After all the nasty political and personal attacks on people like George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Herman Cain, liberals like James Grant (Public Forum, April 6) don’t want anyone to say an ill word about their super-hero Barack Obama. Amazingly, Grant whines about people being critical of Obama then calls members of his own community liars, fools, fear-mongers and cowards. Only a liberal couldn’t see this hypocrisy.
Grant claims he has never heard Obama say anything about anyone like what is said about him and that he shows respect and restraint. Does Grant live in a bubble? Is it respectful to say the Cambridge police acted stupidly? Is it respectful to belittle Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of our greatest ally in the Middle East, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy? I guess it was an Obama impersonator that ridiculed Pennsylvanians for clinging to their guns and religion. There’s more but liberals don’t see the truth.
Grant wants conservatives to get a grip on reality and stop fear-mongering. Does Grant mean fear-mongering like saying Republicans want dirty air and water? Or maybe that we want granny and kids with disabilities to suffer and die without insurance. How about “Big Oil” and rich people? Liberals think they are the devil. As far as reality goes, we are $5 trillion further in debt, unemployment is through the roof, unconstitutional (illegal) health care legislation is this president’s crowning jewel, Israel is alienated and Iran is emboldened. Yeah, Obama’s stats are awesome.
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Comments
Okay Math 'Teacher', I'll play
Who ARE you people? Since you see fit to address me, allow me to return the honor, and turn the tables, I'll vent on you as to be my repository of all the scorn you and the 'side' you represents deserves. Every one of the scriptures you quote apply neatly unto you. And I'll even throw in a few. But where do I even start? I would have let the link speak for itself, because all I need is a little incentive to respond in person, so thanks for that, I like to go on record, no matter how much everything has been said over & over, if you want to ge there, let's go there.
You like to throw around labels, let's start there. Is it liberal to want to spend only what or less than you take in? Is it liberal to want to be self sustained as a country, we have enough resources and brain power to grow and manufacture, within our own borders, all the food and goods we could ever need. Is life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness liberal? It is fitting that you would use the transparent and small minded tactic of demonizing with a label so as to dismiss and distract from the fact that you advocate a failed, flawed and bankrupt ideology based in greed and materialism. Was Jesus a liberal? Your side would pillory him if He came back and ran as a Republican using his Teachings a a platform. Why do you hate Jesus so much? Did you know He said 'To whom much is given, much shall be required'? That is the OPPOSITE of I, ME MINE Republicanism. You operate from the level of greed. Why do you hate His Teachings so much? What do you think He meant when He said, 'You CANNOT serve God AND Mammon'. Every time Republicans in power talk, all I hear is MAMMON. How can I keep my stuff? How can I get more stuff and money? Money....stuff.... money.....stuff
When is enough ever enough with you guys? Can't you even FEEL the greed plane you exist on? What did Christ mean when He said 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's'? But no, you Republicans are FIXATED on lowering their taxes (for themselves) AT ALL COSTS! It is so fitting that you are forced to endorse Mammon-in-a-suit-with-Grecian-Formula. Remember, Christ said 'It will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven'. How inconvenient for you to be in that corner, but then you obviously received your Republican chip in the back of your hand, or your forehead.Go ahead, bow to the god of this world. Buy gold, it may be all you have to eat in the afterlife, as your chains of useless gold weigh upon your soul until the scales fall from your eyes. But then, you won't even understand me, like I'm trying to talk algebra to a goldfish in a bowl of materialism.
And the funny thing is that all you have is to misrepresent, throw out red herrings, set up straw men, and whack away at the object of your own construction. Because, since I made the decision to eschew both parties as soon as I became of voting age, after all, parties aren't in the Constitution, I carry no baggage for either party. But I know you SO want to to be representing 'the other side', because all you have is the politics of demonization, and I'm sure do don't even see the irony of you trying to demonize a word that has the same root as 'liberate', and 'liberty'. So in that light, I'm as much of a liberal as you are a fascist, after all, Mussolini himself, the Father of Fascism, defined it as 'corporatism', as it is the marriage of corporations and government....which pegs your Republican Party precisely.
So just go ahead and own up to your well deserved label as 'fascist', since you like labels so much. Fascism is also characterized in my Webster's as exalts nation (your party's fixation on 'exceptionalism'), and displays autocratic as well as militarism. As for autocratic, The Republican Party in Michigan wants to counteract democracy itself with its present course in using emergency powers to dissolve local representative govt in lieu of an unelected autocrat. All across America, where Republicans have gained control of State Houses, what we are witnessing is using the tools of democracy to undermine democracy itself, using the politics of voter disenfranchisement as well as other types of anti-democratic tactics. And we saw how they operate when the Tea Party became the tail wagging the Republican dog, with my-way-or-the-highway politics of brinksmanship and shut-down-the-govt style rule.
