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GOP upset win in NY portends challenge for Obama?

14 Sep

The Associated Press (AP) is claiming the loss of NY Congressional District 9 is due to “voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama’s policies”; or maybe it’s because former Congressman Anthony Weiner took pictures of his unit and sent the images to woman and twittered it?

I think there’s a need in punditry today to attach national reasons for elections in Congressional districts, especially in these special elections. I think they need to remember the political maxim of former House Speaker Tip O’Neill that, “all politics are local”.

To claim this election “portends challenge for Obama” is trying to stir the political pot in order to make the 2012 elections more exciting, and it’s not very accurate.

Another claim is that the predominantly Jewish district chose a Roman Catholic Republican over an Orthodox Jewish Democrat to send the President a message on Israel; OK, I guess that makes sense if you forget the fact most Jewish neighborhoods aren’t very politically friendly to the Catholic Church, or to the idea a Roman Catholic will better serve the needs of Israel than a Jew will, ever since the whole Vatican turning a blind eye to the Holocaust thing. Please, you’re really going to run with that idea? Once again, maybe the District was reacting to Weiner, and had nothing to do with anything else?

However, when your GOTP opponent runs ads claiming you support Osama Bin Laden because you support the construction of a “Ground Zero Mosque” in a race for a New York City District maybe that bit of demagoguery had something to do with it; but, of course, that’s politics in America, but sooner or later American voters will begin to refuse the fear and gloom and doom politics of the right.

But please, let’s stop trying to tie every election a Democrat loses to the President, and start looking for the “local” reasons.

By-the-by, one of the fun facts is the NY 9th has been eliminated due to redistricting, which means this is a very short lived victory for the GOTP.

 
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Posted by on September 14, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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What the debates show us the GOTP stands for?

13 Sep

Watching two so-called Republican Tea Party (GOTP) debates, I finally started to figure out a lot of what these dim witted presidential wannabe candidates – and the not so bright masses following them – stand for:

They stand for ENDING SOCIAL SECURITY as we know it – The Reverend Ricky Perry has said, “[I]t is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today; you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there. Anybody that’s for the status quo with Social Security today is involved with a monstrous lie to our kids, and it’s not right.

“You cannot keep the status quo in place and not call it anything other than a Ponzi scheme. It is. … [T]hat’s provocative language — maybe it’s time to have some provocative language in this country.”

Michele “Krazy” Bachmann weighed in, “… this isn’t going to work anymore. We have to be an ownership society, where individual responsibility, personal responsibility once again becomes the animating American principle. And we can’t be ashamed of that.”

They stand for ENDING HEALTHCARE to MILLIONS of AMERICANS – Jon Huntsman said, “We cannot go forward with Obamacare.”

Krazy said, “Repeal Obamacare.”

“… We have to have someone who is absolutely committed to the repeal of Obamacare and I am. I won’t rest until it’s repealed.”

“And this is why I’m running for the presidency of the United States, because 2012 is it. This is the election that’s going to decide if we have socialized medicine in this country or not. This is it.

“Why? I just have to say this. It’s because President Obama embedded $105,464,000,000 in Obamacare in post-dated checks to implement this bill. We are never going to get rid of it unless we have a president committed to getting rid of it. And if you believe that states can have it and that it’s constitutional, you’re not committed. If you’ve implemented this in your state, you’re not committed. I’m committed to repealing Obamacare.”

Herman “Pizza Man” Cain, “Repeal Obamacare in its entirety.”

Mittens Romney said, “And with regards to Massachusetts care, I’m not running for governor. I’m running for president. And if I’m president, on day one I’ll direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to grant a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states.

“It’s a problem that’s bad law, it’s not constitutional. I’ll get rid of it.”

They stand for MAKING THE RICH RICHER (at everyone else’s expense) – Ricky Santorum said, “My plan takes the corporate tax, which is 35 percent, cuts it to zero, and says, if you manufacture in America, you aren’t going to pay any taxes.”

