Los ninos estan bien

While the past year had a lot of good--President Obama's decisive victory in the Presidential Election, winning a bigger majority in the Senate, picking up seats in the U.S. House--it also had a lot of bad:  the Scott Walker fiasco in Wisconsin, the continuing war on workers, the continuing war on women, the ever growing gap between rich and poor, republican obstructionism, lots of losses at the state and local levels.

But to paraphrase the Glimmer Twins, time is on our side.

The best news from 2012 was the continued and growing support of young people and Latinos for the Democratic Party.  People between the ages of 18-29 went for President Obama 60% to 36%.  Between the ages of 30-39 it was 60% to 38%.  The majority of these voters will be Democrats for life.

The Latino vote was even better, as the President won 71% to 27% (improving on his 67-31 margin in '08).  Coupled with the ever growing Latino population in the U.S. (50,000 Hispanic-Americans turn 18 every day), it's only a matter of time before the Democratic Party has an overwhelming electoral college majority (and given the propensity of people to vote a straight ticket, this helps downballot as well).  There are those who believe Texas will be as blue as California by 2030...at which point the Democrats could hold the White House much like republicans did in the aftermath of the Civil War (44 of 52 years between 1860 and 1912).

Modern Democrats are often slow to to latch onto populist principles and live up to the principles and potential on which the current Democratic Party was founded.  Here's hoping the young folks and the Latinos currently driving them to victory can drag the party kicking and screaming into the Progressive fold, striving for an America that truly benefits us all.

That will be a beauty to behold, and is why the future for us Liberals is bright, bright, bright.

Happy New Year!

Peace,
emaycee

A Pyrrhic victory

Isn't this special--the Michigan  House republicans are taking a victory lap, patting themselves on the back for following the will of our state's voters.

Because what we all voted for was lower wages, less rights for women to control their own bodies, our teachers, policemen, and firefighters to be treated like a sacks of shit, less taxes for corporations, more taxes for retirees, and the rights of idiots to drive without motorcycle helmets,  And don't forget to throw in a corrupt House Speaker who laughs in the face of the democratic process and resorts to cheating to win another seat for his party.

If their goal was to make Michigan as barren of a landscape as North Dakota (and what a goal that is!), they have succeeded remarkably well.

Might I suggest in their next term they change our state slogan from "Pure Michigan" to "Don't Move Here, And If You Already Live Here, Get The Fuck Out While You Still Can!"

Peace,
emaycee

That deadbeat 1%

While corporate profits are skyrocketing, corporate taxes are plummeting to all time lows (less than 10% of federal tax revenues).  The effective tax rate on corporations now stands at a little over twelve percent--considerably less, percentagewise, than most of us pay.

While corporations were reaping $824 billion in profits last year, the working men and women of America saw their wages fall to an all-time low, 43.5 percent of GDP (historically it's been over 50%).

Explain to me please, why a) we continue to subsidize corporations, and b) we need to cut the social safety net?  In a better world, the only matter we'd be discussing in the fiscal curb negotiations is how much more American corporations are going to pay.

We ought to just be called the United Corporations of America.

Peace,
emaycee

Welcome (back) to the jungle

Seems republicans, knowing their days are numbered, are rushing to push through right-to-work for less laws everywhere in the wake of their "success" here in Michigan, before voters wise up and put more Dems back in office.

Keep in mind, though, that the republican groupthink on working men and women is that they are expendable--my guess is their thoughts on American  laborers is no different than that of one of their biggest benefactors on Bangladeshi laborers (note that Wal-Mart thought safety precautions were not "financially feasible"--i.e., profits are more important than human life) which resulted in 112 working men and women being burned to death.  You know, possibly burning to death because of callous and greedy corporations is the price you pay for having a job.

And what I'd like to know, in the end, is how these so-called Christian folks are going to look their God  in the eye at the end of their days and tell him how sympathizing with the multi-billionaires who run Wal-Mart over the dollar a day (literally) factory laborers who burned to death is following the Golden Rule, i.e., loving thy neighbor as thyself.

And not being surprised when She laughs in their faces.

Peace,
emaycee

Bam!

Seems the profits of Darden Restaurants, owners of The Olive Garden and Red Lobster, saw their profits plunge 37% in the second quarter after reports of their trying to weasel out of provisions in Obamacare requiring them to provide health insurance to employees by cutting their employees hours led to a consumer backlash.

You have to wonder what their leadership was thinking--because nothing makes me want to eat at a restaurant like knowing its management doesn't give a shit if its sick employees are breathing their germs all over my fucking twenty-five dollar meal.

Peace,
emaycee

Thanks guys! Part II

When you assure the people of a state, when you're running for governor, that you intend to stay away from certain legislation because it's "divisive" and won't further the state's economic agenda--and then change your mind, all the while sounding like a fucking little crybaby, it stands to reason that your standing in the opinion of said state's voters is likely to go down, along with your chances of re-election.

Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan...come on down!

What a shock--after the weak and ineffectual Governor of Michigan flip-flopped on right-to-work for less legislation and let the republican legislature ramrod it through, his approval rating went from a positive 47-37 to a negative 36-58, a twenty-eight point reversal.  There are now only two Governors in all of America less popular than our incompetent boob.

And even better--if you're a Democrat, that is--is that all four Democrats polled as a potential matchup for Gov. Snyder in 2014 beat his ass and beat it soundly, including my favorite, State Senate Minority Leader, Gretchen Whitmer.

Well fucking done, Governor!  Let's hope Michigan voters remember how much of an lying sack of shit you are come November 2014--and allow you to begin your much deserved political retirement on January 1, 2015.

Peace,
emaycee

Thanks guys! Part I

You hate to get too overconfident (we do like to stay home on election day when we're peeved), but republicans are making it so easy on us--it's like a shark taking on a fucking guppy.

After yesterday's massive fail by John Boehner with his fiscal Plan B (mercifully preventing a bad bill, as luck would have it), it's become obvious to fucking everyone that the republican party has gone off the deep end.  The President gave up far too much, and still the Antoinettes rejected it.  Their plan?  Fuck over 99% of us for the 1%--the usual republican plan. 

And as if that wasn't enough, Wayne LaPierre, chief mouthpiece for the NRA, gave a press conference today that, in the wake of last week's mass murder in Newtown, could have been culled from the chaos of one of Dante's circles of hell.  He blamed ancient movies (Natural Born Killers for fuck's sake?), video games, the media, and President Obama in a speech that was completely divorced from reality.  It was a pathetic spectacle--and another nail in the coffin of conservatism.  Average Americans will see the NRA as tone deaf and callous; won't matter to republicans--nary a one of them will vote for an assault weapons ban or clip size limit.  And for all LaPierre's talk about putting a police officer in every school, they ain't about to pay for that without taking food out of mouths of the starving.

With each passing day it becomes more obvious that the ills of America are caused by the republican party.  From the economic collapse under Bush the Lesser to the deaths of children in Connecticut, the problems plaguing America hang over the mantle of the republican party. 

And Democrats and the President should point this out every single chance they get.

Peace,
emaycee

All the playing's stopped in the playground now

When I got home from work tonight, the Beautiful Boy was sitting in his mother's lap watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see the twinkle of the lights on our Christmas tree, and I turned my head and looked at it like I probably haven't since we put it up a few weeks ago.  I noticed the stockings hung above the piano, and the Christmas cards lined along its top.  At the first commercial break the Beautiful Boy came up to me and I beckoned him into my arms and I kissed him and squeezed him again and again.  He, I am certain, had no idea why those hugs and kisses were especially needed tonight.

There are twenty parents in Newtown, Connecticut this evening--not to mention the families of the six murdered adults--who would give everything they own and more to have these simple few moments that I shared with my family tonight.  They will never have them again.

The blood of the children killed today is not, as one gun rights organization suggested, on the hands of gun control advocates. It's on the hands of gun advocacy groups like the NRA who lie to the American people about the efficacy of guns and insist that, unlike any other right we possess via the U. S. Constitution (speech, assembly, press, etc.), that somehow the second amendment is sacred and cannot have limits that keep the peace.  The killings today are not the result of taking God out of the classroom, as Mike Huckabee so callously said today.  They are the result of pseudo-Christians who can quote every picayune detail of the Bible to support their agenda (usually interpreted incorrectly) but always seem to forget Christ's admonition that we love each other as we love ourselves; God-loving people who sold their souls to further their beliefs and in the process proved that they are not pro-life, as they claim, but rather, pro-birth.

