Month: February 2013

Trying To Analyze Republican Women In House Of Representatives Who Voted NO On Violence Against Women Act Extension

Ronald 23 Comments

The Republican Party in the House of Representatives voted almost unanimously FOR the Violence Against Women Act on the last two occasions when the legislation came up for renewal, with only two and one members voting no!

This time, today, 138 voted NO, and Speaker John Boehner only accomplished its passage with two thirds of the votes being the opposition Democrats. And House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had the gall to vote NO, against his own Speaker, absolutely unbelievable!

But even more unbelievable was that many of the women in the House Republican caucus also voted NO, despite the evidence of the threats against women by men in their lives, which has now become an epidemic! And these women showed their anti immigrant, anti gay, and anti native American sympathies in their vote, as well!

What drove Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Virginia Foxx of North Carolin, the most prominent of these women, to vote NO? What was going through their heads? What makes them tick?

The three women are a total disgrace to their gender, and to the concept of social justice in the 21st century! They should be ashamed of themselves!

159th Anniversary Of Founding Of Republican Party: Not A Celebration!

Ronald 47 Comments

The Republican Party, which gave us Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, William Seward in the years of the 1850s and 1860s; which gave us Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, Sr, George Norris, William Borah, Hiram Johnson in the 1900s-1940s; which gave us Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, William Scranton, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr,, George Romney in the 1950s-1960s; and which gave us Mark Hatfield, Charles Mathias, Charles Percy, Howard Baker, Bob Dole, Gerald Ford in the 1970s–1990s, reached its 159th birthday today.

The Republican Party began as an anti slavery expansion party, with elements of abolitionism also present when the party began on this day in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854.

It became the party of civil rights legislation, three civil rights constitutional amendments, progressive legislation, and supportive of much bipartisan legislation with Democrats in the New Deal and Great Society eras.

Of course, they had their evil elements, including McCarthyism, nativism, and tying themselves to organized religious influences that wished to take America backward, but until the past few years, they always had redeeming values in many ways, and would often denounce the extremists in their midst.

But now the Republican Party has become a party dominated by Tea Party radicals, who promote racism, misogyny, nativism, concern only to promote the welfare of the wealthy, and willingness to engage in foreign wars that have cost us dearly in treasure and loss of life and limb!

The Republican Party is no longer, in any way, reflective of its past, and in fact, insults its honorable, respectable history, sullying the names of its heroes and champions over a century and a half!

This is a tragedy of massive proportions, and the name “Republican” should be co-opted by the true moderates who are sitting by, watching the destruction going on, and holding their heads in their hands, ashamed that the name has been so damaged by reckless, anarchistic haters of the federal government! The party which fought the Civil War to uphold the Union is now more like the secessionist Democrats of that era!

Speaker John Boehner Has Lost Control Of Republican Caucus In House And Needs Democrats To Pass Legislation!

Ronald 1 Comment

Speaker of the House John Boehner has become the Speaker who cannot control his own caucus members, and must count on Democrats to pass legislation.

This has happened three times in two months, a total embarrassment to the Speaker, and this has never happened in recent memory, but now it is reality that Boehner cannot control the Tea Party radicals who refuse to obey their leadership and keep unity.

The third bill today, passed only with a majority of Democrats and a minority of Republicans, is the renewal and extension of the Violence Against Women Act, and now native American women, gay women, and undocumented immigrant women are covered, exactly what the Democrats wanted, and is a major victory for them and the Obama Administration.

The other two “bipartisan” bills passed with more Democrats than Republicans, was the one to avert tax increases on 98 percent of the population, and the Hurricane Sandy relief package.

One has to wonder how Boehner can tolerate the weakening of his authority, whereby he must ask Nancy Pelosi for support to pass legislation.

And to have so many Republicans vote against the renewal and extension of the Violence Against Women Act only makes the GOP look more anti women, and that is not a prescription for women to wish to vote Republican in future elections, whether for Congress or the Presidency!

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia And “Entitlement” To Voting Rights: An Outrage!

Ronald 10 Comments

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who has been on the Supreme Court for 27 years now, has become a literal nightmare with so many inappropriate, arrogant statements on and off the Court in the past few years!

His latest outrage was in oral argument on the Voting Rights Act today in the Supreme Court, when he stated that the Voting Rights Act was a “racial entitlement”!

In so stating, he demonstrated that he has learned nothing about past racial discrimination and denial of the right to vote, which necessitated passage of that law in 1965!

With the record of many Republican states, particularly in the South, infamous for past discrimination and Jim Crow segregation laws when they were Democratic states, moving to make it more difficult to vote, as with Florida and Governor Rick Scott as just one example, how can anyone justify getting rid of the requirement of accountability on voting law changes by the federal government?

