Strombo: 'Gilles Duceppe on Quebec Sovereignty'

Source:Strombo- Quebec Nationalist Leader Gilles Ducceppe.

"Gilles Duceppe talks to Strombo about how he views Quebec's future on CBC's The Hour." 

From Strombo

Senator Bernie Sanders: Ed Schultz Show- 'Super Committee: The Winners & Losers'

Source:Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) on The Ed Show on MSNBC.

"Super Committee: The Winners & Losers" 

From Senator Bernie Sanders

I don't see any good news or bad news from the Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction (or as I call it: The Congressional Joint Committee on Do Nothing) as far as them not reaching an agreement, because I wasn't expecting them to reach any agreement. It's real hard to be disappointed anything to happen. (Not that I've tried that or anything)

I do see Congressional Democrats looking very good coming out of this. They knew going in that Congressional Republicans weren't going to agree to any tax hikes, probably not even tax reform. But they look good to their base which they'll definitely need in 2012 to take back the House and hold the Senate, by not agreeing to any entitlement reform without more defense cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy. 

I don't believe President Obama looks good because it's one more time he tried to bring Democrats and Republicans together and they failed. I don't think that will hurt him in the election, he can easily back up Congressional Democrats on this. 

I believe once again Congressional Republicans look stubborn and unable to work with Democrats, with their way or the highway approach when it comes to tax reform and caving to Grover Norquist again and they may have given democrats an issue to hit them with in 2012. 

RT America: The Alyona Show- Kevin Zeese: 'The 99 Percent's Deficit Plan'

Source:Russia Today- Kevin Zeese was one of Occupy Wall Street's founding members.

"RT (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian state-controlled[1] international television network funded by the federal tax budget of the Russian government.[15][16] It operates pay television channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and Russian.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an "autonomous non-profit organization" founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[10][17] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[18][19][20] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (since 2010),[21] RT UK (since 2014) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5][6][7] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company." 

From Wikipedia 

"Next Wednesday is the deadline for the Congressional Super Committee to finalize its deal on how to find 1.2 trillion dollars minimum in deficit savings. All things considered, including what members of the committee themselves are saying, it looks like it's going to fail. We'll take a look at something that one occupation in the country is offering up. Those camping out at Freedom Plaza have now created their own Deficit Proposal, the 99%'s deficit proposal. Kevin Zeese, an Occupy Washington, DC Oragnizer explains." 

From RT America

It looks like Occupy Wall Street finally has an agenda and it's pretty clear where they are coming from on the political spectrum. Their leadership (if you want to call it that) has put something on the table an agenda that I'm assuming they want to see passed.  

So the OWS deficit reduction plan is about putting the top tax rate back at 91% (which is where it was until 1964) and raising the capital gains tax. And of course cutting defense in half, without laying out where they would make those cuts. (Perhaps because no one in this movement actually understands the defense budget) They'll probably say their cuts will be in Afghanistan and Iraq, but that's all borrowed money to begin with, so if we stopped doing that, we would just stop current borrowing, but not actually cutting the deficit. 

The OWS agenda (at least according to Kevin Zeese) is just more traditional social democratic proposals: more infrastructure investment, more co-ops in business, more employee owned businesses. I'm fine with that, just as long as businesses and employees get to make those decisions themselves, instead of Big Government forcing those businesses on to the people. 

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a left-wing political movement in America called the New-Left, which was made up of self-described Socialists and Communists. Not right-wingers who still lived in the 1950s calling these young political activists Socialists and Communists. And those young activists back then were talking about what left-wing Gen-X and Millennial political activists are talking about today. Nothing new here, but at least OWS finally has a political agenda.

The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur- 'What is the Happiest Country on Earth -- And Why?'

Source:The Young Turks- Cenk Uygur: guilty of first degree ass-speaking. Unless he had the time to ask 4 billion people how happier they are, how could he know this? 

"What is the Happiest Country on Earth -- And Why?" 

From The Young Turks 

I hate these so-called scientific polls, which are really just left-wing, political pop culture polls in America that are designed to promote a basic political and economic philosophy. 

