Only One Side Has Been Perpetrating and Promoting Violence

For anyone who's thinking, "Well, I'm sure violence comes from both sides of the political spectrum," here's a brief reminder.

No, it hasn't. It has virtually all been coming from conservatives and to an abominable degree.

From Sarah Palin's gunsights on Representatives including the just-shot Gabby Giffords in Arizona with her calls to "take aim" and "open a salvo", to Sharron Angle's calling for 2nd Amendment remedies to "take out" Harry Reid, to completely taking out of context a quote from Thomas Jefferson as if he were promoting violence (he wasn't) in pursuit of liberty, the radical right as promoted through their media outlets have done everything short of arming their disciples and given them location addresses for their public appearances.

No, strike that. They DID give out the locations for Democrats' public appearances while not revealing Republicans' meetings during the Health Care debate, if you can use that word when the one purpose promoted was to disrupt any discussion or actual debate.

In case you don't remember:

A conservative who followed right-wing media killed a guard at the Holocaust museum.

A conservative who followed right-wing media killed West Memphis cops.

A conservative who followed right-wing media killed Dr. George Tiller while he was in church.

A conservative who followed right-wing media killed two people at a Unitarian church in Tennessee.

Unknown arsonists set fire to a planned Tennessee Mosque and cultural center at the time right-wing media denounced a planned Manhattan mosque and cultural center.

Unknown terrorists targeted Democratic officials and non-conservative media figures with anthrax in the past decade.

Democratic Congressman James Clyburn was spit on while being called racial slurs by conservatives in May 2010.

Numerous Democratic Party headquarters around the country were vandalized with bricks by conservatives who attached pro-conservative rhetoric to the weapons after being directed to do so by their conservative lords.

The headquarters for several Democratic Representatives such as Louise Slaughter and Gabby Giffords were attacked similarly by conservatives.

Nine conservative members of the Hutaree militia planned attacks last year on government officials and those who would attend the subsequent funerals.

A conservative who followed conservative anti-tax rhetoric flew a plane into a Texas IRS building.

A Tennessee conservative was arrested after walking into his local county courthouse to try to effect a citizen's arrest of a grand jury foreman who had refused to investigate President Obama's legitimacy to serve as promoted by right-wing media.

A self-proclaimed Glenn Beck fan was arrested for scouting out and trespassing on Air National Guard Base at Gabreski Airport in New York. She had an XM-15 assault rifle, a shotgun, and 500 rounds of ammunition in her car when police found her.

A conservative supporter knocked down to the ground and then stomped on a liberal protester's head as she lay by the curb outside a Republican campaign stop.

There are so many more I can cite, but the pattern is obvious here. Violent acts are not protected First Amendment speech and cannot be tolerated by a civilized society. The promoters in the conservative media are just as guilty as the perpetrators and should stop promoting violence immediately.

Republicans, The First Week

After just two days, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives has shown themselves to be a hypocritical embarrassment to anyone who voted for them as well as the rest of America.

They promised to employ a stringent interpretation of the Constitution without acknowledging that it is not written in stone to set up permanent rules, but rather to set guidelines that need to be interpreted or even changed with the evolution (oh dear, that word!) of our society. Our forefathers have made plenty of egregious errors along the way. How do the Republicans address that? By changing historical truths to suit their needs. In the reading of the Constitution, they simply ignored such facts as Native Americans weren’t considered people, that Blacks were considered just three-fifths of a person, that escaped slaves were to be returned to their owners no matter where in the country they were found, and that conservatives made alcohol consumption and commerce constitutionally illegal.

Well, isn’t that special!

Two Republican Congressmen – Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick – didn’t even bother to honor the rules of the Constitution when they didn't show up to be sworn in with the rest of the House. Where were they instead? They were attending a fundraiser that would help line their pockets with all of those really wealthy dollars that helped buy their way into office so they may attend to their further bidding.

Breaking the rules of Constitution on the day Congress is reading parts of the Constitution so you can be paid by really wealthy people is certainly very special!

