Category Archives: Politics

Politics

A “Target Rich” environment…

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Well…It might have been a good idea to keep the posts to a minimum over the weekend…events of today have made me laugh like a hyena…and so this one is going to be a two or three parter, or it’s going to have more than one subject..is it cheating to do that? Nope…these topics are related, in my mind anyway and I hope the absurdity of them makes you laugh, too..or cry…I was on the fence with my reaction.

The first part is the “revelation” that the newly-elected tea partiers have started to suckle at the teat of the K street lobbyists even before they are sworn in, never mind the pledge they made to change the “culture” of Washington…but it’s just a continuation of the tried and true conservative strategy of saying one thing to get elected and then laughing at the people that voted for them by voting against their constituent’s interests. What did you people that voted for these hypocrites expect? That they would be principled? that they gave a damn about you? No, these types are all about privilege and power as an end to itself…and duping the “little people” is all part of the game.

Next, is a subject that I have been shouting about for months now….and that is the blatant theft that the repubs are engaging in for the richest 2% of Americans…but I hesitate to call them Americans….they are not. They are just a greedy cadre that have learned the lessons of banana republics everywhere…those in power steal all they can with utter disregard for the people and the health of their society…and I am calling out the repubs here as I always will since they have elevated this theft to an art form…and their cynicism is breathtaking in holding up UI benefits for the middle class so they can bust the budget and give the proceeds to the rich. They are doing this when federal employees have just had their pay frozen for two years…and do you hear these middle-class people bitching about it…no, the consensus, at least from the comments I’ve read, is that they want to do their part to help in these tough economic times. The strange coincidence is that they are forgoing around 3% of pay increases in the next two years and if the Bush tax cuts are let to expire for the rich, they would pay about 3% more in taxes. Now, we can see who the real Americans are..those who think of more than enriching themselves, who think that everyone should do their part to help, and who don’t have an entire political party focused on stealing for them. Geez….

Politics

American Exceptionalism….

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Well…the latest shot in the culture wars was fired by the repubs this week when they rolled out the new talking point that deals with “American Exceptionalism” and their contention that Obama doesn’t get the fact that the US is the most exceptional country on the planet, and it is only the Dems with their liberal ideas that don’t accept the fact. Really? You have got to be kidding me….let’s take the issue of healthcare to start: I know you’ve heard the repub shills for the insurance and medical industry opine that we have the best healthcare of any country in the world when it’s really not true or only true for the folks that have the best insurance. Not for the 50 million of us that have no insurance and can’t afford it….and let’s add the fact that healthcare expenses in the US are twice what they are in other developed countries..owing to the fact that insurance companies leech away profits that should be used for patient care…the only exceptional part of this equation is the exceptional way the medical/insurance industry have bought the repubs to do their bidding.

Then, let’s look at the income disparity that has exploded with the 8 years of the repubs under Bush but that started under Saint Ronald of Reagan…back when the top 2% only had about 9 percent of the country’s income but has steadily risen to today where we see that the rich only continue to get richer while the middle class part of the economy stagnates…to the tune of the top 2% now have over 25% of the economy’s benefits with the average CEO’s salary ballooning from 10 times the average worker’s salary to over 500 times the average…now, that is exceptional for the rich, but the rest of us have been left behind.

The last point that I want to make is just about the idea of America; that we were the moral arbiters of the world and we were different because of our system of governance was self-correcting and dedicated to the ideals that founded this nation that included the abhorrence of the basest instincts of humans as evidenced in the killings and torture that were rampant in the rest of the world. But, then that changed under the Bushies…what is exceptional about abandoning our ideals for expediency? Now, I don’t want to gloss over the real tragedies that have been a part of the American experience…and I do feel that the US is exceptional when the governance rises to the needs of the people and puts them first…but when the repubs and their allies put their own and businesses needs above that of the people, that is not exceptional…that is just another wedge issue that these guys are cynically using to drive this country further down the wrong path. Geez…

Politics

I’ve lost my faith…

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Well…this is one that I hoped I didn’t have to write, but I have completely lost faith in the Obama administration…not only for how he caves in to all of the threats by the repubs on taxes,DADT, and all manner of other issues, but this law professor, this person that should know and understand that the rule of law is the only thing that makes a civilized society, has seen fit to abrogate our international obligations, too. It has recently come to light that when Spain, and many other nations that have signed the treaty against torture, wanted to indict the architects of these abhorrent policies, Obama leaned on them and threatened them with diplomatic consequences if they went forward. All in the name of politics…but breaking the law and punishment for it is supposed to be outside of politics; everyone is subject to the law whether they are a beggar or a president. Where is your respect for the law Mr. Obama? You are supposed to uphold the constitution and you have failed miserably in your primary duty to do that…you are now breaking the law by not prosecuting these individuals; and I hope there are consequences for this terrible, cynical reaction to this destruction of America’s standing in the world. Geez….

