Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address

I think Obama made a powerful speech - he was a great leader tonight. However, he needs to walk the walk as well as he talks the talk. He needs to realize that Nancy Pelosi is much more of a threat to his presidency than John Boehner. Hopefully he now understands what happens to his initiatives if his own party walks all over the opposition - he gets "bills we can't believe in."

If he can deliver on his promise of bipartisanship, if he can make that happen as a leader, then he will go down in history as a great president – the first great president since Ronald Reagan.

The Republican response was tepid, but better tepid than rabid. There seemed to be some effort to recognize the numerous areas President Obama mentioned where bipartisan cooperation is feasible. Republicans should immediately try to bring to the floor bills on each and every issue where Obama's vision coincides with limited government, civil rights (including those of homosexuals), individual liberty (including that of pregnant women) and national security, which includes energy independence, reductions in our military presence around the world, border control, immigration enforcement, environmental protection, and fiscal conservatism.

Let's see a Republican introduce a funding bill to start building modern, nuclear power plants. Let's see immediate action to enable offshore drilling to get us through until those nuclear power plants, solar plants, and wind farms come online. Let's see a national energy grid renewal project, of the scope and scale of the interstate highway program, to get ready for distributing that new power.

Let's see bills with the incentives Obama mentioned for small business and community banking. Let's see regulation to break up or eliminate any business institution which is "too big to fail." Any such entity is a clear threat to the American people and to democracy itself.

In short, Republicans have been handed a list of items which the President has told the American people he is willing to move forward on. They should jump at the opportunity to either 1) get some real work done for the American people or 2) prove to everyone that “Obama is a sweet-talking liar.” Either way, the Republicans will win big in 2012, potentially taking back both the House and the Senate, and, in the later case, likely taking back the presidency.

These Republican initiatives must be clear, immediate, and resolute. Americans are tired of dissent – they want leadership. Republicans should stop wasting their time trying to knock down Obama. They should get on with the work we sent them to Washington to do. And if the Republicans don’t put forth an effort to take Obama at his word and meet him halfway, then I for one will say, “Yes, he may be a liar, but you are a do-nothing leech on the body of America.”

David

Deflation or Inflation

Some say the bubble will deflate,
Some predict inflation.
From what I've heard on debt of late
I hold with those who say "deflate."
But to steal the soul of our nation,
And bring about her sure defeat
To destroy the middle class inflation
Can be discreet
With no salvation.

David W. Rogers
(with apologies to Robert Frost)

<Gasp> Obama is not a Citizen!

I just received another copy of the email referred to here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/occidental.asp

This brought up here are two things that I don't like about the Republican Party right now:

1. They start every political meeting with a prayer, pretending that their proceedings, beliefs, and leadership are especially blessed with the patronship of God (thereby relieving the majority of the members of any need to actually think,) and
   
2. They have a large, powerful contingent of foul-mouthed, gossipy, hateful folk who spend all of their time knocking the opposition, rather than leading the party in any real way. Worse yet, the rest of the party doesn't seem to think there is anything wrong with this and promulgates the misinformation and hate-talk. I have even witnessed District-level meetings where the next thing after the prayer is a joke about some Democrat!

I am not knocking anyone's religion. I am, however, belittling the practice of confusing "the things which are Caesar’s" and "the things that are God’s." The current Republican leadership apparently sees no conflict, since it encourages (or at the very least tolerates) the conflation of the two.

The current leadership claims (or abides the claim) that the founders of this country intended no separation of church and state, and that keeping religion and politics separate is both un-American and un-Christian, ignoring the historically clear separation of church and state, exemplified by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the admonition of Christ referred to above.

I have nothing against religious beliefs or humor. However, I think those of us who have a brain and aren't afraid to use it are obligated to stand up and shout that the GOP leadership has no substance! They have no business claiming to represent us with their dual agenda of injecting religion into policies and substituting humor for honest debate. They must go before this country becomes a one-party country!

David Rogers

We (Americans) are Mad as Hell

The question is, "Are we going to take it anymore?"

The Elephant in the Room

As the Republican Party sinks ever further out of power, it is disheartening to listen to explanations from the party regulars: the war, the economy, George Bush, John McCain, "Obama's use of technologyto organize and energize his base", yada yada.

What no one seems to want to talk about is the problematic coalition which makes up the GOP power base - a coalition which conflates conservative social values, conservative fiscal values, and conservativegovernance values. Out of good intentions, they have created a three-headed monster!

I'm fed up with being told I have to choose between a "tax and spend"socialist nanny state (Democrats) and a "fiscally conservative"theocratic nanny state (Republicans). Republicans need to get "family values" out of their policy statements and leave them to families, focusing their policies on fiscal conservatism and limited government!

They are failing to accomplish these latter goals because they are losing too many liberty-minded voters on the so-called "family values" issues. "Family values" don't come from a political party, they come from families. A political party needs policies based on the instruments of democracy,not on the dogma of theocracy!

Don't like it? Don't do it!

Don’t like firearms? .............. Don’t own a gun!
Don’t like abortion? .............. Don’t have one!
Don’t like same sex marriage? ... Don’t be in one!
Don’t like free speech? .......... Don’t listen to it!
Don’t like the rich? ............... Don’t be rich!
Don’t like religion? ............... Don’t believe in one!
Don’t like big government? ...... Don’t accept it!
Don’t like America? ............... Don’t live here!

Liberty Seems to Get Short Shrift These Days

What is Liberty these days?

Freedom of speech and religion: The freedom to say only that which offends no one else - especially Muslims.

Freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: Be all that you can be - after the draft (if you are male), after taxes, and after complying with a stupifying array of government regulations and red tape.

Freedom of assembly: Make sure you have a proper permit, liablity insurance, etc.

The right to keep and bear arms: Just don't purchase, load, or carry such arms.

Protection from unreasonable search and seizure and due process: As our glorious, crusading ex-president put it, "If we did it, it's not illegal."

Trial by jury: Juries are routinely instructed that they cannot judge the law, only the facts in a case, when in fact, the whole point of a jury of one's peers is to inform the legal system with the conscience of the community.

Protection of all other rights reserved by the people: Hell, even the enumerated rights are at risk! Wake up America!