Money.
The old adage that money is the root of all evil is painfully obvious to those of us who care deeply about protecting our democracy and value what that democracy means to our children and our children's children. Unfortunately much of our government is corrupt and ruled by money and lobbyists and corporations, and they are all conspiring to take more and more of the wealth pie in our country. And it's really, really sad.
First of all, government spending has grown more slowly under President Obama than it has under any president since Eisenhower. Don't believe me? Check out this article from Think Progress. When Republicans talk about giving Obama a blank check or wanting to curb his "out of control spending" or the fact that he wants to grow government, it's actually the opposite that is the case. They just want to stifle the economy to make this president fail.
Then there is the "Fix the Debt" group led by billionaire Pete Peterson. Do you ever hear Republicans blather on about how we have spending/debt problem? Pretty much every day, right? Also, do you ever notice that Wall Street bank CEO's like Jamie Dimon or Lloyd Blankfein try to tell you that Social Security is broken and not sustainable on its present course and that it as well as Medicare and Medicaid are the main drivers of our debt and need to be cut? They do and it all stems from Peterson's Fix the Debt campaign. And here, check out PR Watch's Lisa Graves debating and cutting Fix the Debt's publicist at the knees with the one thing Republicans can't ever truly debate--facts.
Here is another great article courtesy of Think Progress that talks about how the debt everyone is freaking out about does not exist. It doesn't, and the deficit we have comes almost entirely from the two unfunded wars and the Bush tax cuts we've had in place for ten years.
And finally there is this. The wealth inequality in this country will blow your mind. We are NOT broke, it's just that we've allowed the 1% to hoard money like never before, and corporations have been able to hoard money and not pay workers a fair wage. They want to keep giving the rich tax breaks (I'm talking mostly about Republicans here), and to chop down entitlement programs that we all pay into so that they will ultimately let their rich friends privatize everything--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid....the Post Office! That's for another story.
Another thing for another story--election rigging. It's all a grand plan for total Republican control, and I will continue to shout this from the rooftops--we cannot let them take away our democracy. We have to get money out of politics and elections and stop the rigging and lying. We have more people than they do, and ultimately we will win this fight. I really believe that.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
They're Comin' Fer Yer Guhns!
Yeah, that's the party line on the right. The big bad government is coming for your guns, and they will confiscate them, denying you of your second amendment right to bear arms. All because President Obama and Vice President Biden came up with a laundry list of common sense reforms to our gun policies in this country. They want to limit the sale of high capacity ammunition devices. They want to ban military style weapons like the one used in Newtown to kill all of those innocent little kids and teachers. They want to put more money into mental health research and facilities and most importantly, they want background checks on every gun sale. They are NOT trying to chip away at gun ownership in order to someday
confiscate every gun, making it harder for the people to rebel against
an oppressive government. That's so absurd a claim that it's not even
worthy of me commenting on it.
The key phrase: common sense.
They are trying to make it more difficult for events like Newtown, the Oregon shopping mall, the Colorado movie theater, the place of worship in Wisconsin, the Columbine and Virginia Techs from happening again.
And what do they get? The right wing comparing Obama to dictators and evil men like Hitler and Stalin. The NRA saying Obama is a hypocrite because his kids have armed protection and your kids don't. The NRA ginning up fear in order to sell more guns, and politicians (some lefties included) siding with the NRA because they are afraid of them.
I haven't looked at the numbers as of today, but I know this--the American people are largely on the side of Obama and Biden here.
You know who gets an "A" rating from me in Douchebaggery? Senator Rand Paul. That motherf--ker and some of his cohorts like Louie Gomert and Steve Stockman are saying Obama should be impeached. Impeached for trying to make America safer? Are you freaking kidding me?
Here is the bottom line, folks. The right does not want Obama to succeed. At anything. They do not care if our economy sucks, that our schools are not safe, that our air and water and food are safe, that our planet is inching closer to being wiped off the universe map by climate change....and I could go on and on.
I know that part of this is that the Republicans want to get at Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and try to privatize them (i.e. make a profit for their pals who fund their elections), which is why they keep yammering on about spending cuts. Nevermind that George W. Bush got us so far into debt that we had a recession bordering on depression.