Republicans pledged to cut 100 Billion dollars in federal spending. Now they say that written pledge was just hypothetical so they’re revised that to 50 Billion and some experts are saying it will be much more like 30 Billion. Meanwhile, they raised the deficit by 133 Billion with bonus tax cuts for wealthy beyond the regular tax cuts they would have gotten as proposed by the Democrats. Republicans say they were already in place, but, in fact, they were put in place at a time of economic surplus without wars and were set by Republicans to expire.

Republicans are trying to explode the deficit by another 230 Billion dollars by repealing health care reform. It’s part of their new “cut-as-you-go” promise – to not just pay for, but cut spending by whatever has to be paid for additionally. What will be cut to pay for this 230 Billion dollar blow up of the deficit? Nothing because they decided arbitrarily they don’t need to follow this promise when they don’t want to! And 230 Billion dollars is the amount computed by the independent Congressional Budget Office – the official accountants working on behalf of the government. The Republican Speaker says that’s just their opinion, which is tantamount to saying he thinks 2+2=7, and those who tell him it’s 4 are simply of the wrong opinion as well.

Well, isn’t that special!

Another broken Republican pledge is their stated commitment to reporting public attendance of Congressional committee meetings, which is where nearly all of their work takes place. But they decided to do away with that provision in a closed-door meeting Tuesday night.

Apparently, their promise of transparency wasn’t that special, either.

Another one of Republicans’ pledges was their promise to allow Democrats to offer amendments to legislation. On their first bill introduced since taking over, Republicans are not going to allow any amendments. Take it or leave it, suckers!

Another often-repeated promise was a “triumphant” return to open rules in the House. But after one day we see reporting that not a single one of the bills that will be brought to the floor this week will be brought under open rules.

Isn’t that triumphantly special!

Finally, in their Pledge to America, Republicans also promised to require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified. After all, these Republicans are strict constitutionalists (not counting the parts of the Constitution they don't believe in or want to acknowledge were ever there). However, none of the three bills that Republicans plan to introduce this week have any constitutional citation.

None of this hypocritical, dishonest, or simply bungling behavior is the result of an opposition party trying to destroy any accomplishment of government or childishly just saying “No” to obstruct everything proposed. Republicans have done this totally on their own to themselves and the American people, and they’ve done it in just two days.

The Economy in a Nutshell

You, too, can understand the economy once it's broken down to it's easily component parts. Really!

(Bullet points always help.)

• We wouldn't be upset about AIG execs getting bonuses from taxpayers if there hadn't been a bailout.
• AIG wouldn't have needed bailing out if it hadn't been too big to fail.
• AIG wouldn't have been too big to fail if it hadn't become a giant corporate mixture of insurance, banking, and investment house.
• AIG wouldn't have been able to become a giant corporate mixture of insurance, banking, and investment house if there hadn't been deregulation of Wall Street that allowed firms to get like that.
• There wouldn't have been deregulation of Wall Street that allowed firms to get like that if there hadn't been the Republican political philosophy that preached that regulation was bad and that deregulation was good.
• There wouldn't have been the total deregulation of Wall Street if it weren't for the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, introduced by those three Republicans.
• The Graham-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 tore down the separation of commercial banks from investment banks from insurance companies that had been in place since the Great Depression.
• That's how Citibank gobbled up Travelers Group Insurance to become Citigroup and AIG added the various banking measures to its insurance business by insuring banking and mortgages it knew were bad. BUT WHO WAS GOING TO STOP THEM? Nobody, thanks to the Republicans.
  
• Banking and mortgage companies gave outrageous mortgages to unqualified buyers because they got insurance for them (that was totally worthless). BUT WHO WAS GOING TO STOP THEM? Nobody, thanks to the Republicans.
• Then there came the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (with the famed "Enron Loophole") which exempted high-risk actions from any regulation whatsoever. Not only was it legal from the 1999 act, but now it couldn't even be overseen. It was another action by Phil Graham and the Republicans.
  

The Great Depression of the 1930s was repaired by the Democrats with the formation of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to provide oversight and control, and the New Deal (a federal investment in job-creating and economic-stimulating infrastructure) to correct unregulated, Republican failures.

Can we now finally learn from our mistakes?

Economy Solution - The New York Yankee$

I believe the true answer to the financial crisis is to allow the New York Yankee$ to buy the top five banks in America as well as the big three auto makers.

