Some of you might remember that I said Obamacare would actually be cheaper than trying to get insurance on your own, or even through your employer. When I said that on one of the Right-Wing Blogs, I was laughed at, sworn at, and called a Commie/Socialist Radical Progressive [as if name calling could change facts]. Well, read on dear followers:
This is from Forbes Magazine: Forbes, by the way, is a conservative magazine.
“The Congressional Budget Office predicted back in November 2009 that
a medium-cost plan on the health exchange – known as a “silver plan” –
would have an annual premium of $5,200. A separate report from
actuarial firm Milliman projected that, in California, the average
silver plan would have a $450 monthly premium.”
The actual costs?
Kliff continues, “On average, the most affordable “silver plan” –
which covers 70 percent of the average subscriber’s medical costs –
comes with a $276 monthly premium. For the 2.6 million Californians who
will receive federal subsidies, the price is a good deal less expensive…”
As you can see, the actuaries missed by a huge percentage.
There is a moral to this story for those open to receive the message.
If you are among the many Americans who have bought into the fear and
loathing that has been the campaign against Obamacare, you just might
wish to reconsider. With every passing day, the various myths, legends
and lies put forward by those with a political axe to grind, TV or radio
rating to be raised or vote to be purchased, are falling victim to the
facts.
Of course, if you continue to find it more useful to hate the
Affordable Care Act than to recognize the benefit of what this program
offers to you and your family, nothing I can say is likely to change
your mind.
But, accept it or not, the reality is that the early report card on
Obamacare—at least in those states willing to give the law a chance to
succeed—is looking pretty darn good. So good, in fact, that the data
reveals that even a supporter such as myself was off the mark when
predicting significantly higher rates for the youngest among us.
This is one time that I could not be happier to be proven wrong.
There are a whole bunch more things said about Obama that are simply myths or blatantly false. Don't believe what you are being fed by the far rightwingnuts. Or that I'll-Say-Anything-They-Tell-Me-To-Say TV Network whose letters start with an F and end with an X.
ROCKABILLY RULES
The Rockin Johnny B
Monday, May 27, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
YOU MIGHT BE A CONSERVATIVE
YOU MIGHT BE A CONSERVATIVE IF...
1: You’re irate over the president taking so many vacation days on the taxpayer’s dime (61 thus far), but you thought George W. Bush earned every minute of his leisure time (196 days at the same point in his presidency).
2: You’re happy with your 40 hour work week, paid vacations and company-provided healthcare, but you’re strongly anti-union, because those commies haven’t done anything for you lately.
3: You strongly support the First Amendment and its guarantee of religious freedom to all, but you don’t think Muslims have a right to build an Islamic Community Center in Manhattan.
4: You believe Ronald Reagan was a devout Christian, even though he hated going to church, but any president who spends twenty years going to the same Trinity United Church in Chicago must be a Muslim.
5: You believe when a Republican governor creates a healthcare package with an individual mandate for everyone in his state, that’s a good idea. But when a Democratic president does it, suddenly it’s unconstitutional.
6: You’re so enthused about demonstrating your Second Amendment rights, you can think of no finer place to brandish your pistol in public than at a presidential rally.
7: You believe Bill Clinton was responsible for Osama bin Laden’s escape ten years ago, but thankfully George W. Bush caught up with him and killed him in Pakistan.
8: You believe in putting American jobs first, except when president Obama rescued 1.5 million GM and Chrysler autoworkers, because that was socialism.
9: It angers you that you can’t communicate with the Mexican busboy at your local Olive Garden, but when you took a vacation to San Francisco’s Chinatown, you thought it’s quaint that so many Chinese-Americans are holding fast to their traditional language. Because that’s America!
10: You deny that the lunatic who tried to murder Gaby Giffords was a conservative, even though he targeted a Jewish, pro-choice, pro gay rights, Democratic Congresswoman.
11: You thought it was perfectly normal that every president in history had an untethered right to raise the debt ceiling when warranted, but when Obama asked the GOP held congress to do it, you thought it only natural that it be tied to cutting Social Security and Medicare.
12: When the new 112th Congress was sworn in, you swooned as they promised to focus on “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” But when they pivoted, and went after NPR, Planned Parenthood and gay rights, you cheered.
13: You accuse president Obama of raising your taxes to the highest point ever, even though they’re lower today than at any time since 1950.
14: You believe the wealthiest Americans are “job creators,” and they are — but it doesn’t bother you that all the workers in those positions are in India, China and Malaysia, and they’re doing the jobs that our fathers once did.
15: You believe gays are anti-American, because their lifestyle is a threat to the children… unless they’re married to Tea Party-backed presidential candidates from Minnesota.
16: You strongly defend individual freedom, but that freedom doesn’t include a woman’s right to decide her own healthcare needs.
17: You believe corporations are people too, and are deserving of the same rights as the rest of us. Just not the same obligations to pay personal income tax free of corporate loopholes, or penalties for massive criminal behavior and tax evasion. In these matters, corporations are deserving of special rights.
18: And since corporations are now people too, you must believe in their right to a driver’s license, the right to marry, to adopt children, etc. These rights shall not be denied to Exxon, Halliburton and BP (but still immune from the right of the People to try, convict and sentence to death any corporation that conspires to commit a felony… because at that point, they’re suddenly not people again.)
19: You still believe Climate Change is a myth, and the recent record highs, lows, floods and droughts around the world coinciding with climate scientist’s predictions are all an amazing coincidence. Oh, and Al Gore is FAT!
20: You believe when George W. Bush took the national debt from $5 trillion to $11 trillion, it was necessary for him to do so to keep America safe. But when Barack Obama added to it by trying to rescue the country from a second Great Depression, he was deliberately trying to destroy America!
21: You believe America is a God fearing country, and that the Almighty protects those who believe just as you do. But it’s never crossed your mind that the majority of tornados, hurricanes and floods all occur in the Bible Belt.
22: You believe that no matter who’s in the White House, the office, if not the man himself is deserving of your respect. The only exceptions to this rule, are if his middle name sounds Muslim, and if he’s not at least as white as that black guy who works down in the mailroom at the office.
Friday, May 24, 2013
I'M AT IT AGAIN.
The IRS, golf, big pensions and welfare
The IRS is legal organized crime spearheaded, controlled and directed by the horribly incompetent, relentless, nihilistic community organizer himself. Avarice abounds with this administration of obliquity as the anointed one continues on his quest for creating a Marxist/ Muslim state, much like the family who raised and taught him the fundamentals of communism and Islam like his parents and grandparents did.
Swimming in an endless sea of red ink at $17 trillion and counting, he golfs more than he leads the country. He plays golf more than any president!
A Democratic teacher (liberal voter) in the L.A. school district recently retired after 27 years and will struggle by trying to make do on $118,386 a year retirement — for life. That’s nearly 10 grand a month!
When you’re standing in the “line of desperation” at a 7-11, looking at the tattoos, dirty-clothed, never-worked-a-day-in-their-life people buying milk, cigarettes and beer for the kids, using food stamps, welfare money for $200 cash back for drug money, driving with no license and using a fake ID, not a legal citizen and smelling like marijuana, ask yourself this: did this voter vote Democrat or Republican? This is not a conservative Republican, folks! Liberals, stop your stupidity!
Oh, I almost forgot, the school teacher who retired with $118,386 a year “pension?” Included is free health insurance for life also! Free — from conservative wage earners (taxpayers). Our money Conservatives work and pay for the lines at 7-11.
