Eric News Daily

Biden Can Handle The Pressure

2012-10-08T17:23:00.002-07:00

Joe Biden it is all on you, no pressure. That is the sentiment that exists a few days before the one and only Vice Presidential Debate of the 2012 campaign season, and the stakes couldn’t be any higher.

I am on record and therefore have taken a lot of heat from fellow Progressives for saying that President Obama came up relatively short in the first Presidential Debate. The amount of times Mitt Romney stuck out his chin and told the President to hit him with all of his lies and distortions wasn’t as baffling as the President’s unwillingness to do it, or to at least do it aggressively.

Nevertheless last week is now in the history books and the Democratic Ticket is in desperate need of a good showing. Mr. Vice President you are now on.

To use a sports analogy Biden is being asked to be the ace of a Baseball’s Team pitching staff, go out and shutdown the other team and take away the momentum that they have. No one the left side of the political ledger should think this is going to be an easy task at the same time no one should doubt old Joe.

Biden’s years spent as a Senator in Washington D.C. should serve as the perfect guide on how to destroy Paul Ryan, he has seen it all and done it all, as Jonathan Martin of Politico puts it “when Joe Biden was going through the debate process for the Presidency in 1987 and 1988 Paul Ryan was still in High School.”

Speaking of the so-called deficit hawk Ryan, he is the perfect opponent for Biden. Biden who has been playing attack dog for the campaign since the start of the year will have no problem attacking the Congressman of his lack of substance, specifics, and consistency.

It was Ryan who a couple of weeks ago was taken the carpet by Fox News’ Chris Wallace for his lack of specifics on his and Governor Romney’s proposed budget, clearly frustrated he even at one point offered up an “I don’t have time to go into the specifics” I can so see Biden saying “Congressman I will gladly give you my time to explain.”

The fact is Paul Ryan must look like a juicy piece of steak to the Vice President and the Obama campaign. Biden will not be burden by having to pull punches the way that he was in 2008 when debating Sarah Palin. The possibility of coming off as a bully against Palin was very much a real possibility. Given the penchant that both Romney and Ryan have for lying holding back will not be a problem for the Vice President or the American People.

Biden for the last few years has been unfairly characterized as a gaffe machine, particularly by the right. It would be awfully fitting for the Vice President to now be seen as the guy who saved the Obama campaign’s re-election effort. So much for gaffes.

Good Guys Win On Pa. Voter ID

2012-10-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

Score one for the good guys, Score one for people who believe in hard won rights and freedoms, Score one for everyone on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama on “Bloody Sunday”.

On Tuesday a Pennsylvania Judge blocked the implementation of a photo identification law that had the potential to disenfranchise almost 800,000 voters in the state.

The law, which is the brainchild of the state's Republican Governor Tom Corbett, and the Republican controlled State Legislature unsurprisingly targeted a huge portion of the Democratic Party's voting base, including African-Americans, Latinos, the elderly, and students.

Back in June, State House Republican Leader Mike Turzai played the role of wide receiver who taunts his opponent after he just scored a touchdown by saying “Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

What Turzai and the Pennsylvania GOP were not expecting was that there would be a flag thrown on the play.

Judge Robert Simpson said in making his decision that “the proposed changes are to occur about five weeks before the general election, and I question whether sufficient time now remains to attain the goal of liberal access” to ID cards.

Kudos to Judge Simpson for pointing out what those of us who have been following this story already knew, there was absolutely no way that over 700,000 people without a state issued voter I.D. card would have one in time for the November 6 general election for a whole host of reasons.

Over the past year and a half the Republican Party has been plotting these draconian laws to combat the overwhelming support from voters that Barack Obama received in 2008 and would possibly get again this year. Mitt Romney's 47% comments once again drove home the point that the GOP does not have the candidates or policies that will swing these voters into their direction so their attitude is just to disenfranchise them.

This past summer Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the NAACP's annual conference and said “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them, “We call those poll taxes.”

The AG couldn't have been more right. Republicans have literally tried to turn back the clock to 1964. With these laws people of all races and backgrounds who fought the Civil Rights battles back in the early 60's have found themselves back in combat gear.

The party also doesn't seem to understand the damage that it has done with all of these constituency groups. The GOP's base of rich, middle aged, white men is shrinking by the hour and yet they can't help but continue to insult and denigrate women, Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, and given the fact Paul Ryan will still have a future in the party after he and Romney lose this election, the elderly.

The state of Texas which has also put forth a new set of voter laws may be a swing state by the time the 2016 Presidential election rolls around due in large part to the booming Hispanic population growth within the state. The R's however continue to double down with language of self deportation and rejection of “The Dream Act”. Mitt Romney at a Univision event a couple of weeks ago used the slur “Illegals”. Not exactly the way to win over a skeptical crowd.

In fairness the GOP played a huge role in the signing of the 64' Civil Rights Act and the 65' Voting Rights Act, but that was a long time ago and the party, forty years later has been hijacked by nut jobs and partisan hacks.

The one silver lining that those of us who are sane have is that we can still show up to the ballot box and say “No” to these clowns.

We should never stop fighting for that right no matter how many Tom Corbett's and Mike Turzai's we have to take on.

Ann Romney Hurts More Than Helps

2012-09-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes in life you try to avoid going down certain paths only to realize that it may be unavoidable. I find myself at one of those places and Ann Romney should really place her hands over her ears and begin to yell very loudly.

“Queen Ann”, as some have dubbed her acted upon that nickname once again this week when she publicly chastised members of the right-wing media for criticizing her husband Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

“Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring,” she said. “This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”

The friendly fire that has come from conservative stalwarts like Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, and Bill O'Reilly hasn't exactly been undeserved, Romney just came off of one the most brutal weeks a candidate has ever had including a botched presser that unfairly criticized President Obama for the tragic killings of 4 U.S. diplomats at the nation's embassy in Cairo, Egypt by Islamic protesters, to a secretly recorded video of Romney at a fundraiser last May saying “his job is not to worry about the 47% of the people who won't vote for him”.

Republican pundits are just being honest about the Romney campaign up until this point, and if they wanted to continue with the truth telling portion of the program they would also come out and say that the Mitt's better half is not helping.

Ann Romney was once thought to be her husband's strongest surrogate yet in the matter of a couple of months that notion has become less and less true.

People, the American people in particular don't like whiners and yet that sounds exactly like what Mrs. Romney is doing when she offers up her “Stop It” defense of her husband. Yes Ann, running for President is hard and the criticism is sometimes unbearable, you know what else is hard and may sometimes seem unbearable, being President.

Mrs. Romney has also been on record as saying that her husband has been “demonized” by critics as “being heartless”. First of all Mitt has given us plenty of examples this election season as to why one would come to that conclusion “I like being able to fire people” and “If you're looking to go to college borrow money from your parents” and my favorite “ If you want free stuff vote for the other guy”. Secondly, ask The First Lady about dealing with a spouse who is demonized on a daily basis by idiot birthers and Tea Party zealots who see a black socialist occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (see Dinesh D'Souza ridiculous, train wreck of a movie for proof).

At the Republican National Convention Ann was charged with the task of humanizing her husband and making him more likeable, particular with female voters. Now granted that was a Herculean type effort for any one given Mitt's stiffness as a campaigner and the miles wide gap between he and the President with female voters.

However Ann, once again didn't help matters by offering up a lot of generalities and not a lot of specifics when it came to her husband and his prospective female policies. At one point Mrs. Romney gave us all an “Oprah” type yell of “I love you women” which almost matched Mitt's equally awkward “The trees are the right height”.

Look I understand that campaigning is difficult and the toll that it can take on family members can be stressful, Ann Romney said as much after going through the meat grinder back in 2008, also the idea that a candidate's family should be free from criticism is one that should be generally followed.

As I said earlier though sometimes paths in life are unavoidable.

Romney Just Doesn't Get It

2012-09-20T17:09:00.001-07:00

Has there ever been a worse Presidential candidate than Mitt Romney? Has there ever been a more out of touch, unsympathetic plutocrat?

Romney's comments to wealthy donors of his at a Boca Raton fundraiser last May once again reinforced the narrative that Montgomery Burns is a living and breathing human being.

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what...

“Our message of low taxes doesn’t connect...so my job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the five to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful....”

Romney, who has never experienced a minute of struggle from the time that he entered into the world has put his inability to relate to us common folk on full display time and time again. There was the incident where he insulted a supporters home baked cookies, he challenged Rick Perry to a $10,000 bet (like it's chump change), and he reminded us that his wife drives a couple of cadillacs.

The comments in Florida four months ago aren't surprising, as a matter of fact it's sort of Romney taking it to the next level. The guy pretty much says word for word that he isn't worried about 47% of the nation.

Romney like most in his party really believes that we have become a country of “makers” and “takers”, that there is no such thing as people falling on hard times through no fault of their own and that a life on public assistance is somehow a goal that is to be desired.

While professional politicians in the GOP are backing away from Mitt as fast as they can because they need swing voters, (a huge chunk of which belongs to the 47% that Romney slammed to keep their jobs,) the talking imbeciles in the base are cheering Romney on.

The Holy Triumvirate of conservative clowns Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Donald Trump have all said in their own way that Romney should not back down from the comments, and that this is a discussion that the country needs to have. If you are unemployed and struggling to put food on your family's table, there can't be anything more galling than having three filthy rich windbags advising another windbag to continue to disparage you.

It makes me ponder what would happen if Mitt Romney were to somehow pull of the miraculous and get himself elected in November, what would the outcome be like for the truly less fortunate?

Would poor children go without nutrition because of Romney and his tag team partner Paul Ryan and their lustful desire to do away with food stamps? These are children who barely get a decent school lunch already again thanks to budget cuts mostly championed by the GOP.

