Day: February 5, 2010

The Hypocrisy Of Sarah Palin: Double Standard For Rahm Emanuel And Rush Limbaugh

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Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee, rightfully criticized White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for using the word “retarded” in reference to liberal Democrats who were speaking out against President Obama. She pointed out that it was a terrible thing to use that term when there are so many people with disabilities, including her baby son, who are wronged by such loose use of that term.

However, the fact that talk show host Rush Limbaugh went ahead and used the same term over and over again, was ignored, as Palin called on President Obama to fire Emanuel. This is stunning hypocrisy, as if it is important to make an issue of this matter, then it should apply equally to all who use it in public life, and particularly someone who utilizes the term over the public airwaves. Rahm Emanuel said what he uttered in private, a major difference over someone who has a radio audience of millions of people.

Is this surprising? Unfortunately, in the case of Sarah Palin, the answer is no. She uses every opportunity to play politics in a disgraceful manner. And although one cannot be sure of the veracity of the source, if one chooses to believe her ex almost son in law, Levi Johnston, she apparently used the term “retard” about her own son! Again, it cannot be verified for certain, but it does seem to fit her character, which is one of having no ambition except to advance and enrich herself!

Sarah Palin remains an embarrassment to John McCain, even if he is unwilling to repudiate or criticize her. The fact that she is still, more than a year after the election of 2008, a national figure of interest, is due solely to the fact that John McCain made an absolutely horrible choice for a running mate who could have been a heartbeat away from the Presidency, without any qualifications at all for the office!

The Growing Crisis With China: Barack Obama Must Stand Strong!

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As if Barack Obama did not have enough on his plate, now China is becoming a new challenge to his leadership.

It is well known that China holds a lof of our debt, a worrisome matter for the present and the future, but now a host of new issues has arisen, and China is playing it in a very tough, confrontational manner.

China is angry that we are supplying arms to Taiwan, as they see that island as part of their nation. But in the recent past, it was not made a major issue between the nations. Now, it is becoming a major problem.

Also, after delaying a meeting with the Dalai Lama, the President will meet him later this month, and that has infuriated the Chinese leadership, who sees the exiled Tibetan leader as an enemy.

China is also standing in the way of sanctions in the United Nations against Iran, which is in the process of developing nuclear weapons.

Also, the constant issue of the violation of human rights by China is an irritant, as is their interference with the ability of Google to offer its services unimpeded in that nation.

The Chinese President is scheduled to visit the White House later this year, and one must wonder if that will become an issue–whether he will decide not to come.

In any case, China has just added new headaches to a President who must secretly sometimes wonder why he wanted to be President! 🙂 It is essential that Obama stand strong against any Chinese pressure, if he is to be seen as successful in his Asian foreign policy!

The Senate And Senatorial Privilege Gone Amuck!

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Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, has just used the power of senatorial privilege to put a hold on Obama nominees for various positions, and also on legislation for financial regulation, because he is angry that the new Obama budget proposal will cause loss of programs that benefit his home state.

Shelby is not the first senator to do this, but the practice that allows individuals senators to put a “hold” on nominees or legislation is an outrage that must be reformed. It creates stalemate and deadlock in the Senate, and along with the threat of filibusters to bottle up action and prevent what the majority wants, sometimes as many as 59 wish, is simply making the Senate look like a dinosaur which fails to represent the will of the American people!

Wnile the Senate was designed to apply the “brakes” to the sometimes rushed actions of the House of Representatives, it has become a body which has lost a lot of its luster as the greatest legislative body in the world! The nation deserves to expect more from the Senate and its members! Everyone has the right to their views, but not as individuals or as a minority to stifle democracy and the will of the majority!

Why Did The Tea Party Movement Start In 2009? The Truth Is Clear!

Ronald 11 Comments

When one analyzes the “anger” and “frustration” of the Tea Party Movement and Freedom Works Movement, which began in February 2009, one has to wonder would the same rise of these movements have occurred if John McCain had been elected President?

It is clear that the answer would be No. While there is no way that our economy would have been any better than it is now, if McCain had been in the White House, the difference is that we have an African American President in the White House! Either McCain would have done much the same thing along the vein of what George W. Bush was doing in his last months in office to deal with the economic crisis, or had he done nothing to stimulate the economy, we would be now in a Great Depression Number 2 rather than a Great Recession! But at least we would have a WHITE President, and the country would be “safe”!

