Santorum's Extremism is Back

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator and current Republican Presidential hopeful has come out openly in favor of teaching creationism, saying "It's very interesting that you have a situation where science will only allow things in the classroom that are consistent with a non-Creator idea of how we got here, as if somehow or another that's scientific. Well maybe the science points to the fact that maybe science doesn't explain all these things. And if it does point to that, then why don't you pursue that? But you can't, because it's not science, but if science is pointing you there how can you say it's not science? It's worth the debate."

It's hard to figure out what to even make of this.  Santorum does not seem to understand what the definition of science even is.  God may exist, but God is NOT a scientific question.  God is not verifiable, falsifiable, nor does it offer any predictive value.  His ignorance of the scientific method is quite stunning actually, and it just goes to show he cannot be trusted to make rational decisions for the entire United States.  Intellectual competency does matter!

Newt Gingrich's Freudian Slip

The secret is out.  For those who believe that Fox News has any intellectual honesty left, Newt Gingrich has a few words of wisdom on the matter.  And what are these words you may ask?  That when he was on Fox he didn't have to know what he was talking about!!!  The revelation came in the context of a question asked by an audience member in South Carolina about Obama's AIDS policy.  To Gingrich's credit, he answered honestly that he was not familiar enough with the information to give an answer at the time, but that his staff would get back to the woman in question.  And this is when he tried to use humor to deflect attention away from the fact he couldn't answer by using Fox News as an example of a time when he did not have to know what he was talking about.  Thank you Mr. Gingrich for speaking truth to power!

Mitt Romney Furthers Attempts to Blend In

Mitt Romney is now joining almost all the rest of the groupthink GOP Presidential candidates by saying he does NOT favor a path to U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already in the United States and have been living here for an extended period of time. For these people, Romney says the process "consists of going to their home country, applying for citizenship or permanent residency just like everybody else, and getting back in the line." However, in 2005, Romney said "These people contribute in many cases to our economy and to our society. In some cases, they do not. But that's a whole group we're going to have to determine how to deal with." Furthermore, he agreed with Bush and McCain plan at the time, defending it  by stating "It's saying you could work your way into becoming a legal resident of the country by working here without taking benefits and then applying and then paying a fine,"

It's sad Romney has flip-flopped AGAIN. Along with flip-flopping on global warming, gay rights, abortion rights, and the individual health care mandate, he has now done it with immigration. It's sad that the man actually held many respectable positions in the past, and that the current mood of the GOP is so anti-intellectual anytime someone even comes close to sounding reasonable they either have to flip-flop or backtrack. There should legitimate competition when it comes to choosing parties, but in the present climate, the GOP cannot intellectually compete with the Democrats. The Tea Party talks about revolution. The GOP should take note and revolutionize themselves so they can be a respectable voice in the 21st century.

Conservatives Outraged Obama's Failure to Mention God

          During Obama's annual Thanksgiving address to the nation, he left out one important detail.  And that is he did not mention God in the address.  This has enraged some conservatives who see this as clearly a blasphemous sin, with Ben Shapiro commenting that Obama was a "militant atheist."  Aside from the downright idiocy that Obama is a "militant atheist," there is something else seriously wrong with the conservative movement when it sees a lack of moral character in a man who does not mention God in a Presidential address, but sees a morally upright citizen in the previous President.

        George W. Bush admitted openly that he approved torturing select detainees.  And he has claimed he would do it again.  WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE???????  On something that is a clear violation of human rights, the conservatives have either said it's not "really" torture, calling water boarding "enhanced interrogation" (one thinks of Orwellian euphemisms here) or saying that the torture led to valuable intelligence.  Both claims are false.  Americans prosecuted Japanese who water boarded Americans for war crimes, but then we ourselves did it and the people responsible have not been brought to justice.  It's also false that torture led to valuable intelligence.  Torture makes people talk to make the procedure stop, but it does not guarantee reliable information, which is obvious to anyone who has not deluded themselves into believing it is somehow morally justifiable to torture another human being.

And recently all but two of the Republican Presidential candidates (Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul) said they believed torture should be continued in select circumstances.  The hypocrisy of the American right never ceases to stun me.

Police Misplaced Priorities

        Why, as Americans, do we allow our drug policy to be ridiculously out of date?  Police continue to crack down on citizens who smoke marijuana, while bankers are allowed to get off free, and in some cases with massive bonuses, after they nearly brought our economy to the brink of collapse.  There is something fundamentally unfair about this.  Perhaps it is because marijuana smokers who get caught tend to be lower income, and bankers have money to contribute to political campaigns or to hire lawyers that will protect them from their due justice.

Or another possibility is that Americans are just stupid, and support right-wing moronic politicians that seem to lack the ability to think critically, with their denial of global warming, evolution, and also still believing being gay is a choice and therefore it is somehow immoral.  In order to fix the drug laws, Americans MUST come out openly and support legalizing marijuana.  It can be regulated and taxed.  This will take the criminality out of the process, and it will also bring in MUCH needed revenue to the United States government.

Bill Cunningham's Shocking Words

        On the Fixed News channel, specifically on the show Hannity, Bill Cunningham decided it was a good idea to bring up the Bible in a discussion about parenting, which conservatives who don't think for themselves often do.  But that isn't the controversial part about it.  The controversy is over what he said next, "I say beat kids appropriately and with love."  What kind of person makes such a claim?  Living in the 21st century, there is ample literature on how to discipline children, and "beating" is not one of the recommendations.

        Something else that is also telling is the fact that Sean Hannity did not express surprise or concern over the statement.  He just pretended it was normal.  However, it is anything but normal to beat another human being in order to force them to comply with your will.  Perhaps Hannity would think otherwise if a 350lb weight lifting Democrat decided to apply the same logic on him to force him to vote for Obama.  But I would never expect Faux News to be able to recognize such poor reasoning when their entire network is dedicated to the practice thereof.

Jeb Bush Continues Anti-Scientific Trend in Republican Party

         Jeb Bush, former Republican Governor of Florida and brother of President George Bush, gave an interview  to Fixed News where he said this about global warming, "It is not unanimous among scientists that it is disproportionately manmade. What I get a little tired of on the left is this idea that somehow science has decided all this so you can’t have a view. Science has decided that embryonic stem cell research is the way to go and if you don’t agree with that then somehow you’re Cro-Magnon Man or something like that. Governor Perry, as it relates to global warming has every right to suggest that it’s not a certainty.”  This is a patently false easily falsifiable statement, yet of course he is allowed to say such things on a network that has predetermined answers to the issues that conservative so often like to do.

        When the majority of ALL scientists are saying it is most likely due to human actions, then the most rational thing to do at that point is to take necessary action to try and stop it from getting worse.  It is a matter of saving the planet and humanity.  If we destroy the planet, there is nothing left.  We are doomed.  The shit will hit the fan and we will all perish, all because our political system was so infested with people who's intellectual capacity is far below what is needed to execute the offices they currently serve in.  Welcome to 2011.

Michigan Attacks Unions

       Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder is set to sign a law that will cap how much the state will pay towards health coverage for public employees.  This is another example, just like in Ohio and Wisconsin, of right-wing extremist Governors attacking unions.  When workers band together, they get paid better wages and get better benefits, but it seems as though the Republicans don't want this to happen.

      Republicans try to portray themselves as the party of the little guy, up against the big bad government that is taking away their rights and hard earned money.  However, unions are most beneficial to people who in fact are "little" in the sense that they have no political power to change the system.  They don't have the funds.  And then Republicans take away benefits from these people, and claim they are helping everyone in the process.  George Orwell would be impressed by the amount of double think that goes on in American society today.

Huntsman's Telling Attacks

      Jon Huntsman, a current Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Utah, is blasting fellow candidates for their extremist positions.    He attacked Rick Perry for denying man-made global warming and Michele Bachmann for recently saying that if she were president gas would be under 2 dollars a gallon.  His overall message was that the current contenders for president are pandering to specific groups of people and that  they are not trying to find middle ground and be reasonable candidates.

     This is very encouraging to see. All moderates are not dead in the Republican party after all!!!! There are still a few left, and I applaud Huntsman first for actually serving in the Obama administration as ambassador to China even though he is a Republican, and for calling out the current field for their insane views.  If Obama were to lose to a Republican (which I do not want to happen) Huntsman seems like a candidate that could be trusted to run the country in a fair and efficient way.