But I think it goes deeper. I think they are racists who do not want an African American president to succeed one bit. They truly are, as I heard a lefty radio host say, the KKK without the hoods.
The key phrase: common sense.
They are trying to make it more difficult for events like Newtown, the Oregon shopping mall, the Colorado movie theater, the place of worship in Wisconsin, the Columbine and Virginia Techs from happening again.
And what do they get? The right wing comparing Obama to dictators and evil men like Hitler and Stalin. The NRA saying Obama is a hypocrite because his kids have armed protection and your kids don't. The NRA ginning up fear in order to sell more guns, and politicians (some lefties included) siding with the NRA because they are afraid of them.
I haven't looked at the numbers as of today, but I know this--the American people are largely on the side of Obama and Biden here.
You know who gets an "A" rating from me in Douchebaggery? Senator Rand Paul. That motherf--ker and some of his cohorts like Louie Gomert and Steve Stockman are saying Obama should be impeached. Impeached for trying to make America safer? Are you freaking kidding me?
Here is the bottom line, folks. The right does not want Obama to succeed. At anything. They do not care if our economy sucks, that our schools are not safe, that our air and water and food are safe, that our planet is inching closer to being wiped off the universe map by climate change....and I could go on and on.
I know that part of this is that the Republicans want to get at Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and try to privatize them (i.e. make a profit for their pals who fund their elections), which is why they keep yammering on about spending cuts. Nevermind that George W. Bush got us so far into debt that we had a recession bordering on depression.
But I think it goes deeper. I think they are racists who do not want an African American president to succeed one bit. They truly are, as I heard a lefty radio host say, the KKK without the hoods.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Dear Tea Party: FU
I'm glad Obama won the election, and that we progressives took some senate seats including crucial races by Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. And that we rid ourselves of some bad Tea Partiers like Alan West and Joe Walsh. But the Republicans don't seem to understand that they lost. John Boehner is having his puppet strings pulled by the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Sheldon Adelson, and tea partiers in the Senate and House that refuse to negotiate in good faith on fiscal cliff and debt ceiling talks. Now, Obama has held firm on his belief that taxes must be raised on the rich, and that the debt ceiling should not be part of any negotiation. It is, in fact, paying back what we have already borrowed, much of which is thanks for the Bush administration's wars and tax cuts--not Obama's "reckless spending." Please.
So the likes of Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Louis Gomert, and Eric Cantor are telling Boehner to keep saying that Obama isn't putting forth a deal that can pass both chambers of Congress. Maybe that's true, but his version of that is one in which the GOP gets everything they want and Obama, who won the election in a landslide and the popular vote by 3 million, gets nothing he wants. And if he instead manages to get his tax increases (for the rich only!), the GOP will then hold the full faith and credit of our country hostage again. Damn. What a bunch of cruel, greedy, mean-spirited douchebags. They have themselves and their rich friends and donors' interests in mind only. They don't care about this country and Americans. They just don't.
I love the fact that Ed Schultz wants Obama to tell Boehner that if they don't agree to the 39.6%, that after January 1, the rate goes up to 42%. Ed wants Obama to take a hostage the way they do, and bully them the way they bully us. I love it. I also love Washington Post's Matt Miller's article this morning about Obama needing to use a trump card of asking Boehner simply for the $6 trillion figure to raise the debt ceiling to that is in Paul Ryan's budget, the one that has already passed the House. And if they won't do that, call them out for holding the country hostage, which is what they are actually doing anyway.
Then there is good ol' Ricky Snyder of Michigan, ramming through right-to-work legislation, modeled from ALEC, with the help of an all GOP majority in the legislature and senate. Snyder had his puppet strings being pulled by Amway CEO Dick DeVos and the Kochs and Sheldon Adelson, and he's doing it so that the Republicans can gain every possible advantage by weakening unions in this country and unfairly having an edge for the 2014 and 2016 elections. It's mean-spirited, cruel, and greedy (where have I heard that before?).
Folks, I'm liberal and proud of it. But I'm also an honest person, and while I know there is some form of corruption in all politics, what these right wing extremists are doing to our country and trying to do is just pure evil and purely wrong.
So here is my message to the Tea Party: F.U. and please just go away.
