I was saddened when I opened my local newspaper on Independence Day and found a half page ad quoting and taking Thomas Jefferson quotes out of context. I’ll run through the list of quotes they have poisoned our newspaper with and give you the context so you can know what is really being said. One must ask, why would Scheels spend money on such a deceptive ad. To come up with a list of quotes, they must have spent the time to actually read the context, right? Right?

I just can’t believe that Scheels intended to disrespect the readers and America by publishing a biased political screed, but it’s hard to believe they didn’t research the quotes before publishing them. Shame on you, Scheels.

Here are the quotes and the context is described below.

1. My reading of history convinces me that most bad governments result from too much government.
2. I predict future happiness for Americans if they prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
3. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
4. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle if acted on would save on-half the wars of the world.
5. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
6. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
7. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

Let’s start with the list as a whole. One would think from this list that these are the only things that Jefferson believed and never expressed views contrary to these. Obviously he has. No one is that one sided. Hence, just the fact that Scheels decided to only print quotes that are biased proves they have an agenda and are deceiving us.

Let’s take these quotes and look at them in debth:

1. My reading of history convinces me that most bad governments result from too much government.
   This sounds simple and true on the surface but as we’ve discussed in a previous post, we need to know the right size of a government and not just strive for smaller and smaller government. Only the rich, greedy, and unethical benefit from too small a government. Worse, still, this is the dog-whistle call to the unthinking tea baggers who chant all government is bad. Believe me, Jefferson didn’t think “We The People” was bad or too big.
2. I predict future happiness for Americans if they prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
   This is a misquote and in the context means something quite different than is implied in the context of the Scheels’ ad. Here is the real quote:

   As men become better informed, their rulers must respect them the more. I think you will be sensible that our citizens are fast returning, from the panic into which they were artfully thrown to the dictates of their own reason; and I believe the delusions they have seen themselves hurried into will be useful as a lesson under similar attempts on them in future. The good effects of our late fiscal arrangements will certainly tend to unite them in opinion, and in a confidence as to the views of their public functionaries, legislative & executive. The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our Legislature. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

   You can read the entire text of the letter. As you can see here, Jefferson is talking about the country’s citizens becoming smarter and not feeling they need the government to make decision on their behalf. And, yes, we are happier when we don’t rely on the government to make our decisions, hence, “taking care of us”. This has nothing to do with taking care of our poor and mis fortunate. It has nothing to do with “We The People” uniting to fix the broken health care system.

3. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
   Sorry folks. This is just a lie. Jefferson never said any such thing.
4. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle if acted on would save on-half the wars of the world.
   Wonderful statement. Too bad republicans didn’t complain when the republicans were building up this debt, but only now find it appropriate to complain about it. Those who complain about the debt when the democrats are in power but are silent when the republicans are building up the debt are not just fools but are harmful to America.
5. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
   This is a misquote as well. The real text says:

That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.

This is a quote from his rant on freedom from religion. This quote has nothing to do with taxes. In fact, the idea of taxes to pay for what the majority votes is the founding principle of a democracy. To refuse to be part of a system because you can claim you don’t agree with how part if of it works is foolishness. If that were the case, no one would pay taxes and America would cease to exist. Not too bright, but it plays straight into the hands of the rich who don’t want to pay their fair share.

6. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
   This is one of the most over-quoted and deceptive quotes one hears from Jefferson. Jefferson was not condoning violent revolution as a way to fix problems in a democracy. In fact, later in life wrote to say that a democracy does not need such forms of correction since we have elections. There is a good comment on this at Huffington Post.
7. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
   As sad as this comment is, we have become much more corrupt than Europe. Few nations have allowed corporations to take control of their governments. Big business has corrupted our country. Still, I agree. It’s time to reverse our over-population problem.

In conclusion, many these comments are wrong, fabrications, and mis conceptions. Why would a major corporation like Scheels feel the need to publish such a biased advertisement?

I just got this in my inbox. What will it take to shut down this criminal corporation?

Hi,

News has emerged from the Gulf Coast that BP is burning endangered sea turtles alive.

That’s right. BP is using “controlled burns” to contain the oil spill, and any turtles that are not removed from the area before the fire is lit are literally burned alive.

