Democrats are wusses; Republicans are wolves: Filibuster reform

            Bold, energetic, progressive—Republican Teddy Roosevelt believed it was best to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” especially when negotiating with others around the world—and it worked for him. He was the force behind the development of the Panama Canal and negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War. He busted Big Business monopolies with a passion. He said and did what he meant.

            The Barack Obama corollary to T.R. is “first, emphatically to declare what you’re willing and not willing to do, then cave in, sometimes even before anyone challenges you—and pretend what you originally said didn’t matter.” Chronically, the president suffers from Spineless Democrat Syndrome (SDS), which appears to be incurable.

            Surely, you remember the (eventually scuttled) “public option,” the originally touted sine qua non of Obama’s health insurance reform. It would have been offered by the federal government for anyone who couldn’t afford, or who had been rejected by, private insurance. Does the president think we wouldn’t be outraged that he walked away from one of the best and most attractive features of his plan because of what had to have been a backroom deal?

            Surely, you remember that, for months while he was campaigning, the president said he would absolutely, positively, never sign a bill that would keep us from going over the “fiscal cliff” unless it raised taxes on families making $250,000 or more—but then he caved in to Republicans and some members of his own party, and set the bar at $450,000. Does the president think he can continue to bait and switch with impunity?

             In addition to the White House, there is a recent, virulent case of SDS in the U.S. Senate. Much has been made of Harry Reid’s having been an amateur boxer. But I hope he scored better punches in the ring than he has in politics in recent days. For months, he huffed and puffed and said he would blow the overused-by-Republicans filibuster in the Senate down. But, in the end, he turned out to be a bag of hot air.

           

             Reid and Senate Democrats should have made sweeping changes in the way legislation is debated, passed, or obstructed. They should have passed the so-called “talking filibuster,” making senators who want to torpedo legislation defend their (likely untenable) position live on C-SPAN. They should have ended a single senator’s ability to stop a nomination for office. They should have lowered the 60-vote requirement to stop a filibuster.

            Instead, they passed an embarrassing bunch of procedural tweaks that still let the tea party/GOP hijack the Senate and obstruct Obama’s second term agenda. But, if the tea party/GOP were in the majority, its members would never have behaved so weakly. Democrats are wusses; Republicans are wolves.

            I understand Democrats’ short-sighted, self-serving reasoning: If and when they are again in the minority, they want to be able to do to Republicans what Republicans have done to them. In addition, reforming the filibuster would be a hollow gesture: The tea party/GOP-dominated House will block almost everything passed in the Senate. Obama will have to mobilize the public to put pressure on members of Congress and govern by executive order if he wants to get anything done.

            But, by looking out only for themselves and thinking only about legislation, Democrats have put the future of the nation at risk for generations. Presidents come and go in four to eight years, but justices may affect history for decades. Arch-conservative Antonin Scalia has dominated the Court since 1986.  From one to three Supreme Court justices may retire during Obama’s second term. But, without filibuster reform, the president’s (likely liberal) nomination(s) will be bitterly fought, almost certainly stopped. Crafting legislation requires compromise. No one gets everything (s)he wants. But lifetime appointments to the highest court in the land need to be fought tooth and nail. Because the president suffers from SDS, he is likely to sell out on Supreme Court nominees—with disastrous consequences.

             Obama 2.0 needs to channel Teddy Roosevelt with a twist: speak loudly, carry a big stick—and use it. But I am not optimistic that he and Democrats will recover from SDS anytime soon. So, why did we elect them?#

           

             

Conservatism is an (incurable?) illness!

 email Stephen L. Goldstein: trendsman@aol.com

After careful, thoughtful, longtime, objective, clinical observation, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that “conservatitis,” the mutant of mainstream conservatism that is epidemic today, is a certifiable illness—curable only by a protocol of extra-strength liberalism. But I get ahead of myself out of pity and my desire to give hope to the afflicted. First things, first: Victims and those who care for them need to understand the exact nature and extent of the seven “deadly” symptoms of “conservatitis” before taking or administering “the cure.”

1. Lack of empathy: Congressional tea party/Republicans have opposed extending unemployment benefits. Defrocked presidential candidate Herman Cain said that if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself—not Wall Street or big banks. Newt Gingrich suggested that poor people are lazy and have no work ethic. Mitt Romney justifies doing away with thousands of jobs to create thousands more of them.

