Where Does It All Stop

It has been a little over a week since one of the darkest days in the history of American senseless violence occurred in Newtown, Connecticut.  26 people, children and educators lost their lives.  That is the darkest day since the last senseless slaughter of innocents occurred in Oregon just a day or two before that.  Then there was the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, the near assination of Representative Gabby Giffords and the loss of human life in on that day in Arizona.  One thing is for sure, this type of gun violence occurs frequently in this country.  Since 1980 there have been 61 mass shootings in the United States.

Pathetically this type of thing is now happening all too often in America.  Gun rights advocates say that a the time of these senseless incident is not the right time to discuss laws to control gun sales.  But at this point, with the frequency of these shootings, that  means by definition you can never discuss the subject.  But when it does come up you get someone like Wayne LaPierre, Executive Director for the National Rifle Association saying that armed guards should be placed at every school in the United States.  What about shopping malls? What about movie theatres?  What about post offices?  Why don't we just post an armed guard at the entrance to every public venue like parks and businesses?  This should take care of the problem.

For a long time we heard that "guns don't kill people, people kill people."  These same gun advocates say that cars kill thousands of people every year and ask, "are we going to ban cars too? " My response to that is simple.  Over the years cars have actually become safer.  For years safety glass is now required on all vehicles.  Seat belts which at one time were optional on all cars are now standard on all vehicles as is a supplemental restraint system (airbags).  Developments in automotive technology like anti-lock breaks and traction control are also features that make cars even safer than they once were.  One could rattle on about all the safety features added to the automobile in the past 50 years and they were not always popular with the driving public or the manufacturer.  But people still get to drive cars and it is not even a right, but a privilege.

So what about guns?  Have they become safer?  I am no gun expert but the proliferation of fire arm incidents in this country has exploded (pardon the pun).  Of the last 11 mass shooting in the US, 5 of them have occurred since 2007.   Over 15,000 murders occurred in the US in 2011.  Why in a country like the United Kingdom were there only 619 murders in the same year? 

At this point let me make a disclaimer: I have nothing against gun ownership...if you need a gun or even reasonably want a gun. If you are a hunter, target shooter or even a collector of firearms have at it. I used to shoot trap and owned a shot gun. I don't anymore. The second amendment of The US Constitution allows for fire arm ownership in the United States. I respect that.

So what can be done?  We as a society have to ask whether or not any gun is available for sale?  What do we need guns for that shoot multiple automatic rounds?  Why should someone be allowed to purchase automatic weapons?  We need to ask ourselves whether or not the lives of innocent non-armed people are less valuable than some one's right to purchase a high powered weapon?  We need to better understand why criminals are often better armed than law enforcement? 

If you use the car analogy, why can't guns be sold with mandatory gun locks?  Why can't a purchaser of a fire arm be required to prove that they have a safe method for storage of that fire arm?  What about a background check and waiting period?  Would this not be an evolutionary improvement on this tool just as an automobile is used as a tool?

This country is looking at an overall solution to violence.  Video games, music lyrics, those that should not own weapon, media images and violent TV shows should all be on the table as debatable solutions to reducing violence of any kind in this country.

Maybe it is time to start looking at weapons and fire arms from a different point of view.  Rather than either for or against, it is time to be rational and reasonable about owning a gun or guns.  We need to take a more pragmatic rather than dogmatic approach.  In our Constitutional Republic we have always compromised as a means to make for a more perfect nation.  While for some compromise has become a dirty word in the past few years, compromise is what is needed to solve this very divisive issue.  No one is for what is happening now.  One surprising fact:  gun ownership in the US is at an all time low.  You would not know it by all the destruction they cause.  It is time to change that.

No Lessons Learned From The Last Election...Reality Check

Just received this from a right wing friend. 

' "A Lesson in Irony. The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us "Please Do Not Feed the Animals."

Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves."

Thus ends today's lesson in irony' "

 

OK Now For Some Reality

 

First of all do you think the government is really “proud” to be distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever?

Secondly, last I looked there was no shortage of jobs in the forest due to a real estate meltdown, two un-funded wars, tax breaks for the wealthy and their work is not being outsourced to the lowest bidder. They also don’t have to deal with deregulated banks, Wall Street bandits and a do nothing obstructionist Congress in the woods. There is plenty of food in the forest for the animals.

