By Shawn Johnson
http://www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com/
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I have been ripped by my Republican friends for lumping Republicans in with the uneducated, ignorant, and stupid. Despite the evidence I have supplied, they continue to insist I am stereotypically lumping them in with the lunatics and morons I see rallying for their side. Now, I can claim victory in the following statement...Republicans are not only stupid, they believe that being stupid is a better way to live, and they actively pursue a life of stupidity and ignorance.
Shawn, how dare you say such things about fine upstanding people like Joe the Plumber (who isn't a plumber, name really isn't Joe, never made $250,000 annually, and votes against his best interests)? Well, I am sorry, but Rick Santorum, a presidential candidate mounting a serious bid to be the Republican nominee, agrees with me. Mr. Santorum claimed that President Obama is a "snob" for wanting people to go to college. He went on to claim that going to college causes you to lose your faith and allows you to be indoctrinated by liberal professors.
Now, since we measure intelligence by I.Q., I can use that as evidence that college graduates are usually fairly intelligent (most MENSA members have college degrees). So, by Santorum's own admission, they should all be liberal atheists. Using Rick Santorum's own logic, smart people are liberal atheists and stupid people vote for Rick Santorum. Thank you, Mr. Santorum for clearing that up for us. Although if I "Google" your name, I should really call you Mr. Frothy Ass Juice.
If you are running against intelligence, I can only assume that you support and promote stupidity. As Republicans you have to be either stupid, ignorant, clinically insane, or the largest group of liars ever to live. I truly believed that it was the latter, but I was giving you way too much credit. I am so glad that Rick Santorum cleared that up for me.
There is good news for you Republicans. This country is overwhelmingly stupid as well, so you really have a fighting chance in the upcoming election. Democrats are naive. They actually believe that Obama is magically going to raise over a billion dollars and that their fellow Americans couldn't possibly vote for the boobs running on the Republican ticket. They actually think that you hear the same things they hear. They think that you both speak the same language. They think when a candidate says, "I love poor people, they taste like chicken," he is out of touch with America and not very funny. You go and load your shotgun and tell Maw' to "set the suppa table!"
I am so glad that Rick Santorum had the audacity to point out a very unpopular opinion. Stupid people don't go to college; therefore they keep their faith, become more conservative, and vote for him. This is a simple enough line of thinking. I think that Rick Santorum has actually encouraged more people to go to college now than Barack Obama ever could. If you are an 18 year old in the United States, you may hear what Rick Santorum said and say to yourself, "My god, I need to attend college!"
Now, if you take a look at sheer numbers, there may be some evidence to back up Santorum's claim. About twenty-seven percent of Americans have obtained a college degree. About twenty-five percent of Americans are non-theists. It is almost complete indoctrination. Why would the act of simply going to college destroy one's faith?
It may be rooted in the fact that having the ability to read critically might seriously upset the "historical" findings of the Bible. You may be compelled to believe that a man didn't live in a whale for three days or start an ark collecting two of every known species on the earth. You may not accept that the world is 6,000 years old or than a man was born of a virgin, walked on water, turned water into wine, and healed a blind man by telling him he could see. Learning may drive up your skepticism just a little.
If you are still reading this, and you have attended college, you will probably realize that I am being facetious. But, you have to admit, looking at the glass as half-empty as Republicans always do under an Obama presidency, Rick Santorum is directly taking a shot at his own voters. And, they are too stupid to see it. He is simply running against intelligence which is increasingly becoming a Republican position. More so it has been the position of various religions for centuries. The message is simple. Stop the spread of education because education will destroy the church.
In this respect, Santorum is hitting on a key tenet of religion (actually, survival mechanism of religion is probably more appropriate). Religion is oppressive, and it requires a great deal of obedience from its followers. Yes, Santorum is telling his own voters in one single sentence that they are sheep of the church. Education, which is President Obama's game, will cost you your faith. "Liberal" professors will fill your head with heretical thoughts, just like the apple from the tree of knowledge. What Santorum doesn't tell his voters is the real reason that religion is not for the thoughtful.
Thinkers root out corporate scum. Religion is full of corporate hacks who make a buck off of people's fears and indiscretions. You know, capitalism as we understand it today. We don't actually make and export products anymore so our markets have taken on a religious like form. The stock market goes up and down because of how the country "feels." Better buy shit you don't need, or you will be responsible for a tanking economy.
Just like corporate profiteers, religion uses fear of the afterlife to make money. Please make a donation to the church so you will go to heaven. But, one fact keeps getting in the way of religion's pro-business message. The Bible is animatedly against capitalism, the Old Testament warning against false idols (metaphor for money) and the New Testament championing the poor and those without. Religion is so hypocritical it attempts to mask the very doctrine that it condemns others for not adhering to.
American capitalism bucks religious doctrine. In biblical times when kings ruled the earth, things were much simpler. You are the common man, and you need not, want, or worry about money and riches. Leave that to the king. Hence, what's Caesar's is Caesar's. But, America, founded on an ideal of representative democracy, cannot escape the fact that ordinary Americans can indeed become rich (despite what my previous blogs would have you believe). The American Dream is anti-religious. There is even a commandment against the American Dream. However, there is no commandment against slavery. There is no commandment against oppression of women and minorities. Apparently, these things slipped God's mind.
So, religion, in the name of self-preservation, did what it always does. It threw its basic principles right out the window to support its hunger for wealth. The once anti-wealth fable has been distorted to support the ruling class. Simply take a look at the Vatican and you will see it does not coincide with the message of the founder. And, keep in mind, religion has never been anti-wealth or anti-power for itself. It has always been anti-wealth and anti-power for its followers. And, that is why, if you are not a follower, you must be destroyed.
That entire line of thinking is where Mr. Santorum's demonization of collegiate educated Americans comes from. But, he is too narrow-minded to realize it. The only thing he realizes is that it is another opposite position he can take from Barack Obama.
At the end of the day Rick Santorum is another backwards small mind who appeals to the least of us as Americans. The fact that he is gaining so much steam in the Republican primary says so much more about Mitt Romney than it does about Rick Santorum.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
I Am Allowed To Bitch, You Are Not!
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Attention Republican voters...don't for one second think that you and I have something in common just because we are both critical of the President. What you don't understand is I can hold the President to a higher standard, and you cannot. Remember, you are the mentally handicapped boneheads that saddled this country with George Bush. You had your chance to hold your President accountable, and you failed miserably. You are the guy who spilled milk everywhere and now you complain about the methods that the cleanup crew uses to dissipate your mess. I voted correctly, and you didn't, so shut up. Now that the bus is in the ditch, the bus driver shouldn't be bitching at the tow truck.
Let's start with your biggest hypocrisy, which is your constant whining about liberals blaming George W. Bush for everything. The reason that you are a hypocrite is because you complain about everything that happened under Bush as well. You just conveniently attribute those grave mistakes to Obama. You have blamed Obama for the bank bailouts, national debt increases, expanding federal powers, food stamp increases, creating a deficit increasing health care plan, and leaving the military underfunded. These are all things that George Bush did and Obama did not, or at least did to a much greater extent than Obama.
Secondly, you attribute things to Obama that are simply untrue. You lie to try to prove your talking points because the facts get in the way of your archaic ideas. You run around yammering on and on about how tax-increases are killing jobs never once owning up to the fact that Obama has done nothing but lower taxes. By your own goalpost, the economy should be booming, but it isn't. It isn't booming because tax-cuts directly cause a net loss of jobs. But, the spending measures that you abhor have created job growth for 24 consecutive months. Even with spending measures you lie. It is a fact that George Bush had larger discretionary spending than Obama, but you call Obama the "tax and spend liberal."
You live in a damned bubble where you have created a Muslim, foreign-born, radical Marxist who does not really exist. You blasted Obama for raising the debt-ceiling when Bush raised it seven times, and Reagan raised it seventeen times. Never mind that raising the debt ceiling was the right thing to do. Now, Obama had voted against raising the debt-ceiling when he was a Senator, and he was wrong. He said, "I was young and wrong." You see, admitting when you are wrong instead of insanely and hypocritically justifying it, is a good thing.
