Category Archives: Politics

March 20, 2012 · 10:24 pm

Victory in the Land of Lincoln?

So, Mitt Romney won the GOP Primary in the great Midwest state of Illinois. He clobbered the prudish religious zealot Rick Santorum and probably assured his nomination as the Republican candidate for the Presidency. But what does Mitt’s victory in the Land of Lincoln really mean?

Not much.

First of all, let’s look at Illinois Republican Primary voter enthusiasm in 2012. Were this year’s GOP voters in Illinois more psyched up to vote than they were when they lost the Presidency to the state’s favorite son Barack Obama in 2008?

Not really.

About 902,214 Republicans cast their votes in this year’s GOP primary. That’s less than a million votes in a state with more than 7 million registered voters: so much for enthusiasm.

A total of 899,422 Illinois Republicans voted in 2008. So, four years after living through President Obama’s first term, less than 3,000 more Republicans statewide went to the polls to help kick Obama out of office. Not exactly a groundswell of opposition.

This year’s Illinois Republican Primary saw an even greater level of indifference than four years ago – when McCain wound up losing Illinois in a landslide.

In 2008, John McCain won 426,777 GOP votes in my wife’s beloved home state. In 2012, Romney won 427,911. So, Mitt won just 1,200 votes more than McCain did – in a year with 80,000 more registered voters in play statewide.  That’s some victory, huh?

So, how do you think President Obama is reacting to Romney’s “victory” in Illinois? Probably something like this…

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March 5, 2012 · 3:37 pm

A Heavenly Two Minute Brain Cleanse

Looking to take a brief break from the GOP war against modern civilization and women’s rights? Do you envision a government that has better things to do than to poke its head into your bedroom to see whether or not you’re using — egad! — contraception? Then, here’s a little more than two minutes of glorious, awe-inspiring brain food, courtesy of your Federal tax dollars, well spent!

Thanks to our good friend and fellow NU alum, Jim McCutchen, for making me aware of this stunning video.

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February 17, 2012 · 1:18 am

Trapped in Their Echo Chamber

Fox News, AM Talk Radio — and the Narrowing of the Conservative Mind.

How living in its own echo chamber could doom the GOP at the ballot box this November – and beyond.

For the past two weeks, social conservatives and the Republican Party they dominate appear convinced that they can score electoral points on President Obama by rallying against birth control.

We’ve all heard the breathless back and forth on Fox News and AM radio over “Obama’s War on Religion” as the GOP joined with Catholic bishops to oppose a Federal policy on insurance payments for contraceptives that 28 states already require.

Why are Republican Party leaders picking a fight with President Obama over birth control — when the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows that 65% of Americans support his position that insurance plans of religiously affiliated employers should cover the cost of birth control – including 64% of independents, 72% of women, and 67% of Catholics?

Why have Republican bigwigs signed on so loudly and stridently to such an unpopular position?

Ironically, the cause of this self-inflicted wound has been the right wing’s greatest success: the institutional and media infrastructure that helped to bring so many conservatives to power since the Reagan era — a vast echo chamber built over the past four decades.

According to Wikipedia, “An echo chamber is a hollow enclosure used to produce echoing sounds, usually for recording purposes.”

But the “echo chamber” I’m talking about is “any situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an ‘enclosed’ space.”

 That “enclosed space” is Fox News, AM talk radio and all those conservative think tanks.

The extreme right wing takeover of the GOP can be traced to the founding of The Heritage Foundation in 1973. Paul Weyrich and Joseph Coors established The Heritage Foundation because they considered President Nixon too liberal. (Imagine that!) The Heritage Foundation was followed in 1977 by The Cato Institute, founded by Edward Crane and Charles Koch, CEO of the second largest private company in America. Together, these two conservative think tanks helped elect Ronald Reagan to the Presidency.

In the 1990’s Fox News Channel became another brick in the conservative echo chamber wall. To run Fox News, Rupert Murdoch hired Roger Ailes, a media consultant for GOP presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Fox News was launched in 1996 – and has become the dominant cable news network in the United States. This year, Fox News Channel is celebrating 10 years as the top cable news channel – its viewership topping that of MSNBC and CNN combined.

