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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Driving home from school today and listening to “progressive” talk radio I was reminded why I’ve been writing about the need for President Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, to hold George W Bush and Dick Cheney accountable – LEGALLY – for the crimes committed under their “tutelage” during the first eight years of the 21st Century.  Of course, that didn’t happen, and many who supported “the change we can believe in,” are now shaking their collective heads wondering “who is this guy” who was elected to reverse the terrible “deeds” of Bush/Cheney?  I mean, there was an unbelievable amount of passion that went into the 2008 election and there are millions more besides me who are terribly disappointed in the results.  If you’ve been on this site much you know that I started to write out of frustration over the Bush NIGHTMARE in Iraq – which was a WAR OF CHOICE – for despicable reasons – all based on LIES!  I could go over those lies again, but if you’re reading this you likely already have a good grasp of the magnitude of Bush/Cheney’s dishonesty.  In a “nutshell” it was UNBELIEVABLE – no pun intended! :o)

Even before I realized that Obama was going to violate SEVERAL promises he made in the campaign – MAJOR promises from my standpoint – I had the “red flags” going up (if you don’t believe me – check out the posts I was writing prior to and just after the inauguration).  Just the FACT that President Obama chose one INSIDER after another for his cabinet posts drew my attention in a negative direction.  I mean, come on, Rahm Emanuel?  As chief of staff?  What kind of change did that imply?  Well, to me, it implied NO CHANGE – other than the normal drift between the traditional democratic vs republican BS that we’ve all had to endure for the past 30 – 40 years.  And, Larry Summers and Tim Geithner?  I certainly didn’t expect a break from the corporatist “Washington” approach to “business” with them at the economic “helm.”  Our government is still connected at the “core” to the very institutions which are destroying it.

One of the main reasons I wanted Bush/Cheney investigated FULLY, was to put the republican philosophy of destroying the government from within – and what it’s doing to the average “man/woman” on the street – right out on the front pages of every newspaper and television news broadcast until EVERYTHING had been put through the “ringer.”  Obama claimed that he didn’t want the “distraction” which, unfortunately, was EXACTLY WHAT HE NEEDED to get a strong “progressive” response to the damage done by Bush/Cheney through congress.  The republicans have been at this (destroying our own government) since the days of Ronald Reagan.  You can still hear their “mantra” as they are trying to take Obama down – which is that “big government” is the problem.  Many of the very people “carrying the water” for these republican corporatists depend on the “big government” they’re protesting against.  I mean, when you hear someone on medicare complain about a government “takeover” of the health care system you have to wonder what the person’s intellectual capacity is.  It would seem that they would HAVE to understand that Medicare is a government run health care system.  All I would tell them is that Medicare made the last 10 – 20 years of my parent’s lives MUCH BETTER.  Most of the people complaining about “government run health care” at, for example, the “tea party” conventions or demonstrations – would be very angry if Medicare was eliminated as many republicans would prefer.  And, the way these republicans – behind the scenes – are going about trying to defeat universal health care in America – is COMPLETELY DISHONEST!  That’s probably what bothers me the most about the present debate in America – is the dishonesty involved, especially from the republican side.  By essentially ENABLING the dishonesty of Bush/Cheney and their administration, the Obama administration has given the rest of the republican party the “green light” to throw an unlimited BARRAGE of lies at “we the people” – because, we no longer hold people accountable for telling the truth.

The republicans and the Bush/Cheney administration have been/were WRONG about everything except ONE ITEM.  They were wrong about Iraq – there were no weapons of mass destruction, there was no nuclear program, we weren’t greeted as “liberators,” “major combat operations” are still not completed and the “mission accomplished” sign is still inappropriate, things are not getting better in Iraq, and they won’t get better until we’re TOTALLY out of there.  Also, enabling Iran to become a “MAJOR PLAYER” in the region is an irreversible BLUNDER.  I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea.  Bush/Cheney were wrong about the economy and the elimination of regulation after regulation on corporate interests in the United States.  The “MELTDOWN” of 2008 will be a HUGE “WEIGHT” on our economy for an as yet undetermined number of years.  Bush/Cheney were wrong about the effect of tax cuts for the wealthy (just as Reagan was wrong about that before them).  It not only didn’t create jobs, we lost jobs and the middle class went from stagnation for the first 7 years of their administration to what we find ourselves in now, which is a near (and still possible) depression.  Bush/Cheney were wrong to abandon the fight against Osama bin Laden in favor of their misadventure into Iraq – now, al Qaeda has been “rejuvenated” and is a MAJOR threat again.  The choice by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Franks/ and whoever else was involved to abandon the search for bin Laden when they had him cornered at Tora Bora was, in my view, an act of CRIMINAL negligence.  Bin Laden, after all, was the “ring leader” behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  I’m convinced to this day that they allowed him to “get away” because capturing him would have taken away their argument to go into Iraq – an argument which was put together years before Bush was even nominated to the presidency, let alone elected.

So, what is the one thing the republicans are correct about?  Well, that one should be easy.  They have been claiming for years that the democrats are weak, or even worse yet – SPINELESS.  Well, my biggest hope – and, at the same time fear now that I think about it – was that Obama would prove them wrong on this.  Instead, President Obama and the rest of the democratic party (actually, I have to admit there are some really good progressive democrats out there, it’s just that this “huge majority” is a mirage) are PROVING THE REPUBLICANS CORRECT!  The first sign, Obama’s refusal to allow investigations of what was CLEARLY criminal behavior by Bush/Cheney and their surrogates.  What rips at my insides about this, even as I’m writing, was I can clearly remember then Senator Obama pledging that “no one is above the law,” “if there is evidence of a crime, there will be an investigation and prosecution where warranted,” “waterboarding is torture,” “In America, we don’t torture,” and of course, “torture is against the law.”  He said all of those things.  As soon as I heard him, after saying all that, essentially PARDON Bush/Cheney – who BOTH admitted authorizing waterboarding during national TV inverviews – I thought to myself, “here we go again.”  I’ve been paying attention (closely most of the time) to our government since the early 1960’s.  My bachelor degree from college was in political science, so I always knew I had somewhat of a frame of reference to tell whether our leaders were doing the “right thing.”  And, mind you, the “right thing” to me isn’t always agreeing with me, because that rarely happens, but it means honoring the pleged EVERY American politician takes to DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION and execute the laws of the land FAIRLY.  When Richard Nixon said, “When the President does it, it must be legal” our congress, at the time in a bipartisan manner, went to great lengths to PROVE HIM WRONG.  With a simple “look forward,” President Obama has essentially overturned the work of Sam Ervin, Frank Church, and all the senators who held Nixon to account for violating laws during his presidency.  From the standpoint of what he was “for,” there was a lot to like from my vantage point about Richard Nixon.  However, breaking the law is MORE unacceptable, in my view, if you’re the “top dog” in charge of enforcing it.  This (pardoning Bush/Cheney) was an UNFORGIVABLE sin, in my view, coming from Obama.

When you analyze that decision closer, you have to wonder what is the reasoning behind it?  The first thought that comes to my mind is that the President and his supporters are afraid to take the “battle” to the republicans.  And, if that’s the case, those of us who are longing for progressive solutions to America’s problems are in deep you know what.  Worse yet, along those lines, I’m seeing MANY more progressives getting FED UP with Obama’s seemingly endless “kissing up” to republicans – people whose only agenda is his defeat.  IT MAKES NO SENSE, whatsoever!  (I was “pretty ticked off” [if you’ve seen the movie “Let it Ride” you will understand the picture I have in my mind as I say that phrase] when I – and millions of other ‘liberals’ – were referred to as “fu__ing retards” by none other than Rahm Emanuel himself)  Just the other day, when President Obama was making the final push for the health care bill (that even progressives don’t support – the one that forces 30-40 million new customers into the coffers of the same insurance companies that are already ripping us off) the only thing new about the proposal was FOUR provisions that the republicans suggested at the so-called “summit” (and which they now opposed).  Even if they are good ideas (which I have to doubt) THAT IS BAD PUBLICITY!  When, if ever, is Obama going to stop trying to persuade republicans to support his proposals and, instead, try to fashion something that’s acceptable to the people who voted him into office?

I took Barack Obama to be a man of HIGH INTELLIGENCE when I chose to vote for him, so the only conclusions I can think of right now about why I feel so betrayed is either I was totally wrong, or he’s getting TERRIBLE ADVICE.  And, considering it’s Rahm Emanuel feeding him the advice (I guess I’m assuming this) these MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, kiss the butts of the people who are trying to destroy you policy shouldn’t surprise me.  But, what has been the end result of this direction Obama’s taken?

For starters, we have a HUGE unemployment problem in America which Geithner and other administration “experts” are saying is going to “linger” for years to come.  America was ready for and supportive of a “New” New Deal when Obama took office.  The first casualty of the “kissing up to republicans” approach to government was the so-called “stimulus bill.”  While Obama and his other supporters are still claiming that the bill was good (and, I don’t disagree) there are many (including me) who were calling for something much larger and more targeted to infrastructure jobs – RIGHT FROM THE START.  Keep in mind, the larger stimulus bill could have easily been passed through reconciliation (just as Bush bludgeoned the “Clinton surplus” through tax cuts) without a single republican vote.  Had the democrats not been able to get at least 50 of the 59 (at the time) in their caucus to support something closer to the 1.2 trillion dollars needed, w/out the tax cuts, there wouldn’t be any “grey area” as far as the need to vote them out of office as well as the republicans (third party? anyone).  Instead, we got a “watered down” bill in order to get three republicans to support it.  That was one of the first “consequences” of Obama’s flirtation with the republican party.

He almost immediately added 20,000 troops to Afganistan – in my view, attempting to prevent republicans from seeing him as “weak.”  And, of course, he has since added over 30,000 more – not including all the support personell that never get talked about.  The bottom line is that while we’re watching our congress fight over a health care proposal which will cost something approaching 1 TRILLION over 10 years, we’re seemingly willing to commit MUCH MORE THAN THAT to Iraq and Afganistan with nary a whimper from Congress – which USED to control the “purse strings” of government (Obama also “adopted” GW Bush’s “exit strategy” regarding Iraq, almost inusring we’ll be stuck there until we can elect a president with the “balls” to REALLY bring the troops home).  Does anyone besides me find it ironic that the more Obama tries to look “tough” to the republicans, the WEAKER he looks to me (and millions of other progressives)?  Just wait till he reverses himself on the trials of the terrorists and they are moved back into “military tribunals.”  I just wonder if placating the republicans on that one makes President Obama think the republicans will then think he’s “tough?”  This is all very curious to me.

What I’m beginning to suspicion is that the reason Obama “looked forward” and, essentially, managed to stop ALL INVESTIGATIONS of the Bush White House – including ones in Congress – is that he’s doing the SAME THINGS.  It has been reported that “extraordinary rendition” is still happening in Afganistan and (probably) Iraq.  The “black hole” prisons are still there and the prison at Bagram Air Base in Afganistan is still “alive and well” and “enemy combatants” are still being funneled there and held without charge and/or habeous corpus rights.  I’ve even heard reports that the “enhanced interrogation” is continuing – just “not as enhanced.”  Really, what the hell does that mean?  (if my students heard me talk like that they’d be shocked – but, I’m shocked – at my own government, that I’m trying to teach them [my students] to respect)  Of course, I haven’t even got to the illegal wiretapping.  I keep wondering, “Is Obama continuing the Bush wiretapping policy?”  I honestly think he is.  That would help explain why he doesn’t want investigations.  That would also explain why he (through Eric Holder) is defending the Bush wiretapping policies in court in the Al-Haramain case which would prove Bush/Cheney violated the FISA laws after 9/11 (laws that were probably violated before 9/11, as well, but for some reason Obama doesn’t want “us” to know the TRUTH about all of this).  Remember, it’s easier to GAIN power than to GIVE IT UP.

I guess because my hopes were so high, it has taken a lot to get me to understand that, despite my respect for President Obama as a person, husband, and father, he’s not the right man for me as president.  Now, the problem becomes, what to do about this?  The last thing I want, and I’m sure most “progressives,” is another republican.  I mean, can you (even if you’re a republican) imagine Sarah Palin in the White House?  Oh my gosh, the thought makes my stomach curdle.  How about Mitt Romney?  PPPPPPPPPPPlease!  Tim Pawlenty or Scott Brown?  Help!!!!  I’m still thinking that Jeb Bush is going to emerge from the “weeds” as the “savior” of the republican party – with another barrage of “compassionate conservative” lies.  And, Barack Obama is setting us all up for that.  Here’s the solution I’m starting to think about as a progressive.  Let these congressional leaders spin their wheels for another couple of years – doing little or nothing, and find a true progressive to challenge Obama in the primaries in 2012.  I can tell you, Dennis Kucinich looks better to me every day!  I suppose he doesn’t have the “sex appeal” necessary to gain the main stage in America these days, but he’s got the intellectual integrity and the “kahonas” to push for policies that would be beneficial to this nation’s middle class for generations to come. 

