08/29/2011 at 5:37 pm

Hurricane Irene is “God’s” message to Washington

THIS IS SATIRE!

It is clear to the public that a higher power is trying to tell us something about what’s going on in our country and the world.   That higher power can be whatever you want to call it: The Universe, God, Allah, nature, or fill in the blank here______.   With back to back natural disasters happening within a week of each other on the east coast of the  United States, there is a clear message being sent to Washington:

Barack Obama should be a one term president.

It’s so obvious that an earthquake in Virginia was a glaring indication that spending cuts were needed before Eric Cantor agreed to the government spending any money helping those victim of God’s decree.   Why else would the epicenter be in his district?  It’s like the universe is trying to tell all of those stubborn liberals who want to protect its citizen through proper environmental  and financial regulations that they are asking WAY too much.  Liberals should just let corporations do the right thing and police themselves, because they always do the right thing for the public.   After all, corporations are the only entity cable of creating jobs and saving us from this democrat induced wicked economy compounded by all those pesky rules.  Why do banks need to have money to cover their loans?  Why does a credit card company have to clearly display to their customers what they will actually be paying with their minimum payment? I’m telling you we are on the verge of fascism in this country.

Only a short week after that jarring earthquake, another sign batters us across the face with political implications.  Hurricane Irene swept up  the east coast just to make sure that Democrats got the message:  Give up, stop trying, and just accept the fact that a republican is going to defeat Barack Obama.  And while we are at it, let’s get rid of the National Weather Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and all of those “scientists” that go on and on about climate change. The government doesn’t need to warn its citizens about potential danger, let them all figure it out for themselves!  After all, the government has provided such a fantastic education for all of the people living here which enabled them to get great high paying private sector jobs. These people have enough money to do their own hurricane, flood and tsunami warning systems….shall I go on?

In closing, I hope that everyone who reads this will really think long and hard about who you vote for.  If these natural disasters aren’t a more vivid mandate that Democrats should stop trying to spend so much money trying to “protect” ordinary people than I don’t know what is.

 

 

06/10/2011 at 11:40 am

What is the role of government?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I revisited the text of the constitution recently to see if my ideas of government were close to what the original founders of our nation intended.  In general, yes.  But somewhere along the way, I think we’ve lost sight of some of these principles.  So many times, I hear from the political right that the role of government is too big as it is now, that the role of government was never intended to be so invasive, and that that is too much regulation hindering businesses.   Let me start off by saying, I am a staunch democrat, HOWEVER I am also a person who believes in efficiency and capitalism.   Some of what the right says about government has truth to it.   The amount of bureaucracy involved is ridiculous, and I can say this with 100% certainty as I am remodeling a house right now (getting a building permit in this city is like passing a bill in congress…..really, it’s STUPID).  It really shocks me that after all that we have experienced in the last ten years, how people on the right want to eliminate all regulation regarding business, banks, commerce….etc.

Remember what happened when we deregulated financial institutions, allowing them to bundle up mortgages and sell them off?  People who worked at McDonald’s could buy a $400,000 house here in Las Vegas.  And who made all of the money for those loans? The banks.    The banks were allowed to make horrible risks with borrowers who should have no business getting a loan.  When the housing market started to turn and the banks started to lose money, the entire financial system started to crumble. ….all because the government allowed them to deregulate.   Being in Las Vegas, the epicenter of the housing crisis, we’re still digging our way out of this crazy mess.  We’ll probably be digging our way out of this mess for 3 -5 more years.    So when republicans continue to push for less regulation, it astonishes me.   Really, it baffles me that they think corporations are “going to do the right thing”.     Did Enron do the right thing when they hid billions of dollars of failed investments?    Did Massey Energy do the right thing when they ignored 57 safety violations?  Did Goldman Sachs do the right thing when food and commodity investments they engineered caused people do go starving while they made profits?

I do not trust large corporations to “do the right thing”.  Corporations are run by shareholders, shareholders want money, profits equal happy shareholders.   Regardless of the cost, corporation’s only goal is to get money at the expense of people who have no voice, i.e. the people who don’t have the financial influence to make a difference.   That’s where I come back to the role of government: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”


Who is going to force corporations to do the right thing? 


 

06/06/2011 at 6:05 pm

Anthony Weiner confesses at press conference

Surprise, surprise….Anthony Weiner confessed that he tweeted a picture of himself to a women on Twitter.

First of all, as a democrat I’m very disappointed that a public official who is married is doing this kind of behavior. Second, I really wish it wasn’t a democrat who is such a strong advocate for the common man. Third, I would LOVE to move on to more important issues, but it really makes me wonder a few things: Do we expect our public officials to be flawless? I think it’s unrealistic for people to think that our public officials are not going to make mistakes. I have made plenty of mistakes, but I’ve never had to deal with all of them so publicly. My feelings on the matter? If you make a stupid mistake, say so, come clean, make amends, learn from it, and try to deal with the issue that caused you to make a bad choice. I’m not trying to justify his actions, but trying to cover it up tends to show the quality of your character. In our digital age, NOTHING will remain private. Any picture or video you send out by cell, email, facebook myspace, twitter, and Flickr, will forever be out there in the cyber world.

Crazy that this is a huge sex scandal and he didn’t have sex with anyone…..so he says.

05/31/2011 at 6:22 pm

Taxes on the rich and huge corporations

I had a pretty intense debate this memorial day with some of my friends here in Las Vegas. I told them I had just launched a new Facebook page for Las Vegas Democrats. It spurred on a political debate that really got me thinking about the function and role of the government.  We started talking about Nevada’s huge budget short fall, and it led to a debate about taxes, the economy, and eventually education.   One of my friends used to be a teacher, another of my friend’s parents were both teachers.  I’ve dated teachers before.  If you’re not aware, Nevada is closest to the bottom of the list in terms of education. Here’s a scary list of how bad we are doing compared to the rest of the nation.  I brought up the fact that some of the cuts they are making in our state are going to severely impact lower income wage earners.   I piped up with a comment on how super rich corporations and very wealthy Americans are not pulling their weight to which my friend said, “Everyone should feel the same percentage of hurt.”  Implying that the super rich shouldn’t have to be penalized with a higher percentage of tax increases because they make more money.  If budgets cuts are 10%, then rich and poor should both get a 10% cut was where he was headed with that statement.

It really got me going.   You can bleed a turnip!   When you are talking about teacher salaries in Nevada starting at $27k, a 10% cut might be the difference between paying the electric bill or eating Top Ramon for a week.   Where as a 10% cut on a million dollars, means you might not get a two week  vacation in Tahiti.    It makes me even more mad when I hear major corporations who are making record profits this year aren’t paying ANY taxes.  NONE. ZERO. ZILCH!  How is this possible?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Thoughts?

at 5:20 pm

Las Vegas City Mayoral Debate


Mayoral candidates Carolyn Goodman and Chris Giunchigliani have their final debate on Face to Face, Part Two

at 2:02 pm

Education Reform Bill Passes in Nevada

Las Vegas Sun reported that democrats passed a bill for education reform signaling a budget agreement is close.  For the full story, click here:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/may/31/senate-passes-education-reforms-sign-budget-deal-n/

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