Category Archives: Politics

Why Do We Allow Republicans To Ignore Election Results?

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In 2008, voters repudiated conservative politics by electing Barack Obama as President and voting for overwhelming Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. But, based on the actions of Republicans, it would appear that they have simply chosen to ignore the results. The House has passed bill after bill in order to live up to the campaign promises. The President has repeatedly reached out to Republicans. Yet the Senate Republicans have stonewalled virtually every initiative with parliamentarian tricks. They have placed secret holds on more than 100 Presidential appointees. They have threatened to block many more. And they have used filibusters a record number of times.

This level of obstructionism is unprecedented in U.S. history and voters should make Republican candiates pay for it this November. But according to early polls, it appears that the Republican strategy may work. Voters are angry at incumbents – all incumbents – not just those who have stalled reforms. And voters are angry at President Obama for not doing more about the unrelenting gusher of crude in the Gulf of BP. Never mind that the cozy relationship between Bush/Cheney appointees in the Minerals Management Service allowed BP to apparently cut corners with safety. And never mind that the best minds in science and in the oil industry seem stumped as to how to proceed.

It would seem that many in the public won’t be satisfied until the President dons a diving suit, descends a mile under the surface of the ocean and personally shuts off the wellhead himself.

Seriously, people, there are only four submersibles in the world capable of operating at that depth and none of them are owned by the U.S. Moreover, they are incapable of doing any more than the underwater robots. So the problem has spilled into the ocean and onto Obama’s lap.

Like the financial crisis, the unemployment crisis, the immigration crisis, the national debt and the two on-going wars, the oil gusher is a mess created by the Bush administration. And the Obama administration has been left with the job of cleaning it up. To make matters worse, the Republicans in Congress have done nothing to help.

If there’s any justice in American politics, the Republicans will pay at the polls. But I suspect an uninformed public will reward them for their antics. Republicans will then be able to obstruct even more reforms. And voters will continue to wonder why nothing ever seems to change in Washington.

© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.

A Crude Awakening!

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Since the days when Jimmy Carter was president, environmentalists were calling for energy conservation and alternative fuels. Unfortunately, the only time these ideas gained any traction was when gasoline and heating oil prices spiked. But once families adjusted to the higher prices, they went right back to their old ways.

Things may be different this time. The only real blessing of the BP oil disaster is that it has focused attention on the consequences of oil. The average American citizen could live with spills in the Arctic or Canada or Kuwait or other faraway places. They could live with climbing gas prices. They could ignore the photos of dying birds, dolphins and fish. And they could live (they think) with climate change.

But now that crude oil and tar balls are washing up on their favorite beaches… Now that’s a real problem!

There may never be a better time to change our energy policy. BP, Halliburton, Exxon and the rest of the oil spillers have less influence on the Democratic-controlled Congress. And they hold no sway with the Obama White House. So it’s time to act! It’s time to end the subsidies for oil exploration. It’s time to subsidize solar, wind and other renewables. And it’s time to redouble our efforts to conserve energy.

Congress should act now to push through a strong energy bill with caps on carbon emissions before the mid-term elections. It should raise the cap on damages to be paid by oil companies. And if Republicans try to block it, Democrats should use every parliamentary tactic at their disposal. What do they have to lose? Republicans have used filibusters and other tricks to stall Democratic initiatives. There is no longer any hope for bipartisanship. Even if it costs Democrats control of the House and Senate in the next election, at least the losing candidates could go home knowing they’ve done one of the best things possible for their constituents and their country. And, along with a new energy policy, that’s something that’s long past due.

The Real Elitists.

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One of the many things Republican teabaggers like to call liberals and progressives is “elitist.” In fact, the term is so common, if you watch Fox News Channel (I’m not sure why you’d want to) it seems the two terms are permanently wed – Liberal Elitist.

Now, I may be slow, but I can’t for the life of me think why the two terms should ever be used in the same sentence, let alone as a description of progressives. It would seem that the nitwits on Fox and Republican teabaggers have never consulted a dictionary. To wit:

Elitism is defined as: 1 – Belief in the concept of superiority. The belief that some people or things are inherently superior to others and deserve preeminence, preferential treatment, or higher rewards because of their superiority.

