By David A. Franklin, Jr.

If this condition (dry-eye) is left untreated it leads to pain, ulcers, scars on the cornea and definitely some
degree of vision loss. I kept wondering where is the vision of the GOP leadership because everything they do
or say is for the here-and-now and for one reason… to undermine President Obama and his progressive plans for
the country, as a result they take the country hostage. Their gazillion attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act and finally to shut down the government so as to defund this Act which is the law of the land. They oppose every bill and
plan that would project into the future, with wide-eyed, dry-eyed stupidity, call for impeachment where there is no
impeachable action by the President.  And… they have not one single alternative plan…. Not even a bad plan. For the G-NO-P, the word is “NO” to everything. Now I know why there is no vision on that side of the fence - Ted Cruz has given me the full explanation “Republicans do not blink”.  

At his town hall meeting this Tuesday, Cruz pontificates:  "A significant amount of Republicans  assume, with an impasse, that President Obama will never ever give up his principles, so Republicans have to give up theirs. If you have an impasse, you know -- one side or the other has to blink. How do we win this fight? Don't blink." He sees the country’s wellbeing a personal fight to win. And by the way, what is the “Republican principle”? 

On gun control, abortion, the environment, Immigration Reform, Healthcare Reform, Voter suppression, “Entitlement” spending accurately defined as any spending that does not funnel money directly in the pockets of their all-powerful corporate rulers. On almost everything Cruz’s politics is repugnant, detestable and distasteful to say the least and with that attitude he charges his flock that like him, they must not  blink… win this battle of “Obamadom”  at all cost or rather – no matter the cost. One of his fellow “Mad Hatters” Steve Fincher (R-TN) justifies the need for entitlement spending cuts as follows: "The role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity is to take care of each other," the congressman concedes, but quickly adds "not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country."

Cruz’s sharp elbow tactic has annoyed not only fellow senators on both sides, but also significant parts of the populous
on whom he and the Republican Party must depend to fulfill his Presidential ambitions and the party’s hopes to occupy the White House ever again. 

The Party has many leaders, a small subset being members of Congress the rest are activists, governors, interest groups, fundraisers and big donors and more. What we see within this large group of leaders is unanimity on at least one thing for better or worse. These people do not blink on anything. Blinking means compromise and compromise would most likely benefit the country but the only ones they need to benefit are their personal agendas. And this dry eye syndrome that has overtaken the leaders of the GOP serves nothing but destructive purpose to the country and also for the personal aggrandizement of each of this group of vultures.

Health professionals caution that “If symptoms of dry eye persist, consult an eye care professional to get an accurate diagnosis of the condition and begin treatment to avoid permanent damage.” But indications are that this condition has existed since 2008 and has worsened beginning with the injection of an overdose of the “Mad Hatters” - the Tea Party in 2010. It is apparently too late these loony rightwing extremists have brought the party to a stage where it is suffering permanent damage.

Again one advice is "to determine if the disease is the underlying cause of the dry eye since there might be an underlying disease which needs to and must be treated before correction of this loss of vision can begin.”
And indeed there is or are underlying cause(s).  Extremism, self-glorification, demolitionist mentality (bring the government to a standstill, forfeit in the national debt), political terrorism. 

It is reported that Cruz gave the impression to his peers in college that he has nothing to learn from anyone else. This, according to Erlic Leitch who lived in Butler College with Cruz. Leitch said Cruz argued over anything and nothing just to argue and that his only reason for talking with you was to convince you of his (Cruz’s) rightness. Can this college
boorish, ignorant and crude attitude work in politics? Yes and no. It has worked so far in his political career since it sits so comfortably in the Tea Party paradigm; but I predict we are looking at a schooled version of Sarah Palin. The behavior of the Republican Party continues to reflect the Party’s identity crisis and so we continue to witness first-hand the demolition derby.

In March of 2012, Ryan Lizza, a New Yorker correspondent in his piece “Life of the Party” pointed out what was obvious then as it is now “the
Republican base has become more conservative. The good news for the GOP is that their "intense policy demanders" are energized; the bad news is that their involvement means Republicans have moved farther away from the American mainstream. To win at the national level, the GOP needs an actor to both unify their base and bring in Independents. At the moment, they don't have one”. Isn’t it the same condition that exists … no persists to date? 

