Access To Democracy

     Of all the crass and outrageous remarks attributed to GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, his remarks over this past weekend point up his total disconnect with reality.  Emmer suggested, that to stimulate small business and the hospitality industry, that waiters, busboys, etc. should have their tips calculated in their salaries, and wages reduced accordingly.

     These minimum wage earners get only $5.25 an hour from employers in the typical small restaurant, and Emmer wants that reduced by the amount of their tips.  Less than minimum wage is???? how much?  This is the same man who won’t disclose his income, the same man who took $$$thousands of per diem money from the Legislature in addition to his salary, the same man who supports Pawlenty in cutting health care, etc., etc.  GIMME A BREAK!

     Emmer cited a visit to a restaurant in St. Paul where the owner claimed some of his wait and bartender staff groos over $100,000.  I.R.S.  - are you listening?  And thus this one restaurant must be making a fortune, even in this staggering economy. Hello, again, I.R.S.   Of course, they must all be receiving health care as well, right, Tom?  This man is living in a fantasy world!

     It’s also nice to know that he bases his opinion on one visit to one restaurant.  Sort of tells you what sort of governor Emmer might be.  He’d make Jesse Ventura look like a Rhodes Scholar, and Tim Pawlenty as the nation’s leading economist.  And how large is the deficit, by the way, Tom?  A man who picks on the little people, those at the bottom of the economic ladder, and who makes a statement like his, is a moron!

      The remark attributed to Marie Antoinette is that when told the people were starving and had no bread, she replied, “Let them eat cake.”  Tom Emmer:  The 21st Century Marie Antoinette!

MICHAEL STEELE — Everyone has the right to be stupid, and unfortunately, people can be irresponsible, but Steele combines the two traits so effectively that you wonder how long the GOP can continue to tolerate his ranting gaffes, such as the July 1 speech in which he called Afghanistan “Obama’s war.”  Excuse me, Michael, but when did it start, and who was President at the time?

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T-PAW AND FORESIGHT…Last evening, on a light rail train headed for Target Field and jammed so tight with riders that you had to take turns inhaling and exhaling, I though back to conversations I had on Access with then-House Legislative Leader Pawlenty, and his steadfast opposition to the planned light rail.  It was just a boondoogle he thought, a way to waste hundreds of millions of dollars.  Of course, the proof is in the commuter pudding — light rail has been tremendously successful, profitable, a solution to chaos on the roads, and new corridors are on the horizon.  This didn’t stop Tim from cutting the ribbon with his million-dollar (but not raise taxes) smile, and taking the first ride.  Did he pay the fare?  Call Bachmann!  Like some many of T-Paw’s money-saving solutions, he could not have been more wrong.  Again and again!

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THE KAGAN HEARINGS…The right-wing will go out of their way to attempt a disqualification.  In her first day, Kagan said she would take a measured approach to reviewing cases.  Wouldn’t it have been great to hear Sen. Sessions of Alabama reply, “Yes, but that’s what Roberts and Alito said, and they both lied through their teeth”?

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THE POPE… is enraged by the conduct of authorities in Belgium who raided church files, detained bishops and opened a crypt in their sexual abuse investigation.  The Pope described the conduct as “deplorable.”  Too bad he didn’t use such strong language when speaking of the priests who preyed on young boys for sexual gratification.

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PROTESTS AND ANARCHY…Even Canada recognizes the right of free speech, but when the G-20 world leaders met there in June, met by the usual protestors, the opposition turned violent (as it inevitably seems to do these days) and ended up with police cars being burned, store windows smashed and generalized bedlam.  That is not protest — that is anarchy, and has no place on a civilized society;  it’s certainly to way to may your point as a protestor because it’s counter-productive and only results in those who might be sympathetic to your cause against your methods.

     Why is it that all these fiscal conservative voices who oppose any government spending were silent and supportive when W started two wars, never carried them in the budget except as special assessments, and ran up the two trillion dollar debt that Obama inherited?

     Get over it, right wing conservatives…he’s black, he’s President, he’s smarter than you are, and his vocabulary, rather than “Just say No!” is “Yes, we can.”  And despite your bigotry and negativity, he’s actually trying.

     As the Louisiana and southern coastlines endure the B/P disaster, where are those McCain, Palin, Steele, and right wing voices who only a week ago were in the chorus of “Drill, Baby, Drill?”

     For a movement that offers as its mantra “Less Government Intervention” in our lives, where are the voices opposing the new Oklahoma law requiring vaginal exams for women seeking abortions?

     Those “fiscally responsible” conservatives who opposed the stimulus and the TARP bailout — why have they been so quiet as 80% has been repaid already, with interest, and a profit of $22 billion for the government?

     Is there a more pathetic figure than John McCain, who has taken what little credibility he had left, opposed everything he supported, supports everything he opposes, and denies positions which he took in years past, all well recorded, i.e., immigration reform?

     When Phil Gramm and the GOP led the charge to repeal Glass-Steagall and other financial regulatory reforms, how much in campaign contributions did they receive from the industry and its lobbyists?  Multi-millions, and how silent they have been since the bottom fell out because of little or no oversight, which ruptured our financial system and almost caused another Great Depression.  Yeah, tell how how government has no duty to regulate…

     In this land of plenty, one of the excesses which seems limitless is stupidity.  In a recent letter to the editor in the Star Tribune (Mpls) a man commended the legislators and governor of Arizona for the recent unconstitutional profiling bill which will never pass court scrutiny, because, as the writer stated:  “Keep up the good work and God Bless America:  home of, and for, Americans.”

