Sure, we heard Republicans talk the talk, but when it comes to small businesses, Republicans turned their backs and voted “no” on a bill that would aid small businesses. They are only for tax breaks for Corporations and Wall Street Banks. When it comes to helping small businesses, they say “no”.
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks, in a procedural blockade that underscored how fiercely determined the party’s leaders are to deny Democrats any further legislative accomplishments ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Republicans in Congress have done their very best in trying to block legislation that benefits the middle class, working American. They take their orders directly from Rush Limbaugh, the drug addict. Rush wanted America to fail and the Republicans are doing whatever it takes to make sure that America fails.
Had to share this article from Frank Schaeffer. Pennsylvania For Change still supports our President. No sniping here.
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author.
Obama Will Triumph — So Will America
By Frank Schaeffer
Before he’d served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds — including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous (evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter — are sticking with our President. Why?– because he is succeeding.
We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us. Obama’s steady supporters will be proved right. Obama’s critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.
The Context of the Obama Presidency
Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe , the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition – from both the right and left. As the President’s poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election. The left’s lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling “prophecy”– snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn’t have anything to do with it!
Here is what Obama faced when he took office–none of which was his fault:
An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries
Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral
The worst economic crisis since the depression
America ‘s standing in the world at the lowest point in history/li>
A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war
A health care system in free fall
An educational system in free fall
A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)
An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left
A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration.
And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President’s desk!
“Help” from the Right?
What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists — that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office — do to “help” our new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he wasn’t a real American, didn’t have an American birth certificate, wasn’t born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating “racist”, was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted “death panels” to kill the elderly!
They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized “tea parties” to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) “commentators” from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.
The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: “No!”
In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right,combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent “bishops”, frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!
“Help” from the Left?
What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he’d inherited from the worst president in modern history! Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President’s economic policies had “failed” before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they’d been “betrayed”! (Never mind that Obama’s vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president’s has been. Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!)
Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how “disappointed” they were that they’d not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the “change”? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals! And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond. “Governing”?! What the hell does that word, uh, like mean?”
The President’s critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just couldn’t imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren’t as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn’t consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong! The Obama critics’ ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas-say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office. twice!
Meanwhile back in the reality-based community – in just 12 short months — President Obama:
Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Restored America ‘s image around the globe (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Banned torture of American prisoners (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Stopped the free fall of the American economy (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Stood up for educational reform (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Won a Nobel peace prize (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Stopped the free fall of job losses (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the “blood of tyrants” needing to “water the tree of liberty”. (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
Other than those “disappointing” accomplishments — IN ONE YEAR — President Obama “failed”! Other than that he didn’t “live up to expectations”!
Who actually has failed…..are the Americans that can’t see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned “news” into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.
Here’s the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty “supporters” or hate-filled Republican detractors!
The Future Looks Good. After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts — with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling. Just because we didn’t get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.
PS. if you agree that Obama is shaping up to be a great president, please pass this on and hang in there! Pass it on anyway to ensure that his “report card” gets the attention it deserves.
The press is reporting a sense of depression that overcomes people after seeing the movie “Avatar”. Having seen this movie, I have some thoughts as to why this depression occurs.
Without giving away too many details, “Avatar” is another movie about corporate greed. It joins films such as “500 Nations”, “Food Inc.” and “Michael Clayton”. The corporate greed in “Avatar”, “Food Inc.” and “Michael Clayton” centers on either something that provides nourishment for humans or energy. These are items that are needed to sustain life and to keep the “machines” running. It’s understandable that people would fight and even kill to gain and maintain control of these sources. As someone once told me, “The most profitable items for sale are those that either go up a chimney or down a toilet.” Makes a lot of sense.
The documentary “500 Nations” is different because it tells the story of greedy invaders that killed the indigenous people of the Americas for GOLD, something that doesn’t go up a chimney or down a toilet. Gold is NOT needed to sustain life. Gold is a mineral that does not provide nourishment nor does it provide energy. The only thing that gold feeds is vanity. Yet people committed genocide to obtain gold. The same can be said about diamonds, a crystal of carbon that is plentiful and market and price controlled by one corporation.
We humans are so very shallow that we value minerals that provide nothing more than we value life. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh spend time peddling gold and telling us that gold makes the world go around even though gold has no real value when it comes to sustaining life. They are selling the corporate messages and the undereducated are allowing themselves to be manipulated. The Tea Party shouters, filled with racism and hate, will never be happy because their value system is based on “things”. Americans believe that “things” will make us happy and yet, we are always looking to buy more “things” because we feel a hole inside us that needs to be filled. Religion doesn’t completely fill the void because religions are always asking for money and more money. If Catholics stopped sending money to the Vatican, the Pope would have to live his life like Jesus instead of like a king.
The indigenous people in Avatar have lives that are not centered around “things” and yet they appear to be happy. When we leave the theater, we re-enter our world and we see an environment covered in concrete and asphalt and realize that our lives are centered on “things”. It’s a very boring and sad picture, both visually and spiritually. Yeah, that would cause a person to feel depressed.
