Posts in category: 1

CHECK-IT-OUT:  GOP Rhetoric on the Constitution at

Think Progress

Conservatives just love the U.S. Constitution!  We all know they do because they constantly rant and rail that only they ‘revere the Constitution, and all those Liberals don’t cherish the historic document that our country was founded on, and only Conservatives understand it.’

Well, we’d better understand what it is that Conservatives understand about the Constitution. 

— According to Think Progress, many Republican officials, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have indicated that they believe that child labor laws are unconstitional.  

— The newly elected Junior Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul (R) asserts that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to ban whites-only lunch counters.

— Many Conservatives also claim that the minimum wage is unconstitutional — again, including Clarence Thomas.

— Senator Tom Coburn, (R-OK) and many other GOP members of Congress believe that all federal education programs, which include Pell Grants and student loans, are unconstitutional.

— Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently stated that the Constitution has “nothing to say about discrimination against women.”

— Other Conservatives, including Utah Senator Mike Lee (R), have declared that the Seventeenth Amendment — which amended the Constitution to let voters in the States elect their own Senators rather than having them appointed by the Governor — “was a mistake.”

— Famous Conservative, Congressman Ron Paul from Texas, claims that “the U.S. dollar is unconstitutional.”  Apparently we should only be using gold.

— Senators Paul, Lee and Coburn all have stated that they believe that Social Security and Medicare are also unconstitutional.  In their “Pledge to America” the GOP embraces the “tenther” view of the Constitution which would declare that Social Security and Medicare, and other programs, are unconstitutional.

We understand that the Constitution, like much of the written word, can be interpreted differently by different people.  And that is why it is so important that all Americans take the time to understand what it is that the Conservative Republicans understand the Constitution to say about our rights and liberties. 

When we use our vote to put Republicans in control, we need to know that we are empowering Republicans to appoint the members of the third branch of our government — our judiciary, which will make decisions about our personnel rights and liberties as given to us in our Constitution. 

We MUST be vigilant in our oversight of political candidates, and be clear in our own minds that the votes we cast will elect representatives that actually represent our own understanding of the Constitution and of the kind of country that we want to live in. 

According to Steve Aurillio, professor of Criminal Justice Department at Skyline College, California “Penal Code 12020 makes it a felony to possess a blackjack, a slingshot, a billy club, a sandbag, metal knuckles or a dagger.  Yet Penal Codes 12025, 12031, and 417 make possession of a concealed or loaded firearm and brandishing simple misdemeanors, punishable by no more than a year in jail.”

This makes no sense.  I guess we here at CLN have been listening to President Obama for long enough that we’ve actually come to look at issues as he suggests:  from the perspective of pragmatism.  Some on the Right talk about the need for America to use “common sense” — and that’s where we want to start.

In reviewing our first paragraph we can’t imagine that applying common sense could possibly lead to differing Left/Right policies.  The Penal Codes need to actually reverse their catagories:  Possessing blackjacks, slingshots, billy clubs, sandbags, metal knuckles and daggers should be misdemeanors;  and possession of concealed or loaded firearms and brandishing them should be felonies.   

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, speaking out in The Huffington Post as a member of the bipartisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, just released a poll that was conducted jointly by a Democratic and Republican polling firm that revealed amazing agreement across political lines.

“Among its key findings:

• Americans overwhelmingly believe the Second Amendment protects the rights of law abiding individuals to buy guns:  79% of Americans believe that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own guns and only 17% would support a proposal to ban all handgun sales.
• Americans overwhelmingly believe that felons, drug abusers, and the mentally ill should not have access to guns and that more needs to be done to ensure that their records are in the federal background check system: 90% of Americans and 90% of gun owners support fixing gaps in government databases that are meant to prevent the mentally ill, drug abusers and others from buying guns. Likewise, 89% of Americans and 89% of gun owners support full funding of the law a unanimous Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed after the Virginia Tech massacre to put more records in the background check database.
• Americans overwhelmingly believe that its time to close the loopholes that make it possible for people to buy guns without background checks: 86% of Americans and 81% of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.”

There appears to be a lot of agreement on gun safety.  Mayor Bloomberg tells us that their bipartisan organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has grown in the last five years to have more than 550 mayors from across the country.  The growing consensus is that we can do more to keep dangerous people, including criminals and the mentally ill, from having easy access to guns.

