In 2012, Twitter was buzzing with the hashtag #WarAgainstWomen. It was a reference to all the Republican talk about rape is good, contraception is bad, encourage violence against women by voting AGAINST the Violence Against Women Act… multiple times. Their obvious war against women was a plus for the Obama administration, as women flocked to the President and supported his re-election in droves.
On this weeks Meet The Press, Steve Schmidt, a Republican Strategist attempted to explain the problem with the Republican party and women. Schmidt explains, “It’s one of the problems we have structurally in the Republican Party… Any company, any organization in today’s day and age that doesn’t give equal opportunity to women, that doesn’t advance women to the table, is going to be an organization that has difficulty competing.”
We all know that Republicans are not being honest when they say President Obama is increasing the deficit. And what makes that lie even worse is when they try to tie the sequester into their false claim.
But facts don’t lie, and Rachel Maddow used one of her segments last night to debunk both Republican lies – that Obama has increased the deficit and that reducing the deficit is their reason for favoring the sequester.
Another day, another Time of arguing, bickering, finger-pointing and disagreements. No, not your kids, Grown Ups in Washington. I don’t know about you, but I feel as though It’s Time for “Grown Ups” to start acting like “Grown Ups”.
Speaker Boehner is blaming President Obama for the upcoming disaster called the Sequester, President Obama is firing back stating the Congress needs to act before We, The People, fall into yet another catastrophic economic meltdown. GOP members Ted Cruz, a freshman, has joined the fray with the “blame game” stating the President isn’t doing enough on Immigration Reform. Adults, acting like children. Or, is it just children dressed up in Adult clothing?
Senator’s McCain, Graham, Rubio, Ryan and the lot are making a mockery of the office in which they represent by, instead of bringing solid solutions of important issues, they take it to the media for “soundbite” and talking-points. As a grown up, do you, average American, go to the Source of your disagreement or do you cower and discuss with everyone other than the one you have the disagreement with? Hmmm, I tend to believe it’s not the latter for most of us.
What Time Is It? Well, It’s Time To Get This House in Order
Every American, even if you don’t follow politics, has seen the News Tickers counting down to the Sequester. Or you’ve heard about the Immigration issue. You’ve seen and heard about the confirmation hearings with Chuck Hagel, a Republican, trying to fight his way through intense questioning about his “true” allegiances. Ironically, it’s the Republicans that are holding up the process. Or how about the Gun Control Fight, or gay marriage issue or Obamacare? No matter where you stand on these issues, This House, The United States of America, is completely “Out of Order”.
We’re a Great Country that prides itself on multi-tasking, coming together to get big jobs accomplished, but as of late, oh, I’ll say since President Obama took office in 2009, members of the GOP have forgotten how to govern, how to work across the aisle, how to be grown ups. Newt Gingrich has boasted about how when he was Speaker of the House, he worked with President Clinton to pass important legislation. Speaker of the House Tipp O’Neil and President Reagan came together, contentiously, to move this nation forward with “Reaganomics”.
Well, That’s What Time It Is. Working TOGETHER. Or have we forgotten how to do that?
What Time Is It? It’s Time To Move Forward
Look, I know there’s tremendous animosities in Washington. The GOP and it’s surrogates don’t like President Obama but guess what? He’s the President so get over it. You were elected to work FOR THE PEOPLE of the United States of America. ALL of us, not just for your party. You took an oath before GOD and man to Serve the People. Well, do Your Job and Serve.
No more finger pointing. No more taking the arguments and/or disagreements to the media. Sit down, like grown ups, discuss, map out, dissect, compromise where it makes sense and Move Forward. Most jobs (if not all of them) have deadlines to meet. I don’t know of any successful job that waits for the last day or even goes past the deadline. Washington, Congress, Senators, House of Representatives, you’re not exempt.
Get it together…let’s Move Forward…that’s What Time It Is!
Once Chuck Hagel is finally confirmed as Secretary of Defense, he should think twice about accepting any lunch invitations from his former GOP colleagues. My fear is that he will become the meal. Yes, friends, the imploding tsunamic A-bomb that is the Republican Party is trying to claim another trophy for its sagging walls, but all they’ve done is drawn out a fight they’ve already given up on to a president they never get tired of losing to.
