The Dunning Letter

Taking a break

2010-12-09T06:30:00.002-07:00

The Dunning Letter is on indefinite hiatus but please use the "Search" option to look for subjects of interest. There are over 700 posts to choose from.

You could profit off your health insurance

2010-12-08T06:30:00.001-07:00

In yet another part of the new health-care law that favors consumers, insurance companies will be forced to spend a minimum of the premium you pay on health care and quality. For smaller companies the figure is 80 cents on the premium dollar. For employer plans covering over 50 people, the requirement is 85 cents. This is similar to a law passed a few years ago requiring charities to spend a minimum of your donations on the cause for which they are collecting.

If the insurer fails to meet the minimum, they will be forced to issue rebates to customers. The idea is to encourage better health care over excess spending on administration, marketing and executive bonuses by the insurance company. Some insurers are already complaining, which might indicate an inequality in paid premiums on their part to health care delivered.

Others are threatening to stop offering insurance to the individual market, with Georgia, Iowa, Maine and So. Carolina afraid this could lead to loss of coverage. But industry analyst, Les Funtleyder, says Health and Human Services has considerable latitude in making adjustments for insurers’ marketing needs. It would seem that the consumer can expect a higher quality of health care with this new ruling since many plans only spend from 60 to 80 cents on the dollar.

The new rule goes into effect January 1, and in 2012 up to 9 million customers could get rebates averaging $164. It’s nice to know for once that the consumer is getting a break with the greedy health insurers paying the bill. It is also pathetic that this must be done to keep these companies honest. The $164 could be a discount on premiums or payment direct to policyholder.

In the future, customers can shop for health insurance using this new gauge of just how well insurers pay benefits, but must be mindful of the new jargon. The ratio companies spend on care is “medical loss ratio.” They’ve known this all along but as long as they were able to get away with spending only 60 percent of your premium on your health care, the greedy ones did it.

And remember, the Republicans have said repeatedly that they would repeal the health care act.

Read more on this subject here.

Read more health care posts here.

Is the Tea Party planning a revolution? Part 3

2010-12-07T06:30:00.010-07:00

"Gunfight" by Professor Adam Winkler

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, it was established that the Tea Party is planning a revolution, and one of its major thrusts will be to roll back the nation’s gun laws, the effective few that are on the books that are responsible for holding down gun violence. Now I know what the gun bubbas are saying to this, that there was a surge in weapons ownership recently and that’s what keeps our neighborhoods safe. Pure bunk!

First of all, I don’t know anyone where I live that owns a handgun, and if I did, they would be the last one I would call on. Furthermore, I don’t feel one iota safer walking down the street next to Wyatt Earp who is carrying a gun, which, because of the way he flaunts it, could easily be wrested away from him or her by a bad guy who could end up shooting me. Like former President Ronald Reagan said, “There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”

Finally, it is rare that you see coverage in the media where an armed citizen has saved the life of an innocent bystander, and also infrequent when a gun owner uses their weapon to protect themselves. Most everything you read indicates the crooks, depending on just how desperate they are, will go to any length to get what they want, and no amateur gun-carrying Dick Tracy will help. This is particularly true of drug addicts.

My point is that more guns on the street are certainly responsible for the recent rash of shooting violence across the U.S.

So back to the Tea Party and getting rid of all gun laws. According to UCLA Constitutional Law Professor Adam Winkler, their extremism is illustrated by the fact that many of their candidates are endorsed by Gun Owners of America, headed up by Larry Pratt, which argues that the NRA doesn’t support gun rights enough. Would you believe, the GOA thinks the NRA is too compromising? Pratt is also known for his part in starting the lunatic 1990’s patriot militia movement, which died after Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

Professor Winkler believes that although guns rights individuals value their firearms for self-protection, the Tea Party and a rejuvenation of the militia movement covet them for revolution. This was evident by Sharon Angle’s run for the Senate against Harry Reid in Nevada when she told supporters if you don’t get rid of Harry Reid, the people will be forced to turn to “Second Amendment” remedies. Harry Reid won.

You can see Chris Matthews take on the Tea Party by a priceless comment he made recently in the following You Tube video.

While the Tea Party dresses up all their rhetoric for hot button issues like economics and too much government, “Make no mistake,” says Professor Winkler, “when it comes to guns, they’re talking about revolution.”

Read more Tea Party posts here.

Be sure and look for Professor Adam Winkler’s book, “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” which will be published by W.W. Norton in the summer of 2011.

Is the Tea Party planning a revolution? Part 2

2010-12-06T06:30:00.001-07:00

In Part 1 of this article, I introduced Adam Winkler who is a constitutional law professor at UCLA, who says the Tea Party wants an “extreme roll back of the nation’s gun laws.” This is being pursued in several states by Tea Party candidates such as Paul Rand in Kentucky and Joe Miller in Alaska, who advocate adoption of the radical Firearms Freedom Acts, which are basically insurrectionist in their purpose. In Wyoming, if a federal officer attempts to enforce federal gun laws, he could get up to a year in jail.

One might expect that out of a state which former Vice President and infamous liar under GWB, Dick Cheney, hails from.

The Tea Party crackpots disguise their actions as states’ rights, but the intention is purely to eliminate all gun control. A move that could put more weapons in the hands of drug users and domestic batterers, as well as undermine gun dealer record-keeping laws that are used to solve crimes, Winkler says. As an example, the Professor also comments that Rand Paul is hell-bent on “no gun control period,” even if firearms end up in the hands of criminals.

Although the Tea Party tries to connect with the Ronald Reagan era, they fail to mention that Reagan “vigorously” endorsed the Brady Act, named for his press secretary injured seriously by a handgun. And one of my favorites, while Reagan was Governor of California, he supported laws banning gun bubbas from carrying loaded weapons around on public streets.

As a matter of fact, the former President said: “There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” AMEN!

But Joe Miller, still trying to associate himself with Reagan, prompted his supporters in July to arrogantly parade with their guns openly displayed. They’re seen with military-type rifles on their shoulders and handguns strapped to their belt in an attempt to mirror Wyatt Earp. See the video below, and tell me if this doesn’t look like the biggest gang of misfits you’ve ever seen. Pathetic!

Tomorrow, Gun owners of America, another gun group even more radical than the NRA.

See earlier Tea Party posts here.

Is the Tea Party planning a revolution?

2010-12-03T06:30:00.003-07:00

Adam Winkler is a constitutional law professor at UCLA, and recently wrote about how the Tea Party movement plans to overturn gun control laws. Just what is needed in this country…an extension of the NRA. Winkler says the issue was “conspicuously absent” in the recent election, but an undercurrent running through the campaign rhetoric was that the Tea Party wants an “extreme roll back of the nation’s gun laws.”

This could be the result of the dilution of the D.C. v. Heller U.S. Supreme Court decision that said the Second Amendment does protect the right of an individual’s right to own guns for self-defense. In that decision SCOTUS added: “…nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions on the commercial sale of arms."

The lower courts have followed that interpretation to uphold laws re. the possession of firearms by “felons, drug addicts, illegal aliens, and individuals convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors.” Also “laws prohibiting particular types of weapons, including sawed-off shotguns and machine guns, and specific weapons attachments.” And “laws barring guns in school zones and post offices, and laws outlawing "straw" purchases, the carrying of concealed weapons, possession of an unregistered firearm, and particular types of ammunition.”
With these courts upholding every one of these laws, as Professor Winkler put it, “Since Heller, its Gun Control 60, Individual Right 0." See the Professor’s You Tube video, below, that concludes the major problem of gun control advocates is potential bills through state legislatures.

The CATO Institute financially backed the Heller legislation and thinks the above addendum added by Justice Scalia merely caused confusion in the ruling. The gun fanatics disagree—wouldn’t we be disappointed if they didn’t?—saying it just confirms that the Supreme Court “believes that almost all gun control measures on the books today are perfectly lawful.” With all these disappointments, amid the flag waving by the NRA of what they had accomplished on Heller, the Tea Party quietly made their plans.

On Monday, the Tea Party gun control revolution.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Former Rep. Tom Delay from Texas proves how far a politician can fall

2010-12-02T06:30:00.001-07:00

He was one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, and had the nickname of “the Hammer” due to his bullying style of handling people. Former Rep. Tom Delay, once the number two person in the House of Representatives, was found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He, of course, plans to appeal the verdict. The decision was based on $190,000 of corporate donations that were involved in a Texas-style “money swap.”

Delay had two co-conspirators that assisted in getting the money to the Washington-based Republican National Committee, which disbursed it to seven Texas House candidates. The prosecution said that the $190,000 was instrumental in the GOP taking control of the Texas House. That, in turn, paved the way for redistricting that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004.

The judge has several options in sentencing Delay of up to life in prison, but a Texas defense attorney remarked that he would probably only get a few years, if he gets any prison at all. Delay was also mixed up with former lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, in 2005, an association that ended his 22-year political career. The Hammer later surfaced in 2009 as the Dancer in ABC’s TV show, “Dancing with the Stars.”

On the other side of the aisle is Charlie Rangel, congressman from New York’s Harlem district, a 40-year veteran who is being charged with financial and fundraising misconduct by the House. Rangel, who is 80 years old, pleaded with the House to not call him corrupt, and it did not. Convicted on 11 counts of ethical wrongdoing, the ethics committee recommended 9 to 1 for censure.

Rangel is accused of using the power of his office to solicit money for a college center named after him. There were ten years of misleading financial statements re. his assets and other shenanigans over a New York apartment. As the former chairman of the House’s tax-writing committee, it was considered particularly flagrant that he hadn’t paid taxes on income from one of his properties for 17 years.

Two wrongs—one from each side of the political aisle—do not make a right. And you can kiss “transparency” and “accountability” goodbye in the future with the incoming Republican House ready to ditch the Office of Congressional Ethics. This is an independent body established to watch over Congress, and apparently as far as the GOP is concerned, doing too good of a job. What does this say about the Republicans many of you voted for, and Congress in general?

COMMENTS WELCOMED

The gun nuts are coming out of the woodwork – Part 2

2010-12-01T06:30:00.002-07:00

I would hope that all of my normal readers would take the time to read yesterday’s post before starting on today’s, so you can get a feel for just how ludicrous the gun freaks can be when someone attacks their right to do whatever they want with a gun. It’s hard to fathom how this conglomeration of radicals has become so strong when they only represent around 25 percent of the adult population. At any rate, I would sincerely be interested in hearing from those of you that believe in some form of gun control.

Now on to answers to more comments from Monday.

AM thinks it is OK that 5,000 firearms ended up in Mexico from American gun dealers, a flippant attitude the folks in Juarez who have lost family members recently to cartels might not share. Anyway, I am certainly not sure about AM’s figures with the news coverage of high powered weapons finding their way across the border from Arizona recently showing up at Mexican crime scenes. The ATF confirmed this indicating that weapons seizures on the border have doubled this year. Not exactly how the Mexican government would make a purchase, but thanks for the math lesson.

And the AKs that AM says come from Central and South America, it is obvious he should advise ATF that 90 % of the 158 assault rifles seized in Mexico where they were taken from the drug cartel Los Zetas in May alone, didn’t really come from the United States as the ATF claimed. However, AM, it’s really Ok to be stupid; I have to feign stupidly any time I am dealing with gun screwballs.

RNK, please don’t ignore my gun show loophole “fantasy,” just go to the link to yesterday’s post on this subject and see just how mixed up you people have become. And speaking of logic, yours is diluted to the point of hilarity re. why we should not get rid of the weapons confiscated in crimes. These “inanimate objects’ you speak of are responsible for the recent rash of shootings that are taking place throughout the U.S. As far as burning American currency, AM, it is illegal, or is this something the NRA didn’t teach you?

I don’t know about you, RNK, but in my entire life I have never been faced with the necessity to defend myself with a gun. Also, not one of my family, friends or acquaintances has ever indicated this need. Yes, it happens, but does the number of instances justify a gun lobby that supports defeating laws that simply seek time to check a potential gun owner’s background? I think not and no amount of NRA gibberish will convince me of this.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

The gun nuts are coming out of the woodwork

2010-11-30T06:30:00.004-07:00

Photo by Dave Parker

There’s nothing I like better than debating with a bunch of gun fanatics. Some comments to The Dunning Letter posts on the subject are based on facts—no doubt delivered daily by the NRA to its members—but most are purely emotional and vindictive, attacking the writer who is genuinely interested in finding a way to keep killer weapons out of the hands of criminals. What I cannot abide is the fact that these devotees to the gun god won’t relinquish one drop of control.

