Have you ever wondered what kind of people Republicans are ? I have often wondered what makes them so different from a liberal Democrat. I have especially wondered how some people, notably the gays , can fall in line with a party that doesn’t believe they have the right to exist. To me it’s like a black man joining the KKK, of course the KKK will take his money and take his vote if it furthers their agenda.. but they also want him wiped from existence in their world and would gladly do such a thing if they could.
Those kinds of questions are probably left to a psychiatrist couch. They probably have something to do with a need, going back to high school, to be accepted by what they perceive to be the ‘cool kids’. Why those who are fiscally conservative (and that’s the only reason they are a Republican) can’t just be a Blue-Dog Democrat is beyond me. So those are questions that just have to remain unanswered. The one we can now answer though is more general, more encompassing.
What kind of people are Republicans and what kind of people donate to Republicans? Well, thanks to the Republican National Committee…we have a list.
stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos
They are people driven by fear, they have extreme negative feelings, hate if you will, against the administration, they are weak and cave into peer pressure, they are brown-nosers who want access, they are ego-driven and most of all they are reactionary.
Ouch. I don’t care who you are, that has to hurt. Then again, most Republicans are probably so ego-driven that they don’t realize that they are in this list, to them this is a list of those ‘other’ Republicans.
I’d ask Mike where he fell in this list that his party has said he is a part of, but he’s so far into the kool-aid that even hearing what his religious leaders really think of him doesn’t matter. Even though this is what his own party thinks of him and the other members, he, like the others who are either driven by.. well pick something from the list.. to turn their backs… Thou shalt have no other God beside the GOP and all.
On a happier note, we know what will be the issues for the coming up elections. Fear and we even know what kind.
stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos
and we got a sneak peek at the signs we can look forward to.
stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos
Fear of Socialism, huh.. that’s original
What’s sad is that there isn’t a single policy issue in the 72 pages of motivational material laid out by the RNC. But even that is not as sad as not a single Republican noticing that. They are running on hate, peer pressure and reactionary impulses of the easily frightened, what do they need policy for?
The worst part of all is a party that thinks this of it’s members. Why would anyone stand with a group that thinks so little and so negatively of it’s own people?
While others are probably enjoying this issue for their own reasons, I find it insulting and frankly unconscionable, but after seeing everything we have seen since a black man took office.. I can’t deny that in many case the Republicans nailed it. That doesn’t mean I think all of their donors and supporters are like this, not like they obviously do, but you can’t watch Hannity or Beck, listen to Rush or Beck.. support Palin or Bachman and not have a few of those things on the RNC list in your make up. The fact that this kind of ‘Faux news’ and ‘rhetoric’ is so popular only shows the amount of reactionary, ego-driven, easily scared people that have become a part of the Republican party.
One thing is for sure, those must be some damn nice “tchochkes” they give out to donors to make people ignore what their party thinks of them.
“Rob Bickhart, the Republican National Committee official behind the embarrassing fundraising presentation reported this week by POLITICO, has been paid at least $370,000 since last June by the RNC in salary and consulting fees
wow..he “makes more than the President of the United States” and as if that wasn’t enough..
Between Bickhart’s salary – he is on pace to earn a little more than $196,000 annually – and his consulting fees – which tallied $240,000 in the second half of last year alone – it appears Bickhart could receive north of $500,000 per year from the RNC
That’s a lot of money given to someone who was only able to come up with a ‘fear’ campaign geared towards the ego-driven, reactionaries.
Here’s a question, I expect Mike and some other Republucans to believe him, but do we really believe that Michael Steele didn’t know how his very own “finance director” was planning to “urge top donors and fundraisers to use “fear” of President Barack Obama to raise cash”? Whilelabeling party-members that way? Isn’t one of Steele’s job fundraiser? If so, would he really not know how the RNC was going to do that? I don’t know that I buy that.
Not that Steele will lose his job, they need him as the scapegoat if they don’t take back the House and Senate like they have predicted. I do wonder how being labeled these horrible things by their own party will affect fund-raising and thus their ability to finance the type of “fear” campaigns they plan on running.
“It’s clear that the American people want health insurance reform. They aren’t interested in Democratic ideas or Republican ideas. They’re interested in the best ideas to reduce costs, guarantee choices and ensure the highest quality care.
They’re interested in ideas that will put them back in control of their own health care.
Throughout the debate on health insurance reform, Republican concepts and proposals have been included in legislation. In fact, hundreds of Republican amendments were adopted during the committee mark-up process. As a result, both the Senate and the House passed key Republican proposals that are incorporated into the President’s Proposal.”
“Of the 788 amendments filed,67 came from Democrats and 721 from Republicans. (That disparity drew jeers that Republicans were trying to slow things down. Another explanation may be that they offered so many so they could later claim—as they are now, in fact, claiming—that most of their suggestions went unheeded.) Only 197 amendments were passed in the end—36 from Democrats and 161 from Republicans. And of those 161 GOP amendments, Senate Republicans classify 29 as substantive and 132 as technical.”
of course they still voted no..
Why is the only way to bipartisan cooperation is if the Democrats fully embrace the GOP plan? Shouldn’t the losing party be happy to get a seat at the table.. a seat that gives them almost half of everything they want? Is a bill with 49% (R) input and 51%(D) input not bipartisan enough when the country elected the (D) to decide the majority?
I simply don’t get how the GOP can get away with lying that there’s been no effort to include them. But,even more than that, I can’t understand this demand that they should have their way in total if the country is to see any bipartisanship come out of congress. Is it the prefix ‘Bi’ that throws them? Do they think if they do anything ‘Bi” then they are supporting the homo’s? (disclosure, I love the ‘mo’s.. and this one will back me up on that).
What?
Can you come up with a better reason why the GOP is so anti ‘BI-partisanship” even going so far as to deny it exists when the bipartisan components are so flamboyantly displayed?
Interesting post, EKG. It’s nice to see the left has found a new target for its vitriol now that George W. Bush is out of the picture.
“Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.”
-Eric Hoffer, THE TRUE BELIEVER (1951)
I’m sure Palin-bashing is a pleasant distraction from President Obama’s serial failures. At the very least, hatred for her has provided the faithful with a rallying point.
I ignored his glossing over of President Obama being a target of vitriol himself and asked him to enumerate Obama’s ’serial failures’. His reply was
Failure to get his health care bill and Waxman/Markey passed, even with total Democratic control of Congress; extraordinarily high unemployment rates; a rapidly rising deficit (over and above what was “inherited”); failure to close Guantanamo; take your pick. You can throw in failure to secure the Olympics for Chicago and declining poll numbers too.
as I started to answer him, I realized that these questions and answers deserve more space than the comments section of another blog-post. So I decided to answer them here….