Voting should not be an “entitlement”, as it is a right that all Americans over the age of 18 should have, and no voter ID laws should be used to disenfranchise anyone, or require a 102 year old woman to have to wait six hours to vote in Florida or anywhere else!

Sadly, the Republican majority Supreme Court is likely to knock down the Voting Rights Act, which will stain the court of Chief Justice John Roberts, if it happens. Roberts’s reputation, improved by his support of ObamaCare last June, rides in the balance of what happens on this, as well as the gay marriage and expansion of the Citizens United cases that are before the Court!

It also could be argued that Scalia may be showing signs of instability at his age of 77 next month, and it will be a great day when this most right wing member of the Court in nearly a century finally retires from the Court at some point in the future!

Louisiana, The World’s Prison Capital: A Violation Of Human Rights!

Ronald 2 Comments

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has uncovered the fact that the state of Louisiana is the world’s prison capital.

One out of 86 adults is in prison, higher per capita than any state or nation in the entire world!

It is a rate three times higher than Iran and ten times higher than Germany!

Louisiana has doubled its prison population by allowing local sheriffs to operate local prisons, whereby the sheriffs get payments for how many inmates they have and keep!

A majority of inmates in Louisiana now are in for profit jails and prisons, a system which encourages incarceration. And the prisoners in these for profit jails do nothing all day to encourage them to have a better life after they leave, and are housed in large rooms with bunk beds and no privacy at all.

The harshness of the prison system is reprehensible, including more inmates serving life terms without parole, and more nonviolent offenders in prisons than any other state.

If one steals two cars, he is in prison for 24 years, and three drug convictions of any level lead to life without parole.

That such a system exists and is not subject to judicial or legislative review is a human rights outrage of massive proportions!

As Rosa Parks Statue Is Unveiled In The US Capitol, Voting Rights Act Comes Under Review By Supreme Court!

Ronald 7 Comments

This morning, a 9 foot statue of Rosa Parks, the “Mother” of the Civil Rights Movement, for her heroism in allowing herself to become the center of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-1956, was unveiled in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol Building.

This is a wonderful event to commemorate the greatest human rights movement in American history, and the excitement over how far we have come, with President Barack Obama leading in commemorating the event, and the feeling of satisfaction that we have gone far enough in the half century since 1955, that we have an African American President in his second term in office!

But at the same time, ironically, a challenge by the state of Alabama, which arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to change her seat on a bus in Montgomery, is arguing a case before the Supreme Court today, which if successful, will negate Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires nine Southern states and portions of seven other states, which have been shown to be discriminatory in voting regulations in their past, to have to submit any voting law changes to the Justice Department before they can be put into effect.

The argument is that the law is outmoded and no longer necessary, but that is not the case, as last year, there were attempts in many states to make it more difficult for African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, young people, the elderly, and the poor to be able to register and or vote, plus restrictive days and hours of voting, designed to help Republicans and Mitt Romney gain an unfair advantage in the elections.

Just because Alabama claims the law is no longer needed is belied by history and recent events, and the Congress has renewed the Voting Rights Act multiple times, and it should not be the right of the Supreme Court to repeal a law in effect for nearly a half century!

But this conservative Court just might do that, which would be a miscarriage of justice, and another example of how the Court has started to get out of control of promotion of true justice! Their decision on this case, along with the move to make Citizens United just the beginning of special interest investments to fix elections, and the gay marriage case, will make the Court’s decisions in the next few months extremely significant, and worrisome for those who believe the John Roberts Court is reckless and dangerous, with its conservative majority put on it by Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush!

Republican Party Destroys Itself In Mad Dash To The Far Right, In Repudiation Of Chris Christie!

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The Republican Party is destroying itself in its mad dash to the Far Right!

It convinced Maine Senator Olympia Snowe to retire, and defeated Indiana Senator Richard Lugar in his quest for another term,

It put former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel through hell, before he finally, with only four Republicans supporting him, won the Senate confirmation to be Secretary of Defense.

Now the party has declared war on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, because he worked alongside President Obama after Hurricane Sandy; criticized House Republicans and Speaker John Boehner; and showed his independent streak, which is anathema to the far Right!

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and other right wing talk show hosts have also attacked Christie, as if he is a liberal, despite his very conservative record as Governor, but showing a willingness to work across the aisle with the state legislature and the President.

Christie should be applauded as a man who has managed a massive public opinion rating in a strong “blue” state, but instead, he has been slighted, by NOT being invited to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference next month, while all kinds of characters, including Sarah Palin and Herman Cain and numerous others who are an embarrassment to intelligent people, were invited.

