Saturday, April 9, 2011
The Country Club View of Planned Parenthood
When I speak of country clubs, I speak with authority. After all, I'm a WASP and I've spent a good chunk of my life dallying at these institutions of pure right wing conservative Republicanism. (Is there any other kind of Republicanism now that the extremists have run the moderates out of sight?) I haven't been undercover trying to change them quietly either because that is impossible. I've simply enjoyed the tennis, golf, food without a line, etc. for which I appologize. I have kept my ears open, however, and there is considerable confusion at "The Club" over Planned Parenthood. Most members think Planned Parenthood is organized late term, baby killing abortion. Just ask Senator John Kyle. They don't know about PP's pregnancy prevention program or women's health services and, surprisingly, they don't care. You see, Republicans today, by and large, don't give a hoot about the poor and they aren't very sensitive when it comes to women either. The poor don't pay their own way and they shouldn't have sex in the first place. That's the way they breed, after all, and the offspring of poor people become thugs or welfare queens who have babies to make money which makes it very expensive. We can't afford welfare programs that are almost as costly as defense expenditures ( in their view) especially during a budget crisis that's got Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan Chase taking down less than $21 million last year. Normally, Republicans would be for anyone's pregnancy prevention programs, but conditions now are really serious and they want, if you'll excuse the pun, to throw the baby out with the bath water, the office furniture, NPR, Poison Control and everything else. That's the only way to deal with a nagging problem like this that's upsetting and confusing people at The Club.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Shocked, Shocked
It was reported that Alan Greenspan, the former Fed Chairman, was amazed that major American banks failed to police their business practices and so helped to speed the sub prime mortgage recession, a weak misnomer I doubt will last the test of time. No doubt the honorable Mr. Greenspan was also surprised that it took decades, even generations, before leading US corporations began to clean up their acts regarding pollution of the environment. They did so only because public opinion would no longer permit them to deny the facts on the damage they had done, hidden, belittled and finally admitted. Even so they fought like tigers with stockholder money to reduce their alleged deadly responsibility. Does it come as much of a surprise to learn that Americans are not alone in this overall failure of governance and regulation? 'Fraid not. We're learning in Japan that when all the radioactive dust settles it will be discovered that costly reactor repairs were sacrificed to profit or expediency. The abundant dollars for the promotion of new construction, presented by the ubiquitous lobbyists, of course, trumped the cautionary calls for prudence and extra safety measures. The latter cut into profits, don't they? No one can even guess today at the cost of Japan's nuclear reactor problems. Indeed, it may take years to find out. I wonder if we Americans will ever discover how much the Republican Party's perpetual and ongoing efforts to relieve Big Business of any responsibility except to maximize shareholder profits has cost the nation. Tea Partyers don't care and the Republican leadership is doing everything possible to undue the small start made by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, to say nothing of Elizabeth Warren's efforts to give consumers some relief from the predatory practices of the credit card companies. They have placed the responsibility for the whole mess on Big Government that has undermined business confidence. This line of attack is familiar to people who have watched Republican strategists go after John Kerry's medals and Max Cleland's patriotism. It's called turn the truth upside down by telling the biggest lies you can think up. In the question today, if there was insufficient regulation to prevent a financial meltdown in the US and a real nuclear one in Japan, spread the word that regulation is the real enemy and get some Texas zillionaire to produce some witnesses (what's Joe The Plumber doing theses days?) to support the claim. Democracy is a wild ride, that's for sure. I'll be the one shocked, however, if the truth doesn't win out in the end.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Bring in the Witches? Opportunists? Bullies? Clowns?
A president of one of America's finest universities, where I am one of the most humble graduates, once said that a major purpose of a liberal arts education was to provide a "catholic" understanding of men. I knew he wasn't expecting me to genuflect, but catholic is a tricky word. As an adjective, it means universal. What I didn't learn about men at that wonderful monastery where I enjoyed (too much) four years, I picked up in 2 years in the US Army and 10 years on Wall Street. Nothing in my experience, now running to 77 years, explains, however, what I am seeing in American public life today. I am able to make a nice literate reference that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor, of Virginia have, like Cassius, lean and hungry looks, but I can't really understand their patently rapacious and opportunistic attitudes. Have their genes been altered or their brains been tinkered with, a la the Manchurian Candidate?
