JoeWo Joe Wosik Blog

And what happened?  Sorry Bill O’Reilly….Krugman was 100% correct.  Video is here

Krugman’s view on GOP economic plans. Video is here

Krugman interviewed long form about the economic downturn. Video is here

Americans really opening their mouths without knowing what is falling out of it.  Video is here

A second BBC report on health care in the UK video is here

A third video on health care in the UK.  Video is here

Last year, in a series of “town-hall meetings” across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.

Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.

In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.  Story is located here

This is just an incredible video and very telling as to why Roger Ailes does not go on shows like this.  Arianna Huffington and Paul Krugman take Roger Ailes to task at the very end of this video which has Ailes claiming things that are just WRONG.  Ailes simple does not tell the truth in this video.  Just headshakingly misinforming of what was going on.  Video is located here.

The whole show is linked here and should play one clip after the other….I think….  Video is located here

They discuss Health Care Reform Video is located here

And the Green Room discussion posted onlines was interesting too in that Roger Ailes left before the discussion could start so there is Roger Ailes in a nutshell…he ran from the truth…leaving the rest to discuss the issues that he started. Video is here

“Over the past 30 years, the income of the top 1%, adjusted for inflation, doubled: the top one-tenth of 1% tripled, and the one-one-hundredth quadrupled,” says Pizzigati. “Meanwhile, the average income of the bottom 90% has gone down slightly. This is a stunning transformation.”  Story is located here

FOX News cut away with 20 minutes left of Obama’s Q&A with the GOP.  I want to know who made this horrible horrible non-news decision.  Story is here

Again with 20 minutes left in the Q&A FOX News dumped out of the first time a President has takes Q&A from the opposition party on live TV.  This truly was HUGE news.  This once again confirms that FOX News is not a news channel.  Story is located here

It is pretty obvious.  The Stimulus produced GDP gains in the 4th Quarter.  And one of McCain’s advisers agrees.  Story is here

Obama has possibly had the most powerful 1-2 punch of addresses as any President has ever had.

FIRST- State of the Union from 1/27/10.  The full video is located here

SECOND- He addressed the GOP at the GOP meeting in Baltimore on 1/29/10.  Obama addressed the group and answered questions for 90 minutes.  His responses to the questions simply eviscerated their arguments and loaded questions at every turn.  Video is located here

MSNBC aired the entire Q&A with the Republicans (as opposed to FOX News that dumped out after Obama began to eat them alive) and the MSNBC coverage had fantastic comment from Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann. Video is here

The GOP regrets the day they made that agreement to allow TV cameras roll during their meeting.  Story is here

Here is a video showing something flying over Ireland.

Could it be a prototype military aircraft such as this?

Or possibly another article on this same aircraft.

Or maybe it was like the video of the UFO over Haiti.

Only these guys know for sure as to what is going on over our heads.

FOX News simply does not tell the truth as to what happened with the economy under Bush.  Story is here

The Republicans seemed to not want to clap for several very obvious things that Americans want and need.  Story is here

Supreme Court Justice Alito disagrees with Obama.  Story is here

Olbermann with a good wrap up of the night.  Video is located here

The teabaggers are an extension of movement conservatism, and especially its long use of the politics of resentment. That started with Goldwater and morphed into the New Right and then Abramoff and Norquists’ College Republicans. They’ve always found it useful to stor up right-wing populism. Their idea that left-wing libertarians can join with them is absurd in any meaningful way; the Tea Party exists for one reason, to attack the left. I will change my mind if and when the Tea Party movement does one thing that actually hurts conservatism and conservative politicians when it counts. I’m not holding my breath.  Story is here

There is a method to their madness and the people that vote for them are taken in.  Story is here

When Reagan rolled out Supply Side Economics in the early 80s, dramatically cutting taxes while exploding (mostly military) spending, there was a moment when it seemed to Wanniski and Laffer that all was lost. The budget deficit exploded and the country fell into a deep recession – the worst since the Great Depression – and Republicans nationwide held their collective breath. But David Stockman came up with a great new theory about what was going on – they were “starving the beast” of government by running up such huge deficits that Democrats would never, ever in the future be able to talk again about national health care or improving Social Security – and this so pleased Alan Greenspan, the Fed Chairman, that he opened the spigots of the Fed, dropping interest rates and buying government bonds, producing a nice, healthy goose to the economy. Greenspan further counseled Reagan to dramatically increase taxes on people earning under $37,800 a year by increasing the Social Security (FICA/payroll) tax, and then let the government borrow those newfound hundreds of billions of dollars off-the-books to make the deficit look better than it was.

