Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Oklahoma goes crazy…

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Well…I’m sure you’ve heard of the constitutional amendment passed in Oklahoma on election day that forbids the use of Islamic or international law in court rulings…and that more than 70% of the voters approved it. First, if they are so concerned with religious law being used to settle disputes, why didn’t they include all religious law? But no, that would mean that they could no longer refer to the bible or other christian teachings that they just love to cite when they are restricting the rights of gays and lesbians or a woman’s right to be secure in her own body. What we had in Oklahoma was just another cynical ploy by the right to get their base out to vote…just like they used gay marriage bans to do the same in previous elections….elections where they had no new ideas to offer but they knew if they went back to the divide and conquer playbook, it might just work. And, they got a two-fer with the ruling by a federal district court to stay the implementation on constitutional grounds so now they can continue to delegitimize the role of the judiciary and trot out their tired old attacks on the “activist judges” that are more activist on the right than left.

Isn’t anyone else tired of the right’s continued efforts to divide this country? Geez…

Politics

Let’s talk about START…

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Well…the good ole boys in the repub party are at it again…this time opposing the newest START treaty (strategic arms limitation treaty) for the only reason that they can…not for any lack in it’s merits, or for any credible policy differences…in fact it’s a better deal and has one thing that that the repubs were just SO hot for when the bushies ran the show…a credible missile shield for Europe that the Russians were adamantly opposed to in the last round. Across the world, our allies are speechless when asked about the repub opposition…they all know how good a deal this is for them and can’t understand the stupidity of the repubs in holding it up. What happened to the tradition that stood us so well for the last 200 years…that politics stopped at the waters edge and our internal differences were kept in private? That we wouldn’t give the rest of the world an edge by showing that we did have foreign policy differences? It just shows that the repubs don’t give a damn about what is good for this country, the only thing they care about is political gain and ruining the chances of Obama to accomplish anything…even when the safety of the country is at stake. By senator Kyl and his ilk holding up this treaty, and taking away our ability to verify where all the nuclear material in Russia is, he, and the supposedly security conscious repubs are again exposed for the lying, political opportunists they are. They have made it easier for our enemies to get the weapons of mass destruction that they have pledged to use against us and have cynically made us less safe.

When do we get the adults back in charge again? Geez….

Politics

Another thought…

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Well…I was either reading or listening to the news the other day and came upon this little tidbit that the righties don’t want you to know…that over the last year, corporate profits have been the highest in the history of the world….yep, under the socialist, anti-business Obama administration, American corporate profits are the highest they’ve ever been…let’s say that again…highest corporate profits…EVER…now, I can’t wait to see the contortions that the repubs will go through to explain away the inconvenient fact that corporations are doing better under the Dems than they did in 8 years under the Bushies. But…I can guess one…that corporate profits are up because the repubs are coming back into control and are going to help business even more…and this fact has removed the new repub talking point “uncertainty”, that too scary state of affairs that has paralyzed everything…please, give me a break…geez…

Politics

Yep, it’s personal….

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Well…over the last couple of years I have been admonished a few times by my friends to not take things so personally, especially politics, and I have taken that advice to heart for the most part…but, as I reflect further on the state of affairs in this country, I may have been wrong to listen…I am coming to a new way of thinking about things; that maybe the only way to effect change in our great country is to take all of the blows personally, to take torture in my name as an American personally, to take the concentration of wealth fostered by the repubs personally, to take the unrelenting partisanship in politics personally, and to take the gutting of the middle class personally. I don’t know if it will help or not but I think we need to do something different…especially when I hear of the “great social values awakening” that is the plan of the new Republican governors that were elected in November. I take it personally when these guys, including the new gov of Michigan Rick Snyder, are going back to the old, divisive ways of the past repub administrations where they try to shove the religious views of the minority of the electorate down our throats by legislation that is by design discriminatory…can we say more restrictions on women’s rights? Can we say legislating the permanent second class status for gays and lesbians by denying them the rights that the rest of us have? These are the guys that spout off about the constitution constantly, and how we have gotten away from it’s original intent….but it was never meant to restrict any groups rights, but to grow those rights as the society changed.

