Month: May 2013

The Republican Whom Hillary Clinton And Other Potential Democratic Presidential Nominees In 2016 Should Most Fear: Jon Huntsman!

Ronald 41 Comments

Former Utah Governor, former Ambassador to China, and former GOP Presidential contender Jon Huntsman is on MORNING JOE as I write, and thinking ahead to 2016, one realizes that this is the Republican whom Hillary Clinton and other potential Democratic Presidential nominees in 2016 should most fear as a rival!

Huntsman is so SUPER qualified, it is a no brainer, as compared to ANY other potential GOP nominee for President! He walks all over Jeb Bush; has foreign policy experience which NO other potential nominee has; and has NEVER said or done anything to make him look ridiculous or looney, which cannot be said of any other potential nominee, including Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and the other wing nuts who are seen as potential nominees!

This man had a fantastic record as Governor of Utah, and is a foreign policy genius, and other Republicans show their total ignorance of the world out there, and seem to think that the only answer is either to send troops (a la Lindsey Graham and John McCain), or turn off the outside world (a la Rand Paul)!

If the GOP had their druthers, they would see that Huntsman is their best shot for the Presidency, and would give Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden or any other Democrat a real run for their money!

And if, by chance, Huntsman were to win, we would have a sane, decent, mainstream Republican inheriting the Oval Office, and we could sleep at night, secure that our nation was in safe, experienced hands!

Role Of Women Has Changed In Last Sixty Years, But Republicans Are Still In The 1950s!

Ronald 4 Comments

American women have made tremendous strides, economically and socially since the 1950sl, but the Republican Party and the conservative movement still seem to want women to be obedient and submissive, and stick to the kitchen and the bedroom, and have no control over their lives!

This is why, ultimately, the GOP is doomed, more than the growing Hispanic-Latino vote for the Democrats.

As long as the Republican Party follows the ideas of Michele Bachmann and other Neanderthal Congresswomen of their party, a total disgrace to womanhood, they will be unable to win enough of the women’s vote in future Presidential and Congressional elections!

Women will not be dictated to, ordered around, and told what to do with their bodies, and they will demand better labor conditions, rather than cutting back overtime pay and benefits!

It is reality that 40 percent of American households have a woman as the primary or only breadwinner. But single mothers make only an average of $23,000, while married women, who are more likely to be white and college educated, make an average of $80,000 if they earn more than their husbands. Twenty four percent of marriages now have a wife making more than her husband, up from six percent in 1960! More women now attend and graduate college, making them less dependent on the man in their life for economic survival!

A depressing statistic is that 44 percent of single mothers have never been married, as compared to 4 percent in 1960, and almost all are poor, and from minority racial and ethnic groups.

The conclusion is that women play a much greater role in American economic life, and are not about to have any men dictate what direction their lives will follow!

Barack Obama Joins Four Other Presidents In Doubling Of Stock Market In His Term!

Ronald 34 Comments

Barack Obama has joined a distinct group of four other Presidents who witnessed a doubling of the Standard and Poors 500 Index during their time in office.

The other four, just like Obama, won a second term in the Presidency, with Franklin D. Roosevelt also winning a third and fourth term, before the 22nd Amendment was passed, preventing any such situation in the future.

The others besides FDR and Obama with this great accomplishment were Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton!

So Obama is anti capitalism, and anti business, the same charges brought against FDR in 1936, but repudiated by the American people!

The right wing has no substance to stand on, so they issue ridiculous charges, which are totally lies and propaganda!

Michele Bachmann To Leave Congress: Goodbye, Good Riddance, And Please No More Public Appearances Once You Leave (Fat Chance)!

Ronald 55 Comments

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, arguably the most infuriating Republican House member, although there are others who could certainly compete for that honor, has announced she is not going to run for a fifth term in her Congressional district, and everyone should celebrate this news!

Bachmann will go down as one of the most reckless, most irresponsible members of the US House of Representatives in its entire history!

She said stupid, inane things on a regular basis; worked at character assassination of Democrats and progressives; and her husband added to the embarrassment of her public appearances and speeches, both on the floor of the House and off!

She contributed NOTHING positive to American politics, working at dividing Americans, rather than unite them on anything!

She was also an embarrassment to the advancement of women in politics, and her Presidential campaign was a disgrace, that she even thought she was qualified to serve in the Oval Office!