2 – Belief in control by a small group. The belief that government or control should be in the hands of a small group of privileged, wealthy, or intelligent people, or the active promotion of such a system.

Now let’s examine the policies of the two parties. Democrats believe in fighting for the middle and lower economic classes. They support small business, organized labor, civil rights and fair wages for working people. That doesn’t quite meet the definition of elitism, does it?

Republicans, on the other hand, believe in fighting for the wealthy and large corporations. For more than 40 years, they’ve been trying to break labor unions. They have also succeeded in transferring much of the nation’s wealth upward to the uber rich. In other words, Republicans believe in the inherent superiority of the privileged and the wealthy.

So how do Republicans get away with perpetuating this falsehood? They restate their goals in populist terms to make people think they will benefit, too. They bundle their ideas in ways that create fear and anger. And they simply repeat their lies until enough people think they’re true.

The Other Offshore Disaster.

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For more than two months, the nation’s attention has been focused on the gusher in the Gulf. But there’s another offshore disaster that has been going on for at least 50 years. I refer to the large U.S. corporations that have created subsidiaries and “headquarters” off-shore to avoid U.S. taxes.

But I found it difficult to obtain a list of the companies that have taken advantage of the loophole. Now, thanks to Ariana Huffington’s recent article on the Huffington Post, I have a better idea. In her article, she cited a Government Accounting Office (GAO) report from 2008 that showed 83 of the 100 largest publicly–traded companies in the country had operations in tax havens.

The report cited AIG, AT&T, American Express, Boeing, Chevron, and Dow to name a few. Many set up P.O. boxes in the Caymans and Bermuda. And Halliburton chose to move its “headquarters” to Dubai. That’s disturbing enough. Yet, according to the GAO, 74 of those 83 corporations received government contracts. And, of course, taxpayers were asked to rescue two of those companies (AIG and American Express) through billions in government loans.

So these companies are not only avoiding paying their fair share of American taxes. They are filling their coffers with money from taxpayers like you and me!

At a time when our national economy is struggling and when we’re engaged in two protracted wars, closing this gaping loophole would seem one of the top priorities for Congress. But that would mean that our Representatives and Senators would have to vote against some of their largest campaign contributors. Indeed, according to Ariana Huffington’s article, Washington has been trying to address the issue for nearly 50 years. But each time the issue comes before Congress, the corporate lobbyists prevail.

So while Congress debates the impact on the national debt by extending unemployment benefits for working people, they continue to permit corporations to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes through loopholes. In fact, the latest figures available show that these corporations pay roughly $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign active earnings – a tax rate of approximately 2.3 percent!

Of course, politicians (especially Republicans) excuse such welfare by saying that corporations create jobs, and that jobs have never been more needed than now. That may be true. But where are those jobs being created? For nearly 40 years, many of these corporations have been creating more jobs offshore than in the U.S.

That being the case, what do we have to lose by forcing them to pay up?

What’s wrong with politics?

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Depending on your political affiliation (or should I say affliction?) you might quickly answer with Fox News Channel or MoveOn.org. But if we ignore partisanship for a moment, I think we can all agree that the real answer is Congressional representatives who spend more time trying to be re-elected than actually representing.

We have now reached a point in American politics where the election cycle lasts all year, every year. As a result, those who are elected are generally afraid to take a position or a stance for fear of alienating part of the electorate. They also must find and kowtow to donors – usually large corporations, corporate officers, political action groups and the wealthy. As a result, the powerful and wealthy are over-represented.

And the rest of us are under-represented.

Unfortunately, running for state or national office has become so expensive that few can raise enough money to run an effective campaign. And, perhaps due to that fact, politicians who are successful in getting elected don’t want to risk losing their offices in the next election. So they don’t always vote their conscience. Instead, they vote according to the polls. Or according to the party bosses. There can be no better examples (and warnings) than Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida and Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. They are viewed as too moderate by activists in their respective parties, so they faced difficult primaries. So difficult, in fact, that Crist was forced to bow out of the Republican primary and run unaffiliated.

