Month: February 2012

John Glenn: Fifty Years Ago The Hero Of The American Space Program

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John Glenn, the first American astronaut in space on February 20, 1962, celebrated the 50 year anniversary at the Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center in central Florida yesterday, alongside the only other surviving Mercury astronaut, Scott Carpenter. The other five original astronauts have all passed away.

Glenn, also the oldest astronaut in space in 1998 at age 77, was a great national hero on the level of Charles Lindbergh in 1927. The author remembers the news of his ride into space being broadcast over the public address system in classrooms of his high school, before the era of televisions in classrooms. It was a very exciting and patriotic moment.

Glenn went on to become a three term Democratic Senator from Ohio, and a failed Presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1984. Despite his failure at gaining the Presidency, Glenn always came across as a popular, pleasant, approachable hero, much admired by Americans over the course of a lifetime.

The sadness of the celebration of the fifty year anniversary of John Glenn in space was the fact that we have, as a nation, abandoned a space program for the future, a shortsighted view of the importance of space. John Glenn expressed the sadness that we have lost our long range view, and the hope that at some point, we will start up again the adventure into space, the final frontier.

Rick Santorum Not Well Loved Among His Former Senate Colleagues, But Backed By “Lunatic Fringe”!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum served in the US Senate for 12 years, and had a leadership position as the third ranking Republican, serving as the Republican Conference Chairman.

And yet, not one sitting Senator or former Senator who worked alongside him has endorsed him, while 12 of them have endorsed Mitt Romney!

And Santorum served four years in the House of Representatives, and yet only three Congressmen have endorsed him, all three from his home state.

On the other hand, Santorum has the backing of such “luminaries” as former Colorado Congressman and anti immigrant advocate Tom Tancredo of Colorado; former Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle; social conservatives Gary Bauer, James Dobson, and Tony Perkins; conservative commentators and activists David Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, and Richard Viguerie; Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch; and singer Pat Boone! The list is one of people way out of the mainstream of American life, many of them seen as loony and lacking credibility!

So Rick Santorum has not impressed those he has worked with, and instead has the backing of the “lunatic fringe”, another sign that he is unacceptable to be our Commander in Chief!

Rick Santorum: 2012 Most Important Election Since 1860? He May Have It Right!

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Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator, and leading Mitt Romney in the Michigan polls, is becoming the center of more attention, having to defend Foster Friess, his “sugar daddy”, who is keeping Santorum going financially. Foster Friess made fun of women and contraception, suggesting that years ago, before birth control pills, women would put aspirin between their knees to prevent pregnancy! What an amazing statement, and all Santorum can do is say he is not responsible for what his financial and other supporters say! If he was to take responsibility, he might lose his financial support, so of course, no principles, Rick, except your own aggrandizement!

But now, Santorum today has gone further, to state that the 2012 election is the most important since the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, 152 years ago!

What an interesting comparison! It is VERY CLEAR that he is appealing to white blue collar workers, north and south, craftily reminding them that before 1860, without saying it, that we did not have to worry about civil rights, human rights, such as the reality that African Americans were mostly in slavery, women had no rights, immigrants were being victimized by the American (Know Nothings) party, that government was small and based on states rights, that labor had no rights, that we exploited natural resources without regard for the environment, etc. In other words, the “good old days”, before that “dastardly” Republican named Abraham Lincoln had to “ruin” everything, and then other Republicans like Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush, and others in Congress, and of course northern Democrats and Democratic Presidents had the nerve to “change” things away from what they were in 1860.

Of course, the kind of people Santorum is appealing to, in most cases, have no knowledge of what he is talking about, except in small snippets. But Santorum has a veiled message, and is promoting a “culture” war, of them against us!

This “culture war”, trying to take away separation of church and state that our Founding Fathers gave us; promotion of constant war overseas; and advocating the advancement of corporate America against the very blue collar whites that he claims to represent, IS the new “war”, just as important as the Civil War, as it is indeed the NEW “Civil War” for the future of American freedom and opportunity!

Republicans And The Coal Miner Vote

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Republicans are now talking about their “coal miner” background, as last night, Ann Romney, wife of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, referred to her Welsh grandfather being a coal miner; and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum constantly talks about his coal miner grandfather, who Rick noticed at his funeral had “very large hands” that had mined coal for decades.

