Day: June 11, 2009

President Obama was in Wisconsin today to promote his health care proposals, and an incident occurred that shows just how special a man and President he is!

A man in the crowd with his daughter asked a question, and mentioned that his daughter was with him, and had cut the last day of school to have the opportunity to see Obama.  The President asked what her name was, and the man said it was Kennedy, to which Obama responded that it was a "cool" name. 

Obama proceeded to ask if the man wanted an excuse note, and to the dad’s surprise, actually wrote a note and presented it to him after the rally!  Can one imagine any teacher NOT accepting a note from the President? :)  LOL

This is one of those really human events that will make Obama always remembered in the future beyond the normal reality of having been President.  It is very obvious that with a gesture like this,  he proves just how special he really is.  But would you not be willing to bet that right wing talk show hosts will find some way to criticize the President, such as claiming that he is promoting a kid being hooky from school?  That is the difference between them and Obama:  that he has humanity and compassion, both of which Rush Limbaugh and company do NOT have!

Rush Limbaugh, a totally irresponsible talk show host, who many see as the titular leader of the Republican party, has long been known for outrageous, despicable comments and statements,  and for character assassination of people he sees as his enemies.

Now he is claiming that the right wing crazy who killed a security guard in the attack on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum got his inspiration from the left wing and from Barack Obama.  Limbaugh is attempting to blame the attack on the President and to promote the view that the perpetrator gained his anti Semitic views from what Limbaugh calls the anti Jewish and anti Israel policies of the Obama Administration.

This contradicts the voluminous evidence that the killer of the security guard gained his influences from the far right and had regularly condemned liberals and liberalism, as well as Jews and African Americans.   The man’s conspiracy theory views sound very much like rhetoric we have been hearing from right wing talk show hosts, including Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Bill O’Reilly, and from GOP politicians such as Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, among others. 

This does not mean that I am saying that the talk show hosts and Republican politicians mentioned above are responsible for, or being compared to,  the right wing nut who committed this horrible action.  However,  the spewing forth of poisonous statements and promotion of conspiracy theories centered around the Obama Administration are not helpful one iota, and could very well encourage more bloodshed and violence, and even threaten assassination attempts against Obama or members of his administration.  Rational, reasonable criticism is to be understood, but not insane accusations such as those promoted by Rush Limbaugh and others who attract a large audience, and have a responsibility to temper their language as many statements they have made over time can encourage incendiary reactions by unstable listeners and watchers.

In an action long overdue, the Senate has joined the House of Representatives in passing strong regulation of the tobacco industry, and President Obama, himself a smoker fighting the habit, will sign the bill into law.

The Food and Drug Administration will have strong powers over a product that, on the average, kills about 400,000 Americans each year and about 10 million worldwide.  Not only are these statistics imposing, but also about half of those who smoke will eventually be killed by the habit.

The goal should be to lower dramatically the number who smoke,  and to have the tobacco industry on the defensive for the product they offer to the public.  Of course, this will have an effect on people who work in the industry, but when one considers that the annual total of deaths in America from tobacco is greater than the number of Union soldiers killed during the four years of the Civil War, and sixty percent greater than the number of Confederate soldiers killed during the Civil War.  and also the same percentage greater than the number of Americans killed during World War II. 

It should be obvious that the nation needs really to heavily discourage young people from starting a lifelong habit that will kill at least 50 percent of them.  So giving the FDA new powers of regulation is to be applauded and endorsed!