Perception Or Reality

The Republican Party (GOP) is really interesting to watch these days; frankly that is an understatement! Two of the parties shining stars are alleged to have been less than ethical in doing the public’s business. I have said many times that “If you follow the money, you will also get the correct answer”. The interesting thing about both of their situations, even though it appears that they did have their fingers in the cookie jar, they stand before us self-righteous pretending not to be crooks. I remember a guy named “Tricky Dick” who did the same thing and we saw how that turned out.

As a result, now the deck gets shuffled because both of these guys are done. Unfortunately, these two, the Golden Boys, were suppose to be the cream of the crop, which means the GOP now has to deal from the bottom of the deck, and my lord there are some really bad cards in the deck. In my view, this is emblematic of the GOP whose mantra is to preach righteousness while they practice deception. Both of the situations that involve these two are simple about “greed”.

Both of these guys had presidential aspirations with strong conservatives support. Could you imagine having men like these two being in the most powerful position in the world? But then, we have seen them before in the likes of, in my view, all of the republican presidents since “Ike” had similar fallacies. And to be honest, we have not had a president in eighty years to think of the middle class and none since Johnson that showed an interest in African Americans.

So let’s look at some of the other cards in the deck where there are the same noise makers being recycled. There is always the possibility of Caribou Barbie, Mr. Huckaberry, Perry, the Cruz Missile, the Cuban, and others just as or more extreme that are in the equation, as prospects who are down-right frightening. But of all of these characters there is one, who is also extreme but the other make him looks like a moderate. Mr. Paul speaks well and has become more seasoned as a politician. However, his past is recorded and that past is ominous.

What concerns me about Mr. Paul, who became a cult figure among libertarians and Tea Party activists, not unlike his father, both known for marching to a different drummer. This republican has little regard for the GOP party line and believes in a philosophy that might best be described as radical individual freedom and privatizing as many functions as possible to reduce government to its barest bones.

In a past interview Paul has said, he could not bring himself to endorse the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "I think there's a lot to be desired in the Civil Rights Act... I haven't read all through it, because it was passed 40 years ago and hadn't been a real pressing issue on the campaign whether I'm going to vote for the Civil Rights Act" suggesting that he might not have voted for it if he was around. In addition, he continued with his view that businesses should not be forced by government to adopt anti-discrimination rules. He had to be dragged into recognizing some of the largest moral achievements of recent American history, while still suggesting that the country should go back to the days of old.

It's simply astonishing in this day and age that a possible nominee for anything would try to breathe life into the long discredited notion that the Constitution might protect an individual business owner's 'right' to exclude customers on the basis of race. Sometimes saying nothing is worst that saying what you really mean but I can hear what he is not saying. This philosophy has the virtue of being easily explainable and the drawback of being impossible. Separate but equal is the remedy for what was not accomplished during the last eight years, which I suppose is the message that he wants to return to those days.

The current federal role did not grow primarily because of the statist ambitions of liberals; it grew in response to democratic choices and global challenges. Federal power advanced to rescue the elderly from penury, to enforce civil rights laws, to establish a stable regulatory framework for a modern economy, and to force by law a wicked system that was designed to suppress the helpless. I might add that these are the same people who benefit from these same government handouts.

There are reasons why movements were necessary and gains achieved. This it is not black people along seeks equality and they have attached women. If you know anything – the worst thing you can do is to scorn a women. Therefore, I am certain they will pay a price in November. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

False Witness

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius does not know that he is stupid. I have repeatedly said that the conservative operatives seem to always find some Negro willing to sell their soul or one that is just plain stupid.

The latest Herman Cain type is retired pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson who recently said President Obama's signature domestic policy achievement Obamacare is "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery." I am really disappointed to hear that a doctor would compare something that helps people to slavery, which was the worst thing in the history of mankind.

Carson, who retired in May from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington that "It is slavery, in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government… It was never about healthcare. It was about control.” He went on to say, "That's why, when this administration took office, it didn't matter that the country was going off the cliff economically, all forces were directed toward getting this legislation passed," naturally the event's 2,000 attendees loved this – sorta like red meat!

He went on to say, "Why did they want to pass it so badly? …socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a Socialist state. That's the problem." I would ask if this supposedly smart man can recall who run the country of the cliff for eight years prior to President Obama. The things the prior president did were far worse than anything done since 2008.

I was taught the character of a man is the company he keeps. Brother Carson has been keeping company with the devil: the GOP and organizations like the Heritage Foundation, the American Family Association, American Values, Liberty Counsel Action, and the same crowd that supports the Tea Party.

He has aligned himself with the like Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Others included House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. To include former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint are also scheduled to speak at the summit.

Carson, who has been mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, continued his attacks on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as well as other policies of the president that began with his comments in February at the National Prayer Breakfast as Obama sat on the dais, which was a so disrespectful.

