Hurricane Sandy

The REAL Issues Of 2012 That Are Being Ignored In The Presidential Campaign

If one follows the Presidential campaign of 2012, one would think that ONLY the economy matters.

YES, the economy matters, but the newest jobs report demonstrates that this nation is on the mend, and that over the next Presidential term, the economy will recover, with some experts saying that up to 12 million jobs will be created, whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney wins the White House on Tuesday.

Others would say the danger of Iran is the major issue, but even on that, it is clear that both Obama and Romney would react similarly to an actual Iranian attack on Israel or any other part of the Middle East.

So the REAL issues are not the economy or Iran!

Instead, they are the following, although ignored in campaign rhetoric:

Climate Change or Global Warming—the reality of it, as demonstrated yet again by Hurricane Sandy, and the need to take the lead in moving away from oil and coal as the major energy resources. But, of course, Republicans and conservatives deny the reality of this threat, and the oil and coal industries do everything they can to protect themselves at the expense of the nation in the long run.

Gun Violence—as demonstrated by what happened so many times in the past few years, including Tucson, Arizona in 2011 to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords; the mass murders in the Aurora, Colorado movie complex in 2012; the constant murders in cities such as Chicago, often ignored because the victims are African Americans; and so many other cases. And again, the Republicans and conservatives fight any type of gun control, and allow the National Rifle Association to hold America hostage.

Education—the dire need to promote more people attending and graduating four year colleges and universities. Many would say that having a four year degree does not guarantee that one gets the job he wants or needs. While that is true, the unemployment figures make clear that those with a four year degree or more have an unemployment rate under FOUR percent, while those with less education or dropping out of school have an unemployment rate of TWELVE percent! Is there any evidence other than this to convince parents and children of the urgency of getting an education through a four year degree? And besides, there are intangibles other than just getting a degree for a job, such as improving one’s basic skills of reading, writing, and speaking, and improving one’s mind and knowledge; making one a better person in social situations and parent situations; and raising people up from ignorance, conspiracy theory beliefs, and over reliance on religious doctrine, which unfortunately makes many people unwilling to reason for themselves, and just accept gospel as absolute fact. And of course, Republicans and conservatives argue against extra funding and assistance for education, and would prefer to lean on organized religion to “control” the masses, keep them ignorant, and willing, therefore, to accept ideas without questioning or challenge!

The Supreme Court—not understood by many for the important role it plays, and will continue to play, and the urgency of having a President who will select nominees who wish to look to the future, and not the past, and prevent regression politically, socially, and economically back to the Gilded Age and the 1920s. The Republicans and conservatives and Mitt Romney want more Antonin Scalias, Clarence Thomases, and Samuel Alitos, to insure that we go backward for the next 30 years! So the election of Barack Obama is urgent for the future of constitutional law and the preservation of the advancements of the Earl Warren and Warren Burger Supreme Courts.

These issues mentioned above SHOULD be understood before people, who have not voted before Tuesday, vote for our next President, and the best decision for any sane individual is to vote for the candidate who represents a willingness to deal with the future, President Barack Obama!

Time To Face Reality: Education, Infrastructure, And Climate Change Legislation Is Urgent For America’s Future!

The Republican Party has been fighting mightily against investments in education, infrastructure, and climate change, and now Hurricane Sandy makes clear that we can no longer have the privilege of allowing that party to destroy America’s future!

Education spending MUST go up, and we must make education of all kinds a priority if we are to compete with other nations that are passing us by!

We also have a desperate need for investments in rebuilding and expanding infrastructure all over the nation, just as Abraham Lincoln promoted the transcontinental railroad system, and Dwight D. Eisenhower advocated the interstate highway system, these two events a century apart!

And we must face that climate change and global warming are accelerating, and failure to do anything about it will doom this nation in the long run!

To be an ostrich with its head in the sand is self destructive, and the Know Nothings among us must be cast aside, and we must move into the future potential of the nation as soon as possible after the inauguration of the President in January, 2013!

Obama Aided Greatly By Events Of The Past Week: Colin Powell, Chris Christie, Michael Bloomberg

Barack Obama is closing out his Presidential campaign with some fortunate developments and an image of dealing with the crisis of Hurricane Sandy in a very effective manner.

First, he received the endorsement of Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who despite working for George W. Bush, has kept his credibility and his stature as a great American.

Then, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who had been a key backer of Mitt Romney, put politics aside, worked with President Obama on hurricane relief, and highly praised Obama, who he finally got to know well, and the two men bonded. Christie is still a Romney backer, but showed bipartisanship and statesmanship, which is sorely needed.