The attacks from the fallout of “Citizens United” – the Supreme Court decision which threatens this republic further – have already begun – making the thought of “fixing” this problem in 2012 much less likely .  I’m hearing smear campaigns on the radio that are surepticiously designed to sway public opinion against “we the people” and toward the interests of a corporate “state” – already.  The “liberal” or “progressive” candidates, as of NOW, know that they’re going to be under attack – and soon!  The money that Exxon will spend to stop the energy legislation, or Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to stop the Wall Street regulation, or the health care industry to stop reform , and on and on – is UNLIMITED.  (that money is also aimed at the legislators who support those reforms – and, NOT to reelect them!)  Right now, we need a president willing to lead, not someone looking to “compromise” with his (our) enemies.  The other day I heard Obama claim that he was going to “lead” to get this health care legislation through congress, “no matter what the political consequences,”  while, at the same time announcing the four republican “addons” to the bill.  This is a WAR for the very nation we all love and that kind of attitude WON’T “GET’R DONE.”  Many of these corporations who are going to be deciding our elections aren’t even American corporations!  Citizens Untited is part of the long term republican plan to destroy our government and it clearly points out where their interests lie.  Despite the chance I’m repeating myself, I’ll say this again and conclude with:  Earth to Obama, we need a LEADER committed to defeating republicans, not reaching out to them!

I think the thing that most astonishes me as I’m continually contemplating the direction of our government is its seemingly TOTAL disconnect from the very people it serves.  In fact, I even hesitate to use the term “it serves” because more and more it appears the so-called leaders of America have placed themselves on some kind of “pedestal” above the rest of us.  The United States Senate is becoming a bad joke to Americans in general, and a poor “ambassador” to the rest of the world which is looking to America for leadership in the fight for freedom and human rights.  This past week was a great example of what I’m talking about.  The actions of a couple of republicans, Jim Bunning and John Kyl, pretty much sum up the ridiculous situation we Americans find ourselves in.

Everyone knows that, under George W Bush and 6 years of a republican congress which couldn’t say no, the American economy was virtually ruined.  Of course, there wasn’t much the democrats could do to reverse this “tide” after winning the majority in congress following the 2006 “midterm” elections – especially, with the attitude of people like Nancy Pelosi saying “impeachment is off the table.”  We all knew our leaders were lying about almost EVERYTHING, they were committing WAR CRIMES, they were EAVESDROPPING on their own citizens without “probable cause,” and they were absconding with BILLIONS through tax cuts, no-bid contracts for their “buddies,” and corporate welfare (all this while spewing a “no welfare” policy for the “rest of us”).  One of the amazing things, in my view, as I ponder all of this; through their control of the “liberal media” and the incompetence or ignorance of the democrats (and the American people), the republicans have actually caused many in America to blame the democrats for all of this.

Well, this past week, with a nation facing double digit unemployment – many of the unemployed having been in that “spot” for over a year – John Kyl and Jim Bunning chose to “BLOCK” legislation in the senate which would have extended unemployment benefits to over a million Americans whose benefits are expiring as I write this post.  Additionally, and maybe worse, it will cause millions to lose their COBRA benefits which allows them to continue purchasing health insurance after losing their jobs.  Here’s the worst part of it – and, I’m guessing that Kyl finally backed down because, as I understand it Bunning was the one who ultimately prevented this legislation from going through at the “last minute.”  Kyl’s reason for STOPPING this legislation was an attempt to force through an amendment repealing the inheritance tax – which would benefit less than ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT of the population and would add something like 250 BILLION to the national debt over 10 years – with no way or suggested way to pay for it. 

After Kyl evidently backed down Bunning stepped in.  I suppose the republicans will find a way to blame all this on democrats because they tried to get this legislation passed through “unanimous consent” after too many senators had left for the weekend to get an up or down vote on the issue.  But, the reporting I heard said that no one objected to extending these benefits besides Bunning, a republican who even the republicans don’t like (the guy was once revered as a great baseball player – but, before his senate career is over, no one will remember that).  His stated reason for stopping these benefits to EXTREMELY NEEDY people (including many in his home state of Kentucky) was that “someone needs to stand up for the fight against deficit spending.” (or something of that nature)  Honestly, do these republicans take us for being that stupid?  The sad thing, to me, is that somehow I believe it’s possible they’ll get away with this stunt.

 And, I’m not for one minute thinking that Bunning was doing this without some kind of support from other republicans – otherwise, they would have had someone there to talk sense to him.  Kyl was more than willing (and the republicans were right there with him) to take on 250 BILLION in more debt to repeal the inheritance tax – with NO WAY TO PAY FOR IT, but they allow Bunning to stop benefits to over a million out of work Americans which would cost something less than 10 BILLION dollars.  Am I the stupid one here?  You do the math, and If I’m missing something let me know.  The bottom line in all of this is that the republicans are more than willing to use people who are in dire straights as “pawns” in their attempt to further their tax cut for the rich agenda.  Again, they don’t consider the no-bid contracts that Dick Cheney so willingly gave to Halliburton for tens of BILLIONS of dollars with NO OVERSIGHT and no way to pay for it welfare, but blue collar working people who are out of work because of consequences of the republican’s economic failures can just fend for themselves.  To tell you the truth, I’m getting MORE SICK of these republicans every day.

This is why I keep writing, and this is why I wish the democrats and our new president would quit “kissing up” to these thugs and start governing without them.  The reason we voted Bush/Cheney and many of their supporters in congress out of office is because we were sick of their abuse of power.  What the democrats don’t seem to understand is this is an out and out WAR for the heart and soul of this nation.  The reality is that the republicans control the “liberal media” as they so willingly call it (like everything else they talk about, it’s just one big lie), they have a stranglehold – and possibly for years to come – on the Supreme Court (this could be REALLY BAD), and the repulbicans are already TOTALLY SOLD OUT to the corporations who have FREE REIGN on our future elections thanks to the likes of Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and the other right wing members of the court who allowed unlimited corporate intrusion (financially) on future elections with their recent decision essentially calling corporations “people” AND giving them “free speech” rights!

So, the democrats don’t have a lot of time to figure this out.  I’m already getting email alerts from members of congress who have figured out they will be “targets” of the corporate money which will be attempting to “stamp out” all “liberal” dissent against their total takeover of our system of government.  And, I’m sorry to say that I’m not totally convinced that Barack Obama is the anti-dote to this.  Today, he signed into law an extension of the so-called “Patriot Act” – which, not having read it, I’m concerned continues to allow our government to abuse the constitution’s guarantee against an invasion of our privacy without “probable cause.”  That’s just one of the major concerns I have about Obama.  So far, I’ve not heard one person actually ask him whether or not he’s continuing the Bush policy of wiretapping American citizens through what is called “data mining.”  He voted for the FISA legislation during the campaign which absolved the telecommunication companies of any wrongdoing during the Bush/Cheney years and, so far, hasn’t “fixed” that vote as promised.  Additionally, his justice departement has been defending the Bush policies in court – attempting to keep the evidence of what was done during Bush’s term in office secret – in violation of Obama’s promise of “TRANSPARENCY.” (everyone knows Bush violated the FISA legislation MANY TIMES)

This refusal of Obama and his attorney general Eric Holder to “look back” has been a sore point for me since the early days of Obama’s administration.  He continues to reach out to republicans in a way that is more and more curious to me as the evidence gets stronger and stronger that the republicans haven’t changed ONE IOTA since the defeat of Bush/Cheney and their repugnant policies.  What are “we the people” to do, if we elect a new adminstration which is promising “Change we can believe in” and we get “more of the same.”  THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING.  Now we have people like Kyl and Bunning getting in the way of benefits for millions of Americans who are in a terrible economic situation – AND DESERVE OUR SUPPORT!  It will be interesting to see how the democrats react to this.

I was unable to watch the “health care summit” last week, but everything I’ve heard about it was that it was a farce.  What I’ve seen in print hasn’t changed my thoughts one bit.  The republicans are going to continue to OBSTRUCT everything Obama and the democrats attempt to accomplish.  I don’t see why they can’t “get this,” but the republicans are going to continue doing everything they can to insure President Obama’s FAILURE.  I know most “pundits” don’t like to say this – they keep trying to find an nicer way to put it – but, and I’m totally certain of this, the republicans will do everything in their power to make sure a Black man cannot succeed as President of the United States.  Oh my gosh, think about it, if Obama succeeds there could be another Black President some day.  The republican party has been reduced to almost all WHITE people (Michael Steele included) and they would rather take this nation down than contribute to the success of a Black president – THAT’S JUST THE WAY IT IS!

Some of the solutions to problems aren’t nearly as complicated as the democrats are making them.  Take health care for example.  You’ve heard the republicans complain about a 2700 (well, the number varies depending on who’s complaining) page health care bill, and suggesting democrats start over.  Well, remember the old saying “be careful what you wish for?”  I’ve got a solution to the health care “fight” that’s easy, only takes 51 votes in the senate, solves ALL the problems they’re arguing about without ANY sweatheart deals, and it wouldn’t take very many pages.  Simply put, the democrats could incorporate a MEDICARE FOR ALL proposal as the so-called “public option,” pass it through “reconciliation” with 50 votes plus the vice president, include in the option all the “rules” they’re trying to impose on the insurance companies (like no one being refused due to pre-conditions), and MAKE IT AVAILABLE TO ALL AMERICANS.  Let us choose whether we want “government run health care” or not through our pocket books.  Nothing else would need to be done.  Let the insurance companies like Blue Cross and others continue increasing their rates at 39% or whatever they want – JUST GIVE AMERICANS THE CHOICE OF A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM.  That would be the easy way to solve this problem and it would only take the aforementioned 51 votes.  The democrats only have until about November to get the “balls” to do something like this.

How about the national debt.  Well, Obama and the democrats should have recinded the “Bush taxcuts” the day they took over the White House.  That would have already saved BILLIONS of dollars the wealthy in this country can do without.  They had the oppportunity (as I explained at the time) to pass an increase in the gas tax when Obama took office – gas was under $2 per gallon at the time, and I pointed out the price was going up – and it would only go as high as what would withstand the ability of the people to pay – no matter if that tax was there or not.  The money raised from – say a 20 cent per gallon (I originally proposed 50 cents) tax could be used to create jobs rebuilding the infrastructure of this nation which has been used and virtually worn out – while being ignored by politicians who should have been maintaining it all along – for the past 30 plus years.  It’s like, since the days of Ronald Reagan, we’ve had this idea of entitlement in this nation to more and more of everything without having to pay for it.  Reagan instituted the menatlity of BORROW, BORROW, BORROW and let someone else worry about repaying that is still alive and well in America today.

One of the encouraging things, to me, about President Obama is that – through his rhetoric – it appears to me that he is determined to reduce the deficit, that he believes ultimately we should be paying for what we want.  Unfortunately, he inherited a deficit which won’t be easy to overcome.  When the deficit was over a TRILLION dollars, the unemployment rate was skyrocketing (jobs were being lost at the rate of about a MILLION per month at the end of Bush’s presidency), and the opposition party is/was more concerned for Obama’s demise than solving the problems left behind by THEM – solving the deficit problem is HUGE.  This gets me back to Senator Bunning and his obstinate choice (I’m sure supported by the republican leaders) to ruin the lives of over a million Americans to make a point – that on it’s face is nothing more than PURE HYPOCRISY!  (really, republicans worried about the deficit – GIVE ME A BREAK! – Bunning even had the nerve to complain that he was missing a Kentucky basketball game while he had to stay in the senate to continue objecting to the proposal because all the other republicans had gone home – and when the junior senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley, pleaded with him to stop doing this, Bunning’s response: “tough s#it.”  I’m not kidding!)

My main wish since the election of Barack Obama was that the democrats would take the huge majority that “progressives” gave them and MAKE SURE that the criminal behavior of the republicans under Bush/Cheney would NEVER happen again in America.  I’m ashamed that my country used torture – against everything we’ve ever stood for, I’m ashamed that Bush/Cheney were allowed to lie us into a WAR OF CHOICE and keep us entrenched there going on 8 years (with, potentially no end in sight – don’t believe me, read my previous post), I’m ashamed that Bush/Cheney willingly wiretapped our citizens without retribution from our justice department, I’m ashamed that Dick Cheney “outed a CIA agent” – an act of treason – without ANY ACCOUNTABILITY from democrats in congress, I’m ashamed that members of the Bush/Cheney administration both lied repeatedly to Congress and/or refused to answer subpeonas with, again, NO ACCOUNTABILITY from the democratic congress, I’m ashamed that the democrats seem to be afraid to take these republicans on STRAIGHT UP and call them what the really are, and now I’m ashamed that over ONE MILLION Americans will be without deserved unemployment benefits because of the insensitive republican party.  If the democrats don’t hold Senator Bunning and the republicans accountable for blocking extended unemployment benefits, I’ll be further ashamed of my government!  Honestly, when is all of this going to stop?

