American Rights Archives - Page 3 of 4

Invisible Mitt Romney at the Democratic National Convention?

September 5, 2012 T. Whit

steaming-pile Now that the Republican National Convention is finished, we are left wondering what the heck just happened. It seems all the DNC needs to do now is to try not to feature a senile rant at an empty chair. Who knows what this convention has up its sleeve? It seems we as a nation have lost grip with reality, and in many cases, sanity.

Why is it that so many people are so loyal to one party or the other? It’s as if the political parties are family and they cannot fathom disloyalty to that party, even when that family member lies, cheats, and steals. For some reason so many feel that they still need to defend a political party, along with every bit of their platform, with their last breath.

The real question I have is why did the Republican National Convention find it so important to blatantly lie to the party’s faithful? The unapologetic lies should disgust anyone with a shred of decency. Sure, more than just Republicans heard some of what was said at the RNC, but the message at these conventions is aimed at energizing the Republican base. And shouldn’t their base hear facts from their leaders?

Politicians have always twisted the truth or omitted some information in order to make a point (or a sound byte). But it seems like they used to take some pride in having some measure of truth in their speeches. Now, they’re just making up lies and hoping no one catches them in order to justify their viewpoint. Then they scramble for excuses when they are called out on those lies.

Why are they doing this? Either they are trying to deceive their own supporters—people who are already planning to vote for them, or they are either so incompetent or lazy that they can’t be bothered with ensuring the veracity of their own speeches. If a person can search “closed auto plants”, that person should also be able to check what year that plant closed, and who was president at the time. Or if time is short, just typing Factcheck.org can help save some fumbling and backpedalling later.

Since I can’t handle the idea of listing all the lies that were told at the Republican National Convention, you might want to check out one of the fact checking websites to get an idea. They are able to be diplomatic and call it “exaggeration” and “misleading” instead of “stinking mounds of manure”.

I am really hoping that the Democratic National Convention takes the same appalled view I had of the Republican’s convention and decides to take the high road. It seems that America needs to be reminded that President Obama took the reins at one of the worst economic times in America’s history, and that his attempts at bipartisanship were met with scorn, and his compromises were met with anger from both sides of the aisle. He has accomplished much, and those things he could not accomplish were because Republicans blocked him so many times—even on legislation they were previously in favor of, and on legislation that was favored by the majority of Americans, regardless of party affiliation. Perhaps they just need to be reminded that the Republicans’ number one priority for the past four years has been making sure President Obama doesn’t receive a second term in office.

They say fight fire with fire, but I am not sure how to fight bat shit crazy. However, I think if we can all donate a chair to a progress-blocking representative, we can let them shout at it for the next few years while we try to continue to repair the horrible damage they did to America and the rest of the world.

Flipping the Issue on Women’s Health Care

August 28, 2012 T. Whit

people-politico-i-want-you At times I find myself amazed, confused and simply dumbfounded by the sheer amount of ignorant rhetoric that is spewed out by our politicians in defense of idiotic, sexist, racist, and amoral political ideals and political policies.

The particular political issue that has gained so much ground is the recent attack on women’s health care and health services. It boggles my mind that so many can so easily dismiss decades of health care advances. It seems ridiculous to even suggest some of these things let alone honestly campaign and push legislation to legitimatize these fringe ideas.

However, I realized that maybe it doesn’t seem insane to those that cannot comprehend women’s health care or the system that so many have tried so hard to get in place for them. Even with all of these health services, women’s health falls way behind that of men’s health care. There’s a debate about whether rape victims should receive care but erectile dysfunction is covered without question in men’s health care.

So I thought if we flipped the political issue around, maybe then it would help give us a more appropriate perspective. I find that looking at the other side of things can often help to give a valuable point of view.

Men’s Health Care – Draining a Nation

For far too long we have wasted billions of dollars on insurance premiums for men’s health care. There are several areas I can identify which would save us all money.

End Vasectomies

Not only are vasectomies an affront to the natural order of things they are also incredibly costly. Vasectomies are so common that anyone can stop by their doctor’s office, grab a vasectomy, and then head off to a weekend of infidelity or even (shall I say it?) responsible sex. If we pass legislation to severely limit, and in many cases eliminate vasectomies, we will not only be saving a lot of money each year, we will also be able to stop the deviant behavior of men who have easy access to vasectomies. Men should not be having sex except to procreate anyway, so why is this procedure necessary?

