In 1995, Gingrich and the GOP house majority decided to slow the rate of spending by slowing down the budget process. “Gingrich allowed previously approved appropriations to expire on schedule, thus allowing parts of the Federal government to shut down for lack of funds.” The impact of the message he was trying to send got lost in his ego. He suggested that the stance Republicans and he had taken on the budget was partially due to his being snubbed by former President Clinton. Tom DeLay writes about the incident in his book, No Retreat, No Surrender, noting that Gingrich made the mistake of his life:
“He told a room full of reporters that he forced the shutdown because Clinton had rudely made him and Bob Dole sit at the back of Air Force One…Newt had been careless to say such a thing, and now the whole moral tone of the shutdown had been lost. What had been a noble battle for fiscal sanity began to look like the tirade of a spoiled child. The revolution, I can tell you, was never the same.”[....]
One of the GOP yarn highlights yesterday morning was suggesting that President Obama being on vacation in Hawaii is quite different than vacationing in Texas. Big “D” (Dallas) just got demoted along with everyone else in the state of Texas. CNN’s John Roberts interviews Kevin Madden (former romey spokesman) and James Carville (CNN Political Contributor and Democratic Strategist) this morning about the Christmas Day failed bombing attack. At one point, Madden stated that, “Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place,” and “But to many Americans, Hawaii seems like this very tropical place, and the optics of many of these reporters reporting about the president’s response with surfers behind them is much different.”
On November, 8th, The Chronicle Review posed the question, “Are too many people going to college,” noting that:
“With student debt rising and more of those enrolled failing to graduate in four years, there is a growing sentiment that college may not be the best option for all students. At the same time, President Obama has called on every American to receive at least one year of higher education or vocational training. Behind the rhetoric lies disagreement over a series of issues: which students are most likely to succeed in college; what kind of college they should attend; whether the individual or society benefits more from postsecondary education; and whether college is worth the high cost and likely long-term debt. The Chronicle Review asked higher-education experts to weigh in.”[full post]
An online discussion followed between nine experts in the field of education. They were asked a series of questions that included:
Yesterday, Dick Cheney joined with the rest of the party of no, attempting to spin their current yarn that the President is not responding as he should to the most recent Christmas Day bombing attack. As usual, Cheney went overboard:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term “war on terror” and attempting to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.[POLITICO]
The GroundHog’s answer to Cheney’s baseless comments:
For those who, like me, live in an “all-season” climate, we love a good yarn to chew on during the winter months. Walk in the door at our local diner and one is greeted with, “Did ya here?,” which is followed by the latest piece of juicy gossip. And that’s about what the value of the party of no has become — a yarn to chew on during the cold and often unpredictable winter months.
The latest in GOP yarns; the President appeared in public without wearing a tie, while delivering a statement on the Christmas Day foiled bombing attack. What! No tie? Who cares? When it comes to our national security, the rest of the country does not care if the President arrives at the scene with or without a tie. This is not the kind of yarn that will get us through a long winter. It does, however, remind me of a Woody Allen scene in “Take the Money and Run.”
What is up with Pat Buchanan and the rest of the party of no? Have we not learned our lesson with what the past administration did – especially Dick (Darth Vader) Cheney – on torture? Is not Guantanamo Bay a stain on our history that the world will never forget? We cannot claim the moral high ground and then torture someone. But the party of no seem to not care about such things.
This morning on the way into the office, I passed by the security desk and from the corner of my eye caught the image of a beautiful, African-American young woman on the front page of a local newspaper and above her name were big bold red letters. It was the same paper I noticed laying on the desk the week before. So, after passing by it a third time I finally picked it up and took the time to read it. The red letters read – “Activist and Community Servant, Needs Bone Marrow Donor”. The beautiful young woman I saw on the front page was Attorney Jennifer Jones Austin, 41 and mother of 2 who is dying of Leukemia.
Earlier this month, the US Conference of Mayors released their 23rd annual report on hunger and homelessness (27 city survey). Something we should all be alarmed about is that the report shows on average a 26 percent increase in hunger this year over last year. While individual homelessness declined, family homelessness continues to rise as noted in the report’s executive summary:
This report presents the results of a survey of the 27 cities that comprise The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness. Respondents were asked to provide information on emergency food assistance and homeless services provided between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009.
This is the first time in our nation’s history that both the House and Senate have passed proposed legislation to fix our health care system. This is a chance of a lifetime and the Fat Lady, however weary, is still waiting to sing. The Consumers Union listed the following pros and cons on proposed health care reform. Review the list below and share your thoughts:
Despite its shortcomings, the Senate bill will get millions more people covered by health insurance and create incentives for better quality care.
The bill stops insurance companies from denying insurance for people with pre-existing conditions or coverage for expensive procedures.
Millions of people will get discounts, sometimes steep discounts, on the price of a policy thanks to new federal tax credits designed to make insurance affordable for average families and small business.
We have to come out of the gate in 2010 by sending a clear message — that the vast majority of Americans are prepared to press our leaders for immediate action to solve the climate crisis. Georganna, a supporter from St. Louis, has posted a video sharing her resolve. Will you start the New Year by making a personal commitment to fight for clean energy and climate in 2010? Watch Georganna’s video resolution.
“Environmental Justice as Economic Diversity” is the slogan for an emerging coalition of civil rights, environmental, developmental, educational, and faith-based organizations and individuals with an evolving goal to use the rich natural and cultural resources of Southeastern Connecticut as a model for a new and more holistic paradigm to build just and sustainable communities.
Defining this ecological region are Long Island Sound (one in ten people in the United States live within fifty miles of it) with miles of salt marshes and the Quinnebaug-Shetucket Watershed, which is to say the Thames River Basin. Within this region “Environmental Justice” can bring together civil rights and environmental movements to act affirmatively for all, including Mother Earth under the renewed pressure of global warming.
One way to tell if something is right for the people is when it benefits all of the people; starting with those who need it the most. For sure, we all wish there was much more in the current proposed health care legislation, both by the Senate and the House. What we must do now is to keep fighting for the best bill we can possibly get in this legislative session. What is helpful in order to keep perspective is that the battle we are fighting has gone on for close to a century already.
Moreover, we are changing the paradigm of how we do business by putting people (all people and not just some) first. Is it not amazing that everyone will benefit from health reform in some way; even those vehemently against it? At the end of the day, whether we are a CEO of a major insurance
Isn’t blogging grand? What a great way to share conversation, thoughts and ideas. Do we have to agree on everything?Hopefully not. Otherwise, we could all just find a mirror and talk to ourselves. What we hope for is that the conversation will always be real, at times interesting, sometimes entertaining, sometimes thoughtful and often thought provoking. I happen to notice some comments on GroundUp by a group of different gravatar names that all seemed to have the same “voice.” All of the comment entries, regardless of whether they disparage the President or health care, say so in the same tone. So I did a test. I read each comment consecutively and confirmed that I was hearing the same voice, i.e., the same stress levels and patterns. Then, I listed the gravatar names alphabetically and here’s what I found.
