Voting Rights

Political Attacks On First Ladies: Nothing New!

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The new book that claims that First Lady Michelle Obama has had problems with White House staff, that she interferes with their agenda in defense of her husband, has led to denials by her, and bitter attacks by conservative media.

Is criticism of the First Lady, whoever she is, anything new? History tells us otherwise.

First Lady Dolly Madison was always more outspoken in all ways than her taciturn husband, James Madison. She was known as the “party giver”, but that included her willingness to speak her mind!

First Lady Mary Lincoln was controversial over her expenditures, her clothes, and her mouth, and came under a lot of political attacks during the Civil War, including the fact that her brothers were part of the enemy, fighting for the Confederacy against the American government led by Abraham Lincoln.

Lucy Hayes came to be known as “Lemonade Lucy”, due to the fact that she prevented the serving of liquor at White House gatherings, and believed in women’s rights, including the right to vote, and spoke her mind regularly, causing problems therefore for her husband, Rutherford Hayes.

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, the second Mrs. Wilson, led cabinet meetings after Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919, and often was considered the “first woman President” during his last 18 months in office.

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the most controversial First Lady, speaking up regularly on all kinds of issues and topics, and labeled by her critics as a Communist and a Socialist. After her husband died, she remained part of the political controversies in the era of McCarthyism and the Cold War, always speaking her mind and being a political activist.

Betty Ford became a lightning rod under President Gerald Ford, speaking out as a feminist for the Equal Rights Amendment, and endorsing abortion rights, and speaking about her alcohol and breast cancer problems openly.

Rosalyn Carter attended cabinet meeting of her husband, Jimmy Carter, and also spoke out for feminist causes openly.

Nancy Reagan was criticized for her spending on White House China, and defended her husband, Ronald Reagan, against his own White House Chief of Staff, Donald Regan, who she was able to arrange to fire. She had no problem stating that she was there to help and defend her husband.

Hillary Clinton was the most involved and outspoken First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, and became a lightning rod particularly when she promoted a failed health care plan in the first term of Bill Clinton.

And now, Michelle Obama is making clear that she is there as an advocate of her husband, while claiming no problem in getting along with the White House staff.

So this is all nothing new!

The “White” Republican Party Against The Future

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It is clear that the Republican Party is trying to keep control of Congress and regain the White House by appealing to white voters of all economic classes by stealthily promoting fear of immigrants, Hispanics and Latinos, and African Americans, and trying to take away voting rights from the poor, the elderly, college students, as well as minorities.

This is a very troubling strategy, as it promotes a “them” versus “us” mentality which does not serve the nation well, as the reality is that the future of the nation is that the white population is declining in percentage, and by the mid 2040s, will be a minority.

So the need to adapt and appeal to nonwhites of all backgrounds is essential for the political health of the nation in the future. Instead, the GOP is acting as if it is the old Southern Democrats of the segregation era, or the Confederate mentality of the Civil War era.

This is ugly, dangerous, poisonous and reprehensible as the future cannot be stopped, and instead must be confronted! So a return to moderate Republicanism of the Nelson Rockefeller-William Scranton-Henry Cabot Lodge-Charles Percy-Mark Hatfield-Charles Mathias etc variety is essential and soon!

The Republican Motivation For Power: Take Away Human Rights Already Granted!

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America has developed over the past two centuries into a republic promoting democratic values and the advancement of human rights.

The Republican Party of 2011-2012, however, is making clear its desire to TAKE AWAY human rights already won over the past two centuries, with blood, sweat and tears!

We have seen the acquisition of voting rights in the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments, as well as with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and yet now, the Republican Party in many states is working very hard to LIMIT the right to vote by unreasonable limitations that particularly affect African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, college students, the elderly and the poor of all races!

Women have gained the right to control their own privacy, including control of their own bodies, through a Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade in 1973 and other Supreme Court decisions and legislative actions, and yet now in many of our states, the attempt to take away women’s rights, including the right of abortion, is being fiercely waged, including encouragement of violence against abortion providers and closing down of locations where a woman can pursue her reproductive rights.

Gay men and lesbians have gained the right to serve in the military openly, be married in several states, adopt children in most states, and have other basic human rights, but now the move is on to take away these rights so hard fought for!

