Blacks turned out in droves to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 but the consensus is they won’t have any incentive to even show up at the polls in 2012. They have gotten no more from Obama than they ever got from Bush so what is the point in voting?

If it’s just a every four-year spectator sport for the expert pundits I guess the betting has to be heavily in favor of ANY Republican candidate to win in November 2012.

As for Hispanics they too have suffered under the Obama years. When voters are mad they don’t give a crap who is in the White House. Chris Matthews, though not the final word on predictions, consistently has stated that no president can be reelected if the unemployment rate is over 8%. It is unlikely we will see that statistic for the rest of this decade.

But, no matter. Voters vote their pocketbooks and Obama’s policies have not regrown overnight the forest that the Republican arsonists took to burn down during the 8-year Bush-Cheney tenure.

With a huge Republican majority in the House we have already heard their plan to gut just about every regulation in the book. Rand Paul suggested on an ABC interview 2 weeks ago that he wanted to cut 83% of the U.S. Department of Education budget.

When his Republican colleagues return after Labor Day they have pledged to take out energy-saving incentives, gut the EPA standards for clean air and water and they have even proposed increasing the amounts of toxic chemicals that can be pumped into rivers, lakes, streams and oceans by polluting factories. At least two Republican presidential candidates, Perry and Bachmann have pledged to completely eliminate the EPA.

So, we don’t need expert pundits to tell us that we are screwed. We are screwed today because there are no jobs-creating programs under the Barack Obama administration. Even if he proposes things that Republicans have voted for in the past, they will trash anything that they perceive could be interpreted by the voters as an Obama success or achievement.

One striking example was the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden. Polls taken after that significant event showed that 80% of the Republicans gave George W. Bush the credit for that and Obama’s role was inconsequential at best.

We will be screwed even more when a Rick Perry ascends to the White House and begins pushing his fundamentalist-Evangelical theocracy agenda and micro-management individual lifestyles, liberties and freedoms as he and his super majority Republicans in the Texas state legislature have already done in Texas.

The two things that Republicans really abhor are progressiveness and diversity. For the sheep-minded Republican/Tea Partyers, conformity and loyalty to their deity-stamped, mole-visioned party are paramount, not our country.

Nice comments. Since we all know Mitch McConnell’s first priority is to make sure Barack Obama is a one-term president, why would Democrats capitulate to anything Republicans propose? If Obama caved in as he did in December 2010 all he will accomplish is a short term deal which already expired. There will be no elimination of corporate subsidies which every Republican believes are entitlements. On the other hand, Obama tipped his hand when he said he would cut funding for Social Security and Medicare, suggesting means testing and a higher eligibility age from 65 to 67-years-old to receive medical benefits.

This is a Hobson’s choice for Democrats and Obama. They can’t win and the odds are, no matter how many concessions Obama makes he will still be portrayed as a tax and spend Democrat. Republicans will run the table in 2012 and Grijalva can retire. As a matter of fact, all Democrats should retire and cede our country to the Koch brothers who are running most of it anyway.

Gosh, I guess I thought The Sarah Passion play would be a sellout! What happened to all those Evangelicals who distributed in-pew advertizing for The Passion of Christ?

After all, Palin was featured on the June 11, 2010 Newsweek issue with Saint Sarah on the cover. Is she no longer worshiped? Has she now been replaced by Saint Bachmann? Who will the Religious Right, aka, Tea Party, endorse for 2012?

“This is simply not the kind of building you do when you’re preparing to leave.”

The military objective following 9/11 in Afghanistan was to clear out Al-Qaeda, not the Taliban. The so-called coalition of the willing that George W. Bush brayed about constantly was an attempt at convincing the American public and the politicians that once that was accomplished the remaining allied forces would help rebuild basic infrastructure and train the Afghan army to fend for itself. Our foreign country partners did not intend to stay nor plan for a 10-year slog and most of them pulled out before Barack Obama was elected.

That didn’t happen for the simple reason that Bush abandoned that war to go after what he considered the bigger fish in Iraq, Saddam Hussein. But, that didn’t work out either since Saddam was in jail 9 months after Bush bombed, invaded and occupied that country, having disposed of the Iraqi Shia conscripts who made up most of the Iraqi army. That war lasted an additional 7 years.

We still have 46,000 troops in that country who are reduced to being observers in a tripartite government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds that could once again explode over the control of oil revenues.

What we have now is an Obama policy that made no sense from the get-go. Most expert analysts have admitted that General David Petraeus’s takeover of Afghanistan from retired General Stanley McChrystal has been a failure. Ergo, Obama, as commander-in-chief, must take full blame for not understanding the nature of a corrupt Hamid Karzai government, the Taliban tribal jealousies and their power grab to control the opium profits which fund their weapons and fighters.

Now, the attempts to construct air bases and army facilities to leave behind for the Afghan military who are expected to stand up while we stand down are lessons in futility that prove once again, Afghanistan cannot be controlled by foreign invaders no matter what their noble intentions.

Now, instead of two countries that hate us, Iraq and Afghanistan, we have several, including Pakistan that many believe is the most dangerous country in the Middle East. We won what?

