Republicans Deny Creation Theories and Even US Default Economics

"In short, it’s been back to square one again and again." (Washington Post, October 9, 2013)

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Albert Einstein

Incredulously, Republicans who deny scientific creation theories in favor of the concrete Biblical interpretation, in spite of tens of thousands of years of evidence to the contrary, now tell their extremist political follows how a US debt default won't be so bad as the Obama administration is suggesting to Americans. 

Oh really? Would Republican hypocrite extremists spread these same wrong minded economic myths if a Republican president were facing the preventable debt ceiling obstruction, given the predicted looming fiscal economic disaster?

Americans can't trust anything Republicans are selling regarding the US economy. Their fiscal policies brought on the Great Recession, but now they seem hell bent on causing a disastrous encore.

It makes no sense for Republicans, who deny science and who can't apply simple arithmetic to solve important public policy initiatives to also say the US debt ceiling crises is somehow not as disastrous as we are led by administration officials to believe.

It's like asking to be the first person to taste potentially poisonous food. 

Who wants to be first in a poison taste test? 

The government shutdown is in its ninth day and Boehner’s outlook now is arguably worse than it was the start of the shutdown.The Washington Post reports how Polling shows the public blames congressional Republicans more than Obama, Democrats haven’t budged from their demand for a “clean” bill to fund the government, and the shutdown is encroaching on the deadline to raise the debt ceiling.

What Boehner needs is a solution, and fast — one, ideally, that satisfies the cast-iron conservatives as much as possible but can also win the support of the Democratic Senate and Obama.

So far, there are no obvious options. And previous efforts have led the speaker nowhere.

He repeatedly called for Democrats to negotiate with him. They repeatedly responded that they will only talk after the government is funded and the debt ceiling is raised. The House passed three stopgap spending bills leading up to the shutdown that took aim at the Obamacare health care reform law. 

The Senate swiftly rejected all of them.

Boehner closed the door on voting for a clean continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government and a clean bill to raise the debt limit. Yet, a short-term version of both might be the least painful way out of what’s proven to be a very tough situation for him.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Boehner, who is leader of the entire House of Representatives, is ignoring the majority of votes it's predicted he'd receive in a clean resolution vote to eliminate all of this preventable economic uncertainty.  

For political reasons only, Speaker Boehner won't allow a clean resolution to come up for a vote, just because he can. 

Boehner's bad behavior lacks leadership and shows spitefulness, rather than compassion, for the hardship his obstruction is causing to Americans, who are harmed by this economic bullying behavior. 

Boehner is childishly acting out because the GOP lost the 2012 presidential election.  Suppose his outrageous response had been the reaction during the election of 2000, when Democrat Vice President Al Gore lost to President George Bush?  That year's election was legitimately won by Vice President Al Gore, but the Supreme Court intervened and Democrats accepted the result.  

Now, however, House Speaker Boehner and his right wing minions are not showing respect for democracy when they continue to undermine the results of President Obama's legitimate victory in 2012, over Governor Mitt Romney.  President Obama received the most votes and won the election.  It was a legitimate election victory, validated by arithmetic.  

This current economic government shutdown, sustained by a minority of wrong minded Republican Tea Party zealots, must be stopped. President Obama must act to end this misery, on behalf of the people who voted for him. Meanwhile, Americans cannot be led to believe anything Republicans are saying about the effect of the economic stalemate they are creating with their obstructionist actions. Republican extremist Tea Party zealots don't believe in creation theory, they also don't understand how rape can cause pregnancy and they deny global warming. It's obvious these same wrong minded people can't be trusted to understand macro economics.

President Obama Must Act Against Republican Extremism

Republicans can't possibly care about people. If they cared about people, they'd immediately stop obstructing progressive policies and begin to recommend some creative ideas to help the middle class.

Instead, right wing Republicans are consumed with a misguided ideology, driven by radicalism rather than humanism. They're paranoid about the role of government and stuck in conservative trench warfare against immigration reform, tax reform, health care reform, Second Amendment gun reform and entitlement reform.

While a Republican driven government shutdown looms, middle class Americans are watching our 401 K portfolios shrink while the stock market tries to figure out the fiscal uncertainty. Furthermore, we're worried about how the negative impact of a government shutdown will interfere with earned Social Security and Veterans Benefits. There's absolutely no need for this anguish. Our US government has plenty of money plus the ability to generate more cash through revenue sharing aka "tax reform".  Blogger DC Coder writes, "If Congress fails to fund the federal government by Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, the government will go into partial shutdown. Some government functions – those deemed essential – will continue as usual, while others will be suspended. If a shutdown proceeds the way it would have in 2011 (had the last funding impasse had not been resolved in time), 800,000 of 2.1 million federal employees would be furloughed."

