Mid July Blog 2012
Today were going to talk a little about Colorado and some observations on the haves versus the have nots. Read on...
The Colorado Shootings
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims of the shooting last Friday in Colorado. I don’t want to dwell on this because frankly the topic is bigger than something that should be addressed on a cartoon dinosaur site. I do not want to trivialize something so tragic.
Now we are hearing lots of angry banter from both sides of the gun control argument. This weekend one of my friends posted a quote from Charleston Heston where he talks about how a gun in the hand of a bad person is a terrible thing, but there is nothing as safe as a gun in the hands of a good person.
That is inherently untrue. Its just plain wrong to think a gun is somehow safe just because its in the hands of someone with no criminal intention. 1500 people a year are killed accidentally by guns. And before you call me a bleeding heart liberal, you should know that I am a gun owner and I have personally witnessed two accidental shootings in my lifetime. Thank god no one was killed in these two occasions. But it makes me less inclined to over simplify guns the way Charleston Heston does in the statement he once made.
Listen. Outside of the military, no one needs access to a fully automatic weapon. Period. A real sportsman does not go deer hunting with a machine gun. Period.
Yes the shooter in this terrible massacre obtained his guns legally and he had no criminal record or no known sign of mental illness. So it can be argued no system we might have had in place would have stopped this man from doing this terrible thing. But I’d venture to say if he did not have a fully automatic assault rifle with a large ammo clip, he would not have been capable of hurting or killing as many people.
Is this really the best you can do?
I cannot help but look back to the 2004 election. Mitt Romney was running back then too. He was not good enough to be considered back then. And he was even overlooked as a suitable Vice President candidate in favor of Sarah Palin. In the long 2012 Republican primaries did Mitt really win anything or did he just out last and out spend his opponents? Seriously. Who really voted for him during those primaries? Did you? Even today Romney does not have the clear support of the party. Others in the Republican party have been asking for Mitt to release his tax returns.
Class Warfare
So Mitt Romney doesn’t want to show his tax records and he doesn’t want us to think he was a part of Bain Capital when it really started out sourcing jobs overseas. And when people ask him about it he claims he is somehow the victim of class warfare or jealousy from less successful people.
The term class warfare is being used all too often in this campaign. But who is really waging war on whom?
The richest 1% have been gaming the banking system, nearly tanked the economy on real estate predatory loan practices, nearly destroyed all our savings and investments during the stock market investment scandals. All of these things adversely affecting the homes and savings driving many common folk to financial ruin.
The top 1% have had the lowest tax rates in history for the last ten years, but where is the promised trickle down of jobs and reinvestments that were promised to the other 99% of us?
Now investing hundreds of millions of dollars to try to convince you that deregulating industries will lead to more jobs even though it tends to mean the disregard for employee and end user safety more than anything else.
There is a constant barrage of stories on Conservative radio and FOX News trying to convince you that collective bargaining is somehow a bad thing. And that teachers and firefighters get paid too much. That somehow the problem is not the rich who can afford to pay a little more, but the poor who don’t pay enough.
Then there are the bills that Conservatives have introduced that directly effect the health and welfare of women. Obstructing a woman’s right to seek and choose the medical care she might need and obstructing a woman’s right to earn the same pay as men.
Who is proposing that a successful business person is the right man to be the President of a country? A country is not something that can or should be run like a business. I submit that a corporate executive might be precisely the WRONG candidate for public office. It s fundamental misunderstanding of how our government works to think that it should be run like a business.
There is a class war going on here folks. But its not the one you’re being told. Its not poor jealous liberals envious of the successes of Conservatives. Its the actions of wealthy conservatives to cheat and manipulate and lie there way into keeping the rest of us from having the opportunities to succeed that we hate. They are waging the war on us. Its time more of us pointed that out.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims of the shooting last Friday in Colorado. I don’t want to dwell on this because frankly the topic is bigger than something that should be addressed on a cartoon dinosaur site. I do not want to trivialize something so tragic.
Now we are hearing lots of angry banter from both sides of the gun control argument. This weekend one of my friends posted a quote from Charleston Heston where he talks about how a gun in the hand of a bad person is a terrible thing, but there is nothing as safe as a gun in the hands of a good person.
That is inherently untrue. Its just plain wrong to think a gun is somehow safe just because its in the hands of someone with no criminal intention. 1500 people a year are killed accidentally by guns. And before you call me a bleeding heart liberal, you should know that I am a gun owner and I have personally witnessed two accidental shootings in my lifetime. Thank god no one was killed in these two occasions. But it makes me less inclined to over simplify guns the way Charleston Heston does in the statement he once made.
Listen. Outside of the military, no one needs access to a fully automatic weapon. Period. A real sportsman does not go deer hunting with a machine gun. Period.
Yes the shooter in this terrible massacre obtained his guns legally and he had no criminal record or no known sign of mental illness. So it can be argued no system we might have had in place would have stopped this man from doing this terrible thing. But I’d venture to say if he did not have a fully automatic assault rifle with a large ammo clip, he would not have been capable of hurting or killing as many people.
Is this really the best you can do?
I cannot help but look back to the 2004 election. Mitt Romney was running back then too. He was not good enough to be considered back then. And he was even overlooked as a suitable Vice President candidate in favor of Sarah Palin. In the long 2012 Republican primaries did Mitt really win anything or did he just out last and out spend his opponents? Seriously. Who really voted for him during those primaries? Did you? Even today Romney does not have the clear support of the party. Others in the Republican party have been asking for Mitt to release his tax returns.
Class Warfare
So Mitt Romney doesn’t want to show his tax records and he doesn’t want us to think he was a part of Bain Capital when it really started out sourcing jobs overseas. And when people ask him about it he claims he is somehow the victim of class warfare or jealousy from less successful people.
The term class warfare is being used all too often in this campaign. But who is really waging war on whom?
The richest 1% have been gaming the banking system, nearly tanked the economy on real estate predatory loan practices, nearly destroyed all our savings and investments during the stock market investment scandals. All of these things adversely affecting the homes and savings driving many common folk to financial ruin.
The top 1% have had the lowest tax rates in history for the last ten years, but where is the promised trickle down of jobs and reinvestments that were promised to the other 99% of us?
Now investing hundreds of millions of dollars to try to convince you that deregulating industries will lead to more jobs even though it tends to mean the disregard for employee and end user safety more than anything else.
There is a constant barrage of stories on Conservative radio and FOX News trying to convince you that collective bargaining is somehow a bad thing. And that teachers and firefighters get paid too much. That somehow the problem is not the rich who can afford to pay a little more, but the poor who don’t pay enough.
Then there are the bills that Conservatives have introduced that directly effect the health and welfare of women. Obstructing a woman’s right to seek and choose the medical care she might need and obstructing a woman’s right to earn the same pay as men.
Who is proposing that a successful business person is the right man to be the President of a country? A country is not something that can or should be run like a business. I submit that a corporate executive might be precisely the WRONG candidate for public office. It s fundamental misunderstanding of how our government works to think that it should be run like a business.
There is a class war going on here folks. But its not the one you’re being told. Its not poor jealous liberals envious of the successes of Conservatives. Its the actions of wealthy conservatives to cheat and manipulate and lie there way into keeping the rest of us from having the opportunities to succeed that we hate. They are waging the war on us. Its time more of us pointed that out.