Finally, real wages have not gone up significantly for workers in 30 years. The working class has had to work harder becoming the most productive workforce in the world with little increase in pay while US corporate executive pay has skyrocketed 728% between 1978 and 2011. Worker pay has risen just 5.7% in the same period according to the Economic Policy Institute. What do you think is going to happen? This has led to a lower standard of living. I guess the working class should just buck up? Most of us are workers. Be careful, you could be on food stamps too one day.

Thus ends today’s lesson in telling the real story.

The Real Losers, Some Advice and Mitt Romney

Another election behind us.  This one turned out Ok.  We accepted Michele Bachmann and kept President Barack Obama.  That is a deal I would take any day.  Nothing is perfect but this is close enough. 

Let's begin with what we got:  America continues on the right track and will likely be headed in that direction for the next four years with or without the Republicans.  The Supreme Court is safe for now with no crazies waiting in the wings to be appointed by a Republican president.  We won't gut the economic recovery by selling out the poor and middle class so that the rich and ultra rich get tax breaks.

The real loser:  Not Mitt Romney.  He will get over it and take his quarter billion and move on.  But Carl Rove how do you answer to some of the richest and most powerful people in this country (and maybe the world; we'll never know) and tell them that you wasted $390 million of their dollars?  Maybe the best images of Tuesday night was of Rove telling Fox News that they should not call Ohio because it was too early only to be told by the number crunchers in the back room that they could call this with 99.95% certainty.  Priceless!  Rove looked over his shoulder on set a couple of times.  I wonder who he is expecting?

Some advice:  So here is my observation.  Most of my right wing buddies, and I do have many of them only watch, read and hear what reinforces their own opinions and ideology.  They go to right wing websites, right wing newspapers, right wing bloggers and the grand daddy of the all, Fox News for all of their information.  They get all the red meat they need.  The only issue is that they are often wrong.  Just ask poor Dick Morris who is often wrong but was really wrong predicting a big Romney win.  What a surprise.  

So here is the advice.  Look around you.  The media is not what it used to be.  Go to outlets that are both right and left and try to pick a couple that are pretty accurate.  I for one went to CNN on election night and Fox News.  I knew what MSNBC would be say.  Fox was beautiful; deer in the headlights.  On a regular basis I watch both MSNBC and Fox just for entertainment but I certainly don't pretend that either is my source for news.  I would choose ABC or CBS for that.  If you want to get blindsided next time, keep doing what your are doing.  I for one hope you do.

Mitt Romney:  I am sure you are a nice guy one on one.  But you had a hard time connecting with people that have to go to work every day.  That is understandable.  But there are two things that lost this election for you in a big way.  1.) You just cannot flip flop on big ideas like health care and abortion.  You cannot be for something and then against it and then kind of for it all in the same race even if it is a primary and general election race.  2.) You cannot think that the American people are stupid enough to forget your campaign manager saying that you can Etch-E-Sketch away positions.  It is one thing to do it and another to say that you are going to do it.  Your campaign team also said that they were not going to let "facts" get in the way of your campaign message.  Again, people are not that stupid but your campaign manager thinks we are.

We need to remember that we still have a lot of challenges ahead of us in the next four years.  There is a lot to do and real work lies ahead.  The campaign is over and it is time to govern again.  It would be great if the right and the left could find common ground to solve very real issues that face our country and our world.  Part of me wants to think that it will be different this time around.  But the other part of me looks at recent history and the divide in this nation and I have to temperate my enthusiasm.  We wait and we will see.

Brainwashed

With the Democratic Convention just hours away the amount of flat out made up completely false, COMPLETELY FALSE information coming from the Republicans is at a pace I have never seen in US politics following it closely for over 30 years.

Let's go back a few days. Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan during his acceptance speech blamed the President for a GM plant closing in Wisconsin. That was a claim that was almost immediately debunked when in reality it was getting to close on W's watch before Obama was even sworn in as president. Now today he claims that he never even said what he said.

Today the Republicans are making automated phone calls to anyone who won't hang up the phone claiming that President Obama has changed Medicare and that it will never be the same. Another false claim.

