Month: September 2010

The Stark Facts About Child Poverty In America! :(

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The new figures on poverty in America in 2009, the greatest percentages since the 1960s, is a shocking reality that must be addressed! 🙁

One third of African American and Hispanic children live in poverty, while one sixth of white children and one seventh of Asian children face the deprivations of poverty!

This is totally unacceptable in a nation that likes to claim it is a prosperous and humane society, which offers opportunities for advancement as no other nation does!

In the midst of the Great Recession, it is not time to talk about giving more tax cuts to the wealthy, and ignore what we are doing to our nation’s children, who are the future of America! 🙁

A new “war on poverty”, as was conducted under Lyndon Johnson, must occur, or we are losing our future as a great nation!

Sarah Palin’s Advice To Christine O’Donnell: NOT Acceptable For A Presidential Campaign! :(

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who backed Christine O’Donnell’s campaign for the GOP Senate nomination in Delaware, yesterday advised O’Donnell on how to campaign for the Senate against Chris Coons!

On Fox News Channel, Palin stated that O’Donnell should only be willing to be interviewed by Fox, and refuse to answer questions or be interviewed by the mainstream media! Palin made it clear that she had come to that conclusion based on how she perceives herself treated by the mainstream media during the Presidential campaign of 2008!

This is a very interesting development in many ways!

First, Palin blames the mainstream media for making her a victim, when it is her own fault, being poorly prepared to run for Vice President, being evidently poorly informed and lacking in knowledge on very basic information and issues! Is it the fault of the media that she could not name a Supreme Court case or some of the sources of media that she claims to read? Is her inability to articulate anything clearly the fault of others, or her own fault? The answer is obvious! 🙁

Secondly, telling O’Donnell to refuse to answer questions and only agree to be interviewed by “friendly” media is an example, becoming more common among Republicans, conservatives and Tea Party Movement people! It is a level of arrogance that should NOT be rewarded! If someone wishes to be competing to be elected by the people, they have a a responsibility to answer challenging questions, show their level of knowledge and expertise, and agree to public debates! Just because they are made to feel uncomfortable or insecure does not give them the right to refuse to communicate with news media and the American public! 🙁

And thirdly if Sarah Palin, as rumored, intends to run for President, is she going to be able to refuse to debate her rivals, and later President Obama? Is she going to be able to refuse to answer questions from CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and numerous other media sources that she may not particularly admire? 🙁

The answer is NO, as if she wants to be our President, she CANNOT boycott questions and challenges! She NEEDS TO PROVE her competence, talents, and abilities to be our Commander in Chief!

So if she does not wish to do so, then stay at Fox News Channel, and be praised and glorified by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck! Do more television series, deliver more speeches before admiring audiences, and publish more books, and make loads of money! But don’t expect us to elect you President without a full vetting of you, by friends AND by enemies! 🙁

Time For Obama Voters Of 2008 To Recognize Need To Vote In 2010!

Ronald 1 Comment

Every indication is that opponents of Barack Obama, including Republicans and conservatives and Tea Party Movement activists, and many independents, are enthused and motivated to vote, in order to paralyze the President’s agenda, and also to attempt a repeal of much of what he has been able to accomplish domestically, despite the Great Recession we are experiencing! 🙁

The lack of motivation, and the high level of apathy among Democrats and progressives, is threatening any possibility of further achievements in the next two years, including dealing with the economic suffering of millions of Americans! 🙁

Many are unhappy that the Great Recession is still very serious, and many are disillusioned that much of what they hoped would happen, has not occurred!

Many wanted a stronger health care law, and a more severe control of Wall Street! Many wanted to see quicker action on gay rights and many other social issues! Many wanted Barack Obama to be much more to the left than he has been!

BUT, if these Democrats and progressives “sit on their hands” and refuse to give financial support and vote for the party in the midterm elections, the result will be a greater blow to what these activists want!

This is not an ideal world, and while many on the left might wish Obama had done more of his agenda, they need to understand that everything that has been accomplished could be negated if the right wing wins the election, leading to total stalemate and gridlock between a potential GOP Congress and a Democratic President over the next two years! 🙁

What the author has just asserted was also echoed by Vice President Joe Biden last evening in an interview on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC!

The Republican Party In Disarray After Christine O’Donnell’s Victory In Delaware!

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The shocking, unexpected victory of Christine O’Donnell over Mike Castle for the GOP Senate nomination in Delaware last night had the effect of causing disarray within the Republican party establishment!