I really admire Thomas E Ricks.  He wrote the GREAT books “Fiasco” and “The Gamble” on the Bush/Cheney administration’s misadventure into Iraq.  This “war” has cost the United States upwards of a TRILLION dollars (that we don’t have), approaching 5000 of our troops dead – not to mention the TENS OF THOUSANDS injured overtly and the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS with PTSD which, just like in Viet Nam our government is trying to downplay to “save money,” and the something like a MILLION lost Iraqi lives with another two to four MILLION Iraqi’s displaced or injured or both.  Ricks’ book “Fiasco” was a “stinging” rebuke of the invasion as it sequentially documented the incompetence of the Bush administration both before and after the invasion.  “The Gamble” was an inside look at the “Surge” from the standpoint of the American military and it gave a strong “pat on the back” to David Patreaus and other military leaders who changed our strategy from one of attempting to DEMOCRATIZE Iraq to one of trying to protect the Iraqi population from the MASSIVE VIOLENCE which was unleashed by our incompetent invasion of their country.

Since I finished reading Rick’s “The Gamble” I’ve been predicting on this site that our troops are destined to be MIRED in Iraq for years to come – if the generals get their way – it could be a generation.  And, of course, Barack Obama is “bending” his promise to “us” voters as he’s already “adopted” Bush’s withdrawal plan that was negotiated while Obama was PROMISING those who voted for him that ALL THE TROOPS would be home in 16 months.  The present “plan” calls for about HALF of our troops to be home by the end of summer, with a “residual force” of “NON COMBAT” troops amounting to something like 50,000 to 75,000 troops remaining in Iraq until the end of 2011.  Today I read an Op Ed in the New York Times written by Ricks where he praises Obama for this “admirable flexibility” in essentially showing a willingness to BREAK HIS PROMISE of getting our troops out of Iraq in the above mentioned 16 months and, instead, showing NO LEADERSHIP (my characterization) by simply following the Bush withdrawal plan.  Despite my respect for Ricks, this is where I have to disagree.  In fact, Ricks takes it further and suggests that Obama should consider leaving the “residual force” in Iraq “for many years to come.”  If you’ve read “The Gamble” you could see this coming.

I’ll tell you why I TOTALLY DISAGREE!  First and foremost, the “Surge” – while it did reduce the level of violence – SOLVED NOTHING!  In fact, one of the aspects of the “Surge” that is not talked about too much is the FACT that the United States ARMED the “Sunni Awakening” and “hired” them to do the fighting of al Qaeda of Mesopotamia.  While this went a long way to stem the tide of the violence, it also put a LARGE CACHE` of arms in the hands of the Sunni leaders who STILL HATE THE SHIA.  Absolutely NOTHING long term was resolved with the “Surge.”  It’s what you call, putting off the inevitable – which is the Iraqi’s themselves having to figure out what kind of a nation they wish to have.  Ricks’ argument presupposes that the external forces outside of Iraq are going to simply go along with a large force of “NON COMBAT” American forces in their nation.  To me, that is absurd on it’s face – as absurd as calling our troops there “non-combat.”  I’m serious when I ask, does that mean they’re not going to defend themselves when attacked?  I honestly don’t understand how the United States could ask troops who are stationed in Iraq to be “non-combat.”

I’ll explain why when I point out another false “FACT” thrown around by the proponents of the “Surge” when they talk about how it stopped the violence.  Let me remind you of a guy named Moqtada al Sadr who is the spiritual leader of MILLIONS of the poorest Shia Iraqi’s, he HATES the idea of Americans on Iraqi soil – PERIOD – and, he HATES the Sunni Arabs, especially anyone associated with the Baathists of Saddam Hussein.  Well, at the time of the “Surge” al Sadr went into “exile” in Iran to finish whatever the Shia requirement would be for him to return as the “Grand Ayatollah.”  This return is due, based on my memory, soon – at least within the next year.  In fact, when he went to Iran I remember thinking he was timing his return for the point in time when the Americans were destined to leave.  Even though Ricks didn’t mention al Sadr in his Op Ed, I’m guessing that he’s totally aware of Sadr’s imminent return which is why he is lobbying for our troops to remain.  The REALITY of the “Surge,” as mentioned above, is that it did nothing more than put off the inevitable “CLASH” between the Sunni and Shia (and, that doesn’t even bring into the picture the [also inevitable] – seems to be lots of inevitables here -problems with the Kurds).  The Americans CAN’T solve these problems.  What Ricks (and others) are proposing is continuing to “put off the inevitable.”

Personally, I believe the situation in Iraq is going to escalate whether we leave the troops there or not – what Obama’s going to be faced with is whether or not to re-escalate our numbers of troops to attempt to do another full fledged “Surge” once things heat up again.  The end result, as far as I can tell, is what MY GENERATION seems to be doing with every decision that comes along (I’m in the “baby boom” generation of Bill Clinton, GW Bush, Dick Cheney, and so many others in the failed Bush administration – as well as Ricks himself) and that is put off the inevitable (there’s that word again) for our children and grandchildren.  We’ve done this with the economy where, thanks to the “trickle down” tax cutting greed of the republican party that has controlled the White House for most of the past 30 years, we’ll be leaving our kids a national debt approaching 15 TRILLION dollars by the time Obama has finished his first term in office (the economic damage from the Bush presidency is such that I don’t think there’s much Obama can do to stem the tide of the HUGE DEFICITS for several years to come).  It appears, barring a miracle change of heart from the senate, that we’ll be leaving our children a FAILED health care system with 15 times as many people DYING each year as died in the 9/11 attacks – due to NO HEALTH INSURANCE.  And, it seems, we’re going to leave them an endless “nation-building” excercise in Afganistan to the tune of an annual drain on our treasury which would easily pay for the health insurance we can’t seem to afford back home.  We’re seemingly going to leave them a nation that disregards the constitution when it comes to the fourth amendment and our “right to privacy” with an NSA that routinely “data mines” the phone records and emails of its citizens without warrants or probable cause.  And, maybe worse than all of this, we’re seemingly willing to leave our children a nation which refuses to LEGALLY REFUTE the concept of TORTURE by demonstrating to the WORLD that it would not be tolerated in America NO MATTER WHO AUTHROIZED IT!  Instead, we’ll give our children a justice system that “looks forward and not back” when it comes to the crimes by our leaders.

So Ricks, and the generals who I know support his “thesis,” are proposing “more of the same” garbage that has deflated my feelings so about the “leaders” of the country I love.  An endless occupation of Iraq – we can turn the TRILLION dollars already spent (and 100% BORROWED) into several TRILLION in just a few years.  And, the tangential costs of extending the Iraq war – the depletion of our military, the depletion of our economy, the long term health problems of our veterans, and the disintegrating economy at home while we try to save this country of people who essentially HATE  us – because we’re “saving face” and our generals don’t want another “Viet Nam” – are going to GROW and nothing will not change the FACT there is going to be a slaughter when we leave (the question is just when) while these costs to us just continue MOUNTING until we get leadership with the courage to bring our troops home and let Bush’s legacy be Bush’s legacy.  What Ricks is proposing for President Obama is for him to make Iraq HIS LEGACY instead of Bush’s.  He’s calling it a “courageous” decision to commit our troops indefinitely there – I would call it STUPID!  I don’t want my children’s generation to have to face the consequences of our TOTAL withdrawal from Iraq, it’s time we faced the problems we’ve created and DEAL WITH THEM OURSELVES!

The entire Iraq invasion was BUILT ON LIES, it was planned by incompetents (Bush didn’t even know the difference between Sunni and Shia when proposing this invasion), it has TOTALLY destablilized the region (far more than it was), AND worst of all – and something that I can agree with Ricks on – it has ENABLED Iran.  Iran is ALREADY the big winner in all of this – that’s ironic considering the posturing of Bush/Cheney – but, that’s their main accomplishment – they ultimately ended up enabling the country which is ACTUALLY the most prominent supporter of “Jihadists” in the region.  Ultimately, I believe Iran and Iraq will end up either combining into one SUPER mid east power (with MOST of the OIL that Bush/Cheney were obviously after), or they will become STRONG SHIA ALLIES.  Anyone who believes the Shia majority in Iraq is – in any way – going to give power back to the Sunni’s after what Saddam Hussein did to them, is either not paying attention, or is disengenuous, or just plain not too bright.  The day of reckoning in Iraq for the Sunni and for the Americans who are still there, in my view, will be the day Moqtada al Sadr returns as the Grand Ayatollah.  Obama’s best bet would have been to get ALL of America’s troops out of Iraq just as he promised in 16 months, but leaving them there beyond the agreed upon date in 2011 would be additional folly.  As much as I respect Thomas Ricks, he’s wrong in suggesting the United States should keep troops in Iraq indefinitely!

I often times come home from school thinking I’m just too tired to write.  Then I read the news.  Like tonight, I read an article in the Washington Post which was suggesting that “millions” of Americans view the guy who flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin Texas a “hero.”  My first thought: “Are you kidding me?”  First of all, I can’t bring myself to believe there are “millions” who would consider a TERRORIST who MURDERED a man who was a Viet Nam veteran (if anyone’s a “hero” that would be him) anything more than the CRIMINAL he deserves to be called.  So what that the guy was mad that he had to pay taxes to our government.  He was a grown adult who’s been receiving the benefits of our government for DECADES, and to me, just another of the fringe of complainers who were “ginned” up by the McCain/Palin campaign in 2008 and then further worked up by the Fox “news” crew who came up with the so-called “tea bagger” party.  This is what people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have been pushing.

It got so bad last summer that there were groups of people, the governor of Texas among them, calling for succession from the union for various southern states.  These people, who love to get the benefits of “big government” but don’t want to pay their “fair share” for them, get no sympathy from me.  The bottom line, if you really check all these “fringe” groups out, the one thing they have in common is they are somehow connected to “White Supremist” groups.  The reality is there are a bunch of Americans who are just not ready for a man of color in the White House, and they’re doing everything they can to “disrupt” the process that serves us all – and that’s the “big government” that became bad once THEIR GW Bush was banished from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Barack Obama took over.  And, who is really behind all this?  you read my mind – it’s the republican party.  They’re already lining up for a run at the presidency in 2012 for God’s sake.  THAT’S STILL THREE YEARS AWAY!  The republicans have one agenda, and it’s to derail Barack Obama – no matter who suffers in the process.

Do you think for a minute, for example, the likes of George W Bush and/or Dick Cheney would have tolerated something like the former “Walker Texas Ranger” Chuck Norris claiming there are 10,000 “cells” of people in this country ready to “take over the government”  when they were in charge?  Of course not, but the racist nature of Norris’ comments wouldn’t have bothered Bush/Cheney or any other republican – separate from him suggesting an armed uprising?  Of course, we all remember during the last campaign, Sarah Palin working up her crowd by claiming Barack Obama “hangs out with terrorists” to the tune of members in the audience yelling “kill him” – with NO RESPONSE from Palin.  We’ve listened to Beck, Limbaugh, along with members of the republican Congress accuse Obama of being a “communist,” or “socialist,” – or worse, like “the pot calling the kettle black” they’ve accused him of being a “fascist!”

Can you imagine the republican response to this kind of crap.  And, maybe that is what a lot of Americans are angry about.  When is the present government going to start acting like the government.  We are, supposedly, a nation of laws and “not men.”  But, you wouldn’t believe it listening to the public debate.  What are the limits to free speech – if there are any?  Personally, I’m OK with people calling presidents things like socialists or fascists – I believe the American people are smart enough to figure that one out.  However, when people are yelling “kill him” regarding a candidate or a sitting politician – and, I don’t care who’s party the politician is from – I believe that’s going too far.  Recently, I heard that someone – a politician – in my own state (Washington) suggested one of our senators be “hanged.”  This kind of garbage mouth is unacceptable, as far as I’m concerned.  The reality is that there are a lot of stupid people out there who don’t have the filtering mechanisms in their thought processes to understand this is “just rhetoric.”

This latest thug chose to fly his plane into a government building to gain his place in infamy, but just the fact there’s a community of thought out there that this was some kind of “heroic” act is beyond disturbing.  And, I’m sure the Glenn Beck’s and Rush Limbaugh’s and Bill O’Reilly’s, etc. of this world will take no responsibility for this action.  They’re just spewing VILE RHETORIC because they have a free speech right to do so as they try to undo a sitting president by any means possible.  Just as it was interesting that the man who MURDERED the so-called “abortion doctor” was hailed in some circles a hero and, based on info found after the fact, had been “encouraged” repeatedly by O’Reilly’s rantings, it will be interesting to hear what “evidence” is found as to the “motivators” behind the Austin plane MURDERER.  These kinds of people often find their justification in the public rantings of others.

Republicans have been ABUSING the tax system for as long as I can remember.  Ronald Reagan started the absurd “trickle down” philosophy that has been reducing taxes for the 1% at the top of our nation while providing corporate WELFARE for the corporations who are buying off all of our politicians in Washington since the 1980’s.  George W Bush took that philosophy to “new heights” and nearly — actually, I believe still could – destroyed our economy.  The result of this philosophy has been a continuing shrinkage of the work force, a continuing expansion of the national debt, a continual flow of jobs overseas, a continuing reduction in the number of union workers in this nation, and – surprisingly – a continuing number of working class MEN who vote against their own self interest because  they don’t have the wherewithall to double check the propoganda they’ve been buying into for the past 30+ years.  I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even talk to people who I’ve always considered friends if they are Limbaugh “ditto heads” because I always want to call them “dumb asses” – and, I will forever remember what I was taught that if you can’t say something nice (to someone’s face), don’t say anything at all – so, I’ve actually ended some friendships because I believe adults my age should be smart enough to see past this crap.  (I guess I’ve accepted that I can violate that creed in my writings :o)

Right now republicans are at the front COMPLAINING about the tremendous deficits – THE PROBLEM I HAVE WITH THAT is that those deficits are the DIRECT RESULT of republican rule.  These same people were saying “deficits don’t matter” just two years ago when Bush/Cheney were “at the helm.”  What has changed?  I think you can figure that one out. 