This backlash from the parties has a chilling effect on our political debate. For example, many Democrats wanted universal (single-payer) health care, but they voted for a watered-down, protect-the-insurance-companies health care reform bill, instead. Why? Because their political opponents and the media would have labeled them Socialists, Communists or worse.

During the George W. Bush administration, the White House introduced a plan for immigration reform. The bill attempted to address the complexity of the problem. But Congress refused to pass it because many Republicans and the conservative media were angered by what they considered “amnesty” for undocumented workers. And representatives of both parties were afraid to alienate potential Latino voters. So, instead of trying to fix the problem, they collectively kicked it down the road.

Of course, there are exceptions. If you visit www.PolitiFact.com you’ll discover that President Obama has lived up to the vast majority of his campaign promises. Indeed, he has repeatedly stated that he’d rather be “a good one-term President, than a bad two-term President.” I hope he’s rewarded for that stance. And I think he will be. You see, I sincerely believe the majority of voters on both sides of the political spectrum are sick and tired of politics as usual. Unfortunately, the political parties are more concerned with winning elections than principle.

It’s up to all of us to make the two parties care more about the well-being of the nation than their scorecards of political wins and losses. We can do that by pushing for campaign finance reform – especially now that the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spill their coffers into any candidate’s pocket or purse.

Obama’s Inheritance.

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Republican teabaggers are having a great deal of fun pointing fingers at President Obama for our current situation. They fumed over President Obama’s contribution to the national debt while ignoring Bush’s contributions. They proclaimed health care reform “Obama’s Waterloo.” And they have now labeled BP’s oil gusher as “Obama’s Katrina.”

Never in my lifetime have I seen people so anxious to see a President fail.

But before everyone joins in by jumping on the nincompoop wagon, let’s consider the situation President Obama inherited:

The worst economic meltdown in nearly 80 years. The collapse of the housing industry that has long fueled our economy, the collapse of our financial industry due to deregulation, and the worst job losses in nearly 80 years. Historic levels of national debt created by the banks and Bush’s unfunded wars, Bush’s unfunded Medicare expansion, and Bush’s unfunded tax cuts. The collapse of the auto industry due to imports, high oil prices and the financial meltdown. Two on-going wars (one which went neglected for 7-1/2 years) and an over-stretched military. The worst environmental disaster in history. Growing tensions in Israel and Gaza, Korea and oil-rich Iran complicated by nuclear weapons. A national infrastructure that has been decaying for decades. States and industries crippled by the sky-rocketing cost of health care and pharmaceuticals. A middle class that has been stressed by years of dwindling jobs and salaries. Millions of Americans who were (until the passage of health care reform) unable to afford access to health care. An illegal immigration problem that has been kicked down the road for decades. Social Security and Medicare trust funds that have long been raided by Congress, putting them on the edge of bankruptcy. And the most toxic political environment of my lifetime, fueled by right-wing political hacks posing as talk radio hosts and news commentators.

That’s an overwhelming array of crises, and I’ve probably even forgotten to list a few.

Never in our history has a new President been handed such a mess. Sure, Abraham Lincoln was handed a growing state’s rights crisis that led to the Civil War. And FDR was handed the Great Depression along with a growing conflict that became WWII.

But this?!!!

President Obama must feel like a Marine surrounded by ticking IEDs and wondering which one to disarm first. And these crises are made to seem all the worse by an impatient populace and media that have amazingly short attention spans.

© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.

Connecting the oil dots…er…globs.

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I’ve written before about Bush and Cheney’s influence on our energy policy. The Bush family has deep ties to the Saudis and Kuwaitis. After WWII, the Bush family jumped at the opportunity to rebuild the Balkans oil fields. And Bush worked in the oil industry before running for public office.

In addition, Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton prior to gaining the office of Vice-President. Cheney received a $34 million bonus from Halliburton when he left for Washington. And Cheney held secret meetings on energy policy in the very first month of the Bush administration.

All of that raises some very troubling questions. For example, what role did Cheney’s relationship to Halliburton play in the company receiving billions of no-bid government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan? What role did Bush’s desire to build a pipeline across Afghanistan play in the events of 9/11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan? What role did oil play in the unprecedented pre-emptive invasion of Iraq?

