President Obama takes the election with over 300 electoral votes and the popular vote as well, a historic moment as America elects an African American for the second time. While the world too seems to agree with our choice, people in London watching American election coverage the way they would normally watch soccer, Asians and others participating in opinion polls signaling up to 90% of those surveyed would have voted for the president if they had a choice too, there still remains the question, where do we go from here; how do we move forward? Will the remaining old as well as newly elected leaders be able to come together to solve the problems looming on our horizon; was the election a message to Washington or are we in for identical gridlock present the last 4 years? Will the president be able to lead and to do that which America has charged him with doing or will he once more be stymied by other parts of government who believe they have a different directive from the public, a different task assigned by their constituency? Unfortunately it looks like the latter; from election night antics to post-election rumors, confrontations and attitudes, it appears America is in for more of the same courtesy of everyone’s right to vote. The piece is titled thus because despite the president’s reelection the problems also remain, the fiscal cliff, what to do about our national debt and the same old fight about raising revenues, cuts to spending. And people still haven’t learned divided government is dysfunctional government.
While in the senate it was an obvious referendum on more outspoken tea party members, ousting members like Allen West, Tommy Thompson, Joe Walsh; Michele Bachmann keeps her seat by some wonder of uneducated wonders. We managed not to pick anymore crazies un-electing Todd Akin and Richard Murdoch before they could impose their ultra-conservative views on the populous, yet voters also sent back a republican controlled house whose current members are possibly more entrenched than the old ones. Adding to the problem, you have the extremists still in play John Boehner who retains his speakership but has never been able to control his caucus; one of the so called adults in the republican leadership, Mitch McConnell, is up for reelection in 2 years therefore possessing no reason to compromise with the president on a debt deal, on measures to avoid the fiscal cliff, on anything that would make life more livable for struggling Americans. Paul Ryan goes back to the house with an elevated status within the party both as a budget wonk, a tea party favorite and the most logical candidate for republican nomination in 2016 perfectly able to run his own agenda instead of help the president usher the country into a positive place during the next 4 years. Another tea party darling Marco Rubio has already announced his plans to run in 2016. One congressional member flamboyantly stating he was standing up for people’s needs in his state, a political expert looking at that and asking doesn’t this guy know he’s part of the United States, a country, needing to serve the whole not just a part? Ohio leaders a week later show no evidence of having gotten the voters’ message about women in the 21st century, as they continue to push a clearly not imaginary war on women voting to defund that state’s Planned Parenthood where thousands of woman receive their preventive care and birth control, also attempting to revive a so called heartbeat bill unconstitutionally banning an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, trying to overturn Roe Vs. Wade in the state of Ohio. So it may well be the midterm elections in 2014 before we finally see a modicum of sanity return to government.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/#49814199
Go here to hear for yourself Bill O’Riley’s comments on traditional America
Signs of trouble emerged even on election night as Romney for a short time refused to concede Ohio or when Fox news refused to report what all the other networks had called, the election in favor of the now president reelect, Bill O’Riley calling it, the reelection of president Obama, arguably the only sane choice, the death of traditional America. Obviously he means white, protestant, evangelical “America” judging by his comments about blacks, Hispanics and women, any group who voted en mass for Obama, man or policies alike. However that is nothing compared to what is happening just after the election; Mitt Romney went from a gracious loser, heralded by the other side for how he handled the loss, to a bitter candidate literally give points to the other team, i.e. the democratic party, when he is subsequently heard on tape saying the reason president Obama won is by giving gifts to those groups, meaning young women, Hispanics, African Americans via things like insurance provided contraception, immigration, referencing the dream act, he called amnesty, then free healthcare to people, particularly blacks and Latinos. Going on to say he, the president, his campaign staff targeted those people turning then out to vote. And “giving people free stuff is hard to compete with.” Forgoing suggestive imagery comments, first and foremost legislation, regulation to prevent the privatization of student loans resulting in more young people able to go to college, vocation and technical school is not a gift; secondly insurance provided birth control is not free, to be confused with what is handed out to “degenerates” at the county health clinic. This is insurance offered contraception for which insured persons pay a premium, just like all their other insurance only it is finally more complete; also not a gift. Next, portions of the dream act that managed to get past our obstructionist congress do not equate amnesty but rather legal work permits to young illegals brought here before a certain age and no older than 31. Those same young illegals who had no say in where they were dragged by their parents, who identify themselves as American having no idea what life is like in Mexico, central or Latin America, who have never more than seen pictures of any flag but ours, who are culturally American, happy to be so and more importantly are American educated, going to school here, holding degrees from American educational institutions who want to use their skills here, contribute to society here, not take it somewhere else. Also not a gift, at least not to them, perhaps to us since their skills will provide nurses, social workers, community centers small businesses exc. Finally on this subject, to be absolutely clear, no one, not president Obama, supportive policy makers, his campaign staff created these things, in order to “pimp out” ethnic, gender groups on election day; suggesting such is offensive and misses the entire point. America is no longer solely controlled by white people. But only right wing political extremists and so called evangelical wing nuts see said phenomenon as a bad thing, as a sign of the apocalypse; others see it as positive progress for civil rights, including all races and previously oppressed groups.
