Month: May 2012

What To Believe?

To begin with, I would like to tell all my conserv friends and readers to sit down….for they are about to hear the unthinkable…

It appears as if Mitt Romney will be the nominee of the GOP and face off against the prez in November….I do not have much nice to say about Mitt….I personally, think that he is an empty suit and will be the most disastrous thing to ever happen to the country……but with that said I would like to come to his defense…………

Recently a so-called Christian had his opinion on Mormonism aired on a national stage……one Jerry Johnson……he is what he said…..

55% of evangelicals either don’t know what Mormonism teaches or they don’t know that Christianity teaches. And that is our failure, that is the great calamity that we’re facing right now thanks to people like Joel Olsteen and Rick Warren and David Barton, who is hugging and kissing all over Glenn Beck, calling him his brother in Christ.

Suppose you had a real conservative running again Barack Obama … who was fiscally conservative, he believed in the right to keep and bear arms, all the things that conservatives hold to. But let’s say he was a member of the First Church of Satan. Would his religion now make a difference? Would you be out endorsing and campaigning for him if he was a member of the Satanic Church?

Right now the attitude is in the country, or specifically within the Republican Party, anybody but Obama. And this idea, this mindset is going to drive, I believe, this country and even the church into the arms of perdition in many ways.

The issue is the blessings and curse of God. He is the one who is sovereign, dread sovereign, over all the universe. And we are reaping today the curses of God, I believe, in this country. So here’s my question, I ask folks: do we really believe that God is going to bless America if we elect a professed polytheist to the highest office of the land?

I hate it when morons like this guy call themselves….Christian!  There is NOTHING Christ-like in that can of language.  I mean think about it…there are 2 and half million Christians in the Arab Middle East yet Israel is our ally and there is about 250,000 there……so stop using the Christian thing as an excuse!

There are many reason NOT to vote for Mitt Romney…..but religion is NOT one of them!  It should not matter what or where a person prays that makes him eligible to be president.  We are voting for the person who will do the best job for the country…not his personal religion.

Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes our fundamentalists in the United States.

Sushi Anyone?

It is Sunday and I usually make dinner for the family….and that occurrence brought this post to mind…….First, not a sushi fan…..to me it is bait not a meal.

A little background….I have a friends that works on a tuna boat out of Booth Bay, Maine and he had always told me about the agents for Japanese companies that were waiting for them at the docks and that they would buy the tuna before it was even off load from the ship…..and the money that they were willing to pay for a single tuna……

And all that lead me post this piece…..from the Week magazine…….

012, at 10:44 AM

A chef holds the head of a bluefin tuna that sold to a sushi chain restauranteur who will likely lose about $600,000 on the purchase.

A chef holds the head of a bluefin tuna that sold to a sushi chain restauranteur who will likely lose about $600,000 on the purchase. Photo: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Call it sushi philanthropy: At 2012’s inaugural tuna auction in Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji market, Japanese sushi magnate Kiyoshi Kimura paid an “eye-popping” $736,000 for a giant bluefish tuna — then sold it to his disaster-ravaged compatriots at a steep loss. “It is not just about the money,” said Hiroshi Umehara, a spokesman for Kimura’s Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain. “It is also about the Japanese spirit.” After a year of earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns, and economic contraction, “Japan needs to hang in there,” Kimura added. Here’s a look at this very expensive, patriotic “boost of umami morale,”

Not much more I could say….other than…..eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww!  Sorry if you like sushi…it still is bait on a plate.

Now This Is Way Cool

The weekend and I must find a way to let the occurrences of the past week go…..not as simple as one might imagine….