2. Paranoia: Victims of “conservatitis” fantasize about enemies and threats to their health everywhere, particularly in election years. One year, it’s same-sex couples who want to get married. The next year, it’s illegal immigrants. There’s always someone or something out to get them. This year, it may be the tooth fairy conspiring with the Easter bunny.

3. Hallucinations: The “conservatitis” epidemic has disproportionately affected tea party/GOP governors and state legislatures that have enacted sweeping, draconian measures to combat voter serious fraud—which doesn’t exist.

4. A neurotic desire to live in the past: A failed Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate from Nevada suggested that, “in the olden days,” “our grandparents” paid doctors with chickens—and we should do the same.

5. Selective morality: Newt Gingrich says he cheated on his wife “for love of country”—and God has forgiven him. I say she isn’t fooled—and hasn’t.

6. A neurotic commitment to failure: It has been said that the difference between a rat in a maze guessing that a wrong door has the cheese behind it and a human in the same predicament is that the rat will eventually move on to a different door. Republican prez wannabes persist in claiming that lowering taxes raises revenues when it doesn’t. Wrong door, rotten cheese.

7. An abnormal desire to pledge: Even in its mildest form, “conservatitis” leaves victims unable to think for themselves. Grover Norquist boasts that 238 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 41 U.S. Senators, and more than 1,100 state officeholders have signed his no-taxes pledge—an impeachable offense.

The jury is out on whether “conservatitis” is an acquired disease or the result of a genetic predisposition. Either way, there is hope. Experiments at McGill University and the University of Chicago suggest that rats have empathy for each other. Perhaps they could supply the missing gene for tea party/GOP with “conservatitis.” Science has also proven that the neurochemical oxytocin makes people trustworthy and moral. So, it could be the basis for a vaccine to treat symptoms of “conservatitis.” For others, substituting Judeo-Christian teachings for the Godless rants of Ayn Rand may suffice. Liberalism is founded upon the ethical and moral teachings of the Old and New Testaments. Read for their original intent, they could heal ailing conservatives.

For victims of “conservatitis” who are untreatable or unwilling to take the cure, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”—and vote Democratic!#

Liberal agenda for Florida--and the nation--for 2014

by Stephen L. Goldstein, op-ed columnist and author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

from The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, January 6, 2012

            After the 2012 Election, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know that the political wind is blowing liberal in the Sunshine State: For the tea party/GOP, there’s a storm brewing, and it’s more than a tempest in a teapot. It turns out that Florida voters can only be lied to for so long. Since 1999, Republican governors and a Republican-dominated Legislature, now taken to kookdom by tea party members, have enacted mean-spirited policies that favor corporations and hurt average citizens. Two months ago, disgusted voters finally said enough is enough.

            But there’s no rest for the politically savvy. In less than two years, on Nov. 4, 2014, Election Day, Floridians need to repudiate the failed past by firing Gov. Rick Scott,  electing more Democrats to the Legislature, and paving the way to a promising future by putting on the ballot and passing constitutional amendments that would . . . 

            1. Legalize same-sex marriage: In June, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in two cases involving same-sex marriage. But liberals should prepare to put an amendment legalizing it on the 2014 ballot—in case the Court renders a less than sweeping decision. A recent Quinnipiac University poll reports that 45 percent of Florida voters oppose gay marriage (down from 50 percent since May) and 43 percent support it. An amendment could energize support, especially among young voters.

            2. Decriminalize marijuana: In defiance of federal law, The District of Columbia and 18 states have passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. In November, Colorado and Washington became the first states in the nation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. A pot amendment would bring out hordes of liberal voters, including the young and seniors whose arthritis, glaucoma, and Parkinson’s may be helped by medical Cannabis.

            3. Provide for the recall of all elected officials: Once in office, too many elected representatives pander to special interests and thumb their noses at voters. We can’t afford to wait until the next election. All of them should be subject to recall.

            4. Establish an independent election review board: Appointed by the Florida Supreme Court, the board should establish and enforce statewide standards, policies, and procedures for elections. After their voter suppression efforts in 2012, the governor and the Legislature have no credibility.

