Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Elephant in the Room



The Koch brothers and the extreme religious fanatics, usually Evangelists, own the GOP who are following the desires of their true masters and ignoring the needs of their constituents. The GOP is evolving from a Party that loved this country, even when they have always shown favoritism for Corporations it was never to the point of sacrificing the well being of the regular American, the working class to a Party that is only loyal to the elite and fortunate few, the 1%.

For the last twelve years, the Republicans have been giving tax breaks to large corporations, the famous trickle-down economics that has never worked but that the Republicans keep insisting stimulates the economy. For twelve years the largest corporations have paid little or no taxes but have received a hefty sum from the government to promote job creation. Basically, the working class is giving the wealthy money to create part-time or under paid jobs for the working class. The working class is the one paying the taxes that provide these incentives, does that make any sense to anyone? You don’t believe me? Let me begin by saying that for 2011, the total Revenue of the United States collected from Individual income taxes was of $1,091 billion vs. $819 billion from corporate taxes. There alone is a huge discrepancy. At a time where unemployment is high and salaries are low, the working class is the one providing the largest amount of revenue for the country. Let’s not forget that those billions are only from income tax, after the government takes those taxes from us, we still have to pay sales taxes, state taxes etc. Corporations pay sales taxes too, but since they have the ability to purchase in bulk the sales taxes they pay are usually lower plus they can claim an infinite amount of things as expenses and losses, the regular working person can't. So no matter how you slice it, the working class is being squeezed to the max for every penny the government can get from them, and the GOP likes it that way just fine. They don’t want to fairly tax Corporations or the wealthy; at least we can say they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them but a country cannot flourish economically when its economy it’s mostly carried on the shoulders of the weakest. It is unsustainable.

The GOP is constantly claiming that the tax cuts they request are for small businesses. When we hear this, we all think of the mom and pop’s store in our neighborhoods, but we are wrong. Most people don’t know what constitute a small business, the ones benefiting from these tax cuts. Everything that I write here can be traced and confirmed and I will supply the links to support my statements.

The list of the top 200 “small” business listed in Forbes magazine even includes oil companies. I must admit that these oil companies are not Exxon, Mobil or BP but still it is not what most Americans consider small business. The list of small businesses show sales ranging from a minimum of $5 million dollars to $750 million, that is definitively not a mom and pop’s store, yet the tax cuts are geared towards them.

Another thing I heard from the Right is that Democrats are against development, growth and capitalism. I have no idea where they get their information (well, yes I do) but this is not true. Democrats are considered progressives and as such we are in favor of progress, whether this progress is manufacturing, science, development or anything else if it is to improve the lives of all of us. We are not against capitalism, we want everyone to have a chance at succeeding in life and have a fair shot at a better future. What we are vehemently against is for the working class to be abused, taken advantage of on the name of capitalism. There is a big difference there. There is no excuse for a CEO to get a salary in the millions of dollars, a great retirement plan, stocks, bonuses, expenses paid etc. while the worker gets more responsibilities, lower benefits, longer hours and their salaries see little or no changes, and if they get a raise is at best an extra dollar an hour. That is simply a modern way of slavery and that is what Democrats are against. I will never understand a middle class worker justifying such injustice.

Republicans don’t understand what Regulations and Unions do either. They like to blame the high unemployment rate on this. Nothing could be further from the truth.

President Ronald Reagan, the GOP’s demigod, inherited an unemployment rate of 8.5, and during the first year of his administration it peaked to 10.8; we can say that this was not his fault since he inherited an unemployment that was increasing from Jimmy Carter. To his credit, he managed to bring down the unemployment to a 5.4, which is commendable. Of course, we all know that Ronald Reagan would be considered too liberal to be part of the GOP as they are today. President Bill Clinton inherited an unemployment rate of 6.3 and after implementing some tougher regulations he managed to leave the White House and pass to President George W. Bush an unemployment rate of 4.0 and a sound economy. During the eight years that the country had to endure all the damage inflicted by G.W. Bush, he left office with an economy in shambles, an unemployment rate of 5.0 and rising as well as the collapse of Wall Street and the banking industry. This collapse didn’t happen by chance, it started by Reagan deregulating the banking industry and culminated with Bush deregulating almost any other industry, it was and still is the GOP opinion that businesses can regulate themselves even when the results has been a complete failure of our economic system. Yet, the GOP it is still pressuring for deregulation.

