Today may mark the beginning of a new week for most people, but the primary action most of the news and infotainment outlets will be reveling in is the same childish toy they've been playing with for several weeks - winding up Democrats against the Obama/McConnell extension plan for the Bush Tax Cuts.
We agree with many of our colleagues in the media that the tax cut debate - and the cost of any proposed tax cut - is critically important. However, we also believe that - as usual these days - much of the unnecessary media noise is pulling the focus away from several real issues.
One of those issues was displayed vigorously by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders to his colleagues on both sides of the aisle last week.
Senator Sanders gave an eight-and-a-half hour long speech on Friday, with an enormous amount of proven economic data. While it wasn't technically a filibuster, it is exactly what a real filibuster should look like. This is a key problem with the current U.S. Senate - that Senate filibusters look nothing like what Sen. Sanders did on Friday.
Currently, for a Senator to hold up any - or ALL - legislation in the U.S. Senate, they effectively only need to THREATEN a filibuster, which charges no real cost to any Senator to hold up the business of the entire country. The increasing abuse of the filibuster over the last decade - especially by Republicans - has turned the act of using a Senate rule designed for defense into an aggressive, cowardly, craven, act of bullying.
Bullies seem to have multiplied in certain corners of DC, and throughout Wall Street over the last few years. Unfortunately, so have those people who seem too willing to play the victim.
As anyone who has dealt with a bully knows, the first step to defeating them is to stand up to them. Yet, that isn't what our politicians have done as of late.
True fiscal conservatives have been as weak, wishy-washy, and mealy-mouthed over the last decade as the Congressional Democratic majority has been over the last two years. Both the Democratic majority, and the Republican minority knew that the political trap of the end of the Bush Tax Cuts was coming. All the same, both parties kept trying to put off until the third Tuesday after never an event that was - and still is - firmly scheduled for 12AM on January 01, 2011.
What Senator Sanders did on Friday was laudable for a host of reasons, not the least of which was the breadth, depth, and accuracy of his speech. However wonderful his speech was, the fact remains that equally serious and intense public debates over proper rates of taxation, as well as America's fiscal responsibilities, should have been happening throughout the last decade.
Instead, partisan bullies in Washington simply set up a faceoff of Republicans against Democrats, like a child playing war games with his new Christmas toys. Unfortunately, we have no doubt our colleagues in the media will follow a similar script this week, as they continue to wind up the Democrats against President Obama. Meanwhile, the real fiscal conservatives will likely cower in the corner offstage, as they have for most of the last decade.
Don't be surprised when we call the lot of them a bunch of spoiled, cowardly children who long ago should have put away their political toys and handled the people's business like real adults.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday Funday: Keeping Focused On What's Important
No, it's not just you.
We said that to each other more than once yesterday, as we bumbled about, appearing unfocused, trying to get things done, but having our individual attentions in different places from each other.
Our apparent lack of focus has nothing to do with getting ready to travel again or with recovering from a nasty flu bug. It's got nothing to do with age or with missing some valuable sleep, either.
We notice it every year about this time, an apparent inability to focus that appears during the holiday season and happens to nearly everyone. In truth, what we're witnessing is the opposite of being unfocused - it's an intense zeroing in by nearly every individual to cross off the items on our personal to-do lists.
It has nothing to do with which holiday a person celebrates, either.
The Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha is done, and the last night of Hanukkah was Thursday. However, those who celebrate Eid or Hanukkah are no less focused than those of us ramping up for Christmas, or Solstice, or just an extra day of leisure.
The New Year is on its way - as everyone is well aware.
Nothing seems to focus the attention of human beings like a deadline. Some deadlines are like clockwork, or the changing of the calendar. Some pop up in a flash, like the deadline to leave a burning building. There's no bigger collective deadline for all of us, though, than the desire to get the greatest amount of tasks completed before we have to re-educate our brains about which numbers to put into the empty "year" space on forms.
For us, one of the most important things on our annual to-do list has little to do with politics, or cartoons, websites or corrections.
It has to do with thanking you for being our readers.
We hope this weekend you follow our lead and just take a moment to thank someone you know for what they bring to your life. Give a bigger tip. Donate something to someone in need, whether it's time, money, or just lending an ear to a friend.
Take a moment to remember what's truly important to each of us.
Then, thank those important people.
That's something we hope is on everyone's holiday to-do list.
Thank you, for reading the Daily Felltoon.
Happy holidays.
We said that to each other more than once yesterday, as we bumbled about, appearing unfocused, trying to get things done, but having our individual attentions in different places from each other.
Our apparent lack of focus has nothing to do with getting ready to travel again or with recovering from a nasty flu bug. It's got nothing to do with age or with missing some valuable sleep, either.
We notice it every year about this time, an apparent inability to focus that appears during the holiday season and happens to nearly everyone. In truth, what we're witnessing is the opposite of being unfocused - it's an intense zeroing in by nearly every individual to cross off the items on our personal to-do lists.
It has nothing to do with which holiday a person celebrates, either.
The Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha is done, and the last night of Hanukkah was Thursday. However, those who celebrate Eid or Hanukkah are no less focused than those of us ramping up for Christmas, or Solstice, or just an extra day of leisure.
