Smatter of Opinion

Today's GOP is going nowhere, but not fast enough.

2012-02-12T11:18:00.005-10:00

Thomas Friedman, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, has an excellent piece in yesterday's edition of the newspaper. Here's one of the nuts:

"The [Republican] party has let itself become the captive of conflicting ideological bases: anti-abortion advocates, anti-immigration activists, social conservatives worried about the sanctity of marriage, libertarians who want to shrink government, and anti-tax advocates who want to drown government in a bathtub.

"Sorry, but you can’t address the great challenges America faces today
with that incoherent mix of hardened positions."

Bulls-eye, Tom!

Trying to Hard Understand

2012-02-10T11:34:00.003-10:00

1- The Catholic Church opposes birth control.

2- Half the pregnancies in this country are unintended.

3- The Catholic Church opposes abortion.

4- More birth control would mean fewer abortions.

5- The Catholic Church opposes birth control.

(Hang on … maybe it will start to make sense if we go around again.)

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Patients Screwed Again by Big Pharma

2012-01-28T13:10:00.002-10:00

There’s an interesting item in the latest AARP Bulletin about the huge pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, and its efforts to prevent the loss of mega-billions in revenue from the sale of their popular anti-cholesterol drug, Lipitor.

Pfizer’s patent on Lipitor has expired, you see, which means that there is now a much cheaper generic version available on the market, called atorvastatin.

But the moguls at Pfizer are not giving up. In fact, they have made deals with many of the health insurance companies, getting them to agree that their prescription drug plans will continue to pay for lipitor, but will NOT pay for atorvastatin.

Now, would one of you conservatives out there tell me again why we don’t need health care reform? Why we shouldn’t have a consumer watchdog? Why we don’t need to regulate these companies?

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The Tea Party says this guy is a socialist.

2012-01-22T13:18:00.011-10:00

Barack Obama has been president for not quite 3 1/2 years. In that time, the stock market has gone up by more than 50 percent, corporate profits are the highest in history and taxes are lower than they've been in something like 30 years.

Obama ... a socialist?

Pretty much tells you all you need to know about the Tea Party, doesn't it!

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Makes You Want to Scream … or Cry.

2012-01-17T10:09:00.000-10:00

At the latest debate in South Carolina among the Republican candidates, Newt Gingrich was asked if it was appropriate for President Obama to send the Navy Seals into Pakiston to kill Osama bin Laden.

Gingrich, ever the history professor, replied that Andrew Jackson knew how to deal with enemies of America: He killed them!

The crowd, a high-percentage of which consisted of evangelical Christians, cheered.

What a Bunch of Freakin' LOSERS!!

2011-12-23T10:04:00.005-10:00

“On the campaign trail, Ron Paul said he does not like his milk homogenized. After this, Rick Perry said, ‘I am also not a fan of gay milk.’”
–Conan O’Brien

“In Sioux City, Iowa, there was another debate between the seven Republicans running for president. All your favorites were there: Grumpy, Dopey, the other Dopey, Romney, Bashful, another Dopey, and Happy.”
–Jimmy Kimmel

Best description yet of the collection of bozos chasing the Republican nomination: A clown car!

(Thanks to Honolulu Notes for these!)

A Message to the American Electorate from Teddy

2011-12-20T10:40:00.004-10:00

"It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again … who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly.”

-- Theodore Roosevelt

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How to Deal with Arrogant Twits in Congress.

2011-12-05T10:02:00.008-10:00

As you probably know, I write another blog, the focus of which is travel and more specifically train travel. I try to keep politics out of it, but that's sometimes difficult. Many of the Republicans, you see, have been trying to starve Amtrak to death for many years and, with many of those clowns, it's a case of ideology trumping common sense.

I'm involved with the National Association of Railroad Passengers, a non-profit, non-partisan advocating more and better train service for America. We meet every year in Washington and spend one full day visiting Congressional offices urging, among other things, adequate funding for Amtrak.

Want to know what we run up against? Last year, one of our members was meeting with an aide to a Republican congressman from Alabama and was relating how the U.S. has fallen years behind even third world countries in rail transportation. At that point, the aide interrupted and said to our member, “If you’re going to continue running down America, we have nothing further to discuss.”

There is only one way to deal with people like that: Vote their bosses out of office.

Calvin ... My Hero

2011-11-24T13:28:00.003-10:00

There are very few cartoonists who deserve the genius label. Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, is one.

GOP Announces New Scheme to Cut the Deficit

2011-11-23T10:37:00.001-10:00

In order to lower Social Security and Medicare costs, House Republicans have submitted proposed legislation that would order the immigration authorities to start deporting retired people instead of illegals. Their rationale -- hard to dispute, I’m afraid – is that seniors are easier to catch, and will not remember how to get back home.

See you on the bus.

I wonder where we’re going.

What we need now is a modern day TR to step up.

2011-11-20T16:40:00.005-10:00

Let's see, now. Who might agree with Teddy?

Cain? Uh ... no.
Paul? Hardly.
Newt? No.
Santorum? Nope.
Bachmann? Oh, puh-leeze!
Mitt? No.
Perry? You're kidding, right?
Hmmm ...
Pretty pathetic bunch, isn't it!

An ideologue, by any other name, would smell the same.

2011-11-16T17:07:00.005-10:00

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across my name in a comment appearing on a politically-oriented web site. The writer referred to me in a dismissive manner as “a liberal ideologue”.

May I say, for the record, he is not only wrong, he has no idea what a liberal is. In fact, “liberal” and “ideologue” are contradictory terms.

We liberals are open to all new ideas and can just as easily as not decide that some new initiative would better be provided by the private sector than by government. But an ideologue will reject any idea that doesn’t conform to his ideology.

Example: Grover Norquist. He’s the sweetheart who says his goal is to shrink the size of government down to where it’s small enough to drown in the bathtub.

And he’s the guy who intimidated every single Republican in the U.S. House into signing his No-tax Pledge and swears that he will work to defeat any of them who might violate that pledge. In other words, according to Grover, there is no circumstance whatsoever that could justify any new tax on any segment of our society.

Now that, folks, is an ideologue!

Four Years Later, the Republicans Still Don’t Get It.

2011-11-12T10:06:00.010-10:00

For months now, we’ve been getting both live and recorded telephone calls at home on behalf of Republican candidates and causes.

I suppose, some time back, I probably fired off an email in response to some outrageous statement made on a right-wing web site and the diabolical bastards peddled my phone number to Republican consulting firms. That’ll teach me.

Recently, many of the calls are on behalf of Herman Cain and his recorded messages are pegged at about 8.5 on the 10-point intensity scale. No wonder the man could sell pizzas.

Mike Huckabee calls occasionally, but his tone is reasonable, almost cajoling, as he explains how the country is headed straight to Hell (capital H) unless we all embrace the values he personally holds dear. I don’t think he’s still running, so I guess he’s just using up the rest of the money he raised when he was. I suppose there's no sense doing any actual good with it.

A call yesterday was from the College Republicans and the recorded male voice fairly quivered with outrage as he described how this great country of ours is being slowly, methodically and deliberately destroyed. He identified the arch villain responsible for that as “Barack ... Hussein ... Obama”. Lest anyone miss the implication, there was heavy emphasis on the “Hussein”.

Really, guys … four years ago, that was a contemptible tactic. Today it’s just stupid.

Perry on the Stump, Stumps New Hampshire Voters.

2011-10-30T12:57:00.005-10:00

Texas governor, Rick Perry, spoke to a crowd in New Hampshire the other day and apparently raised a few eyebrows. His speech was punctuated with winks, nods, exaggerated facial expressions, strange (even weird) hand gestures, and enough off-beat comments to cause many people to think the guy might have had a couple of toots before taking the podium. A few even wondered aloud about his stability.

But by far, my favorite comment was from a guy who noted that Perry's performance looked like "Nixon on speed ... but without the charm."

Zingo!

Words of Wisdom for the GOP

2011-09-30T11:36:00.002-10:00

You guys need to take a long hard look in the mirror, and not come away thinking, “You know, there’s something wrong with this mirror.”
–Jon Stewart

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Words to Remember ... and Think About.

2011-09-08T09:18:00.005-10:00

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." (President Eisenhower, writing to his brother Edgar in 1954.)

Clearly, and sadly, this is no longer the Republican Party of Dwight Eisenhower. The crazies have taken over. And they would rather push the United States of America into default, rather refuse help to millions of unemployed, rather demand more cuts to federal programs as the price for helping storm victims ... than appear to be agreeing with the centrist policies of Barack Obama.

Here is an inciteful and truly disturbing indictment of today's GOP, written by a long-time Republican insider. It's tough reading. But it's important.

Read it ... and weep!

2011-09-02T09:16:00.002-10:00

Thanks to Honolulu Notes for spotting this one. Didn't make my morning coffee go down any better, though.
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The Republicans have finally done it: I’m speechless!

2011-09-01T08:30:00.004-10:00

The Republican Party of Pima County (Tucson), Arizona, has announced it will be conducting a raffle as a political fundraiser.
The prize? A Glock automatic handgun, the same make and a similar model to the gun used to put a bullet in the brain of Congresswoman – Democratic congresswoman – Gabrielle Giffords, who represents that very same district.

A total of 18 people were shot in that January incident; six of them died. One of the fatalities was a nine-year-old girl.

I have tried for 15 minutes to think of a comment that would be appropriate.

I just can’t find the words.

Back from my journey ... with the scars to prove it.

2011-08-25T17:14:00.004-10:00

Well, I'm back and it was an amazing trip, with lot's of very interesting and very surprising experiences. Imagine attending a concert that included works by Puccini and Bizet and Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others, all performed by Russian and Mongolian singers and dancers in a beautiful concert hall in the Siberian city of Ulan Ude, located less than 300 miles from the Mongolian border. I mean, who would have thought?

