PBS

Conservative Republicans Want To Repeal Constitutional Amendments And 20th Century Reforms That Make America A Better Nation!

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The Republican Party of the second decade of the 21st century, along with the conservative movement, in all of its ramifications, is out to repeal constitutional amendments and numerous 20th century reforms that make America a better, more modern nation, all in their quest to make the corporations ever more dominant and enrich the top one percent more than already is reality!

When one follows, reads, and watches right wing spokesmen, in and out of the party, they have called for the following repeals:

The 16th Amendment–Federal Income Tax
The 17th Amendment–Direct Popular Election Of US Senators
19th Amendment–Woman Suffrage
Antiquities Act–National Parks, Forests, and Monuments Protection
Food And Drug Administration
Clayton Anti Trust Act
Federal Trade Commission
Federal Reserve Act
Social Security Act
Fair Labor Standards Act
Medicare
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Department Of Education
Department Of Health And Human Services
Department Of Housing And Urban Development
Department Of Energy
Environmental Protection Agency
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Occupational Safety And Health Administration
US Post Office
Affirmative Action
Abortion Rights
Gay Rights and Gay Marriage
National Public Radio
PBS
Americans With Disabilities Act
Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan
ObamaCare–Affordable Care Act

These and other laws and amendments not mentioned here became law under Presidents of both parties, including

Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama

Basically, these right wing groups and the dominant element in the Republican Party in Congress want to repeal everything that is good about America, and bring us back to the 19th century Gilded Age!

Three Significant Events In 24 Hours 41 Years Ago!

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Forty one years ago, on January 22-23, three significant events occurred, all of which had a massive effect on the history of the United States!

Lyndon B. Johnson, the architect of the “Great Society” domestic reform programs, the greatest since the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, died at age 64. Much of his Great Society remains part of our lives today, including:

Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
War On Poverty (some elements of the program)
Medicare and Medicaid
Federal Aid to Education
Environmental Laws
Consumer Protection Laws
National Public Radio and PBS

Additionally, just hours after his death, the Vietnam War came to an end by a peace agreement in Paris, ending the combat role of American troops after twelve years of war under John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. The war had divided us, and still has an impact on the veterans of that war today, but at least the US now has diplomatic relations and trade with Vietnam, something that seemed impossible to imagine four decades ago, after the loss of 58,000 Americans in that war, and over a million or more in Vietnam itself.

The third event that transformed us was the Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade, allowing women control of their reproductive lives and their bodies, in the first two trimesters of pregnancy, as well as promoting contraception to avoid pregnancy.

The so called “Pro Life” movement, really anti abortion, has worked very hard to limit the rights of women, trying to cut the period of allowance of an abortion to as low as six weeks in Arkansas and 12 weeks in North Dakota, as well as 20 weeks in many other states, but thankfully, federal district court and circuit court judges have prevented the enforcement of such illegal limits. But the battle for women’s rights goes on.

So January 22-23, 1973, was indeed a very big day, a moment in history of tremendous significance!

105th Birthday Commemoration Of President Lyndon B. Johnson!

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Today, August 27, is the 105th Birthday Commemoration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, a President who had a massive effect on our nation’s history.

We live under the influence of LBJ on Civil Rights, Medicare, Education, NPR, PBS, Environmental Laws, Consumer Protection Legislation, Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, and the War on Poverty that so desperately needs to be revived after 45 years of ignoring it!

Yes, this President is blamed, and carries the burden of the Vietnam War, but his legacy in domestic affairs lives on!

And tomorrow, his older daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, will join Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during the Presidency of LBJ!

PBS: $1.35 Per American—Is This Too Much To Promote Knowledge And Education?

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PBS has been part of American culture since 1965, when it was created under Lyndon B. Johnson as part of the Great Society programs, to promote knowledge and education.

Reaching nearly fifty years of age, and having lots of excellent programming, not just Sesame Street and Big Bird, and being made available in rural areas that have far fewer educational opportunities than metropolitan areas, PBS costs only $445 million annually to taxpayers, less than one thousandth of one percent of the national budget!

It comes down to $1.35 per person in America annually, and yet Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the Republican Party and conservatives want to force PBS to survive simply on the contributions of its viewers, which happen to be about 90 percent of the people at some point during the year.

While there are already contributions made by many to keep PBS able to promote its excellent programming, to use PBS as the “whipping boy” for the budget crisis that America faces is the height of hypocrisy, as it is literally a “drop in the bucket”, and it comes across as extremely petty to attack PBS, which offers so much good to the nation, and should not be subjected to becoming part of politics!

