Category Archives: Politics

Where are the jobs?

Well…this is going to be a short one about one of the topics that is near and dear to my heart…the lack of jobs or anyone doing anything to grow them….I will admit that Obama and his administration have been trying to do something, but where is the repub controlled congress? They have controlled the house for almost a year and have not put forth one new proposal that will get the economy going again and create jobs…they have just trotted out the same old tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, that have never created one job…not in all of the cuts by the Bushies, or any of the cuts that have been done by Obama. So, that is the question we should be asking whenever a politician opens his or her mouth…what are you doing to create jobs? And remember that in the 2012 election…the repubs started leaning on Obama and blaming him for the lack of jobs about two weeks into his administration…now we should do the same to them…they’ve had a year in power filled with nothing but nonsense…geez…

Eric Cantor is still an idiot…

Well….I just had to laugh when I read this quote from ole Eric: “I am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs at the protests”…okay, I’m laughing again just writing this….and this is coming from a self-avowed “protector” of the Constitution who probably has never read the thing…if he had, he would have noticed the little thing called the first amendment that ensures the right of the people to “peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances”…..what about that Eric? What about your precious tea party who were anything but peacable…with the guns, slogans, and chants proposing violent attacks on the government?

As I said yesterday, these guys should be afraid of any movement that wants to restore the fairness to this country…that wants to make sure that the political system can’t be hijacked by a few rich people or corporations anymore….maybe we can make ole Eric go away…

What a hypocrite….

Maybe the tide is turning…

Well….it seems that the story line in the country has started to change…away from the nonsense of modern conservatism and it’s fealty to Grover Norquist and business, and back to the real ills of this society…the concentration of money and power in the top 1% and the lack of good, middle class jobs. The country is finally waking up and saying enough…enough of having 400 people owning more than the poorest 150 million…enough of the drumbeat of deregulation that crashed the economy and made the distortion of the rewards of the economy even worse…enough of having corporations write the laws and buy elections that silences the rest of us. In the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the newfound backbone of president Obama, there is finally hope that even an overeducated old guy will be able to find meaningful work….and to contribute to society again. I am still optimistic about this country changing by a real, old fashioned revolt of the center and left….if you want to read a really inspiring statement of purpose, go out to the occupy site and take a look at the one that was issued yesterday…it succinctly details what is wrong and how to fix it…and it has so irritated the right that they have brought out the “communist manifesto” label to try to belittle it….I guess they must be running scared…and they should be….

Let’s forget this tax holiday nonsense…

Well…there is a little noticed but well-financed lobbying effort going on right now that is trying to get a free pass on taxes for companies that have stashed trillions of dollars of profits overseas to avoid paying federal taxes on them. These companies are pushing a reduction of tax rate from the normal 35% to only 5%…much less than any middle class individual pays on his earned income, to bring these profits back into the US. One of their big selling points for this tax cut is that they will use the money to create jobs; never mind that these companies are already sitting on over 2 trillion dollars in retained profits in the US that they are not spending to create jobs, so why would anyone expect them to spend any of this offshore profit? In fact, the last time a tax holiday was give to these same companies in 2004, they ended up cutting over 560,000 jobs but used the money to increase the pay of the top level managers of the companies while they were cutting these jobs. This is just another instance where corporations are manipulating the congress by buying votes and will end up lining their own pockets with this repatriated money….when does this nonsense stop?

Bloomberg just doesn’t get it…

Well…it is getting to be an exciting thing watching the protests against the unbridled greed of Wall Street spread across the country but I still have my doubts that it will have any effect on the nonsense that is going on on Wall Street and in boardrooms across the country. The first example of this cluelessness came from the statement that Michael Bloomberg made yesterday commenting on why the protesters were there…he seemed to think that the demonstrations were against the unions and the working folks that work on Wall Street other than the thieving bankers who are the sole purpose of the protests. I just shows that the repubs have tunnel vision and are still trying to play us working (or unemployed) folks against each other to distract us so we won’t see that the rich thieves have stolen almost all of the country over the last 20 years. This absolute contempt for working folks is again on display with what happened at HP over the last couple of weeks…the CEO was just dismissed after 10 months on the job which is generally considered to be a utter, dismal failure…but did he walk away with nothing for such lousy performance? Nope, this idiot walked away with over 13 million dollars in compensation…yep, 13 million for doing nothing for 10 months…and this moron truly feels he earned it…that is what is wrong with this country…the rich do nothing and make mountains of cash while they steal and steal and steal from the rest of us…how many people could have been kept working for that 13 mil? Geez…

Still can’t do the politics thing….

Well….I have been trying and trying to get back on the political horse but it just hasn’t worked yet…I wonder if I’m just getting tired of the nonsense that passes for politics these days? Whatever it is…okay, maybe I’ll look in the paper right now and see if there is something….here’s something…just read a column by Jay Ambrose in the Detroit News that goes on and on about how bad the left is because they keep calling out the haters on the right…so, Jay, now when the left point outs the hate from the tea party or the others on the right it’s the moral equivalent of the constant hate speech from the right? Okay…this one is not going anywhere so I think I’ll stop here and think about it for a while…..or not…who knows?

