While some of our political leaders have been acting like spoiled brats in Washington, displaying the worst of America's problems for the whole world to see, we've been proudly keeping our eyes on a group of Americans traveling the world, displaying the best of what makes us who we are.
It's our football team, or more appropriately, our "futbol" team, the U.S. Women's World Cup Soccer stars.
We understand that millions of Americans, especially men, are often stupidly scared of seeming less-than-manly by rooting for women's sports. Even if they secretly pay attention to the WNBA, or Michelle Wie of the LPGA, if their guy friends strike up a conversation about sports, they often steer the conversation away from "those girly things."
Of course, in Nebraska, we're used to rooting for our women, on and off the sports fields and courts. We've done that for years. Off the field, Nebraska had the first all-female race for Governor some 25 years ago. On the field, Nebraska volleyball is known across the country and around the world as consistently one of America's best programs. Nebraska softball and women's basketball have also become known for quality players who succeed. And Nebraska soccer - women's soccer - has a proud tradition of excellence as well.
As you can see, when you come from Nebraska, you get used used to having women excel as much or more than men.
We're incredibly proud of our U.S. Women's World Cup Soccer Team - and for those macho jocks who say they don't watch soccer, ESPN and the Neilsen Company can prove you're fibbing. The American Team's World Cup semi-final match earlier this week produced the best weekday ratings for any match - men's or women's - on ANY American television network in history.
The ratings for that semifinal match rank second in all Women's Wold Cup matches behind last weekend's U.S. win over Brazil in the quarterfinals. That's even better than when Mia Hamm led the U.S. team to gold in the 2004 Olympics.
What makes us most proud of how our U.S. World Cup Soccer Team is doing is that they are examples of what what we hope for all the young women we know - including the wee one that is the daughter of our editor, Amy.
The members of the U.S. team work hard, but they're not obnoxious. When others told them they wouldn't succeed, they didn't get in the faces of the critics and yell - they put their heads down and just went out and won. These young women - many of whom also have solid academic records and honors under their belts - haven't bragged, or boasted, or expected awards to come to them.
They have acted like adults. They have acted like professionals.
They have acted the way we think real leaders should act, on or off the field.
We know where we'll be this Saturday afternoon.
Listening or watching how real winners achieve victory.
If we're lucky, maybe our Congressional representatives in Washington will also be watching, so they might learn how to be real leaders too.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Enough!
It is becoming increasingly obvious to a growing number of Americans that it is time - long, long, long past time, actually - to rein in the insanity of the extremist regressives on the political right, and the feckless wonders they claim as their leaders.
In the Gallup poll released Wednesday, only one in four Republican voters thought that the budget should be solved with ONLY cuts, and NO increase in revenues. From everyday Americans, the number of people who agree with the Republican position of absolutely NO tax increases is in only one in five.
That means EIGHTY PERCENT of Americans agree with the Democratic position on the budget, debt ceiling, and taxes. EIGHTY PERCENT.
Yet the Republican leadership still thinks they can bully the President, and anyone else who doesn't agree with them, as they insanely, stubbornly insist that Americans agree with the GOP point of view.
As Nate Silver pointed out, after digging deeper into the numbers, the facts are crystal clear - it's the Democratic Leadership and our Democratic President that the American people truly side with.
Still, Republicans continue to bluster that THEY should be the final arbiters of all major decisions for Americans. Mitch McConnell even said - flat out - that our Constitution needed to be amended in order to force the government to be fiscally responsible. It seems he's forgotten that Republicans, including himself, championed their win last fall by saying THEY were going bring responsibility back to Washington.
Responsible leaders don't need the articles of their government to force responsibility and compromise upon themselves.
Republicans don't seem to think they have to care.
It doesn't seem to matter to them that the Federal Reserve Chairman warned again yesterday of a "huge financial calamity" if the debt ceiling is not increased before August 2. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde said that America defaulting would be a disastrous shock to the world economy. In Minnesota, where a small scale version of this disaster is already playing out, they are LITERALLY running out of beer and cigarettes.
