Reports and opinions on the top political news and events in the United States and around the world. Presidential Politics, national and local issues are all commented on with sharp viewpoints.
Signs of trouble in the family are brewing. As election season draws closer the mainstream Republicans are trying to keep their odd relatives in the back room, but they keep going out of the window and talking to people outside, this will get ugly.
One of the flagship signs of strife is when what seemed like a runaway train conductor in Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona pulled the emergency brakes and vetoed a bill that would have required proof of citizenship from Presidential candidates in Arizona. That proof of citizenship could have included baptism or circumcision certificates. Brewer said the bill was a bridge too far. That is saying a lot in the current climate.
Now the Republicans have a different problem, a billionaire birther who won’t stop talking about the birthplace and citizenship of President Barack Obama. Donald Trump is out of control. Trump is not subject to the pressures of Karl Rove or any official in the Republican Party. Trump is a runaway train that came out of nowhere and is leading the Republican Presidential polls.
Donald Trump has unlimited media access and has not found a news camera that he does not like. Trump is on television every week with the top rated show on NBC in the Celebrity Apprentice. Who would have imagined that the real Americans would get behind a New York billionaire as their champion to take their country back.
After the Republican Party used Tea Party enthusiasm to make gains in the 2010 mid-term elections, they now expect them to go to the back of the bus and be quiet. Tea Party members and birthers are not going away quietly. Now the Republicans have to deal with the odd Uncle sitting in the middle of their living room because they didn’t tell him that his behavior was strange when it suited their purposes.
Rush Limbaugh officially kicked off his 2012 election campaign of President Barack Obama bashing by calling Obama supporters vile, savages and walking debris. This was in response to the President speech to the nation on the 2012 budget.
Republicans were outraged over the fact that President Obama illustrated the difference in approach to addressing the nation’s budget issues by drawing a contrast between his approach and theirs. What is so interesting is that the Republican position was already written in black and white in the form of Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan.
Ryan’s budget plan laid it all out and was passed by the House of Representatives on April 15, 2011. Ryan’s budget proposes to end Medicare as we know it and distribute it out as vouchers that do not guarantee full cost coverage for medical care if private insurance costs increase. Another part of the Republican plan was to maintain the Bush tax breaks for the rich while slashing Medical coverage for seniors.
What President Obama pointed out was a system that hammered on the poor and elderly while allowing the rich to become richer was unfair and painted a pessimistic view of America. Republicans were outraged that their actual written plans for the United States was presented to the American public as a plan that favored the wealthy over the old, poor and sick. Well.
Now there seem to be hurt feelings that the President pledged to protect older Americans from potential lack of health coverage due to escalating private health insurance costs versus the Medicare guarantee that is in place now.
There is a line of thought that says to the Republicans that in order for them to avoid being publically called Scrooge then don’t put his mask on and wear it around town. Now Limbaugh goes into the gutter to express his view, but Limbaugh is not elected to any office and only plays to an audience that shares his views. The Republicans on the other hand should represent everyone in the districts and states, not just the rich that contribute to their campaigns.
The United States government avoided a shutdown at the last minute, but a fight for the future of the United States looms as the 2012 budget battles takes shape. Democrats can thank Sarah Palin for giving them the upper hand in the Senate.
The next few months will determine if the United States emerges out of the dire financial situation it finds itself in as a nation that abandons long held principles of compassion for personal and political gain or as a country reclaiming the core of it greatness. The stage is set and in many ways the lines on the field of battle have been drawn.
The coming budget fight is a test of what this country will be for the next 50 years or more. You see the United States is viewed by many as something to be exploited for the gain of certain groups while others view it as a idea that represents a way of life, those two opposing points of view are at war.
Take the lines drawn in the near government shutdown that recently took place, all the way until the last hours the budget measure was held up by an added measure that would have defunded Planned Parenthood that had very little to do with actual budget numbers. In the end the Planned Parenthood defunding measure was removed from the final bill. In a separate measure Republican Congressman Paul Ryan authored a 2012 budget that basically ends Medicare as we know it an transitions to a voucher system that allows seniors to purchase health care from private insurance companies. Ryan’s plan may not become law, but it signals the difference between how the same issued is viewed, one view is from a need to provide guaranteed care to seniors and the other is to provide something for care to seniors, but there is no guarantee that it will be enough. An article titled “Paul Ryan Budget Proposal Approved By House Panel” by Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldizar and Alan Fram April 6, 2011 and published in the Huffington Post goes into details of Ryan’s budget plan.
