Ya Can't Fight Crazy With Crazy

To try to convey all my thoughts and feelings on what has happened to the Republican Party over the last decade would be an entire book in and of itself. The highlights are such; for some reason the elected Republicans and their media shills became lying, paranoid infants when Obama took office, having felt unlimited power at their fingertips prior to that via the misnomer, The Patriot Act.

I know many Republican  citizens who have no place. They are not Democrats but they do not even recognize their own party

anymore. The Republicans will say and do anything to hurt the administration, even when they get caught in lies, self contradictions and pick-and-chose quoting. This is not the way of our Joe Citizen Republican.

Last night was the end for me though. Prior to yesterday this was just a huge annoyance bordering on the frightening. It seemed The Republican party was cutting of our noses to spite Obama's face. What I saw last night was chilling.

I was watching The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. The bit he was doing was illustrating how far the Republicans have gone over to the insanity side. Regardless of what you think of him or his show, the quotes and clips were real and full, not snippets out of context.

The Republicans were praising Putin. Calling him Ronald Regan. Showing a photo of him riding a horse with no shirt on along with  his typical dead eyed scowl. Then in comparison  they showed Obama riding a bike and repeatedly insulted his wardrobe, somehow implying that the fact that he rides a bike and wears "mom jeans" makes him less of a president and that we should idolize Putin for being a "man's man" by ring a horse with no shirt on. I think one of them even used the phrase "muscles bulging". At this point I got confused. Were they casting for a western or talking about the effectiveness of a leader? They said Putin was a better leader than Obama.  Below is a quote from yesterday's paper giving a brief synopsis of all of this:

Stewart saved the best for last during the segment. After showing all of these conservatives calling Obama weak and indecisive while fawning over Putin and basically wishing he was their leader, Stewart showed clips of many of those same people complaining that Obama acts like a dictator and rules America with an iron fist. Apparently, in the conservative mind, Obama is a 'weak, mom-jeans wearing DICTATOR KING!' As Stewart hilariously highlighted, either something happened to these people as children to create this inherent cognitive dissonance, or they will just do whatever it takes to undermine the President at every turn.

Putin is well known for using his media as a propaganda machine to build himself up and American conservatives have swallowed it. When they said we needed a leader like him who "hunts bears" what they were referring to was a photo of him having hunted and killed a tiger. Which actually he did not. The tiger was trapped and tranquilized and had to lay there and wait for Putin to arrive so he could shoot him. Yes. Remind you of anyone Sarah Palin?

It is no secret Putin pines for the old USSR days. Yet the Republican praised him for how "when he speaks everyone reacts immediately" yet they forgot the "for fear of their lives" part. Putin is an old fashioned dictator and it is obvious to anyone, except the Republicans, who for some reason cannot stand Obama. I have my personal thoughts on why that is and I am going to keep them that way.

After all of this information overload (and I highly recommend you watch the 5 minute segment on youtube.com: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-6-2014/big-vladdy---semi-delusional-autocrats )

To me this five minutes sums up everything that has gone wrong with the Republican party.

Having said all of that, Today I received mail from the Republican Senate Leadership Survey. I have seen enough of these to know this is a real one. Basically, a survey from the Senate on how you think the leadership of this nation is doing and what they should or should not do  in teh future, with the pretense your opinion matters. Now this is important. It gives our Senate an idea of what We The People want. We all know that surveys are only as meaningful as their method of question forming, so listen to the questions this survey asked. Now remember, this is a United States political party. One that prides itself on being fair, conservative and patriotic. Italics are my ideas. Words in quotations were put there by them.

Real questions:

·         What is important? Blocking efforts to pass another wasteful "stimulus" plan?(well the second great depression did not happen and everyone has paid back the money so "wasteful is hardly an appropriate word here )

·         Do you believe raising taxes has had a positive effect on our fragile economy?(loaded question, "fragile" implying a yes answer is the only right one)

·         Do you believe President Obama's strategy of treating all other countries as equals to the United States has strengthened our security and weakened the resolve of those who seek to do our nation harm?(Conjecture, opinion and projection, all traditional propaganda tactics)

·         Do you support a constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage between a man and a woman?(by traditional does that mean the bride has to wear white and everyone must dance to YMCA at the reception?)

