On the State of the Union...
President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address in the House
Chamber
at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 24, 2012. (Official White
House Photo by Pete Souza)
“The president’s policies have made our economy worse,” Mr. Boehner said.
Hasn't this statistically been proven patently wrong multiple times since Obama took office, at which time he inherited an economy on its way down due to the previous president's policies of de-regulation and starting two wars? GM is back on its feet and companies are hiring - and we didn't sink into a depression when it seemed quite possibly on the horizon. It amazes me to no end that people will hear Boehner make a statement like that and simply accept it as fact. I suppose they're the ones who somehow think Gingrich or Romney have at heart the interests of the middle class. *smacks forehead in disbelief*
Read the article NEW YORKTIMES/
In Address, Obama Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness
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Great speech, made of the some of the same stuff many Obama supporters have missed during his presidency. He is not merely recycling rhetorical "change," any who think so were not really listening. He wants to invest in education. He wants to invest in alternative energy and American energy independence. He wants to reward businesses who make an effort to employ Americans. He wants to make sure that everyone pays a fair tax rate and he wants to curb the kind of regulatory myopia that led to a recession and a devastating oil spill. And he correctly pointed out that Congress has consistently placed politics ahead of the welfare of the nation by holding up routine administrative business and turning it into partisan warfare. There are zero combat troops in Iraq. The Big Three auto companies paid back their bailout loans ahead of schedule. If only everyone would get the heck out of the way and let this guy run the country a little bit, we would all be better off.
Read the article NEW YORKTIMES/
In Address, Obama Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness
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Mr. President, why in the world should we care what you have to say anymore? You had the leverage! You had the will of the people! You had the fury of a population that had just been suckered and stolen from!
You took all that anger and political capital and.....BOWED TO THE BANKS! You don't have the power to influence the institutions that make our country so unfair, and when you did, you squandered it all to make sure your campaign coffers were filled.
I cannot imagine being more disappointed in an elected official sir. Your words carry no meaning anymore for me or millions of American who put our faith, votes, time, energy, and money behind you. And you let us down. You let us all down for the sake of helping out Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Citigroup. You should be ashamed of yourself!
Read the article NEW YORKTIMES/
In Address, Obama Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness
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I thought it was a great speech. The President stayed positive but raised the difficult issues such as the growing economic inequality in this country and the need to restore taxes to their former level with the very wealthy. We have to choose between maintaining serious government services that we can't provide for ourselves such as a strong military, social security, mail service, etc. We need to repair our bridges, our roads and our other vital infrastructure. We can't do that by hitting the poor and middle class, it has to be done by restoring taxes to the very wealthy and corporations to what they were before (in both Republican and Democratic administrations). And by the way, I am a 'job creator'. I have a small business and I am happy to pay my employees fairly and pay all of my taxes. I want big corporations and very wealthy individuals to resume paying their fair share. It's a matter of simple math and justice.
Read the article NEW YORKTIMES/
In Address, Obama Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness
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Well, I guess the terms of the election are set. Do we want an America that
looks more like Western Europe or one similar to own own heritage of free market
capitalism.
The American voters will have to make a choice.
If
nothing else, the President clearly defined his position last night. In reality
however, I am not sure the stakes are all that high. Even if Obama wins, he will
never again have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. He will never get
all of his progessive legislation through. In fact, his worst nighmare might be
winning, but facing a Republican House and Senate. The Supreme Court may also
throw out Obamacare. Wouldn't that be an ironic twist?
What's the old
adage? "May you live in interesting times"
Wow!!! do we ever!
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Obama Makes Populist Pitch
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I thought the speech was okay for a campaign event, but as a State of the Union
it was Fair at best. All generalizations and more spending and giveaway
proposals than normal.
Even the call for higher taxes on the rich was
weak. If nothing else the President could have called for the wealthy who derive
the bulk of their income from dividends, capital gains, carried interest, etc.
to be subject to the 28% rate of the alternative minimum tax on income from any
source if their income exceeds 250k, 500k, 1 million or whatever and at least
made a firm proposal with some basis in existing law.
