Abortion über alles

There has been a sustained Republican assault on reproductive health services, carried out with evangelical fervor. There is significant contradiction between the words, and legislative initiatives, of right-wing crusaders. Unborn babies continue to receive more attention than actual living and breathing babies.

An editorial piece in the NYT today highlights one aspect of this attack very clearly. "We're number one!" But not in any way that makes us proud of our achievements.



It's yet another statistic indicating that funding for healthcare services in this country is being driven by religious ideologues.

It seems everyday as if we must be at the breaking point. That Americans won't tolerate being scolded by the self-righteous among us, when making legal choices to manage our lives and the health and welfare of our families.

Single issue voters may not care about the fallout here, as there's nothing more important than saving the lives of the unborn. It's a bait and switch deal. Conservatives go to the polls with the false hope of overturning Roe, meanwhile stripping the rights of the living.

Make no mistake, healthcare for the living IS a right. For argument sake let's call it a privilege. The privileges of newborns are being systematically stripped. When is enough....enough already? The separation of church and state has evolved into an unholy union of god-fearing lawmakers and the factually challenged, blindly heeding the call to "save the babies".

Time to Get Serious

Arguments about cutting $60 billion or $100 billion in federal spending are all the rage. The problem is not with the validity of the need to cut (or to save), it's that the cuts are agenda-driven, political attacks. Both parties need to keep in mind that they are each popular with only about half the population. Politically motivated budget slashing is a bad idea. Politicians should be looking to cut the fat, wherever it is found.

According to a story in today's NYT the Pentagon found, in a study they conducted, that it had paid $285 billion in three years to over 120 contractors accused of fraud and wrongdoing. That is a helluva lot more money than the $450 million to be saved by scrapping the spare engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Spending a few million dollars for investigation of fraud and abuse would be money well spent. Taxpayers would approve of that level of government oversight, if the story were told without spin and fear-mongering about the preservation of our security at all costs.

As an average concerned citizen, I read the Sunday paper and wonder what the fuck these elected officials are doing. Seriously! They have meetings, and access to information, and ledgers, and the best cuts they can propose are to dismantle the health care act, Planned Parenthood and heating subsidies for low income families. Truly shocking and morally bankrupt. Compassionate conservatism indeed!

Granted the House budget proposal is DOA, but the fact that it's put out there with a self-righteous, indignant, straight face is all that one needs to know to dismiss John Boehner and Eric Cantor of not being serious adults.

Blaming public worker unions for the financial difficulties facing the states is yet another big, big lie. The teachers, firefighters and sanitation workers are the same Americans who unwittingly  found their pension funds backed by toxic mortgage products. The Republican politicians blaming the public worker unions are the same ones that pushed deregulation of financial institutions, and the smoke and mirrors products they created. Yet another example of Republicans breaking the system, and literally breaking the bank.

Shut 'er down

Right wing deficit whingers continue to espouse tax cuts, especially for their rich donors. The Bush tax cuts are the single largest driver of short-term debt, repealing them would stabilize the debt for the next decade.

Since the days of Saint Ronnie, Democrats have had to clean up the mess left behind by slash and burn Republicans. Cutting revenue and going to war after war has cost this country dearly. So-called conservatives are screaming about the deficit, but their manufactured outrage only ever applies to a Democratic President  or a Congress. Once again they set the place on fire and then complain about how much water is being used to bring the blaze under control.

A misinformed public buys this nonsense .... again!

Thank goodness the President is not playing along. This time he's essentially ignoring the conservatives and their proposals to retry failed economic strategies. There are some serious spending cuts and revenue increases in the White House budget proposal. This is indeed a modest proposal, perhaps too modest, but a far sight better than the Republican alternatives. If the Senate can hold their footing through all this we should come out ahead at the end of what promises to be a giant game of chicken, played out at our expense.

As the public bluster and swagger escalates, we may be on the brink of another government shut down. The last time it happened, the overplay cost Republicans the House. Could we be so lucky as to have them blunder into this failure again? Hope with me, won't you?

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.“ - Glenn Beck Joseph Goebbels

Democracy on the run

Watching the events unfold in Egypt prompted some investigation of democracies worldwide and the trends in democratization. The findings are not so good.

The Economist Intelligence Unit published a report, at the end of last year, entitled "Democracy index 2010". The overarching concept is that democracy is in retreat worldwide.

"The index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories-this covers almost the entire population of the world and the vast majority of the world's independent states (micro states are excluded). The Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture."

The US and UK are near the bottom of the "full democracy" category of the index, ranked at 17th and 19th respectively.

"In the US, there has been an erosion of civil liberties related to the fight against terrorism. Problems in the functioning of government have also become more prominent."

Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden & New Zealand top the 26 nation list as the most democratic full democracies. Costa Rica and Portugal hold the bottom positions.

The facts here do not align with the meme of American Exceptionalism, with respect to our freedoms and status when compared with other democracies. We are well behind highest rated democracies in terms of functioning of government and political participation.

Our bi-polar US government is not functioning as intended. Of the 26 full democracies, only the Czech Republic and Portugal rank lower in functioning of government. We're not #1. In this category, we're #24. That is simply not good enough and we should demand better, but don't hold your breath. Political participation is relatively feeble compared with those countries at the top of the list.

Egyptian revolution is fomented by 14% unemployment, a relatively high cost of living and high level of income inequality. The US income inequality rating is significantly higher than in Egypt, as illustrated in the following graphic from the New York Times.

We shouldn't be expecting a new American Revolution any time soon, but some of the indicators are in place. These common threads provide us with insight into the motivation of Egypt's shrinking middle class being driven driving into the streets, demanding better from their government and of their country.