Fundamental Truths

Who will they attack next

2011-02-23T05:17:00.005-05:00

The corporate right wing attack machine has systematically been going after Americans group by group, blaming them, vilifying them, and marginalizing them. First it was the poor. They used doctored video tapes to attack an organization that worked to help the poor get control of their finances, to gain homes, to register to vote. But few listened to the facts of innocence, and few showed concern because after all they are poor they must be deadbeats correct?

Then there is the constant attack on immigrants. Making claims of them getting benefits and welfare and somehow taking away from you and me. When the reality is most of them are hard working, and appreciate this country more then many born here. Most pay taxes and contribute to our society and do the hard jobs many of us think we are too good to do.

Then they went after the homeowners who were attacked for simply having the dream of owning their own home. Who got into the only mortgages that were available to them, expecting like many do that property values would rise as they always have. But instead greed and lack of any regulation over wall street and the bankers caused a crash that changed all that. Those on wall street who were truly responsible for the crash got bonuses, the home owners were tossed into the street.

Now its public employees they are going after. I was disgusted yesterday as I listened to "hate radio" 610 WTVN and John Corby state ridiculous falsehoods, like that public employees make more then private on the average. Statements by him and others basically calling the people that teach our children, keep our streets safe, fight the fires, drive the snow plows so we can get to work, deadbeats, and freeloaders. All Ohio should be disgusted by the rights attack on our hard working neighbors, family members and friends whose livelihood is being threatened in the guise of budget cuts.

Who is next? The deadbeats that dare to send their kids to public schools that taxpayers pay for. How about those freeloaders that dare to take social security or medicare in their old age. How about the disabled, the mentally ill, students that dare to take low interest loans to pursue an education. Are they the next "dead beats" the repubLIEcans will go after?

Perhaps you are not poor, didnt lose your house, don't work as a teacher or a police officer. But you know people who do. You know they aren't wealthy, you know they are hard working. Yet you say nothing as this happens? What about when it is you they go after? Because clearly one way or another something you depend on, need, or expect will be in their sights sooner rather then later.

This is class warfare. This is redistrubution of wealth. It is the upper 1% taking and stealing from the rest of us. The rich get richer and the rest of us struggle just to maintain. The battle line right now is over SB5 and the rights of public workers. Yes it is your responsiblity to stand up for them, call your state representative or state Senator. The teachers, firefighters, police and state workers do need your support, as soon enough you will need theirs.

A Government by the Rich and for the Rich

2011-02-20T08:46:00.003-05:00

That is the steady successful path RepubLIEcans are systematically leading our country down. Back in 2000 Karl Rove the leading repubLIEcan strategist spoke of a "permanent republican majority." They used control of elections and election machines and a systematic take over of the media by right wing activists like Rupert Murdoch and blind loyalty by religious groups that support a brand of republicanism that is anything but Christ-like in its attitudes to the poor, guns, capital punishment and health care.

But something happened they could not control. Not only have the demographics of the country changed racially, but Barack Obama got not only non whites to vote in record numbers but the youth who actually want to know the truth about issues sought it out and voted.

So for two years the right wallowed in pity and anger. How could their plans go so wrong. How could they lose control like this. But they regrouped and developed plans. They involved two major pillars, fear and destruction of the organizations of the left.

The fear of terrorism worked so well for them in the last decade, they used it to cause our country to attack a nation that didn't attack us for the first time in History. It lead to spending our country from a huge surplus into debt not just to pay for the military, but even more so to enrich defense contractors. Tasks like mess halls that were run by the military and staffed by soldiers in the past were now being outsourced to private Republican donor companies paying each man triple or more what soldiers were paid to do the same task.

But in 2000 it was clear the American people finally had enough of war, they needed a new fear. It became the deficit. Spending!!,,Bankruptcy!!,,Our grandchildren will have to pay!! All fear mongering lines we have heard again and again. When the reality is our deficit as a percent of GNP is not even close to the highest it has ever been. The reality is once the economy gets back into full growth once again, a great deal of the deficit will be reduced simply by more revenue created by more people working

But as it always is with RepubLIEcans facts rarely matter. They just use their Rupert Murdoch FauX news channel and Fall Street Journal to spill lie after lie. They get people out in the streets protesting taxes that in reality went down not up. So fear pillar one worked clearly in 2010.

So now what do the repubLIEcans do about 2012. The fact is if traditional minority groups vote in large percentages and fact based educated youth vote in large percentages, there is no way a RepubLIEcan can win the White House. So how do they prevent this? By destroying the organizing ability of the left. First it was ACORN. They used faked videos to do a false sting operation on a group that has since been proven to have done nothing illegal or improper in any way. Yet this very effective organizing group for the poor was regardless of its innocence destroyed.

Now comes the organizing the middle class voters,,Unions. It is clear the attack has begun. RepubLIEcans are using the deficit as the "fear" word in trying to abolish unions. How do workers having an organization that works for fair pay and fair benefits have anything to do with the deficit. Of course nothing. In most states like Wisconsin tax breaks for the rich caused the deficit, on a Federal level it was tax breaks for the rich and unpaid for wars. Yet somehow they have tried to convince American voters that its the middle class workers that are at fault.

It is No longer acceptable to put your head in the sand as the RepubLIEcans destroy our democracy to enrich their corporate donors. It is our nation and our future that is being destroyed step by step. Soon American will more resemble feudal society of medieval times with the Lords owning and controlling all the wealth and power while everyone else is at their mercy and whim.

The facts are out there, open your eyes and see them.

More Republican Lies and Hypocrisy

2010-12-02T14:41:00.003-05:00

Representative Mike Pence of Indiana gave a press conference today that was an incredibly vivid display of repubLIEcan dishonesty. He stood there bold face and called a bill voted on today to keep the tax breaks for 95% of Americans a tax increase. He then claimed that by not giving a continued tax break to the richest Americans, those making over $250,000 a year to be hurting small business and family farmers.

First of all how many family farmers do you know that make more than $250,000 a year, and any small business that makes more than that, that files taxes as an individual rather than a corporation has an idiot for an accountant. These tax breaks are NOT on corporate taxes but individual taxes. Have no doubt, the tax breaks the Republicans want added are for the richest of the rich period, not you not me.

The Republicans want to give a reward to the rich who filled their campaign coffers with unlimited donations in this last election period. This is not about creating jobs, and it surely does not help with the deficit, In fact adding the tax cut they want would add 700,000 million to the deficit.

Sure when it comes to helping the unemployed with extended benefits they scream about the national debt but to help the rich, apparently it’s no problem.

They keep repeating that the American people made it clear what they wanted in the last election. Really now did Americans vote to increase the national debt to give the richest Americans a tax break? Did they vote for more lies and hypocrisy? I don't think so.

Even a temporary give away to the rich for two years isn’t enough for Senator Jim Demint he wants this deficit killing measure to be made permanent.
Conservatives my ass.

Who do the repubLIEcan’s represent? Not you.

Ohio in True Peril

2010-11-11T10:32:00.003-05:00

Only 4 years have passed since the days of total RepubLIEcan rule in the State of Ohio. Yet Ohioans clearly forgot about the mess that created for our state. Indictments, convictions, election fraud, massive tuition increases at our state colleges and universities, million dollar rest areas, state funds stolen by a Republican operative while laundering money illegally to Republican campaigns. We even had a Governor that was convicted of illegally taking gifts and remained in office. Yes in 4 short years Ohioans clearly have forgotten the frustration, anger, embarrassment and damage RepubLIEcan rule did to our state because much to the disbelief of people that actually pay attention, the voters just put the Foxes in charge of the hen house once again.
Every state wide elected official is now a RepubLIEcan, The state house is totally under RepubLIEcan control, and even the state Supreme Court is entirely Republican. What were Ohioans thinking? Was it competence of the individual candidates? Clearly not.

We have replaced an experienced Governor who managed to balance the state’s budget in a horrible economic climate and unlike most states without raising taxes, cutting education, teachers, firefighters, police and other services citizens depend on our state for. He even froze tuition at the state colleges and universities. His replacement? A man who got rich working for THE Company whose greed, and lack of business ethics, led to a bankruptcy that was the very spark that triggered the recession. Caught in that mess was Ohio retirees who saw their pensions stolen by this company. This man who has already made it clear he plans to cut education, who doesn’t feel every school even needs a principal, is cutting jobs in manufacturing and construction by cancelling much needed state infrastructure improvements. This man will cost the jobs of many middle class workers in state offices, police, fire, education, yet he plans to develop a board of his rich donors and pay them unlimited unreported bonuses.
We went from a competent, effective State Treasurer who put in many developments to improve efficiency and cut costs, to a man who has no financial experience, who has been nothing but a professional politician his entire career, who the Federal election commission and every major newspaper in the state has called a liar.

Then there is the Secretary of State, where we had a very competent, experienced elections attorney in that office, which cleaned up the fraud and even the appearance of it in our elections. She is being replaced by a man who lied about his residence to stay in office as a State Senator, who is going to be running our elections even though he has publically stated that he “can’t break the law, he makes the law, he can change the law” Are you kidding me?

How bad can it get, how bad will it get? The problem is not only is there almost nothing that can be done about it, we won’t even know about it. Since every state official is beholden to the party apparatus, who is going to investigate things. Even the Supreme Court is part of the gang. Perhaps the media will call them out? Who? The clearly RepubLIEcan supporting Dispatch Media group and the Wolfe family? Not a chance. WSYX and Fox 28 owned by RepubLIEcan ultra Conservative Sinclair Media group?
If we are lucky the Plain Dealer will get the word out, but don’t count on it.

Yes Ohio your memory is short, you did not take the responsibility of voting seriously by getting the facts about who these men are. So when your kid can’t afford college, when your property taxes go up to just maintain the basics at your local school. When you have to pay outrageous fees for state services, when state parks decline, roads deteriorate. While your medical costs go up to pay for all those that are losing their Medicaid to get basic health services at the Emergency rooms, while your local taxes go up to replace all the cuts in state funding just to maintain fire and police departments. Meanwhile under the guise of “privatization” you see the rich donors get massive state contracts and get richer and richer. Remember how you voted November 2nd and thus who to blame.

Fact Free Election

2010-11-03T05:24:00.002-04:00

Former President Bill Clinton said it all the other day when he said this has been the most fact free election he had ever seen. Once again, sound bites, misinformation, lies and unlimited spending by corporations won the day

But just how much damage will be done by this election.

In Ohio a great deal. Expect college tuitions to once again skyrocket, expect the loss of police, firefighters, and teachers. Expect property taxes to rise, schools to close, the quality of education overall reduced. Expect roads to deteriorate. Expect elections in Ohio to once again be manipulated, through massive gerrymandering of districts to assure Republicans have an advantage in the State House and Congress for the next decade. Expect state funds to go to private companies to enrich the big donors of the Republicans under the guise of privatization and charter schools. Yes Ohio you turned the keys over once again to those that have burnt you again and again. Good job.

It never amazes me how people continue to vote against their own interests and line the pockets of the rich. They don't take the time to really listen and find out what is actually going on, what is actually being said, listening for substance not empty sound bites. Not calling out people who lie to them again and again.

The only bright side is that Ohioans once again after the damage is deep they will swing back and elect Democrats to fix the messes and corruption that is inevitably brought in by Republicans. Its a shame we have to go through this cycle over and over.

Truly Disgusted

2010-10-31T08:38:00.003-04:00

I have been so disgusted by what I am seeing out there in this election it has been hard for me to write on this blog. To go from such hope and clarity 2 years ago to once again watch the American voter being successfully manipulated with lies, sound bites, and billions of dollars from corporations foreign and domestic and the most disgusting person of all an Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch who uses a television network to spread the misinformation calling it news while dumping millions into political campaigns.

When the Supreme Court allowed Corporations to spend unlimited money I wrote then that perhaps it was the end of our Democracy. When the RepubLIEcans prevented a law requiring transparency behind who donates to campaigns they drove the nail in the coffin.

Just look what is happening today. Candidates that range from completely ignorant to extreme to plain nuts were nominated by the Republican Party and some will be elected to be United States Congressmen and Senators. How the great leaders of our history will turn over in their graves when they see some of these stand in the well and spout their total uninformed ignorance and do the damage to our nation they will clearly do.

But lets look at the supposed "main stream" candidates just in Ohio. A man who was the Budget Director of the Bush Administration, Rob Portman was personally responsible for turning our Federal Budget from a surplus to a deficit, is about to be elected on a platform of cutting spending.

John Kasich a man who made millions in bonuses working for a Wall Street Firm that was THE firm that failed which was the first shot that lead our country on the slide almost into depression is very possibly going to be elected Governor. He has not even hidden his desire to give the wealth back to these people in bonuses that would not be limited and actually turn the keys of Ohio Government over to such men.

Then there is Josh Mandel who has ran deceptive false adds that border on racism, who every newspaper in the state has called out for doing so, may actually win election over a very capable proven State Treasurer.

Then there is John Husted a man who says, he is the law, he can change the law anytime he wants, may actually be elected Secretary of State, who will control our elections. Remember the fraud the embarrassment the clear stealing of our elections by Ken Blackwell the last such criminal to hold that office?

With their money and conduits like Fox News these people have convinced to many Americans that competence, intelligence and leadership is a bad thing and should be replaced with buffoons who repeat the same sound bites "lower taxes, failed stimulus, and jobs."

The reality is, the stimulus did not fail, it prevented depression it kept the auto industry alive, how much a disaster would that have been, and when it comes to taxes that very same stimulus not only gave each and every American a tax cut federally it prevented states and localities from having to raise their taxes as much. And then there is jobs, under these Republicans we were losing 700,000 jobs a month for a total of 8 million lost. That slide has been abated and slowly but surely jobs are once again growing. They destroyed the economy it cannot be restored over night and it surely will never be if our economy is once again turned over to the greed and self preserving fat cats and special interests of the Republican Party.

So when you go the the voting booth, think very seriously before you vote for each office, your vote does matter and with that vote think about what you are doing to your country.

A Great Week for America

2010-07-23T11:38:00.004-04:00

Thanks to President Obama and the Democrats in Congress this has been a great week for our country, despite Republicans and the Right. After years of the utter destruction of all regulations that protect Americans and our Economy from reckless banking and investment practices leading to a near depression, the President and the Democrats in Congress passed sweeping financial reform regulation to actually solve the problems.

While millions of Americans remain unemployed from the Bush recession, Democrats passed and the President signed a bill restoring unemployment benefits. This not only helps the unemployed but immediately puts more money actively into the economy to continue the Obama recovery.

Also last weekend the oil gushing into the gulf that was caused by lack of any enforcement of regulation during the Big Oil Presidency of the last 8 years, was with the oversight of the President's Man Admiral Than Allen finally brought to a stop.

Meanwhile what have the Republicans and the right been doing? They have clearly with malice and forethought attempted to block any legislation that will help our economy and prevent future economic disasters. Why? Because the worse the economy stays by November, the more votes they think they will get.

They have blocked helping millions of American families keep their unemployment benefits, while making statements blaming these middle class families for their own fate, calling them lazy, dead beats and worse. They claim they only wanted to pay for these benefits, yet they never said a word when they gave tax breaks to the rich that weren't paid for a big part of what lead us into the deficit slide.

In addition they criticized the President's Moratorium on deep water oil drilling as "job killing." Yet clearly the job's killed by the clearly unsafe, unprepared practices of the oil companies in this one incident have killed thousands of jobs not to mention the environment of the area. The Obama Administration has as its responsibility to protect America. Any thing less then attempting to prevent another similar disaster would be negligence.

So yes a very successful week for America, Democrats and President Obama. A week which reminds people why they voted for them. Competence, action, hope, and change. How has the right wing attempted to distract from such success. By trying to divide the country by race baiting, creating white fear, and fanning fires of racism.

Never has it been so clear, who is for action, solutions and change, and who is for greed, political games, and dividing America.

Another Big Win for America and The President

2010-07-21T11:42:00.005-04:00

Today President Obama signed Financial reform into law despite the attempt by all but a few Republicans for political reasons to block it. This is another in a series of effective legislation by the Obama Administration and Democrats to not only solve the real issues that have remained stalled for decades, but to come through on his campaign promises.

This financial reform bill includes the biggest consumer protection features since the Great Depression. It ends too big to fail. It prevents taxpayer bailouts to irresponsible organizations. It increased transparency on bank investments, mortgages and bank fees.

This is just another in a series of major successes of President Obama and the Democratic led Congress, even though the Republicans have made it clear they want Obama to fail therefore America to fail on each and every piece of legislation.

This along with the stimulus package that stopped the slide toward depression and the losses of 700,000 jobs a month and the health care reform bill that has been attempted for 40 years makes this the most effective Presidency and Congress since the days of Franklin Roosevelt.

There is so much left to do, and for it to be done the contrasts between Democrats and Republicans being in power is quite clear. Democrats take of the hard problems with real solutions that help 90% of Americans while Republicans make false promises while helping only the rich and the greed of major corporations.

Faux News Caught Race Baiting Again

2010-07-20T19:58:00.003-04:00

In its never ending disgusting attempt to cause racial divide in this country, Fox News jumped all over another story by discredited liar Andrew Brietbart. This scum is the one that used creative editing to paint ACORN falsely as a unscrupulous organization. Despite the fact that later Breitbart's videos have been proven to be doctored and ACORN proven innocent by numerous investigations.

Yesterday they repeated another edited Breitbart Video, to paint a USDA official as a black racist. The target Shirley Sherrod, was shown telling a story last march at an NAACP meeting about how 24 years ago was tempted not to help a white farmer that was "acting superior." What was edited out of the video was a wonderful anti racist story of understanding and realization that its about being poor, not race.

As usual Fox News in its ever obvious attempt to race bait, showed the edited version and jumped all over this story, which resulted in Ms. Sherrod's firing from the USDA.

It is about time that someone makes Andrew Brietbart and Fox News pay for their irresponsible false accusations and slander against African Americans. Lawsuits should be filed, FCC complaints issued, Cable Companies pressured, and Advertisers boycotted.

America showed by the election of Barack Obama we wish to move beyond race in our country. It is a shame that there are Neanderthals like Breitbart and those at Fox News that just don't get it.

