Monday, October 8, 2012

Biden Can Handle The Pressure


Joe Biden it is all on you, no pressure. That is the sentiment that exists a few days before the one and only Vice Presidential Debate of the 2012 campaign season, and the stakes couldn’t be any higher.

I am on record and therefore have taken a lot of heat from fellow Progressives for saying that President Obama came up relatively short in the first Presidential Debate. The amount of times Mitt Romney stuck out his chin and told the President to hit him with all of his lies and distortions wasn’t as baffling as the President’s unwillingness to do it, or to at least do it aggressively.

Nevertheless last week is now in the history books and the Democratic Ticket is in desperate need of a good showing. Mr. Vice President you are now on.

To use a sports analogy Biden is being asked to be the ace of a Baseball’s Team pitching staff, go out and shutdown the other team and take away the momentum that they have. No one the left side of the political ledger should think this is going to be an easy task at the same time no one should doubt old Joe.

Biden’s years spent as a Senator in Washington D.C. should serve as the perfect guide on how to destroy Paul Ryan, he has seen it all and done it all, as Jonathan Martin of Politico puts it “when Joe Biden was going through the debate process for the Presidency in 1987 and 1988 Paul Ryan was still in High School.”

Speaking of the so-called deficit hawk Ryan, he is the perfect opponent for Biden. Biden who has been playing attack dog for the campaign since the start of the year will have no problem attacking the Congressman of his lack of substance, specifics, and consistency.

It was Ryan who a couple of weeks ago was taken the carpet by Fox News’ Chris Wallace for his lack of specifics on his and Governor Romney’s proposed budget, clearly frustrated he even at one point offered up an “I don’t have time to go into the specifics” I can so see Biden saying “Congressman I will gladly give you my time to explain.”

The fact is Paul Ryan must look like a juicy piece of steak to the Vice President and the Obama campaign.  Biden will not be burden by having to pull punches the way that he was in 2008 when debating Sarah Palin. The possibility of coming off as a bully against Palin was very much a real possibility. Given the penchant that both Romney and Ryan have for lying holding back will not be a problem for the Vice President or the American People.

Biden for the last few years has been unfairly characterized as a gaffe machine, particularly by the right. It would be awfully fitting for the Vice President to now be seen as the guy who saved the Obama campaign’s re-election effort. So much for gaffes.

 

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Good Guys Win On Pa. Voter ID


Score one for the good guys, Score one for people who believe in hard won rights and freedoms, Score one for everyone on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama on “Bloody Sunday”.

On Tuesday a Pennsylvania Judge blocked the implementation of a photo identification law that had the potential to disenfranchise almost 800,000 voters in the state.

The law, which is the brainchild of the state's Republican Governor Tom Corbett, and the Republican controlled State Legislature unsurprisingly targeted a huge portion of the Democratic Party's voting base, including African-Americans, Latinos, the elderly, and students.

Back in June, State House Republican Leader Mike Turzai played the role of wide receiver who taunts his opponent after he just scored a touchdown by saying Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

What Turzai and the Pennsylvania GOP were not expecting was that there would be a flag thrown on the play.

Judge Robert Simpson said in making his decision that “the proposed changes are to occur about five weeks before the general election, and I question whether sufficient time now remains to attain the goal of liberal access” to ID cards.

Kudos to Judge Simpson for pointing out what those of us who have been following this story already knew, there was absolutely no way that over 700,000 people without a state issued voter I.D. card would have one in time for the November 6 general election for a whole host of reasons.

Over the past year and a half the Republican Party has been plotting these draconian laws to combat the overwhelming support from voters that Barack Obama received in 2008 and would possibly get again this year. Mitt Romney's 47% comments once again drove home the point that the GOP does not have the candidates or policies that will swing these voters into their direction so their attitude is just to disenfranchise them.

This past summer Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the NAACP's annual conference and said “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them, “We call those poll taxes.”

The AG couldn't have been more right. Republicans have literally tried to turn back the clock to 1964. With these laws people of all races and backgrounds who fought the Civil Rights battles back in the early 60's have found themselves back in combat gear.

The party also doesn't seem to understand the damage that it has done with all of these constituency groups. The GOP's base of rich, middle aged, white men is shrinking by the hour and yet they can't help but continue to insult and denigrate women, Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, and given the fact Paul Ryan will still have a future in the party after he and Romney lose this election, the elderly.

The state of Texas which has also put forth a new set of voter laws may be a swing state by the time the 2016 Presidential election rolls around due in large part to the booming Hispanic population growth within the state. The R's however continue to double down with language of self deportation and rejection of “The Dream Act”. Mitt Romney at a Univision event a couple of weeks ago used the slur “Illegals”. Not exactly the way to win over a skeptical crowd.

In fairness the GOP played a huge role in the signing of the 64' Civil Rights Act and the 65' Voting Rights Act, but that was a long time ago and the party, forty years later has been hijacked by nut jobs and partisan hacks.

The one silver lining that those of us who are sane have is that we can still show up to the ballot box and say “No” to these clowns.

We should never stop fighting for that right no matter how many Tom Corbett's and Mike Turzai's we have to take on.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Ann Romney Hurts More Than Helps


You know how sometimes in life you try to avoid going down certain paths only to realize that it may be unavoidable. I find myself at one of those places and Ann Romney should really place her hands over her ears and begin to yell very loudly.

Queen Ann”, as some have dubbed her acted upon that nickname once again this week when she publicly chastised members of the right-wing media for criticizing her husband Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring,” she said. “This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”

The friendly fire that has come from conservative stalwarts like Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, and Bill O'Reilly hasn't exactly been undeserved, Romney just came off of one the most brutal weeks a candidate has ever had including a botched presser that unfairly criticized President Obama for the tragic killings of 4 U.S. diplomats at the nation's embassy in Cairo, Egypt by Islamic protesters, to a secretly recorded video of Romney at a fundraiser last May saying “his job is not to worry about the 47% of the people who won't vote for him”.

