2014 midterm election, voter apathy or a GOP strategy?

                So the 2014 midterm election ended with a Republican runaway.  They gained the majority in the Senate and gained more seats in the stagnate House.  Congress had an 11% approval rating yet 96% of incumbents retained their seats.  I find it very odd that people were so unhappy yet kept the same people in office.  If anyone thought the Republican strategy would change,  that they might work with President Obama, joke is on you.  Senator Lindsey Graham called him a child in an interview.  Seems the citizens of American did what the GOP wanted,  stayed home on election day.

Is this a master plan by Republicans? No, it is being perpetuated by the party but their marching orders come from the Koch brothers and groups like ALEC or the NRA. The plan seems very complicated but it is not. Very simple, how can a party with a very large deficit in membership beat a party with the larger membership? First they had to win at the state level. When they did that, the began to redistricting or gerrymander. Gerrymandering is the process of breaking up voting districts into more favorable districts for the party in charge. The Supreme Court ruled that Gerrymandering was illegal, but why would laws stop these crooks.

Step 2 was a little tougher. Once they took over the states and gerrymandered the districts they needed to keep moving up the ladder. The gerrymandered districts allowed Republicans to win seats in predominantly Democrat areas. Once they gained seats in the House, the majority, they started pushing voter ID laws in their States. These laws are intended to limit the votes of minorities. Many minorities do not have the proper ID, in some states people that voted for years were no longer allowed to vote. They shortened early voting, voting hours, absentee ballots went missing in several states, voter registrations went missing, people were turned away and Democrat votes turned into Republican votes. All of these laws for a .0002% rate of fraud over the last 10 years. Republicans have said from different states that they needed to limit voting in order to have a chance to win. These are the so called protectors of democracy.

At the same time all this was happening in 2010, still happening today, the billionaires went to court in the Citizens United case. They won the right to contribute as much as they want without anyone being able to track their political spending. The last estimate I saw, the Koch brothers spent over $300 million on the 2014 election cycle alone. Many of this us dark money, which is extremely hard to teach, but is traceable. It is said that Republicans and Democrats get the same amount of money. The upfront money we see, Republicans had about a 20% advantage on. Where as dark money it is estimated anywhere between a 60% to 150% advantage. Most of this money comes from single donors. If you believe money has nothing to do with elections, you couldn’t be further from the truth. The candidate with most money wins 94% of the time.

The last part, which probably should have been the first part, is the main stream media. For instance, 2 of the most popular conservative news sources Rush Limbaugh and FOX NEWS are the 2 most unreliable news sources. Limbaugh is estimated to lie approximately 75% of the time and FOX News tops them at about 85% of the time. Approximately 250 newspapers are owned by 7 conservatives. News channels are complicit as well. Instead of covering anything going right, they went with Ebola and Is is. They played the Republican scare tactic game. So the plan was later out.

Through all these things they routed a Democrat party whose President lowered the deficit, GDP, unemployment, the unemployment rate is at 5.8%, gas prices and health insurance. There would be more jobs of not for Republicans led by Mitch McConnell voting against the Veterans Jobs Bill and the Jobs Bill. This Republican party is not here for the people, they are there for those with the paper. Democracy is not dying a slow death, it is being murdered right before our eyes by enemies dressed as Patriots.

What is the cause of polarization in American politics today!

        Polarization in politics refers to the divergence of political attitudes ideological extremes. Most discussions about polarization refer to political parties and Democratic systems of government. Typically polarization results in moderate voices being silenced. The extremes in both parties take the lead, which ultimately causes the same in the population. In our political climate the Right Wing extremists have demonized compromise, referring to it as weakness. the polarization in our current political climate has ground our Democracy to a halt. This in turn has hurt the middle and lower class Americans. It has damaged any attempt to fix our infrastructure or deal with anything of political significance. Hopefully i can succinctly describe the cause of polarization today.