You guys keep saying that you want a smaller govt, but then want to reach into every woman's womb and dictate to her the forced transvaginal mandatory ultrasounds, with the flippant caveat that the woman can 'just close her eyes' if she doesn't want to watch. That is authoritarianism to the nth degree. Brilliant move, alienating women like that, and energizing a huge block of voters, including many many who would either not even vote otherwise, or even vote Republican. Now, having had their mask ripped off, any women voting Republican is like a lamb voting for it's own slaughter. The new Republican Party is not your Father's Republican Party any more, they should change their name to the American Fascist Republican Party, since it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Brothers/Fox 'News' Inc.
Can't you see the dark forces you endorse?
I've never seen a party pray so hard ad work so hard to bring a country down, what is bad for America is good for RepublicanFascist, Inc. And now you are represented by Mammon in a suit, Governor Etch-a-Sketch. Even evangelicals are wary of Mr Mammon, but are not appalled for the same reasons, many question his Christianity. We don't have a religious test in this country, so his goofy beliefs are just as goofy as anyone else's; just like my beliefs advocating for Christ's Teachings may be goofy to atheists. What you sow, that also shall you reap. Be not conformed unto this world. Store up your riches which are in Heaven. What you do to these, the least of my brethren, you do unto me. Sell all you have to follow me. That is the most anti-materialistic Teaching ever, as we should be prepared to leave behind everything of a material nature when the time comes. I owe nobody in this world, and am ready to leave behind all 'things', beware attaching yourself to an illusion.
But Christ had His own fight, demonstrated when He overturned the moneychangers tables. So I draw from that energy, as I see modern day Republicanism as representing modern day moneychangers. Empower them at your own risk. And since I don't vote Democratic, either, you should have heard me during the Clinton Administration. He started much of our mess with globalistic policies, that set the stage for all that exporting of our jobs outside this country, which BushJr ran with (remember when he said 'outsourcing is good'?).
No, it took BOTH parties to get us here, but I apportion blame proportionally, and I see MUCH more danger from the American Republican Fascist Party, Inc.
Go ahead, support them to your own peril.
response
1. Is it liberal to want to spend only what or less than you take in? Answer. No, but that is exactly what is happening in our liberal administration today. 2. Is it liberal to want to be self sustained as a country, we have enough resources and brain power to grow and manufacture, within our own borders, all the food and goods we could ever need. Answer. No, but that is exactly what our liberal administration is not advocating or exercising today. 3. Is life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness liberal? Answer. No, but this liberal administration is doing its best to regulate our lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness today. 4. It is fitting that you would use the transparent and small minded tactic of demonizing with a label so as to dismiss and distract from the fact that you advocate a failed, flawed and bankrupt ideology based in greed and materialism. Answer. No, but that is exactly what this liberal administration is doing today. Tea Party = astroturf racists for example. More spending will get us more money for another. Betting on Green Corporations only to have them go bankrupt within months is another. 5. Was Jesus a liberal? Your side would pillory him if He came back and ran as a Republican using his Teachings a a platform. Why do you hate Jesus so much? Did you know He said 'To whom much is given, much shall be required'? Answer. No, Jesus asked us only to obey his father's laws. Jesus taught by example. So many twist parsed biblical statements into what they think it means. Does not the rich hire the poor in our country and pay them for their work? Does not the rich build hospitals for the sick, universities for educating the children? All Christians regardless of party try to follow the teachings of our lord. I'm sure our Lord would not take sides.
There is an old saying. Keep your mouth shut and let people think you are addled, rather that open it an erase all doubt.