By the way, It is not easy being an American traveling through Europe these days. After a week or ten days of getting relaxed being around each other, my fellow tour members and I started getting into political discussions on the tour buses and over meals. The English-speaking group included eight Brits, a Malaysian, three Dutch, six Norwegians, four Swedes and an Australian ... all of whom were quite well-informed about what has been going on in the U.S. over the past 3-4 months. The discussions were lively and interesting but, essentially, their questions could all be paraphrased and summed up as follows: "Have you Americans completely lost your minds??"

Going to be away for a month.

2011-07-26T06:21:00.005-10:00

I'm taking off this morning for a 29-day trip that will literally take me around the world ... and most of that will be by train. Internet access will not be available along some of that itinerary, but I'll do my best to post photos and comments on my travel blog as often as possible.

One brief commentary before I leave: The price of a first class seat on my flight from Los Angeles to London is $11,660 … one way. If the person in that seat is traveling on business, it’s a deductible expense, which means there will be no tax paid by the corporation on the income earned to pay for that ticket. Meanwhile, the Republicans are demanding that we cut benefits for retirees. See anything out of whack with this picture?

By the way, I just looked on line again and my Social Security check is now four days past the usual date of deposit into my account.

Oh well ... see you in a month.
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Revealing Interview With a Tea Party Supporter

2011-07-24T11:13:00.002-10:00

Q: What’s the most serious problem facing our country today?

A: Big government and high taxes.

Q: Well, how do we fix that?

A: Smaller government and cut taxes.

Q: But there are so many problems that we need to deal with. For instance, what should we do about someone who looses his job?

A: Smaller government and cut taxes.

Q: But now this man has no health insurance, and that means his wife and kids are uninsured, too.

A: Smaller government and cut taxes..

Q: But his wife has a pre-existing condition so they can’t get private insurance. And, besides, how can he pay for it? He’s just lost his job!

A: Smaller government and cut taxes.

Q: OK, new topic: What can be done about our crumbling infrastructure -- bad roads, unsafe bridges, overcrowded trains and transit?

A: Smaller government and lower taxes.

Q: OK, what about …

A: Smaller government and lower taxes.

Q: But …

A: Smaller government and lower taxes.

-------------------------------------------------------

Think I’m kidding? Try having a serious discussion with someone from the Tea Party about the problems confronting ordinary people. They offer no solutions. Zero … zip … nada!

The Big Republican Advantage: Dumb Democrats

2011-07-22T11:10:00.002-10:00

A recent survey shows President Obama’s popularity is declining. Well, sure, you say, it’s those damn Republicans. If Obama says the sky is up, they’ll stand on their heads and shriek that it’s down.

Nope … the main reason Obama’s job rating is slipping is because of the liberals who are mad that he’s been compromising with the Republicans … which, of course, is exactly what he said he would do during the 2008 campaign. I certainly understand that. It’s very frustrating because it sure doesn’t seem as though the Republicans in Congress – at least the loony half of them – have been willing to meet the president even a quarter of the way.

But this is the Republicans big advantage: They stick with their candidates right down the line no matter how ignorant or incompetent or just plain loony they might be. Never mind that. He or she’s a Republican … vote for ‘em anyway.

But we Democrats? We managed to elect a president who’s inspiring, thoughtful and smart, and is doing his best to deal with the monumental problems facing the country despite being vilified and frustrated at every turn by the Republicans. And the first time he takes a position we don’t like, we’re ready to throw him under the bus.

And that is really, really, really dumb!

Unfortunately This Really Nails It!

2011-07-19T20:17:00.000-10:00

Caylee Anthony … and the Bigger Picture

2011-07-16T10:22:00.002-10:00

Photo from the Indianapolis Star

(The following is an excerpt from a column that recently ran in the Indianapolis Star and is part of the response to a question about how someone of faith should react to the Casey Anthony trial and the resulting not-guilty decision.)

The selfish clamor for tax cuts during the worst economy since the Depression is resulting in the wholesale slashing of society's safety net -- recreational, transportation, educational, medical, mental health and other essential human services. Do we seriously believe that this state-sanctioned callousness will not lead to the creation of future Caseys, or Jared Lee Loughners? When that happens, won't society be responsible for the next Caylee eulogized by the tabloid press?

The cowboy, "pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps" ethos in vogue in America can only produce more victims. Our nation needs a return to genuine societal values -- not to a deranged and mythical Ayn Rand world. This means helping the least and most broken amongst us. And this just so happens to also be the teaching of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Carey A. Grady, senior pastor at Bethel AME Church
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Nailed It, Didn't She!

2011-07-03T07:11:00.008-10:00

This young woman, cartoonist Jen Sorensen, is really gifted.
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Slippery Tricks of the Political Trade

2011-06-30T10:21:00.015-10:00

Here’s a perfect example of how the Republican leadership deliberately misleads and misinforms the American public.

In an interview with Christine Amanpour on CNN, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement:

“We’ve increased, under [the Obama] administration, spending 35 percent in two-and-a-half years. We need to go in a different direction …”

But here’s the thing: When Obama took office, having promised more transparancy in government, he directed that the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars be included in the federal budget. George W. Bush, on the other hand, had kept the cost of those wars off the books … so all those billions didn't appear as a part of his budget.

So you see, it only appears that Obama’s budget has increased by a huge amount. And that means when McConnell or John Boehner or Eric Cantor stand up and with a straight face tell their conservative base that Obama has increased the federal budget by 35 percent, they are ... all together now ... LYING!

We can only hope that one of these fine days, serious-minded, rational Republicans will come to realize that their leadership speaks to them as if they are lazy or stupid or both. Until that happens, how the hell can we have any kind of meaningful debate in this country?

The Tea Party: Wilfully ignorant ... and proud of it!

2011-06-26T11:44:00.014-10:00

Republicans keep demanding that Obama and the
Democrats meet them halfway in a bi-partisan effort to solve our problems.

OK ... how'd you like to sit down for a frank exchange of ideas with this bozo?

And these are the very folks being pandered to by the so-called leaders of today's Republican Party -- the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower.

Really ... it's pathetic.

A Discussion: Rational Person vs. Tea Partyer

2011-06-23T08:45:00.009-10:00

RP: So you’re in favor of repealing the new health care reform law?

TP: Absolutely. It’s a boondoggle … nothing but big government messing in our lives.

RP: What about a 12-year-old kid who breaks an arm in a pick-up baseball game?

TP: What about him?

RP: His mother works 20 hours a week for Wal-Mart and doesn’t qualify for benefits. But she has cancer – a pre-existing condition – so no insurance company will cover them.

TP: OK, take the kid to the emergency room. They’ll fix his busted arm.

RP: If he goes to an emergency room, it’s going to cost a few thousand bucks. His mom hasn't got that kind of money!

TP: That’s not my problem.

RP: But the hospital can't just eat those costs. They’ll jack up their fees for patients who do have insurance. People like you.

TP: So what? My insurance company will pay whatever the hospital charges me. And I can afford the co-pay.

RP: But because it’s costing them more to insure you, the insurance company will raise your rates.

TP: What?

RP: You see? You get screwed. The hospital gets screwed. And, of course, the kid with the broken arm and that poor woman with cancer … they really get screwed.

TP: Fahgh! That’s just more of your bleeding heart liberal crap. All I know is there’s too much government in our lives. Down with Obamacare! Watch Fox News! Vote Republican!
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Where the hell do they find these people??

2011-06-22T18:43:00.008-10:00

Do you want to know why kids are getting poor grades in American History classes? It’s all the liberals’ fault, according to Rick Santorum, Republican candidate for president. He says it’s "a conscious effort on the part of the left who has a huge influence on our curriculum, to desensitize America to what American values are so they're more pliable to the new values that they would like to impose on America."

Well, maybe – at least in Texas – that could actually be Rick Perry’s fault. He’s the Republican governor of that state and that’s where the elected school board is demanding that publishers stop saying so many nice things about those liberal founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson in their history text books. History, you see, isn’t what it actually was, it’s what those clowns would like to think it was.

Oh … and getting back to that lolo* Santorum ... he also says that global warming is just another phoney liberal plot to scare Americans into agreeing to more government regulation.

Santorum and Perry are shamelessly pandering for votes, of course, but what’s truly frightening is that they are actually being taken seriously by a significant segment of the population. Mostly by people who flunked American History, I suppose.

* Hawaiian for crazy person.
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The GOP Has Lost Its Way ... and Its Soul.

2011-06-18T17:05:00.015-10:00

The Republicans are in the midst of what they’re calling a Leadership Conference in New Orleans and a number of candidates for that party’s presidential nomination have made appearances there.

Predictably, speaker after speaker has attacked Barack Obama. But what I don’t understand is how members of the audience, no matter how partisan their views, can applaud – let alone swallow – statements made about the president of this country that are outrageous, inflammatory and demonstrably false.

For example, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich charged that Obama is a “national secular European socialist”. Huh?? I know what each of those words means individually, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what they describe when presented as a package. My best guess is that Newt, the serial philanderer, is just slapping buzzwords on Obama hoping the faithful will start foaming at the mouth.

Then there’s Michele Bachmann, who accused the president of plotting to bankrupt Medicare so seniors will be forced to join his national health care program. Yes … seriously! (For heaven’s sake, Medicare is the national health care program for seniors!) If this woman seriously believes that statement, she is delusional. If she doesn’t, then she’s is the worst kind of liar and is pandering to the wilfully ignorant folks who apparently make up most of her constituency.

