THE HAGEL NOMINATION

Senate Republicans are filibustering again. Senate leadership tried but only got three or four members to cross the aisle and failed to get 60 votes to bring the nominee for Defense Secretary to a vote on the floor. The Candidate Chuck Hagel was voted out of committee on a straight party-line vote. There's quite a bit to learn in this latest Beltway drama. There's a new Senator Cruz who is called "Nasty" on the Op-Ed page of the Times. GOP Senator John McCain, a critic of Hagel, chewed out this raw new kid from Harvard and Texas in the Armed Services Committee hearing on Hagel, for his lack of respect for the decorated Viet Nam veteran, Senator Hagel. The kid had some wild notions of financial corruption regarding Saudi Arabia that he was spewing. He's a Tea Party favorite who makes up stuff. But the story out of Washington is that GOP Senators just need a little more time to study the Hagel record - on Israel, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, and the Pentagon. They will do this in the next ten days of vacation. Or rather their staff will stay in town at their desks and pore over the files while the Senators leave town. Senator McCain assures us that he will vote to bring the nomination to the floor when the "recess" is over - in ten days. Chuck Hagel is widely expected to be confirmed then, "if there are no blockbusters discovered." Wait a minute. A ten-day recess? The Congress just started its new term in January. We had an inauguration, a State of the Union speech. A few committee hearings - Congress only convenes between Tuesday and Thursday. And on February 15 they have recessed until the 26th! Good luck, Mr. Hagel! This week our Representative Rick Nolan reported that Congress is scheduled to report to work only 32 out of the 52 weeks in 2013. Our hopes to get a budget, get action on firearms, immigration, global climate, unemployment, housing foreclosures, or the post office, seem awfully slim if just confirming the President's choice to run the Pentagon is so difficult. Why are these congress persons getting salaries and big pensions, anyway?

MY VIEW OF 2012

The news this year has not inspired confidence in America's governance or in the outlook for a troubled globe. I continue to frame my views of events as one who served his country while young. Now as an older guy, my experiences in industry and politics have helped to inform my viewpoint here in the North Country. These are some selected postings from "The Opinions of a Navy Vet." April 17 TAXES ARE PAID May 25 AMERICA'S BEST DAYS June 2 MERCHANTS OF DEATH June 10 POLITICAL MONEY June 27 THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT July 4 THE JOB CREATION MYTH July 28 ELECTIONS - FIXING GOVERNMENT September 6 BROKEN POLITICS September 15 A DIPLOMAT HAS DIED September 22 THE 47 PER CENT November 3, 21 THE PEOPLE DECIDE, CONSEQUENCES December 8 FISCAL BUNK These commentaries are found on this blog, http://deregulate-gord.blogspot.com.

FIREARMS SAFETY

Firearms safety is on my mind December 15th. It is now a national issue beyond politics. Rapid-fire weapons and their large ammo clips must be banned and removed from commerce. Federal and State officials need to receive an avalanche of citizen outrage. The USA weaponizes the world.

FISCAL BUNK

The news media has a current story that dominates every channel and every newspaper. It's the "fiscal cliff" that the country will tumble over at the end of the year, unless... Unless there is "grand bargain" between the Republicans who tried to hold up the government over the debt limit and the Administration that is trying to put the economy on a recovery track. Watching this political theater, with a "super committee" of Congress that failed to make the grand bargain, and the looming disaster intended to force the bargain, would be hugely entertaining, if it wasn't proof that the present Congress is hopeless. Republicans believe that ending Bush's income tax cuts on millionaires (returning them to the tax rates from the Clinton years) is going to somehow keep these rich guys from hiring more workers. Bunk. Workers get jobs when there is more demand for products and services. We've got a Jobs Problem not a Debt Problem. And we've got a broken infrastructure problem. Trains derailing. Bridges collapsing. Pipelines leaking. A shortage of affordable housing. We can put people to work, not by giving rich guys tax breaks, but by giving governments the funds to rebuild roads, bridges, rail lines, and air traffic control. We can convert spending for unneeded weapons into rebuilding this nation's structures, school systems, and public services. We need to learn again how to talk about people in this economy. Folks are rich, and they are poor. Some are in the middle. We have the elite, and we have the down- trodden. Yes, in America. The 99 per cent are not "Middle Class." There is an upper-, upper-middle-, middle-, lower-middle-, and a lower class. Everybody except the upper-class has not been getting ahead for a long time. It's no secret. In the recession that began in 2007 millions have fallen down from their place on this scale. Some losing jobs, many losing their homes, and too many losing hope in a system that has failed them. Now we hear the absurd and cruel suggestion that taking away some of the earned social security payments and some of the Medicare benefits from the elderly is the best way to avoid that made-up fiscal tumble off a cliff. We voted down the presidential candidate with these ideas. Getting the country back to work and out of debt will take some sacrifices. "Shared sacrifice" - from corporate elites, from wealthy heirs, and from ordinary citizens. Let's get on with the job and cut out the silly theater from Congress.

