The other day I was driving my car around doing errands when I happened on a radio talk show hosted by a man who calls himself Nor Man Gold Man (emphasis on the “Man” – I’m assuming his name is Norman Goldman).  I’ve heard him on several occassions of late – he’s been on the local “progressive” station since the demise of Air America radio.  Goldman is someone who is proud to claim he’s a LIBERAL – for that alone I give him credit – and, from what I’ve heard he unabashedly tells it as he sees it.  He’s not the “left wing” version of the people like Rush Limbaugh, Lars Larson, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and the rest on the “right” who are just regurgitating the latest republican talking points as front men for their corporate masters.  Goldman, to his credit (at least in my view), is fair in his criticism of both the “right” and the “left.”  I say that with the caveat that it is much easier to dismantle and criticize the arguments of the “leaders” on the “right.”  (not sure, Google Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, and others of the “new breed” of republican candidates)  However, as I have done here on this site, Goldman isn’t short on his criticism of the “left” – mainly in the form of the democratic party and their feeble response to the issues the voters put them in charge of “fixing” starting in 2006.  The republicans have become TOTALLY predictable; what is disappointing is the response by the democrats to their OBSTRUCTIONIST tactics – and, with that I feel a sense of “connection” with Goldman as I listen to his talk show.

That all being said, if you’ve spent much time around my site (or read many of my posts in the “archives”) you should have some idea of how frustrated I am that the United States of America is still MIRED in two UNWINNABLE occupations in the Middle East and Central Asia.  I was reading in the New York Times this morning an article which was referencing President Obama’s “timeline” for withdrawal from the Iraq “war” and – as always happens when I read stuff like this in a major publication – it just DEFLATES me.  I’ll connect my thoughts for the evening to Goldman in a moment, but first neither Iraq or Afganistan should be referred to by ANYONE as a WAR!  If either one was a war, our congress would have declared WAR!  These are both OCCUPATIONS of foreign countries where there is no clear ENEMY and no clear MISSION.  The American public has been voting since 2006 to end these occupations, and it’s like no one in Washington DC is listening – including Barack Obama.  The American taxpayers continue to pour upwards of $200 BILLION into these two FACE SAVING ventures – EACH YEAR – that are likely to save NOTHING in regards to America’s “Face.”  Both of these ventures are so “Viet Nam” it makes me sick to my stomach.  Everytime I write something like this, or even think about these two fiascos, I remember the saying; “Those who ignore history are destined to repeat it.”  I honestly believed, at the end of the Viet Nam abomination, that we would never have leaders STUPID enough to get the US involved in something of this nature again.  Well, how wrong I was!

So, back to Nor Man Gold Man.  The other day he brought up a significant point that most people are totally unaware of – and that is the return of Moqtada al Sadr (Goldman pronounced his name wrong and got some of the details wrong, but to a large extent he “got” the significance of al Sadr) to Iraq.  If you’re not familiar with Moqtada al Sadr (pronounced Muk tada al sodder) he is a young Iraqi cleric who’s father was the leading Shiite cleric in the days of Saddam Hussein.  His father, and I believe his grandfather before him were murdered by Hussein, and al Sadr was, kind of by default, the leader of millions of the poorest Shiite Muslims in Iraq following the American invasion.  He formed the Mahdi Army (a Shia “militia”) during the height of the insurgency in Iraq and he is very anti-American.  I read a book about al Sadr and I will just summarize it by saying he’s not a very pleasant “fellow.”  The question here becomes, why is he significant today – as far as America is concerned?

Let’s start off with the FACT that al Sadr left Iraq at the time of the surge and went to Iran to study – planning to return as a “Grand Ayatollah” to become the religious leader of the Shiites in Iraq (I know if you’re reading this you make inferences – so, just make one here about the connection between Iraq and Iran)  The reports I read at the time he left was that al Sadr decided to “wait out” the Americans during the “surge” – he’s very smart and knew he couldn’t survive the “surge” in tact.  Despite being gone a couple of years he still has a lot of grudges with the Sunni Arabs.  In my view, the likelyhood of peace between the two sects – which has never been likely – is significantly reduced as al Sadr re-enters the “scene.”  Most Americans believe that the “surge” was some kind of miracle success from a military point of view – I take a different view.  First of all, we (America) have lost something exceeding 1500 of our best since the inception of the surge – not to mention the half  TRILLION dollars or so that has been spent (borrowed) by the American government since the “surge” began or all the American troops with debilitating injuries.  Yes, the violence eventually subsided, but most people don’t know that the Americans “bought off” many of the Sunni Sheiks (calling themselves the “Sunni Awakening”) and armed them to take the fight to al Qaeda in Iraq.  So, the resultant reduction in voiolence was more because of al Sadr’s temorary defection to Iran and the “Sunni Awakening.”  The problem with all of that:  The Shia still hate the Sunni, the Sunni still hate the Shia, and the Americans have armed the Sunnit minority in Iraq.  It’s much more complicated than this – but, I want to give an idea of why al Sadr’s return is significant.

NONE of the diplomatic “objectives” that were supposed to be resolved as the result of the surge have been achieved.  In fact, the Iraqi’s are still struggling to form a government after the last election which was something like four months ago.  There are still many MAJOR problems in Iraq which ONLY the Iraqi’s can solve.  Based on “projections” President Obama is scheduled to reduce the American troop levels in Iraq to 50,000 “non-combat” troops by the end of August.  While I’ll believe that when I see it, calling any American troops in Iraq “non-combat” is nothing more than the same “double-speak” we’ve been hearing from our “leaders” since the inception of this illegal invasion.  What’s discouraging to me is that this doublespeak is now coming from the president I voted for.  Here’s the problem for America’s “non-combat” troops who will remain (and, by the way, as I’ve said numerous times on this site – this “withdrawal” plan is nothing more than Obama following Bush’s “roadmap” to a tee.  Writing that almost makes me sick).  First, the democratic congress elected in 2006 didn’t have the “mettle” to stop the funding for the “war” then, and worse than that – for me – was President Obama reneging on his PLEDGE to bring the troops home in 16 months and instead simply buying in to the “Bush plan.” (which, by the way, is designed to have us stuck in Iraq indefinitely – some supporters of the plan use the analogy of Korea – for those of you not paying attention)  It appears to me that America’s generals have convinced President Obama that the surge worked and our troops are destined to be in Iraq indefinitely.

Well, upon closer inspection it’s easy to get a different perspective regarding the “surge.”  With the return of Moqtada al Sadr and the political impasse in Iraq, along with the continued presence of al Qaeda – the potential for an increase in the violence almost seems to me as a when and not an if.  Sadr is not going to be happy with 50,000 American troops on Iraqi soil – whether we call them “non-combat” or not – and, he controls millions of Iraqi’s who are more than willing to become “martyrs.”  Additionally, Sadr has no plans – from what I can find out – to “share” power with the Sunni’s.  In fact, from what I’ve read I tend to think he’s got a lot of “pay back” on his mind.  These people over there have a real “thing” with revenge – in a way that’s kind of hard for us Americans to understand.  And then there’s al Qaeda.  Yes, they’re still in the picture.

Without going into great detail here, suffice it to say that one of the main objectives of Osama bin Laden from 9/11 was to get the United States engaged in an intractable war in Afganistan which would lead ultimately to our bankruptcy – just as they had done with the Soviets in the eighties.  To his great surprise, bin Laden was nearly defeated – in fact, the only thing that saved him was the preplanned desire of the so-called “neo-cons” to invade Iraq on their first opportunity – which happened to be the attacks of 9/11.  Yes, the CIA and the Afgan Northern Alliance had bin Laden and his “troops” surrounded at Tora Bora just a few short months after the US invaded Afganistan and all that was needed to “finish the deal” was for Tommy Franks to bring in American troops and wipe out al Qaeda once and for all.  Well, that would have removed the reason for invading Iraq so Franks was ordered not to enter Afganistan (It’d be nice to know by who) and, with a little additional cooperation by the U.S. and help from Pakistan’s ISI al Qaeda was allowed to escape to the Northern Provinces of Pakistan.  Bin Laden was given a “bonus” by the Bush administration – he could keep the United States bogged down in TWO countries – to bin Laden, Iraq is the gift that keeps on giving.  And, do you really think that bin Laden is going to “look the other way” as America leaves 50,000 non-combat troops in Iraq.  If you really believe that, well, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to ……. you know the rest.

The end result here – and, after all this, I believe the point Nor Man Gold Man was trying to make on his radio program – is that the violence is not over in Iraq.  My question is, are all these non-combat troops just going to “hang out” if the violence increases?  Do you really think bin Laden wants the US to pull out of Iraq?  What will happen if al Qaeda increases their attacks?  What happens if al Sadr starts carrying out more of the revenge attacks against the Sunni’s?  Do you really think another year with 50,000 American troops stationed in Iraq is going to solve the diplomatic problems they haven’t been able to solve in the last 7 years?  How much more money can America BORROW to continue these two occupations before bin Laden’s dream comes true?  (one thing that’s really interesting to me is the FACT that most of my “right wing” acquaintences who suddenly HATE the deficit ALL want to continue BOTH occupations! – but, like their brethren in congress, they’re opposed to extending unemployment benefits)  In my mind, as Americans we think we are so smart – but these wayward people who seem so “backward” to those of us who’ve been brainwashed for the past 30+ years are outsmarting our leaders at every turn.  They understand America’s weaknesses and they are constantly playing them against us – and, we just seem to continue on as if eventually everything will work out as we want.  Contrary to the idea of us “saving face” it appears to me that as each day passes America becomes closer and closer to a second rate nation.  President Bush put us on this disastrous course and for some reason President Obama and the democrats don’t have the guts to change it.  It’s almost as if they want to be able to blame the failures on Bush/Cheney without the risk involved in ending this crap once and for all.  And, it’s true the failure of Iraq is Bush/Cheney’s, but with every passing day President Obama takes more and more “ownership” in the fiasco.  By following Bush’s “withdrawal plan” Obama showed a terrible lack of leadership, and now he’s stuck in what I’m sure the generals will lobby as an indefinite presence in Iraq as the only way to protect our “investment” there.  I REALLY hope I’m wrong on this – but, if you haven’t read Thomas Ricks’ “The Gamble” I would highly recommend it.  He essentially predicts the American generals want to stay in Iraq for a “generation.”

Day after day I seem to be going about my business often times simply shaking my head (those around me, I’m sure, wondering what’s wrong with him today?) as I continue to ponder the general direction of this great nation that I love.  As a school teacher I see what’s being done to public education “up close and personal,” and as an involved and concerned citizen I’m seeing the result of 30+ years of the republican party’s plan for total dominance of our country teetering on either success of failure depending on what happens in the next few months.  After listening to John Boehner on the radio as I was driving around today, and listening to Sharron Angle the other day – she being one of the “new breed” of right wing extremist candidates the republicans are cramming down our collective throats (or, trying to cram down our throats) I have to tell myself that the people I know who would even consider voting republican have either lost their senses, or they’re TOTALLY not paying attention.

Boehner compared the financial meltdown of 2008 to an ANT and said, unbelievably, that financial reform was like killing the ANT with an ATOMIC BOMB!  Shortly after that – if you don’t know, Boehner is the republican’s leader in the House of Representatives – Richard Shelby, the republican’s ranking member on the banking committee where the regulations originated AGREED with Boehner!  Now, if you’ve been paying attention AT ALL, if you’ve done the slightest bit of research into what happened to these “TO BIG TO FAIL” banks, you’ve just got to agree that these people are NUTS!  Now, I’ve been very critical of Barack Obama – but, I can tell you this; he’s a HUGE move forward from this republican type of thinking.  Yes, Obama’s been too far to the “right” himself, and he’s spent too much time coddling republicans – all of which I understand – he’s trying to create an atmosphere of actual productive dialogue in Washington DC – it’s just not time yet for such a RADICAL idea – as working together to solve problems!  (actually, republicans I know think Obama’s a “socialist” and, despite his overtures to the contrary, they don’t even recognize his attempts at bipartisanship – which, it seems to me, is further evidence that “the time’s not right” for that just yet)  These republicans are bent on only ONE THING and that is Obama’s failure.  Should that destroy our nation – well, it’s OK with them – as long as they get voted back into office.  I’ll speak more to this point shortly, but let me just interject here – I really hope the American people come to their senses and reject this right wing corporate facism. (I wish I could think of a better term – but, I just can’t – and, if you think I’m “out there” do a little research on Germany of the pre-Nazi days)

First, let me mention this Angle lady who is running to unseat Harry Reid in Nevada.  Let me say again, I haven’t been a strong supporter of Reid’s (in fact, I’ve been a bit hard on the guy over the past three or four years) – but, Angle?  You’ve seriously got to be kidding me.  This lady is off the charts “way out there.”  Aside from privatizing Social Security and Medicare – which makes me mad everytime I hear one of these nimwits even suggest it – I’d go along with the feds keeping their hands out of the trust fund – and paying back what they owe, but that’s a post for another day, this woman was quoted the other day as saying she wouldn’t even support an abortion to save the life of the mother.  “If it’s in God’s plan that the mother die in childbirth, so be it” or words to that effect.  Not for rape, not for incest, not for ANY REASON!  Now, I’m not a supporter of abortion, however, I’m also not a woman and I would hate to have the government telling me what I could or couldn’t do with my body (mine’s a bit messed up).  I agree that life begins at conception, but how do we justify FORCING imporverished Moms to have babies and then abandon them once the baby is born.  I see the results of this all the time in school – kids that don’t have enough to eat, kids without medical care, kids without parents who know how to be parents.  I don’t know what the answer is – other than for the government to attempt to promote policies which reduce the demand for abortions – but, if my wife’s life depended on her having an abortion, or my daughter was raped, there would be not a bit of hesitation.  These “right wingers” want the government out of their business – except for the things where they want the government in EVERYONE else’s business.  Are these the type of people we want running this country?

