“Bipartisanship” In Action

How successful has the bipartisanship only strategy of governing by “Democrats” worked for Americans?  Pretty damn well … if you’re a Republican Teabagger.  One only need look at recent developments to see just how well this strategy has worked to enact liberal policies:

Michiganders face lower unemployment insurance payments and stricter eligibility rules.

Kansas is trying to become the state with the fewest abortion-licensed facilities: 0.  Remember, abortion is a legal medical procedure.  Other states are trying to ban this legal procedure, regardless of rape, incest, or health of the mother.  Are the Teabaggers screaming that this is a prime example of a big, intrusive government limiting freedom?  Hell no, they’re not.  They have a Black Man in the White House to delegitimize.

Democratic “leaders” are seriously considering ending Social Security and Medicaid.  Perhaps they’re volunteering to do it just so the Republican Teabaggers won’t have to.

The cost of illegal, undeclared, unpaid invasions and occupations the U.S. has perpetrated since 2001?  $3.7 trillion.  Perhaps those Democratic “leaders’ should work to stop the occupations.  That could just stop our hurtling into greater and greater debts and deficits.

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations set another record high this year: 394.35ppm.  The globe was the warmest in 2010 than at any other point in recorded history – and likely at any time in tens of thousands of years.  2010 and 2011 have seen more extreme weather events as a result of climate change than at any point in recorded history.  These conditions will only get worse as long as Democrats keep acting “bipartisanshipy” with Republican Teabaggers and never stand up to the dirty energy industry.

So to all the pro-”centrists”: how well is the country doing?  This list took less than 5 minutes to assemble.  There are hundreds of other similar examples.  Maybe it’s time Democrats demanded their elected officials do what they promise on the campaign trail or go work to elect a different Democrat.  This is what voting for the lesser of two evils has brought us.  We’re still walking down the path toward evil.  It’s time to do something else.

Obama Follows Bush In Abusing War Powers Act

The Obama administration has sent a report to Congress detailing why it doesn’t need the legislature’s approval for continued American military action in the Libya theater.  To no one’s surprise, the Teabaggers don’t like the administration’s justification.  But here’s the problem with that: the Teabaggers were silent when it came to Bush & Afghanistan and Bush & Iraq.  No declaration of war was made by the Congress in 2001 or 2003.  And before this argument gets construed to be partisan, I will gladly point out that far too few so-called Democrats challenged the Bush administration regarding their abuse of executive powers.

So more to the point, Congress (members from both parties) is complaining that they aren’t satisfied with the administration’s approach to the Libya crisis.  While I agree with the basis of their argument, it’s hypocritical for the Teabaggers especially but for most Democrats as well to decide now is the time to complain.  Now that Congress hasn’t been handed a $1.5 Trillion budget surplus; now that Congress abdicated its responsibilities with regard to Afghanistan (where we’ve been invaders/occupiers for over 10 years now); now that Congress abdicated its responsibilities with regard to Iraq (where a clearly illegal invasion and occupation has lasted over 8 years); now that Congress extended unpaid for tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% of Americans & American mega-corporations; now, Congress is saying there is no imminent national security threat and that the costs are worrisome (even though the costs of Afghanistan’s occupation are estimated to be $455 Billion and the costs of Iraq’s occupation are estimated to be $800 Billion and both represent failed states and our own country has less national security now than it did in Oct 2001).

Go cry somewhere else, Congress.  This American citizen was calling for security and financial accountability since the 9/11 attacks and was roundly ignored by both parties.  Now the Teabaggers want to end Medicare and Social Security because they couldn’t find the courage to stand up to their fellow party members during the Bush Regime?  Now the Democrats want to continue the Bush Regime’s disastrous economic policies?  Only today’s corrupted corporate media would be able to presen such nonsense as “news”, while failing to hold themselves accountable for their lack of action.

Take note, Teabaggers & CorporateDems alike: it’s far too late to pretend to be angry that you decided you wanted to be irrelevant as a part of the government.  By giving away your powers when “your guy” was in the White House, you lost any valid argument trying to claim them when “the other guy” is in the White House.

Take note, Obama administration: your actions are likely as illegal as the Bush Regime’s were.  Nothing is different just because you have a different letter after your name or just because there’s a black man in charge now.  The Constitutional Scholar is proving himself to be anything but.  I have lost nearly all of the respect I had for Obama.  This isn’t the change we voted for.  This isn’t leadership.  This is continued capitalistic cronyism and it’s as disgusting now as it was 3 years ago.

Max Baucus & The Deficit

Max Baucus is a Democratic Senator from Montana.  He’s been making noise in the past year about wanting to control our deficits, while telling the American people that health care reform measures would have to be paid for with money from other policies.  He had a quote lately about unemployment insurance.  Some folks have been out of work and unable to find a new job for a very long time.  Currently, unemployment insurance runs out after 99 weeks.  Congress did a poor job in the past year or so extending those benefit payments for more weeks than was “normal” in the 2000s.  It seems Sen. Baucus doesn’t think unemployment insurance payments should extend beyond the current 99 weeks they’re available:

“You can’t go on forever,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, of Montana, whose panel oversees the benefits program. “I think 99 weeks is sufficient,” he said.