These 4 videos are particularly glaring with the decisions that have been made and have not been made lately.  He addresses the political power of corporations and the issue of health care as well how corporations pay less in taxes than you do.  These 4 videos are quite good

Video 1 is located here

Video 2 is located here

Video 3 is located here

Video 4 is located here

“It does not matter how much the economy grows as long as the distribution of the benefits of that economy cycle back to the top 5 and 1% of the richest people in the country and their corporations.  The crumbs are not enough.”  Ralph Nader.

No Republican President — not Eisenhower, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Bush — has ever created more jobs, or created jobs at a faster rate, than his Democratic predecessor. It’s not even close. The contrast has been especially stark over the past 16 years, when 23.1 million jobs were created under Clinton and less than 5 million were created under Bush. On average, job growth under Democrats is more than twice that under Republicans.  Story is here

Another graph showing job growth comparing Republicans and Democrats is located here

Graphs and analyses are interesting when a different view is taken and here is another view

Even with debt Democrats do far better than Republicans and the story is here

The charts show that job creation is best under Democrats. The stock market does best under Democrats. Spending is less and government is smaller under Democrats.

The obvious conclusion is that Democrats are better for our economy, for our country, than Republicans.

The video says it all.  Video is located here

This could be his theme song now.  Song is here

FOX News had an initial report on the story that was decent but now let’s see what they do with the story as time brings more facts.  Story is here

FOX News now urges caution when looking at the arrest of James O’Keefe.  Story is here

MediaMatters has a lot more on who James O’Keefe goes after with his videos.  Story is here

As Media Matters‘ Eric Hananoki noted, O’Keefe’s three alleged accomplices — Joseph Basel, Robert Flanagan, and Stan Dai — are right-wing activists as well. Basel was the founder of a conservative campus publication at the University of Minnesota-Morris, which, like the campus publication started by O’Keefe at Rutgers University, received funding from the conservative Leadership Institute’s “Balance in Media” grant. Flanagan, the son of acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana William Flanagan, reportedly works at the conservative Pelican Institute in New Orleans, just half a block from Landrieu’s office. Dai received $5,000 from the right-wing Phillips Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Future Leaders Scholarship Program. Additionally, during his time as a campus conservative, Dai reportedly co-wrote “a satirical work entitled The Penis Monologues, apparently a takeoff on the Vagina Monologues.”

Kind of amazing that the NeoCons want to limit the rights given to terrorist suspects however the rights of Free Speech given to foreign corporations to influence our elections seem to be unlimited.

FOX News online puts this paragraph at the bottom of the story but overall this shows that their attempt to show Obama is losing people may be a loss.  GOP contenders are not picking up people…nor is the much hyped Teaparty group.  Story is located here

In hypothetical head-to-head matchups, President Obama tops each of the Republican candidates tested.

By 47 percent to 35 percent Obama bests former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The president has an even wider edge over former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (55 percent to 31 percent), and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (53 percent to 29 percent).

Finally, twice as many people say they would vote for Obama (48 percent) as would back a candidate from the Tea Party movement (23 percent).

And Hugo Chavez gives Haiti $100 million as a first installment of aid following their earthquake.  Story is here

FOX News went to court to the definition of news would not necessarily include the truth.  Story is here

Here is a video done by the reporters that had this issue crop up.  Story is here

Sherrod Brown has this to say plus more

Start with this: The people who have been most outspoken about debt are the people most responsible for it…. The people, as I said, who have been most outspoken against the budget deficit have been those that voted for the Iraq war, and charged it to our kid, those who voted for the giveaway to the drug and insurance industry in 2003 and charged it to our kids, and those who voted who tax cuts for the rich and charged it to our kids, and those who ignored infrastructure needs in this country for a decade and charged that to our kids. And they come and they’re screaming the loudest about the balanced budget. And that disturbs me.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/brown-hits-back-on-white-house-spending-freeze-push.php

Teabaggers support Corporatists.

