The controversy is heating up over whether President Obama should be addressing America's school children next week. We've gotten to the point that conservative leaders are telling parents to keep their kids out of school rather than let them be indoctrinated into the socialist world view of the Democrats.
The hypocrisy here is easy to point out. President Reagan addressed our children in November of 1981. He told them all about the importance of Star Wars (not the movie) and lowering taxes (no political agenda there, right?). President George H.W. Bush held a Q&A conference call with schools (so no one knew in advance what he was going to say!) back in November of 1991.
Republicans thought these events were just fine and dandy. No problems with either the idea of the President talking to school kids, or the political messages.
But now, they're saying that THIS President will further his political agenda with his speech. Never mind that the well-publicized subject of his talk is encouragement to stay in school, get a good education, take responsibility for themselves. Never mind that the entire text will be available early in the week, before he gives the address. They either ignore this information, or call it lies.
Chairman of the Florida Republicans Jim Greer says "As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." He goes on, to say that the President will "spread his liberal lies" by "indoctrinating American's youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves."
Not surprisingly, Michelle Malkin claimed that "the left has always used kids in public schools as guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda."
And our news media chimes in. Sean Hannity says it will be very "close to indoctrination." And here's one of my favorites: Monica Crowley, also of Faux News, said "just when you think this administration can't get any more surreal and Orwellian, here they come to indoctrinate our kids".
Even those who accept the subject matter as laid out by the White House, these fear mongers say it's not the message, its the messenger. Filling in for Lou Dobbs on CNN, Chris Stigall says "At issue is Barack Obama has effectively called a meeting of your children with direction of public school teachers to guide them and shape them and mold them into a discussion and a way of thinking without you there. [...] He gets away with this once, it'll happen again and again."
Let's get real. Not real like in reality TV, I mean real real.
Barack Obama is our President. OUR President.
And like presidents before him, he sets an example for the rest of us, and that example MIGHT be followed by some of us.
There's the rub.
What could be worse for the powerful, wealthy, conservative elite, than a nation full of school children, rich and poor, boy and girl, black, white, brown, red, yellow and rainbow, who see that it's OK to have a dream, to work hard to achieve it, and finally make that dream come true?
For one thing: kids who grow up to get involved in their community and vote. Because the more people who vote, the more liberal the nation becomes. (That's why ACORN registering so many people to vote, without regard to their politics, is such a dangerous thing for Republicans.)
And another: kids who stay in school and get a good education. Because the more educated people become, the more often, and more liberal, they vote.
What will happen to our minimum wage work force if kids stay in school? Who will work at McDonalds? These kids will all think they have a right to fair wages and a safe work environment! And they'll vote! And run for office!
No, it's pretty clear. If we let President Barack Hussein Obama talk to our school children, the nation will simply fall into the communist trap. And the rich might have to stop getting richer at the expense of future generations of kids from the wrong side of the tracks. Lord help us.
America may have elected a brilliant, mixed-race president, but there's still plenty of people out there who would do almost anything to keep it from ever happening again. We may have come a long way, but, sadly, there's still a long, long way to go.
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Journalism in America
We must note the passing of a legendary, groundbreaking journalist. Don Hewitt, originator and producer of 60 Minutes for over 30 years, producer of the first Kennedy/Nixon televised debate, has succumbed to cancer. The world of investigative journalism got a true energy burst from the development of 60 Minutes. They set a standard that has yet to be exceeded. Though we're sure he was disappointed with the state of journalism on television today, we believe he never lost sight of the importance of getting to the truth, and telling it effectively without bias. Any reporting of Don Hewitt's death by Fox News will be abruptly switched off in our home.
A day can't go by without more outrage over sputtering health care reform. The latest is the NBC poll that shows most Americans - 91% - want some kind of health care reform. Which makes it difficult to understand why most also believe three of the four biggest lies about the proposed health care reform bills in Congress. Breaking it down, 55% believe Obamacare would be available to illegal immigrants (not true); 54% believe the Government will completely take over health care (not true); 50% believe the Government would pay for every abortion (not true); and 45% believe the Government would use death panels to refuse care to Grandma (NOT TRUE!). Unbelievable. But real.
