Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Obama-Phobia




REALITY-   The Cease-Fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding for the moment so before Mr. Putin decides that my home belongs to him and sends in a horde of hired thugs to annex it for Mother Russia I thought that I'd put the proverbial pen to paper at least once more.


      Vladimir Putin is the President of Russia and he has decided to spread a little freedom Russia style by invading nearby Ukraine with unofficial "rebel" forces. Then whoops, or whatever they say in Russia when some fool with anti-aircraft rocket capabilities becomes so overworked and overstressed that he shoots down a plane full of innocent people. They should say that they're sorry at least whether they thought that it was a military enemy aircraft or not. The world has rightfully condemned the act of destruction as we all wait for the final official story of exactly what happened to flight MH-17. My thoughts and prayers remain with the families of those lost.


      The United States, The EU, and Japan among others have hit Russia with economic sanctions in response to Vladimir Putin's incursion into Ukraine and in the wake of the loss of MH-17. Putin has ordered his people to formulate a response to western sanctions. This is funny to me because it means that Putin himself has no response of his own, other than to act with more force. The world should take care not to make Mr. Putin believe that he is cornered, I fear that he has already shown the world his capacity to be an animal. What the world needs from Vladimir Putin now is leadership and cooperation not shows of strength.


      Many people here in The United States have condemned President Obama for not responding to the downing of MH-17 with military force. These people are stupid and have no idea what is happening. A lot of these people work for Fox News, which has been charged with destroying anything Democratic in general and our democratically elected President Barack Obama in particular.


      It's what they do, in fact it's not just the well dressed talking heads on television and the internet that have been anti-Obama from before he became President Obama, it is also his fellow politicians who have exhibited their own Obama-Phobia.





      I would define Obama-Phobia as the condition that nearly all republican-Americans suffer from that causes them to fear and hate anything positive that has to with or might be credited to one President Barack Obama. Don't worry Obama-Phobia is a pre-existing condition that is directly linked to cases of moderate to severe racial bigotry. If you or a member of your family has a history of racial bigotry then you may be at risk of falling victim to Obama-Phobia. Time after time Republicans have flip-flopped away from anything that President Barack Obama has tried to accomplish, from The Affordable Care Act ("Obama-care") to immigration reform and everything in between.


      Republican-Americans are crippled by their Obama-Phobia to the point that they have suffered vision-loss. They have lost sight of our American shores and how our American politics are supposed to end there. They must have, at least the republican-American leadership has because they are suing a sitting American President during a war and potentially the start of an even larger global conflict involving Russia.





      The words un-patriotic and irresponsible don't quite cover what John Boehner and his republican cohorts have been doing. They have done everything that they can get away with to discredit, distract, and neutralize President Obama. As a proponent of free speech I believe in speaking truth to power, as an American however I believe in speaking that truth in a language that doesn't have to be Russian.


      Apparently Mr. Boehner's language settings are more flexible than that because he is suing Barack Obama during a time of war for doing the work of The President as a way for Mr. Boehner himself to avoid actually doing the job that he was sent to Congress to do. That is to say cooperate with his fellow Congressmen and The White House in order to find real long-term solutions to the problems that face us all right? Instead John Boehner has abused his position to carry out a political war of attrition against Barack Obama while meaningful pieces of legislation like The Voting Rights Act are all but destroyed.





      I don't like war. People die for no reason, places that people like, hang out at, and live within get destroyed. Poor people fight, suffer, and become targets while the rich stay away from the fighting and collect more money for doing nothing. If this new cold war between The United States and Russia becomes hot it will be exactly what Vladimir Putin wants to happen. President Obama and the other leaders of the world's nations must understand with certainty and know without doubt the very thin line between cowboy diplomacy and wearing the hat of the villain. George W. Bush didn't understand the difference and neither does Vladimir Putin.





And as Always,


Friday, November 22, 2013

JOHN F. KENNEDY 50 YEARS LATER


REALITY: Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the day that President John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas Texas.  There are thousands of conspiracy theories and conspiracy debunking stories that we have heard about over the years.   The one thing everyone can agree on is that John Kennedy was shot down by rifle fire while sitting in the back of a moving car. Beyond that no one is really sure what happened that fateful day fifty years ago.
      The Unites States Government would have you believe that a former Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building overlooking Dealey Plaza. The third shot being fatal, striking President Kennedy’s head on his right side.

