Blogger, Provocateur & Propagandist Andrew Breitbart Dead

Blogger, Provocateur & Propagandist Andrew Breitbart

CNN is reporting that Andrew Breitbart is dead of natural causes at the age of 43.  Mr. Breitbart was an ultra-conservative blogger, provocateur and propagandist.  His facilitation of half-truths and lies through his various websites helped to remove from government noted liberals such as former Congressman Anthony Weiner, Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod.  His mentoring of James O’Keefe helped to bring about the destruction of ACORN and several criminal acts.

While those on the right will deify Mr. Breitbart for being a strong conservative voice against liberalism, I will not.  No, Mr. Breitbart believed that no half-truth or lie should go unpublished as long as it furthered the cause of ultra-conservatism.  He was a bully who believed that the ends justify the means, no matter how destructive.  Joseph Goebbels would have been extremely proud of him.

An agent of evil may be dead and burning in the fires of Hell, but his creations still live on.  We liberals must continue the war against the half-truths and lies spread by his various websites and minions.

State of the Union Address: Pandering To Moderates and Conservatives

Do any other liberals feel “blah” over last night’s State of the Union Address by President Obama?  The SOTUA was, to me, too Republican and too conservative.  No liberal agenda (not that I expected one, not from our milquetoast president), hell, not even a token liberal concept.  It was a pep talk for moderates and conservatives not for liberals.

Though he didn’t bash liberals, as he has done for three long years for not supporting him more, he didn’t even attempt to acknowledge us.  It is almost as if, for this election, the President and his advisors have decided that liberals aren’t needed to win.  That if the President panders entirely to moderates and conservatives, no Republican can beat him this November.  And that is the problem with his entire Presidency.

This isn’t a new strategy.  His entire presidency has been about pandering to the moderates and conservatives and saying a big “fuck you” to liberals.  And where has pandering to moderates and conservatives gotten President Obama and the rest of the nation?

We still don’t have universal single payer health care.  Hell, we don’t even have the option to purchase Medicare as our health insurance provider but we do have the mandate to purchase private health insurance.

The prison at Guantanamo Bay is still open and none of the detainees can be brought to the States to be tried in civilian courts.  The Patriot Act was renewed as were the Bush era tax cuts.  Our nation’s bridges, roadways and dams are still crumbling with no plan or funding to fix them.

We still aren’t building palaces of learning and the President is pushing for more “school choice”.  Homeowners are still sinking under the weight of their mortgages while it appears the banks are going to get a sweetheart deal regarding mortgage fraud from the Department of Justice and several states’ attorney generals.

Instead of comprehensive immigration reform we have record numbers of deportations and Sheriff Joe Arpaio is still performing his living while brown “crime suppression sweeps”.  The voters of state after state are approving medical marijuana yet the Department of Justice is raiding dispensaries allowed under the individual state’s laws.

So it comes as no real surprise that President Obama didn’t even offer us liberals a trinket in the speech.  Why should he have?  He seems very happy pandering to moderates and conservatives, which is too bad for our nation.

Election 2011 Reflections

As we celebrate the victories of Tuesday, we must ask ourselves, “Why did we need these victories in the first place”?  Why did Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce need to be recalled in the first place?  Why was there a need for Phoenix Councilman Greg Stanton to face lobbyist Wes Gullett in a mayoral run-off election?  Why did the voters of Ohio need to overturn a law that would have banned collective bargaining for all government employees?  Why did the voters of Maine need to overturn a law that eliminated the right of same day voter registration, a right that voters of Maine had enjoyed for decades?

The simple answer is because in 2010, Democratic candidates were chicken shits who ran away from liberal ideals and goals.  They ran away from single payer healthcare.  They ran away from fair taxation.  They ran away from helping those with the least among us.  They ran away from holding corporations and banks responsible for their destructive and most likely illegal actions.  They ran away from supporting public education.  They ran away from supporting the rights of workers to collectively bargain.  They ran away from breaking up the banks and reinstating Glass-Steagal.  They ran away from truly helping America’s homeowners facing foreclosure.   They ran away from truly helping the unemployed.  They simply ran away.

It is true that we liberals don’t march lockstep like conservatives do.  Just look at how many liberals fell for the Waiting for Superman bullshit.  But, if liberals have one cohesive message it is “I am here for you”.  We believe that collectively we can better help the individual.  As we help that individual we help the community.  As we help the community we help the town.  As we help the town we help the county.  As we help the county we help the state.  As we help the state we help the nation.

There is no reason why anyone in this nation should go hungry.  There is no reason why anyone should go without quality medical care.  There is no reason why anyone in this nation should have to live under a highway overpass.  There is no reason that we should be building more prisons.  There is no reason why we should be vilifying those who choose to live and work in this nation, just because they are undocumented.  There is no reason why our public schools shouldn’t be palaces of learning.  There is no reason that teachers shouldn’t be celebrated instead of vilified on a daily basis.  There is no reason that DOMA should still be the law of the land.  There is no reason why corporations have more rights than actual people.

