Quavered Weakness

Quavered Weakness

Obola:

Invoking fear and even to a degree hysteria, Republicans have been politically putting out false claims that Obama and the government (in government reference to Democrats only) that Ebola is invading and infecting our shores that will create a pandemic killing off scores of Americans. The GOP base is so transfixed on this pointing of fingers that on right-wing blog sites they are now affectionately calling Obama…“Obola.” Isn’t that just dandy of them?

Unfortunately though, all this misinformation and delirious excitement to gain a political edge in this upcoming November election cycle is pure phoniness, uncalled for and perhaps even downright shameful. But it is typical Republican banter in directing blame away from them who are the main cause, while laying all responsibility onto their perceived foes. Let’s have a look shall we…

To create a super cluster of GOP deceit, Republicans have tied all their misinformation as rolled into one big sluggish spinning ball of yarn. Wreaking havoc onto the fears of nitwits, the naïve, unsuspecting, bigoted and the just plain ol’ ignorant, Republicans have managed to dubiously connect the Ebola virus to their immigration, Mexicans, Muslims and ISIL terrorist bogus claims.

Republican congressmen have splashed the Ebola virus all over Latino immigrants by creating a false stigma that the Central American child immigrants are likely carriers of the disease.

In July, Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA) wrote to the ‘Center for Disease Control’ (CDC) demanding to know what they are doing about infectious diseases when it comes to illegal immigrants crossing our southern borders. In the letter he wrote, “Reports of illegal migrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning.” Also in the letter, Gingrey stressed that unaccompanied Latin children posed a particular risk because they could spread these diseases too quickly to be contained in time.

I’m sure America is grateful for Gingrey’s concern, but it’s just a tad misled for there is no outbreak of Ebola in any Latin country much less from Central America where the immigrant children are originating from. Gingrey should know this as he himself is a purported medical doctor. It appears he’s letting his conservative politics override his medical ethics.

The director of CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden fired back at Gingrey and congressmen at a ‘House Foreign Affairs Committee’ hearing concerning Latinos bringing the Ebola virus across the border that, “That is not happening.” The director of the ‘National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’, Dr. Anthony Fauci concurs with Dr. Frieden saying it is “extremely unlikely” a child crossing the border from Latin America into the U.S. to be infected with Ebola.

Did that stop the Republican from spreading vicious rumors…naw…not a chance.

This past August, Representative Todd Rokita (R-IN) inferred during a 93.1 WIBC Indianapolis radio station interview that children emigrating from Central America could be infected with the Ebola virus.

Representative Joe ‘You Lie’ Wilson (R-SC) this October, whom I suppose can’t get his terrorists groups sorted, insisted that not ISIL, but Hamas could infiltrate infected terrorists into the U.S. from our porous southern border.

Responding to an audience member’s question at a Rotary Club meeting, Wilson explained, “You’re not being hypothetical. I’m very concerned…The creed from Hamas…we value death more than you value life. What? That’s their creed. Part of their creed would be to bring persons who have Ebola into our country. It would promote their creed. All of this would be avoided by sealing the border thoroughly. C’mon; this is the 21^st century.”

Besides replacing the currently popular Republican’s ISIL charge with the insertion of Hamas, there’s a lot of fodder going on in Wilson’s outlandish proclamation. Hamas has no such “we value death more than you value life” creed; it is a fixated Wilson slogan. Also, apparently Hamas is smarter than ol’ Joe as well, for it would make much more sense to pick a more infectious disease like smallpox rather than Ebola if they intended to infect a community. It’s also a bit odd in him recognizing it is the 21^st century with his barbaric medieval buffoonery.  

Wilson ends the meeting with, “I’m absolutely convinced, too, that we’ve got to seriously seal our southern border. If you have tens of thousands of children coming across the border who could have potential health issues, the thought of other people coming across…to me just should be stopped and avoided.”

Now come on Joe, no one really wants these illegal immigrants tap dancing across our border, but there is an humanities element to it that you along with your fellow Republican cohorts don’t seem to get and that is your savior Jesus Christ the Lord sees no borders when it comes to aiding your fellow human child. Remember the lyric to that song…“Jesus loves the little children of the ‘world.’”

On October the ninth, former senator Scott Brown, the Republican of Massachusetts who is now running as a senate candidate for New Hampshire issued an Ebola referral claiming that, “One of the reasons why I’ve been so adamant about closing our border, because if people are coming through normal channels; can you imagine what they can do through our porous borders?” He further added in an October 16 radio interview that, “We have a border that’s so porous that anyone can walk across it. It’s naive to think that people aren’t going to be walking through here who have those types of diseases and/or other types of intent, criminal or terrorist.”

