Saturday, September 28, 2013

25 Republican Wimps that Need to be Replaced

“Thou shalt not speak ill of fellow Republicans”

Remember Ronald Reagan? He used to be President. He was Conservative. He was what all Republicans wanted to be like. Conservative. That quote was Reagans 11th commandment. 

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Representative Peter King of New York, all Republicans in name only. They preferred to attack Senator Ted Cruz rather than back him. The very least they should have done was to keep their mouths shut.

Let’s do a little review: Ted Kennedy had died and an election was held to replace him as Senator of Massachusetts. Scott Brown ran as the 41st vote against Obamacare. His vote would stop cloture and the bill would die. The House had already passed Obamacare without one Republican vote. The entire bill in the House was because of Democrats. The party that always whines that things must be bipartisan or it’s not a good law voted for the law without Republicans.

In the House, they only need a simple majority. Democrats had the majority in the House. They passed the bill with zero Republicans voting for it. The Senate is a different matter though.

In the Senate, there are 100 Senators. Due to the late Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switching parties, the Democrats now had 60 votes. The Senate does not have a simple majority vote. They must first vote for cloture and to achieve that they need to have 60 votes in favor of cloture so they can then vote on whatever bill they are taking up. Then they only need a simple majority of 51.

Ted Kennedy, the very liberal Senator from Ma died. This brought the Democrats down to 59 seats with the Republicans holding 40. If the Democrat running for the seat to replace Kennedy won, the Democrats had the 60 votes needed. But the Republican candidate ran as the 41st vote stopping the takeover of Health care. Money poured in from around the country to help elect Brown in the most liberal state in the country. Brown won. The Democrats would not get cloture without a Republican voting for it and there were none.

So they had only one option left. They could vote on the bill that the House sent over but it would have to be as the House wrote it. There would be no changes allowed to that bill. If the vote were taken strictly on the bill and no changes, the Senate only needed to have a simple majority. Since they had 59 seats, that part was easy.

So the health care bill that the House passed without any Republican support was passed by the Senate with no Republican support. They changed their normal order of doing things because they lost an election. The majority of the American people have been against this health plan from start to finish.

We are now two days away from the law going into effect. Both Houses of Congress have a chance to stop this. The American people want it stopped!

The House voted to defund the Obamacare. It then went to the Senate. Republicans now hold 44 seats in the Senate. They can stop cloture. They only need to vote against it and Obamacare is defunded. Now remember, the Democrats in the Senate have not taken up a budget bill in five years. They are required by law to do so, but they never have since Obama took office. Even when they had the majority and the Republicans couldn’t stop them, they never took it up. The Republicans in the House have passed budget bills, but the Senate never took them up. So now the House does a Continuing Resolution to continue to fund the government into November but not to fund Obamacare.

The Democrats claim Republicans are trying to shut down the government. But, if they vote on the bill the House sent over (as they did with Obamacare) the government remains open. The Democrats, President Obama and the willing press all say that it will be the Republicans fault for the government shut down.

Twenty five Republican Senators run scared and vote for cloture rather than standing up against Obamacare as they did in the past and as they said they would in the most recent election! Those twenty five Republicans are: Alexander,  Ayotte,  Barrasso,  Blunt, Boozman, Burr, Chambliss, Chiesa, Coats, Coburn, Cochran, Collins, Corker, Cornyn, Graham, Hoeven, Isakson, Johanns, Johnson (WI), Kirk, McCain, McConnell, Murkowski, Thune, Wicker.

Prior to the vote, one man stood up for the American people. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. What did he get for his efforts?  Senator Corker  said Cruz was doing nothing more than a publicity stunt. Senator John McCain didn’t like Cruz’s remarks about appeasers when he compared them to Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister in Great Britain during World War II. He was talking about press pundits. McCain didn’t like the remarks saying that they were a disservice to his father and grandfather who fought in World War II. I’m not sure how calling press pundits appeasers relates to McCains ancestors fighting, but like so many things, if you say something negative about something, if someone fought against that negativity, they are not served well because they participated even if on the right side. I wonder if McCain saying negative things about Cruz if that should be taken to mean that McCain doesn’t like Cubans.

Representative Peter King of New York called Senator Cruz a fraud and after getting calls in his office that were pro-Cruz and anti Obama that he called vile, he said that Cruz is a false leader and he’s bringing out the unsavory elements of the right wing. Peter King is a Republican!
The real slap in the face to the American people is that Republican Senators quit answering their phones. They didn’t want to hear that the people didn’t want them to vote for cloture. The American people wanted Obamacare shut down. Let the Democrats stand up and keep the government open by passing the House bill.

These Republicans are wimps! They don’t deserve to sit in the Senate chamber. They are not honorable. If all of that is not enough, Chris Wallace said that there were “top Republicans” that approached him with information to ask Cruz about during their interview. It’s too bad these Republicans don’t fight for the American people this hard against the Democrats!

Even Karl Rove has said things against Senator Cruz saying that Cruz and Senator Mike Lee of Utah did not approach other Republicans before standing up against Obamacare. Apparently Rove doesn’t understand that the old Washington ways is what got us in the mess we’re in with this country. Cruz and Lee stood up for their constituents and didn’t check with their leadership in their party for permission to stand up for their principles and their constituents.

If those 25 so-called Republicans can’t stand up for what they said they would, perhaps they should switch parties and then run against some real Conservatives in their next election. We don’t need Democrat light. We need honest, principled Conservatives that won’t cower to the likes of Mitch McConnell and John McCain.

You’re welcome to comment.


Brett

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Are we Serious About the War on Terror

Are we serious about the war on terror? Just asking the question should show everyone that the rest of the world believes we are not. This also tells the terrorists that there is no better time to attack us than right now.

We just went through the sad 12th anniversary of the attack on September 11, 2001. We also went through the embarrassing first anniversary of the attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.

On September 11, 2001 we lost nearly 3,000 citizens to terrorist attacks where four planes were used to slam into both towers of the World Trade Center, and the pentagon and the heroes on flight 93 where the passengers fought back and retook the plane saving another target in Washington DC but crashed in Pennsylvania. Our response? On October 7, 2001 we began bombing in Afghanistan.

On September 11, 2012 we lost four people in the attack in Benghazi. One ambassador, and three American heroes. We did nothing to defend them, and the only thing that has been done since is that events have been covered up. Then we’re distracted by another scandal at the NSA, then another at the IRS.

Several weeks ago, we discovered that Syria used chemical weapons on its’ own people. Do we find this acceptable for any government to use chemical weapons on its people or others? Apparently so.

Since the incident, President Obama said he would make a statement by hitting Syria, but then began to say it was going to be a response but in a remote area but not hurt anyone. Does that mean that he’s found a dumping ground for our outdated bombs that we have on hand and we’ll use that dumping ground? Or are we just going to throw some firecrackers into the desert and hope someone hears the noise?

The only thing that the United States of America has proven over the past several weeks is that we have a President that is wishy washy at best and certainly looks incompetent.

As a people we stand up for the downtrodden. We didn’t stand up for those that were attacked with Chemicals. But then we didn’t stand up for our own people that were killed in Benghazi so maybe we should be pleased that at least they made a show of considering a response.

Are we serious about the war on terror? It seems the answer is no. If it seems that way to us, what does it seem like to the terrorists that want to kill us?

You’re welcome to comment.


Brett