The Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland wraps up today. Here's the speaker schedule: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/02/26/politicians-and-pundits-at-cpac-2015/
At the end, they conduct a straw poll to show which potential presidential candidate most pandered to the base.
I've been following two hashtags on Twitter. #CPACQ was quickly hijacked by liberals who posted fake questions to the conference. As sample can be found here: http://bluenationreview.com/cpacq-gets/
The other one is #CPAC2015 which also has some interesting liberal tweets. Basically, all candidates/speakers had nothing good to say about President Obama or America under his leadership. Yet, they criticized him for suggesting America had room for improvement. Go figure!
This most bizarre speech so far was by Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty. If you enjoy craziness, his speech can be found here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/duck-dynastys-phil-robertson-rails-against-stds-revenge-of-the-hippies-at-cpac-2015/ In summary, Phil blames hippies for STD's.
We can only hope this clown show is not what actually represents the real Republican party. A slim hope, I fear.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
The Challenge of Getting A Clean Funding Bill
Back when the Cromnibus was passed, GOP pulled the DHS from the funding bill. It was a ploy they planned to use to pressure President Obama into reniging on his Immigration Executive Orders. Now we are down to the wire and very soon our Department of Homeland Security will run out of funds.
There is some talk of a 3 week continuing resolution that will fund it for a few more weeks. What is the point? This type of political gamesmanship is ruinous to our country. No one wins. And it makes us look bad to the rest of the world.
As of this writing, the Senate appears to be ready to pass a clean funding bill by removing the problematic immigration provisions. Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner says he will NOT remove the immigration part and maintains the House has already done its part.
They know what is at stake here and they don't care. You see it is a game they are playing to see who will blink first. This is what happens when only 1/3 of the eligible voters get to the polls. The 2/3rds who sat out the 2014 election let this happen. We have to elect people who are more interested in getting things done for the American people than in scoring political points.
There is some talk of a 3 week continuing resolution that will fund it for a few more weeks. What is the point? This type of political gamesmanship is ruinous to our country. No one wins. And it makes us look bad to the rest of the world.
As of this writing, the Senate appears to be ready to pass a clean funding bill by removing the problematic immigration provisions. Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner says he will NOT remove the immigration part and maintains the House has already done its part.
They know what is at stake here and they don't care. You see it is a game they are playing to see who will blink first. This is what happens when only 1/3 of the eligible voters get to the polls. The 2/3rds who sat out the 2014 election let this happen. We have to elect people who are more interested in getting things done for the American people than in scoring political points.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Playing Politics
Politics is a game for some folks. In our Federal government, our state governments, and at the local level, there are individuals who see politics as a win/lose game. They are opportunistic, manipulative, and devious in their efforts to have their way prevail. This game for them often is life or death for so many who depend on our governments at all levels to do the right thing for the people.
Wouldn't you call the little game that Speaker Boehner and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are playing opportunistic, manipulative and devious? Well, THE NEW YORK TIMES did just that last month. In an opinon piece, the editorial board called it "Playing Politics on Iran." They called out both politicians this way, "Lawmakers have every right to disagree with presidents; so do foreign leaders. But this event, to be staged in March a mile from the White House, is a hostile attempt to lobby Congress to enact more sanctions against Iran, a measure that Mr. Obama has rightly threatened to veto." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/opinion/john-boehner-benjamin-netanyahu-playing-politics-on-iran.html?_r=0
The rift between The White House and Netanyahu has only grown since that January article. Democrats believe this visit at this time is destructive to the relationship between the US and Israel. Susan Rice was quoted in a BBC article as saying, " "We want the relationship between the United States and Israel to be unquestionably strong, immutable... regardless of which party may be in charge in either country," she told PBS television." http://www.bbc.com/news/31626875
At this writing nearly two dozen Democrats have stated their intention to boycott Netanyahu's speech. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Which-Democrats-plan-on-skipping-Netanyahus-speech-to-Congress-392155
THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES has called on Senator Dick Durbin and ALL Democrats to boycott the speech. http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/396333/durbin-dems-boycott-netanyahu-speech
The TIMES gives some very good reasons for their stance, including sending a message that the United States will not be "manipulated once again into supporting another war Americans don’t want." So, why aren't all Democrats in unison about this boycott? Perhaps they are caught between publically supporting Israel and trying to back our President. What do you think? What would you have your representative do? Attend the speech or boycott it? Why not let them know?