Brown also was latching onto a flight travel ban from West Africa into the states. Problem is…there are no direct flights from West Africa to the U.S. Even if there was, if there was an imposed flight ban, it would make it far more difficult to track infected people as they would find various other innumerable means to travel creating a greater chance of becoming lost in tracking.

Congressman Dennis Ross (R-FL) after discussing his strictly political reasons for a travel ban, was unaware of no direct flights until he got schooled by other panel members on an MSNBC October 17 ‘Morning Joe’ segment. To see his deer eyes caught in the headlights moment watch the video below.

Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has gone a bit further than most Republicans in his travel ban theory. He’s come up with a conspiracy argument where he reckons that Obama has made a deal with African leaders to send diagnosed Ebola patients to America for treatment to gain more inferred power. However, he neglects to contend how this would make Obama more powerful, unless he’s sublimely suggesting Obama would use the disease as a weapon on conservatives.

As guest on the Sean Hannity show, Gohmert whimpers, “I bet you there is a deal he has cut with African leaders. He has probably told them, ‘Look, keep in mind I’ll have a lot more flexibility after the election.’ But that’s the only thing that would explain why he won’t do a [travel] ban.”

In vain attempts to try and tie Democrats to a “war on women,” Gohmert also stated recently on the Glenn Beck Program that, “It’s a shame that the CDC head, Frieden, is apparently the new commander of the Democrats’ war on women nurses, because goodnight, they set them up and then they throw them under the bus.”

Of course he neglected to quote Frieden in saying these nurses are “good dedicated people” and relate how GOP policies have made the nursing profession more difficult and less safe. In Dallas there were male nurses as well…I wonder how the “war on women nurses” relates to them. My, my…gasping for a straw.

Believe or believe not…that is the inquiry, for could there be another congressman dumber than Gohmert…apparently so.

Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX), yes but another dumb Republican Texan politician, states outright that Obama is trying to create an Ebola epidemic to gain more power. On Rick Wiles’ October 13 radio program, this is what Stockman had to portend:

“I think, what was it, executive order 1332 or 33, where Obama has laid out — it’s a great Forbes article too, you can read about it — but he talks about using emergency powers to take over control of the economy and everything. Of course our friends at ‘snoops’ [Snopes.com] say it’s false, then you read about it and it turns out to be true. I think, I don’t know, their terminology is there’s always a crisis which they want to use to their benefit, I would not be surprised that the reason that you see a lack of response is so that it becomes a real crisis and things can be used to correct the crisis, you know.”

Wow! First off…there literally is no ‘Forbes’ magazine or internet article, concerning his statement. Secondly, no ‘Snopes’ article exists referring to EO 1332 or 1333. However, let’s presume Stockman was really referring to Obama’s EO 13603. That is an executive order that has been rehashed time and time again by Republicans attempting to implicate Obama is seeking martial law. This EO has been renewed by every president since 1951…W. Bush revised it twice. The order was simply amended by Obama in 2012 to update National Defense Resources Preparedness. It has nothing to do with martial law. But thirdly, his entire rant hardly makes any sense, even when read for the third time.

Lastly, the only crisis being made is strictly Republican in attempting to turn an Ebola anthill into Mount Everest.  

Stockman’s conspiratorial words are quite similar to conservative pundit Morgan Brittany’s statement made just a week prior when she wrote:

“My fear is that this has all been orchestrated from the very beginning. Who knows? Maybe the current administration needs this to happen so martial law can be declared, guns can be seized and the populace can be controlled. Once that happens…game over.”

Just this October 27 on Fox News’ ‘The Kelly File’, House Judiciary Chairman, Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) expressed there is “increasing evidence” that Obama’s administration is gearing up to import Ebola patients into the U.S. Kelly Kilmeade wasn’t exactly biting into this, so to convince her Goodlatte continues, “Unless we come up with a cure, which they are working on, I don’t see any way there is a single lawmaker that would support the president bringing a single infected person from West Africa back to the United States. We can bring people with a contagious deadly disease with a 50 percent mortality rate to our shores? That makes the GITMO thing seem reasonable.”

Yeah…GITMO…that’s but yet another Republican diversion tactic to instill the wrath of fear into GOP followers.

On NewsMax’s ‘Steve Malzberg Show’ this October, Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) had this to add to the mix, “Bioterrorism is the other part of this… I know you and I have talked before about this. I want people to think about this. We have American citizens who have left our country and gone to other parts of the world to learn how to do horrible things. Come home, blow themselves up in a ball, and take lives. Think about the job they could do, the harm they could inflict on the American people by bringing this deadly disease into our cities, into schools, into our towns, and into our homes. Horrible, horrible.”

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) chimed in with Kelly this past October 15 on NewsMax’s ‘American Forum’ when he trumpeted the threat of ISIL terrorists using Ebola was a realistic and dangerous scenario by decrying,  “You really don’t even want to think about. You really don’t even want to talk about, but we should do everything possible to defend ourselves against that possibility because I think that is a real and present danger.”