Beer for kids ? Sure, beer is made with malt (powdered milk) hops, barley, oats, wheat — veggies! Dano Savino, Nampa
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Sometimes it's difficult to know where to start with conspiracy nuts. But let me try. Dano Savino in IPT made so many false statements in such a short period of time it was simply mind boggling.
- The White House protecting “liberal liars” at the IRS. What? I didn't know Liberals ran the IRS. I thought these folks were hired. Has something changed? Am I confused? The fact is, there is probably more conservatives in the IRS than liberals. If there are more liberals in the IRS, could it be that more Liberals sign up for service-type jobs than conservatives? Hmmm.
- Again, the President is a Marxist/Muslim who was born a non-American. Come on Dano. Here's a guy who was born in Hawaii [birth certificate has been produced despite the Arizona cop's idiocy] and is no more a Marxist than Abraham Lincoln – who, by the way was accused of much worse than being a Marxist or a Muslim, check your history books. You might get away with Socialist...but never Marxist. And, Muslims. Can you name five Muslims you know personally or are you just a homophobe in general? I assume what you really don't like is Jihadists, cause Muslims don't like 'em either.
- Golf: President Eisenhower wins the honor of the one who played the most golf. The Conservative President played 800 rounds of golf in his time at the White House or to better understand it, 100 rounds per year of his presidency. Obama isn't even close to that honor. Oh, and the Red Ink thing? I'll give you that, but with this amendment, Obama didn't start the debt, he inherited it and he has added to it. If you would like a lesson in economics, I could explain why that was necessary, but I doubt you'd understand the explanation, so I won't try.
- California Teacher retires with $118,386 per year benefit. First note that the average annual salary in 2010 for active working educators enrolled in the system was $64,156. The next table states that the average retirement benefit paid out in 2010 was $4,256 per month. That’s $51,072 annually. In other words, the average retired teacher in California made more than the average working teacher in 28 states, according to the salary rankings published by NEA. But they DO NOT MAKE MORE THAN THEY EARN IN RETIREMENT BENEFITS. That's ridiculous.
- Dano Savino: “When you’re standing in the “line of desperation” at a 7-11, looking at the tattoos, dirty-clothed, never-worked-a-day-in-their-life people buying milk, cigarettes and beer for the kids, using food stamps, welfare money for $200 cash back for drug money, driving with no license and using a fake ID, not a legal citizen and smelling like marijuana, ask yourself this: did this voter vote Democrat or Republican? This is not a conservative Republican, folks! Liberals, stop your stupidity!” You know, I bet ol' Dano calls himself a Christian. Believes in the good ol' 'Love Thy Neighbor' and 'The Golden Rule.' Here's one for ya, Dano, the people you are putting down are the very people Jesus preached to. He didn't have time for you or the Pharisees who already had all the answers but didn't understand the basic humanity questions. Where's your heart, Dano? Did you leave it in your 4X4 pickup truck with the Winchester in the rear window and has the 'Cold Dead Hand' holding an AK47 slapped on the bumper? You call Obama a Marxist...you, my friend resemble a Facist...remember them? Are you a Facist, Dano?
- ARE YOU A FASCIST?
- You might be a Fascist if...
- You are obsessed with national power and pride and believe your country doesn’t have to follow the rules and shouldn’t ever apologize for doing things that are wrong. You think your nation can do whatever it wants.
- You believe in the rule of the few, election rigging, political decisions being made by a select group of officials behind closed doors, embrace the informal and unregulated exercise of political power, arbitrary deprivation of civil liberties, and little tolerance for meaningful opposition.
- You believe in survival of the fittest, an every man for himself mentality that causes you to believe that poor people and sick people are weak and must be punished. You think rich people are strong because they are wealthy and that they should rule us. You also believe your race is superior to all others.
- You use the media as a political propaganda machine to target a specific audience and to push your agenda on others. You make sure the media demonizes your opponents and takes your side on nearly every issue. You use your propaganda machine to play on the fears of others.
- You are obsessed with security, and war. You feed this obsession by spending trillions of dollars building up a large military force and are willing to sacrifice domestic programs your people count on to keep your military huge. You start unnecessary and costly wars and you are paranoid of other nations.
- You are driven to indoctrinate others into your way of thinking. So much so, that you try to re-write history, change the way school children are taught and you brainwash the ignorant. You use your propaganda machine as a tool to achieve this.
- You fear and demonize intelligent people who have a higher
education because they are the ones who can thwart your effort to
brainwash people. You then attempt to prevent others from achieving
a higher education because you want the people as ignorant as
possible so you can convince them that your way is the right way.
- You have a deep hatred and fear of communists and you instill
your followers with hatred and fear of others by accusing your
political opponents of being communists. This gives you an easy
scapegoat to blame when things go wrong. Any person or policy you
don’t like is branded as communism.
- You disrespect women and think their place is in the home.
You believe women are weak and cannot do things that men do. You
believe that sexual harassment or assault is no big deal and that
the only thing women are good for is cooking meals and having
babies.
- You strongly align yourself with corporations and you support
corporate money and influence in government. You despise government
regulations that keep corporations honest because you believe
everything should be controlled by the free market and that
corporations should be allowed to do whatever they please.
- You are obsessed with Christianity. You seek to declare a
Christian State and to impose religious laws on all the people
across the country and the world. You believe other religions are
inferior and that those who practice them should either be converted
or destroyed.
- You believe your race is superior and seek to disenfranchise
or humiliate other races. You believe in legalized discrimination
and fantasize about a return to times when the races were separate
or when those of color were enslaved. You use code words in an
attempt to hide your racism and you make laws that weaken the
influence of those of color. Immigration and voting laws in
particular.
- You absolutely despise unions. To you and those like you,
labor unions represent the empowerment of workers. Since you believe
corporations can do whatever they want, you see organized labor as a
threat because they fight for higher wages, health care, safety
regulations, less hours, vacations, sick days, and holidays off.
This obviously threatens the amount of money corporations can give
to you and your cause so you brand unions as proponents of socialism
and make laws that severely weaken them so that corporations can
have a cheap, mindless labor force.
- You are obsessed with crime and a major supporter of
punishing those who commit crimes. So much so, that you don’t care
about the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ You are
proud of executing people and aren’t bothered if an innocent
person is killed. You seek to make harsher laws, especially laws
that target specific groups of people such as immigrants, women, and
people of color. You also oppose Miranda rights and using humane
interrogation tactics and you seek to undermine the independent
judiciary.
- You believe every election should go your way and to reach
that goal, you push voting laws that disenfranchise those who
traditionally vote for opponents such as people of color, the
elderly, college students, and the poor. You even stoop to fixing
elections in some cases and complain when your opponents challenge
the vote counts.
- You believe in rewarding your friends with positions when you
gain power and you reward those who support you with government
contracts and money, especially corporations. You also do your best
to aid your supporters in any way you can, such as repealing
undesirable pieces of legislation and regulations. You often have
something to gain financially from this.
- You create scapegoats to blame when problems arise. Whether
it’s communists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, the poor, or
non-Christians, one thing is for certain. You and your propaganda
tool will blame each and every one of those groups for bad things
that happen even if you were the cause of the problems in the first
place.
- You take advantage of a national disaster such as an economic collapse or an attack to demonize your opponents and push your agenda. You use these events to strike fear into the population in an attempt to scare people into voting for you and your cause. It’s all about fear and scare tactics.
