Harry Reid Gives Me Credibility, Which Is More Than I Can Say For Him

I love it when “progressive” Democrats put me down for stating that there’s not much difference between Democrats and Republicans because then Harry Reid goes and proves me right.  Actually, Reid also proves the BIG difference between Democrats and Republicans: with the Republicans, you know what you’ve got. They are overtly destructive to the middle class and you can see through their every lie.  The Harry Reid Democrat talks about introducing liberal legislation but that’s as far as he goes—just talk.  Dianne Feinstein got the assault weapons bill out of committee with great fanfare.  The majority of Americans are on record as supporting a total ban on assault weapons. So what does Reid do? He refuses to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate. Why? Because he claims he only has 40 votes and not the 60 required to end a filibuster.  And why is there still a filibuster in the Senate?  Because Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, left it in place despite all the calls from liberal Senators to have it eliminated.

Oh sure, Reid may introduce the assault weapons ban as an amendment to another bill the Senate Republicans may be forced to vote for, but he knows any gun control legislation is DOA in the House, so once again he looks like a good guy instead of the weasely wimp that he is.

Why would he do this? Because Harry Reid is a lousy and incompetent Majority Leader.  In the House, Speaker John Boehner typifies how the GOP frames itself.  He’s just as incompetent as Reid, but he projects the image visually and aurally of a politician at the peak of his power, which in a way is true because the Tea Party still controls the House as it gives him his marching orders.  In fact, the Republicans ALWAYS act as if they’re in power.  With Reid, he always acts—or refuses to act—as if he’s AFRAID of losing power.  It’s his timidity that is projected loud and clear visually and aurally. But in his case, he may be the Senate Majority Leader but it is clearly the coalition of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the fake Democrats who control the Senate.

Reid has FIFTY-THREE Democrats in his Senate, and he can only convince FORTY of them to vote for the assault weapons ban.  Fake Democrats like Heidi Heitkamp , Max Baucus and Mark Pryor may be proud of their pro-gun stance and their Republican-friendly stance on other major issues, but some other stealth fake Democrats get just plain worried about having their names linked to a “No” vote on banning assault weapons, especially with 2014 looming ever closer.  If Reid keeps the filibuster in place, these phonies are spared the embarrassment of revealing their right wing natures to their possibly more liberal constituents since the vote will be blocked by the Republican filibuster.  A real majority leader would tell the fake Democrats to either toe the party line or get used to not getting any prestigious committee assignments or pork for their home states.  The only choice left to those phony Democrats would be to switch parties and take their chances with the voters in the next election. But Harry Reid isn’t a real majority leader.

Another handy use of the filibuster is that enables Reid the opportunity to position himself as a Democrat, to excoriate the Republicans for acting like Republicans,  and to otherwise do absolutely NOTHING in the way of bringing Democratic legislation to the floor of the Senate.  It’s all for show and—that’s all, folks!

Reid is too much of a chicken heart to employ the tactic of introducing the assault weapons ban to the Senate and then sitting back and allowing the Republicans to preen and filibuster it until it is dead.  Let the Republicans take the hit come 2014 for their blocking of stricter gun ownership laws and their focus on pushing anti-abortion ones.

Trouble is, there are fellow Democrats who might be forced to publicly take sides during the filibuster, and we wouldn’t want to embarrass our fellow Democrats by having them unmask themselves to the national electorate as the gun nuts their constituents already know they are, would we?  Hence, the safe protection of the filibuster which also enables Harry Reid to do absolutely nothing and get plenty well for not doing it.  Lyndon B. Johnson may have been a scoundrel, but he knew how to get Democrats to be DEMOCRATS and pass laws that would benefit the country as a whole.  With a Democratic majority in the Senate, no Democrat crossed him and no Republican caused much trouble if they knew what was good for them, professionally and personally.  If Reid had been Senate Majority Leader in the sixties, we wouldn’t have to worry about cuts to Medicare and Medicaid because neither program would exist.  I’d hate to think what other programs—Social Security—would also not be around had Reid been head of the Senate in 1935.

At least with Republicans you know what you’ve got: they intend to cut all social programs out of existence.  With Reid, he talks about protecting social programs and then agrees to start implementing these same cuts behind closed doors.

I’m a Liberal—Not A Progressive

I just found out today I had been kicked out of a “progressive” Facebook group. This illustrates why I consider myself a Liberal and not a progressive. Apparently, progressives believe that it is dangerous and divisive to criticize a Democratic president. Liberals believe calling a right of center Republican masquerading as a Democratic president is delusional. We believe that cherry picking the good things he’s done while ignoring the bad stuff makes no sense because to ignore all that bad stuff is to perpetuate electing people to the presidency who will do some good but also do some really bad stuff that’s going to hurt a lot of people for years to come.