So the likes of Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Louis Gomert, and Eric Cantor are telling Boehner to keep saying that Obama isn't putting forth a deal that can pass both chambers of Congress. Maybe that's true, but his version of that is one in which the GOP gets everything they want and Obama, who won the election in a landslide and the popular vote by 3 million, gets nothing he wants. And if he instead manages to get his tax increases (for the rich only!), the GOP will then hold the full faith and credit of our country hostage again. Damn. What a bunch of cruel, greedy, mean-spirited douchebags. They have themselves and their rich friends and donors' interests in mind only. They don't care about this country and Americans. They just don't.
I love the fact that Ed Schultz wants Obama to tell Boehner that if they don't agree to the 39.6%, that after January 1, the rate goes up to 42%. Ed wants Obama to take a hostage the way they do, and bully them the way they bully us. I love it. I also love Washington Post's Matt Miller's article this morning about Obama needing to use a trump card of asking Boehner simply for the $6 trillion figure to raise the debt ceiling to that is in Paul Ryan's budget, the one that has already passed the House. And if they won't do that, call them out for holding the country hostage, which is what they are actually doing anyway.
Then there is good ol' Ricky Snyder of Michigan, ramming through right-to-work legislation, modeled from ALEC, with the help of an all GOP majority in the legislature and senate. Snyder had his puppet strings being pulled by Amway CEO Dick DeVos and the Kochs and Sheldon Adelson, and he's doing it so that the Republicans can gain every possible advantage by weakening unions in this country and unfairly having an edge for the 2014 and 2016 elections. It's mean-spirited, cruel, and greedy (where have I heard that before?).
Folks, I'm liberal and proud of it. But I'm also an honest person, and while I know there is some form of corruption in all politics, what these right wing extremists are doing to our country and trying to do is just pure evil and purely wrong.
So here is my message to the Tea Party: F.U. and please just go away.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Random Thoughts About Tuesday's Election
This country is divided, whether we like it or not. The good thing is, though, that the two political parties have shown their true colors over the last few months and years, and to me it looks like this--the Democrats/Liberals are the party of the middle class, trying to give everyone a fair shot and government as it was intended to be--by the people, for the people. The Republicans/Conservatives are a conglomeration of racists, homophobes, uneducated head-nodders, gun-lovers, Bible thumpers, and corporate big-shots who are attempting to buy control of the country, and lie about telling you that that is what they are doing. The former wants a fair shot for people to vote too, and the latter wants less people to vote and are attempting to lie, cheat and steal their way to victory on Tuesday in both the presidential election and congressional seat contests. Here are some thoughts/observations as we head into Tuesday, and I hope you will take them seriously before you go to the polls.....
*Women in this country, if you are planning to vote for Romney/Ryan, you don't care about the health and well-being of yourselves, your daughters and your granddaughters. The right has become so radical that they have accepted into their platform of August's Republican National Convention that abortion is illegal even in the case of rape or incest. That has been spoken bluntly by the likes of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, and the question has been avoided by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Why? Because it's CRAZY and if they tell the truth no woman in their right mind will vote for them. Romney has said he plans to overturn Roe vs. Wade, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and he supports the Blunt Amendment which denies women the right to contraception as part of their workplace health insurance plans. The Supreme Court is already 5-4 conservative, and if Romney wins, he will likely get to appoint 1-2 justices, and Roe vs. Wade would be overturned, making abortion ILLEGAL in this country and in particular making it illegal even if your daughter or granddaughter is raped and gets pregnant. Some of the crazy right has even deemed abortion illegal even in the instance of life of the mother. Think about that for a minute. They think the mother should die so that the child can be born. Without a mother. What the fuck is wrong with these people? And while these guys want smaller government, they have no qualms about making women who want an abortion to have an ultrasound against their will and to point the screen at them so that they can see the unborn fetus they are trying to dissolve. That is bullying and shaming and it's big government in its truest sense, and it's just wrong. And it's where this crazy conservative right is going. So women, do the right thing on Tuesday.