What don't Republicans "get" about the severity of this doomsday scenario? We're already dealing with the consequences of the stupid fiscal sequester. It's sincerely not fair to impose more hardship on Americans by shutting down government because Republicans want to cause trouble.

President Obama's intervention is essential to stop this extremism. Americans need leadership to guide us out of the polarized trenches being defended by radical extremists. Somebody must put an end to this consistent Republican obsession with government obstruction.  

Apparently, Republicans need education about how democracy works. It's like this - the person with the most votes wins the elections. Like, in 2012, President Obama and the Democrats won, because they received the majority of votes. 

But, Republicans also need to know how those who loose elections always have a chance to try to win at another time. Winning at another time means bringing forth good alternative ideas. Republicans don't have any.

Republicans seem to believe democracy only works when they win the elections. In their delusional logic, they're the only party entitled to reap the privilege of living in a Democratic government.

If Republicans sincerely understood democracy, they'd create fresh ideas to present to the American people, so they could plan to win more votes for their policies in the upcoming elections. Republicans aren't likely to win a majority of votes in future national elections while they continue to obstruct government without offering solutions to problems, other than to shut down the government.

Meanwhile, President Obama must animate his resistance to spiraling and out of control Republican obstructionism. 

Rather than soft speeches and beautiful logic, President Obama must tell Republicans how unpatriotic it is to not supporting the Federal Law passed in Obamacare and upheld as Constitutional by the US Supreme Court. He must tell Republicans how dumb it is not to raise the debt ceiling, because the money needed has already been appropriated. Holding the debt ceiling hostage to budget negotiations is like charging on a credit card to buy Christmas gifts, but not paying the bill when the invoice comes due. It's dumb.

Republican extremism must be stopped. Americans need leadership to educate voters about the value of progressive government and the dangers of continued obstructionism. 

Moreover, President Obama must take action to deliver on his campaign promise to fight for the middle class. Where is that Obama, the 2012 presidential candidate? We need him ASAP.

White House Correspondant's Dinner - President Obama Tells Diversity Truth Through Humor

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh..." Oscar Wilde

During President Obama's stand up on April 27, he told White House correspondent's:

"I know, Republicans are still sorting out what happened in (the 2012 election), but one thing they all agree on is they need to do a better job reaching out to minorities.  And look, call me self-centered, but I can think of one minority they could start with.  (Laughter.)  Hello?  Think of me as a trial run, you know?  (Laughter.)  See how it goes.  (Laughter.)"

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/28/barack-obamas-remarks-at-the-2013-white-house-correspondents-dinner-transcript/#ixzz2RnRa45Mb

"Hello" is right on, Mr President! In spite of mega-millions spent on campaign strategy and wasteful advertising, Republicans need to come to grips with the voter reality - obstructing progressive agenda programs will get them absolutely nowhere.  

Republicans must come to grips with their own minority status - minority groups are growing and they identify with their own.  Given no appealing leadership alternative to vote for, they'll likely put the ballot check mark alongside someone with whom they identify.

President Obama and his wife Michelle are representative of the faces of the world's diverse racial population, especially in America, where minority groups of color are growing in numbers.  Their charisma and leadership of America are beacons of hope for those who still believe in the achievement of the "American Dream".

Regardless of how stubbornly Republicans are obstructing domestic progress, by supporting the #stupid_sequester budget cuts, and trying to eliminate social safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare, I predict the GOP will loose every national election until they either (a) become more politically mainstream than the radical right wing T-party (I'm beginning to cynically call them the "pee-party"; or (b) GOP must agree to raise taxes on the rich and super rich, to help support programs for minority groups, who understand how these entitlements are earned benefits. 

Nevertheless, Republicans obviously don't "get" how reaching out to President Obama could, indeed, gain their domestic austerity agenda some momentum with racial minority groups.  Many minorities understand arithmetic and fiscal management much better than many in our US government.  But, instead of supporting President Obama, the GOP is obsessed with opposing the rising tide of our nation's racial diversity.  While conservative GOP shroud themselves in opposition to benevolent domestic programs, the tide of racial diversity is rising and, eventually, the critical mass will wash the right wing opposition away, like a political storm surge.

