"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do."
- Jesus Christ, as related in Luke 23:34 -
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What you see below was inspired by Burr Deming, in his superb October 15, 2010 post "Abolishing the Minimum Wage" found over at Fair and Unbalanced (http://fairandunbalanced.com)
We are constantly being assaulted by the far-right crazies of the cultra-onservative Republican Party and reactionary Tea Party with exaggerations, distortions, and outright lies in their public pronouncements and political TV and radio ads. Now that midterm elections are near, these extremists (and that is exactly what they are) are smelling victory, and are growing ever more bold and ever more crazy in what they are proposing to do once they think they will take office. These fanatics all favor more tax cuts for the rich and want all government regulation of business severely curtailed. They are now even calling for outright privatization of Social Security and an end to the minimum wage. Whenever those in lower income brackets or those on the political left talk about stronger labor unions or more fairly and more heavily taxing the very rich, they are immediately attacked by these extremists as engaging in unfair "class warfare." This, like nearly all the other claims made by these extremists, is out and out nonsense. Let's take a look at some of these crazies and examine their statements to see WHY THEY MUST NOT BE ELECTED TO POLITICAL OFFICE:
JOE MILLER,Republican/Tea Party candidate for Senator in Alaska, is a well-to-do attorney who asserts that both unemployment compensation and the federal minimum wage are unconstitutional, and, by inference, should be abolished. He is DEAD WRONG, as Supreme Court decisions in the late 1930s and early 1940s abundantly prove. (The school which gave him his law degree should lose its certification)...
MiICHELE BaACHMANN, Republican Minnesota 6th District congresswoman, has long advocated abolishing the minimum wage, saying she believes getting rid of it would end unemployment altogether. (But I don't see HER applying for any of the $3 per hour jobs that would result if her insane idea was adopted). She has also decried President Obama's plan to raise taxes of those making more than $250,000 per year by a stinking measley 4.6% as an attempt to get rid of rich people. Married to a millionaire as she is, one can certainly empathize with her fear. This foolishly deluded woman must also believe in the tooth fairy and that dragons far out at sea will get you if you venture too far from shore...
Billionaire Republican West Virginia senatorial candidate JOHN RAESE wants to repeal the recently passed health care bill and eliminate the minimum wage. He says it is "an archaic system which has never worked." Tell that to those on minimum wage who like to eat once in a while, have clothes to wear, or enjoy a roof over their head,, Mr. Raese...
SHARRON ANGLE, Republican/Tea Party Senate candidate in Nevada, believes we are coddling those on unemployment and are preventing them from looking for work. She says they make more on unemployment than they would working a real job. It's clear from that insane statement that Ms. Angle has never been on unemployment herself and has never experienced the loss of benefits and halving of pay. She, an advocate of cutting way back on federal government spending, size, and activity, has not yet had her husband refuse any of his government pension checks (for may years, he was a manager in the federal Bureau of Land Management). Obviously, she believes that cutbacks should only apply to those who are down-and-out...
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, Republican/Tea PartySenate hopeful in Delaware, at age 41 has yet to ever hold a steady full-time job. Yet she, too, believes the federal government should "get off the backs of business" and is a proponent of "free market" economics, a system she obviously knows so well and has done so magnificently under...
Republican/Tea Party Kentucky Senate candidate RAND PAUL has intimated that setting the minum wage too high may cause unemployment (a slinky way of saying he opposes it). This very well paid Opthalmologist has also advised the long term unemployed to just suck it up, take any job at lesser pay than before, and stop expecting government handouts. One question though, Mr. Paul: where the hell are these jobs that you think are so plentiful? I don't see YOU applying for the job of greeter at your local Wal-Mart...
LINDA McMAHON, the billionaire Republican/Tea Party Senate candidate in Connecticut, was recently asked in a public forum what rate the minimum wage is currently at. She couldn't answer that question. But that didn't stop her from later stating that it should be reviewed and even reduced if necessary. Let's see if I've got this right: "I don't know what the minum wage is, but it's too high and we've got to cut it." Now THAT sounds like a Senate candidate on top of her game, doesn't it? Ms. McMahon also wants to cut taxes on income the wealthy get from capital gains and dividends (currently at 15% and far below the rate of 31% most non-wealthy Americans pay on tHEIR income)...
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These candidates are very representative of the other conservative Republicans and far-right Tea Party candidates hoping to win election and take control of Congress on November 2. THEY MUST NOT BE ELECTED! All favor more or extended tax cuts for the rich which will increase our deficit. All oppose government attempts to create jobs. All propose NOTHING to benefit the poor or middle class. Nearly all are wealthy and have not experienced a hungry night, foreclosure, or catastrophic medical expense, and they just don't understand OR CARE ABOUT the struggles facing most Americans today! All want government regulation scaled way back, and all loudly proclaim allegiance to the mythical "free market/free enterprise/supply and demand" economic system which is used and abused by big business and Wall Street every single day. I say "mythical" because this system is free only for the wealthy and big business owners, who set prices in collusion (as the oil and pharmaceutical industries have proven) and fix wages (as all have done). There is no real freedom for the consumer to directly influence price or quality of products and services. Likewise, there is no longer any real freedom for the worker to negotiate or leverage his or her own wages and benefits. Workers cannot even prevent their jobs from being shipped out of the country! So to maintain that our economic system is truly free or even remotely fair is an outright lie. Nonetheless, it is a lie being repeated and supported nonstop by the Republicans and the Tea Party. To add insult to injury, when workers and the poor propose any measure to increase their own income or economic security, they are immediately accused by these people on the far-right of engaging in "class warfare" against the upper class. But the truth of the matter is this: in what these wealthy far-right types are proposing, they aren't merely firing economic artillery shells at those beneath them. They are ATTACKING and attempting to wage ATOMIC CLASS WARFARE against the poor, working and middle classes who are overwhelmingly the majority of the country!
