At noon today the US Senate defeated an infrastructure put-America-back-to-work bill that would levy a seven tenths of a percent tax on millionaires to pay for it. The measure was not even permitted to come up for debate. This is strange considering the Senate is still rules by democrats. Of course you know Mitch McConnell's motto is "Our first priority is to make Barock Obama a one term President". Of course in the long run we'll need all these things like rain transit and fix our potholes to avoid tire damage and bring our bridges and water works up to 21st century standards. The other news of the day is that Rick Perry is the one who brought up the sexual hassarrment issues with Herman Cain. It wasn't the democrats as people like Rush Limbaugh can't stop saying. Of course Rush plays the race card with statements as "The conservative Black in America is a Black who has gotten off the Democratic plantation. Herman Cain refers to President Obama as a Kenyan, which is factually untrue if you are talking about what country he was born in. We have really come to a state of functional political paralysis in this country. So apparently we are going to continue to go on in the state we have been- - - a little longer.
So, is the political tide shifting at all in favor of the democrats? I don't think so. Whatever "major event" people are waiting around for to turn the political tide - - hasn't occurred yet. People like Thom Hartman were saying that the President is up to 49% in the latest polls. This figure surprised me because I'd been hearing the opposite. After checking around my darkest fears were confirmed. The President's disapproval figures are the highest they have ever been and his approval figures are about as low as they ever were. There is now doubt that the focus of American debate has shifted from deficets to whether corporate greed really exists or not. While this is a good thing if the people continue to listen to Fox news and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity they will not be getting the right answers. Hartman today pointed out that these Wall Street camps sometimes offer free medical care and also "educate" the people they come in contact as to the true situation in this country. Personally I think if people really want to be "educated' they will read my blogs. As you know we are still drowning in these tag lines. Now the whole specter of the "dirty hippy" has entered the culture again. People are assuming there is enough general memory of what was going on 40 and 45 years ago that these terms would strike a chord when in reality, much as I hate to face it, you have to be at least middle aged to even remember the hippies. People spoke of the Reagan Revolution as "blow back" against the 'sixties. More likely the Reagan revolution was blow back against a lot of economic regulations that has been passed in the 'seventies. But the situation then is not the situation now. We have not had a lot of new regulations lately and the situation today is quite the opposite. We have been waving regulations as fast as we can. If we can both agree that this slow recovery is caused by the average person not having enough money and also too much business money going overseas, we can best figure out how to correct these two situation. Obviously cutting our domestic wages to levels found in Mexico is not the answer. Building an electrified barbed wire fence at the border will do little. Making English the only language is not the solution and neither is making "In God we Trust" the national motto- - is not the answer. But so far I have not seen any real change in the political climate. If a president does not have at least 55% approval numbers the experts say he's in trouble because while that number supports him, a few of those may vote for another candidate they like better. I am not sure why the Democrats won't consider dumping Obama as the standard bearer in 2012 given what a lightning rod he is. If the President were being attacked for being a liberal crusader that would be one thing. But when he is attacked and he thinks "the most passive I am the less the republicans will hate me" then it's a lose - lose situation. There is no gain in keeping this guy around. But it's almost as if the democratic party has a suicide urge and WANTS to lose to Romney in the election next year, though God knows why. As I said many of these republican candidates have avid supporters. But nobody is enthusiastic about Barock Obama. As I have said most of his life he has faced no formidable opponets. Romney would by far be the strongest opponet he's faced, and I have strong doubts as to whether this president is up to it.
