Shall Nevada dump Harry Reid? If you are certain we should dump him but can’t quite put your finger on the reason why, watch out, you just might be getting caught up in the anti-Reid advertising. If you actually have some reasons, please post a comment with your reasons.

Anyone making a decision as important as selecting the representatives for our government will certainly want to evaluate the pros and cons of Reid’s accomplishments before making a decision for or against. So, here is my quick list of the pros and cons. Please feel free to add any of your own that might not be listed here.

Pros:

1. He’s the majority Senate leader, ensuring that Nevada has a voice in our government, and a big voice it is being the majority leader. Dumping Harry Reid will mean Nevada will not have another Senate majority leader for many decades.
2. Cutting taxes for Nevada’s working families. Well, I’m not real sure if I want to put this as a pro or a con. American’s taxes are so low right now (the lowest they’ve been in over 50 years) that the country is going broke. Cutting taxes is one of the primary reasons we’re in the financial mess we’re in. Still, he has tried to get more money into the hands of the average American and that’s the only fix for this mess.
3. Helping to keep Nevadans in their homes
4. Creating jobs by investing in Nevada’s clean energy industry
5. Killing the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. For me, this is a big BIG deal!
6. Passing landmark health insurance reform legislation to help cover more than 600,000 uninsured Nevadans. Remember a year ago? Two years ago? 10 years ago? America has been trying to pass comprehensive health care reform for many decades and only with Harry Reid has it been passed. Could it have been better? Absolutely! But, it’s a wonderful start.

Cons:

1. He allowed more tax breaks for the billionaires and multi-national corporations as part of the stimulus. That only makes things worse, Harry.
2. The Republican party has been as obstructionist as ever before in this country’s history. They have tried to prevent anything good from coming through. Harry has been playing nice with them and letting them block legislation after legislation and appointment after appointment. Harry, stand up to the anti-American tactics from the Republicans and call them what they are. Force a filibuster if they threaten one.
3. Health care reform could have been so much better if Harry had stood up to the obstructionists.
4. Harry let the Republicans strip the Buy-American provision of the stimulus which required the stimulus money go to American businesses. Over half of the stimulus went to stimulate China’s economy and Harry let the Republicans do it.

The Lies:
Following are some of the lies that we’re beginning to see coming out of the Republican lie machine.

1. The stimulus didn’t work. This is just so obvious a lie that even the Republicans don’t believe it. We were losing millions of jobs before we passed the stimulus and now we’re starting to get our jobs back and the unemployment rate is going down. It can’t be more obvious, even to the people trying to peddle this lie.
2. The second lie is that Harry Reid is responsible for Nevada not getting more stimulus money. This lie is usually uttered in the same breath that lies that the stimulus didn’t work. However, Harry Reid has nothing to do with the stimulus money getting to Nevada. That is something that the governor does and if you remember, our governor, Gibbons, at first refused the stimulus money and later lost out because he fell asleep and failed to request any.

So, tell me, what are your thoughts?

I was saddened when I opened my local newspaper on Independence Day and found a half page ad quoting and taking Thomas Jefferson quotes out of context. I’ll run through the list of quotes they have poisoned our newspaper with and give you the context so you can know what is really being said. One must ask, why would Scheels spend money on such a deceptive ad. To come up with a list of quotes, they must have spent the time to actually read the context, right? Right?

I just can’t believe that Scheels intended to disrespect the readers and America by publishing a biased political screed, but it’s hard to believe they didn’t research the quotes before publishing them. Shame on you, Scheels.

Here are the quotes and the context is described below.

1. My reading of history convinces me that most bad governments result from too much government.
2. I predict future happiness for Americans if they prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
3. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
4. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle if acted on would save on-half the wars of the world.
5. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
6. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
7. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

Let’s start with the list as a whole. One would think from this list that these are the only things that Jefferson believed and never expressed views contrary to these. Obviously he has. No one is that one sided. Hence, just the fact that Scheels decided to only print quotes that are biased proves they have an agenda and are deceiving us.

Let’s take these quotes and look at them in debth:

1. My reading of history convinces me that most bad governments result from too much government.
   This sounds simple and true on the surface but as we’ve discussed in a previous post, we need to know the right size of a government and not just strive for smaller and smaller government. Only the rich, greedy, and unethical benefit from too small a government. Worse, still, this is the dog-whistle call to the unthinking tea baggers who chant all government is bad. Believe me, Jefferson didn’t think “We The People” was bad or too big.
2. I predict future happiness for Americans if they prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
   This is a misquote and in the context means something quite different than is implied in the context of the Scheels’ ad. Here is the real quote:

   As men become better informed, their rulers must respect them the more. I think you will be sensible that our citizens are fast returning, from the panic into which they were artfully thrown to the dictates of their own reason; and I believe the delusions they have seen themselves hurried into will be useful as a lesson under similar attempts on them in future. The good effects of our late fiscal arrangements will certainly tend to unite them in opinion, and in a confidence as to the views of their public functionaries, legislative & executive. The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our Legislature. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

   You can read the entire text of the letter. As you can see here, Jefferson is talking about the country’s citizens becoming smarter and not feeling they need the government to make decision on their behalf. And, yes, we are happier when we don’t rely on the government to make our decisions, hence, “taking care of us”. This has nothing to do with taking care of our poor and mis fortunate. It has nothing to do with “We The People” uniting to fix the broken health care system.

3. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
   Sorry folks. This is just a lie. Jefferson never said any such thing.
4. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle if acted on would save on-half the wars of the world.
   Wonderful statement. Too bad republicans didn’t complain when the republicans were building up this debt, but only now find it appropriate to complain about it. Those who complain about the debt when the democrats are in power but are silent when the republicans are building up the debt are not just fools but are harmful to America.
5. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
   This is a misquote as well. The real text says:

That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.

This is a quote from his rant on freedom from religion. This quote has nothing to do with taxes. In fact, the idea of taxes to pay for what the majority votes is the founding principle of a democracy. To refuse to be part of a system because you can claim you don’t agree with how part if of it works is foolishness. If that were the case, no one would pay taxes and America would cease to exist. Not too bright, but it plays straight into the hands of the rich who don’t want to pay their fair share.

6. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
   This is one of the most over-quoted and deceptive quotes one hears from Jefferson. Jefferson was not condoning violent revolution as a way to fix problems in a democracy. In fact, later in life wrote to say that a democracy does not need such forms of correction since we have elections. There is a good comment on this at Huffington Post.
7. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
   As sad as this comment is, we have become much more corrupt than Europe. Few nations have allowed corporations to take control of their governments. Big business has corrupted our country. Still, I agree. It’s time to reverse our over-population problem.

In conclusion, many these comments are wrong, fabrications, and mis conceptions. Why would a major corporation like Scheels feel the need to publish such a biased advertisement?

I just got this in my inbox. What will it take to shut down this criminal corporation?

Hi,

News has emerged from the Gulf Coast that BP is burning endangered sea turtles alive.

That’s right. BP is using “controlled burns” to contain the oil spill, and any turtles that are not removed from the area before the fire is lit are literally burned alive.

With BP already facing so much public outrage, we can step in and stop this from continuing. But we have to speak up right now. I signed a petition urging BP to stop burning endangered sea turtles alive. Can you join me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/seaturtles/?r_by=21521-7654379-3JR_hYx&rc=confemail

If that link doesn’t work, click here.
Thanks!

Here’s a video of the smoke plumes. It’s criminal. How sad that we have gotten here and so sad that the republicans are still supporting and apologizing to BP and still chanting “free markets” and “cut regulations.”

It’s laughable to hear the conservatives decry the liberal media. Oh my gosh, how absolutely upside down. Will a multi-billion dollar industry be interested in advancing issues and ideas that are progressive in nature? Progressive policies generally strive for fairness. Fair taxes, fair benefits, fair opportunities. A monopoly does not want to advance liberal issues.

However, in the past few years, some news outlets have published facts that have a naughty habit of being liberal in nature. BP oil spill is a good example. How awful it must be for a conservative to watch the news and see stories about the devastation in the gulf caused by greed.

A truly unbiased media would be pointing out how unregulated greed caused the mess. It would be pointing out how the REPUBLICAN mantra of smaller government, and no regulations is the direct cause of this disaster.

Yes, a republican will think the media is biased but then they think the world if flat and free markets work so you wouldn’t expect them to understand the cause and effect of their failed policies.

We liberals know how biased the media is. We know that only the bravest of op/ed reporters will dare put this at the feet of the failed republican policies. We know the media is controlled by boards of directors which has many of the same directors that run the industrial military complex. We know those news outlets will never say anything about the harm wrought upon our nation by the ill conceived Bush wars.

But, just knowing these things doesn’t fix them. We need to get the big money out of our media. We need to break up the media. And we need to bring back the requirements that the media is to  serve the public interest. Now, there’s a novel idea.

The republicans and the libertarians are mindlessly chanting for smaller and smaller government. In order to decide how much smaller our government should be, we need to decide how big is big enough and how small is too small.

Those who are incapable of thinking about the facts or are unwilling to admit the facts would argue that no government at all is the best target, well, maybe no government except the military. These same people will refuse to even let you talk when you explain that the military consumes the vast majority of our government. We spend more than 50% of our national tax dollars on military, not to mention the silly little pet projects like Iraq and Afghanistan that aren’t even included in the total.

If you add in all the local police, county police, state police, and state military reserves, it come up to way over 50%.

So for these unthinking zombies, they want to cut out the little things but leave the nanny state (military) untouched. Not too bright, huh?

