Month: February 2011

A Politician Applying For A Trademark: Sarah Palin Treads A New Path! :(

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Sarah Palin and her daughter, Bristol Palin, have applied for their names to be trademarks to control all commercial use of their names.

Can anyone name ANY OTHER political figure past or present who has done such a loony thing as this? The author challenges anyone to come up with a name, and the answer is there are none!

Why does Sarah Palin feel a need to do this for herself and her daughter? It is obvious it is all for total commercial gain and to prevent the unauthorized use of her name or image, so it is totally economic in nature and self serving to the extreme! It also shows Sarah Palin is so supersensitive to criticism that she wants to put legal barriers against anyone who dares to challenge her empty, vacuous statements!

To top it off, the application for both Palins have areas that are not filled out, and it seems a difficult road to gain the trademark status they seek. If they cannot complete an application correctly and completely, that only adds to the image of total incompetence on the part of Sarah Palin!

It may also be a clear indication that Sarah Palin will NOT run for President, as she is making it clear that she wishes to exploit the economic advantages of the notoriety she has gained in the past two and a half years. She certainly cannot run for office, make millions of dollars, and only speak to Fox News and other supporters. She must actually show depth and understanding of the issues, both domestic and foreign, and not give just tweets or Facebook responses!

It is clear that many Republican leaders are shaking their heads in private, as they try to figure how to deal with the Sarah Palin phenomenon, a situation that no one can recall in the history of American politics! 🙁

The Conflict On Gay Rights Among Conservatives: Creating Splits That Will Damage The Right Wing!

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This coming week will see the gathering of the largest conservative advocacy group–CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference–in Washington, DC.

A long list of co-sponsors of the conference include the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the National Rifle Association, and Americans For Tax Reform, along with over a hundred more organizations and movements.

But several major conservative organizations tied to the Religious Right are boycotting the gathering over the issue of same sex marriage, including the Liberty Counsel and the Family Research Council.

The villain in their minds is the grouo GOProud, a movement of gay conservatives, the second major gay Republican group, along with the Log Cabin Republicans.

GOProud beieves in limited government, individual liberty, free market economic principles, and a strong national defense, all strongly conservative beliefs, but the gay aspect of their group simply is unacceptable to social conservatives.

There will be about ten thousand participants in the CPAC gathering, and several potential GOP presidential candidates will be speaking, but the fact that a gay organization is a co-sponsor of the gathering is causing a split which can affect the whole conservative movement and the Republican Party in 2012 and beyond.

If the split lasts, that can only help the Democrats and Barack Obama, and only add to the GOP being the party which rejects gays, as well as Hispanics, not a winning vision for the long term future!

The War On Teachers Nationwide: A Tremendous Mistake! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

At a time when the teaching force of America is undergoing a great transformation with the retirement of the “Baby Boomer” generation, we are seeing a war on the teaching profession led by Republican Governors across the nation! 🙁

Because of the budget crisis that exists, we are seeing the attempt at the systematic destruction of teachers unions, which worked over many years to improve the conditions of work of the nation’s teachers. We are also seeing the organized plan to take away teacher tenure and benefits, including pension plans, the only reason many people entered the teaching profession, as anyone who wants to be honest knows that the average teacher is paid a salary much lower than any other profession! 🙁

And yet, it is the teaching force which is supposed to educate the future generations of children, many of whom will become professionals, but many others who will have great trouble ever making a living in an organized, consistent manner!

Teachers are supposed to be magicians, and make up for family shortcomings and failure of the taxpayers to be willing to pay for adequate educational standards!

If teaching were an honorable profession treated with respect and dignity, then we would not have an overwhelmingly female work force, as men would also see it as a rewarding career. There is a dire need for more male influence in education, what with the reality that a large portion of America’s families fail to have a decent male role model for the children, but to commit to education these days is to wish for poverty or for a secondary, not a primary income! 🙁

If America’s teachers are to be judged by examinations of student performance, then parents must be required to do their part to promote a healthy educational environment, as one cannot expect that in six to seven hours a day for nine months, that teachers can overcome the disadvantages of bad parenting in millions of homes!

If all we are going to do is show lack of respect for teachers, pay them low wages due to taxpayer resistance, constantly test them and give them a sense of insecurity about their jobs, deny them tenure, give them a future of a pension they cannot live on when retired, and have politicians, including Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Governor John Kasich of Ohio and Governor Rick Scott of Florida constantly berate and insult them, then we will have what we deserve–a constantly changing teaching force of only mediocre, low level teachers who will stay a few years and leave, rather than a dedicated, qualified work force of the “best and the brightest”, who will want to be in the field of education and will be willing to dedicate their lives to such a venture!

