Don't Think, Vote Republican

Voted Republican! They cut his retiree pension, raised the retirement age, and attack his social security! @cspanwj pic.twitter.com/NCRiNICPvx
— George Monroe (@Nupe117) January 17, 2015

Snowy Saturday Reading List and Week in Review

I guess the media believes if they regurgitate republican talking points over and over again the American people will believe it's the truth instead of a media-driven narrative.  Here's the deal, in a nutshell, Republicans refuse to budge on tax breaks for the rich, President Obama refuses to cut Social Security and Medicare.  And that my friends is all you really need to know.

 Don't forget this is the same media who enabled Bush and Dick to take our troops to war based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE, and who told us the 2012 presidential election was going to be close.  As a matter of fact, what has the media been right (no pun) about lately? 

There is one thing I will agree with the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads on, President Obama has no one to blame but himself for this sad, sorry, state of affairs.  Why he didn't believe republicans when they said they wanted him to fail I don't know.  Did he honestly believe the Sequester would be so awful republicans would compromise?  Everybody knows you can't compromise with a Suicide Bomber.  Their mission is to blow you up if they have to blow themselves up in the process...... so be it.

The Republican war on black voters, I mean entitlements, was in full force last week.  Everyone is expecting the Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II Supreme Court to overturn Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 since it was the only thing that prevented Republicans from stealing the election...again.

Republican hubris mushroomed into Republican arrogance as Alabama republicans invited Alabamians to kiss it this week under the guise they helping poor children flee failing schools.

By using this twilight legerdemain to pass a complex, watershed piece of legislation, Republicans avoided any input from our state's educators, from our state's financial experts and, most important, from we the people.
What an open display of contempt for the public: No need to bother writing your state senator or representative about your thoughts on tax credits to raise money for private schools. They don't need to hear from the likes of you.
Republican legislators disappeared into a cloakroom and practically had their way with us while we didn't even know it.

If Republicans are having their way with us, shouldn't we at least enjoy it?  I mean, really?

“Republicans heralded it as a historic day for education and life-altering for children stuck in poorly performing schools. But tempers boiled over as Democrats called the maneuver “sleaziness” and a “bait and switch.”"
On the other side of the aisle:
Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, as she was leaving the House chamber threw her hands over her head and shouted, “Welcome to the new confederacy where a bunch of white men are now going to take over black schools.”

Blast from the past re-post.

  I've noticed a renewed interest in WTF did Joe Reed to do you?, which gave me the opportunity to correct some typo's and update some links. The original content is unchanged. Looking back I have to wonder how Left in Alabama feels about Joe Reed now. Their candidate, Artur Davis ,was anti AEA and pro privatizing  public education in Alabama, and he was backed by the business community in and outside of the state.  That's a group with little love for entitlements, I mean,  social programs such as access to quality, affordable health care, equal access to a quality public education, a poor woman's right to choose to have a safe, legal abortion, access to birth control, LBGT rights, and the right to vote, and have that vote count.

 All roads lead to Selma mobilizing to Free Don Siegelman! H/T Sharron via Pam's List

LAST MINUTE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SELMA TOMORROW!

We just found out some different procedures for tomorrow due to Secret Service for the Vice-President.

We will still be distributing shirts and signs, but we will not know for certain exactly where we can set up until we get there in the morning.

So just look for this banner of Gov. Siegelman and that is where we will be.

Some other things to note is EVERYONE will have to go through metal detectors.

The Bridge Crossing will still begin at 1:30. The march from Brown Chapel AME Church to the bridge will begin at 11:00am.

If we understood it correctly, Vice-President will speak at the bridge prior to the crossing at 1:30.

We'll figure it all out, but we will make sure we get these signs and t-shirts distributed to you before 1:30.

 Happy reading!

About that "massive intelligence failure"....

Coffin Photo Stirs Debate ~ Fist Dap Galesburg.com

The first question out of  Vice Presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz's mouth last night was about the so called failure of the Obama administration to call the attack on the Libyan Consulate an act of terrorism right after it happened.  

Congress Critter Paul Ryan (r.  WI), his side kick, I mean running mate, Mitt Romney (r.MA), enabled by Congress Critter Darrell Issa (r. CA) are are quick to use this tragedy for partisan, political gain, but they must have forgotten about the *cough cough* massive intelligence failure that took our troops to war based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE, to look for Weapons of Mass Destruction, that were NOT there, without body armor or an exit plan.  Talk about a conspiracy.

