Reality Behind the Debt Crisis

I stopped writing about politics because it was driving me crazy. I decided to bury my head in the sand for a while. That is until I heard about the 39 riders on the the Boehner plan to raise the Debt Ceiling. The Bill was intended to a limited increase in the Debt Ceiling and we would have the whole fight again in a few months. The 39 riders were all about destroying regulation, environmental regulation. De-funding the EPA and gutting the Endangered Species Act are prime Republican targets. If the current class of Republicans and Tea Baggers had their way we would return to the pre-progressive Oligarchy when the wealthiest Americans owned everything, child labor laws did not exist, the environment was pillaged and plundered, factories were death traps, and the food was not fit for human consumption. Why would that be? Because regulation is really there to help the poorest and weakest of our society. The bottom 90% benefit the most from governmental protection. If we want a vision of the Republican Plan we need only to look at China with its lung searing pollution, toxic products and toys, unregulated building codes, and lack of personal liberty.

Yes the Republicans want to unfetter industry, the job creators, but they also want to tell you what you can do with your own body and tell you who you can love.

The Republicans always paint Democrats as tax and spend liberals but a quick search of the debt accumulated in my lifetime reveals the most fiscally prudent Presidents have been Johnson, Nixon and Clinton and the most fiscally reckless have been Ford, Reagan, and both Bushes. I left our Carter because he's somewhere in the middle and I left out Obama because were are only part way through his first term. George W. Bush raised the National Debt from 5.7 Trillion to 10.6 Trillion doubling it in 8 years. Under Bush Senior the Debt nearly doubled from 2.6 to 4.1 Trillion. Under Reagen the National Debt went from 900 Billion to 2.7 Trillion increasing by two thirds. Yes the debt has risen under all of the last 9 presidents but Clinton and Johnson were the best at keeping it under control.

If you want to believe the Republican lies and let the gut all environmental protection then go ahead... I'm looking to move to Canada.

Net Neutrality

Today Nancy Pelosi tweeted this:
House GOP schedule today: defending #DOMA & stopping #NetNeutrality. Not on the agenda: #jobs (http://go.usa.gov/40D).
of course the haters tweeted this:
@NancyPelosi House GOP schedule today defending #DOMA & stopping #NetNeutrality / YES FIGHTING YOUR MARXIST AGENDA SO WE CAN GROW JOBS #TCOT
and this:
@NancyPelosi, not everyone can have a government job like you Pelosi.

So what is Net Neutrality and why all the vitriol? Here are a few FAQs from: Save The Internet

What is Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers may not discriminate between different kinds of content and applications online. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies.

Net Neutrality is the reason the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data—not to choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

Who wants to get rid of Net Neutrality?

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies—including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable—want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all.

They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. And they want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services and streaming video—while slowing down or blocking services offered by their competitors.

These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of a level playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services—or those of big corporations that can afford the steep tolls—and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road.

The big phone and cable companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to gut Net Neutrality, putting the future of the Internet at risk.

What's happening in Congress?

Republicans in the House—aided by millions in political contributions from phone and cable companies—have launched a full-frontal assault against Net Neutrality and the FCC's authority to protect consumers' right to connect. In Early 2011 they introduced several measures to both "defund" the FCC's ability to act as a watchdog against industry abuses and to take away the agency's ability to enforce protections.

So while the thugs in congress, aided by millions in contributions from telecoms, want you to be afraid of net neutrality; the conspiracy machine at Fox News has the ignorant masses, once again, believing what is good regulation is bad. They want you to believe that net neutrality is a Marxist plot against America, which it's not.

Never mind the bullshit surrounding DOMA. The DOJ only said it would not defend the Constitutionality of the law. It DID NOT said it would not enforce the law... The Republicans, once again, are trying to get the public to take their collective eyes of the ball.

Even Mother's Milk Has Become Political

Michelle Obama has taken a lot of flack from the wing-nuts lately. Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann are ganging up on the First Lady because of her efforts to end childhood obesity. Kids who are breast fed are less likely to be obese and Obama wants hospitals and work places to facilitate breast feeding. The IRS recently made breast pumps tax deductible but the ramble on the right can't even put children's health before politics.

However, two Republicans said they stood behind Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign despite crazy conservative charges of "nanny state" leveled by Bachmann, Malkin, and Palin.

