New Meaning for the Initials GOP

Stomp!

Well, surprise, surprise – every single republican voted against the stimulus/recovery package.  Even after all the compromise on the democratic side.  To hear them talk, the democrats were not listening to them at all.  I think that GOP could now stand for Grand Obstructing Party.  They seem to have a new motto:  Just Say No.  Last year I was thinking of the initials as standing for Grand Oil Party (drill, drill,drill). 

Daily Kos had this to say:

The problem is not that Obama was unwilling to compromise, it’s that the Republicans no longer understand the meaning of compromise. For the last eight years, both in the majority and out, Republicans have understood the word compromise in only one way: capitulation. You’re either with them — on every point — or you’re again’ ‘em, no middle ground possible. They’ve taken the George W. Bush policy for international relations and made it the centerpiece of their domestic tactics. …

Little wonder then that while Obama went to Republicans in the House offering to discuss genuine compromise in which there is give and take along with acceptance of getting less than 100% of what you want, Republicans weren’t interested. Instead they offered The Bush Tax Cut, Part II as the only acceptable alternative — a tax cut package that featured benefits disproportionately aimed at the wealthy and whose focus was on continuing the policies that landed us in this mess.

I think Kos says it well.  And I keep thinking of what Rush Limbaugh proclaimed.  Rush wants the president (and therefore our country) to fail.  Rush does seem to be speaking for the present republican base.  I am so suspicious now.  I am thinking unavoidably that the republicans are determined to do all they can to weaken the stimulus/recovery plan, then they will still vote against it.  They want the plan to fail, and want to be on record as being against it.  So they have to weaken the plan so it will fail.  They are playing politics, and not putting country first.  A unanimous negative vote feels and looks like a rejection of Obama and all his attempts for bipartisanship.  I guess I can’t help seeing a conspiracy where there may not be one… but there it is.  The above makes sense.  If the stimulus/recovery plan works in a democratic administration, with a democratic House and Senate, then the democrats get the credit.  Naturally, the republicans would hate that outcome.   In fact, I am betting they plan to do all they can to prevent such an outcome. 

In other news we have these Wall Street Bankers giving themselves nearly 20 billion in bonuses.  Why do people get bonuses when they fail so outrageously?  Evidently they got exactly the same kind of bonuses that they got when things went really well.  Makes no sense to me.  I was happy when I heard our president scolding them.  In fact, as I watched him it looked like he was restraining himself from really giving them hell.  You can read the full article and/or watch a video here. 

“It is shameful,” Obama said from the Oval Office. “And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility.”

 You would think that the Wall Street Bankers would know better.  Their behavior is showing that they really are living in a different world, with a different view of what’s going on.  People who are not them must look like rabble to them, or maybe they don’t see people at all any more.  They travel and live with their “own kind” and begin to think that they are the world. 

As I’m writing this post, the senate in Illinois has just voted 59-0 to remove Gov. Blagojevich from office immediately, and a motion was made to disqualify him from holding any future office in the state.  This is after his rather impassioned and lengthy appeal to not impeach him that also took place today.  I am going to watch with great curiosity to see what this man does next.  I have to admit that he has caught my attention.  He is such a character. 

As I consider all of the above the Gospel passage for today, Mark 4: 21-25, seems appropriate:

Jesus went on: “Does anyone bring a lamp home and put it under a washtub or beneath the bed? Don’t you put it up on a table or on the mantel? We’re not keeping secrets, we’re telling them; we’re not hiding things, we’re bringing them out into the open.   “Are you listening to this? Really listening?

“Listen carefully to what I am saying—and be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world on your own.  Giving, not getting, is the way.  Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes.”

“Be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world…”