The Young Turks: Ana Kasparian & Cenk Uygur- ‘HBO’s Game Change Preview’

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Erik Schneider

HBO's 'Game Change' Preview (2012) - Google Search

Source:The Young Turks– actress Julianne Moore as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in HBO’s Game Change.

Source:The Daily Press 

“A trailer of HBO’s ‘Game Change’ is reviewed by Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. Tell us in the comment section below if you will be watching the movie?”

From The Young Turks

I saw the movie last night about an hour of it actually. I think Ed Harris did a good job of playing Senator John McCain and Woody Harrelson did a good job of playing Steve Schmidt and Sarah Palin was clearly not up to the job of Vice President, or President right now.

We knew that Sarah Palin was not up from prime-time four years ago, so even the facts that were in the movie were not new. We knew that the McCain Campaign didn’t do a very good job of vetting Sarah Palin. Basically a little known Governor of Alaska, who may feel she lives in a foreign nation, because of how isolated Alaska is with the Continental United States.

I do have a hard time believing that Steve Schmidt and company would only spend 72 hours researching someone they barely knew if at all, because these people are way too smart for that. And that Senator McCain wouldn’t know how little research they did on his vice presidential nominee. The most important decision that a Presidential Nominee will make.

To take this movie at face value, you have to assume that the McCain Campaign was throwing a Hail Mary. Expecting to lose the presidential election to Barack Obama and that they needed someone who the Republican base would like personally, someone who could match Barack Obama when it comes to personality. Someone that would be seen as a political celebrity. If that’s what their goal, then they’ve more than succeeded. Because Sarah Palin is a political celebrity today, thanks to Senator John McCain. She has 100% name ID and is probably the most liked Republican in the party personally.

The McCain Campaign paid a heavy price for picking Sarah Palin politically with Governor Palin not being able to answer questions that a high school or college student could answer. Like what is the Federal Reserve and making statements that a high school or college student know aren’t true. Like the Vice President being the Leader of the Senate.

Julianne Moore is a fine actress, but way too upscale to not sound like an elitist not intentionally to play Sarah Palin. They would’ve been better off using Julia Dryfuss or even Tina Fey to play Palin. Not a very good movie and definitely a movie not a documentary. And probably light on facts as well.

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The Film Archives: John Kerry- ‘How do You Ask The Last Man to Die For a Mistake’

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Erik Schneider

Vietnam War Veteran

Source:The Film Archives– U.S. Naval Lieutenant John F. Kerry, testifying in front of Congress in 1971, about the Vietnam War.

Source:FRS FreeState

“John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American politician who is the 68th and current United States Secretary of State. More on this topic.

He served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1985 to 2013, and was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 Presidential Election but lost to incumbent George W. Bush.

The son of an Army Air Corps veteran, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to graduate from Yale University class of 1966, where he majored in political science and became a member of the influential Skull and Bones secret society. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966, and during 1968–1969 served an abbreviated four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service, he was awarded combat medals that include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Securing an early return to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesman and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. He appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of “war crimes.”

From The Film Archives

It’s been said that presidents who have military or foreign policy experience, are less likely to commit American troops to combat in foreign nations, then presidents without that previous experience, because they know exactly what they are putting those troops through and what they have to go through. And the sacrifices they and their families will make as a result and perhaps even the ultimate sacrifice they may make.

I’ll give you a perfect example of that: when Dwight Eisenhower became President in 1953, one of the first things he looked to was to get American troops out of the Korean War. Because he saw it as a civil war.

Ronald Reagan a World War II veteran, never committed American troops into combat. We never went to war in his eight years as President. Jimmy Carter, another World War II veteran, never committed American troops to combat in his four years either. President George H.W. Bush did commit troops to the Gulf War in 1991. But for a very limited mission: get Iraq out of Kuwait, not to invade and occupy Iraq. A big country of twenty-five million people, a mistake that his son wasn’t able to avoid twelve years later.

President George W. Bush, who never had combat experience, or foreign policy experience, other than signing up for the reserves to avoid Vietnam service, commits American troops to two wars within seventeen months as President: Afghanistan and Iraq. Two wars we are now trying to get out of ten years later.