You would think that a decorated Vietnam veteran who served as a Senator would be a lock to be confirmed even in the polarized political world we live in. Apparently though, his maverick denunciations of Bush era foreign policy including a spot-on critique of why, exactly, we were in Iraq has led the true maverick, John McCain, to sputter and croak about service and events like Benghazi that have nothing to do with Hagel.
Then you have the reincarnation of Senator Joe McCarthy, Ted Cruz of Texas, who decided that disagreeing with Hagel was not enough and that he had to smear him by alleging that Hagel not only took money from Iran, but might have a problem with Israel’s foreign and domestic policies.
I don’t have to justify my support of Israel from a religious, cultural or moral perspective, but I have a real problem with the Netanyahu government’s policies on settlements and their hypocritical support of the ultra-religious parties he needs to keep his coalition. Religious governments of any stripe are dangerous, discriminatory and extreme, and the Orthodox who want to impose strict Jewish law on Israel are no exception. For the conservative Christian right in this country to blindly support Israel because they would protect Christian historical shrines is self-serving, and brooking absolutely no dissent is dangerous in any group.
Chuck Hagel’s questioning of Israel’s policies is what any good Defense Secretary would do. It’s what Hillary Clinton did as Secretary of State. Friends are always friends, but there are times when they can go too far. That’s when true friends tell them the truth. It doesn’t seem as if Netanyahu or the radical Republicans understand that message, and recent elections in Israel saw a backlash against Netanyahu. Israel must survive and I know that the United States government will do everything it can to ensure that. GOP questioning of Obama’s and Hagel’s motives is a red herring (in cream sauce).
Cruz’s accusations against Hagel’s patriotism relating to Iran was beyond the pale and rightly earned Cruz a back room scolding by both Republicans and Democrats. He defended himself by saying that he was elected to shake things up. That he did, but not in a way that will help him in the long run with his fellow Senators. I’m sure the Democrats will highlight this Tea Party behavior in 2014. John McCain’s one-man Bengahzi crusade might satisfy his supporters, but it’s only postponed the inevitable confirmation.
The next issue will be the sequester and the massive cuts that are on the way on March 1. Again, the GOP is ready to sink the economy in a misguided attempt to end programs that most Americans want and voted for in 2012. My hope is that President Obama will make an attempt at a pragmatic bargain to forestall the cuts, but if not, we know where the blame lies.
Realizing that they are collapsing under the weight of their own foolishness, the Republican Party has begun to sound more and more like “bleeding-heart liberals” than Conservatives.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was on Meet the Press Sunday afternoon, rattling on about poor and unemployed “Joe Smoe”, who along with his family, suffers silently under this terrible economy. And there was the little girl he just met who has cancer but doesn’t have healthcare coverage to pay for her chemotherapy.
With his lower lip slightly trembling, Cantor wanted moderator David Gregory to know that the GOP is terribly concerned over the plight of all those little bitty immigrant children, who through no fault of their own are brought to this country illegally by their mean parents, and when caught, have to face the uncertainty of deportation and being separated from family and the only real home they’ve ever known…then in the exact same breath he claimed not to know what the Dream Act was…
The Republican National Committee unveils its Growth and Opportunity Project, an initiative established to support the growth and influence of the Republican Party and its future campaigns.
The website www.GrowthOpportunityProject.com will serve as a forum for grassroots supporters to share ideas and recommendations about the way “forward” (their word, not mine) for the GOP.
If you think you may have some good suggestions for the Republican Party’s future endeavors, why not take their survey today!
His name is Trent Lott. He was the Senate Minority Whip for the Republicans and in 2007 when Democrats took control of the Senate, Trent explained how a small minority of Republicans were being successful in controlling the majority – by being obstructionists.
Lott explained the strategy: “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail… So far it’s working for us.”