Governor Chris ‘Doctor’ Christie (R-NJ) was adamant in quarantining a medical nurse that was working in the Ebola stricken region of West Africa demanding she remain quarantined in a plastic tent for days on end.

Nurse Kaci Hickox came back from Sierra Leone arriving in Newark, New Jersey whereupon without any professional medical consultation, was ordered to be detained by ‘Doctor’ Christie the self-proclaimed expert on infectious diseases.

With the Obama administration and health officials explaining how wrong the move was while in full throttle pushing back on the governor’s errant decision, Christie relented and allowed Ms. Hickox to be freed after three days confinement.

I tell ya what…why don’t we just quarantine all those that have self-inflicted themselves with a bad case of ignorance. Yeah that would save a bad spread.

Naturally, king of hairdos and pumpkin tinted skin, Donald Trump had to put his most revered rumination in concerning Ebola professionals returning from Ebola ground zero back to the states. He blamed it all on Obama when he tweeted.

It’s not just Republican politicians and pundits spreading false crises, the religious right has jumped into the foray as well.

Head of the conservative biblical group, ‘Return America’ that compares gays to maggots, Baptist preacher Ron Baity gave a recent sermon comparing the Ebola scourge to judges liberalizing gay freedoms in stating:

“They were doing something that was not normal, they were doing something that was not natural, and as a result of that, like God judged this world with a flood, he judged Sodom and Gomorrah with fire. The most blasphemous thing I’ve heard in 40 years of ministry, I heard on the news last night, where rogue judges have gone against the will of the ministry and made America a country where there’s totalitarianism, where there are judges who have set themselves up as dictators to overthrow the will of the people. And they placed their sanction upon marriage that is out of the habitation of God’s creation.”

So Baity declares that is why we have Ebola.

Going back to Rick Wiles, who is a prominent Christian broadcaster, on his ‘Trunews’ program, he had to say this on the viral topic as if it is a positive transformation, “Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography, and abortion.”

In other words he feels that Ebola will be prejudice in its picking of victims.

One would wonder if these Republicans have remembered Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s most world famous speech when he stated, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Of course they’ve forgotten…FDR was a Democrat, but then again, maybe they have taken his word to heart in the other direction, for they most certainly are spreading the fear quotient throughout their gullible base.

This virus from West Africa is a crisis that the whole world now has to contend with because not much effort was put forth to eradicate it in the beginning. Especially among American conservatives who with no appetite for sound science looked upon it as an isolated African problem and economically did not want to expend money to combat it.

All this Republican harbinger of imminent danger they’re chorusing through fear and intimidation is not an act of leadership. In fact it is irresponsible in thrusting unwarranted dread into the populace.

In treating Ebola as an “epidemic” or even a “pandemic” is purely playing on unfounded fears to stir the roost of voters, just as in the scenario of child immigrants and ISIL terrorists taking over America.

Those insisting on and even trying to legislate bills on travel bans, even if there were no direct flights, we know they would be ineffective. This simply won’t work and could aggravate the control of the disease’s spread. Ebola is not detectable, therefore asymptomatic in its early non-contagious stages. Merely banning flights may rub the kitty in the right direction psychologically, but realistically that false assurance does nothing to the ground zero region where all efforts should be placed in containing the disease. But even on this point, Republicans are running the wrong way.

Once they return home, attempts to vilify all medical personnel and health officials that have been battling Ebola at its source is cowardly in deed. Instead of insisting they be put into detention centers and quarantined for fighting the disease, they should be looked upon and treated as heroes. The few are indeed risking an awful lot to save a world that is literally shunning them. Shame on us…

For those expressing alarm of a terrorist whether it be ISIL or Wilson’s Hamas (who by the way have never directly threatened the U.S.) entering the states infected with Ebola and acting out suicide bombings is a bit incredulous.

In introducing bioterrorism, a terrorist would be far more successful in utilizing the far more infectious diseases of smallpox, the Black Death Yersinia pestis bacterium, rubella or even a flu strain than Ebola. These diseases are air borne transmissions, Ebola is not; it can only be contagious through the exchange of bodily fluids and only in its later fully erupted stages. Once Ebola has reached its full stage, the human host would really not feel like lugging around suicide gear strapped on him. Bioterrorism for a fool hardy terrorist in itself would not be as convenient as a chemical weapon would be such as the organophosphorous sarin.

The likes of Gohmert and Stockman in attempting to fault Obama and claim that his administration is going to bring foreign Ebola patients to the U.S. for treatment is on one hand the irresponsible responsible one laying blame elsewhere, while on the other a glimmer of truth might hang in the balance. Let’s explain.

