Month: January 2011

Another Outrage From Arizona State Government: Banning Of Mexican American Studies Program While Retaining Asian American, African American And Native American Studies Programs! :(

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Arizona is indeed becoming the new Mississippi or Alabama, gaining the horrible reputation both of those states gained in the civil rights era of the 1960s.

The new Attorney General of Arizona, Tom Horne, who used to be the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, has banned the Mexican American Studies program in the high schools of Tucson, while continuing to allow Asian American, African American, and Native American Studies programs to continue.

This is adding to the image of Arizona, which is now the DEATH PANELS state, cutting $1.2 million from the budget of Medicaid, and therefore preventing 96 transplant patients of all kinds of organs from getting necessary surgery, and two patients already passing away, while it would be easy to find that small amount if Governor Jan Brewer really cared about life! 🙁

This ethnic discrimination is being appealed, and the decision of the attorney general, enforcement of a law he originated as education administrator, should be reversed as also illegal conflict of interest by the man who claims to enforce the law, and then shows totally outrageous prejudice on the level of Bull Connor, Birmingham Police Chief in the 1960s, or Governor George Wallace of Alabama!

A case on this issue may have to be brought to the Supreme Court eventually, as now we have demonstration of a new racism against Mexican Americans, as we had in the past against other groups. This issue, along with the new Arizona law, on checking for illegal status of anyone who looks Hispanic, is in the worst traditions of racism and hatred that we would like to think had already passed into history, but sadly is alive and well! 🙁

New Chief Of Staff William Daley A Good Choice By President Obama?

Ronald 1 Comment

The appointment of William Daley as Chief of Staff to President Obama is a very controversial selection.

Certainly, Daley has the smarts and the contacts that a Chief of Staff should have.

He is a friend of the business community, and his appointment has been applauded by Republican leaders and the Chambers of Commerce, ironically two groups which worked to overcome the Obama agenda and put the GOP in control of the House of Representatives and state governorships and legislatures.

The brother of outgoing Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and the son of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, the new Chief of Staff brings a background as former Secretary of Commerce for President Clinton, and also opposition to the Obama Health Care legislation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headed by his rival, Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard University.

It is hard for progressives and liberals to accept and tolerate such an appointment, as it seems to contradict the Obama agenda, and it makes one wonder if Obama is truly becoming another Bill Clinton, moving toward the center, and trying to make friends with those who have bitterly opposed him.

Is such a strategy going to work? It just might, and could help secure Obama a second term in the White House.

But will it lead to more progressive legislation in the next two to six years, or will Obama disappoint those on the left who expected more aggressive pursuit of major progressive goals based on Obama’s 2008 campaign?

Is Obama selling out his supporters to be re-elected, or is this just the reality of American politics, that too much change cannot be accomplished under our system of government?

Do we have to be happy for what has been gained, and be satisfied, or should we be skeptics and be concerned about the direction of the Obama Presidency?

The feelings of the author are confusion and concern, as so much more needs to be pursued, but the re-election campaign gets in the way of such goals.

Of course, if Obama fails to win re-election, then none of the goals of the progressives will be attainable, so it leaves progressives in a “no man’s land”! What alternatives do progressives have but hope for the best from Obama? Probably none, sad to say! 🙁

The Silly Season: Rudy Guiliani Running For President Again?

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This has been a really crazy week, with suggestions that four new names should be added to the list of potential Republican nominees–Jon Huntsman, Jeb Bush, Michele Bachmann, and Donald Trump.

But now the ultimate crazy suggestion has cropped up–former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani! 🙁

What a preposterous idea, that the former Mayor, who has been out of office for a decade, flopped dramatically in the 2008 Presidential campaign by failing to win Florida, and has contributed absolutely nothing to politics except his big ego and ambition and more and more stupid statements, seems to think that magically he can utilize September 11 as his campaign issue after it has already failed once!

Trying to claim that his so called “moderate” views on gay rights and abortion give him a counterweight against other much more conservative candidates, is clear evidence that Guiliani lives on some other planet!