If we continue down the road that the Republican Governors are taking us in many states across the country, the brain drain will continue, and we will get what we deserve as a nation, a citizenry poorly educated, ignorant, and unable to compete in the 21st century world! 🙁

The Budget Crisis And “False” Solutions: Earmarks, Space, And Foreign Aid

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As the debate continues over how to deal with the national deficit and the national debt, we hear simple but false solutions, which demonstrate the total ignorance, or the total demagoguery of those who profess those solutions!

We hear so much about “earmarks”, the awarding of federal money to congressional districts and states, brought about by Congressmen and Senators who are bringing home the “pork” or the “bacon”. We are told that such expenditures are a pure waste of taxpayer money, even though such spending is part of the lifeblood of American politics, the expectation that those who are elected to represent us have a responsibility to promote substantial improvements to the infrastructure, and which help to create economic growth and development. This is, in fact, one of the most important roles of a member of Congress until now, but apparently such earmarks will not be allowed over the next two years, something that will not please voters and citizens of our congressional districts, likely to lead to discontent and possible defeat of those who refuse to do what is the whole basis of the political system!

The point is one would think inordinate amounts of funds go to earmarks, when in actuality, it is only between one and two percent of the entire national budget!

Then we have those who condemn any investment in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the space program, failing to see the scientific advances promoted by such investment. But it is part of the anti-science mentality of many, who however are only too willing to give tax breaks to churches and synagogues and allow clergy to avoid paying taxes. It is part of the KNOW NOTHING mentality, that science is unimportant, next to the all powerful force of organized religion gaining subsidies. And the reality is the space investment of the US government is one half of one percent, as so emphasized by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and leader at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

Additionally, we have complaints that we are giving away taxpayer money to foreign governments, including Israel and Egypt, as well as other nations around the world that we wish to create a stable influence on, to promote American national security and defense, but one must understand there are those who would wish to put America into an isolationist foreign policy. In any case, the total foreign aid budget is no more than one percent annually, but one would get a different impression from those who decry any foreign aid investment.

So while it is fine to waste money on many defense programs, and give tax breaks to the wealthy, many corporations, and religious institutions, we should go ahead and fail to improve the physical plant and infrastructure of the nation, dismiss the importance of promoting science, and take a utopian view of the world and bring ourselves back to pre 1941 mentality!

It is the unfortunate stupidity and ignorance of many that leads to these ridiculous beliefs and promotion of a world view that will set America back to the 19th century! 🙁

The Choice Of Charlotte, North Carolina As Host Of The 2012 Democratic National Convention

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The announcement this week that the Democratic National Convention of 2012 will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, may have surprised some observers, including this blogger, who really thought that St. Louis, Missouri would be chosen from among others including Columbus, Ohio, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After having been correct on the choice of Tampa, Florida by the Republican Party for its 2012 convention, the author was somewhat disappointed that his prediction failed to come to fruition!

It is clear that President Barack Obama made the final choice, and it shows that he intends to make a fight to keep the Southern states that he won in 2008–North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, none of which will be easy to accomplish.

In the mind of the author, keeping the Midwest–Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota–will be more urgent, as the “heartland” of the nation seems the even more significant battleground!

While Obama did not win Missouri in 2008, John McCain only won by a few thousand votes, and that was only the second time since 1900 (the other time being 1956) that the loser of Missouri won the White House. So it is crucial that Missouri be won by Obama if he is to win a second term, the reasoning that made the author think he would choose St. Louis.

However, Charlotte is part of the emerging modern South, and North Carolina, along with Virginia and Florida, will also be crucial in the 2012 election campaign.

Hopefully, the President’s decision to choose the South over the Midwest for the national convention will play out in a resulting win for him in 2012!

The Centennial Of Ronald Reagan: Myth And Reality

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Today is the centennial of President Ronald Reagan’s birth, and it begins a year of commemorative events relating to our 40th President.

Ronald Reagan was a very charismatic leader, handsome even at an older age than any other President, and very charming and personable. It was hard not to like Reagan as a human being, and he could be very funny, and played the ceremonial role of the President as if he was the Queen of England!

But many myths have been built up around Ronald Reagan in the years since he left the Presidency, and particularly in the years since his death at age 93 in June 2004.

