Category Archives: GOP

WHY WE NEED IRAN

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McCain thinks time is running out to send troops to Afghanistan?  Is this the same man who thought we could “muddle through” in Afghanistan and the real fight was Iraq?

Our last president sent hundreds of thousands of troops into a quagmire with an ever-changing rationale and an aimless strategy.

There is talk about how well the “surge” worked in Iraq.  Psssssst, Iraq is not Afghanistan.  Afghanistan has humbled would-be conquerors throughout history, the most recent being Russia. The terrain is rugged, the tribal alliances are unsure, the drug trade is king and the government is corrupt.

Before more troops go in, we need to have a defined, winning strategy (and then an exit strategy) against two different groups, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.  They ARE different groups, but right now are joined in common purpose, to drive out the NATO forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Ironically, one country can help us with a winning strategy in Afghanistan.  And that country is the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Iran helped Bush’s military team early in the war until relations chilled again.  Then Ahmadinejad came to power.

Iran shares NATO’s desire to subdue the Taliban.  The Taliban is Iran’s enemy.  The Taliban ideology and jihadist purpose threaten to undermine the Islamic Republic, and Iran does not want to share a long border with a Taliban-controlled nation again.

So, we need Iran for success in Afghanistan and Iran needs us to be successful in Afghanistan.  Iran is also close to having military nuclear capabilities and the US backs sanctions.  President Obama needs to walk the thinnest of tightropes.

I know Jon Stewart pokes fun at the diplomatic tiptoe-ing around Iran, but whatever choices President Obama makes with Iran or Afghanistan will have consequences far beyond any sound bite or comedy skit.

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An Outsider’s Perspective of US (and Us)

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Yesterday, I spent almost two hours talking with a friend who is a businessman from the Cayman Islands.  He is in New York on business.  Since his business is somewhat US-dependent, he makes it his business to keep up with the news in the States.  He is a Libertarian and a pragmatist.  I am Democrat and (I like to think) a pragmatist.  We agreed on many things, such as the need to compromise and get incremental reform because it is a matter of conscience that people have affordable access to health care.  And I agreed with him that the public option will not pay for itself and should be phased in later if other measures don’t rein in the insurance companies.  We simply cannot afford to institute this option at this point, given the deficit.

We disagreed on two points.  The points of disagreement fascinate me. 

First, he thought that death panels could be read into the legislation because it was not expressly disclaimed.  My friend is an intelligent, well-read man; he is not Todd Palin.  So I had to think about this more.  Here is what I have deduced:

  • if a person distrusts “government” enough to believe that it would kill its own citizens, well, then you can make that argument. 
  • if a person doesn’t believe that our government would kill its own citizens, you might argue that the panel of experts represented a disguised government take-over of health care. 
  • if a person believes that our government is not trying to kill us and trying to cut down on defensive medicine by setting forth safe harbor protocols, then you think the concern is ill-conceived and politically motivated. 

I guess what I am learning is while I am firmly in the third camp, not all of the concern may be politically motivated.  Sarah Palin must have hit a chord with many, many people who have a deep, abiding distrust of government.  Hey, I was scared of government under Bush/Cheney, so I guess I have to be more open to the fear that this legislation unleashed.  Interestingly, it took my Cayman Islands friend — an outsider —  to help me start to understand the perspective of  blog commenter “Jordana”.  We still disagree, but now I understand that we may not be starting from the same point of trust.  That changes the dynamics of the conversation considerably. 

The other point was related to torture.  Some torture is understandable under some circumstances.  I have never met someone who held that view.  While I can see not prosecuting the CIA, I believe that torture is not understandable under any circumstances.  I don’t want to be tortured and I would probably make stuff up just to make it stop. So, I don’t see how it helps get to the truth.

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Obama’s Detractors will come up with anything

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Now someone says President Obama is gay.  It is clearly meant as an insult even though I thought that we had made strides in that regard. 

Because any man who is an intellectual, loves his children and seems to have a good relationship with this wife (at least from the outside) must be gay?  And, who cares?  Should we start talking about George Bush and his drinking?

So, you can’t fight him on the issues so you go for heckling and “disparaging” comments?  So, what if he is? So, what if he had blue skin or purple eyes? 

The right wingers can’t fight fair because they have no good arguments.  They only have their prejudices.

I hope Americans see through all of this and are disgusted by the absence of decency and fair play and calm discussion of the ISSUES.

President Obama, if you are gay, have blue skin or purple eyes, I don’t care.  I’m with you.

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The Shonda Chair has become a Couch

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What is SO crazy is that these ideologues get tripped up by the very things they rail against. 

Move over Governor Sanford and Senator Ensign, we need to make room for Mike Duvall, a GOP legislator in California on the Shonda Chair.  Maybe we need a Shonda Couch.

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By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer Juliet Williams, Associated Press Writer – 40 mins ago SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A pro-family values California lawmaker who resigned after being caught on tape boasting about his sexual conquests denied Thursday that he had extramarital affairs, saying “my offense was engaging in inappropriate storytelling.” Mike Duvall stepped down Wednesday after a videotape surfaced in which he was overheard telling a lawmaker about having sex with a lobbyist and another woman, including salacious details about how one mistress wears skimpy underwear and likes to be spanked. The 54-year-old Republican is married with two adult children. Duvall said Thursday his “decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs.”