Monday, May 20, 2013
IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW
FIFTEEN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEMS AND REPS:
I’ve noticed over the years, there are some fundamental differences in the way Republican and Democratic politicians think. Here are just 15 examples.
[1] Republicans fear that the government has too much control over corporations. Democrats fear that corporations have too much control over our government.
I’ve noticed over the years, there are some fundamental differences in the way Republican and Democratic politicians think. Here are just 15 examples.
[1] Republicans fear that the government has too much control over corporations. Democrats fear that corporations have too much control over our government.
PROPHESIES BY THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT
Nutty Christian right prophesies.
1) Mitt Romney would win in 2012 and go on to be a two-term president. One week before the 2012 election, Pat Robertson assured viewers that Romney would not only beat Barack Obama for the presidency, but go on to be a two-term president. “Because the Lord told me,” he confidently explained to his guest. So either the Lord is lying to Robertson or Obama is more powerful than God. Or, I suppose, it could be that Robertson himself is a liar, though it’s considered impolite to say so directly.
2) If Obama wins in 2008, the Bible will be classified as “hate speech” and banned from the airwaves. In 2008, Focus on the Family sent out a letter from a fictional Christian in 2012 describing the decrepit, destroyed America that would be sure to exist in four years if Obama won in 2008. Some predictions, such as gays in the military and universal healthcare legislation, came true, but somehow the predicted arrests of people reading the Bible on the airwaves have not come to pass.
3) Making emergency contraception available without a prescription will cause “sex-based cults." With the legal battles over Plan B emergency contraception continuing, it’s worth looking back at some of the dire predictions made about the drug’s availability in the past. Back in 2004, one of Bush’s Christian right hires to the FDA, Janet Woodcock, warned that making Plan B available without a prescription could cause the drug to take on “an ‘urban legend’ status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B.” Shortly thereafter, the FDA removed the prescription requirements, though the drug still has age restrictions on it, which are currently being fought out in court. However, the sex-based cults haven’t manifested, though a handful of unwanted pregnancies have probably been prevented.
4) Legal gay marriage will lead to legalized parent-child marriages. In 2008, Rick Santorum warned that if gay marriage was legalized, all bets are off. (At the time, only Massachusetts had same-sex marriage.) “I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?” he whined. Since then, 10 more states have legalized same-sex marriage and Minnesota is on the verge of becoming the 12th. So far, the predicted legalized incest has not come to pass in those states. Nor have any other dire religious right predictions about the “breakdown” of “traditional” marriage come to pass. Polygamy remains illegal and the divorce rate seems completely unaffected by same-sex marriage.
5) RFID microchips, the Mark of the Beast, will be implanted in all Americans on March 23, 2013. The Christian right has long worried about RFID chips, microchips that are easily scanned and can be used for a variety of tracking purposes, mostly commercial. A rumor rapidly spread in Christian right circles that the Affordable Care Act, which they call “Obamacare,” would require mandatory microchipping of all Americans on March 23, 2013. A sample page spreading this rumor was flagged at Daily Kos and had language like, “its a micro chip injected in your hand. it will contain all your personal data heath and bank accounts etc. its also a GPS device being monitored. they can deactivate it at any time if they find you suspicious or not loyal to their government or go against them or their system and you will lose everything you ever had.” For those keeping track, on March 23, Colorado legalized civil unions and Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown during March Madness, but only dogs and cats were forcibly microchipped that day.
6) If the Supreme Court upholds Obamacare, death panels will subject unproductive old people to execution. The claim that the ACA mandates “death panels” to rule on the right of old people to live is part of the larger religious right unease with healthcare generally, which tends to manifest most when it comes to reproductive health but also touches on end-of-life issues, as evidenced by the Terri Schiavo debacle. On the eve of the Supreme Court decision on the fate of the ACA (they upheld it), religious right icon Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page, “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.” The court upheld the legislation, which is currently being implemented, and death panels are nowhere in sight.
7) If Obama wins in 2012, conservative Christians will basically lose their right to vote and other freedoms. Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily predicted prior to the 2012 election that if Obama won, “any Republican, conservative, independent journalist, pro-life activist, returning veteran, gun-rights activist, constitutionalist, Bible believer or critic of Obama” would lose their human rights, and that Obama would specifically “shut down and destroy all independent media.” He also predicted, “There may not be another free and fair election in America.” On May 7, South Carolina’s first district put this prediction to the test, holding a special election to determine its new congressman. By all accounts, it was a free and fair election, and the Republican won.
8) Sharia law! One of the favorite pastimes of the religious right is predicting that on X date, democratic rule of law will be overturned and replaced with sharia law. Glenn Beck pegged the day that Obama would start imposing sharia law as March 3, 2011. Two years later, mandatory adherence to a fundamentalist imam’s view of Islam still hasn’t manifested. During the election, a Christian right group called Government Is Not God ran ads claiming an Obama re-election meant sharia law across the land. So far, no signs of the Islamic theocracy that we were all supposed to be living under already.
9) The military will court martial Christian soldiers who don’t hide their beliefs. A rumor rapidly spread through the Christian right, with the help of Fox News and Breitbart News, that the military would soon start prosecuting any soldier who was out about being a Christian. Various news sources and, of course, Rep. Michele Bachmann protested this supposed new policy banning the expression of faith in the military. It is, of course, nonsense. The only military policy in play is a very old one, disallowing religious people from badgering and harassing those who don’t share their faith. But the impending end of religious freedom for soldiers is, simply put, a lie.
10) Obama will rise up and take over the world for Satan, triggering Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ. One in five Republicans believe Obama is the Antichrist, who is, for those who haven’t read the Left Behind, series, supposed to be an emissary of Satan who takes over the world and triggers an all-out war between the forces of hell and of heaven, bringing the world to an end. A tall order for a man who only has three and a half years left in office and who seems to be making no movement in that direction, but then again, such an important being surely has magical powers to make it happen. This one hasn’t been conclusively disproved yet, but I’m including it on the list on the grounds that on the slim chance it does turn out to be true, probably no one will be reading this article looking to say they told me so anyway.
Oh my, oh my, but don't they scare the bajesus out of ya? This is the kind of crap that gives religion a bad name. Just when we think there can be no worse stuff coming from the Right, here they come with something else to knock your socks off. Sometimes it makes me ashamed to be a Christian.
I became an agnostic a long, long time ago because I couldn't stomach some of the stuff put out by religions. Things like, "blacks have the mark of Cain on them [their skin]." Or, "homosexuals will destroy Christian marriage forever." Or, "you must be a Christian or you will not see heaven." Or, "Cave men are the degenerate sons of Adam [rather than admitting the earth and mankind is older than 6000 years]." These are ideas that turn off intelligent people all over the world and yet they, the Christian Right, continue to preach hate and discord not knowing that the only people they attract are conspiracy theorists like themselves who continue to spew out non-intellectual garbage.
I sincerely believe God is out there taking notes. Someday these people will face Him and what will they say? "I was only following orders?" Or, "I thought this is what you wanted, God?" Or, "I didn't know Black People are created in your image too?"
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Ewwww More Scandal
Okay, here I go again
Enough already! Why is it the right wing media jumps on any and everything Obama-ish? Why is it they will stop at nothing to discredit this president? [Other than the fact he is a black man, of course.]
I have some theories:
- Benghazi: come on folks, this has been going on since the
inception of the act of terror. The latest was the Email scandal
that turned out to be nothing. It was FALSIFIED, people. Get it!
