Blogging Blue

First of all, a tip of the hat to Michael Leon for his post on recent comments by presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain blasting Social Security as a “disgrace,” despite the fact that the Social Security system has served as financial bedrock of retirement security in this country for nearly a century. Here’s a little video of Josh Marshall ripping John McCain apart:

Justin Fox from The Curious Capitalist has more on McCain’s comments, calling the comments “patently ridiculous.” See, John McCain seems to have a problem with the fact that folks currently paying into the Social Security system - folks like you and I - are paying present-day retirees through the taxes we pay, but curiously, he acts as if this is a new problem, when in fact that’s how the Social Security system has always operated. As Justin Fox said:

The only disgraceful thing involving Social Security at the moment is that payroll taxes are being used to paper over deficit spending by the rest of the federal government. Or if you want to get all class-warfarey about, payroll taxes paid by working- and middle-class Americans that are intended for Social Security’s coffers are instead being diverted to fund income tax cuts for the rich. I’m sure McCain will be addressing this outrage at his next town hall meeting.

But hey, maybe Social Security isn’t really John McCain’s area of expertise. But if Social Security isn’t an area of expertise, and the economy isn’t either, then what exactly is John McCain’s area of expertise?

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I’ve spent a little bit of time here talking about Senator John McCain’s numerous flip-flops throughout his Presidential campaign. First there was the flip-flop on negotiating with terrorists, then there was the flip-flop on how soon he’d bring troops home from Iraq, just to name a couple of the many issues on which John McCain has changed his position. Courtesy of YouTube and Caffeinated Politics comes this “mix tape” of John McCain’s best flip-flops:

Considering how much conservatives attacked Senator John Kerry during the last Presidential election for all his supposed flip-flops, I hope those same folks will now show some consistency and attack John McCain for his multitude of flip-flops.

Given the prevalence of YouTube and other mediums for preserving comments made by politicians, you’d think John McCain’s folks would be a little more savvy when giving him his talking points, because it’s just a matter of time before these constant flip-flops start getting reported by the mainstream media, which up until this point has largely ignored the extent to which John McCain has attempted to reinvent himself through these flip-flops in order to make himself more palatable to the Republican base.

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Now sure, the video I’ve embedded is a supposed to be a jab at Republicans, but the reasons listed in the video are valid reasons why millions of folks choose to vote for Republicans. What I find curious is the fact that many Republicans consider their party to be the “party of personal freedom,” yet those same folks don’t support the idea of “personal freedom” when they feel that freedom is immoral or objectionable by their standards.

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This just speaks for itself:

On May 21, Alex Barton, age 5, was escorted out of his kindergarten classroom at Morningside Elementary in Port St. Lucie, Fla., by the local police department’s “school resource officer.” Alex, who is autistic, was taken to the assistant principal, to whom he promised he would “not kick students, throw crayons, eat crayons, crawl under the table, kick the table of other students … [or] disrupt the class,” according to a police report. The assistant principal tucked in Alex’s shirt, put his “shoes on the right feet and tied them,” and sent Alex back to class. During Alex’s absence, his teacher, Wendy Portillo, “gathered the students to talk with them” about the youngster’s misbehavior.

When Alex returned, Portillo, who has been teaching in Port Lucie for 12 years, directed the youngster to the front of the room and “asked him to listen to what the children didn’t like” about him. According to Alex, the children complained that he “eats paper, picks boogers … and bites his shoelaces,” and Portillo herself said, “I hate you right now. I don’t like you today.”. Portillo next “polled the class” about whether to let Alex back in. Alex lost the class vote, 14-2, and spent the rest of the school day in the nurse’s office.

This story is disturbing on a lot of levels, but as the parent of an autistic child, I’m disturbed that a teacher would knowingly and intentionally subject a child with special needs - in this case Asperger’s - to that kind of treatment. What’s more, the fact that a teacher of children that young would tell a child she hates him absolutely boggles my mind. This is my worst fear as a parent - that my child is going to end up in a classroom where he’s made to feel different and ashamed of who he is simply because of his disorder. No child should ever be singled out and made to feel the way this child was made to feel.

So today, Wendy Portillo wins my Most Despicable Person of the Day Award.

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Now you or I might find it more than a little inappropriate to joke about assassinating a Presidential candidate - regardless of that candidate’s political leanings - but apparently the possibility of assassinating Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama is a joking matter for veteran newswoman and Fox News Channel commentator Liz Trotta, who not only confused Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden, but she went so far as to say both should be killed, if “we” could:

In that brief clip, I counted more than one or two problems with what Trotta said. Obviously the convenient association of Obama and Osama is one issue, and then there’s the HUGE problem with her seeming to be perfectly okay with both being assassinated, as if both Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden are somehow worthy of being put to death. Further, who’s the “we” Trotta refers to? Does she think she’s speaking on behalf of more than a few conservatives?

Honestly, I know liberals and conservatives are often vociferous in defense of their beliefs, and I fully realize that sometimes folks from both sides cross the line and say some pretty despicable and out of line things, but this takes the cake.

H/T to Dan Cody over at Left on the Lake.

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