It’s All How You Phrase It

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Rick Santorum, quickly blamed the Obama Administration for us being on high alert because al Qaeda thinks we are weak. Did al Qaeda respect our strength on 9/11? This must have been the GOP message of the day, because Jim DeMint used the same phrase on Fox News Sunday until Howard Kurtz corrected him by saying that Obama never flew a banner on an aircraft carrier declaring, “Mission Accomplished.” The president said that the main leaders of the old al-Qaeda had been killed, and the ones left are on the run. The president certainly knew that offshoots were springing up, and we still had to be wary.He gets a Presidential Daily Briefing.

Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday tried to get some answers from Eric Cantor, but the smooth-talking politician stayed on message. Chris kept asking Mr. Cantor for the reason the House voted to repeal all or some parts of Obamacare 40 times knowing it was not going anywhere. Chris could’ve asked him why his party keeps defunding ACORN (13 times) when it has been out of existence for three years. All Eric Cantor could offer is that the House would exchange the sequester cuts for more cuts elsewhere, and his immigration plan would allow the children of the undocumented to remain but their parents have to go.

The GOP is doing the same thing they accuse Nancy Pelosi of when she said, “We have to pass the health-care bill so that you can find out what is in it.”The right-wing went nuts thinking she meant to just blindly pass health care reform. Poorly worded I admit but she meant that legislation like health care would most certainly need some tweaks after its passage. The GOP is advocating repeal Obamacare, “yada yada yada,”but they don’t say what they will replace it with. In two months, the new enrollees will finally have health insurance. Will the GOP do away with the pre- existing clause, tell those people they are no longer enrolled but most importantly do they have a plan of undoing Obamacare without hurting those who are receiving benefits from the law?


The Internet certainly can be an equalizer and a great research tool, but it certainly helps to know history. For example, some still equate the 1950 Democrats to the 2013 Democrats. The pre- civil rights Democrats are the southern Republicans of today.It was the northeastern liberal Republicans who helped the non-southern Democrats pass the civil rights legislation. The parties have switched sides and ideology. The modern Republican Party is struggling over whether to embrace its libertarian (tea party) roots or their more moderate one. They still have a simple unifying message of, cuts and more spending cuts, less regulation and no tax increases.

Carefully worded phrases, talking points or whatever you want to call them, are merely selling points or deflection tactics, but they don’t ever solve any issues. The old try and fail method is usually what works because we learn from our mistakes. How many times have circumstances beyond our control derailed our best plans? Again, if we had that perfect economic philosophy, we would continue to use it but we don’t.

I’ve been criticized many times for repeating talking points and being partisan, to which I don’t deny because once you get to my age, you pretty much know what you believe, like and don’t like. I don’t think I have to get my news from NPR in order to be credible on a subject. During the day, during the week, during the month, I’ll pick up bits and pieces of information from all sources, so it’s likely I’ll repeat something as though it originated in my head. There are also times that I form my own opinions, which are neither conservatives or liberal in a traditional sense.

Another (*yawn) Sunday Talk Show Roundup

Ed Schultz, said that the four talk show discussions took 193 minutes and of that, only 7 minutes were used to talk about jobs. That’s unless you count repealing Obamacare as a job-creation  plan like the Republicans.

I can’t tell  you what Meet the Press was about because David Gregory was all over the map. I was surprised that women do not want the government giving them equal pay- for- equal work; according to Representative Marshall Blackburn of Tennessee.

Fox News Sunday was about Chris Wallace encouraging the GOP to charge Eric holder with perjury.  Later in another segment, Chris was surprised when Laura Ingraham and Evan Bly didn’t  want  to go into Syria and dispose President Bashar Al-Assad. Laura said we should have learned from our mistake of invading Iraq. The joke is on us because we have just learned that China will make a fortune on Iraq’s oil. The invasion of Iraq benefited Iran and China, but Fox is consumed with the three so-called scandals and getting involved in another war.

