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CNN is reporting that Sarah Palin will not be joining the Conservative Pathetic Acrimonious Complainers (CPAC) this year… The Alaska governor had been expected to serve as the headline attraction at the three day event.
One bets that she’s learned her lesson on having photo-shoots with other turkeys in the background.
In her place, other headline speakers will include Russ Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Ann Coulter… Attendance is expected to be low.
Reading about the divisive split between rank and file Republicans and their leadership, I came across this small piece. in TIME.
The House coalition of Republicans and the Senate coalition(sans 3) of Republicans, are betting that the stimulus plan will fail… Only if it does, and America is ruined in the process, can their actions be vindicated… If it succeeds, their Party flushes out the conservatives.
“It’s hard to take Republican leaders too seriously when they criticize recovery plans for the economy; it’s sort of like those geese criticizing evacuation plans for US Airways Flight 1549. Their critiques look even goofier when you see their alternatives. They warn that President Barack Obama’s stimulus package will explode the debt — and so they want to make President Bush’s debt-exploding tax cuts permanent. They say Democratic spending plans are full of pork — then they propose an extra $24 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal equivalent of Oscar Meyer. Let’s just say their idea bank could use a bailout.”
“Similarly, as the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center pointed out, the Senate’s $70 billion patch to the alternative minimum tax is “neither timely nor targeted” and “makes no sense as economic stimulus.” And it’s worth noting that the corporate tax cuts favored by the GOP critics who have screeched the loudest about the lack of stimulus in the stimulus happen to be lousy stimulus.”
“But it’s telling that House minority leader John Boehner keeps ridiculing programs to weatherize low-income homes — which would create jobs in a hurry, save poor people money in the long term and reduce energy waste that increases carbon emissions and empowers foreign thugs. It’s a worthy program, and if anyone doesn’t think so, now is the perfect time to have that debate. What’s the argument in favor of heating and air-conditioning the outdoors?”
Courtesy of Recession History Info
We are a representative government.. We elect officials to represent us… It is unfortunate that others have more access to our representative than do us…
Our representatives live in a bubble.. It’s one we put them in… They oversee the welfare of millions yet it is impossible to talk to a million people… At one second a piece, answering the phone calls 24/7 of a million people would still take eleven and a half days…. Therefore they rely on polls.. They rely on visitors, often K street, organizing their priorities for them.. They rely on their staffers to offer advice.. Anyone who has staffed a delegate’s office knows the work load and research those guys do which are required to keep their bosses informed… And when they return to their districts, they rely on the emotional one-on-one with constituents to either affirm, or deny all that they have been told….
When was the last time you went to a meeting to make your voice heard?
Exactly!
So don’t be harsh on blaming your Congressional or Senate liaison for making a bad decision…. Of course you are angry… who wouldn’t be after having their houses, jobs, and savings stolen from them by bandits who had legal protection and sweet heart deals and were protected by the previous Republican’s administration….
We know they are bad, which is why America voted them out… and voted in someone who, probably the only one who, can turn things around…
He needs your help.
He, unlike those in Congress, has just returned from the people…. He has campaigned hard and fast and won… He won because he convinced the majority of Americans that he was the better candidate… And to that segment that switched their allegiance from Republicans to his side, he owes them results….
Stop for a minute and reminisce… Democrats vote democratic (2000-2004). Republicans vote republican (2000-2004)… They are relatively even…. But this year, massive numbers of Republicans defected from their party because it was wrong… Get it? Their party was wrong and they left….
All Americans must realize that they are the real runners of this country.. If you have ever stood by awaiting election figures to pour in, you understand exactly who it is that runs this country. Until all results are in, we just don’t know who won… Americans have the right to change their minds at the last minute, and it gets rather scary even though the polls and our people are telling us we already have it in the bag. Trust me, every person earning his income solely by the grace of the voters of his district is always trying to gather intelligence on what we think… Trust me…
They know, that one wrong decision, can cause an emotional shift that stigmatizes them for life…… That is why the recalcitrant ones, the ones who sell themselves out for interests other than the people… are ones who are in districts all sewn up…. That fact is true on the state, local, and federal scale… Society’s problems always come from politicians who never have competition…
One can still make inroads however… For they have the most to lose should public opinion ever shift away from their dutiful reappointment…. Therefore, a phone call either in favor or against a proposition is really one’s duty…
The opposition is made up of cranky old white men…. despite their election of Michael Steele.. Cranky old white men have nothing better to do than bitch.. The rest of us are scrambling to live.. to keep a job, to afford food, to make a mortgage, to drop the kids off at school, to teach our kids what schools forgot… We usually expect someone else out of the millions who voted for change to pick up their phone and call our side in….
