Well…I did go out to the beach and got a little sun…but that’s not what this is about…doing that a lot lately…I just have to comment on the rush to judgment by the right wing tv and newspapers who were all sure that the tragedy in Norway was caused by muslim extremists and went out of their way to trumpet the fact…even when they were completely wrong. Then we had Glenn Beck on his radio show comparing the youth camp where the murders happened to a Hitler youth camp…just because it was a Labor party party sponsored event. When are we all going to reject these folks and their hatred? I’ve had enough of the sloppy reporting and the assumptions being sold as the facts….when are we going to start holding the right responsible for this nonsense? Geez….
Category Archives: Politics
We lose again….
Well…the debt ceiling nonsense that is going on in Washington is sucking the life right out of me….when I hear that the dems are giving up everything…..cut to SS, Medicare, and every other program that helps the retired or middle class to the repub thugs and they are not getting anything in return, I despair for the future of this country. If it wasn’t for all of the things the repubs did…the two wars that were not paid for, the tax cuts for the wealthy, and deregulation, we would not be where we are and there would be no need to further gut the middle class to pay for this stuff. And, they are so against tax increases for the rich and connected but I guess that doesn’t count for you and me…retirees are going to get a huge tax increase by having the cost of Medicare go up and by cutting off the cost of living increases for SS. Why is it that the repubs always attack the little guys? I think it’s just typical bully behavior to pick on people that can’t fight back….I hope we can remind the voters who it was that gave the country away to the ideologues…and who drove the economy back into the ditch by cutting spending when the recovery is still so weak. Geez…
Didn’t get to it….
Well…I was going to lie out in the sun for a while but it was just too hot to do it comfortably so I took a pass….looks like I’ll have to live with the weird looking tan for another day….I did want to get to the Michigan tax thing….I saw an analysis the other day that really describes what the “shared sacrifice” that our gov and the rest of the repubs here are trying to sell. Under the new plan, and with the deletion of the homestead tax credit for the middle class…a retiree making around 50K a year in retirement benefits will pay more than 3,000 dollars a year more in taxes…taking almost 8% additional from that meager amount. But, people making over 250K per year that are still working will pay less than that in their tax increase. Now, does that sound fair to anyone? Does that sound like shared sacrifice. Nope, it didn’t to me either….I have only one more comment….where are the jobs from the 2 billion dollars you just gave away to business? There are none….but ceo pay just went up again and I am pissed about having to pay for a raise for someone making millions a year….
More repub nonsense…
Well…with all of the talk of economic apocalypse that will come from the failure to raise the debt ceiling, what do we see from the house repubs? We see them spending a whole legislative day on a symbolic bill called “cut, cap, and balance” that everyone in the country knows will never pass the senate or be signed into law. What we have is a bunch of right wing thugs playing chicken with the economy to make a point for the 20% of the country that say they are tea party aligned while the rest of us sit here and wait for our retirement money to be worth nothing when the stock market crashes, which it will if these idiots keep this nonsense up. I really hope they keep this crap up…then we will take back the house, keep the senate, and Obama will get 4 more years…..and I would pile on our own gov Snyder…in fact, I think I will….where are the jobs governor? Where are the jobs Eric Cantor? It just shows again how the repubs just care about ideology, not about you and me….I do have more about the tax shift here in Michigan but that one is for later….I need to lie our in the sun and try to even out the tan….
Another day….more stupidity…
Well….before I get to the political stuff…I do have to relay one bit of trail weirdness…well…maybe not weirdness but coolness let’s say….there must have been a huge hatch of those little blue butterflies yesterday….there were hundreds of them on the trail and when I went through the swarms they looked just like blue snowflakes blowing in the wind…just the coolest thing…
Okay, now on to the stupidity….there is so much crying on the repub side about deficits that they want try to pass a constitutional amendment to limit the governments ability to respond to slowdowns by codifying the percentage of government spending to an average of the last thirty years….basically saying that they can see the future and know what is going to happen 10, 20, 30 years down the road. They didn’t even see the crash coming in 2008….how can they now believe they are prescient? Just another bunch of stupidity by the party of the know-nothings who are proud of their ignorance and who willfully confuse ideology with good policy and who choose ideology over the needs of the citizens of this country…geez….
A couple of other things….
Well…had to get out on the bike early today to avoid the possibility of heatstroke and I was amazed at all of the people out at 7 in the morning…but I still came back soaked through…might have to be the pattern for the rest of the week since it is so hot out there right now…that’s not what this is about, though…I just love the latest poll that shows that people are starting to tire of the obstructionism of the repubs with 71% feeling that the they are responsible for there not being a budget deal. Now, I just hope the Obama and his guys take this as a reason to stiffen their spines and stop giving away the store.
