education

54th Anniversary Of Sputnik: The Need For National Purpose As We Had In 1957!

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Today is the 54th Anniversary of the Space Age, as the Soviet Union shocked the United States and the world by orbiting a space satellite, Sputnik I, in space, taking everyone by surprise!

It was the most shocking moment in America since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which brought us into World War II.

And in both cases, the United States reacted with a massive effort to overcome the disadvantages they faced!

Much like they did in fighting Al Qaeda after the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001!

This nation MUST look at the economic disaster we are in now as a result of the Great Recession, and stop the politics, and do what is right for America: the creation of jobs, the promotion of fairness in taxation, and the need to invest in education and infrastructure, as well as promote innovation in technology!

The nation cries for the end of the divisiveness which has developed, particularly since the Clinton years, and to stop having the government interfere in our personal lives due to the crusades of religious zealots, and instead call for government intervention economically to stop the stratification of society, which has made us the nation with the most inequities of any democratic society on earth!

Rick Perry Attacked From The Right: How No GOP Candidate Can Please The Lunatic Fringe!

Ronald 2 Comments

Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to many like the ideal conservative Republican, except he isn’t!

This is further proof that NO ONE can ever fully satisfy the extreme Right Tea Party Movement, and that the Republican Party needs to tell the Tea Party Movement to go to hell in a hand basket!

Rick Perry is a horror to most sane people, what with his secession comments, his record on capital punishment, his attacks on the Obama Health Care Plan, his criticism of the Federal Reserve, his calling Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme”, and other outrageous statements.

But on two issues, he is correct: that the children of illegal immigrants, who are not responsible for being in America, should be given the same opportunity to in state tuition for a college education as children of Texas citizens, as long as they have been in the state for at least three years; and the decision to promote HPV vaccine for young girls in Texas, to avoid the danger of cervical cancer.

Perry has been vilified on these matters, and now has slipped in the latest Fox News Poll from the lead to number two behind Mitt Romney, but Romney should not sell his soul to the right wing, or it will also destroy him, and were he to win, his Presidency, as a captive of these nuts on the right!

The fact that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are now bitterly attacking Rick Perry is actually a reason to promote sympathy for Perry, but not too much. It just demonstrates why the Republican Party is not the alternative to Barack Obama, if one is sane and believes in having a “heart”, something that Perry was attacked for, but something we need more of in America if we are going to have a future we wish to be proud of!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: Being Wooed As The Savior Of The Republican Party

Ronald 1 Comment

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in office less than two years, is being wooed by Wall Street Republicans and conservatives on talk radio and Fox News Channel as the savior of the Republican party, and being pressured to get into the Presidential race.

There has not been such a draft movement in the GOP since Dwight D. Eisenhower was successfully brought into the Presidential race in 1952.

But is Chris Christie another Dwight D. Eisenhower? Is he the “knight in shining armor”, or is he just the flavor of the month, a desperate attempt by Republicans to find a winning candidate who can unite the Tea Party Movement and Establishment Republicans, which no one else seems to be able to do?

After all the glamor is stripped from the excitement around Christie, is he the answer for the beleaguered GOP? The answer is NO, as despite what many might think, the odds on Christie winning the White House are extremely low!

What makes people in the party so excited about Christie?

1. He is very blunt and forceful in his language, but some would say overly confrontational and crude.

2. He attacks labor unions, which make Wall Street and big business thrilled.

3. He is the original “Bully” Governor, a model for Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Rick Scott in Florida, and Paul LePage in Maine.

4. He attacks public education in favor of charter schools, which pleases many conservatives.

5. He promotes budget cuts, which ultimately means the promoting of cuts in state support of social services, a popular move with the right wing nationally.

But why is he a horrible choice for President?

1. His “in your face” personality is precisely what we do NOT need in the White House!

2. His anti education, anti teacher, anti union agenda would solidify the right wing agenda in other states and harm the nation’s future.

3. His personality would undermine American foreign policy, as he would antagonize even friendly nations with his pompous, aggressive manner.

4. While a federal prosecutor in his past, he has only been Governor of New Jersey for less than two years, giving him very little elected experience, far less than Barack Obama, who had been in elected office for twelve years in Illinois state government and the US Senate.

