Lame Duck2010 and Predictions

So we passed tax breaks for everyone including the richest of the rich just so we could extend unemployment for 13 months, adding roughly a trillion or so more dollars to the debt. My prediction is that in 2012 the tax cuts will remain in place as no president dare raise taxes in an election year, especially after the George H.W. Bush "Read my Lips" debacle. The jobs that the tax cuts are supposed to create will not happen, as U.S. companies are sitting on record amounts of cash and will continue to do so. I would be surprised if unemployment gets below 9.5 percent. One thing that's for sure, as soon as the Republicans take office they will start screaming about the debt and the first thing they will want to cut is Social Security. And Obama the fool thinks this is a good start in bipartisanship. Mitch McConnell will halt any progress on anything, so going into 2012 elections, Obama will look like nothing has been done in the last two years. Darrell Issa (R CA)will start investigating everything from Obama's birth certificate to how he rose up the ranks so fast. It's the people of this country who will suffer. And speaking of suffering, the Republicans who complain that its the Blacks and Hispanics who are robbing our tax dollars from all the welfare they receive, voted down the Dream Act. This law would have put Hispanics who were brought here by their parents when they were too young to have a say so, would have put them on a fast track to citizenship if they complete two years of military service or complete two years of college. Two things, both college and the military prepare you with skills to get a job so you would not have to collect these so called handouts. The second thing is, one of the conservatives argument against abortion is the fetus does not have a say in the decision. Its the same for a four or five year old who's parents came here illegally. They had no choice. In two years let's revisit and see just where we are.

Democratic Party Pussies Control U.S. Senate

That's right, the Democratic Party from the House to the Senate, to the White House are a bunch of spineless pussies. Where is the Obama that campaigned on raising taxes on the rich, while maintaining the tax breaks for the middle class. The Senate Democrats on Saturday wanted to extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, going so far as to call anyone making a million dollars a year middle class, and the Republicans voted no. What a bunch of assholes, the Republicans have shown their true colors and basically have said the only people they care about are the people who are making over one million dollars a year. The top one percent of the country. The 42 Republicans in the Senate have all signed a letter to Obama saying they would stall government if tax breaks for the richest one percent of the country were not extended first. They will not fund any more unemployment, they will not sign the START Treaty, they will not vote on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, they will not even fund the federal government, which would force shutdown of non essential services like when Clinton was in office. By the way the Republicans looked like idiots on that one. Even worse is the fact that these tax cuts are unfunded. To pay for them we have to borrow more from China. So why do Republicans talk about the debt when this could add close to another three trillion on to it. It's because they are full of shit. Obama, wake up, you are giving in to them, you keep giving in to them, and do you really think they are going to vote for any of the other stuff I have mentioned above? Yertle the Turtle (Mitch McConnell) said the day after the midterms that the number one goal is to bring you down Obama. If you think they are going to vote yes on that stuff, you are not the elitist they accused you of being, you are just an idiot. It is bullshit that these tax cuts create jobs. They were passed in 2001 and 2003 and seven years later, were in a recession with high unemployment. In fact 2009 and 2010 will have the lowest taxes in history but unemployment has crept back up to 9.8 percent. If you cant see the relation, then you are an idiot. And anyone who is on unemployment that either did not vote or voted Republican, then you are an idiot also. The unemployment rate is going up as the stimulus spending winds down. If you disagree then show me some statistics that prove otherwise and I don't mean Beck or Limbaugh saying it, that isn't a statistic. The real pisser of it all is how much higher of a tax break you get the more you make, in fact someone making a million dollars a year or more will get five times the amount of benefits that someone making around seventy five thousand a year does. Oh and one other thing, people who are on unemployment spend every last dollar they get from it, putting it back into the economy. That's trickle down economics. Someone making a million a year only paying fifteen percent because the majority of his taxes are based on capitol gains, does not spend all that extra money. In fact in most instances it is moved into offshore investments, doing this country little if any good at all and dragging us into a deeper national debt. Why do you think I am for letting all the tax cuts expire? Because the added burden to me is small, but to someone making a million a year or more its a much higher rate. The Tea Party wants to get back to the good old days of their beloved Ronald Reagan. I am all for it. Lets go because then they would be paying 39 percent and the National Debt would dry up in no time.

Way to go Smart People and Election 2010

Five False Things Republicans got the Public to Believe Prior to Nov. 2nd 2010

1. President Obama tripled the yearly deficit.

False, President Bush’s last budget was 1.416 trillion. President Obama’s first budget was 1.29 trillion. Source: Congressional Budget Office

2. President Obama raised taxes which hurt the economy.

False, 40 percent of the 787 billion dollar stimulus went to tax breaks on top of the Bush tax breaks already in effect. It’s the only way senate Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats would vote for it. Source: C-Span

3. President Obama bailed out the banks.

False, The bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. These bailouts were signed into law on Oct 3, 2008, a full month before Obama was elected and three months before he took office. Source: Too Big To Fail, Andrew Ross Sorkin

4. The stimulus did not work.

False, The stimulus created at least 1.4 million non government jobs. In fact the last three months of the Bush administration saw job losses of over seven hundred thousand jobs a month. In comparison the stimulus was signed into law mid February 2009 and by April 2009 the losses had been cut by a hundred thousand a month and by August 2009 had been cut in half to three hundred thousand a month. If not for the stimulus the job loss would have kept increasing. Source: Business Insider and Department of Labor.

5. Health Care (Obama Care) will add a trillion dollars to the deficit.

False, According to the Congressional Budget Office it will actually decrease the debt by 138 billion.

Look this stuff up for yourself if you don’t believe me, or are you afraid to. Congratulations to the Republicans. They sold you on tall tales. They say they will cut the deficit, but ask any of them where they are going to cut. None of them will commit to cutting anything. The biggest programs are Social Security, Medicare, and Military, and they will not touch those three or they’ll be out as fast as they got in. Ask them if they are going to vote yes on raising the debt ceiling next year. I’ll bet they do, because if they don’t the U.S. will not be able to pay loans that are do. And now that were off the gold standard there will be no faith in the value of the dollar anywhere in the world.

Fox News helps Fund Ground Zero Mosque

That's right. As reported on Fox News and Friends this morning, funding for the Ground Zero mosque is coming from a group of Saudi's called the Kingdom Foundation. The analyst said this foundation is headed up by a guy who funds radical forms of Islam all over the world through madrases. They went on to say that the guy gave a ten million dollar contribution to Rudy Guiliani for New York City disaster relief after 9/11, in which Guiliani returned it to him. Apparently they did minimal research before this guy opened his pie hole as the guy in question is non other than Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud. The same Prince that is the second largest shareholder of NewsCorp, (Behind Rupert Murdoch) parent company of Fox News. Now if the Prince is getting dividends or any financial gain from NewsCorp then that money could be considered income in which he funds radical Islam. Thanks a lot Fox. At least we know where you stand on this issue.

