Day: November 6, 2010

150 Years Ago: Abraham Lincoln Elected President Of The United States!

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Exactly 150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States!

Our greatest President would soon face the Civil War, the greatest crisis in American history, with the determination and courage to preserve the Union, and with progress in the war, to promote emancipation of the slaves as a great principle to be accomplished by the victory of the Union over the Confederate States of America!

Lincoln is the most written about President in American history, and despite some naysayers, he looks better all of the time, the least imperfect President we have had!

Lincoln is someone who all Americans can be proud of, even though there are still those who condemn and denounce him, but what is new about that? Every President has his supporters and detractors!

The point is that Abraham Lincoln proved himself to be a statesman, who did what was best, not always what was popular! He was bitterly denounced in his time, more ridiculed and insulted by critics, than any President has ever been! But he prevailed and did what he had to do, and we salute him now, and honor his memory!

This nation would not be what it has become, without the impact and influence of Abraham Lincoln! So, congratulations, Mr. President, on this 150th Anniversary of your election! 🙂

George W. Bush: Two Years Later, Is He Delusional? :(

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George W. Bush has been out of the White House now for two years, and has been avoiding the public spotlight, while preparing his memoirs, which will come out next week!

But excerpts of the memoir have been leaked to the press, and it does not make Bush look very good! In fact, it makes one almost wonder if he has taken to drinking again, something he writes about in his memoir!

Well known as an alcoholic, joining the short list of Presidents who are defined as such (the others being distant relative Franklin Pierce, and Ulysses Grant), Bush reveals a great deal about himself in his memoir!

He tells us that he thought of replacing Vice President Dick Cheney with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, an interesting scenario, because had it happened, Frist might very well have been the Presidential nominee in 2008, rather than Senator John McCain!

He feels that Barack Obama has not been a success, forgetting the mess that he left for the new President, the worst situation since Herbert Hoover handed over the Presidency to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933!

Even more interesting is his assessment of his greatest failure: the inability to privatize Social Security in his second term! This would have led to the total destruction of the whole system had it occurred, with the stock market crash in 2008!

But somehow, Hurricane Katrina, September 11, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War–all of these are not depicted as failures, as compared to Social Security privatization! What planet is George W. Bush on? 🙁

Also, what was his greatest disappointment and upset? Not any of the above events, but when recording artist Kanye West called him a racist for his slow reaction to the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, particularly the flooding of New Orleans! Not the hurricane, but Kanye West calling him names, is the greatest upset Bush experienced!

By this statement of Bush, President Obama should be constantly upset over the crazy, loony verbal attacks on him by the “wingnuts” and the talk show hosts who don’t give him a pass on ANYTHING! 🙁

George W. Bush seems to the author to be a very troubled man who fails to face reality, and can too easily be “upset” by words of criticism!

Bush needs to learn the following: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” He needs to get off liquor and have some serious psychiatric help!

The question is how will the American people be able, finally, to overcome the damage he has wrought on this nation! 🙁

The Conspiracy Industry And Barack Obama: The Trip To India!

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President Barack Obama has been accused of being a secret Muslim, a Kenyan, a non citizen, a Socialist, a Marxist, planning to put people into government sponsored concentration camps, etc etc etc, ad infinitum! 🙁

Now the right wing nuts, or as John Avlon calls them, “wingnuts”, claim that President Obama’s trip to India is costing the government $200 million a day, and requires 40 planes and includes 3,000 guests, on what is portrayed as a “vacation”, rather than a trip to promote economic interests and diplomacy! 🙁

This conspiracy theory began with Michele Bachmann, and has been promoted by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other people, rightfully called “wingnuts” by John Avlon! 🙁

Why do people choose to make up such lies, and why do so many millions of Americans choose to believe this propaganda? 🙁

As former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York once said, a person is entitled to his opinions, but not to his own facts! 🙁

It is scary how so many millions of Americans do not seem to realize that they are being bamboozled, being made out to be jerks who have no ability to analyze and evaluate evidence, and instead are manipulated by liars who have no scruples or ethics, and meanwhile are rewarded with public office and obscene wealth based on their despicable propaganda! 🙁

The Jews, Israel, Obama, And The Midterm Elections: Surprise! The Jews Still Are Democrats! :)

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There has been much speculation that American Jews were alienated from President Barack Obama because of his promotion of Middle East peace, including trying to pressure Israel’s leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to freeze Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and seriously negotiate with the Palestinians!