David said “…your statement about gun shows is entirely false.” He goes on to say that the “gun show loophole” is a private sale, and is limited by law. Apparently the congressional investigation into this in July 2010 by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) didn’t have your information, David. The forum resulted from the brother of one of those shot in the Virginia Tech U. massacre walking into a Virginia gun show easily purchasing a glock handgun like the one used at Virginia Tech, plus several others without any background check.

And then there is the anonymous comment from one afraid to give his or her name, and with good reason since what is said makes little sense. The apparent point was that the Google search I did showed nothing in relation to Arizona shooting, with some other babble over film making and gang violence. I will let my normal readers decide by looking at the site, here, again, which shows page after page of Arizona shootings. I am sure you don’t have the slightest idea what you are commenting about.

Sean D Sorrentino—it’s rare you get a full name—thinks I should back away from my keyboard and get a grip on myself. OK Sean, I did, and came up with the fact that there are 300 million firearms in the U.S., of which 100 million are handguns. And since some states don’t require gun owners to register their firearms, these guns are not counted. In a 2007 report, the U.S. was the most armed country in the world with 90 guns per 100 people. Based on my point, and facts, about the gun show loophole, above, do we really need to chance this happening.

More answers to the gun lunacy tomorrow.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Arizona continues to lead the nation in putting more guns in the public’s hands

2010-11-29T06:30:00.006-07:00

State Sen. Russell Pearce, who authored Arizona’s anti-immigration law, SB1070, stuck a provision in the bill that “pushes” local police departments to resell confiscated weapons to authorized gun dealers. Not satisfied that one Phoenix, Arizona suburb, Peoria, found a loophole in his law and passed a measure to continue destroying the weapons, a moonstruck Pearce now plans to “fix” that loophole in the next legislative session.

You would think that based on all the shootings I was able to Google, just in Arizona alone, some sanity might prevail and they would curtail all these insane gun laws that have been passed recently. In April of 2010, Arizona State Sen. Pearce once again authored, and Governor Jan Brewer readily signed, a bill allowing people to carry a concealed weapon without requiring a permit. Some fanatics never learn.

There are only two other states requiring the sale of confiscated weapons, Kentucky and Tennessee, both of which must have state governments almost as brainsick as Arizona’s. The NRA says why not sell these weapons to an authorized agent, and therein lies the problem. Gun show participants are authorized agents, and carry a loophole that would allow individual to individual weapons sales without background checks.

The Chaska, Minn. Police Chief doesn’t think that confiscated weapons should be recirculated in the market, as does the Peoria, Ariz. City Attorney. Peoria Police Chief, Larry Ratcliff, provides an illustration where weapons used in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. crimes were traced to resales from Memphis, Tenn. Law enforcement. An Apache Junction, an Ariz. Police Captain commented, although they are not big “moneymakers,” you can make a “couple dollars” out of them.

Arizona is also known for supplying assault rifles to the Mexican drug cartels, although these sources scream vehemently that they aren’t aware they are going across the border. That kinda cinches the case for stronger gun laws doesn’t it?

Read earlier posts on gun control here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Not sure she’s happy there, but do think she should stay there

2010-11-26T06:30:00.002-07:00

Photo by DonkeyHoten

Barbara Bush told Larry King on Monday night that Sarah Palin is beautiful, thought she was “very happy” in Alaska, and hopes she’ll stay there. I’m not sure she’s happy there, and am pretty sure she’d rather be cross-country. In a white house with a wrought iron fence on a street named Pennsylvania Avenue. With a cute little room to hold tea parties. And, of course a ballroom for dancing.

On the roof a telescope would be set up from which she could keep her eye on Russia. A special space would be set aside for Katie Couric interviews. A section of the Government Printing Office would be delegated to turn out more of the claptrap books she is now famous for. Finally, an American historian would be hired to try and keep Palin from making the stupid statements she has been known for in the past.

OK. Stop right there. This is getting bizarre. Barbara Bush did say the above, but the rest is my creation. Taken from this pathetic woman’s life since Arizona Senator John McCain made the fatal mistake of bringing her into the lime light as his vice presidential running mate, and then, thankfully, lost significantly to President Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

But it isn’t until the paltry Palin re-hashes Michelle Obama’s statement, "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback," in her new book, that she reaches the bottom of the barrel. Richard Cohen’s OP-ED in The Washington Post is a “must read.” He calls Palin’s criticism of the first-lady’s comment “appalling” and shows her “ignorance of history.” He refers to the fact that Michelle’s ancestors were slaves, and how she was made aware of her “blackness” while attending Princeton University.

Palin never had to experience this kind of racial prejudice, a situation most whites will never be able to comprehend, while at the same time much of this country continues to hold an apartheid attitude in dealing with African Americans. I might expect this from the South—where, incidentally, I grew up—even though they have cleaned up there act somewhat.

But is it mere coincidence that 36 percent of the Tea Party members come from the South, and one was quoted as saying, “I’m a proud racist, I’m white.”

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl just can’t give up earmarks

2010-11-25T06:30:00.001-07:00

Photo by Mike Licht

It only took three days for Sen. Jon Kyl from Arizona to blow the ban on earmarks that even Sen. Mitch McConnell from Kentucky had agreed to. McConnell is one of the leading pork barrelers, having bragged in the past about the millions he had directed to Kentucky projects. His shift on the issue was one of the most decent things McConnell has done in the last two years.

This was all prompted by Tea Party influence, especially Sen. Jim DeMint from South Carolina who was instrumental in changing non-binding party rules to eliminate “congressionally directed spending.” That was all on November 15, the week in which Congress was supposed to take a vote on earmarks, but there is some doubt now it will pass. President Obama supports the ban and more, but even some from his own party are in dissension.

Earmarks are spending items inserted in other bills, most likely by a Senator, going to a specific state. Just three days after the GOP renounced earmarks, Sen. Jon Kyl landed $200 million that will settle an Arizona Indian tribe’s water rights claim against the government. Kyl inserted it in a larger bill supported by the President, and then insisted it isn’t an earmark.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said on the floor of the Senate, “I do know an earmark when I see it. And this, my friends, is an earmark.

Kyl supposedly recently joined with the thinking of the senior Senator from Arizona, John McCain, also a Republican, and a stringent foe of earmarks. The junior Senator was impressive during the recent Bush administration when he agreed with everything GWB said or did. At best, Kyl’s congressional accomplishments are limited, consisting for the most part bring back pork to Arizona. Apparently that’s what gets him reelected.

Read more here, here and here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Should General Motors have been allowed to go belly up?

2010-11-24T06:30:00.002-07:00

Photo by John Eisenschenk

The Tea Party thought so. Rick Perry, elected in the midterms to Texas Governor and potential TP presidential candidate in 2012 agrees. Perry is yet another fanatic from that group that wants to get rid of all government, including Social Security. Hopefully, those seniors over age 65 and drawing their SS will realize the stupidity in the backing of the Tea Party. Probably not, since much of this movement is based almost 100 percent on emotional involvement.

In a Newsweek article linked below, Perry poses with a rack of guns, which means he probably doesn’t plan to support gun control. As a matter of fact, the Tea Party has a radical agenda to overturn gun control laws, while its candidates seem to have soft-pedaled the issue during the recent elections. According to a UCLA Today article by constitutional law professor Adam Winkler, “They seek an extreme roll back of the nation’s gun laws.”

With GM in the process of one of the most touted IPOs in history, the government’s investment was a good one, which saved a company and the jobs held by thousands of its employees. Perry doesn’t believe this, nor does he think saving the banking system was a good idea. Most consumers are anti-banks today—and with good reason—but only a fool would think we should allow our entire financial structure to collapse.

The last Bush administration has shown just what will happen when you lift too many government controls and regulations. How many TPs lost their homes to foreclosure? How many TPs lost their jobs due to the collapse of the economy? How many TPs would suffer financially if they did away with Social Security and Medicare? Whatever these people have been told, I haven’t heard one valid solution for any of the above come from any part of the GOP, including the Tea Party.

Read more here and here.

Read UCLA Today article here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Health insurance industry still fighting health care reform

2010-11-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Wendell Potter, former media relations director for CIGNA, has written an expose of the health insurance business and it isn’t at all favorable to the consumer. In his book, Deadly Spin, he points out that the industry is governed by corporations that care little for the patients, but are greedy for profits. Between 2000 and 2008, private insurers hiked premiums by over 90 percent but payouts to care providers were up by only 72 percent.

Profits of the five biggest health insurers totaled an astronomical figure of $12.2 billion in 2009, an increase of 56 percent from 2008, reports Potter from his position as a Fellow with Center for Media and Democracy.

Photo by Shannon Kringen

Potter says that we are the only industrialized nation that connects health insurance with the act of being employed. And because of a ridiculous maze of federal and state regulations, there exists a “central ideological conflict.” The only thing the liberals and conservatives can agree on is that there is something wrong. What’s wrong? The author states he is convinced that “…managed care companies are fundamentally dishonest.”

Potter’s Senate testimony in 2009 revealed how health insurance companies make promises that they do not plan to keep. They actually show contempt for regulations that are in place to protect consumers. And they cease doing business with small companies whose medical claims surpass underwriter expectancy. To overcome all these obstacles, the insurance companies employ high paid PR executives—like Potter was with CIGNA—to do the dirty work of lobbying.

Michael Moore’s film, Sicko, helped him to decide to leave CIGNA and launch his current attack to expose the health insurance business for what it is. A greed laden industry obsessed with profits over providing the services they tout in misleading advertising and promotion. Potter says he needs to apologize to Moore for the role he played in the insurance industry’s attack campaign on Sicko.

It should be obvious to all that conservatives agree with this avarice and by attempting to scuttle President Obama’s Health Care Reform, plan to continue their support.

Read more here and here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED.

It’s time to send Arizona Senator Jon Kyl to the home

2010-11-22T09:30:00.011-07:00

Killer Kyl wants to arm this country to the hilt as he continues to live in the past of Cold War doctrines that do not apply anymore. He still thinks we have to scare everyone to death with a storehouse of nuclear weapons that is way beyond this country’s needs. It is estimated the U.S. currently has around 9,200 warheads, but our nuclear deterrent requires only about 500 to 1,000.

Photo by Evelyn Proimos

Republicans see this as yet another blow to Obama which the GOP is using to weaken the President’s administration. What actually happened is that Kyl surprised Obama with his opposition to the New START nuclear weapons pact with Russia. Killer has done this before when he bushwhacked Clinton in 1999 over the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Apparently an out-of-touch Kyl hasn’t done his homework, as usual, when he talks about a treaty that takes from the U.S. more than it gives. The treaty says:

"Each Party shall not convert and shall not use ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] launchers and SLBM [submarine-launched ballistic missile] launchers for placement of missile defense interceptors therein. Each Party further shall not convert and shall not use launchers of missile defense interceptors for placement of ICBMs and SLBMs therein. This provision shall not apply to ICBM launchers that were converted prior to signature of this Treaty for placement of missile defense interceptors therein."

The Senator also jeopardizes the pending “123 agreement” with Russia, which establishes a 30-year guideline for nuclear commerce between the two countries. If Killer Kyl succeeds in stopping New START, it could make sense that Russia would reinitiate missile trade with Iran that it had terminated last month.

It would seem that bringing down President Obama’s administration is more important to the GOP than the secutity of the U.S. government, and it is time for congressional leaders like Jon Kyl to be turned out to pasture.

Read more here.

Please say it isn’t so

2010-11-19T15:16:00.002-07:00

It was in West Virginia that she apparently made up her mind to seriously consider a run for the highest office in the land. In 2012. No doubt as a Tea Party Republican. Yes, pretty soon you could be seeing political ads that tout Sarah Palin for President of the United States. Has a certain ring, doesn’t it? The kind of mayday bells that should set off warnings for all informed and thinking Americans. Stop Palin now…before it’s too late!

Her exact quote was: “I’m engaged in the internal deliberations candidly, and having that discussion with my family, because my family is the most important consideration here.” Maybe we could get the family to convince her of the idiotiocy of this whole idea. Oh, I forgot, husbands and apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Palin talked about the lack of “meaningful differences” in policy between GOP candidates. Didn’t know she had any policies other than to espouse the Tea Party hogwash she seems to have attached herself to. And then she talked about proving her record, on which she would run. Does that record include how her opposition to Senator Lisa Murkowski probably helped the candidate to win her race in Palin’s home state?