Vice President Joe Biden made me proud to be a Democrat last night because he proved all the republicans want is all war all the time with other people's sons and daughters, poor women not to have access to a safe legal abortion, gut Medicare,  privatize Social Security, and raise taxes on the middle class.

Psst President Obama...nice guys finish last.

Today's Must Read

Joe Biden throws Paul Ryan off his yard (warning rude)

You want blacks to work where Massa Rick" DOG Whistle" Santorum?

 gop presidential candidate Rick Santorum (r. Pennsylvania) says he want to stop making black folks lives better by giving them white folks money for doing nothing.  Santorum wants black folks to get off their lazy, shiftless, Donkey's and work for their  money.  

Uh, you want blacks to work and earn money where Massa Santorum Suh?

I guess Rick forgot how his republican brethren shipped all the jobs over seas, then blocked President Obama's jobs bill.

You won't hear it on TeeVee or Talk Radio but, more white Americans are on welfare than black Americans,  thanks to republican follies like all war all the time,   raiding the surplus, giving the rich a  tax cut,  massive deficits , bank bailouts, and chronic unemployment, which lead to record mortgage foreclosures.

Not only does Santorum not want to make black folks lives better, he doesn't want women to have control of their uterus and reproductive organs.  How any self respecting woman could vote for him or any of the other gop a$$ clowns is a mystery to me.

Psst Rick!  The next time you want to blow your dog whistle, get someone else to do it for you.

Quote of the day 

Choosy Moms choose Jiff.....

....and likely republican voters prefer zealots, homophobes, and hypocritical lying sacks of sh#t.

Today's Must Read

Next!

Will the TeaPublicans say NO to a Jobs bill?

Like Hell Yes they will because that is just who they are.

You say you want 466 billion? Dollars?Really ? Please!! We will give you 1.99 and a bucket of chicken..Take it or leave it..Boy

I'm going to admit being HOPEFUL when I first heard the President's address to Congress, but in the cold light of day, I realize it's just more of doing the same old thing over and over again HOPING for a different result.

"I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It's called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans – including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything."

"This isn't political grandstanding. This isn't class warfare. This is simple math. These are real choices that we have to make."Okay, this all sounds great, but here is the reality: we are just a few months away from a national election, and the folks who are trying to get the White House back are going to do nothing to help you turn the economy around. They want you to fail, Mr. President. Which part of that don't you understand? It's not in their best interest to turn this economy around.

There are some who say the President's Job Bill is better than nothing, but I disagree. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.

"But how will we pay for all of this without further raising the deficit Mr. President?" Close tax loopholes, restructuring certain entitlement programs like Medicare, and raising personal income taxes for those who can afford it in our country. (Memo to O, next time put someone else in the box next to the wonderful first lady besides the CEO of the main culprit for sending A-merry-can money and jobs oversees.)

In the cold light of day, The speech was a weak and desperate call for Congress to get behind a mishmash of failed Republican policies.

O.K., about the Obama plan: It calls for about $200 billion in new spending — much of it on things we need in any case, like school repair, transportation networks, and avoiding teacher layoffs — and $240 billion in tax cuts. That may sound like a lot, but it actually isn’t. The lingering effects of the housing bust and the overhang of household debt from the bubble years are creating a roughly $1 trillion per year hole in the U.S. economy, and this plan — which wouldn’t deliver all its benefits in the first year — would fill only part of that hole. And it’s unclear, in particular, how effective the tax cuts would be at boosting spending.

So maybe it's just as well the obstructionist, do nothing, republican controlled Congress tells the American people they can go straight to hell. Maybe that will motivate voters to go to the polls and take the Son's of Bitches out in 2012. That is if we are allowed to vote in 2012.

Last week, right-wing pundit Matthew Vadum created a stir when he argued that -- as his piece at American Thinker is titled -- "Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American." Here's how the piece starts:
Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on registering the poor to vote?

Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians. Welfare recipients are particularly open to demagoguery and bribery.

Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country -- which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote.

Glynn Wilson at the Locust Fork News-Journal ask the one question the polling pollsters won't, debunks the Republicans’ New Extreme ‘Voodoo Economics’ Exposes Religious Bigotry and Hypocrisy

It appears to me that is the real political divide we have in this country. It is not just liberal versus conservative, Republican versus Democrat. It is also the religious faithful against those who look to science instead of myth as the basis for knowledge and the source of solutions.

