Eventually the Tree Will Fall

Eventually the Tree Will Fall


Blame Game:
I get a lot of e-mails from Republican friends that are outright blatantly false in claiming what the current U.S. government is doing for illegal aliens. From food stamps to free education, free housing and even free credit cards they all claim that the U.S. government is essentially a free giveaway sweepstakes grab for anyone who is illegal in this country bought and paid for, courtesy of the hard working taxpaying American.

The latest e-mail was more of an attack stating that three previous presidents had deported illegal aliens in mass to create jobs for the ‘real American’ and then asked the question, “Why can’t we do this now?” It ends in large bold letters,

“Don’t forget to pay your taxes – 12-20 million illegal aliens are depending on you!”

Well, after a truckload of these e-mails had been received, once this one reached my screen, I’d pretty much had had enough and fired back a reply that wasn’t exactly too kind. In a more crude connotative tone, I replied back by stressing impolitely, “Don’t allow the e-mail to just stop there. This has riled the Cherokee Indian in my blood, so I say, why not go back to the days when the white man broke every treaty ever promised to uphold and acted illegally as the illegal alien in going into and taking the lands of the American Indian. Why don’t we start there and send the bones of these illegal Europeans packaged along with you as their ancestors and ship it all back from whence ya’ll came.”

Though a silly rebuttal, it was much more befitting and I did feel a bit appeased after sending it. Later an e-mail peace offering of amity and kindness was received from the recipient of my terse e-mail. So apparently, he knew the rope had stretched and frayed into a string about to break. These chain-e-mails are uncalled for, but what is it in their attraction in popularity for the right-wing?   

Of course all these illegal alien e-mails are false and all the other made-ups concerning Obama’s birth rights, religion and lack of patriotism are too. If the blatancy doesn’t at first slap you in the face, a little effort in researching could reveal the inaccuracy. They are bogus and needless gossip. So, why is there a great length in effort to come up with these sour and asinine statements? The obvious reason is strictly due to a bias train of thought. With the country hurting financially and socially, these Republicans, or anyone else in like thinking, are searching for a scapegoat to squarely lay blame on for all of America’s ills.

I don’t truly know if the Republican receivers of these e-mails know that they are real or not, for they send them to me sometimes to check out their validity. Yes, they are friends, but I’m still figuring out if they are really that ignorant enough to put merit and stock into these forwarded mailings. But I do know they cling to these e-mails in hopes that they will be a cause in support of their biased opinions, whether they are true or not, for whatever is the case they intend to forward them on to others.

So what does this say? In my opinion anyway, it says that there is a deep seated divisiveness nestled in a Republican’s mindset that doesn’t want to share on both ends of the spectrum. On one end, the right-wing he/she doesn’t want to share any scraps of economic gains that still exists with others. That is why they so desperately seek out perceived pushovers like illegal aliens. Before, it has been based on internal American ethnicity, but always on social ranking. Even poor-folk Republicans feel they’re squared above the rest of the poor folks. Come to think of it, a poor Republican is a bit of an oxymoron. If Republican politics primarily cater to the rich, why on Earth are there poor Republicans still rooting for the GOP? Anyway…on the other end, Republicans absolutely refuse to share in the blame of why America is in this state to begin with, as if the blame is all on liberal accounts. Let me elaborate a bit…

A Stick in Your Crawl:
Concerning George Bush, I’m not this time around going to spew out a load of figures and unveiled he said/she did statements and actions. We’ve gone all over the W. Bush era and have covered about all there is to know in the soaring financial numbers and bad policies that he and his administration infected the country with. So, we’re going to look at it down a different path; a path that leads to the psyche.

Exactly ten years ago as I write today, America was attacked. The Twin Towers went down and along with it 2,753 totally innocent lives. We as a nation were greatly saddened, then appalled and finally angered to action in retaliation.

