Southern States

As Republicans Push For Cuts To Food Stamp Program, Poverty Rises, Particularly In Red (Republican) States!

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The Republican Party is determined to cut the Food Stamp program as a boondoggle, wasteful spending, and used by recipients, it is claimed, in an abusive manner.

The reality, however, is that about one out of five Americans in polls have stated that they cannot afford their necessary food supply in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

And the irony is that inability to afford food, and the need for food stamps therefore, is most prevalent in the RED or Republican states of the South and Border states–including Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana!

So it is RED states that suffer from hunger, and the reality is that about 50 percent of the food stamp recipients are children, and another 8 percent are elderly.

Statistics show that 18 percent of recipients have no income at all; 41 percent have half the poverty level income; and only 14 percent have incomes above the poverty level. Also, less than 10 percent get a welfare payment along with food stamps. And the assets of these poor souls is less than $100 in savings per family!

Is this the best we can do, and is this what the Republican Party wishes to stand for–to undermine the groups and states that vote for them in state and national elections?

This is a disgrace, which is an understatement!

The “Old Confederacy”, Republicans, Health Care, And HIV AIDS Infections

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The “Old Confederacy”, the states that broke away from the Union during the Civil War, remain the poorest part of the nation even in 2012, in all social and economic statistics.

Once held back by the Democratic Party before the era of civil rights, now it is the Republicans who dominate in these states, and are holding back progress through their propaganda on race and religion, and resentment of the federal government.

So it is the governors of these states that refuse to move ahead on health care coverage for their poorer citizens, of all races, rejecting Medicaid expansion and forming health care exchanges to enforce ObamaCare in 2014 and beyond. They have no concern about the welfare of their less fortunate men, women, and children, while always professing their ‘Christian values”!

In the midst of this hypocrisy, Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor and journalist, has revealed new evidence that HIV AIDs infections are spreading most rapidly in these states, much more than in New York City and San Francisco, the typical stereotype that it is only gays that have this disease, when it is actually spreading among uneducated white and minorities and in the heterosexual community at a far greater rate.

Does one think that these state governments and their representatives in Congress have any concern or interest in combating this epidemic?

The clear answer is NO, as long as race and religion can be manipulated for political power by the GOP!

149th Anniversary Of Battle Of Gettysburg: States Rights Battle Won Then Being Revisited Again!

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On this day in 1863, the Union army defeated the Confederate army at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and prevented any further Confederate advancement into the Northern states of America, the decisive battle of the Civil War.

It was the turning point of the Civil War, and having visited the battle site, and heard stories of ghosts that still linger today, and recognizing the tremendous losses of both sides in the three day battle that was topsy turvey until the third day of the battle, one is humbled by the fact that it decided the issue of states rights, even though the war went on for nearly two more years.

It is ironic that the Republican Party under Abraham Lincoln fought against states rights, but now the Republican Party is more Southern than anything else, and has revived the issue of states rights in fury over the Affordable Care Act being declared constitutional by the Supreme Court last week.

So Southern governors, including Rick Scott, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Bob McDonnell, and joined by northern Republican governors, including Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, Paul LePage and others, are declaring “war” on setting up programs to deal with the oncoming “ObamaCare” in 2014, and in Congress, Republican leaders are making their campaign on repeal of “ObamaCare”, even though the chances of that are nearly zero.

So the GOP is fighting the Civil War all over again on another battlefield, against their own history, and they are doomed to lose yet once again!

And get this, Mitt Romney, the Republican Presidential nominee, is trying to veer away from “ObamaCare” as the major issue, causing a split within a party that has no love lost for him!

Good luck, Republicans, but you will face an historic defeat in November, while Abraham Lincoln weeps in heaven at what you have done to the party that fought states rights!

48th Anniversary Of Landmark Civil Rights Act Of 1964: Transformative Event

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Today, July 2, is the 48th Anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, passed within seven months of Lyndon B. Johnson becoming President, a truly miraculous event, considering the strong and vehement opposition by Southern Democrats and many conservative Republicans.

The Civil Rights Act ended discrimination in all public accommodations, and promoted integration in education and the work force, and was a step toward the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ending all discrimination in voting in the South, and dramatically changing the South forever.