Wouldn't you call the little game that Speaker Boehner and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are playing opportunistic, manipulative and devious? Well, THE NEW YORK TIMES did just that last month. In an opinon piece, the editorial board called it "Playing Politics on Iran." They called out both politicians this way, "Lawmakers have every right to disagree with presidents; so do foreign leaders. But this event, to be staged in March a mile from the White House, is a hostile attempt to lobby Congress to enact more sanctions against Iran, a measure that Mr. Obama has rightly threatened to veto." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/opinion/john-boehner-benjamin-netanyahu-playing-politics-on-iran.html?_r=0
The rift between The White House and Netanyahu has only grown since that January article. Democrats believe this visit at this time is destructive to the relationship between the US and Israel. Susan Rice was quoted in a BBC article as saying, " "We want the relationship between the United States and Israel to be unquestionably strong, immutable... regardless of which party may be in charge in either country," she told PBS television." http://www.bbc.com/news/31626875
At this writing nearly two dozen Democrats have stated their intention to boycott Netanyahu's speech. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Which-Democrats-plan-on-skipping-Netanyahus-speech-to-Congress-392155
THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES has called on Senator Dick Durbin and ALL Democrats to boycott the speech. http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/396333/durbin-dems-boycott-netanyahu-speech
The TIMES gives some very good reasons for their stance, including sending a message that the United States will not be "manipulated once again into supporting another war Americans don’t want." So, why aren't all Democrats in unison about this boycott? Perhaps they are caught between publically supporting Israel and trying to back our President. What do you think? What would you have your representative do? Attend the speech or boycott it? Why not let them know?
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Liars, Lie
First it was Brian Williams, then Bill O'Reilly, now Veterans Affairs Chairman, Robert McDonald lies about his military service. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/24/va-secretary-robert-mcdonald-reportedly-admits-lying-about-special-forces/
Of the three examples cited, I find the last to be the most troubling. The VA has been plagued with exposure of lies and now we have the new head of that agency admitting to lying about his service record. We need to have confidence that what our government and its agents are telling us is the absolute truth. Too many people today are using lack of trust of govenment as an excuse to drop out of politics and stop voting.
We need people to be engaged and to hold our media and politicians' feet to the fire. When people get so disillusioned with our system that they believe there's no purpose in being involved, then our system needs to be re-tooled.
Many progressives find it difficult to trust any information put out by our government. This is tragic. Millenials, now the largest block exceeding Baby Boomers in size, know that govenment lies to them at times and therefore, find any information coming from government sources to be suspect.
I want to be able to trust in my government. Washington needs to fix this credibility problem. Instead of reacting with silence or tacit support, the government must not allow lies and liars to continue.
Of the three examples cited, I find the last to be the most troubling. The VA has been plagued with exposure of lies and now we have the new head of that agency admitting to lying about his service record. We need to have confidence that what our government and its agents are telling us is the absolute truth. Too many people today are using lack of trust of govenment as an excuse to drop out of politics and stop voting.
We need people to be engaged and to hold our media and politicians' feet to the fire. When people get so disillusioned with our system that they believe there's no purpose in being involved, then our system needs to be re-tooled.
Many progressives find it difficult to trust any information put out by our government. This is tragic. Millenials, now the largest block exceeding Baby Boomers in size, know that govenment lies to them at times and therefore, find any information coming from government sources to be suspect.
I want to be able to trust in my government. Washington needs to fix this credibility problem. Instead of reacting with silence or tacit support, the government must not allow lies and liars to continue.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
What is it With Republicans and Regulations?
"For congressional Republicans, it's regulation-hunting season." So says Jason Plautz in THE NATIONAL JOURNAL. http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/10-environmental-regulations-the-republican-congress-wants-to-kill-20150205 In this article, Plautz cites 10 environmental regulations that Republicans want to address in this Congress. Why are GOP so keen on rolling back regulations on corporations? I believe the answer is simple. Follow the money trail. The same industries that GOP plan to de-regulate also happen to be heavy campaign contributors.
The same thing is true with regulations on the banking industry and Wall Street. Last month they tried to roll back regulations on Wall Street, but they were blocked by Democrats.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/house-republican-push-to-roll-back-wall-street-regulations-fails-1420670814
The hypocrisy of the Republicans, however, is evident regarding regulations as they are avid supporters of regulations when it comes to marriage equality, voting, abortion and other social issues that do not have large corporations as supporters. Even Jon Stewart was quick to point out the blatant hypocrisy of the GOP on regulations. Stewart skewers the GOP on their myth of favoring small government. http://www.forwardprogressives.com/jon-stewart-slams-idiot-republicans-hypocrisy-government-regulations-video/
Imagine, if you will, a world where corporations were free of regulations. Does that sound like a utopia to you or a recipe for disaster? Democrats know that our economy only works when there are rules in place to ensure fairness and opportunity for all.
