Destroy the President at all Costs!

President Obama’s administration has been beset by a plague of scandals to the delight of the Conservative Right and the Tea Party crowd. The Opposition has been piling on more than ever with Obama’s re-election to a second term. Having thwarted the Right’s concerted effort to make President Obama a one term president, the President has been besieged  with efforts to bring down his presidency no matter the cost to our once great nation and its people.

Since the midterm elections in 2010 that swept the Tea Party candidates into the House of Representatives and the Senate, Washington has been at a standstill. Our Congress has been gridlocked. The Republican House has passed no substantive legislation in over 2 years and the Democrat Senate has not been able to overcome Republican filibusters. Obama appointments have been held up leaving many government agencies like the ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms…guns) and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service…taxes) without agency heads to lead them. I don’t think this is a coincidence! Anything that can be used to portray this President, his policies and programs as toxic for America is being spewed into the media over and over again with Fox News being the biggest spewer.

How soon Americans forget the scandals of Bush’s presidency that make Obama’s current scandals pale by comparison.  Go to http://www.salon.com/2005/01/18/scandal_11/  for a long list of some 34 Bush administration scandals on Salon.com’s website.  Remember the Senate Computer Theft of Democratic Strategy Memos? Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force and the many Halliburton Scandals including over charging the U. S. Army? The Tom DeLay Scandal?  Abu Ghraib? Weapons of Mass Destruction? Americans have a short memory and Republicans are damn good at making mole hills look like mountains when it comes to Obama.

Look, my purpose is not to minimize Obama’s current scandals, but to try and put some sort of perspective on them. The AP scandal seems to be getting the most outcries of the three. It was an assault on the freedom of the press and it should be investigated. The biggest fault I have is not taking it before a judge to determine the threat to national security. There is a clear and present danger to letting the Government decide on its own if national security trumps the public’s right to know through a free press. But where was the outrage when Bush signed The American Patriot Act into law? That law allows for roving wire taps, searches of business records and library records as well as the surveillance of Americans only suspected, but not actually linked to terror organizations. It would seem that the “horse is already out of the barn” when comes to the protection of our Constitutional rights.

As far as the IRS scandal, Obama needs to investigate if the IRS was scrutinizing Tea Party organizations seeking tax exempt status as a social welfare non-profit for political gain. To be fair, the IRS is perhaps one of the most hated agencies in our government. Who wants to pay more taxes than they have to, especially if you are a Tea Party Republican, but should these thinly veiled political groups get a pass to abuse the system? I think not. There is a real danger here. The Bush administration also used the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret Service to go after political opponents. Where was Fox News and GOP outrage then? There wasn’t any. Congress should be passing bills to make sure that political abuse of the IRS and other agencies do not continue under any administration…but they won’t. They think there is more political advantage to blame and pointing fingers and calling for impeachment than fixing the problem.

The continued attack on Obama over Benghazi is getting ridiculous. There were seven attacks on our embassies and consulates from 2002 to 2008, when George W. Bush was President. A total of 31 people were killed and over 60 people injured. The Middle East is a dangerous place and America and American policies are not popular there. The Republican obsession over who changed the talking points has been resolved and it is time to move on people!

Scandals have continued to plague Presidents in their second term, and Obama will certainly be no exception. But yet he, President Obama, is being made the exception by a relentless tide of conservative right opponents, hell bent on destroying his presidency and any Obama legacy before the end of his second term. What drives them? Is it hatred, racism or merely a difference in ideology? Their leaders in the Republican House continue to insanely vote for repeal of The Affordable Health Care Act a record 37 times. It is even more insane that the original idea was a REPUBLICAN idea and implemented by Republican Governor Mitt Romney for the State of Massachusetts. And by most accounts… it’s working people!

For me, this question remains. Will the Opposition pursue their obsession to destroy this American President at all costs to this once great nation or will they finally come to terms, get off their butts, compromise and get something constructive legislation done in Washington for a change? How long can this country endure Republican efforts to block legislation, block appointments, stall efforts to restore a fragile economy and jobs, thwart implementation of Wall Street reforms, deny Americans healthcare reform and a jeopardize a secure retirement for millions of Americans?  I remain hopeful for progress and change, but the “forces of Anti” are loud and strong. I guess we will find out in the 2014 midterm elections if America is tired of obstruction and finally ready for hope and change.

Food for THOUGHT…

The Evolution of Marriage

Marriage is between one man and one woman. That’s the way it was in the Bible starting with Adam and Eve and the way it has always been.  Same sex marriage is an abomination according to all of society and the Bible. It threatens traditional marriage and negates the ultimate purpose of marriage… to produce children. And so the arguments go. Traditional marriage is the way it has always been and meant to be.

The problem is that things change. Things evolve. If they did not, slavery would still be legal. Women and African Americans would not have the right to vote and interracial marriage would still be illegal in southern states. One’s sexual orientation would have to be hidden and suppressed at the risk of being a social and religious outcast, labeled a deviant, denied employment, jailed and even beaten to death. But things change and each social change has been hard fought and won in our country’s history.

Now the issue of same sex marriage comes before the United States Supreme Court. The same old, tired arguments have been cited once more. Many of them, I have to imagine, were used to keep interracial marriage illegal. One pervasive argument centers on the ability of same sex couples to have and raise children. Well, they say, the ultimate purpose of marriage is to produce children and raise them in a “normal” family with a mother and father, not two mommies or two daddies.  It would confuse the sexual identities of the children. It might make them gay! If the purpose of marriage is to have and raise children, then what should we do with heterosexual couples who get married and are too old to have children, don’t want to have children or can’t have children? Should we annul those marriages? Today, same sex couples have options, if they wish to raise children. In vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers and adoption have negated that argument. I think it is fair to say that children raised by same sex parents are no more likely to become gay than traditional families.

The heart of the issue is that same sex marriages are not treated equally in all American states or by our federal government. We live in a country where our Constitution allows individual states to determine the legality of marriage. In states where same sex marriage is legal, they still have no standing on the federal level because of DOMA, The Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Because of this discrimination, same sex couples often lose out when it comes to inheritance, social security, property rights, tax advantages, and medical decisions to name a few. Same sex couples are being left hanging in a legal limbo, unless the Supreme Court resolves the issue.

Old ways of seeing and accepting things have changed so much in my own lifetime.  I can remember eating a black licorice candy shaped like little babies called “nigger babies” when I was a child. On TV, I watched black men, women and children being knocked down with water cannons and fire hoses and attacked by police dogs. They were marching down American streets in the south calling for equal rights. There was a time when only white faces were seen on television and in the movies. American sports teams were segregated. There were “Jim Crow Cars” and separate drinking fountains at train stations. Blacks were told to sit in the back of the bus. Gays were called “queers,” beaten and ridiculed. I have seen so much amazing change in my lifetime that I have to believe in human evolution. I can’t believe that loving, committed relationships don’t count for anything, that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness only applies to some Americans and not others.

It is time to accept and move on America.

Food for THOUGHT…