Month: August 2012

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Both Avoid Transparency On Finances, So Match Well!

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It is well known that Mitt Romney, the GOP Presidential nominee, has refused to release more information about his taxes beyond 2010’s returns, and the promised 2011 tax return when it is belatedly filed by October.

But now we discover, thanks to the website PoliticsUSA, that Paul Ryan, the Vice Presidential nominee, kept an inheritance of more than a million dollars secret until after he was vetted in the early stages for Vice President. That inheritance is from his mother in law after her death in 2010, and is now worth a few million dollars. It was not reported for two years on his disclosure forms, and was only added to the information provided Mitt Romney after Ryan had gone through early stages of the Vice Presidential search.

Romney must have liked that Ryan was secretive, and unwilling to reveal a major part of his assets, as he is cut of the same cloth!

Medicare Will Decide The Election: IF Obama Wins Florida AND New Hampshire Of “Battleground” States, He Wins The Presidency!

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Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet The Press just demonstrated how close Barack Obama is to a victory for the White House.

Showing an electoral vote map with 237 electoral votes in Obama’s camp and 191 in Mitt Romney’s camp, Todd demonstrates that there are NINE true “battleground” or “swing” states, and if Obama wins Florida and New Hampshire, he has the second term he wants in the White House! And the issue of Medicare, brought to central focus by Paul Ryan and his budget plans on that program, will be the center of the victory of Obama for the Presidency!

Even if Romney wins the other seven contestable states—Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada—he would lose the Electoral College 270-268, due to Florida’s 29 electoral votes and New Hampshire’s 4 electoral votes!

But, to assume that Obama would really lose all seven of those states is also delusional, as it is certain that he will win some, and probably, most of them!

This author has been saying this for a long time, and has found some readers of this blog, conservative and Republican friends and associates, and people on Fox News Channel and talk radio, act as if only the public opinion polls, which often show a close race in many states and nationally, should be paid attention to, but that is NOT the case!

The election is decided by the Electoral College, NOT the popular vote nationally,and do not forget that George W. Bush LOST the popular vote in 2000, but was declared the winner of the Electoral College! The same happened to Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, and John Quincy Adams in the past!

But to conclude that, somehow, Barack Obama will lose the national popular vote, with the Republican alienation of Hispanics-Latinos, African Americans, women, young voters, the middle class, senior citizens, gays and lesbians, the poor, labor, educators, consumer advocates, environmentalists, and secular voters—in each case, the majority, not all of any group, of course—indicates that those believing what they do are indeed delusional, and cannot be helped by ordinary medical intervention!

92 Years Since 19th Amendment (Woman Suffrage) Was Ratified!

Ronald 16 Comments

Yesterday, August 18, was the 92nd anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the Woman Suffrage amendment.

The thought that it took two thirds of a century (72 years to be precise) to give women the right to vote is astounding in today’s world, but the fight began with the Equal Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and was a struggle highlighted by the activism of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as Alice Paul and others. It finally came to fruition when Tennessee became the 36th state out of 48 to ratify in 1920.

Women had little influence on politics in the early years, but now women play a major role, although their representation comes nowhere near their percentage of the population (about 50.8 percent).

Women have been voting a majority Democratic for a long time, and women again could have a major role in the election, with a majority seeing the Republican Party as attacking women’s rights at work, their safety from abusive men, and control of their reproductive lives.

Many women are running for public office, and this might lead to an increase in Congress, and already, women have proved they can serve on the Supreme Court, in high cabinet positions, and have distinguished careers in Congress and the state legislatures and Governorships.

This anniversary is a moment to celebrate, and to remember the long struggle for the basic right everyone should have in a democracy without question, the right to vote!

Important To Remember: No Wartime President Has Been Defeated For Reelection!

Ronald 25 Comments

An interesting point to remember with 80 days left to the Presidential election, and just two days to August 20, precisely five months to the inauguration!

NEVER has a President in wartime been defeated, including two times when war clouds hovered, but we were not technically at war!

Witness the following:

James Madison, the War of 1812, reelected in 1812
Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, reelected in 1864
Woodrow Wilson, World War I, not at war but nearing it, reelected in 1916
Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II, not at war but nearing it, reelected in 1940, and then at war, reelected in 1944.
Lyndon B. Johnson, using the Vietnam War issue through the Gulf of Tonkin, elected in 1964
Richard Nixon, Vietnam War, reelected in 1972
George W. Bush, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, reelected in 2004

This list does not include James K. Polk, who chose not to run for reelection AFTER the end of the Mexican War in 1848; William McKinley, reelected AFTER the Spanish American War’s end, in 1900; Harry Truman, who chose not to run in 1952 during the Korean War; Lyndon B. Johnson, who chose not to run during the Vietnam War in 1968; and George H. W. Bush, who was triumphant during the Persian Gulf War, but then lost 18 months later for reelection in 1992, due to the bad economy and the candidacy of Ross Perot helping Bill Clinton to win in a three way race.