And today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after first planning not to endorse any candidate for President, changed his mind, and gave his support to Obama because of his stand on abortion rights, gay rights, and climate change. In the process, the former Republican, and former Democrat, now an Independent mayor, criticized Mitt Romney for having abandoned all of his earlier moderate principles, including support of his own RomneyCare in Massachusetts, once it became ObamaCare.

The tragedy of a natural disaster helped to lead to the second and third events, and the support of both Powell and Bloomberg, and the growing friendship and relationship between Obama and Christie, are developments that give hope for a better future, if Obama can be reelected, and these steps help to bring that desired result next Tuesday!

And the criticism of the right wing on radio, Fox News, and in print is something to be totally ignored, as their hate and divisiveness needs to be totally repudiated by sane, intelligent, open minded people! Good riddance, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the hate mongers who earn millions dividing America, instead of uniting it!

Republicans Have Lost Credibility: Barack Obama Has Proved He Has Competence And Empathy, Winning Factors For Presidential Race

The Republican Party has been arguing for four years that President Barack Obama is incompetent, and that he does not care about the American people.

It has been a false argument from Day One, but the tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Obama is an extremely competent, courageous leader, who can relate to the crises in ordinary people’s lives, something that George W. Bush displayed that he had no ability to do the same, as in Hurricane Katrina; and something that Mitt Romney has proved throughout the Presidential campaign that he even lacks the gene to care, and to relate to people who are not wealthy and part of his “one percent” class!

Barack Obama has now proved, except for the hate mongers and racists, that he is as able to relate to us, the common folk, as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman demonstrated regularly!

Like them, he will be elected in difficult times, and with many polls saying he is not favored, to another term as President, with the American people demanding that the opposition start realizing that we all insist on COOPERATION and UNITY, on the scale that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is, courageously, demonstrating to his credit!

To The Koch Brothers, Donald Trump, Jack Welch, Sheldon Adelson, David Siegel: Stop Funding Mitt Romney, And Instead Show Patriotism And Decency By Giving Multiple Millions For Disaster Relief For Victims Of Hurricane Sandy!

It is time for the wealthiest among us, many of whom have supplied tens of millions of financial support to Mitt Romney, so that they can “buy” the country, and make it the way they want it, against the interests of the American people, to stop helping Mitt Romney, and show compassion and decency, and a sense of patriotism, and give multiple millions for disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy!

You guys know who you are—Charles and David Koch, Donald Trump, Jack Welch, Sheldon Adelson, and David Siegel!

But it is more than just these six men!

How about the Rockefeller family members, the Kennedy family members, the Bush family members, the Walton children who control Walmart, the top wealthy on the stock exchange, the top bankers, the top people in the computer technology industry, the top movie producers and actors, the top singers and musicians, the top sports figures and owners of sports teams!

Come on, you all are very lucky and fortunate, and you owe this to your country! It will be a tax deduction for charity, will improve your public image, will make people, at least for awhile, admire you for your decency and compassion, and help to overcome the image that rich people are just greedy, selfish, and have no regard for their fellow human beings!

Come on, get moving, as this nation needs you!

Oh, and by the way, Mitt Romney, why don’t you offer a few million dollars of support yourself, instead of only giving “charity” to the Mormon Church, and thinking that is adequate, which it is not, most certainly! You might just look less selfish, greedy, and corrupt were you to show, just for once, some common decency and compassion and empathy for those less fortunate, and therefore, improve your public image!

BIG Government IS Essential In The 21st Century In Third Largest Nation On Earth!

The tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has brought to the forefront a reality that many Republicans and conservatives have refused to recognize—BIG government IS essential in the 21st century in the third largest nation on earth, and we cannot go back to the past concept of small government, and leaving everything to Mitt Romney’s concept of privatization!

We are a nation of 315 million people and counting, and this is very different than when America was a nation of 4 million in 1790; or 31 million in 1860; or 125 million in 1930; or 200 million in 1970!

The states have proved over and over again that they are incapable of handling the issues and problems of their population, without assistance from the federal government.

It is time to say that states rights is dead, in the sense that states cannot be allowed to stand in the way of progress, cannot be allowed to dictate differing policies that affect the American people in a detrimental way!

The Civil War was fought over states rights, as one of the issues, and we have had problems with states rights advocates ever since, who choose to use state power to promote racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The time for state leaders to understand that such policies are no longer acceptable is now, at a time when states fully understand that it is the national government and its bureaucrats who are the only ones who can be relied on to deal with man made or natural crises.

The only thing that is obvious is that the BEST people must be hired to run federal agencies that deal with crisis, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that we must have Presidents who realize the need to prioritize such activities, rather than those, such as George W. Bush, himself incompetent, who allowed FEMA to fail to react properly to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, or his dad, George H. W. Bush, who failed to react properly to Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

This is proof that what we need in the Presidency is a person who understands the role and need for national government, not someone such as Mitt Romney, who only thinks of money and privatization every day of his life, and does not give a damn about ordinary people and the struggles they face every day of their lives!