This week with George Stephanopoulos, was by far the best talk show this past Sunday.  You know, if I were Karl Rowe and the GOP, I would encourage investigating the facts, but I would refrain from preaching. Karl Rowe is comfortable spreading his lies on Fox News because he has no one to challenge him.  Yesterday, he met his match with Arianna Huffington and David Plouffe.  Karl Rowe is a pathological liar, and he’s perfected it with a lot of practice. He was prepared when Arianna accused the group he was associated with, Crossroads GPS of manipulating their tax -exempt status.  Karl made the mistake of trying to take the high- road because it doesn't take a genius to bring out the abuses of the Bush administration. David Plouffe reminded Karl that the Bush administration IRS audited the NAACP because of what the then leader said about the war in Iraq. David also reminded Karl about the firing of all of the U.S. attorneys for political reasons and the actions of Alberto Gonzalez and Andy Card when they went to the sickbed of the Atty. General to try to get him to sign- off on an illegal spying program. The look on Karl Rowe’s face(after being fact checked by Plouffe and Huffington)  was priceless;he looked like the cat who just got caught eating the canary. 

I did hear of a novel idea to fund an infrastructure project.  A  legislator is trying to create a bill for American corporations who are participating in tax shelter schemes overseas. The bill will give them a chance to do something patriotic.  The legislation would try to  persuade them to invest in low interest tax -exempt bonds to fund our needed infrastructure.  We already have a plan to put up the first one trillion dollars, but it needs to be passed by Congress.

A Weekend Roundup of the Sunday Talk Shows

David Gregory host of "Meet the Press" did his homework and it showed.  He blindsided Mitch McConnell  by producing  a tape from 25 years ago that showed that early in his career the senator believed that such groups -- on the left and the right -- should be subjected to tougher scrutiny. these were his words back then “ Early in his Senate career, however, the Kentucky Republican seemed to believe that such groups -- on the left and the right -- should be subjected to tougher scrutiny"There are restrictions now on the kinds of activities that, for example, 50(c)(3) and (4) organizations,charitable organizations, can engage in that are being abused -- not just people on the right, but most of the so-called charitable organizations who are involved in political activity in this country, who are, in my judgment, involved in arguable violations of their tax-free status and violations of the campaign laws, happen to be groups on the left." Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell was over matched and visibly angry that he was ambushed like that. I was surprised when Mitch McConnell agreed with the actions the Justice Department took to go after leakers.

David Gregory was not through, he then challenge the words of Peggy Noonan by saying “Peggy Noonan, you wrote something that struck me in your column on Friday. I want to ask you about it. "We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has gone from sketchy to sinister. They don't look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the President enjoyed is gone." I have to say, Peggy, what you don't talk about here is an administration for a man that you worked for, who led the Iran-Contra scandal with Iran, the secret war, and lied to Congress and all the rest. Overstatement here?” She was dumfounded and squinched  looking for an answer and then he asked the same of Bob Woodward, who continues to play both sides of the fence depending on what network he is on. Bob Woodward is showing his age and his  Watergate claim to fame is quickly vanishing.

Fox News Sunday was just an extension of a GOP strategy meeting.  Chris Wallace did his part by asking White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer questions about the president's whereabouts when  Benghazi was being attacked.  I did notice that not one question was asked  about the role that President Bush appointee ,Doug Shulman,played in all of this.  In fact I didn’t  hear any republican mention Doug Shulman. They were on message by saying that" how can you trust the IRS to manage its function in Obamacare  when they can't even manage the nonprofits? "

When someone is locked into their frame of mind, logic doesn't stand a chance.  People like Chris Wallace, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Bob Woodward, Peggy Noonan, are hung up on when the president knew the details of the events that transpired.  The obvious answer is that there is no correct answer because when the president said he learned about them by reading the newspaper, it gave fodder to his enemies.  They can say that he's lying, disengaged, or incompetent.  After Watergate,  Congress made sure that the Internal Revenue and the Justice Dept. would operate without input from the White House.  If the president said  that he learned about it during the political campaign; his enemies would have accused him of using his influence to get the outcome he wanted or to postpone the findings until after the elections.  Darryl Issa, knew that the Inspector General was in the process of auditing the IRS and decided to wait on the results before responding, as did the White House.

I think the IRS could solve the abuse of the 501(c ) (4 ) by using the structure that’s used for deducting contributions, and the criteria used on other forms  where income phase outs are used. Let’s set the social welfare requirement at 90% and ask the applicants to report their total income and percentage used for social welfare, naming the organization, address, the amount donated, dates and require a receipt.  The receipt doesn't have to be presented unless audited.  That puts the onus on the applicant and not the Internal Revenue.





