Category Archives: Teapublicans

Three Explanations for Romney’s Claim He Doesn’t Remember Cruelty.

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Recently, several of Mitt Romney’s high school friends recounted an event in which they held down a gay classmate at their Michigan private school while Romney hacked off the terrified student’s bleached blond locks.

Certainly, most of us do dumb things as teenagers. And most of us never forget them. I did and said some terribly cruel things as a teen to prove that I belonged with the “in” crowd. I remember each of them vividly and I have long regretted them. Indeed, I wish I could meet with the victims of my cruelty and beg for their forgiveness.

Yet what I did pales in comparison to Mr. Romney’s reported actions.

So when Romney says that he doesn’t recall the incident, what are the possible explanations for his memory failure?

1 – His classmates are lying.

2 – He’s lying.

3 – He committed so many cruel acts that he can’t single out just one.

Since the story has been corroborated by at least five former classmates, we can logically rule out number one. That leaves only two options. Both are an indictment of Mitt Romney’s character.  And both should disqualify him from becoming President of the United States.

How Teapublicans Win.

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What happens when you combine the least educated and least curious portion of our electorate with the most selfish and greedy?  What happens when those people are guided by the religious certainty that the Earth is 6,000 years old and that the destruction of our planet will only hasten their opportunity to ride in the golden chariot to heaven?  What happens when they’re led by people who are willing to tell any lie and embrace any falsehood to be elected?

The result is today’s Republican Party.

Of course, they’ll never admit it.  According to Teapublicans, they’re simply trying to rescue America from socialists, communists, fascists and other undesireables such as Democrats, women, school teachers, government workers, labor unions, immigrants, gays, lesbians, transgenders, people of color, and the poor.  I’m sure there are many other “enemies,” but I don’t know what’s inside the minds of Teapublicans.  And, given the ugliness of their rhetoric, I certainly don’t want to peek inside!

The reality is that Teapublican leaders want their followers to fear their neighbors, so they won’t notice the big money interests pulling the strings behind the curtain.  They’re quite literally rigging the system and walking off with the money.  They’ve pushed their tax burden onto the already overburdened middle class.  They collect billions in government contracts and subsidies. And by gaining control of the Supreme Court, they’ve usurped even more control of our political system.

Now they’re out to undermine Social Security and Medicare.  The end result will be to give large financial institutions and insurance companies (both controlled by Wall Street) access to still more of our money.

If more people recognized what’s going on, Teapublicans would never again win an election.  They can’t win based on an open discussion of ideas and truth.  They can only win through a combination of lies, intimidation, dirty tricks and fear.

This year, they are led by a candidate who quite blythely says today what is in direct contradiction with what he said yesterday.  And his followers eat it up.  They’ve manufactured the usual number of straw dogs to excite their base and intimidate opponents, such as ballot measures designed to appeal to their religious base in order to incite more campaigning from the pulpit.  They’ve created PACs and Super PACs with tens of millions in anonymous money to buy votes.  And they are well on their way to repressing minority votes through new voter ID laws.

We’ve seen it all before…in 2000, 2004 and 2010.  And with each passing election cycle, the conversation leans further to the right and ordinary citizens lose a little more control of our country.

Requiem For The American Dream.

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This isn’t so much a blog post as an obituary.  The American Dream was defined as the ability for Americans to rise above their parents’ experience.  The ability to, as the result of education and hard work, become a success.  It is measured by the distribution of wealth and upward mobility.

In both of those measurements, the US now trails most of the world’s advanced nations.  A report by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) found that social mobility between generations is dramatically lower in the US than Denmark, Australia, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany and Spain.

The American Dream didn’t pass into history as the result of natural causes.  It was starved to death by Teapublicans who signed Grover Norquist’s “no new taxes” pledge.  It was bludgeoned by the likes of George W. Bush, Richard “The Dick” Cheney and their cartel of oil companies and military defense contractors.  It was driven off a cliff by greedy Wall Street bankers and their enablers such as former Senator Phil Gramm.

Republicans may have led the attack on the Dream. But many Democrats participated. President Clinton signed the Republican bill that revoked the Glass-Steagall Act allowing Wall Street bankers to gamble with your money and our futures.  He also signed a Republican bill opening commodity markets to gambling.

Many Congressional Democrats cast their votes alongside Republicans to starve government through the Bush tax cuts.  And they added their names to legislation approving the invasion of Iraq.

