A message from Daniel Spina: GO VOTE

Today is the day. No matter who you are voting for, please go out and vote. It has never been more important to make your voice be heard. 

Sincerely,

Daniel Spina

dankyn7@gmail.com

P.S. I want to share this video with everyone. Even though you may not agree with her, it is the best view of EXACTLY what congress has done over the last two year. So I implore you to put aside partisanship for a moment. Watch this video (the good information starts at the 2:15 mark). Then take a moment to think about the last decade. The highs, the lows, think about exactly what the candidates are promising you and if they can actually make those promises come true. Then find your polling place and cast your vote

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#39959392

A Plea for the Democrats: Or Why the Right Won’t, Fix Anything with this Election

It’s no secret that I am a left leaning Democrat. I hope it’s also no secret that I do not believe that the left has all the answers. They don’t. But I vote Democrat because I care. I care about people. I care about getting great public education. I care about jobs. And I truly believe that the government is run by the people, so I want people involved in what the government is doing, and I believe that the government, aka the people, are responsible for this country. 

Lets get the “elephant in the room” out of the way first. Jobs. The job market is in the toilet, this is true. But let me spell this out for those who may not know. The current job market was not created under the democratic/Obama administration. All of the problems we have currently; the wars, the economy, jobs, the deficit, the idea of bailing companies out. All of these things started under the Bush administration. If you don’t believe this then your a right-wing nut job and you should stop reading this now. If you are still here, then you believe the facts (look it up) and you have an open mind.

Look, I don’t want this to become a rant against Bush, but lets look at some facts. Republicans complain about “Obama’s” $787 billion stimulus package is raising the debt. That package is focused on tax relief, social security hikes, unemployment hikes, infrastructure, housing, healthcare, education, security, law enforcement. Bush on the other hand, put into place 2 different packages. The first one was a $152 billion “stimulus checks” followed by the $700 billion TARP stimulus package. But here is the problem. The $152 billion were stimulus checks to go to Regan-omics, The Trickle Down Theory. If you look at the numbers, the facts, this has never and will never work. If you give the rich more money, they buy more toys. They do not create more jobs. Check out this site: http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp. You can see that unemployment has not gone down since Regan. Period. It doesn’t work. And thats what $152 billion was spent on. The other stimulus is, TARP. And, no that hasn’t worked yet either. But here is the problem. If you think that our unemployment, or economy can be fixed in a few short years, you are a fool who knows nothing about economics. I don’t know a lot, but even I know that the collapse of our economy cannot be fixed in less then 2 years, which is the Republican and Tea Party argument against the Democratic party this year. They are using this because they believe the American people are morons. These individuals think that if they play on the fact that things are improving slowly they can convince the people that the current administration is not doing anything. Be smarter. Know that these things take time.

Now lets back up. Do I think that all of the Democratic ideas will fix everything and the country will be a paradise for everyone? No, of course not. The Democrats do not have all the best ideas. Here is the problem. The right has no new ideas. Listen to these politicians closely. They will tell you what’s wrong with this country and what the left is doing to cause these issues. They will bitch and moan and complain, but they rarely ever offer any new ideas. Oh, they will offer ideas alright. The same ideas that have been in place since 2000. The same ideas that got us into this economic mess in the first place. But they sell it. And they are selling it now. Is this every right wing candidate? No, there are some who actually have good ideas. But the majority are just spouting the same old shit, and IT DOESN’T WORK!!! But the polling data is showing that the country is leaning back to the same old same old. And if thats the way we really feel the country will improve. Fine. Vote that way. That is your right. But before you vote, do some research. Look at what the candidates have voted on in the past. You can find all this information online. 

But in the end of the day, I do not want the Executive and both Houses of Congress to be all Democratic. I want an equal representation of both ideologies to be represented. Because there are good ideas on both the left and the right. And when we bring those two together, we get the best possible solution. But at the moment, the left is offering new ideas that might make the government a bigger part, yes, when it comes to helping the middle class. But the right is offering no new ideas. And that is dangerous. So please get INVOLVED, and get INFORMED. 

Humble Musings on the Crisis of the Middle Class Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my Crisis of the Middle Class post. If you didn’t read part one, you should. I spoke mainly on the Political Climate, less then a month before the mid term elections. On this one, I would like to focus on taxes and the middle class. 

Where to begin on taxes? Before I get into this I want you to take a moment, a real moment and think about what your taxes go to.............................. Are you back? Good. Was your first thought welfare? How about the war? Did you think of roads? Or maybe schools? 