How much military is too much? Face it! The bigger the military becomes, the more protection we need because the more of the world hates us because we’re so violent and militaristic. Personally, I’d like to see us reduce our military expenditures to no more than the international average.

Beside military, how big should the rest of our government be?

Should We The People ever be weaker than the strongest and richest corporations in America? Of course not. If a business gets stronger than our government, they become the government. The only protection we have from big business is government, is We The People.

The best way to reduce the size of the non-military government is to reduce the control business and aristocracies have in our country. We need to start enforcing our laws against monopolies. That would be a good start. We need to re-enact the taxes that were implemented to stop the landed gentry from becoming stronger than our country.

What’s this Sharron Angle creature that the Republicans voted in? It seems she is allergic to the press. I can’t seem to find any recent comments by her that make any sense.

This post at Nevada Scandanlmonger is right on point.  Be careful what you ask her or she may pull a Palin and embarrass the whole party.

There’s really no doubt about it. Nevada voters make no sense. I don’t want to say they’re stupid or foolish or trailer trash. I’ll leave that to the rest of the country to marvel at. But, in one breath, I’m elated that Nevada realized the foolish mistake they made when they elected Gibbons as governor and dumped him, but the Republicans elected Sandoval to replace him. Is anyone awake in the Republican party in Nevada? Have the zombies eaten all your brains?

Take 30 seconds some day and compare Sandoval’s platform with Gibbons. They’re identical. So, why reject Gibbons and replace him with another Gibbons? If you are finding that the Republican policies are destroying not only the state but the entire nation, why dump the politicians but instead dump the failing policies?

Why vote for a new man with the same failed ideals?

I don’t expect a lot from Nevada Republicans but I have to admit, even this perplexes me. If you’re going to vote in someone with the same failed ideals, at least keep the fool in office that has the most experience with the failures. Why elect a new failure just to be asking the same old questions in four years. Are we any better off than we were four years ago?

Well, not with the same failed policies we won’t be.

Admit it. The Republican policies are failing Nevada and the country.

Do you remember the solidarity America felt after we were attacked on 9/11? The whole country came together. The sitting president had one of the worst approval ratings and most of America knew we were attacked because of his failings, but we all stood together. UNITED WE STOOD.

Katrina came along and the same sitting president continued to sit while New Orleans drowned. Four days of people dying and Americans were united in our efforts to address the problems. We all knew that the sitting president had been appointed by a coup of the Supreme Court, but we all united to address the problems rather than attacking the utter failure of a president.

Compare that with today. We have one of the best presidents America has seen in decades. Just look at the long long list of wonderful accomplishments, not to mention digging our economy out of the Republican Second Great Depression.

But all the Republicans can do is complain that he isn’t addressing the economy (until they’re proven to be liars) or complaining about how he isn’t enough involved in the oil spill (until they are proven to be wrong yet again) or complaining about how Obama must be unfit to be president because he was born in Kenya (and these lies have been exposed time after time).

Do you see any sort of contrast? A Republican president bringing destruction upon America and we are still all united to solve our difficulties. A Democratic president comes along and the Republican will do anything, even bringing disaster to our country to try to bring him down.

Sick. Just real sick. How about if we all tried a little “United We Stand”?

This post is prompted by a comment in Captain Jack’s latest blog regarding the BP disaster.

Have we passed the point of easy oil? Is oil getting harder and harder to extract now that we’re on the falling end of the bell curve?

It’s not really fair to say that we’re half way through the world’s oil reserves because no one can say for sure. But it doesn’t really matter. What really matters is that we have exhausted the easy oil and now we’re having to work harder to extract the oil.

The world’s demand for oil has been doubling every few years. At this rate of growth it’s undeniable that we will (have) exceeded the limits the easy oil drilling can deliver.

We have two choices. We can ride the falling curve as oil gets harder and harder and more risky to drill or we can start, today, to wean ourselves off. The fact is that we will have to get off oil eventually. How long do we want to stay addicted?

Maybe a better title would be, “The Katrina of Today”, or maybe “Obama’s Katrina.”

The Obama administration has been involved in resolving this oil spill since the beginning but they have been doing a worthless job of keeping the American people informed.

It makes sense keeping BP involved in this cleanup effort since it’s their disaster and America doesn’t own off shore oil rigging equipment. Still, we need to know what is going on. It is now obvious to everyone that BP has been lying to us about the scope of the disaster. Has Obama been involved in this deception or just victim to it, but either way, it’s wrong. We need to put as much effort into this as we can.

It was a good move on our part to forbid BP from continuing to pump toxic dispersants into the waters, after how many hundreds of thousands of gallons were injected. And, why are we (and BP) pumping dispersants into the water? Is this to aid with the clean up? Doubtful.

Hey Obama, be careful what you are doing here. If you try to keep this disaster secret, you will make this a disaster worse than Bush’s handling of Katrina.