Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Monday, January 30, 2012
Why we love Lawrence O'Donnell! Because he is not afraid to tell it like it is!
Amen to that. I agree wholeheartedly with Lawrence O'Donnell. While some Republicans at the time supported a few of these initiatives, they have basically been written out of the Republican version of history. In addition, we tend to forget that there would be no middle class at all in this country had there been no union and no GI Bill of Rights after WWII.
I've got a liberal coffee mug. A liberal t-shirt. Live in a liberal enclave and have always had a liberal heart and head and have never been ashamed of it. It used to piss me off when some seemed ashamed to be called liberal--I never understood that.
Lawrence O'Donnell is one of the most intelligent and least reactionary people on television.
I love this and I completely agree. I can already hear the conservatives I know whining that these things that liberals have done are exactly what is destroying America. They don't see any of them as positive, and some of them even denounce the vote for women.
I'm leaving next week for an area of southern California that is very right-wing. I would love to plaster this on my car, but afraid the car (and I) would be keyed.
Down there, bumper stickers say: "Don't blame ME: I didn't vote for him."
But, even so, my sister and I (carefully) try to inject some facts into the epistemic closure bubble that our neighbors proudly live in -- and we even may be doing some good.
Just because it seems impossible is no excuse not to keep trying.
Occupy Irvine (a well run and determined group) was one of the last camps to still be allowed -- and this week confidently negotiated to move to another park in the area.
Every day (for four months) cars would drive past and honk/wave in sympathy, hand food (trays of fancy croissant sandwiches) out their car windows to help.
The outpouring of money, food, clothes, vitamins (!), pro-bono lawyers, a businessman who asked "what do you need?" and next day provided it (a generator) was unexpected & touching.
One of the very richest areas in California had lots and lots of closet liberals. Who knew?
It was there that we chanted to passersby & on marches this -- the man next to me coming up with it on the spot --
WHO are the 99?
WE are the 99.
WHO are the 99?
YOU are the 99.
99 is a state of mind, not a state of wealth.
And even when there are no more Occupies left on the ground, we still occupy an idea! The movement did its job.
I've often wondered just what it is that Conservatives "conserve." It certainly isn't the environment - that was put here by god for them to do rape and pillage for fun and profit. Seems the only thing they want to conserve is the status quo that benefits them at the expense of others.
I love Lawrence too. And I think we need some of those badges: Proud Liberal. Conservatives rant about God and some lost America, when they are the ones who shun God and are trying to make this country into an unliveable swamp.
One time I was talking to my dad who was a lifelong Republican about Social Security. He actually tried to give Eisenhower credit for it's success and not Roosevelt. I laughed my ass off.
My dad is gone now and no way he would have voted for Obama, but he would have been appalled at the current GOP candidates.
That's absolutely perfect! LOD hit a home run with that!!
You know what "conservatives" conserve? Power for the elite. Everything in that list empowered and empowers, for the most part, the "99," giving them more of a voice and protecting or expanding their rights.
True "conservatism" has been dead for a long time. What used to pass for conservatism is now more like centrism. Modern conservatives are more correctly described as REGRESSIVES.
Those of you who have hurled ad hominems at myself and other liberals for not offering up sufficiently full throated support for President Obama, O'Donnell's list is why I am a liberal and why I would prod the president.
Fighting for social justice is never expedient and it is never popular. However, sustaining injustice, appeasing oppressors, trying to negotiate or compromise on the rights of the oppressed is always expedient and popular.
Every single issue listed by O'Donnell came about because of liberal prodding and agitation. And in every instance there were those in the middle of the road - in both parties - who said that those ideas were too liberal, that this wasn't the time, that we should compromise, that a tenth of a loaf - or less - was better than none at all.
In EVERY major issue that has confronted our nation that ultimately resulted in an expansion of liberty, it was the liberal solution - the solution that was initially deemed too liberal - that eventually brought about that expansion of liberty.
If you cherish the liberties that Americans have today, then hug a liberal. As for those lining up to give me a hug, the line forms - where else - on the LEFT.
What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
Loves me some LOD. He really does tell it like it is. The county I live in is staunch republican and my home state just got the right to work for less legislation passed. Thanks Mitch. The local rep lives in a 1.5 million dollar home and tells union officials that they are overpaid. These idiots piss and moan about it but, yet they continue to ooh and ahh over every ounce of bullshit spewed out by fox news. When it's time to go to the polls, they will vote republican again. Then whine some more. They get what they deserve. There is hope. Obama did win Indiana in '08.
