— Dwight D. Eisenhower

~~ Garrison Keiler

O’Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush’s economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from “the corporate crowd,” a key constituency.

O’Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: “We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due.” A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

The vice president’s office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O’Neill, insisted that deficits “do matter” to the administration.

Source: [X-ref O'Neill] Adam Entous, Reuters, on AOL News Jan 11, 2004

Full Story: Dick Cheney on Budget & Economy.

THERE WAS A LOT OF TALK LAST YEAR ABOUT HOW BARACK OBAMA WOULD BE A “TRANSFORMATIONAL” PRESIDENT – BUT TRUE TRANSFORMATION, IT TURNS OUT, REQUIRES A LOT MORE THAN ELECTING ONE TELEGENIC LEADER. ACTUALLY TURNING THIS COUNTRY AROUND IS GOING TO TAKE YEARS OF SIEGE WARFARE AGAINST DEEPLY ENTRENCHED INTERESTS, DEFENDING A DEEPLY DYSFUNCTIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEM.

PAUL KRUGMAN, “MISSING RICHARD NIXON,” THE NEW YORK TIMES, AUGUST 30, 2009

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life…. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

–Dwight Eisenhower, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German philosopher

Evo Morales, President of Bolivia (July 13, 2009)

Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), French economist

-Edward Bernays-

For more on Edward Bernays watch this BBC documentary:

The Century of the Self

- Sarah Palin

John Kenneth Galbraith

Harry S Truman

- Bill Maher 7.24.09

–Paul Krugman, New York Times, June 22, 2009
Winner of Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2008

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Josiah Stamp, Governor of the Bank of England 1920

A banker speaks – Josiah Stamp on the evils of banking

Ronald Reagan

Money is power.

Why should power be able to be inherited?
And how could anyone say that inheriting power is part of the American Dream?

Don’t let our politicians repeal the Estate Tax.

post on DU by: ck4829

Mae West

William Faulkner

- Jessie Ventura

I did not say I am a loyal Democrat.
Sen. Arlen Specter to David Gegory
Sunday May 3, 2009

OPS: Another Faustian deal?

- Johnathon Turley

PS: Turley is the one who should replace Souter

-H. L. Mencken

Democrats never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Democrats.
If they agreed with each other, they would be Republicans.
Will Rogers

~~~~~~~~~

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along,
because once I have persuaded him he will stick.
If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared,
and then he is gone.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

-  Edmund Burke

- Dan Dimicco,
CEO Of Charlotte-based steelmaker Nucor

- Gen. George S. Patton

-  Rainer Maria Rilke

- Chief Seattle, 1855

– Judge Richard A. Posner
federal appeals court judge who has been called the most cited legal scholar of all time

- Sen. Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings

- Henry Ford*

* He was correct about banking, but let’s not forget that Ford was an anti-semitic Nazi supporter

- Edward Bernays Sigmund Freud’s nephew

…one of the fathers of the field of public relations. Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious. He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous

.

Special Comment:

U.S. future depends on torture accountability

Olbermann: We cannot let mistakes of the past haunt our future

By Keith Olbermann

As promised, a Special Comment now on the president’s revelation of the remainder of this nightmare of Bush Administration torture memos. This President has gone where few before him, dared. The dirty laundry — illegal, un-American, self-defeating, self-destroying — is out for all to see.

Mr. Obama deserves our praise and our thanks for that. And yet he has gone but half-way. And, in this case, in far too many respects, half the distance is worse than standing still. Today, Mr. President, in acknowledging these science-fiction-like documents, you said that:

“This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke.”

“We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history.

“But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.

Mr. President, you are wrong. What you describe would be not “spent energy” but catharsis.

Not “blame laid,” but responsibility ascribed. You continued:

Video & Full transcript  at link

via Future of U.S. depends on torture accountability – Countdown with Keith Olbermann- msnbc.com.

–Carl G. Jung

When they locked up the social democrats
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

– Albert Einstein

Sen. Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings,

SAN FRANCISCO – The fast-moving Conficker computer worm, a scourge of the Internet that has infected at least 3 million PCs, is set to spring to life in a new way on Wednesday — April Fools’ Day.

That’s when many of the poisoned machines will get more aggressive about “phoning home” to the worm’s creators over the Internet. When that happens, the bad guys behind the worm will be able to trigger the program to send spam, spread more infections, clog networks with traffic, or try and bring down Web sites.

Technically, this could cause havoc, from massive network outages to the creation of a cyberweapon of mass destruction that attacks government computers. But researchers who have been tracking Conficker say the date will probably come and go quietly.

More likely, these researchers say, the programming change that goes into effect April 1 is partly symbolic — an April Fools’ Day tweaking of Conficker’s pursuers, who for now have been able to prevent the worm from doing significant damage.

“I don’t think there will be a cataclysmic network event,” said Richard Wang, manager of the U.S. research division of security firm Sophos PLC. “It doesn’t make sense for the guys behind Conficker to cause a major network problem, because if they’re breaking parts of the Internet they can’t make any money.”

via Yahoo! News – Giant Internet worm set to change tactics April 1 by AP: Yahoo! Tech.

– Live Video Stream at link

Working with Democratic and Republican Governors across the country, the White House has put together six White House Regional Forums on Health Reform. The forums bring together everyday Americans, key health care stakeholders, and elected officials from both sides of the aisle to discuss what must be done to change our health care system. The first two forums were held in Michigan and Vermont.

* Des Moines, Iowa   March 23rd  1o AM CST  – Live Video Stream

About a dozen leaders from The University of Iowa will be among 500 people participating in the third Regional White House Forum on Health Reform from 10 a.m. to noon today at the Polk County Convention Center in Des Moines. The forum will be moderated by Iowa Governor Chet Culver and South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office on Health Reform, will represent the Obama administration. Discussion will focus on the need to provide high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans and to curb skyrocketing health care costs.

via Health Reform.