Dry eye syndrome can be associated with immune system disorders, defined as causing “abnormally low
activity or overactivity of the immune system. In cases of immune system overactivity, the body attacks and damages its own tissues (autoimmune diseases). Immune deficiency diseases decrease the body's ability to fight invaders, causing
vulnerability to infections”. 

The GOP is both attacking and damaging its own ‘tissues’ and is causing vulnerability and has opened itself to lunacy.  Moderate Republicans say they are not on board with this over-riding psychosis that prevails in their party but they do nothing to fix it and at the end they come together and go down with the ship with the mentally ill segment of
the Party.

The party is totally subjugated and directed by its far right extremist minds. With the injection of this extremism Republicans have melded radicalism, bigotry, heartlessness and raw partisanship resulting in dysfunction that is exceptional and unparalleled. The wanton and immoral use of filibuster, the 2011 scare tactic with the debt limit (and they are planning another round of this later this year), consistent action to undermine the economic recovery by saying ‘no’ to any plan to stimulate the economy, the decision in the House to only bring to the floor for a vote bills that can guarantee the majority of the majority; a feat which is unattainable since the majority party is populated with 
obstructionists whose interest is far removed from governing the country. 

This dry-eye syndrome and its underlying diseases are rendering total blindness to a party that could and used to provide constructive opposition to keep the country on the right track.
  
The titles of the ‘greatest democracy on earth’ or ‘the beacon on a hill for the world to follow’ I am sure evoke a chuckle from the rest of the world! 

The likes of the school yard bully Ted Cruz together with the Tea Party Fraternity and those groupies who have no personal conviction but to jump on whichever bandwagon that might be popular at whichever time is sinking the GOP ship.

The few reasonable souls within the party are like lone voices in the wilderness and they cannot be heard over the din of the mad dogs.

By David A. Franklin, Jr.

What seems like 100 differing and varying factions within the party each spouting at very least 2 or 3 ‘strong’ and
opposing views on the same issues cause the heads of the American public to spin. Heads twirl in disbelief, with skepticism, in confusion, in perplexity, and bewilderment.  The actions of these well-paid (with taxpayers’ money) juveniles reflect the chaos, turmoil and mayhem which exist in the thinking of the leaders of the Republican Party and if the public is not careful it gets absorbed into this disorientation!  But time and again, the American people have demonstrated that they have the ability to sift through gunk and grime and know what is sense and what is pure unadulterated bull fertilizer. No one, not even the Republican Party members can say or understand what the Party stands for. 

As Peter Marshall, the US Senate Chaplain in 1947 and then pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC said, the American people is currently saying to the GOP “Give us clear vision, that we may know where to stand and what to stand for - because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.” Of course the Republican voters are falling for everything: 

-   From a “Birther” that they continue to say that Barak Obama is not American since he was born in Kenya. These   
    silly-heads include not just persons of limited educational exposure but none less than Donald Trump. This is a man 
    whom it would seem has some exposure in business, and a leader in his own right but his stupid and unrelenting 
    utterances on the topic  belies his perceived good sense. The irony of this “Birther” issue is highlighted now that the 
    Republican Party is viewing Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as a possible 2016 candidate for the Presidential   elections.  We 
    see them justifying Cruz’s eligibility for the same position that Obama is not qualified to hold! If we accept that our 
    President was born in Kenya then that quits out with Cruz being born in Canada. But no! That is one of the major 
    disqualifying points.  Or…… is it that the pigmentation of the inhabitants of each country weighs heavily positive in 
    favor of the one and heavily negative to the other? Talk to me. The point that is being belabored and underscored in 
    the justification for Cruz’s eligibility is that his mother is American. Laugh out loud….. Let me see you haters get 
    out of this one because so was the President’s mother. Republican haters of the President in and out of Congress 
    have always hidden their heads in the sand talking lies so often that they convince are true. They believe their own 
    lies!

