Michelle Obama on Why Educating Girls is Vital

First Lady Michelle Obama spoke about the importance of girls’ education on International Women’s Day Tuesday, at Union Market in Washington, D.C. The day was the first anniversary of Let Girls Learn, a White House initiative to address gender inequalities in education. Obama spoke about how she first got involved in the issue after learning the stories of some of the 62 million girls around the world who are not currently attending school.

Richard "Doc" Hastings Playing the Same Old Republican Saw

You have to hand it to Richard "Doc" Hastings (R-WA) -- he stays on message, no matter whether the message meshes with the facts. Republicans want you to believe that if we just cut taxes and eliminate “burdensome” government regulations, jobs will suddenly pop up like mushrooms in May. Never mind that Republicans have being playing the same old saw since time immemorial with the same results, i.e., the rich get richer, and the rest of America gets screwed.


Hastings went on Fox News recently to propose that environmental regulations be lifted so logging could resume in National Forests in Washington. The state is facing a 4 to 5 billion dollar budget shortfall in the next 2 years. Budgets for education, health care, and help for the state’s poor and disabled are being slashed, and Hastings is going on Fox to lament environmental regulations on slash and burn logging?

What's up Doc? Total Timber sales revenues in 2011 amounted to about 4% of the state’s deficit and money going into the State's coffers from that revenue stream is minuscule. How about spending a little time working on the other 99% of the problem and stop playing with that old Republican saw in our forests?

When it comes to the Washington State budget shortfall, thoughtful people (not you, Doc) have some difficult decisions to make. Decide what your priorities are on the League of Education Voters web site and see how you fare in cutting the deficit.

Republican Zealots Threaten America's Security

Based on an article by Nicholas Kristof in the NYT, 7/23/2011

We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.

House Republicans start from a legitimate concern about rising long-term debt. Politicians are usually focused only on short-term issues, so it would be commendable to see the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party seriously focused on containing long-term debt. But on this issue, many House Republicans aren’t serious, they’re just obsessive in a destructive way. The upshot is that in their effort to protect the American economy from debt, some of them are willing to drag it over the cliff of default.

Republican zealots yelling about America's debt and the Democrat's "tax and spend" policies are in fact, fanatics willing to ruin our economy in order to have their way. No tax hikes, no way, no how. No new revenue, not even from corporations that pay no taxes, like General Electric. Not even from corporations like Exxon-Mobile that are making billions in profits and still accepting taxpayer handouts in the form of government subsidies.

No, the Republican Tea Party members and sympathizers would rather cut programs that can serve to bolster America's long term economic recovery, keep America at the forefront of science and technology, educate our young people, and help the elderly and disabled. That's the Republican way. It's always been the Republican way (During the 1960s Ronald Reagan was the key participant in an American Medical Association (AMA) sponsored campaign to prevent the enactment of Medicare).

Republicans under George W. Bush drove the American economy into the toilet with unwarranted tax cuts for the wealthy, a prescription drug program that has cost over $549 billion and was not paid for, and two costly wars that were not only not paid for, but were underway when Republicans slashed taxes. It was no less than fiscal criminal negligence.

Now Republicans are feigning righteous indignation over the Nation's enormous national debt and preparing to stand firm on their demands for massive cuts to social programs and no new taxes. Well, to hell with them!