The Survey Says...

Well, we have completed the debate cycle for the 2012 presidential election.  We've heard about domestic policy, foreign policy and everything in between.  So what does the score card look like after three head to head meetings of the candidates for our next President of these United States?  Survey says...Obama 2 - Romney 1.  Romney had Obama on the ropes in round one.  Obama held his own and edged out Romney in round two.  Obama got the KO in round three.  See CNN's poll results for each debate.

Most Americans are neither well informed nor interested in foreign policy discussions, making the final debate not as popular as the other two.  Plus, the debate went head to head with Monday Night Football and game seven of the National League Championship series.  If you didn't watch the last debate you missed something special.  Romney said he had some "zingers" planned for the first round.  We heard about "trickle down government" and the "economy tax" on the middle class  Well, Obama had some hay makers in store for us in round three.  We got gems like "The 1980's are calling and they want their foreign policy back" and "In 1917 we had more horses and bayonets too!".

Beyond the war of words, let's get down to the substance.  President Obama has been the Commander-In-Chief for the past four years.  During his first term the war in Iraq was brought to conclusion, Osama bin Laden was assassinated, and the draw down of troops in Afghanistan has begun.  When Obama first ran for the Office of the Presidency recognizing his weaknesses in the foreign policy arena, he chose Joe Biden as his running mate.  Biden's experience in foreign policy includes his long tenure as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  This was and continues to be an asset to the Obama administration.  By comparison, Governor Romney with no foreign policy experience chose a running mate with an equally insufficient foreign policy resume.

When given the opportunity to detail his foreign policy platform Romney spent half of the time agreeing with the actions and policies implemented by the Obama administration and the other half telling us about his experience as Governor of Massachusetts with a touch of psycho-babble added in (witness the "I love teachers" diatribe).  Does serving as the governor of a small New England state that shares no borders with any other country really qualify as foreign policy experience?  Hell, you can't even see Russia from there!  Jesse Ventura was once the governor of Minnesota, which shares a border with Canada.  Presidential?  Probably not.

Americans need to develop a deeper comprehension concerning the position our nation occupies in the community of nations and among many actors on the international stage in the 21st century   We do not wield the hegemony we did in the decades following the Second World War.  The bi-polar detente that existed during the Cold War no longer defines the background of our relationships with other countries.  The rise of new world powers such as India and China, the actions of rogue nation states and their ruling elite, and the impact of zealous ideologies espoused by terrorist organizations have forever changed the manner in which we engage other nations.  These realities require a foreign policy that combines measured diplomacy with national security.  We will learn that the most powerful military in the world is no match for the convictions of extremists who do not measure their victory in terms of regime change or occupying forces.

So, it's up to you now to vote.  Early voting and absentee voting began this week.  To find out more information about early voting and absentee ballots please visit www.canivote.org  This is a much better option for many people than waiting in line on election day.  Do NOT get discouraged.  Let your voice be heard.  GO VOTE!

Is This Big Gov'ment?

If you've been watching the news lately or reading your local paper, you've probably heard about the meningitis outbreak that's captured the Nation's attention.  The source of this particular form of fungal meningitis has been linked to a steroid injection produced by the Massachusetts drug compounding firm New England Compounding Center.  This compounding center has announced a recall of 17,500 doses of a steroid pain treatment injection that had been distributed to 23 states.  Anybody who has received this form of pain treatment utilizing steroid injections produced by this firm has been encouraged to monitor their health closely and see a doctor if meningitis symptoms occur.  So far 137 cases of meningitis and 12 deaths have been linked to this batch of bad drugs.

How does this happen, you may ask.  How could your loved one receive a simple steroid injection for pain treatment and later perish from an infection caused by bad drugs?  It happens when the standards of public health that we take for granted in the United States are lowered by the demands of industry to make a profit in a relaxed regulatory environment.  The Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency responsible for ensuring that our food and pharmaceuticals are safe for the public's consumption, is not able to effectively carry out its consumer protection mission in this State regulated industry.  Medical compounding firms are outside of the regulatory jurisdiction of the FDA.  Their oversight has been left to State agencies that have wildly varying standards of self-regulation for these firms.  The following statements from an article by CNN articulate the issue at hand:

"Currently, the FDA does not have jurisdiction over compounding pharmacies until there is a problem. FDA officials say they have been fighting to change that for more than 20 years.