Here, in the deep South, bumper stickers like "Stop Socialism" are seen frequently. President Obama himself admitted to some overreach when he rushed to prevent an economic meltdown in the early months of his presidency, but he has not taken over the nation's banks any more than he has taken over the auto industry or the American health care industry. Those are deliberate and despicable Republican canards, like the birther issue, aimed at deceiving the public and undermining his presidency with an eye to the 2012 national elections.
If anyone wishes to see crystal clear overreaching, look at what is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois and the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Claiming just to be doing the will of the people, as expressed in the midterm elections last November, Republicans have abandoned "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class by attempting to eliminate collective bargaining and emasculate unions. In the process, they'd like to strike out at some old ideological enemies like the Pro Choice movement and the teachers union, despite the fact that one poll after another has revealed strong public support of collective bargaining. The voters are still focused on jobs, but key Republicans are at it again trying to wreck what they missed the last time they achieved power. It's amazing. Why? They know only miniscule savings can be achieved without cutting defense, social security, or medicaire and raising (heaven forbid) taxes on the rich. In reality, they really want simply to posture and play games, anything but govern or work copperatively in a time of budget crisis for which they are largely responsible.
My take on this is that just a few people, wrongly inspired, can make a big difference, the old Army of One theme. In this case the culprits are Mr. Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor, the number 2 man in the House, who are both so eager to assume even higher office that they might as well be carrying signs. It isn't Karl Rove or the Koch brothers implementing a grand strategy, it's just pure greed and opportunism. The hell with jobs, who cares about stalling the recovery, let's just act in our own personal best interests. If gilding your creds as a conservative Republican means a putsch against unions, so be it. If dumping still another Speaker of the House means Eric can shine brighter still, who cares about the institution or the nation? It's selfishness and stupidity beyond belief and it gives Democrats an unexpected way to rebound from their humiliation last November. Don't worry, Republican friends, if President Obama is re-elected and the U. S. Senate stays in the Democratic column in 2012, you can count on their lack of discipline and cohesion to bring about a backlash to a backlash until we start electing people who aren't witches, mama grizzlies, and unfit opportunists. Until then the clowns look good to me.
Here, in the deep South, bumper stickers like "Stop Socialism" are seen frequently. President Obama himself admitted to some overreach when he rushed to prevent an economic meltdown in the early months of his presidency, but he has not taken over the nation's banks any more than he has taken over the auto industry or the American health care industry. Those are deliberate and despicable Republican canards, like the birther issue, aimed at deceiving the public and undermining his presidency with an eye to the 2012 national elections.
If anyone wishes to see crystal clear overreaching, look at what is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois and the House of Representatives in Washington, DC. Claiming just to be doing the will of the people, as expressed in the midterm elections last November, Republicans have abandoned "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class by attempting to eliminate collective bargaining and emasculate unions. In the process, they'd like to strike out at some old ideological enemies like the Pro Choice movement and the teachers union, despite the fact that one poll after another has revealed strong public support of collective bargaining. The voters are still focused on jobs, but key Republicans are at it again trying to wreck what they missed the last time they achieved power. It's amazing. Why? They know only miniscule savings can be achieved without cutting defense, social security, or medicaire and raising (heaven forbid) taxes on the rich. In reality, they really want simply to posture and play games, anything but govern or work copperatively in a time of budget crisis for which they are largely responsible.