Ryan’s plan basically turns health care for seniors over to private insurers, with all of the issues that everyone has with private insurers of escalating cost etc. How long would it be before private insurers and medical providers increased the cost of care beyond what vouchers would cover? If vouchers could not cover the costs of the medical car required then suddenly seniors need to come out of pocket or be basically uninsured.The attack on Planned Parenthood had a similar tone, but was approached from a cynical angle of not funding abortions. There is a law that prevents federal funds from being used to fund abortions.
So there you have it. Will the United States rewind the clock using the need to control our national debt to a time where seniors are left to fend for themselves on health issues? Will women continue to be under assault on their freedoms when it comes to reproductive health? The push to move more functions to private companies will be loud and intense. The Environmental Protection Agency will be under attack and branded as too restrictive as exemptions on what emissions it can regulate have already been surfaced.
Get ready as a push for profit over serving the public has begun. All is not lost as the Tea Party Republicans only control the House of Representatives. Of all people, Democrats may have to thank Sarah Palin backed candidates like Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell as the reason the Republicans don’t control the Senate. Sarah Palin helped provide a firewall against the Tea Party, you betcha.
When the budget ax swings on anything that can be made to sound frivolous there are times when reality snaps everyone back to reality. The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan managed to shine a spotlight on proposed Republican budget cuts that could reduce the effectiveness of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.
An article titled “Proposed GOP budget cuts target tsunami warning centers” by Lucy Madison March 11, 2011 and posted on the CBS News website goes into the particulars of the budget cuts that are proposed. This follows a pattern as budget cuts proposed thus far nibble around the edges of the real problem. If the usual pattern was followed this cut for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and the National Weather Service would be characterized as cutting nonessential and frivolous spending, until the disaster in Japan occurs.
Imagine the finger pointing is a similar sized tsunami that devastated Japan were to hit an area in the United States without adequate warning and it was traced back to a budget cut that could have been avoided. There is no way to know where a tsunami is headed without the proper technology such as monitoring buoys etc.
There are always items that can be cut from a budget that sound frivolous to someone in Kansas, but are critical to the coasts and the reverse is true as well. One thing that should not be on the frivolous chopping block is protection from severe, although rare, events like hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. We have New Orleans, Indonesia and Japan as proof of the need for as much warning as possible.
Many are too young to remember sweatshops. Sweatshops were largely in the garment industry and small groups of desperate workers worked long hours for low pay, in isolation and without any bargaining power.
The classic definition of a sweat shop was connected with industrialized America and included the following traits:
•Prevalent in the garment industry origin between 1830s and 1850s
•Desperate Workforce
•Long Hours for low pay
•Child labor may have been employed
•Dangerous working conditions
•Sweater/Subcontractor – had a workforce that did work for client, kept workers isolated and unsure of who the ultimate employer was, quickly replace workers for any reason
•Workers Inability To Organize – due to isolation
•Unions and labor laws largely ended sweatshops in the United States
•Most garment related firms outsourced production to other countries that employ sweatshop practices
Labor laws and unions effected changes that largely did away with the practices and conditions that created an environment that was friendly for sweatshop formation. Now in the 21st century are we set for the formation of a new type of sweatshop environment, not in sewing factories, but in corporate America, schools and government facilities? The reality is we may be already there. This is the current situation:
•Desperate Workforce – millions of unemployed workers – Some with benefits exhausted
•Sweater/Subcontractor – staffing firms – outsourcing – temp to perm – 6 month contract jobs etc.
•Workers Inability To Organize – union membership low and unions being busted as in Wisconsin and elsewhere
•This new sweatshop environment is invading all classes of work from public education, business professionals, health professionals and trade workers
What we are currently experiencing is a situation of surplus high-end workers that are becoming increasingly desperate after prolonged joblessness. The unemployment rate fluctuates as much from those giving up on searching for jobs as from new job placements. Many salaried workers have higher workloads and work longer hours than ever. Those trying to get back into the workplace often find themselves signed up with staffing firms and outsourcing companies that are the new age sweaters. Some find themselves working for companies on a temporary basis with hopes to move into a permanent position. Others find themselves getting back into the workforce on 6 to 12 month contracts that are often are not renewed because companies don’t want to take them onto their permanent payroll.
As for unions and collective bargaining, union membership is at an all time low. Unions are under attack and some are having their bargaining rights stripped like in Wisconsin. An article titled “WISCONSIN BUSTS THE UNIONS” by the Associated Press March 10, 2011 and published in The Huffington Post describes the move to strip public union bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. The key words are higher workloads, lower job security and little to no worker negotiating leverage, it sounds eerily similar to a sweatshop environment.