Would the unemployed, people who have desperately been looking for work but have been stymied, not because of failed economic policies of President Obama, but by petulant obstruction on the part of John Boehner and Eric Cantor, be told no more unemployment checks? You now must feed your family through the kindness of strangers.

Remember the days of George W. Bush touting compassionate conservatism, that now seems like a million years ago.

Romney because of his insulated life spent in the lap of luxury doesn't get why the peasants sometimes needs assistance. That alone is a good enough reason to be disqualified from being leader of the free world.

Desperation For Mitt Romney

2012-09-13T13:35:00.003-07:00

Shameless thy name is Willard Mitt Romney. Look, I understand the desire of the former Massachusetts Governor to be the 44^th President of the United States, but there are lines that a Presidential candidate simply should not cross.

On Tuesday night Romney and his campaign made a desperate, disrespectful and dangerous move by criticizing President Obama and his administration over the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stephens and three of his staff members.

"I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," Romney said in the statement. "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

Romney, who is still feeling the effects of not receiving a bounce in the polls from his party's convention in Tampa and the criticism he has received from all corners for not mentioning the war in Afghanistan in his acceptance speech is trying to use this incident to score cheap political points. The problem with calling this play just like with most of Romney's gameplan is that this criticism is based on factual inaccuracies.

The response from the Obama Administration that Romney referenced did not even come from the Obama Administration, but from the United States embassy in Cairo, that statement also came a full 6 hours before any demonstrations or the tragic killings of the four U.S. Diplomats.

The statement put out by the Embassy was in response to a despicable anti-Islam movie that has surfaced on the web made by a group of filmmakers in Southern California. The Embassy could clearly see the writing on the wall in terms of what was coming, from protests to possible violence and tried to get out in front of it for their own lives and safety. The tone deafness shown by Romney and his team in not understanding this is as mind numbing as it can get.

What does it also say that Romney couldn't even stick to the agreement made by both candidates that they would not campaign or issue any statements on the September 11^th anniversary. The press got wind of Romney's thoughts on the subject at 10:25 p.m. Eastern time. Why let what you perceive to be an political opportunity loose it freshness?

President Obama said Wednesday night that Governor Romney “has a tendency to shoot first and aim later”, that's what happens when you find yourself losing an election that some pundits say you should be winning and when you find yourself fighting on terrain you have no business fighting on.

Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have no personal military experience and no foreign policy experience as career politicians. Zero, zilch, nada, something that until 2012 was sacrilegious for the Grand Old Party, but with the lack of a legitimate candidate being willing to run coupled with their burning desire to defeat Obama the right was willing to forgive such a grievance.

What they have found is a party standard bearer who is all over the map when it comes to our standing with the world and the countries we have to work with.

In the span of a couple of months Mitt Romney has insulted the English on their handling of the Summer Olympics, insulted the Palestinians over their economy, talks tough to China despite that nation being owed two billion dollars by the United States and still calls Russia our number one geopolitical foe.

Whether Barack Obama can calm the waters in the Middle East and bring about the peace that a lot of us hoped for with the Arab Spring, he stands a better chance in doing that with Mitt Romney waiting a day, a week, or possibly even a month when all of the facts are in to begin backseat driving.

The American People would benefit from it as well.

The GOP Are Foolish For Medicare Battle

2012-08-19T11:44:00.003-07:00

For the last week we have heard Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and his newly minted Vice Presidential running mate, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, try to go on the offensive when it comes to one of the nations most valued programs, Medicare.

America's comeback team, as they have dubbed themselves seems to be stealing a page from the Karl Rove playbook which is to turn one of your opponents strengths into a weakness (by the way, calling yourself America's comeback team is devalued when you using strategy from a guy who's administration is the cause for the problems we are in).

Romney, Ryan, and Republicans in general have been chanting this mantra that President Obama took $716 billion out of the Medicare program and placed that money into the Affordable Care Act. You have to admire the discipline of Republicans with their messaging even when that message is a bold face lie.

Now it is true that the ACA does cut that amount of money, but it cuts from hospital and private insurance reimbursements, another huge part of the cuts comes from private Medicare Advantage plans. The most important thing for America's seniors to know is that none, absolutely none of these cuts touch Medicare benefits.

Here is how Sarah Kliff of The Washington Post's Wonk Blog put it in a column last week.

“The Affordable Care Act rolls back payment rates for hospitals and insurers. It does not, however, change the basket of benefits that patients have access to.”

So to sum this whole thing up the benefits that seniors get from Medicare will not be touched whatsoever by the Affordable Care Act. It's funny how that can get lost in GOP translation.

The other thing that Team Romney neglects to tell you is that Paul Ryan's now famous budget plan “The Path to Prosperity” cuts that same $716 billion out of Medicare that however is not the smart political move, especially when you have Republican congressional candidates running away from the budget as fast as they can.

Ryan himself has been out on the campaign trail touting the Medicare discussion. “We want this debate, We need this debate, and We will win this debate.” To me this begs the question does he have selective amnesia or does he really believe Republicans can turn around 70 years of conventional wisdom.

Make no mistake it has been the GOP who for years has led the charge to do away with Medicare and Social Security. George W. Bush made it the central theme of his second term as President to privatize the programs, which could have been as much of an influence on Ryan's budget as Ayn Rand was to his personal views on government.

The notion that Republicans would want to have this fight when the President is vulnerable on the economy and unemployment still sits over 8 % is like Muhammad Ali saying he can outrace Wayne Gretzky on a pair of ice skates---never go away from your best asset.

David Axelrod and David Plouffe have forgotten more than I will ever know about campaign strategy and where is the best place to go to get their guy re-elected, but if I were them I would have both the President and Vice President Joe Biden memorize the Ryan budget between now and the debates in October.

Imagine a worse case scenario for the GOP than having Ryan's own words and ideas spit back at him. Imagine Vice President Biden saying “Rep Ryan your plan may grandfather in people who are already 55, but what about future generations who don't want to take part in a voucher system”, or “Rep Ryan if your budget is what is needed for fiscal responsibility in the Medicare program why have fellow Republicans labeled it “right-wing social engineering” and why have you and Governor Romney backtracked from it.

If Dems take that approach, America's comeback team would be jumping at the chance to talk about other issues in the campaign, at least until the Bain and taxes portion of the questioning comes up.

Pennsylvania Voter ID Is A Problem For Obama

2012-08-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Congrats Pennsylvania Republicans, you have for the time being undone everything that the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Right's Movement, and the 36^th President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson worked for.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the decision by a Pennsylvania judge (a Republican, surprise surprise) to uphold the ridiculous voter identification law that was signed into law earlier this year by Republican Governor Tom Corbett.

The law could disenfranchise over 750,000 people including minorities and the elderly. The law also has a disproportionate effect on the city of Philadelphia and it's surrounding areas, a huge voting block that basically delivered the state to Barack Obama in 2008.

Knowing the information I just sighted Judge Robert Simpson still refused to grant an injunction to stop the law from being enforced, clearly indicating how much of a partisan decision this was.

The Republican party after winning landslide majorities in Governorships and state legislatures in 2010 have set out to take away the vote from thousands who tend to lean left, rather than make a pitch to those same voters with their ideas. If you can't beat em' cheat em'

State Rep. Mike Turzai admitted as much when during a speech to the Republican State Committee in their summer meeting said “Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania , is done”. This is the equivalent of a guy knocking over a convenient store and then smiling for the security camera. Usually in those cases the judge throws the book at the guy.

As we have seen with Citizens United, and the Republican House of Representatives the GOP is committed to the defeat of Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats across the country, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's now famous quip about “denying the President a 2^nd term” is proof. The sad thing is they are willing to sink to all time lows to do so.

Voter ID, Republicans say will cut down on the amount of voter fraud that has allegedly taken place in elections over the years, yet many sources have described voter fraud as being “non existent.” Between 2002 and 2005 the George W. Bush administration made prosecuting voter fraud a priority, yet in those three years the DOJ found only 38 cases, yes folks 38 cases out of the hundreds of millions of votes that were cast.

The GOP remedy to this supposed problem is to take out a sledgehammer and kill a mosquito. They are willing to disenfranchise most in order to prosecute the tiny few.

I mentioned earlier that Republicans have a hard time selling their ideas, thus they trot out scams like Voter ID. That is absolutely true and 2008 was the eye opener. The GOP was horrified by what the saw in terms of the numbers that showed up to support then candidate Obama.

The demographics then as now are not on their side. Minorities, young people, and single woman all turned out in droves to vote Democrat in 08'. With Newt Gingrich persistently calling Barack Obama “the best food stamp President in history”, Mitt Romney telling college students they should “shop around for the best price” rather than looking to the government for help via Pell Grants and Paul Ryan being just as draconian on women's reproductive rights as Rick Santorum ever was, the GOP can't win unless they take out half of the supporters on the other side.

The question now is what do, not just Democrats, but people who believe in the fundamental right to vote do. With only two and a half months left before the election can groups get people the info they need and ultimately the ID's to have them vote in time.

The bigger question however may be can the President get himself re-elected without the state of Pennsylvania, let's hope we don't have to find out.

Ryan A Dream For The Left And Right

2012-08-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

It is now official. In a strange bit of irony Mitt Romney has somehow joined together Liberals and Conservatives by choosing Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential candidate.

Sportswriters often talk about trades that work out for both teams, while this isn't the political equivalent of a trade it is a scenario where both parties can walk away really happy.

Republicans have this strange affection for Paul Ryan that I as a simple minded liberal just don't get. It is Ryan who is praised in GOP circles as a bold and pragmatic thinker who is full of fresh ideas. Newt Gingrich a party lifer found out just how deep Republican support for Ryan runs when during his Presidential campaign last summer he referred to Ryan's now famous budget as “right-wing social engineering.” It was only a matter of days before Gingrich was making the rounds in conservative media groveling and begging for forgiveness.

