OK, I’ll say it again, I REALLY WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SUCCEED! If you’ve been on this site much before, you probably can anticipate what’s coming next – and you’re right – I’m going to criticize our new President (I wanted to use the term “blast,” but I don’t think it’s quite time for that yet – but, if you read this and agree at all with my thoughts, please write to him – maybe if enough people write, he will start acting like the candidate we all voted for – or, at least thought we were voting for). There’s about three things in particular I want to “get off of my chest” these last couple of days before I encounter an extended time of rehab for a major surgery that all I can tell you assuredly that I’m MOST THANKFUL TO NOT BE AMONG THE 50 MILLION AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE! First is President Obama’s performance (or lack thereof) as a leader in getting our troops out of the “mistaken occupation” of Iraq. The second is his continued support of the “State’s Secret” policy used by the Bush administration to hide their (and possibly his) illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, and the last is – well, you guessed it – my TOTAL DISCOURAGEMENT with the fact I voted for a President who is willing to ignore WAR CRIMES! (there’s more, but read some of my previous posts if you want a broader range of my unhappiness with our new President).

OK, today is June 30th – “Iraqi Freedom day” – that is, the day the Iraqi’s and the Bush administration agreed that the “surge” would effectively come to an end. And, it’s true that the surge accomplished one important thing – it reduced the level of violence in many of the worst neighborhoods in Iraq (what it didn’t do was cause the Sunni, Shia, and Kurds to reconcile – in any way). Essentially, the Americans started paying the Iraqi Sunni’s to stop shooting at them and to start cleaning up the “Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia” mess – that no one, particulary the Iraqi’s themselves, liked. Al Qaeda was not only killing people, they were doing it in the most brutal and disgusting manor, so that the Iraqi’s themselves finally aligned with the Americans, who they despised, to quash them. In the process, the Americans armed something in excess of 100,000 Iraqi Sunni’s – who still hate and distrust the Iraqi Shia. And, it wouldn’t take a brain scientist to figure out that the Iraqi Shia (the sect that essentially controls the government) doesn’t trust the Sunni Awakening, which consists of many of the “lieutenants” of Saddam Hussein’s Republican guard. In addition to paying the Sunni’s to stop shooting at Americans and to fight Al Qaeda, the Americans essentially moved into the neighborhoods that were the most violent and put themselves between the warring factions. Essentially, the Americans focused on protecting the Iraqi’s instead of terrorizing them as they had for the first 4 years of the occupation – IT’S WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING FROM DAY ONE – but the damage from the previous four years had been done, and the Iraqi’s wanted (and want) the Americans, understandably, out of their country. Iraqi Freedom day signifies the day when the Iraqi’s took over the control of their own country.

Now, I’m not totally naive. There are still 130,000 American troops in Iraq and if violence intensifies I wouldn’t expect them to sit idly by and watch the country go into a civil war. Based on what I’ve read, it’s the presence of the American troops in these neighborhoods which is preventing this from happening and our military leaders are predicting that our presence, realistically, needs to be there for another ten to twenty years. UGHHH! Well, getting back to President Obama. He campaigned – and quite convincingly – that he would get our troops home in 16 months. Realistically, for that to happen he would have to have started the pullout shortly after taking office. He’s been in office for nearly six months now and we still have the “pre-surge” number of troops in Iraq – and, I haven’t heard anything about a “time-table” to get them out – other than the Iraqi’s are to vote in July, I believe, about getting ALL Americans out of THEIR country by the end of July 2010. At one brigade a month (which is what I’ve heard would be a reasonable time frame for moving out) that isn’t possible – I believe there’s something like 15 brigades still over there. Plus, in the next month or so, the Iraqi’s are going to be “in control” and I am curious what President Obama will do if the sectarian violence escalates again (keep in mind, Osama bin Laden would like nothing better than to have the U.S. bogged down in an endless conflict in a Shia nation – so, I’m guessing he’ll try to “stir” things up a bit).

So far, in my view, Obama has shown little to no leadership on this issue. It appears to me that he’s just waiting for the time frame established by President Bush to guide us out of there (with the caveat that he’s already stated that he wants to leave 50,000 “no-combat” troops over there). Here’s how it looks to me – by following the Bush timetable Obama can avoid a “fight” with Republicans over the Iraq issue – so he can concentrate on other things, as he might say. THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE TO ME! I would have never voted for him had I known how he was going to deal with this. Honestly, it would be less discouraging for me to have some Republican in office than to have the Democrat I voted for “cow-towning” to Republicans – the people who inflicted this horrendous misadventure on us all. We are continuing to spend huge amounts of money on something that is tearing this nation apart – I realize Iraq has moved from the front page of the news because of the economy – BUT WE’RE STILL SPENDING 10+ BILLION PER MONTH ON AN ILLEGAL OCCUPATION! Yes, it’s long past time for the Iraqi’s to solve their own problems and as long as we stay there, the Sunni and Shia will not have to figure out how to “get along.” Whatever the final outcome is going to be, it won’t be dictated by us – and I would have thought (and I trusted) that President Obama “got that.”

My second problem with President Obama is his continuation of the Bush wiretapping of Americans. Recently I read an article in “The Washington Spectator” regarding the “Al-Haramain v. Bush” lawsuit which has been brought by lawyers for a (now defunct) Islamic charity that was located in Portland, Oregon and which re-affirms what I’ve been “harping” about since shortly after President Obama took office. The “gist” of the case is that the Bush administration labled this charity a “terrorist” organization (or something along those lines) based on wiretapping evidence that was clearly in violation of the FISA satutes of 1978. Now, everyone knows that Bush and company violated that statute an undetermined number of times (probably at least in the thousands – but, who knows given the data-mining capability that they developed during their administration). The penalty for each violation (it’s a felony) is 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. I don’t know if you remember President Bush, on national TV, stating that if the government listens to a phone converstation “They need a warrant.” Well, as in other instances, President Bush was perfectly willing to adhere to the “Nixon doctrine” that “If the President does it, it must be legal.”

Sadly, President Obama seems to be going along with this. In the case of the Al-Haramain case President Obama (now, I know it’s his justice department arguing the cases, but – come on – President Obama is a constitutional scholar, we know who’s calling the “shots” here) is taking the identical stance as President Bush and claiming the “States Secrets” doctrine prevents the lawyers for Al-Haramain from presenting evidence in court which would prove their case. It seems the lawyers were inadvertently mailed copies of phone logs which show that phone calls to them had been intercepted and listened to, illegally, by the federal government. In fact, these lawyers have stated in court that if the government will just show their FISA warrant, the case will be over. Of course, they haven’t shown it, because they didn’t get it, and therefore they are using this states secret doctrine to protect themselves from the legal consequences of violating this law. As much as I want President Bush to be held accountable for his illegal activities I DON’T WANT PRESIDENT OBAMA TO BE FOLLOWING HIS LEAD. If President Obama continues to protect Bush on this one (the case will be resumed in September), as far as I’m concerned, he becomes just as guilty.

It says in the article I read that there is no evidence they could find that President Obama is continuing the Bush wiretapping policies. But, I’m saying right here, that why else would he defend this unconstitutional activity in court? I believe the NSA is still “data-mining” phone calls and emails, just as they were doing under Bush at the end of his term. Now, if you remember, Obama inexplicably voted in favor of the FISA bill in Congress during the campaign, saying he would “fix” it once in office. Well, just as in his Iraq complicity, I believe the same thing is happening with the wiretapping. And, if this becomes public knowledge, President Obama could be terribly weakened as far as his public support. WE REALLY ARE EXPECTING SOMETHING – A LOT – DIFFERENT!

Ok, I’ll end this with my disgust with President Obama’s refusal to hold the Bush administration accountable for torture. I’m almost done reading “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” and it is disgusting what America has been doing during this so-called “War on Terror” whatever that is. The treatment of prisoners (many of whom should never have been in custody in the first place) happened very consistently in Abu Ghraib, in Afganistan, in Guantanamo, and in other parts of the world. Prisoners have been abused in the most deplorable of ways and an undetermined number of them have been killed through torture. It’s like we are becoming like the people we are supposed to be against. I was listening to a radio show the other day – the Ed Schultz show – and I had an interesting thought. Schultz, if you haven’t listened to him, is a real “blue collar” kind of guy. To me, he’s usually “right on” (keep in mind, I was a sawmill worker before I became a teacher) and he was questioning why President Obama wasn’t more assertive in the campaign to have a “Public Option” included in the health plan. Schultz was comparing President Obama’s responses to questions with the responses of Republicans like Charles Grassley and Lindsay Graham who, when asked about whether or not there will be a public option in the final health care bill, flatly stated NO! President Obama and his surrogates seem to have difficulty with using yes or no answers. They continually “beat around the bush” suggesting to people like me – and Mr. Schultz – that the Republcans are still weilding WAY TOO MUCH POWER – seeing as how they are down to 40 members of the Senate.

My thought: the reason Obama seems so un-assertive on this issue is BECAUSE HE IS! The evidence is mounting up to support that being the case. As I’ve stated in previous posts, the Republican’s main argument about Democrats is that they are weak. Unfortunately, I’m feeling like President Obama is falling into that trap as he tries to “reach across the isle. The fact that he won’t allow prosecution of the Bush administration for torture (and other crimes), the support of the State Secrets doctrine regarding the illegal wiretapping, and the apparent lack of courage to just get our troops out of Iraq are almost overwhelming evidence to me that THERE WON’T BE A PUBLIC OPTION in the health care bill, if there is a bill at all. In fact, I’m anticipating that I will be paying a tax on the health care benefits that I receive from my employer when all is said and done – now, if you don’t remember who’s proposal that was – it was JOHN MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL during the last campaign. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT, WE VOTED FOR OBAMA, BUT WE’RE STILL IN IRAQ (MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL), WE’RE STILL WIRETAPPING (MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL), AND WE’RE LIKELY TO HAVE MCCAIN’S PROPOSAL FOR HEALTH CARE!

All of this is very discouraging to me (and I believe the general tone of what is happening is permeating the other issues, such as global warming and the economy) where I’m seeing a President who should be castagating Republicans for the malfeasance they’ve put on ALL OF US – but, instead, seems to have this overwhelming desire to “bring people together.” I’ll say it once more – the way to bring people together is to make a stand on principle that restores the ideals of this nation. Being “nice” to Republicans will go NOWHERE! Regarding the condoning of torture (and make no mistake about it, by “looking the other way” President Obama is condoning it – no matter what he says. Remember, Republicans will be back, and the way Obama’s going about this it will be “sooner rather than later”) – when we allow our government to condone torture, we, as a people, are condoning torture! And, if you don’t understand how disgusting we were during the Bush years, read “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” and keep in mind that the orders for what these soldiers were doing came from the White House – and, the same kind of stuff (and worse) was happening in several other places around the globe.

