Day: August 5, 2010

Extreme Anti Abortion Views Of Libertarian Tea Party Republican Candidates For US Senate!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party has had an anti abortion plank in its national platform since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980!

But Presidents Reagan, Bush I and Bush II all made clear their beliefs in exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother!

Recently, the GOP position on exceptions on abortion has become more hard line, particularly so among libertarian Tea Party backed Republican candidates, most notably for the United States Senate!

Kentucky Senate nominee Rand Paul; Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle; and Utah Senate choice Mike Lee have all made clear their belief that a woman should be required to go full term on a pregnancy, even if caused by rape or incest–that as Sharron Angle terms it, two wrongs don’t make a right! 🙁

This is shocking for libertarian Tea Party types who would argue against big intrusive government in our lives, but yet are prepared to have government intervene on a personal matter of a woman’s body and health, and force her to follow through on a traumatic pregnancy caused by rape or incest!

This shows the hypocrisy of the Tea Party Movement and of libertarians who rail against big government, but insist that government has the right to force women to go through nine months of trauma after a shocking sexual assault!

This is a denial of personal freedom, but conveniently, the only freedoms Republican libertarians believe in is freedom of corporations to exploit the American people, and freedom of hypocrisy by these despicable candidates for public office! 🙁

Historical Ignorance Of Phil Gingrey And Other Republicans On 14th Amendment!

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Georgia Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey was on Hardball With Chris Matthews on MSNBC today, speaking up on the GOP attempt to change the 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship to all born in the United States! This is all part of the strategy to deny “anchor babies”, children born to illegal immigrants and tourists, from having the right of American citizenship!

Gingrey argued that European nations do not allow “anchor babies” to be citizens, which is interesting since Republicans usually condemn the idea of America following any European traditions!

He also forgets that America is unique, a land of opportunity, different from so called “old Europe”, and that we have always been a nation that was different than all others, the beacon of hope in the world!

When people come to this nation, even those who are illegal, 98 percent of them came for a better life, not to get involved in drugs or gangs or crime! A small percentage of criminals and drug dealers and gang members should not reflect upon an entire ethnic group, as that is stereotyping! 🙁

But beyond this point, Gingrey also said that immigrants were not part of the equation during the debates over the 14th Amendment, as there were only SIX THOUSAND immigrants to this country during the 1860s!

What an unbelievable statement–SIX THOUSAND–and totally false! If one peruses historical census records, one discovers that in the decade from 1860-1870, 2.1 MILLION immigrants came to our shores–Germans the most, British second, Irish third, and Scandinavians fourth!

Anyone with any historical knowledge knows that so called “native” Americans, meaning those born here, despised the coming in of those “horrible Catholic” Germans and Irish!

And 2.8 percent of those who came into America during the 1860s were from Asia, primarily Chinese! 2.8 percent of 2.1 million immigrants means approximately 60 THOUSAND Chinese or other Asians migrated here in the 1860s! That alone is TEN times the total number of all immigrants that Congressman Gingrey claims arrived in the US during the entire decade of the 1860s! And they were not well received, even by the Irish, who lobbied over the next decade to bar them, succeeding in 1882, with the Chinese Exclusion Act!

So immigration was alive and well while the 14th Amendment was being debated, discussed, passed through Congress, and ratified by the states between 1866-1868!

No one suggested that so called “anchor babies” or children of immigrants should not be citizens at birth in the 1860s!

For Phil Gingrey and other Republicans and conservatives to suggest otherwise shows historical ignorance, prejudice, discrimination, and willingness to exploit an issue to gain votes, but knowing that under no circumstances will a change in the amendment EVER come about! 🙁

In other words, the GOP is again, for the umpteenth time, acting in a despicable and disgraceful manner! 🙁

Elena Kagan Confirmed As Associate Justice Of Supreme Court!

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Solicitor General and former Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan was confirmed today by a vote of 63-37 to be the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court!

Kagan became the fourth woman in the Court’s history, and the second appointment of President Obama! She also became the first non judicial experience member of the Court since William Rehnquist!

She received the support of all Democrats, except Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson! She also received the backing of only five Republicans–Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Judd Gregg, Lindsey Graham, and Richard Lugar, as compared to the nine Republicans who backed Sonia Sotomayor last year (who won her seat by a margin of 68-32)!

Kagan can be seen as a worthy successor to John Paul Stevens, who served the fourth longest time on the Supreme Court, and she inherits a seat not only occupied by Stevens, but earlier by William O. Douglas (longest serving Justice in history) and Louis Brandeis (often considered the number one or two Supreme Court Justice in history)!

Essential Action Needed For “99er” Unemployment Compensation Extension!

