Month: February 2011

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Scandal: Resign, Be Impeached, Or Face Recall Vote!

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Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has been shown today to be a complete fraud, a liar, under the control and influence of corporate interests including the Koch Brothers, and having delusional ideas comparing himself to Ronald Reagan.

In a fake phone call, a person supposedly David Koch, communicated with Walker who discussed the goal of destroying the labor movement and collective bargaining, willing to do the bidding of the Koch brothers, ready to trick the 14 State Senate Democrats who have boycotted the legislature and are staying in Chicago, considering setting up confrontations between thousands of demonstrators and corporate supporters, and comparing what he is doing to Reagan firing 11,000 air traffic controllers in 1981.

He also showed he is totally warped on history, as he claims that the air traffic controllers firing in 1981 led to the Berlin Wall’s collapse in 1989 and the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Walker’s behavior requires one of the following: either withdraw the destructive labor legislation from consideration, or resign as a scandalous governor, or face impeachment, or utilize the Recall mechanism devised by Governor Robert LaFollette, Sr. a century ago to remove this disgraceful power grabber.

And while we are at it, let’s work to remove all of the “bully” Governors, including Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rick Scott, all of whom are setting out to destroy state government and make for the most corrupt series of Governors we have seen in many generations!

The Die Is Cast: The Midwest And The Presidential Election Of 2012

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With the struggle going on over public service workers in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as other states, it is clear that the future of organized labor is at stake, but also the future of the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama.

With the reality that organized labor is a large part of the base of the Democratic Party, it is clear that the battleground for victory for the party and its President will be the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa–the heartland of the country.

Also realize that the Republican Party had its birth in the Midwest, and that Barack Obama won all seven states, and nearly won next door Missouri.

To win in 2012, Obama MUST win most, if not all, of these Midwestern states, hit hard by the Great Recession and now led by Republican Governors determined to strike vengeance against the base of the opposition party, organized labor.

And with growing interest in former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, as the one GOP candidate for President who has few negatives, other than not being well known, it could be that President Obama will face a strong conservative opponent in Pawlenty.

Mainstream Republicans An Endangered Species: Bad Omen For The Future

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The Republican Party, in its mad dash to the far right, is about to consume its few mainstream members in the US Senate.

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe is facing a likely Tea Party opponent, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was booed at the recent CPAC convention, despite his solidly conservative voting record over the past 35 years.

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown has lost the support of the Tea Party, which originally was thrilled by his winning of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in 2010, and may also face a primary challenge.

But the repudiation in Indiana of Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican and foreign policy expert, by his own party leadership, is a major blow to a Senator who could be called more than a politician, instead a statesman.

Lugar made enemies voting for the START Treaty with Russia, opposing a ban on earmarks, and supporting Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. He has been called Barack Obama’s favorite Republican.

So Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, not a Tea Party leader, is challenging Lugar, although it is believed that Governor Mitch Daniels and Indiana Congressman Mike Pence may stay neutral in the primary race due on May 8, 2012.

Will Lugar get the message and decide to retire after 36 years? It seems unlikely, but his loss would be a major blow to moderate conservatism and the future of the Republican Party image nationally.

The Collapse Of The American Dream: Back To The Gilded Age

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We are witnessing, in the present economic downturn, a reversal unmatched since the Great Depression.

And all of the cushions and safety net put into place since then, via the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, is rapidly being lost.

Even the labor reforms that showed up in Wisconsin under Robert LaFollette, Sr. in the Progressive Era are now facing extinction in, of all places, Wisconsin, and the movement against labor unions is spreading to Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida and elsewhere.

We are seeing the return of “slave labor” in the sense that wages are stagnant, and more than ever, part time workers without benefits are becoming the norm in many areas of the economy.

And if one is unfortunate enough to be unemployed, many corporations and businesses are refusing to hire them, as if they are damaged goods.

The attack has begun on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pension plans, health benefits, and other programs that made life better in America.

Powerful corporations, and wealthy people such as the Koch brothers, are managing to influence the Supreme Court, and are in league with the Republican Party, to set back a century of progress and reform.

This is a battle for survival for millions upon millions of middle class people who are rapidly falling into deprivation and poverty and despair.

