Day: November 10, 2012

A Fascinating Idea! Former Republican Senators Richard Lugar And Chuck Hagel As Secretary Of State And Secretary Of Defense In Second Obama Term!

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A fascinating idea has surfaced, which is very exciting in many ways.

It is clear that there will be a reshuffling of President Obama’s cabinet over the next few months, and two openings will certainly be likely in the State Department and the Defense Department.

For State, it has been suggested that Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee, might take the post. Also, Susan Rice, United Nations Ambassador, is mentioned. Both would be wonderful in the position.

BUT there is a school of thought that IF President Obama wanted to show bipartisanship, he could do what Franklin D. Roosevelt did in World War II–pick Republicans who are intelligent, sane, responsible, and who are no longer serving in the Senate, to serve in his cabinet, and the State Department would offer a great location to put soon to be former Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, an acknowledged foreign policy expert, and a man who has worked well with Obama when they were both Senators, and went off to Russia to promote the safe collection of nuclear weapons stockpiles in 2005-2006. Lugar is a wonderful statesman, and would fill the job with excellence and professionalism. And he has been, like Kerry, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman in the past, and is still the ranking member of the committee until he leaves the Senate in January.

Additionally, as suggested earlier, former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Vietnam War veteran and military expert, would be an excellent choice to serve in the Pentagon as Secretary of Defense. Always highly regarded and respected, Hagel would add stature to our Defense Department.

Such appointments would neutralize, to a great extent, Republican attacks on President Obama in the areas of foreign policy, national security, and defense policy.

If FDR could have Republicans Henry Stimson as Secretary of War, and Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy in 1940 and after, why cannot Barack Obama make a smart move that would help his administration to succeed, and also promote bipartisanship, at a time when it is desperately needed?

The Multiple Meanings Of 2012 Election

Ronald 5 Comments

2012 will go down in history as the year of tremendous movement forward in so many ways.

It is a year that sees tolerance, open mindedness, fairness and equality moving forward.

It is a year that sees a greater accomplishment than 2008–the reelection of an African American President, a reaffirmation of what was done in 2008, and in many ways greater than the initial election, because it gets rid of all doubts that, somehow, 2008 was a fluke, a mistake, that would be rectified.

It is the year that women came to realize true liberation from men bossing them, controlling them, dictating to them, regarding their own bodies, and their own opportunities for fair pay and equal educational opportunity. And so many more women will now be serving in our government, and holding male politicians accountable.

It is a year when Hispanics, Latinos, and Muslims, and really all racial and ethnic minorities, realize their electoral power, and are able, finally, to fight back against racism, discrimination, prejudice, and bias, and take their place in the community of Americans who will have influence and significance, rather than just white Anglos, who slaughtered native Americans, took over North America, and thought they would control America, dominate America, shape America in their image for eternity, which is, happily, no longer the future of this great nation, which benefits from diversity and from equal opportunity for all based on merit, not skin color or nationality or religion or gender!

It is a year when the power of organized religious groups to control and dictate their agenda on America has been soundly defeated, and the danger of theocracy has abated, as a result.

It is a year when American can celebrate, as we are now moving forward toward better times, and with the old power structures that impede us, including corporations, knowing they will face appropriate regulation, and that the wealthy will be required to pay their fair share to this nation, which has given them such great opportunities, and assisted them in their acquisition of wealth!

It is also a time when the hope is that overseas interventions will no longer be the norm, except when a true threat to our national security, and in so changing our view of the world, we are allowing many young men and women to have a normal life after serving in the military, and cutting the waste and corruption of the war industries that cause so much of our national debt.

So for these and other reasons, America has a lot to celebrate!

Federal Government Needs To Administer All Federal Elections, Including Registration And Mechanics Of Enforcement

Ronald 4 Comments

The election debacle this year, including attempts to deny registration and voting itself, by partisan Secretaries of State in many states, mostly Republican governed, requires at major reform, taking partisanship out of the election process.

Congress has the authority to do this in the Constitution, and therefore, could federalize all elections for Congress and the Presidency, including national registration and the mechanics of operating the election process, so as to make it fair, and also to insure no discrimination or politics in the voting process.

Of course, states rights advocates will fight against this, because they wish to continue their abuse of power, and deny people the basic right to vote.

But the world watches, and is shocked at how Neanderthalish is our whole process of electing Congress and Presidents, so it is time for reform!