And, in the worst possible taste, the evening featured a black "comedian" who did a largely tasteless impersonation of President Obama. (Sample: he said Michelle Obama celebrates Black History Month for a full 30 days, but the president only observes it for two weeks ... a reference to the fact that Obama is half white and half black.) It should be noted that the mostly white audience whooped and laughed at this sad character until someone on the committe with more than an IQ of 40 hustled him off stage.

Somehow, the non-thinkers and the fanatic ideologues and the racists and the just-plain-crazies have bubbled to the top of the Once-Grand Old Party. Thoughtful, rational debate around honest differences of opinion no longer seems possible. In fact, it’s no longer tolerated.

The party of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower and, yes, even of Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush has disgraced itself.

Can Health Care Reform Cure a Forked Tongue?

2011-06-13T11:10:00.002-10:00

Congressman John Boehner, who speaks for Republicans in Congress, has been wailing over what he calls “whopping increases” in health insurance premiums. To no one’s surprise, he says the health care reform law is to blame.

Uh … well … turns out that’s almost entirely not true. FactCheck.org says the increases cited are for individual policies and are in the one-to-two percent range.

Furthermore, several state insurance commissioners have said that rate increases are being blamed on new law by insurance companies who are simply raising their rates before the law takes effect in 2014.

Gee … A big shot Republican distorting the facts. I’m shocked!

Anthony Weiner: A Day Late, A Dollar Short

2011-06-07T09:53:00.009-10:00

The case of New York Congressman Anthony Weiner hit me in the gut. I have always admired this guy. He’s funny, he’s smart, he’s articulate, and he’s been unafraid to stand up and, in righteous indignation, call out Republican colleagues in the House for their frequent duplicitous and cynical actions.

And now Weiner has effectively eliminated himself as an articulate defender of his party’s president and as an effective spokesman for liberal causes and legislation. God knows, we don’t have enough people like that.

Weiner’s biggest mistake was trying to escape responsibility for a stupid, juvenile act by lying about it. Everyone screws up, and most of us will usually forgive a politician who owns up and seems to genuinely regret his mistake. But it takes a helluva lot more to forgive someone who tries to wriggle out of responsibility by lying about a transgression.

When a politician realizes that something unpleasant or embarrassing about his or her personal life may become public, there is one -- and only one -- way to deal with it:

Tell it first. Tell it yourself. And tell it all.

Anthony Weiner has just learned that … the hard way.
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Why Are Hypocrites Like Ralph Reed and Ginni Thomas Taken Seriously?

2011-06-03T09:13:00.015-10:00

The Faith and Freedom Conference now taking place in Washington, DC, is the creation of Ralph Reed. If his name sounds familiar, he’s an evangelical Christian who has been in the forefront of right-wing Republican politics for years.

He’s also the guy who was paid $4 million by disgraced lobbyist, Jack Abramof, who ripped off a number of Native American tribes to the tune of more than $30 million. Yet this guy organizes a conference and Republican candidates for president dutifully – Mitt Romney and (shudder) Michelle Bachmann, so far -- show up to kiss his ring.

It’s only the first day of this gathering of crazies, but some fascinating if nauseating tidbits are beginning to flow. At the top of the list is the eye-witness report that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, applauded when a Tea Party panel member accused President Obama of “bringing Communism to this country”.

People who really believe that nonsense are hopeless fools.

But far worse are the people like Ginni Thomas who have to know in their hearts that statements like that are ridiculous and untrue, yet continue to encourage the fools to believe it.

They – and I mean you, Ginni Thomas -- are beneath contempt.

Yearning to Unlearn? Watch Fox News.

2011-05-31T16:58:00.003-10:00

Rolling Stone has done an outstanding piece on Fox News. Here’s what they say about the people who watch Fox News. It’s probably to most significant quote in the story … and it’s sure as hell the most distressing:

“According to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers. They are 12 percentage points more likely to believe the stimulus package caused job losses, 17 points more likely to believe Muslims want to establish Shariah law in America, 30 points more likely to say that scientists dispute global warming, and 31 points more likely to doubt President Obama’s citizenship.”

Hear the loud whirring noise? It’s Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer and a host of other great and principled reporters of the past … spinning in their graves.

The Grand Old Party’s Grand Old Tradition: Getting It Wrong.

2011-05-28T15:10:00.002-10:00

Sometimes, when the Republican rhetoric gets shrill and begins to drown out everything else, it’s a good idea to take a step back and remember that the GOP track record ain’t so hot. There are more, but here are a few that I can recall without dragging out some reference books:

* Republicans opposed the right to vote for women.

* Republicans opposed the creation of Social Security.

* Republicans opposed lend lease which sent military equipment to Great Britain when they stood along against Hitler and the Nazis.

* Republicans opposed the Marshall Plan which send food and essential supplies to a starving Europe after World War II, and is now credited for preventing a Communist take-over of many countries.

* Republicans opposed the creation of Medicare.

Clearly, the GOP has been on the wrong side of history more often than not over the years and it would be a good idea to bear that in mind as we debate the big issues of today.

2011-05-24T12:49:00.006-10:00

In his blog today, Ian Lind, former reporter and still a journalist of the first order, provides an interesting look at three major issues now facing the U.S. Allow me to summarize his summaries:

* The U.S. has anywhere from five to eight times more of its citizens in prison than any other western industrialized nation.

* The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country in the world, but has poorer results than most of those same countries.

* The U.S. spends more on “defense” than all the rest of the world combined.

And still the politicians blather about the U.S. being the greatest country in the world and are outraged at any candidate for office who dares to suggest that some other country may have found a better way to deal with some of these issues.

Propose health care reform and you’re a socialist. Propose more gun control or prison reform and you’re siding with the criminals. Propose a cut in military spending and you’re soft on terrorism.

What’s maddening is that most of those pompous, blowhard politicians know better, but are pandering to (and thereby willfully perpetuating) ignorance and arrogance among the electorate … and all in the name of patriotism.

We’ve got a helluva lot of waking up to do. And we’d damn well better get started on it.

Exactly when does The End actually begin?

2011-05-21T06:49:00.022-10:00

Harold Camping, the 89-year-old pastor from California and founder of Family Radio Worldwide, has prophesied that the world will end today. It's early morning here in Hawaii as I write this, so we've still got the entire day ahead us us to sweat it out.

Of course, I've just taken a look on line at some of the newspaper headlines from Europe. They're saying it looks like the old guy was wrong because May 21st is about to end over there. In fact, it's already the 22nd in China, so I guess they're off the hook.

But all that does seem to beg the question of just how a world-ending event would happen if it's pegged to a specific calendar date.

If it's to occur simultaneously at the one split second when it's May 21st around the entire globe, I suppose that would have been last night, precisely at midnight in Great Britain, Greenwich Mean Time.

The only other option would be something that works like a cataclysmic rolling blackout. Since I'm in Hawaii, and we're 11 hours behind GMT, I won't know for sure what may or may not happen until the calendar clicks over to May 22 in Greenwich. That's a little more than five hours from now, as I write this.

Just in case, because there's no sense starting in on my shed-painting project until we know for sure, I might as well wait until 1:00 p.m. our time. Of course, the Red Sox-Cubs game starts at 1:00, so I guess I'll put off the shed 'til tomorrow. Assuming there will be one.

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UPDATE: According to filings with the IRS, Family Radio Worldwide received $18 million in contributions in 2009. (No comment ... because I'm speechless!)

2011-05-16T11:23:00.010-10:00

Today’s column by political pundit and columnist Mark Shields has some quotes which highlight the chasm that exists between left and right in this country … or, at the very least, it highlights the different attitudes of the two men that liberals and conservatives most admire. Here are the comparative quotes.

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.' ”

“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”

“Let public service be a proud and lively career. And let every man and woman who works in any area of our national government, in any branch, at any level, be able to say with pride and with honor in future years, ‘I served the United States government in that hour of our nation’s need’”

Shields concludes his column by noting that the members of U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 are all public servants.

They sure as hell are!

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Coast-to-coast by Amtrak ... and Back!

2011-04-23T05:54:00.008-10:00

I will be leaving around noon today for a three-week trip that will take me across the country and back again ... all by Amtrak. (Those of you who know about my love of train travel will not be surprised.)

A high point will be introducing an almost-nine-year-old granddaughter to her first overnight train ride ... aboard Amtrak's Coast Starlight, from Los Angeles to Seattle.

From there, I'll be traveling solo to Washington, DC, for an annual meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. As an elected member of NARP's Council of Representatives, I'll be visiting a number of our representatives and senators banging the drum for more and better trains for the U.S.

After Washington, it's up to Boston to see several Red Sox games at venerable Fenway Park, then back to the West Coast, again by Amtrak: Boston to Chicago to Seattle to Los Angeles. I'll be joined on the Boston-LA portion of the trip by my brother-in-law who has heard me carry on so much over the years about both train travel and the Red Sox that he's decided to find out for himself what it's all about. By the time we get to LA, he will know for sure, one way or the other, if I'm really on to something, or am just a bit nuts.

I will do what I can to post here from time to time, but if you're interested in hearing more about all these train travels, stop in at my other blog where I'll be doing my best to provide regular posts as I go.

I'll be back home on Maui around the middle of May. Aloooo-ha!

Hey! Who You Callin’ an Ideologue!

2011-04-20T08:31:00.014-10:00

The other day I came across a post by a right-wing blogger in which he referred to me as “a liberal ideologue”. Whoa! That really gave me pause because I've always considered the term to be disparaging … meaning someone who is locked into a particular philosophy and pretty much unable or unwilling to find any merit in another point of view.

