Month: February 2012

Five Years Of Barack Obama As A National Figure

Ronald 3 Comments

Five years ago today, in Springfield, the state capital of Illinois, Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.

No one could possibly have known on that day that Obama would succeed in his quest for the Presidency, with the odds so long, and competing with better known, more experienced political leaders, including the wife of former President Bill Clinton (Hillary Clinton).

No one could also have known how much Barack Obama has had an impact on our history in the first three years of his term as President.

No one could also have known that he would be the subject of such vilification, greater than his predecessor George W. Bush, greater than the controversial Richard Nixon, and matching that suffered by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The debate over the record of Barack Obama, and whether he should be, and will be re-elected President in November 2012, rages on, but there is no way to deny that Barack Obama has had an historic impact on our nation’s history!

An Acceptable Compromise: Contraceptive Services For Women Of Religiously Based Employers To Be Offered Gratis By Insurance Companies

Ronald 1 Comment

President Barack Obama has announced that contraceptive services for women who work for religiously based employers, such as universities and hospitals, will not have to be paid by the religious group as part of their health care plan, but instead will be a requirement for insurance companies to cover without charge.

This takes away the issue of religious liberty, which has been promoted incessantly by supporters of the Catholic Church and other religious groups, and exploited by the Republican Party and its Presidential candidates. Our belief in freedom of religion made it necessary for the administration to reconsider its handling of this part of the Obama Health Care legislation, which itself will be considered as to its constitutionality in the next few months by the US Supreme Court.

One can be assured, however, that politics will be utilized, and that this controversy will not disappear from the Presidential campaign, but it seems a win for women’s rights, as well as religious liberty!

The Poor Often Forgotten: The White Underclass

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Whenever there is discussion of the problem of poverty, the tendency of most people is to assume that poverty is found only in the city ghettos across the country, and that poverty is found only among African American and Hispanic and Latino communities.

The thought that there might be millions of white poor people in rural areas and in the suburbs, particularly since the Great Recession hit in 2008, which has caused the loss of more jobs and foreclosure of homes on a massive basis than ever in the past 80 years, has not been generally recognized.

Many of the white poor are single mothers with children, but also includes families where both mother and father have lost their jobs, and also people in their 50s and 60s who are unlikely ever to get a full time job ever again, sadly, and also senior citizens and the disabled who are in a terrible state of affairs when it comes to medical care and having adequate money for food and other necessities.

Of course, there are minorities in the same boat, but in actuality, there are many more forgotten whites than minorities. And instead of the Republican Party being willing to recognize this reality, instead they love to use the race card to imply that the vast majority of poor are nonwhite, when just the opposite is the case.

The growing income inequality and education gaps are the true crisis for America’s future, and we do not see the Republican Party willing to address this truth, but instead utilize fear and hysteria to keep many whites from voting for the party who really cares about their future, the Democrats under Barack Obama!

Rick Santorum, Religion And The French Revolution: Reckless Fanaticism!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is acting irresponsibly when he compares Barack Obama and his stand on contraception and other women’s services being provided by religiously based hospitals and universities to their workers, many of whom are not of that religious group, as an attack on religion.

Claiming that Obama is warring on religion, which is totally preposterous, instead what Rick Santorum offers is promotion of theocracy, by his failure to accept what another fellow Catholic, President John F. Kennedy, advocated–separation of church and state.

When Santorum is calling what Obama is doing the first stage toward the French Revolution, emphasizing the secularism and attack on organized Christianity (Catholicism) in that famous decade of the 1790s, he is being reckless and also inaccurate historically about one of the key events of modern times, an event which moved Europe toward the goals of freedom and the basic rights of man.

Anyone who wishes to be honest about history knows that NO Christian group, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, or others came about with any less violence and persecution against non believers, than the terrible bloodshed of the French Revolution. The level of violence of the French Revolution was horrific, but no less in the entire history of Christianity. And no one can say that any traditional Christian group has ever promoted democracy and the rights of man, when instead they have promoted obedience and lack of tolerance toward non believers throughout their history. Instead, all of the groups have endorsed, at one point or another, racism, anti semitism, denial of women’s rights, and the endorsement of slaughtering native Americans to conquer the North American continent, as well as South America.