So the Republican candidates are appealing for the “coal miner vote”, as if coal miners with any knowledge of history would do so–vote for Republicans.

The fact that the Republican Party has never given a damn about the horrible conditions of the coal mines, arguably the worst and most dangerous occupation in America, shows their total hypocrisy!

Which party promoted greater regulation of coal mines, better working conditions, better benefits for coal miners? The Democratic Party, NOT the Republicans!

Which party works in cooperation with coal company owners historically, and even recently, to undermine safety and health standards? The Republican Party, NOT the Democrats!

So it is time for Mitt Romney, his wife, and Rick Santorum, to stop pandering to coal miners, as if they give a damn, which they clearly don’t!

Time For TRUE Conservative Republican Nominee So That Conservatism Can Be Exposed For What It Is: A Plea For Rick Santorum’s Nomination For The Presidency!

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Conservatism has been said to be a dominant factor in the Republican Party for a long time, and conservatives in Congress and on talk radio and Fox News Channel have been spewing forth their poison, whether it is to go to war as a first resort, rather last last resort; putting women, African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, gays and lesbians, labor, poor people, environmentalists, public service workers, consumer advocates, and anyone who promotes progressivism, in their place; and promoting corporations, the wealthy, and religion and the military as dominant parts of American power to make our nation a militaristic, religiously based plutocracy, only advocating the interests of the few, rather than the many!

But the frustration of these conservatives is that, somehow, it never seems to work out quite like they expect. Witness: Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Robert Taft in 1952 and does “unconservative” policies in office; Richard Nixon also disappoints in many areas; Gerald Ford and his wife Betty actually promote social progressivism; even Ronald Reagan shows that he can be moved away from hard line conservative ideas; George H. W. Bush is clearly too moderate and centrist; George W. Bush follows certain aspects of conservatism, particularly following the “neocons” in foreign affairs, but too involved in “compassionate conservatism” in domestic affairs and government spending; and even Bob Dole and John McCain, losing GOP Presidential nominees, are insufficiently conservative, and actually come across as “moderates”, a hated term.

And now Mitt Romney cannot be trusted to be hard line conservative, despite his own efforts at protestations. And even Barry Goldwater, thought to be in 1964, the “ideal” conservative, later revealed his social progressivism and condemned the role of religion in the Republican Party! What is a frustrated conservative to do?

The answer is back and nominate former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who wants to bomb Iran on Day One in office; wants a very hard line social conservatism, putting women “back in their place”; wants no regulation of business or corporations that interferes with “free enterprise”; wishes to wipe out by any means the rights of gays and lesbians; wishes to take away all of the federal entitlement programs of the New Deal and Great Society; return America back to the 1950s in some ways, the 1920s in other ways, and the Gilded Age of the late 19th century in other ways!

Conservatives want to bring back the “good old days” of white male domination over society, and corporate influence, joined with the military and religious control over our foreign and domestic policies.

Let’s hope, even pray, that Rick Santorum is nominated, and watch as he is obliterated in November, and his support by conservatives sets them back for at least a generation, and give mainline Republicans the opportunity to rebuild the party as what it once was, a centrist party, a good competition for the Democratic Party. And if the GOP refuses to reform itself, then it should be replaced by a new moderate centrist party in the mainstream of 21st century America!

Of course, notice that the author said a “generation” would pass of conservative decline, as sadly, to believe conservatism will leave our shores forever, is not going to happen, as it is like a recurring cancer on the body politic–it WILL return eventually, and the battle for control of government and politics is, therefore, a never ending battle of American history!

Richard Nixon (China) And Barack Obama (Iran): Why Not Try Diplomacy Before War?

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Forty years ago, Richard Nixon, a Republican President, took a bold step and went to visit and negotiate with the government of the People’s Republic Of China, better known in America as Communist China or Red China.

We had had no negotiations or dealings with mainland China since 1949, had made a career of demonizing the leadership of that nation, and had made clear that we would defend the island of Taiwan (Nationalist China) at all costs. We had also fought Chinese troops in the Korean War, and had known of Chinese support of the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War, and were still bombing near the Chinese border.

But with all that, Richard Nixon went to China, negotiated trade and travel and cultural exchanges, and opened up our country and China to the promotion of less fear and more diplomacy and understanding in the interests of international harmony and avoidance of war.