The GOP has also made sure to paint a devil out of Unions. Unions are the only force that can truly look after the worker. The only reason why companies can’t get away with hypothetical murder is because of Unions. The regular worker can’t afford legal representation against giants such as multinationals, many times they are not educated enough to negotiate for themselves a raise or defend their seniority within a company or an abusive and dangerous work conditions and that is when Unions come in. Without Unions large corporations would take advantage of workers – after all, all that matters for them is their shareholders, can you imagine what these companies would do to us if we didn’t have Unions?

To demonstrate how compassionate these corporations are, one only has to look at the cost of living during the last 30 years. It has increased 300% during that time. Three hundred percent, that is a lot. In the same token, the minimum wage during the same time span has increased by a little more than 100% ($3.35 in 1980 to $7.25 today); there is no way that a person earning minimum wage can survive on one salary, and everything keeps raising, everything except salaries.

I can’t understand a moderate Republican. I can’t understand how can they shoot themselves on the foot and continue supporting a Party that keeps stealing from the poor to give to the rich; the party that believes that only the wealthy deserve a break, good medicine, a good education and a sound future. Can some one explain it to me?

We must vote Democrat in November. President Obama deserves four more years but we must help him by giving him a Congress that will help this country, not obstruct any progress!  

Vote for Obama and Vote 100% Democrat in 2012!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

GOP Response to the SOTU address... What a joke!


Last night as I watched the State of the Union, I felt proud to be a Democrat. I felt proud to have a President that is such a great speaker and that in an election year, is not afraid to ruffle a few feathers.

Obama touched almost every subject that is on everyone’s minds. From a great opening where he touched our hearts as we witnessed the warmth in his embrace to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to the recognition he expressed towards our men and women serving this country in the military.

Nothing that Obama said in the SOTU was outrageous. But today we are hearing the expected comments from the Right. Today, I read an article from Los Angeles Times “'Republicans blast Obama for ‘efforts to divide us’” that summarizes what the GOP thought of Obama’s speech. What caught my attention is the ridiculous assertion that Obama is constantly trying to divide us. Really? These people must have a different concept of what dividing means, because for the last 3 years that’s all they’ve done, not Obama. If anything, Obama’s base has been upset because he has tried so hard, and in their opinion, he has conceded too much to the Right in order to get things done, and they say Obama is a divider? 

Mitch Daniels, the Governor of Indiana, resents what according to him Obama insinuated, if we are to believe Gov. Daniels, Obama said that this nation is a nation of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, I did not hear anything at all that resembled that statement, but Gov. Daniels said the opposite and answered to his imaginary assumption with “this nation must always be a nation of ‘haves’ and ‘soon to haves’”… that must be a damn joke! For the last 10 years, this nation has become a nation of haves and have nothing, the dream of ‘soon to have’ it’s slowly vanishing and will soon disappear if a Republican wins the elections. For the last 10 years all it has matter for every Republican in Congress is the financial health of the corporations and multimillionaires that keep them where they are, not the working class. The working class is nothing more than the instrument that lines with money the pockets of these Corporations (people now) and multimillionaires; it is true that the tax cuts they have managed to give these corporations create jobs, theirs and trickle down economics – to their bank accounts, not to the working class. So far, in 10 years of these tax cuts, jobs have been decreasing not increasing. If that was true, we would have a 0% unemployment rate, what’s more, we should have to bring people from other countries to fill the vacancies, lies! Nothing could be further from the truth! For Gov. Daniels to even make mention that Obama is ‘pro-poverty’ it’s an insult coming from a party that has blocked every effort this administration has proposed to promote or create new jobs. For Gov. Daniels to be either so delusional or such a great lair as to claim that the GOP is the only hope to “restore America in an upward mobility and equality” it’s in and by itself laughable. When has this country seen any equality or upward mobility during a Republican administration in at least the last 30 years?

Obama knew the Republicans were going to call him a ‘class warrior’. Anyone daring to touch the super wealthy of this country is accused of dividing this country by class or of being a socialist or worse yet, a communist. It is so ludicrous to claim that by Obama not wanting for the margin between the very wealthy and the middle class to be as abysmal as it is now he is dividing the nation, that it would be as ridiculous for someone to claim that is terrible to want to close the gap between an “A” grade student and a “D” grade student. But that’s the GOP for you… Illogical, arrogant and indifferent to the needs of the working class!

