If you Have to Ask

The Question of the Day from our local newspaper was “ PRO-CON: "Should the Government Spy on Us?” I think the question was asked to stimulate a debate.

A local poster Jack Evony didn’t see it that way because he just wanted to know why the liberals weren’t complaining loud and long as they did when President Bush was using our surveillance systems. The poster hasn’t been watching Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and others complaining just as much as they did when the Bush administration was caught misusing the domestic surveillance systems.

I’m glad the president has nominated James Comey to be the new FBI director. “A decade ago, Comey threatened to quit the Justice Department over electronic eavesdropping. The former George W. Bush administration deputy attorney general, along with Mueller, threatened to resign March 11, 2004, because of legal concerns about central aspects of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee three years later.”

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/06/21/Obama-nominates-Comey-to-head-FBI/UPI-90111371808166/#ixzz2XAaVLiDr

Libertarians complained loudly back then, and they are doing the same under this administration.

Mr. Envony is not exactly correct when he says the Patriot Act was taken to a place where no one ever envisioned. I have to remind him that the Patriot Act did not allow our country to torture, run black sites or execute warrantless wiretapping. The Obama administration reined all those lawless tactics to comply with the FISA courts. Yes, surveillance has expanded to keep up with the technology that is now available. It is my opinion that the American public should have been more informed but that’s not to say that these programs weren’t run by several in Congress; several knew what was going on but they remained silent until now. Just last week, NSA held a meeting to explain their surveillance systems. All 100 senators were invited but only 47 of them showed up.

Where in the world did Jack get that the Boston Marathon bombing could have been prevented by using the Intel Russia gave us? The FBI did the best they could with the information they had. They had not forgotten that one of the suspects was a US citizen, and the other was a legal resident with due process rights. As I remember, the Russians provided hints about the older brother but when asked to elaborate, they didn’t respond. I think the FBI did a fantastic job of bringing the bombers to face justice in just five days.

The world has changed a lot since the Constitution was first written, but the principals remain the same. I think a lot of people realize that they have to give up a little of their freedoms for safety. I think we need to grow up and realize that other countries are spying on us, and we are doing the same to them. Occasionally, someone like Edward Snowden will get into systems where he has no business getting into and destroy the trust of our legal surveillance programs. I wonder if those who thought Snowden was a hero feel the same now that he has confessed that it was always his intention of collecting information on the NSA.

I remember when the first bailout took place, and the loud outcry from the public made the politicians vote against it. I also remember the immigration bill President Bush wanted to pass go down in flames because the right- wing jammed the White House switchboard. Citizens cannot complain and use the excuse of being powerless because if enough of you are against the surveillance powers of our government; your protest is just a phone call away.

Irreconcilable Differences

No,my wife and I are not getting a divorce but it’s getting harder and harder to reconcile my differences with my Republican friends.

Yesterday, as I was watching the IRS hearings, my mind was swirling, as I was trying to make some sense of what a few conservative witnesses were saying. The Tea Party witnesses were obviously political activists and not entitled to tax-exempt status, but one used the word tyranny to describe her dealings with the IRS, even thou she was not denied.. Another said “This dialogue is about the jackboot of tyranny upon the field of our founding documents," said Karen Kenny from the San Fernando [Calif.] Valley Patriots. Really,would the founders have approved tax-exempt status for political activism or for  keeping a donor’s name a secret? I’m sorry ,I’m going to save my tears for the single mom, holding down a couple of minimum wage jobs being told that her public assistance is being cut due to sequester cuts.The IRS hearing is just political theater because if they were serious, something would be done about the abuses of the intent of code. The issue of targeting has already been addressed and stopped but the real scandal of tax-exempt status abuse will continue.

Republicans are throwing out a new slogans to describe their obstructionists  practices.Mitch McConnell is saying that President Obama is creating a “culture of intimidation” as an excuse to do nothing. Senator Grassley is saying that the president is trying to “stack the court” by filling the vacant D.C. Circuit court’s vacancies. The president has a constitutional duty to appoint nominees to those positions. Truth is,the GOP is trying to eliminate the three vacant spots to keep the president from filling that lower court’s vacancies  because they want to stop his agenda.

Conservatives think that just because they are holding hearings;it  means that the parties they are investigating are guilty of something that will be proven  at a later date. Right now, they are trying to find the facts to fit the charges. As I was  looking through the right-wing blogs this morning;I found their latest outrage. On site posted “ the nerve of the president appointing Susan Rice to be the National security Adviser when she was part of the Benghazi scandal.” You see what I’m talking about? Susan Rice should get an apology from those who accused he of any wrongdoing but it’s another case of “we indict, you prosecute.” 

