Don’t Look Now

Tags

Boehner, budget, Christian nation, cutgo, economy, foreign policy, founding fathers, GOP, History, Independents, Military, paygo, War

Yesterday was a day of being oot and aboot getting some things done. More on that perhaps in a future giggle post. But today, I was eager to (ready for a new metaphor?) get back in the saddle. So here we go!

Oh those sneaky snakes! Yeah, the GOP.  ‘Member how those Bushites managed to turn a surplus into a HUGE deficit? Yeah, I knew you remembered. Well they did it by reversing a Democratic policy called “paygo”. Paygo required than any new program or tax cut be offset by cuts or tax increases in other programs that offset the new costs.

Well the Rethugs don’t like it. During the Bush years they went to cutgo, which means you can’t pass new legislation without cutting somewhere, BUT it ignores tax cuts. That’s why the Bush tax cuts blew out the deficit to unprecedented proportions.

When Obama took over, we went back to Paygo. Well guess what Boehner plans to do after the apparent takeover of the House? Yep. Read it all at Crooks and Liars. They will try to force through the Bush tax cuts without offset and grow the deficit even more. Nice huh?

How will this sit with the new teabugger caucus in Congress? My guess is that most of them are slightly too stupid to ever get it. So much for ranting about the deficit.

***

Just saw numbers in Nevada and Kentucky. I’m afraid that unreal idiot Angle is going to win. Well the GOP deserves such idiots I guess. Same for Rand Paul. It’s getting too late for much change now, and Reed is actually losing ground.

Speaking of which, we don’t intend to watch the returns. I figure we are going to lose badly and figure I’d just as soon get hit hard in the face on Wednesday morning rather than bleeding to death slowly over the night. I think we may Star Wars our way through, just popping in now and again just in case the Universe tilts wildly and we actually do much better than expected.

***

Don’t know about you, but my food bill is getting out of hand. I decided to make some changes. First I’m going to go to a month menu plan. Harder is some respects and easier in others. First I can eliminate all Sundays, but then I have to account for leftovers. I realized the dogs were getting a lot of leftovers, which means I’m cooking too much, not preserving it or using up the rest in new creations. That will be the difficult thing–accounting for leftovers. Wish me luck, and I’ll keep you posted. A strict monitoring of food spending will tell if I’m doing any better.

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It comes as no surprise I assume those who declare war have very often never been to one. Only about 30% of Congress has been in the service. There are a couple of new books out on our “war strategy” and how we seem in a perpetual state of war these days, and have for decades now. The Chronicle has a fine review and, well it’s an important article that you shouldn’t miss. It explains why the religious right is also so damned gung-ho when it comes to war. Sick as that is. Forty percent of the ranks are filled with Southerners for instance. Best line comes from a comment:

The society that separates its scholars from warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.  ~~Thucydides

***

I saw an interesting poll. It suggested that Independents are going Republican this year. No surprise there. What is of interest is that something like 47% of them, don’t trust the GOP. So this is mostly a protest against the Obama administration not doing enough, and fast enough to suit them. The Rethugs won’t do anything they like, and they will swing back the next cycle. We are a bunch of lemmings.

And while I’m at it, let me say this, again, if I haven’t already. Some few independents are philosophically motivated to be such. They think deeply, study, and vote probably mostly for one party but occasionally for superior “other” candidates. Most independents are know-nothings who simply blow with the wind. Today it’s blowing against the Democrats, and so they vote that way. They have picked up a few odd phrases which they mumble if asked, but truly they have no clue.  (end of rant)

***

A poll of chimpanzees and gorillas and orangutans finds that only one percent think Obama is a Muslim. The other 99% just think him uncommonly homely for a bipedal hominid. When asked, they uniformly thought the “hairlessness” of his type most unbecoming and immodest.

***

It never gets old it seems. The religious wackodoodles are constantly trying to “inform” us that the Founding Fathers (FF’s) set up a Christian nation, governed by a Christian Constitution. The religionists, led by David Barton, pseudo-“historian”, leads the way. Well, how about a reasoned and learned response from law professor, Steven K. Green, writing in Cardoza Law Review—Understanding the “Christian Nation” Myth.