There is a growing group of tax “dissenters” who are not paying any taxes (not even filing) – some people estimate their numbers could be as high as half a million – and, there are those in the republican party who would interfere with government attempts to find these people and hold them accountable for their selfish actions.  We all depend on the police, the military, the fire department, the road crews, the engineers who fix our bridges, our schools, right now our social safety net for the millions out of work, medicare for our elderly, medicaid for our poor, and I could go on.  All of these services are necessary according to the vast majority of people in this nation – and, we all must abide by the laws enacted by the majority – save the protections of our constitution and Bill of Rights.  And, those of us fortunate enough to have income should be thankful that we have the ability to pay taxes.  I’ve been out of work before and without income, and I can tell you that paying taxes, in my view, is a blessing because it means I’m making money – and, the taxpayers’s obligation in this nation compared to the alternatives in most places is very reasonable.

If the republican party – which is behind the movements which end up with people flying their planes into IRA buildings, killing abortion doctors, murdering guards at places like the holocaust museum, would STOP with the OBSTRUCTIONIST behavior and join the discussion as to how to fix the problems of this nation we would all be better off.  But, it’s clear they’re not going to do that – and I can tell you why.  They will NEVER do anything to help Barack Obama succeed as president because that would just open the door to the possibility of more “Minority” presidents in the future.  The republican party is a party of WHITE people – if you don’t believe me, check out one of their conventions some time – and, the “tea party” which, in reality, is an offshoot of the republicans – well, if you’ve seen any of their demostrations – we’re talking WHITE and RACIST.  I will never forget watching video of Jim DeMint – a senator from South Carolina speaking in front of a bunch of “tea baggers” who were holding the MOST VILE RACIST SIGNS – depicting our sitting president as things I’d prefer not to mention here – and DeMint was calling these people “patriots.”  I really almost threw up – I thought we were beyond that in America – but, obviously not.

And, the “tea party” convention had a rousing 600 people (who paid Sarah Palin a reported $100,000 to speak to them) and somehow they have garnered enough media attention to be taken seriously.  I keep wondering how they do that – I mean we get more than 600 each week at the church I go to, and it’s by far not the biggest church in my small area.  Is there some kind of conspiracy with our “liberal media” here?  I just don’t know.  What I do know is that the thug who chose to kill an honorable Viet Nam veteran by flying his plane into the IRS headquarters in Austin Texas, was a COWARD and not a “hero.”  As far as I’m concerned, anyone who considers MURDER of innocent civilians “heroic” should have their head examined!

Last night I listened (AGAIN) in horror as Dick Cheney was given the “platform” to speak publicly, this time to a cheering crowd at the so-called “C-PAC” convention, as he predicted that Barack Obama will be a “one term president.”  Well, I’ve made the same prediction on this site – but with the caveat that if Obama continues his RIDICULOUS policy of “looking forward instead of back” regarding the crimes of Bush/Cheney et al – he is risking his reelection in 2012.  One of the main reasons I said that is the FACT that our “liberal media” (which, of course is almost totally controlled by conservatives) continues to give Cheney’s voice credibility – when the man SHOULD BE AT GUANTANAMO with the rest of America’s “enemy combatants.”  When someone says to me “how low can they go” when referring to politicians, the first thought that ALWAYS comes to my mind is Dick Cheney.

This man is a thug!  And, that’s putting it nicely.  There’s NOTHING about him that should cause any American who has a clue about what transpired in the eight years prior to Obama’s winning the White House to give Cheney even an ounce of credibility.  I even HATE writing about the guy – but, each time I hear him spewing his CRAP I feel an obligation to respond, even if the democrats – who should be outraged at every word the man says and should be DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT (remember, Congress has the right to investigate no matter what the president says) – won’t do anything to shut this thug up.  Let me start with a little refresher course on how Cheney does things, especially for all of you out there who are thinking President Obama is the “fascist.”

When George W Bush won the nomination of the republicans in 2000, he chose Cheney to “vet” the prospective vice presidential candidates.  Cheney (and, I have to admit, this was brilliant strategy on the part of a true authoritarian personality) collected boxes upon boxes of information on ALL the leading republicans (something in the high teens or twenties) – telling ALL of them they were on the “short list” of 3 or 4 candidates (remember, Cheney’s a pathological liar – meaning he’ll lie to anyone to get what he wants) – telling each one of them they MUST include ALL information, including anything that might prove embarrassing in order to prevent a selection which would backfire in the press.  THEN Cheney CHOSE HIMSELF and “outed” (he’s really good at “outing” people) one of the candidates by leaking info to the press that ruined the guy (I believe it was a governor in a place like Nebraska – a very safe person to SCREW).  Subsequent to ruining this person’s career he reminded the other “candidates” that he had the “goods” (the contents of all the “boxes” of info) on them and they had better “toe the line” or he would ruin them as well.  A beautiful plan, huh?  If you’ve been following this guy for any length of time, this shouldn’t surprise you.  When I read this in Barton Gellman’s book “Angler” for some reason it absolutely didn’t surprise me, other than my thinking that I wouldn’t even be capable of such a dastardly deed.  It takes a REAL SPECIAL person to become a successful republican these days (you can surely see why Rush Limbaugh loves the guy so much!)

Well, that’s just for starters.  It gets “better” (or worse, depending on your perspective).  GW Bush – the great CEO president – gave Cheney the responsibility of filling his cabinet posts.  Hence people like Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and a host of other “neo-cons” in key places in Bush’s White House right from the start.  Cheney started off with the now famous “energy summit” of which the participants were NEVER exposed to the public, but SURELY was headlined by Ken Lay of Enron – this was prior to Enron’s famous demise which took the 401 K’s of millions of Americans into the “tank.”  As a sidenote, I was always curious why the republicans in Congress spent eight years investigating “Whitewater” which was nothing more than a stupid investment by the Clinton’s and spent ZERO time investigating a failed business venture which was clearly ILLEGAL and caused hardship to MILLIONS of American citizens.  I guess it must have had something to do with what was in those boxes – virtually EVERY committee chairman in Congress had been on Cheney’s “short list.”  Are you getting the picture here?

Then there was the nine months that Bush/Cheney was in the White House prior to 9/11.  During that time there are sufficient records showing that both Cheney and his chief of staff I. lewis “Scooter” Libby spent enough time at the CIA “sniffing” out intelligence on Saddam Hussein that they couldn’t possibly have missed ALL the warning signs the CIA had to the impending “bin Laden to attack America” scenario.  In fact, the more I read about what happened in those days, the more I’m convinced that Cheney (and Bush, for that matter) were willing to absorb an attack in order to have an excuse to invade Iraq.  I’m convinced that Iraq’s oil was a big part of the discussion of the “energy summit” that we will hopefully someday know about – which is why Cheney went to such extremes to keep EVERYTHING including who was there a SECRET.  Clearly both Dick Cheney and George W Bush (plus Wolfowitz, Feith, Perle, and others) were planning an invasion of Iraq LONG BEFORE 9/11 ever happened.  The evidence of that is OVERWHELMING – which is why I’m so disappointed there’s NO INVESTIGATION of these thugs.

But, hang on, it gets worse.  Not only were Bush/Cheney planning to invade Iraq, but it appears they never had any intention of capturing Osama bin Laden from the start of the invasion of Afganistan.  US forces (along with others) had bin Laden TRAPPED AT TORA BORA and LET HIM GO.  This appears to have been a calculated decision.  Had they captured bin Laden, there would have been no justification to invade Iraq – SO THEY LET THE GUY WHO KILLED 3000 AMERICANS GO!  And, of course, getting back to our “liberal” mainstream media – there’s PLENTY of evidence of this, but you have to go to the book store and find the books, read them, and figure it out on your own – which apparently, not too many Americans are doing (including Obama, because otherwise there would be at least investigations of these people).

I’m sure you’ve figured this out, but it KEEP’S getting worse!  Both Dick Cheney and George W Bush OPENLY LIED over and over again to “gin” up public support for an invasion of Iraq.  They knew that Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 9/11, had no weapons of “mass destruction,” did not have a nuclear capability, and was NOT a threat to the United States WELL BEFORE THE INVASION.  There was even a memo FORGED by the CIA and “discovered” in some European country suggesting a meeting between Mohammed Atta and someone from Saddam’s government that was ordered out of the Vice President’s office – yep, you guessed it, Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to do something TERRIBLY ILLEGAL. 

Of course, if you’ve been following this guy for any length of time, you know that doing stuff that’s illegal comes naturally to Cheney.  Much of what’s been discussed earlier in this post is more like REALLY unethical, but probably not illegal.  But, once our troops crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, the illegal stuff started happening with ABANDON.  (well, I should say that it appears that the illegal wiretapping actually started PRIOR to 9/11 – and, of course, that would be a felony each time someone was wiretapped without a warrant – everything I’ve been able to find out about this would suggest that Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby were at the forefront of the illegal wiretapping – some of the CRIMES that Obama doesn’t want to investigate for some odd reason)

Let’s look at the “outing” of a CIA agent – which is TREASON – remember, Cheney’s good at “outing” people.  Valerie Plame (Wilson) was the head of a covert CIA group which was in charge of finding and verifying the so-called “WMD’S” (weapons of mass destruction).  Her group had been hard at work for over a year before Bush/Cheney publicly started “pushing” the invasion without them finding ANYTHING.  Bush/Cheney were so “fixed” on this invasion that they had members of the CIA smuggled into Iraq with the “mission” of undermining Saddam to hopefully cause him to strike out at a “target” which would allow our government to “retaliate.”  Well, no one knows to this day how many people died due to Plame’s group being exposed publicly, but the TRUTH is – as mentioned above -disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA agent is TREASON.  This whole scheme came right from the vice president’s office, and most of what I’ve read suggests that President Bush was complicit in the CRIME as well.  Again, NO CONGRESSIONAL OR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT investigation beyond the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation where Scooter Libby was prosecuted for perjuring himself to protect Cheney – which was clearly Fitzgerald’s finding.  Fitzgerald even suggested that Congress should investigate further to uncover how this crime actually happened.  There is NO DOUBT in my mind that Plame was “outed” because her husband, Joe Wilson, wrote an OP Ed in the NY Times which exposed the abusrdity of Bush’s claim, in his state of the union message of 2003, that Iraq had purchased a substantial quantity of “yellow cake uranium” from Niger in Africa.  THE ENTIRE NUCLEAR SCARE WAS FABRICATED – an out and out LIE!

But, we’re not done yet, AMAZINGLY.  You’d think by the time one government official had broken that many laws someone would do something about it.  However, not in today’s America.  Even with all I know – and I’m sure there is MUCH, MUCH more – Cheney is still going around spouting off his lying mouth.  I haven’t even got to the “enhanced interrogation” which was “championed” by Dick Cheney.  In fact, he’s still going around “championing” it – which is one of the main reasons I continue to encourage President Obama to start the investigation of this guy – does anyone think the republicans won’t continue with their “enhanced interrogations” if they get back in power simply because Obama said “we don’t torture.”  Let me remind you, both Bush and Cheney said, “We don’t torture” too!  That is, despite the FACT both Bush and Cheney publicly ADMITTED to authorizing WATERBOARDING on national TV.  Well, let me put it this way, “Earth to Cheney, WATERBOARDING has been considered torture since the inception of the Geneva conventions.  We’ve (the United States) prosecuted Japanese for waterboarding our troops during WW II and we’ve prosecuted our own soldiers for doing it during Viet Nam.  According to the Geneva Conventions WATERBOARDING is a WAR CRIME.  Therefore, both Dick Cheney and George W Bush admitted on national TV to authorizing WAR CRIMES.  If you’re not sure, WAR CRIMES are illegal!

And, in my view, the waterboarding isn’t the worst thing they authorized.  Khalid Shiek Mohammed was known to be afraid of bugs.  So the “enhanced interrogators” put him in an enclosed “box” – supposedly the size of a small casket – filled with bugs – for an extended period of time.  This was the guy who was waterboarded 183 times in one month.  What they (Bush/Cheney) accomplished with all of this was that Sheik Mohammed stopped giving information and they made it virtually impossible to prosecute him in a REAL court of law – due to the “cruel and unusual” punishment they put him through that is a violation of everything this nation stands for.  It appears that Dick Cheney was quick to decide that revenge on the few “enemy combatants” who were really enemy combatants was far more valuable than the liberties our troops have been dying to defend for the past 200+ years.  Dick Cheney is a stong proponent of the Nixon “doctrine” that “if the president does it, it must be legal” and our new president is allowing him to get away with this.  He was so arrogant in breaking one law after another, that it’s SHAMEFUL our democratic leaders seem totally AFRAID to do anything about it.  Do you remember Cheney shooting one of his hunting partners in the face – clearly out shooting a rifle while DRINKING – and putting off the authorities for 24 hours so that he could sober up prior to giving his deposition.  I’m not saying that he was trying to shoot his friend, but the reality is it’s a crime to shoot someone in the face, even if it’s your friend, if you’re DRUNK!  This man has NO BOUNDARIES!

