UncaJoe’s Saloon

Evenin’ folks!

 I’ve been away from the saloon for a bit. The ol’ bones let me know that I ain’t a spring chicken anymore. I come back and see where Sen. John Ensign (R, NV) has done been caught storin’ his sausage in somebody else’s icebox, Sen. Norm Coleman (R, MN) still ain’t admitted defeat and Bill O’Reilly (R, ASSHOLE) is callin’ other folks unbending and hardheaded.

 I guess them right wing pundits were right, Obama ain’t brought change we can believe in. The Republican hypocrites ain’t changed a lick. I first remember catchin’ on to their double talkin’ ways when Ronnie Ray-Gun said “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”. What he really was sayin’ was just let Ollie North handle that stuff ’cause he’s a team player.

Let me show ya’ll just a few of the examples.

Read my Lips, No new taxes! (Bush 41)

• Bush eventually agreed to a compromise with Congressional Democrats to raise several taxes as part of a 1990 budget agreement. This reversal caused great controversy, especially in the more conservative wing of the Republican Party.^[1]

A little toe tappin’ in Minnesota (Larry Craig)

• “The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy - a naughty boy. I’m going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.” Hmm, Pot and kettle anyone?^[1]

Newt’s Laws of Hypocrisy (Newt Gingrich)

• Shortly after his divorce from his second wife Gingrich married Callista Bisek, with whom he was conducting an extra-marital affair at approximately the same time he was leading the Congressional investigation into allegations that Bill Clinton lied under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.^[1]

Weapons of Mass Distraction (935 Lies)

The list is almost endless and is just beggin’ me to ask, Why the elephant? Because they supposedly never forget? I suggest the hippo. It looks like to this simple barkeep that the big mouth and all the wallowing in the mud seems more appropriate. Now that I think of it, don’t they already use Rush Limbaugh?

[1] Source: Wikipedia

It seems that the republicans have at least three members in Washington who actually takes their position as US legislators more seriously than the (R) after their names. When the Economic Stimulus Package  first passed the House of Representatives not a single GOP lawmaker voted in favor of the measure. The Senate’s right aislers  knowing they could never defeat the bill if it went to a vote, decided to use the filibuster as an obstructionist move to delay the proceedings. This tactic has been used in the Senate, admittedly by both parties , as a way for the minority party to bring the orderly procession of things to a grinding halt.

As a self proclaimed “aisle crosser” Senator John McCain III(R, AZ) proposed a complete restart. This while approximately 14 Americans loose their jobs every minute. It’s so great that the right-wing has American _____ (fill in the blank according to today’s talking points memo - i.e. Families, Children, Workers, Housing Crisis, etc.) concerns as the driving force behind their choices. They would NEVER let political motives affect their legislative duties.

Now comes the withdrawal of Judd Gregg from nomination to Secretary of Commerce due to “irresolvable conflicts”. I suppose he just realized that President Obama ISN’T a republican nor is he likely to change Obama’s vision for our future. It seems to this simple barkeep that these revelations aren’t exactly new or different than they were when Gregg actively pursued this office, which ironically is a cabinet position which he voted to abolish in 1995 . Gregg now has fallen into that standard ol’ GOP party line. Whenever the left does this is they call it partisian politics however when the repubs do it , it’s “conservative ideals and values”. What a crock of buffalo bisquits!

The whole reason for this crap is that if Obama succeeds, the GOP could be looking at a repeat of the New Deal years… The Democrats controlled the House, Senate and White House for 20 years after the  Republican induced Great Depression began in 1929. (1933-1953) and if Obama doesn’t fail and with the current disarray in the Republican Party the fear among right wingers is a repeat of history. It pains me to no end to admit this but Rush Limbaugh IS the most honest of all the GOP mouthpieces when he says “I hope he (Obama) fails”. Ignorant, bigoted, hate-mongering but honest about this only possible way of resurrecting the GOP.

My final thoughts on that is - May the GOP, R.I.P.P. (Reside In Political Pieces)

Gimme your thoughts on this with a comment below.

I’ve been hearin’ lots of BS lately about how FDR’s “New Deal” was unsuccessful at reviving the economy after Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, the great GOP gurus, took our country into the greatest depression in our history.

I’ll admit that my fellow Oklahoma native, Will Rogers, probably said it best with “Well, all I know is what I read in the papers.” I wasn’t around when the “Great Depression” hit and I sure hope this’ll not become the “Greater Depression.”

