Politics again
So it's that time when politics makes me crazy(er).
With the pick of Paul Ryan I decided to read the whole Republican platform... I need a drink after that.. but I'm amazed at the world that Republicans live in.
A lot of this stuff is just my rambles....I sometimes think I'll burst a brain vessel if I don't vent. With my horrible punctuation I don't know if it will even make sense. Whatever it's just to ease my mind.
1. RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM
a) Job creation - sure sounds good, everyone likes the idea of more jobs.
b) Help for small businesses - again sounds good, we all like this idea.
c) Tax cuts...here I start to get annoyed
1) The "Bush" tax cuts are one of the BIGGEST problems we face in terms of the deficit (along with the freakin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan)
2) Eliminating the tax on interest and dividends? WTF?? why so rich people can be more rich? why wouldn't it be considered income just like any other?
3) Eliminate the death tax? Again why? just because Great-Grandad made millions as a robber baron doesn't mean his grandkids, great-grandkids, etc should live without a concern. A healthy amount should be passed on with a no tax...a few million dollars. After that it get's taxed at the highest tax rate. With all the benefits that will come from being in a family that rich, the offspring should be able to stand on their own with only a few Million to start them off.
d) Being globally competitive - sure sounds good. I think both sides like this idea.
e) Tax exempt status for churches and charities. Nope... I've wanted this changed forever. Many churches and charities have become political entities and I don't want them being tax free.
1) No national sales tax unless income tax is repealed....I don't think this is a good or bad idea... I like the idea of a NST along with a greatly reduced income tax, but don't think the numbers would add up.
f) Balanced budget...lots of talk...*cough*2wars*cough*tax cuts*cough bunch of hypocrites.
g) Audit the Federal reserve - here is one that I like! good idea
1) going back to a silver or gold currency ... okay idea but not feasible in today's world
h) Housing crisis - blah blah blah a lot of talk, but saying the Frank-Dodd bill is bad (and it was only a watered down version of the Glass-Seagal act) is just silly...big banks caused our financial crisis, deregulation caused it.
i) Reducing Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac - yes a good idea. Putting the US government as the guarantor was necessary because of the trouble that banks and mortgage lenders got us into. I'd like to see ALL of them reduced but that isn't part of the Republican platform.
j) Building our nations infrastructure - bunch of hypocrites again! the whole convention is about "YES I DID BUILD IT"....except...you didn't build the roads, the bridges, the damns, the plumbing, the electrical grid.. you want to take credit for your small business that's great...but think about the electricity, water and internet you're using!
1) Oh and everywhere in the platform they Republicans want to get rid of the EPA - talk about a bad idea. It's funny in one section they even comment that the air and water are getting cleaner...LOL and you know why?? BECAUSE OF THE EPA and REGULATIONS.... almost no companies in the world will clean up their trash on their own, especially if it will be at a cost!
k) International fair trade - This is about the only item on the whole platform that I like a lot! Make international trade fair for the US, particularly in regards to China.
l) 21t Century workforce - a lot of blah blah blah, the platform is want against unions - Bad But it does push for employee owned corporations - good
m) Freedom in the workplace - too complex for this...unions have done and continue to do a lot of good in our country. Are they also part of the problem? yes. Freedom from a union is a good thing but giving a corporation/boss no checks/balance on what it can do leads to a marginalized middle class.
2. WE THE PEOPLE
a) restoration of the constitution - lots of hypocrisy here...talking about recess appointments, czars, executive orders *cough*Bush*cough*. Contempt of congress *cough*Rove*cough* and other crap, that is basically okay for them to do but not the other side.
b) Defending Marriage - a big fuck off!
c) Sacred Contract - another big fuck off!
d) Constitutional Budget - requires a super majority to increase taxes....we have that in California and it doesn't work.
e) Federalism and the 10th Amendment... again a very large idea that encompass' many things. I like the idea that rights go back to the states: education, taxes, commerce, guns, marriage, etc. The problem is that we are a mobile society and those kinds of things then make everything impossible and also leads to all kinds of discrimination.
