My Apologies

My apologies for not keeping up with the blog in the last couple of weeks. Life’s gotten extremely crazy in the last few weeks & it’s only going to get crazier. This is the busy season, as most of you are probably already feeling. It’s the time for doing first the Halloween festivities, then gearing up for Thanksgiving, then Christmas parties & travel, & winding down with New Years stuff. In short, the last 3 months are always extremely busy. I’ll try to do postings when I can but it may be a bunch once a week instead of daily or every other day.

Joe Lieberman Must Go

     60 votes. 60 votes are all that stands in the way of Americans finally getting some type of health care reform. With the historic vote in the U.S. House late Saturday night, the fight now shifts to the Senate. 60 votes will make the bill filibuster proof so that it can come up to a vote on the Senate floor. The problem is that the person who stands in the way of getting to 60 votes is Joe Lieberman.

     The Democrats really only have 58 votes. There are two Independent Senators who usually vote with the Democrats but there are no guarantees that they will always vote with the Democratic block; which brings us to Joe Lieberman. He has already said that if the Senate version of the health care bill contains a public option, then he will join with the Republicans & filibuster the bill, which would in effect kill the health care bill.

     You may wonder where his animosity towards the Democrats has come from. After all, wasn’t he the vice presidential candidate back in 2000? Well, the seeds of discontent were sown in 2006, when he was running for reelection. The Democratic establishment refused to endorse him because he voted in support of the war in Iraq & they decided to back his opponent in the primary. Leiberman got trounced. However, rather than give up, he decided to run as an Independent & beat both the Democratic & Republican candidates.

     Lieberman then went on to endorse his very good friend John McCain for president. That was fine & even admired by most in the Democratic party because it showed bipartisanship. That feeling went out the window when, while speaking at the Republican Convention, Lieberman gave not only an antidemocratic, but an extremely antiObama speech. It was one thing to be for McCain but it was completely different to also be against Obama & that was where, in most people’s eyes, Lieberman crossed the line. I still remember watching the video of Obama pulling Lieberman aside on the Senate floor & completely dressing Lieberman down afterwards. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for that one. Despite all of this, Harry Reid decided to forgive Lieberman & let him keep his committee chairmanship.

     That decision, among others, is now coming back to haunt the Democrats. In fact, Lieberman went out on the campaign trail this year & campaigned for Republican candidates. If anybody thought that Lieberman was going to vote with the Democratic Party on anything any more, those thoughts should’ve been put to rest with that announcement. Now, one of the most important pieces of legislation in our lifetime may not come up for a vote because of this man.

     I believe that Lieberman is of the opinion that he can not be defeated with he comes up for reelection in a few year. I have already decided that I’m going to put that theory of his to the test. I am putting aside money & will give freely to anybody in the Democratic Party who will run against him. I will also work on the candidate’s campaign. There is no place in the Senate for Joe Lieberman & he needs to learn this lesson sooner, rather than later.

Rep Grayson's Speech the Republicans Tried To Block

The Republicans tried to block his speech on the House floor. They failed.

Democrats Wondering About New York Mayor's Race?

     There’s an article today about the reasons why Bill Thompson lost the NYC mayoral race to Mike Bloomberg by 5 points, despite being overwhelmingly outspent & outcampaigned  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33624244/ns/politics-more_politics/. The basic underlying point of the article is that if the White House (specifically Obama) & other prominent Democrats had campaigned with Thompson, he might have pulled off the upset.

     There are two things that the article fails to take into account. The first is that Bill Thompson ran a really bad campaign. By the looks of it, he didn’t really start his campaign until after the September primary. I guess he figured that he was going to win the primary, despite going up against at least 3 other candidates, so why spend money on name recognition, like Mike Bloomberg did?. In fact, I didn’t even see a campaign commercial from Thompson until mid October. I remember seeing a front page article about Thompson with the headline “Who’s the other guy running for mayor?”. Not exactly a ringing endorsement on his campaign or lack there of, in this case.

     The other thing is that, for the most part, people really like Mike Bloomberg, even the White House. A little Bloomberg history. Mike Bloomberg was a life long Democrat who ran as a Republican back in 2001 because there were only 2 Republicans running versus 8 other Democrats. He’s about as liberal a Republican as you’re going to get, with his antismoking, pro gay rights, & anti gun policies. Plus, he became an Independent a couple of years ago yet managed to be put on the ballot as both an Independent & a Republican (I’m still trying to figure out how that’s possible).

     Obama endorsed Thompson because he had to but in the same endorsement, Obama praised Bloomberg profusely. I call it playing both sides of the fence. Most people call it politics. Either way, Obama got who he really wanted as the next mayor. For most Democrats, it would be considered a loss. For the White House, it’s a win & no amount of hand ringing by the Associated Press or anybody else is going to change that.

Election Issues

     The voting ballots are a funny thing sometimes. In last Tuesday’s election for mayor of New York, you had a choice between Democrat David Thompson & Republican Mike Bloomberg. If you’re like me, you didn’t like either choice. While I think Bloomberg did a fine job as mayor, he basically did a dictator move & got the city council to do away with the term limits law that the voters put into place only 10 years ago. That way, he could run this time around. That didn’t sit well with me.

     I wanted to vote for Thompson but couldn’t because, under Thompson, the Board of Education was run into the ground. Schools weren’t being repaired, corruption was everywhere, & test scores were way below the national average. There was no way I was going to vote for someone like that to be put in charge of the city government.

     I decided to vote for the independent party. Wait. Whose name is in the Independents’ slot? Mike Bloomberg. How is it possible that his name is in two different slots? Bloomberg, after all, quit the Republican Party last year & became an Independent. How can he be on the ballot as both a Republican & an Independent? I ended up voting for the Working Party candidate. Bloomberg won in a squeaker.

     He wasn’t the only one to game the ballot system, though. Just about every race had the same guy on the ballot under more than one party. There was even a guy for civic judge whose name appeared three times. It’s time there were clear rules that stated that a candidate can only appear on the ballot once. He or she shouldn’t be able to appear as a Republican, an Independent, & a Conservative, or Working Families candidate.

One Year Ago Today: a Message From President Obama

And now, a message from President Obama

Public Option Creates Competition & Lowers Costs

This video is from a joint press conference held on October 28 with senators & the small business community, outlining their support of the public option in the health care bill.

Health Care in America

Check out this video by Sen. Diane Feinstein on the history of health care in this country:

By the People: the Election of Barack Obama Interview Video

I found something that didn't include insults or controversy. It's an interview with the makers of the new HBO documentary "By the People: the Election of Barack Obama".




Watch CBS News Videos Online

Crisis of Conscience

     I'm having a crisis of conscience when it comes to politics. It's not because of how I feel about President Obama, who I think is doing a pretty good job, though I wish he'd take control of his message more. It's because I'm just sick of all the name calling back & forth.
     I've completely turned off cable news. I never learn anything from watching it. People who do those shows are more interested in insults & saying controversial things, rather than bring anything of substance to the conversational table. I only watch CNN, MSNBC, et al when there's a major breaking news story.
     I thought I'd try punching up this blog with some videos  that bring substance to different topics like health care. However, I'm hard pressed to find any, mainly because once again, they're full of nothing but insults being hurled back & forth. I'll keep looking, though. I'm sure there's something I can do for this political blog without turning it into the latest insult blog.