So Chris Christie, as unacceptable as he is to anyone on the left, is not good enough to be invited to a right wing conference!

Actually, it helps Christie in his reelection battle for Governor this fall, and makes him able to stand out as NOT being owned by the Far Right of the GOP, and it might just help him in future endeavors for public office, including being a sane alternative for the Republicans in 2016, if he can get past the Tea Party loonies!

Chuck Hagel Confirmed, But Republicans Only Add To Their Bad Image By Refusing To Support Former Colleague!

Ronald 6 Comments

Former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, arguably one of the most principled, decent Republican Senators of the past twenty years, along with Richard Lugar and Olympia Snowe, was finally confirmed as Secretary of Defense today, but failed to gain the support of his former colleagues, including John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins, who went along with their more right wing colleagues in refusing to give support, without good reason other than a vendetta against an independent minded Republican.

Surprisingly, the four Republicans who supported the Hagel confirmation were Rand Paul of Kentucky (totally inexplicable), Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Richard Shelby of Alabama, and Mike Johanns of Nebraska, the man who replaced Hagel in the Senate in 2009.

It is a sad day when a man who had a decent record of public service is repudiated by “moderates” of his own party, who are afraid to challenge the right wing turn of their party, referring here to Murkowski and Collins, who should have supported their former colleague.

McCain is another story, an example of a man who should, if he had principle, do what the Pope did, and resign in disgrace as a total hypocrite! Here is a man who in 2000 raved about his colleague, and said he would want him in his administration, if he became President. Once Hagel expressed doubt about the George W. Bush “Surge” policy in Iraq in 2007, McCain was so furious, that he exhibited his ugly side, this despite the fact that Bush had trashed McCain’s reputation so often, and Hagel never did!

McCain is now clearly seen as a bitter old man, who should not have run in 2010 for another six year Senate term at age 74, and hopefully will not run at age 80 in 2016, as his time in the Senate is long overdue to end!

McCain is an excellent argument for term limits or, at the least, age limits, with age limits the more sensible concept, in this author’s mind!

The Right Wing Attack On Everything Imaginable!

Ronald 20 Comments

The Right Wing media propaganda machine has become “expert” at attacking everything imaginable that they consider to be “liberal”, “progressive”, “socialist”, “communist”, or any other left wing ideology they can dream up, and managing to put all of these widely differing philosophies together as stereotypes.

So in no special order, the following have come under attack in a vicious manner over time:

Welfare recipients
Food Stamp recipients
Uninsured people
The Homeless
The Poor
The Unemployed
Foreclosed Homeowners
The Working Poor
The Working Class
The Middle Class
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Teachers
College Professors
Liberal Intellectuals
Liberal News Media
Hollywood
Firefighters
Police Officers
Public Service Workers
Labor Unions
Voting Rights
Women’s Rights
Undocumented Immigrants
Gays and Lesbians
Muslims
Environmentalists
Civil Rights Groups
Civil Liberties Groups
Planned Parenthood
Federal Government Agencies
National Public Radio
Public Broadcasting System
ObamaCare
Science
Hillary Clinton
Michelle Obama
Joe Biden
Barack Obama

Probably some have been left out, but this is a list which demonstrates the total negativity of the right wing, and why America is rejecting them in their voting behavior!

2016 Presidential Election Could Be Decided By Texas And/Or Florida

Ronald 2 Comments

At this time, in February 2013, it seems very likely that Texas and Florida, the second and fourth largest states in population and electoral votes, will decide which party will win the White House in 2016.

The Democrats have a good chance to win Texas, as it is starting to turn “Blue”, with the growing Hispanic and Latino vote in that state with 38 electoral votes. Hillary Clinton, in particular, would have an excellent chance to win the Lone Star State if she ends up as the Democratic Presidential nominee, but even other Democrats would have a chance to win .

At the same time, with Florida (29 electoral votes) having gone to Barack Obama twice, the Democrats would have a good opportunity to win it next time as well, particularly with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden as their nominee.

With the other large populated states in the hands of the Democrats for sure (California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan), it is these two states that will decide the election, although if the Democrats can win everything they won under Obama, they do not need Texas. But if they also win Texas, then they would have a literal landslide in the Electoral College, with 370 electoral votes!

So that is why Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush are the best nominees the GOP can run, with a good shot at winning the Sunshine State, and keeping control of Texas, with its Hispanic-Latino vote and the Bush family connection with the Lone Star State.

But again, IF the Democrats just win all the 26 states they won in 2012, or even if they lose some, they will still win the White House. But these two large states are where much of the action will likely be in 2016!