       Gerrymandering, also known as redistricting has had a bit to do with it. when a sitting representative feels safe from the other side they tend to double down on more extremist views. This is a way to pander to a base. Gerrymandering is illegal in the United States. instead of drawing districts in lines that make sense, the districts are drawn to keep Republican districts safe by splitting up strong Democrat sectors. This has been on full display in states where Republicans are sitting in the majority or as Governors. In several states despite a Democrat winning the majority of the votes they lost the states because of the redistricting. As i said this was found to illegal many, many years ago, yet still happens.

           Lobbying is another humongous cause.  The Sunshine Rules which came into being after Watergate created more transparency in committee meetings and recorded votes, also opened them up to special interest groups and lobb
yist. Which made it easier to figure out which Congressman were on the fence and needed a little push. This truly opened our Democracy up to the oligarchy our government has become. A perfect example of this phenomenon is when President Obama and Congress (Democrats) started working on the ACA. In the first week about 300 lobbyist from the health insurance industry descended on D.C. Look at who received these donations, it is public record, and you will understand the incredible disinformation about the ACA. Then throw the Citizen’s United decision into the mix and everything spins completely out of control. If anyone tells you that decision didn’t effect our Democracy is either lying or lives in a box. The candidate who raises  the most money wins 94% of the time. Obviously money has a very large effect on our Democracy.

          Last but not least, the Media has pushed our representatives farther left or right. As a Liberal I wholeheartedly believe it is more Conservative media then Liberal media pushing the extremism. I watch both  sides and identify with little, if any thing the Conservative media says or believes. Republican Darrell Issa, who I personally believe is a disgrace to his

Where did our elected leaders go?

           In 2009 President Obama took over as our first African-American president. That was the day government shut down. The Republicans vowed that making him a one term president was there number one priority. They would do anything to make that happen. In their efforts to unseat him, they did irreapairable harm to America. They created a divide so wide that if you disagree with a conservatives point of view, you are a Nazi, a marxist, a socialist and a traitor.

Health care costs were raging out of control. Increasing about 200% since the year 2004. I did not have a copay in 2004, meds cost 10-20-30. By 2008 I was paying $65 a week and 20-35-55 for meds. Office visits went from $10 to $20 and specialists $25 to $75. The ACA was put into effect to stem the rising costs, help get the uninsured insured at a reasonable rate and stop people being denied for pre-existing conditions. Despite the President and Democrats trying to stem health care costs, which were crippling our manufacturing sector, Republicans railed against it. In fact they have voted 41 times to repeal it, costing us $60 million dollars with those votes, some fiscal hawks right. What is wrong with stopping people from losing their homes when they get sick. Shows who Republicans really work for.

Republicans attacked President Obama over unemployment. While at the same time shooting down his jobs bill, which would have created a million new jobs. They said the unemployment rate was to high. But when the president got it under 8%, they said the president doesn’t create jobs. Republicans took over the House in 2010, they have not created a single job. They are much more concerned with anti-abortion laws and religious laws. The president’s economic plan is working despite sequestration and continued Republican interference. If Republicans were willing to work with Democrats maybe their input would be in these bills, possibly even improving them.

Paul Ryan, John Boehner and several other prominent Republicans have said that there is no longer a debt crisis. Yet these so called budget hawks try to take the country hostage on the debt ceiling. First this is just for bills that Congress already approved. Why would they not approve money for spending they already approved? It is a domestic terrorist attack designed to further an agenda that caters to corporations, ALEC, the Koch Brothers and NRA amongst others. These is not what our forefathers envisioned when they wrote the Constitution.

Pennsylvania needs to dump the GOP in 2014

                I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania. This is a Democrat heavy area, as is most of Pennsylvania. Gerrymandering has given our state a Republican Governor and House majority. Although the state overwhelmingly voted for President Obama.

Governor Corbett has proposed so many pro-business bills, you would think he was a Natural Gas Drilling Lobbyist. He has given corporations hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts while cutting State Health Care and education budgets. He refuses to let Pennsylvania take part in the ACA, because people on Medicaid get too much for free. The state has sunk to 49th in job creation under Corbett, he says too many Pennsylvaniabs are on drugs. Stats tend to disagree.