"Government plays a very important role when, in fact, it believes in the Constitution… When they begin to neglect the Constitution, when they begin to impose their own will." “That's the problem,” he said. My guess is that he has not read the constitution! Yes, the same constitution that labels people of color as three fifths a man. Not since it was written has that language been changed to identify said people of color as full citizens and he dares to suggest publicly the this crowd of his gives one damn about him or us.

Just because you are smart and gifted does not me you are intelligent! Therefore, I say sir – “you bare false witness”. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Meet The Wizards

I like to think I am a fairly well read man and have read newspaper articles about the Master’s of the conservative party and the so-called patriots but not until I saw this video. In the wake of the ongoing government shutdown I would like to introduce you, via this video, to David and Charles Koch. I strongly suggest that everyone see this video to be educated as to who the Koch Brothers are and how they impact your life.

There are crimes and then there are criminals to which I am of the opinion that both must co-exist in order not just become wealthy but to remain wealthy. Thanks to the Supreme Court giving them license to buy America. Please view this documentary about, like the Wizard of Oz, the men behind the curtain. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Somethings Never Change

Arnold Glasgow once said, “The future is the past returning through another gate.” In other words, history repeats itself and just as Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun”. This is particularly evident today in our political environment because, I would argue, America is more divisive than at any time in the country’s history. In fact, the so-called conservatives are actually telling us when the say “We want our country back”.

Just look at the destructive business of justice for example; we see the racially biased war on drugs, stop and frisk, the prison industrial complex that is now a profit entity, and the most destructive law of all - stand your ground. This means people the other hue can “kill you”, if they feel threatened. There is no question, and statistics bear it out, that these policies and laws disproportionately affect African Americans and minorities. It is not much different than the Black Codes or Slave Laws of the past.

Let’s go one step further. The state of race relations is at its worst in a hundred and fifty-years. The American president and in fact all minorities are much maligned and chastised by a newly formed group called the Tea Party, which is nothing more than the new face of the “Klan”. Billionaires have bought and paid for the GOP electing politicians who do their bidding with no regard for American or its people.

Overtime this culture of hatred has appeared in a number of different forms, i.e., slavery, separate but equal, segregation, and Jim Crow. However, what we see today is a new name with the same face of racism. It is easy to see because often times they will quickly say they are not racist or that they have black friends. So beware of the pat on the back as they smile in your face.

There may be some who will disagree but the foundation of this democracy is built on the backs on group or another. Even before African’s were stolen and brought to this country the nation’s forefathers had already begun to annihilate the people who were already on America’s soil, although the complete process was not complete for several hundred years – they were destroyed.

The mindset of these people in the GOP, the so–called Conservatives, and the Tea Party have turned even more dangerous because they have now begun to eat their own, which is a clear indication that the least of thee have no chance. From Nixon to their hero Reagan, to Bush, Bush II, and beyond; the goal has been the same, to protect the rich and destroy all others. Therefore, it appears that it is not black and white anymore; rather it’s rich or poor.

So may question to white America; how does it feel to be a N-word, because we are all N-words now! And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

SHUTDOWN: Snakes In The House

The snake has always been deemed the reptile most associated with evil. I don’t want to sound too biblical but we remember the story of Adam and Eve! So from the very beginning of this Republican ideological conflict within their “Klan” things have intensified since the so-called “Young Guns” arrived. It is obvious they want to destroy America or at least want America to fail, which reminds me of what it must have been like in the years leading to the American Civil War.

This move to shut down the US Government over Obamacare is like “putting pins in a voodoo doll” that looks like President of Obama. By the way, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land and the law takes effect today. This insanity of consequences be damn is just another attempt to damage the legacy of President Obama – if not destroy it. In other words these so-call patriots are nothing more than “terrorists”.

The Tea-party populism has moved quickly to do everything they can to attack and destroy American. Hence, we will see a revolt against the Republican “establishment” or a revolt against anyone who accepts the constraints of a political reality. Conservatives are excommunicated not for holding the wrong convictions but for rational calculations of their convictions.

The U.S. government began a shutdown today for the first time in 17 years after a Congress bitterly divided over President Obama’s signature health-care initiative failed to reach agreement to fund federal agencies. So the so-called “job creators” allowed millions of Americans to be out of work confirms that this is the worst Congress in history. These so-called patriots have declared war on us all.

I don’t like to name names but the generals of the this confederacy have names like Cruz, Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, Cantor, and about twenty crazies hell bent on political disaster have all the virtue of an un-intellectual clown circus.

The impasse means 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed, national parks, monuments and museums, as well as most federal offices, will close. Tens of thousands of air-traffic controllers, prison guards and Border Patrol agents will be required to serve without pay.

