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Saturday, May 5, 2012

Odd Man Out


Last night I went back and read a ViCad thread that started as a letter about Sarah Palin way back in 2008, and ended 256 posts later as anything but Sarah Palin; it convinced me that we just talk past each other when it comes to politics. Everyone is entrenched in their beliefs (some more than others) and at the end of the day it's just another stalemate. I realize this but being the usual “odd man out” in our conservative county, I just want to add my opinion to the discussion.

I just finished reading Alton's blog where he was describing "critical thinking" but he blew it in his first example. His attempt to exonerate President George W. Bush for his role in the 2008 financial crisis is baseless. He attempted to blame the Democrats because he said that they controlled the last two years of the Bush administration. The Democrats did win the 2006 elections but they didn't take office until January of 2007 and Bush always had the veto pen. The two wars, the Bush tax cuts and the seven trillion dollar prescription drug bill had already been passed and both parties were in reelection mode by June of 2008. It's another attempt of I'm trying to be the reasonable one if just those guys on the other side would do the same. I'm doing the same thing with the link I providing to prove it's the other sides’ fault for the gridlock. I do agree with his example on racism.

Bob Munoz's blog caused a stir but instead of the accuser coming forward and apologizing; the blog became a place to settle old scores about Obama, Palin, and other posters. I was surprised it didn't turn into another Trayvon Martin blog. For the record, I’m a little surprised how some posters are dismissive of Palin’s obvious negatives and would actually trust her to run to this country.Really, some posters compared her voluntarily quitting her job as governor to Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevic, who wound up in prison for trying to sell a political position. I don't recall one Democrat coming to his side nor to New York's Congressman Anthony Weiner either.

I left the work place several years before President Obama was elected, so I don't know what the scuttlebutt is is about having to defend oneself from being called a racist if someone doesn't agree with the president's policy. I know that that is a minor belief held by the right on the national front because I hear the pundits talking about it. It is my opinion that if you're not a racist, you shouldn't have to prove it because it's like that age old question" when was the last time you beat your wife?" I don't care if a person likes President Obama or his policies and of course they have a right to post their opinions but I also have a right to rebut. I'm not a salesman or a recruiter and I prefer for those persons who don't like the president to stay in their respective parties. I know metaphorically people will always blame the current president for all the ills; that's human nature but myths can be debunked. For instance, the right likes to compare President Obama with President Carter because of the latter's failed presidency. Mitt Romney is starting to do that and Obama is comparing Romney to President Bush. President Carter is very different from President Obama because Carter was a southern conservative Democrat; he was what we call today a blue dog democrat and that's probably why the former president said that he would not be frighten by a Romney presidency.

I was just a teenager when the Republican Party last took a far right turn. It was not surprising to read that a study by distinguished political science professor Keith Poole proved that with his analysis, that Republicans are to blame for the gridlock.

"Poole assessed all of the Republican and Democratic votes in the House and Senate from 1879 to 2011, and plotted both parties on a liberal to conservative axis. Poole’s study shows that beginning right around 1980, House Republicans began to vote in strict partisan lines considerably more than Democrats."

http://tinyurl.com/8456l8z

I know that republicans who are reading this are saying "that's bunk" because they hold Democrats just as responsible for our polarization but that's not the case. The conservative democrats are usually republicans who can't win their party's nomination in a conservative district. For the most part Democrats are Keynesians and republicans of today are for austerity measures to obtain their new goal of smaller government and no taxes increases. The republicans of today know that they have to cut the legs out underneath the government at all levels. They will use words like welfare, nanny state, food stamps and government programs in the pejorative because if government policies were ever considered a solution, it would be easier to tax the wealthy and cut spending on their favorite expenditures.

I was listening to a Senator Marco Rubio's speech the other day where he said that his parents never wanted the government to redistribute the wealth and give it to them. I thought about that for a minute and said to myself" hey, my parents didn't either." Mr. Rubio conveniently leaves out the fact that Cubans that reached our shore received an automatic path to citizenship. It's like Supreme Court Justice Thomas, who is a product of affirmative action, but has always ruled against it. It's one of those" do as I say do not as I do."

I was watching a "Frontline" special about the power big oil has. For example, when a Nigerian diplomat asked President George W. Bush as to why he didn't call up the old giant executives and demand that they quickly clean up their spill off the coast of his country and compensate those involved, the president said" I can't do that , those guys are too powerful."

Allow me to reiterate, I'm usually speaking about the national party and if I'm speaking about individual posters, it's usually about their ideology because I realize they don't have any control over the national party.

In closing,  last night Rachel Maddow showed a New York Times chart showing that government has always grown under a Republican president and has always shrunk under a democratic president. I’ll have to double check that article before I post it on the VA,  and it has to leave a message  I want to convey...:-) Those carts are tricky sometimes.

11 comments:

Mike said...

Roy Mark I know you view this blog because the last time you tried to disrupt this blog,I wrote down the multiple address you used...You are the reason I don't accept anonymous postings...Permanent delete.

.Stay off my VA blogs because you are wasting your time(I will delete) you can infect the other threads...You are the VA's problem not mine, so just stay away from me in any form and I will give you the same courtesy.

Bloomington(Roy Mark) and about ten other aliases you have used.

