The Secret Republican Strategy for 2012?

Well, it was a secret until now.

Fact 1: Mike Huckabee, former Republican presidential candidate hosts his own TV show. He no longer is in a position to make political errors,make political  enemies, or develop political  obligations but he can expand his popularity with voters.

Fact 2: Tim Pawlenty, a probable Republican candidate announces that he will not seek another gubernatorial term in Minnesota and is unclear on his near term activities.

Fact 3: Sarah Palin, former vice-presidential candidate  announces her resignation as Governor of Alaska and will cheerlead for other Republicans.

Fact 4: Chuck Hagel, former Senator and presidential hopeful for many of us, does not run for senatorial election in 2008 and instead takes a position with the Atlantic Council. In the words of Steve Clemons: “And depending on how things go these next couple of years, Hagel is in an ideal spot to bide his time and be actively engaged in the civil society side of policy debate.”

Fact 5: Weak and vulnerable Republican hopefuls are weeded out by scandal  four years in advance of 2012 elections  so  that there are no John Edwards exposés to distract the election process. 

With my wet finger in the wind, I predict that the next Republican presidential candidate will be someone not then currently serving  in a government position.   

The secret strategy of the Republican Party is to proffer experienced candidates with no recent political history to be used against them.  Hope and change will wear a new red suit in 2012.

H8 Wing Radio

Oh, I just spent the day driving  about 600 miles to meet with a client in my new truck with XM radio.

I will never listen to America Right or America Left Wing Radio again. Amd you can add Fox News Talk to that list, too.

I have never heard so much vitriol-spewing vomit in my life …from both sides. Do you really  want to know what is wrong with America? Just think about the screaming , breathless, expectorating @$$…. on the radio. There is no debate, no promulgation of ideas , just smear, sneer, and fleer.

Limbaugh is not on the three channels above but I listened to him today and had the same reaction. Vile. Repugnant.

These are propagandists. Every last one of them.

If you take any of them seriously then you are gullible and you should take measures to protect yourself from being manipulated.

A Thought on the Sanford Tragedy

A good man failed.

I have not written about Gov. Mark  Sanford although I have commented in other blogs about this tragedy.

Those who count coup on his politically dead body have no shame.

To Governor Sanford:

It is my hope that you and your  family will soon find the peace of mind to go about the rest of your lives without shame, revenge, and despair. While the effects of your actions will continue for many years, it would be my hope that those who love you will forgive your transgression.  And if they do,  I hope that those that are now arrayed against you are chagrinned that a moral failure can be reconciled by the grace of God sooner than by the grace of worldly men.  

RC

A thought on the crappy healthcare plan

The Kennedy Healthcare Plan is just crap.  Why?

1. You are required to buy a health insurance plan. Screw that, I say. Don’t Tread On Me.

2. Employers will be required to offer insurance to their employees. Screw that, I say. Don’t Tread On Me.

3.  If you don’t have a plan,  you have to pay a tax. Screw that, I say. Don’t Tread On Me.

4. Group Health Plans with less than  250 members would be prohibited. Screw that, I say. Don’t Tread on Me.

5. Federal Government mandates State gateways to offer healthcare plans. Screw that, I say. Don’t Tread On Me.

6. Mandated Federal electronic health care records to dossier your medical conditions.  Screw that, I say. Don’t Tread on Me.

Here is what I want in healthcare reform :

1. I want the option to choose an employer plan that remains with the company, a federal  government plan that I can take with me wherever I go and whatever what I do, and the freedom to purchase insurance ala carte from any  insurance provider nationwide.

2.  I want  government-paid diagnosis and insurance-paid treatment plans.

3. I want government -paid wellness clinics for a healthier lifestyle.

4. I want a rider that covers international health expenses for three months of time  within a period of five years.

5. I want to choose my doctor, my hospital, and my treatment options.

6. I want my medical privacy protected.

7.  I want risky behavior premiums.

8.  I want to opt out of any private or company insurance program and yet  have catastrophic insurance provided by the federal government. 

9. I want my federal taxes reduced two times  the amount of  the annual federal  insurance program cost to me  and allow me to pay for my own insurance as I see fit.

10. I want federal insurance only for citizens of the United States while  the States may have sovereignty over insurance for aliens as they see fit.

It is not healthcare reform to change the name on your insurance forms. 

Give me freedom or leave me alone.

ReasonableCitizen

Michele Bachmann Comic Book..yeah!

One of my favorite nut jobs is Michele Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota. I have mentioned her several times before as you may recall. I think she is trying to be the Republican Party’s next candidate for President of the United States. She is working hard at becoming a household word.

Well, the very creative among humanity have decided to make a comic book based upon the things she has said.

Welcome to  Michele  Bachmann’s Comic Misadventure. 

It has everything: accusations against Obama, flying imams, conspiracies and a call to revolution.

Want to see more? Try The Michele Bachmann Story here. It is in printing now but available soon.

Socialism fol-de-rol

Oh, can we just get over the whole Socialism thing now?

The Republicans are fighting the old war…again.  This reminds me of Bush choosing Condoleeza Rice for NSA because of her knowledge of Russian affairs. That war ended under Reagan, however, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush thought the Cold War still had legs so they worked on building a missile shield around Russia to protect Europe. How retro is that?

