I am so fortunate to be visiting the northern Michigan area this week. I had a get together with some of my brothers and it was fun. Thankfully, I am sitting in front of this view and can keep my head clear of all negative thoughts.
Beautiful Duck Lake near Interlochen, Michigan
I was the only liberal person at the party Sunday night. One of my brothers actually thinks that Democrats are the root of all that is seemingly evil in our society. To him it seems that it is Democratic policies that destroy cities and lead to the destruction of our nation. He sees Democrats as not wanting to work. I thought that was a broad brush to paint people with and rather narrow minded.
I grew up in a FDR Democratic family. It’s a wonder that these brothers grew up with the same parents that I had. My parents would never agree with my brothers, not by a long shot. Like our nation, my family is deeply divided by politics, religion, and basic world views. I think politics in general tends to divide families especially in the last twenty years or so. The right wing ideology of bible thumping Christianity scares the hell out of the free thinking left ideology. For the most part, I believe in tolerance of other peoples’ ideas, unless it infringes on my life and my freedoms. I don’t want religious zealots creating policy for our country and especially for women’s reproductive health. Regardless of how I feel, it has made me realize that it is up to the people of this country to start making the real decisions and not leaving it up to the imperfect and bought politicians.
There are two things that I think are essential to being a true and devoted citizen of our nation. These are to become educated and to vote. If you aren’t voting, you need to start. We have really only our vote as a check and balance to keep those in government on their toes. It is so obvious across this nation this year that there are many things being done to prevent certain groups of people from voting. This tells me that our votes must really be precious.
Recently, there was an editorial in our local paper, the Sturgis Journal, in which the writer was appalled at the lack of people voting in the August election. I did vote but I find it a bit frustrating as I live in a Republican area. What I am noticing is many of the local offices have people that run unopposed. Either the Democrats feel it is a lost cause, it is too expensive to put together a campaign, both of these or something else is going on. I also saw where some representatives want to repeal the 17th amendment which would mean that we would no longer vote for our senators to represent us in Congress. That is unbelievable to me. We must vote people or maybe they will start taking that vote away. Yes, I know what you may be thinking…There seems to be no difference between the two parties these days. I’ve said it myself. However, that is not totally true. One is way right and one is a bit right. Lefties have the Green Party but in our two party system; it really leaves a lot of people out in the cold on making a statement with their vote. I think this is why many don’t bother voting. They don’t feel they have a real choice; they only have bad candidates and then there is worse. It is frustrating I know but we must do our part and vote or soon we may not have the right.
Look at it this way. If so many people are trying to limit voting it must be something special. Regardless of how you vote, if you are of voting age, I hope you do vote. I remember how excited I was the first time I voted. I felt really great taking part in our government. I grew up with political discussions about everything from the Kennedys to the Vietnam War. To me voting was a great privilege. I have always voted and probably always will vote. When I moved to Oklahoma, I participated in a Caucus. It was interesting. Politics has always been interesting to me. What most people don’t seem to understand is politics and those political decisions do have an effect on your life. Politics affects everything from the minimum wage to education, and even the draft. If you don’t get involved and vote you are leaving the decisions to other people that may or may not have your best interests in mind as they do their job in government. So this November become a participating member of our nation. Get educated about the issues so you truly understand the consequences of your voting decisions and then VOTE!
I have been reading the book, “50 Women Artists You Should Know”, and of course I came across the work of Barbara Kruger. I am familiar with her work from other pieces I have seen. However, this image says it all for me in terms of the current state of political affairs. I feel frustrated as a woman during this presidential primary season. I cannot possibly relate to any of the Republican candidates because they are ready to take me back to some crazy time where women are once again submissive to the whims of their mates. I thought we had gotten over all of this but of course during the 2008 election I realized that women were still vastly mistreated in the world of good old boy politics. I remember the mistreatment of first Hillary Clinton and then Sarah Palin by those same good old boys that just couldn’t deal with any woman having the nerve to run for the Presidency or Vice Presidency of the United States of America. Back to the future of politics, 2012, and I feel like I am somewhere lost in time.
Rick Santorum says some of the craziest things. Unfortunately, I think he believes the things he is saying which is very scary for most educated people actually living in the 21st century. Who would have ever guessed that contraception would become the big issue of the 2012 election? We have an economy that is flat, millions of people out of work, an infrastructure built after WWII in vast need of repair, cities that are crumbling, wars in the Middle East and yet he is more concerned about women’s bodies than anything else. It befuddles my mind. I always thought most men wanted some form of contraception. I didn’t think all men wanted to raise large families. It seems to me this has been a settled issue. While most people believe in a separation of church and state, Rick believes the opposite. The more I hear in this election the more I am frustrated by religious zealots. I want a clear separation of church and state. I don’t want to have to follow Rick’s form of God any more than some other religious zealot’s form of religion.
As I look at the other Republicans I see more of the same. I have some brothers that like Romney. However, after listening to Rick I can see that Romney and his form of religion could be just as bad. One of my brothers is a Mormon. I am divorced. He once told me that the only way I could get to Heaven is through my ex-husband. Now that’s a scary thought. I must already be doomed to the depths of hell if I have to depend on my ex-husband for anything quite so important. I have also heard about the concept of the baptism of dead people. I don’t quite understand it. My parents were Catholic. I don’t know if my brother has performed the magic baptism on them, but I know my parents wouldn’t be happy if he did! I am aware that Romney has participated in this concept but he isn’t talking about it.