Grover Norquist the President of the right leaning Americans For Tax Reform (and outside of Rush Limbaugh the most powerful person in the party for his ability to extort politicians into signing his no new taxes pledge.) made his feelings about Ryan, and the aforementioned Governor Romney known at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February.

“All we have to do is replace Obama. …We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. …We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.”

Along with making Romney feel like the smallest man in the party tent, Norquist was essentially saying that the GOP will be following Ryan and his ideas for the forseeable future. That brings me to simply ask the question why!

Paul Ryan is the worst Vice Presidential candidate the Republican party could have come up with. For all of the GOP's talk about fiscal responsibility, limited government and a cap on spending the man some have called this generations Ronald Reagan has virtually practiced none of that during his time as a congressman in Washington.

If you are a true conservative Ryan's voting record is the equivalent of you taking out your wallet and setting it on fire. Ryan voted for both Bush Tax Cuts, The Iraq War, Medicare Part D, TARP, and stimulus programs under both Presidents Bush and Obama. Ryan and his GOP brethen are now saying that President Obama hasn't rebuilt the house that they burned down.

The meat and potatoes of this argument however revolves around the aforementioned budget that bears Mr. Ryan's name. When you cut through all of the GOP talking points you will find that the Ryan Budget is a privatization of Medicare plain and simple, and as various Republican congressman and women found out when they went on town hall tours in the summer and fall 2011 a great number of the elderly were not happy about. Ryan likes to tout that Medicare needs saving and maybe it does, but his prescription for saving the patient is to kill it and replace it with something more costly and less beneficial to seniors everywhere.

Democrats are happy as can be now that Ryan is indeed the number two man in the party, before it was announced a Democratic strategist told Reuters: "I would love for Romney to pick him, It would crystallize everything for us. Just to have him on the ticket would even further elevate the Ryan budget."

Another respected strategist also told Reuters: "We could really with no effort wrap the Ryan budget around Romney. If he's not on the ticket we have to spend energy reminding folks".

Throw in the fact that between them Romney and Ryan have no experience in Foreign Policy. When you think Republican party you think neo-cons, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman (okay technically he's not a Republican) yet the party has nominated two guys who ran as far away from the military as you could possibly get, In Mitt's case literally (France is a long way away).

For all of the talk about Sarah Palin's incompetence, and there was a lot of justified talk, Ryan is less qualified to assume the mantle of President than Palin was. Palin was the Governor of a state making executive decisions for residents Whether or not she knows multiplication or was lucky to be in one of the few states in the union that would actually vote for her is irrelavant when compared to Ryan's time in the House where he has been virtually responsible for nothing.

Ryan as the V.P only does one thing for Romney, it buys him a little more cred with Republicans. Too bad it will be moderates and independents who decided this election.

Aurora Should Now Start The Gun Conversation

2012-07-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

As a nation finds itself a few days removed from the tragic events that took place at an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre, emotions are still raw, hearts are still broken and heads are still unclear and unable to make sense of how a horrifying event such as this could happen.

How could lightning basically strike twice in the same place, after all Aurora is only a few miles removed from another town famous for tragedy and heartache. Even though the Columbine school shootings happened 13 years ago, the scars, both mental and physical are still as fresh for the people who lived through it, and the images of Friday morning bring back terrible memories for those of us who are as far removed from the Rocky Mountain state as possible.

How could doing something as normal as taking in a movie essentially make you a sitting duck for a madman who's life is so troubled and who's mental state is so warped that he sees himself as a movie villain charged with bringing as much pain and destruction as humanly possible.

These are just a couple of questions that will be asked by us, the American People in the coming days, weeks, and months. The problem is those are questions that only a higher power can answer assuming you believe in one. When I personally come across things in life that are unexplainable I'm reminded of a line I heard in a movie once. “God made the world the way it is, We just have to live in it.”

There are questions that we, the American People can ask that should get us direct answers. We should be asking our politicians why do we live in a country where anyone, no matter his or her mental well being can gain access to a gun, and then use that gun to dramatically alter the lives of so many innocent people.

I never thought I would agree with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on anything, the man is perfectly fine with treating any black and brown man in the city like a criminal, with his “Stop and Frisk” policy. Bloomberg struck a chord on Friday though with his initial comments about the Aurora tragedy, basically saying that politicians and in particular the two men vying for the Presidency should give us solutions on America's gun problem.

While Bloomberg's inquisitive nature on the subject is greatly appreciated, he is delusional at best if he thinks we are going to get a straightforward answer out of President Obama and Governor Romney before November 7^th. The fact that both candidates have their respective bases sown up makes it even more important to not alienate the 10 to 15 percent of the electorate that could push them over the finish line by taking on the scolding hot topic of gun control.

That my fellow Americans is to the detriment of us all. President Obama represents a Democratic party that gave up the fight on gun control a long time ago. The President signed legislation into place that makes it legal to carry guns in National Parks, great idea sir. In 2004 the Dems didn't fight to keep in place the assault weapons ban the President Clinton signed into law in 1993. Since then we have seen a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech Campus, A Congresswoman and several other innocent bystanders including a couple of her aides shot in Arizona, A school shooting in Ohio earlier this year that left 4 students dead and now Aurora.

The fact that Mitt Romney is the classic Howdy Doody candidate being pulled by strings, you can count on him to continue the non negotiable Republican Party stance that any new gun control legislation is bad legislation and is therefore off the table. Romney who already has a problem convincing Republicans that he is a true conservative is not going to take back statements and fiery speeches that he give in front of the National Rifle Association to prove his conservative merit.

By the way that same National Rifle Association has Republicans in Congress scared breathless. It was the NRA who let it be known last month that they were scoring the voting on the House of Representatives contempt vote on Attorney General Eric Holder over “Fast and Furious”. The NRA is not ashamed to let Republicans and Democrats in gun loving states know that if they don't go their way when it comes to gun legislation they will let their constituents know about it.

I am thoroughly convinced that the eradication of gun violence in this country has to be a grass roots undertaking. There are plenty of us, no matter our political leanings who feel as though everyday civilians should not be able to get their hands on military styled weaponry. The fact that this guy was armed like he had access to the Pentagon is absolutely mind boggling. Through in the gas canisters, bulletproof vest and gas mask he got online, and it makes you want to scream.

For those of us who think public safety is as much a God given right as the 2^nd Amendment we need to pressure Presidential candidates, but importantly our local officials to do something about the senseless gunplay that plagues communities as large as Chicago and as small as Aurora.

There is no literal war going on inside the United States like there has been in Syria, Egypt, and Libya.

It is up to us to make sure the NRA and other assault weapon enthusiasts don't continue take us in a direction were that becomes a reality.

Prison For Profit Is Alive And Well

2012-07-18T14:44:00.003-07:00

When I was growing up my sisters and I watched television religiously. I can remember, around 1984 or so an episode of the now extremely cheesy Diff'rent Strokes.

This episode was deemed “a very special episode” because it dealt with young Arnold Jackson being offered marijuana by a classmate, but more importantly it ended with an appearance by then First Lady Nancy Reagan who offered up her now infamous catchphrase “Just Say No”.

Just like “Where's the beef” from Wendy's and Bartles and Jaymes' “Thank you for your support”, “Just say no” became synonymous with the 1980s, and it also help to usher in the “prison no matter what” culture that now exists here in the United States.

How many people in this country are aware of the fact that in the last three decades the prison population ballooned from 300,000 to over more than two million, that ladies and gentleman gives us the highest incarceration rate in the world, not exactly the thing we want to be remembered for.

The reference to the former First Lady is appropriate because we really have her late husband, former President Ronald Reagan to thank for the spike in these numbers. In 1982 it was the Gipper's White House that gave us another infamous 80s catch pharase “The War on Drugs”, four years later after the tragic death of University of Maryland basketball superstar Len Bias from a cocaine overdose,

the Reagan Administration and politicians on both sides of the aisle demagogued a serious issue for political gain.

To keep the ear of his suburban insulated base Reagan, in response to the crack epidemic proposed what is now called mandatory sentencing (or mandatory minimums). In some states the laws basically breakdown this way, people convicted of possessing five grams of crack, which weighs less than two sugar packets, are automatically sentenced to five years in prison, ten grams of crack ten years, and so on.

Since these sentences are on the books as laws, judges are not given the opportunity to impose their own sentences which would provide more leeway. Under mandatory minimums counseling, probation, and suspended sentences are not even an option.

Now ask yourself, does a seventeen year old kid arrested for possession of crack cocaine deserve to effectively have his life ended for one mistake, albeit a glaring one. Even if the kid does the full five years and is released from the can at around the age of 22, the amount of opposition he will face as a convicted felon on his intergration back into society is an uphill battle to say the least.

Ask any convicted felon how difficult it is to get a job, an apartment, or get into college. America is good at times at paying lipservice to second chances and we wax poetic about everyone making mistakes, but when it comes to those who have done time, more often than not we turn our backs on those principles.

I mentioned earlier the automatic five years for five grams of crack law on the books of most states, one important piece of information that is conveniently left out by most on the right is that the same defendant who is caught selling powder cocaine has to be caught selling 500 grams of cocaine 100 times to receive the same five year sentence.

I am thoroughly convinced that the difference in that law is to incarcerate a large porportion of black and brown men in America's inner cities across this country. Crack was and still is extremely prevalent in large cities around the country, and the majority of possessors of it are ethnic minorities, whereas cocaine was and is seen as a status drug prevalent in America's suburbs, where it's user's and sellers are overwhelmingly white. The same drug with the same affect on the people who use it, yet the punishment for possession of the same drug is heavily skewed. The question is why would any politician from either side of the aisle put in place a law with this kind of disporportionality.

America's dirty little secret is that the “prison for profit” scheme is alive and well. Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group are prison's answer to Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers.

