On the Contrary

How does it feel to live in a nation that is controlled by a small radical, religious minority?  Welcome to California ladies and gentlemen.  We can’t govern in this state because a super majority is required to do anything important.  So a small radical conservative minority controls everything.  And now the same effect is occurring in our national government because a minority of Democrats (Republicans just vote no) demands their pound of flesh.  So every important piece of legislation has to accommodate this small minority and that legislation becomes so watered down, it loses its original purpose.

Look at health care.  Since the Republicans aren’t playing, this has to be carried on the backs of Democrats.  The real meat of health care reform is access to a public option.  All of the rest is certainly noble, but without real cost control of a public option, this bill will not be able to control the spiraling cost of private health care insurance and will ultimately fail.  So what does the small minority demand? Gut the public option.  Oh we will let you have it, but at such a small sliver it will be ineffective to control costs.  Did I forget the opt-out option?  You don’t have to play if you don’t want too.  Both of these pieces of the health care reform demanded by the minority are designed to gut health care reform and leave the private insurance companies in the drivers seat.

Oh but it gets better.  Evangelicals and Catholics in the House with behind the scenes help from Republicans in both Houses, decided that they could legislate their religious beliefs by crafting a “compromise” that prevents health insurance from covering abortion.  The effect of this language is to make abortion throughout the nation unreimburesable and therefore inaccessible to most even if it results from rape, incest, or is a medical necessity.  We already have the Hyde Amendment which is bad enough, that prohibits public funds from being used for abortions, but this goes way further to say if you receive any federal funds, you can’t perform them.  That is way different.  It basically says that no insurance company in this country can offer insurance for abortion.   This even applies to the public option which is totally funded by premiums.

Now think about this a minute.  Here truly is a religious belief, that life begins at conception, being codified into federal law.  Second it puts the government in the driver’s seat to decide what medical procedures are appropriate.    For those conservatives who are afraid of big government, apparently they only fear it if they don’t agree with it.  But if it is accordance with their religious beliefs, then government should force it on the rest of us.

So the state of the state is getting worse and worse.  The majority can see the way forward, but what they want is negated by a minority because we have instituted minority rule in our Congress.  Then of course we have the God syndrome best evidenced by Joe Lieberman when, this weekend on FOX noise, he explained that he would have to block (read filibuster) health care reform if it contains a public option.  He said he could not in good conscience allow a program to go forward that would bankrupt our children.  Two problems here with this thinking:  The Congressional Budget Office says it will save money and he is playing God.  Americans want a public option but he is so important he has decided to decide for us.  Another good American who has no understanding of Democracy and has let his ego grow to unbounded proportions.

I would be the first to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority.  So we don’t legislate laws that say you must have an abortion.  That would be tyranny of the majority.  But when the minority forces its views on the rest of us, Democracy no longer works.

So what does all this bode?  No real reform for years to come.  If people were awake they would understand that if we want to really have change and move forward, the makeup of the House and Senate must change.  And in the next election that probably will happen, but if the jobless rate doesn’t get better, that makeup may shift to those who are holding us back.  I can’t wait to see what they do with the Climate Bill.  Have a nice day.

President Obama took on the issue of abortion directly, sort of, this weekend at his address at Notre Dame.  I am still trying to understand how people could object to having the President speak at an institution of higher learning which should respect a diversity of ideas, but then there are a whole bunch of people who don’t believe there should be a diversity of ideas.  He definitely took the high ground in saying we want to give people support by trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies and we should work together on that.  Of course there are a whole slew of folks who think any form of birth control is baby killing.  Remember how our last President yanked funds from family planning clinics?

Then if someone finds themselves pregnant he wanted to give them the support (read services here) they need to keep the child or put it up for adoption.  The problem with that solution is that most Democrats have no problem with it, but the conservative right is the last group that would vote to raise their taxes for anything.  Isn’t this the welfare queen they so hate?  You can’t have it both ways can you?  And of course providing them with support whether they are in high school with in school day care, or day care so they can work or get ahead suffers the same fate.  These social conservatives will be the first to say why reward these wayward, bad people.  Do you remember, “why should we reward law breakers?”  It is just another form of the same sin and punishment view of life.  In other words they like the idea that all life is precious, but they are unwilling to invest in that life once it is “saved”.

And here is where there is no common ground:  While we would like to work with social conservatives to prevent unwanted pregnancies, social conservatives want to use government to force their views on us.  The end game is that we must accept their religious convictions on when life begins.  Pro-choice supporters will not interfere in your life whether you have an abortion or choose not to, but anti-abortion people want to make that choice for you.  That is where we have nothing in common.  They think they have the moral high ground and the reality is they are the antithesis of democracy, intolerant to other points of view.  When you understand this, you know that there is little hope of any reconciliation.  Working with us to prevent unwanted pregnancies would be consorting with the enemy.  It was a noble gesture on President Obama’s part, but the reality of their politics will not allow them to compromise.

