Broadway Carl 2.0

In light of the Hobby Lobby decision by the Supreme Court, I thought I'd post this piece again with a follow up. Many on the left have set their hair on fire over President Obama's solution to the conflict between religious institutions, primarily the Catholic church, providing health care coverage which includes birth control to women and the teachings of the church. One would have to be in the wildest parts of Siberia to have missed this controversy, so I will not recount the drama that has unfolded. However, once again the ubiquitous word "cave" has appeared in association with this decision. There was a time when this would infuriate me, but now I laugh at the predictability of the critical left. Of course, if you dare disagree with them, then they launch into name calling that would make any junior high student proud. I think one reason for their childish, often surly, reaction is their unstated, unreasonable expectations of President Obama. It's ...

Every once in a while, I'll come across an email that accuses President Obama, his administration or even Michelle Obama of some malfeasance because you know, he's an illegitimate, Kenyan born, Socialist, Marxist, Manchurian candidate Antichrist hell bent on destroying the United States from within, and she's an angry black woman who dares to question if America's kids are getting enough exercise and not eating enough healthy foods, and you can't trust those uppity negroes for a second or some such nonsense. A friend told me he had received an email about the First Lady and was wondering about its legitimacy. I told him that if it had anything to do with Michelle Obama it was probably a bunch of bullshit, but if he'd like to forward it to me I would gladly research it so he could then shove it up the ass of whoever sent it to him - in this case, his uncle. You gotta love family. So, here's the email: "I guess we can just add this little tidbit to ...

President Obama Speaks on Reopening the Government    "So let's work together to make government work better, instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. That’s not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president, then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country is about."

Averting a Government Shutdown and Expanding Access to Affordable Healthcare "If Congress doesn’t pass a budget by Monday – the end of the fiscal year – the government shuts down, along with many vital services the American people depend on. On Friday, the Senate passed a bill to keep the government open. But Republicans in the House have been more concerned with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget that creates new jobs or strengthens the middle class. And in the next couple days, these Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or create a crisis that will hurt people for the sole purpose of advancing their ideological agenda...   I will work with anyone who wants to have a serious conservation about our economic future. But I will not negotiate over Congress’ responsibility to pay the bills it has already racked up. I don’t know how to be more clear about this: no one gets to thr...

Congress Must Act Now to Pass a Budget and Raise the Debt Ceiling "... after five years spent digging out of crisis, the last thing we need is for Washington to manufacture another... ...This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending.  It lets us pay for what Congress already spent.   It doesn’t cost a dime, or add a penny to our deficit.  In fact, right now, our deficits are already falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II.  And by the end of this year, we’ll have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office... Democrats and some reasonable Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling and pass a sensible budget – one that cuts spending on what we don’t need so we can invest in what we do.  And I want to work with those Democrats and Republicans on a better bargain for the middle class.   But there’s also a faction on the far right of the Republican party w...

Calling For Limited Military Action In Syria "As the leader of the world’s oldest Constitutional democracy, I also know that our country will be stronger if we act together, and our actions will be more effective. That’s why I asked Members of Congress to debate this issue and vote on authorizing the use of force.    What we’re talking about is not an open-ended intervention. This would not be another Iraq or Afghanistan. There would be no American boots on the ground. Any action we take would be limited, both in time and scope – designed to deter the Syrian government from gassing its own people again and degrade its ability to do so.  I know that the American people are weary after a decade of war, even as the war in Iraq has ended, and the war in Afghanistan is winding down. That’s why we’re not putting our troops in the middle of somebody else’s war.  But we are the United States of America. We cannot turn a blind eye to images like the ...

Note:   Earlier this week I published a post about narcissism in zealots, and I used Tim Wise as an example. I also mentioned David Sirota because it was a twitter storm erupting around their tweets that inspired Part I: Tim Wise Meets a Buzz Saw Called Black Twitter . Initially, I planned to write about both men in one post, but there was such an abundance of material, I split the post into two parts.    I don't like David Sirota. Honestly, I loathe him. I'm not one who usually loathes, but then again, I haven't encountered anyone with so many loathsome qualities, except Glenn Greenwald, who is vastly superior in the loathsome quality category.   Anyone who has had an encounter with Sirota is well aware of his inflated sense of his own  self-importance as well as his mistaken notion that he possesses a great intellect. Forgive me for using an old clich é , but if you look up the definition of narcissism in Webster's, you'll see Sirota's picture. Combin...

Dear Chris, I'm sure you must be feeling anguish and anxiety over your show's dismal ratings, especially since you couldn't hang onto to Ed Schultz's audience, the pundit you replaced. The anguish must come from the blame you're receiving for Rachel's tanking numbers. Trust me. She's done that to herself. And certainly, you must feel anxious about losing your job at MSNBC. After all, look what happened to Cenk Uyger after Phil Griffin sent him packing. "Cenk Who?" you ask. My point exactly. So I'm going to offer you some unsolicited advice about how to shore up your numbers and increase your viewership. Your weekend morning show "Up with Chris" received much critical claim, and I'm sure for good reason. I couldn't say though since I didn't watch you much. Praise was heaped on you for having diverse discussion panels of not only people from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, education, and professions...

As if we didn't already know that the knee jerk thing to do if you're a Republican (the operative word being "jerk") is to blame all things on President Obama no matter what they may be, out comes a new report in which Louisiana Republicans blame the lack of federal government response to Hurricane Katrina - back in 2005 - on... You guessed it! President Obama. Even though he wasn't, you know, going to be  President for another 3 1/2 years. "[Public Policy Polling], which provided its results to Talking Points Memo, found that 29 percent of Louisiana Republicans said Obama was responsible for the Katrina response. Twenty-eight percent put the blame on President George W. Bush, whose administration did in fact oversee the federal response to Katrina. Nearly half (44 percent) of the Louisiana Republicans polled didn't know who to blame." More people blamed President Obama than the actual Commander-in-Chief at the time! Keep it up, Louisiana Re...

Securing a Better Bargain for the Middle Class "Even before the crisis hit, we were living through a decade where a few at the top were doing better and better, while most families were working harder and harder just to get by...   ... I’m willing to work with Republicans to simplify our tax code for businesses large and small, but only if we take the money we save by transitioning to a simpler tax system and make a significant investment in creating good, middle-class jobs.  We can put construction workers back on the job rebuilding our infrastructure.  We can boost manufacturing, so more American companies can sell their products around the world.  And we can help our community colleges arm our workers with the skills they need in a global economy – all without adding a dime to the deficit.  I’ll keep laying out my ideas to give the middle class a better shot in the 21st century, and I’ll keep reaching out to Republicans for theirs.  Bu...

A Better Bargain for the Middle Class   "... over the past couple of years in particular, Washington has taken its eye off the ball. An endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals shift focus from what needs to be done. And as Washington prepares to enter another budget debate, the stakes could not be higher. The choices we make now will determine whether or not every American has a fighting chance in the 21st century.   ... I know there are members of both parties who understand what’s at stake, and I’m open to ideas from across the political spectrum, as long as they meet the test of strengthening the prospects of hard-working families. But repealing Obamacare, gutting critical investments in our future, threatening to default on the bills this country has already racked up, or shutting down the government just because I’m for keeping it open – none of those thing add up to an economic plan. None of that will take this country where i...