Why this POTUS?

So I had a discussion with a conservative friend and I posed a question to him. "Why all the negative 

reaction to THIS president?" Mind you my question was not 'what don't you like about his polities' 

Because if you want to have a discussion about the ACA, yes there are absolutely discussions to be 

had. Or any other part of his presidency. The question was why all the unpleasantness? Why not 

unpleasantness against Bush? Who passed the Patriot act? Or Reagan who passed the only Assault 

weapon ban in US History? I can literally point out any number of reasons that Conservatives should 

be mad at other presidents that they love. Or at least be pleased with parts of this Presidents time in 

office. Shit I can criticize this POTUS on actual points. And mind you they are points that the people I 

talk to... for lack of a better word don't seam smart enough to understand. I can name things I actually 

approve of from Bush Jr's stay in office. I can name quite a few that Reagan did. (Mind you Reagan 

would be called a Rhino in todays GOP) So all I can figure is it comes down to one of three things. #1: 

They lost twice and they are sore losers. #2: They can't handle that a smart successful man of mixed 

race is in office. #3: They are panicking because they see they are losing on most every bigoted front 

they can find. And they have convinced people who other side would not give a shit that they should. 

And those are the people that make me mad. On more then one occasion I have had the conversation 

about the POTUS and gun control... You know. The POTUS who cant actually put forth a law on gun 

control. Who has never tried to and who basically had to be the bigger man when the GOP's Answer to 

'can we have a serious discussion about the gun violence problem in the united states' was to put laws 

in place like. Anyone can carry a gun into a court house in the state of Texas, or into schools, or now a 

law that lets teachers use there discretion on weather or not to Shot there students if they are breaking 

school property.

The GOP doesn't support troops. Not while they are in combat, and not once they get home.

My Political thought of the day.

Bush Administration cuts $1.5 billion from military family housing. The Bush Administration cut $1.5 billion for military family housing, despite Department of Defense statistics showing that in 83,000 barracks and 128,860 family housing units across the country are below standard.

Bush Republicans support millionaires instead of military veterans. Bush allies in Congress stopped efforts to scale back the tax cut for the nation's millionaires by just five percent - a loss of just $4,780 for the year - in order to restore this funding for military family housing.

Bush Administration underfunded veterans' health care by $2 billion. The Bush Administration's 2004 budget underfunded veterans' health care by nearly $2 billion.

Bush Administration proposal would end health care benefits for 173,000 veterans. More than 173,000 veterans across the country would be cut off from health care because of Bush Administration proposed budget cuts and its plan requiring enrollment fees and higher out-of-pocket costs.

Bush Administration budget cuts force more than 200,000 veterans to wait for health care. Over 200,000 United States veterans have to wait more than six months for a medical visit because of health care shortages.

Bush Administration opposed plan to give National Guard and Reserve Members access to health insurance. Despite the war efforts of America's National Guard and Reserve Members, the Bush Administration announced in October 2003 its formal opposition to give the 1.2 million Guard and Reserve members the right to buy health care coverage through the Pentagon's health plan. One out of every five Guard members lacks health insurance.

Bush Administration cuts $172 million allotted for educating the children of military personnel. The Bush Administration's 2004 budget cut $172 million of impact aid funding. Impact aid funding assists school districts by making up for lost local tax revenue from tax-exempt property, such as military bases. These education cuts will especially affect school-age children of troops serving in Iraq who reside on military bases.

Bush Administration tax cut denies military families increase in child tax credit. The families of 262,000 children of military personnel do not receive the child tax credit increase because the plan fails to cover taxpaying families with incomes between $10,500 and $26,625. According to The Washington Post, the House version of the Bush Administration plan "wouldn't help many of those serving in Iraq." One solider who will not benefit is Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, the soldier and single mother who was wounded twice in the same convoy as Jessica Lynch.

"I lost my benefits when I deserted." George W. Bush.

"I was smart enough to get 5 deferments." Dick Cheney.

"He Volunteered to go to Vietnam." Bush Campaign Chairman Marc Racicot.

"No I didn't." President bush, Respounding to a question on NBC's meet the press about whether he 

volunteered to go to Vietnam.

---

And yet, I still know people who say the GOP is the party that supports troops. Mind you I don't know 

that many of my battle buddies that think that.

Colorado woman refused funeral because she was a lesbian.

