Category Archives: Politics

Politics

When did anger become a virtue?

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Well…this just popped into my head…no it didn’t hurt…when did anger and the expression of it become such a virtue? To listen to those on the right, Obama is not fit to be president because he acts too cool in times of crisis. You have got to be kidding me again…when I was growing up it was a virtue to not get upset at every little thing…to act like a man (or woman) when things went wrong and to think, then take action. There is even a well-know phrase, “calm under fire” that was one of the highest compliments that you could give someone. What went wrong? I think the right is confusing the sound and fury that has come to define their brand of politics with accomplishment…and being an adult. Fox News is even using the phrase “No Drama Obama” as another slur…what would they have him do? Run around and scream?

It’s just another instance of the right saying whatever they can, no matter how true to try to bring the Obama administration down by any means…sounds like terrorism to me…but as always, I support their right to say it.

Keith, if you decide to steal this one, too..you owe me…

Politics

Good riddance…

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Well…as I advocated the other day…the President has removed General McChrystal from his position leading the effort in Afghanistan strongly reaffirming to this country and the rest of the world that the civilians are now and always will be in charge of our military. And, as more and more information comes out on this guy, what I said about him in the other post is also true: that this guy was just one of the tea partiers that could not accept that their side lost the election and was just throwing an immature fit like you see at all of the tea party rallies. Now, I know that some of you that read this are bosses…what would you do if one of your employees did what McChrystal did to the President? If one of your brightest engineers, for example, spent his break or work time bad-mouthing you to the rest of your team and showed you no respect? I’m sure you’d warn him that it wasn’t appropriate…but if he kept it up you wouldn’t tolerate it and would probably ask him or her to go somewhere else. Just what Obama did.

But, there is a larger danger here that has been ignored by our generation; a warning of which was given by an ex-general who was also president Eisenhower. “Beware the military-industrial complex”…to that I’ll add my own corollary…”Beware the hero worship of the military”. Many of the commentators seem to want to give the military a pass on everything with the right being the biggest cheerleaders…and yes they do sacrifice…but they also know what they are getting into when they sign up. It’s become almost like a religion to some folks and what the world doesn’t need is another religion…geez.

Politics

You’re on your own….

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Well…can the Repubs get any more obvious who they are lining up behind in the oil spill mess? First, you have Joe Barton apologizing to BP for Obama slapping them on the wrist…and then you have the new talking points that are urging impeachment for Obama since the Repubs think that asking BP to step up to their responsibilities is an unconstitutional use of presidential power. It’s not like the scene from “The Godfather” where a character holding a gun says that either the subject’s signature or brains were going to end up on a contract. What Obama did is called “jawboning” and it has been a part of the president’s prerogative since there was a President. What the hell is with these guys? I think Eugene Robinson, from the Washington Post, said it best…that the Repubs just want to attack Obama and it doesn’t matter if what they say is true, false, or even rooted in reality…it is the same tactic they used on Clinton, Kerry, and a host of other Democrats. The sad thing is that the Repub followers believe and support this crap.

What Obama is doing, and what I have advocated for many, many years, is a key role of the government that was abdicated under the Repubs…that is to be a referee between the average American and the overwhelming power of the modern corporation. What the Repubs want to happen is, instead of the 20 billion fund that Obama has gotten from BP, is for each and every harmed individual to bet their life savings and take BP to court, or, if you don’t have any savings, you are just out of luck. If we sit here and think for just a second…that’s long enough…we’ll see the other predominately Repub group that would benefit from extended litigation and court fights. Yep, you guessed it..the trial lawyers; not to mention BP.

Please, please, please, America….open your eyes and see just once what the Repubs are all about…they don’t care about you or any other American that is part of the middle class….this is their “let them eat cake” moment…and I hope the results are the same as the French revolution. Geez….

Politics

How much profit is enough?