As the result of these actions, corporations were allowed to rake in large profits while sending our jobs offshore.  They were allowed to stash profits in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes.  Banks were allowed to privatize their profits and socialize their failures.  The wealthy got even wealthier while paying lower taxes.  Banks got homeowners to sign mortgages at inflated interest rates, then took their homes to support the banks’ gambling habit.

The only question left is what now?  Will we allow economic disparity to grow dividing our nation into the haves and have nots?  Or will we resurrect the Dream?  The coming elections will provide the answers.

A Message To Moderate Republicans:

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To those long-time Republicans who fondly remember the Party of Lincoln, the party that held the Union together against the forces of slavery, the party that supported the “live and let live” principles of Goldwater, the party that stood with Reagan against the Soviet Union:  I have some very bad news for you.

That Republican Party no longer exists.

It was hijacked by neo-cons who started a “pre-emptive” war and resorted to torture in defiance of the Geneva Conventions.  These “new conservatives” bought votes with their unfunded Medicare drug plan.  They abandoned fiscal responsiblity by running up huge deficits and massive debt.  And they drove our economy off a cliff.

But they aren’t the only hijackers of your once proud party.  Your party has also been taken over by a group of intolerant zealots who intend to force their own unforgiving brand of Christianity on everyone; people who want to create a nanny state that dictates behavior, particularly that of women, gays and the poor.

Then, in 2010, your party embraced the “Tea Party” and yet another extreme agenda.  These people hate – I mean HATE – our government and anyone who supports it.  They hate public education, “entitlements” and government regulation – even to preserve the environment.  They refuse to compromise.  If anyone even mentions the word, they’re labeled RINOs (Republican in name only) and pushed aside.  They hate immigrants and people of color – any color but white.  And, if they don’t get their way, they threaten to exercise their “Second Amendment rights.”

Despite your best intentions, you won’t be able to fix the Republican Party from within.  There are simply too many of them and too few of you.  There is no Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings to save your party.  Instead, you have “leaders” such as Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan – the rising star who follows the self-centered principles of Ayn Rand, instead of those of Lincoln, Goldwater and Reagan.

Sooner or later, you’ll realize that the only real options left for moderate Republicans are to become Independents with no hope of choosing candidates, to form a new party, or to join the Democratic Party which has become the party of fiscal responsibility.

As someone raised Republican turned Independent turned Democrat, I can assure you that you will be very welcome in our party.

The Politics of “Oh Yeh?”

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Remember when you were a child?  Remember when somebody said something bad about you or someone you cared about?  Remember how you too often responded with something that started, “Oh yeh?  Well, you’re a…?”  Or maybe you repeated the ever popular, “I’m rubber and you’re glue.  Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.”

This childish behavior now extends to the highest levels of our government.  And nobody is better at it than Teapublicans.  It’s as if they’re forever adolescents mentally frozen in the fifth grade.  Witness the Teapublican response to Democrats’ call for freezing interest rates on student loans.  The House passed a student loan bill that was amended to take money from the budget intended for health care. Then, in the Senate, Teapublicans filibustered a student loan bill that didn’t include the budget trick.

“Oh yeh, Democrats, take that!”  No honest debate.  No compromise.  Just another gotcha.

And how about the Teapublican reaction to the anniversary of the attack on Osama bin Laden?  As soon as President Obama posted a commercial commemorating the event on the Internet, Mitt Romney tried to diminish the gravity of the event by saying, “Of course I would have made the same decision.  Even Jimmy Carter would have.”  And the Teapublican megaphone, aka Fox News Channel, was turned up to full volume with all the hosts reading the following Teapublican talking point from their teleprompters:  “It’s as if President Obama is spiking the football in the endzone.”

Really?  That’s the game you want to play?  Ignoring the fact that President Bush played the 9/11 card for almost every event, couldn’t you think of a more adult response to President Obama?  Wouldn’t a grown-up admit that the president made a good decision, congratulate him and simply move on to another issue? 

Apparently, that’s not an option for Teapublicans. 

It seems that as soon as you register as a Teapublican, the Party bosses automatically rewind the way back clock…in your mind.

As Long As We’re Telling The Truth…

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A recent editorial in The Washington Post was headlined, “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.”  The writers go on to say, “We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”

This is not coming from the so-called “liberal media.”  It’s from one of the most respected and unbiased newspapers in the land; the newspaper that covers both sides of politics from our nation’s capitol. When The Washington Post makes such a statement, everyone needs to pay attention.