Completely untrue and yet blamed on Obama. CNN broke the news about
it and showed the original.
- IRS: Who out there among you don't think the Tea Party is
not a political entity? Come on, let's call a duck a duck. They
act like a political entity. They advertise like a political
entity. They support right wingers like a political entity and yet
they want to claim they are not one. If it quacks, lives in a pond
and has webbed feet, it is not a horse...IT'S A DUCK.
- The AP investigation: Okay. I'll give you this one but keep
in mind this is an old story. Let's try to remember what happened
in the Bush Administration regarding outing CIA agents. There's a
lady out there who is still steamed about it. Remember? Not only
that, what happened is absolutely legal thanks to the Bush
Administration.
- The Obama Administration has been scandal free too long. The
right has to shake things up and to do that, they will say and do
anything to make sure Hillary will not run in 2016. Let's face it,
she is a formidable force facing them in the coming election. If
they were to lose to her, it could cost them the congress. And the
press, God bless 'em, have to have something to write about...it's
only fair, right?
- If Hillary runs in 2016, it will be a massacre. No contest.
Who would the right run against her? Rand Paul? Get real. The
press got handed their comeuppance in the last election by saying it
was a real nail biter when in reality it was no contest at all. The
press and all of the right-wing politicians have no idea what the
American Public wants. If you want an example just look at
background checks. More than 80% of Americans were for it, but the
scaredy cat politicians figured they knew better what Americans need
and they would protect us from ourselves. That little debacle will
costs 'em in the next congressional races across this country.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND
Here's a guy who doesn't understand the phrase 'across the board cuts.' That's what sequestration was all about. Cutting services evenly and across all areas of government, i.e., across the board. Listen to this fool...
Harry Truman was noted for the sign
on his desk, “The buck stops here.” President Obama needs to have a sign
that reads, “The buck never gets here.”
He continues to blame the White House tour cancellations on the Secret Service lack of funds due to sequestration. The tours cost about $74,000 per week, according to the Secret Service. We don’t know what that pays for, since much of the tour functions are done by volunteers.
It is not possible to believe that if the president of these United States wanted the tours to continue, they wouldn’t have been funded. He was offered a bill to allow departments to handle sequestration. He chose instead to lead in the attempt to make the cuts as frustrating to the public as possible.
It would take about $1.2 million to fund the tours for 16 weeks during he student tour season. Continuing the tours would have cost less than 1 percent of the annual White House budget of $1.4 billion.
If your children’s tour has been canceled, make sure that you tell them it is the Obamas that have cancelled tours, not the Secret Service. Jim Goeppner, Nampa
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Sorry Jimmy, but ya just don't get it. Check it out with some of your Tea Party buds. Maybe they can enlighten ya. Better yet, call your local senator or congressman cause they are to blame for this idiocy. [Idaho = all Republican legislators]
Obama could have kept up White House tours
He continues to blame the White House tour cancellations on the Secret Service lack of funds due to sequestration. The tours cost about $74,000 per week, according to the Secret Service. We don’t know what that pays for, since much of the tour functions are done by volunteers.
It is not possible to believe that if the president of these United States wanted the tours to continue, they wouldn’t have been funded. He was offered a bill to allow departments to handle sequestration. He chose instead to lead in the attempt to make the cuts as frustrating to the public as possible.
It would take about $1.2 million to fund the tours for 16 weeks during he student tour season. Continuing the tours would have cost less than 1 percent of the annual White House budget of $1.4 billion.
If your children’s tour has been canceled, make sure that you tell them it is the Obamas that have cancelled tours, not the Secret Service. Jim Goeppner, Nampa
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Sorry Jimmy, but ya just don't get it. Check it out with some of your Tea Party buds. Maybe they can enlighten ya. Better yet, call your local senator or congressman cause they are to blame for this idiocy. [Idaho = all Republican legislators]
FASCISM
SO, YOU THINK FASCISM IS DEAD, RIGHT?
You might be a Fascist if you believe...
You are obsessed with national power
and pride and believe your country doesn’t have to follow the rules
and shouldn’t ever apologize for doing things that are wrong. You
think your nation can do whatever it wants.
You believe in the rule of the few,
election rigging, political decisions being made by a select group of
officials behind closed doors, embrace the informal and unregulated
exercise of political power, arbitrary deprivation of civil
liberties, and little tolerance for meaningful opposition.
You believe in survival of the fittest,
an every man for himself mentality that causes you to believe that
poor people and sick people are weak and must be punished. You think
rich people are strong because they are wealthy and that they should
rule us. You also believe your race is superior to all others.
You use the media as a political
propaganda machine to target a specific audience and to push your
agenda on others. You make sure the media demonizes your opponents
and takes your side on nearly every issue. You use your propaganda
machine to play on the fears of others.
You are obsessed with security, and
war. You feed this obsession by spending trillions of dollars
building up a large military force and are willing to sacrifice
domestic programs your people count on to keep your military huge.
You start unnecessary and costly wars and you are paranoid of other
nations.
You are driven to indoctrinate others
into your way of thinking. So much so, that you try to re-write
history, change the way school children are taught and you brainwash
the ignorant. You use your propaganda machine as a tool to achieve
this.
You have a deep hatred and fear of communists and you instill your followers with hatred and fear of others by accusing your political opponents of being communists. This gives you an easy scapegoat to blame when things go wrong. Any person or policy you don’t like is branded as communism.
You disrespect women and think their place is in the home. You believe women are weak and cannot do things that men do. You believe that sexual harassment or assault is no big deal and that the only thing women are good for is cooking meals and having babies.
You strongly align yourself with corporations and you support corporate money and influence in government. You despise government regulations that keep corporations honest because you believe everything should be controlled by the free market and that corporations should be allowed to do whatever they please.
You are obsessed with Christianity. You seek to declare a Christian State and to impose religious laws on all the people across the country and the world. You believe other religions are inferior and that those who practice them should either be converted or destroyed.
You believe your race is superior and seek to disenfranchise or humiliate other races. You believe in legalized discrimination and fantasize about a return to times when the races were separate or when those of color were enslaved. You use code words in an attempt to hide your racism and you make laws that weaken the influence of those of color. Immigration and voting laws in particular.
You absolutely despise unions. To you and those like you, labor unions represent the empowerment of workers. Since you believe corporations can do whatever they want, you see organized labor as a threat because they fight for higher wages, health care, safety regulations, less hours, vacations, sick days, and holidays off. This obviously threatens the amount of money corporations can give to you and your cause so you brand unions as proponents of socialism and make laws that severely weaken them so that corporations can have a cheap, mindless labor force.
You are obsessed with crime and a major supporter of punishing those who commit crimes. So much so, that you don’t care about the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ You are proud of executing people and aren’t bothered if an innocent person is killed. You seek to make harsher laws, especially laws that target specific groups of people such as immigrants, women, and people of color. You also oppose Miranda rights and using humane interrogation tactics and you seek to undermine the independent judiciary.
You believe every election should go your way and to reach that goal, you push voting laws that disenfranchise those who traditionally vote for opponents such as people of color, the elderly, college students, and the poor. You even stoop to fixing elections in some cases and complain when your opponents challenge the vote counts.
You believe in rewarding your friends with positions when you gain power and you reward those who support you with government contracts and money, especially corporations. You also do your best to aid your supporters in any way you can, such as repealing undesirable pieces of legislation and regulations. You often have something to gain financially from this.