5. He would be a terrible choice on the basis of physical fitness and health, has obvious health issues including a recent asthmatic attack, and while it could be said that we had William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland in the past, it would not be a positive to have a person of his girth in the White House.

While many would see Christie as the ideal choice, he would be a bad model for the nation’s future in so many ways, and might even flop, as Rick Perry seemingly has, once we and the party and the nation had a better look at him!

Christie is more realistic than most when he says he is not ready for the Presidency, so let’s take him at his word and stop wooing him to enter the race!

The Republican Culture: Death, Hate, Selfishness, Lack Of Compassion!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party, in its mad dash to the far Right with Texas Governor Rick Perry in the lead, is demonstrating its ugly side, arguably the most despicable agenda since the creation of the party in the Civil War era!

Always a major backer of corporations and the rich upper class, the party always maintained some sanity, and while not promoting the social safety net as a principle, we saw members of the party in different northern states and in Congress who worked in unison with Democrats to support the Progressive Era reforms, the New Deal, and the Great Society, and reforms under Richard Nixon.

The one time the party went this far to the Right, they suffered a massive defeat under Barry Goldwater a half century ago. When Ronald Reagan became President on much of the Goldwater agenda, he managed to work across the party lines and take away the rough edges of the right wing, mouthing support but not pursing much of their agenda.

But now with the advent of the Tea Party loonies, the party is adopting a new culture, that should sicken any civilized, decent American citizen!

Unfortunately, as witnessed at the recent Republican debates in California and Florida, there are many Americans who fail to act and believe in a dignified manner of behavior!

Now death, in the form of capital punishment endorsement and advocacy of letting people without health insurance die, has been endorsed enthusiastically by right wing Republican whackos!

Now, hate of illegal immigrants and their children, and wishes to deny them basic education, health care and ability to work and contribute to American society, is endorsed wholeheartedly!

Now, selfishness, including desire to destroy labor organizing, and lack of respect and appreciation of the contributions of public workers, including police officers, firefighters, prison guards, teachers, nurses, librarians, social workers and others is endorsed!

Lack of compassion for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the elderly, and for minority groups in America is hailed as a virtue!

One day, when this sickness in the psyche of the Republican Party is finally expunged, we will look back on this period with shock and regret, and wonder why a major political party would allow itself to engage in such insane behavior!

The great Republican heroes of the past–Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan–would be shocked and embarrassed by what the party has allowed itself to become!

But even the lesser Republican Presidents–William Howard Taft, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush–would, and in the case of the two Bushes, are very disturbed at what their party has become. This is the reason why Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney are seen as mainstream by the Bush family, and why they are clearly against the horrible message of Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann!

Even the great heroes of the conservative Republican movement in the past–Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater–were not as ugly as these Tea Party Republicans are today!

Hopefully, this poison in the political debate going on, will be soundly defeated in 2012, by sane, intelligent people, who realize what the Tea Party control of the GOP has done is to make America far worse off than it was just nine months ago when they took power in the House of Representatives and declared war on basic values of decency!

Rick Perry: Dangerous For The Republican Party And America’s Future! He Must Be Stopped!

Ronald 1 Comment

Texas Governor Rick Perry may have flubbed a bit in his debate performance in Tampa on Monday, but he remains the front runner for the Republican Presidential nomination as of today, and it is looking more likely that he really could end up as the nominee of the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan!

This is dangerous for the party and the nation, as Perry has many shortcomings, as well as dangerous aspects in his background and viewpoints!

For the party, Perry represents a threat to the Establishment Republicans, the middle, the mainstream of the party in the past, and gives power to the extremists of the Tea Party Movement!

With Jon Huntsman apparently floundering, even though the author feels he came across very well in the past two debates, the only hope in the field of candidates is Mitt Romney, with all of his shortcomings and faults, but it will not be easy to overcome the Tea Party takeover of the party!

One could say that if the party nominates Perry, they will lose, and that will be, therefore, only their problem as to how to recover from a disastrous defeat in 2012.

But with the economy so bad right now, the idea is starting to develop that maybe, just maybe, Barack Obama COULD lose in 2012, giving us President Perry, and possibly a Tea Party Congress, enough to make one hysterical and give one nightmares, and the purpose here is NOT to joke, but be very serious!