In a last-minute ray of hope for active-duty troops, Congress approved and sent to the White House an agreement to keep issuing military paychecks. But Obama warned that the broader economy, which is finally starting to recover from the shocks of the Bush years, would take a substantial hit if congressional gridlock shutters “America’s largest employer.”

“Keeping the people’s government open is not a concession to me. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you ‘give’ to the other side. It’s our basic responsibility,” Obama said in a statement Monday evening at the White House.

Privately, senior Republicans predicted that the closure would last at least a week. A fraction of today’s House Republicans were on Capitol Hill in 1995 and 1996 when a Republican-led Congress last shut down the government in a dispute over the budget with a Democratic president. Younger lawmakers don’t remember the pain the shutdown caused constituents, senior and the poor and many of them now question the conventional wisdom that the closures weakened the GOP presidential candidate in 1996 and nearly cost the party control of the House.

So for all of the folks who support those so-called patriots, who wear the funny hats, pointed or otherwise, will now feel the pain of their insanity. So yes, I’ll say these terrorists or teajadists are snakes in the house. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

THE IMPACT

Divided He Stands

Every so often some fool of color is found that is frankly offensive and in fact a disgrace to his race. We know there have been many overtime and in this case the one that has emerged is cloaked in the guise of a Reverend. The list is long with the likes of Ward Connelly, Allen West, Allen Keys, Herman Cain, Let Elder, Clearance Thomas, and unfortunately so many more. Many of their reputations are despicable to everyone but them and, of course, those of that bigoted ilk.

I came across this man named Jesse Lee Peterson who is president and founder of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), which is an American religious nonprofit organization dedicated to a conservative agenda. He is a Tea Party darling, which means he is a black man who’s sold his sold to the devil or more aptly put a Black Klansman. He has hosted a cable TV program and a syndicated radio talk show.

I had not really heard of him and don’t usually pay much attention to folks of his ilk but after listening to him I was simply floored and embarrassed. Listening to him spew his venom had absolutely nothing to do with God or a ministry of any kind. But then the KKK burns crosses suggesting that their bigotry has something to do with God’s grace. It could be that his ministry is little more than a cult rather than a church. Or just his insanity! He gives credence to the term a sheep in wolves clothing.

I am going to be direct and to the point. For a black man in his middle sixties to have known segregation and racism to say he thanks "God and white people" for slavery adding if it weren't for the slave trade, blacks might have never made it to the promise land and described slave ships as akin to "being on a crowded airplane". This is beyond insanity!!!

A more recent statement that is as troubling is that he says women should not be allowed to vote:

“Women cannot handle power. It's not in them to handle power in the right way. [...] I think that one of the greatest mistakes America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote. We should've never turned this over to women. [...] It was a big mistake. [...] And these women are voting in the wrong people. They're voting in people who are evil who agrees[sic] with them who're gonna take us down this pathway of destruction. And this probably was the reason they didn't allow women to vote when men were men. Because men in the good old days understood the nature of the woman. They were not afraid to deal with it. And they understood that, you let them take over, this is what would happen.”

Peterson once established an annual “National Day of Repudiation of Jesse Jackson” event that was held on a street corner outside his offices in Los Angeles, which received no public attention outside of conservative media. On September 21, 2005, Peterson penned a column for WorldNetDaily, in which he suggested the majority of the African American people stranded in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina were “welfare-pampered", "lazy" and "immoral". Peterson also criticized New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin for blaming President George W. Bush for his lack of response to the crisis, stating that "responsibility to perform legally and practically fell first on the Mayor of New Orleans.

On February 28, 2006, as a member of a student panel discussion at the UC Irvine on a Muslim cartoon controversy, Peterson described Islam as an "evil religion", and stated extremist Muslims "hate us [America] because we are a Christian nation and we support Israel”.

In January 2010, Peterson issued a statement calling for the resignation of Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, saying "Michael Steele is a weak leader and he needs to resign or be fired. We need someone who's not afraid to boldly promote strong conservative Republican ideas. The only reason Steele is still RNC Chair is because he's black and the party is terrified of the implications of firing him."

He has claimed, "Barack Obama hates white people, especially white men" and "Barack Obama is Jeremiah Wright Jr. He is the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus! He embodies the aspirations of every left-wing black group that wants to tear down this country and take power away from the "oppressive" white man. He's not an obvious race hustler like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson; but Obama is a smooth pathological liar with a wicked heart". WOW!!!

I can’t conjure any speech that would allow me to share my opinion of such a fool, and I use that loosely, because my mother taught me that if you can’t say anything good about someone - say nothing at all and saying nothing here speaks volumes. However, I won’t go as far as Brother Malcolm and call him a “House N-Word” but he does remind me of my Uncle whose name is “Tom”. And that’s my thought provoking perspective…

Gone Too Far Rush

The carnival barker Rush Limbaugh offered one of the saddest commentary’s I think I have ever heard over the airwaves. Frankly, his latest outburst lets me know that he has finally lost his damn mind or he has relapsed and reverted back to drugs. I have to question his frame of mind with respect to his rewrite of history. He told his listeners on Monday that “it’s time for this white guilt to end… if any race of people should not have guilt about slavery, its Caucasians.”

