It's Been A Busy Year.........

If you count banning abortions "six-ways-from-Sunday", labeling single women "sluts", taking food away from children, utilizing their "religious freedom" to deny female citizens contraception coverage, calling people who have been looking for jobs a couple years "lazy", denying healthcare to people who are trying to live on less than THEY paid for their cars, keeping track of the Obama family's "outrageous" vacations, and fighting the on-going battle of the War on Christianity. Did I mention also the six-year long campaign of the "Man Who Did Not Want to Become President?" The Republican Party has been in a dither all year......well, four years actually.

It's too bad they couldn't find it in their consciences to give the green light to the minimum wage increase, employment non-discimination, environmental change, campaign transparency, world-wide equal treatment for the disabled, or the Buffett Rule.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/28/1356701/what-could-have-been-the-most-important-bills-blocked-by-republicans-in-2012/

Looks like a farm bill will be the next one to be held hostage.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57560791/milk-grocery-prices-on-the-rise-if-congress-ignores-farm-bill/
"The House farm bill, approved by Lucas' committee in July, never made it through the GOP-controlled chamber, due primarily to disagreements over how  deeply to cut food stamps. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed its version - the "Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012" - in June."

Of course.......

"Hmm — perhaps it would have been better if the federal government had never made it their personal business to spend our resources coddling their politically-preferred industries in the first place, no? "

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/28/the-other-other-cliff-with-no-farm-bill-milk-prices-set-to-soar/.........not nearly as important as oil or coal that the Right panders to. Am I the only one who sees the irony ??

Apparently "hearing the Voice of the American People", losing an election after blowing all the Kochs' money, was just an exercise in futility for the REST of the country. Those in the GOP are hell-bent on going kicking and screaming into the future...and it's not going to be pretty.

No Words Necessary....

and

(Thanks to The Political Carnival and The Daily Kos.....)

I Just Don't Get It....

My husband returned home from running a few errands just after noon today, Sunday. He stopped into Gander Mountain in Turkey Creek here in West Knoxville for a minute or two. This store, for those of you unfamiliar with the name, is a huge sporting goods store catering to every type of leisure activity imaginable. Also, Turkey Creek is a mostly upscale "shopping experience."

The line for gun purchases was L O N G....and you had to take a number. He said he'd NEVER seen such a thing. I guess all the conservative Right Wingers had gotten home from church, and had eaten lunch.......or maybe they had finished watching the tele-evangelists on the local stations. Whatever.

What-in-the-name-of-cheese-and-crackers is WRONG with people? Twenty-seven people, most of them just babies in my mind, were recently killed in cold blood........and MORE GUNS is the answer???? On the morning talk shows gun laws were re-hashed and some sensible options were put on the table.....at least on Face The Nation. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57559441/bob-schieffer-to-what-depths-of-horror-must-we-sink/  On another program David Gregory noted that 31 pro-gun Congressmen (Republican?) were asked to appear...but they all declined or "were unavailable for comments." Well, when you're on the wrong side of the question......or debacle......

Not a word from the National Rifle Association.
But THIS might interest you: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13364-big-money-alec-and-the-gun-agenda

The time for national debate is NOW. The president MUST act. CONGRESS must act. WE must make them.

If some such tragedy occurred with one of the Congresspeople's kids or grandkids.......there would BE no debate.....you can count on it!

The American People Have Spoken......But We Didn't Hear them

The past election was going to be a referendum against the Left, the "socialists," the "moochers," the "un-American Kenyan communist fascist illegal ruler-in-chief' and his "rabid followers"...... anybody who could see through the extreme Right's Tea Party incarnation and who dared to get the truth out  against it. The result was in the bag...the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove guaranteed it. But....it didn't quite happen that way. Not everyone was totally was one hundred per cent in the Obama camp, but deep down inside they felt that something wasn't quite kosher in GOP land.

That is....except in the Republican political world. Hence we have a repeat of:

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday he has no regrets about saying the GOP’s top priority over the next two years will be to make Barack Obama a one-term president, calling Democratic attacks over the line “laughable.”........ They almost have nothing to say to the American people.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44491.html#ixzz2EaA0yNqX

Also, quoting Trent Lott Senate Minority Leader in 2007: “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail… So far it’s working for us.”

They are still trying to act as if nothing has changed:

Republicans "know they have the debt ceiling" as leverage, Corker continued. "Hopefully, we'll do the same thing we did last time. And that is if the president wants to raise the debt limit..... (we cut)......hopefully this time, it is mostly oriented towards entitlement and with no process."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/bob-corker-debt-ceiling_n_2267211.html?ref=topbar

What is totally incomprehensible is everything they are NOW against, they were perfectly happy with decades ago.