Corporatists make profits.

Teabaggers really do not understand what they are even saying.  Story is here

Another sponsor of the upcoming National Tea Party Convention has pulled out, citing fears over possible “profiteering and exploitation of the grassroots movement” by the organizing group, Tea Party Nation (TPN).

FOX News posted a short report from AP about Cuba responding to the Haitian earthquake however on air they say that Cuba did not respond to the Haitian earthquake.  FOX News simply does not tell the truth…again.  Story is here

Basically if you are looking for a baseline where Glen Beck is coming from just see what he says about becoming a Mormon and why he did it.  Story and Video are here.  So you see…he has depth and prespective when

Sorry Glenn but your documentary just missed the mark.  I will listen to historians instead of you.  Story is here

Here is a review which rips Jonah Goldberg’s book to pieces which is a basis for the Beck thing.  Story is here

Several reviews are located at this site

And to shoot down the concept in one sentence is to ask who was killed off or interred first by Hitler? The liberal scholars.  Um…how much clearer can that be?

Another generic way to look at it with a broad brush-

Democrats like regulation of the economy, but want no social control over individuals. Republicans love social control over individuals, but want no regulation of the economy. The difference revolves around who or what each party values the most. Repubs value money over the individual and Dems value the individual over money.

In Hitler’s case he valued control over both money and individuals. He sought strong social control and strong control over the economy. That is why he drove scientists, academics, and artists out of Germany. That is also why he took control of businesses and directed production.

So Beck is doing is looking at history and cherry-picking facts to support his own conclusion. Goldberg is doing the same and should not call himself a historian because that is a disgrace to the profession.

A wonderful comment on the Beck documentary from someone who has apparently done more serious research than Beck has done is located here

A couple of books that are written about the basis of Nazism are located here

Beck’s view of political opposition despite his not being in politics…

He calls Progressvies “a virus.” What do you do with a virus? Do you communicate with it? Or do you eradicate it?

He says Hitler was a progressive. Doesn’t take a genius to see he wants you to associate progressives with Nazis… What do you do about Nazis? Well our past offers an immediate solution.

He says Obama is a progressive. He says progressives are Nazis. He says the 08 election was a coup. He says the Republic is at stake. He tells his obedient audience that they must prepare for disaster and civil war. He tells them they are in the midst of a revolution. He tells them they are founders. He tells them the solution lies with God, Gold, and Guns… And he constantly infers that everyone of his listeners is in physical danger from the progressives…

I’ve listened to his radio show almost everyday for about a year and a half… Would any Right-Wingers like to refute any of these statements I’ve made? And would any of you fans of Beck like to tell me how Beck’s narrative of the present/near future seems to end? It all points in one direction. This cr@p is no different then the ‘helter-skelter’ predictions and ranting of Charles Manson.

Several determiners of Fascism that define politically what is being done and where it comes from.

A good look at the lack of logic that Beck tries to draw is located here.  Again the historians are laughing at Beck and his look at whatever he looked at.  More historians chime in on his assumptions here and their comments about his show are just laughable-

* “No one in their right mind is going to defend Stalin or Mao or Che Guevara…The implication is that this is what’s going to happen if Democrats get their way. This is just a complete lie.” – Clemson University professor Steven Marks, author of “How Russia Shaped the Modern World
* Beck “lives in a complete alternative universe.” – Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Life at Boston College.
* “A classic piece of anti-Communist propaganda…State inhumanity — under different economic systems — is a terrible fact of history, and, yes, Communist regimes were among the worst of them. But Beck is only interested in ‘exposing’ inhumanity on the left. And that’s why his film is propaganda.”- Michael Kazin, a history professor at Georgetown University

Ed Schultz from his radio show and MSNBC brings a strong message about helping regular people in a time in which the rich and corporations are moving cash upstream and not bringing it down to the regular people.  He speaks to a group in Minnesota about his discussion with Robert Gibbs from the White House and about Obama’s direction.  Story and video are here

