Somehow I fooled myself into thinking that the frustration level would subside once Bush/Cheney were “out to pasture,” the republicans were in a HUGE minority, and the democrats had the opportunity to REVERSE the abuses of George W Bush and his co-conspirator Dick Cheney.  Well, the reality is setting in that my frustration level not only didn’t go away, it seems that it is on the rise.  First of all, the LYING republicans haven’t missed a beat.  Their CRAP continues to flow as if they had won the last election.  Their BRAZENOUS attitude has not changed one iota, they show absolutely NO REMORSE that this nation is crumbling at the seems due to their incompetent leadership during the past 30 years, and, in fact, as I forced myself to listen to some of them yesterday, they continue to blame President Obama for ALL the ills they themselves created.  Daily, I struggle with my frustration (bordering on anger) at what the republicans have done and what they still want to do AND the FACT the democrats either don’t understand what is happening, are incapable of stopping it, OR they are actually part of the overall problem.  If the latter is the case, “we the people” have a huge job in front of us – tea baggers and/or progressives – in purging Washington DC from all of them – democrats and republicans.

Here’s the rub for me.  I keep thinking that the lies can’t become more brazenous.  That’s on me – because, everyday it seems to get worse.  And, I should have seen this more clearly when republicans were blaming the recession on Obama before he was even inaugurated – and getting virtually NO BLOWBACK from the “liberal” media.  It’s like they huddle together in a little room somewhere and challenge each other with who can tell the biggest lie and get away with it.  In America, we no longer have a news media.  We have evolved to a nation with a bunch of actors giving their (or someone we don’t see on the screen) opinion about “what’s happening,” instead of just reporting the news.  In the past, REAL REPORTERS would FACT CHECK comments made by politicians and other people with a significant “presence” – such as the pundits – and, it would be reported when someone was lying, cheating, and or stealing.  That seems no longer to be the case – what we now have is one opionated blowhard (OK, I “get” that I could fall into that category, but at least I’m not in total denial – AND, I’m not a journalist) hammering the blowhards on the “other side of the isle” and vice versa.  You CAN find out about what’s really happening by finding books written by real reporters – like Sy Hersch, Frank Rich, Thomas Ricks, Naomi Klein, etc. – but, you can’t find the information unless you are willing to go look for it.  Unfortunately, and I work with college graduates who don’t generally even want to discuss this stuff, not many people are willing to go look for it.  They still believe they can turn on the “tube” and get unfiltered “news” through endless “soundbites.”

To give you an idea of how ridiculous that is, I’ll REPORT what I heard yesterday while driving around doing my errands – this is on the radio, but I hear the same CRAP when I turn on the TV.  For example, I like to – well, wait a minute, I’ve got to rephrase that, I force myself to – watch Fox “news” and listen to “right” (wrong) wing radio just to make sure my perspective is somewhat accurate.  So, yesterday I heard Sean Hannity going off on President Obama (no surprise there) claiming he is responsible for the “largest deficits in the history of this country.”  Just to listen to that causes me to think that these people in that small room I mentioned above assume that Americans are STUPID.  Well, maybe they’re correct, although I choose to believe that Americans are so caught up in trying to “get by” that they don’t have time to do anything more than listen to the sound bites – and, most of them have forgotten their lessons on FACT CHECKING that they learned in school.  Now, I know they learned this, because I’m a 6th grade teacher and I’m teaching my 6th grade students how to fact check things – which will get reinforced every year as they go all the way through high school.  It’s true that some of them don’t listen too well, but I choose to think that Americans, in general, aren’t stupid, they’re just the victims of this conspiracy to brainwash them that has been ongoing since the days of Ronald Reagan.