f) Continuation of the Electoral college...meh whatever
g) Voter integrity - even though there have been very few (if any) voter fraud reported in the last century, the Republicans insist it's a big problem. And of course in those STATES that have vote by mail they want to take that right away from them....*cough*hypocrites*cough*
h) 1st Amendment - Freedom of Religion...so much hypocrisy it's hard to read. The quote "The most offensive instance of this war on religion has been the current Administration’s attempt to compel faith-related institutions, as well as believing individuals, to contravene their deeply held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs regarding health services, traditional marriage, or abortion." Fuck off! (lets see if they republicans would be as willing to defend the Morman practice of multiple wives, or the Muslim belief not to charge interest...oh wait they don't defend those. And they defend the Boy Scouts to discriminate against gays...but would they give Atheists equal opportunity to discriminate against Christians? of course not! The hypocrisy is sickening!
i) Freedom of Speech - another absurd part of the platform. The whole defense of Citizens United...that there should be no cap on spending in elections, that corporations should be free to spend whatever they like ANONYMOUSLY on elections and this is all some how good for our country. Fuck off!
j) Defense of the 2nd amendment - I'm okay with citizens having weapons. I don't have any problem with it. What I find crazy is that the platform is against registering guns?? They want to make sure every voter shows ID...to prevent voter fraud (which hardly if ever happens) but they don't want to register guns to track them down in crimes?? WTF? Crazy!
k) Defense of the 4th amendment - no drones...I'm cool with that.
l) Defense of the 5th amendment - less use of eminent domain...I'm cool with that (but I do find it hypocritical that later they defend using it for the keystone pipeline)
m) Defense of the 9th amendment - a lot of blah blah blah
n) Respect our Flag - HYPOCRITES! that should be s state matter or a freedom of speech matter that you were just defending! Fuck off!
o) American Sovereignty in US courts - I agree with this. Particularly as long as we have bases all over the world. I want our solders tried by our laws and our courts. If we minded our own business and weren't everywhere...and our boys were someplace they shouldn't be...then I'd be up for them being punished according to local law but not when they are there because our government sent them there.
3. AMERICA'S NATURAL RESOURCES
I can't even type my replies to most of this...it's all crap, a bunch of BS, hypocrisy or another 6 ways to say the EPA is bad.
a) the only item that didn't suck was talking about protection of Family farms... I mentioned before that I think a modest but nice amount of wealth should be passed on to family tax free. I think in the case of family farms that number should be higher, for the value of the land and equipment, not actual cash/stocks/bonds etc.
b) One of the worst parts was the idea that federal land should be sold off to private citizens because they will 'take care of it' wow...what a crock that is! Oh yeah...along with get rid of the EPA, ignore the US Corps of Engineers because they obviously don't have business in mind....the fail just doesn't end!
4. REFORMING GOVERNMENT
a) Saving medicare and b) medicaid... now we all know that both need to be changed and fixed. They are insolvent in the long term, unfortunately the best chance we would have had for fixing it was trashed by the Republicans when they got shot down any talk of a one payer system.
c) Ensuring retirement benefits. Another area where I agree with the platform, the age of Social Security does need to change, as medicine advances so does life expectancy. As that happens people will need to work longer or at least not be able to collect it to later. Also pension plans all over the country do need to be examined and forced to meet certain standards...so funny that the platform is in favor of this kind of regulation but doesn't think it's beneficial to have regulations on pollution.
d) Regulatory reform....then they take any good they might have had and just go bat shit crazy. Get rid of the EPA, Frank-Dodd, OSHA! (OSHA?? safety for our workers is bad now??) and of course Obamacare (nevermind that the COB projects it SAVING money)
d) The Internet - oh man... so much hypocrisy again it's hard to even read. The idea of net-neutrality is bad because it prevents private corporations from stepping up and getting internet access to 100%. The platform does recognize that the internet advances fast and as such needs some new rules...but their idea is basically...let the corporations figure it out. FAIL!
e) No more "Too Big to Fail" - what a shock, even more hypocrisy and mind bending logic. So deregulation led to "too big to fail", which led to "We the People" being put on the hook for the guarantee's of Freddie and Fannie...so the best way to fix that....deregulate more! I kid you not that is what it says.