I readily admit to holding strong opinions, but part of what defines a liberal is the ability to consider and even adopt new ideas. Conservatives, on the other hand, are instinctively – or, if you will – ideologically resistant to change.

And therein lies the problem: we liberals have a much harder sell than do our conservative counterparts. Change is scary; sticking to the status quo is a lot safer and requires a lot less thought.

Take transit, for example. Yes, it’s a generalization, but for the most part liberals tend to support transit projects while conservatives are far more likely to oppose them.

In stating our case, liberals must start by acknowledging that a transit system is going to cost every taxpayer a few more dollars, whether they will ever ride the system or not. (In Honolulu that has meant an extra ½ percent added to the General Excise Tax). After that, we have to convince people that transit will keep automobile traffic at bearable levels, will reduce pollution, will help to contain urban sprawl, and will yield other societal benefits.

On the other hand, all the anti-transit people have to do is raise the decibel level and say “It’s too expensive” or “Nobody will ride it” or “It’s just another government boondoggle.” And that offers an easy way out for people already busy and stressed in their daily lives. They just hop on that bandwagon. No critical thinking required.

There are a lot of big problems out there. Choosing the right course for any of them takes work which leads to knowledge which leads to understanding … and sometimes that means changing one's mind.

Whatever the issue – transit or the debt or unemployment – we could do with a lot less ideology.

Come, let us reason together.
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Conclusive Proof That Things Are All Screwed Up

2011-04-18T08:06:00.012-10:00

Senator Bernie Sanders (Ind-VT) has come up with a list of the Top-10 Corporate Freeloaders. It's an eye-opener (click to enlarge):

If you have old eyeballs like mine and still can't read it, here are some of the low-lights:

* Exxon Mobile had a $19 billion profit in 2009, and got a $156 million tax rebate.

* Bank of America had a profit of $4.4 billion and got a rebate of $1.9 billion.

* General Electric has made $25 billion in profits over the past five years and during that time has sent one-fifth of its jobs overseas, thereby avoiding billions in U.S. taxes.

* Chevron made $10 billion in profit in 2009 and received a $19 million refund in 2010.

* Valero has $60 billion in sales, but got a $157 million refund.

If you can stomach it, there's more of the same on the list. Now add to that the news that one-half of all American families will pay no federal income tax this year.

With the giants of American business and half the general public freeloading, it's no wonder we're deep in debt. How is it possible that we have permitted this to happen?

And, when damn near everyone agrees that something must be done about the deficit, how is it possible that almost half the country supports the Congressional Republicans, who want more tax cuts for business and are fighting tooth and nail against allowing the Bush tax cut for the wealthiest Americans to lapse?

It's simply crazy!
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Senator James Inhofe: Arrogant Dangerous Buffoon

2011-04-14T02:56:00.016-10:00

Meet United States Senator James Inhofe, Republican from Oklahoma.

He supports Laurent Gbagbo the murderous tyrant of the Ivory Coast.

He denounces global warming as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people".

And there's enough more to make your head spin. The list of Inhofe's bizarre and outrageous statements and positions and votes is seemingly without end.

Inhofe, age 76, is also a pilot and now we find out that last year he landed his plane on a closed runway, damn near killed a bunch of innocent people who were in the way, and then yelled at them and the airport people as though his carelessness and incompetence was their fault. Read about it here. It's beautiful, because it's got all the FAA documentation ... and more.

This guy is a joke and a clown. And he's dangerous on any number of levels. What the hell is wrong with the voters in Oklahoma??
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Look Out! They’re after National Public Radio again.

2011-04-09T06:56:00.013-10:00

For years, the Republicans have targeted NPR, plus public television, and the National Endowment for the Arts as well. You really have to wonder what they’re thinking. Today, if you scan the radio dial looking for news and information, the “newscasts” are 60 seconds long … even from the major networks. How’s that for in-depth reporting!

By contrast, NPR offers news and information in real depth. How can that not be a benefit to society? NPR’s funding is a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of the federal budget and what a void it would leave if the Republicans have their way.

I came across a quote from Winston Churchill a few days ago -- one I hadn’t heard before. It’s wonderfully appropriate.

During the dark, desperate early days of World War 2, when England was standing alone against the Nazis, it was suggested to Churchill that money being spent by the British government on the arts should be diverted to the war effort.

Churchill said, “Then what are we fighting for?”

Mississippi Leads the Way …

2011-04-07T17:31:00.002-10:00

... back to the Dark Ages. In a recent survey, a plurality of registered Republicans in Mississippi said they thought interracial marriages should be against the law.

Words fail me.
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This Would Have Been Awfully Funny 3 Weeks Ago.

2011-04-02T08:08:00.004-10:00

And, I suppose, it's a mark of our indominatable human resiliance that we can still laugh at it.
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Mitch McConnell Finally Tells It Like It Is.

2011-03-26T18:10:00.004-10:00

You know how the Republicans keep caterwauling and demanding bipartisan solutions to our problems … how they keep after President Obama to “reach across the aisle”?

In plain, simple language, it’s all B.S. Here’s what Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell told the National Review:

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

See? It’s all posturing. Whatever Obama says, it’s wrong. Whatever Obama does, it’s wrong … even if it’s right and good for the country. And these are the super-patriots … who claim to love America more than those of us who vote Democrat most of the time. Their hypocrisy is almost limitless.

And they know it. And they don’t care.
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War on Health Care Reform Continues Unabated

2011-03-23T11:35:00.006-10:00

I continue to be astonished at the hysterical screeching we continue to hear from the right about health care reform. I suppose it’s understandable when it comes from the typically uninformed (or willfully ignorant) writer of a letter-to-the-editor. But the outright fabrications we continue to hear from some elected officials are nothing short of disgusting. Because they know better.

It’s one thing to oppose the reforms, but quite another to deliberately perpetuate the loony notion of “death panels” and misrepresent other aspects of the law. Michelle Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, heads that list, although there are a lot of others tied for second place.

There are many provisions to the legislation, of course, but one would require health insurance companies to pay out for medical care at least 80 percent of what they take in from premiums. What could possibly be wrong with that? If an insurance company fails to meet that bare minimum standard, they are – in plain language – screwing their policyholders. Yet many on the right oppose that part of the law purely on the basis of ideology. Good heavens! Doesn’t common sense ever trump ideology?

In Michelle Bachmann’s case, of course, ideology isn’t the real issue. The lady apparently is serious about running for president that makes it pretty clear that she belongs in a rubber room. I suppose, adopting our most charitable persona, we should probably pity her. But what, then, should we think of the people who are passionately supporting her? That's the really scary part in all this.
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Bill Maher Nails It ... and Them ... Again.

2011-03-17T06:31:00.003-10:00

“It turns out that the Republican budget that they submitted for next year slashes funding for the agency that issues tsunami warnings and organizes responses to the tsunami. In their defense, Republicans say that tsunamis are just a theory, they are not a real threat like ACORN, the Black Panthers, NPR, and math teachers in Wisconsin.”
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Doing their best to make things worse.

2011-03-05T15:11:00.004-10:00

The unionized workers at Hawaiian Electric Company (represented by IBEW) have been negotiating a new contract for some weeks now, but without coming to an agreement. Yesterday was set as a strike deadline.

But– just as the weather people had predicted – yesterday also saw the arrival of a storm with rain and high winds. Sure enough, power went out to about 8,000 homes on the leeward side of Oahu.

And the union guys walked off the job anyway, leaving a vastly reduced workforce -- a few management people and some workers recruited from private electrical contractors -- scrambling to get power back to all those families.

So back in Wisconsin we have public employees doing their best to fight off the blatant union-busting efforts of Scott Walker, the dumb-ass Republican governor there.

And here in Hawaii we have dumb-ass union guys giving all unions a bad name with the worst-possible timing of their walk-out.

What the hell are they thinking?
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Fox News Thinks We’re Stupid … Again.

2011-03-02T09:17:00.003-10:00

The other night, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly was exchanging comments with a reporter on the ground in Madison, Wisconsin. The subject, of course, was the on-going protests by government workers there.

During the story, Fox ran video clips of angry, out-of-control protesters -- pushing and shoving, shouting at the camera, shaking fists in the air, etcetera and so forth.

But wait! What do we see there in the background behind what we assume are angry government state workers in Wisconsin? Palm trees? In Wisconsin??

Fox News is a disgrace.

Fox News viewers are morons.

Check out the actual video here.

How About a Change of Pace?

2011-02-22T10:48:00.001-10:00

I've probably run this before, but I can't help myself. This is awfully funny.

In Inmates Are About to Take Charge

2011-02-18T15:15:00.005-10:00

Over the past decade, a lot of unscrupulous people in the financial world took more and more chances -- and riskier and riskier chances -- with depositors’ money. That led us into a near melt-down of the entire economy. And while they were doing that, the people at the top of the pile added multi-million dollar bonuses to their multi-million dollar salaries.

We can and should condemn them. But the harsh reality is that people running businesses in this country will push the envelope as far as they can in the name of profit … for themselves and, if it’s a public company, for their stockholders. That’s just the way it is. It’s our system.

And if they discover they can get away with six inches, they’ll see if they can stretch it to a foot. If they get away with a foot, they’ll keep it up … until someone in authority makes them stop. That, too, is our system. Or at least it has been.

Now we have Ron Paul about to take over an important House committee that has jurisdiction over the Federal Reserve. And he says we don’t need to regulate the banks.

Ron Paul is a libertarian ideologue and an arrogant fool.

The people who believe him are just fools.
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Just when it seemed things couldn't get worse ...

2011-02-08T14:59:00.004-10:00

... I came across this!

ARRRRGGGHHH!