Of course, the South, which had been heavily Democratic switched to support of the Republican Party, much of which saw an opportunity to exploit the racial issue, as they have continued to do ever since, mostly in a veiled, but obvious way, including their constant racism regarding President Barack Obama. And it is Republican Governors who are trying to take away voting rights in time for the election, and in so doing, are violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, leading to lawsuits by Attorney General Eric Holder, which helped to cause his being cited for contempt of Congress last week, a purely vindictive political act!

While there are indeed many whites in America who would wish for the “good old days” before the Civil Rights Act, everyone realizes the changes back then are permanent, like it or not!

The same is happening with the transformative event of the Obama Presidency, the Affordable Care Act, also called “ObamaCare”!

The Republicans are pledging to fight “tooth and nail” to repeal the law, but it will not happen, and they will have to get used to it, like it or not!

LBJ is best remembered for Civil Rights and Medicare, also bitterly opposed by Republicans and conservatives, and Barack Obama will be best remembered for the Affordable Care Act, and the elimination of Osama Bin Laden, another issue that the GOP avoids giving Obama much credit.

The Republicans fight the future, but the Democrats BRING the future, and on this day, just a few after Obama’s signature achievement on health care, let us salute LBJ for the Civil Rights Act accomplishment!

The Most Conservative And Most Liberal States, According To The Gallup Poll

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A Gallup poll measures the level of conservatism and liberalism of American states, as judged by those who are questioned about their perception of politics.

Under this measurement, the order of the top ten conservative states are Mississippi, Idaho, Alabama, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

Note that this is a list of five Southern states, two Great Plains States, and three Mountain West states (which happen to have large percentages of Mormons in their population).

The ten most liberal states are, in order, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, New Jersey, and California.

Note that this is a list of four New England states, two Middle Atlantic states, and four Western states.

So the country is still very much a divided country ideologically, and in many respects, by geographic section!

What Can Mitt Romney Win In November?

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Mitt Romney may have won Ohio by the small margin of one percent and about 12,000 votes over Rick Santorum, but the question remains: Where can he win a combination of states to equal a majority of 270 electoral votes?

Can he win New England, even his home state of Massachusetts? Unlikely, with maybe the exception of New Hampshire.

Can he win the Middle Atlantic states? Unlikely, with the best chance in Pennsylvania, but unlikely.

Can he win the South? Unlikely, despite being the GOP nominee, because of his Mormon faith. Sure, he will win some of the states but unlikely to win Florida, North Carolina or Virginia, the swing states, and a chance to lose Georgia to Barack Obama as well, with the growing Hispanic and Latino vote in the Peach State.

Can he win the Midwest? Well, maybe a few states, but he has lost all of the Midwest and Great Plains states that have had primaries and caucuses so far, except for his birth state of Michigan and a narrow win in Ohio. Rick Santorum has real support in this area of the country.

Can he win the Mountain States? Yes, for those which have large numbers of Mormons, including Arizona, Utah, and Idaho, and probably Montana and Wyoming as well, but not likely to win New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.

Can he win the Pacific Coast states? Is that a serious question? NO, except for Alaska.

If the economy continues to get better, Mitt Romney has lost his biggest issue.

If the anti woman vendetta of Rush Limbaugh and social conservatives in Congress and the states continues, as with the failed Blunt Amendment and the Virginia vaginal probe law, Romney will lose.

If the anti immigrant (Hispanic and Latino) mentality of Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and other states continues, the only Hispanic vote Romney might win is the Cuban vote in Florida and elsewhere, but not the Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, and other Latin nations’ immigrants, meaning only those who are legal and can vote.

If the extremism of the GOP continues down its destructive path, Independents will leave them in droves.

Of course, Barack Obama and the Democrats must work and plan as if they could lose the election, because they could, but the obstacles facing Mitt Romney are massive, and this could have a deleterious effect on the Republican Party in many state races and in both houses of Congress.

Major Landmark In Education: Over 30% Of Americans Over 25 Have Bachelor’s Degree

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For the first time in American history, over 30% of Americans over the age of 25 have a four year bachelor’s degree from a college or university.

As of last March, 30.4% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree, and 10.9% have a graduate degree.

Women are nearly equal in attainment of bachelor’s and graduate degrees for the first time, and will soon surpass men in attainment of college degrees.

Asian Americans remain the most educated in our society, with 50.3% having bachelor’s degrees, and 19.5% having graduate degrees.