f) Judicial activism - not even pretending not to be hypocritical in this one. The quote "Despite improvements as a result of Republican nominations to the judiciary, some judges in the federal courts remain far afield from their constitutional limitations" In other words...it's okay to be an activist judge if you are Republican.
g) Post office - There are problems with the Post office and it's long term solvency and it has to be looked at for long term cost reductions, efficiency and the inevitable increase in electronic communications. If it was treated like every other Federal Agency however it wouldn't be in the dire financial straits it's in... I wish Congress had to keep tabs on it's own Pension, Health and Welfare costs, like they make the Post office.
h) Legal Immigrants - meh...I do agree that illegal immigrants shouldn't be given status before legal immigrants and they shouldn't be entitled to state benefits. But Children shouldn't be prosecuted because of their parents and fences don't do much. It's a complicated problem and requires more than a paragraph to fix.
i) American Natives - I admit I haven't read much about Indian issues. So I can't say I have an informed opinion. I like the idea of honoring the Indians and letting them govern themselves as much as possible. However since we've stuck them into reserves there is an onus on us to help them with a myriad of subjects.
j) District of Colombia - blah blah blah...blame the democrats for all the troubles...and we oppose statehood for the area. Fail
k) Civil Service - blah blah blah...it's funny that Obama has had the smallest public sector growth in decades but the Republicans act like he's grown it uncontrollably ...*cough*hypocrites*cough*
l) America in space. Not sure if this is just a bunch of smoke but it sounds good. More space, more NASA, more SCIENCE (which you can't conveniently ignore when you're preaching your dumb fuck creationsim!)
m) Territories....not a subject I have read about.
5. RENEWING AMERICAN VALUES
Lots and lots of fail here....
a)Traditional marriage only..Fail (really big fail that I'm tired of hearing them talk about)
b)Getting rid of poverty safety nets..Fail (although I do think they could be streamlined and made FAR more efficient)
c) Support for adopted families - good!
d) Internet needs to be family friendly - not bad, but hypocritical. You want to make it safe for children...very good. But say gambling online is bad...what about that responsibility you talk about with home ownership? Also shouldn't gambling be a state controlled function?
e) Advancing American with disabilities - good!
f) Repeal Obamacare - Fail
g) Republican healthcare - Fail (it basically says that most health problems are life style choices??)
h) Consumer choice in Healthcare - not bad but won't achieve much without MUCH broader fixing
i) Federal Research and Development - Fail, fail and more fail. All this talk of personal responsibility but assisted suicide for terminal patients is no good. You'll suffer and spend money because we say so! Fuck off!
j) Reform the FDA - good (reform not eliminate!)
k) Tort reform - hmmmm having had a dear friend killed by a doctor with multiple malpractice suits against him and still unable to get him fired, I would be in favor of Tort reform if we could get stronger criminal charges against doctors that are guilty of malfeasance.
l) Education - oh boy...so much bullshit. It sounds good....merit pay for good teachers, strong math, science and engineering courses, choice for parents.... yeah all good words. Not much of it actually followed by Republicans...they want vouchers to send kids to schools that don't teach science but mythical creationism, they want to reward teachers for good scores but not acknowledging that bad scores are at LEAST as much caused by bad parents as by bad teachers.
1) Abstinence only sex ed - SUPER FAIL
2) English First - FAIL
3) Limit tenure - good
4) Ending social promotion - good
5) Protect teachers from "frivolous" litigation to maintain discipline - good (and I'd add if it is found to be not frivolous then criminal charges)
6) Universities should be balanced - good (and hopefully by being balanced any smart student will see the bullshit all over our politics! Unfortunately for the Republicans I think the universities are far more balanced then they think...the Republicans are just a lot more full of crap)
m) Prison ...both good and bad
1) Mandatory sentences - meh, life isn't black and white and often there are circumstances. (I wouldn't be so opposed to this if they got rid of the "War on Drugs")
2) Mandatory sentences on people who attack law enforcement - good! (I'd even say great) Convicted criminals are not eligible for monetary compensation for harm done while committing their crimes. Good (and hard to imagine that anyone would argue that one)
3) Accountability courts and/or faith based intervention - good (I think both sides agree on this)
4) Some hypocrisy ...the platform goes on about how more crimes have become federal and should be state but before that says the drug sellers should be prosecuted federally.
6. AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
This part is hard to get into it's so full of War Monger....Obama is bad for cutting defense. Obama is bad for the upcoming sequestration automatic cuts (that were Republican in origin). Obama is bad for not going to war with North Korea, Iran, Russia and China. Obama is bad because he hasn't killed the cyber-terrorists yet. Obama is bad for not letting corporations handle our cyber security. Obama is bad for letting the gays into the military. Obama is bad for letting our Solders get depressed after service and commit suicide. If he let more Chaplains with Bibles talk to them it would be fixed. ....all fail.
a) We should honor and help our veterans - GOOD! both sides say this, but don't do much.
b) We should help our vet's return to civilian life and their families - GOOD! (but again both say it, neither wants to pay for it)
c) Don't give sovereign powers to the UN - good
d) Don't let our troops be governed by non US courts - good
e) Withhold any aid from groups that might provide an abortion - bad
f) Protect Human Rights - basically protect Christians living overseas...really. It says quote "Religious minorities across the Middle East are being driven from their ancient homelands, fanaticism leaves its bloody mark on both West and East Africa, and even among America’s Western friends and allies, pastors and families are penalized for their religious convictions."
g) Giving foreign aid is good, giving it to Religious groups is better since they aren't corrupted by governments and make sure not to give out condoms or provide abortions. (I am so sick of the Republicans religious CRAP)
h) Combat human trafficking - good
Then a bunch of right leaning propaganda about the rest of world, some good, some bad but a lot of blah blah blah.
So overall it's nothing really new... more tea party, religious, war mongering, with a few decent bits thrown in. Unfortunately the best bits are the ones I think are mostly smoke...all the talk about better schools and more math, science and engineering....they don't like science! It's apparent in any conversation on the subject. I think it boils down to three things....Christianity (not any religions...just that one religion), Corportism (the world is the oyster of the corporations and you should be lucky to eat the scraps from them), and Military (we will kick your foreign asses if you don't do it the way of our Christianity and our Corporations).
Not that I had been really thinking about it...but I won't be voting Republican this year.
With the pick of Paul Ryan I decided to read the whole Republican platform... I need a drink after that.. but I'm amazed at the world that Republicans live in.
A lot of this stuff is just my rambles....I sometimes think I'll burst a brain vessel if I don't vent. With my horrible punctuation I don't know if it will even make sense. Whatever it's just to ease my mind.
1. RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM
a) Job creation - sure sounds good, everyone likes the idea of more jobs.
b) Help for small businesses - again sounds good, we all like this idea.
c) Tax cuts...here I start to get annoyed
1) The "Bush" tax cuts are one of the BIGGEST problems we face in terms of the deficit (along with the freakin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan)
2) Eliminating the tax on interest and dividends? WTF?? why so rich people can be more rich? why wouldn't it be considered income just like any other?
3) Eliminate the death tax? Again why? just because Great-Grandad made millions as a robber baron doesn't mean his grandkids, great-grandkids, etc should live without a concern. A healthy amount should be passed on with a no tax...a few million dollars. After that it get's taxed at the highest tax rate. With all the benefits that will come from being in a family that rich, the offspring should be able to stand on their own with only a few Million to start them off.
d) Being globally competitive - sure sounds good. I think both sides like this idea.
e) Tax exempt status for churches and charities. Nope... I've wanted this changed forever. Many churches and charities have become political entities and I don't want them being tax free.
1) No national sales tax unless income tax is repealed....I don't think this is a good or bad idea... I like the idea of a NST along with a greatly reduced income tax, but don't think the numbers would add up.
f) Balanced budget...lots of talk...*cough*2wars*cough*tax cuts*cough bunch of hypocrites.
g) Audit the Federal reserve - here is one that I like! good idea
1) going back to a silver or gold currency ... okay idea but not feasible in today's world
h) Housing crisis - blah blah blah a lot of talk, but saying the Frank-Dodd bill is bad (and it was only a watered down version of the Glass-Seagal act) is just silly...big banks caused our financial crisis, deregulation caused it.
i) Reducing Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac - yes a good idea. Putting the US government as the guarantor was necessary because of the trouble that banks and mortgage lenders got us into. I'd like to see ALL of them reduced but that isn't part of the Republican platform.
j) Building our nations infrastructure - bunch of hypocrites again! the whole convention is about "YES I DID BUILD IT"....except...you didn't build the roads, the bridges, the damns, the plumbing, the electrical grid.. you want to take credit for your small business that's great...but think about the electricity, water and internet you're using!