Education and knowledge should be our aim, and already, there are indications that the opponents of PBS are losing the battle of public opinion!

Sesame Street And Education Vs. Wall Street And Mitt Romney!

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Mitt Romney jokingly talked about stopping funding of PBS and Sesame Street during the Presidential debate, and “Big Bird” and the educational community is up in arms over the pettiness of what Romney is promoting!

As Barack Obama said yesterday, we need a war NOT on Sesame Street and PBS, which represents one one thousandth of a point of the national budget, but to crack down on Wall Street abuses, and prevent more tax cuts to the wealthy!

PBS and Sesame Street represent the future of America—education and knowledge–and the Republican Party is only concerned about the elite wealthy, and yet Romney lies through his teeth incessantly that he “cares” about the “one hundred percent”, and claims the “47 percent” comment was just a slip in one of hundreds or thousands of statements or speeches during his campaign!

Of course, the “47 percent” speech was NOT to a politically rally, or to a journalist, but to a group of super wealthy contributors in Boca Raton, and one can certain that this shows the TRUE Romney, and that his statement is NOT a mistake, except for the fact it got out to the public, and has caused the rapid decline in Romney fortunes!

By making 27 lies in 38 minutes of the Presidential debate, and attacking Sesame Street and “Big Bird”, and then claiming the “47 percent” statement was a slip up, when it was not, and only is seen as so because the American people know about it, Mitt Romney has “shot himself in the foot” yet again, and his Presidential fortunes will be no better on November 6!

Major Failure Of The First Presidential Debate: Many Topics NOT Covered!

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Sadly, Jim Lehrer of PBS, the moderator of last night’s Obama-Romney Presidential debate in Denver, failed to control the debate, allowed Mitt Romney to act as a bully much of the time, and completely ignored many domestic issues, focusing only on taxes, spending and health care, and failing to keep to the time limits on each question that was addressed.

There was no mention or discussion of

Women’s issues
Immigration Issues
Gay Rights Issues
Veterans Issues
Labor Issues
Civil Liberties Issues
Environmental Issues

How can any debate on domestic matters by seen as “legitimate”, when none of these matters were addressed?

And by NOT addressing these issues, Jim Lehrer indirectly helped Mitt Romney to avoid responsibility and accountability for his outrageous expressed views on all of these matters!

One would think Mitt Romney was a moderate mainstream Republican, based on last night’s performance!

Nothing is further from the truth, and future debates, and debate moderators MUST address these issues, and stop giving Mitt Romney a “free ride”!

Mitt Romney Declares “War” On PBS, NPR, NEH, NEA, And Amtrak

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Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has declared “war” on knowledge and learning, by his statements that he will, if elected President, move to eliminate funding for PBS, National Public Radio, the National Endowment For The Humanities, and the National Endowment For The Arts.

He also would eliminate Amtrak, a transportation system that benefits the “hated” Northeast part of the country, the most educated part of the nation!

All of this together would save a pittance, just a total of $2 billion, a “drop in the bucket”, with a multiple trillion dollar budget annually, while at the same time wishing to give massive tax cuts to the wealthy, even though that has not created new jobs, as conservatives have said would be the result!

So, Romney is promoting “Know Nothingism”, a war on knowledge and learning, attacking the arts, history, public media, and even public access to a decent transportation system in the crowded Northeast corridor.

It is a mean spirited, ideological attack on what Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, Presidents of different parties, did to promote programs and ideas seen as advancing America to more than just serving the elite classes among us!

But education and knowledge and the Northeast corridor are seen as evil, and this shows just how far Mitt Romney has moved to the far Right, that he is willing to eliminate programs that no earlier Republican President, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, dared to work to end!

The “compassionate” conservatism of George W. Bush and earlier Republican Presidents is gone, and ignorance and narrow mindedness are in!

Rush Limbaugh: Attempting To Bully Moderators Of The Presidential And Vice Presidential Debates!

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Liar and bully Rush Limbaugh has declared rhetorical war on the moderators of the three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate scheduled for the month of October.

Limbaugh is accusing all four moderators of being extreme left wing Democrats, and while saying that about all four–including Jim Lehrer of PBS, Candy Crowley of CNN, Bob Schieffer of CBS, and Martha Radditz of ABC–he adds the insult of calling Candy Crowley “Mama”, and Bob Schieffer “Dinosaur”!