-  To the unyielding effort to repeal Healthcare even when these schooled gentlemen and ladies know this is an 
    exercise in futility they continue to bring it to the vote at the expense of doing some real work for the pay they 
    are collecting!  And I deliberately use the word “schooled” versus “educated” since it would be an insult to those of 
    us who are truly educated to include these crazies in the category of the educated. Some of these persons claim Ivy 
    League education and to whom much is given, much is expected but they contradict this idiom. We have grown to 
    expect nothing from these Ivy Leaguers. It was the Republican Heritage Foundation’s preferred choice that 
    healthcare reform in the 1990s included the individual mandate to buy health insurance. But now again their 
    rabid opposition to their own brainchild is obviously a diseased one. Here is another instance where the 
    pigmentation of the Healthcare ambassador putting forward this same solution has poisoned the fruit of good 
    sense? Conservatives have painstakingly renounced its own position because it has now emerged as 
    the centerpiece of Obama’s health care reform. Answer me this other question – ‘Are Republicans aware that they 
    are there to see to the progress of the country or to live and ride their ideology bandwagon to the death of 
    the country?’

The results of the electoral vote were certified by Congress on January 4, 2013:

CANDIDATES                            Party            Pop. Vote   Pct.(%)    ECV                                                                           
Barack Obama/Joe Biden       Democratic    65,915,796  51.06%    332
Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan             Republican    60,933,500  47.20%     206
Gary Johnson/James Gray        Libertarian       1,275,971    0.99%         0
Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala             Green                 469,628    0.36%          0
Virgil Goode/Jim Cylmer           Constitution        122,388    0.09%          0 
Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan Peace/Freedom   67,326    0.05%          0
Rocky Anderson/Luis Rodriquez Justice                43,018   0.03%           0
Tom Hoefling/Jonathan Ellis        America's            40,628  0.03%           0 
OTHER                                                                  217,669  0.17%           0
                                                    TOTAL        129,085,403   100%        538
NEEDED TO WIN                        270

POPULAR VOTE                        Pct. %       Electoral College Vote (ECV)      
Barack Obama (Illinois)               51.06%                  61.71%
Mitt Romney (Massachusetts)     47.20%                  38.29%
Gary Johnson (New Mexico)         0.99%                     ---
Jill Stein (Massachusetts)              0.36%                     ---
OTHERS                                        0.38%                     ---
TOTAL                                       100.00%                100.00%                                                                          

For the nine months since the thorough whipping at the 2012 polls the Republican Party is still trying to come out of their stunned state of being.  
 
1. They have had postmortems - Although they had record amount of money to spend on attack ads 
    especially in swing states, Romney lost 8 of the nine of these states, and they lost the election! Was the 
    Tea Party correct to say Romney was not conservative enough or were the moderates correct in saying 
    he was too conservative? Was it his ‘self-deportation stance, the 47% comment or his outsourcing of 
    his personal wealth and deposits and investments in foreign countries? Daah! The simple reason is that the party is 
    seen to be anti-good sense. 
 
2. They discussed, but to date have not fully accepted that they did not connect with Latinos and African-Americans.  
    These are two groups representing the country’s largest minority population. Immigration policy, deportation, path to 
    citizenship for undocumented workers, Voter ID Laws, and so on and so on. It seems then, as it shows now that no 
    antidote can cure their disease of pigmentation. 
 
Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) as recent as Thursday morning (8/15/2013) on CNN stands by his offensive statement "For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another  100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,".  You know it is bad when Mr. Ineffective himself John Boehner said that King’s comments were “wrong” and that "There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language".  But therein lies the diversity and disparities among
the differing factions of the party. One might be tempted to laud Mr. Boehner’s courage to be as bold as to oppose but then like the 5 year old boy you wait with uncomfortable anticipation for the shoe to drop – again – from the Speaker’s non-action and cowardice. 
 
3.  Then there is the issue of women’s rights. During the 2012 election campaign season, they doubled down against 
     women – abortion rights, contraceptive rights, equal pay for women. Might I be allowed to express my harrow that 
     the equality in the workplace for women being bantered about is nothing short of a mockery. I cannot wrap my mind 
     around the fact that it is only since 2012 that this has been brought up for discussion/acceptance in the greatest 
     country on earth when in a small country which is deemed “third world” this was implemented decades ago! 
     “Jamaican women are accorded full equality, and the 1975 Employment Act guarantees them equal pay for the 
     same work.” 

