Monthly Archives: April 2011

I Enjoy My Rage: Am I the Only One?

Republicans continue to attack the poor and seek to further benefit the rich! Where is Americans outrage over what the Republicans are allowing the tea baggers to do?  I once considered myself a fiscal conservative with liberal social leanings.  Now the Republicans are trying to pass their CRAZY “budget blueprint”, I am seeing that I cannot even call myself a fiscal conservative anymore by this far, far right fiscal thinking.  I am beginning to have RAGE against the Republican Party for allowing the tea baggers to be the tail wagging the dog.  Republicans are proving crazy is infectious!

The Republicans are alienating independents like me by catering to these nut bag tea baggers.  Even Donald Trump is gaining momentum with the “birther” theory as part of this “Tea Party” movement (I agree with Bill Maher – I will stop calling them tea bagger when they stop calling it Obamacare).  Showing this is a movement of nonintellectuals.

The “budget blueprint” that passed the House of Representatives today (Friday, April 15, 2011)1 calls for changing Medicare to a voucher system, cutting Medicaid and food stamps, all while not only keeping the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest but also reducing the top corporate and individual income tax rates from 35% to 25%.  Where is the rage against this?

The Democrats by default come across as less fanatical and more level-headed.  “Democrats dismiss this strategy, saying that although some spending cuts are needed to rein in deficits, wholesale reductions in education, public works, research and other core government programs leave Americans unable to compete globally.” says Pat Dollard2.  While programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the defense make up the majority of the budget, these programs can be improved, made more efficient or even reformed without throwing the baby out with the wash! Where is the rage from the poor?

GE made $14.2 billion profit and paid no taxes and in fact received a $3.2 billion tax benefit. 3 GE also employs a 975-employee tax department4 to insure they find as many loopholes as possible.  Why are the Republicans leading their fight by attacking programs that assist the poor and elderly instead of attacking the corporations they are trying to help even more with an even lower tax rate?  Why are they not trying to get the U.S. out of 2 very expensive wars?  My thoughts are the Republicans are influenced by the self-serving interests of the Tea Baggers.  The tea baggers are self-indulgent and have the idea, if it does not benefit me – cut it.  Where is the rage against Corporate America?

Wall Street bonuses increased 17%5 from an already astronomical amount, after the government bailout.  Why have the Republicans not besieged Wall Street in this “budget blueprint”?  Again, does it have something to do with protecting big money?  The poor are an easy target that find it difficult to have access to defend itself in a government that money = access!  The poor do not have access as demonstrated by my unsuccessful attempts to have an elected official listen to my concerns about E.R.I.S.A. and inspiring a blog Mr. Smith Still Needs to go to Washington6.  Where is the rage against Wall Street?

There was a time when it was political suicide to even mention cutting, changing Medicare or Social Security!  The idea of such  caused outrage!  Where are these groups now?  Are they allowing the Republicans to hang themselves?  Why aren’t the old school Republicans curtailing the Tea Baggers?  Where is the call to reform for Corporate America & Wall Street?  Where is the rage against the Tea Baggers?  In the past I would hear tea baggers say they wanted to “take America back” and I would ask, who are they taking it from?  Now I know, they want to take it from the poor and helpless so they have more for themselves.  I am glad my tax money does something to help the poor, sick and elderly because I do not have the money the tea baggers are trying to protect from the government.  I wish I could do more to help the poor, sick and elderly! Why don’t the Democrats harness this rage and take America back – from the crazy tea baggers (note: I am not using rhetoric, I am saying who I want America taken back from)! Am I the only one outraged?

Help me out… give anything… even if it’s only a $1

1 http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/15/house-passes-6t-spending-cut-plan/

2 http://patdollard.com/2011/04/republicans-propose-6-2-trillion-in-budget-cuts/

3 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html

4 http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/GE-Bringing-Creative-Tax-Strategies-Light-57849-1.html

5 http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-02-23/news/27057087_1_bonuses-wall-street-personal-income-tax-collections

6 https://thomasajohnston.com/2010/11/09/mr-smith-still-needs-to-go-to-washington/

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Shallow People In The Tea Party’s Shallow Tea Pot!

Typical Tea Bagger

I do not know how Teabaggers (The Tea Party) sees themselves; but I see them as shallow, selfish,  incoherent, trivial people!  Like Bill Maher on “Real Time with Bill Maher” says, “I will stop calling them Tea Baggers when they stop calling it Obamacare.”  Now the government is facing a shut down because they have shown they cannot play well with others.  They say to themselves….it’s our very minority ideal way for all or we will just take our ball and go home – while shutting down the government!  The Democrats and Republicans have enough problems without the “Teabaggers” bringing their frivolous ideas to government.  To use another expression from Bill Maher, they are like the kid that only reads one paragraph, when the teacher says who read the chapter and that kid raises his hand to ask a question about that paragraph to make it seem they read (or know) something.

13th Generation American said on 19 Saturday 2011 am31 9:56 am:
“With 43 million people in the US living in poverty, 20 million unemployed, The Patriot Act constitution buster, US record military spending in 2010, record deficits, 50 thousand troops and 20 thousand mercenaries in Iraq, 94 thousand troops and 170 thousand mercenaries in Afghanistan, GITMO still in business. We are talking about a birth certificate? Nice!” (I saw this posted at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/18/the-2012-speculatron-week_3_n_837854.html#s255150&title=Haley_Barbour)

Teabagger Work Ethic

The paragraph they did read, they did not even understand.  They read – cut government spending and for some reason they think it means cut any program they cannot benefit from directly.   Many of them profess to be Christian, attend these WalMart Mega-churches and read the Bible the same way – the Bible hates the same things they do – Gays!!  These people attended college to pledge Mom’s sorority or Dad’s fraternity, oh… and to get a degree.  They never thought of college as a place to get an education and actually learn something!