1) Oh and everywhere in the platform they Republicans want to get rid of the EPA - talk about a bad idea. It's funny in one section they even comment that the air and water are getting cleaner...LOL and you know why?? BECAUSE OF THE EPA and REGULATIONS.... almost no companies in the world will clean up their trash on their own, especially if it will be at a cost!
k) International fair trade - This is about the only item on the whole platform that I like a lot! Make international trade fair for the US, particularly in regards to China.
l) 21t Century workforce - a lot of blah blah blah, the platform is want against unions - Bad But it does push for employee owned corporations - good
m) Freedom in the workplace - too complex for this...unions have done and continue to do a lot of good in our country. Are they also part of the problem? yes. Freedom from a union is a good thing but giving a corporation/boss no checks/balance on what it can do leads to a marginalized middle class.
2. WE THE PEOPLE
a) restoration of the constitution - lots of hypocrisy here...talking about recess appointments, czars, executive orders *cough*Bush*cough*. Contempt of congress *cough*Rove*cough* and other crap, that is basically okay for them to do but not the other side.
b) Defending Marriage - a big fuck off!
c) Sacred Contract - another big fuck off!
d) Constitutional Budget - requires a super majority to increase taxes....we have that in California and it doesn't work.
e) Federalism and the 10th Amendment... again a very large idea that encompass' many things. I like the idea that rights go back to the states: education, taxes, commerce, guns, marriage, etc. The problem is that we are a mobile society and those kinds of things then make everything impossible and also leads to all kinds of discrimination.
f) Continuation of the Electoral college...meh whatever
g) Voter integrity - even though there have been very few (if any) voter fraud reported in the last century, the Republicans insist it's a big problem. And of course in those STATES that have vote by mail they want to take that right away from them....*cough*hypocrites*cough*
h) 1st Amendment - Freedom of Religion...so much hypocrisy it's hard to read. The quote "The most offensive instance of this war on religion has been the current Administration’s attempt to compel faith-related institutions, as well as believing individuals, to contravene their deeply held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs regarding health services, traditional marriage, or abortion." Fuck off! (lets see if they republicans would be as willing to defend the Morman practice of multiple wives, or the Muslim belief not to charge interest...oh wait they don't defend those. And they defend the Boy Scouts to discriminate against gays...but would they give Atheists equal opportunity to discriminate against Christians? of course not! The hypocrisy is sickening!
i) Freedom of Speech - another absurd part of the platform. The whole defense of Citizens United...that there should be no cap on spending in elections, that corporations should be free to spend whatever they like ANONYMOUSLY on elections and this is all some how good for our country. Fuck off!
j) Defense of the 2nd amendment - I'm okay with citizens having weapons. I don't have any problem with it. What I find crazy is that the platform is against registering guns?? They want to make sure every voter shows ID...to prevent voter fraud (which hardly if ever happens) but they don't want to register guns to track them down in crimes?? WTF? Crazy!
k) Defense of the 4th amendment - no drones...I'm cool with that.
l) Defense of the 5th amendment - less use of eminent domain...I'm cool with that (but I do find it hypocritical that later they defend using it for the keystone pipeline)
m) Defense of the 9th amendment - a lot of blah blah blah
n) Respect our Flag - HYPOCRITES! that should be s state matter or a freedom of speech matter that you were just defending! Fuck off!
o) American Sovereignty in US courts - I agree with this. Particularly as long as we have bases all over the world. I want our solders tried by our laws and our courts. If we minded our own business and weren't everywhere...and our boys were someplace they shouldn't be...then I'd be up for them being punished according to local law but not when they are there because our government sent them there.
