Today, the Obama administration ended the missile defense program in Easten Europe. Conservatives said we were surrendering to the Russians. The truth is, they are being short-sighted because it is not weakness to try and get along with them, especially when allies like Georgia really did provoke that war in S. Ossetia. Additionally, we really need their support on Iran and in making Iran fall into line.
I am often disappointed that conservatives in international affairs talk as though it is possible for us to continue acting as we have in the past, when the strategic reality is one where we can actually get along with the other rising powers. Especially since, as with China, when we do not have a choice.
A note on blog writing. I think I am almost finished with writing since I am going back to grad school now. Once I have an outlet for writing and discussion, I probably will feel compelled to write here less often.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Contrived Protests
Remember when Libya, Egypt, China, and Iran have protests how we say that they are contrived by the government in order to put pressure on opponents? We do this on a regular basis in reference to authoritarian/partly-authoritarian states.
I find that protests in this country are regularly just as contrived, especially when a massive number of people are brought to Washington in order to call the president a socialist. The truth is that protests and grass roots stuff these days are driven by money and those who have it. If you can pay the cost of bringing millions to one place, then you get to have a protest. These may be corporate and special-interest based protests, but they are just as contrived.
I find that protests in this country are regularly just as contrived, especially when a massive number of people are brought to Washington in order to call the president a socialist. The truth is that protests and grass roots stuff these days are driven by money and those who have it. If you can pay the cost of bringing millions to one place, then you get to have a protest. These may be corporate and special-interest based protests, but they are just as contrived.
Friday, September 11, 2009
09/11 2001 Anniversary
I had hoped that the "We are All Americans" worldwide mentality and the unity in this country finally would spell the beginning of the remaking of America. It has sadly not. While virtually all of us were together mourning for the victims of the attack, we quickly broke apart with accusations of terrorist sympathies, war-mongering, facism, socialism, lying, etc, leveled at one another. I believe that our country has been blessed in many ways; however, each time we have the chance to remake ourselves, restore unity, and return to a moderate, rational path, we destroy it with factionalism.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
A Couple of Comments I Found on Van Jones
Posted by: allenridge | September 6, 2009 10:33 AM
Posted by: BruceMcDougall | September 6, 2009 9:36 AM..."a gagging America." ----------I hope it is not, in fact, the early stage of death throes.
Posted by: saturdayschild123 | September 6, 2009 10:32 AM
I guess we will never get all those millions of green jobs Van Jones was supposed to create.
What brought you down Van is that the majority of people figured out what you were all about.
The only "green" job you created was yours; the only thing "green" about it was the thousands of dollars you scammed into your bank account.
Posted by: krankyman | September 6, 2009 10:32 AM
Thank you Mr. Glenn Beck for your investigating work on Mr. Van Jones. The MSM such as the Washington Post and NYTimes don't have the guts to do it. You are a great american.
Posted by: sanjose56 | September 6, 2009 10:32 AM
One down, 35 czars and a Congress to go! Appointing people like this in the first place is a total disgrace. Don't lay down now America. This should be proof positive that when the usually silent majority, properly informed by the alternative media, rises up and says we've had enough, even a corrupt administration like this one, will be forced to act. Don't back off! There is still much to do. There are still some very dangerous people in this group and with have an entire congress to take down starting in 2010. The final goal is the removal of this Marxist dictator wanna-be from the White House in 2012! Let's not forget about this rotten health care plan either! Where was the main stream media in all this?
Posted by: yankee11 | September 6, 2009 10:31 AM
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
More Republican Insanity
Obama will be addressing children to deliver an educational message sometime in September for 15 minutes of a 1-hour long program.
Listening to the Republican pundits on Fox would make one think he is trying to indoctrinate them. The movement to keep children at home from school in order to not listen to the President is truly unprecedented since the President is the leader of this country, the entire country. The reality is that we Democrats never had a Karl Rove. Even our crazy anti-war socialist types are disavowed by us. Why is it that we disown our crazies while Michael Steele had to apologize to Rush Limbaugh. These people have called Obama a racist, said they want him to fail, and are preventing the Health Care Bill from going forward so that they can defeat him. He has made rookie mistakes by not outlining his plan and fighting for it, but the truth is that the Republicans have been truly disgusting. We need to fix our health care system and yet they will not even work to come up with something! Fox News is the most inane babble I have ever spent five minutes listening to since tonight when I heard Laura Ingraham and some other crazy along with Alan Colmes talking about how he is going to indoctrinate them and make them environmentalists. Even if he was, what is it that Republicans have against the environment?
