Obama's Civility Doesn't Work

For some reason voters have gotten it in their heads that our growing deficit is the reason there are no jobs. We all know when the Democrats buckled to the Republican demand to focus on the deficit in 1937 it plunged us right back into the depression just as we were pulling out of it.

Our deficit needs to be corrected on a systemic level but not during an economic downturn. We need to focus on jobs first to create any possibility of paying down our debt.

We’ll never generate jobs as long as the banks keep sitting on the trillions of dollars they’re deliberately keeping out of circulation. Everyone keeps telling me I’m a conspiracy theorist but it seems obvious the banks want to keep Obama from implementing regulations.

I can just see it now. Republicans regain control, deregulate banks, banks start loaning their money out and Republicans say, “See, told you free market is the only way!” We’ll be making a deal with the devil.

I say, “Nationalize the banks!” Let’s give these right wing idiots some real Socialism to worry about!

Bush’s tax cuts added incredibly to the debt and didn’t create a single job yet extending and even adding more cuts are the Republican answer for recovery.

Democrats have shown they don’t have the spines to stand up to any of the Republicans' ridiculous ideas.

There are Republicans who still insist we privatize Social Security. If we had done that when Bush wanted us to, everyone would have lost their life savings.

Let’s get real. The Democrats say not extending tax cuts to the rich will generate 700 billion dollars. What they’re not saying is not extending them to the middle class would generate 3 trillion dollars. Even if we let the tax cuts lapse we would be at historically low tax rates. Look it up.

Democrats had a chance to really improve our quality of life, but they proved they couldn’t stick together when things got rough. They don’t deserve control. The Tea Party idiots are going to totally destroy our American way of life, and we deserve it. I am not above name calling. Obama’s civility doesn’t work.

Except for Defense

Every time I hear a member of congress talk about budget cuts they always end their sentences with “except for defense”.

In February 2009, Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., called for a reduction in the defense budget: "The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy. I am working with a variety of thoughtful analysts to show how we can make very substantial cuts in the military budget without in any way diminishing the security we need. American well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face."

The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were funded through supplementary spending bills outside the Federal Budget. They are not included in the military budget. The Pentagon has access to black budget military spending for special programs which are not listed as Federal spending and are not included in published military spending figures. Starting in the fiscal year 2010 budget the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan became categorized as "Overseas Contingency Operations" and are included in the budget.

By the end of 2008 we spent approximately $900 billion in direct costs on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Interest on the additional debt and incremental costs of caring for the more than 33,000 wounded by the Veterans Administration are additional. Some experts estimate these indirect costs will eventually exceed the direct costs.

One argument I hear for maintaining these costs are the amount of people that are employed as a result. I believe this argument holds true for all public spending. We are losing our status as the world’s policemen and will eventually have to share these expenses with our allies. Why do we still have bases in Japan and Germany? The Japanese public has made it clear with their votes that they want our bases gone.

The military industrial complex Ike warned us about has turned into the world’s most powerful lobbying group.

It’s clear our elected representatives are either powerless or controlled by corporate interests. I’m not sure we’ll ever achieve reason with votes. Voters have incredibly short memories and are too easily controlled by sound byte opinions.

Does anyone out there have any ideas?

Cordoba

I don’t think anything pisses me off more than the Republican predilection for historical revisionism.

The latest example is Newt Gingrich’s tirade against the proposed Islamic community center two blocks from ground zero tucked between an off track horse race betting stand and a strip club.

According to Newt-------

“The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks - is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.”

Why would anyone who gets their information from sources like Fox News question the former speaker of the house?

I remember those days. He was shocked by Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadilloes even though he was cheating on his wife at the time. When he was exposed, so to speak, I thought his political career had come to an end. We have very short memories don’t we?

In 766, Cordoba became capital of the independent Muslim emirate of al-Andulas, later a Caliphate itself. During the caliphate apogee (1000 AD), Córdoba had a population of roughly 400,000 inhabitants. In the 10th-11th centuries Córdoba was one of the most advanced cities in the world. The Great Mosque of Córdoba dates back to this time; under caliph Al-Hakam Córdoba received what was then the largest library in the world, housing from 400,000 to 1,000,000 volumes.

Muslims, Christians and Jews not only lived together they benefited from each others’ presence.

Cordoba’s degree of civilization has been compared to the Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance. It is a symbol of our ability to get along.

The fact that people are so willing to rewrite history to fit a political agenda should be appalling to all of us. We have to start teaching history in our schools again, TV is not the place!

I Voted For Reason

Yesterday Stephen Moore, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, stated Barack Obama is the most liberal president in history. He pointed to the fact that the GOP has been unanimously opposed to almost every issue Obama supports. He 'failed to reach out' to Republicans.

Let’s just look at the stimulus package. He repeatedly met with both House and Senate Republicans. He invited them to meet for further discussions. They want him to simply surrender to their demands (tax cuts, virtually no other elements). He included a number of GOP elements (weighted much more toward tax cuts than Democrats desired), yet no GOP votes were forthcoming.

I contend Obama is one of the most conservative presidents we’ve ever had. Everyone knows we’ve needed health care reform for years. It’s as basic a social right as cops, fire fighters, education, roads, and defense.

Right out of the gate Obama said single payer was “off the table”. He said a public option wasn’t necessary. He let the Republicans take control of the message that public health care is Socialism in spite of the fact that we ended up with a plan concocted by Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich as a response to Hillarycare. It ends up being very similar to Mitt Romney’s plan.

He asked the most corrupt elements of our health care system, insurance companies, how they would like public health care to look.

By refusing to put caps on credit card interest rates he gave the store away to the banks.

The wars are as wrong as ever! 50,000 to stay in Iraq ad infinitum.

His waffling response to the Islamic center 2 blocks from ground zero. This shouldn’t even be an issue and people who think it’s a slap in the face to the families of 911 victims should be ashamed of themselves.

He has used the state secrets privilege to try to quash lawsuits over warrantless wiretapping, opposed a truth commission to investigate alleged torture and sought to deny some legal protections to detainees in Afghanistan.

He has made clear he is in no rush for any real immigration reform or that he wants to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay service members.

He is for civil unions and against gay marriage.

Let’s not forget his support of Bush’s TARP program. They got the money with no strings!

Obama has been a big disappoint to me. I voted for “reason” and got the same old Repupublican crap.