Tag: Political Trickery

Hillary: Have You Checked Your Mail Today?

For what seems like months we have been hit on the head by the media and Right wing bloggers over Hillary’s email account.  There has been enough speculation on the contents of those emails to fill a couple volumes.  Even the GOP has their fingers crossed that they can find something, anything about Benghazi in those emails…….I mean they have wasted more time on Benghazi than on veterans issues….veterans are just not that important in this election cycle….sorry……

But today the vultures on the Right got some red meat that they can pour over with bated breath……..some of the mail has been officially released……..

If you were hoping to spend the long weekend reading Hillary Clinton emails about Benghazi, you’re in luck: The State Department has released the first batch of about 300 from her personal email account, missives that have been turned over to a House panel investigating the 2012 attack. Reporters are still combing through them—check out the Wall Street Journal‘s “live dive” here—but don’t hold your breath for bombshells:

  • State Department: “The emails we release today do not change the essential facts or our understanding of the events before, during, or after the attacks, which have been known since the independent Accountability Review Board report on the Benghazi attacks was released almost two and a half years ago,” says a department tweet. (The Republican chair of the Benghazi panel, Trey Gowdy, says that’s not surprising given that they were vetted by Clinton’s attorneys, reports USA Today.)
  • Not classified, but … One of the emails to Clinton from deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan discusses the arrests of suspects in Libya. About 20 words have been redacted. “Because the information was not classified at the time the email was sent, no laws were violated,” writes AP. “But Friday’s redaction shows that Clinton received information considered sensitive on her unsecured personal server.”
  • ‘Gorgeous pic’: The New York Times printed some emails in advance yesterday, noting that “the emails appear to back up Mrs. Clinton’s previous assertions that she did not receive classified information at her private email address.” It also takes note of a personal one in March 2011 to Clinton from State Department underling Ann-Marie Slaughter. “Gorgeous pic on the front page of the NYT!” it said. “One for the wall…” Then it goes into more serious subjects.
  • Mundane: “Few of the e-mails deal directly with events leading up to the attacks or their aftermath, according to those who have seen them,” writes the Washington Post. “Many contain administrative details, press accounts, speech drafts and other information exchanged between Clinton and her senior aides.” But they do “capture the concerns of Clinton and other officials about the political chaos” in Libya.

This release was a bust…..now they await the next round for there has got to be something, somewhere they can use against her during the coming campaign…..even there is NOTHING at all they can still use this situation to prove that the Clinton’s cannot be trusted…….it may be their only option to defeat her in 2016.

Democrat: Leather And Lace

Another Democrat bites the dust!

Remember a couple of years ago when the media and the rest of us were having fun at the expense of Anthony Weiner…..Weirner’s weenie-gate?

It seems the young lady that Anthony was texting and sexting…..the young lady that brought down a vocal opponent in the Congress…..she has struck again……

A porn star who’s no stranger to political scandals has been thrown back in the spotlight, this time for sexting with an Indiana state lawmaker. Sydney Leathers, who made headlines in the Anthony Weiner sexting brouhaha, tells Fox News she exchanged sexually explicit picture and text messages with Rep. Justin Moed, a Democrat who went by the pseudonym “Bitch Boy.” Leathers told Page Six last week that a politician replied to her ad seeking someone she could “financially dominate” but didn’t share his true identity. However, his name was accidentally included in packages of shoes and lingerie he sent to her, Leathers says. “I Googled him and found out he’s a lawmaker.” She now confirms the politician is Moed, who’s engaged.

“I am truly sorry I have hurt the ones I love most with my poor judgment. I am committed to rebuilding trust with my family and my community,” Moed says in a statement, per the Indianapolis Star. “I apologize to my constituents and to everyone I have let down.” Moed, who was planning to be wed in September, also sent Leathers money through PayPal and a “Fetish Fantasy Series Pink Leash & Collar,” according to photos obtained by TheDirty.com. Others show a man’s naked behind. Leathers says she never met Moed but his messages showed he was “into some really freaky stuff.” In one message, Moed reportedly said, “I am your property to do with as you wish.” Leathers says Moed was “displaying poor judgment by sexting me of all people,” but politicians “are human, after all.”

Yet another Democrat caught with his pants down…….(Ironic, yes?)………Now with her latest victim taking it in the butt…….maybe it is time to ask the question………who’s payroll is she on?

