The Progressive Professor

Vice President Joe Biden was thought to be likely to fade into the background, and be an insignificant factor in the Presidency of Barack Obama, but instead he is being seen as the secret weapon assisting Obama in many ways.

His experience, contacts, and warm relationships with many members of the Senate, plus his years as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also as past Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, all are putting him in good stead as the administration faces the challenge of gaining Health Care reform, and dealing with intractable diplomatic issues.

In his role as presiding officer of the Senate, Biden could well be the decisive factor in the passage of “Reconciliation”, which would bring about the enactment of the most significant social legislation since Medicare in the 1960s.

Biden is now in the Middle East, trying to promote diplomatic negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, and rallying Arabs against the rising threat of Iranian nuclear weapons. He has excellent contacts with many world leaders and is able, therefore, to assist Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her diplomatic activities.

A totally different Vice President than Dick Cheney, Biden could well be seen in the future as a major factor in the successes of a much younger, less experienced President whom he loyally serves!

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has threatened that if Health Care reform passes, he will leave the country for Costa Rica, as soon as it goes into effect in 2014.

I think a good suggestion is leave even sooner, and when he leaves, make sure he is not allowed to claim citizenship overseas and avoid American taxes, as it is certain he would still broadcast his show, as he is so materialistic and would never give up making the obscene amount he earns for his propaganda!

As long as he is heard on the radio, even if in Costa Rica, pay your fair share of income taxes, Rush, as you owe it to this nation for the opportunities you have had to spew propaganda and divide the nation and promote hate!

One day, we will learn of your true, hypocritical nature, and how you have managed to “pull the wool” over millions of people’s eyes for so long. After all, you are a master of the Big Lie technique–that the more you lie, the more you convince people to believe you because of their gullibility!

A very significant case has been accepted for oral argument before the Supreme Court on the issue of freedom of speech and assembly, and this case really will be one of the key cases of this Supreme Court session.

Fred Phelps, the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, has very few followers, mostly his own family members, which include 13 children, 54 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren. Phelps is an old time gospel preacher who promotes hatred of gays, and has his church followers demonstrate loudly and hatefully at the funerals and memorial services of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This sect has demonstrated at hundreds of locations all across the country, making the mourning of the dead much more stressful for those who attend the funerals and memorial services.

A Maryland family of a dead soldier won a multimillion dollar law suit against the church, but an appeals court reversed the verdict, and now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

Earlier, a Missouri law was negated by the high court on this specific church demonstrating at a funeral of a dead soldier, so the chances that the church will be restricted do not seem very good. But it would be the RIGHT thing to do!

Should there be limits on when and where the church can protest? As much as the author is a believer in the First Amendment, it is my feeling that the Supreme Court should limit the rights of the church to disrupt funerals and memorial processions, as a sign of decency and respect toward those soldiers who have sacrificed for their country.

The odd thing about all this is that the soldiers who are having their funerals and memorial processions barraged with hate slogans are NOT gay. But the church says the country is going to hell because it does not criminalize and ban gay behavior, so God is visiting death rightfully on our heroic soldiers fighting for our country.

In the name of decency and respect for the dead, I hope the Supreme Court orders the church members to stay far away from funerals and memorial processions–far enough away so that they are not heard or seen.

Since what the church does is provocative and promotes emotion and the potential for violence, the Supreme Court should use the Schenck case of 1919 to declare that the Westboro Baptist Church is a radical, extremist group that is a “clear and present danger”, and force it to be at least two miles from any funeral or memorial procession. Free speech and assembly stops at the border of other people’s rights, and the Court should not uphold the church, but rather honor the young men and women who have sacrificed for their country, and have a right to a dignified and respectful funeral!

President Obama is reported to be reading Edmund Morris’s THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, according to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Obama should also be reading Robert Caro’s LYNDON JOHNSON: MASTER OF THE SENATE, and James MacGregor Burns’s FDR: THE LION AND THE FOX.

Obama needs to show the aggressiveness of Theodore Roosevelt, who first brought up the concept of a National Health Care plan in 1912!

Obama needs to hone the political skills of Franklin D. Roosevelt in gaining Social Security and other social reforms during the NEW DEAL years!

Obama needs to push and prod the Senate and the House of Representatives membership as Lyndon Johnson learned to do as Senate Majority Leader and President, gaining the passage of Medicare, Medicaid, and path breaking Civil Rights legislation!

While Obama is appealing to the American people through speeches and public town halls, he needs to use the political skills of these three great Presidents who knew how to get things done, and did not worry about opposition.

Mr. President, at this key moment in the fight for Health Care reform, take off the gloves and punch back, and use every tactic available to get “Reconciliation” done, and do not worry about the talk shows and the other critics!

This is a moment of greatness awaiting you! If you accomplish this great goal of Health Care reform, you will be in the pantheon long term with TR, FDR, and LBJ! So get to work!

Conservative Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina stated in an interview that he was not interested in running for President in 2012, but thought former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was the best candidate available on the horizon.