It seems like there are about a billion things the government uses our billions of tax dollars on. However some politicians only want you focusing on the small things. The things thats will get a rise out of people. Like welfare. But lets really break it down. Here’s the simple way to look at it (from 2009): 54% (approx. $1,449 billion) on Military spending, 46% (approx. $1,210 billion) on non-military spending. But thats really broad. So lets break it down a little further, shall we. The Military spending consists of both current military, $965 billion, (which is paying personnel, research and development, nuclear weapons, NASA,  Homeland Security, Department of Defense, the current wars, etc.) and past Military, $484 billion, (Veteran’s Benefits, Interest on National Debt created by military spending). That’s the 54%. Then we have 30% to Human Resources, $789 billion, (Health and Human Services, Social Security, Education, Housing, Labor Dept., etc.) 11% to General Government, $304 billion, (Treasury, Government Personnel,   all the different departments; Justice, State, Homeland Security, Judicial, Legislative, International Affairs, etc.) And Physical Resources make up the remaining 5%, $117 billion, (these include Agriculture, transportation, Homeland Security for the 3rd time, Commerce, energy (non-military), Environmental protection, Army corps engineers, etc.)

Now, you tell me if our government is spending way to much money on welfare, education, and the environment. They’re not. Regardless of what the politicians might claim. The majority of our money goes to war. Not to these things that people are angry about their tax money going to. 

And then there are the same politicians who promise to cut taxes while increasing education, and jobs, and blah, blah, blah. They are lying right to your face. In a sense. the ones that claim they can do this are going to cut taxes. For the richest 2% of the country. the people who give them thousands in campaign contributions. But you, me, Joe Schmo. We get to catch up that lost revenue. Do you think the Government just pulls money out of thin air? No, it comes from taxes. That’s the only thing required to live in America. You pay taxes. But everyone is to busy bitching and moaning about all their taxes. And then they turn around and bitch and moan because their roads are shit, the education system sucks, and tuition is to high. You can’t have no taxes and a better society. It doesn’t work like that. And those candidates promising to cut your taxes, they know this already. But if they lie, you’ll vote for them. 

“But we had a tax cut at the beginning of Bush’s presidency, why can’t we have one now,” you might say. Well because the government can’t just give tax cuts because they feel like it. When Bush was elected and his administration came into office he was handed a multi-billion dollar surplus. Because taxes were a bit higher in the Clintion years. And because of responsible spending, we were able to keep money set aside. And when that happens, governments are able to give tax cuts. But now, after squandering billions and now into the trillions of dollars during the Bush administration, guess what? It’s time to pay up again. Hey, I didn’t vote for him either time. But I still understand that because this country voted the way they did both in 2000 and 2004, I get to pay up in order to bring down the debt while at the same time fixing things like education. It’s tax time ladies and gentlemen. Deal with it. And anyone who claims to be able to fix our issues like education and unemployment, all while cutting taxes, is one of 2 things; Lying to you (or maybe they’re just ignorant) or they are going to cut things like government jobs in order to make small headway. Are any of these politicians going to take salary cuts? Ha!! I don’t think so. But they expect the middle class to.

And there it is. My segue to the middle class. This is something I’ve been wanting to speak about for quite some time. Most of the people reading this, most of the people you know, me, we are in the middle class. And I’m very sorry to be the one to break this to you, but you will spend your life working, struggle to get some of the things you want, grow old, and die. You are never going to be one of the rich 2% of Americans. Almost all of those people either got their money and status from their parents or started their own business decades ago and their children will be the newest 2%. I am urging you to please, stop believing that one day you will be wealthy and all of these tax breaks (or higher taxes) will affect you. They never will. I’m not advocating that you should not strive to work toward a better life. But I see farmers and farmers families supporting politicians who vote against helping farmers because they support tax breaks for the rich. They do this because they believe that one day they will be rich. It blows my mind, this idea. Now thats not to say that is the only reason the vote for a certain person. The other reason is because of religious beliefs. Another hard thing to break to some people. NOBODY running for office supports abortions. Not a single candidate has ever said, hey let’s kill some babies. This is a non issue and I can’t understand how. . . . . Nope, sorry got off on another tangent. But seriously, look past the silly things that aren’t even a real issue in this country but that politicians love to run on because they are so polarizing. Don’t fall pray. If someone stands up at a podium and starts talking about gay marriage and abortion, ignore them. They will get the picture and start talking about things that matter like the economy, unemployment, education, and the war, AND insist they detail exactly how they plan on fixing these issues. If they mention that they won’t raise taxes to fix these problems, they are lying to get your vote. Period. 