And, speaking of arrogance.  What about the three prisoners who were found DEAD, hanging in their cells at Guantanamo.  There was NO INVESTIGATION of this either.  But, just for the sake of me trying to give a clear picture here, let’s look at the facts of these three “suicides” – at least according to Bush/Cheney.  ALL THREE prisoners were found with a wad of cloth JAMMED so far down their throats that their jaws had to be broken to get the cloth out (I’ve written about this before, so please indulge me on this one).  Furthermore, evidently after JAMMING the cloth down their own throats so far that another breath would be IMPOSSIBLE they, ALL THREE OF THEM, managed to tie their own legs together, then tie their hands behind their backs, then climb onto boxes or something, put their heads in a noose, and then HANG THEMSELVES – ALL THREE OF THEM!  To make it even more interesting, there were guards patrolling the corridor where ALL THREE cells were located REGULARLY (meaning every 10 minutes or so).  The coroner’s findings suggested that ALL THREE men had been DEAD at least 2 hours prior to being noticed HANGING in their cells.  I wasn’t surprised that much that Bush/Cheney saw nothing “curious” about this – but, I was shocked when I heard that Eric Holder, Obama’s Attorney General, saw nothing worth investigating here as well.  It’s like they don’t want to confirm to the WHOLE WORLD what the ENTIRE WORLD already knows, and that is Bush/Cheney authorized their surrogates to commit WAR CRIMES!

I’ll conclude what could seemingly go on forever by wondering what people think everytime they hear republicans complaining about the budget deficit President Obama is “wrestling” with as he tries to “right the ship” – meaning the economy – left behind by Bush/Cheney.  By most accounts it is GW Bush who deserves the blame for almost taking us back into a 1930’s type Great Depression.  However, the reality is it was Dick Cheney who was in charge of all the tax cutting measures that were passed during the Bush administration which led to the RECORD DEFICITS.  In fact, Cheney – with his considerable connections with republicans in the house – managed to get more tax cuts through than even Bush wanted.  Cheney is famously quoted as saying “Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.”  Well, once out of office he’s been spouting quite a different tune – as if to suggest to republicans, tea partyers, and the general public that these HORRIBLE DEFICITS are the work of Barack Obama.  While that kind of rhetoric is not ILLEGAL, it is such blatant B__ SH__ that it makes my stomach curl.  And, the fact that the media and the public gives it ANY TRACTION at all, is very discouraging.  Cheney is a PATHALOGICAL LIAR and by allowing him to continue doing this – as far as I’m concerned – our justice department, our Congress, and our sitting president  – NONE OF THEM – are showing the leadership that would restore the respect for the rule of law, the “concept” of honesty, and the general belief in our system of government that is missing from the public debate today.  Dick Cheney is a lying thug and “we the people” are forced to listen to him repeatedly by this timid government which is presently in charge.

But, of course, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, and others on the “right” (wrong) continue to give this man a “platform” from which to spew his vitriol and they think he’s the “cat’s meow.”  In fact, I even heard someone say the other day that Cheney’s contemplating a “run for the White House.”  (as Bush once said about Muslim terrorists, “bring em on”) The ironic thing to me is that if Cheney is correct about his latest “charge” – that Obama will be a one term president” – it will be because the very man he’s trying to “undo” is – FOR SOME STRANGE REASON – allowing him to go free.  It is the president’s duty – he takes an oath to defend the constitution and enforce the laws – to make sure that people like Cheney are not allowed to get away with crimes against this nation.  I could go on and on about Cheney – the war profiteering, the encouraging Halliburton to relocate to the middle east to avoid investigation AND taxes, the sweatheart “no-bid” deals with his “buddies,” and his botched ideas about the Iraq invasion which will end up being one of the worst decisions EVER made in the history of this nation – but, suffice it to say;  If President Obama ends up a one term president, one of the main reasons why will be his refusal to allow an investigation of Dick Cheney!  I’ve  said it before (will probably again): Want to shut Dick Cheney up?  Put him in front of a Grand Jury!  If you’re a regular here, forgive me – but everytime I hear this man spewing his garbage, I can’t help but write about it.  Kind of makes me feel a bit better.

I’m a sixth grade school teacher and I know first hand what it’s like to explain things to people (well, students) who either don’t “get it” or who don’t WANT to get it.  As I’ve been observing politics much closer since starting this little “rant outpost” – sometimes referred to as a blog (I didn’t even know what a blog was when I started writing) – I’m more and more seeing parallels between my sixth grade students and our political leaders in Washington DC.  One of the main areas of comparison would be in the “don’t get it” category, whether intentional or not.  That is to say, it appears to me that our political leaders “don’t get it” and it’s MUCH MORE FRUSTRATING for me to see politicians who aren’t listening than to see 11 and 12 year old students who aren’t listening.

And, you can categorize our political leaders somewhat similarly to how I do the same with my students.  There’s a small number who can ALWAYS be counted on to do the “right thing.”  In the case of school, the “right thing” would be fulfilling their obligations on time and to the best of their ability without allowing themselves to be influenced by the many students around them who are only out for themselves.  Look or sound familiar?  (there are a few congressional leaders who would fall into that category – just not many ie, Dennis Kucinich, Alan Grayson, etc.)  Some of the students can only be counted on for one thing and that is LYING!  Again, sound familiar?  (many congressional leaders fall into this category)  And, then there is the group of students who seemingly will do ANYTHING to get what they want, no matter how it affects those around them – they are constantly trying to draw attention to themselves without regard to “the better good” of the entire class.  OK, I’m guessing you have an idea of where I’m going with this. (this last category is dominated by republicans)

I could write a post about politicians of either party in this regard – for instance, I, like most Americans for that matter, got my fill of democrats OPENLY trading HUNDRED’S OF MILLIONS in taxpayer dollars for votes in the now dangling on a thread health care legislation.  I, like many progressives, have had my fill of President Obama “reaching out” to republicans through the same messed up procedures that so many are sick of (filibusters, etc.) – when we voted for “the change we could believe in.”  In fact, I don’t think the majority of unhappy progressives are complaining that “nothing’s getting done” – even though it seems that way – what they’re complaining about is that nothing seems to be changing – and, in that we’re talking about the process.

So, as I’m comparing 6th grade students with politicians let me focus on the latter two categories mentioned above – because those two categories seem to have a predominance in the classroom and in the congress.  And, I’m going to focus on republicans – not that the democrats get a free pass – but, in my view, the republicans ARE THE PROBLEM – it’s just that it seems as if the democrats don’t have the wherewithall to overcome their obstructionism (in reality, they have some of the problem characteristics as well).  However, I’d just like to take a closer look at what – according to what I’m reading in the “liberal media” – we might end up with again after the next election or two if the pundits are accurate.  I feel compelled to write this because I’m still not seeing any signs that the democratic party – from Obama on down – have any compulsion to properly DEAL with the deeds of these republicans.  Let’s start with the first of the two categories I’m comparing our dear republicans to – and that would be them as pathological liars!

What is a pathological liar?  Well, by definition:  “Pathological liars have little regard or respect for the rights and feelings of others. A pathological liar often comes across as being manipulative, cunning and self-centered.  A pathological liar is usually defined as someone who lies incessantly to get their way and does so with little concern for others.” (I got that definition off of the internet)  Well, I believe you could pretty much call this part of the republican platform.  In other words, they’ve long had the mantra that the “end justifies the means.”  That is, they will say ANYTHING which might get them what they want.  In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that when the republicans say one thing, the truth is usually something approaching the opposite.  Let me give some examples.

Let’s start with education – now, I’m a teacher and obviously biased, but the education of our children is important.  When President GW Bush came into office he got his “signature” legislation passed (with the unsuspecting help of people like the late Senator Ted Kennedy) called “No Child Left Behind.”  As a teacher, when I originally saw that legislation all I could do was shake my head and wonder “what’s wrong with these people?”  Of course it was ridiculous to think that ALL STUDENTS would be achieving at the same level come 2014.  I mean, stop and think about this for a second;  how are the “learning support” students going to achieve at the same level as the proficient students?  If schools are accurately identifying students with learning disabilities it would be preposterous to put the same expectations on those students as the ones without disabilities.  That one should be A NO BRAINER!

What this legislation was REALLY attempting to do was to destroy PUBLIC EDUCATION.  The right wing Christians, the wealthy republicans, and I’m sure others don’t want their children to have to go to school with the students “on the other side of the tracks.”  The way to prevent that is to defund the public schools and transfer the money to “vouchers” for the families who could afford to send their kids to private schools.  I “get” that they don’t want to pay taxes to support schools that their students aren’t attending – but, the reality – in most cases – is that someone paid taxes for them to go to school in “their day” and a free public education is one of the things that made this country and it’s middle class the ENVY of the entire world (that is until the republicans started undoing everything good from the “New Deal”).

Additionally, the testing requirements of the “No Child” law were so ridiculous that schools inevitably become “failing schools” which creates all kinds of challenges that are unreachable and whose remedies are NOT FUNDED by the government which sets the requirements.  It really is a nice little trick from the republican point of view – and it remains to be seen how the democrats go about “fixing” it – because the title “No Child Left Behind” sounds so ……….. “right.”  It’s just that it’s LEAVING MORE children behind, it’s causing one school after another to focus on nothing but the “high stakes testing” at the expense of programs like woodshop, machineshop, art, music, home-ec, civics, etc.  The schools are now focused more on their own survival than what is best for their students.  “No Child Left Behind” is designed to help create that permanent UNDERCLASS of people who will be happy with the minimum wage jobs “left behind” by the other republican (and democratic – thanks Bill Clinton) laws which are responsible for the mass exodus of manufacturing jobs from America to overseas.

That leads me to the “Free Market” philosopy of the republican party.  WHAT A JOKE – and, unfortunately Americans have bought this one HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER.  This is the “I’ll give you (really your rich uncle) a tax cut and I’m going to balance the budget” philosophy.  What would you call free market about the government giving BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to oil companies to subsidize their oil drilling which leads to TENS OF BILLIONS in profits – sometimes with little or no taxes coming back to the government?  (and then giving tax cuts to the CEO and investors who are making those BILLIONS) Or, what is free market about our government agreeing to a drug policy with “Big Pharma” regarding the Medicare Part D plan that FORBIDS them from negotiating the best price  for our senior citizens?  Most estimates are that the pharmaceutical industry will reap additional profits of 600 BILLION DOLLARS in the first 10 years of the program.  Or, what is free market about the Bush administration offering NO BID contracts for their contributors to the tune of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS – contracts that are nearly devoid of accountability – both in project completion and in financial responsibility?  I mean, there was the mysterious 9 BILLION dollars which disappeared in Iraq – never to be seen again – just for one example among many.  I guess, from the republican point of view, free market means free money from the American taxpayers.

Of course, I couldn’t broach this subject without mentioning the TARP bailout funds which supposedly saved our financial system – you know, the one that includes Goldman Sachs (4+ BILLION in profits just this past QUARTER – that’s THREE months for those of you who don’t understand – about a BILLION AND A HALF per month),  Morgan Stanley Chase (similar profits), Bank of America (you guessed it, similar profits), and others – I’ll leave it at those three (makes me sick just writing this).  Not only did these companies – WHO ALL ARE PART OF THE FREE MARKET PHILOSOPHY – take BILLIONS from the government, but they’ve continued making the RISKY loans that got us ALL in the fix of 2008 with VIRTUALLY FREE MONEY from the Fed.  Oh, now I get it, free market economics must be the banks get the money from the Fed – INTEREST FREE – gamble it in securities markets, make a huge profit, and find ways to avoid paying taxes to the very taxpayers who supposedly BAILED THEM OUT!  In fact, they not only feel that paying taxes is not part of a “free market” but their employees should get MONSTROUS bonuses – and they shouldn’t have to pay taxes on their bonuses either – “because they better know what to do with the money – it will trickle down.”

Just as their “free market” might be “free” to them – but VERY COSTLY – to the rest of us, when republicans tell you they are better at keeping us safe – look out!  I don’t know about you, but I’m SICK of listening to Dick Cheney telling me that he knows how to keep us safe.  THAT IS MORE ABSURD than any of this – and it’s all pretty absurd.  First of all, there were plenty of signals to prevent 9/11 in the first place, but how can anyone who was IN CHARGE when something like that happened on “his watch” go around claiming to be good at “keeping us safe?”  (I’ll tell you how – read my definition above of a pathological liar) That is SO RIDICULOUS you have to question who’s in charge of the “liberal media” that Cheney even gets his voice heard.  Dick Cheney and his “boss” (in name only – at least for the first 6 years) allowed the worst attack on this “HOMELAND” in the history of our nation.  I HONESTLY don’t see how the man can have ONE IOTA of credibility on this subject.  Not only did Bush/Cheney NOT KEEP US SAFE, but their subsequent actions to 9/11 only made MATTERS WORSE.  George W Bush and Dick Cheney not only made the U.S. LESS SAFE, they made the WORLD LESS SAFE!  It still remains to be seen if we, as a nation, will recover from their misdeeds!