An interesting overview of why Haiti is so poor

Another quick look at the history of Haiti and why it is poor

A third quick look at why Haiti is so poor

This was a big deal today carried live on TV.  Hopefully the rescuer will come out of it fine and we get video of the dog some day.  Story is here More on the story is located here

Obama has supposedly lost political capital and he supposedly is driving the nation into the ground.  Apparently that thought is not seen by the majority of people as the majority continue to see him as the best option when placed against a number of Republican potential foes.  And this is from a FOX News poll to boot!!!  Story is here

Story is here

In an era when everyone seems to be running around screaming about the deficit, there’s absolutely no reason to extend these cuts, which this year will give millionaires more in tax breaks than 90 percent of Americans will earn in income. The Bush tax cuts have delivered $715 billion to the wealthiest one percent of the country over the last ten years, and extending the cuts would give households in that one percent $60,000 in additional breaks per year, with millionaires receiving a $150,000 annual break. Over ten years, that amounts to another $1.2 trillion in lost revenue.

The past decade was the hottest on record and 2005 was the hottest year ever.  Story is here

The website for Fox News is contradicting itself.  This time it is a caption of the photo of Sen. John McCain’s wife Cindy who is AGAINST Proposition 8 in California which was worded in a way that voting FOR the measure would ban gay marriage.  A NO VOTE on Prop 8 was a vote supporting gay marriage.  Whoever wrote the caption for the video got it wrong in that Cindy and Meghan McCain are AGAINST Prop 8….NOT for it.  Also the Barbie Doll in the video pronounces the campaign with individually pronouncing the letters and number as opposed to “No Hate”. Obviously FOX does not want to see the Prop 8 anti gay marriage amendment as a hate issue so Barbie spells out words as opposed to reading the letters as the word they clearly…..spell out.

Video contradiction and Barbie are here.

A copy and paste of the headline from the website is here

The question here is if money should be more important than people in our nation.  This decision says money is more important.  Money buys votes…who has more…they win…you lose.  Corporations have more money than you…money buys advertising which results directly in votes.  You lose.

You as a human are now secondary to corporations as far as rights under the Constitution.  This is due to the Conservative Supreme Court 5 to 4 decision today to allow this to happen.  This is what the Republicans have wanted for some time and it finally happened today.  If you feel that people have too many rights….and corporations should have far far more influence and power in our nation’s government…today is the greatest day ever in the history of our nation.  The Supreme Court ruling says that corporations can dump as much money or fund any political organization with as much capital as they wish in order to get a result they want.

How could this be bad?

Say I own a corporation…it becomes huge and works primarily with China or a nation that is not necessarily our friend.  Since my company works so closely with China I would like various trade laws and many other laws that would be favorable to China so the Chinese will have more money to buy my company’s items.  The nation of China also wants these laws that are favorable to them and to downplay their bad aspects such as human rights and so on.  So the nation of China could shovel money my way in order for me to buy politicians favorable to their laws.  In the end China will fund me…so I can fund my Senator and others so I get what I want and China gets what they want in return.  So where do the rights of Americans or America come into play?  They don’t.  Because advertising almost directly results in votes in the political worlds and I get to buy a ton of advertising for the politicians I support…the likelihood of my Chinese friends getting their way is great.

Therefore this ruling by the Supreme Court just gave corporations more rights than you because they have more money than you ever will.  It also handed power potentially to other nations over you because so many corporations are multinationals these days.  So the wishes of other nations can come above you within your own government.

Unions can also spend as much money as they wish in political campaigns too.  HOWEVER the number of unionized workers has been dropping precipitously from a high of around 33% of workers to about 8% of workers now.  Union workers are fading away and the money Unions can gather is dropping in turn.

So to quote the Teaparty people directly as they have cried for a long time….your rights are gone…you have no power in this and you will have less and less power…where is my country…someone took my country away from me and I want it back.  The stealing of my company is a result of the Teabaggers and Republicans and Conservatives that just handed the power to the corporations who in turn can hand their power to investors who are possibly from other nations.