Apparently, there is no economic recession if your last name is Steinbrenner, as in New York Yankee$ owner Hank Steinbrenner.

In the past 12 months or so, the New York Yankee$ have signed five players... FIVE... to contracts totaling more than three-quarters of a BILLION dollars!

They have a brand new stadium, being funded in part by taxpayer bonds.

And what's more scurrilous about this is the way the Yankee$ have most recently gone about it. For recently signed first baseman Mark Texeira they waited until all of the other teams bidding for his services played out, then trounced the top bid by an insurmountable sum at the last second.

Certainly, they will win at least 105 baseball games this year as well as the World Series. If not, they should fire every manager, coach, and executive with the team.

Do all of the citizens of New York really want their tax dollars going to buying every top level baseball player available? If so, I'm sure they'll pay $2500 a seat at the games and $11 a beer in droves, and I'm sure won't mind a few dollars going to bail out the Republican recession as well.

The Yankee$ are truly the evil empire, but they can turn that around by becoming our benevolent benefactors.

I hope the people of New York are happy cheering for their championship team while they're looking for a job, declaring personal bankruptcy, losing their health insurance (such as it is these days), and seeing a radical increase in violent crime. People of New York, you will get what you pay for.

So how about sharing some of your tax dollars with the rest of us? It's only fair if we're going to be the whipping boys for your store-bought All-Star baseball team.

Awful McCain Mistakes on Foreign Policy

In a week in which the Dow lost 1,000 points on Monday and Wednesday, John McCain was insisting the economic fundamentals in America were strong. Wha???????

OK, the economy is, by his own admission, not his strong suit. So does he have a strong suit?

The media has attempted to portray McCain to have knowledge on foreign policy, but his repeated mistakes prove he is not intelligent enough to handle that, either. As a recap, here are some of McCain's recent foreign policy gaffes in which he said that:

1 - Iraq and Pakistan share a border.

2 - Czechoslovakia still exists.

3 - He was confused as to the difference between Sudan and Somalia.

4 - He was confused as to whether it was more U.S troops or more NATO troops he wanted to send to Afghanistan.

5 - He was confused as to what troop levels are in Iraq.

6 - He was confused about Iran's relationship with Al Qaeda.

7 - He was confused about the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

8 - He referred to Russian President Putin as being the leader of Germany.

9 - He jokingly sang about bombing Iran.

10 - His running mate spoke of bombing Russia.

11 - And now this week, he has referred to our friendly European ally and fellow democracy, Spain, as being our adversary, and...

12 - being located in Central America.

McCain is showing himself to be weak-minded, weak-willed, lacking judgment, lacking intelligence, lacking stamina, and choosing the worst, most unqualified running mate in U.S. history (supplanting even Dan Quayle).

Apparently, he does not have any strong suit at all.

Despite the media's attempts to keep the race close for their own ratings benefit, John McCain is showing such a lack of ability to be president as to even overcome that propaganda to register in the polls whose methodology already favors the republican candidates by skewed selection of those they poll.

Red Sox Add by Addition

Some are arguing the Red Sox accomplished addition by subtraction this week by trading Manny Ramirez and acquiring Jason Bay, meaning they took a step back by making the switch, but accomplished more in the long run by removing a problem player.

They’re wrong. The Red Sox have added a more accomplished player in Bay.

Those who don’t like the deal are only looking at the raw numbers:

Ramirez - .303 BA, 21 HR .936 OPS through 8-3-08.

Bay - .283 BA, 23 HR, .906 OPS.

Those are the UNADJUSTED stats. Adjust for all of the factors and you’ll see Bay is the superior hitter and player.

Factor #1 - Ball Park

Ramirez played home games in Fenway park, a hitter’s park. His stats were inflated because of where he played half of his games.

Bay played his home games in Pittsburgh, a pitcher’s park that made hitting stats worse.

Factor #2 - Pitching staffs

Ramirez didn’t have to face above-average Red Sox pitchers so his numbers were compiled against slightly below league-average pitching. That made his batting statistics better than if they were against average pitching in the league.

Bay didn’t get to face below-average Pirates pitchers so his numbers were compiled against slightly above league-average pitching. That made his batting statistics worse than if he got to face average pitching in the league.