Were Perry to win, we would face the following, with and without a Tea Party majority in Congress:

1. We would have a President who is not very smart, not very curious to learn, not open to new ideas, very rigid in his right wing beliefs, unwilling to compromise, arrogant, cocky, with a swagger about him, and not willing to be transparent in his activities in the White House!

2. We would have a complete takeover of right wing conservatism, leading to total deregulation, cutting of taxes even further on the rich, attempts to destroy several government agencies or make them ineffective in their work, and resulting in widespread corruption due to “cronyism”!

3. We would have a President who would be arrogant toward the outside world, create crises and possible interventions in other countries, and boast about “American exceptionalism”, undermining relations even with our allies and friends around the world.! The neoconservative view of foreign policy would dominate.

4. Civil Liberties would be violated worse than any President in modern times, and civil rights enforcement for Latinos, African Americans, women and gays would end!

5. We would see a theocracy develop, as Rick Perry would constantly invoke Jesus Christ, talk about God and religion more than any President, including Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush, and promote as much combination of church and state as one can imagine might happen.

6. The economy would NOT get better, and instead we would have more poverty, deprivation, and human suffering, similar to the reality in Texas under Governor Perry.

7. War would be declared on environmentalists, and scientists, in the name of industry and religion, undermining our education system nationally, as well as our health care programs.

8. Justice and fairness in the law would be undermined, as capital punishment would become a virtue, and the courts, including the Supreme Court, would become the most right wing in American history since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

9. The goal of a Perry Administration would be the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, and all other social safety net programs, and basically the repeal of the Progressive Era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the other reforms under Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

10. Fundamentally, America would go back a full century to the Gilded Age, with the total or near total repeal of the 20th century, which made America the envy of the free world!

This is serious stuff here, no joking, and all efforts must be made in the Republican Party to defeat Rick Perry, and if that fails, and even if it succeeds, do everything necessary to reelect Barack Obama as the only hope for moving forward in the second decade of the 21st century!

Barack Obama’s Jobs Speech: Aggressive, Blunt, Forceful, Extremely Effective!

Ronald 1 Comment

Barack Obama gave a fantastic speech before a joint session of Congress this evening, and he called upon the Republicans to be bipartisan, but warned that he will fight for his jobs agenda across the country if there is no action!

This is the kind of speech that his supporters have been wishing for over a long time period! Be a strong advocate, offer cooperation, but make it clear that he will not tolerate lack of action by Congress without a clear cut reaction, on the level of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman!

Calling for dealing with education by rehiring of thousands of teachers, infrastructure spending, tax cuts for small businesses and the middle class, and aid to the long term unemployed through further extension of unemployment compensation, Obama called for a fairer tax system as well, to revive the American economy!

Basically, he declared a war on the economy, and seemed to gain some GOP support, based on early reactions by Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. But if they follow the lead of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, pledging opposition to any Obama programs, then the Democrats will fight in every congressional district to get the message across, and put Republicans on the spot with their constituents!

The speech was inspiring, and is the opening salvo in the 2012 Presidential election, with and without GOP support! This is the time for all who believe that President Obama is doing the best for this nation to rally around the administration and its programs to deal with the economy!

Rick Perry: An “Enviable Record” Of Accomplishments and Beliefs?

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Does Rick Perry have an “enviable record” of accomplishments and beliefs as Governor of Texas for the past eleven years?

Education–The absolutely worst record of educational accomplishments and graduation rate from high schools, and a massive budget cut this year,

Health Care–One out of four Texans have no health care coverage at all, not seen as a problem by the Governor.

Capital Punishment–The highest rate of executions of any Governor, including many questionable cases of miscarriage of justice.

Social Security–Calling the program a “Ponzi Scheme”, totally off the wall, and undermining its future by scaring young people who are paying into the system, along with those getting it and near to eligibility for it.

Employment–Bragging about the most jobs created, without revealing most are minimum wage or below, or are government or military jobs, which he has no right to give himself credit for.

Immigration–Claims that there is a crisis on the border, when statistics show there is NOT a crisis.

Much more could be delineated, but the point is clear: Rick Perry is himself a “Ponzi Scheme”, a charlatan, a liar, a phony of major proportions!