So the unfortunate story of a Colorado woman whose funeral was canceled moments before we started making it rounds of news outlets in social media.
The narrative goes to the woman's family had paid for the funeral be held at the church and had a video commemorating the woman's life, the church upon viewing the video moments before the funeral started raised objections because it showed pictures of the deceased proposing to and kissing her legally wed what. The church objected and asked for the video to the altar the family refused and so the funeral moments after it began with hundreds of people in the pews was canceled, the deceased in her casket had to be transported by pallbearers across the street to another funeral home where they then held the funeral.

Now my normal liberal response to this should be red-hot moral indignation. But the more I read about the church and the pastor in question, the more I'm utterly dumbfounded at how this happened. The church in question had a clearly stated and out of the open stance on homosexual members of their congregation. Which stated they were free to come and worship with them without fear of being ostracized or judged but that references to homosexuality and the LGBT lifestyle were unacceptable in their place of worship. So the idea of showing them this video and asking them will is this okay for us to show confuses and frustrates me.

Now if someone wants to have a discussion about the legal implications of this I can. The family paid for the church to render service which the church then failed to render, and discussion full refund which the church has not given the family as of yet. So this is absolutely a matter for civil court. But as a social issue I can't help feel that this is a moot point. If you think that the church are backwards ass fascist bigots, fine I agree don't go to that church. Hell feel free to not associate with anybody that goes to that church, socially boycott them.

But going into a place of worship and telling them that they have to accept your lifestyle and beliefs and sensibilities is just as asinine as religious organizations say you can't have a gay marriage because they don't agree with that. Religious freedom means freedom from other people's religion and the door swings both ways.

If you believe in religion that doesn't eat meat that doesn't mean you get to tell other people they can eat me, but we shouldn't be surprised if that religion gets mad if somebody comes into their place of worship in each hamburger.

And if we want to have a discussion about religions being made up, or the roles of those religions being made by men with social agendas, or your interpretation of what Jesus had in store for everybody. That's fine but other people don't have to agree with what you think, the Old Testament states on several occasions that homosexuality is a sin. If you disagree fine, if you think it's unforgivable sin and we should just be more understanding of one another okay. But our country was founded on the idea that you were free from having someone else's religious beliefs forced on you.

Some are real confusion with this very unfortunate and tragic story comes when I think about what the family was thinking, this video should've been run across the minister before hand. Why would they want to have this funeral in this church to begin with.

Now ladies and gentlemen I am by no means insinuating that the family had any ulterior motive, I am not saying they were out to make a political statement or causes scene.
But I will say that if I were a douche bag right wing conservative radio talk show host that's totally what I would claim.

"Most of you know I used to be a strong active member of the Republican party, but no longer support most Republicans. 

Last night I was invited by my old Conservative buddies to a small house party of about 12 people. 


------I stopped by Papa Johns and ordered 8 large pizzas, then picked up a friend and went to the house. As I put the 

pizza's down everyone ran up to get some, but I stopped them and said I couldnt afford to feed them all, and that only me 

and my friend could eat the pizzas. 


------They laughed and said there are 8 pizzas and 14 people in all, so there was clearly enough for everyone. I 

pretended to be all serious and said No loudly. They got pissed off and called me selfish and greedy. One guy said, 

"thats messed up that two people get 8 pizzas while everyone else is hungry. You gotta share instead of be selfish, 

man!" 

as he tried to get by me. 


------So I said: "Sounds like you want free stuff handed to you that you didn't earn. Telling me what to do with my pizzas 

that I bought with my hard earned money sounds communist, I never once said I was bringing them for you all. Yet when 

a CEO makes $8000 an hour, has 10 cars in his driveway and lays off workers who have bills to pay and mouths to feed 

(saying he cant afford to keep them) that's perfectly okay?" They laughed and said thats totally different. I asked how, 

and 

they just told me to leave because commies weren't allowed (oh the irony lol). I told them that since they were hungry 

and 


I had enough food in my kitchen at home, they could keep the pizzas....and we left."

Well no roads from the GOP.

So today. The third? Day in office for the new GOP majority what do they do? Nothing...
More specifically nothing about the nations roads and other infrastructure.

For those who don't know the road is generally funded by a gas tax, which was last raised under Reagan and now only funds the nations roads and infrastructure still may of this year... And that's not even talking about the fact that our nations infrastructure is at its worst sense the 1940's.

The GOP, and there is no argument about this. The GOP has refused to hear the ideal of raising the gas tax, with gas at record lows and still falling this is one of the best times to address the problems at hand, Some have even suggested borrowing money from US banks to fix the us roads and bridges sense interest is at record lows as well.

