Thom Hartmann: Time to Fire DEA Director Michelle Leonhart!

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Derik Schneider

The New Democrat

I have a better idea than Thom Hartmann’s. How about firing the whole damn Drug Enforcement Agency and replacing them with something more intelligent, and easier to understand and explain like the U.S. tax code.  Damn straight, bring them all in, starting with Director Michelle Leonhart, and say, “You’re fired!  (Quoting the Donald.) We can’t afford your stupidity anymore.”  With a national debt of around seventeen-trillion dollars we can’t afford to spend fifty-billion dollars a year on this stupid War on Drugs.  It’s is as stupid as one person spending a million dollars a year on bubble gum.

I don’t know this for a fact but I believe this is my first ever satire about the stupid War on Drugs, which we know is not real because of all of the dangerous legal narcotics in the country. I’ll check my blogger files for anyone who is actually interested in knowing if this is my first War on Drugs satire or not. And if you really need to know that than you probably are up late every night watching the Home Shopping Network and simply do not have enough constructive things to do with your time.

If we wanted a real War on Drugs, not only would alcohol and tobacco be illegal today but also addictive prescription drugs as well. If you want to assess the damage that narcotics have done in this country, start with the legal drugs first.  There are millions of Americans who use dangerous narcotics   but aren’t in jail because the drugs that they use are legal. Some of them are smart about how they use them.  They don’t get addicted to them.  Others, like the DEA, are not so bright and really mess themselves up, as well as innocent people with whom they interact.

I actually agree with Thom Hartmann on something, for the first time in 2014, I believe, but I could be wrong. When a Democratic Administration that is supposed to be a liberal Democratic Administration (the jury is still out on that) uses the same drug warrior propaganda as the drug warriors on both the neoconservative right and paternalist, statist left, you need to bring those people into your office and say to them, “You’re fired!  We can’t afford you anymore.

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Liberty Pen: Megyn Kelly: ‘The Fuzzy Math of ObamaCare’

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

The FOX News specializes in fuzzy math. When they hear government reports that back up their argument, whatever it is at the time, they say, “Hey, see, we told you this is not working and we need to repeal it!”  But when government figures come out that contradict their arguments, they claim that government conspiracy exists. “See the government that we don’t trust, that said ObamaCare is failing, is now saying that it is working!”

There are people, both in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and fringe independents, who only listen to news that backs up their political beliefs. I give you the FOX News audience on the Right and Far-Right. And MSNBC on the Far-Left.  The Right uses FOX News and the Far-Left uses MSNBC for the same reasons that other people use The Onion. To see what is not happening in the world and to make fun of it.

Listening to FOX News is like listening to kids trying to convince their parents that if they allow them to have cake for dinner, it won’t spoil their appetites.  They’ll say “Hey, I had cake before and it didn’t spoil my appetite then. Why would it spoil it now?”  When you point out that the last time they had cake, they had an upset stomach and had to stay home from school the next day, they say, “I hate you! You’re always saying no and won’t let me do anything!”  Seriously, why would anyone interested in real news take FOX News seriously?
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The Hoover Institution: Bruce Thornton: Illiberal Liberalism

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Reading right-wingers about people they call “elitist Democrats,” or wine and cheese Democrats, people whom I call wine and cheese progressives, the wing of the Democratic Party that believes that anyone who didn’t graduate from an Ivy League, other Northeastern university or a school on the west coast is not real bright and needs big government to take care of them, is a little difficult, if I were to take their arguments seriously (good luck with that).  On the other hand, I can just enjoy the unintentional humor and hypocrisy of it and think to myself, “Damn, these guys (including Ann Coulter) have a serious set of balls, balls that you could use to play basketball.”  If you’ve ever been hit in the head with a basketball, you know that it it hurts like hell.  It’s like getting punched by a world heavyweight champion boxer.  I would only recommend it for my worst enemy.

Seriously, these are the people who run the country.  They have the money to do it or they serve and are in business to protect the people who do it.  They get on Democrats for elitism when they are constantly putting down organized labor, government workers, and blue collar workers, trying to transfer wealth from the middle class to the upper class and looking for ways to increase taxes on low-income Americans.