I often find myself in a precarious position politically. I absolutely believe that Jesus Christ lived and died for the benefit of all mankind. When I read the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible, I find it difficult to understand how someone could profess belief in them and still put their faith in politicians of the Republican party (I should probably say, any politician). I realize that as Christians we are called to be responsible and to respect the authority of the state (at least that’s the interpretation I’ve made), but I was sitting in Church this week and the scripture that was “preached” on really motivated me to write. It reminded me of what was going on with the Bush administration (and is still going on with the Republican leadership). I have many times complained about the corruption of the Republicans (remember, this blog was motivated by my disgust with President Bush’s response to the 9/ll attacks – lying us into war which led to war profiteering by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others, “shredding” our constitution justified by “keeping us safe,” and ransacking our economy to the tune of Trillions of dollars while saying they were “reducing the size of government”), mostly because of my frustration with the Iraq occupation.

I have alternately felt frustration (that has bordered on anger) with the Bush administration and with the FACT that their main support comes from CHRISTIANS! I have often struggled to find any reason why a Christian would support what they were doing. They were lying (en masse), stealing (in Iraq and at home), murdering (Cheney’s “death squad” to name one), and torturing – almost gleefully! Yuck! I realized all along that most Christians I know support Republicans because they associate them with “anti-abortion” – despite the fact Republcans have been “in charge” for a large part of the past 30 years and have done nothing (and intend to do nothing in my view) to stop it. In fact, as I wrote earlier, I don’t believe abortions will be stopped by reversing Roe which is the dream of all these Republicans, that would just move it to the “back rooms” as it was before Roe and create more danger for women’s health (the “It would serve them right crowd would be OK with that, but not me – and I don’t think Jesus either!). One thing that I do agree with President Obama on is the call to figure out how to minimize the demand for abortions. But I digress.

So, it bothers me that Christians aren’t paying attention to what the government is doing and just blindly supporting anything that has the endorsement of these (what I see as evil) Republicans. This is the kind of support that brought Hitler to power in the 1930’s (isn’t it ironic that there are some Republicans comparing Obama to Hitler – evidence that you can twist the meaning of words quite easily – and I’m trying not to do that tonight). So, I’m sitting in church and my pastor quotes from the book of Titus. Titus is a young man who is “enlisted” by Paul (If you haven’t read the Bible, Paul is the Jewish convert – chosen by God – who is preaching the “Gospel” to the Gentiles – people like me – and he is responsible for much of the New Testament besides the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – which contain the story of Jesus’ life) to confront the “Cretans who are liars, evil brutes, and lazy gluttons.” He is telling Titus that this behavior is wrong and you can’t just “look the other way” (remind you of Obama and torture?) and Paul gives Titus a very clear and direct message.

“Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” Now, if you are not a believer in Christ – I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU! As the saying goes, “please disregard this message!” :o) But, just think about Mark Sanford for one – I mean he’s the most recent. As it says “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.” I’m not one who feels like my leaders have to “Claim to know God,” but, if they do, I expect their actions to reflect that belief. And, as a Christian, I feel that people like Sanford, Bush, Ensign, Gingrich, Limbaugh, and others do more to turn people off to Christianity than anyone.

As a Christian you are supposed to try to set an example that would encourage others to “follow Christ.” For me, Christianity is a great help in teaching me how to live my own life. But, IT IS PERSONAL. For you, it would be different than it is for me – that is, you could listen to the same sermon as me and get something entirely different out of it – based on your own personal needs. But, the point of this weeks sermon at church was that if you do profess belief in Christ and your actions bely that belief, you need to be REBUKED! Now, don’t get me wrong – we are all sinners – but if you look at someone like Sanford, the guy is such an incredible hypocrite that it’s disgusting. And, he’s not back from his vendetta in Argentina one day before he starts quoting scripture (about David) as justification for keeping his job as Governor of South Carolina – the job he went AWOL on for 6 days, leaving all kinds of possible potential crises in the “lurch.” I mean, the guy seems pitiful to me – and he needs to be REBUKED! Yes, he should be able to “rebuild” his life, but he should do it in a different capacity than Governor of South Carolina.

And, then there’s George W Bush. The guy really made a point that he was a “believer.” And, the right wing Christian Community just went along with everything he did. He lied us into war, he oversaw an incredible “bilking” of our economic system (which included the unthinkable war profiteering that not only went on in Iraq, but was perpetuated by Bush and his associates – to the tune of Billions of dollars), he showed disregard for human life (I guess for those already born) as, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands perished because of his misadventure in Iraq, he showed his purely “evil” side by authorizing the most obcene forms of torture – seemingly delighting in it, and he violated the very constitution that he swore to defend! Well, based on the book of Titus, George W Bush should be REBUKED, BIG TIME! (he was, by the voters) And, it shouldn’t be the “non-believers” doing it, it should be those who seemingly form his “base,” The Christian Community! Yet, they continue to support him and, I’m sure, would be disgusted with my thoughts. But, I have no problem REBUKING Bush, Sanford, and any other “Christian” who takes delight in lying, being “evil brutes” (ie torture), and being lazy gluttons (that is, lying around the pool and waiting for your stock portfolio to go up).

Now, as I wrote yesterday, I wish we had political leaders who would actually call these people on this stuff. It’s not too hard to recommend that Governor Sanford resign, and there are many voices expressing that view. But, where were all these voices when Bush was destroying the fabric of this nation – it should have come from the so-called “Christian Right” not from what they term “the liberals.” What Bush was doing was wrong according to the very book that we, as Christians, base our beliefs. It is absurd to expect credibility when you are condoning hypocricy! As Christians, we need to be the ones who REBUKE where the Republican party (Ok, I could write another post about Democrats – but it just wouldn’t support the point I’m trying to make) is at in order to hope that it would change and regain its place as the opposition (and possibly the majority) party in our system. These people like Bush, Sanford, Ensign, Limbaugh, Gingrich, Palin, and Rove should all be REBUKED for “their actions deny Him” – the very one they profess “guides their actions.” I wish President Obama would lead the way in this by enforcing our laws against torture – I’m not sure if that would relieve the “need” I feel to do so, but it “couldn’t hurt” as the saying goes. The bottom line to me is that if you’re going to claim to believe the Bible, you should act accordingly – especially for people who want to be leaders! (and, let me just add one last thing for anyone who tends toward the legalistic side and might read this – before you quote Old Testament scripture to me – read the Gospels! Christ was all about LOVE and REACHING OUT TO THE POOR!)

This feels, as I’m sitting here beginning to write, like a night of “I hope I’m wrongs.” I feel like I need to take a break from “bashing” Republicans (it seems like I could do that endlessly) and take a closer look at President Obama. As I’ve said over and over on this site I HOPE PRESIDENT OBAMA SUCCEEDS! I’ve been waiting over 40 years for a President that I could energetically support – and, for me, I did during the campaign. I sent him money, I read his books and shared them with others, I listened intently to his message of “hope,” and I trusted that he would follow through on his MAIN campaign promises – which I took to be, ending the war in Iraq in 16 months (I never dreamed that “ending” the war – I should call it an occupation, I don’t think anyone in Washington knows who the “enemy” is to this day – would include leaving 50,000 troops there indefinitely), restoring sanity to our economy, FIXING THE FISA BILL (I was promised this in an email from his campaign staff), holding members of the Bush administration accountable (we were all promised this when he said “No one is above the law in America”), ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” policy in the military, and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice – to name a few (the main ones which stuck with me).

As I stated on a post the other night, I “get” that American Presidents make promises they can’t (and don’t intend to) keep during the heat of the campaign. However, I’ve also stated many times that I’ve been waiting for over 40 years for something different. I was pretty sure it was going to be President Obama. I cried the night he was elected. Waiting for his inauguration I got a good chance to meditate on the severity of the problems he would inherit (Bush was almost AWOL during the last year or so of his Presidency – especially the last 6 months) – and they were growing every day with the federal government seemingly incapable of “fighting back,” which just made matters worse. I listened to President elect Obama say all the right things (from my perspective) – but there were a couple things I greatly miscalculated which would have tempered my excitement (and, since the inauguration – have). Actually, the first red flag for me was when then Senator Obama voted for the FISA bill which gave retro-active immunity to the Telecom companies (I believe mainly ATT&T and Verizon) who had been allowing the Bush administration to essentially listen in to any phone conversation taking place in America and read any email. Obviously, they weren’t listening to or reading all of them, but they were developing super-computers with sophisticated software which could “data-mine” huge volumes of “data” giving the federal government a free pass beyond the fourth amendment of our constitution.

When I discovered that President Obama continued this program once in office and actually defended the Bush position in court I said to myself, “No more money until I figure this out” (Obama’s team continues to solicit contributions now that he’s in office – none coming from me). As an aside, I’m still wondering where is MoveOn.org and the other so-called “progressive” groups in calling Obama on this – for me, obviously, a BIG ONE! I really don’t want my granddaughter having her phone conversations monitered by our government – and I fear that many in Washington are just accepting this as a necessary result of the “War on Terror.” Ughhh!

The second “red flag” for me was the constant attempts to placate Republicans, in an attempt to gain “bi-partisanship,” seemingly with a willingness to risk his relationship with his own base. Well, this has led to more discouragement for me. Let’s start with the “stimulus” bill. After reading reports saying that the infrastructure of America (roads, bridges, etc.) needed about 2.2 Trillion dollars of investment to bring it up to code (after years of neglect) I thought, “There’s the ticket out of this economic downturn” – which is the worst one in my liftetime. President Obama did get a stimulus bill passed, but in his effort for “bi-partisanship” he accepted almost 300 billion in unneeded tax cuts (I hardly notice mine) and included only 100 Billion toward rebuilding our infrastructure. I said to myself, “It’s a start” and I’m sure there will be more to follow (and I truly hope there will be).

I liked how President Obama dealt with the auto makers, demanding critical changes to how they operate in return for the loans designed to keep them “afloat.” And, like everything else, I REALLY HOPE this one works out. There are millions of American workers who make up our auto industry and it’s one of the last bastions of manufacturing in this great nation – IT’S IMPERATIVE TO KEEP IT GOING. And, while much of their problems came from mismanagement over the years – the truth is that the Wall Street “meltdown” was at the root of their problems. When credit dried up in this country, it made it next to impossible for our auto makers to survive. It looks like Ford may make it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually they go the same route as Chrysler and GM. The point is, the Obama administration didn’t just throw money at Detroit and hope some of it would “stick.” Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about what they did with the Wall Street banks – which brings up another issue that has me on “pause” in my support of President Obama.

