Iowa's Growing Local Community Radio Movement
by Dave Bradley
The Local Community Radio Act has been winding its way through the obscure black box called the Senate as the the hourglass of time continues to trickle down. In a Senate process called “unanimous consent hotline” the bill has passed the Democratic side and is now being considered on the Republican side.
We are so close, we cannot let up now.
I got this message in my e-mail about three weeks ago. I decided not to get too excited. This version of congress is most noted for stalling in the Senate by the Republican party. Once we get to the August recess, I expect there will be little done in the Senate except for emergency bills until after the election. But I will keep an eye out.
If anyone has any questions concerning LPFM, please e-mail me at radiodavewl@gmail.com. I fully expect that the window for applying for low power FM will be early next year. If we don’t take these slots, the right wing will. We need a presence on the radio dial. And I am sure you creative folk would love a chance to make radio what it should be – timely and intimate.
Two Santa Clauses
On another note, as the time draws nigh for the tax cuts for the rich to expire, one might wonder where the whole concept of tax cuts as stimulus came from. Why are tax cuts the Alpha and the Omega of Republican economic policy? Who better to consult on this than Thom Hartmann? Writing for Common Dreams shortly before Barack Obama’s inauguration last year, he told the story of a virtually unknown political underling who has had quite an effect on our world.
During the Depression, the Republicans had but one mantra and they stuck to it no matter what:
Thus, the Republican mantra was: “Lower taxes, reduce the size of government, and balance the budget.”
The only problem with this ideology from the Hooverite perspective was that the Democrats always seemed like the bestowers of gifts, while the Republicans were seen by the American people as the stingy Scrooges, bent on making the lives of working people harder all the while making richer the very richest. This, Republican strategists since 1930 knew, was no way to win elections.
In 1974 enter one Jules Wanniski. Mr. Wanniski was a supply side enthusiast who came up with the Republican version of Santa Claus”:
There was no way, Wanniski said, that the Democrats could ever win again. They'd have to be anti-Santas by raising taxes, or anti-Santas by cutting spending. Either one would lose them elections.”
Please read the whole article here and consider how much this ridiculous concept has cost us in treasury, jobs and families, among other things.
Understanding this concept is essential to understanding what makes today’s Republican tick. And remember, they still want to put an ice pick in the heart of the “Democratic Santa Clause.”
That is Social Security. Battle to come after the election.
Dave
Bradley
E-mail Dave here
Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.” An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty, Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.“
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