The drugster proffered a theory that only lives in his mind or maybe the racist who listen to him. According to Limbaugh, compared to other parts of the world, slavery in America was “by no means…anywhere near the worst.” He went on to say that Native Americans started wars with each other for slaves, and that “Ancient Rome went to war to win more slaves.”

According to Media Matters, Limbaugh closed his argument by saying “despite it all; no other race has ever fought a war for the purpose of ending slavery, which we did. Nearly 600,000 people were killed in the Civil War. It’s preposterous that Caucasians are blamed for slavery when they’ve done more to end it than any other race, and within the bounds of the Constitution to boot. And yet white guilt is still one of the dominating factors in American politics. It’s exploited, it’s played upon, it is promoted, used, and it’s unnecessary.”

Oh, there is more!

Limbaugh made headlines last week for his comments following Zimmerman trial witness Rachel Jeantel’s interview on CNN’s Piers Morgan. During the interview, Jeantel said there was a different meaning to the n-word when it ends in ‘a’ as opposed to ‘er.’ Limbaugh said the n-word ending in ‘a’ on his radio show the following day, adding that because of Jeantel’s statements, the drugster believes he should be able to the N-WORD from now on. Again, he has lost his damn mind and crossed the line!

LAW AND ORDER THEME!!!

With the prevailing discourses of politicians and anti-public intellectuals who believe that the legacy of the Enlightenment needs to be reversed this clown has secured his spot at the top of the list. Politicians such as Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich along with talking heads such as Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Anne Coulter have made outrageous statements but they don’t have the reach of this nut. All are symptomatic of a much more disturbing assault on critical thought, if not rational thinking itself. This language is devoid of power or command of logic and divorced from social responsibility, critical analysis or facts.

I thought the above mentioned were a special kind of like but Rush has taken insanity to a whole nother level! The beauty of his racist views is that big name and small locals companies are dumping his to the tune of about 2700 sponsors so far. Some of the most loyal Rush Limbaugh sponsors, who have ignored protesters for over a year… are now bolting.

These racist rants must stop! So let’s give him a lot of press and say to his sponsors that the drugster must go for the sake of humanity. So use your power through social media to put an end to this clown - by any means necessary. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

Faces Of Dispair

I am a huge fan of America’s favorite past time. You know the game, as they say “happens every spring”. The same could well be said about politics and the conservative’s never ending quest to find some Negro to be virtually the black face of their party. Don’t get me wrong, it is perfectly acceptable for any American to partake and join any political party they desire. We’ve seen a long list of black republicans come along who share the values of the extreme. Are they opportunist or as they were called in the Grio “The GOP's black mad men”.

I would not dare compare or reference any of them to the character in the novel Uncle Tom’s cabin because he was actually the hero of the story. Let me just say that all of these intelligent men must be aware the black people still do not have the permanent right to vote and the Supreme Court will soon render a decision that may weaken what exists. I won’t get into either of those now, but every so many year congress has to reauthorize our right to vote and it was last done in 2006. 

One of these so-called republicans a few years ago, remember Mr. 999, preached to black people that they should pull yourselves up by your boot straps! Well sir that is a very difficult thing to do when you don’t have boots. I use this example to express shame on them because the black man who has done just that is maligned for doing just what he suggests.  

I am not going to go back too far because history has shown that there has always been black people in two camps according to Malcolm X. There were the house Negro and the field Negro. To some this may be difficult to understand but the house Negro was someone so loyal to his owner; the slave master that he had no sense of logic and his devotion was insane. On the hand, the field Negro was whipped, raped, beaten, and treated no different than an animal.  

If I could say to them, respectfully, African American’s were not granted any semblance of civil rights until 1965 and that was 100 years after it was suppose to have been granted after the Civil War. Let me add another piece of history; because the voting rights of each of these black republicans remain suspect, you are still 3/5 a man as the Constitution states - less than a man! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

WARNING: This Is Very Disturbing!!!

I guess every since there have been black people there have been those who are different. One of my subscribers sent me this chilling video and all I can say is this guy takes different to a whole-nother realm! I’ve been taught and affirmed by definition that “insanity is downing the same thing you’ve always down and getting the same result”. I don’t believe that describes sufficiently to what is going on in the mind of this guy. SMH!!!