In the extreme case that a man does want a vasectomy, the option could still possibly be available, perhaps in a more “liberal” state. After taking a class about the hazards of vasectomies, the patient would need to submit to a trans-rectal proctologic ultrasound exam to determine his health and sign a form indicating that he agrees that he is a horrible person for taking charge of his own reproductive future.

Stop Wasting Our Money On Drugs

For far too long, we as a nation have subsidized our male neighbors’ drug habits. We must, once and for all, put an end to the distribution and use of erectile dysfunction medication. Erectile dysfunction is a contrived term by the drug industry to push drugs out to millions of men.

Insurance companies should no longer cover this drug and people with erectile dysfunction should be classified properly as sex addicts in need of rehab. If they are found to have legitimate issues, and aren’t just dirty sluts, then it’s just a sign from “on high” that they shouldn’t be so immoral.

Make It Illegal for Businesses to Cover Men’s Birth Control

Even though very few men take on the responsibility themselves to have birth control, there are a few that do, and science may someday make it easier. For those few who do take their reproductive responsibility seriously, we need to make sure that they have an incredibly difficult time getting insurance, and if they do it should be very expensive for them. Insurance companies should pay for the birth and care of their unplanned children instead of the vastly cheaper cost of preventing unwanted pregnancy.

Stop Covering the Treatment and Management of STD’s

Let’s face it; if a guy gets an STD, he deserves it. Because he was obviously acting irresponsibly and he got what he deserves. However, the poor woman who gave him the STD should have the treatment covered by insurance. As mentioned earlier, men are dirty sluts, but women… well, girls will be girls, am I right?

Sexual Education

All sexual education programs need to be eliminated. Millions are wasted every year helping to teach men sexual education and sexual responsibility.

The best way to handle this topic that no one wants to talk about is to pretend it doesn’t exist. If sex doesn’t exist then we do not need to teach our children about it. We can just handle it like that troublesome evolution thing: put your fingers in your ears and say, LA LA LA! That should take care of it.

Outlaw All Sexual Adult Establishments

When it comes right down to it, all of the above problems can be totally avoided if there is nothing to enable this sick, deviant behavior of a sexually active male. We all know that if there were no gentlemen’s clubs, pay per view channels, or triple fold outs in magazines there would be nothing to worry about.

So as long as we make sure to criminalize PG-13ish content and above we will no longer be enabling men to cause this tremendous burden on our society. And our country will be saved. Be sure to encourage violent behavior in our young males, however. After all, they will need to blow off some steam.

To The Ladies

And don’t you worry, women of America. You are the favored gender. You are entitled to all the health care you could ever ask for, all the drugs to increase your pleasure, and there is no question that you have the right to make decisions about your body, your health, and your future. Of course, those choices are between you and your doctor! The government would never dream of interfering with these decisions. It’s the men that are the problem. We have to keep those dirty sluts in line.

2012 Presidential Debate Schedule

August 7, 2012 T. Whit

The Presidential Debates have been scheduled and their formats and topics have been chosen for the 2012 Presidential Election season.

I always look forward to these Presidential Debates because we get to see what the candidates are going to say and they are put on the spot, and face to face, with all of the political rhetoric that they have been firing at each other for months. Not only do they have to answer the questions that are presented by the debate moderator they often slip these other counter points into their responses. More often than not it seems to draw the presidential candidates into a more real and genuine response instead of those that are tailored by their publicist.

The Republicans have Mitt Romney as their candidate this year and I really do not feel that he is going to be up to the challenge of truly and honestly competing with President Obama at the podium. These Presidential Debates should be very interesting and unless Mitt Romney begins to truly solidify his platform beyond the catch phrases he is going to be in a world of trouble come these Presidential Debates.

I have discussed these Presidential Debates with many others and they seem to feel that though President Obama will likely dominate the Presidential Debates they are not going to be nearly as interesting as they might have been with Rick Perry or Herman Cain. Both of which have incredibly interesting personalities which may have been far more entertaining. What are your thoughts on these debates?

Regardless of who you are supporting in the upcoming elections it is important to watch these as they should help you forge your opinions come the general election. Mitt Romney is going to have to get studying and practicing for these debates because he is going up against a skilled and seasoned challenger who many agree is a master of debating.

2012 Presidential Debate Information

The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the formats for the 2012 presidential and vice presidential debates, each of which will be 90-minutes long. Moderators will be selected in August.

First presidential debate: October 3, University of Denver, Colorado: Domestic issues, questions selected by moderator.

Vice presidential debate: October 11, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky: Domestic and foreign issues, questions selected by moderator.

