The End of Liberalism …NOT!

Conservatives like Joe Scarborough, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and others are using the troubles of the Affordable Health Care Act to push their message that liberalism and government does not work. In their minds, the two go together as a package.

The Republican Conservative machine like Fox News, talk radio, Frank Lutz and politicians are spearheading this message, not your FB Republicans, relatives, or tea party uncle, because they are merely parroting what they hear.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because if they can get elected based on being anti- government, everything they do to disrupt government progress is a plus. They run on a platform of smaller government and never on efficient government. For example, the FDA may be undermanned but TSA may have too many people working for them. I’ve always found that 16 intelligent gathering agencies make them less efficient.

It’s worth mentioning again, Conservatives are great campaigners, but they suck at governing because it goes against their principles. Their main goal is less government and more free market, but they just want government to protect our country and deliver the mail. They’re doing everything possible to take mail delivery away from them. If that’s the case do we need all those congressmen? The non-libertarian conservatives do want big government when it comes to social issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

We should never underestimate conservatives because they wake up, eat their breakfast cereal, drink their cup of coffee and their minds instantly switches into gear thinking of ways they can indoctrinate the whole country. They eat, sleep and drink this ideology, and it’s as much of them as their religion is. Joe Scarborough is a great example of this, just this morning he introduced Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia as being a great conservative model despite the fact that the governor is mired in a bribery scandal.

On the other hand, Liberals/Progressives do think that government has a role to play, but they’re more compromising. For example, the public option and single payer were not a viable option in the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. They settled for universal health care using expanded Medicaid and private insurance companies. Liberals/Progressives do take a firm stance against the voucher system, whether it be in education or Medicare because they see it as a first step toward privatization. I’ve always said that government is the equalizer.

It’s getting a bit confusing because conservatives of all stripes are trying to take the dominant position of the political party they chose to participate in. The old established Republicans talked of small government but expanded the defense department. The new tea party Republicans wants smaller government, but their method puts a choke hold on growth.

Right now, there’s a total distrust in government; unfortunately that will eventually lead to economic failure. Is that the goal of conservatism?

Don’t Do It Texas!

I usually ignore fringe political candidates because they don’t generally get elected. Texas has more than its share of far- right politicians, and we now have one at the state/national level in Ted Cruz. I hope we don’t double down by electing David Barton to unseat Senator John Coryn. I’m certainly not a fan of John Cornyn, but if it’s a choice between him and David Barton; I’ll campaign for John Cornyn.



David Barton is a frequent guest on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze show; that alone should tell you something. Mr. Barton says he is a Christian historian but is known to make things up. This is how he ties abortion to climate change. For some reason, God spends an awful lot of time worrying about Republican politics.

“1. America voted in politicians who support abortion rights.
2. In so doing, we “opened the door to the curse,” which includes floods, tornadoes, murder and pedophilia.
Back in the days of early America, Barton explained, if crazy weather was happening, the first thing leaders would do is “call for a national day of repentance, humiliation, fasting and prayer … and today we’re saying, ‘Oh no, it’s global warming.’”
In reality, he said, “We opened a door that lost God’s protection over our environment and that’s our choice.”

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/04/potential_senate_candidate_david_barton_explains_how_abortion_caused_climate_change/

Senator John Cornyn seat won’t be up for another year but it’s better to nip it at the bud.

I’ll be watching the Alabama’s congressional race where an establishment
Republican governor is getting challenged by a Tea Party/birther (whose hero is Ted Cruz) named Dean Young. It’ll be a test as to whether ideology will trump common sense. The other test will be in Virginia where the Democrat will likely win.

I used to dismiss all the nonsense but Colorado will have a secession initiative on the ballot tonight.

Our newspaper ran an editorial condemning David Dewhurst for his talk about impeaching President Obama, but I wish they would have included some other Texas legislators for doing the same such as our own Blake Farenthold.

When is a Lie a Lie?

