Archive for category Education
Republican Mitch McConnell’s Twisted Logic on Taxes, Economics and Deficits
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Budget, Budget & Deficit, Budget Deficit, Conservatives, Economics, Financial Crisis, Government, How and Why We Get Screwed, Logic & Reasoning, Politics, Republicans, Senate, economy on July 24th, 2010
PARALLEL UNIVERSE by Steve Hester
Remember how “vibrant” the economy was at the end of the Bush Era?
Recall that when Bush left office in January of 2009, the U.S. budget deficit was at an historical all-time high, roughly $1.3 Trillion .
So now Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claims that the Bush Tax Cuts “increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.”
What an inexplicable disconnect between his statement and the foregoing facts regarding the economic collapse brought on by the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, and the deficits a majority of Americans agree that Bush hung around Obama’s neck; deficits that were unprecedented in relation to previous Administrations. It’s patently obvious that McConnell operates from a parallel universe where the laws of basic math and logic don’t apply.
As Ezra Klein of the Washington Post so kindly put it, “it’s enough to make you very, very sad.”
What’s even more unbelievable is how McConnell and the Republicans attempt to blister Obama and the Democrats on taxes, spending and deficits, all while ignoring the most blatant evidence of what the Republicans did after inheriting Clinton’s budget surplus. To describe this behavior in terms of an hypocrisy is an understatement.
So now the country seems inclined to put these guys back in power?
That is utterly terrifying.
NOTE: the sublime painting by Steve Hester is an original watercolor for sale at this link.
Michael Smerconish Leaves Republican Party After 30 Years of Unwavering Allegiance
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, Budget & Deficit, Campaigns, Centrists, Conservatives, Logic & Reasoning, Media & Communication, Middle Class, Moderates, Politics, United States on February 27th, 2010
WOW!
If you do not know who Michael Smerconish is, you are not alone.
Smerconish is well known in political circles as a Conservative columnist and radio talk show host in Philadelphia, PA. He frequently makes guest appearances on some of the cable news shows, and his insight into Pennsylvania politics was of great interest during the 2008 Presidential primaries, as well as the general election. There is no other media personality in Pennsylvania that has a better finger on the pulse of that state’s politics. Although I was skeptical of his politics when I first saw him in 2008, he won me over as time went on, and I took great interest in what he had to say regarding the political landscape of a state that was very diverse in it’s political leanings.
That is why his announced “resignation” from the Republican Party this past week is very shocking, and should not be lightly dismissed by party leaders, nor Conservative pundits. Particularly the manner in which his decision was made – while standing in line at the drivers license bureau, when prompted by a bureaucrat as to whether he would like to declare an affiliation with either political party.
Such a seemingly spontaneous act was obviously not a decision that was either taken lightly, or consciously contemplated. After all, he had publicly and openly sworn allegiance to the Republican party and it’s principles for the last 30 years. And in the course of 30 seconds, while standing in line at the drivers license bureau, all of that changed. If you want to understand why, read his statement.
That is why it is so consequential. His leaving is evidence of a quiet tsunami of voters who are likely not even aware of their subconscious preparations to abandon their parties, and demand a return to political and economic sanity in a country that has apparently gone quite mad. They feel alienated and abandoned – by both of the parties and the political system.
Most importantly for both parties is this: My politics and Mr. Smerconish’s diverge on a number of issues, none of which are relevant to the subject at hand. Nonetheless, we now both consider ourselves independent voters. What I divine from his public statement of why he is abandoning his party is that he is a man of reason and logic. A person who can clearly see that things are not always so clear cut. A man who is certain of the uncertainty of the future of this country. A citizen who refuses to participate in a process that will bring about the destruction of this great nation. But most importantly, an American who is willing to put his country ahead of his own personal political beliefs, without sacrificing the principles that underlie those beliefs.
That Michael Smerconish and I can find agreement on what the most important issue is that the majority of voters believe this country must immediately address speaks volumes.
Quite simply . . . STOP THE MADNESS!
The New Art of Political Alchemy (circa, 2009)
Posted by Lance Haley in Cultural Issues, Education, Government, Healthcare Reform, How and Why We Get Screwed, Politics on September 8th, 2009
![The Alchemist [by artist Nicole Cardiff]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/The-Alchemist-by-artist-Nicole-Cardiff-150x150.jpg "The Alchemist [by artist Nicole Cardiff]")
When President Obama gave his speech on the importance of education to American students today, many of them never had an opportunity to hear his words of encouragement and inspiration. The reasons why are both varied and utterly irrational.
Rumors swirled that the President would use this time to bolster support for health care reform, or otherwise forward some sinister Socialist or Communist political agenda. In essence, inflamed by the excesses of a “lunatic fringe” political discourse gone rampant in recent months in this country, some parents either voluntarily withdrew their children from attendance in school today, or demanded that the local school districts not air the nationally televised speech.
Suffice it to say, the seeds of ignorance are sown by those who wallow in it’s misery.
In 1991, when the first President Bush gave a similar speech to schoolchildren, Newt Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House from of Georgia, asked, “Why is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education?”
Exactly!
Alchemy was the medieval study of the chemical transmutation of lead into gold. The purveyors of ancient alchemy falsely claimed that by mixing a chemical concoction with lead, they could turn the lead into gold; these men were the charlatans of that era - people believed them simply because they would through slight-of-hand, perform magical acts of mineral transformation. The irrational notion that lead could be turned into gold caused people to believe that acquiring this somewhat common element would lead to unimaginable wealth.
Of course, we now know that lead cannot be transformed into gold by any chemical process. In fact, the only way to cause a transmutation of lead into gold is through physics – by way of a nuclear reaction. Of course, the energy necessary to turn lead into gold by this means far outstrips the value of the resulting gold. In other words, the end result is completely irrational in relation to its cost, and makes no sense.
When something as benign as President Obama’s speech to the schoolchildren across America can be magically transformed into a looming political, social or cultural cancer, we have reached into the surreal realm of irrational political alchemy. Now everything that President Obama says or does is ostensibly cloaked in the veil of an ominous agenda. To so poison the very idea of a President telling children to stay and school and pursue the benefits of an education forebodes of something far more dangerous in regard to the law of unintended consequences. In other words, the cost of the current trend of twisting truth into fiction will far outstrip any perceived value it may have claimed.
Paradoxically, this next generation which is currently in school, will later look back at the first decade of the new millennium and judge harshly those forces presently at work that are designed to ensure that the truth is irrationally transformed into an evil fiction with just a few false words. And all of it done with a perverse, reckless abandon.
Publisher’s Note: the image posted above, The Alchemist, was created by artist Nicole Cardiff, and can be found at http://www.fantasygallery.net/cardiff/art_2.html.