My theory is most people listen to her for entertainment, much as the fans of Rush Limbaugh do. But like Limbaugh, it aint funny anymore, and any rerun on television is better entertainment. The Republicans are scared to death of a Palin run for the presidency, but the Democrats can hardly wait and are already licking their chops.

Read more here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Know the enemy – Part 3

2010-11-19T09:30:00.003-07:00

Apparently the question is not ‘is there racism in the Tea Party?’ but rather ‘just how racist is the group?’ Lee Fang on Alternet.org says there is “definitive proof” there is, and provides some examples you can see here. Maybe the TPs put that behind them, but there is more confirmation in a CBS News/New York Times study done in April of 2010. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.

88 percent of Tea Partiers disapprove of President Obama’s performance, compared to 40 percent of Americans overall. 50 percent of all Americans approve of Obama’s job performance, while only 7 percent of the TPs think he is doing a good job. The latter were pinned down to why and of their own volition they actually made the following statement about why they held these views.

First and foremost, “they just don’t like him,” numbering 19 percent of the organization’s supporters. This is no edict on a person’s beliefs, but when you combine that with past racial epithets, a new question arises of ‘why almost a fifth of the Tea Party just doesn’t like Obama?’ Racism does still exist whether we like it or not, as evidenced by one Tea Party activist who said: “I’m a proud racist, I’m white.” 36 percent of the TPs come from the South.

Fortunately, we are saved by an American public that doesn’t agree with the TPs. 84 percent of the group’s supporters claim the views of the Tea Party are shared by most Americans. When asked only 25 percent of the latter agree…not necessarily what most would consider sincere support for this aggregation of reactionaries.

If it is a racist disapproval that moves Tea Party supporters, and only they really know that, it is time for progressives to stand up and be known that they are still fighting for the rights of all Americans.

Read more here and here.

Read earlier posts on the Tea Party here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Know the enemy - Part 2

2010-11-18T13:30:00.002-07:00

Sarah Palin, a Tea Party favorite, said it is revolution time. Apparently the TPs took that literally, resulting in the Tea Party endorsing violence against the U.S. government; 24 percent of all Tea Partiers, 32 percent of the more radical activists think it is justified. When you combine that with the fact that 58 percent have a gun at home, the concept becomes scary. I researched, but couldn’t find, how many TPs are NRA members.

Tea Party activists are the angriest and most pessimistic about the country and President Obama. 72 percent of this gang are angry with Washington and 96 percent disapprove of the job Obama is doing. 55 percent think the income tax we pay is not fair, but only 44 percent hold a favorable opinion of the Republican Party. 77 percent like Glenn Beck and 75 percent like Sarah Palin. And 50 percent of these wackos think Palin is qualified to be President.

63 percent of all TPs get their political news from Fox News, 77 percent of the activists, which could explain where they were derailed in the first place. It also explains how 75 percent are conservative with 39 percent very conservative. 66 percent always or usually vote with the GOP, and an even more-scarier statement that the U.S. needs a third party. Maybe Beck and Palin are planning to run as Tea Party candidates.

The TPs are angry about health care reform, lack of representation in government, government spending, and unemployment and the economy. 92 percent of them feel America is on the wrong track, compared with only 59 percent of the overall population. Half of all Americans approve of President Obama’s job, compared to just 7 percent of Tea Party supporters.

NEXT: How racist is the Tea Party?

Read more here and here.

Read earlier posts on the Tea Party here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Know the enemy

2010-11-18T09:30:00.003-07:00

Photo by Peppercorn pixie's

Chinese general and author Sun Tzu, born in 544 BC said: “Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” Progressives today are faced with unethical, sometimes illegal tactics from Republican conservatives, particularly the Tea Party movement. Since this group is so new on the scene, The Dunning Letter will document some of their demographics, while exposing their extreme beliefs. Hang on. This may take a while.

CBS News and the New York Times surveyed 1,580 adults, more than half of which were self-identified Tea Party supporters. A summary of the results started with: “They're white. They're older. And they're angry.” 89 percent are white, 75 percent are age 45+ with 29 percent 65+. Their political dogma comes later, but in the meantime more profiling of just what these reactionaries look like.

They are from the South, 36 percent, the West, 25 percent, the Midwest 22 percent and the northeast 18 percent. Apparently voters become more mentally sound as they move north and east. Supposedly they are better educated, but a college philosophy teacher once told the class, “You can educate most individuals but you can’t teach them to think for themselves.” 56 percent earn more than $50,000 annually.

41 percent are female, 59 percent male, 39 percent Evangelical Christians, 61 percent Protestant and 22 percent Catholic. Some 38 percent attend weekly religious services. It wasn’t too long ago that progressives had to contend with the sometimes fanatical actions of the religious right, and then Jerry Falwell died in 2007 and the movement seemed to weaken. Tea Partiers could be a rebirthing.

NEXT: Is revolution on the horizon?

Read more here and here.

Read earlier posts on the Tea Party here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

You know you’ve done a bad job when voters go through the back door

2010-11-17T13:30:00.006-07:00

Since many midterm voters were voting against President Obama and his administration, they weren’t necessarily voting for the opposing candidate. It would be interesting for one of the research organizations to officially poll just how many were protest votes. I call that going through the back door, since you didn’t really vote for something, you voted against something.

Photo by Serge Malki

The question: Is this politically sound when the result is placing an individual in one of the highest offices in the land, one who will be running our country? The next two years will tell.

A guilt-by-association theme became evident in exit polls that were conducted during the elections. Although not a scientific measurement, 40 percent of exit interviews stated their purpose in voting was to snub Obama. Animosity did carry over for Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada and current House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Another question arises of just how much of this anger against Democrats was a result of GOP mud-slinging? Everyone is sick of it but many are also swayed by the negative advertising, according to the experts. Although pathetic, it is human nature. What we need is a national drive to encourage the public to think for itself, not be driven by hate campaigns.

Read more here.

Read earlier post on the midterms here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

The hush before the storm

2010-11-17T09:30:00.002-07:00

A lame-duck Congress can be a do-nothing group or the Democrats could surprise everyone, including themselves, and get some important things done before the end of the year. Because, come January 1, 2011, the GOP swoops in to take over the House, and the Senate is hobbled with its less than 60 majority mandate. They could turn the almost seven weeks left into something more than mediocrity.

The Bush tax cuts must be handled, and there are several proposals on the table for negotiation. This issue alone will no doubt strike a cord for just how much cooperation we can expect between Democrats and Republicans in the next two years. There’s the Medicare reimbursement cut for doctors that legislators had better consider carefully for the sake of future health care for Seniors. For Hispanics, the Dream Act.

A $250 one-time payment is being looked at for Social Security recipients to offset no cost-of-living increase next year, unemployment benefits need to be extended, and action is needed to stop earmarks for good, especially now with Rep. Mitch McConnell’s support. There are several other issues that the Dems could run up the flagpole, but the key is how the outgoing lawmakers handle this session, and just how they lay the groundwork for January 1.

Is it possible that Congress could amaze us and turn a hush into competent productiveness?

Read more here and here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

The Democrats need to fight and here’s why

2010-11-16T13:30:00.002-07:00

Sure, they’re discouraged, feeling like they have been hung out to dry by a fickle and uninformed public. The midterms shouldn’t have been a huge surprise; although it is obvious the Dems thought they “might” be saved at the last minute by Hispanics, Blacks, and the youth vote. It didn’t happen, at least in most of the country. Where something did happen was in California where Latinos put a Democrat in the Governor’s chair and reelected another Dem to the Senate.

So now in a lame-duck Congress, the left has to prevail, at least in two issues. One, they mustn’t allow the repeal of the Health Care Reform Act. A majority of Americans agree with this, and the GOP had better take notice. Since John Boehner, the new Republican House Speaker-to-be, has said it is his priority to repeal this law, the Democrats must stand together in strong opposition to Boehner.

The second is the GOP push to make the tax cuts permanent for the wealthy. It should be pointed out to the public, particularly those who aren’t millionaires, that this move will increase the deficit by $700 billion, and why do such deficit-conscious Republicans want to put this country in that kind of position. I personally believe there is room to move the identification of “the wealthy” from the current $250,000+ figure to perhaps $1 million.

Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post said it is time for President Obama to stand his ground, and quit taking crap [my word] from the bullies. Right on!

Read more here.

Read earlier posts on Health Care Reform here, and tax breaks for the wealthy here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Does Karl Rove eat at McDonald’s?

2010-11-16T09:30:00.001-07:00

Photo by Consumerist

Fast-food is known to be a favorite of some politicians, like former President Bill Clinton who frequented McDonalds’s. But Karl Rove is a snake of another color, and his tactics were used recently in a restaurant in this famous chain in Canton, Ohio. Wait, this is also the state that House Speaker-to-be John Boehner represents. Well, anyway, it turns out the employees from this McDonald’s were “urged” to vote for the Republican candidates for governor, Senate and Congress.

There was actual coercion involved when it was pointed out to the workers that this could affect their pay and benefits. They were told: “If the right people are elected, we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above the current levels. If others are elected, we will not.” That’s not coercion, that’s a threat. McDonald’s corporate called the incident an unfortunate “lapse in judgment” on the part of the owner.

The president of the Canton City Council, Allen Schulman, a Democrat and also a lawyer, says the act violates Ohio law. Very Rovian. It is bad enough that the Supreme Court has allowed business to contribute to political campaigns anonymously, using malicious, negative attack ads, primarily against Democrats. Now we have to worry about unethical business owners politically threatening their employees.

Pathetic

Read more here.

See earlier posts 0n Karl Rove tactics here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

How many divas does the Republican Party need?

2010-11-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

A prima donna, or diva, is described as “a person who takes adulation and privileged treatment as a right and reacts with petulance to criticism or inconvenience.” Some famous divas have included Madonna, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton. But none of these or any others in the past can compare with the elephant the GOP has in the room that refuses to go away. Sarah Palin. Early on in the midterms, she identified the adoration by Tea Partyers, and rode that momentum to success.

All is not rosy, however, as one Alabama Republican stated that “Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate,” referring to Delaware and Nevada election results. This didn’t even slow Palin down as she quickly signed up to do a docu/reality show, “Palin’s Alaska.” The show is already being questioned for having a hidden agenda to lay the foundation for a presidential bid in 2012.

Geez! Her daughter, Bristol, couldn’t even stop dancing long enough to vote in the midterms.

In a Washington Post article by Kathleen Parker, another word being used to describe Palin by the GOP is “dangerous.” That pretty much says it all, and I am sure President Obama could not find any other opponent he would rather run against in 2012. But the key to Palin’s success could be the outcome of Tea Party recruitment in the next two years. In checking the Internet, I found hundreds of sites announcing recruitment drives in states throughout the country.

When will this madness end?

Read more here.

See earlier post on Sarah Palin here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

New House Speaker-to-be completely detached from reality

2010-11-15T09:30:00.006-07:00

Either the media in Ohio where John Boehner is from is dropping the ball, or the man has just elected to secede from an authenticated world. Me thinks it is the latter. He called the American health care system the best in the world. Richard Cohen in The Washington Post, went to the “CIA World Factbook” to discredit Boehner’s statement.

To begin with, the United States is 49th in life expectancy, trailing Japan, France, Spain and Great Britain. And that’s just for starters. In infant mortality we are better off than Africa, but lag behind Cuba, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Canada, Portugal, the U.K., Australia and Israel. Either Boehner has a lousy research team, or he just chooses to ignore facts and go with the typical Republican strategy of “scare tactics.” Me thinks it is the latter.

If you make these stupid statements enough times, the population eventually begins to believe your lies. Unfortunately, America’s health care system comes in first only when you consider health-related bankruptcies.

There are 51 million in the U.S. without health insurance. John Boehner would have these families, including the babies who will never make it to their first birthday, hang around and wait for a GOP that is full of road blocks to President Obama’s policies, but completely devoid of how to tackle any of the major problems that face this country.

Read more here.

Read earlier posts on health care reform here.

COMMENTS WELCOMED

Get off Pelosi's back!