Working people, both immigrants and those born in the US, have fought for labor protection and representation through formation of labor unions, which have now been undermined for decades, and the attempt to impoverish workers by corporations and their Republican allies is in full development!

This has been a land of immigrants, and yet the Republican Party of today believes in polarizing Americans against undocumented immigrants who they would support deporting in the millions, even with the fact that 98 percent of them have committed no crime beyond entering the nation in an illegal manner, and just want the opportunity to work toward eventual citizenship through learning English, paying fees, and waiting patiently in line for the “American Dream”, and yet now work at low wage jobs that no Americans wish to fill, particularly in agriculture, retail, and home and hotel services.

Americans in general have been able to see improved educational opportunities, better health care, and opportunities for better housing and safer environment and consumer protection due to past Democrats and moderate Republicans working to better conditions for the middle class and the poor, but now the goal of the GOP is to take away these advancements and simply promote the interests of the top one percent and the corporations that sit on money, refuse to hire, and instead use government money that saved them to give bonuses to overpaid, under worked executives, and to lobby corrupt politicians who do their bidding!

Will the nation at large continue to accept an opposition party that works to DENY all of the progress on voting rights, women’s rights, gay rights, labor rights, immigrant rights, and the advancements for the middle class and poor gained over two centuries?

Only if the people are appealed to based upon ignorance, emotion, prejudice, and manipulation! For the future of America, this cannot be allowed to happen, as it will undermine the social fabric of America for the long haul!

Rick Perry And Newt Gingrich: More “Shaking Of Heads” In Wonderment!

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Texas Governor Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continue to amaze, and in the process promote the “shaking of heads” in wonderment!

Fast fading Perry made a speech to a group of young people, and told them that if they were 21 by Election Day 2012, they should be sure to vote, apparently not aware of the 26th Amendment in 1971, which allows those citizens 18-21 to vote!

He also said that Election Day was November 12, 2012, which if people listen to him means they would be failing to participate in the election, as it is six days earlier, on November 6, 2012! He attributed his errors to his “age”, which means he is not fit to be President, and by the way, he is only in his early 60s, not an “old man” by definition!

At the same time, Newt Gingrich claims he was not acting as a lobbyist for various corporations, including in the health care industry, but instead was being paid for his expertise as former Speaker of the House, by earning $65,000 for half hour speeches, and made too much money as a lecturer, so did not need to be a lobbyist. What can one say to that, except that the author of this blog earns at the most a fee of $250 per hour speech as compared to Newt making $130,000 per hour, if he is able to have the energy to go beyond a half hour speech!

While Newt could say he has a Ph. D. in History and has been a professor and author, that kind of fee is really unbelievable, and makes this author, with the same credentials except being Speaker of the House, realize that IF with his expertise and knowledge, he could have ONE speech for an hour at Newt’s rate, he could relax for the rest of the year, without the materialistic need to make money of obscene amounts, and then claim to understand the average American!

So the “shaking of heads” about both Perry and Gingrich continues to “shake”!

MASSIVE Victory For Workers’ Rights, Women’s Rights, And Voting Rights!

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A massive victory for Democrats, progressives and liberals, and the American people, occurred tonight on the 2011 Election Day, and it augurs a progressive victory in 2012!

In three states, particularly, conservative Republican and Tea Party forces were set back in their power grab to take away basic rights of workers, women, and voters!

Ohio rejected the anti public union bill passed by the Republican legislature with the backing of Governor John Kasich by a vote margin of about 60-40, therefore restoring collective bargaining rights for police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees. This is a warning to Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Rick Scott in Florida, and Paul LePage in Maine, who also have been working against the rights of public employees, that the people will NOT tolerate the loss of labor rights won over the years, which have helped to grow and sustain the middle class! It also shows that conservative talk radio, Fox News Channel, and even the Koch brothers and other greedy, selfish, self centered billionaires are not going to be allowed to shape the country in their image. The Republican Party in Washington, DC should see this as a warning that if they continue to refuse to help job creation and just set out to defeat Barack Obama, they will pay the price in next year’s election!