When I look at his economic advisors, what I see are remnants of Wall Street and the philosophy which created this mess in the first place. I remember criticizing Hank Paulsen (Bush’s Treasury secretary) because of his connection to Goldman Sachs and how his “intervention” seemed to come at a time when Goldman was potentially “on the ropes.” If you remember, Bear Stearns had been snapped up in a very questionable deal by JP Morgan Chase (who later reaped the benefits of a run on Washington Mutual) with the Federal Reserve essentially guaranteeing the investment for Chase (who purchased Bear for $2 per share), then Paulsen inexplicably let Lehman Brothers fail (as many felt he should have done with Bear), and all hell broke out on Wall Street. The rumors, as I remember it were that Goldman and Morgan Stanley were next. Of course, I can only imagine how much Paulsen had invested in Goldman (he was the CEO just two years earlier prior to his stint as Treasury Secretary) – but that is when Paulsen rammed through the TARP bailout of $700 billion, originally intended to purchase the “toxic” assets (I’m not sure how they were termed assets) of these banks which were considered “too big to fail.” Paulsen “threw” about $350 Billion at these Wall Street firms in a period of three or four weeks – with little if any restrictions and less oversight.

Well, the reason I point all this out is because President Obama chose Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary – presumably because he understood the “meltdown” better than anyone else – and Larry Summers as his chief economic advisor. The problem I’ve had with that from day one is that Summers was a key figure in the Clinton administration when much of the regulation governing the financial industry was “gutted,” and Geithner was the head of the New York “Fed” and there is little doubt in my mind that he was right in the middle of all the “stuff” which “backfired” on all of these banks. He too is connected to Goldman and basically, I’m not feeling that Geithner and Summers are going to lead us to the “change we can believe in” regarding our economy. I’ve heard reports that the federal government has made promises to these “too big to fail” companies that put the taxpayers at risk for something like 11-12 TRILLION dollars! – that’s with a T! I am very concerned that President Obama is leading us right back into the false economy we’ve been dealing with for the past 30+ years. It appears that he is very comfortable with many of the policies of the Clinton administration – and while I was happy with the surplus achieved under Clinton – some of his decisions on deregulation were like huge green lights to these greedy, ME FIRST Wall Streeters and their Republican base. I’m not looking for “business as usual,” an economy whose health is measured by the Dow Jones Industrial average – but one that is measured by the health of our middle class, the rising wages of our workforce, companies being rewarded for “green” initiative and loyalty to their workforce. I’m really tired of the brutal attitude in business – I would like to see a return to REAL FAMILY VALUES in this country where the workforce is the backbone of the company – not the shareholders. In other words, I’d like President Obama to lead us back into a time where people earn their money the old fashion way – by working for it. We have a consumer based economy because we’ve sat idly by as one company after another moves their operation overseas in an effort to reduce labor costs – mainly to increase shareholder value – leading those at the “top” to receive obscene salaries and justify them by pointing out how much money the shareholders made.

The problem with all of that is to have a consumer based economy you need consumers. And, when consumers don’t have money to spend, BIG PROBLEMS FOLLOW – and, personally, I feel we are far from “out of the woods” on this recession which still could make it to the depression stage in my opinion. Unemployment, by all measures I’ve been able to find, is expected to exceed 10% nationally by the end of this year and still be climbing – it’s something like 14% in Michigan and 12% in Oregon, two of the states I’m familiar with – and, if you counted EVERYONE out of work, my guess is that the rate would already be well above the 10% figure as I’m writing this. I’m saying this because I believe people will give President Obama about another six months before they start getting too critical of his initiatives if they’re not working. In my mind, he should be working on another infusion of government money into infrastructure RIGHT NOW! Six months from now could be too late.

OK, there’s two of my concerns about President Obama’s first 6 months in office which I believe could magnify into problems which could determine whether or not he succeeds (as I want) or fails (as Limbaugh and virtually every other Republican wants). The Republicans, as I’ve stated here since well before Obama was inaugurated are not going to agree to anything he wants. So, his reaching out to them has been a big problem for me – and he continues to do that. I think he’s trying to be some kind of a combination of Reagan and Lincoln – and I’m concerned that it will eventually bring him down – that is, make him a one term President. I’m not going to go into great detail with my next concern because I’ve done so on several of my earlier posts – but President Obama’s refusal (I used to call it reluctance) to investigate the Bush administration and prosecute any illegal activities IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND! He promised that this would take place and that “No one in America is above the law” – I heard him say that with my own ears. For me, this is a deal breaker. It sets such a horrible precedent for the future of this nation that I will not be able to vote for Obama again should he continue this illegal behavior. I say it’s illegal because he took an oath to uphold the constitution and enforce the laws of this great land. By turning his back on clear legal violations he’s doing the unthinkable as far as I’m concerned. According to the Geneva Conventions, if you are a national leader and you’re aware of torture taking place YOU HAVE TO PROSECUTE IT! IT’S NOT AN OPTION! Obama is being a total politician on this one and our children and grandchildren could be paying for this for generations to come. I can’t even believe I’m writing this – President Obama is a constitutional expert! THERE IS NO EXCUSE HERE!

Failing to keep his promise regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” and the Defense of Marriage act will potentially alienate the gay community and those of us who believe that our civil rights should belong to everyone, his continuance of the Bush wiretapping policy could alienate many like me if it becomes common knowledge (he’s doing a good job of keeping it off of the nightly news), the fact the troops aren’t coming home could alienate many more (although Obama could luck out on this one and the Iraqi’s themselves might kick us out), the refusal to hold Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove/Rice/Addington/Wolfowitz/Feith and the others accountable for war (and other) crimes may undermine much of his support, especially if the economy doesn’t rebound. And, even if the economy does rebound, if we end up with “more of the same” there are many (again like me) who won’t vote for Obama out of principle. While it’s true that most politicians don’t keep their promises and they vote the interests of the corporations who have “bought” them, I expected something different from President Obama – I expected him to be a statesman who had the courage to stand up to the dregs who have been bringing this nation to her knees for the sake of insane profits. In his first 6 months in office, I’m seeing signs that Obama is more of a politician than a statesman! Again, I HOPE I’M WRONG!

OK, I know I have to write about Governor Sanford of South Carolina (hopefully, soon to be former Governor Sanfrod) because I’ve been writing about what hypocrits the leaders of the Republican party are since I started this blog and he’s put himself right at or near the top. Governor Sanford, if you haven’t been paying attention is one of the self-righteous Republican governors who tried to refuse the stimulus money from the federal government. Of course, he wasn’t going to refuse all of it – in his case just the money which would have helped to keep teachers employed in South Carolina’s public education system (which already ranks toward the bottom in the country and surely would get closer to the bottom – I believe the bottom is Mississippi – without the federal aide) – you know, the Republican’s agenda puts destroying our public education system at the top of their “to do” list. Their vision is for the disadvantaged children in this country to grow up without a first class education – and they hide their intentions in a bill titled “No Child Left Behind.” And, on top of all this, Sanford was one of the leading candidates for the Republican party’s Presidential nomination for 2012 (Oh, yes – I forgot to mention – while he was criticizing Democrats as being “immoral” he was sneaking off on the taxpayers expense to rondevous with his girlfriend in Argentina of all places).

Based on the other leaders of the party (Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich) having an affair shouldn’t disqualify Sanford from his political dreams, but he might have to wait a few years like Gingrich, after his dismissal from the House, and Limbaugh, after his viagra and oxycontin fiasco in the Caribbean did before they could reclaim their positions as leaders of the Republican party (Well, now that I think of it, I really believe Limbaugh’s elevation of late is a first – at the time of his arrest for abusing prescripition pain killers he was considered no more than the bloviating blowhard that he really is – I don’t think anyone took him too seriously until GW Bush screwed things up royally). Actually, I don’t think Sanford’s affair compares to Gingrich meeting his wife as she is rolled out from Cancer surgery and informing her he’s divorcing her to marry another woman – I mean that is a topper! I can’t think of anyone doing something more mean-spirited than that, which I’m sure is why Republicans love Gingrich. If he’ll treat a wife like that, just think what he might do to Democrats (don’t you like how they function in private whil eschewing in public they’re the “party of family values”).

Seriously, I could care less about governor Sanford’s personal life – as you might be able to guess – there’s no way I would ever vote for the guy even if he was faithful to his wife. I just found it interesting that he disappeared for 5 or 6 days over Father’s day weekend (the man’s got 4 boys), all the while lying to his staff, using public money to pay for his jaunts to Argentina to be with his mistress, and then trying to lie his way out of it when he’s caught at the airport coming back into the country – In Georgia of all places. So, the fact that he went AWOL from his job as Governor of a state and used public money to carry on an affair – these are the things that bother me the most – shouldn’t this man have legal issues? Fortunately for him, we live in a country where public officials don’t have to answer for breaking the law. I can tell you this though, as a public school teacher (you know the kind of person he was trying to put out of business by refusing the stimulus money) I would lose my job if I did either one of those things – and you have to really screw up to lose your job as a teacher after you’ve been there for awhile.

Sanford can use the Cheney defense if and when he gets accused of any crime. If you’re a high government official we just look the other way, and in this case, he probably only skimmed a few thousand from the books for his plane ticket and hotel in Buenos Aires – I doubt that he stayed at his mistresses house. And, this all gets me back to the thing that I’ve been trying to “hammer” home for several months now – and this goes straight to President Obama – you can’t be selective in enforcing the laws of this great land. Obama has chosen to look the other way regarding the admitted torturing authorized by the Bush administration. I’m reading a book right now titled “The Ballad of Abu Ghraib” by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris which makes me even more angry that our leaders are letting this disgusting saga kind of disappear into the sunset. The problem with that line of thinking is I don’t believe it’s going to disappear – there’s a lot more to the story than what’s come out so far and sooner or later it’s all going to come out (Obama’s not going to look good if he doesn’t deal with this beforehand).

