Workers Take Over Chicago Factory, Blame Company's Bailed-Out Creditor

By Manifesto Joe

This is an example of why a bailout, any bailout, is fundamentally a no-win situation for the taxpayer.

You may have heard news that workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago occupied the building and began a sit-in after the factory shut down Friday on three days' notice. Last time I checked, they're still there.

The workers say the factory was closed in violation of a law that requires a 60-day notice for a shutdown. They say they won't leave without assurances that they'll get severance and vacation pay.

What you may not have heard is the reason for the abrupt shutdown. The company's creditor, Bank of America, canceled Republic's line of credit. Republic's sales have tumbled in the sour economy, and with no line of credit, CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors," The Associated Press reported.

This is the same Bank of America that got $25 billion of the federal government's $700 billion financial bailout. That's over 3.5% of the total package. And they can't afford to extend a line of credit so that 250 mostly Hispanic wage earners in Chicago can keep their jobs?

SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH, "FREE" MARKET BUGGERY OF THE POOR

The Associated Press also reported that Bank of America, in a statement Saturday, said that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.

Exactly for whom, and to whom, is Bank of America, sucking at the federal tit to the tune of $25 billion, responsible and accountable?

It's in the public interest that people can get and hold jobs. These people can't pay taxes when they're in the unemployment line. Since this largess is coming from the taxpayers, we've got a perverse situation of collectivist capitalism for the bankers, and the icy sidewalk for the faceless mass of suckers who put up money for the bailout.

WHITHER THE BAILOUTS?

Along with many other people, I held my nose and voiced support for the bailout as a necessary evil. But this case illustrates why taxpayer-funded bailouts end up being no-win situations. It's a sort of blackmail -- the national economy would fall into a downward spiral of Depression proportions if financial institutions the size of Bank of America were allowed to go under. They seem to know this, and their behavior is commensurately unaccountable.

Chicago will easily survive a loss of 250 jobs at Republic. But multiply that scenario across the country, with many hundreds of struggling companies and overextended creditors, and you get a mental picture of what the U.S. economy is
facing.

This is an example of why bailouts need to have many strings attached to them, and very sturdy ones. In exchange for that $25 billion, the federal government ought to have pretty much leverage over what Bank of America uses it for. Republic operates at the level of a few million dollars per month, not in the billions like BOA. This is a microcosm of the kind of abuse that the many have endured, at the hands of the few, for decades.

A UNION SUNRISE?

A bright spot is that this incident may become a rallying point for the revival of a union movement in America. Here's more from the AP report:

"Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."

Outside the plant, protesters wore stickers and carried signs that said, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."

Leah Fried, an organizer with United Electrical Workers, obliquely compared the sit-in to the landmark 1936-37 General Motors sit-down strike in Flint, Mich., which helped unionize the auto industry. (Yeah, I know, there's the automakers bailout. That's another post.)

"We're doing something we haven't done since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," AP quoted Fried as saying. She pointed out that the occupying workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building during the sit-in.

Realistically, the financial bailout is a bitter concoction we're going to have to gulp down. But that doesn't mean we have to like it. And, for a dramatic change from '80s and '90s stupor, a lot of Americans seem to be waking up from virtual date-rape drugs and realizing who's been carrying out the assault on working people for many years.

I hope the 53-46% mandate for Barack Obama was only the beginning. Republic should trigger a reborn union movement in this country. Against the kinds of monolithic entities we now face, like Bank of America, lots of people getting together again is the only chance we have.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Madness That Somehow Perseveres: Austin's Own Roky Erickson

By Manifesto Joe

By the way, it's pronounced "Rock-ee," not "Roak-ee." (His given name was Roger, so I can understand why he lost it.) The singer/guitarist who fronted the Texas late-1960s psychedelic cult band the Thirteenth Floor Elevators has been back on stage in recent years. By all accounts, he still gives a great show for a dude who is diagnosed as schizophrenic and likely did way, way too much acid back in the day. Roky spent long stretches in mental hospitals. He is reported to still need his meds and lots of supervision.

Here are three videos from YouTube:







The more popular California-based psychedelic bands of the '60s had nothing on this one. Groovy, Roky. Your comeback is an inspiration.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Trample Me Elmo: With 'Black Friday' Rush On New York Wal-Mart, A Fatal Stomping Of A Clerk

By Manifesto Joe

My previous post contained a morbid fantasy scenario about how the Mr. Hyde side of me might (no, not really; it was a fantasy, those of literal minds) want to deal with certain types of swinish American consumers. Namely, it was about the kind who actually camp out in tents in front of stores in order to rush the door at 5 a.m. on "Black Friday."

I provoked a couple of negative responses, including one comment that was too moronically insulting to dignify with publication. I would urge those taken aback to ponder, in view of today's events, just how far Swine Nation really has gone.

Here's one news link to the incident at a New York Wal-Mart store. A witness said a door was torn off the hinges by the crazed mob, and another said that literally hundreds of shoppers trampled on an employee named Jdimytai Damour, 34. It was also reported that police who were trying to resuscitate Mr. Damour were jostled by frenzied shoppers. Mr. Damour was the clerk who was essentially murdered by this brainless mob of greedy fools.

There have been a lot of Black Friday incidents over the years resulting in injuries. This is the first I can remember that culminated in a death.

And this is supposed to be Day One leading up to a holiday that marks the birth of Christ -- you know, the fellow who drove the money-changers from the temple, the one who was habitually on the side of the needy underdogs. The Jesus that few seem to know anymore.

True, as a mere mortal, there's a Mr. Hyde side to me. But any literal-minded person who thought my reaction to the Black Friday "campers" was excessive needs to ponder just what human excess really is. Take a close look at the criminal stupidity that occurred yesterday. Considering that my post preceded this Wal-Mart tragedy by just a few hours, I'd say I probably have a fair eye for judging human excess.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Black Friday: The Wrong Kind Of Tent City, Populated By Swine

By Manifesto Joe

I'm a night-shift worker, and my wife isn't working right now for family reasons. After midnight, when I got off work, we went out in the wee hours after Thanksgiving to feed a cat belonging to a friend who's out of town.

Cruising back to our house, we passed a neighborhood electronics store. There was a small mob scene there at 2 a.m., with cars all over the lot. People were lined up in front of the store. Folks had brought pup tents and other amenities for camping out.

We were on the eve of "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, when many stores open extra-early for early Christmas shopping and offer big discounts on limited supplies of certain items.

At this electronics store, apparently people were camped out to get first dibs on the latest Blackberries, Ipods, and half a dozen other types of electronic horseshit that I don't know about and really don't care to.

It was rainy and a bit cold in the early-morning hours in this city. And here were these people, seemingly without lives other than this (or perhaps to root purposelessly for the Dallas Cowboys).

I started asking my wife if she would pull our Honda Civic Hybrid up next to the line of pup tents, where I would yell, "You fucking fools!" She didn't think that was a good idea.

I gave up quickly on the idea of doing anything like that. Fools are normally determined to remain so. But I got to fantasizing about things it would be wonderful to do.

It would have been good to go down to Homeless Row, in the worst district of this city, with big pots of hearty stew for everybody. Then, after everybody has eaten and feels better and stronger, we pass out magnums of malt liquor to anybody who wants it. Let's get everybody loosened up a bit.

Then, we pass out the ax handles. And bring in the trucks. And we go visit the tent city in front of the electronics store. We clean the area out, much like 1930s vigilantes would have cleaned out one populated by hapless vagrants.

Yeah, it's just a fantasy. But please understand, we've got the wrong kind of tent cities in America right now, especially in times when so many people are being put out of their houses and are sleeping in cars. Yes, I understand that two-thirds of the U.S. economy is fueled by consumer spending.

But why do so many Americans have to behave like imbecilic swine about it?

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Hey, Y'all, And Youse Guys -- Enough Stereotypes

By Manifesto Joe

Normally, I try to be as supportive as possible of any lefty blogger out there. "Viva la causa," as certain Tejanos say. But I'm seeing too much depiction of Southern whites, especially us Texans, as being irredeemably ignorant. My experience is that ignorance is very much an equal-opportunity employer.

This is only one example of such plowboy-bashing. One will do. Here's the link. See the piece titled, "Lincoln Screwed Up -- Let's Fix It."

I've lived among necks vermillion long enough to understand this sentiment. But I've also known people from many other backgrounds who had all the same problems, and perhaps a few more.