2012—The ULTIMATE “Year Of The Woman”!

Ronald 1 Comment

The year 1992 was called “The Year of the Woman”, as we saw more women elected to public office twenty years ago, than at any other time in American history.

Well, now, step aside, as 2012 is now the TRUE “Year of the Woman”!

In 2013, there will be TWENTY women in the US Senate, and SEVENTY SEVEN women in the House of Representatives!

Additionally, the state of New Hampshire will be the first state to have an all female leadership, as Governor, in the US Senate, and in the House Of Representatives!

With so many women having political influence, and with the likelihood of one or more women planning to run for President in 2016, the role of women is rapidly becoming one of great admiration and significance historically!

The Christian Right Loses Its Power And Influence In 2012 Elections

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The Christian Right, known in the past as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, was a very powerful force from the late 1970s until 2012, having an impact on the election of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and effectively hijacking the Republican Party, effectively promoting their biased agenda.

But now they have suffered a major defeat in 2012, and the influence over the party is waning. The Republican Party is well aware that if they allow the Christian Right to continue to wage war against women, immigrants, and gays, then they will disappear as an effective political opposition to the Democratic Party.

The majority of American women do NOT want anyone controlling their reproductive lives, and telling them that rape is not a reason for abortion.

The majority of immigrants, whether legal or undocumented, do not want minority groups to be profiled, have to fear the police, be told to leave the country with their children who are born in America, and have religious leaders display hate and prejudice toward them.

The vast majority of gays and lesbians, and their straight allies, want discrimination based on sexual orientation to be ended, and to have the same legal rights to basic civil rights, including the right to marry.

So those Christian pastors who preach hate, including those who rail against Barack Obama and wish him harm, are only undermining the legitimacy of their being ministers of Jesus Christ, who would, most certainly, be advocating the totally opposite view of all of these groups, and promoting love and tolerance, rather than hate!

It is a good thing that the Christian Right is declining in its influence, as the South and Great Plains decline in significance in population terms, and as older white males in particular, who refuse to understand the need for change and moving forward, grow older, and will soon pass on, as a bad memory of the ugliness of extremist religious values!

Separation of church and state needs to be reaffirmed! Theocracy is against what the Founding Fathers advocated!

The Disgrace Of The University Of Mississippi Revisited—1962 And 2012

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Fifty years ago, the University of Mississippi became the center of racial confrontation, when the National Guard had to be federalized by President John F. Kennedy to have safe integration of the university, and allow the first African American, James Meredith, to attend and stay safe, as he pursued an education.

There were commemorations of this event at the end of September this year, praising how far things had improved, including the first African American Homecoming Queen. It made many people proud of how far the university had evolved.

But then, sadly, the old redneck mentality returned on Wednesday morning, as 400 students rioted after the reelection of President Barack Obama, protesting his victory in a very racist fashion.

So, while certainly it was only a few hundred hoodlums who participated in the violence, it besmirches the name of the university, and reminds us of how little change has really occurred in 50 years, as the racism of the state, which helps to keep it poor and seen as a backwater, and has led to a loss of a Congressional seat due to lack of population growth, undermines the economic growth of the state, often seen as at the bottom statistically in most categories of judgment!

The Right Wing Media Industrial Complex And Christian Extremists Must Be Excised From The Republican Party As A Cancer!

Ronald 5 Comments

The only way for the Republican Party to survive long term is to excise the cancer, the poison, that is the right wing media industrial complex, as well as Christian extremists!

This means that Conservative Talk Radio and Fox News Channel needs to be divorced from the GOP! And the same for right wing preachers who promote racism, and are control freaks!

So Republicans must tell Rush Limbaugh to go to hell, as a destructive force!

So Republicans must tell Fox News Channel, its owner Rupert Murdoch, and its self satisfied talk show hosts–including Sean Hannity and Bill O’ Reilly–and all of the other “guests” who spew lies, hate and propaganda, to take a hike!

Republicans must also tell Michael Savage, Michael Reagan, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, and Glenn Beck to drop dead!

And anyone not specifically mentioned above, but willing to enrich himself or herself by causing division and spewing poison, should be told they are no longer welcome in the Republican tent.

And finally, all of the Christian extremists, who think the government is supposed to be a theocracy, and wish to force their bigotry on women and gays, must be told that hell is waiting for them NOW, not later!