the stimulus and the two party system

Well politics is taking a fascinating turn as we head into this new administration. What will Obama do? What will congress do? How will the Republicans and Democrats work together or will they? How will Republicans act, with future elections on their mind. The two party system deserves a look at this time as well. If Obama and the democrats succeed in fixing our current problems, the Republicans will have a tougher time in the next election. If Obama fails they can make the case we need another Republican president. So how does this system work for the American people? Half of our government is hoping our government fails. Rush Limpballs even said it "I hope he fails!".

So do the Republicans best serve themselves by joining Dems? by obstructing them? or by sabotaging them on the sly?

Look at the stimulus package just passed by the House. Not one Republican voted for it. (this is AFTER Obama pressured Dems to remove key parts of the Bill at the request of the Republicnas) Their spokesperson said it included a bunch of the Democrats' "pet projects" and was a waste of government money. That is helpful: it clearly shows how the Republicans think about government. Roads, schools, healthcare, jobs, renewable energy, breaking our dependancy on foreign oil, these are a waste of money are the silly pet socialist projects of the tax and spend Democrats. This is after most of them voted to give an equal amount of money to wall Street without any oversight or requirements that the banks who get money do anything useful with it. We now know that $18 billion of that tax payer money was used for CEO bonuses. That is how out of wack the system is. These guys drive the world into recession, need the US government to bail them out, and they figure they deserve $18 billion in bonuses.

Their stance does bring one question to mind: what IS their idea of the role of government if not to provide these basic infrastructure projects and social programs? Of course we know the answer; provide a global police state in which the corporate elite can increase their share of the world's wealth. It should be crystal clear. Of course they are good at false advertising so they convince people that government spending is socialism and is BAD, that money given to rich people will trickle down to the poor, and that in a free country people should be able to earn as much as they can without sharing it (even though they could not make that much money without the commonly owned resources and infrastructure that the US allows them to take advantage of). How much money could any of them make if they lived alone on a desert island?
Look at Exxon, in 2008, the year of the recession and gas shock, they made $48 billion in profit! Meanwhile people are being foreclosed on and layed off at record rates and the republicans refuse to tax companies like Exxon. Talk about redustribution of wealth, they say Obama wants to 'spread' the wealth and that is so bad. But the Republicans want to CONCENTRATE the wealth. Which philosophy is more democratic? The republicans want to turn the US into a third world nation, it is as simple as that.

They cry socialism against Obama but look at how much money they are willing to give the military - a socialist military - and now to wallstreet - the socialist banking system.

The other cry of the republicans is that government is the problem. Well that is a self fullfilling proficy when they are in charge of it. But how ilogical is it to say America is this incredible place full of incredible people and we are in fact so good that we need to spread our form of government throughout the world, by force when necessary but that our government can't do anything right and our government is actually the problem. How is it the Republicans think they can run multinational corporations so well but not governments? Of course if you look at the banks right now and corporations like Enron, seems they can't run those well either.

My point in all this is why the hell are they allowed to have any say in our government? OK, they should have a say, let's give them about 20% of the seats in congress, that is generous since they represent the interests of 1% of the population. The libertarians can have 15%, greens 20%, and that leaves 45% for the democrats. Then when Dems want to get legislation passed they will have to pull in some greens or republicans so the dems can't do anything they want, and the minority parties will want to be on the side of helping the dems succeed in order to possibly increase their partie's representation. I think that would be a much better system than the two party 'if we can't win nobody will win' system we have now.

OK, rather than giving them thsese seats what if we simply did it like many European countries and gave out congressional seats according to the percentage of votes the party receives. Then voting for a 'third' party would not be 'throwing your vote away'.

Bottom line, the Republican system failed (supported by many democrats make no mistake), now let's try Obama's version and see if he can do better. I am guessing he can, as long as the Republicans don't sabatage him for their own political interests in our screwed up two party system that is just short of being a true democracy.

Jan 20, 2009 looking foward to good things

Well today is the day, January 20, 2009, my bumper sticker calls it "The End of an Error". But not only is it the end of Bush/Cheney it is the beginning of Obama/Biden.

Many progressives and liberals are still a bit cynical about Obama and the conservative lean he has taken but I am looking at the glass half full, and this is what I see:

I am so looking forward to having a President that makes me smile when I see him and hear him. A President that is inspiring and intelligent. Obama recently met for an hour and half with the supreme court and reports say they were "blown away" by his intelligence.

I am looking foward to the United States being respected once again throughout the world. Not perfect of course but at least respected to the degree we once were.

I am looking forward to having scientists in charge of the EPA, and energy and environmental policies.

I am looking forward to having a president that believes action must be taken to curb global climate change.

I am looking forward to an Administration that put experts, not cronies, in charge of FEMA, the veterans administration, and department of agriculture.

I am looking forward to a President who is willing to talk with those who were formerly considered our enemies.

I am looking forward to descendants of slaves living in the White House which was built by slaves.

I am looking forward to a time when ideas like green jobs and green energy are part of the mainstream debate and hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in such things.

I am looking forward to having a President who can unite those who disagree to get things done rather than divide us to get his way. A president who is going to do his best to run all aspects of the country as well as he can.

I am looking forward to having a competent president!

I am looking forward to an end to government sponsored torture and other war crimes.

I am looking forward to improved health care and education systems.

I am looking forward to smarter trade policies.

I am looking forward to liking our President even when I disagree with him.

I am looking forward to the end of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (We can HOPE)

I am looking forward to a President who I believe has a truly good heart.

