Middle East Oil -continue to buy or tell them to shove it?

This is an interesting video of T. Boone Pickens and his ideas about our country’s dependence on foreign oil.   I’ve heard alot of criticism against Picken’s push to use natural gas because he has set himself up as the one to profit the most from that idea.  But if you think about it, would I rather pay the Middle East OPEC guys or would I rather pay Pickens for my energy that is coming from our own country.

Pay close attention to Pickens’ assessement of the current field of Republican presidential candidates – but then again, Pickens is right that we’ve heard alot about promises of getting off foreign oil but as of the last few decades – nobody has ever even come up with a plan to do so.

Just why do we continue to buy oil from our enemies who obviously play both sides of the fence?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/42672288#42672288

A Billion Dollar Presidential Campaign?

It’s been said that Obama will have the first billion dollar campaign for 2012.    What do you think about this staggering amount of money? 

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/04/am-obama-announces-reelection-campaign/

President Obama has highest legislative success rate in 5 decades

To Republicans who joke Obama has done nothing, and to Obama’s liberal critics who vent about the same, a study done by Congressional Quarterly suggests they are both wrong. CQ rates Obama higher than any president in the last five decades in working his will on Capitol Hill, surpassing even the fabled Lyndon Johnson. Obama’s success rate in the House and Senate on votes where he staked out a clear position was 96.7 percent, beating previous record-holder Johnson’s 93 percent in 1965.

Read it here at Newsweek.

This is The President, This is the President Conservatives See

 

Any Questions??

Imagine……………. Part III.

Your’e not happy. I’m not happy. Most us are not happy. The only ones that seem happy are those on the far right that see our current struggles as a means of returning to power without having to admit to previous failures.

Imagine a world if the progressives and liberals, the rights activists and supporters, the liberal commentators and bloggers were to concede to the right.  Imagine, if you will, if we were to give up the fight – the daily fight – and allow the other side to win.

Has Barack Obama been a perfect president? Of course not. For starters, he begin Day One with most daunting set of circumstances of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Add to that mix a politically inept Senate Majority Leader, the worst environmental disaster imaginable and an attack dog mentality opposition.

It’s difficult to be a liberal these days, but it is not impossible. It is difficult because it is just so easy to say “no” and critcize those that say “yes.”

Spending? Of course it looks bad, and it is difficult to explain to the “Tea Party” mentality why the spending is necessary, even though it has not produced many jobs.

The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? We are pulling out of Iraq on schedule, but you would have a hard time getting the GOP to admit that. Afghanistan? Obama listened to his Generals – COIN was their plan – yet the “armchair generals” have a better idea since they got “anti-war religion.”

The list goes on. McCain wanted the administration to listen to the military leaders regarding “DADT” right up to the point when they expressed an opinion that it should be repealed. Cut taxes? Obama did cut taxes for a great number of us, yet the right wing machine insists that he has raised taxes and is doing in again in January, despite the “sunset” provision in the original Republican bill.

We have to imagine a better world than this one, but that means will have to be willing to stand up and be counted as a progressive that is willing to fight for our principles.

Politics is a full contact sport – it’s not for the faint of heart or the easily discouraged. “It could be worse” is scant consolation for those hit hard by the Great Recession or the lack of progress on social issues, but the fact is, it could be much worse.

Just allow yourself to imagine it.

William Stephenson Clark

Imagine…………… Part II.

So, you wanted an alternative to Barack Obama? Hillary Clinton? Well, in my not so humble view, she couldn’t have been elected President – not that she wasn’t/isn’t qualified – but she carries considerable baggage from the “Clinton Years.” The General Election campaign against her would have made “Swiftboat” look like an elementary schoolyard spat.

But let’s imagine, the Democrats won and now we have President Clinton, Part II. Now what? Would Hillary have done better? Would she have done better, with all the ” Clinton Baggage” than Barack Obama?

Hillary Clinton is a smart, dedicated, knowledgeable woman who has served admirably as US Senator and as Secretary of State, but she carries huge negative ratings.  Obama entered the Oval Office with relatively high approval numbers, but that did not lessen the opposition that he received from the GOP. The Republican attack machine was in full swing before the last vote was counted.