Second presidential debate: October 16, Hofstra University, Hampstead, N.Y.: Town-hall meeting format with questions from undecided voters.

Third presidential debate: October 22, Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida: Foreign issues, questions selected by moderator.

Make sure to tune and and watch these important debates Presidential Debates. We often get some real insight into what and who these presidential candidates are and what their platforms and plans are for the United States of America for the next four years. Even more importantly, we often see who is not going to be up to the challenge of being the President of the United States.

Socialism is Not a &!%# Bad Word

July 12, 2012 T. Whit

people-politico-happy-socialist-people It’s strange how we allow ourselves to be manipulated and convinced that something that is at the very core of humanity is somehow bad, somehow evil. Since the dawn of propaganda, political leaders have been turning innocuous words into words with unsavory connotations. But twisting a word around for your own political purposes, and therefore misleading people about the idea that word represents, just stifles communication.

In this era of sound bites and quick headlines, it seems we have diluted politics and our extremely complicated social and political issues down to labels, and one of those labels is socialism. The trouble is, for me as well as millions of others, socialism isn’t a bad word.

Here’s why.

First, let’s take a look at the actual definition of socialism.

Socialism: A political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles.

So in the most basic sense, socialism is a political system and/or government controlled by the people with equity and fairness as the guiding principle in all decision making.

The problem is, as politicians who have made socialism the boogeyman certainly understand, all the scary things going through your mind as you ponder the word are not true. So let’s bring the big bad boogeyman out of the darkness and take a look at some of the basic principles of socialism, and apply those principles at both a micro and macro level.

We wouldn’t even exist today as a species if we did not have instinctual social and socialist habits. Humans were never the biggest or the strongest of creatures in the animal kingdom. In fact, as far as superior animalistic traits go, we are runts of the animal kingdom in almost every way. One of the most important things that set us apart from the rest of the animals is our intelligence.

Humans are smarter by far than any other creature. This “big brain” of ours figured out, in our early history, that the only way for us to survive is to work together as a social unit, to be socialist, with each member of a social unit helping the others in the unit. Not only did this socialist behavior save our species, it was the driving force behind how incredibly well we have thrived over the long journey of our evolution.

Now down to a closer view, something closer to home: our family structures. We instinctively cling to our families due to this socialist drive to work together for the benefit of the family unit. If we did not have a social nature, we would not have friends, families, or even groups working together for a greater purpose, such as businesses.

When we consider family, friends, and community, the happiest and most successful work together, as a cohesive unit, with each member doing his or her share, and one or more members doing more when necessary:

When Dad hurts his back and can’t work, Mom and the older children work a little harder to help pay the bills.
When a member of the church or book club who lives alone is diagnosed with cancer, the congregation or her friends bring over food, money, help with housework, and anything else they can do while she battles the disease. Now she can focus on getting better, not just surviving. They each give a little but the patient gets a lot.
When a woman gets pregnant, the family pitches in for food, clothes, baby gear, and tons of advice. They will help out after the baby is born, and she can focus on the care and well-being of the baby. The family members have a vested interest in the well-being of the next generation.
When a friend loses his job and can’t afford the rent, friends and family may loan him some money until he can get on his feet again. If that isn’t enough, someone will offer a place to stay, to be safe and not worry about where the next meal is coming from.

These are just a few of the socialist things we do, but we don’t call it socialism. We call this being neighborly or simply doing the right thing. We have learned that helping others makes us feel good, and if we help others when they need it, we will get help when we need it. This behavior strengthens the bonds of family and community, and smoothes the ups and downs of life. These supportive behaviors create a feeling of belonging and security, benefiting each member. Not only is this socialist behavior good for us, it is good for our families, neighborhoods, and local communities.

However, when we take from others for ourselves we may benefit ourselves in the short term, but we know we weaken ourselves in the long term. By taking from those around us we ultimately weaken ourselves.

Just imagine the chaos and misery if these ideas of socialism, equity, and fairness were frowned upon and discouraged. If families and communities truly lived by some candidates’ political campaign speeches, it would in fact destroy our family and communities:

When Dad hurts his back and can’t work, the family abandons him as so much dead weight. If he can’t bring in any money, what use is he?
When an acquaintance gets cancer, it is probably because of something she did wrong. If she survives, it was meant to be. If not, that’s just the way of things.
When a woman gets pregnant, that is her problem. If she can’t afford prenatal care or a car seat for the infant, well, she should have thought about that before.
When a friend loses his job and can’t afford the rent, his friends tell him he better find a new job quickly, since it’s much harder to look for jobs while homeless.