Maybe I’ll just talk about other stuff, then….nope….that’s not working either so I’m going to go over to the couch for a few minutes and watch tv for a while….

Those 16 dollar muffins…

Well…while I’m waiting for it to get a little warmer before I go out on the bike, I thought I’d comment on the $16 dollar muffins that the right is so hot about…if you haven’t heard, there was a conference a while back for some judges and other people that was paid for by the federal government whose billing appeared to contain muffins that cost $16 dollars apiece….and the right has taken this up as being a huge example of the wasteful spending that is rampant in Washington., But, it doesn’t matter to the right that it isn’t true…it is a quirk in how the billing was presented by the hotel where the conference was held. The reality is that the $16 dollars was for the entire days food for each of the attendees….and if you’ve ever been to any big city like DC, a cup of coffee goes for 5 bucks and a continental breakfast like the one that cost the taxpayers $16 at the conference can cost upwards of twenty bucks. But, does that matter to the right? Nope….this lie has been chosen to support the draconian cuts that the repubs are pushing and you even had the liar Bill O’Reilly on Jon Stewart’s show this week going on and on about it and I was surprised that Jon didn’t do his homework and cut ole Bill off at the knees….but I guess that falls to me today and I’m happy to do it to that blowhard….geez…..

Okay…going to throw out a second lyric for the day: “I can see you on the hill….comatose but walking still…”

Michelle Bachmann is still an idiot…

Well….just a short little one about the latest craziness from ole Michelle….yesterday, talking to some of her supporters, she “blamed” Obama and his foreign policy ineptitude for the “Arab Spring” that saw the removal of many dictators from the northern Africa Arab states. Now, let me get this straight…it’s a bad thing that millions of people now live in countries that have budding democracies and more freedom than they had? Oh, I get it, freedom is okay and necessary for the US but for anyone else it’s destabilizing and a threat to Israel. This woman is just one of the stupidest people I have ever heard speak and everyone should just ignore her instead of giving weight to the nonsense she spouts…does she truly believe that nothing can happen in any country around the world without the permission of the US? This is third grade level foreign policy and drips of the desperation that is rampant in her campaign with her plummeting poll numbers….bye bye Michelle…

This is a real grass-roots revolt…

Well…I was going to go off on Nolan Finley again for his nonsense that the left is irritated with the tea party because they tell the truth…but as everyone knows, the right has their version of “truth” that never fits up with the facts…and Nolan is just a little. little, man trying to hold onto a past that is fast reaching its end. What I did want to talk about is the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that is going on in New York as we speak and one of its aims to call attention to the continued thievery that is rampant; aided by the tea party and it’s corporate overlords. I find it funny that one of the reasons that the media has been slow to cover this story is that they don’t have a clear agenda or should I say a set of talking points that lends itself to the 5 second sound bite that “news” has degenerated into. But, that is the whole point….a true grass roots movement that is trying to take on what is wrong with this country can’t be summed up into talking points….the mess that the repubs have made is so wide reaching and insidious that it takes time to figure out what the people need to fix the situation. A true grass roots rebellion is run by the people rebelling and the diversity of it’s ideas comes from the diversity of the people in it…of the “99′ers”, those of us that are not in the 1% who continue to take, and take, and take without regard to the damage they are doing to the rest of the country. I also find it funny that this true movement of the people is being compared to the sham movement of the tea party; which is bankrolled by the billionaires and whose mouths are filled by the talking points those billionaires want them to say.

I want to end with just a word of thanks to those who are on the front lines in New York and to the rest of us who try everyday to wrest control of this country out of the hands of the 1%…..maybe this time money won’t be able to run us over and leave us for roadkill…I can hope anyway….

The republicans vision…

Well..if we want to see the republicans vision in action, all we have to do is look at the state of Texas and the latest attack on schools there…on top of the 4 billion dollars that was chopped out of education in the latest budget, there is now a commission appointed by Rick Perry that is deciding on whether to give the companies that own the oil refineries there refunds on their taxes to pay for upgrades in their pollution controls. Now, let me get this straight…Perry and his cronies are going to give some of the most profitable companies in the world tax breaks to pay for something they are responsible for and shift the burden to the children and college students of Texas? This is class warfare and corporate welfare at it’s worst…what would happen if a regular citizen were to ask for tax breaks to buy a new car since is old one pollutes more than a new one? The repub establishment would be red-faced, screaming socialism, and lecturing the citizen that he or she needs stand on their own…that they can’t come to government to fix their problems. But it’s a different story when your big political donor comes with it’s hand out….that is the distilled vision that the repubs have for America…geez…