And, I hope the general public doesn’t forget that ALMOST all of the major economic, military, and other problems this nation is suffering through are the result of the Supreme Court’s appointment of the Bush/Cheney administration – anothe incredible abuse of power by the “right wing.”  The economic collapse, the high levels of unemployment, the HUGE budget deficit, the TWO UNWINNABLE WARS, the beaten down regulatory agencies, the failing infrastructure, the media monopoly (done with a little help from Bill Clinton) – all these things are the result of 30+ years of republican policies which were accentuated by the Bush/Cheney regime (many of whom should be answering to a grand jury by now).  Let’s just look at a couple of those areas – the economy’s lack of jobs, and the unemployment problem – this will give you a good idea of what republicans are really like – especially people like Sharron Angle.  For starters, I heard Angle claim that the unemployment problem was caused by providing workers who lose their jobs with unemployment compensation.  Incredible? you might be thinking – but, it gets more interesting.  Sharron Angle was quoted as saying (actually, I heard a tape of this comment) that unemployment compensation prevents people from looking for jobs because they get more on unemployment than they could get on an entry level job!  Now, I could comment on that sentence from many directions – but just take a moment or so, to let what she said sink in – and, then just picture what this nation will be like if she manages to unseat Harry Reid.  What kind of people would even vote for someone that mean spirited?  Are the people of Nevada paying attention?  I sure hope so!

Sharron Angle isn’t the only republican who apparently feels this way.  Congress just adjourned for their July 4th vacation (there’s not much which could get in the way of their vacation plans) and they left apporximately 1.4 MILLION Americans who lost their jobs in the last year to two years “in the lurch.”  That is, they failed to appropriate the funds necessary to extend these unemployed workers  “DREADED” (from Sharron Angle’s point of view – and other republicans obviously) benefits which Angle thinks prevents them from finding work.  According to my friends in this situation, the benefits were keeping them from losing their homes.  So, the result of one more MEAN SPIRITED republican maneauver – designed to get these people angry with Obama – will be EVEN MORE homes on the foreclosure market, lower home values for everyone else, and an even bigger DRAG on our economy.  Evidently, Angle and the others don’t understand that every dollar which goes out in unemployment benefits generates something around a dollar and a half benefit to the economy.  So, in the name of “fighting” deficits we’ll have over a million people suffering – while EVERY ONE of these republicans will continue voting for unlimited SPENDING – all BORROWED – on both Afganistan and Iraq!  Again, why would any thoughtful American vote for any of these people – they vote in “lock-step” in Congress?

I get that the democratic party isn’t too complete an answer at this point.  However, there are some very good members of the democratic party that don’t seem to be bought off by the corporate interests as I’m writing this.  So, what can be done?  Well, Bill Halter almost unseated Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas – in fact, without the irregularities with the polling places I believe he might have pulled it off.  That, to me is the best way to go about what needs to be done.  Selectively replace the corporate democrats with new, progressive faces – but, in the mean time, how can anyone vote for today’s version of republicans?  (although, I have to add that if republicans would vote in some actual conservatives who were willing to work in concert with democrats to find “the middle ground,” we’d all be better off)  I don’t even see how the people in the south can continue to keep doing this (voting republican – for the most part).  For one thing, isn’t it about time for the anti-abortion crowd to “get” that the republicans are just using that issue to trick a “block” of voters who are disconnected from what else is actually happening out there to blindly vote for them?  Are republicans paying attention to governors like Haley Barbour or Bobby Jindall during the BP oil spill?  They’re doing everything they can to continue supporting BP as the oil slick is virtually destroying their way of life.  Seriously, are the people in the gulf going to continue to vote for these people?  Everytime I think about the BP disaster I get a picture in my mind of Sarah Palin yelling “Drill Baby Drill” at every campaign stop during the previous presidential campaign.  In fact, Palin is a great example of a good (by today’s standard) republican.  She’s ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!  Now, I don’t condemn her for taking advantage of John McCain’s incredible stupidity and cashing in on it – but, the more I see her in action I believe she’s actually starting to picture herself as the first woman president.  Oh my God!  Can you even imagine such a thing?  I’ve seen enough of her to realize one thing: she might be qualified to be mayor of Wasilla, but – republicans – don’t even go there as far as trying to get her finger on the trigger of our nuclear stockpile of weapons.  The last I heard of Sarah, she was suggesting we find a Dutch person to help with the BP disaster “because they’ve got experience plugging up dikes.” (I’m really not kidding – she said that on Bill O’reilly’s TV show)

When President Obama “pardoned” Bush/Cheney I said that was too much for me – a deal breaker – and, it may prove to be, I really don’t know if I’ll ever be able to vote for the man after that.  I’ve been terribly disappointed in the lack of “fight” – translated, in my thought process as LEADERSHIP – since day one of his administration.  However, it would be a cruel turn of events to saddle him with another republican congress.  I’m hoping that isn’t what it would take to get “progressives” fired up again.  I’ll “toot” my own horn here – I’ve done this a bit – I’ve been predicting that the actions of Obama’s administration was going to “turn off” a large portion of his “base” and the democrats would be facing an election cycle where lack of turnout would work in the republican’s favor.  Now, I really hope I’m wrong here – but, much of the info I’ve gathered lately TOTALLY supports this “theory.”  In fact, not only are the democrats looking at “progressives” not voting, but they’re also looking at a possible mass exodus of independents (like me).  Now, I would never vote for a republican based on the present day makeup of the party – but, I might not vote (actually, as I wrote those words I realized that I must be dreaming because I’ve voted in EVERY election since 1968 – including primaries and midterms – so, I’ll probably vote – but, there’s a lot who won’t) – so, Obama and the democrats need to kick it into “high gear” to impress the “base” that they are actually FIGHTING these republicans.  The reason Obama was elected was to reverse the misdeeds of the Bush/Cheney administration.  Much of that has not happened.

There’s still two wars going on.  Obama’s justice department has been seen in court numerous times defending Bush/Cheney abuses as if he’s (Obama) going to continue them – which would include the warrantless wiretapping program.  Eric Holder has defended the “State’s Secret” privilege that Bush/Cheney so adroitly abused – in court.  The transparency that candidate Barrack Obama promised has evolved into another secretive administration which is more concerned with leaks from within than to openness to his supporters.  And, to me, worst of all, former President Bush and Vice President Cheney are still going around BRAGGING about authorizing TORTURE as if to continually point out to the American public that President Obama doesn’t have the NERVE to do anything about the FACT our previous president and vice president were quite possibly WAR CRIMINALS, along with untold other members of their staffs.  This all being said, I still believe it’s not too late (almost, however) for our president to turn things around.  Take it to the republicans – and, not in such a nice way.  Yes, the speeches may be effective to specific groups here and there, but Mr. President, it’s time to get the entire nation’s attention.  Step one?  Take the harness off of your attorney general, and open the investigations into TORTURE.

One thing the American people don’t respect is the appearance of our leaders being timid.  We don’t need the brash arrogance of George W Bush and Dick Cheney, but we need forceful leadership that is rooted in the basic tenets of our constitution.  This is a nation of laws – or supposedly so – and not men.  Today I got involved in a discussion with a gentleman who is a bit older than me (a retired businessman) and who is one of the millions of Americans who watches Fox “news” and gets his information from them.  Everytime I run into someone of that “ilk” it’s like listening to a recording – because they’ve had the information they perceive to be true hammered into their heads OVER and OVER by one “pundit” or “talking head” after another.  That has been the republican strategy since the days of Ronald Reagan (in fact, this gentleman was a bit nostalgic for Reagan – as he was lamenting budget deficits – go figure) – the republicans send out their “troops” who are all programmed with the same “key words” and they just start saying them repeatedly on every venue where they can be “heard” until the general public assumes “this must be true.”  It’s a great propaganda scheme – especially, when our media – for whatever reason – doesn’t want to even discuss the strategy.  I often wonder, “How many of them are in cahoots?”  In fact, the other day, I heard several members of the “media” blasting the reporter who “outed” General Stanley McChrystal for his insubordinate behavior in Afganistan – as if this reporter had an obligation to keep a “lid” on the story for some unexplained moral journalistic reason.  My first thought:  “it’s all the other reporters – who’ve bought into the ‘old boy’s network’ who need to check their badges at the door.”  One of the main things missing in America today is “the fourth estate” – a media that is holding our government accountable – without being in concert with them.  And, this is where we need a STRONG LEADER right now.  Not someone trying to find “the common ground,” but someone who’s trying to GROUND this nation in the very principles which made America great in the first place.  I believe it’s President Obama’s lack of willingness for confrontation which is allowing the republicans to believe they can win in November.  The republican agenda is a loser – upon close inspection, the republicans are far more corrupt than the democrats – upon closer inspection, and almost all of our serious problems can be traced right back to Bush/Cheney – upon closer inspection!  So, why are the republicans so full of themselves right now?  The main problem, as I see it, is that President Obama is what is standing in the way of closer inspection of republican misdeeds, and the resulting lack of respect is bipartisan!  As long as Obama and the democrats are going to look away from republican legal infractions (I’m sure the dems feel with full investigations, some of them would also be vulnerable) – these infractions will continue.  In fact, they’ll get worse.  As I continue pondering the ills republicans would impose on America and the FACT the rest of us are depending on democrats to stop them, all I can do is keep shaking my head.

I’ve spent the past couple years trying to explain the importance of “progressives” (liberals) taking back the initiative in the direction of the United States of America.  The more I write, the more I feel the sense of importance for this, the more I feel a sense of frustration as I watch democrats acting either in concert with republicans – or simply not “getting” what is happening – and, the more I wish that our leaders would somehow get in “touch” with the basic tenets that made this country the greatest nation in the “free world.”  And, let me emphasize here, what made us great in the first place wasn’t our military prowess – that was simply a tangiential “offspring” of the unity which was created during the late 30’s and the “New Deal.”  It is true that the United States pretty much took “center stage” after leading the defeat of the Nazi white supremist regime of the thirties – but, the mobilization of America into the world’s greatest military power was the result of the inner strength brought out during the fight for worker’s rights waged by America’s unions.  Our (I’m a “baby boomer”) father’s and grandfather’s (yes – mothers and grandmothers too!) turned this nation into an industrial power through the principle of corporations being loyal to workers and vice versa – something that is rapidly becoming a “thing of the past” in today’s America.

Getting “rich” quick – wasn’t the mantra when I was growing up during the 50’s and 60’s.  The head of the local paper mill or sawmill or whatever made a tidy sum more than the workers – maybe 5 to 10 times what the workers were making.  BUT NOT 500 TIMES!  It was expected that health care benefits were part of the “benefit package” for workers at most jobs ( of course, health care was much cheaper back then), and it was not unusual to see blue collar workers working for the same company for 30 years, 40 years, or even more.  I still remember when I had the opportunity to maybe go to work for Hewlett Packard in the 70’s that one of their “pitches” was they had NEVER laid off a single worker!  Their workers received a liveable wage PLUS a generous benefit package – and Hewlett Packard was very proud of their record in this regard.  Based on the feedback I got from my friends who worked there, the moral was quite high.  Companies like Hewlett Packard were proud of the FACT they employed American workers at liveable wages who were the “backbone” of their company.  This was the predominant “mindset” during the first 30+ years of my lifetime.  Then, along came Ronald Reagan and the “Reagan revolution.” (and, if you work at Hewlett Packard – a bit later, Caryl Fiorina!)

