I 2001 we took out the government of Afghanistan and replaced it with another, now 8 years later we are about to send more to this country that we bombed to stone age, trying to fix or finish what we started. In 2001 I gave up smoking, 8 years later I started again, I keep telling myself I will quit but in truth I don’t see me doing it.
Palin my queen, my beauty queen, how we missed you when you quit, how we longed for your guidance when you went abroad, how we missed you tweets, nothing can replace Palin, Enough Said.
What happened to it, I know I need it and many more would, what do public option do? why are some against it while others are for it? will there ever be a public option for anyone.
With the Specter’s switch the Democrats have better chance of passing their agenda, however this is exactly what happened during W’s reign. We do want the RNC to survive, the last thing you want in a democracy is a single party. RNC needs to be stronger with better leaders and agenda, the infestation of the far right has made them into a Swine Flu to stay away from.
We all want smaller but pasionate Government, one that helps when needed and stay away when asked to, one thats we can all believe in, however since the election results the hand reached has not been met or accepted, stubern maybe but also stupid, maybe I am wrong and its time for another party that does want to be involved.
If you have been paying any attention to the Obama administration critics lately there has been an extremely disturbing increase in the negative rhetoric that is not only alarming but at face value is completely wrong. And it is not just bandied about by the usual suspects that one would tend to dismiss wholesale because of their affiliation with a certain unnamed cable “news” network (but if a diminutive
furry, red haired dog-like creature may come to mind don’t blame me since I am not naming names).
The words that are starting to creep into their vernacular are tyranny and fascism.
At first I thought, wow, those are heavy words for someone who took office with such promise and hope and a pledge to fix the country’s economic circumstances brought on by unabated corporate greed, ineffective governmental leadership from both sides of the political aisle, and a general populace that thought it their right as citizen’s of the wealthiest, most powerful nation that world has ever known to
achieve home ownership. This confluence of events was the root cause of what many consider the “Perfect Economic Storm”. As both sides put on their thinking caps to decide as to what economic philosophies would best fend off total economic collapse the nation ratcheted up their enthusiasm for what has been described as the most important election season in a lifetime.
On the right you had politicians using this disaster to push an agenda of lower taxes, relaxed regulation and spending cuts which took no one by surprise. One thing you have to admire about the right is their consistency and marriage to an ideal no matter how much it shows a total lack of imagination. No matter that governments at the city, state and federal levels were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy
because with incomes dwindling and commercial spending at historic lows their sources of revenue are drying up quicker than a Parisian hooker on a busy street corner. On the left you had politicians pushing their agenda of unprecedented spending on projects that will put
many people to work and this in turn will increase the tax coffers at every level of government because of the increase of spending that will be a natural side effect of the job stimulation. But at what cost and just what kind of jobs will be created by this “job stimulus package”? Will this spending of revenue that the government doesn’t currently have strap our progeny with debt that will be difficult if not
impossible to dig out of even if this turns out to be the correct solution to a very complex economic circumstance.
In November the people of the nation spoke and solution 2 was the de facto winner as Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. Each solution was properly vetted and discussed and the country decided it was going to take the pro-active path to economic recovery. Obama ascended to the presidency under what is possibly the most trying series of problems in national history. FDR did inherit
the Great Depression from his Republican predecessor but at least he didn’t have a war to jump into for another nine years. Lincoln had the dissolution of the union to worry about but his was one of the fastest growing economies in the world at the outbreak of hostilities. Obama has a whole litany of issues he must deal with that would make the head spin of anyone less masochistic. Here is a list of just some
of the issues needing his direct attention:
So far in the first 90 days he has moved with aggressive resolve in putting in motion his administration’s grand plan to fix all of these ills. The fruit of many of these solutions may not bear for years but no one seems to be working harder to repair the broken doors that house the American Empire. Already we have seen a stemming of negative world attitudes towards the United States. Europe has welcomed
Obama and the hope he brings (if only in their imaginations) can be seen in the receptions he has received in virtually every stop he made. Throngs of people both young and old waited hours for a chance to see and hear him speak. After the last eight years of Bush’s American hegemony and hubris with talk of old Europe (those who opposed his global policies) and new Europe (those who took part in
the coalition of the willing) it was certainly heartwarming to see this sudden reversal of attitudes and it didn’t stop in Europe. It was time to take this show on the road to our southern neighbors and in quick succession the world heard news out of Cuba that a Castro was willing to sit down and discuss all issues currently keeping Cuba on the list of rogue nations. Could it be that the olive leaf that Obama extended
a week earlier to Cuba by relieving many of the restrictions imposed for 50 years was the stimulus for this surprising turn of events? Not to be outdone or out maneuvered by his fellow “socialista” and ever the populist leader who never met a microphone he didn’t like Hugo Chavez has made strong overtones to a change in the relationship or lack thereof, between Venezuela and the United States. Politics is
called “The Art of the Possible” and with the Obama administration it seems that all things are possible.
So where does all of this leave the American conservative movement? After controlling the nation for 20 of the last 28 years they were beginning to feel that their part in the leadership of America was their birthright, an entitlement that they deserved simply because they were conservatives and not because they needed to show America how hard they would work to progress this country into the new
millennium. Instead of losing the election and offering their own olive branch to begin the healing andcontemplate real and workable initiatives to help the nation out of this economic malaise they took to the airwaves and proudly proclaimed that they hope this American President fails which to me seems unconscionable since the failure of the President surely means the failure of us all. Then out of nowhere
many of those commenting for the right began their slow descent into the realm of the surreal and a landscape of absolute irrationality. All reason and logic have escaped their public discourse as they have set about a feeble attempt to undermine all of the initiatives the president was elected to provide. He even attempted to bring in opposition leaders to the oval office to discuss their ideas asking them to
think outside the box and help him come up with viable solutions everyone could live with. The conservatives put their collective heads together and came up with their own bonafide solution to the economic woes: lower taxes, relaxed regulation and spending cuts.