This does not mean that there have not been outspoken religious people who have fought to bring open mindedness and tolerance to their faith, but they have fought this fight with great stress, and much discrimination visited upon them, and often been expelled for their challenges to the religious establishment.

We do not want a religious fanatic in the White House; instead we want a person who, like John F. Kennedy, did not promote his faith, and believed in total religious tolerance. Rick Santorum is such a fanatic, and is dangerous in that he would promote government endorsement of religion, which is NOT its role in our history, and not promoted by the Founding Fathers.

Despite vicious attacks by critics, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, Barack Obama and his vision of Social Justice is the only kind of Christianity, or really any religious group, that makes any sense for a society in which there is too much worship of the almighty dollar, and not enough for human beings of all backgrounds who are being left in the dust as the nation moves inexorably toward a stratified society that bodes ill for the future stability of America!

The Advancement Of Gay Marriage Rights In California And Washington State

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Events of this week are very promising regarding the expansion of gay marriage rights.

California’s Ninth Circuit Court has declared Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in 2008 as unconstitutional, upholding a district court ruling, and this makes it likely that gay marriage will be on the Supreme Court docket very soon, possibly even this year, already full of turning point cases on the Obama Health Care plan, voting rights, and illegal immigration restrictions in Arizona and Alabama.

Additionally, the state of Washington is about to become the seventh state to allow gay marriage, after passage by the state legislature and a soon to be signing by the governor of the state.

So Washington joins Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Iowa as states that allow gay marriage, along with Washington DC, and hopefully, it will return to California where it was legal for a period of time before being overturned.

Twenty to thirty years from now, when gay marriage is a normal thing, many will wonder what was the fuss back in the early part of the century, much like when one looks back to before 1967, one wonders why the big deal over racial intermarriage, which was not legal until a Supreme Court decision in 1967.

Marriage cannot be forced on any religious group, but there is no legal reason why gay marriage cannot be done outside of religious institutions that reject change. It is a question of basic human rights, and equal treatment under the Constitution!

Presidential Empathy: The Shortcoming Of Mitt Romney’s Candidacy For President

Ronald 1 Comment

The reality of American politics, past and present, is that most politicians have always been very wealthy, as running for and serving in public office requires assets, and the time and effort needed to be elected and to serve in office.

No one has a problem with a politician’s wealth unless it leads to a belief that he has a callous lack of concern about the lives of ordinary people, a disconnect between the politician and the people.

Therefore, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush came across as leaders who could connect to the American people at the time they were elected.

This is the problem of Mitt Romney, his inability to connect to average people, and demonstrate concern for the average American’s everyday existence.

We don’t fault a person being rich who wishes to govern us, but we do resent a person who looks down on us as the “plebeians”, who should just accept the “patricians” without any expectation of such leaders considering our needs and problems.

The Crisis For Mitt Romney: He Actually Could Lose Republican Presidential Nomination!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was supposed to have convinced the opposition by now to withdraw from the 2012 GOP Presidential race, but it is now obvious that the battle will go on for a long time.

This is a real crisis for Mitt Romney, as he faces the threat of Newt Gingrich winning many of the Southern state primaries and caucuses, and Rick Santorum winning many of the Midwest-Great Plains primaries and caucuses.

Romney will be in true retreat if that happens, and the chaos only helps Barack Obama, who is smiling this morning after Rick Santorum’s three wins yesterday.

Glitter Or Other Personal Assaults On Presidential Candidates Totally Unacceptable And Dangerous!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney faced another “glitter” assault yesterday in Colorado, having suffered one at an earlier event awhile back, and so have all of the GOP Presidential candidates.

Those arrested or detained for such incidents claim outrage at the candidates’ views on gay rights, or health care, or whatever.

