Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Charles Krauthhammer drives off the deep end….again….

Leave a comment

Well…Chuck has done it again with his column in the Detroit News today. How can he, with a straight face make this assertion: that the Dems have presided over a huge expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt and that is why the people are angry. How many time do I have to keep comparing what the repubs did when Bush was in power? How many times can these guys just outright lie and people will keep listening? Let’s look at the facts; expansion of government power? How about the Bushies assertion of the unitary executive branch when Cheney and his Ilk brought back the saying from the Nixon days that if the president does it, it’s not against the law. And then proceeded to usurp the Senates power to ratify treaties by ignoring the Geneva Convention’s sanctions on torture? A truly egregious expansion of executive power that was outside the system of checks and balances. But okay if the repubs do it.

Let’s talk about intrusiveness next. What can be more intrusive and against the constitution than spying on the entire country without the warrants that are required by the fourth amendment? I’m sure ole Chuck is linking his point about intrusiveness to the new healthcare law but the analogy is flawed since there are many things that Americans are required to do by law.

I cannot believe that ole Chuck wants to talk about debt. Let’s just take a dive down the rabbit hole where he lives and rebut that whole assertion. Where did 30% of the structural deficit come from that the repubs have now taken to heart as their major issue? The Bush tax cuts, and when we take into account two unfunded wars, the huge medicare drug benefit, and the TARP program, the repubs must have no shame to call the current digging out from under their pile of crap “socialism”.

To the last point Chuck makes, that because the popular opinion opposes any policy, it should be abandoned and the progressives are on the wrong side of popular opinion. It’s because the progressives are ahead of popular opinion that makes them progressive. In the 60′s public opinion opposed the Civil Rights Act…so, according to Chuck, it shouldn’t have been enacted. Now public opinion has turned against the Afghan war. So, Chuck, should we be bringing the troops home? Public opinion supported racial segregation; should we have kept it?

I don’t know why they keep paying this guy to spout his simplistic, prejudiced crap….geez…

Politics

Hell freezes over….I agree with Kathleen Parker…

Leave a comment

Well…it was a nice morning out at GH..huge waves and warm water made me grin like an idiot and got a bunch of good rides in body surfing. But, that’s not the topic as you can see from the title. I’m sure you know Kathleen Parker…the well-known conservative columnist, her column today is a mirror of what I have said on many occasions; that we need to start trying to reclaim what it means to be an American and start talking to each other again. I also agree when she she puts some tenets down on paper…be considerate, mind your own business, and don’t talk about religion…one of the things that I was told when I was younger was to never talk either politics or religion; something that I had lost for a while and wasted so much sound, light, and fury on it….I have become more calm since following that simple dictate.

What really heartens me about Kathleen’s column, along with some from others on the right like David Brooks, is that there are thinking people on both sides of the aisle that can see that the current course this country is on is unsustainable and we long for the time that lies and inflaming of passions will make way for reasonableness. I just hope the demagogues don’t win….geez…

Politics

August 29th part two…

Leave a comment

Well…there was a Sunday Funday after all…but I don’t think there will more topics today since I just don’t have anything itching in my head…I do have an idea about the need for everyone (including me) to stop calling people names…but there are times when you need to do that to get your point across but, only when it is the truth…sometimes, idiots are idiots and liars are liars and need to be labeled as such…and there are so many more of them on the right…another thing that just popped into my head as I’m writing this…do we progressives lose elections while adhering to our principles or do we get down in the swamp with the righties? I lean toward principles, as you know, but it is hard to sit and watch while lies and race-baiting dupe the American people into voting for the righties. If they win this time using these tactics, I’ll probably just fold up the tent and just try to survive..but I reserve the right to say I told you so when the repubs screw everything up and give even more of the country to the rich…geez…

Only three more of these and this will be my most prolific month ever….can I say yay?