Here was my response in the comments:

Not only do Yankees harbor a lot of stereotypes about us Texans –

– Your pot roast and bean soup are bland enough to serve in jails or a college cafeteria (you all seem to have gotten the notion that chile peppers really will eat holes in your stomach).

– In the (Republican) Dakotas and points east of there, you still have people who sound like, "My name is Yon Yonson, I leeve in Visconsin, I vork in a lumber mill zere!" They guzzle a lot of something they call "pop" that we call soda water or soft drinks down here. I know all this from having attended a Lutheran college.

– You have places up there like Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I think they still have active chapters of America First. And Indiana was the state with the biggest Klan membership back in the '20s. One of the most stupifyingly bigoted Religious Right types I have ever known was from Minnesota (that's "Meene-soat-a" up there). He was definitely acquainted with the "N" word, and believed quite sincerely that any person who had ever heard the name of Jesus even mentioned, and did not immediately convert, was damned to everlasting perdition.

– Bush and Cheney are not native Texans. Cheney is from Wyoming, the heart of Red-state Yankeeland, and Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and "educated" mostly at blueblood Yankee schools. His Texas accent is reputed to be largely an acquired affectation.

Anyway, enough with all the stereotypes, Southern or Northern, yours or mine. In post-Bush America, let's try to live peacefully without them.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

We're Long Overdue For Some Weekend Music Here

Tift Merritt is quite something. Check out I Know What I'm Looking For Now:



Enjoy -- MJ

Don't Hold Your Breath Waiting For Texas To Turn Blue

By Manifesto Joe

Amid Democratic/progressive/liberal euphoria, most understandable after the past eight years, there's been talk that even states like my home sweet home Texas could possibly be flipped for the Dems, and soon.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Texans to turn blue. You'll literally turn blue long before. We've got another generation to go here before the demographics of this very distinctive but chauvinistic state will change that much.

The percentage breakdown (all figures courtesy CNN Politics) was 55% McCain, 44% Obama, 1% all others. That was promising, surprisingly good at 44% for a mixed-race liberal Democrat in a state that still has so many Dixiecrats.

The urban areas are where you can see the changes that are eventually coming. In Dallas County, Obama kicked McCain's ass shockingly, 57-42%. Travis County (home of dear old liberal college town Austin) it was 64-35% Obama!!!

Obama pulled out Harris County (Houston, America's 4th-largest city), 50-49%. There, the African-American vote, 95% for Obama, was the clear difference. He won Bexar County (San Antonio) by a decent margin, 52-47%, and that's in a place with a big military vote. The dominance of Obama in Hispanic Texas was most obvious in El Paso County, 66-33% -- and there's a big military vote there, too. He also took most of deep South Texas, my old stomping grounds.

Even in Tarrant County, which has become Texas' answer to California's right-wing Orange County, there was good news for Democrats. Fort Worth delivered for Republicans much as it has in recent years, making the county breakdown the very same as the state's, 55-44% for Big Mac. There's a lot of old oil and gas money there that more than offsets the minority voting blocs. But the Dallas-FortWorth midcity of Arlington, home of centrally located amusement parks and sports stadiums, split 50-50%. The demographics there are definitely changing.

But there was plenty of discouraging news. Nueces County (Corpus Christi) is largely Hispanic, but went 52-47% for McCain. There must still be lots of priest-ridden Catholics down there. And when you track the vote out into the boondocks -- East Texas, outlying central areas of the Hill Country, the South Plains, the Panhandle, the rest of the west ... well, McCain just cleaned up.

Candidly, the story is just this simple. McCain and the other Republicans held on to the redneck vote.

It's discouraging, in that the Democratic Party actually fielded a fine candidate for U.S. Senate, state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston. Noriega polled just about evenly with Obama in a race against one of the most vapid (but well-funded) members of the Senate, Bush cheerleader John Cornyn.

What is clear from the results is that there is still a deeply ingrained "rube" vote in this state, the kind of people who would never, ever have given Obama any decent hearing, let alone serious consideration. I will refrain from using any stronger language about them.

Significantly, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently reported that many voters in Wise County, some of them Democrats, voted the straight GOP ticket because they wouldn't vote for any Democrats on a ticket headed by Obama. In so doing, they elected a guy to the office of constable who is affiliated with the Minuteman vigilante organization, devoted to chasing real or supposed illegal immigrants around the state.

Change can eventually come to places like my home state. But sadly, it is often glacial in pace. I got used to being in the beleaguered minority many years ago, so I can live with it for now. I hope, along with the optimists among progressives, to see it change before I die.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Republicans Who Call Obama A Socialist Are Showing Either Ignorance Or Desperation

By Manifesto Joe

In the demented spirit of a godfather of American fascism, Joe McCarthy, plenty of Republicans, led by McCain attack dog Sarah Palin, are hurling the dreaded "S" word at Barack Obama. It's right-wing regurgitation, like projectile vomit.

The dreaded word in McCarthy's time was "communist." Now it is "socialist," and the far right bases this on Obama's clearly stated intention to enact very limited income redistribution for the benefit of working-class and middle-income Americans.

This misnomer reveals the stupidity of those who use it with any sincerity, and the desperation of those who actually took political science and economics in college and surely know better.

Socialism defined

Here's a basic definition of "socialism," from Webster's New World College Dictionary:

1. any of various theories or systems of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of the society or the community sharing in the work and the products.

Please note that the crucial part of the definition has to the with "the means of production and distribution." I am unaware that Obama has ever advocated nationalization of industries, Israeli-style kibbutzes or anything else that characterizes bona fide socialism. He is clearly, like almost all other American progressives, a welfare capitalist. He favors a system of private ownership, but with restraints, checks and balances, and limited intervention in the public interest.

Many conservatives, being ignorant, disingenuous, or both, have greatly expanded the definition of "socialism" to include any and all kinds of income redistribution that works for the benefit of those roughly at or below median income. To broadly paraphrase one of their heroes, Adam Smith, the richer people among them say nothing of their own gains; they complain only of those of other people.

Any time any public entity, whether a local hospital district or the federal government, makes any decision about taxation and/or appropriates money for anything, income is redistributed. It's a question of to whom.

What Americans have seen for about 35 years, more rapidly at times but always steadily, has been socialism for the rich, certainly by the "broader" definition of the right. A federal tax structure that was once progressive, and remains so on paper in some senses with the retention of brackets, has been gradually rendered impotent by the fine scalpel of legislators and tax lawyers. Most corporations now pay little if any income tax, and the very wealthy have myriad shelters with which they happily dodge responsibility for upkeep of the infrastructure, or even for bankrolling the latest war meant to increase their profits.

Socialism for the rich

As for socialism for the rich, I won't even go into corporate welfare, intrinsic advantages of the rich in the legal system, the system of legal bribery we call campaign finance, etc. I'm just sticking with their definition -- redistribution of income. The distribution of wealth is more unequal than it has been since 1929. (Remember what happened that year?) And this hasn't happened by accident. The '80s supply-side economists led by Arthur Laffer and David Stockman were quite above board in their intention to favor corporations and the rich in taxation, in the apparent belief that such policy would spur investment, create jobs, actually increase tax revenue, and result in "trickle-down."

For the most part, with some interruptions during the Clinton administration, the program of socialism for the rich was put over, and with accompanying indoctrination against anything faintly liberal or progressive. The New Deal was ancient history; and in the minds of many, the opportunistic right succeeded in perversely melding it with the failure of Soviet socialism, or with anything that strayed in the very least from a laissez-faire, supply-side party line.

I stopped being a fan of Ralph Nader after he ensured the presidency for an apocalyptic buffoon like George W. Bush. But Nader said something on a debate show that has stuck with me since: "They (the big corporations) want to socialize their losses and privatize their profits." Never was anything truer said.

Obama, though merely bringing a rather mild bourgeois liberalism back to the table, faces the wrath of fools conned by this right-wing economic nonsense, and the venom of those who would use ignorant "fellow travelers" of the far right to stay in control of the wheel.

But, with two days left until the deciding moment, history appears to be tilting toward Obama. Americans have had 28 years to endure "upscale" socialism. Many who don't listen to frothing-at-the-mouth rhetoric know firsthand what such policies have done to them. Indications are that a large turnout of such folks will hugely favor Obama.

Here's a link that shines more light on the subject. There aren't many real socialists left in America, but here's what their presidential candidate thinks about Obama. And, here's one more from the MSM, its own nasty self.