VERY DISTURBING!!! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

The Heartless Tin Man

There was a football commercial that aired a few years ago where a coach was asked did you know your opponent. The coach’s response was “they were who we thought they were”. The Plutocrat known as the Tin Man has now told us that he is who we thought he was! He could not have been more honest when he said:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…. These are people who pay no income tax.... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Some of Mitt’s supporters say these remarks were stupid and arrogant. I call this a disgrace for a man who could become the leader of the free world. It's worth noting that a good portion of the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes are Romney supporters. These people are seniors, many are lower-income Americans, soldiers, college students, and of course the Tin Man’s friends. So Mitt seems to have contempt not just for the Democrats who oppose him but also half of the American citizens according to him.

This is a guy that can only claim the best part of the Good Ol Boy’s convention was a senile old man talking to a chair. The Tin Man has now shown himself to be a bumbling fool and its time that he and the Boy Wonder be sent back to the Land of Oz because we have now seen the Wizard! It is hard to justify this “not so eloquent statement” as anything other than distain.

I cannot recall a presidential race in modern times that has had so little substance; yet so many untruths that have produced truth. So it seems this statement is devastating only because it shows he is “who we thought he was”! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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Poll Tax Rejected in Florida

A federal judge has said he will permanently remove recently enacted voter registration restrictions in the state of Florida. According to Talking Points Memo, Judge Robert L. Hinkle has declared that he will grant a motion to permanently strike down the new rules once the state of Florida has dropped its case against the federal government in U.S. appeals court.

Voting rights activists have welcomed the decision, which makes permanent an temporary injunction that Hinkle granted in May, in which Hinkle called the restrictions forbidding third party groups from organizing to register voters “harsh and impractical” and said they would impose unnecessary burdens on organizations trying to ensure voter participation.

New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice has issued a press release calling the ruling “a decisive victory for Florida voters.”

“Florida’s anti-voter law created impassable roadblocks for our volunteers, who have been bringing fellow Floridians into our democratic process for over 72 years,” explained Deirdre MacNab, President of the League of Women Voters of Florida, one of the three groups who filed suit against the state in December of 2011. “Thanks to today’s ruling, we can finally put these roadblocks behind us and concentrate on getting Floridians registered to vote. We are grateful the court recognized that the Constitution does not tolerate these types of barriers to civic participation and voter registration.”

The League of Women Voters was joined by Rock the Vote and the Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund in the suit, which was filed separately from a Justice Department inquiry into the stringent new regulations, which have been revealed by a former Republican Party member to be an effort to "keep black people from voting" by conservative Republicans.

As reported by Talking Points Memo

You can read Judge Hinkle’s ruling here (.pdf).

Thankfully there is someone who agrees that what the Republicans are trying to do is no more that a "Poll Tax". And that's my Thought Provoking Perspective...

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Just Saying!

Well the stage is set! Mittman and Robber the conservatives dynamic dual, different from Batman and Robin, will destroy America as appose to saving it. We thought the last republican candidates for president was scary – these two appear to be the nightmare on our street. Maybe I’ll put it this way – these two will make the last republican president look like a girl scout. If they win the election in November – we should be very afraid!!!

This pair of impractical ideologues with excessive confidence in their own moral righteousness could do what the George Wallace and Bull Connor types could only imagine. I am not one to get into the business of giving Godly advice but I think it’s time to pray to your higher power. Since the Boy Wonder is now on the scene, let me just touch on this guy who could be a heartbeat from the throne. I have a feeling a lot more material is coming.

First, Ryan is not a “fiscal conservative.” A fiscal conservative pays for the government he wants. Ryan never has. His early “Roadmap for America’s Future” didn’t balance the budget until the 2060s and added $60 trillion to the national debt. Ryan’s revised plan, passed by the House in 2011, wouldn’t reach balance until the 2030s while adding $14 trillion in debt. It adds $6 trillion in debt over the next decade alone — yet Republicans had the chutzpah to say they wouldn’t raise the debt limit! I remain mystified why President Obama never hammered home this reckless contradiction by insisting that the GOP “raise the debt ceiling just by the amount it would take to accommodate the debt in Paul Ryan’s budget.”

Ryan is an extreme “small government conservative.” Ronald Reagan ran government at 22 percent of gross domestic product when our population was much younger. Ryan and Romney want to run government at 20 percent of GDP even as the number of Americans on Social Security and Medicare doubles.Even if we slow these programs’ growth, it’s impossible to shrink the federal role in an aging society this sharply without eliminating vast swaths of what Americans have come to expect from government — not to mention shortchanging already lagging investments in research and development and infrastructure. Over time, Ryan’s “vision” would decimate most federal activities beyond Social Security, Medicare and defense.

As an African American who knows what America was like not too long ago. It was the liberals agenda that created the enduring achievements of civil rights to environmental laws to Medicare out of boldness and compassion. Ask yourself a few questions and carefully consider the consequences.  How can Ryan justify his Medicaid cuts when, as the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found, they would likely leave 14 million to 19 million poor people without health coverage? 