We’ll never know what type of president John Kerry would’ve made on foreign policy, or anything else. And I believe that’s unfortunate, because we are talking about a Vietnam veteran from the Baby Boom Generation, who volunteered to serve his country in Vietnam, unlike George W. Bush who did everything he can to avoid service there.

But when you hear Senator Kerry talk about foreign policy as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and as a senior Senator, you know that he doesn’t take these things lightly. And committing American troops to any war is a huge deal and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

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CNN: State of The Union With John King- U.S. Senator John McCain Calling For Air Strikes Against Syrian Forces

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Erik Schneider

John McCainSource:CNN– U.S. Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona) the top Neoconservative in Congress?

“John McCain on CNN calling for air strikes on Syrian Gov. forces. March 5th 2012”

From CNN

In the last four years it hasn’t been very often that I’ve agreed with Senator John McCain (the Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee) but he was right on Libya and he’s right on Syria.

Innocent Syrian citizens are being murdered because they are protesting their government pure and simple. The Assad Regime only has one thing they are interested in: staying in power and they’ll murder as many people as possible in order to stay in power. Thats all they care about and this is an authoritarian Baathist regime so far to the right that they make Neoconservatives look like Centrists.

The Assad Regime is a regime that’s held its people down and back, because they are afraid if they were to become strong they would throw the Baathists out of power. The Assad Regime is only interested in staying power and doing whatever they can to protect the interests of their regime. Not Syria itself, they are not interested in the best interest of their own country. If it hurts the strength of their regime.

The United States and the rest of the developed world at least in the West that has the capability to help out struggling rebels when they are fighting for their freedom by protesting against an authoritarian government, have a responsibility to step up and help out when they can when freedom and individual liberty are at stake.

The West has a responsibility to step up and help out where they can with the Arab League, European Union and NATO, the West working with the Arab League, has the ability to step up and save innocent Syrian citizens from their own brutal government by arming the Syrian rebels and giving them arms and human resources to help them survive. And let them do their own fighting and then later a no fly zone if it becomes necessary.

Senator McCain is right about Syria and he’s also right that America can’t do this on our own. We simply can’t afford too. We have to do this working with our partners, so we don’t have to take all the risks and pay all the price. But this is something we can do and should do.

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Maryland General Assembly: Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Erik Schneider

Washington Times_ Same-sex marriage referendum passes in Maryland (2012) - Google Search

Source:Washington Times– same-sex marriage coming to the Free State of Maryland.

“ANNAPOLIS — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s same-sex marriage bill now moves to the state Senate, where floor debate could begin this week, after its narrow passage in the House.

The bill, which would make Maryland the eighth state along with the District to legalize gay marriage, appears to have majority support in the 47-member Senate, which passed the bill last year by a 25-21 vote.

After working furiously last week to gain several crucial votes in the House, supporters in the Senate will mainly have the task of protecting the support they already have.”

From the Washington Times 

“The Maryland same sex marriage bill is now on Governor O’Malley’s desk after passing the state senate.”

Maryland General Assembly_ Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Source:MPT News– the Maryland State Senate chamber.

From MPT News

Maryland’s State nickname is the Free State. And to have a name like that for yourself to take that name and call yourself the Free State, to me at least as a Liberal, you have a lot to live up to, because it suggests you believe that Marylanders should be free to live their own lives. And not have state restrictions on how you live your own lives. That we are a Free State with free adults, people who live their own lives.

If you are a free stater, you believe that big government should not in our bedrooms or wallets. (As Barry Goldwater used to describe his own politics) That Marylanders would be able to live their own lives as they see fit. As long as they are not hurting anyone else with what they are doing.

If your only argument against same-sex-marriage is that it violates your religious beliefs and that homosexuality violates your religious beliefs and therefor everyone else regardless of their religious beliefs should be forced to live under your religious values, then you don’t have a real argument against same-sex-marriage. Because America is a republic, not a theocracy. And so is the Free State of Maryland.

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James Miller Center: President Jimmy Carter- Report To The Nation On Energy, February 2nd, 1977

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Erik Schneider

Jimmy CarterSource:James Miller Center– James E. Carter (Democrat, Georgia) 39th President of the United States, speaking about energy policy, in 1977.

“President Carter speaks to the American people about the importance of an energy policy that focuses on conservation of the nation’s natural resources and a new energy department. Carter also addresses his ideas to improve the economy and reduce the size of government.”