And by the by, just so we are clear. What David Barton does is called “proof-texting.” What that is is simply mining letters and writings for quotable quotes that appear to support your pet theory. They are out of context and show no actual understanding of the actual beliefs and arguments present. Often the quotes are asides, having little to do with the main subject of the writing. It is not legitimate historical research.

***

Later Dude

Related Articles

• Get to know ‘Cutgo’ (washingtonmonthly.com)
• David Barton: Con Law Expert? [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
• Will The GOP Reduce The Deficit? (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

Hypocrisy? That’s What I See

Tags

Election 2008, Independents, John McCain, voting

In the usual synchronicity that I am blessed to sometimes observe, a couple of things converged that got under my skin just enough that it demanded escape from my brain. Lucky you, you get to be the recipient of it.

Yesterday or the day before, I was busily chasing down my feeds, mostly of friends blogs, leaving comments and then scurrying on to the next. I’ll not identify the blogger, for it was not her post that got me going, but one of the comments. In fact two of the comments. The general issue was politics, and two commenters stated that they were either still undecided who to vote for, “liking” both candidates, or “leaning” in one direction but not firm yet.

Soon thereafter NBC I believe, (I could be wrong since it’s hard to define one of the major news shows from the other these days) did a piece on the “independent” voter. They interviewed a young mother who confessed that she was not clear about the respective stands of the candidates on “economic” issues which were becoming central to her decision. When she determined that, she would, well, decide I guess.

Now I admit, once, yes ONCE in my life I was torn, and thus undecided. At the start of the Democratic primary season I was actually unsure of where I was going to commit. I adored Hillary and always have, thought Obama simply smashingly bright and fresh, and believe Edwards really cared about the plight of the working stiff. Added to that I actually thought Biden perhaps the most prepared, and I have always respected Richardson for his level head and practical diplomatic ability. Dennis, well, Dennis is a cute little leprechaun but he does speak things that need to be said, politeness ignored. Oh, and I had not a thing against Dodd either.

So yes, I am familiar with the concept of being undecided. But you see, I was undecided because we had such a plethora of magnificent candidates, and truthfully as the debates went on, there was not a great deal of difference among them policy wise. I finally decided on Hillary, but in truth, after the pain of losing a chance to see a woman run as the candidate, I was quite fine with Obama, and remain so.

McCain is another thing. I haven’t like McCain for at least since 2004, and I barely did then. I despise him now quite frankly, given his policies and his mean-spirited scorched earth policy of win at any cost. Which all brings me back to the original reason for this rant.

HOW IN THE HELL CAN ANYBODY BE UNDECIDED NOW???????? I mean are you breathing? Just out of a coma? Just returned from a hermitage? Lost on the Island? Held prisoner in a dungeon? I guess I could go on, but I think you might be getting the picture. The only people living and working in America today who claim to be undecided are so totally uninterested and have so neglected their civic responsibilities as to be unqualified to vote.

Seriously, if you watch the evening news, read a news magazine once a week, watched a few debates of both sides, a stump speech, read any news on the internet regularly, how can you freaking fail to see that these two men are diametrically opposed to each other on virtually every issue. Are you so totally issueless that they haven’t hit yours yet? I mean I guess you may not yet have discovered how Obama and McCain feel about kite flying in public parks yet, but that’s about all for creeping sakes.

No, those who claim “independence” are by and large lazy know-nothings in my book, who use the “I vote for the man, not the party,” in some smarmy attempt to cover up the fact that they are civically illiterate and don’t care one whit about politics and the state of their country in the first place.

Before I get flooded with independent voters screaming at me, let me say this, whenever you make a sweeping statement like that, there are exceptions, and I’m more than willing to admit that some percentage of “Independents” are truly thinking reading pondering folks who study assiduously the candidates and their platforms and vote according to which one better fits there philosophy. The Contrarian is one, yet even he admits that most of the time he votes Democratic  at the top, and just reserves a Republican vote here or there for some lesser candidate. For years Jim Leach, was our Representative in Washington, and did a fine job, according I think to most otherwise Democrats. He got our votes, even though we abhorred most of the idiots in his party. He stood alone.