Then, we have Paul Ryan stating today, in essence, that he is completely willing to crash the economy if the repubs don’t get everything they want…can’t we all agree that this is nonsense and is not how American government works…and we have the Koch brothers to thank for this crap….they will not rest until they own the entire country and use it as their personal plaything….oh, that’s what they are doing now in Wisconsin…how did that work out for you up there?
One last thing….I think we need a “pledge” for the repubs to sign that when elected, they will have to take at least a 100 level economics course that will give them a rudimentary understanding of the economy and that it does work to the theories of Keynes and just because they don’t “believe” in them, it doesn’t make them invalid…I have had just about enough of ignorance that passes for depth with the repubs these days….
A couple of things….and it’s politics…..
Well….Where the heck do the repubs get the people that are running for president on their side? The party of the constitution (as they say it…it’s not true but they say it) is running at lest one person that does not even know what the first amendment is, let alone that it prohibits government interference in religion. But, this past week, we heard Herman Cain…one of the tea party darlings, come out and propose that cities have the power to deny Muslims from building mosques since they are not really religious structures but their purpose is to promote sharia law. And the Christian churches aren’t there to promote biblical law? Just another instance where these folks will distort or ignore the constitution unless it can be used for political gain…don’t they ever get ashamed of this hypocrisy? Oh, obviously not…geez…
The second thing I wanted to talk about is this whole debt ceiling nonsense, again, and the latest proposal from the repubs to give Obama the power to raise it on his own when necessary…and these folks thinks this is a big coup that they will be able to use to hurt Obama in 2012? Man, I can come up with about a dozen attack ads right off the top of my head to go after the repubs with…and if I were Obama, I would say bring it on and let’s get the country’s business done….how dense are these repubs? Playing to their 20 percent tax cutting, tea party base? Good luck with that strategy….
Okay, I’m six short for the month…
Well…I don’t think I’ve been so far behind in numbers here since I started this thing so I guess I’d better get my butt in gear and get a couple more out today….it was a tiny bunny day out on the trail today and I was really amused how they would never just cross the trail in front of me but would cross then run down the trail for a few yards…they are much faster than they look…I was going 15 and they were keeping up….just a bit of trail weirdness…
I did want to get to the nonsense that Bachmann and her ilk are peddling on the campaign trail about the stimulus package…their contention being that the stimulus did not work at all and it was a waste of 700 billion dollars…well, Michele, the stimulus was almost half tax cuts so what you’re saying is that tax cuts don’t work to stimulate the economy, right? So, why are you and the rest of the nut job right continuing to push more and more tax cuts? It just shows that these guys don’t give a damn about the economy except how it can be used to benefit the rich and connected….geez….
A politcal one, finally…
Well…as you know, I’ve been having a problem getting worked up enough lately to put down any political thoughts but today, thanks to Nolan Finley, I have reached the boil over point and need to respond. In today’s column, ole Nolan goes on and on and on about how he thinks that Michigan is going to be in play in the 2012 election and tries to make his case by enumerating how many times that Obama or people in the federal government have visited Michigan over the last two years. He digs himself an even deeper hole by saying that the only reason this has happened is that Obama is using the government and promising help to the people of Michigan is to ensure that he gets re-elected; projecting his warped, right-wing view of government and its purpose on the administration. Nolan, Nolan, Nolan….just because you and your troglodyte brethren in the repub party think the only reason for government is to use it to gain power or reward your rich buddies, does not mean that everyone thinks that way of that it is even true. Could it be that the administration sees a state that is in dire need of help that only the federal government can give? Could it be that Obama and his administration actually care about the citizens of this country that are not rich and connected?
This is the typical repub nonsense that passes for deep political thought these days…..one more thing Nolan, where are the jobs from the Bush tax cuts?
More stimulus nonsense…
Well…I hope you’ve read the latest repub talking point on the stimulus where they are still hammering on stimulus packages as never have been effective in the history of the world and trying to make the point that the stimulus that started to pull us out of the depression should never have been done….as evidenced by the double dip that happened after Roosevelt cut spending while the recovery was still fragile. But the funniest thing I’ve heard lately came from Lindsey Graham, the repub from South Carolina, is the newest talking point that said the only thing that brought us out of the depression was WWII….Lindsey….I have news for you, WWII was the largest stimulus program in the history of the world with huge amounts of deficit spending done by the federal government to build factories and infrastructure that was used to fuel the boom of the 50′s….how stupid can these guys be? I guess you can see it, or hear it whenever they talk…what’s the next talking point repubs? Aren’t you tired of being wrong all of the time?