So the odds of Barack Obama winning reelection with the Afghanistan War raging are excellent!

Choosing A Sitting House Member For Vice President Not Productive!

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This author mentioned last week that Paul Ryan was the fifth member of the House of Representatives to be nominated for Vice President in the past half century, which is true.

However, two of those five House members were not still in the House of Representatives when nominated for Vice President, and had accomplished beyond being a member of the House. These are Jack Kemp, nominated with Bob Dole in 1996, who was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H. W. Bush from 1989-1993; and Dick Cheney, nominated with George W. Bush in 2000, who was Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush for the same years as Kemp, 1989-1993.

But the only SITTING House members to be nominated were William E. Miller with Barry Goldwater in 1964; Geraldine Ferraro with Walter Mondale in 1984; and now Paul Ryan with Mitt Romney in 2012.

The first two experiments were a total failure, with Goldwater losing all but six states in 1964, and Lyndon B. Johnson winning the highest percentage in history, 61.1 percent of the popular vote. And Mondale lost all states except Minnesota and the District of Columbia, with Ronald Reagan winning 525 electoral votes, an all time high, and 59.4 percent of the total popular vote!

No one is saying that Romney and Ryan will do as disastrously as the other two cases, but the prospects for victory are based on very long odds!

Paul Ryan Pays Higher Percentage Of Taxes Than Mitt Romney! Why Should That Be?

Ronald 4 Comments

Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, the Vice Presidential nominee on the Mitt Romney Republican ticket, revealed yesterday that he paid about 16 percent income taxes in 2010 and 20 percent in 2011.

Mitt Romney paid only 13.9 percent on his 2010 income, and has not yet revealed his 2011 tax return, but claims he has always paid at least 13 percent on his income in the past ten years, but refusing to show those returns, and wanting us to trust him.

The question that arises is why should Paul Ryan pay a higher percentage of his income than Mitt Romney?

Paul Ryan WORKED for a living as a Congressman, while Mitt Romney lived off his investments since 2007!

Why should unearned income be taxed lower than earned income?

Why should those who work pay more than those who have leisure time to do what they wish?

Why should a person with an estimated fortune of $250 million be taxed lower than someone who is worth, probably, maybe one or two million dollars and works?

And why should the average person, who does not make what Paul Ryan earns, pay the same as Paul Ryan, or even a higher percentage?

These are questions that need to be dealt with in the next Presidential term, as fair taxation is essential, and it is time for the wealthy, those who work, and those who don’t work, to pay their fair share–meaning MORE!

David Stockman And Bruce Bartlett, Former Reagan Economic Policy Advisers, Condemn The Romney-Ryan Republican Ticket As Out Of Mainstream!

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The Republican Party loves to invoke Ronald Reagan as their patron saint, even though his record clearly shows he would not be very happy with the trend in the GOP, as even his son Ron Reagan Jr claims.

But beyond Ron Reagan, Jr., two leading economic policy advisers under President Reagan, Bruce Bartlett and David Stockman, have condemned the Republican Party and its candidates and economic policies as out of the mainstream of American politics.

Bartlett says the party has gone insane, dreams of anarchy and the end of government, and has lost all reasonableness.

Stockman has ridiculed the Ryan budget plan, and condemns the idea of Ryan that more defense spending is necessary, and more tax cuts to the wealthy, while the middle class and the poor are victimized. Stockman see the Ryan Plan as not serious, and lacking any common sense!

It is not just Bartlett and Stockman who are critical of the Ryan Plan, and of the turn of events in the Republican Party.

Many past Republican leaders are privately shaking their heads, and see an electoral disaster coming, and we are seeing moderate conservative Republican Senators such as Olympia Snowe of Maine, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and Richard Lugar of Indiana, all three leaving, with Lugar not by his own choice, bemoaning the turn of events toward unreasonable extremism, and failure to be willing to cross the aisle for support from Democrats.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee is one of many former Republican leaders who have promoted that states led by GOP Governors stop fighting ObamaCare, and to start exchanges for the uninsured, required under the law by 2014, or else the federal government will do so for those states against their will. Frist, himself a surgeon, says these Republicans leaders are misguided, and that the Obama plan was originally a Republican idea in the mid 1990s., an absolutely true statement!

