It is time to rebuild America.

It is time to rebuild America.

Repuglicans are a joke of a governing party, They hate government. They want to dismantle it (I'm being kind here. They really want to drown it in a bathtub. They said so! Are they really Fifth Columnists for China today???)

It's time to call a spade a spade. Let me be clear. This is what fascism looks like, what tyranny looks like. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/11546-this-is-what-tyranny-looks-like

It is not "Congress" who is failing America as the media repeats every hour.

It is an ongoing joke that "Washington" cannot get anything done as the media repeats.

It is not President Obama who is failing as GOP TV (aka Fox News) reports.

It is the self-proclaimed "Repuglicans" in Congress and the un-elected Supreme Court who have chosen to gum up everything. I hope they are enjoying their tea. Justice Scalia has proven himself a fool on national TV in front of the President. "Citizens United" after the Bush v. Gore vote was one of the worst decisions Justice Kennedy joined.

The Tea-hatters are tools of a fascist idea. They really want freedom from what? To be corporate tools? To shop at WalMart? To not receive Medicare and Social Security benefits It's all a wonderful, modern, sophisticated trick build by Dick Ailses and Faux News. "Don't mess with my Medicare!" What are you saying? In today's world: we could all be billionaires some day - if only the government would let us. "I WILL WIN the MegaBucks lotto! and become one". What a sick and corrupt joke of government we have created. Let's tax the poor to underfund their schools and keep them poor and US rich! 

I will be simple and direct. Without Repuglican Senator Mitch McConnell's and House Speaker John Bohner's self-proclaimed war on Democratic President Obama, we could have relieved the unemployment problem of millions of Americans three years ago. We are back to the battles of the early 1930s. Before we sort-of agreed that we almost NEEDED federal spending to create jobs. And then there was that WWII spending spree that employed millions and cost billions. It worked? Or perhaps it didn't. Unbounded federal spending to defeat a common enemy. Sounds like a good idea, but let's not waste our money on useless military-industrial-congressional largess. Let's BUILD something of value to ALL of us! Let's rebuild America.

The Repuglicans have wasted three years uselessly posturing about the "deficit" rather than actually doing anything, actually doing their jobs to create jobs for the rest of us. I mean literally, spending federal money to buy the infrastructure we need. The deficit is not the issue today. Austerity will drive us into a complete Depression - as it did 80 years ago. And as it is doing today in southern Europe. Now we live in only a "Great Recession." We cannot live under a "gold standard" as Germany demands. We need more economic flexibility to deal with the housing crisis, the financial foolishness of Wall Street and more. Gold is a fool's touchstone.

The Federal government must adopt an inflationary strategy of dramatic capital spending. The 50 states (and DC and Puerto Rico) cannot do it themselves as the European Union has proven again - imagine asking Texas to finance California's debts. Hah! The Federal government is the only agency that can provide the cash to hire local teachers, firefighters, police and more of US to keep local and state governments working. To sustain employment. Odd that it is only in the Repugllican-governed states that employment has not recovered, and has kept total unemployment so high, like Wisconsin and Ohio. They must not want teachers and others to serve their communities. They must just not know how to make communities work.

I guess their philosophy is that public, elected government cannot work, so why try? Let's let private government, unelected, corporatations run the show! Ooookay.

The Repuglican Party is the crumbling foundation of our failing economic recovery in their goal to capture complete power. And what is their vision, whether they know it or not? A fascist, corporate state, where corporate leaders have control. It is not corporations per se that will provide the answers. It is the corporate CEOs and so-called Boards of Directors who are their "friends." By knowing each other and by owning FaceBook stock. It's a tight circle that you are not in if you are reading this.

Let me be absolutely clear here. The Repuglicans are playing a power game. They are willing to spend like drunken sailors when they have power as they did under President Bush, No. 43; free war!! It's all a cartoon, a joke of a country. And didn't we know that at heart?

Name one Repuglican member of Congress or in the former President's home who gave their child to those wars. Name one Repuglican who voted to actually PAY for those wars. We could have paid full freight starting in October of 2001 by asking Americans to sacrifice (Oh, God, NO!) and pay an extra dollar per gallon of gasoline for JUST 15 years! We could have paid for all this by 2016, But the Repuglicans didn't choose to do that. That would be too hard for their America.