This is picture is Hillary pictured with her dear friend, the late Ambassador Stevens .....,Mr. Bankston.Your words were irresponsible,political, and stupid  “Perhaps if Clinton's daughter decided to follow mom's footsteps and become a foreign service agent and was posted in an unfriendly country, Hillary would understand exactly how it matters. Nah, that won't happen."
Carl Bankston, Victoria

The Sunday Talk Shows

All the talk shows minus Fox centered on gun control issues, Obama's first 100 days of his second term, the immigration standoff, Syria, and Al Qaeda and its relationship to the Boston marathon bombers. Fox News Sunday continued with their obsession over Benghazi. The conservative broadcast station wants to find that smoking gun that pins the first scandal on President Obama.

As it is every Sunday, conservative republicans outnumbered the democrats as guests. Republicans are allowed to continue pushing their background check talking points without opposition. They continue to say background checks would not have prevented Sandy Hook, without a Democrat saying that it's about the past shootings and future ones and not only about Sandy Hook. The tragedy that took place in Sandy Hook was the basis for a call to action. There are not enough people on the left who will stand up and say that background checks is merely the starting point and work towards an agreement from that point of view. This argument started with a watered down background check bill and will only get passed in the House after it's weaken even further. Everything is being played on the GOP's home turf because this tactic of governing as though you've won the last two elections seems to be working for them.

The hosts and guests all agreed that the president is off to a shaky start but they also had to admit that he has a lot of tools at his disposal to be considered irrelevant. I think President Obama is playing the long game; losing some battles along the way to win the war.

The base of the GOP has already gotten over the shock of losing two consecutive presidential elections, so they don't feel a need to change their views. They still believe that a policy that does not deport 11 million people who are here illegally is indeed amnesty. The base would rather that the 30 GOP governors impose some more voting repression laws instead. Despite what Senator Rubio says, they know that if the immigrants become citizens, most of them will vote for Democrats and the win will go to the president. The Senate would have to pass a bill with at least 75 vote margin to have any king of leverage on John Boehner and the Tea Party coalition.

Republican representative, Tom Cotton of Arkansas didn't waste any time on Meet the Press to go after what he perceives to be a weak president in Barrack Obama. He continues to talk about the five attacks on the homeland since the president was elected. That's what's wrong with a Sunday's talk show where no one wants to confront a controversial person or subject because of a national audience. Tom Cotton, Peter King, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz don't mind saying controversial things because their base eats it up. Let's take the misfits who wanted to blow up the Sears building in Chicago. In reality they couldn't find Chicago using a GPS, the same goes for the Manhattan bomber who locked himself out of his car and couldn't ignite gasoline. Timothy McVeigh and the terrorist who hijacked the airplanes to attack our country are the real deal and not be put into the same category as the losers and wannabe jihads. I don't know where to put one of the Boston Marathon bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his three friends who tried to dispose vital evidence. I do think that they should all be tried in a Federal court and be punished accordingly. Dzhokhar was obviously brainwashed by his older brother but there's still not any evidence that shows he was affiliated with a radical Islamic group. I think a Congressional hearing on the events that led to the bombing is in order.

The GOP controlled House will hold another of many Benghazi hearings because they think the whistleblowers will shed some more light on the horrific event eight months ago. Supposedly the whistleblowers were threatened by the State Dept. to withhold crucial testimony. I'm pretty sure that the government gave a stern warning to the employees, as any large bureaucracy would. We'll see what it amounts to. For example, I imagine a petrochemical company would warn an employee about his testimony to the EPA. The Republicans remind me of what the democrats had to go through to get classified and non-classified 9/11 documents from the Bush White House. Yesterday, the GOP guest on Fox News was complaining of the State department looking over their shoulder as they looked over documents. The State Dept. probably remembers how Sandy Burger tried to stick documents in his socks a few years back.

I think Cokie Roberts hit the nail on the head when she said “there are a lot of people criticizing the president because he's not intervening in Syria but they don't really offer an alternative because there's not a good one.” Oh sure, now that Israel has struck the Syria a couple times people like John McCain can mock our current military leaders for their reluctance to set up a no-fly zone because  of  Syria's air defense system. I'm pretty sure the president regrets his “Red Line” statement but I seriously doubt that it weakens our country if we don't follow up on our threats. It's like a 6'5” 365 pound who gives you a stern warning but some reason choose not to beat you beat you up at the moment. Does a 5' 0” 110 pound person really feel emboldened after that or does he consider himself lucky?