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WE, the People….
This is the political
portion of my web site. It contains my
opinions on the issues of the day. These
opinions are based on MY understanding of the facts.
Facts are important.
Our opinions, and the
decisions we make based on those opinions, should be based on facts.
My understanding of the facts may be
defective. My opinions may be based on poor judgment, or misinterpretation of
the facts, but I don’t think so.
There is a lot of false
information circulating out there these days, particularly on the Internet. I
am barraged by hoax e-mails, or e-mails containing allegations that have no
factual basis. Many of these e-mails are intended to create “fear” in the
reader. Fear of losing something; fear of foreigners; fear of different races
or religions.
Fear is not a good basis
for decision-making.
It is a bit sad that some
people, who I have for years considered to be friends, have been so deluded by
the massive onslaught of bogus information, that they are beginning to echo
that same garbage. Most of the e-mails fall into the category of attacks on
America’s first African-American President.
Am I over-reacting to call this
determined program of attacking the President “racist”?
I don’t think so.
An example of this is the
allegation that is out there regarding a March, 2009 proposal by the White
House that treatment for veterans’ medical treatment be paid for, at least
initially, by each veteran’s private health insurance. It was a poorly thought-out proposal, and was
not well explained in the media, which often happens. Unfortunately, our media
often seizes on the most controversial or inflammatory piece of a news story,
omitting the part that explains the reasons for the situation. They are focused
on presenting the most controversial stories, to boost their readership or
viewership.
It didn’t help that
comedian John Stewart seized on it to make a joke at the expense of the
President.
The logic of the White
House proposal, in the face of exploding health care costs, was that it would
make the system more efficient, and save the Veterans Administration 530
million dollars per year. There was no
proposal that veterans be required to pay more for their private health
insurance.
After the veteran’s
proposal hit the news, conservative humorist John Semmens posted these words
originally March 21, 2009, when they appeared in Semmens’ column,
"Semi-News — A Satirical Look at Recent News," at the online
publication The Arizona Conservative.
"Look, it's an all volunteer force," Obama
complained. "Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and
accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice? It
doesn't compute."
"I thought these were people who were proud to
sacrifice for their country," Obama continued. "I wasn't asking for
blood, just money. With the country
facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I'd have thought that the
patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation's deficit. I
guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my fellow Americans."
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens188.htm
We know that the above
statement was not made by President Obama, but was in fact invented by John
Semmens. There is no one who has investigated this statement that has not come
to the same conclusion. More particularly, in this time of viral videos, IF the
President had actually said the above statement, it would be captured somewhere
on video and the video would be circulating.
In the fallout of the
kickback that occurred after the proposal was offered, White House spokesman
Robert Gibbs, said the following:
"The President demonstrated his deep commitment
to veterans by proposing the largest increase in the VA budget in 30 years and
calling VSO (Veterans Service Organizations) and MSO (Military Service
Organizations) leaders into the White House for an unprecedented meeting to
discuss various aspects of the budget proposal."
"In considering the third party billing issue,
the administration was seeking to maximize the resources available for
veterans; however, the President listened to concerns raised by the VSOs that
this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families'
ability to access health care. Therefore, the President has instructed that its
consideration be dropped. The President wants to continue a constructive
partnership with the VSOs and MSOs and is grateful to those VSOs and MSOs who
have worked in good faith with him on the budget proposal."
The facts of this event
have been checked out and confirmed by at least three different organizations
who devote themselves to debunking bogus Internet information.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/apr/09/chain-email/fiction-touted-fact-anti-obama-e-mail/
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/veteranshealth.asp
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/would-obama-have-soldiers-pay-for-own-war-injuries/
Now, why have I taken the
time and space to go over this event that occurred more than two and a half
years ago?
One of my most valued
friends, who I have known since we were in Basic Training together in 1966,
recently told me that he remembers “seeing the President make the statement on
television”. That is, he “remembers
seeing” President Obama saying the statement above that was written by John
Semmens in March of 2009.
That is ridiculous, and I
told him so. I invited him to send me the video of the President saying that
statement, if he actually said it. I told him that his memory was faulty, if he
really “remembers” seeing the President make that statement.