There is no such thing as a Free War. But that is the Repuglican mantra. 

Let's be honest about what we owe and why we owe it. We're talking trillions of dollars now. And President Barack Obama had the guts to put it all on the budget, on the table. Where is "PayGo" as we had under President Clinton? It's all a Conservatives' joke. What kind of responsible governing is that?

No, the Repuglican game is to demand CUTS in federal spending to match the increase in the debt ceiling. They NEVER voted this way under Repuglican presidents. What a cartoon of a country we have become. It's not a "bipartisan" battle. The Repuglicans have declared war on us, not the Democrats.

I'm sorry. I want to live in a country that builds and grows, not a country that destroys itself.

Streets are not for people

Have you noticed that there is not a single street, road or highway in Rio Rancho, Albuquerque or the rest of the state of New Mexico that you actually drive the "speed limit" or less? On I-25, we don't drive 65 or 70 or 75 MPH. Tell me that during rush hour we're not hitting 85 MPH each way.

On Montgomery and San Mateo Boulevards, we don't drive 35 or 45 MPH. 


Drivers on North 4th Street average 45 MPH despite all the signals and traffic.


Alameda Road operates smoothly at 50 MPH, not the posted 35 MPH, except when the Sheriff clogs it up.


Then there's the night rider on Montano Road who runs past the radar signs at 90 MPH almost ever morning. No one has ever seen him.


On our "residential" streets we don't drive 25 MPH. But we're pretty good at obeying the school zone speeds. Yeah, sure . . . 

What's wrong with this system of roads we designed?


I mean, somebody actually drew the plans for each of these roads, looked at all the driveways, followed all the rules, calculated the 80 or 85% "design speed" and specified the signs that tell the police how we are supposed to drive. 

But why don't we behave like the engineers told us to? WTF are they thinking?

Just asking.

Republican Social Darwinists

Robert Reich wrote his blog today, titled "Republican Myth: Obama's "Entitlement Society". He concludes that "Regressive Republicans pretend they're about opportunity. In reality they're back at what they've been doing for years - promoting Social Darwinism."

One pungent criticism of Reich is that the regressive Republicans never did quit being Social Darwinists, so they didn't have to go back to form.

But his blog triggered this most amazing conservative reaction: (edited for clarity with emphasis added)


"Reich, you are the one who has it backwards!!! Stop the bleeding-heart-liberal, give-it-all-away crap. Some will suffer who have made bad choices, that is appropriate. Those who had no savings, but had cell phones; those who had more children than they could afford; those who bought houses they couldn't make the mortgage payments on; those who have bad diets and do no exercise who get diabetes; those who choose poorly should all pay the price. And NO, the government should not bail them out, just like the gov't should not have bailed out the automakers, or the banks, or Solyndra, etc. Failure is part of life and those that succed should not shoulder the debt of those who have done poorly. If the successful CHOOSE to help out the unfortunate it is through charity. Do not tax those who have made good decisions to take care of those who have made poor choices. Get real!"

What is real? This man believes in Social Darwinism. "Survival of the fittest" as defined solely by economic success - by whatever means needed. His "Golden Rule" is "Who has the Gold writes the Rules!"

President Obama spoke about faith and charity at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/national-prayer-breakfast-president-obamas-speech-transcript/2012/02/02/gIQAx7jWkQ_story_1.html

He said:

"And when I talk about shared responsibility, it's because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it's hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income, or young people with student loans, or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone. And I think to myself, if I'm willing to give something up as somebody who's been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that's going to make economic sense.

"But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that "for unto whom much is given, much shall be required." It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who've been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others."

So the counter-argument as blasted about on KKKOB-AM and Jim Villanucci, is that the government is not "charity"; that it is "more efficient" for those who "unto whom much has been given" to choose to give. Of course, dictators are more efficient than democracy. But do they make good choices?

But really, who among the "successful" will chose to help "the least among us?" The AIDS sufferers, the unwashed, the addicts - when, by their failings, they "should all pay the price." And what price is that? Sounds like he believes they should just go away and die - someplace else, out of sight.

American history is littered with examples of the many ways and times "private charity" did not solve problems of poverty, ignorance, homelessness, hunger, illness, workplace injuries. So we voted for change. We voted for effective solutions that the federal government could create - Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, the Public Health Service, and more. The facts, the data, support the belief that by voting for Progressive policies, we can see a measurable improvement in our quality of life.