With state governments not being able to keep up with the costs of housing thousands of prisoners, especially with the grim economic times, private prisons are ready to step up and assume the states overflow of the convicted. “CCA, one of the leading providers of for-profit prisons in the nation, recently sent letters to 48 states, offering to buy their facilities for a huge chunk of dough — $250 million toward the purchase of state prisons. In a time when the national economy is still limping and state budgets are shrinking, the state of Ohio found CCA’s “Corrections Investment Initiative” was an offer it couldn’t refuse.”

To my knowledge, there are not too many civilized nations around the world that actually allow corporations to profit from locking people up, however in this world where the right wants to privatize everything from our mail to Social Security it's not surprising.

When you ponder all of the questions and look to the future you can't help but ask yourself how did we get here. We used to be invested in our children's education, now we are invested in locking them up. Kinda backwards isn't it?

Hypocrisy thy name is Karl Rove

2012-07-16T14:59:00.002-07:00

There is that old saying, “What's good for the goose is good for the gander.” or as Mitt Romney would put it. “What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” (once again, could the guy be more out of touch.)

It just so happens that in the Presidential election of 2012 no one is finding that out more than Republicans, and in particular the man who called their shots the entire last decade Karl Rove.

While appearing Sunday on Fox News (where else would he be) Rove accused President Obama's re-election campaign of practicing “gutter politics”.

“The fact of the matter is if the president continues to make this charge — this outrageous charge — that Mitt Romney is guilty of felonious activity and committed a felony, that’s a big mistake, This is gutter politics of the worst Chicago sort.”

For the record, the President's Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter did not refer to Mitt Romney as a felon, she simply stated the fact that lying to the SEC is a felony. The more important part of this whole thing however is if anyone knows anything about “gutter politics” it is Karl Rove.

If you injected him with some sort of truth serum, John McCain would tell you about the kind of gutter politics that Rove, the former chief strategist of the George W. Bush Presidential campaigns engages in. There were rumors during the 2000 Republican primaries that McCain was the “father of an illegitimate black child”

There was very little doubt within political circles were those rumors started, and it played very well for Bush who won South Carolina by 12 points. It also didn't hurt that while it is 2012, culturally South Carolina was and probably will always be stuck in 1962.

While we are counting down Rove's greatest hits, surely we all remember Valerie Plame don't we. In 2003 former CNN contributor and conservative columnist Robert Novak told federal prosecutors that Rove had participated in the outing of Plame, the former CIA agent.

Rove was willing to put an agent's life in danger because her husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson had been vocal about the possibility of W skirting the truth to send our troops into Iraq. This not only speaks to the fact that Rove doesn't have a decent bone in his body, but that he is a terrible American.

As if trashing one American hero wasn't enough, Rove and the Bush campaign were silent while a side group called Swift Vets and POW's for Truth misrepresented Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry over his service in the Vietnam War. Rove was as quiet as a church mouse despite the fact that his guy was hiding and waiting out the war somewhere in Alabama.

Besides being a Fox News mouthpiece this political season Rove is also the money behind two Superpacs that have but one purpose, to defeat the President this fall. Since 2010 Rove's pac's have raised $123 million to take out the President and Democrats in Congress, more money than John McCain spent in his entire 2008 election.

To the President's credit he was quoted as saying that his campaign “will not be apologizing” as Governor Romney called on him to do. This means the possibility of Republicans fighting back with misleading falsehoods about the President are surely on the way, and you can be sure Rove will be at the forefront.

Here is to hoping that in November this clown walks away with nothing to show for that $123 million.

American Jobs Act Is Needed Now

2012-07-14T14:40:00.003-07:00

As a result of Mitt Romney not being able to get his story straight about whether he left Bain Capital in

1999 or 2002, there was very little talk this week about how dismal the American economy is.

We all know the numbers by know. Unemployment sits at a robust 8.2% with some of the numbers being higher in other communities. Unemployment amongst African-Americans is a staggering 14.4%. These numbers are usually sighted by conservatives as reason number one President Barack Obama needs to be replaced by Romney in November.

Republicans will tell you that the President doesn't have a plan for fixing what ailes the job market, never mind the fact that the guy has already taken a corvette that was heading towards a brick wall at 90 m.p.h and turned it around by putting in place a stimulus package that created somewhere north of two million jobs and took the unemployment number from 10% to the aforementioned 8.2%

The fact is the President does have a plan and it is called the American Jobs Act. Obama first proposed in September 2011, after Republicans in Congress, particularly the House took the economy hostage by initially refusing to raise the debt ceiling, thus causing a downgrade in our credit rating.

What the President offered to Congress was a nononsense extremely aggressive bill that would put unemployed Americans back to work and keep public sector employees like cops, teachers, and firefighters in their jobs. The bill would be paid for with minimal tax raises on the nations top income earners.

It didn't take long for the Republicans to stand in the figurative school house door, as a matter of fact when the President went on national t.v to announce his plan the GOP wouldn't even offer up a rebuttal, a move that was described as “disrespectful” by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Right which is so afraid to agree to even the smallest tax increase because of Grover Norquist and the Tea Party balked at the chance to pass the bill and put Americans back to work.

The AJA contains elements of job creation that Republicans once proudly touted. In the 1950s it was President Eisenhower a GOP legend who built the interstate highways. Obama's call for $50 billion for new infrastructure programs was not even given any kind of consideration. Even when the President introduced the smaller “Rebuild American Jobs Act”, a slimmed down version of the original It got voted down in the Democratic controlled Senate, thanks to the filibuster and DINO's like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.

The AJA also called for $35 billion in additional funding to protect the jobs of teachers, policeman, and firefighters. As I have written in the past the shedding of government jobs is the lasting legacy of the “great red wave” of 2010. While the private sector has continued to add jobs under President Obama it is the public sector's struggles that are delaying an economic recovery.

The sad truth is Republicans don't want the economy to get better, which increase the President's re-election chances. They make sure those chances remain as low as possible by continuing to stall public job creation.

It was Romney a few months ago who offered up “The President wants more cops, more teachers, more firefighters, did he not get the message of Wisconsin” quote, and of course who can forget Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's classic line of “Our number on geopolitical goal is to make Barack Obama a one-term President”. Even if it means firefighters in Scranton, Pennsylvania have to have their pay reduced to minimum wage, Republicans are clear on what they have to do, and they don't care who it affects.

Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor know who they represent, and it ain't the teachers and the fireman, the cops and the construction workers or anybody else inside the 99%. They represent the Charles and David Koch's of the world. The Republican response to the President's bill was their own American Jobs Act of 2011. Introduced by Republican Louie Gohmert the bill called for the full repeal of the Corporate Income Tax, because nobody out there is struggling as bad as America's corporations.

Call me crazy but a party completely fixated on paralyzing job growth and stalling the overall economy shouldn't benefit politically. Let's hope voters keep that in mind come November.

Romney Has A Big Mess in Bain

2012-07-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

There will be no burying the lead with a Friday afternoon press release for one Willard Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for President of The United States. You see Mitt will spend his Friday afternoon giving what I call emergency interviews with five television networks about his time spent as CEO of Bain Capital.

On Thursday The Boston Globe released a damaging story about disputes over Romney's exit from Bain. Romney for political purposes has always maintained that he left Bain in February of 1999, however evidence has emerged that Romney really left the company in 2002 to run The Salt Lake City Olympics of that year.

This is important because Romney desperately wants to have his political cake and eat it too. He is gladly eager to take the credit for the jobs that were created by Bain during that time period, yet freely deflects criticism concerning jobs that were outsourced by the company over the same time by saying I was long gone by then.

This would be a much easier tight rope for Mittens to walk if he wasn't a one trick political pony who was running for the highest office in the land. From day one Romney has made his experience in the private sector his calling card for being elected the 45^th President of the United States. Romney has chided President Obama for being a community organizer and not knowing how the real economy works, and he has said all of this while being under the assumption that the President's team should not take a look at that private sector record and expose it for what it really is.

On a Conference call on Thursday, the brilliant Stephanie Cutter a deputy campaign manager for the President summed this whole situation up by saying. “Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the S.E.C., which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people.”

Predictably the Romney campaign responded in outrage, because of their inability to explain their candidates silence on the issue. Matt Rhoades a campaign manager for Romney said “President Obama’s campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign,”.

For the record Stephanie Cutter never called anyone a felon, nor did she say Mitt Romney broke the law. The Romney campaign really does live in a bubble where any legitimate question asked by the President and his team is an unfair attack. I can question your record at any time Mr. President, but you have to stay away from mind.

Romney also doesn't mind evoking the memory of his late father George Romney, the former Governor of Michigan. He ofter remembers him as a man of principle, who was always willing to do the right thing. Can you imagine the conversation father and son would be having if Sr. was still with us.

George Romney set the standard for Presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, when he released twelve years worth in anticipation of his 1968 run for President. Mitt on the other the hand has only offered up a year and a half continuing to lead to speculation that he is hiding something. The natural thing to do would be release the tax returns, and put all of the questions to rest.

Romney is the epitome of the negative campaigner who complains about negative campaining. Every thing the President has said about Bain up until this point has been legit. Romney meanwhile has offered up some tall tales about the President's record that would make the average fiction writer blush. There is “Obamacare is the largest tax increase in the history of the U.S.” Or “The President said that the stimulus would hold unemployment under 8%” or “Obama apologizes for America all over the world”. Romney never met a lie didn't like including the one about Condolezza Rice being his V.P. For him to complain about the Bain ads is rich, pun intended.

If you injected the Republicans with some sort of truth serum they would tell you there is now some buyer's remorse with Romney. It's almost like they went the Sarah Palin route and didn't vet the guy. Also for Romney, how in the hell can you be running for President the last six years and not close offshore bank accounts and sure up whether or not you left the company that was offshoring jobs at the time you initially said you did.

This whole issue just continues the narrative of Mitt Romney out of touch rich guy. A man who might be a hell of a genius in terms of making money even if it is at the expense of working class Americans. That is why this man shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the White House.