How can he justify tax proposals that, as The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis pointed out, would reduce the rate on Mitt Romney’s rather substantial income to less than 1 percent? How can he claim his budgets are anti-deficit measures when, as The Post’s Matt Miller has noted, his tax cuts would add trillions to the debt and we wouldn’t be in balance until somewhere around 2030?

Finally, the Boy Wonder wants to cut Social Security, yet he was raised on it. Ironic isn’t it that you have paid your money into it and he wants to take it away or hope you die before you can use it. There’s a belief in some quarters that the world will end, as the Mayan’s predict, on December 21, 2012. I predict that if these two win in November – the world might just as well have ended for millions of middle class Americans. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

THE INTERVIEW

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We're getting ready!

The Right is Wrong

I was an early supporter of Barrack Obama long before anyone would outwardly conceive the notion that he could possibly be president of these United States. I was not behind him because he would be the first Black President rather because I am an American and from the choices available – he was the best and only choice. After living though about a dozen presidents this man was then and is now the only hope to address the issues concerning my life.

I said, on November 4th, when Mr. Obama won the election and again on that amazing day in January when he was inaugurated that “he was going to have a Columbus Experience”. What I meant by that was he was going to discover America. Having a black man as president of America was the most significant event to happen since the resurrection of “Jesus”. No one living or dead ever thought America (with its horrible racial history) would EVER elect a black man President.

Now, for all of you who want or wanted to believe we are now living in a post-racial society and all is right racially with the world, you can now see that as much as things change – they stay the same. I can speak from what I have witnessed in my life. I attended segregated schools and it inspired me to want to be an American, even when I was being degraded and humiliated by America as a “Colored Boy”.

I then did what my hero Muhammad Ali advocated against by joining the military and served in Vietnam. Ali made a famous quote at the time that spoke volumes. He said, “I have no quarrel with the Viet Cong”. Just as African Americans have done during every war I was part of a cause that I really had nothing to do with or anything to gain from it. Because the reality is that war is about money not freedom but I was conditioned like so many before me to be patriotic.

When I think about how America tries to impose their will upon others there are war monger ready to see young people die. I asked myself why these hawks, the Grand Ol Party (GOP), who are fervently Christian and believe in the right to life so strongly support wars. Some talk about secession, calling for a new Civil War, waking a sleeping giant, questioning the president’s birth and citizenship, people bringing guns to his rallies while knowing this countries horrible history of assignations, calling the president a Nazi, a Socialist, and frankly everything but the “N-word”. The answer might be because an elephant has a brain the size of a peanut.

Frankly, it is hard to find fault in what this president has done during his term. He brought the country back from the abyss unless and one could say saved the Republic. Could it be that those who oppose him have a brain the size of a peanut? I don’t speak for the African American community or anyone - but me. I have lived through and witnessed bigotry via segregation and Jim Crow. And what I see today is not too different!

I have witnessed the appalling darker angels of America’s past and when “THEY” speak of the party of ideals and degrade America’s Commander in Chief – there is nothing ideal about it. We have a long history to demonstrate what their ideals are but if we stand strong behind and with our best hope, our President, by lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness – we, he will overcome. I say, reelect him to another term. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

The Book Tree Radio Show is Back!

We heard you, and we’re on our way back to the internet airwaves! On Wednesday, September 5^th at 8:00 PM (EST), The Book Tree Radio Show is pleased to announce its re-launch on BlogTalkRadio!

http://johntwills.com

Joe McCarthy in Lipstick

My thing is history and I like to write about it in the sense that empower those who either don't know it or believe what is recorded in what I call “His-Story”. As we witness the “silly season” of politics I find myself having an opinion on what is represented to us. Having been part a group that has historically been discriminated I know and understand that Freedom of speech is the most precious right we have as Americans. However, there are people on the “right” who produce such vitriol that it is so extreme that it falls into the category of “insane”.

We know much of what the so-called Real American’s say about the president is grossly untrue but it is not exclusive to the president. They will do this to anyone they believe do not agree with their agenda and we know that agenda is very harmful and dangerous to the least of thee.

Some of the comments made by these folks harkens back to a time when “Jim Crowe was the law of the land. I can remember what they call the good old days and those days were not that good. Now, some of the speech out there, by this group comes very close to the era of Senator Joe McCarthy’s witch hunt in the 1950’s that ruined so many people wrongly.  

The comments by  recently, for example, remind me of that sad time in the country’s history. He most recent were so extreme and dangerous that even her follow republicans feel the same way – if not to say nearing insane. He former campaign manager has joined the bipartisan chorus criticizing the Minnesota Republican for alleging that a State Department aid has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Ed Rollins said, “There is little that amazes me and even less that shocks me. I have to say that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s outrageous and false charges against a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin reaches that threshold… Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest”.