This amazing admonishment of the right, follows the revelation of a meeting that took place the night of President Obama’s inauguration.  With the nation having just experienced the collapse of the housing industry, the freefall of the entire global economy, the loss of 4.4 million jobs, the loss of billions or trillions in tax revenues, a bankrupt financial system, huge deficits adding to our national debt and two wars (one unnecessary), all caused by the decisions of an 8-year Republican administration, these “patriots” seemed concerned with only one thing:  How could they cause the Obama administration to fail?

Unaware of the plot against him, President Obama began his administration by trying to accomplish the goals of his campaign – to repair the fractures in our nation by working with Republicans. He asked several Republicans to join his cabinet in order to heal the nation.  Most declined.  Instead of accepting the president’s hand, Republicans claimed he was not an American citizen and, therefore, not a legitimate president. When the administration and Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and offered loans to the failing auto industry, Republicans cried “Socialist” and organized the “Tea Party” from their most right wing supporters. They appeared at Presidential speeches with guns. They carried signs calling him a Fascist, a modern-day Hitler and threatening to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.

Republican Senators filibustered almost every initiative to create jobs in the hopes that the struggling economy would benefit them politically.  They filibustered and obstructed legislation that would prevent a repeat of our economic collapse.  They refused to allow votes on a record number of presidential appointments, including federal judges and heads of government agencies.  A Republican Congressman even broke long-standing decorum by shouting “You lie” during a State of the Union address.

The stalemate caused by the Teapublican obstruction worked.  Teapublicans took control of the House in 2010.  Still, President Obama reached out to find compromise with the right.  In response, the Republican House Speaker said he didn’t believe in compromise; that he didn’t even know what the word meant.  Since then, Teapublicans have only become more obstructionist, more unyielding and more uncivil.

Now we’re approaching yet another election.  No thanks to Teapublicans, more than a million auto industry jobs have been saved, we’re digging out of the economic abyss, we’ve ended one war and placed an end date on the other, we’ve eliminated the leadership of al Qaeda, and we’ve greatly improved our reputation throughout the world.

By almost every measure, President Obama deserves to be re-elected.  Teapublicans, on the other hand, have earned a place in the very darkest corners of our history.

What’s Your Definition Of Freedom?

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If you listen to conservative talk radio, you’d think conservatives are the only ones who care about freedom.  They call themselves “patriots” and wrap themselves in the flag in a show of false superiority.  But, truth is, moderates and liberals want freedom, too.  The difference is in the way we define it.

For example, conservatives seem to believe freedom means being able to do whatever they want without restriction.  They seem to equate freedom with money…the more money the more freedom.  And some seem to believe the color of their skin gives them more freedom than others.

Some believe corporations should be free to exploit natural resources without regard to the quality of our air and water.  They believe corporations should be free to sell foods that slowly poison their customers.  They believe corporations should be free to sell any product no matter how flawed or dangerous.  And they believe corporations should be free to use their money and influence to control our government.

Moderates and liberals, on the other hand, believe corporations should be regulated to protect our families and our environment.

Many “conservatives” believe that they should be free to impose their religious and moral beliefs on others.  To tell others who to marry and who to love, and what they can do with their bodies.  Some believe they should be able to control who votes.

Some believe they should have the freedom to speed, to tailgate and to run red lights.  Some believe they have the right to ridicule and intimidate others.  Some believe they should be free to cheat, lie and steal.  Some believe freedom is tied to the barrel of a gun.

Others, like me, consider such people to be bullies and cowards.

That’s the difficult thing about freedom.  Everyone has a different definition.  With more than 300 million sharing this land, freedom requires compromise and we should never allow any ideology to co-opt it.  In fact, the only thing standing between your freedom and mine is government; the system of representation and laws our Founding Fathers had the wisdom to create.  We can’t permit conservatives to claim ownership of it.

How “Starve The Beast” Became “Starve The Poor.”

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For years, Teapublicans have marched to a tune called “Starve The Beast.”  The premise is that government has gotten too big and expensive so, in order to bring it under control, they must deprive it of the revenue needed to fund it.  As band-leader-in-chief, President George W. Bush cut taxes, primarily for the wealthy.

As a result of those tax cuts, two unfunded wars and a bill designed to buy the votes of seniors in time for the 2004 election, the Bush administration squandered the Clinton-era budget surpluses and led us into massive deficits and an ever-growing national debt.

