February 15, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

The Mommy and Daddy parties

Republicans are the Daddy party, and Democrats are the Mommy party.

If you read enough about politics, you’ve heard this before. The Daddy party represents “power” and the Mommy party represents “warmth.”

Daddy provides for our safety, protecting us against the evil outside our door. He teaches us to be independent and strong, and to fight when things don’t go your way.

Mommy worries about our comfort. She tries to get everyone to get along and solve their problems without fighting. She makes sure everyone wears their sweaters, does their homework, and doesn’t go hungry.

These are, of course, gross simplifications but somewhat revealing. Democrats believe we are all part of a family and we need to take care of each other; Republicans believe that you advance by being independent and self-reliant.

Neither of these viewpoints is wrong. It’s just how you personally see yourself, society, and government. And if the parties adhere to these roles, we can have reasonable debate.

The problem lately is Daddy. Daddy is no longer the reliable, strong independent leader — he now lies and deceives to get his way. Instead of reasonably debating where we should go, he beats up the family until he gets his way (“Do what I say or I’ll shut down the government!”). And then when he doesn’t get his way, he has a temper tantrum. (“Fine! Then I will block every bill in Congress even if it benefits us all.”) He’s willing to hurt the family for his own selfish goals.

Having a Mommy party and a Daddy party is not a bad thing. But as columnist Josh Barrow points out, we now have a Mommy party and an “Abusive-Ex-husband-With-a-Substance-Abuse-Problem party.”

Editorial cartoon: For the gold

February 14, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Virginia joins the 21st Century

And the dominoes keep falling.

Virginia is the latest state where a Federal Court has ruled that prohibitions against gays and lesbians getting married violates the Constitution. Yes, once more, we radical liberals are forcing our views down the throats of unsuspecting bigots through the terrible practice of “using the exact words of the Constitution.” (Hey, you ever notice that these homophobes always say we’re “shoving it down their throats”? Is that subconscious wish fulfillment or what?)

The decision is stayed pending an appeal. This means that either the Supreme Court will take all of these and make one final decision that will be applied to the entire country, or they will deny the appeals, thus confirming the lower court’s decision, permitting marriages in those states only.

A Federal Court yesterday also ruled that Kentucky could not refuse to accept marriages that occurred in states where the marriage would be legal. The issue as to Kentucky’s anti-gay marriage law was not before the court, so that may still be coming in another case.

There are still plenty of other cases in the pipeline (including here in Pennsylvania, where our Attorney General has refused to support our states’ anti-marriage law). So this trip is far from over.

Editorial cartoon: Blinded me with science

February 13, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

GOP as carnies

Carnies have the attitude that if you’re gullible and stupid enough to fall for their rigged games, then you deserve everything you get. They’re very proud of their deceptive actions, because they’re so much smarter than the rubes who fall for them.

The Republican party feels the same way about you.

This is nothing new. Dick Nixon had a “Dirty Tricks” committee specifically designed to do these things. And now the current party has taken a book from Tricky Dickie and has created a series of false and misleading campaign websites for Democratic candidates.

The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee bought up hundreds of URLs on Democratic candidates and created sites that mimic the real ones. They have the candidate’s picture really big, and then a big “donate” button, and then in small print, it says “Help us defeat the candidate.”

These are so misleading that Google has started putting their warning pages up before you can see them, telling you that it is a potential phishing site.

This fits in with the theme of the the blog this week, which is that the GOP has a specific policy of lying and being misleading. What’s more, like carnies, they’re proud of it. Daniel Scarpinato, the NRCC’s press secretary, brags about the fake website program and plans on expanding it.

In response, the National Democratic Committee states that it has no plans to ever create deceptive web sites of this sort.

Editorial cartoon: That works

February 12, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Lying as policy

All politicians lie. But currently, only the Republican party proudly promotes lies and deceptions as its policy.

A few days ago, I wrote about the “2.5 million unemployed by Obamacare” lie they are peddling.

I now see that that they are claiming that “Obama caused the government shutdown.”

Here’s how it really went down:

“Hey, President Obama! It’s us, the Republicans! Remember how we voted against Obamacare but it still passed? And how we challenged it in court and lost? And how we nominated a candidate who ran on a platform of repealing it and he lost? And how we voted 42 times to repeal it, losing each time? And how we have tried to defund it and lost?

Well, we now demand that despite all this, you defund it and thus kill it, or else we will shut down the government. No? Okay, you asked for it!

Look, everyone! We, the Republicans, have shut down the government until Obama gives us what we want! We’re proud of this accomplishment!

Okay, Obama, now will you defund it? No? Well, will you cut the budget in a few places? No? Will you at least cut this one thing? No?

Wait a minute … the American people hate this. Our poll numbers are lower than they have been in the history of poll numbers.

Okay, fine, you can reopen the government.

Wow, the public really hates us. Guess we have to use our old standby policy to get out of this one. Everyone, ready? Good. Start lying.

Obama caused the shutdown!!!”

Fortunately, rational and reasonable people are laughing at this. Here’s a nice video of journalist Bob Schieffer giggling uncontrollably when Ted Cruz claimed that Obama caused the shutdown:

… And here is an article from last December where Ted Cruz brags about causing the shutdown.

This is just outright lying, isn’t it? I mean, is there another explanation?

Despite what some defenders claim, this is not the same thing as picking and choosing which facts to highlight when pushing your agenda. It’s not the same thing as “spinning.” It’s not even the same thing as not pursuing your campaign promises. This is lying as policy. To defend this is despicable. (And I applaud those Republicans who are refusing to follow the party line here.)

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the current GOP strategy of creating fake fraudulent websites designed to purposely mislead people into thinking they are donating to Democratic candidates. I am not making this up.

Editorial cartoon: Facts never get in the way

February 11, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Killing the death penalty

Jay Inslee, the Governor of Washington, announced that his state will be joining the growing list of states that will no longer have the death penalty.

“Blah blah!” you scream. “Blah blah blah blah!”

Yes, yes, I know. Some people deserve it, vengeance should be part of our legal system, and even though there is absolutely no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent, it is a deterrent. Yes, I know. Thank you. You can stop now.

I will never shed a tear for certain people who received the death penalty in America (Good riddance, Timothy McVeigh). But I am very familiar with our judicial system. It’s what I do for a living, you know. And all of us who do this for a living will admit that our system is not perfect. Innocent people get found guilty all the time, and guilty people get found not guilty. Sometimes we don’t realize our mistakes until way later. And then it is often too late to do anything about it.

We should not have a punishment that is 100% irreversible in a system that is not 100% perfect. Too many innocent people (mostly poor, largely minority) have been put to death only to be exonerated much later by DNA evidence, witnesses recanting their testimony, or proof of DA and/or police conspiracies. It does happen, and more often than we would like to admit.

And we as a country should not stand for it.

That doesn’t mean we free everybody. Governor Inslee made that very clear with his announcement. “No one is getting out of jail!” he said.

So good job, Washington. Maybe soon the US will join the rest of the advanced civilized democratic world in getting rid of the death penalty completely. But by then, how many more innocent people would we have killed?