At least one of them there republicans tried to blame the “Great Depression” on FDR. Rep. Steve Austria (R, OH) just the other day when voicing his reasonin’ for voting ixnay on the house stimulus plan said in such a learned and factual manner -

“When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression, he tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”

HISTORY??? Well I sure missed that lesson in school, I was taught⁽¹⁾ that complete lack of regulation on Wall Street practices and the “anything goes” business antics of the “Roaring Twenties” lead to this on October 24, 1929, now and forever known as “Black Tuesday”. FDR was the Governor of New York at the time not President of these United States, that belonged to the republican’s Herbert Hoover. The GOP was in the eighth year of twelve consecutive years in the White House.

• Warren G. Harding⁽²⁾ (March 4, 1921-August 2, 1923)
• Calvin Coolidge⁽²⁾ (August 2, 1923-March 4, 1929)
• Herbert Hoover (March 4, 1929-March 4, 1933)

There’s little doubt that FDR had no effect on the U.S.A. falling into the Great Depression but there’s been a lot of supposedly fact-backed commentary considering whether the “New Deal” helped the economic recovery or was it caused by WWII.

I found the following charts in a great article called “The ‘FDR Failed’ Myth” by Charles McMillion

Now, I’m no economist but I do like lookin’ at stuff that’s pretty straight forward and to the point and this seems to meet my limited criteria pretty well. It sure seems that both of those pretty blue lines started headin’ upward as soon as the “New Deal” was launched and continued the growth, with a couple of drops, until WWII started.

That’s proof enough for me. The tried an tired “win at all cost” business practices didn’t work in the 1920’s nor the past eight years so what’s to say that a new “New Deal” won’t work. Tell me what you’re thinkin’ on this subject by leavin’ a comment.

(1) Of course I was born and raised in this greatly liberal state of Oklahoma, so our history books might have been edited to reflect this bias…. Wait a minute, Oklahoma is the “reddist of the red states”, Nevermind.
(2) Vice President Calvin Coolidge became President upon the death of President Warren G. Harding from a heart attack on August 2, 1923

Hey there neighbors. I was doin’ some o’ that there net surfin’ earlier today and caught this outta the corner of my eye.

 Now it seems that them rich folks on Wall street want us normal everyday taxpayers to give ‘em more loans and seem to get extra touchy whenever they’re asked what they did with the money from before and sure seem to think it’s nobody’s business askin’ what’s gonna be done with the new funds they’re beggin’ fer. Here’s a little picture I took from one of them British sites talkin’ about the deal.

Click on image to see the entire screen capture

That’s not the part what really got me thinkin’, this is -

Click on image to see the entire screen capture

Tending robberies, now you can call that a co-inky-dink or irony or even some supernatural force, it don’t really matter for my thoughts on this. I think it’s one of them things that falls into the “You can’t make this shit up” category.

I know some folks call that “Truth is stranger than fiction” but I like my description better and since this is my Saloon…

Then I see where President Obama is calling for the head honchos at these companies who want money now to get no more than 1/2 million dollars for a years work [cash, that is]. They can get as much stock as they want but can’t cash it in ’til the loan is paid off with interest. Sounds perfectly fair to me.

Now I’ll bet you a dime to a hole in a donut that some folks out there are goin’ call this “socialism” ’cause the government has no business settin’ limits on these peoples income. That’s true ‘cept they’re forgettin’ the fact that they are SPENDIN’ OUR MONEY! If they wanna spend their own funds, great - give ‘em $15,000,000 a year if they want,  just give us taxpayers our money back first.

The topic’s now yours to kick around so leave a comment below.

Howdy Folks!

Welcome to the Grand Opening of UncaJoe’s Saloon. What I offer is cold beer , the smoothest rotgut in the territory (alright, you’ll need to use your imagination for the booze parts) and I will opine on the happenin’s around these parts. Bein’ this is the internet, that’s a pretty big spread so the topics could be wide ranging.

 I’ll let ya’ll know right up front that politics is goin’ to be the main object of my banter and I do tend to be fairly verbose when expressing my views.

 I wanna set a few ground rules about the conversin’ done in here.

Let me kick of the conversation today by askin’ a question. I’m sure you’ve heard these folks that keep wantin’ President Obama to give ‘em a certified copy of his birth certificate, I guess they think he’s supposed to send everyone a copy personally. They keep on with the crap about “If he don’t have nothin’ to hide then why won’t he show us”. What do you want to bet that these same people will insist that Bush tellin’ Karl Rove and Harriet Meiers to keep their mouths shut if congress subpoenas them to testify is justifiable ’cause Bush ain’t got nothing to hide and congress needs to mind their own business.

 I’ve seen a letter (pdf ) from Bush’s White House lawyer to Rove tellin’ him to keep quite.  Part of it’s right here.

Click on image to see entire letter

Them sure sound to me like the words of someone what has nothing to hide.

 Tell me what you think. (That means please leave a comment)