Another example of your lunacy is that you actually believe Obama is weak on foreign policy and terrorism. He keeps having one success militarily after another. The guy you voted for had one military failure after another. The guy you voted for in the last election supported all of those failures. I have legitimate concerns about the President's illegal use of drone attacks, illegal wiretapping of American citizens, and illegal detention of suspects without due process. Not only are you not concerned, your argument is that he is weak for not doubling down. Then you call yourself a "Constitutionalist." If "Constitutionalist" is a euphemism for idiot, then I agree with you.
Let's take a look at a few facts from the Bush Administration's record and what the Obama Administration did about it.
Fiscal Responsibility:
First, George Bush started two wars and didn't place them on the federal budget. The wars became unfunded mandates that threw the country into massive debts coupled with idiotic, idealistic tax-cuts and deregulation measures which resulted in a net loss of jobs and a housing and banking crisis akin to the Great Depression. Obama placed the wars on the budget causing the deficit to skyrocket in 2009, but this was money already spent. Putting them on the budget ensured that we would start to pay for them, and now this spending must be voted on by Congress along with several other spending measures. The wars are no longer unfunded mandates. As a result, you blamed Obama for the out-of-control budget that wasn't his. When Obama put forth $4 trillion in budget cuts, the Republican congress refused to vote for it because it included tax increases on the very wealthy. You vote for idiots that take a pledge to Grover Norquist rather than statesmen who took a pledge to uphold the Constitution.
Also, George Bush initiated the financial bailouts, and did not require anything of the financial institutions receiving the bailouts. Remember, Henry Paulson was running around screaming about how we need to give them this money right away! As a result $350 billion was spent without any knowledge of where it went, what it was spent on, or even if it helped. When Obama took office he immediately appointed Elizabeth Warren to watch and allot the remainder of the bailout money. Along with TARP, the government was able to recover much of the money given to the banks. He then signed Dodd-Frank into law which doesn't go nearly far enough, but it is a step in the right direction. As a result of this, you blame Obama for the financial bailouts.
When Bush was elected, a recount was in place that may have proven Al Gore to be the winner of the presidency. The recount was unfairly and illegally stopped by the partisan hacks on the Supreme Court. As a result you Republicans flew into action screaming and yelling about the democratic process being compromised. Except, you waited eight years to do it, and it was maniacal ranting regarding where President Obama was born.
When Obama took office, the economy was hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs per month. The economy had dropped by 9% of GDP. Obama's Investment and Recovery Act saved three million jobs, and according to the CBO was "the primary source of economic growth in 2009." As a result you blame Obama for not reducing unemployment below 8% because that was what the Obama Administration predicted. Except it wasn't what the Administration predicted, it was what the campaign predicted, and it was based on figures that had the economy dropping by 4% of GDP. The only problem with the Investment and Recovery Act is that it was too small and it included needless tax-cuts that your Congressmen demanded. But, you conveniently take those facts, and skew them to support your position that government spending is bad.
Iraq:
George Bush had one foreign policy disaster after another with regards to the Iraq War. Administration officials purposefully lied about WMD's in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld said, "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." The truth is Rumsfeld had no clue if Iraq even had WMD's. He flat out lied to take us to war, and he wasn't the only one.
Also, let's discuss the "fiscal responsibility" of your beloved "conservative" President. Nearly $9 billion was "lost" in Iraq. The money was supposed to be used for reconstruction. Again, Barack Obama is much more fiscally responsible than George Bush. Don't let those facts stop you from running head-first into a wall with right-wing talking points though.
We now know that the Bush Administration used illegal torture to drum up most of the information that led to their "findings" about Saddam Hussein and WMD's. They sold the lie to the American public and you idiots ate it up. I took a ton of criticism and shit from you moronic right-wingers with your "Christian values" when I said that I didn't believe this crap for one second (I mention Christian values because I cannot find the values that place a rubber stamp on war and torture). This buffoon that I used to work with guaranteed me that we would find the weapons. We didn't. I was right, and he was wrong. But, that didn't stop him from labeling me as "unpatriotic." And, it isn't stopping any of you from claiming that Obama is "weak on terror."
Valerie Plame:
Karl Rove under the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney outed a covert CIA agent to Robert Novak of the Chicago Tribune, and then encouraged Lewis Libby to commit perjury, which he did. Libby was convicted, and Bush conveniently commuted his sentence. What was the reason? The CIA agent's husband was asked to investigate claims that yellow-cake uranium was being sold by Niger to Iraq. He wrote them a memo telling them there was no truth to the claims. What did you Republicans do? Scream for investigations. Not of this incident, but of Obama for being born in Kenya (which you made up).
Osama Bin Laden:
George Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him," while he proceeded to prove it by shifting focus to Iraq. Obama killed the son-of-a-bitch. Your reaction, blame Obama for not giving George Bush credit and then subsequently giving credit to the failed Bush torture policies. Even Bush administration officials called "bullshit" on you.
"It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantánamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding."
The Bush Admin official that said this...Donald Rumsfeld.
The Tea Party:
The Tea Party was formed to buck the Wall Street bailouts. They soon were taken over by the Dick Armey, Koch Brothers money machine (Dick Armey being a good slogan for the entire Republican Party). They duped stupid people into fighting for their corporate war against the country, and it almost worked. Their first attack, Social Security.
The Koch Brothers paid "think-tanks" like the Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation to falsify findings that Social Security is going "bankrupt." Then they used right-wing politicians and Fox News to repeat the lie over and over again. You idiot Republicans believed it, and now most of you are in favor of privatizing Social Security, the most successful government program in history. Social Security is currently running at a $3 trillion surplus and it will pay one hundred percent of benefits for the next thirty years.
Don't believe me, check it out for yourself. Bernie Sanders exposes the Koch Brothers: http://front.moveon.org/bernie-sanders-exposes-the-koch-brothers-three-biggest-lies-about-social-security/
Now, I am pissed at Barack Obama for not drawing a line in the sand when it comes to Social Security. I have a legitimate gripe. You call him a socialist.
The second Tea Party attack, "Obamacare!" Actual things said about Barack Obama's health care plan included:
When President Bush created a massive federal expansion of health care known as Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage, both of which removed large sums of funding from Medicare and gave it to private corporations who run the insurance and drug markets, there was no Tea Party, no protests, nothing from the right-wing. You Republicons were inexcusably silent.
The CBO says that Obama's health care bill added twelve years of solvency to Medicare while taking tax payer money away from Medicare Advantage, which is for-profit private health insurance. The CBO says that repealing Obama's health care law will add $200 billion to the deficit. The health care law is filled with middle class tax-cuts to help people afford private insurance, yet you call it a "government takeover" of health care. The thing that you hate the most about the law, the individual mandate, is a Republican idea. It is a law demanding that people who get free medical care from a hospital help pay for that very care. It is as conservative as can be. But again, don't let the facts stop your psychotic ranting and raving.
The third Tea Party attack is the most insanely hilarious one of all. The notion that Barack Obama is taxing everyone back to the stone age. You know as well as I do that your taxes and mine are lower now than they were under George Bush. In fact, taxes are as low as they have been since the 1950's. I have problems with these massive tax-cuts because they cause major budget shortages. You insist they don't exist. Again, you are not dealing with reality. And, you continue to support the party that insists on further tax-cuts when the Bush era tax-cuts are chiefly responsible for massive deficits in the first place.
The Financial Bailouts and Auto Bailouts:
Both of these bailouts began under President Bush. President Obama simply made them work. He added to the auto bailouts and created TARP which is a successful unpopular program. The auto bailouts were wildly successful garnering a four to one return on our investment. Not only do you hate the auto industry bailouts, you wrongfully attribute the bank bailouts to President Obama. Wrong again idiots. My problem is that we had no bailouts for poor people losing their homes. Again, I have a right to complain and you don't.
Who tried to stop the bank bailouts? Not the Tea-baggers, not the Republicans, not the Democrats. Michael Moore and a group of liberals stood before Congress and demanded that the bailouts be stopped. Again, I have a right as a liberal to be pissed. You as a conservative have no right to do so. You should have voted correctly.
Your new front runner for the GOP nomination said that going to college indoctrinates children and causes them to lose faith. While I wholeheartedly agree that learning things causes you to think critically and therefore you tend to question the existence of Santa Claus, er' I mean god, the GOP frontrunner has an MBA from a public university. He also attended Penn State which is a Catholic public university. Not an admitted Catholic university, but they follow the same guidelines.