And then there’s conservative talk radio, which rules 90 percent of the political airwaves today.

Right wing gasbag Rush Limbaugh signed an 8-year, $400 million contract extension with Clear Channel in 2008. Twenty years earlier, his national radio career began on WABC in New York. Spouting – and often creating – a litany of right wing talking points, Limbaugh’s fame and influence grew throughout the 1990’s.

Today, Republican leaders fear Rush’s wrath – and fashion their policy positions accordingly.

If you listen to Fox News, AM talk radio and the pundits from conservative think tanks that populate the network and cable news shows and newspaper Op Ed pages, you’d have to believe that opposition to higher taxes on the very wealthy, denial of global warming, and opposition to same sex marriage, contraceptives and labor unions are supported by the majority of Americans.

In the huge echo chamber they’ve created, right wing pundits and politicos, armed with talking points supplied by facile propagandists like Frank Luntz (who for too many years managed to pass himself off as an impartial pollster, quizzing post-debate focus groups on CNN) have beaten the drum for extreme conservative positions while the American electorate has wised up, sized up – and moved to the left.

Trapped in their echo chamber, the GOP fights any tax increase on the wealthiest among us — while according to a January 2012 poll, a whopping 76 percent of Americans support “The Buffett Rule” which would require folks who make more than a million dollars a year to pay the same 30% tax rate that most middle class people pay.

Slaves to their echo chamber, GOP Presidential candidates must deny global warming — despite a recent poll that says the percentage of Americans who believe in global warming has risen to 83%.

In fact, a Yale/George Mason survey way back in May of 2011 found that 71% of Americans think global warming should be a priority for the President and Congress.

Of course, if you pay attention to the right wing echo chamber, there’s nothing more reprehensible than same sex marriage. If gay people are allowed to marry, than all heterosexual marriages are threatened – even Newt Gingrich’s three marriages. Yet a Washington Post-ABC News poll released this February 10th showed that 53% of Americans support gay marriage. That’s a clear majority in favor of Jack marrying Jack and Jill wedding Jill. And those numbers are only going to grow more in favor of same sex marriage, as intolerant dinosaurs die off and today’s far more open-minded youth come of age.

Buoyed by the conservative echo chamber, Republican Governors and legislatures in the Midwest have launched an attack on the labor unions that, for the past eight decades, have fought for worker’s rights and built the American middle class. Yet, despite continuous right wing attacks since Reagan busted PATCO (the air traffic controllers union) in 1980, a majority of Americans are still sticking with the unions. Even though public approval of labor unions is near its low, it’s still at 52%. (And that’s the national number. Don’t mess with the unions in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio.)

While the GOP echo chamber savages President Obama every damn day for indulging in “class warfare” – an increasing majority of Americans are waking up to the reality that the average Big Business CEO is raking in 350 times what the average worker in their company earns. In the right wing echo chamber such obscene income disparity makes sense. But according to an increasing majority of Americans, that’s unfair.

Romney. Santorum. Gingrich.

These three fatally flawed candidates are the gifts of the conservative echo chamber. Their flat-footed feet are nailed to a radical right wing floor.

I have a message for the GOP echo chamber.

In 2012…

You lose…

You lose…

You lose.

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February 14, 2012 · 1:41 am

Top Ten Political Bumper Stickers of 2012

I can’t remember who sent them to me*, but not long ago I was sent a link to dozens of new political bumper stickers. These are the ten best.

This first one says it all. “He Won, Get Over It”. Now, I don’t want to say that all the Right Wing resistance to President Obama is based on race – but it’s hard to ignore the virulence that has characterized the GOP response to Obama’s three years of bipartisan outreach. Obama has taken a lot of heat from the left for trying to work with Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell – but it’s hard to escape the notion that the Old Boys simply won’t (or can’t) play ball with the Jackie Robinson of the American Presidency.

George W. Bush took Democratic President Bill Clinton’s big budget surplus and turned it into a multi-trillion dollar deficit. Remember how George W and his evil henchman, Dick Cheney, mislead (lied) us into the war in Iraq? Now you’ll never hear a GOP candidate mention his name. But we must not forget. George W and his GOP Congress dug us into the impossibly deep hole that President Obama has been trying to dig us out of.