I was very glad that Barack Obama is the President of the United States today and not some soulless republican who would have stood before the American people this morning and babbled on while still keeping their lips on the teats of the NRA.  As much as I appreciate the President's acknowledging that we need "meaningful [gun] reform" I don't hold out much hope that change to our gun laws will be coming any time soon (especially since an administration spokesman almost immediately responded that today is not the day to discuss such gun law reforms--and to which we should all respond, "why not?").  I don't believe this will make our will any greater.

And so we'll sit in our cars at lunch and cry while we're chewing on a bologna sandwich, and give thanks that when our workday is done, we're going home to a family that's still in one piece.

Peace,
emaycee

What goes on behind closed doors

In a move that surprised no one, Governor Gutless signed Michigan's right to work for less law today behind closed doors because those mean old unions weren't going to be nice to him.

It was a particularly pathetic showing for what passes for a republican governor in Michigan these days.  Our pantywaist-in-chief lied to the voters of Michigan, blamed unions for his cowardice, and then hid behind closed doors.  Another in a long line of reasons why voters should fucking never vote former CEOs into office.  They're used to telling workers who have no choice if they want to continue feeding their families to fuck off; can't do that when you're voted into office so they hide like a little girl from the monsters under her bed.

Governor Gutless ran as "One Tough Nerd"--unforunately for the good folks of Michigan, what they got was "One Weak-Willed Weenie."

Myself, I voted--proudly, even moreso now--for Virg Bernero.

Peace,
emaycee

Governor Gutless and the Michigan republican legislators circle jerk

What a fucking surprise this is:  today the Michigan legislature forced through right-to-work for less laws in their usual cowardly fashion (as Senate Minority leader Getchen Whitmer so accurately pointed out), here in, of all places, the place where labor unions were born and grew the middle class to a point where many of the castrati who voted for it today reached their status in life because of the wages and benefits unions created for us all. 

A few thoughts:

• Somehow I always knew that Gov. Snyder was a numb nuts, but he proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt today.  After all of his posturing about how right-to-work for less laws weren't part of his agenda, the Governor is either a liar (possible as he was a CEO and their psychopathic tendencies are well documented) or else he has all the backbone of a fresh can of Play-Doh.  My guess is the latter--he's let the republican legislators smack his fanny at will since day one.
• My long held conviction that Michigan was on its way to becoming like North Dakota--known for being freezing fucking cold and the fact that nobody wants to live there--received another push toward becoming reality.
• On the bright side, with the Governor's approval numbers being about equal to his level of integrity (pretty closed to zero) and a fired up labor base, the odds of defeating Gov. Numbnuts in 2014 just grew exponentially.  It's still a tall order, but with the right candidate, it can be done. 
• If you are considering moving to Michigan...FUCKING THINK AGAIN!  For fuck's sake, the state is doomed to republican control because of gerrymandering and is hostile to women, hostile to workers, does not have any hope for having a significant amount of good paying jobs, and is freezing fucking cold six months of the year.  Mississippi might be a shit hole, but at least you won't be shoveling several feet of snow and driving with the windows rolled up half the year.

What a fucking embarrassment--we're quickly on our way to being as irrelevant as the South.  And as big of a drain on the rest of America.

Peace,
emaycee

Feelin' lucky, punk?

I read a lot of politically oriented posts on various web sites that are quite good, but only a very few that I think, "Man, I wish I'd written that."  This post by Mark E. Andersen for The Daily Kos, "Lucky to have a job," is one of those pieces.

Like many people, I hear this a lot.  And like too many people, I'm quick to be nice and give some inane response like "We sure are,' or "Boy, isn't that the truth."  But even as I say it, I don't believe it. 

We're lucky when we have good jobs--jobs that pay a wage that lets us get ahead, jobs where we get rewarded for hard work, for improving sales, for loyalty.  Jobs where we can grow into greater responsibility, provide a decent standard of living for our families, with good benefits so that our health and retirement are well taken care of.  Jobs where our bosses are actually paid commensurate to their abilities, and not how much bullshit they can spew or vitriol they can spit at the people who actually do the fucking work.

But we're not lucky to have McJobs, we're not lucky to be paid minimum wage (like Chris Rock said, minimum wage means if they could pay you less, they would), we're not lucky to have jobs with expensive health care premiums for plans run by HMOs who couldn't give a shit less if you--or even worse for some, their kids--live or die as long as they save a fucking nickel in the process.  We're not lucky to have jobs where we're told to do it or lose it, we're not lucky to have jobs where corporate executives are overpaid for their incompetence while we're asked to go without raises or take pay cuts, we're not lucky to have jobs where we're given all the autonomy of cattle.  We're not lucky to have jobs where we're considered an expense and not an investment.

Perhaps when more Americans begin to extol the former and eschew the latter, we'll actually be lucky to have jobs.

Peace,
emaycee

The circle game

One has to wonder--in lieu of a recent New York Times investigative report this week that shows we get little or nothing from corporate welfare--when the light will go on in a lot more American's heads that giving tax breaks and incentives to corporations is as big a waste of money as would have been the bridge to nowhere.  To think of the infrastructure work we could do with this wasted money, not to mention the grants and scholarships for college, the investment in small businesses which actually create the most jobs, the shoring up of Social Security, or single payer healthcare, or....

It's just too bad more of those Americans who spend so much time whining about the relatively small amount of money we spend on welfare for individuals who actually spend the money and grow our economy aren't bright enough to figure our the tax gifts we give to corporations cost a lot more and give back a lot less.  And that corporations are basically lazy, wanting the government to grow their profits rather than do the actual work to make them grow themselves. You know, to actually earn it.

Nothing worse than a corporate welfare cheat.

Peace,
emaycee

Let's get serious

Defense spending in the U.S. currently makes up 40% of the defense spending in the entire world.  The next closest nation to ours is China, which makes up almost 8% of the world's defense spending.  We spend five times as much as our nearest competitor, and nearly as much as the rest of the world combined.  Unless our military is completely incompetent, there is no reason for this discepancy in spending between us and the rest of the world.

If the republicans are indeed serious about cutting spending, then they should be more than willing to slash defense spending significantly.  Cuts of 30-40% would  leave us no weaker in the face of any threat to our national security.  We would still have a tremendous edge in firepower over any potential enemy.

Alas, republicans are not serious about cutting spending.  They're only interested in cutting spending that their moronic base hates or their wealthy benefactors think would make them wealthier.

Most of all, they aren't about to give up their continuous gluttony at the trough of the military-industrial complex.  It's not about austerity--it's about filling their coffers with blood money.

And there's no way we should ask the poor and the middle class to shoulder more of the burden than they already do because of republican psychopathology.

Peace,
emaycee

Nothing

"Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like. My final offer is this: nothing."--Michael Corleone

The Obama administration may have finally figured out--as noted by Ezra Klein on The Last Word last night, with its Godfather II theme--how to negotiate with republicans.  Seems the President sent them the initial proposal for the fiscal slope negotiations by raising his middle finger and saying , "Here's my offer, motherfuckers.  Suck on it."

The Obama administration has realized they won the election, won with their message, and won it handily.  They don't have to negotiate and they shouldn't.  While time will tell if the President will stick to his guns, it certainly is a welcome change to past negotiation tactics.  We don't have to cave on the social safety net programs and we shouldn't.  If the republicans want to hold the middle class tax cuts hostage, let them.  It certainly won't hurt our chances in 2014.

But the best part is watching republicans choke on it as they realize their piss poor agenda just isn't selling to a majority of the American public who fully understand that the wealthy don't create jobs, CEOs are as fallible as every other joker on the planet, and that the business community and its patrons just don't have our best interests at heart.  Republicans are not the solution, they're the problem.

Schadenfreude, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

A little good news

You really have to admire the courage of the people who walked out of their jobs at Wal-Mart on one of the busiest days of the retail year, Black Friday--to fight for a better standard of living for all of their co-workers, and maybe even the poor saps at Target and Kmart who don't have it any better. Workers are little more than rabbit turds to the powers that be that run Wal-Mart (and Target and Kmart), and it takes a world of hope to fight back against such callous disregard for the welfare of one's own.

