The Government Shutdown

On October 1^st the Republicans shut down the U.S. Government. That is not a good thing but the Republicans, some of them, are as happy as they can be. From what I have seen, there is no limit to what they will do to bring down or to hurt the Presidency of Barack Obama. There is no way to tell if it is because he is a Democrat or if it is because he is black.

What I do know is because Republicans are not getting their way they are upset and have shut down the Government. They are acting like spoiled children. There are a group of Republicans from the Tea Party that want to defund the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Obamacare was passed, signed into law and upheld by the Supreme Court. Despite all of that, Republicans want to kill it. They shut down the Government because President Obama will not let them have their way. They are saying it is Obama’s fault that everything is closed when they are the ones that shut the doors. They say one thing then do another.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, a Republican from Texas, was asked by Chad Hasty on a radio show on 1 October. “How long are you prepared to leave the Government shutdown?” He said “as long as it takes, Chad, because this is an important issue.” It was his actions that closed the Government. It was his and the Tea Party’s unwillingness to accept defeat on Obamacare that closed the Government. They act as if they can’t understand that they can’t win everything.

Rep. Neugebauer then on 3 October went and got in the face of a Park Ranger, insulting her for doing her job and using her for publicity. He should ashamed of himself for what he did to this woman, who was simply doing her job. She was basically carrying out the orders that he issued and he insulted her for doing it. I was happy to see the one guy that tried to stand up for her.

 

 

 

This shutdown is costing the American people a lot of money. According to The New York Times, the shutdown is costing us around $300 million a day. That’s money the Republicans and the Tea Party always say we don’t have. They say all the time that we can’t afford to spend money on Education and other social programs. Then they turn around and waste money like this.

This is what happens when we have Tea Party Republicans in Government. They were campaigning on shutting the Government down. They get in office and shut it down then blame President Obama and the Democrats for closing it.  These people do care about the American people or the Government. They want to cripple the Government and destroy President Obama. I believe they are so blinded by their hatred for President Obama that nothing else matters to them.  They are forcing us to go where we have never been before.

They are refusing to raise the Debt Ceiling of around $16.7 Trillion which has a deadline of 17 October. If this deadline is not met it could send the country in default and that has NEVER been done. No one really knows what will happen when or if the U.S. Government defaults on its debts. This will be unchartered territory if the country is FORCED to default. Republicans are saying they are willing to send the country over the default cliff unless the President agrees to make changes to Obamacare. The question now is will President Obama stand up to them?

No one else will say it but I will. The Tea Party is a Terrorist Organization and should be treated as such. Ted Cruz and Randy Neugebauer, along with other Tea Party members, are by definition terrorist and inside the Government. They should be treated like enemy combatants attempting to bring down the U.S. Government.

They are doing this because President Obama had the nerve to help the poor and sick people that could not get insurance. They like to hold up copies of the Constitution but they refuse to READ IT. They like to call themselves Christians but they refuse to act like it. They should try reading the bible. The bible says we should help the poor and the sick. It says we are judged by our actions.

 

James 2:14   Dear brothers, what's the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren't proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? James 2:15 If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, James 2:16 and you say to him, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty," and then don't give him clothes or food, what good does that do?  James 2:17 So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn't show itself by good works is no faith at all--it is dead and useless.  James 2:18  But someone may well argue, "You say the way to God is by faith alone, plus nothing; well, I say that good works are important too, for without good works you can't prove whether you have faith or not; but anyone can see that I have faith by the way I act."  James 2:19 Are there still some among you who hold that "only believing" is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the demons believe this too--so strongly that they tremble in terror!  James 2:20 Fool! When will you ever learn that "believing" is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.

 

There is nothing about the actions of the Tea Party Republicans that match “my” understanding of the bible.

These Tea Party Republicans are not Patriots, as they like to call themselves, they are TERRORIST. They need to understand that the Affordable Care act (Obamacare)……… IS………. THE……. LAW.