These Republicans are daring Democrats to stand up to them, and the Democrats keep folding like a cheap tent one time after another. And, President Obama has a lot of tough decisions laying in front of him and these guys (Republicans) are going to be in opposition – EVERY STEP OF THE WAY! Abu Ghraib’s abuses were clearly ordered from above – according to the book I”m reading, the suspicion is that the orders came from the very top – at least the Vice President’s office and very probably the White House. What was done in Abu Ghraib was disgusting, but the most disgusting part of it to me was the fact that a few untrained, overtaxed, well-meaning soldiers are or have been in Leavenworth while the real “culprits” are not only “walking free,” in the case of Dick Cheney – going around defending the policy of torture and making ridiculous claims about the Obama administration that SHOULD NOT GO UNANSWERED!

I realize President Obama is focused on health care and energy as the focul points of his agenda – and is still holding out some kind of hope that he can get “bi-parisan” support for his pet issues. Who is standing in the way – TIME AND AGAIN – it’s those disgusting Republicans. If there’s a decent one in their midst you wouldn’t know it because the one thing you (well, I guess I really mean I) have to give them credit for is sticking together. They ran Arlen Specter right out of the party for “turning on them” and voting his “conscience” (if he has one) on the so-called Stimulus bill. They honestly remind me of a herd of sheep as they bunch up around whoever is at the podium for their capital hill news conferences – where one of them gives the “party line” while the rest stand behind the spokesperson nodding like a bunch of bobble head dolls. I know President Obama isn’t going to listen to me, but the best way to get bi-partisan support from Republicans is to allow the investigation of the Bush administration which will accomplish two things. First, it will shut up Cheney and now President Bush himself (who’s starting to follow Cheney’s lead in trying to salvage the Bush legacy by lying their way into the history books) along with the rest of them (Rove, Addington, et al) who would need to start worrying about legal problems instead of causing problems for Obama. Second, this would send a message to the rest of the Republicans (and, hopefully to any Democrats as well who are putting themselves above the laws of this great nation) that we are a nation of laws and not men and that when he said “No one is above the law” in the campaign President Obama really meant it.

Here’s the problem President Obama is facing right now. The Republicans always considered him weak and ill-prepared for the job at hand (I’m not sure if they even understand now what a job they left him with) and now Democrats are starting to question some of his decisions because he’s not following through on some of his campaign pledges. OK, I know that this is always the case with Presidents, but Obama had a different campaign and his supporters expect different decisions from him. There are many more besides me who EXPECT OBAMA TO FULFILL HIS CAMPAIGN PLEDGES. He needs to start with the investigations of the Bush administration (and Obama is so “into” the health care debate that I don’t think this is even an issue for him anymore – WHICH IS A HUGE MISTAKE!), he needs to “fix” the FISA legislation (which he promised ME during the campaign when I complained about his astonishingly discouraging support of the Bush FISA bill), he needs to follow through on his pledge to end the “Don’t ask Don’t tell” policy in our military which is siphoning off one highly qualified person after another, he needs to get our troops home from Iraq (there’s still over 130,000 there with no sign of them coming home – except for the Iraqi’s forcing us out) – in general President Obama needs to quit waffling on these issues because if he loses the support of even 10% of his “base” he will struggle to get re-elected.

I can’t imagine the Republicans will end up running someone like Sanford or Senator Ensign (the two unfaithful candidates) or Sarah Palin – despite the FACT she can see Russsia from her front porch (or whatever she claimed) or even Gingrich. I pointed this out about 6 months ago and I’m getting more confident that I might be on to something as every day passes and as these potential candidates keep eliminating themselves – in 2012, if Obama seems vulnerable at all (and, unless he changes this reluctance to go after the lawbreaking Bush crowd – he will be vulnerable), LOOK FOR THE NEXT BUSH – Jeb Bush is in the background – and, I believe the Republicans are setting traps for Obama; Cheney and GW are going around trying to convince everyone they weren’t so bad – “THEY KEPT US SAFE” (I’m sure, under their breath when they say that they mumble, “except for 9/11”), and they are going to start pushing the “good Bush” on us within the next year. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! :o)

These guys think the American people are stupid. I think that there is a large portion of Americans, like myself, who just long for someone to act like Americans are supposed to act – in theory. Now, this – I’m sure – is a bit idealistic and naive – but the alternative that the Republicans have been cramming down our throats for the better part of the past 30 years is destroying this nation. We have the opportunity to totally change the direction of this great country, and President Obama has the right ideas and many of his supporters are eager for a rational energy policy, national health care, a first class commitment to the education of our children and grandchildren, a sensible and peace first foreign policy which doesn’t thrive on depriving third world countries of their natural resources at the benefit of our multi-national corporations, and an economy which is balanced and a national debt which is shrinking (doesn’t that sound conservative?). The only way President Obama should be reaching out to Republicans (like Sanford, Cheney, and GW Bush) is to recommend good legal counsel. Governor Sanford, Vice President Cheney. and former President Bush are not only hypocrites, they are criminals!

Most of my ranting has been aimed at Republicans (and justifiably so, in my opinion). I mean they HAVE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY for bludgeoning our economy, almost destroying it (and It’s still in desperate straights as far as I’m concerned – the jury’s still out as to whether President Obama has the “right stuff” to fix it – I’m not sure even he understands how damaged it is) – they got us mired into two wars, one which should have ended in around 6 months with the capture or death of Osama bin Laden and the other which was originally predicted to end in 6 months and will probably only end when the Iraqi’s themselves kick us out of thier country, and possibly worse than all of that – they treated our constitution as a document with virtually no meaning. The wiretapping, the torture, the lying to Congress, the refusal to answer subpoenas, the outing of a CIA agent, the war profiteering, the signing statements, and I could go on have left a legacy of shame and disrespect for that great document which this nation has rested on for over 200 years. The early years of the 21st Century in America have been reprehensible; we voted “the bums” in (actually, the Supreme Court did – but, this is not Iran – therefore, we just accepted that debacle), consequently we’re all accountable – and, I believe, in the election of 2008 America decided it was time to do something about it. It felt, for the first time in many years (at least to me) that America was ready to re-claim her ideals – no matter how imaginary they might be.

I have been writing about Republicans because they, simply put (at least their ostensible leaders) disgust me – it’s therapeudic. On top of all the abuses listed above, they constantly come across as selfish, racist, and mean spirited. They are devoid of ideas, and they seem to be able to do only three things now that they’ve lost “power:” vote ‘no’ on every intitiative offered up in Congress, propose more tax cuts for the wealthy, and stir up the right wing fringe in an attempt to undermine everything the new President is trying to accomplish. All of this, to me, is disgusting and is leading our great nation into second class status. I mean, the leaders of the Republicans – Rush Limbaugh (can you believe this? But polls actually suggest he’s the leader as much as anyone else), Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, Dick Cheney, Eric Cantor and others are suggesting that they would prefer more of the Bush philosophy to President Obama’s attempts at “righting the ship.” They consider a stimulus package (in the face of 10% unemployment – and still rising) designed to create working class jobs, “socialism” (despite the fact they were throwing money at large corporations like there was an endless supply of taxpayer dollars in order to save the people who originally caused the problems), and they oppose EVERY initiative before Congress designed to restore sanity to our nation’s economy.

So, it’s mid 2009 AND THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN! WE WANT CHANGE! We have a new President, a Democratic Congress, and a national will which is “behind” the new President in almost unprecedented numbers. President Obama has accomplished alot in his first five months, make no mistake about that, but there is much left to do (and, keep in mind that I’ve stated my unhappiness with President Obama’s reluctance to fight back against the Republican assault on our constitution and our legal system – but that’s a story for another time). And the big issue on the “plate” right now, gets me to my point of the evening – the issue is HEALTH CARE REFORM – and my point is DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS.

It has become clear that President Obama’s “centerpiece” legislation is health care reform. It’s hard to argue against the importance of solving this problem – both from the issue of health insurance for the general population and the issue of the looming medicare crisis. I am convinced that the reason Obama is not pursuing accountability of the Bush administration is because he feels it would undermine his attempts to get health care reform passed (I heartily disagree – but I will accept that President Obama had a much higher standing in his college class than I did in mine :o). And, there is one reason this may be true – DEMOCRATS. This is very frustrating as it all becomes more clear to me. We have a Democratic President, both houses of Congress are solidly in Democratic control, and the national population is strongly (70+%) in favor of the health care reform President Obama is “pushing,” and yet most “experts” give him less than a 50/50 chance of getting a bill signed by the end of the year.

In fact, many of the so-called experts that I’ve heard have gone so far as to suggest that if President Obama gets anything passed, it will be watered down to the point that it will pretty much leave the system that is destroying our economy “in tact.” This seems so unbelievable to me, but when I double check what I’m hearing from as many perspectives as I have time – I keep coming up with the same problem – DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS! Actually, it appears that it’s Democrats in the Senate. Despite all of the political “capital” mentioned above (I mean just the thought that 70+% of the American people want a “government option” in whatever they come up with is astonishing to me in its own right) most “experts” believe that the “Blue-dog Democrats” are going to undermine the whole process. THIS IS BEYOND COMPREHENSION! These guys (and gals) are going to publicly display – in the worst light – how much they are beholden to the special interest lobby of the insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical industry. It’s time for President Obama to treat them exactly as I’m suggesting he treat the Republicans – PUBLICLY TAKE THEM ON – VERY AGRESSIVELY!

I mean, how do you explain to the electorate that you couldn’t get your centerpiece legislation passed with a near super majority in both houses of Congress along with well over two-thirds of the public on your side? YOU HAVE TO PUT THESE GUYS IN THE NEWS – MAKE SURE EVERY AMERICAN UNDERSTANDS WHO IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. I live right across the Columbia River from Oregon. Oregon has a Senator, Ron Wyden, who I have always looked up to as one of the people in the Senate who had maintained his independence. BOY HAVE I BEEN STUPID ON THIS ONE. Senator Wyden has made his own healthcare proposal – that he shields in claims that “I won’t let the health industry stop this reform this time” – a proposal which seems to me to be an attempt to get something that can be called reform and, at the same time, do minimal damage to the insurance industry which is apparently giving the Senator enough campaign contributions to convince him that the “public option” is a bad idea. There are about 10 or 11 Democratic Senators who fall into the same category as Wyden, and the one thing that is consistent with all of them is the large health industry support – in millions of dollars – for their campaigns. In fact, one of them, Senator Max Baukus of Montana – who is a VIP in this process due to the committee he chairs – has received, from what I’ve been able to find out, several million dollars in campaign contributions from insurance companies and other interests related to health care. He is leading the “charge” against a “public option.”

