Elect From The Floor
Filed under: Elections, National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
This year’s Republican National Convention scheduled to start on August 27th in Tampa, Florida will decide who will be its presidential candidate. And surprise, surprise, it will not be any of the candidates currently seeking nomination.
It is becoming more and more obvious to those Republicans who have been studying the Republican campaign for the nomination of the president of the United States that the current roster of candidates has been unable to capture the hearts and minds of the primary voters. Mitt Romney is a perfect example. Romney has been campaigning for the nomination ever since Barack Obama won the presidency in November 2008 but he can’t seem to convince more than 25% of the primary electorate that he’s their man. Newt Gingrich has more baggage than a Sherpa and every day he keeps adding it on. The last report is that Gingrich received $1,800,000 as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac in 2006, as that organization attempted to persuade Congress not to dismantle it.
The rest of the roster are in single digits even Ron Paul the gadfly who really shouldn’t be running on the Republican ticket but rather should lead a third party campaign. If he did, considering the anger of the electorate he just might capture 25% in a general election.
So for me there is only one solution for the Republican Party, nominate a candidate from the convention floor. Just a small reminder, one of our greatest presidents, and a Republican, was nominated after a tough convention floor vote, Abraham Lincoln.
My Blind Right Eye
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, National Party Politics, Roger Madon, Social Commentary, Terrorism, U.S. Economics, United States at War
The Army medical officer was searching for my name and found it. “Madon” he barked “1Y!” “What’s 1Y, Sir?” “You can’t see crap out of your right eye. We’ll call you when we need you” with a somewhat softer voice. And I was gone.
The year was 1968 and the Vietnam War was raging. I had already served my country for 2 years in the Peace Corps and now I was being called to serve again in the War Corps. American streets were on fire and the Viet Cong flag, not the American flag, was flying at the head of every protest march. Mothers and fathers knew that their sons were going off to fight a war that had more to do with President Johnson’s progressive desire to keep the dollars flowing into his Great Society program than to beat the Communists in some far flung Asian redoubt. Ships from all over the world, including our own allies, were porting into North Vietnam’s Haiphong harbor unloading material designed to kill and maim our young American boys. President Johnson refused to ratchet up the war and bomb the harbor for fear of bringing in the Chinese. But worse by dedicating the necessary resources and developing a winning strategy to beat the Viet Cong quickly and decisively he would diminish his Great Society program and thereby wound him politically. Mothers and fathers of draft age sons sensed this corruption and did everything they could to keep them safe and away from the raging battle. And the disquieting and troubling question I asked myself 43 years ago walking away from that recruiting station at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, N.Y. and into my life is the question I ask myself today, what stopped me from saying to that medical officer, “You need me now?”
Lincoln Brings The Nation Together On Thanksgiving
The day after tomorrow Americans will celebrate what is truly the most revered American holiday, Thanksgiving. During this holiday we think about Pilgrims but in truth we should about Abraham Lincoln and our Civil War.
In January 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all the slaves of the Confederacy. In July 1863 the battle of Gettysburg was fought and won by the North resulting in thousands upon thousands of deaths of young American soldiers. And by the end of that year President Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November. Americans both North and South, seeking only to end this catastrophic war were not necessarily prepared to be thankful for very much.
President Lincoln however saw in this holiday an opportunity to bring the nation together at least for the purpose of providing a sense of hope in the midst of this calamity. At the end of the proclamation Lincoln stated: “And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverance’s and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
Worse Than War
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
And God said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
In the middle of the 20th Century the European people literally wiped the Jews from the continent, six million of them within a period of 5 years. Europe today is cursed what with most of its nations imploding, economically, socially and politically, while the current Muslim minority living in Europe quietly awaits the certainty that it will demographically outnumber the current secular population within the next 40 years. As recently stated by Harvard professor Ruth Wisse, “Jews are the ostensible but not ultimate casualties of the organization of politics against them.” Since it is becoming more than clear should Israel, America’s ally, be destroyed America will be, if it is not already, the next target of the enemy of the Jews. The American people instinctively know this and willingly incline to the needs of Israel a Jewish state and our natural ally. However Obama’s predisposition is to drift from the existential concerns of a free and democratic nation and place greater favor upon those who desire its downfall.
