THE CONTINUED MARCH OF THE RIGHT WING

I don't know about you but just after the 2006 elections when the democrats took over congress, I felt hopeful. I figured all this stuff about impeaching George Bush and putting the screws to those in government who had done wrong, would soon be reality. Were we in for a nasty surprise. Now we on the left are still reeling from the results of the 2010 elections. It's probably our fault because we couldn't turn our people out to vote and make a difference. Now we are embabbled with the struggle for the very concept of survival of labor unions in this country. Last night in the Wisconsin legislature they did an astounding thing. They couldn't pass a state budget because fourteen senators had walked out denying the republicans a quarum. When you think about it, this is what a filubuster is actually for. They are to prevent the cramming through of ill-begotten legislation and giving the opposition time to muster their forces and get the real truth out. So last night the Wisconsin legislature stripped out of the bill anything to do with the budget, because "monitary issues" can't be acted on without a quarum. So what was left was their real goal to begin with, of gutting the power of labor unions, and denying workers the right to collective bargaining. Governor Scott Walker is power mad. We know this. But protesters at the State Capitol began saying that the action was illegal because it violated Wisconsin's "open meeting" laws. It's a good thing Wisconsin has a liberal tradition, because at least they've got some good laws on the books. They can't schedule s major vote without at least 24 hours notice, and they only gave 54 minutes notice, I'm told. Of course the Koch brothers and all the money mad people who put Walker in power in the first place knew that time was not on their side and with each passing day they were losing ground. Some republican senators, some of the nineteen, were threatening to jump ship. Also polls indicate that at least two republican state senators would not survive a recall, if put up for a vote. Basically what you have like people on KTLK keep saying, is a major wealth redistribution program in this country from the lower fifty percent to the upper fraction of one percent. So in reality all of these republican governors are working off a national "corporate" agenda, rather than acting in the interests of their own states. Now the protests have spread to other states like Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and even in Idaho. Once again as in 2006 I feel we are at a crossroads and in a position to get something done and to turn the political tide. I hope we are able to do that.

I guess it's this same 26 year old republican who's been doing all of these "sting operations" against the political left. His latest victim is someone at Public Broadcasting. He was caught on the phone making remarks some may infer to be embarrassing. Now his job is in danger. Of course we know the media is as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs to begin with. CBS fired Dan Rather because of a technicality. Now the very existance of Public Broadcasting is in jeopardy. The Republican congress of the United States has apparently voted to cut off all funding. If PBS doesn't get funding, many local stations may not survive. This is just what the opposition wants. I know that KCET was having to make cutbacks of their PBS programming in order to stay financially above water last year. Of course PBS itself is a slave to corporate sponsors, also, and no longer do the sort of cutting edge journalism for which they used to be known in the past.

Apparently the United States and the Obama Administration has decided to abandon the Libyan people. Mirimar Kadaffy has been stepping up his military ground and air advances- - and is making inroads among the rebels. The tide appears to be turning in Kadaffy's direction. As for ourselves the defense department has mapped out three options. We could commit military ground troops. I understand why we don't want do to that because we are already tied down in two wars. But there are things we could do in coordenation with NATO. We could institute a "No Fly Zone" in Libya. But as Gates says "The trouble with this is that we would have to do some bombing of instelations and it would mean the destruction of Libyan property". My response to this is, "So when has that ever stopped us before?" The third option is to give covert or perhaps even overt aid to the Libyan rebels. This to me seems like the first thing we should be doing, but for some reason Obama and Gates don't want to. I sense it's that broken moral compass the Obama Administration seems so beset by. Are we a nation that believes in freedom and liberty or not? Just because it isn't our side that's doing the killing doesn't make it all right. I'm really getting tired of all those who want to rewrite history and declare Kadaffy our good buddy now and a reliable world ally. This is one issue where John Mc Cain and I agree.

Finally there is this congressional investigation of Islamic Terrorists and "self radicalization" that goes on among young people in this country. But if the truth be known this action is seen as an outrageous affront to a major world religion of over a Billion people. Terrorists come in all shapes and sizes and colors of the spectrim. If the truth be known there are more white terrorists in this country than Arab or Islamic ones. Why don't we investigate right wing Christian hate groups. Personally, I think a lot more could be accomplished by doing that. Still we all knew that when these Republicans were voted into power that they would ignore pressing economic concerns and waist their time on wild goose chasses, investigating people who by in large do not constitute a threat. I'd be tempted to say "It's all just a show piece for the media' but it might be more than that. I'm sure there's a lot of religious bigotry out there, and many would like to insert the phrase "Christian nation" all through the constitution.