Month: May 2010

State Budgets And The Link To Federal Stimulus Funds

Ronald 1 Comment

It is truly ironic that in a time of tremendous stress for all state budgets, it is the federal stimulus money passed a year ago by Congress, with the urging of President Barack Obama, that is “saving” many states on cutting teachers, firefighters, police officers, prison guards, and state government agency workers!

For instance, the state of Florida, seemingly hellbent on becoming as reactionary in government policies as South Carolina and Texas and Mississippi, seems unwilling to attribute their final state budget to the help of the federal government, but if it was not for $3 billion in federal money, there would have been no way to deal with state problems in a fairly reasonable way!

Not that what Florida and other states are receiving this year is adequate enough, as already there are hints in various counties in Florida, and other counties in other states, that there will be an education crisis, law enforcement emergency, and public safety shortcomings!

Despite all the attacks on the federal government, it seems clear that another economic stimulus is essential to keep the states afloat in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression!

What it comes down to, again, is that the states “hate” federal intervention, but in the modern world since the Great Depression and World War II, it has been unavoidable that the national government must play a major role in the lives of all Americans!

40 Years Since Kent State: Sad Anniversary Of A Divided America Which Continues Today!

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Tomorrow, May 4, marks 40 years since the tragic shooting of students at Kent State University in Ohio by the National Guard, leading to the death of four students and the wounding of nine others!

Kent State became the symbol of a divided America over the Vietnam War’s continuation, and expansion into Cambodia by the Nixon Administration. The reaction was for the President, Vice President Spiro Agnew, and Ohio Governor James Rhodes (who called for the National Guard to be sent to the college campus) to condemn the students as causing their own tragedy, and the country was as divided for the next few years on that terrible event and Vietnam as ever before or since the Civil War in the mid 19th century!

Kent State radicalized many, but also confirmed many conservatives in their own self righteousness and patriotism, backing a war that had a lack of support among a large portion of the American population!

The thought that the National Guard was out of control, and took the action to shoot down and kill college students in cold blood, and that many did not see that as a horrible event, is still enough to make one sick to his stomach forty years later!

The problem is that the hate that has developed in the midst of economic crisis now in America reminds one too much of those tumultuous times! Hate speech and heated rhetoric is now employed over domestic affairs, and leadership is demonized as then, and in many ways, the divisions in America today are reminiscent of those days!

It is the old battle of the movement for progress and change, against the forces of tradition and retrenchment! Vietnam was the controversy of that time, while now it is domestic reform after years of stagnation, corruption, and economic exploitation!

Charlie Crist’s Major Problem As An Independent Candidate For The Senate

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Now that Charlie Crist, Florida’s Republican Governor, has declared as an Independent candidate in this year’s Senate race, he faces a major problem!

Unfortunately, it will take major efforts and commitment by Florida voters who wish to vote for him on the November ballot, as his name will be at the bottom or near bottom of all the candidates on the list, the usual place for an independent candidate with no party line!

Since there will be minor parties listed along with Republican nominee Marco Rubio and Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek, there will be growing concern that many voters might be confused by not finding Crist’s name right below them, or even near them on the voting cards!

Will Crist, who is certainly well known statewide, be able to motivate enough Floridians to go out of their way, search for his name, and actually vote for him? Will Crist be able to gain enough of a share of Republican voters? Will Democrats be willing to abandon their candidate, a Congressman in many ways a version of Barack Obama when he ran for the Illinois Senate seat in 2004, all because Crist vetoed a teacher bill that, therefore, preserved tenure and security for educators in his state, people who often would vote for Democrats? Will moderates and independent registered voters come over to Crist in large enough numbers to make him the winner with only 34-37 percent of the state’s total vote?

Finally, will Crist be able to raise enough money as an Independent to run a media campaign, so urgent in a state with so many media markets, and such a wide variety in voter characteristics in north Florida and the Panhandle; Central Florida and the I-4 corridor from Tampa and St. Petersburg to Orlando; and in the voter rich areas of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties in South Florida?

Also, with Florida still in many ways a “Southern” and conservative state despite its large percentage of people who have migrated from the North and from Cuba, will it be willing to elect an African American senator in Kendrick Meek, or a Cuban American senator in Marco Rubio, when they have a chance to support a moderate, white “Anglo” Governor, who was very popular until recently?