Republicans suspend the laws of the State Legislature when they don’t suit them. They invoked God’s Law when the States only openly gay Senator wanted to talk about the Supreme Courts decision on the DOMA case. They refused to let him speak. Sadly Republicans are doing this nationwide as well as in Pennsylvania.

Democrats in the State have fought Corbett at every step. They have stopped much of his conservative agenda. But the only true way to stop his unconstitutional methods is to vote him out. No voter apathy, Voter Restriction Laws cannot stop us, he needs to go. Our children and our state deserve better.

Pennsylvania Voter I.D. Law is going on trial.

                  Pennsylvania’s long side lined Voter I.D. Law is going to court to determine its Constitutionality. Critics who say the Law violates voters’ rights convinced a Judge to bar enforcement during the 2012 election. The Law requires voters to show a photo I.D., which if is paid for becomes a voter toll. The Judge issued temporary orders based on a narrower context. The trial is set for July 15 in the Commonwealth Court to determine if the Law is Constitutionally legal.

It most certainly will take a long time for there to be an outcome. Lawyers in the case say Commonwealth Court Judges most likely wilk weigh in after the trial. Both sides expect the loser to appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If the state prevails voters in Pennsylvania will be forced to present a photo I.D. before casting a ballot. If the Law is overturned voters will see little change at the polls.

The Plaintiffs lawyers – the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, the ACLU of Pa., the Advancement Project and the Washington D.C. Law firm of Arnold and Porter- have asked the court to bar enforcement of the law until the case is fully resolved. The states legal team of includes lawyers from the Attorney General’s office, Governor Tom Corbett’s Office of General Counsel and the private law firm of Drinker, Biddle and Reath LLP.

The Law approved by Republicans who controlled the legislature and signed by a Republican governor has created quite an issue among voters and Democrats. Republicans in the State Legislature said that thus law wouod ensurs Republican victories in future elections. If the Voter Photo I.D. has to be paid for it violates the U.S. Constitution. You cannot make a citizen pay to vote and impede them from voting in any way.

Republicans realize they cannot win elections with theur current ideology and their obstructionist ways. They use gerrymandering, which is illegal, and Voter Restriction Laws to force their way into office. Rather than adjusting to what the People want they are trying to force their ideals down our throat. From Gun Control to Prayer in School they are misinterpreting and stomping all over the Constitution, with help from lobbyist and groups like ALEC. Voting to choose our leaders is the foundation of American Democracy, the Republican party doesn’t have a right to take that away because they don’t like President Obama. Put your ideology in line with the people and your chances of winning improve exponentially.

Darrell Issa throws a fit about Susan Rice appointment.

Darrell Issa has garnered headlines again. He has thrown a fit about President Obama appointing Susan Rice as a National Security Adviser. Issa called her a liar, scandalous and unfit to hold any appointment because her Sunday talk show talking points were wrong. Now that all the information is out, we know it wasn’t her fault.

Representative Issa should think before he speaks. If lying on Sunday talk shows makes you unfit for appointments, Issa should step down immediately. Ambassador Pickering assisted in the investigation into Benghazi, yet he was not invited to testify and Issa refused to let him testify. Pickering called Issa a liar when he went on the Sunday shows saying Pickering refused to testify. Issa thought Benghazi was going to be his shining moment, it obviously wasn’t. Republicans got so desperate they doctored the Benghazi emails to make the administration look guilty.

Issa wasn’t the only nut bag to come out against Susan Rice. Karl Rove said it was President Obama shoving it in Republicans faces. He alsovquestioned her honesty.Jason Chaffetz said ” She used her good name to try to convince the American people of this bogus story. She has to take some responsibility for that, the President is obviously not holding her accountable. Its what is so troubling about the entire Benghazi incident, people are getting promoted for a job poorly done.” Rand Paul said the President has been struggling to regain the moral authority to lead the nation. This doesnt really encourage anyone to reappoint or promote the person eho was guilty of misleading us on the Benghazi tragedy. I can’t imagine that we woukd keep Ambassador Rice in any significant position, much less promoting her to an important position. How are they going to have the authority to have people believe what they are saying when he is promoting someone who directly and deliberately midlead the public on Benghazi? The Benghazi tragedy is not going to go away until we have some answers. Why the elaborate coverup?

