Mike Pence, You Lie!

So...who actually believes Republicans are for cutting spending and balancing the budget, not just radical ideologues? Hmm, silence. Mike Pence (R-IN) lays out a huge part of their agenda. The shameless pandering to the extremists in the religious right comes before the reproductive health of women, especially poor women and he'd prefer to shut down the government before funding Planned Parenthood. No matter what the budget bill says, he will block it unless Planned Parenthood is defunded. The blind sheep following this group think that PP's sole purpose is abortion provision. The truth is that only about 2% of their services involve the very legal procedure.

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He also admits that the fRightwing is
"trying to score a victory for the Republican people,"


Pence is lying about Planned Parenthood, and he knows it. Not a dime of government funding goes to PP to provide abortions. The group has a separate organization, with separate staff in separate buildings, all with private funds, to provide abortion services. Federal funding pays for a broad range of women’s healthcare, from breast and cervical cancer screenings, STD testing and contraception. Last year Planned Parenthood, which provided family planning and other healthcare services to 2.5 million women, performed over a million cervical cancer screenings and more than 800,000 breast exams. Six in 10 clients say it’s their main source of healthcare.

A 2009 Guttmacher Institute report found that the nation’s abortion rate would be two-thirds higher — and the rate for poor women would be twice as high — without federally funded family planning services, most of which go to Planned Parenthood’s network. Former President Clinton, who tends to stay out of culture war discussions, made this statement.

“The assault on Planned Parenthood is unjustified. It is penny-wise and pound foolish. The law strictly and clearly prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion services. The Republicans’ elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood, will in the end cost more than it saves by ending the ability of millions of American women to receive family planning services, breast and cervical cancer screenings and preventative healthcare at cost-efficient Planned Parenthood centers. And the denial of simple birth control and family planning services may well increase both the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in our country.”

Stay tuned to see how the Democrats cave in some way.

Obama To Play Kissy Face With Republicans Again

"We need to come together, Democrats and Republicans, around a long-term budget that sacrifices wasteful spending without sacrificing the job-creating investments in our future. My administration has already put forward specific cuts that meet congressional Republicans halfway. And I'm prepared to do more." said Obama.

Seriously Barack, grow a set! I'm really tired of this. Bill Clinton called these b*stards bluff 17 years ago...and won. WTF is wrong with you? If you've already met them halfway, but are willing to do more, that means you will go at least three-quarters their way because they won't budge, they never do. I root for this guy, but he continues to do things that make me want to bang me head against a tree. Everytime Republicans set a goal, he moves towards it so they move the goal line further to the right...and he chases it. How many times does Charlie Brown allow Lucy to pull the football away before he kicks grass in her face? I hope to God he doesn't try to use, "Change We Can Believe In" again. Is the 2012 ballot going to look like this? Barack Obama (R), Mitt Romney (I), John Edwards (D),
Ron Paul (C).

The democratic base that put him in office has some basic ideas: Cut the damn military budget! Stop the war machine. That will save billions in a very short period of time. This man's biggest selling point was getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. 50,000 so-called peacekeepers are still in Iraq and he escalated Afghanistan by 40,000 troops. Legislatively, on many fronts, he's been magnificent, but damn it, he could've been a true game-changer. Yet he caved and continues to at nearly every turn. At one time I believed he was playing chess and everyone else was playing checkers. Now I don't even know if he's interested in the game. He seems to just go with the easiest flow. The folks on the right will never accept him, never. My concern about him in 2008 was he didn't have enough D.C. experience. I knew he was a smart guy and I loved his speech at the 2004 DNC. However, his lack of relationships in regard to the arm twisting needed to get anything done has become crystal clear. He should've served at least a full term as Senator before going for the big boy's chair.

I close with my own personal pet peeve: I'm sick and tired of hearing the "shared sacrifice" comments from him and other Democrats. The wealthy and the corporations haven't sacrificed a thing. Where exactly is the sharing? Please read this Reuters article.  Every single cut is coming at the expense of the middle class and the poor. They've since added a $1.7 billion cut to the Social Security Administration.
I feel beat down, disillusioned and depressed about our future. If this guy couldn't deliver, who can?

Clinton Believes Obama Should Have Struck Back Sooner

Chris Matthews interviewed former President Bill Clinton in what I thought was an excellent interview...amazing that Matthews finally showed some respect and didn't continuously interrupt! I wish Obama would've asked the former president for advice at some point in the last 20 months instead of allowing the Republicans to control the dialogue. I just hope it isn't too late. Just thinking of the senate and congress full of teabaggers, John Boehner third in command with Mitch McConnell as majority leader makes me ill. Democrats, liberals and moderates, listen up --- maybe we've been disappointed in more than a few things that have not been done, but we can not go back to not just the GWB years, but mix in some Andrew Jackson!  On November 2nd, get out and vote!

Obama Says Drill Baby, Drill?!

Get me off this roller coaster! Obama is starting to confuse me and make me mad at the same time. Is he a Democrat or not? Let's look at some of his major decisions so far...all conservative. He campaigned on health care reform with a strong public option. The HCR bill that just passed was essentially the Republican answer to Bill Clinton's failed bill 16 years ago...or Massachusetts' Romneycare. While the bill does many good things, he never fought for the public option and still didn't get one Republican vote. In the stimulus package, he included tax cuts against the wishes of Democrats to get Republican votes that never came. Against the wishes of his base, 30,000 more troops were sent to Afghanistan instead of winding down military involvement. He's increased unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan where 32% killed are civilians. He's dragging his feet on DADT and DOMA even though he promised his base they would be removed in his first term, yet he supported expanding President Bush's church-based federal assistance program. He even signed a bill allowing loaded guns into national parks!