It is true that Senator Mel Martinez, who resigned after four and a half years in office in the fall of 2009, was Cuban American, but he only had to deal with a white Anglo woman Democrat as his opponent! With Crist in the race, the whole dynamics of the race changes dramatically!

But again, will enough citizens be willing and able to look hard for Crist’s name near the bottom of the ballots? That is still the leading question of this race, above all others!

National Security Becomes Dominant Issue Again In Different Ways!

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In the midst of heated debates over health care and financial reform, that “800 Pound Gorilla”, National Security, has reared its ugly head in recent days!

Not only is the constantly emerging threat of a nuclear Iran becoming more worrisome, but three issues that have shown up in the past ten days add up to an alarming scenario.

First, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the loss of eleven oil rig workers was upsetting, but now the reality is that since the spill cannot be controlled and is spreading to the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast, threatening wildlife, fishing, and beach communities long term, it is a frightening situation. It could be a total environmental, as well as economic, disaster for decades! And to top it off, there is some concern growing that the Gulf Stream could carry the oil spill around Florida’s Panhandle to create tremendous damage to the west coast, the Keys, and the east coast of Florida, and work its way up the Atlantic coast states, making the situation a national disaster of massive proportions hard to fully conceive! This situation is a tremendous threat to our national security, no matter how one tries to portray it in a better light, if that is possible! 🙁

Secondly, the protests against the immigration legislation in Arizona reflect the fears of many of racial profiling and civil liberties and civil rights violations. But at the same time, there is the reality of the porous 2,000 plus miles border between the United States and a very unstable neighboring nation, Mexico, which represents the danger of drug gangs and crime infesting our boundaries, and the reality of terrorists easily being able to cross our borders with impunity, at least in theory, if not reality!

And now, just last night, the shock of an SUV being parked in Times Square in New York City, loaded down with gasoline, propane tanks, and explosive devices that failed, fortunately, to detonate, makes us fully reminded of the fact that we cannot sit back and relax and think we are safe from internal and external threats of terrorism!

But how do we deal with these different aspects of our national security crisis, which makes us more aware than ever before since September 11, to the need to do everything to insure our safety?

How do we give our government at all levels enough authority and power to protect us, and yet not take away our Bill of Rights? 🙁

This is the challenge that may, in the long run of history, be a greater determinant as to the reputation of the administration of President Barack Obama, than health care or financial reform or Supreme Court appointments or anything else imaginable on the horizon!

Congressman Duncan Hunter, Jr. And The Constitution

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Freshman Congressman Duncan Hunter, Jr. of California, the son of his namesake who was a long term Congressman and a Presidential candidate in the Republican campaign of 2008, has outraged many with his proposal that children born of illegal immigrants be deported with their parents!

Hunter, who is the only combat veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to be serving in the Congress, had a great advantage being elected to Congress, being the son of a famous father, and running to replace him in his seat. He is to be respected for his military commitment to his country, but on this specific issue, he is totally wrong!

The Constitution makes it clear that if someone is born within the territorial limits of the United States, he or she is a citizen of the United States, and cannot be deported!

Therefore, this kind of suggestion is counter productive, and only incites Tea Party Movement people and racial supremacists who are using the Arizona law to promote their anti Latino and Hispanic motivations!

Hunter should use his time in Congress, instead of dividing people and promoting hysteria and panic, to help arrive at a conclusion that is contributory toward a solution of the illegal immigration problem!

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Civil Liberties And Civil Rights: The New George Wallace In The Making?

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Maricopa Country, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has long been the center of controversy in his approach to civil liberties and civil rights. Now he is pondering running for Governor of Arizona as a strong supporter of the recently enacted state illegal immigration law!

Arpaio has a tough image as a crime fighter in the Phoenix area, but has been accused of discrimination and civil rights abuses, which he brushes off.

His image as America’s toughest sheriff includes a recent raid which led to the arrest of 73 illegal immigrants; housing prisoners in tents, and making them wear pink underwear; and feeding them on less than a dollar a day!

Arpaio has faced charges of abusive practices by the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union without being very upset about it.

Were he to run for Governor, it would further incite the issue of illegal immigration, and it is certain that were he to win the office, the issue would become much more confrontational than even the signing of the recent legislation by present Governor Jan Brewer!

With Arpaio’s approach and attitude of defying the federal government, he would be to Latinos and Hispanics what Governor George Wallace of Alabama was to African Americans and civil rights in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s! 🙁