Jon Huntsman said, “On the corporate side, I think we recognize the reality that a whole lot of companies can afford to have lobbyists and lawyers on Capitol Hill working their magic. Let’s recognize the reality that they’re all paying 35 percent. We need to lower that to 25 percent. So let’s phase out the corporate subsidies and clean out the cobwebs and leave it more competitive for the 21st century.”

On the idea of a fair tax, basically a national sales tax, Mittens said, “Yeah. Yeah. The — the idea of a national sales tax or a consumption tax has a lot to go for it. One, it would make us more competitive globally, as we send products around the world, because under the provisions of the World Trade Organization, you can reimburse that to an exporter. We can’t reimburse our taxes right now. It also would level the playing field in the country, making sure everybody is paying some part of their fair share.

“And so my plan is to take the middle class individuals and dramatically reduce their taxes by the following measure. And that is for middle income Americans, no tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. Let people save their money as the way they think is best for them, for their kids, for their future, for their retirement. We’re taxing too much, we’re spending too much and middle income Americans need a break and I’ll give it to them.”

There’s just one big problem with Mitten’s idea, a flat national sales tax is lopsided sharply against the middle class and especially the poor. Everyone doesn’t pay their fair share, the rich don’t even come close. It’s a greedy tax being pushed by a greedy group of politicians. Oh, and by-the-by how many middle class Americans pay a lot of tax on interest, dividends and capital gains? That’s all designed to help the wealthiest among us not the middle class.

They (Tea Party Members) stand for DEATH – during the debate last week the loudest cheers of the night came as the moderator brought up the total number of people (234 was the number given) executed under Reverend Ricky Perry’s regime in Texas. And last night people began cheering when Wolf Blitzer asked, “What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn’t have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?”

“Yeah!” several members of the crowd yelled out.

If nothing else demonstrates the reality of the Tea Party being the great unwashed mass, nothing will. They are a blood thirsty group who want people who – in their view – are not productive to die or to be killed. Hey if that fella got cancer, or slipped into a coma and had no health insurance, well, he had better die and decrease the surplus population.

They are for CUTTING EDUCATION and CUTTING PROTECTIONS – Congressman Ron Paul said to loud applause, “What we need to do is cut the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, and all these departments, and get rid of them.”

They stand for RACISM – during the CNN/Tea Party debate last night, Ricky Santorum said, “Well, I mean, what Governor Perry’s done is he provided in-state tuition for — for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal vote — I mean the Latino voters.”

Yeah because basically they’re one and the same? Are you kidding me?

Ricky continued, “But you track Latino voters by talking about the importance of immigration in this country. You talk about the importance of — as — as Newt has talked about for many years, having English as the — as the official language of this country.”

He’s basically talking about the little brown people out there, you know, the ones who didn’t come through Ellis Island, the kind who lived in the southwest before we conquered it. The one’s who the GOTP wants to sweep up in a net and deport, or just lock away in prisons; after all they are here illegally.

And of course, not to be out done, “Krazy” chimed in, “And I think that the American way is not to give taxpayer subsidized benefits to people who have broken our laws or who are here in the United States illegally. That is not the American way. Because the immigration system in the United States worked very, very well up until the mid-1960s when liberal members of Congress changed the immigration laws.

“What works is to have people come into the United States with a little bit of money in their pocket legally with sponsors so that if anything happens to them, they don’t fall back on the taxpayers to take care of them. And then they also have to agree to learn the speak the English language, learn American history and our constitution. That’s the American way.”

Yep, the good old white uber-conservative American way. Perhaps Bachmann should learn American history before she expects immigrants to do so; where’s Lexington and Concord Congresswoman?

As Ron Paul tried to explain (correctly) why the United States was attacked on 9-11 he said, “This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this, and they’re attacking us because we’re free and prosperous, that is just not true.

“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit — they have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked America because you had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians fair treatment, and you have been bombing …”

The Tea Party crowd showed its collective ignorance when it started booing …and that’s the crux of the issue right now, the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan has become the Republican Tea Party of today, and in a political world where perception is reality, the reality is the GOTP is full of hate, anger and malice. They don’t care about anyone but wealthy white Christian America. The perception is the Tea Party wants to take America back to a time when whites ruled and no one else did; they want the poor to serve them, and the sick and the elderly to hurry up and die already. They are not the party of Ronald Reagan.