Let’s look at a few positions where she would be attacked:

Gay Rights:

“Her husband signed “DADT” and DOMA.” Did she come out and disagree with him? Did she stand up for gay and lesbian Americans at that time?”

The War on Iraq:

“You voted for the War, and you and your husband himself stated that Saddam had WMD!”

The economy:

“The only reason that the economy was better is the Nineties was there was a Republican majority in Congress!  All the credit goes to the GOP!”

The War on “Terror.”

“Your husband did nothing about terrorism! Aspirin factory! He did nothing about the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole!”

And so on.

I don’t agree with the Republican attack points at all. Some of them are outright lies and some are massive distortions, but those would be just some of the daily talking points from the right-wing machine. The machine already has a large file on the Clintons.

Hillary, in general, is loved by the Left and hated by the Right. Public condemnation of her exceeds even that of Obama. Most of it has no basis in fact, but facts seem quite unimportant to the opposition. The Kenneth Starr “investigation” into the Clintons came up with nothing except a blue dress, yet the majority of Republicans and many independents believe that they were guilty of multitudes of crimes. Fair? No, but life and politics are rarely fair.

Do I agree with the scenario that I have painted? Of course not, but in my view, it is a realistic portrayal of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

William Stephenson Clark

Imagine……….. Part I.

Well, I have heard the continual banging of the drum from the Left, saying that President Obama hasn’t done this, hasn’t done that, isn’t committed to this, isn’t committed to that.

Imagine that the Democrats had not taken control of Congress in 2006. Imagine that they had not extended their margins in 2008.

Imagine President McClain and Vice President Palin.

Well, some of you think that we would be better off, since President Obama hasn’t done enough. The reality is that a continuation of Bush II policies would have led is to destruction, economically and socially.

Let’s look at a world if the Republicans had won the Congressional and Presidential elections.

Start with the Supreme Court nominees under President McClain? Sotomayer and Kagan? More likely twins of Scalia and Thomas. Seven to two – every SCOTUS decision.

Wanna go there?

Do you really want to go there? Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?” Not only would “DADT” not be repealed, it would be reinforced under a McClain administration. Gay rights would be, at best, a fleeting memory – a “wish list” for gays and lesbians. The hostility of Republicans towards gays and lesbians would be the law of the land, with no exceptions. One of the central planks of the GOP is opposition to gay rights.

Wanna go there?

Under President Obama there is hope for the gay and lesbian community. Under President McClain, there would be no hope, but a high probability of government sanctioned, continued discrimination against gays and lesbians, in the military, in the government, in business and in their private lives.

Wanna go there?

Let’s go back to 1987. The SCOTUS ruled that sodomy laws were constitutional and that average Americans, homosexual and heterosexual, could be arrested and prosecuted and jailed for those crimes. Under a conservative president, the rightward slat of the Court would be even more pronounced and laws such as that might pass “constitutional” muster.

Wanna go there?

Well, the question is rhetorical – the election was won – but it could have happened in 2008, and it may happen in 2012.

Before the progressives of America turn our backs on President Barack Obama, think about what could have been and what yet may be.

William Stephenson Clark

Obama: GOP Will Move Country Backward

With a victory on the financial regulation overhaul in his pocket—a “key pillar” in his recession recovery plan—President Obama said a Republican plan for the economy would move the country backward to the job-killing policies of his predecessor. “It took nearly a decade of failed economic policies to create this mess, and it will take years to fully repair the damage,” Obama said in his weekly address that aired Saturday, vowing that his policies would move the country forward. That’s expected to be one of the White House’s main messages during this fall’s midterm elections. The president admitted that the growth since the credit crisis two years ago hasn’t created enough jobs, but said the GOP would make things much worse. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) countered that the GOP would promote growth by cutting spending and taxes.

Read more here.

Or, listen to the address here.

Obama to Bypass Senate with recess appointment

President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday.

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said the “recess appointment” was needed to carry out the new health care law. The law calls for huge changes in the two programs, which together insure nearly one-third of all Americans.

