OUT-TRUMPED – TOP BIRTHER STILL IN DENIAL

The Donald has been out-trumped.  President Obama yesterday released his much sought after long form birth certificate showing that, “yes, he was indeed born in Hawaii” just as he has said for all these years.  But, wait, not to be foiled, birthers have not given up on the game and have, instead, yanked those goal posts out of the ground and huffed and puffed and carried them to a different yard line.

First, it was the constant yapping to see the birth certificate.  Then, when that was produced way back in 2008, the birthers threw down the yellow flag and screamed foul.  They shouted that it was a fake and not the real birth certificate.  Never mind that almost all states do not provide long form birth certificates for proof of birth but rather, upon request and payment, provide a condensed version with basic information included.

Indiana has three types of birth certificates:  the long form (a copy of the actual birth certificate completed at birth), a standard size (a condensed version with relevant information on it), and a wallet size (a condensed version with the relevant information on it).  Neither the standard size nor the wallet size contains the information contained on the full birth certificate.

Despite his “boots on the ground” cloak and dagger act, Trump failed to come up with anything tangible.  His “you won’t believe what they are finding” must have turned into “I don’t believe it, they haven’t found anything.”   Trump has decidedly lost some punch on this issue now that President Obama has produced the certificate that has caused so much angst.

But no sooner had the President released the birth certificate, then Trump turned his comb over in another direction.  Now, the Donald says, the President’s grades need to be placed under a microscope for review.  And, his student loans.  After all, the fact that President Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Harvard Law School and the fact that Obama was President of the prestigious Harvard Law Review – why those just have to be mistakes and somehow undeserved accolades.

The only mistake that has been made is the relentless, unfounded Trump-eting by the Donald.  With an ego larger than the Trump Towers, and, in classic Trump style, he took to the microphones to stoke himself on the back for being the only one in America who could have accomplished this non feat.  No doubt he just wasn’t able to admit that, after weeks of demands and weeks of self-aggrandizing statements, he was out-Trumped by President Obama.

President Obama - Born in the USA

“THE DONALD” DESCENDS INTO BIRTHER MADNESS

No one can say Donald Trump is lack luster.  But what can be said is that he has little, if any, chance of becoming the Republican nominee for president in 2012.  Perhaps that is why he threw in his two cents on the lingering “birther” non-issue – perhaps hoping to generate some support from the extreme far righties.

Flaunting a true inability to correlate one idea with another, the Donald jumped back onto the birther bandwagon, albeit indirectly, by noting:

“Let me tell you, I’m a really smart guy,” Trump said. “I was a really good student at the best school in the country. The reason I have a little doubt, just a little, is because he grew up and nobody knew him.”

“You may go back and interview people from my kindergarten,” he continued. “They’ll remember me. Nobody comes forward. Nobody knows who he is until later in his life. It’s very strange. The whole thing is very strange.”

Under Trump’s convoluted  mental gymnastics, the lack of knowledge about Obama’s upbringing – including knowing who his friends were at every step of the way – must mean he wasn’t born here.   How else could it be explained that Obama’s childhood friends were unknown?

Trump labels himself a “really smart guy”, yet a really smart guy would be able to demonstrate some type of correlation between not knowing about Obama’s childhood and Obama’s birth in a foreign country  – if that is what Trump is intimating.  The flip side that Trump is pushing is that if one knows all about an individual, then that person surely must have been born here.

Here’s my correlation for the Donald – since there isn’t  a correlation, maybe, just maybe, Trump isn’t a really smart guy.  Now that is a correlation I like.

OBAMA’S VIETNAM

Afghanistan has become Obama’s Vietnam.  As the struggle descends into madness, and Kharzai flirts with the Taliban, the country is no closer to stability than it was years ago when we first blasted our way into the countryside in search of the elusive Osama bin Laden.