During the Bush Years, this came to be known as the “reality-based” community versus the “faith-based” community.

Since religion is easier to understand for those with an average IQ of 100, myth still tends to trump science in this country much of the time.

That’s how Rush Limbaugh on talk radio and Fox News made fortunes pandering to the lowest common denominator crowd, and why smarter and more progressive publications have been less financially successful historically. The mass audience can’t read or comprehend complicated arguments, or they won’t take the time to try to understand them. They tend to go for simple, black and white ideas that appeal to their preconceived notions and prejudices

Lord help us.

"My Name is Barack Obama and I am The President"

If President Obama doesn't go for broke and bring it like Michael Douglas in the movie An American President, he might as well stay his Donkey in the White House and start packing.

Obama was inexperienced although intelligent. He's now had three years to get something done we can feel hopeful about. I don't think there's a person in the country, no matter what economic bracket they are in that feel hopeful. And the people I talk to feel as I do -- we got tooled.

We didn't get the hope or change he promised us when he campaigned for the job. We got a conciliator, a bargainer, a President who was always willing to give up something his supporters wanted in the name of bi-partisanship and compromise.

Which is why we Professional Lefty's criticize the President

I criticize President Obama because I think he and his team can do better. I critique them because we are in a world filled with gigantic problems and only a Democratic president is going to seriously address them. In addition to years of praise of Obama, I also verbally rap them on the knuckles when they screw up. And they have.

The stimulus should have been larger, and even within its limited size it should have been less about tax cuts and more about directly stimulative spending that had more of an effect on the employment figures.

On health care reform, Obama and the Democrats should have fought harder for a public option. I understand the votes weren’t there, but there is value both movement-wide and electorally in making the Republican party the one who killed the option, rather than have the Democrats take it off the table pre-emptively. As I’ve written before, there is value in inching the ball ahead for an initiative that you are destined to lose in the short run.

The inability to articulate a simple message around health care reform, and allowing congress to take the lead role on it past the point of absurdity were key factors in Republicans winning the House in 2010. It energized the conservative vote without a counterpart on the Democratic side. Had the fight for a public option gone on to the point where Republicans were the bulk of the vote sticking a knife in its belly, Obama and the Democrats would have had a stronger rallying cry going into the 2010 election.

It's not to late for President Obama to Offer a Bold Plan to Tackle the "Jobs Crisis" and No Cuts to Social Safety Network

It's not to late for President Obama to stop listening to his white side and listen to his black side.

It's D Day Mister President.

I think most Americans can agree that reducing the public debt is a goal we can all share-- and in the old days of thirty or forty years ago, when congress operated on a more collegial model that involved members from opposing parties getting together on weekends to achieve reasonable compromises over golf and highballs, the Rs and Ds could have found a way to press forward with reasonable deficit reduction plans without pushing us all to the edge of a cliff.

But for the new GOP, compromise of any kind defeats their central purpose, which is political totale krieg. This party's entire reason for being is conflict and aggression. There is no underlying patriotic instinct to find middle ground with the rest of us, because the party doesn't have a vision for society that includes anyone outside the tent.

Don't be skeered Mister President

Barack Obama deserves credit for turning the country in a more positive direction following the disastrous George W. Bush presidency. Obama has taken steps forward in several key areas--economic recovery, health-care reform, and financial regulation.

But the Obama record, so far, has not been nearly as strong as it could have been. And based on three major news stories from the past two weeks, we are starting to think there is a fundamental reason for that: The Obama administration is terrified of white people.

This fear, in our view, has nothing to do with the fact that Obama is our first black president. Rather, we suspect it has to do with the fact that Obama is a centrist Democrat. And it seems "centrist Democrat" is simply a fancy term for a liberal who is afraid of white people.

Here is what I wish President Obama would say tonight.

I am sick and tired of the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party holding our country hostage for their own sick, partisan, political gain. I love my country and I'm not going to let this bunch snatch the keys to the car and drive it back into the ditch and charge us for the the gas (h/t jk). For the past three years I was so busy keeping my job I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now. Tomorrow morning, the White House is sending a Stimulus/Jobs bill to Congress for its consideration. It's White House Resolution XXX, a bill that creates jobs, repeals the tax cut on the rich and doesn't cut Social Security and Medicare. It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of the Bush mis administration. The other piece of legislation is the Affrodable Health Care Act. As of today, it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out. I'm throwing it out writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address health care until all Americans have access to quality, affordable, health care. I consider it a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans that I'm right (no pun). I'm gonna get MediCare for all. We've got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about character, TeaPublicans, you'd better come at me with more than a burning flag and a birth certificate. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I'll show up. This is a time for serious people, TeaPublicans, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Barack Obama, and I *am* the President

Just do it Mister President. We've got your back.