Gohmert and Stockman’s imagined conversations state that the Obama administration is going to be bringing in Ebola patients later on at the end of this fall season. That might be true as the ‘Washington Post’ claims it has an unidentified insider stating that the idea is being staged to treat infected medical staff here in the states, but definitely not all Ebola infected foreigners as the two stooges claim. Congress has been informed by the executive office, so they have had some privy updates on how the White House is going to respond in the near future.

I would hope that this administration does go forth with this. All nations now have a stake in isolating and combating Ebola. With the U.S. setting up a triage to treat infected staff from the front line, it will give more initiative to those nations hesitant on sending in medical staff and health professionals. Remember, Ebola is not a very effective contagious pathogen. Once proper protocol and treatment is implemented, less chances of the disease will be contracted and swifter aid can be administered to those who have been infected. It takes superior coordination and a bit of gumption. C’mon America…get the ball rolling irregardless of Republican meddling.

Now the nerve of Republicans to try and lay blame on Obama and Democrats on intentionally allowing Ebola to enter U.S. borders to infect the nation is tantamount to lunacy in attempts to exploit an infectious disease for political gain in their frightening of the public. Especially to spread fear of a disease that for sure can be deadly, but can also be contained due to its inability to rapidly and effectively infect.

On October 16 in New Hampshire, Senator Rand Paul on ‘Concord News Radio’ said, “This is an incredibly contagious disease, People in full gloves and gowns are getting it. So really they need to be honest...this is a very transmissible disease.”

Oh really, “incredibly contagious” and “very transmissable?”

Funny that because according to the medical experts risk is very low for contracting the disease just three feet away from an infected person and so far, from treating the folks coming back to the U.S. only two out of the hundreds of caretakers have contracted the disease. Ebola is an enveloped virus meaning it cannot stay viable for long once outside of its host. Ebola cannot be aerosolized by the symptomatically infected person so it cannot be caught by another person through inhalation. Stop the hysteria talk Paul…

Besides, if you want to speak of a more contagious viral disease that a president is failing to confront, why aren’t Republicans mentioning Reagan when he pretty much ignored any efforts to combat AIDS that has killed thousands of Americans.     

          

If Republicans are so concerned that it is not being handled well by this administration, perhaps they should look a little more inward on what their own party has done to even get us and the world so riled up to this point.

It was Republicans ever since 2002 that have voted to stagnate, defund or override special programs for the ‘Centers for Disease Control’ (CDC) and the ‘National Institutes of Health’ (NIH).

CDC funding has been cut by $1 billion dollars from 2002 to 2013. The GOP induced sequester has resulted in even more cuts amounting to $195 million in the CDC’s ‘National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases’ program that specifically battles infectious diseases like Ebola. The total CDC sequester budget cuts for fiscal year 2013 was $285 million.

Due to stagnation by Republicans refusing to increase funding that would address inflation and pay raises, the NIH has lost 23% of its purchasing power and has specifically affected its department of the ‘National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease’ where funding has not only been stagnant but defunded.

These cuts could have approached the important understanding of data in why countless African family members and the hundreds of exposed medical aids have not contracted the disease.

Even now, Obama has requested a redirected $1 billion to combat Ebola and the Republican House majority balked saying they’ll only approve $50 million.   

Even more so, the WH document the ‘Washington Post’ was commenting on that was shared with congress, Republicans are even griping about the $300 thousand dollar cost estimate for each medical official patient’s treatment. 

In fact, in 2001 there was great progress being made on developing a vaccine for Ebola and if there wasn’t a ten year slash in research funding for that development, according to Dr. Francis Collins, the director of NIH, “Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.”

What are these Republican cuts for…they are to cover the costs in the reduction of taxes for the rich.

Erik Erickson, the editor-in-chief of the conservative blog site ‘RedState.com’ at least acknowledges the Republican budget cuts, but blames the cuts not onto Republicans, but on fat lesbians of all things.

On a recent rant of his this October in defending the federal budget cuts Erickson claimed, “For example, instead of studying Ebola, the National Institutes of Health were studying the propensity of lesbians to be fat.”

Now, now Erik apparently ya don’t rightly understand how research works and with you being a tad pudgy yourself you’ll likely agree that obesity will get to you long before Ebola ever does.

The Surgeon General is a post that relays current events to the public on health topics. The one holding this post is the operational head of the ‘U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps’ who eases the public mind by relaying what is being done to approach medical issues. He is the go between in calming the national nerve. But guess what, since July 2013 the position has been vacant. Well why for cryin’ out loud.

Since Obama has nominated Dr. Vivek Murthy for the post, senate Republicans have blocked him from being confirmed through constant filibustering. Why, because the lobbyist ‘National Rifle Association’ told them to do so. Why, because Dr. Murthy had the audacity to do a study on gun violence and its effects on public health.