Sarah ... Please! ... for God's sake! ...GO AWAY!

2011-02-07T11:16:00.006-10:00

In an interview on CBN, Sarah Palin rattled off on a variety of topics including the civil unrest in Egypt. If you can bear it, read through this verbatim transcript of her remarks.

And nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know, who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak. I'm not real enthused about what it is that is being done on a national level from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt, and in these areas that are so volatile right now, because obviously it's not just Egypt, but the other countries, too, where we are seeing uprisings. We know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for, so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have all that information yet.

This is gibberish. This is moronic. This is coming from the mouth of a willfully ignorant woman who apparently believes she could actually be president.
She is delusional ... and so is anyone who doesn't regard her as a sad joke.
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This Should Never Happen in the United States!

2011-02-05T21:56:00.004-10:00

These Boy Scouts are having a bake sale to raise money to help one of their troop ... a 15-year-old kid who has cancer.

Every one of those miserable, selfish, Republican ideologues who voted to repeal the health care reform law should be forced to look this kid in the eye and explain their reasons. Whatever they are, it won't be good enough.
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Fox News Disagraces Itself -- AGAIN!

2011-02-01T11:48:00.006-10:00

Fox News does not know where Egypt is located.

Fox News has mistakenly placed Egypt where Iraq should be, so we can probably assume that Fox is uncertain as to the location of the country where more than 4,000 American service personnel have died.

Fox News is a joke and a disgrace. Somewhere, Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite are weeping.

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The Damn Fools … They’re at it again!

2011-01-26T10:16:00.004-10:00

Have you listened to the radio lately … specifically, to any of the talk jocks? Left or right, it doesn’t matter. Those on the right – Limbaugh, Beck, et al – are far more loony than the lefties, but it all crap … well, mostly. The traditional networks – NBS, CBS, ABC – are almost no better. Their “newscasts” are 60 seconds long. How’s that for in depth reporting!

And then there’s the TV news. The local stuff is, with the occasional exception, a waste of time, generated from the “if-it-bleeds-it-leads” school of TV journalism. Network news is pretty much the same. Stories of major national importance are given only minutes of superficial coverage, then it’s back to the frivolous. Fox? Forget it. That’s not journalism. People who watch Fox News are there, as someone recently said, “for ammunition, not information.”

All of which leads me to noting that several of the budget cut recommendations just made by the Republican Study Committee would drastically impact, if not cause the shut-down, of National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. When I read that I literally felt ill.

These people – the Republicans making these proposals – would sacrifice the two of the few remaining sources of intelligent, interesting, informative and worthwhile broadcasting on the alter of their ideology. God save us from such arrogant fools as these!

Without question, the most effective way to stop them is through personal letters or phone calls to our elected representatives in Congress. Let’s get at it!
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Heard the latest from the Tea Party?

2011-01-23T21:08:00.002-10:00

Judson Phillips, president of Tea Party Nation, says the founding fathers’ idea that the right to vote should be limited to property owners “makes a lot of sense”.

And these people have the unmitigated gall to portray themselves as patriots!

Let's all try to remember WHO did WHAT!

2011-01-06T13:23:00.008-10:00

Listen! Can you hear all the caterwauling? It's all those Republicans back there in Washington blathering about how they're going to attack the deficit.

Yeah. Right.

(My thanks to an interesting new blog, Honolulu Notes, for coming up with that terrific cartoon!)
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Enjoy your health care reform ... while you can.

2010-12-31T09:32:00.003-10:00

Sunday – the first day of the New Year – is also the first day for two important provisions of the new health care reform law.

The first change will start to close the infamous donut hole in prescription drug plans. When you suddenly discover that the drug you’ve been paying $42 a month for will now will cost $197 a month until the end of the year … welcome to the donut hole!

But the second change is the biggie. It will require insurance companies to pay out no less than 80 percent of the money they take in from premiums on actual health care costs. As of Monday morning, overhead, profit, salaries and those multi-million dollar bonuses for executives will all have to come out of the remaining 20 percent.

The plain, unvarnished truth: any insurance company that hasn’t already been meeting that 80:20 ratio has been screwing its customers.

And these two provisions are part of the law that Republicans in Congress will try to repeal.
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There are liars, damn liars, and Pawlenty of them.

2010-12-24T09:20:00.012-10:00

I've been bothered – well, OK, infuriated – over the past several years by how political “spin” has deteriorated into deliberate lies and distortions. It’s deplorable whatever the source, Democrat or Republican, but without question the great preponderance is coming from the right.

One example of far too many: The Republican politicians and media (Fox “News”) persistently referring to health care reform as “the “government take-over of our health care system”. Utter nonsense!

Now comes Tim Pawlenty, the out-going Republican governor of Minnesota who wants to be his party’s presidential nominee in 2012. To that end, he has started bashing President Obama for, among other things, increasing the size of the federal government while (cue the crocodile tears) "the private sector has lost nearly eight million jobs."

New York Time columnist Paul Krugman points out, that there are actually fewer permanent federal jobs since Obama was elected. The increase Pawlenty refers to was due to the temporary hiring of census workers by the federal government. The census is, of course mandated by the Constitution.

In other words, Pawlenty has deliberately distorted turth to create an impression he knows to be untrue ... and of course we can count on Fox “News” and their right-wing blowhards to pick it up and perpetuate it.

Somehow, these liars need to be called out and rejected. In an ideal world, that should be a bi-partisan effort. And wouldn’t that be a heart-warming way to start the New Year!

Dumb like a Fox.

2010-12-19T11:16:00.005-10:00

A recent survey conducted by the University of Maryland has determined that people who watch Fox News are far more likely than the rest of us to believe statements about current events that are demonstrably false.

Well … duh!

Take for example, the following statement:

Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit.

Fox viewers – 31% more than viewers and readers of other media outlets – believe that statement to be true.

Here’s another one:

Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring.

Thirty percent more Fox viewers thought that was a true statement compared to the rest of us.

And – proving once and for all that people who watch Fox are there for ammunition, not information – 31 percent more Fox viewers agree that “it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States”.

Predictably, Fox News has reacted to this story. Their spokesman trashed the University of Maryland. That, too, was predictable.
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John Kyl Defends the Faith Against Infidel Harry Reid

2010-12-14T14:54:00.005-10:00

Senator John Kyl, Republican from Arizona, has accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of “disrespecting” Christians.

My goodness! What has Harry done now? Questioned the divinity of Jesus? Challenged the veracity of the Bible? Well, not exactly. In fact, not hardly. Senator Reid, it seems, has had the temerity to say the Senate should meet and continue to do its business during the week between Christmas and January 4th when the session formally concludes.

Here’s what Kyl said: "It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out, frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff."

Memo to Senator Kyl: Christmas is on Saturday this year. Most folks will be going back to work the following Monday. Why shouldn't you?

Memo to the rest of us: How in the world are Democrats supposed to find common ground … work out rational bi-partisan solutions to complex problems … with arrogant, sanctimonious fools like John Kyl?

And the Rich Get Really, Really, REALLY Richer.

2010-12-04T10:38:00.003-10:00

We should all be aware of – if not actually concerned about – the growing gap between the very rich and all the rest of us. How big is the gap? Consider:

Three years ago, the top one percent of income earners in the country made more money than the bottom 50 percent.

Today, the top one percent makes more money than the bottom 90 percent … assuming it’s possible to grasp the concept of 90% being the bottom of anything.

And remember: this has nothing to do with total wealth. This refers only to annual incomes.

So how in the name of anything that’s fair, reasonable or rational, can the Republicans be demanding that the Bush tax cuts – which were a major factor in our current deficit problems – be kept in place for that top one percent?

They can’t.

But they still do.
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And the Bid Is ... NO TRUMP!

2010-11-20T09:48:00.003-10:00

Donald Trump is thinking about running for president. Yes, he really is ... and if there was ever proof of the man's monumental ego, this is certainly it. And, as if we needed further proof of the man's duplicity, he is actually affecting modesty over the idea. Now that's actually funny.

What isn't so funny? The results of an ongoing CNN poll where, at last count, something like 17 percent of those responding say they would support his candidacy. Somehow, in the minds of a large number of people within this muddled, ignorant, frightened and lazy electorate of ours, celebrity has come to equal competence.

As a garrulous old English teacher of mine was wont to say when confronted with some particularly egregious lack of scholarship, "It is to weep."
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All Hat, No Cattle

2010-11-13T06:36:00.010-10:00

The Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is about to take over as titular head of the Republican Governors Association.

This is the same outfit that recently poured a million dollars – yes, literally! – into Hawaii media in an effort to prevent Democrat Neil Abercrombie from becoming our governor. To no avail. Abercrombie crushed his Republican opponent, Duke Aiona, by 17 percentage points.

And this same Rick Perry has, on more than one occasion, said that if the federal gummint doesn’t stop trying to tell the states what to do, secession could become a serious option. Yes, he really did.

It's tempting to simply dismiss Perry as a fool and a buffoon. On the other hand, he is very likely an accurate representation of much of his constituency. After all, the elected Texas School Board has voted to include creationism along with evolution as part of the curriculum in public schools. Not content with that, the board has also instructed textbook publishers to minimize the role of that notorious liberal, Thomas Jefferson, in their history texts and start including more info on some of the more conservative founding fathers. No specific names leap immediately to mind, but I'm sure the School Board will tell us who they are.

Actually, now that I think about it, secession is starting to look like an attractive option.
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Heading North to Polar Bear Country by Hudson Bay

2010-11-07T15:56:00.003-10:00

The ride from Winnipeg up to Churchill on Hudson Bay – some 1050 miles and almost due north – takes almost two days. We left Winnipeg at noon on a Sunday and arrived in Churchill the following Tuesday morning.