Paterno Legacy Is Jerry Sandusky

2012-07-12T14:35:00.001-07:00

What I usually do with this blog is give my latest opinion on the matters that take place in the political

sphere on a daily basis. It usually has to do with the latest Mitt Romney gaffe concerning his tax returns, or President Obama and the Democrats inability to message properly.

I would be remissed if I didn't take this opportunity to respond to the horror that is the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University that is right out of the pages of the nearest Catholic Church.

Former F.B.I. Director Louis Freeh announced the findings of his seven month investigation into the University on Thursday, and in my mind confirmed a lot of things I had already thought, most notably that legendary Head Football Coach Joe Paterno was up to his neck in misconduct.

Freeh basically said a cover-up of the highest order had taken place at Penn State since initial rumors of then Defensive Coordinator, and now convicted child molestor Jerry Sandusky was involved in having inappropriate conduct with children in 1998 were brought to light.

No one should ever make the mistake of remembering who the biggest villian in this tragedy is, it is that disgusting piece of excrement Sandusky. There will never be a terrible enough punishment for this scumbag, who will most likely die in prison. The old saying goes the cover-up is worse than the actual crime, that is not the case here, but it comes pretty damn close.

Joe Paterno, a college football coaching legend who won over 400 games, 2 National Championships, and graduated countless players from a fine academic institution, was basically the point man in concealing facts surrounding questions about his colleague and friend Sandusky. Paterno had the people who were supposed to be his superiors answering to him in this sordid saga.

In 1998 Penn State campus police investigated a claim by a mother who said her son was molested by Sandusky, when this was made public last year Paterno's first reaction was to say he knew nothing about that claim. The Freeh Investigation shattered Paterno's defense saying that he was well aware of the fact that police were looking into Sandusky.

In 2001, Paterno was told by Graduate Assistant and former PSU Quarterback Mike McQueary that he had witnessed an incident involving Sandusky and a ten year old boy in the locker room shower at the athletic complex on Campus. Paterno's response was to tell McQueary he would take care of it.

After Paterno notified his superiors, they were prepared to go to police with the information that they had, only to be talked out of it by Paterno himself. Allegedly a conversation took place between Paterno and his boss Athletic Director Tim Curley, where Paterno basically said the best thing to do in terms of handling the situation was to tell Sandusky not to bring young boys onto the school's campus anymore. Paterno and Company basically said we don't care if you molest children just don't do it at our workplace.

As I said earlier, Sandusky is the real scumbag, but Paterno comes extremely close to matching him. Nevermind the Governor of Pennsylvania or any elected official in the state, Joe Paterno was the most powerful man in the commonwealth. There is also a story that Freeh relates from his investigation where a janitor at the University witnessed Sandusky perfoming oral sex on a young boy, that janitor didn't come forward because of fear that Paterno would have had him fired. If that doesn't scream too much power for the football coach I don't know what does.

I am as big a sports fan as anyone in the country, and like most people I cringe when I hear the latest story about an athlete or a coach who has run afoul of the law. While DUI's and domestic violence should never be taken lightly, they pale in comparison to child molestation and adults taking advantage of society's most defenseless.

In that case Sandusky and Paterno because of his refusal to drop a dime on his lifelong pal are two of the worst individuals who ever graced everyday life let alone the sports world. Their crimes make strip club brawls and steroid use from athletes look extremely small.

Also before the Paterno apologists scream at me for neglecting to mention the 61 years of service the man gave to the school, the endless amounts of money he raised for the school and for charity, and the countless number of players he turned into fine, upstanding gentlemen, save it. All of Paterno's good qualities have been washed away as far as I'm concerned. Jerry Sandusky's victims prove that, especially the ones that could have been saved had Paterno been a man and not a coward.

NAACP Speech Wasn't For The NAACP

2012-07-11T14:51:00.001-07:00

After watching the debacle that was Mitt Romney and his laughable speech in front of the NAACP this morning, the one word question that remains on the forefront of my mind is Why?

If you listen to most political pundits, The Republican Party's Presidential nominee was there not to appeal to the African-American constituency that the world's oldest civil rights organization is made of, but to swing voters across the country who aren't comfortable with the GOP being as lilly white as a bottle of aspirin.

If that was indeed the task then Mittens failed spectacularly. Romney basically went into a room full of Barack Obama loving black folks and gave a stump speech that would have drawn a thunderous applause from the Tea Party and all of it's racist idealogues.

The most contentious portion of Romney's speech was when he once again pledged his intention to do away with the President's signature achievement, the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Referring to the law as “Obamacare” was the equivalent of a guy poking a bear with a stick, Romney knew it would draw boos louder than a Lebron James return to Cleveland, nevermind the fact that he didn't call it's original and more aptly titled name “Romneycare.”

There was also no mention of the GOP's all out assault on the voting rights of people of color, the elderly and college students, three core constituency groups that carried the President to victory in 2008. Romney kept his mouth shut about voter I.D., because he knows his chances to win the general election are significantly decreased without it.

Romney, like most Conservatives the few mindless black ones in particular assume that black folks are not politically aware. It is easy for Romney to rattle of the 14.4% number of African-American unemployment and blame the President for it. The fact is it doesn't work, black people know what is in the President's “American Jobs Act”, they know that is contains legislation that would put not only black folks, but all Americans back to work. They also know that the real culprits behind that 14% number are named John Boehner and Eric Cantor. The Republican led House's refusal to pass the AJA

has caused the paralyzation of the economy.

Romney on Wednesday, essentially tried to kill two birds with one stone, He wanted to stick his head in the door of NAACP house just to say he was there, while still appealing to a base that in a lot of ways is still not sure about him. Imagine the uproar from scumbags like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity if Romney had said I don't agree with the need for voter I.D or I disagree with the Affordable Care Act, but people should have access to some form of healthcare, the right would be insensed.

Whether it was envoking his father's memory, a man who actually marched in the Civil Rights Movement or quoting Dr. King which everyone saw coming, Mitt was sure to cover all of his bases, and if that meant taking a few boos from a group of people who weren't going to vote for him anyway so be it. My only hope is that moderate voters who could check the box that says Romney saw this pathetic sideshow really for what it was and walks away from the GOP on election day.

If you are someone who really hates there time being wasted for no reason, Wednesday really wasn't your day!

The Delusion of Allen West

2012-07-10T13:52:00.002-07:00

For those of you who haven't been paying attention over the last couple of days, Allen West is back in

the news again, and I am thoroughly convinced that this is the way Allen West likes it.

The Congressman from Florida's 22^nd District stated late last week that President Barack Obama “does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning, and having the title of an American...he would rather you be his slave.”

After being called to the carpet by some in the political media, West didn't offer a mea culpa as much as he did a “yeah...and what!” by basically saying that the President's policies, including the recently upheld Affordable Care Act, have created a state that is completely government depended.

"Since June of 2009 or so, we have seen 2.4 million private-sector jobs created, but we’ve had 3.1 million people going on Social Security disability and, as we said just this past month, the 85,000 went on Social Security disability as opposed to 80,000 jobs created." He added, "So once again we are creating the sense of economic dependence which, to me, is a form of modern, 21st-century slavery."

There are a lot of things that need to be debunked in West's diatribe of bullshit, starting with the fact that many of those 3.1 million people eligible for disability may in fact be disabled and can't work, also while he mentions the fact that 2.4 million private-sector jobs have been created, he neglects to tell people that his party has been on a mission to stop the creation of public-sector jobs that would go a long way in terms of bailing out cities, states, and ultimately the nation.

This also brings to the forefront Republican hypocrisy which is running rampant these days. Anytime a progressive makes mention of slavery, the civil rights movement, or anything else that has to do with this country's shameful history on race they are usually nailed with the predictable and unoriginal tag of “race-baiter”. (If Dr. King were alive today he would be number one on the list.) Chris Rock, who is a comedian by the way, tweets a hilarious and fact based joke and the right has a collective meltdown, West goes on Mike Huckabee's Fox News show, unleashes this garbage and he is heldup as the party's next great star.

I try not to pay attention to West and his evil twin Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, who apparently takes pleasure in bashing war heroes even though he himself has never served while at the same time declining to pay his child support. In a lot of ways these guys are the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity of The United States House of Representatives, proxies who are willing to do and say anything to a base that doesn't understand that the medicare they so desperately love comes from the government they so desperately despise.

There is a huge difference between the two sets though, while Limbaugh and Hannity can influence millions of sheep with their radio and television projects, what they can't do is get actual legislation passed. Twenty years ago clowns like West and Walsh would not have even been granted keys to the party's front door, now they sit at the dining room table with their feet propped up.

West has espoused his distrust of muslims. He cited the threat of "radical Islamic terrorists" as his motivation for voting to extend provisions of the Patriot Act however he voted against another extension in May 2011. He once sent a scathing email to his state colleague Florida Congressswoman and head of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz that should have had even the most partisan Republican repudiating it for it's sexist tone. There is also the by now famous quip about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party being communists.

West isn't a politician as much as he is a carnival barker, a guy who desperately wants the spotlight, but not for any of his legislation work. If voters in his district don't send a message and vote him out in November, the next two years will be a collection of Chris Christie type You Tube videos that make him look like the toughest guy on the block.

If only there were Republicans who were willing to return to their roots, and reign in the buffoons.

Libor Scandal Is A Huge Deal

2012-07-07T17:51:00.001-07:00

It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. If you are talking about the corporate greed that exists within the world's banking system however, then you just ask has anything changed at all?

The latest black eye for the banks is the London Interbank Offered Rate scandal, or in short Libor, and it makes America's subprime mortgage scandals of four years ago look like a routine candy swipe by a twelve year old at the local convienent store.

