Don’t Insult The Broads!

Now that I have the attention of the Republican sensitivity trainers who are trying to teach gorillas how to talk to women, let me say that talking to women is not that difficult if you are not a gorilla.  You do not have to put things in emotional terms or walk on eggshells to avoid offending them.  Contrary to the assertions and desires of nostalgic right wing fact deniers, our paternalistic society is history.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that the only people promoting the stereotypes men used to justify a  paternalistic attitude towards women are the reactionaries who are still waging a war against most of the social and scientific advancements we made during the last half of the twentieth century.  What everyone should have learned by now is that women are as professional and logical as men are, and that they correctly demand the same respect that men demand.  Sorry guys, but talkin’ purty ain’t gonna get her.  She wants the respect and support of a partner rather than the protection of a boss.  Tell her “father knows best” and the finger she is likely to display will not be the one sporting a wedding band.

My point is that what women really object to are the ignorant and destructive attitudes expressed by the words that are getting so many men in trouble.  Even more to the point, women object to the actions resulting from those attitudes.  A man who talks about legitimate rape is nothing more than an ignoramus and a bad joke unless his actions are as harmful as his words suggest.  Legislators who use the power of the state to restrict the choices a woman can make regarding reproduction and reproductive health are very harmful indeed.  No argument is going to mitigate that harm or convince women that the state is looking out for them when it refuses to let them exercise their own good judgment.  This is big government at its worst!  And how in the hell can you justify paying women less than a man for the SAME WORK?

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Republicans are going to have to change more than their words.  A wet kiss on the ear (or an ear douche, which is badly needed but insufficient after listening to Rush Limbaugh) will not work either.  Women are not that gullible; they are alert to the GOP’s attempts to subvert their rights, and they are responding accordingly.  Nothing short of a change in attitude and policy will bring women back to the Republican Party.

Filibustering History

No, I do not mean the history of filibustering.  As absurd as it may sound, I mean filibustering history.  Yes, I know filibustering means trying to prevent something from happening by talking it to death.  I also know you cannot prevent what has already happened by talking it to death.  What you can do is make it difficult for people to remember what happened by burying it in bullshit without a marker to let anyone know where the truth lies.  That is what is happening now; there is this great wailing and clatter and roar that is way out of proportion to what the historical evidence indicates is likely to occur.  The Republicans are screaming that the sky is falling on the Senate and that the Democrats will suffer dire consequences for changing the Senate filibuster rules.  The lame stream media has jumped to the bait with something akin to a primal scream.  Drama!  It is all about the drama.  Drama increases the ratings, don’t you know?  The media can barely contain its glee as it echoes the worst of the Republican accusations and threats: “This greatly increases contentiousness in the Senate,” they yell.  “And the Democrats will pay a high price for this if and when they are in the minority again.”

As far as contentiousness is concerned, I do not think it is possible to increase it.  Too many Republicans were already accusing the Democrats of acting like communists and/or fascists, and how do you get more contentious than shutting down the government and threatening the full faith and credit of this country by refusing to authorize the payment of its debts?  Obviously, the contentiousness between the parties goes way beyond the obstructionist tactics that have made the Senate dysfunctional and are now forcing the Democrats to consider even more changes to the rules.

As far as consequences are concerned, I cannot find any.  The Democrats already caved when the Republicans threatened to do exactly what the Democrats just did, and anyone who thinks the Republicans would not carry through with such a threat is downright delusional.  In other words, the Democrats had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  As usual, the Republicans over-played their hand.

While I am on the subject of the lame stream media cranking up the drama to sell soap, let me say that all the shrill screams over the problems with the Affordable Care Act exchange and the alleged lie told by President Obama are absurd.  History indicates that there are always glitches when you roll out something this large, and those glitches rarely amount to more than a minor annoyance in the long run.  Furthermore, the alleged lie will amount to even less than a minor annoyance when people see what is available to replace the crappy policies they have.

If Reince Priebus thinks the Affordable Care Act is going to be a winning issue for the GOP in 2014, he must be listening to his own voice echoing off the walls of his colon.  The more the Republicans yell about Obama Care, the more the Democrats will remind the voters of the Government shutdown and debt ceiling debacle the Republicans caused in an effort to extort a repeal of the ACA.  Furthermore, the Democrats will remind the voters of all the efforts to sabotage the act even though the act puts an end to the most egregious practices of the health insurance industry.

