Monthly Archives: August 2011

Just in case you missed it, Rep. Steve Stivers, Ohio 15th District, held a job fair today. Behind this deceptive facade is Stivers’ real attitude toward jobs, his consistent voting in Congress with the republic destroying Tea Party/Grand Oligarch Party. Stivers’ dog and pony show is a farce, except that it is not at all humorous. A costumed show it is, to disguise the Actor, but we can all see through the costumes to the real identity. Though his farce lacks humor, the joke is on anyone who believes Stivers!

Mr. Stivers, it is time for you to earn your salary and begin to vote to really represent and assist your constituents.

In his attempt to console the nation and comfort the families of the recently fallen 30 in Afghanistan, President Obama said: “We will draw inspiration from their lives, and continue the work of securing our country and standing up for the values they embodied.”
It is difficult to draw inspiration from their lives because I did not know a single one of them, or for that matter have I been personally acquainted with any fallen soldier since David Fisher lost his life in Vietnam decades ago. While I am sure that these latest dead did possess noble virtues in the lives they led, any possibility of seeing their virtuous dramas play on is now gone forever.

I was certain when David died as his post was attacked, that his death was not ignoble but certainly unnecessary. Subsequent analysis of the Vietnam War only serves to affirm my conviction that David died in vain, as did the 58,000+ of his comrades. I am no less certain now that these latest 30 have also died in vain, as have their fellow-fallen. Their deaths have accomplished nothing. We are as mired in Afghanistan’s tribal and civil conflict as we were when George W. Bush took his eyes off that prize to fix his attention on an oil prize, under the guise of a preemptive assault against some very elusive weapons of mass destruction.

It is no comfort to families or nation to keep on wasting lives and money on a conflict the outcome of which is almost certainly to follow the precedent of the defeat of the USSR in its attempt to put Afghanistan under its control. Lincoln could speak at Gettysburg about ‘these dead not having died in vain.’ What we seem to forget is that such words can be spoken in serious homage only when it is evident that something happened following their deaths that could be attributed to their sacrifice. Such homage can only be paid after a war and the restoration of civility and peace.

It is long past time to get out of Afghanistan and end our war there.

Well, the debt deal is a done deal. We can once more slip back into the everyday torpor we’ve been experiencing as life, ever since “W” was elected. The previous administration manipulated us into a cowering crowd of the confused who decided there was little or nothing that could be done about the direction into unnecessary war and astronomical debt Republicans were leading us. So apathy and citizen helplessness became normal.

Then came Hope in the person of the candidate with the strange sounding name who spoke a vision that encouraged and excited us to elect him as the first African-American President. If anyone could lead us as an earlier “I Have a Dream – We Shall Overcome” icon did, Obama could. Then came the Right Fringe of ‘birthers’ for whom a Black Man in the White House was the last straw. Knowing their ranting was ineffective in accomplishing the real goal, the dismantling of our progressive past since FDR and the establishment of the ‘Golden Rule’ {those with the gold make the rules), Tea Party pseudo-populists take over the Republican Party. With the help of right-wing ideologue, Grover Norquist, the Republican Party signs the pledge to betray our nation with the inane notion that the way to bring a nation out of near-depression and to create jobs is to reduce debt without additional revenue.

Instead of invoking the 14th Amendment’s clear authority that ‘the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned,’ President Obama tries to effect compromise and instead of reaching a balanced compromise, is arm-wrestled to embarrassing defeat.

Continue reading the excerpts below from ‘The Nation’ and you’ll see why I think recent debt debacle is a clarion call to anger and not one more invitation to apathy. It is time to be ‘pissed off!’ If the first stage is getting angry, the second is getting even! It is time we took we take our country back from the Grand Oligarch Party!

