Who are the Terrorists?

Representative Peter King Held a hearing today, or a dog and pony show, to gin up fear of Muslims in America. Ultimately he failed and appeared very foolish. However, Peter King is not the only one using fear to drive a political point. You have the birthers, those who call the President unamerican, he lived in a Madrassa, he is of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya, liberals are evil trying to indoctrinate your children, the NEA is an unamerican organization trying to indoctrinate your children. What do all of these have in common? They are tactics used by right wing extremists in this country, tactics of fear, to move a political discussion. Of course right wing extremists in other countries are called dictators and their people are said to live under a tyranny.
A further look at the terror discussion is warranted in light of the republican and right wing extremists in this country. Terror defined is intense fear, one that causes intense fear, and the quality of causing such fear. This is from the Websters New World Dictionary. When one looks at this definition and looks at the modern day republican party, and the right wing extremists that are currently running that party, the only conclusion one can draw is that they are a bunch of terrorists. Now one will say, wait a minute they don’t kill anybody. We say wait a minute, Terry McVeigh, Abortion doctor assasins, Jared Loughner(he had a decided antipathy to the left). These are just a few of the right wing American Terrorists that can be traced directly to the rhetoric coming from the right wing. Is the republican party and right wing extremists as bad as Al Qaeda? No, but a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist.
The American people have a lot to be rightly afraid of in this modern world. For many varied reasons different groups hate us and want to damage us, however, Al Qaeda will never be able to do what the republican party has done since 2001, nor what it is trying to do today, by restricting Civil Rights.
As Democrats we do not believe in fear as an organizing tool, logic, facts and a desire to do what is right for people in general are our guiding principles. However, with Peter King, Newt Gingrich, the Koch Brothers, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, the American people have a lot to be rightly afraid of perpetrated by that home grown terrorist organization the republican party.

Elections have consequences or when the people vote republican the people lose

If anyone had any doubts about where the republican party stands on Civil Rights or their attitude to the middle class, the vote in Wisconsin just minutes ago should leave no doubt – the republican party is a party of liars and elitists. They couched their union busting bill as a necessary requirement for balancing the budget, but when their backs were against the wall, they went to bat for the rich and multi-national corporations. The republican party, with the help of Karl Rove, just said that civil rights only apply to the well connected and rich, the average person does not have any rights. The right of workers to organise is a civil right, just like the right to vote (remember the republicans constantly disenfranchise African Americans and are currently working on disenfranchising young people). It is as much a civil right as the right to health care, the right to marry the person of your choice, the right of a person of color to eat at any establishment of their choice. The republicans are opposed to all of these, and some (Paul of Kentucky) are musing that the hard won Civil Rights of the 1960′s should be repealed.
However, Democrats and Independents ultimately have themselves to blame. Across the country in the last election Democrats and Independents stayed home and did not vote. They ceded the field to the more baser elements of this country, those who seek to divide by using fear and intimidation to maintain the status quo for those who are well connected and are able to buy their own congressman or senator.
What has happened in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states should be a wake up call for all people who have to work for their money, elections matter, local, state and national. It is time to organise, to rally and demand action by our elected officials, action for the people, not the few. The republican party will never stand with the people, they will only use them. You can start by going to local Democrat Club events, working to organise your communities to get people to vote and throw the bums out in 2012. We the local members of the Democratic Party stand ready to work with you and elect those who will respond to you and not to lobbyists and money. Get involved and make this a country of, by and for the people, not for the well connected.

A Silent Coup in Cecil County?

The last time we checked the election results from November 2010 Mr Dunn and Mrs Moore and Broomell had won the election. However, recent events and news reports have to leave one with the conclusion that Mr Smigiel and Pipken are actually running county government now in what amounts to a silent coup.
The first part of the clue was this last week when the County Commissioners decided to appoint a Budget Advisory Board and then made their appointments. Within 48 hours of making these appointments Mr Dunn and Mr Mullins made their budget announcements cutting funds across the board and eliminating programs known to be targets of Mr Smigiel. This indicates that the advisory board is a sham and a front for the individuals that are over throwing the local government.
The second piece of the puzzle came in an article in the Cecil Whig, where Mr Dunn says he was working on this budget for over a year. He was not a commissioner so who was he working on the budget with? Since Mr Dunn was an Aide to Mr Smigiel, all indications are that the budget proposals made by Mullins and Dunn were all put in place by Pipken and Smigiel.
And finally, to cover their tracks the appointmnents made by Dunn and Mullins are known party hacks and to have donated money to the Pipken/Smigiel Pac.
Pipken and Smigiel were not elected to run County Government, they were elected to do the business of all the people of their districts in Annapolis, State Business. This is the strongest indication yet that these two individuals are power hungry and need to be removed from office in their next election. The people of Cecil County need to take note and put this sorry chapter in county history behind us.

