Oh no he didn’t just say that. In Connecticut 4 police men are charged with beating handcuffed Latins and arresting them on false pretexts. And then trying to cover up the crime. And the mayor jokes when asked what he is doing about it. “I might have tacos tonight!” While that might be funny I have to call this racism. It bothers me that this kindof thing happens in the north east when you would like to think that this kind of thing is isolated to the south. The entire birther thing I do believe is basically racism. An interesting article came out today that states most prejudice is based in low iq and conservative beliefs. So I guess it’s safe to say low iq is running high in Connecticut.
Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario says, “Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found.”
Being Muslim is not a dis qualifier for president. Remember one of the fundamental concepts that our countries sovereignty is based on is the separation of church and state. There seems to be a miss understanding or what I call an ethnocentric attitude in this country about religion. This is a secular government.
One issue that continues to anger me in politics is the religious issues from gay marriage to abortion rights? And the power of the religious right to bring these religious issues into politics.
Today a lady made a comment about the president that he does not have the right to be president because he is Muslim. What she should have said is. “I still believe he is illegitimate because he was not born in the US.” I find this laughable because a few years ago there where calls for a constitutional amendment to change that so Arnold could run for president. My interpretation of this issue is that it’s racism because the presidents birth father is from Africa.
On the other hand liberals also anger me on the issue of gay marriage. There is a lack of respect for religion when people think there should be same sex marriage. This would require the government ordering religious institutions to accept something that is against their religious beliefs. We need to understand that marriage has precedent in the church or other religious institutions. The secular union should always be refereed to as a civil union which is the same thing legally as marriage but condoned by the state not the church. If you want a union be the state you get a civil union. If you want a union by the church you get a marriage. They should be exactly the same and grand all the same rights. And should allow people of the same sex to have a legal union, which can not always be done by a church or religious institution because that is against their beliefs. And that is fine. We have freedom of region in this country.
Is there any question about this issue that the republicans just want to make money for their friends. The environment be damned. Who cares if toxic oil spills into out rivers. I can’t believe we are even having this debate and over 2 months of payroll tax extensions. I would do the same thing as president. You better give me a full year or I’m going to veto it. The payroll tax credit will create more than 3,000 jobs.
And using jobs as the reason to build something that will ruin the environment is just crazy. How about looking out over 50 years instead of the next few years and making money for your oil friends in Texas. How about doing the right thing and expending renewable energy. How about doubling wind power in the country. And how about using US steal to build them. And US workers to make them. I’m pretty sure you could create 10 times as many jobs and provide energy for the next few decades.
How about upgrading the electrical grid to maximize wind and solar power that will start to make economic sense in the next few years. That is right in less than 2 years solar power will make sense economically.
The fact is oil will be $5 a gallon in the near future. Reports are coming out saying that could be as soon as this summer. If that’s the case it will tank the economy. Usually energy costs take 6 months to filter through the economy. So that will cause the next recession sometime at the beginning of the next administration.
It’s time to get this country off the oil standard. That’s the only way to prosper economically and have homeland security.
So what is Mic Check? I have never been so excited as I was today when I saw this on TV. Basically it’s occupy wall street taking their message to the politicians. They will be heard. Maybe not with money and lobby but a message in numbers. This is the concept. Who ever thought of this is a genius. I want to get to know this person. Anyway I’m posting the president and Ron Paul getting Mic Checked today. They got some conservatives too but I won’t even give these freaks the privileged of space on this blog. I wish Paul wasn’t so condescending because I generally like the guy even being a repub. The President how ever amused me because at first he is completely shocked by it. But then he shows his class. It’s the power of the numbers and a unified message. Civil disobedience at it’s best. If you know the history of mic check please email me. I can only assume it started in the 60′s.
What is mic check check the video.
Again the bottom line here is that Occupy guys need to look at the root of the problem. It’s like when someone is anorexic the problem is not that they don’t eat. There are issues underneath that are causing this person to behave in a self destructive way. In order to correct the anorexia you need to focus on the underlying issue.
I hate to credit McCain here but the problem is that campaign finance reform failed and with the citizens united court fulling it was dismantled for ever. I just hope healthcare reform doesn’t follow a similar path. This to was watered down my the lobby and ultimately missed greatness. And I suspect unless someone on the court died in the next few months and they are right leaning that healthcare will end up being a distant memory.
One final note. I decided my new years resolution is going to be to participate in a MIC CHECK. And if I’m really lucky maybe even have the ability to write the message. Check back for my New Years post with my Mic Check message.
Here is an amazing picture from Charles Dharapak showing an occupy wall street guy handing Obama the Mic Check message. I wonder if it makes the Presidential archive? It is infact history. Hopefully there is a similar picture of me one day.
The republicans want to maintain the bush tax cuts and I have an idea how to let them have their way. You can go to a 999 type tax plan but you maintain the 15% capital gains tax on income.
Then you can set 9% national sales tax or lets make it 15% for good measure to keep things simple. The key here is to not tax what I term necessities. Things that you need to buy to survive. The same things people who make less than 40k a year spend almost all their income on. Food, transportation, clothes, shelter. The sticky part is you maybe don’t tax used cars over a certain value. But you would tax maybe 15k plus. Or you tax any purchase over 15k on a automobile.
I am still an advocate of taxing fuel. But that’s an argument for another time. Relating to the overall energy policy in this country. I consider tax on something that pollutes, and creates a massive trade imbalance as well as making terrorist nation rich a tax that is progressive.