It's a lot like one man fighting a swarm of killer bees with a flyswatter, but as a wise man (Dave Edmunds) once wrote, from small things mama, big things one day come.

Peace,
emaycee

Oh, pretty please?

Seems one Charlotte Allen (never heard of her and may never again) suggested in the Los Angeles Times this week--seriously--that the ideal republican candidate in 2016 would be one Sarah Palin.  Leaving aside the fact that it's highly doubtful Palin would be willing to take a massive cut in pay for something as silly as serving her country, the main gist of Allen's contention (short version) is that since Palin is a woman, it will be much easier for women to vote for her (it wasn't the anti-woman message, it was the male messengers...riiiight).  There's some comparisons to Reagan, something about her being blue collar (again, riiiiight), having a single Mom daughter, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Nothing mind you, about her actually being qualified to be President.  Nonetheless...

I heartily endorse this proposal.  Fucking heartily.  I mean, winning back to back Presidential elections has been a real treat--and with Palin at the top of the republican ticket, it would just about guarantee a third straight Democratic victory.

I'm guessing the thinking is that after back-to-back assholes (McCain, Romney) got slaughtered by Barack Obama, it's time to give an idiot a chance.

And good fucking luck with that one.

Peace,
emaycee

Happy Thanksgiving, Part II

A poll was released this week that showed that 45%--that's right forty-five percent--of Americans would prefer to skip Christmas because of the financial stress.

I realize that we may be a bit different--the Beautiful Boy is eight and Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town are still a lot of fun to watch, and the thrill of opening presents on Christmas morning hasn't waned due to Christmas lists ending the element of surprise.  We also don't go into debt for the next year to pay for it.  We're glad it only comes once a year, but it's still a happy time.

But you can see their point.  Christ, Black Friday now starts on Thursday night.  The amount of commercials on T.V. touting one half-assed store or another has reached the point where they rival those for political campaigns at the height of election season, which is really saying something.  Worse, the products they're selling are just the same shit in a different year.

We are probably a bit past the point where a roasted goose, some plum pudding, and a lively jig a la  A Christmas Carol is going to be a very special Christmas, but if we want to find the root of the problem we need look no further than corporate America, which always manages to turn everything it touches into more work than it's worth, while giving it all the joy of a dead tree stump.

Peace,
emaycee

Happy Thanksgiving, Part I

Donnie Downer reporting on this festive day....

Seems more Americans are using food stamps this Thanksgiving than ever before.  There's something inherently wrong in that--the wealthiest nation in the history of the world having so many with not enough means to fucking eat.  I know the losers on the right are quick to blame President Obama, or the black folk, or the brown folks, or too high of taxes, or too much regulation on Wall Street, but you've got to be tremendously naive to believe any of that malarkey.

There's been a systematic destruction over the last thirty years of the working class in this country and this is the upshot.  From ending company paid pensions to an ever increasing employee share of healthcare, from the disappearance of merit raises to the failure to index the minimum wage to the rise in the cost of living, the playing field has become littered  with the rubble of a dying American dream for far too many Americans.

How long do you suppose it is before the powers that be realize that it's going to get down right ugly when we have to begin to fight for the right to eat?

Peace,
emaycee

Apple and cherry pies

I have something of a sweet tooth (and a gut to match it) and have, over the years, bought a Hostess product or two.  I never much cared for Twinkies (boring to the taste buds is being kind) and Ding Dongs, Ho-hos, and Zingers have all gotten considerably worse over the years.  But their cupcakes (both the chocolate and the orange) and especially their apple and cherry pies were quite the junk food glory.

Yesterday Hostess announced that it is shuttering its doors after 80 years, costing over 18,000 people their jobs.  The usual suspects--Fox News, conservative media, the brain dead--are doing their best to spin this as the fault of a union refusing to accept a new contract.  In reality, it was a company asking its workers to completely capitulate, make wages that wouldn't support their families, while vastly overpaying their executives (their CEO was recently given a raise that was an increase of over 200% of his previous salary despite the company's financial troubles) whose mismanagement was responsible for much of the financial trouble the company had.  It was another vulture capitalist deal, where investors got their money and then the investment firm shit all over the workers.

I'm sure that my sweet tooth will find other junk food delights but you have to wonder how many more times American workers will get screwed while a few profit greatly financially before they wise up and the bombs--literally--start exploding.

It won't be class warfare--it will be survival.

Peace,
emaycee

Who wants to sharpen the guillotine?

Keeping in mind that in the past year one in five Americans has been short of money for food:

• Papa John's CEO John Schnatter is threatening to cut employee hours and charge more for his shitty pizzas because of Obamacare.
• Aetna CEO and mega-millionaire Mark Bertolini is threatening to lay off workers if corporate America doesn't get its way (less taxes for them and millionaires) in the fiscal slope negotiations.
• An Applebee's franchise owner is threatening to stop hiring and cut employee hours because of...wait for it...Obamacare.
• Another franchise owner, of Denny's, Dairy Queen and some other shit restaurant I never heard of is threatening to add a surcharge to his restaurant tabs and cut worker hours, again because of Obamacare.

Setting aside the fact that a) it's unseemly for fabulously wealthy people to complain because they lost a quarter due to a hole in their pants pocket, b) that most of us don't give a fuck what their day to day business problems are, we just want their products and services quickly, and c) especially for the restaurant owners, there's nothing like less help to kill your business...are these people the epitome of fucking stupid or what?

I mean, for fuck's sake, people are still really hurting financially and they're bitching about having to pitch in a few pennies to help provide healthcare to people who really need it?  Why don't they just wear sandwich boards when they walk down the street that say "PLEASE SHOOT ME!"

How they hell they ever got to the positions they're in is completely beyond me.

Peace,
emaycee

Bitter much (Part II)?

Seems that those perennial poor losers, republicans across America, are so unhappy over this last election that they're signing petitions to secede from the union

People who are much kinder than I are chalking it up to temporary disgruntlement and feel that people don't really understand what seceding would mean and don't really want to secede.  They're just really upset they lost.

The poor little fucking crybabies.

In case you're wondering, I'm not chalking it up to anything other than the fact that the only America republicans love is the one they envision in their tiny little brains, the America that doesn't exist.  America is messy and multi-colored, morphing and multi-cultured, and if that America doesn't interest you, then adi-fucking-os!

Seriously, for the most part all we'd be losing is a bunch of southern states that are little more than a big drain on the rest of the country.

In other words, don't let that open door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Peace,
emaycee

Bitter much?

As if we needed another reason to be glad that Willard didn't even come close to winning the Presidential election, comes his comments today that President Obama won because he gave lots of governmental gifts to Latinos, Blacks, and young people.

Guess those 47% comments weren't so far off the mark after all....

Anyhoo, don't suppose it had anything to do with the fact that a) Romney is an asshole, b) People still remember which party got us into our current economic mess, c) He ran a horrid campaign, and d) That people don't much care for republican policies?

It doesn't take a political scientist to realize that racism, homophobia, and misogyny aren't winning issues, unless of course, you're a republican, in which case the alternate universe you live in is from here to fucking Pluto removed from reality.

Peace,
emaycee

Dee-fucking-licious

For anybody who's wondering, that big, old cold dish of revenge I had last night was dee-fucking-licious!

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #1--...

In the end, I wish I had a really heart tugging number one.  I wish I had an intellectual reason that would blow away anyone who still cares that might be reading this.

Nope.  I've heard tell that revenge is a dish best served cold, and tomorrow I'm going to find me a big old ice cream dish, a big old spoon, and eat me a hearty helping.

Because after the last four years, after Rush Limbaugh's hoping that the President failed, after Mitch McConnell's assertions that the number one priority of Senate republicans was to make Barack Obama a one term President (and how sweet is it going to be, despite all the odds, of us holding onto the Senate majority tomorrow as well), after Ann Coulter's calling the President a retard, after all the bumper stickers calling Obama a moron, after the birthers, the truthers, the Obama's a Muslim, the Obama's a Socialist, after the Obummers, Keep the Change, One Big Ass Mistake America,, after the comments of he'll be gone in five months, four months, three months...the best reason to vote for Obama is going to be...

...the look on their fucking faces tomorrow night when they realize that Barack Obama is going to be President for four more years.