My take on this is that just a few people, wrongly inspired, can make a big difference, the old Army of One theme. In this case the culprits are Mr. Walker, the governor of Wisconsin and Eric Cantor, the number 2 man in the House, who are both so eager to assume even higher office that they might as well be carrying signs. It isn't Karl Rove or the Koch brothers implementing a grand strategy, it's just pure greed and opportunism. The hell with jobs, who cares about stalling the recovery, let's just act in our own personal best interests. If gilding your creds as a conservative Republican means a putsch against unions, so be it. If dumping still another Speaker of the House means Eric can shine brighter still, who cares about the institution or the nation? It's selfishness and stupidity beyond belief and it gives Democrats an unexpected way to rebound from their humiliation last November. Don't worry, Republican friends, if President Obama is re-elected and the U. S. Senate stays in the Democratic column in 2012, you can count on their lack of discipline and cohesion to bring about a backlash to a backlash until we start electing people who aren't witches, mama grizzlies, and unfit opportunists. Until then the clowns look good to me.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
What to Hang for Christmas?
I am hanging hope for Christmas, once again this year, not because I'm brimming over with enthusiasm for the run up to the 2012 national elections which began last month the day after the mid-term elections. It's because of my conviction that this world belongs, as it always has, to the God who created it. What else can one cling to after the first decade of the 21st century which began with 9/11 and moved immediately into two wars, a worldwide recession and still growing tensions between the partisans of Islam, most of which are stuck in the 13th century, and the West. One has to go back to WW II to find a world more messed up and confused. We're showing increased signs of weariness, stagnation and corruption after a tumultuous century of conflict and financial stress, but I'm still not going to hang black crape.
Life expectancy has increased, thanks to vastly improved nutrition, sanitation and health care. Stunning scientific achievements have been made, long with clear progress on human rights. Democracy triumphed over deadly challenges from fascism and communism, but only at horrific cost, and so it goes, two steps forward, one step backwards, if we're lucky. There will be no breather in which we can revitalize ourselves. Indeed, there is now solid evidence that our system of governance needs major tweeking to improve effectiveness and that our laissez -faire, free market economy has developed some serious problems. As anyone who has read previous blogs knows, I have no confidence in Wall Street moguls and most of the nation's business leaders. Greed has triumphed in America and most of them will do whatever it takes to generate ever larger profits and personal gain, regardless of their heritage, education and privileged position. They must be regulated wisely and sooner or later they will be.
Yet, underneath it all, there is the intrinsic goodness of the American people. We are a goodhearted, god -fearing , hard working people who have fine traditions and a solid underpinning. Our recent Thanksgiving holiday reminded me of the atmosphere on the ground of a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or a city wide blackout or even a national tragedy. The people are kind, the cops good humored , the spirit palpable. Many years ago, during the first terrible Ethiopian famine, I was raising money by phone for UNICEF and I encountered this unique American spirit in talking to people all over the country, as TV images of vultures hungrily eying emaciated babies on the verge of starvation, spread by time zone from east to west. People gave with enormous generosity, reducing me to tears with comments like "Here's $25. and I think my husband has $30. left on his Visa" or "Would you take $5? I'm very ill, but I can go without a meal without killing myself." As I looked around the crowded phone bank room, I saw many workers wiping their eyes. That's why I'm not hanging crape this year. Never conquered America is still strong enough to survive and revitalize our failed institutions (the church, the markets, the Congress, etc.) and our ineffective, self -aggrandizing leaders. Furthermore, every 12 hours we get a real time image of the glory of our planet and the work of His hands.
Life expectancy has increased, thanks to vastly improved nutrition, sanitation and health care. Stunning scientific achievements have been made, long with clear progress on human rights. Democracy triumphed over deadly challenges from fascism and communism, but only at horrific cost, and so it goes, two steps forward, one step backwards, if we're lucky. There will be no breather in which we can revitalize ourselves. Indeed, there is now solid evidence that our system of governance needs major tweeking to improve effectiveness and that our laissez -faire, free market economy has developed some serious problems. As anyone who has read previous blogs knows, I have no confidence in Wall Street moguls and most of the nation's business leaders. Greed has triumphed in America and most of them will do whatever it takes to generate ever larger profits and personal gain, regardless of their heritage, education and privileged position. They must be regulated wisely and sooner or later they will be.
