IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0008

31 MARCH 2012

 __________

CPI rise from 10/1993 to now: 56.25%.  Gasoline price rise: 310.36%.  Federal gasoline tax rise: 0.00%.  Value of good roads?

Priceless.

__________

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0007

 30 MARCH 2012

__________

If you wanted to know what’s going wrong with ObamaCare, where could you look?

http://www.healthcare.gov/mycare

__________

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0006

29 MARCH 2012

__________

What is so “radically different” about Medicaid needs in California and Oklahoma that it requires fifty separate bureaucracies to do the work of one in D.C.?

__________

Regards,
(($; -)} 
Gozo!
 

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0005

28 MARCH 2012

__________

Being Conservative means missing the old ways so bad that you’re willing to let others die for them.

__________

Regards,
(($; -)}}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

What’s Sauce for the Goose Is Sauce for the Gander:

27 MARCH 2012 

American Taxpayers Already Pay to cover emergency-room medical treatment for people who lack health insurance.
____________________

How Could it Be Unconstitutional for Congress to tax such people to provide insurance for themselves?
____________________

“Individual Responsibility” dictates the sense of this:

What’s Tax for the Goose Should Be Tax for the Gander.

____________________

Or Else Those Opposed to Obamacare should be ready to let fellow Americans die in the streets.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0004

27 MARCH 2012

__________

We’re already taxed to pay E.R. care for the uninsured. Shouldn’t Congress and Obamacare tax the uninsured for shifting their costs to us?

__________

Regards,
(($; -)}}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0003

25 MARCH 2012

__________

If Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich could balance America’s budget back in the 1990s, why can’t Speaker John Boehner do it today?

__________

Regards,

(($; -)}}

Gozo!

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0002

24 MARCH 2012

__________

If you always vote for the candidate who promises you fifty-cent gas, you’ll always get the government you deserve.

__________

Regards,
(($; -)}}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

If the Other Side Is Always Dead Wrong about Debt—

—Then No One Can Ever Be Right for the Economy:

23 MARCH 2012

Everyone, Even Most Democrats, believes that we need to get government investment in line with tax revenues over time, or America will be economically ruined. The two sides, Republican and Democrat, just have two different theories behind how best to accomplish this.

The theory behind Democratic thinking is that cutting government spending in times of economic crisis invites disaster. Instead, a focus on government investing at such times revitalizes the economy, for future growth to get things ultimately in balance.

The Republican theory seems to be that cutting spending always helps, no matter the particulars of the day. This one-size-fits-all approach to economics may be correct. But we haven’t seen it much borne out in history.

We Need to Find Some Way to work on these differences with reasonable discourse. The shouting, railing and denouncing of each other gets us nowhere.

____________________

Democrats and Republicans Alike, and everybody in between, know that we need to get government spending under control. The Democrats favor a moderate approach, finding ways to increase revenue and then to modify government programs over time, as conditions improve. Meanwhile, the contrary opinion—about “job creators”—looks somewhat foolish while so many such “creators” are pouring millions of dollars into failing presidential-nominee campaigns.

(Could it be all this political spending finally be that’s finally gotten the economy growing again? How ironic if it takes political “hot air” to inflate the economy more than any particular candidate’s words or actions do—if and when she or he is elected.)

(In which case, perhaps thanks may be due the Supreme Court Justices, for the unintended consequences of their “Citizens United” decision.)

____________________

History Shows that spending cuts during hard times slow the progress of recovery.

Even today, while local governments are cutting police, firefighter, and teacher jobs almost as fast as the Obama-led government can stimulate jobs in the private sector, we see the counter-productive effects of trying to save water during a fire, by turning off the fire hoses.

____________________

Say What You Like about opposing opinions based on different theories, both are likely to hold elements of truth.

But if you can only make your argument by shouting down the corollary facts on the opposite side—as so many Americans seem to do—then you’ll likely make a lot of noise, but get very little good work done.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

IF GOZO TWEETED: Tweet #0001

23 MARCH 2012

__________

Q: If Rick Santorum says Americans should stick with President Barack Obama, why should we believe him?