Sometimes I think I have stepped back into the past – this is the law in a third world country for close to four decades!! 

And then there is the Maternity Leave Act of 1979 which gives pregnant mothers 12 weeks leave with pay and just
citing one in the list of goodies included in the Law “Where a worker who is entitled to return to work in accordance with subsection (1) has complied with this section but is unable to return to work by reason of redundancy, she shall be treated for the purposes of the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act 

- (a) as having been continuously employed by her employer until the notified day of return;” Meaning that she enjoys 
       the benefits of any redundancy payoffs although she was not actively working. Read  more - Database of Labour 
       Legislation http://www.ilocarib.org.tt/projects/cariblex/jamaica_act10.shtml 


IBM, one of America’s best and most successful companies says that their people “are their greatest and most valuable assets” an edict they live and breathe and one that obviously this third world nation lives. Is there the time when Republicans will come to their senses, be enlightened that their wives, mothers, aunts, daughters and grand-daughters are not stuck in a time zone and that this is the 21st century? 

Stars keep rising and falling in the Republican Party – It was Bobby Jindal, it is Marco Rubio and Chris Christie and Ted Cruz and the rise and fall continues.  Marco Rubio for one, is one whose stardom was transparently ascribed because of his race and an obvious attempt to say “see we have others in our group of leaders!” So were Governor Jindal and Michael Steel with his short stint as RNC chairman. This disingenuous action continues with their current push for “Rising Stars Amid Calls For Solutions.” 

Among these ‘stars’ are:
Karin Agness, founder and president of the Network of Enlightened Women. But Republicans continue to defund and close facilities that give free/affordable care for women including cancer screening and they object to women getting equal pay for equal work.

Scott G. Erickson, a San Jose, Calif., police officer for 15 years and a writer for The Foundry, the blog of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.

Marilinda Garcia, a Hispanic and New Hampshire state representative first elected at 23. Now in her fourth term, she serves on the executive board of the immigration reform group Americans by Choice. But their attacks on Hispanics is
unyielding and remorseless, likening them to drug mules as Peter King is convinced they are, calling them ‘wet backs’; demeaning them over and over again.

T.W. Shannon, an African-American and speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The Lawton native is a business consultant and an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. But they defund the already under-funded education in schools which primarily serve African Americans and other minority groups. They implement Voter ID laws that are reminiscent of the poll tax days which disenfranchise African Americans ensuring that they have no voice in
the running of the country of which they are citizens.  When as recent as 2 days ago students of Elizabeth City State University, black college in North Carolina rights to vote are taken from them under the pretext that the college’s address is not accepted as their address. Montravias King, a student of that very college was barred from running for a city council seat for that very reason although he is a citizen of Elizabeth City and of North Carolina.

I confidently predict that these stars would have fallen from the Republican skies before 2014 just as Rubio has and Jindal did, and the others have - unless this new crop of ‘stars’ stick to the vitriolic directives of a party of lost souls. 
The GOP have not been listening to the likes of Bill Kristol and other level heads in the party who are telling them – government shut-down would be a mistake, that it is preferable to delay parts of the Affordable Care Act than to implement and not adjust as necessary, that comprehensive immigration overhaul is good for the country.

Why spoil the sick fun of these mad dogs of the GOP with simple and level-headed thinking?

S03/E29: "OPEN MIC NIGHT" 
Show Date: Sunday, August 18, 2013 
Time: 6pm EST
Telephone: 619-789-1959 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kitchenpolitics123/2013/08/18/s03e29-open-mic-night

The stark differences among and between Republicans inside and outside of Congress are so many and varied and seem to be multiplying by the minute it makes your head spin. Not to mention that these differences are down to the micro level. 
By David A. Franklin, Jr.

The one person has several and varying personas depending on the day of the week, or the direction of the wind. Today John McCain is a Tea Partier…. but not tomorrow …. but later that same afternoon he will be a sensible sounding individual calling his party colleagues names which relegate them to crack pots.