The feeling is that there is no future, as life becomes more difficult for working families, but also for young people who have a gloomy view of the future, without an education, or even with a college education.

The Social Darwinist ethic of the late 19th century Gilded Age is returning, that of survival of the fittest, and it is creating an ugly atmosphere in America, as the middle class turns on itself and opposes what other middle class people have, and all this to the benefit of the wealthy and the corporations, who are sitting by and licking their chops as America turns on itself.

This is a very dangerous situation which could lead to a breakdown of law and order, a horrifying thought, as we face a daunting future where economic opportunity seems evasive and scattered.

The political divide in this country MUST be breached, or doom is ahead in more ways than one can imagine!

A Look At Post Presidencies On Presidents Day

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As we celebrate Presidents Day, on the third Monday of February, it is significant to look at post Presidencies and their impact.

Among earlier Presidents, a few stood out in public office after the Presidency.

John Quincy Adams served nearly 18 years in the House of Representatives from Boston, and led the fight against slavery and the “gag rule” which banned discussion of slavery on the floor of the House.

Andrew Johnson served briefly back in the Senate where he had been the only Southerner to remain loyal to the Union, of all the Senators from the Confederate States.

William Howard Taft served nine years as Chief Justice after almost a decade out of the White House, and came up with the plans for the Supreme Court Building.

Herbert Hoover served President Truman in reorganization of the executive branch as the head of the Hoover Commission after World War II.

Richard Nixon wrote numerous books on foreign policy, and became regarded as an elder statesman who was asked for advice by every President, despite the disgrace of the Watergate Scandal.

Jimmy Carter has been heavily involved in Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center, engaged in promoting diplomacy and free elections and better living conditions all over the world, and has also been a prolific author.

George W Bush has been involved in Haitian relief and other activities, and his father,  George H W Bush, now will be honorary co chairman of the University of Arizona Civility Institute, an outgrowth of the violence which led to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords last month, sharing that responsibility with Bill Clinton.

And Bill Clinton has been a “whirlwind” of activity with the Clinton Global Initiative, which aims to help the promotion of prosperity and human rights all over the world, with the support of the business community, and he also was involved in the Haitian relief after last year’s earthquake, and now is to be part of the Civility Institute activities at the University of Arizona.

In fact, this evening on MSNBC, Chris Matthews will host an hour review of the many activities of Bill Clinton since his Presidency ended 20 years ago.

So on this day when we commemorate Presidents, let’s remember the contributions of former Presidents as well!

150th Anniversary Of Jefferson Davis Inauguration As President Of The Confederacy Celebrated In Montgomery, Alabama

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This past weekend, the 150th Anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy was celebrated in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans organized the event, and several hundred attended.

No mention of slavery was found in the proceedings, only that the North had subjugated the South, and that the war was over tariffs, taxes, and states rights.

The War For Southern Independence was invoked as the appropriate name for the war, rather than the Civil War.

This kind of managed event will, unfortunately, still be prevalent over the next four years, as the re-enactments of Civil War battles and events will be constantly celebrated, instead of being seen as a great human tragedy.

The regionalism that still exists is very powerful, and the scars left from the Civil War continue to be an issue today in a different way.

It used to be the Republican Party who was hated and despised in the South, but now the Republicans have become dominant in the South, and it is the Democratic Party which is now seen as the “enemy” of the Southern heritage.

So a complete switch around has occurred, and one wonders what those who fought and died for the Union would think if they came back today and saw how politics have changed in the South!

Do Senate Democrats Really Have 53 Votes? Don’t Be So Sure! :(

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It is often pointed out that the Senate has 53 Democrats, and that there is no chance that the Republican House can get the majority of the Senate to go along with massive budget cuts or repeal of the Health Care legislation.

But when one examines closely the situation that truly exists with the upcoming Senate races of 2012, one wonders!

There are at least four Democrats, who are not retiring, as four have already announced (Joe Lieberman, Kent Conrad, Jim Webb, and now Jeff Bingaman), but are likely to be willing to work with Republicans more than one would imagine.

These would be newly elected Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia who must run again in 2012, along with two Senators elected in 2006 and facing tough fights in 2012–Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana–and veteran Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who also faces election in 2012.