And, that brings me to my final example of UTTER PATHOLOGICAL DISHONESTY by the republicans.  They’ve been cramming it down our collective throats that we have a “liberal media” for the past 30+ years.  Of course, as with all their LIES, the reality is almost the opposite.  And, they’ve got the “hated” Bill Clinton to thank for this one as it was on his “watch” that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed.  I’m sure that the republicans had convinced Clinton that deregulation of the communications industry would create “more competition,” when in reality I’m ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED it was part of their master plan to do just the opposite – create LESS COMPETITION!  There are now about 9 corporations who control the vast majority  of the public airwaves.  Corporations like NewsCorp (Rupert Murdoch), GE (NBC, etc.), Time Warner, Disney, and Sony are not bastions of liberal thought.  In fact, they are all MAINLY interested in MAKING MONEY, they have international roots in some cases, and their public interest is the interest of their shareholders – CLEAR AND SIMPLE.  The “liberal media” republicans complain about is a “MYTH” – and their reference to it as such is an OUT AND OUT LIE!  To give you a hint into the republican thought process – according to “Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting” a media “watchdog;”  “After World War II, the Allies restricted media concentration in occupied Germany and Japan because they noted that such concentration promoted anti-democratic, even fascist, political cultures.”  Don’t believe me that this could happen in America?  Take an “open minded” listen to Fox “news” sometime, or Rush Limbaugh – can you really call it news when it originates from the republican caucus?  So, when these republicans overuse the word democracy in their public propagandizing it’s again because almost the opposite is true – their policies will lead to an anti-democratic “political culture.” (referred to by Karl Rove as his “permanent republican ‘majority'”)

Aside from the required curriculum – I spend my days teaching eleven and twelve year old kids the importance of telling the truth, showing respect to themselves and those around them, doing the best they can do on their “jobs,” and being aware of and showing compassion for those around them.  As I watch the continuing political debate in this country it drives me “batty” to see our “leaders” acting like my sixth graders who don’t understand these concepts – in too many ways.  People like John Boehner, for example, constantly trying to draw attention to himself, willing to say anything even if it’s OBVIOUSLY A LIE, and showing little or no compassion for others (well, except for the corporations who are funding him).  And people like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin constantly spewing garbage out of their mouths that causes “drama” and never accomplishes ANYTHING positive.  As a teacher, I like to think that I put up a strong fight against this type of behavior.  That’s not to say that I always “win” – meaning I would cause someone to change their behavior – BUT I ALWAYS TRY TO WIN.  It’s in the interest of the student who’s exhibiting the behavior, and MORE IMPORTANTLY the other students who are negatively affected by the behavior – that I do EVERYTHING I can to get the behavior changed.  There is a point where reaching out to misbehaving students becomes counter-productive – you just have to let them know who’s in charge and even exclude them if it becomes necessary.   Like the teacher in the classroom, the president is the authority figure in Washington DC and the congress is like a classroom – it’s where the “real” action takes place.  I believe it’s past the time for President Obama to stop “reaching out” to republicans, and instead – as the LEADER of the democrats – he needs to let them clearly know who’s in charge – this would erase the doubt in the minds of progressives as to whether or not Obama and the democrats “get it.”  If republicans want to continue obstructing EVERYTHING, their FULL AGENDA should be put on public display!  Including the investigation and prosecution – where warranted – of those in the Bush/Cheney administration who violated our laws and committed war crimes! (for those who’ve been around here – I couldn’t help myself on that last sentence – please forgive me! :o)

I really want President Obama to succeed.  And, when I talk about him succeeding, it’s not just winning a second term and getting eight years in the White House – although, that is far preferable to any of the alternatives I can see out there right now.  I’m talking about actually bringing “the change we can believe in” to Washington DC.  While I realize his supporters are championing all the things he’s attempting to do as opposed to Bush/Cheney – and they do have a good point – I simply wasn’t looking for another center-right Democrat when I voted for Obama.  There are those who claim he’s doing exactly what he promised to do, but I would beg to differ.  I also realize – who couldn’t see this – what a TOXIC atmosphere he’s dealing with in the nation’s capital, but how long are we going to use that as an excuse?  Some of the issues which are “pressing” don’t have 30 or 40 years to “grow” as our system struggles with throwing off the mantra left behind by the Reagan “revolution” and what George W Bush did to it.

In fact, I often feel that Obama is trying to be the democratic version of Reagan.  If you were around in the eighties, Reagan could give stirring speeches with the best of them, and the reality of what came out of Congress and WAS SIGNED BY HIM was altogether different from his rhetoric.  Reagan started the “trickle down” economic theory which George W Bush’s own father labled as “Voodoo economics,” that is – it NEVER MADE SENSE to propose cutting taxes and balancing the budget (although republicans are still spewing the same b___sh__ even after piling up 12 TRILLION dollars in debt).  Especially, when the fundamental purpose of their party is to FEED the military industrial complex that our last good republican president – Dwight Eisenhower – warned us ALL about (back in the 50’s).  Clearly, the “engine” of our economy – from a manufacturing point of view is WEAPONS, WEAPONS SYSTEMS, and military hardware.  We supply a lot of the very weapons our troops get attacked with by our enemies as our leaders continue to view us as the “world’s policemen.”  I would be pumped up to participate in the process if I saw Obama as the one who’s going to FIGHT to change all of this.

However, that’s not what I’m seeing – AT ALL!  I listened again, while driving home from work today, as one of the top progressive radio talk hosts championed Obama for “bringing the troops home from Iraq,” and sending them to Afganistan to defend the Afgan people against the Taliban “who would instill an authoritarian government with abusive treatment of women.”  Let me first talk about Iraq.  Evidently, Obama is FINALLY bringing some of the troops home.  However, his CLAIMS that “all combat forces will be home by the end of August” is one of the things that truly PISSES me off!  (sorry to all my friends who never hear me say words like that – but, I’m not at all happy about this one)  The TRUTH is – President Obama has NO INTENTION of having all the “combat troops” home by the end of August.  This abuse of the English language is very “Bushlike.”  There will still be 50 – 75,000 American troops stationed in Iraq after August – and, if our generals have their way, those troops will be in Iraq for the next 10 – 20 YEARS!  Even if President Obama follows through with the latest “PROMISE,” he will have shown ZERO leadership regarding Iraq – remember, this is the war he would have voted against.

While I really struggle with the concept of “non-combat” troops in Iraq, I still CLEARLY remember Obama PROMISING that ALL THE TROOPS would be home from Iraq within 16 months of him taking office.  Well, 16 months from him taking office would be this coming MAY!  So, he’s going to be TREE MONTHS late getting roughly HALF of the troops home from Iraq with the promise now being he’s going to follow the timetable set up by President Bush.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  And, Rahm Emanuel is calling people like me a f___ing RETARD!  Maybe he should go look in a mirror – HE’S THE ONE ADVISING THE PRESIDENT!  The only thing that’s keeping this from being more of an issue RIGHT NOW is the HORRIBLE condition of the economy.  But, I guarantee you – the republicans will be playing back Obama’s own words when it’s time for him to be re-elected.  Of course, the reality is the republicans won’t be talking about how they created the MESS, but the question is – will anyone remember?  It will be Obama’s war if we still have troops there during the next election cycle.  I believe following any Bush directive – but ESPECIALLY REGARDING IRAQ – is politically STUPID!

Then there’s Afganistan.  I’m surprised at how many of Obama’s supporters now think it’s a good idea to escalate this war.  After reading Greg Mortenson’s books “Three Cups of Tea,” and “Stones into Schools” I can certainly see how anyone could have a “soft spot” for the Afgan people and all the grief they’ve experienced in the past several decades.  In fact, the United States has essentially abandoned them twice – once after the Mujahideen had kicked the Russians out in the late 80’s (it was the Reaganites and the first Bush who abandoned them then) and then again after “WE” kicked the Taliban out while supposedly going after Osama bin Laden in 2001 (OK, you guessed it – that was the second Bush).  And, I have to TOTALLY ADMIT that I hope my instincts are completely wrong on this one because I would love to see America help the Afgans set up a functioning central government.

The problem with that, however, as I see it is that WE CAN’T DO THIS FOR THEM.  President Obama is going to be spending another $65 BILLION dollars per YEAR in this endeavor that could conceivably go on indefinitely.  The issues in that part of the world are HUGE, and most everyone over there HATES Americans.  Well, I need to restate that, because Mortenson is totally welcomed over there, because he understands the culture and the people.  His approach is COMPLETELY NON-VIOLENT, he shows respect for the Afgan people, and he recognizes that nothing of consequence will happen there unless THEY buy into it and DO IT THEMSELVES.  If you’re interested in this area of the world, I would recommend you read these two books – they were the kind I couldn’t put down until finished!  I can’t help but believe that the $65 BILLION could be spent much more effectively and could produce MUCH BETTER results, if we had people helping the Afgans to help themselves.  Whatever we do, we’ve got to totally HONOR their culture to have any chance of helping them, but unless we want to have our troops there indefinitely, I believe a different approach is in order.  I know President Obama stated that this buildup would be for just 18 months, but do you really believe that – based on the promises made in Iraq?  They’ll find ways to twist the English language to make it look like they’re doing what they said they would – but, people like bin Laden (or his compatriots – should he be dead) would like nothing better than to provide the opposition necessary to keep the United States MIRED in Afganistan until our nation is totally bankrupt!  We don’t have the money to provide health care for our own citizens, or an effective jobs bill, but we can squander a couple hundred BILLION dollars per year in Iraq and Afganistan!  Ughhhh!

Getting back to the “home front” things are going to get tougher SOON instead of easier.  I’ve noticed that President Obama is still playing the “cat and mouse” game with the republicans over what they (both democrats and republicans) most certainly must view as the “court of public opinion.”  Obama’s still courting republicans, and I’ve heard some people suggest that he’s “playing chess” with them.  I certainly hope that’s correct.  However, if I’m even close to understanding the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, where the court essentially gave “free speech rights” to corporations and struck down key elements of the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform legislation which was designed to limit corporate donations in elections, Obama’s game of “cat and mouse” could ultimately be a real loser.

The reason the republicans had such big smiles on their faces when the verdict was read was because they fully intend to be the recipients of MOST OF THE MONEY that is going to be flowing into the process.  If the fears of many are realized, this next election could be a MAJOR TURNING point in the governance of this nation.  Remember, fascist society’s are ones where the politicians (and, indirectly the people) are beholden to the large corporations.  We saw the effect of huge amounts of corporate money flowing into Washington during the health care debate.  When 70+% of Americans wanted a “robust public option” – with a clear majority willing to go so far as to favor SINGLE PAYER health insurance reform – and then we end up with a bill that is a boon to the very companies who are suppposedly being regulated – AND, these companies spent OVER A BILLION dollars to FIGHT REFORM – well, what do you think the future holds?  The large corporations are making money in the TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars.  It will just be “good business” to “invest” in the best politicians MONEY CAN BUY!  Do you really think our present congressional leaders are going to vote against Wall Street’s interests, or the interests of the major oil companies NOW?

So, I’m saying that President Obama doesn’t have time for a “game of chess” with the republicans.  He needs to DEFEAT THEM while he still can.  Maybe that’s what he’s trying to do in a nice passive way.  However, I can say with certainty that there’s a better way – and, it would be embarrassing if another country had to do this for us – something we should be doing for ourselves.  I’m reading another book on the Bush years which puts this into perspective, it’s titled “The Greatest Story ever Sold” by Frank Rich and it’s a wonderful, sequential report of the PURPOSEFUL LIES used to get us MIRED into Iraq at the cost of thousands of American and Iraqi lives and approaching a TRILLION dollars of DEBT (not one cent of this war has been paid for as yet – it’s been prosecuted with ALL BORROWED money!)  Both President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and many others are legally VULNERABLE based on their decisions surrounding this misadventure.  People all around the world are ANGRY at what the Bush administration did – including the torture.  And, some of them are talking like “they’re not going to take it any more.”

First it was the Spaniards who wanted to hold American leaders accountable for the torture which EVERYONE knows took place under the authorization of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others.  Somehow, the Obama administration managed to get them (the Spaniards) to back down.  At the time, I was hopeful that this meant President Obama would follow through on his promise that “if laws were violated, people would be prosecuted – NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”  That turned out to be a “false hope” on my part and has led me to write a lot of these posts and has turned me into a “f___ing retard” according to Rahm Emanuel because I’m in the “I hope Obama succeeds, but I’m not going to vote for him” camp – due to the FACT that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES can I condone TORTURE – no matter who the guilty party is (do you find it as cruel as I do that the only Americans EVER held accountable for our HORRIFIC treatment of prisoners from Iraq and Afganistan – many of whom were totally innocent – was a few Army “grunts” who made the mistake of taking pictures of what they were doing at Abu Ghraib?).  In my mind, despite Obama’s claim that “the US doesn’t torture” – by letting Bush/Cheney and company off the hook, he becomes complicit.

