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Friday, March 8, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Another view?
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Gridlock has always been a part of politics in our nation’s capital but never to the degree that exists today. Gridlock started the day President Barack Obama was inaugurated and prominent members of the GOP met to develop a strategy designed to make him a one-term president. That plan was confirmed when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said his top goal was to make Obama a one-term president. The results of the congressional races in 2010 brought gridlock when the Tea Party won a good number of seats, particularly in the House. Besides wanting to hold Obama to one term, the attitude became one of no compromise.
The goal of Obama being a one-term president failed but the spirit of gridlock carried on, propelled by the spirit of no compromise. The Tea Party somehow has managed to strike the fear of God in all GOP members in Congress. The fear of being defeated by their own party in their re-election bids trumps any hope of putting country first. Gridlock will not end when President Obama finishes his second term. It will exist as long as the Tea Party has a stranglehold on the rest of the GOP members. Gridlock via no compromise has and will continue to paralyze any attempts to do what is right for the American people.
Robert Blanner is the designated liberal hack. Below is a search result listing some of Robert's obvious attempts in previous letters to mis-characterize the political party he opposes.
Does Robert really believe readers will interpret his letter as an unbiased and objective view of government and politics? Hardly.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/search/?q=&am...
Robert is correct in pointing out that many in the Tea Party have little interest in compromise. He ignores however, that many on the left define compromise as 'you do it our way'.
The right was dragged, kicking and screaming, to taxing the wealthy a little more, but taxes were raised. Now, the tax reform the left wants to talk about is all about closing loopholes and ending deductions. Where is a discussion regarding a total overhaul of the income tax system?
The truth is that both sides in our government are addicted to deficit spending and increasing debt.
Our government needs to either find ways to spend less or tax everyone more or take a combination of the two and get to work.
Robert can slam the right and others can slam the left, and with good reason, but to claim one side has cornered the market on failure flies in the face of the facts.
Michael
Roberts says "That plan was confirmed when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said his top goal was to make Obama a one-term president."
Well the night Obama won re-election Obama call Nancy Pelosi and piloted to eliminate Republican in the next Congressional election in 2014.
- The WH (Pfeiffer) said "We do not have an opposition party worthy of the opportunity..." to work together
- CBS News' political director John Dickerson wrote in Slate.com and urged Obama to "pulverize" and destroy his Republican opponents -- even "go for the throat" -- in order to "cement his legacy." Dickerson wrote. "The president....can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat."
Obama has created an off the books 501(c)(4) non-profit campaign agenda PAC "Community" organization "Organizing for Action" to avoid negotiating with conservative that opposite his policies. Thats right Obama pays no taxes on this multi-million dollar business.
The sole purpose of the Obama 501(c)(4) non-profit is to denigrate and vilify the opposition while Obama can sit smugly in the WH and claim to being above the mean spirited brawl.
In reply to Robert Blanner; one thing is for sure; your letter to the editor was certainly not a peace offering of any kind to the political opposition.
Earlier from my past commentaries here on the Las Vegas Sun I made the huge mistake and lumped all perceived TEA Party supporters as dangerous "Oath Keeping" members who associated themselves with the likes of the John Birch Society, the Klu Klux Klan, and other antigovernment organizations that dabbled, at a minimum in racial prejudice / hatred. But, in actuality, I've discovered that only about ten percent of TEA Party supporters are extremists. This is really not a shocking number. In fact, there are extremists in every organization. Ten percent of extremists are the norm, across the board in almost any organization / association.
Mr. Freeman, "RefNv" who frequently comments here on the Las Vegas Sun opinion column is a prime example of what a real American conservative is, if not a TEA Party supporter is all about. Although, politically speaking, we disagree frequently, Mr. Freeman, I admire because he gets involved in attempting to make headway in improving his country. I've found, this is what ninety percent of true TEA Party people do. They are just regular citizens who are totally frustrated with the federal government's path to bankruptcy, the immigration crisis, the affordable healthcare system, and so forth and so on.
