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The GOP’s Dangerous Arrogance

Great article up at YahooNews…

Even I- no political innocent- am still shocked at how callous and blatantly Political the GOP is…

They really don’t seem to care about the Country, only about their political power and their wealthy campaign contributors.

Defaulting on the national debt is just unthinkable.  If they do not raise the debt ceiling, the entire economy will be thrown into chaos and Wall Street will go crazy.  I hope their Corporate owners force the Republicans to do the right thing, but I’m afraid they are too out of control right now even for the Wall Street moneymen to bring them into line.  This is scary stuff….

The Republicans have done everything they can to slow the recovery just so the economy will either collapse into crisis again or be so weak they can use it politically.

They have no interest in Statesmanship or in what is best for the Country.  All they care about is what is best for the GOP, the Rich and the Corporations who fund them…

I just hope the Rich and the Corporations still have enough control to stop the GOP from destroying the economy just for Political gain.  If they do play politics with the debt ceiling, even the Rich and the Corporations will feel the hurt.  But the Middle Class will feel it more.  As usual….

 

Nationally and globally, the economy is at a tipping point. The GOP, driven by invincible ignorance or cynical design – and perhaps both – is working overtime to trash the recovery with budget cuts that would drain demand from the economy – or a debt ceiling vote that could trigger a financial collapse equal to 2008, or perhaps unpredictably graver. For proof, all you had to do was listen to Mitt Romney’s announcement speech today. In it, he made a smarmy attempt to blame Barack Obama for the economic pain actually caused by the dereliction of duty by George W. Bush & Co., pain that was then prolonged by the obstruction of congressional Republicans. Those legislators contrived successfully to limit the stimulus package, block a second one, and forthwith blame the stimulus that saved us from another Great Depression for the slow climb out of the Great Recession. Never, of course, did they mention that the America’s deep deficits were generated by the fraudulent Bush war in Iraq and the unfair Bush tax cuts, which were founded on the false premise that they would pay for themselves.

The same tawdry spectacle has played out for two years and more in America’s capitol, a place that is still, despite recently fashionable worries about its destiny, the indispensible engine of the world economy. Indeed, the future of billions of human beings is determined by our elections, in which most of them have no vote. JFK once noted that the proudest boast of the ancient world was the boast of democratic citizenship: Civis Romanus sum: ‘I am a Roman citizen.’ The inescapable reality of the present world, for better or worse, is that people everywhere have to say, Civis Americanus sum. That’s strikingly clear here in Europe, in good times and bad. President Obama is a more popular, hope-giving figure than the leaders he recently visited; he’s the counterpoint to Bush and the redeemer of an American image carelessly disfigured during the first decade of the century.

And now the GOP that has moved decidedly to the right of Bush would compound his errors. Congressional Republicans could shatter the restored credibility of the United States by refusing to protect its full faith and credit by raising the national debt ceiling or by holding that essential measure hostage to the repeal of the New Deal – something that never even occurred to Ronald Reagan or either Bush president. In those Oval Offices, they regularly signed debt-ceiling increases.

via The GOP’s dangerous arrogance – Yahoo! News.

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Danville Downtowner Motor Inn to be Demolished

Ah, another part of my  misspent youth is going to be gone shortly…

We had some damn good parties at that place and I used to eat lunch in their Restaurant when I worked in Downtown Danville at a Bank right after college.

Had some fun times at their “disco”, the Black Horse Cellar…

We also spent most of our Senior Prom in a Suite there having cocktails before and after making our token appearance at the Dance…

See my previous blog post on my other blog for details:  http://mysoutherngothiclife.com/2011/02/12/chapter-50-party-at-the-hot-sheet-hotel/

From GoDanRiver.Com:

The Danville Industrial Development Authority has bought the former Downtowner Motel at the corner of Main and Union streets with the help of a Danville Regional Foundation grant.

“Without the financial support of the Danville Regional Foundation, we would not have been able to make this very significant purchase at this time to advance the Master Plan being developed for the River District,” said Richard Turner, chairman of the Industrial Development Authority. “Because of its high visibility, the removal of this structure will begin what we all think will be a major transformation of the district.”

