Injunction Against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, Part II – The Reaction

 

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Earlier, I covered the facts regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Federal Judge’s ruling. Now let’s review what the predictable Conservative reaction will be. This one is too easy. The primary vector the Republican Tea Party and it’s associated talking heads will use will be nothing more than two words – “judicial activism”.  This very statement gives light to their sad and obvious irrational misunderstanding of how our Federal Government is structured.

As anyone who passed high school history (and/or government) class should have learned, there are three branches to our government. The Legislative Branch is comprised of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This body writes bills and votes on them. The Executive Branch – The President, Vice President and their respective cabinets and staff. Once Congress passes a bill, it’s sent to the President to be signed. Once the President signs the document, it is considered officially law.

Here’s where the Conservatives that constantly throw around the idea of “judicial activism”. The next branch of our government is the Judicial Branch. Their job is to review bills passed into law by the other two branches and decide based on the Constitution (and precedent set by previous rulings) if the items in question are legal! So when Conservatives whinge about “judicial activism”, they are protesting the fact that the Judicial Branch is doing it’s Constitutionally appointed duty!

So, despite that reality, individual Americans who subscribe to the Republican Tea Party mantra are under educated in matters of civics, political science will still echo the cries of “judicial activism” coming from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, et al. What excuse do those individuals have? Do they not understand the function of the Judicial Branch any better, or are they intentionally ignoring the reality of their job for the purpose of making people afraid and angry? Has anyone else noticed that Conservatives only cry “judicial activism” when it’s a decision they don’t agree with, but they seem to have no complaints or concerns about the Citizen’s United decision?

– “Left of Center”

The TEA Party is… — Part II: Cowardly

 

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Across the country, TEA Party candidates are doing something that may not have been seen in a national election in this country’s history. They are hiding in their offices. They are refusing to get out and discuss their positions with the people. They are going on FOX News, but ignoring interview requests from other news sources. They are even running away from local reporters when the questions get too tough or when a reporter has the gall to actually ask them to explain their policy positions.

Sharron Angle (NV), Christine O’Donnell (DE), Carl Paladino (NY), Rick Scott (FL), Joe Miller (AK), Ken Buck (CO), Marco Rubio (FL) and several others don’t have the spine to answer the real questions about their viewpoints. Instead they choose to only do interviews with FOX News that, for all intents and purposes, amount to infomercials that garner them huge donations despite them saying nothing substantial. The reason they do this is clear, as their viewpoints are so radical, so extreme that the Republican National Committee has been doing quite a lot of spin and re-design of these candidate’s websites to tone down or hide the truth of their outlandish ideas.

In short, these people are cowards.

– “Left of Center”

A Disturbing Example of Republican Tea Party America

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A stunning display of arrogance. A shocking lack of humanity. A shameful lack of personal and civil ethics. I’m speaking of the fire that consumed the home of Gene Cranick of Obion County, Tennessee. By know you’ve probably heard that because Mr. Cranick failed to pay an annual $75 fee for fire services, firefighters stood by and watched his house burn.

How can one human sit back and let another human suffer in that fashion when they have the power to stop it? How can we, as a country where one of our goals is to lead by example in the world, sit back and let this happen? This is disgusting. Surprisingly this is not an isolated incident in Obion County. This has happened before and it will happen again under the policy in place.

For what it’s worth, I’m trying very hard here to maintain an air of professionalism and composure as this story has me extremely disgusted and angry. This bit of news has me seething. As I write this, I am doing everything in my power to refrain from using, shall we say, very salty and colorful language. I am doing my best not to, in fact, use every foul word in the book in regards to the wastes of oxygen responsible for this reprehensible decision. My heart goes out to Mr. Cranick and any other Obion County residents who have paid their taxes, but still lost everything they have as a result of this colossal lapse in civility and respect for humanity. If you have any decency as a human being then you should feel exactly the same.

Now on to the larger point, why this item is being discussed on a blog that primarily focuses on politics at the national level. That’s very easy. This is the America that the Republican Tea Party wants. Before I continue, I want to add that I dislike making a political issue out of Mr. Cranick’s suffering, but it simply must be done. The greatest disinfectant for these backwards, regressive and oppressive social and political beliefs held by every single Tea Party candidate and many Republicans is the bright light of publicity. We need to make everyone who does not pay daily attention to politics aware of their deception and their hatred towards the average American they claim so strongly to represent and be fighting on behalf of, for it is a blatant lie.

This is the kind of thing that the Conservative movement wants to see. Additional fees for what should be considered basic rights and services. This is what an unregulated free market gets you, the rich given a thousand-fold increase in their ability to keep you poor and make even more profit while walking on your back. This is not the vision of America that the Founding Fathers had. The type of America that the Tea Party wants is the type of government that the Founding Fathers, the true liberals of their time, started a revolution to escape. The oppression and subjugation of a populace at the hands of a wealthy & very powerful theocratic government. That’s not the America the Founding Fathers envisioned and it’s not the direction we need to go as Americans.

– “Left of Center”

Gems from the Annual "Values Voter Summit", Part I

Introduction
The yearly “Values Voter Summit” was held over the weekend. The collection of Conservatives and Republicans gathered together for their annual conference and this year resulted in some of the most false and unbelievably hateful, vile, ignorant & factually vacant comments ever in modern political history. After the nonsense that’s been said since the 2008 election, especially in regards to the healthcare debate, that’s a seriously frightening achievement.

Christine O’Donnell
“Think back for a moment to about a year and a half a go to when our leaders took office.. when our new leaders just took office. Think about how you felt then. The despondency, the anxiety, even a palpable fear for the future of our country.”

