Frustrated!

Yesterday, the house easily passed a middle class tax cut bill for those making less than $250,000 and Saturday the senate will vote on four plans two by the democrats and two by the republicans, which have little chance of passing.  The senate democrats will vote on the house plan as is, and then vote on Senator Chuck Schumer's plan of raising the threshold to allow tax cuts to go to those making $1 million and below.  The republicans want to extend all the Bush tax cuts and will introduce a second bill to retain all the Bush tax cuts for three or four years.  I don't believe any of the plans will get the necessary votes to put the issue at rest.  Now that the dismal unemployment figures came out showing that employment has gone up to 9.8%, I think the White House will nervously extend all the tax cuts for a couple years, with a provision to extend unemployment benefits.  I still think that the president should have led on this, and not outsource the decision because this just reinforces the republican line, that this president is weak.  The polls show that Americans don't want the top 2% to have a tax cut and a little over 30% think that all the Bush tax cuts should expire.  Everyone knows where republicans stand, their firstborn child will learn the words "tax cuts and smaller government" before they say" mama or da da." The White House has to give its democratic leaders a plan and a direction that they can rally behind.  Right now, the leaders are like cornerbacks, with one- on- one coverage.

My man, host of MSNBC's Last Word, Lawrence O'Donnell, proved a point I was trying to make about a poster that thought it was OK for illegal immigrants that serve in a military to have an easier path to citizenship.  Lawrence's guest was Representative Steve King of Iowa, who has been known to say some outrageous racist statements on the house floor. He asked the congressman if an illegal alien died while he was in the military for our country; should he be granted citizenship.  Representative King said "YES" and Lawrence O'Donnell immediately lit into him, saying “if they die for this country, then representative King will grant them citizenship." He wasn't exaggerating because on April of 2003, US Senators Zell Miller and Saxby Chambliss introduced legislation to grant immediate citizenship to some immigrant soldiers who serve in the Gulf. But it will apply only to those who die in combat.  Oh, those generous compassionate republicans are something else...:-(

I can't wait to my favorite television shows come back, to relieve some of my frustration.  I'm anxiously awaiting the return of ""Blue Bloods" and "The Good Wife." Especially now that the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Longhorns and Houston Rockets are having dismal seasons.

I was surprised that the last blog I wrote wasn't met with a lot of negative comments. Even rollingstone agreed with parts of the blog and he inserted an interesting viewpoint.  I just read his comment about the media's role in exaggerating our state of the union and I agree totally.  Could this be a new turning point?  Perhaps, we were both too hard headed to reconcile our differences.  I'll give it another week or two before I give my final analysis...:-)