To believe that the Republican Party will nominate a person with his views shows he does not know or understand the impact of the Tea Party Movement, which already is a threat to moderates in the Senate and to Mitt Romney, arguably the front runner at the moment in the Republican race.

Romney is way ahead of everyone by far in the polling of the New Hampshire primary, and yet he has a lot to overcome to be the GOP nominee.

So Guiliani is living in “LA LA LAND” if he hallucinates enough to believe he will be the GOP nominee in 2012!

The suggestion of the author to Rudy is “Get a life”! 🙁

Senator Richard Lugar: Endangered By The Tea Party Movement In The Republican Party! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

America benefits by having two strong political parties, which understand that compromise is part of politics, and that “crossing the aisle” to work with the opposition party is not treason!

Unfortunately, with the rise of the Tea Party Movement, the Republican Party has been radicalized to the far right, unwilling to accept any Republican who does not follow the extremist agenda of the Tea Party Movement.

Therefore, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Richard Lugar of Indiana are all facing likely challenges in the primaries in 2012, when they all have a difficult re-election contest for their Senate seats.

The one who seems the most endangered is Lugar, truly one of the rare gems of the Senate.

Lugar is certainly a conservative, but he is a “respectable” conservative willing to cross the aisle and work with Democrats.

Acknowledged as a true expert on American foreign policy, and as a thoughtful individual, the author has always had respect for Senator Lugar, and he is well regarded by his own colleagues, and has often been seen as a potential Secretary of State.

Lugar cooperated with Barack Obama in the Senate on various issues, and just recently, he supported the DREAM Act, the START Treaty with Russia, and voted for both of Obama’s Supreme Court nominees–Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

For this, he has been condemned by Tea Party activists in Indiana, admittedly a state which is much more conservative traditionally than other Midwestern states.

So it seems clear Lugar will have a major primary challenge and might lose his seat, which would be a tremendous loss for his party and the Senate’s reputation.

We need more Richard Lugars in the Senate, if that body is to retain an image of being a serious minded, respectable institution. There are too many firebrand extremists in that legislative body, embarrassing the Republican Party and insuring deadlock and stalemate.

Irony Of Republican Attempt To Repeal Obama Health Care Plan: It Would Add To National Debt, Raise Health Care Costs, and Be A Job Killer! :(

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The House Republicans are attempting to repeal the Obama Health Care legislation, which will fail, in any circumstances, with the Democratic controlled Senate and President Barack Obama standing in the way!

But the irony is that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office makes it clear that doing such a repeal would add to the national debt, raise the cost of health care for everyone, and be a job killer to boot! 🙁

Medical spending would go up by $125 billion by the end of this decade; add $2,000 annually to each family’s health care premiums; and destroy 250,000 to 400,000 jobs annually over the next decade.

As Democrats have also pointed out, it would help promote more deaths of people who have no access to health care; would take away coverage of young people to the age of 26; would restore pre-existing conditions as a method insurance companies could use to deny health care coverage to millions, including many children; and open up the “donut hole” for medications for seniors, which is starting to close up, with 50 percent cut in the cost of brand name prescriptions newly instituted.

The truth about the Republicans is that they have no concern that millions have been denied health care coverage! They also have no concern that transplant patients in Arizona are being denied the ability to survive, with two already having died because the Republican Governor, Jan Brewer, has no compassion or interest in helping sick people, all over budget issues, when one can be sure there are other ways to cut budgets besides setting up what are the equivalent of “death panels”! 🙁

It is extremely ironic that Republicans argued about so called “death panels’ in the Obama Health Care legislation, which did not exist at all, but yet now REAL “death panels” are occurring in Arizona, and probably soon elsewhere! 🙁

Where are these Republicans now, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl. and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? Why is it that they are not outraged by this, and feel the need and moral standing to speak up for LIFE, particularly when they are all supposedly PRO-LIFE for fetuses, but not apparently for sick people of all ages?

The Republican Party should be condemned for their lack of compassion, empathy, and concern for those who are sick!:(

They forget: “There but for the grace of God go I!”!

Just What Is Needed? Donald Trump For President? NO! :(

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Every day now it seems another public figure comes out and talks about possibly pursuing the Presidency in 2012.