There is NO acceptable excuse for such assaults, and they are also dangerous!

By being assaulted in such a manner, it can make the candidate and his aides change direction and possibly run into a planned deadly assault elsewhere. It comes to mind that a decision to change direction in 1968, even without an assault, led Senator Robert K. Kennedy into the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and his assassination.

The Secret Service and private security have enough to deal with as it is. They do not need reckless, inconsiderate, disrespectful people to claim freedom of speech as they commit their aggression on a political candidate or leader.

Such events should lead to prosecution as an example to convince others to stop considering such actions. As it is, this particular person in Colorado yesterday will face fines, a possible jail term, possible expulsion from his university, and possible ruination of his name and reputation when he needs to go out to the work world. This is personally destructive behavior that can have long range implications not only for the person involved in the assault, but also possible harm to someone who has every right to seek the Presidency in safety!

The Totalitarian Rick Santorum: Barry Goldwater Would Have Opposed Him Vehemently!

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48 years ago, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona led the Republican Party to total disaster in the Presidential Election of 1964. He was seen as dangerous in foreign policy, and wishing to wipe out the New Deal of FDR. And he had a tendency to have a loose mouth!

But if Barry Goldwater was alive today and involved in following the political scene, he would be vehemently against former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum without any doubt. The question is why would this be so?

The answer is that Barry Goldwater throughout his life was a libertarian, who believed that people’s PRIVATE lives were just that, private! He would be opposed to any interference in the social issues that the Republican Party is so wedded to in today’s political environment.

He made it clear over time in his later years that he was opposed to the Religious Right, the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition, led by preachers such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. He believed in total separation of church and state, and believed it was not the business of politicians to get involved in religious causes and promotion.

Goldwater declared his opposition to the so called Pro Life movement, believing in the right of women to control their own bodies, and therefore, to abortion rights.

Goldwater would have been shocked to have politicians wish to outlaw contraception, therefore effectively promoting poor people having children they could not afford, and which would impoverish them further.

Goldwater believed also in gay rights, and in no discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military, stating that in a foxhole, no one would care about another’s sexual orientation, as long as one could shoot straight!

Goldwater would be stunned at the support that Rick Santorum received in last night’s primary in Missouri, and caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado. He would condemn the totalitarian mind of Santorum, who complains about government interfering in any form in economic regulation, but has no problem in interference in social regulation!

Santorum has a wife who adores him, and gave up her profession of law to produce eight children for him. She looks at him as if he is perfect, a god like figure, in itself a sickening display! That may be fine for Rick and his wife, if she chooses to be like a 1950s “Ozzie and Harriet” or “Father Knows Best” wife. But it is NOT what a vast majority of women in America are going to allow in their lives, that the men order them around and control their very existence!

And gay Americans are not going to allow a hate monger, religious zealot like Rick Santorum to control who they love or marry, or any other aspect of their lives!

The candidacy of Rick Santorum will NOT be accepted by the nation at large, and if the GOP is smart, they will stop him as a danger to basic human rights and freedom, with his totalitarian ideas!

Obama Value System: Promote Academic Achievements Equally With Sports Achievements

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President Barack Obama sponsored a Science Fair at the White House yesterday, and spent a lot of time talking to the young budding scientists, praising their ingenuity and hard work and success.

He promoted the concept that we need to honor achievements in academic areas, as much as we promote the accomplishments of sports figures.

This is a value system that needs to be emphasized, as although there is great love and admiration of sports greats, we need to realize that the future of this nation is saluting and promoting educational greatness as well!

Obama seemed to be really enjoying himself as he launched a marshmallow across the State Dining Room with a compressed air cannon invented by a 14 year old student from Arizona. This is the kind of photo opportunity not only thrilling to the young man, but also to the President himself, who seemed as if he was a teenager for just a moment in the midst of so much swirling around him daily.

This is the kind of fun moment that cannot hurt Obama as he seeks re-election and shows he can relate to the people, in a way that Mitt Romney and all of the other GOP candidates cannot do!