The worst part of this is that if Obama had allowed the investigations THAT WERE TOTALLY WARRANTED to proceed, the republican party would be right up front and center WHERE THEY BELONG regarding their past behavior.  The American public would get a clear view of the alternative to the democrats.  And, these republicans are a lot like the sixth graders I teach – if you don’t hold them accountable for their misbehavior, they will then think “it must be OK.”  (and they’ll do it again, the first chance they get)  Has anyone heard an “I’m sorry” whimper from these brutal thugs?  The new senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, campaigned saying that he believes torture works!  The only way these people will get the message is in a court of law.

Now, we have another embarrassing situation on the horizon.  The BRITISH of all people are threatening to call American leaders of the Bush/Cheney era to testify about the “run-up” to Iraq.  And, they have something like 10,000 classified documents to use to verify who’s telling the truth and who’s lying (they’ve already put Tony Blair on the spot as he tried to lie his way out from the reality of the decisions he participated in).  I don’t know about you, but I find it embarrassing that our own leaders – of an entirely different party from Bush/Cheney (I would understand this – although it would still be wrong – if it was republicans ignoring the lawbreaking of the Bush administration) are ignoring INVESTIGATIONS of the lies which led to the Iraq invasion and that now the British are threatening to hold these investigations for us.  Again, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  What is wrong with our politicians?

Reading “The Greatest Story ever Sold” is just a HUGE REMINDER that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Feith and others were planning the invasion of Iraq well before Bush’s inauguration day in January of 2001.  I’m not going to say that they ignored the OBVIOUS WARNING signs of 9/11 in order to get an excuse to do what they had planned to do all along in Iraq, BUT IT SURE LOOKS LIKE A POSSIBILITY.  If you’ve ever read Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” you would understand how these thugs work.  Based on the unmistakeable theory that comes from that book, the “shock” of 9/11 gave the perfect “cover” for the planned excursion into Iraq.  And, book after book (I’ve read a BUNCH of them) on Iraq would imply EXACTLY that – the Bush administration was just waiting for a circumstance that would “justify” their ambitions to take out Saddam Hussein (and get Iraq’s oil).  So, where’s our new president on all of this?  I don’t think I will be able to forgive President Obama if he fails to allow the investigations of Iraq and the torture that was condoned by Bush/Cheney et al.  Do we really need the British to investigate the Bush White House for us?  To me, “the change we can believe in” doesn’t include decsions which will allow the policies which so desperately need changed to HAPPEN AGAIN! 

(It’s almost getting to the point where, even if Obama came to his senses, the investigations of Bush/Cheney would be strictly for political reasons and not because they are the “right thing to do” which is why they should have been initiated last year)

I’ve been speaking out about the racist nature of the republican party for years, on this site since its inception.  Many people I know just can’t bring themselves to believe this, despite the outward ABSURDITIES of people like Rush Limbaugh almost every day on the public airwaves.  However, this past week at the so-called “tea party” convention, did you hear what Tom Tancredo said?  It was unbelievable to me, and almost as unbelievable was the lack of blowback from the media (although I did see something from Keith Olberman and heard Thom Hartman refer to Tancredo’s remarks on the radio).  Tancredo, in front of “Tancredo for President” signs, said that we should re-institute literacy tests for voters.  He went on to OUTRIGHT say that the result of having voters voting who “couldn’t spell the word vote was the man we have in the White House.”  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Shouldn’t someone be calling him out BIG TIME for that remark if our media is truly LIBERAL?

I recently wrote about how, with the help of Bill Clinton, the republicans have managed to put the control of 90 some percent of the media in this country in the hands of about FIVE corporations – none of them LIBERAL.  There was a time in my life when I could have been confident that remarks such as Tancredo’s would have received some MAJOR CRITICISM.  Well, that time seems to have passed.  Bush/Cheney managed to get rid of Dan Rather after he correctly called out GW Bush on his erratic behavior in the “Air National Guard for important government officials in order to keep them out of Viet Nam sqad.”  That’s quite a mouthful, and that was quite a unit.  It allowed our 43rd president to continue his drinking abuse and drug abuse while those around him were being sent off en masse to Viet Nam.  Bush/Cheney, through this type of intimidation, created a situation where no one in the media was going to challenge them, or Rather’s fate might fall on them as well.  And, things haven’t changed much since the inauguration of Barack Obama.  In fact, I’ve often wondered if Obama’s “looking the other way” regarding the crimes of Bush/Cheney is due to his fear of this “liberal media.”  Remember, the media is the “fourth” branch of government – and like the other branches – there’s supposed to be a system of “checks and balances” designed to prevent what the republicans are openly trying to pull off – and, that is their so-called “permanent republican majority.”

But, aren’t the republicans even getting too outrageous for many republicans?  I mean, I’m hoping that some of my friends, who somehow manage to identify with the republican party – mostly because of the abortion issue – are smart enough to distance themselves from Tancredo’s remarks.  I don’t listen to the “right wing” too much anymore, but so far, I’ve heard no one condemming him for such an outrageously OVERT racist comment.  One thing about Tancredo, he’s more honest about the fact a Black president is an abonination to him.  HE COMES RIGHT OUT AND SAYS IT!  And, I guess you could say that Rush Limbaugh does the same – everytime I gather my strength to listen to him for only a few TERRIBLE minutes he throws in a racist comment about Obama – some much more subtle than others – MOST more subtle than Tancredo.  Although, his campaign to make sure President Obama “fails” is pretty overt racism – he calls it policy differences, but I can’t buy that because Obama is a centrist at best, so all that socialist CRAP coming from the mouths of Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, etc. is just designed to work up the fringe elements of their party (which they are the standard bearers for).

Of course, the Democrats aren’t without fault here.  Recently myself, and millions of other “progressives” were referred to as f___ing retards by President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.  Here is one place I can agree with Sarah Palin.  Emanuel should be FIRED.  Now, the truth is that I believe he should be fired for giving Obama a continuous barrage of BAD ADVICE since before the president took office.  Emanuel is the consummate Washington politician and he ABSOLUTELY does not represent “change we can believe in.”  If you check back on my posts of around a year ago, I was pointing out my displeasure with President Obama’s choice of Emanuel for such a key position.  His “R” word comment just goes to show why Obama’s “ratings” continue to drop.  I’m 99% sure it is Rahm Emanuel who is PUSHING President Obama to kiss up to the republicans.  I’m also guessing it was Emanuel who talked the president into violating his fiduciary responsibility to enforce the laws of this land by calling for complete investigations of the Bush/Cheney administration.  If Obama doesn’t get rid of him soon, I believe his presidency is potentially doomed (although, the “people” may take out their wrath totally on Congress).  It’s almost as if Obama and Emanuel and the democrats want to be the minority party – so that they have more excuses for not getting anything substantial done.

Before I go any further, OK – I get it – Palin’s criticism of Emanuel was far different than  her willingness to take on Rush Limbaugh who has used the so-called “R” word many more times than Emanuel ever has (as far as I know there’s only been one public disclosure of Emanuel calling me [or other progressives] a f___ing retard).  However, as a 6th grade school teacher, I would have to scold Rahm by telling him that the fact Rush used the inappropriate word more than him doesn’t make it right for him to use it.  In fact, I’d love to talk to him about his phraseology, because I’m feeling that a couple years down the road we may be referring to him in the same vane.  Randi Rhodes thinks “progressives” who are disappointed in Obama are “stupid” and Rahm Emanuel thinks they (we) are retards.  Great, I hope you see why in my letter to President Obama I asked for my money back (of course, without success).

Getting back to the racism in the republican party and Tom Tancredo for president, it’s hard for me to imagine that there’s enough voters to put thugs like him into national office.  I’m sure that someone recorded the video of him proposing  the reinstitution of literacy tests for the right to vote – and, making the incredible racist comment about our sitting president.  I can’t point out how ANGRY the republicans would be if that happened to them, because they would NEVER nominate an African American (or any other minority figure) to be president – so, that ‘s pretty safe ground for their “corner.” 

Then, at this same “convention” you had Sarah Palin reading a speech from the teleprompter – obviously written by one of the invisible donors mentioned above or some other republican “operative” who’s bought the “coolaid” – and, in the speech, criticizing President Obama for his speech making prowess and blaming it all on his ability to read teleprompters.  Yes, I know that it says in the Bible “judge not, lest ye be judged” – but, I can’t help myself here.  Isn’t Palin’s actions there the HEIGHT OF HYPOCRICY?  And, Palin – the right wing’s hope for 2012 – was, at one time affiliated with the Alaska Successionist Party (ASP) – she’ll deny this, but how could she not be affiliated with them if her husband was a member for 6 or 7 years and she gave the Keynote address at one of their conventions?  I don’t know how she can deny this connection with a straight face, but then ……..  I understand why she’s doing this – because the ASP was closely associated with the white supremicist group The John Birch Society.  The next thing you might see from this “tea party” movement will be a call to return to segregation!

So, how do these republicans get away with this constant stream of lying?  Well, I can see two main parts of the “system” which are failing miserably.  But, before I point this out, let me just clarify how bad the problem has become – because you’ve now got Palin trapesing around the country spewing one lie after another (I wouldn’t buy her book, but I’ve even heard her former Alaskan associates – republicans mind you – pointing out the plethora of lies she published in there).  Of course, politicians have been lying in public (at least to my knowledge) since I was a kid (I’m a “baby boomer”) – but these republicans have taken it to a new level.  I’ll just give a few examples:  The worst SET OF LIES, in my view, because we’re talking about maybe more than ONE MILLION DEAD from this series of LIES would be the Bush/Cheney misadventure into Iraq.  Everytime I read a new book on their behavior I get angrier (both at them, and Obama for not investigating them), right now I’m reading “The Greatest Story Every Sold” by Frank Rich – I recommend it to anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the Bush White House and Iraq – lying us into Iraq was TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE, yet it appears they will “get away with it.”  Then there’s the famous, or should I say infamous, Alberto Gonzales who got up before Congress and LIED AND LIED for days (probably weeks, I’ve tried to forget how much he lied because it was so bad) – with ABSOLUTELY NO CONSEQUENCE, and there was the BLATANT LYING coming from the Vice President’s office regarding the “outing” of Valerie Plame Wilson – a covert CIA officer.  This was TREASON, but the only consequence was Lewis “Scooter” Libby taking the “fall” for Dick Cheney and evidently neither the Congress nor the new president had the kahonas to investigate this one.

If you remember, when the democrats first regained control of the Congress, one of the first things to come out of any of their leader’s mouths was Nacy Pelosi saying “Impeachment is off the table.”  That was deflating enough, but after working so hard to get a new president elected who promised “Change you can believe in,” I made the mistake of believing that meant no more BLATANT LYING in our government.  I knew that the media had evolved to the place that if it wasn’t a democrat doing it, there would be no criticism of any government lying.  They went along with EVERYTHING Bush/Cheney wanted, HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER!  The really discouraging part for me was when our new president (Obama) decided that he didn’t want to deal with the “distraction” of him FULFILLING HIS CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY to hold Bush/Cheney accountable for their LIES and ILLEGAL activity.  THAT WAS THE DEFLATING PART FOR ME!

I’m a sixth grade teacher and I’m seeing the result of a nation which allows its leaders to lie with no consequence.  The students I work with are more and more seeing lying as acceptable.  They don’t even consider lying to their parents about something as trivial as if they have homework or not as lying.  They see the adult leaders lying, their parents see the adult leaders lying (some of my student’s parents are younger than my two daughters), and they all see it happening not only with no consequence – but, they see liars GETTING AHEAD.  Many of these people then assume that if it works for them (politicians and leaders in Washington DC), it must be OK.  I really don’t believe our leaders in Washington have a clue that their selfish, greedy, and disengenuous behavior is having a mushrooming effect on our nation.  We are becoming a nation of liars.  We are becoming a nation with too many people feeling empowered to do what Tancredo and Palin did at the “tea party” convention.  Tancredo is essentially calling for a return to the racist, segregationist society which condoned preventing poor people and people of color from participating in the process and Palin is doing the same thing she’s criticizing the President of doing.  IT’S ALL RIDICULOUS!

It was just a few months ago that the republicans planted operatives into the offices of ACORN in an attempt to stop them from registering voters who are mostly poor or of color (if you simply follow the “mainstream media” you would believe ACORN to be some disreputible bunch of thugs – which couldn’t be FARTHER from the truth).  They (the republicans) hate these kinds of people who are trying to get more of the disadvantaged people into the process of voting because they know that these people are highly unlikely to vote for them.  I can’t remember which republican said this; “The fewer people who vote, the better our chances” or something like that – but, they are constantly trying to restrict the right of people they don’t like from actually voting.  Tancredo’s call for a return to the Jim Crow days was beyond OUTRAGEOUS.  Somehow, these republicans who are overtly racist need to be publicly challenged.  WHERE IS OUR LIBERAL MEDIA?  When I think of all the grief that has gone into the civil rights gains in this nation, Tom Tancredo’s RACIST remarks seem even MORE DISGUSTING!  These republicans now feel they can say ANYTHING without consequence, only because our media and our democratically controlled government is letting them get away with it!