Republican pundits are just being honest about the Romney campaign up until this point, and if they wanted to continue with the truth telling portion of the program they would also come out and say that the Mitt's better half is not helping.

Ann Romney was once thought to be her husband's strongest surrogate yet in the matter of a couple of months that notion has become less and less true.

People, the American people in particular don't like whiners and yet that sounds exactly like what Mrs. Romney is doing when she offers up her “Stop It” defense of her husband. Yes Ann, running for President is hard and the criticism is sometimes unbearable, you know what else is hard and may sometimes seem unbearable, being President.

Mrs. Romney has also been on record as saying that her husband has been “demonized” by critics as “being heartless”. First of all Mitt has given us plenty of examples this election season as to why one would come to that conclusion “I like being able to fire people” and “If you're looking to go to college borrow money from your parents” and my favorite “ If you want free stuff vote for the other guy”. Secondly, ask The First Lady about dealing with a spouse who is demonized on a daily basis by idiot birthers and Tea Party zealots who see a black socialist occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (see Dinesh D'Souza ridiculous, train wreck of a movie for proof).

At the Republican National Convention Ann was charged with the task of humanizing her husband and making him more likeable, particular with female voters. Now granted that was a Herculean type effort for any one given Mitt's stiffness as a campaigner and the miles wide gap between he and the President with female voters.

However Ann, once again didn't help matters by offering up a lot of generalities and not a lot of specifics when it came to her husband and his prospective female policies. At one point Mrs. Romney gave us all an “Oprah” type yell of “I love you women” which almost matched Mitt's equally awkward “The trees are the right height”.

Look I understand that campaigning is difficult and the toll that it can take on family members can be stressful, Ann Romney said as much after going through the meat grinder back in 2008, also the idea that a candidate's family should be free from criticism is one that should be generally followed.

As I said earlier though sometimes paths in life are unavoidable. 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Romney Just Doesn't Get It


Has there ever been a worse Presidential candidate than Mitt Romney? Has there ever been a more out of touch, unsympathetic plutocrat?

Romney's comments to wealthy donors of his at a Boca Raton fundraiser last May once again reinforced the narrative that Montgomery Burns is a living and breathing human being.

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what...
Our message of low taxes doesn’t connect...so my job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the five to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful....”

Romney, who has never experienced a minute of struggle from the time that he entered into the world has put his inability to relate to us common folk on full display time and time again. There was the incident where he insulted a supporters home baked cookies, he challenged Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet (like it's chump change), and he reminded us that his wife drives a couple of cadillacs.

The comments in Florida four months ago aren't surprising, as a matter of fact it's sort of Romney taking it to the next level. The guy pretty much says word for word that he isn't worried about 47% of the nation.

Romney like most in his party really believes that we have become a country of “makers” and “takers”, that there is no such thing as people falling on hard times through no fault of their own and that a life on public assistance is somehow a goal that is to be desired.

While professional politicians in the GOP are backing away from Mitt as fast as they can because they need swing voters, (a huge chunk of which belongs to the 47% that Romney slammed to keep their jobs,) the talking imbeciles in the base are cheering Romney on.

The Holy Triumvirate of conservative clowns Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Donald Trump have all said in their own way that Romney should not back down from the comments, and that this is a discussion that the country needs to have. If you are unemployed and struggling to put food on your family's table, there can't be anything more galling than having three filthy rich windbags advising another windbag to continue to disparage you.

It makes me ponder what would happen if Mitt Romney were to somehow pull of the miraculous and get himself elected in November, what would the outcome be like for the truly less fortunate?

Would poor children go without nutrition because of Romney and his tag team partner Paul Ryan and their lustful desire to do away with food stamps? These are children who barely get a decent school lunch already again thanks to budget cuts mostly championed by the GOP.

Would the unemployed, people who have desperately been looking for work but have been stymied, not because of failed economic policies of President Obama, but by petulant obstruction on the part of John Boehner and Eric Cantor, be told no more unemployment checks? You now must feed your family through the kindness of strangers.

Remember the days of George W. Bush touting compassionate conservatism, that now seems like a million years ago.

Romney because of his insulated life spent in the lap of luxury doesn't get why the peasants sometimes needs assistance. That alone is a good enough reason to be disqualified from being leader of the free world.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Desperation For Mitt Romney


Shameless thy name is Willard Mitt Romney. Look, I understand the desire of the former Massachusetts Governor to be the 44th President of the United States, but there are lines that a Presidential candidate simply should not cross.

On Tuesday night Romney and his campaign made a desperate, disrespectful and dangerous move by criticizing President Obama and his administration over the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stephens and three of his staff members.

"I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," Romney said in the statement. "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

Romney, who is still feeling the effects of not receiving a bounce in the polls from his party's convention in Tampa and the criticism he has received from all corners for not mentioning the war in Afghanistan in his acceptance speech is trying to use this incident to score cheap political points. The problem with calling this play just like with most of Romney's gameplan is that this criticism is based on factual inaccuracies.

The response from the Obama Administration that Romney referenced did not even come from the Obama Administration, but from the United States embassy in Cairo, that statement also came a full 6 hours before any demonstrations or the tragic killings of the four U.S. Diplomats.

The statement put out by the Embassy was in response to a despicable anti-Islam movie that has surfaced on the web made by a group of filmmakers in Southern California. The Embassy could clearly see the writing on the wall in terms of what was coming, from protests to possible violence and tried to get out in front of it for their own lives and safety. The tone deafness shown by Romney and his team in not understanding this is as mind numbing as it can get.