Meanwhile, "this one" voted early -- and I suppose it's not hard to guess that "this one" voted for "that one." I urge anybody who hasn't done the same yet to get to the polls Tuesday. We don't want to see the future postponed for another four years.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

A Week To Go, And The Kooks And Psychos Are Out In Force

By Manifesto Joe

To follow is a video of James David Manning, chief pastor of ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York, in which Manning makes comparisons of Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler that are, to say the very least, extremely broad.

This kind of demented propaganda is still making the rounds over e-mail, and it's gotten a lot of views on YouTube. It's been out there for a while, but it won't hurt to remind readers about the kind of kooks who are on the loose.

Analogies of this kind usually have to have a lot more behind them. For example, if Obama had, before this crucial point in history, led an attempt to overthrow the government; spent time in prison and written a book there advocating racism and genocide, among other things; and led a militant political party that engaged rivals in bloody street fights -- well, then the analogy might hold up better.

From what I can tell here, the analogy is based on only one thing: Adolf Hitler was a charismatic public speaker, and so is Barack Obama. What a striking coincidence!

In the tradition of Looney Tunes, on with the show, this is it:



I learned a few things from this. Pastor Manning refers to the "Roman and Jewish press" printing lies about Jesus. Wow. I didn't know they had printing presses back when Jesus was "hung" (Manning's word for it).

And, perhaps Manning himself has more in common with Hitler than he's likely to let on. According to his Wikipedia bio:

As a younger man, Pastor Manning burglarized homes, mostly on Long Island. He spent about three and a half years in prison in New York and Florida for burglary, robbery, larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, and other charges before his release in 1978. While in prison, he became a devout Christian.[1]

It's funny how people like Manning manage to find some sort of mask, and being born again is among the common ones. I'd say he's picked up on a new and better kind of larceny. It's cooler when you don't have to carry a gun or face jail time.

A final note: Do you detect a hint of jealousy?

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

30 Years Too Late, Greenspan Learns The First Great Economic Lesson Of The 20th Century

By Manifesto Joe

This hasn't been a popular opinion for a while, but here goes. The 20th century offered two great economic lessons: (1) Underregulation of markets is a very bad thing, and (2) overregulation of markets is also a very bad thing. The first lesson should have been abundantly clear in the winter of 1932-33. But by the '70s, the second lesson was prominent, so much so that many economists just plumb forgot about the first.

Among the most influential of these economists was Alan Greenspan, later to become a longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve. I found it disturbing, reading about his background way back in the '80s, that the Span Man actually bought into the crackpot economic notions of the late Ayn Rand and her quasi-solipsist cult.

But among economists, such was the climate of the '70s and '80s. The welfare-state excesses of the '60s and early '70s had suddenly made the reforms of the New Deal era irrelevant, and the pre-1929 mind-set had returned with much vindictiveness.

But Greenspan, appearing before a House committee this week, made a startling admission. He conceded that he was "partially wrong" in trusting financial markets to police themselves. Here's the link.

Sadly, the Span Man ran the Fed mostly as a "free" market ideologue for 18 years. By the time he left the post, most of the damage had been done. Now it's going to be up to younger Americans -- Mr. Greenspan is 82 -- to clean up the mess for generations.

Let's revisit the two great lessons. In the early '30s, it was a no-brainer that the greed of players in the financial markets had contributed greatly to the worst economic meltdown in U.S. history. And so, general economic thinking was dramatically altered. It should have been clear that, left so unregulated, greed is NOT good. It leads to unsound practices, skewed income redistribution, social irresponsibility, shortsightedness; and in the end, everybody gets hurt. Au contraire, Gordon Gecko. Unregulated greed is BAD. Greedy people do not police themselves; quite the opposite, they do their best to rig the game. We have seen repeatedly in history that unregulated greed ultimately DOES NOT WORK.

But, by the '60s, we had the Galbraith-dubbed "affluent society," in which so much could seem to be taken for granted. We sort of became victims of our own success. The welfare state tried to do a little too much -- though in the U.S., it paled in comparison to the largess of other societies that spent far less on their war machines.

By the '70s, we had the symptoms of "stagflation" and demand-pull inflation that tend to show up in societies that are overregulating and overtaxing. Unfortunately, this opened the door for the economic quackery that has characterized the "supply-side" and "trickle-down" (tinkle-down, I sez) thought of the past 30 years. Many economists, secure in their own tenure and advisory posts, conveniently forgot about what happened in the first half of the 20th century.

Now, at last near the end of our second Gilded Age, Alan Greenspan is compelled to humble himself before Henry Waxman, and admit that he's had to rethink his ideas of the past 40-plus years.

Pardon me, little fish that I am, that I take a moment to gloat a bit. I was warning about this in 1984. I couldn't get many people to listen back then, mesmerized as they seemed by the foolish platitudes rising through Ronald Reagan's 70-ish turkey neck.

Don't worry, Mr. Greenspan -- you'll have plenty of dignified company in the online history books. Now just fade away, and leave the cleanup to sadder but wiser generations.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

From Joe's Vault: Log Cabin Republicans Are Like Chickens For Colonel Sanders

By Manifesto Joe

This was originally posted Oct. 30, 2006, on BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com. I think it's still relevant for the gay community, especially since religious-right darling Sarah Palin is McCain's running mate. Let's go back a couple of years:

In the 1960s, the Democratic Party lost the South because of its leaders' support for civil rights. Barry Goldwater won several Deep South states even while losing badly almost everywhere else. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, announcing that he was switching parties, said, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. It left me."

It's too bad that gay and lesbian Republicans can't see, in an inverted way, the same thing a bigoted philistine like Thurmond could.

The Mark Foley scandal has put this GOP minority into the spotlight, albeit in an unfortunate way. Foley's misbehavior certainly isn't representative of the gay community.

But many Americans are now aware of something I don't think they'd given much thought to before: There are surprisingly many gay and lesbian Republicans.

My question is: why? Why would people of those sexual orientations continue to vote for and donate money to candidates of a party mostly composed of people who regard them as, at best, sick freaks, and at worst, hellbound sinners?

The most high-profile organization that gives these GOP outsiders something of a voice is the Log Cabin Republicans. Their home page describes them as "loyal Republicans" who believe in things like:

* Low taxes. (So they'd rather live in Central America than in one of those socialist nightmare regimes in Scandinavia. Have they read anything about the state of gay rights in Guatemala lately?)

* Limited government. (Do they mean the kind that can't respond to natural disasters like hurricanes? Or the kind that gives the president semidictatorial powers to, for example, define what constitutes torture?)

* Strong defense. (Like the kind that, after the U.S. is attacked by Al Qaeda, decides to attack an adversary of theirs in Iraq? And then doesn't send enough troops to secure the borders, the precious oil fields, or bring any semblance of order to the country? But still stretches our military so thin that it likely wouldn't be able to respond to a real threat from, say, North Korea or Iran? And somehow manages to create a virtual terrorist training ground in Iraq? Can you say Larry? Moe? Curly Joe?)

* Free markets. (Do they mean the kind in which contractors like Halliburton, with incestuously close ties to the "vice president," get no-bid contracts worth well over $10 billion?)

* Personal responsibility. (Do they mean the kind that George W. Bush and Deadeye Dick Cheney have demonstrated during their adult lives?)

* Individual liberty. (Do they mean the kind the Texas Republican Party endorsed in its 2004 platform, in which it opposed legalization of "sodomy," and also advised candidates that a risk of not supporting the entire platform would be withholding of state party funding?)

I understand that what Log Cabin Republicans have in common with politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mary Bono and Lincoln Chafee is that all contemporary Republicans, "moderate" or otherwise, are economic royalists.

It's not hard to understand how someone would want their human rights and the trust fund, too. They basically want the little people to pay the bulk of the taxes, and then much more; and they may even sincerely believe, for whatever misguided reasons, that they should. I'll save that argument for another time.

But as the radical right extends its already decades-long dominance of the GOP, these "moderate" politicians are looking almost as irrelevant now as James Eastland and Lester Maddox appeared among Democrats in the Sixties.

Log Cabin Republicans, you didn't leave the party, but it left you -- 25 or 30 years ago. Maybe it's time you gave some thought to something you regard as unthinkable -- to follow the lead of Media Matters for America founder David Brock, and back Democrats, at least for a while. The only way "moderates" (I'm old enough to remember when they were called conservatives.) are ever going to retake the GOP is for the radical right to start losing elections. A lot of them.

MANIFESTO JOE IS AN UNDERGROUND WRITER LIVING IN TEXAS

'Joe The Plumber' Isn't Even A Plumber, He Owes Back Taxes, And He's Related To Charles Keating

By Manifesto Joe

John McCain, he of the many smirks on C-Span split-screen TV, invoked "Joe the plumber" many times during Wednesday night's debate, doing the best he could to source some kind of game-changer.

