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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Culture war?

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I knew when Republican Party started co-opting their base with the Tea Party, there was going be hell to pay. It was the equivalent of letting the convicts run the prison or better yet; the insane running the asylum. It's going to be an interesting two years but never, even in my wildest dreams,I ever imagine that the Republican Party would allow itself to be known as the “extreme right- wing." I thought the established republicans would rein the tea party radicals. It's the other way around, senators Orrin Hatch, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Scott Brown will probably have a primary challenge because they don't meet up to Tea Party standards.

The GOP house members are taking a step backwards by introducing legislation to ban the EPA from regulating greenhouse emissions. That's just the first step; they also want to strip the agency from future crackdown on emissions from factory's, utilities, and other stationary forces. Damn the science full speed ahead. This is in spite of the proof that climate change is causing this severe cold spell. Try telling the global warming deniers, that warmer air collects moisture like a sponge; that’s until it hits the patch of cool air, creating a whole lot of snow. During their coffee break the house Gop was trying to redefine the definition of “forcible rape." The republicans were trying to find a way around the current H.R. 3, "the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" because the Hyde Act allows for exceptions in the case of rape, incest or a threat to the life of the woman. They will go the extra mile to get their way.

The senate republicans attached an amendment to the Federal Aviation funding bill to repeal the Health Care Law. That effort was defeated along party lines but "Republicans say it will turn out to be a victory in 2012 because it puts Democrats on the record for supporting the bill." The GOP hopes that will discredit Democrats running for re-election. Our local republicans tried to deny that republicans do not like Health Care legislation in any form or fashion. Washington republican lawmakers are telling their constituents that they will retain the pre existing conditions and repeal the rest. If the Supreme Court rules that the "individual mandate" is unconstitutional then the only options will be Medicare for all or the public option. The insurance companies would go bankrupt if the “pre- existing conditions" clause remained because people could drop out of their expensive insurance plans until a need comes up that would require them to buy insurance. They know they couldn't be denied for pre existing conditions. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell said: Jonathan, the Democrats made a mistake of not writing into the law that the bill is what they call "severable," meaning if courts find bits of it unconstitutional, they can simply sever those bits from the rest of t he bill. Jonathan Turley, professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, agreed with Lawrence saying "it was a colossal mistake not to have a severability clause in this legislation. It’s a standard clause in bills. It is not clear why it was kept out. Some people say it was a blunder. Other suggests and I know you know, there’s some suspicion that it might be a sort of game of chicken, that they wanted to make clear, if you take out the individual mandate, you are risking the entire bill to sort of give these judges a bit of sticker shock. I think the republicans have a good legal claim that the “individual mandate" is unconstitutional but I would like to see the arguments before the Supreme Court. If the republicans were serious about Health Care legislation, they could reword the “individual mandate" to something like incentives but there are only interested in political victories.

Our community is not immune to the culture war we're seeing in Washington. I've been trying to make some sense of it but it only lead to the same old “I’m right you're wrong arguments." It was amusing watching itisi trying to challenge KyleC.. I'm surprised that itisi doesn't know he is overmatched. He can't beat KyleC with slogans, talking points or silly comments, so he challenged his citizenship. That's awful close to what the old Victore used to do. It may be the same person but I would take KyleC over itisi, any day on any subject. Hictoria,said " unfortunately itisi is right.That does it for me..lol  I don't know why posters like jbj,itisi, Observer, and holly1 don't use the world almanac to support their claims instead of making up stuff. Holly1 goes into great detail talking about welfare but he just pulls numbers out of the air to support his claim. I know where rollingstone and Observer get their material. It comes straight from the far right blogs they read. Then there's the chameleon poster named jbj, he can change stripes on a minute's notice, in giving his Pollyannaish views…..Where are you Kenneth? At least Kenneth didn’t bother me and vice versa.

It's 32 degrees @ 2:30 PM feels like 21 degrees ..snow in the forcast

20 comments:

Rebecca said...

I always wonder what KyleC has to say on any given topic. I respect the fact that he has been all over the world. To me, he has a unique perspective! That's gives him credibility, to me.

Rebecca said...

"That gives him credibility," oooooops.

=D

Edith Ann said...

Good blog, however I am not convinced this is a culture clash. But that is neither here, nor there. I try n ot to even read the known offenders!

This comment by jbj on itisi's fabulous Advocate blog is priceless:"Discredit, divert, deny, ignore, accuse, mock. Those are the tools of the liberal." That is the same exact thing I think about the far right! That is what they have been doing for years!

And itisi--she (I think it is a female because of the little cutesy dingbats she uses) is very convicted that she is the end-all, be-all of the conservative right. She's a joke! What is with that blog on artificial intelligence? She has no clue what AI even is.

Whatever.

But, are you sure you miss Kenneth? Have you seen his blog? Here's a link. http://kennethschustereittheoldbolillo.blogspot.com/2010/07/national-socialism-grows-by-day.html See who he is pissed at? I, for one, would not be surprised to see Kenneth on the national news some evening. He's a ticking timebomb...

Only a fool would try to take Kyle on, either for content or humor. But, look who we're dealing with !

It's 7:05 p.m., and the snow is expected around 9:00 p.m. tonight. Right now, it's 31 degrees! Too cold for me.

Rebecca said...

Mike, have you ever considered that after people have had discussions with you on your blog that you make them question their sources or their stance? You may even help them smooth down some of the rough extremes. Not itisi or dd, but others. Maybe people aren't changing their stripes, but are... changed by conversation and reflection over time.

People are always learning.

=D

Mike said...