2010-11-12T12:47:00.001-07:00

While President Obama has recently been somewhat mute on achievements of the Democrats, current House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has been targeted by many, including those in her own party, as the "fall guy" for their problems. This would include the economy, and related issues like unemployment. No one gives her credit for pushing for more stimulus money, which many say could have created more jobs by now. The White House said no.

Instead of concentrating on joblessness, Obama and the Senate went all out for health-care reform, while Pelosi in the House passed several jobs bills that didn't make it out of the Senate. The Speaker was busy all this time and was instrumental in passing the President's health-care reform, financial reform and cap-and-trade bills. She also serves as a major force in combating GOP efforts to undermine Social Security and medicaid. Nancy sticks up for the little guy and gal, and Democrats should stick up for Nancy.

Read more here.

Medical records: A treasure chest for identity thieves

2010-11-12T08:00:00.001-07:00

AARP is re-reminding all seniors that even more precious than your financial records are you medical data, which are a goldmine for the ID crooks. The younger generation should also take notice since there is no prejudice when it comes to stealing identities. The records are either heisted by someone who needs medical treatment they are unable to pay for, or the bad guys who steal it to sell on the underground Internet market. Either way it can be deadly, literally.

As an example, someone has surgery with special needs like insulin, uses your medical ID without your knowing. Later you go in for surgery and in an emergency you are given insulin based on the thief’s records. Could be deadly. According to research, medical identity theft has more than doubled since 2008. One sure way to prevent disaster is to check your medical insurance reports just like you would your financial records for fraud.

Read more here.

Read past posts on the subject from The Dunning Letter.

Uninsured v. Insured: The huge difference Health Care Reform means

2010-11-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

New and old House republicans say they are committed to creating jobs, but they want to deny those Americans currently out of work medical assistance by repealing the Health Care Act of 2010. More than 61 percent of the uninsured have no more than a high school education, thus, not likely to find a job with benefits. Some 40 percent of uninsured have family incomes below the federal poverty level of $22,050. The plaintiffs make their case as follows.

The new health care law will provide incentives for employers to offer coverage to low-income workers. Young adults are the highest uninsured, but could remain under their parent’s plan to age 26. Over half of uninsured adults have no access to medical care, delaying conditions needing attention that develop into serious health problems. The law also prevents insurers from rejecting individuals or raising premiums due to pre-existing conditions.

Since the bulk of the new health care reform bill doesn’t go into effect until 2014, these are only a few of the items that will make a difference.

Read more in an excellent report from the Kaiser Commission here.

Republican John Boehner wants to blow off millions without health insurance

2010-11-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

There are almost 59 million Americans that do not have health insurance coverage, according to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Rep. John Boehner from Ohio, the new Republican Speaker of the House says, who cares, let’s repeal healthcare reform now. Let these adults, and their kids, do the best they can, and if some of them suffer serious illness, or die, they are simply a victim of the system.

Plans by the GOP include thwarting the new law by eliminating the funds for it. The CDC says there were 4 million more that lost their health coverage in the first half of 2010. The survey by the agency was huge interviewing just under 90,000 individuals from about 35,000 households ages 18 to 64. These are hard facts and anyone who can’t sympathize with this kind of situation is completely devoid of empathy.

NEXT: Just how much difference health insurance makes to the family

Read more here.

Marginal voters likely deserted the Democrats in November

2010-11-11T08:00:00.004-07:00

Photo by DB King

Marginal voters include those who hardly ever vote and those who are voting for the first time. These folks helped to award the Democrats 21 House seats and 8 Senate seats in 2008. They stayed home in 2010, according to a pre-election projection by American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate. Participation in a history-making election was just as important in 2010 as 2008 when Barack Obama was elected President. Just for the other side.

Turnout in the 2006 midterms was 40 percent, with a small improvement in 2010 to 41.5 percent. What’s worse, the most marginal of the marginals are the ages of 18 to 24 who voted 2 to 1 for Obama. Between 22 and 24 million in that age range voted in 2008, but normally seem to lose interest in the midterms. Who knows what actually happened but along with losing the younger vote, plus Hispanics and gays, apparently the Dems didn’t have a chance.

Deepwater Horizon type incidents likely to increase under Republican control

2010-11-10T13:19:00.002-07:00

Photo byUSCGLantAreaPA

It is a fact that that Halliburton knew weeks before the explosion that killed 11 workers that the cement mixture being used to seal the well was not stable. But they used it just the same in the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill. This was confirmed by a presidential commission investigating the accident. There have also been several House and cabinet level investigations launched.

Time will tell but at least the foundation has been laid to find the faulty party(s). That is…until January when the GOP takes over the House, and this body reverts to its philosophy that big business can do no wrong. Especially a company like Halliburton once run by former Vice President Dick Cheney, which was also part of a defense scandal during the Bush administration.

It is even harder to imagine what could happen if Republicans take over the Senate and White House in 2012.

Read more here.

Someone should talk about the good the Democrats have done…They are

2010-11-10T10:30:00.001-07:00

Froma Harrop of the Providence Journal reports in a Rodney Dangerfield sort of way, “Democrats don’t get no respect.” But there’s a reason. They didn’t have the courage in the midterms to appreciate what their party had done for the country. Like leading us out of sure economic disaster. Or making healthcare available to ordinary Americans. Or saving General Motors from going down the tube.

It’s a fact that Republicans, with the help of a few Democrats, deregulated Wall Street to the point that it almost put this country in the tank. In addition to coming to the rescue of the uninsured, Healthcare Reform will help improve employers’ medical costs, and make them more competitive with foreign firms.

This ultra right-wing and Tea Party nonsense of touting absolutely no government is getting old. How many of them have Medicare and are on Social Security? Would they give either up? I think not.

Read more here.

What’s wrong with a little “hyper-liberalism”?

2010-11-10T08:00:00.002-07:00

I am not exactly sure just what he means by the term, “hyper-liberalism” in his recent piece in The Washington Post, but Charles Krauthammer does make it clear that President Obama’s two-year experiment in it didn’t work. Proof of that was the scathing defeat taken by progressives and the Democratic Party in the 2010 midterm election. It is not clear to me if the vote was actually against the legislation, or just Obama and liberalism in general.

As an example, one of the policies in contention is Cap and Trade, which places a mandatory cap on emissions to help the environment. Another, the Health Care Reform bill that many experts agree has promise, probably needing fine tuning, but despised by the GOP. These are some of the things progressives and liberals do, for the good of others and the world. Krauthammer quotes someone as saying, “…this wasn’t an election so much as a restraining order.”

Isn’t that just what Republicans have been doing the entire two years of the Obama administration?

Read more here.

Rush Limbaugh should take his act to Hollywood

2010-11-09T13:30:00.004-07:00

Photo by Belltown Messenger

Imagine my surprise when strolling down the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Blvd., I spied a star with Rush Limbaugh’s name on it. Well, it was pretty far down the street from all the important celebrities, and it was laid somewhat crooked in the sidewalk. But it was there. My hero, in all his glory finally being recognized for what he is, an entertainer, and not a very good one at that. This is satire, of course…and tragic.

Newsweek did a piece recently about Limbaugh that should scare any sane and informed American to death. In it, this maniac even dreams of replacing William F. Buckley, a conservative I had a great deal of respect for, in right wing thinking. That’s like comparing a moron to a genius, and believing you have a match. But you can’t argue with his audience of between 15 and 20 million.

What you can question is whether they really believe him, or just turn on their radio for a good old-fashioned laugh. Like the old “Jack Benny Show.” But, oh no, that really was entertainment.

Read more here.

Running numbers on the midterms

2010-11-09T10:30:00.003-07:00

Harold Myerson of The Washington Post did an interesting take on the November elections using certain numbers to define results. It’s his way of explaining what happened. As an example, “zero” is for the number of newly elected Republican senators in competitive races who got the 18 to 29 age vote. “One” represents the number of white democrats in the next Congress from the Deep South.

Here’s an interesting one, “twenty-two,” the percentage of Hispanic voters in California compared to 18 percent in 2008. This overwhelmingly carried Democrats like Governor-elect Jerry Brown, and Senator Barbara Boxer to victory. It points out what could have been for Democratic candidates in other states with a heavy Latino population like Arizona. It also illustrates that the Sunshine State is more advanced in their political thinking than most other states.

There are more “number” comparisons you can read about here.

How do U.S. drug costs compare with other forms of universal health care?

2010-11-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

Photo by Fibonacci Blue

Our neighbor to the north is the best example, and the comparison is very unfavorable when it comes to U.S. citizens. In Canada, the per capita spending on drugs is $509, in contrast with $728 in this country. Drug prices in Canada average from 35 percent to 45 percent lower than here, which has prompted Americans to spend around $1 billion per year north of the border. One of the reasons is a system of centralized buying that controls costs. The GOP has made sure so far that this doesn’t happen here.

In conversations with two Canadian families that have recently left that country to resettle in the U.S., I hear nothing but admiration for their form of socialized medicine. They agree it is not perfect, but it does exceed U.S. health care in both costs and full coverage of its citizens. Also, the Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board has the authority to set fair and reasonable prices on patented drugs.

Our new health care law does provide saving for seniors in dealing with the “doughnut hole, which could translate to all citizens in the long term. Of course, if you are flush and don’t worry about the costs of your medications, or you don’t really care if your fellow Americans have medical coverage, go ahead and bash President Obama’s health care reform.

Read more here.

Read earlier posts, “Drug makers desert public over profits 1 and 2.”

This is what you heard but probably didn’t understand re. the midterms

2010-11-08T13:00:00.003-07:00

Photo by Lord Jim

Thanks to the Supreme Court, there was a frenzy of spending by outside Republican and Democrat special interest groups with their source of income the right-leaning large corporations. It was highly organized with one of its chief coordinators on the GOP side Karl Rove and his organizations American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. Republican groups outspent the Democrats by $54 million for a total of $245 million.

Since the GOP are the masters of attack ads, compliments of old crafty Karl, and because of their outspending the Dems, the focus here is on their groups. Rove’s Crossroads spent over $38 million, followed by the Chamber of Commerce, $31 million. The American Action Network, chaired by the infamous Fred Malek, another questionable conservative, spent $14 million. All this on attack ads.

In all likelihood this election was decided by smear tactics incorporated into negative campaigning, and it is entirely possible that many voters made their decision based on not the issues, but an antagonistic response to the repugnant ads. It was so effective, that plans are afoot to use these same methods by the same groups for the 2012 Presidential election. It is a political system completely out of hand.

Read more here.

Voter intimidation in Wisconsin. By Republicans, who else?

2010-11-08T10:30:00.007-07:00

The Center for Media and Democracy is reporting a plan uncovered by the group, One Wisconsin Now, accusing the Wisconsin Republican Party, Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party for suppressing votes in the 2010 midterms. The charge stems from the discovery of right-wing groups training “election observers” to challenge people suspected of fraudulent voting.

These groups also mailed into “communities of color” to try and determine ineligible voters through undeliverable mail. In most cases the undelivered mail was due to wrong or lack of an apartment number, or the person had simply moved.

Photo by Dutchlad

Wisconsin’s body overseeing elections cried there was nothing illicit going on, and those making the charges were simply delusional about minorities voting more than once. And it was also found that right-wing assertions over fraudulent votes in Minnesota’s last Senate race were grossly exaggerated, as well as in Wisconsin’s 2004 elections. Karl Rove politics on the go.

Read more here.

The fight ahead for progressives – Part 3

2010-11-08T08:00:00.001-07:00

Photo by DanPerry

In additional midterm history, 1978 saw the Democrats retain control of Congress, but Jimmy Carter’s Panama Canal Treaties ended up defeating some Dems in the election. It also spawned the young republicans from the South espousing confrontation rather than compromise. In the same year California Governor Jerry Brown boldly opposed Prop. 13, which capped local property taxes, requiring a two-thirds majority in the legislature to raise state taxes.

When Prop. 13 passed with 65 percent of the vote, Brown promptly turned into a crusader for tax cuts. Now that’s compromise.

Photo by DBKing

But in 1994 the GOP did take over the House and Senate after a Dem monopoly for all but 6 years since 1954. And these were dedicated right-siders that were responsible for implementing the conservative revolution on Capitol Hill. Enter Bill Clinton on the concession express announcing that big government was over. One of the big questions before the 2010 November elections was whether they would be a 1994 or 1946, when Dewey didn’t beat Truman. Now we know.

Read more here.