First impression of the scenery along the way -- pretty bleak, mostly flat terrain with scrubby trees that got shorter and shorter the farther north we went. Still it was interesting, and certainly different, as we passed through little towns between long stretches of wilderness that was frequently broken up by streams and small lakes crusting over with ice, most of which were dominated by domed beaver lodges.

VIA Rail train # 693 rattled along at a respectable speed for the first day, but by the following afternoon would occasionally slow to a crawl over stretched of track where the roadbed was spongy because of the permafrost ground softening.

Nevertheless, we arrived right on schedule, bright and early on the second morning. Well, not “bright” exactly, since the sun never appeared through the sodden low overcast that and it wasn’t until well after 8:30 that the darkness had fully lifted.

The warmth came the moment I stepped in Bluesky Bed & Sled, a bed and breakfast establishment run by Jenafor Azure. This is their busiest time with guests coming and going on a daily basis and Jenafor’s mother, known only as “Grandma” to guests throughout their stays, had come from Alberta the week before to pitch in.

For the balance of the morning I wandered around town a bit, then drove over to the Churchill Northern Studies Center about 20 kilometers away to chat with Mike Goodyear, the executive director. More on that meeting in a few days.

Tomorrow I’ll watch Jenafor’s husband, Gerald, hook up his dog team and take visitors and guests on a wild ride in a dog cart, and the following day I’ll be on a tundra buggy out in the surrounding countryside in search of polar bears … which is why all us shivering tourists are here in the first place.

Give that man a big ... hand!

2010-11-03T20:05:00.002-10:00

The latest Kukai-Nui Award, given periodically to a politician who is unafraid to put party before country, goes to the Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who is right up front about where the Republican Party's priorities lie:

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Atta-boy, Mitch … polish up that American flag lapel pin and take a bow.
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James MacArthur, 1937-2010

2010-10-31T09:51:00.004-10:00

I posted the following on my other blog, but thought it worth repeating here.

I turned on the computer this morning here in Winnipeg and came across a news item reporting the death of actor James MacArthur. Years ago, during all those years when Hawaii 5-0 was being shot in and around Honolulu, I got to know Jimmy. His wife and mine were friends and we all hung out a bit together.

I had just started a small advertising agency and one of our clients was a very small bank. Just two branches. Nevertheless they had aspirations for expansion and we decided to produce a couple of 30-second television spots. I approached Jimmy to see if he would appear as the bank’s spokesman in the commercials. He agreed, as a personal favor to me, of course – he certainly didn’t need the money – and he showed up spot on time early one Saturday morning when the two branches were closed and we could do our production without disrupting things.

We shot one commercial at the downtown branch of the bank that morning, and moved on to the other branch that afternoon. Through it all, Jimmy MacArthur cheerfully endured all the re-takes and other delays for sound checks and lighting changes, apologized when he fluffed a line and chatted amiably with the crew during the catered lunch. He was, in a word, the consummate professional and a joy to be around.

We finally finished shooting at 3:30 that afternoon, and his wife came to pick him up. That’s when I learned that Jimmy had been skiing in Colorado the week before and, thanks to some bad weather throughout that whole area, had only arrived back in Honolulu at 5:00 that very morning. He had had just enough time to run home, shower and shave, and get to the bank for the filming of our two insignificant little commercials.

Ever since, whenever I read about the petulant, selfish, thoughtless behavior of some of these prima donnas in sports or theater or business, I think of James Gordon MacArthur … who shames them all.

Aloha, Jimmy.

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Mea Culpas, past and future

2010-10-10T16:46:00.007-10:00

My apologies for the lack of posts over these past weeks. I have been preoccupied with my efforts on behalf of my long-time friend Neil Abercrombie, who -- as all Hawaii knows -- is the Democratic Party's nominee for governor of Hawaii.

Furthermore, it’s also likely that there will be only a few posts for the next several weeks, too. I will be leaving Tuesday for an extended trip to the mainland ... first to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the semi-annual board meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

From there, I'll head to Toronto to catch VIA Rail's premier train # 1, the Canadian, which runs three times a week in each direction between Toronto and Vancouver, BC.

I'll be leaving the Canadian in Winnipeg and taking another VIA train almost 1100 miles north to the little town of Churchill on the shores of Hudson Bay. Polar bears spend the winter out on the ice hunting seals and this time of year these magnificent creatures come into the area waiting for the bay to freeze over.

From there it will be back to Winnipeg and resuming the trans-continental ride on the next train # 1 to Vancouver. I'll connect there with Amtrak for the trip to Seattle and on down to Los Angeles for the flight back home to Maui.
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The Tea Party Goes on the Defensive … Sort of.

2010-09-18T11:59:00.007-10:00

Today’s Maui News included a vociferous defense of the Tea Party movement from a regular contributor to the letters column. Here’s my problem with this so-called movement: The only “solution” they have for the immense and complex problems facing our country is smaller government and lower taxes. They offer no proposals to deal with poverty, homelessness, unemployment, out-of-control healthcare costs, home foreclosures, and on and on. Why is that?
Possibly it’s because, as surveys show, Tea Party members are overwhelmingly white, middle-to-upper class, and – this is the part that astonishes me – educated. In other words, most Tea Party people aren’t facing any of the problems that millions of ordinary Americans must struggle with every day. They just keep on yammering about “getting their country back” and demanding lower taxes.

The Tea Party, the letter-writer assures us, is not racist and isn’t against civil rights. Well, maybe. But, from everything I see and hear, these folks are something almost as bad: they’re selfish.
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I Rest My Damn Case!!!

2010-09-15T09:46:00.002-10:00

If you can’t be right, be wrong at the top of your voice!

2010-09-14T16:05:00.005-10:00

Have you noticed? These Tea Party “activists” yell and holler and demonstrate, but never offer any solutions to the problems we’re facing.

Thousands of bridges around the country are old and could be unsafe. Should we fix them?

No, no, no! Smaller government! Lower taxes! Close the borders!

Millions are still out of work. Can’t we have more programs to …

Smaller government! Lower taxes! Close the borders!

But what about the homeless people who literally freeze to death on city streets in the winter?

Smaller government! Lower taxes! Close the borders!

OK, but can’t we do something for inner-city kids who …

Smaller government! Lower taxes! Close the borders!

But … but …

Smaller government! Lower taxes! Close the borders!

* sigh *

What the Hell Are We Thinking?

2010-09-09T15:32:00.008-10:00

All the pundits continue to forecast doom for the Democrats in the November elections. Truthfully, I don’t get it. Can it really be possible that the American people are going to return the Republicans to power?

These are the very same politicians who (a) voted against the stimulus bill, who (b) happily took credit for any stimulus money that funded projects in their district, who (c) now say the stimulus program didn’t work, who (d) blame Obama for unemployment and who (e) say we should return them to power because they will oppose any more stimulus programs.

These are the very same politicians who (a) de-regulated the banking industry, which then embarked on reckless investment strategies bringing the financial world to near collapse, who (b) objected to Obama and the Democrats tightening regulations on the banks and who (c) are now asking us to return them to power so they can (d) once again de-regulate the banking industry.

These are the very same politicians who (a) passed the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in 2001 and 2003, and who (b) wrote into the law that those tax cuts would expire at the end of this year, and who (c) watched their tax cuts result in a huge federal budget deficit, and who (d) have reneged on that deal and want the tax cuts to be continued, and who (e) are now accusing Democrats who want to let the tax cuts expire of raising your taxes.

And by the way, “your taxes” only means your taxes if your family earns a quarter-of-a-million dollars a year.

These are the people who are going to be voted back into power??

We are - alas - a nation of morons.

Why Aren't More People Really Angry About This?

2010-09-06T18:22:00.003-10:00

A month ago, the Hawaii Venture Capital Association held a forum at which they listened to presentations by the leading candidates for governor. Several days later, they endorsed Neil Abercrombie.

A few days ago, Mufi Hannemann was endorsed by the Venture Capital Association of Hawaii, which has suddenly popped up out of nowhere. Puzzled by the suspiciously similar names, a couple of alert reporters discovered that this “organization” has a grand total of 10 members, all of whom now admit to being Mufi supporters.

This is nothing less than a deliberate attempt to confuse and deceive the voters. And, once again, the Hannemann people manage to keep a straight face while saying they had absolutely nothing to do with this fraud.

What should bother us most about this foolishness is that Mufi and his brain trust are flaunting their contempt for the electorate. These bozos really think we're stupid!
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And Jesus Wept.

2010-08-29T17:56:00.004-10:00

There is a heated political campaign going on here in Hawaii and a local “Christian” organization, the Hawaii Family Forum, has started running radio spots telling “Christians” why they should not vote for Neil Abercrombie for governor. The commercial says that if Neil is elected governor he will sign same-sex marriage into law and it further says that – horrors! – Neil has no personal religious affiliation.

First, how HFF knows what Neil’s personal spiritual beliefs may or may not be, they do not say. No matter, it’s still arrogance and bigotry.

Second, with respect to same-sex marriage, HFF conveniently neglects to say that some years back Hawaii voters passed an amendment to the State Constitution defining “marriage” as being between a man and a woman. So you see, as governor, Neil couldn’t possibly bring about same-sex marriage because our state constitution doesn’t permit it. So that statement by HFF is simply a lie.

Neil Abercrombie is a kind, decent, intelligent man who has given almost 40 years of his life to public service, including the past 20 years as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives. I am proud to call him a friend and, given the chance, he will make a truly excellent governor. To declare him unfit for public office using arguments that are bigoted, arrogant and based on a lie is most decidedly un-Christian. And that, in my book, means the people running Hawaii Family Forum are not only liars, but hypocrites as well.