What does it also say that Romney couldn't even stick to the agreement made by both candidates that they would not campaign or issue any statements on the September 11th anniversary. The press got wind of Romney's thoughts on the subject at 10:25 p.m. Eastern time. Why let what you perceive to be an political opportunity loose it freshness?

President Obama said Wednesday night that Governor Romney “has a tendency to shoot first and aim later”, that's what happens when you find yourself losing an election that some pundits say you should be winning and when you find yourself fighting on terrain you have no business fighting on.

Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have no personal military experience and no foreign policy experience as career politicians. Zero, zilch, nada, something that until 2012 was sacrilegious for the Grand Old Party, but with the lack of a legitimate candidate being willing to run coupled with their burning desire to defeat Obama the right was willing to forgive such a grievance.

What they have found is a party standard bearer who is all over the map when it comes to our standing with the world and the countries we have to work with.

In the span of a couple of months Mitt Romney has insulted the English on their handling of the Summer Olympics, insulted the Palestinians over their economy, talks tough to China despite that nation being owed two billion dollars by the United States and still calls Russia our number one geopolitical foe.

Whether Barack Obama can calm the waters in the Middle East and bring about the peace that a lot of us hoped for with the Arab Spring, he stands a better chance in doing that with Mitt Romney waiting a day, a week, or possibly even a month when all of the facts are in to begin backseat driving.

The American People would benefit from it as well.






Sunday, August 19, 2012

The GOP Are Foolish For Medicare Battle


For the last week we have heard Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and his newly minted Vice Presidential running mate, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, try to go on the offensive when it comes to one of the nations most valued programs, Medicare.

America's comeback team, as they have dubbed themselves seems to be stealing a page from the Karl Rove playbook which is to turn one of your opponents strengths into a weakness (by the way, calling yourself America's comeback team is devalued when you using strategy from a guy who's administration is the cause for the problems we are in).

Romney, Ryan, and Republicans in general have been chanting this mantra that President Obama took $716 billion out of the Medicare program and placed that money into the Affordable Care Act. You have to admire the discipline of Republicans with their messaging even when that message is a bold face lie.

Now it is true that the ACA does cut that amount of money, but it cuts from hospital and private insurance reimbursements, another huge part of the cuts comes from private Medicare Advantage plans. The most important thing for America's seniors to know is that none, absolutely none of these cuts touch Medicare benefits.

Here is how Sarah Kliff of The Washington Post's Wonk Blog put it in a column last week.
The Affordable Care Act rolls back payment rates for hospitals and insurers. It does not, however, change the basket of benefits that patients have access to.”

So to sum this whole thing up the benefits that seniors get from Medicare will not be touched whatsoever by the Affordable Care Act. It's funny how that can get lost in GOP translation.

The other thing that Team Romney neglects to tell you is that Paul Ryan's now famous budget plan “The Path to Prosperity” cuts that same $716 billion out of Medicare that however is not the smart political move, especially when you have Republican congressional candidates running away from the budget as fast as they can.

Ryan himself has been out on the campaign trail touting the Medicare discussion. “We want this debate, We need this debate, and We will win this debate.” To me this begs the question does he have selective amnesia or does he really believe Republicans can turn around 70 years of conventional wisdom.

Make no mistake it has been the GOP who for years has led the charge to do away with Medicare and Social Security. George W. Bush made it the central theme of his second term as President to privatize the programs, which could have been as much of an influence on Ryan's budget as Ayn Rand was to his personal views on government.

The notion that Republicans would want to have this fight when the President is vulnerable on the economy and unemployment still sits over 8 % is like Muhammad Ali saying he can outrace Wayne Gretzky on a pair of ice skates---never go away from your best asset.

David Axelrod and David Plouffe have forgotten more than I will ever know about campaign strategy and where is the best place to go to get their guy re-elected, but if I were them I would have both the President and Vice President Joe Biden memorize the Ryan budget between now and the debates in October.

Imagine a worse case scenario for the GOP than having Ryan's own words and ideas spit back at him. Imagine Vice President Biden saying “Rep Ryan your plan may grandfather in people who are already 55, but what about future generations who don't want to take part in a voucher system”, or “Rep Ryan if your budget is what is needed for fiscal responsibility in the Medicare program why have fellow Republicans labeled it “right-wing social engineering” and why have you and Governor Romney backtracked from it.

If Dems take that approach, America's comeback team would be jumping at the chance to talk about other issues in the campaign, at least until the Bain and taxes portion of the questioning comes up.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Pennsylvania Voter ID Is A Problem For Obama


Congrats Pennsylvania Republicans, you have for the time being undone everything that the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Right's Movement, and the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson worked for.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the decision by a Pennsylvania judge (a Republican, surprise surprise) to uphold the ridiculous voter identification law that was signed into law earlier this year by Republican Governor Tom Corbett.

The law could disenfranchise over 750,000 people including minorities and the elderly. The law also has a disproportionate effect on the city of Philadelphia and it's surrounding areas, a huge voting block that basically delivered the state to Barack Obama in 2008.

Knowing the information I just sighted Judge Robert Simpson still refused to grant an injunction to stop the law from being enforced, clearly indicating how much of a partisan decision this was.

The Republican party after winning landslide majorities in Governorships and state legislatures in 2010 have set out to take away the vote from thousands who tend to lean left, rather than make a pitch to those same voters with their ideas. If you can't beat em' cheat em'

State Rep. Mike Turzai admitted as much when during a speech to the Republican State Committee in their summer meeting said “Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania , is done”. This is the equivalent of a guy knocking over a convenient store and then smiling for the security camera. Usually in those cases the judge throws the book at the guy.