Instead he chose
to go with a call for the politics of envy and ask the lower earning 98% to help
stick it to the highest earning 2% while the majority pays in nothing more. I
don't know what experience others have had, but I've never been hired to a good
paying job by a poor person
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Obama Makes Populist Pitch
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I'm an entrepreneur who used the millions I made from the sale of my last high
tech company to start another. I currently have 30 employees, and collectively
they pay more in taxes than the government would have received had I not
invested my money and paid more taxes. Mr. Obama really doesn't understand how
the capital markets work and how the money from the wealthy is often invested in
companies either directly or indirectly, which creates more jobs than writing a
bigger check to the government to spend on inefficient programs that can never
match the efficiency of private enterprise. Let’s look at every government
dollar spend and see if it passes Lincoln’s test: “whatever they need to have
done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves.” I venture
to guess that we could shrink our government spending in half
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Obama Makes Populist Pitch
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Okay, I've read over the comments here, and then I went and read the transcript
of the president's speech, and I can't believe we live in the same universe. It
was an excellent, inspiring speech about how we can unite and work together to
accomplish great things. I think some of you hate him so much, you can't even
hear him. He is our president. He deserves our prayers and good will
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Obama Makes Populist Pitch
State of the Union 2012 -- Phoro: White House/Chuck Kennedy
PEW Survey: Rising Awareness of Conflict Between Rich and Poor
READ THE PEW SURVEY
A reminder of what we are and were.
We owe it to ourselves, our parents and precedents that fought a 200 year long battle to give us a semblance of democracy, decency and equality.
We fought wars, some to liberate people, end oppression and defeat tyranny.
We once had principles.
We were dragged into corporate wars for greed where our young bled under the flag Read More...
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Class Conflict Awareness Rose Significantly From 2009 To 2011: Report
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People have missed the point. Folks don't dislike rich or wealthy people who earn their position. Its when people become wealthy on the backs of hard working folks and then just spit on them when the going gets rough. Its not people like Bill Gates that folks are concerned about its the Wall Street greedy CEOs that rape their companies to bankruptcy and then walk out with 'golden parachute' worth millions.
Even when a CEO is fired for total incompetence, they are given exit packages. Look at Leo from HP. The guy was on the job like months and then fired... no let go.. fired... but he walked with a multi-million dollar package. Most HP engineers will work there 30 years and never make the same money Leo did for doing a crappy job. He's just one example. Look at Wall Street and you will see hundreds of the same. Almost all of the CEO's for the failed banks made it out totally rich.
So when they are successful is because of them and that's why we pay them billions... then when the company bombs they just say it wasn't my fault and they walk with their billions. This wealth affords them the ability to 'buy' our government officials and get exactly what they want. This is what folks are protesting!!! Not the honest folks that built a company into a billion dollars
Read the article CNN/Class conflict very strong, majority of Americans say in poll
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I'm just tired of hearing how we need to give tax breaks to "job creators". This whole "job creators" thing is a complete and utter sham created by the ultra-rich to further delude the middle class into thinking that the wealthy corporations are the good guys who want to see a prosperous america, but can't because of all the taxes they have to pay.
Does anyone really believe that high taxes are what's holding businesses and corporations back from hiring new employees? Anyone with even a minor understanding of economics will tell you that's an idiotic theory. Businesses hire based on the demand for their products--not based upon how much "extra" cash they have laying around. If there is no demand for their product, they will not hire new employees to develop, market, or sell it even if they're sitting on piles and piles of cash.
The business sector is laying people off because demand for products is low. Demand for products is low because the middle class does not have any extra money to spend. When businesses lay off more people, the middle class has even less money to spend, demand goes down further, and the cycle keeps on going.
