Category Archives: Politics

A bunch of dysfunctional second graders…

Well…I have been watching the fiscal curb negotiations over the past couple of days with an ever growing disgust for the repubs in the house…I mean, after the senate voted nearly unanimously to pass a bipartisan compromise bill, the dysfunctional second graders that are the house repubs wouldn’t even let it come up for a vote with the mob of crazies blocking the bill being led by Eric Cantor who is only thinking of himself and his rich donors…everyone knows the little shit wants to be speaker and will do anything including destroying the economy to do it. The only good thing that is going to come out of this is that the approval rating of the repubs (which is at an all time low of 12% right now) is going to approach zero and they are going to pay for it in two years…but, the country can’t wait for two years to start to fix the problems we have…some adult needs come forward and put these idiots into a time out…and then we need to make sure there is a permanent dem majority that will act in the country’s best interests…not those of the damn 1% and the self interested repubs…geez…

They’ve lost David Brooks…

Well…I’ve been kind of following the whole fiscal curb/debt ceiling nonsense with my peripheral vision over the past few days and a couple of things have begun to strike me…the first is that the right has lost one of their loyal commentators today with an article from David Brooks stating in no uncertain terms that it is the repubs who are wholly responsible for the mess we are in…even though it’s not a mess really…it just our country being held hostage by a bunch of right wing terrorists who put Grover Norquist and the rich first…and everyone else can go to hell. Then, you have Lindsey Graham coming out yesterday saying that he will crash the economy if the tax cuts for the rich are not protected by raising the retirement age and cutting SS benefits…just like ole Snyder did here in Michigan, this idiot would make retirees go hungry just so his rich donors and corporations can suck more and more out of the economy….how much is enough? Do we just have to kill everyone that is out of a job or living on the SS they paid for their whole working life? That appears to be what they want and the only thing that will satisfy them….and they won’t stop until there is the 1% with all the money and everyone else broke and starving….geez…

Another reason to hate the Kochs…

Well…it there weren’t already enough reasons to hate the Kochs and their right wing craziness, they have outdone themselves with the latest out of the group they control, Americans for Prosperity. In the past few days, they have sent a letter to all of their pet senators they own warning them to vote against any and all hurricane Sandy relief bills that are now coming through the senate…with the threats included that they will spend millions to defeat anyone who doesn’t toe their line. One of the leaders of the Koch group went so far as to call the aid package a “disgrace” and rebuilding the damaged areas is “not a federal government responsibility…we need to suck it up and be responsible for ourselves..” More crap from billionaires who think the only function for the federal government is to do their bidding and make them rich…what a bunch of assholes…geez…

Brave Americans don’t need guns…

Well…with the astounding obtuseness that the right is showing on the issue of gun control, I wish I would have thought of the title for this one myself, but I read it earlier this morning in a comment thread on Daily Kos about the NRA’s comments that the only way to prevent more gun violence is more, and more, and more guns. While I have been a hunter in my past life and a supporter of responsible gun ownership, the absolutist nonsense of the right that there can be no restrictions of any kind on gun ownership is just too far out there for me…and the idea that we are safer when everyone is carrying a gun is just one of the stupidist things I have ever heard. We have placed many restrictions on the rights that are guaranteed in the bill of rights; think of the libel laws that do restrict your first amendment rights, or the evolution of the rights that are contained in the fourth, so I think that some restrictions on the second can and should be done…especially since almost 80% of the gun violence is done by people using guns that were purchased at unrestricted gun shows where no background checks are necessary. I just want to end with this… I do believe in the title of this piece…and I will be one of the brave Americans who will live my life without guns or fear that is stoked by the right to further their own ends…geez…

Now we can move forward…

Well…after the debacle of Boehner’s defeat last night, now we can move forward with marginalizing the crazy assed right wingers in the House….and get a bill that the progressives can support. But, the problems there is we need to find around 20 reasonable repubs (I know, that is the ultimate oxymoron) to come with us for the good of the country…not just the 1%’ers that are still pulling the puppet strings for most of the repubs…but, one of the things we must do, or what Obama must do, is to take the SS nonsense off the table to get the dem caucus behind him…and then let Pelosi do her work to construct a bill that doesn’t compromise progressive principles. Look, you know the repubs don’t want to govern anyway when ole Boehner says “it’s up to the pres and the Senate now…” abdicating any responsibility to look after the well being of the country or its citizens…going over the cliff is going to be a fun ride….

Let “Plan B” go down the toilet….