RedEye'sTuesday Talking Points and Rant

For the record I am NOT one of those Americans who want a compromise on the debt ceiling. For one thing, compromising with the republicans is like a rape victim compromising with their attacker. For another thing, how come President Obama is the only President who has to jump through hoops to get the debt ceiling extended? Never mind. We know why. The republicans want to keep President Obama from doing anything. Strike that. republicans want to keep President Obama from doing anything for black/brown/poor people so we can be accused of standing around wanting a hand out. Snark

That's right (pun intended). Whites are getting richer while black and brown folks are getting the shaft, but it's not racism. Snark Before you start whinning about this being RedEye hollering racism again, you might want to check out the findings of a recent Pew Research study

From “Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics”, a study released on July 26 by the Pew Research Center

The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009.

These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.

The Pew Research analysis finds that, in percentage terms, the bursting of the housing market bubble in 2006 and the recession that followed from late 2007 to mid-2009 took a far greater toll on the wealth of minorities than whites. From 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% among black households, compared with just 16% among white households.

As a result of these declines, the typical black household had just $5,677 in wealth (assets minus debts) in 2009; the typical Hispanic household had $6,325 in wealth; and the typical white household had $113,149.

And NO. An African American, democratic President cutting social programs does not make it more palatable for blacks because when white America get a cold, non white America gets pneumonia....and die because you know, we are the ones without access to quality affordable health care. I guess the plan is for us to die quickly.

The black middle class is on the verge of extinction. So don't think it's not your problem. If you are black in America it is your problem too.

As has been the case for more than half a century, the black unemployment rate, which is understated, has been running at twice the rate of white Americans. Black teenage unemployment rates are particularly dismal. They have been hovering around 40 percent, and the rate for both teenage males and females is currently more than 35 percent. High teenage unemployment, as well as a dismal job market for new college graduates, suggest that attaining or maintaining middle-class status is increasingly difficult for black youth, and the three paths that earlier generations of African-Americans took — work in the unionized manufacturing sector, public sector employment and more recently college and graduate education — either no longer functionally exist, or are much less reliable conduits to social mobility than they were even a decade ago.

We can't depend on the media we have to tell us what we need to know, because they are too busy telling us what they want us to know. That's why we don't know what we don't know. I sure do miss the good old days when the media kept our government from misleading us to enabling our government to mislead us.

It's been said many times. But it's never enough: the conventions of journalistic 'objectivity', as currently defined, frequently make journalists violate their biggest duty, which is honesty with readers. The top headline running now on CNN reads: "They're all talking, but no one is compromising, at least publicly. Democratic and GOP leaders appear unwilling to bend on proposals to raise the debt ceiling."

By any reasonable measure, this is simply false, even painfully so. It might be right to say they are not agreeing, that's demonstrable. But I don't think any observer -- one who has actually watched the specifics of the debate -- honestly believes that neither side is compromising. Indeed, even the firebreathers on the Republican side aren't suggesting this. Their argument is that the nature of the 'crisis' is so great that there can be no compromise on their basic demands. That is what it means when they say they will not support any new taxes as part of a global deal.

Compromising with the TeaPublicans is like a chicken compromising with Colonel Sanders.

House Speaker John Boehner often attacks the spendthrift ways of Washington.

“In Washington, more spending and more debt is business as usual,” the Republican leader from Ohio said in a televised address yesterday amid debate over the U.S. debt. “I’ve got news for Washington - those days are over.”

Yet the speaker, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all voted for major drivers of the nation’s debt during the past decade: Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts and Medicare prescription drug benefits. They also voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that rescued financial institutions and the auto industry.

Enough!

You didn’t create Social Security and Medicare, the American People did – working their will through the efforts of Democratic Party leadership over the course of a 40 year struggle. You were not there. The blood and tears and courage it took to create these programs were not yours.

Americans who have paid their dues and paid their taxes for a lifetime expect it to be there when they need it. That was the promise. That is the cornerstone of our social contract as a nation.

Stop what you’re doing, now. You have no right. You have no mandate. Social Security and Medicare do not belong to you.

RedEye Rant over and out.