There seems to be something new that has replaced bullies at school and that is the bully politician. The bully politician seems to be pushing around teachers, firefighters, government workers in general and single mothers.
Governor Scott Walker is kicking workers in public unions even after they have agreed to financial concessions to deal with the state of Wisconsin budget issues. In other corners teachers seem suddenly to be scapegoats for our poor education system results. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee decided to take a round house punch at single mothers.
Is this a new trend to beat up on soft targets? An article titled “Mike Huckabee’s Portman slam marks a week of controversial comments” by Holly Bailey March 4, 2011 and published in Yahoo News goes into some of Governor Huckabee’s controversial comments. The former Presidential candidate made a reference to Oscar winner Natalie Portman as possibly glamorizing unwed motherhood. Single mother have one of the toughest jobs in the country and to get a slap like that was uncalled for.
Governor Scott Walker and others involved in a head-on assault on public labor unions have manage to gain supporters that are somehow painting public employees as a privileged class in society. An article titled “Mitch Daniels on Monday: ‘The elite in American society, really, are government unions’” by Jim Geraghty February 23, 2011 and published in the National Review details how Indiana Governor Jim Daniels stated that government union are the new elite in society. He stated that their pay and benefits are much higher than the public they serve.
Consider the situation and what is missing from the story. Many public workers such as teachers have college degrees as a requirement as do workers in other areas of government service. A word force that contains a large degree of college degree holding individual should have a decent average wage level, but to call public workers elite because they have decent pay, benefits and job security is a stretch. There was a time when decent pay, benefits and job security was a good thing.
Ask public employees about their job security with state and local budget shortfall and looming layoffs. An article titled “Unemployment falls below 9%, government cuts 30,000 jobs” by Steve Chiotakis March 4, 2011 and published on the public radio.org website examines how the overall unemployment rate for February 2011 went below 9% while at the same time 30,000 government workers were laid off. It seems that the tag of elitist is misplaced and maybe it belongs on the people throwing the term around.
Here we go again. Multiple states have bills designed to force President Obama and any other Presidential candidate to produce a full birth certificate before being included on those states' ballot. The bills have made their way to state legislature in many states. An article titled “Ga. latest state to propose "birther" bill” by the Associated Press March 2, 2011 and published on the CBS News website goes into the details on the measure in Georgia. According to the article 10 other states have bills pending including Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Connecticut, Maine, Tennessee and Indiana. Montana previously defeated such a measure.
This is the real start of the 2012 Presidential campaign. Possible Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a statement recently that President Obama’s world view was influenced by his Kenyan upbringing with his Kenyan born father and grandfather. Huckabee later said that he misspoke and meant to say Indonesia instead of Kenya. President Obama grew up in Hawaii and spent four years in Indonesia as a child with his mother and stepfather, but was primarily raised by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii and that is in his biography.
It is more than a coincidence that a legitimate and former Presidential candidate would come out with Obama birth certificate talk before any Republicans officially declare to run for President. It is the first dog whistle to alert a certain voting block that he is with them, just in case he runs.
Wasn’t the birther business supposed to be old news? Well it never went away; it just died down for a while. The efforts to declare President Obama an illegitimate President seems to never end and some just won’t give in on the birth certificate business because those pushing it feel it is a disqualifier for a man they don’t think they can beat in 2012.
The government worker standoff in the state of Wisconsin is like something rarely seen in the United States, true civil protest against a system that workers feel is meant to strip them of dignity and bargaining power. The tone from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is an old one filled with pre-union age code words wrapped in modern vernacular.
A statement from the Governor says that managers must have the ability to manage is his rational for stripping bargaining rights from the public unions although they have agreed to fiscal concession to deal with state budget issues. That statement translates into I make the rules, you have no say, so shut up and take it. This same theme has been echoed in other states, although the delay caused by the protests and Democrats leaving the state of Wisconsin has allowed the light of day to shine on the real issue, which is not the budget, but breaking the union.
In this strange time we live in public employees have somehow become the bad guys. Teachers, firemen and other civil servants are no being painted as spoiled elites. This must stop. Fire fighters were the heroes after the September 11 attacks on the Wold Trade Center and now they are being branded as part of the problem. Some regular Americans are buying into this line of thinking and some politicians know that hard times are the ideal field to sow seeds of division.
