You are currently browsing all posts tagged with '2012 election'.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 entries.

Dear President Obama

  • Posted on November 11, 2012 at 11:13 am

The election is over and now the real work begins.  I saw how hard you fought for your reelection and the toil it took on you on election night.  However, the real work is just beginning.  Republicans don’t want to believe you were given some kind of mandate, as they still do not believe in science, polling, and reality.  While they appear stunned by the results, I suggest you get to work on becoming the leader that the American people deserve and want.

I don’t care about words like “mandate”.  I care about the American people.  From my point of view, it is obvious that the American people want to see that 2% pay their fair share of taxes.  It’s time to stand firm for America with all of the things you talked about during the election.  Create a government that is for the people not for Wall Street.  The people want good paying jobs, quality schools, a living wage, and an end to the never-ending cycle of war.  We want our infrastructure built up so we don’t have to worry about bridges, potholes, and the next big storm.  We want a transportation system that isn’t built on an America from fifty years ago.  We want a government that doesn’t pay special attention to minority groups of people like billionaires, millionaires, and those Tea Party nuts that follow Grover Norquist.  We actually want the two parties to sit down together and develop ideas that help the country and not hurt it.

The American people are a giving people.  Whenever people are in need, we give.  We step up and do our part to try to help people in trouble.  It is in our nature when diversity strikes, that the best in us comes out.   However, don’t ask us to give up the hard earned Medicare and Social Security programs that are the life blood for so many of our poor and middle class people.  The media folks keep talking about the “fiscal cliff” which is a rather nauseating term.  I cannot imagine standing on a cliff without feeling nauseated by the edge that I could fall over.  However, it is the constant drum of the “The Sky is Falling.” from the media giants that nauseates me more than the talk of the cliff.  It is obvious the media people are trying to get us, the American people, ready for the big hammer to fall.  Those same media giants are in the pocket of big business and those billionaires and millionaires.  I say Mr. President, “Stand tall and firm for the American people.”  Most of us out here know that Social Security doesn’t need to have the age raised or Medicare turned into some kind of insane voucher program.  We, the American electorate, reject those notions.  The cap on Social Security could simply be taken off and the government could stop looting it.  Let those with wealth do without those special breaks they get for being so rich.

Mr. President, you won!  The Republicans are just going to have to get over it.  Act like the winner you are and stand firm for the American people.  You owe us for standing with you when you needed us.  Now you must stand for us when we need you!  The American people need you to fight the good fight for the poor and the middle class.  You do represent all of America and that includes the 2% but the wealthy need to do their part for America.  It is the poor and the middle class that really give for this country.  We give out children to war and our sweat to build up this country.  It’s time that the wealthy gave what their best at as well and that would be their money to help reinvigorate our economy, educate our people, and develop our infrastructure.  All is possible when everyone steps up and does their part.  Don’t be afraid to ask the American wealthy to step up and do their part to make America a place where all can succeed again.

Sincerely,

Katherine, an American voter and taxpayer

Why I’m Voting for President Obama

  • Posted on October 10, 2012 at 10:38 pm

Woman of Liberty

I think I have been silent far too long.  For the last several days, I have watched Morning Joe on MSNBC and put up with the hogwash about Mitt Romney and what a great debater he is.  I say, “Enough already.”   What is hard for me to understand is the lack of substance in his debate performance.  It appears at least according to the pundits, that telling numerous lies and changing positions at the drop of a hat is exactly what it takes to be a great debater at the presidential level.  However, I wonder how it could possibly make one appear presidential.   I frankly, just don’t get it.  I did not see much about Mitt that appealed to me as a woman.  I know that when I watched the debate I found him rude, obnoxious, desperate, and overbearing.  I found his eyes to be annoying, as they appeared as if they were frozen in some crazy stare.  I kept thinking about deer and headlights.  The president appeared reserved.  He did not have the energy that Romney had and he did not throw any zingers.  However, he did say some substantial things that I heard.  He has now said that maybe he was too polite.  We all know that politics and politeness are not usually used in the same sentence, so maybe he is right.