While conservative commentators, such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity hailed her victory, the loser of the election, Mike Castle, refused to endorse her, and there was a stunned silence and then slow reaction of support by GOP leaders such as Senator John Cornyn, the head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, a committee that has seen eight of its preferred choices be rejected by voters, including Charlie Crist in Florida, Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Mike Castle in Delaware, Rob Simmons in Connecticut, Jane Norton in Colorado, Bob Bennett in Utah, Sue Lowden in Nevada, and Trey Grayson in Kentucky!

Instead, we have as candidates those favored by the Tea Party Movement, many of them coming across as loony and extremist! The question is whether Marco Rubio in Florida, Joe Miller in Alaska, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Linda McMahon in Connecticut, Ken Buck in Colorado, Mike Lee in Utah, Sharron Angle in Nevada, and Rand Paul in Kentucky can win those Senate seats, and if they do, how much of a headache they will create for the Republican Senate leadership, headed by Mitch McConnell!

And to top it off, Karl Rove, who helped to make George W. Bush President, made it clear that he did not support Christine O’Donnell, who he stated lacked the character and honesty and background needed to be a United States Senator! This has led to outrage by conservative commentators, and makes clear the disarray that exists, and is likely to lead to the defeat of many of these loony candidates!

The Republican Party is in the midst of a crisis that could very well lead to them NOT GAINING many seats in the Senate, and far fewer seats in the House than many polls have projected!

Anything can happen in the next seven weeks, but it is not time for anyone to feel assured that the GOP is about to gain control of either house of Congress!

The Year Of The Republican Woman Senate Candidates!

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The year 2010 will go down as the Year of the Republican Woman Senate Candidates!

A total of five women have been nominated by the GOP to run for a Senate seat, and it is expected that at least one or two might very well be elected in November!

Among the most likely winners would be Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, and possibly Carly Fiorina, formerly CEO of Hewlett Packard, in California, although her race against Senator Barbara Boxer is likely to be much tougher than Ayotte’s against Paul Hodes, as Boxer has a long career in the Senate and California is a blue state, as compared to the traditional red state nature of New Hampshire (although lately New Hampshire has been going blue)!

Much more difficult will be a win by Sharron Angle in Nevada over Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, as Angle has come across as one of the worst candidates running for election!

A win by Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive, in Connecticut over Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, will also be difficult, despite Blumenthal’s exaggerated claim that he served in Vietnam during the 1960s!

Almost certainly a defeat is awaiting Delaware’s new Senate nominee, Christine O’Donnell, who shocked everyone in overcoming Congressman Mike Castle yesterday! No one, except Christine, seems to think she can defeat Chris Coons, the Democratic nominee!

It will certainly be an interesting fall, with the only likely certainty being the election of Kelly Ayotte to represent New Hampshire in the US Senate!

Educational Reality: Women Surpass Men At All Levels Of Degrees!

Ronald 1 Comment

A growing trend in recent years has now become even more evident: Women in much greater numbers are attending colleges and universities, and finishing bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees at greater rates than men in most fields!

This is a fantastic development for women, and can be attributed to their work ethic, their ambition, their realization of the need to be self supporting, and their level of maturity and responsibility!

But at the same time, this is a sad commentary on what is happening nationwide to college age males, who more than ever are delaying or totally skipping higher education, and instead choosing to go into the military or learn a trade if they are responsible, or unfortunately, in many cases, going from low wage job to low wage job and thinking of work as a means to just meet minimum responsibilities and concentrate on having fun, therefore demonstrating lack of responsibility and maturity! 🙁

This poor attitude on the part of males may be connected to the fact that many have not had a father in their lives, or if so, not a good role model! It is also partly the attitude that many males seem to have, that it is not “cool” to be a good student and to be educated!

It makes one wonder if many women now foresee a future of a career without children, as the normal view is that women wish to marry up in social and economic terms, and that may not be possible with the growing poor attitude toward work, education and career being demonstrated by many in the younger generation of males! 🙁

This is indeed a long range problem for America–the lack of ambition of many young men who think life is just partying and fun! If it continues, it is the downfall of traditional American values! 🙁

Theodore Roosevelt: Do Republicans Appreciate Or Repudiate Him Today?

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Today, September 14, happens to be the 109th anniversary of the accession of Republican Theodore Roosevelt to the Presidency, upon the death of President William McKinley, assassinated by the anarchist and terrorist Leon Czolgosz!