When replying to CNNs Candy Crowley after she asked, “Do you think it would have helped … had there been a surgeon general in place to kind of calm what has become the fear of Ebola,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) replied, “Look–look, of course we should have a surgeon general in place. And we don’t have one because President Obama, instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti-gun activist.

Dr. Murthy, who is the founder of ‘Doctors for America’ which is composed of over 15,000 physicians and cofounder of ‘TrialNetworks’ that deals in pharmaceutical and biotechnology trials and advises on developmental strategies to advance national health isn’t a health professional according to Cruz, but since he realistically did a study on U.S. gun violence he’s merely an anti-gun advocate? Holy mackerel there Cruz…you’re an imbecile.

Apparently Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is not up to snuff with his senate Republican cronies for he was not aware of their filibuster.

Chaffetz played the fool’s role on a ‘Fox News’ interview this past October 22 when he was complaining about Obama allowing Ron Klain as the Ebola response coordinator to be the main spokesman on Ebola issues. On the program he stated, “Why not have the Surgeon General head this up? I think that’s a very legitimate question. At least you have somebody who has a medical background who’s been confirmed by the United States Senate. It begs the question, what does the surgeon general do? Why aren’t we empowering that person?”

Even the ‘Salt Lake Tribune’ under the title, “Earth to Chaffetz” called their state’s congressman “apparently ignorant.”  

Fortunately, for sure those in true control in the medical professions and Obama administration have more reasonable intellect, level headedness and knowledge on infectious diseases and thank the lucky stars most of the public aren’t taking the Republican gloom ‘n’ doom bait.

According to a recent October CNN poll, overall the American public at 70% thinks that the federal government can prevent an outbreak in combating and managing Ebola. The public in general realizes U.S. statistics. From September 30, 2014 to October 08, 2014 ‘Business Insider’ published death causes inside the U.S.

·        1,110 deaths from flu/pneumonia

·        740 deaths from vehicle accidents

·        705 deaths from gun violence

·        1 death from Ebola

Judging from the above data, looks like we need to redirect our fears elsewhere.

Hopefully, we realize by now we should not ignore any exotic new diseases or any boiling crisis whether it emanates from Africa or anywhere else. The globe is much smaller these days with ease of access to travel being realized from any point A to any point B to be in reach of anyone’s grasp. Smother the fire before it sparks.

To end this…do you really think that Gohmert is dourly afraid of Ebola…I don’t think so, or he’d have already crawled into his bunker back home in East Texas.

Look, it is Republicans that are constantly whining that American government is too big. Now they’re accusing Obama’s government of not being big enough to attack a disease. GOP…make up yore minds…    

Stupid, Dumb Idiots a Fortnight:

Below the fold are candidate choices one will be voting on. The devious words that come out of their mouths and the misinformed actions they commit should put them in a circus tent full of clowns, but assuredly not in the responsibility of holding a governing office. While some misinform that can be forgiven due to an ignoramus lifestyle, the outright lies do not stand as a forgiven.

Up for reelection, Representative Don Young (R-AK) at a Wasilla High School assembly in Alaska was asked by seventeen-year-old student, Zachary Grier why he still opposed same sex marriage even after it was struck down in an Alaskan state court, Young said this, “A whole lot of bull.” That’s all he said.

Instead of me writing in countering, I’ll just quote Zachary’s response. Zach, in reply had this to say, “I was pretty upset. I can understand having your own opinion, and that’s fine, but having your own opinion and coming into a room filled with high schoolers and telling them that same-sex marriage is the same as two bulls having sex...in my opinion, that’s wrong.”

The ‘Des Moines Register’ newspaper called out Republican Iowa senate hopeful, Joni Ernst this October for saying in her inclusion into the Indianola senate debate, “It would not do any of the things” suggesting what Democrat senate hopeful, Bruce Braley said it would do. The topic here is a personhood amendment in Iowa that sought to provide a fetus with all the same rights as all of us that are breathing. As a state senator Ernst voted for it, but in the debate tried a ruse in denying it was for that and attempted the sugarcoating in stating it doesn’t matter because it didn’t pass when she further said, “That amendment is simply a statement that I support life only if the legislation would be passed.”

Can anyone explain that logic? Just because the amendment didn’t pass shouldn’t influence her opinion as the newspaper pointed out, “Wasn’t that her intention, though, to try to pass the resolution when she voted for it?”

Running against incumbent Representative Mark Harris (D-WI), Republican candidate Glenn Grothman chose these words to phrase at speech stumps and debates.

Concerning housing construction regulations, Grothman rebutted, “Quite frankly, it’s scandalous that lawyers are leading people to believe that the lead paint in these houses is responsible for the increases in the [lead] levels in their blood.”

