Month: February 2014

What Happened To Democracy?

Let’s play politics today……there is plenty of chatter but little dialog…….

There is a lot going on in this country, the good old US of A, you know that shining light of democracy that we love to point to as the cure for all ails?

Before I go any further….please if you want to attack this post do NOT use the BS of “we are not a democratic country but rather a republic and a representative republic at that…….if you believe this then everyone needs to cease the use of the words “democracy” and “democratic”  (notice that is a small “D”)….it is that simple…..cannot have both no matter how much one desires.

One of the main tenets of a democracy is the free and unhindered elections and the right to vote.  In the last years there seems to be a push to make voting more difficult……I am not talking about the elimination of the right just that there are laws that make it a wee bit more difficult to do so……another thing….please do not use the voter ID thing as a defense……that has nothing to do with what I am writing.

This is what I am writing about……..

The Presidential Commission on Election Administration has released its report and recommendations, and reasonable people everywhere rejoice. The bipartisan commission was formed by Barack Obama following the 2012 election, which was a bit of an embarrassment for a nation that considers itself something of a model democracy. Across the country (but mainly in urban areas and black and Latino neighborhoods), Election Day featured hours-long lines, broken voting machines, inaccurate voter rolls and confusing ballots.

“The Editors” of Bloomberg View declare the report “so resolutely practical that it’s hard to imagine its recommendations stirring much debate, much less controversy.” (They acknowledge that “not all politicians want to make it easier for Americans to vote,” but they fail to specify that that’s more or less part of the Republican Party platform.) Jeffrey Toobin calls it “an unexpectedly bold document.”

The commission’s key recommendations are eminently reasonable: Expand online voter registration, expand early voting, improve and modernize voting machines, and improve efficiency and alleviate wait times at polling places with better training and techniques that have been proven to work elsewhere. Everyone should be able to support all of this, and, best of all, the commission’s recommendations don’t require any federal action at all. They just need to be voluntarily implemented by state and local officials. And how hard could it be to convince state and local officials to make voting easier?

Okay, for Obama haters this will be a point of contention…….only because it is a presidential report….which is just silly……I have read many reports from many states and most of them have some sort of voting “reform” and most of them either want to close polling stations or lessen early voting or shorten the hours or……I am sure you get my drift here.  None of these have anything to do with voter fraud…….they are attacks on the rights of citizens to vote……..PERIOD!

With this assault on our democratic right there is an idea that has more than a little merit……that is a new movement for Americans to embrace….a pro-democracy movement……

What would this movement detail?

One–get rid of cash!  Citizen’s united must be repealed or blown up or whatever we have to do to rid the process of all that cash….it is destroying what little integrity we had……

Two–open up the voting process……..

Three–Prosecute ANY breeches in ethics!…..and that means even minor breeches.  (Think Vitter, Ensign and the coke dude from last week)

Four–Make elected officials work at their job, not at making contacts……(force to work at least 150 days a session)

Five–If you truly want a democracy then go to a direct democracy where the people are involved at almost every stage…..

Without substantial change…..nothing will be repaired…the country will stay in the grips of those that we all profess that we dislike……as long as the money remains….so will be the buying of election….as long as the Congress works less than 150 days a year then no substantial laws will be enacted…..obstructionism will be the rule of the day……as long as the voter is being taken out of the equation there can be NO democracy and less representation…….

So ask yourself…..what has happened to our democracy?

2014 Olympics At Sochi, Russia

In honor of the games….I thought I would do a post on the sports and the medals…..okay not really I am just gonna pass on a piece read the other day……

Though the opening ceremonies aren’t until tomorrow, the 2014 Olympics officially kick off today in Sochi—and the Wall Street Journal is ready with its extremely complex medal prediction system, which proved to be accurate to within just a few medals at the last two Olympics. So who’s likely to be the big winner this time around? The Journal predicts Norway will walk away with the most overall medals at 33, followed by the US at 32, Canada at 30, and Germany and Russia at 27 each. As for gold medals, Norway and the US are predicted to tie for the top spot with 13 each. Germany and Canada are also in the top four there, predicted to walk away with 10 and nine gold medals, respectively.

What are the factors at play? Well, consider that Norway has already racked up the most Winter Olympics medals of all time and the most gold medals from the Winter Games. Their athletes are focused on Nordic sports like cross-country and ski jumping: “We concentrate where we can do well,” explains an International Olympic Committee member who organized the 1994 Lillehammer Games. Meanwhile, the US gets a boost from three newly-added competitions in sports at which it excels: snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and women’s ski jumping. But one big problem for the US? Many important athletes are struggling with injuries.

  • A very different model—one that focuses on statistics like a country’s GDP and exports rather than the athletes themselves—predicts the US will win out with 29 medals total, while Norway will only grab 16, Smithsonian reports.
  • And if you’d rather look at betting odds for your prediction, the most recent story on SB Nation says the odds basically agree with the Journal: Norway is favored to be the top gold medal-winner, followed closely by the US, while the US is favored to bring home the most overall medals, followed by Norway.

Regardless who wins or loses……enjoy the sports and the much needed relief from the tacky spectacle that has become modern politics….

Military Spending Shouldn’t Surpass Budget Caps – US News

Ever wonder about that “black budget”….we know that secret money used to fund all sorts of ‘secret’ programs around the world….how do they manage that when there is a budget that they must adhere to…..well somewhat….you ask….I answer….well in this case….in this case I will let US News & World Report do the answering…..