As stated many times I started writing this post due to my extreme frustration with the Bush administration and the seeming willingness of the media and the democrats to go along with their criminal behavior.  It wasn’t simply the incompetence that REALLY BOTHERED me, it was the fact he (plus Dick Cheney and the rest of them) willingly disregarded the constitution they were elected to uphold in order to further their own interests and those of their immediate “friends.”  I’ve now gotten to the point where I waver back and forth between feeling the need to write about republicans – who are hell-bent on destroying our government – or the democrats – who seem to be more than willing to let them.  The problem I’m feeling, and I’m sure MILLIONS of other Americans are feeling is that there’s only two viable parties in this country.  When the republicans decided to undermine EVERYTHING this nation has stood for in my adult lifetime (almost 45 years) there was no place else for me to turn, realistically (I’m a lifelong independent), than to the Democratic party for help.

Well, that is a decision that I’ve been revisiting since before the inauguration of Barack Obama.  I’m not trying to sound arrogant when I point out that much of what is part of the present national debate – from the standpoint of the “populist” revolt – I’ve been pointing out since before Obama put his hand on the Bible to take HIS oath to defend the constitution.  Despite my INTENSE support of Obama’s candidacy, I started to see what I called at the time “red flags” right from the start.  I would invite you to read some of my earlier posts, if you need evidence of that.  The reason I point this out is that I believe the people in Washington are either totally out of touch with the reality of the people who they have been elected to serve, or the corportate corruption is so pervasive that there’s not much hope for the “change we can believe in.”  As I’ve said many times on this site, I believe if a sixth grade teacher can figure this stuff out, the leaders in Washington should be able to as well.  And, President Obama should FIRE his advisors who have allowed him to continue this wishy washy attempt to engage republicans in his agenda.  Earth to Obama, THAT AINT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Personally, I really like President Obama.  I like everything about the man except his unwillingness to take on the republicans.  He doesn’t seem to understand this is a WAR for the future of the very nation he has at least one (and hopefully two) terms to actually CHANGE.  We have been under an assault for over 30 years by a bunch of right wing fanatics – some of which we are aware – and many, I’m certain, we know nothing about because they’re hiding in the background supplying the “front lines” (that would be the politicians, pundits, etc.) with unlimited supplies of money.  They’ve had a PLAN TO DESTROY OUR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT since the days of Ronald Reagan.  Reagan wasn’t too subtle about his intentions when he said the 9 worst words in the English language were “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”  George W Bush actually hired people to head departments of the government who were opposed to the existence of the very departments they headed!

Of course, these right wing thugs didn’t want to shut down the government entirely, they really wanted to (and have succeeded to a large part) “retool” the government to funnel as many of the tax dollars as they could to their favorite corporations (not to mention their tax cuts for the people who don’t need it).  Hence, the elimination of welfare to poor people and the HUGE increase of welfare to large corporations.  I mean, don’t you find it interesting to have oil companies making something like 40 to 50 BILLION dollars per year, and yet still be the recipients of HUGE government subsidies at the same time.  Or the pharmaceutical industry using grants from the government to develop drugs and then negotiate with the same government to make sure that they get windfall profits on the drugs at the expense of our senior citizens – who, in many cases, can get the same drugs cheaper by going to Canada than by purchasing them here with the help of Medicare.  Or how about this one, the large investment banks on Wall Street almost led us into another Great Depression (still a possibility), but the government provided them with 700 BILLION dollars – OUTWARDLY – in the so-called TARP bailout to keep them solvent and prevent a “collapse” of the financial system, they guaranteed something in the neighborhood of 10 – 14 TRILLION – yes, that’s TRILLION with a T – in guarantees against future losses, AND they are now GIVING them (well, really looaning them, but I believe you get my point) money at near 0% interest which these very same companies are GAMBLING with AGAIN, and making BILLIONS more that they can use to fight the DESPERATELY needed regulation which would again separate the lending institutions from the insurance companies and the investment “banks.”  We need Glass Steagall!  With the democrats we have in congress, it ain’t likely to happen!

Hence, the mounting frustration from all sides.  The republicans are ginning up all the racists out there to get out on the streets and “protest” our “socialist” (or worse) president.  They managed to get control of the Supreme Court (this will be a problem for years to come – generations to come if the democrast totally “blow it” and allow the republicans back in the White House any time soon) and now they’ve managed to get corporations to be classified as “people” with the same rights as “people” – and, for those of you who don’t get this one – trust me – this is the CULMINATION of a lot of scheming on their (republicans) part.  If the democrats and President Obama don’t figure out the dire straights we’re all in (except the corporations, of course) things could change for the worse – and QUICKLY.  It’s obvious that the vast majority of Americans have no idea what is really going on here, and what the stakes are.  Once these corporations get a stranglehold on our government, it will probably take some kind of revolt to turn things around.  For those of you who don’t understand this;  the combination of authoritarian minded politicians (republicans marching in “lock step”) aligned with corporate sponsors and religious fanatics can lead to exactly what the “tea baggers” accuse our present president of, and that is fascism.  For those of you who think something like that is impossible in America, well, I hope you’re right!

By rights, after the damage done by Bush/Cheney and the rest of the republicans in the eight years prior to Obama, the republicans shouldn’t see the “light of day” politically for a generation (or more).  However, they have ABSOLUTELY NO SCRUPLES!  And, the democrats seem to me to be OVERMATCHED.  The continuous FLOW OF LIES coming from republican leaders apparently has no end.  The only way I can see to get this stopped is to FIGHT BACK.  But, unfortunately, as I’ve been saying for several years now, the one thing I can agree with republicans on is that THE DEMOCRATS ARE SPINELESS.  So, the American people have a choice, CORRUPT or SPINELESS.  To tell you the truth, I think there are enough people who don’t understand the depth of the corruption in Bush/Cheney and who see their LEADERSHIP as something that appeals to them to create a MAJOR problem for progressives by 2012 if Obama and the democrats don’t figure this out.  One thing that doesn’t appeal to Americans is SPINELESS.  I don’t know why the democrats don’t get this.

I’ve written to President Obama, I’ve written to the Democratic party, and I’ve even written to the republican who represents my district in the Washington state legislature.  Despite the FACT his response was in total disagreement with me, the ONLY one who wrote back was the republican (that doesn’t mean I’ll vote for him, I just found that interesting).  I explained to both Obama and the democrats why they could no longer count on my meager contributions – OR MY VOTE.  I need to see CHANGE before I will vote for it again.  I’ve even sent them suggestions, to which I got no response as well – evidently they don’t like my suggestions.  And, of course, I’ve written about my suggestions on this site MANY TIMES.  What is very interesting to me, something like 100 – 200 people find this site in the middle of cyberspace every day, I have no idea how, and so far, I’ve only received a couple responses to my thoughts – but, I keep thinking that if enough people keep their voices speaking maybe something good will happen before it’s too late.  Sometimes I even hope that President Obama himself will happen upon this site – because, boy would I love to talk to him, face to face.

Remember, when GW Bush was in office he managed to get a bill through congress (with democratic support) that would, for all intents and purposes, allow the president to lable anyone – even American citizens – as “enemy combatants” – in his so-called war on terror, and, therefore, be eligible for a free ticket to something like Guantanamo or a comparable site.  Despite the constant attacks from the “right” on President Obama, which they now seem to think is OK – during the Bush presidency, if you don’t remember, saying anything against the president “in a time of war” was considered unpatriotic.  Do you really trust people like GW Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, John McCain, and I could go on?  That’s what we’ll get, only probably worse the next time, if the democrats fail.

So, what can be done?  Well, I’ve stated this OVER AND OVER on this site.  President Obama’s refusal to even allow investigations of the Bush administration – he blocked legal investigations and congressional investigations both – AND THE REST OF THE DEMOCRATS WENT ALONG WITH THIS – could be considered at some point a BLUNDER of comparable magnitude to Bush’s unbelievable invasion of Iraq.  This may seem like a stupid statement to many, but if the republicans get back in control in the next 4 years, saying “I told you so” won’t do a bit of good.  The republicans will be doing the same things that President Obama is, by default, saying are OK.  Yes, he did say that the United States doesn’t torture – but, do you think one single republican heard him?  By “looking forward” Obama opened the door to more torture if another republican makes it to the oval office.  And, it’s this very tepidness to actually do what he took an oath to do – that is defend our laws and the constitution – which makes him look bad in the eyes of millions of Americans.  I’ve stated this before, but if his “looking forward instead of back” analogy held any “water” whatsoever, there would never be another criminal prosecution in this nation.  YOU HAVE TO LOOK BACK to hold people accountable for illegal behavior, because the crime ALWAYS happens prior to the investigation and the prosecution.

It appears to me that neither our president nor our democratic congress have any idea that there is a WAR going on.  And, if one side doesn’t even recognize what’s happening, well – I think you can get my drift – it makes it really easy for the other side to win.  I mean, how much sense does it make that the republicans can be CONTROLLING the nation’s agenda with 40 or 41 votes in the senate.  By the time the democrats figure out what’s happening it’s likely to be too late.  President Obama didn’t want the investigation of Bush/Cheney because he didn’t want the inevitable “distraction,” as he called it, while he was “pushing” his health care legislation.  What he didn’t understand, and seemingly still doesn’t understand, is that he NEEDS THAT VERY DISTRACTION, and he needs it as soon as possible.  It is that distraction which would have prevented the obstructionist activities of republicans and probably allowed the health care legislation to have become law.  Obama and the democrats need the public discussion to return to what the republicans did when they were in control.  The “people” think that if something illegal was done during Bush/Cheney there would have been prosecutions.   So without them, they assume that Bush/Cheney et al were “above board” – which COULDN’T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

The TRUTH is, in my view, that this feeling of enablement by the republicans to SAY ANYTHING or DO ANYTHING without fear of reprisal even though much of it is TOTALLY FABRICATED – and, worse than being misstatements, they are constantly BOMBARDING the airwaves with the same TALKING POINTS which are absurd purposeful lies designed to FOOL the people listening – is the fault of the spineless democrats.  These guys (republicans) are the masters at manipulating the media through classic propoganda.  As Lee Atwater taught people like Karl Rove, the only thing that matters is the END – don’t worry about the means.  They have been secretly taking control of our “liberal media” (one of the sorriest jokes ever played on any nation has been the conservatives convincing the American public that the media they have taken over is “liberal”) since the days of Reagan and with Bill Clinton’s help (passing the 1996 Telecommunications Act) we now have about 5 corporations controlling the vast majority of the media.  Fox “news” (better termed, in my view, as “noise”) is owned by an Australian (Rupert Murdoch) who owns a whole bunch more of America’s media than most people realize, and it’s run by a right wing republican operative (Roger Ailes) and, the American public – and democratic party – seems to just go along with this.  It’s absurd on its face, to me.

Now, we will have foreign corporations participating in our electoral process pretty much across the board, and those like Alan Grayson of Florida who are speaking out against the corporate fraud in Washington will be the initial targets in the next election.  Most democrats, especially in the senate, seem to be unwilling to put up a fight.  It’s almost as if when they think the republican attack machine is coming after them they just run and hide.  THESE DEMOCRATS ARE GETTING EMBARRASSING!  I don’t know where else there is to turn.  I’d like to think that the populist “rage” could be funneled toward elections where the so-called Blue Dog democrats could be defeated in democratic primaries.  People like Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and most famously the democrat turned independent turned turncoat Joe Lieberman need to be “retired.”  And, a bunch more – like Max Baucus need to face challenges in primaries if they can’t vote independently of all the corporate money they’ve already received.  They seem to have no interest in fighting this republican slime machine and putting it in its proper place – which is “out to pasture.”  I’m just not sure there’s time for that strategy at this point, due to the recent Supreme Court decision.  Anything after next November could be too late.

Our representatives have proven en masse that their number one priority is getting re-elected.  And, despite his claims to the contrary, that is what it has looked like to me from the president’s prespective as well.  It seems like the democratic loss in Massachusettes got Obama’s attention, but I’m not sure he got the right message.  He’s still got Rahm Emanuel feeding him advice.  When the pundits were praising President Obama for “taking on” the House republicans at a recent retreat, I was thinking “He’s still reaching out to them.”  When I listened to his comments in the State of the Union speech calling for more offshore drilling, more nuclear power plants, more “clean” coal, and a spending freeze on all “non-military” spending I thought, “he didn’t get it.”  He’s still trying to kiss the republican’s butts.  The republicans aren’t looking to find common ground.  They’re looking to defeat Obama (the thought of a Black president succeeding is very unappealing to them), they want desperately to be back in power (they make a lot more money when they have the White House), and they’re looking forward to the corporatacracy which has been made possible by John Roberts, Sam Alito, and company on their Supreme Court.  The democrats need to expose the misdeeds of the republicans through investigations of Bush/Cheney et al, or Obama’s a one term president.  The worst reality of all, is the next president will be making some incredibly important Supreme Court decisions, and if it’s another neo-con republican doing it, the results will last for a generation.  What if Exxon Mobil decides it would be worth tens of billions to them for Sarah Palin to be president?