Newt Gingrich

Reality: The New Deal And The Great Society Have Saved America Again!

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Conservatives and Republicans love to attack the idea of big national government, but it is just that–government intervention since the New Deal–which has sustained us through economic downturns since World War II!

The Recession of 1973-1975 under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford avoided being even worse because of FDR and the New Deal!

The most severe recession, in terms of unemployment percentage, under Ronald Reagan in 1982-1983, was less severe than it might have been because of FDR and the New Deal!

And now the Great Recession since December 2007 has been less severe, as bad as it is, because of FDR and the New Deal!

It is unemployment compensation which has sustained many people in this horrible recession!

It is also food stamps, promoted during the Great Society by Lyndon Johnson, and expanded under Richard Nixon, which has allowed people to feed themselves during the toughest of times since then!

And yet, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, and prospective GOP candidate for the 2012 Presidential nomination, wishes to trash unemployment compensation and food stamps, which only adds to the Republican image of not caring about ordinary people who are victims of this recession, as well as earlier recessions!

What Gingrich is promoting is absolutely despicable and disgraceful! 🙁

Gallup Poll On Republican Presidential Nomination For 2012: Romney In Front!

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Here we are, a month before the midterm elections, and a Gallup Poll indicates that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is the front runner for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012, with 19 percent, with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at 16 percent, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee at 12 percent!

Further behind is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia with 9 percent, and Texas Congressman Ron Paul with 7 percent!

Further behind with single digits are Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, former Pennsylvania Governor Rick Santorum, South Dakota Senator John Thune, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and Indiana Congressman Mike Pence!

It must be pointed out that being ahead in the nomination battle just before the midterm election has been the “kiss of death” in the past in both parties, so the fact that Mitt Romney is ahead cannot be seen as a clue to his likely nomination two years from now!

Romney would seem to many observers to be the best choice because of his business background and administrative experience as Massachusetts Governor, and as the head of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee back in 2002, but it does not mean that the GOP will do the rational thing and select him!

The question is: will his Mormon faith, his earlier “liberal” image as Massachusetts Governor, his promotion of a state health care plan often compared to “Obamacare”, and the fact that he does not seem to fit well with the Tea Party Movement now influencing the Republican Party, doom his chances to be the challenger to President Obama in 2012?

If one had to bet the future, it would seem as if Mitt Romney will have trouble winning the nomination, as it is seen as unlikely that early voting states, such as the caucuses in Iowa, and the primary in South Carolina, will support him over more socially conservative candidates, as many of the other potential nominees are perceived!

The GOP “Pledge To America”! A Ponzi Scheme! :(

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The Republican Party has just come out with a “Pledge To America”, similar in concept to the “Contract With America” introduced by Newt Gingrich in the 1994 election cycle, when they won control of both houses of Congress!

The emphasis is on repeal of the health care law, cutting of taxes, cutting of spending, and legislation to outlaw all abortions!

The GOP has no solution to the issue of balancing the budget or dealing with the deficit, and it wishes to take away the concept of children being on their parents’ medical plan to age 26, coverage of preexisting conditions for sick children, and no limit on lifetime care, among other points of the health care law!

The GOP is using the abortion issue to draw religious voters into their coalition, but are offering no new ideas on the economy, but instead the same old failed policies that led to a doubling of the national debt under George W. Bush!

They are bankrupt of new ideas, and are counting on amnesia to convince voters that the Republicans are a better choice than the most productive two year Congress since 1965-1966!

What a sad state of affairs, and hopefully, the American people will not be bamboozled to go backwards! 🙁 No more Ponzi schemes, please! 🙁

Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich And The Attack On Health Care! :(

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Two leading Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination have shown themselves to be disgraceful in their attacks on health care legislation, which the GOP is dedicated to repealing if they win control of Congress this November!

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas Governor, had the gall to compare the issue of pre-existing conditions in children now having to be covered as of tomorrow, to a property insurance company having to insure a house that has burned down! 🙁 How heartless a statement that is for a ordained Baptist preacher, who claims to be a “good” Christian! 🙁 What hypocrisy! 🙁

Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker from Georgia, has been on a tear lately with outrageous statements about President Obama, about Islam, and so many other controversies, showing he has no decency and is willing to promote hate, division, and turmoil in his mad dash for power, despite his own numerous personal moral failings! 🙁

Now he says that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should be fired by the new Congress for advocating and promoting the new health care law! Imagine, the secretary of HHS is not supposed to advocate her department’s programs? And since when can Congress fire cabinet members of the President? Is this a sign of intention to impeach Sebelius for doing her job? This is ABSOLUTELY DESPICABLE drivel being promoted by a person with no ethics, morals, or scruples at all! 🙁

Meanwhile, several health insurance companies are getting out of the market of children’s health care just two days before the health care legislation goes into effect, which demonstrates the problem of leaving all health care to private corporations who only care about profits, not about health of children or anyone who is sick! This is further evidence of the dire need for stronger health care legislation with a public option, so that the 50 million Americans without health care can gain what every American should be entitled to–coverage for health care, and the promotion of the right to a decent life!