Pundits have argued that Afghanistan is like Vietnam – or – it isn’t like Vietnam.  Set in two different world locations with two distinct geographical and environmental climes, the similarities exist outside these constraints with one over-riding theme: the inability to overcome the opposition for any length of time.

Johnson and Nixon tried in Vietnam – and in the process cost over 58,000 American lives.  Bush began the war in Afghanistan but quickly turned to his real target – Iraq.  Obama has set his sights back on Afghanistan, where many believe it should have stayed in the first place.  But regardless, Afghanistan now belongs to Obama.  His legacy will include his attempts to conquer the opposition forces and deliver a stable democracy in Afghanistan. A legacy that will probably fail.

The “war” will play out although no one knows for sure when the last of the troops will arrive back on American soil – they just will.  Sadly, the American public isn’t as vocal as it was during Vietnam.  But, then again, college students and the youth are not subject to the draft – a leveler that tends to make opposition to war more pressing and urgent to those facing their exportation to foreign soil to fight a foreign war.

Many dissimilarities exist, but the ultimate similarity is that of the inability to win the “hearts and minds” of a people who have battled foreign invaders for decades.  So, as the war drags on, and Obama becomes further entrenched in his ownership, and the public demurely turns its face away, the prospect of an enduring Vietnam scenario increases.

COMPETITON IN HEALTH INSURANCE BUSINESS A MYTH

Competition in the health insurance business is a myth.  Those who oppose President Obama’s public option are crying foul that a public option would tilt the insurance coverage playing field unfairly.  Bull – the health insurance field is already tilted in favor of just a few insurance companies and is dominated in almost all markets by one or two companies which have swallowed up smaller companies and continue to grow, thus creating even less competition.

The American Medical Association’s 2007-2009 report on competition in the health insurance field finds that in the majority of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), a single health insurer dominates the market. Competition is undermined in hundreds of markets across the country.

Over the five years since the AMA’s first study, the country’s largest health insurers have continued to pursue aggressive acquisition strategies. The largest insurer, WellPoint Inc. (formed from the merger of Anthem Inc. and WellPoint Health Networks), has acquired 11 health insurers since 2000. The second-largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group (United) has also acquired 11 health insurers since 2000.

In 2000, the two largest health Aetna and United, had a total membership of 32 million lives. As a result of mergers and acquisitions since 2000, the top two insurers today, WellPoint and United, each have memberships, respectively, of 34 million and 33 million, totaling more than 67 million covered lives.

While large health insurers have posted very healthy profits since 2000, premiums for consumers have increased without a corresponding increase in benefits. In fact, during the same time period, consumers have faced increased deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance. This has effectively reduced the scope of their health benefits coverage.

In our own Fort Wayne MSA, the two largest provides, WellPoint and Lutheran Preferred, control 52% and 23% of the market, respectively – those two companies alone control 75% of the Fort Wayne MSA.  Not much competition there.  The AMA’s report gives a picture of competition in all 50 states.

In Gary, Indiana, an area known for its poverty, two companies, HCSC (BCBS) and WellPoint control 68% and 24%, respectively.  Two companies – 92% of the market.  Hmm – where is the competition?

The American public is being sold a lie when the opponents of the public option cry that it will cut competition.  Little competition currently exists, and, as the major insurance companies continue to aggressively swallow up smaller companies, even less competition will exist.

What the mega insurance companies really want is to control even more of the market and, God forbid, that a public option would get in the way.

Chart with examples of lack of competition in the health insurance industry

REPUBLICANS SHOOT THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT – HOBBLE OFF INTO THE SUNSET

What was supposed to be a unified Republican uprising against the “socialist” agenda hidden in President Obama’s speech to schoolchildren has turned into a full rout of Republican antagonists.  Tucking their tiny little tails between their crooked little legs, Republicans have found little comfort in the non-issue that was to be their battle cry of indoctrination of our “poor, impressionable youngsters.”