*The day President Obama was being inaugurated, several GOP leaders were having dinner at a nearby restaurant in DC. Their plan? To make sure Obama only gets one term. To make sure they take back the House in 2010 and then block every single good bill Obama puts on the table, even if it's destructive enough to make our country default on its obligations for the first time in history. And if you look at the past two years, that's exactly what they have done. In particular, Obama put a The American Jobs Act on the table 14 months ago, and it stalled and was voted down over and over again by the Republicans, because it would have created A LOT of jobs and stimulated the economy in the process. They have blocked, and in the case of the Senate, filibustered bill after bill after bill that would help the economy recover quicker than it has. On purpose. Think about that for a minute. How fucking evil is that really? You want to inflict economic pain on families across this country so that you can elect your guys into office? It's morally wrong, and it's insane to think that Fox News and other right-leaning media has hoodwinked people into believing that the President is at fault for slow economic growth. Notice I said slow and not non-existent. That's because despite all of the obstruction, we've had 2.5 years of private sector job growth, and unemployment has continued to decline. And when it ticked below 8%, Republicans all went crazy and said it was a left conspiracy to cook the books. Really, douchebags? Who is trying to cook what book here? Obama cares about getting people back to work, Romney cares about giving more tax breaks to himself and his wealthy friends.
*Some of these crazy right-wing, union-busting governors that were elected in 2010 (Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich) in swing states weren't done so with the intent of keeping people from voting in 2012? Look at what's happening in those states right now. Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio, respectively, are trying or tried to push through Voter ID laws in order to make voting more difficult. They are trying to create long lines and have groups like True the Vote intimidate people into not voting. Why? Because the more people that vote, the more votes for Democrats. Don't believe me? Here is Paul Weyrich, the founder of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), explaining to a group of Bible thumpers in 1980 how he wants less people to vote. You may notice that ALEC is responsible for pushing, you guessed it, voter ID bills into state legislatures. They also are behind anti-abortion legislation, union-busting and other bills that you may have noticed are popping up in right-wing state governments everywhere. Oh, I forgot about Pennsylvania. This one legislator in the state house in Harrisburg came right out and said it--that their Voter ID law was meant to allow Mitt Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania on November 6. And why is this not happening in Alabama, Mississippi or Alaska? It's only happening in swing states where the GOP is trying to suppress the vote. Don't let them. Go out there and vote and make your vote count.
*Contrary to what Republicans would like you to believe, Obama has shrunk the size of government and curbed government spending. When Paul Ryan said Obama has "doubled the size of government," Politifact correctly rated this as "Pants on Fire." Obama has trimmed where he can, but the GOP wants to roll back regulations which will make our air and water dirtier, make our food unsafe to eat, and possibly bring our economy to the brink of collapse like Bush did in 2008. Why? Because the Koch Brothers and others who want to pollute the air are throwing gajillions of dollars at them in order to let them pollute the air in the name of more profits for them. It's insane. And Mitt Romney may have indirectly led to the recent meningitis outbreak by having less regulations in the pharmaceutical industry while he was governor of Massachusetts. Of course, I don't think he did anything intentionally, but he wants less regulation.
*Seniors, the right wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system. You get a check for $15K, and you can buy your own insurance. See what you can get for that kind of money. And then they spew this nonsense about "if you're under 55, this won't affect you." I'm sorry, but I'm 48. And that means I'm royally fucked. I already had to deal with having a pre-existing condition with my back, and not only did insurance have a rider that prevented them from paying anything related to my back, but they raised my rates every year. Before we moved to Wisconsin in 2010, we had Blue Cross Blue Shield, and our premium went from $400 per month to $1200 per month over the course of 5 years. The health insurance field in this country is a mess, and Obamacare was put in place to fix all that. And oh yeah, Obama did not steal money from Medicare to fund Obamacare. Here, read this article--it explains this BS better than I can. But the bottom line? Repealing Obamacare would be detrimental and dangerous when we made so much fucking progress over the last year or two.
*Most of our debt over the past decade was created by the Bush tax cuts, unfunded wars and funding Medicare Part D. Not because of Obama's "reckless spending" as the GOP would want you to believe.
*Obama killed Bin Laden. Bush said he didn't spend much time worrying about Bin Laden, and Romney said in 2008 he would not move heaven and earth to kill Bin Laden. Look at the scoreboard, Republicans.