Her former campaign manager went further to demand that Bachmann apologize for the letter, which was signed by four other GOP lawmakers. He went on to say “Having worked for Congressman Bachman’s campaign for president I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level”.

For those who don’t know who McCarthy is; Joe McCarthy falsely made claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies inside the State Department in the early 1950’s to which the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy on two counts. Bachmann’s unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme, dishonest, and rises to that level. 

Fellow Republicans like Senator John McCain, an American hero, stood on the floor of the Senate Wednesday and condemned Bachmann, if not by name then by her actions:

“These allegations about Huma and the report from which they are drawn are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman, a dedicated American and a loyal public servant… Shame on you, Michele! You should stand on the floor of the House and apologize to Huma Abedin and to Secretary Clinton and to the millions of hard working, loyal, Muslim Americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. As a devoted Christian, you need to ask forgiveness for this grievous lack of judgment and reckless behavior.”

Senators in her own party, congressional candidates, a lawmaker in her state’s delegation and leaders of the House Republican Conference are all lambasting Bachmann for saying this woman has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Speaker John Boehner said, “I don’t know Huma, but from everything I do know of her, she has a sterling character… And I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.”

Bachmann’s accusation came in a handful of letters to intelligence and national security agencies raising questions about the Muslim Brotherhood to which four other Republicans signed accusing her late father of having ties to the Brotherhood. Sen. Scott Brown added: “Rep. Bachmann’s accusations about Sec. Clinton aide Huma Abedin are out-of-line. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse.”

Bachmann elaborated during an interview Thursday with conservative radio host Glenn Beck; “She is the chief aide … to the Secretary of State,” Bachmann said of Abedin. “And we quoted from the document, and this has been well reported all across Arab media, that her father, her late father who is now deceased was a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, her brother was a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and her mother was part of what’s called the Muslim Sisterhood.”

Former New Jersey GOP Gov. Christine Todd Whitman wrote in POLITICO’s Arena, that “the sort of unfounded attack unleashed by Congresswoman Bachmann and her [colleagues] brings back painful memories of a low point in our history.”

Former Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, a recently retired Florida Republican, said “Michele means well but she sometimes doesn’t let proven facts get in the way of a possibility of having national television coverage.” Brown-Waite added, “Michele would be better served by having competent staff to check out these accusations before she goes out there sometimes appearing to be a ‘bomb thrower,’”

In making statements like this and others she remains a top House fundraiser, bringing in $1.8 million in the second quarter, bringing the total in her campaign account to $1.72 million. At this point in the previous cycle, she had $2.4 million on hand.

This behavior is like going back to the future (meaning reliving America’s dreadful past). The problem here is lies to support bigotry causes more harm than good and as it appears with the actions to suppress the vote or the twenty first century “Pole Tax”. What next – public lynching’s of minorities? And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

http://johntwills.com

Legacy – A New Season the sequel is now available on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HJRPE0

NAACP in HOUSTON

This week in Houston there was a big celebration called the NAACP Annual Convention. I framed the statement this way because there was an AG, VP, and a NUT who spoke at the gathering. There were cheers, jeers, and boo’s.

By all accounts the Vice President stole the show as he rallied support for the President before the nation's largest civil rights organization. Well the guy the Good Ol’ Boys are trying to get behind proclaimed he was the only one to do for African Americans what the president has failed to do for working families in the black community.

On the other hand, the VP a stand in for the Prez drew cheers as he credited Obama for championing a landmark health care law, launching the mission that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and stepping in to rescue the financial system and U.S. automakers General Motors and Chrysler. This was quite a contrast to the man with two faces who gave the impression he was in a friendly environment – talking about Willard!

I have to say, Willard showed guts by walking into the lion’s den, so to speak,  but he should have known that we don’t believe he will do more for African-Americans than Obama, the nation's first black president, and that’s when he was booed started! I would the few cheers that Willard got were from people who he either brought with him or they were bused in.

He made the statement that he'd repeal Obama's sweeping health care reform law and more boo's came. In the first place, he disrespected the audience when he called the most sweeping initiative of the president’s career – "Obamacare". Did he not know this was, to us, a code word that the bigots use to further take away things that benefits our community?

The AG was there the day before speaking about the travesty of voter suppression that is coming from Willard’s gang – you know the Tea Baggers and Good Ol’ Boy’s that fund and support him, whose agenda would hurt black families as it always has. Maybe I should put it this way – there are fundamental different visions of reality when you look at the two camps, which I believe this election will come down to character, conviction and vision and that would be Obama/Biden.