In Allen County, nine – count ’em – nine students were kept out of school by paranoid and close-minded parents intent on protecting little psyches against the big, bad presidential wolf.   Others – 85 to be exact – opted out of having their little tykes’ ears bombarded by Obama’s urging to stay in school, graduate, and contribute to the betterment of this country.  Those parents, rather than depriving their children of their day in school, wrote notes to teachers to have their kids sit out the speech.

What Republicans – and in particular, conservative Republicans – hoped would be an overwhelming protest against Obama’s speech to students to stay in school and get their education turned into one of the year’s biggest boondoggles for the ever-hopeful Republican obstructionists.

Now Republicans are trying to label the speech “conservative” in nature.   This strategy is laughable, and, to be quite honest, leaves me almost speechless.  I said almost because I am not totally speechless – just trying not to roll over laughing at what the Republicans are now trying in an effort to dig themselves out of a situation that makes them look totally assinine.

I guess the Repubs completely forgot about what a political speech to school children looks like.  But never fear, here is Ronnie Reagan’s entire speech to the school children of this country.  Perhaps Republicans should educate themselves in their party’s propensity to indoctrinate before they cry wolf – or would that be sheep.  Baa!

Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With Students of John A. Holmes High School of Edenton, North Carolina May 13, 1986

As you know, my remarks are being broadcast live over radio and television to high school students throughout the country. While I was in Tokyo at the economic summit, I found myself thinking about all of you, and I decided that when I got back it’d be good to report to you — share some thoughts that I’ve been having about the future.

In general, conditions in our country are about as bright as this very bright afternoon. I was worrying when I put that line in there that it might start to rain, and I’d have to say something else. [Laughter] We’ve been working to take an economy that was in bad shape and get it moving and growing again; take our national defense and make it first-rate again after a long period of decline; and to restore reason, respect, and reality to our foreign policy. And I think it’s fair to say that we’ve made a good deal of progress.

Only 5 years ago our economy suffered from high inflation, high interest rates, mushrooming government spending, and steadily increasing unemployment. A lot of people couldn’t find jobs, and people on fixed incomes were finding it harder to buy the basics, such as food and shelter. Well, we got inflation down, interest rates down, and our economy created over 1\1/2\ million new jobs just last year alone. The poor are now increasingly able to dig themselves out of poverty, and that’s been good economic news.

The good news in defense is that our Armed Forces, which were suffering from neglect and low funding, have now made a comeback. Morale is up in the services, and the quality of our men and women in uniform has never been better — and I mean never. As a matter of fact, we have the highest percentage of high school graduates in uniform today than we’ve ever had in the history of our nation, even back when we had the compulsory draft. In addition, our nation has encouraged a more realistic sense of defense needs.

In foreign affairs we’ve kept our friends close and the lines of communication with our adversaries open. We’ve tried to give the world the sense that the United States has a coherent and logical foreign policy that reflects our respect for freedom and our opposition to tyranny.

The point is that all we’ve done has had, and will continue to have, a direct impact on your lives. And the fact is, it’s your future, not ours. And all that we’ve done, we’ve done with an eye toward how it would impact you. We want to make your future better, because tomorrow belongs to you. And since you’re the leaders of tomorrow, I wanted to talk to all of you as a friend about the things you’ll have to do to ensure a prosperous nation and a peaceful world. And I’m sure that peace and prosperity must be at the top of your agenda for the future.

You have some special responsibilities ahead of you — very important responsibilities. America is back, yes, but we still face major challenges in the world. And it’s your generation that will have to accept the primary responsibility for tackling these challenges. It’s important that you’re fit for the future and that you be all that you can be. So, go for it! In the area of education you have a responsibility to try to learn and care about scientific and intellectual inquiry. The world is an increasingly competitive place. And if we’re to compete, we’ll have to do it with brainpower — your brainpower. So, keep learning and hit those books.