Even the nearly indefatigable President Obama is among those who have finally reached the end of his patience with the disrespectful, small-minded, selfish, arrogant, ignorant, infantile twits in the GOP leadership.
It is LONG past time for Republicans, Tea Partiers, and the other economic terrorists on the right to give up.
There is NO universe in which they win, get everything they've dreamed of, and see everyone they hate lose.
If default occurs, there WILL be a worldwide financial collapse. The market will be effectively dead. So will the political futures of nearly anyone associated with this collapse. If default occurs, Congresspersons won't be able to sneak out the back door, to steal an election - or anything else of value.
Even if default doesn't happen, the 2012 Congressional elections are now one hundred percent certain to have more bite and fight than most Americans have ever seen. Sadly, we doubt this mess will bring about more serious political campaigns, especially from conservative quarters.
It is long, long, long past time for those who are responsible on the right to regain control of their political party, for their own good, and for the greater good of us all.
America - and the world - has had enough of their brand of insanity.
In the Gallup poll released Wednesday, only one in four Republican voters thought that the budget should be solved with ONLY cuts, and NO increase in revenues. From everyday Americans, the number of people who agree with the Republican position of absolutely NO tax increases is in only one in five.
That means EIGHTY PERCENT of Americans agree with the Democratic position on the budget, debt ceiling, and taxes. EIGHTY PERCENT.
Yet the Republican leadership still thinks they can bully the President, and anyone else who doesn't agree with them, as they insanely, stubbornly insist that Americans agree with the GOP point of view.
As Nate Silver pointed out, after digging deeper into the numbers, the facts are crystal clear - it's the Democratic Leadership and our Democratic President that the American people truly side with.
Still, Republicans continue to bluster that THEY should be the final arbiters of all major decisions for Americans. Mitch McConnell even said - flat out - that our Constitution needed to be amended in order to force the government to be fiscally responsible. It seems he's forgotten that Republicans, including himself, championed their win last fall by saying THEY were going bring responsibility back to Washington.
Responsible leaders don't need the articles of their government to force responsibility and compromise upon themselves.
Republicans don't seem to think they have to care.
It doesn't seem to matter to them that the Federal Reserve Chairman warned again yesterday of a "huge financial calamity" if the debt ceiling is not increased before August 2. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde said that America defaulting would be a disastrous shock to the world economy. In Minnesota, where a small scale version of this disaster is already playing out, they are LITERALLY running out of beer and cigarettes.
Even the nearly indefatigable President Obama is among those who have finally reached the end of his patience with the disrespectful, small-minded, selfish, arrogant, ignorant, infantile twits in the GOP leadership.
It is LONG past time for Republicans, Tea Partiers, and the other economic terrorists on the right to give up.
There is NO universe in which they win, get everything they've dreamed of, and see everyone they hate lose.
If default occurs, there WILL be a worldwide financial collapse. The market will be effectively dead. So will the political futures of nearly anyone associated with this collapse. If default occurs, Congresspersons won't be able to sneak out the back door, to steal an election - or anything else of value.
Even if default doesn't happen, the 2012 Congressional elections are now one hundred percent certain to have more bite and fight than most Americans have ever seen. Sadly, we doubt this mess will bring about more serious political campaigns, especially from conservative quarters.
It is long, long, long past time for those who are responsible on the right to regain control of their political party, for their own good, and for the greater good of us all.
America - and the world - has had enough of their brand of insanity.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Infants And Grown Ups
We're not sure whether our first reaction should have been astonishment, shame, or stunned silence at the actions and words of the Republican Congressional Leadership yesterday in regards to the ongoing budget and debt talks. As writer and journalist Kevin Drum stated yesterday afternoon, "It's Now Official: The GOP is a Party of Sixth Graders."
We think that's an insult to sixth graders. At least most of them seem to understand when they're being called on their childish behavior.
Indeed, President Obama all but called the GOP infantile on Monday when he made that point that it is now time to make the painful and difficult decisions of governing, by saying that legislators on all sides needed to, "Pull off the band aid. Eat our peas."
