FINALLY

Someone on the tube to contradict torture queen and war crime defender Liz Cheney: Arianna Huffington. I won't go so far as to say that Arianna handed her her twat on a silver platter, but she did confront her with the truth that her dad and his financially illiterate Harvard MBA bearing hero worshiper who spent 8 years trying to act like the actor who acted like he was president, stocked the regulatory agency shelves with hacks and ideologues who had nothing going for them but blindness and loyalty. The end result as Arianna said, "We have in place the regulatory agencies that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted."

I have said and I will continue to say that we can explain this latest oil industry disaster with two words:

Small Government

Yes. It really IS that simple.

For thirty years, the Neo-Conservative party has been driven by the philosophy that "less is more," in terms of government and regulation. As Tea Bagger Queen Sarah Palin puts it: "...the limited role of government..." As living oxymoron, champion of conservative intellect, George F Will puts it, "We conservatives realize that the role of Government is to defend the borders and deliver the mail." As their great patron Saint Ronald the Reagan put it, "I've often (always?) thought the nine most feared words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' and 'Government isn't the solution to your problems; government IS the problem.'"

And now we see the results.

Again.

All because the conservatards got what they wanted: Small Ineffective Government and deregulation

And yet the (their) madness continues. And I'm not just talking about their lying about their own words and records. I expect republicans to lie about their records. it's what they do. It's ALL they can do, since every single thing they've done since Reagen took office has been bad for the country. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong. Certainly the eight years of Bush were the most destructive since the Civil War years -- the magical time to which Ron Paul would like to take us.

NOTHING was Bush's fault. According to the republican faithful. 9-11? Clinton's fault. Well hell, it was so early in Bush's administration. But even after EIGHT years, the financial meltdown and the housing bubble... STILL Clinton's fault. No matter that he'd had eight fucking years to fix things.

Thank you Arianna for FINALLY standing your ground against those two assholes.

What's that Ron?

Ron Paul: We got here through excessive regulation...

HUH? ???

But somehow the people with the fraudulent derivatives and credit default swaps -- you know, the unregulated Bull Shit that got us here -- should be prosecuted.

But Ron, What will you investigate? No regulations, what violations can there be?

And like Dylan Ratigan, he wants to eliminate the income and business taxes, but unlike Dylan, wants no consumption tax (national sales tax).

Just in case someone stopping by had a question of what/who I meant by my tag, "Too stupid to be a moron." Ron Paul: Attention Whore.

I Was Going to Apologize to Mike Gravel, but

Then I read this posting by JP. For the most part his posting, which has to do with the plight of the migrant tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida, has nothing to do with Gravel, except when JP mentions the LOW cost of production due to our government supported/legalized slave labor as opposed to the HIGH price of goods at the point of sale. This is the big reason I had no use for Gravel: he was totally ignorant of any basic economic sense.

Last night as I responded to a comment, I mentioned how I once heard Thom Hartmann take Gravel to school. Gravel, like Huckabee, and I believe Ron Paul, want to do away with the IRS and replace it with a national sales tax. (my apologies to any other idiots with the same dumbass notion who I fail to name) I don't remember what Gravel called it, but Huck calls it a Fair Tax. There's nothing fair about it, lemme tell you. Sales taxes are highly regressive: they hit the poorest the hardest, and there's no way to sell them any differently. Doing away with the IRS? It would solve nothing, not to mention that it just won't fucking happen. anyway...

Gravel was somehow trying to get his crazy notion across that taxes are the reason we pay$1-200 for a fucking pair of sneakers made by slaves for Nike. As if somehow that gap between the pennies it costs to make them and the final sales price is all money that goes to the government. Hartmann had to basically spell it out, without the benefit of visual aides (which may have been why Gravel couldn't get the lesson), from costs of production, distribution, marketing, etc, that taxes aren't shit compared to the total price tag. That's all a Refuckyoucan/Conservative propaganda smoke screen. What affects the price of goods is the market: What will the market bear; what are people willing to pay. Nikes made in the US: $100. Nikes made in Asia: $100. Case closed.

Don't get flim flammed on this notion of lower corporate taxes somehow coming back, or trickling down to you in any form other than a big shit on your head.

Now back to Gravel, once again, as much as he was exposed as an idiot by Hartmann, I still do feel that I/we owe him a very sincere apology. The reason being that he was the first candidate to be arbitrarily excluded from the primary debates, and when it happened no one, myself included, seemed to care. I don't remember any of the other candidates protesting.

Gravel was the first step, then Kucinich. All along the networks focussed on their pre-ordained darlings Hillary and Barack, as shown by the timekeeper, Chris Dodd. SO...

Senator Gravel, please forgive me. I should have stood up for you, and in doing so, stood up for democracy. If I and others had, we might now have a different election.