The One About My Thoughts On The State Of The Union Address.

The State Of The Union, started out as they all seem to with a bunch of feel good rah rah, rhetorical bullshit. Then the President moved on to the wishful thinking portion of the program.

“To recover the rest, I’ve proposed a fee on the biggest banks.”

This of course is not original to the SOTU, as it's been discussed before. It’s a piss poor idea, because unless a law is passed not allowing the banks to pass the fee on to the consumers, that is exactly what will happen.

Then there's more rhetorical bullshit. And finally then the trickle of ideas begins.

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The One About The Loss Of Howard Zinn A Hero Of Progressivism.

Yesterday the news broke that historian and author Howard Zinn passed away from a heart attack. He is best known for having authored A People's History Of The United States, which covers everything from 1492 up through the Clinton and Bush Presidencies. But instead of detailing the activities of the powerful Zinn instead focused on the actions of every day people. Some of them victims of the powerful, some of them champions of their fellow people. And for this he has been called a hero, a commie dupe, and everything in between. Well to me, he is a true hero, and part of the reason why I am here, doing what I do.

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The One About The Care And Feeding Of The Working Class Progressive Mind.

In the past I've talked about my political journey from questioningly clueless, to my flirtation with Libertarianism, to the views I hold today. But one may wonder, what influences the mind and views of a Working Class Progressive? What does such a creature, watch, and read, and listen to? What shaped such a person yesterday, and what inspires them today. I thought it might be of interest to some of my fellow Progressives to offer some answers, at least in terms of what my influences were and are. Rather than just give a list of influences I shall instead focus on one or sometimes two at a time in an occasional series.

Today I'll be focusing on one of my all time favorite television shows, and one of my biggest influences. Roc.

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The One About Why People Are Reacting The Way They Are To Obama’s Spending "Freeze”.

“Roy boy, sometimes it's not what you say, but the way you say it.” That was my grandmother's observation cum judgment, usually delivered after I had said something in a nasty sarcastic tone. (My grandmother would have hated this sarcasm fest we call teh Internets.) When I was younger, I would get deeply annoyed any time she would say that to me. However as I got older I found that like it or not there is a lot of truth to that little bit of folksy wisdom.

But it's not just tone of voice that means a lot. People also take note of the words you use, and also the timing of what you say.

This brings us to yesterday. It was announced (leaked?) that in his State of the Union speech this Wednesday, President Obama is going to call for a three year freeze on "discretionary" non military spending. And oh did Progressive Nation shat it's collective self, and then did the arm chair quarter backing begin. Now before I go on too much further I am going to summarize the situation as I understand it. But frankly there are plenty of people out there who will do a much better job than I of explaining what this does, does not, might, mean. Rather it is my intention instead to talk about Why the reaction has been so immediate and violent, and why you might just be seeing more of the same even from the folks who don’t follow politics the way a guy wearing body paint in zero degree weather in an open air arena follows sports.

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The One About The Poor’s Burdens Go Beyond The Merely Fiscal.

Lately I've been on Twitter a fair amount. I've found a lot of really great people to follow and I have a lot of really great people following me. Amongst the politically observant, a lot of conversation has been about The Health Care Reform situation. Any time you talk about something like that you inevitably wind up talking about burdens, especially tax burdens. This resulted in the following exchange between myself and fellow Twit @avivao.

@avivao: Government spending doesn’t burden the poor; they don’t make enough to be taxed. Taxes don’t burden the wealthy either.

@toriach: *raises eyebrow*That depends on 1s definition of "burden" Mny wys 2 tax pr bsides directly.Many types of burdens besides monetary.

She then asked for clarification, which I provided in brief. She then asked for more in depth discourse from me, (Frankly I don't think she has any clue what she's let herself in for, but far be it from me to refuse a request.) and so I decided the best way to do so, is to write this article. Which quite frankly I think needed done anyway, in hopes of countering some of the bullshit myths about the poor that seem to float on the ether not unlike the smell of a stinky garlic fart.

Just click to read the full article.

The One About The Lack Of Educational Opportunity For The Middle Class.

I love all my Progressive Brothers And Sisters. Truly I do. However the more I read, the more I come to understand exactly how deeply out of touch many of them are.

An article I found recently on In These Times website is a perfect example.