And even sweeter than that--especially considering the magnificent jobs he's done in the past four years despite republicans doing their damndest to destroy his Presidency--will be eight to ten years after he's left office when Americans look  at the President and Mrs. Obama like we currently look at Bill and Hillary Clinton:  with huge approval ratings and a sense that his Presidency was good for America and done the way it should be.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #2--The Democratic Party

These programs, enacted since the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration over the course of the last eighty some odd years, have one thing in common:

Social Security.  The G. I. Bill.  Medicare.  Medicaid.  The Food Stamp Act.  The Voting Rights Act.  The Affordable Care Act.  The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

The following also have one thing in common:

The successful management of World War II.  The racial integration of the U. S. military.  The space program which took us to the moon.  The ending of "Don't Ask Don't Tell."  The first sitting President to come out in support of full marriage equality.  The end of the Iraq War.  The killing of Osama bin Laden.  The end of the War in Afghanistan.

In case you have a case of Romnesia, all of these programs and actions occurred under Democratic administrations (in fairness, we reached the moon while Nixon was President but nobody other than some lameass republican would feel the moon voyage was his aspiration--it was JFK's).

You would be hard pressed--fucking hard pressed--to come up with the actions of republican administrations that have had such a positive impact on America.  Eisenhower's interstate highway projects.  Nixon started the EPA (which is a dagger in the heart of current day republicans, who would love nothing more than to completely dismantle it).  The Nixon administration was in office when the Vietnam War ended, but their role was such a fiasco as to make it a bit dubious.  Nixon opened the door to China (double-edged sword as now many of our products are made there by people earning less than a dollar an hour while we have many talented people out of work).  Some people credit Reagan for the fall of the Soviet Union (I don't).

In the end, Democratic administrations haven't made people more dependent on government, they've made government more responsible to its people.  I would hate to imagine where we'd be as a nation without the dreams of those who have lead, and continue to lead, the Democratic Party and our nation. 

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #3--The Last Line of Defense

There are those who believe--and they may be proven right eventually--that President Obama is willing to trade his legacy or his need to appear bipartisan for some sort of "grand bargain" on Social Security and Medicare, leaving two of our nation's greatest legacies with greatly reduced benefits.

But we don't know that.

We do know, though, that republicans have been hell bent on ending both since T. Rex had to dodge dinosaur shit while stalking his prey.

We don't know what's going to happen in the election of 2014, but we do know that the Antoinettes are as radical a group as has been in this country in generations.  They have no vision for going forward--they want to move us backward to the Gilded Age.

We don't know what four more years of Presidenbt Obama will bring but we do know that it won't bring an end to abortion, a decline in the gains we've made for LGBT issues, more bad justices on SCOTUS, further erosion of union influence, or a dismantling of the EPA.

And for all its faults, Obamacare will begin its most important provisions in 2014.

What another term for the President means is that we will have another four years where we have the last line of defense, knowing that no matter what batshit insane proposals get through our dysfunctional Congress that we have the President to veto them, that no matter what goofy fucking ideas gain public traction that we'll still have the President's bully pulpit to argue against them, that we will have an administration that is at least willing to acknowledge and listen to our ideals and not wave us away with the back of a hand that we'll spend four years daydreaming of severing.

It gives us four more years to elect more Elizabeth Warrens and more Tammy Baldwins, and that would go a long way toward insuring a  more progressive agenda.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #4--The Continuing Class War

A recent Gallup poll showed that nearly one in five Americans have been short of money for food in the last year.  Think about that--this means that if you went to your child's school to see a play, and thirty parents showed up to watch their little munchkins, six of them have been short of money for food in the last year, in the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind.
\
There's something a little bit fucked up about that.

And yet, Willard Romney and his minions would have you believe that if we just keep those Bush tax cuts, or better yet, reduce them even more, all will be well.  Or that if we just reduce regulations on the bastards of Wall Street--even though people going hungry is a direct result of their incompetence--that prosperity will fall upon us all.  And this is all done in such a way as to insinuate that the poor and the middle class just don't know any better and we just need to let our moral superiors take care of it.  As if the mother fuckers aren't already catered to enough.

Ever since President Bonzo fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981, in effect breaking the union, it has been all downhill for the poor and the middle class. From losses in pay, to losses in jobs, to losses in benfits (with the exception of the Clinton economy of the mid to late nineties), to losses in basic human services.  And yet any time some guy like me points this out, republicans scream "class warfare!"

Ya fucking think? 

They started the war.  We need to finish it, or else it won't be "tax the rich", it will be "kill the rich."

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #5--Income Inequality

Income inequality in America is the worst since 1774.  A large part of last year's Occupy Movement was to make income inequality a part of the discussion about America's future. A recent piece by Chrystia Freeland in The New York Times stresses that contrary to what the 1% believe, their unlimited wealth is itself under siege because they are killing the golden goose--history has shown that the more people that beneifit from the economy, the wealthier those at the top become, and that the reverse is true (she cites 14th century Venice as a prime example, and I'll, uh, just take her word for it).

I don't believe that if President Obama wins re-election he is going to step behind the curtain, pull a few levers, and the 99% of us who aren't fabulously wealthy are suddenly going to become so.  I do know that the President is at least talking about letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy end.  I know that as the Occupy Movement was in full swing the President was willing to acknowledge that income inequality is a threat to the future of our nation.

Compare and contrast that to republicans, who instead of trying to argue on the merits threw out lame ass sixties rhetoric about dirty hippies and made totally unsubstantiated claims about women being raped by Movement participants and defecating wherever they please.  Compare and contrast that to republicans like Mitt Romney who just wave their hand at income inequality as if it is a non-starter, that those wealthy fuckers at the top are creating job after job (all evidence to the contrary) and we need to just leave them alone and let them be.  Besides, America is a dog eat dog country, and those that don't make it...well, it's nobody's fault but their own.

Not my America.  It's about a hand up, not about a handout.  It's about when more succeed, we all succeed.  It's about looking after the least of our brothers and sisters.  It's about understanding that the more egalitarian our wealth distribution is the more it benefits us all in healthier Americans, better educated Americans, and ultimately, happier Americans.

President Obama by far and away gives us the better chance for the best outcome.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #6--The 47% (And my Mom)

I was in no way surprised when Mother Jones released the video with Willard's comments concerning the 47%.  It was a the sky is blue, water is wet, and republicans are assholes moment.  To be honest, I don't think Romney even minds the video coming out--it was red meat for the troops, and God knows republicans love their red meat.  He can disown  the comments and republicans will just wink and nod.

No, what really pissed me off is that he was talking about my Mom.

My Mom didn't go to any Ivy League Schools.  She didn't get to spend a couple of years overseas for her religion, though I'd guarantee she's every bit as religious as Mitt Romney.  She was never the Governor of a state, and the last job she'd ever want is President of the United States.

But she did raise three kids.  All children have mothers who give them life, but not many have one who gave them life twice, which my mother did for me.  She beat breast cancer.  She survived a horrendous auto accident which left her wheelchair bound for six months.  She survived losing her husband, my father, to cancer much earlier than she should have.  She volunteers at her church to babysit children so her unemployed fellow parishioners can look for work.  She went once a week to make sack lunches to distribute to the homeless for years until her health prevented her from continuing.  Hell, she was still cutting her lawn once a week into her mid-seventies.
\
She's my Mom, so she's special to me, but I know there are millions of others like her.

She pays no federal income taxes because she lives on my late father's small pension and Social Security.  She has Medicare.  She in no way expects the government to take care of her, and neither of these programs are "entitlements."  My father worked his fucking ass off for over forty years and paid money out of each and every paycheck to help run them (as do most Americans who have a paying job).  Like all of us, my mother still pays state taxes and sales taxes.  She pays property taxes.  She does her part.

The world, in many tiny ways, is a much better place because my mother is in it.

Amazingly enough, when my mother casts her ballot next week, she will cast it for Mitt Romney (my mother will freely admit that if it weren't for the abortion issue she'd vote Democratic, and while I vehemently disagree with her on this issue she has been a wonderful mother and after 78 years on this planet she has earned the right to base her vote on any issue she damn well pleases).

I won't.  I'll cast my vote for Barack Obama because he doesn't believe that my mother is a leech on our country.  He's not a soul sucking zombie who thinks only the wealthy matter.