And here's where it gets really interesting. Viewers of Fox News account for most of those numbers. 72% of Faux News viewers believe illegal immigrants would be covered; 79% that Government would takeover all your health care; 69% that tax dollars would pay for abortions; and 75% that the Government would pull the plug on Grandma.
They have believed the outright lies that Fox propagates as news. Journalism. Without shame.
Sadly, CNN (supposedly completely neutral) and MSNBC (supposedly liberal) haven't been able to squelch the lies either. Among their viewers, 41% believe the illegal immigrant lie; 39% believe the takeover lie; 40% believe the abortion lie; and 30% - YES 30% - believe the death panel lie.
Pundits are complaining about the ineffective messaging put out by the Obama White House, but for heaven's sake, how do you combat the Big Lie when its primary promulgators are one of the most watched news outlets? Then add those internet scandal sheets, and the way ALL the news outlets, broadcast and cable, cover the liars at town hall meetings, only occasionally pointing out the lies.
Is there really no law that requires news outlets to tell the truth? Or correct their lies? Are Americans really so gullible? Obama wasn't born here? Obama's a Nazi? We despair.
And tonight, Tom Delay says it's Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP that are driving up the cost of health care. And he'd like the President to produce his birth certificate. And he gets on TV - virtually every channel. And we wonder why so many people believe the lies.
Of course there's more to life than health care.
Governor Bill Richardson has been talking with the North Koreans, and he reports that he feels they are now prepared to enter into dialog with us. So where do the "journalists" of today put the emphasis in their coverage? "Why aren't they talking with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton?" Pat Buchanan says this is evidence that Mrs. Clinton isn't being taken seriously. That this is a slight. Obama's playing it wrong. What game is Buchanan playing? What's important is that the relationship with North Korea may be warming up, substantive discussions may be possible. State Department had to give permission for these talks (since North Koreans aren't allowed to go anywhere in the US besides the United Nations without getting permission), and clearly Secretary Clinton was involved in this granting. The North Korean officials had had discussions previously with Gov. Richardson when he was a special envoy for then-President Bush in April of 2007. They knew him, he knew them, they were comfortable in talking with him. Is it such a stretch to posit that Secretary Clinton actually cared more about improving relations with a hostile nation than thumping her chest in a territorial in-fight? Men! Journalists! Thank God Hillary Clinton can set aside any ego issues and do what's right for America.
The people of Iraq are going to the polls in January in an effort to put their country on course for security and freedom. Sadly, that may be the reason behind the six deadly bombings that happened Wednesday, taking at least 95 lives and injuring 500 more. The location, timing and efficiency of the attacks indicate that a well-organized, well-funded and well-connected group is responsible. The most likely motivation for this outrageous violence is to show that the Iraqi government has failed to develop adequate security. Who could gain from such a demonstraton? Two possibles: those who want the US to maintain a military presence in the cities, and political opponents of Maliki and his governing party. Some journalists at Al Jazeera point the finger at interfering Arab neighbors, specifically Saudi Arabia. Regardless of who is responsible, the danger for America is getting caught up in the idea that we need to stay longer in order to give the Iraqi people more time to develop better security. Let's not forget that attacks like this, even in the Green Zone, happened when we had a huge military presence in the cities. Lately, things had been relatively peaceful in Iraq, despite our pullback from those cities. We need to maintain our resolve to get our military completely out of that country. The people of Iraq have to come together and stand up to the terrorists -- it's the only way to a secure and stable democracy.
JM
A day can't go by without more outrage over sputtering health care reform. The latest is the NBC poll that shows most Americans - 91% - want some kind of health care reform. Which makes it difficult to understand why most also believe three of the four biggest lies about the proposed health care reform bills in Congress. Breaking it down, 55% believe Obamacare would be available to illegal immigrants (not true); 54% believe the Government will completely take over health care (not true); 50% believe the Government would pay for every abortion (not true); and 45% believe the Government would use death panels to refuse care to Grandma (NOT TRUE!). Unbelievable. But real.
