Comments (0)

By Mark D, November 13, 2012 8:58 pm

After being totally routed by Obama, despite spending the last 4 years doing nothing but stopping anything Obama tried to do, you’d think Republicans would try to change course. Millions upon millions of dollars spent by Republicans and they didn’t get their way. 9 of the 10 senate elections in which the Crossroads PAC (Karl Rove’s pac) spent over 10 million dollars the Democrat won. Maybe, just maybe people saw through what the Republicans were up to and decided to punish them.

Now in a sane world, maybe the Repubs would move more to the center, open up their party to minorities and women. Maybe it’s time for a Republican party that doesn’t just kowtow the line of the super wealthy while taking advantage of some of the most ignorant voters in the country. But of course we don’t live in a sane world, so that’s not going to happen.

As you might have noticed, despite losing the Presidential election and losing seats in the Senate, Republicans continue to control the House. Since they had control of the house following the 2010 Census they were able to redraw Congressional districts. Pretty much they shoved as many democrats into as few districts as possible, basically assuring themselves control of the house.

Now why might this matter? Because the new thing that the GOP is looking for is to base electoral votes not on winner take all state wide, but instead on congressional districts. If for example a state has 30 districts and 30 Electoral Votes, each district would be worth 1 electoral vote. Now look at some of the states that Obama won, such as Pennsylvania. Most of the Congressional Seats that were up for grabs went Republican, except for Pittsburgh, Philly and a few burbs. It’s not a wild guess that the rest of the districts went Romney (Obama supposedly won Philly with nearly 4-1 ratio).

This means instead of getting all of the electoral votes for PA, he would have likely gotten votes for 7 of the 19 districts. This is almost worse then actively trying to keep people from voting. It marginalizes people’s votes, especially as some of the districts aren’t exactly proportional in population. It’s bad enough that your vote is a lot more important depending on what state your voting in (I find it funny that neither candidate campaigned in New Jersey) but this is outright marginalizing people’s votes.

Winner take all when it comes to electoral vote in states has been fine for years. There’s no reason to change it now. Instead of looking for ways to marginalize the vote, maybe just maybe it’s time to start changing with the times. When your starting to lose major chunks of the Solid South, it should be a sign. It isn’t the voters to blame for your failures.

Comments (0)

By Mark D, June 18, 2011 3:59 pm

I don’t do this often for videos that aren’t mine, but as many people as possible need to see this:

Time for the middle Class to stop fighting each other and join together!

Comments (0)

By Mark D, October 10, 2010 11:03 am

If your in a Congress district that is predicted to be a close race, you are getting bombarded by commercials about each candidate. What really jumps out though is how the Republicans tend to hope that you’ve forgotten almost a decade of Bush policy. Maybe part of No Child Left Behind was to make the American people dumb enough that they wouldn’t question anything.

Here in my neck of the woods, Patrick Murphy is fighting off Mark Fitzpatrick, the former congressman himself. In the ads lambasting Patrick Murphy, they continually harp on how Patrick Murphy raised the deficit to 13 Trillion while backing the “failed” stimulus. Believe it or not, electing Patrick Murphy into office in 2006 (for a session that began in 2007) has caused a 13 trillion dollar deficit. That would probably make Patrick Murphy one of the all time worst congressman of all time.

Of course reality is a little different. By September of 2007 the deficit had already reached the Bush level record highs of 9 Trillion dollars. On the day Bush took office the deficit was only 5 Trillion dollars. So to blame Patrick Murphy for a 13 Trillion dollar deficit all by himself seems a tad insane. But it’s par for the course this election season as it appears that Republicans can completely ignore the last decade and blame the Democrats for everything.

Then there’s the stimulus. Let’s not forget that the first stimulus was signed into law by Bush, and that most Republican complaints about the Obama stimulus was that they weren’t allowed to add their own pork to it. Yes, the minority party who the Dems didn’t need to pass the stimulus were upset because they couldn’t spend more on it for their own pork. The same Republicans who now call it a waste of money.