Call me either an idealist or a naysayer, but I’m at the point where I want a president I can be truly proud of; a president who  puts people before banks, who is truly liberal and not only when it comes to certain social issues.  If we continue to stick to the party line and support Obama just because he’s a Democrat, then we’re doomed to repeat this error in 2014 if Hillary Clinton is elected.  What people like the administrator of the ‘progressive” group fail to take into consideration is that many people vote Republican because they see no difference between that candidate and the Democratic one,  or they took a leap of faith and voted for the Democrat in the last election and feel they got burned.

A great many people who call themselves conservatives would vote for a liberal candidate if that person could break down his stance on the issues so that people could clearly see how they would benefit.  Obama remains horribly inept at communication which is why so many people still oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but readily support the different provisions that benefit them personally.  It’s why many people favor cutting entitlements spending until it’s explained to them that these are not entitlements and cutting the programs will hurt them in their senior years or when they get seriously ill.

Progressive group administrator, I’m not a “progressive” Democratic sheep and so, you’re right, I didn’t belong in your group.  I DON’T want Hillary in 2016. I don’t even want Michelle.  I want a president with true liberal bona fides who embraces and will fight for actual change. That person may not be a Democrat but from an entirely new coalition party.  I don’t want to again be forced to vote for someone who talks “change” but maintains business (literally) as usual. I don’t want “progressive” change in small increments, which is a definition of progressive.  I want as much change as a truly effective, powerful and competent president can push through Congress.  We saw that during the FDR and LBJ administrations.  This country is sick; it may be dying, and it needs a Liberal dose of medicine to cure it.

Liberal Talk Shows—Best P.R. Right Wingers Ever Had

I turned on John Fugelsang’s Current TV show last night just for a moment but saw what epitomizes the frustrating state of most liberal talk shows today. Fugelsang and a panel were talking about Ann Coulter’s latest spew of vomit.  I have no idea what she said—and I don’t care. Once I saw what the topic was I turned off the show.

I don’t give a crap about Coulter but what bothers me is that I bet she gets more air time and mention on liberal talk shows than on Fox News.  I don’t know how many times she’s been on the Daily Show but I bet it’s more times than Stewart has had Bernie Sanders or Paul Krugman on.  I can’t stand liberal show segments like this one on Fugelsang or Stephanie Miller’s “Right Wing World” that discuss or play back comments made by right wingers for the sole purpose of fomenting ire and saying “Isn’t what they said OUTRAGEOUS????” The fact is hardly any wingers are watching Fugelsang and Miller so they’re preaching to the goddamn liberal choir who are already fully aware that anything Coulter says is self-serving, intentionally inflammatory shit. And guess what? If liberal shows didn’t repeat what was said—we wouldn’t even know about it.

OK, so Coulter first said whatever she said at CPAC and perhaps repeated it on Fox. So what? The people she would influence are already voting Republican and she’s not going to change or sway any Democratic minds so what the hell is the big deal? What WOULD be a big deal is if liberals like Fugelsang and Stewart would stop repeating her statements or give her a platform on which to make these statement she would be a lot less well-known. I’m sure Fox and the Repugs buy a lot of her books to boost the sales figures and then give them away free to whoever wants a copy.

The fact is the Right has not one pundit worth a shit so it loves when liberals do their p.r. work for them, even if it’s just chastising an assembly line right wing idiot pundit who’s never made a logical or incisive political observation in her professional life.  Just ignore her and those of her ilk. If Coulter had to maintain her infamy solely with her Fox appearances, she would go the way of both Sarah Palin and Dick Morris—both of whom Fox tossed overboard.

When I tune into MSNBC or Current TV, I don’t want to hear how lousy and corrupt Republicans and right wingers are—I already know that.  I want to hear what liberals and Democrats are actively doing to take our country back. And honestly, I haven’t been hearing much in a long while.