Bush seized on that attitude to promote and proceed ahead with his agenda to invade Iraq. The only compromise for him was that he’d first have to go into Afghanistan, but that was a small matter. So he went first into Afghanistan, made a good show utilizing the world’s most powerful military against rag-tag militants, but left too soon allowing Osama bin-Laden to escape when he was holed up in Bora Bora and his capture or death was imminent. Bush pulled the military out to send them to his real project in Iraq, still taking advantage of America’s prevailing, ‘let’s get ‘em’ mood.

Now, ten years later on this anniversary date of 9/11, where are we? Bush’s miscues dragged the country into the longest and costliest war period America has ever been involved in. In addition to 9/11, it reeks of more lost blood and treasure with nearly six thousand military coffins filled and 40,000 more wounded and maimed for life. The monetary cost has surpassed the $4 trillion mark in Iraq alone.

bin-Laden is finally gone, dumped somewhere in the bottom of the Arabian Sea and most probably is fish crap by now. Bush, in an interview with USA Today just last week was trying to gain credit for the assassination of bin-Laden stating the work to get him was done by his presidency. The idiot realizes he had seven years to get him, but never did. Nevertheless, he wants bragging rights and to let the credit shift away from the president who actually called the shots to get him in only two years of his presidency.

During Bush’s years, the more he let the culprit slip away, the more this country changed. What has Bush’s two wars accomplished? What has Osama bin-Laden and his ability to elude the US all those years done to the unity of this country?

The wars have drained us. They have left us limp with former stalwart friendly nations. We can’t call the shots anymore. We have no bite that grips. The wars also spawned Al-Qaeda recruiting posters throughout the Middle East and even into some western and European nations; even into the U.S. in a couple of instances. Bush’s drawn line in the sand in, “You’re either with us or not,” statement and attitude gave the U.S. a black eye as an arrogant nation and we lost global ranking. Bush alienated friends and threatened the rest. The Bush administration’s secretiveness and abhorrent behavior in Abu Ghraib/Guantanamo fell right into bin-Laden’s “see I told you so” debate on America’s conduct. The U.S. was shamed.   

In 2002 Bush decreed through his ‘National Strategic Strategy’ that America would not permit any nation to reach a level of power where it might challenge the predominance of American superiority in any part of the world his administration deemed significant to U.S. security.

Later, during his second inaugural address Bush stressed, “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.” He finishes with America’s committal to its “ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”

So where did he put America’s stance with only one foot tip-toeing to balance with? At the time, 192 nations in the United Nations’ roll-call were ruled by dictators of some sort. Did Bush intend America to overthrow them all and install a U.S. brand of democracy? Not hardly, even he catered to some, but it was sound words for a bully.

Turkey, a once staunch NATO friend that actually sent troops to Korea to aid our cause there during the Korean War, refused Bush to have access to Turkish air bases during the Iraq conflict, because Bush flipped his nose at them and did not allow them to be privy on what the U.S. military was doing on Turkish soil before and during start up of  the conflict. Now, Turkey is partnering with Iran.

After all our effort in Iraq to install some form of democracy, the Shia controlled government in Baghdad is shifting to Iran. During Bush’s last year in office, only 5% of the Egyptian populace favored the U.S. and in the countries of Morocco and Jordan, both averaged out to only 11%. Middle East countries that were once unabashedly loyal to the U.S., now feel confidently aggressive towards us.

As soon as American soldiers make their last boot print in the Iraqi and Afghani desert sands, the two countries will revert back to their own way of doing things; ya can bet yore bottom dollar on it.

Bush should have reserved his ‘coalition of the willing’ to go after al-Qaeda and forget the fighting he wanted in Iraq. Heck, Osama despised Saddam Hussein and Saddam could’ve cared less about Osama. The Ayatollah of Iran detested both Saddam and the Taliban of Afghanistan because they murdered his diplomats. Imagine that, maybe we could have had Iranians and Iraqis fighting for us instead of against us.

But Bush’s constant premonitory preaching of a world democracy with himself at the helm, in his belligerent and ignorant way of thinking, would allow him to lead in the fulfillment of all mankind.

Instead, Bush dubs Iraq and Iran, while throwing North Korea into the fold as well, with the insane nametag of ‘axis of evil.’ This only made Iran and North Korea dig in and intensify their military.