The situation is basically this, as early as 2008 there were signals that banks were underreporting borrowing costs to the Libor, which is the average interest rate estimated by leading banks in London that they would be charged if borrowing from other banks. This easily created the impression that banks were borrowing money from other banks more cheaply than they should have, It also made the system and particular banks look healthier than what they really were.

To put it in plain english, imagine going to Vegas, placing a huge bet on a heavyweight championship fight, and then finding out years later the guy you bet on had two broken hands at the time.

For those people out there who still feel the sting of the global economic recession, the thing that makes this so mind numbingly frustrating is not only does this scandal involve the same cast of characters like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, but once again very little is being done about it.

Barclays, the European banking giant where this all started basically shoved their CEO Robert E. Diamond Jr. and COO Jerry del Missier onto the sword. The two men resigned on Tuesday after basically offering up a “well everybody is doing it” and “we didn't know it was going on” defense.

Barclays will also be forced to pony up $450 million after being fined by the United States Justice Department for manipulating the system, but that is a drop in the bucket for a bank that makes billions.Diamond and del Missier may be out of a job, but they more than likely will not be spending time in jail and the hefty severance checks that they received in the past will be more than enough to dry their tears.

The fact is until England, the United States and any country in the free world decides to step up and punish these thieves for stealing, the merry-go-round will continue. Last month in the United States JPMorgan CEO Jaime Dimon testified twice in front of congress after his bank lost anywhere from two to nine billion dollars on controversial trades, and outside of a few Democrats who actually take their jobs seriously like Massachusettes Congressman Barney Frank, politicians of both parties treated him like a rock star.

The likelihood that Dimon has placed money into the coffers of 85% of the folks in the capital might be a safe bet, and of course Republicans in D.C are not hypocrites because they see nothing wrong with the way banks operate.

At the risk of infuriating my fellow progressives I am a huge fan of this President and his Administration. I am also a fan of the Attorney General Eric Holder, whose name and entire career has been dragged through the mud GOP scumbags like Darrell Issa.

The President and the AG have dropped the ball on this particular issue however. When Barack Obama was sworn in back in 2009, one of the first things he should have done was called a press conference to televise the arrests of everyone responsible for the worst economic crisis since the great depression.

As we know now, Wall Street was going to turn it's back on the President anyway because of his embrace of regulation policies, particularly Dodd-Frank. An all out assault on the real takers would have earned Obama a huge chunk of progressive support that he is missing while at the same time scared straight the entire business community.

Diamond, the now disgraced former CEO of Barclays is scheduled to testify in front of the British Parliament next week and try to explain what went wrong. I wonder if our worst and clueless like South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has been in contact with British conservatives. Someone needs to show them how to kiss up to the crooks.

Roberts Will Be The Roberts Of Old

2012-07-04T18:26:00.002-07:00

As we sit here in the middle of 4^th of July week, You would think that this would be a good time for Republican anger towards Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to dissapate. No more charges from Rush Limbaugh saying Roberts is now owned by The New York Times, The Washington Post and all of the other so-called leftwing media outlets, No more rants from Michael Savage saying Roberts must have somehow allowed the supposed medication he takes affect his judgement on siding with the more liberal judges on the court to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

Conservatives should not take it personal that the Chief Justice did not do them this one solid, because something tells me that ol' Johnny will be returning to the fold very soon.With the court looking at cases in the fall term that deal with Affirmative Action, Voting Rights, and The Defense of Marriage Act, Roberts has more than enough of an opportunity to make up for the ACA debacle.

If I've never mentioned it before in one of my posts, one of if not my all time favorite movie is Martin Scorsese's “Goodfellas”. There is a scene where Henry, played by Ray Liotta is released from prison and has no money to start his life over. He goes to his former boss Paulie, played by Paul Sorvino and asks for help. Paulie gives Henry this very sad and dissapointed look, hands him $3200 and then tells him, “Now I have to turn my back on you”

For all intents and purposes the Democrats are Henry, and Paulie is masterfully being played by Roberts. The Chief is on one hand willing to live with the GOP scorn for doing what the law said he should have done, while at the same time knowing that Dems should never ask him for anything ever again, because he did what the law said he should have done.

In a lot of ways Roberts can be seen as the Mitt Romney of Supreme Court Judges. In the mid-80s while working in private law Roberts was once an adovocate for Gay Rights. He prepared arguments for the Supreme Court case Romer vs. Evans, which was a landmark case in the Gay Rights Movement.

Also during this time Roberts was an advocate for the homeless.

If the John Roberts of 1986 were serving on the Court now we would certainly have a better nation. We would see a repudiation of DOMA even if it was just by a 5-4 vote. That John Roberts can't show up though, if he did George W. Bush himself would fly into D.C just to drag him away from the bench by his collar.

Let alone, the increasingly negative vibes he is now getting from his colleagues on the court who come from the right side of the aisle. If you believe the reports that have come out this week which I do, it was Justice Anthony Kennedy the supposed swing vote on the Court who begged and pleaded with Roberts not to go the other way and uphold the law.

The other thing about that is there are never any leaks coming from the Supreme Court. This Decision was made months ago and we never heard anything about it, yet as soon as it was made public we hear all about the anger and disenchantment coming from the Republican judges. I'm not saying that any justices on the court or any of their clerks are leaking this stuff to newspaper reporters, but I would be suspicious of the one black guy on the court whose wife, it just so happens, made it her life's mission to get the ACA overturned.

Unfortunately the world will turn right-side up once again. The GOP may never get over their anger and resentment for Roberts and his ACA decision, but it will be us on the left who will be feeling the pain of future decisions that will go the wrong way. If any of you out there had already inducted the Chief Justice into the progressive Hall of Fame, now would be a great time to take down that plaque.

Second Chance For The President

2012-07-01T11:56:00.001-07:00

As I sit here a couple of days removed from the Supreme Court's historic ruling which

upheld President Obama's baby, The Affordable Healthcare Act I've yet to come off cloud

nine. This is by no means a full throated endorsement of the law, which has many holes in it.

The biggest flaw with the ACA is private insurance companies profiting from the medical misfortune of so many, but as filmmaker and liberal champion Michael Moore said this week, while seeing

this as a start towards what we all want which is a “Medicare For All” plan, Liberals should also embrace this for what it is, which is a victory.

“This was a major defeat for the right-wing, We get so few of these we should enjoy them when we get

them” said Moore. I personally have allowed myself another day to revel in the misery and bitterness of Republicans across the country, after that it will be time for me, liberals everywhere and more importantly the White House to become even more embolden and take this victory right into November.

As Progressives we don't know what to do when we have the wind in our sails. A lot of us were still on such a euphoric high from 2008 that we didn't see the GOP and more importantly The Tea Party plotting. By not showing up in 2010 we allowed Nancy Pelosi, the person who next to the President is most responsible for the ACA going into law lose her speakership to some orange guy who isn't worried about governing as much as he is worried about his second in command and the tea party activists who make him toe the line.

A lot of us were on a high two months ago when we thought there was a legitimate chance that union busting Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker would be thrown out of the mansion thanks to a recall that was put in place by the people of the state. The bubble was burst so fast on election night, that for a split second it made me question whether or not getting invested in politics was even worth it.

That was just a split second though, and the ACA decision is an overwhelming yes to that question. In terms of where we go now Libs have to continue to put pressure on elected officials Democrats and Republicans alike. If you like the ACA but live in a state where you have a Governor is promising not to implement it into law, let them know about it.

Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott, and Nikki Haley, these people should not be allowed to get away with not following a law that has been ruled constitutional by a Chief Justice who was a George W. Bush appointee. All of this big talk reminds me of a few years ago when these same GOP Governors were in front of every camera claiming they would not touch The President's stimulus money. Now Governors like Scott of Florida and John Kasich of Ohio have that same stimulus money to thank for their thriving economies which are better than the overall national averages.

More so than anything the President himself has a second chance to make a first impression. For all of the polls that the GOP likes to tout saying people don't like this law, a healthy percentage of that comes from people who don't think it goes far enough in providing everyone with healthcare.

President Obama, doing what he does best out on the stump has the ability to say this law is a great thing for the American people. It's not just that kids can stay on their parents insurance until they are 26, It's not just that companies can no longer be able to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, The law will also reduce the deficit by $210 billion over the next ten years and $1 trillion over the ten years after that.

The law will create 4 million jobs of the next decade, by reducing the costs of healthcare and making it cheaper for companies to hire. Between 250,000 and 400, 000 jobs a year will be created and spread across all sectors from manufacturing to services.

The White House passed the ACA in 2010, put it out there and then walked away from it, giving every right-wing billionaire the opportunity to make lie-driven political ads trashing it without any resistance. The Supreme Court gave the President his Etch-A-Sketch moment (with all apologies to Eric Fehrnstrom).

With this second chance The President's populist message is more effective now than it ever was,

The ability to make this argument from an economic standpoint, as well as a health standpoint is something that Mitt Romney can't deal with, especially being that the law was his idea.

Good luck making an effective argument against your signature governing achievement Mitt.

follow me on twitter @ebrew79

GOP Takes Big Hit On ObamaCare

2012-06-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

With the ruling by The Supreme Court that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, The Presidency

of Barack Obama avoided the type of iceberg that The Titanic was unable to. The President was looking at the prospect of having the most significant piece of legislation passed during his first term done away with because of the hatred that tea party yahoos and powerdrunk GOP Congressman have for him.

A constitutional lawyer not realizing that a bill he basically authored was not constitutional would have been one of Mitt Romney's main talking points all the way until the November election. Also given the fact that ever legal pundit in the country had the bill on death row after the oral arguments in March, things didn't look good for the President. Then all of sudden to the rescue of the healthcare bill comes.....John Roberts?

Look I am in no way going to crown Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as a new champion of left-wing causes, hell I still don't forgive him for allowing Citizens United to become law, but there is no way around it, Roberts, knowing that he would face a mountain of criticism from GOP nutjobs led by scumbags like Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge did his job and he did it impartially.