What is a public option? Well, the idea – which, again, has merit in the eyes of about three out of every four Americans – is that once this reform is completed the consumer will be able to purchase health care from private insurers or from a public medicare-like insurance company run by the government. Those who oppose this option do so because they claim it would wipe out the private insurers – they won’t be able to compete with the government plan. To that, I would say – if they can’t compete, then those who are calling for a single payer system right now are correct. It would also validate those who claim that going to a single payer system should be gradual – and if the “government option” does put private companies out of business that would lead to a gradual shift to the single payer option.

Personally, I believe that once you get everyone insured – mandatory – and you eliminate the need for insurance companies to be spending large sums of administrative costs on figuring out how to NOT PAY CLAIMS, OR NOT INSURE PEOPLE they should be able to compete with the government run program – especially, if the government is as inefficient as most Republicans would have us believe. As a consumer, I feel that having the option will cause both the private companies and the government run operation to compete and it should increase efficiency in both cases. And, even if there has to be a “tax increase” to pay for this, people like me are paying upwards of $15,000 per year to insure their families already and I can’t imagine that any tax increase would be higher than that – that is, for those of us who have health insurance – we conceivably could be paying significantly less. The reality is that those of us who are insured are paying for those of us that aren’t ALREADY! An example of what I mean that is “close to home” for me: A good friend of mine recently needed emergency surgery which essentially saved his life. He was in the hospital for about 4 or 5 days and had a significant surgery. The hospital bill alone was over $30,000 and he was anticipating the doctor charges would be somewhere approaching $20,000. I’m not sure if those numbers are accurate, but what I am sure of is that without insurance that is an amount of money which most Americans (my friend included) can’t afford to just throw into the budget. Essentially, there are hospital “charities” that pay these bills and they are funded by the over-charging of patients who go to the hospital with insurance. So, a public option will only spread the cost of health care to everyone – whether they like it or not. And, believe me – just like medicare taxes – once the system is in place for a few years we will adapt to whatever taxes are needed to fund it and those of us who are paying these huge premiums right now will be paying less “in the long run.” And those who constantly complain about taxes will continue to complain, they’ll just be covered should they have a medical problem in the future.

Getting back to my main point of the evening, this all sounds so practical as I’m sitting here writing that it makes me even more disgusted with these Democrats in the Senate who are sold out to the private insurance companies and the other health care providers who are concerned that their “gravy train” might be coming to an end. When I try to rationalize in my own mind why members of his own party would undermine the key component of his attempt to revitalize our nation’s economy – in the face of overwhelming BIPARISAN public support – I can come to no other conclusion than these Senators have been BOUGHT by the health care industy (Ron Wyden included). Here’s some of the “fallout” from their actions: First (and worst for me): I believe that this could explain why President Obama is not pursuing accountability for the torture issue – if you’re not sure how I make the connection, make a comment and I’ll explain it. Next: This is forcing Obama to “reach out” to Republicans who should be getting “what for” and , instead, are getting a relevence they don’t deserve. And last: this could conceivably undermine the Medicare debate that is imminent and could empower the Republicans who would love nothing better than to see the end of Medicare. All because these Democrats have gotten themselves into positions where the healthcare industry is (presumably) dictating their actions. Do you remember Congressman Jefferson from Louisiana who was storing his “campiagn” contributions in his freezer? Well, maybe we should be checking the freezers of some of these Senate Democrats who are willing to undermine healthcare reform!

As I’ve said many times, I want President Obama TO SUCCEED. I feel a bit uneasy in criticizing him because he’s getting it from all sides at this point, and I’m very concerned that his “honeymoon” is about to be over. The last thing we need at this point in time is a President that is perceived to be weak. And, it’s not the perception of those around the world, who I believe are even more encouraged than many Americans about the possibilities with an Obama administration, it’s the news media, the right wing, and – eventually – the Democratic party that need to be kept “in line.” Whether we like it or not, the system we have is the system we have. So, to “change” it requires one to be realistic about what you’re dealing with.

I don’t presume to be one who should be giving President Obama advice, but it appears to me that he has surrounded himself with people from the “old guard” – you know, the thing we wanted to change. On top of that, it seems to me that President Obama is going out of his way to “reach across the isle” in an attempt to “bring people together.” In my mind, while the objective is admirable, the strategy (or at least what appears to be the strategy) is impracticle. There are several things (some I’ve mentioned many times already in previous posts) that need to be done differently for Obama to circumvent the Republicans who are setting him up to be another Jimmy Carter in perception. And, keep in mind, I really felt that Jimmy Carter was one of the better Presidents in my lifetime. The public perception, to this day, is that Carter was weak (mostly because of the Iran hostage situation), but had we “stayed the course” with some of his economic policies – namely the CAFE standards he implemented which Reagan repealed – we’d all be in better shape today.

This is where the news media and the right wing come into the picture. The Republicans have been on a propaganda binge for 30+ years which they are showing no signs of giving up, and the media is showing no signs of exposing what they’re doing – the lying seems to be uncontested. About the only place you can “vet” what they’re saying is on the internet, and most Americans just don’t have the time, and it still hasn’t sunk in to them how dishonest these politicians are (and, believe me, I’m not giving Democrats a pass here – they are just a lot less sofisticated about their lying). We REALLY WANT TO BELIEVE IN OUR LEADERS. This is why President Obama has such an opportunity, but also why he’s in such a precarious position. Most Americans really do want “change we can believe in.” But, it will take someone who is very assertive and determined, and someone who is standing firm on the principles that a majority of Americans believe is the “fabric” of this nation.

I will state this again for the I have no idea how manyith time, President Obama is not going to get any support from Republicans until he proves that he can stand up to their leaders. HE HAS TO SHUT UP THE BUSH/CHENEY crowd once and for all. Their constant criticism of him will ultimately undermine his entire administration – remember, these Republicans are looking at a generation or two of being in the background – if not obscurity – if Obama “succeeds.” They are NOT going to “work with him” on anything. HE IS GOING TO HAVE TO PASS HIS AGENDA OVER THEIR OBJECTIONS AND COUNT ON HIS POLICIES WORKING in order to succeed. The first step (well, it can’t be the first step because it’s already too late for that) is to not only allow, but to encourage, the investigations of the wrongdoing of the Bush administration. I’m going to say it right here, if President Obama lets their transgressions go he will be a one term President. Many might say, well, his popularity is over 60% – but, I would remind you that at one point GW Bush was close to 80+% after 9/11.

And, trust me on this one, should there be another attack on the US, you won’t see the Republicans lining up behind Obama as he deals with the crisis like everyone did with Bush following 9/11. In fact, they are trying to set President Obama up for something like this, so they can ring down their “I told you so’s” – almost as if they’re rooting for something like that to happen. Additionally, the so-called “left wing media” (here’s a great example of the Republican propoganda machine – they’ve been calling the media {which they’ve quietly been taking almost total control of} “left wing” for so long that even the right wingers in the media believe this – it’s shameful) refuses to confront these Republican liars – in fact, they have become part of the caucus, so to speak. These guys spew out the “talking points” that come out of the caucus as if they are Republican staffers. This is SO DANGEROUS to our Democracy – AND CALLS FOR STRONG ACTION BY THE OPPOSITION.

Unfortunately, the opposition is made up of a bunch of Politicians who have taken money from the same corporations who own the Republicans, and they seem to just obediently be willing to go along with the “way things are.” I mean, Nancy Pelosi – inexplicably – took impeachment off of the table for possibly the most corrupt administration in history – and believe me, there are many Americans who will never “get” how bad the Bush administration was unless our leaders in Washington hold them accountable. And, you have Harry Reid, who backs down at the threat of filibuster. It’s been many years since I’ve seen a Senate leader actually force the opposition to stand up and speak until they couldn’t speak anymore. They’ve just caved to the idea that good legislation gets held hostage to a minority of 41 – AND NOTHING CHANGES IN AMERICA.

I’m trying not to digress too much, but the health care issue gives everyone a good idea of the major problem in Washington. Something like 59% of Americans are in favor of a single payor health insurance run by the government. The percentage is higher for those who at least want there to be a national health care policy with a public option – that is, I can choose to keep my Blue Cross, or I can choose to go with the medicare like public option. Certainly, no one except the insurance companies and maybe the for profit hospitals object to getting better health care in this country for substantially less money. This one would seem like a no-brainer. However, that’s without considering how much money the long time members of the Congress have received from insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other health care interests (remember, the person who negotiated the medicare bill under Bush – the one where medicare couldn’t negotiate the price of drugs – received over ONE BILLION DOLLARS for his efforts). Even Ron Widen, the Senator from Oregon (Democrat) who I thought was above this, has introduced a bill for health care that shows his “connection” to the health care industry, and then he promotes it by saying he’s not going to let the health care industry stop “reform” this time. And Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana, has taken millions from the health care industry and he’s trying to stop the public option ostensibly at their behest.

So, President Obama faces a formidable task – no one questions that. I can’t imagine a President coming into office under worst circumstances. However, that doesn’t change the realities of American politics. I admire that he wants to change the climate in Washington. I just don’t think he can do it the way he’s going about things. Job number one is to “call” the Republican party on their misdeeds. If President Obama continues to look the other way regarding torture, and all the other abuses that happened under Bush, he will slowly loose his own party on key issues. THERE IS A LOT OF MONEY OUT THERE WHICH CORPORATIONS WOULD BE HAPPY TO SPEND IF THEY THINK THEY CAN SUCCEED IN UNDERMINING HIM. Make no mistake about that. And, unfortunately, Obama is not blessed with a strong group in Congress behind him. They have shown themselves to be almost cowardly on many issues. Obama shouldn’t even have had to deal with the issue of Iraq – Congress should have pulled the funds under Bush after the Dems took over – but they didn’t have the guts to do it (and it looks like the only way we’ll get out of Iraq is at the demand of the Iraqi’s). In addition to that, the reason there’s so much debate on the health care proposals, is because President Obama doesn’t have the support of many in his own party. I’ll say it one more time (probably not the last) Until President Obama confronts the Republicans with investigations of Bush he will not have full support of Democrats. He’s running out of time!

This morning as I was driving to work listening to the local “Progressive” talk radio, I got another glimpse of where President Obama is maybe heading in the wrong direction. I hesitate to spend a lot of time criticizing him due to the deluge of criticism he receives no matter what he does from the extreme “right” – mainly what’s left of the Republican party. However, I keep telling myself that no matter how “nasty” those guys (the Republicans that is) get, I’m not going to rubber stamp this President just as I wouldn’t rubber stamp his predecessor. I often feel like I’m “beating a dead horse” so to speak, because I know Obama’s not listening and I know much of what I’m probably going to say tonight has been said, almost ad nauseum, by me and others. It’s just that I feel there are some mistakes being made that will linger on for a long time if “we” don’t get through to our President (and soon).