At the same time in the conservative state of Mississippi, the proposed “personhood” amendment that would define a fertilized egg as a person was also soundly defeated by about 57-43 percent, a tremendous victory for women’s rights and Roe V Wade, and a strike against the extreme anti abortion fanatics who have no concern for the health and well being of women, and wish to take away their privacy rights!

And in Maine, we saw the defeat of legislation that ended the practice of allowing registration on the day of the election, a move being copied in other states to cut back voter registration and participation. This is another Republican and conservative attempt to cut back on voting rights with the false claim of massive voter fraud, which has never occurred anywhere in reality!

So it is clear that the conservative and Republican victories in 2010 and their abuse of power in the months since has been rejected. So in a way, it was necessary to have this occur to wake people up as to the need to be involved, to participate, to pay attention, to organize, and to realize that if one does not work at protecting their basic human rights, those rights can be taken away from them!

It is certain that the 2010 Republican victories will be overcome by a tremendous counter reaction in 2012, with 2011 being the first strikes against the right wing!

Six Months Of Rick Scott As Governor Of Florida: What Hath The Voters Wrought?

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It has now been six months for Rick Scott as Governor of Florida, and he stands at a low point in public opinion polls, recently 29 percent, but now down to 27 percent, the lowest of all Governors of the 50 states!

Scott, who came from a corrupt background of Medicare fraud into politics, and spent over $70 million of his own fortune to win the Governorship by about 50,000 votes statewide and less than a majority of all votes cast, has set a horrific record as Governor, but is arrogant enough to claim he does not care about his public opinion ratings!

As a recent Miami Times article outlined, Rick Scott has been responsible for the following tragic developments in the Sunshine state:

1. Mandated drug testing for state workers and welfare recipients, although there are law suits in process against these tests, and he seems to have backed off on state workers taking such tests.

2. Enacted Jim Crow style voting laws, creating new restrictions on voting, and undermining the Voting Rights Act of 1965, while bringing back memories of the voting restrictions that existed before that federal law went into effect under Lyndon B. Johnson’s Presidency.

3. Fought a Prescription Drug Database, even though Florida is the state with the most drug abuse, but finally backed away after a lot of pressure was brought, even by his own Attorney General.

4. Privatized Medicaid, causing confusion and loss of services and funding for severely disabled Florida citizens, with cases now in court against this, and appeals by individual families in process.

5. Outsourced prisons to his political supporters, who want to privatize them, despite fact that Florida already has more prisoners than any other state except Texas, and has made no prison reforms which are badly needed, so instead prisons are being made a profit industry.

6. Cut jobless benefits to 23 weeks in a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

7. Gave tax breaks to large corporations while not being concerned about the survival of unemployed people.

8. Slashed public education funding dramatically in a state which ranks among the worst in educational standards, but at same time took away tenure from teachers, and required ALL public workers to pay three percent of their income for their pension plans, a pay cut in difficult times, and undermining morale.

9. Worked aggressively against environmental protection programs statewide, ignoring the significance of the Everglades and other environmentally sensitive lands, instead promoting development. by private corporations.

10. Rejected high speed rail development funds from the federal government for expansion in the high traffic area of Central Florida.

11.Refused to be interviewed by the news media, comments only in Twitter style, and set up signing of bills to include only friends and supporters of what he is doing.

Governor Scott has shown the height of arrogance and insensitivity to groups that are being victimized by his policies, and Florida must, somehow, bear three and a half more years of this, unless Scott can be found to have done something illegal, leading to impeachment, or IF a recall movement can be brought about, but unlikely since it is not provided for in the state constitution.

This is the result of citizens NOT paying attention, and either not voting, or not understanding the issues when they do vote!

It is a good lesson in the importance of citizens paying attention to politics and public issues in the future, so as to avoid the nightmare Florida is going through right now!

Bill Clinton Reminds Us About “Jim Crow” Voting Restrictions On Blacks, Warns Against Them Returning!