Have you noticed that people who use certain disparaging words to describe others are most often More Guilty of these very things themselves. For instance you hear the word "vitriol" a lot from Rush Limbaugh and he is the master of it. Yesterday Rush said two rather contradictory things. He said that the whole jobs bill was submitted "knowing it would never pass the Senate or anywhere". Rush prides himself that no republican crossed party lines to vote for it. At one point he spoke of some people trying to "trick" republicans by "sweetening the pot" to shake a few loose. But then he said that "actually the whole point of the bill was to lay a guilt trip on republicans who would not pass it to use as an issue in next year's elections". In this view there is some logic to it, if in fact that was the whole goal. As I see it the republicans had a clear choice. Either they would be good Americans and pass this straightforward bill, or else they would revert to their usual asshole state and give it thumbs down. We didn't "trick" them into voting it down, they did that freely of their own will. I just think no matter what happens next year this will go down as one of the darkest political periods in American history when viewed from the perspective of decades from now- such that it will make the Joe Mc Carthy era seem tame in comparrison.
The following material was typed Wednesday
Yesterday Victor dropped a bomb saying to Henderson that he engineered the theft of Maggie’s eggs and the lying and fraud involved, and didn’t tell her anything and still has told her nothing. This is a form of reproductive rape. If I know Maggie as well as I think I do she’s going to dump him and leave him flat when she hears the news. That’s what I would do. You can’t have such an appalling gap in trust in such an important area. And Victor watched Maggie go through hell over this episode with its ups and downs, and did not intervene. He’s kind of God. He knows the ending but he’s not going to tell us. One might infer that God doesn’t consider you or me close enough friends to confide in even in key areas of our lives. Samantha was telling Brady not to get involved with Madison James. Obviously Brady has a dreary track record with women. Samantha has known him for a long time. Besides this, intre-office dating is just unprofessional, particularly between a boss and a subordenant. But Madison overheard Sammy’s remarks to Brady and lands on her like a ton of bricks. Personally I believe Sammy has every right to be offended. Offended she can not be frank with a long term school chum, and offended that what is only “proper decore” any place else, Madison made it clear if she wants a sex flunkie to play with, Sammy has no say in it.
Well now they say the President is planning to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities because “if they wait too long it will be too late”. They now say that Iran is getting closer to developing a nuclear bomb than we though. They are also saying that we can’t count on Israel to do the job for us. The whole Suxnet Worm thing on their computers has apparently run it’s course and they have reprogrammed. If the President does decide to go ahead and bomb Iran – don’t be expecting Michelle Bachman to be satisfied.
As you know Judy did not vote for Kurt Pringle as mayor of Anaheim, because he favors high speed rail. Judy is more fanatically anti “eminent domain” than even I am. As you know I voted for a proposition a few years ago sponsored by “certain real estate developers’ that would have provided for legal safeguards to insure that a property owner’s rights weren’t being stepped on and that he got a fair market price for his property, and also that if he were “monetarily damaged’ by the government he had the right to legal recourse. All this sounded like a good idea to me but the measure didn’t pass. Of course the advantage of ground transportation such as trains over air transport is that it is less succeptable to the caprise of weather conditions. Also you can’t hijack a train to Cuba or crash a train into a high-rise building. Also fuel wise trains are much more efficient, and the convenience to the riders will also be much improved.
This whole protest scene over the United States is a big mess. People in Colorado tried to vote for a measure that increased education funding but the people voted it down because it would raise taxes. Of course Rush Limbaugh was happy about this. Rush Limbaugh fancies himself as being asked the question “Tell me Rush, do you ever get tired of always being Right?” and Rush says “No”. In Madison it’s even money whether Scott Walker can even be recalled. Of course President Obama could get involved in the issue personally but the President doesn’t want to do that. Unlike all those “Profiles of Courage” films we saw in Jr High, it seems politicians no longer take a strand on what’s right and the consequences be damned. In other words the President has a political yellow streak a mile long. In terms of these Oakland protests they have been saying the cops themselves didn’t want to employ all those repressive police measures such as tear gas, flash bombs, and rubber bullets- - but the lady mayor instructed them to do it. And then you have that Curtess guy from the Guardian Angels who couldn’t get away from terms like defication, urination, and fornication, to describe the protestors.
No comments:
Post a Comment