Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Ah, the Senate Democrats: The Los Angeles Clippers of Politics


Like many of you, I am (or was) addicted to politics. I watch MSNBC, CNN, PBS, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and even FoxNews.

But since the Democrats completely caved in on the Public Option, I honestly have lost interest. Seriously. I'm so jaded and disaffected right now that I couldn't really give a damn what these crooked Senators are up to. The same ones that were rallying so hard and crowing so loud on The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann about how hard they'll fight for the Public Option and how they'll lay down on the tracks for it have lowered their heads and walked away muttering to themselves...you know, despite having a SUPERMAJORITY.

Such weakness. The inability to pass legislation despite having an overwhelming majority. This addiction to compromise even before you get to the bargaining table. The insurance companies rightly declaring victory as they successfully killed health insurance reform.

Someone please teach the Democrats that compromise comes WAY later in the negotiations. How do you lowball YOURSELF??? The Public Option was a compromise to begin with as many Democrats really wanted single payer. And yet, they stil managed to screw that up too.

It's too much. What's on Sportscenter?

Sports reference. I was all jazzed up with Barack declaring this 'a new time' in Washington but someone forgot to tell Harry Reid. In Obama, it's like the Democrats got a star pitcher but their hitters are the same group of bums that could never make the playoffs.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Poverty In America: Real Policy Solutions For Economic Parity

Don't get me wrong. I know how Capitalism works. Everyone can't be rich. Everyone won't be middle class. But I was wondering:

If you were given complete power by the President and Congress to do whatever it took to revitalize impoverished areas of the United States in 10 years. Blank check. What would you do and why do you think it would work?

Here's what I would do:

I would increase funding for 'self-help' programs such as tuition assistance, job training programs and child care stipends for the working poor. I would drastically reduce the number of people on welfare and the amount of time that a family can receive benefits if it's proven that there are employment opportunities in their area. This would increase the number of educated, skilled workers and entrepreneurs in any given community.

I would take the money that we save from handing out welfare and give tax breaks to companies that open up shop in the poorest neighborhoods and hire the locals. As the unemployment rate drops, so would crime and drug use. That's statistically proven.

Now, people are earning their money, establishing their self-respect, taking ownership of their community and small business gets a break as well. I would also give government preference to companies and corporations that bring manufacturing jobs back to American shores and don't outsource. I would make 'Made in the USA' mean something again.

That's my urban renewal plan.

As far as poor folks out in the suburbs and rural settings, I'm not sure if that would necessarily work as you can't exactly open up a Home Depot and three Starbuck's in the middle of a small town of 2,000. I defer to anyone with more knowledge on the inner workings of farm subsidies and rural economics.

And for those who honestly could care less about lowering the number of folks below the poverty line, think of it this way: the more educated, healthy, skilled workers we have in this country, the more able we are to compete in the global market. Eliminating poverty as much as we can would bring us back to a point of self-sufficiency as a nation. It's right on moral, ethical grounds and a smart investment fiscally.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Is the media obsessed with Sarah Palin? YOU BETCHA!!!


I understand why she's all over FoxNews. She's one of the most charismatic, down-to-Earth conservative figures to come along in a very long time. I totally get why surburban soccer mawms all over the country are in love with her. Gotcha.

But I'm really not understanding CNN, MSNBC, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann's OCD fixation with tearing apart every page of her book and every sentence she utters. I hate to admit it but it's almost like they're scared of her and scared of how popular she is among the right wing base...not realizing that by CONSTANTLY demonizing her, they actually make her MORE of a conservative celebrity by proving that the 'liberal media' IS out to get her...because they are.

In all, you'd think that I would have something against Sarah Palin but I honestly don't. She's conservative. I'm not. But her and her family seem like nice people and the constant casting her as a an attractive dummy is only setting her up to exceed low expectations.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired of EVERY lead story on MSNBC being some sort of lame Palin Watch. Report real news already. Enough is enough. We get it.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Friday's Quick Thought: People who quote from the bible when debating non-biblical issues


I was having a debate/discussion with someone on Facebook a few days ago about gay marriage and society's embrace of its homosexual population in general when the person broke out and started reciting scripture as though this was some sort of evidence of his point.

Why do that?