Commissioner Cronysim

Voters of Cecil County should be careful what they ask for. When voters in this county went to the polls last November many simply pulled the R lever without regard to the individual credentials of each candidate. Even though there were multiple camps of ideology in the Republican party (though dominated by the Pipkin and Smigiel team), it didn’t make a difference. It even trickled down to local county positions that had nothing to do with politics, i.e. County Treasurer. Good people lost without cause because the Smipken team placed blinders on many Republican voters.
The Cecil County Board of Commissioners named a five-member budget advisory panel last Tuesday. Some of the Commissioners took this seriously. Commissioner Hodge (R-5th), Commissioner Broomell (R- 4th), and Commissioner Moore (R-2nd) selected budget people with good credentials, and apparently without regard to politics.
However, Commissioner Dunn’s choice of a loser in the states attorney Republican primary in 2010, who has no substantive experience with the budgetary process, but is a hand picked puppet and former aide to the Smipken Team is dead wrong
Even worse, Commissioners’ Board President Mullin selected Deborah Horn, who according to Commissioner Mullin is a CPA and a resident of the 1st District. She is a major donor to the Smipkin Political Action Committee (Republicans of Cecil PAC), and reports indicate that Ms. Horn is a resident of Newark, Delaware… not Cecil County. State records show the Ms. Horn, of Newark, DE, contributed $1,500 to the Republicans of Cecil PAC, a Smipken Team alignment. Mullin himself was the major bankroller of the Republicans of Cecil PAC, which raised funds to support the candidacies of Del. Michael Smigiel (R-36), Sen. E.J. Pipkin (R-36) and their slate of candidates for county commissioner seats and the Cecil County Republican Central Committee in the 2010 elections.
Ms. Horn might be able to make contributions to the budget advisory panel, but her political financial “contributions” indicate that the reasons for her selection have more to do with political loyalty then with unbiased budgetary advice.
Sometimes, people get with they ask for, but is it good for the citizens of our county?

Household Budgeting

I was talking to friends of mine the other day, Mr and Mrs L Ephant. They are a married couple with 2 children. Both of them work, but Mrs L Ephant said they recently had employment and budget problems and sought help. Mrs L Ephant went to work one day and her boss, Mr. Natcorp, told her they were going to do massive layoffs, but if she would accept a 30% pay cut she would be safe.
Needless to say this was disturbing to my friends. That night they talked and Mrs L Ephant thought that if they cut their expenses by 30% they would be alright. However her husband thought they should get a second opinion to be safe.
The next day they both went to the R Publican Credit Counseling service and spoke to Mr Boneyard. They told me he went over their situation and said that the 30% cut in expenses was good, however, this would not allow for further losses in income. He suggested that since the husband spent more money every week on gas, that he should quit his job and stay home, this would save the additional money out of their budget.
Now if this sound rather stupid and childish, you are right, however, this is what the republicans in this country would have you believe. We will cut taxes for the richest and best connected in this country, and then say Oh we have a budget deficit, therefore we have to cut all spending to the poor, the helpless, children, sick and elderly.
In order to balance a budget almost all families look at both sides of the equation, their expenses and their income and get second jobs where necessary. The republicans refuse to look at the income side, therefore they will never produce a balanced budget. The last person to balance a budget, and actually run a surplus was a democrat, Bill Clinton. He looked at both the expenses and the income to do it.
When will people stop listening to the VooDoo economists of the right and actually do what is right?

America – the new Middle East

Events in Wisconsin are beginning to mirror events in the Middle East over the last month. The people of different Middle Eastern countries have risen up against tyrannical conservative governments that have sought to enslave their people with few jobs, few rights and freedoms, working for low pay to enrich the corporate masters that pull the strings in these countries. These people were the poor, working classes and middle classes of their countries.
Events in Wisconsin are shaping up to be very similar. There is now a conservative Republican government in charge that is seeking to take away the collective bargaining rights of the middle class and working classes of the state. As is typical with all conservative movements, the reasons are being masked in lies of fiscal responsibility and saving the future. The real reason is to destroy any labor movement that exists and enslave the middle and working classes in low paying jobs. This is a continuation of the anti worker policies begun under Ronald Reagan.
The people in Wisconsin are also reflecting the lies that are the Tea Party Movement. The Tea Party is not for the people, they are for a version of conservative republican government. The Tea Party does not care about people, they just “want their government back”. What is happening in Wisconsin should be a wake up call for Democrats and independents alike. The roots of the fiscal problems in the state capitals and in Washington DC all have their roots in republican and conservative economic policies. These policies represent a massive redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the rich and corporations. The accumulation of wealth in this country into so few hands has deleterious effects on economic activity and hurts all classes, except the upper classes. Only through a true progressive tax policy will the budgets of the states and country as a whole be balanced. Democrats and independents alike should stand with the people of Wisconsin and protest wherever conservative governments seek to take away our jobs and rights.

Who is the big loser due to events in Egypt?

Events unfolding in Egypt over the last several weeks and months should show people all over the world that when the poor, trampled and disenfranchised of any country galvanize themselves, that movement can exact huge changes in their government and they can do it without weapons. This gives evidence to the lies of the Tea Party and their second amendment solutions. The Tea Party movement in this country, while loud, is not widely based. It is comprised primarily of right wing fringe elements of the Republican Party. It is not a movement of the people, as most of them are not poor, trampled or disenfranchised, but rather a group of party activists attempting to move the Republican Party to the extreme right wing of this country. In addition all hugely successful people movements in world history happened without weapons, it was masses of people demanding their rights, be it self government, equal rights, or if republicans ultimately place restrictions on access to health care,  rights to health care. Most movements of the people, populist movements, tend to be based in a liberal ideology, even our own Revolution in 1776. After all the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and Bill of Rights are some of the most liberal documents ever produced by men to govern themselves. The Democratic party needs to learn from this, as a party we have always stood with the poor, trampled and disenfranchised against powers that be. As a party we need to remember our roots, very similar to the people in Egypt, and grow our own truly populist movement to throw off the shackles of a Republican Party, and their corporate masters, that seeks to enslave women, discriminate against the poor and treat foreign people as criminals. Ultimately liberal thought and ideology offer more freedom, less government intrusion into our private lives and more access to all that society has to offer to all of the people, not just the well connected.