Speculation developed in the past week about Jon Huntsman, Jeb Bush and Michele Bachmann. Now Donald Trump has started to talk as if the nation needs him to run!

Is that what we need? Do we need a real estate mogul, who is extremely cocky, arrogant, self serving, loves publicity, has his own show where he can fire people, narcissistic and has gone bankrupt with no apologies?

Donald Trump is a brilliant, intelligent person, certainly admirable in many ways, but what we do not need is another businessman running for President, as despite what people often say, a government is NOT a business, and businessmen do not have the proper training nor empathy to understand human needs, as all that matters to them is making profit and avoiding taxation.

Such a combination will NOT solve the problems of this country, and Donald Trump would be even more insufferable as President than he is right now! 🙁

Florida Governor Rick Scott: A Disaster In The Making! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

Rick Scott, who spent $73 million of his own fortune, and was CEO of the disgraced for profit hospital chain, Columbia-HCA, which was fined the largest fine ever for Medicare fraud, became Governor of Florida this week, and the state faces a true disaster with his coming into leadership of state government! 🙁

Scott, with no political experience, and attacking the GOP establishment in the state, ended up winning by the smallest margin in Florida history, about 50,000 votes, way behind the other state Republican election victory margins. He proceeded to have a lavish inauguration and has cozied up to all the GOP establishment that he condemned during his campaign.

Scott has made it clear that he wants to run Florida as a business, and is out to destroy public education as quickly as he can!

He has pledged to create 700,000 private sector jobs in seven years, a very tall order, hard to imagine being accomplished.

He and the heavily GOP legislature must figure out a way to cut $3 billion from the state budget, in order to balance the budget, and has made it clear that he wants to promote corporate interests, while destroying labor unions, the Medicaid program, and the whole pension system for state workers, along with cutting the work force of state government, despite the constantly growing population.

Scott is hobnobbing with business interests and lobbyists, and has made it clear that he wants to streamline government regulations. He also wants to slash $1 billion from the state prison system, which sounds unrealistic considering the large number of prisoners Florida has, as compared to most states.

Discussion of cutting business income taxes and property taxes sounds impossible, as they are already low, and as more taxes are cut, the state budgetary situation will be more desperate, and social services, already far from adequate, will be harmed further.

He has found it difficult to staff his administration due to the notoriously low pay scale in Florida government employment, even though there have been constant attacks on state workers as somehow being overpaid, which is preposterous.

Scott also is the kind of leader who has demonstrated unwillingness to be open and accessible to the news media, as during his campaign, he refused to have many contacts with journalists, showing a high level of arrogance.

Florida is in for a true disaster in the making, as Scott should not be Governor, but instead should be in prison for his financial irregularities which have put others, far less abusive, in state and federal prison.

Will Florida be better off with this man as Governor? To believe that is to believe in the tooth fairy, and it will only add to Florida’s reputation as a state which is moving backward, rather than forward! 🙁

The Crisis Of The States: The Worst Is Yet To Come! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

With Republicans taking over the House of Representatives and many state governorships and state legislatures, the center of crisis will descend upon many of the states of the Union! 🙁

A Census Bureau report demonstrates that the Great Recession caused the loss of 30 percent of the states’ revenues in 2009, due to the high unemployment rate, the dramatic rise in foreclosures of housing, and the tremendous investment losses in the state pension funds.

The result is large budget deficits and increasing social service demands. Unemployment benefits, medicaid, and workers compensation needs became dramatically higher.

The year 2011 will be the worst ever in pressures on states, with the need to have tax increases and service cuts to deal with the largest budget deficits ever seen.

Forty states have reported a combined total of $113 billion in deficits, and the federal stimulus aid that the Obama Administration gave in the past year to avoid the loss of jobs and services in the public sector now is coming to an end. The Republicans show no interest in the suffering that will occur, that will cause many more unemployed people and horrific cuts in services, including education, health care, police and fire protection! 🙁

The only rhetoric we hear is that there must be reduction of federal spending and overcoming the federal budget deficits, as no one is thinking about the human costs that will occur across the country! 🙁

The budget gaps are particularly dramatic in California, New York and Illinois, and it will affect not just the general public in these and other states, but also the issue of state pensions and state worker employment.