Former Senator Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson is another Republican who has condemned present Republican attitudes, and many former George H. W. Bush aides quietly have joined the Reagan former advisers in calling for an end to the extremism of the present Republican Party.

But, as in 1964, when we had an ideological election defeat for the GOP with Barry Goldwater, it is clear that there will be a need for a defeat of the ideological environment that Mitt Romney has provoked by selecting ideological Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate!

Conservatives Attempting To Take Credit For Death Of Osama Bin Laden Away From President Obama: Is There No Sense Of Decency And Propriety Left?

Ronald 23 Comments

A new video is coming out which lies about President Obama and the death of Osama Bin Laden, claiming that Obama is taking full credit for apprehending Bin Laden, focusing totally on himself for political reasons, and failing to give full credit to the troops and special forces involved in the operation.

Is there no sense of decency and propriety left? The facts are that Obama did NOT focus on himself when announcing the success of the mission; gave FULL credit to the sacrifices and training and expertise of the special forces and troops; and clearly deserves FULL credit for accomplishing the goal, but of course with the work of the military!

If Obama’s decision to go after Osama Bin Laden had failed, we would never have heard the end of it, and it would have been used to demonstrate that he is weak, ineffective, a failure, much like Jimmy Carter was depicted after the failed rescue mission in Iran in April 1980.

It took guts and courage for President Obama to decide to follow through, and it is a profile in courage of massive amounts!

Strange that we have never had any other President, who was involved in a successful decision making process, facing criticism and being told that he deserves no credit for what he did!

There is no area of Obama’s Presidency that does not have an element of constant attack, even on the most outstanding single event of Obama’s term as President!

One has to wonder IF George W. Bush had accomplished the goal, he would have bragged to the skies about it,and no one would have denied him the credit for the success!

So it comes down to the fact that a person who is African American must be constantly attacked, and denied any credit or respect! Can anyone deny that when conservatives go so low as to deny credit for the most courageous decision of any President since the Cuban Missile Crisis and John F. Kennedy in 1962, fifty years ago?

Reality: No Balanced Budget For Long Time, And National Debt Will Continue To Rise!

Ronald Leave a comment

In the midst of all the debates about who is “better” for the country, the team of Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, or the team of Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, something is being forgotten or ignored!

There will be no balanced budget for a long time, and the national debt will continue to rise!

There is no magic potion to bring about a balanced budget, or to prevent the national debt from rising!

So whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is elected, one will see both the budget issue and the national debt issue continue to be a center of heated debate!

The difference is who will “benefit” from what government does–the middle class and the poor, if Obama wins; or the wealthy top two percent if Romney wins!

But it is more than that!

It is also which man will cause the national defense budget and foreign interventions to grow, adding to our burden, and it is clear that Mitt Romney, with his loose, reckless rhetoric toward Iran, Russia and China, will cause us a lot more financial burden and many more lost American military lives than Barack Obama!

And it is also what direction do we want the nation to go regarding constitutional law! Do we want more Antonin Scalias, Clarence Thomases, and Samuel Alitos? Or do we want more Ruth Bader Ginsbergs, Stephen Breyers, Sonia Sotomayors, and Elena Kagans? This will determine more of the future, economically and socially, than anything else!

It is foreign policy and constitutional law, two areas most people are ignoring, that will have a greater impact on our future than the false argument that, somehow, one or the other candidate for President will, magically, balance the budget, or stop the rise in the national debt, when neither will be able to do anything about either of those matters!

Rush Limbaugh: Attempting To Bully Moderators Of The Presidential And Vice Presidential Debates!

Ronald 7 Comments

Liar and bully Rush Limbaugh has declared rhetorical war on the moderators of the three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate scheduled for the month of October.

Limbaugh is accusing all four moderators of being extreme left wing Democrats, and while saying that about all four–including Jim Lehrer of PBS, Candy Crowley of CNN, Bob Schieffer of CBS, and Martha Radditz of ABC–he adds the insult of calling Candy Crowley “Mama”, and Bob Schieffer “Dinosaur”!

Limbaugh is trying to use psychological warfare on the four moderators, trying to intimidate them, but they are all professionals with good reputations, and will not be bullied by a person who has as much a weight problem as Candy Crowley, but does not have the decency to avoid using names, and showing respect toward a woman moderator!

The best part of these upcoming debates is the fact that two women and two men will be moderators, rather than four men!

We should never again deny women equal opportunity to moderate Presidential or Vice Presidential debates, and we should continue to let Rush Limbaugh blow “hot air”, and ignore him as a person not worthy of our time or respect!