And here's where it gets really interesting. Viewers of Fox News account for most of those numbers. 72% of Faux News viewers believe illegal immigrants would be covered; 79% that Government would takeover all your health care; 69% that tax dollars would pay for abortions; and 75% that the Government would pull the plug on Grandma.
They have believed the outright lies that Fox propagates as news. Journalism. Without shame.
Sadly, CNN (supposedly completely neutral) and MSNBC (supposedly liberal) haven't been able to squelch the lies either. Among their viewers, 41% believe the illegal immigrant lie; 39% believe the takeover lie; 40% believe the abortion lie; and 30% - YES 30% - believe the death panel lie.
Pundits are complaining about the ineffective messaging put out by the Obama White House, but for heaven's sake, how do you combat the Big Lie when its primary promulgators are one of the most watched news outlets? Then add those internet scandal sheets, and the way ALL the news outlets, broadcast and cable, cover the liars at town hall meetings, only occasionally pointing out the lies.
Is there really no law that requires news outlets to tell the truth? Or correct their lies? Are Americans really so gullible? Obama wasn't born here? Obama's a Nazi? We despair.
And tonight, Tom Delay says it's Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP that are driving up the cost of health care. And he'd like the President to produce his birth certificate. And he gets on TV - virtually every channel. And we wonder why so many people believe the lies.
Of course there's more to life than health care.
Governor Bill Richardson has been talking with the North Koreans, and he reports that he feels they are now prepared to enter into dialog with us. So where do the "journalists" of today put the emphasis in their coverage? "Why aren't they talking with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton?" Pat Buchanan says this is evidence that Mrs. Clinton isn't being taken seriously. That this is a slight. Obama's playing it wrong. What game is Buchanan playing? What's important is that the relationship with North Korea may be warming up, substantive discussions may be possible. State Department had to give permission for these talks (since North Koreans aren't allowed to go anywhere in the US besides the United Nations without getting permission), and clearly Secretary Clinton was involved in this granting. The North Korean officials had had discussions previously with Gov. Richardson when he was a special envoy for then-President Bush in April of 2007. They knew him, he knew them, they were comfortable in talking with him. Is it such a stretch to posit that Secretary Clinton actually cared more about improving relations with a hostile nation than thumping her chest in a territorial in-fight? Men! Journalists! Thank God Hillary Clinton can set aside any ego issues and do what's right for America.
The people of Iraq are going to the polls in January in an effort to put their country on course for security and freedom. Sadly, that may be the reason behind the six deadly bombings that happened Wednesday, taking at least 95 lives and injuring 500 more. The location, timing and efficiency of the attacks indicate that a well-organized, well-funded and well-connected group is responsible. The most likely motivation for this outrageous violence is to show that the Iraqi government has failed to develop adequate security. Who could gain from such a demonstraton? Two possibles: those who want the US to maintain a military presence in the cities, and political opponents of Maliki and his governing party. Some journalists at Al Jazeera point the finger at interfering Arab neighbors, specifically Saudi Arabia. Regardless of who is responsible, the danger for America is getting caught up in the idea that we need to stay longer in order to give the Iraqi people more time to develop better security. Let's not forget that attacks like this, even in the Green Zone, happened when we had a huge military presence in the cities. Lately, things had been relatively peaceful in Iraq, despite our pullback from those cities. We need to maintain our resolve to get our military completely out of that country. The people of Iraq have to come together and stand up to the terrorists -- it's the only way to a secure and stable democracy.
JM
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Time Has Come Today:
Why We Can’t Let The GOP Torpedo Health Care Reform
It was really quite eerie when we departed Buffalo, New York and crossed the international bridge into Canada a few weeks ago. Actually, it was really Fort Erie, but this is not a forum for arguing geographical semantics. So, back to our story.
As soon as we passed Checkpoint Charlie in the middle of the bridge and began driving by the squads of sullen, heavily armed Canadian military personnel positioned sporadically yet threateningly all along the ill-kept gravel roadways, we were immediately struck by the pervasive grayness of it all. And it wasn’t long before we started noticing the long, dreary lines of peasants trudging back towards their Gulags…defeated looking women in their ancient, weather-worn babushkas and overcoats; stooped-over men in their party worker caps, fraying jackets and trousers with patches over the patches; and unsmiling children with their gaunt faces and dull, lifeless eyes. The bread line was beckoning after yet another seemingly endless day of toil in the labor camps.
