Month: July 2012

James Holmes’ Education And “Loner” Personality Should Not Be Over Analyzed By Media!

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James Holmes, the 24 year old man who created the greatest number of casualties in any mass murder in American history, at the movie multiplex in Aurora, Colorado, yesterday, is being described as a “loner” and a highly educated, “book smart” person, who was pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Colorado.

While both details are true, there is already the sense that if one is a “loner” or highly educated, that will be used as a new weapon in the news media to label all people who are one or the other characteristic as automatically a danger to society.

Being a “loner”, being shy, is no more a danger sign than a person who is the “life of the party”, a “jock”, or a “social butterfly”, as many such cases also lead to criminal activities.

And just because someone is “book smart”, an intellectual, does not mean that he or she is dangerous either.

If we are going to attack the concept of educated, quiet scholars as dangerous, we will undermine our future in this nation, as being the opposite of these traits is not something we need to have more of, and to glorify, as media and the general public tend to do much too often!

Aurora, Colorado Massacre DEMANDS Action On Gun Control Measures, Despite National Rifle Association Lobbying!

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The horrible tragedy, the massacre at the multiplex Century Theater in Aurora, Colorado this morning, needs to be treated as a wake up call for campaigning for strict gun control laws, similar to the Brady Bill passed under Bill Clinton, and ended under George W. Bush a decade later.

This should be an issue to unite Democrats and Republicans, but Democrats are afraid to promote gun control, as they lost control of Congress to the Republicans in 1994, with the Brady Bill being part of the reason.

Many Republicans and conservatives have the paranoid feeling that Barack Obama wishes to take away their gun rights under their interpretation of the Second Amendment.

The point is that no one is trying to say that ownership or purchase of guns should be banned, as that is impossible to accomplish, even if one wished to do that.

But after the Columbine Massacre in Colorado in 1999, the Virginia Tech Massacre in 2007, the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011, and now this event, the worst total of victims ever in American history, it is essential to take some steps on gun control.

And to have Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert, promote the insanity that if some of the people in the theater had had weapons, they could have stopped the massacre, forgetting that several people opening up fire in a theater would have led to innocent victims being killed by those “heroes”, who might very well be shooting at each other, in the midst of the chaos, is no contribution, but Gohmert is infamous for insane, reckless statements.

This is as insane as to say that it should be alright for students and faculty to have guns on campuses, or to carry weapons into a bar, where drunken patrons could begin shooting!

A level of sanity and stability needs to be addressed by President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney in a way to bring about some legislation to cut down the level of violence, which right now makes America the most violent society in the world, with about 10,000 gun victims annually.

90th Birthday Of George McGovern: A Case For National Celebration For A Great Statesman!

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Today is the 90th birthday of former Senator and 1972 Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern, and should be a reason for national celebration.

A truly great statesman, the former South Dakota Senator had a distinguished career of national service, including his efforts as a pilot in World War II, and is a true inspiration to many Americans for his principles, his values, his ethics, his commitment to public service, and his great decency and compassion for others.

At a time when we have a political party which has no compassion or concern for the average citizen, George McGovern stands out for his courage in opposing the war in Vietnam, and being a major advocate of the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson!

McGovern has continued to be active, writing and speaking on issues that matter to him, supportive of President Barack Obama, and continuing to advocate the liberal and progressive tradition, of which he is such an exceptional advocate all of his life.

When this author wrote recently about the concept of a “Liberal-Progressive” Mount Rushmore as a thought, he included McGovern, along with Robert La Follette, Sr., George Norris, and Hubert Humphrey, as the rightful faces which should be on such a monument.

Let all good people salute George McGovern on his 90th birthday, and wish him many more years of health, happiness, and contributions to the liberal-progressive cause!

The “Old Confederacy”, Republicans, Health Care, And HIV AIDS Infections

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The “Old Confederacy”, the states that broke away from the Union during the Civil War, remain the poorest part of the nation even in 2012, in all social and economic statistics.

Once held back by the Democratic Party before the era of civil rights, now it is the Republicans who dominate in these states, and are holding back progress through their propaganda on race and religion, and resentment of the federal government.

So it is the governors of these states that refuse to move ahead on health care coverage for their poorer citizens, of all races, rejecting Medicaid expansion and forming health care exchanges to enforce ObamaCare in 2014 and beyond. They have no concern about the welfare of their less fortunate men, women, and children, while always professing their ‘Christian values”!