The myths have sustained the Tea Party Movement of the past two years, and have motivated the ignorant, poorly educated Sarah Palin, who was the absolutely wrong person to speak at commemorative events this weekend in southern California! It is a travesty to assert, as some do, that Sarah Palin is the heir to Ronald Reagan, as she has no clue as to his accomplishments, shortcomings, and motivations. Reagan would be shocked that Sarah Palin is speaking in his honor, a point well made by son Ron Reagan, Jr.!

Ronald Reagan restored our defenses which helped to lead to the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan restored a sense of patriotism and honor after the difficult years following the Vietnam War’s sad ending. And Ronald Reagan was an inspirational leader in his rhetoric, stimulating the American people like no one since John F. Kennedy.

But Ronald Reagan had many shortcomings and failures, which are conveniently forgotten by his supporters in the Republican Party and Tea Party Movement, or better still, many are totally unaware of the reality of his record in office!

This is a man who tripled the national debt, beginning the long downhill trend in responsible economic policy which has led to the present massive national debt problem that is the leading economic crisis since the Great Depression!

This is a man who set back civil rights, labor rights, the environment, and worsened the plight of the poor, while promoting the rich getting richer, and the middle class becoming poorer, via giving major tax cuts to the rich, but adding to the tax burden of the middle class!

This is a man who ignored human rights in many countries, and allied with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, who both turned against the United States after we armed both of them so readily!

This is a man who reacted to a terrorist attack on our troops in Beirut, Lebanon, by withdrawing from the Middle East, something his supporters try to make believe did not happen!

This is a man who talked about the social issues of the Moral Majority led by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and yet never followed through on them more than rhetoric, and hardly ever went to church or associated with his children, preferring to spend his personal time with his wife Nancy without their children!

This was a man who was tough with the Soviet Union, but negotiated significant arms agreements with Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, and had a vision of banning nuclear weapons worldwide over the long haul!

This was a man who talked about smaller government, but actually increased the size of the government, and created a new cabinet agency of Veterans Affairs and backed off on a campaign pledge to eliminate the Departments of Education and Energy, which many Republicans today would love to destroy!

And the myth that is probably most believed is that Ronald Reagan was supremely popular throughout his time in the Presidency, which is the furthest thing from the truth, as he was more popular AFTER his Presidency, particularly after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1994. Much of the time during his eight years in office, his public opinion ratings floundered. John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and George H W Bush were all more generally popular in the polls than Ronald Reagan, as hard as that is to believe!

Ronald Reagan may be the patron saint of the far right today, but in many ways, it is clear that he would not approve of the inflexibility of his party in Congress, and the loony, nutty behavior of many of its top leaders, as well as the right wing talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel!

Historians will be writing about Ronald Reagan for all time, and he will continue to be one of the most fascinating and significant Presidents we have had, but the concept that he was an ideal President who mostly succeeded in making the country a better place will continue to be contested by those who wish to look at reality, rather than promote a myth!

But then, mythology around Presidents is a popular activity, and it makes the job of historians only the more important, to separate truth from propaganda. So the work of demythologizing Ronald Reagan continues in earnest!

The Presidential Game: No One Rules It Out, Including For 2016! :)

Ronald 1 Comment

There is something about the office of the Presidency that everyone imaginable seems to think he or she might run for President, if not in 2012, then in 2016! 🙂

Based on rumor, speculation, declared interest, likely candidacy, or even hallucination, the following are possible to be on the Presidential primary and caucus ballot in 2012 or 2016 (no special order): Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, Newt Gingrich, John Thune, Rick Santorum, Mitch Daniels, Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump, Rudy Guiliani, John Bolton, Gary Johnson, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Jim DeMint, Rick Scott, Rand Paul, Mike Pence, George Pataki, Herman Cain.

Of course, a rational person might eliminate all but six or seven of these, but seeking the Presidency is like a disease, and therefore, we are in the “silly season” right now, while President Barack Obama deals with the tough domestic and foreign policy issues, and is increasing his lead against any opponent, because he has proved he has substance and is not the ridiculous candidates that most of the above are!

Which ones are not ridiculous? In the view of the author, they are as follows, in no particular order: Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, John Thune, Mitch Daniels, Jon Huntsman, Jeb Bush. These seven are the best of the lot, with most of the rest totally preposterous!

We shall see whether the GOP is rational or delusional in the coming year up to the primaries and caucuses!