But, you morons who vote Republican eat this crap up. Oh, you know Obama, the black elitist Harvard Law graduate. Yes Mr. Sanatorium, learning does make you reject faith. That is another great reason for obtaining an education. Never mind that the President of the United States also graduated college and still has faith. Again, I have a problem with my President believing in fairy tales. You just make up lies about him being an "avowed Muslim" as one Sanatorium supporter claimed. The very definition of "avowed" means that you are vocal about it.
There are so many other things you Republicans are so willfully wrong about it staggers the imagination. I am sick and tired of your righteous attitude about everything when you are so wrong about everything. You are mad because you say Obama "apologized for America." Once again, you are making things up. Obama never apologized for America, but I think he should have. And, the only reason he should have is because of stupid right-wingers in the Bush Administration. In fact most of the dark black marks on American history were not only supported, but perpetrated by conservative right-wingers. Whether it was slavery, segregation, pollution, crony capitalism, workplace safety violations, and a host of military crimes (although I will admit military crimes do not fall on the shoulders of right-wingers alone), there was a liberal standing in your way who you demonized.
When you whine and complain that your religion or your freedoms are being attacked by a liberal, I say "tough shit!" It is justified payback for your racism, homophobia, fear-mongering, and chauvinism. Your latest attack was on women's reproductive rights. Again, the President offers a sensible solution to the issue trying as best as he can to respect religious points of view, and you take a shit right in his face, yammering on about how he will destroy the Catholic Church. You know, the same church that says its clergy has a right to rape little boys as long as they don't use a condom. I only wish he was the socialist you claim him to be.
In conclusion, if you have made it this far, the criticisms that I have for the President are true, and they align with my values as a liberal. The things you criticize him for are either things other Republican presidents did, that you were completely silent about, or they are things that do not exist. Please do not vote this year. Instead get help. Seek it immediately. Find out what in your past makes you hate everyone who isn't like you. But, most of all, stop your complaining! Leave that department to me.
Secondly, you attribute things to Obama that are simply untrue. You lie to try to prove your talking points because the facts get in the way of your archaic ideas. You run around yammering on and on about how tax-increases are killing jobs never once owning up to the fact that Obama has done nothing but lower taxes. By your own goalpost, the economy should be booming, but it isn't. It isn't booming because tax-cuts directly cause a net loss of jobs. But, the spending measures that you abhor have created job growth for 24 consecutive months. Even with spending measures you lie. It is a fact that George Bush had larger discretionary spending than Obama, but you call Obama the "tax and spend liberal."
You live in a damned bubble where you have created a Muslim, foreign-born, radical Marxist who does not really exist. You blasted Obama for raising the debt-ceiling when Bush raised it seven times, and Reagan raised it seventeen times. Never mind that raising the debt ceiling was the right thing to do. Now, Obama had voted against raising the debt-ceiling when he was a Senator, and he was wrong. He said, "I was young and wrong." You see, admitting when you are wrong instead of insanely and hypocritically justifying it, is a good thing.
Another example of your lunacy is that you actually believe Obama is weak on foreign policy and terrorism. He keeps having one success militarily after another. The guy you voted for had one military failure after another. The guy you voted for in the last election supported all of those failures. I have legitimate concerns about the President's illegal use of drone attacks, illegal wiretapping of American citizens, and illegal detention of suspects without due process. Not only are you not concerned, your argument is that he is weak for not doubling down. Then you call yourself a "Constitutionalist." If "Constitutionalist" is a euphemism for idiot, then I agree with you.
Let's take a look at a few facts from the Bush Administration's record and what the Obama Administration did about it.
Fiscal Responsibility:
First, George Bush started two wars and didn't place them on the federal budget. The wars became unfunded mandates that threw the country into massive debts coupled with idiotic, idealistic tax-cuts and deregulation measures which resulted in a net loss of jobs and a housing and banking crisis akin to the Great Depression. Obama placed the wars on the budget causing the deficit to skyrocket in 2009, but this was money already spent. Putting them on the budget ensured that we would start to pay for them, and now this spending must be voted on by Congress along with several other spending measures. The wars are no longer unfunded mandates. As a result, you blamed Obama for the out-of-control budget that wasn't his. When Obama put forth $4 trillion in budget cuts, the Republican congress refused to vote for it because it included tax increases on the very wealthy. You vote for idiots that take a pledge to Grover Norquist rather than statesmen who took a pledge to uphold the Constitution.
Also, George Bush initiated the financial bailouts, and did not require anything of the financial institutions receiving the bailouts. Remember, Henry Paulson was running around screaming about how we need to give them this money right away! As a result $350 billion was spent without any knowledge of where it went, what it was spent on, or even if it helped. When Obama took office he immediately appointed Elizabeth Warren to watch and allot the remainder of the bailout money. Along with TARP, the government was able to recover much of the money given to the banks. He then signed Dodd-Frank into law which doesn't go nearly far enough, but it is a step in the right direction. As a result of this, you blame Obama for the financial bailouts.
When Bush was elected, a recount was in place that may have proven Al Gore to be the winner of the presidency. The recount was unfairly and illegally stopped by the partisan hacks on the Supreme Court. As a result you Republicans flew into action screaming and yelling about the democratic process being compromised. Except, you waited eight years to do it, and it was maniacal ranting regarding where President Obama was born.
When Obama took office, the economy was hemorrhaging 750,000 jobs per month. The economy had dropped by 9% of GDP. Obama's Investment and Recovery Act saved three million jobs, and according to the CBO was "the primary source of economic growth in 2009." As a result you blame Obama for not reducing unemployment below 8% because that was what the Obama Administration predicted. Except it wasn't what the Administration predicted, it was what the campaign predicted, and it was based on figures that had the economy dropping by 4% of GDP. The only problem with the Investment and Recovery Act is that it was too small and it included needless tax-cuts that your Congressmen demanded. But, you conveniently take those facts, and skew them to support your position that government spending is bad.
Iraq:
George Bush had one foreign policy disaster after another with regards to the Iraq War. Administration officials purposefully lied about WMD's in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld said, "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." The truth is Rumsfeld had no clue if Iraq even had WMD's. He flat out lied to take us to war, and he wasn't the only one.
Also, let's discuss the "fiscal responsibility" of your beloved "conservative" President. Nearly $9 billion was "lost" in Iraq. The money was supposed to be used for reconstruction. Again, Barack Obama is much more fiscally responsible than George Bush. Don't let those facts stop you from running head-first into a wall with right-wing talking points though.
We now know that the Bush Administration used illegal torture to drum up most of the information that led to their "findings" about Saddam Hussein and WMD's. They sold the lie to the American public and you idiots ate it up. I took a ton of criticism and shit from you moronic right-wingers with your "Christian values" when I said that I didn't believe this crap for one second (I mention Christian values because I cannot find the values that place a rubber stamp on war and torture). This buffoon that I used to work with guaranteed me that we would find the weapons. We didn't. I was right, and he was wrong. But, that didn't stop him from labeling me as "unpatriotic." And, it isn't stopping any of you from claiming that Obama is "weak on terror."
Valerie Plame:
Karl Rove under the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney outed a covert CIA agent to Robert Novak of the Chicago Tribune, and then encouraged Lewis Libby to commit perjury, which he did. Libby was convicted, and Bush conveniently commuted his sentence. What was the reason? The CIA agent's husband was asked to investigate claims that yellow-cake uranium was being sold by Niger to Iraq. He wrote them a memo telling them there was no truth to the claims. What did you Republicans do? Scream for investigations. Not of this incident, but of Obama for being born in Kenya (which you made up).
Osama Bin Laden:
George Bush said, "I truly am not that concerned about him," while he proceeded to prove it by shifting focus to Iraq. Obama killed the son-of-a-bitch. Your reaction, blame Obama for not giving George Bush credit and then subsequently giving credit to the failed Bush torture policies. Even Bush administration officials called "bullshit" on you.
"It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantánamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding."
The Bush Admin official that said this...Donald Rumsfeld.
The Tea Party:
The Tea Party was formed to buck the Wall Street bailouts. They soon were taken over by the Dick Armey, Koch Brothers money machine (Dick Armey being a good slogan for the entire Republican Party). They duped stupid people into fighting for their corporate war against the country, and it almost worked. Their first attack, Social Security.