That was then, and Lott is no longer in the Senate. But his “obstructionist strategy” continued through Obama’s first term and with over 370 filibusters, Republicans have shown the country that they have no intention in working with the President or Democrats in accomplishing anything. They have shown no will to compromise. Their goal is to try and make President Obama’s presidency a failure.
The Washington Post listed some of the bills that died because of the Republican Block Party. These bills include:
The DREAM Act
The DISCLOSE Act
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
The Public option
Paycheck Fairness Act
Permanent middle-class Bush tax cut extension
Rescinding of the upper-income Bush tax cuts
Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act
Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act
Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act
American Jobs Act
The Buffett rule
Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act of 2011
Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act
With the new Senate starting in January, many are looking towards Senate Leader Harry Reid to make changes to the Filibuster process, thereby, taking away some of the Republican’s power in blocking bills. Making these changes are not going to be easy. The filibuster’s original goal was to bring a sense of balance to the Senate when it’s used accordingly. So expect Republicans to put up the fight of their lives trying to keep that status quo.
Harry Reid however, is promising change. He explains:
“We’re going to change the rules. We cannot continue in this way. I hope we can get something that the Republicans will work with us on.”
“But it won’t be a handshake, we tried that last time. It didn’t work.”
If Reid is serious about making changes to the Filibuster, this could be the next big fight in Washington after the Fiscal Cliff. January is approaching, and all eyes would be on Harry Reid.
Republicans just lost the presidential election partly because of their very public war against women. You would think that this loss would have been a wake up call to these Republicans to stay out of women’s private decision making regarding their own health decisions, but no, not these Republicans. A week after the American people overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama, Republicans went to Ohio to continue their War.
Their latest attack on women would ravish Planned Parenthood in Ohio, taking away some $2 million federal dollars from the organization. In a response to these attacks, Democratic Ohio state Senator Nina Turner came to a press conference prepared. She wore a t-shirt with one simple message for the Republicans – Get Out Of My Panties – another meaning for the acronym GOP.
During the Tuesday press conference, Stephanie Knight, Ohio CEO of Planned Parenthood, echoed the message emblazoned on Turner’s shirt, saying in part that the state ‘does not want to turn the clock backward and hand over to politicians the personal medical decisions that belong to a woman.’
Huffington Post reported that Turner, who made headlines earlier this year after introducing a protest legislation that would restrict men’s ability to get prescriptions for Viagra, said that her fellow lawmakers across the aisle need to ‘get a grip.’
‘We are not going back to the dark ages. We are not going to suppress our voice or our choice. And we are not going to forget,’ she warned, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
It’s funny how elections make clear what is already in plain sight. The decline of the Republican Party and the discrediting of its radical right-wing has been evident for the past 3 to 4 years. Instead of following an agenda, they’ve focused on obstruction. When they deigned to speak about policy, it was usually in the negative: anti-abortion, anti-marriage equality, anti-tax for millionaires and anti-immigrant. It’s no wonder that women, African-Americans, Latinos and Asian-Americans were anti-GOP.
Oh yes, there will still be Tea Partiers and other conservatives in Congress, but they will be marginalized and will vote against anything that smacks of compromise or common sense. Others, though, will see the light. Lindsay Graham has already shown his grace by working with New York’s Charles Schumer on an immigration bill that could come in the lame duck session. There’s even talk that the environment and climate change could enable this Congress, or the next one, to come to grips with what’s been obvious to the rest of us for over a decade. Along with tax reform, that could make these next seven weeks the most productive of this eminently forgettable Congressional session.
And it’s all because of an election that highlighted a get-out-the-vote machine that will become an instant classic in the next edition of Political Science textbooks across the nation. President Obama’s team was able to turn a bad economy and a seemingly insurmountable deficit of enthusiasm into a convincing win, in large part because the Romney campaign aligned itself with the anti-math crowd and convinced itself that Obama couldn’t win.
But this was an election about ideas, and Obama won that battle as well. Most voters agreed with the president on taxes, marriage equality, women’s reproductive rights, immigration and investing in education and research. Medicare, which was supposed to be the GOP’s winning issue, was a dud. Paul Ryan was forced early on to abandon both this issue and his meat cleaver budget, leaving him with little to say except to parrot Romney’s ultimately failed ideas. That the election was close is a testament to how divided the country is, but the ever-decreasing white vote that went for Romney was no match for the rainbow coalition that came out for the president.