I am looking forward to the 44th President of the United States: Barack Hussein Obama!

Waging Peace, The US congress, and Gaza

Hi there,

Well every morning the news is worse, more people slaughtered in Gaza. War is horrible and the conflict there is complicated and has been a long standing one. There is plenty of blame to go around.

What finally spurred me to write this morning was what I heard come out of the US Senate. They passed a resolution with an overwhelming majority voicing support for Israel's right to defend themselves. In the same resolution they said they fully support the "peace" process.
This illustrates so well, as did the overwhelming support for the war in Afghanistan, that our elected government is so militaristic they are blind to reality. So far, it seems, Obama is in this camp too, I hope he surprises me. Dennis Kucinich, my favorite of the dems in the primary, was one of the few senators to speak out against the resolution.

We need to WAGE PEACE, not war, if peace is what we want.

If the goal is peace then the question is what is the best action to take to work towards peace. I suggest the action taken by Hamas, Israel, and condoned by the US Senate is exactly the wrong action and will only deepen the conflict.

Interestingly enough this conflict in Gaza has flared up between the birthdays of Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. Today I am discussing with my discussion group here at school the subjects of peace, justice, and equality in preparation for next week's march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Now sure, Israel has the right to "defend" themselves. I personally take issue with the degree of "defense" they are engaging in. If the boy next door throw rocks at your house you don't go and burn theirs down while their baby sister is trapped inside and then prevent the fire department from rescuing the screaming child.
Last I heard ten Israelis had been killed (four by Israeli friendly fire) and nearly 800 Palestinians had been killed 20% of which were children.

The stories are horrific of course, war is horrific. We are talking about children laying with their dead mothers for days while the Israeli troops prevent the Red Cross from entering the building to rescue the survivors in the bombed building (this according to the Red Cross). Regardless of what Hamas has done to provoke this how will those children grow up to feel about Israel?
But I do not want to argue whether or not Israel has the right to defend themselves in this way. My feelings should be obvious. But I would argue with the idea that this is the smart thing to do if Israel wants the bombs from the Palestinians (and support from countries like Iran) to stop.
It is insane logic and has been proved wrong by all the previous military action taken by Israel.


The fact is by bombing and killing people you just increase the hatred and fear felt by the people in that country. This fear usually radicalizes at least a large percentage of the population who in turn end up supporting more radical, militaristic governments. The Palestinians need to learn this. With every bomb they send they put fear in the hearts of Israelis and give increased support for their right wing leaders.

When Israel isolates places like Gaza, when they turn their country into a virtual prison, keeping the people in poverty, (what the Vatican likened to a concentration camp) they cause the Palestinians to become increasingly desperate as well. Episodes like this where Israel goes in and slaughters and maims thousands of people, destroys thousands of homes, schools, and mosques, this really must put fear in the hearts and minds of the Palestinians. I doubt any of us reading this blog can even begin to imagine what it would be like. This will not be easily forgotten by the people who survive and will certainly turn some to take actions we would call "terrorism". War is always "terrorism". What do you think Bush's "Shock and Awe" in Baghdad was all about? It was meant to "terrorize" the Iraqi's into submission.

War is not the answer!

And after this horrific overwhelming use of military forces it DISGUSTS me that the US Senate would take the time to pass a resolution in support of Israel. Why not spend the time to call on BOTH sides to stop the fighting! And our government, by doing this, is negligent in their duty to keep the American people safe. Our elected officials claim they want to protect us from terrorism. How do you think the Arab world feels about the US when they watch what is happening in Gaza and then they see our government falling all over themselves to voice their support for the slaughter. Regardless of what you believe, this is not a wise strategy in the push to end the hatred that drives some to use terrorism against us.

The cycle of violence will only stop when one side decides to stop it. The only way to stop it is to STOP being violent. If Hamas stops then Israel will have no way to legitimate it's military actions and if Israel stops then same can be said about Hamas.

Now there is one other factor and that is the fact Israel has so much control over Palestine that they can terrorize the Palestinians without using military force, as we have seen in their isolation of Gaza during the recent cease-fire. For this reason Israel has more responsibility in this picture. Israel, if it wants peace, must show it by WAGING PEACE on Palestine. Open the boarders, let Palestinian farmers go to their farms, through economic aide uplift the Palestinians so they are not in desperate poverty. Not Israel's responsibility you say?, well if they want peace it might be worth the investment. Or perhaps they should meet with Egypt, Iran, or other Arab nations and allow them to provide humanitarian and economic aide to Palestine.

Point is someone has to turn the other cheek, be the BIGGER person, and to truly wage peace.

Same is true of the American Government! We should cut our military budget by say 5% a year. This money could be invested in an effort to wage peace in countries we believe are a threat. Building schools instead of bombing them, helping farmers, providing water, building hospitals. Lifting people out of poverty would give them less reason to hate us, take away the leverage their extremist governments have, and reduce the ability of radical groups like Al Qaida to recruit new members.

It is simple, if Al Qaida knocks on two doors. Behind one they talk with a man who's family was killed by a US bomb while attending a wedding in Afghanistan and behind the other they find a man who was given a tractor and taught how to farm his land sustainably by the US government which one do you think will join Al Qaida?

As we said in the 80's. No Duh!

In the honor of Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. we need to let our voices for peace be heard. Voting is not enough. Write letters or get out in the streets and shut down cities, whatever your style, don't be silent, if you care about peace, justice, and equality.

work for peace and pray for an end to the killing.