The “Social” Issues In The Presidential Campaign Of 2012: Are They Really Gay Marriage, Abortion, Affirmative Action, Gun Rights, School Prayer, And Immigration?

Ronald 2 Comments

If you listen to Republican Presidential candidates and “social” conservatives, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, one would conclude that the social issues for the nation in 2012 are:

1. Gay Marriage
2. Abortion
3. Affirmative Action
4. Gun Rights
5. School Prayer
6. Immigration

All of these issues are extremely controversial, but what are the REAL social issues in America?

1. Homelessness of so many Americans, including those once middle class citizens.
2. Hunger, where many Americans, millions of them children, have inadequate nutrition, which will affect them long term.
3. Unemployment long term of millions, many of them over 40 and through the 50s and early 60s in age, who will never be able to gain employment at all at any time, or at the most, never make anywhere near the same income they had been earning in good times.
4. The destruction of the retirement funds and plans of millions of senior citizens, who now have to work many more years than planned just to survive.
5. The lack of health insurance and coverage of many millions of people who cannot afford to go to a doctor or hospital, or afford extremely expensive medication that would prolong life.
6. The lack of educational opportunity for those who are in poverty stricken neighborhoods, and receive an inferior education due to local property taxes being the main source of educational funding.
7. The discrimination against the children of undocumented immigrants, who discover when becoming adults, that they cannot attend college or join the military, and are threatened with deportation, along with discrimination visited against them and their parents and family members in states, such as Alabama and Arizona, because of illegal immigration laws which are being challenged in the federal courts.
8. The continuing challenge for disabled Americans, whether from birth or as a result of accidents or health problems, who, despite the Americans With Disabilities Act passed under President George H. W. Bush in 1990, still face barriers to equality of treatment.

These eight problems listed above are the REAL social challenges, but the Republican Party and so called “religious” people totally ignore these issues, instead promoting a new version of the old Social Darwinism and Laizzez Faire Economics prevalent in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century!

In other words, they want to go back to the 19th century, wipe out the 20th century, and promote good old “Christian” and “Unbridled Capitalism” values, which made America a nation ripe for reform and change, including the Progressive Era, The New Deal, and The Great Society!

This attempt to return to the old conservatism is a great evil which must be defeated by all good, really “religious” people of all faiths, who believe in equality of opportunity and fairness and consideration of others less fortunate than those of us who are lucky and successful, and do not experience the hardships of others!

The past is the past, and we need to look to the future, and realize if one American is homeless, hungry, denied health care and education, or discriminated against, then we are all worse off because of those realities!

This must be a country of WE, rather than simply ME!

A Moment Of Reckoning For Barack Obama: Acting Aggressively, But Realistically!

Ronald 1 Comment

As we reach Labor Day next Monday, the economy is the number one issue, and it is only 14 months to Election Day.

The economy has stalled in relation to job growth, the first time to have no job growth since February 1945. We are likely going into a deep recession, although one could argue that we have never left the Great Recession, which supposedly ended in 2009.

This is an extremely tough time for President Obama and the nation, and he MUST act aggressively, but also realistically about the economic situation.

People have been speculating in the news media about the “What Ifs”, if Hillary Clinton had won the Presidency, or of John McCain had defeated Obama in 2008.

This is pointless, as we must live with reality, but to believe that Hillary Clinton, who had already gained the hatred of Republicans and the Right Wing conservatives, would somehow have magically produced a better economy and more support from the opposition party is to dwell in fantasizing on a major scale!

And to believe that John McCain, who had reportedly had plans to select former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, one of the architects of the financial disaster through his corrupt connections, to be his Treasury Secretary, tells legions about what he would have done regarding the economy. And having Sarah Palin, rather than Joe Biden, as an adviser on foreign policy, is enough to make anyone have nightmares!

So, as Michael Beschloss, the historian, told Obama at a retreat recently, he must make it clear to the American people that he is fighting difficult forces, not all of which can be controlled, and that things are going to get better, and that a lot of the responsibility for the mess we are in is due, not only to the Republicans led by the Bush Administration, which put us in the financial crisis, but also by Republicans now who are willing to sacrifice high unemployment as a way to convince voters that they should switch back to the failed policies of the past!