T. R.’s impact on the Presidency and on American history is massive, and his accession in 1901 transformed the country in so many ways, and the fact that the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 occurred exactly one century later minus three days is, to say the least, weird and eery! 🙂

The question that arises is whether the Republican Party admires T. R. today, and basically, it seems clear that MOST Republicans would criticize him, because of his promotion of Presidential power, because of his advocacy of “progressive” reform including regulation of corporations, and his support of a major world role for America!

Glenn Beck and other conservatives have treated T. R. as someone to be condemned, and yet in polls of experts, he is rated usually Number Four, right behind Lincoln, FDR, and Washington!

And certainly he is seen by the American people as one of the more famous and popular Presidents, and his youth and vigor inspires many people!

And of course, he was an environmentalist, which thrills many Democrats and liberals, but angers many Republicans and conservatives!

Of course, the true evaluation of T. R. continues to evolve, but it is worth noting that his impact on us was so significant, that research and evaluation of the 26th President will not be coming to an end any time soon, if indeed ever!

Seven Seats The Democrats Might Gain In House Races!

Ronald 1 Comment

Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post today outlined the reality of at least seven House races that might switch from the Republicans to the Democrats in November, which would make it necessary for the GOP to win 46 seats, instead of the 39 minimum, to gain control of the chamber!

He outlines seats in California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania that are seen as likely to switch to the Democrats!

The point is that the disgust with incumbents, along with the effects of the Tea Party Movement, could lead to these seven, and other Republican seats in the House to switch in favor of
the Democrats!

So again, with the public opinion rating for Republicans running lower than the Democrats, it is not time yet to toast Speaker of the House John Boehner! 🙂

Newt Gingrich: A Demagogue Who Knows Better! :(

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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is an educated and intelligent man. He was a college professor of history, has an earned Ph. D., and is the author of both nonfiction and fiction best sellers! He is, in other words, not an ignorant man, and yet, he is most certainly a demagogue who knows better! 🙁

Gingrich has a driving ambition to be President of the United States, and he has a personality that has no limits of self aggrandizement or self promotion! He has shown he has no limits as to what he will do to destroy others, whether when he was in the House of Representatives and went after Speaker of the House Jim Wright, or when he himself was Speaker and set out to destroy Bill Clinton for his moral lapses when he himself was involved in similar moral degradation! 🙁

The man has no shame or guilt about how he utilizes character assassination to achieve his goals! Were he to win, somehow, the GOP nomination for President, he would be unable to unite his party and would be the most divisive President imaginable, were the country stupid enough to elect him! 🙁

Gingrich is now on a tear to destroy the reputation of Barack Obama, because this man had the gall to actually win the Presidency! So Gingrich continues to spread the “birther” myth, by stating that Obama was dishonest, and did not show his so called “Kenyan, anti colonial” mentality when he was running for President in 2008! This is the same Gingrich who last year worked with Obama on education reform, so it demonstrates the sickness of Gingrich’s personality which is most marked by destructive behavior, including lies, deceit, and extreme egocentric characteristics! 🙁

The only good thing about Gingrich’s bizarre behavior this past year, including his demonizing the so called Ground Zero Mosque to advance his own ambitions, is that he is almost certainly self destructing, so we will not have to deal with his lunatic behavior in the Presidential election two years from now, although he may be a factor until he is eliminated by lack of appeal and lack of ethics! 🙁

Is Delaware A Sign of “Civil War” In The Republican Party?

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The battle within the Republican Party in Delaware for the Senate nomination in tomorrow’s primary may very well be a sign of the future of the GOP nationally!

Moderate Congressman Mike Castle, an 18 year veteran of the House of Representatives and former Governor, is being opposed by Christine O’Donnell, who has twice lost Senate races against Vice President Joe Biden, and in the mind of GOP leaders in the state, has absolutely no qualifications for the Senate, other than her very good looks!

The Tea Party Movement, Sarah Palin, and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, angling to be Senate leader for his party in a challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell, all are backing O’Donnell!

The result is that there could be said to be “civil war” between moderate centrists and the right wing of the party, which is becoming more aggressive everywhere, representing a long range threat to the stability of the GOP across the nation!

This is a sad commentary on the GOP, facing a crisis of identity as the Tea Party Movement works to overtake and reshape the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and YES, even Ronald Reagan! 🙁