Still All Heart!

Well, our congressional repubs are still at it! Not only did they refuse to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (that made no changes in American law and is almost a rubber stamp of our American With Disabilities Act) but now these same kind, warmhearted, sympathetic folks decided to not renew the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and evidently approve of violence against gay men and lesbians, violence against immigrants and violence against American Indians living on reservations. Too, because the repubs chose not to renew, I guess they're okay with violence toward all women! What can I say?!

The Liberalator

Get Out of Jail Free

Actually, you don't need a "Get out of jail free" card, you just need to be a wealthy  banker! I'm infuriated about the HSBC "fine" of $1.9 Billion - It's profit in 2011 was $16.8 Billion and it's net worth in 2011 was $2.6 Trillion! (HSBC Holdings plc is a multinational bank doing business in many countries all over the world including the U.S.) It was fined for money laundering and violating sanction law by doing business with Iran, Libya, and Cuba.

And the most infuriating thing is that no bank, board of directors or bank executive has been indicted! This is the third time in the last ten years that HSBC has been penalized! The argument is that HSBC is a "systemically dangerous institution" (SDI) or as politicians like to say "to big to fail."

BULL! These SDIs ruined us one time already (the last recession) and we're on track to let them do it again.

If  they are so big, chop them into little pieces that ARE NOT to big to fail and let the chips fall. Today I'm disgusted with our administration, our Democratic Attorney General and Department of Justice (and Britain and their FSA, Financial Services Authority) that tolerates the criminals that run our "to big to fail" financial institutions, letting the big wigs off Scot free to loot and steal another day with complete impunity! And it feels like there is nothing we can do!

The Liberalator

Our Guv at Work

Well, Gov Goodhair is at it again! He always prefers giving Texas money to his cronies before he'll take good ole "guvment handouts." He just refused $66 Billion dollars to let Texas set up it's own insurance exchange (those exchanges are web sites where citizens will go to find the private insurance company insurance plan they want with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - ACA or what we proudly call "Obamacare"). Instead he wants the federal government to set up Texas' exchange for us. Is this the guy that talked Texas secession? Sounds like he's just hat and boots!

Of course we know that Texas proudly ranks Number One in all these 50 United States that has the most uninsured citizens with 26% of us with no insurance (that's 6.2 million folks, including 1.2 million children). And most of these (83%) are low wage workers, working 2 or 3 jobs just to put food on the table and pay rent. The U.S. Government will cover 100% of the costs for the first 3 years and 93% in the years that follow.

At the same time the guv wants to refuse an expansion of Medicaid where it would cost the state $5.8 Billion and Texas would receive $76.3 Billion in federal matching funds.

With our huge budget excess Texas can certainly afford to turn down this cash! Thanks guv!

The Liberalator

The PERFECT Tickets

Here are the perfect presidential tickets for the next four plus election cycles.

2016 - Pres. Hillary Clinton, VP Elizabeth Warren
2020 - Pres. Hillary Clinton, VP Elizabeth Warren
2024 - Pres. Elizabeth Warren, VP Michelle Obama
2028 - Pres. Elizabeth Warren, VP Michelle Obama
2032 - Pres. Michelle Obama, VP to be announced (to please Luke Russert this leaves an opening for a "younger" person!)
2036 - Pres. Michelle Obama, VP, ditto

Not only would these ladies whip our government back in shape, bring us back into international good graces, and serve every citizen, they would bring gentility and good humor back to our country.

Go, Ladies!

The Liberalator

Compassionate Conservatives?

Well, the repubs are all heart! 38 of them voted NO in support of people with disabilities all over the world. Took 2/3 of the senate to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and 38 repubs voted it down.

The law was basically symbolic as it just codifies in international law most of the rights in our country's Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990.

It requires absolutely no changes in the American law - man, that republican party is all heart!

The Liberalator

What a Guy!

Got to thinking about Grover Norquist (the hero of the republicans, teapartiers, right wing and everyone conservative) and thought I would look just a little deeper.

Come to find out this guy, the founder of Americans for Tax Reform  (ATR) and who said "When I became 21 I decided that nobody learned anything about politics after the age of 21" so you know at what age his intellect and maturity stopped.

Among his credentials are: worked with Oliver North and his efforts with the Nicaraguan contras, worked with Newt Gingrich on the contract with America, was an associate of Jack Abramoff and associated with his Indian lobbying scandal, and has been on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and American conservative Union. Also he has close connections to THE Tom Delay!

He's the guy that said " I'm not in favor of abolishing government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

He's been asked to reveal his financial contributors, but refuses to do so, but it has been reported that the biggest proportion of his budget comes from just two multimillionaires. 

This is the guy that the right wing has followed and signed pledges to for the past thirty or so years.

Makes you want to jump right in line, don't it?

The Liberalator

Liberal! Liberal! Liberal! Liberal

I'm celebrating today! I'm ashamed that it has been so long coming and what a chicken I've been, but no longer -

 I'm a Liberal!

