Category Archives: Politics

So, today Obama released the “long form birth certificate” that so many Birthers have been begging for. Will their actions, their ideas, their thoughts change? I doubt it.

The root cause of Birtherism is not an actual fear that Obama was not born in the US, but racism.

I say this because:
1. Obama produced the official document that is a birth certificate early on in his Presidential campaign. It was not, and still has not been accepted.
2. The (then) Republican governor of Hawaii said that it’s a legit birth certificate.
3. Investigations, over and over, have shown that it would have been impossible to fake the birth announcements in Hawaii’s newspapers

I would like to remind everyone that of the two candidates that ran for President of the US in 2008, one was demonstrably born in the US (Obama), and one was demonstrably born outside the US (McCain). McCain’s father was an admiral in the US navy and he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, which, last time I checked, was not in the US.

Again, I think that McCain is a US Citizen. I don’t doubt that for a moment. But, I ask, with all interest, why would two people running for President not be held to the same standard, unless it’s about skin color?

To the Righties that doubt Obama’s citizenship: You’re so eager to think the worst of the Clintons. Do you really think that Hillary and Bill Clinton would have let an issue like this fly through the Primary when Obama and Clinton were opponents? (Disclosure: I was a Clinton supporter in that primary, and happen to adore Hillary Clinton, and think that she’s one of the best and most intelligent people in politics…as she’s proven as Secretary of State.)

I am eager to see the first Birther stand up and say “oops. I was wrong.” I’ll be proud of that person, and give that person a HUGE new respect. But, I also admit that I’m not holding my breath.

(PS – I got an email from the Republican Party of PA today. Very interesting. The Subject Line was “The Only Job Obama Cares About is His Own” and it went on to talk about how in today’s world of unemployment and deficits, Obama’s release of the Birth Certificate is just crazy. Ummm, Really? Did you say that last week?)

I’m never understanding the “Right”. I don’t try to hide it, and I don’t care to.

But, I’m curious about something. Today’s “right” holds Ronald Reagan as the paragon, the ultimate, and the one that we all should be.

Reagan raised taxes. Reagan sat with Democrats and found out a compromise to keep Social Security going for another bunch of years. Reagan, as much as I despise everything else that he did, was always willing to compromise with Tip O’Neill, and get another step done.

Can a serious conservative explain to me why Reagan is some sort of God to the party of God?

OK, so here it is: Republicans, do you really think that the teabagger movement is correct, or are you just pandering?

Teabaggers, do you have ANY clue about reality?

I know, I know, I said I’d be reasonable, and those questions don’t, on the main, seem reasonable, but, let me explain.

When I worked in the Senate, one of my best friends was a staffer for a senior Republican. We would meet for beers two or three times a week, and start out our conversation with, “You hosed us on that one…gotta buy you a beer…” Sometimes I started, sometimes he did. But, there was respect and a belief that we each wanted to do the best for the nation.

We would sit around, toss beers back and forth, toss ideas back and forth, and find things that we could take back to our bosses, ideas that we could both support. Sometimes one Senator or the other rejected it. Sometimes we were able to work together to pass something good. Like national service, like family and medical leave.

Today, folks in Congress (especially the teabaggers) seem so wrapped up in a zero-sum game of “winning” that governing has been set aside. I’m tired of it.

I know that there are Republicans out there that don’t respect the zero-sum ideas of the teabaggers. Why are you folks cowering in fear of them? Why are you not standing up and being responsible adults and calling out Limbaugh, Beck, Bachmann, Palin, etc? What’s the fear? Losing an election? Well, we’re about to lose all reasonable debate in this country, and that is TRULY scary!!

I’m not excusing Liberals, we’ve been captive of our extremes in the past. I admit that freely, and it’s taken us time to step back from the brink and come to reality.

But, at this moment, the teabagger crazies seem to have SUCH a firm grip on the Republican party that there’s no ability to do anything without their approval. Well, to hell with them, and to hell with that.

I’m a proud liberal, and I want things to be a little different, but, I’m NOT willing to shut down the government for the sake of cuts that really won’t make a difference.

A few facts for the teabaggers to chew upon. The Budget Deficit is $1.6 trillion dollars. The current fight about the US Budget is about $61 billion. Umm, not really a big chunk.

If the US Congress cut out every dollar that wasn’t dedicated to Social Security, Medicare and the Defense Budget, they’d still just cut the budget deficit from $1.6 trillion to $1 trillion.

If we cut out the entire US Defense budget, ($533 billion, or, including the “emergency operations” of Iraq and Afghanistan, $663 billion) we’re still left with a deficit of about $400 billion dollars.

So, please, let’s stop fighting about the $61 billion in cuts or not, let’s stop pretending that we’re being responsible about the budget. We’re not. The ONLY way to be sane about it is to address health care costs, to address the Defense budget and, yes, to raise taxes.

Until folks can be honest, and responsible, the whining that teabaggers continue to do about the budget is just that…whining and BS.

I have already admitted to being a Liberal, and generally a supporter of President Obama. I’m not entirely sure about this adventure in Libya, but I am sure that many of the critics are just flat out hypocrites.

Is Gaddafi a bad guy? Of course he is. My younger brother went to Syracuse, and knew family members of the students who died on the plane that Gaddafi ordered bombed over Lockerbie. I don’t like bad guys. I’m sure that nobody, liberal or conservative, does.

I also am not sure that Libya is a vital national security concern for the US. I’m sure, unlike in Egypt (where we gave over a billion dollars a year in military and economic aid), that we have NO leverage over Gaddafi like we had over the Egyptian military. I’m also sure that there’s no group, military, civilian or otherwise, to take over in a period between Gaddafi and another leader.

So, to all the folks slamming Obama for a “weak, uncoordinated” response to Libyan rebels, please, take a step back and don’t just offer criticism, but offer a concrete plan about what you’d have done.

I address my call for a concrete plan to liberals (Dennis Kucinich, a Member of Congress with whom I regularly agree) and conservatives (Sarah Palin, a…person with whom I’ve found little to agree with ever).

I think that Obama took a week to make sure that US citizens were evacuated from Libya. Good idea. There’s no need to go bombing a country that has hundreds or thousands of US citizens still in residence. I think that Obama took another week, or two, to make sure that the international community was united in making a decision to support the rebellion in Libya.

If the standard is that we, the US, should depose all “bad dictators,” then that’s another discussion – how to define “bad” and whether or not ANY dictator is, by definition, bad.

But, so far, all I see is Republicans, and other “conservatives,” suggesting that we should be faster to unleash bombs and kill more Muslims. The US is already not doing so well in that area. Seems to me that it’s a bad idea to add fuel to a fire that’s already out of control.

I’m also pretty sure that if folks like Palin, Pawlenty, Santorum, Gingrich etc, saw a massacre of innocent civilians/rebels in Benghazi, they’d be the first to scream to the high heavens that Obama’s weak and dithering.

Hey, I’m the first to admit that I’m torn about this. I’m a pacifist, and think that anytime you’re going out to kill folks, it’s a bad idea. But, I also know that there’s a time to lay things on the line and take a stand. I do NOT know if imposing a “no-fly” zone in Libya is a good idea yet. I haven’t worked it out in my own mind.

I’m just tired, beyond belief of Republican/conservative yammering about any time that a Democratic President (Clinton in Kosovo, Haiti, Obama in Libya, for instance) scream that it’s wrong and a horror, but blindly line up behind Republican Presidents invading other countries (Reagan in Grenada, Bush I and II in Iraq) and thinking it’s the best idea ever.