 
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Posted by on September 13, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Bachmann called Social Security ‘a tremendous fraud’?

12 Sep

Well what do you know? Republican Tea Party (GOTP) used-to-be darling Michele “Krazy” Bachmann, said just last year that younger workers should be “weaned off” Social Security, and that it’s “a tremendous fraud” and anyone who ran a business modeled after the program would be “thrown in jail.”

“It’s a tremendous fraud,” Krazy told Fox Business host David Asman after he called the program “one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on the American public.”

“No company could get away with this, they’d be thrown in jail if they ever tried to do what the federal government did with people’s Social Security money,” Krazy claimed. “What we need to do very quickly is take the money that is coming in for Social Security, and truly lock it up so that we aren’t putting it out the door anymore.”

Wow, you mean like you voted to do during the Bush/Cheney years Congresswoman? Like the many times you voted to help spend billions in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where’d you think the money was coming from, besides out of thin air?

“Michele was referring to the fraud being the federal government who has stolen money out of the social security trust fund. People have the illusion that their money is safe in a vault somewhere, but the money is being spent on big government programs,” Stewart told The Ticket in an e-mail. “Michele will protect Social Security because the government should keep its promise to those who have paid into the system.”

Well, maybe Mr. Stewart, but Bachmann has called Social Security a “criminal fraud”, and has proposed changing the eligibility age for Social Security, reducing or eliminating the program for high-income people, and privatizing the program for younger workers by giving them individual accounts similar to a 401k.

Bachmann likes to say that Social Security should not be changed for those who have paid into the system their entire lives, and that older workers and retirees should remain within the current system. For everyone else, she thinks they should be “weaned off” the program’s current structure and said, “we just have to be straight with people.”

“[W]hat you have to do is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don’t have any other options, we have to keep faith with them,” Krazy has whined. “But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off. And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet, we can’t do it. So we just have to be straight with people.”

Here’s an idea, how about Michele and company (GOTP House) increase the tax on every single penny everyone makes, making your rich buddies pay for Social Security on all their income instead of the first $140,000 or so. That would probably make up any difference we the people are lacking, and keep the program solvent until the population swings again to more people paying in than taking out.

Bachmann is done; you can stick her with a fork. All the “krazy” talk had caught up to her, as well as Ricky Perry entering the race, and voters are beginning to see that she just isn’t presidential, much less congressional material.

Turn out the lights the party’s over they say that all good things must end …

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Latest 2012 Presidential Polls (12 Sep 11 Edition)

12 Sep

The tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks has come and gone without another attack, and here are the most current 2012 presidential election poll numbers.

CNN/Opinion Research conducted a poll from 9 to 11 Sep 11 on who would be the Republican/Tea Party (GOTP) nominee if it all ended today:

Perry 30, Romney 18, Palin 15, Paul 12, Cain 5, Gingrich 5, Bachmann 4, Santorum 2 and Huntsman 2 …

Reverend Ricky Perry’s lead over Mittens is widening, with the Ice Queen polling in third – GOTPers must not care she isn’t running, or the FOX viewers don’t know any better? Paul is running in the fourth spot, with the Pizza Man and Newt polling fifth, while Krazy continues to plummet out of sight, barely leading Santorum and Huntsman; I think it’s safe to say Bachmann – who was never in it – is now going, going, going …

In Iowa – according to Rasmussen (always dubious poll results) – Perry holds first place with 29; Bachmann moves to 18, Mitt 17; Paul 14; Cain 4, Santorum 4, Huntsman 3 and Gingrich 2…

In New Hampshire – Magellan Strategies: Mitt 36; Rev Ricky 18; Paul 14; Krazy 10; Cain 3, Huntsman 3 and Gingrich 2…

According to NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl poll conducted 27 – 31 Aug 11, if the general election were held today:

President Obama 47/Perry 42

President Obama 46/Romney 45

According to this latest poll everyone else is passé:

President Obama /Bachmann

President Obama /Cain

President Obama /Paul

President Obama / Palin

President Obama /Gingrich

President Obama /Huntsman

President Obama /Santorum

So, if the GOTP nomination circus – and the general election – had both ended this week Reverend Ricky would be the GOTP candidate, and he would have lost by five (5) points to President Obama.

