Month: April 2011

The Republican Sense Of Desperation As Fox News Channel Debate Occurs In Five Days!

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The Republican Party, the Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan, is facing a sense of desperation as the first scheduled debate among GOP Presidential candidates is only five days away, due on May 5 on Fox News Channel.

No one has really emerged from the pack, and those who have been noticed–Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump–have embarrassed themselves as well as the party. If this is the best the GOP can do, they may as well concede the election for President next year to President Obama!

Of course, no such thing will happen, but the mainstream candidates–Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman–have not excited the party, and Mike Huckabee seems unlikely to run, and in any case, has put his foot in his mouth too many times already to be the ideal candidate.

With the decision of Haley Barbour to drop out of the race, attention is being drawn again to Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana, and former budget director under George W. Bush, but he has alienated social conservatives by emphasizing economic and budget issues, and suggesting there be a truce on social matters, such as gay rights, abortion, and school prayer. He also lacks charisma and presence, and since the budget debt doubled under George W. Bush, one wonders if his so called “magic” abilities with budgets, plus his strong anti labor stand in Indiana, ahead of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, is to be seen as a plus.

But once you go past Mitch Daniels, the others being promoted are even less thrilling!

To suggest “Bully” Governors, including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Scott Walker of Wisconsin seems suicidal, as neither has high public opinion ratings, has declared war on labor, and has an aggressive public personality that turns many people off!

And to suggest Texas Governor Rick Perry is really to promote desperation, as Perry is not too bright, and has advocated secession of his state in past political rhetoric! What the Democrats could do with that–wow!

But then, those who suggest Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the author of the GOP budget bill that wishes to make Medicare privatized in ten years, but admits no balanced budget for thirty years, are even more crazy. Not only is Ryan seen as a “wise guy” arrogant person, but also he has received many attacks at Town Halls in his own district, and his plan has been attacked bitterly by people of all age groups, and become cannon fodder for the Democrats, which they will be able to use next year in the Presidential Election of 2012.

The way things look, the best bet for the Republican Party is to turn toward Mitt Romney, as the most “mainstream” they can get to run against Barack Obama, but will the Tea Party activists and the evangelical Christians allow a Mormon, who was once a liberal to moderate in the party, to be its nominee? Stay tuned!

The New York Public Libraries And Pornography: Freedom Of Speech Gone Mad!

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The debate over civil liberties rages on in American society and culture, but the concept of limits still intrudes itself.

The decision of the New York Public Library systems to allow patrons to log on to pornography websites on library computers in their areas subject to public access is causing a stir over the extent of freedom of speech limits.

Does a person who is over 18 years of age have the right to access pornography websites on his or her own computer? The answer clearly is YES!

Should any person have the right to access such websites on a public library computer within view and sound of other patrons? The answer clearly is NO!

Pornography is something that is a private matter and should remain that.

No one should be subjected to other people’s views or tastes on sexuality, as it is offensive to many people, and children under 18 could be easily exposed to such websites while in the library, with or without their parents being present.

It is a question of common decency and public behavior, not an issue of freedom of speech. No one is saying that there is any justification or method to eliminate all pornography websites, but it most definitely is a question of common sense and sensitivity to the rights of those who do not wish to witness such sites within their hearing or viewing.

This issue will not go away, and assuredly, the American Civil Liberties Union will fight this matter in court.

It would not be surprising if such a case reached the Supreme Court at some point, and one cannot be certain as to how the high Court would react.

But in the mind of the author, if he were on the Supreme Court, he would vote to ban such pornography in public libraries as unacceptable to the general public, and make clear that sexuality is a private matter, not to be displayed in such a venue as a public library, a place for all citizens and non citizens alike, to enlighten and educate the population and promote their advancement.

So again, no one is out to ban pornography, which would be impossible anyway, but to ban it in public libraries in sight or sound of the vast majority of people who would find it objectionable in that venue!

150 Years After The Civil War, It Is Still Being Fought!

Ronald 2 Comments

When one studies the Civil War, the most significant event in US History, being commemorated on its 150th Anniversary this year, it makes one realize that the issues being fought then are still being fought today!