I'm Back

It's been a while because I have been busy with a new addition to our family. She's a good girl most of the time, but has to constantly be watched. She is a white boxer puppy, who is playful, and mischievous, and takes up a lot of time. Introducing, Riley Marting. Now getting back to politics. The big talk lately has been about letting the Bush tax cuts expire for the top two percent of earners in this country. I think the logical thing to do is let them expire. Now I am no expert but when you have people like Alan Greenspan who everyone trusted when Bush was in office, and David Stockmon, President Reagans Office of Management and Budget (Read: The Architect of the Reagan tax cuts) going so far to say that the Bush tax cuts have led to serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy. I would say I trust these two Republican economists. In fact unless you make over 250 thousand a year the rolling back of the tax cuts will not effect you and in some cases you will be better off. People who make less than 100,000 a year. Here is a graph of tax cuts per year on what you would pay on income.

20,000-30,000 Dem 771 Rep 769

40,000-50,000 Dem 916 Rep 909

50,000-75,000 Dem 1132 Rep 1119

75,000-100,000 Dem 1900 Rep 1871

200,000-500,000 Dem 6743 Rep 7152

500,000-1 Million Dem 6701 Rep 17,467

1 Million+ Dem 6349 Rep 103,835

What this shows is that the Bush tax cuts favor only the very wealthy in this country while the rest of us make up for it. In fact unless you make less than 500,000 it really doesn't effect you. And all of you that say that these tax cuts create jobs, bullshit, we have been losing jobs since the Bush tax cuts were fully implemented and when he left office the unemployment rate was above nine percent and increasing. Leading Republican Economists have said to let the tax cuts roll back. Oh and by the way when all of you were screaming about the health care bill going through by way of reconciliation, this was the only way they could pass the tax cuts. Why weren't you screaming then Rush and Glenn? And because they are unfunded, the law requires them to roll back, which Bush knew when he enacted them. Now you have a putz like Newt Gingrich on Fox News saying "The Chinese pay no capitol gains tax" so now Newt is comparing our system against a communist one, interesting. People call me a communist, and Newt is siding with the Chinese.

Obama, Fox News and Credibility

So once again Fox News has put a story in heavy rotation that at first makes us think that there are racist people working for the Obama administration, and called for Obama to remove the person in question from her job. If you haven't been following the news, Fox ran a story about a lady named Shirley Sherrod. Shirley works for the USDA as a Rural Development Director for the Obama Administration. Seems Shirley made a speech at a NAACP convention in March, in which she talked about a white farmer who needed help to save his farm from financial problems. Shirley went on to say that with all the black farmers who have lost their farms, that why she as a black woman should give any effort to help this white guy. Now Fox takes the statement and makes it seem that is what she is doing in her current role under the Obama Administration. Bill O'Reilly called for her resignation immediately saying a Federal government official cannot have skin color deciding who gets federal assistance. Hannity said that it appears that she used her government position to racially discriminate against white farmers. Fox went so far as to put wording on the screen to set the story up saying, "Ms. Sherrod admits that in her federally appointed position, overseeing over a billion dollars, she discriminates against people due to their race", and "Government discrimination caught on tape". This story ran all day Monday on Fox News. The opinion being that Obama has hired racist people to work in his administration. The sad thing is she was relating a story from 20 years ago, not now in her present position. The story she is telling took place in 1986 a little fact checking shows. And if you listen to the whole tape she said she realizes that this is not a black and white thing. She had always helped black farmers and this was her first opportunity to help a white farmer. In her initial reaction, which Fox News keeps running, she realizes that she was wrong. And if you listen to the whole tape, she says she realizes that this is not a black and white thing but it is a struggle about poor people. Now here comes Obama. Not only does his administration demand and receive her resignation but the NAACP denounces her as well. This is not the first time Fox has done this as the "Pimp and Prostitute" story is what brought down ACORN the community organizing group. Once again Fox showed highly edited tapes, the same tactic they used, making ACORN look bad. Now an ACORN worker who lost his job is suing the "Pimp and Prostitute", a legitimate story which you will not see on Fox. The worst part about all of this is that the Obama administration got Ms. Sherrod to resign, based on a story from Fox News without checking into any of this. Obama has lost any credibility he once had. Mr Obama should be ashamed and consider himself lucky if Ms. Sherrod would be willing to work for his administration again. As bad as Fox's reporting is, Obamas fact checking and rush to judgement is even worse. Cut to Tuesday and CNN has the farmer on and he says that Ms. Sherrod is not a racist and if it weren't for her he would have lost his farm. Nothing like a smear campaign and that's why I can't stand Fox News.

Hypocrites and More Hypocrites

The first thing I noticed lately is how many Republicans consider themselves good Christians, the key word being good. So I don't understand how Republicans in the Senate keep blocking unemployment benefit extensions. Actually it is unemployment insurance which we as employees and the companies we work for pay into. That's what insurance is, so why are we being denied it. Republicans say there is no money in the budget for it. There is also no money in the budget for our two ongoing wars but they have no problem voting for their continued funding. Then Michael Steele makes some comment about Afghanistan being Obama's war. Even the Republican leaders were cringing at that one. According to the Bible's New Testament, Mathew 25 to be exact says "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in". Sounds to me like that's what the government is trying to do with unemployment which by the way, that money goes right back into the economy because no one is banking their unemployment checks. And you say that Jesus did not mean for our tax dollars go to help less fortunate. That's because Jesus lived in a Monarchy. He had no choice in government affairs. We live in a democracy and right now for better or for worse, the Democrats have the majority to make decisions. There are many passages in the New Testament with examples of Jesus helping the less fortunate (Mathew 19, Luke 7, Luke 18, and John 3) John 3.17 specifically says " If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth". Seems to me there are a lot of people spouting Christian values out of their mouths but not living what they are saying. Maybe its time they ask themselves are they Christians through talk or are they Christians through their actions?

Bonus Section 6/24/2010

All right, I just had more to say today and this will go all over the place. Starting with Fannie Mae. That's right, the mismanaged semi private loan company until we the taxpayers bailed them out and now who knows what they are. I can tell you one thing they are, and that is a bunch of douchebags. Today they announced that anyone walking away from their home and mortgage will not be approved for a mortgage for at least seven years if ever again at all. In addition they will now sue you for the difference on what is owed verses what the home sells for in foreclosure. So lets get this straight. The government puts 75 billion dollars aside for the banks to modify mortgage rates for borrowers in trouble. The latest statistics show that of the 75 billion, only 242 million (less than five percent) has been used to restructure loans, because the banks that we the taxpayers bailed out refuse to modify the loans. So people are going into foreclosure and Fannie Mae who we the tax payers bailed out is now going to screw the same people that kept them in business. Thanks a lot Fannie, ShittyBank, Chase and whoever else got bailed out on our dime and then gave themselves big bonuses while once again screwing the average homeowner. We should of let you go down the drain. Then there is the idiot judge from Louisiana who granted an injunction on Obama's moratorium on offshore drilling. Seems the judge owns a lot of stock in Trans Ocean. The same Trans Ocean who operated the rig for B.P. that blew up, causing the current oil spill disaster in the gulf. I believe the judge had a duty to recuse himself due to the conflict of interest, and this judge as far as I'm concerned should be removed from the bench. Why haven't we heard that story on Fox News? And speaking of Fox News, Gretchen Carlson said that being President is just like her job. What? I had to listen to it again just to be sure that's what she said. I stand by my statement of calling her a dumb bitch.

