Politics Report

Glenn Beck bad showThis afternoon I watched former Congressman Eric Massa's interview on the Glenn Beck show. Glenn Beck looked like he wanted to scream. He thought he had something and was besides himself when he saw that he had nothing. No scandal. No insiders evidence of wrong doing by the House Democratic leaders and the White House Chief of Staff. He had nothing but egg on his face. For twenty four hours he had been promising his public red meat and he delivered empty air. Congressman Eric Massa imploded on live-tv and there was nothing Beck could do but confessed that he (Beck) was wasting his public's time. I was looking for him to cry. Maybe he did in his dressing room. Maybe not. Afterall the tears are for show. Oh, well.

Here is the link to the Video of the Interview: (http://video.foxnews.com/v/4096274/massa-i-own-this-misbehavior)

Insane in the membrane?A disrespectful group of unintelligent beings, also known as the Topeka, Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church have the audacity to protest outside of our soldiers' funerals, believing that "God is punishing the United States for 'the sin of homosexuality' through events such as soldiers' deaths." People belonging to this terrible movement, travel the country screaming at grieving family members at funerals and displaying such signs as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Blew Up the Troops." Our country respects the ability of free speech, but is this a case where a line needs to be drawn? Grieving parents and friends of soldiers that have died for our country by no means need to be ridiculed by people that have obviously lost their minds. These people should stop their protesting and get mental evaluations. Read more

Sarah PalinAt the first (the last?) Tea Party Convention, Sarah Palin (in)famously called President Obama out for using a teleprompter. Then she herself got called out for putting “crib notes” on her hand to remind her of her core issues- even scratching one out and clarifying. For clarity.

It was funny and sort of sad- but was it a big deal? No. Just another press hiccup in the long song and dance that is the Sarah Palin PR machine. I even questioned writing about her in a politics column. Is she still in politics?

In the past two years or so she has:

1 Run and lost for Vice President with John McCain.

2 Resigned as governor amidst allegations.

3 Written, published, and toured in support of a book called “Going Rogue.”

4 Spoken at the Tea Party Convention.

5 Taken a job as a periodic Fox News Correspondent. Read more

Religious FreedomOne of the most sacred freedoms that we have is the freedom to choose our own religious practices based on our own personal convictions. But in the current political and cultural atmosphere it seems that many have lost respect for this sacred right and are failing to realize that true freedom of religion means that you do not get a vote in someone else's faith. Read more

Get it!I love the sport of trying to figure out what caused the financial crisis- the theories and the research in the hope/ idea that we could make it not happen again. Paul Krugman starts off his op-ed about the financial crisis with this little ditty:

“Everyone has a theory about the financial crisis. These theories range from the absurd to the plausible — from claims that liberal Democrats somehow forced banks to lend to the undeserving poor (even though Republicans controlled Congress) to the belief that exotic financial instruments fostered confusion and fraud. But what do we really know?”

So, which parts are absurd and which parts are credible?

Liberal Democrats forced banks to lend to poor: Read more

"I'm gay," State Senator Roy Ashburn told a radio host from his central California district in an interview this morning. "Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long."

Ashburn said in the interview that he repeatedly voted against gay rights because he was representing the views of his conservative constituents. Read more

Jim Bunning SenatorPaul Krugman had an outstanding op-ed in Thursday’s New York Times. His basic point was that Republicans and Democrats live in completely different universes and that bipartisanship is a bit of a pipe dream, at least for a few more years. Case in point was Senator Jim Bunning’s recent block of an extension for unemployment benefits. According to Krugman, who I trust on this one, offering unemployment benefits in a time of deep recession is pretty standard economic theory- so in a sense, the Democrats are following the generally accepted economic norms of the country and the Republicans are, well, off the deep end. Read more

An interesting tidbit comes from 'The Daily Californian' newspaper from reporter Nick Palmquist and it states, "It costs an estimated $1 million to deploy a soldier to Afghanistan for a year and $49,000 to incarcerate a prisoner for a year in California. The state of California spends less than $10,000 to educate one K-12 student each year. The tradeoff is clear and unjustifiable."

This shows how horribly arranged our priorities are in this country. Obviously our soldiers need to be funded, but one has to wonder what $1 million per student could do for a student, or even half that amount. That really could be something. Read more

An interesting find came to Politico reporter Ben Smith as a GOP fundraising document was left in a hotel room after the Republican National Committee had a conference in Florida. The document tells those that attended the $2,500 a-head retreat, to tap into the "fear" this campaign season, and to go after the Democrat led Washington with their supposed "trend toward socialism."

The document/presentation then goes on to depict President Obama as the Joker in the movie the 'Dark Knight,' shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Cruella de Vil, and Senate Majority Leader as Scooby Doo in an attempt, once again, to rile up "fear" for the conservative base. The document then proceeds to make fun of huge RNC donors, showcasing them as "ego-driven" and easily manipulated. Read more

Does anyone else question the people that our society is giving political capital to? Political capital shouldn't be given to the people with the biggest mouths and those with the most divisive language, for they're not helping anyone or anything, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Point in focus: Sarah Palin. How is she the voice of the conservative party and the Tea-Party jokes? Are you kidding me? She was the mayor of a small town, fine. She was the govenor of Alaska, fine, but when ethics investigations got too much, she quit. In that mix, as well, she was tabbed Vice Presidential candidate by irresponsible John McCain, who had no idea who she was and plucked her out of Alaska to try to pick up some Hilary Clinton voters. We all saw how that turned out, saw her political knowledge in her terrible performance in the vice presidential debate, and watched her and McCain run one of the most negative campaigns of all-time. Read more