Of course relying on divine proclamations made nearly 3,000 years ago is hardly a substitute of a great nation’s foreign policy. But it assists our understanding of America’s historical presence in the world and its role in its undiminished loyalty to those nations which cling to freedom and justice. It was Reinhold Niebuhr who said that there are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war.
Occupy The Unions
If the current trend continues, within the next 15 years, private sector unions will constitute only 1% of the workforce, if that. And this has everything to do with their support for the Occupy Wall St. protest that is currently going on throughout the United States.
Forty years ago private sector unions represented nearly 30% of the American workforce. Today that number has reduced to a little less than 7% and is trending down. There are a myriad of reasons for this development: the general decrease in manufacturing jobs, the unwillingness of a more educated workforce to delegate one’s economic obligations to less educated representatives, the inability of unions organizing new members by imposing economic sanctions upon reluctant employers due to the development of a more highly technological society, and finally the ability of employers to reduce the cost of production by exporting it to foreign locales.
Private sector unions therefore are so shattered that they feel compelled to join any successful movement willing to accept them in order to regain their once dominant place in America.
The Occupy Wall St. movement constitutes college educated upper middle class white youth and therefore its leaders recognize the movements vulnerability and the real possibility of its stealth socialist agenda being revealed to the somewhat sympathetic American public. It therefore sees unions, especially private sector unions, made up of ethnic and minority constituents, as a necessary ally in order to enhance its already waning popularity. The irony of course is that ultimately when Occupy Wall St. policies and programs are crafted by highly educated, white, socialist activists they will have little to do with the expansion of private sector union membership.
Progressive Hamann Dogma
It was the German philosopher Johann Hamann who said that far from being a pre-condition for truth the absence of contradiction is a pre-condition for dogmatism.
Johann Hamann was an 18th Century philosopher who anticipated the 20th Century progressive contention that individual unalienable natural rights are superseded by government’s definition of what is good and what is true. Today in America we have a president who encourages anticipatory infanticide, the killing of a human being before it escapes a woman’s womb. For those who support the concept that a human fetus as not a human being contend that any other conceptual interpretation is irrational and therefore should be ignored and even better for those that hold such a belief, maligned.
Then there are those you contend that global warming is anthropomorphic, in other words caused by man. Notwithstanding there is not a scintilla of evidence in support of this contention those who object are also maligned as global warming deniers who more than likely also believe that the earth is flat.
Then of course there are those who contend that the theory of evolution is uncontestable and anyone who does contest it is just plain silly. However can we not agree that the theory of intelligent design, the belief that God has directed evolution, is not inconsistent with the scientific theory of evolution?
I suppose what bothers me more than anything about progressive dogma, is just that. It’s dogma.
Failed Treaty
The Non-Proliferation Treaty, open for signature in 1968, is an international agreement whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. I think it’s time to scrap it.
A total of 190 countries have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States of the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. India, Israel and Pakistan refused to sign it and then commenced to build a nuclear weapon. North Korea signed the agreement but after having withdrawn its membership also commenced to build a nuclear weapon. Iran signed the Treaty but now according to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency will probably possess a nuclear weapon within 12 months, or less. So I think we can all agree that the Non-Proliferation Treaty is a failed document. It allows the continued possession of nuclear weapons for those countries that possessed them at the time of the original signing, ignored the development of nuclear weapons for those countries that refused to sign the Treaty or withdrew its signature and effectively ignores at least one country that signed the Treaty, failed to withdraw its membership but currently is building a nuclear weapon anyway.
Based on this tattered history of the Non-Proliferation Treaty I suggest that the Treaty be repealed and that every country who so wishes build as many nuclear weapons as it deems appropriate for its own national interest. Further those countries that possess nuclear weapons should offer such weapons to allies and other friendly nations. For example, the United States should provide nuclear weapons to Poland to protect itself against Russia, Japan to protect itself against North Korea and China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya to protect them against Iran, and so on.
Since nuclear disarmament doesn’t seem to be working perhaps nuclear armament is a far better strategy to keep the peace.
Israel’s Doomsday Bomb
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, Social Commentary, Terrorism
The most important element in the use of a dooms day bomb as a defensive weapon is to advise your enemy, immediately after its acquisition, that you possess one.