When I listen to republicans refer to Reagan it reminds me of the Texas conservative school officials who want to rewrite the history books to “teach” our children the “history” that fits into their dreams of how things should be.  Very seldom do I hear anyone “tell it like it is” when referencing Reagan.  In fact, lately I’ve gotten sick to my stomach listening to “conservatives” complaining about the budget deficits which are definitely PLAGUING this nation – of that one thing, by the way, I can agree with them.  I’ve been complaining about the budget deficits ever since Richard Nixon put the “borrow with no intention of ever paying it back” syndrome into routine federal policy – from a republican perspective.  I can still remember Nixon likening the budget deficit to having a mortgage on your house – and, suggesting how STUPID it was for the government to own so much property without “mortgaging” it.  (I don’t remember him ever saying anything about paying back the mortgage)

Of course, Ronald Reagan took this deficit spending to an entirely new level.  And, it was based on the usual republican rhetoric.  Jimmy Carter reduced Nixon’s deficit in half in his four years in office (if you check – the democrats eventually reduce the deficit – the republicans complain about it and then jack it up – AGAIN – in Bush 43’s case, he jacked it up so high that it may be next to impossible to get it back down to where it was when he assumed the presidency – republicans complaining about “Obama’s” deficit seemingly can’t remember Dick Cheney saying “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”) – Reagan promised to “cut taxes and balance the budget,” (stupid on its face) but seemed to get a “free pass” from republicans as the deficit ZOOMED into the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars within his first official budget.  Of course, this was the direct result of the “trickle down” economic theory that Bush 41 best defined as “voodoo economics.”  Reagan also led the assault on America’s labor unions – he violated a campaign promise to the Air Traffic Controllers – and BROKE their union right on national TV – showing every unprincipled CEO in the country just how to do it – AND, showing them they would have the government’s support if they decided to break some unions.  They’ve been quite successful as less than 10% of America’s workforce is now unionized (in the 60’s it was something approaching 40%) – an astonishing feat to say the least – Reagan managed to get the very workers who were losing their benefits, their jobs, their futures, to vote republican.  I was amazed then, I’m still amazed now.  I actually have friends that I can’t even talk to about politics as they blindly express loyalty to the president who was most responsible for the FACT they are skilled members of a workforce that no longer needs – nor wants – their services.  And, it won’t surprise me if some of these people continue to vote for republicans – because they have been fooled into thinking that republicans are going to get Roe v Wade overturned.

So, how serious is this “battle” for America’s very soul that I – and millions of others – are so deeply concerned?  Well, just take a closer look at the BP disaster in the gulf – and the associated reports coming from all over the place on the abuses of the big oil companies.  Or, take a closer look at the two ENDLESS fiascos Bush/Cheney got us mired into and President Obama seems powerless to get us out.  How about a closer look at our very electoral process – I know we take it for granted that every vote counts in America – but, is that really true?  And, how about a closer look at our justice department – the one that was TOTALLY politicized during the Bush/Cheney regime?  I could go on and on here, but how about finishing with a quick look into the potential ramifications of the “Citizen’s United” Supreme Court decision and – to make all the “tea partiers” happy – a quick appraisal of the budget deficit; who’s fault it is and what can realistically be done to correct it?  That’s a lot of “stuff” to look at, but unfortunately there’s a lot more – we’re just limited by my time, my motivation, and my wish that you would actually read whatever I come up with without feeling like you’ve just finished reading a book.

OK, the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster.  If this one screw up doesn’t give you pause about the “Citizen’s United” decision, I’m sorry to say this, but you’re just not thinking straight.  This corporation has the $20 BILLION to put up to make themselves look better – and, hopefully make it easier for all the Gulf residents who are losing everything due to BP’s recklessness – plus they’ve got plenty to wage a PR campaign which will attempt to convince the public they are “civic minded” and “green” – what most people don’t know – they will be FULL TILT BOOGIE in our next election attempting to make sure that people like Joe Barton (the apologist), Michelle Bachman, and other republicans who are defending their “mistake” get re-elected.  Additionally, BP is showing its true colors as they refuse to allow anyone participating in the Gulf cleanup to wear respirators – despite the FACT hundreds of workers are getting sick from breathing the contamination  associated with cleaning up this HUGE mess!  Now there are reports coming out regarding other BULLYING tactics used by BP and other oil companies in situations where exploratory wells are being drilled and the contamination associated with their work is being denied or covered up.  The process called “fracking” – which gets the natural gas out from shale deposits – pollutes the water supplies of the regions around the wells with high levels of carcinogens.  I won’t go into anymore detail here – just Google it if you don’t believe me.  The point: these large corporations have put profits ahead of people – and our government, especially Bush/Cheney have enabled this behavior by eliminating government oversight.  The corporations are TOTALLY supported by the republican party! (and, the deomcrats don’t have the kahonas to say “enough already”)

Iraq and Afganistan.  I’m sick of even writing about this – but, I must continue.  The other day I was listening to a republican friend of mine talking about “supporting the troops.”  That is, who is and who isn’t supporting the troops.  Keeping in mind that some of our troops have had 6, 7 or more tours of duty in these two MISTAKES, I find it hard to say “supporting our troops” is to continue to send them back OVER AND OVER!  Supporting our troops would be getting them the hell out of Iraq and Afganistan ASAP – and that’s not by the politicians timetable.  Obviously, President Obama didn’t have the resolve to do this like he showed in his campaign for the presidency.  The 16 months have come and gone and there are still something like 100,00 American troops in Iraq – not to mention all the contractors who are doing jobs our troops should be doing (at a fraction of the cost).  We, as a nation, are throwing away HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars – essentially throwing good money after bad – to keep from having to face the REALITY that Bush/Cheney managed to get us mired into two VIET NAM like fiascos at the same time.  Of course, Bush/Cheney are proud of their efforts to this day.  Just a couple weeks ago I heard that GW was bragging (again) about authorizing torture and said he would do it again “to keep America safe.”  Well, his policies have kept us so safe that we’re on the verge of bankruptcy, we can’t seem to stop the bleeding, and ultimately our military will be ruined by these multiple tours of duty in countries where the people don’t want us there and there is no clear mission as to why we’re there – other than to prevent the impression that the United States of America “failed.”  I guess the present thinking is that if we can endure this for another 10 to 20 years maybe people will forget why we went there in the first place and we’ll be considered “winners.”  I honestly don’t understand the thinking – especially Barack Obama’s thinking – he’s gaining “ownership” of Bush’s blunders.  That, in itself, to me is stupid!

You don’t think the electoral process is a mess?  Did you pay attention to what just happened in South Carolina?  The guy someone (I’m guessing no one will investigate this either) paid his $10,000 dollar fee to enter the senate primary (democratic, of course), who didn’t campaign at all, who stands accused of a felony, won by almost 20% amid one complaint after another that voters would “touch” the screen of the voting machine and this guy’s name would come up instead of the name of the person they wanted to vote for (the person who, by the way, had a slight chance to unseat Jim DeMint – the racist, anti-Obama republican who is leading the attempt to make sure President Obama “fails”) and this guy – who when you listen to him speak you just shake your head that someone would have the balls to pull this off, and then shake your head some more that there is no investigation – he won with close to 60% of the vote (not all the ballots were cast on these machines that have ABSOLUTELY no paper trail).  Does this remind you of anything?  How about Florida in 2000?  How about Ohio in 2004?  How about Louisiana in this year’s democratic primary where areas favorable to the challenger to Blanche Lincoln had most of their polling places closed so that some people would have had to travel long distances to cast a ballot in a primary election?  This crap is going on everywhere.  The makers of the voting machines in question – which are EASILY hacked – are ALL republicans.  We seem to go on as if nothing has happened here.  But, we endured 8 years of Bush/Cheney due to voting irregularities in Florida (remember Bush’s brother was in charge of that election as Florida’s governor) – no investigation that I’ve ever seen was made public (I’ve heard the reason for that was to prevent undermining Bush’s presidency – because, most people know that Al Gore should have been president – and, the only saving grace there is that we didn’t have to endure Joe Lieberman as Vice President).  The Ohio irregularities encompassed kind of “all of the above” – the fraudulent machines, the limited polling outlets in places that were heavily democratic, and state officials who were directly involved in the Bush campaign.  When we conclude that our votes DON’T COUNT – and, that the politicians have “fixed” the elections beforehand – well, that’s when this great experiment of America’s self rule starts to unravel.  The brainwashing from the “right” started during Reagan’s administration, and the effect of it shows today when you listen to the irrational claims of members of the so-called “tea party.”  America’s middle class seems determined to vote themselves into eternal submission to the “corporate masters.”

I’ll try to make this one short – because if you’ve been around here long, you know how I feel on this issue.  The Justice Department.  During the Bush/Cheney years new members of the Justice Department had to take what amounted to a loyalty oath to the republican party.  This in itself was another of the crimes committed during their term in office which will apparently forever be “forgotten” (or forgiven from the point of view of Obama/Holder).  The Justice Department fired 9 US Attorney’s because they “failed” to adequately prosecute democrats – or, were prosecuting republicans.  There was a huge “to do” about this – but, no one was held accountable for undermining the very fabric our nation rests on – and, that is a NON-PARTISAN Justice Department.  Don Seigleman, the governor of Alabama was essentially jailed by friends of Karl Rove – preventing him from being reelected as Alabama’s governor – and, nothing has been done since Holder took over as Attorney General to make this right – again, it’s as if nothing happened.  And, of course, there are a litany of reasons the Bush/Cheney administration SHOULD have been investigated – not the least of which is WAR CRIMES – or WAR PROFITEERING – or LYING us into WAR – but, there hasn’t been even a whimper from Obama or the Democratically controlled Congress or Eric Holder to investigate this wrongdoing.  President Obama has essentially overturned the GREAT effort made in the 70’s, when Nixon went out of control, to prove that just because the president does it doesn’t make it legal!  Right now, our Justice Department is a mess, people are thumbing their collective noses at it, the airwaves are full of seditious language, the politicians are openly corrupt – and, it seems, our Justice Department is powerless to do anything about it.  As with the voting process, when we totally lose faith in our Justice Department, the foundation of our democracy is at the crumbling stage.

This all gets me back to the “Citizen’s United” decision handed to us all by the Roberts Supreme Court.  Obviously, both John Roberts and Sam Alito were good strategic picks for people like GW Bush – who believe in destroying our government and believe the “private sector” can do everything better.  Well, as stated above, BP is giving us a good view of that philosophy.  Or, how about the Wall Street banks?  Is 2008 so far in the rear view mirror that people have forgotten the reason our economy is still sitting on the edge of disaster due to the reckless GAMBLING that is going on with taxpayers money by corporations such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America (Merrill Lynch) and others?  And, by the way, they’re right back at it as if nothing has happened – selling collaterallized debt obligations with one hand, and betting they’ll fail with the other.  Let’s focus on the miltary industrial complex for a moment.  Do you want corporations such as GE, Boeing, Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater (Xe) and the like determining our members of Congress – or, our president?  Think about how little a couple HUNDRED MILLION is to one of these companies as opposed to what government oversight might cost them.  Believe me, there is only one thing on their radar screen – and that is maximizing PROFITS!  They could care less about the “good of the people,” yet, “we the people” continue voting in these thugs who are beholden to the corporate masters.  Do you really think things will get better, in this regard, now that these corporations can spend endless amounts of money to influence our electoral process?  To top all this off, and hopefully get your attention even more, congress is attempting to pass a law requiring corporations to identify themselves in any adds they might put on TV or radio or other forms of mass media.  Yesterday, I tried (again) to listen to Rush Limbaugh – and the experiment failed (again) – as he was railing against the idea that corporations being forced to identify themselves in their adds was some kind of communist plot (that’s my characterization of his words) – these thugs want to influence our electoral process AND they want to remain anonymous so that no one knows what they’re up to!  Unbelievable to me – ALL OF THIS – including our Supreme Court having the nerve to say corporations have the same rights as individuals (that’s what you call “having your cake and eating it”)

