Is Rand Paul Stupid Or Just Lying ?

Those are the words of Rand Paul (the leading candidate right now for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016). He's talking about the greed of the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and how their greed is keeping the American military from having enough money to defend this country (because he's mad at the New Jersey governor).

Frankly, I'm amazed that he can say such a stupid thing without hanging his head in shame. Up beside our bloated military budget, the money spent to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy are a drop in the bucket. Let's look at that defense budget that doesn't have enough money.

According to defense spending figures from the Swedish International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States spends nearly $700 billion a year on its military budget. That's more than four times what the nation spending the second most spends (China at about $166 billion). In fact, it would take all of the nations from 2nd place to 12th place added together to equal the spending of the United States -- because the United States spends about 40% (or more) of all the money spent in the entire world on military matters.

If there's one thing the United States doesn't need to do, it's spend more money for the military. We spend too much as it is, and no one can convince me all that spending is necessary just for self-defense. Consider this. According to Global Research, the United States has between 700 and 800 military bases in other countries (several times the number of countries in the world (and since those are 2007 numbers, the number is probably larger now).

We simply don't need anywhere near 700-800 foreign military bases to defend ourselves. In fact, half that number would be too many. Those bases aren't for self-defense. They are for intimidation, to force the rest of the world to bow to our corporate power -- and let those corporations rape those nations to enrich a few hundred people who already have too much money (and don't pay nearly enough in taxes).

And we don't need to be spending nearly as much as we do to keep the military-industrial complex running. Many times the money spent is on items the military doesn't need or want (like continuing to spend money on two engines for the F-35, after the military has already decided that it only needs one and has decided which one they want). We are throwing money away on military spending -- money that could be spent helping the people in this country.

But spending money to help hurting Americans offends Republicans like Rand Paul. He and his cohorts would much rather throw more money at the military -- because it is easy to scare voters into thinking it is needed (even though we long ago passed the amount that's really needed). The only people stealing and wasting taxpayer money is the U.S. Congress, not the victims of hurricanes (and other hurting Americans). And it's people like Paul doing it.

In fact, Paul's statement is so outrageously untrue that I doubt even stupid people would say it in public, and liars would be embarrassed to tell that big a whopper. That makes me think he must be both stupid and a liar. Nothing else would explain it.

The Selfish & Hypocritical Texas Senators

There is little doubt that Texas has two of the worst (and most hypocritical) senators in this nation. After demanding federal disaster relief for both the wildfires and the drought that struck Texas, John Cornyn turned around and voted against disaster aid for the Hurricane Sandy victims in the Northeast. Ted Cruz wasn't in the Senate yet when the aid for the wildfires and drought were requested, but he also voted against the disaster aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. Cruz and Cornyn were among 36 Senate Republicans who voted against Hurricane Sandy relief.

What will these two senators say now that Governor Perry has asked for disaster relief from the federal government for the explosion in West, Texas. Cornyn will probably ask for the relief to be given -- since he has a history of wanting aid for Texas, while denying aid to disaster victims in other states. It should be interesting to see what Cruz does. Is he just an a-hole when the aid is going to others, or is he an a-hole all the time? Either is unacceptable.

I hope the people of West get the federal aid they need, and I expect they will. President Obama (and the majority in Congress) are not as selfish and hypocritical as the two Texas senators.

GOP Refuses To Help Hurricane Victims

A couple of nights ago, a few Republican House members joined Democrats and made sure that taxes won't go up for over 98% of Americans. Even though most of the House GOP voted against the tax cuts, some of us had hoped that those that did vote with the Democrats had a crisis of conscience and were maybe now willing to act for the benefit of the American people. Unfortunately, that was not true. It looks like they voted that way simply to protect their own political careers, because almost immediately after that vote they joined their GOP colleagues in proving they are still hard-hearted and mean-spirited when it comes to helping hurting Americans.

You all know about Hurricane Sandy, which struck the East Coast shortly before the election and caused serious damage to several states -- especially New York and New Jersey. For nearly two months now the victims of that storm have been waiting for Congress to act and approve the emergency disaster relief that they need so badly. The Senate finally approved that disaster relief and sent it to the House. There were 32 senators who voted against giving disaster relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy -- all of them Republicans (and they are listed in the graphic above).

It was hoped that the House would also act to approve the disaster relief after voting on the tax cuts. They did not. It a move that could only be called heartless, the House Republicans refused to even allow the disaster relief bill to come to the House floor. They wouldn't allow the bill to be debated or voted on, and instead adjourned after the tax cut vote. That means the bill will not be approved in the 112th Congress, and will have to wait for the 113th Congress to be sworn in. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was not happy, and blasted his GOP colleages:

"Last night, the House of Representatives failed that most basic test of public service and they did so with callous indifference to the suffering of the people of my state."

"There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)." Historically, "disaster relief was something that you didn’t play games with, but now in this current atmosphere everything is a subject of one-upmanship.It  is why the American people hate Congress."

"Shame on you, shame on Congress. My hope is that the good people in Congress will prevail upon their colleagues to finally put aside the politics and help our people now."

Those are strong words, and well-deserved by the congressional Republicans. Maybe the governor should consider joining a party that cares about ordinary Americans. I'm sure there would be a place for the honest and pragmatic governor, who has already shown he can work with anyone to get help for his constituents, in the Democratic Party.

NOTE -- It looks like the House GOP has been embarrassed by their ridiculous maneuver the other night. Reacting to the public outrage, Speaker Boehner has now said that the new Congress will vote on $9 billion in immediate aid on Friday, and will debate the rest of the aid on January 15th. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see significant GOP opposition at that time to the relief though. There seems to be no bottom to how low the Republican Party will go.

