"Buying the War" from Bill Moyers and PBS

Watch this and encourage others to do so as well. The average "journalist" in/on Big Media has much to answer for yet their corporate masters have even more to explain. Peace ... or War!

Richard Clark and Bu$hCo's Puppy Dog Theory

I never did get around to reading Richard Clark's Against All Enemies yet certainly followed the coverage the work and his testimony received. Wednesday's New York Daily News had a nice op-ed from Mr. Clark that I thought I'd share.

Here's what I consider as the best portion:

Of course, nothing about our being "over there" in any way prevents terrorists from coming here. Quite the opposite, the evidence is overwhelming that our presence provides motivation for people throughout the Arab world to become anti-American terrorists.

Some 100,000 Iraqis, probably more, have been killed since our invasion. They have parents, children, cousins and fellow tribal clan members who have pledged revenge no matter how long it takes. For many, that revenge is focused on America.

At the same time, investing time, energy and resources in Iraq takes our eye off two far more urgent tasks at hand: one, guarding the homeland against terrorism much better than the pork-dispensing Department of Homeland Security currently does the job; and two, systematically dismantling Al Qaeda all over the world, from Canada to Asia to Africa. On both these fronts, the Bush administration's focus is sorely lacking.

Richard Clark's book, like that of the CIA's George Tenet which is just around the corner, and plenty of others will be part of the very interesting and yet so sad history of the Bu$hCo years. I truly think in time you'll have people either denying they voted for old Dubyah or making some interesting excuses of why they did so. Certainly our corporate Big Media, Karl Rove's tricks combined with the GOP machine's discipline, dreadfully flawed Democratic campaigns/consultants ... will provide cover for some denying their support. Still, the majority of informed and intelligent Americans I knew in 2004, and 2000 to a lesser extent, did not support Bu$hCo.

Truly Iraq was a disaster. Would that we could salvage something from the many failures. If another administration was handling perhaps we could even yet. John Kerry, and the other grown ups that actually had combat and other experience that he'd have brought into his administration, would have had two years now, but for Ohio and the fear-mongering of 9-11 and gay marriage. I often wonder what our foreign policy, including military force, would look like now. Peace ... or War!

Opelika-Auburn News Urges Health Care Reform

I hardly think of the Opelika-Auburn News as a Progressive paper plus the vague call for "health care reform" (while rightfully lamenting Alabama's Medicaid system) is limiting yet ... Hey, it's a start! I like the John Edwards plan and appreciate the fact he's up front about raising taxes on the more affluent to pay for the coverage. Peace ... or War!

Direction and decision time so light posting

I meant to get this posted yesterday. I'll not be blogging for at least a few days. I'd bet on myself this past year and into the start of 2007 yet so far that wager hasn't paid out. And it is about to be called due. In the next few days I'll be exploring both some "make do" work and some seriously long term opportunities. Peace ... or War!

Toon of Truth ~ Campaign Fundraising Influence

Joe Heller from The Green Bay Press-Gazette provides this image from Daryl Cagle's MSNBC Syndicate. The small dollar donations from average Americans are fine yet it would be so grand to have the candidates not requiring so much money to compete. Public financing plans ought to be part of the solution. Nothing else to add but an "Amen" I suppose. Peace .. or War!

Outlander of the Day ~ Alabama's Charles Bishop

Charles Bishop (R - Jasper) resigned as Alabama's Labor Secretary over Governor Riley's efforts to equalize Alabama's regressive tax system and then helped defeat the proposal. He was for the recent legislative pay raise before he was against it. At a rally pandering to a few pay raise opponents, he veered off topic and asked those attending if they believed "all those Mexicans should go back to Mexico", with the crowd responding enthusiastically. "All" of them? Should I go back to Scotland? And England? And ...?

Today's news that Senator Bishop wants the issue of an official state apology for slavery decided by a vote of the public shouldn't be surprising. Senator Bishop claims he's worried that "lawsuits" will result. While I'm not always happy with Senator Sanders, he's correct in the fact that most reparation claims are time barred. Corporations, rather than individuals, might face some exposure yet even that's a stretch. This MSNBC/AP article from the past summer is decent entry level material on the issue yet is interesting simply for the human angle.