Both Republicans and Democrats have recently expressed intentions of “trying to find common ground.”  We know they can’t agree on many issues, but if they are serious about finding policies they can agree on — and to act on that agreement — we ask them to come to agreement on a sane policy on gun safety.

The Right has won on the issue of guns.  Now they must be responsible for gun safety.  The time for demagoguing is over for both the Left and the Right.  It’s time for Washington to act to keep our people safe from guns and bullets in the hands of dangerous people.

Sarah Palin.  There — that’s the last time we’ll say that name.  We’re so over her.  And, wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if the rest of media did the same?  She finally showed her true colors this week, and everyone knows where it will all end for her.  There’s no one outside of her base that has the least bit of interest in her or what she thinks.  THE END.

Ezra Klein, columnist for the Washington Post, reminded us this week in a TV interview that during the health care debate there were members of both parties in Congress saying that there was 80% agreement on what to do about health care reform.  80%.  So the actual fact of the matter is that there was 20% of the legislation that the Republican Senators and House Republicans did not like.

The Republicans at that point in the health care reform effort had two choices:  they could have negotiated with the Democrats to address that 20% they didn’t agree with;  or they could have demonized the entire reform effort, claiming that it was a government take over of the health care industry, in order to win an election cycle;  and then they could follow that up with an attempt to REPEAL 100% of the new law — including the 80% that they actually agreed with!  We know what they chose to do, and it wasn’t to help the country move forward, even though they agreed with 80% of the plan.  Hmmmmm, and they accuse us of being unpatriotic.  I’m not saying they’re unpatriotic … I’m just saying.

According to Major Garrett, with the National Journal, the latest Pew polls show us that moderate Republicans and Independents are moving away from the health care issue.  What’s worse for Republicans in the House is that the insurance industry is getting a good look at how the reform legislation will actually work, and they like what they see and think it can work for them AND for Americans.  That can’t be good news for the Right.  If the insurance companies don’t want the law reapealed they will put pressure on the Republicans to back off.  Oh dear, oh dear.

We’re all being encouraged to play nice in politics, and we do agree that it would be a wonderful thing if the tone of the political debates could be moderated.  I for one am willing to give the Right a chance to get it together and stop playing just to win elections, and really do step up to the plate and help govern our country.  I think they could to it.  I don’t think they will, but I’ll wait and see.

Matt Bai tells us in his article in yesterday’s New York Times, A Turning Point in the Discourse, but in Which Direction? that the Arizona shooting is going to be a turning point for America.  We at CLN think so too, and agree that at this point it’s hard to tell which way Americans are going to choose to turn.

The media and Democrats seem to be struggling to say, “We all have to tone down the violent rhetoric,” and trying hard not to point fingers of blame.  That will be a tough tightrope to walk, because while there is culpability both Left and Right there could be no possible claim of equivalency between the two parties.  And conservatives know that.

We know they know because the first reaction from the Right upon hearing about the shooting was, “Oh my God, what if the shooter is from the political Right?”  Deborah Solomon, right-winger from the San Francisco Chronicle, admitted as much on CNN Saturday. 

Joe Scarbough said today on his TV show, Morning Joe, that he and his wife both thought for the first few hours following the tragic news that the shooting was likely committed by a deranged Tea Partier.  We all thought the same thing — Left and Right thought that. 

Sarah Palin thought that when she pulled her “cross-hairs map” from her website within an hour of the shooting.  Why would she do that if her first thought wasn’t, “OMG, I might be in trouble.”

And, why would everyone think the same thing if somehow we didn’t all understand that both Left and Right are not equally culpable?  We know and they know that their political rhetoric is over the top, but it’s working for them in elections so they’re reluctant to give it up. 

We all want to believe that both sides are equally responsible because that would make it sooo much easier to deal with — we could all just agree to change our wicked ways.  The reality is harder because the Right doesn’t want to admit their guilt, and the Democrats are going to give them a pass hoping that they will really change this time. 