I have to ask – fear of what exactly? Fear of being the minority party? Fear that the American people voted in a majority against your policies in 2008? Fear that they will do so again in 2010? No, she’s talking about the false fear of Socialism. Something she either is not really afraid of (but wants you to be) or is truly afraid of because of her exceedingly poor understanding of what Socialism truly is.

“.. a so-called stimulus bill that spent a trillion dollars on a Keynesian fantasy while millions of working Americans lost their jobs and watched their savings disappear.

Well, Ms. O’Donnell firstly, your facts are unsurprisingly a bit lacking. Let’s look at the first half of that quote – the stimulus. Numerous examinations show that the stimulus worked. In fact, there is common agreement that the only reason it didn’t help more was not because it was too much spending, but too little. Examples:

The New York Times || The Philadelphia City Paper || USA Today ||
Wall Street Journal / Allan Greenspan || Firedog Lake || Salon.com

As for the second half of that quote, I have to wonder if she even understands even the basic fundamental aspects of Keynesian economics. I’ll go into more detail on the very basic aspects at another time.

To close out the examination of the second half of the quote, someone should remind Ms. O’Donnell that the market crashed in 2008 before Obama took office. That’s when countless millions of Americans watched their life savings evaporate into nothing.  Finally, Job losses peaked in the first months of 2009, before the Recovery Act was passed.

“..but it didn’t end there, did it? They started talking about Obamacare and the bailouts.”

Again, Ms. O’Donnell needs a history refresher. The TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) also known as the Wall Street bailout was organized, passed and instituted by President Bush while the 2008 election was underway. Remember, John McCain made a spectacle of suspending his campaign to rush back to Washington to show his support for the plan?

My colleague, “Classic Liberal” will be doing a more in depth look at Ms O’Donnell’s individual policies including details on her stance on the healthcare reform bill, here idiotically referred to by its Conservative faux name of “Obamacare.”

“We’re not trying to take back our country. We are our country.”
“The small elite don’t get us. They call us whacky. They call us wingnuts. We call us ‘We, the people.’”

I’m sorry Ms. O’Donnell but you don’t represent me and I am fully aware of thousands and speak with dozens of people daily that don’t see you as representing an America they want to be a part of. Being part of “We the People” means having to accept when you lose an election by the majority will of the same “We the People” you claim to both be and represent. So far, you have done little to demonstrate any comprehension of that.

Why I Support President Barack Obama — Part II

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He’s nobody’s messiah. He’s nobody’s second coming of anything. Anyone who says those things would speak ill of the man even if he single-handedly found the cure for cancer or swam down to the bottom of the ocean and plugged the Deepwater Horizon leak personally. Those people have no interest in rational, honest, and fair politics. Those people want to continue to work against our better interest and our current President to continue to divide us.

No, President Barack Obama is just a person who I feel is extremely personally dedicated to doing his part to steer our country back to prosperity and honor, a place we have fallen far from in the past 10 years. Regardless of the nonsense that is used to attack him. Despite people saying he is a Socialist, a Communist, a Marxist and secretly a Muslim all at the same time, as if any of those things are in any way both the same thing or even possible (which they most certainly are not). Those people, including many Republicans in Congress and Conservative talking heads are in dire need of the knowledge acquired in a Political Science & Civics 101 class at their local community college.

In addition to that pathetic nonsense, the President has had to work through attacks against him that have zero connection to logic whatsoever. Items such as showing respect to leaders of other countries in that country’s tradition, chastised for his level of education by someone who took 6 years to complete one degree, having his parentage and citizenship status questioned, and more yet he still remains the statesman and tries to reach across the isle for Republican input on almost everything. It takes a much better person to rise above the hatred and nonsense.

At the end of his administration, whether it be one term or two, I remain positive that his extensive education, understanding of the Constitution and personal desire to do right by the American people even if some of them blindly hate him will lead to history seeing him as a successful president.

In closing I would like to leave you with the aforementioned keynote speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention:

– “Left of Center”

Why I Support President Barack Obama – Part I

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I had been following politics on and off since 1996 during the Clinton re-election campaign. Back before the Internet really took off there was, if it can be believed, even more mis-information out there. The 2000 Presidential election debacle and the growth of the Internet really spurred my interest and involvement in the political debate, but I still held back. I was apprehensive to get involved in what I could already tell was a growingly partisan environment.

It was the prospect of George W Bush being re-elected in 2004 that started the ball rolling in really getting me involved. I freely admit that I voted for Mr Bush in 2000 because I seriously distrusted Al Gore’s honesty. That’s a topic I may touch on again in a future commentary.

It was then Senatorial candidate Barack Obama’s 2004 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention that changed my mind for good. I recorded it on my DVR. I watched it twice in a row. More than a year later I watched it again on YouTube and shared it with my friends and family. I told them I was certain that this man would run for President one day.

Now I was under no misconception that he would win. I had no idea he would even actually run for President. I don’t even for a second believe I deserve any kind of credit for my reaction to the speech as I’m certain the 2008 election results show I was far from alone. No, there was just something about the determination and concern that the man put forward in his words.

Many of us had seen videos of speeches by famous historical figures including Presidents John F Kennedy, Franklin D Roosevelt’s fireside chats, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan (before I woke to the realization that Reagan was a terrible President – again a topic I may come back to later).  In watching Mr. Obama’s speech in 2004 I immediately started to draw parallels to famous words spoken by these figures.

To clarify by no means I, nor should anyone, think that President Obama is perfect. He is far from it. He’s human. He’s fallible. Just like us. Nobody logical would hold any belief otherwise. He’s definitely made mistakes and mis-steps, but there’s no denying he’s done and will do some things that when seen through the eyes of history. However, as a person committed to logic, truth and getting past the hostilities and divisiveness that have embraced our political discourse especially in the past 15 years I can’t help but still be inspired by the President.

Part II soon..

– “Left of Center”