The Downtowner building has been empty for more than a decade but has “become the focal point of blight eradication and redevelopment in the newly designated River District,” the release said.

via Danville IDA buys the former Downtowner Motel | GoDanRiver.com.

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Sarah Palin On Paul Revere Ride: I Didn’t Get History Wrong

Uh, yes she did…

It’s so hard to post this without an outburst of profanity…

She was WRONG and she can’t even admit it.

Facts are facts and she doesn’t know hers.

She is an ignorant simpleton who wants all the media coverage she can get, but only on her own terms.

I can’t believe people take her seriously.  Her being accepted as a “legitimate” candidate for President of the United States is just ridiculous.  It makes the entire country look bad.

That sounds so much nicer than what I’m really thinking….

WASHINGTON (AP/The Huffington Post) — Sarah Palin says she didn’t mess up her history on Paul Revere.

The potential 2012 presidential candidate was in Boston on Thursday as part of her bus tour when she was asked about the Revolutionary War hero.

Palin said Revere “warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms.”

Palin, a paid Fox News contributor, told “Fox News Sunday” that she was correct. She says there were British soldiers in the area for years before Revere’s legendary ride, and that he was warning them, as well as his fellow colonists.

“Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there that ‘hey, you’re not going to take American arms, you are not going to beat our own well-armed persons individual private militia that we have.'”

She blamed her previous answer on the media, saying it was a “gotcha question.”

The Paul Revere House’s website says that on April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren instructed Revere to ride to Lexington, Mass., to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching to arrest them.

via Sarah Palin On Paul Revere Ride: I Didn’t Get History Wrong (VIDEO).

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The Bin Laden Decade

Great article from Thomas Friedman in today’s New York Times is worth reading in its entirety.

I especially like his assertion that governments only govern based on either Fear or Trust.

The Arab world is losing it’s fear of government and we have lost our trust in government.

That makes for a scary and complicated time ahead….

Here is a brief excerpt from the middle of the column:

In America, President George W. Bush used the post-9/11 economic dip to push through a second tax cut we could not afford. He followed that with a Medicare prescription drug entitlement we cannot afford and started two wars in the wake of 9/11 without raising taxes to pay for them — all at a time when we should have been saving money in anticipation of the baby boomers’ imminent retirement. As such, our nation’s fiscal hole is deeper than ever and Republicans and Democrats — rather than coming together and generating the political authority needed for us to take our castor oil to compensate for our binge — are just demonizing one another.

As the Israeli political theorist Yaron Ezrahi points out, governance is based on authority “that is generated in one of two ways — by trust or by fear. Both of those sources of authority are disintegrating right now.” The Arab leaders governed by fear, and their people are not afraid anymore. And the Western democracies governed by generating trust, but their societies today are more splintered than ever.

via The Bin Laden Decade – NYTimes.com.

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Against Learned Helplessness – NYTimes.com

More wisdom from Paul Krugman…

He’s right…

As usual…

The voice of common sense in the wilderness.

Bear in mind that the unemployed aren’t jobless because they don’t want to work, or because they lack the necessary skills. There’s nothing wrong with our workers — remember, just four years ago the unemployment rate was below 5 percent.

The core of our economic problem is, instead, the debt — mainly mortgage debt — that households ran up during the bubble years of the last decade. Now that the bubble has burst, that debt is acting as a persistent drag on the economy, preventing any real recovery in employment. And once you realize that the overhang of private debt is the problem, you realize that there are a number of things that could be done about it.

For example, we could have W.P.A.-type programs putting the unemployed to work doing useful things like repairing roads — which would also, by raising incomes, make it easier for households to pay down debt. We could have a serious program of mortgage modification, reducing the debts of troubled homeowners. We could try to get inflation back up to the 4 percent rate that prevailed during Ronald Reagan’s second term, which would help to reduce the real burden of debt.

So there are policies we could be pursuing to bring unemployment down. These policies would be unorthodox — but so are the economic problems we face. And those who warn about the risks of action must explain why these risks should worry us more than the certainty of continued mass suffering if we do nothing.