General William Odom, who was not one or two, but a three star general and had served under Reagan as director of the National Security Agency (NSA), stated that Bush’s military dabbling was “the worst strategic disaster in U.S. history.”

So, what did Bush accomplish with the invasions? The question should be what has it created? The answer to that is a downgrade in America, the slip for the initial fall in losing our status.

When Bush was elected, we had just won out on the Cold War. We were the last superpower standing with the world’s mightiest military and economy. The dollar was at its highest and the budget inherited from Clinton was a surplus. The world looked up to us, until the mistakes and miscues of the Bush administration set in.

After taking office, Bush showed the world our black skirt that we would and were willing to torture; our humane and ethical doctrines were thrown out the door. No matter how his administration tried to conceal it and no matter how they tried to sugarcoat it in attempting to portray it as less than what it was by giving it the cute new name of ‘enhanced interrogation’…it was still unapologetic torture.

It proved to the world on how the conflicts were conducted that perhaps our military wasn’t so supreme after all, when a collected few rag-tag rebels and terrorists could thwart and hold it at bay.

Then on top of all this, Republican installed lack of business ethics and policies came crashing down on Wall Street and has made the average American pay for it dearly in loss of jobs, income, social programs and his/her dignity.

Bush’s foreign policy and domestic programs have weakened this country of ours. We lost clout under him. Each and every American, whether subliminally or outwardly senses this. This is what we all have in common. On how we react to it is the difference.     

As far as bin-Laden goes, he definitely hurt our pride and made us act in a manner of provocation. We unified, but soon turned inward upon ourselves and allowed the anger to leak out amongst ourselves. We looked unto ourselves to find a common enemy amongst us. That enemy became the American Moslem, the illegal alien and any American liberal that would defend them.

Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York instituted a peer review of all American Moslems and their mosque dealings, stating that we have to weed out any internal terrorists, while at the same time he supports the IRA of Ireland. The senseless whining conducted by Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and the slew of other Republicans concerning the construction of a religious center that also has a mosque near the ground zero site was intended to strike nerves in the moral majority in their brand of varnished patriotism. All the political and social uproar of illegal immigration, as if they were never here before when things were good, was a biased slant towards Mexicans and Latinos in general.

During economic good times, Republicans never harp about immigration. But instead of setting up policies to create jobs during down swings, they prefer to find a dupe to blame it on and insist that they are taking viable jobs away from American citizens. Most illegal aliens that work here have jobs that are mostly looked over by Americans, for they are very low paying with no form of benefits.

This internal divisiveness is what Republicans branded as their own method to hold onto power. To literally demean your challenger through misinformation, false accusations and lies over and over and over; even if it’s to ignore the country’s business and woes. That is their mantra and system; attack the credibility of opponents over and over. Just listen once to the Republican debates and you will see the vile vindictiveness towards Obama.

Sawing Off the Limb Yore Sitting On:
Righting the wrongs of this nation is just not in the Republican playbooks, for if it were, they would first accept and learn from their errors that led to the wrongs. It appears though they can only shift the blame while repeating the same mistakes. They currently are pushing hard to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill that covers Wall Street reform and consumer protections. How soon they forget what got us into this financial mess was from the lack of regulations that are contained in this bill.

In Mitch McConnell’s first announcement in winning the 2010 reelection as Kentucky senator and senate minority whip, he stated his top priority was to defeat Obama. He held his very first meeting behind a closed door with fellow Republican senators insisting that no matter what Obama wants, just say no. And boy-howdy have they ever said “no-no-no” to anything concrete to the country’s economic recovery and alleviation of average citizen woes ever since; only because the just causes first came from Obama.

Take payroll tax cuts and job creation for instance. One would think in reducing payroll taxes that Republicans would be all over it, for when the average American thinks of taxes, he/she compares it with Democrats and when he/she thinks of tax deductions, he/she compares it with Republicans. This is because traditionally and today is no exception, Republicans always whine about taxation.