Homophobic Teacher of the Year

        Jerry Buell, a Florida high school teacher who won "Teacher of the Year," has been caught in engaging in hate speech towards homosexual Americans.  On his facebook page, he said "If they want to call it a union, go ahead, but don't insult a man and woman's marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool as same-sex whatever!God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable???" Some of his facebook friends saw the post and decided to push back, which caused Mr. Buell to respond saying "If one doesn't like the most recently posted opinion, based on Biblical principals and God's law, then go ahead and un-friend me. I'll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994."  Buell is now suspended.  He is crying foul saying he was just exercising his first amendment rights to free speech and that it was not done on school property.  However, a thought experiment will show just how wrong-headed he is.

      Imagine for a moment this was the EXACT same situation, except that it was about interracial marriage, which at one time in U.S. history was widely opposed.  If someone in the modern day were to post that seeing an African American and a Caucasian getting married made him sick and said the union should not be recognized the same way marriages of the same race are, would not there be a justifiable reaction of outrage from the community?  The man would end up being fired, and the school would be better off as a result.  However, because it is homosexuality and many people still hold bigoted ignorant views, people like him are not scorned as badly as they deserve to be.  I am calling for his resignation immediately.

Tom Coburn's Insensitivity

Tom Coburn, a Republican Senator from Oklahoma (the state I happen to live in), has caused some controversy for his comments at a town hall meeting recently.  He said "It's just a good thing I can't pack a gun on the Senate floor."  This comes on the heels of the fort hood shooter and Gabrielle Giffords, the Democrat from Arizona who was shot, returning to Congress for a vote on the debt-ceiling.  This enough shows a lack of sensitivity to the situation America is in with regards to violence.  His statement implies if he had a gun on the Senate floor he would have actually shot people, which is disgusting.  However, that is not the worst thing he said.

Coburn was asked by a constituent whether or not he thought Obama was trying to destroy America. Coburn said no that Obama was a smart guy, but that he had a problem. He said Obama being African American meant he had a "tremendous advantage" from the government. Going further, he said Obama's "intent is not to destroy, his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him,"   It is difficult to determine exactly what this means.  However, that it seems to be implying is this.  Obama is a black man, and this means he had advantages from the government to help him succeed.  As if all black men are dependent on the government, and getting help from the government is somehow a bad thing to do.  And it's factually false Obama depended on the government.  Obama went to Harvard law school, something not many people, white black Hispanic anything, are able to accomplish.  He also managed to get elected President of the United States without having his daddy pave the way for him.   Perhaps it was the previous President who was "dependent on others for his 'accomplishments."








     

Christine O'Donell's Telling Actions

On the CNN show Piers Morgan Tonight, Christine O'Donnell was doing an interview about her new book and was asked about her views on homosexuality. Her answer bordered on complete nonsensical blabber. She said “I’m not talking about policies. I’m not running for office, ask Michele Bachmann what she thinks. Ask the candidates running for office what they think."  However, her book is all about political positions and trying to energize the Tea Party.  At the end of the interview she decided to end prematurely, she said Piers Morgan was being rude by asking her about homosexuality.

To me it shows that Tea Partier's don't like questions on their extremist views.  They don't like the mainstream media because they get questioned and shown to be wrong on the facts.  Sunlight is a good disinfectant, and the more Americans learn about what the Tea Party REALLY stands for (even though they don't like to get specific in interviews on what they will actually cut) the less they like them and realize they are simply a movement that wants to go back to a mythical time in America that never actually existed.

ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM REIGNS SUPREME

          Another conservative Texan has denied global warming is a problem, even when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academy of Sciences and 98% of practicing climatologist say that it is being mostly driven by human activity.  Perhaps all of these scientists could be wrong, but it is highly unlikely at this point.  The melting ice caps, the rising sea levels, warming global temperatures, and extreme weather all bolster the case that it is occurring.

         This causes me to wonder about other things.  Does Perry believe in evolution?  Is he homophobic?  I would like answers to these questions.  Texas also executes more people than any other state.  Any governor that would reside over just a blood thirsty state and do nothing to change it is not fit to be president.  He is a moral coward.

Republican Tea Party?

            Media outlets are reporting that part of Obama's strategy to win re-election is to tie all the Republican party in with the Tea Party, that right now has a 40% disapproval rate.  Recently at the Republican debate in Iowa all of the current presidential contenders said that they would reject a deal that was 10 dollars in spending cuts for every 1 dollar in tax increases.  Taking actions like this, it appears as though this strategy may be successful as long as the American public stays informed (which is a big if).

            I fear for my country if a right-wing extremist were to win the White House.  People may not be happy with Barack Obama, but within our two-party system the only way to channel that anger is to vote for the opposing party to him, in this case irresponsible race baiting homophobes (lest anyone forget Newt Gingrich calling Barack Obama a Kenyan socialist "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?" Gingrich asks. "That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior(http://mediamatters.org/blog/201009120001}.    Statements like this just reek of racism, along with Bachmann's charge of a gangsta government against Obama and her opposition to homosexuality.  The MEDIA needs to call out the Republican race-baiting for what it is.

Murdoch Hits Another Hurdle

          Clive Goodman, a reporter at the News Of The World, wrote a letter to the British parliament in 2007 claiming that the hacking was widespread at the paper, and actually encouraged by top journalists.  So much for it being a few bad apples (sound familiar?).  I wonder if either Murdoch will have the moral courage to step down and accept responsibility for the disgusting tactics they approved of.  For some reason I have my doubts.

           We had massive financial deception in our recent economic crisis, we had BP and Massey energy both skirting regulations and killing people in the process.  For all the right likes to talk about personal responsibility, the right have been noticably absent when it comes to forcing these companies to take responsibilities for their actions by actually proposing LESS regulation that we currently have.  The intellectual dishonesty is disgusting and the lack of moral courage is outrageous.  There is direct evidence that regulations are needed, and the right and the Tea Party continues to peddle the debunked ideology that regulations are not needed.  The lack of moral courage by those on the right is telling, with a great example being summed up by Joe Barton from Texas, when he apologized to the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward, for the "shakedown" by the White House, after the oil had started spewing into the ocean due to BP's irresponsible actions.  And this seems to have carried over to the man who runs the biggest right-wing propaganda machine in the United States.  Perhaps the real revolution America needs is a moral one, not a pseudo Tea Party that lives in fantasy land and denies default would actually hurt the United States.

Media Actually Does It's Job

        Don Lemon, a journalist who works at CNN, stood out recently for doing something many journalists do not, and that is calling a politician on their bullshit.  He attacked Michelle Bachmann her for excessively using talking points, which share little to no basis in reality.  His clips made it seem as though the republican hopeful were a robot that just droned on and on without actually thinking about what she said.

        I want to say thank you to Don Lemon for doing your job and calling out the right-wing irresponsible homophobic Bachmann for her intellectual dishonesty.  The rest of the media needs to start asking these Republican candidates tough questions, like why they think it's reasonable (aside from Ron Paul, since he is libertarian) to oppose a deal that is 10 dollars of spending cuts for every 1 dollar of tax increases, which they all said they would veto as President when asked in the recent debate on Fox.  Questions like that could show the public how intellectually lazy the current batch of Republican candidates really are.

Republican Hypocrisy Reigns Supreme

               Michelle Bachmann, the Republican presidential nominee that has a history of gay bashing and hypocrisy, is in the spotlight for hypocrisy again.  This time it is for Obama's stimulus.  As she openly bashed it to the media and the public, in private she was asking for funds for her district.  Of all places to be called out, Fox News Sunday, with Chris Wallace, she was asked about it.  She claimed there was no discrepancy.  George Orwell could point to her as an example of an individual that consistently doublethinks on many issues.  But she isn't the only one.

             114 Republicans in Congress, including some leaders such as John Boehner, asked for stimulus funds for their particular districts while saying in public it was a complete failure. (even though reputable economists have examined it and determined it was not).   Republican Hypocrisy.   This shows just how intellectually dishonest the party of no really is.  In the past they supported certain policies, like cap and trade (John McCain in 2008) and many in Congress supported a deficit commission.  But as soon as President Obama decides it's a good idea, the Republicans decide it's time to play politics and oppose him.