The question now is what does The Obama Administration and elected Democrats do? Do they walk away from the Affordable Care Act like they did when they passed the bill back in 2010 or do they spend the time needed to explain to The American People why this law is a good thing.

Young people under the age of 26 are allowed to stay on their Parent's insurance, adults and children will not be discriminated against for having pre-existing conditions, and the biggest one which is one that the White House should buy billboards all across the country for, you will not go to jail, you will not have a lein taken out on your property and you will not have money deducted from your paycheck if you don't buy health insurance.

Also they can ask Mitt Romney and his right-wing cronies that if these things are so horrible what is their plan for a broken healthcare system? We are talking about a group of individuals who have been saying since they came into power that they would “Repeal and Replace” Obamacare, now since the Court's announcement they've dropped the replace portion of that phrase and are just talking about repeal.

For Romney himself there really is no good answer, he is the mastermind of Obamacare and the Obama Administration, when constructing the law, bought in the same advisers who consulted Romney when he put the plan in place in Massachusettes. Romney is the deadbeat dad who is now ashamed of his child and what he or she has become. The last thing the 2012 version of would do is praise the President over healthcare, The 2004 version would give him a high five. What Romney fails to realize or refuses to admit is that his pledge to repeal the ACA on the first day of his Presidency runs the gambit of being laughable to flat out delusional. There is that whole 60 vote thing in the Senate that he would need but would never in a million years get.

As the Obama Presidency was avoiding that aforementioned iceberg, the court was right behind it swerving at just the right time, with Justice Roberts doing the steering. Never has the court been seen as being more polarizing, the latest example being Justice Alito's ridiculous dissenting opinion to the court's decision on the Arizona “papers please” law earlier this week. With this decision Roberts at least for know, avoids charges of the court being made up of right-wing majority activists who are brought with dirty money from GOP sugar daddies like the Koch Brothers.

At the end of the day I am and will always be a proponent of a single payer healthcare system, it cuts out most of the red tape and does not enrich blood sucking insurance companies who capitialize on the tragedies of everyday Americans, this bill right now in this day and time however is a good start and the possibility of really good provisions being added to it just as provisions were added to the original Civil Rights Act is enough for me to feel good about what the President and Congressional Democrats have done.

Hopefully the days of every American not having health insurance will soon be a thing of the past.

By the way I hope this puts to bed this notion that Anthony Kennedy is the swing vote on the Court, voting for Citizens United and against ACA disqualifies him from having that title.

Democrats Have to Serve Two Masters

2012-06-26T14:51:00.001-07:00

As the 2012 Presidential Campaign drags on into the dog days of Summer, I am starting to get the

feeling that I've heard a lot of the rhetoric before. From Republican Nominee Mitt Romney,

as one television pundit put it, It's “Blah, blah, blah The President has failed to lead”, all the while still refusing to put forth any grand ideas that will move the nation forward with him in The Oval Office. As for President Obama, while still pressing for Congress to pass his Jobs Bill that has been sitting on their table since last September, he and his charges have gone back into attack mode on Governor Romney and his time spent at Bain Capital.

In my best Sister Sledge voice, “Just let me state for the record”. I have no problem with the Obama camp going after Romney over Bain. As a Progressive I happen to think capitalism is the inherent link to the financial meltdowns that we have seen over the last decade and a half. Enron, Bernie Madoff, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers all stem from the Gordon Gecko “greed is good” culture. The other reason why I don't have a problem with it is Romney can't have it both ways. You can't say my time in the private sector qualifies me to be President, and then complain about people pointing out that less than stellar private sector record.

The one problem that exist in this post Citizens United world however, is that Democrats have to serve two masters. Dems have to be the populist party, the party that truly cares about the middle class and the working poor,a cause I think most elected Democrats truly believe in, but they also know that they can't piss off Wall Street. Campaign cash is more important now than it has ever been in politics anddon small donors and Hollywood Celebrities can only take you so far. That's why the Bain argument is tricky.

Wall Street was good to Bill Clinton, and why not. In 1992 Clinton ran on the promise of a short-term stimulus package that would kickstart the sagging economy, but once elected and in the presence of then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan he abandoned this theory for one called “the financial markets strategy” which called for raising taxes but also cutting spending in order to placate the markets. The markets did well, but the overall effect has helped lead to the rise in CEO pay and the stagnation of workers wages, also Democrats wound up losing their majority in The House in 1994 thanks in part to strategy.

That's why it was no surprise when the initial Bain attacks were unleashed by Team Obama, Clinton did his best Republican surrogate impression, Clinton bent over backwards to defend Bain and Romney because he sees very little about big business that we as Americans should be concerned about, he also knows that in order to get funding for the various pet projects that he is running in his post Presidency he needs Wall Street to open the checkbooks.

Also take the curious case of Corey Booker. Booker up until a couple of months ago was about as good an Obama aid as you could find, that was until Bain and then Booker did Clinton doing Romney. Booker is the Mayor of one of if not the toughest city in the country, Newark, New Jersey. It's next to impossible for Booker to get money from his State Legislature to keep his city afloat, so he basically has to make trips across the state line with bowl in hand to ask the big boys in Manhattan for donations.

On one hand it is tough for me to be critical of Clinton or Booker, they didn't set up this system, but they should get blame for embracing it rather than doing more to try and change it. We all know which way the other side is going.

Republicans love Citizens United and corporate money, they pay lip service to the middle class and the working poor by offering them a bogus trickle down theory that any objective person knows has not worked for the last 35 years. Yet the GOP doesn't have the same dilema facing the Dems, as long as they can keep getting Wall Street's cash they may be able to stay in power in Congress, particularly with gerrymandered districts and defeat the President by outspending him 10 to 1.

Here's to hoping real campaign finance reform and a Constitutional Amendment to repeal Citizens United is right around the corner, God knows the republic needs it.

Demographics Are Killing Republicans

2012-06-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Like most political junkies around the country I watched the President of The United States Barack Obama and the man who wants to take his job Republican nominee and Former Massachusettes Governor Mitt Romney deliver speeches to The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) this past week. Both Candidates clearly realize what an important voting block the Hispanic community is.

The appearance was more important for Governor Romney because polling suggest that he trails the President by huge numbers when it comes to the Latino vote. Romney is clearly paying the price for the position that he took in the GOP Primaries where he wasn't just to the right of Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich on immigration he was to the right of Lou Dobbs.

Being African-American and watching Romney struggle to make his case with Latinos, I wondered about how equally difficult it would be for Romney or any other GOP nominee to make the same case to the Black Community.

Before 1968 black votes were pretty much split evenly among the two political parties, black people liked The New Deal policies put forth by FDR and The Dems, but hated the fact that scumbags like Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd hid out within the party given their ties to the support of segregation

and The Ku Klux Klan respectively. 1968 however should be thought of in the same manner of 1865, the year slavery was officially ended, as a watershed year for race relations and politics in the U.S.

1968 was the year that Republican Presidential nominee Richard Nixon emplored “The Southern Strategy”. Nixon basically said to disaffected White Southerners, who voted Democrat all their life, but were upset about the recent passages of The Civil Rights Act and The Voting Rights Act ensuring equal treatment under the law for people of color, to vote for him because he would be the guy who would champion their causes.

Over 40 years later The GOP finds themselves as the party of rich middle-aged white guys in a time where it doesn't pay to be. This puts Governor Romney in the akward position of having to speak to NALEO and the NAACP, which he will do next month, knowing that he will garner little support. Latinos are further disenchanted with the Goveronor's refusal to say whether or not he, if elected would reverse the President's executive order that would not deport the children of undocumented individuals who happen to be in the country. As far as the black vote is concerned, if Romney gets more than five percent he and his supporters should pop champaign like they are the Miami Heat.

Romney isn't the first Republican to carry this weight, GOP God Ronald Reagan, whose name brings tears to the eyes of any card carrying conservative, got 14% of the black vote in his 1980 Presidential Campaign. On the surface that is a terrible number, but considering the challenge Reagan faced particularly with disparaging comments about welfare queens and his less than friendly approach towards the black community during his time as California Governor it was not a bad feat. 1980 however was a time when Reagan could overcome his problem with minorities by relying on his support from not just wealthy white married couples, but also white working class men.With America's ever changing demographics Romney doesn't have that luxury.

The Reagan election in '80 was also a peak in black support for the Republican Party in Presidential Elections also. George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole never got close to Bill Clinton in terms of the black vote in 1992 and 1996 respectively, and despite lukewarm feelings for both Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004 the best that George W. Bush could muster in terms of black support was the 9% he got against Kerry in his re-election campaign.

At the risk of speaking in generalizations, the thing that the GOP doesn't get is that black people for the most part are not going to vote against their economic interests. When the African-American community looks at the amount of public-sector jobs that have been shedded in the last five years they know exactly where to point their finger. The fact that people of color, black people in particular made up a huge portion of those employees and the fact that Paul Ryan's budget plan, which conservatives love almost as much as they claim to love the Constitution, is reason enough to be skeptical of the GOP's economic plans. The first order of business for President Romney should he occupy the Oval Office is to institute The Ryan Budget which in effect calls for the disappearance of more public sector jobs, which in turn would contribute to a black unemployment rate that now stands at 13.6%

If Republicans can overcome that by proposing policies that don't just focus on free market, government is the boogeyman solutions, the last mountain still may be unscaleable, the mountain is named Barack and Michelle Obama. It cannot be underscored how huge the first family is in Black America, they are rock stars. The Obama's will forever be looked upon like Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King, people who made history when it seemed almost impossible. No matter who the Democrats nominate in 2016 Clinton, Biden, Cuomo when that individual picks up the phone and asks the Obama's to come and stump for them the black vote will be pretty much guaranteed.