·         Is it the responsibility of Republicans in the Senate to hold President Obama accountable for the actions  of his administration in Benghazi, the IRS Scandal, wire tapping journalists...? (Benghazi was an attack on us, this "scandal" was politics as usual, and the only wire tapping I know of is by the government, sanctioned through the Republicans sacred cow The Patriot Act)

·         Do you believe ObamaCare is a total disaster that must be repealed?(yes, lets repeal something we have not fully implemented yet based on the projection of unqualified

Republicans who have proven they will do anything to block Obama's success)

The list goes on and on, but some especially non-biased phrases include:

·         Republicans do best...promoting a strong, proud America (because only Republicans want that)

·         ...liberal special interest handouts...(as opposed to conservative's protection of the top 1%ers)

·         ...Congress need to listen more closely to grass roots Republicans on such issues as spending, ethics

·         and immigration reform...(why is ethic in with spending and immigration reform? This implies spending and immigrants are unethical)

·         ...dramatic Obama-Democrat drive to initiate European-style socialism in America...(I have no idea what they are even basing this on except possibly delusional paranoia. And if they do not like socialism lets first get rid of their social security and Medicare, two highly socialist programs)

I have a few problems with this.

First, and most obvious, is that this is so slanted it is useless as a true gauge of people's wants, and if I ever hear the results of this crap quoted to back up one of their Fox News idiots rants I will put a fist through my TV. The "IRS SCANDAL"? You mean when the Democrats were accused of targeting republicans for IRS audits? Because I am sure that was a vital and nationally destructive "scandal"( that lasted 3 days in the news) and was never perpetrated by the Republicans.

I love "liberal special interest handouts" even though the Republican equivalent to that is "special interest kickbacks".

Believe me I barely scratched the surface of this piece of propaganda.

What frightens me is that many people do not think for themselves. They simply follow party lines blindly and never question sources or motives so things like this, worded in this way, paint a disastrous and probably frightening picture of the Democrats while making the republicans look like, direct quote here, "strong, proud Americans" like only THEY want that?

People, no, fellow citizens, this has gone way past cat fighting and politics as usual. This "no Obama at any cost" has hurt our country. We have been successful as a 2 party nation because, though our party methods differ, our goal has always been the same...America first. Historically, on the good days, the 2 parties hash things out, both trying to win their side, concluding somewhere in the middle or possible leaning a bit to one side, but in the end, something good for America.

Not anymore. Republicans first showed disrespect for the office of the President. If you are worried about looking weak to other nations, then the last thing you want to do is belittle and embarrass your leader. Then they decided that not only was their way always the only right way, but they promoted the smallest, most extreme faction of their party, the Tea Party, and managed to alienate everyone but their own  tiny group. Even long time Republican elected officials are switching parties or going independent because they no longer can be affiliated with the fantasy world that is the "grass roots of America". Finally, they are so desperate now that they will vote down their own bills if it means making Obama look bad. Their policies, or rather their lack of policies and their refusal to negotiate have created a bad America, and yet they insist this America is all the administrations' fault.

I hear them clamoring of impeachment and incarceration but if you look at the facts, look at the stats, you will see the worst terrorism we have had in the past decade has been the Republican party, the ones who deserve the scrutiny and incarceration.

Lets wake up people. Stop believing the scare mongers and start thinking for yourselves again. If you don't, then doing so may not even be an option in the future.

When You Think You Can't Make A Difference...

STARFISH FABLE

The beach was filled with starfish. Big, small, young, old, somehow they had gotten beached by the millions and were slowly dying on the sand, under the hot sun. Onlookers stood their distance, shaking heads, some crying, all feeling terrible sorry for all these poor starfish.

Suddenly, one of the bystanders pushed through the crowd and jogged down to the beach, sloshing knee-deep in starfish. As quickly as he could, one by one he started picking up starfish and tossing them back into the ocean, where they happily swan back to the deep waters. Hours went by and though the man had saved many, his efforts did not make a dent in the masses dying on that beach.

As the sun went down a woman came up to the man. Sorrow on her face, she touched his shoulder and said. "Excuse me, but you are sunburned and exhausted. You have been working all day and you have made no difference lowering these piles of starfish. Come inside as hard as you try, you cannot make a difference here".

The man, meeting the woman's  gaze, tossed one more starfish into the ocean, who eagerly swam away into the cool evening waters. Then he  said, "I made a difference to that Starfish".

The next time you feel helpless when you see all the suffering and despair in the world, do not let it paralyze you into doing nothing. Every starfish has a story and saving even one makes a hell of a difference.