The fight ahead for progressives - Part 2

2010-11-05T13:00:00.004-07:00

George Santayana, a philosopher from Madrid, Spain, said: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The progressive movement has a lot to learn from the past ten years, and even before. In 1946 Republicans also took over the House with a screaming crusade that Democrats were soft on communism. This jolt moved Harry Truman to the right on national-security issues.

In 1966 the midterms brought Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to build a Great Society to an end. The GOP then had the Vietnam War, inflation and race relations to work with. A Republican coalition was emerging that would continue easily into the Nixon administration. Although “Tricky Dick” subscribed to the GOP’s fiscal responsibility, he did accept that there was a need for government's expanded role and accepted the basic need for a welfare state.

At least there was compromise…something that is missing in the recent behavior of Republicans, particularly the intolerance of the Tea Party and the religious right. Santayana also said: “Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.”

Read more here.

More to come.

The fight ahead for progressives

2010-11-05T10:30:00.001-07:00

President Obama told the Democrats not to be apathetic. They were. If Republicans do win, the next two years will be fraught with the same nonsense the GOP has been pushing for the last ten years. They won. And it won’t be an easy battle, as evidenced from the history of midterm elections for the last one-hundred years. There are already signs of this from the mouths of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.

In 1938, even after his landslide reelection victory in 1936, FDR suffered a setback after overestimating his persuasive powers when attempting a “court packing” scheme that even Democrats opposed. He was going for a “Third New Deal" when the economy took a big downturn, while at the same time he was unsuccessfully trying to purge conservative Democrats from his party who were fighting his policies.

While Obama hasn’t taken the latter approach yet, the Democratic Party did desert many of its own in the midterms when it was obvious they couldn’t win.

Read more here.

More history to come.

Mitch McConnell leads GOP “bickering as usual” drive

2010-11-05T08:00:00.001-07:00

No doubt McConnell is ticked off since Senator Harry Reid of Nevada won his election, as did other Democratic Senate candidates to keep control of that body. McConnell must have been dreaming of becoming the next Senate Majority leader so he could cause more congressional gridlock for the Democrats. It is the continuation of this style of politics that voters on Tuesday saddled this country with.

Boondoggling Boehner’s top priority was to repeal Obama’s Health Care Reform. The misguided McConnell’s top priority is to repeal President Obama, in 2012. The latter is just further indication of a Republican electorate that has no idea how to address the major issues of this country…other than oppose everything the President does, including the man himself. McConnell is even counting on the 23 Democrats up for reelection in 2012 to support him.

Progressives have never had a better opportunity to prove their ideology than in the next two years.

Read more here.

NRA makes it impossible to trace gun ownership effectively – Part 3

2010-11-04T13:00:00.004-07:00

Mexican Border

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says the difficult task of manually tracing guns has slowed the process in this country as well as Mexico. The ATF confirms that most of the weapons seized south of the border come from U.S. gun dealers. Traces are most helpful within the first few days but due to the hand-operated system they are stuck with, it takes an average of two weeks.

To further compound matters, in thirty-eight years, the ATF has not added a single agent. It had 2,500 in 1972 and it has 2,500 today. Since that same early date, the FBI went from 8,700 agents to 13,000, the DEA from 1,500 to 5,000, and U.S. Marshals from 1,900 to 3,300. The ATF has only 600 inspectors to cover more than 115,000 gun retailers, or one for each 191 dealers. A former agent said “It is easier to close a restaurant kitchen than a gun store.”

There is something wrong with this reasoning and it is spelled NRA.

Read more here.

NRA makes it impossible to trace gun ownership effectively – Part 2

2010-11-04T10:30:00.003-07:00

The National Rifle Assn.’s 4 million members say the ATF should concentrate on prosecuting the bad guys and not harassing gun dealers and owners. Poor babies. This results from the fact that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives simply wants to create a computer database of gun owners for quick tracing in a crime.

Chris Cox of the NRA makes the brilliant statement: “The only reason to register products is either to tax ‘em or to take ‘em.” It couldn’t possibly be to trace a gun to an owner who has committed a crime, even murder. Of course not, says the NRA. [my words]

Gun dealers are forced to report to the ATF within five business days when more than one handgun is purchased. The NRA has been successful in fighting this same ruling for rifles and shotguns, which includes automatic rifles like AK-47s. Just one more reason so many of these weapons move out of U.S. gun stores into Mexico to support drug cartel warfare.

John C. Frazier of the NRA comes up with yet another dazzling statement: “[AK-47s are] less likely to be used in crime.”

Read more here.

More to come.

NRA makes it impossible to trace gun ownership effectively

2010-11-04T08:00:00.002-07:00

The only place in this country authorized to trace gun sales is The National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, W. Virginia. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives works frantically in an environment that doesn’t have to be. They are doing it by hand, searching through thousands of pieces of paper and an equal number of phone calls. And why don’t they have the computer technology of the day like DNA techniques and digital fingerprinting?

The National Rifle Assn. lobby.

The NRA’s lobbying efforts have resulted in the government being prohibited from putting gun ownership records into an accessible database. The NRA and their gun totin’ bubbas are afraid of any type of registration, which they fear could lead to confiscation. If they have the damn guns legally, why are they so afraid the government will take them away? The ATF is supposed to regulate the gun industry, but many within this bureau say it is the other way around.

The people have given a mandate

2010-11-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

The mandate is not so much a vote for the Republicans…rather a vote against the Democrats. But it is a vote for the President and Congress to fix this country, and stop the partisan bickering that has gone on for the last ten years. That includes Democrats, as well as the GOP. The first thing every new, and old, member of Congress should do is poll his constituency to see what they really think about the major issues in front of this country.

To name a few, they are taxes, the economy, jobs, health care, Social Security, Medicare, the housing market, immigration reform and the environment. I am not convinced this mandate has drawn clear lines on where the public stands on these issues. As an example, new anticipated Speaker of the House, Republican blowhard John Boehner, comes out today with the statement that Obama’s health care reform is a “monstrosity.” He plans to repeal it.

In an October poll, 42 percent of Americans expressed a favorable view of the plan; 44 percent against.

It would appear the practice of offing anything President Obama does will continue. Since the GOP is held in lower esteem that the Democrats in another recent poll, Boehner and his conservative cronies should watch their step.

Midterm political distortions of the facts - Part 2

2010-11-03T10:30:00.003-07:00

More from FactCheck.org as compiled by Newsweek.

Taxes – Republicans said Democrats are going to assess a “huge” tax increase on the “typical family” or small-business owners. Pathetic Palin calls it the largest in U.S. history. In fact, the Dems would let some of the 2001 and 2003 tax cut expire—those for the rich—and only 3 percent of small business would show an increase.

The Stimulus – The GOP widely claims the economic stimulus has failed to create jobs. In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the stimulus added or retained from1.4 million to 3.3 million people on payrolls.

Outside Group Contributions – These groups are funded by undisclosed sources, including corporations, primarily attacking Democrats. The ads, thanks to a business-prone Supreme Court, are often misleading, some of which are covered in the Newsweek article.

And the king of GOP misinformation, Karl Rove, is a part of one of the largest of these purveyors of trash falsely that claimed labor unions weren’t disclosing the millions they were spending. The truth is, the money comes from dues and most everyone knows it. Indicating business as usual no matter the outcome of the election.

Read more here.

Midterm political distortions of the facts

2010-11-03T08:00:00.003-07:00

How wrong can you be?

If you haven’t visited FactCheck.org, you should, if only to experience the wide array of subjects covered on this site. Their 2010 FactCheck Awards were published today and the political ads they cover are a cross between the bizarre and the ridiculous. From the use of dog excrement to make a point, to the Alabama Tea Party hillbilly candidate that clearly doesn’t know his Tea Party history. They are worth an after-election laugh or two.

At the same time, Newsweek did an excellent article on midterm “misstatements” that is a must-read. One of their quotes is that, due to undisclosed, unaccountable sources of campaign financing from corporations, “…the amount of deceit in political advertising is at least as high as we’ve ever seen.”

Health Care – Misrepresentations by Republicans on this issue have been common throughout the campaign with false claims like: Medicare patients would lose their doctors, or that the Dems favored giving Viagra to sex offenders, or Seniors would lose some of their benefits.

Social Security – Democrats in certain states claim that Republicans want to abolish or “privatize” Social Security. Mostly a serious overstatement since what the GOP has really said was to allow younger workers to invest a portion of their payroll tax in the stock market.

Read the Newsweek article here.

More to come.

2010-11-02T13:01:00.006-07:00

VOTE TODAY!

Where do I vote?

Is today’s election a repeat of the Truman/Dewey fiasco of 1948? Part 3

2010-11-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

Truman was able to take advantage of a Dewey gaffe in Illinois, when the train he was speaking from the back of started backing up. Although no one was injured, Dewey said the engineer “should probably be shot at sunrise…” Truman’s retort, “He doesn’t mention that under that great engineer, Hoover, we backed up into the worst depression in history.” Things like this, plus the connections made in his 31,000 mile train trip, helped him gain the following of the people.

A milestone in the 1948 election was the first-ever televised Republican Convention. This exposed the pollsters to a national, even international, audience of viewers who were eager and gullible for the numbers. The Truman upset prompted organizations like Gallup, Roper and others to search for what went wrong. The media had relied almost entirely on the polls which turned out to be their downfall. The legend of “Give ‘Em Hell Harry!” was born.

Read more here.

GIVE ‘EM HELL DEMOCRATS!

Is today’s election a repeat of the Truman/Dewey fiasco of 1948? Part 2

2010-11-02T10:00:00.002-07:00

In the 1948 election, The New York Times also made the statement: “The Democratic Party might as well immediately concede the election to Dewey and save the wear and tear of campaigning.” At the time, a Gallup poll reported that Truman had only a 36 percent support of the people. It seems the nation was frustrated with taxes and the rising cost of living. The Republican prospects seemed excellent.

Another setback for Democrats in the 1948 election was the emergence of the Progressive Party which really appealed to liberals. They were critical of Truman for not doing enough on his domestic agenda, and didn’t like him standing up to the Soviet Union. Thomas E. Dewey, smelling victory, proceeded with a subdued campaign. Truman, assuming he had nothing to lose, embarked on a 31,000-mile train trip across the U.S.

Is today’s election a repeat of the Truman/Dewey fiasco of 1948?

2010-11-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

In November of 1948, The New York Times emblazoned the headline: “Thomas E. Dewey’s Election as President is a Foregone Conclusion.” On November 1, 2010, Newsweek gives Democratic candidates a manual to know when to fold ‘em. If this looks like a reasonable similarity, there is more. President Harry Truman, at the time, was running his campaign against the Eightieth Congress, rather than Dewey.

Truman had also proposed a very unpopular bill—even with his own party—that would guarantee the rights of Blacks. This caused a clash in the Democratic Party resulting in a split that led to the forming of the Dixiecrats. During the convention, all Mississippi delegates, half of Alabama, for a total 35 walked out. They in turn ran their own candidate, South Carolina Senator, Strom Thurmond, for President.

The odds against Truman could not have been worse.

Read more here.

More to come.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 9

2010-11-01T12:01:00.011-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Photo by John Thompson

President Obama would say…GO VOTE TOMORROW. Sure, he hopes you will vote for Democrats, but so does The Dunning Letter, and lots of others who are scared to death of returning to the George W. Bush policies of before plus other fanatics like Tea Party candidates. But you must vote, because if you don’t, you do not have the right to complain when the conservative Republicans drag us back into the same ditch we are just now beginning to emerge from.

So put all of your concerns over the state of the nation today on hold just long enough to GO OUT AND VOTE tomorrow for the state of the nation you want in the next two to six years.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 8

2010-11-01T10:30:00.013-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Photo by Jurvetson

Israeli Relations - President Obama renewed loan guarantees for Israel.

Infrastructure rebuilding – Increased infrastructure spending on roads, bridges, power plants; former Bush administration first since Herbert Hoover to make this a priority.

Wall Street Reform Bill – Obama signed the historic Wall Street reform bill to regulate the industry and provide consumer protections.

Environment – Ended Bush-era policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions.

Travel – Signed order to limit delays on airport tarmacs including the time passengers must sit in the planes during those delays.

Comments are welcome.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 7

2010-11-01T08:00:00.008-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Medicare Drugs – Ended a prior practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for reducing the price of drugs.
Military Personnel – Increased the benefits of military personnel, improved their housing, and established new policy promoting the hiring of military spouses.
Cyber Security – Established a new cyber security office.