Billboards to Beat Boehner

2010-07-19T14:43:00.004-04:00

Are you like me tired of that nonsense partisan mouth of George Hamilton wannbe John Boehner? Does the thought of 2 more years of his eyewatering shouts of NO to every positive action that is taken by President Obama, make you turn redder then he is orange? Do you want to see him retired to 365 days on the golf course instead of his current 119 days a year? Then do something about it.

Go to: BeatBoehner Billboard and donate to help place billboards throughout Beohner's district in southwest Ohio. If you act now The People for the American Way Action Alliance and the AFL-CIO will both match your donation. So every 10 dollars donated by us results in a $30 donation total.

Hat Tip to downwithtryanny on Daily Kos

John Boehner Is Their Leader?

2010-07-16T15:12:00.004-04:00

Ohio Republican Congressman and Minority Leader John Boehner reminds Americans every time he opens his mouth why they should not vote for Republicans in Congress and Senate. This week alone he has shown his total ignorance taunting the President, with the words "where are the jobs?" in response to the President speaking at a ground breaking of a new factory creating new jobs. A factory by the way made possible by the very stimulus package that Boehner continues to call a failure despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Then yesterday, the long awaited Financial Reform act passed, a bill widely popular among voters. A bill that will prevent the greed and misdeeds by big banks and wall street to throw our economy into a tail spin once again. John Boehner response, he wants a moratorium on all new federal regulations.

Is this man totally clueless to the needs of our nation? Lack of regulation created the economic disaster and the Bush recession. Lack of regulation caused millions of Americans to lose their homes. Lack of regulation created the need for millions of tax payer money to be used to bail out banks and other companies. Lack of regulation cost citizens 8 million jobs under Republican leadership. And now lack of regulation has caused the biggest environmental and one of the biggest economic disasters in the Gulf of Mexico in our nations history.

John Boehner and the Republicans want one thing, the rich to get richer, to hell with the consequences to everyone else. He is not alone, this has been the clear motivation of Republicans for decades. Tax cuts for the rich, let corporations take over our elections, let the oil companies run roughshod while putting our nation at risk, economically, environmentally and national security wise.

It sickens me that John Boehner represents my very own state, and it makes me no less disgusted that the only time we ever seen my own Congressman Steve Austria on Cspan, is usually him standing behind Beohner bobbing his head up and down like a bobble head doll.

The bottom line is this, Republicans caused the damage, they caused the recession, they are responsible for the oil spill, the took our country from surplus to deficit, they cost Americans 8 million jobs, the killed the middle class, while they gave tax breaks to the rich and corporations.

President Obama is being very successful in leading our nation into economic recovery, stopping the hemorrhaging of jobs, creating hundreds and thousands of jobs, saving the auto industry, helping middle class Americans with a tax cut and helping them get more affordable health insurance.

But the damage by the Republicans is deep. It cannot all be corrected over night. Especially when every step of the way, they put roadblocks in front of every positive action this President attempts to take.

It is clear Americans want action, they want improvement. One party and its President is clearly working hard in the right direction. The other is simply the Party of NO and are more interested in political rhetoric then actually doing anything to solve our nations problems.

The Worst America has to Offer :Republicans

2010-07-14T17:45:00.003-04:00

In November of 2008 America had one of its proudest moments, after centuries of racial divide, decades of corporate control of our elections, the people rose above it all and elected Barack Obama President of the United States. Since then the worst of America has rared its ugly head and its called the Republican Party.

It is truly a shame what the Republican Party has become. Jonathon Alter on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show said it well, "The GOP has been compromised by whack jobs" Senators and Congressmen who are elected to represent their districts and govern, have been reduced to hoping the country fails for political reasons. They have stood in the well of the Congress and told flat out lies about death panels. One screamed during a State of the Union speech, "you lie!" to the elected President of the United States. A Republican Governor of Texas threatens succession. A Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann says the President is turning us into a "nation of slaves."

The Tea Party movement which is a collection of misinformed clueless citizens who are manipulated by conservative PACs like freedomworks and television networks like Fox News Channel, fills up the airways with obvious racist undertones in signage and speeches. They rail against new taxes when there have been no tax increases but rather a tax cut. The scream about taking America back, back from who? A black President? The majority of Americans who elected him in a clear election with no questions about tampered voting machines, or sinister recounts?
The scream that the Constitution is in danger. It is? This President ended torture of prisoners, wire tapping of citizens without warrants, just to name two unconstitutional acts by the last administration. They still scream despite all evidence to the contrary that the President wasn't born in America or question his religion.

Fox News routinely distorts or makes up facts in all its programing. They have brought back McCarthyism by using false edited video to an destroy organization whose only crime was to assist the poor and underrepresented in getting homes and voting. What was disgusting these false accusations lead to congressional action against this organization and the end of the organization itself. Yet every investigation has shown they organization did nothing wrong.

Now this network tries to fan racial fears with trumped up allegations against something called the "new black panthers" which was a insignificant very small group that the Bush Justice Department chose not to prosecute. But oh the fear it brings out.

They crown as their queen a woman that clearly has no qualifications and lacks any ability or intelligence to hold any public office as their great hope for the future. A woman that uses winks and cute little phrases and shows absolutely no grasp for the facts or interest in knowing any real facts.

America is now subjected to daily racial slurs and attacks on thousands of radio stations daily as a man like Rush Limbaugh has gained so much power in the party, no one dares stand up against him. A man that joked about lynching Michele Obama, called an incident of black on white violence on a school bus, "Obama's America", eulogized the death of George Stienbrenner by describing him sarcastically as a cracker that made a lot of black men rich.

Republicans on all levels attempt to daily rewrite history. Not only the tv talkers and congress people who want us to forget it was Republican policies. that led us from surplus to deficit, it was Republican policies that lead to no regulation that created the perfect storm for last years recession. They go back even further. Today I laughed when I heard a right wing talker refer to the Hoover/Roosevelt Depression. It was FDR and his policies that brought America out of depression, that is historical undisputed fact unless you read Republican text books. Oh yes, they are doing that too, rewriting school text books to take out references to slavery in regards to the civil war.

More recently Republicans have blamed unemployment on the unemployed, the recession not on wall street and those that made millions in bonuses and feed their greed but instead every day Americans that lost their homes. They apologize to BP for making them pay for the biggest environmental and economic disaster in American History. They are stalling legislation trying to prevent programs that will help the economy, the unemployed and the jobless rates. Why? by hurting America they think more will vote for them in November.

Speaking of November here in Ohio just look at who they put up as candidates. John Kasick a man who made millions on wall street and was directly involved in moving Ohio State Retiree's money to his company to his personal benefit and to the detriment of those retirees as Lehman Brothers went under. For Senator they put up Rob Portman who was Bush's budget director, the man who led this nation from surplus to deficit, while at the same time they are screaming about deficits.

Yes, the worst of America is truly visible in the Republican Party. Will America forget the pride and hope they felt the night Barack Obama was elected and return the reigns of Congress back to the hate, lies, distortions and pure incompetence of Republicans? The majority of American's are smarter then that, I hope.

Is the Right Sabotaging the Economy for Political Gain?

2010-07-08T13:23:00.004-04:00

From the beginning of the Obama Administration the Republicans have made one thing clear, they want the President to fail. They have said so publicly on numerous occasions, not only right wing talkers but Congressmen and Senators as well. They have constantly spouted false facts showing every action taken by the Obama administration has been a failure.

Republicans cannot run on their record on the record of the previous administration because of their utter and obvious failures in the economy, foreign policy, the wars, and doing anything to move this country forward. So their only play is to make things appear worse, to make the Obama administration appear to be a bigger failure then they are.

One problem, Obama has been one of the most successful Presidents in living memory. He has taken an economy on the brink of depression and propped it up, stopped the slide and began the turn around. One by one he has either succeeded or is on the path to success on almost every campaign promise he made. Ending the war in Iraq, taking Afghanistan seriously, Health Care, Finance Reform, Don't ask, don't tell, increasing resources and having increased success securing the borders, stopping the hemorrhaging of jobs and soon energy policy.

So how do the Republicans run against such success? Lie. Constantly claim the stimulus was a failure which by now it is clear it wasn't, make sure that nothing happens ongoing to help the economy, stall any more stimulus, let a quarter of a million teachers get laid off, damaging the employment numbers, refusing to extend unemployment benefits that causes damage to the economy well beyond the unemployed workers, attempt to stop the remaining stimulus money already approved from doing the good it was meant for. Just to name a few things they have done or are doing.

It is sad,that Republicans have put their own political futures above the well being of the United States and the economic situation of its citizens. All for what, to go back to the polices that made the rich, richer, allowed the oil companies unregulated access to put our environment at risk, and the cause such economic destruction that put half a million workers out of work a month. Stagnation on improvement of energy policies, health care, and foreign policy. Not to mention endless wars and the loss of trust and prestige throughout the world putting our nation more at risk.

So their slogan should be: Say No to a better future, Vote Republican.

GOP The Party of BP

2010-06-17T11:09:00.008-04:00

It has never been more obvious who Republicans represent. Throughout the gulf spill tragedy while President Obama and the Administration was worked tirelessly to try to protect the lives, the environment and the way of life of the residents of the gulf human and animal, the Republican's primary talking points are complaints about the temporary moratorium on such drilling that caused this great American tragedy.

The party of "drill baby drill" wants us to again believe this was an isolated incident and take the risk of additional such tragedies in order to protect the profits of the oil companies.

Yesterday President Obama in a remarkable sign of his strength and leadership got BP, a major corporation to put 20 billion dollars in a fund to be administrated by a third party to finally effectively and efficiently get financial help to those harmed by this corporate damage to America. How do the Republicans respond? One calls it a fleecing of BP, one calls it an unprecedented shakedown of a private corporation, another calls it a slush fund.

The President is doing what is right, to work to recover from the effects of this horrible corporate attack on America, to make sure that proper safeguards are in place to prevent it from happening again, and to make sure that the people whose very lives have been destroyed by that are helped financially. And the GOP? Wants us to stop picking on BP.

Seriously? Yes America, Vote Republican, Vote BP.

Perhaps when BP rebrands all their stations so people forget this tragedy they will change the name to GOP stations.

Frustration must be turned into action now

2010-05-27T10:35:00.003-04:00

The Oil spill in the gulf of Mexico has been like watching someones slow painful death. Many wish something could be done yet but often we feel helpless because only the doctor has the ability to do anything. It is similar with the oil spill. Because it seems BP is the one organization that has the ability to stop the leak so many have had to sit back and watch. Perhaps it is limited on who has the resources and knowledge and ability to actually stop the leak but that is not true when it comes to cleaning up the oil that is already out there damaging the water, coasts and wetlands.

It is clear that it is time to stop worrying about how, when and the amount BP is going to pay for all this and go to all hands on deck. President Obama needs to take ownership of this crisis and put the management and resources in place now. There cannot be enough people on site doing the hard work of cleaning. There cannot be enough boats out there, laying and pulling up the devices to skim the oil. We have thousands of fishermen with boats that can be organized to get work done. We have the military, locals, and hundreds of thousands of environmental volunteers ready to take action. President Obama use them and use them now. Yes we need organization and that can be put in place quickly and forcefully. But there has to be someone in place to pull all the efforts together and cut any red tape to get the job done now.

After the fact the autopsy can be done and the bills paid by BP. But right now, as far as the clean up goes, Just Do it!

The Forgotten Definition of Freedom

2010-05-21T14:47:00.005-04:00

When I was a child I was taught the simple definition that living in a Free Country means I can do anything I want, unless it causes harm to someone else.

It seems to me that both the far right and the far left have forgotten the second half of that definition. Yet it is the basis of our republic. The underlying purpose of our constitution and our government is to protect us from harm from others, and to define unacceptable trade offs in harms.

Our country has been widely successful in doing just this for 200 years. There are some exceptions of course, for example it is hard to say from a 21st century view point that the harm that came to Native Americans way of life and lands was acceptable. Yet, despite what happens in some neighborhoods in major cities, most of us leave our homes every morning with a realistic and accurate belief that we will very likely return home that night, rather then being killed by a bomb, being shot, injured in work place disaster, or dragged off to a secret prison by fascist police or government officials. Many places in the world do not have that sense of security, or at least less of it.

So for far right idealogues like Rand Paul to preach against any government rules that limit private business, like civil rights legislation, Occupational Safety and Health standards, and restrictions on private industry on off shore drilling, as an infringement on Freedom he has forgotten the "unless it causes harm to someone else" part of Freedom.

When the left tries to do things like ban full calorie soda are they making a stretch to claim that what kind of soda I drink causes harm to someone else?

When the right prevents gay marriage, are they not doing the opposite of what they preach, invading private relationships that have no effect on anyone else's freedom?

There are so many examples of government making laws and the Supreme Court determining in essence, the level of harm a law prevents or causes. After 143 women were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911 our Government determined that the risk of harm was significant enough that fire codes, building codes and occupational safety codes were necessary.

The Civil War was about determining which harm was worse, the harm of owning other human beings as property, or the damage to the economy of the south should slavery be abolished.

The fact we have building codes that tells private property owners how they must build to reduce likely harm from failure, or earthquake or other disaster is why an Earthquake of the magnitude of the Haiti earthquake destroyed an entire city with thousands of deaths, while the same magnitude in the United States would damage some buildings in a city and likely result in dozens of deaths rather then thousands. So does it cost the builders and the property owners more to build per code, yes. But reducing the harm risk has been determined worth that cost.

The Supreme Court and the Constitution has determined that the potential harm coming from most around us being allowed to own guns is acceptable risk, while the increased risk of harm by guns being owned by convicted felons is not.

Congress and the President has recently determined that the harm caused because too many Americans having lack of access to affordable health care is not acceptable and passed health care reform to fix it.

Currently the Congress is working on financial reform that protects our economy, jobs and financial well being from harm by adding regulations to financial institutions.

Clearly the harm caused by the oil spill in the gulf to livelihoods and the environment up until now has been treated as an acceptable risk to be able to obtain more oil and to allow oil companies to make bigger profits. Chances are that is about to change. Yet people like Rand Paul say, the criticism of BP over their actions or lack of is "anti-business"

We will be debating some time whether any potential harm prevented by Arizona law officials profiling people and asking for their papers, is worth harm caused to those profiled that are citizens.

In short, government involvement is not by definition socialist, communist, or unconstitutional as the tea baggers, the 10thers, the Rand Pauls and the FAUX news mouths keep shouting. Responsible Government action for the purpose of keeping citizens from unacceptable harm by others is the very essence of America and what has kept our free country free.

Message to the Right Wing: The TARP worked

2010-05-11T17:05:00.004-04:00

Apparently while the right wingers were busy trying to prove Barack Obama was either from Kenya or Muslim, or a Nazi, they didn't notice a few things. First of all Taxes for 95% of Americans went down. Yes down,,that's less then last year, that's right, no reason to protest higher taxes cause, they are L O W E R.

Their next biggest shout out is protesting the bailouts, or TARP as commonly called. I mean of course they were outraged, Obama, that evil socialist...oh wait, hold up, TARP was in October 2008, Obama wasn't President until January 2009. Bush that Socialist err I mean what was he, oh yes he was the "decider" according to him, George W Bush put through the TARP. So of course Republicans should be...wait, he was Republican, oh so Democrats should be outrag....wait.. I'm so confused.

Anyways that 700 billion dollar bailout is breaking our economy, exploding the deficit, and was a total failure...... OK wait again...I just saw a Bank of America Commercial, wait, weren't they going to fail? Citicorp surely was, pardon? they still exist too? Well the American Auto Industry was doomed and TARP money was used .....GM sales are up? Chrysler is rehiring 1900 workers?

OK well so it worked but was it worth it after all it cost the Taxpayers 700 billion dollars that my grandchildren are going to have to pay......630 billion has been paid back? OK well then 70 billion is a lot of money.......that is expected to be paid back within 5 years?,,,wait with interest?

OK so the TARP saved our banking system, the auto industry and our economy overall and in the end its going to cost the taxpayers, nothing. Yes Clearly another Bush failure...I'm so confused.

Oh wait now the tea baggers and the right wing want to blame Obama for the TARP. hmm OK, works for me!

Ohio Liberty Council Crashes and Burns

2010-05-05T09:06:00.006-04:00

The Ohio Liberty Council a far right wing group that is known for playing loose with the facts to promote their agenda, put up an all out assault against Ohio State Issue 1 the Third Frontier Program. Besides their blog, viral emails were being sent all over the state trying to defeat this measure that was a continuation of a very successful program in Ohio that has in the past brought over 55,000 jobs to the state. The measure was widely supported by both parties. Yet the Liberty Council decided to fight new jobs in Ohio by opposing this measure which by that way did not involve any tax money going to pay for it.

But this time their misinformation campaign failed miserably as Ohio Voters were not fooled and approved State Issue 1 with 62% of the vote.

In addition the Ohio Liberty Council was trying to promote tea party wanna be candidates like Jeanette Moll in the 18th Congressional District. Though the race between current Republican Party promoted candidate Bob Gibbs and last elections loser Fred Dailey is too close to call. Moll finished in a dismal 3rd place.

Hopefully this is a sign for the future and there will be similar results in November when the Liberty Council tries to deprive Ohio citizens of quality affordable health care in our state.

One Word "Competence"

2010-05-04T10:15:00.006-04:00

The amazing speed and careful accuracy of law enforcement and government officials in the Time Square investigation should not go unnoticed. Within 72 hours a man in a city of 4 million people leaves a potential car bomb on the street. Officials managed to stop the initial smoking and potential fire, clear citizens from the area for safety, follow leads and forensics and make an arrest. It appears that communication and cooperation between local, state and Federal agencies was effective and fast. Citizen involvement was imperative and the key to it all.

A big good job to all involved including the vendor who initially reported the incident, the seller of the car who's cooperation helped lead to the arrest, The New York City, and Bridgeport Police Departments, The Joint Terrorism Task Forces in New York and New Haven, The FBI, the CIA, The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

A lot of work remains in this investigation, determining motive and finding out if others were involved. This will of course involve not only the agencies listed above, but the State Department and foreign sources including the Pakistani Government.

