Month: January 2010

Are Political Dynasties A Bad Thing For America? Leave It To The Voters To Decide!

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Jack Cafferty on CNN today brought up the issue of political dynasties, declaring that having different generations of a political family in office is a bad thing for democracy.

I beg to disagree, as it is always up to the voters IF they want the relatives and offspring of political leaders to be in public office. They may have an edge in name recognition, but they also have a need to prove via their statements, actions and records that they deserve to be in public office. It is not as if these seekers win the seats by default, and often, they have failed to accomplish the goal of winning the election.

When one looks at the past, one can think of the Adamses, the Lodges, the Harrisons, the LaFollettes, the Tafts, the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, the Rockefellers, the Bushes, and the Clintons as the most outstanding examples of so called “dynasties”, and I would argue that despite some controversy, all of these families contributed much to American history.

So if there are people related to Jimmy Carter, Harry Reid, Dennis Hastert, Ron Paul, Joe Biden and others running for public office, all the best of luck as you attempt to convince the voting public as to your right to represent them in government!

Glenn Beck: The Most Dangerous Demagogue Since George Wallace!

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Dana Milbank in the Washington Post yesterday pinpointed the fact that radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck has become the most dangerous demagogue since George Wallace in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Even more than Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly, Beck has become the true promoter of division and anarchy in this country through his rantings and ravings on Fox News Channel and his radio show.

Beck has claimed his belief in “death panels” under the Health Care Reform legislation, an idea first promoted by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. He has claimed the government is organizing FEMA concentration camps for those opposed to Obama’s government. He has stated that President Obama wants to create an equivalent of Hitler’s SS or Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. He claimed Rockefeller Center has secret meanings that are Communist, Socialist, and Progressive in its architecture and sculptures on the walls. He asserted that the government wants to promote forced abortions. This is just a selected list of his crazy assertions!

As the Anti Defamation League stated, Beck is willing to give credence to conspiracy theorists and anti government extremists.

Beck talks about Nazism and Marxism as if they are one and the same. He appeals to his ignorant audience that is too easily made emotional by his acting performance which borders on the insane much of the time.

The fact that the Gallup poll last week showed him more popular than anyone, except former South African leader Nelson Mandela, is terrifying news. His being more popular than Billy Graham, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and George HW Bush shows how ill informed and emotional the American public has become.

This reminds me of the appeal that Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest”, had in the years of the Great Depression. It also brings back memories of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who promoted the Red Scare in the 1950s. And, of course, it brings back bad memories of Governor George Wallace of Alabama in the 1960s and 1970s, who promoted race hatred and insecurity as he ran for President.

Face the facts: Glenn Beck is the new menace to American freedom and stability, and the fact that many advertisers have withdrawn from supporting his show on Fox News Channel is a good thing. This man has nothing positive or encouraging to say, and it is obvious he is just out to enrich himself at the expense of the gullible Americans who are rightfully concerned about their future, but are being told by this recovering alcoholic to have fear and hate for their government and many of their fellow citizens.

It is time for Americans who believe in truth and positive thinking to denounce and boycott this spewer of poison and hate, who is laughing all the way to the bank at our expense! 🙁

The Newest Concept of “Poor”: Living Solely On Food Stamps

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The New York Times has revealed that there is a new concept of what it is to be poor in America.

This new category are those who have lost their homes, their jobs, their health insurance if they had it, and have absolutely no cash income. All that they have is a few hundred dollars per month in food stamps, so that they can feed themselves and their children in an inadequate manner.

These unfortunate Americans have no welfare, unemployment insurance, pensions, child support, or disability pay. Two percent of the population now lives in a household with only food stamps as the source of sustenance. One in four children lives on food stamps and one out of eight Americans gets food stamps.

Food stamp use in Florida has doubled over the past two years, and tripled in areas of the devastated Southwest Florida, where foreclosures are particularly high. The number of whites on food stamps is growing faster than of other groups.

This situation is obviously unacceptable, and it behooves the Obama Administration to do more, even with the attacks on spending coming from the Republican party and conservatives. This poverty problem, worse than ever, is a national disgrace, and affects children more than anyone else. No one in good conscience can see this and look the other way!

The Ongoing State Budget Crisis In California And Many Other States

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California is often called a microcosm of the nation, with one of every eight people living in the Golden State, and the state being one of the top ten economies in the world.

The state has been reeling from record budget deficits, which have led to budget cuts, tax increases, and a constant state of crisis relating to social services, including education, health care, and aid to the poor, the young, the elderly, and the state work force.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in his last year as Governor, and it will be difficult for him to gain any traction on these problems in a political year where there is such a total collapse of cooperation with the legislature, and everyone is up for election.

Many other states have similar budget gaps in the double digits, but at a lower level than California. These states include Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. 36 states have some budget gap that is creating a crisis.

It typically takes two years beyond a recession for state economic outlooks to improve, but with the high level of foreclosures and unemployment at present, the collection of sales, income, and corporate taxes is far lower than is needed to meet social service needs across the country.

Despite conservative opposition, it seems necessary for more federal aid to the states, with the argument being if Wall Street, the banks, and the auto industry could get federal aid, then the states must also be assisted, probably by another economic stimulus, which has helped to some extent to lessen the pain of the recession in many states, although not solving it.

This crisis comes just as the demand is growing to cut government spending because of deficit concerns, but if the states are not assisted by the US government, future chaos and massive suffering seems likely. What an unfortunate mess the Obama Administration faces to deal with the reality of tremendous poverty and suffering in much of the country!