These scenarios might seem silly, but Republicans have been busy introducing bills to include drug testing requirements before receiving welfare while at the same time baulking at the idea of drug testing for themselves, even though both are paid through taxes. They are also actively and specifically blocking women from access to health care. And the one that takes the cake, this ridiculous obsession with repealing health care reforms that are supported by the majority of Americans. What makes this so amazingly hypocritical is that the majority of the health care reforms were originally conceived by and pushed for by the very party that now opposes them. Look to Senator McCain’s work with First Lady Hillary Clinton during the Clinton administration and the shining example of this health care working, Romneycare.

A Reference Guide to Socialism

Yet wouldn’t these same politicians help their family members, community members, and friends, if they were to fall upon hard times? A politician’s community is so much bigger; it would seem they would understand the benefits of socialism more than most. After all, they are supposed to be representing the community—understanding the hard times that its members face, and trying to make things better.

What makes the morality of needless suffering so terribly wrong when you are talking about someone you know and love but when you are talking about someone you don’t morally righteous?

The fact is we must have social interaction to be successful; rich or poor, young or old, man or woman, we all benefit from socialism. It has made us who we are today and is the key to our success. We all know this and the idea and practice of socialism can and should be the same at the macro level as well as the micro level.

Socialism is not a bad word; it is the way we progress and the way to success as a nation.

Politics, Presidents, and Patriotism this 4th of July

July 4, 2012 T. Whit

As the 4th of July comes around again, we are all reminded of our patriotism on this most important holiday for our country, the anniversary of American independence. Celebrating the birthday of our country is important and it is even more important to do so with dignity and respect.

In this year of presidential politics the vitriol, hate, selfishness, and intolerance is at an all time high. This is a recipe for disaster normally, but can be much worse when compounded by alcohol and the hard times so many are having. Keep this in mind as the casual 4th of July political conversations begin at the BBQ’s. Remember that those around you are your friends and family. You should value them, their ideas and their political opinions.

Too often tolerance, cooperation, and comprise have been labeled as flaws, as traits of the weak. In fact these simple traits are some of the keystone ideas to this country, how it was formed and how it has survived to this point. Without these good and decent traits, the founding fathers would never have been able to agree on the Bill of Rights. The Constitution of the United States of America is written with tolerance and acceptance as its guiding principles: That we are all equal and we all have an equal right to our thoughts and opinions. These two documents make up the very foundation of America. America cannot thrive or prosper if we are all focused on our own agenda, wants and needs. We must think of what is good for us, but we must also work hard to see what is best for our country as a whole. Only through selflessness can we hope to see our country truly grow, prosper and flourish.

We must look to each other and help each other gain understanding, trust, and willingness to use these guiding principles in our everyday lives.

We must have tolerance and understanding for the nearly infinite amount of variety and differences in the lives of Americans and non citizens alike. You can do this by taking a moment and try to consider yourself in a similar situation or with a similar dilemma. Would your choice or reaction be the same if it was a stranger versus your mother, daughter, or friend?

We are all Americans and we need to learn to cooperate. Lack of cooperation doesn’t move this country forward. It sticks us all in an endless loop. And while we Americans are chasing our tails, the other nations of this world are pulling out ahead.

Above all, if there is any hope for us to move forward we must cast off the false ideas that compromise is a fault. That it is weakness. That it is giving up. That just simply is not true. For us to have any hope in moving forward and making a better world for ourselves and our children we will have to learn to compromise again. Compromise is when two or more parties agree on a middle ground. So a perfect compromise is when each party of a two-party negotiation gets 50% of what they want. In real compromise the only steps that all parties can agree on are small ones. This is how it should be. We should be making small steps towards progress, without looking back, to make this country better. These giant leaps of legislation, these radical ideological bills need to be greatly muted through real compromise. This can only happen if we make compromise a priority and force our politicians to make real compromise.

This is idealistic I know. And it sounds as if it’s a pipe dream of a fanciful, and unrealistic, thinker. However, this is not fantasy. Politics has been like this before. It’s hard to think that we as Americans are devolving in our politics and in our society. But I believe that is exactly the case right now. Our government barely functions and this paralysis has filtered through our entire country. From the debates about health care reform to the backyard discussions about immigration. Politics has devolved to name calling and bickering with too few now able to seriously, ethically and respectfully discuss the topics of today.

So when you think of the state of America on its official birthday, this 4th of July, make sure that you, and those around you, are sticking to these core principles that can and will guide us into a better and brighter future.