If you've never really read it, I encourage you to download and read the Deomcratic Party Platform 2012. It clearly shows the major differences between Democrats and Republicans. Then, after reading it, I hope you will be inspired to work to elect Democrats.
http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform
The same thing is true with regulations on the banking industry and Wall Street. Last month they tried to roll back regulations on Wall Street, but they were blocked by Democrats.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/house-republican-push-to-roll-back-wall-street-regulations-fails-1420670814
The hypocrisy of the Republicans, however, is evident regarding regulations as they are avid supporters of regulations when it comes to marriage equality, voting, abortion and other social issues that do not have large corporations as supporters. Even Jon Stewart was quick to point out the blatant hypocrisy of the GOP on regulations. Stewart skewers the GOP on their myth of favoring small government. http://www.forwardprogressives.com/jon-stewart-slams-idiot-republicans-hypocrisy-government-regulations-video/
Imagine, if you will, a world where corporations were free of regulations. Does that sound like a utopia to you or a recipe for disaster? Democrats know that our economy only works when there are rules in place to ensure fairness and opportunity for all.
If you've never really read it, I encourage you to download and read the Deomcratic Party Platform 2012. It clearly shows the major differences between Democrats and Republicans. Then, after reading it, I hope you will be inspired to work to elect Democrats.
http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform
Monday, February 23, 2015
What Does Decline of Unions Mean to America?
I was a union member most of my working days. I know how important they were to my employment. I didn't really think about how important they are to this country until the Republicans began their all out assault on them.
It's not everyday that you see a political pundit admit their error. Yet last week Nicholas Kristof did just that. In an OP-ED in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Kristof said that he was wrong about unions. While never denying the abuses done in the name of unions, he outlines the economic impact related to the recent decline in them. Astoundingly, he cites a study that asserts the decline as leading to at least 1/3 rise in the income inequality we have today.
Kristhof says there's clearly more abuse in the corporate suite than within the unions. He states, "One of the things you learn as a journalist is that when there’s no accountability, we humans are capable of tremendous avarice and venality. That’s true of union bosses — and of corporate tycoons. Unions, even flawed ones, can provide checks and balances for flawed corporations."
He goes on to show that unions, rather than being a drag on the economy as some assert, are actually a means to help boost the economy.
The article is linked here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/nicholas-kristof-the-cost-of-a-decline-in-unions.html?_r=1
I hope you will take a look at this OP-ED and then do what you can to support and strengthen unions in your state.
It's not everyday that you see a political pundit admit their error. Yet last week Nicholas Kristof did just that. In an OP-ED in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Kristof said that he was wrong about unions. While never denying the abuses done in the name of unions, he outlines the economic impact related to the recent decline in them. Astoundingly, he cites a study that asserts the decline as leading to at least 1/3 rise in the income inequality we have today.
Kristhof says there's clearly more abuse in the corporate suite than within the unions. He states, "One of the things you learn as a journalist is that when there’s no accountability, we humans are capable of tremendous avarice and venality. That’s true of union bosses — and of corporate tycoons. Unions, even flawed ones, can provide checks and balances for flawed corporations."
He goes on to show that unions, rather than being a drag on the economy as some assert, are actually a means to help boost the economy.
The article is linked here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/nicholas-kristof-the-cost-of-a-decline-in-unions.html?_r=1
I hope you will take a look at this OP-ED and then do what you can to support and strengthen unions in your state.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
The Obama Economy
In case you missed it, President Obama addressed the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee on Friday in Washington D.C. If you want to hear them, try this link: http://www.c-span.org/video/?324445-1/president-obama-remarks-2015-dnc-winter-meeting
I love it when the President is able to list the economic successes we've had under his leadership and policies. I'm sure the Republicans cringe when he starts listing them.
Democrats and Republicans are on opposite poles in economic poilcy. The President pointed that out Friday. He couldn't keep from taunting Republicans a bit that all their predictions of doom and gloom had not panned out. http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-no-accident-economy-improving-watch-163831575--politics.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=fb
We know that Republican ideas of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and lessening regulations just don't work. Look at the states that have tried that strategy. It is an utter failure.
Democrats believe the way to grow the economy is to raise the minimum wage, help folks get healthcare affordably, and create jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure to name a few ideas.
President Obama encouraged Democrats to remember this as we are heading into the 2016 elections. I strongly encourage all Democrats running in 2016 to stand proudly with our President and his successes.
I love it when the President is able to list the economic successes we've had under his leadership and policies. I'm sure the Republicans cringe when he starts listing them.
Democrats and Republicans are on opposite poles in economic poilcy. The President pointed that out Friday. He couldn't keep from taunting Republicans a bit that all their predictions of doom and gloom had not panned out. http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-no-accident-economy-improving-watch-163831575--politics.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=fb
We know that Republican ideas of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and lessening regulations just don't work. Look at the states that have tried that strategy. It is an utter failure.
Democrats believe the way to grow the economy is to raise the minimum wage, help folks get healthcare affordably, and create jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure to name a few ideas.
President Obama encouraged Democrats to remember this as we are heading into the 2016 elections. I strongly encourage all Democrats running in 2016 to stand proudly with our President and his successes.
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