Politics

Boehner’s still an idiot…

Leave a comment

Well…who is the right and their point man, John Boehner, going to attack next? Mom? Apple Pie? The latest in his daily string of craziness was to go off on federal workers; spouting the lies that federal employees make more than ones with comparable jobs in the private sector. When do the lies stop working? When are we as a country going to stand up and tell these guys that they have to have more in their heads than their warped opinions, that we will no longer listen to the demagogues when they blatantly distort the facts for political gain. The facts in the case are that many non-partisan studies have been done comparing private and public sector pay and invariably find that the private sector workers make more.

Why this attack on his fellow Americans? People who just want to do their jobs don’t need to be demonized by this idiot and his fellow repubs and their lie that federal workers are overpaid is a direct extension of their tactics over the years to attack the middle class. The ironic thing here is that this moron IS a federal employee and the 195K+ he makes makes him one of the highest paid of them all…geez….

Politics

It’s extortion by any other name…

Leave a comment

Well…John Boehner has sunk to a new low even for him and the rest of the repubs….in a speech he gave a few days ago, this idiot put forth the proposition that the reason that business is sitting on the sidelines in the faltering recovery is the uncertainty about what regulations my be imposed in the future. He even suggested that Obama fire his entire economic team because of the lagging pace of job creation since they’ve had a whole 19 months to do it. Really, John? After you and your repub buddies had 8 years to screw it up and had a net job creation when you were in control of zero…that’s right…zero net jobs added. And now you’re urging your business cronies to sit on their hands unless you get what you want…that is to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich and less regulation for business. By anyone’s definition this is just a blatant case of extortion and you should be ashamed that you put your status as a lap dog for business ahead of a nation that is suffering.

What do you offer that is new; that is different than your policies that ruined the economy? Why are you waiting to do something until after the election? If this crisis is so urgent, (and I believe it is) why aren’t you working with the administration to help get the jobs engine going again? Why aren’t you talking to your business cronies and asking them to help get the engine going? Stop the political posturing and tanning and get your butt to work helping America get going again…until you do, shut the hell up and leave us alone….geez…

Politics

Let’s just refuse…

Leave a comment

Well…I’m back and I don’t know how formed this idea is but let’s give it a try…what if we just refuse? What if we just refuse to be scared of immigrants? What if we just refuse to be scared by the imagined threats to the Constitution? What if we remember our high school economics and refuse to believe the laughable and discredited ideas of the Laffer Curve where the right tells us cutting taxes means more revenue? What if we refuse to believe that Afghanistan is as important as the politicians tell us? What if we refuse to be led around like sheep by Fox news and start to think for ourselves? What if we refuse to believe that the First amendment only applies to Christians?

I truly think we need to start to say no to the politicians who use fear for political advantage and re-take the fearlessness that has made this country great…what would have happened if Newt and McConnell, and the rest of the fear mongers were around during World War two? They would have wrung their hands and told the country to fear the enemy, that they were too dangerous to take on…you know that is what they do today with the Islamist terrorists and aren’t you tired of living in the swamp of fear that they spew everyday? Let’s prove to them and the rest of their fellow travelers that the US is still fearless, that we can and will take on any threats without cowering in the corner as they would like us to.

The only thing I’m scared of is that we will lose the great American character that welcomes all religions, that helps those in need, and who always does the right thing even if it’s not popular…that’s the definition of leadership that we need to restore and very few of our “leaders” know anything about that….geez…

Politics

Why are we such chickens these days?

Leave a comment

Well…had this thought while I was reading some of the online papers this morning and I will be adding to it as the day goes on…I think I’ll need the bike ride to solidify it but I’ll start with this….when did we, as a people, become so scared of everything? When did our courage start to melt with just the building of the Park 51 project in New York? Or any building for that matter…why are we so scared of immigrants and a bunch of cave dwellers in Afghanistan? There was a time that we believed we could handle anything; any challenge that faced us and our leaders were of the same thoughts..now it seems that our leaders (mostly on the right) think that we should fear threats that our previous generation, and my generation would laugh at…after all, we made it through the cold war looking at a USSR that had 20 thousand nuclear weapons pointed at us and the largest army in the world sitting on the border with Western Europe. Do you think the threat from Islamic (or any other type of ) terrorists is of the same scope? We have gone from leaders who believed that the US would prevail in any conflict to the Newts and Palins who believe that building an Islamic center in Manhattan threatens our way of life. They should be ashamed that they don’t believe in this country…..geez….