With BP already facing so much public outrage, we can step in and stop this from continuing. But we have to speak up right now. I signed a petition urging BP to stop burning endangered sea turtles alive. Can you join me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/seaturtles/?r_by=21521-7654379-3JR_hYx&rc=confemail

If that link doesn’t work, click here.
Thanks!

Here’s a video of the smoke plumes. It’s criminal. How sad that we have gotten here and so sad that the republicans are still supporting and apologizing to BP and still chanting “free markets” and “cut regulations.”

It’s laughable to hear the conservatives decry the liberal media. Oh my gosh, how absolutely upside down. Will a multi-billion dollar industry be interested in advancing issues and ideas that are progressive in nature? Progressive policies generally strive for fairness. Fair taxes, fair benefits, fair opportunities. A monopoly does not want to advance liberal issues.

However, in the past few years, some news outlets have published facts that have a naughty habit of being liberal in nature. BP oil spill is a good example. How awful it must be for a conservative to watch the news and see stories about the devastation in the gulf caused by greed.

A truly unbiased media would be pointing out how unregulated greed caused the mess. It would be pointing out how the REPUBLICAN mantra of smaller government, and no regulations is the direct cause of this disaster.

Yes, a republican will think the media is biased but then they think the world if flat and free markets work so you wouldn’t expect them to understand the cause and effect of their failed policies.

We liberals know how biased the media is. We know that only the bravest of op/ed reporters will dare put this at the feet of the failed republican policies. We know the media is controlled by boards of directors which has many of the same directors that run the industrial military complex. We know those news outlets will never say anything about the harm wrought upon our nation by the ill conceived Bush wars.

But, just knowing these things doesn’t fix them. We need to get the big money out of our media. We need to break up the media. And we need to bring back the requirements that the media is to  serve the public interest. Now, there’s a novel idea.

The republicans and the libertarians are mindlessly chanting for smaller and smaller government. In order to decide how much smaller our government should be, we need to decide how big is big enough and how small is too small.

Those who are incapable of thinking about the facts or are unwilling to admit the facts would argue that no government at all is the best target, well, maybe no government except the military. These same people will refuse to even let you talk when you explain that the military consumes the vast majority of our government. We spend more than 50% of our national tax dollars on military, not to mention the silly little pet projects like Iraq and Afghanistan that aren’t even included in the total.

If you add in all the local police, county police, state police, and state military reserves, it come up to way over 50%.

So for these unthinking zombies, they want to cut out the little things but leave the nanny state (military) untouched. Not too bright, huh?

How much military is too much? Face it! The bigger the military becomes, the more protection we need because the more of the world hates us because we’re so violent and militaristic. Personally, I’d like to see us reduce our military expenditures to no more than the international average.

Beside military, how big should the rest of our government be?

Should We The People ever be weaker than the strongest and richest corporations in America? Of course not. If a business gets stronger than our government, they become the government. The only protection we have from big business is government, is We The People.

The best way to reduce the size of the non-military government is to reduce the control business and aristocracies have in our country. We need to start enforcing our laws against monopolies. That would be a good start. We need to re-enact the taxes that were implemented to stop the landed gentry from becoming stronger than our country.

One of the greatest strengths of our great country is our freedom to say what we want. Freedom of Speech. No matter how much you love or hate your country, you can always feel free to make suggestions and get interviewed on the news. But, one would think that the average news media would put the America haters on much less frequently than the others, but you would be wrong.

What are some of the principles upon which America was founded? What are the first few you come up with?

Here’s my short list:

1. Freedom from an oppressive government. The constitution contains many references that protect a society free from a tyrannical government. We have freedom from undue search and seizure. This includes the right to be viewed as innocent until proven guilty.

We also have a very obvious freedom that is so basic and obvious that it is not even explicitly stated in the constitution. That is the right of Habeas Corpus. This is the law that says we can’t be imprisoned without a day in court to defend ourselves.

2. Our constitution and endless documents from the founding fathers makes it undeniably obvious that this country was also founded on the concept of freedom from religion. Our founding fathers knew that it doesn’t matter what religion it is, but if a religion controls a government then you will always end up with another Taliban. Ever heard of the Dark Ages?

It’s unacceptable for American to oppose the basic principles upon which this country was founded but our freedoms apply to those American haters as well as anyone else so they are free to have and to express their opinions.