In Grothman’s stance against equal pay his defense is, “Money is more important for men.”

Whether inhaled or consumed in any form, lead is a very dangerous biohazard affecting the nervous system and brain in low dosages and even blood in higher doses. A percentage of lead ingestion is not excreted from the body but stored in the bones; up to 68% in children.

Lead in the blood is measured in micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL) with a deciliter being 1/10 of a liter while a microgram is one-millionth of a gram. Anything over 20mcg/dL is harmful. Anything over 70mcg/dL can be fatal.

That is a very low amount that can cause permanent physical and mental harm or death and Grothman would not mind exposing children to soluble powdered lead throughout the paint in his or her house? His thought on equal pay is about as primitive as he is himself.

Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) had a few of his GOP colleagues running away from him when he stated to a group of potential voters, “A lot of us are talking to the generals behind the scenes, saying, ‘Hey, if you disagree with the policy that the White House has given you, let’s have a resignation.’”

After a storm of riled military officers calling his office to denounce his comment, Lamborn tried to infer he was speaking of old policies. That nonsense didn’t work so he’s merely distanced himself from his own comment.

When trying to gain brownie points from the religious right, incumbent Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) used ex-Virginia attorney general candidate, E. W. Jackson as a prop to open up his speech.

So Jackson states, “The profound threat to Christianity in general and to our Christian foundations in this country coming from President Obama and the drumbeat of atheism that attacks everything, ‘get the cross down,’ ‘don’t show a Bible,’ ‘don’t wear a cross,’ ‘don’t say God bless you.’ It just seems like every day we’re hearing some new effort to try to shut Christians up and shut us down.”

That’s Franks’ opening cue where he follows up with, “But as you said and as you said so wisely, it’s always the water on the inside of the ship that sinks it. Our greatest danger to religious freedom, I believe, is within our own country where we’re doing as you said, ‘take those crosses down.’ I used to say that the secular left would never quit until they said that we needed to start taking down the stars of David and the crosses of Calvary out of the tombstones out in Arlington National Cemetery. People thought that was an outrageous statement but just in the last two weeks there’s a group now that wants us to do that.”

These two make a swell tag team…good downhome preaching too, but not that efficient at all in detailing what they’ll do as a politician.

To prove beyond a doubt that he is for gender equality, Representative Steve Southerland (R-FL) compares women showers to his men only discussions where he states to attendees to “tell the misses to not wait up.”

When his Democrat opponent, Gwen Graham questioned him on his ‘men only’ meetings, this past September he responded to a reporter wanting his comment on Graham’s criticism. His reply was, “I live with five women. That's all I’m saying. I live with five women. Listen: Has Gwen Graham ever been to a lingerie shower? Ask her. And how many men were there?”

Not to leave out America’s crazy-in-the-head politician, Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) as a guest on the 10/21/14 ‘Point of View’ radio show concerning gays had this to say, “I’ve had people say, ‘Hey, you know, there’s nothing wrong with gays in the military. Look at the Greeks.’ Well, you know, they did have people come along who they loved that was the same sex and would give them massages before they went into battle. But you know what, it’s a different kind of fighting, it’s a different kind of war and if you’re sitting around getting massages all day ready to go into a big, planned battle, then you’re not going to last very long. It’s guerrilla fighting. You are going to be ultimately vulnerable to terrorism and if that’s what you start doing in the military like the Greeks did...as people have said, ‘Louie, you have got to understand, you don’t even know your history.’ Oh yes I do. I know exactly. It’s not a good idea.”

This he declares in somehow tying it into criticizing Obama in sending military troops over to West Africa in aiding to contain Ebola. The man’s elevator does not reach the top floor.

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) on September 18 was speaking to a conservative audience when he forlornly lamented, “This idea that has been born, maybe out of the economy over the last couple years, that you know, I really don’t have to work. I don’t really want to do this. I think I’d rather just sit around. This is a very sick idea for our country.”

Whose idea but his own considers that American workers are lazy not wanting to work? Though while we’re on the subject, Boehner announced this just after his Republican House returned from their whole month off August recess, but just in time for Republican House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy to announce that all good congressmen have Boehner’s blessings once again to leave work for another two more workless months.

While on Boehner…what’s happened to his silly suing of the president? He promised to file the lawsuit complaining that Obama did what exactly Republicans were whining they wanted him to do and that was give small businesses an extension on insuring employees. Well, his lawsuit pact was promised over two months ago and has still yet not been filed.

Why…one reason is that two major law firms have ceased working on the suit. Why…well if you listen to Republicans in the House they will tell you it is because lawyers are liberals, but that doesn’t explain that both the law firms, Baker Hostetler and Quinn Emanuel are Republican representatives. Why pray tell have the law firms quit work then…both firms have found that the Obama administration was well in their executive rights to extend the deadline date.