*********************************************************************************
Update: Now less then 100 hours after bombing attempt 5 suspects under arrest in Pakistan. Amazing international cooperation, swiftness and yes competence.
*********************************************************************************

Though the ability to stop each and every potential violent attack in advance may be impossible, the continuing competence by law enforcement and swift consequences to those who have attempted such acts may, just may deter at least a few from trying in the future.

The ignorance on the right

2010-05-03T11:29:00.005-04:00

The blog Conservative Culture just proves any idiot can have a blog regardless of actual grasp of any facts. In a post today entitled "Rise of Jihad two new attacks on American Soil. The writer claims that the attempted bombing in Times Square and an obscure suspicious package this weekend at the Pittsburgh Marathon, shows the rise of Jihad and blames Obama's weak stance on terrorism.

First problem: There is at this point no evidence that the attempt in New York City was tied to any terrorist group at all let alone a foreign Islamic group. The writer uses as evidence the claim by the Pakistan Taliban of credit. Problem with that is, those idiots claim credit for everything including a number of incidents proven not to be tied to them. If they could, they would claim credit for the tornadoes in the south this weekend.

Then the writer brings up as his second incident an obscure suspicious package that was basically a microwave oven with something in it that was near the site of the Pittsburgh Marathon. One problem, a quick google of this incident shows little reporting on it, why? Because it was quickly determined this was not an explosive device.

Meanwhile Obama's "weakness" on terrorism has resulted in more captures and deaths of Terrorists in his first year and a half in office then in 8 years of the Bush administration. There has been more preemptive work against terrorism as well including action against the Yemen wing of Al qaeda before, not after their involvement in the failed underwear bombing.

All this leads to one conclusion, the writer of Conservative Culture, deserves and gets no credibility on anything he posts. As the famous Daniel Patrick Monyhan quote goes, everyone has the right to their own opnion, just not their own facts.

http://conservativeculture.com/index.php/2010/05/rise-of-jihad-two-new-attacks-on-american-soil/

Drill Baby Drill

2010-04-29T10:58:00.006-04:00

Heritage Foundation: Thanks to technological advances, offshore energy production has become very safe, as is witnessed by the excellent record of recent years.

Institute for Energy Research: Offshore energy exploration and production in the United States is safe and environmentally sound. Over the past 50 years, the U.S. oil and gas industry has developed innovative, 21st century technologies and exploration techniques that are efficient, pose little threat to the environment, and ensure worker safety.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK): Offshore drilling is environmentally safe. Major spills from platforms are nearly non-existent.

John Boehner (R-OH): The Democrats’ energy tax would not only restrict the use of environmentally-safe offshore drilling, but would “permanently close some domestic refineries, which could permanently raise the price of gasoline,”

John McCain (R-AZ): Modern drilling technology is environmentally safe.

Oh Really?

Once again the RepubLIEcans are exposed. What is sad how much damage is caused before people see the truth.

What Obama has done to the Economy

2010-04-25T16:06:00.004-04:00

Under the leadership of President Obama and his administration a number of significant things have happened to the economy while many were distracted. As we are given endless images of a few thousand sore losers funded by far right organizations and promoted by a fake news channel, things have been happening. While Ohio right wing blogs like Liberally Conservative posts pseudo intellectual pieces trying to prove Obama is a Communist, and nut cases promote endless chain letters purporting everything from Obama is Hitler to the Antichrist, his administration has been at work. As they scream about hanging on to their guns and government takeovers Obama has continued on.

So what has been happening.

The 700 billion Bank bailout that angered many Americans and set them off on screams about government spending and the deficit done during the Bush administration, has under the guidance of the Obama administration has not only saved our banking system from catastrophe but now approximately 620 billion has now been paid back.

We went from losing 700,000 jobs a month during the last year of the Bush administration to less and less each month of the Obama administration to now we are actually gaining jobs once again.

General Motors that was on the brink of disaster which would have lead to millions of job losses and a blow to our economy from which we would have never recovered was saved. People screamed "government motors" and all kinds of knee jerk cute phrases that appealed to the ignorant. But here we are a year later and GM has paid back the government in full with interest.

Investors, including millions of Americans retirement plans and 401k, hit the skids as the stock market reached its lowest point in decades under Bush. Under Obama it has recovered most of its value and the Dow Jones industrial average in the 10,000 range once again.

They screamed things like: "death panels", "government takeover" "socialized medicine" when the Health Care Bill was being debated. Yet what we got was Health Care Reform that maintained the private ownership of insurance companies, makes sure that no one can lose their insurance if we get sick, gets rid of preexisting conditions, keeps the young covered under their parents policies, and covers 30 million uninsured Americans all the while reducing the deficit by reducing costs.

So what has been happening while we all weren't paying attention. The economy and yes capitalism is doing quite well. After 8 years of policies that lead this country almost into depression, an actual competent President has been quite successfully leading us toward prosperity. Oh and the most surprising thing of all, he has done this all while lowering the taxes for 95% of Americans.

So shout all you want tea partiers, draw those crowds of 3-8000 angry old white men. But understand its reality that lead to hundreds of thousands at some Obama rallies last election and will lead to his win by a bigger landslide in 2012.

The Fear of Obama's Success

2010-04-18T10:39:00.003-04:00

After 8 years of a Presidency full of failures, we have President who has lead our country through success after success. In all areas, the economy, education, taxes, foreign policy, the war on terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Nuclear proliferation, and Health Care, President Obama has shown something Americans haven't seen in some time, competence.

It is quite clear this scares the right to no end. It is impossible for them to debate the actual facts as they will lose. So they have no choice but to resort to falsehoods, fear, misinformation and flat out lies. They cannot debate the success on the economy so they have tea partys not about taxes, because their taxes have actually gone down. But instead they talk about spending, which they forget it was Republicans that took our nation from a surplus to a deficit. It was Republicans policies lead to the biggest economic meltdown since the depression, which lead Obama no choice but to spend to fix the holes in the roof. They scream about details on how trials for terrorists may be held despite the fact that its been 9 years since 9/11 and Bush didn't bother to have any trials, and it is Obama that has killed and captured more terrorists around the world in a year in a half in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan then Bush did in 8.

They cannot debate foreign policy as Bush isolated the United States from most of the world with his aggressive and failed policies telling lies to start a war of choice. While Obama, manages to get a Start Treaty signed 9 years after the last expired, have gotten China and Russia to be more cooperative on North Korea and Iran. Bush had to be snuck into meetings in foreign countries at night, Obama arrives to cheering crowds.

The right cannot use facts about taxes, health care reform, abortion or even gun control to attack Obama because he has lowered taxes, the vast majority of Americans like what is actually in the Health Care Reform Bill, he has implemented no pro abortion policies or laws, nor has he changed or supported a single change in gun laws.

So what do they do instead? They try to claim he is Nazi like, unamerican, not born here and question his religion. They spread fear over things they say, he might do, regardless of the fact he has never done or even expressed desire to do anything of the sort. They send out viral emails with so called "experts" who claim everything that Obama is everything from Hitler to the Anti-Christ. They claim they want to restore the constitution while they advocate violence and try to de-legitmize an election.

One thing is clear, President Obama is a successful President. His policies are making our country and the world better. This why Obama will be reelected in 2012 by a larger margin then he won in 2008. What will the tea baggers, the false email forwarding, Fox News watching fools say then?

A Tale of Two Countries

2010-04-07T12:28:00.017-04:00

"It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times;

it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness;

it was the epoch of belief,

it was the epoch of incredulity;

it was the season of Light,

it was the season of Darkness;

it was the spring of hope,

it was the winter of despair;

we had everything before us,

we had nothing before us;

we were all going directly to Heaven,

we were all going the other way." -

Words of course by Charles Dickens in a Tale of Two Cities

The difference between us and them

2010-03-24T15:44:00.002-04:00

This video is a graphic clarification of the difference between the party that gets things done and the party of no.

Grandstanding State Attorney Generals File Lawsuits

2010-03-23T17:42:00.005-04:00

In the continuing inability for sore loser Republicans to realize they have lost, 13 Attorney Generals are grandstanding with frivolous lawsuit trying to challenge the constitutionality of the new Health Care Reform Law. Republicans who constantly whine about tort reform and such lawsuits once again show what hypocrites they are in their need to play political games.

First of all their argument is as laughable as all their other distortions and lies throughout this process. They claim that never before has the federal government required its citizens to purchase something.

Oh Really? Do we have choice in purchasing Unemployment insurance? Can I opt out of investing in the retirement plan called Social Security? Of course we don't. The only difference here is the Republicans prevented the best solution to health care, which would be single payer like the rest of the civilized world has which would have been taken out of our paychecks exactly like SSN and Unemployment, instead we had to continue to leave the profit making insurance companies in the mix so the money must be paid to them.

Whether the money comes out of our checks or we pay it to insurance companies the result is the same, there is a mandate for social security, unemployment and yes now health insurance.

So grandstand all you want, it is you that will look the fool when the courts reject this quietly and with no fan fare years after your real reason for doing this, your elections are over.

Americans elected Barack Obama President, Americans chose the have a Democratic Majority in Congress, by our constitution that Congress and that President have made Health Care Reform the law of the land. Any attempt to overturn this will of the people shows who really wishes to defy our Constitution.

A Victory for America

2010-03-22T11:25:00.008-04:00

Last night a momentous and historic health insurance reform bill finally passed. This occurred in a time where corporations and special interests make it almost impossible for the people to be heard, when the Supreme Court has basically turned over our Government to the Corporations this is an amazing feat.

When a political party and fake grass roots organisations funded by these corporate interests do anything to defeat the will of the people, through lies, distortions, millions of dollars in add campaigns and even Congressman telling bold faced lies on the floor of the House of Representatives all for political motives, for this bill to pass helping the American People is surprising.

This event proved that elections do matter. That when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in a landslide that the people were heard. It proves that leadership, and courage can indeed get the job done.

Of course this bill does not fix all the problems in Health Care but it is a major step. It gets 35 million people out of our pockets who now go to emergency rooms for care on our dime. It keeps us from being denied insurance or have our insurance cancelled because we get sick. It keeps our existing system in place for doctors and insurance plans that we like. For Americans on employer provided insurance it keeps the rates from exploding more and more, for those that make less then $85K on individually purchased insurance plans it lowers rates. It closes the donut hole for seniors on Medicare. It gives subsidies to help lower income buy insurance. It cuts no medicare benefits. And perhaps most importantly, unlike Republican bills in the past it is paid for, in fact over 20 years it lowers the deficit.

The lies and distortions will continue, but in a few months when Americans look back on this day, they will realise all the horror stories told by the right, were indeed lies. America and our Health Care will be on the road to great improvements for us, the Citizens of the United States that remains the greatest country on earth.

Thank you President Obama, thank you Democrats, thank you all that voted for them. No thanks to Zack Space who voted No.

"support and defend the Constitution of the United States"

2010-02-02T18:09:00.003-05:00

Those words are in the oath of office that every Senator and Congressman take. As of today a number of Senators are supporting a bill that would defy the Constitution and prevent our Justice Department from finally bringing terrorists to trial. The bill sponsored by Lindsey Graham cuts funding to try to force the Attorney General to stop planned criminal trials. Some of these terrorists have been held without trial for 8 years.

What has always given our country the moral authority when it comes to justice around the world is the fact that unlike many places in the world, we have a constitution that provides Fair trials to all, no matter how disgusting the crime was. For the first time in our History, we lost that authority in the world as the Bush Administration made a mockery of our Constitution and held prisoners without trial.

Americans rejected that, they elected Barack Obama. But now these Senators want to trash our Constitution and eliminate such trials as we have had in our country for over 200 years. It is a said day that we in America are actually debating having fair trials.

They took an oath of office saying they would support and defend the Constitution, apparently they have decided to break that oath.

Here are the names of some of those traitors to the Constitution:

Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Jim Webb, and Blanche Lincoln

Republicans:The sky is red.

2010-01-28T10:14:00.004-05:00

Despite one of the most clear, honest, effective State of the Union Speeches ever given by a President as expected, RepubLIEcans have come out clearly still as the party of NO, putting politics above the needs of the country. President Obama clearly laid out the facts on taxation, the deficit, the needs for job creation, health care reform and most of all political reform. He mentioned the clear damage the party of NO is doing to our nation by opposing every single bill proposed by the Democrats and the President, He pointed out the danger of turning our election process over to corporations and special interests by the recent Supreme court decision. Once again he offered to work with Republicans for the good of the country.

How have they responded. One Republican called the speech Obama's flop. Sarah Palin who in a question could not state one single important Supreme Court Decision, today on her facebook criticizes Obama's take on the Corporate takeover of politics in the Court Decision. (like she has a clue what that decision even was.)

Today the talking heads of the RepubLIEcans are out there lying about how they have tried to work with the President and have been rebuffed. Frankly that is bull dung, NO American believes that.

My only concern is their continuing strategy of lies, distortion and cynicism may work. It has the last year. They have continued to convince the American people the sky is red and half of Americans believe it in the polls. They claim Obama is a tax and spend President when in reality he has lowered taxes for more Americans then any President in Decades. They claim Americans are against Health Care Reform when in reality Americans are actually for most the items that are actually in the Health Care Reform bill, its the lies the RepublIEcans have told claiming are in the bill they are against.

Our President is a great communicator. Our President is a great Leader. But he cannot succeed unless the rest of us work hard to help him spread the truth and call out Republican Lies. Every lie, every day, in the media, in viral emails, in tweets and in blogs. We cannot lose another single fight because one side lied and we remained silent.

It is time to stand up for ACORN

2010-01-26T18:59:00.004-05:00

Today James O’Keefe the Right wing Criminal and Faux News Contributor that framed ACORN was caught trying to wire tap a Senators Office In New Orleans. This after numerous investigations into ACORN all of which cleared them and in fact showed that James O’Keefe had doctored the videos that FAUX news showed repeatedly as news on its airwaves.

What is sad is the criminal conspiracy of O’Keefe and Faux News led to congress taking unprecedented and unconstitutional action against ACORN preventing any Funding of projects they were involved in legally. Among those that fell for this fraud were Senator Sherrod Brown and Zack Space.

I demand that every Senator and Congressman that voted for this measure to publicly apologize to ACORN and that the measure they passed be overturned with new legislative action immediately. This McCarthy style political gotcha game should never have been allowed to happen. How little so many recall history.

Scott Brown a Bad Joke on Massachusetts and America

2010-01-19T01:17:00.001-05:00

Are Massachusetts Voters Going to Say No to America?

2010-01-18T19:41:00.003-05:00

If you believe the media, RepubLIEcan Scott Brown has momentum in tomorrow's special election for the Senate Seat in Massachusetts. Though I'm not sure that any momentum he has isn't because the Press has made a self fulfilling prophecy.

Regardless, Brown is running against health care, telling the same lies about the health care bill that RepubLIEcans have been repeating all over the country. Like its going to cover abortions, hurt seniors and will raise middle class taxes. All lies but still believed by too many.

Here is the kicker, Massachusetts already has a very similar government health care plan, and guess who voted for it as a State Senator? Yep you got it, flashy Liar Scott Brown himself.

So are the voters in Massachusetts going to fall for this deception. Are they going to say to the other 49 states we can have universal health care but you can't? Is the media going to convince the voters in Massachusetts that he has momentum so therefore its inevitable, why vote?

I hope not, I surely hope that RepubLIEcan misinformation and distortions don't win again like they did through 8 years of hell during the Bush Administration.

Pat Robertson Claims Haiti Deserved this Tragedy

2010-01-14T08:20:00.003-05:00

This man calls himself a Christian?

Haiti deserves this because they threw off the bonds of slavery from the French? They made pact with the devil? 80% of Haitians are Catholic, 97% are Christian, making it possibly the most Christian nation in the world. Why does anyone listen to this nut case anymore?

Limbaugh shows how morally bankrupt he is on Haiti

2010-01-14T07:57:00.005-05:00

While thousands of dead bodies lie stacked in the streets, while 10's of thousands either are already dead or dying, while 3 million human beings have lost everything they knew, their homes, their families, any means of sustenance and any hope destroyed in 45 seconds, while the world comes together to help, one man shows how totally morally bankrupt he is, no surprise it is Rush Limbaugh.

He also suggested to a caller later to keep your wallets closed as "we have already donated to Haiti, its called the U.S. Income Tax." This disgusting man feels he can mock and trivialize anything, any tragedy, any suffering to increase the ratings of his show. To use this tragedy to mock our President about his race, is unbelievable.

I call on the advertisers that put this scum on the airways to stop their advertising on his show immediately and to instead use that money to make a significant donation to the Red Cross or UNICEF to help our fellow human beings. Because it is the right thing to do for people of conscious.

I urge you all to contact these and other advertisers on the Rush Limbaugh show to express your desire to have them donate to relief efforts for Haiti

Advertisers name removed see comments

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Joe Scarborough Clueless about Race

2010-01-12T06:15:00.004-05:00

For two days now white southern boy Joe Scarborough has been spouting of about how racist Harry Reid's remarks from 2 years ago were. He continued to compare them to things that Trent Lott and Don Imus said. The irony here is the more Joe talks the more clear it is that it is him that has a racial issue not Harry Reid. Scarborough who by his own admission this morning received an F rating from the NAACP on his votes while he is in congress is clueless to realise that a statement by Reid about facts on why Obama had some traits that made him more viable a candidate with white Americans, is a fact understood more by black Americans then even southern white boys like him.

Trent Lott said that America would be better off had we stayed with a Segregationists agenda, Imus called African American athletes nappy headed ho's. Any comparison to what Reid said is just ignorant.

But Scarborough along with his other old white boy cohorts Pat Buchanan and Mike Barnacle dig a deeper and deeper hole for themselves by trying to claim some anti Republican bias as if there is no difference in the remarks. His biggest argument to justify his point are unprovable hypothetical, "what would happen" if it was a Republican that said it.

I find it amazing that in a effort to politically destroy Harry Reid by claiming racism, Scarborough is showing clearly how totally clueless about race he is.