Turns out that Joe isn't exactly the sort of guy Big Mac was betting on. He's not a licensed plumber. His hope of buying the business he works for is, by his own admission, a long shot. He owes just under $1,200 in back taxes. And even if he were to miraculously reach the income bracket that he was referring to in his silly exchange with Barack Obama, analysts say it's doubtful that he would owe much at all in extra taxes. In the Obama plan, he certainly won't owe any more in his current bracket, and would likely get a cut.

Let's have a closer look at "Joe," courtesy of Yahoo! News:

Here's the link.

There's more about "Joe" apparently. He appears to be related to one Charles Keating by marriage. You know, of the Keating Five, back in the 1980s dregs of John McCain's legislative past. Here's a link to this tidbit. And then, there's some kind of Alaska sled dog connection rumored ...

McCain is obviously doing anything he can to pull this one out of his anus, and failing horribly by not doing any homework. I'll stop short of the allegation that this man was a crude Republican "plant." I don't want to smell that one, either. And, by the way -- if the Palin selection, and then "Joe the Plumber" as a final debate centerpiece indicate what kind of judgment McCain would exercise as president ...

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Evidence That Sarah Palin Was Herself An AIP Member?

It's old news that Todd Palin is a former member of the radical right, secessionist Alaska Independence Party. Now some evidence has surfaced that Klondike Hottie herself may have been a member. This video, posted on YouTube today by mtaa11, certainly seems to indicate a cozy relationship between the governor and this subversive group:



One thing the woman certainly has is chutzpah. If she didn't, she wouldn't be on the campaign trail bashing Barack Obama over alleged buddying-up with long-ago Weatherman Billy Ayres.

John McCain's VP choice is clearly a disaster of many dimensions, and this is one more. I won't suggest that she should sign a "loyalty oath," but it would be appropriate for her to either repudiate what the AIP stands for, or resign her vice presidential candidacy. I guess there's no reason she couldn't carry on as governor of Alaska. Some of the kooks up there seem ready to re-elect the likes of Ted Stevens to the U.S. Senate. Palin continuing as governor wouldn't seem too shocking. -- MJ

Fundamental Pettiness Of Palin Doesn't Escape Attention of Panel In Her Home State

By Manifesto Joe

The image of a barracuda may sit well with certain voters -- the right-wing fringe, the kind whom John McCain has generally been indulging amid their outbursts of "Kill him!" and "Terrorist" at the rallies, in reference to Barack Obama. But that image apparently didn't sit well with members of an Alaska legislative panel.

The chief investigator of that panel concluded Friday that Sarah Palin, as Alaska's governor, unlawfully abused her power by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

Here's more from The Associated Press:

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report to a bipartisan panel that looked into the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who said he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

Monegan's firing was lawful, the report found, but Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making — even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed.

"I feel vindicated," Monegan said. "It sounds like they've validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I'm not totally out in left field."

Here's a link to the complete AP report.

I think we're seeing more that has resulted from the abysmal failure of the McCain campaign to vet his vice presidential choice. The problem here was clearly part of Palin's record in Alaska for many months, yet the McCain campaign had no figurative mine detectors out.

Let's skip thoughts about Sarah Barracuda, as a prospective VP, for just a moment. What does this say about John McCain's fitness to be commander-in-chief? Would he choose his Cabinet, his judicial appointees, more astutely?

Granted, Joe Biden is an old face, all too familiar to viewers of Sunday-morning talking-head TV. But Obama, even with his just-under four years in the Senate, has made a vastly better choice for an understudy. Even if Biden is old news, I would feel a lot safer with him having the nuclear codes than someone like Sarah Barracuda.

I'd say Obama could be trusted to make many more good choices. McCain made a shockingly bad one, and the news gets worse every day. It might be a wise decision for him to urge Palin to step down and try to get, say, Mitt Romney as a late replacement. But it's so late in the game, I don't think he could be persuaded to do anything of the sort.

Bring on Nov. 4. I just hope there isn't some new and ingenious way for the Republican machine to steal this election.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Palin's Appalling Ignorance Keeps Surfacing, This Time On Oil Exports

By Manifesto Joe

It matters whom a presidential nominee picks for a running mate. It says quite a bit about their judgment. After all, John McCain is presuming to be the person who will appoint a Cabinet and many federal judges. If he can't pick a good vice presidential running mate ...

Sarah Palin has shown herself to be someone with barely enough of an IQ to do OK with coaching and preparation. (As does McCain.) But when it comes to off-the-cuff knowledge of the issues, she's been losing every round since she was chosen. Today, the subject was oil exports.

The Associated Press reported today:

WASHINGTON - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, touted by GOP presidential candidate John McCain as his expert on energy, seemed to have problems Thursday explaining whether the government bans oil exports — especially from her state's North Slope fields.

A questioner at a town hall-style meeting in Wisconsin said he had heard that at least 75 percent of the oil drilled in Alaska was being sold to China and said, if true, he would like to know why.

"No. It's not 75 percent of our oil being exported," Palin said, suggesting some of Alaska's oil, in fact, may be going abroad but not that much.

"In fact," she added, "Congress is pretty strict on, um, export bans of oil and gas especially."

No Alaska oil has been exported since 2004, and little if any since 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration and the Congressional Research Service.

And Congress has never imposed outright bans on oil exports. Congress prohibited exports of Alaska oil in 1973 when the Alaska oil pipeline was built. But that ban was lifted in 1996 when there were large volumes of Alaska oil coming down from the North Slope and U.S. demand was soft.

The Alaska ban has never been reinstated.

So this is Big Mac's expert on energy issues?

This is a person clearly trying to play far out of her league. But here's a scary thought: George W. Bush, Il Doofus himself, has been "president" for nearly eight years. Now, we're in two wars with no foreseeable end, the economy has been wrecked, and the Constitution has been sullied beyond understanding.

Bigger mistakes have been made -- perhaps.

(Here's a link to the whole AP article.)

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

McCain-Keating-Palin '08: The Real GOP Ticket

If there is any remaining doubt about John McCain's connection with the deregulation debacle facing the country now, let's go back 20 or so years, to his "palling around" with one Charles Keating. Obama is only slightly acquainted with Billy Ayres, and was 8 when the bad behavior took place. Whither Charles Keating, Big Mac? (Fries with that, hon?)

http://www.keatingeconomics.com/

Or:

There are technical problems, but one or the other approach will get you there. -- MJ

Bailout Is Unsavory, But Doing Nothing Is Worse

By Manifesto Joe

There's plenty of blame to go around now, and yours truly is going to be among the first to point a finger. Back in 1984, I had a political opinion column for a short time (until we got a Republican owner) for a small-town daily paper. I was forecasting 24 years ago that the trend toward deregulation was a recipe for disaster.

OK, I told you so. Now we've got an economic train wreck, though, and blame should be sorted out later. Let's clean up the damage first.

Today the U.S. House defeated the proposed $700 billion financial markets bailout, 228-205. To set one piece of the record straight, the opposition was about two-thirds of House Republicans and about 40 percent of House Democrats. Call me distrustful, but I suspect that the House Republican opposition had less to do with small investors and borrowers on Main Street and more to do with big campaign contributors on Wall Street.

I don't enjoy seeing the latter bailed out any more than anyone else with a populist streak. But it's times like these when Americans should see clearly what it means to be a "community." Rich or poor, or in between, we sink or swim together when it comes to national survival. Irresponsible wealth is mostly to blame for this. But as one of those small investors and borrowers on Main Street, I can tell you that my future, and that of others like me, will be the likely price of inaction.

There will be no way for lawmakers to work out an ideal solution for this. But this bill sounded somewhat reasonable, based on general descriptions available since yesterday.

Congress returns to session Thursday. If there was ever a time to call and e-mail your congressperson, this is it, and in favor of action, not inaction. These louts have pensions and health care for life -- they don't have to worry about where their food and medicine are coming from. Let's get them back in Washington and at the table, to forge an acceptable compromise.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

An Era Of Re-Regulation? Progressives Shouldn't Celebrate Too Soon

By Manifesto Joe

So, deregulation in America is supposed to have died last week? Not so fast. Laissez faire, historically, is one of those economic notions that's sort of like Jason in those bad splatter movies -- it keeps coming back.

I don't doubt that, no matter which candidate is elected president in November, deregulation will be a somewhat untouchable position for a while, where financial markets are concerned. Until several years pass, and the $700 billion payoff at taxpayers' expense is complete, we won't hear much about it.