Click the link to hear for yourself Romney’s theory on why he lost the election
http://www.examiner.com/video/romeny-says-obama-gave-gifts-to-minorities-to-win-election
Oh and just when democratic pundits thought it couldn’t possibly get any better for the Saturday Night Live comedy skits, several states have submitted adequately numbered petitions to formally secede from the union, Texas and Florida being the largest among primarily southern states circling said petitions. Meanwhile John McCain and political lightning rod Lindsey Graham are fighting a 2 person war once again over what happened in Benghazi Libya; this time going after a short list candidate, Susan Rice, likely possibility to replace Hilary Clinton, saying her briefing statements on the attack were so disconnected with reality the latter didn’t trust her. You mean as opposed to the entire alternate reality constructed by the republican party that not only had Romney winning by landslide after landslide but created their own poll numbers disputing concrete mathematical data because they did not like the answer it gave them. Regarding Libya, the ambassador to the UN has, had absolutely nothing to do with policy in Libya or anywhere else, she was given her talking points to do the morning show circuits on behalf of the Whitehouse, the president while others with more critical jobs were unraveling what happened; further preliminary assessments originally put forth to congress were just that, those in attendance duly warned findings could, reasonably would, change pending more intel. Surprise, surprise change it did; there never was some massive cover up equal to major conspiracies in history a scandal they could attach the word gate to, to elevate their party, distract potential voters, whatever agenda right-wingers initially had. However it is not a bad thing for there to have been a misinformation campaign, no matter how accidental it may have been, considering it kept terrorists in the dark too, incidentally long enough for at least two people to be found and detained for questioning about a disaster that killed 4 Americans. Worse is the augmented security for the region republicans voted against to say nothing of Mr. McCain continually shouting he wants more information on Benghazi then missing a briefing on Benghazi to what, rant about lacking information on… Benghazi.
Visit link to see who is threatening to leave the United States of America
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/#49814333
Go to the link to see why the McCain Graham comments on Benghazi are ridiculous
http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/11/14/mccain-and-graham-attack-susan-rice-hypocrisy/
Outside the drama created only in politics, only on capitol hill, we come down to the same old stagnation; John Boehner’s first comments after overwhelming election results included the words I don’t think the people’s mandate was to raise taxes on anyone. Whereas the president ran on a platform that included raising taxes on wealthiest individuals and won. Later he whispered possibility of potential compromise talking about closing loopholes in current tax code almost solely benefiting rich persons; in other words recycling the Romney plan hoping someone will buy into it a second time. Realistically both need to happen, raise taxes on the wealthiest among us, which is by the way not a true tax hike but a natural expiration of temporary tax cuts delayed for years, after that implement incremental changes to the tax code starting by removing subsidies from mega businesses like oil companies, giant Agra-business operations actions brought to the table in spending cut, debt deal and fiscal cliff negotiations utterly ignored or outright rejected by whom, republicans. A follow up item to tax code reform would be business regulation and taxation reform, inserting some cohesive consistency into mounting relations stalling both hiring and growth; on the taxation side mandating giant corporations always pay their taxes and are paying them at a minimum 33% just like the individual. For small and midlevel businesses, something more akin to Canada’s corporate tax rate at 15%; for fledgling businesses who employ between 5 and 50 employees an even lower rate to truly promote business and accumulating fair revenues from the ones who should be giving it, eliminating nonsensical loopholes like one allowing businesses to buy foreign commodities exclusively for the tax right off, giving businesses what amounts to a discount for moving overseas, all things easily done with minor changes to existing law. Regardless of what anyone does or doesn’t think their mandate is from the American people; simply put it’s avoid the fiscal cliff, get something done that moves the country in a positive direction rather than wasting time, talking, talking and doing nothing.
Chick here to see an analysis of Boehner’s comments on taxes
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/martin-bashir/49749708/#49749708
Issue wise voters, majorities of the American people especially across certain areas have indicated, not only their priority list headed into the next 4 years, but their preferences on long held contentious topics elevated to epic proportions courtesy of supreme conservative factions of the GOP. Prime example, people have decided police in municipalities with marijuana initiatives on the ballot have better things to do than bust people for dime bags of weed; perhaps others have read about the benefits of medicinal marijuana or we finally see the irony of having 15 drugs for erectile dysfunction, dido on heartburn for people who would do better putting down the barbecued chicken and taking walk around the block, depression seen through the eyes of a nation who can’t stand people having a bad day and decided to level the playing felid, since there are no new drugs in any research pipeline for anxiety, bipolar disorder, forget more severe mental illnesses, a top reason people smoke pot in the first place. Coinciding with this choice people similarly chose either to openly support gay people’s right to get married or decided maybe they were too busy trying to feed their own family to worry about who is attempting to stretch the definition of one, came to terms with how little they care who sleeps with whom, what people do in their bedrooms or who they endeavor to form relationships with, independent of what shape said relationship takes. Opinions congruent with women’s clear message to politicians to get out of our healthcare, our doctor’s office, our bedroom and yes our panties along with our vagina. Unfortunately little material covered in the last 5 paragraphs details anything related to clear mandates sent forth by the reelection of Barack Obama, a reorganizing the senate, helping the middle class, moving off extreme, irrelevant social issues on to ones that matter to the whole not just one state, county or district; immigration reform finally giving people who want to become citizens a reasonable path to do so, whether they are already here or trying to legally come to the U.S., border towns and states dealing with their core crime problem converse to whining the federal government isn’t doing enough about border security, blaming poor local policy and policing on illegal immigration. Constructively confronting the problem facing millions- no job, no job prospects might be a good idea, but no this is not what Washington is doing. Hey petition makers how about instead of trying to secede from the union, you sign a petition to encourage politicians to focus on these issues or avoiding their self-engineered fiscal cliff; how about creating a petition about adding a section to the standard oath of office to include wording centered around serving the public, the people who voted you into the position, not party, personal agendas, not tin foil hat problems, much more productive than states trying to extricate themselves from their country don’t you think?
###