Charlie Rose

NeilMacCallister  05/29/2012 06:40 PM Report

** Update ** Update ** Update**

See: "Wall Street Titans Outearned by Media Czars" (bloomberg.com 5/27/12 William D. Cohan)

It should be noted that Eisenhower's fear that the use of "unwarranted influence" upon our national elections by a "Military-Industrial Complex" was the observation of a man who had observed the American political scene of the 1950's, and who had expressed regret as he had just watched the Democrat John F. Kennedy get elected President.

The 'Television/Media Age' was then just beginning -- but powerful it would become: "Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least-informed people in the Western world." (Neil Postman, 1985)

The 'Military-Industrial Complex' has fallen. Wall Street too has crashed. The big-money pockets who are now holding the "unwarranted influence" over our national elections are our media CEOs.

It was John F. Kennedy's brother Ted who walked our debt-spending record-breaker Barack Obama out upon the Democrat's 2008 Presidential Convention stage. A stage which was produced by television expert Ricky Kirshner (Superbowls, Tony Awards, Rose Parades) and attended by Steven Spielberg.

In 2012, our economy is collapsing from these Democrats piling debts upon our children.

So today, we need to beware the "Media-Government Complex".

SharkswithfrikingLazers  05/29/2012 03:07 AM Report

Charlie,

It sounds like Eisenhower used religion even more than other Presidents do.

"Ike was the first and only sitting president to be baptized while in office."

National Presbyterian Church offered the perfect dignified stage for a President's attendance.

And of course, the communists thought religion was the opium of the people and in the 50's we could NOT have a President without a religion.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  05/29/2012 02:43 AM Report

Interesting story about Eisenhower's religious background especially adding the "Under God" to our pledge.

The Lord's Prayer like our Pledge of Allegiance has several versions.

The Socialist who wrote the Pledge wanted it recited in 15 seconds:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

CHANGED TO:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

We haven't changed it in almost 60 years after four changes to get where it is today.

So perhaps:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the PLUTOCRACY for which it stands, one nation NO MATTER THE RELIGION, indivisible, with LOVE, liberty and REAL justice for all."

NeilMacCallister  05/24/2012 04:25 AM Report

tabs! ..I see you are moving even more left from "proud Obama Democrat", to "screaming revolutionary Occupying Marxist!!"

Okay, ..so you now hate "survival of the best adapted individuals", ..as you have before hated 'defending American ships against marauding pirates'.

But, do you also hate that American flag we have "Blowing in the Wind" above our Capital Building? ..as much as do the Obamas???

What else but that flag and the Constitution is there to defend???

finalfantasytown  05/23/2012 11:11 PM Report

Meaning that human being is still permitted to live on earth. Why did Cronus take the risk to leap into human being? Up-walking intelligent being have been living on the Earth since last generation. They have kept evolving by genetic engineering, which is clearly understood when comparing the chest and shoulder between animal and human being. The major evolution is always one direction because no matter how advanced a system is, there has to be one demanding on the top of hierarchy. When Cronus knew this fatal flaw, he has tried swallow Poseidon, Hera, and Hades, one by one, successfully. But his youngest child was made to overcome his fatal flaw on Gaia, the Earth. Finally, Cronus and other Gods of last generation have taken the leap. The top layer of hierarchy they built collapsed. Then Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia(It is fantastic that Hades is not in 12 Olympia Gods, and Hestia is replaced later by Dionysus in Greek mythology) began designing human being society aiming at being compatible to Gaia, connecting and controlling the layers left in the world. The major work has been done before, I believe. That is highly advanced civilization. But currently, some human races with irreversible failure stand in this way. We have no other choice.

tabs  05/23/2012 05:13 PM Report

Point Of Clarification: By "National Guilt" one means the mindset of we can afford it all with out consequence and as such "How can such a rich nation like America have 30 million people without Health Care insurance." In other words we can not allow this to happen in America because we have the money to share with the poor and disenfranchised among us. Otherwise we would be "Social Darwinists."

tabs  05/23/2012 04:56 PM Report

Eisenhower was the best "CLERK" that MacArthur ever had.