A journalist went through the archives and pulled out 26 occasions where President Obama said that if you’d like your health-care plan and your doctor, you could keep them. The main stream media jumped on the White House surrogates with gotcha questions. It was the same way for the IRS investigations and the latest NSA snooping allegations; “what did the president know and when did he know it?"

The president’s supporters should probably admit that his words should’ve been more precise and they should have included a disclaimer. Hindsight is always 20/20. The president should go around the country and apologize for his misleading statements but also use the opportunity to explain how the exchanges will be better than the junk policies they now have. The administration should drop a line that it will only affect 5% of the policy owners because that amounts to about 14 million people, so there’s no real way to sugarcoat it. The disastrous rollout of the website exacerbated the situation because the millions of people with canceled policies were are not able to choose a better plan.

The president’s detractors are overjoyed with the disastrous website roll out because they hated Obamacare all along. Where were the crocodile tears for people losing their healthcare prior to 2010? Where is the alternative plan that will keep the goodies in Obamacare and expand coverage to the millions of people who currently do not have health coverage? I heard one right wing pundit complaining about losing their freedom to have junk policies. Then he complained about how the subsidies are costing the taxpayer’s money. The lack of quality coverage (junk polices) and the use of the emergency room are costing taxpayers money. This group is getting all the political play they can out of the president’s words, which they deem lies. Rush Limbaugh said the president’s words were Nixonian.

I don’t think the private sector can afford to implement universal health care. We are one of the few industrialized countries to use the market place. If Obama care is going to work, the individual mandate is a must because insurance companies have to offset their costs from the people with preexisting conditions with those of young people who don’t normally get sick. As I recall the public option or single payer universal health care didn’t have a seat at the table during the negotiations.

I also think that health insurance companies don’t like the individual plans and are looking for ways to get out of them because they don’t produce the profits they want. It’s the same way for companies who are now weighing the difference between the penalty and providing health care coverage for their employees. You can blame Obamacare but that would be a lie.

The president’s enemies are using a narrative that Obama is out- of –the- loop or he’s lying when he says he did know anything about the IRS scandal that never materialized. Rather than to go into a lot of detail, it’s well known that the original charges did not have any basis because not one conservative group was denied a 501( c)(4) but several liberal groups were. The real story was the abuse of that particular code.

The recent NSA revelations brought out a new reason to think that the president was either lying was not inquisitive enough to know what’s going on and plausible deniability was never considered. I don’t know enough about what NSA is doing to come up with a reasonable explanation and that’s the way should be. I’ve known for decades that NSA was gathering information wherever it could. We started snooping on our allies in 2002; at least, that’s what’s on the record. I don’t know, but I believe it’s helpful to know why Germany did not join us when we were removed Omar Qaddafi or to what extent Israel might go in attacking Iran. I think it’s pretty naïve to presume they’re not spying on us. The NSA got caught, the president has egg on his face, and the rest is guesswork.

Lessons Learned in Arguing With Conservatives

The first thing I learned was that I was going to need a lot of patience because we were going to go down many rabbits trails before we got to the main topic. I knew I was going to have to take a lot of name calling, sift through the exaggerations, and  I needed to try and calm down my angry opponent. That’s right, I’m satisfied with the last two presidential elections and my opponent is not. An angry person is not likely to make much sense until they cool down.

The conservative is likely to be a Ronald Reagan or a Ron Paul disciple, so they come into the argument with an idea that they are superior and if things somehow don’t go their way, then the system had to be rigged. They seem to think that President Obama couldn’t possibly get those millions of votes legitimately, so he would had to entice his constituents with government goodies. There’s no other possible explanation.

In the VA’s thread titled “America is ineptocrasy not democracy’ “the right-wing commenters wanted to make it about “makers and takers” and they got upset when other posters did not want to follow that storyline. They want to control the dialogue using their talking points rather than facts from reliable sources.

I had to sit patiently while my conservative opponent went through his monologue where he would call the president a socialist, tyrant, illegitimate, or the latest thing he heard from talk radio. I knew that I would be wasting my time trying to refute all those false claims, so I sat there and" bit my tongue" until we could get to the issues. It’s a rope- a- dope tactic.