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Former President Bill Clinton has made a major speech criticizing Republican Governors and legislatures passing restrictions on voting rights, comparing them to the old “Jim Crow” restrictions that ruled the South for nearly one hundred years until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The new restrictions being promoted and put into law with the backing of Florida Governor Rick Scott, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Ohio Governor John Kasich, and many other Republican Governors would require drivers license ID cards to vote, shorten hours and days of early voting, require college students to vote at home instead of where they live, and restrict felons who have completed their obligation to society from being able to cast their vote. The theory is that these states are trying to prevent voter fraud, which in reality, is a very slight problem historically!

This is all designed to harm groups–African Americans, Latinos, the young, and the poor–who are perceived as likely to vote for Democrats.

Clinton reminding us of “Jim Crow” should lead to law suits to stop this new limitation and discrimination of the right to vote, something supposedly overcome by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s as part of his Great Society.

Somehow, we seem to repeat history’s mistakes over and over again!

The Republican Urge To Provoke Violence And Bloodshed

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The Republican Party, instead of promoting harmony and a sense of common purpose among the population of the United States, instead, for some odd reason, hard to fathom, does just the opposite! Everything it advocates instead provokes violence and bloodshed, without any rhyme or reason!

Examples of this abound!

1. Wisconsin, Ohio and other states take away labor’s right to collective bargaining, provoking massive demonstrations and outrage.

2. Florida cuts unemployment compensation to the lowest number of weeks of any state, 20 weeks, in the midst of an all time high unemployment rate of 12 percent, one of the highest in the nation, bringing desperate people to the brink of violence.

3. Florida also decides to make it more difficult for former felons to regain their voting rights, making it five years after completion of sentence and probation before one can even request restoration of voting rights, angering many who will feel discrimination.

4. New Hampshire and other states are working to make it more difficult for college students to vote in their college towns, as well as states which want to require state mandated IDs which intimidate poor people and minorities from registering to vote.

5. Arizona and other states are promoting profiling, giving police the right to stop anyone who they believe to be an illegal immigrant, and in the process advocating nativism.

6. Arizona and other states are cutting benefits for poor people who need transplant surgery, angering family members of those patients.

7. States are laying off teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants, and by increasing the unemployment rate, are fueling resentment among many of the newly unemployed. Also, the crime rate is bound to go up as we have fewer police officers.

8. States moving to criminalize abortion are provoking pro life extremists to the potential for bloodshed and violence.

9. States promoting guns on campus and in bars and other public places tends toward violence and bloodshed potential in the future.

10. The promotion of opposition to gay rights helps incite threats and violence against those by religious extremists who see homosexuality as a threat to American society.

11. The promotion of the “Birther” conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama by Republican leaders and conservatives fuels threats against our President by those who think he is a Muslim.

12. Congressman Peter King, by holding hearings on Islamic terrorism, promotes the image that we cannot trust the Muslim population within our midst.

This is a dangerous set of circumstances which makes one wonder what the future of the nation is, with the tendency of the Republican Party to be oblivious to what is occurring, or is it oblivious, or in fact purposely promoting these circumstances? One has to wonder!

Republican State Governments Trying To Destroy Voting Rights Of Those Likely To Vote For Democratic Party In 2012

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In thirty two states, where the legislature is majority Republican, legislation is being sponsored to destroy the voting rights of those likely to vote for the Democratic Party and its candidates in 2012.

College students have always had the right to vote where they attend college, but many states are now working to require residency of the student or their parents, or else no chance to vote in the college town.

New ID card requirements are being imposed, which African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, and poor people in general, are less likely to possess, with their suspicion of government as great as it is already.

The move to end same day registration is another method being used to cut down the voting population.

Florida is now requiring a five year wait before former felons, who have met all requirements of their sentence, can even ask for the return of the right to vote.

The concept of the right to vote has been fought over the past two centuries, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was supposed to guarantee that no one would be denied that right, but conservatives are working very hard to fix the elections of the future by interfering with that basic human right!

It is not enough that corporations have no limit anymore on contributions to Republicans!

It is not enough that Republican Governors are destroying the rights of public workers by destroying collective bargaining!

It is not enough that Republicans are striking out against the interests of the poor, the sick, the elderly, the young, women, ethnic minorities, and on the issues of the environment, health care and education!

Nothing is enough, as the Republican Party works to make this nation a country dominated by the rich and the corporations FOR the rich and the corporations, and to hell with the interests of the rest of us!