The Republicans, media and some Democrats are trying to make out like Senator Marco Rubio is an immigration guru and that any chance of bill getting passed has to meet his approval.  That's a bunch of hogwash, the bottle neck continues to be the far- right wing of his party. Senator Rubio, has to take a lot of hard-right  stances just to keep his credibility intact  with those folks. 

A lot of people are getting tired of the race- card being used, but it’s not as easy to dismiss it as it may seem. An example of that is being discussed on our on-line forum. The example in the story doesn’t have a definable use of racism because not much context was given. For one thing,signing in English or Spanish amounts to the same thing,so the attorney in question should have said “don’t forget to sign the Spanish version” and nothing would have been said.  Freudian slips of the tongue happen all the time, and unless you live in a glass house; you shouldn’t be casting stones.

Having said that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that a certain percentage of remarks against the president are racists ones.  Those are two separate subjects because on the latter, I have a lot substantial facts to back up my suspicions.  After all, I'm an old timer, and I've grown up with generational racism, so I know it when I hear or see it.Too many Republicans in high state offices and even federal judges had to step down because of racist emails. I even heard a congressman yell out “you lie” at the State of the Union and have read about racists remarks made towards the first lady.  

We have to come together and condemn the actions of the two Jasper,Texas cops who beat a black woman's head against a desk in trying to subdue her. Yes,this is the same town where two white men chained a black man to their pickup and dragged him for miles which led to his eventual death.There's a video tape of the incident but no audio.  It doesn't matter what the lady said or how much she resisted arrest because this all stemmed from a $150 traffic ticket. The policemen were fired and the charges were dropped but the city of Jasper will pay dearly. It's incidents like these that keep the race card alive. 

There's a time and a place for everything and sometimes it takes a moment of spontaneous action to drive home a point. Yesterday,Michelle Obama faced-down a heckler by meeting her head-on and giving the crowd a choice of who to listen to. The crowd chose Michelle but the heckler was given her right to free speech. That's a once in a lifetime opportunity for Michelle but it will give the next heckler something to think about.


The country is changing fast, and a lot of old-timers are not adapting to it very well. After thirty years of Reaganism, they now see “don’t ask don’t tell” being repealed, a Massachusetts liberal as the secretary of state, a Republican turncoat heading up the defense department,  and a black president and a black Atty. General. I’m not being too hard on my old Republican friends because that’s exactly what the people inside the party are saying. That’s the reason some are talking about a tyrannical government and a need to be armed to the teeth. It used to be that they could take out their frustrations at the ballot box but that no longer is a given. I remember when I was a blogger at the VA, I could never get my opponent  to agree that we have a multicultural country. I think when we agree on that;the rest will fall in place.

Post Mortem Myths

Howard Weise's letter -to- the- editor gave me what I've been wanting for. He wrapped up all the republican talking points in one neat package. He represents how most republicans think from what I gather. I'm in Howard’s corner and I hope he keeps believing what he's writing because it only means that his party will continue to lose presidential elections. Republicans have not received 51% of the votes since 1988.

He titled the letter "Democrats want us dependent on government." I don't think Mr. Weise is ready to give up his Social Security and Medicare and I seriously doubt if a tornado struck Yorktown, he would refuse help from FEMA. The appropriate title would have been “Democrats are not anti- government.” As it is right now, Democrats will fight to keep the entitlements and the safety net and Republicans will fight for tax cuts for the rich and a healthy defense budget.

Mr. Weise used the same talking points what some diehard republican legislators have been saying for the past four years “we have a spending crisis not a revenue crisis.” They believe the GOP didn't need to pay for the two wars or the prescription drug bill which is 60% of our deficit. I don't know if Mr. Weise  knows that Present Obama can't spend a dime that the GOP controlled House of Representatives doesn't appropriate.

I have never heard a democrat say that taxing the rich would balance the budget  or solves our deficit and debt problems; that's the enablers spin. Democrats realize that we have to cut spending but they can't look their constituents in the eye and tell them “we're going cut your unemployment benefits, entitlements or welfare but we're not going to ask anything of the rich.” It's a last gasp effort to try to convince anyone that the tax rates for the rich do not need to go up. We had an election where the president ran on keeping Bush tax cuts for 98% of Americans and raising the rates on the top 2%. Right now, 67% of Americans does not want Congress to mess with Medicare or Social Security. That old Reagan philosophy of cutting out loopholes, broadening the base and cutting taxes has run its course.

Today our jobs deficit trumps our budget deficit, so that's the reason the president is asking for extra stimulus.

