Just Another Day

The title is not to diminish the presidency or MLK day...



...it's to point out our peaceful political transitions in this country.  That's all it took to make it official, simply repeating an oath laid out in an old document.

Now, if you like irony that's the same document the oath-taker has criticized in the past for its lack of redistributive verbiage.  It's the same document he and other presidents (including the third president) have ignored when it comes to deploying military forces around the world without declarations of war.  It's the same document that explicitly states that the people have a right to bear arms, which isn't simply the right to go hunting or protect a domicile, as explained by many, including past presidents.  

As to his "I did it" comment to his girls, it was almost surely a reference to not screwing up the lines.  There are some who will probably read more into it but they are still free to express it without fear of retribution.  Such talk in other countries might get someone thrown in the gulag.  So we're still better than most.

AMAZING

This is long, but worth a look if you want to know what some people think it takes to fix the GOP...

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Keep in mind the general was the same guy who knew his own deputy Richard Armitage leaked Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak but sat quietly during the entire imbroglio.  His boss, Dubya, was one of the moderate Republicans he wants to see return, although at the time he was seen as a neocon extremist by the same people who are now calling the GOP a bunch of extremists.

And that's the stunning hubris bubbling out of this interview.  Here we have people working for MSNBC, the most divisive news network in history, babbling about how the GOP has been taken over by the Tea Party, Limbaugh and Fox and needs to move left to survive because the current leaders are out of touch white guys.  Powell doesn't explain why he supported Obama, probably the most liberal president since FDR, and none of the panel asks him to drill down as to why a Republican would support such a man.

Powell even used a recent Democratic tactic--that Reagan raised taxes--but his overall legacy was smaller government and a lower federal tax rate than when he arrived, both of which he was hammered for at the time and in subsequent years.  Apparently nobody on the panel remembers the old 'trickle down economics' slam the Dems used for 20 years against "Reagonomics".  In today's reality Reagan is the moderate tax raiser.   Nobody thought to mention the GOP ran Bob Dole in 1996, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012, all moderates, and all defeated handily.

What about warmongering?  Powell sat silently while Morning Joe railed against 'neocons' despite Obama's own surge in Afghanistan, extra-judicial drone killings and the unlawful foray into Libya to topple a regime.

But according to the general we'll soon have a 'majority minority' therefore the GOP must react, presumably becoming more like the Democrats by 'offering' things to people rather than trying to balance the budget or maintain a rule of law. All offered without reply. 

Here's Rand Paul explaining the problem and another way to solve it.   Of course, he hasn't been "shot at" so take it for what it's worth. 

SHORTER INAUGURATION SPEECH  1/21/13

The debate about the role of government is over, and I won.