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The Pub
Please join me in the pub by clicking on the link at the top of this page (The Pub). This is a place for conversation about politics, sports, religion or anything else that is on your mind. Come on in, introduce yourself and share what you are thinking. The rules of conversation are simple: state your opinions, but be civil and don’t attack other people in The Pub. Write your thoughts in the box at the bottom of this page and click the “submit” button. I look forward to meeting you in The Pub.
Politics: Energy Sustainability and Immigration Reform
Two of the significant issues facing our country are energy sustainability and developing a coherent and compassionate immigration policy. Click on “Politics” on the bar above to read my take, and then add your own comments.
Another Reagan/Bush Legacy
Since 1981 the private sector has been worshiped by Republicans as a god to be left unfettered by government and regulated solely by market forces. Their mission to dismantle regulations, gut enforcement, and destroy the ability of government to protect the people from irresponsible and greed-driven decisions of business was largely successful. We see the results of this shortsighted but popular “the best government is a small government” mentality in the melt down of our financial system and the gulf oil crisis.
President Reagan was fond of saying that “government isn’t the solution, government is the problem”. He pushed through budget cuts and regulatory “reforms” to turn that simplistic slogan into national policy. President Bush II picked up where Reagan left off by slashing enforcement agencies and filling key positions with folks who acted as inside lobbyists for the businesses they were charged with overseeing.
Now, Republican governors, senators and members of congress are trying to lay blame for BP’s spill on the Obama administration. The same “leaders” (who for the last year have relentlessly lambasted Obama for “government takeover” and “irresponsible spending”) are now begging for government money and action. It would be refreshing to hear one of them say that they were wrong… that regulations on business should be strong enough to protect the American people from irresponsible actions, that enforcement agencies should never have been downgraded and need to be strengthened, and that there are national priorities more important than deficit reduction.
What is the True Debt Left to Our Grandchildren?
The United States Chamber of Commerce called the Climate and Energy Bill introduced by Senators Kerry and Lieberman “a work in progress… and too costly for business.” Not one Republican is willing to sign on. I find it apalling that business and Republicans fret about leaving a financial debt to our grandchildren, but they are not at all concerned about leaving them with poisonous air, dirty water, a planet slowly being destroyed by global warming.
Great Ideas have a Lasting Effect
Charlie Blow has an interesting perspective on the 2010 mid-term elections. In his column on The New York Times op-ed page he wrote ”I am convinced that the right may win the day, but the left will win the age. That is because the right is running an intellectually bereft campaign of desperation and disenchantment, amplified by recession. Great recessions don’t last. Great ideas do.”
A Pragmatic Choice
President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court is predictably being pilloried by Republicans as they play to their far-right constituencies. Criticisms from the progressives, however, are short sighted. I sympathize with my fellow liberals’ desire to have a sharp and articulate voice on the left wing of the court, but I’d rather have a member who has the intellect and ability to forge a 5-4 majority decision on issues such as campaign finance reform. She is both a brilliant legal scholar, and an engaging personality. She just might be able to persuade Justice Anthony Kennedy to join what is now a four-person minority.
I Fear Guns in the Hands of Criminals and Terrorists, Senators Fear the NRA
According to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 35 people are murdered daily by guns in America. This is the equivalent of a Virginia Tech massacre every day. “Yet” he said “while some criminals are busy evading background checks at gun shows, Congress continues to turn a blind eye to this glaring gap in our nation’s gun laws.”
That is because their eyes are filled with visions of high rankings from the National Rifle Association… and their hearts filled with fear of NRA opposition.
Ignoring this gap is very bad policy, but advocating the rights of terrorists to purchase guns is irresponsible and absurd. But that is what U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins did in a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Senator Frank Lautenberg sponsored a bill that would prohibit gun sales to people on the FBI terrorist watch list. That sounds to me like a no-brainer. But Graham opposed the bill, saying that “I think you’re going too far here…” and then he shifted his argument to his opposition to giving terrorists captured in the United States their Constitutional rights of a Miranda warning.
So, wrote Gail Collins in the New York Times, if you are on the FBI terrorist watch “the authorities can keep you from getting on a plane but not from purchasing an AK-47.” Graham said this was the case because “when the founders sat down and wrote the Constitution, they didn’t consider flying.” He really said that. He really did.