From the James Miller Center

“President Carter speaks to the American people about the importance of an energy policy that focuses on conservation of the nation’s natural resources and a new energy department. Carter also addresses his ideas to improve the economy and reduce the size of government.

February 2nd, 1977”

From the James Miller Center

President Carter was right to take on energy policy and creating a national energy policy that would move America off of foreign oil and move us towards energy independence. He understood that America has a surplus of natural resources and that we can and should be energy independent like Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others and we shouldn’t have to import foreign oil.

President Carter understood the energy crisis of 1973 and how that hurt the American economy, thanks to OPEC. And understood the energy crisis of the late 1970s and how that effected the American economy with higher energy prices, that contributed to our high unemployment. Because people were spending more money on their energy and as a result weren’t spending money on other products.

The problem with President Carter’s energy policy, is that it didn’t go far enough. It was almost completely focused on renewable energy resources: wind, solar, natural gas, and others. When yes, they should be part of a comprehensive energy policy. But those energy industries were so brand new and underdeveloped in the late 1970s when this speech was given and still are today that they alone can’t get America to energy independence.

America produces oil, coal, nuclear and natural gas. We have the potential to produce a lot of these and can produce them all over the country. But we simply can’t get there on nuclear power and oil drilling alone. They won’t get us to energy independence, but they are our mature energy resources right now. And have to be part of the picture.

Renewable energy, conservation, high energy standards, should and have to be part of a national energy policy for our economy, so we can produce a lot more jobs in brand new energy industries. For our environment, to make it cleaner. And for our foreign policy, to get us off of foreign oil. And so countries that don’t have our best interest at heart, will have less leverage over us in the world. And this is exactly what President Carter was pushing. But he didn’t go far enough. He should’ve included oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power as well.

Oil, has, coal, nuclear are already here for us, because they are already there and mature. And employ a lot of Americans in this country. And we can produce them in a way that doesn’t harm the environment through regulation and taxation.

President Cater deserves credit for focusing on energy policy and making it a centerpiece of his economic policy. And probably pushed this debate farther along than any President since. But missed an opportunity to create a comprehensive energy policy that by now could’ve moved America to energy independence and finally off of foreign oil.

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CBS News: President Harry S. Truman- Inaugural Adress (01-20-1949)

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Erik Schneider

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Source:CBS News– President Harry S. Truman (Democrat, Missouri) 33rd President of the United States, delivering his inaugural address, in 1949.

“Truman’s inaugural address came as the world began its recovery from World War II, and underscored the split in values between democratic and communist philosophies, which he called out as a “false philosophy”.

From CBS News

Harry Truman perhaps the biggest political underdog in the history of American politics, at least when he was running for President in 1948.

President Truman was someone who believed that he wouldn’t be elected President in 1948, let alone his own administration or campaign organization and yet he not only gets elected President in 1948 in his own right, after serving out President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s term. But I believe is not just one of the best Democratic President’s, but one of the best Progressive President’s, one of the best President’s of the 2nd half of the 20th Century, but 20th Century as well, but I believe in the 2nd group at least as one of the best American President’s ever, because of what he inherited when he became President in 1945, but the shape of the country when he left office in 1953.

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Universal Newsreels: President John F. Kennedy- Proposes Tax Cut (1962)

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Erik Schneider

Liberal Democrat

Source:Universal Newsreels– President John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) giving a speech about tax reform in 1962.

“John F. Kennedy speaks on his income tax cut that he wants to present to Congress in January next year (partial newsreel).”

From Universal Newsreels

At risk of sounding partisan: Neoconservative supply siders like to use President John F. Kennedy as their inspiration when talking about President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts from 1981 and saying that President Kennedy also not only believed in tax cuts, but that tax cuts pay for themselves, even when you are also dramatically increasing government spending, which is what President Reagan and that Congress of 1981-82 did. But President Kennedy didn’t believe that.

When JFK became President in 1961, the top tax rate in America was 90%. The bottom rate was 25% and he inherited and economy that was barely growing in his first two years as President, that was just coming out of the recession from the late 1950s. Whatever your political affiliation is I believe most Americans can agree that 91% is too high for a  top rate (regardless of your income) and that 25% is too high, especially for lower middle income Americans, who perhaps barely make enough money for pay any Federal income taxes.