The bottom-line is, just because the 90% of TEA Party supporters oppose progressive political footpaths, this does not make them an extremist. They are just concerned citizens.
For the TEA Party politicians, creating political gridlock is how they say "NO MORE"! They surely have this right, Mr. Blanner, whether or not you or I approve of it.
Rove and Norquist are dead. So are McConnell, McCain, and Graham. There are a new cadre of Republicans in town: Rand, Cruz, Rubio et al. They are carrying the GOP banner now. Everybody knows it. Even the stock market!
CarmineD
Freeman
Your dismissive post is symptomatic of the selfrighteousness and pomposity that seems too prevalent in this country. If you have a contrasting opinion on the letter content, state it. I doubt your expertise extends to accurate analysis of other people's motivations and you certainly can't claim any high ground for objectivity or lack of bias.
The two political parties are having difficulty agreeing on the problem, the solution and whether or not a problem is best handled at the national or state level. This scenario leads to many no action results. There is no consensus about what constitutes doing a good job as a member of Congress. What is the yardstick? How many bills passed? How do we decide what an effective congressman looks like? We expect a congressman to represent constituents. We expect members to bring into the legislative process the views, needs and interests of their constituents; we expect the Congress as an institution to provide a forum to exchange these views, needs and interests. Only in a perfect world the majority wants align with what policy experts deem most likely to be effective. When a conflict exists, however, which should take priority? What constitutes good public policy?
The general public has little in-depth knowledge of what good public policy is that will lead to positive societal outcomes.
Jim Weber,
Are you claiming Robert Blanner does not write partisan LVS letters?
Bradley hits the mark with his comment. Just like many people on the left, many on the right are concerned about what they see here in America today. What they see as positive solutions may differ, but if you're an American who cares about his or her country, you cannot help but be saddened and concerned.
Compromise is a requirement on both sides and neither side is willing to compromise enough, at least in my opinion. Our government massively misappropriates taxpayer funds and does not even come close to living within the limits of the tax revenue it collects.
Whether you believe in taking more revenue from the wealthy, cutting what is spent, attacking the waste , fraud and duplication, re-writing the income tax code, moving to a new health care system, changing our defense and foriegn aid posture, re-working entitlements, etc, we should all be able to agree that our government, at the national level, is currently failing to do its job and has been failing for quite some time before President Obama was elected to office.
Michael
Freeman
Are you claiming you don't write partisan letters or comments? Do you claim only people who agree with you are nonpartisan?
All letters and all posts are partisan because they reflect the widely varied life experiences and allegiances of their authors.
Welcome to the same tiresome, paranoid blatherings of one, Robert Banner. Dude you need a new act because this one has become stale. We all know by now what "compromise" means to Democrats. It means rolling over for their every demand or their media flunkies will go into action and characterize you as being "obstructionist". If you listened to constant whiners like Banner and you didn't know any better you would think the "Tea Party" was in complete control of the GOP which is hardly the case. The Democrats don't need things like the "Tea Party" to look foolish, incompetent and unable to get things done. They are quite capable of doing all that on their own with people like Harry Reid, Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters-among other nutters- as members.
Jim Weber,
My premise is that Robert Blanner writes partisan LVS letters. Are you, Jim Weber, disputing my premise?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/search/?q=&am...
Enjoyed the letter, Mr. Blanner.
I got nothing to add except that I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with the Tea Party takeover of the Republican Party. And it needs to continue.
The Tea Party was created by the conservatives to address a problem the Republican Party had with popularity, getting the votes, and primarily get people interested in filling their campaign coffers with money. It energized them, as well as their policy makers, the right wing news media, beyond their wildest dreams.
It was so successful that the Frankenstein monster they created...can no longer be controlled. The infection of the Tea Party into their ranks is almost complete. So much so that no amount of mobs wielding pitchforks and torches and storming the windmill can ever get rid of the monster they created.
