Words to Remember ... and Think About.

"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.

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The Republicans have finally done it: I’m speechless!

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.

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

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??"

Nailed It, Didn't She!

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

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?

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Why Are Hypocrites Like Ralph Reed and Ginni Thomas Taken Seriously?

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.

There are liars, damn liars, and Pawlenty of them.

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!

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

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 *

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Why Aren't More People Really Angry About This?

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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Solving Our Problems Is Easy … But Almost Impossible

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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You really have to hand it to the Republicans.

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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The Ideology Stays In Tact, No Matter What

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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Thankfully, this too shall pass.

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!

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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Frankly, My Dears, He Doesn’t Give a Damn.

People who care about such mundane things as a Supreme Court that is above politics are distressed about Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Count Justice Clarence Thomas.

This woman, who’s been publicly involved in the extreme right wing Tea Party movement, has now founded – not simply joined, but founded -- a lobbying organization that will use it’s web site to organize people around core conservative principles.

It seems to me that when someone is elevated to the highest court in our land, he or she would, at the very least, try to avoid the appearance of political partisanship. Justice Thomas, who carries a log-size chip on his shoulder, clearly doesn’t care.