Limbaugh is trying to use psychological warfare on the four moderators, trying to intimidate them, but they are all professionals with good reputations, and will not be bullied by a person who has as much a weight problem as Candy Crowley, but does not have the decency to avoid using names, and showing respect toward a woman moderator!

The best part of these upcoming debates is the fact that two women and two men will be moderators, rather than four men!

We should never again deny women equal opportunity to moderate Presidential or Vice Presidential debates, and we should continue to let Rush Limbaugh blow “hot air”, and ignore him as a person not worthy of our time or respect!

Mitt Romney, Gutless Wonder: Refusal To Stand Up Against “Crazy” Rick Santorum Proves He Would Be Weak President!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has proved to be a “gutless wonder”, unwilling to stand up against “Crazy” Rick Santorum, and if he cannot do this, what kind of a President would he be? How could we believe that he would fight against right wing extremism, or stand up to foreign nations, or believe anything that comes out of his mouth? He would lack all credibility in the White House!

Mitt Romney has shown he has no principles, no core, no stands he will not back down on if put under pressure!

This is not the kind of leadership that America needs in troubled times. He has not convinced America or his party that he cannot be pushed around, and that is totally scary and troubling at the same time.

If he cannot condemn Rick Santorum for saying that promoting college education for young people is a sign of snobbery; if he cannot stop being petty in advocating that “Big Bird” and PBS being cut from government support (a miniscule amount of money) as a reaction to what Santorum is saying, trying to outdo him in the attack on education; if Romney is unable to speak up for separation of church and state, as he himself is from a minority religion in America as a Mormon, just as John F. Kennedy was a Catholic; and if Romney cannot look us in the eye and say he wishes to govern as a moderate centrist, the only way to govern, rather than a hard line right wing conservative against his entire history, then Mitt Romney should not be President, and were he so, he would be a disaster in the White House!

The answer is to wish that Rick Santorum is the nominee, is walloped by Barack Obama, and that defeat would force the extremists out of the Republican Party, and allow the mainstream moderate center to reclaim control of the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike and even Reagan, to return to sanity and a future where Americans could again trust the GOP with national power in the White House and Congress! The only fear about asserting this is the concern that IF some tremendous economic or foreign policy crisis arises in the eight months to the election, that Americans might be crazy enough to vote in a right wing extremist, Rick Santorum, in a moment of fear and emotion. If that were to happen, then all faith in the common sense of the American people will have been lost, and we will be in deeper trouble than we have ever been in our entire history!

Bill Clinton PBS Documentary Reminds Us Of What We Wished To Forget: The Depth Of Republican And Conservative Venom Of Twenty Years Ago Which Remains Today!

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Last night, and continuing tonight, PBS is presenting another part of its great AMERICAN EXPERIENCE series on the Presidency, finally doing a four hour analysis of Bill Clinton, the man and the President.

As always, PBS does an excellent job, and so far, it brings back memories of the times of the 42nd President of the United States, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, and the faces and memories that many of the American people would like to forget–the ugliness and nastiness of the right wing, led by Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and even the mean Bob Dole and others, who set out to destroy the Presidency of Bill Clinton, failed in many ways, but crippled his ability to get things done, with him assisting them by his reckless personal behavior.

We have seen a sanitizing and whitewash of Bill Clinton, trying to idealize how great his times were. While the economy did soar, the partisanship on every bill reminds us very much of the times of Barack Obama, and actually, in many ways, the times of Jimmy Carter as well, in the late 1970s.

The idea that bipartisanship disappeared suddenly with the ascension of Barack Obama is refuted by the reality that conservatives and Republicans are really no different than they were under Carter and Clinton. It is just that with the new media and internet potential, much greater than under Carter and Clinton, the vicious attacks and obstructionism can be ever the greater.

It is amazing how human beings look back and glorify and romanticize the past, trying to forget the evil, divisive, obstructive behavior of those in opposition. But the difficult times we are going through now are really just more of the same, and the only answer is, unfortunately, that liberals and progressives must be as aggressive and activist in opposing the right wing media and the Republican Party, as they are truly the enemy of making America a better place for those who are not fortunate enough to have the power and wealth of the elite in our society.

If we act gentlemanly and ladylike, the result will be defeat and retreat. If we are going to see change and reform to better the vast majority of the American people, we will have to use, sadly, the tactics used by the other side.

This disturbs those who want a truce and a centrist response, but that will only help the right wing to accomplish its goals which are a danger to the American future!