Therefore, while President Obama joked with the White House Correspondent's about his status as a minority, the fact is, his "truth through humor"  should be taken very seriously by Republicans. 

Meanwhile, Republican might engage in some charm offensive of their own with diverse groups, by practicing their minority outreach on our Commander and Diversity Leader in Chief.  

As the 2012 presidential election proved, Republicans obviously need to charm and recruit minority groups. They can begin by practicing with our President Barack Obama.

On Election Day Americans Are All Equal - (Or, at Least....we should be)

No One in America Should Have to Wait 7 Hours to Vote!

In "Atlantic" magazine, author Andrew Cohen wrote last November that what happened in Florida's 2012 voting was "simply unacceptable". According to a local election official interviewed by CBS News' Phil Hirschkorn, the last "early voter" in line for Saturday's truncated early voting in Palm Beach County finally got to cast a ballot at 2:30 a.m Sunday morning, which means that voter waited in line for more than seven hours. In Miami, another traditional Democratic stronghold, the wait was nearly as long. On Sunday, voters all over the state were begging judges and county officials for more time to vote.

This happened, not because of a natural disaster or breakdown in machinery. It happened by partisan design - Republicans don't want heavily Democratic minority voters to vote. 

Alarmed by the strong Democratic turnout in early voting in 2008, Republican lawmakers, including Florida's Governor Rick Scott, reduced the number of early voting days from 14 to eight.  Governor Scott probably believed the long voting lines would deter minority voters from exercising their rights as Americans.  

Thankfully, it didn't work.

Of course, if Florida's election officials, and its Republican lawmakers, and its state and federal judges, all were required to stand in line for seven hours to vote, those long lines would go away, forever. You know it, I know it, and so do the elected officials, writes Cohen.

Unfortunately, rather than fix the long lines and daunting voting regulations that make no sense, Republicans in "red states" want to protect their status quo by supporting obstacles targeted to deter minority voters.  Republicans use the ruse of "voter fraud" to demand proof of citizenship documentation prior to voting. Yet, these deterrence tactics are absent any documentation whereby fraud has ever occurred. 

Americans are proud to say how we live in a Democracy.  Surely, that privilege means we are all equal on election day. Every person's vote counts, one vote for every citizen who takes this responsibility seriously.

It should be illegal for elected officials to gerrymander our elections with ruse tactics and other tricks so they can use our Democracy to create their own partisan government.  

Americans should vote, just like all the other countries in the world.  We should be able to show up to a voting station, have our name checked off from a roster and be allowed to vote without standing in line for seven hours.  Otherwise, if these embarrassing voting glitches deliberately continue to sway election outcomes, then, we're just pretending to be a Democracy.  

Scott Prouty Describes Why He Made Public the Romney 47 Percent Video

Governor Mitt Romney certainly has a legacy of his own making in the video clip made by Scott Prouty, when his blatant disclosure cemented the fate of the 2012 election, turning the tide for President Obama's re-election. 

All the 2012 presidential election antics, the mega millions spent on dueling campaign ads and the hyped candidate debates, boiled down to the candid video tape recorded by Scott Prouty, a videographer, who captured Romney's marginalizing 47 percent comments.  Romney told his audience that he didn't expect to win the votes of 47 percent of Americans because they were people who, he said, had a sense of entitlement. In fact, the video revealed Romney's core beliefs, whereby Americans saw for themselves how "vulture capitalism" drove the candidate's values. 

Prouty, a Midwest native, took his Canon camera to the fundraiser, thinking Romney might pose for photos with the event staff. Instead, he captured Romney speaking about "the 47 percent who are not with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."

Now, Prouty is going public with how he was able to tape the remarks and why he's going public with the behind the scenes story.  Prouty tells Ed Shultz that he is going public with his story after seeing Romney blame the media for his loss to President Obama.  

When Prouty released the video, he was every bit as brave and ethical as the revelation of the Watergate information, disclosing the corruption of the President Nixon administration.  Unfortunately, Prouty didn't have the Woodward and Bernstein Washington Post behind him, when he released the video. Nonetheless, Prouty certainly deserves a Profile in Courage award.

Perhaps Prouty can use his courage to pursue ethics in journalism or for noble causes, whereby his sense of fair play can be applied to improve our human condition.  His actions were certainly a God send to the Obama campaign. He disclosed himself to be a rare human being who boldly exposed the hypocrisy of the Romney candidacy at a critical point in the campaign.  

