The GOP Attack on Voting Rights

In the 2008 presidential election, there was a record voter turn-out across the country.  One would have thought that everyone would have been happy that so many Americans participated in choosing their leader. Wrong. Since Barack Obama won decisively, the Republicans immediately began laying plans to keep large groups of people from voting, and of course the groups they wanted to disenfranchise were the groups that voted Obama.

First there were all those college students. All of a sudden they were no longer apathetic; they were actually voting and voting for Obama. As a result Republican legislators and election officials were tampering with residency requirements. If students can't vote where they go to school, they will not vote.

Then, of course, there are those inconvenient Hispanics who supported Obama in 2008. Therefore the GOP instituted a variety of voter ID requirements to, as they said, avoid voter fraud. As it turned out there were so few cases of voter fraud as to be insignificant. Their intent was to frighten away Hispanic voters. 

The Associated Press reports: "The combined effects of voter roll purges, demands for proof of citizenship and photo identification requirements in several states may hinder at least 10 million Hispanic citizens who seek to vote this fall, civil rights advocates warn in a new report."

In addition, the voter ID requirements would also disenfranchise that other Democratic group, the black voters. Since a portion of this group is poor, they will not have  a driver's license or a passport and will be denied a ballot.

Then, there are the working poor. The wife and husband both work, maybe several jobs, and have little time on a November Tuesday to stand in line to vote. In 2008 they were able to vote early -- on the weekend. Since Obama received a large share of those votes, Republican officials are doing all they can to prevent week-end voting.

And  there are those old people, disabled , hospitalized and active-duty service women and men. They want to sit in the warmth of their home or barracks and vote an absentee ballot. Since the majority of the absentee ballots favored Obama in 2008, Republicans have tried to restrict those votes.

Then, there are states like Florida in which politicians  play God and actively "purge" the voter registration lists of  undesirables. Worried about fraud? This system is an invitation to  USSR style fraud.

Is it any surprise, then, that citizens of fledgling democracies or autocracies around the world look at what is happening in this election and question our commitment to democracy? Obviously,  true democracy is in jeopardy when  politicians are able to disenfranchise US citizens.

As Michelle Obama has pointed out,  the right to vote has become the nation's most important civil rights issue.

Romney Waiting for a Crisis to Exploit

For the past two year elected Republicans have been pursuing a partisan agenda based on do-nothing obstructionism. How many jobs bills have they prevented  in a time when creating jobs should be  "Job One" for them? They don't want to see a decrease in unemployment rates; they want the country to continue to suffer the effects of the Bush Great Recession in the hope that President Obama is not re-elected. 

In fact two years ago, Republican Senator, Mitch McConnell, told us as much. He said the Republican priority in Congress was to defeat President Obama. Not to do what is best for the country, not to get the country out of the grasp of the Great Recession, not to create jobs. No, their priority is not the general welfare of the country, their priority is personal political gain.

If the Democrats had stated a similar  policy when George W. Bush was President, the Republicans would have been screaming "treason!" and perhaps with good cause. It appears elected public service has reached such a low point that the general welfare of the country is secondary to personal political gain.

This type of political narcissism brings me to what I consider the scariest part of Mitt Romney's "Screw the 47%" speech. In the course of talking to his billionaire cronies, he said:  
"…in the Jimmy Carter election, the fact that we have hostages in Iran, I mean, that was all we talked about. And we had the two helicopters crash in the desert, I mean that's—that was—that was the focus, and so him solving that made all the difference in the world. I'm afraid today if you said, 'We got Iran to agree to stand down a nuclear weapon,' they'd go, hold on. It's really a, but…by the way, if something of that nature presents itself, I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity." (I added the italics.)

It sounds to me that he is just waiting for something bad to happen to the country or Americans so that he can exploit it for political gain.

In fact, he demonstrated that tendency when Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues were killed in Benghazi, Libya.  Mitt was so eager to get in front of the cameras to exploit the situation  that he didn't even have the facts straight. Hardly presidential.

I suspect in the past we have had politicians more concerned about their own gain than the welfare of the country, but the most frightening aspect of the present situation is that an entire political party and its candidates have bought into this agenda.

It is a scandalous state of affairs when U.S. politicians of a major political party are waiting for a crisis they wish to exploit; or, as in the case of the financial crisis, prevent a solution..

Gone Girl, Cool Girl, Bad Girl

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel, a witty thriller, is an intriguing walk on the murky side of the the Mississippi River.