When Ronald Reagan becomes President in 1981, the top tax rate thanks to President Lyndon Johnson getting tax reform passed out of Congress in 1964, was 70% and the bottom rate was 22%.

President Reagan got through a divided Congress a tax cut that lowered the top rate from 70 to 39 and the bottom rate from 22 to 15. While at the same time doubling the size of the Defense Department and increasing the rest of the Federal budget as well. So there’s no mystery to why four years later we had a budget deficit that goes from 60 billion, to 200 billion dollars under President Ronald Reagan, who talked like a fiscal conservative, but governed like a supply side borrow and spender.

What President Kennedy wanted to do and what President Johnson got passed in 1964, was yes, cut taxes across the board because they were too damn high across the board. While at the same time eliminating tax loopholes in the tax system and making sure the U.S. Government paid for its spending, instead of believing that tax cuts automatically pay for themselves.

If your definition of a fiscal conservative is someone who believes in spending less and not running high deficits and debt, Jack Kennedy was more fiscally conservative than Ron Reagan.

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The Daily Caller: Real Time With Bill Maher- ‘Why Can’t America be More Like Canada?’

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Erik Schneider

IMG_5929

Source:The DC Shorts– comedian Martin Short, on Real Time With Bill Maher, in 2011.

Source:The Daily Press

“‘Canada is a country that has health care and not a lot of gun violence. And we’ve become just a more war-like mean, cramped conservative country'”

From The DC Shorts

Why can’t Canada be more like Canada? Well, because America is America and Canada. (To be as overly simplistic as possible) Canadians are a very collectivist and a very welfare-centric country. America likes their individual freedom and individualism, their personal freedom, the ability to make their own decisions without Big Government trying to tax them to death because Uncle Sam believes it’s more qualified to spend Americans money better than them.

With Canadians, I think they don’t mind Big Government spending a lot of their money for them, just as long as the services that they get are good and their money is spent well. The political cultures in both countries are just very different.

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The Onion: ‘Did Media Treat Michele Bachmann Unfairly Because She’s an Insane Woman’

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Erik Schneider

IMG_5925

Source:The Onion– U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (Republican, Minnesota) unfortunately not on the road to sanity and mental health.

Source:The Daily Press

“The First Responders debate whether the media is harder on Michele Bachmann because she is a woman who is crazy. (Aired 11/1/11)”

From The Onion

In many ways it’s easier to get attention these days, especially in the era of the information technology revolution, by saying things that make you sound like you’re from another planet. Or in Michele Bachmann’s case, sound like you’re running for President, of another planet, who wants to hear a politician say: “I’ll do what I believe is in the best interest of the country. I’ll make decisions based on what I believe is the best thing to do”.

Every time there’s a politician or candidate who speaks like that, you can hear insomniacs snoring in the background, getting the best sleep of their lifetimes. Perhaps introducing their brains to sleep for the first time in their lives.

It’s the politicians and candidates, who say things, just to use Michele Bachmann as an example (for no apparent reason) who says things like: “same-sex marriage is the biggest threat to our national security”. I guess sometime before she said that, the United States won the War on Terror. I could’ve swore the War on Terror was a bigger threat. Or the national debt or deficit, unemployment were bigger threats. Perhaps Representative Bachmann misses the House Intelligence Committee meetings that she’s a member of, that released that information. (Her shrink wouldn’t let her out of the institution that day)

Maybe Barack Obama actually is God and fixed all the problems that her inherited (except for gays getting married and living happily ever after, while not bothering anyone) and hearing rumors that President Obama was God in disguise as a human being and President of the United States, was not a rumor, but a fact.

So now the biggest threat to American civilization is actually same- sex marriage. If you’re having a hard time reading that with a straight face, imagine how hard it was to write it. You know with the typing and everything, but hey maybe Representative Bachmann’s gay husband Marcus can fix the same-sex marriage issue, by converting gay people to straight.

Its much easier I would say especially in America, because of our size and wealth (310M people, the largest economy in the world) and how far advanced we are technology wise and everything for mentally unbalanced people (lets say to be nice) to get attention for themselves and whatever they think they are trying to accomplish.

The reason for is this is because of how abnormal the mentally handicapped are and they do and say things, that sane people just wouldn’t say or do. Mitt Romney only gets media attention for one of his speeches, when he says something that makes him seem out of touch. Like when he said he only made 400K$ giving speeches. Well, 90% of the country would love to only 400K$ a year. But generally people don’t remember much if anything that Mitt said in one of his speeches.

