Immigration Troubles

Immigration policy today is arbitrary, cold and perniciously cruel, never mind antithetical to original American character. What about the push to Christianize the country also created the we-versus-they need to turn our collective back on decency, humility and humane inclusion. Not charity, just plain equality. extending to everybody a strictly fair chance to achieve everything you take for granted? Immigrants overwhelmingly overcome cold hearted obstacles to normalize their being here to work and pay taxes for which they never, ever, receive any benefits. Yet, hateful people keep making up excuses to hate them, exclude them, make them different or somehow undeserving. Such ugliness is at the root of all the problems, financial, social, cultural and everything else. Being brought up in a predominantly religious environment makes people think they have some magical entitlement and that everything will somehow be magically okay if they are pure of heart, and then make up all kinds of crap to realign the world to reflect a magical purity of heart. Noble it is not. Immature and dysfunctional from the get go.

There are literally none among us who do not have ancestors who arrived among us without asking permission first. Nobody should have to. Everybody must be given a fair and even chance that made it possible for each and every citizen to be here now.

Increases In The National Debt

This was posted

with the following comments, to which I responded...

P**** B*** The facts poke holes in all the Republican arguments. Republican policies created most of the debt. Republican policies gave us wars that are eating us alive. Republican deregulation gave us the financial crisis. The stock market and economy perform many times better under Democratic presidents than Republican presidents. Pick that stat, the facts show Republicans have all these issues wrong.

J*** S***** M******* Still does not absolve the Dems as they were just as responsible for the Debt in Repub times...bot parties drank the Kool-Aid and can-kicked this to the next gen. Both have to solve now the medium/long-term trend and meet in the middle to synch the fiscal disconnects. Tsunami approaches...Times up!

David S**** M****** As a conservative republican, can I please say let's all stop the name calling? The problem with this nation is not democrat or republican, it's the fact that for the last 40 years the people on the left have been moving to the extreme left and the people on the right have been moving to the extreme right. How can we ever solve the problems we face when we are so greatly divided? We need to meet in the middle and work together. There will always be issues that we are greatly divided on, but we're letting those issues cause a stalemate on all the others. All the nasty comments you've made about conservatives does not help. All the nasty comments conservatives have made about ya'll do not help. If we don't have each other's back then we will never survive. Yes, we should debate the issues and present our cases, but let us not get bitter and close ourselves off to one another, instead let us HEAR each other and UNDERSTAND each other and find some common ground. Is that really too much to ask? After all, it is our children who will have to suffer/benefit from the decisions we make, not us.

David S**** M****** granted I am reconsidering the whole conservative republican thing. i'm too conservative for the liberals and too liberal for the conservatives. I'm a Christian first and foremost. God gave me this life and it is a precious gift. He gave me forgivness, for which I could never be worthy. He gave me this planet for which he instructed me to take care of it. I believe we should recycle and if we can find clean, renewable energy then let us use it and make it affordable. Let us clean up pollution. I do not support abortion unless the mother's life is in imminent danger. I do not support wealth redistribution, I believe in working for your wages, though I do believe in fair wages for fair labor, not union wages and not sweatshop wages. Where does this put me? I'm sure neither liberals or conservatives want to claim me, but that suits me just fine. I just try to stand up for what is right and what I believe in.

Phil N****** If your entire political standpoint is based on statements like "I'm Christian, God is good, etc, etc", I've got some news for you: God isn't paying our bills. If you REALLY and TRULY want religion to be part of our government, then let's start taxing the churches. Then I would have less of a problem with religious politics. However, and thankfully, there is SUPPOSED to be a separation of church and State.

David S**** M****** phil, that is not my entire political stance, though my faith certainly does drive many of my beliefs. The church does have a place in govt because many of us are religious, however, we do need a degree of seperation to ensure we don't have a situation like England had with the Church of England having the political control or even Islamic Caliphate like in some Middle East countries. I'm mindful that we're not all religious and that indeed everyone needs to be taken into account in our laws. I was just trying to be honest about where I'm coming from in my statements I make on here.

D****** M**P****** Faith has NO place in government. Unless it is MY faith. It is hard to pick WHOSE faith we are going to use.