Attacking Syria

Let me start this one off by saying, I disagree with President Obama 100% about the use of military force in Syria. I’m not going to support him just because I voted for him. He is on my team but he is wrong on this one. When I think he is wrong I have no problem saying so. If I didn’t I would be doing what I say Republicans did when President Bush was in office.

I have to wonder what is it about the White House that make Presidents want to kill people. When President Obama was a Senator he was against President Bush using military force in the Middle East. Now he is doing the EXACT SAME THING. He would argue that there is a difference but there is none. It was WRONG when Bush did it and it is WRONG for Obama to do it.  

What would make the man that won the Nobel Peace Prize want to go to war? Why would he do the same thing that President Bush did? Since this blog is all about what I think, I will tell you. I believe the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and those that supply them has some SERIOUS INFLUENCE over the White House. That is the only thing that makes sense to me. 

Think about what has happened. This war has been going on for a while with over 100,000 people killed with conventional weapons and there was no call for military intervention by President Obama. Not until Chemical Weapons were used, where just over 400 were killed, that Military intervention was called for. For me personally that doesn’t make sense. What does make sense is that MIC doesn’t approve of Chemical Weapons use because there is no profit in it for them. Anyone can mix up chemicals. Okay, not anyone, but anyone with knowledge of chemistry and the right ingredients. MIC wants them to use conventional weapons because they profit off of every round that is fired, bullets, rockets, grenades all conventional weapons they profit off them. When Assad started killing and cutting into their profits they had to bring in their enforcer, The United States of America.  

Our Government is already training the rebels and now they are asking to strike. The President says that the world is on his side. The thing is the U.N. is not on his side. The rest of world, except France, is not offering money or troops. The President says we as a civilized society decided long ago that Chemical Weapons could not be used and we cannot allow it to go unchecked. He said if we do nothing then Assad or someone else will do it again. His argument doesn’t hold water because the rules the President is talking about have been broken many, many times by us and our friends. We used Chemical Weapons in Vietnam and aided Saddam using them against Iran. Torture and indefinite detention is also against international law but that didn’t stop us.  Maybe those rules only apply to other countries. 

President Obama says we are not going to war but will be using targeted strikes. I would bet the people on the other end of those targeted strikes say it feels like war. This feels the same as the lead up to Bush’s wars. A whole lot of saying, we have proof and very little proof being shown. 

Poll after poll says that the American people as a whole want nothing to do with another war. The thing is it doesn’t matter what the American people want. The only thing that matters is what MIC wants and I believe they are putting lots and lots of pressure on the White House. The only way to combat them is to let our voices be heard and put our own pressure on the White House. I want to support the President but I need proof that Assad was behind this. I’m not going to just take his word. Also if he wants to take us into another war or whatever Washington wants to call this one, how are they going to pay for it? The credit card is about maxed out.

Where's The Outrage

Let me start this off by saying, like most of the people on the left, I believe that Ted Cruz is a U.S. citizen. I have not heard anyone on the left speaking out in opposition to the legitimacy of his citizenship. The few people that I have heard say anything about it are saying the same type of things like I am about to say. Where is the OUTRAGE from those on the right?

When President Obama was first elected, the Tea Party Republicans were almost foaming at the mouth about his birth certificate. They were saying “He was not born in this country, he was born in Kenya.” They said he was not a citizen because he was not born in this country. They argued that even though his mother was a citizen he was not because he was not born here. They demanded to see President Obama’s birth certificate because it would PROVE that he was not born here. Once the President posted his birth certificate online they said that wasn’t the right form. They wanted to see the long form version not the short one. After he posted the long form version they then said it was a fake. Fox (NOT) News even had experts on showing how the documents could have been forged. There were so many of them and they were so loud that they were given a nick name, The Birthers.

It is funny how things come back to bite you in the ass. The Birthers would pretend to be upset when anyone said that the REAL reason they were against President Obama was because of his race. They would accuse the left of race baiting. Now they have one of their own gearing up to run for President in 2016, Senator Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz is an outspoken Tea Party favorite who was born in Calgary, Canada. He also produced his short form birth certificate but there was no OUTRAGE. Like President Obama Senator Cruz’s father was foreign born. Unlike President Obama, Senator Cruz really WAS born in another country as stated on his short form birth certificate.