OK, let's recap. According to recent studies, conservatives have lower IQs. They also think corporations are people (Thanks, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts & Mitt Romney). Corporations are taking over the world, and are ruining the globe in the process. You BET I'm glad to be a liberal. Go, LOD.
It was a coming of age - the first family political argument I ever started. I was eighteen, and voiced the observation, "It seems the best evidence you can give a conservative we need more of any conservative policy is to point out to him what a miserable failure it's been." I was liberal then, I'm liberal now, and I stand by my observation. ---------------- McCain now says Republicans should stop the debates b/c they're driving up the candidates' negatives. John, the debates aren't killing your candidates, they're dying of conservative causes.
Miss Piggy Blasts Fox News At London Press Conference
At a press conference to promote the film’s London premiere, a reporter asked Kermit to comment on the criticism. Frog denied the accusation that their film was anti-oil, asking why, then, would they “spend the entire film driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?”
“It’s almost as laughable as, ahhh…accusing Fox News as…you know, being news!” Miss Piggy added, to laughter from the assembled press.
“That’s going to be all over the internet!” Frog chided.
Uh oh, former Palin Panty sniffer SUPREME is not happy with Sarah getting away with stuff...he calls her out, and with glee:
Palin's latest Facebook salvo is targeting the Republican "establishment cannibals" for using "Alinsky" tactics against Newt Gingrich in the run up to the Florida primary. Her main objection appears to be that those who have questioned Gingrich's ties to Ronald Reagan have done so inappropriately and are effectively doing the work of the left.
The layers of silliness here are at least at multiple as those of snow in the frozen Alaskan icecap this time of year.
As Brewer now faces the fact that another one of her stories is coming under question, this one involving an encounter she had with President Obama, a pattern appears to emerging in her career: The popular conservative bomb thrower often has trouble with the truth.
@anon 6:01 said I've often wondered just what it is that Conservatives "conserve." It certainly isn't the environment - that was put here by god for them to do rape and pillage for fun and profit. Seems the only thing they want to conserve is the status quo that benefits them at the expense of others.
I LOVE Lawremce O'Donnell - more of our nations's Democratic/Progressive leaders. from all walks of life, need to step forward and speak louder. It is WE who need to Take Back America from the RWNJ's!
One other liberal idea that O'Donnell failed to mention was the secular separation of church and state that allows religious liberty to all that was written into our Constitution by the Enlightenment era men who wrote it.
For the record, Lawrence O'Donnell did not speak these words himself, nor is this a recent quote. It's taken from a script of the TV show The West Wing, spoken by Jimmy Smits' character Matt Santos. O'Donnell did write it, however, he was a writer and producer on that show.
Okay I've concluded that Stupid Sarah is a real life troll. Her only purpose in life is trying to "annoy a liberal" and "get them wee-wee'd up". Too bad she fails at even that. How pathetic she is. No wonder her entire family hates her guts and talks shit behind her back. Here's a free clue Sarah (I know you read here): Liberals are voting for NEWT in the primary! So why would more people voting for him annoy us? We WANT Newt to win the primary you freaking idiot. Typical rookie mistake.
Sign me up for that organization: the Anti-Republican Crusaders.
If there were really GOP moderates left, I would not be so eager to join, thinking that we could all discuss and work things out. However, as it is, I am truly anti-Republicans because they are anti-every thing I value: all the social programs that have given people life with dignity, education, health care, people over corporations, and civil rights for everyone.
Liberals also worked to establish the 40-hour work week, minimum and living wage concepts, worker's comp, paid vacations and sick days, safe working conditions in the workplace.
They pushed for the right to arbitration, nurses in schools, public health care workers, most of the governmental agencies that ensure we have safe food, medicines, cars, planes, trains, stoplights, street lights, sewers - you name it.
Regulations instituted by liberals ensure that slipshod manufacturers cutting corners to raise profits cannot kill, maim, or sicken our people. Our children can play with toys that are safer than ever because of progressive policies.
Lawrence O'Donnell, a tip of the hat to you for starting us thinking about all the issues that impact our quality of life and even life itself and how liberals have been at the forefront in advocating for solutions that lift us all up and give hope and promise to our children and grandchildren.
"It seems the best evidence you can give a conservative we need more of any conservative policy is to point out to him what a miserable failure it's been."
Well said, and if you grew up in a conservative home I would have liked to have heard the discussion.
It seems to me that conservatives long for a past that never truly was, over any possible future.
...These debates are making the Obama staffers in Chicago so giddy that after each one they are tearing off their clothes, running through Millennium Park and howling at the moon.