In pointing out that we could be doing much more about unemployment, I recognize, of course, the political obstacles to actually pursuing any of the policies that might work. In the United States, in particular, any effort to tackle unemployment will run into a stone wall of Republican opposition. Yet that’s not a reason to stop talking about the issue. In fact, looking back at my own writings over the past year or so, it’s clear that I too have sinned: political realism is all very well, but I have said far too little about what we really should be doing to deal with our most important problem.

As I see it, policy makers are sinking into a condition of learned helplessness on the jobs issue: the more they fail to do anything about the problem, the more they convince themselves that there’s nothing they could do. And those of us who know better should be doing all we can to break that vicious circle.

via Against Learned Helplessness – NYTimes.com.

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CNN Poll: Obama’s Approval Rating Edges Up

Great news…

Now if the economy doesn’t tank- more- he should be fine for re-election next year…

The GOP Primary season is going to be the Greatest Show on Earth with all the clowns they have running…

That will only make President Obama look better to the electorate…

Bring on Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann!

President Barack Obama’s performance on national security and international affairs and his image as a strong leader appear to be behind his rising approval rating, according to new national poll conducted as the president was on an overseas visit to four countries.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday indicates that Obama’s approval rating among Americans stands at 54 percent, with 45 percent saying they disapprove of the job he’s doing as president. Obama’s approval rating appears to have steadily risen in the past two months, from 48 percent in early April to 52 percent in early May and the current mark of 54 percent.

“On specific issues, the president’s approval rating is over 50 percent on only three out of 11 items tested, and all three – terrorism, Afghanistan, and Iraq – are foreign or security issues,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “But his approval rating on every domestic issue listed in the poll is well below 50 and on most of them – including the economy, health care, taxes, and the budget deficit – his rating has remained flat or dropped since the start of the year.”

via CNN Poll: Obama’s approval rating edges up thanks to foreign policy – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs.

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Doomsday Preacher Wrong in More Ways Than One – Leonard Pitts Jr.

Beautiful column from Leonard Pitts…

He points some of the things I don’t understand about these people focusing on the End of Times…

I still say we should all embrace this life- and not just focus on what happens next….

We’ll find out that answer eventually.

But the tendency to focus on the end is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. It suggests mortality is a thing to be feared. Granted, one would never think this, much less say it when death breaks hearts and overflows eyes, when it strikes without warning or lingers above a sickbed, when it takes away the very young or the very loved, but a case can be made that mortality is really a gift of sorts.

The understanding that life is finite lends a bittersweet urgency to this business of living. Seasons change, years pile upon years, hair turns to silver and then to memory and in all of it, there is an undercurrent: get done what you came here to do, give the gifts you meant to give, do the good you’re able to do, say what you need to say, now, today, because everything you see is temporary, the clock is ticking and the alarm could go off any second.

Camping had it wrong in more ways than one. He told people to get ready for the end. Better they should live ready for the end.

The key word there being, live.

via Doomsday preacher wrong in more ways than one – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com.

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Ivy League Cleaning Lady Confessions: From Clogged Toilets to Feces in the Bathtub – The Daily Beast

But she’s making $140K a year!

I’m going to have to give this some serious thought as a second career….

I wonder if Students around here can pay as much…

Hmm….

And I bet I could whip them into shape in no time….

From the Daily Beast:

It’s 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday in Philadelphia, and 51-year-old Kia Katrina Grasty, donning only her pajamas, is heading to a frat party.

Pulling up in her white GMC envoy truck to one of the University of Pennsylvania’s unofficial fraternity houses on Pine Street, Grasty marches confidently into the bash, shuts down the deejay and makes an urgent announcement: everyone needs to look for a package belonging to Penn junior Jack Cortese, one of the students living in the house.

Jack’s mother—actress Kim Delaney of NYPD Blue—was frantic that Jack hadn’t yet received the high-end suit and shoes she had overnighted for his upcoming internship interview. When Delaney couldn’t reach her son on the phone that night, she called Grasty. Unable to refuse the mother of a “privileged” client, Grasty darted out of bed immediately and took control of the situation.