What the true, and I would say real Independent does,  is vote one side most of the time, but is willing to cross over for a good candidate from the other party from time to time should they appear on the scene. The rest of the so-called Independents are nothing more than the great landscape otherwise known as the “tub of spit.” These folks are lucky to find a polling place if they bother at all. They should do us all a favor: stop lying about your so-called independence, go back to your couch, tv and snacks, and leave running the country to us adults.

Which really gets me to my second hypocrisy of the day. I bet I could list a dozen if you have the time, but no, one other will be enough.

David Brooks is a conservative, writes for the NYTimes, the Weekly Standard  neo-con apologetic rag, and at least used to be a frequent analyst on theLehrer News Report on PBS. He’s dopey to a degree, but not a bad person I would say. Until this utter piece of drivel in the NYTimes Op-Ed a few days ago.

David bemoans all the things McCain used to stand for. For instance, McCain used to sit and make fun of the weekly Republican luncheons wherein good soldiers got their “talking” points for the week. He used to step on the testicles of his party from time to time and cross over and join Ted Kennedy and others on important legislation. Brooks makes a long list of these so-called “maverick” behaviors.

He says McCain tried to be that kind of candidate again, and guess what? Nobody cared. Nobody was listening. Nobody liked his ways it seemed. He claims that McCain had “grand ideas” about doing things differently, not like the politics of old, real debates ala Lincoln-Douglas, a bipartisan administration, stuff like that. Nobody paid attention. So where does this leave our intrepid Johnny the POW?

Sanity might say a couple of things to Brooks. But Brooks, it seems is not sane, but has been too bitten by hypocrisy. This state of affairs might suggest that people are not interested in McCain’s message. Tough luck, but as they say, shit happens. Not the right man in the right times. Sorry about 2000, but your time has come and gone. Have a nice retirement in Arizoney or in one of the 10 houses you have around the country/world.

Or, David might have concluded that, dang, I’m ashamed of what he has become, I can’t endorse or speak for this man any more. He’s either Alzheimered to a point that he doesn’t get what he’s doing, or he is not at all the man I thought he was. In either case, I cannot in good conscience support this train wreck of a man and campaign.

Is that what he concluded? No by cracky, nope, not at all. His “kibitzing” style didn’t work with these young whipper-snapper reporters Brooks exclaims, they refused to drink, tell off color jokes and otherwise cover for the gaffes of the Mac. Crap, I say, they pretty much have still, but no matter. Brooks feels the press is letting the old man down.

McCain’s off the cuff, wandering babble about anything that came to mind didn’t work with the press either–they actually wanted substance. Go figure! Brooks claims that the reporters WANTED him to talk about Obama, which is what THEY were interested in. Oh please, give me a break David. So the campaign smear against Obama’s character is the fault of the media now?

He claims that McCain wanted to cross over and invite Joey Lieberman (all round Jewish first portrayer and otherwise turncoat rat) on the ticket, but Republicans are shockingly not buying this approach of non-partisanship either. What is a poor old POW guy to do? (Always mention POW as often as you can.)

Brooks says that the only way McCain can get attention is to “stay on message” and attack Obama. Otherwise they would well, get their own transportation and go find Obama I guess. His advisors tell him he has no choice, this is the candidate the people prefer. A mean old crotchety man who has no ideas of his own that he feels up to defending, but attacks like a pit bull the other guy who keeps trying to talk about issues.

So, it’s not poor John’s fault you see. It’s the media, and the pesky bloggers who keep saying all these nasty things. They don’t ignore his gaffes, his Alzheimer’s moments, confusions aplenty. So the poor guy has to bare his dentures and snarl. People will vote for snarling says Brooks. Oh did I forget to tell you? He’s a hero, Vietnam, POW, 5 1/2 years in captivity. Doesn’t he deserve it?

Is anybody out there thinking these days? Sometimes I wonder.