Hello? Hello?!?
For eight long years we had this guy as the Commander-in-chief, the Leader of the Free World, and an arm’s reach away from the “football.” Is there any wonder why the rest of the world held their collective breath, and why they’re so relieved now?
It’s just amazing after 8 years of Bush, so many of the Teabaggers would want us to go back to that. Do people on the far right all have short term memory loss? Or do they all answer their phones like this?
You know, it’s amazing that anything gets done in Washington. Congress is supposed to be looking out for the best interest of the nation, but more often than not, it acts more like its running a three-legged race with a one-legged partner. Someone is always refusing to carry their weight for political or monetary reasons, which makes everything drag on far longer than it should.
Take health care reform for example . . .
There’s absolutely no reason why Congress should be concerning itself with protecting the over glutted coffers of the insurance companies. And yet, it seems making sure the top CEOs continue to bring in 57 thousand dollars an hour is top priority.
Does it make any sense? Well it does if you look at it from a strictly “kick back, re-election fund overflowing with money” point of view. Apparently, when the right wing and blue dogs say the #1 priority in the country is “jobs, jobs, jobs,” they mean their own jobs. Keeping the millions of dollars in contributions streaming in from corporations like the insurance companies, gives them a sense of job security they just can’t seem to pass up.
But we, the people have a recourse! If these politicians think their job security lies in how many deals they can make with corporations, then we need to show them their real job security actually depends on us and our vote.
Think about it, how long will huge re-election funds matter when no one pays any heed to the advertising they pay for? Great ads, with grandiose promises can’t stand up to actual track records on the ground, and so its up to the people to remember what these senators and congressmen really do while on the job, and who they’re actually working for.
We hear a lot about special interest groups lobbying Congress to get special corporate favors. They seem to buy senators and representatives who’s votes appear to hold no other logic than to satisfy these lobbyists’ agendas. As these politicians’ re-election funds are padded with corporate money, and their sent on free elaborate vacations, the people should be asking, “What about our special interests?”
While watching TV the other night, a political commercial came on for one of the people running for the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat. It was the usual rhetoric about changing Washington, blah, blah, blah. But near the end, the candidate made an interesting statement . . .
He declared, “I will not take any money from Special Interest Groups.”
Wondering if he’d be willing to put that in writing, it occurred to me how great it would be if all candidates running for the 2010 election would be willing to sign a statement proposed to them, declaring themselves off limits to lobbyists.
Perhaps a group like MoveOn.org could head that up?
It would certainly give us an indication of where each candidate stood in regard to doing the right thing and serving the people he or she takes an oath to serve. It wouldn’t have to be an elaborate, drawn out statement either. Just something simple like . . .
“I, [candidate], declare myself off limits to Special Interest Groups, and will not take any money from anyone in exchange for special favors or to sway my vote. If I am elected, I put all citizens on notice that my seat will not be for sale.”
As these signed statements are collected, the running tally of names could be posted online somewhere so everyone could see it. Then we’ll know which candidates are for the people, or for themselves and their corporate buddies.
Then it would be just a matter of us holding them to it.
President Obama’s health care speech to the Joint Houses of Congress certainly shook things up a bit, and I in no way want to belittle it. It was masterfully given, and spelled out exactly what everyone wanted to hear. But the best part of the night for me was the behavior and appearance of the Republicans throughout the whole evening.
It reminded me of a group of school bullies who were being brought to terms by their principal. There was defiance for sure, but the majority of them looked like the jig was up for them and they were about to spend the rest of the year in detention.
Though I’m still deeply troubled by the lack of respect given to the office of the President by these supposedly intelligent, patriotic leaders, I can understand their frustration. For so many years the Republican party has stood their ground on purely partisan politics, using fear and misinformation to thwart Democratic liberalism. But now they’re up against a President who’s smarter than they are, totally dedicated to working for the people, and perhaps the best “roper-doper” since Mohamed Ali.
One has to wonder if Obama’s push to get a bill voted on before the August recess wasn’t a calculated maneuver to send the GOP into a frenzy, knowing full well it would nudge them into revealing all their dirty tricks throughout the recess. Let’s face it, they threw everything they had at it, but in the end, health care reform is still the most popular way to go according to the majority of Americans, and all the right-wingers managed to do was expose their lack of a plan and their unwillingness to participate like adults.
