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.
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.
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.
There's an article from Chris Parry the Vancouver Sun that's heating up the blogsphere http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html. I don't think I can do it justice so I'll just put up part of the article. "A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion." These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she was photographed wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on the front. The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured the caption, "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds." Though this may sound like the sort of thing one might read on an Aryan Nation or white power website, they actually appeared on what is commonly considered one of the prime online locations for U.S. Conservative grassroots political discussion and organizing - and for a short time, the comments seemed to have the okay of site administrators. Moderators of the blog left the comments - and commenters - in place until a complaint was lodged by a writer doing research on the conservative movement, almost a full day later. A note on the front of the blog reads, "Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government," but one comment on the thread read, "This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution," while another read, "I never actually wnated [sic] to be a pistol before but..." After attention from other blogs, the thread was suppressed and placed under review, but before long it was returned to the site intact, and attracted a new series of racial slurs when the original complaint email was posted publicly to the site, with the sender's email address intact. "The writer has a point," wrote site owner Jim Thompson sarcastically. "We should steer clear of Obama's children. They can't help it if their old man is an American-hating Marxist pig." "I agree Jim," wrote commenter, by the nickname NoobRep. "The kids didn't pick their commie pinko pansy of a father. Nor did they choose to be put into the spotlight. But Obama/Soetoro is fair game and so is his witch of a wife."
"Freepers, get the word out loud and wide. The Vancouver Sun "journalist" Chris Parry that defamed Jim Robinson and FreeRepublic is none other than radical left blogger "Hollywoodoz" at the Daily Kos. In addition to writting for the Vancouver Sun, Chris is a frustrated and failed internet entrepreneur, having launched many websites and blogs, all of which have virtually no traffic, following, or success. Chris also writes movie reviews, though these are pretty lame. Chris Parry actually advocated attacking "negros" and blaming the republicans for it. See this post at the Daily Kos by "hollywoodoz", who is in reality, as proven below Chris Parry of the Vancouver Sun. See it here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/9/10324/92702 This spells BUSH, CHENEY, BROWN. Now if this is not grounds for losing your job at the Vancouver Sun, I don't know what is."
The blog then goes on to list a bunch of news media contacts so that they can make their case that they're being set up. In order to believe their excuses, you would have to believe that all of those racist quotes came from one person masquerading as many people. You'd also have to believe that they're really not racist people, even though they took the offending thread down & then put it back up. Basically, they kept their offending conversation until they got busted for it. Then, they figured they'd put it back up once the smoke cleared except that they got busted again. It's unfortunate that some conservatives have gotten to the point where they can feel free to spew their racist vile. It's a trend I've been noticing for a couple of years now. Racism's bad enough. However, when you bring a person's young kids into the mix, you've completely crossed the line.
This week, the Senate Juditiary Committee will begin the confirmation hearings to appoint Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here are the two things that you can basically expect: 1. A LOT of long winded speeches disguised as questions. Senators have a time limit & expect them to use ALL of it. 2. Republicans to try to tarnish Judge Sotomayor's reputation. This is the part I find funny. If you speak about how proud you are of your race, you are accused of being racist. If Justice Scalia decided to speak about how proud he is of being Italian, I wonder how many people would complain? Actually, a lot of people. Racial politics is a blood sport. These hearings will just take it to another level. The republicans even have one of the white fire fighters who won an appeal on a case that Judge Sotomayor was judging testifying against her. That's the first time I've ever heard that being done. Republicans will use these hearings as part of their Party of No strategy. They will twist every word that Judge Sotomayor has ever written or said to their advantage. Their reason is simple & twofold. First, it's payback to the democrats for all of the justices that George W. Bush nominated & the democrats tried to disgrace. Second, this is the republicans' only option because they don't have the votes to stop the judge's confirmation. If you enjoy a lot of blowhards bickering with each other & destroying someone's reputation, then this is definitely your week. You hear Sotomayor explain "wise latina woman" so many times, it'll make your ears bleed. It'll keep the cable "news" networks busy & talking about something other than Michael Jackson FINALLY. It'll keep every so-called expert employeed for another week. In the end, though, she'll be nominated unless she didn't pay her social security taxes or something stupid like that. Personally, I think we'd all be better off with a steel cage grudge match between her & the republican senators. My money's on Sotomayor.
I'm not quite sure what's up with congressmen named King this week. First, there was NY Rep Peter King & his verbal attack on Michael Jackson. Now, IA Rep Steve King has decided to enter his name in the Dumbest Guy of the Week contest. Rep. Steve King was the only vote against putting a plaque in the Capital Visitor Center recognizing the fact that the U.S. Capital was built with slave labor. The vote, by the way, was 399 - 1 for placement of the plaque. Rep King's reason for voting against it? It's....well, I'll let his official press release explain it to you:
"In the Capitol Visitor's Center, we agreed to change the name of the Great Hall - which honored the immigrants that came legally to America - to Emancipation Hall to honor the 645,000 slaves and their descendants who were brought to the United States more than two centuries ago."Last night I opposed yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery because it was used as a bargaining chip to allow for the actual depiction of 'In God We Trust' in the CVC. The Architect of the Capitol and liberal activists opposed every reference to America's Christian heritage, even to the extent of scrubbing 'In God We Trust' from the depiction of the actual Speaker's chair in the U.S. House of Representatives. "This is just the latest example of a several year effort by liberals in Congress to scrub references to America's Christian heritage from our nation's Capitol. Liberals want to amend our country's history to eradicate the role of Christianity in America and chisel references to God or faith from our historical buildings."Our Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation and should not be held hostage to yet another effort to place guilt on future Americans for the sins of some of their ancestors. Christian abolitionists gave their lives by the hundreds of thousands to end slavery. Great American leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worshipped God just as our Founding Fathers did. We must never forget this important aspect of our heritage or use it as a political bargaining chip."