It seems to me the only alternative is more assistance, as FDR increased in the second year of his administration during the Great Depression. Lack of action would be far worse!

Interesting Political Races In 2010

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For a political junkie, 2010 offers many interesting races. Among them are the following:

Alabama: Can Democratic Congressman Artur Davis become the first African American governor of a Southern state once governed by George Wallace?

Florida: Can Marco Rubio, Cuban American conservative, overcome Governor Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate race, and also defeat Kendrick Meek, who would become the first African American Senator from a Southern state since Reconstruction?

Texas: Can Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison overcome Governor Rick Perry in the GOP gubernatorial primary?

New York: Can Andrew Cuomo overcome Governor David Paterson in the Democratic gubernatorial primary?

Delaware: Will Democrat Beau Biden, the Vice President’s son, run for his former Senate seat and win it?

Connecticut: Can Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd hold on to his Senate seat?

Pennsylvania: Can Democratic Senator Arlen Specter retain his seat in the Senate?

Nevada: Can Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hold on to his seat and remain Majority Leader?

Arizona: Can Republican Senator John McCain retain his seat against a conservative challenger in the primary?

California: Can Jerry Brown, former Democratic governor in the 1970s and 1980s, return to the Governorship after 28 years?

There certainly is no lack of drama coming this year, where the entire House of Representatives and two thirds of the Senate, and three fourths of the governorships, are up for grabs! 🙂

A Different Type Of Diversity Needed On The Future Supreme Court!

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The Supreme Court used to be, for the longest time, nine white male Protestants. Now it is very diverse in so many ways: six Catholics, two Jews, two women, one African American, one Hispanic.

With the likelihood that Barack Obama may get two more appointments in this term–with the expected retirement of John Paul Stevens and the poor health of Ruth Bader Ginsberg as factors–it is time to consider a different type of diversity.

Instead of having only Justices who have been judges at the lower court levels, what is needed is people who have been engaged in the political system in other ways–as elected governors, senators, congressmen, mayors–or as cabinet members under Presidents.

In the past, we had such political luminaries as Charles Evans Hughes, Hugo Black, and Earl Warren on the Supreme Court. We had much speculation in the past twenty years that some day Utah Senator Orrin Hatch would be a Republican pick on the Court, and supposedly Maine Senator George Mitchell and New York Governor Mario Cuomo were queried about Court vacancies by President Clinton.

This would be a good trend, to have people on the Court who have experiences different from just judicial experience. There certainly are people in the American political system who could be seen as potential future Supreme Court Justices, and President Obama should use his imagination, when the time comes, to widen the diversity of the Supreme Court in a different direction!

The Lost Decade For The American Work Force: The “00”s

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Now that the “00s” have ended, the sad reality is that it was a lost decade for the American work force.

Statistics show that there was ABSOLUTELY no job growth at all for the entire decade, and that it was the worst decade for the economy since the 1930s, and this is not just from the Great Recession that started in 2008, but over the whole ten year period!

Along with zero net job creation, and middle income households making less in 2008 than in 1999, when inflation is factored into the equation, the net worth of American households also declined, with inflation figures considered.

Mismanagement of the economy reigned in the decade, and indebtedness became a major crisis for many Americans, as too many Americans lived on borrowed money. Therefore, that is a good explanation for the highest unemployment rate in numbers since the 1930s, and the tremendous collapse of the housing market in the past few years.

This decade now ended could also be called the “bubble” decade, since it began with a stock market bubble and ended with a housing and credit bubble, with the present recession far worse than the mild one in the early part of the decade.

The challenge for President Obama’s administration will be how to turn the economy around and bring real job growth sooner, rather than later, not just for the economic health of the nation, but also for the political future of the Democratic Party in Congress and in the state houses.

One thing seems clear: The Republican party cannot blame the economic mess on the Democrats, as they controlled the White House for eight years and the Congress for six years during this tragic decade. The Democrats need to remind voters of this fact, and the reality that the GOP has no solutions on the economy as we enter 2010, except to criticize and downgrade everything Obama promotes or suggests.

What Rush Limbaugh Chooses To Ignore About Health Care!

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As the new year and the new decade begins, it is good news to hear that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has gotten a clean bill of health after being admitted to a Hawaii hospital for severe chest pains. Even if one finds him obnoxious and disgraceful in his comments and behavior on his talk show, it does not mean that one wishes him or anyone else to have bad health.

Having said that, however, it is interesting that Rush raves about the American health care system being the greatest in the world, but chooses to ignore certain basic facts about that health care system.

The health care system is not available to all Americans, as nearly 50 million have no access other than an emergency room, which cannot be seen as equal access to health care.

Not everyone who has health care coverage has good health insurance, and they often discover that health care costs can bankrupt them.

Many millions of Americans have preexisting conditions, which are not covered by many health insurance plans.

Many Americans would lose their health insurance if they are unemployed, and that has been happening on a very large scale this past year with the highest unemployment since the early 1980s.

Not everyone has what Rush Limbaugh has: the best health insurance coverage and access to the top notch doctors and services, and salary and assets in the millions of dollars. Not everyone is created equal when it comes to health availability and services.

That is precisely the reason that we must not let the selfishness, self centered nature, and smugness of Rush Limbaugh to control the future lives and health status of millions of Americans, who are entitled to decent access and services in health care!