Military Spending Shouldn’t Surpass Budget Caps – US News.

Beliefs Of The Tea Party

Recently a friend and loyal reader and I had a conversation about the Tea Party….I said that I was not opposed to the Tea Party per se, as it was in the original movement just that, IMO, the movement had been hijack by people with an alternate agenda and that my problem is with the people that describe themselves as members of the Tea Party and their thoughtless comments which is picked up and given a lot of undue notoriety…..I try to ignore stupid but sometimes it is just too blatant to ignore….

But I was told that the Tea Party principles were as follows……..(a neo-liberal in any other clothing is still a neo-liberal)…….

  1. THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating “free” enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers’ rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say “an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone.”
  2. CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply — again in the name of reducing government’s role.
  3. DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environment and safety on the job.
  4. PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.
  5. ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF “THE PUBLIC GOOD” or “COMMUNITY” and replacing it with “individual responsibility.” Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves — then blaming them, if they fail, as “lazy.”

I understand their thinking in #1-4….it is 5 that I have a huge problem with…….”individual responsibility”…….don’t get me wrong….people should be responsible for their actions….all their actions and decisions…….but where I have my confusion is the laws and wanted laws that take responsibility from the people like what we eat or smoke or religion or abortion (now here is the one that most small minded people will fixate on…it is an EXAMPLE Only!)…..each one of those is a personal choice that some want to take away from the people…..it should be a total commitment to “individual responsibility” or let it go!

CBO: Friend Or Foe?

That is my latest poem…the title that is…….

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is both, friend and foe, if your particular ideology does not agree with the CBO’s findings then it cannot be trusted because it is a government entity that as we know cannot be trusted to give the people the real facts….and then when it does agree with your particular set of priorities then it is a friend and its findings should be heeded at all costs……

There you have it….it is both friend and foe……

I bring this up because the latest report from the CBO seems to favor the GOP’s set of priorities……..read on McDuff……

CBO’s Key Findings:

  • Revenue in 2014 is on track to exceed its historical average of 17.4 percent of GDP.
  • The deficit will again top $1 trillion by 2022.
  • Interest on the national debt will quadruple over the next decade.
  • By 2021, Obamacare will cause a “reduction in full-time-equivalent employment of about 2.3 million.”
  • Obamacare “will reduce the total number of hours worked, on net, by about 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent during the period from 2017 to 2024.” The largest decline will occur among “lower-wage workers.”
  • Obamacare “will cause a reduction of roughly 1 percent in aggregate labor compensation over the 2017–2024 period.”

To read the full report: http://cbo.gov/publication/45010.

So in this case at this point in the year….the CBO has given lots of ammo for the GOP in the coming 2014 elections….I can hear the “Repeal Obamacare” chants as I write……but the question is….will the CBO still be the friend the GOP needs to win their ‘rightful’ place as the power in DC?  Or will it go back to being the propaganda wing of the President?

You choose.

And Then There Is Afghanistan

Afghanistan?  That pesky war that the media and the public are trying to despartely forget…….We do not hear much about America’s longest war….why is that?  Easy peesy……Americans are near the point of war weary…..they see and hear about the deaths and such but we are suppose to leave Afghanistan by the end of this year….God willing.

Our surrogate, Karzai, is not the most reliable person and even though there is an upcoming election for the country’s president….there is much that he, Karzai, has to answer for….if that is at all possible…..

A new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is offering some of the first looks at three years worth of audits of Afghan management of the aid provided by USAID.

Anyone whose paid even cursory attention to Afghanistan’s legendary level of corruption could expect the audits were bad, but they turned out to be so bad that USAID officials tried to keep SIGAR from disclosing them for years,

The report detailed 107 “major risks” to providing aid money directly to the Afghan government, mostly critical and mostly centering around how millions of dollars in cash have a nasty tendency of disappearing in Afghanistan.

This is just one of many indications that corruption is running rampant in the country….a counbtry that bribes are the source of many job opportunities……

And then there is our enemy in Afghanistan….the Taleban.  There have been many reports of Karzai and his government trying to reach ‘secret; deals with the Taleban…….

The latest strain on the tenuous US-Afghanistan relationship: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been secretly negotiating with the Taliban. With no Western involvement, Karzai has been trying to hash out a peace agreement, which, officials say, explains a lot of his recent inexplicable and vexing actions (see: refusing to sign a security deal with the US and freeing dozens of dangerous Taliban detainees). But, sources tell the New York Times, the talks haven’t come to much—there’s not even the beginning of an agreement, and it’s not clear the Taliban was ever serious in the first place. The Taliban reportedly reached out to Karzai in November, right around the time his relationship with his allies started going downhill, and a number of messages have been exchanged since. The lack of progress, however, has many officials thinking the Taliban’s main purpose was to mess with the US-Afghan security deal, and some officials say the communication has died down and any hope for a peace deal is dead. But a Karzai spokesman says the contact with the Taliban continues and has been “very positive.” A Taliban spokesperson tells Bloomberg the Taliban has not reached out to Karzai, but praises Karzai for refusing to sign the deal with the US and says if he continues to refuse, “it will create positive relations with him.”

All the indications that I read and hear is that we are pretty much tied to Afghanistan for the next decade or more……and that means more of our money being funneled to feed the corruption of the government.

Just thought I would let you know……after all…that is…..WHY I AM HERE!