And why shouldn’t they? The American people, after being treated to hour upon hour of Republican candidates being allowed to say pretty much whatever they want, are slowly discovering something: Barack Obama doesn’t look that bad any more.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll released Wednesday said that “for the first time in six months, more people approve of the job the president is doing than disapprove.”
Sure, the president’s approval/disapproval figure is only 48/46, but he has achieved that after six months of solid Republican debating. After six months of attack. After six months of being told that the American economy is doomed without a steady Republican hand on the tiller of state.
So what else does the poll show? “More people said they believe the economy will get better (37 percent) in the next year rather than worse (17 percent). That’s the highest level in more than a year and a seven-point jump over last month.”
Oh, my. This is not what the Republicans had in mind.
Larry is spot on with this statement. His show is always insightful and the man has a good heart as well. I recieved a gift of one of his desks for kids who didn't have them, one I'll always treasure.
Short. Succinct. Perfect.
ReplyDeletePerfect!
ReplyDeleteI love LOD.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. I agree wholeheartedly with Lawrence O'Donnell. While some Republicans at the time supported a few of these initiatives, they have basically been written out of the Republican version of history. In addition, we tend to forget that there would be no middle class at all in this country had there been no union and no GI Bill of Rights after WWII.
ReplyDeleteImpressive list.
ReplyDeleteI've got a liberal coffee mug. A liberal t-shirt. Live in a liberal enclave and have always had a liberal heart and head and have never been ashamed of it. It used to piss me off when some seemed ashamed to be called liberal--I never understood that.
ReplyDeleteLawrence O'Donnell is one of the most intelligent and least reactionary people on television.
I love this and I completely agree. I can already hear the conservatives I know whining that these things that liberals have done are exactly what is destroying America. They don't see any of them as positive, and some of them even denounce the vote for women.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!
ReplyDeleteI'm leaving next week for an area of southern California that is very right-wing. I would love to plaster this on my car, but afraid the car (and I) would be keyed.
ReplyDeleteDown there, bumper stickers say: "Don't blame ME: I didn't vote for him."
But, even so, my sister and I (carefully) try to inject some facts into the epistemic closure bubble that our neighbors proudly live in -- and we even may be doing some good.
Just because it seems impossible is no excuse not to keep trying.
Occupy Irvine (a well run and determined group) was one of the last camps to still be allowed -- and this week confidently negotiated to move to another park in the area.
Every day (for four months) cars would drive past and honk/wave in sympathy, hand food (trays of fancy croissant sandwiches) out their car windows to help.
The outpouring of money, food, clothes, vitamins (!), pro-bono lawyers, a businessman who asked "what do you need?" and next day provided it (a generator) was unexpected & touching.
One of the very richest areas in California had lots and lots of closet liberals. Who knew?
It was there that we chanted to passersby & on marches this -- the man next to me coming up with it on the spot --
WHO are the 99?
WE are the 99.
WHO are the 99?
YOU are the 99.
99 is a state of mind, not a state of wealth.
And even when there are no more Occupies left on the ground, we still occupy an idea! The movement did its job.
This is why I am a lifelong, diehard, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.
ReplyDeleteThat poster should be plastered all over the country, and on YouTube.
I've often wondered just what it is that Conservatives "conserve." It certainly isn't the environment - that was put here by god for them to do rape and pillage for fun and profit. Seems the only thing they want to conserve is the status quo that benefits them at the expense of others.
ReplyDeleteI love Lawrence too. And I think we need some of those badges: Proud Liberal. Conservatives rant about God and some lost America, when they are the ones who shun God and are trying to make this country into an unliveable swamp.
ReplyDeleteLawrence O'Donnell expresses himself very well.
ReplyDeleteOne time I was talking to my dad who was a lifelong Republican about Social Security. He actually tried to give Eisenhower credit for it's success and not Roosevelt. I laughed my ass off.
ReplyDeleteMy dad is gone now and no way he would have voted for Obama, but he would have been appalled at the current GOP candidates.
S-P-H-A-S-H 6:16 AM
ReplyDeleteCorrect people when they try to give the Repubs credit for SS, or any of the social/safety net programs.
Especially good to read this on the 130th anniversary of the birth of Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the bravest and best Presidents we've ever had.
ReplyDeleteOT. Does Sarah Palin Want Obama to be Re-Elected?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ziegler/sarah-palin-barack-obama_b_1241296.html
we should have a twitter blitz to Allen West:
ReplyDelete"The 15th Amendment. Brought to you by Liberals. You're welcome."
That's absolutely perfect! LOD hit a home run with that!!