Seems she may be targeting Democrats……if so that would make her a valuable asset for some of the more extreme PACs…..or possibly the more extreme media outlets also……I mean those institutions are NOT above sleazy tactics to make their point….and this skank seems to rank right up there.

Thoughts?

The Citizens United Decision Turns 5 This Month. Here’s Why You Should Care

Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a bill that will gut Citizen’s United……in a GOP controlled Congress it will be short lived…..and the money will win out again…..as usual.

But the American people need to worry about the effect that cash has on elections……read and become informed….

 

The Citizens United Decision Turns 5 This Month. Here’s Why You Should Care.

Must Listen To The People

Daily Agitator

We hear this from all sides in a political debate…..Senators get up and lecturing the media about the will of the American people……whether it is war or taxes or debt…..we are told that we must listen to the people….because the Representatives know what we, the people, really want and will do whatever it is that is important to us, the people……

Well, these days what we are told by the politicians is that the American people do NOT want a rise in taxes to help our deficit and debt problem…….and ALL the Repubs are on this bandwagon and spouting this talking point daily….every time there is a story about the Dems wanting to increase revenue….one or all of the leaders of the GOP run full speed to a microphone to give their talking point about what the American people want……..but what do the American people want?

To answer that question I found an article in Politicususa.com……

Despite what the GOP keeps telling us, Bruce Bartlett has compiled a list of 19 different polls taken since January that demonstrate that Americans support increasing taxes in order to reduce the deficit and inequality. Americans may not love tax increases, but they understand their necessity for deficit reduction.

In the June 9 ABC News poll 61% of Americans believe higher taxes will be necessary to reduce the deficit, and 57% of those polled said that deficit reduction should include both tax increases and spending cuts.

A Pew poll found that more people blame the nation’s involvement in wars than tax cuts or spending for the deficit. The poll also found wide support for increasing taxes, as 67% said the more high earners income should be subject to being taxed for Social Security, and 66% support raising taxes on incomes over $250,000, and 62% support closing corporate tax loopholes.

A Bloomberg poll taken in May found that only 33% of those surveyed thought that it would be possible to lower the deficit without raising taxes, 64% expressed the belief that it isn’t possible to lower the deficit without raising taxes.

An April CBS News/NY Times poll showed that 72% of people favored raising taxes on the wealthy in order to reduce the deficit. A March NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 81% of those surveyed would support a tax on millionaires that would be used for deficit reduction, and 68% supported eliminating the Bush tax cuts on those who make over $250,000.

Check out Bruce Bartlett’s blog to see all the polls.

So there you are sports fans!  Your Congress really does NOT give a crap what you want……..but rather what special interests want and the desires of ONE person…..Nordquist!

Do you still feel that you are getting the best government by your vote….or is it the best that money can buy?  Every time I hear one of the buffoons say what the people want….I have to break out in laughter….the truth is….THEY DO NOT GIVE A CRAP WHAT YOU WANT!  Get that through your head!  It has NEVER been about what you want….EVER!

Do tell!

The Horror Of Rationing….Or Is It?

That is it a horror…..if we listen top and believe those on the far right we will be having rationing of our health care if the Dems get their way.  We have been bombarded with this prediction for a couple of months now and I want to know…what do they mean by “rationing”?  There are several types of rationing:  about.com has some of the answers.

Self-Rationing

Sometimes we limit ourselves. Suppose you develop a rash. You have two choices. You can go to the doctor, pay a co-pay, or pay cash from your pocket. Then you’ll still need to pay for whatever prescription your doctor writes for you, too.

Or, you may choose an over-the-counter rash treatment instead — much less expensive, not to mention the time you saved by not making an appointment, even waiting for heaven-knows-how-long to see the doctor. If you choose the no-doctor-visit route, then you have self-rationed your care, and saved money for something you believe is more important.

Health Insurer Rationing

Health insurers ration care, but they don’t call it rationing, and they don’t even want you to realize that it is rationing. Dr. Rich Fogoros, the About.com Guide to Heart Disease gave this its own term. He calls it “covert rationing.”

Health insurers ration care through co-pays, deductibles and caps. In fact, what they are really doing is encouraging you to self-ration. Knowing that a certain amount of your care will have to be paid from your pocket, you may choose not to get the care or drug you need.

