Day: September 18, 2012

A Day To Celebrate! New York Times At 161 Years And Counting!

Ronald 2 Comments

The best newspaper in America, the one no scholar or serious student can do without, became 161 years old today!

The New York Times is often under attack by conservatives because it dares to investigate, to question, to challenge the views of the Right.

But it is still the most respected news source, the most thorough one, the one that can be counted upon to examine all sides of any domestic or foreign policy controversy.

And its Week in Review, its Magazine, its Book Review, its Entertainment section, its Business Section, are unmatched by any other Sunday newspaper.

The New York Times has adapted well to the digital age, and all readers and researchers on public affairs owe a debt to the New York Times, with its fantastic Annual Index, which makes investigation of any topic manageable!

So Happy 161st Birthday to the newspaper with “All The News That’s Fit To Print!”

The “Safety Net” In Tatters If Republicans Win Total Power

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The “Safety Net”–what makes a society human and compassionate–is in danger IF the Republicans were to win the White House and control of both houses of Congress.

The war on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Housing Assistance, and Pell Grants would be full scale, leaving poor people, young people, children, single mothers, senior citizens, sick and disabled people in a situation which could lead to greater hunger, homelessness, and major health issues that would not be dealt with, except by charity agencies and religious institutions.

But without government, these charitable and religious agencies would be unable to master the crisis that would evolve.

A society which would allow such abandonment is a society that would be going back to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century!

It would be a nation which, already behind in its “safety net”, as compared to other industrial, advanced societies in Europe and Japan, would no longer be a model for the world as a place of humanity and decency about the value of human existence!

This is a spiritual crisis of massive proportions, the concept that millions of our fellow citizens would be abandoned to shift by themselves, something that would lead to mass death and suffering, which would stain America forever!

The Battle For Congress Now Will Get Greater Attention For Last Seven Weeks Of Election Campaign!

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With the implosion of Mitt Romney evident, with the release of the tape at the fundraiser’s meeting, attacking 47 percent of the population as looking for handouts, being moochers and being dependent, enough to insult all kinds of voters across the nation, attention will now be paid, to a much greater extent, to the competition for control of Congress.

The Democrats will need to gain 25 seats to become the majority in the House of Representatives, and to prevent the Republicans from gaining four seats in the US Senate and becoming the majority in the upper chamber.

More campaign money will now be spent on those Congressional races, as that will determine just how effective Barack Obama will be in a second term in the White House.

It seems evident, however, that the ability to accomplish great goals will likely be stymied by close votes for control of Congress, and the ability of Senate Republicans, whether the majority or not in the next two years, to utilize the filibuster to stop any major initiatives.

So while President Obama may use the authority of the executive branch wherever he can, there will be no lack of drama or confrontation likely in the next four years, a regrettable, but unavoidable reality!

The ability to move the nation forward in both economic and foreign policy, and even the Supreme Court and lower courts, will be affected by how the citizenry decides to vote on the legislative races, nearly impossible to predict with any certainty!