I was looking at some of the archives of this site as I continue contemplating why I still feel this need to write – and, it does help that somehow people from all over the world find the stuff and evidently read some of it (usually close to 200 per day – no idea where you all come from).  However, as I look at most of the posts, the main theme continues to be that today’s version of the republican party, in my view, MUST be defeated.  I was listening to some of the statistics recently on how they’ve (republicans) convinced over a third of America’s “likely voters” that President Obama is an illegal alien, they’ve convinced many Americans that the deficit was created by the Obama administration, something like 55% of Americans, according to a poll – that I believe was contracted by a democratic supporter, think President Obama is some form of a SOCIALIST, and I could go on and on.  All of this stuff should be ABSURD on its face if we had a general public that got their information from more than one outlet (and, I would recommend against Fox being one of the outlets).  The bottom line to me, and I’ve been harping on this for close to four years now, the American public is the victim of a MASSIVE brainwashing scheme by right wing republicans who come dangerously close to acting like the Germans of the early 1930’s.  President Bush even leaked the strategy when he said, “You see, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda!”  This is what the republicans have been doing since the days of Lee Atwater and Ronald Reagan. 

They’ve convinced the American public that we have a liberally biased press (despite the FACT right wing corporations own virtually all of what remains of our “free” press), they’ve turned the word liberal into a word that even democrats don’t use anymore – the new word is “progressive.”  They’ve managed to convince America’s public that they are the austere party, believing in balanced budgets, all the while they and their cronies have been massively raiding our treasury with corporate welfare and tax breaks for people who don’t need it.  In fact, when you look closely at the tax cutting policies of the republicans and who benefits, it’s an amazing job of propaganda that they’ve managed to pull this off over the last 30+ years – while the national debt has ballooned to 13+ TRILLION DOLLARS and they continue to “get away” with blaming this debt on democrats.  They suckered us into two unending OCCUPATIONS which have done the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they claimed would happen – do you remember the “we’ll fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” slogan?  Well, the chances of “THEM” coming over here go up every day that we continue to send good money after bad in a futile attempt to accomplish something that civilization has been unable to do for over 4000 years.  If you don’t “get” that last sentence read some of my posts about our fiascos in Iraq and Afganistan.

My main point here is that the republicans are pathological LIARS and there seems to be no end in sight to their lying.  And, I’m talking about the leaders like Mitch McConnell in the senate, John Boehner in the House and the right wing “water carriers” such as Rush Limbaugh (who, believe it or not,  virtually EVERY republican kisses up to), Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Lars Larson, Michael Savage, and the host of others on the front lines of spreading the “message.”  The “message” isn’t designed to inform anyone, it’s designed to keep this country DIVIDED so that these people can reclaim their position at the “top” – where, the money and power is.  Our country spends roughly 56% of its budget on WAR and these republicans and their mouth pieces are intent on that continuing.  Have you ever asked yourself why the United States needs to spend more money on WAR than all the other countries in the world combined?  Where has that gotten us?  The corporate cronies of Bush/Cheney walked away (well, actually I believe they’re still doing this) with TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars in WAR PROFITEERING during the previous 8+ years of Afganistan and Iraq. 

I’m still shaking my head that no one seems even the slightest bit interested that upwards of TEN BILLION dollars just disappeared in Iraq – with no explanation and, WORSE, no investigation.  I read almost three years ago that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld each had profited to the tune of over $100 MILLION from the invasion of Iraq and, yet, no one seems to have the slightest curiosity about this.  I still remember the republicans wasting 8 years “investigating” the Whitewater land deal that the Clintons were involved in – which was a deal that affected virtually NO ONE and was over an investment of TEN THOUSAND dollars.  I find it curious the issues the republicans feel appropriate for investigation and despicable the issues the democrats choose not to investigate.

The point:  republicans will continue to rip off the American public until someone stops them.  It’s like an addict – their GREED is out of control.  Just picture some of them when they get a position in the White House and they get their calculator out and figure how simple it is to become extremely RICH!  Of course, the corruption in Washington is not one way – I believe you would have to look extremely hard to find a handful of congresspersons who are not beholden to corporate special interests.  So, it should not be a surprise that these people are highly unlikely to “police” themselves when they’re all getting rich – almost as if it’s a “birthright” once they get elected to congress.  Even when they ultimately get voted out of office, there’s a lobbying job for just about all of them, or some other “cushy” job working for someone that they had dealings with while in office, all of which pay way more than they made as legislators.  Yes, the system is messed up – BIG TIME – but, in my view, the republicans are the MAIN CULPRITS – and defeating them and their TOXIC agenda is the first step in the long process of “cleaning up” Washington, DC.

