I didn’t see that coming

I’m sure most of you were as shocked as I was when I read this morning that John Boehner is resigning not just as Speaker of the House, but is also resigning his seat in Congress. At the end of October, D.C. will be in his taillights. (At least until he gets his lobbyist job.)

I’ve never been a big fan and I never appreciated how he always seemed willing to stymie President Obama’s agenda, even at the expense of the country. But I do realize that things are never just black and white, and he was certainly beleaguered by his teabagger faction in Congress. I always got the impression that had he had a more reasonable—and sane—Congress, he might have worked with the White House to pass meaningful legislation. I could be wrong about that, but I did sense a glimmer of pragmatism in him.

There is much speculation about his abrupt departure, although it seems that he’s been thinking about this for a while now. I can’t help but think that the address that Pope Francis gave to Congress had something to do with it. Boehner was visibly emotional (I’m not going to bash him for that, either. I cry at the drop of a hat. Songs, commercials, Andy Griffith reruns, you name it.) and I have to wonder if Boehner heard what the pope was saying and finally thought, “You know what? I’m done with this bullshit,” and decided to call it a day and leave all the fractiousness and scheming behind him.

I read this story about Boehner's encounter with the pope and it does make me think that the pope’s visit (it was Boehner’s invitation, if I recall correctly) had a little something to do with it. I seem to remember a prayer I heard when I was growing up...something about “We pray that you place a conviction upon his heart, Lord.” I wonder if the Speaker felt a conviction upon his heart?

I don’t know how this will all play out. There is much delusion among the supercon teabaggers in Congress, who seem to think that if they dig in their heels, President Obama will cave and give in to all their demands. It hasn’t worked before, so I’m not sure why they think it will now with a different Speaker. They remind me of bratty little kids crossing their arms and clamping their mouths closed so they don’t have to take the medicine. News flash, folks: President Obama has figured out that all he has to do is pinch your nose shut until you open your mouth to breath, and then he dumps that medicine right down your gullet.

The supercons are celebrating tonight, but I think they don’t really have any idea of what they’ve done or what they’re in for.

It’s rainin’ all over the world

One of my favorite political journalists is David Corn (Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones and frequent guest on MSNBC), and he recently put out a book called Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party. I finished it a couple of days ago, and I liked it a lot.

I’ve been following politics closely for the past several years, and I remember President Obama’s first three years of presidency very well. What is recounted in the book is much of what I remember, although “insider” information is included.

Corn is obviously on the left side of the spectrum...just read the title of the book. But I found this to be fairly reasonable and pretty much how I remember it. I mean, c’mon...does anyone really think that President Obama didn’t try to reach out and come to a bipartisan agreement on several issues, only to be left at the altar? If not, have you been paying attention?

This book doesn’t gloss over the fact that the President was naive in thinking that he would be able to make deals with the Republicans. He made the mistake of assuming that they also wanted what was best for the country, and he ignored the clear message from Mitch McConnell that the main goal of the Republicans was to ensure that Obama had a one term presidency. Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein recently wrote a piece for the Washington Post in which they just stone cold laid it on the line: it’s mainly the Republicans’ fault for our dysfunctional government.

I’m sorry if that offends you...oh, who am I kidding? I’m not sorry at all. Boehner and his pals aren’t content with coming close to a government shutdown or a default on our obligations once...they’re more than happy to threaten it again. Never mind the fact that the Congressional Budget Office has said that this will probably result in an economic slowdown and another recession. The Republicans are putting partisan politics before the well-being of the country and of the American people, and I’m getting more than a little pissed off.

Anyway, I thought this was a very good book. I’ve felt all along that President Obama had a long-term goal in mind. He made the mistake of not recognizing the extreme intransigence of his opposition, but he has always had a vision of how to move our country forward. And for the last time, he is NOT a socialist. That is so ridiculous. Those of us on the far left of the spectrum find that the height of absurdity. Obama is a socialist like I’m a bench chemist. (Private joke...a lot of those lately, but all will be revealed soon.) If you’re like-minded when it comes to politics, I recommend this book. Now I’ve started the next book on my book club list, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Since we’re planning a vacation on the Main Street of America (Route 66), how appropriate is that?

