Month: June 2014

Why Such Opposition To Birth Control And Contraception, As It Has Nothing To Do With Abortion?

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Hobby Lobby, the corporation which won its case before the Supreme Court today, making it possible for them to avoid having contraception as part of the medical coverage for their employees, is run by a family which professes to be “good Christians.”

What does birth control and contraception have to do with being “good Christians?”

All birth control and contraception means is that a woman should be able to have sexual relations, without the constant fear that she will be pregnant, when it may be inconvenient or problematical, in psychological or economic ways, to become pregnant.

Stopping a pregnancy occurring with an IUD or the “morning after” pill is not the same as having an abortion week or months later, when a fetus has started to develop.

Why should anyone give a damn about a woman having sex, without having to be concerned about pregnancy?

What is is about some “good Christians” that they feel the need to have government or corporations try to control a woman’s reproductive cycle, when it is NONE of their business, what one does with his or her love life?

Why can’t men leave women alone, and let them have human dignity and respect that they deserve? We don’t see a move to deny men the right to Viagra coverage on their medical plans!

Aren’t there enough poor people in this nation, already, who do not need anyone interfering in their desire to AVOID pregnancy?

Isn’t it time for people to stop butting into the private lives of others, and work on solving their own private life problems?

Isn’t it time for clergy to focus on making life better for those who are here and living,and those who are trying to make their lives better by not adding unwanted population, simply due to a sexual experience, be left alone?

Cocky, Arrogant, Smug, Smirker Bill Kristol Gets Comeuppance On THIS WEEK On ABC News!

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Bill Kristol, publisher of The Weekly Standard, one of the leading conservative journals of opinion, and a leading Neoconservative, who advocated intervention in Iraq a decade ago, is always willing to promote US military intervention all over the world, as long as he does not, himself, have skin in the game.

A true “chicken hawk,” Kristol is one of the most obnoxious of all necons, being extremely cocky, arrogant, smug, and a smirker with an attitude that he knows it all. Watching him makes one wish he could wipe the smirk off his face!

On ABC’s THIS WEEK on Sunday, Kristol finally got his comeuppance, when Katrina Vanden Heuvel, the publisher of The Nation,which is one of the leading progressive-liberal journals of opinion, and Matthew Dowd, who was an aide to President George W. Bush, both went on the attack against Kristol and other necons, and effectively shut him up, although it is clear Kristol does not wish to listen or to learn, as he has all the answers, with his intellectual snobbery!

Vanden Heuvel suggested that if Kristol really believed in further military intervention in the Middle East, that he enlist in the military, and put his own skin in the game, to which Kristol had no answer.

It is amazing how many necons, including the most infamous, former Vice President Dick Cheney, never served in the military, but are only too willing to send the sons and daughters of others to war!

Multiple Losing Presidential Candidacies, And Those Who Lost, Then Won The Presidency

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The history of multiple candidacies for the Presidency is an interesting one, with five candidates being nominated more than once and losing each time, and five candidates being nominated more than once, and losing before winning the White House (with unusual circumstances for Grover Cleveland)

Those who ran multiple times and continued to lose are:

Charles Pinckney, Presidential Elections of 1804 and 1808
Henry Clay, Presidential Elections of 1824, 1832, and 1844
William Jennings Bryan, Presidential Elections Of 1896, 1900, and 1908
Thomas E. Dewey, Presidential Elections of 1944 and 1948
Adlai Stevenson, Presidential Elections of 1952 and 1956

Those who ran multiple times and first lost, and then won the Presidency are (with unusual case of Grover Cleveland described below):

Thomas Jefferson, Presidential Elections of 1796, 1800 and 1804
Andrew Jackson, Presidential Elections of 1824, 1828 and 1832
William Henry Harrison, Presidential Elections of 1836 and 1840
Grover Cleveland, Presidential Elections of 1884, 1888, and 1892 (winning in 1884, losing in 1888, winning in 1892)
Richard Nixon, Presidential Elections of 1960, 1968 and 1972

Also, Jackson and Cleveland won the popular vote in the elections they lost in the Electoral College, so both actually won the popular vote three times, the only candidates to do that, other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won the popular vote and electoral vote four times, in the Presidential Elections of 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944!

Additionally, Martin Van Buren ran a third time in 1848 on the Free Soil Party line and lost; and Theodore Roosevelt ran a second time in 1912 on the Progressive Party line and lost.

Hostile Relationship Of Former Presidents With Incumbent Presidents

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The question of the relationship of former Presidents with incumbent Presidents is an interesting one, with usually the former Presidents avoiding open criticism of their successors, even if they are of a different political persuasions, and did not support the nomination or election of their successors.

There are only a few cases of open criticism and attack, including:

John Quincy Adams highly critical of Andrew Jackson, and returning to Washington, DC as a Congressman to “keep watch” over his policies and actions. Adams was also a sharp critic of the slavery and expansionist policies of John Tyler and James K. Polk.

Martin Van Buren being a major critic of the expansionist policies of John Tyler and James K. Polk in the 1840s, and of the slavery policies of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan in the 1850s.