Here's my beef though. Alabama has hardly had a real good record on these votes. Just today MSNBC/AP recalls 40% of Alabama voters voting against the removal of the ban on interracial marriages, which has long been unenforceable, from our antiquated Constitution. This old CNN coverage of the vote hardly comforted me on how our voters might handle this apology issue. We voted down removal of language on segregated schools!

Alabama voters just might serve up some numbers that might not be very pretty if Charles Bishop get his way. Peace ... or War!

UPDATE - July 2, 2008 - Like Dan I could also write many posts on Alabama's CCC. He reveals the following:

Alabama Senator Charles Bishop was the keynote speaker at 2008 Conference of the Council of Conservative Citizens. For those that don’t know, the CCC is an interesting Christian conservative organization. They have 14 principles — some of them are more than okay. I like the Bill of Rights too, even the ones that are out of favor currently. Other principles, however, are a little more than sublimely racist. Some of the highlights:

• They believe the US is a “European” [white] country and should remain that way.
• They oppose any and all Mexican immigration (as well as any other non-European immigrants).
• They oppose interracial marriage.
• There shouldn’t be histories, monuments, and cultural items that show anything but a European perspective of US history and culture.
• They oppose “multicultural” and “Afrocentric” education in schools.

Cornerstone of the Day ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Image credit to Peter Yang and Rolling Stone from Douglas Brinkley's "Vonnegut's Apocalypse" from the not too distant past. I think and hope I clipped the actual article. Here's another of my favorites, and darned if it doesn't apply even more as of late:

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. - Cat's Cradle (1963)

I had a hard time deciding how to label this Cornerstone. I started with "resentment", then went to "ignorance", then to "learning", then to "waste", then to "regret", then to ... Any ideas? I reckon it's so deep that it applies to plenty.

I also suppose the beginning of the Brinkley piece (He survived being captured by the Nazis and the suicide of his mother to write some of the funniest, darkest novels of our time, but it took George W. Bush to break him.) applies to how many from the left might feel. Indeed the Bu$hCo years have been and remain a very dark chapter for our world. I'm not broken but seriously bent. Vonnegut had little faith in humanity before Commander Codpiece and the Mayberry Machiavellis started ruining everything they touched yet Bu$hCo was apparently the last straw. I've read his last work, Man Without a Country, and figure he'd pretty much given up on a nation that would settle for "leadership" by such a disaster of an administration.

Given that I hardly think Dubyah has worked hard at much of anything in his life, and "ignorant" certainly applies, maybe this applies to an extent. Yet, it's broader than simply this current President. From my own struggles of late to find my way in the working world to the Alabama politicians to the local yokels running things near my "home" to the ... I've got a powerful dose of resentment working these days. Hate to be in that place and hope it eases sooner rather than later. Peace .. or War

Outlander of the Day ~ Paul Wolfowitz

Newsweek's Michael Hirsh provides "Why He’s Failing (Again)" which examines not only Wolfowitz' failures related to Iraq but also his ginning up a high paying job at State for his main squeeze Shaha Riza. So much for that focus on ending corruption around The World Bank! Certainly that talk that ending corruption was a prerequisite to ending poverty seems a little hollow. At least Ms. Riza's poverty isn't much of an issue since she makes more that Secretary Rice.

Heck of a job Georgie putting this rascal in at the #2 slot at Defense and then getting him, after the dreadful work he did related to Iraq, in as the top tomato at The World Bank. Peace ... or War!

I'm with Huey Long ... Let's "Soak the Rich!"

Huey Long is truly fascinating. I can't help but think how he and some of the old school Populists like Henry Wallace (or perhaps even Alabama's Lister Hill or John Sparkman or big Jim Folsom or ...) would respond the foolishness of tax/economic policies built on "Supply Side" theories. I expect they'd have a fine time tearing these Republican fantasies to shreds.

A few days ago I ran across Bruce Bartlett's Op-Ed in the Gray Lady titled "How Supply-Side Economics Trickled Down" and started to post off it. Folks may recall that Bartlett worked under both The Gipper and Bu$h the Elder. Today I located another NYT Busines Section piece from Robert H. Frank titled "In the Real World of Work and Wages, Trickle-Down Theories Don’t Hold Up".