First off, John.. I don’t know you. I don’t know if you are an extreme right winger, I don’t know if you are unbend-able in your opinions, I don’t know if you tow the party line no matter where it takes you. I know you are a friend of Mike’s, but I don’t know if you are as obstinately against looking at things from another perspective as he is or not. Because of this… uncertainty, I am answering with the assumption that you can see a different way of viewing things if shown, or explained.. I’m assuming that you are moderate and not hard-extreme like Mike.
No one likes to be blamed and no one likes their party to be blamed… but no one likes the other party to actually be at fault and share none of the blame and instead pile it all on one side. Of course I am going to place blame with the GOP on many issues, what I will wait to see from your reply to this is if you can see why I would blame them.. maybe not that you agree that they are to blame for alot of it, but maybe..hopefully.. you will admit that they do share, alot, in what is going on today. This is not a ‘well he did it first’ kind of blame. I believe I am laying out a valid argument. I hope to get more than “well you did it first” or the condescending “LOL” and “eyerolls” from you in your reply.
Now, on with the blog.
I agree with you John, it is Obama’s failure that Health reform has stagnated. He took it on faith that when Grassley, Snowe and other (R) said they were willing to work on a bi-partisan solution,they meant it. The rest of us were hearing Grassley call it a ‘death panel’ and how people should fear Obama’s health reform and how he’d never vote for it when he was home on the weekends, but the ‘bubble’ Obama lives in, the same that all Presidents live in, prevented him from hearing that “weekend, rally the base” talk.
I don’t think it was until Lieberman’s extreme, blatant and almost joyful bragging of this ‘partisan ‘obstruction’ that Obama finally wised up. When Lieberman, who just a few years ago ran on his “medcare for 55″ policy and was saying everywhere he could that this was the only solution he would support…immediately turned against it because, as he said, ‘well since liberals like my plan, I’m against it now’, I think the President started seeing what he was up against, and what he was up against was illogical and unreasonable opposition. Do you atleast agree that Lieberman’s flip on his own idea and the reason he gave, prove this illogical and unreasonable position?
Even if you don’t think it was illogical or unreasonable, how can you fault President Obama for not getting things done in that kind of atmosphere? We aren’t talking about anything rational that can be explained or even expected. Republicans and that includes Lieberman(I), were turning on their own plans, things they had campaigned on, the second after President Obama said “Hey, you know what.. your way does sound better so let’s include it”
At least you gave blame to Bush for the 1.2 trillion of it..
The CBO – which provides the official estimates of the budgetary impact of legislation and events such as wars and recessions – cites the housing market collapse and the financial market turmoil as the main culprits for the shortfall. The federal government has tried to combat the crisis by so far committing $7.2 trillion in investments and loans primarily to financial institutions.
The current recession “will probably be the longest and the deepest since World War II,” the CBO said. The economic deterioration since September, which was the last time CBO made deficit projections, is the biggest contributor to a sharp decline in tax revenue projections. The CBO expects tax revenue in 2009 to fall by $166 billion, or 6.6%, from the previous year’s collection.
That revenue decline, in turn, is the biggest reason for the worsening outlook over the next decade, said Diane Lim Rogers, chief economist at the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group. “The revenue effect is huge.”
and Obama does own his own share.. But we know that he does not ‘own’ the entire problem. Why is it then that he is saddled with it? Where was this outcry of ‘budget deficits’ going back 3 years and more? How is this President Obama’s doing? He added to what was there yes, but what was the alternative when he stepped into the Oval on day one? You and I along with McCain and so so many others, know that had he won, McCain would have had to do the same exact things Obama did and would have had the same exact deficit today.. This really isn’t an Obama issue.. we all know this but since it’s going on under his watch-he gets the blame..Ok fine, but then we do have to put blame on the person who did create it. No, this isn’t a “he did it so I can to” this is a ‘I really had nothing to do with all of it, so stop blaming it all on me argument and that is based in reality, not GOP partisan amnesia and fantasy.
When Obama stepped into office he had to deal with 2 unpaid wars, unpaid tax cuts, a wall street collapse, a housing market collapse, an infrastructure that had been neglected for 10 years. The Bush budget deficit projections never included the war price, when Obama put it into his, like it should have been done in the 1st place.. it didn’t help his numbers at all, but atleast it was honest. Unlike those who are supposed to give us ‘fair and balanced’ news..
During the April 3 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, on-screen text repeatedly falsely claimed that President Obama’s $3.6 trillion fiscal year 2010 budget is “4x bigger than Bush’s costliest plan.” However, President Bush submitted a $3.1 trillion budget for FY 2009. For FY 2008, Bush submitted a $2.9 trillion budget.
But Obama deserves the blame for all this hiding, collapse and the unpaid bills that all came due just a few short days before he came into office? Which turned out to be more than anyone.. anyone ever expected as more came to light in the coming days after his inauguration? If you truly feel this blames lays on President Obama’s lap, can you explain how you came to that decision?
High unemployment
Yes.. there is.. but you can’t look at 700,000 jobs lost per month when he got there to 11,000 in December 2009 and call that a failure.. and you can’t look at the numbers we were at, are still at now and expect it to change the next day.. or even the next year, not if you’re also not going to allow a larger stimulus bill/recovery act. So Obama was wrong on his optimism those 1st days that the unemployment numbers wouldn’t rise past a certain level, fine. But is he to blame that the numbers rose to that level or just to blame for not realizing just how bad things were a split second after he got there?
Is it the loss of jobs you blame him for or the bad prediction on jobs lost?
Like it, love it, hate it… when no one else is spending any money… the government has to. For the Government to also stop spending money is a catastrophe on a scale that we’ve never seen before. When no one, banks, businesses,people on the street are spending anything.. the government has to. It has to beg,borrow and yes, steal to spend money in order to get people spending money spending again. McCain,Romney,Huckabee.. Reagan.. all would have had no choice, given the exact same circumstance, but to do the same. Or they would have watched while the country crumbled into oblivion the way Nero did. The ones like Mike, who argue that no, the government shouldn’t have spent a penny, can’t prove that their way would have been the right way or that we’d be any better off. They can’t prove it because there isn’t a time machine to take us back. So to me this argument is one of pure partisan fantasy. It cannot be proven and yet the GOP swears their way was the correct way. What’s worse is, they make 1/2 the country believe in this unprovable feary-tale. This is where the ‘faith’ and almost ‘religious like’ belief comes into play and it is the cornerstone of a lot of the GOP’s argument..
You can’t prove God doesn’t exist therefore he must be real.
They can’t prove no stimulus or Tarp would have worked better, therefore it must be true.