Politics is a bit like gambling, and our President seems to have an excellent poker face.
A lot of the pundits on both sides keep pointing to the fact how the Republican got control of the health care reform issue and almost ran it into the ground. That was their intention, because frankly, if President Obama and the Democrats succeed in bringing in major reform, it’ll be a cold day in hell before Republicans can drag themselves back into good graces with the public. But was it a mistake on the President’s part to let them get away with this for so long?
It certainly was unfortunate that so many people got so badly affected by all the lies and deception, but I have a feeling former President Bush’s misquote a while back will come up in the end and haunt the GOP for a long time to come. “Fool me once, shame on me . . . you. Fool me twice . . . and we won’t get fooled again!”
The madness of this past August allowed the Republican right to play out their entire hand and expose them clearly as mere obstructionist. They used every underhanded trick in the Rove Play Book to kill Democratic efforts. But in the end, they never really got away with their phony “grassroots” appearance, and even the spewing of people like Glen Beck didn’t hide the fact it was coming directly from the GOP.
And now they face the “Community Organizer” tonight as President Obama addresses the Joint Houses of Congress. What do they have left to say that could possibly be taken as credible? How will what they’ve already said measure up to Obama’s ability to motivate in a positive and progressive way?
We’ll see who gets the last word on health care reform, but I have a suspicion the Rove Play Book may end up being good kindling for the GOP funeral pyre when this is all said and done.
This is a must read from Frank Schaeffer for anyone losing hope in President Obama’s methods of politics:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obama-is-right-his-critic_b_273314.html
I’ve always believed the President is a smart guy! And even though he’s been laughed at by the likes of Palin for being just a community organizer, he’s been effectively using that talent to draw the right people and policies to him, while exposing those with no willingness for progress into the light.
Let’s see . . .
1. Senator Grassley taught us what its like to sneer in the face of honesty, by playing the “fly in the ointment” game on his unaware fellow senators. Apparently integrity and good work ethics isn’t everything.
One thing that still puzzles me though. If he, as he claims, “stuck his finger in the dike,” wouldn’t that indicate a slow and methodical trickle was taking place (slow and steady progress) rather than the deluge (rushing health care reform on America) the Republicans claim is going on?
2. It’s typically American to scream in outrage over the assassination of Grandma without actually calling Grandma to find out she’s alright and comfortably at home enjoying her government run Medicare.
3. We are now the “What if” generation.
Cheney’s paranoia over “what if” the terrorists may someday get nuclear weapons of mass destruction; to “what if” President Obama is secretly plotting, in spite of everything he stands for, all he’s now telling us, and all the campaign promises he’s fulfilled already, to bring down America; to “what if” the census, after all these years, will now be used to round up people into concentration camps.
Here’s another one: “What if” everyone just waited to see how things turn out before jumping on the bandwagons of these right wing extremists who know how to push our buttons.
I have a feeling the volcano laying dormant under Yellowstone Park has a better chance of getting us all than any of these other things occur.
4. Americans have short-term memory loss.
Let me give you a recall. The government, during the Bush administration was listening in to your phone conversations, reading your emails, watching the websites you browsed, usurped the Constitution, lied to us, fed the corporations our hard earned money, and ruined our collective reputation by torturing people.
And that’s just what we know about.
So all in all it was a very revealing week!
The identifying labels given to our two political parties have never sat right with me. They really don’t tell the full story effectively, and perhaps we’d better know what we’re getting with each if their “handles” indicated what they actually stood for.
After all, both parties are “liberal” in the sense that the Dems are more generous with programs to help the common folk, while the Reps are freely and givingly in support of the corporations. And they’re both conservative in the way the Dems try to rein in corporate greed and how it effects the economy, while the Reps work at cutting spending on projects that help the common people.
So why not label the Democrats, “Commons,” and the Republicans, “Corporates”? Wouldn’t those monikers better give us an idea of what they stand for?
Just sayin’
© 2009 Rticlz. All Rights Reserved.
This blog is powered by Wordpress and Magatheme by Bryan Helmig.