You create scapegoats to blame when problems arise. Whether it’s communists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, the poor, or non-Christians, one thing is for certain. You and your propaganda tool will blame each and every one of those groups for bad things that happen even if you were the cause of the problems in the first place.
You take advantage of a national disaster such as an economic collapse or an attack to demonize your opponents and push your agenda. You use these events to strike fear into the population in an attempt to scare people into voting for you and your cause. It’s all about fear and scare tactics.
Sound familiar? It should. Check out
the Republican Party politicos.
♂ RAPE
When a man gets raped, have you ever heard someone say, "I wonder what he was wearing?"
There's a double standard in this country, and the world, that somehow a woman is a second...even a third class citizen. She gets paid less than a man for the same work and when she is abused, it is inevitably her fault. We blame women for anything bad that happens to her.
I once heard someone say, "that woman will never get off welfare. Every time she gets close to getting off the government teat, she has another kid." My question was always, "what's the reason she is on welfare in the first place?" And the answer can nearly always be tracked back to some man getting her "in a family way" then leaving her to fend for herself.
BLAME THE VICTIM
This seems to be the mantra of our society, especially if the victim is a woman. If her husband beats her, she must have done something to provoke him into breaking her jaw. The only time the law enforcement folks get serious about this kind of violence is when it ends in the woman's death -- as it inevitably does. Oh they tell her to get a restraining order. What a joke. Like a piece of paper will stop Bubba. Some women have to resort to dropping of the face of the earth using an underground system of protection because there is no 'real' protection above ground.
If a woman is a drug addict or an alcoholic, she is looked down on much more so than a man with the same affliction. There is - they say - no reason for a woman to become a drunk, simply no reason. It's not ... uh...womanly. It's...um...unseemly. Even when Betty Ford bravely stepped out and admitted her addiction, she was judged harshly by the press. "How could she embarrass her husband, the President, like that?"
I've noticed that addiction and abuse go hand in hand often. And I've also noticed that addiction and abused victims seem to be generational. I know, I know, it isn't always the case that a person is an addict and abused at the same time, but it happens enough to become statistically relevant. I just remember in my groups and in my everyday one-on-one sessions with clients that addiction and abuse seemed to be a constant. I also noticed that when the addict got sober the abuse often stopped. Why? My theory is that when the self-esteem raised because the addictive agent was no longer present, the ex-addict would no longer put up with the abuse, albeit physical, mental, sexual or spiritual.
So, what is the answer to abuse and victimization? Probably very little can be done about it until the prevalent "male" attitudes change regarding the place of women in society. They are not just childbearing units. They are actual human beings and deserve the same respect as any and all other human beings, be they male or female. A woman needs to be treated as 'someone' rather than 'something.' They are people, they are not sex objects [although, women, you sometime portray yourselves thusly and that's on you]. My daddy always told me, "if you want respect, you have to act respectful. You have to earn both trust and respect, it cannot be given to you out of hand. You get back what you give out." And as good ol' Doctor Phil tells us, "you teach people how to treat you."
Just some thoughts...
There's a double standard in this country, and the world, that somehow a woman is a second...even a third class citizen. She gets paid less than a man for the same work and when she is abused, it is inevitably her fault. We blame women for anything bad that happens to her.
I once heard someone say, "that woman will never get off welfare. Every time she gets close to getting off the government teat, she has another kid." My question was always, "what's the reason she is on welfare in the first place?" And the answer can nearly always be tracked back to some man getting her "in a family way" then leaving her to fend for herself.
BLAME THE VICTIM
This seems to be the mantra of our society, especially if the victim is a woman. If her husband beats her, she must have done something to provoke him into breaking her jaw. The only time the law enforcement folks get serious about this kind of violence is when it ends in the woman's death -- as it inevitably does. Oh they tell her to get a restraining order. What a joke. Like a piece of paper will stop Bubba. Some women have to resort to dropping of the face of the earth using an underground system of protection because there is no 'real' protection above ground.
If a woman is a drug addict or an alcoholic, she is looked down on much more so than a man with the same affliction. There is - they say - no reason for a woman to become a drunk, simply no reason. It's not ... uh...womanly. It's...um...unseemly. Even when Betty Ford bravely stepped out and admitted her addiction, she was judged harshly by the press. "How could she embarrass her husband, the President, like that?"
I've noticed that addiction and abuse go hand in hand often. And I've also noticed that addiction and abused victims seem to be generational. I know, I know, it isn't always the case that a person is an addict and abused at the same time, but it happens enough to become statistically relevant. I just remember in my groups and in my everyday one-on-one sessions with clients that addiction and abuse seemed to be a constant. I also noticed that when the addict got sober the abuse often stopped. Why? My theory is that when the self-esteem raised because the addictive agent was no longer present, the ex-addict would no longer put up with the abuse, albeit physical, mental, sexual or spiritual.
So, what is the answer to abuse and victimization? Probably very little can be done about it until the prevalent "male" attitudes change regarding the place of women in society. They are not just childbearing units. They are actual human beings and deserve the same respect as any and all other human beings, be they male or female. A woman needs to be treated as 'someone' rather than 'something.' They are people, they are not sex objects [although, women, you sometime portray yourselves thusly and that's on you]. My daddy always told me, "if you want respect, you have to act respectful. You have to earn both trust and respect, it cannot be given to you out of hand. You get back what you give out." And as good ol' Doctor Phil tells us, "you teach people how to treat you."
Just some thoughts...
Monday, May 13, 2013
LEST WE HAVE FORGOTTEN
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OBAMA AND BUSH...
1. Bush started the war in Iraq and Obama ended it.
2. Bush lowered taxes on the wealthy and Obama raised taxes on the wealthy.
3. Bush tried to give Social Security to Wall Street and Obama protected it.
4. Bush left office with a $1 trillion deficit and Obama has lowered it.
5. President Bush ignored the War in Afghanistan and Obama made it his focus.
6. Bush didn’t kill Osama Bin Laden; Obama did.
7. Bush sanctioned torture and Obama ended torture.
8. Bush opened the Gitmo prison and Obama is trying to close it.
9. Bush instituted the failed No Child Left Behind education program and Obama ended it.
10. Bush relied on military force while Obama has relied on diplomacy.
11. Bush nominated mostly men to the Supreme Court and Obama has focused on nominating women. (Bush nominated one woman, but she was totally unqualified for the position.)
12. Bush nominated white men to the Supreme Court while Obama has nominated a white woman and a Latina.
13. Bush was placed in office by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court in 2000 while Obama won each of his elections legitimately.
14. Bush took unilateral action in foreign policy while Obama has worked more with our allies.
15. Bush responded poorly to natural disasters like Katrina, while Obama has responded more than adequately to disasters like Irene and Sandy.
16. Bush detained terrorists without due process and Obama has had terrorists prosecuted successfully with due process.
17. Bush deregulated big banks and Obama reinstated some of those regulations.
18. Bush never signed an Equal Pay for women bill while Obama did. It was the first piece of legislation he signed.
19. Bush tarnished America’s reputation around the world and Obama is restoring it.
20. Bush invaded a country illegally while Obama has done no such thing.
21. Bush had a cooperative Congress for most of his administration, while Obama hasn’t.
22. Bush used fear to control the American public while Obama has not.
23. Obama instituted healthcare reform that covers millions of people; the topic was not on Bush’s agenda.
24. Obama ended ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. President Bush continued it.
25. Obama supports marriage equality and Bush does not.
26. Bush supported anti-union policies while Obama supports unions.
27. Obama has expanded land and water conservation programs more than Bush.
28. Obama has provided generous subsides to alternative energy producers. Bush didn’t do this.
29. Obama instituted tough emissions standards for cars and factories. Bush did no such thing.
30. Obama believes in climate change and that mankind has played a big role in that change. Bush is a climate change denier.
