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Monthly Archives: August 2014

Thats Right!!


This article was printed in a local paper and I am reprinted it in total.

GOP’s ‘hell no’ faction

By Jim Hightower

 Ah, August – that time of year when the going gets tough … and Congress gets going.

On vacation that is. And, to be fair, maybe Congress needs a vacation. All the stress of not passing laws and constantly thwarting any attempt by President Obama to fix America’s problems seems to be straining their sanity.

For starters, if you thought that, surely, partisan posturing by far-right congress critters couldn’t get any nuttier, you’d be wrong. Last month, the GOP claimed that all the talk about impeaching President Barack Obama is being led by – guess who? – Barack Obama!

If you’ll recall, the top Republican leader, John Boehner (having discovered that the larger public is appalled that his party would even consider wasting time on such extremist nonsense) tried to do a political backflip. Impeachment talk, he fumed, is “a scam started by Democrats at the White House.” No Republican lawmakers, he barked to the media, are even discussing it.

Boehner, Boehner, Boehner! Apparently he didn’t hear Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who’s No. 2 on his own GOP leadership team, tell Fox News that he refuses to rule out impeachment. Or Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan, exult that “it would be a dream come true” to impeach Obama, and that he has pursued advice from experts on how to proceed. Or Iowa’s Rep. Steve King, saying flatly, “We need to bring impeachment hearings immediately.” How about Randy Weber of Texas, who put it unequivocally: “The president deserves to be impeached, plain and simple.” And Georgia’s Jack Kingston confirmed that: “Not a day goes by when people don’t talk to us about impeachment.”

Still, Boehner did receive some backing on his claim that no one in the GOP has given a moment’s thought to impeachment. The always-insightful tea party radio ranter Glenn Beck, for example, waded in with this question to his audience on a recent broadcast: “Have you spoken to one person (pushing such an idea)?” he demanded. “No one” has used the “I” word, he snapped. But, in fact, Beck does know one person who has: Himself! Also, Sarah Palin! And at least a dozen other likeminded sparklies on the way-out far-right horizon.

OK. Congress did do one thing. Incapable of legislating, they litigated. Boehner filed a frivolous lawsuit against President Obama, charging that he’s been governing unilaterally by issuing executive orders. But there are big problems with their suit.

One: Obama has issued far fewer executive orders than did his GOP predecessor, George W. Two: Their suit claims the president defied Congress by inadequately implementing the Obamacare health reform – but, hello? Republicans fought that reform tooth and nail and are still trying to stop it from being implemented, meaning they’re suing him for not doing something they don’t want done (another indicator that Congress does need to take an extended leave for mental health reasons). And three: As they vacated the Capitol, howling House leaders said that, in their absence, Obama should immediately deport the terrorized and traumatized migrant children who fled to the U.S. this summer from the gang violence and implacable poverty they faced in their Central America homes.

Again … Hello? The GOP’s call for deportations was a demand that – get this – the president should act unilaterally, by issuing an executive order.

These ideological zealots are nutty, but they’re clogging the roadway, preventing any of the progress that America desperately needs. As a result, not only is the public fed up with them but voter turnout is plummeting this year as people see that the “hell no” faction has turned democratic participation into a farce – so why bother?

Put away all hope for honesty or seriousness, ye who enter the nut house presently known as Boehner’s U.S. House of Representatives. Their antics could be laughed off – except that they’re draining the vitality from America’s democracy.

Jim Hightower is national radio commentator, columnist and author.

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The Middle East


The Middle East is in turmoil again, still and possibly forever. The prime driver of this turmoil appears to religion first and ethnicity (?) second. Looking at the region as a whole: Arabs, Turks, Persians, Balochs, Pashtuns, Lurs, Mandaeans, Tats, Jews, Kurds, Somalis, Assyrians, Egyptian Copts, Armenians, Azeris, Maltese, Circassians, Greeks, Turcomans, Shabaks, Yazidis, Georgians, Roma, Gagauz, Mhallami and Samaritans are all residents of the middle east and the middle east sits right on top of the African Continent and just west of the Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, etc.) Along with these Middle Eastern residents you have influxes of Northern Africa, Coastal Africa and from the South. With all of this confluence of cultures and regional differences and religious sub sects, you might wonder how they manage to live near one another-well they do not do very well. What has occurred over the past 20 to 40 years is the poorest of all of these countries have been exploited by many better off members of their same country but often of another religious sub sect. These variations have allowed the rise of the religious zealots (kind of Hitler like) whose adherents to the older  religious fight  as to whose Islam is it? Is it the Original espoused by the Prophet Mohammed or the one espoused by the followers who split after his death? To really understand  in a short way, these zealots are no more than criminals who as Hitler did incited people to riot, kill and loot in the name of religion (Hitler was just plain Bat Crap Crazy) but do nothing to improve the lives of the people they purport to help. To add fuel to the fire we have the Russians who are essentially a missiles throw from the area and seemingly are on that track, their actions further destabilize the area as they have interest in the area. When you add the Chinese incursion or buying into Africa and a little fingering in the Mid East, its a recipe for a regional war which will surely involve the world in a way that may leave nothing but devastation for years to come. We have here in America a Congress and other pundits who are castigating the President for inaction , poor leadership and waffling but not looking at the big picture and long range implications of jumping in without looking. The volatile mix of people, religions and crazies in the mid east is not a recipe for peace without some group effort at eradicating the “crazy” in the Mideast.