My point is, to all my Republican friends, that I try and focus on our mutual complaints: the tendency for money to dominate, lack of willingness to compromise, moral and ethical problems in society, lack of individual accountability, the list is quite extensive. The truth, however, is that I am barely able to continue trying to find common ground because when it all is said and done, I am unable to understand how the Republicans can possibly believe that they have anything right left? The health care system is in crisis! Our system's metrics are getting worse, while other countries are getting better. The lies that I have heard from everyone on the other side make no sense to me. Want to argue that we need more insurance competition? Fine. Want to argue that malpractice suits and education costs require doctors to charge a lot? Great. Want to argue that we as a society demand more care and therefore it costs more? Ok, I will discuss that and have things on which we can agree and disagree. For death panels, rationing, government control of doctors, and all the rest of the BS, I do not want to hear it. The Republicans refused to address global warming in the 1990s and now we are in crisis mode and unable to respond to it today, with China threatening to out perform us in green-tech development. The Republicans argued and fought for deregulation that led to the mess we are in now. Republicans shifted focus on our war from Afghanistan to Iraq and supported a STUPID strategy in both places, costing us hundreds of billions and we are still unable to leave. Republicans shut Democrats and others out of the legislative process for years while we tried to have a chance to talk, they politicized the judiciary, they gutted civil rights in the Justice Department, they wrecked environmental policy, and worst of all, people like Karl Rove have politicized us so much that we cannot even sit together and discuss things based on facts because we all disagree. The only problem here is that this mess is not coming equally from both sides. Our most liberal commentators like Michael Moore get listened to by some, but not by the active center-left liberals like myself, who appreciates some stuff but can, as someone who pays a lot of attention to everything, distinguish the facts from the crap. Why cannot people recognize that the past 8 years have done more to destroy our society and country than any other time and that continuing to act like petulant children who make up lies in order to further agendas based around little else than winning, and that all of this is a very BAD thing. I know enough people from all extremes and on all sides. I have discussed, argued, and I hope someday with friends (including my best friend who is more to the conservative side and is a Republican) to be able to help change the world and support this country. At this point, however, I do not know if there will be anything left to save.
Listening to the Republican pundits on Fox would make one think he is trying to indoctrinate them. The movement to keep children at home from school in order to not listen to the President is truly unprecedented since the President is the leader of this country, the entire country. The reality is that we Democrats never had a Karl Rove. Even our crazy anti-war socialist types are disavowed by us. Why is it that we disown our crazies while Michael Steele had to apologize to Rush Limbaugh. These people have called Obama a racist, said they want him to fail, and are preventing the Health Care Bill from going forward so that they can defeat him. He has made rookie mistakes by not outlining his plan and fighting for it, but the truth is that the Republicans have been truly disgusting. We need to fix our health care system and yet they will not even work to come up with something! Fox News is the most inane babble I have ever spent five minutes listening to since tonight when I heard Laura Ingraham and some other crazy along with Alan Colmes talking about how he is going to indoctrinate them and make them environmentalists. Even if he was, what is it that Republicans have against the environment?
My point is, to all my Republican friends, that I try and focus on our mutual complaints: the tendency for money to dominate, lack of willingness to compromise, moral and ethical problems in society, lack of individual accountability, the list is quite extensive. The truth, however, is that I am barely able to continue trying to find common ground because when it all is said and done, I am unable to understand how the Republicans can possibly believe that they have anything right left? The health care system is in crisis! Our system's metrics are getting worse, while other countries are getting better. The lies that I have heard from everyone on the other side make no sense to me. Want to argue that we need more insurance competition? Fine. Want to argue that malpractice suits and education costs require doctors to charge a lot? Great. Want to argue that we as a society demand more care and therefore it costs more? Ok, I will discuss that and have things on which we can agree and disagree. For death panels, rationing, government control of doctors, and all the rest of the BS, I do not want to hear it. The Republicans refused to address global warming in the 1990s and now we are in crisis mode and unable to respond to it today, with China threatening to out perform us in green-tech development. The Republicans argued and fought for deregulation that led to the mess we are in now. Republicans shifted focus on our war from Afghanistan to Iraq and supported a STUPID strategy in both places, costing us hundreds of billions and we are still unable to leave. Republicans shut Democrats and others out of the legislative process for years while we tried to have a chance to talk, they politicized the judiciary, they gutted civil rights in the Justice Department, they wrecked environmental policy, and worst of all, people like Karl Rove have politicized us so much that we cannot even sit together and discuss things based on facts because we all disagree. The only problem here is that this mess is not coming equally from both sides. Our most liberal commentators like Michael Moore get listened to by some, but not by the active center-left liberals like myself, who appreciates some stuff but can, as someone who pays a lot of attention to everything, distinguish the facts from the crap. Why cannot people recognize that the past 8 years have done more to destroy our society and country than any other time and that continuing to act like petulant children who make up lies in order to further agendas based around little else than winning, and that all of this is a very BAD thing. I know enough people from all extremes and on all sides. I have discussed, argued, and I hope someday with friends (including my best friend who is more to the conservative side and is a Republican) to be able to help change the world and support this country. At this point, however, I do not know if there will be anything left to save.
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The following story has lots of comments, most of which are like the following (I read a bunch of them, but not all). The point behind posting these comments is to say that there is no way we can have a discussion when the rightful winners of the past election are called Marxist and other stuff. Also, another thing I cannot handle, is that calling the President of the United States a Marxist, socialist, and Nazi is worse than signing any petition. We are saying President Obama is AS BAD as our worst enemies of the past century. Read the following comments and PLEASE let me know if they make any sense whatsoever.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/06/van_jones_resigns.html
"White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism
Updated 10:07 a.m. 9/6/09
By Garance Franke-Ruta and Anne E. Kornblut
White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned Saturday after weeks of controversy stemming from his past activism......... the liberal fascists at the WASHINGTON POST"
...........Yeah "after weeks" except the POST only reported on it until NOW..
WASHINGTON POST, you really showed your NAZI-like censorship over the "last several weeks" by censoring this daming story on the guy you and the rest of America's corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack press INSTALLED last November the same way Hilter was elected/installed......MASSIVE PROPAGANDA.....
POST = DIRTY DISHONEST LIBERAL PROPAGANDA OUTLET FOR THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, CRIMINALS