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Can You Hear Me Now?

  • Posted on September 20, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Out in Main Street America the "Right" and the "Left" are a lot closer than most people think.

Unfortunately, I keep thinking about that old commercial for Verizon.  You know the one that keeps asking, “Can You Hear Me Now?”  This one with the mosquitoes takes the cake for representing the Democratic Party and what ails them.

Those pesky mosquitoes could be the Tea Party people but they are really those angry Democratic voters that are planning on staying home this November.  My mother always used to tell me to be careful what I wish for because you might get it.  The Democratic Party has brought on much of these problems themselves.  By moving to the right when they should have moved left when that pesky mosquito was biting them, they lost their momentum.  The party has governed with President Obama at the top much like the old party headed by GW.  I can’t be the only one that feels like this.

The Tea Party people would have us all believe that the country wants to go conservative and right.  I personally don’t believe that.  I think there is a lot of confusion about what we should do as a country.  People definitely want some direction.  Right now there is a lack or failure of leadership.  It’s like being out on a boat and stormy sea comes up and you realize no one on the boat really knows much about sailing.  It could be like when the airplane pilot has a heart attack and we’re all looking at each other to see if anyone can take the controls.  Either way we are screwed!  We want someone to take the helm and lead us out of this storm.  So far we have someone that says pretty things on occasion and then is so TIRED, he has to go on vacation.  I remember when GW was president.  He always said, “It’s hard work.”  Oh, please, we all work hard and most of us don’t get much of a vacation.

I cannot tell you how many issues the Democratic Party went “right” on when they should have moved left, but I will mention a few.  Guantanomo….yep, still in place, a very Republican thing to do even though our constitutional amendments mentions things like a right to a speedy trial,  blah, blah, blah, stuff we keep ignoring.  Yep, last I noticed we are still fighting two stupid wars and not to mention spending lots of money there.  We could really use a “left” move there.  Health care…..people have labeled it “Obama Care” which does kind of piss me off as they did the same thing with Hillary.  However, it’s a shitty plan that didn’t even consider “single payer” or the “public option”.  I could go “Blah, blah, blah, again!”  They definitely should have gone “left” on this one.  If they had educated the masses on what these two ideas really mean, I think most people would get it.  I’ve had conversations with Republican friends that don’t cringe when I talk about it, so I know it’s all possible.  Education!  Oh, yeah, we now have “merit pay”!  It’s unbelievable that this was brought in under a Democratic president.  Merit pay has always been “union busting” talk from where I stand.  They definitely should have gone left on that one.  There is always that pesky question of who determines what is meritorious!  This could be a great opportunity to bring in Joe Blow’s kid when he graduates from college.  You know Joe Blow, the guy that sits on the school board.  If his kid needs a job, I’m sure we can make room for him.  There must be some teacher we don’t really like that is a bit of a “rabble rouser”, you know, not a “team” player, that we can get rid of for their less than stellar performance.  Wow, definitely should have gone left on that one!   Now here is a real “right” move that should scare a lot of “lefties”.  President Obama has sanctioned the killing or assassination of an American citizen.    http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/08/30/assassinations/index.html

I really think they should have gone left on that one.  I cannot even fathom a real Democrat doing this.  It’s like were in some kind of strange new world.  Most people don’t even know about this because it’s not really out in the main stream press.  As you can see, I could go on and on about the fact that the Democratic Party with President Obama at the helm has definitely moved right instead of left.  This is why he is losing so many of us out in the real world.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/president_obama_criticizes_the.html

Many question the Tea Party movement.  I know some of it is fired up by Republicans but there are a lot of people that are angry out here that just don’t understand what is going on with our country.  They thought they were going to get this big “CHANGE” when all they go was some shitty t-shirt.

I guess the “Yes, We Can” ones really meant we CAN be more like Republicans!  We are left hoping a real Democrat will start leading.  The mistake has been that swing to the right when I think we should have swung to the left.

Most Americans simply want government out of their lives.  I thought it was interesting a few weeks ago when I heard Tom Hartman refer to a Libertarian as a conservative Republican that wants to be able to smoke dope and get laid.  I thought it was funny when I heard it, but it resonated with me because most people are far more liberal on social issues than many of them even realize.  Most people just don’t want you or the government “in their face” telling them how to live.  Even those Tea Party people could fall under this category.  For all of the talk about those social issues like gay marriage and abortion, the real concern is money.  If those Tea Party people and the rest of America had jobs and the economy was booming they wouldn’t be so interested in those other issues.  Those “wedge” issues have been used for years by both parties to keep us apart in our vision for the country.  This keeps the masses wrapped up in these social issues that become almost like a bait and switch.  People think they are voting for one thing and then they get something else.  It’s a game these two parties are playing as they both are “right” of center.  There is no “left”.  When I’m saying President Obama and the Democratic Party should have moved left, they are “playing’ us and telling us that it just isn’t possible because the Republicans are such obstructionists.