             David Brooks, a conservative columnist for the New York times, a few weeks ago warned the Republican party that if they did not cooperate on reasonable compromise, they run the risk of turning into a "psychological protest" movement.  Bachmann is clearly not heeding his advice.  Her farm has received government money, as well as her pray the gay away "psychological" clinic (which should definitely not be receiving any federal funding at all, with it's right-wing conservative Christian orientation).  Perhaps Bachmann will wise up and figure out how bad she looks to people who actually use their mind when looking at politics and change her tune.  However, if Orwell is right it will never happen, and her supporters will go on believing the lie that she thinks government is too big when she consistently has used this out of control big government to fund things she found important.

U.S. Congressman Calls for Obama Impeachment

          U.S. House of Representatives Congressman Michael Burgress said at a Tea Party event on Monday that Obama needed to be impeached.  He said this because it would then stop Obama from enacting his agenda.  The Tea Party crowd, predictably, gave him a round of applause.

        I am curious as to what would happen if the Tea Party was polled and asked whether Obama should be impeached or not.  They have already shown they are a majority white movement that takes traditional social conservative stances.  They are not fundamentally different than hardcore Republicans, they are just really energized.  What happens when Republicans appeal to this base?  A lesson can come from Bill Clinton.

      Bill Clinton, the former President from Arkansas, was impeached over lying about a blow job.  Republicans cannot run on the issues many times, so they decided this would be a great way to try and destroy Bill Clinton, but the American public decided otherwise and ended up re-electing him for a second term.  If the Tea Party did get the chance to impeach Obama, could it be for anything dumber than lying about a private sexual act?  It may not seem like that would be the case, but never underestimate the power of stupidity.

Rick Perry's Anti-Intellectualism

          Rick Perry, the current governor of Texas, aside from trying to "reform" the universities he did not exactly excel in, also did not engage in debates when he ran for governor of Texas.    At the recent Iowa straw poll, the young Republicans even saw this as a positive, that he was somehow not letting the media "spin' him.  However, what this really shows is a complete lack of intellectual courage, and it seems to be characterizing most of the current Republican party.

           It used to be that when a candidate dodged the media and tough questions they were not seen as a credible candidate.  They were characterized as lacking the necessary intellectual ingredients to hold public office.  However, with the rise of the Tea Party and conservative media, this seems to no longer be the case.  Supporters of these intellectual midgets actually see them dodging mainstream media as a positive thing, perhaps to avoid a "gotcha" question, which is when a Republican is caught in a contradiction or a lie and they are called out on it, like when Newt Gingrich called Ryan's plan to change Medicare "right-wing social engineering," and then spent the next few days backtracking.  Or when John McCain called the Tea Party hobbits, and then went on Sean Hannity and did an about face.

          Independents, Democrats, and the few moderate Republicans that are left in the GOP need to start holding candidates feet to the fire when they attempt to dodge tough questions.  Barack Obama went on the "O'Reilly Factor."   I cannot imagine Rick Perry or Mitt Romney having the intellectual hutzpa to go on the Rachel Maddow Show and give her an hour long interview.  This is a telling sign of the way the current Republican party has decided to abdicate their responsibility to being an intellectual alternative to the Democrats, and instead have decided to live by talking points and cliches that are lacking in substance.
         

GOP At Odds With Most Economists

           According to the New York Times, economists and policy analysts are questioning whether the GOP's policy ideas are a good idea. According to the Times, "Instead, these critics say, Washington should be focusing on stimulating the economy in the near term to induce people to spend money and create jobs, while settling on a long-term plan for spending cuts and tax increases to take effect only after the economy recovers."  Furthmore, even a Republican economist, Martin Feldstein, who was a policy adviser to Ronald Reagan,  and Henry Paulson, George W. Bush's treasury secretary, are both calling for a balanced approach that includes tax increases.  

           Now the Tea Party needs to come face reality with the rest of us.  Spending cuts alone are not going pay down the debt.  It is too large.  Tax increases must be part of the deal.  Therefore, unless the Tea Party thinks it understands the economy better than people who actually have expertise in the subject, it should listen to these warnings.  And if the Tea Party decides they won't listen, then they will continue to lose the respect of mainstream America, and ultimately go into the history books as the party of willful ignorance.

Starbucks Shows Society Becoming More Sensitive to Homophobia

           Not too long ago, the pastor of a church could have made bigoted remarks to homosexuals and not many people would have taken notice.  However, times are changin.  Willow Creek Community Church, who has hosted speakers such as Bill Clinton, had planned to host the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, to speak on leadership.  However, the church drew the ire of the gay community and the supporters thereof with an online petition that protested Schultz's involvement.  Therefore, Howard Schultz decided it was best not to attend.

What was it that drew the dissatisfaction so many homosexuals and others had with this particular church?  The contentious point that was the church had been associated with a group known as Exodus International up until 2009.  This is a group that practices "reparative therapy" on homosexuals by telling them to do things such as play masculine sports, read the Bible, and pray.  These activities are said to cure homosexuality.  They claim to have results, but the psychological community is completely against what they do, and says it can even have harmful effects on the individuals.

What can one make of all of this commotion about the church?  To me this signals that society is fundamentally changing to become more tolerant.  Churches will eventually not be allowed to spew bigoted hatred towards homosexuals the way they do now without being reprimanded by the community at large.  To me, the fact that Howard Schultz withdrew from the event is a positive step towards a more tolerant society.

Rush Limbaugh Attacks One Of His Own

Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host who is known for his inflammatory rhetoric, has done something that will surprise many people. He has gone after Fox News! And why has he done this?  With regards to the Republican Presidential candidates, Rush said that  "Fox wants these people to tear each other up. Cause they want approval from the mainstream media, cause that's what the mainstream media would do."  So his complaint is that Fox is fueling the fire to try and get the GOP candidates to attack each other instead of Obama and this is done because they want respect from the mainstream media.

Another example Rush used is when Byron York asked Michelle Bachmann what she meant when she said she would submit to her husband.  In the past Bachmann said her husband had told her to go to college and become a tax attorney even though she did not want to do it.  She says it is biblical for a wife to submit to her husband.  Then on the Thursday night debate, she changed the meaning of submit to respect, a complete dodge of the question.

It is unclear to me exactly what Rush Limbaugh's problem is.  The Republican primary is supposed to be the place for Republicans to differentiate themselves from each other, point out the flaws of their opponents, and tell why their vision of America is superior to that of Barack Obama's.  This means that partisan infighting is something that cannot be avoided.  Perhaps Rush's real problem is that the candidates are actually pointing out flaws in each other instead of Obama, and this could possibly cause doubt in voter's minds once the Republican nominee has been chosen and been run through the grinder by his/her fellow candidates.  Tis the nature of politics, and Rush should not complain about something that in ultimately inevitable, even if it means his ideology is challenged because the candidate that wins is not the perfect conservative over the evil doer Obama in his black and white world.  The real world ultimately requires many shades of gray.

Super Congress Republicans Not Up To The Task

             The Super Congress members have been selected by their respective party leaders.  Now it is time to see what this group can come up with.  President Obama said everything is on the table.  But that is not going to the case.  As usual, the Republicans choose the path of least resistance and intellectual dishonesty they are always going to reliably produce.  All six members of the committee have signed Grover Norquist's pledge that they will not raise taxes.  What is the point of the Super Congress, that will force the rest of the Congress to accept an up or down vote on their recommendations, if they are filled with people who are not intellectually honest?  It's like appointing a school board 12 member commission, and ensuring six of them say creationism is a fact and the Bible is in the inerrant word of God.  Your hands become tied before you even begin.

             Given this dismal state of affairs, what can we possibly hope to expect from this Super Committee?  I think it is reasonable to expect that the Republicans will continue their outright assault on the middle class by going after education, environmental protection, and workplace safety regulations.  They will do everything they can to stop the government from actually doing it's job.  Philosoper Jean-Paul Satyr once asked with regards to morality, would an individual want everyone to act the same way they are?  Would you make family decisions or company decisions by just cutting services or supplies to the least well off?  Well grandma, our budget is tight, so I can't pay for your arthritis medicine sorry.  Or a small business saying, well our revenue is down so this means that we have to cut jobs instead of the bosses taking pay cuts.  Perhaps  lawmakers would be wise to heed the words of Mr. Satyr when the Super Congress begins it's negotiations.

Should Matt Damon Run For President?