Not even other nations…here is a scenario.

I own a nuclear power plant with nuclear waste…or perhaps I own corporate farms that want water from another region.  I own a corporation that wants something from your state.  I could buy campaign ads supporting politicians who support my needs over yours.  So really from my other state I could directly affect your state.  Corporations could create a real dumping ground of one poor state such as Mississippi.  Is that really what we want?  Money buys results in politics?  Is that American politics?

Speaking of international power over our government Teaparty people have been crying for years about the UN being in charge of our laws and on and on but this Conservative Supreme Court decision has just handed elected offices over to other nations.

The Revolution has happened…the Conservative Supreme Court as created by Reagan and Bush 1 and 2 did this and your guns didn’t help.  How did your guns help you when the Republicans were supporting this?  How did your guns help you when Reagan wanted this from the beginning of his term in 1980? But you have your guns….the gays cannot marry and other stupid laws that you Teaparty people were placated with.  Meanwhile…your government will be overtaken by companies and foreign nations who are only looking out for their bottom line.  Dollar Democracy has officially been approved and our lawmakers are officially now up for sale and since you don’t have that kind of money you don’t count.

This is NOT “Government” doing this…this law is COMPLETELY AND WHOLLY A CONSERVATIVE CONCEPT AS PROPELLED BY THE TEAPARTY GROUPS AND REPUBLICANS WHO HAVE ADOPTED NEO-CON AGENDA POINTS.  This is NOT bad government….this was fought by Democrats and those on the left for a long time but because of the Conservative Supreme Court this has happened and that court was created by Republicans.

Teaparty people…thanks for helping to turn our nation over to other nations who by proxy can buy lawmakers through corporations and improve the plight of foreign nations at the expense of you the taxpayer and also the super rich who can just buy politicians who support their views.

Humans…shut up and get to the back of the bus where you belong.  Corporations now own the American political world.

Some politicians oppose this and take note of the parties of these politicos because you will see a trend in who supports Corporations and who supports humans.

-Senator Bernie Sanders who is an Independent but votes 99% of the time with Democrats opposes this decision.

-President Obama spoke out against this decision.

-Several politicians check in here and note the Republicans are happy handing power over to Corporations while Democrats are hoping that something can be done to effectively reverse this.

-Really it could be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever.  Story is here

The full story is located here

The day the Bush administration took over from President Bill Clinton in 2001, America enjoyed a $236 billion budget surplus — with a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. When the Bush administration left office, it handed President Obama a $1.3 trillion deficit — and projected shortfalls of $8 trillion for the next decade. During eight years in office, the Bush administration passed two major tax cuts skewed to the wealthiest Americans, enacted a costly Medicare prescription-drug benefit and waged two wars, without paying for any of it.

To put the breathtaking scope of this irresponsibility in perspective, the Bush administration’s swing from surpluses to deficits added more debt in its eight years than all the previous administrations in the history of our republic combined. And its spending spree is the unwelcome gift that keeps on giving: Going forward, these unpaid-for policies will continue to add trillions to our deficit.

And even as Obama has pursued landmark health insurance reforms that will hold the insurance industry accountable and expand coverage to working Americans, he has insisted from the beginning that any reform legislation must not add to the federal deficit and must help reduce it over time. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the legislation making its way through Congress upholds this principle. As the president has said, the federal budget is like an ocean liner, not a motor boat, and it will take time to redirect its course. But the course correction that was so badly needed after the previous administration has begun in earnest.

FOX News simply did not report a story in a truthful manner at all here.  The person pulling this video has pictures of the rally having an overflow crowd out into the street while the FOX reporter says there are empty seats…alluding to a lack of interest.  Video and contradictory pictures of event are located here

The amazing level of idiocy amazes me in this video.  Former Republican candidate for President Pat Robertson says the reason for the poverty and the earthquake that struck Haiti was a deal with the devil “the nation” mad some years ago.  The real problem in this video is that not that Robertson believes it but rather that other people believe it.  For someone to say something asinine is one thing but then to have masses believe him is another.  Masses believe him.  Masses give him money.  This man can vote and he tried to be leader of the Free World and your President.  This is just stomach turning to think that people voted for this man and they did.  Then again his response to the reason 9/11 happened was equally deranged and equally scary.  Transcript of what he said is located here.  Video of their lunacy is located here.