And when I cast that ballot, I will be voting for my Mom and the millions of others like her.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #7--Look for the Union Label

There is now a battle going on that makes David vs. Goliath look like a powder puff football game--workers are striking at the most anti-employee corporation in the history of America:  Wal-Mart.  I have my doubts that they will ultimately succeed, but I do know that every journey begins with a single step and anyone who thinks this could have happened with a republican at the helm of our nation is living a fantasy that existed only in the head of LSD-addled Timothy Leary.

Like many labor union supporters, I am disappointed that the President didn't put the full force of his office behind the Employee Free Choice Act.  Had he, though, it is doubtful it would have ever gotten past a republican filibuster in the Senate.

It is a fact that since the start of the Great Recession, 60% of the job losses have come in mid-level wage jobs; only 22% of the jobs created since have been the same.  Twenty-one percent of the job losses were in low-level wage jobs--58% of the jobs created have been low paying jobs.  It is a fact that as labor union membership has declined, so have wages.  It is a fact that 83% of union members have health care and pensions versus only 62% of those who do not belong to a union.

The poor and the middle class are under siege right now, and it's not from too many regulations or Obamacare.  It's not because the President is a Socialist or that the budget deficit is reaching unprecedented heights.  It's because greedy U.S. corporations, who are reaping the largest profit margins in history, are unwilling to share the wealth.  They'd like nothing more than to return to the ways exposed in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle where people slaved for next to nothing, lived in poverty, and shopped at the company store.

Unions--which are responsible for better wages for everyone, better benefits for everyone, and better job security for everyone--are our best hope.  President Obama cannot single-handedly resurrect unions, but four more years will give the labor movement more time to continue recruiting new members and pushing the agenda that has membership moving in a positive direction again.

Look for the union label, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #8--Social Security

There is some consternation among those on the left that as part of the fiscal cliff equation, President Obama will make some sort of "grand bargain" on Social Security--raising the retirement age or cutting benefits or allowing some sort of privitization of our retirement funds.  While I cannot guarantee that President Obama will not, he has said nothing thus far that would lend itself to such belief.  In fact, his surrogate, Vice-President Biden has guaranteed there will be no changes to Social Security in President Obama's second term.  My gut feeling is that the Democrats, as noted by Harry Reid, realize there is no crisis in Social Security despite the conventional wisdom and will let it ride, especially if they continue to control the Senate.  Further, President Obama has said he is open to raising the cap from $108,000 on Social Security taxes, which is the most popular choice among Americans for keeping Social Security financially solvent.

What I can guarantee is that under Mitt Romney, there will definitely be changes and none of them for the better.  Romney's plan calls for cutting benefits, gradually raising the retirement age, and something called price indexing which means (other than a much better deal for Romney's peers, the wealthy) "Good luck, you're on your own mother fuckers!"  Because what elderly Americans really need is to eat more catfood and be a fucking Wal-Mart greeter until they're in their nineties.

Social Security is the most successful government program this nation has ever had.  It has kept countless seniors out of poverty, is among the best run programs we have, and is the envy of the rest of the world.  There is no crisis in Social Security.  It can pay full benefits for the next twenty years and three-quarters for the next seventy-five years.  The crisis is a bullshit lie by those who would like to further enrich Wall Street and privatize what the government can do much better than private enterprise--take care of people.

Anyone who thinks not can just look back to the Stock Market collapse in the fall of 2008, and how most people lost better than 50% of their 401k funds.  And we really want to turn our safety net over to those same morons?

Methinks not.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #9--Medicare

Ever since its inception in 1965, republicans have been hell bent on ending Medicare.  God only knows why--it's a program that has helped to keep people over the age of 65 healthier and is one of the best run programs the U.S. government has ever had.  It has kept costs lower and has played a major part in Americans living longer.  Yes, it will sink into deficit spending soon, but that's not a reason to end it; it's a reason to tweak it.

To the republicans, though, this is their chance to turn our healthcare over to the markets (because it's worked out so well thus far--both in terms of cost and results).  I don't know if President Obama will make a "grand bargain" on Medicare, but I am positive Daddy Warbucks and Jughead are determined to turn it into a voucher plan and wreak further havoc on our collective health and the economy.  Despite their "just trust us" mantra as to their plan, republicans are not to be trusted on this one--especially after their riddled with errors "claims" on Obama's cuttting $700 million from Medicare when it does nothing of the sort.

This is probably one of the most personal issues for me.  I am twelve years (for you republicans who suffer from artihmetic problems, that makes me fifty-three), from being eligible for Medicare and with the nightmare that is our current health system (very expensive, yearly exorbitant increases, dealing with the layers of bureaucracy, a basic right being controlled by corporations more concerned with profit than care) I am literally counting the minutes until I am eligible.

And don't let anyone call it an "entitlement"--that is a bullshit misnomer.  There are none of us who do not pay into Medicare with every check you earn.  Medicare is as much an entitlement as a 401k plan.

And equally as important to all of our retirement years.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #10--SCOTUS

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 79 years old.  Justices Antonin Scalia and William Kennedy are 76.  Stephen Breyer is 74. Though it isn't unheard of that Supreme Court Justices remain on the court into their eighties, there is a good  chance that whoever is elected President in 2012 will be nominating at least two Justices for the Supreme Court.  While I would be surprised, should Obama win, that either Scalia or Kennedy would retire, it would be comforting to know that the President could put two young Justices on the Supreme Court to replace Justices Ginsburg and Breyer should they decide to retire.

Point is, we're already down 5-4, and were Ginsburg's well known health problems to force her from the bench, it is hard to see how being in the minority at 6-3 would be good for the causes we support:  Roe v. Wade and abortion, gay rights and gay marriage, the continuation, a la the Citizen's United decision of the Roberts' Court acquiesence to corporate America and its whims (is it only me who finds it somewhat hypocritical that corporate America bemoans lawsuits while buying/bullying their way upon the rest of us through the courts, see also the chamber of commerce?).

Frankly, for all the republicans bitching about "activist judges," they seem awfully hunky dory with asking the courts to impose their philsophies on the rest of us.  For all their talk about individual rights, they'd be more than happy to have the courts outlaw abortion, gay marriage (for those states which already have it), our right to birth control, and have it allow prayer in our schools.  And in a nation where the middle class and the poor are already fighting to keep their heads above water, the republican appointees to the Supreme Court seem to have little problem giving more power to corporations and taking it away from workers.

In the end, it comes down to whether or not you want a Supreme Court that's interpreting the Constitution as a living document or one that is being used to further the agenda of religious freaks and Wall Street.  We just cannot afford more decisions like Citizen's United that is doing unlimited damage and may take a generation to overturn.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #11--The First Debate

Going into this year's first debate, President Obama seemed poised to run away with this year's Presidential election.  After the President's debacle, the race moved slightly to Willard, then back to a close/tied race, and now shows a small lead for the President.

What the fuck?  Because of a debate?  One that most people thought Willard won on style more so than substance?  Are we really that shallow?  I mean for fuck's sake, people were willing to throw out a well-run campaign, a successful Presidency, and ignore Willard's badly run campaign, a bad republican convention, the fact that he's never really shown any kind of empathy for ordinary Americans because for one night, Romney looked like he might have Presidential stature? (And truthfully, it seemed to fade considerably after the last two debates.)

There's something inherently wrong as well about a man standing on a stage and flat out lying about his record, about his party, about his future decisions as President, and flip-flopping on what direction he is going to take the country in, about what his backers are going to let their lapdog do, knowing that more people are going to hear the lie than are going to hear the truth--and then rewarding that man for his dishonesty and intransigence by electing him President.

Being There was a cute novel/movie about a man who had no business being President accidentally becoming President.  There would be absolutely nothing cute about Willard Romney, a man who has no business being President, being elected President based on a performance that presented a false face, a lot of chutzpah, and showed an utter disdain for the intelligence of the American people.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #12--Public Sector Employees

Over 600,000 public sector jobs have been lost since Barack Obama became President.  I have no illusions that should he win re-election those jobs are coming back.  But I am also certain that should Daddy Warbucks and Jughead win on November 6th, that number is going to seem like a grain of salt in the sea.  Nothing either of them has said would lead one to believe that they have any respect or feel any need for public sector employees--you know, those thankless but monumental jobs involving teachers, policemen, firefighters, and countless others who make our world a lot better place by taking care of us all.