As one wealthy man noted, "I don't want to be a rich man living in a third-world country." If the critics need examples, may I suggest Kenya? A lawless Libertarian success story.

Americans all pay a small price to care for our neighbors who are struggling, and we're probably not paying enough - or we can pay a much larger price and live in a sad, third-world country.

OMG! Warriors, Blood and Treasure in the 21st Century?

I am fascinated by the conservative wordsmiths who capture feelings in soundbites. Who would of thought that the Bush Administration and their conservative media echo chamber would resurrect a Medieval sounding phrase - Blood and Treasure - that seems more of the thinking of the Third Reich than a modern democracy; an unquenchable thirst for power that the sacrifices of other people's lives and wealth cannot buy.

And conservatives express their mock sorrow over the loss of our "warriors" in these misguided wars. Crocodile tears. "Warriors"? When was the last time America had warriors? Didn't they use to be Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines? How many New Mexicans have died or been crippled by these wars? The local media never tell the cost at home. Simple bad news like that doesn't sell papers or radio ads.

Blood? Whose blood, whose lives are sacrificed in the pursuit of national wars? Not the leaders who proclaimed the wars, not their children today. Apparently our immortal American corporations don't bleed, either. Our "national" blood? Sounds deep and mythic. Bullshit.

Treasure? What is treasure? Hoards of wealth held by the top 1% which includes the leaders who proclaimed war? And whose "treasure" did they spend and waste? Not their's. Apparently all of ours, though, all of America's, except for the war profiteers, speculators and politicians who paid nothing and escape scrutiny. Now we are told to give up national healthcare insurance and social security to pay the bills. More and deeper bullshit and hypocrisy. If this is what Mitt Romney and his ilk offer us, God save us all.

Why can't the punditocracy and the corporate media talk about the reality of death and debt that the Bush Wars cost us? Are we so blind to the truth? Why are they so blind?

A sad  measure of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the idea that we, I mean all Americans and especially the poor and middle class, could pay off the Bush War debts with a simple tax of one dollar per gallon of gasoline and diesel to be sunsetted after 15 years. Just 15 years! Has anyone talked about the cost of war in such direct terms? That's all it would take to pay off our 21st Century Chickenhawks' wasted fantasies.

Yeah, the Neo-cons, and the fantasists of the New American Century had a couple of free wars that we'll pay off for the rest of our lives. Gotta love those patriotic Americans! Grover Norquist and his Right-wing pledgers promise to make the American government so weak that it could be drowned in a bathtub. In reality, they must be and old-fashioned Fifth Column for China today, destroying America from the inside with their lies and waste.

Will we pay that tax? No. Will the American Rich pay for their triumphs? Not yet. But having squandered our blood and treasure on useless wars instead of building a great country, they will. At this rate, America will become a large, third-world country, fit for dictators and oligarchs to roost on. Won't they be proud citizens of the world!

To paraphrase Malcolm Gladwell, the American Rich would get so much more value by paying higher taxes and living in a better country than they will ever enjoy as latter-day princes in a global wasteland. In the meantime, we have to choose how to pay for our wars and create a better life for our children. The current crop of Republican leaders will do neither.

The People's Voice is Scary?

Why did the Greek Prime Minister's proposal to put the EU bailout and austerity plan to a referendum - a vote by the people - cause the stock markets across the globe to drop?

Did the stock brokers believe that the citizens of Greece might vote against austerity and the World Bank solution and cause the Eurozone to collapse financially?

Perhaps the World Bank solution to public debt is wrong. Contract the economy to fix everything? Why is national stimulus and growth so scary an alternative?

Even Governor Martinez believes in public spending to create jobs - through capital outlay, rebuilding and expanding infrastructure.

Why would it work in New Mexico, but it won't work in Greece?

Republicans + Federal Stimulus Funding = Failure, you betcha

The US House and Senate Republicans have wasted a year blithering about our federal debt. Today we need jobs! Honest jobs.

Former Representative Heather Wilson, now candidate for US Senate, is quoted saying that the expense of the federal stimulus programs started by the Bush Administration has been "jaw dropping." Whatever. The feds have poured trillions into shoring up banks and helping states maintain jobs. New Mexico used some of the ARRA recovery money two years ago to help pay public school teachers. It worked! Well, except for the banks part.