The Koch Brothers paid "think-tanks" like the Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation to falsify findings that Social Security is going "bankrupt." Then they used right-wing politicians and Fox News to repeat the lie over and over again. You idiot Republicans believed it, and now most of you are in favor of privatizing Social Security, the most successful government program in history. Social Security is currently running at a $3 trillion surplus and it will pay one hundred percent of benefits for the next thirty years.
Don't believe me, check it out for yourself. Bernie Sanders exposes the Koch Brothers: http://front.moveon.org/bernie-sanders-exposes-the-koch-brothers-three-biggest-lies-about-social-security/
Now, I am pissed at Barack Obama for not drawing a line in the sand when it comes to Social Security. I have a legitimate gripe. You call him a socialist.
The second Tea Party attack, "Obamacare!" Actual things said about Barack Obama's health care plan included:
- Job killing legislation.
- Massive governmental bureaucracy.
- Death panels will be created to kill Grandma.
- Destroyer of Medicare
- It will bankrupt the country
When President Bush created a massive federal expansion of health care known as Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage, both of which removed large sums of funding from Medicare and gave it to private corporations who run the insurance and drug markets, there was no Tea Party, no protests, nothing from the right-wing. You Republicons were inexcusably silent.
The CBO says that Obama's health care bill added twelve years of solvency to Medicare while taking tax payer money away from Medicare Advantage, which is for-profit private health insurance. The CBO says that repealing Obama's health care law will add $200 billion to the deficit. The health care law is filled with middle class tax-cuts to help people afford private insurance, yet you call it a "government takeover" of health care. The thing that you hate the most about the law, the individual mandate, is a Republican idea. It is a law demanding that people who get free medical care from a hospital help pay for that very care. It is as conservative as can be. But again, don't let the facts stop your psychotic ranting and raving.
The third Tea Party attack is the most insanely hilarious one of all. The notion that Barack Obama is taxing everyone back to the stone age. You know as well as I do that your taxes and mine are lower now than they were under George Bush. In fact, taxes are as low as they have been since the 1950's. I have problems with these massive tax-cuts because they cause major budget shortages. You insist they don't exist. Again, you are not dealing with reality. And, you continue to support the party that insists on further tax-cuts when the Bush era tax-cuts are chiefly responsible for massive deficits in the first place.
The Financial Bailouts and Auto Bailouts:
Both of these bailouts began under President Bush. President Obama simply made them work. He added to the auto bailouts and created TARP which is a successful unpopular program. The auto bailouts were wildly successful garnering a four to one return on our investment. Not only do you hate the auto industry bailouts, you wrongfully attribute the bank bailouts to President Obama. Wrong again idiots. My problem is that we had no bailouts for poor people losing their homes. Again, I have a right to complain and you don't.
Who tried to stop the bank bailouts? Not the Tea-baggers, not the Republicans, not the Democrats. Michael Moore and a group of liberals stood before Congress and demanded that the bailouts be stopped. Again, I have a right as a liberal to be pissed. You as a conservative have no right to do so. You should have voted correctly.
Your new front runner for the GOP nomination said that going to college indoctrinates children and causes them to lose faith. While I wholeheartedly agree that learning things causes you to think critically and therefore you tend to question the existence of Santa Claus, er' I mean god, the GOP frontrunner has an MBA from a public university. He also attended Penn State which is a Catholic public university. Not an admitted Catholic university, but they follow the same guidelines.
But, you morons who vote Republican eat this crap up. Oh, you know Obama, the black elitist Harvard Law graduate. Yes Mr. Sanatorium, learning does make you reject faith. That is another great reason for obtaining an education. Never mind that the President of the United States also graduated college and still has faith. Again, I have a problem with my President believing in fairy tales. You just make up lies about him being an "avowed Muslim" as one Sanatorium supporter claimed. The very definition of "avowed" means that you are vocal about it.
There are so many other things you Republicans are so willfully wrong about it staggers the imagination. I am sick and tired of your righteous attitude about everything when you are so wrong about everything. You are mad because you say Obama "apologized for America." Once again, you are making things up. Obama never apologized for America, but I think he should have. And, the only reason he should have is because of stupid right-wingers in the Bush Administration. In fact most of the dark black marks on American history were not only supported, but perpetrated by conservative right-wingers. Whether it was slavery, segregation, pollution, crony capitalism, workplace safety violations, and a host of military crimes (although I will admit military crimes do not fall on the shoulders of right-wingers alone), there was a liberal standing in your way who you demonized.
When you whine and complain that your religion or your freedoms are being attacked by a liberal, I say "tough shit!" It is justified payback for your racism, homophobia, fear-mongering, and chauvinism. Your latest attack was on women's reproductive rights. Again, the President offers a sensible solution to the issue trying as best as he can to respect religious points of view, and you take a shit right in his face, yammering on about how he will destroy the Catholic Church. You know, the same church that says its clergy has a right to rape little boys as long as they don't use a condom. I only wish he was the socialist you claim him to be.
In conclusion, if you have made it this far, the criticisms that I have for the President are true, and they align with my values as a liberal. The things you criticize him for are either things other Republican presidents did, that you were completely silent about, or they are things that do not exist. Please do not vote this year. Instead get help. Seek it immediately. Find out what in your past makes you hate everyone who isn't like you. But, most of all, stop your complaining! Leave that department to me.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The State of the Union - The Liberal Rebuttal
By Shawn Johnson
http://www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com/
The Liberal Voice on Facebook
Ok, after the State of the Union, I normally rewrite the President's speech to say what he really meant to say. After his speech last evening, I have to say that Obama the campaigner is back. He blasted Republicans up one side and down another. I am very happy with the tone of his speech. He left no doubt as to which party the blame should be levied on for the inaction in Washington.
That being said, since Teabaggers get to trot Herman Cain out to give his rebuttal by throwing feces at a dart board made of Godfather's Pizza, I have decided to give the liberal rebuttal to President Obama's address.
So here it goes....
Tonight you heard the President finally take a step to the left. He attacked the banks, oil companies, Mitt Romney (without mentioning his name), and gave the middle class kudos for picking up the slack left by the rich. The President no doubt believes that this will silence his critics on the left. We will forget about the last three years and press on as though nothing has happened. We will fight for him as hard this year as we did in 2008.
Well, I for one am not buying it. I am at best a skeptical optimist. The Republicans are so far to the right that they actually think that the President was making a liberal speech, but they have no idea that he was actually just a little to the left of center. I am expecting his speech to get pretty sound approval numbers.
Mr. Obama has failed in several areas, however. First, he made not one statement with regards to the poor and disenfranchised in America. Travelling the same road as the other Democrats, the focus is on the middle class. Why is it important to talk about the poor? Because they make up about 15% of the population now. That is a larger percentage than African Americans in the United States. And, those are the poor at or below the poverty line. That does not count the multitude of middle class and working poor that are one health issue or one great financial loss in their life away from being impoverished themselves. The President, like millions of Americans, have decided to ignore the poor. Democrats realize that most poor people actually consider themselves middle class. So by doing for the middle class, they believe that it will suffice the poor. So, why should we help the poor? Because children make up the largest group that is impoverished. Because helping the poor is the right thing to do, and we have the ability to do so. Because if our children, our parents, and our friends were poor and starving, we would do everything in our power to make sure that they did not endure one more minute of suffering.
Now, the President rightly took aim at the unfair tax code, but while doing so, left the door open to future cuts in Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. The President indicated that he is willing to compromise with the Republicans on cutting benefits to these programs which are so vital to the poor and middle class. He should have looked straight at the Republicans and said,
He didn't do that though. Instead he used code words like, "entitlement reform." This is nothing more than saying that he will cave, if necessary to secure middle class tax cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. He will allow the Republicans to realize their dream of destroying the middle class safety net. Once the ball gets rolling downhill, you can forget about ever turning back.
Secondly, those running for president and Republicans in Congress love to bring up the falsehood that 47% of Americans don't pay any taxes at all. This is simply not true. The President said nothing to defend those that pay Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, sales tax, property tax, and a host of other taxes they really can't afford. They pay these taxes while making next to nothing, and they do it proudly because they know when they turn sixty-five, at least some of the money they paid in will be there to take care of them. Medicare and Social Security are regressive taxes as well, meaning that the middle class share the greatest burden of paying these taxes. If we want a fairer tax, I propose taxing Mitt Romney more than the 13.9% he paid last year. Now, I will agree that the Buffet Rule is sound tax planning to start out, but it doesn't go far enough. We eventually must repeal all of the Bush tax cuts. We certainly don't need to pass another payroll tax cut which drains money from the Social Security fund.