The People Win in Today’s Healthcare Supreme Court Ruling

June 28, 2012 T. Whit

government-building That’s right the People won today. Not Republicans, not Democrats, not Independents, not your neighbor’s dog, the People. The People of the United States of America won today. Soon we will not have to worry about going bankrupt, having our lives destroyed or even dieing because we can’t afford to care for the disease we get, the cancer that sneaks up on us or a drunk driver in a pickup that runs red lights.

We are not talking about who scored more points today with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act. The reason we aren’t talking about points today is because the health of Americans and the health of our nation is not a game. It is one of the most serious, troubling and ethical arguments in today’s politics.

There is much to be said, and much will be said on the topic, but for now we are just going to appreciate this small victory that we as a nation are coming closer to healthcare system that takes care of us all.

Here is President Obama’s statement regarding this Supreme Court Ruling.

President Obama Speaks on Health Reform

Supreme Court Ruling on the Affordable Care Act

Here is the official ruling released by the Supreme Court of the United States

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf

The Cost of a Vote in 2012

March 31, 2012 T. Whit

people-politico-five-dollar-bills None of us like to think that the millions of dollars spent by presidential campaigns are trying to buy your vote. However, that is in fact the case. So I thought I would take a minute to look into what a vote costs in America today. I was shocked, and I think you will be too, so I’ll try and ease you into this a bit. Politics have changed dramatically in the time after the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United basically removed all caps on contributions from corporations and unions to political campaigns. It has been widely accepted through our history that money influences politics, corrupts democracy, and takes the power from the people and puts it in the hands of those with money. The Supreme Court’s decision put democracy more firmly into the hands of the corporations by allowing unlimited spending on elections.

Spending on elections was out of control before this decision, and now it’s incomprehensible, it’s a joke, and we the people are the punch line.

There are a few things we need to know about making a rough guess about the amounts of money being spent to win your vote. In most cases they can’t actually trade money directly for your vote, so instead they use advertising, media, new outlets,, pundits, the internet, you name it, to get their message and their brand out to you. Unfortunately there is very little regulation regarding the insane and often false things they say to sway you one way or another. When there is regulation, they will get around it by using a 501c/PAC combination to absolve any involvement and responsibility. If you think this is a joke, watch this series masterfully done by Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report. He actually creates his own PAC, then turns it into a Super PAC, and ends up with a million dollars donated. Really.

How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

PACs have to disclose who gives them money. However, a 501c is a tax-exempt organization that does NOT have to disclose donors. All a person or corporation need do to circumvent the disclosure rules is contribute money to the 501c. The 501c then gives to the PAC and the PAC does what it wants with the money. It’s money laundering on a breathtaking scale. A candidate could pour money into the 501c and get it right back through the PAC. Sickening and totally legal.

So now that we know how it’s done, let’s see how much money it takes to buy a vote. That’s what all the money is ultimately there to do. I’ve rounded the numbers for ease of understanding. A few thousand here or even a few million there will not make much of a difference in our completely broken election system where billions of dollars are involved.

In 2010, it is estimated that there were about 236,000,000 registered voters. According to this data, we can estimate that the registered voters will increase to 240,000,000 in 2012. Going by prior voter turnout numbers, we can expect 50% or so to turn out to vote in the upcoming Presidential Election. This gives us the first part of our equation: 120,000,000 votes.

How much money is going into getting those 120 million votes? This number is difficult, because campaigns want to keep this number as quiet as possible. So first we’ll look at how much the politicians are raising themselves. This is required to be publically disclosed and it is the number most often reported. Over the last year we can see that a total of almost $380,000,000 was raised by politicians. We can assume that over the next 6 months the money will flow in faster than in the last year. It is probably conservative to say that this total will reach $800,000,000 by November. Many analysts are saying that campaign spending will easily break a billion dollars. But we’ll use $800 million for our calculations.

Next we need to try to determine the contributions to PACs and Super PACs. They are required by law to disclose their finances, but with over 7,500 listed in the Federal Election Committee’s database, there are bound to be errors. To make it easy, we’ll use this information. You can find the information here: http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/srssea.shtml. Adding it all up gets us $1.7 billion from 2010 to 2011. For ease of calculation, we’ll round that number down to $1.5 billion to use for 2011-2012. This gives us $3.2 billion for these two years of PAC and Super PAC fundraising.