But this is a zombie that's a re-animator's dream, having risen from rigor mortis again and again. It's a toxic idea has always served the interests of the moneyed class in most societies. Even after being repeatedly discredited by financial crises such as this one, and many before, it only takes a generation or two to resurrect it with as much "credibility" as ever.

As a one-time college textbook editor, I worked with economists, and found them to be largely a priesthood of ideologues. Their ideas don't have to bear strong resemblance to events of the real world. Among many, if not most of them, the "free market" is a quasi-religion, to be challenged only at the questioning of one's intellect and/or sanity.

Interestingly, most of them, even the "free-market" disciples, agree that the looming $700 billion taxpayer bailout of the U.S. financial system is necessary, though perhaps a necessary evil.

We come back to a condition of humans never liking to admit they are wrong. We also come back to old wisdom that one shouldn't bite the hand that feeds one. Most professional economists have "invested" a big stake in "free-market" theory, and their sources of income -- universities, "think" tanks and such -- generally expect them to maintain a certain ideological purity.

When current events fade into history, don't be surprised if we have a lot of economists, and compliant lawmakers trolling for right-wing votes, who want to start deregulating everything yet again. To broadly paraphrase the poet Santayana, most people do not remember the past, and they are therefore condemned to repeat it.

I'll steal another line, this one paraphrased from Citizen Kane: You're going to need more than one lesson, and you're going to get more than one lesson. In this case, the "you" is the American people.

What happened during the past 30 years was widespread economic amnesia, even among the alleged experts. What was forgotten was people's natural inclination to grow greedy and behave badly when not subject to certain restraints.

It's easy to blame the people who signed on to unsound subprime mortgage loans, who ran up vast credit-card debt, and so forth, if you look at the situation in just one dimension. What about the predatory lenders who offered them all this credit they could never have gotten 30 years ago?

I remember being quite impressed in the spring of 1978, as I approached graduation from college, at being offered my very first gasoline credit card. It was a big deal. "We believe that people about to graduate from college are good credit risks," I was told. Years later I was offered an actual Visa card, and the line of credit was pretty modest.

Now, all you need is a pulse. My 81-year-old mother, in assisted living, is getting solicitations. It would be possible for her to obtain one of these cards and run up a $10,000 tab in a hurry, then default. What would they do? Ruin her credit? Garnish her Social Security check?

The fault ultimately lies with greedy lenders. The great unwashed are always an easy target for blame, but the people in the suits don't have to make such absurdly generous offers to hapless people. This go-round, they approved loans and gave out other credit like it was lunch, with no thought for when the bills came due and they had to actually collect.

A wonderful analogy came from Kathleen Day, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer-oriented research group. In a Monday piece from McClatchy Newspapers, she commented on the regulatory lapses:

"The job of regulators is that when the party's in full swing, make sure the partygoers drink responsibly. Instead, they let everyone drink as much as they wanted and then handed them the car keys."

Here's the link to the complete article.

It is important to note that Bush, possibly the Herbert Hoover of this generation and much worse, has nevertheless planted seeds for an eventual revival of the old market mentality. One couldn't expect a mediocre-at-best product of privilege to do otherwise. Here's some of what he had to say, as reported by The Associated Press:

The president favored government intervention even though it opened him up to criticism from financial conservatives who are raising their eyebrows at the pricetag of the bailout plan. "Look, I'm sure there are some of my friends out there saying, `I thought this guy was a market guy. What happened to him?'" Bush said.

"Well, my first instinct wasn't to lay out a huge government plan," he said. "My first instinct was to let the market work until I realized, upon being briefed by the experts, of how significant this problem became."

In other words, this is supposed to be an anomaly, not the logical outcome of unregulated capitalism, even though we've seen it in history over and over. Here's the full AP article about Bush's take on this, if you can stomach it.

It would be desirable in many ways to just let the avaricious fatcats go under amid this excess, but that can't be. There are dogmatic libertarians who actually think Americans could be that stupid, both individually and collectively. But we can't afford that. It comes to a kind of economic blackmail -- the risk is too great for too many people who had nothing to do with the bad decisions on either end of the credit process. So, the fatcats will be bailed out.

The hope, against hope, is that "we won't be fooled again." That they won't be able to sell this bill of goods to the next generation in 20 years, and that our own generations of today won't forget. That the libertarians will finally learn that their naivete assumes marketplace self-policing that neither people nor institutions will ever do.

Maybe, just maybe one day, we'll learn. Keep a close watch on your retirement investments in the meantime. Here's one more thought-provoking link by Steve Fraser that I urge the reader to ponder.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Latest Gaffe: McCain Apparently Thinks Spain Shares A Border With Venezuela

By Manifesto Joe

This is a little scary, sort of like having the ignorance of Bush and the senility of Reagan both rolled into one overage candidate. During an interview, John McCain doesn't appear to have caught on as to who Spain's leader is, apparently confusing Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez or Bolivia's Evo Morales.

This is part of a transcript from an interview on Miami Spanish-language radio, as reported by Sam Stein of The Huffington Post:

QUESTION: Senator, finally, let's talk about Spain. If you're elected president, would you be willing to invite President Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero to the White House to meet with you?

MCCAIN: I would be willing meet, uh, with those leaders who our friends [sic] and want to work with us in a cooperative fashion, and by the way, President Calderon of Mexico is fighting a very very tough fight against the drug cartels. I'm glad we are now working in cooperation with the Mexican government on the Merida plan. I intend to move forward with relations, and invite as many of them as I can, those leaders, to the White House.

QUESTION: Would that invitation be extended to the Zapatero government, to the president itself?

MCCAIN: I don't, you know, honestly I have to look at relations and the situations and the priorities, but I can assure you I will establish closer relations with our friends and I will stand up to those who want to do harm to the United States of America.

QUESTION: So you have to wait and see if he's willing to meet with you, or you'll be able to do it in the White House?

MCCAIN: Well again I don't, all I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the hemisphere that are friends with us, and standing up to those who are not, and that's judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America, and the entire region.

QUESTION: Okay... what about Europe I'm talking about the President of Spain?

MCCAIN: What about me what?

QUESTION: Okay... are you willing to meet with him if you are elected president?

MCCAIN: I am willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for human rights, democracy and freedom, and I will stand up to those that do not.

McCain's campaign is trying to cover their collective ass by making out that their 72-year-old candidate meant to say this, apparently spanking Spain for doing mean things to the U.S. like pulling their military contingent out of Iraq and such. Here's the Huffington Post link that gives the McCain campaign version of things, along with the transcripts and the broadcast. (Notice that the McCain spokesman refers to Zapatero as Spain's president, rather than the prime minister.)

A big problem with that explanation is that McCain talks like he thinks Spain is part of Latin America. Or maybe not -- the radio reporter didn't get that impression. Anyway, nobody seem to know exactly what kind of fool McCain is here -- a senile Reaganesque one, a natural successor to an inflammatory fool like Bush, or some of both.

There was more foolishness in the interview. McCain's suggestion that the Calderon government in Mexico is a friend of the U.S. is a bit of a stretch. The right-leaning Mexican governments of recent years, unwilling to undertake desperately needed economic reform, have proved more than willing to export their unemployable people to the U.S., to maintain an arrogant economic oligarchy that creates that situation, and then to characterize Americans as xenophobes and bigots for questioning that condition. With friends like those, give me Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales anytime.

Meanwhile, the Republicans have a standard-bearer who can't seem to function well without a teleprompter. And he chose a shockingly unqualified small-state governor as a running mate in an obvious bid to placate the GOP fundamentalist right wing.

All this reminded me that I have a couple of good recipes for gazpacho. I hear they make it mighty tasty down in Bolivia.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

James McMurtry And Peter Anderson Tell It Like It Is: 'We Can't Make It Here Anymore'

Great award-winning song by Austin resident James McMurtry, with a 2006 video by Peter Anderson that does it justice. Posted on YouTube. -- MJ

Ever Notice There Aren't Many Libertarians After A Hurricane?

Manifesto Joe Interviews A Libertarian

Question: When natural disasters like hurricanes occur, doesn't this show the need for a reasonably strong federal government, strong in the right kinds of ways, to help those who have lost virtually everything?

Answer: A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have.

Q: I'm talking about people who no longer have anything. It was the hurricane that took it all away. Their houses are gone. Their possessions have been swept away. To whom do they turn, if not government?