And now the Republican Party is focused on Socialism as if this is a recent phenomenon since  Obama was elected. Excuse me? The Republican Party that wanted the US Congress to interfere with  a husband’s decision to allow his brain dead wife to die  is claiming that Obama is a Socialist? The Republican Party that wanted to stop research using stem cells in PRIVATE INDUSTRY says that Obama is Socialist? The Republican Party that wanted the US government to  separate a Cuban boy from his father because his father lived in Cuba is saying that Obama is a Socialist? This must be the same screwed up Party that thinks Obama is a Socialist  because he saves  the financial services industry in order  to protect America’s wealth and allow Capitalsm to succeed. This must be the same Party that thinks it is Socialism to stimulate the economy by having people spend money with COMPANIES so those COMPANIES CAN  CONTINUE TO PRODUCE GOODS AND SERVICES.  

Oh, the Republican Party is so confused. They have no clue what Socialism is. They just want to brainwash other people into thinking that whatever Obama does is Socialistic.

OR worse, they may want Obama to adopt the policies that got us into this mess.You know , the ones created between 1994 and 2007 when the Republicans controlled Congress.  Sheesh.

There are plenty of names to call Obama but Socialist is not one of them. Try Do-Gooder. Try Meddler.

Senseless, it seems

From Wispolitics.com

5:16 p.m.: Sensebrenner calls for Napolitano to resign

U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, called for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to resign Tuesday on the heels of her overtures to repeal the federal REAL ID law.

Sensenbrenner, who authored the REAL ID bill, also listed shortcomings in patrolling the Mexican border and DHS’ controversial report warning of extremism from returning veterans and right-wing activists as reasons the former Arizona governor should step down.

“Our Secretary of Homeland Security should want better,” Sensenbrenner said in a statement. “In my mind, three strikes and you’re out. She should resign.”

Real ID? I remember that.  And I remember what you said about the Wisconsin legislature that refused to support your Real ID project.

Perhaps it is time for Congressmen  Sensenbrenner to go fishing in Wisconsin for a while and leave Washington altogether.

The Minneapolis Tea Party

The Minneapolis Independent is becoming a favorite read of mine.  HERE is their reporting of the Minneapolis Tea Party.

In many communities around the country, the tax day rally was a unique evemt, but St. Paul has played host to similar Tax Cut Rallies for the past few years. Organizers said that crowd attendance Wednesday topped 10,000, while Capitol police put it at 2,000. Those are similar, or perhaps slightly higher, numbers compared to rallies held in previous years.

The pictures tell it all. Many were there to protest taxes, however, there were plenty of others that had their own agenda to protest.

I am beginning to wonder if the US is adopting a fascist tone in its protests and its anti-government rhetoric.  I once thought that people with signs like  the one above were weirdos and would not be considered as rational adults. However, the foment from Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, Malkin,  Coulter, et al, is making me think that perhaps we are becoming a fascist country after all.  Collectively, we seem to despise and  hate the other ideologies. We have both liberals and conservatives with despicable, demonizing approaches to political commentary. 

Recently on college campuses  there has been a spate of anti-Republican and  anti-military confrontations. They have been small but they exist nonetheless. There have also been religious condemnations of universities that invite the President to speak. Plus the language used  to describe news  events  provides ideological spin and it is very evident.

When the Department of Homeland Security releases threat reports sectionalized by ideology (i.e., right wing extremism) instead of a report on all domestic threats, then we have systemic partisan problems with our governmental view of America.  The egregious part of the right wing extremist report is that no groups were singled out. In the left wing extremism report there was the naming of groups (PETA, etc) Was this recent  report redacted to conceal the  names of Neo-Nazi organizations, the KKK, Skinheads and the paramilitary organizations? Who knows? What we do know is that extremist  right or extremist left threats should not be reported as ‘right’ and ‘left’ because the threat is not the ideology but the violence that may occur.        

Something is  amiss in America when a sitting President has been in office less than 100 days and he is despised and  hated for trying to fix America’s ills.  Hated. And I mean Hated with a visceral disgust  that I had not seen before. It started with George W. Bush and it was called the Bush Derangement Syndrome. People and organizations hated him for what he  did to America.  But now a different group hates Obama for what they think he might do in the future.

Something may be wrong in America when we act this way. We are believing that the only way out is to hate the other side. Not working together for a common cause but striving to destroy the other side. This is the approach that people take when they no longer want to deal with problems. They begin to hate what is happening, the person who is causing  it, and  they hate that they are impacted by it. When this happens,  people tend to make choices and decisions that are not in their best interests. Violent choices and violent decisions.

Something will  certainly be wrong in America if we do not change our hatred tone soon.

Terrorism charges dropped for RNC 8

Other charges remain though.

Baracknophobia (oh,yeah)

Reader HD also found this link to a phenomenon called Baracknophobia. Watch the video.

The ‘fear of all things Barack’ is running rampant on the right wing talk shows . As a matter of fact Fox News did its best to avoid showing any film of President Obama greeting the troops in Iraq. While our President  was live on CNN, MSNBC, and HLN shaking hands and speaking with our troops, good old Fox News was showing William Kristol hyperventilating over soemthing or other related to the Obama Administration.

I will keep an eye out for more Baracknophobia. Send me your examples if you find them.