OMG….Don’t Let Me Become One of Them

I was pleasantly surprised when “Morning Joe," announced as part of their “In the News” segment that California overcame their financial doldrums and are now reporting a budget surplus. California also reported that the transition to the Affordable Care Act is helping the cause because that state’s insurance rates are decreasing. Some of my “Shirley Sherrod Democrats” will never spread the good news because they are always cautiously optimistic. I call them Shirley Sherrod Democrats because they quickly secede to the noise from the right wing. Republicans never worry about being wrong because they are never punished for it.  A good example of that is that every Republican will point to Texas as a model for job creation, and few will ever counter by saying that Texas is among the worst at providing education and health care.  Some Democrats are afraid of  saying that most of those positions Republicans are bragging about are low paying ones because they fear being labeled as being anti-business. 

Before I go too far, I want to remind those that don't know what I'm talking about when I label some Democrats,Shirley Sherrod Democrats. Shirley Sherrod was a former  State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture who was thrown under the bus by the Obama Administration for an edited video where she allegedly made some racist remarks.  What makes this case remarkable was the source.  The media took the word of a well-known right wing propagandist, the late Andrew Breitbart  and worse without so much of a thought, the administration sought and  received her resignation. 

Joe Scarborough, routinely scours the newspapers for a headline or story that sheds an unfavorable light on the Obama Administration and holds it up for the camera to zoom in on it.  This morning he tried to tie the administration to a insider information scandal because the administration is explaining their stance on upcoming  legislation to hedge fund managers..  Joe had to back off when Eugene Washington of the Washington Post said “ Joe, you can’t complain that the president is not business friendly and then accuse him of insider trading when he meets with them.”

I know that its damaging politically if all a sudden, Democrats start to side with the Internal Revenue in the upcoming congressional hearings, but they shouldn’t just form a coalition with a party who caters to government hating constituents.  I wasn’t at all surprised that Joe Scarborough didn’t mention a Sunday New York Times article that shed some new light on the IRS story. The article pointed out the legitimacy of the IRS scrutiny practices outside of profiling. It would be prudent of an IRS employee to Google the website of an applicant for a 501 (c ) (4 ) once it arrives at their desk for evaluation.

A poster, Rufus Diggs, did a lot to counter the letter submitted by Carleton K. Thompson Jr. who was trying to say that the president did not live up to the code of U.S. Military Academy's honor code.  Not only did the Carleton Thompson omit several administrations ,he left out the part where those military academies did not live up to their standards. It would take but a minute to Google “military academy+scandal”  to pull up several results but there no reason to do that. I believe most of know  that perfection does not exist in our galaxy and we don’t try to pretend it does. Mr. Thompson is certainly entitled to his opinion but the fact that he served in two different branches of the military doesn’t make him an expert on the administration's involvement in the so-called scandals.

Not much politics this weekend except that it was surprising to hear Chris Wallace criticizing  the president wanting to tamp down our efforts on the war on terror. The right has never figured out that you can’t have a war on a tactic. Mr. Wallace did not think 12 years of war was too much and pointed all years of us being in a Cold War with then the Soviet Union.  I had to laugh when Senator Lindsey Graham blurted out that President Obama was the most tone deaf Commander in Chief of all time because  he is weakening America’s national security and emboldening radical Islam by prematurely declaring a drawdown in the War on Terror. Senator Graham's veins were bulging, and his eyes were flaring as he was running through his laundry list of military actions the president must take.  I don’t think many people side with Senator Graham’s neoconservative penchant for a never-ending  war.