Yet, underneath it all, there is the intrinsic goodness of the American people. We are a goodhearted, god -fearing , hard working people who have fine traditions and a solid underpinning. Our recent Thanksgiving holiday reminded me of the atmosphere on the ground of a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or a city wide blackout or even a national tragedy. The people are kind, the cops good humored , the spirit palpable. Many years ago, during the first terrible Ethiopian famine, I was raising money by phone for UNICEF and I encountered this unique American spirit in talking to people all over the country, as TV images of vultures hungrily eying emaciated babies on the verge of starvation, spread by time zone from east to west. People gave with enormous generosity, reducing me to tears with comments like "Here's $25. and I think my husband has $30. left on his Visa" or "Would you take $5? I'm very ill, but I can go without a meal without killing myself." As I looked around the crowded phone bank room, I saw many workers wiping their eyes. That's why I'm not hanging crape this year. Never conquered America is still strong enough to survive and revitalize our failed institutions (the church, the markets, the Congress, etc.) and our ineffective, self -aggrandizing leaders. Furthermore, every 12 hours we get a real time image of the glory of our planet and the work of His hands.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Torture and Pregnancy
A large mural in the Tower of London depicts a naked man facing a festive crowd on Tower Hill gathered for whatever pleasure can be found in watching him be hideously tortured, his body burned and mutilated alive and finally dismembered for display in various cities as evidence of the monarch's authority and power. It's a scene of utter degradation. I looked for the man with the pointy beard, he was surely there, but the faces were too indistinct. Ironically, a few miles to the north, Shakespeare was writing "Good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
After 9/11, an understandably panicked American government led by an inexperienced president to whom nuance was equivalent to weakness, let torture become a part of America's fight against Al Quaeda. He was poorly advised by people anxious to tell him what he wanted to hear, or to encourage his "cowboy" attitude, and he was unable to discriminate about the advise given to him.
There is no place for torture in American policy. It is a barbaric practice of a bygone era of which most nations who once used torture to enforce a monarch's control are not proud. At the foundation of America, various rights and freedoms were guaranteed to prevent the abuse of power to which we descended after 9/11, for the Founding Fathers knew that executive power was to be feared and that "absolute power corrupts absolutely."
There must never be an MOS for torture. The idea of American soldiers, those honored and sturdy, freckled faced farm boys from Kansas who won WW II, engaged in torture is an affront to everything that is American. We cannot be a great shining city on a hill and practice torture any more than we can claim to be a unique and wonderful, historic experiment in governance with notions that the president can do whatever he wishes in a time of emergency, including torture. We became a nation because we were fundamentally repulsed by the idea of any man or woman having such enormous and cruel power.
I can hear a conservative reader snickering at my naivete, but a recent book authored by Charles Fried, a very conservative former solicitor general of the United States under President Reagan, and his father a law professor, expressed very similar sentiments. Fried, the younger, who graduated from my college a couple of years after me, differed from his father in only one material way. Fried, the elder, felt that the Bush Administration's sins regarding torture were so egregious that in order to restore the nation's honor, they needed to be clearly identified and those responsible punished. I understand why President Obama decided not to drag up this dreadful stuff, but it was a serious mistake. Republicans, who impeached president Clinton for his reprehensible sexual adventures, wouldn't have hesitated a minute had the situation been reversed. Sex sullied President Clinton's personal honor; torture besmirches America's honor and as of today, no one has has admitted to the disgraceful decisions involved or been convicted of any misdeed, let alone punished. On the contrary every effort has been made to justify torture and belittle the "timid souls" who condemn it. I am pleased to say that group includes me.
The Frieds made clear in their lawyerly analysis what any thoughtful person understands instinctively: torture is very seldom effective and situations wherein torture might save the country are exceedingly rare, contrary to the TV series, "24" which appeared to legitimatize torture once a week. My belief is that there are no situations that warrant torture and no disasters to be avoided as horrible as the one that destroys our national personna, and everything we stand for, while concurrently taking us back 500 years in the progress of civilization. A democratic nation can no more use anonymous torture just occasionally, than a woman can be a little bit pregnant.
After 9/11, an understandably panicked American government led by an inexperienced president to whom nuance was equivalent to weakness, let torture become a part of America's fight against Al Quaeda. He was poorly advised by people anxious to tell him what he wanted to hear, or to encourage his "cowboy" attitude, and he was unable to discriminate about the advise given to him.