Not only is there still sectionalism and regionalism between North and South.

There is still a racial problem, with the South being the area having the most trouble accepting a black President, and therefore, perpetuating the “Birther” Myth, which claims that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

It is also being fought in the sense that there seems to be no political center in America in recent years, similar to what the situation was before the Civil War.

It is also compared as to the growing influence of evangelical Christianity, which tends to be rigid and unwilling to make any concessions with what they consider the battle between evil and good, and with Biblical language which demonizes the opposition with self righteousness and the sense that compromise is unnecessary and wrong.

It is still part of America today also due to the debate over federal power as compared to the states, and the constant threat of states rights and secession being brandished.

Also, there is the constant debate over the powers of the President to promote his world view, whether Abraham Lincoln then or Barack Obama today.

The parties in control may have switched, with the Republicans replacing the Democrats in the South, but in so many ways, the present party division geographically resembles the North-South split of Lincoln’s time.

The need to escape the same trap of tensions and disagreements in the present and the future is imperative, so we must learn from the Civil War so as to advance the American experiment in freedom and democracy.

This is even more essential because of the major world role now being played by the United States, compared to the insular republic of the mid 19th century.

The Ignorance Crisis In America: Belief In Conspiracy Theories Runs Amuck, Danger Sign For America’s Future!

Ronald 6 Comments

America is in deep trouble for the future in so many ways, but it is likely that the greatest crisis the country faces is the Ignorance Crisis, in which Conspiracy Theories run amuck!

It is shocking how many people, and we mean adults over the age of 18 but working its way up to include even the elderly, display such ignorance and lack of a sense of reality, that they truly believe in conspiracy theories, accepting false evidence as factually true. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but millions of citizens seem to be unwilling to face reality and accept factual details, choosing to believe what they want to believe, no matter how crazy or loony it is!

Among the Conspiracy theories widely believed are the following:

1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt engineered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, crippling our naval fleet, in order to get us into World War II!

2. Aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, and our Defense Department has covered it up ever since, keeping the aliens under lock and key!

3. The assassination of John F. Kennedy was engineered by elements within the government, and involved multiple gunmen who made Lee Harvey Oswald the patsy!

4. American astronauts did not land on the moon in July 1969, but were instead part of a great coverup by the news media and government officials, and they actually were landing in the deserts of Arizona!

5. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld engineered the attacks of September 11 on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, in order to increase Presidential power and put us into a world wide war against Islamic civilization!

6. Barack Obama was born in an Islamic country, either Kenya or Indonesia, not the United States, and there was a great conspiracy to plant a birth announcement in Hawaii newspapers in 1961, so as to allow us to elect him the first black President, and allow him to promote Sharia law and Socialism in America fifty years later!

7. In a more generalized way, the Masonic Order has been involved in a conspiracy to control the government and economy of the United States from George Washington to the present!

8. The Federal Reserve Banking System, created under Woodrow Wilson in 1913, is part of a great conspiracy by powerful capitalists and bankers, many of them foreigners, to control and manipulate the American economy, so as to exploit the average American citizen, and enrich the international conspiracy against America’s interests!

9. There is a great conspiracy by people from Latin America, particularly Mexico, to take over the American nation, and dilute it with the “inferior” racial stock that Hispanics and Latinos represent!

10. The United States is threatened by “old Europe”, the “inferior” nations and laws of nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other countries all over Europe, who are trying to undermine our laws and traditions! Also, all international organizations, including NATO and the United Nations, are working to undermine American “exceptionalism” and values!

When one examines all of these conspiracy theories and how many Americans truly believe them, despite lack of evidence and facts, one must mourn for the long term future of this great nation, which has allowed the development of an inferior education system and poor family values to undermine what was once a great nation, but is now in great danger and under great threat of collapse over the next few generations!

All good, educated, sensible people want our nation back to what it once was, and mourn the serious mental illness we are now suffering through!

Orly Taitz Should Be Prosecuted For Defamation Of Character Of President Obama, AndThen Be Put Under Psychiatric Evaluation!!