As we have seen with Citizens United, and the Republican House of Representatives the GOP is committed to the defeat of Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats across the country, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's now famous quip about “denying the President a 2nd term” is proof. The sad thing is they are willing to sink to all time lows to do so.

Voter ID, Republicans say will cut down on the amount of voter fraud that has allegedly taken place in elections over the years, yet many sources have described voter fraud as being “non existent.” Between 2002 and 2005 the George W. Bush administration made prosecuting voter fraud a priority, yet in those three years the DOJ found only 38 cases, yes folks 38 cases out of the hundreds of millions of votes that were cast.

The GOP remedy to this supposed problem is to take out a sledgehammer and kill a mosquito. They are willing to disenfranchise most in order to prosecute the tiny few.

I mentioned earlier that Republicans have a hard time selling their ideas, thus they trot out scams like Voter ID. That is absolutely true and 2008 was the eye opener. The GOP was horrified by what the saw in terms of the numbers that showed up to support then candidate Obama.

The demographics then as now are not on their side. Minorities, young people, and single woman all turned out in droves to vote Democrat in 08'. With Newt Gingrich persistently calling Barack Obama “the best food stamp President in history”, Mitt Romney telling college students they should “shop around for the best price” rather than looking to the government for help via Pell Grants and Paul Ryan being just as draconian on women's reproductive rights as Rick Santorum ever was, the GOP can't win unless they take out half of the supporters on the other side.

The question now is what do, not just Democrats, but people who believe in the fundamental right to vote do. With only two and a half months left before the election can groups get people the info they need and ultimately the ID's to have them vote in time.

The bigger question however may be can the President get himself re-elected without the state of Pennsylvania, let's hope we don't have to find out.



Monday, August 13, 2012

Ryan A Dream For The Left And Right


It is now official. In a strange bit of irony Mitt Romney has somehow joined together Liberals and Conservatives by choosing Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential candidate.

Sportswriters often talk about trades that work out for both teams, while this isn't the political equivalent of a trade it is a scenario where both parties can walk away really happy.

Republicans have this strange affection for Paul Ryan that I as a simple minded liberal just don't get. It is Ryan who is praised in GOP circles as a bold and pragmatic thinker who is full of fresh ideas. Newt Gingrich a party lifer found out just how deep Republican support for Ryan runs when during his Presidential campaign last summer he referred to Ryan's now famous budget as “right-wing social engineering.” It was only a matter of days before Gingrich was making the rounds in conservative media groveling and begging for forgiveness.

Grover Norquist the President of the right leaning Americans For Tax Reform (and outside of Rush Limbaugh the most powerful person in the party for his ability to extort politicians into signing his no new taxes pledge.) made his feelings about Ryan, and the aforementioned Governor Romney known at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February.

All we have to do is replace Obama. …We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. …We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.”

Along with making Romney feel like the smallest man in the party tent, Norquist was essentially saying that the GOP will be following Ryan and his ideas for the forseeable future. That brings me to simply ask the question why!

Paul Ryan is the worst Vice Presidential candidate the Republican party could have come up with. For all of the GOP's talk about fiscal responsibility, limited government and a cap on spending the man some have called this generations Ronald Reagan has virtually practiced none of that during his time as a congressman in Washington.

If you are a true conservative Ryan's voting record is the equivalent of you taking out your wallet and setting it on fire. Ryan voted for both Bush Tax Cuts, The Iraq War, Medicare Part D, TARP, and stimulus programs under both Presidents Bush and Obama. Ryan and his GOP brethen are now saying that President Obama hasn't rebuilt the house that they burned down.

The meat and potatoes of this argument however revolves around the aforementioned budget that bears Mr. Ryan's name. When you cut through all of the GOP talking points you will find that the Ryan Budget is a privatization of Medicare plain and simple, and as various Republican congressman and women found out when they went on town hall tours in the summer and fall 2011 a great number of the elderly were not happy about. Ryan likes to tout that Medicare needs saving and maybe it does, but his prescription for saving the patient is to kill it and replace it with something more costly and less beneficial to seniors everywhere.

Democrats are happy as can be now that Ryan is indeed the number two man in the party, before it was announced a Democratic strategist told Reuters: "I would love for Romney to pick him, It would crystallize everything for us. Just to have him on the ticket would even further elevate the Ryan budget."

Another respected strategist also told Reuters: "We could really with no effort wrap the Ryan budget around Romney. If he's not on the ticket we have to spend energy reminding folks".

Throw in the fact that between them Romney and Ryan have no experience in Foreign Policy. When you think Republican party you think neo-cons, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman (okay technically he's not a Republican) yet the party has nominated two guys who ran as far away from the military as you could possibly get, In Mitt's case literally (France is a long way away).

For all of the talk about Sarah Palin's incompetence, and there was a lot of justified talk, Ryan is less qualified to assume the mantle of President than Palin was. Palin was the Governor of a state making executive decisions for residents Whether or not she knows multiplication or was lucky to be in one of the few states in the union that would actually vote for her is irrelavant when compared to Ryan's time in the House where he has been virtually responsible for nothing.

Ryan as the V.P only does one thing for Romney, it buys him a little more cred with Republicans. Too bad it will be moderates and independents who decided this election.


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Aurora Should Now Start The Gun Conversation



As a nation finds itself a few days removed from the tragic events that took place at an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre, emotions are still raw, hearts are still broken and heads are still unclear and unable to make sense of how a horrifying event such as this could happen.

How could lightning basically strike twice in the same place, after all Aurora is only a few miles removed from another town famous for tragedy and heartache. Even though the Columbine school shootings happened 13 years ago, the scars, both mental and physical are still as fresh for the people who lived through it, and the images of Friday morning bring back terrible memories for those of us who are as far removed from the Rocky Mountain state as possible.

