Claudette Konola
 
The news of the morning is that Gadaffi has been captured, and may be dead. Reuters is reporting that he was captured, with wounds in two legs, the result of a NATO airstrike on his convoy. The website where I get the news is scrolling across the top that he has died.

Gadaffi was a horrible dictator, who did nothing good for his people. The same can be said of all of the leaders who have been toppled in Northern Africa and the Middle East this year. But I have to tell you that I am getting sick of reading about killing and war.

Some former members of the military love reliving their glory days. They continually remind us that we have freedom thanks to their sacrifice. I don’t want to demean the sacrifice of men and women serving in the military, but we haven’t fought for American Freedom since 1812. Even WWI and WWII were about freedom in other countries, not here within our own borders. Having said that, I’ll grant you that had we not stopped some power hungry madmen who were marching through Europe, we might have been fighting them on our own shores. But we weren’t.

Korea wasn’t about American Freedom. Vietnam wasn’t about American Freedom. The first Iraq war wasn’t about American Freedom. The second Iraq war wasn’t about American Freedom. The war in Afghanistan isn’t about American Freedom. Killing Gadaffi isn’t about American Freedom.

I want to know when we are going to stop spending all of America’s wealth on blowing things up, including our own young people. I want to know when we are going to recognize that we owe American Freedom as much to teachers who stand in a classroom and remind us about the U.S. Constitution and that the pen is mightier than the sword.

I want to know when the budgeting process in congress will stop ignoring the horrible cost of unnecessary war, and unnecessary military toys. America is a very wealthy nation. We can afford to provide Medicare for all and Social Security for our elderly if we just stop blowing things up.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children."  Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican President of the United States said that. He was right.

Homework

Gadaffi Captured

American Budget Pie Chart

 
 
Iowa Straw Poll

Most of you know that I faithfully watch Meet the Press on Sunday mornings. It is a tradition started when I was a child and watched that show with my grandfather. I really liked Tim Russert, and groused about the show when David Gregory took over after Russert’s death. I didn’t think Gregory had the chops to grill both sides of the aisle. From my perspective he leaned too far to the right. He may be growing into his role—he didn’t irritate me nearly as much today.

Today David’s guest was Michelle Bachmann fresh from her straw poll win in Iowa. The thing that continues to strike me about Bachmann is her confidence and authority. She is unflappable. Read Narcissits Rise to the Top to see why that is striking.

Yesterday Rick Perry rained on Bachmann’s parade by announcing his bid to be the GOP nominee. Bob Shrum today on Meet the Press called Rick Perry a barracuda who will eat Bachmann alive. Clearly Bachmann and Perry will be competing for the evangelical vote. It was the consensus on the Meet the Press panel that neither will be the eventual nominee. Neither will Tim Pawlenty, Lawrence O’Donnell’s pick for eventual nominee on his show The Last Word. Pawlenty left the race today. He was unable to raise enough cash to keep going.

Unions

Several unions announced this week that they will boycott the Democratic convention in South Carolina. There were similar rants when the convention was in Denver, which ended in a compromise when union workers were allowed to work the Pepsi Center. After reading the linked article about Grover Norquist, I have to ask the unions, ARE YOU NUTS?

Who Rules the World

I direct you to an article that analyzes the people and companies that control at least $46 billion in wealth, and how they are picking the pockets of ordinary Americans. Conservatives, in comments on the Sentinel’s on-line edition, recently accused me of engaging in class warfare.  I confessed in a follow-up post to this blog. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” It is the middle class that is losing, and nothing the GOP is offering is going to change that.

The Impact of War

Finally I direct you to a really sad story about a soldier who couldn’t get the help he needed.

Homework

Narcissits Rise to the Top

Grover Norquist Wants to Destroy Unions

Pawlenty Quits

Latinos Don't Like Rick Perry

Who Really Rules the World?

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Political Polls

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Impacts of War
 
 
The latest Washington battle is over whether the Bush Tax Cuts should expire. Republicans say that allowing them to expire will increase the strain on the economy. Some Democrats agree. But most Democrats argue that the deficit was caused by those tax cuts, and if we want to control the deficit we should allow them to expire.

I’m in the latter camp. The tax cuts were targeted to the upper two percent of the population. They were promoted as the real way to stimulate the economy. Remember that the dot-com bubble had just burst, and people were losing money on the stock exchange and people were losing their jobs? Well it didn’t stimulate the economy. During the Bush years the new jobs creation didn’t even keep pace with the number of kids graduating from high school and college and entering the work force. During that decade, the net new jobs created was zero. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. And people who work for a living couldn’t find a job.

The spin of the current anti-tax crowd is the same old tired argument that hasn’t been working. Not to mention, it was a Republican controlled legislature that put the sunset provision into the tax cuts in the first place. They didn’t make them permanent. Maybe they knew that if you take money out of a budget without addressing spending the result is deficits, and that deficits can’t be sustained over the long run.

Back in 2005 the Congressional Budget Office issued a report that said that tax cuts played a much larger role in increasing the deficits than any domestic spending did. Then there was the Bush-era trick of keeping military spending out of the budget so that the real impact of spending cuts would be disguised. Back then 37% of the deficit increase came from military spending and 48% came from the Bush Tax Cuts. Obama put military spending back into the budget so that Americans could see what was really happening to the budget.

So, let’s get real.

·         The only way that a budget is balanced (no deficit spending) is if the revenue (taxes and fees) equals the spending (including on military budgets.)

·         Bush started an unnecessary war without paying for it. We now need to pay for it. We can’t afford to continue giving tax breaks to the wealthy, while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  We can’t wage war if it isn’t paid for because the price we pay is too high. We pay in a destroyed economy and high unemployment.

·         Jobs are created by small businesses. Most small businesses have taxable income of $250,000 or less. The Obama tax cuts for people earning under $250,000 should stay in place. These are the guys who create jobs, they need to put the money into creating jobs instead of supporting a war that can’t be won.

Read some of the leaked documents about the un-winnable war in Afghanistan and see where your tax money is being spent. It just might make you want to spit up your breakfast.

Homework:

Geithner on Bush Tax Cuts

2005 CBO Report Demonstrated that Tax Cuts Increased Deficit

Details about Afghan War Leaked