Whites have 34% with undergraduate degrees; African Americans 19.9%; and Hispanics 14.1%.

Somewhat surprisingly, science and engineering degrees are the largest fields with college degrees on the bachelor’s level, reaching 34.9% of the total of all degrees. The percentage of women in these fields is up to 45.9% among the age group 25-39. And more such majors are found on the east coast in the District of Columbia and Maryland, and on the west coast in California and Washington. The lowest percentage in this field are found in Southern and Great Plains states.

It is better for the long range future of America that more of the population is attending and graduating with a college degree. And it is not only for economic reasons, but also, a better educated citizenry is good for improving one’s life and the understanding of the world we live in!

How Christmas Day Changed The Course Of American History, In 1861 And 1991!

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Christmas Day has long been celebrated as a special day, but in terms of American history, two particular Christmas Days have had a dramatic effect on our future.

In 1861, on Christmas Day, as the Civil War was entering its second year, it seemed as if the United States was about to go to war with Great Britain, due to the Trent Affair, the seizure of two Confederate agents, James Mason and John Slidell, from a British ship by the crew of an American ship, the San Jacinto.

Instead, the cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln agreed that it was better to release the two Confederate agents, as fighting a two front war against the South and Great Britain would be a losing proposition. It would have made it more likely that the Confederate States of America would have won its independence, and the United States might have been occupied by Great Britain, and transformed our history in a tragic fashion.

Also, in 1991, on Christmas Day, the Soviet Union’s leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared the end of the 74 year experiment in Communist dictatorship, and the breakup of the Soviet Union into separate nations, with the largest being the Russian Federation led by Boris Yeltsin.

This was a courageous act by Gorbachev, and was the final end of the nearly fifty year Cold War, seemingly allowing peace in the world, and America without a major competing nation for world leadership.

Unfortunately, the optimism would not last, as Middle East terrorism became the new challenge for the United States and the Western world, in many ways a greater threat than Communism had been.

But both Christmas Days, 1861 and 1991, 150 years ago and 20 years ago respectively, had a massive impact on our history!

George Will’s Criticism Of The Republican Party: Too Southernized!

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George Will, the respectable conservative voice on ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour, was sharply critical of the Republican Party this past weekend, in a way the author can totally agree with.

He pointed out that the Republican Party, the party that the South hated for a century because of the Civil War, has become overwhelmingly Southern in the past five election cycles.

Imagine this: 79 percent of the electoral votes the GOP has gained from 1992 to 2008 were in the South! Between that and the Northwest (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah) , the Republican Party has managed to make itself a sectional party, which Will is concerned dooms it in the 2012 Presidential Election!

Will pointed out that Ohio has been the crux of whether the GOP wins or loses, and probably will be the same in 2012.

The author wishes to remind the reader that EVERY Republican Presidential winner since the inception of the party in the 1850s has won Ohio, so when Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won that state in 1976, 1992, and 2008, it guaranteed a Democratic victory.

This statement of Will should be recalled when one feels gloomy about the electoral prospects of Barack Obama, and remember that the Democrats are strong in the Northeast, the upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, and it is still their election to lose in 2012!

America And The Death Penalty: In The Company Of Iran, North Korea, China, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria!

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American use of capital punishment puts this nation into company with other nations that are generally looked upon as disgraceful and anti democratic, including Iran, North Korea, China, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

In Europe, only one nation allows capital punishment–Belarus!

In Latin America, only Cuba allows capital punishment!

No democracy, except Japan in limited circumstances, allows executions.

This nation is allied with brutal dictatorships in allowing execution, most of it occurring in Southern states that historically have deprived people of their rights and taken their lives, while at the same time promoting “religious values”, a total hypocrisy!

America should be, and in many corners, is indeed in mourning, not just for Troy Davis, but for the many cases of injustice that we know have led to the deaths of innocent people, because of the mad blood lust for “law and order”, even if it victimizes mostly poor people, both white and minority!

The use of the death penalty in a nation that claims to have morals and ethics is a sign of how sick this nation is, and the thought that George W. Bush and Rick Perry could brag about the number of inmates killed in Texas is enough to make one want to vomit! Some achievement, rather than educating people and providing them with health care, so they can have long, enriched lives!