If we were arguing in front of an audience, my conservative opponent would put on a show, by wildly exaggerating all his points. I had to carefully phrase my opinions and points, so he didn't mock my answers as much, since we are not having a formal debate. A good example is the last comment in the “Voter ID Law No problem in Crossroads” thread where a poster stated “Did you bother to read the article? “The voter ID law hasn't presented any problems. The gloom and doom stories were just that, stories?” The poster doesn’t know that’s such a small sample, that it is not representative sample that we can rely on but he thinks we can’t read.

The conservative is not dumb, but you have to keep repeating the facts that you got from reliable sources because they won’t sink in the first, second or even the third time around. For example, many have moved off the IRS non scandal because there were not enough facts to support their conspiracy, so it quickly became not a matter of concern. Benghazi is still alive to them because they think there are still pieces of evidence around to bring down the Obama Administration or to weaken Hillary Clinton in her presidential run. The Republicans have not come up with any meaningful legislation, so this is all they have to cling to.

Today, the GOP is on a “what did the president know and when did he know it?” strategy. Yesterday’s congressional hearing about the disastrous rollout of the Healthcare.gov website, there were  more questions and statements about the president’s promise that people could keep their crappie insurance policies if they wanted to. It’s too late in the game for the GOP to start playing the “I feel your pain” game because everyone is aware that they have never cared about universal affordable health care.

There’s a Obama Derangement Syndrome Epidemic in the GOP

We are approaching Halloween so Larry Marek wrote another scary letter “President Obama is intentionally ruining America” but as usual, he doesn’t tell us how or what his solutions are. He says that left wingers will reap the same agony as anyone else but isn’t that always the case; regardless of ideology? He states that he is not a Republican or Democrat, but he’s definitely not a Democrat; and that leaves what? He says, “It’s your choice.”Huh?

I can understand Larry being confused. What type of Republican is up in the air because he has a few choices these days? Is he a mainstream Republican who believes what is reported on ABC news, or is he an avid Fox news believer? Wait, he has another option, he can be a Glenn Beck (The Blaze/ info wars) Republican. The GOP is split but they agree on two things; equal hate for Obamacare and President Obama himself.

Larry, you complain about the Obama Administration  not being transparent, yet you preach gloom and doom, so how did you acquire all your information? You are very transparent. You don’t like Muslims because it would be reprehensible if the president of United States belonged to that religion. You find it distasteful, that a college graduate would help people of the poorer south side of Chicago and all this time I thought it was a Christian deed. He was also a college constitutional professor at the University of Chicago before he became a state senator and then a United States senator. Ordinarily, that would be an impressive resume.

This morning, Joe Scarborough tried to make his show all about President Obama either being out -of -touch or a liar with nothing in between. Joe Scarborough reminds me of people like Larry Marek who won’t be satisfied until everyone has the same contempt for the president as he does.

The latest criticism about Obamacare seems to be about the president promising everyone that if you liked your healthcare plan, you could keep it. Joe Scarborough is trying to make the case that the president intentionally lied. I never paid much attention to those words because like 80% of other Americans, I won’t be enrolling in Obamacare. Joe had Lisa Meyers on, who had written an article that stated “50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a ‘cancellation’ letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience ‘sticker shock.” Joe got upset when one of his guests said it was more of an upgrade than it was a cancelation. The people Lisa interviewed had catastrophic policies which are not health plans. Chuck Todd then angered Joe even more when he said that the insurers were ripping off those people. It boils down to this; the old policies did not meet the new ACA standards, so the profit motive insurance companies’ immediately raised their prices and canceled the existing one.

Joe Scarborough is trying to make a case “what did the president know and when did he know it” for every hiccup that involves the administration. It’s as if this administration invented “plausible deniability.” Joe was going hard trying to make his point that President Obama had to know that Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone was being tapped.. Mika Brzezinski threw a curveball that hit a surprised Joe Scarborough. She told them that we started spying on our Allies in 2002. All he could say was “are you sure about that?” Joe is the host of that show, so it’s up to him to keep informed and not just make his daily anti-Obama comments.