Traditional definition of the Middle East

The following countries are included within the Middle East, which is corresponding to Western Asia, excluding the Caucasus, Greek Cyprus, and the inclusion of Egypt:

Mo’ Money


 

It has been reported that the two (2) major political parties have raised in excess of 50 million dollars in campaign funds for the upcoming elections in 2016. Given that the very purpose of being elected to Congress is to serve the people- why does it take so much money to campaign for the position and for the long termers, what does it take to stay in office beyond doing the job you were elected to do? The minority party at this time is fighting hard to have complete control of the both houses and hopefully the Whitehouse but to what end? We have seen the legacy of neer do wells in the Congress on both sides and between the two of them no work of any importance has been done without a lot of media coverage and hyperbole. This media coverage has accomplished little more confuse and confound  us with a lot  more  inanity and absurd  assertions about the economy, the other party and the current President. It is easy to weigh in on events even if you have zero to a lot of knowledge about them but to really understand an issue you have to learn to raise your self above what is presented and involve your  “mother wit” (common sense). What is most important currently is to step out of your comfort zone of thought and embrace the obvious events we see and hear.

The idea that we can trust our Congress is a fallacy, the idea that “politricians” (not a misspell) have your interest in mind is now a national joke to anyone who pays attention to the news and looks behind the curtain. Too many of us are concerned about our personal issues to realize that we are all affected by the same events sooner or later. The Politricians use our own issues against us in order to stay in office. One example: The Senator from Kentucky used the statement that President Obama is “anti coal” since he wants to push the country towards clean energy to assist in curbing global warming and more efficient and cleaner energy sources. These measures will futuristically improve the lives of our children and generations to come. It would be more practical for that Senator to work on improving the use of coal in a cleaner manner and look to providing more jobs aside from the coal mines for his constituents. Since this Seat filler has elected not to do that then where is his concern for his constituents? If one would look at all of the 535 it would be surprising how many speak with “forked tongue”. The two definitions below are very much alike but the 2 party’s we follow in this country are not. This brings about the question, who is really representing who?

Democracy :  a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Republic: a country that is governed by elected representatives and by an elected leader (such as a president) rather than by a king or queen

We all should be reminded that there is another factor in all of this and that is the supper rich whose largess has fueled the political scene for years and now through the actions of the high court is allowed to fund and back l groups with tax exempt status and who act like Political Action Committees (PAC’s) without having to account for their funding sources. These groups are as subversive as any enemy we have had in the past and the worst is that they are often our neighbors. It is not to say that they are actually against us but they certainly do not necessarily have our” backs” in the way we commonly perceive it. Every warning we have known is in play here especially-“Caveat emptor” (let the buyer beware) and we are being sold a  future that may not include us!

Take It the Whitehouse.


 

Senator John McCain has made statements to the press about how the support efforts in the middle east should be handled. He may be right but these statements should be made in closed chambers with the President and the  Joint Chiefs of Staff, This electioneering only serves to inflame the public with  misinformation, these “bullet” points do no more than create more dissatisfaction with the President for reasons of creating dissatisfaction with his party. I appreciate Mr. McCain’s knowledge of the situation but a real concerned citizen would and should be making these statements in the forum that will give the best results. The press and public cannot decide to send troops and material support to another country , only the president and Congress can. It is my hope that Mr. McCain being the solid citizen and former military hero that he is does not lower himself to the level of Sara Palin, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer or one the well televised talking heads whose sole objective is to sell books and gain market share on television. Remember this is about spending our resources both in money and manpower.

 

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Middle of The Road- Extends to Both sides


The long “Ruining ”  saga    of Congress has moved to a new low. The Dupublican lead House is prepping for the upcoming elections by not doing the work required by the job (They were elected to do) but seeking to sue the President for doing what they have been requested and required to do. This tactic is designed to cast a pall on the Scamocrats who will be running for election and re-election. This ploy is designed to pull the political wool over the eyes of the voters of America. There are and will always be people who dislike the Scamocrats no matter what they do good, bad or indifferent and vice versa with the Dupublicans yet those hardened voters who adhere to the party lines apparently fail to realize that this tight line thinking is why we have an ineffectual Congress. All of the “labeled” factions of the major left, right and center political party’s   have specific agendas that most often do not help or aid the mainstream voters. These today decisions (good or bad) will have a long and often disastrous affect for years to come. The key is READ as much as is available on what the party’s are proposing and listen less to people who are selling books, getting advertising money to present outside the box opinions and the special PACs that represent special interests who want to keep the ineffective legislators in office.

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