Voting Rights in America

The Obama Department of Justice has recently filed suit preventing the state of South Carolina from enforcing their photo I.D. requirement for potential voters. The age-old argument is that requiring photo I.D. is discriminatory against minorities. The people advocating this nonsense argue that minorities would feel "intimidated" to show a photo I.D. Now let me get this straight, I have to show photo I.D. to purchase Claritin for my occasional sinus conditions. No one has ever claimed that is discriminatory. I will put forth an interesting argument. Perhaps, the Obama administration has come to the conclusion that they will need every possible vote (legal or illegal) in order to win next November. As per his Chicago upbringing, "if you're not cheating-you're not trying." Hasn't the Department of Justice just opened the door for fraudulent votes? In a day and age where virtually all Americans have some sort of photo I.D., how is the practice of showing that I.D. to prove your identity a matter of discrimination? Here's another idea that Obama should consider, how about granting blanket amnesty to all illegal immigrants, thereby clearing the way for their voter registration as well? One would think that with our advanced technology, it would be easier and easier to prevent voter fraud. Not in this country, it seems like "questionable" elections have become the rule rather than the exception. I always thought that, deep down inside, Americans were basically fair-minded people who were actually concerned about doing what was right. I guess that America is long past. Chalk this up as one more reason that I am deathly worried about the direction that Obama is leading this country.

Will Obama Lose?

As we keep inching closer and closer to the election of 2012, I'm not so sure that the republicans should be feeling warm and fuzzy. Slowly but surely, the economy is starting to improve. Has anyone noticed the drop in gas prices? You and I both know that this drop in prices usually trends towards an improvement in the economy, since people will have more change in their pockets.. If the economy improves, President Obama will win re-election. I base a large part of that belief on the fallibility of the republican "tiny-mites" running against him. None of those candidates are very appealing. You need more of a campaign idea than "I'm not Obama." While all of the polls seem to point to the republicans continuing control of the House and most likely, taking control of the Senate, all is not gloomy. However, if my republican and conservative brethren are counting on a repudiation of the president, I can only caution-"not so fast." If I was a betting man, my money is on the president. After all, the republicans will only have themselves to blame. But I will add an even gloomier thought, if the republicans can not win in this electoral climate, when do you see them winning again?????

Obama and the Keystone Cops

From the beginning, I have stated that I tend to vote Republican and I voted for Senator McCain. From that beginning, I also pleaded for people to give the president a chance. Those days are now gone. Obama has become Jimmy Carter, Jr. He knew how to get elected, he just does not know how to govern ALL Americans. Accordingly, I have made no secret of the fact that I sincerely believe that another term for Obama would be a disaster for the country. I'm not sure enough republicans understand the idea. To this point, the field of republican candidates is, at best, uninspiring. At the worst, they are criminally negligent. As bad as the polls look for the president, I don't think Mitt and the Band of Renown, have any possibility to win. I don't know to whom the republicans can turn, but for mercy's sake-please turn to somebody. If there has ever been a time that the republicans needed a leader, it is now. How I miss Ronald Reagan!

Transformers and President Obama

I suppose we can write this one off to "art imitating life," but has anyone actually watched the last two "Transformer" movies ("Revenge of the Fallen" and "Dark of the Moon")? In both movies, the Obama administration is portrayed as wanting to surrender Sam and the Autobots to the Decepticons and later ordering the Autobots to leave the planet. Normally, Hollywood tends to be fairly liberal (I'm sure most liberals out there would disagree), so it was unusual to see the Obama administration so portrayed. Of course, I'm not trying to assert and claim that this was a wanton example of "democratic" pacifism. In the end, I'm sure it was my fault, reading too much into a Hollywood movie (don't the critics do that all the time?). I guess we should just be thankful that we still had Optimus Prime to save our backsides. Maybe the republicans should use Optimus in the debt ceiling debate.

The Absence of Civic Virtue in America

One does not have to be a genius to recognize the obscene rise in partisanship in America today. Our two parties have sprinted for the opposite ends of the political spectrum and staked out a "no man's land" for those moderates in between. Whatever happened to the Conservative Democrats or, even more scarce, the liberal Republicans? We still see some conservative democrats on the state and local levels but they are non-existent on the national level. To show my age, I believe Nelson Rockefeller might have been the last liberal republican. This most recent spectacle, the debate on the debt limit might serve as exhibit A for our rise in partisanship. To be honest, it's simple to see what is behind this debate, we're already looking towards 2012. When one reads the writings of the founding fathers, one constantly comes across this idea of "civic virtue." The belief was quite simple, when a representative casts his vote, it should be based on the simple idea of what is in the best interests of the NATION, not the best interests of the party or local area. I wonder how much more could be accomplished if our current batch of representatives would follow that "ancient" notion?