I call bullshit on both accounts… You want me to believe we shouldn’t have spent the money on the banks and on the recovery act, then prove it to me. Prove to me that not spending it would have worked better, that we would be in a better place, telling me you are right only because you say so doesn’t work, I am not a believer in your religion I need more proof than that.
By the way, John.. Most of the “YOU” I use are not directed at YOU.. it is a general term used when speaking. I hope you understand that.
Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans say it’s a bad idea for President Obama to go overseas at this time to help Chicago make its final presentation to the International Olympic Committee
“Listen I think it’s a great idea to promote Chicago but he’s the president of the United States, not the mayor of Chicago,” Boehner said. “And the problems we have here at home affect all Americans and that’s where his attention ought to be.”
and every night they were rewarded with their opinions by the likes of the GOP and Fox news telling them how bad it would crush us, how much money it would take, how horrible it would be. How dangerous Chicago is
Yes, Fox news is a factor when they have the massive viewer ratings they have, add them into Rush’s 20 million people a week rating and all of them chiming in on the evil that is the Olympics and why would we get it over a country literally begging to have to it because they want it?
But ok, Obama didn’t get the Olympics… that’s a failure on his part. But is that really something to hold against him? out of everything… is that an issue that truly pisses you off and just sticks in your craw?
Gitmo.
I’ve thought about this. Was Obama the naive one to think he could wave his ‘magic negro’ wand and close Gitmo? Or were we the naive ones to think he could wave his ‘magic negro’ wand and close Gitmo? I think it was both. I think a lot of us listened to his speeches and felt the inspiration and hope in that new era he talked about bringing. I think those of us who didn’t roll our eyes and didn’t decide that election night to do everything we possibly could to make his life hell and oppose everything.. everything he tried, actually believed this was the guy to change Rome back into the days of it’s purity,prosperity,glory and power. We (wrongly) assumed that Washington was also sick on the status quo, that Washington wanted to move on to a better place. That the country didn’t care if it was a Republican or Democrat, man or woman, black or white in office, we just wanted hope and change and not more of the same thing we had had for so long. We were all naive.
President Obama owns the failure to close Gitmo, but he doesn’t have sole ownership. Jesus, trust me I know it’s like a broken record to say the GOP also owns this since they stood in the way and did everything in the power to make sure 1/2 the country was against closing Gitmo and bringing the detainees here..but it is the truth. Through fear mongering and out right lies, GOP congressmen,governors,speakers,pundits went out to their communities , viewers, listeners and said “No way! Not in my yard, these guys are dangerous,these guys can’t be held in our prisons, these guys are super-powers that can only be controlled in Cuba” and we both know, hell we all know this is factually untrue. We are holding terrorists right now on our soil, we are holding terrorist right now in our prisons, we have been holding them for years. We are holding people who are worse! We, as Americans, have some of the most dangerous criminals in the world in our prisons right now. We have brain-eaters,baby-rapers,kidnappers,tortures,sex-slave traffickers ,abusers,bombers,pyromaniacs,serial killers, mass murders.. and we have extremely smart and devious criminals like Madoff, Abramoff and hunderds of others. But somehow we’re ill equip to incarcerate men who have probably never had running water until they got to our prision camp?
That’s the most bogus of all feary-tales ever told. This idea that America is too weak, too incompetent and unable to imprison anyone is incredulous. If this is your belief, that we are just unable to rise to meet this ‘danger’ can you explain your reasoning to me, explain it without “Because they should be in a military tribunal”
All of this leads to a drop in polls. You’ve seen the link to the numbers of Fox and just Rush, that doesn’t include Beck and all the other conservative radio. When they are all, from top to bottom on the same line in the play book, all condemning,ridiculing, mocking, lying,inflating.. all giving out the worst of the wosrt bias,slanted partsian spin.. add that in with an entire section of Congress that doesn’t just stand in the way, but also makes up feary-tales and they believe it, polls are going to decline. How could they not?
And what about that anyway. Isn’t it normal for Presidential numbers to come back down to a reasonable level?
The other day I was reading the comments on a reputable news sources story about this Baradar capture, 75% of them were things like “Well, now that we can’t waterboard the guy the CIA will never get anything out him, Thanks Obama for ruining this country once again!” If the only tool in the CIA arsenal is waterboarding… then we really are fucked. Because it’s the opinion that begs the conclusion that the CIA has always and only water-boarded prisoners to get information and it was just the 2-3 years that they were legally allowed to that the were able to function at full capacity in the light of day. The point I’m making is, somehow people think that CIA doesn’t know how to get information from anyone without waterboarding them? Is this not the most insane thing you’ve ever seen? Why is this?Where did they get the idea that this was the only tool the CIA had? If you can truthfully answer that, they you should be able to understand most, if not all of what it is I’m trying to show you.
Who is to blame for this? Not Obama.. but it is what he must fight against. The problem is you cannot argue with someone with that mindset. Their belief is again, religous like.. and cannot be changed,altered or enlightened.
Finally, I saved the best for last… “even with the democrats in control of congress”.. This is the most used response that I see for pretty much everything. This idea that just because the Democrats had a filibuster proof margine and didn’t use and some how it’s their fault is ridiculous . Listen, I’m going to tell you a secret that could get my liberal-card revoked ( ) unlike the GOP, there are different levels of (D). We don’t all think with one brain, we don’t all follow the leader like a flock of birds, that is what makes us ‘liberal’ or the favorite slam of the GOP, ‘radical’ . We think for ourselves and decide accordingly and not according to party/leader doctrine. We are just not that ‘religious-like’ in our faith and the following of party ‘dogma’. There are Democrats who don’t believe in abortion, there are some like me who believe in the death penalty and guns rights. To condem anyone.. any party for not just towing the party-line is asinine and to blindly follow the party-line used to be a bad thing.. but today, with the entire GOP saying “You can’t even get your party to all vote the same way and use that fillibuster proof majority” is so exquisitely sad, but still not as sad wanting and forcing any one party to act that way. I just can’t believe anyone, anywhere would want and encourage people to just blindly vote all (D) or all (R) depending on their party and then ridcule and condem anyone when they didn’t.
Besides any of that, this isn’t a one party system, the other side is supposed to help govern also!
This excuse…“Hey, you guys control congress.. it’s not our fault” and those using it are right though, the problem is the next thing they say to their audience,readers,constituents… and the next thing is invariably
“The Democrats need to listen to the country and work bi-partisanly”
In one hand there is a dare to use the majority, in the other.. a crying to all who will listen that if we don’t do something…have rallies, write letters, send in campaign money.. the Democrats will use their majority. It’s insane! They are literally damned for not using it by the GOP and some of their own and damned if the think about using it.