If it was not about race then where is the OUTRAGE from the Birthers. The number 1 problem they pretended to have with President Obama was that he was not born in America (even though he really was). Senator Cruz is unable to pass the bar the Tea Party set for President Obama but they support him anyway. If it was not about race then why not hold Senator Cruz to the same standard they held President Obama to. I’ll give you one guess. They kept saying they were not racist but the rest of America knew the truth. If it was not about race then what was it about? They don’t want to be called racist but they act like racist. If it was not about race then why was the guy born in America (Hawaii) considered foreign and the guy born in another country (Canada) considered American.

Where is the OUTRAGE from the Tea Party and the Birthers? You don’t hear it because Senator Cruz looks like them. It was never about anything other than race. I know people that tried to defend the Tea Party and Birthers, saying that it wasn’t about race and that Obama should just show his birth certificate and school records and get it over with. I wrote a blog post called “Obama’s Papers” where I said he should not show anything. I’m not going to put anyone one the spot but I wonder if those people that defended the Birthers before still think it was not about race. I wonder if they still think the Birthers are not racist. They should just fly the confederate flag and be proud of who they are. Stop trying to hiding who you are. We can clearly see you.

Syria

Yesterday President Obama said that Syria had crossed the Red Line by using Chemical Weapons on his people. Now the Pro-War people are crawling out of their caves to pound the war drums. They are all saying the same thing “we need to supply arms to the GOOD rebels and set up a No-Fly Zone.” This is expected to cost up around $50 million per day but that is not something they talk about and when they do you hear “You can’t put a price on saving human lives.” That sounds strange coming from them because the ONLY THING healthcare does is saves human lives and those same people are against Obama Care.

When Obama Care was discussed they said it cost too much, we are broke, we just don’t have the money, people need to take personal responsibility and we shouldn’t force anyone to buy insurance. Now these same people have no problem spending more money getting us into another war. They don’t even say we should make cuts somewhere like they do with everything else, they are just saying to do it. These people have no problems with people dying, as long as they make money off of it. Their problem is someone else profiting from war. There is a civil war going on in Syria and these guys want to make money off of it. There is no way to know which side to support and ANYONE that says otherwise, remind them of Saddam Hussein.  

There is always money on the right to kill while pretending they wanted to save. When you ask those same people to save lives by not killing then they say we don’t have money for that. That sounds funny coming from the party that likes to be called pro-life, HA.  

This is their platform for this country, cut taxes, cut food stamps, cut education, cut Medicare, cut the Federal Workforce and fight more wars. These folks are going to destroy this country if we let them. They are us fear to herd us into the war zone. If they really want to fight a war, let THEM go and we’ll leave a light on for them. We need to save energy so use a 5 watt bulb.

Block this, Bitches

Yesterday President Obama picked UN Ambassador Susan Rice to succeed Tom Donilon as his National Security Adviser. I’m sure you remember Susan Rice from November when she went on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows and repeated the talking points she was given on the Benghazi attack. That was nothing new. That was something almost everyone in Washington does. Rather than going after the person or people that issued the talking points the Republican Party went after Susan Rice.

These guys can’t seem to get over the election. It is as if getting beat by a black man hurt their soul. They just can’t get past the color of his skin. The HATE that the Republicans have for President Obama is much stronger than the love they pretend to have for this country. You see them on TV and you can tell by the expressions on their faces that they are angry about almost everything President Obama does.

The Republicans knew Susan Rice had done nothing wrong when she did what she was told after the Benghazi attack. They wanted to stop her rise in the political world and to hurt The President. They know Susan Rice did what she was told to do and that was her job. She said some things that were not true but it was early in the investigation. There were lots of things the Republicans said that were not true after 9/11 and leading up to the Bush wars. You know what they are and don’t need me to list them again.