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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President Obama’s speech commemorating 9-11

12 Sep

The Bible tells us, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Ten years ago, America confronted one of our darkest nights. Mighty towers crumbled. Black smoke billowed up from the Pentagon. Airplane wreckage smoldered on a Pennsylvania field. Friends and neighbors, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters – they were taken from us with heartbreaking swiftness and cruelty. On September 12, 2001, we awoke to a world in which evil was closer at hand, and uncertainty clouded our future.

In the decade since, much has changed for Americans. We’ve known war and recession, passionate debates and political divides. We can never get back the lives that were lost on that day, or the Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in the wars that followed.

And yet today, it is worth remembering what has not changed. Our character as a nation has not changed. Our faith – in God and each other – that has not changed. Our belief in America, born of a timeless ideal that men and women should govern themselves; that all people are created equal, and deserve the same freedom to determine their own destiny – that belief, through tests and trials, has only been strengthened.

These past 10 years have shown that America does not give in to fear. The rescue workers who rushed to the scene; the firefighters who charged up the stairs; the passengers who stormed the cockpit – these patriots defined the very nature of courage. Over the years we have also seen a more quiet form of heroism – in the ladder company that lost so many men and still suits up and saves lives every day; the businesses that have rebuilt from nothing; the burn victim who has bounced back; the families that press on.

Last spring, I received a letter from a woman named Suzanne Swaine. She had lost her husband and brother in the Twin Towers, and said that she had been robbed of “so many would-be proud moments where a father watches their child graduate, or tend goal in a lacrosse game, or succeed academically.” But her daughters are in college, the other doing well in high school. “It has been 10 years of raising these girls on my own,” Suzanne wrote. “I could not be prouder of their strength and resilience.” That spirit typifies our American family. And the hopeful future for those girls is the ultimate rebuke to the hateful killers who took the life of their father.

These past ten years have shown America’s resolve to defend its citizens, and our way of life. Diplomats serve in far-off posts, and intelligence professionals work tirelessly without recognition. Two million Americans have gone to war since 9/11. They have demonstrated that those who do us harm cannot hide from the reach of justice, anywhere in the world. America has been defended not by conscripts, but by citizens who choose to serve – young people who signed up straight out of high school; guardsmen and reservists; workers and businesspeople; immigrants and fourth-generation soldiers. They are men and women who left behind lives of comfort for two, three, four or five tours of duty. Too many will never come home. Those that do carry dark memories from distant places, and the legacy of fallen friends.

The sacrifices of these men and women, and of our military families, remind us that the wages of war are great; that while service to our nation is full of glory, war itself is never glorious. Our troops have been to lands unknown to many Americans a decade ago – to Kandahar and Kabul, to Mosul and Basra. But our strength is not measured in our ability to stay in these places; it comes from our commitment to leave those lands to free people and sovereign states, and our desire to move from a decade of war to a future of peace.

These 10 years have shown that we hold fast to our freedoms. Yes, we are more vigilant against those who threaten us, and there are inconveniences that come with our common defense. Debates – about war and peace, about security and civil liberties – have often been fierce these last 10 years. But it is precisely the rigor of these debates, and our ability to resolve them in a way that honors our values and our democracy, that is a measure of our strength. Meanwhile, our open markets still provide innovators with the chance to create, our citizens are still free to speak their minds, and our souls are still enriched in churches and temples, our synagogues and mosques.