      The facts of the case do not support this theory.

 

      Eyewitnesses testified that they heard shots being fired from behind the picket fence located on the famous grassy knoll area to the front of where the president was shot, not the book depository behind him.  The film recorded by Abraham Zapruder definitively shows that the fatal head shot must have come from the front and right of the president. The film shows how Kennedy reacts to being struck by the final head shot by moving back and to his left indicating a shot from the front and right.

      Paraffin tests for nitrite residue from gun powder indicated that Lee Harvey Oswald did not fire a rifle on November 22nd 1963. The F.B.I. stopped believing in paraffin nitrite tests when they contradicted The Warren Commission’s conclusions.
 


      John Kennedy was President during the Cuban missile crisis. The United States had discovered the presence of offensive Soviet missiles in Cuba just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. Kennedy’s military advisors wanted only to invade Cuba and escalate the situation to full scale war between the United States and Russia. Kennedy knew that if he were to invade Cuba that would result in a nuclear war with Russia and likely the annihilation of the world.

      Kennedy found a way to make a deal with Russian Premier Khrushchev in order to avert nuclear war and thereby saving us all from total destruction. Believe it or not, not everyone thought that that was the best way to go. In fact Kennedy’s ability to avoid seemingly unavoidable war angered many important people in The United States government and atop the military industrial complex. After all they were planning on making a boat-load of money off of that war so that they and their children would never have to work ever again.


      I’m not here to name names, they know who they are and indeed you know who they are as well. I’m sure that those responsible for killing President John F. Kennedy who survive to this day are quite famous and powerful. How else can you explain that to this day fifty years later most Americans believe that there was not a single assassin and yet no one has ever been arrested or convicted of the crime? The law would say that Jack Ruby killed the man they believe would have been convicted but the evidence is not on the side of the law.


      After President Kennedy saved the world from nuclear war he called for civil rights legislation to end segregation and public discrimination. President Kennedy was preparing to withdraw from the war in Vietnam, as far as the racist warmongers in the business, military, and political power structures were concerned this was the last straw. After all who did John Kennedy think that he was anyway? Who was he to change the way that American life operated to better match the American values of equality and brotherhood that we all claim to cherish?
      Blocking Kennedy’s proposals in Congress was no longer sufficient to stop him from making social change a reality. Those within the power structure in Washington DC had had enough and they wanted revenge.
      No matter who shot from what rooftop or behind which fence on November 22nd 1963 President John F. Kennedy was dead.


      Shortly after being sworn in Lyndon Johnson, as the new president, commits the United States to escalation of the Vietnam War condemning countless Americans and Vietnamese people to death for what would ultimately turn out to be for nothing besides the profits of American businessmen. The United States involvement in The Vietnam War wouldn’t end until 1973.  John F. Kennedy would have ended it in 1965.


      Today very little has changed since 1973, as far as the influence possessed by the modern machine that President Eisenhower called the military industrial complex.  The United States is still recovering from the disastrous mistakes made by George W. Bush and his administration’s illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the same mistakes made by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in Vietnam.


      Fifty years after the death of President John F. Kennedy his legacy lives on in many ways but perhaps most prominent among them is the heir to his mantle of democratic hope for the future, President Barack Obama.
      President Obama has faced the same legislative obstructionism that Kennedy endured from his republican opponents in Congress. Today republicans still stand against equality and civil rights for all. Of course now the debate has shifted to marriage equality and universal healthcare. Yes republicans don’t want anyone to be on even close to an equal footing with them. That’s why you, as a voter, should never give a republican any office of power, they will only use it to act out the racism they inherited from their parents. In reaction to a black president who refuses to go to war in Syria and has committed to ending the Republican wars in Afghanistan in Iraq, in the ultimate act of ‘well if we’re not winning so we don’t wanna play no more’ rage quitting, Republicans shut down The United States Government.