Mr. Pfeiffer said the president would appoint Dr. Berwick on Wednesday. Mr. Obama decided to act because “many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points.”

In April, Mr. Obama nominated Dr. Berwick to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The agency has been without a permanent administrator since October 2006.  Republicans have used the nomination to revive their arguments against the new health care law, which they see as a potent issue in this fall’s elections.

What would you have done?

They say that any boy can grow up to be President of the United States. Forty three have. (One is counted twice, serving non-consecutive terms.) We have yet to elect a woman as our leader, but that will come, despite the good old boy network. In 2008, we did manage to elect the first black man as our president, forty years after Robert F. Kennedy made that prediction.

President Barack Obama inherited the biggest mess at his inauguration that any president has since FDR was first elected. The list of challenges facing the new president was long and difficult. It makes you wonder why anyone would have wanted the job.

There is no doubt that being elected President is no easy task, but it pales in comparison to actually doing the job, one that has been made even more difficult for Obama with a completely united opposition.  To the detractors of the President, I have often asked this question:

“What you would have done, starting January 20, 2009, without using the words ‘I wouldn’t have?'”

It’s easy to be an armchair President and list everything that has been done and then righteously claim “I wouldn’t have done that!” It’s a damned sight harder to make reasonable proposals and hold them up for scrutiny.

Contrary to the Republican mantra, Democrats are not in lock-step with Obama. There are many issues where we disagree and many lines of criticism. There are many things Democrats wish he had done and yes, some that we wish he hadn’t done.

It is ironic, perhaps, that some of the most damning criticism coming from the Left regarding President Obama is that he hasn’t been liberal enough!

“What would you have done?”

Easy question to ask, much more difficult to answer, yet it begs an answer from the detractors of our President.

I have my list, what is on yours?

William Stephenson Clark

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the traditional kick off for Summertime, even though the official first day of summer is not until later in June. For many, Memorial Day means picnics, trips to the lake,  baseball games, horseshoes, pool parties, kids out of school, barbecues and the Indy 500.

And, yes, it means all those things, but there is a greater meaning.

The loss of a loved one in war must be a horrible burden to bear, one that I have not personally felt, but one that I can empathize with completely.

Our great nation, however imperfect she may be, has stood the test of time and our brightest and best have stood up for her and defended her throughout history, some with the forfeiture of their lives.

The shot heard ’round the world. The Battle of New Orleans. Gettysburg. The Hundred Day Offensive. Pearl Harbor, Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and Iwo Jima.  The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. The Tet Offensive.  The Mother of All Battles. Kabul. Baghdad.

No matter your thoughts on these wars, you have to respect those that fought them for us, and those that made the ultimate sacrifice. They deserve no less.

Today, when you sit down with your family, friends or even alone, take a moment to reflect on those that stood tall to protect our freedom and liberty.

But I would also suggest that you remember those that lost their lives, but not in uniform, but for a cause greater than themselves.

Medgar Evers. Dr. King. Rachel Corrie. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Matthew Shepard. Harvey Milk. Rachel Corrie. Tom Hurndall. The Kennedy’s. And many, many more.

Today is the day we set aside to honor those that have come before us, blazing a trail so we all may have a better life. As you celebrate the day, stop to remember and honor those that have made this day possible.

It’s the least we can do.

William Stephenson Clark

U.S. on Pace to End Iraq War

More than seven years after it began, the end may be near for the Iraq war. According to Vice President Joe Biden, who is managing the withdrawal, the administration’s goal of removing all combat forces by August is proceeding as planned. But Iraqi leaders have yet to form a government close to three months after a contentious election and violence is still simmering, raising the possibility that the situation could deteriorate. “It’s going to be painful; there’s going to be ups and downs,” Biden told the Washington Post. “But I do think the end result is going to be that we’re going to be able to keep our commitment.” Experts say that the drawdown is especially crucial given the escalating conflict in Afghanistan, which is seeing a surge in U.S. troops.

