It is no huge secret that in the last few decades American workers are falling further behind. They are losing rights, and have seen their wages stagnate even in periods of economic growth and record profits. Even worse is that with more and more women leading households in our country, their wages are still sagging far behind men who do the same or similar work. Unfortunately, although the issue was addressed in the Senate this past Friday, little note of it was made in the media who are still determined to stay transfixed on the shiny object of any particular day.
Man for so many years in rural America we have heard that Democrats would take our guns, although no Democrat has taken a gun from a rural American that I know. Now, it appears as if the guns aren't all Obama and the rest of us in the "Socialist-Nazi-Communist" cabal that is trying to turn the Capital into Red Square want to seize from rural Americans. Yes, now the good ole boys had better brace for the next fight. Yes, Glenn Beck watchers now we want your fishing poles!!
Some of the most frustrated folks in America right now are the leaders of America's labor movement. They have good reason to be, as an all-out war has been waged basically by both parties upon them in the last several decades. After the last election, when they used so much energy and support working Americans won the White House and a huge majority in both chambers of Congress they had really hoped that the plight of working Americans would be addressed through healthcare, wages, an end to outsourcing and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Being a life-long Progressive Democrat in a mostly rural Congressional district in Western Kentucky one thing that I have heard over and over my whole life is that if a Democrat is elected that person will immediately use jack-booted thugs to "take your guns". Now, aside from the fact that I know a few people that it makes me very nervous that they have a concealed firearm liscense, I would really like someone to tell me just how in the hell a Democrat is office has ever caused just about anyone to lose their guns.
As legislators grapple with ways to try and avoid a repeat of the economic crisis in which the big banks aided by their Corporate kindred spirits crashed the economy in 2008, in Washington another fight is shaping up. The fight over Americans having a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect them from the greedy and predatory practices of lenders. Now Administration officials are pushing for such an agency which has already passed the House in December and are asking Chris Dodd to include it in the Senate version of Regulatory Reform.
After months of leaving it to Congress to come up with the details of the Healthcare Bill the President Obama has released his own plan for healthcare. The only problem is that it widely resembles the plan put foward earlier by the Senate in many regards. While the House plan was far from perfect it was far superior to the Senate plan in many ways. Unfortunately, the President still seems to think that compromising with Corporate Democrats instead of using the bulley-pulpit for forcing real reform is the best route to go.
At a time when Americans are suffering and jobs are scarce we are being told that we will have an across the board cut in domestic programs. At the same time we are being told that we can still afford to blow up and rebuild other countries in a continuation of the failed policies of the last Administration. Yes, when it comes to fiscal responsibility it seems that everything and everyone but war will be asked to sacrifice.
In a long overdue move that is sure to upset the Senator from Communist China, Mitch McConnell the Obama Administration is starting to push back against China as tensions mount between the countries. It all started with Obama's first visit there when he was chided about the state of the American economy and his visits were staged while the Chinese refused to concede anything on climate change, human rights and would not join in demands for tough security sanctions against Iran.
We are all used to Fox News spouting lies and propoganda to brainwash the masses. As such this story should come as no surprise. Now, I am no Obama apolegist but some of the things he does is blown out of proportion and reported to the masses that watch Fox News as fact. Nowhere is this more evident than one of the actually good things he has done, assessed a tax on banks to recoup the taxpayer money given to them.
I found an article today that sums the times up for Progressives quite nicely. It seems that the administration may be "weighing" a fee to recoup taxpayer dollars from the big banks. You know, those very same banks that took advantage of Bush Administration policies to crash the economy and recieve a huge taxpayer bailout after causing huge unemployment among the American people?? Those very banks that are back to business as usual raking in huge profits and paying fatcats excessive salaries. Why are we "weighing" anything??
Looking around the internet it seems as if we see all kinds of folks making their predictions for the coming year and beyond. Here at Hillbilly Report we do not have a crystal ball and are not in tune with our Esoteric voices. However, it is kind of fun to play the game, so here I go. Feel free to add your "predictions" below.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans on the recent failed terrorist attack in Detroit is mind-boggling, even by their own super-high hypocrisy standards. When the Bush Administration allowed the deadliest attack ever on American soil due to rank incompetence, they were mum. Then when, just a few days later a terrorist was allowed on board a plane and was thwarted by passengers Republicans were too full of god-king worship to utter a single protest. However, when an almost identical attack to the "shoe-bomber" occurs without the incompetence and death of an event like 9-11 preceding it, they are all up in arms about "keeping our country safe".
Man, Dick Cheney is like Herpes. No matter what you do he just keeps coming back. It seems after leaving Washington D.C. in utter disgrace after allowing the worst attack in American history on her soil, failing to capture Osama bin-Laden, dropping the ball in Afghanistan, lying about Iraq to get us into a failed war there which cost trillions of dollars off the books as well as tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives, and allowing his greedy, fat-cat buddies to pick our economy clean crashing it, ole "Shotgun" would be wanting to hide under a rock. Of course when you have no conscience or sense of morals, why hide??
As soon as we learned there was a failed terror act I am sure many of us suspected that pretty soon the Republicans would be trying to score cheap political points off what had happened. Instead of being happy that the plot did indeed fail and lives were not loss, they must try and find ways to frame it to their advantage in the all too eager media. Now, I have been as disgusted as anyone with some of President Obama's leadership on Afghanistan and healthcare but I honestly believe the attacks that are coming are being made by hypocrites who have nothing else to offer.
Many of us realize that the "compromises" on Healthcare Reform in the Senate are not compromise at all, they are flat-out surrender. In a mad rush to get any kind of reform in the Senate to put on their resume, the Obama Administration has become too desperate to sign any bill and has conceded way too much. The current bill in the Senate is simply a disaster and the Democrats should know this. Now, the former leader of the DNC and a respected Democrat among Progressive Democrats is calling for this bill to be scrapped, and for the process to start over in the House with reconciliation to be used next time in the Senate.
We have been hearing for some time now how enacting Universal Healthcare must be "deficit neutral". However the very same hypocrites who make this demand seem to forget that we have spent a trillion dollars on failed wars that were part of the "War on Terror". Now some sensible folks are beginning to wonder just how we will pay for it and worry it could hinder the much needed attention on the domestic front.
While many of us were very disappointed in the decision to escalate in Afghanistan by 30,000 troops officials are saying that their will be some kind of exit "envisioned". Before getting to excited however, other details sound much less promising, bringing out both Democrats and Republicans in response.
It is now simply a foregone conclusion that America will soon see a huge escalation in troops in Afghanistan. Despite eight years of throwing away money and lives there it appears as if it simply has not been enough. What is really disturbing is that if we start talking about spending some money to help our own people, Conservatives and Corporate Democrats throw kicking, screaming hissy fits about "fiscal responsibility". However, it appears as if no price is too much to them to keep our troops away from their families and in harms way.
The consensus among many Progressives is that we have wasted too many lives and treasure in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which were mismanaged from their beginnings during the Bush Administration. Now, over eight years after the inception of the wars in the American conscience and with a myriad of problems with our own ecnonomy such as healthcare and job creation that need investing in again, it appears as if the President will not join his war-weary Progressive colleagues in calling to an end to the Afghanistan War and will instead ask for yet another escalation and yet more hundreds of billions of dollars invested there.
