Well….I know this is kind of obscure since not many of you know who Senator John Kyl is…oh, you do? Good, that might put this more in context….okay, a couple of days ago Senator Kyl went on the floor of the senate and made the assertion that 90% of the funding that Planned Parenthood gets is used for abortions; no matter that the the real number is around 3%, since you know that facts don’t mean much to the repubs…but, the breathtaking part is not the lie…nope, even better than that, the statement that his office put out later is….they put out a press statement saying that what he said on the senate floor was not meant to be factual…not meant to be factual? Then what was it meant to be? A recipe for cornbread? C’mon senator Kyl….at least try to hide your lies for a little while longer…you can use page 84 of the repub playbook, chapter 15 entitled “Say anything, it doesn’t matter”. Geez….
Just a short one for the other stuff….read an article this morning that dissected the Ryan budget proposal and it’s fiscal effects on the national debt…and compared it to the effect of ending the Bush tax cuts…guess what? Ending the Bush tax cuts has the same effect as all of the cuts that Ryan proposes that will fall on the middle class and the poor. Is there any question the Ryan has an ulterior motive? Reward the rich Ryan….has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? geez….
Well…just a couple of things today…I haven’t been able to come up with a really coherent set of thoughts, so I’m just going to kind of let it loose and see what happens….first…with the anniversary of the Civil War’s start, I find it so odd that there is still an ongoing effort by some folks on the right and in the south to obscure what the war was about; they have been floating the whole states rights malarkey as a replacement for the real reason…the south wanted to keep slavery plain and simple. I wonder at the reason for these efforts, after all, it’s been 150 years. What benefit is there to be gained by trying to change the reasons? Just another episode to me where people on the right can’t accept facts and are intent on using one of their favorite tactics to change the truth; that is repeating lies until people say “oh, I’ve heard that somewhere” and then saying it must be the truth.
On other thing that I want to talk about is the lack of fight coming out of the White House in the budget battle which truly are struggles for the soul of this nation….why can’t they just stand up and compare what the US looks like now, and how it will look if the Ryan proposals are enacted…starting with the windfall the changes in Medicare would be for insurance companies…c’mon Obama, if you can’t make insurance companies look bad by just citing their actions, you’re just not paying attention..stop being so afraid of looking partisan and get to this whole tax cut nonsense for the rich…call the repub idiots out to prove that these cuts create jobs…which they don’t. How can you fumble this when all of the facts are on the side of the moderates….what does cutting funding for Planned Parenthood do to create jobs? Geez….I came up with these two by myself without much thinking, get off your butt and start working for us….and remember, crazy ideas from the right need to be called crazy…stop being so nice to these idiots and slap them with their lies, it is not partisan to call out idiots…I think you are allowing America to be hijacked by the tea partiers because you don’t have the guts to stand up and put them in their place…I for one, don’t want to have my life dictated by the 15% fringe that is the tea party…
Well..one of the most striking things that I have taken away from the budget battles that have been going on for the last couple of years is the utter lack of vision that the dems have laid out to support their version of America….and I fault Obama for a large part of it…his tiptoeing around to not anger the repubs have gotten him what? Nothing but an emboldened opposition whose crazy ideas have gotten a huge voice without the counterpoint of rationality that the president could bring to the discussion, and his almost unfathomable reliance on bipartisanship, or the appearance of bipartisanship, is making him look so disengaged that those of us in the middle and on the left are sitting here shaking our heads. I hope that the budget plan that is coming out from the dem leadership later in the week will help to flesh out what they think America should look like and I think they have a golden opportunity to contrast with the Ryan proposal; one that gives more and more to the rich while taking the majority of the savings from programs that are designed to help the middle class and poor.
It was a good start when Obama said that the plan will include increased revenue from letting the bush tax cuts expire on the richest, and I think it is a reasonable request since those tax cuts never produced one new job or made America a better place to live; except for those super rich who benefited from the cuts. I also understand that there can be cuts and streamlining to major government programs to make them more efficient, but let’s make sure that the cuts are made to the inefficiencies, and maintain those few things that can help the American dream live on….