I really don’t care what your religion is or whether you have a religion. However, I do care if your religion wants to get involved in my government and create laws that will have an impact on my life. I believe a woman has a right to her privacy when it comes to her health care. Men shouldn’t be making decisions for women in the 21st Century. Women are strong and should make their own decisions about their bodies. Period! They don’t need a “daddy” figure in the government controlling their bodies. If a woman is involved with a mate chances are they will make decisions together. However, what Rick Santorum, Mitt, or Newt think, really shouldn’t have an impact on my life or any other woman’s life. They are entitled to their beliefs but they don’t need to make women’s lives miserable with their paternal power. Newt really cracks me up because when he was messing around on all of his wives I’m sure he was happy that his many women were using some form of contraception!
All this primary election has done for me has made me wish that none of my tax dollars would go to “faith based” entities. Churches that are exempt from taxation receive oodles of cash from the government to perform their “faith based initiatives”. Many people aren’t even remotely aware of this funding that has grown over the years. The group Americans United are for a distinct separation of church and state and I am all for that. You can check out their website here and read about the faith based initiatives. http://www.au.org/
The other day I was reading Sky Dancers blog and Bostonboomer posted a video clip from JFK’s speech on religion. If you haven’t seen it you should watch it. He talks about the kind of America he believes in. It is spot on for today. It is timely. Watch it and think about what kind of country you want America to be.
Then move on to George Carlin. Of course you can’t watch George if you’re a prude because he will violate your ears in the way that only George can. What is amazing is how George is dead but his genius lives on!
Whew! I just finished my two online courses today! It’s been hectic and it’s been difficult to find the time to post here. Working on the courses has kept my weekends busy and my school days are filled with the end of the year art shows that I put up. However, school is almost over but don’t fret I am taking two more courses, so I will still be busy!
Lately, I’ve been wondering what is up with the Republican Party? It seems to me they can’t find a decent candidate to run for the presidency. I almost feel like this is all part of the “plan”. They will put up the worse candidate, so we are all left with a vote for the other poor candidate, President Obama. It’s like a continual game plan between the Republican and Democratic Parties of “good guy, bad guy” politics. Maybe as I get older I become more cynical, but it sure seems strange that in a country this size the candidates that we see running most of us wouldn’t want to put in charge of anything, let alone the presidency. Looking at the ever shrinking list of potential candidates makes me wonder if they really are going to pull out Jeb in the end. It’s just a thought and I have written about this before. Lately those potential candidates have been dropping like flies.
Gerhard-Kozissnik from the World Body Painting Festival
So, the other day I came across these pictures from the World Body Painting Festival and I was thinking what weird alien figure will be next to grace the stage of the Republican Party. So many of the Republican would be candidates have been dropping like flies out of the race.
Of course we all were drawn into the Trump drama which probably secured him many viewers for his finale on Celebrity Apprentice. I never really took that one seriously anyway. The list is ever shrinking and the two that remain at the top are now Romney and Palin. Please excuse me while I gag at the thought of either person at the helm of this big ship. Romney can’t stand up without flip flopping on some issue and Palin does absolutely the same thing. When I first read about her she was holding those oil companies “feet to the fire” in Alaska. My how times have changed since she made a little money. Now it’s all about keeping taxes down and helping big businesses out. There is nothing left for the little guy with these two scammers. We’re left with that “trickle down” theory of bullshit left over from the Reagan presidency.
Another interesting aspect to all of this is the candidacy of Jon Huntsman. I find it mildly entertaining that there are two people with connections to the state of Utah running to be president. Since our budget director was imported from Utah, I’m not remotely interested in either Romney or Huntsman. The budget in Michigan was recently decided in record time. It was decided in record time to screw the little guy, and of course the education of other little guys. I find this letter to our governor interesting because I have noticed that here in Michigan we would rather spend lots of money on prisons and prisoners than on schools and education. It seems a superintendent wrote this piece. http://bigthink.com/ideas/38573 It’s well worth reading. I had planned at one time to do a piece on just this very subject but there has been so much I have written about and just ran out of time. However, this pieces touches on what I have been thinking about for some time now. http://www.freep.com/article/20110505/NEWS06/105050518/Michigan-House-budget-cuts-cops-aid-poor-arts
I personally don’t see what all of the hoopla is about as I wrote about “Where’s Waldo” way back in September, but of course I’m just a lowly blogger with not that much traction! Ruth concludes in the end, “Where’s Obama? No matter how hard you look, sometimes he’s impossible to find.” It sure makes me wonder who is reading my blog. I only see the numbers of people that are visiting. Read my post and read her post. My videos may be gone but if you scroll down past the videos and read all of it, you might be left wondering if Ruth read my post!
My take of course is a little different because before the election last fall Obama started “speaking” again and it was like a mystery because he had been so silent on so many issues. Suddenly, with the election looming, he had all of these big ideas. Of course after the election he was back to the same old “Where’s Waldo” moments. You can check my post from September and see that I was first and you can have a laugh. President Obama doesn’t stand for much and in my humble opinion if you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.
In other news, I want to get back to the Wisconsin debate. A friend on Facebook who I know is liberal wanted people to fill out a survey on Newsmax. Yes, I know I should have stayed away because everyone knows that Newsmax is a conservative site. I filled out the survey and of course being the honest person I am used one of my real email accounts. I probably should have put some fake email up, but I would never do that, so I’m stuck getting emails from Newsmax. I did unsubscribe, so maybe they will stop sending me these little tidbits of gross misinformation. However, I found one in particular quite interesting. I got an urgent message from Dick Morris. You all know Dick Morris, the Fox News guy and Republican strategist that actually worked for President Clinton. He was friends with Clinton before they became enemies and of course now he hates Hillary. Okay, I’m digressing. It seems Dick is really worried about Governor Scott Walker because those powerful unions, you know demonic like, are out to get him. Here is Dick giving his take on things:
Governor Scott Walker’s fight is our fight. If he prevails, the reforms he proposes will spread to all the states in the country. New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Idaho are already pushing similar legislation.