Eisenhower was the LAST of the born in the 19TH century Presidents and as such represents the values/morays (prudence, restraint and self reliance) of what brought the United States to its pinnacle of success, power and or greatness. JFK and his successors were all brought up in the 20TH Century, Depression, WW2 era and later the Great Post WW2 Prosperity Boomer era (Clinton, Bush II and Obama). As such they reflect a national "social conscience" and thus a willingness to expend the resources of the government and nation to assuage a national guilt while continuing to prove their manliness by providing a national defense on steroids. It was after all the Democrats own JFK that built up US Conventional military forces to prove to the Conservatives that he wasn't soft on Communism. It was the Democrats LBJ that brought America a GUNS and BUTTER economy of a Great Society, Urban Renewal and a Vietnam War all at the same time. LBJ also instituted the ACCOUNTING GIMMICK of putting the SS Trust Fund and Payroll Taxes into the General Account and calling SS Retirement benifits an Accounts Payable. Even the Conservatives highly regarded Ronald Reagan fell prey to the compromise solution that the nation didn't have to pay for its Guns and Butter by increasing military spending and cutting taxes while the Great Society rolled on.

So what about Eisenhower, his last words before leaving office still resound, "Beware of the Military Industrial complex." The meaning of this is that Eisenhower understood that the Military always asked for more money to combat an always greater military threat to America. Today that should be translated to allocating and increasing Federal budgets for what ever is the flavor of the day. Today lets us call that Infrastructure, Education and Energy..so let us not "SPEND" but euphemistically call it an "INVESTMEST IN OUR FUTURE."

Unfortunately folks nearly 50 years of Governmental feeding at the trough of the Public Treasury has Bankrupted America. This is especially tragic for Barrack Obama and his ideas because he is 30 years too late to the Partay.

REMant  05/23/2012 11:03 AM Report

It should be mentioned that Truman offered Ike the presidency as a Democrat. Ike's reasons for turning him down were contained in a well-known (and well-written) article which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1964, still quite pertinent: "Why I Am a Republican" (online here: http://able2know.org/topic/144183-1) It also indicates, BTW, that Eisenhower could not have thought too badly of Goldwater.

Some excerpts for the lazy:

"For the hard fact is that under many years of Democratic Party leadership our country has been lured into the 'easy way,' a path of federal expediency which, like a narcotic, may give us a false sense of well being, but in the long run is dangerous to our future, our basic rights, our moral fiber and our individual freedom."

"Or let us take the ingrained habit of Democratic Administrations to over-spend, to follow risky financial policies, particularly under the guise of 'stimulating the economy.' This process already has eroded away a basic right of every citizen: the right to have sound money, a dollar that is worth as much today as it was yesterday. I know that anyone who speaks up against deficit spending is accused by the 'sophisticated' liberals of being more interested in money than in people. But I ask, what is more inhumane to more people than deliberately taking away the value of the money on which they must live in the future?"

"In action, this means attacking our national problems at their roots, believing that only in this way, not by poulticing symptoms, can we advance our country steadily and solidly. We Republicans have sought by balanced programs to improve the national standard of living, assure civil rights for all, provide better education for our youth, and promote a sound, forward-looking economic climate that is essential to national growth and fullest possible employment."

"And that is why I am convinced that any system of medical insurance of the aged should be on a broadly based, self-sustaining and voluntary basis. This need cannot be met fairly, in my judgement, by overloading the Social Security system with the multi-billion annual costs of the so-called Medicare plan, thus concentrating the whole burden on workers and employers."

"But now, under the Democrats, this program has been blown up all out of proportion. With hysterical fanfare our space research has been presented as a crash effort, as a "race to the moon" between the United States and Russia which we must win at all costs. And the costs are tremendous: They now are running well over five billion dollars a year. The Government now has more than 73,000 engineers and scientists working on the nonmilitary space program, either on the federal payroll or employed under contract. This swollen program, costing more than the development of the atomic bomb, not only is contributing to an unbalanced budget; it also has diverted a disproportionate share of our brain-power and research facilities from other equally significant problems, including education and automation."

"It must be emphasized that a tax cut alone is only half of the equation. Without a commensurate curtailment of federal expenditures a tax reduction by itself is a cruel illusion: What is given to the taxpayer in one hand is more than taken away from the other by cheapening his money and increasing his burden of public debt. I do not for a minute see how the Democrats can balance the budget in the foreseeable future and at the same time proceed with their announced and costly programs."

I might add to this that shortly before leaving office Ike reportedly said to his staff: "God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn't know the military as well as I do." And in his Farewell: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies ... a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."