The Obama administration made a valid attempt to bring in the opposition and was willing to set aside political differences for a viable solution that had a bi-partisan flavor that everyone could savor. His rebuff of these worn out ideas was met by the opposition with howls of betrayal. They claimed he reneged on his campaign promise to seek advice and govern in a bi-partisan manner. Obama got his first
depressing lesson in Washington politics. Dogma on both sides runs deep and any attempt to change these positions can only lead to disillusionment and heartbreak.
Out of real world options some conservative commentators have begun using those two words I mentioned earlier, tyranny and fascism, as a description of what they say this administration is heading us towards. Unfortunately no one irresponsibly spouting these words has any idea of their actual meaning and if they did then shame on them for being such ideologues that they let their blind rage at
losing an election drown reason. Tyranny and fascism are polar opposites of what this administration stands for. For arguments sake let’s breakdown these contentions one word at a time.
The dictionary defines tyranny as:
Not one of these definitions applies to the Obama administration. He is neither a tyrant nor an absolute leader. There was no taxation without representation going on here. There is an opposition party and they do not hide from a tyrant when they voice their opinion. Quite the opposite in fact is the reality. They are taking to the airwaves vociferously voicing their opposition. They don’t do this in exile for fear
of brutal suppression of free thought; they do it on the steps of the capitol and at the gates of the White House. They argue in front of cameras and microphones at venues that a true tyrant would surround and eliminate with eye popping precision.
The definition of fascism is:
Again there is no forcible suppressing of opposition going on and the only regimenting of industry and commerce is done so in a temporary fashion to help stop the economy from bottoming out to such a low ebb that the natural flow back from this economic abyss would be years or decades to recover from.
Remember too that these industries that are being regimented came to Washington with hat in hand not with shotgun to head to request governmental assistance in keeping them afloat. It is therefore responsible government to tell these industries that if they are to accept taxpayer money then the traditional laissez faire model of government non interaction with business will have to be adjusted in
order to put a halt to the kinds of practices that led to financial collapse to begin with.
So here is what is so troubling about the use of the words tyranny and fascism when commenting on the Obama administration’s attempts to relieve our economic woes. Words have meaning and to use the wrong words you begin to erode the true meaning of these words and this in turn trivializes those who actually lived in true tyranny. If this is tyranny, well then maybe it wasn’t so bad to walk around the
streets of Berlin with a Star of David sewn onto every garment you owned. Maybe it’s not so bad being rounded up with all of your worldly possessions confiscated and distributed to the cause and then placed in box cars for a long journey to hell. Maybe it’s not so bad to take a bullet to the head just because of a particular affiliation which you happened to be born into. Maybe it’s not so bad that a
government official will knock on your door in the middle of the night and drag away a family member or two or three and you never hear from them again. Maybe it’s not so bad when your family is told to move to a new collective farm and you are now the property of the state. Maybe it’s not so bad that you are starving to death because the government has decided that for the good of the people you are
not to receive enough food to keep a cat alive. I could go on and on but I am beginning to depress myself.
Calling a penguin an aardvark does not make it an aardvark. So too with the use of these words when describing Obama and his attempts at healing a sick nation. I only wish that I had a time machine so that I could take one of these people, sew a Star of David on their clothes and time warp them back to Germany circa 1939 and in the unlikelihood that they would survive the ordeal it is my guess that this
person would NEVER mistake the words tyranny and fascism for liberalism again. And I conclude with the immortal words of Jon Stewart from the Daily Show when he talked about the conservatives usage of this virulent invective by saying, “Hey, you lost the election. It’s supposed to taste like a shit sandwich.” Get over it.
Will L.
I am outraged by the government spending my MONEY on TARP, suprizingly everyone think its their money the government is using to bail out the banks, I don’t think it matters how I feel about TARP and the government spending the money, I just don’t like anyone calling it OUR MONEY, its not OUR MONEY, if it was Where do I go to make a withdrawal of MY MONEY.
I don’t know about you but I am pissed at AIG getting their retention bonuses, who in their right mind would think of such a scheme, but was it?
It seems that we all missed the point, this is an employee contract, no matter how unpalatable it is it was a written contract with the AIG executives, these were a unique bunch, they were the ones placed by AIG to sell this product, their job was now to get rid of them and they were the perfect candidate for it.
Sell they did, they sold over a trillion dollars worth, these are experts and qualified people who lost their jobs at the end of the contract, we can look back now and say they were paid too much, but whom else do you think would have sold it? someone off the street? how long do you think it would have taken to sell them? more than likely few years.
This is a country of laws, just remember that next time.
When will we learn that just like everything else the federal goverment has to provide healthcare for all, we collect taxes to pay for fire protection, police protection and national protection, what can be more important than health protection, we are going to be a third nation if we don’t have health care for all
I hope people realize you can’t run a party by having your top guy be a radio DJ.
Just like everyone else in US we are all watching the outcome of 8, who is for it and who is against it are well known, what is not known is the outcome and what it will bring.