So the economic crisis is far from over, and will almost certainly be reaching its peak over the next few years! 🙁

Another Potential GOP Presidential Candidate: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann Of Minnesota, An Absurd Candidate! :(

Ronald Leave a comment

As the new year has begun, we are getting more hints or rumors of possible Republican Presidential candidates for the 2012 election.

First, we added former Utah Governor and present Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman to the list of possibilities, arguably one of the better people on the long list.

Jeb Bush’s name has come up again, although he denies any interest, at least for 2012, but leaving open the possibility for 2016, which would be when Barack Obama would no longer be running for the position. It would also be precisely eight years after his brother’s term ended, while George W. ran exactly eight years after his father’s term was completed. This actually makes a lot of sense, as bad memories of George W. would be gone by then, and Jeb might have an advantage at that time, if his party failed to win the White House in 2012.

But now, an absurd and scary candidate is hinting at her interest in running, and the author is not referring to Sarah Palin!

Rather, it is the extremely controversial Congresswoman from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann, who has made a name for herself by her extreme right wing ideas and loony statements in the four years she has served in the House of Representatives. Now she is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, by choice of Speaker of the House John Boehner, and has announced she will be going to Iowa to speak to various GOP groups in the first Presidential caucus state.

Compared to Sarah Palin, she actually has advantages, including a law degree, four years and counting of congressional experience, a lot of press coverage already (although much of it negative in tone), and a very attractive personal presence. She certainly makes Sarah Palin look less appealing by comparison, but still she is a very scary proposition. The thought that such an extremist, who has no problem with distortion and manipulation of the truth on anything, could actually be the Republican nominee for the Presidency of the United States, is enough to give one nightmares! 🙁

So much of the potential list for President on the Republican side is so horrific, that it certainly makes people such as Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, and even Jeb Bush look far better by comparison!

Tea Party People And Conservatives Take Note: The Constitution Established A Strong National Government, And The Amendments Have Made For A More Liberal, Nationalist Nation!

Ronald Leave a comment

Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is spending taxpayer money to read the Constitution out loud, as a supposed lesson to the nation as to what the Constitution contains.

This is occurring due to the impact of the Tea Party Movement, but if that group and other conservatives really listen to and think about the words of the Constitution, they would realize what the Constitution is all about.

The Constitution was created to REPLACE the Articles of Confederation, a document that gave the states authority that led to chaos, anarchy and bankruptcy, and forced the hand of liberal nationalist Founding Fathers who realized that the country would not survive without a STRONGER NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

The Constitution gave the US Congress tremendous and specific powers in Article 1, Section 8, the ELASTIC CLAUSE–necessary and proper for the common defense and the general welfare–, creating vague language that could be interpreted broadly, and has been by the Supreme Court over 200 years since the time of Chief Justice John Marshall.

Liberal nationalists brought about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights!

Liberal nationalists brought about the Civil Rights Amendments (13, 14, 15) in the years after the Civil War.

Liberal nationalists brought about the “Progressive” amendments on the federal income tax (16), direct election of the US Senate taken away from the state legislatures (17), and woman suffrage (19) in the second decade of the 20th century.

Liberal nationalists brought about the right of DC residents to vote for President (23), the end of the poll tax in all elections (24), and the 18 year old vote (26) in the decade of the mid to late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Constitution has been made the great document it is by the actions of the Founding Fathers and later generations of liberal nationalists, whether Federalist, Republican, or Democratic, and by Supreme Courts led by great Justices, including John Marshall, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, William O. Douglas, Earl Warren, William Brennan, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens and many others!

No matter what conservatives, Republicans, and Tea Party activists might say or believe, it is LIBERAL and PROGRESSIVE activism that has led to the Constitution and its amendment improvements over two centuries!

Liberals and progressives stand together in pride as to their enactment and expansion of the document which inspires people all over the world, the greatest constitutional document ever created by the will of mankind!