How could doing something as normal as taking in a movie essentially make you a sitting duck for a madman who's life is so troubled and who's mental state is so warped that he sees himself as a movie villain charged with bringing as much pain and destruction as humanly possible.

These are just a couple of questions that will be asked by us, the American People in the coming days, weeks, and months. The problem is those are questions that only a higher power can answer assuming you believe in one. When I personally come across things in life that are unexplainable I'm reminded of a line I heard in a movie once. “God made the world the way it is, We just have to live in it.”

There are questions that we, the American People can ask that should get us direct answers. We should be asking our politicians why do we live in a country where anyone, no matter his or her mental well being can gain access to a gun, and then use that gun to dramatically alter the lives of so many innocent people.

I never thought I would agree with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on anything, the man is perfectly fine with treating any black and brown man in the city like a criminal, with his “Stop and Frisk” policy. Bloomberg struck a chord on Friday though with his initial comments about the Aurora tragedy, basically saying that politicians and in particular the two men vying for the Presidency should give us solutions on America's gun problem.

While Bloomberg's inquisitive nature on the subject is greatly appreciated, he is delusional at best if he thinks we are going to get a straightforward answer out of President Obama and Governor Romney before November 7th. The fact that both candidates have their respective bases sown up makes it even more important to not alienate the 10 to 15 percent of the electorate that could push them over the finish line by taking on the scolding hot topic of gun control.

That my fellow Americans is to the detriment of us all. President Obama represents a Democratic party that gave up the fight on gun control a long time ago. The President signed legislation into place that makes it legal to carry guns in National Parks, great idea sir. In 2004 the Dems didn't fight to keep in place the assault weapons ban the President Clinton signed into law in 1993. Since then we have seen a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech Campus, A Congresswoman and several other innocent bystanders including a couple of her aides shot in Arizona, A school shooting in Ohio earlier this year that left 4 students dead and now Aurora.

The fact that Mitt Romney is the classic Howdy Doody candidate being pulled by strings, you can count on him to continue the non negotiable Republican Party stance that any new gun control legislation is bad legislation and is therefore off the table. Romney who already has a problem convincing Republicans that he is a true conservative is not going to take back statements and fiery speeches that he give in front of the National Rifle Association to prove his conservative merit.
By the way that same National Rifle Association has Republicans in Congress scared breathless. It was the NRA who let it be known last month that they were scoring the voting on the House of Representatives contempt vote on Attorney General Eric Holder over “Fast and Furious”. The NRA is not ashamed to let Republicans and Democrats in gun loving states know that if they don't go their way when it comes to gun legislation they will let their constituents know about it.

I am thoroughly convinced that the eradication of gun violence in this country has to be a grass roots undertaking. There are plenty of us, no matter our political leanings who feel as though everyday civilians should not be able to get their hands on military styled weaponry. The fact that this guy was armed like he had access to the Pentagon is absolutely mind boggling. Through in the gas canisters, bulletproof vest and gas mask he got online, and it makes you want to scream.

For those of us who think public safety is as much a God given right as the 2nd Amendment we need to pressure Presidential candidates, but importantly our local officials to do something about the senseless gunplay that plagues communities as large as Chicago and as small as Aurora.

There is no literal war going on inside the United States like there has been in Syria, Egypt, and Libya.
It is up to us to make sure the NRA and other assault weapon enthusiasts don't continue take us in a direction were that becomes a reality.







Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Prison For Profit Is Alive And Well


When I was growing up my sisters and I watched television religiously. I can remember, around 1984 or so an episode of the now extremely cheesy Diff'rent Strokes.

This episode was deemed “a very special episode” because it dealt with young Arnold Jackson being offered marijuana by a classmate, but more importantly it ended with an appearance by then First Lady Nancy Reagan who offered up her now infamous catchphrase “Just Say No”.

Just like “Where's the beef” from Wendy's and Bartles and Jaymes' “Thank you for your support”, “Just say no” became synonymous with the 1980s, and it also help to usher in the “prison no matter what” culture that now exists here in the United States.

How many people in this country are aware of the fact that in the last three decades the prison population ballooned from 300,000 to over more than two million, that ladies and gentleman gives us the highest incarceration rate in the world, not exactly the thing we want to be remembered for.

The reference to the former First Lady is appropriate because we really have her late husband, former President Ronald Reagan to thank for the spike in these numbers. In 1982 it was the Gipper's White House that gave us another infamous 80s catch pharase “The War on Drugs”, four years later after the tragic death of University of Maryland basketball superstar Len Bias from a cocaine overdose,
the Reagan Administration and politicians on both sides of the aisle demagogued a serious issue for political gain.

To keep the ear of his suburban insulated base Reagan, in response to the crack epidemic proposed what is now called mandatory sentencing (or mandatory minimums). In some states the laws basically breakdown this way, people convicted of possessing five grams of crack, which weighs less than two sugar packets, are automatically sentenced to five years in prison, ten grams of crack ten years, and so on.

Since these sentences are on the books as laws, judges are not given the opportunity to impose their own sentences which would provide more leeway. Under mandatory minimums counseling, probation, and suspended sentences are not even an option.

Now ask yourself, does a seventeen year old kid arrested for possession of crack cocaine deserve to effectively have his life ended for one mistake, albeit a glaring one. Even if the kid does the full five years and is released from the can at around the age of 22, the amount of opposition he will face as a convicted felon on his intergration back into society is an uphill battle to say the least.

Ask any convicted felon how difficult it is to get a job, an apartment, or get into college. America is good at times at paying lipservice to second chances and we wax poetic about everyone making mistakes, but when it comes to those who have done time, more often than not we turn our backs on those principles.