Sincerity Vs. Opportunism

I have never been a big fan of New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie, and if I lived in that state I would never consider voting for him. But having said that, I must also say that I admire the way he is handling the disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy. He has been on the spot with state aid to those who needed it, and he has been willing to work with anyone (regardless of their political affiliation) to get additional aid. And he has appeared with the president in the affected areas to assure the victims of the disaster that there is a unified effort to help them.

In short, he has put politics on the shelf and made the citizens of New Jersey his number one priority -- and that is exactly what any governor should do in a disaster (regardless of political party). And President Obama has done the same thing. Their interaction has been an excellent example of bipartisanship -- of putting the needs of the people above political ambition. That is really refreshing to see. Far too often these days we see politicians refusing to cooperate and putting their political ideology above the needs of the people they are supposed to serve.

Not surprisingly, there have been some on the right (like Rush Limbaugh) who have been badmouthing Governor Christie for cooperating with the president to get aid to the victims in his state. They think he should have put the presidential campaign first, and the needs of the people of New Jersey second, to help Willard Mitt Romney get elected. That is not just ridiculous, it is asinine. But it is also nothing new. It is just par for the course with teabagger Republican politicians, who have viewed bipartisanship as something evil for the past few years, and refused to help the president improve the economy or create jobs. Fortunately for the people of New Jersey, Governor Christie has chosen to rise above that kind of sick behavior.

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But while Governor Christie and the president chose to put the people first, Willard Mitt Romney chose a different path. He decided to use the Hurricane Sandy disaster as a photo opportunity to advance his political campaign. His campaign told the media they were turning a political rally into a disaster relief effort. They asked those coming to hear the Republican nominee to bring food and other items to donate to the Red Cross relief effort -- and when they got afraid that not enough items would be collected from supporters, they went out and bought $5,000 worth of stuff to make sure it looked good for the cameras.

The crazy part of all this is that the Red Cross could have used that $5,000 if it had been donated in cash, but cannot use (and doesn't want) the kind of donations that Willard "collected". This is not a new thing. The Red Cross has made this clear in past disasters, and even states this on their website. The kind of things Willard collected just takes Red Cross employees away from their primary task of disaster relief, and much of it is probably not needed anyway.

But Willard's campaign knew this. They just didn't care. They weren't trying to aid the disaster victims. They were orchestrating a photo opportunity to try and make their candidate look good. Unfortunately for them, it has had the opposite effect. It makes it look as though he is so callous as to try and turn a disaster affecting millions into a campaign gimmick to further his own ambitions. I guess this shouldn't surprise us, since he has repeatedly shown throughout his campaign that he doesn't really care for most Americans -- only himself and his rich friends.

Storm Highlights GOP's Wrong Policies

The picture above is a satellite photo of Hurricane Sandy, which shows the massive size of this storm -- stretching all the way from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. As I write this post, the storm is just beginning to come ashore and nobody knows just how much damage it will cause. But anyone who thinks the damage won't be massive is clearly living in a dream world (populated by unicorns, happy dragons, and teabagger Republicans).

Willard Mitt Romney did not need this to happen right before the election -- for several reasons. First, it brings back the memory of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and how badly that emergency was mishandled by the Bush administration. For days we watched as people died and the government just twiddled their thumbs and drug their feet. We're going to see a much better reaction from the Obama administration to Hurricane Sandy. In fact, he's already met with FEMA and other disaster relief agencies, and lit a fire under them.

Second, this once again highlights just how hard-hearted the Republicans are to any disaster (unless it happens in their own backyard). During a previous disaster, House Minority Leader Eric Cantor tried to block funds for disaster relief -- unless they funds were offset by cuts to programs helping hurting Americans in other areas of the country. Rep, Paul Ryan (the GOP veep nominee) proposed a budget that would not only cut social programs, but substantially cut funds for FEMA and other disaster relief.

And GOP presidential nominee, Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie), has joined his mean-spirited Republican colleagues in demonizing FEMA just because they are a federal program. In debates during the GOP primary, Willard said he wanted to get rid of FEMA, and let the states (or the private sector) take over that function.

This sounds good to some teabagger Republicans, because it means they won't have to pay for disasters happening in other states. But it is short-sighted. It also means the other states won't have to help them when they are the victims of disaster. The truth is that none of us lives in an area safe from all disasters. No matter where you live, disaster will strike someday. It may not be a hurricane -- it could be an earthquake, tsunami, tornado, massive fire, floods, drought, high winds, or numerous other things. But when it happens, you will need help.

Whether we like it or not, we are our brothers' keeper. And the best way we can fulfill that obligation is through federal disaster agencies like FEMA, that can move anywhere in the country at a moments notice to provide help. That also allows the cost of the disaster relief to be spread throughout the country, so that no one section of the country bears a burden it cannot afford. The Republicans, including Willard, are spectacularly wrong on this issue -- and this storm right before the election highlights that fact.

Third, this storm once again shows the danger we are creating for our country  and the planet as a whole by refusing to deal with man-made global climate change. While the Democrats have drug their fett in trying to deal sufficiently with this issue, the Republicans have been far worse. They refuse to even admit there is a problem. Willard himself has said we need to cut subsidies for clean and renewable energy (like wind energy) and increase production and use of the climate-damaging fossil fuels (like oil and coal).

Sometimes it takes a disaster to bring people to their senses. Hopefully, this current disaster will cause people to think about the Republican denial of global climate change and their opposition to federal disaster relief -- and vote to kick them out of office until they change their hard-hearted and ridiculous policies.