If all four worked together with the GOP, there goes the Democratic edge, so the next two years will be interesting as a reality check of what it means to have a Senate majority, and yet maybe NOT have a Senate majority! 🙁

John Glenn, A True Hero After 49 Years: A Lost Concept

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On February 20, 1962, the author was a senior in high school, and the nation witnessed a true hero, a role model for young people, display great courage as he accomplished what was regarded as the greatest moment in the history of flight since Charles Lindbergh flew The Spirit Of St. Louis from New York to Paris in May 1927.

John Glenn was the first American to orbit in space on the Friendship 7 space craft on that day, and he also went into space at the age of 77 in 1998, as he was retiring from four terms in the US Senate from Ohio, a record for the state.

Glenn was a good will ambassador for the space program, and his private life mirrored his public life, and he is now nearing 90 years of age.

We need more true heroes today, but sadly, they are lacking, and young people cannot easily find anyone to use as a role model in the public sphere.

But this date is worthy of recognition, and a salute to John Glenn is well deserved!

The GOP War On Women and Children: Despicable And Disgraceful! :(

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Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, appointed by President Ronald Reagan 25 years ago, and arguably the most conservative Justice in more than half a century, recently stated that women were not protected in the Constitution.

That shocking statement seems to be working itself out in the attack of the Republican Party, in Congress and in the states, on the rights and freedoms of American women and children.

Witness the following:

Republicans are trying to reduce women’s access to abortion care, and have been also trying to redefine rape, so as to lessen the opportunities or reasons for abortion.

A South Dakota legislator proposed a bill to make the murder of an abortion doctor justifiable homicide.

The party in Congress is trying to eliminate one billion dollars aid, including food, to low income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and children.

The party in Congress has proposed that hospitals be able to reject an abortion for a woman in danger of dying as a result of medical problems from the pregnancy.

Head Start, started under President Lyndon Johnson nearly fifty years ago, has been marked for a billion dollar cut in funding, eliminating spots for 200,000 children.

The Republicans want to cut spending on employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens, with two thirds of them being women.

The GOP called on Friday for elimination of all federal funding for Planned Parenthood health centers, which promotes responsible family planning.

And this series of actions against women and children are sponsored by people who profess to be “good Christians”, religious people who demonstrate absolutely no concern for life once it is born, and are mean spirited and nasty in their vicious attacks on women’s rights! 🙁

The Republican women in Congress, as a group, make one wonder how women could be so uncaring and lack compassion for those less fortunate, whether poor, young, or elderly. In many ways, they are actually worse than the Republican men! There is no way that Jesus Christ would approve of these “true believers”, who he would consider hypocrites in the extreme! 🙁

Sad Anniversary: FDR Executive Order 9066, The Internment Of Japanese Americans In World War II! :(

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Today is the 69th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, requiring the internment of about 110,000 Japanese Americans, just two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, simply because they were seen as a security risk to the nation due to their ethnicity and possible loyalties to their nation of origin.

This happened despite the fact that most of these people had been born in America, while others had become citizens or were applying for it, but simply their face and appearance was enough to put them into internment camps behind barbed wire and under military guard until early in 1945, they were ordered released, without any recompense for three lost years in what was basically a prison due to their national origins, not anything they did to deserve incarceration! 🙁

An all Japanese American military unit in Europe won more honors and recognition than any other unit in World War II, while their families were being mistreated in this terrible manner!

Only in 1988, the American government and President Ronald Reagan apologized formally for the forced internment, and arranged for the 50,000 survivors a lump sum payment of $20,000.

This horrible event ended just a day after the Supreme Court ruled that their internment was justifiable in war time, in the case of Korematsu V. US on December 16, 1944. The next day, the order went out to release them on January 2, 1945, even with the war not over, and many months left until the US utilized the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war in August 1945.

The memory of this injustice and violation of civil liberties should not be forgotten at a time when we have so many Islamic haters who wish to deny all Muslims in this country what all American are entitled to–basic freedoms, without any denial unless it can be proved that they are, as individuals, involved in terrorist or other criminal activity.

The Bill of Rights must be preserved, or our democracy is a mockery!