Anyone that is familiar with my blog knows that I have had contempt for both major parties these past few years.  It seems the only winners in politics have been corporations and rich people.  During the 2008 Democratic Primary, I was a supporter of John Edwards.  Do not get all bent out of shape about this with over moralizing the good and bad in politics.  Be real.  I do not look to politicians for my morality code.  Of course, when I supported him Elizabeth and John seemed like a great couple.  Regardless of his personal problems, the message he spoke about is one that is lost today.  Unfortunately, with John out of the picture, the message has died.  John always talked about giving a “voice” to the voiceless.  I never hear anyone today talking about giving a voice to the millions of people that do not have the money and power to speak for themselves in politics.  Poverty has become a silent, deadly killer of our hopes and dreams for our future.  We all know money talks.  People in poverty do not have money and sometimes don’t even vote in their own best interests if they vote at all.  Mitt Romney talked about the 47 million people that he didn’t need to woo to become president.  He called them President Obama’s supporters and implied that they believed in a “trickle down” government.  He actually thinks that people want to be taken care of by the government.  His thought process is so off from what we, as Americans, are really all about that it is difficult for me to take him seriously.  Does anyone really think it is the rich that fight these wars?  The rich prosper from war.  The poor and the middle class fight them.   The poor and the middle class take care of people like Mitt Romney so he can live comfortably in his many homes, so he can travel easily, so he can feel safe and protected from harm.  The poor and the middle class really have built and continue to build this country.  No building was ever built without the sweat of real people.  No road ever was created by the sweat of the wealthy.  Mitt depends on the very people that he simply cannot relate to or understand.  They take care of him in every way possible yet he only sees what money can buy.  He doesn’t see what the American spirit is really made from.  We all have benefited from our ancestors hard work, even Mitt Romney.  Yet, he is a self-made man in his own self-made mind.  I find him ridiculous.

However, what I really wanted to write about tonight is why I am voting for President Obama.  It has taken me a long time to come to this decision.  I have been so outrageously mad at the Democratic Party since the 2008 Primary that I have joked about having DDS (Democratic Deranged Syndrome).  I was driven to exasperation by my own party with their made up rules for the Michigan Primary and what they ended up doing to Hillary Clinton in the process.  Enter Mitt Romney and the Republican Party.  If there is one thing, I can see clearly the way women have been treated by the Republican Party and flip flopper Mitt.

I believe in the capability of women to make their own decisions about their lives whether it is about their bodies or their minds.  Women don’t need men making medical decisions for them and they certainly don’t need to be taken back to the fifties with political and religious monkey business.  President Obama made two early decisions that were extremely important to me as a woman.  He chose two women to be on the Supreme Court.  With President Obama’s decision, I have better representation on the Supreme Court than I do at any other government level.  We have far too few women in politics.  One of the first things the president did was sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.  He basically said that my value as an employee was equal to any man’s value.  The president also chose Hillary Clinton to become Secretary of State.  Hillary has done a great job tirelessly working for our country.  I’ve watched her with great interest as she travels almost non-stop around the globe working for the good of our country.  She has brought great strength to President Obama’s foreign policy with her work ethic.

There are other decisions President Obama has made that I think have been good.  The auto bailout has really helped our country.  I even bought a vehicle this year when my brother-in-law let me use his GM discount.  I can only imagine the domino effect that would have happened if the auto bailout hadn’t happened.  It would have been devastating to our state, Ohio, and many other states.    While the economy is still not where it needs to be I feel we are on the road to recovery.  My son bought a condominium and was motivated by the special tax incentive program back in 2010.  It was a good incentive for selling homes and getting buyers for those homes.  The Affordable Care Act has really been given a bad rap.  Mitt Romney says he will repeal it and Republicans will come up with something better.  I can truthfully say that health care has never been a Republican issue.  If it were, we would have had health care under Reagan, Bush, or Bush.  It just didn’t happen and they even degraded Hillary when she tried to do something with health care when Bill was president.  Don’t believe the lies and truthfully, when Mitt is speaking he is lying.  I cannot believe that any politician can take so many different sides on the same issue in such a short time.  There is video proof of Romney changing positions one day and staffers changing back for him the next.  What he says really depends on the crowd he is with that day!

I have grown to appreciate President Obama.  While he is still a flawed person, I can say he is a far better choice than Mitt Romney.  “Race to the Top” is too much like “No Child Left Behind” with its heavy emphasis on standardized testing and tying teacher’s evaluations to those tests. However, he is still much better than Mitt and the Republicans.  Democrats will fund the programs that they expect schools to create.  When things were getting tough President Obama sent money to the states to keep teachers and police officers employed.  We cannot forget some of the stimulus programs that people have benefited from.  The Democrats got unemployment extended for people that were out of work!  I am sure there is more that I could say but I know that there are clear reasons to vote for President Obama and not just against Mitt Romney.