I spend a bunch of my day, at least during the week, on my laptop or my netbook or my tablet….doing research and reading and ranting on my blog….and on the weekends I try to find stuff that is not in the least connected to politics……not an easy task…..but I try……

Today I found some sciencey stuff that is just way cool……as published in the Week magazine……

The bacterium Magnetospirillum magneticum can typically be found in ponds or lakes, just below the water’s surface. Magnetospirillum isn’t just your ordinary microbe, though. It possesses a strange and unique ability, one that scientists think may allow us to build faster and more powerful computers in the near future: The tiny creature regularly creates powerful nanoscale magnets that humans otherwise wouldn’t be able to build. Here’s what you should know:

What do the bacteria do, exactly?
They typically spend their time in “shallow pools of water” looking for “oxygen levels they prefer,” says Jesse Emspak at Discovery News. To find areas with higher concentrations of life-giving oxygen, the bacteria “eat” iron particles found in water and use a special protein to transform them into magnetite, “one of the most highly magnetic natural materials” on the planet. Magnetospirillum then use these magnets like compasses to “align with Earth’s magnetic field and orient themselves” toward where oxygen is most plentiful.

And we can use Magnetospirillum to build better computers?
That’s what researchers from the University of Leeds and the University of Tokyo think. “We are quickly reaching the limits of traditional electronic manufacturing as computer components get smaller,” lead researcher Sarah Staniland at the University of Leeds tells BBC News. “The machines we’ve traditionally used to build them are clumsy on such small scales.” Copying the technique of the bacteria, researchers can now produce magnets on the atomic level, which can then be used to create things like more powerful hard drives.

How do scientists do that?
They’ve isolated the special magnet-producing protein “and studied the way these microbes gather, shape, and position these supersmall magnets inside their bodies in order to re-create the phenomenon outside of the bacteria,” says RedOrbit. Now scientists can produce the same nanomagnets on cue. “Using the method developed here at Leeds, the proteins do all the hard work; they gather the iron, create the most magnetic compound, and arrange it into regularly-sized cubes,” says researcher Johanna Galloway, the doctoral candidate who developed the process.

A better ‘puter?  Cool!  But will they then become cheaper and more affordable for ALL the people?  The more people that are able to access information, the more educated they become and in doing so they will contribute more to making this country a better place……I do not think that any of us can be against that.

How Gay Is The GOP?

Please do not let the title confuse you….I will explain it shortly.

First of all, let me state that I support gay rights…..I support anything that keeps the government out of  someone’s bedroom and out of the decisions that people have to make…it is none of the government’s business….I do not want some fat cat in Washington telling me what I can and cannot do in my bedroom, as long as we are consenting adults….it is none of their damn business!

There has been a wealth of airtime on the media outlets in the last week or 10 days about gay marriage…..staunch defenders and staunch opponents…..lots of speculation and lots of pure crap….and now we have it as a major campaign deal….18 million people or out of work and about 30 million are approaching poverty and who marries what or who is the big issue?

Evangelicals and social conservatives are urging Republicans to make the fight against same-sex marriage an election-year priority and go after President Obama over his new-found support for the cause. So far, the GOP establishment is resisting.

But the Republican establishment is singing a different tune, showing little interest in focusing on the issue, and instead fielding questions about it by pivoting to the economy. The result is a strategic divide over how to handle the issue of same sex marriage on the right, pitting politicians against the evangelical community as they negotiate their response to the president’s gay marriage position.

With all this back and forth in 2012…..what about the future?  Is a new day on the horizon?

That question has been answered for the GOP…….by a Bush pollster…..Jan van Lohuizen has issued a memo to the GOP…..

Lohuizen’s full May 11 memo below:

Background: In view of this week’s news on the same sex marriage issue, here is a summary of recent survey findings on same sex marriage:

1. Support for same sex marriage has been growing and in the last few years support has grown at an accelerated rate with no sign of slowing down. A review of public polling shows that up to 2009 support for gay marriage increased at a rate of 1% a year. Starting in 2010 the change in the level of support accelerated to 5% a year. The most recent public polling shows supporters of gay marriage outnumber opponents by a margin of roughly 10% (for instance: NBC / WSJ poll in February / March: support 49%, oppose 40%).