My question? If the Romney Ryan ticket can't tell the truth now, do we really think they will tell the truth once they would be elected. Anybody out there think that?

What ever happened to people just simply telling it like it is. Everyone stretches the truth now and then and politicians get a bit of an artistic license on both sides. But flat out making things up. When did that become accepted? Then you wonder why our kids don't tell us the truth? That is the true trickle down. When our leaders or presumptive leaders flat out lie, what should be expected by the rest of us? It is a sad erosion of our society.

What is even worse is that I received something over the weekend regarding the Affordable Health care Act. It was nearly an 11 minute video challenging point by point Obama care. It was a beautifully produced video professionally narrated. As I went through several of the preposterous assertions I decided to actually pull up the bill itself. Since the video gave specific pages and sections and quotes, I figured that they would be easy to find. I researched the first five claims which were in the first minute of the video. Not a single quote, not a single claim on the video was true.

I know that the Internet is not exactly a bastion of truth. What was more disturbing to me was that this video was sent by a friend. This friend sent me the video as if I were just supposed to believe it was true. Two points here: either my friend believed it as true and did not question a single point or she knew that it was false and thought I was actually stupid enough just to fall for was could only be considered a complete fabrication. Inotherwords she wants Obama and Obama care repealed so badly that she is willing to risk her own personal credibility and send this piece of fiction to a friend and pass it off as dangerous.

What is even more sinister is that we seem to be doomed to repeat the past. This is the same type of tactic that the Nazis used prior and during the Holocaust. Slickly produced propaganda that gets passed off as truth. You may think it is cool to send it off to your friends and pass it off as the truth. But when the propaganda turns against your way of life, your sex, ability to make a living or worship then it becomes an issue. But by then it will be too late.

Mr. Romney, Mr. Ryan if you really think you can do a better job than the President, just tell us why. Give us your plan for a better future and let us choose for ourselves. That is one thing I did not hear last week at the Republican convention; a plan for a better America. I heard a lot of Obama bashing, some of it pretty incoherent, but not a lot of planning for the future.

I did hear about American exceptionalism, whatever that is. But if we are so exceptional, how can you be running down the country as it stands right now and say that it is so great. If we are so exceptional why are you just not telling it like it is? You can't have it both ways. Ultimately, the American people are smarter than that.

A Fresh Look

I love a little context now and then. I have spent a weekend in Montana. Now with a little down time in the airport I have had the opportunity to catch up on the weekend's news. Too bad for me.

We should get out of Washington more often. This is a bit of a revelation for me because I do not live anywhere near Washington, D.C. or state. However, I seem to hang on every word that comes out of our nation's capital. The campaign, the vitriol coming from each side but particularly from the right, the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the Health Care Bill and all the other noise that we think is so important. Of course it is important, but when did it become all that really mattered? If you believe everything you read and watch you would think that America was on the brink of failure and if you listened to Rance Priebus, the leader of the Republican Party you would think exactly that because that is what he said. But nothing could be further from the truth.

As the week that includes our Nation's Birthday comes to a close, I can tell you that America is bustling away from the big cities. People filled our National Parks. There were crowds everywhere as much as a National Park like Yellowstone could have crowds. There were people from all over the country and many from far off lands visiting the United States. People dressed in native clothing. Many spoke the universal language of a smile. I sometimes wish I would hear about our elected representatives visiting these parks themselves with their friends and families and maybe their perspectives would change too. It might do them some good to see things out there that are bigger than themselves.

Kids are finding jobs. I visited with young people this weekend who were not yet ready for professional positions but they were all able to find jobs that kept a few dollars in their pockets' enough for a good time and to realize how lucky they are to be able to get an education and to work at the same time. Some were even considering second jobs or public volunteer service to fill their time. They are getting good educations and many have or are considering masters' degrees. Planes are full and long haul trucks are carrying goods across the country on our nation's highways and interstates. People were buying things and the restaurants and bars were full.

I know that there are people out there who are struggling. I saw a few of them too on the side of the road asking for money or a ride. There are many more out there whose struggle for employment is far less visible. We should never lose sight of those who are less fortunate and do what is necessary to help. I also read this weekend that in North Dakota the unemployment rate is at 1%. They have 3,000 job openings there.