So John, what would you have them do? Which ‘evil’ do the Democrats pick? Do they follow in the last administrations path and issue Executive Orders, recess appointements, signing statements and push through everything the President says to push through no matter the consequence and just hope that the GOP won’t cry about it too much? Do they forget their own values and beliefs and just vote (D) all the way down the ballot like the GOP does and is encouraging, or really, daring them to do? What is your solution to this? When one party refuses to even come to the table don’t they force the other party to act as a single mind? Force the other party to do it all on their own, with their own philosophies?
Maybe the GOP is comfortable using a single-mind, but this is not and has never been the “Democratic” (party or poltical system.) way..
The GOP has blanketed the world with this falsehood that they want bi-partsanship on every issue, and yet just last week when invited to a health care summit, an ‘exachange of ideas’.. quite a few high ranking GOP’ers said they might be willing to come to the table…. just come to the table now, not vote a certain way or concede a certain point, but they might show up to the President’s bipartisan effort for health reform meeting but only if the Democrats dropped their health reform idea and adopted the GOP version. Eric Cantor flat out said that the “only way to bipartisan cooperation is if the Democrats fully embrace the GOP plan!” What? How is that bipartisan? How is that anything other than a great big “Screw you, It’s my way or no way and that’s the only bipartisan I agree with.. do it yourself if you don’t like it! Just remember I will blame you for doing it yourself if you do”
You cannot, as the losing party give that kind of demand.. that kind of close-fist demand.. and then claim you are the bipartisan party, yet they do, and no one calls them on it. So I ask you once again, is this really an OBama failure and where is any ire at the party that is actually holding bipartsianship hostage?
To me President Obama failures are..
He has moved away from a public option. He promised me a public option and I believed him. He has let the message on this and so many other issues get away from him. He had the advantage and he expected to find ‘Statesmen’ and ‘Adults’ in congress who wouldn’t bastardize everything they could to score a political point and while he’s finally decided to come out swingng and get the truth out.. he’s wasted vaulable time and his ‘capitol’ in the interim.
I see it as a failure that he is still giving contracts to the likes of Blackwater and doing it even though we know they are the evil of all evil. Why do we need to privately fund any war with a bunch of mercenaries? Why do we need them for private security? Why can’t we use the money and build up our military and pay our troops more? Atleast they have rules,laws and codes they must follow. Blackwater and the likes do things with our money and in our names that I do not think the majoirty of us want done in our name. I do not agree at all with their continued government funding. Bring the military back to do the jobs in our name with the honor and integrity that they will bring with them.
I see President Obama’s lack of authority with Wall Street as another failure. He needs to force those CEO’s to either get their sweet-ass to the proverbial ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.. or risk immediate stripping of the ‘handout, even if that means selling off part of the company to get back the money given to them. I don’t know who these people think they are, but when the President of the United States tells you to come to a meeting.. your sorry ‘hand-out-taking’ ass better get there before the ink is dry on the invitations. I don’t care if it was ‘foggy’ or not, take the damn train.
I don’t care about GOP crying that “OBama hates capitalism .. Obama is an enemy to buisness” because it’s a load of crap, what we had leading up to this meltdown was not capitalism .. it was rape pure and simple. It’s time Obama starts acting like the President he is and do something about these guys.
And finally.. He has failed at installing a new way of doing it, he has failed at starting a new era of bi-partsianship. He hasn’t failed for the lack of trying, he’s failed for the lack of realism. He believed he could change the climate of hate that is the US congress. Not a single congressman from either house or either party can say or do anything without checking a poll 1st. They are not there to govern like Obama is, they are there for the power and the paycheck. It is President Obama’s failure to not see this that irks me the most. It is his failure to not see that, no matter which way he goes the entire Right side will be against him as proven time and time again, even by adopting their own policies.. they will go against him. They will and have cut off their noses to spite their face.
President Obama is already lambasted as a socialist even when he’s cut taxes and wasn’t the one to create the largest ’socialist program’ in a generation or more. Well, if they are going to call him one anyway, then why not use that and go more radical on his ideas. We just proved a lot of the country is pro-radical change, even our supreme court is. So it is a failure on Obama’s part not to use the gift he’s been given by the Right. He will be slaughtered and lied about by them no matter what he does.. so he might as well do as he wants.
John, thank you for your comments.. I hope I have addressed them in a way that maybe didn’t change your mind.. but atleast gave you a different point of view and a way to look at it
Washington (CNN) — Senior Obama administration officials revealed late Tuesday they’ve secretly gained the cooperation of family members of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab to help get the Christmas Day airline bomb suspect talking.
The cooperation effort has led to actionable intelligence that could help prevent terror attempts on U.S. soil, the senior officials said.
No torture, no waterboard,no stress positions,no violation of human rights or our own laws… and he’s actually talking and without a military tribunal to boot!
The senior administration officials said that since AbdulMutallab began talking to investigation again last week, he has been cooperating on a daily basis. The officials added the information gained from the interrogations has been disseminated throughout the intelligence community.
One of the senior Obama officials, who bluntly said the Republican attacks have “frustrated the hell out of me,” asserted that gaining the trust of the family was the best way to handle the case and helped the administration gain valuable intelligence from the suspect, who is believed to have ties to an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
“It could be used to disrupt other attacks,” one of the senior Obama officials said of the intelligence gleaned from AbdulMutallab in the interrogations, who added the president has been getting regular updates on what the suspect has been revealing.
The Republican response so far is to complain that President Obama has wasted these 6 weeks, but let’s have some truth for once shall we…
The operations, approved by President Obama and begun six weeks ago, involve several dozen troops from the U.S. military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), whose main mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists. The American advisers do not take part in raids in Yemen, but help plan missions, develop tactics and provide weapons and munitions. Highly sensitive intelligence is being shared with the Yemeni forces, including electronic and video surveillance, as well as three-dimensional terrain maps and detailed analysis of the al-Qaeda network.
I know some were worried about AbdulMutallab being mirandized and like John McCain, were trying to attack for Eric Holder for his decision and I guess prosecute him for treason(ok, not the treason part-or are they) but it looks like they can put those feary-tales to bed.
“It is also my understanding that Mr. Abdulmutallab has provided valuable information. Is that correct?” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein asked.
Now this is something I also found to be of interest
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, politicians and the courts have wrangled with the thorny question of how to treat suspected terrorists. The Supreme Court has not weighed in on whether the government has the right to hold a civilian as a military prisoner, and both times it appeared the court would get the chance to decide, President George W. Bush opted instead to bring the cases in civilian criminal courts
George Bush was hard on terror; he, Dick Cheney and those like them are the only ones who can keep us safe. President Obama, following their plan makes us look weak to our enemies though and thus makes us more vulnerable to attacks. How does that work?