I mentioned earlier the automatic five years for five grams of crack law on the books of most states, one important piece of information that is conveniently left out by most on the right is that the same defendant who is caught selling powder cocaine has to be caught selling 500 grams of cocaine 100 times to receive the same five year sentence.
I am thoroughly convinced that the difference in that law is to incarcerate a large porportion of black and brown men in America's inner cities across this country. Crack was and still is extremely prevalent in large cities around the country, and the majority of possessors of it are ethnic minorities, whereas cocaine was and is seen as a status drug prevalent in America's suburbs, where it's user's and sellers are overwhelmingly white. The same drug with the same affect on the people who use it, yet the punishment for possession of the same drug is heavily skewed. The question is why would any politician from either side of the aisle put in place a law with this kind of disporportionality.

America's dirty little secret is that the “prison for profit” scheme is alive and well. Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group are prison's answer to Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers.

With state governments not being able to keep up with the costs of housing thousands of prisoners, especially with the grim economic times, private prisons are ready to step up and assume the states overflow of the convicted. “CCA, one of the leading providers of for-profit prisons in the nation, recently sent letters to 48 states, offering to buy their facilities for a huge chunk of dough — $250 million toward the purchase of state prisons. In a time when the national economy is still limping and state budgets are shrinking, the state of Ohio found CCA’s “Corrections Investment Initiative” was an offer it couldn’t refuse.”

To my knowledge, there are not too many civilized nations around the world that actually allow corporations to profit from locking people up, however in this world where the right wants to privatize everything from our mail to Social Security it's not surprising.

When you ponder all of the questions and look to the future you can't help but ask yourself how did we get here. We used to be invested in our children's education, now we are invested in locking them up. Kinda backwards isn't it?

Monday, July 16, 2012

Hypocrisy thy name is Karl Rove


There is that old saying, “What's good for the goose is good for the gander.” or as Mitt Romney would put it. “What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” (once again, could the guy be more out of touch.)

It just so happens that in the Presidential election of 2012 no one is finding that out more than Republicans, and in particular the man who called their shots the entire last decade Karl Rove.

While appearing Sunday on Fox News (where else would he be) Rove accused President Obama's re-election campaign of practicing “gutter politics”.

The fact of the matter is if the president continues to make this charge — this outrageous charge — that Mitt Romney is guilty of felonious activity and committed a felony, that’s a big mistake, This is gutter politics of the worst Chicago sort.”

For the record, the President's Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter did not refer to Mitt Romney as a felon, she simply stated the fact that lying to the SEC is a felony. The more important part of this whole thing however is if anyone knows anything about “gutter politics” it is Karl Rove.

If you injected him with some sort of truth serum, John McCain would tell you about the kind of gutter politics that Rove, the former chief strategist of the George W. Bush Presidential campaigns engages in. There were rumors during the 2000 Republican primaries that McCain was the “father of an illegitimate black child”

There was very little doubt within political circles were those rumors started, and it played very well for Bush who won South Carolina by 12 points. It also didn't hurt that while it is 2012, culturally South Carolina was and probably will always be stuck in 1962.

While we are counting down Rove's greatest hits, surely we all remember Valerie Plame don't we. In 2003 former CNN contributor and conservative columnist Robert Novak told federal prosecutors that Rove had participated in the outing of Plame, the former CIA agent.

Rove was willing to put an agent's life in danger because her husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson had been vocal about the possibility of W skirting the truth to send our troops into Iraq. This not only speaks to the fact that Rove doesn't have a decent bone in his body, but that he is a terrible American.

As if trashing one American hero wasn't enough, Rove and the Bush campaign were silent while a side group called Swift Vets and POW's for Truth misrepresented Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry over his service in the Vietnam War. Rove was as quiet as a church mouse despite the fact that his guy was hiding and waiting out the war somewhere in Alabama.

Besides being a Fox News mouthpiece this political season Rove is also the money behind two Superpacs that have but one purpose, to defeat the President this fall. Since 2010 Rove's pac's have raised $123 million to take out the President and Democrats in Congress, more money than John McCain spent in his entire 2008 election.
To the President's credit he was quoted as saying that his campaign “will not be apologizing” as Governor Romney called on him to do. This means the possibility of Republicans fighting back with misleading falsehoods about the President are surely on the way, and you can be sure Rove will be at the forefront.

Here is to hoping that in November this clown walks away with nothing to show for that $123 million.



Saturday, July 14, 2012

American Jobs Act Is Needed Now


As a result of Mitt Romney not being able to get his story straight about whether he left Bain Capital in
1999 or 2002, there was very little talk this week about how dismal the American economy is.

We all know the numbers by know. Unemployment sits at a robust 8.2% with some of the numbers being higher in other communities. Unemployment amongst African-Americans is a staggering 14.4%. These numbers are usually sighted by conservatives as reason number one President Barack Obama needs to be replaced by Romney in November.

Republicans will tell you that the President doesn't have a plan for fixing what ailes the job market, never mind the fact that the guy has already taken a corvette that was heading towards a brick wall at 90 m.p.h and turned it around by putting in place a stimulus package that created somewhere north of two million jobs and took the unemployment number from 10% to the aforementioned 8.2%

The fact is the President does have a plan and it is called the American Jobs Act. Obama first proposed in September 2011, after Republicans in Congress, particularly the House took the economy hostage by initially refusing to raise the debt ceiling, thus causing a downgrade in our credit rating.

What the President offered to Congress was a nononsense extremely aggressive bill that would put unemployed Americans back to work and keep public sector employees like cops, teachers, and firefighters in their jobs. The bill would be paid for with minimal tax raises on the nations top income earners.

It didn't take long for the Republicans to stand in the figurative school house door, as a matter of fact when the President went on national t.v to announce his plan the GOP wouldn't even offer up a rebuttal, a move that was described as “disrespectful” by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Right which is so afraid to agree to even the smallest tax increase because of Grover Norquist and the Tea Party balked at the chance to pass the bill and put Americans back to work.

The AJA contains elements of job creation that Republicans once proudly touted. In the 1950s it was President Eisenhower a GOP legend who built the interstate highways. Obama's call for $50 billion for new infrastructure programs was not even given any kind of consideration. Even when the President introduced the smaller “Rebuild American Jobs Act”, a slimmed down version of the original It got voted down in the Democratic controlled Senate, thanks to the filibuster and DINO's like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.

The AJA also called for $35 billion in additional funding to protect the jobs of teachers, policeman, and firefighters. As I have written in the past the shedding of government jobs is the lasting legacy of the “great red wave” of 2010. While the private sector has continued to add jobs under President Obama it is the public sector's struggles that are delaying an economic recovery.

The sad truth is Republicans don't want the economy to get better, which increase the President's re-election chances. They make sure those chances remain as low as possible by continuing to stall public job creation.

It was Romney a few months ago who offered up “The President wants more cops, more teachers, more firefighters, did he not get the message of Wisconsin” quote, and of course who can forget Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's classic line of “Our number on geopolitical goal is to make Barack Obama a one-term President”. Even if it means firefighters in Scranton, Pennsylvania have to have their pay reduced to minimum wage, Republicans are clear on what they have to do, and they don't care who it affects.

Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor know who they represent, and it ain't the teachers and the fireman, the cops and the construction workers or anybody else inside the 99%. They represent the Charles and David Koch's of the world. The Republican response to the President's bill was their own American Jobs Act of 2011. Introduced by Republican Louie Gohmert the bill called for the full repeal of the Corporate Income Tax, because nobody out there is struggling as bad as America's corporations.

Call me crazy but a party completely fixated on paralyzing job growth and stalling the overall economy shouldn't benefit politically. Let's hope voters keep that in mind come November.





Friday, July 13, 2012

Romney Has A Big Mess in Bain


There will be no burying the lead with a Friday afternoon press release for one Willard Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for President of The United States. You see Mitt will spend his Friday afternoon giving what I call emergency interviews with five television networks about his time spent as CEO of Bain Capital.

On Thursday The Boston Globe released a damaging story about disputes over Romney's exit from Bain. Romney for political purposes has always maintained that he left Bain in February of 1999, however evidence has emerged that Romney really left the company in 2002 to run The Salt Lake City Olympics of that year.

This is important because Romney desperately wants to have his political cake and eat it too. He is gladly eager to take the credit for the jobs that were created by Bain during that time period, yet freely deflects criticism concerning jobs that were outsourced by the company over the same time by saying I was long gone by then.

This would be a much easier tight rope for Mittens to walk if he wasn't a one trick political pony who was running for the highest office in the land. From day one Romney has made his experience in the private sector his calling card for being elected the 45th President of the United States. Romney has chided President Obama for being a community organizer and not knowing how the real economy works, and he has said all of this while being under the assumption that the President's team should not take a look at that private sector record and expose it for what it really is.

On a Conference call on Thursday, the brilliant Stephanie Cutter a deputy campaign manager for the President summed this whole situation up by saying. Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the S.E.C., which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people.”

Predictably the Romney campaign responded in outrage, because of their inability to explain their candidates silence on the issue. Matt Rhoades a campaign manager for Romney said President Obama’s campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign,”.

For the record Stephanie Cutter never called anyone a felon, nor did she say Mitt Romney broke the law. The Romney campaign really does live in a bubble where any legitimate question asked by the President and his team is an unfair attack. I can question your record at any time Mr. President, but you have to stay away from mind.

Romney also doesn't mind evoking the memory of his late father George Romney, the former Governor of Michigan. He ofter remembers him as a man of principle, who was always willing to do the right thing. Can you imagine the conversation father and son would be having if Sr. was still with us.

George Romney set the standard for Presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, when he released twelve years worth in anticipation of his 1968 run for President. Mitt on the other the hand has only offered up a year and a half continuing to lead to speculation that he is hiding something. The natural thing to do would be release the tax returns, and put all of the questions to rest.

Romney is the epitome of the negative campaigner who complains about negative campaining. Every thing the President has said about Bain up until this point has been legit. Romney meanwhile has offered up some tall tales about the President's record that would make the average fiction writer blush. There is “Obamacare is the largest tax increase in the history of the U.S.” Or “The President said that the stimulus would hold unemployment under 8%” or “Obama apologizes for America all over the world”. Romney never met a lie didn't like including the one about Condolezza Rice being his V.P. For him to complain about the Bain ads is rich, pun intended.

If you injected the Republicans with some sort of truth serum they would tell you there is now some buyer's remorse with Romney. It's almost like they went the Sarah Palin route and didn't vet the guy. Also for Romney, how in the hell can you be running for President the last six years and not close offshore bank accounts and sure up whether or not you left the company that was offshoring jobs at the time you initially said you did.

This whole issue just continues the narrative of Mitt Romney out of touch rich guy. A man who might be a hell of a genius in terms of making money even if it is at the expense of working class Americans. That is why this man shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the White House.



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Paterno Legacy Is Jerry Sandusky


What I usually do with this blog is give my latest opinion on the matters that take place in the political
sphere on a daily basis. It usually has to do with the latest Mitt Romney gaffe concerning his tax returns, or President Obama and the Democrats inability to message properly.

I would be remissed if I didn't take this opportunity to respond to the horror that is the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University that is right out of the pages of the nearest Catholic Church.

Former F.B.I. Director Louis Freeh announced the findings of his seven month investigation into the University on Thursday, and in my mind confirmed a lot of things I had already thought, most notably that legendary Head Football Coach Joe Paterno was up to his neck in misconduct.

