Military

The Multiple Meanings Of 2012 Election

Ronald 5 Comments

2012 will go down in history as the year of tremendous movement forward in so many ways.

It is a year that sees tolerance, open mindedness, fairness and equality moving forward.

It is a year that sees a greater accomplishment than 2008–the reelection of an African American President, a reaffirmation of what was done in 2008, and in many ways greater than the initial election, because it gets rid of all doubts that, somehow, 2008 was a fluke, a mistake, that would be rectified.

It is the year that women came to realize true liberation from men bossing them, controlling them, dictating to them, regarding their own bodies, and their own opportunities for fair pay and equal educational opportunity. And so many more women will now be serving in our government, and holding male politicians accountable.

It is a year when Hispanics, Latinos, and Muslims, and really all racial and ethnic minorities, realize their electoral power, and are able, finally, to fight back against racism, discrimination, prejudice, and bias, and take their place in the community of Americans who will have influence and significance, rather than just white Anglos, who slaughtered native Americans, took over North America, and thought they would control America, dominate America, shape America in their image for eternity, which is, happily, no longer the future of this great nation, which benefits from diversity and from equal opportunity for all based on merit, not skin color or nationality or religion or gender!

It is a year when the power of organized religious groups to control and dictate their agenda on America has been soundly defeated, and the danger of theocracy has abated, as a result.

It is a year when American can celebrate, as we are now moving forward toward better times, and with the old power structures that impede us, including corporations, knowing they will face appropriate regulation, and that the wealthy will be required to pay their fair share to this nation, which has given them such great opportunities, and assisted them in their acquisition of wealth!

It is also a time when the hope is that overseas interventions will no longer be the norm, except when a true threat to our national security, and in so changing our view of the world, we are allowing many young men and women to have a normal life after serving in the military, and cutting the waste and corruption of the war industries that cause so much of our national debt.

So for these and other reasons, America has a lot to celebrate!

“Pitchfork Carrying, Torch Bearing Mobs” Running Republican Party In Florida: Former GOP State Chairman Jim Greer

Ronald 1 Comment

Florida is the fourth largest state in population, and will probably be number three by the end of this decade.

Florida has been populated by many Northerners and Midwesterners, many of them senior citizens, and many who have been in the military, and they come to Florida with a conservative bent.

Florida, a state infamous for racial segregation and discrimination, has now become the center of what Jim Greer, the former state Republican chairman under former Governor Charlie Crist, calls “pitchfork carrying, torch bearing mobs”, who have set out to deny African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, poor, and young voters the right to vote, by claiming voter fraud, when there is no evidence of such abuses.

The leader of this is Florida Governor Rick Scott, who should be in prison for Medicare and Medicaid fraud when head of a hospital chain, which was assessed the largest fine ever imposed on a health care company and executive!

Scott and the extreme right wing of the GOP in Florida made it clear at meetings that Jim Greer attended, that they would claim voter fraud publicly, but had the intention of denying minorities the right to vote, effectively bringing back the days before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in so doing, insuring a Republican victory in 2012, rather than another Barack Obama victory in the state, as in 2008!

For this author and blogger, the reality of this is an embarrassment and a disgrace, and it means that unless something is done immediately to stop this plot against potential voters, Florida will become the equivalent of Texas as a state with totally corrupt politics, in each case led by a “Rick”, Rick Perry in Texas, and Rick Scott in Florida!

Time For TRUE Conservative Republican Nominee So That Conservatism Can Be Exposed For What It Is: A Plea For Rick Santorum’s Nomination For The Presidency!

Ronald Leave a comment

Conservatism has been said to be a dominant factor in the Republican Party for a long time, and conservatives in Congress and on talk radio and Fox News Channel have been spewing forth their poison, whether it is to go to war as a first resort, rather last last resort; putting women, African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, gays and lesbians, labor, poor people, environmentalists, public service workers, consumer advocates, and anyone who promotes progressivism, in their place; and promoting corporations, the wealthy, and religion and the military as dominant parts of American power to make our nation a militaristic, religiously based plutocracy, only advocating the interests of the few, rather than the many!

But the frustration of these conservatives is that, somehow, it never seems to work out quite like they expect. Witness: Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Robert Taft in 1952 and does “unconservative” policies in office; Richard Nixon also disappoints in many areas; Gerald Ford and his wife Betty actually promote social progressivism; even Ronald Reagan shows that he can be moved away from hard line conservative ideas; George H. W. Bush is clearly too moderate and centrist; George W. Bush follows certain aspects of conservatism, particularly following the “neocons” in foreign affairs, but too involved in “compassionate conservatism” in domestic affairs and government spending; and even Bob Dole and John McCain, losing GOP Presidential nominees, are insufficiently conservative, and actually come across as “moderates”, a hated term.

And now Mitt Romney cannot be trusted to be hard line conservative, despite his own efforts at protestations. And even Barry Goldwater, thought to be in 1964, the “ideal” conservative, later revealed his social progressivism and condemned the role of religion in the Republican Party! What is a frustrated conservative to do?

The answer is back and nominate former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who wants to bomb Iran on Day One in office; wants a very hard line social conservatism, putting women “back in their place”; wants no regulation of business or corporations that interferes with “free enterprise”; wishes to wipe out by any means the rights of gays and lesbians; wishes to take away all of the federal entitlement programs of the New Deal and Great Society; return America back to the 1950s in some ways, the 1920s in other ways, and the Gilded Age of the late 19th century in other ways!