A: Because contemporary Republicans are always “Right.”
__________

Regards,
(($; -)}}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

Where Is “Honest Abe” Lincoln When America Needs Him Again?

21 MARCH 2012

President Obama Thought he could change the political climate in Washington by finding ways to incorporate Conservative and Republican ideas into his policies. Sadly, right now in America, both parties find little choice but to oppose anything the other party puts forward. Thus, for example, did Nancy Pelosi blame President George W. Bush for high oil prices, and now the Republicans blame President Obama. (Both were equally wrong.)

If Individual Americans, in large numbers, put pressure on their legislators to compromise, I wonder whether their legislators might compromise, and America might move forward.

Judging by the Divide of Opinions we see in “comments” forums for every bit of news or opinion posted on the Internet, We, the People, seem about evenly divided. So there’s probably not much hope that much help will come from there...
____________________

“A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.”

Or So Some Republican President Once Said.

Will the Progressives lead us forward, out of this stalemate? Will the Conservatives leave us mired in it?

Will China and the European Union and the rest of the world stand idly by, waiting to see if and when and how we work it out?

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

@GozoTweets

__________
The original version of this post appears at:

WHERE IS HONEST ABE (AGAIN) WHEN AMERICA NEEDS HIM?

When Churches Go into Public Business—

—They Must Follow the Laws of the Land, Same as Everybody Else:

18 MARCH 2012

The Furor over the Matter of the Affordable Care Act requiring all businesses (even church-run businesses)  to treat all American citizens equally is a civil-rights issue. 

The anti-contraception argument is the same as was once used to deny African-Americans public services (restaurants, hotels, buses, etc.) in the Jim Crow South. Back in the day, the argument against the 1964 Civil Rights Act went this way: 

Government should not be permitted to compel any business to provide the public with services that go against its owner’s conscience.


The same argument has been used by numerous political luminaries such as Barry Goldwater and Ron Paul. Even today, Senator Rand Paul seems not to have made ideological peace with the issue.

That argument did not hold up in 1964. It doesn’t hold up today.

Public businesses (even when church-run) must provide non-discriminatory services equally to all Americans. This has nothing to do with our sacrosanct, First Amendment principle of separation of church and state.

____________________

The Separation of Church and State is inviolate when it comes to how any religious institution conducts its religious activities.

But when anyone conducts a business for the general public—whether it is a Woolworth’s lunch counter or a church-run hospital—then that business cannot discriminate against any American citizen, regardless of that citizen’s race or gender or religion. And American employees are entitled to have insurance coverage that fits their needs, and allow them to follow the dictates of their consciences. Not the religious dictates of someone else.

____________________

This Matter Concerns: Discrimination.

It has nothing to do with the separation of church and state.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

Energy Independence Is a Myth:

14 MARCH 2012

Because Oil Is a Commodity, its price reflects the world markets. Thus, high gas prices have little to do with how much oil we drill, drill, drill here at home.

If American companies drill more oil here at home, does anyone really believe that they will sell their product here at home for a lower price?
____________________

The Greatest Limitation on our American “capitalist” system is that hardly any of us really know how capitalism really works. Adam Smith wrote the book: you probably haven’t read it.

“Free markets” means that we all seek the lowest costs (e.g., Chinese labor) and we all sell to the highest bidder.

The only energy that cannot be exported to the highest bidder is the kind of alternative energy that the Greens dream of.
____________________

“Green” Energy is nowhere close to viable, as far as current technologies and costs are concerned.

But once established—whether as solar or wind power or some other form—its product won’t be exportable to the highest bidder abroad.
____________________

When it Comes to New Technologies—such as the Intercontinental Railroad or the Internet or the NASA space program—government provides the powerful seeds that give private industry the opportunity to grow America forward.
____________________

To Lower Our Energy Costs, we need energy forms that can’t be exported. Anything else—such as “energy independence”—is a myth.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

CONGRESS TO GIVE PRESIDENT POWER OVER SOLAR ECLIPSES:

“MOON WILL DISAPPEAR OVER NEXT TWO WEEKS” WARN CRITICS:

12 MARCH 2012

Right Now, with gasoline prices rising once again, the high gas prices are President Barack Obama’s fault. Back in the summer of 2008, the high gas prices were President George W. Bush’s fault.

