Month: October 2010

Potential For Civil War In Republican Party After Midterm Elections!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Tea Party Movement battle to influence and take over the Republican Party nationally may lead to civil war in the GOP after the midterm elections, if Tea Party supported candidates lose Senate and House races to Democrats!

Republican leaders are tending to be very cocky about the chances of taking over both the House of Representatives and Senate in the next Congress, but the Senate is particularly the place that could become a real battleground for control of the future of the party, and it could affect the national party and the Presidential battle for 2012!

Candidates such as Ken Buck of Colorado, Sharron Angle of Nevada, and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware have come across as loony and out of the mainstream, and if they lose their Senate races, the Republicans could end up having gained seats, but not the majority because of these candidates backed by the Tea Party Movement!

That could lead to recriminations, and could affect the Presidential contest, as Sarah Palin, Mike Pence, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and others who have flirted with the Tea Party could cause a split in 2012, fighting against establishment Republicans and Mitt Romney, who, despite his shortcomings, still comes across as the most legitimate, rational and sane candidate that the Republicans possess for 2012!

And, as stated earlier, a revolt within the Senate GOP could cause Mitch McConnell the control of the Majority or Minority leadership in the upper chamber, in favor of “flame thrower” Jim DeMint of South Carolina!

So whether the GOP gains control of Congress or just comes close, it could have long term negative implications for the party in 2012, including control of Congress after 2012!

Christine O’Donnell: Witchcraft, Masturbation, Monkeys, And Dishonesty! :(

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The most ridiculous candidate for national office this year, of so many outrageous candidates, is GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware, who hopes to gain the seat held for 36 years by Vice President Joe Biden!

O’Donnell loved to express her views publicly on television years ago, particularly on shows hosted by the comedian Bill Maher, and she was often the comedy more than the host of the show!

She indicated that she had been engaged in witchcraft; railed against masturbation as working against the idea of virginity before marriage; and wondered how evolution could be correct since monkeys do not turn into human beings before our eyes!

She also, in several campaigns for public office, demonstrated that she was effective in utilizing campaign funds to pay her rent, food, and even bowling outings, all illegal activities with campaign money!

She also exaggerated her educational background, implying connections with Oxford University in Great Britain, as well as Claremont Graduate University in California, and Princeton University in New Jersey, and managed to claim a degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, although she only finally gained an actual degree a few months ago, after years of owing money to the university for work completed long ago!

Beyond all this, Christine O’Donnell comes across as not very bright, and it makes one wonder about the concept of citizen-legislators! Should not a person who wishes to serve in our legislative bodies, either national or state, meet the basic acid test of knowledge and intelligence? 🙁

Christine O’Donnell is way behind her opponent, Chris Coons, in the Senate race. Were she, somehow to win, it would not be a triumph for the masses of the people, but a sign of the problem this country faces: the rise of total mediocrity to high office! 🙁

The California Of Jerry Brown, 1974 and 2010!

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Imagine yourself in a time capsule, going back to 1974 and examining the race for California Governor, and then fast forwarding it to 2010!

What would you discover? A state government official, Jerry Brown, son of former Governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, is running for Governor! 🙂

In 1974, Jerry Brown was Secretary of State for the state, and in 2010, he is the Attorney General!

In 1974, Jerry Brown is running to succeed a former actor, Ronald Reagan, who had served two terms as a Republican Governor! In 2010, Jerry Brown is running to succeed a former actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had served almost two complete terms (minus nine months) as a Republican Governor!

In 1974, Jerry Brown ran for Governor at the young age of 36, while in 2010, he ran for Governor at the advanced age of 72, exactly double in age!

In 1974, California was affected by a major recession under President Gerald Ford but originally occurring under President Richard Nixon, with nine percent unemployment, while in 2010, California was harmed by the Great Recession under President Barack Obama, who inherited it from President George W. Bush, with a 12.4 percent unemployment rate!

In 1974, California had a half billion dollar surplus in its state budget, while in 2010, it accomplished a balanced budget only after budget cuts of $19 billion!

In 1974, the population of California was just over 21 million people, while in 2010, it is at 37 million people!

In 1974, Brown was described as a “flaky” bachelor, but in 2005, he finally married, but is still regarded by many as “flaky” in personality. 🙂 He went on after eight years as Governor of the largest state, to become Mayor of Oakland and California Attorney General!

Brown also sought the Presidency three times, in 1976, 1980, and 1992, and alienated future Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton!

Even now, at age 72, and with a Democratic President in the White House, Brown has been asked if he would run for President again! 🙂 He deflected the question, but some might wonder if he would consider it, since we have had a former California Governor who served as President in his 70s (Ronald Reagan), and being Governor of California puts Presidential disease into your veins (Arnold Schwarzenegger wished there would be an amendment to the Constitution that would allow foreign born nationals eligibility to run for President)! 🙂

So California has changed, or has it? 🙂

A final thought: Jerry Brown won in 1974 by a small margin, and many think it will be that close against Meg Whitman, the GOP nominee and former Ebay CEO,who has spent more than $120 million of her personal fortune! So the more time passes, the more it remains much the same! 🙂

Former Presidents, And Selective Memory Of Critics, Scholars, And Public Opinion!

