The Republican Hypocrisy on Tax Cuts

Why is the Republican refusal to extend the payroll tax cut for working Americans not considered a tax increase? When they argue that not extending the Bush tax cuts for the super rich is a tax increase.

Pizza's A Vegetable?

Okay, let me get this right: Congress is debating whether pizza is a vegetable? The same gang that's supposed to solve our economic problems?

Oy vey.

Rick Perry & the Brainwashing of Herman Cain

Recently when Herman Cain was asked why few African-Americans voted Republican, he responded they were "brainwashed." He expanded upon that and repeatedly reiterated that Blacks were brainwashed in subsequent interviews.

Forget that most white Southerners vote Republican, most Jews Democrat and other demographic groups also favor one party over another. But only African-Americans are brainwashed. The accusation smacked of Blacks being like children, easily misled, as Southerners often accused "outsiders" of stirring up things during the civil rights era. Blacks were brainwashed. Of course they could not think on their own, or vote based upon their own perceived interests.

The Washington Post reported that for years outside Rick Perry's rural Texas campgrounds, stood a rock with "Niggerhead" written on it. Perry maintains his father Ray painted over it once the family took a stake in the grounds. While that name has indeed been painted over-- with some letters still slightly showing--witness accounts suggest the Perrys weren't so quick in painting over the word.

Herman Cain came out and exclaimed that because of the length of time it took the Perrys to paint over the offensive word, Perry was "just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country."

Oh, come on Herman, you've been brainwashed.

How is this different from Ronald Reagan (a hero of yours!) announcing his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi? Site of the murder of three civil rights workers. How is this any different from Nixon's Southern strategy before that, setting this all in motion? Building on Southern white resentment over civil rights legislation, desegration of schools and voting rights at the polls. Those threads have built the fabric of today's Republican Party.

The only Black Republicans that ever get elected are from white districts. Hmm, I wonder why? Come to think of it, is there a subtext to your candidacy? Bashing the first elected African-American President, echoing or ignoring the Tea Party vitriol that spews from your party? Are you that "black walnut," as you called yourself, that provides cover (or should I say "color") to the reactionary Republican assault?

Is your upbrage over Niggerhead  truly genuine since you've dismissed African-American suspicions of similar actions and policies as brainwashing. Could it be Herman Cain, that you have attacked Rick Perry because you are neck-and-neck with him in recent Republican polls? Perhaps jockeying for a vice presidential spot to provide color to whitewash the Republican/Tea Party attacks?

Black voters will vote to reelect this President, not because he's Black, but for the same reasons they have voted for the majority of Democratic candidates historically. Black voters had to fight for their place in the Democartic party as they did in society. But they succeeded. The Republican party opened up to the writers of Niggerhead and their descendants.

That's why Herman Cain you are a novelty. And Barack Obama is President. That's the difference between the two parties. That's not brainwashing, that's self-interest.

President George W. Bush: Unspoken Author of the Arab Spring?

For decades Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadaffi were the bad boys of the Middle East as far as American policy makers were concerned. Both had American blood on their hands and are now gone. The former was overthrown in the 2003 American invasion of Iraq and the latter by his own people backed by the United States, the European Union and the Arab League. In between these two events arose the Arab Spring that has engulfed Libya these past months. The fall of dictators from Tunisia to Egypt's Mubarak to Gadaffi are traced to the heroic act of protest by Mohamed Bouazizi who self-immolated himself on Dec. 22, 2010. However, could another more famous person also claim authorship? President George W. Bush. Yes, the American invasion was not greeted warmly in the Middle East, and the top-down imposition of change from the outside created an insurgency and cost thousands of Iraqi and American lives. But there were also pictures of Iraqi women and men voting in free elections for the first time. Excited voters waving their ink-stained hands proving they voted in free and fair elections. It was a scene to be repeated, along with the messy deal-making to forge a government coalition among Iraq's demographic groups and politicians. The United States reviled as an invader, turned over the reins of power back to Iraqis as it did to the Germans and Japanese after World War II. Iraq proved these dictatorial dynasties could be overthrown and elections held. I cannot believe this escaped notice in the rest of the Arab world. That and the continuing deterioration of people's lives in these corrupt and totalitarian countries proved ready for the match lit on Dec. 22, 2010 by a despairing and desperate Tunisian peddler. The Arab Spring continues and Syria finds itself in its ever growing shadow. But perhaps we need to look beyond that flame engulfed Tunisian square and begrudgingly acknowledge the first embers were struck in 2003, intentional or not.