            There was another actor in the past who ran for office.  He eventually became President of the United States and is loved by many still today.  Who is this person you ask?  It is none other than Ronald Reagan, who the right loves to mythologize.  Many did not give him a chance in hell, but he overcame the odds (and of course appealed to the stupidity and racism of America at the time) and won.  Perhaps Matt Damon should consider running for President.  Perhaps he would actually fight for real reform, like collective bargaining, environmental protection, reproductive choice, and education.  If he showed that he was informed on the issues, I would welcome his candidacy in 2016 and I would vote for him if he were to win the Democratic nomination.

           This is in complete contrast to the Tea Party, who believes not knowing anything is better than knowing too much.  They look at the world in simple terms.  Just cut taxes and regulation, and all will be well.  Perhaps they are not aware that many of the regulations and social programs we have are designed to help people who need it.  If the social safety net were to be eliminated, America would revolt and the Tea Party would see what Democracy was really all about.

Democrats Fall Short in Wisconsin

            6 Republican seats were defended in the state of Wisconsin last night, and 2 of them were lost, preventing the Democrats from taking control of the Senate.  The Senate is now only 17-16 Republican.  There are 2 more Democrats that have to defend their seats next week.  So I will be waiting with anticipation to see if they can hang on.

           With regards to the Republican victories, I can only wonder what the electorate was thinking when they re-elected people who are not on the side of the middle class and the poor.  These Republicans want to destroy public education and attack middle class rights to collectively bargain.  What kind of politician goes after teachers?  Perhaps one that does not see them as very valuable.  This is fueled by the anti-intellectualism that runs through the veins of the Republican party everywhere.  Facts get in the way of an ideology that is believed with passionate conviction (no matter how wrong-headed it may be).  The Republicans should read Charles Peirce's method of tenacity.  They practice it daily and are a perfect example of what NOT to do in intellectual pursuits.

California Amusement Park Sued of Homophobia

             California's Great America amusement park is being sued over the homophobia of an employee.  Craig Person and Edmund Lang.  The two men rode the Psycho Mouse roller coaster, which takes photos of the riders as it is going.  People can then purchase the pictures for a cheap price.  Usually the point is that people are caught in funny facial expressions and it provides great memories.  However, Craig and Edmund decided they did not want to pay the fee to purchase the photo.  To their surprise, their photo would end up resurfacing and looking different than when it was first taken.

              The couple had friends who rode something else, and they found the photo on the counter and written on it was "Were (sic) Fuck!."  So it sounds as though the employees who had the photo initially thought it was a funny joke and passed it along to other employees, who were careless in disposing of it.  The employees involved all deserve to be fired.  There is no room for bigotry in our society.  If a man were to call an African American a derogatory name, he would be fired.  But if a man makes fun of another guy and calls him a fag, the co-workers often laugh right along.  Congress needs to act to prevent this type of behavior from happening anymore.

Nebraska Tea Partier Continues Trend

             The Tea Party, since it's inception, has consistently taken extremist positions.  They have held up racist signs at rallies, and even at one rally one Tea Partier taunted a man with Parkinson's disease - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20001186-503544.html.   Another example is Mark Williams, the former leader of the Tea Party Express, writing a racist letter pretending to be an African American writing to Abraham Lincoln - http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-07-18/news/27070288_1_mark-williams-mosque-ground-zero.  And now Jon Bruning, a Tea Partier from Nebraska, has done it again, this time comparing welfare recipients to raccoons.

              Jon Bruning is currently running for the U.S. Senate trying to unseat Ben Nelson.  And he was caught on video showing what the Tea Party really thinks.  Without being specific, just like Ronald Reagan and his race baiting welfare queen story, he says a local construction process was stopped because they would have hurt beetles.  So biologists use rat carcasses to attract the beetles and then take them away from the site so they are not hurt.  This story doesn't sound believable at face value, but putting that aside this isn't the main problem with what Mr. Bruning said.  He says when this process occurs, raccoons find out that the beatles are inside the carcasses, and it is free food.  So the raccoons will eat them and mess up the whole process.  AND THIS IS WHAT HE COMPARES WELFARE RECIPIENTS TO, saying "And it's like grapes in a jar. The raccoons, they're not stupid, they're going to do the easy way if we make it easy for them -- just like welfare recipients all across America. If we don't send them to work, they're going to take the easy way out."  Perhaps Mr. Bruning should try living on minimum wage and in poverty while trying to take care of kids and paying for utilities, car insurance and payment, and food.  Maybe then he will see that people are not taking the EASY way out.  The easy way out is to not force people to challenge their beliefs, and to play on existing stereotypes to try and win over opinions of the uninformed or misinformed, and that is what the Tea Party's MO is.

Wisconsin Elections

       Tea Party governor Scott Walker, who decided to cut education, take away teacher's right to collectively bargain, and give huge tax breaks to the rich, is now under fire.  There are recall elections today, August 9th, for 6 Republicans.  There was already one recall election, and the Democrat won.  The nation will be watching as this unfolds.

       I am hoping the voters in Wisconsin will take notice of the extreme measures that Scott Walker has supported.  His approval ratings are low, with 59% of voters disapproving of the job he is doing.  He is supporting policies that hurt the middle class and the poor.  Why voters who are not wealthy would ever support a Republican when it is against their own self-interest to do so is a very interesting phenomenon.  But now that the people of Wisconsin are galvanized, hopefully the enthusiasm will spread across the country and America will have a real non-violent revolution, one that fundamentally changes America with Medicare and college for all, and with an environment that is not going to be destroyed by the businesses who care about nothing but profit.

     

The Delusional Tea Party

       The Media is reporting that the Tea Party won.  In exchange for avoiding default, they got 2.4 trillion in cuts and no tax increases.  But they are not satisfied.  They claim this is just the beginning of a long fight to reduce the size and scope of government.  This shows just how extreme they are.

       I don't really know what would make the Tea Party happy.  They are not very specific on cuts.  They just talk of "generic government spending."  Do they want to cut education for the poor, cancer research, research into alternative energy?  Polls show they are all social conservatives so they are not just about economics.  Are they in favor of gay rights?  Not likely.  I want the Tea Party to propose very specific spending cuts, so the majority of Americans can see that they actually support policies that would hurt them, and once that is obvious, no intellectually honest person will support such an immoral party.

       Bill Maher is correct.  There needs to be a liberal Tea Party.  And not in the extreme facetious way he talked about.  I am talking about a real liberal tea party, that openly advocates the right to education, health care, and a decent standard of living.  The kind that does not take anti-scientific stances to appease stupid voters.  I want a liberal Tea Party that actually uses it's mind to solve problems, instead of sticking with failed ideas from the past, and turning the founding fathers into religious figures.

PROGRESSIVE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

           The progressives are fighting back against the Tea Party.  They have made their own contract with America, and it provides actual solutions to American's problems, instead of the same old failed policies of the Republican party.  They have 10 points that I will outline briefly.

         1.  Infrastructure spending-  This will fix American's broken infrastructure and provide people with jobs.
         2.  Invest in clean energy technology-  This would invest in research in green energy, like wind and solar, that will be employ people in the future jobs of America.

         3.  Invest in public education-  This is the idea of making public education higher quality and more equal  in terms of quality.  It would also make higher education more affordable.

         4.  Medicare for all-  This is a basic human right and the United States needs to catch up with the rest of the world on this.

         5.  Make work pay- This would ensure people were all paid a minimum wage that met a basic standard of living, pay women the same as men for the same work, and allow employees to unionize.

        6.  Secure Social Security-  Ensure the system is strengthened for future retirees and the disabled.  Eliminate the cap on the tax so the rich will continue to pay on all of their income instead of just up to a certain amount.

        7.    End the Bush tax cuts-  End the massive tax cuts for the rich and corporate loopholes, such as oil subsidies and jets.

        8.  End the wars and invest at home-  Bring the troops home and invest money in America.

       9.  End Wall-Street speculation-   Tax each Wall-Street trade at a rate of 1/20th of 1%.

       10.  Strengthen Democracy-  Make all elections fair, public finance elections, give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, and stop creating corporations as persons.

     Obviously these ideas need to be elaborated in much more detail, but this is a very good step in the right direction!

Michelle Bachman Newsweek Cover

        Newsweek is taking flack for the recent issue that features Michelle Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate from Iowa, on the cover with a crazed look in her eyes.  Conservatives are saying it is proof of liberal bias.  However, the cover may be more fitting than conservatives would like to admit.  She has said many controversial things, but I will name three that are prima facie absurd.