From ‘The Nation’ the following analysis is sobering–

“For months, poll after poll has showed that rank-and-file Americans of all political persuasions believe that revenues (the nice way to say taxes) should be a part of any deal to resolve our debt crisis. Seventy-two percent of Americans polled between July 14 and July 17 said taxes should be raised on those making more than $250,000 per year, including 73 percent of independents and a stunning 54 percent of Republicans. Fifty-nine percent wanted taxes raised on oil and gas companies, including 60 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans. Yet Republicans refused to vote for a deal that included any revenues at all, and the Democratic leadership capitulated despite the fact that the position was exactly the opposite of what large majorities wanted.”

“In the week leading up to the vote, more than 600 rallies were held around the country supporting the passage of a clean debt-ceiling bill and protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from cuts. MoveOn.org alone made more than 125,000 calls to Congress to support a clean debt-ceiling raise. Coverage of all of these rallies was minimal at best. There was also one Tea Party rally, which, despite the impressive resources of their corporate backers, was sparsely attended. Yet the talk in Washington almost exclusively centered on what the Tea Party would accept.”

“Respected economists on both sides of the partisan divide agreed that cutting spending during a recession is all but certain to make things worse. This consensus was hardly mentioned in the debate and not at all reflected in the outcome”

“The president’s simple reminder to the American people that they can and should communicate with those they voted into office set off a firestorm of debate on cable news and news outlets about whether this was an act designed to anger Republicans and whether it was appropriate for the president to make such an ask. Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC asked Democratic strategist Bill Burton if the president should really be taking his case to the American people and if the crisis would be better solved by leaders meeting behind closed doors.”

“This combination of factors—overlooked citizen action, disregarded citizen opinion, unheeded expert warnings, uncritical press coverage that ignores the facts and denigrates participation by ordinary citizens to boot—creates conditions for a broad-scale disengagement from the processes that nominally allow them to participate in governance. In fact, when a Washington Post poll last week asked for single-word characterizations of the budget negotiations, “disgusting” was at the top of the list, along with “ridiculous” and “stupid.” Seventy-two percent responded with a negative word, and only 2 percent had positive feelings to offer. This is a far more disturbing trend than one that reflects anger and frustration. Anger moves people. Disgust and a view that government is stupid creates apathy.”

In the last 15 months, there have been three major oil disasters in the United States, including last year in Michigan, when nearly one million gallons of toxic tar sands oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River watershed from a pipeline rupture.

Despite the fact that oil pipelines have proven to be dangerous, there is a proposed resolution before our legislators that would actually increase the amount of tar sands oil that comes into our country. The Keystone XL pipeline will snake its venomous way across half a dozen States. Before any more major pipelines are approved, our current regulatory system must be updated. I urge you to oppose this legislation that will put a dangerous pipeline across our State. Instead, support critical pipeline safety legislation along with investments into renewable energy.

The Midwest has seen the devastating impacts of oil spills firsthand. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline poses an unacceptable risk to our communities and natural resources; oppose this legislation by letting our State and Federal representatives know where you stand–there is simply too much at stake.

The “Car Talk” blog isn’t just about the antics of the Tappert Bros. You can read on their blog yet another horror story by the Big Oil companies to whom our taxes go as subsidies. Of course, the Grand Oligarch Party, and its Tea dipping idiot members would not want to do anything that might look like censoring those corporations upon whom we depend for jobs. [In that last sentence, I wrote ‘upon which’ but then realized that corporations are really individuals, so I changed it to ‘whom..]

While the Grand Oligarch Party candidates fill their coffers with the contributions of ‘individuals’ like Chevron/Texaco, imagine what these individuals have been doing with their other hand! Well, take a look here:

http://cartalk.com/blogs/jamie-kitman/?p=289 .

If you’ve been boycotting BP, looks like you’ll have to add Chevron to your list of ‘stay away from there.”

Let’s hear a round of applause for our Ohio 15th District Rep Steve Stivers for his support of such corporations and their violent rape of land and slow massacre of people. And while we are at it, let’s not forget to include our Ohio Senator Portman, who has no more sense of morality than Stivers.