Like a boomerang, it's comin' back at them.
Let it continue.
Gooooooooo, Tea Party! Rip them to shreds!
Pure entertainment. I got plenty of popcorn to watch this lunacy.
Get Paul to talking fillibuster something else til he wets his pants, for all I care. The more this stuff goes on, the more that entire party is marginalized to nothingness.
Don't blame me, ultra-conservatives. It's your fault you let this go on so long. That conservatism that was appealing a long time ago is gone, baby, gone. Until someone from your stupid political party puts their foot down to stop it, it will continue. When you look to a big goof like Rush Limbaugh to dictate the policies of your party, there's gonna be no end to this.
In the meantime, let the ongoing internal civil war commence without let up. You gotta learn this stuff the hard way, I guess.
But, all I ask is this.... Do it in front of cameras/microphones.
So we can watch and laugh at ya.
Pure entertainment.
Pass the popcorn. A little more butter, please. Not much salt.....
Sorry, that should be "Robert Blanner".
Blanner continues in the mold of most leftist commentors. They have selective and short memories and don't let facts get in the way of their diatribes. Where was Blanner and his fellow travelers when George W. was elected and Dumbocrats fought all the way to the US Supreme Court to deny him his victory? Obviously, Dumbocrats wanted George W to be a "no-term" President, let alone a "one-term" President and that's fine with me because being in the "loyal" opposition is exactly what the Founders intended. Blanner also intentionally dismisses the shenanigans pulled by Harry the Red and his fellow travelers who, while in the minority, went so far as to filibuster Supreme Court nominees - a first. They fought just about every proposal put forward by the Bush administration tooth & nail. No complaints from Blanner & his Commie-lite pals then that I recall. No should there have been. Once again, it is the duty of the "out" party to keep the "in" party in check and not let it run rough-shod over those who disagree. One day (sooner than later, I hope), the Dumbocrats will be the "out" party and I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut, they will not bend over for the Republicrats, nor should they. So-called "Gridlock" is good for us.
@JimWeber....the more you feed the trolls,.......
Wharfrat -
Yeh, I know. But he's so invested in being right, it's hard to resist having some fun with him to see how many questions he'll ignore and changes of subjects he'll come up with. If there was a book titled "Copy and Paste and Paste and Paste and Paste and...Paste for Dummies", he'd be the author.
The tea party hit their peak in the 2010 elections.
But Obama's reelection in November with 332 electoral votes and over 51% of the popular vote proves it's time to turn out the lights on the tea party loons. Their fifteen minutes of fame nearly destroyed our country but, thankfully, sanity prevailed and the rightwing extremists have been pushed back to the radical fringe where they belong.
Even the one-time toast of teabaggers, half-term governor Sarah Palin, is treated like a diseased leper in today's GOP.
Maybe the buggy whip or rotary-dial telephone will become a big hit again with the kids, but I seriously doubt it.
Same with the outdated Teabag Party. We came, we saw, and we went away dumber for it.
If Americans wanted to live like bible-thumping, anti-science bigots we would still be watching Leave it to Beaver as Mom worked in the kitchen and Dad sat reading the newspaper, smoking his pipe.
Boy oh boy, the generalizations are rampant! So, everyone that is a Tea Party member or supports some of what they stand for wants to go back to the buggy whip, rotary telephones and life as it was portrayed in Leave It To Beaver. Oh my! I think not. Oh, there are kooks in the Tea Party, as there are in any movement, but to get a more 'balanced' view of what many people that belong to or favor the Tea Party movement believe, simply go here and read:
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/about/?g...
I believe the Tea Party has made and continues to make many missteps, but I can look at our government and see at least as many and probably many more missteps. I believe that it is unlikely that the Tea Party offers what we need to resolve the nations problems, but it is equally clear to me that our present government and those of the recent past also are not offering much that will put us on a more sustainable fiscal path.
Michael
Robert Blanner....
Excellent letter & 100% correct! Keep up the great job!