The Elephant in the Room



There is no doubt in my mind that both as Senator and as President, Barack Obama did the right this regarding TARP and the Stimulus Bill. These measures were required, in my view, to keep our economy, and conversely the global economy, from sliding in another Great Depression.

Understanding the complexities of the world’s economies is far from being my strong suit. Quite frankly, I am just too intellectually lazy to pursue a complete knowledge of Wall Street v. Main Street and all that lies in between.

I am capable, in my defense, to place my trust in those that know far more about the subject than I do. And, I trust Barack Obama. Republicans, not so much. They drove the bus into the ditch in the first place.

Regardless of the need for spending bills to prevent the crash of the economy, the National Debt is rising to levels heretofore unimaginable. Of course, much of that debt was incurred under Republican administrations, but you’ll never get a Tea Bagger to admit that.

It’s easy to say “cut spending!” Okay, where? Now the equation becomes a bit more tricky. It’s kind of like earmarks – everyone hates them, everyone wants to see money going to their home district.

Here’s a few ideas of mine to cut spending:

Eliminate  two third’s of our 700 foreign military bases.

Enact Secretary Robert Gates’ proposed cuts to the military.

Eliminate the Depart of Redundancy Department.

Freeze all new Federal hiring without specific Congressional approval.

End off-shore tax havens for American corporations.

Repeal and replace the Bush prescription drug bill.

Simplify the tax code to reduce loopholes.

Reduce salaries of all elected and appointed Federal employees by 10%.

Review and cut where necessary all tax subsidies and credits for business.

Those are my ideas, Pop Bloggers. What are yours?

William Stephenson Clark

What to do, what to do, oh, what to do?



Since Barack Obama took office on January 20, 2009, he has received a barrage of criticism from the Right regarding his priorities. Some is well-intended and some is obviously just criticism for the sake of criticizing. I have often said that if Barack Obama cured cancer tomorrow, the Republicans would condemn him for not doing it today.

Some recent commentary from the Right has got me to thinking (yes, that is fairly rare on both counts) just what should have been Barack’s priorities coming into office and, on this date, what should his priorities be moving forward?

Obviously, when President Obama took office, he had a full plate of serious issues to handle – an economy in the tank, two wars, the Bush legacy of disaster, Gay Right’s issues, Wall Street corruption and not the least of all, filling a cabinet and appointing people to positions critical to his administration.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but all of us indulge in looking at the past. Looking at the future is a bit more difficult, but I have it on good authority that all Pop Bloggers are equipped with the ability to see into the future with uncanny accuracy.

So, my fellow low-life liberals and progressives, what should he have done and what should he do now?

(Feel free to toss in some of your patented humor for good measure!)

William Stephenson Clark

Damn socialistic commie pinko democrats!

Based on our many discussions about health care reform, I think all who blog here can agree single-payer is the solution, with Medicare for all coming in second.  Those are the solutions if Congress actually addresses the many challenges regarding our country’s health care dilemma.

From there, we diverge.

Simply put, our opinions range from those who want everything currently on the table killed (just about as badly as do the Republicans, albeit for totally different reasons!), to those who hope the first step will be improved (as quickly as possible!), so we’re advocating don’t make perfect the enemy of good (even tho we readily admit there isn’t very much good there).

If a health-care reform bill passes Congress it looks like it will be through reconciliation, although even that method of passage is in question.  Those of us who view this as a first and necessary step see the tweaking beginning immediately.  Some 40 million Americans who currently don’t have any health care coverage will be provided some options with taxpayers footing the bill.  This changes only the fact that taxpayers will be paying for insurance coverage instead of paying for emergency care.  But, maybe those Americans will actually get health care instead of only emergency care.  Still, the big winner is insurance companies who get more people on their rolls.

We continue to hope that some of the regulations, and those to come with the tweaking, will control how badly the insurance companies are allowed to abuse us.

Democrats have made it clear they intend to cover the uninsured before another lifetime or two elapses; the Republicans make it equally clear they do not.  Further, it appears Republicans will regain majorities in upcoming elections, and unless health care is addressed before that happens, we’re stuck with the alternative of nothing.

Nothing shouldn’t be an option!