But guess what? They are all too busy too… Just… like…. you….
Looking at the letters to the editor, one sees total unbalance in the views offered.. Publications by the same 75 people over and over and over again, reiterating tax cuts and caps on spending…Our side is not there to offer the overwhelming counter argument that tax cuts failed… spending cuts failed…. our economy failed…. our employers failed…. our banks failed….. Wall Street failed…. our regulators failed… our Republican government philosophy failed…. Republicans in Congress failed…
We all voted to express our nation’s frustration… but that has now faded from importance as all eyes turn to positioning themselves for 2010….. Because of that political reality, now is the time we need to make that call…. Now is the time we need to act…. Now is the time we need to make sure our representatives do not make a gross miscalculation of voter’s future anger…
Waste is waste and food is food…. Imagine someone in a soup kitchen refusing to allow a bowl to pass to a starving worker because of a couple of wasteful drops had fallen on the napkin underneath?
That is what Republicans and Tom Carper are pursuing…… We are at a point where only you can affect the outcome… If you don’t call…. it’s your job on the line… if you don’t call…it’s your house that will next month be on the line…. if you don’t call…. it’s your American dream that disappears from right in front of your eyes….
WE, the people , have but one chance…to make America better…. We have fallen and skinned our knee and are asking only for a band aid… To not give us the medicine that goes with it will leave us with a trace of a deadly infection that will complicate things to come…
There is no fat in this bill.. It is money… Money solves a lot of problems…. Republicans know that!… They spent the last 8 years throwing your money away when we had a surplus…. Now that we are broke, they are the ones interfering with the our bank to force it not to give us a loan which we can afford, a loan which we desperately need, a loan which can only benefit us… by keeping our nation from living hand to mouth on its streets…
You, hold all power to make the difference… Your call as a citizen of this great nation, is our only hope to insure that your voice blows out of the water, that insipid minority who destroyed everything you worked for….
Call:
202-224-2441
Say: Hi, I’m calling from (your neighborhood ) and I just heard that Tom Carper, wants to strip 78 billion from health, education, and state unemployment benefits?… That is the wrong area… If you are going to cut the plan, it should be cut by cutting off the tax breaks for those making over one million a year… They caused this depression. They should pay for it… not our children in schools…. or those unfortunate who were thrown out of work
Or something to that effect..
This is one time that you run your country… If you don’t call, you will not be able to look the rest of us in the eye and say that you as a man or women, did everything in your power to make this country a better place for your children…
You will go to your grave knowing there was one thing you could have done, that just might have tipped the balance, and you chose to walk away…
America needs you to step it up.
Remember, he’s a human being too, just like you and me. Just talk to him.
It’s simple, really. The stimulus plan put governmental tax money directly back into the economy which has the byproduct of creating jobs…
Even that which some call pork creates jobs…
Granted there is waste in the package… Not like 70%, not like 50%, not like 25%, but more like 3%… Yes, it is there, and it probably will need to stay just to get the other 97% passed and into the economy.
Democrats are saying we need to pass this bill because we can’t wait…. As soon as it is passed, we start to stop the slide of terminations…
They have a point.. Most businesses if this bill does not go through, will see no hope on the horizon.. Currently every business is already carrying numbers of employees they don’t need, waiting, hoping for a sign that a turnaround will come soon. There is a great psychological benefit to this bill. Like victims in a burning house right on the edge of life or death….. knowing that the firemen are in the house coming up the stairs…. gives them the strength to not give up, to not let go…
Whereas it is true that many of the projects will not be running until over a year from now, just knowing that help is on the way, will keep many employees still on our nation’s payrolls. Just knowing that something is coming…. will keep hope alive…. Hope may not save every job, but it will save some.
Republicans on the other hand, see this as waste. (It isn’t really. It’s just the amount they should have spent over the past 8 years bundled together in one lump sum.) They want to hold the entire bill up until that 3% is removed…. The problem is that 3% is important to many of the other supporters of that bill.. thereby making Republicans the obstructionists who are preventing that 97% of the relief to go through.. 97% of good…. held up by 3% of bad…. That is mantra of the Republican Party today… in a nutshell. What Republicans don’t realize, is that even that wasteful 3%… creates jobs.. Those people lucky enough to receive those wages, will buy the Coca-Cola (no one drinks Pepsi anymore), potato chips, Gatorade, bread, margarine, milk, cars, houses and large screen televisions that enable the rest of us to work…..
