I don't do a lot of channel flipping; the television set stays on MSNBC, and I'm content with that. Last night,I got a healthy dose of clips of crazy things Michelle Bachman has said through the years. John McCain's former campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, brought everyone back down to earth by saying that the GOP now has a chance to win that district with a more reasonable candidate, and he’s right because Mitt Romney won that district by 15% points. I’ve come to respect Steve Schmidt because he’s a straight shooter.
There's nothing I like more than watching a good debate, and I was lucky enough to get one this morning. For the past week Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and whoever they had as guests (mostly journalists) got their turn to say how wrong it was for Eric Holder and the Justice Dept. to subpoena all those phone calls and emails to try to suppress the leaks. This morning the panel consisted of three journalists, Howard Dean and Joe and Mika. Howard Dean said he supported free speech, and he thinks that it was wrong for the Justice Dept.to take the steps they did but he said he doesn't feel sorry for the whining press.
Howard also said that the press uses unidentified sources, and journalists always state their opinion rather than just writing the facts. How often do we see a catchy headline, and then get disappointed because the article doesn't have any substantial facts? Joe Scarborough put on his political hat and said that the press can relentlessly go after a legislator and make their lives miserable using unnamed sources. One of the journalists agreed and said that his newspaper will stop using anonymous sources whenever possible. When the journalists saw that they were not going to get the free ride that they were accustomed to, they quickly changed their tone, and the conversation became informative. I've seen politicians completely change their demeanor when they're on Meet the Press from the one they show on Fox News.
Howard Dean explained the difference between a right winger and a conservative to Joe Scarborough. A conservative has a different point of view from a liberal, but it's based in logic, while a right winger is just a propagandist. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee is a conservative and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is a right winger.
I'm going to give you an opportunity to have another good laugh, Larry Marek. Your letter this morning puts you in the right-wing column. You called for Americans to wake up, but as usual, you stated what you are against but not what you are for or what will get this country moving in the right direction. Do you think a majority of Americans are worried about the government coming after their guns? Only about 30% of the population own guns (trending down) and about half of those agree with your concerns. Most of the people worrying are the ones hanging on to their jobs or looking for one.
The rest of us will reap the same misery, you say, you mean the 47% who voted for Romney knows best? Yesterday, we learned consumer confidence is up;home purchases are on the rise;automobile sales are up; the stock market is setting new records everyday but yes the misery is being felt by those whose wages have been stagnant for a long time. The GOP controls the House, but all they have done is repeal Obamacare (37 times) pass some abortion bills and yesterday; they renamed several post offices but for the most part, they passed bills that went to die in the Senate.
I think the 68,899,660 people (left wingers,progressives,liberals,Democrats and Independents) who voted for President Obama knew what his agenda was. The fact that he received 5 million more votes than Romney,332 electoral votes and 4% points more than his opponent was not a fluke. I don’t remember guns being mentioned on the campaign stump or in the presidential debates.
I think you should go to a PUBLIC LIBRARY and check out a good civics book. It might ease your fears, and you might discover how Congress has a role to play. For example, you say the president is cutting the military when he doesn’t have that power. The president can submit a budget, but they are usually dismissed. The fact is, Democrats would rather reduce defense spending than make drastic cutbacks on the social programs.
I can’t think of a remedy for your paranoia over gun-confiscation. If the fact that 90% of Americans favor a background check, and the United States Senate can’t garner 60 votes to pass a watered-down version doesn’t ease your fears; nothing will. On the other hand, more states are taking matters into their own hands without a nudge from the president.
Mr. Marek, after reading your many letters to our newspaper, I don’t doubt for a minute, that you are an avid viewer of the comedy channels.
8 comments:
There is nothing to allieviate Marek's fears--they are not based in any fact, so factual rebuttal won't work.
And as always, ignorance is a choice. It's so much easier to be smug (but very wrong) when you are ignorant and refulse to see and hear the truth.
Going off topic, I would suggest that since folks are so hot on drug testing welfare recipients, that we administer the U S Citizenship test if you want to own a gun. Fair is fair, right? That would bring that gun ownership number way down. And while we're at it, let's make all candidates for public office take the test. After they quote the 2nd Amendment and a few other parts of the Constitution, they would probably flunk the rest of the test. Doing this would get a whole bunch of the whack jobs out of the race.