The fact is we have a 100% success rate in trying terrorists in civilian court and as far as I know the only ones walking around and back to their old tricks, are walking around because Dick Cheney releasedthem! We’ve killed or captured more terrorist leaders under Obama’s 1st year than we did in the last year of Bush. We’ve had more ‘drone-launched missile strikes’ in President Obama’s 1st year than in Bush’s last 3 years. We are spending more money to “expand secretive Special Operations units, deploy more unmanned aerial drones” , but somehow it’s not good enough because President OBama doesn’t torture, because he doesn’t throw everyone into a military tribunal, because he treats people as the laws this country was founded on tell him to treat people, so he is still weak on terrorism. If anything, the increased drones attacks,increased terrorist casualties, successful interrogation of a terrorist should prove that not only is he not weak on terrorism, but that he’s doing something pretty right.
Alas… like the elusive Osama Bin Laden tape that surfaces only after some major event has happened, I expect a carefully worded press release from the most elusive of all creatures, Dick Cheney. Fox news and the conservative blogosphere need something to come after Mr. Obama on since he ate them for lunch at the GOP retreat last week, coupled with this new information on the lack of torturing actually working and Cheney is probably being roused from his slumber now.
I don’t expect anyone from the right to commend the President for a job well done,that would be ridiculous and let’s face it, the halfhearted attempt would come out more condescending than anything else. The GOP for all it’s glory has painted themselves into a corner. In their quest to dismiss this President, they have painted him as a weak, incompetent, unintelligent, lying, dangerous,socialistic,Nazi-like, thief looking to steal your money to give it to the poor and your guns to give them to the Muslims. I’m sure there is something to nit-pick about and if not, they can take a page out of a GOP strategists memo and just lie, but I thought this was a pretty good job of getting the guy to talk without having to drown him 1st.
Freshman Republican Lynn Jenkins said: “Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope. I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington.”
She then went on to name a fistful of white Republicans. I mean.. really?
Today,I came across a blog and while I agree that what Congresswoman Jenkins said is no great crime I disagree with the bloggers reason and that of the Congresswoman on why it’s not a big deal.
Ms Tucker cuts the Congresswoman some slack because she doesn’t believe the Congresswoman understood the racial undertones of the phrase. This is also the Congresswoman’s excuse, she didn’t know what she was saying and what it meant.
I agree with this, I do not think Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins knew about the black heavy weight boxer from the early part of the 1900’s named Jack Johnson who was unstoppable, and thus had boxing enthusiasts looking for the “Great White Hope” to beat him. There is no doubt in my mind that this congresswoman was oblivious to the origin of reference she was quoting. But you can’t tell me she didn’t know what she was saying,if only because she used it correctly. No, she didn’t know the origin of the phrase, but that doesn’t excuse what she said.
I do not believe she just chose her words wrong. Because in order for me to believe that.. I would have to believe that Congresswoman Jenkins didn’t realize that the President was black when she was saying the Republicans need a “White” Hope to beat him.. It’s possible she didn’t know I guess, maybe they don’t get the news out there in Kansas?
Regardless, it really isn’t a crime and just like we let off Mayor Dean Grose off the hook for his email because there was no great crime there either.. (he.. uh.. he didn’t know that picture of a watermelon patch outside the White House could be seen as racist.. because he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people liked watermelons) … we will let Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins off the hook. We will give her, Mayor Grose, the Tennessee Republican legislative aidewho sent the email of all the President’s pictures with President Obama’s just a black box and some eyes, to the ‘wrong people’ (we won’t ask her who the ‘right’ people were) and even the GOP activist and former chairman of his state’s elections commission, Rusty DePass who said when he heard there was a gorilla on the loose that it was probably one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors … we will give them all the benefit of the doubt that they aren’t really racist for what they said or did. No, they’re not racists.. they’re just fucking idiots and that’s why it’s no great crime. We can’t control the idiots in our society, if we could Glenn Beck would be living on a retard farm weaving baskets instead of infecting other idiots with his stupidity. Stupid isn’t illegal (there’s a Sara Palin joke in there somewhere) so the only thing we can do is let them feel our stare, our stare that says.. “You know what you meant,and more importantly we know what you meant. But instead of getting to actually stand behind it, now we’re going to make you prove you’re a fucking idiot by saying … ‘I didn’t know’ and then we’re going to laugh at how stupid you really are.”
sorry, 900 billion… like any of us really know the difference…
So, is Obama simply repeating the mistakes of Bush II by selling important things to the American people with fear?
fear here, fear now.. we must stop it.
Well, we must stop it when it is President Obama doing the mongering, when it is a Democrat’s agenda, when it is an issue that 70% of the country’s population want.
We are being led to believe that the ‘fear’ the President it ‘mongering’ on the rise of insurance prices, the crippling effect that the uninsured have on the medical system, and the eventual crash of medicare/medicaid is just fanciful and over-the-top unnecessary rhetoric. But this isn’t about the country, this isn’t about helping the 70% majority get what they are begging for,the Republican’s only goal here is to stop Obama by ending his hope of healthcare for everyone. The idea behind stopping the healthcare reform the President is asking for is that it will bring his popularity down enough for Republicans to hope for a chance to win a majority of congressional elections is 2010. This isn’t about you or me to the Republicans, this is about beating Obama and winning congressional seats. Just ask Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). He isn’t afraid to admit the Republican agenda.
“When you tell people that the mortality rate in Canada is 25% higher for breast cancer, 18% higher for prostate cancer, you know, they say why in the world would we emulate a system like that?”
Of course they are telling them a lie, because that is not the system we are trying to emulate.. but what good is a little truth when your goal is fear. Why bother with the truth when the the mortality rate for mortality is 3% higher in the United States than Canada? Because then, you lose your argument all together.
This idea of pretending that our healthcare system would suffer or the bonus-cuts the poor and destitute health insurance CEO’s would have to endure are not the issue, is ridiculous. The issue is to do what it takes to win at all costs.
“I just hope the President keeps talking about it, keeps trying to rush it through. We can stall it. And that’s going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election.”-Sen. James Inhofe
The majority of us who support a public plan and are willing to pay for it, are sadly not as important as those who donate millions to coffers of our elected officials both Democrat and Republican. Oddly enough, the ones taking the most money from Phamra and Big Insurance are the one blocking reform by calling for bi-partisanship. Which in this case means a bill so watered down and useless that it will do more harm than good. And yet to call them on this, to explain the immediate need for reform, to try and give a democracy what it’s demanding.. is to be out there ‘fear mongering’ and scaring the public and this just isn’t to be born!
We had to wire-tap our own citizens for fear that the terrorists were making covert plans over the wires.
We had to torture subjects who were captured for fear that they might know something. In order to do that though, we had to change the wording of strict Geneva convention guidelines to change these POW’s into ‘enemy combatant’ for fear that the laws may protect them.