It is not as if Barack Obama CREATED this economic collapse! It was caused by LACK of regulation under Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House for six years. Obama INHERITED this mess, rather than creating it!

Why is it these discontented “folks” did not rise up in anger and frustration over the wild spending on two wars and a “socialist” Medicare Part D prescription plan during the Bush Administration? Why is it that doubling of the national debt under George W. Bush did not cause outrage among these people? Why is it that all of a sudden when an African American President, with the backing of almost 54 percent of the American people, the biggest margin since 1988, takes the oath, all of a sudden, there is awareness of how terrible things are, and they are totally the fault of someone who was not in power and did not have authority to do anything to prevent it?

It is quite clear and obvious that all of the attacks on Obama as a “socialist”, an “illegal immigrant from Kenya”, as a “racist” and a “Hitler” is motivated by anger that we finally have someone in the White House who is there for ALL of the people, not just the privileged upper class and the corporate classes! And again he is African American! What a horrible tragedy, isn’t it, in the mind of these bigots!

The Republican party and conservative ideology are the cause of this collapse of the American economy and society, just as it was in the 1920s, and again, we have to look to the Democrats and progressive values to restore America to a condition of promoting equality of opportunity and hope in the future, now under Barack Obama, as then under Franklin D. Roosevelt, who suffered the same ideological attacks, but is now remembered for his greatness, while his critics are forgotten or recalled as the “lunatic fringe”!

The Tea Party Movement and the Freedom Works Movement are indeed the lunatic fringe of today, groups with no principles or ideals except their own advancement and aggrandizement!

The Tea Party Convention, Tom Tancredo, And Fox “News” Channel: Right Wing Extremism On Display!

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The Tea Party Convention opened in Nashville last night, with the major speaker being Tom Tancredo, former Republican Congressman from Colorado, and one of the declared Presidential candidates in 2008. No one was unhappy when Tancredo did poorly and withdrew from the race, as he was the wackiest of all ten GOP candidates running for the White House!

Tancredo is totally nuts, a moron and lunatic of major proportions! How he can spew forth his racism, nativism, and other demagogic rants and raves, and not be ashamed and embarrassed by the image he presents, indicates just how crazy and mentally ill he really is! 🙁 Some see him as the new Joseph McCarthy!

Even some of the people listening to him speak expressed the thought that he was hurting the movement, which looks more and more like a group of ignorant, hateful, losers who sound more and more fascist oriented, and a threat to our nation’s stability and security!

Any sane Republican or principled conservative should be able to recognize that associating with this radical right wing movement will not benefit them or the party in the future. If you play with a wild animal, you end up the victim, and the GOP is in dangerous territory trying to appeal to these loonies!

And the fact that Fox News Channel thinks it is professional and legitimate to have their talk show hosts get directly involved in this movement and in other conservative and Republican activities, in the form of delivering speeches, shows how bankrupt a station they are in an ethical sense! Should a news channel openly allow people who work for them to become politically involved, and still have the right to call themselves a “news” channel? I am referring to the planned activities of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, and the fact that Sarah Palin, who now works for Fox News Channel, will be paid a six figure amount to speak before this Tea Party Convention on Saturday night.

And to top it off, the fee to be involved in this Tea Party Convention is a steep $549, which makes one wonder if this is not just a method to profit from people’s discontents. Is the Tea Party movement a legitimate expression of anger and unhappiness, or is it another example of extremists similar to past Nazi and Ku Klux Klan movements? Any sane person knows it is the latter! 🙁

Unemployment Rate Goes Down But Number Of Unemployed In Recession Was Greater In Last Year Than Originally Thought!

Ronald 1 Comment

The good news this morning is that the nation’s unemployment rate dropped three tenths of one percent from 10.0 to 9.7.

However, it has been discovered that the statistics of how many people have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007 was underestimated by approximately a million people! 🙁

It was thought that the total was about 7.2 million people, while now it is believed to be 8.4 million.

This is bad news, but at least no one can claim that the Obama Administration is trying to cover up the bad news. And there is some hope with the unemployment rate down one half of one percent since its high point of 10.2 percent three months ago.

However, it is still true that lowering that unemployment rate is essential for the Democrats as they face the challenge of the midterm congressional elections this coming November.