Hypocrisy Reins!

IMMIGRATION/IMPEACHMENT – Congress is off on a five week vacation leaving unresolved the toxic quagmire that is immigration reform. Before leaving the REPUBLICAN Speaker of the House encouraged the president to address the matter using the executive powers at his disposal. This was after he sued the president for using the executive powers at his disposal. The president promised that he would act alone. The White House has stated that the president is planning to announce a number of immigration reforms by the end of August. REPUBLICANS like Ted Cruz, Steve King and Louie Ghomert responded that if the president were to act alone they would give serious consideration to his impeachment. Going into the campaign season Democrats had pretty much handed Republicans control of the House and Senate on a silver platter. But the dysfunctional hypocrisy exhibited by Republicans like Boehner, Cruz, King and Ghomert keeps knocking that platter to the floor.

SMALL GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVES – Republicans champion states’ rights over federal government overreach. That is until reality hits. Texas Governor Rick Perry is a small government conservative. He has been critical in what he describes as the federal government’s inadequate response to the crisis on Texas ‘southern border. An angry and frustrated Perry finally sent 1,000 Texas National Guard Troops to help secure the Texas southern border. “If the president won’t act, I will” said Perry. This is what happens when ideology runs head on into reality. Perry wants the federal government to stay out of his states’ affairs. But when tens of thousands of illegal immigrants flood Perry’s borders he whines to the president for help. Perry ha s often floated the idea of Texas seceding from the union. Good luck! Texas keeps its’ doors open by taking more funding from the federal government than any state save California.

DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE – The war between the Israelis and Palestinians is complicated. It is an ongoing conflict that has been raging for decades. The number one perpetrator of violence against Israel is the terrorist organization known as Hamas. In recent weeks Hamas has fired 3,200 rockets into Israel killing hundreds of innocent women and children. The rockets were fired from behind the cover of Palestinian schools, hospitals, mosques and residential neighborhoods. Hamas had also constructed a series of tunnels into Israeli territory from which they launched attacks on Israeli citizens. Israel has responded with a devastating ground and rocket assault designed to take out the rocket launchers and tunnels …wherever they may be. The result has been the death of 1,800 innocent civilians and tens of thousands of Palestinian homes. Yesterday the Israelis blew up a UN run school killing ten children. This is the third UN run school to be hit by the Israeli military. The gory details played out on video for the entire world to see, generated an outpouring of global criticism for Israel’s “disproportionate” response. Yesterday, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said: “The United States is appalled by the disgraceful shelling of a United Nations school. The US called the attack “totally unacceptable…totally indefensible.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the White House: “Don’t ever second guess me again.” The US gives Israel $4 billion tax payer dollars a year to defend itself. Since WWII the US has handed Israel $121 billion to help ward off its enemies. When you give a country $121 billion you ought to be able to give them your opinion as well. It is however interesting to listen to the politicians and talking heads in this country criticize Israel’s “disproportionate” response to 3,200 missile attacks against their people. What would happen if some foreign power rained 3,200 missiles on our civilian population? I think we know. In response to the 9/11 attacks the United States of America invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in what became our country's longest wars. According to numerous sources at least 174,000 civilians died violently as a direct result of these wars. Add to that the number of civilian deaths resulting from the shattered infrastructure and poor health conditions and experts say the number grows to over 1,000,000. Was our response proportionate? In our self absorbed quest to be the world’s most exceptional nation…we sometimes act like its biggest hypocrite.