      What did Republicans get out of shutting down the government? Not much really just that their beloved 'sequester' would last a little longer, and of course all that bad press trying to stop “Obamacare” even though shutting down the United States government the way that they did never had any chance of actually stopping “Obamacare” in any way.

      As far as the Healthcare.gov website rollout goes, the difficulties experienced so far have been par for the course of anything so new and large being activated. Incidentally to those who think that this is a big problem for Obama’s presidency, the website itself isn’t actually expected to be fully operational until the end of November. So all the early problems were expected, and no if you have a health insurance policy that screws you more than it saves you than you should have it replaced with a better less expensive plan.


      Over the past five years Republicans have blocked President Obama’s agenda so much that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and the Democratic majority in The United States Senate have voted to end the filibuster in order to stop Republicans in the senate from using it to force a 60 vote threshold to pass any legislation at all.  The filibuster is meant to be used as an emergency method designed to give the minority party a last ditch maneuver in a case where a majority might have decided to do something horribly wrong or immoral. As an example, there was the time that Democrats in Congress used the filibuster to prevent the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Meyers. It turned out that Harriet Myers was actually George W. Bush’s personal attorney.


      While in the minority during The Bush Administration the Democrats did use the filibuster as an emergency button only to be used when absolutely necessary. Under President Obama, Congressional Republicans have abused the filibuster to force the entire legislative process to grind to a halt. Like a bunch of little kids who won’t stop playing with the button that turns off the TV.  Another good reason Republicans shouldn’t be allowed near any other important buttons as they might be just a little bit too eager to press them.




      There is something about Barack Obama that really gets under the skin of conservatives. Ironically it’s the color of his skin. Conservatives are racists. They have historically represented the most racist and sexist attitudes and they continue to do so to this very day. Republicans use their positions of power to obstruct those who would bring equality to all.  Their basic point of view is that they are better than everyone one else and they use race to define for themselves who is acceptable and who is not. Republicans will always go to great lengths to ensure that the people they fired for not being republican will get no assistance to survive and as such will not be voting in the next election. I call it Modern Republican Eugenics.


 
      John F. Kennedy sought to end wars and provide equal treatment under the law for black people in America. He was President at the most pivotal moment in recent history (with the possible exception of September The Eleventh) the point at which the world turned away from nuclear war and towards peace in all times.
      Peace is larger than just one person. That fact didn’t stop President John F. Kennedy’s enemies from killing him. The enemies of peace continue to fight the same secret war against progress and equality that they have always been fighting one way or another. The murder of President John F. Kennedy was not the first attack in this war however it may have been the most decisive loss in the history of American progress and equality. In that context, it could be said that the election and re-election of Barack Obama to the office of President of The United States of America has been the most decisive defeat for the forces of hate and war.

      Up until now those forces (aka The Republican Party and its representatives in the media) have been content to obstruct and wait. Without the filibuster to block everything President Obama is doing, what means will The Republican power structure turn to now?



      Nukular?

      And As Always,



Sunday, July 14, 2013

THE MURDER OF TRAYVON MARTIN



REALITY-   On July 13 2013 George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the second degree murder of  a 17 year old un-armed high school football player, Trayvon Martin, who was walking home alone and talking to a friend of his via a Bluetooth.

      On the night of February 26 2012 George Zimmerman stalked Trayvon Martin until there was a confrontation between them.  Zimmerman, a man with no official authority, noticed Trayvon Martin walking home. Zimmerman decided that Trayvon Martin looked enough like a threat to him because there had been burglaries in the neighborhood before that night.  Zimmerman called Sanford police because he saw a lone black teenager walking down the street and in that he saw an opportunity.

      Zimmerman reported to the operator what he considered a suspicious person in the Twin Lakes community. Zimmerman stated, "We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy." He described an unknown male "just walking around looking about" in the rain and said, "This guy looks like he is up to no good or he is on drugs or something." Zimmerman reported that the person had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes. On the recording, Zimmerman is heard saying, "these assholes, they always get away."