I guess my whole point with these last two posts is that the voters need to stop listening to all the buzz words and hot button issues. Take a good hard look at the candidates and really decide if these people have YOUR best interest at heart. They are supposed to be representatives of YOU, and YOUR opinions. Don’t listen to the sound bites. Look past the BS. Then do what is right. Vote for YOUR representative. But most importantly, VOTE!!

Humble Musings on the Crisis of the Middle Class and the Todays Political Climate

What’s going on with the mind set in this country. I mean, do people not give a shit that they are voting AGAINST their economic best interests. Seriously, it’s getting ridiculous. The main culprit is the Republican Party and the “right” Democrats. What the hell. 

First I’m gonna start in on the Democratic party. Listen, the left does not have all the answers. Hell they might not even have the best answers. But they also haven’t even had half a chance. We give the Republicans almost a decade in office (more on that further down) and the Democrats are supposed to fix the nations problems in two years. REALLY!! Is this country high? Did we take to many of the drugs that they sell on TV commercials? TWO YEARS! And everyone expects the President to fight a war, end another, bring us out of a recession (it ended), overhaul healthcare (on this one the blamed goes to Congress), end partisanship (it takes both sides) and about a dozen other things he promised to work toward. One more time everyone, 2 years!! The guys not even half way through his Presidency and already we’re throwing him under the bus. Come on people. 

Oh and I’m not through with the Democratic party, not by a long shot. WTF is up with all these Dems running, scared, to the right. That’s not what the country needs. The Tea Party is a relatively small group (less then 20%) that makes such a big noise and all the sudden everyone thinks the rights the way to win. Everybody’s so focused on winning re-election instead of helping out the people. Get your heads out of your asses and do your job! 

And speaking of the right wing. First of all, if politicians haven’t noticed, the people are tired of both the Democrats AND Republicans. Why? It’s pretty simple really. 8 years. We gave the Republican party almost 8 years of uncontested reign. And what did we get for it. A foreign terrorist attack, 2 wars, a nation trillions of dollars in deficit (from a surplus they inherited), they fact that almost the entire world universally despises us, and one of the biggest recessions in recent memory. 8 years. And Super-Obama is supposed to swoop in and fix it in 2 years. Are we really that dense of a country? And don’t get me wrong, there is a lot more Obama should be doing. But give the party the benefit of the doubt. The recession ended in the summer of 09, and don’t let that right wing family member with the community college degree tell you otherwise. This comes from reports from financial experts. Not Joe the Plumber. Combat operations were ended in Iraq. There was a healthcare reform bill that passed, and as stated above, the President has nothing to do with this really. This is Congress’ fault. The Dems pushed one way. The GOP fought back. The Dems kept giving in until finally they were like “F you!” We have the votes, and this is going through. So we got a watered down reform bill. But hey, at least it will help some people, now that its finally started going into effect. And President Obama did try to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way. Why do you think he had all those meetings in the first year with Republican leaders over what they thought were the best solutions. But let me ask you this. How long do you think you would be able to work with people who spend half of their time calling you a terrorist, non-American, facist, Hitler? He gave it a year. I would have been done with them after a few months. So how about we step back and take a good look at the big picture. If you feel Obama is a failure after the first two years it’s because; A) You’re not really giving him a fair chance, or B) You hated Obama the second he announced his candidacy. So in the end what I’m trying to say is, are we really gonna cut this party down before it even has a chance to finish the job. I think they should get a fair shake. 

And I know this is getting kind of long winded and I got off on a different tangent so I’m gonna cut it off here. A sort of to be continued if you will. My next post, I want to talk about taxes. Boy does this country need a lesson in exactly what taxes are, and what they do. And that will segue into my initial argument, that the Middle Class does not vote in their financial best interests and why.

Reposting: Christianity and the USA

I am reposting something I read the today that I think everyone should see. I'm not so much trying to make a statement here as I am trying to inform the thousands of Americans who are uneducated in this matter. I have chosen to post this because the author used well sited documents from out nations history to make his point, and didn't just spout BS like so many political commentators do, far to often. (I'm looking at you Beck!)

freethinker81

It's amazing that there are still people out there who claim this is a christian nation and was founded as one(ie, McCain, Palin, etc) Anybody who bothers to do any research will find that the founding fathers where actually not Christians, but rather deist.

If they took the time to read the constitution, god is not mentioned in it even though some tried to urge them to at least mention Christianity such as Luther Martin. In fact the only time that religion is mention is once, and that was in Article VI, Section 3, which stated that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Now don't you think that if indeed they intended to found a christian nation they might have once mentioned something of the sort in one the most important document of our nations history much less forbidding religion as one of the requirements to serve in government.