Newt Gingrich: A Demagogue Who Knows Better! :(

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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is an educated and intelligent man. He was a college professor of history, has an earned Ph. D., and is the author of both nonfiction and fiction best sellers! He is, in other words, not an ignorant man, and yet, he is most certainly a demagogue who knows better! 🙁

Gingrich has a driving ambition to be President of the United States, and he has a personality that has no limits of self aggrandizement or self promotion! He has shown he has no limits as to what he will do to destroy others, whether when he was in the House of Representatives and went after Speaker of the House Jim Wright, or when he himself was Speaker and set out to destroy Bill Clinton for his moral lapses when he himself was involved in similar moral degradation! 🙁

The man has no shame or guilt about how he utilizes character assassination to achieve his goals! Were he to win, somehow, the GOP nomination for President, he would be unable to unite his party and would be the most divisive President imaginable, were the country stupid enough to elect him! 🙁

Gingrich is now on a tear to destroy the reputation of Barack Obama, because this man had the gall to actually win the Presidency! So Gingrich continues to spread the “birther” myth, by stating that Obama was dishonest, and did not show his so called “Kenyan, anti colonial” mentality when he was running for President in 2008! This is the same Gingrich who last year worked with Obama on education reform, so it demonstrates the sickness of Gingrich’s personality which is most marked by destructive behavior, including lies, deceit, and extreme egocentric characteristics! 🙁

The only good thing about Gingrich’s bizarre behavior this past year, including his demonizing the so called Ground Zero Mosque to advance his own ambitions, is that he is almost certainly self destructing, so we will not have to deal with his lunatic behavior in the Presidential election two years from now, although he may be a factor until he is eliminated by lack of appeal and lack of ethics! 🙁

The Republican And Conservative Exploitation Of September 11 :(

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On the eve of the 9th anniversary of the most horrific day in American history since Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it is shocking to recognize how the Republican leadership and conservative talk show hosts have utilized September 11 to divide this country by promoting hate, hysteria, and panic on a level WORSE than Joseph McCarthy and his Republican and conservative backers stirred anti Communist “witch hunts” during the late 1940s and early 1950s!

There is nothing that these despicable public figures will not do to promote their agenda, including comparing Pastor Terry Jones’s threat to burn Korans with the Islamic interfaith center that is planned for two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City! The former is designed to promote hate and bloodshed, while the latter’s purpose is to promote interfaith understanding and dialogue!

It is not too much for Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, and Sarah Palin, among others, to exploit this comparison, but also Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck find no problem in exploiting September 11 for financial gain, by holding a gathering in Anchorage, Alaska with highly expensive tickets to be bought on Ticketmaster, and selling liquor as well, to commemorate that fateful day! Any such event should not have a ticket charge, and liquor being served is totally against the somber nature of the event!

But Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck have no shame and no limits to their hypocrisy, as also John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, and many others, including the many Republican leaders who chose to remain silent and avoid taking a stand for principle, on the evil of Pastor Terry Jones and the principle of religious freedom and diversity represented by the interfaith plans near Ground Zero!

Time For George W. Bush And Other Principled Republicans To Speak Out On Mosque Controversy!

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The Washington Post today has come out with an editorial calling upon former President George W. Bush to speak out against the demagoguery going on within his party, with many Republicans remaining silent as Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and others make the “Ground Zero Mosque” a political football, and in the process, are promoting anti Islamic hatred, a tremendous danger to the nation and its future!

One can criticize and find fault with Bush on a multitude of issues during his eight years as President, but one cannot fault him for always trying to make clear that our war was against Al Qaeda, not the Islamic world, a belief that President Barack Obama has continued to promote!

Bush should condemn those who use the mosque issue as a way to divide America, and promote fear and hate! If he was to do so, it would improve his image, and maybe get timid Republicans such as Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Richard Lugar, and others to come out in support of his stand!

So far, only New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and commentator Pat Buchanan, indeed a strange duo, have had the courage to speak out against the hysterical tide!