We need a leader, such as Barack Obama, who has empathy and compassion and concern, not a plutocrat, who is only concerned about the power of the Presidency, and wants to bring us back to the Gilded Age, when we were a nation of 50 million people!

The need for government has been so well displayed now, that for anyone to advocate small government, and returning power to the corrupt state and local governments, or to privatization, needs to be repudiated in as strong a manner as possible!

Crisis Leadership: FEMA, Mitt Romney, And Partisanship Displayed

This disastrous Hurricane Sandy has demonstrated already the difference in leadership of President Barack Obama and his Republican Presidential opponent, Mitt Romney.

Obama has conducted himself fabulously, and has been praised by Republican Governor Chris Christie for his leadership in the crisis. He has demonstrated a steady, calm, cool hand, as he always has in every tough moment of his Presidency, including the operation to eliminate Osama Bin Laden.

Meanwhile, we are reminded that Mitt Romney has advocated getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and farming its operations back to the state and local governments, and even promoting privatizing its activities. He constantly said this during the Republican primary campaign, as he rushed to please the far right wing of his Republican Party.

Now he is caught in a bind, and has avoided direct comment about the situation caused by Hurricane Sandy.

But he has also, this quickly, shown partisanship, instead of bipartisanship, by calling and consulting with Republican Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey, and Bob Mc’Donnell of Virginia, but NOT calling and consulting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and Delaware Governor Jack Markell, all Democrats.

This is evidence, and not good, that shows that Mitt Romney would NOT be a good crisis President, and would play political games, similar to what George W. Bush did with Hurricane Katrina, and the Democratic Mayor and Democratic Governor of Louisiana, and thus giving a bad image to FEMA, which had been effective before Bush, and is again under Obama!

FEMA can be effective IF we have the right crisis President, and the proper people put into the agency to operate it efficiently. And if there is a need to fund more money for FEMA, by raising taxes, so be it, as we cannot afford to leave the management of a natural or man made disaster to 50 state governors alone, and certainly NOT to private companies, whose only purpose is to maximize profits at the expense of their employees and the general public!

The Unsung Public Employees Prove Themselves Again: Time To Stop Trashing Them!

The massive human and property tragedy of Hurricane Sandy has proved once again how much we depend upon, and yet overlook, the sacrifices of public employees.

When one sees the sacrifices, hard work, and dedication of New York fire fighters, police officers, nurses, paramedics and others, who are working non stop in the crisis presented by the hurricane, it reminds us of September 11.

And this is multiplied by the similar sacrifices of public employees all over the Northeast, not just New York City.

And yet, we have politicians, particularly Republicans, who love to trash and dismiss the importance of public employees, and do not wish to pay them properly and give them appropriate benefits, as with the “Bully” governors, including Chris Christie of New Jersey, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and others of their ilk!

These unsung public employees deserve our respect and thanks, and politicians who use them as a whipping boy need to be repudiated, including Mitt Romney, who has no regard for workers in general, and public employees in particular!

Barack Obama And Hurricane Sandy: He Cannot Afford The Poor Response Of Both Presidents Bush To Hurricanes Andrew And Katrina!

President George H. W. Bush was greatly harmed by his government’s poor response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and it certainly contributed to his defeat in the Presidential Election Of 1992.

George W. Bush’s lowest moment in his Presidency was his poor response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and had the second term election been in 2005, instead of 2004, he would have lost reelection.

This has to be in the mind of President Barack Obama, as a poor response to Hurricane Sandy could guarantee, in a close race, that his opponent, Mitt Romney, defeats him in the upcoming Presidential Election of 2012!

October 29, 1929: Greatest Economic Disaster! October 29, 2012: Greatest Natural Disaster?

On this day, 83 years ago, in the year 1929, the United States experienced the Great Crash on Wall Street, the greatest economic disaster in American history, the beginning of the ten year long Great Depression. After three and a half years, the nation elected Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came up with plans that helped to alleviate these terrible economic conditions, and the New Deal changed America!

Now on this day in 2012, the Atlantic coast of the nation, with 60 million people, is about to be hit by the potentially worst, most costly natural disaster in American history, Hurricane Sandy, and we have a President, Barack Obama, facing a challenging political situation to win reelection in just eight days, and he now has an opportunity, but also a challenge, to deal with this crisis which could decide whether he will be inaugurated for a second term on January 20, 2013.

It is ironic that October 29 will go down in history for being the date of two important turning points in American history!