Maybe they will.  We’re waiting to see.  And hoping they will — we’re Liberals, that’s what we do — we believe in what’s possible.  As Ted Kennedy said at his brother Bobby’s funeral, quoting his slain brother, “Some men see things as they are and say why.  I dream things that never were and say why not.”

UPDATE:

AIDE TO SARAH PALIN, REBECCA MANSOUR ASSERTS, “OUR CROSSHAIRS MAP HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH VIOLENCE OR GUNS.”

Uh huh.  Good luck to you with that explanation.  Unfortunately, Ms. Palin herself has undermined her aide’s rationalization last November following the election when she bragged that her PAC had defeated all but two of the Democrats she had targeted with what she referred to as her “bull’s-eye list.”  BULL’S-EYE LIST?!!

How pathetic that this Palin aide is now trying to explain it all away as a “misunderstanding” and that the cross-hairs image was never meant to evoke guns or violence, when crosshairs images are usually associated with gun sights.  The aide claims it was “simply cross-hairs like you’d see on maps,” and that “we never, ever, ever intended it to be gun sights.”

This dodge will not work, not when Palin herself tweeted a message last March about her “cross-hairs map” she’d posted on her Facebook page — tweeting:  “Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America:  ‘Don’t Retreat, Instead — RELOAD!’  Pls see my Facebook page.”  A clear message linking the “cross-hairs map” with guns.

Unlessssssss, well perhaps Ms. Mansour now wants to try to redefine the word RELOAD to mean something other than guns … I don’t know, maybe RELOAD your PEZ dispensers???  SPIN SPIN SPIN.

VIOLENT POLITICAL RHETORIC

Whether the shooter of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had political motives for his violent act or not, or as is more likely has serious mental problems — or whether any potential political motives of his might be from the Left or Right — this is the time to take a good hard look at the deterioration of our political discourse, and the disasterous course we seem to be on.

We ducked this assessment following Tim McVeigh’s violent political act against our government.  Bill Clinton tried to point out that words have consequences … but he was quickly shut-up by the strength of the Right and their amazing propensity for denial, perhaps even self-denial.

Let’s not lose this opportunity to face where we are in our political life as a country.  Let’s start with asking a few questions.

Should someone ask the losing GOtP (Tea Party) Senate candidate from Nevada, Sharon Angle, whether or not this shooting is what she had in mind when she ran on the platform of, “If elections don’t solve the country’s problems, then we may have to look to Second Amendment Remedies?”   

And, Sister Sarah, why were you in such a hurry to take down your internet-posted map of your “targeted” elected officials — targeted with rifle cross-hairs over their names?  You removed your “targets map” within an hour of the shooting.  Why, Sarah, why?  If you didn’t see a possible connection between your “Lock and Load” rhetoric and the attempted assassination of an elected official, why did you rush to take down your “targets map?”

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann encouraged her fellow Minnesotans to be “Armed and Dangerous” when opposing any cap-and-trade carbon emission legislation.  Gabrielle Giffords’ GOP opponent in the November election held a fundraiser with a gun theme.  His campaign flyers read:  “Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office, shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.” 

Will the Right finally own up (at least in the privacy of their own hearts) to the fact that their “Take Up Your Arms” rhetoric is an invitation to violence?  We don’t know yet what caused this man to execute his assassination plan and open fire on the Congresswoman and her people, but we do know that the overheated political violent language is firing people up — and with the potential for very dangerous consequences.

Many worry that violence in the media, in music and in video games, make kids more violent and if that is true then how could it be possible that the blood-sport framing of government by politicians and media figures isn’t just as potentially lethal?  Violence simply cannot be the answer to America’s problems.  Whatever the motive of this assassin, the “Lock and Load” language and “Second Amendment Remedies” stances must finally come to an end.

Words have consequences.

CHECK-IT-OUT at The New Republic:  “What if They Repealed Obamacare?” by Jonathan Cohn. 

A handful of Republican Governors are planning to sabotage the new health care legislation — The Affordable Care Act.  They rant and rave about socialism and a government takeover of everything, all the while making dire predictions about the consequences of implementing O B A M A C A R E … sooo scary!

Jonathan Cohn explores the consequences of actually repealing the new law in this terrific article.  He informs us that The Affordable Care Act, “…. would put in place a whole series of cost-cutting measures designed to promote quality medicine and, over time, curb the year-to-year spikes in health insurance premiums. The law would encourage coordination among health care providers, begin to scrutinize treatments for comparative effectiveness and link hospital payments to performance, among other things.”