Current TV Is Now Passé

These days I’m less miffed at Al Gore for selling Current TV. Truth is, I barely watch the channel anymore. I turned on Stephanie Miller yesterday and she was in full self-admitted Obama apologist mode, taking on a caller who was saying Obama should withdraw our troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014 because soldiers and civilians continue to die there. Miller’s response?  He campaigned on withdrawing the troops at the end of 2014, as if, duh, why should he speed things up if he didn’t have to? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The caller also made the point that no bankster has gone to prison under Obama’s watch. Miller admitted that was true. She even acknowledged that while Sen. Elizabeth Warren is advocating charges be brought against the banksters, she doesn’t work for the DOJ.  I was surprised Miller gave the caller THAT much. I heard on NPR about a woman who retired at 59 to work on a research project that was important to her. The banksters stole her $100,000 retirement fund and now, at 67, she had to go back to work and will work for the rest of her life. I am positive that stories like that don’t shake Miller’s faith in and advocacy for Obama in the slightest, because Miller has her career and retirement in fine shape, thank you very much.

As for the other Current TV hosts, I love Jennifer Granholm, Cenk Uygur, and John Fugelsang but in the evenings, it’s all food shows and Hotel Impossible (THE best makeover show on TV and the only one that is not phony.  Anthony Melchiorri is head and shoulders above all the other guys.) all the time in our house.  All politics all the time just gets both frustrating and infuriating since there isn’t much any of us can do until the next election cycle–hopefully. Joy Behar’s show is too much fluff–the British do celebrity interviews funnier and better.

Sometimes I’ll turn on MSNBC but typically, the hosts have their regular cast of contributers who appear on all shows, making pundit comments about stuff I already figured out (“The Republicans just want to make Obama look bad.” “The GOP think Marco Rubio will be their big star in 2016.”) So then I turn the channel off again. At least with food shows, you learn something new, unless you’re watching the same episodes of “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” and “Chopped” for the billionth time.

The Callousness Of The Texas Center for Defense of Life And Its Lawyers

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/13/16949097-pregnant-texas-teen-files-suit-against-parents-in-abortion-feud?lite=

Let’s be clear about this: it is not the pregnant sixteen-year-old who is alleging her parents are coercing her into having a baby, it’s the Texas Center for Defense of Life.  And neither the Texas Center for Defense of Life nor its lawyers give one whit about this pregnant sixteen-year-old girl or her unborn, nor do they care abou the physical and emotional trauma she’ll undergo during childbirth. They don’t give a damn about the ridicule and comments a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl has to endure from the other students at her school.  They’re only concerned with their Cause, which is absolute control over the female body.  And like all phonies who pretend to hold unborn life sacred, after the baby is born to a sixteen-year-old girl and her parents are saddled with the costs of feeding it, clothing it, daycare, healthcare, and schooling, the Texas Center for Defense of Life and its lawyers and its legal fund will be long gone.

I bet you these same “religious” Right Republicans are the same people fighting to get Obamacare and welfare laws repealed so that poor people and people in general who can’t afford healthcare or to feed another mouth are stuck with expenses they can’t afford while the Texas Center for Defense of Life and its lawyers pat themselves on the back for saving another unborn “life” while throwing into turmoil the lives of the living.

The audacity, the callousness of these so-called “religious” right folks that they will take a child to court to have a judge force her to give birth to a child she is emotionally and psychologically unfit to care for a baby, let alone raise it.  A judgment mandating the baby be born would mean the pregnant teen’s parents will be forced to raise another child they had never planned for.

There might be some individuals who are members of the Texas Center for Defense of Life and its legal team who belive in their misguided and evil cause.  But for the majority, it’s all about money and power. Those Right To Life centers whose soul purpose is to rob other living humans of THEIR rights collect a lot of money in contributions, and lots of money buys lots of power when giving to politicians who owe their elections to lots of money from Right To Life centers and legal teams.  Defending unborns is just a means to an end, which is the same reason why the NRA is fighting mandatory background checks for all retail gun purchases. For Right To Lifers, the more they fight abortions, the more money they make.  For the NRA, the more they enable people to kill other people, the more money they make.

That’s what makes the Right Wing so strange:  One sect tries to ensure babies get born while another sect tries to ensure these babies are shot to death as soon as they reach school age.

Hillary Clinton Kicks Some Pipsquawk Republican Ass

I’m no Hillary Clinton fan, but Chris Matthews aptly described her today at the Senate hearing as Gulliver surrounded by Republican Lilliputians trying to bring her down. The three main “pipsquawks” were John McCain, Ron Johnson, and Rand Paul.

McCain continues to be delusional if he still pictures himself as having any political influence when the reality is he’s an old man desperately trying to hang onto fame before he is either voted out or retires come 2016. His “joke” about waterboarding John Kerry leads me to believe that McCain has lied all these years about being tortured as a POW himself. He might have asked his captors to break his arms after spilling his guts to make him look good.