The more you know – the more you’re liberal. That’s why conservatives are dead set against public education. Ignorance is a winner for the GOP. Is it any wonder that Republicans are always attacking public schools? Liberals don’t burn books. Liberals don’t home school. Liberals don’t adopt an anti-intellectual, anti-science pose. Progressives believe the vast majority of scientists on the reality of man-made global warming – and the simple minded folly of “Drill baby, drill!”

I was raised Roman Catholic. So were the 90% of Catholic women who use birth control. The Catholic faithful don’t subscribe to everything the Bishops tell us anymore. Those old men in robes lost the moral high ground even before we knew they looked the other way while priests were buggering children. And don’t even get me started on those 6,000 year-old Earth freaks. I love Jesus and I honor his message of compassion for the poor, the sick and the oppressed. But I don’t believe that so-called “conservative Christians” have any clue about what Jesus was trying to tell us. According to the four Gospels, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality – but he had plenty of negative things to say about divorce. Based on the Gospels, Newt Gingrich’s marital history is far more unchristian than the same sex marriages he opposes.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned the American economy around after three Republican Presidents (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover) ran us into a deep, desperate ditch known as The Great Depression. President Bill Clinton built a budget surplus after 12 years of increasing national debt under Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. And now, President Obama is turning George Dubya’s Recession around. Given the evidence of the past century, the GOP has NO credibility on the American economy, public spending, or the national debt.

Again, I was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school from Kindergarten through 12th Grade – and I do not recognize Right Wing Jesus. If the Jesus of the Gospels had been a U.S. Congressman, He would’ve written the legislation that established Social Security and the social safety net. (Sorry, Newt, but He would have also tried to outlaw divorce.)

Both House Speaker John Boehner (R. Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. Kentucky) have stated their primary objective is to make Barak Obama a one-term President. To that end, they’ve done all they can to depress job growth. Unfortunately for Boehner and McConnell, Obama’s Stimulus Package, the Detroit auto bailout, the extension of unemployment benefits, and other economic initiatives against which the GOP fought and lost have led to positive job growth and a slowly but steadily growing economy. Now, the GOP is in the sorry position of having to root against American progress.

Big Blue liberal states like New York and California pay more in Federal taxes than they get back in Federal funds. However, backwater Tea Party states like Alabama and Mississippi pay less in Federal taxes than they receive in Federal funding. So, let’s make a deal, all you Red State conservatives. We in the Blue States will keep 100% of our tax payments – and you good ol’ boys can keep 100% of yours. Good luck building a highway, or a school, or a hospital, you principled Tea Partiers. You’ll be lucky to get your garbage picked up.

‘Nuff said. George W. Bush said he didn’t really pay much attention to Bin Laden. Obama did. Game over.

I hate to say that this virulent Right Wing animus toward President Obama is due to race. (And I’m willing to overlook all the Tea Party rally posters depicting Obama with a bone through his nose, etc.) But the GOP mainstream didn’t accuse President Bill Clinton of being a fascist and a communist and a socialist all at the same time. So, what drives that kind of unreasoning hatred? When Newt Gingrich calls Obama “the food stamp President” – I think his motivation is clear. Am I wrong? Sadly, I doubt it.

Election 2012 is shaping up to be an epochal contest. But don’t assume the good guys will win. Fight. Argue. Vote. We have nothing to fear but our national ignorance.

* Turns out it was our good friend Rob Mendel who forwarded the bumper stickers to me.

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February 2, 2012 · 4:30 pm

The Death of Satire

Satire (500 B.C. – February 2, 2012)

Satire died today at the approximate age of 2,512 years.

Satire had been in ill health for decades since the Vice Presidential term of Dan Quayle in the late 1980’s made the popular form of comedic commentary nearly superfluous.

In recent years, the rise of former beauty queen and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to national prominence and the clown car full of insanity known as the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates have made it even more difficult for Satire and the many writers and comedians who have struggled valiantly to keep it alive.