John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan all critical of the policies of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

Grover Cleveland being a sharp critic of Benjamin Harrison, who he had lost to, and then ran against again and defeated in 1892, and then opposed William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt on the issue of imperialism and expansion.

Theodore Roosevelt very critical of his successor William Howard Taft, who he ran against on the Progressive Party line in 1912, and then against Woodrow Wilson’s policies toward World War I, after losing to him in 1912. Also, TR was resentful that Wilson “stole” some of his progressive ideas, and enacted them as President in his first term.

Herbert Hoover harshly critical of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies during the Great Depression and World War II.

Harry Truman very critical of Richard Nixon for years before he became President, and never really making peace even when Nixon gave the Truman library the piano in the White House that Truman had played. Also, Truman was critical of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the two men only resolved their differences at the funeral of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Jimmy Carter very critical of the policies of his successor, Ronald Reagan, and at times, of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Otherwise, the tendency has been to sit on the sidelines and avoid open criticism of one’s successors to the Oval Office!

A Century Ago Today, An Assassination Led To World War I, Which Still Reverberates Today!

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Precisely one hundred years ago today, a political assassination led to the outbreak of World War I, which still reverberates today in so many ways!

The Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, along with his wife, were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand terrorist organization, which was out to prevent Habsburg influence over Bosnia, which was allied by ethnicity to Serbia nationalists, and had friendship and support with Czarist Russia.

The series of events that followed over the next five weeks led to general continental war in Europe, lasting more than four years, when most thought the war would be won by their side within months. Instead, we saw trench warfare, barbed wire separating the warring sides, and use of poison gas, with almost no progress toward victory on the “Western Front”, and total disaster for Czarist Russia in Eastern Europe against Germany and Austria-Hungary. It became known as the “Great War,” but it was only great in the massive loss of life of millions of people, and the upending of the traditional empires of European nations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

World War I led to the following:

The rise of the Soviet Union and Communism, and the later Cold War, with the downfall and murder of the last Czar of Russia.

The end of the German Empire, but then the rise of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler within 14 years of the end of the war, and the eventual outbreak of a more disastrous war, World War II.

The rise of Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini within four years of the end of the war.

The end of the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the rise of separate nations based on nationality in Eastern Europe.

The end of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and the creation by Great Britain and France of artificial boundaries for the Arab peoples of the Middle East, leading to more disarray and conflict on a constant basis, and now unraveling after a century.

The decline and fall of the British Empire, French Empire, and other European empires in Africa and Asia over two generations, creating instability in both Africa and Asia, and the creation of new nations on both continents.

The rise of the United States as the greatest military power after World War II until the late 1960s, when the Vietnam War, followed by the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, undermined and weakened the supremacy of the American nation.

The world and America will be commemorating the events of World War I over the next four and a half years, and a worthwhile tourist site would be the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, which the author has visited, and highly recommends to anyone wanting to understand the reality and the impact of this war, which transformed the world in so many ways!

Former Tennessee Republican Senator Howard Baker Dead, A Major Loss!

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Former Tennessee Republican Senator Howard Baker has died at the age of 88, and his death reminds us of what the Republican Party used to be a few decades ago.

Baker was a man of principle, decency, dignity, and substance. He was a moderate centrist conservative, with the ability to cross the aisle and be bipartisan with Democrats.

He served with distinction in the US Senate for eighteen years, and was Senate Majority Leader in the first Ronald Reagan Administration term, and was Chief of Staff to Reagan for the last couple of years of his Presidency. He also was Ambassador to Japan in the first term of President George W. Bush.

He also sought the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980, against Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bob Dole, and this author considered him, by far, the preferable choice among that group.

He was on the Senate Watergate Committee, and backed away from support of Richard Nixon without any qualms, and was famous for asking what did the President know, and when did he know it?

He was the son in law of former Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois, and later married Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas, the daughter of former Kansas Governor and 1936 Republican Presidential nominee Alf Landon.

If there were more Howard Bakers in the Republican Party, that party would be so much better off, but Baker would not fit well in today’s GOP, sadly!

Tennessee and the nation have lost a giant figure in the history of American politics and the US Senate!

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley Goes To New Hampshire And Iowa: Sign Of Presidential Planning, Despite Hillary Clinton!

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Just as almost everyone imaginable seems to think Hillary Clinton is running for President, and will be the next President, we are seeing the emergence of Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley as a potential challenger to Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

O’Malley makes the case that he is simply preparing If Hillary, ultimately, does not run, and he is boning up on domestic and foreign policy issues, and emphasizing his broad experience as an executive, as Mayor of Baltimore for eight years, and now finishing up eight years as Governor of Maryland.

But is is certainly possible that O’Malley might decide to challenge Clinton if she does run, and that would place him on a short list of potential Vice Presidential nominees, and therefore, the possible heir apparent to Clinton after eight years as Vice President.

O’Malley’s candidacy is, certainly, more legitimate than that of former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has seemed more of a long shot, and just did a lot of damage in the past week with his comments about Eric Cantor and Dianne Feinstein.