Politics

More hypocrisy from the red states…

Leave a comment

Well…didn’t go out to the coffee shop this morning but have been reading the news online and a few things fell into place that have been marinating in my head for a while. I know you’ve heard over the past few months how the repubs have been holding up any spending bills to help the unemployed and states that are in financial peril since they have an impact on the federal deficit. But what they aren’t telling you and I is that red states (those that are controlled by and vote for these same repubs) are the ones that most egregiously feed at the federal trough; taking back well more in federal taxes than they send to Washington. One of the worst of these states is the one who gave us the small government idiot Sarah Palin and gets $1.84 for every dollar in taxes they send but on top of that, Alaska got almost 3 times more in stimulus money than the average state; almost $3,200 for each and every resident. Now, I have a great idea for the repubs, make a pledge that, to help eliminate the deficit in the next year, your state will not take more in federal funding than you put in and I challenge the tea partiers to do the same..oh, but I get it, it’s okay to take from the feds when it benefits you but not if it benefits the country as a whole. More hypocrisy to pile on the heaps they have already shoveled…geez…

Politics

Bait and switch…again…

Leave a comment

Well…a couple of things are on my mind this morning…the first is the realization that the repubs are manufacturing a bunch of news to deflect coverage from the fact that they have no solutions to any of our problems…except the same old tired mantra of tax cuts for the rich and less regulation for business. Have you once in the last 6 months heard a real policy plan from them? What are they going to do about unemployment? What would they do to end the war in Afghanistan? What would they do to make healthcare more affordable and available if they repeal what was done by Obama? I know I haven’t heard a thing and they are using Fox news to create fake stories like the mosque controversy so that the major news organizations think they have to cover it like it is real. There have been a string of those types of fake stories like the “anchor babies” and the death panels that take our eye off the ball and allow the repubs to control the news cycle. And, we’re to blame for it…so let’s start paying attention.

The second thing is what we are seeing with the supreme courts decision that corporations can donate to political campaigns…just yesterday, we saw Fox news donate a million bucks to get Republican governors elected…doesn’t anyone else see anything wrong with this? Come on Congress…kill this loophole before the US becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of big business….geez…

Politics

Gonna keep saying it…

Leave a comment

Well…when are we, as Americans, going to stop listening to the “right wing hooey” to quote Donaldl Fagen? First, let’s deal with the shameless use of the Constitution as a wedge issue that has been in the spotlight for a few months now. You know how the right has been screaming about following the constitution, that it is very clear what it means and you don’t need the judicial branch of the government to interpret it? In the next breath they are trying to push to change it as in their created controversy over the 14th amendment or they are saying, in so many words, that the first amendment protections only apply to Christians; and any Muslims should bow to the majority and stop building the mosque near the WTC site. Well, folks, and I am aiming this squarely at the righties: you can’t have it both ways…you can’t have an absolutist view of the 2nd amendment and then want the views of the majority to override the protections of the first amendment in regards to the mosque. Polls have shown that a majority of Americans want some form of gun control…so are you then willing to abide by the majority’s will? No, of course not. Should we have followed the majority’s will when segregation was ended and the majority still wanted it? Sometimes the majority is wrong or is manipulated by politicians that have an interest in stirring up hate and forment and that is especially the case with the unscrupulous and cynical leaders on the right.

I am so worn down by the blatant, outright lies that come from Gingrich, Palin, and the other spokespeople from the right and I fear for this country…I call this behavior un-American, these scorched earth win at all costs tactics that are gradually destroying what is good about America….but what can we do about it? Stop listening to these liars, these people that scream “death panels”, that invoke the images of Nazi’s to tar their opponents, and who poison the political discourse every time they open their mouths. I wish there were good things to write about, that someone had said enough and we could all see that we’re in this together….I would love my posts to be positive and I’m willing to try but it seems that no one listens to a reasonable person anymore; and this country is much worse off for it.