This, That, and the Other Things

It has been awhile since I posted to my blog--and my urge to write has resurfaced and I know this by my ranting on my Facebook page and my re-posting shared links. In the last two weeks, and actually weeks before, the craziness of political theater in Washington DC was getting under my skin. For example, when the politicos on the far-right stated that defaulting on the "full faith and credit" was not good only for the controlling the country's debt, but necessary for the US stop its "excessive spending," I wanted to pull out the rest of my hair--I am bald, what does that tell ya?

Sooooo I begin here, watching the GOP political formation of candidacy has been interesting at the very least. There are over ten candidates in the race for the GOP nomination, it has been virtually major research project to keep up with all the ins-and-outs of the group. Like the Seven Dwarfs of the Democratic nomination process a few years back, the Republican field itself will provide many political science courses much fodder for years to come.

Under the category of This ... Michele Bachmann (see the Jon Ward article on the Huffington Post) attempted to joke about how Hurricane Irene and the earthquake on the east coast were a warning from god to politicians to get their act together--and listen to "the people" of the United States. My response to a friend on my Facebook page was a bit snarky, but this was my thought with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, I said

.... Funny, I was just thinking as a possibility -- but more appropriately a warning for the Republicans and 'Teapublicans" from God (but then my vision from God said, 'No He didn't'). And, the Universe said, "The Devil did it!" (and He said, the Devil that is, 'No I didn't')--and Mother Nature responded, "I am the Bitch the sent the messages --and if the vaulted political beacon of lights doesn't get off their collective ASSES, I am going to send a F5 tornado and lay the place to waste .....

This, of course, got the laugh-out-loud from my friend; but more importantly, it proved to me that I had been in a political ranting mood for quite awhile. Previously, I had ranted about the insanity of the far right and drug testing welfare recipients and not the rest of those who received State's money for such thing, such as state contracts and scholarships. In May, Governor Rick Scott, the Teapublican for Florida signed in to law that require welfare recipients to be drug tested and took effect in July.

Returning to Michele Bachmann (and who doesn't want to?), this commentary by her about the divine warning from god, whether in jest or a serious comment, proved to me that the ideologues in this year's GOP nomination have a long way to move to the middle to be elected next year. In addition, it proved to me that this year's GOP contenders are more extreme in their views than year's past.

However, I reminded myself that I say this every election cycle and realize that I am just getting more crotchety in my old age.

Nevertheless, continuing in the category of This, Michele Bachmann -- and other of her ilk, such as Rick Santorum and Rick Perry, have proven to be entertaining and very much hypercritical in terms of policy and prescience in terms of 'moral authority'. In terms of fiscal responsibility, however, all of these candidate would expand the role of government to repress an individual's right, either through legislation or governmental regulations therefore increase spending to do so.

Isn't any wonder why the Republican base wants to keep adding to its field of candidates?

Until Rick Perry, the governor from Texas, jumped into the race for nomination no candidate had greater than 23 percent of the Republican base's support.....

In the category of That, and previously mentioned above, Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, had signed into law the drug testing of Floridians receiving welfare but thus far has only resulted in a 2% according to the Tampa Tribune article have tested positive, which is substantially less than the 8.13 percent population of Florida 12 and older who have used illegal drugs (ibid). Nevertheless, the Rick Scott governorship has yielded another layer of government regulations in order to 'reduce' the spending, which is only increasing it.

This makes since--yes? Increasing the state's deficit and regulations in order to reduce the state's budget relies on the creating inequities for others. To the fiscal conservatives of the Teapublicans, however, none of their entitlements can be touched, such as social security and medicare. Setting aside the constitutionality of the issue, such as a personal rights in terms of the 4th Amendment, the cause for fixing the budget becomes circumspect at best when it is on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised.

And now for the Other Things, prior to the landfall of Hurricane Irene, Representative Ron Paul, of Texas, another GOP presidential candidate--and the father of libertarianism--stated that there is no need for FEMA, because, as reported by MSNBC, "We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960...," He continues with this statement, "I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district...," and that "... a state can decide. We don't need somebody in Washington." He failed to remember or mention, of course, that the hurricane in 1900 killed nearly 6,000 people, and, the sea wall that was built in the following years, was rebuilt with Federal dollars in 2008 after Hurricane Ike (msnbc-1 and msnbc-2). This has won him the old-timer award of the week from me, but then Scrooge award has to go Representative Eric Cantor, of Virginia, who stated simply that in order to help those affected by Hurricane, cuts have to be made first to the budget.

Let me see if I understand what Eric Cantor is saying, we are not going to help you until we have cuts in the budget from somewhere else, such as Plan Parenthood--for instance, right? I have suggestion Mr. Cantor, how about you and the other 449 US Congress members don't take pay raises (or try to cleverly rephrase it with the term raises as "cost-of-living-adjustments" aka COLA) for the next ten years--that would be a beginning--yes? Never mind that thousands of people in dire need of help from the storms or that FEMA needs more funding to complete the other natural disasters that have happened this past year.

And finally, the rant that set my mood for this posting was a recent episode of The Rachel Maddow Show on the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) and the US House proposed budget cuts, beginning at the 19:55 mark, she discourses how this agency of the Federal government has kept the US and its citizenry safe. I, of course, notice that NNSA and FEMA are agencies that aid in prevention and restoration and subject to political fodder by the budget cut extremists in the name of austerity.

Thus, this has set my mood for this, that, and other things and my random thoughts of the day for this weblog, returning me back into the world of blogging my opinions--and leaving you, the reader, with this final thought. What will it take to end political polarization? What will it take for the center to take back control from the wing nuts of the left and the nut-jobs of the right? Simple -- be vocal, be active, and participate in this next election cycle.