We’re finally there – the deficit that all the tea partiers are so worried about.  What is wrong with these people?  Where were they when GW Bush and Dick Cheney were running the deficit into the TRILLIONS?  It seems a bit too convenient to me that they all of a sudden are concerned – and, of course, they have no qualms in laying this deficit at Obama’s feet.  To me, that just shows either how disengenuous they are, or how ignorant they are.  For starters, while Obama has added some to the deficit (0ut of necessity – due to the failing economy) something like 1.3 TRILLION was a carryover from the Bush/Cheney disaster.  These “tea partiers” evidently weren’t listening when their HERO Dick Cheney was proclaiming that “deficits don’t matter” as he was “masterminding” the second of the two outrageous tax cuts Bush/Cheney pushed through their obedient republican congress (with a little help from a few “blue dog” democrats).  These “deficit haters” also hate Bill Clinton – but, do you think they remember that Clinton handed a $250 BILLION surplus to Bush/Cheney which would have paid off the national debt in something like 10 years had they “stayed the course.”  Bush/Cheney turned that surplus into something like a $400 BILLION deficit in less than two years – and, they kept piling it on for the remainder of their term in office.  And, remember that Bush/Cheney never ONCE counted a penny of the money spent on Iraq or Afganistan against the deficit – despite the FACT that every penny spent on those two fiascos was BORROWED MONEY!  So, I’ll say it again – where were all the “tea partiers” then?  Where was Rush Limbaugh then? Where was Sean Hannity then?  Where was Bill O’Reilly then? Where was Glenn Beck then?  Where was Sarah Palin then?  Where was Lars Larson then?  All these people who want you to think they are the uber patriots couldn’t even come up with a whimper then.  Of course, most of them were cashing in on the FACT Bush/Cheney’s tax cuts predominantly benefitted the wealthiest 1% (or less) of Americans.  Here’s an interesting fact I read recently;  something like one tenth of one percent (or less) of our workforce in America are represented by about 1500 people who make an average of 26 MILLION dollars per year (that totals about 400 BILLION per year in income).  The idea that they needed a tax cut as opposed to our nation balancing its “books” is beyond my comprehension.  I could go into this tax cut for the rich stuff all day (and, of course, I’m not rich) but, even the rich were better off during the Clinton years from the standpoint our nation was much stronger economically than it is today.  What good will all their extra cash do them as this nation crumbles at the seems?  When I was a kid, during the Eisenhower years, the rich paid something like 90% of all earning past a certain point in taxes – to discourage them from becoming greedy money mongers.  I don’t know what the correct amount should be – but we should definitely de incentivise the HUGE amounts of money being made on Wall Street with no apparent value to our economy.  Corporate CEO’s earning tens or even HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars each year demonstrate the system is out of whack.  This is the result of 30+ years of “trickle down” (or voodoo) economics and that is what the “tea partiers” should be railing against.  I’m OK with people being upset with our huge national debt, our annual deficit spending, our trade deficits, all of that – it just bugs me to no end to listen to them rail against all that and then turn around and vote for the people who gave it all to us!  When America’s middle class is healthy again, America will be healthy again.  For that to happen, the “rich” will have to pay more in taxes and the “blue collar” workers will need to be paid “middle class” wages – plus, all Americans will be covered with health insurance.  And, our government will be overseeing the private sector and holding accountable those corporations who abuse the regulations which are designed to preserve our nation’s economic health and our environment.

While I have continued to WISH for President Obama’s success, I have been straightforward in my concerns about the direction of his administration.  The history of my concerns are well documented in the archives of this site.  That being said, the past few days have shown me how important President Obama’s success really is.  Some of the “stuff” coming out of the mouths of the oppositional party is UNBELIEVABLE.  I’ve stated many times here that I loathe (well, I might have used different language) the idea of choosing the “best” option of two bad options when I vote.  I’ve also said on several occasions that President Obama’s decision to allow George W Bush and Dick Cheney to walk away from all the damage they caused without even an investigation was TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE to me.  However, after listening to Haley Barbour, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, and some of the other “right” wingers the other night respond to our president setting up a 20 BILLION dollar fund to help defray the costs of the BP oil catastrophe I couldn’t believe my ears – that in this great nation people with that lack of intellectual capacity could manage to worm their way into such powerful positions.

Sarah Palin was almost a “heartbeat” from the presidency.  Before I go on, John McCain will be forever remembered for unleashing this arrogant baffoon on the rest of us.  Can you even imagine if Palin were in charge right now (or McCain for that matter)? So, let’s start with her comments.  It’s been a couple days ago, so if you’re reading this I’m sure you’ve already heard this – but, it bears REPEATING!  Sarah Palin was on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox “news” and he was trying to throw her some “softballs” in order for her to show the nation what she would do to solve this BP oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.  I won’t go into all the details of her response, but the one that really STUCK in my ear was her comment about seeking help from the “Dutch.”  OK, if you didn’t hear this, hold onto your …… hat.  Sarah Palin actually said the “Dutch” have experience at plugging dikes!  I’m not kidding you, I heard this with my own ears.  I’m a school teacher and over the years you get proficient at reading lips as people are talking.  I’M SURE SARAH PALIN SAID THAT!

If that doesn’t get your attention, then there’s Haley Barbour – the governor of Mississippi and former Republican campaign chairman.  This guy is also a “piece of work.”  President Obama was down in Mississippi meeting with many of the Mississippians who have been adversely impacted by this catastrophe – walking side by side with Barbour as he was doing so – and promising them support so that they won’t be financially ruined by BP’s recklessness.  OK, that’s all well and good.  Then Obama goes on national TV and promises to get BP to set up a fund to pay for these losses without Mississippians (or victims from other states as well) needing to go through all the “red tape” normally required for claims such as theirs and, thus, eliminating possibly years of haggling for these people to be reimbursed for their horrible losses.  Then, unlike most American politicians, President Obama actually came through, and the next day there was a $20 BILLION (with a B) fund set up, to be administered by a third party, which will be used to pay the losses of these Gulf residents who are losing their way of life along with their income.  Additionally, Obama got BP to put up $100 MILLION for payments to oil rig workers who are likely to be unemployed until the investigations of the cause of this CATASTROPHE are completed.  Job well done, correct?  Well, according to Haley Barbour (remember, republicans owe a lot of campaign debt to BP and the other oil companies), this was a bad idea because it could cause BP not to be able to generate enough money to pay the claims that are certain to be coming – en masse!  You heard that right, Barbour said, getting BP to put up $20 BILLION was a bad idea because it could cause them difficulty in paying the claims of his citizens and those of the other Gulf states.  The logic of that comment was so absurd that I was almost embarrassed to write about it.  (I’m sure that last characterization will get an “elititist” accusation from good ole Lars Larson toward me)

How does Dick Armey figure in all this.  Well, he’s the “Freedom Works” dude who’s going around the country stirring up all the “tea party” candidates and then trying to rationalize the stupid remarks they keep making.  He, of course, was blaming the oil catastrophe on President Obama, and – at the same time – suggesting to Rand Paul, Sarah Palin, and some of the other “tea partiers” who are being crammed down our collective throats as some kind of “populist” uprising that they SHUT UP!  At least I’ll give Armey enough credit that he can tell when people are saying such stupid stuff that it’s going to come back to haunt them.  If I remember right, his comment about Palin suggesting the Dutch could put a finger in the dike was that she was probably thinking “I wish I hadn’t said that.”  While all this is going on Armey is also trying to defend the likes of Sharron Angle, the tea party (republican) candidate for Harry Reid’s senate seat as she claims that if she doesn’t win in November the voters still have the “second amendment remedy.”  I’ll let you figure out what that means!  These people really have a high opinion of themselves!

The week, however, was topped by Texas republican congressman Joe Barton as he APOLOGIZED to Tony Hayward – BP’s CEO – for the Obama administration’s “shakedown” of Hayward’s company.  If you haven’t heard this one, you need to google it and listen to it word for word.  This was beyond UNBELIEVABLE!  It was just icing on the cake for those of us who have been lamenting the cozy enabling relationship the republican party in America has had with the Corporate elite for the past 30+ (or more) years!  Of course, with these republicans, President Obama can’t win for losing – ANYTHING he would do would be met with obstinent objection!  That’s why EVERYONE is referring to republicans as the PARTY OF NO!  But, this disaster is BIPARTISAN!  It will surely be republicans and democrats (and independents and others) alike who suffer because of this BP MAN MADE disaster!  I’ve listened to republicans (and democrats) suggest that Obama “take over” BP, I’ve heard people suggest he enlist the military in stopping this leak, and the suggestions go on and on.  The reality is that there is no way President Obama can close this leak.  In fact, I believe it is in everyone’s interest that BP remain a viable company – giving them the incentive to figure out how to stop this thing.  From what I can surmise, the only way they are going to do that is through one of the two relief wells that are being drilled as I’m writing this.

So, the nation should be cheering the FACT President Obama is looking out for the interests of those being directly affected by this disaster.  Surely, the $20 BILLION will not be the total liability of BP.  But Obama made it clear there was no “deal” that went along with it.  This is just a fund that will prevent all these good people in the Gulf from having to fight through the courts for years to get their money (and, hopefully, put less of the money in the pockets of lawyers).  No one is precluded from suing BP, and BP will still be held liable for ALL the damage and for ALL the regulatory malfeasance.  Additionally, I was totally encouraged by Obama’s appointment of a person with the direct purpose of “cleaning up” the Minerals Management Service.  (Maybe, we’ll even get an investigation into how all this came about – remember the Bush/Cheney crew?)  This gets me back to Joe Barton.  How the Hell is anyone who’s able to get elected to Congress so INSENSITIVE that they would make the comments Barton made.  I mean, I thought the man was going to shed some tears for poor old BP!  He actually said he was ASHAMED of his government for FORCING (yes, he used the term “shakedown”) BP to put up $20 BILLION to cover the initial claims.  All I can say is that in my mind (and, I’ve given President Obama more than his share of grief from this “blog”) – great job by our president – TOTAL STUPIDITY by Joe Barton.

If the democrats can’t do something for the upcoming election with the words that are coming out of these republican’s mouths, then I guess they don’t deserve to be in office.  President Obama still has the opportunity to go on the offensive against these thugs.  While I’m pleased with the way he’s handling this present situation (can you imagine being in his shoes – all the CRAP Bush/Cheney left behind – including this Gulf crisis [remember, it’s the Bush/Cheney deregulation that opened the door for this kind of reckless corporate behavior]) I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him for “looking forward instead of back.”  These republicans don’t deserve the time they’re getting on the news – any time they get should be answering questions about all the abuses of the previous eight years.  However, knowing Obama to be a pragmatist, I believe he’s taking the proper approach to this BP disaster.  Money won’t fix the damage being done to some of the most valuable parts of our nation, but it’s what he can do to keep the people there “going” until better solutions can be found.  Our government is not going to stop this well from spewing the millions of gallons of oil it’s putting into the Gulf each day – so, holding BP accountable – yet, keeping enough incentive for them to actually stop this thing ASAP – is the practicle way to go.  I believe most Americans see this, and maybe just letting republicans talk about the BP  catastrophe is the way to expose them for the insensitive thugs they are.  People like Joe Barton, Sarah Palin, Haley Barbour, and Michelle Bachman ( I didn’t even include some of her crazy comments – she called the $20 BILLION fund a “redistribution of wealth”) will most likely keep their lips moving, and – in the process – hopefully, what Obama should have done at the beginning of his presidency will happen anyway – the republicans will be exposed for the greedy, corrupt, corporate kissups that they are! 

Although I’m sick of writing about how important investigating the Bush/Cheney regime (was) is, this BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico just further accentuates why this is still SO IMPORTANT.  Why the Obama administration doesn’t “get” this is beyond me.  They are slowly taking “ownership” of a lot of the Bush/Cheney “baggage” because of the short attention span of Americans in general – along with a public media which is simply part of the corporate takeover of our political process.  The root cause of this oil spill very likely, in my view, goes back to the first days of the Bush/Cheney administration.  The ink was barely dry on the original “oaths” (OK, the words were barely spoken) before Dick Cheney had the corporate heads of the different private energy firms in his office for SECRET talks on a new energy “policy.”  Of course, despite all the secretiveness since then most people agree that this group was dedicated to eliminating government oversight from the energy business.

Ken Lay of the now infamous Enron Corporation, which was ripping average Americans off for every penny they could squeeze out of them, was part of the meetings.  And, considering Lay was allowing Bush/Cheney the use of his private jets during the campaign, you can bet that he was a significant part of the “plan.”  Of course, we’ll probably never know how much he was part of the plan because shortly after his indictment for his part in the Enron scam he mysteriously turned up dead.  Now, I know all you anti-conspiracy people out there think nothing “untoward” could have happened – that it was just a coincidence that just before Lay was scheduled to be imprisoned he had a heart attack which prevented him the opportunity to make a deal with the prosecutors – I just thought the lack of investigation was curious.  Of course, the Bush administration had a stranglehold on the justice department by this time in their first term.

Another major “player” in those “talks” were top representatives from BP.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know what they were discussing?  Considering the potential number of OTHER waivers “out there” I think this is something that is of the gravest of national interest – to find out what kind of CRAP was going on behind the scenes regarding deregulation of oil drilling, coal mining, natural gas exploration.  How much of our national heritage was “mortgaged” so that these large energy companies could “have their way” with our environment.  I don’t know – is the Gulf of Mexico enough to get the attention of these chicken hawk democrats?  FINALLY?  How many other serious problems are out there for us to discover and Obama to “own” because he doesn’t want the distraction of investigating what abuses went on during the two terms of his predecessor?  You would have thought the economic meltdown would have been enough.  And, bringing back more memories of Bush/Cheney, there are signs that BP and its supporters are starting to suggest that BP is “too big to fail” and will ultimately need to be rescued by the government!

