Day: November 25, 2009

Will The Purges On The Right Continue?

For months now, possibly years, the GOP and the RNC have been moving more and more to the extreme Right….,in 1994 the neocons got to take over Washington and the Congress and it has continued with GW and on to the present…..

The radical right has declared a war on the middle and the liberals of the party…..calling them RINOs, Republicans In Name Only, and in doing so they are purging as many of these people as possible….looking for a more “pure” conservative…..very few of the GOP have come to the defense of the liberals of the Party….the silence is an indication of the fear within the Party….FEAR?…you mean the GOP is playing the “fear card” on itself?….you betcha (he said with a wink)…..

The radical Right jumped into the election in NY-23 and backed a candidate, not the GOP candidate, but rather one that was on the Far Right……Now they are doing the same thing with Crist in Florida, these neocons are backing a far right candidate Rubio…is this the future of GOP politics?…..

Good question and there is an even better answer……..YES IT IS!

Why would I say that?  The RNC has issued a memo with a “purity” test enclosed and it reads like this:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

There you have it…if you want the support of the RNC…you must have eight of the 10 on the checklist…..Jeez!  This is all too familiar….the Left did it back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s until they were NOT even close in the elections even though they had some good ideas….they marginalized themselves out of relevance……

With members fleeing the GOP like rats from a sinking ship…is this a way to increase and strengthen the Party?  Sounds like wishful thinking….the GOP is steering the ship of conservatism into the rocks……..

Should He Stay Or Should He Go?

That is the question that is being batted around Washington these days…the “HE”  is Geithner the Obama Secretary of the Treasury….in recent hearings on Capital Hill…..the following is being reported in The Hill:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is coming under new pressure from conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats to resign.

Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) this week joined a small group of lawmakers publicly calling for Geithner to step down. Former Republican Rep. Rob Simmons, who is challenging Sen. Chris Dodd (D) for Senate in Connecticut, has made Geithner’s resignation a campaign issue.

This week’s criticism was sparked by a report from Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general over the $700 billion bailout program. Barofsky concluded that officials at the Federal Reserve, including Geithner, who was head of the New York Fed, made a series of missteps in the bailout of American International Group (AIG).

Barofsky faulted Fed officials, including Geithner, for a negotiating strategy regarding the firm’s complex derivatives that “offered little opportunity for success.” The report said that the Fed paid full value to settle the derivatives contracts, which meant tens of billions of dollars went to the big American and foreign banks that were AIG’s counterparties in the deals.

Maybe these little jerks should read my blog, among others, we brought up all this concern back in March…..we said then that he, Geithner,  should not have been confirmed let alone ever had been nominated…..after he was confirmed we pointed out that he would not be the “savior” he has been portrayed as……we bloggers were truly the visionaries, at least when it comes to Geithner and the economy….but we do not get any of the credit….nope….it will be the “politicians” that saw this coming and that will be a lie…..not misinformation….an out right LIE!

Repubs did not like him….only because he was nominated by Obama…if it had been the nomination by a Repub prez then he would have been eagerly accepted…..bloggers were about the only ones that wrote against his nomination and later confirmation of little Timmy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury……

Since few recognize the contribution and the foresight of bloggers…I feel it necessary to give them an “atta boy”……..it would be nice if people, especially politicians, would read and appreciate the insight us bloggers have at times…..are we always correct….hell no!….but we do have our moments…..and the Geithner situation is one of our finest….

How To Make A War Personal

For years now I have said that the wars we are now fighting are NOT personal…..only a handful of people are truly effected by these actions……I have also said that if the American people had more skin in these things then the war would have ended awhile back……but now following along those lines someone was come up with an idea……

Influential US lawmakers on Thursday called for levying a new income tax to pay for the war in Afghanistan, warning its costs pose a mortal threat to efforts like a sweeping health care overhaul.

The group included House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey; Representative John Murtha, who chair that panel’s defense subcommittee; and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.

The proposal, a heavily symbolic measure seen as having next to no chance of becoming law, would impose a war surtax on income beginning in 2011 — though it would allow the president to delay implementation by one year upon deciding the US economy is too weak to sustain such a tax shift.

It would also exempt members of the US military who have served in combat since the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes, their families, and families of soldiers who died as a result of combat.

The measure would create a three-tiered change in income tax with the goal of paying for all of the war’s costs.

Couples earning up to 150,000 dollars per year would see a one-percent increase in their regular tax level, from 15 percent currently to 15.15 percent.

For those making between 150,000-250,000 dollars per year or 250,000 dollars or above, the president would have to set the rate increase high enough to pay for the remaining war costs, and in such a way that the middle-tier earners pay half what the top earners do.

Currently, the war costs roughly 68 billion dollars per year, which would mean that the middle tier would see its rate rise from 28 percent to 29.5 percent, while the top would climb from 33 percent to 36.6 percent, according to a person familiar with the plan.

As said in the article it has little to no chance of being passed…..but it is a thought……I also think that it would help make these wars more personal than they are now and in doing so would fuel a new anti-war movement…….which in turn could help end the killings on both sides…..

I need to pat myself on the back a bit (why not….it is my right) back on 27 February 2007 I called for a “Patriot Tax”….but my idea was to fund all the assistance that vets needed and were not getting at the time……this latest thing from Obey is along those same lines….