Government shut-down advocates versus those Republicans who say it is a bad idea, and this threat of sending the government of the great US of A and its economy into a tail spin is for no other reason than to defund – you guess it! To defund ObamaCare which they have voted 40 times to repeal knowing full well they do not have the requisite number of votes to get the Healthcare Law of the land repealed. And we must remember it is the same House with the same ineffective, useless, feeble, unproductive Speaker/Leader who refuses to spend time to bring other worthwhile bills for the vote.  And they must remember that the tax payers continue to having to cough up their fat salary, their excellent health coverage for them and their families while as they sit to repeal the Healthcare Law, their college children are benefiting from the very law!

Voting against anything that looks like, sounds like, smells like the President has become such an obsession for the Republicans that they have become lunatics. Maybe not become since they might have been lunatics all along just that the President brings out the worst in them. Neurosis, phobia, insanity, mental illness all compounded in one big ball of a useless, non-productive group. 

They are divided on spending, on foreign policy on just about everything. One question to themselves is do they need to be all inclusive in their appeal to the electorate? Yes, no, maybe - this minute yes because and only because they realize their open bigotry in the 2012 election campaign cycle cost them the White House…. This is what they think but why they lost 2012… let me educate them that as long as their Democratic opponent was Barack Obama, that he was the reason they would not set foot in the White House. But let us go along with the bigotry theory. The reason is so openly and transparently self-serving and has no truth in it; a reason spoken in public by these Republicans but one that is not coming from the heart.  The pendulum swings daily on this “all-inclusive path” from yes to no and back to yes then no. 

Then there are the low personal levels as seen with the most recent Rand Paul/Chris Christie saga. Name calling being hurled back and forth and like true school yard wrangle with two grown men who are thought of as being capable of running (or is it ruining) the country! Here I must confess that I found some pleasure in watching from the ringside. Not only that Republicans are at each other’s throats but Rand Paul needs to know with whom to pick a fight; and for his own good should not be with my favorite Republican.

Coming from the mouth of a Republican who classified as “stale and moss-covered" his colleagues in the persons of Senator McCain and some of McCain’s like-thinking Republicans of the old guard. This is a classification championed by Rand Paul.  Paul reminds me of the wimpy kid who goes around picking on bigger and stronger boys who will whop him anytime and every time. He has a penchant for embarrassment. Then there are the “wacko birds” among them; loud mount, ‘bag of wind’ Ted Cruz being the chief of the wackos among the bird species in the party. Don’t forget that Mr. Ted is also being touted as one of the wackos capable of ruining… running the country!

There is always a Jamaican proverb to fit just about every occasion, issue and situation. The one that fits this perfectly reads like this “If shark come from river bottom and say the river deep, it deep, believe him”. If the Republicans say there are birds of the wacko kind among them, believe them; if the say some are stale and moss-covered, believe them. Because they are coming from the bottom of the river of stupidity in the GOP and they know. 

Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah) and Marco Rubio (Florida) think that not voting spending that includes money for ObamaCare is the way to go but others think this would be a windfall for Mr. President and his party. Make up your minds guys…can you print a hymn book and decide which hymn you will be singing and cut down on the babble coming from your party? Or is it they cannot hear themselves?

Out of North Carolina came a lone voice of Senator Burr: "I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard". "Some of these guys need to understand that if you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that's achievable." Mr. Burr seems to be one of the “stale and moss covered” of his party who remember full well when this strategy was approached against the Clinton Administration and the negative public opinion which played against the Republicans. When will these upstarts such as Paul and Cruz realize that the moss covered do have some use!

Some are for immigration reform and others are not these latter expressing fear that there would never be another Republican President within this century if all these 11 million immigrants are given the right to vote eventually. Student loan legislation, foreign policy, national security, government surveillance are just a few; and don’t get me wrong, there needs to be differences of opinions  but when these differences are centered on ideology, personal aggrandizement, and buffoonery it might present as fun for the opposing party but it is totally dangerous to the American people.

My message to the Republicans “Continue with you Tom foolery and it will not be the Healthcare Law, or the Foreign Policy which you think is flawed or the surveillance that you think is illegal that will bring this great country down, it is you who will with your divisiveness and self-serving ways and your one-up-man-ship that is bringing down the party. Every democracy needs and deserves a good opposition party to keep government on their toes for, and on behalf of the people and for the good of the country. What you are doing is wrong and will not only cause your downfall as a party but have untold repercussion for the country you profess so eloquently that you are proud to be a citizen of.