I know that their PROPAGANDA is not going to stop – so, I guess that’s what motivates me to continue harping on the point that “we the people” MUST get them out of office.  Yes, many democrats need to find new work as well – and we need people as legislators who are beholden to the people at the bottom – not the top.  Of course, the people at the “bottom” need the people at the “top” to be successful, but government’s purpose isn’t to make it easier for corporations to screw their workers.  Government shouldn’t be helping corporations to outsource jobs.  Government shouldn’t be providing corporations with the incentives to break unions, pay no taxes, or contribute to a society where the discrepency of income from the bottom to the top becomes OBSCENE.  The “workers” are what turned this nation into the envy of the rest of the world and corporate America’s war on workers is what is leading America toward second class status in the eyes of the rest of the world.

I believe politics in America should be about issues.  As I wrote in my previous post, while democrats didn’t agree with the “Bush Doctrine,” enough of them were willing to “cross the isle” to allow Bush to implement his policies.  THEY DIDN’T WORK!  In fact, Bush/Cheney left behind – on their last day in office – arguably the WORST mess ever passed on to a new president.  While I’m not a fan of many of Barack Obama’s decisions (I’m actually pissed about some of them) I can’t even imagine where we’d be if John McCain and Sarah Palin had been elected.  I honestly don’t understand how any American would be willing to cast a vote that potentially could have put Palin “a heart beat from the presidency.”  Bush proved to be virtually incompetent in EVERY way (although I’m sure history will put much of his failures at Cheney’s “feet”), John McCain has proven what a wishy washy puppet he is since his nomination – plus he made statement after statement in the campaign which indicated an incompetence approaching Bush, but Palin was off the charts.  Yes, some of her comments were absurd – even laughable except for the seriousness of the situation, but her knowledge and experience were marginal as Alaska’s governor let alone possibly taking the reins of the US government – that makes me nervous even today as I write this.  How could someone like that get so close to that position?

Just the thought should wake up a lot of “progressives” (I always thought I was a conservative – but, by republican standards of today I’m definitely a LIBERAL) to what could happen if they check out due to their disenchantment with Obama.  I’m trying to figure out how I can communicate my frustration to our sitting president with some of his decisions yet, in good conscience, become active again prior to November’s election.  I mean, can you imagine Sharron Angle in the senate?  Now, I’m a Christian, but it scares me when someone starts talking about how our government is a violation of the “First Commandment.”  You read that correctly – NOT – the first amendment to the constitution, but the first commandment against idolatry.  She is opposed to virtually EVERY government program such as social security, medicare, food stamps, etc. because “it causes people to depend on government when they should be depending on God for their provision.”  I’m not opposed to anyone who CHOOSES to depend on God for his/her provision, but honestly, if the people of Nevada vote this lady in we’re all in trouble.  Her RIDICULOUS comments are endless.  She will only talk to members of the press whom she can provide the questions – so they “get out the message correctly.”  Makes me shudder to write this!

The list goes on of the so-called “tea partiers” who are invading the republican party.  Rand Paul, republican senate candidate from Kentucky (attempting to replace Jim Bunning – famous for leading the fight against unemployment benefits – and, for sleeping during hearings) is another good example of the “tea party’s” invasion of the republican party.  The first thing he did after winning the primary was to start “outing” himself by stating his racist views.  Now, I’m sure he doesn’t think he’s a racist, he just believes that if businesses, or renters, or presumably anyone wants to discriminate based on race it should be constitutional.  As I read his EXACT comments the thought came to my mind that he’d support segregated schools again, white only drinking fountains (if the “owner” so decided), and more.  Of course, these tea partiers (including Palin) will go to extremes to convince anyone who might listen that they’re not racists – all the while either holding – or standing next to -a sign that depicts president Obama as a monkey, or someone with a bone through his nose, or worse yet – to me – in the same vein as Hitler.  In fact, Palin and her husband were associated with the successionist party in Alaska which was affiliated with the John Birch Society.  If you don’t know what that means, google it!