Hillary withered Ron Johnson as she put him in his place with her defiant answer after his publicity-seeking questions that were utterly simplistic. She in essence told him that if he had read both the public and classified ARB reports, he would know what he was talking about. He’s still probably so withered he put in a call to Rush Limbaugh asking him to ship over a carton of Viagra.

As for Rand Paul, who pontificated about what he would have done had he been president when Benghazi was hit, Hillary just looked at him without comment. Her look was the visual equivalent of Michelle Obama’s eyeroll at John Boehner.

I still wouldn’t vote for her, but I definitely like the Hillary Clinton I saw today. I hope President Obama follows her example in dealing the Congressional Republiputians.

NPR: Nonstop Propagandizing for Republicans

Once again monitoring NPR and still confirming they are just as anti-Obama/Democrat, pro-Republican as Fox, CBS Radio, or ABC Radio News. They have been framing their “fiscal cliff” reporting as the problem we have here is a lack of respect between the two political parties. If only one of them would be the grown up in the room and negotiate in good faith and be willing to compromise like the parties did in the old days, this would be settled quickly.

NPR loves going into how all the spending cuts are going to hurt us all, but they give no context or history as to how this whole thing came about, not even when they bring their so-called analyst Cokie Roberts–one of the biggest hacks with a most undeserved reputation–to talk about it. No one brings up that the Republicans brought this all about with the acquiescence of the Democrats last year. In return for voting to raise the debt ceiling the Republicans demanded spending cuts in “entitlement” programs while the Democrats hang tough for defense spending cuts. The idea was that if budget and tax reform talks ever got stalemated these spending cuts would kick in.  Other middle class staples like the payroll tax holiday would end as well. These changes were considered so draconian that no Congress in its right mind–meaning THESE guys–would ever allow these spending cuts to tax place. Obama dutifully signed this legislation–which also brought you the dead-on-arrival Super Committee–probably knowing all the time the Republicans would take us over that very cliff the following year.

But NPR insists on giving its listeners none of this context. They hold their reporting to “oh some terrible things are about to happen if Congress doesn’t start acting its age”, again attempting to create a false equivalency between the two sides.  There is not one mention that the Democrats have put forth a serious plan with specific measures to increase revenue by raising taxes on the top 2%, but they do report Republicans insist on closing unspecified tax loopholes, which NPR then claims would raise more revenue than the tax increases, which really aren’t tax increases so much as ending the George W. Bush tax cuts.  They also insist on “entitlements reform” although it’s been proven Social Security adds not dollar one to the deficit and Obamacare has already mandated Medicare provider payment reforms.  If the Republicans would agree to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices—which their Medicare Part D prohibits—that alone would save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years. To lend themselves credibility, NPR quoted talking heads from two economic policy think tanks without telling us anything about these think tanks—such as if they were right or left wing or middle oriented, or if they were sponsored surrogates for the Koch Brothers or George Soros or the like.  Or they interview Tom Wilson, president and CEO of Allstate Insurance—universally regarded as the worst insurance company in the country—to comment on the Congressional budget impasse.  His astute observation?  Both parties lack respect for each other  and we still need entitlements reform.  He also admitted that after we go over the fiscal cliff no one in the insurance industry will lose their jobs because profits are still up. That should come as no surprise to any Allstate policy holder who has filed a claim and tried to collect what they were promised while Wilson pocketed a 20% pay increase in 2011, raising his salary and compensation and bonuses to $11.2 million.

They ended their fiscal cliff story today with Obama’s scheduled visit to Detroit and that “some Republicans say” Obama is still acting like he’s on the campaign trail.  Of course NPR didn’t add that Detroit is expected to go broke by the end of the month, which might kick in Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Manager law where he takes over the governing of a city through a hand-picked surrogate.  NPR also failed to add that  Michigan Republicans have passed legislation that Snyder is about to sign into law that will kill the union movement, lower wages and reduce or end benefits that union members and non-members working in union shops enjoy.  Obama has every right—in fact an obligation—to stand with workers in Detroit and rally them to support his budget and support the right of unions to exist for the protection and benefit of workers.

You would think that with the resounding Obama and Democratic victories of last month NPR would see that their bread is buttered on the left side and no longer on the right, but they don’t.  And this could be bad news for them as NPR heads into its annual holiday pledge drive.  Alienating liberals—who historically are much more generous individual donors than conservatives—is not a good idea unless NPR is confident that its Republican-leaning corporate sponsors are already in the bag.