With no cap on how much money can be contributed to an election, candidates are looking at three to four times the amount of money they had to spend in the past. They can spend the majority of it on sleazy ads, misinformation campaigns, robo calls, spamming, and whatever else it takes. And the best part is, the candidates are “completely separated” from the PACs and Super PACs. If someone gets offended or if an ad backfires, the candidate can throw up their hands and claim plausible deniability.

Math Time!

$800,000,000 (candidate money) + $3,200,000,000 (PAC money) = $4,000,000,00 or a cool 4 billion dollars. Easy to remember.
120,000,000 voters.

Now all we need to do is take the money spent on elections and divide that by those who vote. Gravy!

$4,000,000,000 (Money) ÷ 120,000,000 (Votes) = $33 and change.

Well that doesn’t sound too bad, you have 33 bucks don’t you? So to put in your equivalent support as a citizen of the United States you should toss $33 to who you support.

The problem is that it doesn’t work out that way. Our democracy is supposed to form and control our government on a 1 to 1 basis, but now with these new rules we are getting further and further away from the 1 to 1 vote working.

Rich Joe used to be capped at a $2,500 donation. But now he can give his $2,500 personally to the campaign and can also funnel in $1,000,000 or more from his company, trust fund, dividends or whatever.

Money equals influence in our government, and the increased flow of money from corporations and unions magnifies their influence.

Influence of Donations Before Citizens United

Poor Joe throws in $33 to support his one vote. Rich Joe throws in his $2,500 to support his vote. Rich Joe’s influence on his candidate is 75 times more than Poor Joe’s. That in itself shows the system was sad, broken, not working as intended.

Influence of Donations After Citizens United

Today Poor Joe throws in his $33 again to support his candidate. Rich Joe throws in his $2,500 and also donates $1,000,000 dollars from his company. Again, Rich Joe’s influence is obviously more, but by how much? His influence is now a staggering 30,378 times more than Joe’s! This one person/entity now has tens of thousands of times more influence than Poor Joe in the elections.

I don’t even know what to think about this. I am disgusted. I am appalled. I am horrified that we allowed this to happen to our country.

Checkbook Democracy: How Money Corrupts Political Campaigns

With these billions of dollars intended to influence us, and with the mountains of lies about their opponents, and false promises about themselves, it is no wonder our government and our country is screeching to a halt.

We have allowed democracy to be taken away from us. We have literally sold it. We have allowed a plutocracy to take its place.

When the wealthy control the country they do whatever they can to not only increase their wealth but consolidate it. That is exactly what we are seeing now.

With the caps lifted, they can literally spend whatever it takes to convince us they are not doing exactly what they are doing. The facts are in front of us. I have presented many here and you can look for yourself all over the place. We are swimming in the evidence of the fall of our democracy but so many would rather drown than to think about this.

This cannot endure or our country will not. We have already fallen behind because of our broken and crippled system. We are being surpassed by many other countries in almost every sector you can think of. The power has been taken from the common people. We are simply being outbid.

It’s time you did your part along with those around you to stand up, speak out and shout out that you want your vote back and demand it can’t be outbid anymore.

Sources

Speak Out Against GOP War on Women

March 23, 2012 T. Whit

move-on-war-on-women-ad-people-politico Here is a new ad that was just released by MoveOn.org. This ad is making the rounds quickly and even getting a nod from Bill O’Reilly. Though he doesn’t agree with the message, he does think it is powerful in its delivery.

Why is the ad so powerful? It shows women quoting some of the horrible things that prominent members of the Republican Party have said about women and reproductive rights. The actors then announce that women are not happy with these statements and wonder what is going on with the GOP. And it’s true; it has been truly disturbing to hear misogynistic comments that have come not just from showmen trying to increase ratings, but presidential candidates and others in public office. Mitt Romney has said he agrees with these statements, he just may have not used those exact words to agree.

I don’t know what they are thinking on the Right, and perhaps that is why I get so frustrated with them at times. But this time, I really don’t understand who thought that declaring war on women is a good thing? What do they hope to gain out of such blatant disregard and disdain for women? Seriously!

Here are a few short words from the women featured in this ad at MoveOn.org.

The brave women who appear in this ad are throwing the words of Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santorum, and others back in their faces—helping to expose their archaic views. Three of these women shared their reasons for putting themselves on the line to bring women’s voices to the debate on women’s health:

Katherine: “I’m outraged that there is even an argument about insurance coverage for female contraception, much less the right to contraception itself.”

Ann: “Lack of reproductive choice has been at the heart of multiple generations of premature death, trauma, and suffering in my family.”

Michelle: “As the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, it is my duty to protect and fight for HER rights and her future.”