Then, we had to hear from the candidates. Mitt Romney used the same rhetoric that the far right uses time and time again and that their stupid followers believe: that Obama wants more taxes, more spending and more regulations, but of course, he doesn’t stop and clarify that the ‘more taxes’ are for the wealthy, not the working class; that the ‘more spending’ is to create jobs and that the ‘more regulations’ is to keep an eye on previous corporate offenders, like the ones that have contaminated our environment; the ones that made thousands of people lose their homes and the ones that brought this nation to the brink of a second depression. No, Mitt Romney conveniently left the explanation out, allowing his followers to think that the taxes he was referring to were the taxes of the working class, the more spending was to fill the pockets of the rich and the ‘regulations’ was to increase the size of government.

Next we have the worse offender, sorry, candidate of them all: Newt Gingrich. I have no idea how he dares to criticize anyone, with a record such as his. For this pig (I can’t call him anything else and I must apologize to the pigs) to claim that Obama is a radical and out of touch with America is offensive. A guy that has no moral values, who was asked to resign from congress and from his position as Speaker of the House for basically stealing and fraudulently issuing checks with no funds; a guy that is the only member of Congress and the only Speaker of the House, in the history of this nation, that had to pay a fine of $300,000 a guy who goes to Tiffany as we go to Walmart, to claim that he is in touch with America but not Obama, is laughable. Certainly the America I live in is not the America Gingrich lives in.

The only one that said the truth, up to a point, was Rick Santorum. He said “Over the last three years, he has made it clear that his values are not our values” – and that is so very true! Obama values his wife, his children, and his family. Obama values the American Dream. Obama values the right to love whoever you chose to love. Obama values the health of this country. Obama values the environment. Obama values the working class. So yes, Rick Santorum was right, Obama’s values are NOT, in any type, shape or form those of the Right, and for that I thank Obama.

That leaves us with Ron Paul. His response was nothing but a long list of complains, not one serious response to any of the points made by Obama in the State of the Union address. We all know that Ron Paul wants to return to the pre-Civil Rights Act era, we all know that he wants the country to run by itself, with little or no government – probably only two people in government if he wins: he, the ‘king’ and his prince, Rand Paul. We would all be so stoned that will not care what is happening around us, probably why he supports making drugs legal. We would return to the Wild, Wild West. All joke aside, his response was just a litany of his usual complains, nothing at all related to what Obama said and of course, he closed his so-called response with the a new complain, the “TSA treatment of his son, Rand Paul”… You know what? I must thank the TSA, if I have to endure getting screened, touched and x-rayed; whom does Rand Paul think he is to be treated differently? I’m telling you, Ron and Rand Paul think they are above the law.

All in all, the response from the GOP was what we all expected. A complete and utterly denial of accepting any responsibility for the state in which this country finds itself, a self-evident negative attitude, a perennial effort to obstruct any help this country needs to move forward, to help the working class to get the jobs that will help them fulfill the American dream; for Republicans the only people that matter, the only people that can have an ‘American dream’ are wealthy people and we, the working ants, should be grateful for the crumbs they let us get.

Wake up America! Remember what got us to where we are today. Obama is good, but he can’t undo what took 8 years to accomplish; Obama can’t perform miracles it is up to all of us, we the people, must work together, roll up our sleeves and help him shape our own future.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Good for the goose… bad for the gander.


What is happening to the far right? Are they losing their strict morals or are these morals upheld only if broken by a person outside their party? This past Thursday, the people from South Carolina attending in person the debate, proudly and fanatically displayed to the world that their morals are far from what they claim; actually they showed how amoral they all are. Frantically applauding and with a standing ovation to the most morally despicable politician in the debate: Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich amoral behavior is nothing new. We all have heard of how in 1980 he ditched his first wife, Jackie Battley when she was having a tumor removed, at the hospital, because he had decided that she was not ‘presidential’ material as she was 7 (some say 9) years his senior. Apparently, he didn’t know about George H. W. Bush Sr. and his wife Barbara… She was not only unattractive but also looked like Bush’s mother and she was a First Lady, once. The truth was simple; he wanted to marry the woman with whom he had been unfaithful with for a while, his mistress, Marianne Ginther who in 1981, soon after his divorce from his first wife became the glorious Mrs. Marianne Gingrich. Newt was not content with having divorced his wife of almost 20 years for a younger woman, the first Mrs. Gingrich had to take him to court to get him to pay child support and alimony – that goes to show what a great dad he is!