Insane.  But many people believe them.  When someone at FOX News calls you out for insanity you know it is bad.  Video is located here

Your tax money provides for infrastructure. Without infrastructure the nation cannot improve itself economically nor socially. Imagine a nation with no infrastructure like Haiti with a government that is completely non existent…they don’t even have police and fire.  Haiti DOES have factories making US consumed products but fortunately Wal Mart buys only the cheapest of products so the profits are such that the manufacturers pay little to the workers making those items. As a side note that is why you pay $2.99 for tube socks as opposed to $4.99 at the store with the balance proving more pay for workers…lucky for you huh??  Corporations are not helping the national economic nor social situation.  Instead of helping people the corporations have helped themselves. Sounds like a free market Teaparty dream come true to me.  Teaparty people…go live your dream in Haiti.  Haiti and Somalia are the Free Market dream come true…the money has all moved to the top…there has been no redistribution of wealth and the government has been reduced so that it could be drown in the bathwater to quote Grover Norquist.

How is Haiti NOT a Free Marketer’s and Teaparty person’s dream come true???

I hope so! She apparently really knew a lot less than high schoolers know about the political world and history. Chris Matthews asks a very good question in how Republicans consistently choose presidential candidates and VP candidates that are truly empty vessels that are filled with NeoCon ideals.  Video is located here

A good retrospect of how W did not keep us safe

The prophetic speedometer of end time activity.

I think they are serious…..

The site is located here and the speedometer as to the Rapture is located here.

They get to vote and there are people that believe this.

They need to see this video

This is the poppa Bush not W.  Video is here

And another hecking episode

This time for W with a video

Simple concept.  Story is here.  Image is located here

Rush Limbaugh paid cash for his Hawaiian health condition which was reported to be something similar to a heart attack and then reported as not being a heart attack at all.  Story is here

Considering he makes over $30 million per year Rush Limbaugh can afford paying cash for any health concern that rolls his way.  Story is here

The cost of the average heart attack which is about what Limbaugh may have paid for his issue if he did indeed have a heart attack is close to $60,000.  Story is here

Considering the average annual pay for the American worker is about $50,000 how many people could have done what Limbaugh did in writing a check for his hospital stay?  Story is here

Apparently Rush forgot a few things about his stay in the hostpial-

Republicans are not pro union so his stay which had him cared for by unionized nurses should have had him say how awful they were.  Story is here

Republicans are not pro women working for equal pay so his complimenting of the women who worked to get him back to health was a little misplaced as well.  Story is here.

Limbaugh contradicts his stance against health care reform in that Hawaiians have lower health care costs and Medicare costs are lower as well for the primary reason that more people are able to see doctors in Hawaii as compared to other states.  Story is here

$33 million per year and the necessity to tell the truth is not tied to his paycheck.  Story is here

It seems he was only afflicted with severe back pain but again he contradicts himself as he praised the health care system in Hawaii.  Story is here

Australian meteorology experts report their temps are headed up.  Story is here

This is not due to a bad economic turndown…this was happening prior to the near falling off of a cliff that the American economy saw.  Corporate productivity rose by about half yet worker’s salaries were stagnant.  This all goes to show that the movement of money up the economic ladder does not make the nation economically stronger at all.  In fact when the money goes to the top the diversification in who may spend the money lessens therefore fewer people are spending money meaning the sales of individual items lessens.  Fewer people can buy a new TV as the money gets moved up the economic ladder to the already rich.  This is nothing new.  This is a complete rebuke to those “Free Marketers” who believe that if you keep giving money to those who already have it that money will trickle down.  The opposite is true as we have seen with the people at the top getting obscenely rich and those below not getting what they deserve at all.

Worker productivity is up and salaries are stagnant. That is the “Trickle Down” economic theory in a nutshell.  Here is a great look at the past decade that the continuation of Reganomics under the control of George W Bush has handed the average American.  This is the Republican policy in action.  You were trickled on for sure!!!  Story is here