You have elitist Democrats like the Kennedy Family and others and you have elitist Republicans like the Bush Family and many others.  You know what they have in common.  They all have a hell of a lot of money and have a hard time communicating with working class people who aren’t Ivy League educated, who drink beer, eat chicken wings, hot dogs and french fries.  And go bowling, which I guess is a sin amongst yuppy snobs and elitists on both sides of the isle.  They have a hard time communicating with people who work very hard for a living and spend their free time doing working class activities like going to ball games.

Hearing someone like Bruce Thornton, who may or may not be a right-wing snob himself, using the same language that other right-wingers use when they talk about elitist Democrats, is like trying to swallow a mouth full of horse shit.  It’s a little tough to swallow, even if you had to in order to survive because there was nothing else to eat, that is if you take them seriously.  If you don’t, you can just laugh it off and make fun of them. 

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Bloomberg News: Pimm Fox: Bob Saget Admits ‘Inappropriate Acts’ in New Book

Posted on April 13, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

What can I say about Bob Saget?  Well he’s the best Danny Tanner ever, wait, he’s the only Danny Tanner ever but, hey, that still counts. Perhaps I should explain what I mean by that for the two people who see this who’ve never heard of Full House.  It was on back when ABC was making hit TV shows, you know twenty-five years ago. And then I’ll move onto bigger and better things (hopefully) like inappropriate acts, which I gotta admit are a hell of a lot more interesting than the career of Bob Saget. Sorry Bob, you’ve done a good job but your career is not that interesting.

Full House, for the two people who read this post who’ve never heard of it, and, by the way, if you haven’t heard of this show, which was  a hit sitcom on ABC for eight years, you probably haven’t heard of Three’s Company, Cheers, or some of these other great sitcoms from the 1980s and 90s.  Full House is about a single, widower father with three daughters that he is rearing himself because their mother is dead.

The first part is believable enough, right, even in the 80s and 90s there were single fathers divorced or widowed.  Divorced, with full-custody of their kids,  mom being a prostitute or, in Danny Tanner’s case, deceased.  It gets better, this is where Hollywood,  San Francisco, and Los Angeles come in.  Tanner (Back to you Bob Saget) brings in his brother in-law (John Stamos), the maternal uncle of his kids  and his best friend Joey (Dave Coullier) to help him raise his kids.

So Full House goes from two parents a father and mother, with three daughters to three dads and three kids. This is where it gets more Hollywood.  All three of these guys are happy, straight men who just happen to live in San Francisco.  The show had a great cast and great writers and they made it work well for eight seasons, which is a great run for a sitcom.

On the subject of inappropriate acts, I’ll give you a list of three things never to do in public.

Never fart in an elevator, even if you are the only one in the elevator, because the elevator can always stop and someone else can get on before you get off.

Never cuss in front of kids unless you like being cussed out yourself, especially when they are old enough to understand swearing and can use swear words in a sentence.  This is a lesson that Bob Saget apparently learned personally.

Never tell your boss that she’s hot unless she’s also your girlfriend or wife. I believe the reasons for this are obvious. If you don’t think that you can follow this rule, pick someone else to work for.  Get a new job. Once you get it on your resume that you told your boss she’s hot, you’ll have a hard time getting anything else on your resume.

That is enough of Bob Saget and my list of three things not to do in public.  I hope that I haven’t taken up too much of your time or mind with this piece.

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The Onion: Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Lets Americans Cram Cash Down Politicians Throat

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Erik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

What the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance did last week was, essentially, to make bribery legal so that members of Congress will no longer have to feel guilty about taking money for voting for this or voting for that.  Or in the case of the U.S. Senate, voting to not vote,  if you are familiar with the Senate cloture rule.  If you are familiar with the Senate cloture rule, you are probably qualified to teach Greek or ancient Mongolian history because the cloture rule is just as complicated.