31. Under Obama, the stock market has eclipsed 15,000 points. It never got that high under Bush.
32. Obama created the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers from unfair banking practices. Bush allowed the banks to use unfair practices at will.
33. Obama is pursuing gun control laws in response to tragic mass shootings while Bush took a hands-off approach.
34. Obama has cut defense spending while Bush only increased it.
35. Obama is bringing clean energy to the armed forces. Bush did not.
36. Obama has created more private sector jobs than Bush did.
37. Obama is for reducing and eliminating all nuclear arsenals. Bush withdrew America from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which is the opposite of Obama’s stance.
38. Obama supports Planned Parenthood while Bush did not.
39. Obama supports a woman’s right to choose while Bush does not.
40. Obama and Bush both support fighting the AIDS epidemic, but only Obama supports the use of condoms as part of the fight.
41. Obama hasn’t landed on an aircraft carrier to falsely declare mission accomplished. Bush did.
42. Obama has taken far less vacation days than Bush.
43. Obama has written personal checks to Americans in need. Bush never did that.
44. Obama isn’t being used as a puppet by his Vice-President. Bush kinda was.
45. Obama hasn’t used 9/11 as a political tool. Bush did that for nearly eight years.
46. Obama signed the American Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus, to save the economy. Bush chose to save the banks.
47. Obama is working to end the War in Afghanistan. Bush began the war and could have ended it sooner had he not focused on Iraq.
48. Obama did more to save the auto industry than Bush did.
49. Obama toppled Moammar Gaddafi without placing soldiers on the ground in harms way. Thousands of soldiers were killed in Bush’s quest to topple Saddam Hussein and he never got Bin Laden.
50. Obama kicked banks out of Federal Student Loans, something Bush never did.
51. Obama expanded Pell Grants for low-income students, which is another thing Bush didn’t do.
52. Obama created Race To The Top to reward states for education reform, something else Bush didn’t do.
53. Obama increased fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. Bush didn’t.
54. Obama signed a new GI bill for returning veterans. Bush didn’t.
55. Obama also expanded the budget of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs more than Bush did.
56. Obama tightened sanctions on Iran while, if Bush were still in office, America would probably be embroiled in another war in the Middle East.
57. Obama issued new EPA regulations that will cut mercury and other toxic pollution. Bush weakened the EPA.
58. Obama signed a major overhaul of the food safety system which desperately needed it after the Bush years.
59. Obama expanded national service by tripling the size of AmeriCorps, more than Bush ever did.
60. Obama has protected more wildlife areas than Bush.
61. Under Obama, the FDA now approves of making the morning after pill available over-the-counter to women as young as 15. Bush never did that.
62. Obama is pushing to make the federal government more energy-efficient. Bush didn’t.
63. Obama cut the Reagan-era missile defense budget, something Bush never did.
64. Obama is increasing programs to combat cyber warfare more than Bush did.
65. Obama is pushing for a new space shuttle and manned mission to Mars, whereas Bush wanted to go back to the moon where we have already gone before.
66. Obama is improving school nutrition despite Republican attempts to classify pizza as a veggie.
67. Obama is encouraging a national push to get fit and eat right to cut healthcare costs and prevent diseases. Bush didn’t do that.
68. Obama has expanded hate crime protections, especially for the LGBT community, something Bush largely ignored.
69. Obama has avoided scandal despite petty attempts by the GOP to make up scandals. Bush, on the other hand, was involved in scandal after scandal.
70. Obama forced BP to quickly compensate and set up a fund for victims of the Gulf oil spills, again proving he is better than Bush at responding to disaster.
71. The Obama Administration is more transparent than the Bush Administration.
72. Obama is spearheading a movement to bring broadband internet to every corner of America, also something Bush did not do.
77. Obama’s EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant for the first time in American history. Bush could have done this, but didn’t.
78. Obama supports funding of stem cell research and lifted the Bush ban on the research.
79. Obama aided South Sudan in declaring their independence. Bush didn’t.
80. Obama saved Americans $4 billion dollars by ending the F-22 program. Bush didn’t.
81. Obama has aided African-American and Native American farmers, something Bush didn’t do.
82. Obama dared to slash the salaries of bailed out bank executives, whereas Bush didn’t.
83. Obama hasn’t started any wars since becoming President. Bush involved America in two of the longest wars in our history.
85. Obama has lowered taxes on the middle class more than Bush.
86. Outsourcing skyrocketed under Bush; Obama is reversing this and now jobs are coming back to America.
87. Obama has been cool under pressure while Bush was more reactionary and indecisive.
88. Obama established a credit card bill of rights to better protect card holders. Bush did no such thing.
89. Obama established the White House Council on Women and Girls. There was no such council during the Bush Administration.
90. Obama ordered financial agencies to establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring. Again, Bush didn’t.
91. Obama increased minority access to capital, thus helping minorities in ways Bush never did.
92. Obama negotiated a deal with Swiss banks to permit the US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals. Meanwhile, tax evaders had a field day under Bush.
93. Obama extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, which Bush never did because he is anti-LGBT.
94. Obama protected gay and lesbian partners’ visitation/healthcare decision-making rights, which Bush also never did because he is anti-LGBT.
95. Bush was a child of privilege who had every advantage that money and social position could provide. Obama was a self-made man who crafted his success from his own efforts and abilities.
96. Obama is extremely strategic in his thinking and planning and seems able to look past the immediate moment and defer gratification to achieve a greater future good. Bush had no such skills or vision.
97. Obama understands the true personal and economic costs of warfare, unlike Bush, who involved us in two wars while deeply cutting taxes.
98. The 9/11 attacks occurred under Bush’s watch, not Obama’s.
99. Obama has a Nobel Peace Prize. Bush does not.
100. Bush is a conservative Christian and his decisions and actions were largely faith-based while Obama’s decision-making has a rational, scientific basis resulting from a consideration of facts, data, and logic.
1. Bush started the war in Iraq and Obama ended it.
2. Bush lowered taxes on the wealthy and Obama raised taxes on the wealthy.
3. Bush tried to give Social Security to Wall Street and Obama protected it.
4. Bush left office with a $1 trillion deficit and Obama has lowered it.
5. President Bush ignored the War in Afghanistan and Obama made it his focus.
6. Bush didn’t kill Osama Bin Laden; Obama did.
7. Bush sanctioned torture and Obama ended torture.
8. Bush opened the Gitmo prison and Obama is trying to close it.
9. Bush instituted the failed No Child Left Behind education program and Obama ended it.
10. Bush relied on military force while Obama has relied on diplomacy.
11. Bush nominated mostly men to the Supreme Court and Obama has focused on nominating women. (Bush nominated one woman, but she was totally unqualified for the position.)
12. Bush nominated white men to the Supreme Court while Obama has nominated a white woman and a Latina.
13. Bush was placed in office by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court in 2000 while Obama won each of his elections legitimately.
14. Bush took unilateral action in foreign policy while Obama has worked more with our allies.
15. Bush responded poorly to natural disasters like Katrina, while Obama has responded more than adequately to disasters like Irene and Sandy.