It is also not a secret--see also, Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin--that republicans are hell bent on destroying the last remaining strong unions (not counting professional athletes and actors).  There is nothing Willard would like more than to be Scott Walker on a national level, and we just cannot afford any more union-busting.  The middle class has been squeezed enough and the public sector is one of the few chances we have left for good paying jobs that aren't at the whim of corporate greed.

President Obama's American Jobs Act--defeated thanks to those job creators, the House republicans--specifically calls for actions to save and grow jobs for teachers, policemen, and firefighters.  There is nothing in the republican platform that calls for the same.  President Obama will not have an agenda designed to destroy public sector jobs and take away more vital services for ordinary Americans.

Only republicans think teachers, policemen, and firefighters are overpaid and pampered with too rich benefit packages.  Nothing could be further from the truth--these people are the backbone of America, and a vote for President Obama is a guarantee of their continued strength and vibrancy.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #13--The auto bailout

Contrary to the fantasy world that occupies Willard Romney's head, had we followed his lead on the auto bailout, my home state would be a wasteland right now, comparable to the Dakotas or Montana.  There was no private equity funding available, and one can rest assured that had he been leading the charge, the "Detroit car guy" would have destroyed the UAW, and with it, any hope those of us not fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy family had for decent wages.  And heaven forbid any of those at the top paying for their mistakes like the rest of us would have with a pink slip.

Contrast the Romney "plan" (i.e., "Let Detroit go bankrupt" regardless of any claims he makes in retrospect), with the precision with which the Obama administration handled the auto industry bailout. They had a plan and they worked that plan--moving in quickly, setting people in place, seeing that GM's Rick Wagoner got the boot (as well he should have), making the auto leaders put forth a viable plan for going forward profitably, and making sure that the workers were taken care of. 

The results speak for themselves--the Big 3 are profiitable, selling more cars, and most important, hiring.  Millions--fucking millions--of jobs have been saved, not just in the auto industry proper, but in all the peripheral industries as well. 

The move was not popular (except in states like here in Michigan) and, again, took a political courage that Willard Romney just flat out lacks.  Barack Obama handled what could have been a disaster for the American economy with grace, poise, and confidence.

One kinds of doubts the head of Bain Capital would have done the same:  it would have been a big going out of business sale as our economy collapsed, with Willard leading the marching band.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #14--42 Million Jobs

Since 1960, republicans have held the White House for 28 years.  The Democrats have controlled the White House for 24 years.  During the republicans time at the helm, 24 million jobs were created.  While the Democrats were in power, 42 million jobs were created.

There is a reason for this--think to yourself how many times you've heard Daddy Warbucks and Jughead mention the American worker.  The answer is zero.  They don't and they won't.  They'll talk about the "job creators" and how we should pander to Wall Street and the financial community and eliminate "regulations" but they'll never talk about people who actually work--autoworkers and cashiers and steelworkers and janitors and construction workers and teachers--because they don't give a fuck about them.  They're just effluvia--as Paul Krugman noted, it is with utter disdain that they view those of us working our asses off to keep this country running.

Jobs will be created over the next four years, and it's just a matter of whether you want more and better paying (President Obama) or less and worse paying (McJobs Mitt).

Not much of a decision if you ask me.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #15--Obamacare

Yup, Obamacare.

It gave impetus to the rise of the Antoinettes and cost the Democrats the House in an historic rout by the republicans.  The only reason it didn't cost us the Senate was because of the aforesaid Antoinettes (thanks to republicans in Delaware, Nevada, and Colorado for their help) running in blue/purple states.  It also drives much of the utter hatred of President Obama that continues to this day by the numbnuts on the right.

But still....

For many of us on the left, it didn't go far enough, especially in terms of our desire to have at best, single-payer, and at worst, a public option.  When viewed as a whole, though, it brought us an end to refusing coverage due to a pre-existing condition (biggie here in the emaycee household), coverage for children on their parents policy until age 26, covered well-visits for women, covered well-visits for children, and, after 2014, it will provide insurance to another 40 million Americans.

But the main reason I think it's a reason to vote for President Obama?  A major traditional media fail on the passage of the Affordable Care Act was that the President succeeded where Presidents since Harry Truman have failed and passed a health care act at a time when the economics of healthcare are undoubtedly driving down our economy.  Could it have been better (and by better I don't mean more bipartisan, which is Beltway bullshit)?  Undoubtedly.  But it's a major step forward, historic for having been done, and most important it took political courage and Presidential leadership.

The traditional media and the Antoinettes can piss off; as Joe Biden said, this was a big fucking deal and a major accomplishment for President Obama.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #16--George W. Bush

Anybody remember what happened the last time we elected a man who had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, had most of his success because of a) being born wealthy, and b) his father's success, and had a spotty record in the previous governmental leadership position he had held?

Let me remind you:

• In 2001 his administration fell asleep at the wheel and the tragedy of 9/11--and 3000 American deaths were upon us.
• They proceeded to get us into the first war America has fought since WWII that was actually necessary and proceeded to run it as badly as a blind man drives a car.  Over 1000 American troop deaths and still counting.
• As if one war wasn't enough, on the basis of faulty and completely erroneous information, they got us into a second war which went even worse than the first.  Combined, the two wars put a huge drain on the country's finances and we're still paying the debt (and will be for some time) for funds that could have been put to much better use.  Over 4000 American troops killed in this one.
• Proving that being asleep was the one thing they were good at, his administration blew the run up and the response to one of the strongest hurricanes in our nation's history--Hurricane Katrina--resulting in the deaths of over 1000 Americans.
• As if all of that wasn't bad enough, thanks to deregulation, a false housing bubble, and once again, falling asleep as they guided the mothership, the economy collapsed resulting in the loss of over five million jobs, nearly a fifty percent decline in the stock market, and a recession the likes of which this nation hasn't seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Of course, I'm talking about George W. Bush, POTUS 2001-2009.

And we really want to hand the keys over to his blood brother, Willard Romney?

Thanks, but no fucking thanks.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #17--Abortion

Seventy percent of the abortions in America are performed on women who live below the poverty level.  It is a proven fact, despite what the numbnuts who run the Catholic Church proclaim, that making birth control accessible and educating people about it will reduce unwanted pregnancies.

I have long believed that if the anti-abortion forces truly cared about the unborn, they would make every effort to reduce poverty in America and spend untold millions on educating Americans on birth control as well as making it available en masse.  I mean, if a million people were dying every year, and someone told me I could reduce that number to five hundred thousand  by following a few simple steps, I'd be right on it.  Doesn't mean I wouldn't keep fighting to make it zero, but a half million deaths is a lot better than a million.

You'll note that republicans, the religious right, and anti-choice zealots nationwide have done nothing of the sort.  The plain truth of the matter is that they don't give a rat's ass about the thousands of fetuses being aborted each year.  What they do care about is shoving their sexual mores down everyone's throat.

The same folks who are aghast because Government would presume to regulate greedy and haphazardly overseen corporations think it's just fine and dandy that the Government should abolish your right to choose, your right to birth control, and your right to enjoy the partner of your particular desire.  It's not just about abortion--there's a host of sexual issues that they hope to crush in the process.

So if you think sex is fun and was given to us by God to enjoy--vote for President Obama.  If you think it's dirty and for reproductive purposes only, vote for the prude at the head of the republican party.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #18--Iraq and Afghanistan

When Barack Obama was running for President in 2008, two of his campaign promises were that he would bring home the troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ahem:  Mission Accomplished.

The drawdown in Iraq has been completed.  Afghanistan begins in 2014.  Both have been completed with a modicum of fanfare.  Both have been done safely and securely.  While there are no guarantees, both countries have a viable chance to stand on their own.  Our standing in the world has been greatly enhanced.

There is absolutely no question that Presdent Obama's foreign policy actions have been successful.  For all the talk about Democrats being soft on defense, the President has shown we are anything but.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #19--Osama bin Laden

Despite all the tough talk from the Bush the Lesser administration ("Dead or alive!") they never came close to capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden.

For all Willard's campaign whining about whether or not the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Libya was called an act of terrorism (and for the life of me I wonder why anyone other than numbnut republicans desperate for an issue to lift up their weak ass candidate would give a fuck what it was called), President Obama has a much better reputation for actually taking out terrorists than anyone connected to the republican party.

