Mostly about my amusement

Tag: democratic party (page 1 of 1)

I think Margaret and Helen get it

This pretty much sums up the difference between Democrats and Republicans.

For instance, I have learned that when Democrats over-reach, we end up providing health insurance coverage for children who have pre-existing conditions. When Republicans over-reach, we go to war.

via Higher Ground « Margaret and Helen.

Margaret and Helen are always a good read. The job of an elected official is to get work done, and that usually means compromise.

Since President Obama started, the GOP have intentionally mis-categorized every effort and labeled his policies both fascist and socialist. Which is ironic because many GOP members do know the difference. They have essentially voted NO for everything and have not cooperated at all.

So now they will control the House of Representatives. Will anything get done? President Clinton was in similar straits and he managed to hand President Bush a vibrant economy and surplus.

Let’s see how President Obama does in the face of such ignorance and shameful pandering.

Politically, this is a really fun week

David Frum demonstrates that he gets it. Political cartoonists get it (Danziger’s was too good to not show).

GOP? Nope. Senator McCain? Nope. Democrats probably do get it but it’s a long way to November and there is plenty of time to let the bully on the block take their lunch money.

The GOP had the opportunity to participate and they did get involved with amendments. But it was all an act since no matter how bipartisan the Obama administration got, the GOP was just wasting time.The Democrats had the votes and the GOP thought they did not have the spine. Now the GOP platform is to hope that the country implode before November.

There are many rational discussions about what’s wrong with the bill. But so far the GOP only panders to the gun totting racist fear mongers. Which is what you do when you care about getting the votes instead of getting the job done.

Even their web server went into a coma

Just for giggles I tried to go to the GOP web page to see what kind of response the opposition has to the health care reform.To be honest I was hoping for some rational arguments about why this health care reform is bad. I wasn’t counting on much, but I hoped it would be something profound.

Two things happened. First I was redirected to a Fire Nancy Pelosi web page.

Nice graphic. The second thing was that the rest of the GOP website was FUBAR. There is a link at the bottom of the page that is supposed to lead to the real website and it just does not work.

Putting aside any politics for a moment (I’m for reform myself), their lack of technical expertise is appalling. This is the GOP website for crying out loud. It’s just not that hard to get it right.

What these folks need to do is speak with (read as “HIRE”) some of the talent that hosts conservative websites.  While the styling and graphics are important, just being able to serve HTML pages without a redirection loop might help them get their message out.

Looks like the Democrats actually DO have the votes

Health care in this country is currently broken. Too many times hard working people need to decide to go poor or stay healthy. That does not mean that people should get a free ride, but there has to be a way to equalize the health care that I get with the health care that an unemployed single mom gets.

So when the Obama administration actually tried to address this great problem, the GOP decided that for anything to pass a super majority is required. You know, the filibuster proof 60 seats in the Senate? And when Scott Brown was elected, the Democrats almost fell for it. But right now it looks like the Democrats have found their nerve.

It’s not a law yet (11:25 PM Sunday night) but unless the GOP can win elections right now, this should pass.

I don’t think that’s a bad thing; the GOP had almost 8 years of running the show and look how that turned out. And just like them, if this administration fails then come November there will be changes.

Co-president?

I like Senator Hillary Clinton but President Clinton is selling himself as part of the package.

That’s not good. When he says “These are tough times. We can bring America back. We’ve done it before.” then he’s using the good will he built to get himself into office. I don’t like that; his time as president is over. He can do (and I assume does) meaningful work and change the world. Just ask President Carter.

Can’t we have a presidential candidate who actually represents something new and hopeful? If Senator Obama gets the nod then it maybe for this reason alone.

New Hampshire primary today

Former President Bill Clinton went dumb today. He was working a crowd in a town hall setting and he started complaining about how the media is giving Senator Barack Obama a pass. Oh and his voice cracked; not his finest performance.

He made a mistake. He’s smarter than that and all he has done is shown everyone how frustrated Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign is. They need to be positive and on message in order to convince voters to pull for her. How about highlighting her accomplishments as a second term NY senator? Or the hard work she did while First Lady?

CNN’s video has an analysis of this at this link. By the way, CNN Video works very well with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and Firefox.

Senator Clinton is not the inevitable presidential candidate. One of her opponents, Senator Obama, has raised valid concerns about what she accomplished and what her pride got her (health care initiative anyone?) She points out his lack of experience and he points out that being the First Lady is not the same as being the President.

I hope the Clinton campaign makes the Democratic nomination a real dog fight and that the voters get someone who represents them well and has earned the nod. If this tone keeps up then they’ll just be another also ran candidate.

Senator Harry Reid Senate Majority “Leader”?

I think Senator Reid forgot what the word leader means. It does not mean roll over and play dead.

Seriously this is why the next president will be a republican. Likely Rudy, maybe Mitt. They’ll get all Jack Bauer and the Democrats will fall over themselves again.

I continue to not get it. I understand that the Democrats want to be “the grown ups” and not get all partisan with the administration. But what ever happened to just following the law?

The telcos and the administration may have broken laws in the warrentless wiretapping cases. In the administration’s case they always claim it’s a state secret, they did not break the law, and if they did break the law then it did not apply to them.

The telcos are not the administration and should not be able to pull off that nonsense. If the administration got them to break the law then that needs to come out in the lawsuits. Why not let people see what is really going on?

The immunity bill is not dead just delayed. During the Thanksgiving not recess, congress kept things going to prevent President Bush from pulling his usual fast ones. I hope at the end of the year someone is keeping an eye on Harry Reid.

Wow, sometimes it does work out

When I read that newspaper executives were arrested in Arizona and that they earlier were sent a subpoena for “the names and Internet addresses of all people who have viewed the site since Jan. 1, 2004” I was not surprised.

That’s just the type of country we live in these days.

We see our government move political dissent outside of view.

We see the use of tasers when it’s just not called for, when tasers are supposed to be used as a non-lethal substitute for guns. They are not really meant to torment some drunk woman or college smart mouth who pisses people off makes the police angry.

We see irrationality in debates with candidates trying to out Jack Bauer each other.

We have a Democratic party in charge of congress but lack the resolve to do anything other than be the President’s punching bag. Harry Reid will just fold on FISA, telecom immunity, anything the President wants. The Democrats are the Lame Ducks after all.

We see that we don’t torture as long as our government can define what torture is.

Authority has become the theme for our time and disagreeing with authority gets you in trouble. The courts don’t help people, they also defer to authority. Just ask this guy.

So this morning I read that in Arizona the County Attorney did the right thing and I found that to be really outrageous. I’m more shocked that the investigation and charges are dismissed rather than they are there in the first place.

I don’t know why the County Attorney dismissed the whole thing. He could have gone after anything he wants and would have gotten away with it. After all, that is the type of country we live in.