We have to remain economically competitive, and that means being aware of two things: first, what makes economies tick, and second, what works in other societies. We’ve been trying very hard in Washington to make America even more economically fit by really overhauling our entire tax structure. When we came into office, the top personal tax rate that the Federal Government could put on your income was 70 percent. Now, you can understand, I think, that if you were getting up in those brackets — there were 14 different tax brackets, depending on the amount of money in each bracket you earned. And when you could look and say, “If I earn another dollar, I only get to keep 30 cents out of it,” you can imagine the lack of incentive there. Well, we lowered it to 50 percent, and the economy really took off. Now we’re trying to lower it yet again so that families can keep more of their money and so the national economy will be lean and trim and fit for the future.

And it’s your generation that will defend freedom from its adversaries. The biggest contribution you can make to that quest is to become a good citizen. Good citizenship is vitally important if democracies are to continue. Good citizenship means trying to understand the issues and great questions of your day. It also means voting. To vote is to take part in this grand experiment called democracy in America. It’s your right and your responsibility to take part. Good citizenship also might mean considering going into teaching as a profession. There’s a teacher shortage, as you may know. You could help ease the situation and give to others the advantages you’ve been given if you become a teacher yourself. And it’s also important that you stay in school. That diploma counts. And I just want to personally congratulate those who have overcome some disadvantage and who stuck it out and will graduate this year.

And part of being a good citizen, part of being fit for the future so that you can meet America’s agenda for the future, is seeing to it that you live your life with a clear mind and a steady intellect. And that means saying no to drugs. Nancy has traveled across the country talking to young people like you. And many of them have talked to her about the allure of drugs, about the drug culture, and the kind of peer pressure that you come under to experiment and try out drugs. But when you come right down to it, drugs are just a dead-end street. They have nothing to offer you. I think you also ought to remember we only get one set of machinery. If you wear this set out, you can’t take it and trade it in someplace for a used one or a new one. So, what you do now and early in your life decides how able you’re going to be to enjoy yourself when you get to be my age.

And I want to tell you, I’m enjoying myself. I’ve talked to young people from China to Europe to the islands in the Caribbean. And let me tell you, they’re incredibly bright and talented, and they’re going to create quite a future for themselves. And you can’t keep up or catch up if you allow your mind to be clouded by drugs.

Well, that’s more or less what I wanted to say to you today. I’ll be talking to many young people over the next few months, and I’ll be expanding on certain points and amplifying certain themes. But for today, before your questions, I just want to let you know that I have been thinking about you very much. You are a special generation, and you’re facing special challenges. And the biggest is to be ready for a future that will prove to be demanding and exciting. Soon, we’ll enter the 21st century, a time that’ll have more than its share of great wonders. The next 10 or 15 years may well be the most exciting and challenging in the history of man. There’s the continuing revolution in technology, the possibility of curing diseases that have stalked us from the caveman era. There’s the marvelous conquest of space, a rich frontier whose riches we’ve barely glimpsed. And there’s the struggle between the democracies and those countries which are not democratic.

All of these possibilities bring with them questions. And it’s your generation that will have to answer them. That makes you all very important, indeed. You have much before you. And all I can say is that you’ve begun brilliantly. Continue to pursue excellence. Be proud of your country and its heritage, and be proud of yourselves, as we are proud of all of you.

The President. Thank you all, and welcome to the White House, and thank you for coming. I want to congratulate all of you from John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, North Carolina, on your great achievements this year and on your upcoming graduation. And a special greeting to Rob Boyce, the principal of this fine school.

If you would like to read the question and answer session, here is the link.  Talk about indoctrination of our students – but, of course, since it was a Republican that presented this speech, the naysayers find it acceptable.  What hypocrisy.  But that seems to be the only thing the Republicans are good for these days.

President Obama delivering his speech of hope and encouragement to students at Wakefield High School, Arlington, VA (AP Photo)

REPUBLICAN IDIOCY CONTINUES OVER OBAMA ADDRESS TO SCHOOL CHILDREN

President Obama is planning to address the nation’s school children next week.  Of course, Republicans are having a hissy fit and throwing out all kinds of statements accusing Obama of potential indoctrination of the millions who may be allowed to listen to his remarks.   Heaven forbid, our children may just be inspired to continue with their education and realize how important graduation can be.

