Wayne LaPierre offers solutions

David Gregory did his best to get Wayne LaPierre, the spokesman and CEO for the NRA, to concede that guns have something to do with gun violence, but Wayne held his position strong.  I saw Mr. LaPierre in a fictional hallway after that interview and asked him, "so if a ravingly, paranoid. psychotic individual goes into a gun shop and says, 'I want to buy a gun and then go shoot up the elementary school in town,' what should the shop owner do?  What is the responsible thing to do, and what is the best thing he can do to help keep our children safe?"  Mr. LaPierre answered, "he should sell the gun to this individual, but then sell two to the school."

Women Vs. Blacks

I was just thinking about the struggles that Black Americans and Female Americans have had in earning rights and privileges in our country and decided to compare them.  (And I know that Black and Female are not mutually exclusive, so I am specifically looking at Black Males vs Females) (and I know the current correct term is African American).  Let's look at some milestones.

Earned the right to vote
Blacks.......... 1868 with the 14th amendment
Women......... 1920 with the 19th amendment
Difference..... 52 years

First member elected to the House of Representatives
Blacks........... 1870  Joseph Hayne Rainey
Women.......... 1917  Jeannette Rankin
Difference...... 47 years

First Member elected to the Senate
Blacks........... 1870  Hiram Revels
Women.......... 1932  Hattie Caraway (In 1922  Rebecca Felton was appointed by Governor Hardwick of Georgia, but she only served one day).
Difference...... 62 years

First Secretary of State
Women......... 1996  Madeline Albright
Blacks........... 2001  Colin Powell
Difference..... 5 years

First Member of the Supreme Court
Blacks.......... 1967  Thurgood Marshall
Women......... 1981  Sandra Day O'Connor
Difference.... 14 years

First President
Blacks...........  2008  Barak Obama
Women..........  None
Difference...... at least 8 years 

Now, I believe that we are created equally and that neither color nor gender nor religion nor sexual preference should be used to discriminate against anyone.  But considering that white men originally held all the power, I am surprised that it took white women so much longer to earn more of the positions of power than black Men.  I don't know why this is.  Perhaps it was that the blacks were better organized and motivated to claim political power.  Perhaps it was that there was greater opposition to female progress.  I don't think there are any inherent differences between how blacks and whites think.  I do think there are inherent differences in how men and women think though.  And considering that women are more than 50% of our population, I think they should hold at least 50% of the government seats.  If I could re-write the constitution, I would have it so that each state elects one male and one female senator.  And I would require that at least four, but no more than 5, seats on the supreme court be held by each gender.   And race should not be a factor at all.   (I'm not sure what to do about the House of Representatives.  I'm open to suggestions). 

Here's an idea

Republican Party:  Race-baiting, fear-mongering, election-machine rigging, voter suppression, gay-baiting, gender-baiting, war-mongering, and flat-out lying have not worked.  How about you try to listen to what the American people want for a change?  I'll give you some clues.  We want Citizen's United overturned by constitutional amendment.  We want American jobs and manufacturing protected and wages to be sufficient that we can have enough time to spend some with our kids and afford to educate them.  We want an end to the upward re-distribution of wealth, so all our money is floating around the economy and not sitting in an off-shore bank account.  We want personal freedoms and restraint on the ability of the government to monitor our activity.   We want good roads, schools and bridges, fire departments, police departments.  We want to be more focused on nation building here in America and less focused on breaking and then fixing other countries.  (How many new schools have we built in Afghanistan in the past 10 years and how many have we built in Illinois?)  We want an end to discrimination against women, gays, and minorities.   We disagree about abortion, but most of agree that we do not want laws re-written by every new congress or supreme court. 

I really hope you'll stop trying to force your minority agenda down our throats and start reflecting what the people want.  Not just the 0.1%, but all Americans.  That may help you win more elections. 

A silver lining in the debate debacle

I have been looking hard to find a silver lining in the terrible debate performance by Barak Obama last week, and I finally have found one.  If you recall, the story before the debate was that Romney's big donors were pulling out and were going to concentrate on the congressional races.  Now the Republicans are excited about Romney's chances to win and are sticking with him.  If Obama crushes in the next two debates, Romney will lose support.  And then it will be too late to super-fund the congressional races and the Democrats will win more house and senate seats.  