Not only do Mitt Romney and Republicans have 2016 to worry about when it comes to minority voters overwhemingly going left, the prospect of this turning into a 30 year reality should be a very sobering wake up call for The Grand Old Party.

I want to hear from you e-mail me at ebrew79@hotmail.com.or follow me on twitter @ebrew79

Fast And Furious Is A Smoke Screen

2012-06-21T12:36:00.001-07:00

In a nation where the unemployment rate is 8.2 %, where 23 million people are now out of work,

and long term economic growth is a serious concern, A Congressional Panel on Wednesday recommended that the House of Representatives cite Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt over issues dealing with the now defunct “Fast and Furious”Program.

Fast and Furious was a program started under the George W. Bush Administration where ATF agents allowed guns to be “walked” across the border into Mexico so they could be tracked to higher profile criminals including those in Mexican Drug cartels. The unfortunate death of U.S Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry by a gun that may or may not have been involved in Fast and Furious has lead to an arduous and painstaking congressional investigation.

To be clear, the death of Agent Terry is a tragedy, and the Fast and Furious program should be investigated, in fact how such a dangerous and reckless program was put in place at all is beyond me, that being said it did began under President Bush and was abruptly stopped by Attorney General Holder after he was made aware that it was going on. California Congressman Rep. Darrell Issa, the committee's chairman has not subpoened anyone from the Bush White House however, including Michael Mukasey, the Attorney General at the time Fast and Furious was enacted.

Issa who has never met a camera or a microphone he doesn't like was given the ability to waste tax payer money with the investigation by the GOP takeover of the House in 2010. He also has been spurred on by right-wing apologist like Sean Hannity to Ann Coulter to pursue this matter with extreme vigor and put Holder in his place, Issa has called Holder every name possible with the exception of “uppity and “boy”

The entire Dog and Pony show is about one thing and one thing only, the desire of a GOP controlled House and the Republican Party in particular to embarrass the Barack Obama White House. Eric Holder has been a right-wing target since day one, If it wasn't for Fast and Furious the right would be

saying Holder has overstepped his bounds regarding Florida Governor Rick Scott's voter purge in Florida, apparently the GOP is fine with Scott turning himself into a modern day “Bull” Connor by suppressing the votes of Blacks, Latinos, and the elderly. There are also cases like the Department of Justice's refusal to defend The Defense of Marriage Act and their challenging of the State of Arizona's crackdown on undocumented workers

What the right won't admit to you is that they have got the wrong black man in the hot seat, Republicans want Barack Obama gone from the White House so bad they can't see straight, and by the President invoking executive privilege over documents that would not help congress get to the bottom of the situation (and also keeps him from breaking the law by releasing them) more fuel has been thrown onto the fire. Charges of White House cover-up and Obama's Watergate are now being thrown around conservative stomping grounds.

The Administration's refusal to back down is encouraging though, The President didn't have to step in, and given the fact that this is the first time he has used an executive privilege in his first 3 ½ years in office, all signs point to him not wanting to. By taking this step Obama is clearly saying he is behind Holder and thinks this is a witch hunt of the highest order. There has never been an Attorney General who has been held in contempt of congress in the history of the nation, John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez should have been cited on numerous occasions for lying about everything under the sun.

This unfortunately is what we will see from now until Barack Obama is no longer President, whether that is in November or 2016 John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell and every other prominent Republican in D.C will be on the lookout for everything from government overreach to whether or not Obama washed his hands after a trip to the restroom. The GOP has never taken partisianship to this extreme and the Fox News spin machine will continue to beat the drum.

I want to know what you think, please e-mail me a ebrew79@live.com ebrew79@live.com or follow me on twitter!

Stop and Frisk More Trouble Than It's Worth

2012-06-19T12:30:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday people from both sexes, all races, all religious denominations and sexual orientations marched through the streets of New York City to protest the strict Stop

and Frisk laws used by The City's Police Department. The march which begin at 110^th Street passed by Gracie Mansion, home of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg before ending at 78^th Street.

If you aren't familiar “Stop and Frisk” is the policy where police officers in the city are given license

to stop people who they deem suspicious. Who would have ever imagined that of the 685,000 people

stopped last year as a result of the policy 87% would be Black and Latino. As calculated as the march strolling thru the Mayor's neighborhood was it was also extremely fitting.

Under Mayor Bloomberg Stop and Frisks in New York have skyrocketed 603% since 2002 when the city was ran by then mayor Rudy Giuliani. When you are to the right of Rudy in Gotham on the issue of police misconduct it's not a good place to be as far as the Black and Brown communities are concerned, Giuliani wasn't the second coming of Eugene “Bull”Connor, but he might as well had spit on the graves of Patrick Dorismond and Amadou Diallo, two black men who were killed by NYPD under his stewardship.

One of the interesting developments in the increase of Stop and Frisks is that fewer than 10% of those being stopped have been arrested, while the percentage of crime in the city has not gone down because of it. These numbers and asinine comments by the mayor himself only lead to more hostility between the community and its cops. Bloomberg was quoted as saying Sunday that “Innocent people who are being stopped can't be disrespected, that is not acceptable”, then as to appease people of color by quoting a man who he still clearly thinks was the first Black President Bill Clinton he said “The practice should be mended not ended”.

There are so many things that are wrong with the Mayor's outlook on this entire situation, for one the fact that the numbers are so skewed towards black and brown people tells me that Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly don't think that white people commit crimes. Even in more priviledged parts of the city where the diversity of the residents is almost non-existent people of color make up a higher percentage of those who are stopped, which is basically a situation where the officer is saying “what the hell are you doing in this neighborhood”.

Secondly, some of these stops have led to the arrests of teenagers and young people who have had small amounts of marijuana in their possession. We can debate the pros and cons of marijuana, but no seventeen year old kid should placed in the criminal justice system, tagged as a felon, and be put at risk of ever getting into college or getting an apartment, which is what this does. White kids who are not stopped nearly as much as kids of color are basically given a license to experiment with weed without being subjected to the same possibilities.

What this policy does more than anything though is just heighten the tensions between these two communities and the police department that is suppose to protect them. Bloomberg knows very well the history of New York, not only the murders of Dorismond and Diallo, but the murders of Sean Bell and Ramarley Graham. Graham was an 18 year old black kid who was shot and killed by an NYPD officer in his Grandmother's bathroom earlier this year. While apparently being tone def on these individual situations, The Mayor seems intent on pushing a policy that continues to exacerbate negative feelings that Black and Brown people have about “The Men in Blue”.

The Father's Day March on Sunday was great because it was an example of the community using it's voice to shed light on injustice, I get the feeling however that real change won't come until there is a new occupant in the aforementioned Gracie Mansion. Let's just hope Mikey B. doesn't use anymore of his vast personal fortune to buy himself another term.

I want to know what you think e-mail me at ebrew79@live.com for the latest columns and updates, also follow me on twitter @ebrew79

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Obamacare Decision Is Important For A Lot of Reasons

2012-06-17T12:19:00.001-07:00

As we sit here in the middle of June we are nearing a Supreme Court decision on The

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Now for those of you who are not familiar with

the names of Constitutional Laws, it is primarily known nationwide as “Obamacare”. The Court

will be weighing whether to uphold the law which was signed by President Obama in March of

2010, overturn the law altogether, or throw out the key provision within the law, The Individual

Mandate, which calls on everyone to purchase private health insurance.

As both political parties setup their respective talking points in anticipation of the verdict, and the

court prepares for the attacks from diehard lefties and righties, The importance of the decision will

be felt not only in the upcoming Presidential Election, but with individual citizens in this country going

forward.

From a personal perspective The ACA is kinda of like eating White Castle burgers when you have this

huge craving for steak. Any Progressive worth his salt wants and desires a single-payer health care system, but those liberals who think the striking down of this law will pave the way for single-payer are not realistic, not with this Republican House and if the dreaded happens not this future Republican President.

GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been vocal about the fact that he as The Commander and Chief would repeal the ACA if the SCOTUS doesn't overturn it. Romney repealing the law is like a parent disowning one of his children because it was Romney, who as Governor of Massachusettes implemented his own healthcare law with an individual mandate, basically providing the President with a blueprint..

If President Romney follows through on his promise he says he will replace the ACA with a plan that basically does not guarantee mandates. The Obama Administration in it's brief to the SCOTUS about the Constitutionality of the ACA said that without mandates “premiums would increase significantly and the availability of insurance would decline”. In short the working poor, and the middle class who didn't have health insurance prior to 2010 will return to a world where it would be increasingly difficult to acquire some under Mittens.

The fact that we find ourselves in a position where a Supreme Court that is becoming more partisan by the day (see Citizens United) is now going to decide the fate of the ACA has to be laid at the feet of the Obama Administration. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of Tea Party activists out there who would have called Barack Obama a Kenyan, socialist, Marxists, even if he had done away with every government job and called British Prime Minister David Cameron for austerity tips, but the messaging or lack thereof by the Administration until fairly recently has been weak at best, and they wasted the opportunity to win over true middle of the road moderates.

How many people out there who have no political agenda whatsoever and are only interested in getting themselves and their family quality healthcare know that the ACA will provide financial assistance to people who have to buy insurance on their own, expands Medicaid, and eliminates copays for some preventitive services. Sure anyone can get lost in the weeds when it comes to this stuff, but if your not out there selling the way the President and his staff should have been and the fact that you put in place measures that won't allow a lot of these things to kick in until 2014, of course every right-wing think tank on the planet is going come up flat out lies and negative connonatations such as the name “Obamacare” itself.

As I say all of this I realize that it may all be a moot point. The Supreme Court could go two of three ways, strike down the law and force the President to start over (without single-payer), or throw out the individual mandate, which in a sense guts the law anyway. Given Justice Samuel Alito's response to the President's feelings on the Citizens United decision rendered by the court I'm not expecting this group to do the right thing.