We had to detain combatants in secret holding facilities all over the world for fear that they would escape or worse, join together and become a ’super-terrorist cell’.
We could not try these combatants in our own courts on our own soil for fear that they would get off and be released into the population and begin collaborating with one another on another attack.
We could not house these combatants in our own maximum security prison system for fear that they may do what no one else has done, and escape.. or for fear that they would join in with the other extremely dangerous inmates housed with them and created new terrorists networks.
We were even told to vote for the Republicans because they tried to make us fear that they were the only one capable of keeping us safe in these uncertain times.
It’s telling that when these issue were brought up and the fear mongering was pointed at as an unnecessary tactic, he reply from the same people complaining about the supposed fear mongering President Obama is spreading, was
“So the Prez tells you stuff that you don’t like and don’t want to hear, and for his trouble of actually treating you like an adult and not sugar coating it, you call it “fear mongering.”
or
It’s legitimate and warrants some extra consideration.“
That’s almost as “fair” as the people deciding the fate of the health reform being recipients of millions of dollars from the insurance companies… but not quite.
The scary idea that some Republicans are trying to make into some kind of truth, that once this reform is enacted, our elderly will be put out to pasture, is some of the most ridiculous and preposterous yet to be voiced in this debate. In country where a doctor is criminally punished for aiding terminal patients with only hours to live in excruciating pain, it’s asinine to believe that we would all of a sudden kill off an entire segment of our population. But fear is what the Republicans peddle to get their way, even if their way goes against what 72% of the population and 50% of their constituents are asking for.
The scariest part of all.. is that we and the Democrats in Congress will let them get away with it.
The only thing there is to fear here is the money Republicans and some Democrats will lose from the Health sector if they don’t get out and pimp for them now.
Oh…and to the Republicans who complain that bureaucrats should not be involved in the decisions between a doctor and patient, first I ask, is the 17 year old high school student working after school and weekends at the insurance call center denying the care your physician is asking for now, doing that job any better?.. and then I say to those crying a whoa is me over politicians not being a deciding factor in the doctor/patient conversation.. Thank You for joining the ‘Pro-choice’ movement, the ‘Pro-medicinal marijuana’ movement and the ‘pro-assisted suicide’ movement, can we count on your support in 2010?
This whole Sarah Palin thing irks the hell out of me and not for the reasons you would think. All of a sudden I find myself feeling sorry for her and the attention paid to her over the last few months and it bothers the hell of out of me to feel sorry for the woman…
I do not blame the MSM or Dave Letterman though for the attention paid to her though… I blame Bush..
huh?
oops, sorry.. after 8 years it’s just a force of habit!
But seriously, I blame John McCain and Sarah Palin’s hubris.
I cannot for the life of me fathom the thought process that went through John McCain’s heads and ended up producing the statement “I choose Sarah Palin as my Vice Presidential running mate”… and the thoughts that must have gone through his head saying “..and no body will question who she is, where she comes from,her political history,her family dirt,her sanity..or mine, because she just so darn pretty”
On what planet did either of them really think an absolute 100% no name… could run, with an amazing chance at success at becoming the 1st woman Vice President.. and not a single person in the world wouldn’t say.. “Hey, who’s the new girl?”
Mike was right when he said“The amount of poor and incorrect information on this woman is frankly incredible.” Of course he’s talking about me, Howie and the MSM for this.. but it was not us who thrust this already, damaged flower onto the open market and demanded that she be accepted as leader of our country in the event of a Presidential disaster all because she and John McCain said so. As if that wasn’t enough, then she opened her mouth and we truly had reasons to fear.
But, were we ‘unfair’ to her.. or were her expectation of unconditional acceptance to blame for the eventual melt-down. .. yeah, I don’t care what planet your from.. No one term govenor of an extremely large state, who ran for VP and almost won, can decide to quit their office with 2 years left in her term.. and not be seen as the antithesis of a leader on a Presidential scale. When stared down by what she calls an unfair Mainstream media, she blinked.. and blinked hard. What happens during the next cuban missle crisis while she’s President? So yes, it was a melt down.
But are we to blame or does she have a major stake in that arena?
In a campaign where even the Democratic leader’s birth certificate and religion was being eviscerated on television,blogs,papers ,pundits and me all across the land on and hourly basis.. What gave Palin or McCain the idea that she could be launched on the Presidential landscape 6 weeks before the election.. and no one would want to know who the fuck she was? Oh My God, Sotomayor’s entire adult life going back decades are being vetted before we can even have the debate as to whether we should appoint her to the Supreme Court, but we were just supposed to say “Oh, Sarah Palin.. yeah, Ok.. sure-we don’t really need to know jack-shit about the person who will be a heartbeat away from the Presidency”
No, I do not find the MSM as the culprit for all her troubles.. In fact, I think the MSM should be awarded a medal for weeding out a person who was not only unprepared for the spot-light.. but also exquisitely unprepared for the pressure that would come with the office she was asking to be trusted with. Had she actually been elected.. well, that’s a nightmare that I am glad I don’t have to witness…
Sarah Palin only has Sarah Palin and John McCain to blame for her larger than life launch onto the full court world press to her eventually crashing and burning. It was not a pretty launch on to the political field to begin with and it was bound to be an even uglier crash.
The Mainstream media did it’s job this time.. they did it at an breakneck pace to be sure.. but only because they were forced to by two people who thought they could sneak an incompetent by because maybe this country wasn’t as ready for a black man named Hussein as their opponents thought.
ekg here…what you’re about to read is what lil Mike and I do, this is where we are in our comfort zone and where we excel. It’s long, it’s tedious, but the final result is an all out information explosive.. We have done this kind of exchange for years on muchedumbre.com. When we started ‘blogging’, we forgot that which made us great… the quote/reply debate, because it’s hard to get into that sort of debate in a ‘blog-comment’ section..
Feel free to join in the debate in the comment sections.
..
” But one thing is clear, if it’s going to be reform in any way that Obama and the far left of the Democratic Party care about, it’s got to have the “Public Option.” Right now the administration is having it both ways. On the one hand it’s saying that it has no intention of driving private insurers out of business, but on the other hand, reassuring Congressional Democrats that the President is still committed to having a public option as part of his vision of health care reform.
Why the Public Option? The formal answer was included in Obama’s letter to Senators Kennedy and Baucus:
“I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.”
Competition? There are approximately 1300 health insurance providers in the US. Really, will 1301 really make the difference and suddenly lead to “a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest?” That’s all it would take, just one more provider? The idea is so ridiculous that you would have to be a White House journalist to buy it.”
Ok, will one more provider really make a difference? Absofuckinglutley! Yes, 1300 companies offering the same shitty product would actually have to offer a better option if a bigger and better player came on to the scene. Your debate isn’t whether the Government can offer a product that will make the other companies provide a better choice, your argument is… Should the Government offer that product at all.. So let’s not play games with throwing in all this other stuff..