A: Themselves. This country was built by independent, resourceful, self-reliant people. The weak ones died off, and the strong survived. The pioneers weren't crybabies, whining for a handout, after locusts destroyed their crops. They tightened their belts and survived until the next crop came in.

Q: Historians say a lot of homesteaders had to go back East after catastrophes like that. And then, I doubt that they did well. We have no way of knowing how many starved or died of disease. Would a little disaster aid from a bigger federal government have been a bad thing then?

A: Those people knew the risks when they staked claims as homesteaders. Besides, remember that the land was given to them by the government. Just about anything government does, beyond the bare basics, turns out badly. And again, I'm just not concerned about weak people. Let them die off. Then, they're not a burden on taxpayers like me.

Q: This seems to have less to do with people being strong or weak as it does with people being lucky or unlucky, regarding hurricanes, locusts and such. What's your take on luck?

A: Luck has nothing to do with it. Successful people simply know how to work hard. They make their own luck.

Q: It's pretty challenging to work hard when you haven't eaten. If a swarm of locusts eats up your crops, and you have little to eat, doesn't this put you at a natural disadvantage versus someone who's "luckier"?

A: We obviously disagree about luck. Bad luck is a delusional excuse for failure. I don't know anybody who hasn't had some bad luck in their lives, but the strong work hard and overcome these obstacles. That's their natural advantage.

Q: So you're saying that some people are just naturally superior, and they deserve to survive and ultimately prosper because of natural selection? The social Darwinist thing?

A: Quite so. I have no time or money for the weak, or even the mediocre. Excellence should be the thing we cultivate. And that's best done in free markets.

Q: Back to the hurricane victims. There were a lot of swank subdivisions wiped out entirely by Ike. These were fancy homes before the storm. Aren't a lot of those folks the strong, successful ones you laud? And now back to luck. Wouldn't you say that theirs was pretty bad this time?

A: They don't need to whine about it, and I dare say many won't. They'll just rebuild.

Q: With government help?

A: In some cases, yes. But that's just people naturally taking advantage of opportunities. America is, after all, the land of opportunity.

Q: Hold the phone. You're saying it's OK for an upper-middle-class family, left homeless by a hurricane, to accept government help? Does that mean it's OK for the poor to accept it, too? According to your view, shouldn't they all be "self-reliant" and turn it down?

A: In a perfect world, that would be true. But you may have noticed that this world is far from perfect. In a perfect world, no government of any kind would be necessary.

Q: So you're admitting that government is at least a necessary evil?

A: Yes. And the best government is that which governs least. It limits itself to just taking care of the basics.

Q: Does that include disaster aid, for rich and poor alike?

A: If the aid is there -- in an imperfect world, it makes sense to take it.

Q: Did you go to college?

A: Yes.

Q: How did you pay for it?

A: I worked at part-time jobs.

Q: And that was all?

A: Well, there were student loans. I paid them all off. No thanks, of course, to the onerous tax burden from the federal government.

Q: These loans were available thanks to government programs. Legislation was passed, and funds were appropriated. This happened by design, not chance. If this hadn't happened, how would you have paid for college?

A: I would have found a way. The strong overcome obstacles.

Q: Like hurricanes?

A: Yes, to name only one kind.

Q: But you say very little good ever comes from government. Would you say that government lending you money for college resulted in something bad?

A: Even a blind sow finds an acorn now and then. There were a few people like me who took the loans and turned out well. Many just squandered the money. I saw it.

Q: I took the loans, plus grants and scholarships, paid the loans off, and haven't done badly, either. Looks like more than a few of us did well enough, paid the loans back, and got into a higher tax bracket so that we could help the next generation of less fortunate people like us. And we can also afford to help hurricane victims. But, back to education -- I've talked to young people who have told me that a lot of the college aid programs that our generation benefited from aren't there anymore. The programs were slashed again and again, and now there's not much money left. Shouldn't today's less advantaged young people have the same opportunity?

A: It's a hard world. Our generation was ...

Q: Lucky?

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Not Only Does Palin Kill Bullwinkle, She Spends Taxpayer Money To Slaughter Wolves And Bears

By Manifesto Joe

Stated upfront, I'm not anti-hunting. In my home state of Texas, the November-December ritual of deer hunters coming out to waste Bambi does serve an ecological purpose. The land can't support all the deer here, so annual culling actually helps.

So, it didn't shock or dismay me to hear that Klondike Hottie and her family are moose hunters. But what you are about to see on this video is disturbing. As Alaska governor, Sarah Palin has a record of supporting and bankrolling, with taxpayer money, barbaric aerial hunting of wolves and bears. This was posted on YouTube by defendersactionfund:



I know this isn't going to persuade very many people who were prepared to vote Republican anyway. The modern GOP isn't known for its empathy for wild, feral animals, unless you count Ann Coulter.

But to anyone who might still be fence-sitting, take note: Sarah Palin is a public official who may not even recognize that animals feel pain. And even if she does, she obviously doesn't give a wolf's ass.

To donate to Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, here's a link. They're trying to finance the airing of a TV ad about Palin's record on this issue.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

It's Worse Than I Thought: Inside Sarah Palin's Real Church, And This Is No Joke

In my previous post, I was making sport of Sarah Palin's holy-roller roots with the snake-handling images and such. But as details emerge, the real picture isn't funny at all. It's downright frightening. The Pentecostal church she belonged to, and basically grew up in, is linked to the "Third Wave" movement that has long been condemned by even the main line of Assemblies of God as heretical.

This was posted on YouTube by bruceewilson:



And, here's a link for more on the subject. -- MJ

Inside Sarah Palin's Church: They Believe Prayer Can Convert Gays Into Straights

By Manifesto Joe

You read it right. Yahoo! News ran a piece from The Associated Press delving into Sarah Palin's background in organized religion. She used to be a Pentecostal (Assemblies of God).

You know -- it's that highly emotional Protestant denomination that is OK with speaking in unknown tongues and faith healing. Where I come from they are often referred to as "holy rollers" because of their habit of writhing about in the aisles when possessed by the Holy Spirit.

A few years ago she sort of switched to an "independent evangelical" church. (I thought that was basically what Pentecostals are.)

But, her current church embraces -- pardon the choice of words -- the Focus on the Family program that stresses prayer to help homosexuals become heterosexual. (But not practicing hetero until after marriage, of course.)

My question is: After this miracle of conversion, do they still have to handle the snakes?



There are subgroups among Pentecostals, mainly those in the South and Appalachian regions, that are into handling venomous serpents. Members have also been known to drink strychnine as a demonstration of faith.



Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

A Weekend Jazz Classic: Charles Mingus And Gerry Mulligan Together In 1975

Here are two of the greats of modern jazz, together, albeit late in both careers, for Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, written for the late, great Lester Young.



Mingus, in addition to being one of the most skilled stand-up bass players, was a most gifted composer, largely considered second only to Ellington in jazz history.

If you dig it, enjoy. -- MJ

Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy Voice True Views About Palin On Hot Mike

This has been out for a day, but in case you haven't heard it, WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan and right-wing pundit Mike Murphy talked their way into a hot corner with hot mikes on, expressing candid observations about GOP veep nominee Sarah Palin. Here's the video, courtesy of WMAL News on YouTube:



Sweet drams, and dreams. -- MJ

An Intriguing Postscript: 'The Real Sarah Palin'

Here's a most interesting link regarding Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's VP choice. The picture that emerges is that of a ruthless, right-wing, fiscally irresponsible opportunist who abysmally mismanaged her hometown on her way to some sort of national prominence. -- MJ

Palin, In Acceptance, Shows One Republican Qualification: She Knows How To Lie

By Manifesto Joe

Listening to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's acceptance of the GOP vice presidential nomination was mildly entertaining. She's no spellbinder, but she delivers a fair speech. So much for form. As for substance, she already shows one great qualification to be a leading Republican candidate: She can lie to millions of people without a blink.

I kept hearing something about Obama planning to raise Americans' taxes. All kinds of taxes, on all sectors. Palin even brought up an example of her sister and brother-in-law (no, not that one) who were starting up a small business, a service station. How would things get better for them if their taxes were to go up?

The problem: Nobody, certainly not Obama, has been talking about that. I clearly recall Obama saying during the primaries that, with perhaps a few variations, he would favor a reversion of the federal tax burden to where it was during the Clinton years.

My wife and I have had something pretty close to a median U.S. income for over 20 years now. I clearly remember 1993, and the passage of the Clinton tax plan (by a margin of one vote in the House). I recall the Republicans' dire predictions for the economy, and how it would be wrecked, and how everyone's taxes would go up.