There is no place for torture in American policy. It is a barbaric practice of a bygone era of which most nations who once used torture to enforce a monarch's control are not proud. At the foundation of America, various rights and freedoms were guaranteed to prevent the abuse of power to which we descended after 9/11, for the Founding Fathers knew that executive power was to be feared and that "absolute power corrupts absolutely."
There must never be an MOS for torture. The idea of American soldiers, those honored and sturdy, freckled faced farm boys from Kansas who won WW II, engaged in torture is an affront to everything that is American. We cannot be a great shining city on a hill and practice torture any more than we can claim to be a unique and wonderful, historic experiment in governance with notions that the president can do whatever he wishes in a time of emergency, including torture. We became a nation because we were fundamentally repulsed by the idea of any man or woman having such enormous and cruel power.
I can hear a conservative reader snickering at my naivete, but a recent book authored by Charles Fried, a very conservative former solicitor general of the United States under President Reagan, and his father a law professor, expressed very similar sentiments. Fried, the younger, who graduated from my college a couple of years after me, differed from his father in only one material way. Fried, the elder, felt that the Bush Administration's sins regarding torture were so egregious that in order to restore the nation's honor, they needed to be clearly identified and those responsible punished. I understand why President Obama decided not to drag up this dreadful stuff, but it was a serious mistake. Republicans, who impeached president Clinton for his reprehensible sexual adventures, wouldn't have hesitated a minute had the situation been reversed. Sex sullied President Clinton's personal honor; torture besmirches America's honor and as of today, no one has has admitted to the disgraceful decisions involved or been convicted of any misdeed, let alone punished. On the contrary every effort has been made to justify torture and belittle the "timid souls" who condemn it. I am pleased to say that group includes me.
The Frieds made clear in their lawyerly analysis what any thoughtful person understands instinctively: torture is very seldom effective and situations wherein torture might save the country are exceedingly rare, contrary to the TV series, "24" which appeared to legitimatize torture once a week. My belief is that there are no situations that warrant torture and no disasters to be avoided as horrible as the one that destroys our national personna, and everything we stand for, while concurrently taking us back 500 years in the progress of civilization. A democratic nation can no more use anonymous torture just occasionally, than a woman can be a little bit pregnant.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Military Justice Oxymoron
Military justice is in the news again with the dismissal of dozens of charges against a terrorist who was tried in a federal court and nevertheless convicted on one charge that will put him behind bars for a minimum if 20 years. Evidence that would have likely convicted him of more serious charges was tossed out by the judge because it was tainted by various illegalities, including likely torture. Several prominent Republicans are currently using the so called defeat of the government as proof that President Obama should have had him tried in a military court where convictions are easier.
I have some small experience with military justice and it is of interest only because it pertains to the culture of the military jury pool, so to speak. Though I am long out of the US Army, I doubt very much if the culture of the Army has changed materially. Cultures change slowly and, if anything, I believe prejudices may have hardened. The attitudes to which I refer are not just confined to junior officer ranks either. I believe they go clear to the top, but they may be tempered by the gray hair to be found in the most senior ranks.
When I reported to duty in Germany, as a "butter bar" lieutenant, I was handed several duty assignments. Among them was Defense Counsel for the battalion, probably because I was a graduate of a distinguished Ivy League university. Almost immediately, I noticed a slight prejudice for the prosecution. "Bring the guilty bastard in" was my introduction. The fact that one of the board's officers was giving me the finger as he was sworn in was another indication even the dullest defense counsel might have noticed. In a different case, a negative verdict was reached in something like 19 minutes, a record I was told. It didn't take long before I got angry, and on the first case that wasn't a negative slam dunk, I used that wonderful education to secure an acquittal, the first one anyone in my battalion could remember. The level of justice had been raised a tiny bit and hereafter the cases were argued more seriously. There were always good natured, out of session pleas from the "judges" to move things along because "Happy Hour starts in 20 minutes" or "to can the exculpatory evidence stuff because you know as well as I that he's as guilty as sin." I knew what was going to happen as soon as the battalion commander commented briefly and with a slight smile on my victories, and sure enough I was appointed Trial Counsel and put in charge of prosecuting future cases. Nothing really wrong about that, but it all left me a bit dubious about the average level of justice one could expect in the military justice system. Maybe prejudice learned as junior officers diminishes with age and higher rank, but I'd hate to have to depend on it for my freedom or life.
