Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Shenanigans, Shenanigans….

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Well…after the huge giveaway to business paid for by the workers here in Michigan, guess what happened? The health of Michigan’s economy is no where near as bad as the repubs projections made it out to be. Doesn’t anyone else see shenanigans here? They come out in January with dire budget projections used to drive their anti-citizens agenda and raise taxes on us while giving the state away to business and the rich, an now, magically, they find that the projected 1.5 billion dollar shortfall is now only a billion dollars and dropping every day. And, Snyder and his cronies are still out there pitching that we need to bribe businesses to stay in Michigan…and that is just what it is, holding the people of Michigan up to bribes in the form of tax breaks to keep business from taking their ball and going home if we don’t give them what they paid for in this new repub controlled state. When do we, as citizens of Michigan, get the truth out of these repub liars?

One other thing that is happening in repub controlled states is another oldie but goodie where they are putting structural “reforms” in place that will suppress the votes that normally go to the dems….leaning on the old chestnut of “widespread voter fraud” that has never happened anywhere except in the heads of the repub strategists….shenanigans, shenanigans, shenanigans…geez…

Oh, one last thing, the repubs in the US Senate blocked the ending of 4 billion dollars a year in subsidies for the oil companies…yep, you heard it here, the repubs won’t give unemployed workers any help but they will give 4 billion dollars to the oil companies…I can’t even work up any outrage anymore since this is always the pattern…we can’t afford any safety nets for individuals but we can for oil companies….I fear for this country’s future…

Politics

I find this ironic…

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Well…just a shorty before I go out and get some coffee and read the papers…just read an interesting study that looked at tax revenues in 2007 and the findings made me laugh like crazy…it turns out that the top ten “welfare queen” states; states that get more in federal money than they pay in, are the hot beds of the tea party and the right wing of the repub party…oh, the whole repub party is right wing now so I guess I’ll have to find a new descriptor….so, they hate the federal government and think it should be shrunk? I propose that we start with the easy way, cut off the welfare queen states and they will then have incentive to get off their butts and start working…that’s what the repubs say about the unemployed and that’s what should happen to these states. Geez…

Politics

Welcome to the Soviet Union…courtesy of the Supreme Court..

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Well…as I sit here today, I am saddened, outraged, and stunned by the latest nail in the coffin of individual freedom here delivered by the supreme court over the past few days. It hasn’t been enough that this court has muted the individuals voice in politics by the Citizens United decision allowing unlimited corporate money to buy elections, then they allow employers to take away any rights the individual has in the workplace by not allowing lawsuits against egregious violations of many laws that were written to protect workers rights, now, they gut the fourth amendment by allowing police to create “emergencies” that allow them to enter anyone’s house without a warrant. This latest case that this wrong headed court has ruled on allows the police to bang on any door without cause and then if they hear any noise that the police construe to be “destroying evidence” can enter the house without a warrant…even if no one int he house is suspected of any crime. Yep, you heard it again, it’s more of the “trust us” baloney that you always hear from the police…guess how this one is going to be used? Any critic of police tactics that has the guts to speak out better watch out….the knock will be coming to your door soon and not getting to the door fast enough can be construed to be resisting arrest…someone please save us from ourselves….geez….

Politics

Ole Newt and the food stamp president…

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Well….I really don’t know if Newt is the most brilliant or the most stupid of the repub presidential candidates that have announced so far…if you saw any of the weekend news show where Newt’s line of attack against Obama is that he has presided over a great increase of Americans that are on food stamps and he makes the assertion that food stamps are welfare that people don’t deserve even if they are out of work because if they are out of work, it is only because they don’t want to work….conveniently ignoring the deepest recession on the last 80 years and the fact that employers are just not adding enough jobs to make the unemployment rate drop. Just what audience is Newt trying to reach? The millions of middle Americans who are out of work through no fault of their own but through the fault of the policies of the repubs? Does he think that even one of these folks who deserve this help will vote for him when he rails against even the smallest of safety nets? I think this is just another racist comment where ole Newt is trying to dupe the poor people that are still voting repub by equating people that need food stamps to feed their family with the abuses of the old welfare system. With over 12 million jobs lost in this recession that was caused by the excesses of the repubs, of course the amount of people on food stamps is going to rise…but there is still no plan on the right to help people get jobs that will help them get off the type of assistance that the repubs loathe…for individuals…but it’s okay to continue to give oil companies 10 billion dollars a year in corporate welfare…what did you expect from Newt and the repubs?

Politics

May 15th part two…

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Haven’t done one of these in quite a while and no, I don’t think it’s cheating…I did watch the movie and it was no where near as good as the documentary on Jack Abramhoff that I watched the other day….there was way too much focus on the title character and not enough on the influence peddling and the “pay for play” aspect where he was selling access to repub senators and congressmen. The real story was just more interesting….it has been kind of interesting what is going on with the repub presidential candidates and all of the supposed front runners that have decided they can’t win in 2012 so they are staying in their cushy Fox jobs and will continue to rake in the money from their hate and attacks….now, all they have left is Paul, Romney, and ole Newt that have their hats in the ring…and not one of them can ignore their pasts of favoring healthcare before they were against it, for being serial cheaters, or for wanting to tear the federal government completely down….I know you can figure out which one is which without me telling you if you’ve been paying even a little attention…..