But if we lose in Wisconsin, the public unions will have their way all over the nation and we will never get reform.
When Walker says he wants to limit collective bargaining to wages and benefits, what he is really saying is that he needs to be free to roll back teacher tenure, reward good teachers with merit pay, give parents choice about where to send their children, and assure that — even if there are layoffs — that they are based on merit not seniority. The union contracts all over America block these key changes. But we have to put our children first and improve the quality of our schools.
Dick goes on to mention that the League of American Voters needs your help, probably with money, to help Governor Walker. I must confess that when I first looked at that word, “League”, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that the League of Women Voters would be in cahoots with Fox News commentator, Dick Morris! Thankfully, it wasn’t the right league. I love the name of the group though because it made me feel like I’m supposed to be a part of the League of American Voters. After all, I vote and I’m American! Catchy, isn’t it? Dick ends his email with the following;
This is a heaven sent chance to take back our country from the control of the public employees labor unions, which form the backbone of the Democratic Party.
Please donate today!
Good God! It is a “heaven sent” chance because we all know that Jesus would have been a REPUBLICAN! Oh, I didn’t know that the whole point of this exercise in Wisconsin was to destroy the “backbone” of the Democratic Party. I thought that was the secret plan. I didn’t know they actually put it in their emails to their constituents!
I need to mention right now that the big, bad teacher unions don’t actually have the clout that Dick here seems to think. The truth is here In Sturgis we haven’t “demanded” things at our district. We’d like things but we have basically given up many things over the years. We know times are tough and we work with our administration and the school board to try and solve problems. We used to have Messa Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance. It was probably what people consider the “Cadillac” of plans. Some time after September 11th, 2001 insurance went up. I had to contribute $2500 a year to keep that insurance. That went on for a couple of years and it got to be too much of a burden for the group, so we gave it up. Class size used to always be no more than about 24 students. We gave that up a few years ago. Now we have classes that can be into the low thirties. When President Obama wanted everyone to compete for “Race to the Top” money, we ended up giving up on evaluations. At Sturgis the teacher evaluation will be some how tied to student performance. This happened across the state as well. Guess what? We still haven’t been “chosen” for the “Race to the Top” money. Last year the state of Michigan passed legislation that requires teachers and I believe other state employees to pay 3% more of their salary into their pension. This was done to help fund all of the pensioners that retired under the state’s special “early” incentive plan. We currently haven’t received a pay raise and because of the changes we are all making less money than we did last year.
Dick Morris went on to include the message from the League of American Voters and here is the main part:
This is why the League of American Voters is urgently launching a national effort to help Gov. Walker and to stop these bloated unions.
The League of American Voters is at the forefront of the battle in Wisconsin defending Scott Walker.
Dick Morris, the famous Fox News analyst, says “The League is the most effective grassroots organization in America.”
Dick credits the League for having stopped Obama’s “public option” healthcare takeover. The public option would have destroyed private health insurance, and we stopped them.
The League also led the fight to force Pres. Obama to renew the Bush tax cuts. Our national TV effort with Sen. Fred Thompson worked. Obama caved.
Now, the League has prepared a powerful new radio ad to air throughout Wisconsin in support of Gov. Walker.
With your help we plan on exposing the Obama-Labor machine in ads across the nation.
But it underscores the truth, Obama and his public union cronies are desperate.
But together, you and I can help Scott Walker do what’s right for Wisconsin — what’s right for America.
I think it’s funny how the league used the term “Obama-Labor machine”. I, for one, don’t much care for Obama any more than I care for Dick Morris. After all it is Obama that pushed for “merit” pay. The big question that begs to be answered is who is going to decide what is meritorious? Obviously, there is no extra money, so how is “merit” pay ever going to happen any way? A teacher friend of mine, who is conservative, said today that maybe they will lessen our pay and if you qualify for “merit” pay you’ll be at the level you are at right now! I think that’s what I understood him to say today. Stranger things have happened. After all Dick Morris and Bill Clinton were once buddies.
Finally, I find it interesting that the league closes with the salutation, “Yours for Freedom”. Those big bad unions are against freedom, you know. They stifle freedom because they work for worker’s rights and we all know if workers have rights the places they work for have to follow some RULES! Yes, if Dick has his way, teachers will go back to the good old days when they swept the floor, put the wood in the fire, and of course were ever so single and virginal.
This is Dick long before he sent out the email that didn’t really talk too much about education.
Just remember what Greta said about the election in 2012 because that’s what this is really about. Dick says, “They’re digging their own grave.” It’s interesting that these analogies are still being thrown around so easily by some commentators and politicians considering the shooting in Arizona. I, for one, think it’s about time we stop with all of the targets with a bull’s eye on them and the sports analogies for politics. Dick would love to witness the death of the Democratic Party and possibly democracy. However, the death of the Democratic Party happened long ago. The Democratic Party today is but a shadow of its former self and the same could be said of the party of Lincoln.