At that time, amidst the witch-hunt initiated in the House of Representatives by none other than Newt Gingrich against the then President of the United States, William “Bill” Jefferson Clinton for having an extramarital affair, Newt was one of the most outspoken, repulsive and unforgiving critics of the president, while all along Newt was himself having an affair with an aid. Talk about being hypocritical!

But as it usually happens, he who lives in glass houses should not be throwing stones and such was the case with Gingrich and back in 1996, an investigation was conducted on him, it was found that he had committed over 80 ‘indiscretions’ and far more serious than an extramarital affair. It turned out that he had bounced 22 checks – and the right wants this guy for president during these economic crises? He made book deals with the now ill-famed Murdock; he used taxpayer’s funds for his own personal and political gain. Newt Gingrich can proudly say that he is the one and only member of the House and the first Speaker of the House who, in the history of this country, has not only been accused of ethical wrongdoing but had to pay a penalty of $300,000, and he had to resign in 1997.

In May 1999 Marianne was diagnosed with M.S. and the ever-thoughtful Newt took the opportunity to tell Marianne that he was having an affair with Callista Besek. Isn’t he a loving man? Not content with breaking such news to his sick wife, he allegedly offered her to have an open marriage, apparently he thinks that he is ‘all that’ and women will be willing to accept it in order for him to do them the favor of staying with them. Regardless of what high opinion he may have of himself, Marianne didn't accept and the couple divorced in April 2000.

A few months later, precisely in August 2000, he married his mistress. History tends to repeat itself, doesn’t it? Callista is a Catholic (a “good one”, I guess) and Newt decided to convert to Catholicism – obviously Newt can’t even be faithful to his own religion – and, as a final punch to Marianne, in 2000 Newt asked the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta for an annulment of their marriage.  

Now, Callista after suffering a transformation from a ‘normal’ human being to a woman that looks as if she is in a constant state of surprise and wearing a helmet in an apparent effort to look young and presidential enough for her husband; a woman that if we are going to take into account the ‘confessions’ of Marianne about Newt’s proposal for a three-some with Callista, has been willing or has participated in this type of sexual activities must be really concerned with Newt’s new aid, a much younger, vibrant, pretty and natural woman: Lisa Graham Keegan. I am certain that the infidelities of Newt Gingrich didn’t end with Callista, after all, for Newt Gingrich a woman is nothing else but a thing to use and discard when they get sick, old or he gets bored. I for one will not feel sorry for her.

What remains unanswered is, how is it possible that the religious right is supporting Newt Gingrich? What happened to the ‘sanctity of marriage’, to the morals, truthfulness, with ‘thou shall not steal’? The next religious right nut that comes to me with their preaching, I will surely punch them in the face!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Trickle down... Politics?


And as usual, the Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination, after discrediting, insulting, pointing fingers and all the usual exhibition of egos that takes places at political debates, are falling, one by one.

The first one to go, when he couldn’t control the sexual harassments from invading the news and he could no long cover the sun with his thumb, was Herman Cain. He didn’t last long and we all knew he was going to be the first to go, after all, the only reason the RNC ‘allowed’ him to run was to prove that the GOP is not a racist party, the same reason why they elected Michael Steele to be Chairman, regardless of his poor credentials. To be honest, Herman Cain and his ‘999’ plan were not missed but he did bring some sort of entertainment to such a boring group, but his 15 minutes of fame were over pretty fast. So far, he has not endorsed any of the candidates; he says he prefers to endorse “the people” unless by “the people” he was referring to corporations, one might never know. Some people belong more to the entertainment industry than the political arena, but then again, these debates resembles more a circus than a serious political debate.

But we still had Michele Bachmann and of course, we can’t forget about Marcus. The two provided us with so much fun during the campaigns! The comedy shows were having a blast at their expense, after all, Michele seemed eager to provide fresh material every time she was in front of the cameras, I think comedy writers never had it so easy, they didn’t have to make things up, Michele made sure of that. But, as it happens when something is too good, she too had to quit – we must not forget that as entertaining as she was, she was running for President of this country and I think people were amused, entertained for a while but finally they realized it was time to get serious. It was no surprise when after she announced her resignation she endorsed Ron Paul; after all, birds of a feather flock together.

