Idiotic Political Stance on Stimulus

While it is wise to be conservative when it comes to our government spending it is idiotic to think that the government has absolutely no business interfering in the free markets of our economy when our nation is facing an economic depression. Republicans in the Congress are railing against the stimulus package simply because they have always been conservative when it comes to their constituents. What about the same constituents that are getting pink slips all over their districts? While Republicans demand fiscal responsibility they miss the point that many of the people that voted for them in the past have now been laid off or facing a layoff and will depend on unemployment insurance to feed their families and live on.

Unemployment benefits to the states is included in the stimulus package for Republican voters as well as Democrats, Independents, Green Party and the notorious moderates that have no clue as to which side of the fence to sit on from issue to issue facing the long road to finding some form of employment. Are unemployed Republicans not going to sign up for unemployment insurance? I can understand Bernie Madoff not signing up for benefits but that is another topic for another post.

Over at The Atlantic, Marc Ambinder has some interesting thoughts of the Hoover’esque style of Republican Congressional leadership and its members on why they are trying every tactic possible to stop any stimulus to our economy and why it is failing in public opinion…

The Political Case For The Stimulus, If You're A Vulernable Republican
28 Jan 2009 10:58 am

Over a 48 hour period when 100,000 job layoffs have been announced, Hill Republicans have decided to take a stand against the stimulus.

Now - President Obama's approval rating is about 70%;
Congressional approval is still around 20%;

After the election, Democrats still have a 9 point lead in generic identification.

The public approves of the stimulus plan by a very large margin - the numbers vary with the wording of the poll question, but it's at least a plus 40%.

Obama is the most talented political figure of our generation - Boehner and McConnell are, uh, less talented.

Obama's got the megaphone, they've got...

Republicans are trying to use fiscal discipline as their excuse for opposition, but they whistled away that former strength away over Bush's presidency.
- The Atlantic and Marc Ambinder

A good friend reminded me in the comment section on another post what politics is really all about and that some folks do okay with government politics and others excel at it. The end result of what you want achieved is all in the dance steps and ability to know the tempo of the music. While I didn’t think President Obama should be kissing the Republican leadership back side, I do see that he let them paint the canvas and paint it they did. President Obama is seeing an approval rating not seen in decades by the American people because of his desire for true bipartisan politics and leadership. Thus I believe we elected the right person for the times ahead of us. President Obama.

Republicans would rather see the American people suffer simply because they can stand on millionaire bank account standards. The Republican members only solution to the economic crisis is more tax cuts for the mega rich and that is the end of the discussion. Could that be that not one single Republican member of the Congress has a net worth of less than a million dollars? Extending the Bush era tax cuts and the trickle down theory will save the nation… NOT! Big business tax cuts for the benefit of the few and nothing for the people that used to work on the factory floors that just need to find a new job somewhere else is the Republican mantra. Get a job you dead beats, even if it is at one quarter of the pay you had just a few months before is their mentality. That my friends is the “Let them eat cake” thought process and we all know what happened to the person that the quote was uttered from.

Word to the wise to you deadbeats (Republican Terminology, not mine), don’t apply for work at Home Depot and the hundreds of other minimum wage employers and companies that are announcing thousands of layoffs per day. They are not hiring because the economy is in a tailspin. Hoover did nothing and we all know the result of his inaction. So that makes my point that Republicans are just playing the field against the stimulus and their election or re-election will tell the tale in 2010. The “I’ve got Mine” mentality is not about the lower and middle classes of America when it comes to anything the Republican Party and their representatives in government are concerned. Buy a freaking apple cart and start your own small business!

This all makes me wonder if you have to be a millionaire to be a Republican elected leader and speak from such a higher than tho pulpit.

Papamoka

Update 10:04 PM 1/28/2009
Not one Republican in the House voted for the current stimulus plan that passed in the Congress late today. President Obama wins the higher road benefits in the peoples hearts.


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Huckabee Preacher or President?

Don’t get me wrong because for the most part I think Mike Huckabee is probably one of the more genuine candidates over on the Republican side of the election. His sense of humor is realistically enough suited to him when it comes to the non stop religious questions thrown at him. Being a Republican candidate for President you pretty much need to be wearing your religion on your sleeve and if you are not then you better be explaining yourself. Which brings me to the thought process of why Mike Huckabee is not giving a JFK speech like Mitt Romney did just a few days ago? After all, Mitt is only a Mormon faith member, he was never a religious leader of his flock like Mike Huckabee was.

Is Mike Huckabee not concerned about all the people of the Jewish faith that just might also be a Republican. How about all them Catholic Republican’s like Bill O‘Reilly? Skip the Catholic’s, we gave up on Bill O’Reilly when he signed his pact with the devil but don’t tell anyone. Everyone knows that being a Catholic and a Republican too is like taking scuba diving lessons by jumping out of a plane at ten thousand feet, those two things just do not go together.

Is it possible for a preacher to go from the religious pulpit to the Presidential podium? Granted Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas but that is in the midst of the bible belt and in those states having the right religion can be the gold card of politics.

Over at MotherJones.com they have this very interesting read on just this subject…

Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel?

Washington Dispatch: Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.

By David Corn and Jonathan Stein
December 10, 2007

Now that he has his moment in the political spotlight, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee does not want his days at the pulpit to be scrutinized.