I, as a woman, would rather have a President that I trust can make a positive decision for another choice for the Supreme Court should it become necessary.  I feel I have that with President Obama.  As I said before, I do not want to go back to the fifties.  I was born in the fifties.  I have ten brothers.  I grew up in a male dominated world.  I live in a male dominated world.  I want women to continue to move forward and make their own decisions in the world.  I want women to have the freedom to be whatever they desire to be.  I am proud to be a woman that takes her vote seriously.  I value my freedom.  I value my liberties.  I am proud of my heritage and I embrace a future in America where all people are equal regardless of race, color, creed, or monetary value.  The poor and the middle class need to vote.  You may not have much money but your vote is your power!

War, What is It Good For?

  • Posted on June 16, 2011 at 1:03 am

I just have to know if anyone knows how many soldiers died last week.  I was watching ABC Sunday morning with Christiane Amanpour a week ago and she posted the deaths at the end.  There were 14 soldiers in Afghanistan.  I find this so troubling because it simply will make no difference if we stay there two years or two weeks longer.  We got Bin Laden so I say, “Bring the troops home!”

A couple of weeks ago one of my ten brothers called me.  He is a big Obama supporter.  He knows how I feel about the 2008 election and the corruption I see in both parties, but ever hopeful, he asked me if I was going to vote for Obama.  I thought for a minute and I told him two things.  I said the problems with the 2008 primary in Michigan have never been addressed by Obama or the Democratic Party in a way that is believable or satisfactory to me.  Here in Michigan my primary vote was stolen and given to Obama!  However, I told him that if Obama wants my vote, he could do one key thing and probably get it.  He could bring the troops home and end these wars!  I don’t mean a little slight of the hand trick of putting troops in another country and saying we have left the other country, like troops from Iraq placed in Afghanistan.  I mean bring them HOME!

And please tell me what is up with the media?  I get it.  Arnold is a bum.  John is a low life, swindling attorney that you couldn’t trust with your ugliest girlfriend.  Anthony is a fourteen year old boy with a hard on for the secret, or not so secret, life of the internet.  So, why does the media care so much?  It never ceases to amaze me how sex becomes more important than being lied to by an American President who took us to WAR!

In our country, either the media thinks we are more interested in politicians’ sex lives or we are that interested.  I for one am not more interested in the secret lives of politicians than the back deals that they make with corporations to pick pocket the American people.  I’m going to tell you right now I don’t care who you are sleeping with.  I don’t care if you take naked pictures of yourself and send them to other people that probably send some of their own back to you.  However, I do care if you pass legislation that takes us into war, strips money from education and gives it to the defense department, or takes money from the WIC program and gives it to other defense contractors.   http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/166653-republicans-looking-to-gut-wic-food-programs-in-amendment-debate

After all Republicans never met a defense bill that they couldn’t resist passing and Democrats never can truly stand up to the Republicans, not even for the American people.  Talk is cheap in Washington D.C. but heaven forbid if you have a sex scandal.  You can secretly be a bum, but if the world finds out that you are a bum, well, that’s a problem.  My mother used to call that the “Spartan rule” but being a Michigan State Spartan, I now take offense to that reference.  Arnold, John and Anthony perhaps thought that “When in Rome do as the Romans do.”  I don’t know if all three were just doing what other politicians get away with on a daily basis, but I have to wonder why some politicians can be forgiven their bad behaviors and others cannot.

So, back to my original thought, will I vote for President Obama or not in 2012?  I have to wonder what things will look like in the fall of 2012.  Will we still be involved in three different wars in the Middle East?  Will I see my hard earned tax dollars go to more war funding?  Edwin Starr sings it best for me!

This Little Piggy Went to Market and Brought Home Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz

  • Posted on April 6, 2011 at 12:11 am

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

(Warning!!!  This piece is to be read with a hillbilly, sarcastic voice to feel the full effect of my thinking content.)

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0405/Debbie-Wasserman-Schultz-A-good-fit-to-replace-Tim-Kaine-at-DNC

Hey all you women, especially Hillary Clinton supporters, step up and vote for Obama.  You know you want to.  After all the Democrats with President Obama are going to put Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz in charge of the DNC since Tim Kaine is going to run for the senate.  I smell something a bit off here.  Oh, that’s right.  Since my vote was stolen and given to Obama on May 31st of 2008 in the Michigan primary, I haven’t been a very happy Democrat.  So, let’s appease all those disheartened women voters.  After all Debbie is just so likable.  I’m sure that the “good old boys” on the Obama campaign team were just trying to figure out how they’re going to get those cranky women to vote for Obama.  You know how those women are.  They just can’t seem to get over the 2008 election.  Let’s throw them a bone!  Hey, Debbie!  We need you!