So Long as the Majority of the American people continue to blame the wrong people for the wrong things, we will continue to have the “wrong” quality of government, which we, the people, choose.

In Ye Olden Days, our presidents would have been blamed for the solar eclipse. Has anyone else noticed that the moon, which was full just four days ago, seems to be shrinking? What will we do if the moon shrinks away entirely? Can this, too, be President Obama’s fault?

The Good Thing about Democracy is that we get the government we deserve.

The Bad Thing about Democracy is that we get the government we deserve.

Regards,
(($;- )}
Gozo!

Why Are Republicans Losing Out to Their “Straw Man” President?

11 MARCH 2012

If Barack Obama Really Is the “Straw Man” President that the Republicans pretend him to be, how can it be so hard for them to come up with a viable candidate to win the election in November?

It Looks like the Actual Facts of the Obama presidency so far are making a hard case for the Republican argument
that we need more hands-off government like we’ve had over the past thirty years:

01: Private-sector Jobs rising faster than Republican can cut jobs in the public sector

02: Unemployment numbers going down, despite Republican best efforts to make unemployed Americans wait until after the next election, before taking steps to turn the economy around

03: Millions More Americans Insured for Healthcare, and tens of millions more insured without exclusions or lifetime limits or preexisting conditions, while the Republican candidates avoid healthcare like a live wire 

04: The Auto Industry Turned Around, with GM is once again the world’s leading auto manufacturer

05: Increasing Domestic Petroleum production, even as America resumes the march toward cleaner air, greater fuel-economy, and alternative-energy manufacturing readying to take on China and Spain and the rest of the world

06: Homosexual Americans Serving Openly in the armed forces, without incident

If it Truly Took the Conservative Hand of Ronald Reagan to dig America out of the left-hand ditch
that the Democrats had gotten us into, it now looks up to Progressive hand of Barack Obama to get us back out of the right-hand ditch that the Republicans got us into during the 2000s.

If Things Are So Dim as the Republicans say they are, how come America’s future under the Republican “straw-man” President Barack Obama suddenly looks so bright?

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

Too-Much Teaching Is the Problem with Not-Enough Learning:

02 MARCH 2012

The Challenge with Education in America today is the focus on teaching. If we really want our American kids to learn, America needs to focus on learning.
____________________

Given That the U.S. is such an anti-intellectual country (in which the President of the United States was called a snob, earlier this week, for wanting every kid to be able to go to college), it’s hardly surprising that our educational results are going down the tubes.

If you meet many teachers in American public schools, you will meet quite a few people with college-infused theories about how to teach young minds. What you won’t find is very many people for whom learning—the actual, lifetime practice of learning new and challenging things—is much of a priority at all.

That is, if you’re looking for intellectuals and highly inquisitive people, America’s elementary and secondary schools are not a very good place to find them.
____________________

This Non-intellectual or Anti-intellectual American attitude dominates our schools. Looking around in any school, all that you see is the evidence of teaching—with the results of rote-learned teaching exercises mounted in a few glass-fronted cabinets in the front halls. What you won’t see is much evidence of real learning.

It’s this misguide focus that leads our educational system astray.
______________

With the Increase in inter-ethnic marriages, those cultures that promote and stress the importance of knowledge are starting to lose out to the generic, anti-intellectual American mix—that focuses on sports stars, rock stars, movie stars, and six-year-olds dressed up like beauty queens. While equal opportunity for all, in the great American melting pot, is essential to the American experiment, one current result of this grand experiment is an ardently pursued reversion to the mean.

“Reversion to the mean” of intellectual accomplishment is not the kind of educational achievement that will lead America to Mars and beyond. Or to energy independence with alternative, yet-to-be-invented technologies. Nor will it lead us to cures for cancer, nor cure the common cold.

