Jingoist Warmongering Democrats

Republicans don't hold a monopoly on jingoism. The Democrats excelled at it at their 2012 convention. In an article titled, "Democrats parade Osama bin Laden's corpse as their proudest achievement," Glenn Greenwald saw the Democratic National Convention for what it was: an attempt to out-warmonger the Republicans:

I thought, or at least hoped, that such vulgar crowd celebrations of leader-reverence, jingoism and militarism would not soon be replicated. But on Thursday night, the final night of the Democratic party convention, it was. It is hard to count how many times a Democratic party speaker stood up proudly to proclaim: Osama. Bin. Laden. Is. Dead! Almost every time Bin Laden's scalp was paraded around on its pike – all thanks to the warrior spirit and unflinching courage of our commander-in-chief – the crowd of progressives, liberals and party faithful erupted into a prolonged "USA. USA" chant.

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Unjustified take-downs in the news

Good article by Public Citizen's "Consumer Law & Policy Blog" regarding recent unjustified take-downs. This is going to be a more and more prominent issue. It is one reason I have my own blog, because I don't trust private for-profit companies like Facebook to give me (or anyone) free rein to express critically important political ideas.

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Romney’s destructive energy plan

Mitt Romney's energy plan is the Koch Brother energy plan. It will pollute the planet and crank up global warming. Romney claims that his plan will create jobs. At Rolling Stone, Jeff Goodell denies this claim:

[S]tudies show that investments to spur renewable energy and boost energy efficiency generate far more jobs than oil and coal. A recent report by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts concluded that $150 billion invested in renewable energy would generate 1.7 million more jobs than the same amount invested in fossil fuels. Another study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that a national standard requiring utilities to obtain at least 25 percent of their power from wind, solar and bioenergy by 2025 would create 297,000 new jobs, generating $13.5 billion in income for rural landowners and $11.5 billion in new tax revenues for local governments. In addition, the private sector has recognized the lucrative opportunities offered by clean energy: In 2010 – for the first time ever – investments in renewable energy surpassed those in fossil fuels.
Many of Mitt Romney's other lies regarding energy are examined in this excellent article.

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Those unappreciative Arabs . . .

At the Guardian, Glenn Greenwald shows us why we should be distressed by what passes for media coverage these days:

Did you know that the "USA helped free" Egyptians from their murderous dictator? On Thursday night, NBC News published a nine-minute report on Brian Williams' "Rock Center" program featuring its foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, reporting on the demonstrations in Cairo, which sounded exactly the same theme. Standing in front of protesting Egyptians in Tahrir Square, Engel informed viewers that this was all so very baffling because it was taking place "in Cairo, where the US turned its back on its old friend Hosni Mubarak", and then added:

"It is somewhat ironic with American diplomats inside the embassy who helped to give these demonstrators, these protesters, a voice, and allowed them to actually carry out these anti-American clashes that we're seeing right now."

That it was the US who freed Egyptians and "allowed them" the right to protest would undoubtedly come as a great surprise to many Egyptians. That is the case even beyond the decades of arming, funding and general support from the US for their hated dictator (to his credit, Engel including a snippet of an interview with Tariq Ramadan pointing out that the US long supported the region's dictators).

Beyond the long-term US support for Mubarak, Egyptians would likely find it difficult to reconcile Engel's claim that the US freed them with the "made in USA" logos on the tear gas cannisters used against them by Mubarak's security forces; or with Hillary Clinton's touching 2009 declaration that "I really consider President and Mrs Mubarak to be friends of my family"; or with Obama's support for Mubarak up until the very last minute when his downfall became inevitable; or with the fact that the Obama administration plan was to engineer the ascension of the loathed, US-loyal torturer Omar Suleiman as Mubarak's replacement in the name of "stability".

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Romney Economics

This is insane. How can a guy running on the economy not read the work of an economist he is citing on the campaign trail? Romney's definition of "middle class" is also astounding, given that only 2% of households have incomes of $250,000 per year. Alternet reports on a recent Romney interview:

Democrats say Romney’s plan would cause a $2,000 tax hike on the middle class - something Romney disputes and points to a number of studies that say his plan to cut taxes will not increase the deficit, including one by Harvard professor Martin Feldstein. Feldstein says Romney’s math will work, but he would have to eliminate the home mortgage, charitable, state and local tax deductions for incomes greater than $100,000. When I pressed Romney on that point, he conceded that he actually hadn’t read the Feldstein report that he and Paul Ryan cite on the campaign trail. “I haven’t seen his precise study,” he said. “I said that there are five different studies that point out that we can get to a balanced budget without raising taxes on middle income people. Let me tell you, George, the fundamentals of my tax policy are these. Number one, reduce tax burdens on middle-income people. So no one can say my plan is going to raise taxes on middle-income people, because principle number one is keep the burden down on middle-income taxpayers,” he said. Romney defined middle income as $200,000 to $250,000 a year and less.

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