Hell, BP is acting as if they are bigger than the government.  Tonight I saw a report that BP is still refusing to allow the cleanup workers to wear respirators because “it doesn’t look good.”  Are you kidding me?  And, they’re still manipulating the news coming from the gulf and the pictures coming from the gulf.  So, my question is, how far have these HUGE multi-national corporations infiltrated our system of government?  Are we headed back to the bogus, rigged voting machines again – I mean, WHAT NEXT?  Who has control of this nation’s government?  I would think those in the Obama administrtation would be figuring out SOON that the pragmatic approach might not work with these people.  Talk about your liars!  This BP outfit is right up there.  I mean, what is it?  1000, 5000, 10,000, 50,000 barrels per day?  Tonight, I heard a report where BP themselves claimed that in a week or two they will be able to capture up to 80,000 barrels of the oil which is GUSHING into the gulf.  Does anyone besides me find that a bit interesting – they’re going to be capturing more than twice what they’ve been claiming is “spilling?” (don’t they have to pay a fine for each barrel?)

And, if you don’t think I have a point with the rigged voting machines, take a good look at last weeks South Carolina democratic senate primary.  That was one of the most bizarre “happenings” I can remember.  You can call me whatever you want, but I believe the very democratic republic we’ve all come to know and love is UNDER SIEGE!  If you’re having trouble connecting the dots, I’m just pointing out these multinational corporations (including BP, the ones who make and rig the voting machines, and who knows which others) have run amok!  And, the republicans are the WATER CARRIERS of whoever is leading the way.  People like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Lars Larson, and the republican “sheep” have proven they’ll do or say anything for money (tonight, Haley Barbour – governor of Mississippi – was renewing his call for more off-shore drilling).  I’ve come to expect this from them.  It’s President Obama where I continue to look for leadership.  FIND OUT WHAT THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN UP TO!  Trust me, there are a lot more disasters out there waiting to happen.  (in fact, I believe the “bubble” on Wall Street is “inflating” again – those guys have barely slowed down)

Every bill that President Obama and the democrats attempt to pass is met with this obstinate opposition from the “party of NO.”  The ONLY way to expose the motivations of these people is for Congress and/or the Justice Department to FULLY investigate what they did during the eight years of Bush/Cheney.  We know about the Minerals Management Service – literally in “bed” with the oil drilling people being “regulated.”  We know that the head of Massey Mines in West Virginia managed to buy a judge – allowing Massey to “skirt” safety regulations.  We know that a CIA agent was “outed” – most likely by a sitting Vice President.  We know that the entire Justice Department was politicized – as was virtually every other department in government.  We know there is a “revolving door” – between government regulators and the companies they are supposedly regulating – fostering corruption.  We know that we were lied into a horrendous war in Iraq and that our leaders at the highest levels authorized WAR CRIMES!  This is just SOME of the stuff that comes off the top of my head THAT WE KNOW.  (when I say “we,” I mean anyone who’s taking the time to read a few books and “fact check” a few “claims” of government officials)

The political debate in this country HAS TO CHANGE!  President Obama has allowed the republicans to get the “upper hand.”  Just the other day in my own home town there was, of all people, MITT ROMNEY ramping up for 2012 with all the lying accumen you would expect from an over ambitious republican hack.  Everytime I hear one of these thugs blaiming the deficit on Obama it makes me want to puke.  Of course, Obama’s lack of willingness to hold republicans accountable for their previous DISASTROUS decisions, allows people like Romney to get away with this.  What’s amazing to me is there is more than a handful of Americans who would listen to that and give it any credibility whatsoever.  But, the bottom line is Americans do want a persident who is perceived to be tough – and, President Obama is struggling with that concept at this point.  I would just tell him that rhetoric is not how you show how tough you are.  It is through your actions.  And, Obama needs some decisive actions at this point!  If this BP oil spill isn’t enough to cause President Obama to investigate the Bush/Cheney regime, then it aint gonna happen!

I have not hidden the fact that I enthusiastically supported Barack Obama in his presidential campaign.  I have been very open with my absolute disdain for the direction the republican party has led this nation for the past 30 years.  And, I’ve been unable to hide my disappointment with our new president since before he was inaugurated.  Tonight, I’m not going to go over all of those frustrations – AGAIN – but, will probably touch on many of them in trying to make my point.  If you’ve been a frequent visitor to this site you know that Obama’s turning his back on all the wrongdoing of the (correctly labeled – in my view) “Bush crime family” was intolerable.  I suppose the underpinnings of why that was SO INTOLERABLE might come out in my vent this evening.  It is so clear in my mind, but so difficult for me to put accurately into just a few hundred words.  But, as I (along with the rest of America) watch the Gulf Coast TREASURES – which are irreplaceable – DESTROYED by the epitome of what has been wrong with America since the day Ronald Reagan took office I can’t help but think about all the situations “we the people” have simply accepted as “politics as usual” while “going about our business” of “surviving.”

The American public has been (very subtly) BRAINWASHED.  The republicans have been SHAMELESSLY pushing a lie for over 30 years – and, they’ve gotten so good at it – they often times come across as authentic – even to those who understand what they’ve been up to.  Thomas Frank puts it better than anyone else I’ve read in his great book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”  He points out how the republicans have been exploiting the abortion issue (with no intention to prevail – it’s just a tool for them – my interpretation) to get good “blue collar” people to vote for the destruction of everything they hold dear.  These are the very people who were at the head of the line when the battle for America’s middle class was in full swing.  This is where the major labor unions were formed, the auto industry blossomed, and truly earned the right to be called America’s heartland.  Well, since the days of Reagan they’ve been voting “red” despite the fact the results are destroying everything they sacrificed so much to create in the first place.  It’s the corporate mentality which they overcame originally, which they have now succumbed to.  As Frank puts it regarding the anger that is “pent up” in places like Kansas, “Their grandstanding leaders never deliver, their fury mounts and mounts, and nevertheless they turn out every two years to return their right-wing heroes to a second, third, a twentieth try.  The trick never ages; the illusion never wears off.  Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes.  Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization.  Vote to screw those politically correct college professors; receive electricity deregulation.  Vote to get government off our backs; receive conglomeration and monopoly everywhere from media to meatpacking.  Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization.  Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes, in which workers have been stripped of power and CEO’s are rewarded in a manner beyond imagining.”

One of the great ironies from Frank’s book is when one of the Kansan’s he interviewed said, “We’re tired of everything being wonderful on Wall Street and terrible on Main Street.”  Frank goes on by saying incredulously “Let me repeat that, they’re voting republican to get even with Wall Street!”  That, in a nutshell, points out how dramatic the BRAINWASHING of America has been.  And this will not be easily changed (which is the “change I can believe in”) and it WON’T be changed by anyone trying to be a “dealmaker” or someone trying to be “bipartisan.”  I can (and have, and probably will) guarantee you that the republicans won’t give up an “inch” of the ground they’ve managed to take over these thirty years without a guargantuan FIGHT.  This is a WAR for the soul of this nation – and, with the BP oil spill Obama has been given a golden opportunity to take the offensive and do what he should have been doing from day one.

I’m sure some of you have chuckled (I’m trying to be kind) as I’ve continually tried to give our sitting president advice.  Obviously, he’s not taking advice from people like me.  But, here I go again! :o)  Let’s just look at the situation in the gulf to see what a magnificent opportunity Obama has.  First off, I have to say that it grieves my heart that it had to get to a situation like this, but it’s there now and the worse thing Obama can do is continue his tepid approach to decision making and his reluctance to take on republicans – for WHATEVER reason.  That HAS TO STOP or Obama is a one term president and we’re all doomed for another Bush – or some facimilie in the White House.  And, picture another republican in the White House with “Citizen’s United” in full swing – if that’s not a scary thought to you – you’ve either drank the republican’s “coolaid” – or you’re just not paying attention.  BP is the prime example of what “Citizen’s United” is thrusting upon our political system – and, if you think they won’t be TOTALLY involved in the next U.S. election, well, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell…….

From the start of this disaster BP has been LYING (typical republican tactic) through their TEETH about what happened, about how much pollution is escaping the well head (they have to pay a fine for every barrell of oil that escapes – that fine should be in the BILLIONS by now), BP’s been bullying the fishermen who are desperate for income that has been destroyed by the oil slick – so they are trying to help contain the spill, but not allowed to wear respirators because of appearances (something like nine fishermen ended up in the hospital because of breathing the fumes of the oil and the dispersent material being dropped on the spill by BP – which is evidently only making the disaster worse), BP is creating a paperwork nightmare for impacted people along the coast who are trying to recoup lost income from the spill, they are doing everything they can to prevent news reporters and photographers from getting close to the scene, and the other day it was reported that they have “bought off” Google and Yahoo search engines to redirect searches to their website where they can – you guessed it – spew out MORE PROPAGANDA!

BP lied during the process of getting permits for this well, they had no plan WHATSOEVER of what to do if it went bad, and the people in the Minerals Management Service who signed the waiver were put there by who else? You guessed it – Dick Cheney!  So, we’re back to the “golden opportunity” President Obama has to “right the ship” as far as his leadership and his presidency.  It’s true that taking on the republican establishment will cause a major “uproar” (Obama stated he didn’t want the distraction when he orginally declined to investigate the “Bush Crime family” – maybe saving his own presidency will be enough to motivate him into action here).  You’ve heard, I’m sure, of the old saying that “all roads lead to Rome?”  Well, in today’s environment, all disasters lead to Bush/Cheney.  The problem is perception.  As long as Barack Obama continues to cower from a confrontation from the administration most people consider the worst in American history – his administration will be possibly taking their place by the time his first term is up.  I wish I could put it nicer – but, that’s the way I see it.  So, the advice?  It’s time for the advice (and if you know President Obama, why don’t you just ask him to read it once?  Maybe give Rahm Emanuel a day off)

First, admit to some mistakes.  Here’s a good one to admit to.  The Minerals Management Service should have been purged of all the Cheney cronies FROM DAY ONE!  That may have prevented the ridiculous waiver process which was clearly out of control as Obama took the oath of office.  Let’s be real here!  How many more wells are being drilled as I write this with other worthless, potentially disastrous waivers.  This is a PRIME example of what happens when the government convinces itself that these corporate CEO’s are smarter and more dedicated to the public good than the CAREER public servants who are true servants and not trying to skimp at every corner.  Then say something like: “There’s nothing more we can do about this disaster than work as hard as we can to get this well capped and clean up the mess – however long that takes.”  Next point out, “We have to find out how serious this problem is, so we’re going to investigate the process which led to this well, AND ALL OTHER WELLS, to uncover any other unsafe wells – so that relief wells can be started immediately, and we can uncover any illegal or immoral activity going on in the MMS.  Anyone found guilty of committing crimes will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law – and that includes the leadership of BP and/or any other entity wishing to drill for oil off the shores of the United States of America.”

Then bring up Google and Yahoo search engines.  Say something like, “I am authorizing Congress to subpoena the executives from both Google and Yahoo to question whether they have actually allowed themselves to be ‘bought off’ in regard to manipulation of material facts on their search engines.”  I personally don’t know if that’s illegal, but I believe the general public has a right to know how or why BP managed to get to the top of the search engines with a site showing how they’re “helping.”  President Obama, remember the transparency you were so “FOR” during the campaign?  Now’s the time to kick it into high gear.  And, take this opportunity to “hit a home run.”  Promise the American people the thorough investigation of what was going on during Bush/Cheney – or are you going to STUBBORNLY force all of America to find out all these disasters one at a time – like this oil spill – with you on your heels every step of the way?  “We the people” have been outraged by all of this crap for years.  We elected you thinking you would do something about it.  Honestly Mr. President, you didn’t come across to me as someone who was afraid of a good fight.  I still think it’s your advisors.  Take a moment to reflect on their advice – and, if it’s been them pushing you farther and farther toward the “right,” GET RID OF THEM!  And, sooner rather than later.  I’m out of school in two weeks, I’d be glad to VOLUNTEER to help for about two and a half months (you’d have to pay for my plane ticket and room and board – I am a school teacher after all).  There’s millions of other Americans who could probably give you better advice than me.  I would start by posing a question: President Obama, EVERYONE is asking the same question: “Where’s the outrage?”  And, not just toward this oil spill.  Toward the republican’s thirty years of ripping off the American taxpayer with one scam after another – as Thomas Frank puts it “blue collar workers voting republican to get back at Wall Street!”  The republicans have succeeded in that ridiculous propaganda scheme because the democrats don’t have the courage to stand up to them.  We’ve allowed illegal wiretapping without consequence, we’ve allowed torture without consequence, we’ve allowed an entire war built on lies WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE, I could go on and on – but will end by saying and now THIS!  The destruction of one of our most pristine treasures by one of the bulliest of corporations.  Mr. Obama, this crap won’t stop until you, or SOMEONE who’s in a position of influence, stands tall and says ENOUGH ALREADY!  And the outrage will be demonstrated by your actions, not your words!

