Frank Schaeffer wrote a good article about how he sees what the Republicans are doing as they try to rally their remaining brain-numbed minions. For anybody who still has any faith in the leadership from the right, please read it and give his words some thought.
There should be a conservative political party to balance the left. I hope someday there will be again, but I sure don't see it today. As Schaeffer said, Reagan, gentleman that he always was, would not support the kind of lowlifes that are currently holding sway with the right wing.
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That's a great piece. He says it quite well and thoughtfully.
Yes, I know the problem. What I want to hear is how to remedy this situation. Any ideas?
As for me, I am a regular on the official goverment web site, www.recovery.gov
I submit small stories to the Share My Story page. I tell my own and the stories of my neighbors who are very conservative and have businesses in big hurt. I am delighted to look at the web sites time line with bench marks of when the bill will be effective. Also I am impressed by the states who have web sites to report how the money is at work in their state. And in particular I am interested in all the governmental offices with web sites reporting what progress they are each making. On television I learned that even our former President Bush is becoming a tech nerd in his retirement. He has a Blackberry as just one example of the various ways he is expanding his skills. Now if only other Republicans would become viable by following Bush's example and keep their computer skills up to date. I must laugh because all Republicans reading this page do not need to be told to study up on new technology. What are other constructive ways Republicans can contribute to building our contry back up?
After getting himself tangled in whether it's good for a president to have a hot wife (considerations of her showing her arms being inappropriate), David Brooks wrote this which I think is a good look at the Republican problem-- Taking a Depression Seriously and he hits the Democrats and Obama while he does it. And yes, he has some actual suggestions.
David Brooks in his article and on TV is depressing. He has been around for a long time and thinks he knows what doesn't work. Well, I want to know specifics. I am not grasping what he means by looking at the failings of Capitlism. Lets hear him and then proceeding to fix that. To me building for the future is like long term gratification. Building for the future is redirecting investment towards a springboard where future free enterprise will develop. I am sure we could do more. Now I want to hear David Brooks in more depth and hear where we can make changes in the Captalist system including the structure of banks and corporations if that is what he is getting at.
Some more thoughts on David Brook's commentary. I want to know specifically what makes him afraid of spending money on Obama's Health Care, Education and environmental programs. What in his past experience makes him afraid of big government spending at a time like this. Was it linked to dishonesty and greed? These are real fears based on past experience. Maybe the internet accountability will keep the agencies involved honest. Maybe the number of people caring will create an unexpected turn around in the global economy. If we fix the health care for example, not only will we save lives, bring people closer together economically, but we will increase our self-esteem and our image in the world.
Parapluie, David Brooks used to be a Democrat. Where did he go wrong and why? If you find the answer to that it might help answer your questions.
On a personal note (forgive me, Rain for using your comment section)- I accidentally deleted my blog list and had to reconstruct it. I have forgotten the name of your blog. Please e-mail me with it.
Thanks, Rain, for letting me use your site for my own purposes.
Rain, all Republicans aren't "brain-numbed minions. :-)
There are some good intelligent people among them. It's just that the ones who ARE brain-numbed have been in control for quite awhile.
You sure about that, Paul? *s* Actually I know there are but if they are listening to the right wing leaders currently speaking out, then their brains are numbed. Like the stem cell issue. What we are talking about are embryos that would otherwise simply be destroyed and they want to save and not use those for what reason? If they were to be consistent, they would ban all such fertilization methods but since they do not, there will always be embryos that are not used. Given one of our problems is becoming overpopulation, this is a no-brainer if one uses their brain.
And on the right who say the gov't needs to buckle down and quit spending, like all Americans need to also do. So how do people make money on products if that is what happens? Isn't not enough spending part of today's problem? I am not in favor of acquiring debt for nothing (like say the war in Iraq has done for us) but there has to be some sense shown now and not just platitudes that appeal to a certain group but are based mostly on ignorance.
It's a time we all need to use commonsense and do some deep thinking on what will get us out of this or maybe we can't get out of it and have to just plow through helping others as best we can. It's a worldwide problem and doesn't look like it's going away soon. Economics is something most of us barely understand and that makes it harder to come up with viable ideas. or to know who to support.
In an attempt to understand the economy better, I keep buying books and my book shelf is becoming very well educated. These books are filled with data and graphs. Pete Murphy's book presents a half way theory that says we were hoodwinked with statistics that reported our Gross Domestic Product increasing and our economy strong. It was a lie because the population increase was not factored in to show that our individual worth was falling.
Contrary to Murphy's opinion we can support the current world population for generations if our Gross Domestic Produces were in balance. I continue to think that economics are not as complex as the jargon would suggest. My take is that greed and dishonesty is very wasteful and my hope is that organized efforts to be transparent and responsive to the people's voice in an upresedented democratic process is the key to prosperity.
Some say that responding to "Telling your Story" is not worth doing because nobody will read your story. My hunch is if the key words and main idea is expressed in the first ten words a computer engine could catagorize the stories, and list them much as Google does. They could be organized by topic key words and by location.
Dumb is not unique to Republicans.
Agreed. Dumb is equal opportunity and it can be anywhere.
I like that statment, dumb is not unique to Republicans. I also like that statement from the past Socialist who said that there was no more reason for him to seek office since his agenda was adopted by the Democratic Party. I see running with the ball to the Socialism Goal in the US's football game. Too bad we had such a poor showing of Republicans in the past administration. I hate it that Republicans are backed by the southern religious fanatics. They and the biased media blocked the way of good sound conservative principals. Look at the trends that are coming out in the laws passed, the topics of these loaws, the definitions, read them. The reality is very much different from what the press is duscussing. I see constitutional rights and the constitution slipping by the wayside. I know that there were rumblings about that by the past two administrations, but the proposed programs are going to make our country a third world nation. How can money be spent on national health programs when there is no money for them. I know, let it be paid for by the rich, a knumbskull attitude. The fake intellectuals, speaking for the people and people and union rights, the unions promoting featherbedding and mediocraty.
I can go on and on.
The word socialism is bandied around a lot right now. So if you take it to mean the government owns all property and production means, what policies do you think Obama is suggesting that would do that other than the banks? If you want the banks to fail, is it okay if it's your bank too and no return to you of the money you deposited in it? If it's not okay that the banks fail, shall you just bail them out with no government benefit from it?
and how about Social Security and Medicare? A lot consider them to be socialism, would you end them too? If so how do you take care of the elderly? Especially since the stock market tanked with a lot of their investments which they thought would cover their retirement?
Remember that Europe has socialism programs but as a choice of their democracies. They are not in a fascist state which is where we were heading with the Bush administration where some say god says this or that and you have to do it and they define patriotism.
I think we are in a difficult time and I won't like all of what the Obama administration might suggest. This is the time to speak up at what we don't like. Write our congressmen, phone the leaders and don't be silent about what you don't want to see. Too many were silent during the Bush years and look where that was leading.
As for those who make more than $250,000 a year going back to the tax rate they had before our deficit began to grow, if they lost as much as they claim, there won't be so many of them anyway. Nobody likes taxes. Which things would you end that they cover? The war? I know the answer for most right wingers, that it'd be the poor, programs for them. But you know if you look, that isn't that much money. More has to be cut if you expect to keep taxes low for everyone, keep the increased tax cut Obama just okayed for the middle class. Who is going to pay? Nobody? That sounds like what we heard the last 8 years.
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