            5. Make it harder for the Legislature to put constitutional amendments on the ballot: The tea party/GOP-dominated Legislature has played fast and loose with amendments, principally to get its “base” to vote. This amendment should require a two-thirds vote of both House and Senate in two successive sessions to put their amendments on the ballot; the number of legislature-originated amendments should be limited to three in any given year; and to pass, an amendment should have to receive support equal to 30 percent of all voters in a given election, or 60 percent of those who vote on a specific question, whichever is greater.

            6. Restore all ex-felons’ rights automatically: From his precarious moral perch, Gov. Rick Scott, former CEO of a company that paid the largest Medicare/Medicaid fine in U.S. history, made it harder for felons who have served their time to get their rights restored. Ex-felons permanently lose their civil rights—including the right to vote, hold public office, serve on a jury, and hold certain types of state occupational licenses—unless they are restored by the governor and Board of Executive Clemency after a lengthy process. But there’s no guarantee. Non-violent felons must wait five years before applying for reinstatement; violent felons, seven years. Florida leads the nation with 1.5 million disenfranchised ex-felons. Twenty-three percent of the voting-age black population can’t vote because of a felony record. Passing this amendment would help ex-felons lead productive lives.       

            7. Establish that life begins at birth: Florida has waged a war on women’s reproductive freedom for years. In 2008, 72 percent of Florida counties had no abortion provider. The “Women’s Health Freedom” amendment should state that decisions about a woman’s health and reproduction are matters of privacy between her and her doctor or her chosen other health professional(s).

            In November, 2012, Florida voters soundly rejected draconian Constitutional Amendments that members of the Legislature put on the ballot. But as sure as weathermen will tell you that the sun rises in the East, the tea party/GOP is planning to hatch another slew of them in 2014—likely some of those that were defeated, repackaged better to fool voters. So, it’s time for liberals to eclipse them, rain on their parade, and let weathermen deliver the good news about which way the wind is blowing.#

Self-impeach: Time for Florida governor and legislature to go!

by Stephen L. Goldstein, author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

       Florida Governor Rick Scott and the tea party/GOP members of the state Legislature should "self-impeach." But because they haven't got a scintilla of integrity among them, for high crimes and misdemeanors against representative government, I'll start the process myself. And I know I'm not alone: If impeachment or a recall were permissible citizen initiatives in Florida, the whole gang would already have been swept out of office like pond scum, no offense to algae. Here are my charges against Scott and the Legislature:
       1. As legitimate as removal from office for voter suppression is, Rick Scott's active role as a card-carrying member of the national conspiracy of Republican governors to keep likely Democrats from voting is just his most recent, obvious, and egregious abuse of power. The governor became the governor but has never been the governor. He must have had his fingers crossed when he took the oath of office. In his nearly two years in office, I can't think of a single instance when he has acted on behalf of the citizens of Florida. Instead, he practices unprotected commerce. He sees himself as the leader of corporate interests, the CEO-in-chief of Florida, Inc. If he had his
way, public assets (bridges, schools, roads, hospitals, etc.) would be sold to for-profit companies, and public services would be converted to point-of-purchase transactions. Your kid is drowning? Pay the lifeguard on-the-spot or he won't swim out to save her. He's the original "privatize FEMA" guy. Next to him, Mitt Romney at his most mean-spirited looks like Mother Teresa.
       In addition, in the ultimate cynicism of power, the governor has used "the people's" money to deprive Floridians of their rights, most notably suing the Feds to overturn Obamacare--even refusing to implement it after the Supreme Court upheld it. Finally, his support of the partisan removal of three state Supreme Court justices is the pièce-de-résistance in an unblemished record of his executive branch gone wild.
        2. Ditto for tea party/GOP members of the Florida Legislature for going along with so much of the governor's bad stuff. They actually have the power to impeach him, but won't, of course--because in some ways, they're even worse than he is. If all 11 Constitutional Amendments the tea party/GOP members of the Legislature placed on the November ballot had passed, they would have constituted a bloodless coup that would have destroyed the separation of church and state, diminished the power of the judiciary, violated women's rights, robbed state government of critical resources.
        The lesson here is neither to forget nor forgive, but to act. Sad fact is: No matter what candidates say they'll do if elected, once they're in office they can do whatever they please--or what pleases lobbyists. Floridians are powerless to do anything about elected officials guilty of abusing their power--except vote them out of office, which is usually too little too late: They can do too much damage in the meantime, and too often even the worst incumbents are re-elected.
        "The people" of Florida need to put a Constitutional Amendment on the November 2014 ballot to allow the recall of all elected officials. Otherwise, we'll be guilty of  "self-impeaching" and continuing to let the bad guys win.#
     