I mean seriously, how would anyone in the world ever be able to tell who are even the happiest people or person in any given country, let alone who are the happiest people and countries in the world? Maybe they inherited a 100-billion-dollars from their grandfather when they're 21 and decided that they would buy their own airplane devote their lives to traveling around the world to poll people about how happy they are. And if you believe that: I hear there are beach houses in Alaska for rent with a view of the Kremlin in Russia, where you can watch President Vladimir Putin going swimming everyday. 

Seriously, no one has time to do this and therefor could ever know who are the happiest people in any given country, let alone the entire Planet Earth. 

And also lets clear up one for more socialist falsehood about Scandinavian social democracy that Cenk Uygur repeated in his editorial: there's so thing as free government anything, that is funded either through taxes or by borrowing the money from another country. Anyone who pays taxes (including Cenk Uygur) is smart enough to know that. Finland and everyone else in Scandinavia pays for all the government benefits that they receive, whether it's health care, paid leave, or anything else that's provide by their government. 

Talking Points Memo: Senator Barack Obama- 'Confesses to Socialist Leanings'

Source:Talking Points Memo- U.S. Senator Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois) talking about his opponent Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona)

"Obama Confesses to Socialist Leanings ...admits to sharing in kindergarten. Oct. 29, 2008."

From Talking Points Memo 

If Barack Obama is Socialist, then then John McCain is a Christian-Right Theocrat, as well as a Islamic Theocrat, wanting to bring both fundamentalist Evangelicalism, and Sharia Law to America. (Impressive guy to pull both of those off at the exact same time) 

2008 was obviously a very trying year for America economically and with the Republican Party in The White House and presiding over all of this turmoil, Senator John McCain and company knew they were in a lot of trouble politically. (Which would explain their political hail marry pass known as Sarah Palin) And when political campaigns are in trouble, they tend to get desperate, especially when both Congress and The White House are at stake. And throw every name in the book (and perhaps some names that haven't been invented yet) at their opponents.   

You can also see this post on WordPress. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Journal, on Blogger. 

You can also see this post at The Daily Journal, on WordPress.

Talks At Google: Lawrence Lessig- 'Republic Lost'

Source:Talks At Google- Lawrence Lessig talking about his latest book Republic Lost.

"In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government-driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission-trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature.

With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness. 

While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In Republic, Lost, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it." 

From Talks At Google

One of the things I respect about the Occupy Wall Street movement is the fact they do support campaign finance reform and ending the partnership that Wall Street has with the Federal Government. Now, I disagree with their solutions and their alternate agenda, but they are right that we need to end this partnership and that we need to reform our campaign system.

OWS doesn't like the influence that Wall Street has on our Federal Government. (Which should go without saying to anyone with a brain and happens to also be sane) And all at least to a certain extent support CFR and ending corporate welfare. And perhaps all would like to see our lobbying rules reformed as well. But OWSs has a different approach in how they reform our system. But at least they all agree that it needs to be reformed but just have different approaches in how to do it. 

Reel Talk: 'Occupy Wall Street- A Short Documentary'

Source:Reel Talk Films- talking about Occupy Wall Street.

"A short film on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Included: facts behind big banks, history of social change and a first hand observation of the protest itself. 

"Knowledge is power. How will you use it? We are the future. We are the 99%"

From Reel Talk

We are going to find out in the next few months as the weather gets cold, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, if the Occupy Wall Street movement is here to stay and will be a factor in 2012. Or will it fade out like other social democratic movements in the past. Especially that were dominated by young people as they got older, finished school, went to work, got married, had kids, became part of the economic establishment they claimed to be against, etc. 

For OWS and I know I've blogged about this a lot lately and said this a lot before, but for them to become something and to effect the 2012 elections, which I'm assuming is their goal, to bring what they call Progressive Change (or Socialist Change) to America, which I'm assuming they are for, they have to be for something. They have to lay out what they say Progressive Change is. It's obvious what they are against: Wall Street, corporations, lobbyists, our campaign finance system. But the question is what does the modern left-wing (or Socialist-Left) in America believe in. And what would they do with government, is they just had the power to do it.