The newly elected Governor of Michigan, Mike Cox, is among those trying to destroy the new law.  Jonathan Cohn asks, “Does Cox think Michiganders are better off when their physicians don’t consult with one another, when they pay more for inferior treatments and when Medicare continues to pay high reimbursements to hospitals that don’t take the simple steps necessary for preventing infections around catheters? For that matter, does he think Michigan businesses — already struggling with health care costs — prefer a world in which the government doesn’t start to reduce overall health care spending?”

Maybe the Governor could explain to his constituents why insurance companies should continue to overrule doctors on decisions about their patients treatments and why it would be the smart thing to do to continue allowing stockholders to take huge profits out of everyone’s premium dollars.  

Michiganders deserve an explanation as to why the senior citizens in his state should continue being stuck in the Medicare Part D doughnut hole — that massive gap that Medicare recipients now face in prescription drug coverage — that the new health care law gradually closes.

Of course, what’s true for Michigan is true for the rest of the country.

Record profits are being posted by health insurance companies, while at the same time they are complaining mightily and trying to weaken the new regulations through their lobbyists.  These unprecedented profits fly in the face of their claims that the new regulations will harm the industry!

Despite a growing number of Americans forgoing the purchase of health insurance, these folks are still raking in impressive profits.  The largest insurer, Wellpoint reports a 4 percent INCREASE for the 2nd quarter and generated earnings of $1.6 billion from the beginning of the year, which is a 26 percent increase over the same period in 2009.  And Aetna reports that its “second-quarter profits rose 42 percent, with a net income of $492 million, compared with $346.6 million for the same quarter last year.”

Whew.

A recently released report, by Health Care for American Now, finds that the 10 largest health insurance companies paid their CEOs a “collected pay of $228.1 million, up from $85.5 million in 2008.”  Health insurance CEOs, as a group, got a raise of 167 percent, and the rest of us got about a 2 percent increase in average wages.  What’s wrong with this picture? “

Crying “poor” just does not appear to be justified.  Would it be possible for them to trim their heady bottom-lines a bit for the good of the nation?  We ask our military to sacrifice;  we ask our middle class to suck-it-up and lower their living standards;  we ask our labor unions to accept lowered benefits than their legally negotiated contracts give them.  But, somehow — the health insurance companies just can’t help share in the national responsibilities that the rest of us are meeting!?!

And the real burn is that insurance companies earned more, in part, because they have spent less money on actually providing for their customers medical care!  Democrats are making the point that their record profits should prevent them from raising their premiums next year.  Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA), who is Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee, released a statement, “Wellpoint and Aetna are on track for great years with multi-billion dollar profits.  Now it’s time for them to return those windfalls to their enrollees in the form of reduced premiums. With business booming, there is no excuse for any premium hikes or benefit cuts next year by Wellpoint or Aetna in their private sector or Medicare Advantage plans.”

After more than 30 years of conservatives elevating Big-Business to a lofty position above the rest of Americans, these guys just don’t seem to get it that they don’t deserve their big bonuses and salaries while the rest of the nation suffers.  We’re either all in it together as Americans … or we’re not.  And if the answer is “we’re not” then I suspect our best days are behind us as a country.  We just can’t continue to sustain this growing income divide without destroying our economy and our nation’s future.

And now, Republican legislators are going to try to remove any constraints on the health insurance companies’ unpatriotic and unseemly quest for their own profits — and that has to be fought with all our might.

UPDATE ON OBAMA TAX COMPROMISE:

Many missed a key component of Obama’s tax cut compromise:  It included the extension of very important energy tax credits for wind and solar projects that were expected to expire at the end of the year.  AND tens of thousands of American jobs in the renewable energy sector were saved — for another year anyway.

Wind farms and solar projects will get the go-ahead on a fast track in this promising new economic sector for American jobs — jobs that can’t be outsourced.  According to the New York Times Denise Bode from the American Wind Energy Association said that this deal is, “a great holiday present for the 85,000 American workers in the wind energy industry, tens of thousands of whom will now be able to get back to work.”