Every Pennsylvanian should be made aware of Senator Specter’s feelings towards Rush Limbaugh. He likes Rush. Read the details here…
Some excepts from the article:
Howard Stern: Are you OK with Limbaugh? You like him?
Arlen Specter: Do I like Rush Limbaugh?
HS: Limbaugh, yeah
AS: Yeah, I like him
HS: You do…
AS: Yeah
HS: You met with him?
AS: Yes I have
(crosstalk)
HS: He’s a crackpot? He’s an enemy of the country.
AS: (laughing) Uh, no, he’s not. He’s expressing his opinion.
…
HS: Senator, wait a second. In all seriousness. He wants the president to do poorly? Listen, I never voted for Bush, but I always wanted to see him do well. I’m an American. I want my president to be successful. Who says ‘I don’t want my president to do well?’ That’s anti-American!
AS: Well I haven’t heard Rush Limbaugh say that. But there’s a lot of talk which is provocative.
HS: Yes
AS: There’s a lot of comment – you fellas, and I know this doesn’t apply to you Howard, probably doesn’t apply to Rush, but some of these talk show guys want to attract an audience. And the more provocative, the more audience, the more ratings, the more money.
What surprises me is that Senator Specter claims that he never heard Rush Limbaugh make the statement that he hopes that “Obama fails”. Rush has said this several times and most of the media has relayed this message to the public. Either Senator Specter is not paying attention to any of the media or he is a liar.
A nation, state, or other political unit: as
a: one founded on law and united by compact or tacit agreement of the people for the common good
b: one in which supreme authority is vested in the people
c:republic
Definition of Autocracy:
The authority or rule of an autocrat
a : government in which one person possesses unlimited power
b : a community or state governed by autocracy
(Definitions from Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Using the above definitions, it is clear that the United States is a “commonwealth”. During the Bush/Cheney years, our government was heading towards an “autocracy.
Ah, the so-called “liberal” media, ha, ha, is reaching for straws when it comes to finding something to criticize President Barack Obama. David Letterman sets them straight…
It is now irrelevant whether Senator Specter beats that right wingnut,Toomey, during the Pennsylvania primary in 2010 because he is about to lose the support of Labor and Democrats during the general election. Specter plans on voting against the Employee Free Choice Act which is a vote against Unions and Labor, both of which are very strong in Pennsylvania. Woo hoo! Looks like the voters will force retirement on Arlen Specter in 2010. More on this story at Huffington Post here.
Now, I don’t have anything against Kentucky Fried Chicken except for their source of chicken. Their commercial clearly shows that KFC, purchases their chicken from Tyson Foods which is one of the leaders in animal brutality. There is no reason to torture a chicken like they do at Tyson Foods…
Then there is the Rush Limbaugh “I want Obama to fail” group and other critics of President Obama’s budget. What I want to know is “what would John McCain do if he was elected President”? I doubt if more tax cuts for the rich would get us out of this financial mess.
Looks like Rush “Porkulus” Limbaugh is the official leader of the Conservative Republicans. This is a branch of the GOP that embraces wholeheartedly, the failed Reagan economic policies. These members live in the past. If the year was 1776, we would recognize them as “Loyalists“.
If there’s any doubt that the GOP’s own Paulie Walnuts is now firmly in command of the Party of Lincoln, the “breaking news” style coverage of Limbaugh’s bellow-cose rant dispelled the notion. CNN, for one, went wide – with the kind of uninterrupted live footage usually reserved for Presidents and Popes, followed by a panel of analysts to weigh and consider the import of the speech to this republic of ours. There were other dancers on the stage, to be sure – including Ward Connerly, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and Karl Rove – but only Limbaugh’s hour-long ramble (he went over by 30 minutes) garnered opposition leader status. “As the movement searches for a front-and-center spokesman to provide inspiration and direction, Limbaugh’s refusal to tilt toward the center may place him out front in a Republican Party already suffering from a disappearing moderate wing,” wrote Tom Schaller in Salon.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the Republican Conservatives choose a show biz, undereducated narcissist to lead them over the abyss. Get out of their way. Just bring the popcorn, sit back and watch them implode.
Rush Limbaugh is no Ben Franklin. Rush lacks curiousity whereas Franklin was curious about everything.
Additional comment:
Porkulus is a phony word just like Limbaugh is a phony leader. He is a coward that didn’t have the courage to serve our nation during the Vietnam war unlike his father who served in WWII. The word porkulus is a proper description for someone like Rush. Someone that only cares about himself and the big money that he makes while inciting people to hate Americans. Another description for Rush would be anti-American or anti-Patriot. He would have been known as a “Loyalist” which is the opposite of a Patriot. No wonder he doesn’t know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. A Loyalist would only understand loyalty to a king and in Rush’s case the king is Ronald Reagan.
Organizing for Change 