McChrystal is Out

Now this is what I call bittersweet. A general appointed by a liberal (supposed to be) President, who was mired in a cover up controversy over friendly fire in a war that's un winnable. Don't think so. Look at history, Alexander the Great could not hold occupation as far back as 330 B.C. Genghis Khan around 1200 had the whole Asian continent from China to the Mediterranean but the one country he could not conquer was Afghanistan. In the 1800s Great Britain tried three times to occupy but was ultimately thrown out in 1919. In the 1980s the second largest superpower in the world tried unsuccessfully to bring Afghanistan into the Soviet Union and after more than ten years withdrew, do to heavy casualties and the fact that they were going broke because of their invasion. Obama a smart elitist you say, guess he hasn't taken any classes in history. And yes this country is going broke partly because of two baseless wars that have to be funded. Unfortunately as Obama was accepting McChrystals resignation he was appointing General Patreus to head up the war in Afghanistan and made it clear that this was a change in leadership, not a change in policy. All you right wingers that constantly tell me that you don't want your tax dollars going for abortions, well guess what, I don't want my tax dollars going towards war. On the other hand, all you right wingers that blast Obama, you should be happy with his war effort as he is picking up right where Bush left off. Illegal wire taps, kidnapping anyone suspected of terrorism and taking them to Baghram as Guantanomo is to controversial, (to close to our border) Predator drone attacks in Pakistan. There is no defined purpose of this war. Even McChrystal has said that there is fewer than one hundred Al Quaida left in Afghanistan. Someone please define victory here for me. Our drones in the last month have killed two pregnant women in Pakistan just over the border. Doesn't that qualify as an abortion? Why aren't you pro lifers screaming about that? That's right you pro lifers are only pro life when it comes to a fetus, not wars or the death penalty. I think you need to change your name to Pro Life but only on your terms. Getting back to the McChrystal deal. The pundits are all ready blasting Obama for asking for his resignation, but the fact is McChrystal violated Section 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Not to mention the fact that to the rest of the world including the Russians, that if he didn't resign it would look like the military is running this country and the President is just a figure head with no power. That goes against how our Constitution was set up. It's time for Obama to rethink Afghanistan and pull out. The money we spend there is crazy. We pay bribes to Afghan tribes to not shoot at our troops and they take that money and buy weapons to shoot at us anyways. All courtesy of our tax dollars. They have no infrastructure at all. They have no basics once you get away from Kabul. No paved roads, no electric, no phones and now water or sewage. Bush said we invaded Afghanistan because that is where 911 was planned. According to the 911 commission it was planned in Germany and the hijackers trained in the United States. And the video of the trainees jumping out of the dirt and swinging on monkey bars, well lets just say we should shut down every kids park in this country then.

Conservative or Not, and the Idiot in the House

So how many of you are conservatives? How many of you think Richard Nixon was a great President. I was young but I remember him and thought he was a great President. My father even took me to a campaign rally at a high school out here in the burbs and put me on his shoulders so I could get a view of the future President himself. His one mistake was that he thought he was above the law when asked to turn over the tapes. Something many politicians these days do on a regular basis. Now they just get an attorney that agrees with them and somehow justify it. Now if you think that Obama is the first President to talk about getting off oil think again. In fact, G. W. Bush in his 2006 State of the Union speech said "This country can dramatically improve the environment, move beyond a petroleum based economy, and make our dependence on middle east oil a thing of the past". June 28, 2000, Bill Clinton said "We need a long term energy policy to maximize conservation and maximize the development of long term sources of alternative energy". Before him George H.W. Bush said on Aug 18, 1998 " There is no security for the United States in further dependence on foreign oil". Before him on February 18, 1981 Ronald Reagan said "We will continue supportive research, leading to development of new technologies and more independence from foreign oil". On July 15, 1979, Jimmy Carter said "This intolerable dependence on foreign oil". On January 15, 1975, Gerald Ford said "New standby emergency programs to achieve the independence we want". And finally Richard Nixon said on January 30, 1974, "We will break the back of the energy crisis, we will lay the foundation for our future capacity to meet Americas energy needs from Americas own energy resources". So there you have it, eight Presidents all thinking the same way about Americas energy situation. Some were hated liberals by conservatives but when a loved conservative such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan talked about getting off foreign oil, conservatives were behind them 100 percent. Especially when it came to Reagan. Why is it when a Democrat has the same ideas as a Republican, Conservatives are not behind it. Look at the dumb bitch on Fox News and Friends (Gretchen Carlson) who on Monday said "It would be a good idea if Obama would ask for a little divine intervention about how were going to fix this oil leak". So in his speech on Tuesday, Obama suggested "We pray for that courage, we pray for the people of the Gulf, and we pray that a hand may guide us through the storm to a brighter day". On Wednesday Carlson ripped Obama on Fox and Friends, as being disingenuous coming from a President who does not go to church on a regular basis. I guess you just can't please everyone, or anyone at Fox News if your Obama, even if he takes their advise. Now in the list of Presidents that want to get off oil only one started the process and it wasn't a liberal. Nope, it was Nixon. Nixon created the E.P.A., Nixon signed the Clean Water Act, Nixon signed the Marine Mammal Protection Act. All these things, if he were around today would make him look more liberal than Obama, yet most conservatives still love him to this day. And then you have the IDIOT in the House. Representative Joe Barton (Republican Texas) actually apologised to B.P. for our government shaking them down. (Obama told B.P. to pay for the cleanup). He even called it a 20 billion dollar slush fund. And John Boehner, House minority leader suggested we as taxpayers pay for some of the oil spill cleanup. What an asshole, he says there's no money to extend unemployment benefits yet he can somehow find tax dollars to help B.P. in the cost of the cleanup. I wonder how much money big oil has given to these two assholes to keep them in office?

Educated Religious Fanatics

So I just got back from a weeks vacation in the Southwest and yes I had my passport just in case I was mistaken for an illegal. Anyways while enjoying the pool at one of Vegas's finest I came across an interesting conversation going on amongst two guys and a girl who were all in their mid twenties. I soon realized that they were not together. The girl had just graduated Purdue University and her grandmother had brought her to Vegas for a graduation present. The guys were mechanics working in Alaska on the Pipeline. They work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. They were working her pretty hard to pick her up but were getting nowhere. As I started talking to her I realized that intellectually she wanted way more than they had to offer her. So I find out her family owns an investment firm and she was pretty conservative in her views and me being liberally independent brought out some good debate with her. We talked for about two hours in the pool as the shade temperature was 110 that day. The next day while in the pool she spotted me and called me over and soon the conversation turned to her conservative beliefs heading fast towards religion. I was brought up Catholic and I am a strong believer. I just don't adhere to the Catholic Church teachings and rules at this point. So at the end of May one of my follower/debaters in a reply to a post said "Now he knew where I stood on religion" because I said the phrase "Right Wing Religious Nut Job". So that's how he knows what my views on Christianity are? Ok my view is that any mainstream religion has fanatics who take phrases from their books and use them to advance their agenda no matter how radical or improper they are. And I am not afraid to say it, those people are religious nut jobs, wackos or anything else that is not politically correct describing someone who is fanatically crazy. So getting back to Vegas and the girl in the pool, a college educated, well spoken, intelligent human starts talking about Revelations, Rapture and how great the end is going to be with a fiery death. She is all for religious fanatics running this country. Look at the fanatic Muslim governments with religious rule. They all want the bomb, we don't want them to get it and somewhere in between the forces collide. At some point they are going to develop it whether we like it or not and Revelations will come true. She said that that was just fine with her. I can't figure out how someone who is so highly educated is such a nutjob. I personally don't want to die a fiery death. I enjoy life and want to live a long time. If religious people like her and the other wackjobs that feel that death is beautiful and wonderful and want rapture then they should just kill themselves and leave the rest of us alone.