Photo by Half-Blood Prince

Iraq/Afghanistan Wars – Ended Bush-era policy of keeping soldiers fighting in the wars longer than their enlistment dates.

Defense Spending – Ended Bush-era policy of awarding “no-bid” contracts.

Comments are welcome.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 6

2010-10-31T10:00:00.001-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Credit Card Companies – President Obama ended Bush policies of protecting credit card companies, and replaced this with new consumer protections, banning industry predatory practices.
Unemployment Benefits – In 2009, he extended unemployment benefits for 1 million people.

Home Ownership – Extended the Home Buyers Credit for first-time home buyers in 2009.

Federal Budget – Overturned Bush and Reagan practice of not listing select federal programs in the federal budget to make the budget look smaller.

Healthcare Reform – Signed the historic healthcare reform bill that was met with mixed feelings, but considered by experts to be a giant first step in reforming the healthcare industry.

Comments are welcome.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 5

2010-10-30T10:00:00.006-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Bush Cover Ups – Halted the Bush administration practice of rewriting scientific and environment regulations and reports to agree with GWB’s policies.

Border Security – Signed legislation for southwest border security, increasing finds for agents on the Mexican border.

Iraq War – Began the phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Fallen U.S. Soldiers – Ended Bush imposed “blackout” on media of the coverage of returned fallen soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cuba Policy – Put in place a new policy to allow Cuban families to return home to visit their families.

Comments are welcome.

Drug makers desert public over profits - Part 2

2010-10-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest problems when pharmaceutical companies abandon certain drugs is the “scrambling” necessary to take care of patients. Dr. Richard Schilsky, professor of medicine and chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago said, “We literally don’t know from week to week who’s going to be able to be treated.” Erin Fox, manager of the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah Health Care says it is a daily disaster.

The Institute of Safe Medicine Practices surveyed 1,800 health care workers this past summer that confirm it is a “mess” out there. More than hald indicated that in the past year they either “always” or “frequently” been confronted with shortages of common drugs. Two deaths resulted from a morphine shortage. Another patient woke up in the middle of surgery because they were under-sedated.

Read more here.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 4

2010-10-29T10:30:00.002-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Stem-Cell Research – President Obama removed restrictions on and provided federal support for embryonic stem-cell research, paving the way to potential discoveries for serious, even fatal medical conditions.
SCHIP Expansion – Expanded State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover health care for 4 million more children.
Offshore Tax Havens – Closed offshore tax havens and negotiated with Swiss banks for U.S. government access to records of tax evaders.
Corporate Offshore Tax Benefits – Ended the policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who move jobs overseas, which became popular in the Bush administration.

TARP – The Troubled Asset Relief Program is another mixed report card. Although started in the Bush administration, Obama has taken most of the heat for this issue. Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak said however sick it made him, it had to be done. John McCain and Mitch McConnell voted for it. The program’s Special Inspector General says TARP worked, in connection with other government programs. Republican Senator Judd Gregg, NH, agrees.

Comments are welcome.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 3

2010-10-29T08:00:00.010-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Health Care – President Obama appropriated $19 billion in stimulus money to implement an electronic medical records system that could help save lives in emergencies.

Nobel Peace Prize – The President was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, and donated the award money to charity.

Tobacco Regulation – Authorized the Federal Drug Administration to begin regulating tobacco.

Energy and Environment – Proposed multiple energy saving and energy producing measures that were killed by a Republican Senate.

Gay Rights – signed the first major federal gay rights legislation which placed violence against gays in the list of federal hate crimes.

Comments are welcome.

Drug makers desert public over profits

2010-10-28T13:00:00.001-07:00

In an investigation by MSNBC, they found that drug shortages—even in critical areas like treating cancer—are posing a “growing public health crisis.” And it’s because the drug companies aren’t making them due to loss of profits from generics. Drug makers contacted would not respond to MSNBC. We’re talking about emergency care items like sterile injectables used for saving lives in allergic reactions and heart attacks.

Valerie Jensen, associate director of the Food and Drug Administration says underlying all the shortages is the “profitability problem.” Since the FDA can’t require production of the needed drugs, there is no one to compel drug makers to do what is right. The companies aren’t even required to notify the FDA there is a shortage, unless there is no alternative. Even if they don’t, there are no sanctions.

Read more here.

More on this later.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers – Part 2

2010-10-28T10:30:00.002-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

Auto Industry Rescue – Obama saved the automobile industry from impending disaster. All major car companies are on the way to recovery, and have paid back much of the money loaned them.
American Cities – Obama has focused more attention on helping cities than any president before him, even creating an office of Urban Policy. He has taken action again gang warfare by proving assistance through the Recovery Act.

Muslim Relations – Although controversial, the President has reached out to the Islamic community for help and guidance in stopping terrorist activities.

Supreme Court – Obama appointed the first Hispanic, also a female, and yet another female to the Supreme Court in his first two years.

Women’s’ Rights – The first bill Obama signed was the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” which defines equal pay in the marketplace.

Comments are welcome.

Tired of Obama bashing? Here are answers for the hate-mongers

2010-10-28T08:00:00.004-07:00

This is a special post on Obama Bashing from The Dunning Letter and will appear daily until the November 2 elections

This is the first post in answer to all those sad, miss-informed individuals out there who seem to have taken on the position of hate-merchants against President Barack Obama. The question is, when you hear the truth, will you really check my facts and adjust your thinking, or continue with the same blinders you’ve been wearing since January of 2009?

Government transparency – Obama ordered respect for the Freedom of Information Act, overturning former Bush administration limits on accessibility. Has displayed an openness in administration that is 180 degrees out from GWB.
White House Salaries – Limited senior aides to $100,000.
Guantanamo Bay – Ordered its closing and abolished Bush/Cheney “enhanced” interrogation tactics.
Itaq War – Set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops.

Stimulus Package – Mixed bag but business is hiring and unemployment dropped to 9.5% from 9.7% in January 2010. Many state and local governments owe their survival to the stimulus program.

Comments are welcome.

How about Palin for President in 2012 with O’Donnell as her running mate?

2010-10-27T13:00:00.007-07:00

Now I am not a chauvinist, which my wife will readily attest to. I have been for womens’ rights all my adult life, and I felt Hillary Clinton should have been nominated by her party to run for president in 2008, with Obama her running mate. And now we are looking at another potential match up in 2012 that could include a woman, or perhaps two. Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell to steer this country right into obscurity.

Why not? Palin can keep her eye on Russia, and O’Donnell can debate the Constitution. Either can out-dumb the other, unless Palin has decided to brush up on what’s going on by reading a newspaper or occasionally consulting news on the Internet. Taxpayers would probably even be willing to pay for a special room in the White House which the two of them can hold regular tea parties.

Poor, out-of-touch Senator John McCain said it wasn’t yet time to endorse Sarah Palin for 2012. I disagree and, as a staunch progressive pledge my full support for a Palin/O’Donnell ticket to run against President Obama in two years.

See Sarah Palin gaffes here.

See Christine O’Donnell gaffes here.

Things don’t look good for progressives, but could they get better?

2010-10-27T10:30:00.005-07:00

Photo by Mirimcfly

Not according to the Cook Political Report. As of today, Cook is predicting a wave next week that has “crested” around 8 Senate seats and 52 House seats in contention for the Democrats to worry about. A huge loss by the Dems has subsided in the last month, but the report doesn’t look for many gains by the left. With Independents clearly turning to the right, there’s little left they can do but hope for a miracle.

If President Obama had listened to the next Chicago mayor, his party might well have been flying high by now. Rahm Emanuel wanted to cut a deal on health care and get busy on the economy. Obama said no. This might well have earned him some points with the GOP to at least start immigration reform, and quell the “Don’t ask don’t tell” mess. In both cases, he may have lost a huge block of voters.

GOP goes un-American to win in Nevada

2010-10-27T08:00:00.001-07:00

When you tell a group not to vote in order to win an election, you have stooped to the lowest level when it comes to American ideals. A sixty-second ad run by an organization called Latinos for Reform (you can see below on You Tube) is running in Nevada to help elect Tea Party candidate, Sharron Angle, and defeat Democrat Harry Reid. It says: "Don't vote this November. This is the only way to send [Democrats] a clear message…”

Despicable, but typical of what we have come to expect from tea partiers.

The Nevada Latin Chamber of Commerce has condemned the ad, and the Nevada Democratic Party states that Latinos for Reform is operating to elect Sharron Angle. Its president was director of Hispanic affairs for the Republican National Committee in the past, which could indicate his intentions are not necessarily in the best interest of Hispanics. In other words, Karl Rove business as usual.

Read more here.

Facebook’s latest privacy faux pas…if you care

2010-10-26T13:00:00.001-07:00

Photo by Daveynin

Helen A.S. Popkin on MSNBC, who follows the social media stuff, says apps like Facebook’s Farmville have shared “tens of millions” of that site’s app users’ personal information. What is most important is the fact that one of the item’s released, the “Facebook ID” number assigned to a user, can be used to look up all of your personal information, even if you made this private.

You can see a CBS News report from You Tube here.

Even Facebook users that don’t use applications are still in jeopardy because your private data can be accessed through your friends who do use the apps. This isn’t the first time Facebook has been in the news for privacy breaches, and it would seem that its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, may be a genius when it comes to giving out your information, but a complete dope when it comes to protecting it.

See these tips “How to Protect Your Facebook Info” from Popkin.

Read more here.

Remington an example why gun control advocates don’t trust the industry

2010-10-26T10:30:00.002-07:00

They could have fixed it for 5.5 cents per rifle years ago, but decided against a modification of the Remington Model 700-series rifle that could have saved lives. A CNBC investigation has uncovered that the company has had “concerns” over this gun’s safety for 60 years but did nothing. That should give hunters that use the rifle a real warm feeling, but they can thank the organization they probably belong to known as the National Rifle Assn. (NRA).

Photo by Generaal Gibson

Remington’s strategy in court is to convince a judge, who is probably afraid of the NRA members sitting in the front row that the “inexperienced Users” are at fault. You have to be real dumb if you have encountered the miss-fire, know you didn’t accidentally pull the trigger, and still support Remington and the NRA on this issue. It’s said the recall campaign could cost up to $300 million, which is more that the entire net worth of Remington.

I say put them out of business.

Read more here.

Identity theft still around and still worth your concern

2010-10-26T08:00:00.002-07:00

Jeff Blyskal, senior editor for Consumer Reports, says people are afraid of identity theft because it’s “hyped up” by companies selling ID theft protection products. That’s the reason millions have signed up for the services, and at once feel completely secure.

Not so, says Jay Foley of Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). You could still be vulnerable on banking transactions, illegal use of your driver’s license, and what kind of fraud is going on with your credit cards in the worldwide Internet underground.

The video below is an excellent explanation and WARNING on identity theft from ITRC.

Foley says some of these companies offer “whole life monitoring,” which also checks public records that often can detect identity threats. One of the companies he likes is Identity Guard, which I agree with based on my experience with them.

For all questions on how to protect yourself, visit ITRC’s “Prevention Tips.”

Read more here.

Why Islamic law outrages Americans

2010-10-25T13:00:00.001-07:00

According to the Federal Supreme Court of the United Arab Emirates, it is OK to beat your wife and children. Just don’t leave any marks. So says the strict Islamic law in a land where there is actually a large foreign population. The court ruled in a case where a husband beat his wife and daughter, leaving both with physical evidence of the beating.

Although the husband is admonished for only the appearance of abuse, the law clearly flies in the face of a civilized society. In the video below, a religious Cleric actually tells an interviewer that these beatings honor the woman.

If you are interested, based on a site, The American Muslim (TAM), violence is not accepted in their interpretation of Islam. It says: “Marriage in the Islamic context is a means of tranquility, protection, peace and comfort.” Perhaps why they left the middle-east.

Read more here.

Is your child a bully or is he or she being bullied? Do you really know?

2010-10-25T10:30:00.001-07:00

Now is the time to find out. A new report from Clemson University says 1 in 6 kids is bullied; 35 percent of older kids say they would do it. The research covered 524,054 students at 1,593 schools across the country including grades three through twelve. Anonymously, 17 percent said they are being bullied with almost half of boys and girls saying it has been going on for over a year.