3. AMERICA'S NATURAL RESOURCES
I can't even type my replies to most of this...it's all crap, a bunch of BS, hypocrisy or another 6 ways to say the EPA is bad.
a) the only item that didn't suck was talking about protection of Family farms... I mentioned before that I think a modest but nice amount of wealth should be passed on to family tax free. I think in the case of family farms that number should be higher, for the value of the land and equipment, not actual cash/stocks/bonds etc.
b) One of the worst parts was the idea that federal land should be sold off to private citizens because they will 'take care of it' wow...what a crock that is! Oh yeah...along with get rid of the EPA, ignore the US Corps of Engineers because they obviously don't have business in mind....the fail just doesn't end!
4. REFORMING GOVERNMENT
a) Saving medicare and b) medicaid... now we all know that both need to be changed and fixed. They are insolvent in the long term, unfortunately the best chance we would have had for fixing it was trashed by the Republicans when they got shot down any talk of a one payer system.
c) Ensuring retirement benefits. Another area where I agree with the platform, the age of Social Security does need to change, as medicine advances so does life expectancy. As that happens people will need to work longer or at least not be able to collect it to later. Also pension plans all over the country do need to be examined and forced to meet certain standards...so funny that the platform is in favor of this kind of regulation but doesn't think it's beneficial to have regulations on pollution.
d) Regulatory reform....then they take any good they might have had and just go bat shit crazy. Get rid of the EPA, Frank-Dodd, OSHA! (OSHA?? safety for our workers is bad now??) and of course Obamacare (nevermind that the COB projects it SAVING money)
d) The Internet - oh man... so much hypocrisy again it's hard to even read. The idea of net-neutrality is bad because it prevents private corporations from stepping up and getting internet access to 100%. The platform does recognize that the internet advances fast and as such needs some new rules...but their idea is basically...let the corporations figure it out. FAIL!
e) No more "Too Big to Fail" - what a shock, even more hypocrisy and mind bending logic. So deregulation led to "too big to fail", which led to "We the People" being put on the hook for the guarantee's of Freddie and Fannie...so the best way to fix that....deregulate more! I kid you not that is what it says.
f) Judicial activism - not even pretending not to be hypocritical in this one. The quote "Despite improvements as a result of Republican nominations to the judiciary, some judges in the federal courts remain far afield from their constitutional limitations" In other words...it's okay to be an activist judge if you are Republican.
g) Post office - There are problems with the Post office and it's long term solvency and it has to be looked at for long term cost reductions, efficiency and the inevitable increase in electronic communications. If it was treated like every other Federal Agency however it wouldn't be in the dire financial straits it's in... I wish Congress had to keep tabs on it's own Pension, Health and Welfare costs, like they make the Post office.
h) Legal Immigrants - meh...I do agree that illegal immigrants shouldn't be given status before legal immigrants and they shouldn't be entitled to state benefits. But Children shouldn't be prosecuted because of their parents and fences don't do much. It's a complicated problem and requires more than a paragraph to fix.
i) American Natives - I admit I haven't read much about Indian issues. So I can't say I have an informed opinion. I like the idea of honoring the Indians and letting them govern themselves as much as possible. However since we've stuck them into reserves there is an onus on us to help them with a myriad of subjects.
j) District of Colombia - blah blah blah...blame the democrats for all the troubles...and we oppose statehood for the area. Fail
k) Civil Service - blah blah blah...it's funny that Obama has had the smallest public sector growth in decades but the Republicans act like he's grown it uncontrollably ...*cough*hypocrites*cough*
l) America in space. Not sure if this is just a bunch of smoke but it sounds good. More space, more NASA, more SCIENCE (which you can't conveniently ignore when you're preaching your dumb fuck creationsim!)
m) Territories....not a subject I have read about.