I like Debbie.  I think she’s a fine woman but I also think she is being used.  Maybe she doesn’t mind being used since Hillary has set the pace for women everywhere.  Obama can call her a racist, bitch slap her with music by JayZ and she’ll step right up and do his bidding as though they are “old” friends.  I know this says a lot about politicians of both genders when they so easily let those “little” indiscretions slide like water off a duck’s back.  Yes, I know.  We are supposed to think it is all for the greater good and all that other crap we’ve been told over the years.

I remember the 2008 primary when Hillary gave that wonderful speech about putting some cracks in the glass ceiling and then she caved when all of us women wanted her to stand up for us at the convention.  She capitulated and conceded to Obama.  Those of us that were closely following the race could see that it was rigged.  They got rid of the old Michigan and Florida problems and Hillary won all of the “real” big Democratic states.   http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_vote_count.html

The race was a dead heat even though the Democratic Party tried to paint it as an Obama run away train.  So, you’re probably wondering why I’m bringing all of this up today.  It seems to me that President Obama has a little problem.  It’s called a woman problem.  He’s hoping that Debbie can get us women back on board where we belong.  You know, it’s the same thing as “barefoot and pregnant” or “back in the kitchen”.  Whatever you want to call it, they are looking for simple, easy tricks to get women to vote for President Obama and Debbie is just the ticket to get us on board that Obama train!

Truthfully, I can’t tell you how I’m going to vote.  I just know that everything the Republicans seem to be doing lately looks good for Obama.  All of these crazy, Republican governors are scaring the hell out of most sane people.  With their slash and burn mentality, it makes me not wish for a Republican president to do the same on a national level.  In walks Representative Ryan with his crazy scheme to destroy Medicare and Medicaid.  Is the Democratic Party scripting this stuff?  It just makes you wonder.  However, President Obama is more Republican than Democrat in my book.  I have such a dilemma in the coming year with figuring out what to do.  Oh, Debbie, are you going to help me make that awesome decision and twist my arm to vote for Obama?  Are you going to tell me how it’s about abortion, gay rights, education and the right to belong to a labor union?  I know those crazy Republicans are just like the big bad wolf at the little piggy’s door.  They will huff and they will puff and they will blow all my dreams away!  Okay, I’m laughing now because in my mind the two parties are so much alike that it really is sad that I have no real choices in the next election.  I can vote for bad or I can vote for worse!  I can vote for President Obama who seemingly never met a Bush policy that he didn’t love.  Better yet, I can vote for some crazy, Tea Party loving Republican that never met a Bush policy that he didn’t love!  Choices, choices!  Hmmm, wonder which Bush policy lover I’ll be voting for.  Oh, is Jeb Bush ready to throw his hat into the ring?  I think it still might happen!  http://www.ksvoboda.com/?p=1110

Thoughts on “One and Done”

  • Posted on November 14, 2010 at 2:20 pm

President Barack Obama with Chinese President Hu Jintao

I am surprised at how quickly President Obama’s loyal followers have turned on him.  In the Washington Post editorial, “One and Done” today by Douglas E. Schoen and Patrick H. Cadell, two Democratic pollsters, President Obama is pressed hard to declare he will not run in 2012.  They think this will take away the pressure of the political parties and create an atmosphere where something can get done.  I personally think they’re dreaming!

Here is a section directly from their article:

Obama owes his election in large measure to the fact that he rejected this approach during his historic campaign. Indeed, we were among those millions of Democrats, Republicans and independents who were genuinely moved by his rhetoric and purpose. Now, the only way he can make real progress is to return to those values and to say that for the good of the country, he will not be a candidate in 2012.

They believe for the good of our country President Obama needs to move back to the values he ran on in the election of 2008.  They feel he needs to step down to take away the politics.  I find all of this amazing.  I cannot remember any president having this suggestion made to them before and especially in such an open format.  Personally, I don’t think it would make any difference.  So what happens if he steps down?  Will anything change in the House and Senate?  It would just mean both parties would be in a frenzy to get their candidates ready for the 2012 election.  There would probably be much posturing in the Senate with big speeches by potential candidates for the presidency.

