What Do You want for America?

Did you know that the tax rate on the rich has actually been cut to less than half of what is was in 1950?  It has actually been cut by almost 2/3rds.   The Democrats compromised with Republicans and extended the lower tax rate on the rich even though most Americans didn't want that.  Do you really want health care repealed when it just got started?  Why not improve it especially since they GOP has NO replacement plan.  None!  Even though many Americans are already being helped by it.  Do you want to wait until you're 70 to get your Social Security?  Did you know that anyone making over $110K only pays up to that amount on SS?  We all pay taxes for schools even though many people do not have children in school.  Do you really want good programs cut while the military wastes millions?
             Now that the GOP has power again in the House they have changed their message.  The message is they will focus on spending cuts, not jobs.  When the GOP starts making big spending cuts to programs that also means cutting jobs.  The president put in new protections for our food.  Now since these Tea Party People got elected our food is not safe because they cut all the money out that would pay for the jobs that would protect our food!  Do you really want unsafe food?  They want to make cuts in education.  I find it hard to believe that this is what most Americans want.  Please let me know if how you feel?    

A Message To The Rich

I love rich people.  I love the companies where the CEO goes on undercover boss and finds out how hard the jobs are.  Then without blowing their cover find out who the good and not so good workers are, and tries to do the right thing.  Love that!  We liberals have been accused of wanting to pick on the rich.  I don't know about anyone else but I don't.  Rich folks like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates Sr., Bill and Melinda Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Barbara Streisand, Oprah and others have done a lot of really good stuff and I am not sure they get enough credit for the good stuff they do.  They are giving back.  I love them for giving back and telling the GOP Tea Party Republican we don't need the tax breaks extended!  We are doing just fine!  I am sure that Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh give back to the country?  I know they are funny, charming, handsome men.  Oh wait, Well...,  they are really generous, kind men, Oh Wait,  Well..., they really sure can talk it up!  They get paid to tell half truths or sometimes even outright lies and they really do a great job!  Nobody does it better!  What has Rupert Murdock done to give back?  Rupert is so inspiring?  Oh Wait, Well..., the message they put out is so uplifting?  Oh Wait!  Well..., I know he would love to help his fellow man that is struggling.  Oh Wait!, Well...,  he sure is rich!  Listening to the right wing pundits really puts me in a good mood and I always feel better.  Oh Wait!  Well..., I never heard them say you should pick a weapon and go kill Democrats!  Everyone in American that isn't rich should just go start their own business or get a degree? I mean everyone has a high IQ and or the Aptitude to start a business.  It's just a fact.  Ask the right wing pundits.  They will tell you. What happens to the slow guy?  The church people will take care of them don't worry about it.  Telling Americans day after day that their government is bad, their president is a Marxist, Stalinist, Secret Muslim Terrorist, Manchurian Candidate is a positive, healthy message to put out day after day, especially when it is specked with innuendo's of violence.  Not to worry.  Just ask Rush or Beck.  There are really good rich people out there trying to do good things for this country.  I think if you are rich right now it would be a good time to give back like Rush and Glen do.  Oh Wait, Well..., anyway you can give back to the country that has made it possible for you to do so well.  It would be a good time for the leadership of the country to give back.  Both the rich, and leadership AND especially the RICH LEADERSHIP should give back by investing in America.  If you are a millionaire, Billionaire, or even an half a Millionaire, Billionaire or, you happen to be a Congressman or Senator this message is for you!  You can give back to America by investing in her.  You could give tax incentives to rich people if they invest in new kinds of green technologies or other business.  You rich folks could take a chance on a new business venture that might be a little risky instead of holding onto your tax cuts that you have had for the last ten years already.  But now that the GOP Tea Party Republicans got them extended for you by extortion, (they threatened to cut off unemployment right before Christmas, in the worst economy since the Great Depression.), The country needs you now.  Your fellow man needs you now.  I just heard today of more death threats on another congressman.  They were sent a fax with threats and graphic of President Obama's head in a noose.  Another received a voice-mail threat that referenced Rush Limbaugh directly.  Something about the congressman suggesting that people boycott Rush.  WOW!  OK I have to come clean, I think and I hope that businesses that advertise with these hate mongering right wing pundits will start to see that it is time to pull the plug on advertising with them.  That would really be "giving back to America".  It would give back some sense that corporations can be morally responsible and just do the right thing by not advertising with hate mongers.  Hate does tend to pay apparently in America.  What a shame.  If the big companies stop advertising with the hate mongers then Maybe these irresponsible pundits could use their talents to also do something  good.  Maybe they could start a conversation about how to help their fellow man.  Probably not.  I can dream can't I?