Alone
Al, you know some history--I like that and appreciate the injection of fact into this shouting match. But you contradict yourself with your interpretation. TR a conservative like today's right wing bozos, pandering to ignorance and a lost sense of privilege? No. Today he would be a blue dog Democrat--tough on defense, tight with the money, but with the human decency and compassion to help those who needed it. Today's Republicans follow people like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin in a lock-step, slogan-fired dementia that is sad, scary, and frustrating all at once. I have a friend who is a rock-solid Republican. He's a millionaire, and he got it himself, working hard for it for years. He tells me why I shouldn't vote for Democrats, and then tells me why we should have universal health care in the U. S.--because a woman he knows lost her job and can't afford health insurance. Then he tells me about undeserving welfare cheats--and funds a ghetto kids' after-school program in his town. The bottom line is that we are all kind of conservative, and kind of liberal. No, go on, admit it--you know what I mean. But that's why I get so saddened by the vitriol and spewed hatred and stupidity I see on this forum. Do liberals hate America? That's ridiculous. Do conservatives care only about themselves? Not all of them. But I guess reasoned debate wouldn't keep the old DR forum buzzing, now would it?
Plain
I do not disagree with you. However, I do disagree that all of today's Republicans follow Rush and Sarah, although, in my male opinion, she would be the most beautiful president we ever had---but then I watch NASCAR to see Danika Patrick also. So I'm still an hairy legged American man. Frankly, I think she is the Joe Biden of the Republican party right now---the attack dog. The far out left and far out right are both wrong in my opinion. There are some very great people in both the Democrat and Republican parties. Frankly, personally, I think that the Senate Majority leader. Harry Reid, is a very sensible person. While I don't always agree with him, he is honest and forthright. On the other hand Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is way out there to me. I agree there needs to be health care reform. However, that reform should not have most of the parts of the present Affordable Care Law. Why? First it was forced through Congress by the thinnest of margins with several backroom deals, second it still leaves a large percent of people falling throught the perverbial crack, third, it should not be under the sole management of the federal government. There should be a payin amount by every employee based on salary and comatched in steps of seniority within a business. It should be nationwide for plans and carried from job to job with no loss. Tax reform should be a flat tax period. Now, I'm not math major, but I think that if a millionaire buys 3 cadillacs, he/she should pay up front the taxes on those vehicles. Conversely, if a minimum wage earner buys a vehicle, he/she should also pay the tax up front. That is equal tax for everyone regardless of income. No off shore accounts, no tax loopholes, no exemptions. That way we would not have this 99 and 1 percent fiasco. I believe we have to make some deep cuts across the board, entitlements, defense, social programs, propping up foreign governments. I believe that education should be left to the states without interfence, or assistance, from the federal government. I believe in unions. However, I do not believe in state or federal employee unions, that when one works for the government, one is serving the public as much as a military person on active or reserve duty. I believe in welfare---as a temporary helping hand only and not a lifetime career. I believe every person and/or family needs a safety net, but not a hammock.
Teddy Roosevelt would be a moderate in either party today. His thinking was and still is progressive. There are progressives in both parties today. Mitt Romney is a progressive. Look at what he passed as Governor. Barack Obama is a follower of Saul Ailensky where all government must be torn down and rebuilt to encompass everyone's needs from a central control on an equality basis that everyone has the same. Joe Biden, on the other hand is a progressive as evidenced by his voting record and the bills he sponsored.
Based on that, we need change of direction in America. We cannot just keep printing .58 cent worth dollars, extending unemployment, increasing food stamps, and trying to stimulate our way out of this depression, with Chinese money. We need to do what FDR did with his NRA which contained the WPA and CCC to provide jobs for the unemployed instead of handing out continuing checks. For we are just growing a generation of "I want, gimme". Yes, it is tax money, but one is working to earn it, vice standing in line every week waiting for a payment of our tax money for nothing.
Dickens' Letter and Math Teacher
Math Teacher: Teddy Roosevelt never said anything about liberals and conservatives, and you can not prove that he did. Any evidence you would present would be made up by the right wing nut blogosphere or wherever these bogus "quotes" come from. How do I know, you ask? Okay then, I'll tell you: At the turn of the 20th century (TR's ascendancy)the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' actually meant something, rather than the Doublespeak meanings right wing mouth-foamers use now. Math, I know you don't indulge in Liberal pursuits like reading, but the rest of you folks can research that. Teddy was actually the standard bearer for the Progressive wing of the Republican Party when he became McKinley's VP running mate. It was an attempt to unify the party. None of the Republican power brokers ever thought TR would be president> When McKinley was assassinated, Teddy became president, much to the dismay of the Republican establishment. For you see, Math Teacher, TEDDY ROOSEVELT WAS A LIBERAL!!!! AIEEEEEEEE!!!! Or, what you and your sad, scared, racist, self-destroying cohorts would call a Liberal. Progressive legislation, financial regulations, anti-trust laws, child labor laws, workplace safety, national parks protection--OH THE HORROR! That was Teddy. Oh, but that's right. I forget that as a liberal, I must--in your eyes--hate America and all things good. So therefore, I am using facts--historical facts, to twist your.....lies?