Of course jobs are not important in the Republican scheme of things… They never have been. That is why as a nation we sent millions of jobs overseas during the past 8 years… What Republicans fail to realize, is that jobs are important to those that either have none or are in grave danger of losing those they have.
Which comes down to the brass tacks.. If this bill does not get passed this week, cuts across this country begin in earnest after President’s Day… They would have been handed out already, but…. most corporate boards are holding off to see whether or not this bill is passed.
This bill is our hope. Despite it’s waste, it represents our hope that if and when the market fails this extensively, that the American people can come together and still manage to save the American dream. If we can’t come together to save ourselves, our nation, our dreams…, … from what I hear loud and clear from every channel…… it will be solely because of Republicans.
Granted, they are right to point out the waste. Granted they are right to attempt to fix it. Granted they are right to make their contributions as well.. That is not contestable….. But since they got so completely and devastatingly wiped out in the last election, today, even though they have the numbers, they stand with no credibility to block this benefit from becoming reality for the rest of us…. Unlike them, America has moved on and did so resoundingly on November 4, 2008.
This crises we can’t bounce back from… This one…. we can’t remain partisan…. This one, will make… or break… our nation… As it did with the Arizona Cardinals….. time has run out….
Unless Republicans reacquaint themselves with Main Street America, their contested 3% (which still creates jobs), along with the 97% opportunity which this nation desperately needs….will pass into futuristic oblivion stamped with their party’s codeword for the American opportunity: DENIED.
…..I stumbled again across this quote…
Just as Caesar Rodney made his way to Philadelphia on July 2nd of 1776 to break a deadlock on the question of independence, we must make our way to the halls of power to break with the unethical and corrupt practices of the past. It is Delaware’s destiny to push the country forward once again.
Those words still fit…. Thanks for the inspiration.
I don’t know what it is about today, but they just keep coming… When I pointed out this blog several months ago, a lot of you enjoyed it immensely… (It is well written)… Well one part made me laugh and think of Mike Matthews … It is probably an inside joke and no one will ever catch it, but just in case this has dropped off your reading list, I’ll post the link again…
Here, see for yourselves…. Here, and here…
We all know Ron Williams is smarter than Einstein… Does Markell even have a chance? Keeping checking Tommywonk for new updates on this “battle of the minds”…
Sorry for the headline… I wasn’t going to publish anything today but the strange juxtaposition of two national media events has pissed me off…
Of course the media can do what it wants.. But then, heh, heh, so can I… And between myself and the media, the media will get the worst of it.
The two events are the Daschle appointment tax controversy, and the Obama bashing of my idol Jessica Simpson for being fat (not phat). Their coverage pissed me off..
CNN is running with the headline: Obama Taking a Dig at Jessica Simpson! It’s lead off states: Did Barack Obama take a dig at pop star Jessica Simpson?
Later buried in the story we find that on Matt Lauer’s today show, that the “much ado about nothing”story was only about a transcript error which had “inexplicably” occurred.
Obama was supposed to have snidely said of Jessica Simpson:
“Yeah, who’s losing a weight battle apparently,” “Yeah. Oh, well.”
When actually he matter of factly read the headline out loud:
““She’s in a ‘weight battle,’ apparently” — and did not say that Simpson was “losing” that fight.
After one gets to the bottom of the controversy the only news is that a transcript was doctored by NBC. The Headline should have read:
NBC Lies To Make Obama “Dis” Jessica Simpson
Why is this important? Every Philadelphia Eagles fan will tell you…. We owe Jessica Simpson, big time….” Dissing her, brings payback.
So what’s up with the Daschle story? I was reading a Liberal blogger who recently was arguing for a new candidate, and thought to myself, has that blogger lost his mind? One expected with the Obama win, that the issue of Health Care would finally be addressed. The only person capable of moving Health Care through the Senate… is Tom Daschle. If you don’t get Daschle, you don’t get single payer Health Care… I’m afraid that’s a political reality that many newbe Liberals are unaware of.