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13 comments:
Oh, get over yourselves with the reinstatement of the tax cuts already - it's 4%; I think the millionaires and billionaires won't even notice. Every one of this assholes is a complete and total hypocrite. Not knowing what the federal minimum wage is: here's a clue, it's $7.25/hr. Below the federal poverty guidelines. Try feeding and housing yourself on that. Dumasses all.
It's all the lying that I can't stand; they wouldn't know the truth if it smacked them upside the head. And the hypocrisy. As an auditor, I've always hated liars them and can spot them a mile away. Don't be lowing smoke up my ass!
You're preaching to the choir, Lisa G---I couldn't possibly agree more. The lying, hypocrisy, and IGNORANCE on the far right is thoroughly disgusting!
The rich republicans want everyone to "share the burden" but themselves. Cut minimum wage and eliminate health insurance for millions they say. But God forbid the richest 2% of us sacrifice.
These scumbags are loathesome Jack.
Jack! I just got home from a week in Republicanland and I'm 'greeted' by the photos of these dolts in your post!
Spare me, please. I need therapy badly! Perhaps a lobotomy.
Ayatollah Truthmeini 101,
Their hypocrisy and piggish self-centeredness is definitely loathsome. That is why they must NOT take control of Congress or the White House ever again!
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mud_rake,
Sorry you had to endure what you did, my friend, but we're all delighted to have you back with us in the real world! Now what kind of daddy would allow his kid to grow up to be a Republican living in Republicanland? :-) Just kidding---welcome back!
Michelle Bachermann: those eyes are a dead give-away!!
Doorman-Priest,
Thanks for stopping by, and you're right: behind that fanatical expression and beneath that skull lies miles and miles and miles of empty space!
It amazes me that millionaires can get the middle class to do their dirty work for them. I have no explanation for this other than ignorance.
Max's Dad,
I know what you mean. Part of the way they achieve that is by making everybody think that a tax increase on THEM will cost jobs (it doesn't) and will mean an increase on everyone's taxes (that, too, is a nyth). And I think some naive fools believe that they, too, will one day be rich and won't want to pay high taxes once they get there. So along with ignorance, we could also say naivete or stupidity...
Hello Jack,
I can see and remember well, what the Tea Party is promoting or better stated, regressing back to. I just did a piece on the Tea Party wanting to return back to “Jim Crow Laws” like Paul is publicly running on. It contains facts and photos supporting this statement.
With the legislation aspect of nothing more than “Obstruction,” should the Republicans take over and push through laws that just favor CEO’s of Corporations, at least there is a man in the White House that can VETO these bastardization laws. Maybe by 2012 the populace citizens of this country can be educated within this next two years.
Just to play devil's advocate here for a moment: sometimes I think that it'd be a good idea to abolish the minimum wage.
The minimum wage is a great idea. But let's face it, at the current level it is set at, it's a sick joke.
It's impossible for anyone to earn even a basic living on the minimum wage. You can't pay rent, buy food, and pay for the basics on the minimum wage at the level it's set at.
In fact, the current minimum wage isn't even close to being at the level where someone can earn a basic living.
So frankly, it kind of annoys me that we as a nation even have something we call a "minimum wage," when we set it at such an obscenely low level.
It's almost like we're patting ourselves on back and smugly claiming that we're a "civilized" nation----not like those "backward" Third World nations that have no minimum wage at all.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, unless we set minimum wage at a sane level, there's no point in even having one.
If we were honest with ourselves as a nation, we'd just abolish this sick joke of a "minimum wage" that we have now (and admit that we are in fact are a Third World nation in many ways these days).
If we could set minimum wage at a reasonable level, then I'd be all for it. But with GOP obstructionism, there's no way that will ever happen.
Marc,
I hear where you're coming from. The minimum wage being at $7.3=25 per hour IS a joke, and it SHOULD be reset much higher, at, say, $10.50 per hourOur low minimum wage, and the fact that much of the middle class's wages will soon be heading in that direction if we don't stop this unionbusting and outsourcing, is something everyone in the US should be ashamed and angry about. All the more reason NOBODY except millionaires have any reason to vote Republican this year!
Hey Jack,
Great talking to you on Sunday. I still need your address, so that I can send you a copy of the movie. You can send me a note on facebook, or just email me at michael_hew@Yahoo.com.
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