Unfortunately this is not the case when it comes to extending the payroll tax cuts. A payroll tax cut bill that lowered payroll taxes down from 6.2% to 4.2% for anyone making under $106,800/yr. is due to expire this coming January. Obama wants to not only extend the payroll tax cuts before it expires, but to expand them from the current 4.2% down to 3.1%. Simply because this is coming from Obama, Republicans are balking and favor the expiration instead. This, even after Republicans fought so hard to protect the affluent Bush tax cuts and corporate tax subsidies.

With unemployment remaining stagnant at 9.1%, Obama has given a total of 118 speeches just this year on jobs and job creation, but Republicans continue to stymie job creation legislation. Even though in poll after poll, Americans feel that job creation is the nation’s number one priority.

Republican reasons are very shallow in why they won’t pursue employment legislation. Primarily they only use two justifications. One is to protect corporation interests and they will hire, which this trickledown effect was done by Republicans during the Bush era. Less we not recall, this was the period the U.S. witnessed the highest lay-offs and least job creation the country has experienced.

The other excuse is in using the nation’s debt as collateral in pointing to a dire need of immediate austerity measures. Austerity measures are typically last resort efforts when there is a threat that government is unable to pay its bills. But foremost, in honoring liability debt so soon, while ignoring economic job growth, is saying we need to invoke austerity debt measures because we are a broke nation.  On the other hand, when it comes to defense spending, aren’t Republicans the first to step in line and still claim the U.S. to be the richest nation on Earth?

Of course, if Republicans had had their way and defaulted on the debt ceiling raise crushing the value of the dollar, austerity measures would have been a priority. But at an ever stagnant 9.1% unemployment rate, now is not the time for austerity debt measures. This country needs stimulus now for not only working families, but for the country’s economic health as a whole. Tightening the screw so soon is only going to strip the bolt.

Leaders need to be as big as or even bigger than the crisis at hand and approach it. They don’t need to be placing or shifting blame, griping or sidestepping. When has omission ever gotten anything done? When has cooperating ever failed?

On the Dole:
Republicans from their statements obviously think that the unemployed American worker has no self esteem and is quite comfortable in remaining jobless. In holding the deficit ceiling rise as hostage, they pressured Obama into allowing unemployment benefit extensions to expire. Economists state that unemployment benefits during recessionary periods are not only good for the unemployed, it is also good for the economy by inducing buying power. It’s as if Republicans really perceive that America’s unemployed prefers government funded poverty over honest work. Here are a few excerpts of their statements:

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich stated, “The extension of unemployment has given people a perverse incentive to stay on unemployment rather than accept a job.”  (08/11/2010)

Representative Dean Heller (R-NV) claimed that on extending unemployment, “Is the government creating hobos.” (02/21/2010)

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) under his almighty wisdom purported, “Unemployment insurance doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.” (03/01/2010)

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) says, “Were basically undermining the cyclical event. Because youre out of the recession, youre starting to see growth and youre clearly going to dampen the capacity of that growth if you basically keep an economy that encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment. Yes, its important to do that up to a certain level, but at some point youve got to acknowledge that were not Europe.” (05/24/2010)

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) barks that the unemployed won’t look for work “until their benefits run out.”

This is all kind of sad. I am glad for them that they have never experienced a prolong period of no income, but they could at least understand how that might be for millions of unemployed families and begin to do the things necessary in turning that around instead of blaming it all on the victims suffering through it.

Now Ya See 'Em, Now Ya Don’t:
Even though they themselves recessed for the whole month of August and Bush even took off the whole month in 2001 when American intelligence was spying on a jihadist learning how to fly planes while Bush was unavailable for briefings; that’s OK. But for Obama to take one week off this past August was tantamount to treason according to most Republican bellyaching.

While Congress is in the August recess, it is normally the time they have community meetings in their districts to hear constituent voices and concerns. These town hall meetings are always free and is about the only chance citizens can meet their representatives. Not this time. For the first time, a lot of Republican congressman had left the building before even entering it. They opted for paid private events hosted by friendly corporate executives or business organizations and other impersonal routes.

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) opted out of town hall meetings in discussions with citizens of his district. Instead, a $15.00 out of pocket fee was charged to go see the Congressman.

