Attention Republicans !

You who read this blog know that I do not take political sides here. I do present opposing views so we may all benefit from a broader view.

This, my friends, is something to think about especially if you are a Republican voter.



OP-ED COLUMNIST
We Need a Second Party
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: February 11, 2012


WATCHING the Republican Party struggling to agree on a presidential candidate, one wonders whether the G.O.P. shouldn’t just sit this election out — just give 2012 a pass.


You know how in Scrabble sometimes you look at your seven letters and you’ve got only vowels that spell nothing? What do you do? You go back to the pile. You throw your letters back and hope to pick up better ones to work with. That’s what Republican primary voters seem to be doing. They just keep going back to the pile but still coming up with only vowels that spell nothing.

There’s a reason for that: Their pile is out of date. The party has let itself become the captive of conflicting ideological bases: anti-abortion advocates, anti-immigration activists, social conservatives worried about the sanctity of marriage, libertarians who want to shrink government, and anti-tax advocates who want to drown government in a bathtub.

Sorry, but you can’t address the great challenges America faces today with that incoherent mix of hardened positions. I’ve argued that maybe we need a third party to break open our political system. But that’s a long shot. What we definitely and urgently need is a second party — a coherent Republican opposition that is offering constructive conservative proposals on the key issues and is ready for strategic compromises to advance its interests and those of the country.

Without that, the best of the Democrats — who have been willing to compromise — have no partners and the worst have a free pass for their own magical thinking. Since such a transformed Republican Party is highly unlikely, maybe the best thing would be for it to get crushed in this election and forced into a fundamental rethink — something the Democrats had to go through when they lost three in a row between 1980 and 1988. We need a “Different Kind of Republican” the way Bill Clinton gave us a “Different Kind of Democrat.”

Because when I look at America’s three greatest challenges today, I don’t see the Republican candidates offering realistic answers to any of them.

The first is responding to the challenges and opportunities of an era in which globalization and the information technology revolution have dramatically intensified, creating a hyperconnected world. This is a world in which education, innovation and talent will be rewarded more than ever. This is a world in which there will be no more “developed” and “developing countries,” but only HIEs (high-imagination-enabling countries) and LIEs (low-imagination-enabling countries).

And this is a world that America is hard-wired to thrive in — provided we invest in better infrastructure, postsecondary education for all, more talented immigrants, regulations that incentivize risk-taking and prevent recklessness, and government-financed research to push out the boundaries of science and let our venture capitalists pluck the best flowers. There is no way we can thrive in this era without this kind of public-private partnership. We need strong government, but limited government, which enables our companies and individuals to compete globally. It’s the kind of public-private partnership that Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush embraced.

The second of our great long-term challenges are our huge debt and entitlement obligations. They can’t be fixed without raising and reforming taxes and trimming entitlements and defense. We absolutely cannot just cut entitlements and defense. That would imperil the personal security and national security of every American. We must also reform taxes to raise more revenues.

But when all the Republican candidates last year said they would not accept a deal with Democrats that involved even $1 in tax increases in return for $10 in spending cuts, the G.O.P. cut itself off from reality. It became a radical party, not a conservative one. And for the candidates to wrap themselves in a cartoon version of Ronald Reagan — a real conservative who raised taxes, including the gasoline tax, when he discovered his own cuts had gone too far — is fraudulent.

Our third great challenge is how we power our future — without dangerously polluting and warming the earth — as the global population grows from 7 billion to 9 billion people by 2050, and more and more of them want to drive, eat and live like Americans. Two billion more people who want to live like us? We can’t drill our way out of that challenge, which is why energy efficiency and clean power will be the next great global industry. Real conservatives — like Richard Nixon, the father of the Environmental Protection Agency, and George H.W. Bush, the author of the first cap-and-trade deal to curb acid rain — believe in conserving. The current Republican candidates are so captured by the oil and coal lobbies that they can’t think seriously about this huge opportunity for energy innovation.

Until the G.O.P. stops being radical and returns to being conservative, it won’t provide what the country needs most now — competition — competition with Democrats on the issues that will determine whether we thrive in the 21st century. We need to hear conservative fiscal policies, energy policies, immigration policies and public-private partnership concepts — not radical ones. Would somebody please restore our second party? The country is starved for a grown-up debate.

In case You Have Any Doubts

about who you want to lead us. Think about the incredibly dishonest performances we have watched in the republican debates and compare it to the performance you will see when you click on the link below. You may have to cut and paste to your browser.


The occasion was last week, when the Pres toasted Al Green at the Apollo Theater in NYC.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xbVNIWR9UA



Have great week end and hope the Newt wins......

You Tell Me!

GM reports today that they sold 900 million cars in 2011. They have returned to profitability and have out paced Toyota the previous number one car manufacturer in the world.

Now I ask you who beside the customers, management and shareholders of GM created the opportunity for that to happen?

Answer that question and then think carefully about the leadership we will choose this election year.

Peace

Happy Thanksgiving

Time to say count our blessings.

