Maybe people … who have no risk of losing their cushy tenured job(s) shouldn’t prescribe medicine that they have no risk of ever taking.

- Me

Really, it’s like successful motivational speakers who give “Get Rich” seminars that use themselves for examples. [...]]]> Regarding those against extended job loss benefits or with a Melon-esque attitude about the Great Recession:

Maybe people … who have no risk of losing their cushy tenured job(s) shouldn’t prescribe medicine that they have no risk of ever taking.

- Me

Really, it’s like successful motivational speakers who give “Get Rich” seminars that use themselves for examples. They don’t get the reason that reality doesn’t apply to them is because they already live in a different world. It’s also the reason that a government run by people who are generally far better off than average can’t possible represent the average.

But happily approve $33 billion in addition war spending without such concerns.

To quote:

Republicans in Congress still were strongly behind the boost in war spending [emphasis added], but there was unusually strong opposition from members of Obama’s own Democratic Party. All but 12 of the “no” votes in [...]]]> Republicans can’t extend unemployment because it costs $33 billion.

But happily approve $33 billion in addition war spending without such concerns.

To quote:

Republicans in Congress still were strongly behind the boost in war spending [emphasis added], but there was unusually strong opposition from members of Obama’s own Democratic Party. All but 12 of the “no” votes in the House came from Democrats.

Pretty clear what their priorities are.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/barackbirthday

to “let him know you’re ready to take on the year ahead alongside him”.

Honestly I would be happy to “take on the year ahead alongside him” if he lived up to his campaign promises. Thus I put a little something “extra” in the card:

Happy Birthday [...]]]> Michelle Obama wants you to sign Barack’s birthday card:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/barackbirthday

to “let him know you’re ready to take on the year ahead alongside him”.

Honestly I would be happy to “take on the year ahead alongside him” if he lived up to his campaign promises. Thus I put a little something “extra” in the card:

Happy Birthday Obama. I’ll happily “take on the year ahead alongside” you if you:

• End indefinite detention
• Reintroduce the use of Habeas Corpus
• End the use of military tribunals (aka kangaroo courts)
• Stop extraordinary renditions
• Close the Bagram detention center
• Repudiate the extra-judicial assassination orders against Americans
• Give the transparency you promised
• Stop going after whistle blowers who were reporting legitimate claims

Seriously, I happily would. Sure I still think the whole bit about Summers and Geithner sucks, but at least the largest reason why I desperately wanted the Republicans out would be taken care of.

How `bout giving your base a little “birthday gift” Obama?

My luck it’ll land me on the “no fly” list instead.

“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down… enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.”

- Andrew Mellon, rich bastard who knew no one he cared [...]]]> Mostly so I don’t forget this vile screed:

“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down… enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.”

- Andrew Mellon, rich bastard who knew no one he cared about would be “liquidated”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39851.html

Yet another piece of evidence to explain why the Village (aka D.C.) doesn’t get what the rest of the country gets.

or in English:

Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.

- Voltaire

Sad but true…

Here’s my responses for this wistful desire:

“There is no intrinsic contradiction between providing additional fiscal stimulus today, while the unemployment rate is high and many factories and offices are underused, and imposing fiscal restraint several years from now, when output and employment will probably be close to their potential”

- CBO Director Doug Elmendorf (original source here).

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

- Upton Sinclair

“The rabid right has useful idiots that call Obama a socialist and a fascist in the same sentence, obviously not realizing that the two are diametrically opposing!”

Forgetting the grammatical errors, I wish I could agree with that statement. In fact I used to believe it was [...]]]> Here’s a quote from a comment in a liberal blog:

“The rabid right has useful idiots that call Obama a socialist and a fascist in the same sentence, obviously not realizing that the two are diametrically opposing!”

Forgetting the grammatical errors, I wish I could agree with that statement. In fact I used to believe it was true myself, however unfortunately I did some research on “National Socialists” (aka Nazis) and found there was in fact a curious mix of what we might call socialism and fascism – the “Socialist” moniker was not completely a misnomer.

To see this, you have to read the “25 point Program” (also known as the “National Socialist Program“). For instance among such clearly “fascist” gems as:

• We demand land and territory (colonies) for the maintenance of our people and the settlement of our surplus population.
• Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen Hence no Jew can be a countryman.
• Any further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately.

we also have remarkably “socialist” sounding:

• We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.
• We demand the nationalization of all trusts.
• We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.

There are even one or two others that are sensible until they go spirally off into hateful racism:

• We demand that the State shall above all undertake to ensure that every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood. If it should not be possible to feed the whole population, then aliens (non-citizens) must be expelled from the Reich.
• We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race.

So, does this mean:

socialism = fascism

or, as implied lately by a number on the right:

liberals = fascism

No, not at all. First of all National Socialists are just a single fascist group – Pinochet for instance was an entirely different animal. Second, it means humans and the movements they sponsor are more complicated than the little boxes we like to put them in. That when we say X or Y is “fascist” we better be careful that we see the whole.

It also stands to help see that the Nazis were more human than we thought they were and thus we need to be vigilant in realizing that all humans are capable of great evil, even ones we might believe are “good”. Or to quote Simon Wiesenthal:

“because only the person who has grasped it knows that evil lies dormant in most people and can break out at almost any time. Let no man say that such a ghastly dictatorship is no longer possible today. That is the true lesson from the horror of National Socialism: we must fight against it constantly, against evil, so that it does not emerge again.”

I have no illusion that this might not include me or you, nor should anyone else.