Let's say that you're eating a turkey sandwich and I say that you shouldn't do that. When you ask me why and I start quoting from the Bhagavad Gita or the Lotus Sutra, you have every right to wonder what MY religion has to do with YOUR turkey sandwich.

Exactly.

What does YOUR religion have to do with some other person's ability to see their partner in the hospital or have the same tax or healthcare benefits that you and your wife enjoy?

"Marriage" is not a Christian invention and it's not a right exclusive to religious folk. If the captain of a ship or a judge can perform a wedding, it's not a religious ceremony.

Marriage is merely a social contract recognized by the state that some may give religious significance....or they may not.

At the end of the day, I have nothing against people of faith who hold themselves to certain rules and standards but please be careful in projecting your own personal beliefs on the larger section of society that may not believe as you do.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Sound of One Hand Clapping: How Barack Obama's push for bipartisanship is beginning to tarnish his Presidency


One of the risks of being proficient in something is that there are folks who look to take advantage of your skill for their own personal gain.

I'll never forget Tyrell Watkins in the 6th grade. He was the slickest kid in the class. Popular. Flashy. Dumb as a rock. But Tyrell had personality, persistence and overwhelming people skills which meant that he never wrote a page of homework in 12 years on the planet. So it was either by pure coincidence or through a shady backroom deal brokered by this pre-teen that he was selected to be my science lab partner for the duration of the semester. Ah...the nerd and the cool kid, forced to work together. One was the Class Science Officer, the other could throw a baseball really hard and bench press twice his weight. It's the stuff of cheesy 80s sitcoms.

That's not quite how it worked.

Our mandatory homework and lab meetings went something like this:

Watkins: Hey, nerd. Do my homework or I'll break your leg.
Me: That's Tyrell with two 'L's, right?

And such was my lot in life for the bulk of the school year. Alone in a room, plagiarising myself and bowing down to a bully even though I had the authority and all the right answers.

As a skinny, bookish kid at P.S. 96 in Spanish Harlem, who knew that I was the physical embodiment of today's Democratic Party.

The role of Tyrell Watkins will be played today by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus who just intimated that while the Democrats control the White House, have a mythical Supermajority in Congress and have infused new life into the Supreme Court, that the prospect for the passage of a public option on healthcare reform is all but dead. What's that you say? Wouldn't it stand to reason that a party who controls most of the upper levels of the federal government should be able to swiftly and easily pass legislation that it wants? Sure. But it's the Multiple Personality Democrats we're talking about here. The ones who march and stomp and protest and get up in arms when out of power only to kowtow, bend, fold and break when they are actually IN power.

President Obama. Please don't follow that legacy and the tendencies of your hand-wringing, second-guessing, ameliorating brethren on the Left. Stand tall. Stand firm. Stand up for the 46 million Americans in this country who are uninsured or underinsured who are one illness away from financial ruin, many of whom actually die from lack of care

Thursday, July 16, 2009

An Independence Day thought...a few days later

We truly live in the one of the most amazing countries in the world.

I was messaging with someone just now about my desire to distinguish myself in my writing and become a political author and journalist and how it was difficult because there are literally a million blogs online and acquiring the bonafides to be a respected, called-upon voice takes time, effort and luck and I stopped myself and wrote the line:

'woe is me, right?...as I type this, some kid just died of starvation in Darfur and some woman is getting her skull cracked in an Iranian torture room for speaking out against her own government and here I am crying because I'm not famous yet.'

And I thought just how much we take for granted in this country. Very few Americans are "poor" by world standards. Our impoverished would honestly be lower middle class in most parts of the world.

A kid from Uganda or Cambodia might very well starve to death if he can't find food. A child in the mountains of Chile or the slums of Palestine that cannot afford higher education simply does not get educated. A woman in need of medical services in war-torn Somalia might just be plain out of luck.

Here in this country, if I took any of those people and plopped them on our shores within a week they would be fed daily, housed, clothed, given medical treatment, spending cash and be well on the path to being able to attend university classes for free and attend no-cost job training.

"Poor" kids in this country don't realize that OPPORTUNITY is wealth. It's not abut how much money the government or the church down the street just put in your pocket. It's about whether or not you have the chance to make it on your own. Are the lights green on your avenue or are they all red. In many parts of the world, they are, and will always be, red unless you pay off that crooked sheriff or you perform an 'act' for that local official.