EA
I made that, tongue- in -cheek, comment about Kenneth but do you remember his last days? I think one day he got a total of six hits. The whole forum, even some of his loyal fans, stop viewing his blog.. He was going on the deep end back then; so much so I got an e-mail from someone whom you admire, asking me if Kenneth had changed.... I told them that every since he started attending the church on Constitution and Vine, he became a different person..... That's the context... He was all alone, in his own little cubbyhole....But you're right his blog is pretty scary, but it's pretty much the same stuff Glenn Beck talks about on a daily basis.

If I remember correctly,itisi said his wife was a liberal, but I don't exactly believe everything he or she says. He made his first comment on my blog ( I seem to attract them) saying that he fought in Vietnam in response to one of Vietnam Vet's statement.

Watch the ice in Tanglewood..:-)

Mike said...

Rebecca

I want to continue learning that's why I envy a blog such as Edith Anns... People of all stripes comment but they remain civil and generally they provide good input.

I hear you, I think you are saying that I should continue to keep an open dialogue and perhaps our discussions will be less combative.

There might be happening with jbj and holly1 but it might be a case of three old bulls all wanting the center stage.

Keep warm good luck on find ythat big yard with all the leaves to rake and grass to cut...:-)

You are right about KyleC,he's a walking encyclopedia and if you are going to disagree with him..Come prepared.

Mike said...

Edith Ann

Referencing historical documents is like showing garlic to vampires, to posters like itisi and and holly1... It really upsets them, it makes you an elitist...lol

It's a losing battle because they have their own vocabulary complete with definition.

I know you don't like deleting comments or posters but after awhile it gets annoying..I hope they go to another blog or write one of their own...I'm glad itisi wrote his blog to accommodate posters like holly1.

Edith Ann said...

Mike and Rebecca—thank you for your kind words about my blog. Let me just say, when I started my blog, I really didn’t do anything different than I had done on the Advocate forum. I never blogged over there.

In my opinion it is the arena, if you will. Kind of like private vs. public. This is ‘our’ turf over here. The Advocate is public. It takes someone firmly grounded in their convictions, as well as the ability to back up their claims, to venture over here to post an opinion. Funny thing is, we are—in my opinion—a much safer venue than the Advocate. Despite the fact they are moderated, heavily at times, they seem to attract a rather, um, well, ignorant crowd over there. The ex-pats and the others who are part of our rather vibrant blogger colony over here are smart, articulate and understand the give and take of a discussion. They understand what a discussion is. Goodness, who would have ever thought BigJ or Kenneth Schustereit would have come over to EA to read and comment? I didn’t. But I am glad they did.

I am not happy with some of the posters on the Advocate right now, but that’s fine that they are there. They may eventually have something worthwhile to contribute. But, this crappy weather and my lack of self control, coupled with time off from work today are allowing me to quickly get frustrated with the likes of itisi, lamppost and holly1. I am growing weary of folks who don’t even bother to find a fact or two. They just pull stuff out of their ass and declare it good. They are the kind who know they would be swamped with sane, rational, logical discussion over here, and they are not capable of that caliber of effort.

And let me say, Rebecca, I see you are wearing your big girl panties today! I am so proud of you! You are really baffling them. They are not used to you challenging their stuff. You go girl!

Back to my blog—I am grateful for each of my readers and posters. Each one is important, and each one contributes, and yes—so far—we have been able to remain mostly civil. I am proud of that.

And thanks for writing over here, Mike. I
never posted much, really if ever, on your Advocate blog because I got really tired of slogging through the muck the posters were flinging. I am glad you are here!

Rebecca said...

I seem to really enjoy fighting about fighting. =D

Edith Ann said...

Okay, let me see if I got this right---

holly1 has a problem with gay actors? Are these folks having sex on Nick and Disney? I had no idea!

And he does something with forclosures? Works for the government that he criticizes? Or works for a bank that makes money off of other's mistakes.

Hmmm...now I am really impressed.

Mike said...

holly1 is complicated fella; he is proud of his accomplishments at the same time he is whining that liberals are making his life miserable...Can't have it both ways.

Lucky me, his next project will be reporting all the government waste at his work site ... His work site is supposed to be representative of total government waste... I'm gonna get my own Geraldo Rivera report..:-)

Mike said...

Rebecca

You we're always an natural but you didn't know it...:-)

Edith Ann said...

Lucky you! 8^)

Rebecca said...

I saw Riverboat at the Outdoor Expo! I didn't see Jared, though. =D

Mike said...

I couldn't sleep so I logged in to local forum only to find out rolling stone was up to his old tricks..lying.....He cut & pasted the definition of progressive but he just typed from the free wiki in order to add the word socialism.....I went ahead and cut and pasted the actual definition on my blog....He knew better than to cut & paste it on my blog.

Just in case he deletes it on itisi's blog........I may not mean nothing to others but I just hate liars...It's the same tatic Fox uses ,hoping no one will notice.

Mike said...

Rolling stone took his definition from the " enconomic progressive" on page for discussion but he left out the full definition and the dictionary meaning.

Edith Ann said...

Oh, my bad!!! I was willing to cut rollingstone a bit of slack!

Mike said...

That's OK, I always double check his posts.... He's known for being coy.

Kyle said...

Thanks for the praise Mike, I know all too well that I shouldn't let myself get dragged into debating with those that seem to have a pathological aversion to reason, logic and, quite frankly, compassion but there you go!

Mike said...

Kyle

You're quite well welcome but it was a sight to see, watching you counter their arguments with accepted facts.... You were like a giant among mental midgets.