Also, the President eluded to having a fairer tax system so our military could be stronger. I want to know how much more money it is going to take to make it "stronger." With a Pentagon budget of $800 Billion each year, and enough nuclear capability to blow up Jupiter, I have to ask, how much stronger does it really need to be? Shouldn't we all agree that the ability to anihilate an entire planet is plenty strong enough?
The President spent a lot of time praising what the military did to kill Osama Bin Laden and beat Al Qaeda overseas. Why didn't he mention the great successes we have had right here in this country stopping terrorist attacks with sound police and FBI work? Why didn't the President use those examples to show how we can be "safe" without attacking other nations? How can the President say that our military has caused more nations to like us? How can the President say that "all options are on the table" in regards to Iran? Are they really? Are we really going to attack Iran and create another quagmire we can't possibly win with already taxed soldiers?
The President should have told the truth. We keep other countries in line by buying them off, like Pakistan and Egypt. We prop up dictators that are friendly to our business interests and destroy ones that are not. Our military decisions come from the directives of our corporate owners in this country, and it is wrong.
And, how can we sit here and justify the blinded defense of everything Israel does? We aren't empowered by our relationship with Israel, as the President suggested. We are hindered by it. We are hindered by our relationship with a ridiculous foreign leader like Benjamin Netanyahu, who has done nothing to curb or stop Israel's oppressive policies towards the Palestinians. Israel refuses to curb its dividing rhetoric, and they continue to insite violence and destruction in the region. We should treat Israel no different than any of our other allies. If you suggested right now to Congress that we defend France against attacks from their neighbors, about forty percent would be against the idea regardless of the reason. I can tell you of which side of the aisle they would be seated.
Why isn't the President talking about reducing the size of our military? He could use a statement like, "The era of big military is over!" Mr. Obama should be sending a signal to the rest of the world that we are not your policeman. Instead, he is doubling down on the empire we have created in order to feed the military-industrial complex that repugnantly permeates our society and makes us a less moral nation.
Why didn't the President call on Congress to execute his executive order to shut down Guantanamo Bay? Why didn't the President defend the merits of the American justice system, and defend the right to a fair trial? Why hasn't the President made indefinite detention without trial illegal for anyone, no matter how bad they are? The President has actively continued Bush era military tactics that go against the fabric of our Constitution. We cannot call this a nation of liberty and justice for all when it clearly does not apply to "all."
With regards to energy, the President continues to push the idea of drilling more in the United States. He believes that he can regulate our way into making it safe. We are drilling more now, and it is only a matter of time until we have the next spill that destroys our ecosystem. We needed the President to talk about permanently eliminating the use of fossil fuels for energy. We needed the President to warn us about the dangers of nuclear power and use the events of the past three years as a mandate to shut down nuclear development. The President did a wonderful thing by shutting down the Canadian Pipeline. Why didn't he talk about it? Why didn't he talk about moving us toward energy independence through less harmful and damaging means like solar and wind? The President was wrong about drilling before the Gulf spill, and he is wrong now. Our energy package should not include archaic forms of energy like oil, period.
Lastly, the President should have laid out in front of the Supreme Court members in attendance the damage they caused with their ruling in the Citizens United Case. He was right to attack them when the ruling was made, and he would have been right to say, "I told you so." The President did mention money in politics, but he failed to acknowledge that he was one of the largest beneficiaries of Goldman Sacchs. It is hard to trust the fox in the hen house.
Overall, the President has made some progress in moving the country slightly in the right direction, but it isn't nearly enough. The wealth gap in this country continues to increase, and we continue to lose our civil liberties every single day. I sympathize with him that he cannot do it alone, and he is up against an unfair Congress. They don't care what happens to this country and he does. They are "hostage-takers" as he has stated in the past. They won't care about America until they control it, and even then, they only care about the very wealthy.
I would like to finish tonight by saying how proud I am of the Occupy Wall Street movement. You had no big funding organization behind you, like the Tea Party. You had no leadership that spoke for you. You had no help from those in Washington. You just got sick and tired enought to take to the streets. You enacted your democratic right to protest. In under a year, you completely changed the debate in this country. The debate is now where it should have been for the last thirty years. It is on wealth inequality and fairness for the middle class and the poor. Keep up the good fight, and maybe Obama's inaugural address next January will be the type of speech that moves the country back to the liberal foundation that created the middle class. Hopefully he keeps channeling Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson. We must never stop and never surrender.
Thank you, and good night!
http://www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com/
The Liberal Voice on Facebook
Ok, after the State of the Union, I normally rewrite the President's speech to say what he really meant to say. After his speech last evening, I have to say that Obama the campaigner is back. He blasted Republicans up one side and down another. I am very happy with the tone of his speech. He left no doubt as to which party the blame should be levied on for the inaction in Washington.
That being said, since Teabaggers get to trot Herman Cain out to give his rebuttal by throwing feces at a dart board made of Godfather's Pizza, I have decided to give the liberal rebuttal to President Obama's address.
So here it goes....
Tonight you heard the President finally take a step to the left. He attacked the banks, oil companies, Mitt Romney (without mentioning his name), and gave the middle class kudos for picking up the slack left by the rich. The President no doubt believes that this will silence his critics on the left. We will forget about the last three years and press on as though nothing has happened. We will fight for him as hard this year as we did in 2008.
Well, I for one am not buying it. I am at best a skeptical optimist. The Republicans are so far to the right that they actually think that the President was making a liberal speech, but they have no idea that he was actually just a little to the left of center. I am expecting his speech to get pretty sound approval numbers.
Mr. Obama has failed in several areas, however. First, he made not one statement with regards to the poor and disenfranchised in America. Travelling the same road as the other Democrats, the focus is on the middle class. Why is it important to talk about the poor? Because they make up about 15% of the population now. That is a larger percentage than African Americans in the United States. And, those are the poor at or below the poverty line. That does not count the multitude of middle class and working poor that are one health issue or one great financial loss in their life away from being impoverished themselves. The President, like millions of Americans, have decided to ignore the poor. Democrats realize that most poor people actually consider themselves middle class. So by doing for the middle class, they believe that it will suffice the poor. So, why should we help the poor? Because children make up the largest group that is impoverished. Because helping the poor is the right thing to do, and we have the ability to do so. Because if our children, our parents, and our friends were poor and starving, we would do everything in our power to make sure that they did not endure one more minute of suffering.
Now, the President rightly took aim at the unfair tax code, but while doing so, left the door open to future cuts in Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. The President indicated that he is willing to compromise with the Republicans on cutting benefits to these programs which are so vital to the poor and middle class. He should have looked straight at the Republicans and said,
I will never agree to cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. These programs are paid for by the very people they benefit. I will slash every bit of spending Republicans like, before I take one dime away from the beneficiaries of these programs.
He didn't do that though. Instead he used code words like, "entitlement reform." This is nothing more than saying that he will cave, if necessary to secure middle class tax cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. He will allow the Republicans to realize their dream of destroying the middle class safety net. Once the ball gets rolling downhill, you can forget about ever turning back.
Secondly, those running for president and Republicans in Congress love to bring up the falsehood that 47% of Americans don't pay any taxes at all. This is simply not true. The President said nothing to defend those that pay Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, sales tax, property tax, and a host of other taxes they really can't afford. They pay these taxes while making next to nothing, and they do it proudly because they know when they turn sixty-five, at least some of the money they paid in will be there to take care of them. Medicare and Social Security are regressive taxes as well, meaning that the middle class share the greatest burden of paying these taxes. If we want a fairer tax, I propose taxing Mitt Romney more than the 13.9% he paid last year. Now, I will agree that the Buffet Rule is sound tax planning to start out, but it doesn't go far enough. We eventually must repeal all of the Bush tax cuts. We certainly don't need to pass another payroll tax cut which drains money from the Social Security fund.
Also, the President eluded to having a fairer tax system so our military could be stronger. I want to know how much more money it is going to take to make it "stronger." With a Pentagon budget of $800 Billion each year, and enough nuclear capability to blow up Jupiter, I have to ask, how much stronger does it really need to be? Shouldn't we all agree that the ability to anihilate an entire planet is plenty strong enough?
