In another post I said that by pandering to the lunatic right the Republicans were dancing with the devil. Now the dance has turned into a predictable farce. Needless to say that the comedy is something a good deal less than divine. The Republicans who habitually demonstrate their intellectual bankruptcy by touting Newt Gingrich as their idea of an intellectual are now yelling at him. I guess he is demonstrating that he is not a very good dancer. He stepped in it so deep that he is now picking shit out of his nose. He defended the individual mandate in the affordable health care law then tried to retract his statement. Did I say that? I did certainly did not mean it. How could you have possibly thought I meant it? Because you said it, dumb ass. The Newtster also saw that Ryan’s plan to replace Medicare with a voucher program while giving outrageous tax breaks to the rich was wildly unpopular. Even the factually challenged independents are able to see that this scheme would hose them. Although I do not give Gingrich credit for being very bright, I must admit that he was able to see that a Presidential candidate has to back away from the Ryan plan. So Gingrich called the plan radical. He is now paying the price for doing so and is in full back pedal mode.
The right wing is obviously going to hang Ryan’s stinking albatross around the neck of whoever wins the Republican primary. We Democrats are trying not to laugh as we sing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” But we cannot get too giddy about this because the Republican Party’s dance with the devil puts the entire country in a very dangerous situation. In an earlier post, I pointed out that the Republicans had to raise the debt ceiling because their masters, Wall Street and the large corporations, will lose billions of dollars if they do not do this. For all his posturing about not raising the debt ceiling if taxes are raised on rich or deep cuts are not made to entitlement programs Mr. Boehner is realistic enough to know that the debt ceiling must be raised. Unfortunately for him, he made the mistake of publicly demonstrating his grasp of reality by saying the debt ceiling would have to be raised now and probably again next year. In doing this he, like Gingrich, stepped in it. The right wing is all over him.
When you dance with the devil he will not settle for a kiss good night. The only question is when the devil will exact his price and how many people will have to pay. If this country is lucky, Mr. Boehner will form a temporary coalition with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling. If this country is really lucky the Republicans will also pay the price for dancing with the devil in two thousand and twelve and again in the mid-term elections. That should be enough to make the Republican Party cut loose the right wing idiots and start acting responsibly again. Whether this will happen depends to a great extent on whether the independent voters will wake up enough to see who is hosing them and get angry enough to do something about it.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Even The Correct Course Is Not Easy
There is a segment of our population that will deny any and all accomplishments President Obama can rightly claim. There is absolutely no proof that can be offered in regard to his place of birth that will not be denied by the idiots we call birthers. Most of those people are bigots who want to deny that Mr. Obama is a legitimate President. They are too ridiculous for me to waste any more time writing about them. The other people who dispute Mr. Obama’s accomplishments are either politically motivated or are just unreasonably skeptical about everything. What brings those skeptics to mind is the recent news that navy seals killed Osama Bin Laden in a very bold military operation. Removing this evil man from the earth was a great accomplishment. Retaining his body so that his identity could be confirmed by forensic evidence, which included DNA testing, was an essential part of that operation. Nothing would be more embarrassing than falsely taking credit for his death. Believe me, Al Qaeda would quickly find a way to disprove such a false claim.
Once Bin Laden’s identity had been confirmed, there was the question about what to do with his remains. Mr. Obama correctly decided to treat the remains in a manner that would be consistent with our view that we are not waging a war against Islam but are simply defending ourselves from evil men who are misusing Islam to justify heinous acts. Doing this, however, was not an easy task. On the one hand, Mr. Obama wanted to prevent the burial site from becoming a shrine for those demented terrorists who do not think that committing heinous acts in the name of God is a blasphemy. On the other hand, Mr. Obama wanted to bury the remains in the twenty-four hour period the Koran specifies. His solution was to bury the remains at sea. Now many followers of Islam are saying that burial at sea is not in accordance with the Koran, and skeptics here are asking why the body was not brought back to the U.S. as proof that Bin Laden is dead.
Fortunately, most people are applauding the resolute action that killed Bin Laden. It was a very risky operation both for the brave men who carried it out and for President Obama. If the operation had failed and a large number of our men had been killed Mr. Obama would have paid a very high emotional and political price. Yet of the options presented to him he chose the most difficult one. He did this because he did not want there to be any doubt that the mission accomplished its goal. Say what you want about President Obama, but he does not lack courage, resolve or competence. He was fully in charge and was ready to accept the responsibility for whatever happened.
President Obama must now demonstrate this same courage and resolve in regard to our economy. He must find a way to increase employment and rebuild our manufacturing capacity. He must do this for the sake of our citizens and for the world. The choices are clear. There are compassionate societies that build and provide opportunities, hope, and aid to their citizens. Then there are societies that offer nothing more than despair, alienation, and destruction. If we do not rebuild we will fall. The war on terror and the unrest in this world is far from over. We cannot provide what we do not have. We cannot tout a failing system. We must get our own house in order. We must rebuild our own economy or we will not have the ability to help those emerging democracies that are trying to replace the nihilism of the terrorists. Rebuilding our economy will not be easy, but here is a lot at stake both here at home and abroad.
Once Bin Laden’s identity had been confirmed, there was the question about what to do with his remains. Mr. Obama correctly decided to treat the remains in a manner that would be consistent with our view that we are not waging a war against Islam but are simply defending ourselves from evil men who are misusing Islam to justify heinous acts. Doing this, however, was not an easy task. On the one hand, Mr. Obama wanted to prevent the burial site from becoming a shrine for those demented terrorists who do not think that committing heinous acts in the name of God is a blasphemy. On the other hand, Mr. Obama wanted to bury the remains in the twenty-four hour period the Koran specifies. His solution was to bury the remains at sea. Now many followers of Islam are saying that burial at sea is not in accordance with the Koran, and skeptics here are asking why the body was not brought back to the U.S. as proof that Bin Laden is dead.
Fortunately, most people are applauding the resolute action that killed Bin Laden. It was a very risky operation both for the brave men who carried it out and for President Obama. If the operation had failed and a large number of our men had been killed Mr. Obama would have paid a very high emotional and political price. Yet of the options presented to him he chose the most difficult one. He did this because he did not want there to be any doubt that the mission accomplished its goal. Say what you want about President Obama, but he does not lack courage, resolve or competence. He was fully in charge and was ready to accept the responsibility for whatever happened.
President Obama must now demonstrate this same courage and resolve in regard to our economy. He must find a way to increase employment and rebuild our manufacturing capacity. He must do this for the sake of our citizens and for the world. The choices are clear. There are compassionate societies that build and provide opportunities, hope, and aid to their citizens. Then there are societies that offer nothing more than despair, alienation, and destruction. If we do not rebuild we will fall. The war on terror and the unrest in this world is far from over. We cannot provide what we do not have. We cannot tout a failing system. We must get our own house in order. We must rebuild our own economy or we will not have the ability to help those emerging democracies that are trying to replace the nihilism of the terrorists. Rebuilding our economy will not be easy, but here is a lot at stake both here at home and abroad.
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