Obama's stepped up war on Terror

2010-01-07T15:38:00.002-05:00

Despite what the RepubLIEcans are saying the fact is President Obama in one year in office has done more to fight Al Qaeda then Bush did in his 8 years. First off there have been more drone hellfire missile attacks on Al Qaeda in Pakistan in one year then in the last 5 years of the Bush Administration resulting in a long list of Al Qaeda leaders being killed.

While for 7 years the Bush Administration used minimal effort to fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan turning its attention to an unnecessary illegal war in Iraq, it is President Obama that is sending 30,000 troops to actually do the job not just provide lip service.

In addition instead of chest thumping and pushing away cooperation in the war on terror like Cowboy diplomat Bush, Obama has reached out to work with allies in effective ways to take action against terrorists.

When it comes to terror there is a no error policy, clearly the fact the Nigerian got as far as he did was an error. What is Obama doing? He is calling in all his national security advisers, gaining the facts, and taking action to find out what happened and how to prevent it again. Mean while Yemenis forces are sending out 10,000 troops going after Al Qaeda effectively killing and arresting those behind the attempt.

Unlike Bush Obama has been proactive in fighting terror, the first drone strikes in Yemen were in November almost 2 months before this attempt, why because under his leadership our national security forces acted on good intelligence and took action before an attempt not after.

For Republicans to accuse this President to be weak on terror is clearly hypocrisy and an insult to the intelligence of our citizens. To use terror as a political football and to lie about it, is disgusting at best, giving aid and comfort to the enemy at worst.

Fighting Al Qaeda is not a political game it is about the safety and security of our nation. It is time for the RepubLIEcans to work with this President on our nations security or shut the hell up.

Sarah Palin is Un-American

2010-01-06T14:41:00.003-05:00

In another mindless rant Sarah Palin expresses her total disdain for the Constitution of the United States and the American Justice system that is the envy of the world. She in another of her complete unoriginal writings she mimics the neo cons that actually have their own thoughts like Dick Cheney and the host of mouths on Faux News and criticizes our Commander in Cheif for actually acting according to the Constitution and our Laws.

She states on her Facebook, ".” Acts of terrorism are just that, not “man caused disasters.” The system did not work. Abdulmutallab was a child of privilege radicalized and trained by organized jihadists, not an “isolated extremist” who traveled to a land of “crushing poverty.” He is an enemy of the United States, not just another criminal defendant."

So are Murders not made made, burglaries, robberies, drug deals? Since they are man made does our justice system fail there too? Abdulmattallab is a child of privilege she says, so does that mean only poor people should be tried in our justice system?

She goes on to state, "There is a very serious downside to treating them as criminals: terrorists invoke their “right” to remain silent and stop talking. Terrorists don’t tell us where they were trained, what they were trained in, who they were trained by, and who they were trained with."

Well if Sarah actually read any real news, or turned her tv to something other then FAUX news she would know that indeed this suspect has been cooperating in fact it is reported he has given good actionable intelligence. Today 3 terrorists were arrested in Yemen, a coincidence?

Americans believe in our Constitution, we believe in our system of justice. We believe that the guilty will be brought to justice and the innocent released. Our system of justice is not perfect, but it is the envy of the world and way better then the alternatives. When we lowered our morals and tortured and held people without trial we lost our moral authority in the world and in essence let the terrorists win by allowing them to change what we believe in.

We have a President now that believes in our Constitution and your system of justice. A man that has shown his wisdom, his intellegence. A man that has an education, as they say one of the "best and brightest" that should rise to the top. And this brainless joke, who had to try 4 different colleges before she found one she could graduate from, who's experience is as a sportscaster, beauty queen and mayor of a town that is barely a spot on the map. Who quit the only real job she ever had as a Governor of one of the most starkly populated state in the union, dares to try to act like she knows better?

This is the woman that wanted to ban books when she was mayor, that is married to a man that was part of a secessionist movement in Alaska, and it surprises us she is un-American?

What is also Un-American is these people that keep elevating her to a level way beyond her level of competence. To claim she would actually be a good candidate for President? You want to put our country in more danger then you ever imagined, put a mindless prop like Palin in the White House.

Signs of the Obama Recovery More Clear Every Day

2009-12-31T11:17:00.005-05:00

Despite the continued drum beat of RepubLIEcans that the stimulus package has failed, saying it over and over again doesn't make it true. Though less then 50% of the stimulus funds have yet to be spent its clear positive effect on the economy is becoming very clear.

Housing Values are recovering every month.

2009 will be the best year on Wall Street since 2003 with 20% gains.

Gas prices remain significantly lower then previous highs during the last administration.

The Federal tax rate is at its lowest point in 70 years, with 95% of Americans receiving a tax cut in 2009.

And the most lagging indicator is beginning to show signs of recovery. New jobless claims numbers show the lowest amount since 2000, and continuing jobless claims have dropped to the level at the beginning of the year. Finally a survey of employers shows a significant percentage plan to increase their hiring in 2010.

So despite the RepubLIEcans trying to do everything to obstruct and deny the real solutions put in place by the Democrats and the Obama administration, the hard work by our leaders have shown clear positive results.

It may be hard for some to realize real solutions have taken time, as opposed to short term false band aids typical of Republican administrations. So they can try to continue their lies and false claims of higher taxes and economic failure, when it will soon be clear to all Americans that it was Republican leadership and policies that brought our country to the brink of economic disaster and it was democrats who fixed their mess.

A Decade of Failure leads to a Decade of Hope

2009-12-31T07:48:00.003-05:00

This decade began with a failure of the basis of our Democracy, elections being in doubt. Despite clear and documented irregularities in the 2000 Presidential election the Supreme Court stopped a recount that could have determined who was actually elected President.

On September 11, 2001 Americans were horrified as we saw that there was a failure in security. We were not protected by the oceans from attack. We found out that our government and President failed to respond to clear warnings that could have prevented this disaster.

In March of 2003 their was a failure of leadership and honesty, as the world and Americans were horrified that a President of the United States lied to its citizens to lead us into war with Iraq. We learned there were no weapons of Mass Destruction, and we had attacked a country that though impudent militarily due to no fly zones and sanctions, who had not attacked us and had nothing to do with 9/11.

In 2004 once again the world and American were horrified as we learned that our Country was torturing Prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Later we sat in disbelief as we heard our President and Vice President defend waterboarding. There was a failure to live up to the morals our nation had always held dear. We would never be looked on the same by the world again.

Election day 2004, our frustration grew as once again our ability to hold fair elections were in doubt. There was clear manipulation by the Secretary of State in Ohio to alter the voting results. Resources were shifted, voting machines were proven to be inaccurate, yet once again a winner was declared without knowing for sure who actually got the most votes.

August 29 2005, perhaps the most clear failure of the decade. We watched in horror as an American City drowned after Hurricane Katrina. We watched as there was a clear inability of our government to respond to a disaster that they saw coming for weeks. We had been lead to believe that our Homeland Security had been improved yet Katrina proved quite the opposite. The world watched in horror as the Country they depended on to help respond to help the world in such disasters couldn't help itself.

September 15, 2007 a failure of disastrous proportions became evident in our economic system. We found that all the protections placed on our financial institutions after the Great Depression had been gutted to allow such a disaster again. We saw banks failing, record foreclosures, jobs being lost at staggering rates, and we saw a President in the waning days of his term trying to wait out the clock to avoid having to deal with the reality of the mess.

November 4, 2008 The decade of hope began. So many believed including myself that this country could not move beyond race to elect an African American President. There was even fear the election system problems would again put the will of the people in doubt. Yet as we sat there in campaign headquarters, or in our homes that night and watched the images from Grant Park in Chicago. The feeling of utter pride and joy in our nation, in our democracy was gushing. I cried that night as all the frustrations about the failures of the previous 8 years felt somehow washed away. My faith was being restored in our nation and the leaders of the future. The America I loved, I believed in, was back.

We have seen in the final year of the decade that restoring hope is not easy. It is not done in one election. The damage of the failures of the previous 8 years was deep, it was going to take a lot of work, a lot of hard decisions to fix it. Americans are understandably skeptical. It will take continued successes by our President to earn their trust once again. We must do what we can to help with that success by continuing to vote for Congress People and Senators that are leaders not obstructionists. We must make our voices heard, we must shout out the successes that are made. When we are not happy with something we also must communicate the desires we have to our leaders to do more.

The 2000's were indeed a decade of failure, but I have belief in the wisdom and the leadership of President Barack Obama. Therefore I have no doubt, the 2010's will be not only a decade of hope, but a decade of success for our nation.

Dick Cheney continues to root for Terrorists

2009-12-30T12:14:00.007-05:00

In Cheney's most recent anti American rant he has shown his clear disappointment the attempt by the Nigerian terrorist failed. He once again used it to bash the Obama administration with some dribble that they don't see terrorism a war. But did he condem the attack itself? No.

Cheney says they don't see it as a war, oh really?

Who was it that has finally made the decision to send enough troops to do the job in Afghanistan? Yes that was Obama.

Who was it that ordered drone attacks on Yemen on terrorist bases that killed leaders on November 3, Indeed Obama again.

Under who's administration did a smilier attack get thwarted a month ago in Somalia Yes that too was the the Obama administration.

On the other hand who released from Guantanamo two leaders of al qaeda in Yemen that are taking credit for this attack and may have ties to the Fort Hood shooting. Wait that was the Bush Administration.

Hmm is almost like they not only hope for a terrorist attack for political reasons but assisted. Naw, couldnt be.

Has the Political Media Lost Their Minds?

2009-12-23T17:32:00.004-05:00

A few months ago no matter what political reporter you listened to or read the underlying theme was the impending death of the Republican Party. Now these same people on Politico, MSNBC and others are talking about the sinking ship of the Democratic Party.

They do this with a Democratic President who has succeeded in delivering or working toward the vast majority of his campaign promises. They do this as a Health Care Bill is about to be passed, something that no President or Congress has been able to do over decades. They do this as the there are continuing signs every day that the economy is recovering further validating the job the President and Congress has done. They seem not to notice that the group with the lowest popularity rating in the polls are Congressional Republicans. They poll significantly lower then Democrats and way lower then the President.

They seem to have forgotten the taking over of the Republican Party by the Glenn Becks, the Rush Limbaughs, the Sarah Palins and the Tea Baggers. They forget that in the last actual election of a congressional seat, the republican was defeated despite the fact that seat had been in GOP hands for over a century.

This up and down story line has proven to me these poltical "experts" can be believed as much as the local weatherman can be in his long range forecasts.

The next congressional election is 10 months away. In that time President Obama and the democrats will have more successes regardless of how many hurdles the GOP tries to put in front of them. The Tea Baggers and the Right wing wackos will continue to scare off moderates, and Sarah Palin will continue to open her mouth and confirm to even more people her lack of intelligence. That and with continued economic recovery and thus better unemployment numbers, things look quite good for the next 10 months.

Though the Republicans will try to deny each and every success of the Democrats, the facts will be there. As long as we on the left continue to get the facts out in every way we can, we will do just fine in November 2010.

Top 10 Republican Lies of 2009

2009-12-23T13:10:00.006-05:00

Though Republicans have used misinformation, distortion and lies to achieve their political motives for decades. To me 2009 seems like a banner year for such lies. So what follows is what in my opinion were the biggest lies of 2009. First let me say that since the creation of this blog I have always worked hard to find the truth and to call out those that lie. It seems in this era one even has to define what truth means. To me a truth is a fact. It is verifiable and objective. It is not open to opinion. The following list are in fact all lies, what is open to opinion is whether they were the biggest lies.

10. There is a liberal media bias. This lie is not new, it is what those like Fox and Rush Limbaugh use to justify their incredible bias. The reality is the true bias appears obviously on Fox News, Talk Radio and so called Christian Broadcasting and bias is far right. On the left there is Air America Radio and a few other smatterings of Liberal Talk like Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz. But try to find it on your radio dial sometime. The right has been successful with their ownership in most radio networks and advertiser boycotts to keep it from being on any major radio stations. On television there is MSNBC, at least in the evenings. The rest of the main stream media is all owned and controlled by huge corporate interests, if anything their bias is to the right.

9. Americans don't want health reform. One reason Barack Obama was elected was his stance on health reform. In addition when Americans are polled on what is actually being put into legislation they are overwhelming for it. Yet with all the misinformation and lies put out by big insurance and the republicans for greed and political reasons, there is understandably confusion among the electorate.

8. Barack Obama is not a Citizen of the United States. Yes this lie is stupid, has been proven false again and again, and should be laughed at. Yet there are still those that promote this lie to this day. What is sad, it includes Congressmen, Senators and even Sarah Palin.

7. Obama is the most partisan President in History. The facts prove he is quite the opposite. Even with their clear announced intentions to fight every thing President Obama does, even with their attempts to block, stop and not give a single vote to any legislation that is being worked on on behalf of the American People, the President has compromised anyway much to the distress of the left. The Stimulus package was way smaller then most on the left wanted and the Health Care Reform bill does not have a public option in any form. This is compromise, this is bipartisan ship. He has done so even knowing not one Republican will vote on the legislation no matter what is in it.

6. The Health Care Bill was Rushed. This lie is laughable. It was 40 years ago Senator Edward Kennedy gave his first speech on the floor on the need for Health Care Reform. All we have heard about since last summer is Health Care Reform. It has dominated Congress, the news and many Americans lives. Republicans have successfully delayed it, stalled it, put obstructions in the way for months. This bill has not been rushed it has been dragged out way too long at the peril of the thousands of Americans that have died do to lack of insurance these past months.

5. The Stimulus was a failure. Really now? Did I miss the second great depression we were heading toward? Am I missing soup lines, food rationing, massive closures of retail stores? Am I missing thousands of boarded up banks and financial institutions? Is the auto industry gone? No of course not the stimulus, the TARP and other things implemented by President Obama and his economic team stopped the bleeding from the deep wounds left by the Republicans and George W. Bush. All with less then 1/2 the Stimulus money being actually spent to date. From here is all up.

4. Health Care Reform is going to pay for abortion with Tax dollars. No, it never was, it never will. From the very beginning the Hyde Amendment which prevents the use of federal funds being used for abortions was affirmed in the language of the Health Care bills. There was never any attempt to take that out. . This was a lie plain and simple to confuse and delay the bill, period.

3.Obama is raising your taxes. This is the easiest lie to verify yet the one most believe. Look at your damn paycheck for God's sakes. YOUR TAXES HAVE GONE DOWN! In fact the federal tax rate is at its lowest rate in 70 years. The only people even in danger of a tax hike are those that make over $250,000 a year that is less that 5% of the country. So Teabaggers protest all you want, but the facts are the facts, taxes have not gone up.

2.ACORN has committed illegal acts. This lie has been very successful by the right. It resulted in legislation voted on by many Democrats to cut funding for programs that were run and bid on in a fair process by ACORN. The fact is after numerous investigations and court hearings ACORN has been proven innocent. There was no election fraud, there was no mortgage fraud, there was no assistance in setting up illegal operations. In fact the only crime that has been committed was by those Con artists that created and falsified a slanderous movie.

1. Death Panels. Though most Americans do not believe this one, it was however perhaps the most sick, and most ignorant lie of the year. It was brought to America by that lovable brainless barbie doll, Sarah Palin. It wasn't long after it was picked up by the Tea baggers, The ignorant Palin wanna bees like Jeanette Moll and unfortunately some people that have actually been elected to Congress. This lie was horrible because it scared many elder Americans for no reason whatsoever.

Ok that's my list, feel free to add more in the comments I may have missed.

I know I left out some obvious ones like, Fox is a news organization and Sarah Palin has an IQ above 10, but had to stop it somewhere.

Our President Shows his Leadership Once Again

2009-12-18T11:59:00.004-05:00

Today our President spoke to leaders of the world showing that finally America has a serious leader that is working to actually solve real problems. After years of Republicans playing political games and denying scientific fact at the peril of our planet, at long last we are working with the rest of the world.

Below is the full remarkable speech by the President that all Americans should be proud of.

Placing the Blame Where it Belongs

2009-12-17T11:39:00.006-05:00

There is a lot of frustration in this country right now for various reasons. First of all the economy. Everyone knows without a doubt President Obama inherited a mess. We were heading into a depression, possible bank failures, and the loss of thousands and thousands of jobs. We came within weeks of losing the American Auto Industry. We are impatient, we want things to be fixed overnight. We want our jobs back, we want normalcy and we want change to prevent greed from doing this to us again. Yet it seems little is changing fast enough for our tastes

Then there is Health Care. Thousands are continuing to lose their coverage every day. Those of us that have it are constantly hit with sticker shock as our premiums continue to go up. Then we try to readjust our budgets again and again to cover health expenses that are not covered and that we didn't expect. Yet we grow weary of the seemingly endless debate and are losing hope anything of value will be done.

Then there are the wars. 8 years in Afghanistan, still working to get out of Iraq. We may be getting out of Iraq yet we still hear almost daily of another bombing or troop death. In Afghanistan we are aware of a situation so complicated that its hard to see what can be done.

Then there is the deficit something most of us really don't truly understand yet we try to apply common sense to it and get worried. We know it can't be good, but we want everything solved too, so that costs money.

With all this frustration it is not surprising Obama's poll numbers are showing it. Yet lets look at what is actually happening right before our eyes every day. On one side we have a President that clearly sees and is working to find real solutions to the very real problems that are in his inbox. He is bringing in advisers and the smartest people available to him to work toward solutions.

He put in place a stimulus package that is less then 50% spent. Though we would like instant change, real problems take real solutions that take time. The Health Care Bill is nearing completion. Does it have everything anyone wants? No. Does it have things some don't want, Yes. But this is 40 year battle, it was not going to be easy and it hasn't been. Yet improvement is about to happen. Iraq is coming to an end, no ifs ands or butts. Afghanistan is still a mess that is going to take real effort and real soldiers and real hard work to improve. He is working to do that with thought, with reflection, and with all the information available. He is also doing it with a vision and a plan to bring it to an end.

So what has the other side done. What have they done to improve the economy, what have they done to improve health care, what have they done to solve any problem whatsoever that our Country faces? Nothing. They instead have made political games and sour grapes their purpose. They have clearly no desire to solve our nations problems but instead criticize, obstruct and play partisan games. They are putting their desire for Obama to fail over the needs of their country. They have made health care reform almost impossible, they are fighting to protect the greed of the banks over the needs of a stable economy. They are doing everything from screaming theories about Obama's birth place, to distortions about health care proposals to outright lies.