Things ought to be looking good for Alcoa because the orders for aluminum for all the tin-foil hats has to be at record highs.

If I were to meet  Marek and Joe Scarborough.I would say “dudes the president is not going anywhere for the next three years; the voters have spoken.”    

One Person Does Not speak for All Veterans

I read a letter –to- the- editor  from John Caldwell of Goliad with sadness and some contempt for someone would use military service from the past to make a political statement based on their ideology. The title of his letter was "Veterans watched country they served decay"

I thought about submitting this blog to ViCad but I didn’t know if that would be right.

As an American Mr. Caldwell’s certainly has a right to state his opinion and he has sure earned that right but please don’t drag our veterans into the present day political battles. And please do not think that all veterans buy into those partisan beliefs.

I’ve seen our country go through Iran-Contra, Watergate and survived. I have also seen us attack a country that had nothing to do 9/11,witness a Wall Street financial crisis which took $8 trillion of capital out of our economy leaving many without jobs and have yet to see a letter from another veteran complaining that our country was decaying. I guess it’s on what side of the fence some veterans sit on.

I know “ our government has provided weapons to al Qaeda who have used them to kill Americans” is a talking point that insinuates that President Obama is helping the enemy. There’s no proof of that. I know I didn’t like the idea of us actually paying Sunnis who had killed our soldiers the day before to join us in Iraq. Caldwell will never read of what actually happed during the troop surge in Iraq and about a tactic called “the Awakening.”

I’m 68 years old and I have not seen the government try to control my thoughts or actions. You know with health insurers getting rich, the stock market at record highs and businesses recording record profits; President Obama has to be the worse socialist ever.

It’s funny how some people spout conspiracy theories and some outright lies and then they call for God to help America.

Selective Outrage

A few days ago the Victoria Advocate Editorial Board wrote an article voicing their displeasure over the conduct of national park personnel during the recent shutdown.

The story stated that the closing of national parks and monuments had caused outrage across the nation. I'm waiting for the article expressing  outrage of the shutdown itself and the damage it caused to others. The national parks bring in $76 million a day.

I saw people cursing the park rangers ,dismantling barricades and taking them and placing them adjacent to the front lawn of the White House. I don't think being a WWII veteran gives anyone the right to make more work for the park personnel who weren't getting paid. I can only imagine the outrage if the Occupy Wall Street people would have done that. 

I'm still not sure why a local resident's unpleasant experience  with park rangers at the Aransas National wildlife Refuge was worth mentioning. I'm pretty sure tourists and park rangers have butted heads before but this incident was exploited as part of a national story. 

 There's  no doubt that some park rangers may have gotten out of hand and they should be punished.   I saw Texas Congressman, Randy Neugebauer lash out at a park ranger for doing her job,saying she should be ashamed. No Congressman,you should be ashamed for taking part in closing down the government in the first place and then appearing at the memorial for a photo-op.

The article states that the maintenance of the parks are part of the budget but the land itself belongs to the American people. That doesn't even make sense , you cannot separate the two. Think about that on the local level;Guadalupe Park belongs to us but  there is a gate at the entrance and exit for a reason. I would hate to see the national parks after two weeks of unsupervised visitation. 

The editorial makes the often repeated dumb remark about the park service paychecks coming from the taxpayers. The park personnel are also taxpayers and the public sector employees get their paychecks from consumers,so what's the point? We are all beholding to our customers in one way or the other.

 Excuse me if I don't buy into the hysteria; a manufactured crisis followed by misplaced outrage. 

Not all Conservatives Are Good At Math

 

There’s no reason to be in this predicament because this crisis was self -manufactured. Conservatives will tell us that the debt is too high, and we need to cut back our spending and start reforming our tax code and entitlements. Who can disagree with that, as one side of the argument? That’s an argument for austerity that’s doesn’t work but we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water.  That’s where the word compromise comes in to play.