The truth is the Republicans are obstructionists but both parties want it that way.  They really are working for the corporations, not us.  They are trying to privatize every piece of government they can get their hands on so their buddies, you know their “real” constituents can make more money.  The public school as we know it is done.  Both parties have done everything they could to get private companies in the schools.  These are “for profit” companies.  They only care about the bottom dollar.  This has happened in our defense spending as well.  It’s across the board in every area of government from the federal to the state.  My son lives in Illinois.  They have private companies that sell the license for your vehicles.  It’s expensive.  Look at all the toll roads that have been sold to private companies.  This has been slowly happening.  Our government is serving these special interests so they can make more money while the rest of us are treated like serfs to the kingdom!

If this country is going to revolutionize and get back to what we really stand for someone has to convince the masses that as much as we all think we are so different, we are really alike.  You know the stuff about how the Tea Party people are “crazy” and those “lefties” are just a bunch of left over “Hippies” crap, that’s used to divide us.  I bet we have more in common than we realize.  If we could ever get together and talk and realize that as much as we think we are different, we are the same, we could maybe take back our country!  I cannot sit by and watch my party of my youth, the Democratic Party, become such an elitist, narrow party for the corporations without screaming my head off about how crazy it is that we have come to this!  We the people are Tea Party and Lefties.  We all want the same things.

We want to be able to raise our children in a place we can be proud of where they can grow to adulthood in peace, get a good education without it costing a life of servitude to the banks, be able to get a job that pays a living wage, have health care without going bankrupt over some terrible disease, have our personal freedoms kept safe, and always have the constitution to protect our differences.  The two parties have used everything they could to divide us but most of all it is FEAR.  We must stand up and embrace our differences so that we can actually sit down and have a real discussion about how to repair the problems in our country.  These two parties work hand in hand to help their corporate buddies.  They play games with us and keep us separated.  I have conservative family members.  They think very different than I do.  I know in reality we all want the same thing.  It’s all about everything I mentioned above.  I’m tired of being played and the Democratic Party should have moved left when they went right.  It’s all a game and the American people have been kept “stupid” about the game that’s really being played.

Republicans and Democrats that are our elected officials are largely corporatists.  They both are more concerned with keeping corporations happy then serving the needs of their true constituents.  The corporations in the meantime have inserted themselves in every aspect of our lives including our schools.  As a country we are really left of center, we just don’t know it yet!  Whether we are from the Tea Party crowd or liberal America, we are not being served well by the people that we voted into power.  Their master is business.  We should all be alarmed by how we are systematically being told that things will run better if they are run like a business.  This includes our government and even our education system.  The business class, you know the corporations have taken over our voting process.  They have given us dumb and dumber to vote for and we just keep on fighting with each other trying to convince each other that we are right.  We have no real power any more.  Business has it all and they will keep it as long as we keep voting and putting in their people.

Right now there are some rich business people running for governor across our country.  In my own state of Michigan we have the business guy that refers to himself as the “nerd”, Rick Snyder, who wants to come in and treat the government like a business.  I guess we’ll be seeing government jobs outsourced to China and India pretty soon if these guys get in!  We have been programmed to think that everything should be run like a “business”, so we are all buying into this stuff without really thinking about it.  It probably started with Reagan but it has been continued by both parties.

The Democratic Party can’t hear us because they are too busy listening to their master, the corporations.  The Republican Party has the same master.  As much as these two parties try to tell us one is left and one is right, they are both corporate.  They keep us in a state of confusion and fighting about right and left.  Democrats think Tea Party people are crazy wing-nuts and Republicans think people like me have a screw loose.  We need to realize, as I have said, we all want the same things.  We aren’t going to get it with these two parties as they are currently made up.  We must change them before it is too late and we end up looking like some third world country without a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out.  We are falling off a cliff but we’re holding on by a thin tread just from our sheer stubbornness and will to survive.  We want what is our right.  This includes the “pursuit of happiness” which we will never have until the heavy yoke of the corporate master is removed from our two political parties.  Democratic Party can you hear me now?  Do you know what I’m thinking?  There are a lot of dissatisfied Democrats out here wondering what in the hell happened to our party.  You have to start listening to us or we may end up voting for some crazy Tea Party person just to spite you!

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September 11th and Liberty

  • Posted on September 11, 2010 at 2:09 pm

It’s hard for me to wrap my mind completely around September 11th memorial celebrations.  I didn’t have anyone that perished in the towers or on the planes.  I don’t even know anyone that knows someone that did lose someone. That being said, I just want to say I think these times have been used this year mostly for political reasons.  The build up to the memorial celebrations have seen a month of anti Islamic sentiment seen all over our country.  This too, I see as political.  This November the Republicans are expected to take control of Congress.