The President spent a lot of time praising what the military did to kill Osama Bin Laden and beat Al Qaeda overseas. Why didn't he mention the great successes we have had right here in this country stopping terrorist attacks with sound police and FBI work? Why didn't the President use those examples to show how we can be "safe" without attacking other nations? How can the President say that our military has caused more nations to like us? How can the President say that "all options are on the table" in regards to Iran? Are they really? Are we really going to attack Iran and create another quagmire we can't possibly win with already taxed soldiers?
The President should have told the truth. We keep other countries in line by buying them off, like Pakistan and Egypt. We prop up dictators that are friendly to our business interests and destroy ones that are not. Our military decisions come from the directives of our corporate owners in this country, and it is wrong.
And, how can we sit here and justify the blinded defense of everything Israel does? We aren't empowered by our relationship with Israel, as the President suggested. We are hindered by it. We are hindered by our relationship with a ridiculous foreign leader like Benjamin Netanyahu, who has done nothing to curb or stop Israel's oppressive policies towards the Palestinians. Israel refuses to curb its dividing rhetoric, and they continue to insite violence and destruction in the region. We should treat Israel no different than any of our other allies. If you suggested right now to Congress that we defend France against attacks from their neighbors, about forty percent would be against the idea regardless of the reason. I can tell you of which side of the aisle they would be seated.
Why isn't the President talking about reducing the size of our military? He could use a statement like, "The era of big military is over!" Mr. Obama should be sending a signal to the rest of the world that we are not your policeman. Instead, he is doubling down on the empire we have created in order to feed the military-industrial complex that repugnantly permeates our society and makes us a less moral nation.
Why didn't the President call on Congress to execute his executive order to shut down Guantanamo Bay? Why didn't the President defend the merits of the American justice system, and defend the right to a fair trial? Why hasn't the President made indefinite detention without trial illegal for anyone, no matter how bad they are? The President has actively continued Bush era military tactics that go against the fabric of our Constitution. We cannot call this a nation of liberty and justice for all when it clearly does not apply to "all."
With regards to energy, the President continues to push the idea of drilling more in the United States. He believes that he can regulate our way into making it safe. We are drilling more now, and it is only a matter of time until we have the next spill that destroys our ecosystem. We needed the President to talk about permanently eliminating the use of fossil fuels for energy. We needed the President to warn us about the dangers of nuclear power and use the events of the past three years as a mandate to shut down nuclear development. The President did a wonderful thing by shutting down the Canadian Pipeline. Why didn't he talk about it? Why didn't he talk about moving us toward energy independence through less harmful and damaging means like solar and wind? The President was wrong about drilling before the Gulf spill, and he is wrong now. Our energy package should not include archaic forms of energy like oil, period.
Lastly, the President should have laid out in front of the Supreme Court members in attendance the damage they caused with their ruling in the Citizens United Case. He was right to attack them when the ruling was made, and he would have been right to say, "I told you so." The President did mention money in politics, but he failed to acknowledge that he was one of the largest beneficiaries of Goldman Sacchs. It is hard to trust the fox in the hen house.
Overall, the President has made some progress in moving the country slightly in the right direction, but it isn't nearly enough. The wealth gap in this country continues to increase, and we continue to lose our civil liberties every single day. I sympathize with him that he cannot do it alone, and he is up against an unfair Congress. They don't care what happens to this country and he does. They are "hostage-takers" as he has stated in the past. They won't care about America until they control it, and even then, they only care about the very wealthy.
I would like to finish tonight by saying how proud I am of the Occupy Wall Street movement. You had no big funding organization behind you, like the Tea Party. You had no leadership that spoke for you. You had no help from those in Washington. You just got sick and tired enought to take to the streets. You enacted your democratic right to protest. In under a year, you completely changed the debate in this country. The debate is now where it should have been for the last thirty years. It is on wealth inequality and fairness for the middle class and the poor. Keep up the good fight, and maybe Obama's inaugural address next January will be the type of speech that moves the country back to the liberal foundation that created the middle class. Hopefully he keeps channeling Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson. We must never stop and never surrender.
Thank you, and good night!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Dangers of Hero Worship
By Shawn Johnson
http://www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/liberalvoice1776
As you have probably heard by now Penn State University long-time head coach, Joe Paterno passed away today. There are very mixed feelings about the former coach, and I personally believe that he should be loathed, rather than celebrated, for the horrific cover up of child molestation committed by Jerry Sandusky. The only reason there are mixed feelings about his passing is because he has been a great football coach, and in the United States sports, and even more so, money in sports really reigns king.
Joe Paterno meant winning to Penn State for over thirty years, which in turn meant millions of dollars floating Penn State's way each and every year. People from the organization are praising and revering this terrible bastard in a way they would not had he just been your average CEO. They are placing football above morality and human decency. There are many things that are forgivable in life. Covering up child rape is not one of them.
Praising someone like Paterno engages you in the dangerous world of hero worship. Dismissing and making excuses for a great athlete or coach because you perceive them to be in life how they are on the field, is childish behavior, and furthermore, it is dangerous behavior. How far are you willing to go?
Now, hero worship is not limited to football or even sports by any means. Hero worship resides in politics, work, religion, and almost every walk of life. People who are great at what they do, fool you into believing that the part of them you do not see is exactly like the part that you do see.
Why is hero worship dangerous, you ask? Because, it allows us to justify the morally wrong. For example, it is morally wrong to take a gun and shoot someone in the head. But, if you put the shooter in uniform and call him a soldier, then he is a "hero." Reality becomes distorted.
Students, alumni, and officials at Penn State are making non-stop excuses for Joe Paterno's actions. They are deflecting criticism and actively spitting in the face of Sandusky's victims. They cannot understand why the rest of the country does not see the Joe Paterno that they see. Their vision is so clouded that they actually thought going to the Penn State game wearing the same color to support the victims was a positive thing. How about boycotting the game? Did that ever cross your mind?
The university, the NCAA, and the Big Ten are criminally negligible in engaging in the same hero worship that the Penn State student body has actively participated in. There are no penalties for Penn State. Nobody is outraged. They are only "saddened."
Let's explore hero worship with regards to the Democratic Party and the President. Liberals have been guilty of dangerous hero worship towards the Democrats which have caused us to lose focus. We treat the President like he is our boyfriend instead of our President. Liberals have not held Obama accountable for continuing many of the hated policies of the Bush Administration. Liberals have not held Obama accountable for cozying up to big business. Liberals have made excuses for the President's failure to increase taxes on the top one percent, while providing help for those who are now homeless due to no fault of their own.
I have no problem with liberals praising the President for the few liberal accomplishments he has, but let's not lose focus simply because he is a Democrat. The Democrats are asking for our vote in the upcoming election. That vote should come with some stipulations. Remember, these men and women are not heroes. They are human. They are every bit as human as Joe Paterno.
Liberals cannot afford to trust the Democrats again. We fell asleep at the wheel for three years. We thought that just having Barack Obama in the White House would be the answer to our problems. Obama had us fighting in about six different countries when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Giving him a Nobel Peace Prize meant that you had to completely dismiss the fact that he is not a peaceful president.
As liberals, we can learn so much from the Penn State scandal. We can learn that most people, even "heroes," are only as good and moral as they are forced to be. It is the reason we have laws in the first place. We have allowed the Democratic Party to take millions of dollars from corporate donors, like Goldman Sacchs, without ever demanding that they hold Goldman Sacchs accountable for their crimes. The Democrats let us down and got away with letting us down. They shouldn't be allowed to do it again.
Now, what the Democrats have done does not equate with the Sandusky scandal, and I am not trying to make that comparison. I am merely suggesting that we saw a hero in Obama rather than a man. Men are flawed, heroes are not. At some point we are going to have to face the fact that we are turning a blind eye to the injustices committed by this administration. We are going to have to stop doing it. Yes, I know the Republicans are worse. That really isn't a valid excuse either.