At the same time they are also claiming that the Stimulus was a failure. That it didn’t create jobs. Now I don’t have access to the county wide (Bucks County) employment stats for before/after the stimulus. But what I do have is a graph based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which shows job loss and job creation in the time before and after the stimulus. This is nationwide and might be a bit more important then if my own personal area lost 30,000 jobs. At the very least it shows that the stimulus wasn’t a failure.

According to a report issued by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office

CBO, Aug. 24: CBO estimates that ARRA’s policies had the following effects in the second quarter of calendar year 2010:

• They raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent,
• Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points,(and)

• Increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million.

Somewhere out there I picture a maniacal Glenn Beck fan laughing at this and saying I am being brainwashed by the liberal media. Look, the Dems are lying and bullshitting a lot too. Some of them have taken out ads that are just as crazy. But they really can’t claim the stimulus is a failure, or that a two term congressman caused a 13 trillion dollar deficit. You also can’t blame someone for both voting for the stimulus while doing nothing to fight unemployment. Voting for the Stimulus was fighting for a way to lower unemployment and give people jobs. If you voted against the stimulus, then how are you voting to try to improve the economy and the number of jobs out there.

Truthfully I don’t know whats wrong with people that they have seemingly forgotten that Bush and the Republicans were at the controls for the last decade. I’m just waiting until they start blaming the War in Iraq and Afghanistan on the Democrats. I mean why not? It’s not like anyone out there is going to call them out on it.

Comments (0)

By Mark D, August 27, 2010 1:04 pm

I don’t think I’ve ever quoted from the Bible before. It’s kind of ironic that 8 years of Catholic School basically assured that I was too smart to fall for religious BS. But sometimes the only way you can speak to the far right is in their own language.

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping” (2 Peter 2:1–3 NIV).

Personally, I am sick and tired of hearing about “End Times” as “predicted” by the Bible. Realistically the Book Of Revelations was written as a way to parody Nero. I mean imagine if in a thousand years someone picked up a random book which mocked history and thought it was real. Or even better, imagine if the only thing that survived to tell future generations about our society was Epic Movie. The very thought makes me sad.

But as long as the Christian Right believes it is preparing for a final battle between good and evil, let’s play along with it. Glenn Beck is a wolf among the sheep. His outright and blatant lies has been stirring up the most ignorant and fearful on the right. Anyone with a thimble of intelligence should realize that he spouts nothing but lies. His poor record as a commentator is seen in the ads he sells. Glenn Beck wouldn’t care if every single one of his “supporters” went bankrupt buying gold. Ironically, Glenn Beck selling gold is like “Don’t Be A Victim” selling guns. Both programs do nothing but promulgate fear. Beck’s listeners buy gold on the belief that the government is on the verge of collapse and your fortunes will be saved if you invest it in gold. That these relatively fundamentalist Christians who believe rapture is right around the corner care so much for saving their wealth. Shouldn’t the glory of heaven be worth more then any earthly possessions?

I tend to ignore Glenn Beck. His view tends to be so insane and fake that I can’t take him seriously. So you might be wondering why I’m even bothering with him now. His “Restoring Honor” gathering tomorrow at the Lincoln memorial has perturbed me  to no end. It’s funny that a Republican (Or if you object, Right Leaning) would hold any sort of speech or rally at the Lincoln memorial, considering that the party has long lost sight of what it’s most important member stood for. Could you imagine today’s Republicans if there was a civil war and at the conclusion their leader, the President, wanted to offer amnesty to all rebels? They would run him out of town on the first rail. Take for example the Freedman’s Bureau. Not only did it actively try to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves, but it also helped improve both medical coverage and schools through the South. How quickly would today’s Republicans be screaming about the fair market?

Continue reading 'Christians, You do not have to look far for the False Prophet'»