Well….I have been getting easily sidetracked over the past few days and that is why this one is so late…but, I do need to talk about ole Boehner’s “Plan B” proposal and the absolute nonsense it contains…along with the minimal tax increase on the rich…his plan will cost the poor and middle class around 1,500-2,000 dollars a year in higher taxes…but, here’s the kicker, it will cut medicaid, SS, medicare, meals on wheels, food stamps and almost every other program that the middle class and working poor depend on to make their lives livable…and he had to include this stuff to get the rest of the repubs in the house to go along. This, to me, is the clearest example of who the repubs have become…protect the rich and corporations at all costs while they say go to hell to everyone else….Obama should stop “negotiating” with these thugs and just let the country go over the cliff…but then let the people know what this “Plan B” includes…it will continue to shrink their base to the point that in two years, they will be a fringe party in reality and we can start re-making the country in the image of those who care about good governance and all of the people who live here…and what is left of the repubs can go back to hell where they came from…geez…

Snyder is still an idiot…

Well…it is with some satisfaction that I have been following the plunge in approval ratings of the idiot Snyder here in Michigan and I’m even more heartened with the same happening to the ratings of all repubs here….ole Snyder’s have fallen 28 points in the past two weeks after he screwed the people of Michigan with his stealth approval of right to work here…I have one question for him…if every state is right to work, where is the competitive advantage he is touting? As always, the repubs are leading the race to the bottom for workers while they continue to protect their rich donors….but, this time I think that they miscalculated and we will take back the entire state from them in the next election…we will be motivated and have the boots on the ground with issues that the people approve of…not just the money of the Koch’s and DeVoses….and one thing we have to remember is that all of this lame duck crap they have pulled can be reversed if we take back the legislature…including the 1.7 billion dollar giveaway to business financed on the back of the middle class and retirees….geez…

Obama is disappointing me…

Well…with the news coming out of Washington today, all I can say is if the rumors are true, I am so disappointed in Obama that I don’t know what to say…it appears that he is going back on his promises to raise taxes on the rich and not cut benefits to the rest of us…the latest is that he has even allowed SS to be cut when it has absolutely nothing to do with the fiscal nonsense that is going on. At least Dick Durbin has come out and said that that kind of crap won’t get through the senate so at least there is one person in Washington who is looking out for the middle class and there needs to be more…I’m talking to you Harry Reid, it is in your power to make sure that Obama does not cave in to the repubs and if he doesn’t have the guts, you have to have them….geez…

Where’s my right to be protected from people with guns?

Well…with the latest tragedy and the many, many others that have happened over the past year, I have only one question that I want the government and the NRA to answer: “where is my right to be protected from people with guns?” Why do I have to live in a society saturated with guns and unstable people who won’t hesitate to use them? I know the right and the NRA make their living on the second amendment but what about the Declaration of Independence and my right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” Aren’t these basic, essential rights of American society just as important as the right of a person to carry a gun or to own guns whose only purpose is to inflict carnage on other humans? Where are my rights when I am lying dead by the hand of a person using a legally purchased gun? I am normally a pretty strict constructionist when it comes to the bill of rights but not to the extent that my fellow citizens can be slaughtered every day, especially children, by the unreasoned adherence to words that were written for a different time. And now, we have a new law that was just passed here in Michigan that would allow anyone with “special training” to carry a gun into any school in the state…even when there is no one in the public that thinks this is a good idea or supports it. I’ve had enough…don’t my feelings count? I am so uncomfortable when I see the gun nuts strutting into stores and other places I frequent with their guns strapped to their hips…who knows when the “nice man” that lives next door is going to go over the edge? Do we have to give them the ability to destroy entire communities just to keep the repubs and the NRA happy? I want to feel safe in my life and having more and more guns in more and more places is not the way to do it…this is not Dodge City in 1845 where the only way they found to end the killings there was to confiscate all the guns when you came into the city…and return them when the people left….let’s do something…anything, to stop this crap…I’ve had enough…

It’s never a liberal or an atheist…

Well…I have to wade in on a thought that has been rattling around in my mind of late and it crystallized some over the past few days…when you see the shootings, bombings, or other assorted hate that pollutes our society, it never comes from liberals or atheists…two groups that the right would have you think are the ones who are destroying our society, but from the crazed right and with the rhetoric that the right and their followers have thrown around since their loss in the election; the secession nonsense, the “second amendment” solution nonsense, and the calls for armed insurrection, what the hell did you expect? When you have crazed parents that sit with their guns and rail constantly about taking back our country, filling their children’s heads with the nonstop Fox propaganda of hate, what the hell do you expect is going to happen? When you have one of the major political parties demonizing everyone that doesn’t agree with them, what the hell do you expect? When you have major Christan groups that applaud the killing of doctors that provide abortion services, what the hell do you expect? I am going to lay the blame for the coarsening, death, and hate on the place where it belongs…the modern right and its political party, the Republicans. Geez…