Many conservatives bitterly condemned Nixon for going to China, and reversing his own anti Communist stand of twenty five years standing. But Nixon went anyway, and this occurred in an election year. It was statesmanlike and showed Nixon to be a pragmatic man in foreign policy.

Today, in 2012, forty years later, we are on the brink of possible military conflict with Iran, with which we have not had real dealings since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the fall of the Shah of Iran from power. Iran has become a very belligerent state, heavy on rhetoric and threats, similar to what China was for 25 years. In the case of Iran, it is now 33 years since the two nations, in the midst of tensions and stress, have sat down and tried to negotiate differences.

It may seem as if there is very little hope for a breakthrough with a harsh enemy who wishes us ill, but remember that was the same mentality toward China, and even more so, toward the Soviet Union, during the Cold War years, but still Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and even Reagan all agreed to joint meetings, often in each other’s country, and made progress toward coexistence, and to avoid a direct confrontation that would benefit neither side.

So when the Republican candidates for President, conservative talk show hosts, and many others call for war on Iran, and think the idea of negotiations with Iran are fruitless, remember what Richard Nixon, the ultimate anti Communist did forty years ago this week. He went to the enemy and NEGOTIATED, and prevented any conflict with China, a dramatic and significant moment in world history!

It is time for Barack Obama to show courage and statesmanship, and since the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he is ready for diplomatic talks, it is wise to take him up on it, and see if it can go anywhere. If it does not, and war results, at least we will be able to hold our heads high and say we TRIED! Is Ahmadinejad really any worse than Mao Tse Tung, Nikita Khrushchev Leonid Brezhnev, or Mikhail Gorbachev?

It is not cowardly to agree to talk and negotiate; it is cowardly to refuse to talk and negotiate, with the possibility of avoiding war that neither the United States citizens or Iranian citizens really want. And it would be better for Israel too, if war could be avoided which would likely have a very heavy toll on their citizens, in a country so small in population, it cannot afford to lose even one hundred people in an unnecessary war that MIGHT be avoidable!

Can Mitt Romney Survive A Loss In Michigan Primary? His “Competition” With George Romney’s Image And History!

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The biggest crisis in Mitt Romney’s privileged life is coming in Michigan, the state of his birth, the state which elected his father George Romney Governor for three terms in the 1960s, the state which he fundamentally abandoned when he called for the ordered bankruptcy of the auto industry, the state in which there has been a major turn around and drop in unemployment due to the intervention of the federal government to help General Motors and Chrysler survive. General Motors has seen its best growth in 25 years, and Michigan and the Midwest, as bad as they are in economic terms, are far better off because of what Barack Obama did, as opposed to what Romney wished to do for the area–NOTHING!

Romney is about to be paid back in spades, as the odds are now heavy that he will lose his “home state” to Rick Santorum, who can relate to blue collar workers on a fundamental basis, as compared to the filthy rich Romney who has no clue as to the struggles of auto workers or anyone else, and lives off investments but can joke about being “unemployed”!

If Romney loses the Michigan Primary, he is doomed, and will not be able to survive and win the nomination. And even if, by some intervention by “establishment” forces on Wall Street, he gets the nomination, he will have a flaw that will be enough to cause his defeat in November. He is simply too plastic, to stiff, too elitist, for the average American, and by catering to the extreme right in his rhetoric, he is causing the loss of major groups of voters–women, Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, labor, the struggling middle class, independents, conservative Democrats, gays, etc. Does anyone NOT get the point?

Mitt Romney is NOT electable; he may have the lifelong desire to be what his father failed to be–President of the United States! But in a way, he is competing with a ghost, as George Romney was a much more genuine candidate, a man who knew what it was like to be poor, a man who really built up the auto industry, rather than live off buying up companies and firing workers, and making money on the resale of those companies.

George Romney was genuine, compassionate, principled, and honest to a set of values! Mitt Romney is none of these attributes of his father!

In a way, this reminds us of the struggle between father and son of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, another case of son trying to overcome the achievements of the father, but never matching up in any way, shape or form.

The difference is THIS time, it is not going to work out that this country has to deal with the psychological effects of the father-son battle for supremacy, as Mitt Romney is NOT going to be President of the United States, and is highly unlikely, as things stand now, to be the GOP nominee chosen at the Tampa Republican National Convention in August.