He interpreted that
challenge as me calling him a liar, which I didn’t do.
He just has his facts
wrong, because he has been listening to the far right talk show hosts who are
spreading false information. He has heard the same false claim repeated so many
times that he actually believes he has “seen” the President saying it.
So what has our dialogue
come to? He claims we have nothing more to talk about and has stopped writing.
My friend and I share two
main interests. We are both strong
advocates for the 2nd Amendment, and we both are aviation enthusiasts. He is much more active than I am in both subject
areas. He is very “conservative,” lives in South Carolina, and while he claims
he is not a Republican, has nothing positive to say about any Democrat.
Virtually every message I received from him from the beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign until the recent silence has been
an ad hominem attack on either the President or some other Democrat.
My friend is, to use a term
he would understand, “scope locked” on a single view of the world. To him, all
Democrats are Marxists who are dedicated to taking away our guns. All Muslims
are terrorists. All immigrants are “illegal.”
All military veterans, except me, are “conservatives.” To be “liberal”
is, in his mind, equivalent to being a traitor to America. These are the
truisms in his thinking.
Where did my friend get his
rigid and narrow thinking?
Why am I so
“liberal” and willing to engage in analysis of each issue, and willing to
listen to the opinions of those whose opinions are so contrary to my own?
How
did we get to be so different in our views and approach to various issues?
I
don’t know.
There IS one thing I have
great confidence about.
There is a war
on within America.
The American War is between
the very wealthy and the rest of us. I
have no specific facts to support my opinion, but nevertheless, I have great
confidence that this opinion is correct.
We have seen reports that the top 20% of the US population owns 84% of the wealth, while the bottom 40% owns only 0.3% of the wealth.
The important conclusion there is that a great number of us, the 40% who are not in the bottom 2/5 of the population, own only 15.7% of the nation's wealth, which is less than 1/5 of the amount held by the 20% above us on the economic scale.
Is that 7.85% in the third 20% and 7.85% in the fourth 20%?
I doubt it. My suspicion is that something like 12% is in the fourth 20% and 3.7% is in the third 20%.
Is this a formula that can support a successful American economy? I don't think so.
We hear about the Koch
brothers, and their funding of the Swift Boat Veterans against John Kerry and
other anti-Democrat efforts.
We see the oil companies attacks on efforts to clean up the air.
We see the coal companies highly imaginative fictitious claims about "clean coal technology" and CO2 sequestration.
We have had recent
revelations about the practices of members of Congress, investing in
businesses that will be benefited by their pending actions, and that they have
exempted themselves from insider-trading restrictions that apply to the rest of
us.
We have observed the extent
to which Congress makes decisions that afford huge economic benefits for the
employers of the thousands of lobbyists who populate the city inside the
beltway.
We have seen badly needed
legislation modified to protect specific industries, despite very strong public
support for alternate approaches.
Examples of this are health
insurance reform instead of health care reform (we got the Patient Protection
and Affordable Health Care Act, which preserves the employer-based private
insurance industry instead of the efficient single-payer system that a majority of
Americans were calling for).
We have observed continuing
preferential benefits for extremely lucrative oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy
companies, despite strong public support for clean, renewable alternate energy.
We see continued deep ocean
drilling despite abundant proof in the BP-Deepwater Horizon-Macondo oil well
blowout that the oil companies are dealing with forces beyond their
control.
And we have recently seen
the administration giving exemptions from ozone pollution for the biggest and
most polluting industries, despite strong public support for clean air, water,
and environmental protection.
Republican members of
Congress continue to deny the existence of global warming, despite overwhelming undeniable
evidence that it is real.
Republican members of
Congress label “cap and trade” a left-wing plot to tax Americans, despite the
fact that “cap and trade” was a Republican initiative to address the problem of
acid rain in the 1980s, using "market-driven" forces to accomplish the desired goals.
All of these conditions reinforce my opinion that Congress is out of touch with reality, and unduly influenced by the rich, to the detriment of the rest of us.
So that is my opinion. If you think my opinions about anything else
might be interesting, check out the other sub-headings under this one.
If you disagree and have
facts to support your position, send them along. I’m always glad to learn.
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