Let’s go back a couple of weeks ago to see what the conservatives thought was important. The GOP basically said that the deficit and debt were OK because they didn’t have any problems funding the government and increasing the debt limit.  The most important thing to the House GOP was defunding Obamacare. In order to accomplish that they would need at least 289 votes in their own chamber to override a presidential veto. They have 232 party members meaning they would need 57 Democrats. They would also need to persuade 13 Senate Democrats to go along with their scheme. As a prominent Republican said, “a fool’s errand.” True conservatives can do the math.

This morning Republican representative from Wisconsin, Sean Duffy said he thought it was perfectly reasonable to put the president and Congress on Obamacare without government subsidies, as most Americans. The question I have to ask (and Mika Brzezinski did) “is this why you shut down the government? “Again we have to get back to basics. Only 15% of Americans are eligible for Obamacare.  Employer contribution is what the Congressman is calling subsidies because it makes it sound cynical. The American taxpayer is the employer of federal employees. It’s common knowledge that those in the exchange (15%) will not get employer contribution but many will get subsides. Many on the “Morning Joe “advised the congressman to write a bill, get Cosponsors and proceed through the normal parliamentary procedure, but that shouldn’t be part of a CR or a reason not to raise the debt limit.

I saw where two or three people in our local newspaper are blaming the Democrats and President Obama for the shutdown. Will our local newspaper be like the Houston Chronicle (they endorsed Ted Cruz) and only start telling its readers the truth when it’s too late, just so they won’t offend a potential subscriber?  I know those two or three people didn’t see the polls where 74% of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown. And even if they did, they have a way of ignoring anything negative by calling it media bias. A newspaper shouldn’t “go along to get along.”

The Senate will likely pass a bipartisan bill to open the government and raise the debt limit this afternoon. They will send it over to the House where it will likely be passed with just enough Republicans. Look back people and ask, “was all this worth it and do we really want to go through this again in a few months?” It’s not out of your hands because one of 80 representatives who signed a letter calling for this shutdown way back in the summer was Blake Farenthold.

I'll Answer Your Questions Mr. Drake

Paul Drake of Victoria asked some very loaded questions about President Obama, and if you follow his line of reasoning, it's supposed to lead you to think that President Obama should be impeached. 

Do you really want a president who says one thing, does another, lies about it all it takes no responsibility for anything?

That's one of those loaded  "when was the last time you beat your wife" questions. The writer didn't mention any specific examples.

Do you really want a president who ceded superpower status to the Russians to escape from his international lie?

Russia is a superpower?

Do you really want a president who forces us to trust Russia to do the right thing in Syria.

Mr. Drake, we aren't fighting the Cold War anymore. Russia used their leverage on Syria to convince them to give up their chemical weapons.

Explain to me how that's a bad thing?

Do you really want a president who takes unnecessary hundred million dollars trips to wealthy Soth Africa to give them $7 billion to "keep the lights on?"

All this time I thought the South African trip was about "re-affirming partnerships with the sub-Saharan powers and emphasizing the importance of global health programs, including HIV/AIDS prevention." Anyway that's what I read in the Huffington Post.

Do you really want a president who spends millions of taxpayers dollars on several vacations, while our economy is collapsing?

Is it really about a president taking a vacation or is it about a black president using taxpayer money to take a vacation?

Do you really want a president who treats the treasury as his personal checking account?

Are you charging the president with embezzlement ?He cannot spend what Congress does not appropriate. I recommend you take a civics course.

Do you really wanted president  who walks all over the Constitution, especially the second and fourth amendments?

Do you mean not being able to pass a background check which had a 95% approval? The Patriot Act was in full force before Pres. Obama was sworn into office.

Do you really wanted president promised the most open administration ever and then goes to great lengths to conceal the numerous scandals in it?

That's at the heart of your anger; you can't find the evidence to convict the president of your phony scandals.

Do you really want a president who puts our allies' security in danger- i.e. Iran threatens to attack Israel if he launches attack on Syria?