Some people need to learn what "Unconstitutional means"

So I was having a polite political discussion with a somewhat conservative friend of mine. Who by his own admittance is not the most knowledgeable in the political arena.
Discussion was over the subject of the affordable care act's subsidized health plans, his argument being that they were unconstitutional. And my response was not argue that point. (Not that time anyway) and to point out the logical problem with his argument.

That being that if the ACA's subsidies are unconstitutional and so are farming subsidies and oil subsidies, because they're all applied in much the same way there a set of rules on who can and cannot receive subsidies, if you qualify you get regardless of who you are.

He actually did cede to me that this was a very good point and that my normal debate rule of "if you can't counter the glaring problem in your idea then you don't really have an idea." Should take a fact. But during the discussion I also mentioned that conservatives had also said that the individual mandate was unconstitutional. This of course led into a discussion about that.

A discussion in which a very quickly came to the root of the issue. My friend along with a great number of conservatives and liberals that I now. Do not in fact understand what it means to be unconstitutional or constitutional. Because the affordable care act was passed by Congress, signed by the President of the United States of America. And in the individual mandate itself went before the Supreme Court of the United States of America who game gets constitutional under the law.

And as one of the justices said in a later interview "outside of a full on constitutional amendment, you don't get much more constitutional than the affordable care act." Because of course most laws and never go before the Supreme Court. My friend was still little unconvinced but I could see that he was grasping some of the concept. So I put it to him in a logical a simile.

It's like playing chess. A chess game in which the Democrats and the president through political maneuvering put the GOP in check. Passing the affordable care act, structuring and in a way that it couldn't be defunded. An operating inside the rules of the United States government in which it would take a two thirds majority to avoid a veto from the president if the GOP tried to repeal the affordable care act. The last ditch attempt of the GOP to stop the ACA, was to send it before the Supreme Court and make an argument that the individual mandate was unconstitutional.

Let me make this clear this action in and of itself, is not completely without merit just like my friends thoughts on subsidies are not completely without merit. But both would have very far-reaching and drastic implications. But the comparison is that sending the individual mandate before the Supreme Court was the chess equivalent to consulting the rules to ensure that the Democrats and the president had moved to the chess pieces in a legal manner.

And so we came to the point, which was to say that at this point arguing that the individual mandate was unconstitutional was tantamount to saying. "You can't put me in checkmate that's cheating"

Because you see is someone were to ask me where my political standing was out answer rationalism. Almost everything in the world has a definition, and I am a big fan of definitions. Now like most people I don't always use words correctly but the very definition of the word constitutional means that with few exceptions you can play the law and you can say that is constitutional or that is unconstitutional.

Now this of course doesn't mean that people don't pass unconstitutional laws of course it and most the time they know their unconstitutional and they're doing them solely political gain.

And in truth I eagerly await the Supreme Court's answer to the question of the affordable care act's subsidies. Because I of course am not a constitutional lawyer like the president United States Barack Obama. I'm not a Supreme Court justice of the United States of America, so while I can take an educated guess I can't definitively say whether or not something is constitutional or not.

But I can definitively say until otherwise it dictated by the supreme court of the United States of American or constitutional amendment stating otherwise. That the affordable care act as it stands now is constitutional.




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By. William C Moore.

Military Personal by political party.

Read a interesting piece on Military Personnel by Political affiliation. And a interesting thing popped into my mind. It made the note that the D.O.D. 40 years ago decided to spend more money on recruiting in red states. Because conservatives tend towards being aggressive and having respect for authority.    Which brings up a interesting point. I don't think I would ever use the words "Respect for authority" when talking about the TeaParty... As a matter of fact I was just thinking about children raised in the TeaParty atmosphere.   The piece itself pretty much stated what I already knew. About two in three officers where republicans. (About the same voted republican in the last election) And enlisted was much more split. (About 45-55%) With Conservatives winning out a little BUT. In the last Election the Military actually leaned slightly towards Obama.  This is most likely because of minorities and "swing voters" are over represented compared to there % of population.

At least with the time I spent in the military I found that it was much less conservative them most people in the public would think. But This is also a very modern phenomenon.

The Bush Era was not kind to the GOP's relationship with the Military.
Two wars, one of which was unpopular with troops from day one, V.A. Cuts. G.I. Bill cuts. Stop gap and any number of other things wore the fabric of GOP relations thin.