While reading, it occurred to me  that there was no character with whom I could sympathize ( with the possible exception of Margot, Nick's sister). They all seemed to have a nasty, mean streak, and the reader soon realizes that no matter how the novel ends, the good guys are not going to win because there are no good guys.

The main characters, Nick and Amy Dunne, are celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary as the story begins; but the day is anything but romantic as we discover that Amy has disappeared, perhaps the victim of a kidnapping. And that is about as much as I feel comfortable revealing. Since the plot consists of so many twists with  the author slowly providing us  relevant information, it would be inappropriate to reveal any of the surprises. Also the reader is lulled into thinking, "I've read this book several times in the past." Not so. You have just been set up by a skillful author.

The two protagonists, Amy and Nick,  are competitors in a game of marriage, and of life. Amy Dunne is a beautiful, clever, conniving alpha-female the reader loves and hates from time to time, based on the information at hand. Nick is an intelligent, handsome, narcissistic boy pretending to be a man and a husband who possesses the ability to not only deceive others but himself as well.

Whether you enjoy  or dislike this novel, I can assure you that you have not read another novel with a similar plot.

Call Me Irresponsible

Irresponsible Moochers?

Mitt Romney has declared 47% of us to be slackers mooching off the federal government, and therefore "irresponsible." I know that I am one of the God-forsaken irresponsible Americans Mitt has decided he doesn't care about, and I am happy about that because I find I am in good company.

You too might be an "irresponsible" moocher if:

• you are fighting for our country in Afghanistan
• your husband or wife lost his/her life in Iraq
• you were seriously wounded in one of Bush's wars
• you are a senior and you are collecting the Social Security you paid for
• your spouse was foolish enough to loose a life trying to rescue people from the collapsing World Trade Center
• you had a catastrophic illness that depleted your life's savings
• you and your spouse lost jobs that your corporation exported to Asia
• you are a college student with a dream, but lack wealthy parents
• you are a teacher, policeman, fireman or EMS worker
• you are on Medicare, a program you paid into
• you have had the misfortune of having a child with a birth defect
• you were born on the wrong side of the tracks
• you work for an agency that protects the environment
• you were evicted from a home you had made payments on for 20years
• you are a scientist working on an NSF grant
• you survived Katrina
• you are an undocumented child
• you can't afford to attend a private school
• you are cared for at a Veteran's hospital

On the other hand,  if you are a millionaire who doesn't pay federal income tax and also receive government contracts or millions in agricultural"subsidies," you are a responsible citizen in Romney's book.  ( Notice the Republican terminology.  If a poor mother gets a few government dollars, it's "welfare," if a millionaire farmer or large corporation receives millions of government dollars, it's called a "subsidy.")

Thr IRS reports that many millionaires and huge corporations pay no Federal Income Taxes.  Romney asks us to believe that he is not one of those tax dodgers, but he refuses to release his tax returns to prove that. He wants us to take his word for it. I guess I would do that if he then believes I am as intelligent as Stephen Hawking, the gifted British theoretical physicist. (But now that I think about it, Mitt would probably consider Dr. Stephen Hawking "irresponsible."-- paralyzed, confined to a wheel chair and subsidized by British government grants.)

How Romney Gets His Kicks

For those who have tired of "The Fifty Shades of Romney" and "Romney Masters Etch-a-Sketch," I am offering a pleasant, albeit meaningless,  diversion. It's time we put behind  us the 328 changes of position Mitt has experienced. I mean, how many times can a man reinvent himself for political gain? We can't continue to beat him over the head with that. After all, give the man credit for being flexible. And his mendacity? Everybody lies at some point; and it's possible that Mitt and Paul Ryan are victims of CLS -- compulsive liar syndrome.

Let's give the man a break. It's time we focus on his "fun side."  His wife assures us that not only does he have a personality, he actually has a fun side. So let's take her word for it and concentrate on Funny Mitt. What does this guy do for a good time? Since he is a Mormon bishop I doubt that he kicks back with a six-pack of Budweiser and enjoys watching a football game with the guys. He probably doesn't play any three-on-three basketball; that's a little too "ethnic" for someone who wants to be called Mitt. He is not going to go skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee as did one of his GOP congressmen. And he is definitely not going to throw himself a hedonistic orgy as is the wont of Italy's right-wing Silvio Berlusconi.