Today, with Donald’s Trump’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for President of the United States, Satire finally pulled the plug on itself. “There’s just no point in going on,” said Satire moments before passing away, “If a rich politician with an image problem as an out-of-touch, self-promoting multi-millionaire is going to publicly accept the endorsement of the most egregiously shameless huckster mutli-millionaire in the country, I just don’t see the point of existing anymore. What can I possibly add to that?”

Before contemporary political madness rendered it redundant, Satire had enjoyed a long history as a means of pointing out life’s absurdities with an eye toward improving society. Reached for comment upon Satire’s untimely death, Wikipedia noted Satire’s vast contributions to literary tradition and society in general. “Vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings were held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire was usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose was often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon.”

Satire’s longtime friend and neighbor, Fat Dave Silberger added, “Ya just can’t shame guys like Romney and Gingrich into improvement. Not that Satire didn’t try — every night, busting its ass on The Daily Show and Colbert. But when Trump endorsed Romney – ya just can’t hold a thing like that up to ridicule. It’s just ridiculous on its face. Satire knew the time had come to end it all with dignity.”

Satire’s earliest years were spent in Greece, where it was born around 500 B.C., taking the form of bawdy comic plays, often performed by men dressed as Satyrs: mythological creatures that were half-man and half-goat or horse. These were happy years for Satire, helping to expose the foibles of Athenian society in such comedies as Aristophanes’ The Clouds and Lysistrata.

Moving to Rome around 65 B.C., Satire became involved with Quintus Horatius Flaccus (AKA Horace), who came to be considered one of the first great Roman satirists. Horace could not be reached for comment because, of course, he’s been dead for over two millennia.

Satire is survived by thousands of practitioners of the form who have been left to contend with the remainder of the 2012 Presidential race without one of mankind’s most essential literary tools.

There will be no public service. Donations to the Delphic Oracle can be made in lieu of flowers.

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January 31, 2012 · 6:12 pm

Mitt Romney, Florida & The Death of Democracy?

You didn’t have to scale Mount Parnassus and consult the Delphic Oracle to foretell that Mitt Romney was going to clobber Newt Gingrich in the Florida GOP Primary on Tuesday night.

The final tally gave Romney an overwhelming victory with 46.4% of the vote to 31.9% for Newt “46 more states to go” Gingrich.

But if there are Tea Party types, Libertarians, Social Conservatives and Fans of Philandering Politicians who are bummed by Romney’s easy victory over the likes of Gingrich, Santorum and Paul – then perhaps those conservatives may want to reconsider their embrace of Corporate Personhood and the Supreme Court’s democracy-destroying decision in the Citizen’s United case.

Mitt Romey is a wealthy candidate to begun with – but there’s no way for relatively cash poor candidates (no matter how principled and ideologically pure they may be) to compete against the flood of Super Pac money that a Wall Street crony like Romney can attract. Justice Alito may be shaking his head “no” for a very different reason tomorrow morning. If Chief Justice Roberts and Company didn’t see this onslaught coming when they decided that money = speech, then they are even more blind than justice is supposed to be.

So, cry in your beer, you blue collar Social Conservatives. Weep for poor Rick Santorum, your anti-choice, gay-baiting standard bearer, because he can’t compete with the money Mitt’s friends poured into Florida!

Call out in anguish, you Libertarian Ron Paul Revolutionists – because the no-rules, laissez faire, anti-regulatory religion you and you candidate adhere to has no answer for the rampaging anonymous money machine that chased the good doctor out of Florida!

And rend your garments, you Newtonians. Wail and gash your teeth because your brilliant historian’s erudition, high-minded philosophizing and vaunted forensic skill were no match for tens of million of dollars worth of negative campaign ads paid for by…

Oh, that’s right.

We don’t know who paid for them.

Classic Greek democracy developed in Athens around 508 BC, and stumbled along for about 186 years, before the conquering Macedonians suppressed the Athenian Democracy in 322 BC.

American democracy has lasted 50 years longer – but who needs the Macedonian hordes when you’ve got Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia, and Kennedy working against you.

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January 24, 2012 · 10:48 pm

The State of Obama.

Okay, folks. Let’s just level with each other.