The Party That Doesn't Want To Get Along

Susan Estrich has it right on the GOP Tea Party Republicans           Breaking from Newsmax.com

Bachmann Stokes Political Rhetoric Fires

By Susan Estrich

You have to hand it to Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was the official tea party responder to the president's State of the Union address.

No phony sincerity from her. No moving mention of her colleague lying in a Texas hospital, whose family celebrated that she could actually watch an hour of television. No forced rhetoric about all of us being Americans first, healing our divisions, finding greatness in our collective strength.o platitudes about sitting together and working together and moving forward to try to solve some of the country's problems. Bachmann went on the attack against President Obama from the first line of her speech, devoting all but the last minute to making the case that he is to blame for the state of the economy. In the wake of Tucson, only one imperative remains: Blame it on Barack.

Bachmann is going to fight the last war until the last cable station turns out the last light. She may not have much to say about solving the country's problems, but she's got plenty to say about who's to blame for them: Obama.

You remember when Obama became president — it was morning in America and then a storm blew in? No?

Bachmann has the charts to prove it.

Of course, the charts don't show you what went wrong under President Bush or what went right under President Clinton. But why let facts get in the way?

The point is to throw mud and assign blame. Isn't it? Isn't that what most Americans were tuning in to hear from their leaders?

Tell us: Who should we blame? Who can we tag for this? Who is it we should finger for destroying our well-being, our jobs, our lives?

The only thing that was nearly as painful to witness as what happened in Tucson was the way talking heads on both sides literally used it to talk about their favorite subject — themselves.

Enough about Gabby Giffords. Can we get back to talking about Sarah Palin? Or, just give the mike to Bachmann!

I don't know what "the American people" want, and I don't trust anyone who pretends they do. But I do believe there are a whole lot of people in this country who might not agree on much other than that they are sick and tired of the way politics is discussed and done.

It's not a left-right issue — quite the contrary. The far left and the far right have more in common, in terms of their styles of discourse and engagement, than either does with everyone else.

Bachmann was not selected to speak on behalf of the tea party movementfor her economic acumen. Her job was not to bring people together. She did not even pretend to outline an alternative economic program.

She was there to be a lightning rod — not to prevent a fire, but in the hopes of starting one as big as possible, knowing that the rest of us, no matter what we say, will always crane our necks to catch a glimpse of the wreckage.

State Of The Union 2011

The message from the president was inspiring.  Invest in America.  Invest in education, infrastructure, and science.  The president went around the world and brought back jobs, thousands of jobs.  The Republicans have done nothing but obstruct.  There new path for America is to do nothing and cut everything.  Gut health insurance leaving millions of Americans with none.  Guess what when you cut spending you also cut jobs.  The president wants careful spending to keep the fragile recovery going in a positive direction.  The GOP Tea Party Republicans have only one plan, to make sure the country is in bad shape, really bad shape.  They want to country in bad shape so they can run on it in 2012.  They do not care about the country or average Americans.  They only care about power and the next election cycle.  The president will save over 1 trillion dollars with what Republicans usually like, spending cuts.  The Republicans don't like the presidents cuts.  Why you ask?  Because they are the presidents cuts.  The message from Republicans is good luck.  You need to pick yourself up by your boot straps, we need to cut, cut, cut.  No investment in anything.  You have problems?  Too bad, figure it out.  Notice a pattern here.  Under the Republicans the country lost 8 million jobs, ran the country into the trillions in debt, two wars, and caused the worst economy since the Great Depression.  If you listen to the pundits and Fox news you won't hear anything good.  It's all bad day after day.  The presidents bad, the democrats are bad, the unemployed are lazy, the Democrats are going to take away your guns, time is running out, they are Socialists. Think about it.  It,s all about making Americans afraid and then the Republicans will save you.  Except they don't.  They only make things worse.  The president inspires and is leading us in a positive direction.  It feels good.

"Lets Do IT! " America!