Really, Sen. Baucus?  That’s an interesting position to take, given his record on the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Both were not subjected to the same budget constraints that Sen. Baucus wants to apply to unemployment insurance: there was no requirement that they be paid for so that the deficit wouldn’t increase.  The occupation of Iraq has lasted over 370 weeks.  Where is Sen. Baucus’ “99 weeks” limit?  The occupation of Afghanistan has lasted over 445 weeks.  Where is Sen. Baucus’ “99 weeks” limit?

No the, 99 weeks limit only applies to American workers who through no fault of their own find themselves out of work and unable to be hired for a new one.  They are not providing for their families, their communities or their country.

But the off-budget, deficit-busting occupations of two countries can last forever, as long as Sen. Baucus cares.

It’s good to know what his priorities are.

News Items From The Weekend 2/6/09

A number of items caught my eye in local newspapers over the weekend.  Starting with Friday’s paper:
Pentagon expanding funding to woo world public opinion.  $4.7 billion will be spent on spreading propaganda this year alone.  That’s as much as it spent on body armor for America’s troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006.  Interesting to note where the priorities are.

Deal on stimulus elusive.  In this L.A. Times article, the debate is identified as becoming increasingly partisan.  Darn right it’s becoming more partisan – it’s all Republicans know how to do.  They think delaying recovery and reinvestment in America (not Iraq) will somehow lead to winning elections in 2010.  Good luck with that.

A note here.  Most Cons’ objection to the bill centers around, “There’s not enough tax cuts!”  The Cons implemented every tax cut they could during the Bush years.  Guess how many jobs it created?  The fewest since the Great Depression.  Nearly all of them have since been lost as the Cons’ failed economic policies took full effect.  What do the Cons want in this bill?  More tax cuts to the rich, which won’t create one middle-class job.

Politics collide over road tolls in transporation bill.  When do the Cons like a tax?  When it’s called anything else.  They want tolls on highways that the public have already paid for.  The Cons didn’t fund their maintainence for years as part of their Drown-Government approach.  Tolls aren’t the answer.  How about mass-transit instead?

Lennon or Lenin, it stinks.  Right-wing editorialist David Harsanyi does his part to confuse the details of loans and recovery monies.  He asks:

Why did we just allow the president to dictate the pay of private citizens working in the private sector?

After writing that beggars can’t be choosers, he then asks:

However, in Obama’s trillion-dollar “stimulus plan” rushing through Congress, nearly every sector of the economy will, at one point, have allegedly benefited from taxpayer bounty. Does this mean that all industries can be subjected to similar central control?

There is a big difference between the TARP money financial institutions received and the recovery funds currently being negotiated in Congress.  The former went directly from the federal government to individual corporations who were screaming they were about to fail.  Instead of using the money as the TARP legislation spelled out, those corporations instead used the money to buy other banks and give out $13 billion in executive bonuses – for doing a good job, they said.  President Obama rightfully called them out on the practice.  If they want money from the taxpayers, there will be conditions set on it, just like the conditions customers agree to when asking banks for money.  There is really very little difference.

The recovery money will be provided to generate programs and projects, which will create middle-class jobs.  In contrast, none of the money from the TARP program went to creating middle-class jobs.  The other big difference is individual corporations aren’t begging the federal government for corporate welfare.  The government is instituting the programs under which money will be distributed.  The difference is quite clear to those who take a moment to look for it.

And though we didn’t hear Vladimir Ilyich, we are hearing the creeping sound of centralized Western European top-down economics — a system, where even with all the glorious over-regulations, there is a deep recession.

Ah, the token swipe at other industrialized nations’ economic policies.  Of course, Harsanyi doesn’t mention that the U.S. initiated this recession.  It started here and is getting worse here than in parts of Western Europe.  That simple fact is one of the biggest reasons why Western European countries’ economies have also slid into recession.  The demand from the world’s largest economy has come to an abrupt and very significant halt.  That has to have an effect in today’s interconnected world economies.  To warn U.S. policy makers away from Western European economic policies makes no sense.  They didn’t create the problem.  American Cons did.

Iraqi Bombings

Recent days has seen a dramatic uptick in explosions in Baghdad.

In the first nine days of November, there were at least 19 bombings in Baghdad, compared with 28 for all of October and 22 in September, according to an Associated Press tally.

The story is written from the perspective that it’s somehow amazing such things are happening, given the preceding decrease in violence across Iraq. The corporate media typically ignores the real causes of that decrease: U.S. payments to local Iraqi militias to not attack U.S. troops; ethnic cleansing throughout Baghdad that included mass movements of both Sunnis and Shiites to more “pure” neighborhoods; Moqtada al-Sadr’s temporary truce against American forces. The escalation of the U.S. occupation had little to do with the decrease in violence.

Additionally, and this is something the corporate media almost seems to get correct, the U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S. occupation is due to expire at the end of December. The U.S. is working to extend that authorization and a number of groups within Iraq are working to prevent that from occurring.

