Tuesday, July 26, 2011

What I Believe Is Going To Happen

I hope I am right, but there is no doubt that we will all know soon enough.

Since 1979, the House of Representatives by rule has automatically raised the debt ceiling when passing a budget, except when the House votes to waive or repeal this rule. Why has it done so now? It is my opinion (I know the quote about opinions, but this is MY blog, you are free to express yours in a response or you can simply ignore it) that the Republicans have, since he was elected, had making sure that our President is not reelected their number the top of their agenda. Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, even stated in a speech to the senate that it is his number one priority (above all else that our country requires) to make sure that Obama is not reelected in 2012. Since that statement there is little doubt that a minority in the senate have used tactics like the filibuster and the totally undemocratic ability that a single senator can block any bill from even coming to the floor for debate and vote to stop any initiative that might in any way help Obama even if its to the detriment of the country. This is democracy?

I digress: it seems quite obvious that Republicans in both houses are doing all in their power to undermine the President. I don't know about you but does this tactic seem to you a bit unpatriotic? We had an election. Obama won by a landslide. He is our president. To do anything possible to undermine him undermines the country and is, to me, traitorous. The Democrats did not agree with Bush, but in no way did they do to him anything even resembling what the GOP is doing to Obama. When, in the history of this country, has the Speaker of the House demeaned the president with such disrespect? Boehner called Obama the late night comedian in the White House after last night's speeches. Boehner also spurted several complete lies in his rant. I defy you to find a single untruth in Obama's.

I grew up in a country that was the dominate country and economy in the world. The US dollar, until just before "The Nixon Shock" of 1971 was what all currencies were tied to. It did turn out for the best when that policy allowed the dollar and all currencies the float. This policy has saved our butts on many occasions. This country became what it was to a great extent because the two or three generations before us (our grandparents and great grandparents) spent a large portion of their wealth creating the infrastructure that is the backbone of this country. They did these things (like the electrical grid, the rail system, the interstate highways, etc, etc) knowing that they would not benefit from them. These were massive, long term programs that they knew would take generations to complete. Still they loved this country and were patriotic enough to build them. We have been the beneficiaries of their largesse. What are we doing? NADA. Greed is the religion of this generation. We spend precious little even keeping this infrastructure in working order. Bridges are collapsing, the interstate highway system is in shambles, The electrical grid has already gone down for several days a few years ago in the northeast causing true chaos. Imagine if we get a repeat (we have done little to prevent this from happening) and New York is without power for weeks or even months. Total chaos will ensue. You can even imagine things getting severe enough that after all of the animals are eaten people will start eating each other. Why is this happening? GREED!!!!! Ronald Reagan and Gordon Gecko have led the way to where we are now where greed is no longer a negative but has become "The New American Way."

I continue with my digressions so enough. Back to the first five words of this blog. I must admit that after Obama's speech last night I am not so certain that what I thought yesterday is still true, but I still believe that in may be. We will find out in 6-7 days.

Obama has proposed a 4 trillion reduction in spending. He has asked to GOP to at least throw in a modest increase in revenues consisting of the removal of tax loopholes for the top 1% or so. I believe that he has offered these cuts (including the big three) knowing that Grover Norquist has 95% of the GOP by the balls and that there is no way that they will agree to any revenues, no matter where they come from.

He also knows that Wall Street and big business has let these Republicans know that not raising the debt ceiling and defaulting on loans already spent is not acceptable. The USA will lose it's position as the safest place to borrow and invest. We will most likely slip back in a recession much worse than the one we are coming out of, or worse and this will go global.

Obama has said that he will not sign any stop gap bills to get us through the short term and, knowing that Grover Norquist rules the GOP that there is no way the GOP will accept his 4 trillion dollar in tax cuts.

I believe (I hope) that at the last minute congress will pass a bill meant to gt us through the short term with not much more than a trillion or so in cuts and no revenues and that Obama will veto it. This puts the GOP between a rock and a hard place with nothing else to do but what has been done the last 89 times the debt ceiling was raised (17 times under Reagan, 7 under W) and in an hour or so (that's all it will take) pass a single sentence bill raising the ceiling from ..... to ....., no strings attached which is what almost every president for the last 89 debt ceiling increases have gotten and is what Obama asked for six months ago.

I hope I am right. I truly hope that Obama is this good. I know that he is smart enough it is simply a matter of having the balls to pull it off. We shall see all too soon.

Later yall

Sunday, July 24, 2011

How Did This Happpen?

For some time now I have wondered how the term "liberal" has come to have a negative  connotation with so many Americans. "Progressive" being another word that has suffered the same.  Growing up the word liberal was always associated with something good (unless it was a liberal pile of shit being dumped on my head or something similar). I believe that the pile of shit is exactly what people like Carl Rove have dumped on us to get so many people to buy into this reaction to "Liberal". I have been called a liberal by a few of you and there is little doubt that you expect me to take that as an insult. I don't. I would think that being called a Conservative (as in stuck with the status quo) would be a fighting word.

On the other hand I always believed that "conservative" had a negative connotation (see above) unless I was being served canned green peas (which I despise) or something similar. I decided to look up some definitions. They follow:

lib·er·al
   [lib-er-uhhttp://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngl, lib-ruhhttp://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngl] http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gifShow IPA
–adjective
1.
favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2.
( often initial capital letter http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform.
3.
of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.
4.
favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5.
favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.
6.
of or pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.
7.
free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners.
8.
open-minded or tolerant, especially free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.
9.
characterized by generosity and willingness to give in large amounts: a liberal donor.
10.
given freely or abundantly; generous: a liberal donation.
11.
not strict or rigorous; free; not literal: a liberal interpretation of a rule.
12.
of, pertaining to, or based on the liberal arts.
13.
of, pertaining to, or befitting a freeman.
pro·gres·sive
   [pruh-gres-iv] http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gifShow IPA
–adjective
1.
favoring or advocating progress,  change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2.
making progress  toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3.
characterized by such progress,  or by continuous improvement.
4.
( initial capital letter http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png) of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
5.
going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.
6.
noting or pertaining to a form of taxation in which the rate increases with certain increases in taxable income.
7.
of or pertaining to progressive education: progressive schools.
8.
Grammar . noting a verb aspect or other verb category that indicates action or state going on at a temporal point of reference.
con·serv·a·tive
   [kuhhttp://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngn-sur-vuh-tiv] http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gifShow IPA
–adjective
1.
disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
2.
cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.
3.
traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.
4.
( often initial capital letter http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png) of or pertaining to the Conservative party.
5.
( initial capital letter http://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Conservative Jews or Conservative judaism.
6.
having the power or tendency to conserve;  preservative.
7.
Mathematics . (of a vector or vector function) having curl equal to zero; irrotational; lamellar.


I'm not going to rant further on this subject. Other than to say that "Conservatives" seem to be a lot better at framing the debate that do liberals. As they have obviously succeeded in the word game we are now getting very close to those conservatives putting the entire globe into a world of hurt.

How about a conversation about this? We've been pretty good about that of late.

Later yall.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

IMAGES FROM BYRON

Being I had to remove the video from Byron, I though you guys might enjoy these images from there. The first bunch are scans of what you can see that they are. I stuck the photos of the Allman Brothers at the bottom so you would go through them all. 

ENJOY!!!!!