Katherine, Michelle, and Ann are part of a nationwide movement standing up against the GOP’s war on women. All of them need your support to continue the fight.

Take a look at the ad for yourself and really sit back and think about what these statements say about the people who wish to represent us. And though we can categorize these as “women’s” issues, I guarantee you they affect each and every one of us.

Women are at the forefront of this argument, as they should be, but they are not the only ones that will be, and are, affected by these atrocious attacks on civil liberty. Birth control and contraception has had a huge society changing effect on all of us. We know this. We have seen the changes over the last quarter century. And we a thousand or two years of more history to compare it to.

Come on now People!

Contraception is About Women’s Health Not Politics

March 21, 2012 T. Whit

women-concerned-about-health-care We have all heard the arguments recently and they are getting louder and louder. The most recent attempt at hamstringing women’s health care came at the hands of a horribly conceived and widely misconstrued bill known as the Blunt Bill. Even though it was narrowly defeated (51 for to 48 against), I think it is important to take a moment to talk about what this bill and other legislation like it would really do. In many ways it is amazing to even see birth control and contraception even being an issue. This argument was out in politics a quarter century ago. It not only seemed to be settled but we also have seen decades of benefit from birth control being widely available and accessible. As this proves our memories are short and our reason can be clouded. Let’s take a loot at a few of the main political arguments.

Contraception is Used For Much More Than Prevention of Conception

Different kinds of contraception are used for more than just birth control by millions of women. The Pill is used to alleviate a range of women’s medical conditions. To assume contraception is strictly used to stop conception would be to exclude nearly half of all women who use it.

Depending on what study you look at (or which side of the argument you are on), upwards of 15-20% of women taking contraception do so for purely non birth control related reasons. This number is impossible to narrow down since every study has minor variations in what and who meets their criteria. Regardless of this though, the fact remains that millions of American women use contraception for other reasons than birth control.

There is a reason contraception has been touted as one of the greatest inventions of the 20^th century. Impacts go far past the simple impact of stopping conception. Attempting to legislate contraception from a standpoint of birth control misses the real crux of the issue and therefore misses the real consequences or benefits.

Stop Legislating Religion

Religious beliefs should not be put into legislation. In fact legislation based of belief or faith should be cleared completely off the table. In a time of technology, information and the ability to process huge amounts of information, we should be legislating from facts and data:

It would cost an estimated 18 billion dollars a year in unintended births that would need to be covered by families, insurance companies, or the government.
There is no quantifiable data whatsoever to suggest that having access to contraception turns women into mindless rampant fornicators. In fact, if this was the case, perhaps contraception would have to be covered by insurance companies just as Viagra is.
If women can no longer afford to treat medical conditions prevented by this medicine, larger health care expenses would loom in these women’s futures.
And what of the quality of life for unwanted children, especially those that end up with severe psychological damage because their parents cannot care for them. What is the cost of foster care for 18 years of a child’s life?
Can we discount the responsibility of the great many Americans that know they cannot afford or otherwise give a child what is necessary and need to have a good childhood and family experience? What about the majority of Americans, who understand they can only afford one or two children. More children than they can afford means less opportunity for everyone in the family.
Republicans should certainly understand that what this legislation entails is a corporation, contracting with another corporation (the insurance company), and having the ability to tell the second corporation how to run its business, while possibly interfering with state legislation requiring insurance companies to cover this prescription in the same way it covers other prescriptions.

And if you are just not the “show me the facts” kind of person and want to go from the gut, go with your belief. Pope Benedict XVI has told you what your belief should be by saying that healthcare is an “Inalienable Right” and said it’s the moral responsibility of all nations to guarantee access to health care for all of their citizens.” I doubt the Pope meant only those that can afford it, should get it.

When Advocating Freedom Don’t Legislate Against It

Another big side of this argument that continues to astound me is that the same groups that shout so loudly about freedom are the ones pushing so hard to eliminate freedoms for anyone that might have a different opinion.

Freedom : Noun ~ Ability to act freely – a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restriction.

Freedom talks about an individual’s right to choose what is best for them, not the right of a corporation or religion to dictate what is best for that individual person.

This is why the government, corporations, and religious organizations should not interfere with the insurance companies they partner with in covering contraception. The individual person can make a choice based on their own beliefs, ideals, health conditions, lifestyle choices, or any other reason whether or not they will use contraception.