Bartlett wrote, in part:

Today, supply-side economics has become associated with an obsession for cutting taxes under any and all circumstances. No longer do its advocates in Congress and elsewhere confine themselves to cutting marginal tax rates — the tax on each additional dollar earned — as the original supply-siders did. Rather, they support even the most gimmicky, economically dubious tax cuts with the same intensity.

I'm hardly a fan yet even this "Supply Side" cheerleader, at least back in the day, knows the doctrine had gone way off the reservation. He suggests a proper burial. Amen!

Mr. Frank begins his effort with:

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” The same logic explains the call by John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate, for higher taxes on top earners to underwrite his proposal for universal health coverage.

Providing universal coverage will be expensive. With the median wage, adjusted for inflation, lower now than in 1980, most middle-class families cannot afford additional taxes. In contrast, the top tenth of 1 percent of earners today make about four times as much as in 1980, while those higher up have enjoyed even larger gains. Chief executives of large American companies, for example, earn more than 10 times what they did in 1980. In short, top earners are where the money is. Universal health coverage cannot happen unless they pay higher taxes.

Trickle-down theorists are quick to object that higher taxes would cause top earners to work less and take fewer risks, thereby stifling economic growth. In their familiar rhetorical flourish, they insist that a more progressive tax system would kill the geese that lay the golden eggs. On close examination, however, this claim is supported neither by economic theory nor by empirical evidence.

He closes with:

In the United States, trickle-down theory’s insistence that a more progressive tax structure would compromise economic growth has long blocked attempts to provide valued public services. Thus, although every other industrial country provides universal health coverage, trickle-down theorists insist that the wealthiest country on earth cannot afford to do so. Elizabeth Edwards faces her battle with cancer with the full support of the world’s most advanced medical system, yet millions of other Americans face similar battles without even minimal access to that system.

Low- and middle-income families are not the only ones who have been harmed by our inability to provide valued public services. For example, rich and poor alike would benefit from an expansion of the Energy Department’s program to secure stockpiles of nuclear materials that remain poorly guarded in the former Soviet Union. Instead, the Bush administration has cut this program, even as terrorists actively seek to acquire nuclear weaponry.

The rich are where the money is. Many top earners would willingly pay higher taxes for public services that promise high value. Yet trickle-down theory, which is supported neither by theory nor evidence, continues to stand in the way. This theory is ripe for abandonment.

Soak the rich! I'm pretty much an Unreconstructed Keynesian so I'm waiting for those ideas to come back into vogue. Seriously, a stronger America requires a progressive tax code. Peace ... or War!

Kurt Vonnegut's Cornerstone of the Day

I'll place aside the Progressive Farmer Cornerstones books for a few days. This image is a nice one in that Mr. Vonnegut is smiling. In The Sirens of Titan (1959) Kurt Vonnegut wrote,

"The big trouble with dumb bastards is that they are too dumb to believe there is such a thing as being smart."

I use that quote as part of my Daily Kos comments plus I also recall relaying a sanitized version to several of my classes. The line can come across as a little arrogant and yet often seems appropriate in these times where so many people with power appear to be lacking in depth. Peace ... or War!

Toon of Truth ~ Ward Sutton's "Where's My Party"

Ward Sutton is back. The 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th lines are what chaps me most often. As a caveat, there are plenty of solid Democratic Party members and even a few leaders that do a fine job representing the party. Less of the regularly booked pundits and maybe even less of the consultant class see to "get it" however. I've seen the GOP's discipline and message machine routinely whipping my team and often I've felt we've allowed them to have their way with us. Why? I recall fussing in the last campaign I worked that we needed more command and less consensus, which I doubt the average Republican effort suffers from. Embracing Progressivism and Populism seems to me to be the way forward. Russ Feingold's "backbone" is a good example of what works. Peace ... or War!

Kurt Vonnegut ~ 1922 to 2007

Up late after a sister called me well into the evening to remind me how dire my circumstances are sans meaningful employment, like I wasn't aware of the same, I'm now thinking of Kurt Vonnegut. I'm not really sad as he'd surely done plenty in his many years and has left a legacy indeed yet I'd grown rather fond of this amazing man these last few years. It's perhaps appropriate to turn to the Indianapolis Star for the report of his death. Think I'll pull down his A Man Without a Country for a touch and then see if I can get some sleep. Peace ... or War!

