Posted by
Wendy on 05/11/2009 |
One comment
The only thing that the Republicans have been crying about lately that has made any sense to me is the idea of “out of control” government spending. I can see where that can make one uneasy. The math is easy, if you spend more than you are making, you end up with debt. And the debt has to be paid sometime, right?
Okay, makes sense.
So I said to myself, “Self, maybe they are right, maybe my way of thinking is incorrect. Maybe they are on to something. Maybe, just maybe, us “libtards” are spending too much money.”
Being that I’m a numbers nerd, I thought I’d do some crunching. I went to this website and pulled the latest numbers. It lists by state how much each state paid into Federal Tax dollars, and how much each state got back. Then I took the results of the last election, and divvied up the spending: Blue States vs. Red States. And here are the results:
Since the numbers above represents dollars in millions, this means the red states are spending about $ 154,913,000,000 too much. In shorthand, that is $154 BILLION. Pardon me, but I think you guys have some explaining to do.
I try very hard to see both sides of the argument, I really do. The problem is when I start to research; I find that the people making the most noise are the perpetrators of the offense. It’s sort of like the prick in high school that beat up all the guys he even thought were gay, only to find out at your 10 year reunion the prick has a boyfriend.
Methinks thou doth protest too much!
Tags: money, republican
Posted by
Wendy on 05/04/2009 |
7 comments
This past week, Arlen Specter decided that being a Republican in Pennsylvania is like having the plague (or swine flu) and he switched sides. Now he is Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania). To my fellow Democrats who think now we’ll have that magical filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, I wouldn’t hold my breath. He’s already said he would oppose legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act and health care reform; and even voted against the President’s budget the day after his announcement. This move was purely self-preservation on Arlen Specters part, and nobody should be duped to think otherwise-Democrats or Republicans.
But this does signal something more troubling for Republicans: they will continue to lose elections in 2010. Instead of moving towards the center of the Republican ideology, they are moving further right. And whether you believe this country is center-right or center-left, we’d all agree the collective ideology of the country is somewhere in the center. In Specter’s case, his Senate colleagues were disenchanted with his support of the President’s stimulus package, and vowed to rally around his 2010 primary challenger, Pat Toomey. While Specter was considered a moderate republican or “center-right”, Toomey is as far to the right as they come. While Toomey would have probably won the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, the election would not have fared as well for him in a state that overwhelmingly voted for President Obama. His democratic challenger would have won.
The Republican Party has become a party of absolutes. To be a part of the club, you have to be anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti-union, pro-business, a card-toting NRA member, and a devout Christian. If there is any slight variance in the ideology, you are out of the club. Some in the party are even requesting for John McCain to switch sides, because he doesn’t believe enough in those core principles.
If that is what the Republicans want to be, then they will only enjoy the company of 27% or so of the electorate. That won’t win elections.
To make matters worse, their arguments have become nonsensical. What is their answer to the economic crisis? To just say no on the stimulus bill, and more tax cuts for the wealthy. What is their answer to the health care crisis? To do nothing, cause then the illegal Mexicans will get free healthcare and then we’ll have a fascist socialist state. What is their reason for opposing legislation to extend hate crimes to include violent crimes against gays? To deny that violent crimes against gays exist. The majority of people can’t identify with the nonsense. They need leaders that offer solutions, or at least opposing viewpoints that make sense and quick, before the public totally quits listening to them.
As a progressive Democrat, I am somewhat reveling in their self-destruction. Yet, I also understand for the health of our Democratic Republic, we need a viable second party. Perhaps, a new party will emerge that will represent more of the people. For now, Republicans are only pushing themselves further into irrelevancy, which will only result in higher Democrat majorities.
Tags: Arlen Specter, democrat, Employee Free Choice Act, mccain, news, obama, republican, stimulus, vote, voting
Posted by
Wendy on 04/06/2009 |
9 comments
The US Constitution was ratified by the 13 states in 1789. Realizing the original Constitution failed to protect individual liberties, the Bill of Rights, or the first ten Amendments, were introduced to Congress in the same year, and came into effect on December 15, 1791. The first Amendment, as Thomas Jefferson described it, built a “wall of separation between Church and State” (Letter to the Danbury Baptists, 1802).
Even so, many fundamental Christians feel that the United States is a Christian nation and prayer should be mandated in public schools; creationism should be taught to children; and the 10 commandments should adorn public buildings. And they have taken over the Republican Party. That gives the Fundamentalist power to pursue their agenda: to rid the country of secularism.
We only need to look at the legislation passed in previous eight last years to know that this is true. George Bush won the war on the very unbiblical taxes by cutting taxes on the wealthy, which passed in the House at 1:56 am on a Friday in May, under the cloak of darkness. Those proponents of the flat tax—they are proponents of the Biblical tax, the only tax mentioned in the Bible. To fundamentalists, the free market rewards good Christian behavior and punishes the unrepentant. And so the Republicans did their bidding and cut regulations on corporations. Then of course, George Bush’s abstinence only sex education program, where lots of government funds were given to faith-based programs. Also there were multiple calls for an Amendment to the Constitution making marriage only between “one man and one woman”, to keep the Biblical definition of marriage law of the land.
The past eight years clearly chipped away at the wall between church and state. Even for the most devout Christian, this should be alarming. We only need to look at theocracies like Iran and Afghanistan under Taliban rule to see what we could become. The most literal interpretations of our Bible would put our society backwards 2000 years. Women, Jews, gays, Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists would all become second class citizens. Science would not have the place it does in our society today. We must remember that this country was founded by men and women escaping the tyranny of the Church of England; and Nazi Germany was led by a very religious man wishing to rid its country of moral decay.
We need to rebuild the wall. As a nation, we need to understand that a marriage under the law is not the same as a marriage in the Church. We need to understand that faith-based programs have their place, but not in government. We need to understand that science does not necessarily preclude the supernatural. We should know that someone else’s beliefs, or lack thereof, do not in any way diminish our own beliefs. Most of all, we should know that our salvation can not be legislated or coerced.
But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. In neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. – Thomas Jefferson
Tags: Afghanistan, belief, bible, biblical, Bill of Rights, country, creationism, education, first amendment, flat tax, friday, fundamental christian, god, marriage, republican, republican party, separation of church and state, Sex, ten amendments, thomas jefferson, US Constitution
