How Big Bird stole the U.S. election

Posted November 8, 2012

The fallout from the Republican ranks is hilarious. Caution, they do not take defeat lightly. Here’s a compendium of the Legion of Losers or how greed, money, and arrogance failed to elect Mitt Romney and his Tea Party running mate, Paul Ryan.

My favourite dumbkiss is Senator Mitch McConnell, minority leader in the U.S. Senate, who pledged in 2009 that his primary job was to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012. Mitch, how’s that working for you?

Take real-estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump, please. Romney reluctantly accepted his support on the stage of a Las Vegas Casino. He looked like he had just swallowed hemlock that, in retrospect, may have been an election night alternative. Who is the Donald’s brain surgeon? Time for a transplant.

Former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, business czar and author, accused the Department of Labor’s employment statistics for September, claiming they were rigged in the president’s favour. And 5 million Alabamans believed him.

You have to feel sorry for all those billionaires and millionaires who ponyed up more than a billion dollars to elect Romney. The winners? TV and radio stations across the swing states. Never has so much been given to so few in the name of self-righteousness.

Take the billionaire Koch brothers who put their money where Mitt and his Republican fellow travelers were. These willful characters tried to buy an election that was not for sale. Thank-you notes to follow.

Bill Reilly, the Fox News commentator’s post election mildly racist comment about the white folks in America being in the minority. Bill, the stats show there were more “white folks” who voted for Obama than Romney. Memo to the GOP: Go back to the drawing board.

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart commenting about Republican political guru Dick Morris who predicted a Romney sweep. Post election interview with Morris said he was covered with mud because of his failure to predict the outcome. Stewart: “That’s not mud.”

Remember Karl Rove? He was a commentator on Fox News. Rove was famous for engineering the election of George W. Bush. Well, mastermind Karl struck out Tuesday night insisting that Romney had won Ohio, even after the President had been declared the overall winner.  Guess the magic dust didn’t work this time.

What happened to CNN? It used to be a middle of the road news operation. Now it’s populated by latter day Republicans (I can’t help myself) whose conservative bias filtered through the noise. Don’t bother, you know who they are.

The Libertarian Tea Party remains a force but its strength is waning as the Republicans form the circular firing squad to establish blame.

Grover Norquist is the author of the no-tax increase pledge that was signed by most Republican members of the House of Representatives. The Tea Party members of the House will be under the gun in the next seven weeks as the end of the Bush tax cuts and several cuts to entitlement programs, kicks in January 1, 2013.  Will that be Orange Pekoe or cyanide?

Marty Maroun owns the 84 year-old Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit. He spent $34 million to foist a proposition on the Michigan voters that would require them to vote statewide, to approve any new bridge linking the two countries. His proposition failed by a wide margin. Even when you are a billionaire, aged 85, there is never enough.

And then there is Florida. Two days after the election, the result is still not determined. This time, the rest of the country does not have to wait for Florida to count the ballots. This is what happens when you elect a multi-millionaire executive to be governor. In defeating multi-millionaire Romney, did the country dodge a bullet? Wake me when it’s over.

When will Americans realize they badly need us?

Reprinted from the Guelph Mercury, October 1, 2011

By Gerry Barker

We are witnessing the attempted political assassination of U.S. President Barack Obama.

The American right wing, authors of the worst recession since the Great Depression under the leadership of George W. Bush, have confused and obstructed the third rail of the U.S. political system, the executive branch headed by the President.

Under the guise of misinterpreting the Constitution, the Republican Party leadership has made it clear that they are out to defeat President Obama without regard to economic policies that will bring the country out of the current recession.

No matter what the President proposes, the Republican leadership troika of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House majority leader Eric Cantor, have thwarted any attempt by the executive branch to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

With more than 14 million Americans without jobs, the focus of the Republican Party is to defeat the President.

For his part, President Obama has attempted to strike a bi-partisan approach to work with the Congress and bring America out of the economic funk.

How has this happened?

The Democrats, who had a majority in 2010 in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, underestimated the strength of the Tea Party ultra right wing movement. Some 58 Tea Party members elected to the House stalled the government by refusing to accept balanced budget programs to reduce the huge U.S. deficit.

While the president recommended cuts to several programs, the Republican dominated House refused to allow increased taxes for the wealthiest of Americans. They continued to allow multi-billion dollar subsidies to major corporations including the integrated oil companies.

On Friday, September 2, the U.S. Labour department announced not one new job was created in August as the economy continued to stagnate. The underlying reason was the collapse of the U.S. political system captured by radical members of Congress who refused to give on their so-called principles.

The President has no choice but to face the electorate in November 2012. The gloves have to come off and he must pointedly blame the failure of the economy squarely where it belongs: On the Republican leadership and its hidden coterie of wealthy supporters. Instead he must promote positive policies to create jobs.

He is fortunately facing a divided panel of Republican presidential candidates vying for the nomination. Quality is definitely lacking. The potential Republican dream team for Obama to take on in2012 is Texas Governor Rick Perry with Michelle Bachmann as running mate.

Nevertheless, the outcome of this weighs heavily on Canada and our economy.

The U.S is our biggest trading partner as we are theirs. So why do the environmental activists attempt to stop the flow of oil and gas from Canada on the premise of pipeline leaks and so-called dirty oil from the Oil Sands? Why do they treat Canadians crossing the border as potential terrorists? Why do the states ban Canadians bidding on infrastructure projects? Why does the U.S Labour Secretary get criticized for trading in her limousine for a Chevrolet Equinox that happened to be assembled in Oshawa, Ontario?

Why are some Americans failing to recognize that Canadians are their best friends and spend millions to prove it?

In the next 25 years, America will need us more than we need them. It will be the need for safe energy supply and water to a projected population of more than 400 million.

Thinking Americans understand the important of our unique relationship. Let’s hope they remember it in 2012 when they go to the polls.

 

Gerry Barker is a retired newspaperman living in Guelph, Ontario. He writes freelance articles for the Mercury and other newspapers.  Reach him at – gerrybarker76@gmail.com

Have the Yokels taken over America?

Despite the efforts of the informed in the U.S., the elected yokel element is determined to bring the country …  and us down.

The 87 rookie tea-party members of the House of Representatives along with weak-kneed fellow Republican moderates, are promising to defeat any effort to increase the country’s debt limit.

This misguided bunch of political illiterates, devoid of common sense or, for that matter, any sense of what havoc they are creating with their jaded view of how America works. They are unrepentant in denying tax increases for the richest one per cent of American taxpayers and closing tax loopholes enjoyed by major corporations.

They are so dumb that they fail to understand that you cannot just gut government  services, its citizens, and not replace it with revenue.

This is not only a made-in-America struggle, it is a global problem that will affect most countries. Bottom line: America is our biggest trading partner and we are theirs.

If the U.S. debt ceiling is not raised before August 2, there will be massive losses of services, jobs, money and probably an economic depression as America will not be able to pay its bills.

This group has split the Republican party rendering House Speaker John Boehner helpless to manage his recalcitrant caucus.

All of this brought to courtesy of the tea party ideologues and their ignorant right wing supporters.

Canada will feel the fall-out, make no mistake.