Hypocrite and Liar, You Decide Which is Which

Recently Glenn Beck took a bow telling his audience that Fox was the only one showing footage of the Israeli's enforcing the blockade on Gaza, the specific scene showing the Commandos arriving on the ship, being beaten with poles by the people on the ship, who were delivering the aid to Gaza. I believe he said "Turn on any media outlet other than this one. They're not going to show you this. That video, your hard pressed to see it here in America from media outlets besides Fox. Nobody seems willing to show it. Leaving the question, why." What's he insinuating first of all? But the real kicker is that during the twenty four hours prior to him saying this, the following stations showed the clip he was referring to. MSNBCs Hardball with Chris Mathews, CNN, HLN, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, and even Univision showed the clip. Unfortunately Glen Beck fans are loyal followers and believe everything he says to the tee, so here is a clear example of him being caught in a flat out lie. Now to jump around a bit, seems a certain Senate candidate (Richard Blumenthal) of Connecticut a Democrat, lied about his service record in the military, saying he was in Viet Nam. After numerous deferments, he finally was accepted into the Marine Reserves and never actually served in Viet Nam. DIRTBAG, this is a great disservice to the men and women who sacrifice now and in the past to protect our nation. So in comes the respected Orrin Hatch of Utah who does not like this Democrat DIRTBAG. So Senator Hatch introduces legislation to put anyone in jail for misrepresenting his or her military record for the purposes of gaining recognition, honorarium, official office or other position of authority, employment, or other benefit. Sounds like this law is designed with Blumenthal in mind. Now it comes out that Mark Kirk a Republican from Illinois running for Senate misspoke his Service record also. He apologised saying it was just a few times out of the thousands of times he has spoke. He had been saying that he was the Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year. He had never won that award. He had been part of a unit in Italy that won an intelligence award from a group outside the Navy. One of those times was on the House Floor in March 2002 in which he said he was the Navy's intelligence officer of the year in 1998. His T.V. campaign ads said it also. In 2005 his campaign website said that he was the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom. DIRTBAG, once again a great disservice to the men and women who sacrifice for our country. When Senator Hatch's office was asked if the language in the Bill applied to Mark Kirk, Hatch's office said no. Way to go respectable Senator Hatch. Who is the hypocrite and who is the liar? We know who the DIRTBAGS are.

Oil, Politics and More Interesting Observations

One of the news stories yesterday was about our national debt, now at 13 trillion and counting. You'd think it was Obama's fault the way right wing talk radio has it. Make no mistake it is a Beltway problem of both Democrats and Republicans. Congress should be taking a lot of the blame as they think the taxpayers are an open cash machine. Only they think they won't see it. Ronald Reagan said deficits don't matter. True in his lifetime, because he's not around to see the end results of his tax cuts coupled with his spending spree. In the 1970s a republican strategist named Jude Wanniski came up with what he called the two Santa Clause theory. In it he strategies that when in power Republicans should cut taxes and increase spending to alarming rates, putting it all on the national credit card (The National Debt). This allows two things. One it makes the Republicans look good to the citizens for cutting taxes, and two they spend, which increases jobs across both the private and public sectors. The citizens get the best of both worlds. When the Democrats get into power, the Republicans then use every media outlet available, (Newspapers, Magazines, Sunday Morning T.V. shows, and Right Wing Radio) to scream about the deficit and demand cutting spending immediately. The Democrats then raise taxes, and cut spending to balance the budget. That way the Democrats look like the bad guys. That's what Clinton did, just look at history. Even though we had a balanced budget under Clinton, Republicans take credit for it, saying they were the majority in congress and it was they who balanced the budget. Out of the 13 trillion dollar debt this country has, Obama inherited about 11 trillion of it. The Wall Street bailouts during the Bush administration totaled around 6 Trillion alone. 700 billion to TARP, 300 billion to Citigroup, 200 billion to Fannie Mae, 1.3 trillion to non financial companies for working capitol because the banks we bailed out were unwilling to lend, another trillion in credit for banks to lend out to each other, 600 billion to buy troubled mortgages, 300 billion for the FHA to insure mortgages close to foreclosure, 1.4 trillion for interbank loans from the FHA. That's just the banking part. We also have 3 trillion for Iraq and Afghanistan wars, 1.7 trillion in tax cuts, and 130 billion in medicare drug benefits. That's just the highlights. So the next time you hear Rush or Beck talking about the deficit, ask them where it came from. Not including Medicare and Social Security entitlement programs only account for around twelve percent of the budget and ask any Republican over 65 years old if they are willing to give up those two things and you will certainly hear a no from them. We need to raise taxes on large businesses who pay no tax at all, (BP, Halliburton, and Trans Ocean) and give tax breaks to the mom and pop business owners who are being driven out of business by the large offshore companies that pay no tax, and the tax burden forced upon them to make up for. Don't think so, thirty years of trickle down economics got us to this point. It wasn't any one President, or any one Congress, it was all of them, both Democratic and Republican. Beltway at its best, America at its worst.

Interesting Observations

So I voted for change (Obama) and that change included appointing Ken Salazar to the Secretary of the Interior. Under Secretary Salazars department sits the Minerals Management Service. This is the part of government that is supposed to be regulating the offshore drilling industry. Now it's coming out that the MMS was accepting numerous gifts from the oil companies they were supposed to be overseeing including fishing and hunting trips, private jet trips, and job offers from oil companies to MMS staff. I guess this is the change I believed in. What has Secretary Salazar been doing since his appointment? On the other hand I think its interesting that all the right wingers supported G. Bush during his handling of Hurricane Katrina. None of them thought Bush did anything wrong, yet now they're calling the oil spill Obama's Katrina. If Katrina wasn't a bad thing during the Bush Presidency are the right wingers saying its a bad thing now, or are they applauding the way Obama is handling the spill. I thought the right wingers did not want government involved in anything. Libertarians want little to no government at all and firmly believe in individual property rights. My question is if you do what you want with your property and your mess impedes other peoples property, what then. With little or no government you then have anarchy. Witness Somalia, a country with no government for 18 years and counting. There anything goes and only the strong survive literally.