There's another dimension to this issue, of course; could a civilian court handle a terrorism case? The answer is, of course and the proof is there for all to see. We have plenty of tough, fair judges who will honor our heritage and produce justice. We've always had plenty of these men and their ranks are now being supplemented by brilliant women. There were similarly explosive cases in the last century and most were handled with great aplomb. Harold Medina's guidance of a famous communist case in the 1940s comes to mind. Today's terrorist trials have been made more difficult by their nature and the fact that we bungled the first round with secret detentions in foreign countries and torture under which most people would admit to just about anything. The more acts of terrorism are assigned to solo ideological unkowns, the more reason they should be tried locally as part of the criminal justice system. To do otherwise will weaken our American character which now wears a bit of tarnish that needs to be removed. I believe it was a mistake not to identify the previous administration's brand of justice for what it was, a disgrace of American values.
I have some small experience with military justice and it is of interest only because it pertains to the culture of the military jury pool, so to speak. Though I am long out of the US Army, I doubt very much if the culture of the Army has changed materially. Cultures change slowly and, if anything, I believe prejudices may have hardened. The attitudes to which I refer are not just confined to junior officer ranks either. I believe they go clear to the top, but they may be tempered by the gray hair to be found in the most senior ranks.
When I reported to duty in Germany, as a "butter bar" lieutenant, I was handed several duty assignments. Among them was Defense Counsel for the battalion, probably because I was a graduate of a distinguished Ivy League university. Almost immediately, I noticed a slight prejudice for the prosecution. "Bring the guilty bastard in" was my introduction. The fact that one of the board's officers was giving me the finger as he was sworn in was another indication even the dullest defense counsel might have noticed. In a different case, a negative verdict was reached in something like 19 minutes, a record I was told. It didn't take long before I got angry, and on the first case that wasn't a negative slam dunk, I used that wonderful education to secure an acquittal, the first one anyone in my battalion could remember. The level of justice had been raised a tiny bit and hereafter the cases were argued more seriously. There were always good natured, out of session pleas from the "judges" to move things along because "Happy Hour starts in 20 minutes" or "to can the exculpatory evidence stuff because you know as well as I that he's as guilty as sin." I knew what was going to happen as soon as the battalion commander commented briefly and with a slight smile on my victories, and sure enough I was appointed Trial Counsel and put in charge of prosecuting future cases. Nothing really wrong about that, but it all left me a bit dubious about the average level of justice one could expect in the military justice system. Maybe prejudice learned as junior officers diminishes with age and higher rank, but I'd hate to have to depend on it for my freedom or life.
There's another dimension to this issue, of course; could a civilian court handle a terrorism case? The answer is, of course and the proof is there for all to see. We have plenty of tough, fair judges who will honor our heritage and produce justice. We've always had plenty of these men and their ranks are now being supplemented by brilliant women. There were similarly explosive cases in the last century and most were handled with great aplomb. Harold Medina's guidance of a famous communist case in the 1940s comes to mind. Today's terrorist trials have been made more difficult by their nature and the fact that we bungled the first round with secret detentions in foreign countries and torture under which most people would admit to just about anything. The more acts of terrorism are assigned to solo ideological unkowns, the more reason they should be tried locally as part of the criminal justice system. To do otherwise will weaken our American character which now wears a bit of tarnish that needs to be removed. I believe it was a mistake not to identify the previous administration's brand of justice for what it was, a disgrace of American values.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
No Where To Go
I am a faithful Presbyterian and have been all my life. I go to church many miles from my home because there are essentially no other Presbyterian Churches to go to in my home town. The two biggest have been torn, no shredded, by the misdeeds of their pastors and have caused me and my loved ones much pain.
