With the passage of the unlawful gift given to corporations to fund any pro-corporate candidate they want (which will further drive down wages, jobs and living standards), the left will need to push unions to fight fire with fire. They have been deemed the same right as corporations to fund candidates with unlimited amounts of cash. We need to be doing some serious push-back in our country – against the powers that be.

Pushing back is exactly what the Fox News created, corporate-owned astro-turfers over at the Tea Party have been doing – and have made fools of themselves by showing off their racist, hatred, pro-violent agenda. They are nothing less than offensive – and the corporate-owned media has given them nothing less than the royal carpet treatment in showing off their disdain for health care and public services.

It’s time to fight back by creating a third part on the left. It’s not enough to have the Green Party today. It needs to be about more than the environment right now. It needs to be about protecting the middle class – and rebuilding it. Rebuilding the middle class will rebuild our country. Trickle-down economics destroyed the middle class, by exporting jobs and rewarding the rich by taking away from the poor. The Reaganomics proponents have argued that helping the rich helps the poor – by allowing money to flow downward. The truth, as has been proven over the past 40-years, is that it doesn’t flow downward – it flows sideways – by flowing to other countries, bleeding jobs and the economy dry of its once wealthy middle class.

The truth is, that’s exactly what the neocons WANT – to see very few with an excessive amount of capital. In other words, they want to see a return to a monarch-like class system – where you are literally born into wealth, and only those with the proper bloodlines (i.e. white), can have a chance at fighting for what might be left to gain from.

We are well on our way to becoming such a nation. And the Republicans are only interested in “playing the system” in order to make wealth happen – instead of “playing by the rules” (which they deem is “only for pussies”). There needs to be a stronger fight for the middle class. The Democrats are too disconnected, even though their intentions are still more honorable than those on the right. It’s simply not enough.

O’Donnell kept claiming that Kucinich was alone in his vigilant fight, and that no one will be willing to vote for him, or stand alongside him if he votes against this bill.

OMG!!  So, it’s all about vilifying those who speak out against what’s wrong – and praise those who go along with you??

So, O’Donnell thinks it’s completely reasonable to throw him under the bus even though Kucinich is right to vote against this bill??

Kucinich needed to be praised – not scolded – for being so bold.  If he had been praised, more than likely, others would feel the need to stand alongside him.

I felt like I was watching Fox News or Rush Limbaugh. Villifying a man who was the only one to *repeatedly* push for a single payer system. He’s the only guy who isn’t a sell-out to the health insurance companies. He’s the only one who has ever *repeatedly* pushed to have Cheney impeached. Who else can you ever claim to have come close to acting so bravely for the public good??

What about those other heroic senators who voted from the heart and head – who were brave enough to “go it alone” — like Sen. Byron Dorgan who voted against repealing the Glass Steagal Act, which would’ve kept our economy in tact and banks in check.  If the other senators had listened and taken his lead, he wouldn’t have been the only one, and we might have ended up without the bank bailouts we got from Bush (and Obama).

And remember former Georgia Senator McKinney?  If only we had listened to her instead of the rightwing pundits who shouted her down.  She was the only one was brave enough to say that 9/11 was an inside a job.  I have since always believed that it was, and have seen very, very little to prove otherwise.  I used to work in the WTC South Tower, 104th Floor, back in the 90′s.  I knew people who died that day.  I don’t believe what I’ve seen or heard from the so-called “investigations”, which Bush refused to allow for too long.

And what about the stolen Florida and Ohio elections?  What about the lies pushed onto the American people about WMD’s in Iraq?  What about the outing of a CIA agent by a sitting President and Vice President?  What about the illegal firings of 18 U.S. attorneys?  What about the illegal wire-tappings?

Where were those Senators when we needed them?  We NEED them to be brave – to go up against Fox News, Rush Limbauh, and the Lawrence O’Donnell-ish pundits!

How can we rely on a representative who refuses to put people in jail??  It’s like trying to put your faith in a police force that simply refuses to do its job and protect you.

I mean, seriously.

A massive number of crimes were committed under Bush, and no one wants to talk about it.

We had the most wreckless administration in the history of this country – and no one on either side of the aisle wants to prosecute anyone!??!

Oh, wait, I forgot.  Yes, you’ll be kicked out of office if you’re caught cheating on your wife with an intern, a hooker, or with a gay guy.  And if you’re a coward, you’ll simply resign on your own the moment someone hints at your wrongdoing.

It’s more than likely you’ll enjoy job security if you agree to shut up about any other kind of criminal activity.  Lie about a war or steal an election, you get voted back into office.  Expose corporate crimes?  Get kicked out of office.

It’s so sickening.

