Are You Angry?

Today the guardian of our Republic, America's favorite son, the Patriot extraordinaire Donald Trump released the following video message for President Obama.



Apparently, there is a horde of angry Americans out there who detest President Obama's lack of transparency.  This über secretive agenda includes concealing his university applications, transcripts, and passport applications from every American that strongly desires, like Donald, the ability to inspect these documents.  Why? you might ask.  Why not? I for one cannot think of any other President whose college transcripts I haven't inspected to my satisfaction.  Really?  I started using the following Twitter hash tag for just these sort of examples of foolishness - #WTFAmerica

If you're angry about this alleged lack of transparency and the complete void of information about our President that it creates, well, frankly I don't know what to say to you.  I could offer the following proposition instead.  Perhaps the Donald could look up each and every member of Congress who doesn't have a college degree and offer to pay for their schooling.

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.

Whose Values Are These?

While I was watching television this evening, I happened to see this new political advertisement sponsored by the Campaign for American Values Political Action Committee.  Take a look...

At first I thought it was some kind of spoof video leading into the beginning of Jimmy Kimmel Live, which was coming on next.  It wasn't until the final few seconds when the sponsoring organization was announced that I realized this was not someone's attempt at political satire - it was an actual appeal to the electorate to vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket.  Thank God for DVR, because I immediately had to do a double take rewind and watch this again just to make sure I hadn't missed the punch line.

So this is supposed to represent American values, or more specifically President Obama's attack on American values?  I guess you have to be able to see the forest from the trees to understand the inherent contradiction here.  Religious Liberty, essentially freedom from the tyranny of a state religion or the political authority vested in the divine right of a monarch or similar despot determined to rule under the auspices of God's favor, is an important American value.  Somehow, this value has been corrupted in an attempt to validate the irrational fiction that you see in this advertisement.

The President is judged guilty of consorting with Muslims, turning his back on God's chosen people,  and forcing Americans (apparently a monolithic group of dogmatic believers) to pay for abortion drugs.  It doesn't take a genius to understand the intended audience for this foolishness is a group of devout evangelical Christians who will somehow suspend all other tenants, teachings and testaments of their Faith to become enraged with the apparent anti-Christian actions of the Sinner-in-Chief, President Obama.  Then comes the slight of hand.  We should take action against the traitor Obama by voting for the standard bearers of Christian orthodoxy, Mitt Romney (Mormon) and Paul Ryan (Roman Catholic).  (Definition of Irony - Roman Catholic teachings state that the Mormon Church is a non-Christian cult)

Regardless of your religion, your political affiliations or even your intended choice for President, do the falsehoods, malicious intentions and judgement contained in this advertisement represent your values?  Are these American values?  Are these Christian values?  Whose values are these?

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.