The BP oil “gusher” should pretty much HOG the news cycles until August (and beyond) – unless a miracle happens and they get the spill stopped prior to finishing the “relief well” which, from everything I can surmise is the only REAL solution to the problem.  (makes one wonder – well, I should say it’s making me wonder – why the relief well wasn’t part of the REQUIREMENTS for BP when they originally drilled this nightmare.  The oil has now reached some of the “pristine” beaches of Florida – and, what I believe a lot of people don’t understand is it’s a MENACE to many more beaches than the ones already under attack.  So, I “get” that in today’s America, this is what we’ll all be talking about.  President Obama is going to do everything he can to make sure he doesn’t relive the Bush “Katrina” disaster, but, as I’ve stated many times on this site – I believe it’s time for President Obama to get some new ADVISORS!  His tepid approach to just about EVERYTHING is not “what the doctor ordered.”  And, the republicans are really good at taking advantage of this – they are going to do EVERYTHING in their power to make Obama look as bad as they can. (despite the consequences on our nation of their lack of support!)

Of course, we’ll never convince the right wing “sheep,” (or should I say “ditto heads”) that the regime of Bush/Cheney is largely to blame for ALL of the things going wrong right now – so, that shouldn’t even be part of the discussion from Obama’s quarters.  If President Obama doesn’t go AGRESSIVELY on the attack – AGAINST REPUBLICANS – soon, I believe his presidency is doomed.  (Well, that being said, I still can only think of one credible republican candidate for 2012 and his name is Bush – and, God help us if we get another one of “them” in the White House)  Bush/Cheney gutted the tax system leading to the HUGE deficits which so many “Tea Partiers” are up in arms about (blaming Obama, of course), Bush/Cheney led us into two interminable, disgustingly illegal and immoral occupations – which Obama apparently doesn’t have the “stones” to pull us out of, it was Bush/Cheney who GUTTED their regulatory system leading to WHO KNOWS HOW MANY more situations which could turn into another “Deep Horizon” disaster (I don’t know if you remember, but the regulators at the Minerals Management Service were doing drugs and having sexual orgies with the people they were supposedly regulating regarding the oil rigs – this was during the “family values” era of Bush/Cheney) – so, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find out how many “requirements” were waived on this “Deep Horizon” rig, and worse than all of this is the general legacy Bush/Cheney left behind of the US as the world’s new Soviet Union – our CIA being compared to the KGB around the world – complete with our leaders authorizing TORTURE and, therefore, WAR CRIMES!

Yes, this oil disaster is HUGE – but, it will be stopped at least by August.  The Bush/Cheney legacy will continue on for untold years and Obama’s reaction to it will FOREVER stain his presidency.  I’ve been pointing this out since the first day I heard of the “we’re looking forward instead of back” policy of President Obama and Eric Holder.  In fact, I couldn’t help be turned off by the incredible hypocrisy watching Holder last week pointing out that the justice department was holding a thorough civil and criminal investigation of the BP oil spill and “if laws were broken, there will be prosecutions ‘TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW!'”  That is EXACTLY what Obama PROMISED on the campaign trail – regarding TORTURE – and, Holder, in his confirmation hearings certainly led me to believe he would not turn his back on TORTURE!  I guess the FACT it was AUTHORIZED by the highest leaders in our land made Obama and Holder a bit nervous.  Well, now it’s all coming back to haunt them – AGAIN – and, it will continue to do so FOREVER – if they don’t do something about it!

I usually have a lot of respect for Keith Olberman, but the other day when he brought up the subject of GW Bush admitting that he had authorized TORTURE he said something like “now that he’s admitted it, shouldn’t we do something?”  Well, earth to Keith – go ahead and have someone check the records – both Bush and Cheney admitted to authorizing WATERBOARDING shortly after leaving office – and both said the same thing Bush said again the other evening – “I’d do it again!”  (as far as I’m concerned, the media has been part of the problem because NO ONE’S complaining that our leaders were allowed to break innumerable laws with not even an investigation)That’s precisely my point – Mr. President!  If you don’t get with it and “take the bull by the horns” here – we’re going to have a republican in the White House again – sooner rather than later – and, when they start torturing again – it’s going to be YOUR FAULT!

Do you remember Iran/Contra?  Bill Clinton chose to “look forward” (maybe that’s where Obama got that HORRIBLE idea) letting people like Oliver North, George HW Bush, and even Ronald Reagan (Oh yes, and Clinton himself very possibly) “off the hook” for sanctioning an illegal “war” which involved drugs, guns, and lots of OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE!  Well, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that many of the “culprits” in the Bush 43 “crowd” were part of the Iran/Contra affair.  These people clearly believe the laws are made for us “little people.”  And, President Obama has forever (unless he comes to his wits – now that he has a second opportunity) sanctioned not only Nixon’s RIDICULOUS claim “if the president does it, it must be legal” which so many people spent so much energy to prove wrong, but also Bush/Cheney’s assumption that the laws don’t apply to them.  The saying goes, it’s MUCH easier to give up rights than to get them back – and, we’re seeing that with President Obama.  He is so reluctant to give back the abuses of the Bush/Cheney White House that he’s actually been “seen” in court defending them – like regarding illegal wiretapping and, just recently, refusing habeous corpus rights to “detainees” at Bagram Air Base in Afganistan.  And, for those of you who are not following this – the rest of the world – especially the Muslin portion of it – sees Bagram in the same light as Abu Ghraib and GITMO.  Obama’s lack of decisiveness is fueling the resurgence of the republican party and deflating the “left” which went to so much trouble to get him elected. 

I’m honestly feeling that President Obama is going out of his way to prove to the “right” that he’s not “weak.”  The problem with that “strategy” is that Obama needn’t prove anything to them.  And, they are salivating at his attempts to do this.  I can only imagine what is being said in the republican “caucus” meetings on capital hill.  By attempting to show that he’s not weak, President Obama is coming across exactly as that – WEAK!  And, the democratic congress isn’t helping him much.  I don’t believe President Obama has the time that FDR had to “get it together” in relation to the FIGHT against America’s “right wing” and the corporatocracy which is threatening to set this nation back almost 100 years.  It’s time for our president to LEAD!  As I’ve said many times on this site (if you don’t believe me I’ve archived every post) the REAL WAR is right here in America.  It’s the war for the direction of this nation.  Are we going to just let the corporations and the republicans who support them “have their way” with us?  When Obama was elected I, for some reason, thought that he understood that all too well.  “The change we can believe in” wasn’t just switching from a republican to a democrat in the White House.  I just assumed that all the “liberties” Bush/Cheney took with the executive branch of our government would be reversed.  That has certainly not been the case, and to make matters worse, we still have Bush/Cheney going around BRAGGING about committing WAR CRIMES knowing that our new president doesn’t have the guts to hold them accountable!

Obama gets plenty of “flack” from the “right.”  I really wish I didn’t feel compelled to write stuff like this.  However, I continue to hold out a slim hope that maybe President Obama will see what’s happening to his presidency, and as a result, to the rest of us who so willingly supported him in 2008.  Yes, it’s a tough spot to be in.  The challenges are overwhelming.  But, Obama keeps making one tepid decision after another – all, seemingly with the desire to make peace with the “right,” and it’s  NOT “what the doctor ordered.”  If you’ve been reading my posts for any length of time, you know how I feel about the Bush/Cheney regime.  I had pretty much given up on Obama’s opportunity to hold Bush/Cheney accountable for the OBVIOUS lawbreaking they were responsible for.  However, George W Bush’s recent remarks supporting TORTURE should be enough to get President Obama to start the investigations of EVERYTHING they did which is suspect!  I don’t even care if Bush/Cheney end up in jail – I just want The United States of America to be able to say – with conviction – WE DON’T TORTURE!  If a whole bunch of government officials need to be convicted of this crime to make this point – then, SO BE IT!

We all know (or should know) that to be a successful president in America one has to be “presidential.”  And, who determines what “presidential” is?  Well, as far as I can tell, it’s the media.  Now, we could have a discussion all day long as to whether or not our “liberal media” is really liberal, but the reality for President Obama is that perception becomes reality.  This is where the republicans are “light years” ahead of the democrats – and, if they (the democrats) don’t wake up soon, we’re all going to find ourselves in a mess far worse than the one we’re dealing with today – and, I’m not necessarily talking about the BP oil spill here.

I have tried to point out many times how the “right wing” instituted a plan, by my best calculations during the Reagan years – but, possibly prior to then, for a “permanent republican majority.”  Karl Rove, in all his arrogance, went public with this plan during the miserable years of the Bush/Cheney administration.  In fact, the Bush/Cheney administration should have been enough to put an end to such a diabolical plan forever, except for one part of the plan which most people won’t be talking about – and there’s a good reason they won’t.  Our “liberal media” – which is controlled by the likes of GE (not your liberal bastion), Fox (need I say more), Disney (if you don’t think they are tilted STRONGLY to the right – look up a bit of political history on Walt Disney), and a very few others who ALL depend on the corporate “advertising” dollars which often times leave me scratching my head – won’t bring it up.  As a quick example, take BP’s advertising that they are an environmentally “friendly” company.  On one ad after another I end up wondering what on earth are they trying to sell me?  Then it sinks in – NOTHING!  They are providing DOLLARS for the very media outlets which they need “on their side” during “times like these.”  Still not sure what I’m talking about?  Well, if a “news” network becomes dependent on the advertising dollars of  a company like BP, are they going to REALLY do “investigative” reporting on a spill like the “Deepwater Horizon” GUSHER?  You’ve heard the saying I’m sure, “don’t cut off the hand that feeds you.”  It’s like the government collecting taxes on the sale of cigarettes and alcohol.  They depend on the revenue so they have to make it look like they’re encouraging people to stop smoking and drinking, but they really need that MONEY!  It’s the same with the broadcasting outlets.  They depend on the advertising of the corporations who are buying “protection” from intrusive reporters telling the rest of us what is actually going on “out there.”

I really do understand that I sometimes am very awkward in making my point (I guess that’s why I’m still a school teacher and not a journalist).  However, the point here is that our “liberal media” is not liberal at all!  And, our democratic (and democratically elected) president is on the wrong side of the “fence” as far as the media is concerned.  Yes, I realize the “right” wing pundits keep cramming the thought into our collective minds that President Obama is getting a “pass” from the “liberal media,” but when you take a closer look at things that doesn’t appear to be the case.  For example, as far as I can tell, this “tea party” movement who portray our president in very insulting ways, is the result of all facits of the media giving them credibility when they have deserved virtually none (led, of course, by Fox).  I mean, why all the attention when less than a thousand people showed up at their “national convention.”  There’s Elks club meetings I can remember going to with my father with more people attending than that!  The common theme among these “tea partiers” is “we want our country back” – and, as I’ve said many times here – back from what?

These people don’t deserve page eighteen let alone page one of any responsible news outlet – but, our “liberal media” seems to have pushed them right up to the front of the national political debate.  I haven’t heard much outrage either that their “darling” candidate for the Senate from the great state of Kentucky, Rand Paul, is in favor of repealing parts of the civil rights act of 1964, or that his response to the deep horizon “gusher” was “accidents happen.”  (and, of course, this deepwater horizon DISASTER hasn’t slowed down Sarah Palin’s cries of “drill baby drill” hardly at all)  As I see it, the only way people like this and the other fringe candidates the republicans will be “throwing” at us en masse this coming November might win, would be if the press looks the other way (as Obama did with Bush/Cheney – I have to “throw” that comment in because it bugs me just as much as what our “liberal” media is doing) or if we get the same voting machines we had in 2000.

Getting back to being “presidential” and President Obama, he took office at a time when any reasonable person would have said “NO THANK YOU.”  I mean, the economy was headed for a possible second run at a Great Depression, we were entrenched in two endless occupations that the previous president made as difficult to extract from as possible, we were looking at a TRILLION plus deficit for the forseeable future, and the very government Obama was elected to “head” had been GUTTED by the Bush/Cheney regime who prefer NO GOVERNMENT to even limited government.  Can you imagine what these guys would be up to if there was no government?  They tried to get our social security trust fund (and, trust me, they’re not through trying to get their hands on ALL that money) but had to settle for about HALF of all the invested retirement income Americans had trusted into their care – OK, they (we) trusted it into the care of Wall Street, but they (we) assumed our government was OVERSEEING Wall Street to prevent the banks from stealing our money.  I mean, do you think the TRILLIONS “lost” in 2007 -2009 went up in smoke?  Awe, come on now, SOMEBODY ended up with all of it!  It’s just that us peons will NEVER know who it was.  We’re still depending on our government to PROTECT us from these predators – but, they either seem terrified to do so or they’re the predators!  (Don’t forget, both Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney – just to name a couple of the worst – reaped profits in the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS from the Iraq fiasco – and Hank Paulsen, the Treasury Secretary who did the TARP bailout of Goldman Sachs et al, was the CEO of Goldman Sachs when they were running amok!)