But, why would a news outlet have these America haters on the air time after time after time? Is it possible that the news outlet hates what America stands for? Is it time to honestly evaluate your news source?

If nothing exposes the bankrupt Republican policies, this has to to make even the most true blue Republican wonder. The week after Obama endorses offshore drilling as safe and necessary, we see a vivid and naked example of exactly what we’re doing.

Oil drilling and transportation is not safe. See what happens when we “drill baby drill?”

Today is the day we have to get serious about getting off dangerous and harmful energy. TODAY! We can’t keep waiting to pass this decision off to our kids and grandkids. TODAY!

There are better alternatives. No matter what the commercials say, nuclear energy is not one of the alternatives. It’s even less safe than oil.

Other than the profits of billionaire oil executives, is there any excuse not to get off oil starting today?

So, what does the Massey Mine disaster tell us about the need for unions? Are you still believing the corporate marketing on how bad unions are for America? Would this have happened if it was a union mine?

Was this willful neglect on the part of the mine. Should this be tried as murder? Over 3.000 violations. This is the mine’s standard mode of operation. It’s cheaper to pay the fines than to protect the workers.

A letter to my readers…

Dear Friends,

If you’ve been paying attention to the news today, you have heard about the horrific ruling by the Supreme Court. With this ruling, they have perpetrated the greatest attack on our country that we have witnessed in our lifetimes. With this ruling, corporations (including international corporations) have the right to buy our political races and nothing will stand in their way.

Take as an example, the 2008 presidential elections. Between the two leading candidates, they spent $1.1 billion in advertising, and that’s a record expenditure.  Divide that by a four year term and it’s about $270 million per year.

This year, the bankers on Wall Street received over $30 billion in bonuses alone, not including regular income. This means they could spend just one tenth of one year’s bonus and completely drown out everything all other candidates can say. This is not free speech. This is selling our country down the toilet to the richest and most ruthless and most unethical buyers. Just think what the oil companies will do. Three billion dollars in deceptive campaign marketing and they can realize hundreds of billions in subsidies. There’s no better return on investment than buying a politician or two.

If you think business has too much control over our government now, just wait and see what this brings.

This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue or a conservative issue or a liberal issue, it’s an American issue. The only way we can repeal this is if we work together.

I signed this petition and encourage everyone to do the same and then to forward this message off to everyone you know.

It’s not too late but it soon will be. You and I are the only hope America has of surviving this attack.

-David

What is a fair tax?

I’m not surprised when I hear the rich crying and whining about having to pay their fair share. After all, our broken predatory capitalist system requires people to be immoral and predatory to be successful and we wouldn’t expect anything less when it comes to paying back for the wealth this country has given them. What, then, is fair?

Let’s take the plight of the poverty stricken worker, making some CEO rich while she raises her family in poverty. When she goes to the grocery store, she pays sales tax, usually in the range of 7-10%. In other words, this country is taking food off the tables of the poor in order to pay taxes. Another way to look at this is to say that 100% of the poor working mother’s discretionary spending (money she doesn’t need to survive) is spent on taxes. The middle class has a negative savings rate. In other words, all the middle class’ money is going to pay for their dwindling “American Dream”. How much of their discretionary spending is eaten up in taxes? Obviously 100%. This is immoral for so many reasons. How can a society tax their people to death? Shame on us.

Okay, so our government, pandering to the rich, have decided that it’s okay to tax people 100% of their discretionary income. Well, then that means 100% of what the rich make, after paying for a meager middle class life style, should be taxed. But, no, instead the poor and middle class are paying the taxes for the rich. The uber rich are paying about 10% of their discretionary income in taxes while the rest of the country is paying 100%.

If we’re in agreement that we don’t want to tax anyone 100% then it should be pretty obvious that the only moral solution is to levy taxes proportionate to the amount of discretionary income. This is called a progressive tax. In other words, the tax progresses up as the income goes up.

Back in the days when this country used to function successfully, we had a top marginal tax rate of over 90% on the uber rich. Isn’t it time we went back there? Isn’t it the moral thing to do?

Sales taxes, on the other hand, are regressive. They affect the poor considerably more than the rich. Fuel taxes affect the poor disproportionately. Property taxes should be more progressive, with low cost primary homes paying nothing in tax but million-dollar mansions pay a high percentage.