That's what many folks don't get and don't understand. That simply having the option to go to college or find job training or having a country that has an apparatus by which you may enjoy the basic necessities of life is a TREMENDOUS life advantage and one that is to be recognized and seen as the blessing that it is.

I see this as I watch a kid from the South Bronx grow up to take her place as a trailblazer and a legend of tenacity, will, sacrifice and daring. Nothing in Sonia Sotomayor's early story said 'oh...you're destined to be a Supreme Court Justice one day.' She MADE that happen with her natural intelligence, her family's love and standard and a public education system just begging to be used as a stepping stone.

Sorry for the rah rah patriotic moment...and I'm not saying that we don't need to do more work to further perfect our union because we absolutely do...but we also need to stop, sometimes, and realize just how good we have it here. Many of us that were born and raised here that take these things for granted. Of course, this message doesn't apply to first generation immigrants who saw all these things a long time ago and put action behind will and decided to come to the shining land of opportunity known as America.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

When The Self-Righteous Are Downright Wrong


In light of the Governor Sanford affair, I'm just wondering how so many people still justify their opposition to same-sex marriage and gay adoption based on this notion that heterosexual marriage is superior to homosexual marriage when, in fact, many of these same public, vocal defenders of traditional marriage are screwing everything that crosses their eyeline. Male, female, boys, girls...whatever. But then they get up on a stage or in front of a microphone and call someone else immoral or say that every gay union is wrong and corrupt.

Maybe we just have to wait until EVERY politicians' extramarital affair is exposed and there won't be anyone left to oppose same-sex marriage.

It's a joke.

Britney Spears can run to Las Vegas with a buddy and get married in an Elvis Presley chapel as a joke and THAT was more legal than two women who have loved one another for 20 years and share their entire lives together.

Sad.

And don't get me started on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. President Obama needs to do all he can to get that idiotic rule reversed ASAP.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

One unexpected byproduct of the bogus Iranian elections that have American Conservatives very nervous


By showing millions of protestors in the streets of Iran decrying the unfair elections and calling for a more democratic, accountable government, the very mindset that the GOP has tried to foster in this country about Iran is tumbling down.

Remember...the Axis of Evil...these people were supposed to be an entire nation of bloodthirsty savages whose hatred of America and fanatical, rabid, frothy-mouthed desire to drink the blood of our babies was only matched by their desire to fund, endorse and engage in international terrorism.

Not anymore.

What's being broadcast on every news channel are hundreds of thousands of young, intelligent Iranians wearing sneakers, drinking soda and listening to iPods as they OPPOSE their theocratic government in a scene very reminiscent of the 1960s here in America.

Wait a minute. That's not what FoxNews has been telling me all these years. They've been openly selling the idea that the entire region is filled with turban-wearing potential suicide bombers who cheer in the streets when Americans are killed and want to establish a worldwide Caliphate.

But all I've been seeing for the last couple of weeks are a people yearning to breathe free. A young people who are standing up to death threats and threats of intimidation and imprisonment by going out and protesting for a free and fair election.

Had Mr. McCain gotten his way, he would have been 'bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran-ing' THESE people and not some monolithic group of savages or animals who couldn't be reasoned with.

While it is clear that our GOVERNMENTS have problems with one another. Perhaps this Iranian election will inadvertendly open the door to a new perception of Iran by the West. That they are not our natural enemy and that while we need to keep close tabs on the actions of their government, the Iranian PEOPLE are just like us in many ways. They believe in and love their God, they want free and fair elections and they just want to a stable, prosperous society in which to raise their family.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

My response to a Conservative chain email I received

Here's the email:

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives,
> socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:
>
>
> We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the
> whole of this latest election process has made me realize
> that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for
> many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly,
> this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological
> sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is
> right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can
> smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go
> our own way.
>
> Here is a model separation agreement:
>
> Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by
> landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult
> part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly
> agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our
> respective representatives can effortlessly divide other
> assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate
> tastes.
>
> We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep
> them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU..
> Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms,
> the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah,
> Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however,
> responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to
> move all three of them).
>
> We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations,
> pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can
> have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal
> aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy
> CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give
> you NBC and Hollywood .
> You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll
> retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten
> us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our
> allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help
> provide them security.
>
> We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome
> to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can
> also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the
> bill.
> We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury
> cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.
> You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any
> practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare
> is a luxury and not a right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn
> of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure
> you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to
> Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.
> We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give
> trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends
> you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.
> Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to
> other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if
> you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly
> parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need
> whose help in 15 years...
>
> Sincerely,
> John J. Wall
> Law Student and an American
> P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda
> with you