For anyone reading this site I’m sure you understand why Hannity’s comments are so ridiculous.  But, just in case you don’t, or if you’re a republican who’s been buying their CRAP hook, line, and sinker for the past many years, I’ll give you a quick lesson.  First, which is a minor part of the issue, but it’s TRUE, Obama’s first year budget is “handed” to him from the previous president George W Bush.  Now, EVERYONE should know this – the HUGE deficits are the result of the mismanagement of the economy by the Bush/Cheney adminsitration.  In fact, Dick Cheney – who ramrodded the second round of the “Bush Taxcuts” through – was quoted as saying “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”  Well, now that President Obama is in the White House, deficits – to these despicable republicans – all of a sudden seem to matter.  However, their PATHALOGICAL LYING nature won’t allow them to tell the truth about the deficits.  Not only are the deficits in the first year beyond Obama’s control, for all intents and purposes the next few years are beyond his control as well (OK, he can hopefully get them going in the “other” direction, but stopping them?  I know that I, for one, don’t want a total collapse of our economy – I’m willing to put up with this in order to get some of my friends and family back to work).  Considering the “state” of the economy when he took office, if Obama can get the deficits cut in half by the time he’s up for re-election, IT WILL BE A MIRACLE.  Of course, you’ll hear these republicans complaining that the deficit is still half a TRILLION dollars – STILL BLAMING IT ON OBAMA.  Makes me sick to my stomach as I write this.  Their HYPOCRICY is unbelievable (but, believe me you should believe it!  How’s that for a “play” on words).

Of course, President Obama is no longer HIDING the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afganistan from the American people and is including that cost in the budget.  Yes, that makes the deficit APPEAR  even worse if you’re like the LYING republicans who NEVER included the costs of  either misadventure in the deficit numbers despite EVERY PENNY being borrowed for both wars, and, additionally, including these numbers is honest which is against everything they stand for.   Consider for a moment how far these republicans will take this nonsense.  Just a week or so ago (I wrote about this) Jim Bunning – former great baseball pitcher, now a bumbling republican senator, blocked unemployment benefits for about a million Americans who are STRUGGLING to get past every day financially by a single objection to a unanimous consent request which would have extended the benefits (democrats “begged” him to relent, and his response to being reminded of the grief he was going to cause all these people was “tough sh_t”).  His objection to the benefit bill stopped hiway projects for people desperate for work, blocked satelite television to rural areas of America, and cut off COBRA benefits for people who have lost their jobs and need health insurance.  This was all a STAGED effort by republicans to complain about the deficit!  Bunning claimed we should pay for things “as we go.”  This from a man who had just voted AGAINST a “pay as you go” legislative proposal from President Obama (yes, you heard that correct), a man who had voted for BOTH of the “Bush taxcuts” that turned a 300 BILLION dollar surplus when Bush took office into a 1.2 TRILLION dollar deficit when he left.  Neither Bunning nor the rest of these deplorable republicans made the slightest PEEP about budget deficits while THEY were CREATING them – they even ALL voted to BORROW ALL the money for BOTH Afganistan and Iraq – and, for that matter, not enough money to actually keep our troops safe!  Now, their plan is to LIE, LIE, LIE to the American people until the people believe that the deficits are the fault of Barack Obama.  I’ve got to add here that anyone who has been on this site much knows that I’m not that happy with Obama, but THIS KIND OF LYING IS RIDICULOUS.  It is HYPOCRISY on steroids!

Then there’s the health care legislation.  Now, to be honest, I’m not at all pleased with what Obama and the democrats are proposing.  But, these republicans are ridiculous in their LYING on this one as well.  And, when I listen to the radio as people call in to express their feelings, their lying on this issue seems to have gathered a lot of traction.  For example, I’m almost sick to my stomach of listening to people who have “drank the republican coolaid” complaining about the impending “socialized medicine.”  Before I get into the strategy of lying their way to “victory” on this issue (and, like with all issues for republicans these days, victory is nothing more than Obama’s defeat – the welfare of the “people” has nothing to do with anything) Obama isn’t proposing anything close to something that could be called “socialized medicine.”  In fact, I wish he would do just that – the REAL SOLUTION to this medical insurance problem is simply to open up Medicare (with some modifications to payments for doctors) for everyone – as a choice.  However, what Obama and the democrats have proposed is far from that.  So, to work up the “troops” by calling it “socialized medicine” is nothing more than a continuation of the PATHALOGICAL LYING that seems to be required for republican leaders these days.  Their “death panels” propoganda lost its steam as the so-called “tea baggers” have become less relevent – so now it’s “socialized medicine.”