How quickly the Repubs forget – or simply ignore the fact that Bush 41 (Daddy Bush) did the very same thing in 1991 during his presidency.  The full text of his speech can be found preserved in the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library for posterity – or should I say for embarrassment of the now-whining and crying Republicans.

The fact is that there is a hatred in this country for President Obama, and the right-wing nuts are fanning the flames of that hatred by screaming at everything the president does or doesn’t do.  Blogsters like Michelle Malkin post misleading articles and her duped readers spit out their hate-filled comments without even bothering to check out that this isn’t the first time in history a president has addressed the school children of this country with a message of the importance of education.

Let’s face it – the Repubs look like twits since one of their very own took to the airwaves to deliver a speech about the importance of education to millions of school children – wow what an awful thing to do!  Sure, the Democrats criticized Bush 41 for what they believed was a political ploy and a poor use of eduction money.  But their criticism in no way comes near the level of the plain downright hate-filled rhetoric being spewed by today’s clutch of whiners – likening Obama’s purpose to Nazi tactics and the implanting of a socialistic agenda in the minds of all the school children who will listen to the speech.

Let’s hope that the hundreds of school systems around this country don’t cave to the fear-mongering and name-calling that have become such intrinsic characteristics of  the Republicans.

President Obama will address the nation's school children on Tuesday, September 8th

DELUSIONAL DOBBS

Lou Dobbs has become delusional in his old age.  Despite the fact that the election is going on 9 months old, and Obama was clearly elected president, Dobbs continues his fanatical harping about Obama’s birth certificate.  CNN, placed in a delicate position, has put the kibosh – kinda – on Dobbs’ unending banter about Obama’s birth.

CNN checked out the story and found it wasn’t much of a story.  Dobbs was told to explain CNN’s findings and then end his constant twittering about the issue.  But Dobbs continued to talk about the story that has given rise to what has become known as the “Birther Movement”,  a fringe movement that is dedicated to the conspiracy that Obama really wasn’t born here in the good ‘ole US of A and, is, therefore, ineligible to be president of the United States.

Seems some sore losers just can’t get over the fact that Obama won the election.   But Dobbs may just have shot himself in the foot.  During the month of May, according to an analysis of Nielsen data, Dobbs’ 7 p.m. program on CNN averaged 657,000 total viewers and 181,000 in the key 25-to-54 demographic—numbers that were down a whopping 29 percent and 27 percent, respectively, as compared to May of 2008.

Perhaps his audience is just plain tired of Dobbs and his grandiose delusion that Obama really isn’t the president.

CNN talking head just can't get over Obama victory

WOMEN – 50% OF THE POPULATION AND ONLY 11% OF THE SUPREME COURT

Finally, after the Bush farce of selecting Harriet Miers in 2005 as his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O’Conner, we now get the chance to have a woman once again claim a rightful seat to the high Court.  Bush and his advisers knew that selecting a less-than-qualified woman who would be bounced would allow Bush to argue that “see, I tried.”  And then he could go to his original plan of selecting a male to fill the seat emptied by Sandra Day O’Conner.

While women make up just a tad over 50% of the population, they have continuously been relegated to second-class status when it comes to seats on the Supreme Court. Currently, the Court has only one woman – Ruth Bader Ginsburg – for a whopping 11% of the Court’s composition.  Even when two women sat on the high court, the percentage remained at only 22% – far below the 50% of the population represented by women.

A number of  presidents have looked to good ‘ole males to fill Supreme Court seats despite the fact that many qualified candidates could have been found.  But now President Obama has selected a woman, Sonia Sotomayor, as his pick to replace retiring justice David Souter, ending the guessing game and the trash-talking about women’s weight and health as criteria to sit on the high bench.  Simply assanine.