"The dog at my homework" excuse offered by Bu$hCo on certain RNC e-mails

The WaPo/Reuters has just posted "Some W. House e-mails on fired attorneys may be lost". Tom Hamburger of the LA Times adds further information with "Officials' e-mail may be missing, White House says : Experts will attempt to recover messages on private system sought in probe of U.S. attorneys' firings". Worst administration ever! Peace ... or War!

Cornerstone of the Day ~ Art

I'm seeming to be attracted to French thinkers these days. Paul Valery, a broad intellectual that was perhaps as much poet as anything, said

"An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it."

"Abandonment" might not be much better than "not finishing" yet it sound like it was more of a choice perhaps? I guess the thing is that the art in my mind can at least be portable, although my materials and canvas of late are hardly so. Peace ... or War!

Toon of Truth ~ Ward Sutton's "Spin the Democrat"

I may add a daily "Toon of Truth" to Captain Plaid, assuming I will be able to keep this thing up and running. In many of the classes I've taught, I used cartoons or images or ... as hooks to kick off a lesson. I've seen some of Ward Sutton's work before yet this one is perhaps my brand new favorite. I can imagine in right wing talk radio land they keep something like this around. Peace ... or War!

Senator Kim Benefield rolls up her sleeves!

Penny Pool of the Randolph Leader reports "Not content to wait for others, Sen. Benefield paints her office". Also noted was Kim's frustration with the lack of decorum and all the fussing that has marked the start of the Alabama Senate's "work" this year. Finally, and this is only my thinking, if she inherited Gerald "Dino" Dial's office I'd have advised her to get the space fumigated, steam cleaned, and then try the painting. Then again, after Dino's occupancy, an exorcism or some other type of ceremonial cleansing might have been a proper place to begin. Peace .. or War!

Outlander of the Day ~ Walking Wendell Mitchell

David White of the B'ham News reports "Senate panel rewrites PAC bill" in today's paper. That half-wit "Covenant for the Future" that certain leaders of the Alabama Democratic Party pushed last year was essentially foolishness and pandering yet the PAC to PAC ban was a promise that needed keeping. Of course much of the GOP's efforts on banning, or at least controlling via full disclosures, PAC to PAC transfers has been equally talk not walk. Is it third party time?

Certainly Walking Wendell wasn't the only one up on Goat Hill involved in this travesty yet he chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that voted 10-0 to allow PAC money to still flow into various political party operations. After a 103-0 vote in the House to have you and yours pull this stunt gives you Outlander status that is well earned. Peace ... or War!

So banks & corporations do come first in Alabama?

Some of the Big Mules are seemingly being chafed by the 1901 Constitution. At least those portions that hinder them. The Anniston Star's editorial of today titled "Piecemeal reform not the best way: Redo all of the Constitution" gives us the most recent story of how the concentration of power in Alabama continues. Same old same old it appears up on Goat Hill. Peace ... or War!

Big Media begats Don Imus, Katie Couric ... Iraq

I've kept out of the Imus insults, the most recent ones related to the kids at Rutgers rather than ..., yet I do like the above cartoon of Mike Lane obtained via Daryl Cagle's MSNBC syndicate. I've never cared for Imus so I've mostly ignored him. However, I'm finding myself thinking of how a minor Katie Couric plagiarism scandal relates to this issue. Katie’s Couric's Notebook, generally delivered in first person, was apparently written by somebody else, that somebody being canned for borrowing the substance of writing from Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow. You'd think for their millions CBS would want her writing her own material yet that's not the subject of the post.

It's "Big Media" that's seemingly at issue here. Let's start with "Big Media Interlocks with Corporate America" by Peter Phillips from way back in 2005 on Common Dreams. Here's the money quote:

A research team at Sonoma State University has recently finished conducting a network analysis of the boards of directors of the ten big media organizations in the US. The team determined that only 118 people comprise the membership on the boards of director of the ten big media giants. This is a small enough group to fit in a moderate size university classroom. These 118 individuals in turn sit on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. In fact, eight out of ten big media giants share common memberships on boards of directors with each other.