I can hear Ty Pennington screaming it out, "Lets do it!"  Then the action begins, a house destroyed and a new home built in a week.  We need an extreme makeover American addition!  Remember when we actually did build cool stuff?  We were first on the moon.  We built the interstate freeway system, bridges like the Golden Gate, Dams like the Boulder, buildings like The Empire State Building and icons like The Seattle Space Needle.  We have just been through the worst Recession since the Great Depression!  I am not sure people get what that means.   Right here in the USA 1931there were people starving to death in the streets of America, "Food riots start in various pockets of the United States. Grocery shops get looted by people.  It was bad, really bad.  Fortunately we as a country didn't have to watch people starving and dying on the streets because President Obama, Democrats and even some Republicans knew we could end up there and did Tarp and the Stimulus to try and save us from what did happen back in the thirties.  The Stimulus did work but not fast enough for the American public.  The Republicans did not seem to care what regular Americans were going through since they were against TARP.  Mr. Paulson's proposal, labeled the Troubled Asset Relief Program, was backed by President George W. Bush, both presidential candidates and the Democratic leadership in Congress, but opposed by most Republicans. Passed on a second attempt, it led to a series of enormous loans to banks that inflamed widespread public anger but were later widely credited as being one of the crucial factors in helping to avert a global depression.  The Democrats were not able to go far enough in helping Americans in these most difficult days.  The GOP Tea Party Republicans stopped them at every turn.  They used the filibuster more than anytime in history to block legislation that would have brought many more jobs and improvements in our weak infrastructure.  Now the the GOP Tea Party Republicans want to hurt Americans even more.  Their intention is to make sure that there is as little to no job growth from now until 2012.  They want all the power and if you, the regular working American, have to suffer a little longer so they can get all the power again, that's what they will do.  They plan to STOP ANY legislation that will create jobs so that they can blame Obama for it and take the presidency in 2012.  If you want to help do something about this then please pay attention to what the Republican Congress is doing NOT what they tell you.  They have messages that sound impressive.  Messages like "We want to cut taxes", "Stop the JOB Killing Health Care", and so on.  Those messages sound good to the average American but those messages have nothing to do with the facts of where we are as a country.  We do not need to cut taxes when we have a huge deficit.  We don't need to raise taxes.  Taxes can stay right where they are.  What we need are jobs and tax paying citizens that can afford to pay the taxes we currently have.  The GOP Tea Party uses the same messages over and over again because they sound good to people that need every dime they have.  The GOP Tea Party Republicans will stop at nothing and say anything to get all the power and to make sure your wages are kept low and tax burden is higher.  Vote for Democrats in 2012 that want to help you.  They want to create jobs for the middle class and protect us with regulations from the Wall street banksters that want to gamble with your mortgage money, improve the health insurance bill to lower costs by spreading the cost of insurance and buying medicine in large quantities using the power of our US government which will lower the deficit.  Do not listen to the GOP Tea Party Republicans but watch what they actually do and pay attention to what it means to average working Americans.

Jim DeMint Has A Plan For 2012

Jim DeMint, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and the rest of the GOP Tea Party Republicans have a plan for America.  They plan to keep the economy as bad as they can so they can run on it in 2012.  The Tea Party is a racist organization and the GOP is now in colusion with them in attempting to destroy Obama and to hurt the country in the process.  The Tea Party people have tried to convince America that they care about the the country.  You can pretend all you want but the facts outside of the right wing Fox(not really news) bubble say different.  When you have 90% of Radio pundits calling the president a Marxist, Manchurian candidate that was not born here, secret Muslim Terrorist, and the GOP Tea Party Republicans and Fox News staying silent on it or backing it up with innuendo and you have the Tea Party people that carry signs with the president as a Hitler, Nazi, Joker, with a bone through his nose, Yes the Tea Party is racist and GOP leadership is complicit. 

The GOP Tea Party Republican Pundits Defend Sarah Palin!

Mark Levine and Sarah Palin defend the indefensible. A congress women gets shot through the brain and instead of saying maybe we should tone things down, they go on the defensive. Don't you dare blame us. Yes, when president Obama was called a Marxist, Socialist, Stalinist, Secret Muslim Terrorist and was not born is the USA, and is out to destroy freedom and take our guns away they stayed silent. Yes they stayed silent and maybe added a little remark here or there that might feed the sick twisted frenzy from the right. Now they say poor Sarah Palin, don't pick on her. Poor Mark Levine don't pick on him. They want to promote the hate speech because it makes them rich.  I have no doubt that Rush and the rest will follow suit if they have not already.

Amanda Knox is Innocent

Boycott Perugia Italy! Amanda Knox is still imprisoned there. There is NO justice in Perugia Italy. Do NOT vacation there. Boycott Italy. Pass it on.

GOP Tea Party Republicans Say Don't Blame Us

It is funny how when you point out the fact that the GOP Tea Party Republicans have been overall silent when Beck, Hannity, Palin, Savage, Oriely, Fox not really news people called the president a Marxist, Socialist, Secret Terrorist that was not born is America, and wants to take your guns away, destroy freedom and the country.  They don't want to take any responsibility for it but, the fact is When McConnell was asked about the president being a Muslim instead of saying outright he is a Christian. McConnell said, I take him at his word. Making sure to leave some doubt alive.  This has been the case over and over.  The party of personal responsibility doesn't want to take any and doesn't want America to point out any of it.  Now that it is in their lap we as a nation need to hold them accountable.  Democrats always want to forgive and forget and then move on to what is best for the American people.  This time we need to hold their feet to the fire.  We need to say NO.  You have done these things and now you need to take responsibility for them.  As a nation we need to protest and boycott the sponsors of the hate.  We need to let the sponsors of Radio and TV that we will NOT buy their products as long as they advertise with Beck, Hannity, Palin, Savage, Oriely, and Fox not really news.