*Austerity does not work. Look at Europe. Look at what happened here in the '20's, leading to the Great Depression.
*Romney wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times called "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Obama saved the auto industry with a bailout and many jobs in Ohio and Michigan and Wisconsin and Illinois. It worked, Romney. People in those states, especially Ohio, are doing better. And Romney has fabricated lies about Jeep shipping jobs to China which has prompted freak-outs from Chrysler, GM and Ford executives. You want hypocrisy? Romney's Bain Capital owns Sensata Industries in Freeport, Illinois, a plant that is planned to close tomorrow in order to ship jobs to, you guessed it, China. Wow, just wow.
*I'm sorry, but this is the most important one. Romney is a liar. He has no core values and only panders to as many people and groups as possible in order to get votes. That's why he flip-flops and lies and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and all of the money being allowed to flow into the campaigns to fund lies and distort you into believing all that garbage is why he has no moral compass. Obama, on the other hand, has beliefs and convictions and is doing everything he can to help the American people. Do you want a wishy washy President? Is that who we want to be the leader of the free world? I don't think so. So do the right thing on Tuesday. Vote for Barack Obama for a second term. Do it for your kids, your grandkids, and yourselves.
*Women in this country, if you are planning to vote for Romney/Ryan, you don't care about the health and well-being of yourselves, your daughters and your granddaughters. The right has become so radical that they have accepted into their platform of August's Republican National Convention that abortion is illegal even in the case of rape or incest. That has been spoken bluntly by the likes of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, and the question has been avoided by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Why? Because it's CRAZY and if they tell the truth no woman in their right mind will vote for them. Romney has said he plans to overturn Roe vs. Wade, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and he supports the Blunt Amendment which denies women the right to contraception as part of their workplace health insurance plans. The Supreme Court is already 5-4 conservative, and if Romney wins, he will likely get to appoint 1-2 justices, and Roe vs. Wade would be overturned, making abortion ILLEGAL in this country and in particular making it illegal even if your daughter or granddaughter is raped and gets pregnant. Some of the crazy right has even deemed abortion illegal even in the instance of life of the mother. Think about that for a minute. They think the mother should die so that the child can be born. Without a mother. What the fuck is wrong with these people? And while these guys want smaller government, they have no qualms about making women who want an abortion to have an ultrasound against their will and to point the screen at them so that they can see the unborn fetus they are trying to dissolve. That is bullying and shaming and it's big government in its truest sense, and it's just wrong. And it's where this crazy conservative right is going. So women, do the right thing on Tuesday.
*The day President Obama was being inaugurated, several GOP leaders were having dinner at a nearby restaurant in DC. Their plan? To make sure Obama only gets one term. To make sure they take back the House in 2010 and then block every single good bill Obama puts on the table, even if it's destructive enough to make our country default on its obligations for the first time in history. And if you look at the past two years, that's exactly what they have done. In particular, Obama put a The American Jobs Act on the table 14 months ago, and it stalled and was voted down over and over again by the Republicans, because it would have created A LOT of jobs and stimulated the economy in the process. They have blocked, and in the case of the Senate, filibustered bill after bill after bill that would help the economy recover quicker than it has. On purpose. Think about that for a minute. How fucking evil is that really? You want to inflict economic pain on families across this country so that you can elect your guys into office? It's morally wrong, and it's insane to think that Fox News and other right-leaning media has hoodwinked people into believing that the President is at fault for slow economic growth. Notice I said slow and not non-existent. That's because despite all of the obstruction, we've had 2.5 years of private sector job growth, and unemployment has continued to decline. And when it ticked below 8%, Republicans all went crazy and said it was a left conspiracy to cook the books. Really, douchebags? Who is trying to cook what book here? Obama cares about getting people back to work, Romney cares about giving more tax breaks to himself and his wealthy friends.