I, being of sound mind and body, born into freedom, and tethered to a corrupt two party system, soundly reject the fantasy induced Republican pledge. Sometimes I wonder what these guys have been drinking or smoking. Do they really believe we have no memory whatsoever of the past? You can read and download the pledge here:
John Boehner doesn’t have all the solutions but wants to have an “adult“ conversation with the American people. Please, he cannot even do that with the Democratic Party. He has been absolutely saying, “No!” to everything that has been put before him while offering nothing in return. This pledge for America is a scare tactic on taxes. If you read through the plan, they give all kinds of scenarios meant to target the middle class voter and families to vote for the Republicans, because the Democrats are going to raise your taxes on January 11th 2011. In reality the Democrats have talked about leaving in place those tax cuts for those making under $250,000. These are the very people targeted in this so called plan. In the plan you don’t read anything about the tax cuts for the “wealthy” because the wealthy are lumped into everyone else. If you want to have some fun, play around with this program. http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm
Put the year 2000 and then go back to 2010, put in your marital status and then look at your income and then look at the top incomes and tax amounts. The Democrats have talked about leaving in place the tax cuts for people making $250,000 and less. Do you really think this is unreasonable given the current national debt, our deficit spending, and the fact that we are still involved in two wars?
This ad for John Boehner is worth showing again.
This man is so out of touch with the rest of us that we need to be constantly reminded of what an absolute sham he is trying to pull over on the American people.
Yes, I also am unhappy with the problems in government and the lack luster economy. I just don’t want to go back to an even bigger nightmare of deficit spending by Republicans that want to control my liberties as well. The Republicans talk big on how they are conservative and they don’t spend money like the Democrats. It’s all a lie. The only thing they are conservative on are those “wedge” issues like gays in the military, or abortion. Truthfully, they like to control our freedoms. As much as they talk about the “pursuit of happiness”, they do everything they can to curtail the rights of many people so they, the Republicans, can feel safe in their “lily white world”. Don’t be fooled about how Republicans value your tax dollars. I’m going to repost this chart.
Look at it closely under Republican rule. President Obama inherited this mess. Just like an out of control credit card, when you’re constantly paying that old debt off, they keep charging more interest on top of the old interest. You cannot seem to ever get out of the hole you have dug yourself into. The only way this is going to change is by more tax money coming in. It would be nice if more jobs could magically be created. However, until that is a reality the wealthy need to step up and do their part for America. I think they should take the pledge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!” John Kennedy drummed that into me when I was a kid. The wealthy people need to step up and help our country get back on its feet. It’s a simple idea. Just go back to the Clinton years of taxes for the wealthy. As I recall, those wealthy people made plenty of money under Clinton. I’m sure they can afford it. If John Boehner can afford those exorbitant golfing fees, I’m sure he’d be just fine with a tax change.
If you read farther into the plan, you will notice that they also want to spend more on a missile defense system to protect us and our allies from Iran. Yes, we tax payers, can pay for taking care of the rest of the world but we can’t take care of our own. I would like to know where that “Star Wars” money to pay for this is going to come from. Once again they want to spend more on defense which is already way over bloated, and less on PEOPLE. Hey guys, you have to wait until you’re 70 to get Social Security under these guys. That may be fine for the wealthy but come on for the rest of us, it is painful. Many of the unemployed are in their fifties. About the only thing an unemployed fifty something has to look forward to is that magic day when they can at least collect their Social Security because jobs are scarce.
This Republican pledge is really about getting the “common” people to think that the Democrats are going to take away your meager tax break. It’s just another scare tactic to try and get votes. They have done nothing to earn a vote and talk is cheap. They want us all to get on board so we can actually help them help their rich buddies. The tax cuts they’re really worried about are the ones for the wealthy and the corporations. Do they care about the unemployed? Hell no! Do they care about health care for everyone? Hell no! Do they care about privatizing your Social Security? Hell yes! Do they care about cutting Medicare? Hell yes! Do they want to keep their rich golf outings? Hell yes! Do I want to reward them for their spineless behavior? Hell no! This is really the “Hell No” plan. Vote for them and you’ll be saying, “Hell no!”
Here is a link to John Stewart, just because it’s funny!
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.
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!
This video says a lot to me about the disrespect shown to Hillary Clinton during the 2008 election. It’s subtle but it still shows me a lot about the men in the party! I will always remember those words, “Likable enough!”
The last couple of months we have been hearing about how the Democrats are going to lose in November. There has been much talk about which seats would go and how many are needed for the Republican Party to take over the House or even the Senate. It almost feels like we have already voted. I always find in interesting when pundits tell us what we, the people, are thinking. I don’t know how they could possibly know what people are really feeling these days. Most people don’t participate in polls, many don’t have land lines, and many don’t answer their phones for anyone but their friends. This has made me think about what I’m thinking about all of this. From my viewpoint, if the Democratic Party loses it’s because they still didn’t repair the problems created from the 2008 election, and they have governed more like Republicans than true Democrats. If they lose, they deserve that loss.
Back in 2008 my primary vote was taken away here in Michigan and given to Barack Obama. I didn’t vote for him and if I had been given an opportunity to revote, I would have voted for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic Party then chose to even take some votes from Hillary and give them to Barack, a very undemocratic thing to do. This and what happened in Florida has set the stage for a lot of what’s ailing the Democratic Party today. The Democratic Party has for a long time acted in an elitist manner. They have assumed that they know what is best for their constituents, even if their constituents think otherwise. This is the main problem with the party. They don’t listen to their people. I called the Michigan Democratic Party when all of this was happening and I was treated poorly and even hung up on. It’s hard to trust a party when they treat you like crap. Well, fast forward two years to the November election.
It’s hard to see how anything has really changed. I had high hopes that President Obama would do something to make me trust the party again. I hoped that I could start respecting Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid again. It hasn’t really happened. I’ve written on here that we should vote for the Democrats because the Republicans are worse. Isn’t that just a wonderful reason to vote? Neither party is worth a damn these days.
The Democratic Party and President Obama have framed the last two years so there are four things that come to my mind: We are still in these stupid wars. We have a health care bill that no one seems to understand. We have bailed out banks that didn’t bail out the American people. We have a president that much like his predecessor likes to go on vacation a lot, acts clueless when it comes to real people and their needs, and has even embraced some of his Republican policies.