The issue is not that X social class has X amount of money...the issue is, as the author mentioned, that the wealthy have at least come close to "winning" the game. They have their billions. They have control of federal elections via Super PACs, which allowed them to multiply their billions. They no longer see the American middle-class as useful to their needs. The American middle-class is merely an overpriced worker that can't produce the same number of widgets/hour as their Chinese counterpart.
Until the middle-class starts to tackle the root issue of money deciding campaign elections, which in-turn decide public policy, we will be forever fighting a battle that is stacked against us.
Read the article CNN/Class conflict very strong, majority of Americans say in poll
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One of the fastest growing economies in the world believes their government is obligated to lift the living standards of all its citizens, and does not stand around, wring its hands in fear of "class warfare".
The president openly says redistributing wealth is the only way to insure business has the employees needed to keep the economy humming.
Now guess which country I am talking about.
Go on.
Nope, not Venezuela.
Nope, not China.
Nope, not North Korea.
It's Brazil - and they are beating the pants off every other developing country in the world, including India.
Brazil is a democracy whose bona fide working class hero president finished the journey from dictatorship to democracy, and his successor Dilma picked up where he left off, moving people out of poverty and closing the chasm between the ultra wealthy and the rest. She's committed to creating a strong middle class for Brazil, and dude?
It's working.
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Survey Finds Rising Class Tension
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If you want to see the logical endpoint for the ongoing destruction of the American middle class, just visit pretty much any Latin American country. There you will find the majority of the population poorly uneducated and living below the poverty level. A razor thin middle class will be holding on by their fingernails. And the top 1% own and control pretty much everything of importance. Crime levels, including violent crime, are higher than any US city (with the possible exception of Detroit), and people live huddled together for safety in concrete apartment buildings surrounded by walls topped with broken glass shards and razor wire. Water, power, and food shortages are fairly routine. Nobody, I mean NOBODY, trusts their government to do anything about it. If we allow the looting of our wealth by Wall Street and the major banks, this same diminished quality of life will be coming to our own shores.
Read the article CNN/Class conflict very strong, majority of Americans say in poll
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From the survey website -
"These changes in attitudes over a relatively short period of time may reflect the income and wealth inequality message conveyed by Occupy Wall Street protesters across the country in late 2011 that led to a spike in media attention to the topic. But the changes also may also reflect a growing public awareness of underlying shifts in the distribution of wealth in American society.2 According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, the proportion of overall wealth—a measure that includes home equity, stocks and bonds and the value of jewelry, furniture and other possessions—held by the top 10% of the population increased from 49% in 2005 to 56% in 2009."
Underlying problem - the wealth gap is increasing very quickly now.
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Survey Finds Rising Class Tension
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You just have to walk through the "downtown" of small America to see the disastrous effect of "the free market" economy that the GOP has visited upon us.
Empty shop windows, lonely streets and boarded up buildings is what you see in Syracuse, NY, and Dothan, AL or Amarillo, TX.
And there are tens of thousands of towns just like them, where people can't find work, and can't support their families, much less a local "downtown" business district.
We have to realize that we've been duped for the past 30 years with the siren call of the "free market," and move towards the kind of mixed economy the Danes, the Germans and other successful societies have.
Read the article DAILY BEAST/Survey Finds Rising Class Tension
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Obama the great divider. Way to go. Our politicians spend more time and more money dividing us into class, religious, races, etc. then pitting these divided groups against each other for political gain. Our government, our politicians, our media ....they are tearing us apart and we the people are too apathetic, to willing to Read More...
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Class Conflict Awareness Rose Significantly From 2009 To 2011: Report
Election 2012: Romney Rolls On to the South
Being limited in my knowledge of state primaries and caucuses and the like, I want to ask: what happens now? I don't mean which state is next. I mean: will those candidates who have done the worst tonight, stop circling Romney, with bared teeth like a pack of wolves, and befriend him politically? This for the sake of the party and its chances in the upcoming election? Or Read More...
Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Mitt Romney Wins: New Hampshire Primary Results 2012
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Quickly losing respect for Newt with his attacks on Mitt's success in the
private sector! He and Perry are appearing desperate, using words like "vulture
capitalist." These sound like sound bites from the Obama camp, not someone who
claims the mantle of President Reagan. What happened to free enterprise? and the
notion that one should be free to raise capital (from U.S. investors or abroad),
invest in companies (some will grow, some won't) -- and at the end of the day
enjoy the rewards of the risks taken?
Main Street retailers risk capital
starting their businesses, buying inventory, hiring and advertising hoping they
get a good return on that investment. Free enterprise is supported by our great
Constitution and one of the elements that draws so many people from around the
world to our shores. Why are Newt and Perry bashing this and playing to class
warfare?
Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Chances to slow GOP leader dwindle
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I often receive e-mails from my conservative friends about how great things were back in the 50's, when we baby-boomers were young. What I seldom hear is a cry from them - or their chosen leaders - to return to the fiscal policies of that era.
During the post-war years economic growth was a powerful engine that rendered the huge post-war national debt obsolete. High union membership, a thriving and well-paid middle class, high marginal tax rates on the highest earners, strict regulations on banks and businesses, profligate government spending on Interstate highways, a space program, defense, infrastructure, schools & universities, bridges, dams, etc. - and none of the things that we are currently warned about came to pass.
Show me a Republican candidate who supports those same fiscal policies and I'll throw all the enthusiasm I can muster behind that person. But today's GOP candidates inspire little more than revulsion and fear-mongering. I'm afraid we're stuck with 4 more years of an imperfect Obama presidency.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/the Republican Contest
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The real solution to our economic problems today is to create a culture where ingenuity can flourish. For that to occur there must be excess capacity of all sorts and a source for capital for everyone that is objective and rewards the best ideas, not one based in nepotism and crony capitalism. We have off-shored our tool, die, and machinists; we cannot make machine tools here: How will we ever get that capacity back?
Most of our inventors are discouraged by the failure of the World Intellectual Property Agreements and the huge costs of patenting anything and enforcing those patents; this coupled with the corruption of purchasing patents to keep inventions OUT of production are disgusting signs of anti-free-marketeers in action.
Our greatest foe in America is the disinformation being spread by the right wing, the ignorance and lack of creativity of the center, and the willingness of the left to be stampeded or steamrolled into inaction on every front. We will not get to reclaim our creativity unless and until the protests are louder than the silence, and the knowledge is more widespread than the ignorance that surrounds it. So, I truly doubt that there will be progress for America in my lifetime. It is all so sad..
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/the Republican Contest
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The country is in a dark mood. Reasonable people are obviously making unreasonable decisions-voting for Ron Paul, Santorum, Bachman, etc. People in Wisconsin think carrying a concealed weapon is going to make them and the world safer. People who saw the failure of trickle down economics and supply side economics and massive tax cuts that led to the worst decade of economic growth since WWII , followed by the worst recession since the great depression are still in favor of more of the same.
Something basic is at play. Really smart conservative people are defending a conservative fringe that has taken control. We probably have the smartest (on paper) supreme court in history that made the inane decision to grant personhood to corporations. In essence granting unlimited power to the very types of amoral entities that committed the greatest larceny in American history.
We are in danger. As flawed as the Republican candidates are, and more importantly their ideas are, there should have been a revolt in the true Republican party. Instead there is active support!
We cannot rest or become complacent. We cannot think that it is not possible that the senseless could prevail. Diligent effort to speak the truth about what we face as a nation and society is required of all of us.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/the Republican Contest
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Everything you say about the Republicans is true.
However, if you look at actions, actual policy and not words, it is also true about the Democrats.
Obama's cabinet appointments assured a Bush III administration.
Essentially, co-opted by Wall St, which is also true for Congress.
This country is in a Depression, and nothing is being done to create jobs.
Coporations should have as much difficulty exporting any job as one of their unfortunate sweat-shop workers in god-knows-where would have obtaining a Green Card to reside and work here.