Representative Ben Quayle (R-AZ) charged $35.00 a head to attend his luncheon meeting held by the Arizona Republican Lawyers Association.

Representative Chip Cravaack (R-MN) held private invitation only meetings and one $10.00 per head assembly hosted by the National Federation of Businesses.

Representative Renee Ellmers (R-NC) made her only showing as a speaker at a federal employees’ forum that had a $13.00 admission charge. Her constituents could only listen to her speech and not speak to her and weren’t allowed to ask questions.

Representative Lou Barletta’s (R-PA) only interaction for the month was an appearance at a CEO to CEO forum charging a $35.00 per plate admission.

Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) elected to use automated messages where when a constituent phoned in, he/she was bombarded with a bunch of survey questions.

Most other Republican politicians elected to not hold any kind of interactions with the public. It is in the Constitution that states citizen members of a district have the right to assemble, meet and discuss matters with their elected officials.

Republicans are always the first to insist on upholding the Constitution. So why did they insist on evading its rules derisive of proper elected official conduct? Because they wanted to avoid hearing an earful of complaints over matters of what they’ve done and haven’t done. They did not want to face the music like Democrat delegates did during the 2010 August recess. They did what was convenient for them and not their constituency.

Departure:
There is a sense of unity during this ten year anniversary of the tragedy that struck the Twin Towers and Americans will always respect that date for eons to come. We as a nation will honor the event and in particular remember its victims, but America traditionally chooses to look ahead instead of dwelling on past melancholy. Imagine food. Americans love and enjoy the food that is on the present menu, but do not care too much for it when the food of the past exits the entrails.

The U.S. prefers looking ahead. At the moment though, there isn’t much brightness in beaming through for and into the future. As the world is becoming more democratic, we as a nation are becoming less by putting in place Republican installed martial law in Michigan and slipping ever so exponentially into a caste system.

In the Middle East, citizens are not only fighting for, they have died fighting for freedom. In the U.S. it seems we’re doing everything we politically can to do away with democracy and to delete the middleclass while protecting the upper echelon. By taking away valued social programs and not concentrating on jobs, we have lost half of our middleclass, while the very wealthy are protected with all kinds of loopholes, tax breaks and forgiveness projects. 1% of the wealthiest Americans now have in their wallets over 35% of all the U.S. wealth.

Huge disparities in wealth create chaos. The elite will forever refer to the poor as unfortunate until they begin to rebel and riot. Then the elitist terms turn to more derogatory verbiage, such as hoodlums and the criminally minded. Indeed, breaking laws for a cause overall is harmful to a society, but the reckless behavior is only an underlining problem. In creating a society of the ‘haves and have nots’ the wealthy have to take some stalk in the responsibility of harboring a riotous atmosphere.      

Osama bin-Laden wasn’t really attacking two buildings he was attacking the heart of our economy and our own individual hearts. Did bin-Laden succeed? Well, how do you rate the current U.S. economy? As far as Americans go, we have become divisive and have lost creativity replacing it with confrontation in mean and nasty tones. That’s okay to a point, but not when it pits one against the other as the enemy. Tom Delay, former House Republican Speaker, dubbed political opponents as the enemy and it stuck with Republicans. Oh, if only he had been sent to the Kyber Pass situated between Pakistan and Afghanistan smack-dab in Taliban turf. Then he would know the true definition of enemy.

This political paralysis Republicans have forced upon us currently reigns, for it appears that Democrats no longer have the will or simply just do not know how to counter it. Allowing Republicans to win simply because they say no and not be too concerned in recovery legislation is in itself a "No-No." Is it time to flatten ‘em out like a bug? Not as long as we truly follow democratic steps in honorable bounds, for in it, there exists diplomacy that takes more than one train of thought to succeed.

There is nothing more that will cheer ya up than a song and a dance with a little seltzer down yore pants. For with a song you have to have a singer and a listener for it to work; one to envision its strength and the other to enjoy that strength. To dance, we all know it takes two to tango. But with the added seltzer, well, all becomes more interesting.


Opinion Issued,
BJA
09/12/2011

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