Will the Republican party ever stop and think before they speak? All these scandals that have been manufactured into bigger non issues. Why is President Obama evil to them? Why do they refer to him as a bad man? Whenever Democrats get the majority the Republicans wheels fall off. They wanted to impeach him 7 weeks into his first term. This is why Republicans can’t win an election without gerrymandering or voter suppression. Another day and some more Republican crazy.

Republicans deliberately misquote Benghazi emails to manufacture a smoking gun.

                     Last weeks leaks that misquoted the Benghazi emails came directly from Republicans. Republicans had seen copies if these emails 2 months ago and did nothing with them. Obvious to most was that the emails showed interagency haggling. Someone in the Republican party, really trying to cash in on the Benghazi tragedy, got the bright idea of leaking 2 isolated tidbits and mischaracterizing them in an effort to make the State Department, more importantly Hillary Clinton, look bad.

               But Republicans went a little to far, causing the White House, much to Republicans surprise , to release the entire email chain. It made it abundantly clear that the press had been duped and now reporters are letting the world know who was behind it. The Republican party has never been good at determining when enough was enough. When it became obvious that Benghazi wasn’t the Watergate they wanted, they desperately tried to invent something.

                On the IRS scandal, their problem is that Democrats are just as angry and are looking for answers. This has forced Republicans to dig deeper and look for more accusations in order to draw a contrast between them and Democrats. On the AP phone records, they have to dance around the fact that they not only approve of such subpoenas but voted down a bill to prevent them. The sane part of the Republican party, or the not so insane part, cannot seem to reel in the extremist parts of the party. Just listen to resident nut job Michele Bachman suggesting that its time to start impeachment precedings.

              CNN originally introduced the contradiction betweened what was revealed in the White House Benghazi email version versus what was reported in media outlets. Mother Jones noted that the Republican interim report included the correct version of the emails, signalling that more malice and less incompetence may have been at play with the alleged alterations. Simply put, Republicans did this on purpose, not by mistake.

          GOP version of Rhodes comment “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.”
           The actual White House email “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.” Quite a bit different.
            The GOP version “The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about the previous warnings provided by the agency (CIA) about Al Qeada’s presence and activities of Al Qaeda. ”
             The actual White House email “The penultimate point could very abuses by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency (CIA) warnings.” Another one quite different, apparently the original emails didn’t serve the Republican purpose.

              My concern is that the media us not reporting this. Chuck Todd took about 10 minutes yesterday to run President Obama over the coals, yet did not mention this once. My fear is that Republicans will stop at nothing to harm Democrats, President Obama, and Hillary Clinton no matter the cost. Republicans need to face the fact, the majority if people aren’t biting your brand of crazy. Despite shining it up, putting new names on it and having different people delivering, your message is the same bucket of hate. You have been left behind, instead of attacking our voting rights and gerrymandering, work with the people and make the 2 party system relevant again.

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Where were Benghazi whistle blowers during last hearings?

                 I am not accusing them of lying, I am curious where these people were in January. Why didn’t these whistle blowers come out earlier. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answered questions and jumped through Republican hoops. Apparently it took Republicans four and half months to realize they were unsatisfied.

            I, personally do not put much stock in a whistle blower who tells their story months after they should have. Republicans seem to forget several things. When you take a post overseas there is an element of risk that comes with it. That the same Republicans who required another set of hearings voted for a funding cut on the State Department budget. It was almost half a BILLION DOLLARS, they denied Secretary of State Clintons request for an increase in budget and their actions caused the loss of 300 embassy security personnel. They also signed an Amendment in 2009 cutting $1.2 billion from the State Department budget.

              They also neglect to mention 11 raids on embassies/consulats and almost 60 deaths in those raids during Bush’s tenure. Not one Republican called for Congressional hearings nor did a Democrat. This is a Republican full court press to make President Obama and Democrats look bad. They are attempting to make it even more difficult for the President to accomplish his second term agenda. As well as set Democrats up to fall in 2014 election.

