dagblog - Comments for "The Big Lie"

An excellent post indeed! I

oleeb — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:43:24 +0000

An excellent post indeed! I especially like your use of Rep. Cohen's quite appropriate identification of the Republican strategy not just on the healthcare bill but on everything: the big lie. You'll notice all he did was point out the very clear truth that the Republican use this technique every day and with it's successful use over time have come to rely more and more upon the big lie since our citizens don't support their positions on the issues with deceiving them with respect to the causes of our national problems and what the appropriate solutions might be. Yet, John Stewart along with many others in the mainstream media completely misrepresented Cohen's statements as equating the Republicans with or otherwise calling them Nazi's when that simply was not true. He merely pointed out that they routinely use that tactic first identified and used on a widespread basis by the Nazi Party in Germany long ago. That is not even close to calling them Nazi's or equating them to Nazi's.

The rest of the essay hits the nail on the head and leaves no room for ambiguity nor for any fence sitting. It is easy to choose the side of this battle that is good and that will benefit the common people of this country. The wonder is why so many of our Democratic elected and appointed officials are choosting to shy away from the side of good and instead either joining the the forces of darkness openly or by aiding them through their silence or via "compromises" that provide no advantage to the good guys... only to the bad guys.

In a sense you understand it

Barth — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:39:32 +0000

In reply to Obama did renege on the tax

In a sense you understand it wrong. They were not passed as seperate cuts. The whole thing was an across the board set of tax cuts which Congress passed in the halcyon days after their Supreme Court put their candidate in office and before Septemeber 11 Changed Everything.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A818...

The idea to limit them was a Democratic one and required affirmative action by Congress. If it did not do anything the 2001 legislation would have expired and taxes on everyone would have returned to 2001 levels. Not a bad idea; actually the right thing to do, but not now, during a recession with such high unemployment.

To enact such legislation requires, as we now understand, the sixty Senate votes required to invoke cloture.

As stand off would have meant a tax rise for everyone and the balme would have been placed squarely on the President, who had just been "shellacked."

It pains me to say it as I am sure it pained the President to do it, but he had no choice. He could not risk the harm to the hostages. When one party is irresponsible, responsible people almost always have to give in.

I did not want to go there

Barth — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:26:01 +0000

In reply to Were those Barnicle's own

I did not want to go there since I thought his "sin" was barely that, and hardly the basis for the Globe to dump a columnist whose work I have often loved.

The tv version of Barnacle, especially the one who appears on the Republican Show (MSNBC calls it something else, but I am not bound by that) is pitiful. A man who has frequently written about the evils of groupthink just turns, as if a chameleon, into one of them, parrotting their garbage and never taking Them (or, generally, Joe) on.

I frequently head off to work ready to scream.

Obama did renege on the tax

Ramona — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 05:55:02 +0000

In reply to The Congressman is Steve

Obama did renege on the tax cut repeal. They were set to expire in December and with a little muscle, they could have. As I understand it, it was separate from the tax cuts for everyone else, since it was added specifically for the wealthy by the Bushies. Yes, they got an unemployment extension and a few other bones by giving in, but they came into office promising to repeal the "tax cuts for the wealthy" and they didn't do it.

Think of what an image-maker it would have been if they had forced a stand-off. The Dems would finally appear to be getting it, and the Republicans couldn't have added yet another victory to their list.

I grew up in the 50s, when anyone who wanted a job could get one. Times were good. We made things. China made cheap goods that barely made a dent, and our jobs stayed here in this country. I'm not sure I would blame Carter for the rise of Reagan (Though I'll blame him for a lot of other things.).

Ronnie's first term might have been a fluke but there was no godly reason for him to have served a second term. Everything was going wrong; the middle class was already losing out, the poor were losing even more, but the Republicans cannily avoided the issues and went with Reagan's supposed popularity and Everything's coming up Roses. Happy times!

The Republicans understand PR and imagery much better than the Democrats ever will. When the Dems think they're going to lose the battle, they retreat. When the Republicans think they might lose a battle, they bluff. No blood drawn and they win.

Were those Barnicle's own

Flavius — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 03:16:35 +0000

In reply to The Big Lie

Were those Barnicle's own thoughts or plagiarized ?