Despite that belief, it turns out that American Jews were the best part of the midterm elections for Democrats, other than young people and African Americans (both of whom in large part stayed home and did not vote)! One thing about Jews: they vote!

The attempt of conservatives and Republicans to convince Jews to abandon the Democratic Party failed miserably! These scare tactics worked very well on the conservative Christian community, which has been working to undermine the Obama Presidency from Day One, but it failed to break the 80 year long alliance of Jews with the Democrats, dating back to the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Depression!

As it turns out, Jews backed the Democrats in the midterm election by a 66-31 percent margin! And, for instance, in Pennsylvania, Jews backed loser Joe Sestak by a 71-23 percent margin, even though this Democratic nominee for the Senate lost to Republican Pat Toomey!

It turns out that American Jews have a very low opinion of the Republican Party and the Tea Party Movement! At the same time, many of the so called “professional” Jewish organizations tend to be antagonistic to Obama, the Democrats, and the approach of our government to the problems of the Middle East!

What is it about the Jewish population that they fail to share the beliefs and political approach of the “professional” Jewish organizations? Is this not a commentary on the ineffectiveness of these groups to express the will of the Jewish people of America? Is it not time for these groups to stop “flirting” with the Republican Party, which is just trying to exploit the issue, rather than real concern with the future of American Jews and the state of Israel?

Political Leaders Who Lost In The Midterm Elections: A Blessing For The Nation! :)

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While there are those political leaders and candidates that can be mourned because they lost, there are also a list of candidates who were defeated, and this fact can be considered a blessing for the nation! All of them were either Tea Party supported or invested their own fortunes or were just simply incompetent and loony in various ways!

They include the following:

Linda McMahon, Senate nominee in Connecticut
Carl Paladino, Gubernatorial nominee in New York
Christine O’Donnell, Senate nominee in Delaware
Alvin Greene, Senate nominee in South Carolina
Carly Fiorina, Senate nominee in California
Meg Whitman, Gubernatorial nominee in California
Ken Buck, Senate nominee in Colorado
Tom Tancredo, Gubernatorial nominee in Colorado
Sharron Angle, Senate nominee in Nevada
Joe Miller, Senate nominee in Alaska, at this point a likely loser to Senator Lisa Murkowski, substantially ahead as a Write In candidate!

The losses of these ten listed above can be seen as the “silver lining” of an election that was not a wonderful moment for President Obama and his party!

The Major Losses Of The Democratic Party In The Midterm Elections! :(

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It is true that the Democratic Party had major losses in the Midterm Elections of 2010, particularly in the House of Representatives, but it is also true that much of the loss in that chamber was of “Blue Dog” Democrats–moderate to conservative Democrats who were afraid to take a stand for the Obama Administration on many issues, tried to act like Republicans, and were rejected by voters who preferred the “real” Republicans to phony Democrats!

So if one looks at who were the major losses for the Democrats, they are as follows:

Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin
Congressman Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, Senate nominee
Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio
Alexi Giannoulias of Illinois, Senate nomineee
Jack Conway of Kentucky, Senate nominee
Bill White of Texas, Gubernatorial nominee
Scott McAdams of Alaska, Senate nominee
Congressman Ron Klein of Florida
Congressman Tom Perriello of Virginia
Congressman John Boccieri of Ohio

At the same time, there were many satisfying victories for Democrats, and the advantage now is that the Democrats who survived or were elected, in most cases, are REAL Democrats with sharply different views of issues than the Republican Party!

What the country does not need are TWO Republican parties, one “real” and one phony! 🙁