As Huckabee has surged to the front of the Republican pack in Iowa, his religious views have drawn media and voter attention. After all, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, has been campaigning as a "Christian leader." But he has vacillated on how far to interject faith into politics. At an early debate, he indicated he does not believe in evolution, but at a more recent debate, when he was asked by Wolf Blitzer if the creation of the Earth occurred six thousand years ago and only took six days, as stated in the Old Testament, Huckabee said, "I don't know. I wasn't there." During a question-and-answer session with students at fundamentalist Liberty University last month, he asserted that his rise in the polls has an explanation that is "beyond human" and is due to the power of his supporters' prayers. Afterward, he backtracked slightly, adding, "I'm saying that when people pray, things happen.... I'm not saying that God wants me to be elected." (At a victory rally held after Huckabee won a 1993 special election for lieutenant governor, Huckabee told his supporters that he had only won because God had intervened, according to the Texarkana Gazette.) - MotherJones.com

It perplexes me why the topic of religion is so heavily debated among the Republican’s in the race for the Presidency and it never ends. Fractures in the political party of the current President are rampant from state to state and it will not end until the last vote is cast. If the thinking behind the votes cast is solely based on a candidates religious belief then the voters do not see what politics is really all about. Being President is not about what God you believe in or how many times you attend services. It’s about making decisions for the greater good of all of our people. Current President exception. There are decisions to be made that frankly, yes religion and your personal faith can and will have a bearing on but there is also the fact that as President you have to defend the Constitution of the United States of America to the best of your abilities over any other vow you have ever taken in your life. There is no exception written into the oath that you must take once elected President of this nation. Again, current President exception.

Thou shall not kill, one of the biggies of the ten commandments is pretty relevant if you are the Commander in Chief of our nations military. Can the preacher break this commandment by using military force where many lives could be lost as President of our country to defend our people? If not, then how does he defend our nation and prove that America is not to be messed with by all the little dictators that think they are the next toughest kid on the block? Could he direct the CIA to find and kill terrorist leaders around the world that are intent on the ultimate destruction of America? Could Huckabee put the bible down to make these kind of decisions and live with it or not?

There is a large difference between a Sunday sermon and the highest political office in the land. Sermons are easy enough, running a nation is not about words and phrases that can roll off the tongue. It’s about actions that President’s have to take and in some instances it runs counter to whatever religion you have under your belt. Once more the current President exception.

Papamoka

Cross posted over at Michael Linn Jones and Bring IT ON!

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Republican YouTube Debate on CNN

Thinking men and woman want straight answers to legitimate questions. Something we did not see from the many Republicans on the CNN YouTube debates. One thing that I personally found in the gang of dark warriors for no change in the status quo was a stutter. Every questions answer started with a stumbling, there was not one candidate that could just answer the questions without bobbing and weaving and the art of not answering the questions was something that political students should be forced to watch in our nations colleges. Romney and Giuliani perfected it on one question after another by diverting to something totally out of context from the question.

While the Mitt and Rudi cat fight was going on I noticed a certain twinkle of appreciation in their eyes for one another. I’m taking a big risk bet here but I’m putting the money where my keyboard is and no matter which one of these two wins the Republican nomination, they will pick the other for the second highest office in the land. I’m going to Google search the Vegas odd’s on that one before I go any further but in my gut it looks like they have something going on… politically of course.

Personally, the nightmare question of the night to the Republican candidates was posed by the gay retired Army General. He simply tried to point out that many of our military members are discharged from service for being gay or lesbian and thought that was wrong. Not one of the candidates had a clear and to the point answer if the military will ever accept gays or lesbians. For the most part they ran from the question and ducked into the religious pews of the conservative bible belt. Apparently, all of our military personnel come from the bible belt, news to me seeing that we buried Captain Jennifer Harris in Swampscott Massachusetts and many more New England troops since the start of this war. I’ll need some help from my friends in the military on what “Unit Cohesion” is but I’m guessing that most military members don’t give a crap what you do on your time off as long as you do your job when the time comes to do your military job. If it works in the private sector, why can it not work in the military?

It does matter if the question was planted as charged during the debate and post debate commentary. My question is if Karl Rove is really retired from politics during this election. If you watched the debate and CNN afterward it was instantly attributed to Senator Clinton’s campaign without proof. Throw the mud, it sticks in some corners simply because the accusation was on CNN. Even if it was planted, as much as it is wrong to do so, that man and that retired General is still a citizen and he has the right to ask the question of the candidates as much as anyone else in America.

Still the question proposed simply smells of Karl Rove and I wonder who’s paying his salary today? Each one of the Republican candidates were swallowing a little bile and hoping it was not their turn to answer next. Somebody Google search it and let me know where Karl Rove is working will ya? I’m laying bets that he is working for some political organization and on loan to candidate question mark.

Ron Paul actually impressed me but not enough to change my vote from my personal political party. He seemed to nervous and stumbled on his replies far to often. I do have to say that he is the far left of the Republican party and not ashamed of where he stands on ending the war in Iraq. Even John McCain could not sway him off his stance and those two had some words that was clearly uncomfortable for Ron Paul. McCain played the mad grandfather for most of the night and pretty much took the whipping stick to Mitt and Ron on several occasions. You could see the anger in his face regarding torture of prisoners of war and rightfully so. That anger is what troubles me if he were in fact in the seat behind the desk in the oval office. Mitt fumbled and stuttered through the question on what is torture and even more so on McCain‘s defense of the Geneva Convention.

Best comment of the night came from Mike Huckabee… “Jesus would never run for President” No kidding! I’m not thinking that he would be a Republican or a Democrat but he might be tipping over the tables of the finance committees of most of the candidates running for office. If money is buying the next Presidential election then Jesus and I are tipping the tables together.

Screw the money and follow the character of the individual. Pride and honesty are in the details but humility is in the soul.

Papamoka

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