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Well…this is one that I have been thinking about for quite a long time now…and this post was inspired by the simple thing of trying to find a softsided, 12-pack cooler to replace the one I’ve had for a few years. For months now, I have searched and searched every store in the area, looking for one that was made in the USA to support my fellow workers but I got to the point that I just gave up and bought one that was made in China. As an aside, since I lost my job at a local furniture manufacturer for the stated reason that my job was no longer needed, (and I guess the 15 million dollars per year in cost reduction I gave them wasn’t either), I have become a more conscious consumer; trying to buy American when possible but also making note of how the retailer treats their employees. Needless to say, I will never shop at Walmart. I can’t believe that all consumers are only motivated by price, but the choice of supporting our fellow Americans has been taken away by CEO’s whose only motive is more and more profit and the resulting bonuses that accrue to them from that profit. Personally, I would have paid 30 to 40 percent more for the cooler if it was made in an American factory that paid a living wage and healthcare to their workers….so those workers would be able to buy American made things that could put me and many like me back to work.

What if, instead of hundreds of millions of dollars going to the CEOs, a company would take, say, half of that and invest it in an American manufacturing plant that would employ 2 to 3 thousand workers? Would Ford’s stock price have plummeted if it had made 1.5 billion dollars and put on 10 thousand more American workers instead of the 2 billion it made? Yeah, I know it would have because the stock price is driven by the greed of the traders who could make a lot of money by shorting the stock and who don’t give a damn about anything except their next bonus and the new BMW…but I think that distorts decisions that would be made if they didn’t have to think about Wall Street.

When are we, as a people, going to stand up and say no more…no more billion dollar payouts for one hedge fund trader, no more CEOs making hundreds of millions while all they do is lay off people and line their own pockets? No more political protection for oil companies who make obscene, record profits and ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Geez…

Oh, if you’ve read this post and remember that I drive a 1993 Mazda and have the urge to call me a hypocrite, don’t…because the Mazda was made in a Ford plant in Flat Rock Michigan by American, union workers….and it has almost 300K miles on it..that’s what I call quality….

Politics

I don’t know where to start….

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I’m sitting here in front of my computer almost paralyzed by the happenings yesterday by the troglodytes in the Republican party. Talk about your target rich environment…I am amazed that anyone is still listening to these folks after Barton, Bachmann and the rest finished up yesterday. Let’s start with Joe Barton, the Repub from Texas, who yesterday apologized to BP for what he called the “shakedown” by the Obama White House for holding them responsible for the disaster in the gulf….this, from the party of responsibility…but only responsibility if you are poor or middle class…or you owe too much on your student loans, or are upside down on your mortgage. But if you are a corporation that has caused the worst environmental disaster in history, the apologists in the Repub party have your back…and will do anything to protect your obscene profits.

Then…I have to move on to the idiot Michelle Bachmann…does she even read the talking points before she spouts them like some deranged robot? Well…her comment on the 20 billion dollar clean up fund that Obama has dragged out of BP is that it is another example of the socialistic re-distribution of wealth that is the plan of this administration. I guess it’s okay with her when re-distribution goes the other way with the Bushies tax cuts for the rich, but taking care of all of the damaged people in the gulf is just too much for her and the rest of the Repub morons.

Haven’t you had enough of these guys? Do you really want to have the government controlled by the representatives from big oil? Geez….

Politics

Thank you Jon Stewart….

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This is just a placeholder so I’ll remember that I want to touch on the disappointment I have with Obama when it comes to his promises to restore the rule of law…broken promises…he is quickly losing me and many other supporters with unprincipled continuation of the Bushies worst abuses….and I’m going to have drinks this aft so I need help remembering….told you I have flaws…

Politics

The Supremes are at it again….

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Well…another case where, when you turn over the rocks that the Bushies hide under, the stench becomes unbearable when their policies of torture and extraordinary rendition are involved. I hope you take the time to read about the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who was kidnapped when traveling through the US by the US government and sent to Syria where he was held and tortured for almost a year until the Canadians determined that the information they provided to the US was false. Now, this is a man whose only crime is having a name that is similar to ones that were on the flawed terrorist watchlists that the Bushies used to terrorize anyone they felt, in their own minds, was a danger to the US.

I find it such an egregious failure to uphold the constitution in this case and I also fault the Obama administration for doing the same damn things that were a breach on international law by the Bushies. Sending the acting solicitor general to argue to the Supreme court that national security issues are involved and thus we can’t allow this to go to court. Did they buy the same playbook that Cheney used to gut our Constitution? The information that they are so concerned about has already been revealed by the investigation that the Canadians did; finding that this man was completely innocent and compensating him over 9 million dollars for his ordeal. When did we give up moral leadership to the rest of the world? Oh, that’s right, when the Bushies decided to torture!