Boycott hate speech.

Gabrielle Giffords and twenty others were shot by a lunatic!  But why were they shot by a lunatic?  I truly believe that this would never have occured except for the likes of Right Wing Propaganda radio and TV like Fox (not really)News, Rush, Beck, Palin, Hannity, OReily, Savage, and the like.  I hope that everyone reading this will boycott Hate Radio and TV broadcasts that promote the hate speech we have been seeing. Radio shows like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Mike Savage should be boycotted. TV shows like Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Bill Oreily, And Sarah Palin should be boycotted.

Dancing with the Tea Party, The Tea Party Effect

Bristol Palin was upset on Dancing With The Stars because of what people were saying about the vote.  She felt that she was as good as the others and that the people who thought she didn't deserve to go forward were just haters.  The truth is she was only getting voted forward because of the Sarah Palin fans and the Tea Party people.  The Tea Party people have an effect.  They don't really know what they want.  But they know what they do not want.  They don't want a black president, they don't want to pay taxes, they don't want gays to serve in the military or get married, and they mostly don't want anyone to disagree with anything they don't want.  The tea party effect is to confuse everyone including Bristol Palin.  They vote for her even though she is not the best thing.  They do the same thing for America.  They have the effect of being bad for America.  The Tea Party people were all over the place and America was trying to figure out what the hell their message was.  One message from them was we don't want taxes.  Wow that's a great idea.  lets get rid of taxes.  Next they wanted the two parties to get along.  OK, that is a good idea but, they only want the two parties to get along if it's the stuff they want them to get along on, like not giving gays and lesbians the right to serve openly or marry.  Americans need a bad guy and the GOP Tea Party Republicans are really, really good at pointing at someone even if they know they are really NOT the bad guy.  The American people don't know what to believe and with Republican leadership like Jim DeMint, Mitch McConnell, Michele Bachmann, and John Boehner , talk radio hosts like Hannity, Beck, and Rush and reality show actors like Sarah Palin willing to spew lies like the president is a Muslim, Socialist, Marxist, Manchurian candidate, it's no wonder Americans think that the President and the Democrats must be the problem; When in fact the opposite is true.  Americans want to believe their leaders.  They want to believe that what their doctors, lawyers, judges, police, authority figures and leadership tell them is true.  Americans want to believe their news broadcasters are telling them the truth.  They want to believe that their mortgage brokers and bankers are giving them good advice and leading them in the right direction.  Unfortunately American ethics has become weaker than ever especially when you have Fox news not reporting the facts, mortgage brokers pushing bad loans on unsuspecting first time home buyers, Wall Street selling financials they know are bad, and Pharmaceutical companies selling drugs that they know will harm or kill people, all for the sake of increasing the bottom line.  Huge corporations and foreign governments are now buying our elections.  Is that what the American people really want?  I don't think so.  The Tea Party is having an effect and it is not a good one.  They seem to think the deficit is the only problem and tax cuts and spending cuts are the only solutions.  When the country is just coming out of the worst economy since the Great Depression and the countries economy is still fragile the last thing we need is to cut jobs.  The Tea Party leadership in the house read the constitution on the floor which was cool but then on the first day they broke there own stated rules that everything would be done following the constitution.  They disregarded the constitution by allowing Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) to take legislative actions without being sworn in.   They weren't sworn-in when they participated in legislative actions on Tuesday and Wednesday. That resolution is expected to disqualify any votes they took before they were sworn in.  I don't know but I am guessing they will count those votes anyway.  Yes the Tea Party is going to have an effect.  They will work for fewer jobs for Americans moving the middle class toward poverty and, They will work hand in hand with the GOP Republicans to lead this country down the path of Wall Street, big corporations, and the ultra wealthy continuing to make the biggest profits in history on the backs of middle class Americans.

Ideas you won't hear from Republicans

Ideas you won't hear from Republicans, raise the Cap on SS, a transaction fee on all wall street transactions, investment in infrastructure creating jobs, making cuts in military spending, capping spending on elections,stopping the tax breaks for shipping jobs to China, forcing candidates to debate instead of buying TV adds, and helping the middle class.