Obscure Political Blog

I wrote this post in the unlikely event that someone is searching for an obscure political blog.  If you are, here it is!  Lucky you!

Thank The GOP

Thank the Republicans for defending your right to continue paying some unscrupulous insurance company every month for a crappy policy that will not meet your needs if you suffer a serious illness or injury.  God knows you would not want to go on the exchange to get a much better policy for close to the same price.  You should also thank the Republicans for the comic relief they offered during the testimony of Kathleen Sebelius.  Congressmen Billy Long (R. Mo.) and Cory Gardner (R. Col.) in particular played the part of comic dullards to perfection.  Both of those Representatives piously railed at Ms. Sebelius for not being on the exchange.  We are on the exchange, they boasted.  They seemed to be particularly proud of their party for getting the Affordable Care Act amended to require members of Congress to go on the exchange.  They seemed to be even prouder of their efforts to destroy the exchange they are on by voting to repeal the ACA forty-four times.

What kind of genius boasts about participating in a program he is trying to destroy?  What kind of genius complains about people not being able to sign up for services he thinks will be a disaster for those people?  What kind of Republican genius holds hearings that will only remind a disapproving public that the Republican Party recently shut down our government and threatened to destroy our credit in order to deprive Americans of health insurance that actually covers medical expenses?

“YUK, YUK, Gorsh!”

Ted, the Texas Turd

How did a freshman senator gain enough power to be this destructive?  Ted Cruz does what turds do; he stinks and grows harmful bacteria.  Few people in his party will try to move him from any position he takes because that would require touching him and everyone is afraid of the bacteria.  The bacteria is comprised of clusters of right wing lunatics who are too stupid and self centered to realize that a modern society needs governing and is attached to a much larger world.  It is difficult to imagine why anyone would consider Mr. Cruz to be an intellectual when he is so out of touch with reality.  Even the Koch brothers are trying to let the bacteria and Mr. Cruz know that taking down the world’s economy by defaulting on our debts is not a smart thing to do.  Regardless of the fact that the Koch brothers are a major source of funding for right wing groups, the Texas turd is ignoring them as he continues to hold his position while increasing the stench by giving voice to the dangerous lunatics.  This is really frightening when you think about what it took to reign in another harmful demagogue named Joe McCarthy.

The Republican Party has already sunk down to a 28% approval rating in the polls because they have shut down the government and refuse to raise the debt ceiling.  How much lower do they have to sink before they try to correct their mistakes by funding the government and authorizing the payment of the nation’s debts?  What will it take for them to defy the vicious and delusional forces at work in their party?  Is it too late for them to take the asylum back from the lunatics? 

Screw The Majority:

The unconscionable idiot writing the talking points for the Republicans has them all saying that the nihilistic congressmen who have shut down our government were also elected, and they represent people who think that shutting down the government in order to prevent millions of people from getting health insurance under the Affordable Health Care Act is a good thing.  What these imbeciles fail to mention is that all congressmen were duly elected.  So why won’t John Boehner bring a clean CR to the floor and let all those elected Representatives vote for or against it?  Does democracy no longer mean majority rule?  Should a minority be able to avoid the normal legislative process to extort the repeal of a law?  

Vicious and Stupid

According to the Republicans, if a hostage taker's demands are not met he cannot be blamed for killing the hostage.  The Republicans are therefore justified in shutting down the government by not passing a budget or in causing the United States to default on its debts by not raising the debt ceiling if we do not meet their outrageous demand to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.  Furthermore, the Republicans want us to believe that the results of national elections and/or Supreme Court cases should not determine what the law is because every congressman is also elected and is justified in doing whatever it takes to repeal any law the people of his district do not like.  This seems to me to be dumbassistan’s version of the nullification theory.  But why would the people of dumbassistan be so opposed to Obama care?  The answer to that question is that they are stupid enough to believe the GOP lies about death panels and such.

Aha!  Maybe I was wrong about the right wing extortionists being stupid.  Maybe they are just that immoral and vicious.  Maybe they know that if Obama care is fully implemented even the dumb asses will realize that all the fear mongering was a pack of lies.  That would not be good for the Republicans.  That is why the Republican reactionaries want to destroy Obama care even if they have to severely damage the economy of this nation to accomplish that.