Our Albuquerque Public Schools are looking at a deficit that they cannot cover from their own revenues. Costs will have to be cut to match available revenues. Teachers that leave or retire will not be replaced this year. Classes will get larger, again. Some electives will not be offered.

In states that have Republican governors, the outcomes have been more severe and threatening to any economic recovery. They have already laid off hundreds of thousands of public employees, and especially teachers. Given weak revenue forecasts for the next year, there will be more layoffs before the 2012 election.

The loss of that many middle-class public sector jobs has more than outweighed the benefits of the federal spending. So the Republican governors prove themselves right again! Our government does not make jobs, it destroys them!

Now, let me get this no-nothing conservative philosophy right: America will create jobs when we cut spending. There is no logic to that position. The states that have had to cut public employees have not seen a private sector rebound to make up for those losses. Those states are lead by Republican governors.

Even after those states cut taxes on the ultra-rich, they and the corporations have not "created" new jobs. "Job creators?" NOT!

Oh, they argue that it will take time for "the Market" to accept the new reality of lower taxes on the Rich and more unemployed teachers to respond. In the meantime, a lot of teachers and others don't have work, don't have benefits, and are struggling.

The Republican-led block on funding the FAA is another example proving that cutting spending cuts jobs. During the shutdown of the FAA for lack of new funding, critical functions of the agency were preserved, but non-critical jobs like planning, design and construction of airports and other facilities were shut down. Tens of thousands of construction workers were "furloughed" without pay. The FAA quit paying its bills. A lot of private companies were hurt, and many more were frightened by the prospect that their next job for the FAA was dead. That righteous fiasco pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of the domestic US economy at a critical time in this Great Republican Recession. One consequence of ignorant Republican economics is to drive America into another ditch.

The truly sad background to all this ranting and stalling is the Republican's determination that President Obama will look bad - see, he didn't create any jobs! And look at all the money the Obama Administration "wasted" on so-called stimulus projects. The Republicans wouldn't allow the federal government - the spender of last resort - to spend enough to create or preserve jobs.

In the meantime, US corporations are reporting astonishing profits during a recession, and eye-popping amounts of cash reserves! With corporate profits up, shareholders (the Rich) are doing quite well, thank you very much. Speculators are thriving on commodities like oil, copper, food and more. And the Repubicans (or as one critic calls them, the Republicons) have not offered a single bill that would create a single job today or encourage private sector spending on new projects. Maybe in 2014 or so, after the next Republican is elected president.

The solution? Print and spend money as fast as Washington can! Every day the Republicans delay any solution that would create jobs, is another day that Americans suffer without work. Every day they delay committing to a "Marshall Plan" for the US, to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads and bridges, our water and sewer systems, our ports and more crumble further, creating greater drains on our economy.

Federal spending directly and indirectly creates jobs that private industry is unwilling to do. Putting people to work at decent wages supports demand for goods and services, helping to lift the economy. The federal government has become the buyer of last resort, our last hope to kick-start the US economy back to life!

I'm Tired (of Cranky Conservatives)

Full credit for the original post to Robert Hall (not Bill Cosby or any other character), a Vietnam War Marine veteran who wrote the original column in February 2009.  I think he is misguided and doesn't know political philosophy or history based on the way he wrote his blog. In my version, I believe I am more true to the facts.

I'm Tired

I’ll be 57 soon. I didn’t inherit my job or my income. As one of the 99%, I worked to get where I am. I don’t make $16,826/hour like the CEO of Wallyworld and probably never will, even with inflation. Given the Great Republican Recession, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t earn a living but skim the cream. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people richer than Croesus.

I’m tired of being told that banks can’t afford to lend money for construction or restructure mortgages. Sure, if they were losing money or undercapitalized, I’m willing to accept that. But if they sold paperless mortgages for McMansions at three times the price of our townhouse, for customers with one-third of my salary, then let the rightwing Republicans in Congress and the clown in the White House explain why they repealed the Glass-Steaggal Act that addressed the corruption of the Market of the 1920s.

I’m tired of being told how evil America is by rightwing opinionators, preachers and politicians who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers to lie, cheat and steal, and punish the weak. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t Brazil be beautiful here? Oh, wait! We’re already less tolerant and less equal than our southern neighbors who don’t speak English.