They scream socialisim and that the government is trying to take over the banks and the auto industry yet remain silent when clearly TARP worked, the banks are paying back the government with a profit even GM says it will pay back its loans by June. Will the Republicans ever give Obama credit for all that has worked? What do you think?

Conservative money and media goes into organizing fake grass roots protests, that are simply racist uniformed dog and pony shows. Based on no facts whatsoever. They protest taxes when taxes are actually at the lowest rate in 70 years, they protest the deficit when its their party that took our nation from surplus to deficit. They shout hate and false attacks daily. This solves America's problems how?

Then there is the left. We had high expectations for Obama. After 8 years of utter frustration finally hope. But were those expectations too high perhaps. But on the other hand are we heading in the right direction? Is Obama broken a single campaign promise? No. Everything he campaigned on he is working toward. There have been no flip flops whatsoever. Yes it is taking longer then we would hope, But again, real problems take real solutions. If they were easy to solve they would have been already.

So where should we place the blame? It's quite clear it belongs in the squarely in the hands of the Republican Party.

Thank God we do have a President of strength and vision that is fighting to actually solve the real problems rather then trying to score short term political points. Because of this, for the first time in a long time, I have hope in a better future for our nation, both in the short and even more so in the long term.

Acorn Vindicated. Constitution Restored

2009-12-12T12:13:00.003-05:00

Despite the briefly successful attempts by Faux News, Republicans with some Democrats to trash the Constitution of the United States with an illegal and immoral witch hunt of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, An independent prosecutor has completed his investigation and found no illegal activity by the organization or its employees. In fact it found that the widely distributed videos are edited and fudged to make things appear much worse then they were. This fraudulent attempt by Faux News in itself is criminal and at the least immoral. Once again it is proven that Faux news has no interest in fact and is not a news organization at all but rather an advocacy group that will say anything and do anything to push their agenda.

Full Report of Independent Investigation

In addition the McCarthy like action by Congress in an uniformed knee jerk reaction to this false reporting by Faux News has been enjoined by Judge Nina Gershon of the U.S District Court in Brooklyn New York. She found the action by Congress to be very likely an unconstitutional act and has granted a preliminary injection until the case can be fully heard.

It is quite clear the attacks on ACORN are false and motivated by the right and Fox News to stop an organization that has been a helpful factor in helping the urban poor and minorities maintain their rights to vote and own property. This is just as disgusting as the racially motivated attempts to keep minorities from voting that occurred prior to the civil rights act and the voting rights act not only in the south but throughout the country.

I expect this kind of behavior from Faux News and the Republicans but for Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Congressman Zack Space to go along and vote with them on this unconstitutional act is disappointing at best.

The Judges Ruling

I am full of Pride in Our President Today

2009-12-10T15:09:00.003-05:00

Never have I felt more pride in the leader of our country then I am today. His speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize is one that spoke great truth and vision to the world. Our President expressed the deepest moral basis for foriegn policy that most of us deep down believe. He talked about not only America's role in making the world better and more peaceful, but our ongoing responsibility as well.

He spoke of the the existence of evil and the unfortunate need that does exists for force. Yet he spoke of the hope and work that must be done by all nations to move to lessen the violence and evil between peoples both between and inside nations.

He spoke of a future where the threat of nuclear weapons are reduced, where religious wars were not tolerated. Where religion can be used for its fundamental moral purpose rather then to be distorted to spread hate and violence.

This speech was a momentous event that will often be read throughout world history. It saddens me that there will be those who's cynicism and petty partisanship will cause them to miss this moment and miss feeling the incredible pride that every American should have today in Our President.

The Text of the Speech

OH 18: Moll shows her ignorance once again

2009-11-20T18:52:00.002-05:00

Jeanette Moll once again shows her ignorance on twitter. She tries to twist today's study on PAP tests to mean something that it doesn't.. She states "pouring salt on an open wound, panel suggests that fewer pap smears should be done. Wives/mothers not worth the cost of preventative care?? " Wives and Mothers? Did she not even read the news reports on this study? This was simply a recommendation for women under 20.

Again spouting off without knowing what she is talking about.

Oh and apparently me calling out her ignorance is annoying her as she blocked me from following her in twitter.

Ok I'll stop as one comment on my blog suggested, we want her to be the Republican Candidate for the 18th District kinda like we want Palin to get the nomination in 2012. Can you say landslide?

Voinovich: Spouting Republican Lies to cover absence

2009-11-20T17:57:00.004-05:00

Ohio Senator Voinovich is trying to explain his lack of even showing up to vote to discuss the bill by spouting RepubLIECan lies about the bill. He claims the bill hurts seniors despite the fact AARP endorses it and the cuts to medicare in actuality only cutting subsidies to the Insurance industry.

He says the bill is too expensive even though the non partisan Congressional Budget Office has found the bill actually cuts the deficit. He also tries to tie the health care bill to unemployment which is like tying the outcome of the Ohio State Michigan game tomorrow to the price of milk.

The biggest lie he tells is implying that it will cost most Americans a tax increase when again the reality is no one that makes under $250,000 a year will ever seen their taxes go up in this bill or any bill under the Obama Administration.

Why does he lie? Well besides the fact he is a RepubLIEcan, he also wants to justify the fact he doesn't even plan to show up to vote tomorrow in order to attend a party with old cronies from his mayoral days in Cleveland.

Despicable Voinovich, Americans go bankrupt and die while you lie and party on.

Voinovich: Going to a Party more Important then your Health Care.

2009-11-20T09:54:00.005-05:00

The Senate has been working hard on a compromise Health Care Bill. Ohioans overwhelming want health care reform. A Harvard study has shown 14,000 Americans lose their insurance every single day, 1998 go bankrupt and 123 die. Senator Voinovich will not only not vote to even allow the health care reform bill to go to debate Saturday, he won't even be there.

Whats more important? A party in Cleveland with his old Mayoral Staff.

This is more of a slap in the face to Ohioans then voting no.

Senator if your done representing Ohioans perhaps you should resign now and let a replacement be named that will show up for one of the most important votes in decades.

Call Senator Voinovich to let him now how you feel. 202-370-7861

OH 18: Moll tries to remain relevant with false mammogram claims

2009-11-19T11:28:00.004-05:00

Republican Candidate for Congress continues to try to remain relevant by quoting false Rupurt Murdoch (Faux News and Wall Street Journal) statements.

Her latest is the ignorant wacko conspiracy theory that the recent Task Force Study on Mammograms is some evil plan to deny women health care in health care reform

The actual facts are, this was an independent study that has absolutely nothing to do with the Health Care bill. Second of all this study did not say women under 50 should not get mammograms it did say that individual decisions should be made based on other factors, health history and family history for example, rather then just basing it on age.

No one is suggesting they should not be covered by private insurance or any insurance for that matter.

If Jeanette Moll is going to try to win a seat on congress by using Faux newsisms as her platform, she will find herself the queen of the ignorant vote but defeated badly in any election. Perhaps she could try writing a book to make some bucks and draw crowds at tea parties. But no one is going to believe that she is even slightly qualified to have a seat in Congress.

Boycotting Bob Evans

2009-11-17T13:36:00.003-05:00

The Other Paper has reported that Bob Evans Restaurants in a pilot program has installed flat screen televisions at two Columbus Area Locations, Graceland and Canal Winchester. In the evening even when requested by Customers they have refused to change the channel from Fox News.

I am a frequent Customer of Bob Evans. Luckily the ones I attend have yet to install Televisions. But I have already contacted them informing them that I will walk out the door if I ever see Fox News Channel on a TV screen in their or any business.

I will spend my money where hate and lies are not forced on the customers of the establishment.

I recommend other Customers contact Bob Evans to inform them of your concern, to nip this in the bud.

UPDATE: Bob Evans Corporation has Replied, see comment attached

Contact Bob Evans

Source: The Other Paper

Does the Right Even Know What Our Constitution Says?

2009-11-16T14:18:00.004-05:00

For the last 6 months we keep hearing people on the right shouting out accusations of unconstitutionality against President Obama and the Democratic Majority Congress. We have even had the Republican Minority Leader in the House and embrarrasment to Ohio, John Boehner quote The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence claiming it was the Constitution.

Yet here is the reality. A majority of American Voters chose Electors to put Barack Obama in office as our President. In addition those same voters choose to give control of the House and Senate to Democrats. Just as the Constitution prescribes. So what does the right do? Try to find every possible way to nullify the results of one the basis of our democracy an election. They have done so by claiming ridiculous things like the birthers or making accusations of election Fraud by Acorn, which by the way not a single case of such has ever been proven in any court of law.

Speaking of Courts of Law, another basis of our Constitution, the "Right" is now screaming that Attorney General Eric Holder plans to use the constitutionally mandated courts and rule of law to try the terrorists behind 9/11. Our court system and rule of law has worked for this country for over 200 years. Should we allow this act of Terrorists lower our constitutional standards?

So why does the right hate the constitution? I for one love it, I trust it and I will not stay silent when those on the right try to use the Constitution when its convenient and ignore it when its not. In fact I have actually read it, unlike most that wave it like a flag at the parties of the ignorant promoted by Faux News.

Keep in mind in the last several decades it is the right that has tried to ammend the constitution for every pet issue that comes up, not the left. Flag burning, Abortion, Gay Marriage are examples. Thank goodness we had wiser men behind creating it and the rules for ammending it in the first place.

Biggest Embarrassment to CNN Dobbs is Gone

2009-11-12T08:25:00.002-05:00

After years of damaging CNN's unbiased credibility, Lou Dobbs announced he was leaving the Network last night. I personally began writing and complaining to CNN as long as 2 years ago as Dobbs continued to convert his show into a right wing propaganda hour which primary purpose seem to be to promote his books.

In recent years he has gonna further and further to the right injecting his far right views into almost every story he reported on. This has led to an uprising of viewers that have created sites such as dropdobbs.com which I link to from this blog.

Though it was clear that Dobbs was damaging CNN not only in credibility but ratings as well, he attempted to spin his exit as his choice to find a way to further push his racist right wing agenda. Apparently the constraints of working for a network that wants unbiased factual coverage was too restraining for him. He of course has his radio program, and of course all know that facts or bias is not a restraint any anchor on Faux News has to concern themselves with. So clearly there are places for him.

When I heard this news this morning at 6 am which is way earlier then I normally get up, I was suddenly wide awake in bed with a huge grin on my face, this is indeed a good day for CNN and America.

BSC Michele Bachman leads Ignorant Crowd

2009-11-05T12:33:00.004-05:00

Well known bat sh*t crazy Congresswoman Michele Bachman leads a crowd of Faux News inspired tea baggers today at Capital Hill. They of course are trying to reinvigorate the August events by shouting things like "socialism" and "government takeoever" none of which of course has any resemblance to anything in the actual health care reform bill to be voted on.

The Crowd estimate is around 3500. I can be assured who are not there are any of the 14000 that are losing their health insurance today, or any of the 1998 filing bankruptcy today due to health care costs, or any of the 123 Americans that will die today because of lack of insurance.

Keep up the stall tactics and ignorant political games Bachman it keeps getting you more press while more Americans die every day.

Oh on a humorous side note, somewhat BSC Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis just called Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal "main street journalism" while quoting it as proof against health care reform.

BSC Conservatives suffer Humilating Defeat

2009-11-04T11:52:00.003-05:00

So all the Bat Sh*T Crazy, Faux News Factually challenged, Limbaugh Loving, Palin following, Corporate sponsored "grass roots" screaming right wing wackos, took to the streets to fight for the soul of the RepubLIEcan party in the little upstate 23rd Congressional District in New York. They had Sarah Palin writing on her face book page about it, they had their designated propaganda network promoting it daily, the right wing blowhards shouting over the radio waves. Dick Army and his "grass roots" corporate funded FreedomWorks making 30,000 phone calls. They were so effective that the actual Republican candidate for the seat resigned, leaving them with a proven uninformed on any significant issue "true conservative" to hold the seat.

The result? For the first time in over a century the New York 23rd Congressional District will now be represented by a Democrat. Well done!

Hmm, perhaps I should donate to Freedomworks so they do more of this. Ok maybe not.

Enough of Joe (Weaselman) Lieberman

2009-10-28T11:41:00.002-04:00

The attention whore Senator Joseph the Weasel Lieberman is at it again. Apparently he can't stand that moderates like Olympia Snowe and others are taking away all his attention. So the weasels latest is to threaten he will block Health Care Reform if it contains a public option.

Forget the fact that the only reason this traitor still holds a chairmanship and is allowed in the Democratic Caucus is that supposedly he agrees with democrats on all issues except military related ones. Well he has now proven that to be a lie as well.

This weasel will do anything, say anything to get attention. He has back stabbed democrats over and over again including the democrats in the state that elected him. I was against threatening taking chairmanships away from other Democrats over health care votes, but Weaselman is no democrat, kick his ass out now and forever. He has screwed us over for the last time.

But Seriously, Art Schlichter?

2009-10-25T15:15:00.004-04:00

I am on the same side of most issues as progress Ohio 90% of the time. Issue 3 is one issue on which we disagree. But boy have they jumped the shark highlighting a video of Art Schlichter as a spokesman against issue 3. Making Art as some sort of a victim in the first place is hard to swallow but where his reported addiction began was at horse tracks. The last time I looked those have been legal in Ohio for decades. He lost his career and hundreds of thousands of dollars to mob bookies betting on sports. Though I have seen legal sports books in Vegas, never have I seen those in any casino in Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia or Pennsylvania and I doubt seriously they will be involved in Ohio's four casinos. Art gambled illegally that's why he went to prison. It is unlikely having legal casinos would have changed his fate in any way whatsoever.

So they want to make the argument that gambling is gambling and it all should be stopped to protect "victims" like Art Schlichter. Ok well lets ban all cell phones because wasn't stealing a cell phone that started Maurice Claret's, slide? How about bringing back prohibition after all there are alcoholics and drunk drivers. While we are at it lets ban peanuts and all peanut butter, is risking the consequences to those that have peanut allergies really worth the rest of us being allowed to have a Reese's cup?

Gambling is there, it will always be there. There are some that are irresponsible with it. Yes even some that have an addiction. But that is no reason to outlaw it for the rest of responsible society in Ohio or anywhere else.

Yes on Issue 3.

The Best Speech on House Floor I Have Ever Seen

2009-10-10T19:27:00.002-04:00

Yes I am a CSPAN geek. Often I have it on throughout the workday and find it good background noise as often very little is said of interest. Often when something is of interest it is negative. Often I write posts negative posts on my blog based on those.

But I have something different. Last week Congressman Alan Grayson had a followup speech to his well reported "Die Quickly" speech. This one made the most sense and had more truth in it then I have heard any Congressman or Senator speak in years.

We need to support people in Congress like this. Donate to Alan Grayson's campaign

The World Has Found a True Leader

2009-10-09T09:20:00.009-04:00

Much to the surprise of many, our President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. Because of the relative newness of his Administration even he has acknowledged this award is not about what he has accomplished to date. It is however about a vision, it is about leadership, it is about respect.

The world had lost a lot of faith in the United States and its leaders through the 8 years of the Bush Administration. They watched in frustration as the United States Government took a path rejecting diplomacy and peace then lied to the world to start a war. They watched as the government that was once the beacon of justice and human rights, began to torture detainees. The watched as the Country the world often depended on in times of disaster let one of its own cities drown.

However a new young voice began to be heard. I wrote in August 2006 about a young Senator who unlike our leaders of the time was being cheered in the streets of a foreign capital. A man that brought hope, and understanding and belief once again to not only Americans but to the world. A man that had a vision for improving the world for the betterment of all.

Over the next 3 years that man spoke to crowds of a quarter million in Berlin, was cheered around the world as he was elected President of the United States, gave of vision of peace and understanding in Cairo, and spoke of a commitment for peace and nuclear disarmament at the United Nations. The hope and vision of our President, our leader has now been embraced in a very public way with his being named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

For those of us Americans and citizens of the world that have hungered for such a leader, today is a moment of rejoicing. It is also as the President said today, "A Call to Action." A Call to make the vision he represents a reality. This is not a time to relish in accomplishment but rather a recognition of the opportunity we have as a country and as a world with a man such as this in the White House.

Those with selfish interests and hate for anything other then their own political agenda are scoffing at this moment. Their blind partisanship once again is showing their true motives. They have never been about loving their country, they are about scoring political points. Their clear lack of love for their own country became evident last week as they cheered against it over the Olympic bid and today when our President, Our leader has been recognized with such a prestigious honor by the world community.

But one thing is clear those people every day are becoming an isolated minority in this country and the world. They can choose to scoff, throw out their snide distortions and whine, meanwhile the rest of us will continue to work for a better world.

One Bush Mess Even Obama Can't Fix

2009-10-08T09:13:00.003-04:00

The first 10 months of the Obama administration has been primarily tasked with fixing the incredible amount of damage caused and left by the Bush Administration. Obama has been quite successful in doing so in a myriad of areas yet perhaps there is one mess even he can't fix.

Successes of the Obama administration thus far are many. When he took office the economy was on the brink of depression, the banking system was crumbling and the auto industry was about to destroyed forever. Despite the wasteful deficit spending of the Bush Administration. President Obama had to make tough choices to spend more money to fix the leaking roof on the house of our economy to protect the structure. The stimulus has been very successful in doing that. The Banks are now lending again, the stock market has recovered 50% of the losses it occurred under the Bush recession, the auto industry has been saved and even sparked by the incredibly successful cash for clunkers program.

In the area of foreign policy again there is a long list of successes by Obama in fixing damage caused by the Bush Administration. Our credibility is being restored by the ending of torture, working to close Guantanamo Bay, winding down on schedule our occupation of Iraq. There are positive steps reigning in Iran on its nuclear program. Israel and the Palestinians are at least talking again, and we are now getting cooperation from countries all over the world including Russia and China.