**Workout note: Maybe I’m pushing it because I know that on our vacation I won’t be able to work out as much as I have been lately, but today was wicked! I was pushing an hour and 45 minutes total, including 40 minutes and 2 miles on the elliptical! That’s the most I’ve ever done, and it felt great. It’s amazing how much music pushes me to go further. Today’s motivational music was autoKratz, another techno band, and I kept thinking, “Okay, finish this song.” Then it was, “Okay, keep going till you hit 35 minutes.” Then THAT song wasn’t over, so it was another, “Finish this song.” By that time, I was so proud of myself, I had to make sure I hit 2 miles. This might sound odd, but I’ve also found that my attire matters. If it’s wintertime and it’s cold and I’m shlumping in sweats, I just want to get it done and not linger. But if it’s hot and I’m wearing a sports bra and low-slung shorts, it makes me want to work harder and it makes me feel all like a gym rat and junk. I’m so glad we have our own little gym here at Nutwood, so I can wear stuff like that in the summer and not feel weird or stared at!

Please enjoy some Electric Light Orchestra and the genius of Jeff Lynne.

When stubbornness becomes dangerous

I understand stubbornness. I’m as stubborn as they come. If someone repeatedly tells me that I have to do something, I just HAVE to, you can bet that I will not do it just because I don’t like to be told that I have to do something. That is why I have never seen “Titanic” and I have yet to read any of the Harry Potter books. (I’ll eventually cave on the latter...I’ve read too many good things about them, and people whose opinions I value vouch for them quite vehemently. But not yet. I’ve got too many other books I want to read first.)

So I really do get people digging in their heels and refusing to compromise.

What I cannot understand, however, is digging in your heels because of some stupid ideology that has been repeatedly shown to be false, especially when the result of your intransigence is the risk of ruining the good name and credit rating of your own country.

That is what I’m seeing from the Repub leadership lately. Boehner, McConnell, and especially Cantor have shown themselves to be uncompromising and two-faced, refusing to budge one inch on their bizarre ‘no new taxes’ mantra. Boehner has been more willing to compromise, but then turns around and accuses the President of being unwilling to do so. I won’t go into details of the numbers, and what the President has been willing to agree to but has been refused by the Repubs; I won’t go into the reality of how our tax rates are the lowest ever, despite the Repubs saying that our President is obsessed with raising taxes; but when the President proposed extensive budget cuts, even to some programs that someone like myself has a real problem with him cutting, the Repubs walk away and refuse to discuss it. Why? Because Obama is asking for shared sacrifice, asking for a slightly higher tax rate among the richest 2% in the country. This is apparently unacceptable to the Grover Norquist asskissers in our government. A majority in the country—well over 60%—accept a combination of spending cuts and tax increases as the best solution to our economic woes. The Repubs ignore that, and go merrily about their business of totally fucking over our country.

This just boggles my mind. Corporations are sitting on record profits, and the Repubs continue to stick to their guns (so to speak) and say that this will hurt job creation. What universe are they living in? Seriously? Businesses have lots of money, and they are not investing in workers. Cutting their taxes will not change that. DEMAND drives job creation. Allowing the irresponsible Bush tax cuts to expire for the richest, while leaving them in place for the middle class, will allow revenues to increase and put more money in the pockets of the millions of middle class Americans, which they will then spend on goods and services which will then drive up demand which will then result in job creation. This is not rocket surgery, people. I’m no economist, and even I get it.

But not the Repubs. No. They continue to support the corporations and the CEOs who are raking money in hand over fist. They continue to cling to this stupid Norquist pledge (Why do they kiss this guy’s ass? I’d love to know.) and ignore economists’ predictions and analysis of what is going on in our country. They call for less regulation for Wall Street, when those greedy assholes are some of the main players in what got us into this economic mess in the first place.

I rue the day that I ever registered as a Repub and I regret every vote I ever cast for one. I’m even to the point where I’m sick of Dick Lugar, a moderate if there ever was one, and will vote for Joe Donnelly against him (if Lugar survives the teabagger candidate who is running against him in the primaries) in one of my Indiana Senate races.

