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.

Saturday Morning Rant

There are a lot of people on the right  like Janeal Jackson of Goliad, who would like us to accept the court’s decision in the George Zimmerman trial and move on, but first we need to accept their version of the facts.

Mr. Jackson wrote a letter- to- the- editor titled “Liberals focus on the wrong issues in society” which echoes the sentiments of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and other right-wing conservatives. It’s a message that says that race relations start in the Chicago inner cities which is 1800 miles away from Sanford, Florida. That way the fact that Mr. Zimmerman was not arrested until 44 days after he killed Trayvon and the previous racial tensions in Sanford won’t ever be discussed. It’s a standoff, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will always be activists and conservative pundits will take the other side. Who are we fooling?

The letter writer says that our president is the biggest race problem that we have today. So, voter suppression laws, hateful rhetoric, misinformation and self-righteous attitudes are not a problem!

The president spoke after the shootings in Aurora, Tucson, and Newtown but he’s supposed to remain silent after the news of the killing of an unarmed black kid made the national news! I hope that I continue to live in a country when we take notice, anytime an unarmed teen ager gets killed by an armed adult.I don't want it swept under the rug.

Education is indeed a big problem but it had nothing to do with the killing of Trayvon Martin. Why isn’t income inequality ever mentioned as a problem by the right?

The Congressional Black caucus spent two days in Chicago last week discussing the gang problem but only CNN, NPR and MSNBC covered it.

I like it when conservatives preach education, reducing crime and using the military to crack some heads but continue to slash money for teachers, police, and programs to feed and teach the young students. Remember when they said that sequester cuts wouldn’t hurt anything? How are we going to pay for the military troops Jackson wants to use?

I’m a proud liberal, who likes the fact that my party stands on the side of marriage equality, a woman’s right to choose, and a comprehensive immigration bill that will benefit our national economy. I will never see how tax cuts for the rich will ever help the middle class.

I would like for Mr. Jackson to produce one document that shows that terrorists are entering this country every day.

Talking points are supposed to be used for a gotcha moment or when the facts don’t fit your rhetoric but in the case of Mr. Jackson and others of his ilk; it’s all they have.

It’s funny, after losing the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, people like Jackson still thinks his views are the majority. The president received 5 million more votes than Romney and congressional Democrats received a million more votes than the GOP, so don’t let the Gerrymandered election results fool you Mr. Jackson .We have 50 states in the union.