In the world of don’t ask-don’t tell, more and more brave and loyal Americans are being thrown out of the military, ending their careers and at a great loss to the American military and the American people in order to keep a smaller and smaller segment of our population safe from gay thoughts.  President Obama promised to overturn this policy and he has done nothing.  If good Americans were not being sacrificed at the alter of political expediency, I guess we could wait a little longer.  But waiting is ruining lives and I am tired of looking for political courage.  Is there a man in the house who can keep his word when the going gets rough?

Speaking of the lack of political courage, the Democrats reacting to the fear campaign the Republicans have waged about releasing terrorists into our society, voted down funding to close Guantanamo.  I watched Senator Reid turn himself into a pretzel trying to convince others they were doing the right thing instead of pandering to the political winds.  It is no wonder Democrats have never been able to hold onto power since their lack of political courage or backbone is always on display.  If you are being congratualated by Mitch McConnell for doing the right thing, you have probably done something very very stupid.  The Republicans have no ideas and want to return to yesterday and you nitwits cannot even stand up for good ideas if you might catch some flack.  I would kill for a Democrat who would call their bluff.  Is there no one out there who can look into the vacant eyes of a Republican and say, “Make my day?”  Apparently not.

If this is leadership, change is not going to happen anytime soon.

I am starting to get really disillusioned.  To understand what is really going on, one has to step back from the media which is focused on their incestual chatter and conventional wisdom and look at what is really happening.  From analysis of the stimulus package to what to do with your money, we are getting advice and sage wisdom from people who are repeating the same talking points over and over again.  Barack Obama had it right when he said the earth has moved under their feet, but even he fails to understand what that really means.

I have expressed my disgust at the economic stimulus package which has been gutted as to be totally ineffective by trying to cater to the Republicans.  Paul Krugman this morning eloquently laid out that argument in the New York Times.  I guess what is most disturbing is listening to Republicans gain traction on their failed economic ideas and watch Democrats try to make nice with them while they are in the process of creating a massive economic train wreck.  It is the same tired arguments we had during the election and apparently the election settled nothing.  I guess we will have to be lying in the wreckage of the train wreck before we finally get it.

But there are other things which need to be done and I am afraid we are backsliding.  Here is my list of things that could and should be done immediately:

• Stop air bombardment in Afghanistan and Iraq – Whether by drone or by aircraft, this policy of fighting a guerrilla war with proxy bombs kills innocents and is counterproductive, not to mention immoral.  Collateral damage is by definition failure in a war for peoples hearts and minds.
• Never, nunca, torture, ever – The whole premise of torture is that under extreme pain someone will tell you the truth.  It is a false premise.  They will tell you what you want to hear and that has nothing to do with the truth.  In the movie “Taken” the hero wires up a guy to the power gird to get him to tell him where his daughter is.  The guy spits in his face so he lights him up and he spills his guts.  Really?  I would have given him a convincing lie and it would have worked out better for the bad guy.  Oh, did I mention the moral argument for you Jesus freaks who think this is a good idea?
• Close Guantanamo and no “special trials” – If you buy the argument that there is evidence that is so secret that you just have to believe the government, it is the end of justice as we know it.  Our system of justice has evolved over 2000 years beginning with the Greeks and evolving into what we have today.  This is no time to deny that wisdom.  Find out what evidence there is, prosecute or release.  I am tired of watching “good” Americans clamber for a lynching.  Note that fool Lindsey Graham, who everyone thought was such a peach coming up with the military tribunal system, is also giving us wonderful advice on our economy. Any more help from him and we will finally hit bottom.
• Iraq and Afghanistan – The war party is over.  If most of you actually knew how much we were spending over there you would be appalled especially looking at the major whining that has gone over some of the minor items in the stimulus package.  Time to set a date and be out.  We simply can’t afford it anymore and why do we want to prop up nations that don’t believe in women’s rights?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be part of bringing another theocracy into the world.
• Cuba – Just End the blockade and get on with normal relations.
• Marijuana – Just get over it, legalize it like alcohol, control it, and tax it.  It’s here, everyone uses it at one time or another and we are wasting precious time and resources playing cops and robbers.
• Immigration – Note this one has fallen out of view with the economic crisis.  That should tell you it was never really a problem in the sense that Mexicans were taking jobs away from Americans.  Get a reasonable program in place that legalizes those that are here, makes guest workers easy to accommodate, and does not punish their children because their parents brought them here.
• Get over the moral approach – Whether Cuba, Marijuana, or Immigration, this moral conservative approach to these issues has been bankrupt from day one and still we continue doing stupid counterproductive things.
• Refocus incarceration of criminals on rehabilitation – We have the largest gulag in the world.  Our approach to this problem is to take criminals and throw away the key.  In California the budget for prisons will soon exceed our budget for schools.  Something is not working so why do we continue to do the same stupid things.  Because conservatives use the fear card and the masses fall for it every time.
• Healthcare – I listen to more stupid discussions about how to provide universal healthcare than one can endure.  Watch my lips:  SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM.  It is the only thing that has worked elsewhere and yet once again conservative America holds us back from the obvious solution to an ever increasing problem.
• Abortion, gay marriage, and flag burning – Non-issues.  We have reasonable laws restricting abortion, but this issue is really about the basic right of women to control their lives.  Gay marriage is also a human rights issue as flag burning is a free speech issue.  If you don’t approve of any of the above, don’t do them, but don’t utilize government to take the rights away from others.
• Religion and Government – They don’t mix.  Religion is basically about faith and the definition of faith is belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.  Our government of free debate and majority rule (don’t forget minority rights) is based upon the ideas from the Enlightenment that rational thought and discourse could convince the majority to do the right thing.  Get the disconnect?  One uses reason and logic to arrive at the appropriate course of action and the other ignores reason and logic to continue beliefs that belong in the dark ages.
• High Speed Rail – Build it and start focusing all big transportation projects on mass transit.  What part of petroleum dependence don’t we get?