In the midst of this hypocrisy, Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor and journalist, has revealed new evidence that HIV AIDs infections are spreading most rapidly in these states, much more than in New York City and San Francisco, the typical stereotype that it is only gays that have this disease, when it is actually spreading among uneducated white and minorities and in the heterosexual community at a far greater rate.

Does one think that these state governments and their representatives in Congress have any concern or interest in combating this epidemic?

The clear answer is NO, as long as race and religion can be manipulated for political power by the GOP!

The Republican Attack On “Chicago Politics”: Pitiful And Ridiculous!

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The Republican Party is reacting to attacks on Mitt Romney and his refusal to release tax returns, with the accusation that this is old style “Chicago politics”, because Barack Obama comes out of the Illinois political system.

Give me a break, as if only in Chicago, has politics been seen as manipulative and corrupt!

What about New Jersey politics; West Virginia politics; Texas politics; Ohio politics; New York politics; Pennsylvania politics; Georgia politics; Florida politics; Louisiana politics; Missouri politics; Oklahoma politics; Los Angeles politics; California politics; Nevada politics; Arizona politics; Alaska politics; Washington DC politics; and NATIONAL politics, and the list goes on!

The story of American politics is the story of corruption, manipulation, deceit, unfair attacks, character assassination, etc, including some people going to prison for corruption!

This is the big time, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party!

You used dirty tactics against George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry and many other Democrats!

You have also been brutal in your attacks on Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, as well as Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.

You have been involved in corruption big time with your SuperPACS already this year, refusing to support DISCLOSE legislation yesterday in the US Senate, to allow Americans to know how much money wealthy people are contributing to Mitt Romney!

You are NOT interested in “good government’! You are interested in wishing to dish out attacks, but cannot tolerate attacks by the Democrats!

But there is some news for you! Democrats, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden, are no longer going to allow themselves to be attacked and play defense!

The Democrats will be on the offensive, and give back in kind what you have been doing for many years with a poor response by Democrats!

We are finally using the tactics of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson, giving the Republican Party and its candidates “Hell”, and rightfully without apology! This has been LONG overdue!

Should Disgraced Politicians “Come Back”?The Cases Of Anthony Weiner And Eliot Spitzer And The New York Mayoralty In 2013

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The political world is abuzz with rumors that former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is thinking of running for Mayor of New York City in 2013, to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg!

There has also been discussion of the possibility of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer running for Mayor as well.

Both New York politicians resigned after sex scandals, which would ordinarily destroy their future careers, but at least Spitzer has been a host of news shows on CNN and now the CURRENT channel, and has come across very well as a political commentator.

One could argue that after such scandals and disgrace, that these and others, including former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, should just go into the woodwork and never re-emerge again!

And yet, Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter survived a sex scandal, never resigned, and was reelected to the Senate!

So the best answer is that anyone has a right to run for public office, and the scandals will reflect on their character, but ultimately, IF the American people want a former disgraced politician to run and win, that is their right, and none of us should condemn such action by the candidates, or by the people who choose to support them!

The Scranton, Pennsylvania Financial Disaster: What It Means!

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Scranton, Pennsylvania, the home city of Vice President Joe Biden, has reached the absolute bottom fiscally, unable to pay its city workers a living wage, and breaking all wage agreements in the process.

We are talking about a Democratic Mayor unable to get the City Council to agree to tax increases on residents, in order to pay a living wage to police officers and fire fighters, as well as other city workers.

So police officers and fire fighters, who protect and serve the residents of Scranton, are being told they will now be paid the minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, to do their crucial jobs!

These courageous city workers are supposed to be able to pay their mortgages or rents; take care of their children’s needs; and plan for a future being paid what they might have been paid when they were in high school or started their first job after graduation!

The citizens of Scranton need to look in the mirror! Do they wish police protection and fire fighting expertise, or do they not?

YES, times are tough, but any sane person will realize that if taxes have to go up, so be it, as everyone tightens the belt, but we have lost our whole purpose as a society if we are telling police officers and fire fighters, as well as other public workers, that we have so little respect and honor for their sacrifice, as to insult them by expecting them to accept the minimum wage for a job that deserves proper pay and benefits!