Health insurers deny services or reimbursements for services. Denial of care is perhaps the most understood form of rationing, because it causes outrage and frustration. What most patients don’t understand is that this is also the aspect of rationing that is most affected by laws and regulations, too.

Government Healthcare Rationing

Even the government rations healthcare. The difference between the government’s rationing and the rationing conducted by health insurers is that there is no profit motive. The government, through Medicare or state Medicaid or other programs, keeps costs lower as much as possible in order to keeps taxes lower, or to expand care to others, both considered to be the greater good.

People need to understand and understand completely what is meant by rationing…no matter what one believes, one should have ALL the facts and not just some 20 second buzz from a well groomed millionaire.

There are several reasons why understanding healthcare rationing will help you.

First, should you run into a denial of care, you’ll know why it’s been denied, and will better understand how to go about combating it, should you want to do so.

Second, in the coming years you will hear more and more about and why it will, or won’t, affect how you receive care. The biggest arguments center on how payment should be handled; whether it should be handled as it is now with both government and private payers, or whether the United States should move to an all-government, single payer system.

Some experts in healthcare rationing will tell you that private health insurer rationing means that the insurers are the ones determining who is getting what care. They cite the fact that which treatment you receive has more to do with whether or not your insurer gives permission than what you and your doctor think would be best. Private insurers argue that if the government takes over all cost coverage of all healthcare, then the government will make healthcare decisions for patients.

The far right of the GOP is making noise about the Dems will have rationing to all people…especially to the elderly whgich will let them die by withholding treatment….Sorry, I have read the bill and that is just not so.  Besides we already have rationing, look at a transplant list….if the money is not there then the top person can be skipped over…..there is rationing now…only thing it is done by the insurance companies and not the government.

As usual the talk over the proposed health bill is just using fear to make a point and to incite verbal revolt.  Rationing is not a coming fear…it is a reality of today.

See, Lies DO Work!

Yesterday I had a post entitled “Argumentum ad populum” which I pointed out that “if enough people believe a thing then it must be so” and my point has been proven…..

For several months the Repubs in Congress have been feeding the population misinformation about the health care bill in Congress.  Most of their attacks are taken out of context from the bill and embellished to make it more freightening than it really is.  I have heard that little of this is really working on the population.  But a very recent NBC News/WSJ poll proves that the liues are working and working well.

The poll that was recently taken had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.  When the people were asked about some of the stories in the news pertaining to the Dems Health bill, their responses were as follows:

Will give health care coverage to illegal aliens……….55% said yes

Will lead to the government take over of health care……..54% said yes

Will use taxpayers money to pay for women’s abortions……50% said yes

Will allow the government to decide when to stop supplying medical care to the elderly…..45% said yes

Those questions were of the misinformation about the health bill and have been attacked by the conservs and have been reported extensively on conserv news outlets.  BTW, there is no such sections for any of those questions in the proposed health bill.

I thank NBC News and the poll respondents for proving my point……that if enough people are misinformed and believe the lies then they belive it must be truth.

Rational Ignorance Effect

Ever since the election in November 0f 2008, many people, bloggers and journalists have been trying to explain thye actions of the GOP.  We have heard that they are a dying party or that they are not in touch with the feelings of the voter.  No matter which or what you think is happening to the GOP there is one thing to keep in mind….they are professionals and they are pretty good at the game of politics.

So what is the reason that the GOP is appearing so weak?

First of all, the American people on an individual basis, realizes that their single vote is unlikely to determine the outcome of anything.  For this reason they do not spend too much time researching to get the reliable information they need.  The voter relies heavily on the media for their information and in these days of cable they look for those channels and reports that will reinforce their beliefs in the world view.

The voter lacks incentive to cast an informed vote.  Therefore FOX and MSNBC form their knowledge of any given situation.  Most voters will be rationally uninformed on many issues.  They wilkl depend on political information suppliers like the mass media to the issues that are of personal importance.

This situation has a name….it is called the “Rational Ignorance Effect”

In my opinion this is what the GOP is employing in their attacks on Obama.  They use buzzwords that have no real place in the conversation with the hope that political ignorance will play in their favor.