My take on Imus, Katie Couric ... Iraq is that the leadership making the decisions of Viacom, GE, Westwood One, MSNBC, CBS, Time, News Corp, etc. is following the profits. Capitalism requires this perhaps yet I'm increasingly nervous about the consequences. Additionally, my experience is that many people living the high life often lose touch with the world outside their elite surroundings. Truly if a person is living the American dream in the corporate world would they really upset the boat? Folks on down the food chain want to please those up at the top. That's reality in nearly every organization. The consequences for this occuring in mass media however go well beyond a grumpy big mouth like Don Imus saying outrageous things on our public airwaves or a cute and clever personality like Katie Couric getting a little sloppy with the script.

The Imus back-scratching seems certain. I found an old piece from 2002 titled "US Media Interests: Champions of Profit, Propaganda and Puffery" by John Stanton and Wayne Madsen that reads a little bumpy (pot calling the kettle black?) yet seems correct in many ways. Some quotes are:

A crisis without precedent is underway in the United States. And its consequences will be far graver than those wrought by the U.S. presidential election of 2000 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The collapse of the Jeffersonian "free and uncensored press" in America endangers the liberties of all Americans and, arguably, citizens from all walks of life around the globe. As the U.S. prepares to invade Iraq and preemptively strike anywhere in the world it feels threatened, the only remaining barrier to monstrous U.S. totalitarianism is a sickly and crippled U.S. media, an aggressive foreign media, and the hope that the heretofore somnambulant American public will awaken from its stupor. ...

They editorialize on issues that please advertisers and the profit margin. ...

... U.S. print and broadcast organs from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, from NBC to Fox, and from AM radio bands to FM bands, spew out a vile and banal concoction of information that numbs the mind and homogenizes the thought processes of a U.S. citizenry scurrying about to support the "war effort." So-called "news programs" seek to pacify and assure during the commute, the thunderstorm, the shopping spree, the murder. Weather, roads, guns, cars, food are all endowed by newsreaders with character as if those "things" are conscious entities. As Herbert Marcuse so adroitly pointed out, in this environment people don't "see" themselves, they project themselves into "things". Viewers are commodities to the U.S. media interests. "Thought" need not apply here. ...

So it's no surprise that U.S. media interests enthusiastically embrace all the activities that move money from one hand to another, but none that move a contrary, novel or critical idea from one mind to another. ...

... the stupefying advertisements and "news" inserts that come with viewing or listening to any broadcast programming from U.S. media interests leaves the viewer punch-drunk. The nauseating blend of politics, sound-bites, comedy, murder, "reality", "Hollywood", "news", "graphic footage" ---- intermixed with the viscous commercialism that plays on procreation, death, and productivity---put forth by owners and news readers of infotainment interests stands as one of the most mercenary acts in capitalist history. ...

Here's one portion relevant to the Iraq fiasco, and once again I'll claim opposition to this War of Choice, that seems very solid:

As U.S. military planners, politicians and corporations continue their global pacification campaign against a now trumped up Al Qeida, they have already planned for the invasion of Iraq and, perhaps, other members of the Axis of Evil. To garner public support for boundless U.S. military operations--from which new exploitable markets magically appear--the war machine has received the enthusiastic support of U.S. media interests whose task, it seems, is to keep the public busy and acquiescent. In reality, most American's are extraordinarily adverse to war, yet the U.S. media interests upon which they rely for "thought" are the integral operatives for U.S. war propaganda and concomitant public indoctrination.

I'll close with a portion of Jeff Cohen's "Cable News Confidential" provided by Greg Palast. Jeff, who will be in Huntsville, Alabama this Friday evening, wrote:

It’s says a lot about TV news that people like Phil Donahue, who correctly questioned the Iraq war, have been banished from the system. Yet I’m unaware of a single TV executive, anchor, pundit or “expert” who lost their job for getting such a huge story so totally wrong. I do know of a hawkish host on MSNBC who was taken off the air—he became the general manager of the channel.