When President Obama came into office I was hoping he could convince me that he was the right choice. It would be foolish for me or anyone else to want him to fail. We’re talking about our country here. I don’t want us to fail. However, after two years, it’s hard to see what has really changed. For all that talk about how things were going to “change”, much has stayed the same. Washington is as hateful as it always has been, it’s as corrupt as it always has been and it’s as clueless as it always has been. Even in the midst of economic disaster these politicians cannot seem to get anything done for the people. They are too busy trying to get reelected than to do their jobs! So if they lose their jobs this November, I have no sympathy.
Everything the Democrats have tried to do they have washed down so much that it looks more like a Republican plan than a Democratic plan. The health care bill didn’t fix anything. We won’t know exactly what it will do until 2014 when much of it kicks in. We do know that people with a more progressive agenda did not get their way. Single payer was taken off long before the bill was completed. John Edwards said if you let the corporations come to the table they would eat all the food because they’re a bunch of hogs. I know, there I go about John Edwards again. He is a horrible person and that’s what we are supposed to remember. What I choose to remember are the policies he talked about. He was right about this one. President Obama invited those pigs in and they ate all the food. Special deals were made. Drug companies and insurance companies must have been pretty happy after all of this because they now have new customers that must buy from them. It’s a closed market. We are forced to buy from a corporation without any real cost cutting measures in place. In fact, the people that supported a more progressive agenda for health care issues were not even invited to dine to supply their ideas on this discourse. The people that really wrote the deal were insiders for the insurance companies. You can’t play that slight of hand trick with the cards over and over and expect your people to continue to believe in you. Of course the Democratic Party knows what is best for us even if we don’t. This elitist attitude is what’s ailing the party. They just don’t respect the intelligence of their voters.
Many of us Democrats, or used to be Democrats, would like to see the money that is going over to Iraq and Afghanistan come back home and help our war torn societies. We have spent so much money overseas that we don’t have the money we need to run our city and state governments. Times are tough. Most of us want to take care of our own. Many of us would like to see these wars resolved and the troops brought home. President Obama was supposedly against the Iraq war but what he has done is really just shift the troops to Afghanistan. It’s like these wars will never end. If you have a child in kindergarten, chances are he may be fighting in the Middle East after he graduates! At home we have to down size everything in our governments which means less police, less service, less education, basically less of everything so we can keep fighting over there.
The Democratic Party is clueless to what was happening with the American people. The number one priority should have been jobs. James Carville was right when he said, “It’s the economy stupid!” It is the economy. The stimulus package did some good but it fell far short from what it could have done. The bickering over extending unemployment didn’t help. Making the unemployment issue into “politics as usual” didn’t help. When the Democrats cry that they can’t get anything done because they don’t have enough Democrats when they have so many, they appear ‘WEAK”. They make the Republicans look strong as opposed to appearing just plain bad. If the Democrats can’t figure out how to run things with the numbers they have, maybe they deserve to lose. The Republicans didn’t have those numbers but they always managed to get what they wanted when they had control. This tells me that either there are far too many DINO’s or Republicans are just better at the game.
Another thing that has really bothered me about the Democratic Party is their lack of female candidates. The Republicans were smart enough to realize that there were a lot of women upset after the 2008 election and the way Hillary was treated. I have noticed there are a lot of Republican women running for office. They sound a lot like feminists even though they have a conservative agenda. I want more women in office. I could be tempted to vote for a Republican woman just because women are so under represented. We are over half of the population and yet our laws are still largely written by white men! When the Democratic Party comes out and attacks these women much like they have this last week with Christine O’Donnell they are tugging at another old wound from 2008. Many of the women that I have come to know online since 2008 that were Democrats could easily vote for some of these women. Many would like to see more Democratic female candidates but we recognize that the Democratic Party treats their female candidates horribly. For as much as the Democratic Party would like us all to believe that they are a “big tent” when it comes to women, they still want us kept in our “place”. Much like the Catholic Church we are supposed to sit on the sidelines and be supportive. We are expected to be out at the grass roots level helping to campaign for the candidates. We can lick envelopes, pass out flyers, make phone calls, canvas an area and make a financial contribution but we aren’t supposed to run the place!
Now I finally come to President Obama. He governs much like his predecessor. In fact I think he is a Republican. He appears to be channeling Ronnie, not Jack or Lyndon and certainly not FDR! A few weeks ago I heard a woman on CSPAN refer to Barack Obama as a socialist. I can only wish he would have more of a social agenda. She is dead wrong. She said that the media didn’t do their job. If they had shown what a socialist he was, she and a lot of other people wouldn’t have voted for him. I thought that was ridiculous. He really is everything I expected from the election. I always thought he was more of a Republican and that’s why I didn’t care for him. I heard his speech the summer of 2007 at the National Education Association conference and he talked about “merit pay”. (I watched the video on the NEA website.) Merit pay has always been “union busting” talk from my point of view. This has been something the Republicans have pushed for years. It came true under a Democrat. Unbelievable, but true! I don’t know exactly how it will work. I do know that if you want teachers to teach for a test, that is exactly what they will do. The problem is; it’s just a test. It may not mean anything when it comes down to real education for your child! President Obama has also been absolutely insensitive to working class America. At a time when so many people are out of work and struggling to make ends meet, he vacations continually. His family vacations much like President Bush did. We have seen so many pictures of the Obama family on vacation that they don’t look like they have a care in the world. President Clinton could “feel our pain”. President Obama looks and acts like he is clueless to what the American people are going through. If he had a clue, he would dial down these many vacations. A lot of people gave up their vacations. Others haven’t vacationed in years because they can never afford it!
