Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's JournalThe Republicans will, of course, keep trying to repeal it
I'm not really hearing a lot "buzz" about it where I am from people other than the far right whom have been opposed to it from the start. I think that the SCOTUS ruling- to the extent that most people know that it happened- took a lot of wind out of the right's "sails". The SCOTUS ruling has given the law a sense of legitimacy that it didn't have before, or at least there's no longer a constitutional question about it anymore. What we're seeing right now from the Republicans and their Tea Party is essentially a big tantrum. I don't think that the average Joe or Jane- to the extent that they know about the law- is all that worked up about it either way. I think that, if Dems follow President Obama's lead and start letting people know THE TRUTH about what the law does and people start realizing what is REALLY in the law and, more importantly, start benefiting personally from it, the less demand there will be for repeal and, let's face it, the law has been in effect for over two years now and the sky hasn't fallen and we're not living under a tyrannical dictatorship (note to the baggers: just because you say something, doesn't make it so!).
No
We DO, however, need leaders less able and willing to use the military we have less recklessly and with more foresight IMHO. If there is a serious threat to the country, nay the world, my thought would be that people wouldn't need to be conscripted into service and, well, if that assumption doesn't pan out, then, perhaps, we can re-examine the issue but, generally speaking, I don't believe that a draft for military service is the best way to recruit and maintain a standing army, at least not when there's not an actual emergency situation.
I've believed pretty much the same thing for a while now
It's incredulous how Republican members of Congress have behaved during the past 3-4 years and how that behavior is not only being encouraged but (largely) being REWARDED at the polls. IMHO they need to start paying a political price for their behavior but they could very well hold the House, win the Senate, and, potentially, the WH because of (or in spite of) this sort of behavior! 
Several times in fact:
1. Won Democratic Primary for POTUS against a much more seasoned and well-known politician/figure and heavy duty political machine after serving in US Senate for only 4 years and was virtual unknown before then
2. Was elected POTUS against a much more seasoned and well-known politician and heavy duty political and propaganda machine (i.e. Fox News)
3. Helped enact and signed health care reform for the first time in US history
4. Killed OBL despite his predecessor having nearly 8 years to do so (and little likelihood that it might ever happen in the first place)
Ummmm.........How do the Republicans repeal a law that doesn't exist?
Republicans Introduce "The Repeal of Obamacare Act"
http://networkedblogs.com/zCtbR?a=share
They're apparently planning to waste our country's time to pass a bill that, aside from being DOA in the Senate and WH anyway, wouldn't even be legally valid. They've referred to ACA as "Obamacare" that they think that that is the actual name of the law!
How on earth would any "token" candidate help Romney?
and make no mistake about it, that is exactly what they would be. They thought that it was a good idea to run a woman for VP last cycle because they believed (VERY wrongly) that disgruntled Hillary voters would flock to the GOP if they ran a woman. Well, that spectacularly backfired but it appears that they may well try again- whether it be with a woman, a Hispanic, or African-American. They are either cynical or naive to the extreme if they believe that members of a particular group will flock to the GOP just because they put them on a ticket somewhere REGARDLESS of how odious and/or misguided their policies are, proving again that they are all about style about substance. It's actually sort of ironic given that they are forever bemoaning "identity politics".
At what point
do Republicans, particularly those in the House, start "co-owning" the economy? Every time the jobs report come out and it's weaker than expected, the Republicans slam President Obama up and down about it and blame his policies for not creating jobs and the pundits get busy debating about whether or not the jobs report is "good" for President Obama or "bad" for President Obama but nobody seems to ever question the increasingly pervasive premise that the President is basically expected to "create jobs" with his bare hands and that if the private/public sector doesn't consistently deliver "good" numbers, it's his fault alone. There are probably a few things POTUS might be able to unilaterally tweak at the executive level to help the economy but, basically, his ability to create jobs pretty much rests on proposing legislative measures that might help create jobs.
So, what has President Obama done on that score? Well, of course, there was the dreaded and much maligned stimulus plan that he and a Democratic Congress was able to get passed (with the aid of 3 Republicans) which, while smaller than it ultimately needed to be, brought unemployment down and kept us from falling over the cliff. Second, he proposed the American Jobs Act late last year but Congress has failed to act on it for the past year. The House has refused to hold a vote on it and/or work out any kind of bipartisan compromise with President Obama and the Senate Republicans would eagerly filibuster it in the Senate so that it wouldn't even be brought up for a vote. Given that this is an election year, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Republicans- still primarily obsessed with repealing ACA- will NOT do anything substantive for the rest of the year on jobs or anything else. Recent history, I think, will bear me out on this, unfortunately.
So, I ask again, WHEN are Republicans going to start "feeling the heat" about NOT doing anything about jobs? They ran in 2010 on focusing on jobs yet they spent last year madly trying to repeal ACA, gut Planned Parenthood, NPR, and pretty much any government and/or social safety net program they hate in the name of cutting the deficit. On top of all that, they decided to act out a nearly year-long drama over raising the debt ceiling, which appeared ultimately delivered a "kick to the gut" to the economy and, worse, resulted in the first ever downgrade of our country's credit rating, largely due to the dysfunctional mess that Congress has become due to rampant Republican Tea Party obstructionism. President Obama introduced the American Jobs Act in the fall of last year but nothing has been done on it since in the House, which the Republicans control. I would suggest that the Democratic-controlled Senate hold a vote on it but the Republicans will, of course, ensure that it never comes close to getting an up-or-down vote.
Is the GOP "economic sabotage" meme starting to get out there and, more importantly, is ANYBODY in the corporate media starting to notice? Are the American people starting to notice at all?
The basic message that President Obama needs to communicate to the electorate between now and November is that the economy was a mess when he took office and his policies helped make things better but the Republicans have repeatedly kneecapped every other effort to create jobs and reduce unemployment and have no viable plans to do differently if given total control of the country (again) in November, just more of the same old policies that got us into the previous mess even though the Republicans will then be saddled with the mess, so I'm not sure how this really works towards their long-term advantage but I guess I'm not entirely sure that matters to them either. Nothing seems to matter much to them other than power and their ability to implement their radical agenda.
Sickening
that some people consider it their "job" or "duty" to make people "hate" another person, group, etc. That is what I despise the most about fundies in particular. It's not just enough for them to hold their own personal beliefs (which, of course, they're entitled to no matter how repugnant they are) but they see it as their sacred duty to make sure that as many people as possible adopt their disgusting POV. I'm fairly certain that some of them probably even get a "thrill up their leg" bringing out bigotry and hatred of their targets.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,399