While those issues are in question, there are many Bush/Cheney impacts on U.S. energy policy that are not. It was the deregulation of commodities that led to speculation, skyrocketing oil prices and record oil company profits during the Bush/Cheney administration. It was the Bush/Cheney administration that increased subsidies to oil companies, in spite of their obscene profits, and cut subsidies for alternative energy sources.

It was the Bush/Cheney appointees at the Minerals Management Service who were literally in bed with oil company executives. The Bush/Cheney administration gave oil companies the right to drill in national parks and other wildernesses. Despite evidence to the contrary, Bush/Cheney decided it was safe to expand off-shore drilling and to drill in ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). And it was the Bush/Cheney administration that allowed BP and other oil companies to drill a mile under the Gulf’s surface without a serious back-up safety plan. (Indeed, the BP safety plan for the Gulf addressed the impact on walruses!)

It’s time for an in-depth Congressional investigation of the oil industry and all those who have helped oil companies keep a grip on our energy policy while, at the same time, making them the most profitable corporations in the history of the planet.

© LaMaster Propaganda – All rights reserved.

Teabaggers Aren’t As Crazy As You May Think.

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They’re worse!

Rand Paul, the teabagging Republican candidate to replace Kentucky Senator and Major League doofus, Jim Bunning, has famously stated that he wouldn’t have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill in its current form. He believes that individuals and privately-owned businesses should be free to discriminate in whatever way they want against whomever they want.

Sharron Angle, the Nevada teabagger who hopes to unseat Senator Harry Reid, is running on a platform to abolish Social Security, Federal income taxes and the Department of Education. And her former primary opponent, Sue Lowden, suggested that health care access could be solved by returning to a barter system in which patients paid their doctors with chickens.

In Arizona, ex-Maverick, noted mud-slinger and teabagger wannabe, John McCain, is searching for ways to seem even crazier than his primary challenger, J.D. Hayworth. Despite the fact that illegal immigration and crime have dropped dramatically in Arizona, he now proposes that the border be turned into a heavily fortified militarized zone. Indeed, McCain almost makes his former running mate, Sarah Palin, look like a liberal.

Locally, a teabagger candidate for the AZ lege told me, “Those damn Mexicans who come across the border are only here to steal our jobs and live off our taxpayers. They don’t pay taxes or contribute in any way. They aren’t interested in our culture, our language or in becoming citizens. They only want to take advantage of us.” When I replied that his statement was one of the most racist things I’d ever heard, he came completely unglued and began screaming “I am not a racist!” as I left the room.

Wherever you look across the political landscape you’ll see candidates crawling out from under the woodwork with hopes of rewinding the way-back clock a century or more. You know, back to the good ol’ days when rich people could own their workers and when poor people had no rights and no security net in addition to having no money.

But the teabaggers do offer one positive.  They actually make the incumbents (even mainstream Republicans) seem more attractive.

Would you like your oceans premium or regular?

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Personally, I prefer the low octane grade. You know, sea water without the petrochemical additives.

The man-made geyser in the Gulf hasn’t even been stopped yet and already conservatives are demanding that President Obama drop the moratorium on off-shore drilling.  Seriously. 

Of course, it’s not surprising that the half-witted half-governor, Sarah Palin, is all in for more drilling.  She of “Drill, baby, drill” fame no doubt sees an opportunity to make more money from big oil and to fill her campaign coffers for a presidential campaign should enough wingnuts encourage her to run.  Senators Murkowski and Coburn have blocked Senate resolutions for eliminating the cap on damages for oil companies like BP.  But somewhat surprisingly, Louisiana conservatives Vitter and Jindal have called for an end to the moratorium because it could cost jobs.  Are you kidding me?  It was off-shore drilling that shut down fishing and tourism in the state and they want to resume drilling without knowing the actual cause of this current catastrophe?

That seems a classic case of Republican logic – “The hell with the environment, we must protect big business!”

Of course, if you listen to Alaska Congressman Don Young, the BP gusher is just nature taking its course.  “After all, oil seeps through the ocean floor all the time.  It’s natural.”  But he fails to recognize the difference between natural seepage and the man-made gusher that, by even the most conservative estimates, has pumped millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf.