Free speech? Give me a break, we are now talking about paid speech. The people with the most money have the most influence, which has always been the case in Congress.  The only thing these Supreme Court decisions have done is to make that legal. Congressional influence will be sold to the highest bidder.  Policy luncheons and committee hearings will be replaced by fundraisers and get togethers in private clubs and junkets where only the members of Congress who are the best boys and girls at delivering what special interests want are invited.

I wonder if I can get out of paying taxes at all if I just stuff a thousand dollars down my representative’s or senator’s throat.  Or, say that I owe this much in taxes.  How about I just give it to you, Senator Smith or Representative Jones, and write it off of my taxes. I get out of paying income taxes and you get the money you need to get reelected and we can do the same thing again in a couple of years. This might sound like an exaggeration but Americans politics is now at the point where public service, whatever the hell that is anymore, is now private service to the highest bidder.

We now have a Representative from Virginia, Jim Moran, a Democrat for whom I have a lot of respect  and like politically. No joke, I really do, (with only one finger behind my back).  He has the balls to say that members of Congress are underpaid.  No, seriously, he actually said that.  This guy only works half the year, lives full-time in Alexandria and gets to go home every night.  Only a handful of members of Congress get to do that.  Congressman Moran makes $174K per year as a part-time worker.

$174K a year is the average salary for an associate lawyer. What does he do with the rest of his time and spend all of his money on?  Wait, I’ve got it, he needs more money to pay for more fundraisers or, perhaps, to hire people to stuff money down his throat so he can keep getting reelected. Yeah, thats it. Guess what, that is not what the people who live in his district, who can’t afford to make big political contributions, are paying him to do.

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The Young Turks: ‘Kissing Representative Vance McAllister Caught on Camera’

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Derik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat

Perhaps the new way to describe the Christian Right in America is to call them the “Do What I Say Not What I do Right.”  Perhaps the so-called the “Family Values Coalition” (which has as much meaning as “jumbo shrimp”) should be called the “Moral in Public Coalition” or the “What We Do in Private is our Business and what other Americans do in Private is our Business Too Coalition.”  Because of our morality and honesty we know best how each and every American should live their own lives.  How about “The Give Me a Break Coalition?”

There’s a powerful religious/political block in the United States called the Christian Right or Religious Right. A lot of these people, despite their bigoted views, are otherwise good people.  They are loyal to their spouses, loyal to their kids, volunteer for their communities, help the less-fortunate and a lot of other things that make people good. This voting block, at least in the South and rural America, is usually big enough to decide whether Republicans are politically successful or not.

But here’s a perfect example of why religion shouldn’t be mixed with politics.  I’m not saying that religious people shouldn’t be active in politics but that when religion gets mixed into your political philosophy, or becomes your political philosophy as with the Christian Right, it becomes a big problem. Then your politics tend to oppose the constitutional rights of other Americans.  They have constitutional rights to live their own lives as they choose, because of the rights of privacy, free speech, and freedom of religion, even if their choices go against your religious beliefs.  Attempting to encode your religious beliefs in law, as in “Right to Life,” infringes the constitutional rights of citizens who do not agree with you.

But I can’t end this post without addressing the hypocrisy of politicians who claim to live by moral or family values.  What does that mean?  That’s like hearing Republicans say that they believe in individual freedom and responsibility.  Individual freedom and responsibility for whom to do what? They tend to leave out the answers to these questions when speaking in public.  In private, they do what makes them happy and try not to get caught.

Maybe the so-called Moral or Family Values Coalition should say we believe this is how other Americans should live their lives.  If you don’t live your life as we tell you to do, we are going to label you as immoral or Un-American, even if we do the same things you’re doing.

The Republican Party needs this religious fringe because they can’t be politically successful without it.  They have to pretend to care about their issues or they’ll not win elections.

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Liberty Pen: John Stossel: Naomi Schaffer Riley: War on Women by Feminists

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

As a man who doesn’t consider himself a feminist but, perhaps, a masculinist (if there is such a thing) I believe in equal rights and legal protection for all.  People should not be denied things simply because of gender.  As a liberal, I think that a true feminist should believe that women should be treated as well and fairly under law as men but not better.