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We have reached a stage unseen since the Great Depression, having a few million people who have been unemployed through no fault of their own for 99 weeks, nearly two years, and without much hope any time soon for employment opportunities!

These people are heavily middle class, who have been suffering financially and emotionally in a way none of us wish to experience!

To wake up for nearly two years without much hope, particularly with the millions of people unemployed in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, and to face the reality that each job out there has between 5-6 competitors on average, requires immediate action by our government to prevent these people from becoming homeless, living on the streets or out of their cars if they still have one, and going hungry and without medical care!

Many of these people had never experienced unemployment before, and many are highly educated and trained, and many are family people, with wives, husbands, and children!

To tell these people, sorry, you have gained 99 weeks of unemployment, and now you are on your own, is to tell them basically that they can “go to hell”, and that this nation does not give a damn about them and their future!

Here, it is appropriate to bring a religious statement into this discussion: “There but for the grace of God go I!” To say that this misfortune could never happen to us is a sign of cockiness, arrogance, and lack of care for other human beings!

When we have many people taking better care of their pets than we deal with misfortune of human beings, it is time for what Senator Debbie Stebanow of Michigan and others are sponsoring right now! Give small business tax credits to hire workers for a guaranteed 52 weeks of employment, and meanwhile give these unfortunate workers an extension of 20 more weeks of unemployment compensation!

This can be done before the Senate and House go on break, and with only a few Republican votes, and it is essential that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi keep the Congress in session until and when this legislation is approved!

Barack Obama And The Revival Of The Auto Industry!

Ronald 4 Comments

A year ago, Republicans and conservatives were criticizing the Obama Administration for intervention in the auto industry, which many considered nearly dead and not worth saving!

Now, a year later, there have been six months of improved conditions in the auto industry and profits are being made, and it is obvious that President Obama did the right thing in deciding to assist General Motors and Chrysler!

Many failed to realize that it was not just the auto industry itself that was at stake, but also many allied industries that would have suffered a complete collapse if the auto companies had not seen federal intervention to keep them alive and kicking!

While the Michigan and Midwest unemployment rates are still very high, the fact of signs of improvement is a testimonial to the fact that the Obama Administration did the right thing in deciding to help keep the auto industry alive! So congratulations, Mr. President! 🙂

Charlie Crist Abandoned By Two He Promoted To Their Public Positions! :(

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Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who is running as an Independent for the Senate this fall, is learning rapidly what it is to be abandoned by two people that he promoted to their public positions, and it does not make either of these individuals look very appreciative! 🙁

First, he was abandoned by George LeMieux, who he appointed to replace Senator Mel Martinez almost a year ago, to fill the remaining 16 months of that term, but who chose to endorse Marco Rubio for the Senate! Now it is rumored that LeMieux plans to challenge Democratic Senator Bill Nelson for his reelection contest in 2012, although the appointed Senator has shown no statesmanship or principle at all, and is obviously a traitor as well! 🙁

Now, the news comes that Lieutenant Governor Jeff Kottkamp, who was an obscure state senator when Crist picked him to be his running mate in 2006, is also abandoning his boss, and backing Marco Rubio for the Senate! Kottkamp was a nonentity as Lieutenant Governor, except for the news that he was very loose in his use of an expense account to travel, at the expense of taxpayers! In other words, he was as irresponsible in the use of public money as Marco Rubio was while Speaker of the state House! 🙁

Both LeMieux and Kottkamp will go down as traitors to Crist, who made them what they became, and with Crist ahead in the polls for the Senate race, what they are trying to prevent, his victory for the Senate seat, will hopefully be a failure!

And then when either one goes for higher office, such as LeMieux for Nelson’s Senate seat, it would be appropriate for Crist to support Nelson based on record, but also based on incompetence that LeMieux has demonstrated in his short time in the US Senate, plus disloyalty! 🙁

The Ultimate Outrage: House Republicans Vote Against Health Care For September 11 First Responders! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

One of the most outstanding examples of anger on the House floor within memory occurred last week when NY Congressman Anthony Weiner erupted after House Republicans, with the exception of a few, refused to support a bill to provide health care to first responders on September 11, 2001, who have had numerous health issues as a result of exposure to the horrific environmental conditions created by that terrorist created nightmare! 🙁

There has not been any issue that the GOP has responded to that shows any decency, any humanity, any compassion–and yet supposedly this party is favored to win seats in the midterm election! 🙁

This is also the party whose members still include people who believe the “birther” myth, that Barack Obama is not a citizen and was born in Kenya! 🙁

It is sadly clear that this party would reject Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower as RINOS (Republicans In Name Only), were they to be alive today! 🙁