These past 10 years underscore the bonds between all Americans. We have not succumbed to suspicion and we have not succumbed to mistrust. After 9/11, to his great credit, President Bush made clear what we reaffirm today: The United States will never wage war against Islam or any religion. Immigrants come here from all parts of the globe. In the biggest cities and the smallest towns, in schools and workplaces, you still see people of every conceivable race, religion and ethnicity – all of them pledging allegiance to the flag, all of them reaching for the same American dream – e pluribus unum, out of many, we are one.

These past 10 years tell a story of our resilience. The Pentagon is repaired, filled with patriots working in common purpose. Shanksville is the scene of friendships forged between residents of that town, and families who lost loved ones there. New York remains the most vibrant of capitals of arts and industry, fashion and commerce. Where the World Trade Center once stood, the sun glistens off a new tower that reaches toward the sky. Our people still work in skyscrapers. Our stadiums are filled with fans, and our parks full of children playing ball. Our airports hum with travel, and our buses and subways take millions where they need to go. Families sit down to Sunday dinner, and students prepare for school. This land pulses with the optimism of those who set out for distant shores, and the courage of those who died for human freedom.

Decades from now, Americans will visit the memorials to those who were lost on 9/11. They will run their fingers over the places where the names of those we loved are carved into marble and stone, and they may wonder at the lives they led. Standing before the white headstones in Arlington, and in peaceful cemeteries and small-town squares in every corner of our country, they will pay respects to those lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. They will see the names of the fallen on bridges and statues, at gardens and schools.

And they will know that nothing can break the will of a truly United States of America. They will remember that we have overcome slavery and Civil War; we’ve overcome bread lines and fascism; recession and riots; Communism and, yes, terrorism. They will be reminded that we are not perfect, but our democracy is durable, and that democracy – reflecting, as it does, the imperfections of man – also gives us the opportunity to perfect our union. That is what we honor on days of national commemoration – those aspects of the American experience that are enduring, and the determination to move forward as one people.

More than monuments, that will be the legacy of 9/11 – a legacy of firefighters who walked into fire and soldiers who signed up to serve; of workers who raised new towers, of citizens who faced down fear, most of all of children who realized the dreams of their parents. It will be said of us that we kept that faith; that we took a painful blow, and we emerged stronger than before.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

With a just God as our guide, let us honor those who have been lost, let us rededicate ourselves to the ideals that define our nation, and let us look to the future with hearts full of hope. May God bless the memory of those we lost, and may God bless the United States of America.

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2011 in 9-11

 

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President goes on offense?

09 Sep
Original photo official White House photo

President Barack Obama using the strength of the bully pulpit took the battle into the enemy’s home turf today pitching his $447 billion jobs program of tax cuts and new spending in Richmond, VA, the home District of the Republican Tea Party (GOTP) whiny boy – House Majority “Leader” Eric Cantor.

“I know that folks sometimes think they’ve used up the benefit of the doubt but I’m an eternal optimist,” the President told more than 8,000 people at the University of Richmond. “I’m an optimistic person. I believe if you just stay at it long enough, after they’ve exhausted all the other options, folks do the right thing.”

Thus far, the GOTP has remained “noncommittal”, which is much better than remaining “diametrically opposed”.

“The proposals the president outlined tonight merit consideration,” GOTP House Speaker John Boehner, said after the president’s speech. “We hope he gives serious consideration to our ideas as well.

“It’s my hope that we can work together,” Boehner added.

You hope the President gives serious considerations to what ideas? The ideas the GOTP voted for in lock step to dismantle Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Veteran’s benefits? The so-called “plan” put forth by Paul Ryan? Is that what passes as ideas today in Boehner’s world?

“You should pass it right away,” the President told GOTP lawmakers more than once, and he pledged to campaign for its enactment “in every corner of this country.”

The President masterfully made his point about where he would take the fight when he identified the need fix a certain bridge; “There’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky,” he said. Coincidently the two states represented by the Speaker and Senate GOTP leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell was not fazed, and retorted in typical obstructionist fashion, “For months, we’ve been engaged in a national debate about spending and debt, about the need to get our nation’s fiscal house in order, about the need to rein in government. … Yet here we are, tonight, being asked by this same president to support even more government spending with the assurance that he’ll figure out a way to pay for it later.”