I take it personally when any political party abandons all principle for political gain….where, over the last 30 years. the repubs have been trying earnestly to kill the federal government by starving it of the tax revenue it needs to provide the protections that all societies provide to it’s citizens…and yet show it’s just a political ploy when one of their “stars”, Governor Jindal of Louisiana, goes on “Meet the Press” today and bitches that the federal government should have had ships, etc. sitting and ready to cope with any oil spills in the gulf….okay, Bobby, where do we get the money when your party is still trying to bankrupt the government by giving the rich a $700 billion dollar tax cut? Explain this to me…it’s the governments job to clean up after all of the business polluters, but it’s not the job of government to support citizens with UI benefits when we are in the greatest recession in all of our lifetimes? Can you see why I think I have to start taking all of this stuff personally again? But, I am going to try to convert those feelings into some sort of action…don’t know what it is yet…but this question keeps running through my head..”if not now, when”…geez…

Politics

Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican..

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Well…this is going to be a short one but one that I had to comment on…the repubs just shot down the extension of unemployment benefits for the purported reason that any additional spending has to be paid for by cuts in other spending. this move will cut off these benefits to almost 2 million people at the end of the year and has never happened in history with the unemployment rate so high…and their comments ratcheted up their nastiness to a new level even for them…they think it is a citizen’s duty to take any job, no matter that the pay is less than they would get in UI benefits; that it is less than the money they need to keep feeding their families…but that is not the repubs problem. They just don’t give a damn about anyone but the rich…and you can see that by their continued insistence that the 700 billion dollars in tax cuts for the rich be made permanent…but with no word of how to pay for that….of course…geez…

Politics

Bye Bye, Blue Dogs….

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Well…one of the themes that has come out of the recent mid-terms is the shrinking of the “Blue Dog Democrat” caucus from 56 members to only 23. And, the losers are casting their losses to be all tied to the healthcare bill and that they were not conservative enough in their philosophy….what planet are they living on? The reason that most of them lost was their abandonment of the Democratic party and the principles of fairness and protection of the middle class that has been part of the dems ideals for more than 50 years. During the healthcare debate, and the financial regulation debate, when the blue dogs talked you couldn’t tell them from the repubs…and most of this crap was motivated by political calculations made to ensure their re-election. What they didn’t count on was that the dem voters would remember what they said, and what they did to gut the healthcare bill and turn it into a windfall for the insurance companies. This was compounded by their siding with the repubs on financial reform….and not offering any reasons other than the tired old repub talking points of “government regulation bad, free market good” that has run this country into the ground over the past decade.

So, what did they expect? When they abandoned their constituents didn’t they foresee that these same constituents would abandon them? I guess they thought that repubs would vote for them if they acted like repubs…but that was never going to happen, either. I say good riddance to them…to these Democrats in name only who showed their true colors and lack of empathy for all of us that have no healthcare and because of our age, have few prospects…that is not the America I grew up in…I hope Democrats become Democrats again and grow a spine…geez….

Politics

This is an “Adult Conversation”?

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Well..the new repub talking points are out and they all have one thing in common…the phrase “adult conversation” is in all of them; this coming from the “adults” that have said nothing but no…nothing but no to the needs of the country’s unemployed, nothing but no to the uninsured, nothing but no to any compromise that didn’t give them everything they and their business cronies wanted. Sounds more like the conversation of a three year old instead of an adult. I thought an adult conversation was one where people sat down and were serious about the issues and could see that are two sides, or more, to an issue and disputes can’t be resolved by one of the side just saying no, it’s going to be my way or we won’t talk…which is the way the repubs are framing the issues…shouting “no compromise” as they use all of their energy to pander to their base with utter disregard for what is best for the country.

So, let’s recognize this new set of talking points for what they are…just the newest tactic in the war to destroy the middle class and the safety net that is fast being shredded to give the rich their $370,000 tax cuts…I want to gag every time I hear these idiots.