Oh, crap!  I was right the first time.  The Republicans are both vicious and stupid!  Wall Street, the international corporations, and the multimillionaires who support the Republicans will lose billions of dollars if the Republicans carry through with their threats.  Those money people are not fools.  They know who is setting this dangerous and costly precedent.   What will the Republicans do without the support of those financial backers?  What will Congressman Shit for Brains do when the Democrats regain control of his state and do a little redistricting of their own?

A Little Advice

To Wayne LaPierre: 

Keep your damn mouth shut!  Every time you open that sewer you reveal that you think the profits of the gun manufacturers are more important than human lives.  There was no reason for you to comment on the navy yard shootings and your inane comments simply brought to mind the very real need for reasonable gun control.

 To John Boehner:

Common John, give this a bit of thought.  If Mitch McConnell is not far enough to the right for the tea baggers, you are screwed!  It is time to man up and think about your place in history rather than a primary you are going to lose anyhow.  If I were you I would want to end my career in a blaze of patriotic glory.  I would do everything possible to avoid a government shutdown, and I would make damn sure that the debt ceiling was raised.  I would give a speech in which I would say that I am making the patriot’s choice by putting my country ahead of my own interests and the interests of what has become a destructive minority faction in my party and in Congress.

To Mitch McConnell:

Sorry, you are on your own.  By pandering to the lunatic right you danced with the devil, and he is not settling for a kiss good night.  Any state that would elect Rand Paul is beyond hope! Even if you somehow manage to survive this election you will be representing people who are so unreasonable that you will go down in history as a total shitbag!  But you have already gained that infamy anyhow, so I guess you do not have much to lose on that score.

Mocking Stupid:

Several bloggers are now talking about how popular it has become to laugh at the errors of right wing politicians and to mock the intelligence of conservatives.  Frank Furedi, www.spiked-online.com, complained about several studies and observations that stated that the less intelligent you are the more likely you are to be a conservative.  Mr. Furedi said that the “manipulation of science to discredit political opponents … was strongly criticized by the intellectual community” when such tactics were used by Stalin and the Nazis.  Now, he said, it is the “… self-styled intellectuals, especially the ones who refer to themselves as ‘liberal,’ who use such pseudo-scientific tactics to pathologise their opponents as a mentally and intellectually inferior political species.”

I think Mr. Furedi and many of the people who have made the observations he is complaining about are making the same error.  It is not the traditional conservatives who exhibit the intellectual deficiencies observed; rather it is the reactionaries, wrongfully characterized as conservatives, who display those deficiencies.  We correctly dismiss those reactionaries because their paranoia, gullibility, and ignorance make their political views ludicrous at best and dangerous at worst.  They have the same mind set as the Birchers we laughed into irrelevancy way back when.  I might add here that it is not the ignorance displayed by the likes of Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and Louis Gohmert that inspires our scornful laughter as much as it is the smug self-righteousness with which they display that ignorance as if it were a virtue.  Their general attitude is “Up yours, Buster!  I don’t need no stinkin’ facts; I got common sense!”   The amazing thing is that there are so many people who seem to think you do not need to know anything if you have common sense.  Anyone with any brains will tell you that common sense requires you to gather the facts you need to make informed decisions.

I still stand by my statement that the Republican Party is intellectually bankrupt. If you think I am being too harsh just take a look at what they are doing in North Carolina.  The Republican dullards there actually buried an anti-choice provision into a bill prohibiting the establishment of Sharia law.  What, did they think the pro-choice people would be laughing so hard over the absurdity of outlawing something already prohibited by the Constitution that they would not notice the anti-choice provision?  This was piling stupidity on top of ignorance on top of paranoia.  And North Carolina is not the only state in which the Republicans are showing such a blatant disregard for the knowledge and intelligence of the voters.  But judging by the Republicans in Louisiana, under-estimating the intelligence of what has now become the GOP base would not be an easy thing to do.  29% of the Republicans polled there blame then Senator Obama for the poor response to Katrina and 44% of the Republicans polled there said they did not know who to blame. Do you really need to ask why I have no respect for the political opinions of the ignorant reactionaries and even less respect for the demagogues who so shamefully exploit such ignorance and paranoia?

Even though millions of people tune into the Fox disinformation factory and/or Rush, how low can you go, Limbo, those audiences only comprise a small percentage of the population.  The problem is that it is the right wing media blowhards, such as Rush Limbaugh, who are defining the Republican Party and what it stands for.  Because of this, Republican candidates are being pulled so far to the right that few of them can win a general election outside of the bible belt.  The reason why the Republicans are now resorting to voter suppression is because even the people who do not pay attention to politics or government are finding the lies about the dangers of Sharia law and Obama care to be overblown and far too shop worn to have any appeal.  In other words, the Republicans are running short of gullible idiots they can exploit.