“NOT!”
As ridiculous as most of us know this scenario is…and it truly is ridiculous…it’s basically what the braying, lunatic fringe in the Republican Party wants us to believe. They will say or do anything in their efforts to torpedo any kind of meaningful Health Care reform in the United States, just like they said and did anything they could in their thankfully unsuccessful attempts to stop the advent of both Social Security and Medicare. So cries of “…government run health care is socialism”, and “socialism is just another word for communism”, echo around the halls of Congress and in Town Hall Meetings throughout the country.
Get real people. If you really believe that Canada…or England, or France, or any other country in the western world that is fortunate enough to have some sort of universal health care system…is therefore to be considered communist, as in ‘communist’ like the former Soviet Union was, then you need to give your head a shake! That kind of rhetoric is not only unadulterated b.s., it’s also insulting to all the countries being thusly pilloried by the jingoists who currently scream so loudly for the Republicans.
In spite of what you may have been hearing or reading, particularly with regards to Canada, our research these past few weeks has revealed that not one of the people we spoke to would ever consider trading their health care system for ours. Not a chance…whether in regards to quality, affordability, accessibility, comprehensiveness, fairness, or any other criteria you care to list. We have interviews to that effect, from which we’ll be sharing excerpts with you on this blog in the coming days.
But it wasn’t always thus with our neighbors north of the forty-eighth. It was a long, hard, bitter, and at times violent fight before universal health care became a reality in Canada in the mid-1960s. People died in the process. But ask them if they’d give it up now and they look at you as if you’ve lost your mind. Oh sure, there are some dissenters, but there’s no way Canadians as a whole will ever agree to go back to a system like the one they had before…like the one Americans have now!
The truth of the matter is that none of these other countries has a perfect health care system, although France comes admirably close. But they all have systems in place that are vastly superior and exponentially fairer and more inclusive than the one that we’re forced to deal with in the United States. And we’re not talking about the quality of health care here. Everyone knows that the quality of care available in this country is at least as good…not better, but at least as good…as it is anywhere. What we’re talking about are affordability and accessibility…and with reference to those criteria, the current health care system in the United States is sadly lacking.
There’s a reason the American Health Care system is ranked an embarrassing 37th in the world…37th for crying out loud, just behind 36th place Costa Rica and just ahead of 38th place Slovenia. Our system is broken, especially with regards to insurance, and it needs fixing before it sucks us all down into the same sewer in which the Republican anti-health care reform rhetoric is being spawned.
What we really need is a single payer system modeled after the best that all these other systems have to offer. Failing that…and it seems that the Democrats we elected last fall on the promise of meaningful health care reform have already folded their single payer hand…at the very least we need a public option to keep the conscienceless health insurance industry honest.
It’s surely apparent to everyone by now that the Republicans will never help in this effort. They have proven time and again that they can’t be trusted to bargain in good faith. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has made that abundantly clear in the last few days. This piece of crap torpedoed the Senate Health Care Reform Committee negotiations and then bragged about it. That’s how they operate. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks (except for the people who contribute to their coffers).
Fortunately and finally, we now have someone on the Democratic side of the aisle who’s apparently ready to go to war on this issue. After President Obama seemed to indicate yesterday that he might now be willing to take the public option off the table as well, New York Congressman Anthony Weiner yelled “Enough”! Although he would prefer single payer, Weiner said in no uncertain terms that if a public option, at the very least, is not in the bill that the President eventually sends to the House, at least 100 House Democrats will not sign on.
That’s laying down the gauntlet…and good on him. It’s about damn time that someone stood tall on Health Care Reform. As long as the rest of the Democrats in the House and Senate are willing to stretch their backbones…and assuming they can convince the ‘Blue Dogs’ that it would be in their best interests to come along for the ride…the numbers say that we don’t need anyone else. So screw the Republicans, and the health insurance industry, and the health care lobby as a whole. The GOP were never going to be there anyway, so what’s the difference. We don’t need ‘em! It’s time to draw a line in the sand.