The truth is that President Obama is more conservative than the conservatives were in my formative years.  The idea of proposing a national health insurance plan that would force millions of Americans to buy insurance from the very companies that have priced them out of the market – in a system that is dying under the weight of its own need to keep stockholders happy and pay the exhorbitant salaries of its chief executives (salaries in the tens of millions – in fact, in some cases BILLIONS) – a system where the profit motive seems to outweigh the needs of the “sick,” doesn’t seem like a “liberal,” or “progressive” proposal to me.  So, you’ve got all these so-called “conservatives” trying to make a plan they should be cheering about LYING through their teeth in an attempt to make this reform Obama’s “waterloo,” and, you’ve got a president who, for some strange reason, continues to strive for the approval of the very people who want him to fail, and – either way – “we the people” are headed for disaster.  The part of this that is REALLY FRUSTRATING is that President Obama (and, presumably his advisors) don’t seem to understand what is happening.  And, the politics of it all have put the republicans right where they have been trying to get themselves with all the lies.  Obama can’t win – at this point – without a radical change of direction.

Let me explain.  If the bill passes, there will be a HUGE BLOWBACK once the American public figures out what is going to be shoved down their throats.  Obama and the democrats had a simple solution which would have forced no one into anything they didn’t want to do – but, I guess, that would have been too easy (all they had to do was simply give all Americans the “choice” of buying into medicare – at any age).  They could have done this with a requirement that working Americans be insured and included the subsidies to help low income Americans pay for it (right now, the insured pay for the uninsured) that are in the present legislation – plus, they could have done this through “reconciliation” without the need for the dreaded 60 votes in the senate.  Instead, the democrats decided to FORCE something like 35 – 40 MILLION Americans to buy insurance from these private companies which have helped to create the problem in the first place – and, to argue about it for the better part of a year – while millions of American workers are JOBLESS – this was STUPID!  So, Obama loses if the bill passes.  Unfortunately, Obama and the democrats have allowed the republicans to box them into a spot where they lose either way.  If the bill doesn’t pass, this congress has spent the year arguing over the bill, the democrats and the president have spent most of that time trying to get republicans who EVERYONE knows won’t cooperate – TO COOPERATE.  This looks like bumbling, incompetent leadership.  Especially to the people who are thriving off of soundbites from the “pundits.” And, to the people who are out of work and waiting for the government to actually intervene on their behalf (you know, with expenditures to fix the failing infrastructure of this nation that has been allowed to depreciate while big business has been robbing our treasury – thus, creating millions of jobs) this focus on an unacceptable health care “reform” looks ridiculous!

The worst part of all of this is that if Obama fails – which is seeming more likely every day (it’s something about being president – evidently one of the unwritten rules is that presidents can never admit mistakes – and, once presidents make up their mind about something they have to push it until it gets “through” congress – one way or the other) – on the other side of the horizon are – you guessed it – the republicans.  And, as I’ve stated many times on this site, I don’t believe they’ll “throw” Sarah Palin at us (at least I hope not)  or someone like Mitt Romney – I’m seeing in my nightmares another Bush – Jeb.  Most people might think I’m crazy, and I honestly hope they’re correct on this one, but I can’t see anyone else out there they can fall back on.  I don’t know if I can manage to live through another Bush in the White House, so I REALLY hope I’m wrong on this one.  Which gets me back to my main point, and that’s the pathological lying republicans who seem to have been ENABLED to just keep lying by our media and by the democrats (I did hear some tape the other day of Anthony Weiner, congressman from New York, calling republicans out on their lies on the House floor, but stuff like that doesn’t get a lot of traction in the “liberal” media).