The New Year is on its way - as everyone is well aware.
Nothing seems to focus the attention of human beings like a deadline. Some deadlines are like clockwork, or the changing of the calendar. Some pop up in a flash, like the deadline to leave a burning building. There's no bigger collective deadline for all of us, though, than the desire to get the greatest amount of tasks completed before we have to re-educate our brains about which numbers to put into the empty "year" space on forms.
For us, one of the most important things on our annual to-do list has little to do with politics, or cartoons, websites or corrections.
It has to do with thanking you for being our readers.
We hope this weekend you follow our lead and just take a moment to thank someone you know for what they bring to your life. Give a bigger tip. Donate something to someone in need, whether it's time, money, or just lending an ear to a friend.
Take a moment to remember what's truly important to each of us.
Then, thank those important people.
That's something we hope is on everyone's holiday to-do list.
Thank you, for reading the Daily Felltoon.
Happy holidays.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Get Your War On - Political, Online, Or Otherwise
Aside from the annual fake "War On Christmas" that crazy right-wing pundits dredge up every year around this time, there are several other wars going full-bore this holiday season that have nothing to do with Iraq, Afghanistan, or Korea.
The one getting the most attention in the media currently, is the all-out political warfare going on in Washington.
For those people who haven't yet looked at the proposed agreement on extending the Bush Tax Cuts that President Obama, Sen. McConnell, and the Republican Congressional leadership have made, we highly recommend taking a look at the overview that was published in the Washington Post this week.
To say Democrats and Republicans are divided on this "deal" against each other, would be almost criminally negligent of the facts. Many Democrats hate "the deal" so much, they're willing to fillibuster it - alongside of Republicans - in the Senate. Likewise, many Republicans see this as fiscal hypocrisy on steroids for their party, and bad governance for their country. Members of both parties have also voiced their support for the deal.
While momentum to pass this deal does seem to be building, for both honest and purely partisan reasons, we're nowhere near claiming this battle is headed toward an armistice. In fact, this kind of conflict may ultimately prove to be obsolete.
A newer war, and one that's far more insidious in some ways, is the cyber-war that ramped up Wednesday between the forces attacking Wikileaks and those supporting Wikileaks.
A known group of hackers who call themselves Operation Payback disabled both the main websites of Mastercard and Visa on Wednesday, as well as some interaction with the credit card processors. Other targets of Operation Payback included Paypal, Twitter, Facebook, and even Sarah Palin's PAC website. To say that technology has evened the playing field between multinational corporations and governments, and small groups of individuals is an understatement.
Operation Payback made it clear Wednesday that they don't support Wikileaks unilaterally, so much as they oppose the heavy-handed tactics of governments around the world. To shut down Wikileaks and silence those like Mr. Assange, without using fully legal and proper methods, not only voids free speech rights around the world, but gives even greater power to governments of all kinds to operate outside the law.
If there's one thing we can agree with the Operation Payback folks on, it's that the people in our governments around the world don't need any more power than they currently hold.
From the political anarchy going on in DC, it's quite obvious that many members of those governing bodies don't know how to effectively use the power they already possess.
The one getting the most attention in the media currently, is the all-out political warfare going on in Washington.
For those people who haven't yet looked at the proposed agreement on extending the Bush Tax Cuts that President Obama, Sen. McConnell, and the Republican Congressional leadership have made, we highly recommend taking a look at the overview that was published in the Washington Post this week.
To say Democrats and Republicans are divided on this "deal" against each other, would be almost criminally negligent of the facts. Many Democrats hate "the deal" so much, they're willing to fillibuster it - alongside of Republicans - in the Senate. Likewise, many Republicans see this as fiscal hypocrisy on steroids for their party, and bad governance for their country. Members of both parties have also voiced their support for the deal.
While momentum to pass this deal does seem to be building, for both honest and purely partisan reasons, we're nowhere near claiming this battle is headed toward an armistice. In fact, this kind of conflict may ultimately prove to be obsolete.
A newer war, and one that's far more insidious in some ways, is the cyber-war that ramped up Wednesday between the forces attacking Wikileaks and those supporting Wikileaks.
A known group of hackers who call themselves Operation Payback disabled both the main websites of Mastercard and Visa on Wednesday, as well as some interaction with the credit card processors. Other targets of Operation Payback included Paypal, Twitter, Facebook, and even Sarah Palin's PAC website. To say that technology has evened the playing field between multinational corporations and governments, and small groups of individuals is an understatement.
Operation Payback made it clear Wednesday that they don't support Wikileaks unilaterally, so much as they oppose the heavy-handed tactics of governments around the world. To shut down Wikileaks and silence those like Mr. Assange, without using fully legal and proper methods, not only voids free speech rights around the world, but gives even greater power to governments of all kinds to operate outside the law.
If there's one thing we can agree with the Operation Payback folks on, it's that the people in our governments around the world don't need any more power than they currently hold.
From the political anarchy going on in DC, it's quite obvious that many members of those governing bodies don't know how to effectively use the power they already possess.
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