The “host” of the radio show I listen to is an openly gay man who, understandably, has a vested interest in all the “gay rights” issues in the news of late. The repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in the military is high on this guy’s (and mine, when I think about it) list of priorities that he’d like to see happen immediately if not sooner. Personally, I don’t have a huge investment in the gay agenda due to the fact it doesn’t personally affect me, but when I think about it, in the 21st century for our nation to be discriminating against any group makes no sense AT ALL! I have to be honest here, I live in a very small, conservative area and don’t get out much :o). When I go to the “big city” – which for me is Portland, Oregon – I get real uncomfortable when I’m around gay men or lesbians who are openly being affectionate to one another. Upon reflection, it doesn’t affect me in any way – and I’m reminded, as a Christian, “Don’t judge, lest ye be judged.” So, personally, I’ve come to the point that I believe when our Bill of Rights says “All” it means “All” and it’s time that we “All” accept that. We need to start living up to our ideals – IN EVERY RESPECT!

So, the topic this morning was how the Obama administration’s Justice Department had made a brief last week supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, one of the many bills signed by Bill Clinton that should give “liberals” pause as to his “agenda,” which prevents gays from being married in one state and then moving to another state and having the marriage recognized. While it’s truly hard for me to understand why two men would want to get married (I’m just trying to be transparent here) – this law seems absurd to me. However, I “get” the argument that the Justice Department has to defend the laws as they are written and it’s up to Congress to change them, but I do agree with the radio host (I believe his name is Carl Wolfson) that the language used in their “brief” was unnecessary and offensive. I’m paraphrasing, but if I heard them right, the Justice department compared gay marriage between two consenting adults to things like pedophelia, incest, and I can’t remember what else. I also “get” that President Obama can’t be everywhere and his administration consists of thousands of employees so I’m sure he didn’t “vet” the wording of the brief, but he’d better get a “handle” on this one quickly. Obama made a lot of clear promises during his campaign which he’s not apparently keeping – and I’m going to give some examples (but I have to make my main point first).

What this issue brought to mind was how virtually none of us are immune from hypocrisy. In President Obama’s case, he needs to be very careful, because there is a significant number of Americans who will not support him regardless of his decisions because the sad reality is there are still a lot of racists in America – I’m estimating somewhere approaching 25% of the population. So President Obama must be judiscious in living up to his promises to the constituency which elected him to office. Here’s the rub with what I heard this morning – and it’s not the first time I’ve been “rubbed” in this manner by President Obama. His Justice department makes the claim, supported by his spokesperson, that they are obligated to enforce the laws as they are written. In this case, even though they don’t agree with the Defense of Marriage Act, they have to support it in court until Congress changes the law. OK, I GET THAT, BUT WHAT ABOUT TORTURE?

If they are going to be so diligent in supporting a law which they apparently disagree with, WHY CAN’T THEY ENFORCE ONE THAT THEY SUPPOSEDLY AGREE WITH? This makes not a bit of sense to me, and it’s causing me to re-evaluate my support for our President. I’ve stopped giving him money, I’ve written him about this (with no response – I get responses from Republicans when I write to them), I even talked the guy from MoveOn.org’s ear off the other day when he called soliciting money – pointing out that I don’t understand why MoveOn is seemingly “rubber stamping” the President. I told him the same thing – no more money from me as long as Dick Cheney is allowed to go around on national TV and “brag” about committing war crimes, IN MY NAME (and yours too, if you want to know the truth about this), and President Obama stubbornly “looks the other way.” His justice department has been in court now on at least two occasions defending the indefensible – the Defense of Marriage Act mentioned above, and they also have taken the Bush “States Secrets” defense to court in defending the warrantless wiretapping that went on during the Bush years (AND IS STILL GOING ON TODAY – OBAMA IS TAKING OWNERSHIP OF THAT AS WELL!)

But they can’t bring themselves to prosecute the most heinous acts of our government in my lifetime. That, I DON’T GET! But, talk about hypocrisy – claiming they have to defend the laws on the one hand, and then essentially saying, because the crimes were committed by a President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, head of CIA, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and all their “legal” counsel – IT APPARENTLY DOESN’T COUNT! Despite all of Obama’s rhetoric to the contrary, I’m taking this to mean that gay people can just buck up and wait until the system plays itself out, and if Congress ever gets its act together, he’ll sign a bill giving this group of people the same rights that everyone else enjoys. Coming from a person of African descent, I find this logic a bit startling – and, then on top of that, he’s a constitutional expert who taught constitutional law at one of the most prestigious universities in our great nation.

We have scores of decorated military personell being “fired” from the various branches of the service – some of them irreplaceable due to their ability to speak fluent Arabic – during this time in our history when we’re bogged down in two occupations in countries where being able to speak Arabic is a HUGE PLUS! – BECAUSE THEY TOLD THE TRUTH, FINALLY. My dearest friends have a son who has “come out” as “gay” and, while I’m personally struggling to understand this, it grieves my heart thinking that he is being discriminated against because of who he is. President Obama, from my understanding, could change most of this – by at least placing a moretoriam on enforcement of these laws like the absurd “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which is weakening our already stretched military, with a stroke of a pen by executive order. Curiously, President Obama chooses to enforce laws against gays and not enforce laws against torture!

I’m sitting here tonight trying to figure out how any forward thinking American could call themselves a Republican these days.  Well, I think I have an idea based on the fact I’m married to one.  WE DON’T TALK ABOUT POLITICS.  I know several other people who call themselves Republicans, and each and everyone of them tells me they don’t like to talk about what’s going on in the “World,” and they’re too busy to worry about politics.  In their minds Republican stands for “Pro-Life” and that’s the end of the story.  They don’t like Barack Obama because they view him in the light of all the vile emails that have circulated in the circles of anyone associated with conservative Religion in this country.  I love many of these people (most importantly, my wife), but I’m concerned that if they don’t start paying attention to what Republicans are actually doing and saying, they will have to take some sort of accountability for what is happnening in our society (in the unlikely event that the Republicans can some how resurrect themselves.

Here’s what’s bothering me about Republicans.  First of all, many of the so-called “leaders” are inciting the fringe elements of our society – with trajic results already, and this is going to get worse unless ALL OF US – DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, AND INDEPENDENTS (like me) – demand a stop to the hateful rhetoric.  Calling our President a muslim “who took his oath on the Koran” is despicable, not because I have anything against Muslims, but because it’s such a ridiculous lie.  As is the claim that Obama is not an American citizen.  These kinds of comments are racist at their foundation and all of us need to stand against this kind of crap.  Also, President Obama is not a socialist, communist, or fascist (In fact, the closest thing to a fascist that I’ve seen in my lifetime of following politics in the US is Dick Cheney – the definition of fascism is ” a radical and authoritarian nationalism for a political ideology – and a corporatist economic ideology.  Fascists advocate the creation of a single party state” – hence the “Permananent Republican majority”).  Much to my dismay, President Obama is, I guess, what must be called a left-leaning centrist.  He’s making WAY TOO MANY OVERTURES TO THE RIGHT for my liking.  The fact that he’s trying to stimulate our economy with government created investment in infrastructure should be something we all chear after the Bush disaster left our economy in a state of ruin.  That’s not socialism, that’s pragmatic common sense.  And, from my perspective, there should have been a lot more “stimulus” and a lot less (none actually) tax cuts.  So, to the Republicans, stop with the racist, dishonest, vile rhetoric that could increase the sense of tragedy we already feel due to the acts of violence committed already by nut jobs on the right who listen to Republican propoganda on the radio and Fox “News.”  This is reducing your ranks, not increasing them.

Next, it would be nice to hear something resembling ideas coming from Republicans – instead of a constant barrage of “No’s” regarding anything the government is trying to do at this point in time.  Rush Limbaugh has clearly stated that he hopes Obama “fails.”  Any thoughtful person understands why he would say this.  He’s concerned that if Obama succeeds, the Republicans could be a minority party for another 40 years, just as it happened after the crash of 1929 (they really screwed things up during the Bush years).  Well, based on the way him and the others at the “helm” are speaking, I believe he could end up being right.  I mean why would anyone want the President of the United States to fail.  I didn’t want President Bush to fail (even though I loathed each day he was in office).  What I wanted President Bush to do was to change his approach to governing and focus on the “least among us” (see my post from a few days ago).  I wanted President Bush to stop listening to my phone calls (well, data mining isn’t exactly listening to my phone calls, but it could be depending on what I say, and it’s a clear violation of the FISA law and the fourth amendment to the constitution), get our troops out of Iraq – the largest foreign policy blunder in the history of this nation, and to stop bankrupting our nation with tax cuts for wealthy people while our troops were stuck in a quagmire with insufficient armor and equipment – just to list a few of my objections to what he was doing.  I actually wanted President Bush to succeed, he just wouldn’t listen to my suggestions.

Considering the mess we’re all in because of decisions made during the Bush years, can you imagine how bad it could get if Obama does fail.  Is power that important to these Republicans that they would undermine our own government in an attempt to be able to say “I told you so?”  It almost sounds as if they are rooting for another terrorist attack.  Now, the Bush administration destablized the middle east to the point that I can’t imagine how difficult it will be for President Obama to turn things around and President Bush installed incompetent people to run the department of Homeland Security – but I guess Limbaugh and the others are counting on Americans having a short memory should something bad (which they seem to be rooting for) happen.  In addition, by inciting the fringe crazies who live among us, it seems as if they’re trying to make it as difficult as possible for our own security forces – ie the FBI, police, and the aforementioned homeland security department – to prevent these tragic murderous attacks on people associated with President Obama – rightly or wrongly associated.  (I mean there’s a rumor going around that Obama’s going to take everyone’s guns – I know several people who I consider good people who absolutely believe that – and I have not been able to convince them otherwise).  Along these lines, the other day I actually heard (with my own ears) Rush Limbaugh suggest that the 88 year old white supremist with a history of right wing lunacy (should have had his guns taken away) of being a “LIBERAL.”  Limbaugh, with the possible exception of Alberto Gonzales, is the biggest liar I’ve ever heard (and, as a 6th grade teacher, I’m sorry to say I’ve heard a lot of HUGE liars in my day – you don’t get as concerned when it’s an 11 year old kid).  The problem, as I see it, is that Limbaugh has a few million (dwindling, according to the reports I’ve heard) “ditto heads” who actually believe he tells the truth – unbelievable (but true) to me!