      About two minutes into the call, Zimmerman said, "he's running." The dispatcher asked, "He's running? Which way is he running?" The sound of a car door chime is heard, indicating Zimmerman opened his car door. Zimmerman followed Martin, eventually losing sight of him. The dispatcher asked Zimmerman if he was following him. When Zimmerman answered, "yeah," the dispatcher said, "We don't need you to do that." Zimmerman responded, "Okay." Zimmerman asked that police call him upon their arrival so he could provide his location. Zimmerman ended the call at 7:15 p.m.  By 7:30pm, Trayvon Martin was dead.
Excerpts taken from Wikipedia.org

      It took Sanford Florida police another 44 days of national outrage to charge and arrest George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin.



      George Zimmerman had stalked this suspicious looking person who looked like they were "up to no good" and "on drugs or something." Sometime after Zimmerman ended his call to the police there was a fight. A fight that George Zimmerman started with his feet by following an innocent, although possibly suspicious looking, person, and a fight that George Zimmerman ended with his gun by firing one shot straight into the heart of Trayvon Martin, killing him.

      If George Zimmerman had stayed in his car Trayvon Martin would still be alive today.  If George Zimmerman hadn't had a gun on him that night, George Zimmerman would have stayed in the car. If George Zimmerman had had any reason to actually suspect Trayvon Martin of burglary or being "on drugs or something" there would have been some evidence found on Trayvon Martin. Maybe a bag with burglars tools, you know a crowbar, a ski mask, and maybe a suction cup with a diamond rigged onto it to cut holes in glass windows or something. Without any such evidence George Zimmerman has no case besides his word that he was attacked by Trayvon sometime after The Sanford Florida police had told him to stop following people.

      If I'm walking home alone in the middle of the night and I'm 17 years old and I'm a black man in a predominantly white neighborhood and I'm un-armed, and I know that I am un-armed, and I see someone watching me from a car nearby and I know that I don't have to actually be "up to no good" for someone else to tell the police that I'm "up to no good" and I get that instinctual feeling that we all get when we're in a dangerous situation I would absolutely run away.  Especially if I'm only guilty of "walking around in the rain."

      So what happened next? Did Trayvon jump Zimmerman? If so, if Trayvon was further ahead of where Zimmerman had stopped, how does Zimmerman get ambushed by anyone unless he continued to pursue Trayvon Martin against the explicit instruction of the Sanford Police?

      Again, if I am in a situation the likes of which Travon Martin had been in that night, and I have already run away from a suspicious looking person sitting in a car and now I can tell that this suspicious man is following me, there is no telling what I might do.  While I myself have never owned or carried any kind of firearm I still take my personal safely very seriously and so if I found myself in Trayvon Martin's shoes on that night I would have fought for my life too. I would not tolerate being followed or stalked by anyone under any circumstances. I consider that to be a threat to my personal wellbeing whether the person stalking me intends to rob me, kill me, or buy me an ice cream, there is just no way to know the intent of the person following you at that point. When someone is following you and you choose to stand your ground there will be a problem between you. That much is obvious and commonplace, what is not commonplace is that the person following you pulls a gun and kills you.



      Let's talk for a second about the fatal shot that killed Trayvon Martin. I don't believe, based on the evidence, that Zimmerman could have made such a precise shot while in the midst of a struggle for his life. Zimmerman's claim is that he killed Trayvon Martin because Martin had mounted him and was punching him about the head and face. Zimmerman also claims that Martin slammed the back of Zimmerman's head into some concrete. The physical evidence left on George Zimmerman is not consistent with his story. According to expert witness testimony the wounds suffered by George Zimmerman were indicative of Zimmerman being punched not more than twice in the face.  The superficial wounds to the back of Zimmerman's head and to his face required no stitches or sutures or staples. Zimmerman didn't even get a black eye. George Zimmerman didn't suffer any concussion. According to George Zimmerman, it was somewhere in here that he managed to reach his gun from a holster on the back of his belt. Of course if you're lying on your back with someone on top of you it's impossible for you to reach a gun holstered on the back of your belt.

      So once Zimmerman couldn't possibly have reached his pistol while being beaten about the head and face he landed a single picture-perfect shot into the heart of Trayvon Martin. Which is impossible if you're in a struggle like Zimmerman claims took place. In fact I would say that it would have been much more logical to use the butt end of the pistol in close-combat situation like that. Or perhaps a warning? Stop punching me I have a gun? Or maybe a slightly less fatal shot? This is not a movie. I'm not saying "aim for the leg," but it takes days to die from a gun shot wound to the abdomen and it's a much larger target in a crisis.