And as to those folks who hear that crap and will swallow and follow? Well, that's probably why their “Christian” leaders refer to them as “sheep”.
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Life in Ha'iku, Maui, Is Not Easy!

2010-08-29T07:05:00.005-10:00

I spent most of the morning yesterday hard at work weeding ... this photo, taken surreptitiously by my wife, should not be taken as evidence to the contrary. The mountain in the background is 10,000-foot Haleakala, Maui's dormant volcano.
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Confirming What We Have Always Known …

2010-08-17T11:34:00.004-10:00

The News Corporation, parent company of Fox News, just made a one million dollar contribution to the Republican Governors Association.

These guys have recently been buying TV time here in Hawaii, by the way ... presumably to air spots promoting Duke Aiona, the Republican candidate for governor. The RGA also ran spots supporting Republican Charles Djou in the recent special election for Congress.

Got that? The owners of Fox News are giving money to a political arm of the Republican Party which, in turn, buys time on Fox stations to support Republican candidates. Cutting to the chase: Fox News is using their air to elect Republicans.

Oh ... but wait .. we already knew that, didn't we!

Think about that the next time you hear one of the Fox news readers utter the words “fair and balanced”.

And here’s a great line about Fox News that I heard recently: People watch Fox for ammunition, not information.
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Why In the World Do They Do It?

2010-08-07T00:24:00.003-10:00

I haven’t posted here for quite a while and I’m not really sure why. Well, for one thing I was away for a bit over a week. First to Oakland for take in three games between the Red Sox and the A’s, then an overnight train ride on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight to Seattle, and three more games there – the Sox vs. the Mariners.

But that’s not much of an excuse. I’ve just been putting it off, for days now. Really, the problem is that I’ve become disheartened at the way the country seems to be drifting back to the right. What a bunch of wimps we are! Things are not going well, so instead of rolling up the sleeves and dealing with the problems, we bitch and whine and complain ... and look for someone to blame

Typical, isn’t it. God knows, we can’t be bothered to dig into all these knotty issues to figure out who’s really at fault. We just decide it’s whoever happens to be in office at the moment … and these days, that mostly means the Democrats.

And Obama, too, of course. Poor guy! He’s been in office for – what is it? – nineteen months, and he hasn’t managed to solve several of the biggest messes in anyone’s memory. So we’re down on him, too.

And just look at the headlines and check out the web sites that are politically oriented. The campaigns are nastier than ever. Decent men and women, who have had the courage to run for office, are vilified and subjected to the worst kind of personal attacks -- their professional accomplishments belittled, their public record distorted and their private lives invaded.

Still, they keep coming. Amazing, isn’t it. And – actually – it’s reason for some hope.
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Solving Our Problems Is Easy … But Almost Impossible

2010-07-16T10:41:00.011-10:00

If you’re a progressive or liberal or Democrat or whatever we’re calling ourselves these days, advancing our agenda is not easy. Essentially, it means appealing to the selfless, generous nature of people -- asking our fellow citizens to dig down a bit more to pay for a transit system they might not use, or music classes in the public schools for someone else’s kids, or more social workers to help people they don’t know.

Republicans, on the other hand, have a much easier sell because their appeal is to the lesser human qualities: greed and selfishness, among others. It doesn’t matter where you rank on the affluence scale, they say your taxes are too high and you deserve a tax cut. If a politician has the guts to propose a modest tax increase, no matter how valid the purpose, the Republican attack machine swings into action and, almost every time, he or she is defeated.

The Republicans are now vigorously opposing any effort that would allow the infamous Bush $1.1 trillion tax cuts to expire. Any Democrat who votes to let those tax cuts lapse – as was stipulated in the Republican-sponsored law when it was passed – will be accused of “raising your taxes” in the next election.

In the meantime, and for lack of funding, we have allowed our country’s infrastructure to become woefully outdated and even dangerous. Hundreds of bridges in this country are structurally unsafe; our electrical grid is stretched to capacity, and vulnerable to cyber attack; compared to every other developed country, our passenger rail system is a joke. And – oh, yes – almost 36 million Americans, more than a third children, are living in poverty.

The shameful aspect to all this is that we can fix these things. Or at least bring about dramatic improvement. But there’s a catch: it will take some tax increases. For most people, the “sacrifice” would hardly be noticeable. For the many millions who are by any standard rich, it could mean giving up a $200 dinner at a fancy restaurant one night a month.

Democrats say that for the good of the country you should be willing to do that; Republicans say someone else is to blame for these problems and you shouldn’t have to do that. It’s a cynical and dishonest tactic, but much of the time it works. And that is a disgrace for which about half the people in this country must take the blame.
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Dontcha Just LOVE it??

2010-06-22T12:11:00.002-10:00

Choice Republican Comments on the BP Oil Spill

2010-06-19T09:47:00.004-10:00

You have to wonder where the Republican Party funds theses clowns.

Rand Paul, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, referring to Obama’s tough talk about BP: "This sort of, you know 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business."

Michelle Bachman, the absolutely loony Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, who constantly rails and wails about the horrors of socialism in the U.S., suggested that the government should “commandeer” privately owned boats to “deal with that oil plume as it was coming up to the water.” Huh??

Sara Palin, half-term Republican governor of Alaska and John McCain’s running mate tweeted the following:

Extreme Greenies:see now why we push"drill,baby,drill"of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?"

Actually, Sara, when you were shrieking “Drill, baby, drill” during the campaign, you included off-shore drilling. Remember? No, of course you don’t.

Haley Barbour, Republican governor of Mississippi, has said numerous times that the media is over-reacting the the oil spill and has said that it "isn't anything like Exxon Valdez." He’s right about that, of course. This one is many times worse.

But Rep. Joe Barton, Republican from Texas, takes the cake. At a congressional hearing, this bozo actually apologized to BP’s CEO Tony Hayward:

"I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown. … I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize."

You think these characters are off-base and off-the-wall? What about the people who vote for them?

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Where Do The Republicans Find These Loonies?

2010-06-15T09:15:00.005-10:00

The Republicans in Nevada have picked a lolo* named Sharron Angle as their nominee to oppose Harry Reid in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Harry Reid is hardly Mr. Excitement, but this lady is a serious nut case. Want an example? Here's what she said during a recent radio interview:

"If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

The Second Amendment, of course, refers to the right of citizens to bear arms.

This woman also wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare ... positions which she says are non-negotiable.

What to know what's really scary? She's actually leading Harry Reid in polls by something like 10 percentage points.

* lolo = crazy
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There Must Be Something in the Water.

2010-06-04T16:26:00.005-10:00

What is it with South Carolina anyway?

Republican Governor Mark Sanford said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when, in fact, he was shacked up with his mistress in Argentina.

Then there was Congressman Joe Wilson, also a Republican, who shouted out "You lie!" at President Obama during the State of the Union speech.

The latest disgrace comes from this good il' boy, South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts. (Yes, he, too, is a Republican.) In speaking of gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, who is an ethnic Indian (that is, Indian as opposed to Native American), Knotts made this sickening comment:

“We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion."

Nikki Haley is, by the way, a Republican.

Not everyone in South Carolina a bigot. Knotts remark has prompted someone to run against him in the upcoming Republican primary.

The Right Way … and the Really Wrong Way

2010-06-02T10:26:00.004-10:00

I was just going over my notes from a recent train trip and came across an out-of-context scribble on one of the pages:

“Blog: Elected judges = crazy!”

I jotted that note just after the train passed a big billboard somewhere along the way … a county sheriff was campaigning for an elected position as a judge. The campaign theme was “He’ll Lock ‘Em Up!!” The more the merrier, I guess.

Unfortunately, the deciding factor in that race will have little to do with which bozo is qualified … where he went to law school and how much legal experience he has (if any). It will pretty much come down to which candidate raises the most money. And doesn’t that raise some interesting issues! Now you’ve got politician-judges who owe favors to people who helped them get elected.

We’ve got our fair share of political weirdness here in Hawaii, but this is one area where we got it right. We have a nine-member Judicial Selection Commission and only four of the nine can be lawyers. When there’s a vacancy, the Commission submits a list of approved candidates to the governor – not more than six names – who must make the appointment from that short-list.

In all my years in Hawaii, I can’t remember one time when there’s been a serious question of incompetence or scandal or conflict in our judiciary. There can be flaws in any system, and I’m sure ours isn’t perfect … but it sure as hell is better than having judges run for the office.
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One Picture Tells You All You Need to Know

2010-05-23T13:14:00.002-10:00

The recent flap over comments made by Rand Paul underscores the fact that the Tea Party folks can pretty much be consigned to one of two categories: the willfully ignorant and the inflexible idealogue.

But isn't it delightful watching the Republican poobahs struggling to figure out how to keep the Tea Party votes, but sorta-kinda-halfway disavow the Tea Party ideas!

Of course, "having it both ways" is the basic Republican approach to politics anyway ... as in voting against the stimulus program, but taking credit for getting the money that funds needed projects in their districts.

Around and around and around we go ...

2010-05-19T09:04:00.010-10:00

Well, the Democrats tried again ... looking for a compromise that would make a bill to provide $40 million for science research acceptable to Republicans.

Once again Republicans tacked on the ridiculous pornography amendment (see previous post).And once again enough Democrats caved to kill the measure.

What is it with the Democrats, anyway? These guys just don't get it. There is no point looking for bipartisanship. When it comes to anything the Obama Administration proposes, the Republicans in Congress WILL ... NOT ... COOPERATE.

Hey ... isn't this the same bunch who campaigned in 2008 on the theme "Country First"?

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For Republicans, political priorities trump principles.