Ronald 2 Comments

Orly Taitz, the originator of the “Birther” conspiracy theory regarding President Barack Obama’s location of his birth, has refused to apologize for her lies and deceit, even after the original birth certificate was displayed yesterday at the request of the President of the United States!

She was invited to speak on Lawrence O’Donnell’s LAST WORD show on MSNBC, and instead “filibustered” the subject, refusing to answer how she felt about the evidence, and instead over talking O’Donnell and stating she was bringing a lawsuit over the President’s Selective Service draft registration information required for all males at age 18!

She was totally obnoxious and insulting, and to see Lawrence O’Donnell, a real gentleman on his talk show, become furious at her sick mind and behavior, was quite an experience for the author!

This is a woman born in the old Soviet Union, allowed to migrate to this nation in 1987, having the opportunity to become a lawyer and a dentist in California, and instead of appreciating the opportunities this nation has given her, she would rather trash our President, give him no respect or dignity, and launch frivolous lawsuits, cluttering up the courts with her sick, depraved nonsense based on a hallucinatory mind and no common decency!

There is nothing else that President Obama can do about this distraction, but it is time for good Americans who are disgusted by this poisonous promotion of racism and hate to launch a civil lawsuit against Orly Taitz, with the intention of making her pay for defamation of character, for libel and slander, leading to her impoverishment financially!

And then, the woman, by stirring passions in such an outrageous, deceptive manner, should be put under psychiatric care as a detriment to civil society and common decency!

Freedom of speech does not mean one can shout fire in a crowded theater and not be held responsible civilly for one”s reckless behavior! This is not calling for criminal indictment, but rather civil indictment and conviction, and the ruling of a court that this disgraceful human being be required to have psychiatric evaluation and care!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Finally Throws Down The Gauntlet To Senate Republicans: Vote For The Paul Ryan Plan On Medicare!

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A moment of reckoning is coming for the 47 Senate Republicans, who have been railing against Barack Obama’s Health Care plan!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has finally shown some “cajones”, by deciding that there should be a roll call vote on the Paul Ryan House plan to make Medicare a voucher system in ten years, which gained the backing of 235 House Republicans!

Ever since then, the House Republicans are discovering in Town Halls in their congressional districts that the citizens are furious with them, and Paul Ryan himself in his Wisconsin House district has been subjected to booing and jeers and verbal challenges to defend his plan!

It will be interesting to see if any of the Senate Republicans abandon the Ryan plan, but in any case, those who vote for it, including those who face re-election contests in 2012, will be taking a big gamble, as the tides are turning against them, as the American people realize that the GOP cares not a whit for the welfare of senior citizens, young people, the unemployed, the sick, the handicapped, minorities, or labor, but only for the advancement of unbridled capitalism and the welfare of the corporations and the elite wealthy, who have destroyed the middle class and have no limit in their greed and selfishness!

So go ahead, Senate Republicans, vote and show your true colors to the nation!

Orly Taitz, Jerome Corsi, World Net Daily: The Big Lie Technique Of Adolf Hitler Revived!

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Orlty Taitz is one of the originators of the “Birther” conspiracy about Barack Obama being born outside the United States, and she has lost cases in court and been fined for her lies and deceit.

Jerome Corsi is a so called professor who has published books promoting lies and conspiracy theories, and is about to publish a new book perpetuating the “Birther” myth to gullible readers!

World Net Daily is a scandal oriented “RAG”, which promotes sensationalism and lies, and has done so about Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and now Barack Obama, and has a wide readership despite its accusations that have no basis!

We live in a nation that promotes freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but these characters need to be called out by the mainstream media, and exposed for the phonies and manipulators of truth that they are!

They have all adopted the “Big Lie” technique, so effectively utilized by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, which promoted the idea that the more one lies and deceives, the more people will believe it, so never let go, and fight against the truth, and exploit people’s prejudices and biases, all in the process of drawing attention to yourself and making profit in the process!

There should be no doubt left in mainstream media other than to expose and condemn Orly Taitz, Jerome Corsi, and World Net Daily, and all other propaganda that sets out to poison the political fabric of America and destroy any chance for unity and purpose in dealing with the many domestic and foreign policy problems this nation faces in 2011!