Most of the Tea Party, like most the GOP, is open to honest & forthright negotiations with the President or Dems in the Senate in a bipartisan effort to find areas of agreement in the national interest. Unfortunately, that's not what Obama & Reid want -- they want to perpetuate the turmoil in the hope of regaining control of the House and two years of unrestricted control over the Federal government. Our pain, their gain. (To be fair, the GOP establishment & neocons may be trying to play the same game from the other side, they're just not very good at it. Which of course has the talking head world in a tizzy!) It's the same thing local politicans do when they have budget challenges -- cut cops on the street and teachers in the classroom first in order to generate public support for higher taxes, but don't touch their perks or palaces (i.e. Obama's golf outing with Tiger would've kept the WH open for tourists, so we know what his priorities are).
It's a shaky comparison I know, but maybe the TP is like the 5 Star Movement & Rand Paul our Grillo, and we're moving towards a "throw the bums out" tidal wave in 2014?
Jim Weber,
I'm glad you had fun with my premise that Robert Blanner writes partisan LVS letters. Blanner speaks for the left, not independents and conservatives. Jim, you failed to challenge my premise, perhaps because the evidence is just too overwhelming?
A note to LVS readers. Jim and I challenge our points and premises for interesting and good-humored exchanges. Jim Weber is a well respected LVS poster. He wins a few debates with me but I win most. LOL :)
I'm only qualified to look at our national debt through the prisms of my household finances. Although I'm on a fixed income for a retiree, if I had the same debt ratio as the federal government, I'd never be able to pay off those incurred debts.
The only other option I would have other than filing bankruptcy is to manage the interest to be paid on the debt. But, from what I can see, the federal government is not even doing this anymore. Domestically speaking, this is a catastrophe about to happen most likely sooner than later.
Based on seemingly credible information that I got off the Internet, "The last time America was debt free was in the 1830's. Ever since, the federal government have borrowed money to make things happen in this country. Examples are the Louisiana Purchase, the national highway system, and the space program."
Looking back in hindsight, should we, as a nation, have waited until we could have paid cash? I'd say, our priorities have been skewed. Yes, lower urgency programs could have waited for the cash upfront while others of high priority could have been financed without future financial consequences to the country.
The bottom-line point is, debt does have its place both in the home and in the Halls of Congress. But debt is like a deadly weapon, misuse it and the consequences will hurt badly.
I may be wrong, but I think this is what the 90% of the moderates in the TEA Party are saying.
Freeman -
Perhaps the biggest winner today is Mr. Blanner. He started out as a liberal hack and now he is merely partisan like the rest of us. Mr. Blanner speaks for himself as we all do when presenting our worldview.
Freeman, you neglected to answer the two questions in my 6:23AM post, perhaps because the answers were evident? :-)
Jim Weber,
I made my point and explained my premise in my 2:26am post which you did not challenge. If LVS readers want to believe Robert Blanner's version of what the TEA party is all about then fine with me but they now know that Robert typically writes LVS letters to mis-characterize the opposing party's viewpoints and beliefs so reader beware.
At 2:49 last night, Wtplv (Michael Casler) commented that "The right was dragged, kicking and screaming, to taxing the wealthy a little more..."
This is but a continuation of the right's "big lie" technique that requires rebuttal whenever it rears its head. Taxes were NOT raised wholesale on the wealthy. In 2001 and 2003 legislation to cut certain taxes across the economic class spectrum was introduced in Congress. One provision of that legislation was that it would expire in 2010. A Republican-controlled Congress passed, and a Republican President signed, both bills.
In 2010 a Democratic-controlled Congress passed, and a Democratic President signed, legislation to extend those bills for an additional two years.
In 2012 the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-majority Senate (though de facto Republican controlled) failed to further extend the full cuts. Rather, they made the cuts for lower-income taxpayers permanent and allowed the cuts for the higher-income taxpayers to expire. The Democratic President signed that legislation.