It's well-known that Israel can take care of itself. The sanctions  we put on Iran may have brought them to the table.

Do you really want a president who bows to the Arab nations?

Really? We've gone over that tabloid material so many times before, so I'm not offended if our leader respects the customs of other nations.

Do you really want a president who distrusts Americans so much that he spies and eavesdrops on us?

I'm laughing as I write this, where has this man been the last 15 to 20 years?

Do you really want a president whose own party members and financial backers (unions) are now finding fault with him?

The president still holds an 80% approval among Democrats. The unions did not like the cut they are taking in new health care law but they never called for repeal. Right-wingers have to make up their mind, he's either providing favors for his cronies or he's not giving special favors to his financial backers.

Mr. Drake, I'm a proud two-time supporter of President Obama and the values he holds. Your letter did not move the needle one iota, in convincing anyone, other  than partisan right-wingers like yourself, that this president is guilty of committing high crimes and misdemeanors. 

Shutdown Hangover

With just nine days until we default on our debt for the very first time in our history, the media is trying to be the first to inform us as to the reason.  

The New York Times,Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s New York Times article also reports that the" David and Charles Koch, and their affiliated groups, threw some pretty big bucks around. Freedom Partners distributed $200 million to various “grassroots” anti-Obamacare groups. Meanwhile, the Americans for Prosperity plunked down $5.5 million for anti-Obamacare television ads. Freedom Partners also paid an additional $115 million to the egregiously misnamed Center to Protect Patient Rights. Meanwhile, the youthful and comparatively thrifty Generation Opportunity spent a scant $740 thousand on their creepy Uncle Sam ad. in hopes of scaring us away from Obamacare’s state health insurance exchanges.”

Last night, Lawrence O’Donnell had another theory.  He said that the GOP was not that dumb, and this is an effort to destroy the imperial presidency, which they started with Richard Nixon.  Senator Ted Cruz is being described as a Sarah Palin with a brain, so he used his talent and went around the country pledging to destroy Obamacare to the delight of the base.  Now, you have Republicans wanting to vote for a clean CR, but they are afraid of being exposed as being a RHINO and getting a challenger from the right.  The GOP does not see a clear path to the presidency anytime in the future, so the only thing they have left is to destroy President Obama and his agenda.  The reason their initial plan failed was that President Obama stood his ground, and did not negotiate with the hostage takers.  This left the tea party dumbfounded, so they came up with this “the president won’t negotiate” ploy to get sympathy for their effort.  According to latest polls, the GOP is getting a majority of the blame for the shutdown.

That was fairly heated but informative discussion about the shutdown on this morning’s episode of “Morning Joe.” The cast of characters included Carl Bernstein, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Nicole Wallace, Matt Lewis,Eugene Washington and Bill Kristol.  It became pretty evident that Bill Kristol does not like President Obama one bit, saying that he was the exact opposite of FDR.  Eugene Washington reminded Mr. Kristol, that the same GOP demonized FDR while he was trying to implement Social Security.  Bill Kristol shot back “ FDR was not at 45% during this time of his presidency.” Well, that’s because a lot more people were democrats back then. 

 Matt Lewis said that young evangelicals were no longer following the GOP because of their views on the social issues.  He also said that President Obama Hillary Clinton followed the philosophy of Noam Chomsky, who wrote a book (game palm) which preached hate and promoted ideas on how to demonize your opponent.  No one on the panel, mentioned that the GOP had Lee Atwater doing the same for them.

Carl Bernstein kept Nicole Wallace in check throughout the segment by refusing to let her say that Obamacare was a government-run health care system.  Joe Scarborough tried to make the best use of Mika running into some Democrats who did not like Obamacare.  She had to explain that the people she talked with were angry with Congress, the shutdown, and Obamacare was just thrown in with it.

We will be the losers if our country defaults or even appears to be defaulting.  My IRA will lose value and our Social Security checks might be delayed but that’s minor compared to people who would lose their jobs.  This country will lose any recovery gains that we have been making..  A default is a lot more than 535 winners and losers.