 Republicans Voted Seven Times to Raise Debt Ceiling for President Bush

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/10-inconvenient-truths-about-debt-ceiling

We won, thank you. The people won. They lost, electorally and popularly. But we know what it's all really about.

It's all about control...or keeping "what's theirs."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfOik4IQYY


Well now..there's been a slight change of tone this afternoon:
"... Mr. Corker is part of a group of Republicans who say that the party ultimately will have to yield to the Obama demand of higher tax rates for top earners, potentially back to the levels that prevailed under President Bill Clinton.That group of Republicans, he said on Fox, was beginning to realize “that we don’t have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before year end” – but that a tax-rate concession could be converted, jiu-jitsu style, into a tactical advantage."
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/officials-foresee-progress-on-fiscal-talks/?partner=rss&emc=rss

 WHY I COULD NEVER VOTE REPUBLICAN

My relatives here in Tennessee are died-in-the-wool Republicans. They are educated, have money, some have owned their own businesses (with several branches) for decades, traveled internationally, invested their husbands' money wisely, and go to the Baptist Church, of course. One is even a Baptist preacher. They watch FOX, and CNBC to catch up their stock news. They think I am mentally incapacitated, I have no doubt.

“The Democrats,” old, white, and angry lumber magnate Oregon, Republican chairman Gary Bray said, “have replaced personal morality with social morality which means to be a good person you no longer have to worry about your personal failings but your societal failings…You can be a drug addict, leave your family in shambles or steal from your boss but, as long as you drive a Prius and are concerned about polar bears, you are a good person.”

http://www.politicususa.com/oregon-gop-chairman-claims-democrats-seek-utopian-enslavement.html

I drive a new Prius V, recycle, and am concerned about climate change. I do not go to the Baptist Church or watch FOX news. I am college educated and was a small business owner. I raised four kids as a divorced mom (who now make money than I'll ever see) who have their own families. I try not to describe people I encounter (or who do work for me) as the Jew, the Mexican or the N-word. It makes my skin crawl. I cuss a lot, though. (Sorry) You can see the dilemma. 

They all voted for Romney-Ryan. I'm sure the following video would accurately describe us:

Former Virginia Congressman Tom Davis, when interviewed by Hardball’s Chris Matthews on MSNBC, demonstrated the GOP’s core beliefs in no uncertain terms. 

I am an "underclass" voter: I am retired, have Social Security and money from a pension. Everything we have is paid for. I certainly do not bring $50,000 a year...but I don't need to at this stage in my life.

How much longer can this sort of ignorant, hateful, demeaning dialogue continue in this country? And the use of "dog whistles" to get around saying what they REALLY mean.....I only hope the younger people taking part in the governance of this country have bigger hearts than this.

Forbes Thought Of The Day

“ People who look down on other people don't end up being looked up to. ”

— Robert Half

Update

I read this article today. I agree completely.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/07/what-happened-to-the-republican-party-op-ed/

........Style or Manners ?

       

One of the definitions of the word conservative, after the obvious political, religious and philosophical explanations to consider, was this:

a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions :

b : marked by moderation or caution: conservative 

estimate

c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners

Somewhere, somehow, sometime in the last four years those words were erased from the book. From The Tea Party Town Halls to "You lie" being shouted out on the floor Congress. From anonymous tweets to those posted by political officials and pundits. From Fox "news people" to preachers in pulpits.

The Speaker of the House doesn't want to have his picture taken with the President...

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1101/boehner_declines_state_dinner_invite.html

This has happened before:

A Boehner aide confirmed that the House speaker was invited to the dinner but will not be attending. Boehner also turned down invitations to the previous two state dinners held during Obama’s presidency, one honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009, and the most recent state dinner honoring Mexican President Felipe Calderon in May 2010, the aide said.

Now that the elections are done and sleeves are rolled up to begin the hard work again, this pettiness is over, right? NO! Those on the Right are pouting, throwing out 

conspiracy theories, blaming a now-nonexistant organization (which was cleared of wrong doing the FIRST time),  talking secession, and shouting voter fraud to the high heavens. Basically sticking their tongues out at those of us who made our voices heard. The problem is: we knew what THEY were saying was going to ruin this country and take us backwards. We'd already GONE through all of that. 

How much longer can the childishness, self-serving, narrow mindedness go on? When are grown men (and some women, I'm sorry to say....) going to figure out that THEY are paid by US, and that they are in THEIR positions at OUR election? A government of the people, by the people, for the people......

We went to see Lincoln yesterday.............nothing much has changed since the 1860's.....I swear I saw John Boehner and Mitch McConnell in there.......