This Tuesday, the President will give a vanilla State of the Union laying out very moderate, mediocre plan for his last year in office before reelection. After the speech, polls will show an eighty to ninety percent approval rating of the speech. They won't show those numbers because of content, rather they will show those numbers because of the speaker. Liberal voices will fall in line like they always do, and we will have more of the same over the course of this year. The poor, working class, and middle class will continue to be shitted on, while the rich will continue to prosper. Hero worship will once again be the death of justice in the United States.
http://www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/liberalvoice1776
As you have probably heard by now Penn State University long-time head coach, Joe Paterno passed away today. There are very mixed feelings about the former coach, and I personally believe that he should be loathed, rather than celebrated, for the horrific cover up of child molestation committed by Jerry Sandusky. The only reason there are mixed feelings about his passing is because he has been a great football coach, and in the United States sports, and even more so, money in sports really reigns king.
Joe Paterno meant winning to Penn State for over thirty years, which in turn meant millions of dollars floating Penn State's way each and every year. People from the organization are praising and revering this terrible bastard in a way they would not had he just been your average CEO. They are placing football above morality and human decency. There are many things that are forgivable in life. Covering up child rape is not one of them.
Praising someone like Paterno engages you in the dangerous world of hero worship. Dismissing and making excuses for a great athlete or coach because you perceive them to be in life how they are on the field, is childish behavior, and furthermore, it is dangerous behavior. How far are you willing to go?
Now, hero worship is not limited to football or even sports by any means. Hero worship resides in politics, work, religion, and almost every walk of life. People who are great at what they do, fool you into believing that the part of them you do not see is exactly like the part that you do see.
Why is hero worship dangerous, you ask? Because, it allows us to justify the morally wrong. For example, it is morally wrong to take a gun and shoot someone in the head. But, if you put the shooter in uniform and call him a soldier, then he is a "hero." Reality becomes distorted.
Students, alumni, and officials at Penn State are making non-stop excuses for Joe Paterno's actions. They are deflecting criticism and actively spitting in the face of Sandusky's victims. They cannot understand why the rest of the country does not see the Joe Paterno that they see. Their vision is so clouded that they actually thought going to the Penn State game wearing the same color to support the victims was a positive thing. How about boycotting the game? Did that ever cross your mind?
The university, the NCAA, and the Big Ten are criminally negligible in engaging in the same hero worship that the Penn State student body has actively participated in. There are no penalties for Penn State. Nobody is outraged. They are only "saddened."
Let's explore hero worship with regards to the Democratic Party and the President. Liberals have been guilty of dangerous hero worship towards the Democrats which have caused us to lose focus. We treat the President like he is our boyfriend instead of our President. Liberals have not held Obama accountable for continuing many of the hated policies of the Bush Administration. Liberals have not held Obama accountable for cozying up to big business. Liberals have made excuses for the President's failure to increase taxes on the top one percent, while providing help for those who are now homeless due to no fault of their own.
I have no problem with liberals praising the President for the few liberal accomplishments he has, but let's not lose focus simply because he is a Democrat. The Democrats are asking for our vote in the upcoming election. That vote should come with some stipulations. Remember, these men and women are not heroes. They are human. They are every bit as human as Joe Paterno.
Liberals cannot afford to trust the Democrats again. We fell asleep at the wheel for three years. We thought that just having Barack Obama in the White House would be the answer to our problems. Obama had us fighting in about six different countries when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Giving him a Nobel Peace Prize meant that you had to completely dismiss the fact that he is not a peaceful president.
As liberals, we can learn so much from the Penn State scandal. We can learn that most people, even "heroes," are only as good and moral as they are forced to be. It is the reason we have laws in the first place. We have allowed the Democratic Party to take millions of dollars from corporate donors, like Goldman Sacchs, without ever demanding that they hold Goldman Sacchs accountable for their crimes. The Democrats let us down and got away with letting us down. They shouldn't be allowed to do it again.
Now, what the Democrats have done does not equate with the Sandusky scandal, and I am not trying to make that comparison. I am merely suggesting that we saw a hero in Obama rather than a man. Men are flawed, heroes are not. At some point we are going to have to face the fact that we are turning a blind eye to the injustices committed by this administration. We are going to have to stop doing it. Yes, I know the Republicans are worse. That really isn't a valid excuse either.
This Tuesday, the President will give a vanilla State of the Union laying out very moderate, mediocre plan for his last year in office before reelection. After the speech, polls will show an eighty to ninety percent approval rating of the speech. They won't show those numbers because of content, rather they will show those numbers because of the speaker. Liberal voices will fall in line like they always do, and we will have more of the same over the course of this year. The poor, working class, and middle class will continue to be shitted on, while the rich will continue to prosper. Hero worship will once again be the death of justice in the United States.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Would He Be Satisfied?
By: Shawn Johnson
http://www.libvoice1776.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/liberalvoice1776
In 1964 President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, legally making all people equal in the United States of America. The events that led up to this historic legislation were put into motion due to years of oppression of African-Americans in the United States. Our leaders in Congress and the White House passed this act knowing full well the backlash they would receive from people who didn't share their sense of right and wrong. Conscience made them act. The reaction was so big that it actually restructured the Democratic and Republican parties.
This tremendous act of governmental courage was due in no small part to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who lifted up the oppressed and the poor with a message of hope and peace. Dr. King, a champion of liberals everywhere, transcended liberalism and became an American icon. For centuries to come, children will learn about this great man in schools, on television, through books, and from their elders. Stories will be passed down. Minority athletes, artists, doctors, politicians, and many other professionals will praise this man over the next two months.
From now until the end of February, we will learn a little about Dr. King. The History Channel, LINK TV, PBS and probably a few major networks will run specials, so those of us not alive when King was, can appreciate who he was and what he accomplished. To say that Martin Luther King Jr. is my idol is selling him short. To me, if any mortal man enters the realm of the divine, it is King. This is a very difficult thing for an atheist to say by the way. I don't believe in human gods, or any gods for that matter, and Dr. King was not without flaws. But, the speeches that he gave, and the courage that he put forth, and his ultimate message were perfect. In the face of ultimate adversity, this man chose to fight with his voice rather than his fists. He chose to forgive those who trespassed against him. He chose self-sacrifice for the betterment of mankind.
Now, we as a nation not only have a right, but we have an obligation to honor this man. Not only over the next month or so, but every single day we live. But, there is a segment of this population, mostly in the mainstream media, who believes and purports that his dream is realized. They say things like, "Can you imagine how pleased Dr. King would be, knowing how far we have come as a country? There is an African-American in the White House. Segregation has been lifted in the schools. People from all walks of life work together, go to church together, and even marry outside their race."
I have their answer. The answer is, while Dr. King would appreciate the fact that we are not medievil bigots we were in the 1960's, he would certainly not be pleased. If he were alive today, he would be outraged. He would be verbally tearing apart our government and our corporate media for its unfettered support of illegal wars. He would be speaking out against those who still oppress homosexuals, women, African-Americans, and every other minority group in this country. He would march with OWS in a New York minute.
Dr. King would be pleased? Are you kidding me? "Oh, Dr. King would be so happy with us that we don't take fire hoses to Negroes anymore! Oh, I would be loved by Dr. King because I have a friend who's colored." The best one I heard may be from Donald Trump though, saying, "I have always had a great relationship with the Blacks." His relationship with them was so great, he never had to ask if they appreciate being called, "the Blacks."
Oh, we are such a great country, aren't we? We're a Christian nation, don't ya know? We treat others as we would want to be treated!
Please! Dr. King is rolling over in his grave watching the racist garbage that permeates this country while being passed off as "normal" behavior. When African-American communities continue to be the poorest in the nation, when the factories that employed hundreds of thousands of minorities are moved overseas, and when the biggest banks took over $7,000,000,000,000 (I put the zeroes there for effect) without any intent of ever paying it back, and you think Dr. King would be like the Russian guy in the 1980's commercials saying, "What a country!"
How do I know that Dr. King would be pissed right now? Because those that stood with him, that are now demonized by the media and right wing in this country, are outraged as well. Do you think for one minute that Dr. King, if alive today, would have a shred of credibility with the white community? He would get about the same treatment from the right wing media that is afforded to Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Tavis Smiley, Professor Cornel West, Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey, or Andrew Young. Let's face it; this country reveres Dr. King, because he is no longer alive. That is not to say all Americans would see it that way, but enough to make a huge difference.
The other men and women who marched alongside King are told that the problems they were fighting in the 1960's no longer exist. This is racism in its purest form. Denying racism is the new racism. Do you think for one minute that Dr. King would have nothing to say about this?