16. Bush detained terrorists without due process and Obama has had terrorists prosecuted successfully with due process.
17. Bush deregulated big banks and Obama reinstated some of those regulations.
18. Bush never signed an Equal Pay for women bill while Obama did. It was the first piece of legislation he signed.
19. Bush tarnished America’s reputation around the world and Obama is restoring it.
20. Bush invaded a country illegally while Obama has done no such thing.
21. Bush had a cooperative Congress for most of his administration, while Obama hasn’t.
22. Bush used fear to control the American public while Obama has not.
23. Obama instituted healthcare reform that covers millions of people; the topic was not on Bush’s agenda.
24. Obama ended ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. President Bush continued it.
25. Obama supports marriage equality and Bush does not.
26. Bush supported anti-union policies while Obama supports unions.
27. Obama has expanded land and water conservation programs more than Bush.
28. Obama has provided generous subsides to alternative energy producers. Bush didn’t do this.
29. Obama instituted tough emissions standards for cars and factories. Bush did no such thing.
30. Obama believes in climate change and that mankind has played a big role in that change. Bush is a climate change denier.
31. Under Obama, the stock market has eclipsed 15,000 points. It never got that high under Bush.
32. Obama created the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers from unfair banking practices. Bush allowed the banks to use unfair practices at will.
33. Obama is pursuing gun control laws in response to tragic mass shootings while Bush took a hands-off approach.
34. Obama has cut defense spending while Bush only increased it.
35. Obama is bringing clean energy to the armed forces. Bush did not.
36. Obama has created more private sector jobs than Bush did.
37. Obama is for reducing and eliminating all nuclear arsenals. Bush withdrew America from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which is the opposite of Obama’s stance.
38. Obama supports Planned Parenthood while Bush did not.
39. Obama supports a woman’s right to choose while Bush does not.
40. Obama and Bush both support fighting the AIDS epidemic, but only Obama supports the use of condoms as part of the fight.
41. Obama hasn’t landed on an aircraft carrier to falsely declare mission accomplished. Bush did.
42. Obama has taken far less vacation days than Bush.
43. Obama has written personal checks to Americans in need. Bush never did that.
44. Obama isn’t being used as a puppet by his Vice-President. Bush kinda was.
45. Obama hasn’t used 9/11 as a political tool. Bush did that for nearly eight years.
46. Obama signed the American Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus, to save the economy. Bush chose to save the banks.
47. Obama is working to end the War in Afghanistan. Bush began the war and could have ended it sooner had he not focused on Iraq.
48. Obama did more to save the auto industry than Bush did.
49. Obama toppled Moammar Gaddafi without placing soldiers on the ground in harms way. Thousands of soldiers were killed in Bush’s quest to topple Saddam Hussein and he never got Bin Laden.
50. Obama kicked banks out of Federal Student Loans, something Bush never did.
51. Obama expanded Pell Grants for low-income students, which is another thing Bush didn’t do.
52. Obama created Race To The Top to reward states for education reform, something else Bush didn’t do.
53. Obama increased fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. Bush didn’t.
54. Obama signed a new GI bill for returning veterans. Bush didn’t.
55. Obama also expanded the budget of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs more than Bush did.
56. Obama tightened sanctions on Iran while, if Bush were still in office, America would probably be embroiled in another war in the Middle East.
57. Obama issued new EPA regulations that will cut mercury and other toxic pollution. Bush weakened the EPA.
58. Obama signed a major overhaul of the food safety system which desperately needed it after the Bush years.
59. Obama expanded national service by tripling the size of AmeriCorps, more than Bush ever did.
60. Obama has protected more wildlife areas than Bush.
61. Under Obama, the FDA now approves of making the morning after pill available over-the-counter to women as young as 15. Bush never did that.
62. Obama is pushing to make the federal government more energy-efficient. Bush didn’t.
63. Obama cut the Reagan-era missile defense budget, something Bush never did.
64. Obama is increasing programs to combat cyber warfare more than Bush did.
65. Obama is pushing for a new space shuttle and manned mission to Mars, whereas Bush wanted to go back to the moon where we have already gone before.
66. Obama is improving school nutrition despite Republican attempts to classify pizza as a veggie.
67. Obama is encouraging a national push to get fit and eat right to cut healthcare costs and prevent diseases. Bush didn’t do that.
68. Obama has expanded hate crime protections, especially for the LGBT community, something Bush largely ignored.
69. Obama has avoided scandal despite petty attempts by the GOP to make up scandals. Bush, on the other hand, was involved in scandal after scandal.
70. Obama forced BP to quickly compensate and set up a fund for victims of the Gulf oil spills, again proving he is better than Bush at responding to disaster.
71. The Obama Administration is more transparent than the Bush Administration.
72. Obama is spearheading a movement to bring broadband internet to every corner of America, also something Bush did not do.
77. Obama’s EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant for the first time in American history. Bush could have done this, but didn’t.
78. Obama supports funding of stem cell research and lifted the Bush ban on the research.
79. Obama aided South Sudan in declaring their independence. Bush didn’t.
80. Obama saved Americans $4 billion dollars by ending the F-22 program. Bush didn’t.
81. Obama has aided African-American and Native American farmers, something Bush didn’t do.
82. Obama dared to slash the salaries of bailed out bank executives, whereas Bush didn’t.
83. Obama hasn’t started any wars since becoming President. Bush involved America in two of the longest wars in our history.
85. Obama has lowered taxes on the middle class more than Bush.
86. Outsourcing skyrocketed under Bush; Obama is reversing this and now jobs are coming back to America.
87. Obama has been cool under pressure while Bush was more reactionary and indecisive.
88. Obama established a credit card bill of rights to better protect card holders. Bush did no such thing.
89. Obama established the White House Council on Women and Girls. There was no such council during the Bush Administration.
90. Obama ordered financial agencies to establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring. Again, Bush didn’t.
91. Obama increased minority access to capital, thus helping minorities in ways Bush never did.
92. Obama negotiated a deal with Swiss banks to permit the US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals. Meanwhile, tax evaders had a field day under Bush.
93. Obama extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, which Bush never did because he is anti-LGBT.
94. Obama protected gay and lesbian partners’ visitation/healthcare decision-making rights, which Bush also never did because he is anti-LGBT.
95. Bush was a child of privilege who had every advantage that money and social position could provide. Obama was a self-made man who crafted his success from his own efforts and abilities.
96. Obama is extremely strategic in his thinking and planning and seems able to look past the immediate moment and defer gratification to achieve a greater future good. Bush had no such skills or vision.
97. Obama understands the true personal and economic costs of warfare, unlike Bush, who involved us in two wars while deeply cutting taxes.
98. The 9/11 attacks occurred under Bush’s watch, not Obama’s.
99. Obama has a Nobel Peace Prize. Bush does not.
100. Bush is a conservative Christian and his decisions and actions were largely faith-based while Obama’s decision-making has a rational, scientific basis resulting from a consideration of facts, data, and logic.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Two-Two-Two posts in one
I got a couple of things to get off my chest this lovely day. One is this gun crap and another is the Benghazi snafu.
On October 10th, I'll get out my 30-30 Marlin and head out to the Owyhees to hunt the stately stags. I will have an elk tag, a wolf tag, a deer tag and hopefully I'll draw on Antelope. Question: do I sound like a man who would like to have his guns taken away by the federal government? Do I sound like someone who does not support the 2nd Amendment?