Rand Paul / Kentucky Tea Party

Ok so lets go back about a year to May 1st 2009. Dr. Rand Paul announces on the Rachel Maddow Show that if Senator Jim Bunning (R. Kentucky) was not going to run for a third term that he'd certainly stand in the Republican Primary and soon after the show would form an exploratory committee. The irony is, that here's a douchbag who claims to be a Libertarian, announcing his candidacy on a liberal talk show and when he wins, goes back to the same liberal talk show for an interview and shows his true colors. He then blames his gaffs on the liberal media. In fact the same liberal media that he announced his candidacy on. Where have I heard that before? Now the Republicans have a problem. Do they embrace him and his views, or do they distance themselves. Last night Dr. Paul said in a nutshell, that if you own a business and did not want to give service to someone based on race, religion or national origin, that you shouldn't have to. Today he said that it was the liberal media taking him out of context. In May 2002 he criticized the Fair Housing Act in a letter to the Bowling Green Daily News. In other words if you own an apartment building you could choose not to have a black person live there just based on their race. Here is the Tea Party candidate running on the Republican ticket in November flat out sounding like a racist. And for you people that are saying don't go there, you are the same people that bring up code words and code phrases the last two times Obama has picked a Supreme Court nominee. I guess some of the media have had it right all along, the Tea Party movement is full of racists and until they denounce Dr. Paul, that's how I will see them also. One thing that's really interesting is the guy who lost to Dr. Paul (Trey Grayson) sure missed an opportunity to win that election as Dr. Pauls views haven't changed since at least 2002. Then again maybe that's how divided this country really is. I'd like to think it's not though. Oh and one other thing of interest, Dr. Paul is a medical doctor and about 50% of his business is medicare patients. Dr. Paul criticized his opponent for supporting health care legislation yet he wants more money put into medicare reimbursement to doctors. He claims to be a Libertarian who wants government out of everything but supports a government ban on abortions. Interesting.

Oil Still a Spillin, Drill Baby Drill

Ok its been 28 days and the darned thing is still flowing. If you watched 60 Minutes Sunday night, one of the survivors working on the rig basically said that BP was pushing TransOcean, the operator of the rig, to work faster even though TransOcean informed them of unsafe conditions. Meanwhile we find out the agency set up to oversee offshore was in bed, literally with the companies that they were overseeing (That's a whole story in itself). So what have we learned? On the more serious side we have learned that oil, no matter where it comes from is sold on the world markets subject to speculators. Hence the high gas prices of 2008. In fact this country has only 2 percent of the worlds oil reserves and any new drilling on the outer continental shelf, where the catastrophe occurred, would save us only 3 cents a gallon by the year 2030 according to the Energy Information Administration. Instead if we upped the MPG to 35 on all new cars we would save a dollar a gallon. We learned that drill baby drill without any oversight is a dangerous thing. Especially when safety systems that are mandatory in Europe are made voluntary in this country. We learned that the same people who want less government are asking where the government is on this. On a lighter side we learned that Rush said that oil is natural and nature would take care of itself, and followed it with the oil companies were forced to drill out that far in dangerous conditions because the crazy environmentalists swayed the government to keep them from drilling in close to shore. Two things, just because it's natural doesn't mean it's not a danger. There are a lot of dangerous things in nature (Plutonium, Mercury, and Lead come to mind) but when they're unleashed without restriction, that's what makes them dangerous. Fresh water is dangerous also, just ask the people in Nashville. Joe on one hand keeps asking me where Obama was for that while at the same time he wants government out of everything except national defense. (Off Track) Second thing Rush, BP was drilling there because that's where the oil is. They don't drill where there's no oil, they drill where the oil is. Is he really that dense?

Roberta/Joe is still calling me a Communist

Yes he is still calling me a communist. So lets take a look at the definition of communism from the Websters Dictionary. A theory advocating the elimination of private property, a system in which goods are owned in common and available to all as needed, a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the U.S.S.R. Let me make this clear. I do not subsribe to that way of thinking. In the political spectrum there is the left, in which would be communism and there is the right which would be fascism or conservatism, and there is the center. For the most part the left and the right stay the same, but it is the center that moves. Take Justice John Paul Stevens for example. He was appointed by Gerald Ford, a Republican President. As this country has moved from a center left to a center right nation, Justice Stevens decisions looked like they were leaning more and more to the left, when actually they have remained the same as when he was appointed. An example of our countries move to the right, you just have to look at some quotes from the 1956 Republican Platform. "Gradual reduction of the National Debt." Since Reagan both Democrats and Republicans have gone away from this and now look at the position this country finds itself in. "Reduction in taxes with particular consideration for low and middle income earners." That sounds like a quote from the left of today only it was from the right in 1956. "Initiation of a sound policy of tax reductions which will encourage small independent businesses to modernize and progress." Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of giving tax breaks to large businesses and screwing the small independent business owner. Look at the energy bill (Cap and Trade) John Kerry and Joe Lieberman introduced yesterday. It gives tax breaks to oil companies all of which are based outside this country, so they don't have to pay any U.S. income tax. Why would we give tax breaks to anyone not paying taxes to begin with? It's our oil. They are getting our tax dollars to take our oil and our profits out of our country and not putting anything back into our country, and our government is helping them do it. How much money has Kerry and Lieberman gotten from the oil companies? It sure would be interesting to find out. Big business is basically running our country at this point by paying for politicians campaigns. Once in, the politician then owes the businesses that donated to him or her. This borders on what Mussolini did in Italy in the 1920s. Only Mussolini just replaced the government with business owners. Our Congress might as well be on the payroll of businesses because that's where the majority of their money comes from. On my bio I consider myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I love listening to Ron Paul, a true Libertarian and I consider his views excellent. But and that's a big but, he has the mindset that the free market will correct itself. It would, if everyone acted ethically and honest. Instead we have British Petroleum at their hearings on Capitol Hill this week saying that they would be responsible for the cost of the cleanup in the gulf oil spill. B.P. knows full well that the cost will be in the billions even though by law they are only responsible for 75 million dollars. A law signed in 1990 and written with the help of big oil companies. I am against both Democrats and Republicans who were put into office by the people, but get nothing in return, meanwhile big business gets represented getting everything they want. Obama is living up to that saying from a past blog, "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss."

Gulf Oil Spill Obama's Katrina ?

Sure that's what the Tea Baggers are saying. Only the Tea Baggers are for a free market and less government. Free market they say, keep government out of our lives. Ok so let's look at some facts. BP who leased the well that exploded, and sank, chose not to install a certain check valve that would have shut off the flow of oil. Courtesy of the Dick Cheney summit with the energy companies soon after taking office in 2001. Installing this valve was now made voluntary instead of mandatory. In Europe this valve is still mandatory. Get the government out and we can save a half million dollars per well. Profit to the bottom line. Free market has taken over yeah. Uh oh the free market (BP in this case) has no idea how to stop the flow of oil. Who do you call for help? The government, that's who. Auto manufactures fuck up for the last 35 years, who do you call? The government that's who. Banks bring our economy to the brink of disaster for self described shitty deals, who do you call? The government, that's who. Free market has been replaced by greed and when Gordon Gecko's famous saying "Greed is good" applies, is flooding the Gulf of Mexico with oil a good thing. Tea Baggers, why aren't you protesting at BP offices around the country, instead of blasting the government, whom you did not want involved in anything in the first place? Once again just come out and say it. We know what this is really about and its not big government, or you would have come out of the woodwork long before Obama took office.