5. RENEWING AMERICAN VALUES
Lots and lots of fail here....
a)Traditional marriage only..Fail (really big fail that I'm tired of hearing them talk about)
b)Getting rid of poverty safety nets..Fail (although I do think they could be streamlined and made FAR more efficient)
c) Support for adopted families - good!
d) Internet needs to be family friendly - not bad, but hypocritical. You want to make it safe for children...very good. But say gambling online is bad...what about that responsibility you talk about with home ownership? Also shouldn't gambling be a state controlled function?
e) Advancing American with disabilities - good!
f) Repeal Obamacare - Fail
g) Republican healthcare - Fail (it basically says that most health problems are life style choices??)
h) Consumer choice in Healthcare - not bad but won't achieve much without MUCH broader fixing
i) Federal Research and Development - Fail, fail and more fail. All this talk of personal responsibility but assisted suicide for terminal patients is no good. You'll suffer and spend money because we say so! Fuck off!
j) Reform the FDA - good (reform not eliminate!)
k) Tort reform - hmmmm having had a dear friend killed by a doctor with multiple malpractice suits against him and still unable to get him fired, I would be in favor of Tort reform if we could get stronger criminal charges against doctors that are guilty of malfeasance.
l) Education - oh boy...so much bullshit. It sounds good....merit pay for good teachers, strong math, science and engineering courses, choice for parents.... yeah all good words. Not much of it actually followed by Republicans...they want vouchers to send kids to schools that don't teach science but mythical creationism, they want to reward teachers for good scores but not acknowledging that bad scores are at LEAST as much caused by bad parents as by bad teachers.
1) Abstinence only sex ed - SUPER FAIL
2) English First - FAIL
3) Limit tenure - good
4) Ending social promotion - good
5) Protect teachers from "frivolous" litigation to maintain discipline - good (and I'd add if it is found to be not frivolous then criminal charges)
6) Universities should be balanced - good (and hopefully by being balanced any smart student will see the bullshit all over our politics! Unfortunately for the Republicans I think the universities are far more balanced then they think...the Republicans are just a lot more full of crap)
m) Prison ...both good and bad
1) Mandatory sentences - meh, life isn't black and white and often there are circumstances. (I wouldn't be so opposed to this if they got rid of the "War on Drugs")
2) Mandatory sentences on people who attack law enforcement - good! (I'd even say great) Convicted criminals are not eligible for monetary compensation for harm done while committing their crimes. Good (and hard to imagine that anyone would argue that one)
3) Accountability courts and/or faith based intervention - good (I think both sides agree on this)
4) Some hypocrisy ...the platform goes on about how more crimes have become federal and should be state but before that says the drug sellers should be prosecuted federally.
6. AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
This part is hard to get into it's so full of War Monger....Obama is bad for cutting defense. Obama is bad for the upcoming sequestration automatic cuts (that were Republican in origin). Obama is bad for not going to war with North Korea, Iran, Russia and China. Obama is bad because he hasn't killed the cyber-terrorists yet. Obama is bad for not letting corporations handle our cyber security. Obama is bad for letting the gays into the military. Obama is bad for letting our Solders get depressed after service and commit suicide. If he let more Chaplains with Bibles talk to them it would be fixed. ....all fail.
a) We should honor and help our veterans - GOOD! both sides say this, but don't do much.
b) We should help our vet's return to civilian life and their families - GOOD! (but again both say it, neither wants to pay for it)
c) Don't give sovereign powers to the UN - good
d) Don't let our troops be governed by non US courts - good
e) Withhold any aid from groups that might provide an abortion - bad
f) Protect Human Rights - basically protect Christians living overseas...really. It says quote "Religious minorities across the Middle East are being driven from their ancient homelands, fanaticism leaves its bloody mark on both West and East Africa, and even among America’s Western friends and allies, pastors and families are penalized for their religious convictions."
g) Giving foreign aid is good, giving it to Religious groups is better since they aren't corrupted by governments and make sure not to give out condoms or provide abortions. (I am so sick of the Republicans religious CRAP)
h) Combat human trafficking - good
Then a bunch of right leaning propaganda about the rest of world, some good, some bad but a lot of blah blah blah.
So overall it's nothing really new... more tea party, religious, war mongering, with a few decent bits thrown in. Unfortunately the best bits are the ones I think are mostly smoke...all the talk about better schools and more math, science and engineering....they don't like science! It's apparent in any conversation on the subject. I think it boils down to three things....Christianity (not any religions...just that one religion), Corportism (the world is the oyster of the corporations and you should be lucky to eat the scraps from them), and Military (we will kick your foreign asses if you don't do it the way of our Christianity and our Corporations).
Not that I had been really thinking about it...but I won't be voting Republican this year.