It is actually humiliating and embarrassing to see Romney trying to pander to Michigan now, talking about his old high school, the height of the trees, loving the lakes of the state, loving cars and Detroit! Such phoniness and catering to voters who know better than to be suckered by a rich guy who does not care about the “very poor”, the middle class, but only the rich, despite his protestations to the contrary!

Jeremy Lin And Racial Stereotyping: The Ugly Tone Of Racism Against Asian Americans Renewed!

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New York Knicks basketball player Jeremy Lin has become an overnight sensation, in just the past ten days, coming out of obscurity to lead the Knicks to seven straight victories. He is the sensation of the National Basketball Association!

Instead of rejoicing over the first basketball player of Asian heritage, specifically Chinese from the island of Taiwan, to become a big success story, instead of just “Lin Mania” occurring, we are also seeing the ugly tone of racial stereotyping rearing its head, including some African Americans ridiculing or rejecting his success. Hate mail and Facebook and Twitter expression of racism is showing how far we have to go, even in 2012, to overcome the ignorance and jealousy of many.

Asian Americans in the past have been victims of discrimination, racism, and stereotyping, with the infamous anti Chinese riots of the 1870s and 1880s and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II just the best known examples, along with the banning of Chinese immigration from 1882-1943 and of Japanese immigration from 1924 to 1965.

It seems the more we see great accomplishments by an ethnic or racial group in this great country, there always has to be a backlash by people who themselves are often the victims of racism previously.

When will we finally accept people for their accomplishments and celebrate their ethnicity without jealousy or resentment by others of other racial and nationality groups? Obviously, it is a long time in the future, despite the education and progress that has been made from the great depths of darkness of the past!

Meanwhile, congratulations to Jeremy Lin, and all of us should be very proud of his accomplishments!

The Mormon Church And Baptism Of Holocaust Jews And Others MUST Be Stopped And Reversed!

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The Mormon Church has become involved in a major controversy over their decision to baptize Holocaust Jews and others who have died, without the permission of those people while they were alive, or the permission of their living relatives.

The theory behind this is that this way a person can be “saved” in the afterlife, and meet Jesus Christ, even if they were not believers in Jesus Christ in their lifetime.

This is insulting and disgraceful, as the concept that people must accept Jesus Christ in the after life is precisely what is wrong with organized religions that believe in proselytizing, including Christianity of all varieties and Islam.

It is not the business of anyone to take it upon themselves through their church or religious belief to convert anyone else against their will. There is enough of this pressure in life, but should not be in death.

The idea that Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor and Republican Presidential candidate, engaged in such conversion practices of the dead in the past, including his own atheist father in law, is obscene to the extreme. One could say what nerve he had to do this to anyone, and the fact that his converted wife Ann Romney expressed no problem with this treatment of her deceased father makes one wonder about whether Ann Romney is a “Stepford Wife”, with no mind of her own, and the sensitivity to say “No” to her husband once, having already agreed upon marriage to Mitt that her parents would be forced to stay outside of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the wedding ceremony, because they were not Mormons. That in itself is mind boggling!

The Mormon Church had earlier agreed in 1999 to stop the baptism of dead Jews and others, but have continued to violate their own word, not promoting any confidence that one can believe anything they say or do!

And the idea that they baptized evil people such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and the September 11 Hijackers alongside Anne Frank and Simon Wiesenthal and others is enough to make one vomit!

Mitt Romney is being called upon by Elie Wiesel to intervene on this matter, and he cannot pass it on to the Mormon Church and ignore it, and if he does, it will rightfully affect his Presidential candidacy! It is time for immediate and final action on this matter with no excuses and no delays!

About Time For Regulation Of Credit Bureaus and Debt Collection Agencies!

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking steps to supervise and to investigate the abuses of the three national credit bureaus and debt collection agencies, both of which have abused their power, and in the process, have ruined the lives of millions of Americans over a period of many years.

The credit bureaus have the ability to destroy a person’s credit rating, and deny such persons the ability to get a decent credit card interest rate, mortgages, auto loans, and even student loans.

Debt collection agencies have long been infamous for calling people at all hours, harassing them, and driving many people who owe money, but have no means to pay, to the point of lunacy.

These kinds of practices need to be stopped, and this is further proof of the virtues of this new agency opposed by big business corporations and the Republican Party. It is time that the American people are fairly represented in disputes over their credit worthiness and debt, and we can thank President Obama’s administration for courageously taking action to deal with this long held grievance by average Americans.