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.

There’s really no doubt about it. Nevada voters make no sense. I don’t want to say they’re stupid or foolish or trailer trash. I’ll leave that to the rest of the country to marvel at. But, in one breath, I’m elated that Nevada realized the foolish mistake they made when they elected Gibbons as governor and dumped him, but the Republicans elected Sandoval to replace him. Is anyone awake in the Republican party in Nevada? Have the zombies eaten all your brains?

Take 30 seconds some day and compare Sandoval’s platform with Gibbons. They’re identical. So, why reject Gibbons and replace him with another Gibbons? If you are finding that the Republican policies are destroying not only the state but the entire nation, why dump the politicians but instead dump the failing policies?

Why vote for a new man with the same failed ideals?

I don’t expect a lot from Nevada Republicans but I have to admit, even this perplexes me. If you’re going to vote in someone with the same failed ideals, at least keep the fool in office that has the most experience with the failures. Why elect a new failure just to be asking the same old questions in four years. Are we any better off than we were four years ago?

Well, not with the same failed policies we won’t be.

Admit it. The Republican policies are failing Nevada and the country.

Do you remember the solidarity America felt after we were attacked on 9/11? The whole country came together. The sitting president had one of the worst approval ratings and most of America knew we were attacked because of his failings, but we all stood together. UNITED WE STOOD.

Katrina came along and the same sitting president continued to sit while New Orleans drowned. Four days of people dying and Americans were united in our efforts to address the problems. We all knew that the sitting president had been appointed by a coup of the Supreme Court, but we all united to address the problems rather than attacking the utter failure of a president.

Compare that with today. We have one of the best presidents America has seen in decades. Just look at the long long list of wonderful accomplishments, not to mention digging our economy out of the Republican Second Great Depression.

But all the Republicans can do is complain that he isn’t addressing the economy (until they’re proven to be liars) or complaining about how he isn’t enough involved in the oil spill (until they are proven to be wrong yet again) or complaining about how Obama must be unfit to be president because he was born in Kenya (and these lies have been exposed time after time).

Do you see any sort of contrast? A Republican president bringing destruction upon America and we are still all united to solve our difficulties. A Democratic president comes along and the Republican will do anything, even bringing disaster to our country to try to bring him down.

Sick. Just real sick. How about if we all tried a little “United We Stand”?

Congratulations America! You have done something America has been trying to do for the past 70 years. We’ve passed Health Insurance Reform. America, YOU ROCK!

For the past 70 years, while the rest of the world has created health care systems for all their people, Republican have fought with all their might against America’s efforts at reforming our broken system. And you finally did it!

This is such an important milestone that it’s hard to even put it in perspective. One day, many decades ago, America decided we would not allow our poor and old to die on street corners. Against the cries of Socialism from the Republicans, we became a better country, a country following the course defined in our constitution and America’s forefathers. Today, we passed health care reform and it is just as momentous and has been against as much pressures and lies from the Right Wing Nutsville.

But, America, this is just the start. If we just sit back and feel good about what we did, and nothing more, then you know the followers of the hate and fear party will be out in force, trying to undo every good thing that makes this country great. We can’t let that happen.

Stay active. Feel GREAT about our wonderful first step but know that it’s just a single step in helping America recover from the damages wrought by our brothers on the Right. Stay active. Talk to your neighbors, write letters to the papers and magazine and to our representatives. Donate! And let’s set our sights on the next big success for America.

Congratulations America!

What are “Activist Judges” and why don’t we want them?

Plain and simple, an activist judge is a judge who is intent on furthering his or her own ideology even if it goes against the prior decisions of the court or against the constitution or against the ideals of America’s founding fathers.

Here are a couple examples of activism on the Supreme Court. The constitution says nothing about the rights of businesses or international corporations, yet over the past 80 years there have been countless cases found in favor of corporations over the rights of the people. The judges who come from a background of defending corrupt corporations are most inclined to be activists because they’ve spent their entire careers arguing for corporations.

The most obvious example of activist judges causing harm to America is the latest five right-wing fanatics on the Supreme Court who decided that corporations should be allowed to spend unlimited money to drown out the voices of We The People. This is so blatantly wrong if for no other reason that our constitution says nothing whatsoever about corporations having free speech or freedoms granted to We The People.

And, these radical judges — what party are they? They are all from the party of the corporations, not from the party of We The People. Yes, my dear readers, they are all Republicans.

Surprised? No, I guess not.

Open thread and comments on today’s poll.

As Captain Jack states, only 27% of Americans identify with the Republican Party. It’s hard to believe that 27% of America is blocking our government from accomplishing anything reasonable. But, check out the results in the 2008 Pew poll.

But this only shows a small part of the whole picture. A more recent poll done by Rupert Murdoc’s Wall Street Journal and NBC shows that the numbers fell to only 20% by 2009.

Check out the more recent poll.

How can this possibly be? How can our government be brought to a standstill by only 20% of the people?

I’ll tell you how. The multinational corporations are funding the Republican party and their marketing works. People will vote for a Republican candidate because they believe the lying and deceitful campaign promises that are all dressed up to look so real.

Also, the 20% who are still hanging on to the failed Republican principles are led by their negative emotions, mostly fear, anger, and hatred. When you’re controlled by these emotions, the Republican Party can be sure you’ll be out there voting against your own best interests. The Republican Party had become experts at playing the negative emotions and the poor people who can’t control their emotions are used like lab rats.

That is why the Republican Party always plays the race card. It brings out negative emotions in their core voters.

Will the Republicans gain more seats in Congress this election year? If history is any indication, yes, the Democrats, not led by their negative emotions will stay home and not vote while the Republicans will be out in force.

We need to talk to everyone we know and make sure all Americans get out there and vote. That’s the only way to stop this frightened, hateful minority from controlling our country.

The recent Harris poll makes obvious some downright despicable trends. Trends we’ve all known in our hearts but now there is no denying the facts. The 27% of America that still considers themselves Republicans are batshit crazy. No, I’m not talking about a little nuts around the edges, but just fully in the court of the insane. Take a quick look at the poll.

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.

There has been a bit of denial about this as one would expect. Even though every Republican I know personally fits this poll quite closely, they all say that it doesn’t represent the Republicans THEY know. I guess the Republicans I know don’t know each other.

OpenLeft has a great post on this issue. You might want to check it out.

Another thing that all my Republican friends agree on: they’re all mad as heck. Mad because the Democrats are forcing things through that America doesn’t want.

Just listen to that logic. America is finally waking up to the fact that the Republican policies that we’ve been following for the past 30 years are destroying America and resoundingly voted out the people responsible for the bad policies. Now the party voted out is all upset because they believe America really secretly wants to continue their failed policies and “hate” the fact that the filthy liberals are forcing through their Socialist agenda.

Anyone disparagingly calling America’s Liberals “Socialists” is obviously ignorant to the fact that America was founded on the ideas of helping one another, yes, a SOCIALIST agenda. Yes, these intelligent Republicans are sure that we need to get SOCIALISM out of our country even though the vast majority of America wants it. The vast majority of America voted the Liberals in and voted out the failed Republican policies. How much more obvious can it be before these Republicans begin to turn off the lies they’re being told instead of forwarding them with each disproven email they receive?

Knock knock, wake up Republicans. Don’t hate it when Democracy works like it’s supposed to. Your policies have failed and America is kicking your butts out. How can you not understand that?