Why GOP Governors Want to Break the Unions

There is nothing altruistic about it.  Although Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claims that the state is in crisis and needs the money it stands to gain from this action, he neglects to explain that the previous Democratic governor left office with a surplus in the state treasury.  In less than two months in office, Walker has burned through the surplus left by the previous governor.  He has also created a budget shortfall by giving out tax cuts to the wealthy.  Had he not given out those tax cuts, there would be no shortfall.  So, why is he is blaming public employees unions for the budget shortfall?  Because the Democrats out raised the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 campaign contributions and the big three public employee unions were the biggest donor groups to the Democrats.  And the Democrats won those two years.  By eliminating public employees’ collective bargaining rights, you eliminate the unions or at the very least, the large amounts of money that they have available to donate to Democrats.  The GOP will continue to rake in obscene amounts of money in corporate donations.  Without the union money, the Democrats will not win.  That is why GOP governors Florida, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and are elbowing their way down this path. 

Time to Change the Channel

I find myself watching Fox news tonight.  I don't know why-it's on and I don't want to think about what else to watch.  First, there was Sean Hannity, followed by Greta Van Susteren, both engaging in fear mongering, suggesting over and over again that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to take control of Egypt and other countries in the middle east.  Now, Glenn Beck declares that the revolution in Egypt is a communist plot by Obama's friends . . . What kind of nuts do they have over there at Fox?! And why do the nuts even have a platform to perform on? 

Civility Movement May Be Lost on Right Wing

In the days that followed the Tuscon shootings, I  listened to the media talk about the ugly, violent rhetoric that has permeated the airwaves these last couple of years.  The thing that irked me about these discussions is that one of the republican panelists almost always said something to the effect of "Let's face it, both sides are guilty of this," a statement that with one exception, was accepted by the host at face value.  My response is "No, let's not face it, both sides are not guilty."   We can think of many dozens of examples of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and others not only spreading lies to incite the right wing, but also inviting  sedition, revolution and violence. The right wing has only cited one example to support their claim that democrats do it, too-Alan Grayson's speech on health care reform in which he explained the republican plan for health care.  There was nothing incendiary about that speech.  Democratic party politicians are always civil.  With the notable exception of Randi Rhodes, most liberal talk show hosts have, for the most part, been civilized in their discussions.  

Someone pointed me to a website, http://www.nolabels.org/, which is a group of moderate republicans and moderate democrats who want to support a more bi-partisan, civilized way of governing.  This sounds like a great idea if they can influence the right wing to stop their crazy talk and lies.  I joined this group, but with a mindful eye on the right wing and what they do to tone down their talk.  I have always believed that the democrats are too nice and not sufficiently assertive; and that the party has suffered for this.  I am not confident that the the right wing is going to be tamed by No Labels and other such groups.  I hope that I am wrong.

Fox News: Leading the Lambs

A new University of Maryland study found that Fox News viewers are significantly more likely than others to believe false information about American politics.  The study judged how likely consumers of a number of different news sources were to believe misinformation about a wide range of political issues.  Specifically, Fox News  viewers were "significantly more likely" to believe the misinformation disseminated by Fox News, such as: most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses; most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit; the economy is getting worse; most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring; the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts; most Republicans opposed TARP at the time Congress voted on it; and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States.  Also according to the study, increased viewership of Fox News led to increased belief in such false stories. 

Anecdotally, many of us have known this for years.  You will note that I discussed this issue specifically with regard to members of my own family in my September 2, 2010 post.  It is nice to have some independent, scientific research to cite to now.

This is America . . .

. . . where Sarah Palin has the constitutional right to graphically encourage the shooting and killing of her political foes. It is now more than a day following the tragic, right wing inspired shooting of Representative Giffords, and Palin continues to promote her graphic map with the gun targets trained on Democratic politicians around the country.