In conclusion, if the Democratic Party loses in November, they have no one to blame but themselves. It’s not because the Republicans are a better alternative, far from it. The Republicans are a horrible choice. It is because the Democratic Party forgot the people that put them where they are today. We voted them in and gave them their jobs. We handed the keys to the house and expected it would be taken care of. Instead when we got home it’s like the wayward teenager that had a party. Some stuff got broken and it didn’t get fixed. We’re mad as hell parents looking for answers to our wayward teen’s choices and we are getting ready to ground him. If the Democratic Party wants us to get fired up to vote them back in, they better start coming up with better excuses for their behavior than what we have been hearing! They better stop taking all of us for granted. They better repair the damage they created in 2008 and they better start respecting women! They also better stop sounding like REPUBLICANS! If we want a Republican in office, we will vote for them. They could take care of a big issue right now that would show what a true Democrat would do. They could let the tax cut for the wealthy expire. Instead we keep hearing talk of an extension which means in 2012 there will be another fight to either extend it or make it permanent. If they would act like Democrats right now and vote to extend the tax cuts for the working people and get rid of it for the wealthy, they could maybe save their party!
Truthfully, I should be thanking the Democratic Party. If they hadn’t stolen my vote in 2008, I might not be writing this today. I probably would never have even considered dealing with my thoughts on this website at all. When my son set this up as a place for me to write this past Christmas, it was largely because of the events that happened in 2008. He knew I was online a lot and writing comments on other sites. He thought I might like writing my own blog. I never had really given it much thought. Now, I have discovered my voice. In many ways I have always considered myself to be, “Silent Kate”. I would go online and even post many places under that moniker. I was a silent voice looking for a home. I now have my home. I just don’t have my party. This woman will be silent no longer. There are a lot of women out there like me looking for a political party that will actually represent them. If the Democratic Party would like our votes, they should step up to the plate and encourage more women to run for office and they should stop belittling every Republican woman that runs just because she is a woman. So, if the Democratic Party loses in November, they deserve it!
Christine O'Donnell looking a lot like Sarah Palin!
Sarah Palin could be Christine's sister!
I must admit I don’t know much about Christine O’Donnell and I truly don’t care. Since I live in Michigan she really isn’t on my radar. However, I am having a good laugh watching the two parties, Republican and Democratic fall all over themselves in disgust at her Republican Senate primary win in Delaware.
It all started with Karl Rove when he came out and said she says some crazy things. He seemed quite upset that she won. The Republicans thought they had a sure bet with Mike Castle. What I find humorous about all of this is the fact that the Republicans “hand picked” candidate wasn’t selected by the voters! Imagine that! The voters decided they would pick their candidate. The Republicans can’t get over the fact that the voters have the right to choose who they want to represent them.
On the Chris Matthew’s show he went on to ask some Republican, who I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, if Christine was “qualified” to be a senator. I thought that sounded pretty elitist. The truth is there are only three things necessary to qualify to be a senator.
Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for senators: 1) each senator must be at least 30 years old, 2) must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years, and 3) must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state he or she seeks to represent.
There is no IQ test to be a senator. Otherwise, people like David Vitter would never have been elected!
To top all of this hand wringing off by the Republicans is the behavior of the Democrats. MSNBC has been a huge supporter of Barack Obama. Many of the people on that network are like Chris Matthew’s when he got that tingle up his leg. The morning after she won, I watched “Morning Joe”. When they showed the “masturbation video” I knew there was more going on than meets the eye. The Democrats would have everyone believe that she will go down easily in defeat. I suspect that they really don’t know what will happen as they are protesting far too much. She looks and sounds a lot like Sarah Palin. Some people find that very appealing! During the whole Morning Joe show Joe was quite upset about her win. Everyone else kept trying to put her down and make fun of her. Joe kept saying something about her lack of income. I think I heard a figure of $5800 or so. He mentioned bankruptcy. He said she lied about going to Princeton. Then they played a video of her on the Bill Maher show. By this time I was laughing like crazy because I suspected all of them, from both parties, gave way too much away by protesting so much.
They have made this into such a big issue that it is obvious that they are both worried. The Republicans don’t know how to “handle” her and the Democrats are afraid that she might be stronger than they think.
Both parties are owned and operated by the corporations. Maybe this is the problem. She seems to be a “nobody”. I’ve suggested on here that we should vote for the Democrats because they are slightly better than the Republicans. However, there is no reassurance from where I sit that this is remotely true. These parties are like brothers. They play games with the rest of us pretending to be at each others throats. We suspect that they don’t even like each other. This is a game to keep us “commoners” thinking they’re actually trying to do something for US! It’s just like “good cop, bad cop” episodes.
If you watched the memorial service for Teddy Kennedy you would have noticed that many Republicans obviously loved Teddy. They were friends. They even joked about which one would be the “bad” one for the press. If you think I’m making this up go back and watch it. It’s probably on YouTube. The point is that “We the people” are the ones that actually vote and these senators “play” us all the time!
Christine O’Donnell managed to get the vote, “the vote from the people”, without an elitist pedigree. She got Republicans to vote for her. Whether she can get the votes that she needs to become senator in Delaware remains to be seen by all of us. All I know is that not one vote has been cast yet. There is a lot of time between now and the election. If Democrats want to win, they better stop trashing her. They’re just going to piss off a lot of women. Women are already fed up with the Democratic Party because of their treatment of Hillary Clinton. I can imagine if Christine gets the Hillary/Sarah treatment, women may vote for her in protest.