I know there are lots of my fellow lefties – whether we call ourselves liberals or progressives — who have been disappointed by President Obama since he took office under the promising banners of “Hope” and “Change”.

He didn’t go far enough on universal health care.

He didn’t prosecute the Bush Administration for its war crimes.

He hasn’t put any of the Wall Street banksters in jail.

And on and on and on…

But can you imagine a Republican President giving a State of the Union Address anything at all like the speech that President Obama just gave?

I’m no Pollyanna. I’m no easy dupe. But I am a clear-eyed political realist.

I am encouraged – even thrilled — that an intelligent, thoughtful and empathetic Democratic President has emerged from a three-year death-grip battle with the dark powers of the anti-intellectual, greedy, pro-feudal GOP with a resilient spirit, imagination and resolve strong enough to fashion the speech that President Obama gave tonight.

Newt Gingrich?

Mitt Romney?

Please.

Bring ‘em on.

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January 18, 2012 · 1:05 pm

Blackout…

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January 9, 2012 · 11:39 pm

Fantasy Politics & The Election of 2012

The Iowa Caucuses are over and the New Hampshire Primary is upon us. The Presidential election of 2012 is already well underway. Given that President Obama is unlikely to encounter any serious primary challenge on his open road to the Democratic Party’s nomination in Charlotte, North Carolina in the first week of September – the media focus has been squarely on the Republican contenders vying for the chance to deny Barak Obama re-election on the first Tuesday in November.

Of course, it’s a long, long time until November 6, 2012. We’ll know the winner of the Super Bowl, the NBA Championship, and the World Series before Election Day. And we’ll know the winner of American Idol, The Biggest Loser, Survivor, and who gets the guy on The Bachelor long before we know if any of the GOP field was able to take down Obama. A lot can happen between now and then. But looking at the Republican contenders arrayed against Obama (and each other) it’s hard not to feel the odds are in favor of the World’s Most Famous Former Community Organizer.

Much has been written (on the Right and Left) about the lackluster GOP hopefuls and the lack of party popularity enjoyed by the “inevitable” frontrunner Mitt Romney. You’d have to be living in a cave (which Osama bin Laden evidently wasn’t) not to have heard about how Mitt’s Mormonism, flip-flopping, and career as a multi-millionaire corporate raider make him a poor fit with this era’s angry, populist, anti Wall Street, Tea Party GOP electorate.

This schism between Main Street Republican voters and Wall Street has rank political opportunists like Newt Gingrich attacking Romney for his role as a profit-worshipping venture capitalist.

Strange days, indeed.

Each month (and sometimes each week) brings a new “anyone but Mitt” candidate surging into contention. As if to prove there’s no limit to the GOP’s anti-Romney anxiety, we’ve been treated to the entertaining rise and unsurprising fall of the scandalous blowhard Herman Cain, cute but crazy Michelle Bachmann, and rejected Republican re-treads like Newt Gingrich and Rick “Please don’t Google me” Santorum.

Trying to temper my disdain for these apparently preposterous Republican Presidential candidates, I remind myself that, back in 1980, we all thought Ronnie “Raygun” Reagan was an unelectable right wing nut job. Progressives cannot afford to gloat or get comfortable. However, if the GOP has any chance of winning the White House, the U.S. economy must go into free fall. But with the Dow Jones Average above 12,000 and unemployment falling steadily, the Republicans are forced into rooting for America to fail in order to win an election. Not a good bet.

So, in order to make the Presidential Election of 2012 interesting, I suggest participating in a game that keeps even lackluster NFL, NBA and MLB seasons interesting: a fantasy league.

Introducing FANTASY POLITICS…

FANTASY POLITICS

In fantasy politics, you are the campaign manager of your own team of two Republican Presidential candidates. You need to know how the daily news cycle, the primaries and caucuses affect the two candidates on your roster and how to minimize their gaffes, maximize their endorsements, and collect delegates through the long primary season on the road to the GOP nomination. Here’s how the candidates on your roster are impacted by the rules of fantasy politics.