The bottom line is that anyone, on either side of the political spectrum, who chooses ideology over reality is not very bright.  Facts matter and bright people insist on the facts.  Right now the right wing zealots are exerting so much power over the Republican Party that their brand of idiocy is on full display.  We should mock them.  We should laugh them into irrelevance, just as we laughed the Birchers into irrelevance, and we should do it before they cause any more damage

Political Masturbation

Forty times now the Republicans have passed a bill in the House of Representatives to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act or Obama Care, as the Republicans call it.  This is nothing more than political masturbation.  Even the dullest of the dull knows that while this may make them feel good it is completely meaningless and unproductive.  Jerking off rather than doing the people’s work would be bad enough, but it appears very likely that the Republicans have something far more destructive in mind.  It seems that the Republicans have once more strapped economic bombs to their bodies and are threatening to blow up the economy unless the Democrats make Republican fantasies about repealing the Affordable Health Care Act a reality.  The bombs are, of course, the debt ceiling and the budget.  Frankly I have reached the point where I hope they are stupid enough to try it.  It would harm our economy, but terrorists who set off bombs attached to their own bodies are called suicide bombers for a reason.

Ruining the full faith and credit of the United States would cost Wall Street a fortune.  Good luck finding campaign contributors if you cause that to happen.  Furthermore, anyone stupid enough to ignore what happened to the Republican Party when Newt Gingrich shut down the government deserves to go the way of the Dodo Bird.  It is simply a matter of natural selection, and you may rest assured that the voters will make that choice.  Right now President Obama is showing every sign that he will stand his ground.  If he is smart he will not budge an inch.  Let the destructive lunatics commit political suicide if that is what they want to do. I am sure we can find a way to mitigate the damage this will cause  I am also sure a new party of honest, responsible conservatives will emerge to replace the pack of rabid reactionaries that are now destroying the Republican Party.

Judicial Sham[e]

I did not think it was possible for a court to be as political and partisan as the Rehnquist court was, but the Roberts’ court has demonstrated beyond all doubt that it is every bit as political and partisan and even less ethical. In fact it is considered an anomaly whenever the Roberts’ Court renders a reasonable, impartial decision on any issue that might have an impact on either of the major political parties. Some people have tried to explain the surprise decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act by saying that Chief Justice Roberts wants very much to avoid the perception that his court has been politicized. If that is true, than Mr. Roberts is unbelievably stupid. He has already demonstrated how politicized he is far too often. Now he has written the majority opinion in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, in which he tries to explain and justify the court’s decision to invalidate the most effective part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, thereby greatly reducing the protection against voter suppression.

Our country has changed,” Chief Injustice Roberts wrote. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”

What? Did this dullard sleep through the GOP’s attempts at voter suppression during the elections of 2012? One would expect such clap trap from Injustices Thomas and Scalia, who are unethical enough to hear cases in which they have apparent conflicts of interest, but such an opinion coming from someone who claims to be concerned about the image of the court is downright bizarre. In this case his reasoning, if you can call it that, is a shameful sham! He simply ignores all of the evidence showing that states that fell under Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act are still trying to suppress the vote of minorities. The consequences of this are all too apparent. Texas, which had been barred from implementing a draconian voter identification law to suppress the vote of blacks and latinos in 2012, gave us the best example of those consequences by promptly reinstating that law the moment the court rendered its decision.

This horrible decision in the case of Shelby County v. Holder is not an act of judicial activism as some have said. Judicial activism is a pejorative term reactionaries use to disparage the practice of righting wrongs by overturning well established but unjust precedents. Instead of being judicial activism this decision is an act of judicial re-activism. It is a return to a shameful past and a direct attack on the fifteenth amendment. Like Plessy v. Ferguson, Shelby County v. Holder shall have its place in judicial infamy, as will Citizens United and so many other truly terrible decisions rendered by this Supreme Court.

