Comments on: FDL Book Salon Welcomes George Soros, The Crash of 2008 and What It Means

By: sunshine

sunshine — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:01:16 +0000

GS,
Is it possible that the GOP planned this recession? If the dems got health care I assume their party would grow in huge numbers. It does seem to be hurting the union workers and Dem states quite badly.

I think the republicans were working towards that “permanent republican majority” they wanted and it is easier to do with a bankrupt country. Did GW appoint incompentents to reach this goal? He did say being pres would be easier if it was a dictatorship, he gave an award to a man at the WH and the guy said he wished GW could run for a 3rd term and (GW had a big smile on his face) and GW said that he was being forced into retirement. GW said it should be easier for minorities and the poor to get mortgages then we get a mortgage crisis. GOP’s constant mantra on no taxes/lower taxes and now many states are deep in the red. For instance, in CA Gray Davis wanted to have a higher tax and was thrown out of office. Now look how broke CA (and many other states) is after lowering taxes for so many years. It would seem that this could have been planned. I think gov and political parties look out and plan for 5, 10, 20 yrs out.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:26:47 +0000

The gov’t is limited by Constitutional Law and in terms of the specific agencies and kinds of things it can do.

What new things would you suggest?

By: spocko

spocko — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:23:09 +0000

They sure don’t talk much about the Atwater death bed mea culpas for his dastardly deeds

So true. I think the lesson that Rove learned from that was, “Don’t get cancer.” (Kind of like the lesson Cheney learned from Nixon was “Don’t tape anything and don’t get caught.”)

By: spocko

spocko — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:16:07 +0000

Thank you. I figured out that the person I was appealing to (the VP of marketing, VP of HR and VP of Communications) would be as disgusted by their violent rhetoric as I was. And I pointed out that it was tainting their brand.

Economically talk radio is very vulnerable right now. The stations are overwhelmed by debt and it might not take much for advertisers to go to other venues. Citadel Broadcasting lost millions on KSFO (not KGO) after the campaign and that was what drove Melanie Morgan off the air, she wasn’t able to be a martyr for her violent ”free speech” just a money losing host with a potential for future losses.

The key to having an impact on right wing talk radio is showing the advertisers the hosts are LIABILITIES not assets. Do YOU want to be the advertiser the next time Savage attacks autistic kids?

The beauty of alerting advertisers is that it doesn’t become a free speech issue. It takes it into the ”free market” world instead. They can’t be whining ”You are trying to censure us!” Instead they have to convince the advertisers that they won’t be racists, sexist, violent again–which few can manage.

If I could get Mr. Soros to fund me I could coordinate more of this kind of action. I’ve already done it by helping Hatehurtsamerica.org and their campaign against Savage’s vicious anti-Muslim comments. The right wing has a 24/7 platform for propaganda. The platform is paid for by sponsors. If they didn’t have it they would have to actually buy their own ads occasionally, instead of getting all the editorial for free.

Defunding talk radio via advertisers is something that corporations worry about more than some mythical return to the fairness doctrine.

By: Watt4Bob

Watt4Bob — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:14:20 +0000

Wow !!!!

Thanks George, and Daniel, it’s hard to think of a Book Salon I’ve enjoyed as much as this one.

You could have charged admission.

By: perris

perris — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:05:04 +0000

THANX for remembering that hackworth, ya, I’ve been “me to me”, then “perris, formerly me to me” and then perris

tee hee

By: emerson

emerson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:05:02 +0000

You’re right. The “dirty tricks” of the Nixon (/Cheney/Rumsfeld) era have now graduated to thug death knells for anyone that dares oppose.

They sure don’t talk much about the Atwater death bed mea culpas for his dastardly deeds, which could be read as either seeing the ultimate light or cowering in the face of eternal damnation.

By: letsgetitdone

letsgetitdone — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:51:49 +0000

Of course, Deming’s work in Japan is the basis of the quality movement. Deming developed his ideas, in part, through serious study of the philosophy of pragmatism and serious work in the Roosevelt Administration in developing new manufacturing methods in the Training Within Industries (TWI)Service. After the New Deal was gone, MacArthur brought him over to Japan to help in kick starting the post-war Japanese economy. It’s a historical irony that the basis for Kaizen techniques was, in many ways, American Pragmatism. The story is told in abbreviated form in Matthew May’s The Elegant Solution.

By: spocko

spocko — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:51:14 +0000

I actually wish that Mr. Soros had sued them. It pisses me off that the right wing noise machine on talk radio is protected from any defamation as if they were legit journalists.

I remember a time when being called a Communist was something that would cost you your career. The right counts on us on the left to defend them saying the most horrible things possible about people. They use laws created for journalists to defame. They are NOT journalists, yet they get all the protections without the responsibilities.

When Carol Burnett sued the tabloids and won that put them on notice that there are consequences for defamation. I know the legit press worry that laws that favor the person being defamed will tie them up in court for eons, but right-wing radio is not even trying to avoid slander and libel because they know nobody will sue, and if they do, people on the left will mock them or support the right-wing radio people saying, “I don’t like that they called him a Nazi sympathizer, but he has his right to free speech.”

I don’t like Sarah Palin and saying that Hillary got it worse is not really a good response. The world of Lee Attwater and Karl Rove that makes smearing people acceptable is a crummy world. Could their at least be some consequences or recourse for the people being attacked when the accusations are so blatantly wrong and offensive? I am especially concerned about calls to violently kill people. I believe even the staunches free speech supporters see that falls into the “falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater” category.

By: Blub

Blub — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:45:16 +0000

Thanks for your response, which I think is a very informed and wise one. I don’t think that there is another potential replacement reference currency out there, but I take note of the rumblings in support of a supranational instrument, perhaps based on a re-weighted IMF drawing right. I guess my question is do we need a hegemon, especially in a world where the benefits of economic growth seem to be moving increasingly in a multipolar direction? Removing the US from that role might potentially free us to pursue a better and more sustainable balance between our capital and current accounts, although both the math and structure of such a replacement supranational regime eludes me. Of course the dollar would continue to be very heavily weighted in whatever supranational instrument emerges from any process of negotiation, but with the potential for re-weighting, perhaps we can gain more flexibility to deal with our own structural problems without so unequivocally putting at risk the rest of the planet in the process.