Remember, the media is controlled by large corporations – in fact, a very few large corporations.  Thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (yes, that was passed under Bill Clinton and signed into law by Clinton) competition in the media has been reduced to a whimper.  Does anyone besides me have a problem with an Australian right wing fanatic controlling a HUGE portion of America’s media?  Does anyone besides me worry about a republican operative (Roger Ailes) running a so-called “news” station on cable TV? (Fox “news”)  I know millions of Americans are concerned with the recent Supreme Court decision commonly referred to as “Citizens United” (another of those “catchy” but disengenuous republicans names) which is going to unleash UNLIMITED amounts of MONEY on the political process in the form of advertising on television in order to manipulate our elections.  Does ANYONE out there think the corporations controlling these “news” stations are going to turn down TENS (or hundreds) OF MILLIONS of dollars in advertising because it subverts our democracy (republic)?  Personally, I believe they’ll sound like President Bush when he said to the Muslim’s after the insurgency in Iraq  was in its infancy – “Bring em on!”  And, based on the accepted standards set today for our rhetoric, does anyone out there think the LYING is going to stop at that point in time?  Personally, I’m already bracing myself for the onslaught.  And, if there’s anyone reading this who believes that I think the democrats aren’t liars as well, you’re not hearing me.  They’re just not as blatant.  The only reason I keep up my hopes that the democrats will “carry the gauntlett” – is that I don’t know where else to turn.

This Citizen’s United decision is just part of a longstanding conspiracy by republicans to achieve their “permanent republican majority.”  Bush/Cheney were a screw-up, but republicans haven’t slowed down one bit – and, the democrats still haven’t figured out what’s at stake here.  Come November, it probably won’t be totally too late – at least I hope so.  But, there isn’t much time for the democrats to intercede in this republican plan.  If that doesn’t happen then the remedy will have to be something else.  At some point in time the American public is going to understand that the republican plan is for a total takeover of our system of government by the multi-national corporations who could care less about the foundation of this nation.  I could go into a seemingly endless list of lying – for example, people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh spouting out “our founding fathers this” and our “founding fathers that” as they are supporting people and policies which are totally designed to undermine the very principles our founding fathers stood for.  And, the democrats and President Obama will argue about health care legislation right up to the day when it will be too late to put these bums in their place.

What can we do about this? you might ask.  Well, I’m getting weary trying to point it out.  It’s probably too late, but the “mother of all liars”  en masse were the members of George W Bush’s presidency.  Bush himself, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales (remember his STREAM of lies as he sat before congress? WITH NO CONSEQUENCE!), Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, David Addington, John Yoo, and I could go on – it was seemingly endless.  THEY COULD HAVE BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE!  The FACT they weren’t I blame FULLY on Barack Obama!  His pardoning of the Bush administration will go down in history as a worst decision than Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon.  (In fact, I was OK with that one – I didn’t see any reason for Nixon to face criminal charges – even though he had committed criminal offenses – him being thrown out of office was enough for me – and, I’m not pushing for Bush/Cheney to be thrown in jail – well, OK, maybe Cheney – but, there should be some accountability for their LIES – MILLIONS are dead because of their lies! Plus, it’s IMPERATIVE the American people learn the TRUTH about what was done during the Bush/Cheney years in the White House.)  Because of the pardon, these offenses are going to HAPPEN AGAIN! And, that includes TORTURE! (which, I’m sure, is a far greater issue for America than many of us know – despite the information that somehow made it to the public “stage.”)  The bottom line here:  Do we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in a nation that allows BLATANT lying on its public airwaves?  Combine the acceptance of lying with the FACT the Supreme Court has unleashed these foreign corporations on our elections and I hope you’re as apprehensive about what lies ahead as I am!