I also remember what happened to our taxes after the Clinton plan really went into effect. Our taxes DIDN'T go up. The rates DID go up on some very high-income taxpayers -- and within a few years, the federal government had not only a balanced budget, but a surplus.

Sounds like a great point of return. Here are Obama's actual positions, as detailed on his Web site.

Now, as for Palin's "executive" record on taxes?

As an example, I'll refer to the condition in which she left her hometown on her way to Juneau:

Palin Left Wasilla $20 Million In Debt. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin cut taxes while simultaneously expanding the town’s operating budget by almost $2 million. She ended her term in 2002 with Wasilla $20 million in debt. [Anchorage Daily News 10/23/06; the Politico, 8/29]

Thanks to fellow bloggers Yellow Dog and Warren Street for leading the way to this tidbit from Think Progress.

It appears, from this, that Sarah Palin has one other prime qualification for the Republican big time. She doesn't think you always need revenue to run a government entity. That puts her squarely in the economic camp of Republicans of the past 30 years. And it puts her, more importantly now, in the camp of the born-again supply-sider John McCain. Reaganomics III, anyone?

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

McCain's Selection For VP Is An Insult To Female Supporters Of Hillary Clinton

By Manifesto Joe

I held off a couple of days commenting on McCain's selection of a prospective VP. I wanted to see reactions. Now, I think it's important to note what a pathetically lame insult this is to erstwhile female supporters of Hillary Clinton. It's as though McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin thought that, in order to lure female voters who had backed Clinton, having a running mate with a vagina would be enough.

I truly hate to break this to McCain and the Grand Old Putzes, but the majority of women who voted for Hillary have brains as well as vaginas. Most of them are hip to the fact that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are galaxies apart on the issues, and also highly distinguishable in terms of experience.

Courtesy of moveon.org, here's a rundown of Palin's limited background, and her views on key issues:

She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1

Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2

She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3

Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4

She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5

She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

Here's the link if you want to check out the footnote sources.

Since we've touched on McCain's bizarre lack of vetting of his vice presidential choice, let's not give short shrift to "Troopergate." Surely the McCain campaign, had it been paying serious attention, would have known that this has ballooned into a $100,000 investigation in a small state. It's a problem that may not be fatal for Palin, but those Grand Old Putzes certainly could have done without this grief from the first female standard-bearer on the top ticket.

Washington Post writers James V. Grimaldi and Kimberly Kindy seemed to cover this matter pretty well, so I'll throw in the link. Suffice it to say, it looks like the Palin family got it in for an ex-brother-in-law, perhaps actually going to the length of firing a good state official because he wouldn't go along with the vengeance. Granted, this state trooper could be a man with problems, but evidence seems to point to others who may also have personal issues. ...

Back to the thesis, I noticed that the very morning of the announcement, Palin had the chutzpah to mention Geraldine Ferraro, and Hillary, as forerunners toward piercing that nasty, testosterone-stained glass ceiling. This was from someone who has the most far-right position on abortion rights imaginable.

I won't repeat any of the other problems, but I'll offer a passage regarding Palin's environmental views. This is from Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund:

WASHINGTON-- Senator John McCain just announced his choice for running mate: Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. To follow is a statement by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund:

“Senator McCain’s choice for a running mate is beyond belief. By choosing Sarah Palin, McCain has clearly made a decision to continue the Bush legacy of destructive environmental policies.

“Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.

“This is Senator McCain’s first significant choice in building his executive team and it’s a bad one. It has to raise serious doubts in the minds of voters about John McCain’s commitment to conservation, to addressing the impacts of global warming and to ensuring our country ends its dependency on oil.”

I hope almost all of Hillary's female supporters will see this right-wing pandering for what it is -- a contemptible insult.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Yeah, Joe Biden Is A Garulous Hack, But Obama Made A Pragmatic Choice For A Vice Presidential Running Mate

By Manifesto Joe

Yeah, I know -- it's been leaked that Obama's VP pick is Joe Biden. To be more formal, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Delaware -- one of those guys who seems to be on an A-Plus-Steroids List for appearances on the Sunday-morning talking-heads shows. He of interminable speeches. The ultimate establishment Democrat.

But I would dare argue that Biden is pretty much what Obama needs. Obama is going to be attacked ruthlessly on a number of fronts: Two of them will be general experience, and foreign policy experience. Whatever drawbacks there are to Biden, he unquestionably brings both qualifications to the table.

Barack Obama can't get elected president being Don Quixote, and he doesn't need Sancho Panza as a running mate. Biden has some baggage, but Sancho Panza, he's not.

Here's the AP report.

If there was ever a time when Americans who really care about their future are going to rally behind a ticket -- it's now. Joe for Veep -- I'll even put up with the endless speeches.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Feces-Tainted Jalapenos? Somebody Git A Rope! FDA Reform, Now!

By Manifesto Joe

As one who leans left politically on notoriously right-wing turf, I've usually been something of an outsider in my home state of Texas. But Texan cultural mores, at least the better ones, stick with us natives. And one of the things I would cry bitter tears at having to part with would be the jalapeno pepper.

And it makes my South Texican blood simmer to learn that, for months before the recent salmonella outbreak, federal officials at the Mexican border were turning away fetid, contaminated shipments of fresh and dried chile peppers without unusual concern. These bozos, despite their reduced numbers, could and should have known that many such shipments were getting through, and that the resulting pico de gallo, chili powder and fresh jalapeno slices would threaten people's health.

At first the illnesses were blamed on tomatoes. Later, cilantro was mentioned. Finally, the outbreak was reportedly traced to two farms in Mexico where jalapenos and other chile peppers were grown for export.

With the ingredients we have so far, just add fresh onion and lime juice, and you've got the popular and usually healthful condiment called pico de gallo. Goes great with any style of beans, or with Spanish rice. And a plate of sizzling fajitas just wouldn't be the same without it.

Now, because of the negligence of those who are supposed to be watching out for our food safety -- not to mention the foolhardiness of certain free-trade agreements -- fans of Tex-Mex have to think twice, or thrice, before savoring pico de gallo or many other styles of chiles.

Yes, I realize there are hungry people all over the world who couldn't care less about chiles. But let's not digress. It isn't just about hot peppers. Americans, in the era after the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, used to be able to trust much more in the wholesomeness of our food supply. Now, because of misguided economics, minimalist views of government and just plain greed, we cannot.

Predictably, deep cuts in FDA food safety and field staffers have been critical in this failure of government oversight. Because the reduced number of inspectors are overwhelmed, very little imported produce is turned away. That's not just hot chiles.

Here's the link to the CBS News online report about this continuing outrage.

I didn't grow up in a family of chileheads, so my initiation to the Texican Fraternity of the Holy Jalapeno was gradual. As a teen, I made the mistake a couple of times of trying to eat a pickled jalapeno neat. I wouldn't think anything about doing that now, but that's after 30-plus years of building tolerance for the heat. Back then, a Hispanic friend of mine managed to suppress laughter long enough to explain to my gringo ass that these are meant to be eaten with something, a small bite at a time, like with a sandwich or a burrito.

By the time I was 30 or so, I had graduated to the fresh, crisp ones. Muy caliente, y mas picoso!

But now, I can't trust in the safety of them, damn it. And, Texans of all ethnic backgrounds should be pissed. I've eaten in Vietnamese restaurants, too, and when you order the traditional noodle soups, fresh jalapeno slices are on the side.

We Americans, not just Texans, need to do something about this food debacle. Here's a link to a site at consumersunion.org that petitions Congress.

Texicans, and Americans -- when it comes to food safety, it's time to turn up the heat on our lawmakers.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

More Evidence U.S. Media Are In Stunning Decadence: The Bigfoot Scam

By Manifesto Joe

Looks like a couple of Billy Carter types from Georgia (that's our Georgia, pronounced Jaw-juh) pulled off an embarrassing hustle on American news media. The frozen "Bigfoot" body, of which the ballcap-clad rubes were showing photos, turned out to be a rubber/fake-hair Halloween costume.

Those hayseeds certainly got a lot of publicity out of this, and I'd say it teaches an important lesson.

Think for a moment about how moronic this was. We're in a presidential election year; we're watching an international crisis between nuclear-armed Russia and neighboring Georgia (that's their Georgia, pronounced the proper way); the U.S. economy is in a slow but steady meltdown; evidence of global environmental crisis looms everywhere; we have a rogue government that is chopping, not whittling, away at privacy and civil liberties; and Americans are losing their homes at a record pace.