2. The increase in support is taking place among all partisan groups. While more Democrats support gay marriage than Republicans, support levels among Republicans are increasing over time. The same is true of age: younger people support same sex marriage more often than older people, but the trends show that all age groups are rethinking their position.

3. Polling conducted among Republicans show that majorities of Republicans and Republican leaning voters support extending basic legal protections to gays and lesbians. These include majority Republican support for:

a. Protecting gays and lesbians against being fired for reasons of sexual orientation
b. Protections against bullying and harassment
c. Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
d. Right to visit partners in hospitals
e. Protecting partners against loss of home in case of severe medical emergencies or death
f. Legal protection in some form for gay couples whether it be same sex marriage or domestic partnership (only 29% of Republicans oppose legal recognition in any form).

Recommendation: A statement reflecting recent developments on this issue along the following lines:

“People who believe in equality under the law as a fundamental principle, as I do, will agree that this principle extends to gay and lesbian couples; gay and lesbian couples should not face discrimination and their relationship should be protected under the law. People who disagree on the fundamental nature of marriage can agree, at the same time, that gays and lesbians should receive essential rights and protections such as hospital visitation, adoption rights, and health and death benefits.”

It seems that the poll shows that the membership, not necessarily the base, of the GOP is moving left on this issue and that it the GOP is to remain a solvent party it needs to accommodate this growing belief….

My question now is….will the GOP listen?  If they lose badly in November will they attempt to repair any damage done by the partisanship and negativity?  Or will they just keep going along the path that was set for them by special interests and those that are only concerned with single issues?  Will the membership have a say on the path they are to travel or will the special interests keep control of the party?  My guess is the later.

Humor Is Where You Find It

There is not much in politics that is humorous, mostly just pathetic….but from time to time I run across something that makes me smile….I could write a little about the Rickets Plan or some other equally deemed important by the media….but I just cannot resist this story….

Recently the socialists won the French election and that should send the right into more about the European socialist thing……..but all seriousness aside….this is just damn funny!

CNN is reporting……

France’s new Socialist government is already causing ripples throughout a Europe struggling to balance government budgets without making ordinary people’s lives miserable, but it has created a completely different problem in the Middle East.

The prime minister’s last name, it turns out, sounds like an Arabic slang word for penis.

His name is Jean-Marc Ayrault.

Pronounced properly in French, the last name is very much like a moderately rude Lebanese and Palestinian term that is widely understood in the Arabic world.

The French Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the issue but had no comment. The office of the French president, sounding amused, referred CNN questions to the prime minister’s office, which had no comment.

The story echoes reports that two years ago, Pakistan wanted to appoint an ambassador to Saudi Arabia whose name sounds like an even more offensive word for penis in Arabic.

But Pakistani diplomat Akbar Zeb denied the story, telling the Globe and Mail in Canada, where he is posted, that there had never been a plan to send him to Riyadh.

I am sorry but this is just what I needed today……some of my friends have always had the opinion that the French were a bunch of pr*cks…….and now this!

Yes, We Have No Third Party Today

Since the beginning of the year, maybe a little longer, many pundits have been saying that there could be an opening for a viable third party in this, the 2012 election.  Some have envisioned Ron Paul as that candidate and even some have called for the media whore Nader to get involved….but some have taken it to heart and tried to find another way to run an alternate to the log jam that is the two party system…..

First, it was Unity ’08……..

Unity08 was an American political reform movement that sought to offer all voters an opportunity to directly engage in politics by ranking the most crucial issues facing the country, discussing them with the candidates and engaging in an online, secure vote to nominate a bipartisan alternative to the Democratic Party and Republican Party presidential tickets for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.   Founded in 2006, the group gained attention from various media outlets, with Newsweek‘s Jonathan Alter dubbing the group’s efforts a kind of open sourcepolitics……Unity08 had four major goals:

  1. Enable Americans to rank America’s most crucial issues.
  2. Empower Americans to draft or evaluate Unity08 candidates and actively engage them in debate about the crucial issues.
  3. Empower Americans to nominate a bipartisan Unity ticket via an online convention and secure voting process.
  4. Elect the Unity08 presidential ticket to national office.