But that leaves Afghanistan. Though going into Afghanistan was the right thing to do, as that is where those that attacked us were located, 8 years of neglect by the Bush Administration have created a quagmire that may never be navigated. The new government of Afghanistan is corrupt and ineffective. While we were wasting our resources in a war of choice in Iraq we have let things in Afghanistan deteriorate causing us to lose the will and the trust of the Afghan people. It is clear the window of opportunity in Afghanistan closed during the Bush Administration. So Obama is left with a list of choices that are all bad options. It would take years, lives and money we don't have to start that war all over and start from scratch again. Keeping the status quo is clearly not working, causing even more distrust and American lives, and just pulling out is not an option either as we cannot allow that country to become a safe haven for terrorists once again.

President Obama has done an effective job fixing the messes left by the Bush Administration. But Afghanistan is not fixable. It is time to limit our presence to a base or two for which operations against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan can be carried out. Leave the stability of the rest of Afghanistan to the Afghans to figure out, thats what the people of that country want, thats what the people of this country want.

Innocent Until Proven guilty

2009-10-07T13:52:00.006-04:00

Today House RepubLIEcans put a resolution on the floor demanding that Charles Rangel resign as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee pending an ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee into questionable tax and finance reporting by the Congressman. Apparently the RepubLIEcans have decided to suspend the Constitution and assume quilt prior to the outcome of an investigation.

This is a continuing pattern with the RepubLIEcans earlier demonstrated by the cutting of funding to ACORN when there has been absolutely no proven quilt by that organization in any court of law.

The Democrats however this time upheld the Constitution and referred the resolution to committee giving the Ethics Investigation time to conclude its business.

What I find concerning is that among the "proof" the RepubLIEcans listed in their bill were articles by Rupert Murdoch owned tabloids, the New York Post and the Washington Times. Both papers that have a proven record of pushing an agenda over facts and have as much credibility as the National Enquirer.

This once again shows a pattern as the ACORN action was based on shady reporting by the Rupert Murdoch owned Faux News Channel. Apparently the RepubLIEcans in Congress intend to turn over our justice system to Murdoch.

RepubLIEcans have forgotten that we are a nation of laws and due process. Despite the fact there do seem to be concerning facts regarding the disclosures of Rangel, due process must be allowed to take its course.

This is another grandstanding distraction by the RepubLIEcans that has no value to the American people or to our republic.

Senate Finance Committee delays and more die

2009-10-05T14:41:00.004-04:00

Once again the Baucus junta has delayed passing its version of the Health Care Reform bill, though their version would be better titled the no choices, Big Insurance Profit Protection Act. Despite the fact this version of the bill is an incredible insult to the intelligence of middle class Americans, until it is passed Health Care Reform is dead in the water. Once this bill is moved out of committee it can be merged with the actual Health Care Reform bill passed by the Senate Health Committee and hopefully morphed into something real, something helpful and a real positive change to middle income Americans.

But as long as Baucus and the Republicans hold America hostage with their version nothing can move forward.

So what is one more week? In that week 98,000 more Americans will lose their insurance coverage, 13,986 will go bankrupt from health care related expenses and 863 Americans will die. Good job Baucus and Senate Republicans.

FL 08: Support Congressman Grayson

2009-10-01T08:58:00.002-04:00

As the repubLIEcans attempt to scapegoat Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida for telling the truth concerning the deaths resulting from lack of health care. As he shows the damage the Republicans political games and being the party of no is doing to the citizens of our nation. It is time to support such a man.

Its about time someone fought back. After months of listening to RepubLIEcans telling lies, using words like death panels and false claims of government takeover of health care, Congressman Grayson stood up and fought back. Unlike RepubLIEcans he used the truth.

Any attempt to compare this to Congressman Joe the mouth Wilson's clearly inappropriate disrespect of the President of the United States during a national televised speech is laughable. Congressman Grayson's comments came when he had the floor, at a time reserved for Congressmen to speak on the issues. Just like many repubLIEcans do every day, spreading lies and hate.

It is time to support one like Grayson for standing up. For being one of the seemingly few Democrats with a spine. I urge you to donate to his campaign.

Donate to Alan Grayson's campaign

What does it take to buy 3 Senators, apparently 6 million dollars

2009-09-29T17:12:00.003-04:00

As expected Senators Kent Conrad, Max Baucus and Blanche Lincoln betrayed their party, betrayed the voters, and betrayed the citizens in this country that are losing health care insurance, going bankrupt and some dying every day. These 3 soon to be former Senators voted against real health care reform in the Senate Finance Committee today. Instead they are leaving a bill that is a 60 billion give away to simply increase the profits of the Insurance Industry.

Why would these so called Democrats do such a thing? Well a quick look on opensecrets.org has the clear answer. 6 million dollars. That is the amount it took the Health, Pharmaceutical and Insurance Industry to buy these 3 Senators.

I previously reported that Kent Conrad was the million dollar man. Million Dollar Man

Then later on this blog I detailed how Max Baucus was even worse with campaign donations over 3 million dollars. Baucus pays off Big insurance

And today joining that duo in paying back their benefactors is Blanche Lincoln who has received a whopping 2 million from Insurance, Hospitals, pharmaceuticals and other health care providers.

It looks like the billions of profits and the high executive salaries of Big Insurance are now safe with a relatively minor investment paying off these 3 Senators 6 million dollars. That's quite a return on investment indeed.

Lincoln is up for removal in 2010.
Baucus and Conrad will have a progressive funded primary challenger in 2012.
As soon as I know who all three's primary challengers are I will announce who and where to donate to their campaigns.

Yes on Issue 3

2009-09-29T16:19:00.006-04:00

For years now the states around Ohio have been sucking up the casino related tourism dollars from Ohio. A recent study by the University of Cincinnati shows a benefit of 34,000 jobs these 4 casinos would bring to Ohio. Unlike past Casino proposals this benefits most areas of the state and 4 cities in particular rather then one developer or one City.

In recent days Progress Ohio and other blogs have been reporting a study that claims that Casinos would actually cost jobs in the communities where they go as they would suck up all the entertainment dollar from other hospitality businesses.

I have seen with my own eyes how ridiculous a theory that is. I have seen towns like Laughlin Nevada thrive in the middle of a desert with dozens of hotels, restaurants and development explode because of the Casino's. Closer to home I have seen the positive effect on Richmond Indiana which has spilled over into the Cincinnati suburbs in Northern Kentucky. Adding tourist dollars to restaurants, night clubs and hotels. I have seen the former steel industry ravaged town of Bethlehem, PA roar to life with the building of a casino, with new hotels, retail stores and restaurants appearing over night.

This isn't theory or conjecture it is reality, it is what has happened. It can happen in Ohio, or we can keep sending all these jobs and tax revenues to our neighboring states.

For those who's opposition to Casino's is Vice related, open your eyes. This state has thousands of gambling institutions in every town. Race Tracks, Bingo Halls, 50/50 drawings, scratch off cards, and Texas Holdem tournaments. The introduction of casinos are not going to create problem gamblers, they do and will always exist. It will however create a pleasant fun entertainment alternative to the vast majority of us who have no such addiction.

For all these reasons and more, I am one progressive urging you to vote yes in Issue 3 in Ohio.

New Study Details the Truth about the McCarthy style attack on ACORN.

2009-09-25T09:18:00.006-04:00

A study by the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College lays out the complete manipulation of the main stream media, the McCain campaign, and Congress by right wing zealots with an agenda against ACORN. This independent study which received no outside funding found how inaccurate agenda pushing conservatives managed to promote false and misleading stories and how the main stream media failed miserably in its journalistic duty.

The study states: "Journalism is essentially a discipline of verification, and verification is what separates it from propaganda, as Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach note in The Elements of Journalism.In the case of ACORN, the story continued—and still continues—to serve as misinformation because it has largely been reported without transparency and accuracy."

Who is behind these attacks? The Study found that in its 30 years of organizing, that ACORN had made enemies of Republicans who did not appreciate the voting empowerment of low income citizens who tended to vote democratic. The Banking Industry was frustrated with ACORN which fought credit card abuses and predatory lending. The Tobacco, Restaurant, hotel and Alcohol industries opposed ACORNS work on "living wages." One of the genesis of the ACORN attack was from a group called the Employment Policies Institute, who is an astroturf group that is a front for Berman and Co. who represented corporate clients in the restaurant and bar industry who were opposed to minimum wage increases. This group began its attacks on several front web sites, hiding the actual identity of who was behind them. Soon the Conservative agenda pushing media, like the National Review, and Rush Limbaugh picked up the false attacks on ACORN.

During the Election campaign a great deal of coverage began on more main stream news outlets about possible "voter fraud" basically echoing the right wing attacks by propaganda outlets like, Fox News Channel and Rush Limbaugh. This study found that the main stream media failed in their journalistic responsibility by failing to report the following facts in most cases:
"• that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required to do by law;
• that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly
temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems;
• that actual voter fraud is very rare;
• that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN “scandal”;
• and that allegations of “voter fraud” in 2007 and 2008 related to the earlier case
of the firing of U.S. Attorneys who refused to cooperate with Republican efforts to
politicize voter fraud accusations – firings that ultimately led to the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales."

It is no surprise that Fox News was the worst in failing to point out the above facts in 79% of its stories, CNN was right behind with failure to do so in 64%. The Best not surprisingly were NPR which stated the above facts in 50% of its stories and MSNBC in 64% of its stories.

In October 2008 there was a attempt though less successful then the false voter fraud allegations, to blame ACORN for the mortgage crises. When in reality as early as 1999 it was ACORN that sounded the alarm on discriminatory and predatory lending practices.

The other ongoing false narrative is that there are significant ties between President Obama and ACORN. In 2007 and 2008 almost 1/3 of all stories about ACORN mentioned a tie between Obama and ACORN, and 11.3% of these stories actually reported that Obama worked for ACORN which was completely false. John McCain even attempted to use this tie between Obama and ACORN during his campaign and in a debate, Obama responded clearly that it was not true. All actual investigations into this by media outlets and others have verified Obama's contention.

The study concludes: "This study of ACORN reveals the agenda‐setting effect of the news (the news tells us what to think about), and news framing (the news tells us how to think about it). These two phenomena vaulted poorly‐verified stories into the news agenda, and created narratives of a national voter fraud scandal and conspiracy from what were essentially localized problems of workers registering voters and of ACORN flagging examples ofquestionable applications to the appropriate officials, as required by law. Of course,those kinds of stories and narrative framing didn’t make it into the news media all by themselves. Conservative opinion entrepreneurs, along with the Republican Party, maintained a steady barrage of words and images to get their anti‐ACORN ideas into the media and influence the agenda‐setting and news‐framing activities of the media."

This study is a sad commentary on the state of the media. It proves that a right wing radical agenda can be implemented through the use of their own media tools like Fox News and Limbaugh, and then by repeating the attacks regardless of factual basis can push them not only into the mainstream media, but have them echoed by candidates for President and now resulting in legislation from Congress.

Have we forgotten the horrors of the McCarthy era so quickly? How long will we let Rush Limbaugh and the Rupert Murdoch media empire hijack the media, and now Congress with distortions and outright lies.

source: http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/acornstudy/

More Fox News/Limbaugh inspired violence?

2009-09-24T09:26:00.003-04:00

On September 12th in Clay County Kentucky a 51 year old man suffering from non hotchkins lymphoma was found hanged from a tree in the Daniel Boone National Forest. What has this to do with Faux News and Limbaugh? This man was a part time Census worker, a Federal employee doing federal business. In addition reports from the Associated Press state that the word "FED" was scrawled on his chest.

The investigation is in its early stages, but it is hard not to see the tie between the hate and anti government rhetoric from Faux News and Rush Limbaugh and violence such as this. They claim they are "Americans" yet they inspire hate, violence and incidents such as this.

It is already well known that these irresponsible media types have inspired the deaths of a doctor, the attack on the Holocaust Museum, which resulted in the death of a security guard, and the shooting of 3 police officers in Pittsburgh. How much violence will this country suffer from the hate spilled on the airways by these traitors?

OH 07: Steve Austria taking his marching orders from party boss Glenn Beck

2009-09-23T13:59:00.003-04:00

Not a big surprise but despite thousands losing insurance every day, thousands going bankrupt due to medical expenses, almost 9000 losing their lives due to lack of insurance Austria's non issue of the month is Czars.

Despite the fact that "Czar" is a media made up title of Administration Staff that is simply a short cut for their long actual titles. Despite the fact that there have been "czars" for decades. Despite the fact George W. Bush appointed more such employees then President Obama. Steve Austria has decided that is the most important issue of the month on his newsletter.

Apparently when Glenn Beck makes up a fake issue that takes precedence over war, poverty, unemployment and health care. Steve Austria rather then speaking on these important issues he writes about and cosponsors legislation about "Czars"

Steve Austria once again has proven he is simply a right wing puppet of whoever is pulling the strings. Sometimes John Boehner who has often been seen speaking in the foreground and Austria stands behind him nodding his head up and down like a bobbled head doll or more recently his lock step actions based on made up stories by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

Some congressional districts have congressmen that represent their interests, unfortunately we in the 7th District have no such representative.

The Whig party was once a powerful political force, in this nation, they became irrelevent and replaced, what will replace the Republican party? - Fundamental Truths

RepubLIEcans stall as Americans Die

2009-09-22T14:01:00.003-04:00

#hc09 This morning the RepubLIEcans on the Senate Finance Committee like Chuck Grassley spent little time offering actual solutions to health care issues but instead trying to stall the legislation from moving forward.

Apparently 40 years trying to get health care reform is not long enough for them, perhaps being the last industrialized country in the world to provide health care for all its citizens isn't enough.

The original House Bill on health care reform was introduced July 16th. Since then, 994,000 Americans have lost their insurance. 141,858 have gone bankrupt due to medical expenses and worst of all 8743 have died due to lack of insurance. Twice the number of soldiers lost in Iraq and almost 3 times the number killed on 9/11. So RepubLIEcans how long must Americans wait while you obstruct and stall Health Care Reform, How many must die before the needs of Americans take precedence over political games and insurance company profits.

How hopeless is the Federal Deficit?

2009-09-21T15:00:00.006-04:00

The projected deficit for this year is 1.85 trillion dollars. No doubt a staggering amount and if you listen to the right its an Obama created disaster that there is no hope of getting out of. But is it?

First of all lets look at the 8 years of the Bush Administration. When Bush came into office the federal budget had a surplus of 236 Billion dollars. 8 years later a deficit of 700 billion dollars, a net loss of 936.2 Billion dollars. The net loss so far in the Obama Administration is about 97% not the 300 and 400% numbers people on the right keep claiming.

Yet this is a huge number. Is there any hope of getting out of it? History clearly shows us the answer is yes. The current years deficit is 12.93% of the nations GDP, sounds high. Yet in 1943 it was 28.05% of GDP, in 1944 it was 22.35% and 1945, 24.06%. Think about almost 1/4 of our nations economy was federal debt.

So how long did it take to get out of that? Amazingly not long. Only 2 years later in 1947 there was a surplus. In fact in the 11 years from 1947-1957 we had a surplus 7 out of 11 years.

Oh and for the record it was a Democrat, Harry S. Truman that took our country from the largest deficit as a percentage of GDP to a surplus. And the last surplus was once again under the leadership of a Democrat Bill Clinton.

Lets look at Congress, during the 8 years of the Truman Presidency and the taking of our federal budget from massive deficits to a surplus, 6 of those 8 years it was a Democratic Controlled Congress. The 8 years of Clinton's 6 of the 8 were Republicans. So in short Congress is 50/50 historically.

The point is when Republicans try to label the Democrats as the tax and spend party, and they the fiscally conservative party, history doesn't back them up. Barack Obama has pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Though it sounds impossible, it has been done before and yes by a Democrat.

source: Deficit as a % of GDP

Value Voters? Racism is now a value?

2009-09-20T15:03:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure what values they are talking about. The Bible I read is for helping the poor, feeding the hungry and healing the sick. Yet this group proceeds to preach against our country doing all of the above.

One thing that I am quite sure is not a christian value is racism and hate. This group is clearly not reading the same bible I am.

Here is a United States Congressman Roy Blunt telling racist monkey jokes at the "Values Summit"

Next McCarthyism Victim Hits Back

2009-09-18T16:43:00.003-04:00

For weeks now it has been evident that SEIU is the next target of the smears, lies and disinformation machine of the McCarthy right wing conspiracy of the Rupert Murdoch empire, Rush Limbaugh and Clear Channel Radio. Since this is the triad that runs the RepubLIEcan party, it is of no doubt soon RepubLIEcans in the House and Senate will soon be echoing their false charges. Will this lead to Democrats being complicit in this conspiracy as they were with ACORN? We shall see. But SEIU is not taking this lying down and they are striking back.

Working Women and Men Will Not Be Silenced by Right Wing Attack Dogs; We Will Win the Change America Needs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Published September 18, 2009 1:33 PM
Michelle Ringuette: (202) 341-7057

Statement of Andy Stern, President of SEIU

WASHINGTON DC--Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union, issued the following statement today regarding recent attempts of right wing extremists to silence working families by attacking progressive individuals and community organizations:

"This is a moment of profound change for this country--from kitchen tables to town halls to the floor of the Senate, this nation is engaged in a vigorous and heated debate about how we rebuild our economy, solve our national healthcare crisis and restore the American Dream.

"As has always happened when progressive change is in the air, the backlash gets fierce, ugly and anti-American. This time is no different. Right now, there is an insidious and coordinated effort on the part of the extreme right to target individuals and grassroots community groups as a way to silence the voices of women and men who have suffered the most under 8 years of right wing policies.

"These extremists will attempt to shut down and shout down anyone with a different point of view.

"Let's be clear who we are talking about--call them attack dogs, call them Teabaggers, call them Glenn Beck--these are the same folks who cheered the policies that crashed our economy. Who make up lies about death panels to try to kill healthcare reform. Who scream about democracy while denying workers a voice on the job. Who target anyone who poses a threat to a status quo that for too long has rewarded greedy CEOs while leaving people who work out in the cold.

"This is not the America we believe in.

"Their lies, their stunts and their smears will not silence us. Glenn Beck, FOX News and their pals have demonstrated that they don't care about what janitors, security officers, nurses, teachers, and other hardworking Americans go through each day trying to give their kids a better future. But make no mistake--these hardworking women and men will not be the next casualty of the cruel and cheap attempts of a loud and venomous minority to silence people who want to restore the American Dream.