Bottom-line? The REPUBLICANS are responsible for both the original cuts and for their subsequent expiration. The DEMOCRATS are responsible for suspending for two years the expiration of the full provisions and for making permanent those cuts applicable to the lower-income majority of taxpayers.
I would like to consider Mr Casler's comment to be simply hyperbole or exaggeration. Neither term, however, does justice to the technique it represents - "big lie" does. ("Big lie" = "the use of a lie so 'colossal' that no one would believe that someone 'could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.'" As used by A. Hitler, 1925, in Mein Kampf.)
Comment removed by moderator. Personal Attack
Jahreb,
Perhaps there will be a Ms. or Mrs. Freeman who will post a comment here one day in the future.
JahReb, you paint with me a brush you have no room to wield.
* me with...... That's the scotch and a long day
Robert......FANTASTIC LETTER!, SPOT ON.
The teabagger lunatics are the craziest people on
the face of the earth.
The only good thing about them is that they
destroyed the republican party.
THANK GOD!
Anyone who thinks the tea party has the country's interests as the most important thing to fix,best guess again. The tea party is only interested in their own skin first,country second.
@BChap,
I agree with your assessment of the Tea Party, not all of them are hate mongers, but those projecting that image aren't being reeled in by saner members of the GOP or Tea Party. Not one of the leading candidates in the GOP was out front attempting to quell the fear or hate these people projected, instead they catered to them in hopes of gaining votes. If a crime is being committed and none of us report it, aren't we as guilty as the criminal?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/us/num...
"Fed by antagonism toward President Obama, resentment toward changing racial demographics and the economic rift between rich and poor, the number of so-called hate groups and antigovernment organizations in the nation has continued to grow, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center."
Good morning Vern; nice to have heard from you.
I'm quite sure everything you said in your post is true. And, everything you said worries me about my country.
Of all of this erudite elucidating...
One line @ColinFromLasVegas sums it up nicely;
"Pure entertainment. I got plenty of popcorn to watch this lunacy."
Yup!
They oughtta show reruns of the Republican 'debates' from last summer...
Dang, that was a HOOT!!!
Can't hardly wait for 'The Sequel', featuring Carmine's Hero's Rand Paul & Co...they're cow chips off the 'old block'!
I actually like having the Tea Party around. The more they talk their crazy talk, the tougher time the Republicans have in gaining any traction with the voters in this country....
Long live the Tea Party...They help the Democrats time & time again.
I think its going to be funny watching Republicans such as Jeb Bush, "wine & dine" the Tea Party people in an attempt to become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016.
That's what both McCain & Romney did and we all know where that got them, don't we?
Let's not forget about the democrats own version of the TEA party, the Occupy movement. The Occupy group(OWS) was made up of mostly radical teachers/students, socialists, union workers and anarchists. Everyone knows OWS was developed to counter the TEA party but the idea failed badly and left the front pages of the main stream media very quickly. The OWS group exposed how radical the far left is causing democratic lawmakers to distance themselves from these radicals. A majority of cities had to chase the OWS groups out of their cities due to lawlessness, safety and sanitary reasons.
The Occupy group could have easily protested cities/counties with pension funding issues caused by gold-plated union pensions and pension abuse. Below is a link to an article describing how union government workers claim a disability a year before their retirement to increase their yearly pension. 90% of Long Island Rail Road workers retired with a disability--even those who worked desk jobs--adding about $36,000 to their annual pensions. 82% of senior California state troopers are "disabled" in their last year before retirement. The Occupy protesters should have protested the outrageous greed of these union government workers but didn't and it spoke volumes of what the Occupy movement thought about the tax payer. Absolutely nothing.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/11...
As well, Mr. Freeman, I'm quite sure everything you wrote in your 1:27PM post about the Occupy Wall Street movement is true. And, as well, their activities worry me too about the impact it will all have on our country.
I truly believe that extremists on either end of the political spectrum are both toxic and lethal to a sensible forward progress for America.