The answer to those questions is, of course, no. But, am I in favor of the type of weapons that will carry 30 bullets and will fire them off at an incredible rate, that answer is also no. I see no reason for a sportsman to carry an M16 Semi-auto into the hills to hunt deer. It doesn't make sense. I know, I know, the other side says that they need those guns to avert tyranny, i.e., the fed taking over the country. I got news for those folks, the fed already has taken over the country...we elected the fed to do just that. And as far as our guns stopping the government....HAH! They've got drones, tanks and armored troop carriers along with a well equipped Navy. Get real people! If the fed was going to do that....take over the country by force....wouldn't they have done it back in Nixon's day?
Let's get real with gun control. Sensible laws governing firearms isn't tyranny, it's intelligence.
________________________________________________________
Next, let's look at that Benghazi snafu...
There was an effort to smear former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, by using an out-of-context quote from her testimony in January. Remember when, after being browbeaten by the partisan hacks on the Committee, she asked “What difference does it make?” going on to state that their job was to figure out what happened and to make sure it never happened again? Well, Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.) decided to just use that first sentence and do a bit of grandstanding. Tsk tsk, Mr. Gowdy… Hillary said in January that she accepted responsibility and would make every correction that the review board suggested. But that doesn’t fit into his emoting and pandering.
On top of the lack of bombshells at the hearing, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, Elizabeth King, sent a letter to Congressman Elijah Cummings yesterday. In it, she explained why the Commander In-Extremis Force couldn’t have reached Benghazi in time to prevent a second attack:
There are a few things that really have me both angry and annoyed with this whole Benghazi bullshit: 1) where is the outrage at the House Republicans who voted to CUT security for the embassy? They cut $300 million from the U.S. embassy security budget just before the attack. Why aren’t they being raked over the coals for that? 2) Where was the right-wing when, under G.W. Bush, seven embassies were attacked and many more than 4 people were killed? How come they never shrieked about that? 3) What about Reagan? Three embassy attacks, including Beirut where 17 Americans were killed. No? That was okay?
This Benghazi thing is making the right insane. Literally. You know the saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That’s where the GOP is right now. They are so invested in this fantasy that they have lost any ability to see reality. And Fox News feeds the fire, complaining that no other news outlets are covering this. Could it be because it’s utter and complete bullshit? Of course not, not to these modern-day inquisitors. They hate our president that much. It’s sickening.
On October 10th, I'll get out my 30-30 Marlin and head out to the Owyhees to hunt the stately stags. I will have an elk tag, a wolf tag, a deer tag and hopefully I'll draw on Antelope. Question: do I sound like a man who would like to have his guns taken away by the federal government? Do I sound like someone who does not support the 2nd Amendment?
The answer to those questions is, of course, no. But, am I in favor of the type of weapons that will carry 30 bullets and will fire them off at an incredible rate, that answer is also no. I see no reason for a sportsman to carry an M16 Semi-auto into the hills to hunt deer. It doesn't make sense. I know, I know, the other side says that they need those guns to avert tyranny, i.e., the fed taking over the country. I got news for those folks, the fed already has taken over the country...we elected the fed to do just that. And as far as our guns stopping the government....HAH! They've got drones, tanks and armored troop carriers along with a well equipped Navy. Get real people! If the fed was going to do that....take over the country by force....wouldn't they have done it back in Nixon's day?
Let's get real with gun control. Sensible laws governing firearms isn't tyranny, it's intelligence.
________________________________________________________
Next, let's look at that Benghazi snafu...
Tuesday
began as a good day for Senator Lindsey Graham. He was excited about
hearings on Benghazi, hoping that three “whistleblowers” would come up
with the information he and his GOP buddies need to hang Obama out to dry make a bigger mountain out of bullshit. That morning he tweeted:
“I think the dam is about to break on #Benghazi. We’re going to find system failure before, during and after the attack.”Yeah, how did that go for ya, Lindsey? Not so good, huh? Because there was no dam, no breaking and nothing that indicated any kind of cover-up. Nope, nothing to see here, move along. Wednesday’s hearing didn’t reveal anything that a review board and five previous hearings didn’t already tell us. Mark Thompson, Greg Hicks and Eric Nordstrom produced no bombshell and no new fuel for the right-wing’s witch hunt.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, set the tone
at the start when he accused the administration of not cooperating and
saying that “our minority” has been mostly silent. Apparently this is
some strange new meaning of the word, “silent” that we’ve previously
been unaware of. Rep. Elijah Cummings hit right back, though:
“There is no member of Congress, be they Republican or Democrat, who fails to uphold the right of whistleblowers to come forward. I think it’s sad when that accusation is made against any member of this Congress. The fact is that our top military commanders have already testified they did everything in their power to deploy assets as soon as possible.” Cummings said that all testimony and documents so far confirm “… that they could not get there in time. I have seen nothing to make me question the proof on this."Not that the GOP members of the Committee didn’t give it their best. Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah was certain that the witnesses would detail how the country was misled by the Obama administration both before and after the attack on the American embassy in Libya. But in 6 hours of questions and answers, there was no such information. Now poor Jason has a sad, frowny face.
There was an effort to smear former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, by using an out-of-context quote from her testimony in January. Remember when, after being browbeaten by the partisan hacks on the Committee, she asked “What difference does it make?” going on to state that their job was to figure out what happened and to make sure it never happened again? Well, Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.) decided to just use that first sentence and do a bit of grandstanding. Tsk tsk, Mr. Gowdy… Hillary said in January that she accepted responsibility and would make every correction that the review board suggested. But that doesn’t fit into his emoting and pandering.
On top of the lack of bombshells at the hearing, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, Elizabeth King, sent a letter to Congressman Elijah Cummings yesterday. In it, she explained why the Commander In-Extremis Force couldn’t have reached Benghazi in time to prevent a second attack:
“… because exact conditions on the ground in Benghazi were unknown……the CIF began to fulfill its tasking by pre-positioning at an intermediate staging location, Naval Air Station Sigonella (in Sicily, Italy). From the moment the CIF was ordered to move, it did not stand down until after all personnel (including the fallen) had been evacuated from Benghazi in a little over 12 hours after the initiation of the attack… the time needed from alerting the CIF to landing at the Benghazi airport is greater than the approximately 7.5 hours between the initiation of the first attack and the second one. As such, the time requirements for notification, load and transit alone prevented the CIF from being at the annex in enough time to change events.”So much for that criticism. Fox News has a copy of the letter but somehow I doubt if they will be saying much about it since it doesn’t help their make-believe narrative.
There are a few things that really have me both angry and annoyed with this whole Benghazi bullshit: 1) where is the outrage at the House Republicans who voted to CUT security for the embassy? They cut $300 million from the U.S. embassy security budget just before the attack. Why aren’t they being raked over the coals for that? 2) Where was the right-wing when, under G.W. Bush, seven embassies were attacked and many more than 4 people were killed? How come they never shrieked about that? 3) What about Reagan? Three embassy attacks, including Beirut where 17 Americans were killed. No? That was okay?
This Benghazi thing is making the right insane. Literally. You know the saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That’s where the GOP is right now. They are so invested in this fantasy that they have lost any ability to see reality. And Fox News feeds the fire, complaining that no other news outlets are covering this. Could it be because it’s utter and complete bullshit? Of course not, not to these modern-day inquisitors. They hate our president that much. It’s sickening.
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