Two recent cases of suicide due to bullying are 18-year-old gay student Tyler Clementi of Rutgers University, and 15-year-old Phoebe Prince from a Massachusetts high school. Kids say they don’t believe there are provisions made to protect them. A likely fear since much of the bullying occurs in classrooms in front of teachers.

The time has come for all parents to sit down with their children and determine if they are involved in bullying, whether giving or receiving. It could save your kids life.

Read more here.

Watch a You Tube video here of Ellen DeGeneres, gay talk show host, begging for help to stop bullying.

Finally…evidence of the Hispanic vote next month

2010-10-25T08:00:00.002-07:00

Much of Nevada is glitz, gambling and entertainment centered around the cities of Las Vegas, Reno and Laughlin. It takes hundreds of people to support the gaming industry like jobs in cooking, making beds and restaurant and bar services. Hispanic labor leader Geoconda Arguello-Kline says her group “feels powerful,” which would indicate they are planning to vote.

Nevada’s Latino voters number 224,000 and turned out 3 to 1 for President Obama in 2008. Senate leader Harry Reid is hoping for the same November 2. Representing 9 percent of the electorate nationwide, Hispanics still support Democrats 2 to 1. But the figures indicate only 51% will vote next month. Not if Arguello-Kline has anything to do with it.

Get out and vote!

Read more here.

QUESTION TO ALL VOTERS: Do you really want to return to the George Bush/GOP failed policies?

2010-10-22T13:30:00.001-07:00

President Obama said it: “The worst thing we could do is go back to a philosophy that nearly destroyed our economy.” Surely an enlightened public will grasp the fact before November 2, that by letting the Republicans take over Congress we are destined to dig the hole of economic devastation much deeper. Not to mention the loss of a number of our consumer rights to big business.

Even though Nancy Pelosi may not be the answer, do you really want Tea Party connected John Boehner running the House? Considering Tea Party candidates Christine O’Donnell of Delaware, Sharron Angle of Nevada, and especially Rand Paul of Indiana, do you want anyone from this disjointed and racist group in office? That could be even worse than the Bush days.

Think about it but vote on November 2.

Read more on this here.

Who said there is no enthusiasm to get out the Democratic vote?

2010-10-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

URGENT REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE!

Photo by MacroMondays

I have been contacted recently with a series of emails from Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive political blog, Daily Kos. Considering his site receives hundreds of thousands of visitors on a daily basis, it would seem the enthusiasm for getting out the Democratic vote is very much underestimated.

But Moulitsas is serious, and he wants us progressives to also get serious about the election in less than two weeks. If you want to help, go to CallOuttheVote.com to do telephone work from your home. It will give you a chance to get a feel for the political process, and help the cause at the same time.

Be sure to vote!

Obama now fears losing the female vote?

2010-10-22T08:00:00.001-07:00

First it was the gay vote. Then it was the Blacks. After that came Hispanics. Now, it’s females the President is afraid of losing to the GOP. There’s nothing left but white males, and they never have been in his camp. In Seattle, he did tell the ladies he thought his policies had helped them.

With the statement “If everybody that voted in 2008 shows up in 2010 we will win this election,” Obama would pretty much have to be of the opinion that he has not fully lost the above groups. One of the issues he is emphasizing is abortion, and how a Republican takeover of Congress could eliminate the progress the feminist movement has made in this controversy.

Read more here.

Is the Tea Party racist? Just ask J.T. Ready

2010-10-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

The NAACP just released a report saying that Tea Party events have become a forum for extremists. It found that organizations like the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) which opposes all efforts to “mix the races of mankind,” and white nationalist Web site Stormfront.org have become involved in Tea Party chapters. Gordon Baum of the CCC states the southern chapters are “very active” in preserving their culture.

But the most blatant evidence of racism in the Tea Party with overtones of Nazism thrown in was the party’s invitation for J.T. Ready, admitted racist and neo-Nazi from Mesa, Arizona, to speak at the Phoenix Tea Party in 2009. It was a “hate-Obama” rally that took place at the state Capitol on July 4.

The Tea Party has found the ultimate way to celebrate this country’s independence.

Read more here and here.

The epitome of…not the American dream

2010-10-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

You are probably better off by just remaining jobless and staying on unemployment benefits.

A lesson we were supposed to have learned from the Great Depression was that the U.S. government is strong enough, and smart enough, to be able to care for all of its citizens. A combination of business and government is supposed to provide the proper environment for all those who want to work to have a job. Somehow the lesson and the dream have shattered in the last twelve years to the extent that, all of a sudden, you’re better off on welfare.

The fact that folks quit looking for a job because they can earn more collecting unemployment benefits should trouble all Americans, no matter how secure you are in your particular circumstances. We have an election coming that has pitted two political parties against each other using tactics that are both demeaning to the tradition of this country and an insult to their constituents. Their only concern is reelection.

Having said it before, I say it again: is it time to consider a social democracy?

Read more here on joblessness.

Read my series on social democracy here.

Doctors influenced to recommend certain drugs after receiving pharmaceutical company gifts

2010-10-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

A recent investigation by ProPublica, Consumer Reports magazine and NPR radio found that from only seven drug firms that were questioned, 17,000 doctors and health care providers had taken money from these companies. They included AstraZeneca, Cephaton, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Merck and Pfizer. Over 380 walked away with over $100,000, and it’s all legal, most of the time not improper.

Dr. John Santa, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center commented, "The amount of money involved is astounding, and the ProPublica report's account of the background of some of the physicians is disturbing." ProPublica also found in state medical board disciplinary records that 250 doctors paid to speak had been sanctioned for inappropriate activities, some had even lost hospital privileges or were convicted of a crime.

See You Tube video on the subject, following.

Must reading on this subject here, here and here.

Arizona State Senator starts new racist campaign

2010-10-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

State Senator Russell Pearce from Arizona, who authored SB1070, the state’s new immigration law, is at it again, but now Hispanic children are his target. Pearce is known for his association with J.T. Ready an admitted racist and neo-Nazi, and now he wants to change the 14th Amendment that automatically grants citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. He is joined by lawmakers in 14 other states.

You can see the Pearce/Ready camraderie in the You Tube video, below.

The 14th Amendment interpretation dates back to 1898, and maybe there is some need for revisiting it for the sake of a more modern understanding. But Russell Pearce is not the right individual for the task with his excess baggage of Latino hate. Now Pearce has said he wants to take this all the way to the Supreme Court. Most legal minds have said his legislation will only waste more money for the state of Arizona and elsewhere.

Read more here.

Researcher says cell phones could upend current political polls

2010-10-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Pew Research Center says there is a bias for Republicans between polls using cell phones and those that don’t. The latter use land-lines and traditionally vote for the GOP, where cell phone users tend to be younger, Hispanic, Black and vote Democratic. Four out of five polls use only land-lines. In a most recent land-line poll, there was a difference of 12 points favoring Republicans. When cell phones only were used, that edge was reduced to only 7. Significant.

If it takes one pollster to figure out that others are doing it wrong, the industry would seem to have a problem. It is a well known fact that some un-thinking folks rely entirely on polls to make their voting decision, so be fore-warned and research those candidates before voting.

But be sure and vote.

Read more here.

Caveman parenting for screaming brats

2010-10-20T08:00:00.003-07:00

A new study by the University of Notre Dame says that plenty of snuggles and cuddles and hugs will make Junior grow up to be a well adjusted child who is considerate of others. Like the caveman used to do it. The study’s main focus was on a problem that exists in schools today of terrorizing ones peers through bullying. Apparently the Stone Age parents had the right idea to teach their kids how to “navigate the world."

This said, I want to focus on the little “screamers” who apparently have received little more from their parents than undying approval to act in any way they want in public. And become one of the biggest annoyances in super markets, department stores, even Starbucks. These little urchins run wild, screaming and antagonizing everyone around them, while their idiot parents look on in a fawning manner.

Kids like this should be born at least age 18, or kept underground until they are.

A must read here.

Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff using alarmist tactics that don’t ring true

2010-10-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer used the state’s new Immigration Law, SB1070, to increase her support with unmindful Arizonans for the November election. But Paul Babeau, Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona has resorted to the alarmist approach on his way to outclass Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, when it comes to publicity.

Babeau says that Mexican drug cartels are “conquering” parts of the United States. Law enforcement says not true. Santa Cruz, County Sheriff Tony Estrada, a 40 year veteran, wouldn’t say Babeau is lying, but he did say he hasn’t “…seen the drug cartels controlling American territory.” News Hounds says that Barbeau is Fox News “frontline warrior against 'illegals' and drug smugglers” with a heavy dose of anti-Obama talk thrown in to the mix of border hysteria.”

In reality, Border Patrol arrests are down 17 percent in 2010 for the fifth straight year. When are Arizonans and the rest of the country going to figure out that they have been duped by this racial conspiracy?

Read more here, here and here.

Napolitano would reform border enforcement. Where are the President and Congress?

2010-10-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano feels that the key to controlling border crossings is to heavily regulate businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Cut off their job supply and eliminate the reason for them to enter the U.S. Napolitano would do this by strengthening enforcement tools such as raising the penalties against employers who know the workers are illegal.

Many who are opposed to immigration reform want strict guidelines that allow the immigrant population to work in the U.S., and eventually attain American citizenship. There is nothing wrong with asking this group to do the same that immigrants from European countries have done for years. What everyone must understand, however, is that this country could not continue to prosper without the Latino immigrant workers in the fields. That is a fact.

Read more here.

Even religion can be a victim of the economy

2010-10-19T10:30:00.011-07:00

The Crystal Cathedral Ministries in Garden Grove, California has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This is Robert H. Schuller’s dream that started from a drive-in theatre in 1955, moving in 1961 to a sanctuary designed by the architect, Richard Neutra. I attended services in the late 1950s at the drive-in because the assistant pastor lived across the street from me in Huntington Beach and said they were desperate to add new members.

The Cathedral has been a tourist attraction for years, but has recently become the victim of the economy and a decrease in donations. The elder Schuller retired in 2006 and placed his son, Robert A. in charge, but later removed him from one of the church’s main sources of income, the Hour of Power TV program.

The Crystal Cathedral is a magnificent monument to the founder’s philosophy that everyone should have a place to worship, even in a t-shirt and shorts, which many donned when it was a drive-in. I did.

Read more here.

Phoenix Suns owner, Robert Sarver gets “Year in Sanity” award

2010-10-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

Salon.com has recognized Robert Sarver, a banker and entrepreneur in addition to owning the Phoenix Suns basketball team, for his “sanity” in condemning Arizona’s new Immigration Law, SB1070. Sarver commented that it interfered with “…basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law…” The “Year in Sanity” award came after the team donned jerseys saying “Los Suns” to honor the Latino community in game 2 of the recent playoffs.

Sarver affirms that federal immigration laws have failed, but you don’t replace one bad law with another bad law. He states that SB1070 is “flawed.” Most of the country knows this by now, since Federal Judge Bolton struck down the substance of the bill, and an appeal by Arizona’s Governor, Jan Brewer, was denied. Brewer has still been able to ride the momentum of SB1070 with out of touch Arizonans to November’s ballot.

Read more here.

Read more about Jan Brewer here.

Will Starbucks wine and beer mix with guns?

2010-10-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Eventually it all has to get down to booze, and Starbucks is testing the serving of wine and beer in its Seattle Capitol Hill store. They already allow customers to bring their guns to locations in all “open-carry” states, which Washington is. The mixture of beer and gun bubbas should prove to be another interesting experiment.

For the life of me I cannot understand why these gun fanatics feel they have to parade around with their guns strapped on. Is it just to prove they are a real man or woman?

Gun violence has occurred in open-carry bars, and some gun control advocates think it is just a matter of time until it gets worse. A reason for this is the general feeling, portrayed daily by organizations like the National Rifle Assn., that gun owners should be allowed such unlimited freedom with their handguns.

Here are two instances of gun violence in bars, one resulting in death. First, Euclid, Ohio, then Manchester, New Hampshire.

Read more here.

California not exactly Palin country

2010-10-18T12:01:00.002-07:00

It’s hard to imagine how any educated and cultural area outside of the hick town where Sarah Palin was mayor would be Palin country. I imagine even Wasilla residents are having second thoughts. She drew only 2,000 recently at a Republican stronghold in Orange County, California; a number that should have been 10 times that based on the number of conservatives. I know. I used to live there.