Many of the Teabagger Party do not even believe in evolution or global warming.  Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Host of PBS NOVA scienceNOW says it best, “The nice thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe it.”  Even when they can be proven wrong with science they just feel what they “believe” is foundation for governmental policy.

Why do the teabaggers feel they are acting on some mandate from the people? Where is that coming from?  The Republicans barely have control of the House and not many old school Republicans will endure this teabag farce for long.  Do they really feel they are doing what is best for Americans?  They should see Americans see they are acting for their own self-interest (pockets). The poor don’t watch Fox News and can’t be the loudest, they have bigger problems than worrying where Obama was born. Or is it simply the poor have an inability to organize, protest, and in some cases vote because of limited means or jobs that are more important for feeding their family, than concerns of governmental policy.  They better enjoy their ride because I can only hope it will be VERY short lived.

Help me out… give anything… even if it’s only a $1

https://thomasajohnston.com/2011/04/02/repeating-a-lie-does-not-make-it-true/

Categories: Life | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Repeating A Lie Does Not Make It True

Repeating something or saying it louder,  does not make it true.  “A lie told often enough becomes truth” – Vladimir Lenin,  “There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” – William James; these are quotes that apply to today’s political environment.  Fox News repeating that they are “Fair & Balanced” does not make it true but: Fox News – A Voice for Conservative Americans – now that is truth!  Everyday I see and hear smart people repeating tripe that make me ask, how gullible can you be, or to ask them to cite their sources.  Rhetoric is not a source.

Recently a friend posted something on Facebook that reported President Obama would cancel The National Day of Prayer, observed in May each year.  He was offended and then the post made some asinine comment about Muslims. He also asked in the post, “If you agree, copy and paste no matter what religion you are, this country was built on Freedom.”  Even though this report is untrue, it has made its rounds on Facebook since Obama became President.  Now here is my taking it one step further – If, ” this country is built on Freedom” – why couldn’t President Obama be free to end The National Day of Prayer?  Why can’t he be free to be a Muslim?  Or is the American Freedom they speak of only freedom to believe the same as them?  Why are so many outraged when someone (especially in leadership) has a thought or belief different from theirs?

Real Time with Bill MaherOne reason I love “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Real Time with Bill Maher” is because these shows point out the exaggeration and hypocrisy used in politics and the media today. The Daily Show with Jon StewartFox News, conservatives and now birthers (people who do not believe President Obama was born in the U.S.) make themselves easy targets to be mocked by these programs because  of the huge doses of hyperbole that they use.  I feel the reason is they only hear themselves!  They are spewing this misinformation nonstop and never stop to listen.

Obama Birth CertificateBirthers began demanding, “Show us the birth certificate!”  Once the birth certificate was made public, they questioned its validity. When the State of Hawaii verified the birth certificate was legitimate, they started making up things about how Hawaii did birth certificates in 1961 that make it a fake.  The excuses why they cannot accept that President Obama was born in the U.S. has to based on some crazy conspiracy theory similar to U.F.O.s in Roswell, Area 51 or the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. Obama was born in the U.S., we have freedom of religion so why would it be a problem for him to be Muslim instead of Christian, and what frightens them most ….. could it be the one point they do not argue… he is black.  They need to just stop and listen to how ridiculous they sound, but with a majority of Republicans believing President Obama was not born in the U.S. – crazy is something we may have to get used to.

Now that there are birthers elected into Congress, I see them the same as all politicians – only concerned about themselves.  Many campaigned on cutting wasteful government spending, but they will not try stopping the farm subsidies they receive.  Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-TN (over $3,000,000); Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-MN ($251,973); Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT ($230,000); Sen. Gordon Smith, R-OR; Sen. Ken Salazar, R-CO; Senator Charles Grassley, R-IA ($654,000); Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-SD (her father received over 750,000); get farm subsidy checks from the government, but Congress is NOT trying to cut farm subsidies.  Instead they are trying to cut: education, Head Start, school nutrition programs, elementary education, Pell Grants, the EPA, transportation, Planned Parenthood, Americorp, financial regulators, health research, the CDC, job training, heating for poor families.  I see them as bullying the poor. Why are they not wanting to find and cut waste in the Defense Budget?  Finding ways to cut and find savings in Medicare/Medicaid and/or Social Security?  They prefer misdirection to hide their hate and lack of compassion for the poor and needy!  They need you to be afraid and HATE also!

The distance to being poor is closer than your backdoor!

Not checking the accuracy of reports and further, asking others to repeat inaccurate (lies) reports, is irresponsible.  This is happening more and more! “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporality embarrassed millionaires.” – John Steinbeck.  As Americans we need to care more about kids, the poor and the jobless than the defense!  Maybe that is where we can or should agree to begin!  I look forward to the day when Congress is looking for “who” needs help more-so than their own personal interest. To quote Jesus, “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.” Matthew 25:45.  This is what should be repeated and loudest because it is TRUTH!!

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/31/welfare_tea_parties

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/farm-subsidies-paid-congressmen-why-congress-shut-down-database

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/members_of_congress_receive_useless_subsidies_apart_from_their_salaries/

Categories: Life | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

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