Many people online, including myself, would really like to see Hillary Clinton as president, but I think this is crazy talk and I find it interesting that there is even any discussion about it at all.  I first learned about this opinion piece in the Washington Post on CNN today which tells me that there must be much talk of it in political circles.  Just as Nancy Pelosi is being pressured to step down it appears that President Obama is getting the same treatment.

Of course he brought a lot of this on himself.  If you listen to the pundits, he went too far to the left.  I find that amusing.  What did he go left on?  We are still involved in two wars.  Guantanamo Bay is still going strong and he even put a “hit” on an American citizen.  Gays still cannot openly serve in the military.  He passed health “insurance” reform, not health care reform.  He kept many of President Bush’s people and policies in place.  He governed more like the last president than any president from the “left”.  The biggest complaint seems to be about the stimulus money and the bank bailout.  The bailout was started by Bush and continued by Obama and the stimulus from the left’s point of view was too small.

I find all of this even more interesting because of the last president and his divisive policies.  The period under President Bush was extremely divisive.  He started his presidency by a vote from the Supreme Court.  That alone made his presidency tarnished with a sense of corruption because his brother was the governor of Florida.  He started out on a rocky road.  Many Democrats could hardly say the words, “Our president!”  Many thought he wasn’t “their” president.  Just before September 11th he had many warnings about terrorist attacks and these were ignored.  Low and behold September 11th happens.  President Bush is in some classroom in Florida reading about a pet goat.  Time goes by with no action.  He was flown all over the country, not knowing what to do and he put the VP in charge.  Some how after all of that President Bush emerged with the fireman at the World Trade Center, or Ground Zero, as it has become known, and suddenly he became our national hero and leader!  He could have gotten the country to do much at that time because he had our attention and devoted patriotism.  His answer was for us to go “shopping” and to give tax breaks to us.  After two unfunded wars we are in a heap of trouble financially.  In walks President Obama, who seems to think what President Bush was doing isn’t so bad, so he continues with those same policies.

Suddenly, we have a problem with this president.  To me he is a lot like the old president.  I don’t see many things that have changed.  Maybe it takes time for them to show up and maybe we as a country haven’t given him enough time.  I’m not sure.  However, I find it offensive how the Democratic Party people appear to eat their own.  The Republicans stand firm with their people, well, with one exception, Christine O’Donnell, didn’t get much support from the likes of Karl Rove and gang.  If you think about it Senator David Vitter who was going to prostitutes and wearing diapers is still going to be a senator in January.  He wasn’t pushed out by his party.  Democrats are supposed to be the “big tent” Democrats that take in all people with all ideas.  It’s interesting to see these two pollsters pushing for Obama, the first black president, to step down for 2012.

Obviously, a lot can happen in two years.  Who would have thought that in 2010 President Obama would be treated with such disrespect by people from his own party and even from the Republican Party?  Did you see where Representative Eric Cantor met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu?  He promised that his party would be a “check” on the Obama administration.  I cannot believe that he did this.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140624

It looks to me like maybe he should be charged with a felony.  According to the Logan Act unauthorized citizens cannot negotiate with foreign governments.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act

Like him or not, President Obama, is the president and as president he deserves to be treated with a form of respect.  To do anything but that undermines our country.  It doesn’t mean we cannot discuss him and his policies on blogs like mine or yours.  However, it does mean that we don’t do anything that might have the potential to harm our country!  Most of us wouldn’t be in a position to negotiate with a foreign country.  Representative Eric Cantor should know the law better.  Since he is in a position of power in the Republican Party he should be held to a higher standard as well.  I don’t see anyone holding his feet to the fire, but they should!

President Obama still could turn things around and gain the support of the Democratic Party.  He just has to quit governing like a Republican.  I think we’ll know what kind of leader he really is when we see what he does with the Bush tax cuts.  I’m beginning to think they should just let all of them go, even my tax cut.  I would like to see the tax cuts kept in place for the 98%, but not at the expense of our country and infrastructure.  We have been living on borrowed money for far too long.  The politicians are trying to get us to accept those tax cuts for the wealthy which I think is just a tad ridiculous.  The divide between the poor and the rich just keeps growing.  It’s time we figured out how to help the poor and the middle class.  The 98% should not be held hostage to the other 2%.  If President Obama steps up and leads this country, then things will turn around for him politically.  If he continues to vacation like President Bush and govern like him as well, 2012 won’t come soon enough!