Politics

Eric Cantor is no James Madison….

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Well…talk about your delusions of grandeur…Ole Eric Cantor and Bob Bishop of Utah put forth their plans over the past couple of days to fundamentally change the way government does business..proposing that if a few states don’t like a federal law, they can band together to ignore it…ignoring the fact that this “nullification” idea has been rejected by every court that has had cases dealing with it come before it….there are so many ways that this is wrong that I am almost left speechless…but, if you know me that won’t last for long. First, why are the repubs wasting time with this frivolous crap when there are still things to be done on the economy, UI benefits, the START treaty, and other important issues that will affect how the middle class fares in the near future? And, do they really think that they can improve on the document written by the founders? I, for one, think that Eric Cantor is no James Madison, someone who he has taken to comparing himself to and feels he knows what Madison would think about revising the government. These delusions of grandeur along with their continuing mis-interpretation of the election results is fostering the worst kind of demagoguery and a return to the faith-based ideas of governance where the facts don’t mean anything when they get in the way of their right wing political agenda. I fear for this country if these are the “leaders” we have to look forward to…geez…

Politics

This is the repubs idea of compromise..

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Well…I hope this latest round of political theater convinces Obama that the repubs are not worthy of even talking to, let alone compromising with and we will get some spine growing back in the Dems. First let’s talk about Susan Collins, the repub senator who has said she will hold up the START treaty vote unless ole GW tells her it’s okay…hasn’t anyone told her the he is not president anymore? Could you imagine the howls that would come from the right if any Dem senator said he was going to hold up a vital treaty until Bill Clinton said it was okay to vote for it? These guys are quickly slipping down the rabbit hole….when did senators stop thinking for themselves?

Then, we had Mitch McConnell, fresh from the invite to the White House to talk about how they can work together to move the country forward stepping up to the microphones and basically repeating the repub line that the only people that need to and have to compromise is the Dems….and proceeds to block a vote on UI benefits and all other legislation until these extortionists get to give away 700 billion dollars to the rich as soon as he gets back to the senate. It’s what I have been proposing for quite a while now…you can’t work with or compromise with these thugs so they need to be set up to take responsibility for ruining this country…and shame on Obama if he can’t figure out how to do it…geez…

Oh, then the third thing…and probably the most absurd is the continuing repub pledges to fight the repeal of DADT…what happened the the old repub saying that they would defer to the commanders? Just to make this clear…all of the commanders have come out for repeal….but you know why the repubs are still resisting this…it is red meat to their base and they want to make sure they can still use it for turnout in two years…what a cynical bunch of pricks…

Politics

Here they come….just as I told you they would..

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Well…back in the runup to the election, one of the predictions that I made was that if the repubs came back to power, you would see the wholesale surrendering of our country to the forces of the “free market” and the religious nuts from the right. And yesterday, in a speech in Detroit, we have one of their presidential frontrunners came out with that exact double whammy; delivered by Mike Pence, the repub from Indiana. In that speech he told the crowd that the big problem in America is the lack of morals in the population and that the only way to solve that is a return to organized religion and more religious involvement in everyday life. Really, Mike? What about those of us that see the folly of organized religion and want the constitutional separation of church and state strengthened? We are tired of you “holier-than-thou” folks telling us that the only way to be a good, ethical, moral person is to belong to organized religion when, to us, religion is the CAUSE of most of the strife in the world.

But, that was not the only thing he felt the need to touch on…he reiterated his opposition to the bailout of the auto industry, along with the Tarp program that helped limit the financial damage in the downturn. His reasoning is that a free market bankruptcy would have been a better way to go…since it would help destroy the unions and turn the US into the low wage economy that his business buddies could then take advantage of…well…I added that last part..this is kind of an editorial after all. Now, you can truly see what these guys are all about….they say we can’t afford extension of UI benefits, or helping American industry survive because it would add to the deficit…but it is just ducky to give the top 1% 700 billion in tax cuts that aren’t paid for…hypocrites all. Geez…

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…