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Being President of the United States means glory and fame and being never forgotten in history, but it also includes bitter attacks, criticism, and a negative reputation in the minds of many critics, scholars and public opinion!

There is something about the passage of time that often soothes bad feelings and helps to restore a positive image of a President who has been under constant scrutiny! While a President may often leave office with a low public opinion rating and be seen as a disappointment or failure by many, over time he may be perceived in a very different light!

Such is the case with former President Bill Clinton and members of the Republican party who were his harshest critics, went after him in a vicious way for eight years, moved to impeach him for his private indiscretions, and used him until recently as a political issue against Democrats!

Now, many Republicans are praising Clinton, calling him a better President than Barack Obama, a moderate who benefited the nation, a compassionate conservative who was willing to negotiate with and work with the opposition party, once his own party lost control of Congress in 1994!

Another example of selective memory and how time heals wounds is that a CNN poll shows George W. Bush only two points behind Barack Obama on a question as to who is the better President! Obama leads 47-45, while last year he led by 23 points!

There is obviously a tendency for the negative emotional feelings that develop during the term of office of a President to dissipate over time, indeed sometimes within just a short span of time!

But it also shows that a thorough, balanced analysis of any Presidential administration takes inordinate amounts of time to accomplish–decades, generations, maybe even centuries!

After all, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and other Presidents before the 20th century are still being researched and evaluated, with no final judgment that cannot be challenged by new evidence!

Imagine This Scenario: The McCain-Palin Administration After 20 Months! :(

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Let’s just imagine that Senator John McCain had become the President and Governor Sarah Palin had become the Vice President in January 2009!

How would a McCain Presidency have been different than an Obama Presidency?

1. There would have been no bailout of the banking industry, and the financial collapse ensuing would have likely created unemployment and foreclosures twice the rate that they have been!
2. The domestic auto industry would have disappeared completely, and with it, hundreds of thousands of jobs in allied industries, as well as the auto workers!
3. There would have been no economic stimulus, and America would be in Great Depression Number Two, rather than a severe recession!
4. Health care reform would have not occurred, and health care rates would be much worse than they are, and millions more Americans would be denied health care, because of loss of jobs and homes!
5. The Great Depression Number Two would have created more instability in the world economy than this recession has caused!
6. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, fire fighters, librarians, and other local and state workers would have been dismissed, creating a breakdown of state and local governments on a scale unimaginable!
7. When the BP Oil Spill occurred, the McCain Administration would not have pushed BP to do anything to provide aid to the victims or pay for the cleanup!
8. There would have been no financial reform legislation, no credit card legislation, no student loan legislation, no action on the environment, no movement on gay rights in any form, a sharper crackdown on illegal immigration, and a continuation of tax cuts to the wealthy despite its tremendous burden on the national debt!
9. McCain would have chosen two strong conservatives to the Supreme Court!
10. A lot of Bush II appointees would have ended up working for McCain, and it is likely that former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, one of the major architects of the home mortgage crisis, would have been Secretary of the Treasury!
11. It is likely that neoconservatives who brought us into Iraq would be in power, and the war in Iraq would be further escalated, at a cost of American lives and treasure!
12. The war in Afghanistan would be further escalated beyond what President Obama has promoted!
13. It is likely that McCain would have been building up toward a war against Iran, and possibly North Korea, at the same time, again part of the neoconservative influence!
14. America’s relationship with the world would be much more antagonistic, similar to Bush II, and tension with the Muslim world would be far worse! We would be less safe from the threat of terrorism!
15. Finally, Sarah Palin would be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and no one could sleep at night without worrying about John McCain’s health! 🙁

It is certain, upon further reflection, that one could come up with other ideas as to how McCain would have influenced the history of the past 20 months, but the list above is more than enough to say to any reasonable person: Thank God Barack Obama is President of the United States!

Meg Whitman, Lou Dobbs, And Illegal Immigration! :(

Ronald 2 Comments

Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for Governor of California, has used illegal immigration as a campaign issue, and now has been shown to have employed illegal immigrants for many years, and underpaid them, and mistreated them, showing she is a hypocrite! 🙁

Lou Dobbs, former talk show host and analyst at CNN, and now only on radio, has long railed against illegal immigration in a demagogic way, and now the Huffington Post reports that Dobbs has employed illegal immigrants and exploited them, as well as showing lack of respect for them as individuals! 🙁

Isn’t this interesting? Wealthy arrogant people, such as Whitman and Dobbs, exploit immigrants who are just trying to improve their lives, and then attack them after having benefited from their services, and treat them like dirt! 🙁

What does this tell us about both Whitman and Dobbs, as well as many other wealthy and powerful people who are quietly and secretly doing the same thing, and giving illegal immigrants the same treatment?