Republicans started turning around after the twenty four hour gripe period. However, most people can see through the façade of bullshit they are selling. They don’t like Christine because she is a Tea Party person. I guess that’s code for “bat shit crazy right winger.” You would think they’d be happy with her. NO! Both parties want to control everything. They don’t want US to have a choice. Christine is the Republican Party choice in Delaware. The national Republicans will have to live with that.
My thinking is that the current senators aren’t doing such a hot job any way. What difference will it really make if she wins? I think people are just fed up with Washington. It isn’t just Tea Party people. It’s people like me. I think a pink bunny could do as well as some of the current senators. They are vacillating over extending the tax cuts. They supposedly can’t get it done unless they include the wealthy. This is just bullshit. They don’t want to get it done and they don’t want anyone new to come play the game.
As I said in the beginning I don’t know much about Christine and I don’t even care. However, I do care about the loss of what used to be my Democratic Party. I’d like my party to embrace women in general. I’d like to not see them go ape every time a woman, much like Sarah or Hillary, runs for office. I’d also like to see more Democratic women running for office. However, it seems like this is the year for Republican women. Like it or not, if you want to vote for a woman, you may have to vote Republican. The Democratic Party needs to get out of the dark ages and start encouraging women to run for office. I’m fed up with these macho, elitist, mostly white, men that make all of the laws that pertain to the rest of us. Remember half of us are WOMEN! So the only dog I really have in this fight is the fact that Christine O’Donnell is a woman! Go figure!
I wasn’t going to add anything to this. However, Daniel Maxso sent me a video from Newsy.com. which shows conservative pundits firing back at Karl Rove on this issue. It’s a good video so I’m adding it. I also am providing a link below it to an article that I read last night that was really interesting on the subject.
The Republican and Democratic Parties remind me of dating. You’ve been dating a couple guys for awhile now but it’s time to get serious. One guy seems nice enough. He takes you to all the right places. He wines and dines you and you feel special but alas, when the credit card bill comes, you realize you’ve been footing the bill. The other guy takes you to fun places too, but you’re a little worried that he’s spending over his limit. It seems almost too good to be true. There’s something a little off about both of these guys but you can’t quite put your finger on it.
Meanwhile, you’re busy trying to keep these two guys separated because if one finds out about the other, the jig is up. Any way you look at it, this is a dishonest relationship. If you sneak around and go dancing with the Republican Party, you are going to pay in the morning. He isn’t apt to forgive you for fooling around with a “Democrat”, so you better get used to the dirty looks and “God fearing” lecture you’re going to get. And trust me; you will get a lecture, just like your dad gave you when you backed that car up into the mailbox. You are going to hear every tirade in the book about “responsibility”. We all know what “superficial responsibility” is. It’s that responsibility “word” Republicans always use when they talk about “personal responsibility”. It seems like a Republican always has that mantra of “When in Rome do as the Romans do, just don’t get caught.” Personal responsibility means you talk about living with a moral compass and God being your guide but secretly you could be dating your next wife while your current poor wife is in the hospital with cancer. JUST DON’T GET CAUGHT! Now, if he does get caught, he will need to have his “come to Jesus” moment and beg for forgiveness. After all the American people are pretty stupid but they do like to forgive those that come crawling back for their vote. If you date the Republican long enough you might start thinking like he does. When you catch yourself berating the poor bloke that can’t find a job by telling him to “pick himself up by the bootstraps”, you will know that some of those Republican ways are rubbing off on you.
In the end, after all of the dating, you will get the bill. It will be in your tax statement filed under “personal responsibility” after the November election. While you’re busy figuring out what went wrong with the relationship, he’ll be off making sure to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. He’ll soon forget you as in reality he was really into Bush in the first place. That’s his first love. Then he’ll go to work on social security and of course try to privatize it as he never saw a government program that couldn’t use a little privatization.
Dating the Democrat hasn’t been any easier on you. You thought you knew what you were getting. You thought you could count on that guy. He seemed so clean cut and all American. What’s not to love? However, you’ve been living a nightmare trying to figure out who this guy is. On one hand he seems to be really into you, but sometimes you catch him giving a glancing eye at that Republican girl friend of yours. It could be your imagination but you’re kind of wondering if something is up between the two of them. You aren’t used to guys that don’t give you their undivided attention on a date. He acts like he’s really into you until that Republican friend of yours walks in and sits down. Boy does he show her a lot of attention. You can’t quite figure out if he secretly is a Republican or he just admires them”? What could it be?
You are so confused by all of this but a decision has to be made by November. Do you dance with the guy that brought you to the party or do you take off with the new guy. You really wish you had another choice but alas you know that third guy just couldn’t swing the vote. So you sit down and go through your priorities. If you vote for the Republican, you know you’re going to get screwed because he has to pay for extending the Bush tax cuts some way and if you vote for the Democrat well, at least, hopefully, he won’t extend those tax cuts. Now, he still could extend the tax cuts because he still keeps eyeing your Republican girlfriend. However, you are hopeful that he’ll leave your social security alone. This decision is so bad. With the Republican, you know what you are going to get and with the Democrat, you’re not exactly sure what you’re going to get. However, you know that he won’t be quite as bad as the Republican. So vote for and dance with the Democrat and hope he stops eyeing your Republican girl friend!
So my brother was offended by a piece I wrote a few days ago and he said I should look up the word “diatribe”. To humor him I did and decided I would write a real “diatribe”. (As a noun: A forceful bitter verbal attack against someone or something.) Well, hello Representative John Boehner! Welcome to my version of a diatribe about you! If you don’t know who John Boehner is he is a representative from the 8th district in Ohio and he is the current House Minority Leader. If the Republicans have their way in November he is expected to become Speaker of the House.