If you listen to Mitt Romney you would think that the sky is falling which is kind of ironic considering I am in Big Sky country. What else can he say? He is running for President. Maybe it is his lack of a real plan which shows that there would not be much more he could do as president if he were elected. Representative Allen West from Florida this weekend call Social Security a modern form of slavery. Funny how he does not mind getting his paycheck from the government. George Will called global warming "summer," choosing to ignore that 20 of the last 30 years have been the warmest on record. But none of these guys ever made a buck saying how good things really are.

If you yourself have any doubt and cannot get away for a day or two to somewhere you have not been before, take a walk, go for a bike ride. Take a friend to dinner. People watch and lose yourself in what is good about your surroundings. Turn on the TV and it is easy to find what's wrong. It takes a little more to find the good, but it is out there.

The Stupidy Crescendo

Well, it has been a pretty good week for the left.

Mitt Romney said that he did not really care about the poor because they had a safety net. Gingrich is having a hard time convincing even himself that there is any viability left in his candidacy. Santorum has said that global warming is a myth. Bachmann, trying to remain relevant and getting her own Congressional seat re-election campaign off the ground said that she was the "perfect" Presidential candidate. John McCain got into the crazy act by saying that he thinks military action may be warrented in Syria. Is there anyone he doesn't want to bomb? Today, restricting gay marriage was considered unconstitutional. Even Bill O'Reilly had to admint that Obama is leading Romney in the polls.

Another decision that put the right on the wrong side of an issue was the Susan G. Komen Foundation's plan to no longer fund donations to Planned Parenthood. This was a short term PR disaster for the Susan G. Komen foundation. Within hours of their proclaimation independent donations streamed in and Planned Parenthood found themselves with nearly the amount of the total donations provided by the Susan G. Komen Foundation itself. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City donated $250,000 of his own money to Planned Parenthood. Why was this a huge loss for the right wing of the Republican Party? They have been trying to starve Planned Parenthood of funding throughout the Obama Presidency. But as the smoke cleared from the 48 hour Susan G. Komen debacle, they reversed themselves on their own policy and apologized for mixing themselves up in a political firestorm they themselves created. All this because a portion of the privately funded revenue goes to providing abortions.

This activity was all in the last week and does not include the good news about jobs and the economy. Too bad the election will be not held today.

But the biggest evidence that the Republicans are not serious about winning the elections in the fall may have come over the weekend. The tell was a simple commercial that ran during the Superbowl. It was the commercial that was all the buzz Monday morning. It featured largely a voice over by actor Clint Eastwood. A Republican lauding that fact that the auto industry and manufacturing in America was on the rebound and that it was "halftime" in America as far as our return to economic prominence. There was definitely a subtext that without assistance the car industry would have been a thing of the past.

This was THE commercial of the Superbowl. More people were buzzing about the commerical than the New York Giants win. Rather than just leaving it alone the Republican elite were out with a venomous zeal. Who led the response? Karl Rove. He said that he was "frankly offended by the commerical." He called it "Chicago style politics." Rove went on to say that the car company, Chrysler, paid for the two minute spot with money from loans that were yet to be paid back. Which in itself is inaccurate. Chrysler paid back the loans early with interest. And yes Mr. Rove, it was no thanks to the Republicans that the auto industry has for the time being averted disaster. Your party and particularly your likely nominee for President, Willard Mitt Romney wrote in a Michigan newspaper that he thought the auto industry should not receive loans. It was a gutsy move by the Obama administration and one that had it not gone as it did, the Republicans would have roasted Obama for his ineptness. Need proof of that? See what they have said about Solyndra.

But Rove's hurt feelings means nothing more than him being outsmarted and not thinking of something similarly genius himself. After all, it looks to be like something right out of his own playbook.

As we stray farther away from the Bush years and close in on the election in 2012 there seems to be a distinction that the Democrats are making between themselves and the Republicans. Pro-worker vs. the 1% in this country that have benefited greatly during the first eight years of this century. Did the Republicans have a bad week or are they just showing the rest of us what they really believe in?