Count me in among the majority. Hamid Karzai, one of Bush’s puppet regimes along with Iraq’s Nouri al Maliki are corrupt to the core. One of the other puppets who Bush bribed to become part of the “coalition of the willing” was the dictator Pervez Musharraf who is now in exile in England after absconding with billions in Afghan and U.S. taxpayer blood money.

Nobody can convince me that the world’s best equipped, supposedly smartest and most technologically advanced military shouldn’t have been out of Afghanistan and Iraq years ago. What makes anyone think these people are going to reform and build a democratic government?

Afghanistan has a 28% literacy rate (13% for women), a life expectancy under 45-years-old, produces 90% of the world’s opium crop and remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

Iraq, on the other hand, had a middle class under Saddam Hussein but most of those were Sunni professionals who have either fled the country or are in hiding afraid of being slaughtered by the Shiite majority whose only interest is in controlling the country’s oil.

What are we accomplishing in either of those two countries? Nada. It’s time to invest in America and in American jobs. The two-bit rulers in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t want us in their country and most Americans don’t want us to be in those countries. It’s time to cut the umbilical cord.

Count me in among the majority. Hamid Karzai, one of Bush’s puppet regimes along with Iraq’s Nouri al Maliki are corrupt to the core. One of the other puppets who Bush bribed to become part of the “coalition of the willing” was the dictator Pervez Musharraf who is now in exile in England after absconding with billions in Afghan and U.S. taxpayer blood money.

Nobody can convince me that the world’s best equipped, supposedly smartest and most technologically advanced military shouldn’t have been out of Afghanistan and Iraq years ago. What makes anyone think these people are going to reform and build a democratic government?

Afghanistan has a 28% literacy rate (13% for women), a life expectancy under 45-years-old, produces 90% of the world’s opium crop and remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

Iraq, on the other hand, had a middle class under Saddam Hussein but most of those were Sunni professionals who have either fled the country or are in hiding afraid of being slaughtered by the Shiite majority whose only interest is in controlling the country’s oil.

What are we accomplishing in either of those two countries? Nada. It’s time to invest in America and in American jobs. The two-bit rulers in Iraq and Afghanistan don’t want us in their country and most Americans don’t want us to be in those countries. It’s time to cut the umbilical cord.

Looks like the Republican position on Libya is becoming accepted orthodox so it’s just a matter of time before public opinion and approval will swing drastically away from Barack Obama. His sin: he hasn’t gotten the permission of John Boehner’s Republicans and their Tea Party spawn.

The “softening up” propaganda the Republicans have been tossing out for the media and public consumption during the NATO sponsored bombings in Libya have had the expected effect on the mainstream media who are now calling Libya, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama’s wars.

Now, Republicans, and some Democrats, are piling on Obama, claiming that he has violated the War Powers Act (as if that slipshod piece of gobbledygook was etched in a stone tablet)and building the cause that there are legitimate grounds for impeachment — just what the doctor ordered for Republican campaign smear ads leading up to the 2012 election.

Perhaps a little history is in order here. “Operation Provide Relief began in August 1992, when President George H.W. Bush announced that U.S. military transports would support the multinational UN relief effort in Somalia.”

Though it started out nobly enough as a “peace-keeping” mission and humanitarian act it began deteriorating rapidly. That mission dragged on longer than the current Libyan campaign against the despot Moammar Gadhafi who began carrying out genocide against his own people before either NATO or the U.S. got involved.

On December 12, 1992, the U.S. [still under the orders from President and commander-in-chief George H.W. Bush] sent 28,000 soldiers into Somalia under the cover of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in what they said was a “humanitarian mission” to bring food to starving people.

So George H.W. Bush sent 28,000 U.S. troops into Somalia consisting of U.S. Marines and U.S. Army. The entire mess was inherited by incoming president Bill Clinton who pulled all troops out of Mogadishu after 18 soldiers were killed when their Blackhawk helicopter was shot down and several U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets.

So far, no U.S. troops are in Libya. Though the initial humanitarian reasons are being questioned today the war is a huge political liability for Barack Obama. But, no matter to the Republican wailers.

Nobody seriously expected an iota of support for Obama from Republicans from Day One when John Boehner made it clear on Meet The Press only days after Obama took the oath of office that he and his colleagues’ strategy was to say No to everything. They’ve been saying No ever since.

It’s clear that one man’s effort to bring humanitarian aid to a warring and starving country was a much more noble cause when a Republican launched the military action. It’s also clear that once it got out of hand and American losses were unacceptable, a Democrat, Bill Clinton, was vilified for the ultimate withdrawal of our troops from Somalia.

One president, George H.W. Bush, made the decision to use lethal force in what was hyped as a humanitarian effort, not a declared war even though U.S. troops were put on the ground in harm’s way and dozens died.

Another president, Barack Obama, faced the same kind of humanitarian decision yet because the objectives were not achieved in 60 days the response he’s getting from Republicans is their prioritized goal to see him meet his Waterloo and blame him for three wars, two of which were started by a Republican president and supported by a Republican U.S. Congress.