If there was ever a time for liberalism it is now.  If Democrats want to win back the legislatures, the governor’s mansions and the House of Representatives, they need to fully embrace liberal ideals and goals.  They need to give liberalism a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek.  If we can make liberal ideals and goals the focus of all Democratic candidates we can stop having to recall ultra-conservatives because they will no longer be in office.  We won’t need to repeal conservative legislation at the ballot box because that legislation would never have come to the floor.

We need to flood our city councils, county boards, statehouses and governor’s mansions with liberals and those who will fight for liberal ideals and goals.  We need to make it so as conservatives find it impossible to get elected.  We need to stop running, turn around and fight.

Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn: Expanded Thoughts

As I wrote last night, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny standing in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn.  The Court didn't rule in the merits of the case, as it hadn't gone to trial yet, but instead punted hard and made it virtually impossible for tax payers to bring law suits against a government for programs that they disagree with on the basis of being a tax payer.

I despise the dollar for dollar tax credit (up to $1000 for families) for those who "donate" to organizations that are supposed to provide "scholarships" to those attending private and parochial schools.  At a cost to Arizona tax payers of around $95 million a year, while funding to public schools is being slashed, its not only a waste of money but an unconstitutional subsidy to religious schools.  In Arizona it is actually part of our state's constitution that the government cannot provide funding to religious schools.

The Arizona legislature seems to have found a work around the prohibition and the U.S. Supreme Court has made sure that no one can challenge it in the courts.  So here is a question: Would the five conservative justices have punted by denying standing if the Arizona legislature was instead using tax credits to provide funding to LAMBDA Legal?  Would they even have taken the case after the 9th Circuit ruled that those bringing the suit had standing?

The 9th Circuit, in their ruling, made it very clear that the plaintiffs in A.C.S.T.O. v. Winn would most likely win the case on the merits if the suit were allowed to go forward.  But the Roberts Five couldn't allow that to happen, because then they would have to rule on the actual merits and I think even they would be hard put to find a constitutional way to support the Arizona tax credit law.  That is why they punted so hard using the issue of standing.

This ruling will also embolden the Arizona legislature to expand the tax credit program at the expense of public schools.  It will also embolden conservative legislators across the nation to mimic the program in their own states.  Public education and tax payers will be the losers and the only way to stop it is for liberals to control the various legislatures.  In Arizona, there is a better chance for Pima County to secede from the state than for liberals to take control of the legislature.  But one can hope and one can also hope that the makeup of the Court will change soon.

The Secret to Democractic Success

Democrats across the nation got their asses kicked in the 2010 election.  Republicans took over governorships and solidified control of legislatures in state after state.  Though the "tea party" movement of microwaved social conservatives didn't get a seat in Congress, they took several seats in various legislatures.

Some claim that the Democratic losses were due to the "tea party" movements ideology of cutting taxes and cutting entitlement spending.  Others claim the losses were due to the passage of controversial laws such as the Affordable Health Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act.  Still others claim that as our nation is "right of center", the Democrats tried to take us too far to the left.

I believe all of the reasons given are wrong.  Fiscally and socially conservative Democrats (Blue Dogs) lost 31 of their 54 caucus members.  Moderate Harry Mitchell was defeated in his reelection bid in Arizona's 5th Congressional district.  Even Jon Hulburd, who ran to the right of Ben Quayle here in Arizona's 3rd Congressional district was trounced.  The reason they all lost?  They weren't being Democrats.  They weren't being liberal enough.

You read that correctly.  I believe we Democrats got our asses handed to us because Democrats forgot what it is to be a modern Democrat and to be liberals.  Led by President Obama, Democrats gave us tax payer funded welfare for insurance companies.  They gave us Wall Street reform that was bereft of any real reforms and allowed the "too big to fail" companies "too big to fail".  They even failed to rescind the Bush tax cuts that have cost us over $3 trillion since inception.

If the Democrats had passed real health care insurance reform that included the ability to purchase into Medicare at any age, we wouldn't have lost the House.  If the Democrats had passed real Wall Street reform that separated investment and commercial banks once again, they wouldn't have lost so many seats in the Senate.  If the Democrats had passed real mortgage banking reform that actually helped homeowners, they wouldn't be wondering why they lost.

America is ready and needs strong liberal leadership and ideas.  We could never afford the ideology of the fiscal conservatives and we can ill afford them now.  The Democrats need to push for Medicare at any age.  They need to push for real Wall Street reform.  They need to push for real mortgage reform.  They need to push for a national high speed passenger rail network.  They need to be the liberals that the nation needs.  That is how the Democrats will win in 2012.