Well, here is a practical guide to survival during the holidays from Saturday's NY TImes. Amusing but some how hits the mark?



NOVEMBER 15, 2011, 7:04 PM
How Do I Not Lose My Marbles Stuck in the Car With My Father-in-Law?

By JEFF GORDINIER
Q.
Thanksgiving this year means my wife and I will have to pick up her father, a clueless sociopathic serial womanizer who basically talks about himself in a 24-minute clip that repeats endlessly. How do I not lose my marbles stuck in the car with this self-absorbed maniac?

A.
For decades there’s been a joke in Buddhist circles: A guy comes back from a retreat and tells his friend that he’s achieved enlightenment. To which his friend replies, “Wait until you have to spend the weekend with your parents.”

Thanksgiving, of course, is not only about food. It’s about sharing that food with people who grate on you and push buttons. Buddhists talk about the way we get trapped in the suffering of repeated cycles of existence. Sound familiar?

During the holidays, “we fall back into our ruts,” said Lama Surya Das, a 60-year-old Buddhist teacher and author. “People make holiday resolutions: ‘Oh, I’m not going to get mad at Uncle So-and-So, or at my mother or father.’ And how long does that last?”

His tips for breaking out of those crazy-making ruts are based on decades of teaching — and common sense. Sit next to people who annoy you the least. Avoid conversations about religion and politics. Drink in moderation. “Alcohol disinhibits, so people get a little more sloppy and less mindful and say things they wouldn’t,” he said. Try to empathize with family members who drive you bonkers.

“I try to see the Buddha in them,” he said. “See the light, the divinity in them. Even in the difficult ones.”

And if all else fails, tell yourself what the Buddha figured out: it’s all an illusion.

“I quote from the diamond wisdom sutra: This is just like a dream, like a fantasy, like a sitcom,” Lama Surya said. “And then I can laugh much more. You’ve got to keep a sense of humor about these things, and not expect the struggle to end.”

Please Read This!

Four years ago when I began this blog, I offered some insight into the goals of radical Islam. I recommended a book by Bruce Bowers called " While Europe Slept"

Radical Islam is not a religion; but an aggressive violent movement dedicated to the establishment of Sharia law with a take no prisoners approach. There is no compromise, no co-existence, and certainly no acceptance of the rights of women and men that the world has been striving toward for 5000 years of recorded history.

When Mubarak was ousted and the Arab Spring began, I wrote a blog to alert you to the fact that the Brotherhood was in the mix, had changed its tactics and was starting out to become part of society and the political process.

Why? Because to do other wise would have brought the rest of the world to its feet in response.

The tactic, as Bower pointed out five years ago, was to conquer by assimilation!

Friends please watch this youtube video and be aware of the real danger to our country(ies).

Please le me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN6CHtGGo4g

A SERIOUS QUESTION?

If you are a Republican or a Tea Party member what do you think of the candidates in the last week? Would love to hear from you. Can it be that Sarah will start to look really good shortly? Even Rudy?

As for the Democrats, you need not answer. I KNOW WHAT YOU THINK....YOU HAVE BEEN SENDING ME MATERIAL ALL WEEK THAT I SHALL PUBLISH SHORTLY.

Of course if you can not resist, send your comments along

I received several thoughtful responses to the blog published this week regarding the Israeli/Palestinian impasse.

The following is from a friend and colleague who is an Israeli by birth and lives there currently. English is his second or third language so I have edited some for clarity.


Dear Ted,

Thank you for forwarding your wonderful blog, also to my attention.

I couldn’t post my comment on the blog, however, will be grateful if you can do so.

Generally speaking – I do agree with the comment of your friend.

As another friend of you, please let me share with you and your follower, also with my view point –

1. As a moral people, we(Israelis) also are not innocent from mistakes. Over the last decades we are suffering from governments that are reluctant to govern. Thus, we should be rather “précised”( I think he means tolerant) with our attitude and actions.
2. We must consider the “Arab Spring” where dictatorship collapsed and an interim era begins. No one can predict what shall be in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and, even in Jordan (collection of tribes where the Palestinian are the majority…..). My guess is many years to come with chaos with the risk the extremists shall take control. Hence, the Youngsters that dreamed for a sort of open societies might forget about it.
3. Recently, Turkey had realized that they have a great chance to reestablish the ‘Othman Empire’. That’s how come the hug of the Arab countries (especially Egypt). Where are the European Countries on that matter? –
4. Reminder – there are about 6 Million Turkish in Germany, only…
5. Europe – demonstrating its “Double-Standard” policy. Looks at the Brits where the “multi-Coulture” seems to fail… Scandinavia – where the Muslims immigrants abuse the welfare-state .....France – where the North Africans are spoiling the language….
6. USA – it became (again) that the existing Administration has no “Foreign Policy”….. Above all, the first and immediate to be harmed are the Interests of America.
7. As a Jew I’m not willing to control other people rights to live in peace and freedom. My only question is – whether we have a “partner” for our wishes.

Shana Tova to you All,