At that time, everyone thought that Rick Perry was going to call it quits, but the cowboy decided to stick to his guns and continue in the race… some people are too dumb or too stubborn or both to know when to leave.

Jon Huntsman was kind of an enigma to me. While we must admit that he is an intelligent, well educated - he even speaks Mandarin, experienced (certainly more than the rest of the pack), he was dignified even when the others were attacking him and then, for reasons I don’t know, he changed tactics and decided to attack Mitt Romney by saying that Romney likes to fire people and he didn't. He was doing pretty decent until then, holding to third place but he had the charisma of a stone. And after South Carolina he decided to quit and endorse the very candidate he chose to criticize: Mitt Romney.

And today we are blessed with another drop out, Rick Perry. It was not a surprise to anyone; actually we were surprised he lasted longer than Huntsman if only by a few days. Perry didn’t bring any substance to any of the debates, except to show his homophobic tendencies, his flip flopping (remember, he started his political career as a Democrat), and his constant display of either bad memory or what most of us suspect, a complete lack of knowledge on most subjects. Besides the entertainment contributions made by Perry, he will not be missed. He was prompt to offer his endorsement to none other than Newt Gingrich. We must forgive him, with that endorsement he confirmed what we knew all along, Rick Perry is an idiot.

Now is down to four. We all know that Rick Santorum is next; he is an improved version of Rick Perry. I am sure he will endorse Ron Paul; he can’t endorse an adulterer or a Mormon.

Ron Paul will be gone too. Regardless of his followers, the RNC will not let him get to the end of the race because of what he is proposing – small government, legalizing drugs, etc. - goes against what Republicans really want. So he will be history, again, and Paul will endorse Mitt Romney.

The last two candidates that will remain till the very end will be Romney and, yikes! Gingrich. Romney is charismatic, good looking, energetic and has enough money to take the race all the way to the end. Also, Romney serves as a proof that the GOP is open to all creeds, just as they allowed Cain to run to prove that they’re not racists. Sure! Gingrich will be fighting all the way, there is much money to be make afterwards with his Super PAC, books and his so-called documentaries – so the longer he stays, the more money he’ll make, but he knows he will not be the republican presidential nominee, he is not in the race to win the position but to win money and lets not confuse the two. Mitt Romney will be the republican candidate for the presidency, and I am glad about this, he is no contender to debate Obama. Romney is too arrogant, as a speaker he is awful and he will be debating a great one. At the end, indirectly, Mitt Romney will be endorsing Obama!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Left Must Unite or We Will Lose our Country



I keep hearing that Obama must start working for "WE the people" and how he hasn't done all he has promised, believe me, I have been one of those too... until I stopped and analyzed the situation he finds himself in. First, and this is important, he is the President of the United States of America, he is not the President of the United Democrats of America or the President of the Liberals of America, or whatever party you may choose to insert in substitution for a political ideology. Yes, it was us who put him there but, he said it clearly during his campaign and we must admit it, we loved it when he said it: "Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America." - I remember wanting to cry when I heard him say this. Now, 3 years later, we criticize him for listening to all sides.

Then, there has to be a super majority of votes to pass anything through Congress and the Republican's, whose #1 objective, openly admitted, is for Obama to be a one term president and in order to achieve their goals, they vote NAY on everything that might be beneficial to this country and therefore, for Obama. And we blame Obama. We blame Obama because we want him to break the rules to do what we want - and need too, don't get me wrong - but according to the rules of Congress, he can't. And now, how are we reacting? By splitting the liberals and democrats, as if we will gain something by it. If we keep doing this, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when a Newt, Romney, Paul or any other nut in the GOP walks into the Oval office and take charge of this country, taking it back to before the '60s. I know a lot of you will blame Obama, it is always easier to blame someone else for our own demise. I hear people saying that they will either not vote or vote for a 'green' candidate or anyone else, even if that candidate has no chance in winning; the results? We're split, but not the far right. Way to go!! We might as well place the White House on a silver platter and hand it to the next son of a bitch from the GOP that will make our lives a living hell. You think we have it bad now? Allow this to happen and you will really learn what hell is all about!


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