The Republican Diet (analogy)

You should be 165 pounds and have blood pressure of 120/80.  We put you on the Republican diet.  You put on 100 pounds in eight years.  Your blood pressure went up to 190/100.  Then we put you on the Democratic diet.  In four years, you have lost 70 pounds and your blood pressure has dropped to 140/86.  And the Republicans say, "See.  You're still overweight and your blood pressure is not back to normal.  Obviously the Democratic diet has failed you.   The only logical thing to do is to return to our Republican diet."   Anyone else see a problem with this "logic"?

Paul Ryan's RNC speech, what was said and what was unsaid

'You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation and nothing else his first order of business, but this president didn't do that.'  Of course, my party's first order of business was to cripple Obama's presidency and make sure nothing improved in the country.   


"Obama Care comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country." but it also has rights and protections that were not there before. 


"They needed hundreds of billions more.  So they just took it all away from Medicare, $716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama." I would also take 716 billion out of medicare, but I would take it away from the benefits, not by making it more efficient and protecting benefits.


"An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for."  I know a lot of you did ask for it, because you were suffering with a lack of coverage, skyrocketing premiums, and pre-existing exclusions.  But if those things bother you, you must be poor, so you don't matter.


"Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it"  No one knows more about raiding than Mr. Romney.


"He said his job is to, quote, ``tell a story to the American people''. As if that is the whole problem here?  He needs to talk more and we need to be better listeners?"  I know he didn't say anything about our listening ability, but I can twist this to make it seem like he is criticizing us, so I will.


"And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old.  The man assumed office almost four years ago.  Isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?"  I know Bush Jr gave him a terrible economy to work with, but it's time we shift blame to the obstructionist congress that makes sure nothing improves.  Give us our credit, Mr. President.  Bush knocked us down, but we are keeping us down.  

 
"By his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him."  And I helped him do it by voting for every expensive piece of legislation I could find.  

"After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't help to hear from their president that government gets the credit.  What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that."  Everyone of you small business owners, you DID build every road, every piece of infrastructure, every government program.  You might not remember it, but you alone get the credit for everything.  

"We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years."  That's 6 millions butlers and gardeners for me, 6 million for Mitt.  

"The choice -- the choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government."  But only when the other party is in charge.  When we are in, there are no limits.  

"Everyone -- everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now.  And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you."  Did I mention I am a leader?

"Now when I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for
myself, define happen as for myself."  Because I was born into money, and because I had a government program that gave me even more money (social security from my deceased father).  

"That's freedom and I will take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners."  Pay no attention to the Patriot Act, and the warrantless wiretapping.

 "Mitt has not only succeeded, but he has succeeded where others could not."  Part of his success was making sure that others could not succeed, by closing factories to turn a quick profit rather than investing in them and growing them. 

"He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending and corruption."  Thanks to help from the government.  

"And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak." but that is so socialist.  Helping the weak encourages weakness and dependence.  As my hero Ayn Rand preaches, the weak should be stepped upon.  Helping them shows moral failure on your part.  And I make sure that all my interns read her books and understand that message.  

"our rights come from nature and God, and not from government."  It was god that gave us protected freedom of speech.  It is god that gave women and blacks the right to vote.  I guess it was god that withheld that right for a while until He decided it was time to change it.  It is god who suggested that we give everyone health care, but we don't have to follow that one.  

"We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them." we just don't take care of them.  

"The work ahead will be hard."  but not for the rich, we'll do all we can to make it easier on us, I mean them.

"Together, we can do this."  and by together, I mean you, the shrinking middle class.  We all need to make sacrifices, except those of us that have the most.  

"We can make the safety net safe again." as safe as the stock market in 2008

"Whatever your political party, let's come together for the sake of our country." although our definition of coming together is insisting that we get 100% of what we want and ignoring any other constituencies.  

I work for the Koch brothers.  They pay for my campaigns, they pay for my legislation.  They pay a hell of a lot better than your stupid government can.  But i have to pretend that I work for you so you'll feel better voting against your best interests.