                The Republican party’s hate for President Obama is causing them to act more childish then normal. Not to mention if Hillary Clinton decides to run in 2016, there’s is not a Republican who can beat her. Republicans are not confident enough in gerrymandering and voter purges to try to beat her. The shame of it is, if Republicans stopped being extremist they might garner more votes. But taking away true rights unites the people against you.

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Greed and America.

           Republicans speek of the Free Market as if it were miraculous. They try to sell the rest of the population how important it is and how it goes hand and hand with the American way of life. They do not mention that many suffer horribly because of the greed involved in the Free Market. A market where profits outweigh common sense.

            Republicans and conservatives believe regulations cripple the Free Market. They neglect to mention that capitalism in its true form nearly sank our economy and that these believers in the “Free Market” were the first to bail these companies out. That doesn’t sound like a Free Market to me, that sounds like tax payers subsidizing Private Enterprises. That there is a bit of Socialism.

             Yes I said that evil word, socialism. Republicans only believe in anything when it works for their needs. Look at how they are attacking our voting rights across the nation, can’t win fair,  they cheat. These same Republicans who so fiercely support capitalism and the Free Market give corporations almost $200 billion a year in corporate welfare. Yet they attack the $80 billion spent on Food Assistance for low income Americans. Each dollar of that $80 gets a return of $1.84 into the economy.

                The Free Market and Capitalism are just words used to cover their true agenda. At first this may sound conspiracy like,  but read and put it together. In each state Republicans are gerrymandering and attempting to make it harder for poor folk to vote. They vote against gun reform, which is strongly supported by Americans. Are against gay marriage, support the Sequester, voted against VAWA, are attempting to cut SNAP benefits, voted against Sandy Relief, want to Privatize Social Security and Public Schools and want to cut Medicare. Please remember this is just a partial list. Why would they these things and who do they affect? Mind you they voted no to raising taxes on corporations and wealthy people.

               This is class warfare. They are attacking the weak, those who cannot politically protect themselves. An American voices their political opinion through voting. Republicans believe if they can control who votes the country is theirs. Their vision for America is not a Democracy with civil liberties, but a religious State controlled by a few. If you are reading this you already realize there is something wrong. If they get their e
Way we will live in something that resembles a Dictatorship.

              I am a Liberal Democrat, but I am ashamed to say that many of these Democrats are our only bastion of hope. They do not stand united and turn their backs on President Obama. We need strong leaders who will protected our Democracy. We need strong leaders to keep Republicans honest and to limit the power money has on our government. Lobbying needs to be limited. We also need to realize that there are people worldwide and in our country that want to harm us. Please do not incite these lunatics with ill thought out rhetoric.

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Say no to the NRA.

                   As Connecticut pushes forward with a very progressive gun control agenda, the NRA again comes forward with more nonsense. The NRA is a gun lobbyist, they are there to help buy elected officials so gun manufacturers can get their agenda pushed through. The NRA only cares about the 2nd Amendment because it serves their needs.

             Again the NRA comes out in support of arming teachers, but are against universal background checks. So we want to put guns in the hands of teachers who already has the responsibility of teaching 35 or 40 students at a time. Do you honestly believe that is a wise idea? What if the teacher accidentily left it out? What if a kid gets their hands on it? Of they lock it in their desk, how will they get to it in time, while taking care of the kids?

                 This is not the answer. Flooding our streets with more guns, turning it into the wild west again. These are radical answers from a radical group that will make money from more guns getting sold. So do you think this is a good answer? The answers should come from people who do not have anything gain from it. Conflict of interest anyone?

                As President Obama, Harry Reissue and Democrats try to push forward with gun control, Republicans of course threaten to filibuster any kind of gun control bill. So again do Republicans have the peoples interest in mind? If the NRA is allowed to win this battle it will set a very disturbing precedent.  It will say that money means more than 20 dead children, it means more than your kid or mine. That is unacceptable.

          The NRA needs to learn their place. Republicans need to realize the people will remove them from office if they do not work for us. In 2014 we need to show them that gerrymandering, voter suppression, lobbying or whatever they throw at us, IT DOES NOT MATTER. We will keep removing people from office until they work for us.

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