The Tea Party Movement

My ideas for this blog usually come from some sort of news source or some political commentary that I think is interesting and then I research to the best of my ability the facts. Last night while watching a political satire show I heard a very interesting perspective that totally made sense and I would like to share parts of it here. After reading the post ask yourself what the real motive is behind the Tea Partiers. For those that don't know the Tea Party movement says that they are for less government, less spending and less taxes. So lets look at the facts. In 2009 more than ninety percent of the people in this country paid less taxes than they did under George Bush the year before. Where was the movement during the Bush years when spending was out of control? Anyways the comedian says the Tea Partiers are right about one thing, we have to bring down the national debt as we now pay about four hundred billion every year in interest alone. But the problem with the Tea Party movement is that they want to deregulate the free market and keep their jobs here in the U.S. They want guaranteed health coverage regardless of pre existing conditions without a mandate form the federal government. They want big tax cuts along with deficit reduction. I cant even think of a suitable analogy for that disconnect. It would be like thinking getting a handjob will clean your garage. In fairness its not just the Tea Party movement, if you ask the American people how they want to tame the deficit, either by raising taxes or cutting spending. Cutting spending wins always and by a huge margin in the poles. So what government spending do you want to see cut? The answer from the people is nothing, not a thing. America is like a family that spends way more than they bring in but mom wont give up her shopping sprees and dad wont give up that big boat he bought. Even now when we cant afford that boat and do you know what Americas boat is? It's our empire. Face it we have an empire. We have half a million troops in other peoples countries all over the world. And maintaining that empire and everything that goes into defense costs us about a trillion (that's right a trillion) dollars a year most of which goes to fighting the Russians in 1978. Fighter planes that we need for all the dogfights we get into with the Taliban, submarines to foil their plots to blow up our ships with car bombs, and space lasers to shoot down their exploding underwear. What defense spending really is, is a giant welfare program. A giant jobs program for defense workers to build crap that we don't need. So when Tea Partiers scream about handouts this is what they should be protesting. We spend more on weapons than the top 15 military powers combined. Cut it in half and see if anyone invades us. So if Tea Partiers will start protesting that I will believe that you really are "We the People" what about our grandchildren patriots. But if your unwilling to cut defense spending and give up the empire then you don't really care about the debt. He goes on with opinion about what the Tea Party movement is really about and I am not going to get into that, but think about what you just read and ask yourself are we really any different from the Roman or British empires. Why do we have massive troop numbers in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and every other foreign country we decide to meddle in. Wouldn't protecting our borders in this country with those troops be a much less expensive and more productive way of insuring our safety. Imagine this, China decides our government is being controlled by large corporations and our people no longer have a say so in how we the people conduct our lives. China sends a hundred and fifty thousand troops to topple our president and restore our former way of life. How would you feel having Chinese planes controlling our skies, and Chinese tanks and troops patrolling our streets. I know how I feel and I would do everything I could to take out every last one of them until they were gone. I imagine that's how the other countries of this world feel about us being in their countries.

I Am Being Called a Communist

I am now being called a communist from a coworker because of a reference I made in an earlier post about the people of Venezuela being better off now because of their president Hugo Chavez. To clear the air I am not a fan of communism nor will I ever be. I don't agree with the policies that Hugo Chavez uses. I however agree with facts, something my Republican coworker doesn't seem to get. He constantly interrupts when I try to explain something and then changes subjects or puts the spin on just like his two hero's Beck and Limbaugh. The fact is 95 percent of the citizens of Venezuela are now better off than they were before Chavez was freely elected into power twice. Something my friend says was a fixed election even though it was watched over by an international team of diplomats monitoring it. Question is, how is it that when the Republicans desired candidate doesn't win an election they say it was fixed, or better yet, "where's his birth certificate?" What I think is far worse is when our country places its choice of dictators to rule in other countries to stop anything we deem to be harmful to our country. The Shah of Iran and various leaders in South Vietnam in the late sixties, or El Salvadore in the eighties come to mind. So lets get back to the communism thing. In the movie The Hunt for Red October there is a seen where Sam Neills character asks Sean Connery's character (Both being Soviets) about going between states without carrying papers after they defect to the United States. Sam Neills character is astonished that you could do such a thing. We were led to believe that was how life is in the Soviet Union. No longer do you have to travel that far anymore. Just head west to Arizona where the Governor just passed a law today that basically states that if you look Hispanic a police officer can pull you over and demand that you show your proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate. My friend from work defends this policy by the way. And it has already happened as a truck driver was arrested because he could not prove he was a citizen not having his birth certificate. He did however have a CDL drivers license and was in fact born hear in the United States. This to me sound much more like communism than anything Obama has tried to do. It seems to me the only part of the constitution that the far right wants to acknowledge is the second amendment with total disregard for the rest of it. Who's the communist? It sure as hell isn't me.

April 15th Tax Day

Tax day is the fifteenth of April and this year it seems everyone has a comment so I am going to make one also. Republicans and Tea Party people are shouting outrage at the fact that around 47 million Americans will pay no federal income tax. What they are saying is that the people who are paying taxes are supporting the people who don't. Let's take a look at the people who don't. I believe that it is people who are below the poverty level working minimum wage jobs or worse. They can barely survive as is. People like Rush Limbaugh would have you believe that all those people need to do is go back to school and try hard and they can be a part of the American Dream. Funny, because I know plenty of college educated people who have been unemployed for a while now. For many years they paid into the system and what they get back is some hick with the travelling Tea Party roadshow, whose most likely on unemployment himself, blasting them for not paying taxes this year. On the other hand there are plenty of well off people who don't pay taxes at all either. It is alleged that the Pritzker family pays no federal income tax. Something about offshore tax loopholes and reinvesting any profit back into the company. For those that don't know who they are, they're probably Chicago's wealthiest family and basically own Hyatt Hotels, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Trans Union the credit reporting service. If I remember correctly this information came out about four or five years ago when two of the Pritzker children sued their family for their portion of the family trust. The court was going to open the Pritzker books and the family decided to settle rather than open the books. The two young adults ages 20 and 22 at the time settled for a reported 900 million dollars. That's a lot of dough to shell out for a couple of early twenty somethings just to keep your finances a secret. And finally one last look at not paying taxes. Exxon Mobil had a 13 billion dollar profit in 2009 and is not paying anything to Uncle Sam. Who loses? You, me and everyone in this country. It is estimated that there are over 150 large companies in this country who are not paying any income tax but they will receive a tax refund of some kind. Why aren't the Tea Party people going after them? I guess it's just easier to pick on the little guy.