Did you notice where Mr. Weise  uses the old GOP talking points “makers and takers” and conveniently uses the recipients of Medicaid and unemployment benefits as a scapegoat? Its voters like Mr. Weise, that Mitt Romney's 47% comment appealed to. He doesn't realize students, the elderly, the returning vets, and those who were laid off took offense to those statements. I know Mr. Weise's, he's not a rich man and he's probably in the 47% but hasn't done the math.

The letter writer wonders why the president was reelected. It's true unemployment was at 7.9% but people knew what the president inherited, and they knew how the GOP obstructed his efforts every chance they could. The GOP had a clown show in the primaries and the person they elected to run against the president did not have core beliefs. The rhetoric from Mitt Romney and his party alienated women and minorities. The voter suppression laws enacted by GOP governors angered some voters who were going to stay home. One of Mitt Romney's biggest mistakes was not giving specifics. He assured us of 12 million jobs and a 20% tax cut but didn't say how he was going to do it. The days when you can say you are a small government conservative, thinking that will carry the day, are long gone because the people they have alienated; vote.

I'm thinking that Congress will go past deadline that keep us from going over to the so- called fiscal cliff because the republicans know the tax rates on the rich have to be raised. They would rather the president and his party allow them to expire, so they don't have to try to defend holding the tax cuts for 98%, hostage, so the top rates stay the same. Neither party wants to cut Medicare because of the consequences. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell want the Democrats to name the specific cuts in Medicare so they can use it against them; as they tried to do in the election. Neither party is that interested in the deficit or they would let the entire Bush tax cuts expire. Raising the debt limit is the only leverage the GOP has and they know it. That's the reason they are posturing and grabbing the nearest microphone to put the best spin on it. Speaker Boehner can't cut a deal until after January 3, 2013 because that's the day that his party votes to retain him or go with someone else. He can’t do anything to anger the Tea Party caucus.... just yet.

I'm not picking on Howard Weise because he's pretty typical of all the republicans I know. He's typical of those republicans you engage with on Facebook, on the streets or the local forum. Their party didn't do anything wrong in 2008 or 2012, those 332 electoral votes and the 63,742,092 people who voted for Obama just wanted free stuff. You keep believing that; and every four years Howard will write his same letter and watch as another democrat gets sworn in.

A local Renter v Landlord Dispute

Without taking sides in the local renter vs. landlord dispute, I can say that Mr. Huffmaster should not be allowed to rent this particular trailer, because of the  condition it is in. The shoddy wiring I've seen on our local evening news is a fire hazard waiting to happen. We have laws to protect us from restaurant's operating in unsanitary conditions; an unsafe unlivable environment should be treated the same.

I've never been a landlord, but I know many who are, so I'm not completely in the dark about their concerns. I know that renters will ruin a carpet in a short period of time, damage the walls and put more wear and tear on the housing unit than the landlords can deduct on their income tax. Victoria's housing shortage allows them to raise their rent in a true supply and demand scenario, this allows them to recoup some losses from previous years.The housing shortage will go away but I seriously doubt the rents will come down accordingly.

I've had a chance to be a landlord a couple of times in my life;once when my mother left us her home and the other when I sold my first home.  I declined both times because I would have to hire someone to make the needed repairs but most of all because I didn't want the responsibilities that came with a good renter/landlord relationship.

Some will say that renters have the trump card because of the current laws of eviction notices, moving out without paying, and leaving more damage than what they paid in rent payments. That may all be true but in today's market, the landlord can afford to be more choosy and doesn't have to put up with as much because the renter doesn’t  have a lot of options. The better apartment units will investigate the renter's credit and renting history before they allow them to move in.

Donna Carr's history is none of my business, but I do sympathize with her plight. It's not hard for me to feel sympathetic for someone living with breast cancer and caring for a granddaughter with only $739 in monthly income. A local poster noticed that she had a cigarette in her hand and quickly calculated the cost of the habit of smoking and its health effects. I think that comment was more of a lecture coming from someone who thinks being poor is always preventable. From what I've seen, a cigarette might be the only gratifying thing this grandmother has, and she can't be spending too much on the habit, being she only has $739 coming in.

I liked the comment about 49% of Victoria's renters not being able to afford what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers a modest two-bedroom apartment. Whoever did the numbers didn't account for the housing shortage or scrupulous landlords. From what I've seen, paying $450 a month for that the double-wide trailer, the government is once again getting ripped off.

I guess this one story is ending well since the grandmother, and granddaughter have found a new four-year-old mobile home they will rent to own. On the other side, the landlord gets his wishes because his nemesis is leaving. I'm sure he didn't think he would get all the negative publicity or be ordered to fix the electrical wiring issue in 10 days.