Anyway the concept is for a progressive tax code. You tax 15% on capital gains. But you do not tax income and the goal here is to lower the tax burden on the less rich.
Listening to an interview with Dr. Carolyn McClanahan who says she is an expert and tried to make a suggestion to Romney I have to agree 100%. I am not an expert she is. But she says that 25% of healthcare costs is overhead. In Germany it’s 5%. So that translates to a $500 Billion savings. And you can achieve that in two easy ways.
1) Nationalized Electronic Billing.
2) Single Billing System.
If this is true. By implementing these 2 things we could lower the overhead from 25% to 5% then shame on Washington. How did congress get reform so wrong? This goes back to what is wrong with Washington. The answer seems simple it’s controlled by lobbyist. And they don’t think outside the box to come up with progressive ideas. The massive amounts of money wasted is sad. And all we hear about is how we have budget deficits and have to cut food stamps and Planned Parenthood. I nominate Dr McClanahan for Surgeon General.
Check out her Twitter.
One of my favorite mayors Rahm Emanuel, well I have always admired the guy. I know he might be a politician but he is one of the few democrats that know how to fight and not end up on the losing side of the republicans dirty politics. He did something bad this weekend by arresting 175 peaceful occupy Chicago protestors. Their crime was being in a park after hours. I want to say to Rahm. Really dude? He confirmed that he was in talks with the police prior to the arrests. Shame on you dude. Why didn’t you get them a park that they could setup the protest before you had to arrest people. I will say that he is in the process of finding a spot for the protestors. But why not do this up stream before it comes down to arrests. Doesn’t the Chicago police department have enough to do. Another mayor I always was fond of is now in my shit book. Michael Bloomberg. What the hell is wrong with you bro? You have NYPD abusing New Yorkers. Shame on you. This is America. And your actions running NYC is despicable. Are we going back to Bush era treatment of protestors when we ignore freedom of expression? I believe this is a basic American right. This is the essence of what gives the USA sovereignty. Basic human rights. The right of free speech. The right to peacefully protest.
There are a lot of bridges that need to be fixed. And I was listening to some congressmen talk about needed a 6 year bill to fund their repair but there is no money for it. I don’t understand. Why have any government at all if they can’t provide basic safety to their citizens. The fact is that Obama has increased the deficit less than the last 3 republican presidents. And let me add while you are at it. Fix the bridges and the traffic. Roads are way to congested and it wastes a lot of time and oil. Spend the money now and create jobs in the process. There are a lot of people in construction that are out of work. While I want to blame the do nothing congress and republicans at some point the buck has to stop at the top. Obama is letting Washington get away with ruining this country. I have to believe there has to be away to move forward. The jobs will provided for 50 billion in infrastructure spending. This is the type of thing that has to happen now. Shovel ready or not. It’s crucial to stimulating the economy.
You almost don’t want to believe this graph after listening to the right and all the talking heads. So why are the tea baggers so up in arms over spending? The deficit has actually shrunk under Obama.
Did you know that the government spends only 300 million dollars on Planned Parenthood. This is one of the create services in America. It’s a place for people who don’t have health insurance to not only get birth control but also cancer screenings. I strongly support a womens right to choose and as a progressive I think its a right that any female who wants to abort a pregnancy to be able to get one even if she can’t afford it. Because every dollar spend on planned parent hood saves 4 dollars. My question is why doesn’t the government give money to perform abortions? I think an american is entitled to this even if they can’t afford it. It angers me that the debate revolves around funding planned parenthood at all not on giving money for free abortions. To me it’s just an example of how our country has a serious problem with separation of church and state. i feel that it’s not always practiced.
If you are reading this blog post. I want to ask you to fight to keep funding planned parent hood even if its not to abort an unwanted pregnancy. There are so many other great things done there.
I wish we would spend 300 million dollars on anti heart disease organization. There is no reason anyone should die of a heart attack. Believe it or not they are 100% preventable with proper medical care. I wish there was a place for older people with no health insurance or people who are poor could go and great screened. Simple blood tests are not good enough. Planned Heart. Lets call it. Open clinics all over the country right next to planned parenthood. I lost an aunt this month to heart disease and she had all the warning signs. I didn’t know. She ignored them and died. It makes me sad as it didn’t have to happen. The healthcare in the US ranks below a lot of other first world nations. It doesn’t have to be that way.
If you play baseball or anything else if you could succeed 94% of the time you would be hall of fame material. I have a little secret tip for you. If you want to predict a political election according to Dylan Ratigan you can have 94% success by picking the person who raised the most money. Time to hit Vegas. The real problem comes in not with elections and money but with committee appointments. In the past that was determined by who was the senior member of the committee. These days it has more to do with who has raised more money for the party. So anyone who says money doesn’t control politics is out of their mind. It has gotten out of hand with the Supreme Court decision Citizens United. Not corporations can contribute unlimited amounts of money. I think anyone with a screed of common sense would see that there is no hope of having a government that is not corrupt. So if you get a lot of donations from a specific political interest you can get yourself on the committee in charge of writing legislation that relates to that industry and influence that. Sure it’s not a direct connection but it smells rotten. As a progressive I have to think that there is no hope of taking our government back with such an unfair playing ground. No wonder the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. My personal opinion is that the tea party movement is backed by corporate interests that want no money spent on the poor. Only pro-business legislation. For another blog I’ll point out a list of reasons I see this connection. It would make for a great masters thesis. How The Tea Party Is Turning Our Country To Sh…