What now? Republicans are hinting at changing gears dropping the suit over the ACA amendment and suing Obama over immigration. What a political circus.       

Back on the Ebola equation, on Halloween, Maine Republican governor Paul Lepage trumpets that 13% of all those who died from Ebola showed no symptoms at all “until a few hours before their death. Emphatically…not true.

Ebola like any other virus infection attacks a cell to replicate. This disrupts cell function and is destroyed. As the infections continue with more viral attacks, symptoms indicate the degree of the viral advance from fever in the few viral attacks to vomiting in the innumerable attacks to severe diarrhea in the final attacks that have infiltrated organ cell tissues, which leads to death.

One might wonder if Lepage thought he was tricking instead of treating us all to a comical farce.

Republican candidate Tim Ginter running against Representative Nick Baborak in Ohio professes that Jesus opposes minimum wages. Now why does he think that might ya ask…because the pseudo self-professed historian, David Barton who has an honorary doctorate from Pensacola Christian University says so. Barton is no doctor or professor; he is a revisionist even stating Abraham Lincoln said the only assurance of our nation’s safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion.

Lincoln never came close to saying that. How imbecilic does one have to be to take nonsense seriously? In the Bible, God thought that slavery was just fine, but took a very dim view of lending for interest, and was particularly aroused when it exploited the desperation of the poor. Ignorance can only guide lost souls to think the Bible is relevant to the modern world in the domain of economics. Thou shalt not steal may still apply to the public peasants, but for the corporate of this metaphorical outlay, apparently not so much these days.

Congressman Duncan Hunter’s declaration on Fox News’ October seventh programing that ten ISIL terrorist had been caught by the U.S. border patrol is simply an outright lie.

With no proof given whatsoever, or federal or Texas state confirmation Hunter claims, “ISIS is coming across the southern border. I know that at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas.”

This blatantly false claim has melted away, but it should be propped up to demonstrate how Republicans will readily deceive to put fearful anxiety into folks.

To go further in lying outright, ‘Fox News’, who promotes itself as a news organization with the moniker ‘fair and balanced’ reporting is actually listed as an entertainment media. That is why they can get away with promoting Republican platforms and candidates and that is why that year after year from collegiate studies its viewers are the most misinformed or uninformed.

The station has decided to promote their former employee, Scott Brown in winning his bid to unseat Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of the New Hampshire senate seat by re-airing its bogus Obamacare documentary, ‘Live Free or Die’ in the state on the last weekend before election Day. The film is full of half-truths and misinformation, but they’re banking on a gullible audience to take the lure.

Obvious coordination between the Fox station and Brown’s campaign has been conducted, for Brown tweeted the week before for all to be sure and tune in for the weekend’s airing.

Worse still, at ‘Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on her October 21, 2014 show, ‘The Kelly File’ willfully lied that “a new law has opened the door to possible voter fraud.” Before any Republican proclaims, “I told ya so,” she says more.

She continued by saying this newly Democrat passed law, “literally allows residents to print ballots from their home computers, then encourages them to turn ballots over to collectors.” This explosive ‘Fox News’ crud is insatiably false.

Colorado citizens cannot print their own ballots then hand them over to any collectors…they are mailed to eligible voters by the state.

Does ‘Fox News’ want to make it more difficult than what it already is for military personnel? The only folks who can print out ballots are the military stationed overseas and they could do this long before Colorado ever passed the new vote-by-mail law.

All Colorado stations have revealed the false Kelly report, even conservative ‘Politico’ gave her a rating of ‘Pants-on-Fire’ as a false storyline. Still though as yet this first November weekend, Kelly nor ‘Fox News’ have corrected the story.

Ya know, folks have the right to take up and act out on stupidity, but Republicans abuse that right to its extreme.   

Opinion Pieced:         

With all the Republican politicians, pundits and conservative media spreading misinformation, the right-wing who listens to them day in and day out, one might not blame them too much in believing what’s spoon fed to them to digest. There is one thing though that halts that empathy…the right-wing chooses to do so.

It is in human nature to migrate to events or words that will support core beliefs and with Republicans in general that even includes resources that might even contradict the truth just as long as it pets their opinion.

We all know the self-absorbed Rush Limbaugh and ‘Fox News’ will willingly lodge deceit to get their listeners attention. The viewers after being exposed to this endless foray over a period of time become convinced that it is the truth. It must be so, for it is what they believe and it is backed up by what the right-wing programs say.

They do not realize, even when confronted by that possibility that that is the situation. I know for a fact, for I have a few friends that are exactly in that pickle barrel and it is a very sour pickle.