W**** A*******-S****** David, unfortunately some of the christian faith have highjacked our government with greed and inequality on the agenda but with god on their lips. There have been many high profile "christians" over the years who have vowed openly to turn the US "back" into a xian nation and that should be cause for great alarm. It's wonderful that you have strong beliefs but please speak with your brothers and sisters who are intent on making America a theocracy and let them know government was kept apart from religion for very good reasons.

Nathan Garcia I cannot bring myself to trust the judgement and ability to discern among those who believe in magic or that supernatural means are appropriate for problem solving. The entire premise is wishful thinking and patently absurd. Republicans rely on people who can't tell the difference between conviction and fact and who substitute opinion for reality. Religion is not reality and basing ones life decisions on such superstition is doomed to fail. Nothing in anybody's freedom of religion compells me to behave as if I believe as they do. Nothing in religious tolerance compells me to enable religious delusion. The entire Republican set of policies is false, counter-reality and tries to undo the inevitable: organisms and society evolve toward survival. Republican traditions, ideals and "values" are archaic, anachronistic and have consistently failed to help the whole society succeed. Pick any era, pick any group, and it's all the same: conservatism is regressive, harmful and self destructive. You may not require me to contribute to or infect me with your destruction.

Nathan Garcia What name calling? Describing observable, documented and empirically verifyable events is not name calling or pejorative in any sense. Such mischaracterization is exactly what causes the kind of cognitive dissonance that muddies the waters of discourse so thoroughly that intelligible, honest exchanges are impossible. While the right have been climbing over themselves to become more extreme, the left has moved in the same direction though not as outrageously far. Anything contrary to extreme regressive narratives are falsely labelled extreme when they are merely reality based. The right goes so far as to disparge basing observations on reality as if it were questionable, a bad thing. That is the nature of conservative absurdity. Make up whatever manipulation you choose, and every disagreement is evil, insulting, disparging, intolerant. I'm so sick and tired of these tedious false equivalencies. Example: ID is not science and does not deserve equal time in a scientific forum. Another example: A 48 hour old human fetal blastocyst is not a human being, does not possess any of the faculties that constitute a viable human being, including the mythical soul. Third example: self awareness is not that mythical soul, and a fetus isn't self aware. Hell, infants aren't even self aware for the first year and more of their life.

All these delusions, logical fallacies and failures of the recognition of reality are connected, feed on each other, and contribute to the overall dysfunction of families, communities, society at large, the private sector and government. If you can't find hold-in-your-hand proof behind an idea, it just doesn't work in the real world. Reality is that stuff which, when you stop believing in it, refuses to go away. How much of religion and conservative dogma would exist were it no longer pushed as if real? Pert' near none, I reckon.

The State of Things

I often get a bit of inspiration while responding to some bit of rigamarole, falderol, shenanigans or tomfoolery on any among a number of news or opinion sites in the gol' durned eternally beloved interwebs. Sometimes, my responses are concise enough to stand on their own without extraction contexts or any other lead-in explaination. Here's one:

Thirty years of Reagan policies, subsequently amplified by Bush/Clinton/Bush to the current cocophany of nonsense, are exactly the problem and must be reversed.

1)Regulation protecting the population and the economy from financial fraud would break up, as it used to be before Reganomics and rampant deregulation toward the current near nehilistic, "wild west" free market, the too-big-to-fail investment banks from insurance carriers and charter banks (Glass-Stiegle Act).
2) Campaign finance reform that would at least make contributions tracable or, better yet, all campaign contributions placed into an independent super fund from which all candidates and issues organizations (SuperPACs) receive funds equally according to contest and constituency, and inclusion of lobbyist spending, pointed at any legislator with rights of refusal to entertain their entreaties, as campaign contributions, again reflecting complete transparency and mandatory public disclosure from a single, one stop resource.
3) National infrastructure maintenance, abandoned beginning with Nixon, put into overdrive by Reagan and ignored by Bush/Clinton/Bush to upgrade the country's backbone of public safety, create jobs and stimulate the economy in a permanent manner,
4) Universal healthcare option, coinciding with private insurance plans (for whomever believes paying more for less is a good idea), to eliminate the currently locked in private insurance inefficiencies/greed/run away costs/bureaucratic "death panel" control over therapy qualification and delivery.
5) Tiered tax system where those better able to pay for the nation's physical (infrastructure) and philosophical (that which creates and sustains actual American exceptionalism) upkeep contribute a reasonable, proportional share to sustain the systems, the advantages upon which the rich and better off were able to build their wealth, (safe roads, safe air travel, safe communities, safe air and water, universal education) that everybody, including future generations, depend on.
6) Reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine to fairly balance the unrestricted, irresponsible radical right rhetoric that passes for news in some quarters without answering to anybody or anything over blatant lies, distortion and information fraud upon the public.

