Why Are Not Republican Leaders Speaking Up Against The Koran Burning And Supporting General Petraeus?:(
The threatened burning of copies of the Koran in Gainesville, Florida on September 11 by Pastor Terry Jones has alarmed our military leaders in Afghanistan, including General David Petraeus, concerned that such a dastardly act will provoke violence against military personnel and civilians throughout the Islamic world, and will undermine our ability to promote understanding among the vast majority of Muslims who are not radicals and not terrorists! 
So under the circumstances, one would think that the Republican Party would wish to join in support of the military, since they have such strong belief and faith in General Petraeus!
Why is NOT former President George W. Bush speaking out? Why is former Vice President Dick Cheney remaining silent, when he has a problem since leaving office that he cannot keep his mouth shut?
Why is it Sarah Palin, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and all of the other numerous Republicans who are strong supporters of our troops, do not feel a responsibility to take a moral stand against this violent action? How would they feel if a Christian or Jewish Bible were burned in public? Would they remain silent if such occurred? It is obvious the answer is NO, so therefore, by NOT speaking up, does it not indicate that the Republican leadership is willing to risk alienation of the entire Islamic world by remaining silent, and therefore by omission, alienating a billion people around the world?
Is this not evidence of the total extremism and irresponsibility of all the leaders of the Republican Party?
Where is their conscience and their common sense? How could anyone feel that such leaders deserve national power and responsibility when they seem not to give a whit about the safety of Americans, both military and civilian, overseas, as well as in this country?
Do they wish to provoke more violence and bloodshed in this country by a small number of American Muslims who will be tipped over the edge by the irresponsible, despicable burning of the Koran by this whacko evangelical Christian sect?
When will the Republicans realize that they have a MORAL responsibility to speak up?
The Chicago Daleys Soon To Be Part Of History: Their Legacy!
An era is coming to an end in Chicago: Mayor Richard M. Daley, the son the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, has decided to retire next April at the end of his term, having by then broken the record of his father for time in office!
On Christmas Eve this year, the younger Daley will tie his father for 21 years and 8 months in office, so by the time he leaves, he will have finished 22 complete years as Mayor!
His father served from 1955 to 1976, dying in office with the reputation of being the last of the political bosses that for a long time influenced the Democratic Party! Daley was behind the nomination of John F. Kennedy in 1960, and it is believed helped Kennedy win Illinois by having the "cemetery vote" come out in Chicago early and often! 
Daley was also behind the nomination of Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968, but also called out the police then to beat up anti Vietnam War demonstrators at the Chicago Democratic convention, which ultimately doomed Humphrey's Presidential candidacy, which was already burdened by the war, and the candidacy of George Wallace on a third party line, leading up to the loss to Richard Nixon!
Son Richard M. has been Mayor for what will be 22 years when he leaves office, the longest lasting mayor of any city, much hailed as his father was for what was said to be "efficiency" in running the third largest city in America, and yet, as with his father, always a tone of corruption and malfeasance which never, somehow, came to the door of the Mayor, but led to criminal prosecutions for people around both Mayors!
So the Daleys leave a mixed legacy, with the son presiding over a city which has seen record numbers of black youths murdered, more in one month this summer than in Iraq over eight months of 2010!
Overall, it is good to see change coming to Chicago, as the Daley Era soon is truly part of American history, and will be much researched and written about in future years! It will also have an effect on the history of the Obama Presidency, since Obama came from Chicago politics!
The Danger That Pastor Terry Jones Of Gainesville, Florida Represents: Planned Burning Of Koran On September 11 Denounced By General David Petraeus!
It is amazing how a so called "Man of God" can be so intolerant, but as is well known, this is not all that unusual!
Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, a community that houses the renowned University of Florida, is about to besmirch that university town, the name of organized religion, and arouse world wide Muslim resentment, as he plans a burning of a copy of the Koran, the Islamic holy book, at his church on the ninth anniversary of September 11!
General David Petraeus, our renowned general in charge of the war in Afghanistan, has spoken up against this action, concerned that American soldiers will be more endangered by this action, and that it will sour our efforts to improve our relations with the Islamic world, which represents a billion people in the world!
This is as evil an act as Adolf Hitler ordering burning of books during the Nazi period in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, and should be seen as "a clear and present danger", as the Supreme Court termed it in Schenck V. US in 1919!
The action should be prevented by local authorities by any means necessary, and if actually perpetrated, should lead to immediate arrest and prosecution of Pastor Terry Jones as undermining national security!
There is no room for this kind of action in the delicate world situation we face now! Pastor Jones will be responsible for possible death and harm, and all good Christians and Jews must immediately protest his planned action!
Is Barack Obama Becoming Harry Truman? It Is About Time!
President Barack Obama has just finished a rousing Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stirring a crowd with a strong, inspirational speech, which included strong attacks on the Republican opposition, while calling for a major investment in infrastructure repair and expansion to create an economic revival!
He said that the opposition was "talking about me like a dog!", and made it clear that he did not appreciate that and would not tolerate it!
It is about time, Mr. President, for you to get out there and denounce the opposition which has contributed to the slow revival of the economy because they preferred to see you fail, rather than help the American people!
It is hoped that this speech, with its fiery delivery and passion, is the beginning of a two month campaign matching the level of Harry Truman in 1948, giving that revered President the title "Give Them Hell Harry!"
Enough of trying to work with people who don't wish to cooperate, and enough of being a gentleman! Time to become "Give Them Hell Barack!"
What Labor Day Means: Has It Been Forgotten? Sadly, Yes! :(
Today is Labor Day, a holiday first developed in the 1880s to honor the contributions of American workers to the development of our economy!