Well….with all of the praise that Paul Ryan is getting for his budget proposals, you would think he was on to something new, since his plan has been deified in the right wing press as the heaven sent solution to all of our problems…okay, I made that last part up but I really think that has been the gist of the reaction from even mainstream media. To get a full explanation that is done better than I could do, check out Paul Krugman’s column in the NY times this morning…yeah, I know, I have been trying to not go there but it is hard to give up something that has been a part of my life for so many years. Now, back to the Ryan proposal, the cornerstone of this monstrosity is the re-invention of the voodoo economics of the Reagan administration; that is, that as you cut taxes, revenue to the government will rise…a theory that has been proven wrong every time it has been tried since the 80′s….if this stupid theory worked, the government would be awash in money and there would be no deficit problem since overall taxes are lower now that they have been on over 50 years. The only question that comes to my mind is prove it; where are all of these dollars they talk about?
The second thing that all of us should be quite concerned about is the inclusion in Ryan’s proposal to turn Medicare into a private insurance scam that would give insurance companies the ability to make trillions more profit off people that have no place else to go. How can he stand there with a straight face and say that it will save money to change a program that has a 9% overhead to one a private one whose overheard ranges from 20-30%. Just another plan to reward the rich insurance companies at the expense of you and me. Aren’t you tired of this crap yet? Geez….
Well….I do feel a little better so I thought I’d get this one out before I slink back to the couch to continue this slow, painful recovery. I have been having problems writing lately since it takes a lot out of me to be outraged all the time, and I do want to write about good news; there just hasn’t been any lately. That might not be completely true, there was an election in Wisconsin yesterday and the turnout by the people that want fairness restored to their political process was huge….maybe I was right that the repub thugs have overreached and misread the will of the people. No one but the rich could have voted for what gov Walker foisted on that state, or for what Paul Ryan is proposing on the federal level…that there will be no more social contract, that there will be no more shared responsibility, that the US will see the last 100 years of progress on social issues repealed. I just hope that we can keep up the outrage of the electorate now that the repubs have revealed their true selves….shame on us if we don’t…
Well….wonderful news out of Wisconsin that just shows how political cronyism is alive and well in that state…in case you didn’t get it, that was sarcasm…I know, it hard for me to get sarcasm across in writing…better writers can, but I’m still learning…yep, still learning in my 50′s. The news story goes like this…our friend gov. Walker, hires a non-college educated, double dui convicted son of a large political donor and lobbyist to head up his environmental and regulatory affairs department. This, from a governor whose stated goals are to gut all environmental and business regulation and is just another instance where you have the curtain peeled back on what the repubs want this country to look like…not promoted or hired on your merits or your hard work but on your connections no matter how unqualified you are…an extension of the GW Bush doctrine that you don’t have to be competent, just connected; one that Sarah Palin has used to great effect…yep, that’s the first mention of sister Sarah since Feb 1st….
The second part of this one I got from a column from Jay Ambrose in the Detroit News this morning…and I would like to say thank you Detroit News for so many easy targets for counterpunching. Mr. Ambrose goes on to equate the crazy assed birthers with those of us that constantly railed on about the actions of GW when he was in office. What he does not get is the core difference between the two groups…that the birthers are attacking who Obama IS, while we hated what GW DID to this country and the American way of life. This false equivalency runs through the repub talking points every day; where egregious hate of the tea party is compared to the workers of Wisconsin standing up for their rights and is therefore justified.
One last thing I wanted to talk about today is what I see as our country being lost, that there is no longer any place here for the dignity of the middle class and sharing of the fruits of our economy….I am loathe to suggest that since the normal avenues of redress in a democracy have been closed to us by the power of the money of the rich and business that we should use any method available….but I think that those who are greedily taking all they can get with little regard for the rest of us must start to think of the world that will be when the bottom 99% of us get fed up and use the last resorts they have left us…beware….