I do have a little hope that Obama is starting to think and act strategically by getting bin Laden, pushing for more oil drilling, and attacking the Ryan budget proposals…now he just needs to get out in front of them instead of counterpunching…I may even have another one today…

Politics

The torture lies…

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Well….this one is the continuation of the one down below where I started to comment on the article by John McCain in the Washington Post today where he takes the torture apologists that fox news has trotted out to task…calling their assertions that the information that led to Osama bin Laden came from torture lies….you know I’m not a big McCain fan…but it is about time someone on the right stood up and told the truth just once….It was not ole GW that did everything but order the raid that killed him…his waffling and reliance on his “gut” instead of facts let bin Laden live for so long and these are facts…something I know that the repubs really are not acquainted with. So, I will thank McCain for this too little, too late, denunciation of the fox liars…and hope that more on the right discover the truth and their spines…geez…

Look down…I added to the Red Wings post…

Politics

Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts…

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Well….I haven’t been able to make a coherent long-form thought in a couple of days so I think I’ll just go with it and write what I like to call short stories…pretty original, huh? Starting with the headline in the USA Today that states that American taxpayers are paying less in taxes than they have in any year since 1958…yep, so when you hear the repubs say that taxes are still too high and want to cut them more for the well off, remember that if we went back to the tax rates of the booming 1990’s, the deficit would be cut by more than a third without cutting the aid to college students, seniors, and the rest of the middle class that the repubs are saying is absolutely necessary. Remember, too, that it has never been shown that tax cuts for the rich and business do anything but make them richer…no jobs created, no benefit to those who are struggling.

Another one that got a rise out of me was an editorial in the Detroit News that did nothing but denigrate the people in localities around Detroit for approving millages to continue to pay their firefighters, police, and to maintain the services that make their communities more livable. The News goes on to assert that the voters in those localities are stupid for raising their own taxes instead of buying into the draconian cuts that gov Snyder is jamming down the throats of the rest of Michigan. Where the hell does the News get off telling the voters how to vote? I see this as just a huge snit by the News since they blindly think Snyder is the savior of Michigan and that only his ideas are worthy of action….and they are so irritated that the elected officials of those communities have decided not to attack their neighbors and buy into the bogus attempts that the repubs are making at playing the middle class off against each other. What’s next Snyder? Are you going to take over those communities that voted to raise taxes and appoint emergency managers since they are obviously crazy to not drink your repub kool-aid? I guess the Snyder honeymoon is over…can’t wait for 2012 when we can say goodbye to these idiots…geez…okay, only two thoughts so the title is not accurate….maybe there are more than one thought in each one?

Okay, let’s make it three….another report that came out today saying that the compensation for CEO’s is higher than it has ever been as compared to normal workers and has completely recovered from the blip of a downturn it took last year…I don’t have to tell you what that means…okay, I will anyway….these guys were not touched at all by the recession that decimated the rest of the nation….great work if you can get it…geez…

Politics

It’s the right decision…

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Well…just got back from the bike ride and I am sore…but that’s pretty normal for me….I did want to weigh in on the controversy over the pictures of a dead bin Laden and the president’s decision not to release them. I think it’s the right decision and is part of the type of things we need to do to restore our standing in the world; a businesslike way of running the country that takes the emotional bullshit out of decision making….something the Bushies never could figure out with their faith-based administration. I know, I should get over the Bushies at some point in the near future, but when people like Peter King continue to support and give credit to them and make excuses for them, I need to call them out on it. If you hadn’t heard from rep King, he trotted out the old repub talking point that torture got them the information that led to bin Laden’s capture and death….even though everyone in the intelligence community dismissed that years ago and he ignores the fact that torture did more to turn the world against us than anything else in the history of the country. Well…that may be a little hyperbole, but seeing these guys continue to want our names, as citizens of this country, associated with this dark episode still irritates the hell out of me…geez…

Politics

I just remembered…

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Well…I’m in the middle of watching a movie and I just remembered that I promised some thoughts on the nullification strategies that the repubs are using on Obama, the same as they did with Clinton…using the birther controversy to match the Whitewater inquest to try to make sure that there are always distractions that take peoples minds away from what is really important. Doesn’t anyone else see this as un-American? The right goes on and on about supporting the commander in chief in wartime when one of theirs in in power, but when it’s not, all you hear is picking, sniping, and second guessing by these hypocrites. Contrary to what the right thinks, politics is not war…not a battle to be won at the cost of our very Americanness…..Yeah, I know, that not a real word but it is a good descriptor…America used to be the place where people of all political stripes could come together for the good of the nation, not just of their party and we all know it is the repubs that have ruined it. Let’s start holding them accountable…..geez…

Politics

There’s a theme here….

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Well….there have been things happening here in Michigan that I think need some comments since it appears that there is a theme that is running through them. Hey…didn’t bury the lead…oh, yep I did…damn….okay, let’s get to it…starting with the passing of the Snyder budget proposal that barely squeeked by the repub controlled House that will eliminate taxes for 86% of businesses here…yeah, you read it right 86% of business will pay no taxes under Snyder’s plan…that means you and I will be building the roads, paying for the schools, police and fire protection that business will then be able to use for free….sounds a lot like the welfare that the repubs always say is ruining this country when it goes to individuals, but I guess it’s just peachy when it goes to the rich and business. Doesn’t it take away businesses incentive to work hard when they can just freeload on the backs of the people? If you remember, this is just what the repubs said about people getting unemployment benefits earlier in the year. Aren’t you tired of this nonsense yet?

Another thing we should remember is that the repubs were voted into office largely on the argument of the “government takeover” of healthcare and their incessant yammering that this was creeping socialism but what Snyder is doing here in Michigan is right out of the central planning of the old Soviet Union…where he and his cronies now have the power to remove elected officials an take over any entity that doesn’t toe their line. Where is the repub outcry over this egregious central government takeover?

The third thing that happened lately is the imposition of the new young driver rules that take away a parents right to control that part of their children’s behavior…inserting the state in between that relationship and not allowing a parent to set the rules for behavior….for instance, the new 10 pm curfew for new drivers…what if they work after 10? What if they have a family outing? It’s just another example of the repubs talking individual freedom and then imposing the power of the state whenever they have the chance…..