The consequences of this policy, according to Gail Collins is that “1,119 people on the watch list have been able to purchase weapons over the last six years. One of them bought 50 pounds of military grade explosives.”
I used to believe that Graham and Susan Collins were thoughtful people willing to put partisanship aside and do what is best for America. But the fact is, they are mere partisans eager to oppose and vilify proposals from the President of the United States and their Democratic colleagues, while marching in lock step with the NRA.
Message to Arizona from the Holy Bible
“You are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)
“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien.” (Exodus 22:21).
“The alien who resides among you shall be to you as the citizen among you.” (Leviticus 19:34)
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” (Hebrews 13:2)
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19; Matthew 5,19, 22; Mark 12; Luke 10; Romans 13; James 2)
I don’t see a requirement that the alien referred to in these verses must be “legal”. How do those who hold fast to Leviticus as justification for marginalizing our GLBT brothers and sisters justify turning a blind eye to the Bible when dealing with aliens?
Republican Double Dealing
House Minority Leader John Boehner complained that the “job-killing Democrats (health care) plan does not implement a single GOP reform… they have not incorporated any of the health care reforms Republicans support.” When it was pointed out to him that some of the provisions of the newly-inacted law were quite popular, Boehner responded by saying that any of the good ideas in the law “came from Republicans… they are part of the common sense ideas” offered by Republicans and included in the law. I guess what he means is the following: If you like it, credit the Republicans; whatever you dislike, blame the Democrats.
How is the Economy Treating You?
The first quarter of 2010 has been a bonanza time for the Big Banks: Citigroup recorded a $4.4 billion profit, JPMorgan Chase $3.3 billion, Bank of America $3.2 billion. Goldman Sachs increased profits by 91% over the same quarter last year, coming in with a gain of $3.46 billion. In 2009 the Big Bankers roped in their best-ever paydays, at a total payout of $140 billion. The top 25 hedge fund managers “earned” an average of $1 billion, with the lowest paid getting $350 million. John Paulson took home more than $3billion for the two years preceding the melt down!
What the Pope Could Have Said
I learned a valuable lesson early in my political career: When you make a mistake or a misjudgment, acknowledge it quickly and repair any damage. What the Pope should have said years ago is that “What some priests have done is sinful and the response of the church is shameful. We must repent, both individually and as an institution; we must rid the church of all people in authority who violate the dignity and rights of others; and we must do everything we can to restore to wholeness those who have suffered such egregious harm.”
Unemployment rose to 10.8% Under Ronald Reagan!
In President Reagan’s first year in office, unemployment exceeded 8% so he cut taxes for the rich. In his second year the rate climbed to 10.8%. It wasn’t until he had been in office for 28 months that it dropped back to 8%. The Republicans, of course, blamed President Carter’s policies. Now, with unemployment at 9.7% in President Obama’s 15th month in office, do you think that these same Republicans attribute the high rate to the Bush economic policies? Get real!
Violent Words = Violent Action
A study from the Southern Poverty Law Center showed a growth in the number of extremist hate groups from 149 in 2008 to 512 in 2009, and 127 of them were militia groups. There is, in my opinion, a direct relationship between that increase and the incendiary language spoken on talk radio and in right-wing political sound bites.
Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post that “For decades now, the most serious threat of domestic terrorism has come from the growing ranks of paranoid, anti-government hate groups that draw their inspiration, vocabulary, and anger from the far right… The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly from one direction— the right!
“The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day, and quite regularly at tea party rallies, is calibrated not to inform but to incite. Demagogues scream at people that their government is illegitimate, their country has been taken away, that their elected officails are traitors and their freedom is at risk. They (the Limbaughs and the Becks) have a right to free speech, which I will always defend. But they shouldn’t be surprised if some listeners take them literally.”