I'm tired of 21st Century Republicans saying that the only way to create jobs is to reduce spending and taxes on the Rich. America boomed in the 1950s when the Rich paid a marginal tax rate of 90%, That was under Eisenhower!

I’m tired of being told that Christianity is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read stories of Christian men raping their wives, sons and daughters because the Bible tells them to “submit.”

I believe “a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.” I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” by Republicans in the post-racial and highly ethno-centric world of Senator Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky), when it’s all that matters in rightwing hate radio, condescending commentary about the President, unspoken White privilege, government contract set-asides, tolerance for the voter suppressing laws that hurt minorities more than anyone, and in the apotheosis of conservative black politicians who don’t know China has the Bomb (since 1963, and nuclear power, even). I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the President said more about freedom and the individual under the pressure of the corporatocracy and an all-knowing but blind Market. The Market is not God.

I’m tired of a news media that ignores secret political campaign funding by the Rich, including hate-filled smear media and fear-mongering. I’m glad the media thought that President Bush’s mountain biking while taking more vacation days than any president in living memory was a waste of taxpayers’ dollars, but that President Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, I’m tired of a cowed news media that dropped the story of Bush’s military records, and repeated the lies of the self-proclaimed “Swiftboat Veterans” against Kerry, that glammed Palin for vice president despite her obvious inexperience, and takes the current crop of Republican candidates for president seriously.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? I haven’t a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but it didn’t matter since he won the vote of the Supremes controlled by partisan Republicans Justices.

I’m tired of being told that due to our “addiction to oil” we must let Saudi Arabian Wahabi Muslims use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate towards the West across the world, while no American Jewish or Christian sect is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach our American love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to balance the federal budget, which no one is allowed to debate. If everyone had the Ecological Footprint I do, we would need six Earths to sustain us.

I’m tired of the destruction that addiction and alcoholism cause. I’m tired of the criminalization of addiction; the faith that addiction is a moral failing. I don’t think gay people choose to be gay, but I'm damn sure druggies chose to take drugs once, searching for something missing in their lives and then became addicted. And I’m tired of the unwillingness of “the richest country on Earth” to help addicts find recovery. 


I’m tired of illegal aliens being hired by cheap businessmen and politicians, especially the ones who can afford to pay US wages and live on white collar crime. What’s next? Calling small businessmen that hire and abuse undocumented immigrants “job creators” when they are just hypocrites. And, no, I’m not against Hispanics or the Rich. I think most of them are Christians and it’s been a few hundred years since Christians wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need. I just wish the Rich believed they were citizens of the United States and not "the World."

I’m tired of chickenhawk conservatives, politicians and newsreaders, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, praising our rightwing leaders and their wars. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth people better than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. We need better, more honest leaders, military and civilian.

Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure, but we prosecute them for war crimes if we catch them. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years—and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo when we bring Muslims extremists to trial. America is better than that, and we know better. I trust our military leaders. Torture doesn't work, and it inspires torture of our troops and allies.

I’m tired of conservatives telling me their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. But listen to anyone but Fox News—bums are Republicans. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bi-partisanship. I live in New Mexico where Republicans would steal the vote without a second thought. I notice that the tax cheats in New York and Washington are just non-partisan opportunists who would sell out our country for a handful of silver.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy radio preachers, commentators, talking heads, and politicians of the virtuous Right talk about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people who live on less than $5 a day for food called moochers and welfare queens. The majority of Americans weren’t poor in 1970, but today we are, but don’t know we’ve become “poor.” We’re still “middle class” just like the banksters and money handlers who receive over $200,000 per year for manipulating paper. The leaders of the class war have to keep changing the definition of rich to keep the dollars flowing up and keep the 99% ignorant.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions, and for their hate-filled speech. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m tired of getting older. Because, mostly, I can’t make the difference my children will in cleaning up our sorry mess. Like borrowing a truck and trashing it. Our oceans are dying and CO2 lingers in the atmosphere for centuries. I’m sorry that we’re leaving a less livable world for my granddaughters and grandsons.

New Mexico Native is not a veteran and never served in the New Mexico state legislature or anywhere near Santa Fe. He blogs at NewMexicoReview.blogspot.com