The compounding pharmacy industry has challenged those efforts, and courts have ruled that individual state health departments are in charge."

I think it bears mentioning that this issue is occurring in the very state where Mitt Romney was formerly the Governor.  Now before you go and accuse me of trying to pin something on Mr. Romney that he had little or nothing to do with (because Republicons have never done that to President Obama), I'd like to make the following connection that does stick.  The current Romney-Ryan platform directly states that over-regulation of private industry hinders the American economy and kills jobs.  Furthermore, over-reaching federal agencies staffed by armies of malevolent overpaid bureaucrats have made small businesses such as the New England Compounding Center the target of their recovery ruining regulatory agenda.  We need fewer regulations and more authority turned over to State governments because that level of government knows what's in the best interest of all citizens (unless the governor is a Democrat - then it's probably suspect).  The agenda is clear - less regulation from "big gov'ment" so that the morals of free market Capitalism lightly touched by magnanimous State governments can flourish.  Romney's campaign calls it "Smaller, Smarter, Simpler Government".

The Tea Party's Call To Arms

It appears that lassez faire model ran amok in Massachusetts.  The consequence so far has been the death of 12 individuals and possibly more as the days pass and the investigation continues.  If Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are elected, you will see more of this.  Just think, when funding is cut for FDA inspections of food processing companies and more outbreaks of E-coli and related health problems start to occur, you'll begin taking a closer look at how "big gov'ment" regulation impacts your life.

Can I Get A Ride?

Each work day, I wake up promptly at 5:00 a.m. so that I can shower, shave, dress, pack my lunch and drive to the train station in order to board the 6:24 a.m. Amtrak train to Chicago.  I arrive in the Windy City shortly before 8:00 a.m.  A short walk to my office in the Loop and I'm clocked in.  I repeat this process in reverse at 5:00 p.m. and arrive back home around 6:45 p.m.  All this amounts to a twelve hour work day including my commuting time.

Am I complaining - no, not really.  Why?  Because I love my job.  No, seriously - I love my job!  What really jerks my chain however is the possibility that I could have been riding on a high speed train were it not for Governor Scott Walker's campaign promise to kill high speed rail in Wisconsin.  Once elected, he did just that by returning a federal grant to the U.S. Department of Transportation that was supposed to be an investment in high speed rail infrastructure connecting Wisconsin to the rest of the Midwest.  This regional system of high speed routes would have connected Milwaukee to the Twin Cities, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland and other destinations.

Why did Governor Walker want to kill high speed rail in Wisconsin? You ask.  Because he and his Republicon cronies believe, "nobody will ride it."  Forget the fact that the Hiawatha Amtrak line between Milwaukee and Chicago is one of the busiest routes Amtrak operates.  Every work day the train is full of individuals that commute like I do to white collar career employment opportunities in Illinois.  A significant number of these daily commuters work at Miller Coors corporate headquarters and in the financial sector.  To add insult to injury, our Republicon presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has proposed the elimination of federal funding for Amtrak among other publicly supported  ventures like PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.  This is coming from an individual who claims he will create 12 million jobs during his first term as President.  

There are no viable private passenger rail services in the Midwest.  Privatization is not an option.  If federal subsidies for Amtrak are eliminated, we will be forced to attempt to drive to work and  park in Chicago.  Without Amtrak, I would not be able to afford my commute.  I would venture a guess that many others who ride the train every day would not be able to afford the commute either.  Why would a candidate who claims he wants to create more jobs take away my opportunity to get to mine?  If you think federal subsidies for Amtrak are a waste of tax payer dollars, check out federal subsidies for our interstate system and airports and tell me you still think passenger rail is a raw deal.