        The first is when, on The Chris Matthews Show on MSNBC, Michelle Bachmann said that members of Congress need to be investigated for anti-American views.  This is the typical conspiracy theory John Burch society Joseph McCarthy line that communists have infiltrated our government and that we have to weed them out before they take over and imprison dissenters.  It's paranoid thinking (if it even deserves to be called thinking).

      The second thing is when she said Obama was running a "gangsta government."  This is really an appeal to  racist attitudes among many white conservatives who think of the word gangster and see images of black and Hispanic males running around causing havoc.  And Obama just happens to be African American, so this is actually a really sick thing to do.

      And finally, during the recent negotiations of the debt-ceiling, during which the Tea Party's intransigence caused the nation's credit rating to go down,  Bachmann said that default would not happen, that the date was made up by the Obama administration to try and scare Congress into voting for what he wanted.  However, Standard and Poors specifically cited that members of Congress who used the default to play politics was a factor in the downgrade.  So thank you Michelle Bachmann for hurting America, you would be a mighty fine president indeed.

Another Bigoted Pledge

         The National Organization for Marriage, which are responsible for this ad than can be seen here AD.  It is an ominous warning that gay marriage is going overtake regular marriage.  This is just a front for bigotry, and now they are going after the current Republican candidates for votes.  They are supporting things such as "support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification, nominate judges and Supreme Court justices who oppose marriage equality, defend DOMA "vigorously in court," create a special commission on "religious liberty" to investigate claims of anti-gay marriage supporters who have been "harassed or threatened."  

          It's going to be incredible someday when we look back on human history and see how bigoted some members of the populace were, even asking candidates to sign pledges like this in the open.  It is going to be similar to people opposing interracial marriage or saying the world was flat.  It will be so foreign to us we will be in a sort of disbelief.  And when that day comes, it will be grand.

Rick Santorum Claims Schools Indoctrinate Children

            Rick Santorum, a Republican presidential candidate for President, claimed that schools indoctrinate children.  His evidence is that “You wonder why young people can vote and flock for a guy like Barack Obama and say, if you look at the surveys, that socialism is better than capitalism -- well, that’s because they don’t understand America, I said ‘indoctrination’ and I meant it." So according to him, because young people voted for Barack Obama, that means they are indoctrinated by schools. Perhaps Santorum has forgotten we are in a financial crisis that was caused by unregulated capitalism, and two recent environmental disasters, the BP oil spill and the West Virginia mining disaster, are also failures of unregulated capitalism.

         Santorum has said he believes life begins at conception and that being gay is a choice. These are two factually inaccurate statements. The Tea Party mangles history by promoting a government that looks more like the Articles of Confederation than the U.S. Constitution. They claim the government does nothing right when it does a lot right. They claim social programs are pointless when they actually help people. It seems as though The Tea Party and Santorum need to go back to school to learn about how the world actually works, instead of following what the philosopher Charles Peirce called the method of tenacity, which is believing what you want to believe in spite of any evidence and never changing.

Rick Perry College Grades

           Surprise surprise!!! When Rick Perry attended Texas A&M, most of his grades were Cs or Ds.  His only two As came in World Military Systems and Improv Learning.  It's not a surprise then that a darling of the Republican movement did not exactly excel while in college.

Many Republicans are vastly uninformed on the issues, believing ideas such as climate change is a hoax and being gay is a choice.  They generally see academia as some kind of liberal elite and much of what is learned in universities is a hoax (even though much of what is done is universities drives human advancement forward).  They mangle U.S. history (which Perry got a C in), and disregard facts.  Perhaps they think facts are those pesky things that get in the way of a worldview.  In any event, Perry's disregard for the truth makes it surprising he was even able to earn Cs at all, given that earning a C in a class requires one to at least show a very basic understanding of the material.

Fox News vs. Spongebob Squarepants

        Does Fox News  have any intellectual honesty left?  They peddle claims that have been widely discredited, like being gay is a choice, tax cuts increase revenue, and that Obama is the most liberal person living in America. Given this, it's not surprising they also take the wrong position with regards to global warming.  In fact, around 98% of climate scientists say it is man made in a report published by the National Academy of Sciences.  Fox never produces any credible sources that go against this.  They try to pick off the small minority of climatologists who disagree, which you can see is extremely small,  or they pick out scientists who are not experts in climate science, like an anthropologist, and then say LOOK THERE IS DISAGREEMENT!!!!!  And now Spongebob is the target.

        The show "Spongebob Squarepants," which airs on Nickelodeon, apparently had a small part of a show somewhere where Mr. Krabs says "Thanks to global warming, the temperature will soon go through the roof, and we'll have an endless summer."  What is really sad is that a kid can watch a cartoon and be more informed about global warming that a viewer who watches Fox News.  

         It continues to boggle my mind how any rational, thinking person can take most of what they see on Fox News seriously.  There are a few random bright spots, like Sheperd Smith.  But the majority of it is not even factual.  There is an old saying that you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.  Fixed News continues to make debate in America harder by widening the gap between what people on the left and right would consider a "fact."  And in doing do, they are hurting America and our global dominance.  And anything that threatens that is usually something Faux News would be ready to pounce on in a New York minute.

Fox Hosts Admit Palin Is Treated With Kid Gloves

        Greg Gutfeld and Bob Beckel, two of the hosst of the show that replaced Glenn Beck on Fox News known as "The Five," admitted to Politico that they have not gone after Sarah Palin the way they would have if she did not work at Fox.  Gutfeld said , "And if I say something bad and I see her in the hallway I feel really awkward and wrong. So I just kind of say, ‘that was a good job!'"  Beckel said, "It has everything to do with your paycheck. That’s why you feel awkward. I know exactly what you mean. I’ll be honest, I’ve pulled my punches.”  These two guys admitting this means there are most likely more who share their beliefs.


       Has the entire news organization actually done it?  Palin probably boosts ratings for the company.   So there would be an incentive to not mess that up.  O'Reilly has become annoyed with her in the past but never actually called her out.  To what extent are these people censoring themselves?  And are they being forced to do it by Roger Ailes or is it self-imposed censorship?   It's hard to tell, but if the people at Fox News really are about being "fair and balanced" as they claim, then they will dust off the intellectually dishonest past and go after Palin the way only Fixed News can. 

Tea Party Influence

         Many media outlets are writing about the fact that the Tea Party changed the debate in Washington.  They pushed for federal spending to be increased and no tax increases.  And they mostly got their way, with the debt-ceiling deal cutting around 1.5 trillion from the debt and there is more to come in the future with the Super Congress' recommendations in November.  If they are not followed, there are automatic cuts to Medicare and Defense.  Seems like the Tea Party "won" the policy debate, but the question is whether or not their methods were actually ethical.

        The Tea Party threatened to default the entire federal government if they did not get a lot of what they wanted, i.e. drastic spending cuts and no tax increases.  They said either that default would not happen or that it would be a positive thing because it would FORCE spending cuts, even though that would've probably meant social security recipients would not be paid.  This is not an intellectually honest way to negotiate.  It is like saying I will not give up until I get what I want, even if that means people get hurt in the process.  They said damn the economy, we are getting what we want or all of us are going down.

       What can we conclude about the policy and the methods of negotiation?  The policy is disastrous, and will hurt the economy because it means thousands of federal workers will lose their jobs, and the method sets a precedent that if one party really wants something, all they have to do is threaten to take the country to default and the other party will give in because they actually care about the country.  It would not surprise me if Republicans do not turn this into their normal strategy.  This could be an impact the Tea Party has had that, in the long run, is ultimately and utterly childish.

Palin Shows Stupidity Again

          Sarah Palin is not widely known for her intellectual prowess.  During the 2008 Presidential campaign she gave incoherent answers to questions about the bailout and when asked by Katie Couric what regular newspapers she said, she said "all of them," and then did not give any specific ones when pressed.  She was part of a major push to try to tie Obama to Bill Ayers, who was part of the Weather Underground in the 1960s by saying Obama palled around with terrorists.  The racism in the campaign was absurd.  She has made another idiotic statement again.  On Fox News "Hannity" she said in response to people who said the Tea Party were acting like terrorists by acting like children and holding up the debt-ceiling debates and risking default, "If we were real domestic terrorists, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us, wouldn't he? He didn't have a problem palling around with Bill Ayers back in the day when he kicked off his political career."