Is it an enduring coalition for Democrats? It will be if the Republicans don’t shed some of their antiquated ideas. I expect we’ll see a lot more of Marco Rubio over the next two years and a little more of Chris Christie, who raised his profile as someone willing to work with the other party to get things done during the devastation caused by Sandy and Obama’s visit to New Jersey. (Memo to the GOP: Sandy meant very little to your electoral loss. Did women and Latinos decide to vote Obama after a hurricane, or after your minions savaged themselves by equating rape with God’s plan?) We might even see some moderates peeking over the curtain from time to time.
The main lesson we all need to take from the election is that the people want the government to help solve our problems. They don’t want government completely out of the way, but would rather that it do what it’s supposed to do: keep us safe, keep us working, and taking care that the safety net catches those who need it. We’ll take care of the rest. The Democrats can’t get too full of themselves and their message because this was not a mandate election. It was a reaffirmation election that told Barack Obama to complete the job he started in 2009 and to work with the other side to fix the system. The GOP will obstruct and filibuster at its peril. They need to work with the president on all issues and not wait until the next election to see if they can outflank him. That didn’t work for the past two years and it won’t work in the future.
I am optimistic for the first time in a while. It might be misplaced, or I might be more naive than the next guy, but I really think we’ll get the government unplugged and start to see some real progress.
The wave has crashed. Now let’s hope the tide has turned.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), an anti-abortion activist, had an affair with a patient when he was a practicing physician and then pressured her to get an abortion, according to a report by The Huffington Post.
The report, which cites a phone call transcript from 2000, said DesJarlais was “trying to save his marriage at the time.” Said transcript and court documents showed that DesJarlais and the woman went back and forth about undergoing to the procedure.
Some of the quotes from the transcript, via the HuffPost:
“You told me you’d have an abortion, and now we’re getting too far along without one,” DesJarlais tells the woman at one point in the call while negotiating with her over whether he’ll reveal her identity to his wife. They then discuss whether he will accompany her to a procedure to end the sort of life the congressman now describes as “sacred.”
“You told me you would have time to go with me and everything,” the woman complains.
“I said, if I could, I would, didn’t I? And I will try,” DesJarlais says. “If I can [find] time, you’re saying you still will?”
“Yeah,” the woman answers.
The two bicker over when they can meet to hash out a solution, and they make clear the nature of their relationship when DesJarlais says delaying a resolution isn’t fair to his wife.
“This is not fair to me. I don’t want you in my life,” the woman says.
“Well, I didn’t want to be in your life either, but you lied to me about something that caused us to be in this situation, and that’s not my fault, that’s yours,” the doctor responds.
“Well, it’s [your] fault for sleeping with your patient,” the woman fires back.
DesJarlais’ wife had apparently filed for divorce two years prior. The HuffPost provided a copy of the transcript to the congressman — who “did not deny its contents.”
Did you hear the one about the Republican presidential candidate who told someone who lost her home to a storm, “go home and call 211.!?” No, you didn’t hear about that? Well it actually happened.
Over the weekend after accepting his Republican party’s nomination, Mitt Romney boarded a brand new plane and flew off to meet Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. The cameras were on, people were watching to see how this potential president (God forbids) would handle a natural disasters, (no, his campaign cannot be considered a natural disaster).
Mr. Romney met with 42 year old Jodie Chiarello, who lost her home to flooding from Tropical Storm Isaac. Jodie had this to say of her meeting with Mr. Romney, “He just told me to, um, there’s assistance out there,” Chiarello said of her conversation with Romney. “He said, go home and call 211.”
Steve Benen puts it this way;
Of course, if someone has lost their home, telling them to “go home and call 211” isn’t exactly a compelling suggestion since most of us don’t have multiple homes. Then again, given Romney’s general worldview, what Chiarello should have done is pick wealthier parents.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