These actions would remedy and, in time, reverse the effects of the last forty years of regressive, "conservative" class warfare at the expense of the middle (and impoverished) class(es).

Melissa Harris-Perry writes (http://www.thenation.com/article/163544/black-president-double-standard-why-white-liberals-are-abandoning-obama#comments) that Obama is losing white liberal support more quickly, in spite of rather positively comparable records and circumstances, more quickly that did President Clinton because of vestigial, latent racism. The umbarge in response was striking. Methinks she doth protest too much. Besides:

Ms. Harris-Parry's analysis hits and misses the mark to varying degrees according to the variations among the individuals who make up the electorate. Not everybody's the same, and not everybody is as cuplable within her harrative as the worst among us. But, it strikes home at least a little among all of us. Sure, I'm angry and resent the shortfalls between actual policy and what we'd been promised for our vote. Whom among the most vociferous above took the time and energy to relate their concerns, in a contemporaneous manner, to the President? Once, twice, or each and every time? Nothing short of at least a majority of the time, considering the contentious nature of governance these days, and the unremitting pressure from a relentlessly irrational opposition, excuses any of us of being part of the problem or for grousing after the fact. Without pressure that includes workable alternatives, it's no more than embittered crying in one's beer. Are the complainers on this page really saying they'll vote for the Republican alternative, or render punitive, passive agressive retribution, withhold their vote altogether, and allow Republicans any more power than they now enjoy by default? If what you see isn't good enough, do something CONSTRUCTIVE about it. Whigning doesn't count. Cutting your nose to spite your face is as ugly as you can get, and fits in perfectly with MH-P's premise here, whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not.

Write the President daily. Put his feet to the fire. Counter the pressure he's getting from all other quarters with pressure of your own. Election day was only the barest of beginnings. There's no room to complain if you fail do to your part.

My Letter to Nancy Pelosi re: Rep. Anthony Weiner

As a San Francisco voter, Nancy Pelosi, California 8th Congressional District, is my representative and I have proudly voted for her every time I've had the opportunity. So, when I read even she was calling for Rep. Weiner's resignation, I just had to speak up. Here is the message I sent her, cc:Anthony Weiner.

Madam Leader:

Even suggesting Rep. Weiner step down is absurd. This story has legs only because the House Leadership hasn't stood up and LEAD the nation's understanding in the difference between fantasy and reality. Neither you nor any other leadership Democrat has defined for those assumed to be the great undiscerning public the difference between desire and action. Not one single person who has engaged in any manner of online networking flirtation is above Anthony Weiner. The bottom line is that he flirted and THAT's ALL she wrote. Pandering to your opposition's faux outrage unequivocally surrenders the power of your constituents to those who never received a single California vote. Take the power back, draw the lines in the sand with definitions and opportunities for understanding, and tell those small minded hypocrites to shut the hell up. The only reason Democrats so often get our heads handed to us is because we let small minded regressives define every issue against us. Stop putting up with that and call out their duplicity and small mindedness in no uncertain terms. It's the wishy-washy, politically correct attempts at diplomatically walking eggshells around issues that's so destructive. Give 'em hell. Call a spade a spade and a magical thinking delusion out for the dysfunction it is. Instead of speaking down to the public, require that they think enough to understand you. Raise the bar or it'll never get better. Never, EVER, get better.

From the early 90's through the year 2000, I was involved in and eventually hosted and owned an internationally syndicated talk radio program about computers and technology. At various stages, as I rose in the ranks of the broadcast production hierarchy, I was pressured to change the format and dumb down the content of the show. I steadfastly refused and never lost listeners and steadily built a following primarily because I didn't underestimate my audience's intelligence and drive to understand the show's technical content.