NOW he's going to do something that he actually campaigned against, probably hoping to get conservative Independents on his side for the mid-term elections which is unlikely to happen. Today, his administration announced that it plans to open vast swaths of the outer continental shelf to offshore oil and gas extraction, making large areas of the eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast, and Arctic Ocean available for drilling. The Interior Department, estimates that 63 billion barrels of oil will be economically recoverable if the additional exploration is allowed. The U.S. uses 7 billion barrels a year. Is it really worth it just to appease the right wing? I'm starting to feel like this guy is all over the place with policy and for that, I blame Rahm Emanual. That said, it's time to man-up and be the guy we elected or maybe the Democrats need to find a real Democrat to run in 2012. We're watching Obama morph into Bill Clinton, and while Clinton did a lot of good things, I can't forgive him for the right turn he made on many issues. As Rachel Maddow recently said, "Bill Clinton was probably the best Republican president we ever had, if you look at the policies he passed." Oh, and Barack, the right wing still does not like you and never will accept you. Get over it! Perhaps you should focus on people who will actually support you if you do the right thing.

Don't get me wrong, President Obama was still miles better than the alternative in 2008. And maybe his die-hard supporters are correct when they say he's playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, but so far he's not the tranformational guy I'd hoped for.

Say It Ain't So, Massachusetts!

On Tuesday, the 19th of January, our little ol' state of Massachusetts will be holding a special election to replace the seat once held by Senator Ted Kennedy. Democrat Martha Coakley is in a tight battle with Republican Scott Brown. The thing is, this should've been an easy win for Coakley, but I honestly think someone was whispering in her ear that "it's in the bag" so she hadn't been doing much campaigning until the polls started tightening. Brown on the other hand has been pretty aggressive and has had money pumped into the state from outside sources. I will be shocked and dismayed if our state elects a Bush-clone to the seat once held by Kennedy.

To me, this is about so much more than the health care debate. Brown’s positions are actually lock-step with what Bush and Cheney did…tax cuts for the wealthy, protections for business, he’s against the fees Obama has proposed on big banks to get bailout money returned in entirety, health care for all as long as it’s done through private insurers, doesn’t care about the environment, etc… On gay marriage: "Marriage issues should be left up to the states, so long as they reflect the people’s will as expressed through them directly, or as expressed through their elected representatives.” In other words, keep letting the majority decide on the rights of a minority. He’s been endorsed by the hate group, MassResistance. I wonder what would’ve happened in 1967 if inter-racial marriage was put up for vote as a popularity contest? I’m a bit confused about his stance on abortion since it seems to change depending on his audience. At one point he stated: “While this decision should ultimately be made by the woman in consultation with her doctor, I believe we need to reduce the number of abortions in America. I believe government has the responsibility to regulate in this area and I support parental consent and notification requirements and I oppose partial birth abortion.” First, let me just say that I hate the term partial birth abortion, just as much as I resent being called pro-abortion. The anti-abortion crowd just keeps on coming out with terms to place fear in women. As a very pro-choice individual, I also recognize that late term abortions are no longer a clear cut decision between a woman and her doctor. At a certain point, you’ve taken on some responsibility whether you realize it or not. I’m not a believer that life starts at conception, rather at individual viability. That is when the decision becomes tricky since the woman has had several months to decide, life/health of the mother obviously excluded. However, Brown also sponsored an amendment to a 2005 bill on emergency contraception that would have let emergency room doctors or nurses turn away rape victims if they had religious objections to providing emergency contraception. Rape victims! They’ve already been violently victimized once and now they’re going to get victimized by the very people who are supposed to help them? My feeling has always been you need to leave your personal feelings at the door in any profession. If you can’t do your job every single day in every single way, you need to find another line of work. It’s as simple as that.

Here’s what I find somewhat interesting. In June of 1982, Scott Brown won Cosmopolitan’s “America’s Sexiest Man” contest and posed nude for the centerfold. Isn’t this the family values party? Didn’t fellow Tea-bagger Sarah Palin say her former, future son-in-law Levi Johnson was doing porn by posing in Playgirl? What’s the difference? Enquiring minds want to know. I’d also love to hear the roar if it was the Democrat who had done the nude layout. It would’ve been scandalous! What I think is mind-boggling is in their ongoing hypocrisy. Their defense is that it’s ok because he’s good looking! So what, Obama is too. The right wing went nuts over a photo just as old as this one, of Obama smoking a cigarette because of the message that it sends to the youth of America. Conservatives really are one dimensional cretins.

Today President Obama will arrive in Boston to help gin up the base to turn out on Tuesday. I’ve been getting robo-calls from Obama, Bill Clinton, Martha Coakley and sadly Scott Brown (I’d love a live call) who’s been endorsed and heavily funded by the Tea Party Express. I hope it’s not a question of too little, too late. Martha Coakley is not an exciting candidate by any stretch, but the alternative is not acceptable. What a sick twist in irony it will be when Houston, TX just elected a lesbian Mayor and liberal Massachusetts ends up with a Tea Bagger in the senate if this doesn’t go well. If that happens, I hope the Democrats find a strong candidate to run for the full term in 2012.