Monday, January 26, 2009

Best clip on tv this week

Bill O'Reilly: I didn’t like the line in the (inaugural) speech about ... uhh... we don’t have to compromise our values to protect ourselves. Ummm I think sometimes we do.

Jon Stewart: If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they're not values, they’re hobbies!

Republicans - Talk to the hand.... !

It is neither major nor surprising but this week’s news started with the Republicans’ staunch opposition to stimulus package on grounds of their ever flimsy ‘fiscal responsibility’ lies. Democrats faced this opposition and responded in a manner that they know how to do best – running scared and grovelling to the base of the other side. When Republicans took the “my way or the highway” approach in recent history, we saw a complete destruction in may areas of governance, so I am inclined to support the Obama administration’s willingness to cooperate with differing points of view. However, destructive points of view should have no place in politics. On this and many other points Democrats do not have cave to the Republicans. As Paul Krugman, a noted Nobel Prize winning economist has asserted, the best budget bill passed during the Clinton Administration was done with zero votes from the Republicans. While I am against any possibility of a tyranny of the majority, regardless of whether it was Republicans or Democrats, I am also against sabotage, political lunacy and fear mongering, which is all the Republicans have shown they are capable of. The hypocrisy of Republicans of labelling people as un-American if they do not support their President during a time of crisis clearly only applies to Republican Presidents. I for one, however, am not going to discourage Republicans from saying whatever they want because it is their right.

It should be noted that the American people have categorically rejected the platform the republicans put forward. The U.S. House of Representatives have 256 Democrats out of 435 members, the Senate has 58 (possibly 59) Democrats out of 100, and a Democratic President, all of whom have been decisively democratically elected. It is disappointing to see public service and infrastructure projects are being cut out form the stimulus package to accommodate tax cuts, which clearly did not and do not work. We need a way to kick start the economy where people have a source of income and NOT a once a year payment that they clearly are not going to spend. One only has to look at the behavior of banks that were given bailout money to specifically spend it, to see that in times of crisis people hold on to whatever they’re given unless there is a promise of more in a predictable periodic fashion. One word - Security. The public needs to know that there will be a steady income and funnily enough a job provides steady income, tax cuts decidedly do not. Perhaps the time had come for Democrats to show that they too have a spine to make decisions that they were elected to make. Unless the Republicans take a reflective position of what went wrong and more importantly the wrongs they have committed in the last 8 years, Democrats should only have one response.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

An Open Letter to the President of United States

Dear Mr. President,

Well it has been almost 2 years since I immersed myself in the US election and now it is finally over. It was one of the most gruelling election primaries in the history of American elections and I loved every minute of it. I cringed at racism, sexism, ageism, and every other despicable “ism” that the media came up with to make this historical election more interesting. But somehow it is over and thank goodness for it and we got the greatest political show on earth to prove it. My election experience consisted of going to one of your rallies in San Antonio, TX during the primaries, following the primary debates and learning about the delegate system, watching and discussing all three Presidential Debates and reading countless articles and blogs. If I have to read another Post article or watch another Youtube ‘viral’ video I will have an aneurism. Although the election is over, there is no doubt that today is the beginning of a new era in leadership.

Mr. President, the American people have not given you a right to govern but a privilege to govern through their valuable time spent in endless campaigning and waiting in lines to vote. The greatest promotion of democracy is its true demonstration and America has no doubt demonstrated that in the last election. You have promised tax cuts for the middle class, universal health care and a restoration of the dignity of diplomacy. I urge you to stand by your word. Prove to the critics and Republicans and the sceptics that the empowerment of the middle class will lead to far greater economic stability than the farcical non-existent trickle down effect from the selfish rich. Prove that universal healthcare is not socialism but an inherent right synonymous with the right to life, which will make America a healthier nation. Prove that the ‘civilised world’ is capable of facilitating the fine art of diplomacy over the savage institution of war and violation of human rights.

Mr. President, I urge you to keep to your promise of holding those responsible for the perpetual defamation the U.S. Constitution in the last 8 years by giving back to Americans what they have the false security of thinking they already have – civil liberties, freedom to dissent and ability to question how they are governed. In a democracy, the power belongs to the people, which the people have entrusted you with. It is now your responsibility, as the face of this nation, to ensure that the thousands of soldiers who have died serving their nation, the millions of people that have endured pain and suffering to make their way to America from various backgrounds in the hope of a better life, and the entire nation that worked harder than any other nation to make it the most powerful country in the world, did not do so in vain.

Mr. President, I am moved by acknowledgment of the USA as a nation among nations, by the extension of your hand to all nations, and the pledge of bringing positive change in not only the United States but the world. I am impressed by your direct address to the Muslim world, the poorer nations and the false notion of a choice between ‘safety and ideals.’ You have more support than dissent, in you more hope and optimism then fear, and the willingness for progress. There was a time not too long ago when people wanted to be America, to have the charms, the ambition, the inspiration to be the best that America symbolises. Deliver us that America from the shroud of secrecy and defiant domination, and end the nightmare that consumed a third of my life. Good Luck.

L.I.
January 21, 2009
Christchurch, New Zealand