     Thus, the guy identifies himself either as a Native American (Indian, if you prefer) or a schmuck.  I suspect it’s the latter.  We’re all here as immigrants, except those whom we’ve displaced, relegated to reservations and in most cases poverty, and Treaties with whom we have broken for centuries.  “…home of, and for, Americans.”  Just how dumb can you get.

     He’s probably a Bachmann supporter, as well!

     I think Arizona is a beautiful state.  I have vacationed there, attended conferences there — but no more.

    Old enough to have lived through the Holocaust, to have lost relatives in Europe, to recognize the horror of profiling, and with a substantial part of my life devoted to studying the horrors of the Third Reich, I cannot believe that in the United States, in 2010, that there is a legislature, and a governor, who in ignorance and bigotry, will emulate the conduct of Nazi Germany.  Yet this week it happened in Arizona.

     There may be illegal aliens in Arizona — as many, as they claim, as 450,000 — but to pass a law which mandates law enforcement (over its objections, I might add) to stop people on the street, demand identification, on the suspicion that they may be illegal aliens, is repugnant to everything I believe, and certainly to what principles this nation was founded on.

     Why not require Mexicans, even in the country legally, to wear an emblem on their chests;  why not require anyone with a “swarthy” appearance to wear an American flag emblem.  What is the difference between requiring one person to wear a Star of David, or another facing questioning because of his or her appearance?  Is this still America?  I begin to wonder, as the crazies  come out of the woodwork and trample on every quality which made this nation the envy of the world.

     Apparently the former Attorney General of Arizona pleaded with its right-wing Governor not to sign this illegal, unconstitutional law, but she is reported to have responded that the will of the people is more important than the Constitution.  No!  There is nothing more important than the Constitution.  When the Constitution goes, we are no longer the “land of the free,” and those who, in their ignorance, would opine otherwise, are lacking in intellect, lacking in history, and more than that, lacking in social conscience.

     So, there will be no more visits by me to Arizona, and I hope that Snow Birds, Conventioneers, Vactioneers, Corporations will join suit to enforce a boycott on a state which put in place a legislature and a governor who are ignorant bigots.  It’s time to enforce the principles which made this nation great, so let’s start in Arizona.

     Rush says he’ll leave the U.S. if health reform passes.

     PLEASE, EVERYONE, call your Congress people and urge a YES vote!

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 THE FOLLOW UP ON APRIL FOOL’S DAY (APROPOS):

  So, Rush, we’re waiting…

After a short hiatus from the blog…

G.O.P. = Greed Over People

How many people dare to speak for “The American People” with a poll to boot?  Most of them on the right, and almost universally full of sh…

A rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…Meet Liz Cheney

Barack - we don’t need a professor and lectures…remember Teddy Roosevelt?  Well, speak softly and carry a big stick…Please!!

Democracy = Majority vote.  Where the hell did “Reconcilaition” come from?

Figures don’t lie…but lobbyists and their money for phony ads do.

Tim Pawlenty claims that “God is in charge.”  Maybe that’s his problem…he’s waiting for God to undo his mess, but Tim is the one who was elected.

Tax cuts for the rich don’t grow jobs…programs to create jobs grow jobs.

John Boehner claims 58% of Americans oppose health care reform.  Really?  I think that too much time in the tanning booth affects the brain.

Did you ever notice that the Congresspeople who oppose health care have it?

Did you know that we the people pay 72% of the health care premiums for members of Congress.  Would you settle for that deal?

The economy is flat, but Anthem Blue Cross in CA wants to raise premiums by 39%.  What’s wrong with that picture?

And with a health care company where over three dozen executives earn salaries over $1 million.  My God, they think they’re with Goldman Sachs.

John Roberts — the man who’ll be remembered for lying his way onto the Supreme Court – believes in precedent, not an activist court — mendacity by any other name is still mendacity.

What kind of democracy allows one Senator, and from a small state at that, to put a hold on legislation and Presidential appointments which affect 300 million people?

If we learned nothing else this past year, it’s that the Senate is ruled by old men who should have been out to pasture years ago.

What should the world’s leading democracy be able to provide for its people?  Well, for starters…health, safety and education — just like all those other industrialized countries provide for their citizens.

Now how’s that for catharsis?

     If the Internet has done nothing else, it has given voices to the multitudes, an outlet for expression which has never been previously available.  And then there’s Facebook, Twitter, cell phones, Ifones, and who knows what else.  That’s the good news and the bad news.

     The opportunity for immediate access to news — and responsible opinion — is wonderful, but at the same time, the opportunity for misinformation, sensationism, bigoted opinions are part of the equation.  We all want to have our voices heard, but how can the reader/listener differentiate between the responsible and the irreponsible?  Almost impossible.

     That said, and with all the good and responsible sources out there, available at the touch of a finger, I think I’m going to use this space less for my political rantings and opinions, and more for personal thought on events, items and material nearer and dearer to my heart.  Which is not to say that I won’t, on occasion, let loose on the issues that are so well covered by others, but rather  I can use this space to take a cathartic approach to things on my mind, and which may be of interest to others.  Then again, maybe not.