Tea Parties and Socialism

Watching the news lately its hard not to notice the Tea Party movement. Seems they're everywhere. Actually they are. Most of them are part of a travelling road show going from city to city trying to get others to join, kind of like the Dead Heads following the Grateful Dead. Its not that every city has a lot of them, its that the lot of them travel to every city. Take Tom Grimes for example. He has been out of work for fifteen months now. A former financial advisor who after being laid off called his congressman to help him get Cobra health care coverage. Cobra standing for Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act, is government sponsored health care. That's right, this tea bagging asshole is out organizing people against government health care. At the same time he is telling people that government health care is bad, he is using it himself. He is also collecting unemployment benefits, another social program. Why, if he is so dead set against government intervention is he happy to take the free ride from the government? Ironic since he has been quoted as saying that if the government would just cut people off they would have to find a way to survive. Seems he is taking advantage of his benefits to rally people against the same government that provides him with income and benefits. Maybe if the government cut him off it would force him to spend his time looking for ways to make ends meet, instead of being a part of the travelling Tea Party roadshow. Take a look at the Tea Party people on the news. Most of them are most likely collecting either Social Security, Medicare, or Unemployment. When Ronald Reagan was Governor of California he cut off funding for students going to state colleges stating "Why should I pay for these kids college when they all are against me anyway". Maybe our federal government should do the same. Better yet maybe the Tea Baggers should all sign a petition saying that they wont use any government social services. So lets take a look at all the social services the country or state provides. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment, Police, Fire, Schools, Libraries, U.S. Post Office, Roads and Highways, Bus and Rail Service, Sidewalks, Drinking Water and Sewer services, Parks and Beaches, Public Zoos, Hospitals, and Medications that were developed form government grants. The list goes on and on. It's just that people do not realize just how much their government does for them. Every Tea Party activist better take a look at the reason they are able to do what they are doing, is because of the government and someone should tell them that. Although I don't think it will sink in do to the fact that they are too stupid to separate fact from reality.

Health Care and Our Country

Ok so its been a week now and the Republicans had us believing that the country as we know it was coming to an end. Personally I have not noticed any changes. I have not been rounded up by the government and my house has not been taken away by the government. (Although if they did, it probably would be doing me the favor) Its interesting that even G.W. Bush mentioned that the hard line Republican stance may have gone too far. Didn't John McCain campaign in 2008 with the slogan of country first? Now that health care has passed he has stated that he is done for the year. He will block any legislation put forward by Democrats. And this helps our country how? This piece of shit's slogan should have been John McCain first, country second. Its also interesting that this is basically the health care plan he campaigned on against Obama. Anyone who believes that this is socialism is flat out wrong. Instead it gives the free market insurance company rapists thirty million new customers. Do you think its any coincidence that their stock prices are at an all time high. I was against this plan for just that reason. The right way to do it was Medicare Part E. The E stands for everyone. This way the insurance company scums who have been raping us for years would be put out of their misery. The federal government would then realize the same profits as the private insurance companies currently do. And to those of you that say the government can't run anything right, just ask any member of congress what they think of their plan. I would rather take my chances on the government, than an insurance company who declares a newborn with a cleft pallet not eligible because of a pre-existing condition.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss II

Obama vs. Bush, lets see where do I begin? While campaigning during the financial crisis he promised and voted for, that if we the taxpayers give Wall street 12.8 billion dollars, credit markets would flow again. Bush enacted it and Obama voted for it. Instead the FDIC admitted last week that the credit markets have reduced lending at the sharpest rate since 1942. Obama said he would filibuster passage of the FISA Act which retroactively legalized wiretapping our phones without warrants. Instead he voted for it and Bush passed it. He told us he would close Guantanamo. Bush opened it and Obama continues to keep it open. He said he would pull out of Iraq. Bush started it and Obama still has over a hundred thousand troops there. In addition to the troops in Iraq, our tax dollars also pay over a hundred thousand contractors working there. He said he would only pass health care with a public option. Instead we got John McCains health care plan from his presidential campaign, which was similar to Bob Doles health reform plan from twenty years ago, but is now filled with bloat and waste that will not give the insurance companies competition but will fill their pockets even more. He has done nothing for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", "Employee Free Choice Act" or "Wall Street Reform". It's amazing that he is following in the footsteps of Bush and the Republicans are against him. How is it that they supported all of these policies while Bush was running things but now that a Democrat is in charge they fight him every step of the way. This country is on a course that is a dangerous one at best. At worst think of the fall of the Roman Empire. Over the last thirty years we have seen the biggest transfer of wealth to the richest one percent of this country, all courtesy of the federal government. Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame. Republicans through unfunded tax cuts and Democrats through ridiculous trade policies favoring third world countries such as India and China. Remember the game of Monopoly? That is what's happening in this country and it happened in Venezuela and that's why Hugo Chavez is in power now. Ninety five percent of the people who live in that country are poor, but their lives are all getting better because of the transfer of wealth from the five percent of the people who are wealthy to the other ninety five who are poor. Some say that is communism and so do I. But lets recall what is happening in our country. Our tax dollars go to farm subsidies for large commercial farms who produce the high fructose corn syrup that goes into everything we eat, which makes us fat diabetics so that our tax subsidies to the drug companies can develop pills so they can sell us ever more expensive pills that don't cure us, instead just treat us. We have tax subsidies to the largest oil companies in the world who have had record profits while we pay three to four dollars a gallon for gas. I never could figure that one out. We give tax subsidies to other energy companies as well. One of the definitions of communism is income redistribution and our government does that every day only they call it tax credits to make it sound nice. You may recall a few weeks ago a despondent man flew his light plane into an IRS building in Austin Texas. Here is a quote from his suicide note. "Why is it that a hand full of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of GM executives, for scores of years) and when its time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from their corpses and the victims they cripple, and this countries leaders don't see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet the political Representatives (thieves, liars, and self serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the terrible health care problem. It's clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don't get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in". I think this says a lot about what's going on in this country. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The Liars

Let's talk about Republican hypocrisy. Some how the Republicans who have used reconciliation for their own agenda are crying foul now that the Democrats want to use it themselves to pass health care. Some Republicans are saying that health care is too big to pass through reconciliation, yet they voted for the Bush tax cuts through reconciliation. Which according to the Congressional Budget Office added 2.5 trillion to the federal debt. Lamar Alexander (R Tennessee) is one of the most outspoken opponents of using reconciliation yet when Bush was in office he voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2003 and 2005, the tax increase prevention act of 2005, and the college cost reduction act in 2007. John McCain wants new senate rules so that reconciliation cannot be used to break a filibuster for entitlement programs such as medicare, medicaid, and social security yet his own record of voting yes for changes in these programs using reconciliation is a complete reversal of what he is preaching, now that Republicans are not in power. Even Senator Orrin Hatch (R Utah) in a recent op ed column in the Washington Post denounces the use of reconciliation, saying that jamming through health care, against the will of the people would wreak havoc on our system of checks and balances and damage the prospects of bipartisanship. Funny though if you look at his own record, he was part of reconciliation 13 times out of the 21 times it has been used. In his own words "to jam" through the Republican agenda when they did not have enough votes to stop a filibuster. He goes on to say that the only time the Republicans used reconciliation was when there was significant bi partisan support. Interesting because the 2003 Bush tax cuts that have wreaked havoc on our deficit was passed through reconciliation, with Sen. Hatch voting yes and a total vote of 50-50. Vice President Cheney had to break the tie (the one time he actually did his job). I guess this is what Sen. Hatches' definition of bipartisanship is. Sen. Hatch is an outright liar, plain and simple. Another thing that is talked about a lot is the federal deficit. Its interesting that during eight years of Bush/Cheney, all you heard from them was when they were pushing the tax cuts, is that deficits don't matter. Why all of a sudden, when the Democrats are now in power, do deficits matter? The idiots at Fox News convey the message that we are in this mess because of Obama. It's sure ironic that when Bush came into office he had a surplus in the budget but when he left there was over a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit. How is that Obama's fault?

