Day: December 4, 2012

UN Disabled Treaty Rejected By US Senate: The Shame Of The Senate!

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A United Nations Disabled Treaty, to promote human rights and security for the disabled world wide, negotiated and agreed to by the George W. Bush Administration; reaffirmed by the Barack Obama Administration; backed by disabled Republican Senators and Presidential nominees John McCain and Bob Dole and many other reasonable Republicans in and out of government—sadly was defeated today in the US Senate by a vote of 61 in favor, 38 against, with a two thirds vote (or 66 out of 99 votes) required.

This is to the shame of the Senate, as only eight Republicans joined all of the Democrats and two Independents, to support the treaty.

Blame for the defeat goes heavily to wingnut former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the so called “runner up” to Mitt Romney in the 2012 Presidential nomination battle, who organized opposition from outside, but had willing participants from sitting Senators of his party, who did not care to insult McCain and Dole and all disabled citizens.

The crazy argument of Santorum and others was that the treaty would take away power from parents over home schooling and medical care, when nothing could be further from the truth!

If this lunatic and wingnut is allowed to be the Presidential nominee of his party in 2016 by so called “inheritance”, it will be the final demise of the Republican Party as we knew it, and a new party will arise in its ashes!

Meanwhile, the human rights of the disabled have been harmed by the short sightedness and religious extremism of a determined minority which does not promote the true beliefs or teachings of Jesus Christ, but instead distort them, and promote hate and division!

Bob Costas A Man Of Courage For Speaking Out For Gun Regulation After Jovan Belcher Tragedy

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NBC Football Sportscaster Bob Costas courageously spoke out after the Jovan Belcher tragedy, a Kansas City Chiefs football player who murdered his girlfriend, the mother of his three month old daughter, in front of her mother, and then committed suicide at the stadium in front of his general manager and coach on Saturday morning.

This insanity could not have occurred in the same manner had Belcher not had possession of a handgun, and it is clear that he was an unstable person, who should not have had that weapon.

Yes, it is true he could have strangled or knifed his girlfriend, but it is clear that having such wide availability of guns makes murder so much easier, whether by mentally unstable people, or criminals in the urban ghettos.

The reaction of right wing gun nuts, including National Rifle Association advocates, was outrageous, calling for the firing of Bob Costas, when he should be praised for bringing up the issue.

The carnage from gun violence goes on, and yet there is no move to do anything about it, and that is a great tragedy of massive proportions!

Speaker Of The House John Boehner Removes Hard Line Conservatives From House Budget Committee And House Financial Services Committee

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Speaker of the House John Boehner, faced with a Tea Party caucus that has made life miserable for him, and held the country hostage on the issue of tax increases, has summarily removed four “troublemakers” from their positions of power on the House Budget Committee and the House Financial Services Committee.

This was a courageous act on his part, but it could portend a revolt, whereby the Tea Party Caucus could refuse to vote for Boehner next month to be Speaker, as the new Congress convenes on Thursday, January 3.

The House leadership under Boehner, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor, is backing Boehner in his actions, but one has to wonder what this means in reality when that vote for Speaker arrives in a month.

It is, however, a good sign that Boehner understands that some kind of deal with the Obama Administration is necessary to avoid going off the fiscal cliff before the end of the month.

But ti also portends a difficult time for Boehner, having to deal in the future with the far right wingnuts in his party, who, as has been described by others as the inheritors of the John Birch Society of the 1960s and after, were repudiated by conservative columnist William F. Buckley, Jr., publisher of the National Review, then and still the leading conservative journal of opinion.

Where is a man of courage and principles in the conservative movement today, to repudiate today’s wingnuts, in the mode of Buckley?