But as revolting as these Republicans are, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this catastrophe is that it didn’t have to happen. It’s not only a product of lax government oversight and corporate greed. It’s a product of individual choices.

Most people chose to ignore Jimmy Carter’s warnings in the late 70s and continued to increase their oil consumption.  So our cities continued to sprawl and large SUVs and Hummers replaced econoboxes. More and more people moved to the suburbs far away from jobs and commuted 10, 20, 30 miles or more each day.

Corporations began “outsourcing” manufacturing jobs overseas and started shipping products halfway around the world to cut costs by a few dollars or even pennies. More and more people built showy McMansions thousands of square feet larger than they need. The list goes on and on.

The fact is, we’re addicted to fossil fuels. And now that addiction is turning much of our world’s oceans into dead zones where nothing can survive.

The good news is that there are many viable alternatives to oil. We can do as President Obama proposes and redirect the oil subsidies to the wind and solar industries. We can subsidize and encourage other sources of renewable energy such as native grasses that can be used for ethanol. We can replace long-haul trucks with an efficient rail system. We can convert short-haul trucks to natural gas which doesn’t require off-shore drilling. We can replace many domestic flights with high-speed rail. We can replace freeway traffic with light rail systems. 

And we can shout down the dimwits who continue to chant “Drill, baby, drill.”

A Brief Summary of Republican Teabagger Values.

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In the past few weeks, we’re getting a really good picture of what the Republican teabaggers have in store for America.

First, a Kansas-based wingnut wrote a racist immigration law which he peddled to the Arizona legislature. Of course, they were all too happy to embrace it. Now he’s peddling the same bill to other states. So far, at least 12 states are considering it.

Second, the NRA and its Republican enablers have succeeded in pushing through new conceal and carry laws throughout the country. It is now legal to carry a gun in any national park. In Arizona, you may now carry a concealed weapon without a permit. And thanks to a new law in Louisiana, you may even carry your gun to church – because we all know that to truly worship Jesus, you have to be ready to nail a few Muslims.

Third, the Grand Obstructionist Party threatened, for weeks, to filibuster financial reform. They actually chose to defend Wall Street against Main Street! Who cares if abuses by Wall Street collapsed our economy and cost taxpayers trillions of dollars?

Fourth, BP Oil and its partners blew up 11 employees and unleashed an oil gusher a mile deep in the Gulf. Now, considering the Republican-loaded Supreme Court recently declared that corporations have all the rights of individuals, you might expect that the BP CEO and a few other corporate officers would be facing charges of manslaughter and more (What is the penalty for killing an entire ocean?). But of course, the Supreme Court only awarded corporations individual rights. No doubt, they never intended to hold corporations to the same standards as individuals when it comes to responsibilities.

Fifth, Senate Democrats asked for unanimous consent for a bill that would greatly expand BP Oil’s liability for the Gulf tragedy. The bill was first blocked by an objection from Senator Lisa Murkowski. It seems she was more impressed by the nearly $300,000 in campaign contributions from oil companies than the plight of Gulf Coast fishermen.  Ensuing attempts have been blocked by Tom Coburn, another Senator who relies on contributions from big oil.

Sixth, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he refuses to raise taxes in order to balance California’s budget. So, instead, he is cutting welfare benefits for more than one million of California’s unemployed. Of course, California is not alone. Similar measures have been instituted in Arizona and several other states. Indeed, Arizona’s legislature cut funding for health care for poor kids until they found out that the state would lose more in federal funding than it would save. Meanwhile, the Arizona dimwits continue to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy.

Finally, teabagger darling, Rand Paul, displayed his true colors on The Rachel Maddow Show when he refused to say he would have voted for the 1960s Civil Rights Bill. What he did say is that he thinks private businesses should be able to do what they want, even if that means refusing to serve non-whites.

This is just a brief recap of wingnut values. One can’t help but conclude that if the Republican teabaggers have their way, America’s coasts will be covered in oil, the public schools will be closed, and the streets will be filled with angry, homeless, poor people who are armed to the teeth.