Yes, that’s right Mitch always with the negative ways. But what is to be expected from a Senator who declared his number one priority is to make sure President Obama only has one term? Not to put Americans back to work; not to defeat Al Qaeda; but to make sure President Obama only has one term. Wow, what a sterling example of unselfish service to our country. Kind of makes you want to run right out and add Mitch’s likeness to Mount Rushmore doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, getting back to meaningful, adult, conversation on the country’s troubles, the President said the tax cuts he’s recommending would mean $1,500 a year for the typical working family and $80,000 for businesses with 50 employees of average pay, and he said he would outline legislation in coming days to offset the bill’s $447 billion price tag so it wouldn’t add to federal deficits.

All-in-all, the President’s asking for $253 billion in tax cuts, with an additional $194 billion in new spending to fund highway and other construction projects, modernize schools, stabilize blighted neighborhoods and help states hire teachers and first responders.

Of course McConnell wasn’t the only GOTP dinosaur to oppose the President’s challenge, soon to retire – thankfully – Senator Jon Kyl whined, “Rather than offer a new road map for recovery and reform, he merely dusted off a tired agenda of old ideas wrapped in freshly partisan rhetoric.”

Very insightful offering from Kyl, who’s serving on the newly formed uber-committee responsible for finding ways to cut the nation’s debt and has threatened to walk out if anyone suggests further cuts in defense spending. If I were a Democratic Senator I would suggest it every time the committee met just to push his buttons and see if he would be true to his treat, or to just see if his head would explode.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat, was as hopeful as ever saying he hoped the proposals would “present a litmus test to Republicans. I hope they will show the American people that they are more interested in creating jobs than defeating President Obama.”

Yeah, you hold on to that happy thought Senator, that and some fairy dust and one day you may just fly. Are you kidding me? Do you really believe the GOTP members of Congress are going to do anything to willingly help this President get the economy going? Most of them want things to stay as bad as possible in hopes of defeating him in 2012; and no, that is no exaggeration.

Democratic House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi is coming out swinging at her GOTP counterparts, “Republicans have a choice to either work with Democrats on the immediate need to create jobs or waste more time when American families are demanding action.”

Personally Congresswoman, I predict they’ll do nothing. They’ll hope to stall as long as possible. From a political point of view it’s a disaster either way for the GOTP. If they help the President the rabid Tea Party members of the far-right will eat them alive; but if they do nothing, the President and any Democratic opponents will be able to truthfully paint them as the do nothing party they’ve become. It’s a win-win for the President, and a masterful play.

If his GOTP presidential opponents come out against the plan then they have to defend why. Again, a masterful play by the President; he’s put them in an indefensible position. They can stall, or oppose, and be portrayed as being anti-recovery and friends to the wealthy, or they can come out in support and be devoured by the Tea Partiers.

In going on the offense the President looks Presidential, while the GOTP presidential crazy 8’s in comparison look like fools.

 
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Posted by on September 9, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Musings on the tenth anniversary of 9-11

09 Sep

On 11 Sep 01, I was teaching at high school in a small town in the southwest United States. While driving to work I was listening to the Imus in the Morning Show and had heard about Flight 11 flying into the World Trade Center (WTC) and listened to the speculation of what must have happened; as I walked into my classroom I immediately turned on the TV to see what had happened. While watching the CBS Morning News – with about a dozen students – we witnessed Flight 175 hit the WTC. I’m not sure “shock” adequately describes the feelings that morning, but there was no doubt in those few minutes that these were terrorist attacks, and that our world was changing before our eyes.

That night I remember hugging my wife and kids and watching the news. As an Army Reservist, I told my wife, “this is now a war and it’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ I’ll be called up.” I will forever remember the faces of my children as they tried to cope with what was going on.

For the next week – being a Social Studies teacher – suspended normal class work and – together with my students – watched the beginning of war unfold. We wept together as we witnessed the towers collapse and saw news reports about Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon, and of the heroism of the passengers and crew on Flight 93 as they rushed to take over the plane forcing its crash into a field in rural Pennsylvania. The days were spent trying to cope with what was being seen, and the feelings of fear and of the unknown future.