The St. Louis Post Dispatch editorial (referenced above) stated that a Southern Poverty Law Center report “warned of potential threats from violent right-wing groups…” The newspaper stated that these groups were encouraged by “incendiary rhetoric employed by politicians and conservative commentators who throw around phrases like ‘take back the country’, ’reload’, ‘anti-American’, or ‘traitor’. Such rhetoric may not be intended to incite violence, but it can further inflame paranoid people on the radical fringe. Words are important. Words have meaning. Words should be used with care…”
Please Join the conversation by writing your comments in the box at the bottom of this page, or going to The Pub (see top of page). Thanks,Bill
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What all of this hate filled rhetoric reminds me of is the small town gossipers,who lie and try to ruin somebody’s reputation using gossip and evil deceit. Christian? Absolutely not. The republican party used religion as a tool for the past 20 years! I actually told many family members and friends that I believed in Jesus Christ but I did not believe in the religion of republicanism.There is so much hypocricy, opportunist who use hate and falsehood rhetoric that I have stopped reading or watching on TV much of the news. The republican party used to be the party of conservatisim. But not today. And I am tired of the anti abortionist and their craziness. I could never have had an abortion myself,but I also recognize that I don’t have the right to dictate my belief on another woman.That decision is between God and the person involved. What all of this boils down to re health care is the status quo and the billions they may not be able to fleece due to human beings and illness. It truly is disgraceful that our country has allowed illness to become a mega profiteering machine. I am tired of the Limbaugh hate and fear rhetoric,because while he becomes wealthier,his followers have become poorer. Same with Fox News,which is actually a talk format. I hope and pray that President O’Bama prevails, and that he is re-elected in 2012. I will work for it!
I’m finding this post an appropriate and well appointed hitching-rail just lately. Thanks to all contributors who are speaking loudly and freely about our troublesome US Congress, the preposterous (if not ironically bitter, Mr. President) environmental disaster that is becoming an oil ’spill’ the size of Ohio in the Gulf of Mexico, and State governments that seem afraid some undocumented ‘other’ is going to steal their toilet paper. The words on this blog have me now turn–as often I do these days–to words by and about Walt Whitman:
The supreme contemporary example of such an inability to feel evil is of course Walt Whitman.
“His favorite occupation,” writes his disciple, Dr. Bucke, seemed to be strolling or sauntering about outdoors by himself, looking at the grass, the trees, the flowers, the vistas of light, the varying aspects of the sky, and listening to the birds, the crickets, the tree frogs, and all the hundreds of natural sounds. It was evident that these things gave him a pleasure far beyond what they give to ordinary people. Until I knew the man,” continues Dr. Bucke, “it had not occurred to me that any one could derive so much absolute happiness from these things as be did. He was very fond of flowers, either wild or cultivated; liked all sorts. I think he admired lilacs and sunflowers just as much as roses. Perhaps, indeed, no man who ever lived liked so many things and disliked so few as Walt Whitman. All natural objects seemed to have a charm for him. All sights and sounds seemed to please him. He appeared to like (and I believe he did like) all the men, women, and children he saw (though I never knew him to say that he liked any one), but each who knew him felt that he liked him or her, and that he liked others also. I never knew him to argue or dispute, and he never spoke about money. He always justified, sometimes playfully, sometimes quite seriously, those who spoke harshly of himself or his writings, and I often thought he even took pleasure in the opposition of enemies. When I first knew [him], I used to think that he watched himself, and would not allow his tongue to give expression to fretfulness, antipathy, complaint, and remonstrance. It did not occur to me as possible that these mental states could be absent in him. After long observation, however, I satisfied myself that such absence or unconsciousness was entirely real. He never spoke deprecatingly of any nationality or class of men, or time in the world’s history, or against any trades or occupations- not even against any animals, insects, or inanimate things, nor any of the laws of nature, nor any of the results of those laws, such as illness, deformity, and death. He never complained or grumbled either at the weather, pain, illness, or anything else. He never swore. He could not very well, since he never spoke in anger and apparently never was angry. He never exhibited fear, and I do not believe he ever felt it.” *
* R.M. BUCKE: Cosmic Consciousness, pp. 182-186, abridged.
I have just finished reading “The Family” by Jeff Sharlett. It contains the history of fundamentalism in the United States and the far reaching arm of a group of very influential politicians of the far right. The Family takes care of its own. “The Family” is right of the fundamentalists in that they follow Jesus and his teachings in light of their own interpretation. The aim is to not only destroy all the social legislation from FDR to the present, but also educate their young by home schooling using materials developed by far right writers. Anyone who does not agree with them obviously is not to be trusted. One of the many troubling aspects is that they have a way of funneling taxpayers’ money into their coffers. It is a most disturbing book and worth reading.