OK, that gets me to my final point – the lying.  I know that it seems to be an accepted “fact of life” that politicians lie in our country (after following the recent election in Iran and other international news, I don’t think we have a stranglehold on this problem), but these Republicans have pushed this disgusting reality WAY TOO FAR!  Yes, we all see things from our own perspectives, and we are all hypocrits to a certain degree – I get that.  But, these Republican leaders seem to have no conscience when it comes to lying.  The impression I get is that the only thing important to them is their agenda which was derailed by the incompetence of GW Bush and company.  They seem to be having a hard time accepting that they brought this obscurity which seems to be closing in around them on themselves.  In fact, they just seem to think that they can continue their “plan” as if nothing happened – and their removal from office MUST BE TEMPORARY – because they were so close to fulfilling Karl Rove’s dream of a permanent Republican majority (see the definition of fascism above – isn’t it ironic that he was instrumental in upending the “plan”).

To summarize – the Republicans (and Bush) got us into the Iraq occupation which threatens to bankrupt our nation (and, thank God, it appears that the Iraqi’s themselves may be the ones to get us out of this mess by voting to “move up the date” for departure to July of 2010.  I can only hope this is true, because I’m not too impressed with President Obama’s commitment to getting our troops home).  To listen to Republicans now, The US involvement in Iraq is  still a good idea and we should “stay the course” until the Shia and Sunni become allies – in direct contradiction to the Bible that many of these Republicans profess to read. 

Dick Cheney is going around saying that President Obama is making us less safe by closing the Guantanamo torture center and by rejecting torture as an “enhanced interrogation technique.”  That, in itself, should marginalize these thugs from any moralistic leaning American (especially the ones who take the time to read even the smallest part of the torture memos – explaining what we were doing) – but the Republican “faithful” seem to be like a heard of sheep, and go along with this kind of criminal behavior without question – of course, all of what Cheney is saying is lies, I don’t have enough time to go into the details, but suffice it to say that President Obama should be encouraging prosecution of Cheney and anyone else who participated in this reprehensible policy – a policy which only accomplished turning billions of people around the world against the US while gaining not a shread of evidence to stop the so-called “war on terror.”

Republicans, en masse, are criticizing Obama for the Wall Street bailouts – and while he deserves a measure of criticism because he was a Senator when the original policy was enacted – the reality is that it was put in place by President Bush via Treasury Secretary (at the time) Henry Paulsen.  They continually criticize Obama, as if the government is taking over every business in the country.  Well, I was never a supporter of the bank bailouts (you can check my posts from the time to verify that if you think I’m lying :o), but at least President Obama is not giving the money away “Carte Blanche.”  Paulsen was dishing this money out as if throwing money at the problem would solve it.  Obama and his “team” are putting “strings” on the money which I believe is what the Republicans are really complaining about.  That’s, to them, government interference.  They are happy to get the money, they just want to be able to do with it as they please.  It will be interesting to see how the “loans” from the Obama administration to GM and Chrysler turn out.  I mean some Republicans have already been quoted as urging people NOT TO BUY AMERICAN made cars!  Can you believe that?  Now, that in itself, is a good example of where their interests lie.  Paulsen gave about 30 Billion to Chrysler and GM, while Obama is forcing both companies to “re-invent” themselves before they get a “handout” (really loans) from his administration.  The Republicans will now want both of these corporations to fail, because otherwise it will look as if President Obama has succeeded.

So, these bailouts are a good example of how Republicans twist things with no regard for the truth.  The problems leading to the “bailouts” were caused by them, the original “bailouts” were conceived by them, and now they want to blame them on President Obama – again trusting Americans to have an incredibly short “attention span.”  I don’t think this is going to work, and, unless a real leader emerges from their ranks, someone who can tell something at least resembling the truth, someone who’s willing to admit that they’ve been screwing up for years, someone who rejects the idea that tax cuts for the wealthy is the “best policy,” someone who respects the constitution and those who enforce it, and someone who’s willing to take on the inciteful thugs like Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, Beck, Savage, Boehner, Sanford, Palin, and essentially the rest of the “leadership” as it exists today, the Republican party is headed for the history books.  And, if a respectable leader can’t be found who can call himself a Republican (remember, Cheney himself said he would prefer Limbaugh to Colin Powell as a leader) – then, as Americans, we are in desperate need of a third party.  I am no more comfortable with a permanent Democratic majority than I would have been with a Republican one!

If you’ve been on this site before it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out that I’m pretty disgusted with the Republcan party.  What I’m not sure that I’ve made clear is my belief that we need a viable Republican party.  I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and I remember finishing our conversation (he’s a Republican) by telling him that the Republican party is headed for oblivion unless they can repudiate these fringe crazies who are taking “free speech” to the breaking point.  Recently I’ve heard more and more of the vile rhetoric that is polluting the airwaves – mostly coming from some people who are unbelievable to me.  And, people like my friend just assume that some of them are always telling the truth.

 For example, he’s convinced that the media really does have the so-called “liberal bias” that the Republicans have included as a main theme in their propoganda campaign since the early 80’s (despite the fact that 90% of the radio airwaves are controlled by conservatives and the media conglomerates that control the TV airwaves are concentrated mainly in Republican leaning “hands”).  Their theory, I’m sure, is that if you repeat something over and over enough times and in enough places, people start to think “It must be true.”  Worse than that, these heinous liars start to believe their own lies after a while – which just makes them more vile.  I think some of them – who are essentially calling for the “death” (I heard one of them use that term tonight as I was driving home from work) of President Obama, actually consider themselves patriots.  What is happening is the groundwork is being laid for an actual fight for what this country stands for.  These people are overt racists, they hate gays and lesbians, they have a vicious campaign going against immigrants (despite the fact each and every one of them are immigrants), they think women were put on this earth to produce babies, and they believe the United States of America has taken over the role of God’s Chosen people from the Israeli’s.  Additionally, it seems they haven’t read past the Old Testament and they get their “jollies” by dreaming about America using its tremendous military strength on any country in the world that doesn’t bow down to us.

The bottom line: these people, in my view, are nut jobs.  The problem is that many of them are right at the top of the Republican party.  How people who have any sense of decency (last night I wrote about how I just can’t understand h0w anyone who believes in Jesus Christ could stomach this bunch) can be associated with this crew in any way is beyond me.  Rush Limbaugh is bad.  The guy is a prolific liar, he is a right wing crazy, he could care less about the average American citizen – in fact, as everybody who’s paying attention knows, he’s rooting for our President to “fail.”  I’ll get to some of the other ones in a bit – but think of that – openly rooting for our President to fail.  Take my friend, for instance.  He’s in danger of losing his job because of the terrible economy and the cuts which are going to devestate the Public Education system (we’re teachers – and despite what some right wingers think – we work really hard to teach people’s children and we’re very committed to what we do) – yet he is just beginning to realize that the reason he’s losing his job (and his wife possibly losing hers) is because of the massive greed of these Republicans over the past 30+ years.  And, he still listens to Limbaugh and for some reason buys into the lies.  I wonder how people who will be financially destroyed if Obama fails (that’s most of us) could not repudiate someone like Limbaugh.

To me, worse than that, Limbaugh is a prime time racist – and, it’s coming out in “spades” as he watches a “Negro” lead this nation out of the abiss he and his cohorts got us into.  All he cares about is being able to continue laughing all the way to the bank – HE COULD CARE LESS ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE – although, I actually think he’s getting fired up over all the attention he’s getting as the de-facto head of the Republican party.  I don’t think he cares if the Republican party fails, to be honest with you – IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM!  And, based on what I’ve been hearing, he’s not the worst one.  Tonight, I heard for the first time a guy named Michael Savage – who I’ve heard about, but never actually heard his shpeel – and b0y, this guy seemed worse than Limbaugh.  He was making a racist, inciteful rant about immigration in the U.S. and I couldn’t stand to listen to it for more than a few seconds.  Then there’s a guy named Glenn Beck who was talking about actually killing Michael Moore – it was gruesome and over the edge – I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THESE GUYS GET AWAY WITH THIS STUFF OVER THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES.  Last night I mentioned how I had listened to Bill O’Reilly fumegate against a guy he called a mass murderer because he did late term abortions (for, I later learned women who’s babies had died or who’s life was in jeopardy because of cancer) and essentially incited one of the fringees into murdering the doctor.

The reality is that we have a bigger terrorist problem inside our boundaries than outside them.  Hate groups have doubled since Obama took office – these are white supremicist groups who despicably are connected to the right wing Christain movement (which better condemn these guys – ALL OF THEM – INCLUDING THE TV AND RADIO PERSONALITIES I’M DISCUSSING – AND SOON!) and, in some cases are calling for succession from the union (places in the south and Alaska – uh, hello Sarah Palin – and Todd) and/or insurrection!  The rest of us had better wake up – AND SOON!  Many of these groups are arming themselves to the hilt.  They hate the idea of a Black President, a Latina Supreme Court justice, a Black Attorney General, and one state after another giving civil rights to gays and lesbians – ESPECIALLY MARRIAGE.  As I said last night, they would rather a woman who was carrying a dead fetus carry it to term, even at the risk of her own life, than having a medical procedure which is low risk and allows her to reproduce in the future if she so desires.

I have been speaking out for months now on the importance of our leaders having the courage to enforce the laws of the land against those in the Republican party who are thumbing their noses at it.  Dick Cheney is going around admitting to one crime after another as if he knows the Democrats won’t do anything about it.  Karl Rove and Harriet Meiers refused to respond to subpoenas during the final years of the Bush administration – and nothing was done about it.  GW Bush started illegal wiretapping Americans possibly before 9/11 and the Democrats don’t have the nerve to do anything about it.  Cheney outed a CIA agent – everyone knows this – and the Democratic Congress doesn’t have the nerve to investigate this.  And now, the leaders of the Republican party are openly inciting violence toward the extreme fringe of their supporters and assuming free speech allows them to suggest the murder of our President, and it seems like the Democrats still don’t get that at some point they’re going to HAVE TO STEP UP AND FIGHT THESE GUYS.