Yeah, I know, less reasonableness than I have promised…but where has that gotten us progressives? We are still playing by the old rules that have been overwritten by the thugs in the republican party…it’s time to get a copy of that rulebook…but, I wish we didn’t have to…geez…

Politics

The hypocrisy continues…

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Well…I was going to title the one “the hypocrisy starts” but the one I used seems to describe what is happening better. Let’s start with the new repub member of the house from out east who was elected after railing about the new healthcare law and promising to repeal it. Then, this idiot goes off on congressional staffers who tell him that his “Cadillac” health benefits don’t kick in for a month….doesn’t he get it that his opposition to reform will keep 50 million Americans from having their healthcare kick in at all? Of course, these guys are so dense that they can’t see the irony of this kind of behavior…I’ve got mine, everyone else can go to hell.

Then you have our good buddy Rep. Mike Pence who has been on record multiple times saying that he can’t support extension of unemployment benefits for those most hurting in our society unless he gets the tax cuts for the rich extended…basically, extorting the majority of the working American people for the top 1% of earners. Don’t the rich already have enough? Another example of repub hypocrisy…getting elected by duping the middle class then screwing everyone but their rich buddies…geez…

Politics

What’s next Jon?

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Well…after the rally to restore sanity on the Washington mall a few weeks ago, one of the questions that keep recurring to me is what’s next? How do we take the idea of reasonableness and apply it to the problems we face in the US? Especially when all of the successful politicians over the past few years (mostly on the right) have espoused the winner take all philosophy that Boehner and McConnell have refined to an art form. I understand that there are real policy differences between the right and left, but I think we’ve lost sight of the fact that this hyper-partisanship is gradually painting us into a corner where the compromises necessary to make democracy work are no longer thinkable. Is this patriotism? How did we lose the vision of America as the place where things are possible? Reasonable politicians are roadkill for the well oiled machine of the right…and the rights only definition of compromise is that they hold out until they get everything they want even though they are hurting the country when they do so.

Again, I fault the American people for allowing this to happen…..to listen to the lies and accept them as truth…to buy into the “death panels” and the 200 million dollar a day cost of Obama’s trip to southeast Asia…one that was pushed by Michelle Bachmann as the absolute truth when the entire story was debunked by Anderson Cooper of CNN. I think the window for preserving what is great with America is quickly closing and the heavy hand of the moneyed interests are leaning on it to close it faster. We need to couch this fight in the idea of patriotism; that continuing to think in the short-sighted way our politicians do is not what is best for our country….but to expect this to change may just be wishful thinking…hope not…

Let’s start thinking about the next steps that come from the idea of reasonableness in government…and what we reasonables see as the path forward…I welcome any comments to try to build a new consensus…and aren’t there things that we can agree on already? For example…a balanced budget is a good thing when we are not digging out of a recession? That government intrusion into our lives should be the smallest it can be and still have a functioning society? That from those that much is given, much is expected? That there is a prohibition of the establishment of religion contained in the first amendment? What are some others that you think about?

Politics

Alaska again…

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Well…I could do the easy one here and just make jokes about sister Sarah….since Alaska, that last bastion of individuality, and independence (if you don’t count that it is the biggest welfare state in the union) is in the middle of another attempt by the righties to steal an election. If you liked Bush v. Gore, you’ll love what ole Joe Miller has in mind for Alaska. Where did he go to law school anyway…Bob Jones University? As you know, ole Joe is irritated that since about 20 thousand people voted for him in the primary, he wasn’t just anointed as the new senator….earlier, when it looked like he may win the election..he was all about counting all the votes to make sure no one is disenfranchised. But, as with all of these pseudo patriots, when the system and the people reject them, there must be something wrong and they call in all the lawyers. They have even gone so far to cite Bush v. Gore as the precedent for the challenges…did they even read the decision? It is stated in Bush v. Gore that it can NEVER be used as precedent in any other case…and it only applies to the one-off of the 2000 election.

But this doesn’t matter to the righties…they hate frivolous lawsuits unless they can gain political advantage from them…all I can say to ole Joe is “man up” and admit that your crazy beliefs and only passing familiarity with the truth is what is costing you this election…not any conspiracy that you dream up in that addled brain of yours…