With apologies for taking a modicum of poetic license, Congressional democrats need to listen, and listen hard, to these prescient lyrics from the 1967 anthem “Time Has Come Today” by The Chambers Brothers…and they need to pay close attention to what they say. For indeed it is true.
“Time has come today. (Our) hearts should go their way. Can't put it off another day. I don't care what others say. They say we don't listen anyway. Time has come today.”
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
“Time has come today!”
SC
It was really quite eerie when we departed Buffalo, New York and crossed the international bridge into Canada a few weeks ago. Actually, it was really Fort Erie, but this is not a forum for arguing geographical semantics. So, back to our story.
As soon as we passed Checkpoint Charlie in the middle of the bridge and began driving by the squads of sullen, heavily armed Canadian military personnel positioned sporadically yet threateningly all along the ill-kept gravel roadways, we were immediately struck by the pervasive grayness of it all. And it wasn’t long before we started noticing the long, dreary lines of peasants trudging back towards their Gulags…defeated looking women in their ancient, weather-worn babushkas and overcoats; stooped-over men in their party worker caps, fraying jackets and trousers with patches over the patches; and unsmiling children with their gaunt faces and dull, lifeless eyes. The bread line was beckoning after yet another seemingly endless day of toil in the labor camps.
“NOT!”
As ridiculous as most of us know this scenario is…and it truly is ridiculous…it’s basically what the braying, lunatic fringe in the Republican Party wants us to believe. They will say or do anything in their efforts to torpedo any kind of meaningful Health Care reform in the United States, just like they said and did anything they could in their thankfully unsuccessful attempts to stop the advent of both Social Security and Medicare. So cries of “…government run health care is socialism”, and “socialism is just another word for communism”, echo around the halls of Congress and in Town Hall Meetings throughout the country.
Get real people. If you really believe that Canada…or England, or France, or any other country in the western world that is fortunate enough to have some sort of universal health care system…is therefore to be considered communist, as in ‘communist’ like the former Soviet Union was, then you need to give your head a shake! That kind of rhetoric is not only unadulterated b.s., it’s also insulting to all the countries being thusly pilloried by the jingoists who currently scream so loudly for the Republicans.
In spite of what you may have been hearing or reading, particularly with regards to Canada, our research these past few weeks has revealed that not one of the people we spoke to would ever consider trading their health care system for ours. Not a chance…whether in regards to quality, affordability, accessibility, comprehensiveness, fairness, or any other criteria you care to list. We have interviews to that effect, from which we’ll be sharing excerpts with you on this blog in the coming days.
But it wasn’t always thus with our neighbors north of the forty-eighth. It was a long, hard, bitter, and at times violent fight before universal health care became a reality in Canada in the mid-1960s. People died in the process. But ask them if they’d give it up now and they look at you as if you’ve lost your mind. Oh sure, there are some dissenters, but there’s no way Canadians as a whole will ever agree to go back to a system like the one they had before…like the one Americans have now!
The truth of the matter is that none of these other countries has a perfect health care system, although France comes admirably close. But they all have systems in place that are vastly superior and exponentially fairer and more inclusive than the one that we’re forced to deal with in the United States. And we’re not talking about the quality of health care here. Everyone knows that the quality of care available in this country is at least as good…not better, but at least as good…as it is anywhere. What we’re talking about are affordability and accessibility…and with reference to those criteria, the current health care system in the United States is sadly lacking.
There’s a reason the American Health Care system is ranked an embarrassing 37th in the world…37th for crying out loud, just behind 36th place Costa Rica and just ahead of 38th place Slovenia. Our system is broken, especially with regards to insurance, and it needs fixing before it sucks us all down into the same sewer in which the Republican anti-health care reform rhetoric is being spawned.
What we really need is a single payer system modeled after the best that all these other systems have to offer. Failing that…and it seems that the Democrats we elected last fall on the promise of meaningful health care reform have already folded their single payer hand…at the very least we need a public option to keep the conscienceless health insurance industry honest.