They whined about President Obama's victory lap--for fuck's sake, it should have been like the touchdown dance Cuba Gooding, Jr. did in "Jerry Maguire."  The President's team took out the man responsible for over 3000 American deaths.  The President gave the order to carry out a mission that was never a guaranteed success.

The President showed political courage.  And as we witnessed in the debate on Tuesday, Willard Romney wouldn't know political courage if it came up and kicked him square in his privileged white ass.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #20--Lily Ledbetter

The very first bill President Obama signed was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which basically overturned a rather bad Supreme Court decision, and allowed women to sue for pay discrimination within a realistic period of time (the Supreme Court had ruled that women had 180 days from the first discriminatory paycheck before the statute of limitations ran out, which meant, in effect, that if a woman found out about pay discrimination for the first time five years after the fact she couldn't sue).  The Democratic Congress decided women had 180 days from each paycheck to bring suit.  Sounds like a simple and fair enough law, right?

Nope.  Willard has yet to go on record in support of the act, even when given an opportunity to lie through his teeth like at last night's debate.  In a nutshell, what this means is that Willard thinks it's perfectly fine for corporations to pay women less than men for doing the same job.  And that it's perfectly fine to discriminate against women in equal pay as long as it doesn't happen in the first six months of her start date in her position.

What the fuck?  Romney's position is just another sop to corporate America, and we need more of them like we need more lima beans.

What we do need is to insure that women are paid equal to men fpr the same work, and the President's signing of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was a damn good start.

Peace,
emaycee

Fucking Kayo

Na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye....

I've waited for four fucking years to see President Obama flare his nostrils and take it to the mother fuckers, and when he so eloquently told Willard Romney that his assertion that the Obama administration was playing politics with the Libya terrorist attack was offensive--my God, it was so fucking cathartic.  I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight,.  I couldn't yell because the Beautiful Boy was sleeping, but I shook my arms in triumph so hard that I ended up out of breath.

My two takes:  1) Not surprised that Romney had several gaffes tonight.  He's prone to them and without four months to prepare for the debate he was bound to have some. The Libya one, though, where he claimed that President Obama didn't call it an act of terror in his Rose Garden statement will most certainly go down in Presidential campaign history as one of the worst ever.  2)  I figured before the debate even started that that no matter how well the President did--and trust me he hit a mother fucking grand slam--there was no way his numbers would look as good as Willard's after the first debate because republicans would never have the balls to admit their guy got crushed.

Man, I love winning--it's better than, like, losing.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #21--LGBT Issues

Keep it simple stupid....

President Obama overturned "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

The Obama administration stopped the Solicitor General from defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

President Obama is the first sitting President to come out in favor of marriage equality.

For the first time in our history, a majority of the American people are in favor of marriage equality.  Do we really want to hand the Presidency to a man who will be beholden to a party that thinks the word "faggot" is an acceptable way to describe Gay and Lesbian Americans? 

Fuck no, we don't.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #22--Racism

Is there really anything I need to add to this photo from a Romney rally?

Peace,
emaycee

The third world is just around the corner

Digby had another piece today about the disconnect between the 1% and the rest of us--she suggests (to me) that it's only a matter of time before their downfall if they continue to leave the rest of us behind.  I tend to see it in starker terms:  as more and more people (espedially those who have been taught since birth of their right to have a decent economic lifestyle) are unable to feed their kids, pay heating bills, have a place to live, and watch those on the other end of the economic spectrum light cigars with hundred dollar bills, a whole hell of a lot of wealthy people are going to find their property taken from them at best, and their lives end up a morality play the rest of us teach our children ("See the rich man hanging from his chandelier kids?  That's what we do to people who are too greedy!") at worst.

One thing I will say for a Romney victory in November--it will put us just that much closer to the start of the revolution.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #23--Clint Eastwood

After the debacle that was Clint Eastwood's performance at the republican National Convention this year, republicans were wont to complain that Democrats were using a double standard:  it was perfectly okay for Democrats to cheer on Bill Maher, Barbra Streisand, or Jon Stewart, but not for the republicans to react in kind to Clint Eastwood?

Um...the big difference is that we weren't fucking stupid enough to put our celebrities on two spots before our party's nominee and even if we had, we certainly wouldn't have let him have free reign with his script, and we most assuredly wouldn't have put someone up there who was anti-choice and an opponent of LGBT rights.  Which is exactly what the republicans, and by extension, Willard's campaign chose to do.

Do we really want an administration that would fuck up one of the most important moments of its campaign so badly?  I mean these conventions are scripted down to when it's appropriate to fart and they put an addled old coot out there with completely free reign to talk to a fucking chair? 

Give me a fucking break--I wouldn't have these idiots cut my lawn, let alone run the most powerful country in the world.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #24--Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is itching for a fight with Iran to stop their so-called nuclear program.  A close personal friend of Mr. Netanyahu is one Willard Romney.  Willard has installed noted hawk John Bolton, former Bush the Lesser U.N. Ambassador, as the head of his foreign policy team.  Radical right and religious right republicans have a major boner for Israel...because, well, Israel's in the Bible, and they're God's chosen people, well except for the U.S., and Jesus did some shit in that area, and...well,  you get my drift.

Mark these words:  Romney is itching for a fight with Iran, too, and if elected, it is only a mater of time before we are drawn into another war, for more than likely specious reasons, where thousands of American boys and girls will die (there will be no "Mission Accomplished" moment in Iran--there's a lot more of them, and unlike the Iraqis, who can't fight, and the Afghans, who are too divided to put up much of a fight, the Iranis will definitely exact their pound of flesh before the end game).  Another war where billions of much needed dollars for education, for health care, for taking care of the least among us, for our rapidly declining infrastructure will be diverted to help make rich men even richer and the rest of the country even poorer, just like Bush the Lesser and his two unnecessary wars.

President Obama is much more interested in diplomacy, and as has been recently reported, the sanctions are beginning to have the desired effect.  Obama has been a rock on foreign policy and after Willard's half-assed and factless premature ejaculation response to the embassy bombing in Libya, it's obvious he's not ready, nor will he ever be, for the "three a.m. call."

Do we really want thousands of American men and women to die, to waste billions and billions of dollars in another rich man's war?

I think not.

Peace,
emaycee

Twenty-five reasons to vote for Obama: #25--Joe Biden

For those counting and fearing, there's twenty-five more days until D-Day:  the 2012 election of our next President on November 6th.  In that spirit, I'm presenting the top 25 reasons (hopefully one each day through  November 5th) to re-elect President  Barack Obama.  And number twenty-five is...

...Joe Biden.  After his spectacular drubbing of Jughead in the Vice-Presidential debate last night, Joe Biden made it perfectly clear he is the vastly superior candidate for the job of the second most important individual in the world.  He stands for the working people of America and is a warrior both for the President and the Democratic agenda--little things like healthcare for all, retirement security, fair taxation, and the better paying jobs that the security of unions leads to.  Paul Ryan is nothing more than what we have been saying all along--an intellectual lightweight, long on vapidness and short on substance.  He doesn't care one whit for the average American and lives only to fellate Wall Street, corporations, and the wealthy.

Besides, on the entertainment scale, Biden is the Super Bowl and Ryan a quaint game of tic, tac, toe.

Peace,
emaycee

Stupid commentary of the night.

The post debate comment from Steve Schmidt on MSNBC, republican strategist for John McCain in 2008, was that the "big" story of tonight's debate over the next two or three days would be Biden's laughter and smiling, and how it would be perceived.  And you can easily see why McCain got trounced in 2008.

Because the big story from tonight's debate is not going to be some wild-eyed republican talking point but that Joe Biden kicked Paul Ryan's ass and reinvigorated the Democratic base in the process.

Peace,
emaycee

Biden Vs. Jughead

So much for the boy wonder, Paul Ryan--he got his ass bitch slapped by a man old enough to remember when republicans were honorable opponents, and not the lying chickenshits they've become.

Well done, Vice President Biden, well done, sir.

Peace,
emaycee

The day's biggest surprise

...had to be the way the Liberal blogs have rallied around the President today.  I mean the folks on MSNBC, with the exception of the Reverend Al Sharpton, absolutely crucified him last night, and I was pretty much expecting the same from everyone today (especially with President Obama's comments on Social Security) except for Markos Moulitsas (Obama could go streaking buck ass naked down Pennsylvania Avenue and Markos would find a reason why it shows the President's brilliance--and I love him for it).  Even fucking Digby, who usually treats Obama like an ugly stepchild, was pretty darn tame and fought back against Romney's lies.  And the Detroit Free Press' Stephen Henderson only acknowledged Romney's victory as one heavy on style but light on substance.