Obama did not speak to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this year, appearing instead in a taped video message. In the brief remarks, Obama said: "I stand on your shoulders and at the NAACP you have always believed in the American promise." He reiterated many of the themes of his re-election campaign, saying the nation needs to "build an economy where everyone can have the confidence that the hard work will also pay off." The president said he was sorry he couldn't be there in person.

Black voters are a key part of Obama's re-election strategy, with about 95 percent supporting him in 2008. Polls have shown black voters supporting Obama at comparable levels this year but Romney could undercut the president in states such as North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and Florida, all of which have large black communities, if he can persuade some black voters to support him or if they stay home on Election Day. Dream on!

In Obama's absence, Biden offered a fiery defense of administration policies while warning of what a Romney presidency would bring to civil rights. He asked attendees to "imagine" what the Justice Department would be like under a Romney administration and "imagine when his senior adviser on the Constitution is Robert Bork," the Republican Supreme Court nominee who was defeated by Democrats in 1987. Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.

Biden received sustained applause throughout his address. When he spoke about civil rights and administration efforts to expand voting rights and not diminish them, the crowd stood up and loudly cheered. When Biden said, "Did you think we'd be fighting these battles again?" People in the crowd answered in unison, "No."

I am not going to preach to the choir but I will say Willard’s speech was long on “BS” and as is his character short on substance. Mitt don’t you and the Klan know that people of color have seen what the republicans represent. They, the GOP, remind me of that gang of terrorists who carry burning crosses, wear white robes in the middle of the night, and call themselves the “real Americans”. Hmmm and that’s my Thought provoking Perspectives…

http://johntwills.com

Legacy – A New Season the sequel is now available on Kindle with the hard copy released July 20th. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HJRPE0

The Obama Effect - Theatrical Trailer

Romney’s Bain

I am an uncompromising history fanatic and some call me an expert, but I prefer to say I am one who seeks the truth. While we live in an era when so much history is being made we should be excited for the time in which we live. Last week, for example, we witnessed the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the president’s signature legislation the health-care law the Good Ol’ Boys call Obamacare. This was the most profound piece of legislation since the “New Deal”.

So let's talk about Romney and his past. He started and built the venture capital and asset-management firm which was nothing more than a money-making machine. So what’s wrong with that? Well Bain Capital is a company that doesn’t and has never made anything; it invests. It spots trends, looks at promising companies tapping into those trends and then stakes its capital on improving a company, using Bain's sector and financial experts to, as they say, help company’s get over a capital shortage or help it expand.

The companies that Bain identified and invested in, and not in a small way, while Romney was at the helm, were Microsoft, Stream Global Services, ModusLink, and StatsChipPac. These companies are now among the biggest outsourcing companies in the world, with call centers, factories and facilities, mostly in Asia, but also across the globe, that support U.S. high-tech companies. The mission of these companies was to help big U.S. companies outsource and offshore. And let me add that this strategy was and is designed to support a low wage business model.

Even his own Republican cohorts like Newt Gingrich said: “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” Then slick Rick of Texas said: “There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business. I happen to think that that is indefensible.”

So if he can be eaten by his own, who by the way does not appear to think much of his thinking, raise the issue - then why can’t President Obama raise the issue? Frankly, the president should have done so during the debate on financial regulatory reform. I should say there’s nothing inherently wrong with private equity, which plays an important role in the economy. Let me add that there’s nothing wrong with wealth and those who risk their capital in private-equity ventures should be rewarded when those deals pay off.

Romney himself acknowledges that the free markets need rules and regulations in order to function and we know certain dealings are prohibited and should be criminal like insider trading. So it is reasonable to ask whether some highly leveraged buyout deals, of the kind that Bain and other private-equity firms often conduct, should fall into the same thumb-on-the-scale category as insider trading.

Suppose a company is failing and appears beyond rescue. Suppose a private-equity firm buys the company with borrowed money, burdens it with more debt, and then spends the next few years firing workers, selling assets, eliminating pension plans — all while collecting handsome “management fees.” If you can recall losses at the nation’s largest and supposedly best-run bank, JPMorgan Chase — at least $2 billion and perhaps much more.

This is what Rick Santorum said in March: “I heard Governor Romney here called me an economic lightweight because I wasn’t a Wall Street financier like he was. Do you really believe this country wants to elect a Wall Street financier as the president of the United States? Do you think that’s the kind of experience we need? Someone who’s going to take and look after, as he did, his friends on Wall Street and bail them out at the expense of Main Street America?”

If you read my thoughts and words you know I don’t think much of the GOP or their henchmen but I agree with Santorum in this instance where I have to ask the question is this the guy we want to be president. I will go further and say Romney’s personality traits remind me of the “Robber Barons” of old. I would suggest that this so-called “Job Creator” needs to go offshore where he and his buddy’s send jobs.

Would he do this to the American Treasury and the American people if he were to become president? I say, yes! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

http://johntwills.com