2010 Was A Tough Year. What's Next?

It seems like Americans could not catch a break in 2010.  The market collapse that began in 2007 is still holding us all back.  Our government did some things right trying to keep us from going into an all out depression but did many things wrong.  TARP and the stimulus package was the right idea but the banks should have been forced to modify the mortgages for people to allow them to stay in their homes.  Instead it was left up to them to do the right thing.  They didn't.  The stimulus money should have been put into the infrastructure of our country in a much bigger way.  Building electric speed trains, a new electrical grid, solar, wind, electric cars, and other green energies with a national transition to a green economy would create thousands of jobs with equipment built here in America.  But the transition is coming much too slow.  Power hungry Republicans have blocked every attempt to spur the green economy with the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes instead of a majority vote.  The GOP flooded the our elections with TV commercials that at minimum twisted the truth or just spread outright lies.   money from large corporations and even organizations from outside our country.  It is an outrage how right wing republicans and the Tea Party people have lied to the American people.  On top of all that there was the biggest oil spill in history, and the mining disaster.  It is really difficult for the American people to get the truth about what is happening in DC when we have the right wing propaganda machine Fox News and 90% of talk radio spewing out lies to America.  Watch this video about a study on Fox News viewers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBA61YrA68Q&feature=related .  Get ready for the next couple of years of things only getting worse for middle class Americans as Reublicans attempt to repeal healthcare, raise the eligibility age on Social Security to seventy or seventy five, stop any investment in building a green infrastructure, strip any meaningful regulations on Wall Street, and basically screw regular working Americans while handing out bonuses to the rich.  You can change this.  Call or write your congress member and tell them you want jobs, a single payer health care system, regulations that stop the banksters from gambling with your mortgage and investments, caps on election spending, candidates to have many more debates in national elections, and the cap on Social Security raised to keep it funded rather than raising the qualification age to 70.  Seventy?  Are you kidding me?  Why not make the qualification death?  What this really does is keep people from retiring and keep them in the workplace, keeping pressure on wages.  Young people will have a harder time getting into the workplace because older people are staying longer.  On top of all that the GOP Republican Tea party people, will do everything they can to STOP any job growth until after the 2012 election cycle so that they can say it's Obama's fault there are no jobs.  So I hope all you hard working regular Americans start to get active and see what the GOP is really got in mind for you.

The Truth Republicans Don't Want You To Know

What are the Death Panels.  Well to start with there is no such thing.  Republicans are really good at making up scary sounding stuff that is NOT true.  What they call "Death Panels" are actually Voluntary conversations that have NOTHING to do with the government.  They are FREEDOM.  THEY ARE YOUR FREEDOM!  Don't you want to make your own decisions of what happens when you are leaving this world and make sure your family and doctor are clear about them?  If you are sick and dying and loose your ability to make decisions about how to handle your death, do you want to make that decision in advance or do you want everyone to guess at it?  Issues like this are why I quit the Republican party and became a Democrat.  I actually voted for Regan.  I didn't realize until years later that he destroyed the American worker by killing the Air Traffic Controller union.  That began the slow spiral down to fewer good jobs, lower wages and fewer benefits for workers.  At the same time the Right wing propagandist really began to pump out the message that unions are BAD and get paid way too much.  Too bad most Americans have bought into it.  For the last thirty years Americans have been getting the shaft without even realizing it.  Here are a few examples:  "We want to cut taxes" (what they don't tell you is they aren't talking about the taxes of the average working person.  They are talking about taxes for huge corporations and the ultra rich),  "Obama Care is Socialism" (It is no more socialism than Social Security or Medicare).  If it had been "Socialism" that would be a GOOD thing because everyone would pay into the healthcare system and lowered the cost for ALL Americans.  Why is that a Bad thing?  Someone please tell me.    There are many more examples of Republicans propaganda but this blog would be way too long.  2011 could be a very tough year.  I hope Americans start to realize that Democrats are on the side of average workers and that the Republicans are NOT.  Republicans only want to help the rich.

Lindsey Graham and the GOP Tea Party Republicans in 2011

I watched Meet The Press this morning and watched Lindsey Graham spew out his vision for 2011 with a snarl on his face. He just looks plain mean and nasty. One thing he said that stood out. "If Democrats come over to our way we can work together." Is that compromise? I can see the game plan now from Lindsey Graham and the Republicans is to make sure there is no job growth. Lindsey wants to raise the age to 70 or 75 to qualify for Social Security instead of raising the cap, take away our health care instead of improving it, Privatize FannyMay and FreddyMack, and above all make sure to STOP ANYTHING THAT CREATES JOBS so they can run on NO JOBS in 2012.