All we have in congress is a bunch of corporate-loving lobbyist-licking Dems, and a handful of unspeakably evil Republicans. Every single one of them – on both sides of the aisle seem way too interested in putting the goal of bigger profits for CEO’s *BEFORE* the goal of helping fellow Americans, who are jobless, homeless, and sick, unable to pay for any kind of medical care.

On a side note — This morning, Thom Hartmann talked about a visit he had to the White House a few weeks ago. He had a discussion with someone there (my guess is it was Press Secretary Robert Gibbs), explaining the urgent need to stop practicing the economic policies of Milton and Thomas Friedman – the economic politics of “flat earthers” who simply refuse to accept putting reality before ideology (an ideology of trickle down economics – where the wealthiest are worshipped, and the poor are kicked down even lower). When Hartmann fully explained how much damage Reaganomics has done to us, the only response he got was: “We’re not interested in protectionism“.

I was stunned when I heard this.

Protectionism isn’t something the White House is interested in?

OMG!

Protectionism is the ONLY thing that will protect our country’s jobs right now!!

You’d think Hartmann had just proposed some rightwinger’s wackjob idea,  like “close down the borders” or “get rid of all these illegals”.

But that wasn’t it all. He simply explained that we are heading for another horrible economic bubble – that we need to be building jobs in the U.S. – RIGHT NOW — and that too little is being done to fix what’s wrong with our economy.

Stimulus jobs are being created **outside** of our country — with export of major contracts – like the new bullet trains, and the contracts to build green energy products, etc, we have basically given our tax dollars to China, instead of insisting on keeping stimulus projects within our borders.

It’s nothing less than insulting – a slap in the face to all unemployed U.S. workers – that the White House has chosen to reward other countries with job-creation instead of keeping those dollars inside our country.

I don’t think a single person cares one bit what U.S. corporations do with non-U.S. based jobs — but we sure as hell care when it’s our tax dollars that are being used to create jobs somewhere else.

**WE** ARE THE ONES WHO NEED PROTECTIONISM — NOT THE COROPORATIONS.

Anyway, it all simply infuriates me.

I think we all expect to get screwed by our elected officials and even employers…but not by our own political pundits.

So, back to my original point:

Lawrence O’Donnell, you were an IDIOT today.

But under Reagan and both Bushes, because companies were generously rewarded with huge tax breaks if they sent jobs outside the U.S., At Will employment rules became the new tool to help destroy unions and fair labor standards.

One of the things the Obama administration needs to push forward is an agenda that requires or rewards states that recognize “Right to Work” rules or laws.

It basically gives an employer the right to fire anyone he wants for no legal reason, without being liable for any potential lawsuit.  For example, if someone is discovered to be gay or Muslim, or refuses the unwanted advances of a boss who is sexually aggressive, that employee can be fired without any explanation.  An employer is given unlimited rights to fire someone, regardless of the quality of job performance or contractual obligations.   The only thing that employer is liable for is outstanding unpaid wages.  And for some reason, this is still not enough for many employers.

Howard Zinn believed in the working class – or rather, the middle and lower class and their ability to change history.  He believed in the greatness of regular, working people – like you and I – and what they did to change history. He believed that true change came from the bottom up, and not from the top down. Movements like the Tea Party movement are called astro-turf movements because they are coporate sponsored for profit. They recruit working class people to do their bidding – to go out into the streets on behalf of the wealthy (like the health insurance companies, etc) to make it appear that they are connected with the working class in this country, when in fact they are not. They are sponsored events, for profit, whereby tickets are sold and celebrities are provided in order to draw a larger crowd. Their cause is not about the middle class, but about shouting down the opposition – the out-of-work class of people who get absolutely no media coverage, despite the size of their crowds.

The media is mostly owned by the wealthy class, which in turn tries to suppress the opposition – the voices of those who have been hurt by Reaganomics, exported jobs and industries. The few who have benefited from such policies are the benefactors and supporters of today’s astroturf movements.  What made Howard Zinn so special was his focus on the rebellions of the working class and the strikes they held throughout history. From the farmers’ strikes of the 1700′s on through the 1970′s, with Cesar Chavez’ farm workers strikes. Today, few people are willing to strike in public. We have been trained as a people to “put up and shut up” – to be afraid and submissive. The very thought of protesting invokes images of riots, armed police on horseback, water canons, and worst of all jailtime and the threat of being labeled an “enemy combatant”, which will more than likely generate a file at the FBI that will put you on every terrorist watch list. This is all thanks to George W. Bush’s Patriot Act and Homeland Security, illegal domestic wiretapping, and cointel-pro programs.

Howard Zinn died the other day, and his writings will speak to generations to come, much the same way Ghandi’s and MLK’s do for us today.  Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this very inspiring book.