November 2011

Herman Cain: Will He Stay in the Race?

Herman Cain: Probably out of the race.

When Gary Hart ran for the presidential nomination for the Democratic ticket in 1987, he dared the press to follow him. This turned out to be a dumb move, as he was caught having an affair with Donna Rice. As a result, Hart  dropped his bid for the Democratic ticket. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Currently, Ginger White of Georgia just came forward to say that Herman Cain has been having an affair with her for 13 years.

Can Catholic Bishops Sway Obama?

 

Pro-choice women took a collective sigh of relief when President Obama passed the Affordable Care Act in March of 2010. This required health insurance companies to pay for preventative care. Our president essentially saved lives by passing this act. It's required that women have access to preventative care such as mammograms, contraception and even domestic violence counseling. However, the Affordable Care Act has a religious exemption. This gives churches, including the Catholic church, a way to circumvent this act. Giving them that little bit makes them want to push the boundaries of that exemption. Thus, when President Obama took a meeting with Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it made people a bit concerned. 

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

More Republican Lunacy

 

Newt Gingrich believes that responsible government would open the doors for child labor.  Child labor laws, he says, are “truly stupid.” Yes, that’s right, poor children could be employed by their local schools to provide janitorial assistance.  According to Gingrich, this would help children in failing schools and poor neighborhoods to develop a sense of community and pride in their work while earning a small income as well.

Is Voting By One's Conscience Really a Wasted Vote?

Sometimes neither of the two main parties can cut it

Sometimes the candidates representing the two main parties do not have what it takes.  Something as all-important as casting one's vote in a presidential election should not need to be based on choosing between the lesser of two evils.  However, there is the point of view that casting a vote for a third-party candidate or an independent candidate amounts to "wasting one's vote."  While this is what I was told during the 2008 election season after voting for Ralph Nader, the 2012 options do not look much better.

Newt "Buy My Book" Gingrich Iowa's New Pick For President?

Newt proves just how close and advertising campaign and a presidential campaign can actually be.

Newt Gingrich answers the question, can one run a book tour and a  Presidential campaign at the same time? The answer, it seems, is “yes”. With early primaries less than two months away, the newest Iowa Republican polls show New Gingrich as the #1 pick for president in that state. He garnered just 28% of the vote, which indicates a high degree of division among GOP support in that state, but still, Gingrich is on top. Until now he’s made his campaign platform primarily a sequence of plugs for Newt-brand merchandise, but it seems he might be a viable candidate as well.

Is Obama Anti-Business?

As I talk to people of all walks of life, one thing that seems clear is that there is a perception that President Obama is anti-business.  Many who view him as anti-business also consider his policies pro-socialist.  I came across this video that seems to shed a slightly different light on this popular view of our president.

 


“Personhood” Ballot Defeated in Mississippi

No social security cards for your embryo today!

Women and men in Mississippi breathed a collective sigh of relief this Election Day when “Initiative 26,” a measure that would have granted personhood to a fetus and criminalize abortion altogether (and violating Roe v. Wade in the process), failed to pass. The entire amendment would have redefined what “human” status means, which could have even resulted in women being prosecuted for their own miscarriages (as some have in select states already).

Why Americans Do Not Need a Conservative in the White House

""Conservative" used to describe such things as tradition, standards, and values."

From my point of view, the old saying is accurate: regardless of where one stands politically, if you give yourself ten years or so you will find yourself on the opposite side-- not because you or your viewpoints have changed, but because the issues have changed. Sometimes this can make it very difficult to cast a vote.

"Conservative" used to describe such things as tradition, standards, and values. It is not that way anymore. While some candidates label themselves Conservative, they are anything but.

 

Rick Perry is one example. One reason he is making great strides in his race for the White House is he refers to himself as a Conservative and a Christian. However, whatever Rick Perry claims to have learned as "family values," conservative values were not exactly evident in his history as governor of Texas. When a governor who claimed to be a conservative Christian managed to enrage parents throughout Texas by attempting to mandate Gardasil for sixth-grade children in his state, where were those "Conservative Christian values" he has spoken of?

 

Mandatory Voting: Is Increasing Voter Turnout a Good Thing?

Yes, increasing voter turnout in the United States would be a positive step.