So, as Beschloss told Obama, fight like hell like Franklin D. Roosevelt, who faced much higher unemployment rates, but was reelected, by making it clear that the GOP hates him, and he accepted their hate and would fight them tooth and nail for what must be done! Obama can no longer be “Mr. Nice Guy”, but must instead “give them hell”, as Harry Truman did in 1948!

So therefore, a very bold, aggressive jobs plan MUST be offered by Obama next Thursday, even if it seems likely that nothing will be done by the Republican House of Representatives! Use the plan against them in the upcoming Presidential campaign as an issue if they will not budge, and make it clear to voters that it is because of the Republicans that nothing can be done! Emphasize education, health care, infrastructure projects, and energy programs, making it clear these are the future of America, now, or after the Election of 2012, with a rejuvenated Democratic majority, at least in the House of Representatives, if not the Senate!

And as part of this strategy, Obama has already, through his Justice Department, decided to pursue those corrupt, evil banks that helped to cause the housing crisis, and have been continuing their harm in the mortgage market by their dirty, corrupt tactics even up to the present! These banks include Deutsche Bank, J P Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. The executives who run these banks, and others that have proved to be greedy and selfish, having no concern for the American people, need to be prosecuted and sent to prison, held accountable for their evil actions, and finally, it looks as if the administration is starting to show its muscle in this regard!

And the unpopular decision today to delay the smog standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to 2013, while highly regrettable, seem reasonable now with the high unemployment rate and the stagnant economy. But it should be seen only as a DELAY, not an abandonment, of higher environmental standards for business and industry, and hopefully, with a Democratic President and Congress in 2013, the crackdown on the pollution standards can be revisited!

George W. Bush To Rick Perry: The Potential Further Deterioration Of The American Presidency In The Election Of 2012!

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Much has been written about the faults and shortcomings of the George W. Bush Presidency, but we are now faced with another Texas Governor who could, if elected, make us wish for the “good old days” of Bush 43, and certainly for the “very good old days” of Bush 41, and even to wish for a “Bush 45 (Jeb Bush)”!

The Bush family and their supporters are clearly vigorously opposed to a President Rick Perry. Jeb Bush has been indirectly critical of the GOP Presidential field, saying instead of just attacking President Obama, real alternatives to his policies are needed, a swipe at Rick Perry. His son, Jeb Bush, Jr. has formally endorsed Jon Huntsman, and Huntsman met with the elder President Bush at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, before entering the race. Bad blood has existed between the second President Bush and Perry, who was his Lieutenant Governor and succeeded him when Bush became President in 2001. Karl Rove, adviser to the second Bush, has been vehemently against Perry, as he and the Bush family were when Perry ran in the 2010 GOP primary for another term against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

George W. Bush promoted “compassionate conservatism”, and while that is often ridiculed, in fact, for all its faults, Bush’s administration DID promote a prescription drug plan for seniors, although it was not funded by taxes and has added to the national debt. Bush also was not, and his family are not, supporters of the Tea Party movement, which in many ways, are a reaction against steps taken by Bush in the economic crisis of 2008–2009.

Now we have Rick Perry, who has threatened Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve Board, an appointee of Bush. He has had the gall to say Barack Obama does not love America, even though Obama’s record of going after terrorists successfully far outdoes the eight years of Bush and Dick Cheney. Perry has also attacked Social Security, calling it a Ponzi scheme, and is trying to stir younger Americans to rise up against paying the Social Security tax, which effect would be to bring the whole system down and deny senior citizens the safety net that has worked well for 75 years, and is in good shape, even without any modification, for 25 more years, and with some tinkering, will be just fine for the long run!

Under Perry, the number of poor Texans, growth in minimum wage jobs, decline of educational funds and standards, and percentages of people with no health care coverage, has magnified, while under Bush, many of the statistics showed much more positive results. And one cannot just say that the Great Recession beginning in 2008 caused these downturns, as they were occurring all along during the past ten and a half years of Perry’s Governorship!

Perry has also had more people executed, including those on which there was doubt, than under Bush, and he is proud of this, as if that is an accomplishment! And the people around Perry make Bush’s “people” look brilliant by comparison!

The only virtue Perry would bring to the White House would be to make us “appreciate” George W. Bush for the first time, as the further deterioration of the Presidency would be in full swing!