Last week the Palestinian Authority succeeded in becoming a member state in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO. Immediately after its admission into UNESCO the Obama administration announced that it was ceasing its annual contribution of 80 million dollars towards that organization. But America’s action of withholding this substantial sum of money from one of the most reprehensible of U. N. organizations will have little effect on the Palestinian Authority’s ultimate goal: To further isolate Israel in the eyes of the world but more importantly to begin to create a false construct of a Palestinian state, thereby providing terrorists a home from which to launch attacks against Israelis living in the occupied territory and then ultimately destroying Israel as a Jewish state. With an ersatz Palestinian state, an Islamist Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, a soon to be liberated Syria, Turkey and a nuclearized Iran, Israel will soon be faced with an Arab/Muslim alliance far too formidable to defeat with its Israel Defense Force alone. Moreover, observing how the U.S. has dealt with Iran’s building of a nuclear bomb, it has become apparent to Israel that relying on the U.S. for its ultimate defense is a failed strategy.
Israel is now left with only one strategy: If attacked by the full force of an Arab/Muslim alliance or if terrorist attacks within Israel reach a level which places into question its existence it must announce a policy of mutually assured destruction, otherwise known as a dooms day bomb.
Cain Under Fire For Sexual Harassment
Filed under: National Party Politics, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary
Every mother teaches her children that the world is a mean and vengeful place. During these last 7 days this lesson has not been lost on Herman Cain candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
Yesterday at a news conference wherein one Sharon Bialek, a discharged employee of National Restaurant Association, nearly 16 years ago when Mr. Cain was then CEO of the Company, revealed that she was sexually assaulted by Mr. Cain while in a parked car. This revelation was made within the context of other, so far unproven and anonymous, charges made throughout the prior week but having to do with sexual harassment not sexual assault.
There are two types of sexual harassment: “quid pro quo” and “hostile environment.” It seems that the sexual harassment charges filed against Mr. Cain involved something more in line with hostile environment. In order for a hostile environment harassment claim to succeed, the conduct-sexual advances or hostile behavior-must be unwelcome, based on gender, and severe or pervasive enough to create an abusive work environment as judged by a reasonable person. I take the liberty in perhaps being a bit of a bore in explaining this because it does have a bearing on how this new charge by Ms. Bialek should be evaluated. At the time the alleged sexual assault occurred Ms. Bialek was no longer an employee of National Restaurant Association and therefore was outside the legal definition of sexual harassment. Therefore what we are dealing with is an alleged sexual assault, which I might add happened 16 long years ago. The American people know that Mr. Cain is not running for county sheriff and that there are a lot of national political interests riding on his candidacy, for and against.
These are times when a grown man, even in his sixties, would like to talk to his mother.
Iran’s Atomic Bomb
Filed under: International Reflections, International War, Presidential Watch, Social Commentary, Terrorism, United States at War
The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency will be issuing a report this week which more than likely acknowledges that Iran has produced an atomic bomb. Is anyone within ear shot surprised?
Last week we learned that Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, and his defense minister Ehud Barak, have developed a complex plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, some of which are underground and all of which are spread throughout various remote locations within the country. We have also learned that the Obama administration has poured cold water on Israel’s plan and has advised Israel that it will not take part in such a plan and will not support Israel should it, so to speak, go it alone.
Following such revelations Iran has through various spokesmen threatened that if Israel attacks Iran, even without U.S. support, ostensible or otherwise, Iran will release its underground network of terrorists currently embedded in the United States. Is anyone surprised at any of this?
Iran’s development of a nuclear bomb has been going on for decades across at least 3 presidential administrations. As much as I dislike President Obama’s fecklessness in addressing this issue from the moment he came on the national scene as a mere candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2007 he had much assistance from the policies of President George W. Bush and President Clinton both of whom actually believed they could talk sense to the Iranians with a dollop of sanctions.
In some perverse way I feel sorry for President Obama. It is a rare moment when a president’s nonsensical and feckless theories of foreign affairs, especially with respect to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, finally catch up with him, while the entire country looks on. But as sorry as I feel for President Obama, for the American people I feel trepidation.
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