Well….a good bit of outrage has built up of the past few days reading the budget proposals that are coming out of the repubs, and Paul Ryan in particular…and I find it breathtaking that they think they can just steal 4 trillion more dollars from the country in the guise of “deficit reduction”. To put this whole idea in perspective, we only need to remember that without the Bush tax cuts for the rich, there would be no budget crisis…remember that, there would be no budget crisis if the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire. That is one of the things that these thieves don’t want you to know…one of the others is what they want to do to Medicare…they are back to their old scam of privatizing all of the safety nets that have kept older Americans out of poverty for 80 years and turning it into a private insurance con that would transfer more wealth into the hands of the rich and business. But this is not the only place these idiots want to attack while giving more to the rich…they want across the board cuts to every program that has any benefit to the middle class; saying it’s a needed sacrifice that the middle class needs to make…my question is: “where is the sacrifice from the rich?” Don’t waste your time looking….you won’t find it. What would have happened if Social Security and Medicare were privatized when the financial meltdown happened; perpetrated by the rich for the rich? All of us in the middle class would have lost everything while the bankers walked away with their millions and millions in bonuses.
Please, people, start paying attention and don’t let these liars take what is left of the country….geez….
Well….I have been thinking about my idea of proposing solutions to Michigan’s problems and it’s much harder than just bitching…so I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get something that makes sense….one thing I would like to see is a progressive income tax here…one thing that the repubs don’t want you to know is the fact that even with tax rates that were twice what they are now, we had huge periods of growth and job creation…along with balanced budgets. During that time, the interstate road system was built, good schools were everywhere, and there were possibilities that we could be better. Where are we now? Tax rates are lower than they have been in 50 years and there is still no job creation…so when the repubs say they want more of the same, my jaw drops with the stupidity of that stance.
Okay…I promised, so I’ll change tack here….I heard a news show on MSNBC today and I just about lost my lunch…these people were bitching that ceo’s are being hurt by the recession, too…with the admonition that we shouldn’t pick on them since they were taking a hit along with the rest of us….yep, I couldn’t believe it either….these poor guys are only making 800 times what their workers make…down from 900 times….I’m going to cry a tear for them and their hard times…geez…
One last thing….there may be a budding revolt going on in the repub ranks here in Michigan over the draconian cuts in school funding while giving all that money to business in the form of tax cuts….yay…
Well….it has struck me, thinking over the last couple of weeks, that the only thing the repubs are good at is taking away peoples rights or preventing classes they don’t like in gaining the rights that the rest of us enjoy. I know I’ve talked about this before, but this same old silliness has taken over the repubs like never before….let’s take away the rights of people to bargain, let’s take away the rights of people to be let alone (i.e. the Patriot Act), and let’s prevent gays from having the rights they deserve. My larger question here is what does this nonsense have to do with creating jobs and helping repair the middle class that has been destroyed over the past 30 years? The quick answer is nothing…but that’s what the repubs do, talk, promise, and lie, then give more to the rich. Their latest trick to silence their critics? They are now using the Freedom of Information Act to go on fishing expeditions to try to find innocuous e-mails that can be twisted in their latest smear campaign…and are they asking for those of the right-leaners…of course not…I’ve told you before these folks are just a bunch of thugs and this is just another example that they will stop at nothing to destroy anyone that does not agree with them.
Okay…are you getting tired of me bitching about this? Yeah, I am too…but you can see how difficult this is to keep fresh….I am going to keep trying, and trying, and trying….
Well…to hear the repubs talk, the reason there are no jobs being created here in the US is the “fact” that corporate taxes are too high and this taxation is driving companies overseas. Really? they are still saying this after the news that came out about G.E. yesterday? In case you didn’t hear, one of our largest corporations, General Electric, paid no taxes last year…yep, you’ve got it, the company that is being held up as the shining example of success here figured out a way to not pay any taxes…but more than that they figured out how to steal 3.2 billion dollars of your and my money in the form of a tax refund…and that figures to a negative 60% tax rate. Where is your overtaxation now repubs? The second fact that these tax cutters don’t want you to know is that over 60% of American corporations paid little or no taxes last year. When was the last time you or I paid little or no taxes? These guys should be ashamed of taking advantage of the infrastructure that you and I pay for to make obscene profits and then twisting the knife by taking food out of the mouths of our poor. How many people could be fed with the 3.2 billion dollars that G.E. didn’t deserve? Geez….