ReplyDeleteYou know what "conservatives" conserve? Power for the elite. Everything in that list empowered and empowers, for the most part, the "99," giving them more of a voice and protecting or expanding their rights.
True "conservatism" has been dead for a long time. What used to pass for conservatism is now more like centrism. Modern conservatives are more correctly described as REGRESSIVES.
Those of you who have hurled ad hominems at myself and other liberals for not offering up sufficiently full throated support for President Obama, O'Donnell's list is why I am a liberal and why I would prod the president.
ReplyDeleteFighting for social justice is never expedient and it is never popular. However, sustaining injustice, appeasing oppressors, trying to negotiate or compromise on the rights of the oppressed is always expedient and popular.
Every single issue listed by O'Donnell came about because of liberal prodding and agitation. And in every instance there were those in the middle of the road - in both parties - who said that those ideas were too liberal, that this wasn't the time, that we should compromise, that a tenth of a loaf - or less - was better than none at all.
In EVERY major issue that has confronted our nation that ultimately resulted in an expansion of liberty, it was the liberal solution - the solution that was initially deemed too liberal - that eventually brought about that expansion of liberty.
If you cherish the liberties that Americans have today, then hug a liberal. As for those lining up to give me a hug, the line forms - where else - on the LEFT.
JFK said it best -
ReplyDeleteWhat do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Loves me some LOD. He really does tell it like it is. The county I live in is staunch republican and my home state just got the right to work for less legislation passed. Thanks Mitch. The local rep lives in a 1.5 million dollar home and tells union officials that they are overpaid. These idiots piss and moan about it but, yet they continue to ooh and ahh over every ounce of bullshit spewed out by fox news. When it's time to go to the polls, they will vote republican again. Then whine some more. They get what they deserve.
ReplyDeleteThere is hope. Obama did win Indiana in '08.
Works for me, ROCK ON Lawrence.
ReplyDeleteOK, let's recap. According to recent studies, conservatives have lower IQs. They also think corporations are people (Thanks, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts & Mitt Romney). Corporations are taking over the world, and are ruining the globe in the process. You BET I'm glad to be a liberal. Go, LOD.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lawrence O'Donnell for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteIt was a coming of age - the first family political argument I ever started. I was eighteen, and voiced the observation, "It seems the best evidence you can give a conservative we need more of any conservative policy is to point out to him what a miserable failure it's been." I was liberal then, I'm liberal now, and I stand by my observation.
ReplyDelete----------------
McCain now says Republicans should stop the debates b/c they're driving up the candidates' negatives. John, the debates aren't killing your candidates, they're dying of conservative causes.
LOD isn't the author of this, I read these almost exact same words years ago.
ReplyDeleteStill a good and true statement.
Miss Piggy Blasts Fox News At London Press Conference
ReplyDeleteAt a press conference to promote the film’s London premiere, a reporter asked Kermit to comment on the criticism. Frog denied the accusation that their film was anti-oil, asking why, then, would they “spend the entire film driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?”
“It’s almost as laughable as, ahhh…accusing Fox News as…you know, being news!” Miss Piggy added, to laughter from the assembled press.
“That’s going to be all over the internet!” Frog chided.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/hi-ya-miss-piggy-blasts-fox-news-at-london-press-conference/
Uh oh, former Palin Panty sniffer SUPREME is not happy with Sarah getting away with stuff...he calls her out, and with glee:
ReplyDeletePalin's latest Facebook salvo is targeting the Republican "establishment cannibals" for using "Alinsky" tactics against Newt Gingrich in the run up to the Florida primary. Her main objection appears to be that those who have questioned Gingrich's ties to Ronald Reagan have done so inappropriately and are effectively doing the work of the left.
The layers of silliness here are at least at multiple as those of snow in the frozen Alaskan icecap this time of year.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ziegler/sarah-palin-barack-obama_b_1241296.html
Yes, she IS a lying skank:
ReplyDeleteBrewer Has History Of Getting Facts Wrong
As Brewer now faces the fact that another one of her stories is coming under question, this one involving an encounter she had with President Obama, a pattern appears to emerging in her career: The popular conservative bomb thrower often has trouble with the truth.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/brewer_has_history
_of_getting_facts_wrong.php?ref=fpa
@anon 6:01 said
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered just what it is that Conservatives "conserve." It certainly isn't the environment - that was put here by god for them to do rape and pillage for fun and profit. Seems the only thing they want to conserve is the status quo that benefits them at the expense of others.
Excellent point!