Torture and the Czars

On the news last night some of John Yoo's so called legal opinions for the Bush administration were starting to come out. I would first like to thank Dick Cheney for pushing to have the so called torture memos brought out into the open. These memos will just show how close this country was to having a dictator for a president. We will finally get to see just what types of lunatics we were dealing with in the Bush administration. Anyway, John Yoo was one of the attorneys that Bush relied upon to write legal opinions so that he could justify doing whatever the hell he wanted to do, to fit his twisted agenda. John Yoo could be heard talking about getting information by bringing in a prisoners child and stomping on the child's testicles in front of his father. That father in my humble opinion will say anything the people interrogating him want to hear just to save his son any agony and any father would do the same. It gets better. He then says that the President had the right to order a village of civilians to be exterminated. This is sick and the worst part is that President Cheney and Vice President Bush (that was not a typo) agreed to it. This coming from two draft dodgers of the Viet Nam war. The question is what kind of people would consider such acts. I thought this was the USA. I thought we were above that. Maybe I am just a simple person, but I do know that the terrorists have achieved some of their goals by turning our leaders into raging lunatics with delusional paranoia to even think of stuff like that. There are better ways to protect our country. Oh and the czars that we have in our government. One of my neighbors who considers himself a conservative but was behind Bush 100 percent, even though William Buckley the father of modern conservatism said that Bush was anything but conservative, keeps forwarding me emails. I have asked him to research for himself some of the things he sends but he just keeps drinking the Kool Aid and has no opinion of his own. Anyways the latest is about all the czars in the Obama administration. Some one needs to tell him that it was Bush, who increased the size of government more then any president in history. When Clinton left office he had only 7 czars. His predecessor George H.W. Bush had only 2. But along came his son G.W. Bush and he increased it to 35 czars. My friend you need to start screening the email sent to you by doing a little fact checking before forwarding it to me. I know your conservative but being conservative does not mean following the party lines because our government including both Republicans and Democrats are anything but conservative, and the Democrats don't claim to be.

The Economy and Taxes

My wife and I just returned from a weeks vacation that was bones basic for food and lodging due to our reduced income. Not asking you to feel sorry because we do realize that we are lucky to be in our homes and not behind in bills and are fortunate enough to get away. Anyway we spent Super Bowl weekend in Vegas to become the Godparents of our nephew Anthony Michael and after to watch the Super Bowl. From there we flew all night to Negril Jamaica for four days of thawing out my bones. One thing I noticed in both places is how down the tourism is. The economy sucks and the people in tourist areas are really feeling it. For example we paid 72 dollars a night for a hotel right on Negril Beach. This is the middle of high season and the room should be going for much higher than that. The picture of me shows just how dead the beach is. So lets examine where we are now. The Republicans just had their national convention in Hawaii, which is ironic due to the fact that every time Obama goes there for vacation, he is blasted for being out of touch with mainstream America by going to such an exotic locale, by the same Republican pundits who were at the convention. This leads me to the so called Bush tax cuts which would supposedly trickle down to create jobs. If that's the case then why is unemployment so high? The Republicans on Fox News would have you think that all the problems started after Obama took office. Make no mistake about it because the facts are this. Our country is in debt due to massive government spending under Bush and continued spending by Obama. Bush presided over the largest increase in government in history by starting two wars, Medicare Part D, and No Child Left Behind just to name a few. All unfunded. All while giving tax breaks to millions of Americans. And Obama is following the same path. But you and most people have been tricked into thinking that you got the tax breaks. Not true. The fact is that the richest 1 percent is who got the pie and the other 99 percent of the people in this country have to share the crumbs. Bush claimed that 92 million taxpayers would on average get a savings of 1083 dollars a year when his cuts were fully implemented in 2010. The key word is average. In reality most Americans are getting around 220 dollars per year, while the people who make over a million dollars a year are receiving around 90 thousand dollars a year in tax cuts. How many people make a million a year? Put in simpler terms if Bill Gates who is worth around forty billion dollars walks into a bar where there are three other workers who each have a net worth of lets say a hundred thousand dollars, that means the average net worth of the four people in the bar is around ten billion dollars each. A true statistic, but not an accurate statistic. What is worse is all this talk about the socialized programs that Obama is proposing coming out of Republicans mouths. The Bush tax cuts gave big business so much money back, that between 2001 and 2003 there were 82 companies that that had profits totalling over a hundred billion dollars yet paid no federal tax at all. Zero. And to make matters worse, on April 15th these same companies were given tax rebate checks totalling 12.6 billion dollars. And people think its the spending that is leading this country into a bankruptcy. Wake up people. This country is in debt because of tax cuts to the richest one percent. So the next time you here a Republican spouting about income redistribution, by citing a person in need, getting money from the government while paying nothing into it must realize that's what is happening with big business also. We are subsidizing big business. Only instead of creating jobs, they have shipped them overseas.

Obama, What a Putz

So I am watching the news tonight and I am listening to a story about how they are not airlifting any more Haitian earthquake victims who are critical patients to hospitals in the U.S. You see when the hospitals that the initial victims were taken to started to realize the cost of treating the victims, they asked for assistance from the federal government. The Obama administration then put a halt to any more Haitians being brought to this country for treatment. So let me get this straight. The Obama administration just gave a billion dollar contract to XE Services LLC, whom you may know as Blackwater. The company had to change its name because of the publicity surrounding the February 2005 unjust shooting of civilians in Baghdad. And seeing as our defense budget is larger than the rest of the worlds combined, you mean to tell me that this country can't pony up some money for the critically injured people of Haiti. That's a move a former Republican President would pull. The democrats are supposed to be the compassionate anti war party, so just what the fuck is this president thinking? What a Putz!

Sarah Palin

Been awhile, been busy, holidays and all. The fact is, its hard to keep writing unless you get the urge and I have the urge. Anyways Sarah Palin has a new book and a new job. I guess the idiots over at Fox News hired her so it would make Glenn Beck smart. So for someone who is so against taxes lets look at her record in Alaska. Her greatest accomplishment as Mayor of Wasilla was a 15 million dollar hockey arena. Lots of money for a town with an annual budget of 20 million. But it gets better as she OKs a bond issue for the project before the land had been secured. This lead to a protracted legal battle that ultimately cost the towns taxpayers to pay six times the original price for the property and the city had to in the end, seize the property using eminent domain. To pay for this she raised Wasillas sales tax by 25%. As governor she presided over a state that is first in federal spending per resident, though the citizens of Alaska are eighteenth in income taxes paid to the federal government. Who makes up the difference? We do, everyone outside of Alaska pays each of their citizens over 8500 dollars per year per to be spent their. It gets even better. Alaska has the highest state taxes per capita of all fifty states. So when you are watching her on Fox News and she starts spouting some bullshit about taxes and big government remember what you have read here. These are facts not soundbites from a brain dead hick that has no clue that there is a North Korea and a South Korea but that's a whole other story.