Those who think we were founded as a christian nation should also review a document written during the administration of George Washington. Article 11 of the Treaty with Tripoli declared in part that "the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.. It can be found in "Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States, ed. Hunter Miller, Vol. 2, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1931, p. 365"

"I have diligently perused every line that Washington ever gave to the public, and I do not find one expression in which he pledges, himself as a believer in Christianity. I think anyone who will candidly do as I have done, will come to the conclusion that he was a Deist and nothing more." -- The Reverend Bird Wilson,( an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, in an interview with Mr. Robert Dale Owen written on November 13, 1831, which was published in New York two weeks later, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, pp. 27)

Washington did not make his beliefs public and never claimed to be a Christian, and most definitely did not ever kneel down to pray at Valley Forge. This story as well as the infamous story of the cherry tree was made up by Parson Weems, an Episcopal minister who published his biography in 1800. Washington wasn't any even near Valley Forge in 1777 when this supposedly took place.

"The Reverend Bird Wilson, who was just a few years removed from being a contemporary of the so-called founding fathers, said further in the above-mentioned sermon that "the founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected [George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson] _not a one had professed a belief in Christianity_"

The fact that he attended church and was a vestryman in itself is not evidence since at that time the vestry was also the county court, so in order to have certain political powers, it was necessary for one to be a vestryman. Washington didn't even receive the communion. Even Thomas Jefferson was a vestryman for a time, and he is the furthest thing from a Christian

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

And then there is evidence that in a letter from Washington's granddaughter to Jared Sparks Feb. 26 1833 her justification for claiming he was a christian was when she was speaking of Martha Washington she said "she and her husband were so perfectly united and happy that he must have been a Christian."

Yes he was happily married so he must be Christian... Very logical. So does by that token is every happily married person out there Christian as well?

Thank you to freethinker 81 for putting out such an well reached opinion.

Humbles Musings On Getting Out the Vote

With school having started up, followers might have noticed a lack of posts at this blog. However that will soon be rectified. You see, I am a month into the start of my Political Science degree and am realizing that this will be a perfect place to share my opinions. And for starters, I would like to open everyones eyes to the importance of government, close to home.

Most of my focus has always been on the Federal government. And although it is important, I have found out recently that State and Local governments affect our day to day lives more prominently the D.C. ever will. The reason behind this revelation is because of the up coming elections.

Living in Kansas, one has the overwhelming feeling that this is a Republican only state. That can be a downer to those who do not share the same views. Some might even feel that taking part in state level politics is futile because of this. But this cannot be further from the truth. If you look at the history of elected officials in this state, you will see that we do have a record of voting for the "other guy." But the most important thing to do, is get your ass out of your chair, come November, and vote.

Now, the nice thing about having an internet blog is I can say whatever I want, and I don't have to give equal time to both sides. Most who know me, know I'm a Democrat. No surprise there. But this post is for anyone who is thinking about voting this year.(Hopefully thats everyone!) Because if your voting for or against someone, you should know why.

And don't think I want people to vote Democrat just because. I want people to be informed voters. Read about the candidates and their stances on the issues, pick up a paper or go to news websites. Don't just check the name with the R or the D next to it. Don't be a sheep. Educate yourself!! For starters, below are a few websites of democratic candidates in Kansas. Get informed, Get involved!!!

Governor
Tom Holland - http://www.tomhollandforkansas.com/

Attorney General
Steve Six - http://www.stevesix.com/

Secretary of State
Chris Biggs - http://www.biggsforkansas.com/

U.S. Senate
Lisa Johnston - http://www.lisaforkansas.com/

U.S. Congress (1st District)
Alan Jilka - http://www.jilkaforcongress.com/

2nd District
Cheryl Hudspeth - http://hudspeth2010.com/

3rd District
Stephene Moore - http://www.stephenemooreforcongress.com/

4th District
Raj Goyle - http://www.goyleforcongress.com/

Humble musings on The Ground Zero-ish Mosque

Friday, at a White House dinner, President Obama gave his support to the building of an Islamic religious center near “Ground Zero” in lower Manhattan, New York. This is a controversy that started with remarks made by that horrible, vile, hate-filled woman, Sarah Palin, on her Twitter account. Now, the President of the USA, the Mayor of New York City, and a majority of congress all back the center based solely on the right of religious freedom we enjoy (supposedly) in this country, while the right-wing/Tea Party conservatives have once again decided to throw parts of our Constitution under the bus when something comes along and hurts their delicate feelings. 

Humble Musings. . . on adding a 2nd Bill of Rights

With so many big political issues being discussed right now, from education reform to health care, I wanted to share this part of a speech that I came across the other day, along with my feelings regarding the state of our great nation in relation to it. Click read more to take the jump.