All the other potential challengers on paper are officeholders, making the job of running for the Presidency a lot more difficult, with the list including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York Senator Kirsten Gillbrand, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Of course, there is also Vice President Joe Biden, who would become the immediate frontrunner in the Democratic battle for President were Hillary Clinton to shock just about everyone, and announce she was not running for the Presidency.

Meanwhile, Martin O’Malley is drawing attention by making appearances and speeches in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, and is making a good impression upon citizens!

Gay Marriage Case Likely On Way To Supreme Court For Ruling One Year From Now!

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The issue of gay marriage is likely on its way to the Supreme Court, and almost certainly will be decided a year from now, in the most blockbuster case of 2015!

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has declared gay marriage to be a basic right, and that means marriages can move ahead in the near future in Utah, which brought the case, along with Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and New Mexico!

There is a temporary hold, but it is a major step forward, and insures, almost certainly, that the case will go to the Supreme Court this fall.

And it is ALMOST certain that we will have a Loving V. Virginia (interracial marriage) case result next year, allowing gay marriage everywhere in America, whether religious right wingers like it or not! One must realize that no church or other religious establishment would have to promote it, but civil marriage would move forward.

The belief is that there are four certain supporters of gay marriage on the Court—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

Additionally, Justice Anthony Kennedy was the one who decided the path breaking case of Lawrence V. Texas, which greatly expanded the gay rights movement in 2003!

And it is possible to believe that Chief Justice John Roberts could also add his vote, making the vote next June 6-3!

The Argument For A Midwestern Governor For The Republican Party In 2016 Presidential Race!

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There is a growing feeling in the Republican Party, and among prognosticators, that the pool of GOP candidates for President in 2016 is lacking in so many ways.

Chris Christie is in trouble due to the scandal over the George Washington Bridge, and his handling of Hurricane Sandy money.

Scott Walker is in trouble over charges that he was involved in corruption during the 2012 recall campaign in Wisconsin.

Ted Cruz has made enemies every time he opens his mouth, and his push to close down the government in 2013 backfired, and caused division within Republican ranks.

Rand Paul is leading a fight against the “Establishment”, and is unlikely to be able to win support to be the nominee, with his libertarian and isolationist views.

Marco Rubio made enemies with his immigration reform plan, and is seen as having floundered ever since.

Paul Ryan has come across as someone who has no understanding of what middle class people go through, and with little compassion for the poor, and even fellow Catholics are often critical of him.

Bobby Jindal has come across as insincere, uncaring about his own constituents, and has lost whatever luster he once had.

Rick Perry may have gained classy glasses to wear, but he is still a horrible candidate in so many ways.

Rick Santorum is trying to reform his image as well, but he is still a former Senator who lost his seat ten years ago.

Mike Huckabee is an also ran from the 2008 Presidential campaign, and has sounded more looney than ever each month as his Fox News Channel show pushed him much further right than he had been in 2008, when he actually sounded reasonable.

Jeb Bush looks much better by comparison with other Republicans, but he is still a Bush, and has supported immigration reform and the common core education curriculum, both unpopular with his party, and besides, he certainly represents the “Establishment” more than anyone.

Mitt Romney claims not to be interested at all in running again, but yet he is seen by many as the fallback choice, despite his losing the Presidency in 2012.

Jon Huntsman, arguably the best candidate possible, seems to have absolutely no chance to convince the Republican Party that his moderate, practical conservatism is the right path.

The more one thinks about it, it makes sense that the Republican Party should seriously consider finding a candidate, preferably a Governor, from the Midwest, which is the true battleground of the Presidential Election of 2016!

None of the above mentioned candidates for the Presidency are from the Midwest, except for Ryan and Walker, both from Wisconsin, but both have fatal flaws hard to overcome.

But all of the Midwest, except Illinois, is arguably a battleground, although only Indiana and Missouri went Republican in 2012, and only Missouri in 2008!

Ohio and Iowa are true battlegrounds, and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are potentially up for grabs by either party.

So what seems to make sense is to give a hard look at two Midwestern Republican Governors, both of whom have served in Congress, and understand Washington, DC, but have also governed key states that are good models for preparation for the White House, at least in theory!

These two Governors are:

John Kasich of Ohio

Mike Pence of Indiana.

A lot more attention will be given to these two men as we get closer to the real beginning of the Presidential race at the end of 2014 and going into early 2015!

Israeli Statesman And Humanitarian Shimon Peres Receiving Congressional Gold Medal Today In Capitol Rotunda!

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Two days ago, Congress honored the late Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, the late Coretta Scott King, with posthumous gold medals, given to their children.

Today, Israeli statesman and humanitarian Shimon Peres will be honored in the Capitol Rotunda with a Congressional Gold Medal, as he retires from the Israeli Presidency at the age of 90 after more than 50 years of service to the Jewish nation, as Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense, and in other positions.

Peres always promoted peace and rational discussion, rather than war, and he stands out as a true man of principle and decency, and a model for all of us!

What a wonderful occasion to celebrate!