Cong. Roskam lets Cong. Walsh debate Tea Party crazyness

Unlike his Tea Party Republican colleague Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-8th), Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6th) is no fool. Roskam and Walsh are Tea Party birds of a feather, but Roskam has the good political sense, albeit not the good governance sense, to avoid debating a female challenger on sensitive women's health and economic issues. In a televised debate October 18, Walsh unleashed a firestorm of national opprobrium for his foolish and heartless comment that there is no medical necessity to use abortion to save a woman's life. "With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance" Walsh commented to reporters after his debate against strong women's health care advocate Tammy Duckworth.

Roskam, no doubt, refused to debate his female challenger Leslie Coolidge because he might find himself twisted in knots tiptoeing around his similarly extreme Tea Party positions on women's healthcare and economic benefit issues. Roskam voted to eliminate funding for women's health checkups and mammogram screenings provided by Planned Parenthood, voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay (for women) Act, supports employers' ability to deny their female employees contraception coverage in their healthcare plans, wants to ban a woman's right to choose in cases of rape or incest, and co-sponsored a measure to legally redefine rape to exclude statutory rape and some kinds of date rape.

Roskam willingly disrespects the 75% of new 6th District voters who would like to see what their potential new Congressman believes on the issues in public debates, to avoid the potential of drowning in the Tea Party lunacy that Joe Walsh is so prone diving into. Roskam and Walsh drink their tea from different cups. Roskam sips decaffeinated and stays mute. Walsh gulps full strength caffeine and then lets loose for all his district to hear...and cringe.

Cong. Roskam governs to his core constituency: the 1%

Congressman Roskam's refusal to debate challenger Leslie Coolidge is one nod to Roskam's true core constituency: the 1%.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, that seeks to avoid any debate with a challenger who will bring up economic fairness in a tax code being forever tilted in their favor.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, ginned up the phony debt ceiling crisis last year to bring a halt to economic recovery, the credit for which would adhere to the President, not them.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, sought to prevent a restructuring of our health insurance industry designed to deliver health care to the forty million without, simply because it jeopardized their gargantuan profits.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, seeks to privatize social security to bring even more unimaginable wealth to the Wall Street boys who nearly collapsed our economy in 2008.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, plans to gut Medicare with a voucher system which will shift our exploding health care costs onto the backs of needy seniors.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, votes to preserve subsidies for Big Oil, the nation's most profitable companies.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act, which had the audacity to legislate fair pay to women, a constituency virtually invisible in the 1%.

This is the group that, working through Roskam, delays domestic infrastructure rebuilding, as any infrastructure rebuilding not earmarked for our colonies in the Middle East is not on their agenda.

I can't speak for the 99%, but if you're rating Congressman Roskam on his fealty and responsiveness to the 1%, I'd rate him 100%.

World's worst bang for the billions

Any American who wants to know what really ails their country should look first at our defense establishment. In a word, it stinks, and in a phrase, it's destroying America.

Our 1,000 bases around the globe, our trillion dollar failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our touted ousting of Libyan dictator Gaddafi only to have the victorious rebels oversee the assassination of our Ambassador, are all signs that endless militarism on auto pilot is the problem, not the cure for rebuilding and re-energizing America. We slaughter thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere; heinous acts which guarantee recruitment of jihadists and sympathizers to doing America harm. Soldiers, canon fodder, more accurately, are killing themselves at an increasing record rate every year as they succumb to the madness of insane, meaningless warfare. Female soldiers face an epidemic of "friendly" rape by their male colleagues. The sons and the daughters of the affluent avoid the military like plague it is, knowing full well that there are endless deceived souls to enlist who have no chance and no prospects in a disintegrating domestic economy.

There is no check on this rampant militarism, whatsoever. It is off the table as a campaign issue, except for the challenger's promise to promote and fund a more muscular foreign policy and defense establishment; this from a near billionaire who never served and boasts that his five sons "service" to their country, is helping their daddy get elected to tout more war.

As America declines the folks in the Military-Industrial Complex enjoy riches beyond measure. No, we're sure not getting the bang for our billions. But the hapless folks on the receiving end sure are...they're getting banged to oblivion.