Nonetheless,  Mitt does find ways to have fun -- at least it's fun in his world view. To get his kicks, Mitt Romney:

• counts his money
• fires his gardener
• reads the Book of Mormon
• ridicules public employees
• sails his yacht in the Cayman Islands (Good to be near your money.)
• searches the streets of Salt Lake looking for undocumented immigrants 
• observes a pirouette at a dressage competition (Nap time!)
• listens to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (More nap time.)
• re-applies Grecian Formula to his carefully styled hair
• watches his chauffeur wax one of the Cadillacs
• takes his dog out for a drive in the country
• shreds some documents from his days as governor of Massachusetts
• listens to an inebriated Clint Eastwood  talking to inanimate objects
• skips Eisenhower Dollars across the Green River
• drinks a Diet Coke (Sorry Mitt, Mormons can't have coffee or tea.)
• insults 47% of Americans -- a bunch of irresponsible slackers and moochers
• buys and shuts down companies for a profit
• watches videos of home evictions
• studies George W. Bush's economic and  foreign policy manuals (2 pages each)
• re-buries his Federal Income Tax returns (Seamus had dug them up.)
• politicizes U.S. ambassador's assassination
• discovers a new tax loop hole

And you thought Mitt didn't know how to enjoy himself.

Writing Skills in a Texting World

Observing teenagers adeptly texting, tweeting, posting on Facebook and writing emails, many of us who grew up with toxic lead pencils and yellow Goldenrod tablets were hoping that the new technology would improve the writings skills of this generation. Apparently we were mistaken.

Using laptops with a spell-checking program, "Nearly three-quarters of the eighth graders and 12 th graders failed to achieve proficiency on a national writing test, according to a U.S Government report released Friday." (Toledo Blade, 9/15/2012). Those lacking proficiency had trouble organizing ideas, using paragraphs, writing in complete sentences, and using correct grammar.

Upon reflection, this should be of little surprise. When one reads email messages or posts of teenagers on social media sites, one finds unintentional sentence fragments, incorrect grammar, punctuation mistakes, improper usage and even spelling errors to be abundant.

Spelling errors with spell check? Frequently true. Either teenagers ignore spell check or their understanding of basic English usage is deficient. Spell check programs can't tell you whether you should be using "to," "too," or "two."  And many teenage writers simply don't know the difference between "there," "they're," or "their."

Writing skills are important in this age of technology; and teenagers need to learn to use correct grammar and proper usage; or they will be presenting themselves to the world as second class citizens.

Although many question a traditional liberal arts college education these days, competent writing skills are more necessary than ever. Unfortunately, for those looking for the easy way out, competent writing skills are a basic requirement. Google does not hire people who lack such  fundamental skills.

(Yes, I know I have used sentence fragments in the above paragraphs. Also I am not finding fault with texting abbreviations. WTF, B4N.)

In a Lifeboat with Romney & Ryan

A GOP Lifeboat?

The first sentence of the United States Constitution begins: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice..., promote the general Welfare..., do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Thus, one of the purposes of our country is to promote the general welfare of its citizens. It has to strike many as ironic that politicians who take an oath to uphold the Constitution have tried to belittle the word, "welfare," and even use it as a racial code word.

We have reached a sad state of affairs when one of our two major political parties and its candidates are running a campaign based on undermining "the general welfare" in favor of personal and corporate greed. In reflecting on the Republican National Convention, former Ohio Governor and a Methodist minister, Ted Strickland,  characterized the Republican Convention in the following statement: "The RNC was an exercise in selfishness." Based on their official platform and their speeches, most of those who attended the GOP Convention seem to be comfortable with the proposition: Greed is Good. In fact they were so preoccupied with destroying Social Security and Medicare that they didn't have time to recognize the sacrifices of our service men and women.


We should not be surprised. Mitt Romney is a  Wall Street venture capitalist. Paul Ryan has adopted Ayn Rand as his patron saint and has no problem leaving the old, sick, feeble and poor fall through the safety net and drown in an economic ocean governed by the ultra-rich oligarchs.


My friend, Buck, put it this way recently. "You don't want to be at sea in a life boat with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. If you are old, feeble, or ill, you will be shark food in a matter of minutes. If you're healthy and relatively young, they will pay you minimum wage to row the boat. If you try to negotiate a better wage, you will be shark food. If you accept their offer and row the boat until you become exhausted, they will pay you your wages and then try to sell you life insurance, then you will become shark food. If you don't speak English or don't have a US Passport, you will be shark food, but they will demand you  clean the boat before they throw you  into the drink. And if you happen to be a woman, your first move should be to jump overboard and start swimming."