The Unity08 presidential ticket was to consist of two candidates that come from different political parties. This bipartisan team was to propose a bipartisan cabinet in an effort to end paralysis in government. Co-founder Doug Bailey explained “What we are trying to do is to create a forum for people who are in the middle who have been left out of politics.”

Well that was a bomb!  It basically was a movement to get Mayor Bloomberg to run as an alternative…..now fast forward to the 2012 election season……

The official website for Americans Elect states that the organization has no ties to any political group – left, right, or center – and does not promote any issues, ideology or candidates. Any constitutionally eligible, qualified citizen—no matter their party—can seek the nomination, or be drafted by the delegates.   Other materials produced by Americans Elect state that the organization will promote the “sensible center”, centrist budgetary views, and a resurgence of centrist politics. The bylaws of Americans Elect state “The ticket shall be balanced around centrist principles…”

The co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum has argued that this announced “centrist” ideology is inconsistent with the organization’s stated commitment to an open, democratic process, because delegates given a free choice might select a candidate whom the directors did not consider centrist.

Americans Elect 2012 is an organization that was formed by many of the individuals that were responsible for Unity 08, and has substantially identical goals for the 2012 presidential election cycle.

I called it a con job when it was announced….and I still think it was a con job.  I say WAS because…..

A private organization established to run a third-party candidate in this year’s presidential elections has thrown in the towel, saying no one mustered sufficient support for such an effort.

Kahlil Byrd, chief executive officer of Americans Elect, says that under the rules his group approved for an online primary, the process was ending Tuesday.

Third party presidential candidacies have rarely succeeded in U.S. politics, and Americans Elect had hoped to conduct the “Americans Elect Online Convention” this June.

But Byrd says that “as of today, no candidate has reached the national support threshold required” to enter the online convention. He adds there still is, quote, “an almost universal desire among delegates, leadership and millions of Americans who have supported AE to see a credible candidate emerge from this process.”

Another bust!  How many times will these people try this?  Will we see another organization in 2016?  Run by the same people?  Is this just good money thrown after bad?  There was NO way that this was gonna make a difference.  For one the voter…..why the voter?  Two words…..”IDENTITY POLITICS”

The American electorate is only concerned with “identity politics” and once you realize this then all this trying to change the way we elect a prez will cease or until the American voter truly wants a change attempts such as this is nothing but a con job that serves NO beneficial purpose in our politics.

Missed Opportunity

When Huntsman entered the 2012 presidential circus I was not impressed with his roll out……it let a lot to be desired….and during his stay in the field he got very little air time or face time on the tube….but when he did he spoke with authority and clarity and intelligence…..and I have said that Huntsman was a GOP candidate that would be worth a listen and consideration……I liked him because he would not flip and showed a true conviction……something that I did not see in his opponents…..and in this season of pure silliness he was short lived and had to bow out after South Carolina……a real shame and the GOP lost a person that could be a statesman instead of just a politician…..I regret to say that is something that the party does not have today…..

The other day I watched MSNBC’s Morning Joe and watched the interview with Huntsman…..a very telling interview and showed why the man can be a saving grace for the party, especially if they lose in 2012 to Obama…….

Watch the interview….very telling…..as always you must sit through an ad and then an 18 minute video of the interview…..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/vp/47141123#47141123

Personally, I believe the GOP missed an opportunity to have a true conservative in the running…..and the shame is he is more of an adult than anyone they have now…..hopefully with their defeat in November, the GOP will realize that a change is needed if it is every have a viable candidate………but I seriously doubt it!

The Evil That Is The ‘Individual Mandate’

From the VOMITORIUM

Everyone of us has heard the argument on the individual mandate….whether it is good or bad or maybe even a bit evil……but why the individual mandate?  And since so many of us will be voting with the idea that Obamacare can be repealed, I thought I would tackle the most controversial part of the health act.