A deal looks closer tonight than it has recently, but I find it absolutely ridiculous that the Repubs were so puerile and juvenile that they brought us to this point. The world is watching, and the world is worried. It might be hard for some to comprehend, but our economy affects the entire world. A default on our loans would be disastrous, and I am pissed at any Repub who thinks it would be okay. Get over losing the election to Obama and get to work. Address our problems rather than ignoring them, and stop politicizing this entire negotiation. I know you don’t want our President to have a second term. But if you want to win it, do it legitimately and stop screwing over the middle class and our entire country.

Mmm-kay?

Fire at the Rumor Mill, Timmy!

First, a brief programming note. My friend Leanne has asked me to contribute an occasional article to a blog that she and other activists have started. It is called Americans For Healthcare LINK, and I was happy to have my first entry posted. I’ll need to check with them about the formatting, because my paragraph breaks didn’t show up, and that makes it hard to read. But I’m pleased with it, and it was definitely from the heart. I hope you’ll stop by and take a look, and that the blog will help everyone to understand why it’s important that every American has the access to affordable healthcare. I firmly believe this.

Now, let’s dish some dirt, shall we?!

Did you hear about the interview that John Boehner gave to Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone? It’s supposed to appear in the June issue. At one point, they took a break, and Boehner thought he was off the record so he started speaking candidly to Taibbi. He went on a tirade and said that the poor and lazy are responsible for our current fiscal Fukushima; that American kids are fat and lazy; that Obama had his entire life handed to him on a silver plate, and Obama wants to cut doctors’ pay.

It was a bunch of horrible, inflammatory stuff, and it’s really been making the rounds on Facebook and on news sites. The Examiner wrote about it, and so did the Daily Kos. It was some really reactionary stuff coming out of his mouth. Can you believe it?

Well, I didn’t. I spent an hour trying to track down the provenance of the article, and I could find nothing on Rolling Stone or Taibbi’s blog. The original source of the article seemed to be a site called RumorMiller, and I found other stories there that were obviously fake. I checked on Snopes and found nothing, so I submitted the link to them for checking.

I am greatly bothered by the fact that so many accepted this as a true story, without bothering to check the veracity of it, or to even doubt the claims made. The comments and condemnations were flying fast and furious. I’m just a lowly blogger, but I do my best to maintain this blog with as much honesty as possible. I’ve come across stories about Palin that made me question their truth, and I have not written about them. I’m no fan of John Boehner’s policies, but I don’t think he’s a stupid or evil man, and the remarks he spewed just seemed way too extreme to be believable.

Let’s think about this for a moment. The Speaker sat down with a journalist from a known liberal magazine...a reporter known for tearing the teabaggers a new one in his articles and books, and was stupid enough to say these things to that reporter? And to think that they’d truly be off the record? The original article has not even been published yet, so there is no link to it to check. Taibbi writes a blog on the RS site, and he made no mention whatsoever about comments from the Speaker that would be sure to set off a perfect shitstorm of controversy. The text of the comments on the RumorMiller site were fraught with grammatical errors and misspellings; Taibbi would never let something like that get leaked out, not with his name attached to it.

And think about the name of the website where it appeared: RumorMiller. Why would anyone accept something from such a site as true?

What I found absolutely unforgivable was the Examiner article, in which this supposed interview was reported on as a factual one. After the main body of the article, they included this note:

This story originated on Rumorville.com and regardless of whether or not it's true, it's safe to say it's not a stretch from how the Republican's view the poor and middle class.

First of all, they got the name of the site wrong. They couldn’t even get the name of a site promoting rumors as factual news right! Second, realizing that it was not factual and reporting on it as if it were is the height of irresponsibility. (And they have an apostrophe in there that shouldn’t be. For shame.) Although Daily Kos originally reported on it, they later issued a note at the beginning of their article stating that it was not true, and that they had fallen for it. They didn’t double down and let people continue to believe that it was true like the Examiner did.

I think we all need to learn a lesson from this. My fellow liberals ridicule those who watch FoxNews for their gullibility and for believing everything Fox tells them to believe. The same thing happened here with this false rumor. Just as in our personal lives, we lose credibility if we spread false rumors—especially those that are hateful and hurtful to others—and we run the risk of losing the good faith of our friends, family, and readers when it comes to our underlying honesty. We are quick to react with anger at false rumors about our President (you know, that Kenyan anti-colonialist socialist Marxist communist Muslim guy), but we are awfully quick to share equally harmful lies about someone on the other side!

