http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue

Michael Bennet, Colorado: http://bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=TransitionalSiteEmailSenatorBennet

Robert Byrd, West Virginia: http://byrd.senate.gov/

Tom Carper, Delaware: http://carper.senate.gov/index.cfm

Byron Dorgan, North Dakota: mailto:senator@dorgan.senate.gov

Tim Johnson, South Dakota: http://johnson.senate.gov/contact/

Mary Landrieu, Louisiana: http://landrieu.senate.gov/2009/index.cfm

Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas: http://lincoln.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Ben Nelson, Nebraska: http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Mark Pryor, Arkansas: http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/

Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania: http://specter.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

John Tester, Montana: http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/

The Role of the United Nations in the Post-Wall Street World

The global village is no longer some mythical economic universe. The domino effect that began with a mortgage crisis in the United States and spurred an historic worldwide economic recession is tangible economic proof that our village knows no boundaries. If the United Nations once existed with the dubious purpose to facilitate diplomacy, it exists today with a clear purpose to facilitate international economy. The role of the United Nations must rise in significance to oversee the building of an international economic infrastructure to deliver health, knowledge and security to the world.

There are those who will argue that the idea of an international governing body will impede the sovereign rights of individual nations. No doubt individual nations will have to make concessions; in the short run, the biggest concessions will be made by those nations that have the most to concede. The fundamentals of strong economy, be it local, state, national or global, suggest that the opportunity cost of waiting for another global economic meltdown necessitates that we make these concessions with urgency. Everybody wins with a universal workforce and consumption base that is healthy, educated, and secure.

As the argument persists in the United States for and against an affordable health care system that approaches “socialized health care,” there are little who doubt that the collective health of American citizens continue to diminish. Globally, the picture is even worse. In Haiti and Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS continues to devastate development. Potential consumers and workers here whither in the forgotten shadows of the developed world. The developed world must wake up and smell the roses among these withering populations. A healthy global workforce is a happy and productive workforce.

If a healthy global population provides the base of a healthy economy, an infrastructure for education can make global health sustainable. Education can provide an infrastructure for preventative health care by instilling healthy mental and physical habits. Reading, writing, math, science, economics, and history should be a matter of course in the development of all societies; today, even in many developed nations, such basic pillars of a good education are absent. The slope of global progress continues to flatten.

Despair arises in the absence of knowledge and health. Terrorism grows in places cast indefinitely in the shadows of the developed world, where your best opportunity for health, knowledge and security may well be within the underground lairs of violent fringe movements. Think how easily we all have been culled into a fringe movement in the discontent of our youth before judging the choices of a young man whose existence is fraught with famine, disease, and violence. It is a desire for security in a chaotic world that drives these men to the fringe; violence goes without saying for those who have never known peace. The global opportunity cost for the existence of an unhealthy and uneducated “third world” population both creates and exacerbates the threat of terrorism; it is a global economic hindrance regardless of the security of your borders. Military action is a short term and sometimes shortsighted solution. Economic opportunity may sound more like a fantasy than a pragmatic solution; it is both.

Health, knowledge, and security are the interdependent pillars of our global economy long overdue for a strong global infrastructure. The United Nation’s purpose has never been clearer: to develop a borderless economic strategy that responds to an international economy that knows no borders.