The occupation needs to end – the sooner the better. Americans don’t want to occupy Iraq anymore. Iraqis don’t want their country to be occupied anymore. Staying there serves less of a purpose than honest, intense diplomacy across the region – something the Bush “administration” has steadfastly put on the back-burner. I anticipate a different approach by the Obama administration. Having Obama’s team in charge tomorrow wouldn’t be soon enough.

Afghanistan Personnel Levels; Sen. Lieberman; Credit card defaults; Voter Suppression

Here’s something that got no coverage today.  The requested troop buildup in Afghanistan (set for next year) is quickly growing in size.  The ever-present, mysterious “officials” have said for months that trainers and and two additional combat brigades were needed, or about 10,000 more personnel.  Recently, a third combat brigade appeared necessary, putting the number of personnel at 15,000.  Now, an additional 5,000 to 10,000 personnel might be requested.  That would put the total somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000.  There are, of course, over 150,000 U.S. forces currently occupying Iraq.  If McCain were to be elected (thankfully, an increasingly unlikely scenario), where would the 20,000+ personnel come from?  He has no plans to stop occupying Iraq.  Obama, if elected, will face the leftover question: what about the equipment the troops need?  Under Bush, that equipment hasn’t been maintained.  Current estimates of taking care of the maintenance backlog include years of time and billions of dollars.  Expanding operations in Afghanistan isn’t going to make that task any easier.

Sen. Lieberman might lose his committee chairmanship.  It’s about damn time.  He isn’t a Democrat, as seen by more than his b.s. party he formed in 2006.  As chair of the Homeland Security committee, Sen. Lieberman hasn’t held any meaningful hearings on the status of domestic security.  He has allowed himself to be used as a pawn by the worst President America has ever had.

Credit card defaults on the rise.  Not primarily the fault of either banks or borrowers.  It’s the failed CONservative economic policies of keeping workers’ wages low and offering risky credit as the path toward continued consumer spending.  Those policies have allowed executive pay and stock prices to skyrocket in the past 30 years, while workers’ income hasn’t risen.

Fliers in being distributed in minority neighborhoods in Virginia with false information about a change in election day.  It says Republicans are to vote on Nov. 4, while Democrats are to vote on Nov. 5.  There is only one voting day, of course, and that day is Nov. 4.  I’m sure Fox, Drudge and the McCain campaign are going to be all over this immoral voter suppression effort.  Democrats: vote early.  Do not allow the cons to prevent you from voting.

News Items 9/9/08: Iraq Troop Levels, Colorado Drilling Rules; GI Bill; Palin’s Scam

George Bush decided not to change the number of troops holding down our occupation of Iraq for the remainder of his time in office. Like the courageous visionary he is, he’s leaving the decision to the next President.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staff recommended the elimination of the proposed 90-days drilling restriction in some wildlife areas. Imagine if instead of spending millions on lobbying, fuel corporations spent that money on developing new technologies. Imagine if their actions were responsible and moral.

Why won’t John McCain sign the GI Bill? Must be that mavericky thing the corporate media crows so much about.

Sarah Palin billed taxpayers to stay in her own home. $16,951 by herself; $43,490 for her husband (the secessionist) and daughters. Fiscal conservatism in action.

Sarah Palin’s Alaska is a welfare state. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Where does all that money come from to spend on each resident? The rest of the country’s taxpayers. Leeches! The last paragraph sums up the situation very nicely (emphasis in bold is mine):

Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They’re more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers [and community organizers] and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin’s Alaska.

How Will Rep. Salazar Treat the 2008 GI Bill of Rights?

So, Rep. Salazar, which is it? Will you vote to block H.R. 5740, the new GI Bill of Rights, with your Blue Dog caucus? Or will you stand up for the troops whose occupation you have continued to fund?

And can you imagine the outcry that the right-wing machine would initiate if Democrats were threatening to vote against something with “Bill of Rights” in the title? Wake up Dems, this one is a gimme. Push hard on this bill and watch a couple more competitive House seats flip to Democratic control this November. It could also happen with a Senate seat or two.

An Awful Toll

Clinton Ahlquist, Jeffrey Avery, Dace Balcon, Ryan Baum, Scott Brown, Duncan Crookston, Christopher DeGiovine, Dustin Gould, Joshua Hager, Alun Howells, Jason LaFleur, Wade Oglesby, Andrew Olmsted and Andrew Perkins. All of these military personnel were killing in Iraq since Jan. 1 2007. They are part of the group of 4,000 Americans killed in the invasion and occupation of Iraq since hostilities began in 2003.

President Bush and the 30% of Americans who still support him talk about victory in Iraq.  What conditions characterize “victory”?  Because I don’t see how you can win an occupation.  Are there any conditions that Republicans can identify that would indicate to them it’s time to bring our troops back home?  If not, the troops wi’ll never achieve “victory”.  The Republicans’ intent is to keep American troops there forever.  Is that what Americans want?  November will tell us the answer.