So we muddle on going nowhere while conservatives continue to tell us they have the right path.  What appalls me is that anyone listens to them anymore.

As this year draws to a close and hopefully we are rid of the Bushies and all they stood for (lack of critical thinking), I was cataloging some of the more stupid things we do as a nation and a people that I would like to see end.  So, without further adieu, here they are:

• Our Cuba Policy – For forty years we have had a policy of isolation with Cuba and have pandered to the Cuban community in Florida that has resulted in nothing but failure.  Had we a more open policy to Cuba, Fidel might have been gone years ago.  Worse, remember the Elian Gonzalez fiasco?  That was when the courts ruled that Elian belong with his father (family law trumps international politics) and Janet Reno ordered his return to his father and Cuba.  This wonderful Cuban community voted in total for George Bush in the election of 2000 ensuring Florida’s close vote and enabling the disasters that have been fostered on us since.  So first and foremost quit listening to small thinkers and open up Cuba.
• Drug Wars – This approach to our drug problem has been so counter productive and destructive of human lives that it boggles the mind.  This approach to our drug problem of punishment has failed us miserably.  Our prisons are full of non-violent drug offenders.  Drugs are readily available anywhere you want to look.  If you have teenage kids, they can get you anything you might desire.  Maybe it is time to refocus this whole effort on the demand side instead of on the supply side.  Maybe we ought to spend our precious dollars on prevention and treatment instead of chasing around the bad guys in a game of cops and robbers.  When you read about one of those “great” marijuana seizures, wonder about the waste of resources that went into this and how they might have been more effectively employed.  It has no impact on the availability of weed.  Maybe we ought to learn how to live with it.
• Crime and Punishment – We have, in a similar fashion with the Drug Wars, taken a draconian approach to crime and punishment.  This has manifested itself in mandatory sentencing and three-strikes laws that are not effective as crime preventers and are filling our prisons to overflowing.  Worse, we forgot all about rehabilitation.  We became a nation that believes in Christian redemption but then denies it to our criminal element.  There are so many stories of injustice in prisons, that it is impossible to communicate them here.  We need to imprison the very bad and incorrigible, and rehabilitate the rest.  But we have too many people who still feel rehabilitation is coddling.  It is really working well isn’t it?
• The International Court – What is it about America that does not think they should be subject to international law?  If we ever catch Osama bin Laden which would you rather see him tried in, an international court where the full weight of the international community would judge his actions or an American court where  those who hate us will deny its legitimacy?  We, like everyone else, must live by international law
• Then there are the obvious domestic issues all of which revolve around the Religious Right/Catholic Church/Mormons wanting to enforce their religious beliefs on the rest of us:

1. Recognize gays are equal human beings and quit worrying about who marries whom.  If you don’t believe in gay marriage, don’t marry a gay person
2. We have a perfectly reasonable abortion law that restricts most abortions in the late term.  If you believe abortion is wrong, don’t get one
3. If someone makes an end of life decision, it is for no one else to judge.  Oregon has a perfectly rational approach to these decisions and why do others want to force people to live by their needs and desires?  Once again, make your own decision, but don’t make mine
4. Don’t pass laws or regulations that in effect prevent people from exercising their legal rights to access to abortions, birth control, and the morning after pill.  Bush’s latest regulation allows the Kmart checker the right to refuse to sell you birth control pills.  Who the hell do these people think they are? God? No they are tyrants who have no tolerance for tolerance.

• Finally on the Israeli/Hamas conflict, I am wondering if you finally get it.  Another cease-fire will just put off the inevitable.  It has to be decided and our actions to limit the damage are much like our actions to prevent forest fires.  It just delays what will finally be a monster firestorm.  There is fault on both sides, but the Israelis don’t launch missiles into Gaza to destroy anybody they can kill and they don’t deny the Palestinians right to exist.  And nobody in the Arab world gets upset about Israeli deaths.  Hamas is a radical Muslim group that has been arming themselves with ever more destructive weapons and needs to be destroyed.  Only when this true threat to peace has been removed, can the real grievances of the Palestinians be addressed and resolved.  Sadly had they taken the peaceful route after the Dayton Accords, they would be so much further along the road to a Palestinian State and would have the sympathy and support of the world.  Now they only have the sympathy of the Arab Street.  That would be a bunch of high testosterone men whose only aim is to riot, pillage, and institute a religious dictatorship that by holy decree makes women and the rest of us second class citizens.  They are great bunch.

I know I have said this many times, but doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of stupidity.