These Republicans remind me of sixth graders (that’s the grade I teach).  Let me give President Obama, Attorney General Holder, and the Democratic Congress (some more – I’ve been here before) advice – I guess that means they’re not listening to me (surprise, surprise :o) or I wouldn’t have to tell them this again.  Just like a sixth grader, these Republicans only understand “black and white.”  Now, if you’re not too with it, I’m not talking in racial terms here – I mean you can’t “beat around the bush with them.” (no pun intended)  They have to understand that if they break the laws they are going to jail – SIMPLE AS THAT!  What you’re teaching them is that you don’t have the guts to put them in jail – so they are just going to continue breaking the laws of the land – and they are going to push their rhetoric until this country explodes at the seems – and then blame whatever happens on you – THE PRESIDENT AND THE DEMOCRATS!  Now, I hope the bulk of the American people aren’t so stupid as to believe them, but they are trying to insure that you fail – both President Obama and the Democratic Congress.  The time to fight back against these thugs is RIGHT NOW!

About two months ago the new head of Homeland Security came out with a report saying that there was a significant internal threat from small cells of “terrrorists” and “fringe elements” in our society that had the potential for violence.  Of course, like with everything else that comes from the government, the Republicans attacked this as being insulting – because it was pointed out that many of these groups are affiliated with the “Right Wing fringe.”  Well, by reacting in a defensive way, the leaders of the Republican party virtually admitted that the report was true – and it was about them.  Well, since that report has come out there has already been two cases of right wing whackos committing high profile murders.  The first case was the doctor I wrote about last night and the second was an attack on the holocaust museum, of all places (well, many of these hate groups are anti-jew), in which a Black security guard was gunned down by a renowned white supremist.  What is it going to take before President Obama and the Democratic Congress take this internal terrorism seriously.  Are we going to have to have a war on terror inside the boundaries of the United States of America?  At the beginning of this post I mentioned that we need a viable Republican party – it could put a stop to all of this very quickly.  However, what we have is a vile Republican party which is leading this nation to disaster!

Last Sunday I was sitting in Church and my Pastor gave what I thought was a very relevent and profound sermon (of course, if you go to Church, you know that everyone “hears” things differently – which I believe is what is motivating me to write this evening). The part which really struck a “bell” with me was when he talked about the tendency of “Christians” to be at the head of the pack (my phrasing) when it comes to hypocricy. The way he framed his discussion was by asking everyone who had “Accepted Christ” to remember the time it happened and where they “were at” when it happened. Then he asked us to think of the time between then and now when theoretically we would be growing as Christians. What happens at that point for many, he hypothesized, is that Christians are so committed to what has worked for them, they forget where they were at when it all started – leading to them wanting everyone to feel like they do. So, instead of becoming “Righteous” which is the goal, they become self-righteous and thus hypocritical – having a difficult time remembering where they were “at” when it all began.

Now, of course, as with all sermons I may have heard what I wanted to hear, but just the same what I heard has motivated this particular posting. I think the other part of the motivation comes from my frustration of being a believer in Jesus Christ and feeling a sense of disgust with many people involved in the political process who profess to be followers of Jesus (which, of course, would include the Bush/Cheney crew from the previous administration – and many of those who are making inciteful remarks about our new President Barack Obama). I have been frustrated for many years that the so-called “Christian Right” has made up the base of the Republican party essentially on one issue – abortion. And, what many of them are doing with that issue is despicable as far as I’m concerned. Of course, after 30 years of this affiliation (Republicans and Christians) Roe v Wade is still on the books and I’m convinced the leaders of the Republican party are just fine with that because it keeps these one issue voters “on board.”

And, the worst part about this, is that most of these voters have no idea what they’re voting for when they vote for some of the Republicans they support. I mean, how can a true Christian support Rush Limbaugh, or Newt Gingrich, or Dick Armey, or Tom Delay or any other of the leaders of the Republican party who claim to be for “family values” while in their “real lives” they are doing things that should make any believer of Jesus get on their knees and pray for them. Jesus, of course, (and everyone knows this) was a friend of the poor and downtrodden, he was not a violent person nor did he espouse violence – in fact, he said; “what you do for the least of these, you do for me” speaking of the poor, sick, and hungry. I can’t imagine him torturing people, having people murdered (ie Cheney and his “death squad”), starting wars, violating laws, and I could go on. In fact, the Republicans who claim to be “Christians” remind me more of the Pharisees as depicted in the New Testament – the people responsible for the cruel execution of Jesus. These people were more interested in preserving their own interests than in the spirtual well-being of the citizens of that era, at least according to the Bible that we as Christians read.

Some of the results showing their ugly “heads” during this time of crisis in America coming from the “Christian Right” are very unsettling. Here’s some of the things I’ve heard. Let’s start with Chuck Norris – more well known as “Walker, Texas Ranger” from his TV days – insinuating that there are thousands of cells of right wing extremists ready to “take back our government” through violence. That is clearly sedition and he is a strong supporter of Mike Huckabee, a leading Republican politician who I have not heard disavow himself from Norris to this day. Then there’s the group of Christian leaders which includes Dobson, Robertson, Eric Prince of Blackwater (now Xe), and Jerry Falwell before he died among others who were planning essentially a coup de tat when Clinton was in office according to a book I read on Blackwater – and believe me Blackwater is much more of a threat today than it was 10 years ago. Additionally, according to the Sourthern Poverty Law Center Hate groups have doubled since the election of our first African American President and many of them have their roots among Christian right wing zealots. I could go on and on, but I’ll leave off with the anti-abortion groups who are obviously getting more violent all the time.

I have to preface my remaining thoughts by saying that I am not a supporter of abortion. I wish no one would ever have to have an abortion. I believe there can be no doubt that life begins at conception. A couple realities for me (I’ve been around for a while) – before Roe v Wade abortions were common place. I thank God that I’ve never participated in one, but I still remember when I was in college in the 60’s how people I knew were paying $75 for an abortion – and some people seemed to think it was a form of birth control. It was all in the “back rooms” and there was little discussion about it publicly – until Roe v Wade. That was what ended up “fusing” the Conservative Christians with the Republican party and spawned some of the anti-abortion groups of today who have gone way over the edge in their fight against this practice. The reality to me, is that repealing Roe v Wade will not stop abortions – it will only put women who decide to have them in more physical jeopardy than already exists. I guess for some Christians they think it would serve them right. I believe the issue is way more complicated than that. I have two daughters and I’ve always prayed they would never have to make that choice – but the reality is that should it happen it would be their choice and they would have to live with the consequences (and I would be there to support them). But, it gets worst than that.

About a week and a half ago a doctor in Wichita Kansas was murdered in his church by a right wing “Christian” extremist (and I honestly don’t know how anyone who calls themselves a Christian can rationalize murder). Now, I had heard some of the inciting against this doctor by people on TV – for me, mainly Bill O’Reilly who called the guy a mass murderer. The doctor was performing so-called late term abortions and, of course that sounded repulsive to me – but, I had no idea what that meant. After his murder I found out a bit more about what the guy was doing and why he was doing it. He, evidently, was one of only three doctors in the US willing to do this procedure. And, it turns out, not because others didn’t think it was appropriate, but because of the backlash they would face should they do it. Some of this doctor’s patients came from the most prestitgious medical schools and clinics in the country. Most of the abortions he was performing were in circumstances where the fetus was already dead and, of course, the mother’s life was in jeopardy should she carry the fetus to full term. And, why would you want a woman to have to carry a dead fetus to full term? Wouldn’t the fact her baby was dead be bad enough? Almost all of the rest of the late term abortions involved women who had contracted cancer during their pregnancy and they needed chemotherapy to save their lives which would presumably kill the fetus – so this doctor would do the procedure in order to save the mother’s life. I have to say that if my wife was pregnant and I had to make that decision – well, there’s the rub, I wouldn’t have to make that decision, I’m a man – she would have to make the decision and I’d have to decide whether or not to support her. I WOULD SUPPORT HER – In fact, I believe I’d encourage her to save her own life. The only other instance I heard about regarding this doctor was a fetus which had no brain and was going to be born dead, so this doctor did the procedure to spare the mother the additional trauma of giving birth and then watching her baby die almost immediately.

I remember when Bill Clinton was President, there was a bill which would have banned so-called “Partial Birth abortions” which he would have signed had the Congress included a provision to protect the life of the mother. At the time, I didn’t understand why they couldn’t agree to that, and to this day – especially with what I’ve learned lately – I still don’t understand why they can’t agree to that. I believe that virtually all of the late term abortions are for reasons which will save the life of the mother. In the case of the doctor who was murdered, there had to be another doctor agreeing that the mother’s life was in jeopardy for him to perform these procedures, so this wasn’t the flippant operation Bill O’Reilly led me to believe it was.

This leads me to my final point (I really hope what I’m writing this evening is cohesive) and that is the rhetoric of some on the “Christian Right” is inciting zealots in a way that should be unsettling to all of us. Not only in the case of this doctor, but on the political front there is a lot of unsettling news (some of which I mentioned above). I came of age in the time when JFK and RFK were assasinated along with Martin Luther King. I never thought I would see the day when I would have to worry about that kind of stuff happening again, but I also didn’t think I’d ever see a repeat of the Viet Nam war (actually, I believe Iraq could end up being worse). I listened to John McCain and more specifically Sarah Palin during the last election rile up their crowds with some vile dishonest rhetoric while members of the audience were shouting “Kill him” regarding Barack Obama. This rhetoric has not subsided and it’s taking an ugly racist tone (if you don’t believe me – listen for a while to Rush Limbaugh [I hate to encourage anyone to do that] or Newt Gingrich or any of the other Republicans who are presently at the head of that pathetic party and you’ll quickly see what I mean – that is, if you recognize their “code”). I don’t agree with everything Obama is doing (see some of my earlier posts) but I can tell you with all confidence that this nation will crumble to its knees if something untoward happens to him.

I’ve already been calling for legal action regarding many of the Republican “thugs” who broke laws indiscriminantly during the Bush administration and tonight I’m doing the same regarding those who are inciting their base. They should not be allowed to spew these words which are essentially encouraging their fringe elements to do something stupid without consequences. Inciting violence is not “Free Speech!” I’m looking forward to the day when Christians quit supporting right wing thugs because they falsely believe that these guys are going to end abortions. As I said above, people are going to have abortions no matter what the law says. In fact, I agree with President Obama, the focus should be on creating a climate where there is progressively less demand for abortions. We, as Christians, should be supporting policies and politicians who are focused on the “least among us.” We should be true to the teachings of Jesus (if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, read the book of John in the New Testament). Republicans have led us into an endless and unwinnable war, they’ve destroyed our economy (unless you’re in the “rich” category), they have ruined our moral leadership in the world by openly endorsing torture, they are fighting every policy change that the people want – including health care and energy reform, and they are inciting violence at every turn regarding President Obama, Gays and lesbians, and abortion doctors among others. I honestly don’t see how someone who believes in what the Bible says can reconcile all that.