When he died, MLK had a 25% approval rating amongst the public. We are simply a country that always has nice things to say about the dead. This is not an admirable quality. We need to tell the truth, regardless of feelings. Most of what MLK stood for is still abhorred by the right wing in this country. How can they even pretend to honor someone that they never agreed with and still do not agree with to this day. They don't admire his courage, and they think he was simply a troublemaker that ruined their glorious country. When they say, "I want my country back!" They are referring to the 1950's before Dr. King ruined everything with his directive of peaceful protest.
Dr. King would be on the opposite side of right wing voters on an array of issues. Welfare, immigration, war, torture, woman's right to choose, gay rights, gun rights, democratic socialism, and you name it, King would certainly be chastised as a liberal, socialist, communist, and pretty much every label he was given by the right in the 1960's. The things that he would be called today would all be code for the word they can't say anymore.
So please, the next time you right wingers feel the urge to hate liberals with all of your heart, next January make sure that you are working on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And, yes I am talking to you, Glenn Beck. Stop patronizing the clinically insane audience that tunes into your radio show every day. You people have nothing in common with Dr. King or the Civil Rights Movement. When someone like Sarah Palin looks at a crowd of all white supporters and says, "This is the real America," I am not confused for one second as to what she means, just as I am not confused about Mike Huckabee's meaning when he says, "Obama just isn't one of us." And, we won't even get into Newt Gingrich's assault on the poor black community.
Make no mistake; Dr. King would be incensed that this type of blatant racism is coming from those who wish to lead us. The votes these bigots receive are nothing more than mounting approval for their racism.
As for the rest of you, who believe in King's message and what he stood for, start honoring him! Stand up for someone less fortunate than you. Bring a coat to a cold and tired homeless person. Tell a poor immigrant that your country is his country. Donate your time to help kids in poor neighborhoods. Get your head out of your ass with the President of the United States, and protest until he stops feeding the military industrial complex. Stop voting for idiots who promise to balance budgets with lower taxes and increased military spending (Mitt Romney). Mostly, reject racism, homophobia, and social injustice whenever you come across it. Speak out against it. Fight for something that may not personally affect you. Like King once said, "Tolerating injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
There is a reason that we honor great people. It is so we never let their sacrifices die in vain. It is not only to educate the populace, but it is also to create more great people. The country needs leaders right now. The only question is, will these leaders ever show up?
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In 1964 President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, legally making all people equal in the United States of America. The events that led up to this historic legislation were put into motion due to years of oppression of African-Americans in the United States. Our leaders in Congress and the White House passed this act knowing full well the backlash they would receive from people who didn't share their sense of right and wrong. Conscience made them act. The reaction was so big that it actually restructured the Democratic and Republican parties.
This tremendous act of governmental courage was due in no small part to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who lifted up the oppressed and the poor with a message of hope and peace. Dr. King, a champion of liberals everywhere, transcended liberalism and became an American icon. For centuries to come, children will learn about this great man in schools, on television, through books, and from their elders. Stories will be passed down. Minority athletes, artists, doctors, politicians, and many other professionals will praise this man over the next two months.
From now until the end of February, we will learn a little about Dr. King. The History Channel, LINK TV, PBS and probably a few major networks will run specials, so those of us not alive when King was, can appreciate who he was and what he accomplished. To say that Martin Luther King Jr. is my idol is selling him short. To me, if any mortal man enters the realm of the divine, it is King. This is a very difficult thing for an atheist to say by the way. I don't believe in human gods, or any gods for that matter, and Dr. King was not without flaws. But, the speeches that he gave, and the courage that he put forth, and his ultimate message were perfect. In the face of ultimate adversity, this man chose to fight with his voice rather than his fists. He chose to forgive those who trespassed against him. He chose self-sacrifice for the betterment of mankind.
Now, we as a nation not only have a right, but we have an obligation to honor this man. Not only over the next month or so, but every single day we live. But, there is a segment of this population, mostly in the mainstream media, who believes and purports that his dream is realized. They say things like, "Can you imagine how pleased Dr. King would be, knowing how far we have come as a country? There is an African-American in the White House. Segregation has been lifted in the schools. People from all walks of life work together, go to church together, and even marry outside their race."
I have their answer. The answer is, while Dr. King would appreciate the fact that we are not medievil bigots we were in the 1960's, he would certainly not be pleased. If he were alive today, he would be outraged. He would be verbally tearing apart our government and our corporate media for its unfettered support of illegal wars. He would be speaking out against those who still oppress homosexuals, women, African-Americans, and every other minority group in this country. He would march with OWS in a New York minute.
Dr. King would be pleased? Are you kidding me? "Oh, Dr. King would be so happy with us that we don't take fire hoses to Negroes anymore! Oh, I would be loved by Dr. King because I have a friend who's colored." The best one I heard may be from Donald Trump though, saying, "I have always had a great relationship with the Blacks." His relationship with them was so great, he never had to ask if they appreciate being called, "the Blacks."
Oh, we are such a great country, aren't we? We're a Christian nation, don't ya know? We treat others as we would want to be treated!
Please! Dr. King is rolling over in his grave watching the racist garbage that permeates this country while being passed off as "normal" behavior. When African-American communities continue to be the poorest in the nation, when the factories that employed hundreds of thousands of minorities are moved overseas, and when the biggest banks took over $7,000,000,000,000 (I put the zeroes there for effect) without any intent of ever paying it back, and you think Dr. King would be like the Russian guy in the 1980's commercials saying, "What a country!"
How do I know that Dr. King would be pissed right now? Because those that stood with him, that are now demonized by the media and right wing in this country, are outraged as well. Do you think for one minute that Dr. King, if alive today, would have a shred of credibility with the white community? He would get about the same treatment from the right wing media that is afforded to Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Tavis Smiley, Professor Cornel West, Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey, or Andrew Young. Let's face it; this country reveres Dr. King, because he is no longer alive. That is not to say all Americans would see it that way, but enough to make a huge difference.
The other men and women who marched alongside King are told that the problems they were fighting in the 1960's no longer exist. This is racism in its purest form. Denying racism is the new racism. Do you think for one minute that Dr. King would have nothing to say about this?
When he died, MLK had a 25% approval rating amongst the public. We are simply a country that always has nice things to say about the dead. This is not an admirable quality. We need to tell the truth, regardless of feelings. Most of what MLK stood for is still abhorred by the right wing in this country. How can they even pretend to honor someone that they never agreed with and still do not agree with to this day. They don't admire his courage, and they think he was simply a troublemaker that ruined their glorious country. When they say, "I want my country back!" They are referring to the 1950's before Dr. King ruined everything with his directive of peaceful protest.
Dr. King would be on the opposite side of right wing voters on an array of issues. Welfare, immigration, war, torture, woman's right to choose, gay rights, gun rights, democratic socialism, and you name it, King would certainly be chastised as a liberal, socialist, communist, and pretty much every label he was given by the right in the 1960's. The things that he would be called today would all be code for the word they can't say anymore.
So please, the next time you right wingers feel the urge to hate liberals with all of your heart, next January make sure that you are working on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And, yes I am talking to you, Glenn Beck. Stop patronizing the clinically insane audience that tunes into your radio show every day. You people have nothing in common with Dr. King or the Civil Rights Movement. When someone like Sarah Palin looks at a crowd of all white supporters and says, "This is the real America," I am not confused for one second as to what she means, just as I am not confused about Mike Huckabee's meaning when he says, "Obama just isn't one of us." And, we won't even get into Newt Gingrich's assault on the poor black community.
Make no mistake; Dr. King would be incensed that this type of blatant racism is coming from those who wish to lead us. The votes these bigots receive are nothing more than mounting approval for their racism.
As for the rest of you, who believe in King's message and what he stood for, start honoring him! Stand up for someone less fortunate than you. Bring a coat to a cold and tired homeless person. Tell a poor immigrant that your country is his country. Donate your time to help kids in poor neighborhoods. Get your head out of your ass with the President of the United States, and protest until he stops feeding the military industrial complex. Stop voting for idiots who promise to balance budgets with lower taxes and increased military spending (Mitt Romney). Mostly, reject racism, homophobia, and social injustice whenever you come across it. Speak out against it. Fight for something that may not personally affect you. Like King once said, "Tolerating injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
There is a reason that we honor great people. It is so we never let their sacrifices die in vain. It is not only to educate the populace, but it is also to create more great people. The country needs leaders right now. The only question is, will these leaders ever show up?
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