The media hypes all kinds of Wall St. driven language about recovery, while Main St. is in tatters.
The biggest insult to the intelligence of the the American public was the appointment of Jeffrey Immelt as a Jobs Czar.
Meanwhile "unemployment" continues to wane as people lose their benefits, while the number of people without jobs keeps growing.
We are constantly being barraged with media coverage of the "race" for the presidency next November.
There will be no choice, just an illusion of it.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/the Republican Contest
Winnowing the Field of Republicans in Iowa
Mural at Mount Ayr Post Office, Orr C.Fisher, 1941//Wikipedia
The word “momentum” features too often in news reports about politics. What is “momentum” in this context? There’s no such thing! At least, if there is such a thing (which would only be, because of people taking notice of opinion polls); then it’s less important than current polling figures, which are less important still than how people will actually vote on the night… The direction in which a candidate’s relative popularity changes, and the rate of that change, is more dependent in the long term on the candidate’s personal character (as compared with the personal character of the other candidates in the field) than on the mere fact of whether their relative popularity has been increasing or decreasing recently (which means almost nothing, as we have seen repeatedly in this nomination race with various candidates having had the “momentum” at various points in time, which was touted unjustifiably by the media at the time as supporting their personal credentials as the only viable “Romney” alternative). Nonsense. It’s still early days. People should ignore the opinion polls and vote purely for the candidate they WANT to win.
Journalists talk as though passing “milestones” on competitive opinion poll percentages were the equivalent of driving a car past fixed physical milestones; which is absolute nonsense of course! Unless some trained statisticians start spilling red ink over articles like this prior to publication (which they should, if the article is about opinion polls); we’re going to start hearing about “acceleration” as well as “momentum” before long; so that journalists will be able to open up the field and start writing about fringe candidates who polled 0.5% in June, 1% in July and 1.6% in August…
Most of the “momentum” that journalists talk about, in a race been seven or so candidates; is based on:
* Random variations in polling, which includes various effects that the pollsters have failed to account for or to tell us about;
* Dynamic effects in their _relative_ popularity, in terms of political niches opening up around a candidate’s position as the positions of their fellows on the political spectrum are clarified.
Good on Santorum if his “surge” is based on real qualities in his personal character. Shame if it’s only a contrivance or conspiracy of the political far-right, to manipulate the election by dumping otherwise decent candidates and suborning the natural process of the political system which Americans are otherwise taught to trust… Either way, Santorum’s rise is nothing to do with “momentum”.
Now let’s cut the journalists a little slack… What’s the alternative to this endemic abuse of metaphor? For journalists to ignore candidates on the basis of opinion polls? Perhaps instead, we could just ignore opinion polls altogether, in the same way a statistician would, i.e., making exceptions for the only cases where opinion polls and statistics can tell us anything useful at all:
* Candidates who are consistently at the top of the field,
* Candidates who are consistently at the bottom of the field;
paying just a little more attention to the former, and just a little less attention to the latter…
On this score, Reuters is doing a fine job…
Let’s pay more attention to the character and integrity of the candidates, and spend less time chasing our tails with the opinion polls…
Read the article REUTERS/Tight race in Iowa kicks off 2012 campaign
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Maybe I'm being contrarian, but I really wonder if the rest of the country will be waiting on what happens in Iowa. And if they are waiting, is it really worth it. Here's why:
1. The arcane caucus there is non-binding on the delegates
2. Even if 200,000 people show up, its about 10% of the potential Iowa electorate.
3. Iowa has gone Democratic in five of the last six presidential elections, including Gore in 2000 and Dukakis in 1988. And when Bush II won there in 2004, he carried it by about 13,000 votes out of almost 1,500,000 cast..
The pundits and junkies may be breathless in anticipation, but for everyone else it's probably a yawn.