I've been a practicing Democrat for the last 50 years and now I don't really have a place to go with my anger, no rage is a better word, and frustrations with the weak, unruly and selfish bunch who call themselves the democratic leadership. Not President Obama, who could have led them to glory if they'd given him even half a chance, but the Blue Dogs, the poseurs, and penny ante congressmen and senators who always put their interests first and squandered the oppurtunity of a life time. They deserve to be defeated, even by the dismal ranks of the Republican tide of lying, cynical, midgets who did them in and who will now resume their do nothing destruction of the Republic.
Anyone who is not convinced that things can change rapoidly in American politics has not been watching the last 2 years of American history. What is equally clear is that is that our two party system is dead, not dying, but deceased. Government today is smoke and mirrors. Policies are determined on Wall Street in New York and brokered in Washington to the highest bidder. Is it any wonder that the middle class has been destroyed and that the rich have gotten enormously richer, recession be damned? News has become propaganda, issues lost in packaging and sloganeering.
For me, it's time for another political party. The democrats deserved defeat. I can no longer trust them to deliver any more than I can imagine the Republican party of Mitch McConnell, Dick Armey, John Boehner, Sarah Palin and Rand Paul coming up with anything I'd vote for. Someone needs to step up to the task and I'll vote for him or her. It has to be soon, however and my guess is will be Mike Bloomberg, a man with a name, a brain and big bucks.
People are going to have to trust a new party to overhaul the tax code fairly so that it protects American ideals, supports the elderly, the indigent and disabled while encouraging investment and growth. People of all stripes feel cheated and ripped off today, so if deductions for mortgages and charitable gifts are changed or eliminated, for instance, their loss will be offset by new moves to make union organization automatic or similar efforts to strengthen the middle class. Efforts to cut the national debt and/or balance the budget by skinning the middle class will unacceptable. Our next leader is going to have to know how to communicate broadly and specifically in the clearest terms, for the Republicans have proved beyond a shadow of doubt that packaging, style and slogans rule the day. I'm ready to follow a new leader if he/she will show me where to go.
I've been a practicing Democrat for the last 50 years and now I don't really have a place to go with my anger, no rage is a better word, and frustrations with the weak, unruly and selfish bunch who call themselves the democratic leadership. Not President Obama, who could have led them to glory if they'd given him even half a chance, but the Blue Dogs, the poseurs, and penny ante congressmen and senators who always put their interests first and squandered the oppurtunity of a life time. They deserve to be defeated, even by the dismal ranks of the Republican tide of lying, cynical, midgets who did them in and who will now resume their do nothing destruction of the Republic.
Anyone who is not convinced that things can change rapoidly in American politics has not been watching the last 2 years of American history. What is equally clear is that is that our two party system is dead, not dying, but deceased. Government today is smoke and mirrors. Policies are determined on Wall Street in New York and brokered in Washington to the highest bidder. Is it any wonder that the middle class has been destroyed and that the rich have gotten enormously richer, recession be damned? News has become propaganda, issues lost in packaging and sloganeering.
For me, it's time for another political party. The democrats deserved defeat. I can no longer trust them to deliver any more than I can imagine the Republican party of Mitch McConnell, Dick Armey, John Boehner, Sarah Palin and Rand Paul coming up with anything I'd vote for. Someone needs to step up to the task and I'll vote for him or her. It has to be soon, however and my guess is will be Mike Bloomberg, a man with a name, a brain and big bucks.
People are going to have to trust a new party to overhaul the tax code fairly so that it protects American ideals, supports the elderly, the indigent and disabled while encouraging investment and growth. People of all stripes feel cheated and ripped off today, so if deductions for mortgages and charitable gifts are changed or eliminated, for instance, their loss will be offset by new moves to make union organization automatic or similar efforts to strengthen the middle class. Efforts to cut the national debt and/or balance the budget by skinning the middle class will unacceptable. Our next leader is going to have to know how to communicate broadly and specifically in the clearest terms, for the Republicans have proved beyond a shadow of doubt that packaging, style and slogans rule the day. I'm ready to follow a new leader if he/she will show me where to go.
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