Saturday, February 08, 2014

Execution, impeachment, lawlessness talk reveal Republican moral degeneracy

The Republican Party is becoming morally degenerate. Some aspects of their moral degeneracy stem from their cruel, heartless policies toward the poor, gays, minorities, undocumented immigrants and women. As sad as that is, what is truly frightening is their despicable, treasonous, even violence threatening statements about the President.

The new GOP talking point being pushed by Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Whip Eric Cantor and former GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan is lawlessness. They have synchronized their charges that President Obama is a "lawless" president. Speaker Boehner went so far as to charge immigration reform is unlikely because the GOP doesn't trust the President to enforce the law.

If the lawlessness charge is not enough, a despicable cabal of GOP Congressmen are threatening impeachment, over apparently, their inability to prevent the President's re-election. Former representative Bob Barr of Georgia, who led the impeachment of President Clinton, is making a House comeback bid, based solely on, you guessed it, impeachment. An interviewer was so flummoxed by Barr's delusional charge he assumed Barr was joking. Barr replied he was dead serious.

But by far the worst trend in the morally degenerate GOP is the willingness of some GOP congressmen to allow their yahoo constituents to speak of the need for the President to be killed without uttering a peep of protest. See video below of Congressman Jim Bridenstein (Rep. OK) who listens to his constituent say "Obama is an enemy combatant who should be executed". Instead of condemning this monstrous statement, Bridenstein starts his long anti-president diatribe with these words: "Look, everybody knows the lawlessness of this President." Maybe the Secret Service should invite Congressman Bridenstein for a chat about presidential safety.

http://thedailybanter.com/2014/02/crazy-old-woman-tells-republican-congressman-obama-should-be-executed/

Every citizen, especially every decent Republican, must step up and call out these reckless public officials and party leaders who are shamelessly tearing our fragile political fabric to compensate for lack of substance on virtually every issue we face. This is not political hardball. It is moral degeneracy and it must end.

Friday, February 07, 2014

Sen. Brady's shady eithics, lack of compassion make him poor choice for Illinois governor

 
 
State senator Bill Brady (Rep. 44), GOP candidate for governor, is reeling from two recent questions concerning his personal financial ethics and his personal empathy for his fellow Illinoisans which every voter should ponder ahead of the March 18 Primary.
 
The Tribune just published an investigation how last November, Sen. Brady voted for tax subsidies "that helped revive his family's struggling real estate investment in a central Illinois town". While Illinois law does not prohibit legislators from voting on issues that could benefit them personally, it does require they consider whether to abstain. Brady pondered....and then voted for the tax subsidies that helped the family business anyway. This is not new legislative conduct for Brady. Back in 2010, during his first run for governor, the Trib revealed how Brady "repeatedly voted to authorize Champaign city officials to make infrastructure improvements that supported a Brady family development project" near Champaign. Again, Brady voted to help Brady when he could have abstained. Alas, Illinois has a weak ethics law when it comes to legislators voting to help their bank account. Tom Homer, former legislator and current Illinois legislative inspector general argues legislators should not even be allowed to debate measures that benefit them financially, much less vote on them.
 
The second Brady problem is more troubling because it directly impacts the many thousands of Illinoisans in need who will be adversely affected by a Brady governorship. He outrageously told a GOP gubernatorial debate Tuesday that he wants unemployment benefits cut because a lot of those folks enjoy collecting unemployment benefits. That "Mitt Romney 47% are bums" moment brought a firestorm of criticism. Within 24 hours Brady backtracked, saying that he was "insensitive" and "didn't take  into consideration there are a number of people out there looking for jobs who don't want to be on unemployment" Brady's apology is bunk.  He's been in the legislature for 21 years and still sees fit to demonize the neediest Illinoisans to score points with the Republican true believers who come out in droves to vote for the most heartless conservative in the Primary.
 
Sen. Brady probably won't shed any tears if he loses in the Primary. He's still got the second best job he could want - voting to enlarge the Brady family fortune in the Illinois Senate.  

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Piling on bad in football; worse in Peterson saga

When a player hits the ballcarrier after he's clearly down, he's penalized 15 yeads for 'piling on'. The state criminal justice system should flag the Bolingbrook Police Pension Board for trying to rescind Drew Peterson's $79,000 annual pension. After 9 months a Board lawyer has determined it can move to recommend the pension can be cancelled. It's a novel approach, just like Peterson's conviction on 'hearsay' evidence, as they cannot clearly point to police connected activities that lead to the murder, as required by law. Apparently, its of no concern that the $79,000 pension is not being used to bring Peterson champagne and cavier in his lifetime prison cell, but is instead used to raise his two youngest children. The Bolingbrook Police Pension Board is clearly piling on. And if you pick them up off the Peterson pile...you'll find a couple of little kids.