      Why didn't George Zimmerman, if his story is true which it is not, why didn't Zimmerman attempt to wound his attacker? If George Zimmerman truly had no malice or intent to kill then why didn't he simply shoot his attacker rather than shooting and killing him? George Zimmerman fired a single shot aimed directly at the heart of Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman had to know that that action would cause death. That is murder.

      Why didn't George Zimmerman fire his gun in the air, away from himself and anyone else, as a warning? The noise alone would surely been enough to either bring help or scare off any un-armed attacker.  What if in trying to fire that warning shot the other guy gets the gun away from you? Again this is not a movie. A young man is dead because of George Zimmerman .

      George Zimmerman, though he has been acquitted of criminal charges, will no doubt face civil charges in the murder of Trayvon Martin.

      On that fateful night in February The Sanford police, having accepted George Zimmerman's cooked up story, never fully investigated the crime scene to determine what really happened that night and so, in reality, we will never know.

      George Zimmerman knows.



      George Zimmerman knows that he murdered Trayvon Martin.

Friday, March 29, 2013

MARRIAGE EQUALITY, THE BULLY, AND GUNS



REALITY-   This week, The United States Supreme Court has been hearing cases having to do with the fate of marriage equality in America. One is a challenge to California's Proposition 8, an amendment to the California state constitution that was passed by voters in 2008 which restricts marriages to "one man - one woman couples". The other argument before the supreme court is over the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act or "DOMA" which denies couples in same-sex marriages the basic rights that other husbands and wives enjoy. Simple things like being able to see your spouse when they're unwell and receiving social security benefits. 

      The Supreme Court won't have a verdict on either case until late June, the tea leaves seem to point to a split decision where DOMA is rightfully struck down and Prop 8 would be referred back to The California court that had already ruled Prop 8 to be unconstitutional. That would allow California to correct it's mistake without having SCOTUS set legal precedent on the subject. 

      That is great progress. Twenty or thirty or fifty years late but progress none the less.

      Why is it that some people have such trouble being seen as people by some other people?



      The answer is simple and exceedingly complicated. People fear what they do not understand, this is well known and used to it's fullest potential. Rush Limbaugh would be out of business were it not for the fear of the unknown and different that he stokes like a flame that he and those like him would watch burn into eternity.  The tiny flame of fear exists inside all of us. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are paid handsomely to fan that flame of fear, make it grow until it burns the inside of your eyes, then they tell you of whom to be afraid. They tell you whom to hate. They tell you who it's alright for you to hurt.



      Children learn whom to hate from their parents and their peers. The racist or homophobic attitude starts in childhood, when kids decide whom they can treat differently. At that young age the attitude of hate manifests itself in the form of bullies. Bullies are everywhere and while there is some national attention being brought to the practice of bulling locally no one really does anything to stop bullies. A bully is just the lowest form of a racist or homophobe. A bully picks on what he perceives to be weaker or vulnerable targets. 

      Vulnerable not only because of lack of size or musculature or popularity status but vulnerable because the bully need not fear any retribution or consequences as a result of his bulling because his target was different. Be it because the target is black, latino, white, Asian, of mixed heritage, alternative political beliefs, or because the target is or may be perceived to be a homosexual or gay person. Kids are cruel goes the old saying I say cruel children grow up to be cruel adults.





      It is no great revelation to say that gun violence is out of control in this country.  What may be here to fore unknown, or at least unspoken, is that gun owners who fail to understand and respect the terrible power of their personal firearms enough to the point where they would be in favor of background checks are likely the same racist bullies who still hate gay people and quietly encourage their children to bully others. Perpetuating the cycle of violence.

      Let me be clear I am not in favor of the government taking everyone's guns away. I would never trust The U.S. Government to that degree. But even the most zealous, sane, non-violent, law abiding, gun owning citizen or American soldier would have to, at this point, be in favor of at least background checks before firearms can be purchased, if for no other reason than reducing the odds that they themselves would have need of their guns to protect themselves and their families from some one who got their gun despite the fact that they had been known to shoot people with it in the past.