Mr. Huckabee, a former fatty said that that obesity is a problem threatening the welfare of the entire country. “What Michelle Obama is proposing is not that the government tells you that you can’t eat dessert,” Mr. Huckabee said. Rather, the first lady wants Americans “to recognize that we have a serious obesity crisis–which we do,” Mr. Huckabee said.

This month Mr. Limbaugh, king of the fat asses, said Mrs. Obama is “requiring what everybody can and can’t eat. She’s demanding that everybody basically eat cardboard and tofu. No calories, no fat, no nothing.”

Mr. Christie, the New Jersey governor, said criticism of the first lady’s campaign is “unnecessary.” “I think it’s a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better,” said who has spoken about his own girth.

“I struggled with my weight for 30 years,” Mr. Christie said Sunday. “If a kid can avoid that… more power to them and I think the first lady is speaking out well.”

It's Not the Budget!

Since the protests in Wisconsin began Rachel Maddow has been trumpeting that it's not the budget it's politics. It's a plan to dismantle the last stronghold of Democratic support. When SCOTUS affirmed that corporations can fund campaigns willy nilly; Republican majorities are secured for the rest of the century.

Now a strange voice is echoing this sentiment... Shepard Smith, from Fox News:

On Wednesday's "Studio B," Shepard Smith said the battle over union rights in Wisconsin was all about busting unions and securing Republican political power, not about the state's budget deficit.

It was a take that placed Smith squarely in agreement with people such as Rachel Maddow, who has repeatedly argued essentially the same thing on her show.

Speaking to a mostly-in-agreement Juan Williams, Smith said the fight was "100 percent politics."

"There is no budget crisis in Wisconsin," he said, adding that the unions "[have] given concessions."

The real point of the fight, Smith said, could be found in the list of the top ten donors to political campaigns. Seven out of the ten donated to Republicans; the other three were unions donating to Democrats.

"Bust the unions, and it's over," Smith said. He then brought up the Koch brothers, the billionaires who have bankrolled much of the anti-union pushback in Wisconsin. The fight, Smith said, "started" with the Kochs, who he said were trying to get a return on the money they donated to Walker's campaign.

"I'm not taking a side on this, I'm just telling you what's going on...to pretend this is about a fiscal crisis in the state of Wisconsin is malarkey," Smith said.

One truth speaker at Fox? I see the four Horsemen on the horizon

Political Theater

With the political pundits in every media outlet looking for winners and losers and with the Republicans calling the whole event political theater, was anything really accomplished?
I'm guessing not but I could barely contain myself when I heard Eric Cantor R-VA speak up and say "the American people have spoken... and they don't want this bill..." I wanted Obama to bitch slap him and say of course not motherfucker, you lied about every part of it. From Death Panels to the carefully crafted talking points calling it a Government Takeover the Repubs pulled out the full arsenal. The Republican's master wordsmith, Frank Luntz, so skillfully framed the talking points that even the media began to use them. Let's review Republican tactics:

•Jim DeMint R-SC says: "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
•Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant Governor of NY coins the term "Death Panels"
•Sarah Palin popularizes the term "Death Panels"
•All Republicans follow lock step with Luntz' term "Government Takeover"
•American learn they can substitute SOCIALIST for N****R
•Tea Party is started by Texas Republican Dick Armey
•Obama's face with Hitler mustache, apparently Tea Baggers don't know the difference between Socialism and Fascism...
•Republican Plan non-existent until recently...

I am surprised Obama kept his cool. Will anything change probably not. Was it political theater, of course. People on the right will follow what their talking heads said and people on the left will do the same. Most folks will vote against their own best interest and nothing will change...

RNC Chair an Idiot

Michael Steele, Republican Idiot, say the Dems are running for the hills. Never mind the fact that only 3 democrats are retiring while 6 republicans are retiring. Since twice as many republicans are retiring compared to democrats does that mean they are already in the hills?

I guess another way to look at it would be 5% of democrats are running for the hills and 14% or republicans are running for the hills. Either way I think Evan Bayh, who was leading his opponent by 20 points, is a pussy. If you don't like something you work to change it not quit!

It's Good to Know That Politics As Usual is Still an Appropriate Cliché

Check this out and tell your friends Sen Shelby R-Al had put a blanket hold on all Obama nominations...