@Gasman 6:45
ReplyDeleteYES! You got my hug. :)
I LOVE Lawremce O'Donnell - more of our nations's Democratic/Progressive
ReplyDeleteleaders. from all walks of life, need to step forward and speak louder. It is WE who need to Take Back America from the RWNJ's!
One other liberal idea that O'Donnell failed to mention was the secular separation of church and state that allows religious liberty to all that was written into our Constitution by the Enlightenment era men who wrote it.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Lawrence O'Donnell did not speak these words himself, nor is this a recent quote. It's taken from a script of the TV show The West Wing, spoken by Jimmy Smits' character Matt Santos. O'Donnell did write it, however, he was a writer and producer on that show.
ReplyDeleteOkay I've concluded that Stupid Sarah is a real life troll. Her only purpose in life is trying to "annoy a liberal" and "get them wee-wee'd up". Too bad she fails at even that. How pathetic she is. No wonder her entire family hates her guts and talks shit behind her back. Here's a free clue Sarah (I know you read here): Liberals are voting for NEWT in the primary! So why would more people voting for him annoy us? We WANT Newt to win the primary you freaking idiot. Typical rookie mistake.
ReplyDeleteYes, that just about sums it up.
ReplyDeleteAnother, telling it like is, with real insight into Sarah Palin's injection of herself into the news:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/01/29/palin-stalin-alinsky-gingrich-romney/
Sign me up for that organization: the Anti-Republican Crusaders.
ReplyDeleteIf there were really GOP moderates left, I would not be so eager to join, thinking that we could all discuss and work things out. However, as it is, I am truly anti-Republicans because they are anti-every thing I value: all the social programs that have given people life with dignity, education, health care, people over corporations, and civil rights for everyone.
Hurray for Lawrence!
Liberals also worked to establish the 40-hour work week, minimum and living wage concepts, worker's comp, paid vacations and sick days, safe working conditions in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteThey pushed for the right to arbitration, nurses in schools, public health care workers, most of the governmental agencies that ensure we have safe food, medicines, cars, planes, trains, stoplights, street lights, sewers - you name it.
Regulations instituted by liberals ensure that slipshod manufacturers cutting corners to raise profits cannot kill, maim, or sicken our people. Our children can play with toys that are safer than ever because of progressive policies.
Lawrence O'Donnell, a tip of the hat to you for starting us thinking about all the issues that impact our quality of life and even life itself and how liberals have been at the forefront in advocating for solutions that lift us all up and give hope and promise to our children and grandchildren.
fromthediagonal
ReplyDeleteShort. Succint. Perfect.
Well said, you have a wonderful way with words.
re Palin he once said: everything she does is for one reason only-MONEY-
Gasman,
ReplyDeleteDitto.
Hoken said:
ReplyDelete"It seems the best evidence you can give a conservative we need more of any conservative policy is to point out to him what a miserable failure it's been."
Well said, and if you grew up in a conservative home I would have liked to have heard the discussion.
It seems to me that conservatives long for a past that never truly was, over any possible future.
Anon 6:48 AM
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Go Miss Piggy and Kermit!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y8YhED4IgQA
GOP makes Obama look good
ReplyDelete...These debates are making the Obama staffers in Chicago so giddy that after each one they are tearing off their clothes, running through Millennium Park and howling at the moon.
And why shouldn’t they? The American people, after being treated to hour upon hour of Republican candidates being allowed to say pretty much whatever they want, are slowly discovering something: Barack Obama doesn’t look that bad any more.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll released Wednesday said that “for the first time in six months, more people approve of the job the president is doing than disapprove.”
Sure, the president’s approval/disapproval figure is only 48/46, but he has achieved that after six months of solid Republican debating. After six months of attack. After six months of being told that the American economy is doomed without a steady Republican hand on the tiller of state.
So what else does the poll show? “More people said they believe the economy will get better (37 percent) in the next year rather than worse (17 percent). That’s the highest level in more than a year and a seven-point jump over last month.”
Oh, my. This is not what the Republicans had in mind.
http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=2&threadid=6371994
I will put this on my Facebook wall hope you do too.
ReplyDeleteBravo for saying it like it is LOD!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxox
Laurence didn't say this - it's a quote from West Wing season 7 - the Matt Santos debate:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVdz985HTJk
Fascinating 8:18 thank you!!
ReplyDeleteAMEN to that!
ReplyDeletePERFECT!
Larry is spot on with this statement. His show is always insightful and the man has a good heart as well. I recieved a gift of one of his desks for kids who didn't have them, one I'll always treasure.
ReplyDeletewow! LOD's son was the west wing writer who wrote that! what a remarkable family!
ReplyDelete