It’s surely apparent to everyone by now that the Republicans will never help in this effort. They have proven time and again that they can’t be trusted to bargain in good faith. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has made that abundantly clear in the last few days. This piece of crap torpedoed the Senate Health Care Reform Committee negotiations and then bragged about it. That’s how they operate. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks (except for the people who contribute to their coffers).
Fortunately and finally, we now have someone on the Democratic side of the aisle who’s apparently ready to go to war on this issue. After President Obama seemed to indicate yesterday that he might now be willing to take the public option off the table as well, New York Congressman Anthony Weiner yelled “Enough”! Although he would prefer single payer, Weiner said in no uncertain terms that if a public option, at the very least, is not in the bill that the President eventually sends to the House, at least 100 House Democrats will not sign on.
That’s laying down the gauntlet…and good on him. It’s about damn time that someone stood tall on Health Care Reform. As long as the rest of the Democrats in the House and Senate are willing to stretch their backbones…and assuming they can convince the ‘Blue Dogs’ that it would be in their best interests to come along for the ride…the numbers say that we don’t need anyone else. So screw the Republicans, and the health insurance industry, and the health care lobby as a whole. The GOP were never going to be there anyway, so what’s the difference. We don’t need ‘em! It’s time to draw a line in the sand.
With apologies for taking a modicum of poetic license, Congressional democrats need to listen, and listen hard, to these prescient lyrics from the 1967 anthem “Time Has Come Today” by The Chambers Brothers…and they need to pay close attention to what they say. For indeed it is true.
“Time has come today. (Our) hearts should go their way. Can't put it off another day. I don't care what others say. They say we don't listen anyway. Time has come today.”
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
“Time has come today!”
SC
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Throwing Turds At The Wall
The lunatic crap that the fringe right comes up with on an almost daily basis…their ‘we’ve got to take down Obama’ attack plan if you will…literally defies comprehension if you’re the type of person who actually thinks before you open your cake hole.
Take Reserve Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook for example. This is the guy who filed suit to skirt a deployment order to Afghanistan, which has since been suspended, because he says he doesn’t believe that Barack Obama is really an American and therefore not really the president and, by extension, not the commander-in-chief either.
WTF? Never mind that this ‘Obama’s never produced his birth certificate’ story has been debunked about a thousand times now…as if John McCain’s people, the RNC, or even Hilary Clinton’s people and the DNC, wouldn’t have done their due diligence and checked this out by now. Duh!
Anyway, Major Cook…and how the hell did that ever happen…decides to go all out and hire a lawyer to present his case. Great idea except that apparently he didn’t, or at least not exactly. He ended up retaining some caricature from California who goes by the name of Dr. Orly Taitz. Turns out she’s a dentist cum real estate agent cum lawyer (???) who got her law degree from something called William Howard Taft University…one of those on-line/correspondence degree mills. Seriously! You couldn’t make this stuff up.
In any case, we’re pretty sure she did actually manage to get that prestigious Taft law degree. In fact, we’re fairly positive because she’s now a member of the bar and licensed to practice…in California. She also boasts the estimable Alan Keyes (just ask him) as a client who, like Cook, has essentially sued to contest Obama’s legal right to be POTUS. Who could possibly doubt her credibility as a litigant?
So anyway, off they go with the Cook case, right? Well…not exactly. Apparently ol’ WHTU isn’t accredited by the American Bar Association, so she can ONLY practice law in California…where you can also start up a church if you discover a potato chip that reminds you of the Virgin Mary. Problem is, our intrepid Major lives in Georgia where the good doctor/lawyer can’t practice law… we’re not even sure she can pull teeth or sell houses there…just like she can’t practice law anywhere else in the United States except for California.
Tough break that, but no matter. They did manage to get their suit filed and it’s already starting to bear fruit. Cook’s regular job WAS working for an army sub-contractor, but now that he’s filed his law suit…against the army…he’s no longer welcome on any American military bases. So the dopey Major and his lawyer wannabe have so far only succeeded in getting him fired. Interesting strategy.
Honest to God! It’s almost as if these wacko righties wake up every day determined to throw as many turds at the wall as they possibly can in the hope that some of it will stick. The problem is that they end up with so much stink on themselves that nobody with a lick of sense wants to be anywhere near them lest it rub off.
Steve
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