In it the author is discussing the death of Liberal Arts colleges and programs. When she makes this statement,

“By making a well-rounded education available only to the elite, we move one step closer to a society of two classes: one taught to think and rule and another groomed to follow and obey.”

I honestly don't know whether to laugh in her face, or to pat her well meaning head. At this point taking "one step" is irrelevant. It’s a bit like taking one step closer to the kitchen when I’m already standing in the middle of it. Or to put it another way? Well you've all heard the phrase, “Closing the barn door after the horse has left.”? Well this is like pulling the fire alarm after the barn has burnt to the ground and the horses have all been shot in the head.

Just click here to read the full article.

The One About A Change Of Heart And Mind On Health Care Reform.

Last night, (early this morning really) I was having a conversation via Twitter with an acquaintance (@Karoli). We were talking about Health Care reform.

Her essential contention is that as weak as the legislation is likely to be, it would at least reduce the number of Americans who could be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Also she made the very
excellent point that it really made better sense for Congress to pass the bill with the protections it does have, and then use reconciliation for the public option. All of which makes a good deal of sense.

The problem I think for a lot of Progressives is that we honestly don’t trust any protections in the final bill (assuming there is one) to be honored. Many of us fully expect the Insurance companies to find and create loopholes, so that nothing really changes.

But that's really a surface problem. The really problem is that we look to the past, and we have fantasies of “winning” the way Progressives won when The New Deal was enacted under FDR and The Great Society was enacted under LBJ. So we win, and then we get to take a break right? Get a little rest from pushing this fucking rock up this fucking hill. Right? Right??

Wrong.

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The One About The Four Main Reasons Why Most People Don’t Embrace Progressivism.

One of my strengths, I firmly believe is that unlike a great many Progressives, well meaning though they may be, I am firmly entrenched in the Working Class. I understand the realities that these people deal with because many of them are my realities as well.

As a result I am sometimes able to offer some insight to my middle and upper middle class Progressive Brothers and Sisters. Today I’d like to do that, to help explain why so many people who are working class and poor, not only don’t embrace Progressivism, but actively run from it.

There are four main reasons why this is so.

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The One About Martha Coakley Deserved To Lose And So Do All Democrats!

So, the special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat is over, and to the surprise and great consternation of agreat many people Scott Brown, the Republican candidate won over Martha Coakley.

Now of course will begin the post election analysis. People will be asking,

Why did people vote the way they did?

What did the loser do wrong?

What did the winner do right?

What does this portend for the future of the country?

And of course along with questions will be accusations. Some of them grounded in some kind of fact. Some
of them completely baseless.

The problem is that both sides will largely look at the facts through a very narrow window, and ignore a larger truth.

To read the full article click here!

The One About The Time Has Come For A Bold New Experiment In Democracy!

There are always those who want to cling tightly to something even though it has died. But here at The One About... we believe in embracing change. And an exciting one is clearly on the horizon for American Democracy.

"Even before a landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance law expected within days, a series of other court decisions is reshaping the political battlefield by freeing corporations, unions and other interest groups from many of the restrictions on their advertising about issues and candidates.

Legal experts and political operatives say the cases roll back campaign spending rules to the years before Watergate. The end of decades-old restrictions could unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a pivotal year and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party."

In light of this I say that it's high time we ended this clearly failed experiment in so called Representative Democracy and moved on to something new.

To read the full article just click here. 

The One About The TSA Wants To Use Brain Scanners? It's Like Living In Minority Report.

I am a huge Star Trek geek. Just ask The Love Of My Life. Everything in my life has been influenced by Star Trek. From my ethics and morality, to my love of technology. Every once in a while I will encounter some neat new piece of tech, such as sinks in store bathrooms with infrared sensors that turn on when they sense your hand is near, and I will proclaim with full Geek Joy that, "It's like livin' in Star Trek!"

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The One About Closing Of The Only Grocery Store In McLean Texas Has Potential For Huge Repurcussions For Residents.

The first few days after the holidays are always a challenge. In some ways it often feels like waking back up after a long sleep. But in many ways you are glad to get back to the routine after several weeks of the heightened alternate reality that is part of holiday celebrations. So on the first day of what is supposed to be a return to normalcy, anything out of the ordinary can be very jarring. But some things would be jarring, regardless of when they happened.

The closing of McLean Texas' only grocery store Puckett's, with no warning or announcement of any kind is a perfect example.

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