We need to do better. We need to think things through before we go with them, and continue to question, question, question. As I said, I am no fan of Boehner and do not support his policies. However, it is wrong to spread such lies about the man. We can’t stoop to that level and expect to be taken seriously, especially when we continue to disseminate such lies after we’ve realized they are not true. Words have power, and we need to try to use them with at much integrity as possible. I may not write on a national forum, but that sort of integrity is still the right thing to do.

A new year, a new start

I hope everyone had a good time at whatever New Year soirees you chose to attend! I was with a small group of family members at my sister's house, and we all got silly with Rock Band. It was great, as always, to see my niece Jen (she was visiting from San Diego), and I sure wish we lived closer! I also got to know a little better a young lady who I guess would be my great-niece by marriage. She was just the coolest kid, wearing an awesome hat, putting up with all of us coots...haha! It's really great to be around a cool kid like that. It gives me hope for our future.

Anyway, as far as I know, there are no pictures from that night, which I am quite happy about. Full disclosure is highly overrated.

Well, the Republicans took the reins of the House of Representatives this week. I suppose the title of this entry sounds fairly optimistic. I generally am an optimistic person, but I see very little to make me feel that way as I watch this change. I wouldn't say that I'm pessimistic; I don't believe this is the end of our country, unlike the cries we heard from the conservative right about, for example, the passage of the health care bill signaling Armageddon. Who would say such a silly thing? That would be our current Speaker of the House, John Boehner. (Just so you don't think I'm lying, that's a FoxNews link.)

I started to look for a picture of him to put up here, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead, I chose something pretty and non-orange.

I don't know...I listen to the things being said and I feel an odd mixture of disgust, hilarity, outrage, and disbelief. I'm doing my best to go with the hilarity part (apparently Michele Bachmann is considering a run for President...HAHAHA!), because I really want to believe that we'll get through this. The truth is that this is far from a new start. There might be a change of guard in the House, but we seem to have gone back a few decades to a time when women stayed at home and knew when to keep quiet and knew when to make sandwiches and anyone who caught teh Gay did their best to pray it away and all those black folk just plain knew their place and shut the hell up. I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration. Oh, except I heard Boehner say in his interview with Brian Williams that aired tonight that what he wants for kids is to have the America that he grew up in.

That's coming from a guy with eleven siblings.

::sigh:: I'm pretty sure we'll be okay. There will be a lot of things happening that make me feel ill, but I believe we'll ultimately survive. What bothers me the most about Boehner's statement, one that is echoed by teabaggers far and wide, is that he and his ilk just don't seem to understand that the America of his youth (and mine, since we're about the same age) is gone. As Roland Deschain would say, "The world has moved on." Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I suppose it depends on your outlook. Although I certainly miss the simplicity of those times, and recall my childhood with fondness, I know that there have been many amazing advances in many disciplines. Socially, medically, technically...so many good things. However, the American Dream is out of reach for more and more people these days. There is a growing gap between the richest among us and the poorest. We continue to give breaks to the richest rather than asking them to pay a proportionately higher share of taxes.

Why is this happening? I was listening to a story on NPR the other day (Boehner and his cronies want to consider defunding NPR, despite the fact that only a fraction of their funding comes from the federal government...just thought I'd mention that.) that talked about the very good wages for manufacturing jobs in countries like Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Why are they able to keep such jobs and keep the wages high, much higher than those paid for American manufacturing jobs? The MIT professor being interviewed said that although there are many factors, education is key. These countries have a highly-educated workforce, and that education continues with job training. If an employee loses their job, they are easily able to obtain another because they are highly skilled workers.

I know that there is much more to our problems than this one part, but education is certainly key. We don't place a premium on higher education, and more and more people are unable to afford it. I laughed out loud when Boehner gave Brian Williams his advice for young people, which included "Get a good education." It seems a little disconnected to be advocating a good education when your party is not only giving the super-rich huge tax breaks, it is ridiculing those with a college education as some sort of "elites," especially if they went to an Ivy League college, or happen to live on the east coast or the west coast, anywhere but Real America™, or if they frequent liberal bastions like the salons of Georgetown.

It's a big world out there, with all kinds of people, not just rich straight white (or orange) Republicans, and if we want to compete on a global level--which is the only way to compete now--we have to place a high value on education and stop ridiculing those who actually get one as some sort of "elites."