Yet another bill about slavery? Apparently, Steve's not feeling the love. I'm going to assume that he's in a pretty safe district & that his re-election is assured. Otherwise, he just gave some serious ammo to his opponents. Pretty stupid, Steve. Pretty stupid.
I went online & watched a video of a tea bagging rally. I wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about. What I saw was something very frightening, but not for the reasons that you might think. The rally started innocently enough. Speaker after speaker went on stage & started talking about high taxes & the need to start trimming them. I’m all for that. I believe the deficit is getting out of control now & we need to start putting restrictions in place in order to bring it down. Then, the rally started turning scary. The speakers started talking about illegal immigrants & the need to kick them out of the country & close the borders. One speaker even started talking about spics & niggers being the main reason for America’s problem, which received great applause. Well, THAT got my attention. The handheld camera started panning the crowd. All white. Go figure. One woman held up a sign that said “Go to hell Owebama (a cute play on the president’s name) & the camel you rode in on”. Interesting. What is evident to me is that when the far right stole a page out of the far left’s playbook with these anti-tax rallies, the idea became perverted. What may have started out as a decent idea has now turned into a kinder gentler version of the Ku Klux Klan.
I know that the Mark Sanford issue has swirled for a week but I've stayed away from it to see what the reaction would be to his press conference. Oh, where to begin? I'm aware that people do make mistakes & that forgiveness is divine, let he who is without sin...blah, blah, blah. The problem is that Mark Sanford was the one who's thrown the most stones in the past at others so it's about time he got some thrown back at him. Let us not forget that when he was a congressman during the '90s, he was one of the main proponents for the impeachment of Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife. When Larry Craig was busted for trying to make a pass at a man in a bathroom stall, it was Mark Sanford who went on television & said that Craig couldn't govern any more & that he would resign. Now, the tables have turned & it is Mark Sanford who finds himself in the infidelity spotlight. Forgive me if I find this extremely humorous. It doesn't help that even after the press conference, he still won't shut up. Three days later, he gives an interview to the associated press professing that he's found his soul mate & it's not his wife but he'd like to get back with his wife & make it work. Bet the Mrs loved to hear THAT little nugget of information put out to the media. I'm sure the public humiliation has made his wife want to reconsider taking back the man who skipped out on his security detail & his kids on Fathers Day weekend so that he could play house with his soul mate in Argentina; I mean, so he could go hiking on the Appalachian Trail. If Mark Sanford had any decency left, he should just put out a press release saying that he's working on getting back together with his wife & for the press to please respect his family's privacy during this very trying time. He should not be giving interviews saying how much he wants to be with his mistress & that it's forbidden love. Do the right thing Gov. Sanford, please & just resign already.
n For anybody who either works for or follows government, consider this a cautionary tale. This is what happens when people don't through fiscal problems. A few years ago, the city of Springfield, Massachusets, in a bid to create revenue, decided to make its residents pay yearly for trash removal. What they decided to do was to make everybody buy specific trash cans & then pay a yearly fee to pick up the trash in them. In other words, the residents are rentingtheir very own trash cans! That means that if they put their trash in another type of trash can or trash bag, the city doesn't pick it up. While that may be stupid in & of itself, it gets worse. If the residents don't pay the garbage tax, the city comes & takes away the trash cans. No regulation trash cans, no trash pick up. You can see where this is going, right? Fast forward to this year. Residents & apartment complex owners can't afford the fee so the trash cans get taken away. Trash starts piling up. Where do residents start putting their trash? The usual spots: abandoned lots, the side of the road, & in the woods. Rats & other rodents start getting at the trash, creating a potential health disaster; not to mention a very serious littering & blight problem. When will governments learn? When thinking short term, you also have to think long term. All governments, both municipal, state, & federal, might to keep in mind the unintended consequences of their actions before doing them.
I must say, I'm very shocked that people are being so critical of Sarah Palin for resigning from the governorship of Alaska. After all, nobody screamed when Minnesota governor Pawlenty decided not to run again. This is a pretty schrewd thing to do right now for many reasons:
1. For starters, she's going to run for president in 2012. Why would she want to continue being governor right now?
2. Once she announced that she wasn't going to run for reelection, that made her a lame duck. Might as well just give it up now.
3. She can now go & do a lot of things like fundraising & speeches for other politicians or even herself.
4. Most importantly, she has a book coming out. This will definitely sell it. Plus, the will she or won't she run questions will sell just a few more copies.
People who count her out & say that she's imploded haven't looked at a calendar. It's July of 2009. The presidential primaries don't start until January of 2012. People who underestimate either Sarah Palin or the republican party do so at their own peril.
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