Senator Rand Paul Of Kentucky: Center Of Controversy And Nightmare For The Republican Party! :(

Ronald 2 Comments

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has had to learn to live with fellow Kentucky Senate colleagues that have both embarrassed him and made his life miserable! If only one could read his mind, as his body language regarding past Senator Jim Bunning and his successor Rand Paul reveals discomfort, it would be an interesting analysis of how a party leader must survive both fools and loons! 🙁

Rand Paul may only have been in the Senate now for one month, but he is like a hurricane in his promotion of ideas that almost no one will accept, even in his own party, but yet saluted by the Tea Party movement!

Rand Paul seems to love introducing legislation that will never pass, just to draw attention to his looniness and his weird libertarian ideas which will never go anywhere, except into the minds of those who believe that government is a total evil and that we must isolate ourselves from the outside world! 🙁

Rand Paul, in association with Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is promoting a Life at Conception Act, which he believes would overrule Roe V. Wade, and in the process take a woman’s right over her own body totally away! 🙁

He is also sponsoring legislation to prevent the children of illegal immigrants born in America from being citizens, thereby introducing a new interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship!

Additionally, Rand Paul wants all foreign aid to our ally, Israel, ended, as part of his proposal to cut $500 billion from the present year’s national budget with only eight months left in the fiscal year. He wants the $3 billion aid to Israel ended, along with massive cuts in education, housing and energy programs, the most extreme idea of cuts proposed by any Republican, with the party shooting for only $100 billion cuts this fiscal year, with no cut in aid to Israel and other foreign aid, which he wants cut by $20 billion!

Republican leaders such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen of Florida have condemned a cutoff of aid to Israel, and Jewish groups in both major political parties, and both conservatives and liberals have made clear their opposition to such a cutoff, so Rand Paul’s advocacy has no chance of success, anymore than his other ideas mentioned above!

And get this: this past week, the Senate unanimously, except for Paul, adopted a measure making it a federal crime to aim a laser point at an aircraft, with the Kentucky senator feeling that should be an issue for states to handle individually, even though aviation is interstate, and there has been a growing problem of such incidents, thankfully without a disaster occurring!

It is clear that Rand Paul will be a center of attention over the next six years with his outrageous statements and actions, and imagine this. It is rumored that his father, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, may run for the soon to be open seat in that state after Kay Bailey Hutchison decided not to run for re-election in 2012!

If Ron Paul were to win that seat, he would be the oldest first time freshman at age 77 to take a seat in the US Senate!

Can one imagine having two Senators Paul at the same time? 🙁

The only worse scenario is the nightmare of either Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann as President of the United States in 2013!

If both scenarios were to occur, the nation would be in a living hell of its own making, due to stupidity, ignorance, and lack of common sense of the American people! 🙁

Florida Governor Rick Scott: 30 Days Evaluation Bad Sign For The Future! :(

Ronald 4 Comments

Florida’s Republican Governor, Rick Scott, who suddenly emerged just nine months ago in politics, after having brought about the greatest Medicare scam ever through his health care company in the mid 1990s, has now been in office one month, and it is not a good sign for the future of Florida politics! 🙁

The concept that a corrupt, crooked business executive, who enriched himself on fraud, and yet was able to avoid prison time for his transgressions, could go ahead and spend $73 million of his ill begotten fortune to “buy” the Florida governorship, is enough of an outrage by itself! 🙁

But Scott, who overcame the GOP establishment in the state to win the nomination for Governor over Attorney General Bill McCollum, and went on to defeat Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink in the closest gubernatorial election in history (about 50,000 votes), has now shown just how arrogant and destructive he really is! 🙁

Scott is setting out to destroy the Florida Retirement System, and is trashing the public servants of Florida, who went into public service understanding the low pay of most public jobs, but were drawn to the FRS as an important benefit that made up for the lack of competitive salaries.

Scott is attempting to force all public employees to take a five percent paycut to contribute toward their pension plans, at a time when there have been no salary increases for a number of years. He also wishes to take other aspects of the FRS away, and make the pension system one of the worst in the nation! 🙁

Scott shows no respect for the significance and sacrifice of teachers, police, fire fighters, paramedics, nurses, librarians, prison guards, and all the other public servants who commit themselves to the myriad of jobs that the average Floridian takes for granted.