It tells us that they are despicable, disgraceful human beings, who lie through their teeth, have no regard for human dignity, and should be repudiated by NOT voting for them for public office, and boycotting them if they are media people who promote hate and division in the quest for greed and materialism!

If a person treats those less fortunate in a degrading way, that is the true measure of their character, and they should be roundly condemned by all decent people! 🙁

Year Ten Of The Afghanistan War Begins! :(

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The tenth year of the Afghanistan War begins today, and marks this war as the longest in American history! 🙁

What has nine years of fighting in that nation, which has never been overtaken by foreigners–including Alexander The Great, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union–accomplished?

The answer is NOTHING, except the loss of more than a thousand men, many thousands wounded, hundreds of billion of dollars invested in a war, which is nowhere near being won! 🙁

The Afghan government is corrupt, and is now negotiating with the enemy, the Taliban, and the danger of terrorism in European nations and the United States is heightened by NATO’s military campaigns, which are killing civilians and turning the mass of the population against the West!

This is a war that Barack Obama should be ending, but instead he is allowing conservatives and Republicans who are only too willing to waste money on foreign war but ignore domestic needs, to manipulate him so that he does not look weak!

Obama needs to take a strong stand and withdraw US forces in 2011 and 2012, and the opposition to such a move be damned!

So much needs to be done at home, and we need to secure our own borders and stop trying to conquer a nation that is impossible to take over and control with ground troops!

President Obama, on this ninth anniversary of this terrible war, it is time to bring the troops home!

Michael Steele, The Republican Party, and The Minimum Wage!

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Republicans all over the country are campaigning to reduce or eliminate the minimum wage, presently at $7.25, which was originally created under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1938!

The fact that the minimum wage was not raised at all under President Ronald Reagan, and only in the seventh year of the Presidency of George W. Bush, means that it is about 40 percent behind the cost of living as it was set originally in 1938!

And yet, Michael Steele, the Republican National Chairman, is totally unaware what the minimum wage is, and is unconcerned that even if the minimum wage is retained, it means those living on it are making about $15,000 a year!

It is obvious that many Tea Party Republican candidates, including Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Christine O’Donnell, and Linda McMahon, among others, have no concern for workers who are poor but trying to survive, and these candidates also desire to end unemployment compensation and privatize social security and medicare, and repeal health care legislation passed earlier this year! 🙁

How any struggling worker, white or black or latino or asian, could conceive of voting Republican in this midterm election is beyond understanding! The Democrats need to emphasize the reality about the Republicans and working people–that the GOP is dangerous to the American worker, and only cares about corporations and the wealthy! 🙁

An Obama-Clinton Presidential Ticket In 2012? Don’t Bet On It!

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Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who has just published OBAMA’S WARS, his new book on the Obama Presidency, is spreading the rumor that the nomination of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Vice President in 2012 is “on the table”!

This rumor has been spreading for awhile, and Woodward makes it seem more legitimate, but it is hard to imagine it occurring!

It is true that Vice President Joe Biden always wanted to be Secretary of State, but it is unlikely that having been Vice President and living in the VP mansion, that Biden would want to step down to the State Department. If asked, Biden would be a team player, but it just seems highly unlikely that it would occur!

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is dismissing such speculation, and she seems to enjoy her job. On the other hand, moving up to the Vice Presidency would put her into a better position to run for President in 2016!

Obama and Clinton get along very well, and the old rivalry of 2008 seems gone, and Bill Clinton has been helpful to Obama. But if Obama decided to switch Biden and Clinton, it would be an admission that he thought he could not win without Clinton!

Hillary Clinton could bring blue collar workers, senior citizens, and women to Obama’s support, three groups he seems to have trouble with electorally, so it could be a productive development, but still, looking at history, it is highly unlikely!

Very few Presidents have ever switched running mates for the second term bid–only Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin D. Roosevelt (actually switching for third term and then again for fourth term). Only Lincoln really did so for electoral reasons, and unfortunately, it gave us Andrew Johnson in the Presidency, as a result! 🙁

So while the thought is fascinating, don’t bet money on it! It is highly likely that Joe Biden will be leaving the Vice Presidency before 2017, unless Obama loses the election in 2012!

Sexual Bullying: The Responsibility of Parents, Churches And Politicians!

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Lately, there has been a noticeable increase in sexual bullying, with five young men ages 11-18 committing suicide in various ways after being harassed for being gay.

Of course, bullying also goes on at the middle and high school level for those who are short, fat, handicapped, black, hispanic, jewish, muslim and other factors.

All of it is regrettable and is avoidable, but the gay bullying is the worst right now, an epidemic!

This is a very serious matter, and must be addressed by parents who must cease their prejudices and fears, as it is passed on to their children!

But it is also the responsibility of churches, where pastors preach against gays, and politicians who exploit the issue for their own benefit, to stop and realize that they are responsible morally for the hate that they peddle! 🙁

It is time for people of religion to stop peddling hate, and for politicians to work to UNITE the American people, instead of dividing them!