It was a compromise to keep the public option off the negotiating table….yep, it is that simple!  What about a simple explanation?  Andrew Turner’s explanation…….

The reasoning behind the individual mandate is simply that everyone uses healthcare, whether they are insured or not, because doctors and nurses treat everyone whether they can or cannot pay, because of an oath they take as healthcare providers. So, when those without insurance receive treatment, the cost of that treatment is placed on those who are insured, driving up costs exponentially each year. If everyone is mandated to buy insurance, everyone will “pay his or her fair share.” That’s the idea behind it, at least.

Many Republican leaders would have you believe that the individual mandate was a devil child of Obama and Stalin, but it’s actually forced capitalism, not socialism. Until Obama advocated for the mandate, many Democrats and Republicans supported it. In fact, it was a Republican idea originally, implemented by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney while he was governor of Massachusetts.

Simple, huh?

In closing let me quote “Political Wire”…….

The Obama administration will soon announce $1.3 billion in rebate checks to nearly 16 million Americans from health insurance companies.

Mark Halperin: “From almost the moment the Affordable Care Act (a/k/a “ObamaCare”) was signed into law, the administration has been playing defense… But the rebate provision of the law — the fruits of the so-called ’80/20 rule’ — is about to kick in big time, as millions of Americans receive rebate checks or premium reductions from insurance companies who have failed to spend enough on patient care. This cash could be a true game changer in public attitudes about whether the law actually is beneficial and good public policy.”

How will it play in the campaigns?

Let Them Eat Cake

From the VOMITORIUM

Both party loyal have a position on poverty and how we can pull ourselves up and finally live the American Dream….one thinks tax cuts will eliminate the poor and the other thinks that throwing money away will do it……both are delusional.  First, we have had a generation of some sort of tax cuts and the poor are just as poor as they were when it started……second, we have had a wealth of programs and government give aways to put the poor on the right trajectory out of poverty, and the poor are still as poor as they were…..none of these short sighted short term plans is going to eliminate the poor.

But we can point to all the months of economic growth, as small as it is, but it is still growth and that is traveling in the right direction, right?  Put all this Democratic good news and campaign fodder and the gloom and doom of the GOP into a sort of perspective……how are the ‘real’ American people really doing?

This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to be too broke to file for bankruptcy.

The average cost to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the most common form of consumer bankruptcy, is more than $1,500, according to recent research submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

As a result, anywhere between 200,000 and one million consumers are estimated to be unable to afford that steep cost this year.

Read More…

So many Americans cannot afford to even file for bankruptcy…..what sort of sign is that?  If lower and middle class are having a problem, what about the poor (this assumes that there are those worse off than the middle class)?

From an article by Alexander Eichler writing in the HufPo…….

It’s getting harder for poor Americans to lift themselves up.

Don’t believe it? The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has some pretty compelling evidence.

Between 1996 and 2006, most Americans in the bottom 20 percent of earners never moved up the income ladder, according to a recent research brief by Katharine Bradbury, an economist at the Boston Fed.

Moreover, she writes, it was harder for people to lift themselves up off the bottom in those Clinton-Bush years than it was in the decade from 1976 to 1986, or the decade from 1986 to 1996.

In other words, the data suggests, America’s not the land of opportunity anymore. Instead, it’s become the land of stasis.

Bradbury’s not the first to suggest that the U.S. is increasingly a country where the poor stay poor. Income inequality is at its highest level in decades, and repeated studies have shown that it’s harder to achieve economic mobility in America than in other wealthy, industrialized countries.

A record number of Americans are living in poverty, according to the most recent census, and nearly half of households are believed to have almost nothing in the way of meaningful savings. The problems don’t look to be abating any time soon; wages have more or less frozen in place for many Americans.

With all these facts and stats (which I will assume will be challenged) what conclusion can we draw about the path the two parties are traveling……..will Americans, especially poor Americans, ever find that American Dream?