       Again Palin tries to do this discredited claim.  It has been fact checked by reputable organizations and found to be false.  The Tea Party acted as though that the nation defaulting was a good thing and if they did not get their spending cuts and no tax increases they would ensure it occurred.  It would have been a deliberate attempt to harm the nation's economy.  Perhaps Palin should have thought about the ramifications of what many in the Tea Party were proposing before she tried to unsuccessfully tie Obama to terrorists again.  Then it would be obvious who was trying to inflict intentional harm on America.

Gabrielle Giffords Returns

             Gabrielle Giffords, the Democratic Congresswoman from Arizona who was shot by the crazed gunman Jared Loughner, returned to Congress today to cast a vote in the House to help ensure that the recent plan approved by both party leaders would pass.  It's amazing she has come back and she looks like she is going to continue on her road to recovery.  What continues to escape discussion is the availability of guns in this country.

             There is no conceivable reason that a person such as Loughner should be able to get a gun so easily.  Seung-Hui Cho, the man behind the Virginia Tech massacre, was also able to get a gun without much effort.  Americans have a deep cultural norm that everyone who is not mentally insane or a felon has the right to own any kind of gun they can train for.  This is faulty logic.  Many claim it is legal and in the constitution.  However, that does not address the merits of the argument.  It just says that we are legally guaranteed the right.  Slavery was also legal at one point and time and no sane person would defend the policy today.  The country needs a discussion.  And it needs to be honest, and it may piss off the NRA.  However, tragedies such as the ones mentioned should cause every thinking person to pause and reflect on the state of our society and how easy it really is to go on a shooting spree.

Tea Party Just About Economic Issues?

        Many in the Tea Party like to claim that the movement was formed solely as a reaction to federal spending. However, many in the Tea Party, like Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle, and Rand Paul all have made extremely controversial statements that don't have much to do with economics at all.  O'Donnell made an ad saying she was not a witch and did not understand how bond ratings work, Sharon Angle spoke of second amendment remedies to losing an election and constantly dodged any media that did not completely agree with her, and Rand Paul came out against the Civil Rights Acts on the Rachel Maddow show.

Now another Tea Partier is in hot water again.  Her name is Kim Simac and she is running in Wisconsin.  What has caused the controversy to erupt is a blog post she made on the Patriot Action Network, a Tea Party website, where she compares American public schools to Nazi indoctrination camps.  She laments that the separation of church and state is a problem, and taking God out of public schools is wrong.  Her specific example is students not being able to sing "Silent Night," even though that is specifically Christian.  She ends by stating, " Add to that Kindergarten Sex Ed classes and I really wonder how it is American parents smile and kiss their children good bye  every morning and in good conscience hand their most precious resource over to the hands of such questionable people."  She makes it seem as though it is a very scary thing and children are being indoctrinated with something awful when they go to school.  She also thinks evolution and creationism should both be taught.  Another example of Tea Partiers living in their own reality.  Here is a link to the blog that was deleted by recovered by TMZ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zpd9G0I7E4sJ:www.patriotactionnetwork.com/forum/topics/the-scary-comparisons-of-the&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com.

50% Of Americans Not Paying Taxes Debunked

    Megachurch pastor Rick Warren recently tweeted that half of Americans pay no taxes.  He thought this was a funny point to make in the debates, that some people were not making enough sacrifices.  However, as is usually the case with conservative claims, further examination renders them bunk.  Fact-checkers have examined this and I will briefly summarize their findings.

     It is true that 47% of Americans pay no FEDERAL income tax.  However, they do pay payroll taxes, sales taxes, state income taxes, property taxes, and excise taxes.  The reason for the 47% number is due to the fact that these people are either too poor to pay federal income taxes, or that they are able to claim deductions that allow them to avoid paying.  So in a twist of unbelievable irony from a party that always complains about taxes being too high, they complain that taxes are not high enough on the poorest among us.  That is the Republican way!  Protect tax breaks for Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, but actually RAISE taxes on the least fortunate.  It is beyond me how they are able to garner support from anyone except the millionaires and billionaires (which do not all support them either).

CNN Don Lemon Owns Rand Paul

           In an interview on CNN today, Rand Paul did what any good politician would do; he avoided answering a question by going off topic, similar to what Sarah Palin did in the Vice Presidential debates when she said that she didn't want to talk about what the moderator asked, she wanted to talk about what the "American people" cared about.  He was asked whether the Tea Party was overreaching after achieving many of their goals, yet refusing to compromise (I think he was hinting at tax increases even though he did not directly say it).

        This is a very difficult question for Republicans who are trying not to look like childish obstructionists who insist on getting every single thing they want from a deal and not giving anything back in return, and even risking a default by the United States if they do  not get their way.  So for him to avoid the question is completely understandable.  However, it does not change the reality that the Tea Party has NOT been a positive force in the  United States government.  They are against people who need help the most, and favor the interests who need it the least.

DEBT DEAL WITHIN REACH

        Progress has been made on the fighting between Republicans and Democrats over the debt-ceiling.  Inside sources are saying that the deal would include a debt-ceiling increase of at least 2.1 trillion.  Spending cuts of around 1.2 trillion over a ten year span.  It forms a special Congressional committee to recommend further policy  recommendations that can include anything.  It will complete it's final report by late November.  If the report is not acted on by December 23rd, there would be automatic trigger cuts that occur in both Medicare and Defense (to give both sides incentive to follow).  And finally, a vote will be allowed to be taken on a balanced budget amendment in both houses of Congress.

      It is wonderful that Congress has reached a deal to avoid default at close to the last minute.  However, it is strange that a special Congressional committee is going to be granted a lot of power to use down the road.  What if this committee is made up of Republicans who refuse to raise taxes?  And who is going to appoint members?  It's troubling to me that the Tea Party has forced Congress to become more dysfunctional than it usually is.  Hopefully this provision is taken out in the final vote.

Man and Machine

         Actroid androids are robots that resemble humans very much.  They look like us!  The line between man and machine is becoming more and more blurred as technology continues to advance.  Some welcome this, thinking it is progess, and others are scared of it, as is illustrated in the Terminator movies.  Both are legitimate points of view, and can be defend thoroughly.  But another interesting question is the line between human and robot.  At what point does a machine becoming a human being?

         I don't believe I can answer this question in a blog post, but I think an interesting area to study would be when a robot can display originality.  When a robot can innovate and discover something humans have not.  This will be an incredible breakthrough.  It will mean something that can compute much faster than human beings has the ability to invent.  This could end up drastically changing the speed at which technology changes, creating a snowball effect.  And the final results are probably something we could not even imagine...

The 14th Amendment Option?

      Section 4 of the 14th amendment to the constitution states that “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”  Many Democrats are calling for Obama to do invoke this and bypass Congress.  It is a tricky situation and one that must be handled with caution.


     The debt limit has always been raised in the past, even when the situation seemed dire.  However, the case this time is different.  Many in the Tea Party TRULY believe either that default is not possible or that it would be a good thing in the long run.  This is extremely worrisome.  They are very inflexible people.  They are not open to evidence, so experts telling them it would be bad does not phase them.  What happens if the Tea Party pulls us to the brink of default?


    This is where the 14th amendment comes in.  It is not clear whether it would be constitutional for President Obama to try this, but it would postpone a default while the question worked it's way to the Supreme Court.  If I were Obama, I would call the Supreme Court to the White House and ask them what they thought about the matter.  In any case, I firmly believe that if the Tea Party decides to hinder any attempt at a deal, this would be the only viable option to rescue the country.

Police Investigate Beating

        Las Vegas police officer Derek Colling was accused of beating Mitchell Crooks for videotaping him while he was investigating a burglary.  An investigation by the police department found Colling to be guilty.  I think this is a very significant finding.  It shows that the police cannot act with impunity when dealing with civilians and that emerging technology can expose actions that may have gone undetected in the past.

        Start with police responsibility.  Before videotaping was so widespread, police could rough around a suspect and get away with it.  There would be no evidence to support a victim of a crime, and this happened often during the civil rights movements of the 60s.  Police should not be able to abuse their power and there should be safeguards to ensure they don't.  With videotaping, there is no escape.  An abusive police officer being caught on camera assaulting another human being and not escaping the consequences is positive for us all.