I realize I’ve suggested that some of the corporate alliances between republicans and our biggest businesses remind me of what I read about in studying the Germans prior to the Nazi regimes of the 30’s – and, it was hard for me not to harp on the similarities I saw between the definition of a fascist and the actions and demeanor of Dick Cheney, so I “get” that “all’s fair” in politics.  But, don’t go around obviously portraying signs, comments, and speeches that reflect racist views and then deny your a racist.  These republicans are now busy “refining” their “positions” to better “fit” in the “main stream” of America – not, for some act of heroic integrity, but instead to attempt to fool as many people as possible into voting for them not knowing their REAL positions on sensitive issues.  I wonder how many of Angle’s supporters, for example, understand that she is in favor of ending Medicare, or Social Security?  I believe a lot of these “right” wingers have become very complacent in their acceptance of the privileges we have as Americans and they seem all too willing to give some of them up.  The problem with that is there are a lot of people who’ve died for those privileges and there are MILLIONS more who expect our nation to go forward following the RULES set forth in the constitution.  The republicans are now calling for repeal of parts of the 14th amendment (and, I’m guessing these calls will increase after proposition 8 was repealed in California), they’ve willingly stood by as Bush/Cheney bludgeoned the 4th amendment – with government now wiretapping its citizens, they willingly allowed congress to pass the patriot act which was one of the first indications that we, as a nation, didn’t have much will to fight the terrorists – we just give in and respond to fear mongering at every turn.

As I’ve stated many times on this site, I believe we’re in a fight for the very soul of this nation.  The republicans have us focused on the “WARS” in Iraq and Afganistan while the REAL battle is right here at home – they are trying to undermine our system of government from within.  They call anyone like myself a “traitor,” or when I was calling for the troops to come home (long ago) I was “not supporting the troops,” when I said Bush/Cheney should be impeached for committing WAR CRIMES the republicans passed legislation that could have called me (and the many others saying the same thing) “enemy combatants.”  These people have bled our treasury, they’ve disgraced our nation, they’ve committed unthinkable atrocities (Abu Ghraib, GITMO, Bagram, etc.), they’ve undermined our justice system, they’ve ruined our economy, and crazy as it seems they’re back PROPOSING more of the same!  President Obama, as I’ve said OVER AND OVER on this site, committed one of the great blunders of ANY American president when he blocked the investigations of the Bush administration.  Had he not done that we wouldn’t be having this conversation – the republicans would have been publicly exposed for the thugs that they are.  Evidently Obama surmised that most Americans understood that and the investigations weren’t needed – that decision is the MAIN one I’m trying to forgive him for.  Then there was Rahm Emmanuel calling “liberals” “f__king retards.”  If I could talk to Emmanuel now I’d ask him “whose the retard now?”

I’m seeing a bit of a shift in the demeanor of President Obama – but, I’m certainly not feeling the sense of urgency I believe the democrats, and him as the leader, should be publicly displaying.  If I was the leader in Congress there’s NO WAY either house would have gone on vacation without passing the bill for the so-called “99ers,” or the bill to provide access to credit for MILLIONS of small businesses nationwide.  It really is time for “the change we can believe in” and that doesn’t mean to continue with business as usual in Washington DC!  If the democrats don’t figure out, AND FAST, that there are MILLIONS of voters who need them to give us a reason to support their agenda, then the weak turnout in November will be a boon to republicans.  And, as far as I’m concerned, the democrats will have no one to blame but themselves.  I personally would be OK with the republicans blocking everything if I just felt the democrats were making it as uncomfortable for them to do so as possible.  Let’s have some REAL filibusters!  You know – get the cots out!  Force these thugs to vote down EVERYTHING in public.  Make it clear to your constituency that you’re doing everything you can – AND IN THE OPEN – to support the people in this nation who are hurting.  Make a public fight for a jobs program to fix the infrastructure of the nation – and, give the republicans a PUBLIC FORUM from which they can make their plea for more tax breaks for the top 1% of Americans.  Then, if the people vote them in, we deserve what we get!