*Some of these crazy right-wing, union-busting governors that were elected in 2010 (Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich) in swing states weren't done so with the intent of keeping people from voting in 2012? Look at what's happening in those states right now. Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio, respectively, are trying or tried to push through Voter ID laws in order to make voting more difficult. They are trying to create long lines and have groups like True the Vote intimidate people into not voting. Why? Because the more people that vote, the more votes for Democrats. Don't believe me? Here is Paul Weyrich, the founder of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), explaining to a group of Bible thumpers in 1980 how he wants less people to vote. You may notice that ALEC is responsible for pushing, you guessed it, voter ID bills into state legislatures. They also are behind anti-abortion legislation, union-busting and other bills that you may have noticed are popping up in right-wing state governments everywhere. Oh, I forgot about Pennsylvania. This one legislator in the state house in Harrisburg came right out and said it--that their Voter ID law was meant to allow Mitt Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania on November 6. And why is this not happening in Alabama, Mississippi or Alaska? It's only happening in swing states where the GOP is trying to suppress the vote. Don't let them. Go out there and vote and make your vote count.
*Contrary to what Republicans would like you to believe, Obama has shrunk the size of government and curbed government spending. When Paul Ryan said Obama has "doubled the size of government," Politifact correctly rated this as "Pants on Fire." Obama has trimmed where he can, but the GOP wants to roll back regulations which will make our air and water dirtier, make our food unsafe to eat, and possibly bring our economy to the brink of collapse like Bush did in 2008. Why? Because the Koch Brothers and others who want to pollute the air are throwing gajillions of dollars at them in order to let them pollute the air in the name of more profits for them. It's insane. And Mitt Romney may have indirectly led to the recent meningitis outbreak by having less regulations in the pharmaceutical industry while he was governor of Massachusetts. Of course, I don't think he did anything intentionally, but he wants less regulation.
*Seniors, the right wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system. You get a check for $15K, and you can buy your own insurance. See what you can get for that kind of money. And then they spew this nonsense about "if you're under 55, this won't affect you." I'm sorry, but I'm 48. And that means I'm royally fucked. I already had to deal with having a pre-existing condition with my back, and not only did insurance have a rider that prevented them from paying anything related to my back, but they raised my rates every year. Before we moved to Wisconsin in 2010, we had Blue Cross Blue Shield, and our premium went from $400 per month to $1200 per month over the course of 5 years. The health insurance field in this country is a mess, and Obamacare was put in place to fix all that. And oh yeah, Obama did not steal money from Medicare to fund Obamacare. Here, read this article--it explains this BS better than I can. But the bottom line? Repealing Obamacare would be detrimental and dangerous when we made so much fucking progress over the last year or two.
*Most of our debt over the past decade was created by the Bush tax cuts, unfunded wars and funding Medicare Part D. Not because of Obama's "reckless spending" as the GOP would want you to believe.
*Obama killed Bin Laden. Bush said he didn't spend much time worrying about Bin Laden, and Romney said in 2008 he would not move heaven and earth to kill Bin Laden. Look at the scoreboard, Republicans.
*Austerity does not work. Look at Europe. Look at what happened here in the '20's, leading to the Great Depression.
*Romney wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times called "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Obama saved the auto industry with a bailout and many jobs in Ohio and Michigan and Wisconsin and Illinois. It worked, Romney. People in those states, especially Ohio, are doing better. And Romney has fabricated lies about Jeep shipping jobs to China which has prompted freak-outs from Chrysler, GM and Ford executives. You want hypocrisy? Romney's Bain Capital owns Sensata Industries in Freeport, Illinois, a plant that is planned to close tomorrow in order to ship jobs to, you guessed it, China. Wow, just wow.
*I'm sorry, but this is the most important one. Romney is a liar. He has no core values and only panders to as many people and groups as possible in order to get votes. That's why he flip-flops and lies and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and all of the money being allowed to flow into the campaigns to fund lies and distort you into believing all that garbage is why he has no moral compass. Obama, on the other hand, has beliefs and convictions and is doing everything he can to help the American people. Do you want a wishy washy President? Is that who we want to be the leader of the free world? I don't think so. So do the right thing on Tuesday. Vote for Barack Obama for a second term. Do it for your kids, your grandkids, and yourselves.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sarah Silverman's Awesome Voter Suppression Video
Do not watch this at work, unless you work from home as I do. But the always hilarious Sarah Silverman has put together a funny, raunchy and yet downright truthful account of how Republicans are trying to keep Democrats from voting, mostly--if not always--in swing states. It doesn't matter how far Obama is ahead in the polls. If the GOP succeeds at suppressing the vote, that won't matter. And that's truly frightening. But you have to watch this video, and please share it with your friends.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Of Breaking Silence and Cheating and Lying GOP
Folks, I apologize for taking so long between posts. Losing the recall election kind of took a lot out of my political soul, but as we gear up for the presidential election in less than 90 days, I want my voice to be heard a bit.