The response from Congressional Republicans on Tuesday was only slightly more intelligible than the response of a colicky baby with a full diaper, in a house without air conditioning, in the middle of summer, being forced to eat its vegetables.
John Boehner's response was unconscionable, shirking both his personal and professional responsibility for governing by saying, "This debt limit increase is [Obama's] problem."
Mitch McConnell made Boehner look downright reasonable, however, when he laid out his own, convoluted, Rube Goldberg style-contingency plan that that Kevin Drum noted ought to be called, the "Gratuitous Embarrassment of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party Act of 2011."
McConnell's plan, in short, would have Congress conditionally abdicate its constitutional responsibility to appropriate funds, and give that power to the President - an idea which was never envisioned by any of the founding fathers. The President, would be allowed to raise the debt ceiling on his own, in short-term, temporary chunks without any other authorization from Congress. Once the President moved to raise the debt ceiling, it would literally take an act of Congress - a "resolution of disapproval" according to McConnell - to stop him from allocating the money. The President could veto Congress' resolution - but then it would take a two-thirds majority of Congress, in both Houses, to override the President's veto.
Not only is this the most convoluted and brazen attempt to sidestep political responsibility that we've ever seen, it's also one of the dumbest and most childish.
We're aware that there is going to be an enormous amount of political pain surrounding this decision. The President's peas and band-aids comments weren't meant as a joke. As he also pointed out, the closer we get to the 2012 election, the more painful and uncomfortable these kinds of difficult but necessary political decisions will be.
"Now is the time to do it," President Obama made clear. "If not now, when?"
We actually find ourselves partially agreeing with TPM's Josh Marshall, that McConnell's last ditch effort may have at least one good point, in that it would force Democrats to keep doing what they've mostly been doing for some time now: "go to the public with what they believe is best for the country, and be accountable for it."
As Marshall also notes, "...that's what people who are given the power to govern are supposed to do."
We think that's an insult to sixth graders. At least most of them seem to understand when they're being called on their childish behavior.
Indeed, President Obama all but called the GOP infantile on Monday when he made that point that it is now time to make the painful and difficult decisions of governing, by saying that legislators on all sides needed to, "Pull off the band aid. Eat our peas."
The response from Congressional Republicans on Tuesday was only slightly more intelligible than the response of a colicky baby with a full diaper, in a house without air conditioning, in the middle of summer, being forced to eat its vegetables.
John Boehner's response was unconscionable, shirking both his personal and professional responsibility for governing by saying, "This debt limit increase is [Obama's] problem."
Mitch McConnell made Boehner look downright reasonable, however, when he laid out his own, convoluted, Rube Goldberg style-contingency plan that that Kevin Drum noted ought to be called, the "Gratuitous Embarrassment of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party Act of 2011."
McConnell's plan, in short, would have Congress conditionally abdicate its constitutional responsibility to appropriate funds, and give that power to the President - an idea which was never envisioned by any of the founding fathers. The President, would be allowed to raise the debt ceiling on his own, in short-term, temporary chunks without any other authorization from Congress. Once the President moved to raise the debt ceiling, it would literally take an act of Congress - a "resolution of disapproval" according to McConnell - to stop him from allocating the money. The President could veto Congress' resolution - but then it would take a two-thirds majority of Congress, in both Houses, to override the President's veto.
Not only is this the most convoluted and brazen attempt to sidestep political responsibility that we've ever seen, it's also one of the dumbest and most childish.
We're aware that there is going to be an enormous amount of political pain surrounding this decision. The President's peas and band-aids comments weren't meant as a joke. As he also pointed out, the closer we get to the 2012 election, the more painful and uncomfortable these kinds of difficult but necessary political decisions will be.
"Now is the time to do it," President Obama made clear. "If not now, when?"
We actually find ourselves partially agreeing with TPM's Josh Marshall, that McConnell's last ditch effort may have at least one good point, in that it would force Democrats to keep doing what they've mostly been doing for some time now: "go to the public with what they believe is best for the country, and be accountable for it."
As Marshall also notes, "...that's what people who are given the power to govern are supposed to do."
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