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/THE CAUCUS/Iowa Caucuses: Five Things to Watch
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You are so right about that time in history when the Iowa caucuses started a classic battle of two great primary candidates, Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. None of us could've predicted what was about to happen EXCEPT perhaps the IA democrats - they'd sensed what was about to happen and turned out, as you put it, in record numbers.
Watching Obama's ground game was for me, a difficult thing to swallow. It was the first time I allowed myself to think that the ' empty suit ' could win. Which is exactly what he did.
But the GOP frontrunners are definitely not in the same league....still, it is intriguing to see if in fact, we will have a numerical TIE.
I believe that Mitt Romney has the right strong arsenal provided by the GOP establishment. Womever beats him - has to be the guy Iowans believe in their hearts to be backed by a higher power.
The republicans in IA have two factors - electability and convictions - which will probably be decided at the site, at the last minute.
I will be tuned in......
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/THE CAUCUS/Iowa Caucuses: Five Things to Watch
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Since it seems as if every thinking person in the US is against the Citizens United ruling. Why then, aren't we all on the bandwagon for reversal?
There is a nationwide push for just such action; A new coalition called Move To Amend is working to abolish corporate personhood in the US; they're working at the local and state level to pass laws to undo the work of Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that equated money with speech. See www.movetoamend,org
In April, voters in Madison and Dane County, WI overwhelmingly approved measures calling for an end to corporate personhood and the legal status of money as speech by 84% and 78% respectively. Similar resolutions have been passed in nearly thirty other cities and counties. Resolutions have also been introduced in the state legislatures of both Vermont and Washington.
Here in Vermont, towns and cities are introducing a ballot question for consideration at our annual Town Meetings in March asking the State Legislature to appeal to the US Congress for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
A successful campaign overturning this odious ruling will give impetus to the important job of ridding political campaigns of private funding altogether, truly leveling the playing field. One way to start is by lengthening congressional terms and limiting them to one or, at most, two terms only, thereby ending the perpetual cycle of fund raising and favor currying that so corrupts our government.
We need to act !
Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/
The Slush Funds of Iowa
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Grover Norquist, the professional Republican intimidator, has said that it really doesn’t matter what the qualifications of the next Republican president are as all they have to do is sign the bills sent to them by Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. That arrogant and cocky attitude says it all and should really scare the majority greatly. What they are literally saying is that all they want is to have “puppets” who will perform as instructed and that others will actually “pull the strings”. We saw it with George W. Bush and were offered it with Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell and others. Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Gingrich and many more fit the same profile of being bought, owned and controlled performers. We see that mentality in the stubborn and arrogant actions of John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and others as they present their “my way or no way” attitude. Because we experienced and suffered with Bush-Cheney we know that no where in there is there any concern for the majority. In fact, with the money and power behind them they are confident they can con the people and manipulate public opinion, being literally cocky, even emboldened from past successes and now sure they can do whatever they want. Without having any conscience and with their insatiable “more” appetite, those “pulling the strings” are steadily pushing the country towards being a two-class society with the few competing in having it all and the majority just struggling - to now give them the power again would just expedite that.
The majority has experienced a constant decline while the wealthy have benefitted from substantial growth. Wall Street use to say to expect 6% average return for retirement and now they say your are lucky to count on 4%, all while their own compensation has increased dynamically. Corporations have continually laid off people, cut salaries and exported jobs all while the executives’ own take home has grown to as much as 3-400 even 500 times employees’ salaries. There simply isn’t just a growing number of poor and of the struggling middle-class but at the same time there is a growing number of millionaires and billionaires. The spread between the middle-class and the wealthy keeps getting larger, as the one class continually benefits and the other looses. We have seen repeated crises from exploitation by “the few”, in Savings and Loans, banks, dot.coms, investment, mortgage, financial industries and even in corporate corruption, like Enron, with a permissive government just looking on as the majority looses substantially. News from the media, who are owned by “big money”, constantly bombards us with the story that things are tough, getting worse and that the majority must sacrifice, that there simply is no choice - except for the wealthy. This isn’t a hard luck story of someone down and out, it is the literal truth for a nation. The people are being consistently conned all across the board and it is being done by “big money” who are “pulling the strings” and using the Republican / Tea Party as their totally owned and controlled “puppets”. Their current aim is to con the people into supporting a return to “more of the same” - and that is the very real problem!