Saying that congress can redefine who falls under Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is stating a near impossibility. Given the filibuster in the Senate and the fact that the Republicans control the House of Representatives you stand a better chance of catching a meteorite with a butterfly net. Let’s face it, the Republican Party has become the party of angry, often racist, old white men, and voter suppression is the desperate tactic of a minority party that has painted itself into a corner by selling a dark and paranoid prophesy to people who are already afraid of a democracy in which they no longer constitute the majority. Messrs Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Kennedy would have to be deaf, blind and stupid to be ignorant of those facts. Deaf, blind and stupid is the best thing we can conclude about those Injustices because the alternative conclusion is that they are putting the interests of a political party and a minority of our citizens ahead of the most fundamental right guaranteed by our constitution and by every democracy.

No Friggen Way

There comes a time when constantly shifting to the right to try to reach an agreement with the Republicans ceases to be a compromise. We reached that point a long time ago. It is now time to say “no friggen way!” Social Security is an earned benefits program rather than “an entitlement” program. Changing the way CPI is calculated means reducing the benefits people have been paying for throughout their working lives. The only people who would favor screwing seniors in this manner are the investment firms who will sell their products by rightly pointing out that the benefits from Social Security will not even keep up with inflation.

Make no mistake about it this proposed change is a flat out hose job. Saying that this hose job will help to balance the budget is a lie! Payroll taxes fund Social Security benefits, and neither those taxes nor the benefits paid out have anything to do with the Federal budget. Furthermore, there is no reason why Social Security should run out of money. Why should people pay payroll taxes only on the first one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars of income when inflation and other factors have doubled or even tripled the earnings and wages of so many people in the highest tax bracket? Raising the cap on the payroll tax is a very reasonable way to keep up with inflation and pay for the baby boomers.

That President Obama should give in to the Republicans on this issue is outrageous unless he thinks the Republicans will be so intransigent that they will turn down his offer. That, however, is a dangerous game to play. No Democrat should even consider decreasing the benefits of Social Security or Medicare. Decreasing those benefits is cruel and politically stupid. The Republicans are already doing a splendid job of demonstrating that they are ready and willing to screw everyone who does not pony up very large campaign contributions. The Democrats should use every opportunity to point out that the Republicans’ emphasis on the deficit is a disingenuous effort to destroy earned benefits programs and to protect the low tax rates paid by the fat cats who are financing the Republican Party.

It is about Jobs Stupid! Employment and wages are what the voters care about. In this respect, they appear to be a lot brighter than the politicians are. If more people are able to find gainful employment and wages rise, the deficit will take care of itself. The Democratic Party must represent its base. It must be the party of jobs. It must defend what the workers gained during the twentieth century. It must represent the middle class and the people who work so hard to become part of the middle class. It must stress the need for job creating infrastructure projects constantly.

The Democrats should draw a very clear picture of the people they represent and the people the Republicans represent. The Republicans will greatly aid the Democrats in this effort by accusing them of class warfare. That is really to the advantage of the Democrats, but the Republicans are far too tone deaf to realize it. The Republicans are not just alienating ethnic and/or racial minorities, they are also alienating white, middle class women and young white males. Because of their absurd economic and social policies, the Republicans are already relegating themselves to the role of a regional party. Even that regional influence will decrease if the democrats press the issues and the Republicans do not become reasonable.

Embarrassed Texans Are Not Alone

There is a reason why we should avoid stereotypes. There is also a terrible temptation to use them. I am sure there are too many rational people in Waco Texas to justify renaming the place Wacko Texas, but more than a few events there have made such a renaming tempting. Similarly, although Texas has delighted us in the past by electing reasonable moderates such as Senator Lloyd Benson, paranoid idiots such as General Walker also had a large enough following in Texas to give that state a very unfavorable political reputation. More recently, the election of such anti-intellectual ignoramuses as Senator Ted Cruz, Congressman Louie Gohmert, and Governor Rick Perry have greatly added to the unsavory political reputation of Texas. Indeed, to those of us who are more rational it seems as though Texans have such a low opinion of all government that they consider political offices to be good, out of the way, places to deposit their lunatics and dumb asses.

What is with Louie Gohmert and his comments about bestiality? What the hell is he doing to the cows in his district? Is he treating them like his constituents? Meanwhile, Ted Cruz swallows and regurgitates illogical NRA dreck like a vulture. According to the NRA and Cruz, if you cannot stop all gun related homicides you should not try to stop any of them, and since the Nazi’s restricted gun ownership restricting gun ownership must be undemocratic. Never mind the fact that the Nazi’s came to power at a time when they and other paramilitary organizations were able to buy military style weapons and that they used such weapons in their efforts to overthrow a legitimate government. Pointing out such facts or trying to reason with people like Cruz and Gohmert is like talking to a stone. What good are facts or logic when pitted against paranoia and irrational beliefs. If Governor Rick Perry is not careful, someone might accuse him of trying to pass himself off as an intellectual by finally, grudgingly, admitting that the issue of secession was decided in the eighteen sixties when Texas and other southern states lost a very bloody war.