Our country's political survival is the same thing. But for the rabidly regressive, well heeled, corporate lacky, perennially uninformed or willfully obtuse minority, the vast majority of Americans want better than the third grade reading level pablum universally offered. You're never going to get the support of the uneducated, willfully ignorant regressive ideologue. Stop talking to them at all. Instead address those who are better than the ditto heads and falsely fair-and-balanced. Talk to the American public as if you were talking with your bright (formerly) adolescent children. Reason with them as you would smart relatives -- Americans, indeed, throughout our country ARE your relatives -- instead of as if to cognitively challenged pre-adolescents. You'll never beat the Boehners and Cantors, Becks, Palins, Bachmans and Bushes of the world if you don't. Just say no to ignorance. Never respond timidly to absurdities or magical thinking, unsubstantiated assertion or lies contrary to fact and reason. Call them out, chapter and verse, at every opportunity and never, ever, apologize for fact and reality.

Support Rep. Weiner's constitutents who would reelect him today by 54% majority. You owe all Americans, and especially New Yourk's 9th Congressional District at least that much.

With warmest regards,
Nathan Garcia

Same Old Endless Republican Loop

Proof positive it's the same old hyperbole with the same old nefarious, unAmerican goal.

"The Republicans will try to make people believe that everything the Government has done for the country is socialism. They will go to the people and say: "Did you see that social security check you received the other day-you thought that was good for you, didn't you? That's just too bad! That's nothing in the world but socialism. Did you see that new flood control dam the Government is building over there for the protection of your property? Sorry-that's awful socialism! That new hospital that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more socialism for the farmers! Minimum wage laws? Socialism for labor! Socialism is bad for you, my friend. Everybody knows that. And here you are, with your new car, and your home, and better opportunities for the kids, and a television set-you are just surrounded by socialism! Now the Republicans say, 'That's a terrible thing, my friend, and the only way out of this sinkhole of socialism is to vote for the Republican ticket.'"
-Harry S Truman, 1947

I like the sentiment, but haven't been able to verify this quote's provenance. Can anybody help me out? Nathan@queers.com

Buttinsky Abuse of Freedoms Guaranteed

Religious delusion is no excuse to attempt micromanagement of others' lives. The plain and simple fact is that reproduction is nobody's business but the actual people involved. It is not the place of government, neighbors, relatives, strangers, magical entities, pseudo-sacrosanct representatives of bronze age scriptural boogiemen or made up sky gods to dictate any facet of another's life.

There are more than one guarantee in the Constitution that safeguard an individual’s privacy and selfsame sovereignty regarding such issues. Roe v. Wade was decided on the right to privacy, and guarantees individual protection against government intrusion into the workings and control of one’s own body. Use of the referendum ballot, or voting in anti-freedom ideologues and empowering codependent officials who can stack the courts in favor of curtailing established rights is dangerous, un-American, and unpatriotic. It undermines the integrity of the Constitution that those who would curtail innocent, law abiding citizens’ rights rail so loudly and disingenuously to defend.

The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause dictates that there shall be no religion based laws conferring preference, under the law, for one religion over another. That is a two edged sword. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that this means that no religion or religious precept, however popular, is grounds to limit the behavior of any citizen or inhabitant under the jurisdiction of the United States Constitution. Limiting any citizen’s choices of procreation, family planning (specifically contraception and abortion), life partner, sexual orientation, as well as myriad other freedoms and liberties under the guise of religiously motivated morality are misguided and weaken the Constitution.

The Fourteenth Amendment also guarantees equal protection under the law. That means that no citizen can be treated differently than any other, which includes association, privacy, and the intimate life choices enjoyed (and taken for granted) by popular fiat and Constitutional protection by the majority of Americans may not be abridged. They may not be curtailed, truncated, or made conditional. 

Anti-abortion laws and causes are un-Constitutional, un-American, and unpatriotic. 

Anti-same sex marriage sentiments and activities are un-Constitutional, un-American, and unpatriotic.

Anti-undocumented worker activity are anti-Constitutional, un-American, and unpatriotic.

The rights bestowed upon one's religion end at the tip of one's own nose. Stop making stuff up to justify abuse of your freedoms and license to infringe others' rights. Get over it and butt out where your nose doesn't belong.