Tag Archives: 2012

The Soldiers Return, the Soldiers Vote

Posted on by

All the left-over hubbub about Iowa yesterday left me thinking about a truck that drove by on a freeway near Dallas with white-washed lettering splashed across its rear cab window.  It was not a new truck.  It had the weathered look of real work.  The driver was not displaying his support for a team involved in the high school football playoffs.  Instead, the ghostly lettering proclaimed, “Welcome home!  Merry Christmas!”  On either side of the window, a red and gold decal of the Marine Corps framed the message.

I have no idea how the returning soldier population and their immediate families are going to vote in this year’s election.  I wonder if any or all of them will remember that Barack Obama brought them home from the useless and costly lie that was Iraq.  I think about those who died, were maimed or are now psychologically impaired, and I am thankful that Obama defeated John McCain.  Had he been elected, McCain would not have ended Iraq and might have expanded military operations there.  That is what military men do. Continue reading →

Rick of the Saints

Posted on by

It seems so long ago that in the 1960 presidential election a Catholic candidate was fighting for his political life.  John F. Kennedy won by a whisker, fending off religious bigots.  Probably 75 percent of the country has been born since then and Catholicism no longer matters, for the most part, to a vast majority of voters.  It means more to people today that Mitt Romney is a Mormon, yet it says as much that a Catholic, Rick Santorum, might be the choice of evangelical Christians when the conservative wing of the Republican Party makes its stand in the South against Romney – whose forebears were the ones who feared Kennedy the most.

The fact that the South might block Romney’s push for the nomination says more about the Catholic Church than it does about the Republican presidential circus.  That a Catholic candidate like Santorum (whose name in Latin means “of the saints”) is so right-wing in his philosophy tells us how the Church has changed – and how it intends to grow its role in national political affairs.  Continue reading →

After Iowa, a GOP for the Future?

Posted on by

Iowa Republicans today will begin to decide which version of the Republican Party will prevail for this election year but more so the immediate future.  Not really understanding how the world has changed around them, Republicans have allowed anger to walk them into a social and demographic trap.  In almost every way, Republicans do not understand that their perception of the world does not remotely comport with reality – and that most people are tired of nastiness. Continue reading →

Eleven Months of Dithering?

Posted on by

So as the new year starts, where do we stand?  It seems like things are poised to stay about the same or get worse.  Nothing on the horizon suggests that the economy will start moving again on its own.  All of the long-term factors and components of a changed structural economy are in place and will remain in place for a long time, mimicking an economy in recession.  What is true this week was true last week.  And with Congress dithering on the payroll tax cut extension and undecided on continuing aid to the long-term unemployed, the signs are not encouraging.  Add to that the presidential campaign that officially starts tomorrow in Iowa and that will not be resolved for another 11 months – tempting businesses in and outside the United States to hold back from investing in their own growth.  Hard to make a new year’s resolution to remain optimistic.  However: Continue reading →

Etched in Stone: The Mayan End of Time

Posted on by

A year from today on Dec. 21, 2012, time in our world is going to end.  This is attributed to the Mayan astronomers and priests who are not around to explain themselves, much less to defend their letting us in on the secret of an attendant possible demise.  What a really nasty thing to do, letting people know months ahead that the end is near.  Like knowing that your beloved pooch is going to get run over by a car next year.  Hurtful and insensitive.

Continue reading →

From W to Newt: Downward, Ever Downward

Posted on by

I remember watching George W. Bush on television at one of his first group meetings with foreign leaders.  It was a NATO summit meeting of European leaders in Brussels six months after he took office.  As the leaders gathered for the traditional group picture, they stood around the nervous President of the United States, who at one point looked up and behind him to laugh at something one of the leaders had said.  In that split second, Bush looked like a lost schoolboy, out of his element.  I will never forget the thought I had then.

This country is rich – rich enough to squander the Presidency.

Any country that would elect a neophyte and a person so lacking in intellectual depth was presumptuously wealthy enough to risk the Presidency on someone whom I was convinced would be a disaster.  I had only a clue from someone who knew him how much of a debacle was at stake.  Now we all know.  The same thought came to me as I watch the spectacle of today’s Republican presidential candidates.

Continue reading →

No Newt is a Good Newt

Posted on by

A cardinal rule in politics holds that you cannot beat somebody with nobody.  Another rule becomes operational when the first rule is violated:  Political animals roam the landscape in search of a political void.  Another reality is that journalism is not dead – meaning no one should crown Newt Gingrich just yet.

Continue reading →

All for Newt, Newt for All

Posted on by

Sometimes what passes for political reporting from Washington swamps the senses.  A report in one of the nation’s leading newspapers suggests that New Gingrich has built a network to make inroads into the HispanicLatino vote.  Goodness.  That is news.  Gingrich does not have an organization in Iowa and cannot pull together a full slate of delegates for the caucuses to vote on, but, by gosh, he has a network within the HispanicLatino population.  Yes, and peanuts turn into gold if you stare at them long enough. Continue reading →

Texas: Justices, Help Turn History Back

Posted on by

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his fellow justices are being asked to stop redistricting maps in Texas drawn by three federal judges who voided the plan of the state Legislature.  The three judges concluded state lawmakers purposefully diluted the strength of minority populations.  The 2010 Census confirmed that minorities provided the vast majority of the state’s demographic growth since 2000.  Scalia oversees appeals from Texas.  The Court’s response could be instructive to other states.

Continue reading →

A Different Kind of Tea Party

Posted on by

My tea this morning is perfect.  As Premier of China and head of government and the State Council, I seldom get a bad cup of tea.  The intra-party struggles have been resolved.  We seem to be managing that burst of inflation that reared its head in the economy.  Our balance of payments continues to grow spectacularly in our favor.  Things are fine.  We need to open up credit a bit more, but generally we are on our way.  Why do I feel so odd, then?

Continue reading →