THE WHITEWASHING OF LIZ CHENEY

What is with this preoccupation from the so-called ‘liberal’ media with Liz Cheney? Lately it seems, cable news channels MSNBC and CNN are lavishing endless hours of coverage to the rift between Cheney, a Republican congresswoman from Wyoming and daughter to former Vice President Dick Cheney, and the current GOP House leadership that’s loyal to Donald Trump.

Cheney had the audacity to vote for the former president’s impeachment due to his role in instigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection earlier this year. In retaliation, Trumpian House leaders seek to strip Cheney of her powerful committee assignments.

As a result of all this insider politics, Liz Cheney has been elevated as the new courageous hero for the ‘resistance’ by becoming the emblem for the GOP they falsely assert it once was, fact-based and rational. While Liz Cheney appears willing to sacrifice her House career by calling out Trump’s lies, lest we forget, she continues to support her father’s lies that led to untold amounts of death, bloodshed, and torture in the disastrous Iraq War. Liz Cheney is about as right wing as they come. She’s a warmonger who’s never met a war or bloated defense budget she didn’t love as she’s to the right of Trump on foreign policy. She’s vigorously opposed both COVID-19 relief acts calling the first one “a real tragedy”, and has attacked even the mildest responses to gun violence as an assault on the Second Amendment.

Amnesia seems to have gripped much of the mainstream liberal media these days as pundits continue to revise the legacy of the Bush-Cheney crowd, including the former vice president’s daughter, in a sympathetic, yet erroneous, recollection. Frankly, I won’t lose any sleep if Liz Cheney loses her clout in Congress.

So Goes The Nation…So Backslides Indiana

Amid the fanfare of becoming the first state to legalize recreational use of marijuana for non-medical customers, Colorado appears to be leading an inexorable trend toward relaxing pot laws that’s taking place in all of the United States…EXCEPT Indiana. Because of laws requested and signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence, Hoosiers actually have to deal with even stricter laws and penalties.

In a nutshell, Pence and the ultraconservative, GOP-controlled legislature revised reforms last year to actually increase possession from a misdemeanor to a felony. Ironically, these changes were initially intended to lessen marijuana penalties. During the debate, the Governor said he’s interested in reducing prison populations. "I think we need to focus on reducing crime not reducing penalties," Pence said.

Apparently, the Governor was not swayed by the statement made in 2012 by the head of the Indiana State Police.

While Pence remains resolute in his plans to clamp down on pot, some folks suggest that his motives may be laced with unethical and ulterior motives. From the Daily Kos, a diarist writes that Pence favors stricter penalties because it helps fill the beds in the state’s corporate prison system, whose parent company (the GEO Group) is a huge campaign donor.

“The Indiana governor wants to make possession of small amounts of marijuana a felony because, apparently, we aren't nearly hard enough on those non-violent pot smokers. Or something. Lurking beneath the surface is an insidious actor. The unmentioned hand of political influence guides his actions, as prison corporations like GEO own their candidates and wreck state criminal codes.”

According to followthemoney.org, GEO contributed $12,500 dollars in 2012 to the Pence gubernatorial campaign, and nearly $68,000 dollars campaigns statewide. From the Daily Kos:

“That (campaign) contribution made GEO one of Pence's top 30 corporate contributors, ranking in front of US Steel Corp, Caterpillar, and Koch Industries.”

If these assertions on Pence’s motives are true, then this information serves as one more contemptuous affirmation that the so-called ‘war on drugs’ is nothing more than a huge money-making scam for corporations and the political whores who serve at their beck and call.

Losing his base...

President Barack Obama could very well fail to win a second term. His decision to acquiesce once again to the GOP and allow the Bush tax cuts to continue may be the final straw. Keith Olbermann's latest commentary is one sure fire sign he's losing his base.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I believe the next few months will prove critical to Obama's political future.

AND SO THE MYTH CONTINUES…

Republicans still seem to have most Americans convinced that their way is the path to austerity and fiscal responsibility. Despite a contrary record of governance during nearly the last four decades, the GOP continues to campaign by boxing progressives into a corner using the old name calling, sucker punch tactic: calling Democrats “big spenders”.

But now this image has grown to be so entrenched, the 44th President of United States, who was elected just two years ago on a left-of-center mandate of change, has allowed himself to be portrayed as one. While yielding to yet another Republican talking point, President Obama has offered to freeze the pay of civilian federal workers for two years.



A federal pay freeze isn’t the worst idea on the table. At least it’s better than federal job cuts, which is what many in the GOP want.

But what’s so troubling about this latest effort at bipartisanship isn’t so much the nuts and bolts behind the idea, but the consequences it will have on public perception. Obama’s federal pay freeze idea reinforces this false notion that Democrats are ‘big spenders’.
Why has Obama ceded this argument when the record clearly shows that the GOP has been the party that’s run up biggest deficits?

And what makes this idea so depraved is that it’s an ineffective and unnecessary gimmick that puts undue hardship on many hardworking Americans who aren’t exactly rolling in the lap of luxury. It’s a penny-ante, symbolic debt reduction measure that totally ignores areas where huge cuts could be made, such as two needless and seemingly never-ending wars.

President Obama is in a lose-lose situation. He’s allowing his foes to frame the debate by inaccurately manipulating the public’s perception of him and his party. Plus, he’s appearing weak and spineless to his political base.