The madman

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Cliff Stearns, Rep (R.Fl.), and the most important issues

[Photo from newsbelly]

Cliff Stearns, who hails from central Florida, and has, unfortunately, been elected too many damn times to the U.S. Congress by the teapot crackpots who dominate politics in this area, is a typical Repugnican water-carrier for the powerful and the wealthy.

Stearns, representing the rich and the religious right of Florida's 6th Congressional District is very concerned about certain issues which almost invariably work against the poor and the middle-class, and which often constitute an attack on our Constitution.


1)  Just recently, Stearns was delighted to learn that a federal judge had ruled that White House visitor logs should be made public.  Stearns wants to know who visits President Obama and officials in the White House, how long they stay, and, if he had his way, what they talked about.  The Secret Service had opposed this notion claiming that it would possibly compromise national security.

In reality, Stearns' involvement in this issue was just another way to harass President Obama by intimidating that he and his staff may be hiding some anti-American friends in the sacred halls of the West Wing.

2)  Not so long ago, Stearns was able to get an attachment to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 which forced the FBI to screen thousands of emergency responders to the events of 9/11.  Stearns is terribly concerned that some of these first responders might have terrorist ties.  And he just doesn't want such terrorist tied people to receive federal funds.

Thus far, the FBI has screened over 60,000 first responders and hasn't found a terrorist among them.


But there's some other things people need to know about Mr. Stearns.  Right this very minute he's hard at work restoring our economy.  And how is he going to do this?  With tax cuts for the rich!  Of course.  Everyone knows that when the rich get tax cuts they run out and start new businesses and hire lots of unemployed people and everyone is happy again!

It's the typical Repugnican bullshit, but it works too often 'cause so many dumb asses and low wage-earners really believe that they, too, will someday find the pot of gold at the end of the American rainbow. 

Stearns voted to kill health care for all Americans.  He's very concerned that no taxpayer money be used to fund abortions.  If he had his way he would outlaw all abortions.  (He's all for freedom, of course, unless that freedom is used to do something against his religion!).  He likes guns and thinks there should be reciprocity for concealed weapons carriers across all state lines.  He also believes and supports the idea of a Fair Tax, which would shift the rest of the tax burden from the already wealthy to the already poor!

Stearns voted Nay to increase the debt limit and keep our nation from defaulting.  He voted Aye on the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which was simply another Repugnican gimmick to cut out the social safety net in our country.  As already noted, he voted Aye to repeal the Health Care Law.  He voted Aye to continue tax breaks for the rich.  He voted Nay on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (this also because he thinks sexual freedom should be limited by his religious beliefs!)

Religious freedom is important to Stearns.  But what he means by that is that his religion - a very conservative version of Christianity - should be the law of the land.  Thus he sponsored one bill which would amend the Constitution to restore "religious freedom."  That, of course, has nothing to do with freedom but rather with giving the government the right to impose Christian beliefs on the rest of us!

One gets a better understanding of Mr. Stearns' beliefs by noting that he introduced a resolution in the House to "honor" the life of Dr. James Kennedy.  Dr. James Kennedy was an ultra-right wingnut from Coral Springs, Florida.  Kennedy pastored a large church there for years which had a huge television audience.  Kennedy was a Dominionist, which means he intended to "restore" Christianity as the religion under which all Americans lived and that the Christian Bible would replace our Constitution as the law of the land.


When one reads about Stearns and his career in Congress, and when one realizes that there are many other representatives in Congress who are just as goofy or more goofy than he is, it becomes clear why our nation is bogged down and going nowhere.

We need jobs.  We need revenue.  We need to shrink the military and the Pentagon's budget and bring our imperialistic forces home from the Middle East and most everywhere else in the world.  We need to begin restoring our infrastructure which is rapidly and dangerously deteriorating.  We need to tackle global warming which is creating huge climate changes/disturbances right now.  We need to work on new ways to create clean energy and get rid of our reliance on fossil fuels.  We could decrease our deficit considerably by cutting out subsidies to the oil companies!  We need to build newer and better PUBLIC schools.  We need to stop privatizing everything under the sun.  We need to support and build up our postal system.  We need to do a thousand things and we need to do them now.

But too many people in Congress like Stearns are more interesting in imposing their religious views on the nation than in helping the nation get backs on its feet.  Too many like Stearns play to the fears of the great unwashed rather than try to deal with the real problems that we have.  Too many people in Congress like Stearns are bought and paid for by corporate overlords and thus have sold their souls and are no longer capable of representing the people of their districts or states.


This becomes immediately and vividly clear when you consider all the recent Repugnican blather about the deficit.  The deficit is not Obama's fault.  Mr. Obama inherited an economy devastated by two unpaid-for wars, by huge deficit spending on the part of Bush and the Repugnicans.  Just about every single proposal made by President Obama over the past two years to deal with the problems of our country have been fought tooth and nail by Repugnicans and their leaders who from the outset of Obama's term declared their one goal was to make sure Obama was defeated in 2012.


In other words, for eight years under Georgi Bushki II, nary a peep was heard from the Repugnican side of the aisle as to the incredible waste of taxpayer dollars on illegal war-mongering, on spending projects which benefited the red states, or on wasteful spending which decimated the huge budget surplus left Bushki by President Clinton.


All the hew and cry about the deficit is 1) a Repugnican smoke-screen to obscure the real problems in this country, and 2) an attempt to make the deficit appear to be Obama's fault and thus bring to fruition the Repugnican goal of bringing Obama down in 2012!


There's more on Stearn's attempt to root out 9/11 terrorist responders here.