If one needs an illustration then I say just take a long hard look at the last “Tea Party” protests…..they were billed about the outrage in Obama tax increases….but if anyone bothered to check there were few if any tax increases.  Basically it was just a ploy to get people lavered up and go out and bash the president.  It was NEVER about raising taxes.

Some will say that the “Rational Ignorance Effect” is losing some of its validity…..because to the popularity of the internet……I say that is not completely accurate……voters will use the internet like they use the media….they will find information that supports their world view.  For that reason, Rational Ignorance Effect is still as valid as it ever was.

Do They Have An Idiot Button?

Of course, I am talking about the GOP.  These guys and gals just keep throwing buzzwords around and not alternatives to Obama’s proposals.

One of the most used…lately…is “socialism or socialist”.  This tactic may have worked 25 years ago but today it has nothing on it.

Demonstrators outside Obama appearances are waving signs denouncing his supposed embrace of “socialism.”

“When you hear people saying, `socialized medicine,’ understand I don’t know anybody in Washington who is proposing that, certainly not me,” he said at a town-hall meeting on health care.

“Socialized medicine would mean that the government would basically run all of health care. They would hire the doctors, they would run the hospitals. They would just run the whole thing. Great Britain has a system of socialized medicine. Nobody is talking about doing that, all right?”

Obama is leaving it to Congress to take the lead in designing a health care plan. He has endorsed broad proposals, supported by many Democrats, to create a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers.

Republicans claim such a system would lead to government rationing and denial of care and could drive the private companies out of business.

That is the ploy being used……”the government will come between a doctor and his patient”  cute saying but someone needs to actually explain how that will happen.  Sorry, but saying so does not make it so.

Sorry Irene, but no where in Obama’s proposal does it smack of socialism.

After watching the debate on health care, as well as other proposals, I have found that the Repub strategists are pushing the same idiot button as the politicians.

Oh, The Hypocrisy

Do any of you remember when Obama was not doing enough to come up with ideas to save the economy?  And now he is doing too much?

The best part though is that most of the media pundits keep being  opposed to the Obama approach to the economy by looking to the future, say 10-20-30 years down the road and what it will mean to our country.

What crap!  And I seriously mean CRAP!

Where were these hair brained, thick lipped dick brains decades ago when tax cuts and de-regulation was putting out country into the situation it is in now?  Just where were these forward looking a/holes then?

No one gave two shakes in hell about the children and grand children of the future then.  It was always about the instant gratification of the minute, never what it would mean to the future.  Something the American stupidity has always strived for, instant gratification and then blame whoever was handy when it went to hell.

In 2006, David Walker of the Bush Admin said, “The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.”  And his words went mostly ignored.

The media instead of helping the viewer understand what all these policies and programs will do to effect him, they are focusing on whether the president smiles too much, frowns too much, is too pessimistic, or too optimistic or where he spends his time or what sport he likes, none of which has anything to do with the economy.

Maybe the public would be best served if the media would report the news and stop trying to invent the news….at least the interest of the people would be better erved, but I guess that is not in the corporation that owns the news best interests.  So as usual the facts are pushed to the back of the bus for some sensationalism.

What crap!  And these people accuse bloggers of being unprofessional…..

How Did The Economy Sneak Up On Us?

It did not sneak….it was a long time coming and had many warning signs and causes.  One of the seers was former GAO comptroller David Walker.

For too long the airwaves have been full of political rhetoric…no one wants to talk about what the problem really is…….procrastination.

The President and the Congress are to blame!

What they don’t talk about is a dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows, or at least should. The vast majority of economists and budget analysts agree: The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it.

There’s a good reason politicians don’t like to talk about the nation’s long-term fiscal prospects. The subject is short on political theatrics and long on complicated economics, scary graphs and very big numbers. It reveals serious problems and offers no easy solutions. Anybody who wanted to deal with it seriously would have to talk about raising taxes and cutting benefits, nasty nostrums that might doom any candidate who prescribed them.

You see Walker told the Congress of the coming problems if they did not start looking at a long term solution and that was not acceptable to them.  You see, that would not be good for their re-election campaigns…to tell the voter the truth.  All concerned are always looking for short term solutions and avoiding the inevitable.

And that Irene, is how we got in this pickle that we are trying fix.  Cowards, always afraid of the future and concerned with their own little menial problems while the country drowns in the sea of BS.