Conservatives want to bring back the “good old days” of white male domination over society, and corporate influence, joined with the military and religious control over our foreign and domestic policies.

Let’s hope, even pray, that Rick Santorum is nominated, and watch as he is obliterated in November, and his support by conservatives sets them back for at least a generation, and give mainline Republicans the opportunity to rebuild the party as what it once was, a centrist party, a good competition for the Democratic Party. And if the GOP refuses to reform itself, then it should be replaced by a new moderate centrist party in the mainstream of 21st century America!

Of course, notice that the author said a “generation” would pass of conservative decline, as sadly, to believe conservatism will leave our shores forever, is not going to happen, as it is like a recurring cancer on the body politic–it WILL return eventually, and the battle for control of government and politics is, therefore, a never ending battle of American history!

An Innocuous Bill Opposed By Republicans To Honor Civil Service Workers Killed In Line Of Duty: Is There No Limit To Their Lack Of Sanity And Decency?

Ronald 2 Comments

An innocuous bill proposed in the House of Representatives, and thought to have no problem to be approved, has been shot down by the Republican majority.

This bill would have called for an American flag to be presented at the funerals of American civil service employees killed in the line of duty, much like what is done for people who have died as soldiers in our military.

The civilians killed would not get the other honors that soldiers have at their funerals, just a flag to honor their service to the nation.

One might ask what is meant by civilian workers killed in the line of duty. This includes the following: those killed in a terrorist attack; work related accident or illness; natural disaster; or criminal attack occurring during service at their work.

Nearly 3,000 federal workers have died on their job for the above reasons in the past 20 years, and this bill would have honored their sacrifice.

But the American Legion opposed the bill, and a large number of Republicans have joined them, making a bill that was no big deal, suddenly a big deal and to be opposed, as if only military people, not civilians, have sacrificed for their country!

What can one say, what can one express, other than disgust and rolling eyes! There is no limit to the lack of sanity and decency in the present day Republican Party!

Does The Republican Party Have No Shame? The 9/11 Responders Health Legislation Rejected In The Senate! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

One always likes to think that the Republican Party of 2010 has SOME conscience and decency, but it is obvious that this party, which is soon to gain control of the House of Representatives, and six more seats in the Senate, has ABSOLUTELY no shame or sense of dignity! 🙁

The “Party Of NO” has just filibustered, and prevented the passage of 9/11 Responders Health legislation in the US Senate, declaring they cannot back it because of its COST! 🙁

The fact that these “first responders” sacrificed their health, and many sacrificed their lives, to help the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center, does not seem to be enough of a reason to support any and all health coverage that these heroes need. 🙁

The fact that the tax agreement reached with President Obama by the GOP will add tremendously to the national debt does not perturb Republicans, as the super wealthy MUST have their outrageous tax cut, but the first responders are simply not that important, even though the GOP is quick to support action in Afghanistan and Iraq, costing more than a trillion dollars added to the national debt over the past nine years.

But, apparently, anything involving health care for ANYONE is not the business of the American government, and veterans in our military should keep that in mind, as they apparently do not do, assuming that the GOP will support veterans AFTER their service, which historically they have NOT done. 🙁

When, oh when, are military people, and the American people at large, finally going to realize that the Republican Party is ONLY concerned about the wealthy among us, and give not a damn about those who sacrifice for our country, whether on September 11, 2001, or on the battlefields far from home? 🙁

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repealed By Federal District Court Judge :)

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A Federal District Court judge has finally taken action that may mean the end of discrimination against gays in the military!

Immediate end of use of the practice was decreed, subject to a 60 day period of appeal, but meanwhile all action against gay soldiers is banned during the appeal period!

It is doubtful that the Obama Administration will take any action to appeal this action, as the 60 day period of appeal coincides with the return of the Congress after the midterm elections, and gives the Senate the opportunity to repeal the law, already agreed to by the House of Representatives earlier this year!

There may still be opposition in elements of the military services, and among Republicans in the Senate, but it is hoped that a few Republicans will do the right thing and join the Democrats in completion of the necessary repeal of the law passed under President Clinton in 1993, an act that has caused the loss of many thousands of dedicated, highly trained soldiers who were drummed out of the military because of their sexuality!

With most European countries and Israel and Canada having abandoned discrimination and adjusting to gays in the military, it is the right time now to finish what this Federal District Court judge has courageously done today!

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Coming Closer To An End!

Ronald Leave a comment

Yesterday, a step was taken that should soon bring the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the US military!

Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, an Iraq War veteran, introduced an amendment to the military appropriations bill, which is also cosponsored by Independent Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee!

It calls upon Congress to pass repeal, but the amendment provides a delay in implementation until December, after a full study has been completed by the military, headed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff head, Admiral Mike Mullen.

It seems as if the only barrier now to passage is two fold: Some Democrats seem unwilling to endorse the idea, including Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Jim Webb of Virginia. Also, there is a search for a few Republicans to sign on, including Scott Brown, who so far seems resistant, even though his state (Massachusetts) allows gay marriage and is highly in favor of the end of the military ban on gays.

Additionally, House Republicans and many Senate Republicans seem willing to vote down the military appropriations bill if the amendment proposed by Murphy, Lieberman, and Levin is included in it!

It is absolutely amazing how most Republicans will constantly vote against anything that favors minorities or gays! How can they call themselves representative of the American people when they demonstrate so much bias, and willingness to discriminate? 🙁

The hope is that the ban on gays in the military is, indeed, nearing, its end!