Prouty's bold honesty prevented the nation from the experience of a right wing Romney presidency.  Moreover, Prouty's video is now Romney's unflattering legacy.

Arithmetic Solution Can Help the National Debt

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57553950/angus-kings-mission-to-bridge-the-aisles-in-congress/

There's an arithmetic lesson Americans could apply, advantageously, to wasteful campaign spending to win (and lose) elections. 

As an example, let's use the $6 million negative ad buy in Maine, purchased by political opponents to defeat Senator Elect Angus King.  He won the election, in spite of this ad buy.

CBS news reports:

"BRUNSWICK-Me  'King also wants to require full transparency in campaign contributions. This year, in the seven of the ten most expensive Senate races, outside groups spent more than candidates themselves. King was hit by $6 million in attack ads'."

Maine's former governor attracted $6 million in outside the state political action groups, led by Republican strategist Karl Rove, to defeat him.  

A tongue in cheek rebuttal, King spoke for himself with an image of Godzilla on a TV monitor. 

King, an independent, said his opponents tried to portray him as a monster in the race for November's Senate general election.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/09/24/politics/king-threatens-to-sue-if-tv-stations-dont-take-republican-ads-attacking-him-off-the-air/

King tells Mainer's, "They (negative ad creators) may think we were born at night up here (in Maine), but it wasn't last night!".

Maine voters weren't swayed by the shabby negative ads produced by outside groups.  As a matter of fact, regardless of political party, the ads served a collateral purpose of unifying citizens against such wasteful political spending. 

In Maine, a state with only about 1.4 million people, a $6 million dollar investment could create hundreds of new jobs and solve a myriad of non-profit budget problems. Instead, this ad buy failed to defeat the popular former Maine governor.  Elections are still about candidates, regardless of how much money is spent.

Which led me to think outside the political box about how Americans might use political action money to help solve the nation's debt problems.

My idea? Let's tax political ads like they're luxury items.

Suppose political ads are taxed at the rate of $10 for every thousand dollar media purchase?  

During the 2012 King Senate campaign, that arithmetic would equal $600,000 in found tax revenue!

Just imagine how this simple arithmetic could be applied to all 50 US state budgets!  

Every election allows for a debriefing period when campaign's evaluate what was learned from the most recent campaign.

Rather than a strategic analysis, it's time Americans ask for fiscal accountability with each campaign.  In fact, a $6 million investment in Maine to defeat Governor Angus King was a total waste of money.  Indeed, the GOP would have lost this Maine election, regardless of how much, or how little, money was spent.

At least, by taxing the ad buy at a very high rate, voters would have seen some value in the negative ads.  Perhaps, voters might even pay more attention to truths and identify lies in political advertisements, if they represented sources of badly needed tax revenues going to states' treasuries.  

While state revenues could grow from a political ad tax, the national debt could, likewise, benefit from more solvent state treasuries where federal dollars wouldn't necessarily be so badly needed.  After all, more jobs could mean less entitlement spending. 

Political action committee tax revenues could even be applied to help pay the national debt, as well.  Let's get creative!

Unfortunately, many politicians aren't likely to focus on arithmetic, as the nation approaches a "fiscal cliff" budget crises.  Instead of arithmetic fixes, many politicians will grandstand, rather than calculate.

But, when the dust settles on the 2012 election and the looming fiscal cliff is, hopefully, averted, Washington policy makers must look at ways to bring more revenue into government.  

Taxing political ads for revenue is one solution nearly everyone in Maine would support.  

Power of Incumbency Implodes the One Term Presidency

http://am.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/14/rep-michele-bachmann-vows-to-make-president-obama-a-one-term-president/

Statisticians and  pollsters like Nate Silver, and others, gave a favorable mathematical weight to President Obama's "power of incumbency" in projecting the 2012 election results.  They ignored purely political projections about the President's re-election chances to focus on statistical probability. Social science predictions debunked political rhetoric.


Indeed, statistics debunked Congresswoman Michele Bachmann sang "one term presidency" mantra.  In fact, the power of the President's incumbency, coupled with his campaign's well designed and strategic re-election plan, imploded her failed prediction.  In January, President Barack Obama will begin his second term as our nation's leader.  Congresswoman Bachmann's mantra debunked.

Bachmann's failed prediction relied on right wing zealots, who she thought would rise again, like those who drowned out the 2010 mid-term elections. Bachmann's political groupies turned the nation's  House of Representatives into an obstructionist arm of our US government. They believed their power of intimidation would work, again, against the incumbent president.