So what is headlined is $148,000 in back taxes. But as we read deeper we find that it is not over cash owed, not over a miss-filing, not over criminal wrong doing, or anything else malicious… Instead if is over a gray area of a little help from a friend… Imagine, and I think back on my younger days, of standing in the cold waiting for the bus, and someone on the job site, says “where do you live? I’ll pick you up…” and I ask…” are you sure? I don’t have any money to repay you”… and they say ” don’t worry about it… I have to spend the same money anyway”… and I say “ok” and then actually get used to it and come to depend on it… Woe and behold if I ever had to claim that cost as income on my tax forms… The thought would never occur to me, really, but if we are going to hold Daschle accountable, then what I was doing was cheating my government out of income as well..
So how do I account for it? Since we shared a ride… do I pay half? Or am I responsible only for the amount of bus fare I saved because of the free, or what I thought was a free ride given to me? Am I guilty of receiving income per mile that I traveled, and if it is per mile, do I use the mileage allowance costed out for that year of my youth, or today’s cost, because I’m paying back taxes in this year….? Am I deserving of penalties and interest because I did not even think of this favor as income? So how much do I owe?
Worried about the impropriety of all of this which transpired years ago, I asked my tax lawyer what could be done… His advice was “Forget about it”. No one cares… But when I insisted and said that my records would be scrutinized for any issue real or imagined, he shrugged his shoulders and said..” If you are that much worried about it, calculate the highest cost possible, count it as income, calculate the penalties and interest as if it were unreported income, and cut a check… But if you ask me, your wasting time and money on nothing… No one cares.”
Now the argument being made by those extremely frightened that single payer health care might go through, is that because Daschle was a former Senator, he should have known he was in violation, if not at least that he was involved in impropriety. But, as did I go around and around with my accountant, I’m sure that Daschle also had expert advice when it came time to fill out his 1040… Seriously, I would doubt that he actually stayed up all night with receipts and double stick tape, running through two rolls of calculator paper… Most likely he had an expert compile the tax for him… At his salary level, he most likely had a “top” expert compile his tax for him… That “top” expert would know exactly what was legal and what was not…
Legally Daschle is only entitled to report income… The cost of the service was free to the person giving it.. A limousine service costs the same whether a car sits idle, or it doesn’t. The chauffeur, car payments, repairs, and even the differential of gas used, cost the same whether hired out or not. Like dogs, the cars have to be run when idle to keep them in top condition.. So how much did Daschle benefit?
Although what he did was legal, and he had the best legal authorities advising him, and no doubt you yourself are guilty of getting a ride from someone and not recording it as income… in order to see that single payer Health Care sails through Congress he plunked down $148,000 dollars to put it behind him.. He also apologized.
(My guess is that Bill Richardson couldn’t come up with the cash…..)
So my squeamish Liberal friends are showing they, like they have been portrayed by Republicans these past 8 years, really do not have backbone and really do not want single payer Health Care to sail through Congress…..
If I’m wrong (you know I am), they had better get their asses in gear and get on the horn and muscle up the outrage…. Outrage that someone who tries hard to be honest, is not given his opportunity to make his case forthright.. Every American citizen is given his right to a trial where he can meet his accusers face to face and refute their accusations… Unless of course he lives in America and has to deal with our main stream media…
It matters not whether you are a Republican or Democrat… Our four networks and lead newspapers all suck… Thank heavens for the foreign press… That’s who I read and whose advertised products I buy… (Their ads are actually entertaining compared tho the tripe we are fed over here.)
( I will finish with this story… So mad was I today (yeah, Tony, Jessica affects me too), that I wasted an hour on the comment lines of each network and main newspapers with a diatribe degrading American news and promoting foreign reporting… I then left these links so viewers could see what real news looked like…) None were published (I expected that)…but the point was taken by their gate-keepers I am sure… Perhaps you could help clean up America where it needs it most and follow suit with some of these below?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/default.stm
http://www.reuters.com/finance
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business.html
http://www.smh.com.au/
And if you are bilingual…..
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/sequence/0,2-3234,1-0,0.html
Perhaps you could do the same? All I asking is that like our foreign press corps, that America’s media just stick to facts and leave their unrefuted opinions and spin to be sorted out by the experts: us.
If enough people follow suit, decrying local coverage and praising the foreign press right there on their pages, together we might give our main stream media the collective enema they have so long deserved….. At least we can all conclude that they need more fiber.