To believe that she is a tax attorney is hard to conceptualize, as he came across as brain dead, having no understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and rejected science totally, and accepting mythology and hearsay as fact!

To believe that this dumb moron was on the Intelligence Committee of the House demonstrates what a mockery the Republican Party has become in the House of Representatives, accomplishing the least legislative action of any Congress in 70 years!

Bachmann claims that she was not worried about losing her seat, even though her margins of victory were smaller each time, and the last round, she won by one percent.

Bachmann also claims that she is not concerned about the investigation of her Presidential campaign funding by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but an active pursuit of information about likely corruption is in process, and do not be surprised that she could be indicted, and could, in theory, face expulsion from the House if the investigation develops quickly enough over the next 18 months.

It would be fitting for Bachmann to be repudiated and forced out, as she is a a literal nightmare that brought out the ugliest side of the American right wing!

And the Tea Party Movement, of which she was the leading member, is also in trouble, and hopefully, there will be a repudiation of that hateful, backward, movement that promoted selfishness and greed, and condemns people who are not part of the elite upper class white establishment that put us into the Great Recession!

Meanwhile, we have rid ourselves of Florida Congressman Allen West, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, other morons and threats to a stable future in America, so we do have some things, as progressives, to be happy about!

Consumer Confidence At Highest Since 2008: Economic Boom Is On!

Ronald 21 Comments

The stock market is really booming as the author writes, and new surveys demonstrate that we are in the midst of an economic revival, the greatest in the past five years!

Housing prices have risen dramatically after a long decline, rising 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013, and the highest since 2007!

Consumer confidence in the future, an important psychological barrier, also reached a five year high, with growing confidence about an improved job market, something that has taken a long time, just as it did in the Great Depression of the 1930s!

Consumer spending is more than 10 percent above 2009, and unemployment compensation claims are down, other good signs of a rapidly improving economy!

All this is happening, despite Republican attempts to stall a recovery, in order to wage war on President Obama, as they have demonstrated no concern about the average middle class or poor American, and continue their image of being out there for the elite two percent and the corporations!

Republicans Are Declaring War On Students: Doubling Of Student Loan Interest A Month Away!

Ronald 14 Comments

The Republican House of Representatives has voted to allow a doubling of student loan rates on July 1, and unless they change their tune, that is what will happen, as action needs to be taken to prevent an automatic increase!

This is a new declaration of war, adding to that on women, immigrants, racial minorities, labor, senior citizens, the poor, the middle class, and the environment!

Bob Dole and other sane Republicans of the past generation KNOW that the GOP is on a maniacal path, which leads to long term doom for the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, and Reagan! The GOP is committing suicide, but meanwhile, is making victims of vast numbers of the American people!

Momentous Supreme Court Month Coming Up: Gay Marriage, Affirmative Action, Voting Rights Act Cases To Be Decided

Ronald 1 Comment

The United States Supreme Court is entering its last month of the present session, and as usual, is leaving its most blockbuster decisions to the last weeks of its term.

Every June is momentous on the Supreme Court, as for instance, the upholding of the Obama Health Care Plan last June.

But this June is possibly more crucial when looking at history, as well as the issue of civil rights and civil liberties!

The most important cases are on Gay Marriage, Affirmative Action, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

With so much at stake, with 13 states having legalized gay marriage, and more to come in the next year, it would be wonderful if the Supreme Court went the whole distance, as it did in Loving V. Virginia on interracial marriage in 1967. It would be a major victory for civil rights and civil liberties, and stop the right wing attempt to fight gay marriage dead in its tracks! The hate mongering would go on, but if the Court ruled that two men or two women can be married, it could not be overcome by religious extremists by law!

Affirmative Action has been in effect since 1972, and remains highly controversial, but is now in danger or being ended as a method to promote the advancement of minority groups and women.

The Voting Rights Act, first passed in 1965, and renewed in 1982 and 2006, is now in danger of being curbed or ended, on the false basis that the record of Southern and other states on voting rights in the past no longer applies, but that leaves open the possibility of new voting rights violations in the future.

It is assumed that there are four votes on the Court to uphold all three cases–those of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elana Kagan.

It is also assumed that three votes to prevent gay marriage and end affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act are certain–those of Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito.

It would be a major surprise if any of these seven votes ended up differently.