President Obama is in this very difficult situation.  He’s the calm, reserved, passive type – or that is what it seems – at a time when “we the people” need a LEADER!  We need someone to call “ENOUGH ALREADY” on Wall Street, on the republican party (as it exists today), and on the media conglomerates who are threatening to bring down the very government that has lasted for well over 200 years.  Yes, the BP oil GUSHER is a good place to start for Obama.  But, the bottom line is that the “right” wing is trying to portray him as some kind of WEAK indecisive person who’s overmatched by the job he is holding.  As stated above, I’m not sure ANYONE could handle the job he was given.  But, I’ll try to give him some advice AGAIN!

It’s probably too late to start the investigations of Bush/Cheney – so, we’re likely to have to “file” that MISTAKE as one of the ALL TIME blunders of an American President.  If there’s any way Obama could manage to turn that one around, it could certainly “change” the conversation – but, even I’m thinking it’s too late (makes me sick to say that – worse yet, tonight I watched Eric Holder in Louisiana talking about the deep horizon spill saying “anyone who committed a crime will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law” – where the hell was he when Bush/Cheney were admitting to authorizing WAR CRIMES after leaving office?).  That “off my chest,” the situation with BP opens other opportunities.  Now, I realize that President Obama must be careful here because BP supposedly has the equipment and expertise (that was really hard to write) to at least get the relief well drilled by AUGUST!  So, DRASTIC clean up measures MUST be taken – whether they work or not.  I mean this oil could be in the South Pacific if they don’t get a handle on it soon (boy, can you imagine how angry the BP shareholders must be – a few cheap “fail safe” devices and they’d be reaping profits from a reservoir that conservatively holds 100 MILLION barrels of oil!)  Mr. President, call in every available POSSIBLE mitigating force (aren’t there huge tankers that can syphon the oil right out of the sea?) and FIRE some people in the Mineral Management Service!  FORCE Congress to pass a bill that will allow citizens to hold BP accountable for the damages – ALL OF THEM – from this spill which is the direct result of their negligence.  And, include Halliburton in all of that!

That’s just for starters.  Next, BRING THE TROOPS HOME!  Get us out of Iraq and then Afganistan!  Stop spending 200 BILLION dollars per year in those endless occupations which have NOTHING to offer us except more casualties and more stress to our military.  Make a case to spend the money to keep our long term unemployed from the homeless shelters, a “New” New Deal to create more jobs, and money to the states which will keep teachers, firefighters, policemen, etc. working (Yes, I’m a teacher – but, I’ve been at it long enough that it won’t be me that loses his/her job – sadly, it’s the young, vibrant, energetic teachers fresh out of college who will be taking the brunt of all these layoffs).  Take on the republicans (and your own “blue dog” democrats) regarding Wall Street.  We desperately need Glass Steagall restored.  The more I read about the “meltdown” and these unscrupulous bankers (including those innocuous “credit default swaps”) the more I’m bothered by our government’s seeming inability to “reel” them in.  I’ll have more to say about this soon, but these people are greedy, selfish, and they serve no redeaming value to our economy – they simply MAKE MONEY!  And, that’s about it!  Tax these hedge fund manager’s profits as ordinary income, place a small tax (.0025) on each stock transaction, increase the income tax rate for income in excess of 5 MILLION to 50%, and in general let these people know that they are not in charge of this nation.

There’s many other things I could throw out tonight, but the last one is to reverse the telecommunications act of 1996.  Break up all these media conglomerates.  I can’t think of anything that is more UNHEALTHY for this nation than to have 8 or 9 corporations controlling the vast majority of “news” sources.  Plus, many of the “owners” aren’t even Americans!  Where’s the “tea party” outrage over the FACT that their “sugar daddy” corporation – Fox “news” – is owned by foriegners (including a Saudi prince)?  They’re so damned worried about “immigration” that they have turned their back on one of America’s leading cable TV outlets being owned by foriegners.  That makes ZERO sense to me.  I’d like to see THOUSANDS of smaller broadcasting companies competing in the marketplace than what we have – NOBODY I know trusts the media – at all!  They are supposed to be our FOURTH ESTATE – after the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.  The republicans figured out a plan to take that part of our “system” over 30+ years ago, and it’s been like a STEALTH bomber flying over enemy territory – people have hardly noticed what’s happening.  The end result is that Fox “news” will be doing everything it can in the coming weeks to portray President Obama as “unpresidential” because they are committed to him failing.  The disasters, ALL OF WHICH were the result of Bush/Cheney, are becoming overwhelming – and, the way out of this MESS isn’t by coddling republicans in an attempt to gain “bipartisanship.”  The bipartisan “ship” won’t sail until the republican party is exposed for the greedy, corrupt, mean spirited bunch they are!  The sooner President Obama realizes this, the better his chances of mobilizing America behind the challenges we now face which could either make or break us in the immediate future and the more he looks “presidential.”

I keep thinking the time to stop writing is near, but there never seems to be a shortage of things to “discuss.”  Today, for example, as I was driving to school (for anyone new around here, I’m a sixth grade school teacher) I listened to a newscast where it was pointed out in one breath that Congress was voting down legislation aimed at continuing unemployment (and other) benefits for longterm unemployed people in America and, in the next breath, the broadcaster calmly said something like, “and, Congress has passed another 60 BILLION DOLLARS for suplemental funding of the “wars” in Iraq and Afganistan.  Doesn’t that tell it all as to where we are as a nation?  It honestly makes me ashamed when I think of the priorities of my own government!  I ALWAYS VOTE – so, therefore, some of this is on me.  The members of Congress I get to vote for are IN Congress (that means the ones I voted for won their elections) and, I voted for President Obama.  So, I’ve got to rethink my own priorities – because I’m in such disagreement with those of my government!

I almost don’t know where to start with all of this.  Something like 15 MILLION Americans are without work – thanks, in large part, to the policies of previous administrations who allowed large corporations to run ruff shod over them.  And, the “nirvana” for these corporations was the Bush/Cheney adminstration which not only allowed an increase in the gutting of regulations, they installed “managers” into government oversight departments who had no intention of fulfilling their obligations.  For example, putting “oil people” in the Mineral Management Service who had no intention of overseeing offshore drilling, coal mining, or anything else which might interfere with the profits of the large MULTI-NATIONAL corporations involved – our environment be damned.  The “multi-national” part of that last sentence is the worst part.  We’re allowing the endangerment of our WORKERS (remember 29 WORKERS died in the recent coal mining disaster, and 11 WORKERS died in the deep water oil disaster) and our environment to protect the profits of companies which AREN’T EVEN AMERICAN COMPANIES!

How far are we going to let the so-called “free market” thugs push this before we start pushing back?  And, of course, it’s entirely possible that we won’t see any pushing back until there is a thorough “house cleaning” in Congress.  However, I can virtually guarantee you that the “housecleaning” had better not result in the election of candidates from the “tea party,” unless you believe the best way to put out a fire is to throw gas on it.  Those people think Bush/Cheney were leftists!  We’d not only get MORE DEREGULATION with the Rand Paul’s of this world, but we’d take a GIANT step BACKWARD in the fight to end racism in America once and for all and, while they’re claiming to be “constitutionalists” we’d be giving up even more of our “inalienable rights.”  Just take a moment to think about what it means that we, as a nation, won’t spend money for our long term unemployed, but there’s no questions asked when it comes time to keep our military entrenched in two unwinnable occupations in Arab countries who absolutely don’t want them there. 

The day is fast approaching when the price tag for Afganistan and Iraq (combined) will reach ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!  Now, if that doesn’t have any meaning to you, let me put it this way.  The state I live in is laying off thousands of teachers and other public servants because of a 2 BILLION dollar shortfall.  Now, for all you people who hate state employees, I’ll just tell you that I find it sickening that there are so many who are willing to stack the deck MORE against success for our children’s education.  It also makes me sick when I listen to someone who has his/her education complaining about that of today’s children in school (the “I’ve got mine, screw you” syndrome).  And, the other public servants we’re talking about that are expendable?  Policemen, Firemen, social workers, mental health workers, people working to help the MILLIONS who are unemployed – essentially, people working with “the least of these” to quote a phrase from my main advisor – Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at this from another direction.  (and, keep in mind that I believe the ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for the two occupations doesn’t include the cost of treating the sick and wounded who come home from their multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afganistan – those multiple tours being another disgusting reality which is cause for a post on another day)  One TRILLION DOLLARS was the estimate of what it would have cost to implement a health care plan that included a ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION over a TEN YEAR PERIOD!  Are you kidding me?  We are so willing to keep throwing BILLIONS down the “drain” in Iraq and Afganistan to the point where it will possibly BANKRUPT our nation, but we can’t provide health care for our own people (health care reform which would arguably be a MAJOR FORCE in rejuvenating our economy).  What is wrong with us?  We’ve got these right wing WACKOS on the radio airwaves spewing the same lies of Bush/Cheney OR WORSE suggesting that BLOWING all this money is keeping us safe.  Osama bin Laden couldn’t ask for more!  When he attacked us on 9/11 his wish was to get America ENTRENCHED in Afganistan like the Soviets in the 1980’s.  Bush/Cheney did him one better and LIED us into Iraq – with a new president, now, who seems unwilling or unable to take decisive action to end these FIASCOS!

Of course, it would be too much to expect people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and the also ran “talkers” on the “right” like Lars Larson and Michael Savage to understand that the very people they support are playing right into the hands of our enemy – bin Laden.  I didn’t hear one of them complain when the Bush administration let bin Laden go free at Tora Bora so that they could justify their invasion of Iraq.  No, and why not you might ask?  Well, we’re getting right back to this “free market” economy those nimwits are so proud to boast about.  It’s a free market for corporations like Haliburton, GE, McDonald Douglas/Boeing, Blackwater (now Xe), Bechtel, Kellog Brown and Root (KBR), and – you guessed it – BP plus other corporations who either cut off continual FAT HOGS from their PLUSH no bid contracts from the US government’s seemingly constant intrusions into foreign lands or from “waivers” allowing them to plunder our natural resources on the “cheap” as with BP.  Who do you suppose is giving these right wing “talkers” (propogandists) their “talking points?”  Who do you think is supporting them?  Beck has lost something like 100 – 200 sponsors since some insensitive racist remarks a few months ago – but, there’s plenty of DEEP POCKETED “sponsors” who want to keep the likes of him and the others on the air.  To them, as long as people continue to fall for their pathalogical lying, Beck, Limbaugh, Larson, et al are good investments.  And, these “talkers” apparently have no consciences!

Believe me – these corporations aren’t going to give up that “FAT HOG” easily.  The FACT we just lost our 1000th service person in Afganistan means NOTHING to them.  The ONLY thing that has meaning is that we continue to spend the money without any oversight.  I’m sure they’re right with bin Laden on this one – they’d like to see this war go on forever!  You have to remember that George W Bush wanted to be remembered as the “War President.”  Well, I seriously hope he gets his wish!  I truly wish for the history books to be clear about the lying, bumbling, and incompetently ignorant miscalculations of the Bush/Cheney “war machine.” (although, I believe he miscalculated by thinking perpetual war would be a “boon” for our economy – it should be an eye opener to Americans that bin Laden outsmarted the supposed “most powerful person in the world.”)  The REALLY disappointing part of all of this for me is that President Obama has been in office going on a year and a half now and the democratically controlled congress has been “in charge” since 2006, AND WE’RE STILL IN IRAQ AND AFGANISTAN!  Just a little reminder to Obama and the democrats, Viet Nam was “owned” by Nixon by the time we got out – and Obama is precariously close to “owning” both Iraq and Afganistan.  At the point that happens, I don’t anticipate the above mentioned corporations complaining, but I can’t wait to hear the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Larson, and the others.  We’ll have thought Bush/Cheney never existed.

Don’t get me wrong here.  I won’t be blaming the repuplicans and their “talking heads” at that point.  Obama will deserve the criticism if he continues to show a lack of leadership in extricating us from these RIDICULOUS occupations.  I’m just pointing out that these “thugs” will be gladly taking the money but will continue with their plan to make sure our president “fails.”  It’s called the “have your cake and eat it too” plan.  I’m sure the next stage of their “plan,” in that regard, (to make sure that our Black president doesn’t succeed) will be to pin the BP oil disaster on Obama.  Of course, if you looked at it from his (Obama’s) point of view, he was definitely in a no win situation with these ambassadors of hate.  And, I hope he’s finally realizing this.  Taking the reasoned pragmatic course that he’s taken has required him to “trust” BP to stop the oil leak and clean up the mess in the gulf.  Of course, as all the evidence pours out, BP shouldn’t be trusted for anything.  Every indication is they were trying to reap the harvest of a HUGE oil reservoir (estimated at 100 MILLION barrels) on the CHEAP – with ABSOLUTELY no plan B!  Ultimately, I believe the problem will trace back to the bludgeoning of the Mineral Management Service by the Bush administration – and, it will highlight the FOLLY of Obama’s seemingly endless patronizing of republicans.  These agencies are still filled with people who shouldn’t be there – they need to be PURGED!  Just as I’ve advocated for Obama to PURGE the justice department of all the politically appointed Bush/Cheney holdovers, so should these other regulatory agencies be purged of the people who were hired to cause the agency they worked for to fail – to give ALL the benefits to the private corporations.