And yet, these two scheming shitkickers can command lead-story attention from major news media across the country?

Paris Hilton, where are you when you're needed? Brangelina, I think your twins are just totally awesome, the cutest. Nancy Grace, please spew more bile in my direction! The bogus Bigfoot is now definitely yesterday's news ... until the MSM do the lemming act yet again over the next little manufactured enthusiasm.

A dictionary definition of decadence, in terms of culture, is the complete triumph of style over substance. I thought we in America had already seen that 30 years ago. Shockingly, in the Age of Il Doofus, it can indeed get worse. And it is.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Thanks To Bush, U.S. Has Little Moral Authority To Lecture Russia Now

By Manifesto Joe

Morally, it was easier, before Bush. The U.S. never exactly had a spotless record on international (or domestic) aggression, but there were usually ample rationalizations to which one could point. In 2008, there are few rationalizations left, so it sounds ludicrous for American officials to try to scold Russia over the invasion of neighboring Georgia.

Until Il Doofus and the Neocons engineered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were usually at least some convoluted reasons trotted out as to why the U.S. did certain unsavory things, and the reasons even held up as folklore. (Yes, I know there are still plenty of morons who think Saddam Hussein was behind the 9-11 attacks, but for now let's confine the debate to participants who can actually think.)

Let's review some history. War with Spain in 1898 was supposed to have been precipitated in part by the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, though in hindsight it's far-fetched that Spain had anything to do with that. Cuba was very near, and home to many U.S. interests, so with an insurrection there was a great opportunity to kick Spaniard ass and steal some colonies. We made a casino/plantation/whorehouse out of Cuba for 60 years, and killed a million Filipinos while subjugating their country.

Later, our Marines were in Nicaragua so many times, chasing Sandino and his ilk around, that they should have just renamed the place Camp Lejeune South. We violated sovereign territory down that direction as often as United Fruit Co. could think of a reason.

There are those who think of the Vietnam War as a flat-out invasion of Vietnam by the U.S. The rationale was, of course, that it was part of the larger Cold War against communism. That was the argument that die-hards still cling to today -- the reason it was supposed to be OK to prop up a succession of puppet autocracies in the south, doggedly pursue a war that killed some 3 million Vietnamese, poison the countryside for generations and divide our own country for -- yes, generations. We wuz a-fightin' common-ism.

Let's see -- there were CIA-engineered or CIA-aided regime changes in countries like Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Chile (1973) and others. There were invasions of Panama, Grenada, Cambodia, Laos ...

So far, I'm just hitting "high" points that go back to 1898. It goes back further. There was a war with Mexico that made it possible for me and my forebears to reside in this paradise of the Lone Star State, under American protection. And then, there were those pesky Comanches who once lived just about where I sit, long before Hernando Cortes was a gleam in his daddy's eye. You generally have to drive up to Lawton, Oklahoma to see a live Comanche now, and they look pretty damned depressed, what's left of them.

Not to belabor this -- but the U.S. really didn't have all that damn much moral authority on the world stage B.B. (Before Bush) Arguably, we had our own holocausts, our own wars of conquest, our own slaughters and subjugation of peoples. I won't even start on slavery.

But, at certain points in the 20th century, America seemed to stand tall. We led the alliance that defeated German Nazism, and also Japanese and Italian fascism. The folly of Vietnam aside, we led a very long fight against Stalinist communism in an eerie new kind of war, and won. After a century of post-slavery Jim Crow, we reformed this society's racist heritage to such an extent that our next president may be a man of mixed race. There is much to be proud of here.

A lot has changed since 2003. When Il Doofus and his accomplices manufactured reasons for an invasion of Iraq, they all but destroyed what was left of U.S. moral authority on the world stage. A lot of people recalled that Saddam Hussein was our ally in the '80s, and that we even supplied him with the WMDs he used on the Kurds. Just what made Saddam so alarmingly evil to us, 15 years after? Perhaps it was all that oil he was sitting on, and that we couldn't get to as long as he was there.

That was an invasion of a sovereign nation, albeit a dictatorship, with flimsy rationale that have been discredited and perhaps even exposed as deliberate lies. About a million people and counting have died as a direct result, and the number of refugees can't be accurately estimated.

Now, George W. Bush musters enough chutzpah to say something like, "Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people."

First, one could question whether the latter part of that sentence even describes the contemporary United States. But given the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the continued U.S. occupation, can a sane, reasonably informed person think that most of the world even begins to take him seriously?

One thing is certain: Vladimir Putin and his puppet successor as Russian prez do not. I've been convinced for years that Putin and his wife tell Bush jokes in private. Just imagine what the jesting is like now.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Turd Blossom Special: Courtesy Of Harry Shearer And Blogger Cranky Daze

Here's a link to a recently released music video by comic genius Harry Shearer, called Turd Blossom Special. Bet you can't guess whom it's about. And I highly recommend Cranky's blog, which is on my link list. -- MJ

Let's Talk More About 'Surges'

By Manifesto Joe

Ve haf von ze var?

That seems what the most obedient of the MSM would have the masses believe about Iraq. But it also seems as though we've heard such pronouncements before -- about a place called Afghanistan.

The Independent (U.K) reports that:

Violence in Afghanistan has reached record highs, with unprecedented numbers of civilian casualties and terror attacks spreading into areas once thought safe, a coalition of charities warns. In a damning indictment of the international community's effort to stabilise Afghanistan, more than 100 aid agencies claimed security is worse now than at any time in the past seven years.

"There has been a surge in the number of civilian casualties caused by all sides, a spread of insecurity to previously stable areas, and increasing attacks on aid agencies and their staff," the statement from their umbrella organisation Acbar said.

(The boldface emphases are mine.)

OK, these are different countries. But, one who's not wearing blinders, one not just following the GOParty line, can't help but notice parallels. We've heard all this before, regarding both places.

Mideast expert Juan Cole, writing on Informed Comment, noted some interesting things about the Iraq "surge" that I will summarize. Let's step back a moment -- in a country of 27 million people, the addition of 30,000 troops, from 130,000 to 160,000, made that much difference in the level of violence? No way.

Not that the violence was down all that much in a relative sense. It did reach a "low point" compared to other points in the war. But there were other factors that were probably far more important.

One that the U.S. has nothing to be proud of is a sort of ethnic cleansing that took place in many mixed Baghdad neighborhoods. The Shiite militias ran off (or killed) a lot of Sunnis. Baghdad is now much more Shiite in the absence of many Sunnis, and there are sharp dividing lines between the ethnic neighborhoods.

It's been said that there ain't nothing more peaceful than a dead man. The second most peaceful sort would be the one who ain't there -- he's split for Iran or Syria.

Another big factor was the bribery of a lot of Sunni factions to get them to join "us" and oppose the insurgents. That was a strategic move that started months before the U.S. troop "surge," and turned the tide in many parts of Iraq -- for now.

Here's the link to the Juan Cole article.

Another interesting perspective on this issue is from former U.S. Sen. James G. Abourezk, D-S.D., "The Surge Has Worked?", writing for Counterpunch.

In an election year, it wouldn't be proper to visit this topic without including something from Democratic nominee-to-be Barack Obama. Here's something pertinent on The Huffington Post.

What about McCain's views? Just turn on the TV, or pick up an MSM newspaper, and you can get that swill quite easily. This is an alternative medium.

I'm going to float a somewhat subversive idea, but one that should be mentioned sometime. Let's presume (probably wrongly) that the "surge" cheerleaders are right, and that the U.S. is within sight of "victory" in Iraq.

In the long view of history, it's not a good idea. I understand the argument that, once a course like this has been set, it's a good idea to see it through. Even if a mistake was made initially, it is imperative to "clean up the mess" as best we can, or so the argument goes.

The tragedy of that would be that it would embolden future U.S. administrations to undertake more such foreign misadventures. Let's not mince words here -- this was an invasion, an act of aggression, on the part of the U.S. Everybody knew that Saddam Hussein was a thug way back in the '80s, when the U.S. was arming him. What most of the world's people seem to realize now is that the contained Saddam was no real threat to the U.S., and that there's no good explanation for American actions there other than that Iraqis are sitting on an ocean of oil. There was no link to al Qaeda. No evidence of WMDs. All the rationale were hollow at the core, except for one.

I'm an American, and I hate to lose. But this is one in which "we've" been in the wrong, and "we" actually don't deserve to win. And, I'll make the comparison with Afghanistan and gamble -- over time, "we" probably won't. The best path seems to just find a way out and assess the damage over time.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.