The women’s movement or feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s wasn’t about world domination for women and subjugation of masculinity as the far-left seems to think today.  It was about women having the same rights and protections under the law as men and being judged for their personal qualifications and whatever they are seeking in life, without regard to their gender.

I don’t want women being treated worse by society than men but I don’t believe that they should enjoy a gender-based advantage either.  We each represent about half of America and need to live and work together for the betterment of our country.

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Liberty Pen: John Stossel: Technically That’s Illegal

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Good rule for government: Don’t propose new rules unless you actually understand your current rules and are able to enforce them.  That might seem obvious but, in a lot of cases, that’s what makes government inefficient.  The rule books are not understandable, even by the people whom taxpayers pay to enforce them.  There are so many rules that some of them are unenforced because of lack of resources.

The Obama Administration gets stereotyped as a proponent of big government, overtaxation, and over regulation, but they’ve decided, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, that they aren’t going to enforce marijuana prohibition on using and possessing small amounts.  They are going to enforce the prohibition on selling marijuana only in states where it is illegal.  They are doing this to conserve resources for use in higher priority areas of law enforcement.

The U.S. tax code is another great example of runaway regulation.  It gets bigger every year but the IRS budget and personnel are either flat or contracting.  I’m not looking to increase the size of the Internal Revenue but they are only human and there’s a limit to what they can do. So if you are in government, make sure that you understand your proposed new rules and that the people who’ll have to enforce them understand them as well.

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Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: Speech at the White House (12/17/79)

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat

This speech was given about three weeks after the Iranian hostage crisis in which Iranian Islamists took fifty Americans, working at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, hostage in November of 1979.  This was Thatcher’s first visit to Washington after becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, about three months earlier. She ran on a platform of completely changing Britain’s Democratic Socialist ways and moving past a welfare state that tried take complete care of all citizens.

Prime Minister Thatcher wanted to create an opportunity and entrepreneurial society where Brits would be able to take care of themselves.  She did not want the British government to be running major sectors of the economy.  She wanted energy and aviation to be run by the private sector.  She was certainly not a socialist  nor even a liberal, conservative, or even a libertarian in the American sense.  By American standards, the best way to describe her would be as an economic progressive.

Prime Minster Thatcher didn’t want to eliminate the welfare state in Britain but she didn’t want the welfare state to take care of people who could take care of themselves if they just had a good job.  She thought that the government should not try to run people’s lives and that Brits should be permitted to manage their own economic affairs.  The results, in terms of where Britain was economically when she took over in 1979 and when she left office in 1989, show that she was very successful.

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Real Time With Bill Maher: Perverts With Principles

Posted on April 10, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Warning this blog contains language that may offend over-sensitive tight asses

Politicians are people just like us.  I know that might sound like,  “No shit, Sherlock,” or “You can’t be serious.”  It’s also true that many politicians are wealthy and begin life with many advantages over average Americans.  But they have the same propensity for stupid acts as we do.  Because they live much of their lives in public, when they make mistakes and get caught lying, everybody knows about it.  They do the same stupid things that average Americans do but, since they got their jobs by election, their transgressions get more publicity and they suffer immediately.

George Carlin was a great political satirist.  Bil Maher is not qualified to be his dishwasher, chauffeur, or caddy.  Carlin said, politicians live in our communities, go to our schools, shop at the same stores we do, or have their secretary’s do those things for them. But they come from the same places that we do. The only difference being that their jobs are public.

When Joe and Mary Smith cheat on their college exams, bang their secretary’s or babysitters, or forge documents, only the people they work with or for, the babysitters parents, or each other, if they are cheating,  gives a damn.  But when Senator, Representative, or Governor Smith cheats on his wife, hires an illegal immigrant, bangs his secretary, babysitter or intern, the whole world knows about it.

Politicians also have a hell of a lot more money than we do.  They use our money to give their lobbyist friends bridges and roads that only ten people use.  We give them their jobs with our votes.  We should monitor their performance closely (Chris Christie) and vote accordingly in the future.  If we don’t,  we   have only ourselves to blame.

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