By Friday, I decided it was time to give my students a chance to express their feelings. I gave them paper and crayons, markers and colored pencils and told them to draw their feelings. Their feelings poured out onto the paper, and from some there were tears as they drew and wrote about their world turned upside down. I had them write letters to the President and I collected and sent the letters to President Bush. Weeks later he replied, and I gave a copy of the letter to each of my kids.

As the years passed many of my students joined the military, and some found themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan, some multiple times. One didn’t come home. To me, these young men, who willingly volunteered to serve, and to fight, are the greatest generation. They did not hesitate to volunteer and to serve. They willingly went where others would not go. There was no draft.

In 2005, I tried to follow their example, and volunteered to lead a force protection mission for deployment to Iraq; during my training in preparation to go, I was injured severely and eventually received an artificial knee. I have found myself on many occasions wondering if I should have gone anyways, but I would not have been able to move in combat and lead my men the way they would have needed to be led. It is something that will probably always haunt me, that my men went and I did not. They all survived the deployment, but I’ve lost two of them since due to issues with PTSD.

When news came that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by members of Navy Seal Team 6, I rejoiced. I felt no guilt, and still feel none for having done so. Bin Laden hurt my children, and my students. He stripped away some of their innocence and I was glad he was gone. Had I been with the seals I would have – without hesitation – ended his life. To me there are times, and individuals, who are not worthy of trial, nor of justice in the conventional method. He had lived by the sword and he died by the sword.

9-11 is a difficult anniversary. It is not something we celebrate; it is something we commemorate. We mourn the dead and the loss of childhood securities, and we celebrate the heroism of those who rushed into burning buildings, and who’ve fought and suffered on countless battlefields in towns and fields in faraway lands.  We reach out and try to support those who continue to suffer both the seen and the unseen injuries of war. We find ways to help, and we pray for release and for strength, and we pray that the sights and sounds of that fall morning will never be experienced again.

 
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Posted by on September 9, 2011 in 9-11

 

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As Bachmann’s star begins to plummet?

09 Sep

Republican Tea Party (GOTP) wannabe Michele “Krazy” Bachmann’s presidential star is plummeting faster than it rose, so, what to do; what to do?

I know! Go back to Iowa! They love her there!

“We know that when Michele is in Iowa, she wins,” said Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman, Kent Sorenson. “If she’s here, she’ll win Iowa.”

Of course, but what about all the other primaries after that, all the ones you have to win to take the nomination? It’s time to realize that as presidential candidates, and as presidential campaigns go, you guys suck. It’s time to pack up your circus tent and go back to your shabby little congressional office.

Face it boys and girls, Krazy’s been eclipsed by someone even more crazy, and more right-wing and more appealing to the uber-conservative evangelical voters of the Tea Party; she’s been eclipsed by the Reverend Ricky Perry’s travelling prayer fest and secession tour.  She no longer holds the interest of her base. Uber-conservative evangelicals don’t want a woman for president if they can have a man any more than they want a black man in the White House. They want their women submissive and in the kitchen, not in the Oval Office. Krazy was an anomaly, and then Reverend Ricky came along; a person with the same crazy message but who was a man.

As Dandy Don used to sing at end of Monday Night Football games, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over …”

 
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Posted by on September 9, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Why I can’t vote Republican

08 Sep

I’ve been asked why I couldn’t vote Republican, well – if the election were held today – here are my reasons why I couldn’t vote for the current crop of Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential candidates:

Michele Bachmann – why would I vote for an uber-conservative evangelical candidate who is certifiable and who makes wild claims and then denies she made them? She hasn’t said one thing I agree with or could ever agree with.

Hermann Cain – won’t vote for a racist, and yes his views on Islam are racist.

Newt Gingrich – He’s a typical “family values” conservative;  had an affair while persecuting President Clinton for having an affair; told his wife he was divorcing her to marry his mistress while she was undergoing chemo therapy for cancer; claimed he had his affairs because he loved America too much.