I have to say thanks to the Canadians for setting the example of taking responsibility for their mistakes…something that Obama and his administration have yet to learn…geez….

Politics

Let them talk….

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Okay, all you progressives and centrists, I have something I need you to do…please let the righties, loonies, birthers, and the rest have their say…it has been one of their prime bitches that the mainstream media and the left are doing everything in their power to shut them up and they feel so aggrieved and put upon that they are willing to do some pretty crazy stuff to get their point (however pointless) across. So….let them talk..no, encourage them to talk…maybe even pay them to talk….since the best way to expose an idiot is to let him keep talking…just search for Rick Barber…a repub, Tea Party candidate from Alabama who, a couple of days ago, declared war on the US government using some of the founding fathers as surrogates…I’m not making this up….I’m just not that creative…geez…

Politics

I think it’s a long con….

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Okay…I’m sure you’ve read about the concerted effort from the right to say that the most important thing for the economy right now is to address the deficits and the fear that inflation may be on the horizon. If you’ve studied economics at all, you know that in a recession, what needs to happen is that the government deficit spends to stimulate portions of the economy that the private sector can’t. This has worked in every recession/depression that the tactic was tried but what I see now is the repubs from David Brooks to Boehner and their ilk are calling for cutting government spending and have categorically rejected the latest call for federal funding to states and cities who are laying off people and cutting back services. Now, they may say that this is perfectly consistent with their conservative views but I see it as a plan for them to ensure that the Obama administration fails so they can go back to the tax-cutting, reward the rich policies that have led to where we are today. And they have done a great job of convincing the man on the street that government intervention for any reason is a bad thing. They use for the underpinnings of their argument that the stimulus package is not adding millions of jobs but only 41K in the last month but what they don’t say is that employment is always a lagging indicator, especially in a recession as severe as this one.

I’ll bet you didn’t believe I could work up any outrage today…I’m glad I could prove you wrong…
One thing I can believe is that these guys are using the misery of the unemployed for their own political gain…geez…

Politics

I was right about Obama’s speech…

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Well….it only took two days for the righties to start attacking Obama for his speech in K’zoo Monday. I don’t want to gloat (well…yes I do) but I called that Monday while the speech was going on. Okay, I’ll be back after lunch to finish this…yep, just a teaser…you go to lunch, too, and there will something waiting for you if you’re not too motivated on hump day. More later…

Okay…I’m back….and I’m going call this idiot out from the Detroit News…Manny Lopez, in his column in the News Tuesday, made a huge point of the fact that the Kalamazoo Promise scholarships are funded by private donors and that Obama didn’t kiss their butts enough in his speech. His premise was that there is no need for any government involvement in higher education since “see, private funding works in K’zoo” but what he fails to admit or realize is the fact that it has been the gutting of government programs that help the middle and lower class afford college by the Repubs that made private funding necessary. Yeah, I agree it would be great if some of his repub buddies, for example the trader at Goldman that made a BILLION dollars in compensation, would give some back.

But, there is an underlying flaw in that logic that we all should be aware of, and that is that if it is private money, there can be strings attached to it that could advance the repubs agenda. What if a student that accepted the scholarship would be required to attend a specified and well-recognized conservative school that would do the same thing the righties are so scared of on the left; that is “indoctinate” them in the ideas that would perpetuate another class of leaders that won’t give a damn about the middle class.

Doesn’t anyone see that private funding would be just another instance where the lower and middle class will then have to go to the rich with their hands out and beg for a college education?

I’m sure they will say that that kind of stuff doesn’t happen in the private sector, that the market will decide and support the “right” ideas…well…all I have to say about their blind allegiance to the market and to the goodwill of the rich is to look back at Enron, BP, Goldman, AIG…and the list goes on and on.

We should not bet the future of the education of our children on the fleeting goodwill of people who are so insulated from the struggles of normal folk…

Manny…this is not about Obama’s agenda or your feared socialist takeover of the US..this night was about celebrating the fact that these kids had done something special, so special that the President of the United States saw the need to recognize that fact, and for you to politicize what is a wonderful part of America is the kind of cynicism and division we do not need right now…geez…