 

The New York Times recently ran a series of opinion pieces debating the pluses and minuses of mandatory voting; the arguments that I read in favor of mandatory voting were more compelling than those that were not really in favor of mandatory voting. In fact, the least compelling (and most disturbing) article that I read was against mandatory voting.

Ask Congress to Help with Water Access

There are plenty of things that we don’t need to stick our collective American noses in, for sure. Should we be policing the world? Hells no. Should we have a military base in every metropolitan area in the world? Nope. But should we give two cents about access to safe, clean water everywhere? That’s an affirmative.

Water access is a huge issue. About 900 million people go without safe, clean drinking water every single day—which puts most of us with our petty issues to shame. Sure, I had to give up Netflix and our rec center membership when my husband was laid off, and most of our bills are pretty behind (including the water bill), but at least we have access to safe, clean water that’s not about to give us dysentery or death.

Republicans Abandon Government Spending Rhetoric To Save Pentagon Budget

Congressional Republicans say government spending doesn't create jobs, unless it's what the Pentagon can spend on contractors.

Republicans seem to have drawn a line in the sand on federal spending. On one side of that line their ideology holds firm and greater federal spending does not increase job growth. Incentive programs, tax cuts, and things like Obama’s proposed infrastructure bills are not job creation engines, many Republicans contend. However, on the other side of that line, government spending it essential to keeping and creating jobs, to the point where Republicans are prepared to increase spending in the billions to save those jobs. That line is drawn between defense spending and everything else.

Dealing with the growing gap of the alienated majority

In about a year we Americans head to the polls.  This is our opportunity to help move our government toward a more responsible and responsive position.  Imagine a government where politicians were more interested in working together to find solutions to help the American people than in defeating or immobilizing the other party.  Instead we are faced with extremists in both parties who view compromise as failure. 

Banks Racking Up Fees On Welfare Recipients

Banks are nickel-and-diming welfare receipients on their government assistance, something our own government doesn't even do.

Bank of America’s recent decision to scrap their new $5 monthly swipe fee for customers using debit cards came only after a wave of public complaint. Wells Fargo, Citibank, and a number of others who had been considering jumping on the swipe fee bandwagon pulled out weeks ago. However, there’s a far more insidious banking practice that is nickel-and-diming the most vulnerable Americans. Banks that are furnishing state aid to unemployed Americans and those living below the poverty line in the form of prepaid debit cards have been charging swipe fees, minimum balance fees, and other kinds of penalties. The government doesn’t even tax these people, but that hasn’t stopped the financial institutions that the state has contracted to help them.

Concealed Carry Advocates at a Restaurant Near You

Restaurants Latest Battle Field in Gun Control Arena

Gun rights advocates continue to pursue the right to concealed carry by extending the right to restaurants. Four states, Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia, and Virginia recently joined with eighteen other states to allow concealed gun permit holders to carry them in bars. The decision comes after the Supreme Court ruled that citizens have the right to keep a loaded handgun on their person.
    Some states restrict the right of a person carrying a concealed handgun to enter bars and restaurants, but not to drink alcohol. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico signed a restaurant carry law earlier this year that allows permit holders in restaurants. During the signing ceremony he asked that the legislature further enhance the law to not allow those armed patrons to consume alcohol, a change which is yet to be made.
    In Tennessee legislators overrode a veto by Governor Bredesen to enact the latest reform of the gun carry laws. Ohio recently implemented similar legislation. The Republican controlled legislature passed the legislation and sent it to Governor John Kasich’s desk. The bull went into effect September 30th and people can carry their firearms into more than 17,000 facilities where alcohol is consumed as long as they don’t drink. So far, law enforcement personnel say the new law has not resulted in any problems. Concealed carry permit holders in Ohio must take a 12 hour firearms training course, pass a final exam, fill out an extensive application, be fingerprinted, and pass an FBI background check. According the County Sheriff Capt. Jim Drozdowski “ Most of the people we found that get the license are not the ones we have to worry about”.
    In Virginia, the law is even more broad allowing permit holders to openly carry handguns. It is only one of two states along with Montana that extends that right to patrons.
    With more and more concealed carry permits the 20 or so remaining states that have no statute on the books whatsoever regarding carry laws in restaurants are hotly debating the topic. The lack of any specific legislation means that permit holders can carry their weapons into restaurants and bars without any regulations.