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The lawmaker had received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session.

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Say it ain’t so, Joe

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Joe Wilson, GOP Congressman from South Carolina, broke protocol by yelling at the President, “you lie!” when the President was giving his address to Congress last night.  Of course, this is the same guy who supports Sarah Palin’s assertions about death panels that will decide care for elderly.  

Look, I wish some people called out Bush on the false claims of Iraq’s buying WMDs and plutoniun from Niger in his speech to Congress, so maybe protocol breaches are ok every now and then.

The problem with Wilson’s outburst is what it lays bare for all to see: 

  1. the discussion of health care reform has become an exercise in name-calling and fear mongering;
  2. there can be no debate while people are screaming to score points with constituents; and
  3. the ideologues (on either side of the issue) will not bend to acknowledge the facts and realities “on the ground”. 

Ideology without common sense (and some sinister malfeasance, thank you, Dick Cheney) got us in the guagmire known as the Iraq War, where debate was stifled by fear-mongering and name-calling (“unpatriotic” was often used) and people afraid to be unpopular with constituencies that just wanted revenge (as in “round up the usual suspects”).

Trying to bring the likes of Joe Wilson into the bipartisan tent is a fool’s errand.  Similarly, if bringing in armchair “Progressives” into the bipartisan tent means clinging onto a public option come hell or high water, then close the tent flaps to them, too. 

Actually, let’s have both sides of the extreme ideologies in an arena and let them scream at each other.  We’ll sell tickets, televise it (and get advertising revenue) and the proceeds will help pay for health care reform.  We’ll call the show “Extreme Dysfunction”.

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What is the fear?

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The minute President Obama took the oath of office, there has been a fevered pitch among white right wing radicals, as if somehow life imitated art and we elected the Manchurian Candidate.

Relax, everyone, Barack Obama is not the Manchurian Candidate.  How do I know?  Because George Bush was the Manchurian Candidate.  Think about it.  Whether you read the book, or saw either of the movies, George Bush bent to the will of his vice president (through Cheney’s own statements), a vice president who believed in torture and brain washing and who, as vice president, was able to wage war within the US and outside.  (Even the Manchurian Candidate had limits so we did not bomb Iran.  Thank G-d.)  During those 8 years, we fought a senseless war and muddled through another and let tinder boxes of Anti-American sentiment smolder and erupt.  The country was almost destroyed by catastrophic financial crises. The government put incompetent people in charge of disaster relief for its own citizens.    We survived the Manchurian Candidate. 

Relax, everyone. Give Obama the chance to do the things we elected him to do.

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Obama’s Speech to Schoolchildren

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I watched the speech.  No exhortations toward anarchy, communism or socialism.  Just a common sense message about taking responsibility for one’s education.  And it rang true coming from someone who started from humble means, without a father and achieved the heights of the American dream.  I  don’t think any of President Obama’s right wing radical detractors could match the authenticity of the message or the messenger.

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Even Laura Bush supports Obama’s speech to schoolchildren

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Ok, Ronald Reagan spoke to America’s youth and he thought ketchup was a vegetable. 

Bush the First spoke to school kids and he never formed a complete sentence. 

The hysteria over Obama’s speech is for hysteria’s sake.  Even hard core Republicans are backing down from opposing it.  Laura Bush thinks it is a good idea.

What is his subversive message to brainwash our young people?

Take responsibility for your education. Go to class and listen. Don’t let failures define you.

Hey, if that is subversive and brainwashing, maybe some of our nations adults should hear that message.

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By ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer Ann Sanner, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 3 mins ago WASHINGTON – Take responsibility for your education. Go to class and listen. Don’t let failures define you. That’s the advice President Barack Obama will give schoolchildren Tuesday in a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it. “We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems,” Obama said. “If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.”

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Stop fighting and start compromising

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Don’t blame President Obama for our nation’s war fatigue.  Iraq was unnecessary and we ignored the problem in Afghanistan for too long.  And before the 2004 elections, Tom Ridge raised the terror warning to scare the nation into electing Bush.  President Obama was given a mess.

Also, as a gay American, I would love for President Obama to come out more strongly in support of same-sex marriage rights.  I also want him to stop enforcement of don’t ask, don’t tell.  But I have no interest in diverting attention from getting health care and economic reform accomplished now.

And liberals and conservatives:  get off your soap boxes and compromise.  Our nation needs more action and less talk. 

Progressives and liberals: you will lose my vote if you lose sight of the importance of incremental victories. 

And Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America, and that includes conservatives, liberals, progressives, communists, fascists, socialists, agnostics, fundamentalists and idiots. So, everyone stop your whining that he is selling out.

Bush had 8 years to destroy this nation.  Let’s give President Obama more than 6 months to try to fix it.

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Post-script to “No, really, she said ‘Great White Hope’?”

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Last week, I wrote: No, really, she said “Great White Hope”? http://40andoverblog.com/?p=1148

So, it turns out that Rep. Jenkins did know EXACTLY what she was saying when she used the phrase, the “Great White Hope.”  Racism isn’t even veiled anymore.

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