Mitt isn’t very memorable as a speaker because he’s one of the sanest people to ever run for President. The guy is about as exciting as a bowl of oatmeal, which might be insulting to oatmeal. But when someone lets again use Michele Bachamann, says something that sounds so far out in left field (or right field in Michelle’s case) that they couldn’t see centerfield with binoculars or a telescope, it gets reported right away, because it’s crazy, interesting and provocative. And gives the “mainstream media” something else to make fun of.

If you’re lonely and feel like you’re not receiving your fair share of attention, give a crazy speech, say things like “America should be less Socialist like China”. Take pictures of your sensitive area and post them on Twitter, especially if you’re a public official. It will always work and you’ll always get attention for doing (excuse the expression) doing crazy shit like that. But one thing it just might not be the kind of attention you’re looking for. But as the saying goes, all free media is good media. I know I said no more blog posts about Michele Bachmann until she runs for reelection for House. But this popped in my head.

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Talking Points Memo: U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann- ‘We Should be Less Socialist Like China’

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Erik Schneider

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Source:Talking Points Memo– U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (Republican, Minnesota) displaying how you look and sound when you don’t take your medicine. And perhaps when you don’t eat your fruits and vegetables, and perhaps drink enough water as well.

Source:The Daily Press 

“Bachmann: We Should Be Less Socialist… Like China” 

From Talking Points Memo 

“Social welfare in China has undergone various changes throughout history. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is responsible for the social welfare system. Currently the form of social welfare is in between 40-75% according to their means of production.

Welfare in China is linked to the hukou system. Those holding non-agricultural hukou status have access to a number of programs provided by the government, such as healthcare, employment, retirement pensions, housing, and education. While rural residents traditionally were expected to provide for themselves,[1] in 2014 the Chinese Communist Party announced reforms aimed at providing rural citizens access to historically urban social programs.[2]

In pre-1980s reform China, the socialist state fulfilled the needs of society from cradle to grave. Child care, education, job placement, housing, subsistence, health care, and elder care were largely the responsibility of the work unit as administered through state-owned enterprises and agricultural communes and collectives. As those systems disappeared or were reformed, the “iron rice bowl” approach to welfare changed. Article 14 of the constitution stipulates that the state “builds and improves a welfare system that corresponds with the level of economic development.

In 2004 China experienced the greatest decrease in its poorest population since 1999. People with a per capita income of less than 668 renminbi (RMB; US$80.71) decreased by 2.9 million people or 10 percent; those with a per capita income of less than 924 RMB (US$111.64) decreased by 6.4 million people or 11.4 percent, according to statistics from the State Council’s Poverty Reduction Office.[3]

Welfare reforms since the late 1990s have included unemployment insurance, medical insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, maternity benefits, communal pension funds, individual pension accounts, universal health care.[4]

Furthermore, for many of the minority groups, there are some benefits available.[5]

During July 2020, Beijing social security center put restrictions on the social security withholding and payment, which was allowed to be operational previously via third party organizations.” 

From Wikipedia 

Representative Michele Bachmann to me at least makes the case for why every single candidate running for President, should at least have to pass a modern social studies, as well as history class, before they are even eligible to run for President. And have to take and pass those course like a year before they decide to run for President.

Representative Bachmann also defines at least one version of the term asshole, as someone who speaks out of their ass, because they don’t know what the hell they are talking about. She sounds like an auto mechanic or janitor trying to sound like an expert on brain surgery or astronomy. 

According to Representative Bachmann, America should be less socialist like China. Apparently not aware that China is the People’e Republic of China. They are a Communist State, that yes have in the last 30 years has privatized a lot of their economy and industries, which is why they’ve seen the economic growth and reductions in poverty that they’ve seen. But they are a Communist State that even has a welfare system and a generous one at that. 

I don’t know where Representative Bachmann gets her information or intelligence,  but it’s not from the House Intelligence Committee (where she’s a member of) or she’s simply lying out of her ass and represents the stereotype of the American politician as someone who says what she or he thinks people want to hear and what she wants them to hear, but wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped her or him in the face, because she’s been lying or bullshitting for so long.

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