The reason for all of this is not exactly clear.  They certainly aren’t being “rewarded” for their competency as they have done nothing the past two years.  We could say Democrats may lose for their lack of competency as well as they have managed to spend a lot of time on everything but the most important issue, jobs and the economy.  One thing is clear about both of these parties.  They both use September 11th as a time when they can declare their love of country and determination to one again feel the pain of every American and attempt to draw us all back into a time of “unity”.

However, there is no unity for the unemployed or those first responders suffering without complete benefits and recognition for giving their “best” to their country.  Politicians grab the spotlight and shine it on themselves in an attempt to garner votes and goodwill for largely their own purposes.  Behind the scenes are innocent Americans waiting for their unemployment check, a job or hoping their cancer treatments will work and if not, their country will step up and secure their family’s future.

I have to admit September 11th is still a mystery to me.  I remember when it happened.  I was in my classroom with my middle school students.  Our school principal got on the loud speaker and wanted us all to turn on our television sets.  Everything I witnessed at that time seemed very surreal, like it really wasn’t happening.  I think we all were in a state of shock.  I remember they announced that as many as 50,000 people may have died.  Over the course of the years since that time the amount of people that died has been stated to be around 4000, then 3000, and today on CNN as 2752.  The reason I mention the number is that it was used to really prepare us for war.  The higher the number, the angrier we became about being “attacked”.  Imagine my surprise today at the “new” number I heard.  I acknowledge the fact that if you lost someone, the number doesn’t matter.

What’s troubling me about September 11th now is the way that it is being politically put into our psyches as the day of remembrance for all time.  It’s hard to know what to make of all this.  On one side are the conspiracy theory people that think the buildings were imploded and the government played a part in allowing this to happen.  On the other side sits the government and their version that does seem to change as time becomes history.  This is evidenced by the continually changing numbers of victims but also by the continual mind manipulation of the American people.

As a youngster I remember the assassination of President Kennedy.  For me that was a frightening memory that stayed with me for years.  However, we, as a people, were not continually indoctrinated with memorials and tributes that I can recall.  Today with September 11th, I feel that much of the memorial presentations are used through the media to keep us under control.  They serve as a reminder of hatred and who we should continue to hate so we will continue to wage war, even if it is really an “undeclared” war.

Yes, I know the government has labeled it “THE WAR ON TERRORISM”.  However, we have not declared war, so this “war” can go on forever and have no “end”.  We can fight this thing called terrorism and call it a war and keep everyone scared and frightened for as long as the government chooses to do so.  That is kind of scary as we continue to follow rules like sheep that are herded to and fro without questioning any kind of authority.  Ever so often the government has to step in and remind us what we are fighting for because we are a people with a limited attention span.  We aren’t in the middle of the fight, so we tend to forget about Iraq and Afghanistan.  It’s real for the soldiers, their families and the people from both of those countries but for most of us, it does not affect us on a daily basis.  President Bush said we’re fighting them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here.  Everyone likes that sentiment because no one wants to fight “them” in their backyard.

This past month with all of the crazy anti Islamic sentiment, one thing has been made clear to me.  There are many people in this country that really think the Muslims are going to take over the United States of America and declare “Sharia” law.  When I look up what Sharia law is, I find all kinds of varying information.  I know the people who think the Muslims are taking over the United States have a distinct version of Sharia law that includes anti women and children sentiment.  I know this is why my two brothers think we are in a “Holy War”, a war based on Christians and Muslims.  It seems to me that there is a “right wing” faction that is currently manipulating people through the media to keep their base in a “state of hate” to insure getting that base out to vote.  What they’re voting for is beyond comprehension, returning to power the very Republicans that took us to the brink of disaster with our economy and war.  What is more troubling is the breeding and spreading of this hatred.  We have all heard about the possible book burning that ended up not happening.  This man was nobody, but he was elevated by constant media attention.  On the left people were proclaiming him as being “crazy”.  However, the right wing base now knows what they have to do.  They have to get out and vote.  Vote for the right wingers, the Tea Party people, anyone that fits into the mold that they have carved out as being “right” on the issues.

I’m scared for our country.  September 11th with its self proclaimed “unity” has divided our country completely.  On one side are people like my brothers and on the other side are people that think “they” are crazy.  In between all of this sits the clueless masses that don’t think politics affects them.  They go on with their every day lives doing what they do on a daily basis without any thought given to all of this.  They continue to board planes like sheep.  They will stop and let the police search their cars for no reason.  They do their jobs and pay their taxes and hope that’s enough for serving their country.  They won’t read this.  Most won’t even think beyond what the government has told them to think.  They will live productive lives raising children, working and living life as they see fit.  Maybe they are better off not thinking about all of this, but for me I think about the unemployed.  I think about endless wars.  I think about dishonest, corrupt politicians.  I think about a compromised government.  I think we can be better than we are currently being.  I think about liberty and the cost of doing nothing.  I think about freedom and the price and toll it takes on our country.  Most of all, I think I have as much right as an American to express myself as that crazy Koran burning, nut job, in Florida!

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