All I can say to the people of Texas who are reasonable enough to be embarrassed by the political reputation their state is gaining is that they are not alone. Even here, in blue state California, my Congressman is a right wing imbecile elected by people who seem rational enough if you do not try to discuss politics or government with them. I really wish I could say that I do not know how the reasonable people of Texas feel about the election of such misrepresentatives of their legitimate interests.

Dirty Bird In The Mirror

“GOP Accusation Confirmed: Obama Out to Break It.” That is the headline for Jennifer Rubin’s article in the Washington Post. But she is one of those factually challenged right wingers who accuses Obama and the Democrats of doing whatever the Republicans are doing. A more accurate description of what is happening would be “Democrats accusation confirmed: Republicans out to fake it.” Here you have the Republican Party’s leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, saying that the primary goal of his party is to make Obama a one-term president. In pursuit of that goal, the Republicans used the filibuster so often that Senator McConnell even boasted about it now taking a super majority to pass anything. At worst, President Obama is merely defending himself. At best, he is defending the nation against outrageous attacks on its credit and prosperity.

The Republicans lost the last elections because they chose to ignore the polls showing that a majority of the people disagreed with GOP’s obstructionist tactics and failed economic policies. The Republicans are still ignoring those polls and are accusing Obama of trying to destroy them by pointing that out. Their attempts to put an Obama mask on the mirror image of the dirty bird they are fighting did not work during the last election and it will not work now!

John Boehner Is A Bad Guest

I am using “Bad Guest” metaphorically. What I mean is that John Boehner is acting like a guest who shows up at a potluck dinner empty handed, demands to know where all the food is, and then criticizes everything on the table. The constitution states that all budget matters must originate in the House of Representatives. This would include legislation regarding the spending cuts specified by the sequester. Yet here we have John Boehner, the speaker of the house, demanding that the President propose a bill to replace the spending cuts specified by the sequester. Mr. Boehner is also lambasting the Senate for not passing a bill to replace the cuts specified by the sequester. He seems to be defying all logic as he tries to convince us that everyone except the Republican controlled House Of Representatives is responsible for the consequences of letting the cuts in the sequester take place.

So why would John Boehner ignore the constitution and his responsibilities as the speaker of the House of Representatives? I am afraid the answer to that question is that when the Republican Party decided to become the party of “deny, obstruct and lie” it made the legislative branch of the government dysfunctional. In doing so, it also unleashed the nihilistic right wing dogs that have an irrational hatred of all government and authority anyhow. To state it succinctly, John Boehner rose to a position of leadership at a time when his party has become too dysfunctional to follow any responsible leader. He simply cannot get any reasonable legislation through the house without risking his position as the Speaker of the House. Sadly, this once proud party has strapped an economic bomb to its body and is threatening great harm to the country as it commits suicide.

Kick Harry Reid!

Kick Harry Reid hard! Kick Harry Reid where it really hurts! Kick him now! Kick him each and every time the Republicans filibuster anything! Most of the people of this nation expect and deserve a U.S. Senate that functions. The Republicans have made the Senate dysfunctional by abusing the filibuster. Harry Reid had the opportunity to reform the filibuster. What he obviously lacked was the wisdom and/or the courage to do the job. His foolishness makes him as politically impotent as John Boehner. It does not matter what Mitch Mc Connell says, as long as Barak Obama is President, the Republicans will not let the Senate do the work we need to have done. Furthermore, it is downright delusional to think that the filibuster will be available in the future when the Democrats might want to prevent the Republicans from doing something outrageous. The Republicans have no qualms about changing any rule that seems inconvenient to them. They have already threatened to do away with the filibuster once, and the Democrats caved into the Republicans on that occasion. That is a large part of why we now have the worst U.S. Supreme Court in modern history. It is time for the Democrats to carry through with the threat the Republicans made back then. It is time to end the gridlock the GOP is imposing on us. It is time to acknowledge that the Republicans have destroyed the viability of the filibuster by turning it into a threat to majority rule rather than a safeguard of minority rights, and it is time to act in accordance with that acknowledgment. Get rid of the damn filibuster!