Now to the juicy stuff! This is something “snarky” (Oh there’s that word again.) that Lynn Samuels said about him on Sirius left radio the other day. I thought it was hilarious. She was talking about Area 51 and Roswell. Someone phoned into her show and they were saying how some people think there are aliens living among us. She referred to Rep. John Boehner and his eerily non human form and skin color. For all of you that haven’t noticed he has the strangest tan around, sometimes he appears quite orange on the talk show circuit. He’s the current threat to the Democrats. You know he’s a threat when the next talk show I’m listening to is “Big Eddy” and he’s talking about John as well. “Big Eddy” is my loving term for Ed Schultz. Big Eddy played a commercial on his program against Boehner that was pretty funny. Big Eddy said he was thinking of playing it every day. This was on the radio so I thought I’d find that commercial on You Tube to see what it was like.
The commercial is put up on You Tube by the Blue America Pac. It is “priceless”! When I was listening to Big Eddy he went on to talk about golfing and Boehner’s huge amount of time devoted to it. Big Eddy loves golf himself so I know much of what he was saying is probably true. He said for a guy to play golf a hundred or so times a year means he must be thinking about it all the time. He’s talking about it with his friends and frankly he isn’t doing the work of the American people. I frankly can’t see how Boehner’s constituents continue to vote for him. Here is another commercial by the National Sierra Club.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QStk3fahKdU
If you look at his votes for 2010 you can see why many people have labeled the Republican Party the party of “No” as most his votes are “NO”. However, I did notice that he voted “Yes” for a “Congressional Cost of Living Pay Increase” in April of this year. I wish I could vote myself a cost of living pay increase. Don’t you? By the way, the Ohio unemployed might like to know that he voted against extending unemployment benefits in the same year he voted to increase his own pay. In the same month he voted for his pay raise he had a “NV” which means not voting for extending unemployment benefits. He made sure he was there to vote for his own pay but either skipped voting or wasn’t even present to vote for his unemployed constituents! Some of us would call that a “Dick Move”! Wow, if you look closer, you will notice he used to vote “Yes” a lot until the Democrats came into power. So, it is obvious that he is an obstructionist although he does vote for defense spending under the Democrats and Republicans. There doesn’t seem to be a defense bill he doesn’t like. Even though we all know there is a lot of waste in defense spending. Here is Rumsfeld once again looking for that defense money!
John also has gone all out in his attempts to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. He’s wealthy what does he care? He can golf a hundred times a year as though he is already “retired”! While he’s off golfing the work of the American people isn’t getting done! Raising the retirement age to 70 basically means that you will get less for Social Security because most people aren’t going to be teaching school, policing our towns, or doing any of their jobs until they’re 70. They will be forced out of their jobs before that and eventually apply for Social Security early and take a big cut. It’s not hard to see what this is really all about. John Boehner, like many politicians, doesn’t have to worry about money. He is a millionaire. Strangely enough if you look at this chart he is pretty much “average” among house members in income. That should be telling us something about all of these politicians not just this man. http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00003675&year=2008
I share John’s Catholicism but we are worlds apart in our politics. John, as a Catholic, could never speak for me but it does explain his abortion issue voting. It doesn’t necessarily explain his defense record as Catholics are taught social justice and solving things in a manner like Jesus which involves making peace.
Most of his voting record is tied to business, corporations and special interests. He is continually pushing to extend the tax cuts while calling for cutting the deficit. His thinking isn’t truly logical as it is a proven fact that the tax cuts for the wealthy haven’t helped our country. If they had helped, we probably wouldn’t be in the shape we are in right now. Those tax cuts came in with Bush and are earmarked to go out at the end of this year. Many might want to ask themselves that age old question. Are you better off today than you were in 2000? Some people may be better off. Many are obviously not as they fight foreclosures on their homes and battle to keep their jobs. The extension of these tax cuts will probably only lead to a higher deficit unless we cut something else.
Boehner never saw a defense bill he didn’t like, so I expect he would cut any entitlement program he can get his hands on. This can include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and even things like unemployment benefits. It can also include things like school lunches, aid to public schools, financial aid to college students but trust me it won’t include tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. If John gets to be Speaker of the House while most of us will be balancing our budgets deciding what to do in the coming year, John will be busy dismantling health care reform, extending the Bush tax cuts and cutting programs for the least among us.
Ohio voters from Boehner’s district need to think long and hard about voting for this man that takes care of himself by voting for increased pay to himself as well as golfing more than any man I know. In Sturgis there are plenty of golfers. I don’t know anyone that has the time to get out and golf like John unless they are super wealthy or are retired and live on a golf course!
He has an 8% rating based on his votes from 2009. Now all of us know that 8% is failing. If he is failing the middle class, he’s probably failing you and me or at least his constituents in Ohio! It’s time for people to stop listening to the rhetoric this man puts out on the TV news talk show circuit and really look at the man. He hasn’t lived up to the hype. It’s time to give a Democrat a chance to do something for Ohio.
Boehner recently called for the resignation of Obama’s economic team. I have my own problems with Obama’s team as well. However, it is disingenuous of Boehner to conclude that the current problem is generated by Obama’s team alone. It was the Republicans that brought us to the brink of disaster but this disease has infected both parties. No one has said it better than George Carlin (May he rest in peace.) in this clip from one of his stand up routines. George has colorful language so if that is offensive to you take more offense to the politicians that are “sticking” it to you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GseyaEibb_4
So, when you are thinking about voting, try voting out the money and start with Representative John Boehner. If you aren’t convinced how to vote, just check out this post on politico.
