An Interesting Post from Daily Kos - click this title to link to the original

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) recently sobbed that Democrats are:

... snuffing out the America that I grew up in.

And today Greg Sargent at The Plum Line took a closer look at the Golden Age of Boehner's youth:

• The Republican Party platform of 1956 called for "broadened coverage in unemployment insurance" and "better health protection for all our people." It vowed to "continue vigorously to support the United Nations."

  It pledged support for "progressive programs" to expand workers' rights. It vowed an immigration policy that ensured that America would remain a "haven for oppresssed peoples."

• The Republican Party platform of 1960 hailed the GOP's success in extending unemployment insurance. The GOP counted as an achievement its efforts to raise the Federal minimum wage.

  The platform hailed expanded Social Security coverage and pledged an aggressive Federal effort to help those struggling with health care costs (in those pre-Medicare days, the primary focus was on the elderly). It pledged to continue robust Federal intervention to preserve the environment.

To (liberally) paraphrase Ronald Reagan, John Boehner and today's GOP didn't leave the Republican Party, they hijacked it.

Republicans On Defense

From Daily Kos...

David Shuster interviews conservative Amanda Carpenter, who tries to defend conservatives from a new AFSCME/Americans United For Change ad slamming Republicans for embracing Rush Limbaugh’s obstructionist tactics.

Republicans are The New Socialists

It's really kind of funny. The right-wingers within the Republican party often like to portray Democrats (liberals) as socialists - folks who support government ownership and government sharing of public resources. Now, with the Republicans in charge and with government taking over control of banks, mortgage companies and insurance companies, who are the REAL socialists.

Darksyde, over at Daily Kos, makes a few pertinent comments...

Welcome news comrades! We the People are now We the Owners. The People's Insurance Company, formerly known as AIG, was saved for the time being from the forces of capitalism by the new Union of Republican Socialists, formerly known as the GOP. Somewhere in the great beyond, the ghost of Karl Marx is grinning while the spirit of Adam Smith forks over the one dollar bet with an invisible hand:

In a move aimed at averting a new global economic shock, the US Federal Reserve agreed an unprecedented 85-billion-dollar rescue loan for American International Group. The deal, sealed late Tuesday, saved AIG from collapse and gave the US government a 79.9 percent stake in the insurance behemoth.

Now that the People own a major insurance company, it's fair to ask how the People's Insurance Company, along with the People's Mortgage Companies and the People's Investment Banks, will benefit the People who Own them. Can we expect lower premiums, equity sharing, and corporate perks for our hundreds of billions of dollars? Should we start checking our mailbox for dividend checks? Who gets paid first, claimants, bondholders, stockholders, or we the new taxpayer owners? We the Owners, want to know, and the Union of Socialist Republicans better damn well tell us, fast.

The Other Side Of The "Betray-Us" Report

NEWSWEEK has learned that a separate internal report being prepared by a Pentagon working group will “differ substantially” from Petraeus’s recommendations, according to an official who is privy to the ongoing discussions but would speak about them only on condition of anonymity. An early version of the report, which is currently being drafted and is expected to be completed by the beginning of next year, will “recommend a very rapid reduction in American forces: as much as two-thirds of the existing force very quickly, while keeping the remainder there.” The strategy will involve unwinding the still large U.S. presence in big forward operation bases and putting smaller teams in outposts. “There is interest at senior levels [of the Pentagon] in getting alternative views” to Petraeus, the official said. Among others, Centcom commander Admiral William Fallon is known to want to draw down faster than Petraeus.

From Daily Kos