We have Romney and Ryan--the most radical right wing ticket in history. They want to roll back women's rights about 60 years and funnel as much money as they can from the middle and lower classes up to the uber wealthy. The trickle down theory started with Ronald Reagan, continued with George W. Bush, and would pick up again on steroids if Romney and Ryan get in to the White House.
I'm not sure you people realize just how frightening that is.
You know what else? The NRA has a stranglehold on Washington, and I mean both parties. Are the politicians afraid of being shot if they veer? Seriously. But shootings and mass murders in churches, movie theaters and schools keeps happening. Republicans want everyone to be armed and the NRA is pushing pushing pushing for that. I don't want my kid growing up in that sort of country, do you?
But I digress. I'm tired of a few things the GOP is doing. First of all, they get their talking points and they're off to the races. Since their whole party and philosophy is built on funneling money from the bottom to the top, they have to craft policies around lies and deception. And they are smart cookies. They have their Frank Luntz talking points like "Obama stole $700 billion from YOU to fund Obamacare." Are you fucking kidding me? He is taking money that would otherwise go in the pockets of insurance companies and giving it back to the people who overpaid for prescriptions and health care. He is trying to save Medicare, not privatize or kill it. But you've got Romney and Ryan and that douchebag Reince Priebus saying Obama has "blood on his hands." And they just keep snowballing their lies.
But here is the problem. Those lies are a house of cards. The American people are smarter than that, which is why you have them shouting at Paul Ryan at public events in which he's not in the comfy confines of Fox News. People are angry that these guys want to take what Obama and the Dems in Congress worked so hard for--affordable health care for all---and they want to take it away and replace it with vouchers. And when they are asked to expound on this stuff, they lie and talk in circles some more. I'm not kidding.
But when you control the media and prey on people who don't know better (they are trying to dumb everyone down by slashing education too), you can get away with this shit. And when you realize that the American people are firmly with Obama, because they want Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security saved; because they want equal pay for women and same sex marriage; because they want the US Postal Service saved from a right wing conspiracy to kill it; because they want birth control to be legal and because they don't want to go to Mexico for abortions; because, like me, they don't want to worry about losing coverage for my bad back or losing coverage for my autistic son to get the services he desperately needs; because they want a thriving middle class again--need I go on? When they realize that, they resort to suppressing the vote, an epidemic of cheating that may swing the election their way and once they kill all the unions off, we become a de facto communist country with a front that looks like democracy.
Is that what you want?
Is that what you want for your children?
I'm scared with this Paul Ryan choice, and you should be too. But the election choices are clear.
Do you stand with the middle class and true American values, or do you stand with the racist and pathological liars and criminals? The choice is yours.
We have Romney and Ryan--the most radical right wing ticket in history. They want to roll back women's rights about 60 years and funnel as much money as they can from the middle and lower classes up to the uber wealthy. The trickle down theory started with Ronald Reagan, continued with George W. Bush, and would pick up again on steroids if Romney and Ryan get in to the White House.
I'm not sure you people realize just how frightening that is.
You know what else? The NRA has a stranglehold on Washington, and I mean both parties. Are the politicians afraid of being shot if they veer? Seriously. But shootings and mass murders in churches, movie theaters and schools keeps happening. Republicans want everyone to be armed and the NRA is pushing pushing pushing for that. I don't want my kid growing up in that sort of country, do you?
But I digress. I'm tired of a few things the GOP is doing. First of all, they get their talking points and they're off to the races. Since their whole party and philosophy is built on funneling money from the bottom to the top, they have to craft policies around lies and deception. And they are smart cookies. They have their Frank Luntz talking points like "Obama stole $700 billion from YOU to fund Obamacare." Are you fucking kidding me? He is taking money that would otherwise go in the pockets of insurance companies and giving it back to the people who overpaid for prescriptions and health care. He is trying to save Medicare, not privatize or kill it. But you've got Romney and Ryan and that douchebag Reince Priebus saying Obama has "blood on his hands." And they just keep snowballing their lies.
