Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Corporate responsibility….yeah, right…

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Well…I hope you’ve heard of this new scheme by corporations and led by the US Chamber of Commerce that is going to “push back” against any new corporate regulations by the use of lawsuits against government agencies such as the EPA or the MSHA as Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has vowed. Do you remember who Don is? He is the CEO that presides over the most egregious violator of mine safety rules….violations that resulted in the deaths of 29 miners in one of his mines. He thinks that the government should let business self-police themselves and cloaks his opposition to any regulation as being necessary to his “pursuit of happiness” that is guaranteed in the constitution.

I am dumfounded by his and other CEO’s, like Tony Hayward of BP’s, attitude toward the damage that they do to the country; then play the role of the aggrieved, like the big bad government is not playing fair. The Chamber of Commerce went so far as to put out a press release saying the government should have paid for the Gulf oil spill, not BP, while talking out of the other side of their mouths and bitching about government spending and the deficits. Oh, I guess it’s okay for the government to bail out BP but not to approve the extension of unemployment benefits; it’s okay for the Chamber to lobby against the extension through their repub cronies? Out of the third side of their mouths they lobbied for the passage of the 800 billion dollar bailout. Why? Because the benefits went to the members of the Chamber. Corporate leaders have shown that they have no sense of responsibility to anyone but themselves…we’ve allowed them to self police for the last 8 years…how did that work out for you?..Come on people, we need to push back against these corporate crooks…e-mail your congresspeople and tell them that you want a level playing field…and without corporate regulation it will never be level…

c’mon tea partiers….you should want to take back your country from the corporations…not Obama…geez….

Politics

Ole GW being resurrected?

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Well…I guess the new rage among the repub liars is to look back on the Bush years with fondness…ignoring the statistical fact that the entire 8 years was a bust for everyone but the rich. They have even begun to blame the recession on Obama…since it started when it looked like he was going to be elected. Yep, I’m not kidding you…I think it was Boehner who started this new line of craziness but then, as always happens, the right-wing smear machine picks it up and runs with it. To those who continue to vote for these idiots I have one question “were you better off at the start of GW’s terms or the end?” A simple question that has a simple answer…if you’re not in the top 5%, you were worse off…..

I know we have selective memory here in the US so that is why I have to keep repeating all the time what a bust those 8 years were…and now people want to go back there? Why? To be spied on? To have more trumped up wars that the repubs vowed Iraqi oil would pay for? To allow business to steal what is left of the country from you and me? I think the tea partiers have the wrong target when they want to “take back our country”…it should be from the alliance of the repubs and business. Geez….

Politics

Do we really want this stuff again?

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Well…I’m sure you know and I continue to point out how the repubs are so gung-ho for business to be unregulated; especially the financial industry…going so far as to call for the new regulations signed into law this week to be repealed before they even take effect. I don’t think the new regs go far enough…as evidenced by the revelations that all of the banks and insurance companies that were bailed out by you and me had continued to pay immoral bonuses to their employees…as a reward for what this time? Doing such a good job of trashing the economy? One of the firms is on track this year to pay out a record 30 BILLION dollars in those bonuses all the while saying it is too risky to lend to small business so they continue to do nothing but take, take, take and further concentrating money and power in the hands of the few. How can the repubs think this is a good idea? And, how can people that are being hurt by these shenanigans continue to support these guys and vote for them?

I know it sounds like I’m repeating myself but someone has to keep saying the emperor has no clothes….I think a tax rate of 80% on these bonuses is in order or make them non tax deductible….lets make it harder for these guys to steal, not easier….geez…

Politics

Bill Hardiman and the club for growth..

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Well…when I was working out this morning, a political ad came on criticizing Bill Hardiman (a repub candidate for U.S. congress) for his support of raising some taxes to make sure Michigan could balance their budget as they are required to do by law. Now the people behind this smear is the Club For Growth; the same guys that gave us the Bush tax cuts and have never met a tax that they like…their motto being “starve the beast” since they do not believe that the federal government should have any power to regulate anything. Mr. Hardiman was being an adult when he looked at the hard realities in Michigan and went against the voodoo economics that are pushed by the repubs these days that tax and spending cuts will magically heal the economy. If you look at the economic analysis of the Bush years with the huge tax cut versus the Clinton years where taxes were actually raised to help end the budget deficit…growth was higher in the Clinton years as the deficits were lower…but you expect that from a fact-based administration; not the wishful thinking and repeating lies that pass for truth on the right. Keep at it Bill…you did a nice job as Mayor of Kentwood…I still can’t vote for you but you need to continue to hold out against the know-nothings of the party. Geez….

Politics

Manny Lopez is an idiot…still….

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Well….have to go off on this idiot Manny Lopez from the Detroit News again….he’s back with more of the crap that he has been spouting that if we criticize the repubs for opposing the extension of unemployment benefits it’s just Democratic politics…there is no substance to it. He continues to make light of Keynesian economics and pushes the voodoo economics that growth can come only through tax cuts and cutting spending. I understand he wants to repeat the Repub talking points but to ridicule J.M. Keynes; one of the greatest minds in economics, to make silly political points would be the same as if I would go to Miguel Cabrera and tell him that he is hitting all wrong. Manny, reading and talking about economics is not the same as being an economist…and, while I support your right to spout off and be wrong, I am going to call you and your repub cronies on your hatred for the middle class. You rail on about paying for the 30 billion for unemployment benefits, where the hell were you when the top 1% of the country was getting a TRILLION dollars in tax cuts. Let me get this straight, you have a problem with 2.5 million middle class getting unemployment benefits so they can eat, but you just love the idea of 3 million of the wealthy getting 30 times more? Why didn’t you call for these tax cuts, or the war in Iraq, or the subsidies for big business be paid for? It’s just another instance of cloaking your hatred for the middle class; the working class, in pretend values….geez….