"We are going to make sure healthcare is affordable and accessible for every man, woman and child in this country. We are going to demand transparency and accountability in the financial industry. We are going to create a fair and just path to citizenship. We are going to make sure workers get a voice on the job. And we will protect our democracy by calling out those extremists who would silence the voices of women and men who work each day."

The Service Employees International Union is an organization of 2.1 million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide. SEIU is dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society.

Calling out a Traitor

2009-09-18T15:42:00.004-04:00

Treason: –noun
1. the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
2. a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.
3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.

Fact: President Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in a landslide.

Fact: In a vast majority of Congressional Districts and a Majority of States, the voters removed Republicans from office and replaced with Democrats.

Fact: A vast majority of Americans want Health Care Reform

Fact: A majority of Americans want a public option.

With all these facts some leaders in our nation are moving forward based on what the majority of voters in the United States clearly want.

So what can those in the minority in public opinion do? In a peaceful democracy, they continue to express their opinions, write their representatives and demonstrate peaceably if they choose.

What is not legal in this country is to threaten violence, overthrow of the Government for which Americans have fought and died for 2 centuries.

It is not legal to incite people to violence. Or to advocate rebellion against our government. It is in fact the very definition of Un-American, it is treason.

Treason as evidenced by this quote:

"We are in the middle of a modern-day political rebellion in America."

Was this a quote from Benedict Arnold, a Confederate sympathiser before the civil war, or Lee Harvey Oswald? No this was a quote from the current Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, John Boehner.

Boehner a man who took the following oath of office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. "

By encouraging rebellion against the Government of the United States, John Boehner has violated his oath of office and has committed treason. He should resign or be removed from office immediately.

Clear Racisim

2009-09-17T17:19:00.001-04:00

There is no denying the evidence in this clip.

source: mediamatters.org, msnbc

Demand Investigations of Fed Funds going to Right Wing Advocacy Groups

2009-09-17T16:51:00.004-04:00

Since the Congress had decided to cut off funds based on a Faux News witch hunt to one organization it is time to clear the table and look into all advocacy groups that have received federal funds in the last 8 years.

They should be investigated to determine if improper political favors or religious uses of these government funds occurred.

The following groups should be looked into by the Attorney General:

The Compassion Capital Fund
The Institute for Youth Development
Esperanza USA
Pentecostal Bishop Sedgwick Daniels's Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God
GEO Foundation
Black Alliance for Educational Options.

All received millions in federal funds and all have suspicious right wing ties.

Contact your Congressman or Senators office to demand investigations.

Who Leads the RepubLIEcan party

2009-09-17T15:11:00.006-04:00

#czars
At the beginning of the year it was noted somewhat tongue in cheek that Rush Limbaugh was the actual leader of the RepubLIEcan party. As time has gone on it has become more and more clear that is actually true. Perhaps its not Rush alone but more a conspiracy of hate mongers including Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, etc.

Just look at the last month. When the hate gang talks "death panels," within days you hear it from Sarah Palin and various RepubLIEcan Congressman and Senators in town halls. When they lie about coverage of illegal immigrants not only do Congressmen and Senators repeat the lie one has the audacity to yell the lie at the President of the United States.

Yesterday President Jimmy Carter pointed out a serious and clear hint of racism that is very evident in some of the speech and signs on right wing radio, television and rallies. Immediately the hate conspiracy attacks Carter claiming he was saying all opposition to health care was racist and in lock step Michael Steele Chief of the RepubLIEcans echos their disinformation.

They have been attacking ACORN on a witch hunt that is right out of the McCarthy era. And days later the Senate votes to cut off funding. What is most concerning about this is that they convinced Democrats like Sherrod Brown to go along on this racist action.

Now for weeks the conspiracy of hate has been planting this convoluted bizarre crap about Czars. It's the stupidest attack as of yet. Regardless of the fact the term "czar" is an informal media term defining some executive branch appointees, that has been around for decades and in fact, Bush appointed 47 such employees 10 more then Barack Obama. However sure enough today on the Senate Floor RepubLIEcans are speaking the words of Beck and Limbaugh as ordered claiming some fake conspiracy instead of doing actual work on behalf of the American People.

So I'm going to revise my often used quote that I end many posts with just for this day.

"Why does the right always lie? Because Rush and Faux News tells them to."

Sen Baucus Pays off Big Insurance

2009-09-17T08:41:00.002-04:00

#hc09
Senator Max Baucus yesterday did more to attempt to scuttle health care reform then any Republican has done so far and he is supposedly a Democrat. After stalling and delaying in the name of bi-partisanship he announced Max's Health Care Reform Bill yesterday. It was rather surprising at first that the he alone appeared at the press conference. Then as you read the bill as put on his web site it is referred to in many places as Max's bill. Now one may think of this as self promoting behavior, but after actually reading the proposal its clear that no other Senator would have anything to do with such legislation.

Not only does it have very little insurance reform in it at all. It provides for now public option or controlling of costs. The major positive is that it actually cuts the deficit. But how? It does so with Max's Tax that basically attempts to bankrupt the middle class with penalties directly from our paychecks and hands it over to the insurance industry.

Using the formulas in the actual proposed bill, I calculate that my personal health care costs would double under this plan.

Why would a Democratic Senator propose such a bill? There are many theories not the least of which is that there is some relation to his actions and the 3 million in campaign donations he has received from health insurance corporations.

Is not a surprise that the stock of most of the major insurance companies went up yesterday after the announcement of Max's Tax Bill. It seems they got what they paid for.

This bill needs to be given the attention it deserves in the nearest incinerator. Hopefully Senators like Jay Rockefeller and Sherrod Brown will fight to give Americans real health reform that helps middle class taxpayers instead of bloating the insurance companies profits even more.

Faux News BURNED in smear attempt

2009-09-16T13:44:00.005-04:00

Faux News in its ongoing racist attack on ACORN was burned in another attempted sting of an ACORN employee. She recognized the fools with the hidden camera and decided to mess with them. They bought it hook, line and sinker.

By the way her ex husbands are very much alive and well.

Top 5 biggest Faux News Lies of the week.

5 Acorn emplyoyee Murdered Husband
4 2 million at DC protest, was actully 70,000.
3 Health Care Reform covers illegal immigrants
2 They are Fair and Balanced
1 They are a News channel

source: mediamatters.org

Is it about race?

2009-09-16T09:40:00.003-04:00

To try to lump the motives of those behind the poisonous political climate into one package would be wrong and simplistic. It would be as incorrect as the right is when claiming the teabaggers represent a majority of Americans views. From my own experiences working and living in Central and Southeastern Ohio, and my experiences from the actual campaign, I have seen a number of themes behind opposition to President Obama.

Like in the Clinton years, there is this talk radio led trashing of anyone that is a successful democrat that happens regardless of the race of the office holder. Have we forgotten the accusations of the Clinton's being behind everything from fraudulent real estate deals to even accusations of murder? I can remember hearing Rush Limbaugh calling the First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton at the time all kinds of things including a bitch on the public airways. This kind of total lack of respect and irresponsible rude behavior continues with the Obama Presidency.

There are those that actually do have real political disagreements with policies. Concerns about taxes, spending, wars and so on. In no way is having a disagreement or criticizing policies race related.

Then there are the others where race is a factor. The night Barack Obama was elected there was such a groundswell of pride and good feeling among many Americans including myself. There were tears of joy, and pure happiness. But among others there was another reaction. Fear. There were those that deep down actually believe either a Black man is not capable of running the country, or that he will lead to some sort of discrimination against whites, or as one person said to me, "here comes all the give aways to blacks now."

The scary part of this is many of these racists don't even know they are. There have been dozens of times that I have had conversations with people about Obama's policies that on the details of the policy they were in agreement, but often the conversation would end with, "But there is something about him I don't trust."

There are many out there that nothing he could do, nothing he could say would they listen to. These are the ones that fall prey to the ridiculous rumors of his birth certificate, his religion and so on. We laugh at times thinking how can they be so stupid. Yet the concerning thing is, they believe these lies because they need to find a reason for their dislike of him other then admitting racism. So they will bite on anything.

There are of course the overt racists at work as well. They see a change they do not like. They know they are losing the hearts and minds of the majority of the American People. But those in control do not give it up easily. So thus the violent words, the hate talk and so on that is so evident on our televisions every night. This explains the growth of hate groups throughout the country, people arming themselves against government headed by a black President, and most concerning it explains the incredible number of death threats against our President. The talk of secession is absolutely racist, when was that last time that was threatened? Over slavery.

What angers me the most is those that are using this racism to promote their own agendas. Limbaugh, Glenn Beck say and do things overtly racist. Beck's attacks on Acorn are blatantly racist. Lou Dobbs using the fear of "illegal Immigrants" to push his books and ratings. Last night he showed a white kid getting beat up on a school bus by a couple black kids on his news show. How many fights are there in schools and school buses every single day in this country? What was his purpose in showing that one, last night. it was for no other purpose other then to stoke racial fear.

Is the climate out there right now all about racism? No, but to deny that it has nothing to do with racism is clearly wrong and dangerous to ignore.

73% of Physicians support Public Option

2009-09-15T11:56:00.004-04:00

#hc09-Though the American Medical Association has long been on board supporting Health Care Reform, RepubLIEcans like John Boehner have questioned how many doctors this organization actually represents. He in fact stated that he has not yet met a doctor for health care reform. Apparently Boehner hasn't talked to many doctors.

It is true the the AMA only represents only about 30% of doctors these days, however a new survey by the non partisan and very influential New England Journal of Medicine shows that 73% of doctors favor a public option, In fact 10% favor a complete government takeover of health insurance.

Quite clearly those that deal with the issue every day doctors, know the severe problems with our current system. They are also quite familiar with government run health care through their current experiences with Medicare and Medicaid. To Doctors the only thing worse then dealing with Government on insurance issues is dealing with the Insurance Companies.

source: New England Journal Medicine Survey

The Demonization of ACORN

2009-09-15T11:02:00.005-04:00

In a country where corporate interests spend millions to buy our government to protect their profits and influence, one organization has been very successful to represent and assist those of little influence, low income African American and Latino Voters. That organization is ACORN.

These corporate interests including News Corp has spent a unbelievable amount of resources and time attacking this organization which is simply a group of Community Service Organizations.

What is this groups sin to these people? They help minorities. They do so in many ways, helping them get jobs, find housing, prevent foreclosures, provide free tax assistance, and register them to vote.

The racist undertow in these attacks is quite obvious, these people simply do not want minorities to vote or to have any power. They remain angry that an African American was elected President.

So they continue to set up sting after sting until they can find one out of the thousands of ACORN volunteers or employees making a mistake. They edit and distort the video to make the mistake much worse then it is. For example Faux News and Terrorist agitator Glenn Beck have used such a video to convert a tax question about prostitution into implications of a sex slavery ring.

There has not been such racist demonization of minority activists since the death of Martin Luther King Jr. It is a shame that there are still those people and organizations like Faux News that wish to eliminate decades of improvements in race relations in our nation.

The Bush Economic Disaster One Year Later

2009-09-14T14:08:00.005-04:00

Perhaps it is a little unfair to George W. Bush to name it that, perhaps a more accurate term would be the Reagan/Bush Economic Disaster. Though the damage all came to a head this day one year ago, it was set in place by the bill of goods sold to the American People by smooth talking right wing pitch man Ronald Reagan in 1980. Reaganomics once refereed to as "voodoo economics" by George H. W. Bush was put in place that eventually lead to the disaster of last year.

The Republicans sold the American people on a concept that if you take away all regulations, all responsibility and all oversight, the market will protect us naturally. That if you make the rich wealthier, the benefits will trickle down to the rest of the nation. What happened instead is the rich did indeed get richer. Meanwhile the numbers of the poor increased, and the middle class shrunk. For the first time in our nations history average incomes went down yet the wealth of he nation was concentrated in fewer and fewer people's pockets. To further complete the redistribution of wealth, those who's greed and irresponsible behavior got rich, also were given tax breaks. The burden increased again on the poor and middle class.

Then came George W. Bush. Not only did he continue the Reaganomics policies but added to them. He passed laws to protect credit card companies from its own customers allowing them unfettered control over interest rates, fees and collections. The Bush Administration then took away the teeth of the bankruptcy protection laws making it harder for the middle class who came upon hard times to recover. Then the death blow, George W Bush and a Republican Congress for 6 out of his 8 years in office took our budget from a surplus to a 17 trillion deficit. Throwing away money on a war of choice, and more tax cuts for the wealthy again leaving 95% of Americans behind.

Jobs left, opportunity left, false wealth exploded, risk exploded, oversight and regulation was non existent. And as always happens sooner or later when irresponsible behavior rules it came time to pay the piper. So one year ago that was clearly evident to all with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

So what has happened in the year since. Well good news and bad news. George W. Bush is out of office and our new President Barack Obama, took quick and decisive action to stop the bleeding. Many banks were saved, The stock market had recovered 50% of its losses since last September. The amount of job loss has been reduced. An auto industry who's collapse would have cost millions more jobs was averted. Home sales are up, home values are up. Cash for Clunkers gave a huge shot in the arm to the auto industry. Finally the middle class got a tax cut.

But now the bad news. The lack of rules and oversight left over from the Reagan/Bush economic voodoo has not been corrected. Though we put some oil in the car to prevent the blowing of the engine at the last minute, we continue to drive and treat the engine the same way which will lead to another disaster sooner or later. No new regulations have been implemented, no major change in oversight, and the wealth is even more consolidated then before. In fact 3 of every $10 invested in banks or securities in this nation are held in one of 4 very large, very risky institutions.

President Obama has worked miracles to stop the bleeding, his successes have saved our nation's and the world's economy for now. But for long term growth and security we must fix the damage done by Reaganomics. With new laws, new restrictions, new limits and new oversight to once again force responsible behavior to protect our nation from unfettered greed.

Dear God what does this mean? #Sept 11

2009-09-11T17:10:00.003-04:00

We watched in confusion at the screen as smoke and flames poured out of one of the mighty structures. Wondering what, where, who and why this had just happened. Then We felt the collective gasp of the world as another plane struck.

Dear God what does this mean?

We forgot about everything our days were to be. We fixed our eyes on the images as they rushed into our living rooms slower only to the thoughts racing through our minds We stood there frozen in place, physically and mentally. How could this happen? Who would do this? Why?

Dear God what does this mean?

As we began to breath and try to pull ourselves together, moving toward the door to get to our lives, the horror of realizing it was not over, as the most powerful fortress ever conceived by man was ruptured with force and flame.

Dear God what does this mean?

Now it was fear that gripped us. How many? Where? Are we in danger? Where is my family? Where are my friends? We got on the phones or tried. We took inventory of our loved ones; we listened or watched every piece of news when we could where we could. Was this real, or something far away? I looked up to a sound to see two fighter jets fly over my city. My eyes met with the man’s eyes next to me who had also seen the jets. We said nothing with our lips but our eyes said the same thing.

Dear God what does this mean?

We became aware of the words to the loved ones of those on the plane still in the air. They expressed their love, their fear and their bravery. The words “Lets roll” as they gave their lives to save others. The sadness at the knowledge their lives ended in the field in Pennsylvania.

Dear God what does this mean?

As we watched in shock and horror as the towers fell. The fear in the eyes peering from the ash covered faces. Our own fear turned to desire to help, to pray, to find something anything we could do to help those people and their families.

Dear God what does this mean?

We felt the anger as it was clear who was responsible. This far away Man in this far away place expressing his hate for us. We don’t know him, he doesn’t know us. We as a nation were one; the vast majority of the world was one. There was resolve. There was determination. There would be justice; no one does this to us, to anyone. He will pay. They will pay.

Dear God what does this mean?

Our military with speed and power moved in response, our enemies and their supporters died were captured or fled. In such a far away place, in a far away culture our soldiers moved to seek justice. To right the wrong, to prevent it again, to ease our anger, to ease our fear. But is that possible?

Dear God what does this mean?

Eight years have now passed. We watch the families grieve for the ones they lost. We hear the bell toll the times of each act of tragedy. We think of how we thought the world would change, but did it? We have heard the numbers 9-11 used for many things on almost every day since. For reasons that make sense and many that do not. The unity of the country and the world is no longer evident. Fingers point as to who is at fault and who isn’t. We see the far away men from that far away place and now some not so far away tell us of their hate and how we should fear.

Dear God what does this mean?

Today we pray for those that were lost, for their families and their friends. We pray for the children whose memory of their parent is based more on a photograph then recollection. We pray for the city that still hurts in many ways. We pray for the soldiers that still fight for us and for them.

Dear God is this what it means?

Our prayers must continue for the nations with power and wealth that they use it for right. For those in the world that feel oppressed that they may feel enabled. For the poor that they might find comfort. For the hungry that they may find nourishment. For those that hate, that they may find love. For those that believe lies that they find the truth. For those that are ignorant that they find wisdom. For those that truly seek to serve their God that they understand truly his will. And most of all for Peace for us, for the Middle East, for this entire world.

Dear God please let this be what it means.

Joe Wilson Continues to Lie

2009-09-11T16:23:00.006-04:00

Loudmouth Classless Congressman Joe Wilson continues to propagate lies about health care reform. In a video where he is now seeking donations claiming he is somehow a victim for being a rude buffoon in the Congressional Chambers the other night, he says he will not be silenced. Apparently he plans to continue to propagate his lie that illegals will be covered by Health Care Reform.

"On these issues, I will not be muzzled. I will speak up, and speak loudly, against this risky plan," Wilson proclaims. "The supporters of the government takeover of health care, and the liberals who want to give health care to illegals, are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly-conceived plan. they want to silence anyone who speaks out against it. They made it clear they want to defeat me, and pass the plan."

He goes on to threaten that Health Care Reform will kill people.

"Health care is a matter of life and death for so many," he later adds. "I choose life, with health-insurance reform."

Oh and by the way Joe Wilson is also a hypocrite as well since he voted to spend federal money to cover health costs for illegal aliens in 2003. He voted for the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act. This legislation had a section 1011 which authorized $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants. (source: opencongress.org)

So why does he lie so passionatly about health care reform? Well a quick glance at his list of campaign donors from Hospitals, Health Care and Insurance Companies may have something to do with it.