It is not the employer’s business what a person’s life is outside of their job. It’s not the church’s right to have intimate details on its employee’s health. Our health care system is such that the majority of Americans receive health insurance through their employers. Your employer should not determine what will be covered by a third party healthcare plan. It is up to the government to make sure we have access to the best health care and the personal freedom to choose what is best for us.

Voter Suppression in Politics

March 16, 2012 T. Whit

voter-info More voter suppression arguments are out there this year and if you ignore the indignity of the voter fraud and just look at the numbers involved, it would be very easy to solve this issue. Especially when you look at the very low numbers involved in actual voter fraud versus legitimate votes getting mixed up, tallied wrong, lost or the myriad of other things. The bottom line is we need to work on getting people out to vote, not stopping those that do vote.

Getting People to Vote

We need to get every single American and dual citizen of voting age to vote every single time. We need to ingrain in our children, in our people, the importance and significance of voting. The quality and functionality of our democracy is directly related to how many of its people are involved, educated, informed and acting on their democratic duty.

I would go as far to say that we should PAY people to vote. Invariably people will pay at least some attention and most have some idea of who and what they want out of life in this country. If you were to offer a $500 tax credit for voting in the general elections, it would greatly increase turn out. Just getting people excited and involved would go a long way to make this a better country.

Personally I find it appalling when the reporters exclaim that we have recently had record-setting voter turnout, and the record-setting number is in the 40% range. That is embarrassing, pure and simple. As the “world leader” in advocating and pushing freedom and democracy, we simply have to do better than that.

So I propose this to you: Make it your mission, as a responsible voter, American, and patriot, to get one person you know to register and vote this year. Let’s make those days of seeing 40% of voter turnout something of the past as we tag on 10-20% more.

A Political Fix to a Non-Partisan Problem

Why Is It So Hard to Vote in America?

With the next wave of voter registration and polling legislation comes another slew of outcries to voter suppression. I understand the basic idea behind the argument; however, the proposed solution is no solution at all.

These pieces of new legislation are meant to tackle the estimated .0002%-5.000% voter fraud that has been reported recently. These numbers vary greatly depending on who, what and where you are looking but with the dozen or so articles, websites and other sources I investigated, the highest was floating around 5% with some as low as .0002%. Part of the reason for this is that we are addressing specifically voter fraud. We are not talking about mistakes in registration, people who have moved from their old addresses, people with the same names, addresses, lost ballots, miscounts, and the myriad of OTHER things that causes inaccurate vote count.

Much of the current legislation that is pending this year revolves around forcing all those that are voting to show valid and up to date photo IDs at the time of voting. This may address the lower end of the vote tally and fraud issues but would leave most of the other horrendous holes and problems with our system in place.

However, legislation to force presenting photo IDs in order to vote is estimated to affect at least 10% of the population that currently votes now, legally and without problems. Many of these voters without photo IDs tend to have lower incomes and are much more likely to vote Democratic than Republican.

This could also affect a much greater number of people that vote from abroad or by mail. Many places have been voting strictly by mail, especially for the smaller elections. If everyone now has to go back to a polling place to vote, won’t that decimate the numbers of people who can vote?

Make Voting Easier Not Harder

There is such a small portion of the population that votes fraudulently it has almost no effect on our current system. The numbers show the problem is nearly nonexistent. 80 fraudulent votes in a general election are not going to make much of a difference when we are talking about millions of people voting.

Instead of further limiting a minority group to vote, and making more difficult what should be an easy process and every citizen’s duty, we should be empowering all Americans to register and vote.

I’m not so proud to be an American when I find out more people vote for American Idol then in a general election. That is unacceptable and shameful.

What we should be doing is passing legislation to move our voting system from the 19^th century into the 21^st century. We have an archaic system to pick our representatives and run our country. We should be embracing the newest, best, and most efficient ways to insure our democracy is protected.

Just think about it: we currently trust so many facets of our lives right now to the technology around us. Why not support improvements in voting technology as well?

It’s easy to say that voting systems can be hacked, of course they can. However, many more people are currently skewing election results with lost ballots, miscounting by hand, going to the wrong polling place, voting as a dead person, you name it. This Pew Research document points out some of the huge flaws we have. Those are the issues that need to be addressed, the problems that need to be fixed.

I know it’s not perfect, no system is. However we have the technology, the know how to do it, we just need the will. Change can be scary but using technology and the computer power of America could and would streamline our voting process in ways we can’t fully appreciate.

We need to get 10-20% more voters voting. Not reduce the number of valid voters by 10% or more.

Here are some links to some more info and some of the specifics in voting issues around America:

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Tag: American Rights

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