I Doubt Many Republicans Will Read This But: Things to consider before voting

As expected, the Republican Party in the Senate blocked legislation that would have taxed some of the windfall profits the big oil companies have made as gas prices continue to rise above the four dollar a gallon mark. Within that measure were provisions that would have empowered the Justice Department to;

The package also would have instructed the Justice Department to pursue
members of OPEC for alleged price fixing and required oil traders to put up more
cash on futures exchanges to address speculation, which many observers
believe is contributing to the unprecedented run-up in world crude oil
prices.

At the same time this legislation would have rescinded 17 billion dollars in tax breaks approved by a Republican controlled Congress and Administration. I ask you here and now if you got a 17.1 billion dollar profit in one quarter, why do you need a tax break? For the working class that tends to to worry about the so called "tax and spend" democrats, I ask how much has your income risen? If it did rise and you are among the lucky few, did you get an extra tax break?

Then there are the "speculators". We've all heard the news headlines about the price of crude oil rising based on speculation of this and that. Saudi Arabia to day blamed the recent rise in gasoline prices on the "speculators". There is more discussion on this subject here, here and here. Oh yes folks I linked you in one of the sites to Faux Noise. Even Faux whose Chairman and head Rupert Murdock claimed that should we go to war in Iraq, the price for a barrel of oil would drop to $20 a barrel does not particularly like the speculators. There are other issues listed in the article from Sydney Australia which bears on bases in Iraq relevant to today where President Bush is trying to force 58 military bases in Iraq. (BTW dear reader did you remember that Rupert Murdock who seems to have such a strangle hold on "fair and balanced" is Australian, not American? That's right he's a goddamn foreigner).

Back though to the original topic. During the six years we had Republican rule (when the House, Senate and White House were the hands of Republicans they decided to build at our expense a 223 million dollar "bridge to nowhere". Those poor hurricane ravaged fifty people needed this bridge. Yet when Congress tried to pass further relief for the victims in Katrina, it was blocked as wasteful. Yet the number of victims of Katrina at one time was estimated at 926,000 or more. Yes, both parties engage in wasteful pork barrel spending, but for the Republicans to raise the mantra of "tax and spend Democrats", at least to me sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.

Then there is Iraq. According to McCain and his backers (yes they are Republicans and a few "Blue Dog Democrats") we need to stay there until Iraq can function as a fledgling democracy. McCain predicts that will be in 2013. Yet yesterday, although still initially claiming we will be out of Iraq in 2013, McCain promised to send "as many troops as necessary" for as long as needed to Iraq. Let's give McCain a break here and say 2013 we will be out. (Funny though, 2013, isn't that after the 2012 elections?). If the war is costing us 3 billion dollars a week, times 208 weeks (I'm giving McCain a break here and counting only Jan. 2009 to Jan 2013) that would be $624, 000,000,000.00. Chump change right? Yet our Gross Domestic Product is dropping and jobs continues to be cut by corporations more interested in keeping investors happy, and we all know how to cut the bottom line right? Outsource labor to a third world country that let's workers earn $1.00 a day. I will ask you here and now, when did you see a corporate executive get outsourced? In fact when did a corporate executive get his/her pay and golden parachute cut after they tanked their company? For instance the CEO who tanked Country Wide Mortgage Company on bad subprime loans and got away with millions, but when a home owner asked for help he called the failing homeowners cry for help disgusting! Yet the mortgage companies got their bailout at tax payer expense, while the GOP blocked similar relief for homeowners.

The Republicans will claim that the Dems are soft on national security, yet after the Republicans gave billions to defense contractors like Halliburton in no bid contracts, this same company whose former CEO is now the Vice President decides they will move it's head quarters to Dubai in the united Arab Emmerits. You do the math here, how many Americans will they hire over there? Oh, did I mention in Duai there are no taxes with a banking system more secretive then Switzerland and the Camen Islands combined. Then there is the question to ask one's self, do I really want a company, with so many national security contracts moving to the middle east, while it takes my tax dollar and avoids any return that may have been offered cheaper with more productive results then they have offered? In fact they have failed to delver in almost eveything.

I could go on and on, and provide a myriad of citations to back up my arguments from both liberal and conservative publications. Instead I will ask you, the simple family planner to bring all these complex issues down to a simple understandable level. You as head of your household maker say $75,000.00 a year and your budget is based on that. Do you one day go out and decide you'll raise your family's expenditures to $500, 000.00 or more based on the chance you might win a lottery grand prize ticket called Iraq? Do you then not try to supplement the household income so you can meet those expenses? Do you support a government that doles out huge sums to a neighbor 3 blocks away for doing nothing but demanding more, while threatening to increase the devaluaton of your neighborhood? I base this on the oil an petroleum industry's claim that without their tax breaks they won't expand alternative energy research, oh and by the way they have to alter the beauty of the neighborhood's landscape (like drilling in Alaska) to break our kids dependence on drugs (i.e. oil) so that our children have no wilderness or natural habitats to hunt, fish or enjoy nature. Do you support a party that turns it's back on Americans in need in time of natural disaster while building a bridge to an island? The same party that couldn't get water to citizens in the New Orleons Astro Dome, but could send it's employees to Hawaii, to find bin Laudin and managed to spend more of the taxpayers money on corrupt no bid contracts for their supporters.

Feeling sold out and let down? Want a perfect solution? Forget it you won't find it. Democrats are not perfect either, but there is a plan, a simple solution and it involves you. Come November when you walk in that voting booth and cast your vote remember this about the Democrats. The people they want to help are you (well that is unless your ExxonMobil's CEO). The scare cry of the right wing about raising taxes may be at times accurate. Remember through my household example, the Republicans (with the aide of a few Dems) went on a spending spree for themselves, but using our credit card that we are financially responsible for. Time to ground them like the irresponsible teenagers they were (mommy and daddy now have to work three jobs to get us out of the mess you put us in). This same argument applies to the democrats who facilitated this mess. It's our house and we are responsible for it's upkeep. Let's outsource them and get some responsible representatives in office. Vet those who seek your support well. If they offer tired old fear cliches, or excuses for those who profited at your expense, well you know what to do. And should they talk about "staying the course" in a war that has bankrupt us, ask them this. You told me Saddam Hussein had WMD's and he didn't. You said we would be greeted as liberator's and we weren't, it seems they are throwing bullets and IEDs at my son/daughter/ father/mother/sister and brother rather then rose peddles and kisses of gratitude. You then told me Saddam Hussein was a murderer that needed to be removed from power. Ok he's gone, dead and buried along with many of his family. How does this one man equal or compare to the loss of 4,000+ American heroes who lost their lives to get this one man, and the thousands more that will probably die if we stay as you purpose? Somehow the math doesn't add up here. Then call them out for the liars and snake oil sales people they really are.


Time for a change vote democratic, but hold those you elect accountable.