Good to see that we just might be seeing the utter catastrophe of a Romney victory on November 6th.

Peace,
emaycee

Oops

Um...got an e-mail from President Obama about a half hour after the debate last night which hoped I was proud of his performance and would I be willing to donate $15.

Talk about your shitty timing--don't you think some senior staffer should have nixed that one after the President's dismal performance?

On the bright side, they've only sent one e-mail today--and I usually get five or six at the very least.  One supposes, like a repentant husband, they've learned their lesson and are slowly easing their way back into our good graces.

Peace,
emaycee

Let's just all take a giant chill pill

Yes, President Obama got his clocked cleaned last night and his performance was a disappointment (though it probably shouldn't have been--he isn't called "No Drama Obama" for nothing, and he has always been very cognizant of the fact that the role of angry black man probably won't play well in middle white America).  But really, folks, it isn't the end of the dream.  To wit:

• The Romney campaign has been one of the most inept in modern history.  Anyone think one debate victory is going to change that?  See also, John Sununu, on TV today taking a "victory lap" and destroying whatever Independent voter support they gained last night.  Thanks, John!
• We have an unemployment rate over 8%, a solid majority of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and gas prices are near $4 a gallon...yet President Obama enjoyed a commanding lead going into last night's debate.  In fact, the only states he's losing that he carried in his utter rout of John McCain are Indiana (lost cause) and North Carolina (within the margin of error).  He beat shoo-in Hilary Clinton and crushed "Maverick" McCain.  Can we realize that the Obama campaign is pretty fucking well run?
• Booooorrrrrrriiiinnngggg.  I'm a political junkie and I lasted ten minutes before I figured I had better things to do with my time.  The Beautiful Girl is an Independent and she didn't even last ten minutes before she turned it off.  It's not scientific, but I really wonder how many people tuned out.  The one unanimous opinion I noted today is that the debate was a snoozefest.
• The worst poll I saw was the CNN poll which showed that registered voters thought Romney won the debate by a 67-25 margin.  Doesn't mean they're voting for him--from everything I've read, I think Romney probably did win the debate, at least on style, last night.  I'm still not voting for the mother fucker.
• Lies have consequences--the Obama campaign is already hitting back and the rest of the press is piling on  If you known for your silent but deadly farts, when the stink wafts through the air, everyone is going to be pointing their fingers at you.
• The biggest takeaway of the night?  Mitt Romney wants to fire Big Bird.  Anybody think that's a winning slogan?

No, it wasn't a good night for the good guys, but we're going to be just fine anyway.

Peace,
emaycee

An open letter to a man who will never read it

"So, yes, if you read DWT you know with which utter contempt I hold Republicans and conservatives and corporate whores and you know I agree with all that horrifying stuff Nick Kristof claimed about the Republican war against women in his NY Times column yesterday. Would it be catastrophic if Obama were to lose and Romney win in November? Yes. And if I lived in Ohio or Florida or Colorado or Wisconsin or any other swing state, I might even hold my nose and vote for Obama. But I live in California and I care barely wait to go to the polls and not vote for him."

Dear Mr. Epstein,

It was with much disgust that I read the post from which the above quote originated.  To be perfectly honest, with "Liberals"--oh, excuse, me you're probably one of those gutless wonders who won't stand up to republican bullshit and prefers the\ term "Progressives"--like you, we don't even need republicans.

For all your bullshit about helping the "common people" your voting decision shows that deep down inside you really couldn't give a shit less about people like me.  It must be really nice to live in your little cocoon of a world where you can make conjecture about what President Obama "might" do in his second term and base your precious vote--or rather gutless decision not to vote--on that.

We common people don't have that luxury.  Let me share a bit with you about what our world is like.  My wife lost her job five years ago thanks to the idiotic policies of the Bush the Lesser administration.  She was in the mortgage industry and you can guess what happened when the bubble popped.  Because our son has a chronic illness (not to be overly dramatic, it isn't life threatening), it has been impossible for her to find a job, and even if she had, she'd have lost it by now due to having to call in sick for all the school days he's missed.  Myself, I lost my job earlier this year.  Most of me losing my job can still be blamed on the W. Bush administration, but people like you who stood by based on your "principles" in 2010 share at least some of the blame.  By the grace of God I was able to find a job in ten weeks, but I took a 20% paycut. 

We common people spend nights tossing and turning in bed worrying if our savings can make up the deficit in our pay until the economy gets stronger, if we're going to be able to feed our families, if we're going to be able to continue to make the mortgage payment on our small homes.  I know you're probably thinking that if we had elected "Progressives" my family might not have these worries.  You may be right, but we can't afford to live in La-La Land.  We have to play the hand we're dealt, and President Obama is that hand.

No, I'm not thrilled with eveything President Obama has done, either.  And though I live in a relatively safe state for the President (Michigan) I can guarantee you he's getting my vote.  Part of it is the auto bailout--us common people here in the greater Detroit area would be living through an economic depression if not for his leadership on the issue.  Part of it is Obamacare--even though I lost my job this year we will be able to get health insurance for our son through my current employer thanks to the wisdom of not allowing insurers to deny care to children because of pre-existing conditions.  But the main reason I will be voting for President Obama is because that tossing and turning I do every night worrying about whether I'll be able to continue feeding my family will more than likely (I'm old enough to know there are no guarantees) remain just a worry.  Under a Romney Presidency, the reality of my family going hungry (and the often stated republican lack of compassion for those living in poverty) is just a little too close for comfort.

Digby and Noam Chomsky may respect your right not to vote, but I don't.  To me, you're no different than those rich people who donate to homeless shelters and food banks and then vote for republicans who do their best to see that as many Americans as possible end up in poverty.  Frankly, you're nothing more than a poser and you can blow your "principles" right out your ass.  You don't give a fuck about common people.

And in case I didn't get my point thoroughly across:  fuck you.

Peace,
emaycee

I wish I knew

According to a recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies, American taxpayers are subsidizing CEO compensation to the tune of $14 billion dollars a year through tax deductions, accounting schemes, and tax deferrments.  One of the authors of the study notes that this comes to $46 for every man, woman, and child in America, and that it is comparable to all of us buying a CEO lunch.

I'd love to know where they're eating lunch, because in the emaycee household $138 would buy us lunch pretty close to ten times at the local Taco Bell, and maybe even more if we ate the $5 pizza at Little Caesar's a couple of times.

That being said, just who the fuck decided that allowing loopholes for uber millionaires and uber profitable corporations to write off even more of their riches was a good idea?  And can we make sure that the fucking idiot (s) is never let anywhere near the U.S. tax code again?

I mean, fucking really.  "Free" enterprise, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

Yakety-yak, don't come back

Blah, blah, blah, old Nolan, blah, blah, blah, it's not about tax cuts, it's about spending, blah, blah, blah, skip to my lou, who cares if there's no empirical evidence that tax cuts create jobs, cock-a-doodle-doo, cut spending, cut spending, never mind the failure and human toll of austerity measures, put the needle to the record, yo, cut it....

Yawn.  In fact, double yawn.

And try feeding that bullshit to the mobs in Spain.  Or else pay careful attention to them--because if such brutal austerity measures are ever enacted here in the States (where we're raised from birth to believe that we we have a God-given right to live like millionaires) the Spanish protests are going to seem quite tame compared to the Mansonesque circus you're going to see here. 

You never know when you just might need some useful tips on dumpster diving.

Peace,
emaycee

It's a madhouse, a madhouse!

Seems republicans are convinced, now that it appears their brutally bad Presidential nominee is headed for defeat (and barring an economic collapse, it appears President Obama is going to cruise to victory), that those pesky polls are skewed with too many Democratic voters.

Goethe once wrote that "The illusions which exalt us are clearer than a thousand noble truths."

emaycee isn't nearly as prosaic as Mr. Goethe, but he thinks you couldn't convince the modern republican party that the sky was fucking blue if it upset their worldview that consevatism is God's gift to mankind, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Peace,
emaycee