Our country has had many great leaders over its 200 plus years, the batch of RepubLIEcans now in congress is an embarrassment to the legacy of their party and our nation. As long as people like Joe Wilson are the face and voice of the Republican Party, The majority of Americans will continue to reject them.

Why does the right always resort to lies? Because when they debate based on facts, they lose. - Fundamental Truths

Today's Biggest Terrorist Threat

2009-09-11T14:21:00.005-04:00

There is a man that like Osama Bin Laden routinely issues both video and audio statement's that attack the government of the United States with lies and distortions. These statements rarely based in fact serve one purpose to fire up the radicals that listen.

This same man promotes and attends gatherings of such radicals that are sponsored by groups that advocate the arming of its members to prepare for an overthrow of the Government of the United States of America.

This man and others in his networks have already inspired attacks against the United States that have resulted in the murder of one doctor, the shooting of 3 police officers in Pittsburgh and an attack and murder at the Holocaust Museum.

Their followers have been seen brandishing weapons at town halls and events where our elected leaders are present.

The Networks he uses do not go by some Arabic name but in fact very English sounding names. Those being Fox News Channel and Clear Channel Radio.

His name is also not Arabic in fact he isn't a Muslim at all.

The biggest terrorist leader threatening our country this very moment is:

Glenn Beck

They can't stop lieing

2009-09-10T21:04:00.003-04:00

All day while defending the classless buffoon Joe Wilson of South Carolina for insulting his nation and their elected President by shouting out "You Lie" the repubLIEcans continued to claim the President did lie. Which is a LIE!!

The words the President said were that this bill will not cover illegal immigrants. Today John Boehner among others stated that it would.

Here is the actual text from House Bill 3200.

H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Look it up Congressmen it is there in black and white. The thing is you know damn well it is. But you continue to lie.

First it was killing old people, then killing babies, now its helping brown people, what is next perhaps it will enable gay sex?

Why does the right always lie, because when they debate based on the facts, they lose.-Fundamental Truths

GOP preys on Seniors

2009-09-10T09:27:00.003-04:00

The party of lies and the party of fear has now chosen to prey on Senior Citizens. They have put out a "Seniors Bill of Rights" in op eds and television commercials by disgraced GOP chairman Micheal Steele that is nothing more then false implications and fear mongering aimed at Senior Citizens.

It states they are against certain things that implies that the President's Health Care reform proposals are for. This is an out right lie.

Here are some of the statements in the "Seniors Bill of Rights"

Protect Medicare not cut it. Let me get this straight, the party that voted against medicare that complains about costs and the deficient is opposed to cutting waste and fraud in the program? No one is proposing cutting benefits to Medicare. They are for cutting costs, and give aways to insurance companies that do nothing for Seniors. In fact under Obama's plan benefits will increase. Namely narrowing the donut hole that costs seniors thousands of dollars in the existing plan on prescriptions.

Prohibit Government from getting between Seniors and their doctors. Who is proposing in any bill anywhere anything else? This is a complete scare tactic that has no basis in any truth whatsoever.

Prohibiting efforts to ration health care based on age. Efforts by who? NO ONE IS PROPOSING THIS!!! Total Fear mongering.

Preventing government from interfering in end of life discussions. Unbelievably this is the Death Panel lie again. The ONLY mention of end of life discussions is it would allow any public plan to pay for the counseling if a patient chooses. There is NO government interfering in such discussion.

Insure Seniors can keep their current coverage. Are they deaf? EVERYONE can keep their current coverage under EVERY plan currently proposed.

You know when you hear about fraud going on in your town its upsetting but when those that commit such crimes prey on Senior citizens it is particularly disgusting. It is clear such fraud directed at Seniors is what the GOP is now resorting to.

Do NOT forget the AARP is working for health care reform. For goodness sakes would they support reforms that hurt seniors?

It is time to protect our Senior Citizens from being scared by Republican Lies. Call them out on it each and every time.

Why does the right always resort to lies? Because when they debate based on facts, they always lose. = Fundamental Truths

GOP Health Care Lie: British don't like their health care

2009-09-09T13:19:00.004-04:00

This is a lie that is repeated over and over again by the GOP now for months if not years. I heard Senator Kay Bailey-Hutchison repeat it today on MSNBC. The fact is its not true. In almost every national opinion poll in the 50 years of the British National Health Service it gets between and 80-90% approval from the British Citizens.

Like all big programs clearly it is not perfect but they want to improve what they have not scrap it. In fact a recent poll showed that 88% of English were strongly opposed to an American style Health System. Why would they? Their health system is ranked 18th in the world by the World Health Organization, the United States 37th. Then they try to scare you with stories of people dying from being denied Government Health care in Britain. Oh really? The Life expectancy in the United Kingdom is 25th in the world, the United States? 35th.

This is a lie the repubLIEcans have repeated often and frankly have annoyed the citizens of Britain and Canada. Yet no one is calling them out on it. Till now.

"Why does the right always lie, because when they debate based on facts, they lose." Fundamental Truths

Why They Freaked over the School Speech

2009-09-09T08:16:00.004-04:00

The President of the United States yesterday gave a speech to the school children of American that had a message that very few could disagree with. Yet before it many on the right made absolute fools of themselves freaking out over the prospect. Now that the speech has been given many wonder why such a reaction.

Back in 1980 I was a student at Ohio State, I recall a college professor who was a child of the 60's express shock, dismay and frustration that the youth were rallying around Ronald Reagan. The hearts and minds of the youth had changed from their parents. It was unsettling to him and others of his generation.

Fast forward to 2008. While working on the campaign, I was contacting people who had signed up to volunteer and on more then one occasion attempted to reach a college age student who was at that time living at their parents home. When I told them why I was calling for their child, they were angered, not only at my call but at their child. This parent a child of the "me" generation inspired by Reagan was shocked, dismayed and frustrated that their offspring could possibly think differently then they.

On election night I got a call from my 22 year old daughter, who had shown as much interest in politics as I do in basket weaving. She said to me, this is "our" President dad, my generations, we wanted him, we got him.

The youth of today do not think like their parents. They cheered at speeches about doing community service. They got motivated on this last election, and something that rarely happens, they voted. They do not have the same beliefs of the "me" generation, and most of all they do not have the same beliefs about race we do.

The reason they freaked over the speech yesterday is the youth of America are inspired by Barack Obama. It scares the parents to death.

Wake up Congress 77% want Public Option

2009-09-08T14:56:00.004-04:00

Despite the media coverage that has focused on the loudest if not the smartest town hall participants, once again a poll has found that a significant majority of Americans want a public option in health care reform.

The Survey USA polls shows 58% of American voters find the public option extremely important and another 19% find it quite important. that is 77% an overwhelming majority of voters who recognize a national need for a real public option in health care reform.

The United States is a representative republic we elect our Congressmen and Senators to vote in the best interest of its citizens. We elect them to get the facts and understand the background on every vote they make. What has been screamed at them at town halls is not fact, it is either misunderstandings or outright planned lies set out by those who will do anything to prevent Obama from succeeding despite what is best for the nation.

There were similar voices against civil rights reform, social security, and medicare. Yet those that voted for those things are heroes in American History. This is the chance for those in the Congress and Senate to once again be heroes.

The message we need to send to Zack Space, Steve Austria, Sherrod Brown and George Voinivich is: Doing nothing never goes down in history, achieving results does.

source: Survey USA poll

OH 07: Austria Lies and Belittles at Town Hall

2009-09-05T07:27:00.004-04:00

Steve Austria finally held a town hall yesterday in Washington Courthouse on Health Care reform. As we are getting used to with him he couldn't managed to avoid lies. He said "very, very concerned about a complete government take over of our health care system." No one is proposing a government takeover of the health care system yet he and the RepLIEcans can't help themselves in repeating that mantra.

He then went on to belittle the 40 Million Americans who don't have health care insurance: " If you look at who the uninsured are right now, there's a portion that are, quite frankly, illegal immigrants. Another portion is employees of employers who decided not to take it. Then there are those who are uninsured, who through no fault of their own, are not insured. We ought to be focused on helping these individuals." So if their employer offers a bad health care plan they can't afford, its their fault for not signing up for it Austria?

Austria also said his office was flooded with calls and e-mails from Ohioans opposed to government run health care. Of course they are because those for Health Care Reform know your a lost cause of a republican partisan tool and not worth the call.

Perhaps we should change that. We won't get his vote but we sure can light up his phone lines. Call his Springfield Office at 937-325-9188 or e-mail him at austria.house.gov. Let him know we want, no we need Health Care Reform not partisan lies.

OH 18: GOP Candidates Appear at Extremist Rally

2009-09-04T08:18:00.004-04:00

3 candidates for Congress in the 18th district yesterday appeared at a rally organized by Dave Daubenmire the Extremist who I reported yesterday is calling for the Violent Overthrow of the United States Government.

Fred Dailey of Mount Vernon, Jeanette Moll of Zanesville and Beau Bromberg of Newark all spoke at a Zanesville Rally at 6 pm. The very same day the organizer Daubenmire called for the violent overthrow of the government in his blog.

In a piece on his Salt of Life Ministries Blog on www.newswithviews.com Daubenmire said: "When the black-robed Taliban ruled that the government had the right to seize private property we should have stormed the Supreme Court and cleaned off the bench. It was our duty.

Every time it was discovered that one of our elected officials lied to the people they should have been tarred, feathered, and hung in the public square. It was our duty."

He goes on to say: "Sounds radical, eh? Well how about what these boys said. “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

The right liked to try to attempt to tie Barack Obama through very loose acquaintances with terrorists. Yet here at an actual rally organized by an extremist calling for violence against our government these Republican Candidates not only were there but were featured speakers.

"Christian" Daubenmire Calls for Violence

2009-09-03T13:35:00.005-04:00

Dave Daubenmire the self promoting wack job grandstanding with his vigil in front of Zack Space's Office in Zanesville, is clearly getting frustrated that his moment of fame is waning.

First he has decided to call his own "town hall" to grandstand and get more media attention from those that have gotten bored with him and giving him no coverage for days. But today in the name of "Christian Values" he has posted on his web site a call to violence against the Supreme Court and Elected Officials in a piece entitled "It is our Duty"

"When the black-robed Taliban ruled that the government had the right to seize private property we should have stormed the Supreme Court and cleaned off the bench. It was our duty.

Every time it was discovered that one of our elected officials lied to the people they should have been tarred, feathered, and hung in the public square. It was our duty."

He goes on to say: "Sounds radical, eh? Well how about what these boys said. “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

This man is an insult to all Christians. He in fact is also not an American. He is advocating violence and an uprising against the Government of the United States. He should be arrested and removed from the public streets of Zanesville as a threat to public safety and an enemy of the country some of us love. People actually let this man coach their kids, that is just sick.

Source: His Call to Violence

OH 18: Jeanette Moll shows Troops Are not Important to her

2009-09-03T10:18:00.004-04:00

In a press release yesterday candidate for the 18th Congressional District in Ohio, Jeanette Moll made it clear that concern about our troops and the real serious issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan are not important. In fact she claims Zack Space should instead listen to wacko Tea Party screamers like she has been listening to rather then checking on our troops in harms way.

She said this about Space's Trip to Afghanistan: "While other members of congress held town halls, Zack Space got as far away from you as he could get."

Thank goodness we have leaders in Congress that are dealing with real issues and showing concern about our troops over playing political games like Moll clearly does.

Jeanette spend all your time hanging out with nut job Coach Dave like you did yesterday or at another "tea Party" protest in Zoar this weekend who I still can't figure out why they are protesting the fact that 95% of Americans taxes were lowered this year? Meanwhile our Congressman will be working on real issues and supporting our troops.

OH 18: Who Moll Follows

2009-09-01T09:14:00.004-04:00

Does who someone follows on twitter say much about them? In my opinion sometimes yes sometimes no. But if there is a clear pattern I think it can give you an insight on who someone gets their ideas and beliefs from.

Here are some of the people Candidate for the Ohio 18th Congressional District, Jeanette Moll follows:

The Tea Party Leaders- yes socialists are taking over!!

GlennBeckClips- The original Obama is a racist dude.

The Drudge Report - Well of course what self respecting RepubOILcan doesn't follow him.

Ann Coulter - who's one and only post to twitter was "Just signed up for twitter. Looks like a good place where I can bash Edwards and the fags without being caught. "

Ken Blackwell - Disgraced Republican Gubernatorial Candidate who's election fixing antics were legendary

Karl Rove - Blackwell's mentor in election stealing

Steve Austria - GOP puppet that speaks talking points on command. Oh wait, I follow him too but I'm guessing for way different reasons.

Fox News and Fox News Politics - We distort, you get lies.

That along with Michael Steele and Boehner and Kasich to get her talking points from.

Anyone see a pattern here? What does this say about Jeanette Moll? You Decide.

The Real Differences On Health Care

2009-09-01T07:09:00.004-04:00

If you take a step back out of the weeds of misinformation and partisan bickering the difference between the Democrats and Republicans on Health Care Reform is clear. Lets look at some of the issues.

The Republicans talk about things like tort reform, which protects the income of the medical providers. The reality is tort reform has been done in states like Minnesota and it had no effect on health care costs to the consumer. The Congressional Budget office estimates that tort reform could save perhaps 1%. So in short tort reform doesn't save consumers money, it only saves profits for providers.

They talk about government "takeover" which by the way no one is proposing, yet there is a public option being proposed. First off a public option is just that, an option. There are many examples of public vs private interests competing in our country. Fed EX, UPS vs the United States Postal Service, and a great example made by Senator Chuck Schumer yesterday, Public Universities vs Private Institutions. Both thrive in our nation, it increases choice, it provides lower cost options, yet no private institutions are threatened by State Universities. So why are Republicans against this, because it would have the effect of hurting the massive profits of the big insurance companies. They would have to compete, they would have to offer better and cheaper coverage.

The cost is another issue the Republicans like to scream about. Yet most Americans would not see one dime of a tax increase to pay for health care. Who would get a tax increase? The wealthy. Again Democrats on the side of middle class, Republicans protecting corporations and wealth.

Another talking point of the right is Government being between you and your Doctor. Again a false point, there are no death panels proposed, there is a long good track record of Medicare, and the VA to prove otherwise. So who are the Republicans protecting? Once again the people that are between you and your doctor now. The insurance companies. The problem is they are making decisions based on their profits, not the good of the patient. Between Government and Corporations, who is more likely to look out for the welfare of its citizens?

It is quite clear as you look at talking point by talking point, the Republicans seek to protect the wealthy and corporations and the Democrats are trying to save Americans from the crippling effects of debt and skyrocketing health care costs. In the last 10 years insurance costs have doubled. They are expected to double again in the next 7 years. Can you afford that, can medicare afford that? 1 out of every 3 bankruptcies in this country are related to health care bills. Are you next? Yet currently one out of every $700 spent on health care in this nation pays for the salary of one man, the CEO of United Health Group.

The Democrats Health Care Reform is to help you, The Republicans fight is to protect the wealth of the insurance companies. That is the clear difference. Everything else is just window dressing.

OH 18: YO Coach did you sleep through the town hall

2009-08-31T15:18:00.004-04:00

Congressman Zack Space held a Town hall meeting in Zanesville this morning yet, as I drove by his office self promoter Dave Daubenmire remain there plopped in his lawn chair protesting that he wanted a "town hall?"

Guess he missed it, enjoy the attention Dave, you sure are giving most of Zanesville a lot of laughs in the meantime.

OH 18: Jeanette Moll off to Embarrasing Start

2009-08-30T17:48:00.006-04:00

Mark McCutchan who had volunteered to be a Co Chairman for Moll's campaign against Zack Space in the 18th district, very publicly and with good reason resigned. Her campaign that is nothing more then old tired GOP talking points being spewed by another puppet, similar to Steve Austria in the 7th District, went too far for McCutchan to stay on.

Her position in line with the GOP on ignoring climate change in lieu of supporting Big Oil and the Coal Companies was too much for him to take. I don't know why this is a surprise to him as her website could be that of almost any right wing, gun toting, gay hating, religious right puppet you see nightly on Faux News.

One thing for sure she will get the NRA endorsement, probably Lou Dobb's too since she apparently has issues with immigrants as well.

From reading her website, it seems her primary qualifications are she has a concealed carry permit and really likes to shoot ducks. Must be really smart ducks.

Regardless, McCutchan made this announcement in a letter to the editor of the Chillicothe Gazette, ouch Moll. Way to start.

source: Chillicothe Gazette

We have not forgotten

2009-08-28T09:08:00.002-04:00

4 years later we still hear "justifications" for the lack of action by Bush and the Federal Government in Katrina. 4 years later though some progress has been made, it is woefully inadequate. 4 years later they still tell us how Bush kept us safe. 4 years later we have never fogotten or forgiven.

The following is my post from August 2006 on the first anniversary of Katrina.

We must never forget:

The sadness as we saw a city of great history and culture fall victim to the wrath of Katrina.

The frustration as Bush and other administration people patted each other on the back while our screens showed people begging for help with little results.

The anger as we watched people dying in the streets. Meanwhile the government that had based their existence on their ability to protect us, proved how inept they were.

The embarrassment as people around the world saw how our government was unable to protect its own.

The dismay as Bush still today makes unfulfilled promises sandwiching it in between deflecting blame.

Many have different ideas of what role government should play in our lives. But protecting its people has not ever been a role that has been debated. The Bush administration has proven they do not have the ability or will to perform this task.

We will never forget.

Good Old Georgia

2009-08-27T17:47:00.002-04:00

As we have watched as angry mobs shout lies and insults. We listen to them call people Nazi's, Hilter, Socialists and Communists. We have watched their implicent threats, and their brandishing weapons. Then we hear this justified as free speech.

But yesterday when a man objected to a astroturf tea party group blocking the sidewalk to his local post office in Brunswick, Georgia and expressed his opinion in opposition, he was told he needed a permit.

Source:

Tea Party Protest in Brunswick Results in Arrest

firstcoastnews.com

I guess only white right wingers are allowed free speech in Georgia.