“What makes the public option the crown jewel of any health care reform plan? It’s the camel’s nose under the tent for single payer government healthcare. No, this isn’t just Republican scare-mongering. I can hardly imagine any other conclusion for the insistence on a government healthcare plan. And it’s easy to see how it would happen. The logic is this: One of the keys of health care reform is an individual mandate, but you can’t very well have one if people cannot afford to buy health insurance, so you have to provide an option for people too poor to pay. Enter the public option. An analysis of several public option scenarios shows that premiums could be 30 to 40 percent less than comparable private plans. That of course hinges on the government paying reimbursement rates comparable to Medicare, which are 70-80 percent of what private insurers pay.”
Lewin Group is) part of Ingenix, which is owned by United Healthcare Group, the insurance behemoth that has been buying up insurance companies left and right, expanding its reach into just about every segment of the health-insurance market. Its flagship, UnitedHealthcare, helps make it the largest health insurer in the country. It’s a safe bet that United is not too keen on a public plan that might shrink its business.
Now I don’t find them credible in this discussion..Sorry about that but seriously, you wouldn’t allow me to use Rahm’s notes as actual unbiased data would you?But let’s address this ‘fear-mongering’ warpath scream of “Single Payer Healthcare-Oh My”.. Why is it that every time a Democrat tries to do anything you Pub’s start screaming ‘Government take-over!” “Government Control” “States Right!” and“Give me Liberty” , when after 8 years of massive Government abuse, Lenin-ish intrustion, insane Government spending, and obscene Government entitlements there was nothing but the sound-bite of “If you’re not with the President, you are with the terrorists” to anyone who raised a fart of a question?
But now, Oh My God! We’re killing health care…!! We’re taxing people too much..!! Businesses will crumble..!!
…aimed to inject market forces into Medicare by encouraging beneficiaries to enroll in government-subsidized private health plans that would compete directly with the traditional government-run, fee-for-service program. The drug benefit would be the chief inducement for seniors to make the switch to private plans.
Maybe I missed it, but were there Fox News sponsored Tea-parties for that?
Something else I just found out (by the way, this is why Mike and I do this so well… during our hunt for facts we often find other facts that come in handy in other debates) “The Patriot Act and Department of Homeland Security was the brainchild of one William Jefferson Clinton.” Sure the website is a little nutty and over the top in it’s ‘doomsday’ opinions, and in all seriousness I shouldn’t link it because you will use it against me, but what the hell.. it pretty much spells out everything I’m saying about what the Pubs were happy to do with a Pub leader and shit themselves when it’s a Democrat doing the same thing. Best of all, it does it with the same chicken-little hyperbole you guys are using now..
In short, Bush’s encouragement to beneficiaries to enroll out of their private plans and into the government plan didn’t bring about “Single-Payer Storm troopers” and neither will President Obama’s. But if… if it did, once again you can thank Bush for that ummm…camel nose under the tent… since he started the ball rolling…
Of course I loathe the ‘It’s Bush’s fault” argument.. It was fun for a few years there, but now it’s just old,crusty and only garners a slight roll of the eyes… The problem is, there are just so many fucking things that are his fault and you Pubs are just now finding that out because Obama is following in his footsteps on alot of them. So as loathsome as it is to say.. it’s still applicable.
Moving on…
“So one of the ways the Obama plan controls costs is just by paying the doctors and hospitals less. I’m sure that will make a great incentive for people to go into the medical field. And who wouldn’t want to be taxed to subsidize their competitor?”
President Obama will pay doctors less and therefore who would ever go into the med field.. An addendum to this argument is the.. “we will become a 3rd world health care system because there will be no incentives (money) for research”… OK 1st, we already are below many 3rd world countries when it comes to our health care and as for the rest? Well, I can think of one disease that if it wasn’t for the French, not only would we still be calling it GRID, who knows when someone would have been able to isolate the AIDS retrovirus. Hell, it was a German who discovered that HPV was the leading cause in cervical cancer…
As for being paid less? When did we lose that ‘country doctor’ mentality of people becoming a doctor to help people? Was it around the same time insurance companies first started popping up? I’d really love to see a study on the correlation of the emergence of insurance companies and their control and doctors treating people less because it’s what they dream of doing and more to try and become a million by the time they are 30.
In short, I don’t know what President Obama’s plans on the pay scale for doctors and hospitals is. I know that right now we spend more money on administration costs than just about anything else. Medicare proves that you only need to spend 2% on admin costs and still function admirably.. $230 billion a year is spent in California alone on administration costs, Obama’s plan cost less than 1/2 that for the entire country.. so why those massive saving would not trickle down throughout the system is beyond me. To me, it would seem that if $25 from every $100 doctor visit that went to insurance administration now, was cut to $2, the doctor would be seeing a hell of alot better of a return.
“First, the same analysis shows that depending on the premium rate for the public option, 119 million people could lose their private health insurance…If the public plan has lower premiums, what do they care what rate their doctor gets paid at? Others would find themselves dumped. Why would companies want the expense of maintaining their own health insurance coverage when a public plan can offer lower premiums?”
I addressed this somewhat above when I brought Bush’s plan to get people off the private rolls and onto the public ones to your attention already, but that’s not my argument against it, a bad plan is a bad plan no matter who the President is, something the Republican religion doesn’t like to admit..My argument is this… I believe you are wrong.. those insurance companies will be forced to compete with the new plan.. they will have to offer something else, whether it be a lower premium or more coverage or an annual trip to Bermuda..whatever.. I mean do you seriously think they’ll just keel over and die? Hell no, they’ll find something that their competitor doesn’t have and offer it..
Back in the 90’s I was fired for being pregnant, lost my insurance(not that I had prenatal anyway), and was forced to go on Medicaid. HMO’s were exploding at that time and you were forced to pick either an HMO or straight medicaid. There was many HMO’s to chose from and they all pretty much offered the same plans as each other and medicaid but since there was competition, the HMO’s decided to offer other incentives to get people to enroll in their plan. It was piddly shit like children vitamins each month with this one, free contacts with that one, free vitamins,contacts and bubble gum with the other..(ok, not really on the bubble gum.. but you get the point).. the catch was you had to use their doctors,their hospitals and their pharmacies. Or you could stick with medicaid and go with pretty much whoever you wanted. I liked my doctor and she took medicaid so I chose that path. So when you tell me that a government sponsored plan will not only force people out of their private plan but will force private plans to close up shop and move away.. I laugh! These companies want to succeed today just as much as they want to succeed tomorrow and they will find a way to entice employers to keep paying them.. Whether that be free vitamins or a free trip to Bora-Bora for the employer who signs up the most employees onto their plan.Most, if not all, will adapt and survive… and those that don’t? Well, you don’t mind when they fall in a full capitalistic society do you?