Again..

History is in the minds of

Richard Day — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:16:26 +0000

In reply to The Big Lie

History is in the minds of the beholders. hahahaha

No wonder you liked my blogs. hahahahaha

They fit much more reasonably into your message.

Wonderful

Barth, a thousand years from now, the genius of FDR will be lauded in the most wonderful historical tomes.

I frankly, after reading so much in this era. am totally ignorant of how he did it.

I mean I would conclude that WWII was the medium in which he worked his policies.

But damn!!! He was elected three times before it ever began!!

And that underlines the genius of LBJ whom I despised lo these many years. That damn Vietnam War!!!

Oh well thank you for this and I shall return later. You are sure getting a better reaction than I did with three of these blogs.

Mostly because you put the ideas together so beautifully!!

The Congressman is Steve

Barth — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:37:12 +0000

In reply to Barth, all that you say is

The Congressman is Steve Cohen of Tennessee. I didn't realize that THOMAS links time out so quickly. I'll try to fix it with a link to the actual Congressional Record simply because it emphasizes how ridiculous that it is that his little comment got so much attention. The right is so eager to show that they are not the only extremists that they jump on hiccups, which, frankly, I barely see as worth note, and, quite on point and very true.

Krugman's book made the point well that by the end of World War II, the bulk of both parties had realized what the New Deal did to save our economy and, perhaps, our country. Even when the GOP took control of the House after the 1946 elections and later in 1956, they did not try to roll back anything. Then President Carter made his big poo poo mess trying to be all things to all people and made Reaganism possible, The rest, honestly, is the worst period in our history since, well, since the 1920s into 1932.

I do not agree that anyone reneged on a promise. They could not repeal the cuts on the wealthy without the rest of us getting hit and, at the moment, that would not be very helpful to a struggling economy. I could think of other ways of dealing with this, but I am sitting on a couch at home and not face to face with these jackasses. (I meant to say, "poorly informed people.")

Barth, all that you say is

Ramona — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:21:33 +0000

In reply to The Big Lie

Barth, all that you say is true. A pity that it needs repeating so often. Your first link--to Thomas--didn't work, so I'm not sure which congressman you're quoting here.

We've known for almost a century what those people were (and are) up to, and still our "leaders" fall for their crap. The Fat Cats take money, they spend money, they don't share. They never have and they never will until they're forced to. There have been times when they've been called on to share whether they liked it or not, and what happened? They stayed rich and the rest of us prospered.

We expect the Republicans to clamor for tax breaks for the wealthy--they're the ones who initiated it in the first place--but what we didn't expect, and what shouldn't have happened is Obama and the Dems reneging on their promise to repeal them.

They lost the argument about easing the deficit when they continued the tax breaks for everyone. Anyone seriously concerned with the deficit would be looking to the war machine as well as the money lost because the greedy refuse to pay their fair share. It seems it's the least they could do, considering the profits they're making came from shutting the working class out.

The "two pincessess," as you

Barth — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:06:06 +0000

In reply to Okay good blog. Dr. Joe

The "two pincessess," as you put it, will not achieve high office: I am sure of that, and I wish our side would stop doting on them. Our dream that she be the Republican nominee ain't going to happen. What is scary about the two of them is that people coted for them both: enough to make one the Governor and to send the other one to Congress. I cannot imagine her winning a Senate race, particularly against Amy Klobuchar, but this is the state that made Jesse Ventura its governor. They preferred Norm Coleman to Vice President Mondale, but they made up for that with Al Franken.

And, you know, as for Nazis: http://edsbarth.blogspot.com/2010/04/mine.html

Okay good blog. Dr. Joe

tmccarthy0 — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:50:26 +0000

In reply to The Big Lie

Okay good blog. Dr. Joe Scarborough of Talk Louder University... hahahahahahaha, that is perfect. Yes it seems Congressman Cohen took the brunt of the criticism. Although I do think people should dial back the rhetoric on both sides, there is a reality that the congressman speaks when he talks about the big lie. And to be honest Fox News seems to use Nazi analogies every other day when describing democrats and the President, enough so that word seems to have lost the impact it once had. I don't know what do say about the twin moron princesses, can they get any dumber? Yeah probably.