The only problem, DeMint declared, is that his last name is Bush!

Actually, on this, DeMint is probably correct, as Jeb Bush can be seen by most conservatives as having fewer weaknesses or negatives than almost anyone being discussed as a possible GOP Presidential nominee.

Jeb would have probably been a better President than his brother, George W., but losing the Florida governorship to Lawton Chiles in 1994, while his brother defeated Governor Ann Richards in Texas, changed the course of history, certainly for the worst.

But it seems clear that, at this point, Jeb Bush has no desire to run in any case. However, the best advice is not to consider the issue closed, as anyone who follows politics knows anything can happen!

Governor Charlie Crist is fading very fast in the polls in the Senate nomination contest in Florida.

A poll coming out tomorrow is said to be devastating to Crist, with the teaser today being that 56 percent of Republicans want him out of elected office, and only 14 percent want him as Senator, and 19 percent want him as Governor, a position he is leaving no matter what happens this fall.

Despite his denials, it will increase the speculation that Crist, if he wants to try to gain the Senate seat, will have to run as an Independent this fall against Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek.

In that scenario, a candidate could win with mid to high 30s percent of the vote, and while that is not a great kind of race where nearly two thirds of the voters might vote against the winner, that seems to be the only answer for Crist, other than to be humiliated in the primary race, and leave office in a defeated fashion that is embarrassing.

This is a story to watch carefully over the next few months!

It is disgraceful when either Democrats or Republicans get involved in scandal, but there is one major difference: their reaction to it, at least in many cases.

Eliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey, and Charles Rangel all resigned or stepped down from their position of authority (Rangel). While David Paterson has not done so yet, it is clear he will be forced to very soon.

On the other hand, Larry Craig, David Vitter, Mark Sanford, and John Ensign refused to resign, and decided to “tough” it out, no matter how embarrassing to their party, and all but Craig are still in office, showing no shame.

Of course, it might be said that what is the real difference, since all of the above individuals have been involved in activities that should never have happened.

But at least the Democrats have not gone around touting their “family values” and “high moral principles” and then showing themselves as the hypocrites that Republicans regularly have been!

As a person who believes in total disclosure and promotion of truth, of course, it must be mentioned that Democrats John Edwards and Rod Blagojevich are in a separate class–despicable, and unwilling to come clean by their own confessions.

But at the end, whether revealed or confessed or not, all of the above and those others who are involved in scandal in both parties need to be condemned for their behavior, as having failed to uphold their oath of office!

The education system in the United States is in crisis for many reasons, including funding shortages, recruitment and retention of teachers, and performance levels of students.

But one issue is often ignored, and that is due to standardized testing, which only monitors basic English and Math levels, rather than a broad based education.

Students at all levels from elementary through middle through high school, and into the college and university level, lack a general knowledge base.

When they are encouraged to read, they usually engage in fiction reading, which is fine and good, but inadequate training for life.

What is short changed is learning about the world around them in reality, rather than fantasy. They already gain enough fantasy from video games, and while reading fiction is important, it is not enough to deal with the realities of life.

Students need to develop language and communication skills, which require the learning of factual knowledge about science, history, public affairs, and the arts. They emerge as adults with basically a blank slate of awareness, and poor language and communications skills.

To make things worse, students spend inordinate amounts of time online on social media sites, which isolates them further from reality and in mastering important skills to succeed in life and at work and in relationships with other human beings.

So emphasis on nonfiction reading is essential in order to prepare students for the world they will live in!

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska Governor and 2008 GOP Vice Presidential nominee, has been ridiculed for having written a few key words on the palm of her hand during the Tea Party Convention last month. One would have thought that she would have known the key points she was going to make in her speech.

As ridiculous as that looked, Sarah has now made things worse by stating that God wrote on his hand, and that she was simply following his lead!

It must be admitted that this explanation will appeal to maybe 30 percent of the country, the same population that automatically supports Sarah Palin, but it only adds to her ultimate problem: Can anyone in the Republican party take her seriously as a candidate for President based on such statements, added to all her other liabilities?

Have we ever had a nominee of a political party who is best remembered for the weirdness of his or her statements and behavior? Are we willing to descend to the lowest common denominator in picking a President of the United States? Hopefully, the answer is NO!

The just announced capture of American expatriate and Muslim convert Adam Gedahn, who grew up in California and became a spokesman for Al Qaeda in 2004, and is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, is a great step forward in the war on terror worldwide!

This comes on top of arrests recently of other Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives, primarily by cooperation between the Pakistani spy agency and our CIA.

To accuse the Obama Administration of being weak in the terrorism fight, as Dick Cheney, other Republicans, talk radio, and Fox News Channel asserts, is obviously ridiculous and outrageous!

It is time to stop politicizing this threat to our security and unite around the President. However, is that likely? Don’t bet on it, as the Republicans and conservatives are only interested in promoting fear and division, rather than unity and support for our President, whose administration is doing a fantastic job, way beyond anything accomplished during the Bush-Cheney Administration!