CONSEQUENCES

Elections have consequences. Two weeks ago the President led a vigorous Democratic reelection/renewal campaign to victory. National attempts at voter suppression and gay marriage division by Republicans boomeranged. Minnesota voters defeated consitutional amendments requiring photo ID for voters and a same-sex marriage ban. Then they overturned GOP control of both state houses. The U.S. Senate Democratic majority increased by two senators, and the Republican majority in the House was dimished by eight representatives. It is time, as Senator Amy Klobuchar puts it, for grown-ups in our nation's capital to get back to work on the people's business.

THE PEOPLE DECIDE

Tens of millions of dollars of political TV advertising are assaulting us as we search for entertainment in these pre-election days. You don't need to be a "Fact Checker" to identify some downright scarey stuff on the tube - over and over again! For much of it we can thank a Supreme Court that invited unlimited and anonymous money into the election. (Note: the future President appoints any new justices.) Is the voting public able sort out what they need to know to cast an informed ballot? Or has this democracy morphed into a government of the money, by the money, and for the money? Shifting TV focus for now - to the terrible destruction seen on the Atlantic Coast, where surging waters and driving winds have punished millions, and shown a nation what the future could look like. This image could radically change a "Climate of Denial" in America. Denial of climate change by Washington politicians killed action in Congress on "Cap and Trade" legislation a few years ago. These deniers insist that overwhelming majorities of respected climate scientists are mistaken when they they conclude that the globe is warming, that polar ice caps are melting, and that coastal regions are in jeopardy from rising sea level. (Like New York City and Eastern New Jersey) Today's political candidates don't all "deny" climate change phenomena. But most of them from both major parties have ignored it! However, Governor Christie and Mayor Bloomberg cannot ignore or deny the extreme weather that scientists predicted would come our way. The issue that was absent all year is now cruelly in front of everyone. So in just two days the people will decide. Which President? Which Congress? Which Legislature? What kind of campaign do we want next time? If you can decide, go and vote.

The 47 Per Cent

With a little more than forty days left in this heated presidential election campaign I have started paying close attention. This week I learned that I was part of Mitt Romney's 47 per cent who paid zero Federal Income Tax in 2011. However, for 2010 I did pay some income tax. Since Governor Romney only considers these past two years important for tax records, I looked no further. This makes me something of a dependent guy - not taking much responsibility himself. Possibly so, when you ignore the sales taxes we pay, and the property taxes on real estate and farmland that I own. With only 17 years of federal service in the U.S. Navy I cannot claim a pension for my military career. As a college NROTC midshipman, my four years of Naval Science and Summer Active Duty Training didn't count as service time. My shipmates from the Naval Academy started their commissioned service with a full four years, even though we were commissioned regular officers on the same date. Since I paid no federal tax last year let's see how I have made out as a veteran and a retiree. My wife and I collected about $25,300 from Social Security, and it was not taxable income. We paid the government $2,316 for our Medicare cards. (We are over age 65 and "retired.") This brings us to Gov. Romney's age, 65 years. I guess his primary job in recent years has been "managing his personal investments." Apparently this has paid him pretty well. But it puts him in the lowest tax bracket with geezers like me who have plenty of deductions to keep our taxable income down. Maybe I have more in common with the GOP candidate than I thought.