“As seen on TV™”? Sure. But your better mousetraps? Not so much...
____________________

Henry Ford was proudly belligerent about his school-based ignorance. What he knew how to do was to think. “How to think” is the primary objective of a good education.

Not “How to teach.” But “How to learn.”
____________________

Americans Who Have Home-Schooled Their Kids (whether for academic or for faith-based reasons) know how much the desire for learning is built into practically every child. Many of our most-successful, highest-achieving, home-schooled students are those raised under the concept of “un-schooling,” which nurtures the child’s innate desire to learn, learn, learn.

You never hear home-schooled families talking about “teach, teach, teach.”

Many home-schooled kids never encounter a formal “test” until they head toward college. But once these kids walk in the doors of the college admission offices and start taking the tests, their test scores shine.

If kids left to their own learning devices learn better than those who lumber through America’s schools, then it’s clearly not a question of testing.

The problem is the focus on teaching—such as “teaching to the test”—that interferes with the natural processes of learning.
____________________

The Obvious Problem with American Schools Today—and with our anti-intellectual society in general—is that there’s not enough learning.

But these limits on learning are merely the symptom:

It’s the Focus Too-Much on Teaching
That Keeps Shutting America’s Young Minds Down.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

Despite Their Bad Regard for President Obama—

01 MARCH 2012

THE REPUBLICANS CAN’T FIND AN ACCEPTABLE—AND WINNING—PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:

Gov. Mitt Romney is thus far the closest thing that the Republican Party has to an electable candidate in relation to President Obama. But a presidential election isn’t a game of “horseshoes.”

Sen. Rick Santorum has more consistency to his conservative values, but the extreme nature of his social-policy views would make him an easy target for “mad dog” representation in Democratic ads during the upcoming campaign.

Rep. Ron Paul has many unique views that resonate greatly with people on both sides of the aisle, but his singular greatest limitation is that his direct style of advocating for his views does not work well with a form of government that requires compromise, not dictatorship or obstruction, to get anything done.

Speaker Newt Gingrich hardly merits mention. His wide variety of ideas contradicts his recent efforts to reestablish himself as an authentic Conservative.

____________________

We Americans Always Vote for our presidents as if we are choosing a dictator. We care most about his views, which leads us to believe that he will steer our country in our preferred direction.

But this is not the case: no elected official can impose his will in this way. Either he must compromise, or he fails his constituents with a gridlock stalemate in which everybody avoids the tough choices of what they don’t want, but nobody gets what they need.

(The debt-ceiling debacle demonstrated this perfectly: the Tea Party Republicans held their ground against paying America’s bills without future reductions, the future reductions were arranged in what turns out to be an imminently surmountable fashion, and all we got for their trouble was a lowering of our credit rating—We didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt!)

____________________

Even as We Have Watched President Barack Obama implement numerous mainstream, conservative, Republican ideas—

His liberal, progressive, Democratic base has detested his betrayal of their “Hope and Change” values—

While the loyal, Republican opposition garnered great success with their consistent, repetitive, Frank Luntz-crafted messages of “lower taxes” and “too much regulation” and “no more Keynesian/Kenyan socialism”—

Until the economy started turning around.

____________________

But a steadily rising economy pretty much threatens to change everything....

____________________

This Puts the Republicans in a challenging spot right now: in order to win the Presidency in November, either the economy must go back to Hell in a handbasket—

Or the Republicans must come up with a candidate who is:

(A) Conservative-enough to pass muster with the base, and

(B) Reasonable-enough to pass must with the majority of relatively moderate Americans actually willing to vote for him, and

(C) Leader-like and charismatic-enough to bring enough of the people out to vote.

____________________

Now That it Seems to be “Halftime in America,” maybe the former mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California would be interested in taking on the job.

You read it first here. 

Now announcing the soon-to-be, up-and-coming front-runner for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination:

The Man with No Name.

Regards,

(($; -)}

Gozo!