10. Republican Propaganda

I must confess that I have some strong opinions about the Republican Party of today's America. I sincerely believe that they should heed their fearless leader, Mr. Dick Cheney’s advice.

I received a piece of Republican propaganda, disguised as a survey, from the congressman Tim Walberg. By the way, I hope there is a way to request a refund of tax from the waste of conducting this survey. That enraged me enough to write out this response to this piece of utter lie and propaganda.

1. I believe that this country is on the right track, no matter how hard the Republicans works to drag this country into the muddy pit of last millennium.
2. My top priorities are economy and jobs, education, healthcare, in that order.
3. I believe that the single best tool to get our deficit spending under control is not just cutting spending, not just increasing taxes. It is something more complicated than the simple Republican minds capable of imagining.
4. I think that the Congress should replace the Obamacare with universal healthcare.
5. It has stayed the same for me. But what does the Congressman care? Mr. Walberg probably is insured for the rest of his useless life.
6. The government should play a proper role accordingly to our taxes pay for. As for now, I don't think the Congress has been doing the job that my taxes would have paid for. I do not pay for you idiots to stop the President from being re-elected. I pay tax so that the nation is secured, my family gets proper healthcare, my children gets good schools and my roads get potholes fixed.
7. Yes, I do believe the economy is going to get better in the next year.
8. I believe the nation needs to have a comprehensive energy policy, one that includes the use of more renewable energy, less fossil fuels, to the extend possible. I believe the pursuit of renewable energy technologies will move the nation forward, create vitality in the economy and jobs with that.
9. Yes, I do believe that the impact of jobs and wages should be considered when new regulations are written. But I also believe jobs and wages are only one of the aspects of regulations may impact the nation. As an example, the nation should do as much as possible to prevent another financial infrastructure melt-down like what happened in 2007.
10. In the long term, I believe in balancing the federal budget. But forcing a balanced budget for the sake of a balanced budget is equivalent of tying the nation's hands. I do not believe that would increase economy security for families, nor produce more job opportunities for Americans.
11. I believe one plus one equals two should be true regardless where you live. I believe that national educational standards would help students, teachers and parents. Having one standard per school distract means that there is no standard.
12. Yes, I do agree with the president's action regarding undocumented immigrants. I just wish that those of you in the nation's congress have the intelligence and courage to legislate on the matter.
13. I get most of my news and information from read local news paper (online and in print), listening to local and national radio, using Twitter and other online media sources. I watch the The Daily Show for critical reporting and Fox News for comedy.

(Hmm, 13! That is my lucky number.)

8. My Vote

For me, the eight years from 2001 through 2008 was the most depressing period of time in my life. It started with an idiot being elected president when a country gave up reason to change for the sake of change. Then there was 911, two wars followed, and the country re-elected the idiot who could not even manage a straight smile. The complete discarding of reason was stupifying and the ensuing sorrow was intense.

Now we are at that moment again.

There are too much noise in all kinds of media these days, a little bit more from a nobody would not make much of a difference -- making a difference is not my point anyways.

I tried my choices on iSideWith.com -- it turned out that I sided more with Jill Stein. I am not a Democrat and I probably will never be one. But I have decided to vote for President Obama.

I haven't figured out how the Republicans got to label themselves the conservatives. In my mind, they have never been conservative on anything for as far back as I could remember. They gave false testimonies in front the world about weapons of mass destruction to start the Iraq war. They told the country that the Iraq war would pay for itself. They make up laws to force their opinions on people. Their stupidity seems bottomless and their hypocrisy knows no bounds. It just seems to me, that if they like hiking the Appalachian Trail so much, we should put them where they belong: In the wild woods.

The Republicans are radicals -- Let's just call a spade a spade.

I admit that I don't personally hate all Republicans. I'll even publicly admit that I voted for one here in Michigan: Governor Rick Snyder the last time around. But I probably will never vote for another one if the GOP stays its course. Bill Maher is right: When you vote for one Republican, they are getting the whole bag of them almost all of the time. Here in Michigan, even Mr. Snyder has to hold his nose to live along his Republican fellows. So, I am guessing, they probably will not like how I will vote in matters on the ballot:

• I think the people who work to earn a living deserves the rights to collectively bargain with (or, should I say against?) the organized money men;
• I believe a new international bridge to Canada is a good thing for the economy of this region;
• I believe Michiganders deserve quality of life, yes, even those who live by River Rouge.

There are still more homework to do. But I think my vote is fairly clear at this point.

2. A Helping Hand

Today is the Michigan primary. I walked into the polling station, there were no other voters. I was informed that I had the choice of picking a ballot for the Democrats or one for the Republicans. I looked at the sample, the Democrat one was really boring: It had Barack Obama as the only candidate for president and Joe Biden as his running mate. So I looked at the Republican sample, which was much more interesting: It had more than a dozen names on the sheet. So I went for the Republican one.

I actually thought long and hard between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum: Romney seemed to at least want to appear to be somewhat moderate that he deserved a bit of sympathy; On the other hand, the Republicans as a whole seemed to want to go to the extreme that they deserved a hand to help pushing them over the edge. These days, the Republicans seem to bend over backwards to get everything their way. I am getting sick of them all by the day. In the end, the evil side of me got the upper hand. So I decided to land a helping hand.

I admit that I am a  heavily biased (against stupidity) independent. But that doesn't mean I am never stupid myself. Now I'll wait and see: I will be against whoever that gets the nomination. If this one does, then I will have to work harder to defeat him.