We have so many important issues to deal with, and we should not be fighting and splitting over the building of a house of worship! American ideals and principles require the end of this outrageous fear mongering being promoted by its original creator, the loony blogger Pamela Geller, in league with talk radio hosts and Fox News Channel, and endorsed by potential Presidential candidates Gingrich and Palin, who should be roundly condemned for their divisive tactics! 🙁

Anti Islamic Hysteria: The New Nativism Very Dangerous For America! :(

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The year 2010 will, sadly, go down as the year of extreme nativism, and promotion of ethnic and religious hatred! 🙁

As if it was not enough to persecute and harass people of Latino and Hispanic heritage, now the push is on by politicians, right wing media, and other irresponsible elements to use the so called “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy to label all people of Islamic heritage in America as enemies and threats to American society! Apparently, some seem to want a holy war against Islam worldwide, against 1.2 billion people! 🙁

And if you notice who is leading the charge in this regard, it includes Christian fundamentalists and people who claim to be religious, but employ their Christian faith to cover their own hypocrisy! 🙁

Most Muslims in America are good, honorable citizens, who go about their business every day–work hard, pay taxes, obey the laws, are patriotic, serve in the military, and were victims of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center!

If we allow demagogues of the right to promote antagonism and hate against these good people, we endanger ourselves, as the alienation of these Islamic citizens could encourage lawlessness and violence by them, which already is occurring AGAINST Islamic citizens due to hysteria, and the propaganda of these right wing extremists! 🙁

The author has already stated earlier his thoughts that it would be preferable for the “Ground Zero Mosque” to be built further away from the World Trade Center site, but the disputed project is on private property and therefore legally, and based on the Planning Commission vote and the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, there is no legitimate way to block it!

But when Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin and other despicable politicians exploit the issue and stir up hate and emotions, they should not be rewarded with support, and it is good that others, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and commentator Pat Buchanan, have the courage to criticize their exploitation of the issue for political gain! 🙁

And the suggestion of Christian extremists that NO mosques be allowed to be built in America, as all of them are recruiting stations for terrorists, must be roundly condemned and repudiated! 🙁

It is amazing how some people who claim to believe the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and are so called devout people tied to the Bible, are ready to deny religious freedom and promote hate in the name of Jesus Christ, who himself would have been anything but a bigot and hypocrite! 🙁

To Newt Gingrich, Jon Kyl, Judd Gregg, Sharron Angle Et Al: Unemployment Compensation Is NOT Welfare! :(

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In the midst of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, the Republican party is demonstrating how it has no concern or compassion for the millions of Americans who have lost their employment, some for two years or more already!

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, and Senate candidate Sharron Angle of Nevada, among others, have all described people on unemployment compensation as people on “welfare”, who are lazy, shiftless, and to be condemned as unwilling to take any job offer which comes along! 🙁

Unemployment compensation is not enough that anyone can live in luxury and contentment! It is only a portion of a worker’s former income! Many people have no opportunity to find a job, no matter how hard they try! But if they find a job that pays just a fraction of their former pay, then they cannot spend time finding a job that allows them to pay their mortgage or rent, and put food on the table, and plan for their children’s education and their own retirement!

These GOP politicians live off the public tax rolls, and mostly come into office wealthy, so what do they know about the struggles of everyday citizens? They have no concern, except to divide the nation and exploit for their own benefit!

The middle class has been decimated due to GOP policies while they controlled Congress from 1995-2007 and under the administration of George W. Bush from 2001-2009! How anyone with any intelligence could vote to back candidates who consider unemployment compensation as “welfare”, when everyone pays into the system throughout their work lives, is beyond comprehension! 🙁

Fox Propaganda Channel: Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee!

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Fox News Channel claims to be a “news” channel, but what other “news” channel has THREE potential Presidential candidates on its payroll, giving them the ability to spread their propaganda and be given “softballs” by so called “journalists”, such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck? 🙁

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee all have tremendous exposure with “friendly” questioning!

Will they be able to keep their positions if they announce for President? How could they, without being accused of conflict of interest, accepting payment, and claiming to be news analysts?

One would think that even to suggest such an arrangement would be totally preposterous, but as it turns out, Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle said on camera in an interview with Carl Cameron that she wanted to have Fox allow her to know what questions were to be asked, to be able to promote raising of funds for her campaign, and to be a friendly interviewer! 🙁

Cameron, one of the very few real “journalists” on Fox, looked incredulous at the suggestions of Angle! It only made her look more crazy and loony than she has ever been before, but it made one wonder about the status, present and future, of the three potential Republican Presidential candidates !

It all just adds up to Fox being more and more a joke of a so called “news channel”, and therefore, justifiably, to be called “Fox Propaganda Channel”!