I’m happy President Obama picked Susan Rice for this position. With this selection The President is saying to the Republicans “Block this, Bitches.”

  

I Was Wrong

A few days ago someone said to me that “you are never wrong.” I thought that was a very stupid thing to say because in this very blog I have said before that I was wrong. Then I wondered if maybe they just didn’t want to admit that they had made a mistake and that was their cop out. Then I decided I would put that baby to bed once and for all.  

I want to be on record again saying “I was wrong.” Other than my wife, I don’t know anyone that is always right. It doesn’t make me less of a man to admit that I was wrong on something. I have known people like that and I never want to be one of them.

 

If you read my blog you will know that I am just writing about what I think. I write my opinions about world events and things that happen to me. So just to prove a point I’m gonna talk about some things I was wrong about. A while back I said gay people should be allowed to have civil unions and not be allowed to serve openly in the military. Now I don’t think that way. I WAS WRONG. Gay people should be given every right straight people are given. At the time I didn’t think it through and look at it from the gay person’s point of view. Because I am not gay, it is not easy for me to see their side of the situation. That is not an excuse, just the reason why I believe I missed it. It doesn’t change the fact that I WAS WRONG.

 

If you go back and read about the elections you will see that I said Hillary Clinton would beat Obama in the democratic primaries. I WAS WRONG. There is no doubt about that one. I didn’t think Obama could beat Clinton at the time. I’m happy to say I WAS WRONG about that one.

Once I was writing about the Iraq war and the numbers I posted were wrong. Someone pointed it out and I corrected it. I WAS WRONG and should have done a better job of fact checking but it was my fault. 

My point is I don’t live in a fantasy world. I live in the real world where, with the exception of my wife, no one is always right. Most of the things I write about I research before I post it but I’m still human and sometimes I get it wrong. I make mistakes and I am not ashamed to admit it. I’m not done writing and I know I’m gonna get more things wrong.

Ten Years Later

Ten years ago President George W. Bush and his administration told us that we had to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They used the aftermath of 9/11 to convince us that Saddam was going to use those weapons against America. The Bush Administration used the words “mushroom cloud” and “WMDs” at every opportunity. They said “we must fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” Those were their talking points and they repeated them endlessly. The problem was none of it was true and they knew it. It was all ONE BIG DECEPTION.

 

The Bush Administration and the Republican Party used our patriotism against us. If you didn’t support their actions then you were being unpatriotic. You were not supporting the troops. You were not an American. The media didn’t do their jobs investigating the claims that were being made by the Bush Administration. They let us down and as a result over 4,000 U.S. troops have been killed, over 32,000 injured and estimated 108,000 Iraqi civilians killed. There is also an estimated 15 million displaced Iraqi people. This is the same party that is OUTRAGED because 4 Americans were killed in Benghazi. This war has cost America more than 3 trillion dollars. Money the Bush Administration said would come from Iraqi oil. They said the war would only take about 18 months but it lasted 9 years and some Republicans wanted it to continue.

The Bush Administration lied us into an unjust war. They knowingly presented false information to Congress (a felony) to get them to authorize his use of military force. Just a side note, Congress impeached President Clinton for lying about a blowjob. There are people from the Bush Administration on record saying Bush and Cheney only wanted information to link Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. They didn’t want any information that would contradict what they wanted. They told the FBI and the CIA to find the connection. They wanted this war and nothing was going to stop them.  There are even unclassified records from November 2001 that states that the Bush Administration had plans to invade Iraq. They planned to justify starting the war by disputing WMD inspections. They doctored the evidence they were given and took us to war. Things that were possible were presented as fact.

 

When we talk about things the Bush Administration did wrong I would be remiss if I didn’t mention torture. It is against international law to torture someone and that was something this country used to agree with. Now I’m not so sure. We cannot be a nation of laws and then turn our backs on those same laws when times get bad. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone did that. Every day is a bad day for someone. Laws exist for a reason and should be followed, always.