Thank goodness for alternatives. I 'll remain a news junkie yet I surely get frustrated with what I hear and see. No coverage of the 2008 Presidential candidates issue positions but they'll cover the horse race for sure. At least we now know who the father is of Anna Nicole's daughter. What's the alternative to the dominance of "Big Media"? Studying, alternative sources, calling the media conglomerates on their BS, funding public highspeed, public media, checking foreign sources, regulations, exposure, less consumption, education, supporting public service journalism, fair elections, leadership, sharing of ideas, discourse ... Any othe solutions or at least ways to cope? Is there any hope? Peace ... or War!

NYC's Rudy Giuliani uses GOP script in Bama

Actually Rudy left out family values, culture of life, etc. Reckon why? However, per Bob Lowry of the Huntsville Times, he got the lines in that he could. Here's what he said:

Giuliani said the chief lesson he learned from Sept. 11 was that “Never will America be on defense against terrorists who are planning to come here and kill us.”

As president, Giuliani said he would also cut taxes and develop an energy policy less dependent on foreign oil.

As for the "less dependent on foreign oil", I guess that just means drill in ANWAR and pretty much anywhere a shaft can be sunk. Raising CAFE standards, tax incentives, investment in research, building out European/Japanese style public transportation ... be damned! We know Big Oil will be taken care of, unfortunately so, perhaps to a lesser extend should the Democratic Party keep or actually gain control, by whichever party is in power.

Rudy serves up the standard GOP response to "terrorism". Flawed as those positions are, that's what the true believers expect to hear. Once again guys, the 9-11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Those nations are hardly democracies or part of modernity but at least on paper they our allies. We invaded Afghanistan, for the most part a decision that nearly every American could accept, to go after the Taliban and al Qaeda yet Dubyah's boy, that enabling Tommy Franks, let Osama bin Laden escape at Tora Bora. He's likely in Pakistan. Many in Pakistan loathe our nation. They have nuclear capabilities. Heck of a job Georgie!

Of course we left Afghanistan, well before our work was done there. Truly that nation rebuilt properly could have been a model in a region that truly matters. Since some innocents were killed that would have been perhaps part of the balancing out. However, Bu$hCo and his handlers elected to go on a certain fool's errand in Iraq. Plenty of wise Americans knew this was coming, most mass media excepted of course, and I'll include myself in that mix. Bu$hCo and the neo-cons lied (or at least royally screwed up) the run up to the invasion and then the occupation has been an even larger disaster. Very few if any terrorists, certainly none affiliated with al Qaeda, were in Iraq before we invaded. Some are there now of course and Bu$hCo's occupation (plus torture policy!) is guaranteeing more and more extremists. The Brits, the Germans, the ... Hell, everybody does terrorism maintenance, and that's the best anyone will ever do you goobers, better than we do. Seriously, Osama and other enemies of our country couldn't have designed a more perfect disaster that that created by old Dubyah and his neo-cons.

This idea of never being on the defense against those planning is loony tunes material. What other choice do we have? Surely going after a known threat is a given but that's more likely if we have allies to help us identify and access threats. Bu$hCo has burned up so much good will that I'm figuring allies are in short supply. HUMINT Dubyah! Buying their favor is about all that is left and that's imperfect. Securing ports and borders seems wise yet that's still pretty much lacking under Bu$hCo. Militarism is seldom going to work in the long approach to fighting terrorism and this cowboy style of using our military is not only going to destroy our warriors and their families but it is creating more extremists.

That sort of brings me to the last of Rudy's script. When all else is lost there's always "tax cuts". Never before has a war been fought with the President telling everyone else to go shop and spend those tax cuts. What tax cuts? Some average American might have gotten a little less than a couple of hundred that has long been absorbed by local and state costs and fees and some even backed up. Tuition for instance really floored me. Everybody that is willing to look sees the so called tax cuts pretty much only favored the fat cats. And don't go into the Laffer Curve, supply side, voodoo economics as that dog doesn't hunt. It never did but to explain gets complicated. Trust me and if you doubt my position I'll get a post up upon your request. The taxes on work and wages, old fashioned sweat of the brow stuff, remain the same. Dividends and capital gains got their breaks. Hardly fair it would seem to this country boy. Under Bu$hCo's GOP approach those top few in the society have surely cashed in. Think, study, question ... and Rudy and the GOP's reliance on "tax cuts" is revealed as simply more garbage they are shoveling.

Finally, the above image is from Americans for Shared Sacrifice. Amen! Peace ... or War!