Obama, while certainly not perfect, is not the problem! We are constantly and aggressively being told that he is and if we buy into that, we are then set up to buy into returning to “more of the same”, Bush-Cheney style, which is the problem. It simply is a con! Obama inherited the problems, he didn’t cause them, and ever since the Republicans have constantly, stubbornly and belligerently done everything they could to fault and block all efforts to address the problems. Groups like Norquist’s, Cheney’s, Rove’s, others, also PACs and SuperPacs provide money, influence and the power to intimidate and coerce their own, squelching individual consciences and assuring total unity behind “the money’s” goals. They even brag they can “make or break” those who do or don’t conform. We have seen well organized, well directed and well financed efforts, like the manipulation of the Christian block, the Swift-boat propaganda and the Tea Party movement, all aimed to sway people in the same single direction. The Republicans / Tea Party have put their political ambitions above all else, at any cost to the people, and are striving to have Obama fail, which really means America fails, just so they can gain political advantage. It actually is a total con! That is reality and if we don’t see it, if we can’t check our own rationalized fears, emotions and loyalties, then we will simply be conned and set up to give the perpetrators their sought after reward - that being control and a return to “more of the same”.
Obama and the Democrats have not solved all of the problems but they have not had real opportunity as they have been blocked at every turn. Our government is designed to work with bipartisan cooperation, to have compromise in order to get the best answers and the Republicans have strongly and stubbornly rejected all of that for their own selfish interests. The Republicans / Tea Party are owned and controlled by “big money”, those hiding behind calling themselves “ultra conservative”, who aggressively use their money and power to first, intimidate and coerce their own politicians and second, to appeal to the public’s fears, emotions, prejudices and biases in order to manipulate public opinion. None of it is in the majority’s best interests, all of it is fully and deceptively just aimed to benefit “big money”, and as Bush-Cheney proved beyond any doubt, the “trickle down” theory is a total fraud. If we are returned to “more of the same”, as they want, it will literally be a continuing catastrophe for the majority and a further moving of the country towards a two-class society that takes advantage of its own people. less
Read the article CNN/Iowa caucuses: Pulling the weeds from Republican field
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Well, somebody has to be first! We would hear this complaint no matter which state goes first in their consideration of presidential candidates. The Iowans are not necessarily correct in their first choices either. Let’s not forget that they chose Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama and we’ve all seen where that has lead us to in the terms of how our government functions and the dubious leadership exampled by both of these presidents.
While some people like Mr. Johnson seem to think that Republicans will somehow destroy the American economy, others are very well aware of the fact that under our current president, the nations annual deficit has nearly quadrupled because of all the free spending programs instituted by well meaning, but misguided individuals who seem to believe that money given to the disadvantaged will somehow foster a vigorous economy. Obviously, it does not.
The selection process for potential presidential candidates is long and should be, as we need the maximum time allowable to weed out those persons who will not be able to gain the support of the American people. A president has to do more than just represent a certain sector of our population. He or she must be able to reach out to all persons and inspire them by excellent leadership qualities instead of inflammatory rhetoric. He or she must be able to work with a continually divided congress and use their skills to unite rather than divide our representatives.
I believe that maybe Iowa is a model of what America was and should be ...and 'Im not talking about race. The people there work hard and appreciate families. They consider work honorable and welfare is not part of their vocabulary. As for corn-- we'll on one hand we want America to move away from an "oil" based economy, to be energy independent to reduce imports and balance of trade issues... yet people criticize Iowa for growing a totally renewable energy source. So just what is it America that you want.....?
Read the article USA TODAY/Why we should kill the Iowa caucuses
READ MORE TOP COMMENTS -- NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2011
