Monday, February 16, 2009

Things that piss me off

The title should give a hint that I am in the mood to unleash some frustration. 

• Alleged Democrat: A big WTF to Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon)
DeFazio saw fit to join Republicans in the House in voting NO to the Stimulus bill. 
First he voted for it, then 4 times more he voted against it. 

DeFazio voted against the Iraq war, then mostly voted to approve however many billions more Bush asked for. Saying NO to war, and YES to funding, is essentially saying YES to war. 
His answer was "must support the troops".

If DeFazio is comfortable spending so many billions on war, but can't muster a yes vote for money to help the people and to support the new Democratic President's effort to fix the widespread problems, you are either a part of the problem, or part of the solution.



• Judd's Personal Bailout: 
 
Sen. Judd Gregg cited concerns over the census and the new stimulus package among his reasons for telling the administration thanks but no thanks for the Commerce job.

Actually this item makes me happy~ President Barack Obama has a new policy of keeping a White House thumb on the Bureau of the Census in advance of the 2010 count. Obama wants supervision of the Census information.
It has been a GOP tactic to manipulate the data, moving borders, missing counts, and making the homeless and those living in poverty disappear. The director of the Census Bureau, who must be confirmed by the Senate, will report directly to the White House and not the secretary of commerce. Democrats favor using sampling methodology of counting, which would likely result in a higher count of poor people and minorities not caught in the regular survey and thus would change financial allocations (and maybe get a real picture of nationwide poverty & homelessness).
Census reports are used for everything from the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives to distribution of federal aid in countless programs. Honest, non-partisan statistics are absolutely essential to public confidence. The GOP is whining about it, but too effing bad. We've not have accurate statistics for almost a decade. There is a new party in town & they don't play the old games.


The fact that Judd wanted the job, then realized he was not going to be able to "GOP it up", made him decide to tuck tail & bail. Too bad he wasted any of Obama's time, I think old Judd did us a favor. Besides how much of this mug do we want to see? He's sure got a guilty/creepy look on his face ~ like he's thinking I ain't gonna be the next one to get my ass raked over the coals with the next exposed scandal.

(U.S. News Opinion Quote): "The Republicans are kicking and screaming and pulling rank stunts like this one (I was for being in the cabinet before I was against it). Are there no sane, mature, country-first Republicans left in the party? Or is it true all the moderates either lost their elections or quit the party in disgust?

They are increasingly relegating themselves to long term minority status."


And the Wars Drone On:

They call them UAV's ~ unmanned aerial vehicles, the latest in war toys for the hawks. 


With classic macho names such as "the Predator" and its newly introduced cousin, "the Reaper". While the Predator carries two laser-guided Hellfire missiles and can travel 135 mph, the Reaper can fly twice as high, at 50,000 feet, and three times as fast. It can also carry eight times more weaponry and has a range of more than 1,800 miles, vs. 450 for the Predator.

Ugh! The Grim Reaper is causing feelings of hellfire & damnation. The military would have us believe the drone planes are used for surveillance. But obviously the trend is to build drone planes carrying 8x as more weaponry... is not so much for surveillance than it is for massacre.
This is the third U.S. missile strike in Pakistani territory after President Barack Obama took office, which really upsets me.

Will those in power not be satisfied until we have nuclear annihilation?

One war leads to another?

Just a surge away from winning?

Declaring Iraq a success?

I'm not going to drone on about the drone situation, other then to say go ahead & Google it for yourself, drones in pakistan, and get some worldwide perspective on it.

One Pakistani citizen framed it best: "Would the U.S. tolerate Pakistan flying into your country and dropping bombs?" Excellent question.

I'll simply close with this thought ~ Don't pretend to honor Dr. Martin Luther King jr, by placing a wreath on his grave.
Honor him by living non violence, and finding peaceful solutions.

Check out the Soldiers of Peace trailer

2 comments:

Christopher said...

The Gregg fracas should teach Obama a lesson about the futility of bipartisanship in Washington today.

While I believe Obama truly thinks he can "reach across the aisle" the way he did in Illinois and find an outstretched GOP paw waiting, the party of Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and Eric Cantor, isn't the least bit interested in helping save this country from going down the toilet.

MEMO TO OBAMA: Stop hiring Clinton retreads and Stop Reaching Out to the GOP.

Fran said...

Christopher~ Not having Judd in the cabinet is a good thing. But I think we are going to have to get used to Obama reaching across the aisle- not because he is too stupid to not get burned repeatedly, but because the people will see him constantly making the effort, and the GOP failing to step up. It serves as a GOP voter wake up call. Here President Obama is working tirelessly to fix this mess & all the GOP can do is stonewall & obstruct. Because now the financial hurting & damage is also being shared by folks who were not traditionally effected.
Republican businesses are going down. By not doing anything, the GOP is biting the hand that feeds them. Besides it's much too early to throw in the towel.
I think this is a big picture strategy that will continue- give the GOP enough rope to hang themselves? (politically speaking).

My House Rep fricking voted with the GOP on the recent Stimulus package vote. WTF???