But here is the problem. Those lies are a house of cards. The American people are smarter than that, which is why you have them shouting at Paul Ryan at public events in which he's not in the comfy confines of Fox News. People are angry that these guys want to take what Obama and the Dems in Congress worked so hard for--affordable health care for all---and they want to take it away and replace it with vouchers. And when they are asked to expound on this stuff, they lie and talk in circles some more. I'm not kidding.
But when you control the media and prey on people who don't know better (they are trying to dumb everyone down by slashing education too), you can get away with this shit. And when you realize that the American people are firmly with Obama, because they want Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security saved; because they want equal pay for women and same sex marriage; because they want the US Postal Service saved from a right wing conspiracy to kill it; because they want birth control to be legal and because they don't want to go to Mexico for abortions; because, like me, they don't want to worry about losing coverage for my bad back or losing coverage for my autistic son to get the services he desperately needs; because they want a thriving middle class again--need I go on? When they realize that, they resort to suppressing the vote, an epidemic of cheating that may swing the election their way and once they kill all the unions off, we become a de facto communist country with a front that looks like democracy.
Is that what you want?
Is that what you want for your children?
I'm scared with this Paul Ryan choice, and you should be too. But the election choices are clear.
Do you stand with the middle class and true American values, or do you stand with the racist and pathological liars and criminals? The choice is yours.
Friday, June 8, 2012
From Madison--Down but Not Out
So we lost a key election this past Tuesday when sitting governor Scott Walker beat Tom Barrett's challenge and will finish out his term. I'm not going to sugar coat this--it sucks. Walker has pushed the template radical right wing agenda set forth by ALEC, the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove and much of the Republican party--that is, voter suppression, union busting, environmental leniency, anti-abortion legislation, unequal pay for women and more. And of course, more tax cuts for the rich and for corporations. They want to limit union power to the point where only they have the top donors to fund elections. They also own the media (Fox news, and various newspapers), and they are on a dangerous course of money-grabbing power being the end-all, be-all in this world.
HOWEVER.....as long as there isn't a cheat-filled recount in the one senate race we Dems won this past Tuesday in Wisconsin, we now have a majority in the senate. That means Walker can't ram his awful bills through. We also now have the benefit of an uprising in this country--led by a sleeping giant of liberals, progressives and much of the 99%, and we are turning our focus to make sure President Obama is not just re-elected, but that he is able to gain a majority in the House. Right now, Congress is stopping every one of Obama's job growth plans, and trying to crash the economy on purpose for political gain. I'm not making that up, it's a fact. And Dems need to ram that point home to their base, to moderates and swing voters, and even Republicans who have been too complacent or brainwashed by a post-Citizens United onslaught of money-driven attack ads aimed at the left.
The ground game not only needs to be employed, it needs to be more than a ground game. It needs to be an American Revolution, led by all of us who want to take our country back from the corporate greed and money-fueled government we now have.
So yeah, we were hit hard here in Madison on Tuesday, but we're gradually getting up off the ground.
We are ready to fight.
Are you with me?
HOWEVER.....as long as there isn't a cheat-filled recount in the one senate race we Dems won this past Tuesday in Wisconsin, we now have a majority in the senate. That means Walker can't ram his awful bills through. We also now have the benefit of an uprising in this country--led by a sleeping giant of liberals, progressives and much of the 99%, and we are turning our focus to make sure President Obama is not just re-elected, but that he is able to gain a majority in the House. Right now, Congress is stopping every one of Obama's job growth plans, and trying to crash the economy on purpose for political gain. I'm not making that up, it's a fact. And Dems need to ram that point home to their base, to moderates and swing voters, and even Republicans who have been too complacent or brainwashed by a post-Citizens United onslaught of money-driven attack ads aimed at the left.
The ground game not only needs to be employed, it needs to be more than a ground game. It needs to be an American Revolution, led by all of us who want to take our country back from the corporate greed and money-fueled government we now have.
So yeah, we were hit hard here in Madison on Tuesday, but we're gradually getting up off the ground.
We are ready to fight.
Are you with me?
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