Plain, you need to tell the whole story
In 1912, Teddy wanted to run again in the next election as he was very dissatified with President Taft's policies. So he formed the Bull Moose Party. The election became Taft (R), Roosevelt (BM) and Wilson (D). Roosevelt split the republican vote and Wilson became president. Yes, Roosevelt was a progressive, but not a liberal. There is a huge difference. If Teddy was running today, he would have mostly fit in with the present platform of the Republican party. Smaller government, take care of the environment with matching care for large business who employs most of today's work force, move America forward without debt. Show the flag. Roosevelt once sent the "Great White Fleet" a group of America's battle fleet painted white around the world. Congress refused to completely fund the expedition, so his answer to Congress was, "then you get them home". Congress backed down. You must remember that Teddy was a war veteran and he realized how much it meant to project American power in the world. Thus, the "Speak softy and carry a big stick" saying that stuck to him. He was for honest diplomacy through strength of a then younger nation feeling it's muscles.
So the Bull Moose Party platform could successfully be the republican platform of today. You must remember that big business monoplies, much larger than today with almost no checks and balances were the mantra of the Republicans of 1912. These huge monoplies ran the party. Today, there are those that think the big business runs the present Republican party which is not true. Today, the Republican party stands for smaller government, more jobs, using our own national resourses, fixing the economy while retaing a capitalist economy, letting businesses rise and fall by themselves without government hand outs, and fixing our overgrown entitlements programs. Teddy Roosevelt would almost completely agree with at platform. However, in 1912, that was called progressive as the Republican party of that time favored the "status quo" of big business, no unions, no regulations on businesses. What President Obama did with the Stimulus packages would have fit into the Republican party of 1912.
more specific
The platform of the Bull Moose Party was as follows: Called for major reforms including women's suffrage, social welfare assistance for women and children, farm relief, revisions in banking, health insurance in industries, and worker's compensation. The party also wanted an easier method to amend the constitution.
Woman's suffrage is now history, social welfare for all, not just women and children is now history with far too many additions, and is run by the federal government, not the industries themselves as envisioned by the progressives. Farm relief has gone way too far as a government ran program. As you can see, there was no one national health insurane plan ran by the federal government, but by the industries themselves, and we now have worker's compensation which is a far too large federal government ran program. Roosevelt wanted the industries themselves to be required to manage it. As for an easier way to amend the constitution, that would take a constitutional amendment with 2/3rds of the states consent.
So, maybe now you see the difference between a progressive and a liberal. Liberals want the government to run everything. Progressives want private enterprise to be required to provide for their employees and their families.
Obama now has a record on
Obama now has a record on which he must run. No, I mean run on, not run away from. He will try to run from his record and use class warfare as a campaign issue. I look forward to the Republican campaign messages that will deal on the facts of Obama's term in office. It will not be pretty but it will be based on fact. We will see what "hope & change" has brought us in the real world, not in the maze and haze of the liberal mind. We will see what "change you can believe in" has really done for the country.
Refer to my comments to Mr. Tyer
Once again, equal means equal opportunity, not equal stature or entitlement, and the pursuit of happiness is not an entitlement to happiness.
Not ANOTHER one.....
Oh, good grief. Another one of these letters. I'm too tired, I invoke screed number 451, I dare you to read the whole thing, then just try to vote Republican....
http://www.reflector.com/greenville-news-board/son-return-spinzoblogrant...
*I WILL VOTE REPUBLICAN. AND
*I WILL VOTE REPUBLICAN. AND NO I DIDN'T READ ALL THE 2012 TOO MUCH TO KNOW MESSAGE.
2012 is living proof
2012, you are living proof of what the writer just said. You are the perfect example of the truth in Teddy Roosevelt's most famous quote. "To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth." And since you love quoting the scripture, heres one for you. "The truth shall set you free". And here is one of my favorite quotes: "There is none so blind as he who will not see." You are so predictable. Look at evidence square in the face and then deny it exists. We've all seen and heard the footage of Obama making the statements that Mr. Tyer has talked about. Go look at them again and just try to deny them. And you bet your life I will vote Republican. Have a nice day!
Enough is enough
math teacher: there is no doubt now. You WERE dropped on your head as a child and are brain damaged. There is no other excuse for your continued idiocy.
Please stop embarrassing yourself. Please.
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