Fuel Efficiency Standards Are Raised

          President Barack Obama and the manufacturers of major automobiles in the United States have agreed to increase fuel efficiency standards to 54.5 MPG by the year 2025.    This is good for business, good for consumers, and good for the overall economy.  

         Start with consumers.  People are paying large amounts of money for gas.  It is sucking family budgets and causing them to have less disposable income.    If people can buy an affordable vehicle that gets great MPG, then they will not be using as much of their income on gas and will be able to use it on other things.

      This is where it helps the business community.  When people have more disposable income, they have more money to spend.  And with more money to spend, they will do things like go shopping for electronics or clothes, and eat out more often.  This will in turn stimulate the economy and increase the profitability of business, which will encourage more economic growth.  Businesses will also not have as many expenses with regards to transporting items from one location to another.

      With both of these factors working together, the overall economy will be strengthened.  Families spending more and businesses collecting more.  The economy will grow, and everyone's standard of living will be increased.  For conservatives who are in bed with the big oil companies, they should consider the long-term effects of not supporting such legislation.

9/11 Memorial Violates Separation of Church and State

              After the rubble was cleared from the World Trade Center bombings on September 11th, 2001, there was a steel t-joint that was designed to hold up the buildings.  The joint, due to it's resemblance to the Christian cross that symbolizes Jesus' death and resurrection, caused many Christians to begin to see it as a memorial.  It was originally moved to St. Peter's church, but it has been moved back to ground zero.  American Atheists are suing saying that unless symbols from many other religious groups are included also, it is a violation of church and state.

             The atheists seem to be right on this one.  Since ground zero is public property, a Christian religious symbol would appear to be an endorsement of the Christian religion, which would not be constitutional.  I always find it strange when certain groups of Christians become upset when there is a challenge to the constitutionality of a religious symbol on public property, such as the ten commandments.  There is a separation of church and state in the U.S. constitution, and public property sporting a specific religion's symbols is an endorsement of that religion.  There is no defense that can be offered.  It is also ironic that many who claim we need these Christian religious symbols are also the ones who claim to be "strict conservative constitutionalists"  who say that the government cannot constitutionally do many of the things it currently does.  I guess that only applies if one is not a right-wing conservative Christian.

Reid Plan Reduces Deficit More Than Boehner

         The Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan policy analysts that both sides respect, scored both the Reid and Boehner plans and found that the Reid plan reduced the deficit by more, 2.2 trillion for Reid and 850 billion for Boehner.  Isn't this ironic that Republicans have said Democrats don't want to cut spending but the plan put in by a Democrat actually cuts the deficit more over the next ten years?  This is normal fantasy indulgence by the right.

          I wonder how the Tea Party is going to react to this.  They are unahppy with Boehner right now anyway, so this could very well fuel a primary challenge by a more conservative candidate.  The Tea Party really cannot be pleased.  It has been obvious over these debt negotiations that they do not like compromise.  They are like spoiled children that don't want to share.  They want all they ask for or they will ruin the game for everyone else. I hope Americans have learned from their mistake of electing these mentally unstable Tea Party freshmen in 2010, and will vote in some adults to office.

Guns Guns Guns

    4 different shootings have happened this weekend.  At a birthday party in Texas, a gunmen at a skating rink killed himself and 5 other people.  In Central Florida today, a fight between teenagers, nine rounds were fired but no one was killed.  A 15 year old was killed at a party Saturday night.  And on Sunday morning in Seattle a man went into a casino to find his ex, and when he found her, he killed her and the man she was with, along with hurting 5 bystanders.

     Events like this give all Americans pause.  What causes people to engage in such violent behavior?  However, one thing is clear, the easy availability of a gun makes it much easier for crazy people to kill large amounts of people in a short period of time.  Why should a weapon that can kill people in such an efficient way be so easily available?  What need does the average citizen have for such a firearm?  There is no need.  There is no reason that guns that fire multiple rounds in a matter of seconds should be accessible to anyone but law enforcement and the military.  People who are paranoid about the government who say we need such weapons probably should not have them to begin with.

 

Perry and Gay Marriage

       Rick Perry, the governor of Texas who said Texas should secede from the Union if the federal government does not slow down, and a potential Republican nominee for President of the United States, said that gay marriage was a states issue.  He said he had no problem with New York passing it, but he would personally oppose it in his state.  This sounds like gay marriage has become the new racism hidden in states' right talk.

      During segregation, this was the position of many racists, saying it was a state issue and the federal government should not force de-segregation on the states.  I'm not exactly sure where along the line people decided that it would be a good idea to make a civil right, i.e. marriage, a state's right issue.  It is about the dignity of the persons involved.  It is not about a particular agenda.  Conservatives are simply on the wrong side of history, like they have been so many times in the past.  The state's right rhetoric cannot hide the bigotry that stands behind their words.  I find it ironic how Republicans try to bash Democrats for being weak, yet Republicans are the ones who completely lack the moral courage to stand up to their bigoted base and tell them that being gay is not a choice and gay marriage is a civil rights issue they will support.

Obama Finally Ends DADT

            Today Obama officially ended the discriminatory bigoted policy of the United States military known as Don't Ask Don't Tell.  It stipulated that gay soldiers could serve as long as they were not openly gay, and the military would not ask questions.  The repeal already passed awhile back, but it was not officially certified until the Secretary of Defense, the joint chiefs of staff chairman, and the President had all signed it.  And since Obama was the last one to sign it, it officially was repealed today.

            It's distressing to me how painstakingly slow progress has been on this issue.  It is the middle of the year 2011 and WILLING open homosexuals are just now being granted the right to serve in the United States military, when we need soldiers more than ever, it is ridiculous that this has not happened sooner.  However, I am very happy that this step has been taken.  This will increase acceptance of homosexuals in society and strengthen the military.  And eventually, gay marriage will become legal, even in the most bigoted conservative states.

Here Comes The Crazies!

           Westboro Baptist Church, the hate-mongering group that likes to protests anything and everything, is protesting in New York this weekend over the governor's (Andrew Cuomo) signing of same-sex marriage into law.  Many conservative Christians denounce them and say they are not affiliated with true Christianity.  However, they blame homosexuality for things like New Orleans and 9/11, just like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell who many mainstream conservative Christians listen to.  Conservatives and Westboro all say homosexuality is  a sin against God, believe in salvation by grace, and believe in the inerrancy of the Bible.  Many a time growing up I heard sermons saying that homosexuality was an abomination and it was a sin.  That people were not born gay.

           I'm looking for a major difference in the beliefs of Westboro and conservative Christians and the only thing I really see is 1) Westboro is more pre-occupied with homosexuality than other conservatives and 2) conservative Christians are nicer in their message about it.  Normal conservative Christians simply say homosexuality is an abomination and a sin against God but it's like any other sin so you can overcome it.  Westboro seems to view it as much more heinous than most.  However, the fact remains they still share many similar relevant qualities that "respectable" Christians fail to notice.    Perhaps conservative Christians should consider how closely their beliefs are related to Westboro Baptist Church and re-evaluate them.

American Companies Behaving Badly

           The Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights released a report in June that showed major American companies had been purchasing clothes that were made in factories in Jordan that abused their workers.  The factories did things such as beating workers, nor complying with contracts, and forced them to live in unsanitary conditions.  I want to be clear that the American companies were not doing this, but they were buying clothing from factories that were.  The American companies buying the clothing were Target, Macy's, Kohls, Hanes, and Target according to this report.  The American government and United Nations are investigating.

        If this is true, this is disgusting.  Companies should first and foremost be moral.  Profit motive comes second to that.  Workers should be treated fairly.  People have a right to fair working conditions, and to be paid a living wage that will allow them to NOT live in poverty and save for their retirement.  There is no reason this should not happen, with corporate profits in the millions and sometimes even billions.  Unions need to come back strong in the United States and all of our standards of living will improve.

Texas Does It Again!

         Remember when Texas' Board of Education decided to engage in revisionist history?  They said there was no such thing as a separation of church and state, teach that Germans and Italians were put on concentration camps also along with Japanese(which is actually true but doesn't really quell charges of racism, it just bolsters them), how McCarthyism was right, change "capitalism" to "free-enterprise system", and got rid of Jefferson in groups of thinkers that inspired revolutions and replaced him with Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone.  They are at it again with evolution.