“We need to look for a package!” she declares to the glassy-eyed college kids, who somewhat obediently stop carousing to search among strewn beer cups, cigarette stubs and other detritus. Moments later, Grasty emerges victorious from behind a bench on the front porch. “Got it!” she yells, and like clockwork the show goes on. Grasty can go home for the night, but she’ll be back soon enough to mop up the mess. That’s her job, after all.

Since 2005, Grasty has been cleaning up after Penn. While her partner at Diamond Cleaning, Candy Boyd, handles more conventional work—commercial buildings in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—Kia has parlayed the effusive recommendation of one student, who found her on Google, into a customer base of dozens of Ivy League neat freaks and slobs—including high-profile scions like Delaney’s son, Vera Wang’s daughter, and the heir to the Beverly Hilton—many of whom pay her for the entire year in advance.

via Ivy League Cleaning Lady Confessions: From Clogged Toilets to Feces in the Bathtub – The Daily Beast.

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Eric Cantor On ‘Face The Nation’: Disaster Relief For Joplin Tornado Victims Must Be Offset

This guy really is a disgrace on so many levels….

Totally heartless…

On Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) reiterated his position that disaster relief funds for the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri must be paid for with cuts to other programs. “Congress will find the money,” Cantor said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” “And it will be offset.”

“I know that America is just stunned by the scope of devastation and loss and the horrific tragedy that the people of Joplin and other places across the country really are experiencing this tornado season,” Cantor said. The federal government typically pays for disaster relief, but Cantor has said repeatedly that the government must maintain fiscal discipline. On Sunday, he compared the situation to that of a family putting off buying a new care when a family member became ill.

“When a family is struck with tragedy — like the family of Joplin … let’s say if they had $10,000 set aside to do something else with, to buy a new car … and then they were struck with a sick member of the family or something, and needed to take that money to apply it to that, that’s what they would do, because families don’t have unlimited money. And, really, neither does the federal government.”

Democratic lawmakers from districts hit by the storms have blasted Republicans for talking about the need to pay for an emergency package, HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reported:

“Where is his heart?” Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) said of Cantor. “Where is his compassion for people who are suffering today?”

“If they want to fight and quibble over the supplemental, I mean, they are heartless. What’s wrong with them?” Clay said. “Nothing for the average American community. That’s what they’re saying: we don’t have anything for the average American community.”

via Eric Cantor On ‘Face The Nation’: Disaster Relief For Joplin Tornado Victims Must Be Offset (VIDEO).

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A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much

I found this article fascinating…

I’m one of those people quick to call the younger generation slackers.  They are entirely too coddled.  Hence, my loving reference to them among friends and on my blogs as SJI’s (Slack Jawed Idiots).

But I’m ready to admit that there are other factors that aren’t so obvious.  Technology has changed the world and removed walls and barriers.  It has made it easier to blur the lines between work life and home life.

This Generation also sees things differently due to, not only being coddled, but due to the vast amount of information this technology has made so easily available.

They also don’t have the expectations many of us from my generation had- past tense-of having a job for life as long as they worked hard.

They know that social contract is null and void.

They therefore, appropriately, focus more on their real life.

In short, it’s a different world than the one we expected to see…

They may be more realistic than my generation was…

I’ll have to think about this some more.  This article in today’s New York Times is a good place to start…

But it still doesn’t excuse their poor style, fashion and cultural choices…

And three in four Americans believe that today’s youth are less virtuous and industrious than their elders, a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center found.

In a sign of humility or docility, young people agree. In that 2009 Pew survey, two-thirds of millennials said older adults were superior to the younger generation when it came to moral values and work ethic.

After all, if there’s a young person today who’s walked 10 miles barefoot through the snow to school, it was probably on an iPhone app.

So is this the Laziest Generation? There are signs that its members benefit from lower standards. Technology has certainly made life easier. But there may also be a generation gap; the way young adults work is simply different.

MORE:   A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much – NYTimes.com.

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