Let me say that again

I'm a Liberal!

For a couple of years now I've beaten around the bush and talked about being a progressive, or a lefty or just left it alone except around my Democratic friends, but I'm out of the closet and unashamedly and unabashedly shout

I'm a Liberal!

I am proud of what my Democratic party stands for, our re-elected president, what he has accomplished and the goals we're headed for. Just one more time (this blog)

I'm a Liberal

The Liberalator 

VOTE Abel Bosquez!

Attention everyone that lives in Texas Congressional District 87 in the Texas Panhandle. That includes all voters in - Amarillo (Potter County), Dumas, Cactus, Stratford, Sunray, Borger, Stinnett, Fritch, Panhandle, Whitedeer, Skellytown, Phillips, Groom, Sanford-Fritch, Masterson and Texoma.

We have an outstanding DEMOCRATIC candidate - ABEL BOSQUEZ running against a fella named Walter 'Four' Price the fourth, the republican . Abel is one of us, a man who knows about us average working folks (he's one himself!), has the good heart of a Democrat and believes in working and supporting his fellow man.

Abel's web-site is (Click Here) and it tells his life story and how he will work for you in the Texas legislature.

GET REGISTERED AND VOTE NOVEMBER 6TH FOR ABEL BOSQUEZ.

THE LIBERALATOR

HOMEGROWN DEMOCRAT

"We democrats are deeply flawed people, we can be earnestly boring and awfully righteous about moral issues in faraway places. We can be weenies, capable of doing dumb things in the name of the common good. But we do stick to our guns. We believe in decency and public spiritedness and have refused to hitch our wagon to yahooism and have supported government as a necessary force for good. And we are passionate. This is a year for passion."

And,

"Republicans have perfectly nice manners, normal hair, pleasant smiles, good deodorants, but when it comes down to cases, you do not want them to be monitoring your oxygen flow: they will set it to the minimum required to sustain basic brain function, and then they will recite a little prayer for you. They are a party that is all about perceptions, the Christian party that conceals enormous glittering malice and is led by brilliant bandits who are dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in. I don't accept this.
     We Democrats are deciduous. We fade, lose heart, become torpid, languish, then the sap rises again, and we are passionate. This is a year for passion."

The first is the back jacket  and the second a quote from his book Homegrown Democrat by Garrison Keillor (of Prairie Home Companion fame). I read this the first time the year it was published (2004) and just ran across and am re-reading it. I would suggest it as a sort of a "bible" for Democrats - its certainly speaks to me, my love of country and the knowledge that the Democratic Party is the party of the people, by the people and for the people as President Lincoln so eloquently stated - a party of "we're all in this together" rather "than you're on your own." It's worth a read. You can get it for just a few bucks at (click here).

The Liberalator

Conservative Management Theory

Walter Williams' concept of conservative management has been revealed in his Wednesday column "In greed I will place my trust." "click here" By exploiting workers unprotected by any kind of minimum wage law or union protection "people trying to get as much as they can for themselves" could earn greater profits by hiring someone to do the job of a protected "worker for only a fraction of the wage." In the column Mr. W referenced statements by southern congressmen back in 1931 such as "That contractor has cheap colored labor that he transports, and puts them in cabins, and it is labor of that sort that is in competition with white labor throughout the country."

In Walt's work world he would repeal the minimum wage law, pass legislation to disband unions, offer no benefits and have a total at-will labor market so that people trying to get as much as they can for themselves would not have to pay a living wage or offer any benefits to their workers.

His conclusion is "There are many examples from around the world of how people have used legal and extralegal means to thwart people trying to get more for themselves, or what I like to call greed."

The conservative business management theory.

The Liberalator

Greed

This morning Walter Williams finally deciphered the conservative mind for me. I've wondered my whole adult life what type of person can ignore the people hurting in our society, as well put by Hubert Humphrey, "those in the dawn of life, the children; those in the twilight of life, the eldery; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

Well, ole Walt said greed is good, (his headline is "Greed actually is good for US") that what conservatives aspire to is "people trying to get as much as they can for themselves." [my bold] "click here" He admits that free market capitalism "is ruthless in its profit and loss discipline," and we can only assume he means that as long as it is legal capitalists can do anything they choose to do, keeping wages low for workers, laying off staff, cutting back hours, closing plants, sending jobs overseas, not offering benefits to working folks - the list is endless.

The dictionary definition of greed (Dictionary.com) "an excessive, extreme desire for something, often more than one's proper share", "excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions", "avid desire for gain or wealth", "excessive desire as for wealth or power."

The word "excessive" is repeated over and over in these definitions - so excessive is okay with Walter as long as it is for one-self, and a greedy person is a good person. The mind-set of the conservative is finally revealed to me. Thanks for that enlightenment, Walt!

The Liberalator