        Rick Perry, the dumbed down version of George Bush, appointed Barbara Cargill to chairwoman of the board.  She recently said that of the 11 members on the board, only 6 are "true" conservative Christians, and there are 11 Republicans on the board.  She does not believe evolution occurred, and thinks textbooks should point out the problems with the theory.  As a budding philosopher, I have no problem with pointing out flaws in something.  However, evolution is the best and most current explanation of the variety of life on earth.  My problem is more with the anti-intellectualism that has infiltrated many in the Republican party.

     All liberals have had this problem.  The conservative says something that is factually false, and you point to a reliable source that refutes them, and then they deny the source is reliable.  For example, waterboarding was considered torture for many years in the United States, at least since World War 2.  And then conservatives claim that what George W. Bush did was NOT a war crime when all the evidence is to the contrary.  Or the theory of evolution.  Or being gay is a choice.  Conservatives do not have to embrace this absurdity.  Not all conservatives do, but many in the Republican party are like this, enough to force the elected officials to often give lip-service to these positions, and sometimes push for them.  Another example is the Bush tax cuts.  Some conservatives claim that revenues increase with tax cuts, but no reliable fact-checking organization has ever found this to be true, AND Ronald Reagan himself raised taxes during his Presidency, seeing that the revenue was needed to keep the debt from exploding more than it already was.

      Prominent conservatives in the Republican party need to speak out against this anti-intellectual, history revising, bigoted outspoken wing of their party and say enough is enough.  We will no longer court your vote. And the media should ask directed questions about why they don't think evolution is a viable theory (used in the SCIENTIFIC SENSE OF THE WORD and not everyday lingo) and why they believe discriminating against homosexuals even with all the scientific evidence against them is the right thing to do.

   

Palin LAUGHABLY Says She Will Help the Mainstream Media

      Ever since Palin could not answer Katie Couric's question, "What do you read?", she has become known as a bit of a dunce.  What many people do not know about Sarah Palin is that she has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Hawaii.  She recently said "I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism..."  I think the first step she can take is to start acting like a serious thinker.


    Palin consistently dodges reporters of any news organization that does not give her a favorable view.  She only gives interviews to places like NewsMax, Fox News, or  The Christian Broadcasting Network.  All three of these are actually unreputable news organizations.  She doesn't go on CNN, ABC, CBS, or NBC.  She won't talk to the New York Time  or the Washington Post.   Her interviews are to organizations that do NOT practice good journalism.  It is ironic at BEST that she would make such a statement.  In theory she knows very well what she is doing.  She knows what good journalism should be, she just chooses for some reason not to engage news companies that practice it.  I think she does have a lesson to teach.  Any news organization that she regularly appears on is an example of HOW NOT TO PRACTICE GOOD JOURNALISM.  Until she engages with real reporters, she cannot be taken seriously as a public thinker. 

Grover Norquist Backtrack

      Grover Norquist, the man in charge of Americans For Tax Reform, and the one who insists all Republicans sign a pledge promising that they will not raise taxes, told the Washington Post editorial board that letting the Bush tax cuts expire would not be an increase stating,  “Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase," and with regards to the pledge and whether letting the Bush tax cuts expire would be a tax increase he said, “We wouldn’t hold it that way." 


       In a stunning about face, on an interview with MSNBC, Norquist said he was quoted out of context by the Washington Post and said if he had been quoted in context,  "Otherwise it wouldn't pass the laugh test to go to the American people and tell them you just allowed $4 trillion dollars in higher taxes by allowing the 2001-2003 lower rates to lapse and tell people that's not a tax increase." 


      It seemed as there was a glimmer of hope.  The debt-ceiling talks have been stalled due to the Republicans consistently being in bed with corporations.  Norquist comes out and says letting the tax cuts expire would not technically be a tax increase and liberals like me cheer.  It is a breakthrough.  The Republicans have political cover now to let them expire for the richest Americans and not be in trouble for it.Then Norquist backtracks, and all hope is lost again.  The debt-ceiling talks show how irrational and ridiculous the Republican Party has become.  Recently, a video was found of Ronald Reagan calling for a CLEAN debt-ceiling increase with no policy attached.  He would be laughed out of the Republican party today.  HE ALSO RAISED TAXES 11 TIMES.  What a liberal.  The Republican party has transformed from a conservative alternative to Democratic liberals to a party based on the religious dogma of no new taxes.

The Limits of Free Speech

       I begin this post not really sure how I feel about the case I am about to describe.  Free speech is a protected right in the U.S. Constitution, but at what point does it cross the line and deserve censorship?  Walter Bagdasarian posted a message about Obama on Yahoo.com two years ago.  This is not surprising.  There are many political comments on Yahoo.  However, in this one he said that Obama "will have a 50 cal in the head soon" and also called him a racial slur.  


     The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that his speech was protected and there was no evidence that he actually intended to carry out an act.  Usually free speech is protected unless the individual is inciting a riot or there is a known intent to harm.  Many people say unruly things in political discourse, so it is hard to gauge intentions.  With that said, I believe that if I were to say outloud at a school or work that I wanted to shoot Obama and I was reported, the FBI would be paying me a visit.  I do not know whether I would be charged or not.  But is this what free speech is about?  Talking about killing another human being?  I'm not sure this is protected.  I don't believe the man necessarily deserved a harsh sentence or anything.  Perhaps he needs anger management.  But the point is that talking about politics and issues is not equivalent to talking about killing another person, just because of their race or political party.


        

Republican Voter's Lack of Intellectual Depth

           Michele Bachmann, one of the Republican Presidential candidates from Minnesota (the other being Tim Pawlenty), is now polling at number two right behind Mitt Romney.  I wonder about the rationality of voters who strongly support her.  She's extremely inflexible and bigoted.  Bachmann and associates DOES practice reparative therapy, and Bachmann refuses to consider tax increases as part of the budget deal on the table (thought his could be leveled against any Republican).  She called for investigation into members of Congress who may hold "anti-american views".  And she's just downright crazy with her beliefs on homosexuality.  Why should such a person be supported?

         A President should be able to assess evidence and change opinions accordingly, and should not be a bigot.  She refuses to change her mind on anything, even with the evidence is staring her in the face, such as is the case with homosexuality and evolution.    She has irresponsibly said that she won't vote to raise the debt-ceiling, and in doing so it is not a big deal.  Default isn't a real threat.  Stephen Colbert likes to use the word "truthiness" for politicians who play fast and loose with the facts, and Michele Bachmann seems to be the epitome of that word.

Rupert Murdoch Lies Just as Badly as Fox News

           If one were to watch Fox News as the main source of media, public policy polling has shown that they will consistently misinform you on major issues, and politifact has rated many of the people on the network and find the truth to be wanting.  The man who owns NewsCorp, which is the parent company of many smaller companies, one of those being Faux News, was engaged in sleazy journalism.  His British newspaper, News Of The World, was caught hacking into the phones of many British people, some as famous as Gordon Brown, and lower status people, such as the 13 year old girl named Milly Dowler.  She was missing and NewsCorp employees actually hacked into her voicemail and deleted them to make room for her family and friends to leave more, leaving them and the police to believe she was still alive.  And recently,  Rebekah Brooks, Murdoch's second in command, admitted she had paid off the police for scandalous information.    Murdoch claimed yesterday in front of the British Parliament that he did not know what was happening.

          There seems to be a problem among conservative politicians of taking "personal responsibility" fof their actions.  If a CEO is running a company with so many unethical people, he should resign for the sheer fact that he lacks the ability to judge character.  However, it is not likely that he did not know what was going on, especially with Rebekah Brooks admitting to the police she paid off the police for information!  This abdication of responsbility is similiar to what the Republicans that were in charge during the Bush years are doing.  They cry and wail like a child at a candy store that they are not getting what they want, all the while they have spent all of their parents money at the mall and maxed out all of the credit cards.  When the parent asks the child to get a job and pay for it (because this would bring in revenue), they refuse and blame the parents for wreckless spending, even though it was them that actually spent wrecklessly.  The Republicans voted for huge tax cuts, two wars, a prescription drug bill, the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, and No Child Left Behind all without paying for any of it.   The economy tanks and revenues fall because people aren't working, emergency measures are needed to stabilize the economy, and Republicans make it sound as though Obama is the main problem.  America needs to wake up to the fact that the Republican party in it's current form is intellectually bankrupt.  And in the words of David Brooks, a conservative, " But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity.(What he means here is a real deficit reduction deal in these debt-ceiling negotiations) That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative."