This Day in Political History

There were a few events on this day in political history. In 1992, President Bush (the first one) pardoned former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger & 5 other people for their part in the Iran Contra scandal. That was the scandal where the United States sold weapons to Iran in exchange for money to fund the Nicaraguan contra rebels. At the time, the rebels were fighting a war with the Sandinista government. Another offshoot of this action was that the arms also helped the United States secure freedom for hostages who were being held by certain Islamic groups.


There were two reasons why this operation was illegal. The first is that Congress passed a law barring the United States from supporting any covert operations with the Contras. The second is that there was a trade embargo against Iran. Neither of those issues stopped the operation. Members of the government just used the National Security Council to run the mission.

Eventually, the operation was uncovered by newspapers overseas. Congress called hearings. People all the way up to President Reagan were implicated. In the end, a few people were convicted, although two of them (the most famous being Colonel Oliver North) were overturned due to immunity agreements that had been made with the Senate in exchange for their testimony.

Another event that happened on this day was that the domestic terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan, was first formed in 1865. It was formed as a club for Confederate veterans in Pulaski Tennessee. The Reconstruction & Jim Crow eras were when the group was at its height.

The third event that happened on this day was the signing of the treaty of Ghent. In 1814, the United States & Great Britain ended the War of 1812 with this treaty. For those people who say that the United States never lost a war until Vietnam, you would be wrong. The United States got its collective butts handed to it, including having Washington DC invaded & famously burned. The two main battles that the war is most famous for are the Battle of Ft. McHenry (the inspiration for the Star Spangled Banner) & the Battle of New Orleans, which actually happened after the treaty to end the war had been signed & made a hero out of General & eventual President Andrew Jackson.

Also on this day in 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, saying that they were upholding the 1978 Afghan – Soviet Friendship treaty. It began a 10 year war against the Mujahidin resistance movement. The United States boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics over this matter. Not only that but the United States also helped the rebel groups by supplying arms. This group is the same group that eventually turned against America & had at that time a fighter by the name of Osama Bin Laden.

My Apologies

My apologies for not keeping up with the blog in the last couple of weeks. Life’s gotten extremely crazy in the last few weeks & it’s only going to get crazier. This is the busy season, as most of you are probably already feeling. It’s the time for doing first the Halloween festivities, then gearing up for Thanksgiving, then Christmas parties & travel, & winding down with New Years stuff. In short, the last 3 months are always extremely busy. I’ll try to do postings when I can but it may be a bunch once a week instead of daily or every other day.

Joe Lieberman Must Go

     60 votes. 60 votes are all that stands in the way of Americans finally getting some type of health care reform. With the historic vote in the U.S. House late Saturday night, the fight now shifts to the Senate. 60 votes will make the bill filibuster proof so that it can come up to a vote on the Senate floor. The problem is that the person who stands in the way of getting to 60 votes is Joe Lieberman.

     The Democrats really only have 58 votes. There are two Independent Senators who usually vote with the Democrats but there are no guarantees that they will always vote with the Democratic block; which brings us to Joe Lieberman. He has already said that if the Senate version of the health care bill contains a public option, then he will join with the Republicans & filibuster the bill, which would in effect kill the health care bill.

     You may wonder where his animosity towards the Democrats has come from. After all, wasn’t he the vice presidential candidate back in 2000? Well, the seeds of discontent were sown in 2006, when he was running for reelection. The Democratic establishment refused to endorse him because he voted in support of the war in Iraq & they decided to back his opponent in the primary. Leiberman got trounced. However, rather than give up, he decided to run as an Independent & beat both the Democratic & Republican candidates.

     Lieberman then went on to endorse his very good friend John McCain for president. That was fine & even admired by most in the Democratic party because it showed bipartisanship. That feeling went out the window when, while speaking at the Republican Convention, Lieberman gave not only an antidemocratic, but an extremely antiObama speech. It was one thing to be for McCain but it was completely different to also be against Obama & that was where, in most people’s eyes, Lieberman crossed the line. I still remember watching the video of Obama pulling Lieberman aside on the Senate floor & completely dressing Lieberman down afterwards. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for that one. Despite all of this, Harry Reid decided to forgive Lieberman & let him keep his committee chairmanship.

     That decision, among others, is now coming back to haunt the Democrats. In fact, Lieberman went out on the campaign trail this year & campaigned for Republican candidates. If anybody thought that Lieberman was going to vote with the Democratic Party on anything any more, those thoughts should’ve been put to rest with that announcement. Now, one of the most important pieces of legislation in our lifetime may not come up for a vote because of this man.

     I believe that Lieberman is of the opinion that he can not be defeated with he comes up for reelection in a few year. I have already decided that I’m going to put that theory of his to the test. I am putting aside money & will give freely to anybody in the Democratic Party who will run against him. I will also work on the candidate’s campaign. There is no place in the Senate for Joe Lieberman & he needs to learn this lesson sooner, rather than later.

Rep Grayson's Speech the Republicans Tried To Block

The Republicans tried to block his speech on the House floor. They failed.

Democrats Wondering About New York Mayor's Race?

     There’s an article today about the reasons why Bill Thompson lost the NYC mayoral race to Mike Bloomberg by 5 points, despite being overwhelmingly outspent & outcampaigned  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33624244/ns/politics-more_politics/. The basic underlying point of the article is that if the White House (specifically Obama) & other prominent Democrats had campaigned with Thompson, he might have pulled off the upset.

     There are two things that the article fails to take into account. The first is that Bill Thompson ran a really bad campaign. By the looks of it, he didn’t really start his campaign until after the September primary. I guess he figured that he was going to win the primary, despite going up against at least 3 other candidates, so why spend money on name recognition, like Mike Bloomberg did?. In fact, I didn’t even see a campaign commercial from Thompson until mid October. I remember seeing a front page article about Thompson with the headline “Who’s the other guy running for mayor?”. Not exactly a ringing endorsement on his campaign or lack there of, in this case.

     The other thing is that, for the most part, people really like Mike Bloomberg, even the White House. A little Bloomberg history. Mike Bloomberg was a life long Democrat who ran as a Republican back in 2001 because there were only 2 Republicans running versus 8 other Democrats. He’s about as liberal a Republican as you’re going to get, with his antismoking, pro gay rights, & anti gun policies. Plus, he became an Independent a couple of years ago yet managed to be put on the ballot as both an Independent & a Republican (I’m still trying to figure out how that’s possible).

     Obama endorsed Thompson because he had to but in the same endorsement, Obama praised Bloomberg profusely. I call it playing both sides of the fence. Most people call it politics. Either way, Obama got who he really wanted as the next mayor. For most Democrats, it would be considered a loss. For the White House, it’s a win & no amount of hand ringing by the Associated Press or anybody else is going to change that.

Election Issues

     The voting ballots are a funny thing sometimes. In last Tuesday’s election for mayor of New York, you had a choice between Democrat David Thompson & Republican Mike Bloomberg. If you’re like me, you didn’t like either choice. While I think Bloomberg did a fine job as mayor, he basically did a dictator move & got the city council to do away with the term limits law that the voters put into place only 10 years ago. That way, he could run this time around. That didn’t sit well with me.

     I wanted to vote for Thompson but couldn’t because, under Thompson, the Board of Education was run into the ground. Schools weren’t being repaired, corruption was everywhere, & test scores were way below the national average. There was no way I was going to vote for someone like that to be put in charge of the city government.

     I decided to vote for the independent party. Wait. Whose name is in the Independents’ slot? Mike Bloomberg. How is it possible that his name is in two different slots? Bloomberg, after all, quit the Republican Party last year & became an Independent. How can he be on the ballot as both a Republican & an Independent? I ended up voting for the Working Party candidate. Bloomberg won in a squeaker.

     He wasn’t the only one to game the ballot system, though. Just about every race had the same guy on the ballot under more than one party. There was even a guy for civic judge whose name appeared three times. It’s time there were clear rules that stated that a candidate can only appear on the ballot once. He or she shouldn’t be able to appear as a Republican, an Independent, & a Conservative, or Working Families candidate.

One Year Ago Today: a Message From President Obama

And now, a message from President Obama

Public Option Creates Competition & Lowers Costs

This video is from a joint press conference held on October 28 with senators & the small business community, outlining their support of the public option in the health care bill.

Health Care in America

Check out this video by Sen. Diane Feinstein on the history of health care in this country:

By the People: the Election of Barack Obama Interview Video

I found something that didn't include insults or controversy. It's an interview with the makers of the new HBO documentary "By the People: the Election of Barack Obama".




Watch CBS News Videos Online

Crisis of Conscience

     I'm having a crisis of conscience when it comes to politics. It's not because of how I feel about President Obama, who I think is doing a pretty good job, though I wish he'd take control of his message more. It's because I'm just sick of all the name calling back & forth.
     I've completely turned off cable news. I never learn anything from watching it. People who do those shows are more interested in insults & saying controversial things, rather than bring anything of substance to the conversational table. I only watch CNN, MSNBC, et al when there's a major breaking news story.
     I thought I'd try punching up this blog with some videos  that bring substance to different topics like health care. However, I'm hard pressed to find any, mainly because once again, they're full of nothing but insults being hurled back & forth. I'll keep looking, though. I'm sure there's something I can do for this political blog without turning it into the latest insult blog.

Daylight Savings Time

     This Sunday marks the end of daylight savings time. This is my favorite night of the year because we get an extra hour of sleep (or partying since it’s Halloween night). Daylight savings time used to end at the beginning of October. That was until Congressman Markey sponsored a law that lengthened its time to what it is now. His thinking was that it would give people an extra hour of daylight later into the year & earlier in the spring than it used to be.

     All of that may be true but there’s a safety issue that’s been overlooked. The sun this week doesn’t rise until after 7 in the morning, when kids are walking to school. That means that for a vast majority of children on their way to school, they’re either walking on sidewalks (or in the streets if there isn’t a sidewalk) or they’re waiting for buses & trains in complete darkness. This is bad. What lawmakers should do is adjust the weeks that daylight savings time goes into effect. Make it start 1 or 2 weeks later & end 1 or 2 weeks earlier. That way, people still get later daylight & kids don’t walk to school in the dark.

Top 10 Torture Tunes

  Today, a group called the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo put out a press release talking about the use of music during torture sessions at the detention center. The reason why this is sorta news is that some major artists, including Pearl Jam & the Roots, signed the statement. Among the music that the CIA used to torture people with are Brittany Spears, Metallica, & rap music. I hope it was gangsta rap & not old school. I love old school & Metallica. Brittany Spears would be torture.

     Aside from the question as to why form a group for something that's actually being closed down (we'll have it closed within 1 year), it got me thinking about what music would I be tortured with if I were sent to some undisclosed detention facility. Here are my top 10 worst songs or artists to be tortured by:

1. The Macarena by whoever did that stupid song.

2. Rod Stewart

3. Achey Breakey Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus.

4. God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood. Nice idea but way too Republican Party anthem. Plus, it's a really annoying song.

5. Any song that uses auto tune, which is pretty much every song on the pop charts today & every Lil Wayne rap song.

6. Country music with very few exceptions, such as Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Shania, Tim McGraw, & Johnny Cash.

7. Classical music - I actually like classical but too much of it will start reminding me of college classes sitting there in a room full of snobs who thought that only classical & jazz were the true art forms & that all other forms of music were beneath them to listen to.

8. Any Broadway musical.

9. Any version of any song that is sung by an American Idol contestant that is not from their own records.

10. Any song that has the word niggga in its lyrics.

And So It Goes

The other day, someone asked me what it was really like dealing with stereotypes in today’s society. A strange question, I thought. Considering that the person who asked me was a White Anglo Saxon who said he never experienced stereotypes (uh..ok), I decided to answer him by relaying an incident to him that happened just the other morning.

While I walking to the subway, there was a woman who was on the same sidewalk as I was walking. She had her pocketbook on her left shoulder. As I walked closer to her, she turned around to see who was making noise behind her. When she saw it was me, she quickly switched the pocketbook to her right shoulder. As I passed her, I made no eye contact with her. I kept right on walking, since I was running a little late & wanted to get the next train. However, when I had passed to about 10 feet in front of her, I quickly looked back to play a hunch. “I’ll bet she switched the pocketbook back to her left shoulder”, I thought to myself. I was right. The switch happened when I had put sufficient distance between myself & her.

Now, before you come to the conclusion that the lady was White, she was not. She was Latino. Stereotypes & racism are restricted to the White community, despite the stereotype...and so it goes.

Obama's Letterman Video

Here is part of President Obama's visit to the Late Show with David Letterman last night.

What's Wrong With the NAACP?

Image via Wikipedia

     This year, the NAACP celebrates its 100th anniversary. This great organization has, against all odds, fought many great battles to make the lives of black Americans (indeed, ALL Americans) better. It stood up to the Jim Crow system. It fought for voting rights. It fought to desegregate schools. It fought for workers rights. My, how times have changed.

     The sad thing is that I’m not sure what they stand for any more. During their last convention this past summer, in speech after speech, all you heard was that the white man was working the system against us. I didn’t hear one word about taking responsibility for our own people (that came later when President Obama spoke). Not one word was said about black on black crime; only about police brutality. Nothing was said about saving money or about financial responsibility; only about how Wall Street & the banks screwed the black man.
     To most of the speakers, the black man was & still is the victim of white people. I don’t believe that to be true, for the most part. Yes, racism still exists. I feel it every day. However, there comes a point where you break free of that type of thinking & deal with doing things regardless of racism. You stand strong, you take care of each other, you get your priorities together, & above all, you stop making excuses for why you're not accomplishing your dreams.
     For the longest time, the NAACP was great at conveying that message. Now, not so much. For example, when Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist, what did the NAACP do? Did they march on Fox News headquarters? Did they organize a boycott? Nope. They put out a press release. When President Obama needed help pushing health care reform (an issue extremely important to the black community), what was the NAACP doing? They were busy protesting.....in support of dog killer Michael Vick.
     The NAACP needs to get back to basics again & start thinking about how to help the community. It saddens me to say this but new leadership is now needed.

Senator Ted Kennedy 1932 - 2009

Edward Kennedy via last.fm

Senator Edward Kennedy died after a long bout with cancer late Tuesday night. He was 77. For many people he was the last of the Kennedy brothers & bearer of the torch. To me, he was my senator for most of my life & that is the way I will remember him.


Growing up in Western Massachusetts, the name Kennedy was the only name you ever heard. In fact, when I was younger, I used to hate the Kennedys. Teddy at the time was seen as a buffoon; a lying, drunk, womanizing, bloated rich kid. Mitt Romney almost defeated him in 1994 until Kennedy staged a late election surge. One of the Boston radio stations, WAAF, had a morning radio guy, Greg Hill, who used to have a Kennedy impersonator as one of his cast of characters. The guy would come on the radio with a thick low “Bah-stan” accent, say things like “eer-up”, then crack open a beer & go into drunken slurred speech. High comedy back in the 70s & 80s in the state.

It wasn’t until I got older that I realized just what Ted Kennedy accomplished. I grew to like, then love, him for what he had done for Massachusetts & the country as a whole. For the state, what he did will never be equaled. He sent so much money for construction projects, schools, homeless shelters, & the like. He authored a lot of legislation; so much so, that he is now known as the most effective legislator in the history of the U.S. Senate. Many laws & programs are enjoyed by all Americans because of Kennedy; from COBRA to Meals on Wheels to the Americans with Disabilities Act to health insurance for poor kids. He did it by reaching across the aisle to republicans & compromising. He didn’t bash people over the head, although he was known as someone you’d never really want to cross in a battle, but he always got the job done. Today’s Congress would be wise to learn from how Kennedy got legislation passed. Unfortunately, they also could learn about civility when someone passes. The conservatives have had a field day today trashing Sen. Kennedy. One, Michelle Malkin, has taken the word bitch to a whole other level with a post on you tube. Very shamefull. If even Mitt Romney can say something nice about Ted, why can't she or at least, shut the f*** up.

There’s already been a lot of talk today about how health care reform will not pass now because Sen. Kennedy is not there to get the legislation through. Maybe now because of his untimely passing, senators will double their efforts & pass health care reform in honor of him; much like civil rights legislation was passed in honor of his brother John after his assassination.

HBO ran a special Teddy: In His Own Words last month. I hope they run it again. If you get the chance, watch it. It’s a great history on what the man went through; from his family’s tragedies to his plane & car crashes to his many triumphs. His was a life well lived. We should all be so lucky. God speed, Teddy. May you finally rest in peace.

Glenn Beck Boycott Working

I often find it funny that when Republicans are offended by something that someone says, they want to boycott. When one of their own says something offensive, they say it’s freedom of speech. I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again. People can say whatever they want to. That’s the beauty of America. However, this does not mean that I have to financially support companies who advertise with people who say or do offensive things. That’s also the beauty of America.


To that end, I called for a strong response when Glenn Beck said offensive things about President Obama. I blogged a partial list, courtesy of colorofchange.org, of companies that advertised on his show. I’d love to take credit for the response but alas, I can not. Thanks to colorofchange.org & a few other organizations, it looks like we are getting the desired effect. About 20 companies have pulled their advertising from Glenn Beck’s television show http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-rucker/wal-mart-cvs-best-buy-dit_b_261424.html. Plus, it looks like Fox News has told him to take a little time off http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/08/is-the-glenn-beck-boycott-working.html.

It’s Fox’s hope that things will cool down. It is my hope that the pressure will be kept on. We need to let Fox News & advertisers know that we will not tolerate hate speech, whether it’s from a liberal or a conservative. There will no longer be any place for that in our society & if people do it & companies support it, they will pay a financial price for it. Hate speech has gotten completely out of control lately. It’s time to fight back.

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Why Health Care Reform WILL Pass

I read a really good article about health care today that's written by a doctor. It's a must read that will explain what to watch for & why health care reform WILL pass. Here's the link & a few paragraphs:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32468082/ns/health-health_care/

From all the attention focused on the rambunctious town hall meetings, ranting about “death panels” and repetitive shrieking against government health care on right-wing radio, one might think health reform is pretty much dead in America. Think again.



Health reform is a lock to pass. The only issue is in what form. You need to look past the noise, fear-mongering, misquotes, inconsistent claims, inaccurate assertions and political gamesmanship and pay attention to what is truly at issue as Congress gets down to the business of reform in the fall.



Why am I so certain reform will happen? Well, August is media silly season. Anything that can get you to look up from your beach or lake reading to watch TV tops the news. That is why creepy Michael Jackson, animal abuser Michael Vick and a few thousand angry old white guys, some packing heat, all yelling at Congressmen, dominate the airwaves. Summer will soon be over, though, and that signals a return to a very different world of politics and media coverage.

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Whole Foods CEO

Image via Wikipedia

Apparently, the crunchy granola world is flustered over the fact that Whole Foods’ CEO wrote an op ed where he said, among other things, that health care wasn’t a right http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32471153/ns/us_news-washington_post/. Why does this shock people? A lot of companies that you might think have a liberal bend have people running them who are extremely conservative. Where do you think all that money for conservative think tanks & operative groups comes from?


For example, for all the talk about how liberal Hollywood is, the fact is that it’s really only the actors who might be liberal. The entertainment industry is run by multinational conglomerates whose boards of directors & CEOs are mainly conservative. Dominos Pizza is run by an ultraconservative who gives the majority of his money to far right causes. That’s why I don’t eat their pizza.

If you really want to find out where your money is going, do some research online. There are many web sites that keep track of who gives how much money to which causes. Then, send these CEOs a message that you will not give money to their companies. People who shop at Whole Foods should not be shocked in the least.

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State Department vs Chavez Over Golf

Image via Wikipedia

State Department spokeman P.J. Crowley took the opportunity the other day to criticize Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Was it over human rights abuses? Nope. Was it for meddling in Columbia's affairs? Eh eh. It was over a golf comment. Seriously.


Chavez plans to close golf courses in Maracay and Caraballeda & said it was a rich man's sport. He also said it was a shame that in the middle of the city, there's a golf course with so much land lacking for buildings for the people & that if rich people wanted to play golf, they could build one outside the city. He also called golf a "bourgeous" sport.

Well, thems fighting words for P.J. Crowley. "As the Department of State's self-appointed ambassador-at-large for golf, I wish to protest the unwarranted attack by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the game of golf. Once again Mr. Chavez, one of the hemisphere's most divisive figures, finds himself out of bounds," Crowley said. "The suggestion by Mr. Chavez that golf, a truly global sport, is bourgeois is a mulligan."

It's so good to see that the State department has time to care about golf. What, with all of the world's problems out there, golf easily comes up in the top 3 things to deal with. I think it's right after worrying about the spread of global reality television & who Brittany, Lindsey, & Paris are doing (oooh..maybe each other!!). If Crowley's so bent out of shape over a golf comment that Chavez made (a comment that, I admit, I find myself agreeing with, unfortunately), I'd hate to see what he would've done to Mark Twain for his "golf is a good walk spoiled" comment. Crowley probably would've had him deported.

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Health Care Failing

Angry crowds, tons of orchestrated protesters, socialism, harsh words. 2009? Nope. 1994's health care debate. The same reactions that are going on today to the Obama health care plan are the same orchestrated reactions to the Clinton health care plan in 1994. According to a new poll released today, the protests are having the same affect the 1994 protests did. They're working against Obama.


There are many people to blame for this. Let's start with the Obama administration & Obama specifically. He said there was a reason why health care reform hasn't been achieved in 50 years. Did he think his popularity was going to let him cakewalk over this issue? Did he think his plan wasn't going to get the same treatment as Clinton's did? Why didn't they see all of this coming? Perhaps, instead of sending Clinton to North Korea last week, Clinton should've gone to Washington to have a discussion on how not to roll out a major program. Obama needs to be more hands on with this. He's beginning to but it may be too late.

What about the democrats? When will they ever learn that the republicans do not play fair? They play dirty & they play to win. They spread disinformation & will use whatever they have to, including racist overtones. Knowing all of that, where are the counterprotests? Where are all the counterprotesters in the town halls? All I hear & see when I'm watching these town hall meetings are people who agree with the wingnuts. I never see people agreeing with the plan.

Where's the NAACP & other groups? When a white cop shoots a black man, they can't find the media fast enough. When a major piece of legislation needs a boost in the black community, they suddenly go silent. They should be out in the community & on tv, educating people that there's no such thing as a death panel & other misinformation. Yet another example of leadership failing the community.

The administration, the democrats, & their supporters better learn the rules to this game fast. Otherwise, the republicans will succeed in defeating what could be very good legislation.

Congress Plays Games With the Money Again

Image by Royalty-free image collection via Flickr

Congress plays this game a lot. They'll make a big deal about how they set aside money to do something but in reality, no mey is actually se aside. The newest example is NASA's program to look for the killer asteroids that are out there. Before you go "yeah right. killer asteroids. don't exist. sci fi", they do exist. In fact, one is supposed to come close in 2028. However, if there are any others, we won't know until it's too late because Congress played games with the money. Here's the link & some of the article:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32387796/

WASHINGTON - NASA is charged with seeking out nearly all the asteroids that threaten Earth but does not have the money to do the job, a U.S. government report says.

That is because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says. Specifically, NASA has been ordered to spot 90 percent of the potentially deadly rocks hurtling through space by 2020.

Even so, NASA says it has completed about one-third of its assignment with its current telescope system.

NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats to Earth. They are larger than 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter — slightly smaller than a sports stadium in New Orleans. So far, scientists know where about 6,000 of these objects are.

Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in diameter can devastate an entire region but not the entire globe, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the near-Earth objects program. Objects bigger than that are even more threatening, of course.

Just last month astronomers were surprised when an object of unknown size and origin bashed into Jupiter and created an Earth-sized bruise that is still spreading. Jupiter does get slammed more often than Earth because of its immense gravity, enormous size and location.

Disaster movies like "Armageddon" and near misses in previous years may have scared people and alerted them to a serious issue. But when it comes to doing something about monitoring the threat, the academy concluded "there has been relatively little effort by the U.S. government."

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Africa & the United States

     There's a really good article about the problems that the US State Dept has with its Africa Bureau. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-08-10-africa_N.htm Among some of the problems the article points out are:

• Diplomats feel overwhelmed by new demands without additional staff.
• The group in charge of boosting the U.S. image is a "failed office" with no strategic plan and little integration with other diplomats.
• While the United States "helps feed Africa," it should focus more on helping Africans feed themselves — and on preventing HIV/AIDS as well as treating the condition.
• There isn't enough travel money to properly oversee a $2 billion Africa peacekeeping program.
• A new military command in Africa is "stepping into a void created by a lack of resources for traditional development."
• Corruption "receives insufficient attention as an impediment to trade, development and investment."
     There's one other main problem that should be addressed & that is Al Queda. The United States & its western allies have ignored & taken advantage of the African continent for centuries. As a result, extreme poverty & corruption have increased dramatically. That's given Al Queda furtile ground to sow. Their results have been staggering. Radical Islamic regimes have popped up in in the northeast countries & are making their way south. Pirating is dramatically up.
     The western countries have to stop shoveling money into Africa & get these countries into a survival mode where they can be prosperous on their own. Otherwise, other emerging super powers such as China will start to take over or Al Queda will complete its African domination. Then we'll all be wondering why we're sending troops to Africa to fight, only it'll be our own fault for ignoring a growing situation for far too long.

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• Kuwait Arrests 6 in Planned Attack on U.S. Base (nytimes.com)

Obama Leadership

Image by kimberlyfaye via Flickr

In one of New York City’s free tabloids, there was a front page headline that said Sweating the Numbers: Obama’s Approval Ratings Drop To 50% Over Economy. First off, I doubt that Obama’s really worrying about the poll numbers right now. Real leaders don’t concern themselves with petty issues like that, especially when there are a lot of problems that need fixing.
Second, a little historical perspective is needed here. Ronald Reagan, like Obama, inherited a recession; his from Jimmy Carter. Reagan took 3 years to pull the country out & while he was busy implementing policies, his approval ratings dropped…a lot. In fact, when he ran against Walter Mondale in 1984, he was actually behind in the polls until their second debate.
As it turned out, a lot of his policies are beginning to work. All of the economic indicators seem to show that the economy is beginning to bottom out & turn upward. The stock market is up almost 2000 points from its bottom only 6 months ago (so much for antiObama CNBC & the Obama bear market). Even unemployment, usually a lagging indicator, actually dipped downward last month so that's a good sign.
When people are trying to fix problems, they will not be popular because eventually, they will ruffle feathers (see health care reform for a more recent example). The real leaders won't stick their fingers up to see which wat the political wind is blowing. They will stand strong & with conviction that what they are doing is right.

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Glenn Beck Advertisers

Here are the advertisers on Glenn Beck's television show. Please join me & contact them. Let them know that you will no longer give your hard earned money to them so that they can support someone who practices racial politics for ratings. Freedom of speech is something that Glenn Beck is entitled to. However, we as human beings are also entitled to not give our money to companies that give financial support to such hatred.

http://foxnewsboycott.com/glenn-beck/glenn-becks-sponsors-named-in-donny-deutchs-boycott/

Nestle
Wal-Mart
Kellogg
Kraft Food
Chrysler
General Motors
Pfizer
Procter & Gamble
Campbell

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Stop Glenn Beck

Image by The Rocketeer via Flickr

Here's a letter that I recieved from colorofchange.org. I usually don't print this but I feel it's extremely important that we all do our part to stop people on all sides from playing racial politics for the sake of either ratings or to advance a policy.

Dear friends,
As you may know, right-wing talk show hosts have been bringing race-based fear mongering into the mainstream, but FOX's Glenn Beck just took it to another level. On Tuesday, Beck said:

This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist.

It's part of a larger argument Beck has been making: that President Obama wants to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. This kind of talk stirs up fear, hate, and it can lead to violence.
I've joined ColorOfChange.org's effort to stop Glenn Beck. ColorOfChange is already putting calls into Beck's advertisers, asking them if they want to be associated with this kind of racist hate and fear-mongering. When the advertisers see that tens of thousands of us are behind that question, I believe they'll move their advertising dollars elsewhere, and his show and platform will be history. Will you take a stand and be counted, and invite your friends and family to do the same? It takes just a moment:
http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=2188-143376
Glenn Beck is appealing to the worst in America. Of course, some Americans refuse to accept the fact that our president is Black or the idea that he could truly serve all Americans. But the only way these views fade away is if they're not reinforced by mainstream society. Instead, folks like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Rush Limbaugh are exploiting racism and race-based fear to bump their ratings, stirring up racial discord in the process.
The dangers of these tactics are real. We saw the same dynamic during the presidential race: By the end, the McCain/Palin campaign was unable to control the violent energy whipped up by their race-baiting. It resulted in an unprecedented number of threats on Obama's life, a rise in the number of hate groups, and an increase in the number of threats and crimes against immigrants and Black people.
FOX has a horrible track record on pushing racist propaganda, but Glenn Beck appears to be taking the network to an even lower standard. He's trying to divide and distract America when we should be coming together and talking about issues that really matter--like health care and the economy. The good news is that we have the power to stop this. All major media is funded by advertising. And advertisers care more than anything what consumers think. If we want to change what's happening and put an end to folks like Glenn Beck having a platform, we can do it. It's up to us, and it can start now. Please join me:
http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=2188-143376
Thanks.
Here are some links to more info:
"Beck: Obama has 'exposed himself as a guy' with 'a deep seated hatred for white people'"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008

"Glenn Beck: Obama agenda driven by 'reparations' and desire to 'settle old racial scores'"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040

"MSNBC's Deutsch encourages viewers to demand advertisers on Beck's show spend money elsewhere"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907290037

"On Television and Radio, Talk of Obama's Citizenship"
http://...com/mb467j

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Mitt Romney's Health Care

Mitt Romney wrote an op ed piece in USA Today http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/mr-president-whats-the-rush.html?poe=HFMostPopular about the health care system & Massachusetts's solutions in dealing with it. The piece is entitled "Mr. President, What's the Rush". Romney's two points in the piece is that health care reform doesn't have to happen now & that republicans are not the enemy.
Mitt Romney is wrong on at least one of those points. Time is of the essense. There's a reason why it's taken 50 years to get this far with reform. It's because the people who are against it are well funded & entrenched. Every president has started to attempt reform & have been driven back, leaving it to the next person. In the meantime, people die from a broken system that helps the very few get richer & richer.
As far as the republicans go, there are some who want to see the system change, while the vast majority want to see the president fail. They want to try to score a victory against President Obama. They could care less about the American people & trying to fix the system. To them, this is a game. Well, the American people need to tell them that this is not a fucking game!!! There are people dying because they either can't afford to get the proper care or they've been turned away due to a cruel system. This has to stop. What better time than now to stop it? The time is now to fix it. There should be no more delays & stall strategies. Peoples lives depend on it.

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Racial Profiling Does Not Exist?

There was a very interesting opinion piece concerning racial profiling in USA Today
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/our-view-on-law-enforcement-eliminating-racial-profiling-remains-a-work-in-progress----though-cambridge-case-is-an-ab.html#more. It’s worth reading the entire opinion but I’ll highlight a couple paragraphs.

In one highly publicized case a decade ago, two New Jersey state troopers wounded three unarmed black men after shooting into their car during a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. In the ensuing uproar, the state found that when blacks and Hispanics were pulled over on the turnpike, they were three times as likely as whites to be subjected to searches. Reversing years of denial, the state attorney general admitted what minorities had contended for years, that disparate treatment was "real, not imagined."
New Jersey's experience, and federal cases in seven jurisdictions from California to Pennsylvania, should have virtually ended racial profiling. But you can't solve a problem unless you admit it exists, and too many law enforcement officials have been in denial. Study after study has documented the same divisive trends. In Illinois, a report this month found that last year, minorities were more likely to be subjected to certain searches than whites, even though police were more likely to find contraband in the vehicles of white drivers. In New York City, a disproportionate number of minorities stopped by police since 2005 were frisked; the yield of weapons or contraband was minuscule.

Now, despite all of those studies that the opinion piece referenced, despite all of that evidence, there is someone who believes that it’s not true. His name is Chuck Canterbury, who is the president of the National Fraternal Order of Police. In his mind, racial profiling just doesn’t happen. Here’s a paragraph from his opposing opinion piece: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/opposing-view-profiling-does-not-happen----theres-no-evidence-that-racism-is-a-systemic-problem-in-police-forces.html

Racial profiling is not a legitimate law enforcement tool, and there is no evidence that prejudice is a systemic problem in U.S. law enforcement. Racial profiling cannot exist unless police executives allow it — unless a whole department tolerates it — and that just does not happen today. Unfortunately, because of past injustices, minority group members sometimes assume that any routine stop of a minority is racial profiling, an assumption that a white driver in the same circumstances is unlikely to make.

It's strange that he can't see what's directly in front of his face. Racial profiling does still exist. Ask a black male. Ask an Arabic man. The first thing Chuck Canterbury should do is to acknowledge that the problem still exists. Then, the police can really get to the business of changing the system.

the Birthers

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I'm just going to directly lift this from my thinkprogress.org newsletter, since they've said it better than I ever could:

Last Thursday, CNN President Jon Klein sent an e-mail to a handful of the network's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" staffers informing them that he considered one of the stories pursued by the infamously anti-immigrant host to be "dead." On his radio show the week before, Dobbs declared that President Obama needed to "produce a birth certificate," picking up on a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that claims Obama was not born in the United States, and the birth certificate released by his campaign last year was fake. Dobbs repeatedly pushed the "birther" cause despite the fact that his colleagues at CNN have repeatedly called the story "total bull." In fact, while guest-hosting Dobbs' own show on July 17, Kitty Pilgrim refuted the fringe theory, saying, "CNN has fully investigated the issue, found no basis for the questions about the president's birthplace, but the controversy lives on, especially on the Internet." But Dobbs has persisted, attacking his critics as "limp-minded, lily-livered lefties" who hate him because he has "the temerity to inquire as to where the birth certificate was." As Dobbs continued to air the conspiracy theory, Klein backed off his admonition of the host, telling the Los Angeles Times that Dobbs had handled the issue in a "legitimate" manner and "if there are future news pegs, then we have to take that story as it comes." On Sunday, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz used his CNN show to chastise media outlets that "give the birthers any airtime" to repeat their "ludicrous claims." Kurtz specifically criticized Dobbs for not acting "responsible."

BORN IN THE USA: Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. This date is on the Certification of Live Birth released by the Hawaii Department of Health last year at the request of Obama. Birthers like Dobbs point to the fact that the campaign released the "short form" certification rather than the "long form" -- which is drawn up by the hospital and contains more information -- as the crux of their argument that the President is hiding something. But as FactCheck.org noted when they investigated and debunked claims about Obama's birth certificate, "the Hawaii Department of Health's birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate," and "their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department." Birthers, like conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, claim that the certificate posted by the Obama campaign was "a false, fake birth certificate," but its authenticity has been independently confirmed by FactCheck.org, which examined it in person and declared that "it is real and three-dimensional." Additionally, on Oct. 31, 2008, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, issued a statement saying that he had "personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures." Definitive proof of Obama's Hawaii birth has also been found in the archives of two Hawaii newspapers, the Honululu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which both printed birth announcements days after Obama was born in 1961. Birth announcements in those papers are placed by the state Department of Health, not the family.

RIGHT-WING MEDIA GIVES VOICE: Dobbs isn't the only media personality giving voice to the birthers. As PolitiFact's Robert Farley wrote last month, "the conservative WorldNetDaily.com Web site is the conductor of the Birther train." The far-right outlet, which sells "Where's The Birth Certificate?" bumper stickers, convinced someone to ask White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the conspiracy in May. The birther theory has also been pushed by bigger names in the right-wing media. Before the 2008 election, radio host Rush Limbaugh speculated that Obama may have gone to Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother to take care of "this birth certificate business." Since then, Limbaugh has joked, "[W]hat do Obama and God have in common? Neither has a birth certificate." Earlier this month, Limbaugh stepped it up a notch, declaring that "Barack Obama has yet to prove he's a citizen." Fox News has also elevated the birther conspiracy, running headlines like "Should Obama Release Birth Certificate?" on its Fox Nation website and running reports on birther-based lawsuits on its news shows. Fox's Sean Hannity has aired claims that "the president is not, in fact, a legitimate citizen by birth" and asked a caller on his radio show if he had "ever seen" Obama's birth certificate.

THE BIRTHER BILL: In March, Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) introduced legislation requiring "presidential candidates to produce copies of their birth certificates and other documentation to prove natural-born citizenship." Posey's bill has gathered nine co-sponsors in the House. Trying to explain why he introduced the bill, Posey issued a statement saying, "This bill, by simply requiring such documentation for future candidates for president, will remove this issue as a reason for questioning the legitimacy of a candidate elected as president." But Posey has undermined this seemingly innocuous rationale for his legislation by outright accusing Obama of hiding something on a right-wing Internet radio show. "The only people that I know who are afraid to take drug tests are the people who use drugs," said Posey. Claiming that he hadn't looked at the evidence, Posey previously told the Orlando Sentinel, "I can't swear on a stack of Bibles whether he is or isn't" a citizen. On MSNBC's Hardball last week, host Chris Matthews challenged one of the bill's co-sponsors, Rep. John Campbell (R-CA), telling him that "what you're doing is appeasing the nutcases...you're verifying the paranoia out there." Asked if he believed Obama was a citizen, Campbell responded, "as far as I know, yes." Matthews retorted, "as far as you know? I'm showing you his birth certificate!" Matthews is correct that many conservative lawmakers are comfortable "feeding the wacko wing." Just today, Politico reported that Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said birthers "have a point." "I don't discourage it," said Inhofe.

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