So why is a Public plan the only option? Because without it there is no change.. With it there is a crack in the monopoly-like hold insurance companies have on this country and it’s leaders. They have never had to worry about regulation and competition before and now they are throwing out all the buzz words that make conservative hard.. “Socialism”..”Government sponsored”..”Government entitlement”… and to that I say Pshaw! Look what the debate has already done for health care… before a person was actually denied treatment for her cancer because her insurance company said an outbreak of pimples in her past constituted a ‘pre-existing conditions’.Pimples! But now all of a sudden insurance companies are screaming that sure, they can get rid of the pre-existing conditions clause. The debate alone is forcing other companies to offer more benefits at a lower cost to women in some states.. The debate alone is changing health care for the better.. If the debate is cleaning up health care and the conglomerate-do-as-they-please hold on health care that the insurance companies have.. then I am encouraged as to what an actual Public Plan will be able to do.
So, the cost factor? One state already pays 1 and 1/2 times more for just the administrative costs than the public plan for an entire country.
The reduction of doctor’s fee and hospital costs? The savings from the decrease in administration costs should increase what the medical providers see.
The loss of research and cutting edge medicine? You walk into the Pasteur Institute and tell them they’re a 2nd tier institute.
Socialism? Please.. George Socialist Bush!
The loss of a free market? No, more like the opening of a closed market and forcing it to become competitive to survive..
I saw this cartoon in the Financial Times yesterday morning, and couldn’t agree with it more…
The story, is along the lines of a blog that I did not too long ago entitled “Hoping for Audacity”. While reading some of the comments on Mr. Crook’s blog page, I was glad to see I’m not the only one asking … Where is the audacious, ‘yes we can’ leader we elected?
I do not believe it is an insult to ask,” Mr. President, what are you afraid of?” or “what are you waiting for?” I believe in fact it’s the prudent thing to do because he may just be thinking that if he holds out for just a little bit more, then maybe the GOP will just fall in line and do as he pleases..
The problem here is… that will never happen.
The GOP would rather turn on it’s own than step one foot into the bipartisan arena and that is because of is this newly emerging ‘religious-like’ dogma code the GOP are living by these days. It’s been slow to take shape, but it’s become undeniable that the GOP followers see their party as a type of religion and their leaders as some kinds of prophets or disciples to be worshiped at all costs. You only have to look at Mark Sanford to see what it is I’m talking about.
I seem to remember not too long ago the outrage wasn’t that Clinton had sex with that woman (wink-wink), but it was that he did it while in the Oval office and while being on the phone with members of Congress. ‘What kind of leader would do such a thing’ was demanded and ‘he should be run out of town for it’ seemed to be the reply. Well, who would have known that had Bill just left his secret service detail,wife,child,phone, office and gone missing in Argentina for a week with Monica.. we could have save bundles of time and energy.
Image via Wikipedia
The contortion one has to accomplish to justify Sanford’s actions are only mimicked in religion. I am surprised that Bill Maher hasn’t picked up on this yet. This, need to excuse everything at all cost because any dent in the dogma may bring it all down upon them.
What Sanford did was wrong. The reason he did it, to have a quickie, is not the issue.. atleast not for the Democrats. Their only reason for even bringing up the affair is because it’s too great an irony that the ‘righteous’ and ‘moral’ party is once again caught with their pants down, so great in fact that it just can’t be ignored. But, that is not the meat of the issue in the questions surrounding whether he should resign or not. OF course he should resign! He went missing for 5 days without a care in the world as to what happened to the state he was governing. I can see not wanting his wife to know where he was, but he didn’t even tell his aids or turn his phone on just in case something happened that he needed to be reachable for.
There is no question that he should resign, not for his affair.. but for his going AWOL. The bizarre part isn’t in thinking that, it’s in watching someone justify why his excuse for the adultery is the reason why he should not resign for leaving his job. Sure King David fell, but number one, he’s not King David and number 2, he’s not being asked to step down because he can’t be trusted to keep it in his pants, he’s being asked to step down because he can’t be trusted to govern. Sanford and not so bizarrely, Rush, used the excuse that he had just come off a hard defeat in trying to fight President Obama’s socialist march through South Carolina and he needed the rest. Well… what is going to happen after the next stressful time? Is Sanford going to pretend he and one of his children have been car-jacked when he actually just ran off to Disney World?
There is something in the GOP these days that not only fears coming out against one of their own when that person is absolutely and on every level, wrong.. but when there are some that do come out against the holy see, they are excommunicated for their dissent.
The party of the religious has itself turned into a religion that must not be disputed, doubted or diverged from.
If those in their own party can’t compete with this without fear of being tossed out, how can President Obama think he can accomplish any bipartisan achievements? The simple truth of it is, he can’t. But that’s why he was elected with such a majority and given all the congressional tools he needed to accomplish his vision. We the people wanted certain policies enacted or changed. We hoped to finally be able to say “Yes we did” but someone forget to tell the President this and it’s time someone reminds Superman that he doesn’t have to duck when the gun is thrown at him.
This is what the GOP senators office in Tennessee has to do all day? Send emails to the ‘right’ people. Is this was the people of Tennessee pay their state legislator to do with the state-funded computers, state-funded office and a person’s time? This is their answer to the financial crisis,mortgage crisis, double wars overseas.. health crisis? This is the Tennessee GOP at work?
Is this the same GOP party that some within are demanding David Letterman be fired?
...wants a Republican legislative aide fired for sending out a “reprehensible” e-mail depicting President Obama as two cartoonish white eyes peering from a black background.
Obama’s image is in the last square of a collage containing portraits of the previous 43 U.S. presidents. The e-mail, which was sent to other GOP staff members, was posted on the Internet Monday.
Sherri Goforth, an administrative assistant to state Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, has admitted she sent the e-mail May 28 with the title “Historical Keepsake Photo.” She said, without elaborating, that she mistakenly sent it “to the wrong list of people.”
She sent it to the ‘wrong’ people?
umm.. who were the right people?
This woman will not be fired because she has a ’stellar’ 20 year work history and she feels bad for what she did( which by the way,wasn’t sending out the email,, it was that she sent it to someone who was going to tell her for it.) Don’t most ‘criminals’ say “But I didn’t mean to” when they are caught also?
Well ..anyway, she’s apologized and she had an impeccable record, so we should just forget it… right?
New York State Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, a Republican, is calling on the CEO of CBS to fire David Letterman for crude comments he made about Sarah Palin and her daughter.
In the letter to CBS chief Les Moonves, Kolb said he took Letterman to task for the “shockingly inappropriate” jokes.
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