Is “Birther” Conspiracy Theory Resolved By Release By White House Of Certificate Of Live Birth? Don’t Bet On It!

Ronald 2 Comments

Anyone who expects that the White House release of Barack Obama’s Certificate of Live Birth this morning will shut up the “Birthers” conspiracy theory is probably going to be disappointed!

It is absolutely insulting that no other President has ever been so mistreated regarding his birth certificate as Barack Obama!

Face the facts: It is because Barack Obama is black, born of a mixed race parentage, and has a Muslim sounding name that he has been put through this hell by loonies and by Donald Trump and others, with all of them knowing full well that it is a false issue, but doing everything they can to perpetuate it as a political issue, rather than focus on the real problems facing the nation, none of which were caused by Barack Obama, but rather by the Wall Street and corporate world and their Republican allies!

In reality, Obama should not have given in to this bull, but it was an honest attempt to move on and focus on the major issues, even though the opposition does not want to focus on the major issues, but want simply for Obama to fail so they can gain power and take us back to the 19th century Gilded Age!

If half of the registered Republicans in a poll still feel they doubt Obama’s birth in the United States, the answer should be simply to say “Enough of your moronic behavior and sick minds, we are moving ahead and exposing that you all have evil intent, and we will fight you tooth and nail and give you hell as we unite the American people in planning a future, not to be controlled by morons and idiots who only have selfishness and greed in your makeup, and do not give a damn for the future of the nation, unless you control all of the economic and social power! We are not going to allow you monsters to make this a fascist nation, and we will fight to our last breath to make sure you do not accomplish your evil goals!”

How does that sound for a fighting spirit to promote the expansion of progressivism, which has brought about ALL of the political, social, and economic progress of the past century, as the author so enunciates in his introductory statement, under “About the Progressive Professor”?

Appointment Of Leon Panetta To Defense Department And David Petraeus To CIA: Great Steps On National Security!

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President Obama has decided to nominate CIA head Leon Panetta to succeed Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense this summer.

He has also decided to name General David Petraeus, head of the war command in Afghanistan, to become head of the CIA.

Both moves can be seen as great steps forward on national security, both for the safety of the United States, and also politically, as both Panetta and Petraeus should have no opposition from Republicans when their nominations come up for consideration.

Panetta, a former Republican long ago, worked as Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton, and is seen by almost everyone as a solid figure to run Defense.

Petraeus, a registered Republican who some thought as a possible Presidential choice in the future, has gained a great amount of respect and even awe as he has contributed to his country in the struggle against terrorism over the past decade!

The departure of Robert Gates this summer should not be accomplished without paying tribute to Gates, as one of the best Defense Secretaries in American history, and a welcome relief from Donald Rumsfeld, arguably the worst we have seen since the Defense Department was created out of the old War Department in 1947!

Gates helped both President George W. Bush and President Obama, and he has given fantastic service to his country, and is entitled to a well deserved retirement, although one can be sure that Gates will still contribute in other ways in the future, as he is the ultimate example of a great public servant!

A New Outrage: Public Pensions Under Attack, Despite Legal Guarantees!

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The attack on public workers–teachers, nurses, social workers, police officers, fire fighters, prison guards, and others–continues, and it is not only affecting work conditions, but also guarantees by contract on pensions in many states and cities, and not only for future pensioners, but also present pensioners in some locations!

Everyone acknowledges that police officers and fire fighters face more dangerous and stressful work conditions than other public workers, so in many localities around America, they can retire at a younger age and collect pensions for many more years than other public workers.

Now, the police office in Detroit are seeing their pensions cut, and in a small town outside Mobile, Alabama, 150 retired workers stopped getting pensions checks altogether!

This seems like the tip of the iceberg, as it means that many public workers, who have accepted public jobs with lower pay but better benefits, now are endangered by not having a guarantee of their pensions in the future, and in extreme circumstances, could lose all or most of it as economic conditions deteriorate further all across the country!

It used to be thought that if contracts are agreed to by both sides in a negotiation, therefore, there are legal guarantees of enforcement of those contracts. But now it seems clear that what any government gives, it can take away at will and with abuse!