And here's my response:


The following is an excerpt from a famous Liberal website:
If you do not have skin cancer, and have ever stood outside without having a peeling sunburn within moments, thank the ozone layer, thank the ban on CFCs, and thank a liberal.
If you have ever breathed clean air or drank clean water, thank a liberal for continuing to champion environmental standards.
If you are glad we don't live in a right-wing dictatorship along the lines of what conservatives overtly and covertly created in Iran, Guatamala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, the Congo, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, the Phillipines, Indonesia and many others, thank a liberal.
If you have ever used Medicare, thank a liberal.
If you have not gotten cancer from radiation, thank the Nuclear test ban and thank a liberal.
If you've ever driven on an interstate highway, thank a liberal.
If you grew up in a family of less than 12 kids, like the idea of being able to choose if you have 12 kids or not, if you don't live in an overpopulated third world slum, or just think birth control is a good idea, thank a liberal.
If your family benefited from the GI Bill of Rights, FHA Mortgages, and so forth, thank a liberal.
If you have ever bought anything from Europe, and are glad the Marshall plan kept it from remained a bombed-out shell or falling to communism or neo-fascism, thank a liberal.
If you are glad that the Nazis don't control half the world (conservatives opposed joining World War 2 until it was forced on them) thank a liberal.
If you have ever eaten food (agricultural subsidies), flicked on a light switch (rural electrification) or benefited from the Tennessee Valley Authority, thank a liberal.
If you ever drank a beer or a glass of wine without being thrown in jail, thank a liberal.
If you are not a land-owning white male, but have voted, thank a liberal.
If you have not died from tainted meat, been prescribed something useless or poisonous by a quack doctor, have not given your children cough syrup which turned out to have heroin as its secret ingredient, thank a liberal.
If your workplace is safe and you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights without being lynched, thank a liberal.
If you've ever seen a national park, and it hadn't been strip mined and clearcut into a desert wasteland, thank a liberal.
If your children go to school instead of working in coal mines, thank a liberal.
If you're a Native American and have not been killed or died in a concentration camp, or if you live near Native Americans and are not at war with them, thank a liberal.
If you oppose political parties starting massive wars to destroy America, just because they lost the election, and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans in process - if you just don't have that much fanatical hatred of Lincoln's policy of to restricting slavery to states where it already existed, thank a liberal.
If you're part-Irish, Catholic, Jewish, or for that matter anything not Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and are allowed to live in America, and are not harassed and attacked for failing to be born Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or if you've ever bought or used anything built by a non-ASP American, thank a liberal.
If you kind of like freedom of speech, and don't want the state government to be able to censor you - (you think the 14th amendment is a good idea) - thank a liberal.
If you have ever bought or sold anything transported by the transcontinental railroad, or eaten food from a farm created by the railroad, thank a liberal.
If you think the US constitution is pretty cool, and have ever traveled too or done business with a country whose democracy was inspired by the American revolution, thank a liberal.
If you have not been drafted and used as cannon-fodder in some war caused by some petty insult between nobles, clan leaders, or other various overfed dictators, or suffered rape or looting in one of those countless wars, thank a liberal.
If you have not been tortured to death in a religious inquisition, thank a liberal.
If you don't have to walk though ankle-deep sewage in the streets (because sewers are big gummint), thank a liberal.
If you have ever done anything that is a religious or superstitious taboo (ie, done anything at all) without being stoned to death or cast out as a heretic, thank a liberal.
If you have never been raped, and then had the rapist escape punishment on the grounds that he marry you, thank a liberal.
In short, if you've ever enjoyed anything of the post-stone-age world, thank a liberal.
...And if not, become a conservative.