The two “swing” votes are those of Chief Justice John Roberts, who has become somewhat unpredictable after, surprisingly, backing ObamaCare last June; and Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, the true “swing” vote alone, since Sandra Day O’Connor left the Court seven years ago.

Will Kennedy side with the liberals on the Court on all three cases? It seems highly unlikely at this point, but a good bet on gay marriage at the least, but the Court could choose to decide that case in a very limited manner, not an all encompassing decision.

We shall see on all three cases very soon!

Republican House Votes To End Overtime Pay For Workers, And Double Interest Rates On Student Loans On July 1: What Is Wrong With Them?

Ronald 5 Comments

The Republican controlled House of Representatives has voted to end overtime pay for workers under the labor laws, and also to double interest rates on student loans from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, effective July 1!

What could possibly be going through their minds in doing both actions, neither of which will be adopted by the Democratic controlled US Senate?

Why does the Republican Party continue its mission to destroy the middle class, harm workers and college students, and be so mean spirited and nasty?

What motivates them to continue to support the elite two percent, and condemn the average American?

How can they expect to win seats in the Senate and to win the White House with such narrow minded, uncaring actions?

It has become an issue of wondering whether the GOP has any common sense, any compassion for average Americans, any realization that they are shooting themselves in the foot politically, and in so doing, shaming the great Republican leaders of past generations!

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert Becomes More Of A Lunatic Than Congresswoman Michele Bachmann: No Easy Feat!

Ronald 3 Comments

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert of the First Congressional District of Texas is rapidly gaining notoriety as more of a lunatic, more outrageous, than even Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who was considered to be the leading wing nut in the Republican Party for the past few years.

But Gohmert is challenging her for certain, as with the following examples:

He has stated that women are coming into the nation illegally to have their babies, then take them out of the nation and breed them, as they are growing up, to be terrorists, and to be able to return to the country in 20-30 years to commit terrorist acts!

Barack Obama is a Muslim, and is encouraging terrorism, and hates Christianity and the American way of life!

If the principal and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School had only had guns, they could have stopped the massacre of 20 children and six teachers in Connecticut. The same goes for the Aurora, Colorado mass killings in the movie theater, that if patrons had had weapons on them, they could have stopped the mass killer dead in his tracks.

The US government is in cahoots with the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, and is undermining America’s defenses, including Attorney General Eric Holder!

There is no such thing as climate change, and drilling in the Alaska Arctic Wildlife Refuge is a good idea to pursue. And a Trans Atlantic pipeline also encourages caribou to have sex!

Former Congressman Allen West of Florida should have become Speaker of the House for the113th Congress, after his defeat by his constituents.

Having limits on gun magazines is equivalent of gay marriage and bestiality!

Most recently, Gohmert has advocated that a woman must carry full term a pregnancy, in which it is determined that the fetus has no brain function! Gohmert believes the woman has no right to terminate a pregnancy at any point after conception!

Can any sane person NOT see that Gohmert is a total lunatic, and needs to be forced to have a mental examination as to his mental stability?

Gohmert is an embarrassment to his own Republican colleagues, and yet his district keeps electing him, so what does that say about the First Congressional District of Texas?

Bob Dole Indicts 2013 Republican Party As Not A Party For Himself, Richard Nixon, Or Ronald Reagan!

Ronald 31 Comments

Former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, former Vice Presidential running mate of Gerald Ford in 1976; former Presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 1996; Senate Majority Leader and five term member of the Senate overall; and a total of 36 years in both houses of Congress, was on Fox News Sunday today, and he indicted the present day GOP as a party which would not welcome such venerable political figures as himself, Richard Nixon, and even Ronald Reagan in the 2013 political climate that has been established by a party he does not recognize!

Dole condemned the overuse of the filibuster, making it nearly impossible for any progress to be made on any significant legislation, or nominees for many government positions, including to regulatory commissions and to the judiciary.

Dole suggested a sign “closed for repairs” on the door of the Republican National Committee, as the party tries to come up with positive ideas, and returns to the conservative mainstream, which it has left, with its extremist agenda, with 115 cloture motions in past two years as compared to seven in the first two years that Dole was a Senator during the Nixon Administration!

As long as the Republican Party continues on its present course, it will NEVER win the White House again, and will continue to promote the image that it is only a party that is out to obstruct and block, rather than come up with real solutions to America’s domestic and foreign policy agenda!