      The attitude of hate held by the gun-happy killer, the bully, and the racist - homophobe is the same. The attitude that says 'I can do whatever I want to you because I perceive you to be weak, or different, or because it has been demonstrated to me that you are a socially approved target. Acts of violence, degradation, or discrimination against you hold no consequences for me. I can act with impunity. I don't even have to feel bad about it.'

      With the gun-happy killer these thoughts end in gunfire as the did in at Sandy Hook elementary school. My thoughts continue to be with those lost and their families. Unimaginable anguish to go from wrapping your child's Christmas presents imagining the little smiling face to burying your child instead.

      The bully mostly ends thoughts like that with punches, pranks, or words of hate either screamed into a teary eye or whispered past it from three lunch tables away. Sometimes though the bully is so untouchable and unrelenting that his prey sees no way out besides taking their own lives. Making the bully a murderer too whether the law will call the bully that or not.

      The racist - homophobe is liable to become either the gun-happy killer or the quiet bully that whispers behind their neighbor's backs. With the encouragement of a Rush Limbaugh or a Bill O'Reilly, who calls upon his viewers to act as something he calls "culture warriors", the racist - homophobe is that much more likely, in my opinion, to become the gun-happy killer.



      Republicans even now argue for keeping the discrimination legislation that they worked hard to force onto gay people who want to get married.  The Republican Party even now argues, with the voice of the N.R.A., that any old James Holmes, Gerald Lee Loughner, or Adam Lanza still aught to be able to buy guns in America.

      Where does it all end?

      It ends when the American people want it to and when we the people have the political momentum to make it happen. It ends now.

And As Always,






      Ps. Being anti-marriage equality is just the new racism, the new sexism.  People in power have always looked for ways to distract the people away from the obvious spectacle of their corrupt behavior. Forcing us to focus on our differences has always been effective. Though it's been said before, it's only when we as human beings ignore our slight variations and focus instead on what makes us all the same that we will come together as one people and we will all have peace.

http://youtu.be/cgps85scy1g

http://youtu.be/NyR_b98weiQ




Tuesday, September 11, 2012

September The Eleventh 2012



REALITY-   Eleven years have passed since that fateful Tuesday morning that changed the way Americans perceived the outside world. As none will ever forget, on that day, more than three thousand human lives ended when The U.S. security structure failed to protect our borders from four hijacked passenger aircraft.  It is well known by now that 19 terrorists, most of them from Saudi Arabia, hijacked 4 commercial passenger jets bent on crashing those huge airplanes into various targets within the United States. It is sad to say that on that day the terrorists did succeed in 2 of their 3 surmised goals, One Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon, two Boeing 767's destroyed the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City, and the fourth jet, a Boeing 757, was shot down over Shanksville, Pennsylvania said to have been on course for The White House. 



      A moment of silence please.



      There are a myriad of ways to feel about the tragic events of September The Eleventh 2001.  I hope that most would feel respect for the people whose lives were taken that day. Respect for the passengers on each of the four doomed flights having no idea that this day would be their last. Respect for those who woke up the morning of September The Eleventh feeling as though it was just another Tuesday in New York. Beautiful weather, busy streets, and a job to do. Respect for the men and women in uniform who may have expected to face an ordinary day on the force or in the fire station but knew deep down the risk they faced every time that they put on their uniforms. Those intrepid first responders put on their uniforms and were greeted that Tuesday morning by beautiful weather, busy streets, and a job to do. I write today out of respect for those who were lost and for those who persevere.




      Eleven years later and the images of heroism are still compelling.



      Eleven years later the images of non-reaction are also compelling. This is what Republican President George W. Bush was doing after he was told by one of his handlers that "The nation was under attack." I think we can at least assume that George W. Bush was smart enough to understand that his handlers did indeed mean that this nation here, The United States of America, the nation that Bush was sort of president of at that moment was in fact the nation that Bush had just learned was under attack. While W. may have indeed at that time understood that his nation was under attack, could have been an attack from The Planet Mars for all he knew at that moment, it is clear that George W. Bush had absolutely no idea how to react or what to do. In a stunning piece accidental comedy the above photo features a rare image of the actual thoughts of George W. Bush which can be seen listed on the purple display to his right.