Freeh basically said a cover-up of the highest order had taken place at Penn State since initial rumors of then Defensive Coordinator, and now convicted child molestor Jerry Sandusky was involved in having inappropriate conduct with children in 1998 were brought to light.

No one should ever make the mistake of remembering who the biggest villian in this tragedy is, it is that disgusting piece of excrement Sandusky. There will never be a terrible enough punishment for this scumbag, who will most likely die in prison. The old saying goes the cover-up is worse than the actual crime, that is not the case here, but it comes pretty damn close.

Joe Paterno, a college football coaching legend who won over 400 games, 2 National Championships, and graduated countless players from a fine academic institution, was basically the point man in concealing facts surrounding questions about his colleague and friend Sandusky. Paterno had the people who were supposed to be his superiors answering to him in this sordid saga.

In 1998 Penn State campus police investigated a claim by a mother who said her son was molested by Sandusky, when this was made public last year Paterno's first reaction was to say he knew nothing about that claim. The Freeh Investigation shattered Paterno's defense saying that he was well aware of the fact that police were looking into Sandusky.

In 2001, Paterno was told by Graduate Assistant and former PSU Quarterback Mike McQueary that he had witnessed an incident involving Sandusky and a ten year old boy in the locker room shower at the athletic complex on Campus. Paterno's response was to tell McQueary he would take care of it.

After Paterno notified his superiors, they were prepared to go to police with the information that they had, only to be talked out of it by Paterno himself. Allegedly a conversation took place between Paterno and his boss Athletic Director Tim Curley, where Paterno basically said the best thing to do in terms of handling the situation was to tell Sandusky not to bring young boys onto the school's campus anymore. Paterno and Company basically said we don't care if you molest children just don't do it at our workplace.

As I said earlier, Sandusky is the real scumbag, but Paterno comes extremely close to matching him. Nevermind the Governor of Pennsylvania or any elected official in the state, Joe Paterno was the most powerful man in the commonwealth. There is also a story that Freeh relates from his investigation where a janitor at the University witnessed Sandusky perfoming oral sex on a young boy, that janitor didn't come forward because of fear that Paterno would have had him fired. If that doesn't scream too much power for the football coach I don't know what does.

I am as big a sports fan as anyone in the country, and like most people I cringe when I hear the latest story about an athlete or a coach who has run afoul of the law. While DUI's and domestic violence should never be taken lightly, they pale in comparison to child molestation and adults taking advantage of society's most defenseless.

In that case Sandusky and Paterno because of his refusal to drop a dime on his lifelong pal are two of the worst individuals who ever graced everyday life let alone the sports world. Their crimes make strip club brawls and steroid use from athletes look extremely small.

Also before the Paterno apologists scream at me for neglecting to mention the 61 years of service the man gave to the school, the endless amounts of money he raised for the school and for charity, and the countless number of players he turned into fine, upstanding gentlemen, save it. All of Paterno's good qualities have been washed away as far as I'm concerned. Jerry Sandusky's victims prove that, especially the ones that could have been saved had Paterno been a man and not a coward.








Wednesday, July 11, 2012

NAACP Speech Wasn't For The NAACP


After watching the debacle that was Mitt Romney and his laughable speech in front of the NAACP this morning, the one word question that remains on the forefront of my mind is Why?

If you listen to most political pundits, The Republican Party's Presidential nominee was there not to appeal to the African-American constituency that the world's oldest civil rights organization is made of, but to swing voters across the country who aren't comfortable with the GOP being as lilly white as a bottle of aspirin.

If that was indeed the task then Mittens failed spectacularly. Romney basically went into a room full of Barack Obama loving black folks and gave a stump speech that would have drawn a thunderous applause from the Tea Party and all of it's racist idealogues.

The most contentious portion of Romney's speech was when he once again pledged his intention to do away with the President's signature achievement, the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Referring to the law as “Obamacare” was the equivalent of a guy poking a bear with a stick, Romney knew it would draw boos louder than a Lebron James return to Cleveland, nevermind the fact that he didn't call it's original and more aptly titled name “Romneycare.”

There was also no mention of the GOP's all out assault on the voting rights of people of color, the elderly and college students, three core constituency groups that carried the President to victory in 2008. Romney kept his mouth shut about voter I.D., because he knows his chances to win the general election are significantly decreased without it.

Romney, like most Conservatives the few mindless black ones in particular assume that black folks are not politically aware. It is easy for Romney to rattle of the 14.4% number of African-American unemployment and blame the President for it. The fact is it doesn't work, black people know what is in the President's “American Jobs Act”, they know that is contains legislation that would put not only black folks, but all Americans back to work. They also know that the real culprits behind that 14% number are named John Boehner and Eric Cantor. The Republican led House's refusal to pass the AJA
has caused the paralyzation of the economy.

Romney on Wednesday, essentially tried to kill two birds with one stone, He wanted to stick his head in the door of NAACP house just to say he was there, while still appealing to a base that in a lot of ways is still not sure about him. Imagine the uproar from scumbags like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity if Romney had said I don't agree with the need for voter I.D or I disagree with the Affordable Care Act, but people should have access to some form of healthcare, the right would be insensed.

Whether it was envoking his father's memory, a man who actually marched in the Civil Rights Movement or quoting Dr. King which everyone saw coming, Mitt was sure to cover all of his bases, and if that meant taking a few boos from a group of people who weren't going to vote for him anyway so be it. My only hope is that moderate voters who could check the box that says Romney saw this pathetic sideshow really for what it was and walks away from the GOP on election day.

If you are someone who really hates there time being wasted for no reason, Wednesday really wasn't your day!