Paul Ryan Irks Buck

President at a Toledo Diner

Buck met me for our weekly breakfast at the diner  two days after President Obama had lunch there with three autoworkers. Since Buck is a Republican, I thought it wise to avoid referring to the President's visit: and since he is a Michigan Wolverine fan, I was not going to mention that Saturday evening Alabama stole the Wolverines' lunch and gave them a wedgey.

As you know Buck has not been happy with the political developments of the last few years and has failed to enjoy his breakfast because he has been engaged in a political tirade. With his health and blood pressure in mind, I tried to steer the conversation to golf, a gentleman's game that we have both desecrated. I asked, "Did you by chance see the final round of the Deutsche Bank Tournament on Labor Day?"

"Of course, I saw it. I certainly was not going to watch another interminable baseball game in an interminable season. Professional baseball is committing suicide and doesn't even know it."

"Okay, what about the US Open Tennis Tournament," I suggested. "Don't tell me you don't enjoy women in skimpy outfits running around on a tennis court."

" In the past  I spent a good deal of time watching the girls play, but somewhere along the way they began to screech every time they hit the ball. I don't need that. If I did, I could sit in the back yard and listen to my neighbor's wife screech....and not be interrupted by commercials."

"But back to golf, did you enjoy watching Rory McIllroy win?" I asked.

"He's a good kid. I appreciate it that he personally goes to help the disadvantaged in the Domicican Republic  That's nice. But the poor boy is from Northern Ireland, you know."

"You have a problem with that?"

"No, no just pointing it out ........for your education."

"Thanks," I said, as our favorite waitress, Sara, approached to take our orders.

With a deep bow and a flourish of her order pad, she asked, "And what will I have the pleasure of serving you two distinguished gentlemen this morning?"

"Okay," I asked . "Who are you and what did you do with the real Sara's body?"

"My dear sirs, the real Sara served President Obama and his guests on Labor Day, and today it is my pleasure to serve you two.........whatever you call yourselves."

"'Distinguished gentlemen' is fine," Buck said. "And by the way, where did President Obama sit for lunch?'

"At this very table and in the very same chair you are sitting in."

"Damn, this is the president's chair?"

"Yes. sir!"

Buck couldn't resist, "What did Obama order?"

Sara picked up a bread knife. "It's a state secret. If I told you, I would have to kill the both of you," she said as she waved the knife in front of  Buck's face."

"Sara," I suggested. "I think you've been working here too long. Maybe it's time to graduate and move on."

"Hey, I served the President of the United States. I don't have to take any  sh......abuse from you guys."

"Whoa, hold on there,Sara," Buck said.  "We're on your side. Don't let my friend here upset you. You realize, I'm sure, he doesn't have my savoir faire."

"Hey, I need your orders. I have other loyal customers to take care of."

After we ordered and Sara disappeared into the back room, Buck asked, "Did you get one of those damn robo-calls from Paul Ryan?"

"No, I doubt I'm on that list."

"I'd like to get off of it. I've been a Republican all my life, but I have serious doubts about Romney and Ryan. Candidates who are willing to lie during the campaign should not be elected. In this robo-call today, Paul Ryan said: 'Obama is raiding $716 billion from Medicare, changing the program forever.' How many times have independent sources pointed out that this is a lie? Obamacare is projected to save that much money by eliminating inefficiencies. And Ryan is the guy who has spent a political career attacking Medicare and other social programs. Now, all of sudden, he is acting like he wants to save it. Give me a break."

"Well, Romney and the Republicans knew what they were going to get when they chose him. He always was a follower of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of the economic survival of the fit. "

"It's not just his philosophy, although I disagree with it," Buck continued. "It's the blatant lies. Did you hear his speech at the Convention in Tampa. Almost every paper in the country identified five or six blatant lies in it. He was hypocritical enough to blame the President  for the nation's credit downgrade in 2011.In fact the downgrade came about because he and the Republicans were threatening to default on our debt."

" I did read his speech," I said, "and I know he was flat-out wrong about President Obama closing a GM plant in Wisconsin. First of all, contrary to what Paul said, Obama never promised to keep it open, and secondly, the plant was closed when George W. Bush was president. I guess that makes two lies in one statement."

"Unfortunately, his speech was riddled with lies like that. I'm ashamed to admit that we belong to the same party. This new element that has taken over the Republican Party is scary. They don't represent me and other regular Republicans. One has to wonder what Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, or Barry Goldwater would think of what their party has become."

Buck, I fear,  is a man without a party.