President Bush and most of his Administration are criminals. The same goes for President Reagan with Iran Contra and his intervention in delaying the Iran hostages release under President Carter. The same goes for President Nixon with his intervention in extending the Vietnam War under LBJ. These guys are criminals and should be viewed as such. The people that support Republicans and their criminal actions later cry foul on Benghazi. Give me a break. They care NOTHING about human life. The only thing they care about is MONEY and POWER.

It’s been ten years and there is still time to do the right thing and prosecute Bush and his administration before they rewrite history. Well that’s my opinion on ten years later.

Dodged A Bullet

If you voted for Mitt Romney let me tell you now, stop reading, this is not for you. I’m not happy with President O’bama but I voted for him. I am so not happy with his drone strikes and his Patriot Act on steroids approach to National Security. That being said let me tell you, we really dodged a bullet with Mitt Romney. This man could have been President if he had gotten 5 million more votes.

Had this guy not posted this video Romney may have won. I know for me it was a big help because this told me a lot about Romney. The things he said in this video made my stomach turn. This video told me that he doesn’t care about people at all. The only thing that matters to Romney is making money. I don’t fault him for liking money because I like money too. I like it a lot but I will not do anything to get it. He doesn’t care about others. He is not the first to do this so it is nothing new. Then they go out and do or create some charity to make it look as if they have a heart. For me the true indicator of the type of person you are is the way you treat others.

I don’t know if Romney ever purchased that company but just the fact that he seemed to be okay with the way the women were treated in that factory told me all I need to know. If he would be okay with it over there then he would be okay with it here. Unless he said those women are less human than American women.

If you haven’t seen the entire video you may want to look it up on YouTube. This is just a short clip. It was taken from a $50,000 a plate fund raiser dinner. This video is why I say we dodged a bullet by not electing Mr. Romney. Enjoy and as always feel free to comment.

False Outrage

Let me start this one by saying I usually don’t use the names of people that I know in the things that I write. I don’t want them getting pissed at me for one and the other part is that I think it would just be wrong. I talk bad about Republicans in my writings but I almost always say that I am speaking in general. Some of my friends are Republicans. Some of them are middle of the road Republicans and a few are far right wing. I also have one closeted Republican friend and he knows who he is and I don't need to out him. A couple of my Republican friends take the things that I write to heart and I wish that they didn’t. I wish they could take it in stride the way I do when they talk about Democrats. It’s not personal. I always love getting feedback on what I write, either by comments at the bottom of the posting, or email, or phone calls, but not by text. There was one Republican friend I could always count on to respond by email to everything I wrote within about an hour. He never took any of it personal but he was also a middle of the road Republican.

His name was Bruce Scher and he passed away on 5 Dec 2012 at the age of 56. When I started to write this there was so much I was gonna say about Bruce but you know words, at least none that I know of, wouldn’t do him justice. So I’ll just say I miss him and I wish you all could have known him, R.I.P. dude.

 

Okay on with the post for today. There is so much going on right now in government that it is hard to start. I’m still upset about Republicans pretending to be outraged about the death of four Americans in Benghazi and demanding someone be held accountable. Saying an email was sent that should have been a cause for more attention and extra security. In hindsight I agree there should have been more security. The thing is if this was a terrorist attack like they are saying it was, then it would have been planned a long time ago. If they had beefed up security then the terrorist would have done the same or called off the attack. My point is that when we are in another country we will never be 100% safe. My problem with far right wing Republicans is that they stood by silent when more than 3000 Americans died in 9/11 when they were in charge. There was no outrage towards George W. Bush and that was a terrorist attack. There was a memo that the CIA sent to the White House saying Osama was determined to attack the U.S. and Bush ignored it. There was no outrage for those 3000 people in New York. Maybe American life has less value under Republican control and 3000 dead doesn’t mean as much. Now that a Democrat is in the White House and 4 Americans die in a terrorist attack in another country then there is OUTRAGE. It’s bullshit flowing out the mouth of every Republican that said nothing when Bush did worse.