What a dilema for Republicans.  On one hand, Sotomayor represents the “pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps” philosophy about which Republicans are so want to preen and crow.  She was born in the Bronx and grew up in a public housing project.  Her mother worked six days a week to raise her and her brother.

Sotomayor later graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and went on to attend Yale law school, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal – probably under one of those oh-so-dreaded affirmative action quotas about which Republicans nash their teeth.

Republicans will be forced to find something wrong with her even though she was appointed to the federal bench by George H.W. Bush – a Republican.  This could be interesting.  Yes, indeed, Republicans may just be forced to confront their “speak-with-forked-tongue” philosophy.

CATHOLIC HIERARCHY OUT OF TOUCH – OBAMA REACHES OUT TO SOOTHE

President Obama was warmly welcomed at the University of Notre Dame – proving that many Catholic students, parents, friends, and relatives were able to keep a saner and calmer mind than the 35% of the Catholic hierarchy who decided to equate President Obama’s presence with Judas-like treachery.

Apparently, the 35% have forgotten that Pope Benedict had issued a position paper saying the death penalty “is not only a refusal of the right to life, but it also is an affront to human dignity”  and went right ahead and hosted George W. Bush – fondly known as the Texecutioner.  Ah, where were those protestors then?  Or could it be that many of the so righteously indignant cherry-pick which tenents of the Catholic faith to uphold?

Despite alumni attempts to coerce Father John Jenkins to retract the University’s invitation to President Obama, Father Jenkins remained steadfast in upholding the University’s tradition – beginning in 1960 with then-President Eisenhower delivering the first such address – of hosting the President of the United States as its commencement day speaker.

And, President Obama did not disappoint.  Even those who originally objected to Obama’s presence and receipt of an honorary degree were pleased with his speech.  The President refused to duck and weave and dodge the issue of abortion and, instead, confronted the uncomfortable topic head on, urging respect and civility with”open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words.”

Protesters in the crowd sporadically interrupted Obama’s commencement address before they were shouted down by the rest of the graduates.  Imagine that – the very idea that many of the soon-to-be graduates really wanted to hear what the President had to say.

Obama – with grace and courage – faced the task of stepping onto a stage knowing full well that a tempest was brewing outside the University stirred by the likes of outsiders Randall Terry and Alan Keyes – the perennial political candidate who was drafted to challenge Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate race despite never having lived in Illinois.

But despite the efforts of Terry and Keyes to turn the graduation ceremony into a fiasco, the tempest remained in its teapot, the Catholic hierarchy remained out of touch, and Obama reached out to those with opposite views.

Photo Credit:  University of Notre Dame

_______________________________________________________________________________________

OBAMA TO GO AFTER CORPORATE OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS

In what will be a test of his ability to stave off powerful lobbies, President Obama will go after offshore tax havens used by corporations.  Originally established to ease a double tax burden for companies that set up operations overseas, the tax laws have provided havens for corporate avoidance of their fair share.

The top corporate tax rate is 35 percent, but the U.S. Treasury Department estimated that in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, American multinationals paid $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign income — an effective rate of 2.3 percent.  Oh, snap – I can just hear the whining of the corporations about how much they pay in taxes.

Of course, the corporations have the right to set up business anywhere they believe they can exploit the local economy and environment.  That isn’t going to change, but if that is what they want to do, then there is a price to pay.

The proposals would especially hit pharmaceutical, technology, financial and consumer goods companies — among them Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Gamble Company – that have major overseas operations or subsidiaries in tax havens like the Cayman Islands.

Here is my take – too bad.  Move your company business overseas, taking American jobs, and you deserve to pay double taxes.  I am sure the lobbying efforts of the corporations; however, will result in tempering President Obama’s efforts to plug the tax haven loophole.

Map of tax havens

Image credit:  Google Images and Transnationale.org