But, what is the "power of incumbency", anyhow ?  

"One important advantage for Obama is that a president, using his bully pulpit, has the ability to dominate the news and drown out the opposition. This is likely (what happened)... when Obama (spoke) at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It (was an) international forum (unavailable) to his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, who...after all...was simply a (candidate) ...private citizen. Obama (widened) a 'stature gap', that nearly every president enjoys over his challenger, (because of) the respect that the American presidency generates around the world."

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/Ken-Walshs-Washington/2012/09/24/obama-wields-power-of-incumbency

Although laws protect against the power of incumbency from having an undue advantage over a challenger, often, just the name recognition of an incumbent is enough, in some campaigns, to win an election.  Of course, name recognition isn't typically a factor in Presidential leadership elections.  Nevertheless, the response of the electorate to a name can be very powerful.   

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's mantra about a "one term presidency" didn't carry the weight of negativity, probably, because her personal political negatives outweighed those of the President. 

Obviously, the power of incumbency can be a proverbial albatross. Thankfully, the President's "Health Care Reform" aka "Obamacare" was declared "Constitutional" by the conservative Chief Justice Roberts Supreme Court.  Moreover, voters still hold Republicans accountable for the US economic doldrums.  Otherwise, if either two realities were reversed, the power of incumbency could have reversed, to become the "weight of incumbency".

Yet, Michele Bachmann and minions sincerely believed they could unseat the incumbent President Barack Obama.  They didn't take the mix of voter turnout into consideration.  

Kimberly Strassel writes  "The GOP Turnout Myth: To win future elections, Republicans will need more than better get-out-the-vote software."  http://online.wsj.com/article/potomac_watch.html

"To win the next presidential race, the GOP will have to understand what went wrong in 2012. To do that, they've got to come to grips with what did, and did not, happen with turnout."

"Even as Republicans (agonized) over their candidate and agenda, many have sought comfort in the notion that a big part of the loss came down to simple mechanics. President Obama had a stunning Election Day operation, which turned out his base. Mitt Romney's shop, by contrast, failed to get people to the polls. That explanation is soothing because it suggests that, in the future, all the GOP needs is a slicker piece of get-out-the-vote software."

"It's also broadly wrong....In the end, it was 334,000 votes—in Florida, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire—that separated Mr. Romney from the presidency. Then again, had Mr. Romney succeeded in grinding out a narrow victory, it might also have masked the party's bigger problems."

"Because what ought to scare the GOP is this:  (President) Obama (won) by tapping new minority voters in numbers that beat even Mr. Romney's better turnout (that exceeded those who voted in 2008 for Senator John McCain)."

"In Florida, 238,000 more Hispanics voted than in 2008, and Mr. Obama got 60% of Hispanic voters. His total margin of victory in Florida was 78,000 votes, so that demographic alone won it for him. Or consider Ohio, where Mr. Romney won independents by 10 points. (This) lead mattered little, though, given that black turnout increased by 178,000 votes, and the president won 96% of the black vote. Mr. Obama's margin of victory there was 103,000."

Strassel goes on to write, "...Elections are about the candidate and the message, yes, but also about the ground game. Republicans right now are fretting about Mr. Romney's failures and the party's immigration platform—that's fair enough. But equally important (is) the party's mind-boggling failure to institute a competitive Hispanic ground game. The GOP doesn't campaign in (Hispanic) communities, doesn't register voters there, doesn't knock on doors. So, while pre-election polling showed Hispanics were worried about Obama policies, in the end, the only campaign these voters heard from—by email, at their door, on the phone—was the president's."

And, therein, is the "power of incumbency".  If President Obama had "negative" name recognition, or if he weren't already the US incumbent leader, his chances for re-election could have been, statistically, much less likely.  Pundits, statistics and polls notwithstanding, President Barack Obama expertly used his power of incumbency - and he built on the exponential power of the incumbency of his Democratic predecessor President Bill Clinton.

It was a flashback presidential campaign in 3-D "real time".  

In the face of "Monday morning" analysis, President Barack Obama transcended the myth of the "one term president".  He also  provided the value added benefit of politically discrediting Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's right wing supporters. 

President Barack Obama is an extraordinary incumbent candidate. He proved how to win future American elections.  Yes, it's really all about arithmetic, just like President Bill Clinton told us. "It's about the voters, stupid!"