Not only did Bush do worse but they then lied us into two wars and 1000s of soldiers lost their lives not to mention the tens of thousands injured. Starting us out in Afghanistan going after the people responsible for 9/11 then doing a head fake and poof, we are in Iraq because of WMDs. Knowing all along there was none and when they were called out on it they said, well he used to have some. The Bush administration should been charged with war crimes. If Obama had done the same thing they would have impeached him and he would be behind bars. Look at how they reacted to 4 Americans dying in another country and he started NO wars. They are OUTRAGED, OUTRAGED I tell you. No they are full of it.

It pisses me of because as a black man there are times that I feel that I am held to a different standard than white men. I try to tell myself that it has nothing to do with the color of my skin but then I keep seeing stuff that says otherwise. The stuff Obama is going through, a lot of it is because he is a Democrat (that’s what I tell myself), but most of it is because he is black (that’s what I believe). There is a group of white people in this country, let’s call them The Tea Party, that it hurts to their core to see a black man sitting in The Oval Office. The good part is that there is an even larger group of white people that doesn’t give a damn what color the President’s skin is. That gives me more hope than I could ever begin to share with you.

This is much longer than I had planned and because my mom reads it I cleaned it up, A LOT. I only ask one thing of you. If you go after someone, before you do, change the color of their skin and their party. If your passion is still the same then proceed and do as you will. That’s what I do.

Electoral Change

I thought about writing about this a couple of weeks ago when I first heard about it. Republicans are at it again. They see they can’t win by getting people to vote for them because they have the wrong message. They can’t suppress the minority vote, it just made more of us get out and vote. So now they are trying to change the Electoral Vote allocation in some of the swing states that are currently under Republican control. If you haven’t heard about it Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and I think Florida. All of these are states that President O’bama won but if they change the vote allocation to the way Republicans would want then Romney would have been President today even though President O’bama got almost 5 million more votes. They want to change from winner take all for the state, to winner of the congressional district. Republicans tried to slip this by the voters but a few people noticed and it finally got picked up by the main stream media. Virginia was all set for the Governor to sign it into law after sneaking it through while one of their members was at the President’s Inauguration. I believe he would have signed it into law if the media had not found out about it. Michigan is getting ready to do the same thing and if history is an indicator, they will pass it. Michigan doesn’t care what the people think. They ignored a court order to stop using the emergency order because they didn’t have the numbers but they continued. Michigan lawmakers don’t care what anyone says or thinks they just do it. I believe they may be the test case for the Republican Party. If Michigan passes this into law without too much coverage and fuss from the media then the other states will try to follow. Keep an eye out for Rep. Pete Lund in Michigan. He is the guy that says he will introduce the bill and try to get it passed. He says it will make the elections more reflective of what the people really want. Another way to say it is that the urban vote has too much say in the elections and this is the only way they can stop them.

The problem for the Republican Party is their base also known as The Tea Party. When the Tea party first came out in opposition to President O’bama they made a lot of noise and Fox (Not) News hitched their wagon to them. This was before they found out how toxic and batshit crazy they would be. Republicans are stuck with them now that they have been given a name and a voice. The Tea Party is the reason Republicans have had to move so far to the right during their Primary Elections. They have moved them so far to the right that they cannot move back to the center in time for the General Elections. The group they once had on their shoulders cheering them on is now choking the party to death.

Republicans today are saying the President is trying to kill the Republican Party. They should finish that statement with “we don’t need his help.” They are doing all they can to end it on their own. They are driving women and the elderly out. They got rid of black people a long time ago. Now it looks like they want most minorities out. I don’t think they can make it with just white dudes but it looks like they are gonna give it a try. I don’t want them to die off because I think we need more than one party but if they go someone else will come along and take their place. These guys are learning that you can’t keep screwing people and just saying “it’s not me” and think people will continue to believe you. Some of us will vote against you.

Now that Republicans are being seen as who they really are and they are unable to change their message, because of the Tea Party, they want to change the rules. If they are allowed to get away with this it will just be the beginning.