But the Sunshine state in general is too smart to let this harlequin impress those individuals who can think for themselves, which apparently eliminates the 2,000 who came to see her talk. Yes, I said harlequin, or buffoon if you will, and if you don’t agree, just take a look at the Palin You Tube video below. A recent poll says 58 percent of California’s registered voters don’t care for Palin. The other 48 percent either never watch the news or are from Wasilla, Alaska.

Read more here.

It’s the outsourcing stupid

2010-10-18T10:30:00.002-07:00

President Obama says to end tax breaks that reward the moving of jobs overseas, commonly called outsourcing. But even some of his own Democrats failed to support his bill that would eliminate some tax credits for operations abroad. And the Dems wonder why labor has deserted them. One of the President’s most recent messages to voters is that these tax dollars should be used for jobs in the U.S. Isn’t that what the unemployed want?

Obama goes on to stress the importance of putting our money where our workers are, and that means spending it with American businesses that are struggling in this economy. In a September ABC News report, it said when companies do start hiring again, it will be education and specialized skills that land the jobs. The rest are left to wallow in low paying jobs or just stay unemployed.

But even many of those will be sent out of the country just to keep big business happy.

Read more here and here.

Nevada on the fringe of lunacy with Sharon Angle

2010-10-18T08:00:00.022-07:00

I do not live in Nevada. I am not a Democrat. But Harry Reid must defeat Tea Party candidate Sharon Angle if Nevada is to continue as a civilized state. Angle’s latest TV ad attacks Reid for his support of the DREAM ACT, rivaling the 1988 “Willie Horton” ad in its despicability. Then she heads over to a Las Vegas school to defend the ad to Hispanics. The ad shows three “illegal immigrants” trying to cross the border. (SEE BELOW)

The same three “illegal immigrants” were used in an ad by the Louisiana Governor, indicating they must be crossing several borders at once. Tibi Ellis, Chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Hispanic Caucus who also used to work for Angle, has condemned the ad calling it “propaganda.” It’s this kind of racist politics that has turned off most of the American voting public, but apparently not the Tea Party.

Read more here, here and here.

Potential Tea Party victories should send chills up the spines of voters with sound minds – Part 2

2010-10-15T14:00:00.001-07:00

The Tea Party rage has been described as a protest vote of angry citizens that will go with anyone but with the Washington regulars. As the old saying goes, they want to throw out the baby with the dirty bath water. The New York Times article dubs this “…stubbornness of voter anger toward the establishment…” and I call it simply stupid and lazy. Stupid in their inability to evaluate individual candidates, and too lazy to honestly analyze the issues.

This label rings true when you consider the primary elections of Christine O’Donnell from Delaware, and Joe Walsh in Chicago. Other candidates are charged with far-reaching financial troubles, domestic altercations and other problems. Although there is no official platform, the Tea Party promises strict interpretation of the Constitution.

As an example, this line of reasoning brought the Ohio candidate for the Tea Party to the conclusion you could eliminate the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, plus others to achieve a “pure government.”

Pathetic!

Potential Tea Party victories should send chills up the spines of voters with sound minds

2010-10-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Photo by Gemsling

After Republican fears that this lunatic fringe could scuttle their plans to take over Congress in the mid-terms, The New York Times reports that some Tea Party candidates are strong enough to create a caucus large enough to support their agenda. That would be to repeal health care reform, financial regulation, and replace Social Security and Medicare with personal savings accounts.

With 33 of their candidates in House tossup races, and 8 with good chances at Senate seats, this is a call to arms for all progressives that need to get out and vote to prevent this cataclysm. Since African-Americans and Hispanics would be hardest hit by a Tea Party style government—which, by the way, has no official platform—they should think twice about staying home on Election Day. States with the highest concentration of Tea Party candidates are South Carolina, Massachusetts, and Arizona.

Get out the vote!

More on this later.

The homeowner did it…so says Wall Street

2010-10-15T10:00:00.001-07:00

Wall Street is attempting to relieve the banks of the responsibility that they first lured, and then sold homebuyers crappy mortgages. It’s not their fault, says the Street. It’s the homeowner’s fault. This “out of touch,” “still don’t get it” group has become even more pathetic in recent months, while trying to get the financial downturn they caused behind them.

Well, it won’t happen, and no matter how many times this arrogant bunch of bozos cries wolf, it will always be known that they caused the worst financial decline in history since the Great Depression. In California, not only have thousands of homeowners reported on questionable mortgage practices, but even thousands more said that bank incompetence was responsible for them not getting loan modifications.

What happened to investigations that really investigate? What we need is another Kefauver.

Read more here.

Two earlier posts on foreclosure here and here.

Pornography lucrative but dangerous…for all of us

2010-10-15T08:00:00.001-07:00

According to the latest figures I could come up with, pornography is a $57 billion industry worldwide, $12 billion in the U.S. There are 4.2 million porno websites, and daily online searches for porn represent 25 percent of the total. Every second, 28,258 Internet users are looking at it, with the average age of first exposure to it 11 years old. 47 percent of Christians say pornography is a major problem at home.

But they all may have to wait while two California companies, Vivid Entertainment Group and Wicked Pictures complete HIV tests after an actor tested positive for HIV. Actually, Vivid said it had more than adequate stock on hand of new releases. One troubling fact to come out was that a San Fernando Valley, California clinic has refused to release data to Cal/Osha.

In his new book, Captured by a Better Vision: Living Porn-Free, Tim Chester describes the spread of pornography as an epidemic.

Read more here.

See pornography stats here and here.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce solicits foreign funds to support Republican candidates

2010-10-14T14:00:00.002-07:00

In this election season, the Chamber pledged to spend an “unprecedented” $75 million to defeat Democratic candidates, according to the Center For Media and Democracy. And some of it is coming from countries like Bahrain, India, Egypt, Abu Dhabi, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China, as well as other countries. The money is used to fund political attack ads against Democrats through their 501(c)(6) non-profit status.

The money is funneled to the U.S. Chamber through a network of organizations in the foreign countries, above, where it is used at the organization’s discretion. It is also interesting that the Chamber successfully lobbied to kill campaign financing reforms that would have established some transparency in this mid-term political fiasco.

Read more here.

Read earlier post on anonymous donors here.

Wanna know where all that secret money goes?

2010-10-14T12:30:00.001-07:00

To the GOP, of course, eventually, but it funnels through seven non-profit 501(c) organizations that do the collecting. The New York Times calls these groups a “regulatory netherworld” because neither the IRS nor the Federal Election Commission is keeping a close watch. Thanks to a conservative Supreme Court, it’s politics as usual, completely out of hand. Here are the culprits and how much they are spending.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: about $5 million. Primarily supports Republican candidates. The 60-Plus Association: about $4.7 million. Its chairman is against taxes and backs the Tea Party. Americans for Job Security: nearly $3.8 million. Usually leans Republican when it spends. American Future Fund: about $3.6 million. Has supported Republicans exclusively.

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies: about $2.9 million. A Karl Rove group. Revere America: about $1 million. Former New York Republican Governor George Pataki chairs group. American Action Network: about $550,000. Will support Republican congressional candidates.

Back room politics at its best.

Read more here.

The Supreme Court’s anonymous corporate donor mess

2010-10-14T10:30:00.002-07:00

Since the Supreme Court made it legal this year for corporations to make anonymous unlimited donations to political candidates, you may never know who is donating to whom. But the giving could be unearthed in shareholder reports or other leaks, so some companies are already shying away from this method. Reporters caught 3M, Best Buy and Target in the act, but Dell, Colgate-Palmolive and Microsoft have decided against any corporate donations.

This is all the result of a conservative Court that could be paired down in the not to distant future to a more moderate body. Obviously, Republicans are the ones receiving the lion’s share of the money, which would certainly bend SCOTUS in the direction of big business. New York City advocate, Bill de Blasio, estimates that $80 million has already been spent by groups with anonymous donors, with even more expected in the final days before mid-terms.

Anonymous comments on this blog make sense, but when you are dealing with millions of dollars to influence politicians—and that is what it is—we should draw the line.

Read more here.

Did a “robo-signer force you out of your foreclosed home?

2010-10-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

The state attorneys general are getting in the foreclosure mess and from the looks of it all, things could get messy. In the fourth year of a housing crisis caused at least partially by lax mortgage industry dealings, now the states are looking for a fall guy. Banks repossessed almost 3 million homes from Jan. 2007 to Aug. 2010, and will take a record 1.2 million this year.

At least part of the problem is the use of robo-signers, who may handle hundreds of documents a day. Some, working out of attorney’s offices, are alleged to have used inaccurate or incomplete information. Supposedly, they didn’t review all the information necessary to make the foreclosure decision. All this at a time when banks are still remembered for causing the recent financial crisis.

And the Republicans claim we have too much regulation.

Read more here and here.

Once again, the United Kingdom shows the way

2010-10-13T14:00:00.004-07:00

We may be 215 years away from British rule, but they are still teaching us the ropes when it comes to running a country. Ruth Marcus, in a Washington Post editorial, illustrates how UK conservatives make those in the U.S. look like incompetent clowns, which most of those in Congress are. She provides us five points where the Tories show our congressional leaders how to get the job done.

First, instead of painting blue sky, be specific in attacking the fiscal crisis. Marcus uses the “laughable” Republican “Pledge to America” as an example. Second, sacrifice has to start at the top with the rich. Third, the Tea Party is another joke, because there is a need for government programs and regulation. Fourth, not only stop the Bush tax cuts, enact tax increases on higher incomes. Fifth, the Tories visualize politics as a “reasonable debate, not tribal dividing lines.”

Somehow, this country must find a way to return to effective and civilized government.

U.S. gun dealers supply Mexican drug cartels

2010-10-13T12:30:00.007-07:00

In an earlier post, “Mexican investigator beheaded looking for Pirates who killed American jet skier,” the jet skier, David Hartley, lost his life when shot by Mexican pirates who probably acquired their weapons from U.S. gun dealers. And the NRA along with other gun rights bubbas says the industry is over-regulated. Take a look at the facts behind this issue.

There is evidence Mexican drug cartels have recently increased activity on U.S. gun purchases. In Phoenix, Arizona, alone, ATF seized 1,300 illegally trafficked firearms and 71,000 rounds of ammunition. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) identified more than 90 percent of semi-automatic assault rifles in a raid as coming from the U.S. A dozen of these rifles were traced to a firearms dealer in Henderson, Nevada working out of his home.

And finally, ATF has concluded in their study that a significant percentage of all weapons seized from Mexican cartels originate from the U.S.

When will this madness end, and Congress and the White House come to their senses to pass new gun control laws?

Read more here.

Mexican investigator beheaded looking for Pirates who killed American jet skier

2010-10-13T10:30:00.002-07:00

First the Mexican pirates kill jet skier David Hartley, then a Mexican investigator looking into the case is beheaded. All likely due to the fact that Hartley and his wife got too close to the turf of the Gulf Cartel and Zeta drug gang. There has been no sign of the man’s body, or his jet ski. It is likely that the pirates got their weapons across the border in the U.S.

Since a “stinging criticism” of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) by the Justice department, the agency has been ordered to place more emphasis on monitoring U.S. gun stores where many of the cartel weapons are coming from. Gun rights groups, of course, think ATF is already too aggressive in regulating the firearms industry. This new strategy is called, “Project Gunrunner; a Cartel Focused Strategy.

Read more here, here and here.

Next: Unbelievable facts on U.S. gun dealers selling to drug cartels.

Why are gasoline prices going up?

2010-10-13T08:00:00.002-07:00

The Lundberg Survey, which is the bible of crude oil and gas prices nationwide, says the average price per gallon has increased by 8.23 cents in just the last two weeks. The price of a gallon of regular is at $2.77. But the U.S. Energy Information Administration says it should average $2.69 for the second half of 2010. A barrel of crude is also expected to average $77 in the 4th quarter. So what’s the culprit in gas prices?

Crude makes up over 50% of its cost, followed by taxes, refining, then distribution and marketing. And there’s also the age-old arbitrator, supply and demand, which is based entirely on the whims of the American driving public. Another factor—and one that has been challenged recently—is speculators, thought to have been responsible for the last big increase. One source reports that for every gallon the average barrel of crude goes up, gas will follow for around 2.4 cents.

Hybrid cars…here we come.

Read more here and here.