Ah yes, The New Republic whose editors once described the failure to find WMD in Iraq as “A great embarrassment.” TNR drumbeat and cheerleading for Bush’s catastrophe were ceaseless, even after their weak mea culpa. I cancelled my subscription to that sad excuse for journalism the moment I read that statement.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has discovered that remaining aloof from the “lamestream meedia” has kept her popularity numbers up in second place right behind the establishment Republican Mitt Romney.

She has appeared at no debates with the other wannabe presidential contenders. That may be to her advantage considering the seven pathetic contestants who recently appeared on public display in New Hampshire last week.

Sarah Palin may well become the first presidential nominee whose theatrical approach to modern politics will displace any knowledgeable or intelligent discussion of the issues.

Smile, wink, appear only on Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network and tell the friggin’ lamestream media to flip off.

The 2012 election will be known as the year of the Dumb if Palin wins. Will Sarah Palin, America’s 21st Century Paul Revere, come ridin’ her horse, ringin’ those bells and warnin’ that Armageddon is closer than we think? I’m a-sure hopin’ not!

The German compact between government and the private industry seems to be a good middle ground. It does require the government to provide incentives, aka subsidies, but workers have job security and decent pay. Why can’t that approach work here?

Blue Texan’s article is right on. James Michener who was 85-years-old when he wrote his memoir published in 1992, The World is My Home, had this to say:

“A charge that can be lodged against me is that I am a knee-jerk liberal, for I confess to that sin. When I find that a widow has been left penniless and alone with three children, my knee jerks.

When I learn that funds for a library have been diminished almost to the vanishing point, my knee jerks.

When I find that a playground for children is being closed down while a bowling alley for grown men is being opened, my knee jerks.

When men of ill intent cut back on teachers’ salaries and lunches for children, my knee jerks.

When the free flow of ideas is restricted, when health services are denied whole segments of the population, when universities double their fees, my knee jerks, and when I learn that all the universities in Texas combined graduated two future teachers qualified to teach calculus but more than five hundred trained to teach football, my knee jerks, and I hope never to grow so old or indifferent that I can listen to wrong and immoral choices being made without my knee flashing a warning.”

No, that’s not true although that is one of the pieces of propaganda that Republicans/Tea Partyers toss out to convince their ignorant constituents.

No, I’m not sticking up for Lieberman but it is important to know that if a Congressman/woman serves 3 terms or years and a senator serves one term, also 6 years, based on an annual salary of $174,000 they would receive a pension of $17,000 per year. Now, that’s not peanuts but it’s hardly lavish.

Every congressman/woman pays into the same health care plan that is offered to all federal workers. It is not mandatory. It’s called the FEHB or Federal Employees Health Benefit system. Again, it is not some Cadillac health coverage like TPers spread the lie about but it is adequate and it also consists of dozens of private insurance companies like Aetna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Pacific Care, Humana and others. It is not free.

Personally, that is the health care that all Americans should have. Everyone pays into it and the costs are kept at a reasonable and affordable rate. There really is power in numbers.

Tricare for the military retirees is far more generous. A retired military NCO or officer after serving 20 years, still working in the private sector, can purchase health care insurance for himself or herself for under $500 per year. I wish everyone had that, but to say government paid-for health care is inefficient is just another lie spread by Republicans because it’s been a politically successful piece of propaganda.

Perhaps the next time Tea Partyers brandish their Glocks, Berettas and Brownings at town hall meetings and invite their vermin to show up at their political rallies to fire a fully automatic weapon to “remove” Democrats from office they should be openly reminded that Second Amendment rights belong to all of us. I can say it too, “Don’t tread on me!”

Lieberman is not running for reelection so I guess he decided to show his true loyalties — to the Tea Party radicals and the rest of the depraved Republican Party.

This country is long past the time when we should have implemented a health care plan for everyone and that means one with the public option.

Republicans are going in the opposite direction. Their direction is to disenfranchise not only seniors today but with the plans like Paul Ryan and Joe Lieberman are endorsing, younger people will be far worse off than those who are retiring today.

If the Ryan plan succeeds these younger people who plan to retire in the next 10 years will need more than their 401K’s (if they haven’t drawn everything out by then) to pay for increasing health care costs + many of them may have to care for their parents and grandparents who will not be able to afford to buy health insurance coverage with measly Ryan vouchers.

We need to do a 180 from the Republicans and start putting more pressure on Democrats to stand up to the “Cut Everything” mentality that has permeated both parties. Universal health care should be a top priority.

In the meantime, who is putting any pressure on Big Health Insurance companies whose current 20% administrative costs are rising 3 times faster than the rate of inflation? Cut their fat, cut their lobbyist influence and cut out all the middlemen and maybe we can convince some politicians whose own health care coverage may disappear as quickly as it has for the millions of jobless Americans that time is running out.

If everyone caves in to the greedhead Koch brothers and corporate oligarchs America as a Third World country will occur in less than one generation. Joe Lieberman has proven to all of us how duplicitous he is. He is a vile snake who fits right in with the Republican Party of greed.