And Scott is declaring war on the teaching profession, which will only discourage new entries into the profession by young people, and will cause many to leave the field. To blame the teachers for failures of students, rather than place it on inadequate budgets and class sizes, and the essential role of parents and families on children’s learning, is an absolute outrage! 🙁

If teachers will not have respect, decent pay and benefits, and the backing of administrators, then we will lose the chance to gain the best young minds to go into our classrooms. Mediocrity will reign, and Florida will fall further back into what one could call a “third world” mentality, one of ignorance and
narrow mindedness! If we condemn and attack our teaching force, we lose the opportunity to gain the “best and the brightest” for the future and to put Florida into the 21st century!

Not only is Scott trying to destroy education, but also he has refused to enforce the Obama Health Care legislation, is sending back federal aid to implement it, and has encouraged legal attacks on the legislation, including the recent declaration by a Florida district court judge that the whole legislation is unconstitutional! Interesting that a former health care executive who engaged in fraud is leading the charge to destroy national health care, not giving a damn about the millions of Floridians and other Americans who have no access to health care! 🙁

Beyond all this, Scott refuses to communicate with the news media other than in so called “tweets”, comments no longer than 140 characters. He would rather speak to private groups such as the Tea Party, who he will be addressing privately this coming week about his budget plans. He requires journalists who wish to address him at a public gathering to stand up before asking a question, which he then answers in a few sentences, with no desire to really explain himself in detail. After all, he is the GOVERNOR, and need not be accountable! 🙁

His budget plans call for MASSIVE cuts in Medicaid and education, with no possibility of tax increases, even though it will devastate the state, lead to much higher unemployment, and make Florida more backward than ever. And unless his party in the legislature, more than two thirds membership in each house, have the guts to fight him, he will get his way. Realize that many Republicans have their private doubts about this man who refuses to explain himself in detail, and is known as difficult to talk to, even in private, as he thinks he has all the answers! 🙁

To top it off, there are now strong rumors that Rick Scott has national ambitions, and not just for 2016, even possibly for 2012! Newspapers in the state and National Public Radio are reporting that Scott hopes to make an impression with his budget, and his stands on the health care legislation, budget cuts, and education, and utilize it as a pretext to seek the Presidential nomination of his party! 🙁

A man who should be in prison for his Medicare fraud, who refuses to communicate with the news media, who is arrogant and nasty and dismissive toward his critics, who “bought” the Florida Governorship, seems to have no limits to his ego and ambitions! 🙁

This is the man that Florida has to deal with for the next four years at least, unless the whole nation is, somehow, bamboozled to make him our President in 2013. Let’s hope that terrible, nightmarish scenario never comes to be, and that maybe, just maybe, his own party in the Florida legislature may realize how his lack of ethics and belief in obeying the law in his past, may yet lead to such abuses in the state of Florida to warrant them to forget about party loyalty and move to impeach and remove him from office! 🙁

The Senate Tea Party Caucus: A Trio Avoided By Other Republicans!

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The Senate Tea Party Caucus, a newly formed group, recently had its first meeting, one attended more by activists and media people than members of the Republican caucus in the Senate!

The membership consists of three Senators, none of whom cause a reaction more than that of rolling one’s eyes and shaking one’s head in a negative fashion!

So who are the illustrious members of this “distinguished” group?

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, arguably the leading “flame thrower” in the Republican Senate caucus, has no problem bad mouthing other Republicans who wish to avoid being as outrageous and disgraceful as he has been! Rumor has it that he is considering a run for President, as he seems to admire himself in the mirror! LOL

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky makes one wonder how Congressman Ron Paul might not wish to disown him as his son, as he is proving to be a true headline hunter, with his nutty libertarian views that one wonders about his sanity and stability. More about this will be explained in a future entry on this blog!

Senator Mike Lee of Utah, also new to the Senate as Rand Paul is, has no problem being seen in the extreme. It is a sad point of fact that Senator Robert Bennett, a mainstream conservative, lost his seat in the Utah primary to this character, who wishes to be noticed for how outrageous he can be!

What is more interesting is how other Republicans elected to the Senate, who were considered Tea Party favorites, chose to find excuses rather than attend the Tea Party Caucus meeting.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin apparently had second thoughts about joining this group of three, as they realized the bad image it would present for them as they begin their careers in the Senate. At least, they have some common sense and rational nature, which cannot be said about DeMint, Paul, and Lee!

Meanwhile, the Tea Party Movement seems bent on defeating Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in the 2012 Republican Senate primaries. In so doing, they are setting out to destroy the Republican Party and just might succeed at that venture!