Factor # 3 - Defense

Ramirez was often replaced late in games to allow a better defensive outfielder to play in LF. When David Ortiz was out with an injury, Ramirez moved to DH, a spot he’s more suited for.

Bay is better in the field and can stay in ball games to provide good fielding with his range and his arm.

Factor # 4 - Speed

Ramirez was slow on the base paths, and that’s when he actually tried to run. Ramirez could have gotten extra hits by running harder on misplayed ground balls he assumed would be outs. With him, they were because of his lack of effort.

Bay has always hustled in his career. He plays the game with full effort and won’t accept an out as automatic. This season he is 7 for 7 in stolen base attempts.

Factor # 5 - Age

Ramirez is 36.

Bay is 29.

Factor # 6 - Contract

Ramirez makes $20 million a year and is a free agent after this season.

Bay is signed through 2009 when he will make $7.5 million.

Factor # 7 - In the Clubhouse

No one will ever say that Jason is just being Jason - in a bad way, that is.

An Awful Week in McCain's Political Life, but the Media Covers it up

If John McCain weren’t the darling of the media, he would be in BIG trouble after this past week. I cannot remember a politician having such a disastrous string of mistakes, missteps, and misstatements in so short a time. Yet, it's almost being completely ignored by the media.

First, McCain promised to balance the budget by the end of his first term from all the money he would save by winning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even though he has said in the past that there’s no reason to bring troops home if they’re not getting killed anymore. Of course, he has also said that we can’t bring the troops home as long as they’re getting killed. In other words, we stay if we are getting killed and we stay if we’re not getting killed. So where does the money being saved come from?

He then attacked Barack Obama for not voting for something he didn’t vote for, either - the Kyl-Lieberman amendment.

He claimed to have a record with veterans that he really doesn’t have. It was Barack Obama who supported the G.I. Bill and John McCain who refused to vote for it. That just backs up all Veterans’ groups overwhelmingly scoring McCain’s support of soldiers among the worst in the Senate.  

McCain ignored the Iraqi Prime Minister calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq even though McCain had said before that if the Iraqis wanted us to leave, we would leave.

McCain joked about wanting to kill Iranian civilians by giving them lung cancer.

On Monday, McCain described social security as a total disgrace, not saying that it needed to be fixed, but saying, “We are paying present-day retirees with the taxes being paid by young workers in America today.” That just happens to be the entire premise of social security, which he has stated he wants to privatize.

McCain’s top economic advisor, Phil Gramm, who largely caused the mortgage crisis in America by creating the Enron loophole while a Senator, called Americans a bunch of whiners for an economy he said was only in a mental recession. Despite this, he got to keep his campaign co-chairman position.

Another top economic advisor, the formerly ousted Hewlett Packard CEO, Carly Fiorino, told reporters that McCain was just as upset as she was that insurance companies cover Viagra for men, but not birth control for women leaving McCain befuddled and bewildered on his campaign bus when reporters asked him about it.

Finally, McCain lied about his own life story just to pander to a Pittsburgh TV morning show. When McCain was held in Vietnam by the North Vietnamese, he had always said he gave false information under torture to make the torturers stop. He even stated it in his autobiography and the film that was made about it. Instead of naming his squad mates and squadron commander, he named the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers - the best team in football in the 1960s.

At the time, the Pittsburgh Steelers stunk. They were completely insignificant with no outstanding players although they would later become the best team of the 1970s well after McCain left Vietnam.

In talking to this Pittsburgh TV reporter, McCain changed his life story by saying he named the Pittsburgh Steelers famous defensive line of the time just to show what a great Pittsburgh fan he was. Too bad the famous Steel Curtain defense didn’t exist yet!

Furthermore, he formerly used this Green Bay Packers story to illustrate how ineffective torture is. A victim generally says anything just to end the pain. Of course, McCain completely changed his anti-torture stance under the direction of the Republican dictatorship who used incorrect information gleaned under torture to justify the irresponsible spending of American blood and taxpayers’ dollars in Iraq.

It’s a good thing for McCain that the media is the lapdog of the Republican machine or else he’d never hear the end of this week’s gaffes.