Thanks for commenting EA because I was fixing to move on but your post inspired me.
I think the cartoon in our Advocate about a worker in a hazmat suit handing a letter to Mayor Bloomberg was distasteful..I don't see anything funny about sending a letter laced with ricin to an individual;an editorial condemning the practice would have been more appropriate.
I use cartoons to headline my blogs all the time but I would never use one that showed someone sending a ricin laced letter to Wayne LaPierre.
You know some of these people always call for Muslims to call out people of their faith when they commit terrorist. I don't think it's too much to ask of those who think that the government is coming after their guns ,to condemn the actions of the terrorist who sent those letters.
Do people really want those persons to own guns?
In the letter to Bloomberg,Obama and one other; the gun nut said that owning guns was a god given right embedded in the United States constitution and that he would shoot anyone in the face who tried to take his guns away from him. For one,the nut does not realize that the people he targeted will never read those letters first hand. He is endangering a low level employee who's job it is to screen the mail of elected officials.
Number 2,I don't know what god he worships who would approve of terrorism.
Number 3,show the evidence where the government is planning to confiscate guns. Alex Jones does not qualify.
The court in Florida just struck down GOP Gov. Rick Scott's plan to drug test all state employees just because they were public employees. It's an old outdated control issue that's based in a pre-Civil War mentality. We are seeing it in voter suppression laws, and drug testing for unemployment benefits and public assistance.
While I'm at it,President Obama's vacation time is becoming an issue on right -wing blogs and Facebook pages...Fair enough but one should ask the question," who paid for John McCain trip to Syria last weekend?Michelle Bachmann and others went to Russia and Senator Melendez was in Israel;tally up.
And the GOP wonders way they continue to lose the woman's vote It's agiven that they will continue to lose the minority vote..
"Lou Dobbs, Juan Williams, Erick Erickson and Doug Schoen caused a stir on Wednesday after they expressed utter horror at a study which showed that more and more women are the primary breadwinners in the home. Erickson even portrayed the trends as counter to biology itself, saying, "When you look at biology, look at the natural world, the roles of a male and a female in society, and other animals, the male typically is the dominant role."
Van Susteren took to her blog and did not hold back, writing,
"Have these men lost their minds? (and these are my colleagues??!! oh brother... maybe I need to have a little chat with them (next thing they will have a segment to discuss eliminating women's right to vote?)"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/greta-van-susteren-men-lost-minds_n_3365184.html
And it continues
Fox News co-host of"The Fives" said "American family is breaking down. Women are forced to go out, be the breadwinners for families. That's why the number's skewed higher not.
Here's another offshoot of that: If you are a single mom, breadwinner of the family, and you get pregnant, aren’t we pushing towards more abortions? It seems like we are.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/eric-bolling-abortion_n_3362653.html
There you go,that kind of bs appeals to the old geezers who watch Fox all their waking moments but a lot of working moms or single women will find that appalling.
Not to mention it is Mr. Marek's party that has embraced the tea party, thereby alienating independents, AND the Liberal side of the GOP.
They are the ones that keep choosing those who cannot win elections, to run against the Democrats. They are the ones that condone all of the policies the tea party is trying to shove down our throats.
Sarah Palin lost it for McCain, and it was all of the tea party nuts, and Romney himself, that lost it for them this time.
It has nothing to do with those who voted for President Obama. Their bad choices pushed voters toward President Obama.
It's true the Tea Party didn't like Romney and kept him from being the pragmatic moderate Republican that he was.
The voting supression laws in Ohio and Fla. backfired because the voters stood in line for 6 hours just to spite them.
When a party continues to lose the woman's vote by double digits,the black vote by 90%,the Asian vote by 72% and the Lationo vote 71%-27% ,they can't win national elections...just regional ones.
Lol...Rosalie Sykora, said President Obama couldn't get a Hoover Dam project going....That's right but it wouldn't be because he didn't want to and I don't think the EPA would get in the way....The GOP voted NO for stimulus and they continue to say NO for infastructure projects.
Again the House approximates the funds....Civics people.
Again, someone that doesn't know how the government works or who keeps blocking everything.
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