      Appointed President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld swore that they would bring the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, to Justice. They failed. 

      What they did succeed in doing was starting two illegal wars, one of them at least in the exact wrong place, rolled back environmental regulations to the point where one oil company (BP - British Petroleum) would soon be responsible for the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, and as a farewell show they crashed The United States economy into a mountain creating the second largest financial crisis in American history. When things got tough this is how The Republican Party handled it. Poorly.



      So poorly that when it came time to elect a new president in 2008 the Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain couldn't out run his predecessor or his opponent and his party lost control of The White House and The U.S. Congress.



      Over the course of President Barack Obama's first term in office his administration has worked to end the second Iraq War, his policies have stopped the bleeding of the worst financial collapse in American history since The Great Depression. Despite unprecedented Republican obstructionism President Obama has managed to begin the stabilization of The American economy.



      President Barack Obama also pursued policies towards and issued the order to kill Al Qaeda terrorist leader and mastermind of the September The Eleventh Terrorist Attacks Osama Bin Laden.

      For once Vice President Joe Biden actually did say it best "Bin Laden is dead and G.M. is alive."



      But that's enough history, this is about the future in specific the future of the citizens of The United States of America.  The near future, November 6th 2012, the day that Americans will once again make time to make history.  On that day the people of The United States will vote to decide the next President of The United States.



      Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the Republican candidates running for president and vice president respectively.  Paul Ryan introduced a budget that would end Medicare and believes that a woman should be forced to bare the child of her rapist. Somehow this position, which has been adopted as part of The 2012 Republican Party Platform, is referred to as "pro-life" when in point of fact this position can best be described as "anti-woman".  While Mitt Romney is a wildcard.

      Willard 'Mitt' Romney has been on nearly all sides of all of the issues to date. I believe that the one thing that Romney has said along the campaign trail thus far that he has truly meant was that he believed that he should be president because it was his turn. Romney was born to wealth and has made more money throughout his professional life by closing other people's businesses down and putting every-day Americans out of work. 

      Mitt Romney refuses to follow the established history of presidential candidates by releasing his tax records. Most likely because W.M. Romney is afraid to be honest with the American people about how he got to where he is today. In fact 'Mitt' Romney is not even running for president under his real name. He gets a stage name? Like Shawn Michaels or Lady GaGa?





      President Barack Obama has faced impossible challenges, greater odds than a more generous god would have allowed, and the unprecedented obstructionism of The Republican Party who's top representatives have said that their one goal over the last four years has been to make sure that Barack Obama was only a one term president.



      The Republican Party's goals had nothing to do with helping you.



      The goals of The Republican Party have nothing to do with helping the American people.

      The goals of The Republican Party have nothing to do with moving this great nation forward into a future where the hungry are fed, the poor are kept warm, and the politicians and businessmen who have tried to hoard supplies, opportunities, and resources just for themselves and those closest to them at the expense and exclusion of decent hard-working Americans are held accountable for their destructive actions. A future where those criminals are treated as criminals deserve to be treated.



       Despite what President Obama has endured over the last four years he has accomplished more than anyone thought that he could. He restored dignity and honor to the office of President of The United States. He ended a needless war in Iraq, hasn't started any other "pre-emptive" wars, and brought the terrorist Osama Bin Laden to justice when he predecessor "Didn't know where [Osama Bin Laden] is" and "Frankly Didn't spend that much time on him". 

      All of President Obama's administration's accomplishments came on the heels of the George W. Bush Administration arguably eight of the worst run years in American history. Imagine what President Barack Obama could do in a second term, a term that starts here and now not drudging through the mistakes of the past.

      President Harry S. Truman said it best "If we don't make a mistake, what a paradise we could make of this world."

      We must not make the mistake that is the Romney / Ryan fiasco. 

      We must choose to re-elect President Barack Obama to a second term so that we can all have a chance to move forward.

      And as Always,



      Ps. This blog is dedicated to the memory of all whose lives were lost or fractured forever on that fateful Tuesday morning, and to all those who have given their lives before and since in service of the cause of freedom for Americans and all others around the world.