The City Council and Mayor should be paid the minimum wage as well, and see what it is like to live on it!

And despite the reality that, short term, these workers will have to accept this horrible situation in order to keep their jobs, if this continues more than a few weeks, many will simply quit and move, as there is no way one can sustain himself or herself on the minimum wage when bringing up a family, and sacrificing their safety every day, to do their job, one they knew would never enrich them, but never dreamed that they would be so disrespected that they would told to take a pay cut, averaging 66 percent!

This is a crisis all of America is going to face if we allow the Republican philosophy of “starving” public services to continue to prevail, all to avoid making those who have more to pay more!

Conservatives Question Why Mitt Romney Refuses To Release Tax Returns: What Does He Have To Hide?

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Mitt Romney is rapidly destroying any chance that he will be elected President by his refusal to release multiple years of his tax returns, which has become a common expectation for Presidential candidates.

It is not just Democrats or liberals and progressives who are demanding such information be provided, but also conservatives who hint that Romney MUST have something to hide!

This includes conservative pundits George Will and Bill Kristol; former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour; Alabama Governor Robert Bentley; former Republican National Chairman Michael Steele; and Republican strategist Michael Dowd.

Dowd called what Romney is doing as simple arrogance, a word that keeps on describing Romney, who seems to feel that he is “entitled” to tax breaks for a racing horse, and loves to brag that he has paid everything in taxes he has to, and not one penny more, as if it would be unpatriotic to avoid manipulating the tax law with accountants, as rich people tend to do with relish!

As Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former top adviser to Barack Obama said, the fact that John McCain saw 23 years of Romney tax returns and financial information, and chose to select Sarah Palin instead in 2008, is testimony as to time bombs ticking in his campaign, whether he ultimately releases the tax returns or not!

Rush Limbaugh’s Advice To Mitt Romney: Best Ignored By Romney!

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Rush Limbaugh, himself a college dropout and a drug addict, has given Mitt Romney, the GOP Presidential nominee, some advice.

Limbaugh says that Romney should criticize Obama for smoking marijuana in high school, and for being “lazy” and not doing as well as he could in college and law school!

Can you imagine that? Criticize Obama for being a “kid” who was sometimes “dumb” in his behavior as an adolescent and a college student, as if no one else is that way!

Meanwhile, Obama managed to graduate Columbia University and head the Law Review at Harvard Law School!

Meanwhile, Rush was too “lazy” to stick out college, and instead engaged in using pill drugs that have made him an addict, who should have been prosecuted and imprisoned for gaining illegal prescription drugs through one of his maids in his home!

Mitt Romney, if he has any brains, will totally ignore Limbaugh, as if he does, then his own bullying of that high school kid, and cutting off his hair by force, will be open season!

And Rush dropped out of college at Southeast Missouri State University, where he flunked every subject, according to his own mother!

So who is he to talk, or give advice to Mitt Romney?

The man is despicable, hateful, prejudiced, and quite frankly, an embarrassment to himself, who should be taken off the radio, and entered in a drug addiction program, that keeps him imprisoned for mental incapacity, until he acts like a decent human being!

Medicaid Expansion And State Governors: Reaction Based On Party Affiliation!

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The federal government has offered to cover Medicaid expansion for the poor and uninsured in 2014 and after, because otherwise, millions of Americans will have no health care coverage, and that will increase the number of serious illnesses and deaths long term.

But predictably, and sadly, we find most Republican Governors refusing to expand their Medicaid system, including Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Jan Brewer of Arizona, Paul LePage of Maine, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, among others.

Meanwhile, most Democratic Governors, including Andrew Cuomo of New York, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Dan Malloy of Connecticut, Martin O’Malley of Maryland , Jack Markell of Delaware, Mark Dayton Of Minnesota, Pat Quinn Illinois, and Jerry Brown of California, among others, have made it clear they will expand the Medicaid coverage.

The contrast is startling, as GOP Governors, following in tune with the Republican House and Senate minority members, are in lockstep, making it clear they will not support expanded medical coverage, as part of their plan to wipe out ObamaCare, despite the Supreme Court decision last month!

The fact that the federal government would pay most of the costs, an estimated $931 billion through 2022, with the states only having to pay $73 billion, has had no effect on the Republican Governors!