       

The anti-Reagan: Mitt Romney

By Stephen L. Goldstein, author Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

            Turns out, Mitt Romney is the anti-Reagan. With his “honesty”—Suspend your disbelief!—he may unwittingly have propelled the Gipper onto the ash heap of history, where he belongs. CEO Romney, who admitted relishing the chance to fire people, went a sweeping step further when he proposed eliminating FEMA, turning its responsibilities over to the states, and ideally privatizing all relief efforts. He was positively Reaganesque in his insistence that government (especially the big, by definition bad, federal government) is not the solution but the problem. Romney, who knew his audience at one of the presidential primary debates would lap it up, was in his glory.

            That was then; the weather was good. This is now—after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Northeast and sandbagged Romney. To federal, state, and local officials struggling to coordinate massive, complex relief, search, and rescue efforts, Romney’s vision of businesses charging dazed victims for goods and services on-the-spot is sinister and bizarre, not to mention impractical: Would everyone who uses a road in a neighborhood have to pay before it could be cleared? And how would anyone know who they were? Not to be macabre, but business is business in Mittland. Would there be a discount for removing two dead bodies? Would they take a check or only cash or credit card? Anyone with even a modicum of empathy recoils from such illogic and obscenity.

            In typical fashion, Romney walked back his words after the press pounded him. As president, he promised FEMA would receive the funds it needs. But which Romney should Americans pay attention to? As it turns out, both! And we should thank both of him, too. With Romney’s doubletalk about FEMA, he has done the greatest service to the nation of his entire political career. Make that his life! Since Ronald Reagan declared government persona non grata, the country has been engaged in a debate over the proper role(s) and limitation(s) of the public sector. And the anti-government faction has been winning hands-down. Grover Norquist has arm-twisted countless members of Congress, as well as members of state legislatures, to sign no-tax pledges to starve “the beast” of government. Even Bill Clinton once declared the era of big government over.

            Thanks to Romney, no one is gonna listen to such garbage talk any longer. Hurricane Sandy may have been a perfect storm. But Mitt’s words may have been more consequential, forever turning the tide of public opinion. His hot air may have warmed the otherwise cold hearts of Americans by revealing the absurdity of dismantling and privatizing the federal government. The weathercock is finally about to swing in the direction of appreciating the role of government, if it hasn’t already.

            When we fully come to our senses as a nation, we’re sure to reaffirm that we don’t live in an either-or world. The reality is: It isn’t either that government does everything or that the private sector does; it’s both. In some areas they overlap; in others, they are complementary; in still others, there should be a firewall between them. We need to restore our lost balance, no longer tolerating political hacks who want to gut government and redistribute its proper roles so business can bag bucks when Americans are hurting. If not, keep trying to “win one for the Gipper” and see how Mother Nature gets even next time.#

           

Scary: Paul Ryan's Toxic "Day 1" ALREADY BEGUN

by Stephen L. Goldstein
Op-Ed columnist, author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned or "America according to Paul Ryan"
Follow on Twitter @drslgoldstein
Email: trendsman@aol.com

       No "Day 1" for Mitt Romney! No fear that he'll be able to undo all of Obama's "good." He can superintend the building of his car elevator--or fire the workers, just for the fun of it. Or maybe he can watch one of Ann's horses dance so he can deduct the dollar equivalent of his doing so as a business expense. Whatever! We have nothing to fear from a politically defanged Romney. He'll probably lick his wounds and take out what's left of his aggression by taking over a company and moving it to China.