Mike said...

Riverside was pretty busy today they had a kayak/canoe event there;the rest of the park must have had ~200 people.

Chis Hayes host of Saturdays "p w/Chris Hayes"show had a great show on the subject I wrote about.
Conclusion: 1. Accept that we are polarized
                     2. Stop using colorful and rhetoric words to push people's buttons.
                     3. Schedule a social setting where food is served but don't expect solutions on the first try.
                    
I know this works because I wrote about a time where my company intentionally paired people that did not get along.
I swear.It wasn't unusual to hear them say,"you know.I was wrong.He's not so bad." 

Rebecca said...

It's nice to know that someone went out into the world today. =D Besides my ten year old's soccer game, we stayed at home and did "fix ups" around this house so that we could put it on the market.

Mike said...

Yea,the Commnity Center was also pretty busy .

I remember those days,kids games and weekend chores but I was too lazy,I sold my first house " as is."

Your house should go pretty fast in this seller's market...Did you find your big back yard?

Rebecca said...

Yes. I found a backyard and a pool! My mom needed to sell her house and we just so happened to be looking. ;)

Mike said...

The waste treatment site is another example of people talking past each other.

First a true story...I've never lived or had any reason to to really spend much in the present location except for one day....For those of you who have ever managed little league team,you know practice fields are a premium...We had to go a far as to have a player/student reserve the Stroman practice field by taking the catcher's equipment home and then beating everyone out of class and placing the gear on home plate until I got there with my duffle bag...First duffle bag gets the field....One day a rival team beat us to it,so i was about to cancel practice  a player told that he knew of a practice field by his house that was aways empty...I said fine and told the waiting parents to follow me to Hopkins school....We practiced for about 30 minutes before the smell from the sewage plant made it unbearable for us to continue.

I'm not a sewage plant expert but I believe in this day and age the smell problem has been conquered with new filters and chemical agents. If the chemical plants have done it,I see no reason one little sewage plant can't.

I don't have a problem with concerned citizens having their say but one poster poster wanted our paper to do a fishing expedition to prove his conspiracy. I don't know all the little details but the last two editions of the VA provided enough info for me....The Rangel situation  is for he for and her constituents to sort out and I can  separate the two. 

Legion said...

I agree on the sewer plant thing, although I think the city paid WAY to much for the land.

The article on the student loan debate cleared some things up. Only SUBSIDIZED Stafford loans taken out AFTER July 1 would be subject to the 6.8% interest rate, current subsidized loans will stay at 3.4%.

Current un-subsidized Stafford student loans already pay 6.8% interest. Student loans from non- government run programs pay more than 6.8%.

So basically the debate is about ending a subside.

If a student currently has a subsidized Stafford loan, their interest rate is NOT going to double on July 1, it will stay at 3.4%.

Legion said...

And the smell you smelled at Hopkins back then was most likely the landfill, which use to be where Dads RV Park is now...right across the street from the Boys and Girls Club.

Edith Ann said...

What folks are refusing to talk about in regard to the waste water treatment plant is that there was another site that was virtually identical to the chosen site and it affected less folks. The problem was, the land was not owned by the guy who owned the land at the chosen site. There is a reason that guy was in the middle. Sorenson, the oroginal owner, had an agreement with the Zoo that the city would never have the land.

Site #5 would have been a better choice. It meets the criteria of proximity to residences and being out of the flood plain. It runs off into a creek that runs off into a river. This is old Lone Tree theatre property, owned by the Frels family. It is roughly the same size as the site in question and the family, I understand, is willing to sell for the same price.

But, that choice would not have suited the city's plan. That land deal with the guy who bought it from Sorenson went down over a weekend. It was a funky deal from the get go, but it is what the former City Manager and the mayor wanted.

And why everyone is singing the praises of the Sugarland plant (runs off into a the mall parking lot) is a mystery--unless the city has quietly changed its mind, the plant they were going to model after was up around Georgetown or somewhere in that vacinity.

And remember--the administrative judge apparently felt the citizens had a legitimate beef about this. She, so far, has ruled in their favor.

Of course the City paid way too much for the land--that is the only way they know how to spend money. I'm anxiously awaiting the new restroom facilities in the Lone Tree park. $28,000.00 a seat...

Mike said...

I'm not much into conspiracy theories nor do I do know  the going price for a sewage plant but I do hope the concerned group gets their hearing and all parties come away satisfied.
I think they will when cooler heads prevail...After reading the two VA articles,I think this issue will be resolved.

As for the Sugarland runoff,is that something that can be corrected? I suspect it is.

Legion ,Now that I think about it,it probably was the landfill but it seems like you know that area pretty well..You have great recall.

You have your student loan facts right because a couple of weeks my children called to see what is all about and I came to the same conclusion.

Edith Ann said...

It's not conspiracy theory on what has happened so far. It is documented in City Council meeting minutes. The City sometimes forgets they leave a legal paper trail.

If the permit is denied, the citizens will be satisfied.

If the permit is granted, the City will be satisfied.

In either case, you have at least one very uphappy side.

The administrative judge has added to the pool of affected parties. That does not bode well for the City.

Seems like the Sugarland issue would be handled by the health depatment.