Workers then were in the process, a long struggle, to develop labor union organizations to represent the interest of workers, something bitterly fought by corporations and government, as a "conspiracy in restraint of trade!"
Only slowly, starting with the administration of Theodore Roosevelt at the beginning of the 20th century, did labor begin to be treated with dignity and respect, but still with many setbacks during the conservative 1920s!
During the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, labor union organizations finally gained acceptance as partners in collective bargaining, but remained the "enemy" in the South and in many interior states across the nation!
Labor unions at one point had one third of all workers, and their influence led to state and federal legislation that made life better for union workers, as well as non union workers! Their peak could be said to be in the 1960s and early 1970s, followed by a long period of rapid decline in influence, particularly due to the administration of Ronald Reagan, ironically a labor leader himself (the Screen Actors Guild)!
Today, organized labor has only about 12 percent of the labor force as members, and workers in general have seen backwards steps in relations with their employers, particularly in these difficult economic times of the Great Recession!
Labor is now struggling to be more significant, and to help promote the agenda of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party, but ironically, many workers continue to avoid voting, or find the emotional appeal of the Republican party on issues such as gay rights, abortion, illegal immigration, and Islamophobia as their major motivation, a sad development!
So the work of the labor movement, which is always bad mouthed by conservatives and Republicans, remains a challenge for the future!
An Important Step Long Overdue! Massive Public Works Programs Promoted To Accomplish Economic Revival!
President Obama, belatedly, is coming out for a massive investment in public works projects, to expand and renovate the infrastructure of the United States!
He will announce on Wednesday the promotion of $50 billion investment on long term construction projects on roads, rail lines, and airport runways!
The projects would be over six years, with the goal being 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of railways, and 150 miles of airport runways. The investment would be over six years, with more funding as the years went by!
The problem is to gain Congressional backing, which means, unfortunately, it is unlikely any action will be taken this year, and should the Republicans win control of Congress, maybe they will refuse to support such legislation at all!
So the future of public works is debatable, just at a time when it is so urgent!
The New Deal concept of Franklin D. Roosevelt to promote public works improvement programs is essential for a long term revival from the Great Recession!
The House Of Representatives Battlegrounds: Can The Democrats Keep Control?
The NY Times has published a detailed look at the battleground states in play for the House of Representatives, which most polls now predict will go Republican in November.
As the Times portrays it, each party has 168 safe seats, with the remaining 99 in play!
However, the projection is that the Democrats lead in 47 and the Republicans in 19, with 33 seats a tossup. So if you count those that lean to one party or the other, the Democrats would have 215 seats, and the Republicans would have 187, meaning the Democrats would only need 3 more seats to keep control of the chamber!
Of course, leaning to one party or the other does not mean it is a guarantee that the elections will work out that way, and voter turnout and enthusiasm will be, as always, a key factor in the results! At this point, the enthusiasm and turnout has favored the Republicans, a bad sign for the Democrats in November if it continues!
When one looks at the key House races which are tossups, it is noticeable that Pennsylvania has four contested seats; while Florida and Illinois have three competitive seats; and Indiana, Michigan and New Hampshire each have two battleground seats! So 16 of the 33 tossup seats are in states which Barack Obama won. That plus 10 other seats in states which Obama won (Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin) would mean a total of 26 seats, and if these all went to the Democrats, it would give them a total of 241 seats, meaning a loss of 16 seats, a mild loss!
But this is all speculative, and we will simply have to see if the Democrats can change the public mood in the next eight weeks and retain control of the House of Representatives and keep Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House!
Why A Second Economic Stimulus Is Essential!
If you listen to conservatives, they will constantly state that the economic stimulus legislation of 2009 has failed, and that the nation does not need any more attempts at economic stimulus, a totally wrong viewpoint!
Sure, the economic stimulus has not been a panacea, but ask most economists and they will say that WITHOUT the stimulus, our unemployment rate would have been closer to 20 percent, instead of the 9.6 percent that it presently is!
We are facing an extreme economic crisis with local and state governments, undermining public safety and public education, with the anticipated dismissal of hundreds of thousands of police, firefighters, teachers and other public service fields that we all take for granted!
The first stimulus helped to prevent many of these people losing their jobs, and it is estimated that at least three million people either kept their employment because of the stimulus, or were employed when they had been unemployed due to the economic collapse that began at the end of 2007!
This is, of course, a "drop in the bucket" solution of the problem, but if we continue to act as if we have no need to deal with this crisis in public safety and education, we will pay the price in higher crime rates and worse educational opportunities for millions of school children, which will affect lives not just for a year or two, but for the long term future!
Also, extension of unemployment compensation creates consumer spending and gives the long term unemployed a lifeline until things get better, and if it is not done, we will have widespread starvation and homelessness!
It is easy to say it is someone else's problem and not care about it, but this could literally happen to anyone at anytime, and the fact that it does not is due to a lot of luck, as there is nothing inherently wrong with people who lose their jobs!
We should not be judging others, and looking down on them, as "there but for the grace of God go I!", and one does not have to be religious to realize the truth of that statement!
We must also work on creating critical infrastructure jobs, as that is a long term need and will provide many new employment opportunities, and we cannot allow the fear of deficits long term to make us paralyzed in our actions short term!
The problem is that if the Republicans gain control of either or both houses of Congress in November, the room for action on these matters may very well be lost, and the country will then suffer through a much worse economic downturn over the next few years!
We might look back in 2012 and after and bemoan what the voters did in 2010, in their moment of frustration and anger! Let us hope they do not take self destructive actions!