       Not so for Paul Ryan. HIS "Day 1" has ALREADY begun. To be sure, he has to deflect whatever blame he'll get for the Romney/Ryan defeat: He only branded 30% of Americans moochers and deadbeats, compared with Romney's 47%. But he was as mean-spirited as Mitt in suggesting that the federal goverment should have little, of any, role in disaster relief. Ryan's "days" promise to be toxic for average Americans. His ideal America is New Orleans after Katrina--Hurricane Sandy without Sandy: a free market paradise for profiteers to scalp victims.
       Ryan is the consummate example of an adolescent whiz kid who was drugged on Ayn Rand’s Kool-Aid but never weaned from it, fancies himself John Galt—and grew up to be a second-tier technocrat on the taxpayer payroll, who is now raised to national prominence by a third-rate candidate for the presidency. There’s abundant evidence to poke holes in his-delusional and frightening dystopia for the nation. “The Ryan Plan” (aka the GOP federal budget) is a roadmap for disaster, a war on the poor and the middle class. The Koch brothers couldn’t have written it better—probably tweaked the draft. The case against Ryan is laid out by ThinkProgress (thinkprogress.org). 
       Here are highlights from it

            1. Ryan wants to raise taxes on the middle class, cut them for millionaires.

            2. He would extend the Bush tax cuts, but not President Obama’s for those with the lowest incomes.

            3. Ryan would virtually eliminate programs that benefit the lower- and middle-classes.

            4. He would end Medicare and replace it with a voucher system, raise eligibility to 67, cost enrollees more than $5,900 annually by 2050.

            5. Ryan thinks Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” and wants to privatize it at the mercy of stocks and bonds, which he apparently believes are always safe bets.

            6. The Economic Policy Institute estimates Ryan’s budget would result in 4.1 million lost jobs in two years.

            7. He wants to eliminate Pell Grants for more than 1 million students.

            8. Ryan supports $40 billion in subsidies for big oil.

            9. He co-sponsored a “personhood” amendment, which would outlaw abortion, some forms of contraception and in vitro fertilization.

            No one in his right mind would want to live in the America of Paul Ryan, except Mitt Romney. Many of Ryan’s supporters deny biological, survival-of-the-fittest Darwinism, but embrace dog-eat-dog social Darwinism, where unbridled greed is the greatest virtue and morality is determined by a dollar sign. But sadly, Romney isn’t trying to appeal to all Americans. Ryan, Mitt hopes, will make his candidacy acceptable to the tea party. He may fool them, but most Americans know “the fruit” of both those lemons “is impossible to eat.”

            "Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!" is available in bookstores nationwide, through www.barnesandnoble.com,www.amazon.com, and other online booksellers. Order it NOW from Amazon (paperback or Kindle):http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344306781&sr=8-1&keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned

No to atheistic Atlas Shrugged/Yes to Judeo-Christian Atlas Drugged

by Stephen L. Goldstein, author of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

Ayn Rand was a twisted sister--and Mitt Romney's Paul Ryan is her nephew. She left Bolshevik Russia, pissed that her family's property has been confiscated. Can't blame her. But instead of seeking psychiatric help, she went on a literary and philosophical tirade, most famously in Atlas Shrugged--a tiresome, 1100 page heap of some of the worst-written in the English language. She glorified people she felt were the REAL drivers of the economy. She vilified others as moochers. She railed against government. She became the prophet of "greed is good."

Had Rand lived she would have been astonished at how many people fell for her pseudo-thinking. Published in 1957, the virulently anti-Communist/fiercely pro-Capitalist message of Atlas Shrugged pandered to the chauvinism of its day--and well into our own. But had she lived any longer, she might have had to backtrack a bit on her hatred of government intrusion/squelching of individual's lives and initiative: The poor dear--who am I to call her a raging hypocrite?--depended on Medicare and Social Security in the last years of her life.

Like other impressionable, narcissistic, self-serving adolescents, Romney's VP Paul Ryan fell for Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged--and NEVER outgrew its twisted philosophy. The case AGAINST its mean-spirited message and FOR Judeo-Christian morality is made in Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

"Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!" is available in bookstores nationwide, through www.barnesandnoble.com,www.amazon.com (paperback and Kindle), and otheronline booksellers. Order it NOW fromAmazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344306781&sr=8-1&keywords=atlas+drugged+ayn+rand+be+damned