Rather than being alarmed by these Bush decisions, Teapublicans reveled in them.  And, when the economy collapsed in 2008, Teapublicans recognized two opportunities:  One, by blocking every attempt to speed up the recovery, they hope to make President Obama a one-term president.  Two, by howling about the enormous deficit and debt they created, they hope to make it easier to cut government and the things Teapublicans seem to hate most: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

They say Americans can no longer afford such programs.  They point to the long-term “instability” of Medicaid and Medicare while failing to admit that much of that instability is caused by the skyrocketing medical and pharmaceutical costs they refuse to address.  I believe their hatred for “Obamacare” is driven by the fact that it will help mitigate costs, thereby saving Medicaid and Medicare.

Likewise, Teapublicans seem to relish every new report on Social Security that shows the program running out of funds in the not-too-distant future.  They point to the large group of retiring Baby Boomers as the reason the program needs to be privatized (gotta get it out of the clutches of big government, you know).

What they fail to mention is how easily Social Security could be permanently fixed.  Either increasing individual contributions to the plan by little more than 1 percent or removing the cap on incomes above $106,000 would protect Social Security for future generations.  But that wouldn’t allow Teapublicans to meet their long-term goals of privatizing Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

As for the people whose health care would be left at the mercy of large, greedy insurance companies and the retirees who might be relegated to dumpster-diving the next time the stock markets crash, no worries.

Teapublicans are more than willing to starve the poor in order to Starve The Beast.

Whatever Happened to The “Liberal” Media?

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Oh, that’s right! The “liberal” media was never more than a figment of Teapublican imaginations and conservative radio nutjobs!

As I pointed out in a previous post, following the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, conservative talk radio has overwhelmed progressive and moderate talk radio. And the wackos on Fox News Channel have dominated cable news with Teapublican talking points. Those who rely on these stations for news are, instead, given an earful of conservative opinions, half-truths and outright falsehoods…all presented as absolute facts.

Moreover, the effect of the attacks on mainstream media has been to cause them to dance around the truth in order to avoid even more attacks from the right. As a result, the mainstream media tend to downplay or overlook stories that contrast with the conservative narrative.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. A recent examination of Sunday morning TV news programs by Think Progress found that, between June of 2011 and February of this year, 70 percent of the guests were Republican. And the latest survey from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (www.journalism.org) found that news coverage has been slanted against President Obama. The study states, “Of all the presidential candidates studied in this report, only one figure did not have a single week in 2012 when positive coverage exceeded negative coverage—the incumbent, Democrat Barack Obama.”

No matter. As long as legitimate news services refuse to pass along conservative crackpot theories as “news,” conservatives will continue to rant about bias. And conservative writers and media hosts will continue to claim that they alone are presenting the truth that the mainstream news media won’t.

Sen. Phil Gramm. A Legacy Of Failures.

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Unquestionably, Gramm’s actions as a US Senator were failures for consumers and our economy. But given the massive profits of the “too big to fail” financial institutions, they were great successes for Wall Street and large corporations.

In 1999, then Republican Senator Phil Gramm co-sponsored the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, aka the Financial Services Modernization Act, aka the Citigroup Relief Act which was enacted by the 106th US Congress and, unfortunately signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which had successfully protected consumer finances by erecting firewalls between banks of deposit, security investment companies and insurance companies. The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act removed those restrictions allowing financial institutions of all kinds to consolidate.

The bill was crafted to provide legal cover for Citigroup which, a year earlier had been formed by the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group. For the first time since the Great Depression, the merged organization combined banking, securities and insurance services that included Citibank, Smith Barney, Primerica and Travelers.

For Wall Street, it was the best legislation money could buy.

But Sen. Gramm’s meddling on behalf of large financials didn’t stop there. In 2000, he sponsored the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which was also signed into law by President Clinton. It weakened yet another post-Depression law, the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, freeing over-the-counter derivitives transactions between “sophisticated parties” from regulation under federal securities laws. It is the law that permitted credit default swaps.

Combined, the two Gramm-sponsored laws created an environment of massive profits for Wall Street and led to the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis which cost the world economy an estimated $7.7 trillion! And if that doesn’t give you cause for concern, consider this:  Despite being the poster boy for our current economic problems, Gramm was selected as the senior economic adviser for John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Had McCain been elected with Gramm advising him, imagine where our economy might be now!