Politics

A new low for these hypocrites….

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Well…I’m sure by now, you’ve heard the new repub spin on the failure to pass extensions of the unemployment insurance that has expired for millions of Americans…that it is the Democrats fault since the repubs will vote for it if they cut the money from somewhere else in the budget…which, on it’s face, doesn’t seem like a bad idea. But, the question I have to ask is, “why didn’t they have to cut other spending to finance the Iraq war?” Why didn’t they have to cut spending to pay for the trillion dollars of the Bush tax cuts? It is the sorriest sense of hypocrisy that deficits are so important to them now when they had no problem giving oil companies billions in subsidies when they were making record profits but they can’t allow any increase in the deficit to help American families continue to eat. And the Obama haters go on and on and on with their lies and distortions….I hope these idiots get laid off and then there will be no money to help them….

Politics

It’s the Boehner and King show….

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Well…I hope you looked at the news yesterday to hear the latest from the repubs…I would laugh if I didn’t think there are people out there that are listening to this crap. First, there was Boehner, holding a new conference to propose that we have a moratorium on any new federal regulations to give companies some “breathing room” to make huge profits and take chances that ruin our environment and economy. The only thing I could think of when I saw the news conference was that he was just checking off a box that his owners told him to so he could get the next payment from the financial industry and BP. How can he stand there with a straight face and say that not regulating the oil industry, financial industry, and insurance industry is in the best interests of regular Americans? This is what you get if you elect repubs this fall….

Then, there is Peter King, I think a house member from Pennsylvania, whe was on a talk show the other day and he revealed that the repub strategy for the fall elections is to not tell anyone what their plans or platform is going to be….and he even admitted they would get destroyed in the media if they said they are going back to tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, and giving the country back to big business.

Doesn’t any of this trouble you? It should since they are advocating returning to the policies that got us into this big hole we are in…geez…..

Politics

a little hope and then this…

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Well..you saw yesterday that there was a little hope that the repubs would start to do the right thing when it comes to the ordinary American….that they would start to put the middle class first instead of the richest 2 percent of the country….well…nevermind. The latest outrage comes form Kyl and his ilk; the unapologetic idiots that are so far against fairness in the economy that they are holding up benefits for the long-term unemployed to make sure they can continue the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Now, their logic for this move is that any new spending must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the economy so to not add to the deficit; 12 billion dollars to benefit people that are in danger of losing their entire life….but they are willing to extend the Bush tax cuts (almost a trillion dollars added to the deficit) because their logic says that tax cuts don’t have to be paid for in any way…they are different after all.

And the latest polls suggest that people are just going stupid…the majority trust the Dems to handle the economy but the majority are also going to vote for the repubs who have “spread the wealth” upward….have reached into yours and my wallet and handed it to people to help them buy their caviar and get the fourth house on the lake. Aren’t you tired of this yet? It’s starting to get to the point where this is not my country anymore….I’m happy that I’m getting a year older tomorrow and won’t have to see these heartless shills steal what is left of what was a great country much longer…geez…

Politics

Never thought I’d thank a Republican…..

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Well…it’s kind of a strange state of affairs when I would even consider thanking a republican for anything except for being an easy target for these posts…but, today, I find myself amazed and confused by the actions of Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe; both Republican senators from the northeast who have gone against their party to support the overhaul of the financial system. As expected, the tea party idiots are apoplectic and vow to defeat both of them in the next election.

So, the tea partiers want there to be a system rigged in favor of the guys that caused the meltdown that has taken their jobs? All in the name of “states rights” since they feel the federal government doesn’t have the authority to regulate any part of the economy. So, for what they see as principle, they are ready to let the financial thieves steal more and more of the country?

Thank you Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe for doing what is right instead of what is right for your careers….

Politics

Is Frank Beckmann an idiot or just a cynical Repub shill?

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Well….yay…it’s outrage day again here in the world of the sane. Reading the Detroit News this morning, I ran across a piece of tripe from the columnist Frank Beckmann, whose premise is that the Obama administration is crazy since they have chosen to enforce the federal right to control immigration policy by challenging the Arizona law on immigration. His posit is that since the federal government is not living up to what the people of Arizona want on immigration enforcement, it is their right to make their own laws regarding it. What’s next Frank, if they don’t like some trade laws or the Chinese manipulation of their currency, are you proposing that Arizona send a delegation to talk to the Chinese or make laws that would better fit the thoughts of the residents? Or, if they decide we should get out of Afghanistan, then they can bring home any Arizona Reserve or National Guard unit that they see fit?

Frank also goes on to say that since the Obama administration has decided to not enforce federal marijuana laws in states that have approved medical marijuana, their stand on the Arizona immigration law is invalid…no, Frank, it’s not inconsistent or invalid, it’s the feds recognizing that this is a medical issue that affects individuals in those states, not a federal policy one and has the compassion to see the difference. They federal government has always had to the right to chose where to apply resources in the application of the law.

He concludes that Obama’s administration is bowing to political pressure and is not prosecuting people that should be under current laws…all I have to say is: Where were you , Frank, when the Bushies were illegally wiretapping the entire country and torturing in the name of America; breaking too many laws and treaties to count….cheerleading as usual. So now, I guess your column means you would support prosecution of Bush, Cheney, and all of their cronies? No. I didn’t think so…..Geez…..