This voting suppression in voter ID laws going on in the red states, for average Republicans, they believe it is truly for voter fraud, but it only attacks those trying to register to legally vote. Republican leaders know for sure it is not for voter fraud because as hard as they’ve tried, no serious voter fraud has ever been uncovered. Yet the illusion still prevails that it does by the ones they have hypnotized into believing it so.

With this, all the other voter suppression tactics being committed by Republican leaders goes virtually unnoticed by the general Republican public at large. Taking down DMV offices in democrat leaning districts then stacking them in Republican leaning districts is merely a minor detail.

Slashing early voting or weekend registering doesn’t seem to affect the average Republican either. Maybe they know that it really affects minorities for it is popular among blacks for voting and low scale workers for weekend registering, but that fits the mold of their bias, so therefore it doesn’t affect Americans most basic right because they don’t deserve to vote anyway. After all, they are more representative of the poor…ya know…the ones that leech off government, taking and not giving.

How respectful Republicans can’t see through the Koch Brothers’ recent episodes through their front group organization, ‘Americans for Prosperity’ in sending out 100s of 1000s of misinformed mass mailings is a bit of a quandary. These mailings had false information instructing North Carolina residents and one cat to follow guidelines that would exempt their registration to vote, by distorting the time frame in registering to vote and listing a false Secretary of State address to mail the filled out registration. The correct address would be the State Board of Elections. Even a wrong zip code was included for mailing.

Yeah that’s right; even someone’s cat was on the list. It is one thing for the Koch’s to suppress a cat vote, but it is entirely a North Carolina felony to suppress a minority’s vote.

Of course all these mailings were sent to Democrat leaning voters. Imagine if the reverse were true. Limbaugh and ‘Fox News’ would be broadcasting it all the hours of day and night with right-wingers glued to the broadcasts.

Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has even enlisted bogus voter suppression mailings. Just this weekend before the elections, residents in Democrat leaning eastern Kentucky counties received a flyer in the mail guised as an official document with the bold title of ‘ELECTION VIOLATION NOTICE’.

To discourage and keep voters away from the polling booths, in it a line declares, “You are at risk of acting on fraudulent information.”

Eastern Kentucky election officials are scrambling to neutralize the concerns trying to calm residents of the hoax and explain that the flyer is not an official document.

County clerk, Haven King says, “This means nothing; I don’t know what people are trying to do. There’s nothing fraudulent to my knowledge going on and the people in Perry County if you are registered to vote, you will be able to vote and you will be able to vote at your precinct.”  

McConnell is a wiggler and I’m quite sure he’ll wiggle out of this once the facts come out on who instigated it. But wiggler as he is, there isn’t much wiggling room, for on the bottom of the flyer a stamp reads, “PAID FOR BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF KENTUCKY AND AUTHORIZED BY MCCONNELL SENATE COMMITTEE ‘14.”

Allison Grimes, McConnell’s Democrat opponent has filed for an immediate injunction.

Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott who is now running for governor of the Lonestar state routed ‘Houston Votes’ which was a non-profit registering the poor to vote. Abbott didn’t particularly take kindly to that, so under the auspices of voter fraud had all the organization’s computer files and data seized shutting down their operation. After a year of finding no fraud whatsoever, Abbott doesn’t return their office equipment and record files, no, he has them destroyed.

It appears other red state officials have picked up on Abbott’s scheme in voter suppression by shutting down voter registration offices.

In Georgia, the ‘New Georgia Project’, along with others such as ‘9 to 5 Atlanta Working Women’  had registered 116, 000 future voters that just happened to be folks of color or of the feminine gender. Once they turned in the forms to the secretary of state department, 40,000 came up missing.

Where they are no one knows, but Superior Court Judge Christopher Brasher stalled the lawsuit to find out stating, it was “immature” and “merely set out suspicions and fears that the [state officials] will fail to carry out their mandatory duties.”

“Immature?” Brasher decreed his decision just a week before Election Day. People’s right to vote has been impeded. Folks most likely are frustrated not knowing whether they’re registered to vote or not.

The Democratic Party as so often is guilty of political suicide. They act afraid to stand for what they should be standing for, too meek to defend the policy ground that should be theirs, so they end up standing for nothing and losing ground winding up as detriment to us all. No matter how deceitful in their malpractice is, at least one knows what Republicans stand for. In other words…the timidity mild entering the room of the loud arrogant…guess who will be overheard and guess who will be herded over…

It would be nice if there were only easy cynicism to describe American politics, but it’s too often borne out by defrauding performance or a lack thereof in no voice.

Nonetheless vote, but vote with reasonable intellect and some sound research into the individual candidates and the party’s platform they represent. Check if they are cut mustard or marsh mellow fluff in what they say and act. If so in doing, we’ll all come out ahead.

Hope Ya Had a Happy Halloween,

BJA

11/01/2014