Oh...and on the issue of religion in general in the previous email, Jesus Christ was the ULTIMATE Liberal. Check the books of Matthew, John and beyond. He was AGAINST war, he was for healing the sick and feeding the hungry FOR FREE and he was for all men embracing one another as brothers and not stockpiling guns and building fences. Many people in America today are Christians in name alone. They have no idea what Jesus truly stood for and prefer to ascribe Old Testament values to the New Testament visionary. The Prince of PEACE. And that's coming from one of the millions of Christian Liberals in America today.

So, Conservatives. You want a divorce. You're like a spoiled child who's had their way for 8 long years and the second one election doesn't go your way, you want to take your ball and go home. Deal with it. This is America and our strength lies in our diversity and in our peaceful difference of opinion. No one party or ideology should rule for too long and thanks to the beauty of the American political system, that won't happen. It's cyclical. You've had your time. Hell, you've had 20 of the last 28 years and even THAT'S not good enough for you.

All I can say is that the current state of the GOP is your own fault. You're not bad or evil people but whenever you get stuck in your own head and refuse to adapt and update, this will happen and you'll continue to lose elections until you start to embrace what America truly is. A multicultural haven for people around the world...of every sexual orientation, nationality, religion, race and creed. America is not YOUR country. It's EVERYONE'S country and until your party truly reflects that, the Democratic majority will only increase.

But have fun crying, sulking and shaking your fists at the sky. You'll have to do so until Jan. 20, 2017 when President Obama gives his last speech as President of these United States of America.




"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." - The Dalai Lama

Friday, March 27, 2009

GOP Response Budget or 'The Dog Ate My Homework'

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#29904566[/url]

This Rachel Maddow clip is CLASSIC. For those of my friends here who would rather put a cigarette out on their tongue rather than watch 5 seconds of Ms. Maddow's show, let me paraphrase:

- Barack Obama dares...DOUBLE DOG DARES...his critics to stop taking potshots from the sidelines and actually come up with their own budget if they're so smart.
- the GOP takes the bait and Boehner trots out this 19-page 'budget proposal' which is literally not much more than 'Barack Obama Sucks' and 'the only thing we could come up with is to give the wealthiest Americans the largest tax cut in American history...a tax cut that dwarfs Bush's deepest cut by 10% but completely excludes any mention of healthcare, tackling the deficit or...well...anything else other than criticism of the Democrats' proposal'
- In doing so, in playing right into Obama's trap, the heat now comes off of Obama's budget and onto...you guessed it...the GOP budget...the one that doesn't really exist because Boehner said that it won't actually be ready until next week...

So why didn't they just hold the press conference NEXT WEEK when they had an actual budget to propose? It's the same reason Michael Steele is RNC Chairman...it's the same reason Sarah Palin was selected as VP candidate. The Republican Party has become the party of 'Instant and Predictable Reactionism' in the face of their reputation for staid, patient, well-thought out responses to things.

They've become a party of panickers. A party of 'quick...do something...I don't know what...just do SOMETHING' showmen who don't really HAVE a solution for the budget crisis but feel the need to grandstand and put themselves, once again, in a position to look unprepared, grumpy and obstructionist.

Congratulations.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Bobby Jindal...I'm sorry...the tribe has spoken...


Bobby Jindal got voted off the 2012 GOP Survivor with the QUICKNESS today...

Man...

I feel for the guy. Having to follow the most popular man on the planet who just received 60 standing ovations and was mobbed for autographs by MEMBERS OF CONGRESS like it was a Jonas Brothers concert was like watching a movie in iMax and then watching this skinny kid in his living room with a bad tie and a speech impediment was like watching the same movie only on a shytty bootleg DVD with a baby crying in the background and someone walking in front of the camera.

It was like watching Michael Jordan drop 50 points at Madison Square Garden and then watching Urkel attempt the same moves on a backyard hoop with a Nerf ball.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Barack Obama Has An AMAZING First Week As President


Closing Guantanamo Bay, denouncing and outlawing torture, the Stimulus Package, personally addressing the Arab world, revamping fuel efficiency standards via the Energy Independence and Security Act, promoting stem cell research and now the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act...

This time during Bush's Presidency he was literally planning his first vacation. Barack Obama has rolled into Washington D.C. like a cleansing storm and he's hard at work to reverse the lunacy of the last 8 years.

God bless him.