2010-05-14T09:30:00.006-10:00

So there was this bill coming up in Congress that would provide federal funding for scientific research, and for more jobs in math and science education. What’s not to like about that?

Nothing … except the Grand Obstructionist Party decided to kill it.

Since they didn't have the votes, how they did it is interesting, not to mention instructive: They attached an amendment to the bill that would prohibit the firing of any federal government employee who watched pornography during working hours.

Get it? Any Democrat voting for the bill, with that amendment included, would be voting in favor of allowing federal employees to look at porn. And you can imagine the attack ads that would mysteriously appear when those Democrats run for re-election this Fall.

Anyway, the Republicans voted against the bill, of course, and they were joined by more than a hundred Democrats who didn’t have the courage to face all those attack ads. And the bill failed.

So the smug Republicans have won. And scientific research and would-be math and science teachers have paid the price.

The next time we hear those Republican politicians spouting off about how much they love this country, let’s try to remember that it’s all bullshit. What they care about more than anything else is screwing Obama and the Democrats so they can win elections.

They … have … no … shame.

You really have to hand it to the Republicans.

2010-04-28T12:54:00.002-10:00

The Democrats introduce a financial reform bill which, among many other things, prohibits the use of tax dollars to bail out banks.

The Republicans loudly object because, they say, the Democrats' bill allows the use of tax dollars to bail out banks.

Then the Republicans introduce their own bill which, they say, prohibits the use of tax dollars to bail out banks.

As my almost-three-year-old granddaughter said when she couldn’t get some pieces of avocado onto her fork, “Slippery little guys, aren’t they!”
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I'll Be Away for Two Weeks

2010-04-20T09:53:00.005-10:00

I'm off in a few hours to attend the annual NARP directors' meeting in Washington, DC.

NARP is the National Association of Railroad Passengers and is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that advocates for a national system of more and better passenger trains of all kinds.

I'll have my laptop and may find time for an occasional post and will be back home on May 6th.

Hedging Their Bets

2010-04-19T10:45:00.008-10:00

Over the past year or so, we’ve been hearing about “hedge funds” and, I confess, I have had no real idea what they were all about. So I asked a financial advisor and got a lengthy and involved answer. Nevertheless, it distilled down to this.

A hedge fund is like a mutual fund, comprised of a number of investments … with one main difference: they are very high risk, but offer very high rewards. Basically, hedge funds are designed for the very, very, very wealthy … people who can affords to risk millions in the hope of making even more millions.

Hedge fund managers are the people who buy and sell within their respective funds. The good ones make many millions of dollars for their investors.

And they get paid very well indeed. How well?

In 2009, which was a crappy year for the vast majority of working Americans, the top 25 hedge fund managers were paid an average of about one billion dollars each. That’s billion with a “B” and that’s for one year’s work. How’s this for a contrast: A rough calculation indicates that much money would pay for 50,000 new teachers for ten years.

And all 41 Senate Republicans say they are going to vote against the financial reform package.

What a disgrace.

The Ideology Stays In Tact, No Matter What

2010-04-16T12:47:00.006-10:00

Let's see ... the economy of the entire globe came close to going into the dumper and everyone agrees that it was greedy Wall Street bosses taking crazy risks that played the major role in the near-disaster.

So the Obama Administration introduces a bill to implement new rules and regulations, along with closer scrutiny by the federal government.

And the Republicans, after first demanding a bi-partisan approach to any new legislation, are once again united in opposing the proposed new law. All 41 senators -- every last mother's son of 'em -- will vote against the bill.

I am not surprised to see the Republicans knee-jerking in opposition to whatever Obama proposes. And it will be delicious watching Republican rising in defense of the Wall Street moguls ... the same bozos who took all those millions in bonuses. But I am continuously astonished that rank-and-file Republicans aren't starting to feel humiliated and deeply embarassed over these selfish and cynical partisan tactics.

What the hell happened to "Country First", folks??
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Well ... OK ... I Guess You Got Me.

2010-04-15T18:08:00.002-10:00

No wonder we don't seem to be convincing any of these people!

Mine Disaster Raises Important Questions

2010-04-12T09:06:00.006-10:00

The loss of 29 lives in a West Virginia coal mine has focused attention on two important issues.

The first is mine safety, of course. That issue has been brought into focus by the news that the mine operator, Massey Energy, has previously been cited many hundreds of times for safety violations. Mine owner, Don Blankenship, clearly doesn’t give a damn – as a practical matter, because paying the fine for most violations is cheaper than fixing the problem, and as an ideological matter, because Blankenship is a red-white-and-blue Tea Party member ... anti-gubmint, anti-union rants at rallies, church socials and bar-mitzvahs a speciality.

The second issue is the right of a miner to join a union. Blankenship has often bragged that he got the union kicked out of his company. It’s easy to guess why. Without the protection of a union contract, how many miners working for a guy like Don Blankenship would be willing to make an official complaint about a safety violation? Right. No one … certainly not anyone who wanted to keep his job.

We can only wonder how many of those 29 coalminers would still be alive if they had been in a union.

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Doing Their Best to Create a Successful Disaster

2010-04-04T01:30:00.010-10:00

The far-right crazies like Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck of Fox 'News' think the 2010 Census is an insidious plot and are urging people not to comply by refusing to fill out most of the information asked for on the census forms.

Bachmann has warned people not to report the number of family members in the household because she’s afraid the government will use that information to round people up and throw them into concentration camps. (Yes, she really did … and you’re right: she’s completely batty.)

Of course, the Census is used by the federal government – and state and local governments, too – to determine how much funding should go to towns and cities and counties and states. Or how many police are needed. Or if a new fire station is warranted. So the people who believe Bachmann or Beck and do as they ask could end up short-changing their own communities. But there’s another wonderful irony to this lunacy because information gathered by the Census is also used to determine if the population of a district has grown enough to warrant an additional state senator or member of Congress.

And, since these loonies are invariably Republicans (with an occasional Libertarian thrown in), guess which political party stands to lose out if any significant number of people do what these ding-bats are asking!

Right! And if that isn’t justice, I don’t know what is.

Be Afraid! Be Very, Very Afraid!

2010-03-30T10:20:00.008-10:00

Some startling numbers have come from a Harris Poll taken the other day, the "lowlights" of which I shall give you here:

* 67% of Republicans think Barack Obama is a socialist.
* 57% of Republicans think he's a Muslim.
* 45% of Republicans think he was NOT born in the United States.
* 38% of Republicans think Obama is doing many of the things that Hitler did.
* 24% of Republicans think Barack Obama could be the anti-Christ.

Personally, I'd guess it would be more accurate to say that this is what these people WANT to think. I mean, such a large percentage of Republican voters couldn't possibly be that ignorant, could they!

Could they??

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Thankfully, this too shall pass.

2010-03-27T09:27:00.011-10:00

There’s a piece in today’s New York Times by Charles M. Blow, a semi-regular columnist. It’s about the Tea Party movement and the ridiculous people who drive it. I found it both funny and reassuring, and have pulled out a couple of excerpts.

First, the funny:

"A woman (Nancy Pelosi) pushed the health care bill through the House. The bill’s most visible and vocal proponents included a gay man (Barney Frank) and a Jew (Anthony Weiner). And the black man in the White House signed the bill into law. It’s enough to make a good old boy go crazy."

And now, referring to the results of a recent poll, the reassuring:

"[Tea Party members are] disproportionately white, evangelical Christian and 'less educated ... than the average Joe and Jane Six-Pack.' This at a time when the country is becoming more diverse … less doctrinally dogmatic, and college enrollment is through the roof. The Tea Party, my friends, is not the future." [Emphasis is mine.]

When you call me that, SMILE!

2010-03-26T10:28:00.009-10:00

Over the past dozen years or so, Republicans have managed to turn the term “liberal” into a pejorative. So we liberals began calling ourselves “progressives” instead. Undaunted and ever ready to spend their time on such vital matters, the Republicans are now busily turning that word into a negative.

Republicans like John Boehner enjoy referring to the “Democrat Party.” It’s Democratic Party, of course, but I guess they do it just to piss us off. (Boehner is going to a lot of unnecessary trouble; he pisses me off before he even opens his mouth.)

Then there’s the issue of abortion. If you agree with the Republicans, you’re “pro-life.” If you don’t, they say you are “pro-abortion.”

This is a lot more insidious and is a deliberate misrepresentation. No one is pro-abortion! Everyone would like to see fewer and fewer abortions. What we do believe is that the decision should be left to the woman, which makes us "pro-choice".

The latest Republican ploy is to label the health care reforms as “ObamaCare” in the hope that the new reforms will prove to be unpopular and a negative for the president. Of course, if the reforms are successful, they’ll start trumpeting the fact that some 145 components to the new law were Republican ideas … prompting the rest of us to say, “But, in that case, how come you voted against it?” And every last miserable one of them did.
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So … Do we detect a pattern here?

2010-03-23T11:50:00.002-10:00

Republicans voted against a woman’s right to vote.

Republicans voted against Lend Lease, which sent ships and weapons to England when they were fighting the Nazis … alone.

Republicans voted against the Marshall Plan, which sent aid to a devastated Europe after World War 2 and is now credited with preventing a Communist take-over.

Republicans voted against Social Security.

Republicans voted against Medicare.

Republicans voted against the Clean Air Act.

Republicans voted against the Clean Water Act.

And now 100% of Republicans in the House and the Senate have voted against health care reform.

How’s that for a consistently lousy track record!
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Quote of the Day from the Would-Be President

2010-03-22T10:55:00.002-10:00

“There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year.”

- John McCain

And exactly how will that be different from the past 18 months, John?
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