Jon Huntsman – Wants to end Obamacare; wants to cuts taxes to corporations and the wealthiest 2%. Millions of Americans now have health care but Huntsman wants to eliminate that; can’t support that, much less supporting tax cuts to the wealthiest 2%; it’s time for the wealthy to pay their share, if not some back interest as well.

Ron Paul – He’s a kook; says he would do away with FEMA, enough said …

Rick Perry – no one who ever said secession was a viable answer for a state should be president. We don’t need a red neck deciding our country’s domestic and foreign policy. His desire to repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments are two more reasons not to mention his wild idea that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme …

Mitt Romney – Flip flops every other day; changes his mind depending who he’s talking too; he has a used car salesman feel; claims to be a job creator, but while governor of Massachusetts his state ranked 47th out of 50; he bought American businesses and chopped them up and sold them to the highest bidder – he took away people’s jobs while adding millions to his private fortune; runs from his faith … Corporations are not people Mitt …

Rick Santorum – Another uber-right wing candidate who makes wild statements and in particular his stern view on abortion, and homosexuality. Ricky claims, “Its murder, no matter what the circumstances. Doesn’t matter if it’s incest, or rape, doesn’t matter if the victim is eleven years-old.”

The Republican Tea Party, and its policies, has become something I can’t support, and quite frankly can’t conceive of any situation where I would ever do so.

These candidates don’t represent what’s best in America, they represent what’s worse.

They represent an America Ronald Reagan wouldn’t recognize, and a party where the Gipper wouldn’t be welcome; Reagan would be a Democrat today.

They represent racism, lying, hurtful aspects of America …

They represent an America where people applaud and cheer wildly when 234 people have been executed in Texas …

They don’t worry about facts they just make stuff up- they lie …

They represent a far-right form of Christianity that doesn’t recognize the Christ …

They represent the wealthiest among us while grinding down the poorest ..

They are not what’s good for America.

 
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Posted by on September 8, 2011 in 2012 Election

 

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Kyl says he’s going to takes his toys with him?

08 Sep

Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican Tea Party (GOTP) member of the so-called “super committee” deficit-reduction panel in Congress has said he would quit the panel if new defense spending cuts are considered.

Well, gee Jon, thanks for playing, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. So, defense spending is the sacred cow? We’re going to continue to fund the defense department at the same – if not higher – levels than we have during the past decade since 9-11? Earth to Jon, we got Bin Laden; we can bring everyone home now.

Of course Kyl made his threat in a conservative group hug sponsored by the uber-conservative think tanks Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. He spoke to the groupies a short time after the uber-committee held its first meeting; the same uber-committee which has been tasked by Congress and the White House to find $1.2 trillion in new government savings over the next 10 years.

“I’m off of the committee if we’re going to talk about further defense spending,” Kyl said he has told super committee colleagues.

Once again, see ya Jon! So, you won’t cut defense spending, and you won’t raise taxes? Guess you’re OK though with cutting the guts out of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security though huh? It’s OK to throw Grandma under the treads of the tanks? Once again, we got the Boogey Man; we can stand down, and prepare for the next war. That’s what you do when the fighting’s over. Or perhaps you’ve forgotten that the deal struck to create this committee requires $350 billion in security program cuts, which – by-the-way Jon – includes defense spending? Or perhaps you’ve forgotten that if the uber-committee fails to come to a deal on at least $1.2 trillion in additional savings, automatic spending cuts would be triggered starting in 2013. Those cuts would be split evenly between domestic programs and defense?

This is the new GOTP, slash and burn social spending, cut aid to our own people, including veteran’s benefits and school programs, but don’t you dare cut anything out of the defense department’s budget; we need that money to keep the conservative sugar daddy, the military-industrial complex, humming. Please Senator shut your pie hole before you embarrass yourself any further, and please by all means quit the uber-committee. Oh, and by-the-by, your retirement can’t come soon enough.

 
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Posted by on September 8, 2011 in Federal Budget

 

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