 

Don't execute Boston Marathon bomber

Attorney General Eric Holder is wrong to request the death penalty for surviving Boston Marathon bomber suspect, 20 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The two reasons generally given - involvement in terrorism and heinousness of the crime are spurious. The US is among the remaining one third of countries that kill undesirables. We're just behind China, Iran, Iraq a...nd Saudi Arabia in frequency of state sponsored murder. If US abolishes the death penalty where will the folks cheering on each execution for evildoers immigrate to? They will probably stay right here and stew about the unrequited bloodlust in their dark hearts that can no longer be fed with a state induced corpse. Besides the US being in a dwindling minority of lands to kill bad guys, those promoting the death penalty are in a dwindling minority of Americans who favor it. Among practicing Christians only 40 % favor the death penalty. As low as that is, the percentage drops to just 23 % for those practicing Christians born after 1980. This proves, like the mostly older Americans who still oppose gay marriage, that younger folks are not as filled with hate and bloodlust as their elders. Those still looking forward to the likely execution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev five or ten years from today should look in a mirror. The reflection back may more resemble a dinosaur than a thoughtful, compassionate human being.

Instead of wasting the next five or ten years anticipating Tsarnav's execution, spend it working to end senseless American wars which inspire blowback violence against American interests. Spend it reducing the American carnage from 300 million guns with no effective restrictions. Foster a culture of life, not death.

Monday, February 03, 2014

Pretty Boy and the Bully

The civil war in the Republican Party, pitting the establishment, socially moderate Wall Street Banksters versus the evangelical and tea party culture warriors is real and potentially disastrous for their plans to regain the White House. The Wall Street crowd has failed twice with terribly flawed candidates, Sen. John McCain in 2008 and billionaire Mitt Romney in 2012. McCain tried to placate the evangelical tea party crowd with Sarah Palin as Veep but that backfired as utterly foolish and unqualified Sister Sarah dragged the once maverick McCain down like a rock. Mitt picked a more intelligent and qualified (albeit heartless) mate in Paul Ryan, but self destructed when caught telling essential GOP truth to a hidden camera that the needy of America are a bunch a moochers not worthy of his entreaties for support.  Oh yes. They both faced one of the most brilliant politicians and acting presidents in history in former community organizer, law professor, state and federal senator Barack Obama.

The Wall Street billionaires thought they had elected a dream team in 2009 with the ascension of gorgeously handsome Bob McDonald, and no nonsense, tough talking macho-man Chris Christie to the governorships of two key presidential states, Virginia and New Jersey. The Wolves of Street wasted no time elevating these two Godsends to the GOP heights. McDonald was tapped to give the GOP response to the president's 2010 State of the Union address just two weeks into his governorship. Christie gave the Keynote Address at the 2012 Republican convention after deciding not to run in the Republican presidential race. He was vetted by candidate Romney and almost picked to be Mitt's VP choice. Then he won a smashing 2013 re-election race with significant Democratic and independent support, making him the clear frontrunner for the 2016 presidential race.

Both have now exploded in crime and scandal; Pretty Boy Gov. McDonnell, renamed Gov. McGifty for his indictment  accepting hundreds of thousands of cash and gifts for promoting a businessman's health care product, is finished in politics and possibly freedom as well. Gov. Christie has gone from leading Democratic Hillary Clinton in an imagined 2016 matchup, to being booed at public appearances for his myriad of thuggish scandals and YouTube highlight reel bullying and abusing the little people of New Jersey who dare ask him pointed questions. Christie's presidential balloon has been irretrievably punctured and finishing his second term, only a week old, is truly in jeopardy.

Good riddance to both. They are unworthy individuals who have spent much time betraying the public trust. The GOP Wall Street wing now views with dismay the new GOP frontrunner, goofy evangelical know nothing Mike Huckabee who recently disgraced himself by complaining about the female sex drive causing them to look for Uncle Sugar (Sam) to give them their monthly fix of birth control. So much for GOP reach out to the female vote, deserting the GOP in massive numbers. When they see that the most admired Republican today is the aforementioned half governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, they're beginning to resign themselves to the hated Obama being followed for eight years by the hated Hillary.

Moral of this story? Flawed policies and flawed philosophy attract flawed candidates.