LSJ Blogs: People's Politics

Thanksgiving Thoughts

I hope each of you have a wonderful holiday in whatever way you celebrate it.  I hope you will also remember the history of the holiday, and how the Europeans treated the natives who were here first.  Just as we must never forget the Holocaust or slavery, we must never forget the original natives of this land.

KSM in New York

The administration has decided to bring Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), along with four co-conspirators, from Gitmo to New York City, “the site of the crime,” for trial in a civilian court.   For those of you who have been out of the country for the last eight years, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, KSM was "the principal architect of the 9/11attacks."  For full disclosure, I think this is a terrible decision by the Obama Administration and cannot comprehend any advantage to a public trial in NYC as opposed to a military tribunal at Gitmo; however, I am curious what the readers of the People’s Politics think.  While Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement, surely he had passed this by President Obama prior to making the decision public.  I find it somewhat disconcerting that this is another major announcement made while Obama was out of the country.

Cash for Clunkers

It seems an awful lot of people were happy with the government run Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program, better known as “Cash for Clunkers.”  According to government stats, 678,024 cars were approved for payment (purchased) for a cost to the tax payer of about $2.85 billion which left a mere $150 million for use for the government’s administrative expenses.  This works out to about $4,200 dollars for every car traded in; not bad for the person buying the car.

Obama’s economic plan

The leftists who love Obama and his stimulus plan, despite proof that it is not creating jobs, should finally be happy.  Their loss of sanity and obvious hatred of capitalism and love of socialism has been such a disaster that the US unemployment is now higher than even the vast majority of the European Union (EU) countries.  Only Spain, Greece and Ireland have unemployment figures higher than ours now; even France has a better employment rate than we do.  The total EU unemployment average is 9.7% while ours is 10.2%.  In fairness, the 9.7% EU rate was from September as those are the latest figures available; ours was only 9.8% in September.

Thanks to Veterans and Current Service Members

On this Veteran's Day, I want to thank all my colleagues here and all of our readers who have served or currently serve in the military.  I admire their bravery and hard work in service to our country.

Are you serious?

The gang that figured out that the stimulus was a good idea gave you this. 

With analysis and projections like this can turning health care over to them possibly be a good idea?

Hate crime or not?

By any measure of merit, the killing of 13 (at this writing) people at Ft Hood, TX was a horrific act.  The coverage and opinions of the actions of Major Nidal Malik Hasan have generated views from the ridiculous to thoughtful.  A full analysis of the situation has not been completed yet and it may turn out some of the victims were killed by other than Hasan as “friendly fire,” but that will sort itself out when the analysis has been completed; regardless even if Hasan did not directly kill all 13, it is fair to say he was responsible for their deaths by his despicable actions.  I wonder how the readers of the People’s Politics view this?  For full disclosure, I think the hate crime legislation passed as Public Law 103-322 in 1994 was political correctness gone amuck.

Meaning of the Nov 3 elections

I have been sorting through the various news sources, left and right, trying to ferret out the meaning of the elections yesterday.  Taking what by consensus were the Big 3, Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections and the New York 23 special congressional vote, did they mean a repudiation of Obama?  Was it a repudiation of Obama’s policies but not Obama?  Did it signify that the teabag movement had an impact?  Did it imply the Republicans are on the ascendency?  Did it mean nothing at all?

A Win and A Loss for Equality

Voters in Kalamazoo yesterday upheld the city's civil rights ordinance, which guarantees equal rights in employment and housing to all, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people.

On the same day, voters in Maine overturned a state law legalizing gay marriage in the state. 

VOTE TODAY!!!

Not because you are required to, but because you are entitled to.  Think about all the places in the world where people do not have the right to vote on their government, and be grateful you don't live in one of them.  If you aren't sure what's on the ballot where you are, check your county clerk's website or your local clerk's website or office.  Be aware that some localities have registered write-in candidates who you may want to consider.  You can do Internet searches to learn more about the candidates and issues.

On the other hand, if YOU don't vote, then MY vote counts for more.  So, go ahead and stay home...