Category Archives: Politics

It’s extortion by any other name…

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…

Let’s just refuse…

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…

Why are we such chickens these days?

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….

More hypocrisy from the red states…

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…

Bait and switch…again…

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…

Gonna keep saying it…

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.

They’re fighting the wrong enemy..

Well…lots of uproar over the past few days about Robert Gibb’s castigation of the far left for being disappointed in the Obama administrations acceptance of half measures in their attempt to forge bi-partisanship in their legislative agenda. What Obama and Gibbs do not understand is that they will never have bi-partisanship with the right since they have an all or nothing mentality and their facade of wanting to work with the administration is just that; a stalling tactic that they use until they have a better position of strength…they are just biding their time like the Vietcong; waiting for the time that their lies become truth in the minds of the public and the fatigue of the economic downturn (caused by repub economic policies) cause people to grasp any straw that the repubs throw them.

So, to the Obama administration: grow a thicker skin but also keep your promises; the price you pay will be no higher going it alone and getting what the American people really need, not the bastardized healthcare that you accepted in service of bi-partisanship….the attacks of the right got even worse after you compromised since they smell blood in the water…if you are in a no-win situation, give your base what they voted you in for; a more equal society that is not run for the corporations and the top 2%
of the country. A society where even a president and vice-president can be held accountable for breaking the law. Geez…

One last thing that I will fault the left for and that is it’s assertion that Obama is no different than Bush; something I think is especially unfair…I think Obama really does care about the American people even with his misguided forays into compromise with the right…Bush and his team never cared at all about the people other than his donors and the rich.

You’ve noticed some repitition…

Well…If you’ve read this for a while, you’ve noticed some repetitions in what I’ve had to say but there is a method to that madness on my part; the repubs have succeeded so well in repeating their lies until they become not truth but accepted “wisdom” so I think we need to keep repeating the truth until the truth overwhelms the lies of the right. So, I’m going to keep repeating the numerous outrages that have been foist upon America by the repubs until people can recognize truth again…until people start to think critically again and say to them “prove it”. Prove that the Bush tax cuts increased federal revenue (the non-partisan CBO says it didn’t), prove that deferring to business is the way to “lift all boats” as Reagan was heard to say, prove that the constitution is being ignored by Obama…just because they say it doesn’t make it true…geez…

Do you need any more evidence?

Well…reading and watching the news yesterday solidified in my mind what you will get if the repubs are voted back into power in the mid-term elections. Their latest bit of craziness manifested itself with the vote yesterday on the 26 billion dollar house bill that would provide aid to cities and states and allow them to keep 150,000 teachers along with as many police and firefighters on the job until the economy recovers. To pay for the bill (which the repubs have said is a requirement for any new spending) the bill closes tax loopholes that rewarded companies for sending jobs overseas which you would think is a good thing, right? Nope, not to the repubs..only three repubs voted for the bill (it passed anyway) with the house repub leadership coming out in criticism of the bill as an unneeded tax increase that would slow down the economy. This really shows who they are trying to protect…not the 300K people that will still have jobs..but their corporate donors who have purchased their votes and who have benefited from laws that were dictated by business and passed by their lap-dog repub buddies. If we vote these guys back in, we only have ourselves to blame. Geez…

I’m not usually into conspiracy theories…

Well..this thought popped into my head this morning when I was reading an article about how disappointed business is with Obama and the regulations that have been imposed on certain parts of the economy. I think the article was in the Detroit News and it went on to say that the US Chamber of Commerce is working closely with Repubs on legislation and this dawned on me; I think that one of the reasons that companies are retaining so much profit and not converting that into hiring is that they are working in concert with the repubs to make sure the economy doesn’t recover before the fall elections. They know that with the repubs back in control of the House, they can get their money’s worth again from the repub legislators they have purchased.

The sick thing about this is that they care nothing about the people that purchase or make their products and who make those profits that they are hoarding. Why haven’t these behaviors been seized upon by the Dems as un-American, as a cynical attempt to return to the robberbaron times of the early 20th century? When are we, as a people, going to find out what companies are essential to this plot and make sure they pay in the only place they understand: their profits? You want to take this country back? Then let’s take it back from these plotters, these people who only care about themselves and how much power they can amass. Geez…