In fact, in all too many cases, government oversight has been actually “contracted” to private FOR PROFIT businesses.  To me, that’s one of the scams of the century.  The republican party convincing the American public that government is evil and we should be trusting these private corporations, many of which are run by our own enemies.  Let me give you one good example.  Fox “news.”  The two largest share holders in Fox are not Americans.   Rupert Murdoch is an Australian (right winger) and the second largest shareholder in Fox is a Saudi Arabian.  (If you don’t remember, most of the hijackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia – bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia – and where do you think his money comes from? Seriously!)  The same Saudi Prince owns a huge “stake” in Citicorp and Halliburton, for good measure, is now located in Dubai.  Then there’s IBM’s computer division which was sold to a Chinese corporation – Lenovo (just think of the possibilities with that one).  It wouldn’t take a lot of time on Google to add many examples to this list.  So, this is what our present government seems so desperate to continue supporting – these multinational corporations while the millions of long term unemployed face loss of benefits.  It would take a small fraction of the money going to Iraq and Afganistan to not only continue the unemployment benefits, but to prevent the layoffs of all the teachers, cops, firemen, social workers, and others who care about the basic needs of our own people.  The question becomes, how much of America’s future are we willing to sacrifice to save face in Afganistan and Iraq?  Additionally, who’s more important?  The American people? or the multinational corporations who are buying off our politicians and intruding on our democracy MORE and MORE every day? (need more proof as to America becoming a total corporatocracy?  click here or Google: “Citizen’s United” – read the Supreme Court decision)

For some reason I always like to preface “patting myself on the back” with saying “I’m not trying to pat myself on my back” when it’s obvious I am.  I mean, why else would I leave all these posts in the “archive” if I didn’t want there to be evidence at the “I told you so” moments.  It didn’t take me long after President Obama was elected (let alone inaugurated) to start posting the “red flags.”  And, there’s been one BAD decision after another which should have – and slowly has – put the “progressives” on “red alert.”  (does that qualify as a pun?)  It all started, as far as I was concerned when I heard that Rahm Emanuel was hired to be Obama’s chief of staff.  What was Rahm Emanuel famous for?  He was famous, at least as far as I could tell, for being the consummate “Washington insider.”  Of course, he’s from Chicago so President Obama must have taken some solace from that and it must have given him a level of trust – which, in my mind, was totally MISGUIDED. 

How has Emanuel screwed up?  Well, you have to assume that many of the major decisions coming from the White House which put “getting anything” done above principle emanated from Emanuel.  It will be a long time until I forget that Emanuel called myself and those who think like me “f__king retards.”  Not really the way to win friends or INFLUENCE VOTERS!  (I said at the time that “time” could throw that statement right back at him) I don’t doubt for a minute that it was Emanuel behind the strategy on health care which threw the “public option” under the bus in return for something that NEVER MATERIALIZED – which was support from republicans.  The end result was a bill that benefits insurance companies FOR SURE, and MIGHT benefit the rest of us, although that verdict is yet to be rendered.  (Plus, the bill included lot’s of “deals” like the ones people are thoroughly sick of on “both sides of the isle”) The fact these people (Obama, Emanuel, the democrats in congress) are “promising” the bill is “just a starting point” and that they are going to make it better rings HOLLOW with millions more besides myself.  EVERYTHING it seems the Obama administration does, or so it looks to me, is predicated on looking “progressive” with the least possible political risk – that is at the same time placating the “right.”  Evidently, Rahm Emanuel hasn’t taken the course titled “if you try to make everyone happy you end up making no one happy.”

Kissing up to republicans is such a HORRIBLE strategy that I still can’t believe President Obama has allowed himself to be convinced to follow that for almost the first year and a half in office.  Now we have the Wall Street regulation which is sufficiently watered down to make sure the Wall Street bankers can tolerate it.  OK, I “get” that “Citizen’s United” has made these “moneychangers” even more powerful, but is indecisive action the solution to such a severe problem.  This leads me to the second “wave” of concern I had when President Obama started choosing his advisors and cabinet.  He surrounded himself with Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and for good measure was taking advice from Robert Rubin.  Now, if you’re not too familiar with why those characters would raise “red flags” give me a moment.  Geithner was the head of the New York Fed as the Wall Street gluttony was hitting high gear – I can see no evidence he was attempting to put a stop to their excess GAMBLING.  And, the gambling with depositors money was literally enabled by Summers who was Clinton’s chief economic advisor when Clinton signed Gramm-Leach-Bliley – the bill which repealed Glass Steagall.  And, of course Rubin was Clinton’s Treasury Secretary at the time and he leveraged his support for the repeal of Glass Steagall into the CEO”ship” of Citicorp – one of the “too big to fail” mega financial institutions which became an investment bank, commercial bank, insurance company, et more – ALL WRAPPED IN ONE huge corporation – thanks to Glass Steagall’s repeal AND with the mega paydays that go with such a job!  These three at the top of the economic “food chain” in Obama’s administration didn’t come across to me as the “change I could believe in.”

Ah, but there’s more – MUCH MORE.  Let’s talk about Iraq and Afganistan.  I was predicting what ultimately would happen there long before it became “public knowledge.”  That’s not because I’m some kind of sixth grade teacher genius – but because I like to read and I read a bunch of books on Iraq and saw Obama’s unwillingness to “stand tall” against the American generals almost from day one.  (Also, Thomas Ricks pretty much predicted what was going to happen in “The Gamble”) It appeared to me that President Obama was bound and determined to prove that he’s qualified to be “commander in chief.”  One of the things that really bugs me is watching him climb down off of Air Force one with the same demeanor as George W Bush – with the same salute, that just seems too phony to me coming from someone who’s never served in the military.  Maybe this is just me still recovering from the eight long years of watching GW bungle everything he did – while our best young men and women were dying and getting maimed needlessly in Iraq and Afganistan for the same reason this happened years ago in Viet Nam – TO SAVE AMERICA’S “FACE.”  Makes me sick to even write this – and to think that President Obama has so MAJORLY violated his pledge (to me, a pledge is a promise) to bring ALL the troops home in 16 months.  Not only has he failed to do this, but he’s leaving something like 50 – 75,000 “non-combat” troops in Iraq for (at least) another 15 months from the end of this summer!  I guess his plan is to be finally getting them out right before the 2012 election thinking that will be a political plus for him.  This one has Rahm Emanuel written all over it as well!  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

What is it going to take for them to “get” that we’ll never kill all the “terrorists” by stationing our troops indefinitely in Iraq and Afganistan.  When are they going to understand that every month we still have more troops there, we’re helping al Qaeda recruit more fanatics to their cause.  Iraq was the “gift that keeps on giving” to Osama bin Laden, and I really thought that Obama understood that – which was one of the main reasons I voted for him.  Does he (Obama) really think that as we draw down our troop levels in Iraq that the violence is going to subside with the drawdown?  Here’s the deal.  Bin Laden hates the Shia.  Iraq is majority Shia and Iran is Shia and the two countries are close to being “joined at the hip.”  Bin Laden doesn’t want that to happen and he doesn’t want America to withdraw – he wants us mired in Iraq until we have bankrupted our government – just as the Soviet Union bankrupted themselves in Afganistan in the 1980’s.  However, Obama has given bin Laden a double bonus with the “surge” in Afganistan where we’re now BLOWING more resources each month than in Iraq.  Between the two fiasco’s we’re still WASTING something in the neighborhood of a couple hundred BILLION each year – and, that’s not counting the miserable treatment (the expense of it) that we’re providing for our wounded and damaged vets once they return (many from 6,7, or more deployments).  This is all DISGUSTING and Obama is taking ownership of both fiascos at this point in time – due to a total lack of leadership. (I call this Bush-lite) And, to bin Laden’s delight, there’s really NO END IN SIGHT!

And, speaking of “Bush-lite,” what about the warrantless eavesdropping?  Now, I  can’t prove that Obama’s still doing it, but I’ve heard people with close ties to his administration quoted as saying he didn’t want to give up this “power.”  Of course, any power that he’s talking about would be illegally usurped power which was the result of eight years of Dick Cheney and George W Bush.  The saying goes, it’s much easier to give our rights away than it is to get them back – and this is a good example of this.  The “red flag” on this one came when Obama voted for the “FISA” bill that gave “retroactive immunity” to ATT&T, Verizon, and any other “Telecom” who participated in this illegal wiretapping activity while he was a senator running for the presidency.  I actually wrote Obama after that vote (it almost cost him my vote) and got a response saying that once he was President he would work to “FIX” this bill as a top priority.  Well, not only has the bill not been “fixed,” but Obama and his attorney general Eric Holder have taken up the “torch” for Bush/Cheney in court trying to defend the legality of their illegal activity (they lost the case and I haven’t heard if they appealed – which would just tick me off more if they have)

So, why am I so busy patting myself on the back?  Well, when Obama committed the gravest sin of them all and pardoned (for all intents and purposes) George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Don Rumsfeld, and all the others I not only pointed out what a grave mistake that was for the future of our nation, but I pointed out that I could no longer support him.  There’s no way I can vote for a president who violates his pledge to defend the constitution.  I don’t know if that was a sign of cowardice, a total political maneuver (on advice from the likes of Emanuel), a general act of stupidity, or some kind of collusion – kind of like doctors don’t testify against doctors, etc – but, what I’m certain of is it was the one major blunder Obama made which energized the republican party into even thinking they could wrestle power back from the democrats in 2012.   It had “weakness” written all over it!

Not only is the political debate switched away from the torture, the illegal wars (of course, again, I was expecting Obama to actually bring the troops home), the politicization of the justice department, the outing of a CIA agent, the HUGE deficit and who REALLY is responsible for it, the deregulation which led to TARP, TARP itself (and Hank Paulsen’s role in creating the problem), the bludgeoning of virtually every government department (ie – the Minerals Management Service – who’s corruption contributed to the present BP oil disaster), the no-bid contracts in Iraq and Afganistan and the war profiterring by the highest of government officials – including Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the virtual ruination of our nation’s economy from the perspective of the blue collar worker, but Obama is turning OFF progressives by the droves.  The only way the “tea party” and the republican party has any chance of success is if Obama can encourage MILLIONS of voters to “opt out” of the next couple of elections because of their disappointment in his lack of leadership.  The great speeches only go so far!

I’ve heard it said that President Obama hates to be compared to President Bush – but, he’s brought this on himself.  While the idea of “bipartisanship” is a nice idealistic notion – NOT WITH THESE REPUBLICANS!  They’ve got to go – and, we elected President Obama because we thought he would have the GUTS to stand up to them.  The question becomes, why isn’t he doing this.  Now, the president has backed himself into a corner – and, I believe he’s going to have to get different advice to get out of it.  And, the transparency he promised us is going to have to be part of the solution.  LOTS OF MISTAKES HAVE BEEN MADE – and, one thing Bush/Cheney should have proved was the futility of refusing to admit to mistakes.  If you’re only goal is to stay in office – maybe that makes sense.  But, if you’re trying to mobilize this nation into returning to our “roots” (at least our post WW II roots – “New Deal roots”) then the course has got to change – and FAST!  Every day the oil from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico creeps farther inland in the marshes, wetlands and estuaries of Louisiana – while Obama (and Emanuel) remain in Washington DC doing what appears to be business as usual – this disaster becomes closer to being Obama’s “Katrina.”  (and, all of the other blunders are magnified)  Well, what can he do? you might ask.  I’ll tell you what I think he should do.  Get his butt down to Louisiana and get his hands dirty helping to fight the fight.  Become part of the fight.  Show some guts in holding BP accountable – and the people in the MMS (Minerals Management Service) – for their blunders, mismanagement, and their lying.  Treat this as the national disaster which it is!  Show the people of Louisiana that the full force of our nation’s government is going to attempt to save their way of life.  Prove to these people who wanted nothing to do with the government stimulus money that the government is there for them FULL FORCE.  In other words, drop everything and make it look as if you REALLY CARE ABOUT THIS MONUMENTAL DISASTER!   There’s only a couple hundred people each day who read my blog (that, in itself, I find incredibly amazing because I have no idea how one of you found this) and, President Obama has proven to me that he cares little (or nothing) about what I think.  But, I do find it interesting that a sixth grade school teacher’s advice would have conceivably been better than Obama’s own advisors!  (OK, that is a bit arrogant, but, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard since last year – either in person, or “talkers” on the radio – saying there’s no way they are voting for either Obama or a republican in the next two elections – which is exactly what I’ve been predicting on and off for the past year and a half.  If the “tea party” actually succeeds, it will be Obama’s own fault)