FANTASY SCORING

Fantasy points are generated from the action on the campaign trail. When a GOP candidate on your team avoids a dangerously quotable gaffe during a debate, earns a newspaper endorsement, or wins a state primary, your fantasy team earns points for the week. The sum of your two candidates’ points combine to compete against the total for your opponent’s team for the week.

Sample Scoring:

Newspaper Endorsement +1

John McCain Endorsement -1

Debate Victory +1

Debate Gaffe -1

Positive News Story +1

Embarrassing YouTube Moment -1

Primary Delegates (1 point per delegate)

Really Good Concession Speech Upon Withdrawal (10 bonus points)

CANDIDATE ELIGIBILITY

Campaign managers can choose any two GOP candidates in the field as of Tuesday, January 10th, the day of the New Hampshire Primary. I’d say the Virginia Primary – but, of course, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry failed to qualify for the ballot in Virginia – and our fantasy game would simply not be as much fun without them.

Candidates who are still in the race on Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012, earn 100 bonus points, in addition to any delegates they pick up that night in the collection of primaries and caucuses in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. If neither of your candidates made it to Super Tuesday, you’re out of luck. And out of your misery.

DROP AND SWAP

On the day after Super Tuesday, campaign managers will have 24 hours to “drop and swap” candidates. This may not be fair – but it’s politically expedient: a chance for the rats to escape the sinking ships. However, if a candidate you dropped after Super Tuesday manages to make it to the Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida in late August with even a handful of delegates – you will be deducted one point for every delegate who votes in the Convention to nominate the candidate you dropped.

INJURY DESIGNATIONS

Sorry, unlike in the football, basketball, and baseball fantasy leagues, all of your GOP candidates must play hurt. Politics is not a game for sissies. There is no disabled list. If there was, a mentally disabled candidate like Rick “Frothy” Santorum, or an emotionally disabled candidate like Mitt “I like being able to fire people” Romney would not be on the roster. Instead, they’re leading GOP contenders. Suit up, shut up, and get up for the game.

SCORING CORRECTIONS

Occasionally the official elections returns from a particular state may be recounted and changed to accurately reflect what happened at the ballot box. In such circumstances, campaign managers may block a recount by making an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (See “Bush v. Gore”)

THE WINNER

The winning campaign manager is the political genius that managed to back the two GOP candidates who got the furthest down the road on the way to winning their party’s nomination – and earned the right to lose to President Obama by a landslide on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

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November 24, 2011 · 12:43 am

Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving: Context, Conflict and Commemoration.

Abraham Lincoln issued the Presidential proclamation that set the precedent for our national day of Thanksgiving on October 3, 1863.

On that date, America was just past the halfway point in the Civil War. The great Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July of ‘83 had raised hopes in the North that the Southern rebellion was doomed – but two months later, the Confederate victory at Chickamauga proved that the war was far from over.

The Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863, were the two bloodiest days in American history. Chickamauga claimed the lives of 1,657 Federal troops — with 9,756 soldiers wounded and 4,757 missing for a total of 16,170 casualties out of 58,000 troops.

Painting by Keith Rocco

Confederate losses were just as steep: 2,312 dead, 14,674 wounded and 1,468 missing for a total of 18,545 out of 66,000 troops.

It was only the courageous rear-guard stand of Union General George “Pap” Thomas – the legendary “Rock of Chickamauga” – that kept the Federal army from suffering a total rout in northern Georgia — and set the table for a Union victory at the Battle of Missionary Ridge two months later on November 25, 1863.

Drawing by Ron Crawford

Today, though the Occupy Wall Street movement is provoking a healthy dialogue about the plight of the 99% versus the insane, unbalanced power, influence and affluence of the 1% — America is not embroiled in a civil war on the scale of the 19th Century War Between the States.

But, with pepper spray, police “batons”, riot gear, and other forms of authoritarian violence being directed against ordinary Americans seeking freedom and social and economic justice — it’s not entirely beyond the pale to suggest that this year’s Thanksgiving celebration falls on a date fraught with historic significance.

So today, November 24, 2011, let’s remember why Abe Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in a much more desperate and pivotal moment in our national history. And let the Occupy Wall Street movement dine on turkey today — and draw strength for the battles ahead.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.

Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

And god bless the Occupy Wall Street Movement!

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