Juan Williams and His Foxy Friends

The cancelation of Juan Williams’ contract was handled poorly by NPR and by Williams. Over the years I have grown to respect Williams as an objective professional journalist. But recently I have witnessed a transformation, perhaps in part due to his camaraderie with Fox and friends. Williams now follows the money and gets a huge pay raise as he smoothly transitions to Fox. I find myself wondering if Williams could have pushed the envelope a bit. Last week his close colleague Bill O'Reilly made hay out of his own bigoted remarks on "The View". Fox made no apologies for O’Reilly. Instead, Fox and friends have capitalized on the event, as they characteristically do when anyone pushes back at their subjective views. Subjectivity has no place in professional journalism. Subjective media outlets on the left and right are now aggressively usurping the role of objective journalism nationwide. This is causing serious injury to our democratic processes and the very fabric of our American society. NPR and PBS are two of the last sources in our country for objective reporting and critical analysis. We can’t afford to lose either one. Let's hope NPR can learn from their personnel mistakes and we can all put this issue to rest.

On the Dole and Taking from the Rove

If you check politifact, Harry Reid gets a C for telling half truths, but Sharron Angle gets a D- for making statements that are false.
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/sharron-angle/

In the debate she said she is not a career politician but a grandmother and a teacher. TRUTH: she’s unemployed and technically living on her husband’s government pension check. She has a spotty record of unemployment. According to her web page her teaching experience includes teaching art at the Elko campus of WNCC as a lecturer (5 years), and running a very small (less than 30 students) Christian school for 2 years, and she also says she was a substitute teacher for 25 years which (meaning on any given day they call you can say no). She says she’s not a career politician but she’s made a career out of running for political office. She was in the State Assembly 4 terms (1999 to 2005) where she got a reputation for voting no, and she sought and failed to get elected to U.S. Congress in 2006. After that she began running for the U.S. Senate.

As for funding, she is not being bankrolled by Nevadans, but by George Bush operatives Carl Rove and Ed Gillespi (American Crossroads.org). If you had a problem with Bush, you are in the wrong camp. A comparison of her web sites before and after the primary and the RNC makeover reveal her official positions have shifted. Some of you criticize Reid for being a career politician. But so is Angle; she is an itinerant educator at best. You criticize Reid for making deals. So has Angle; they’ve been recorded on cell phone calls. You criticize Reid for half truths, but he is more honest than she is according to fact checkers.

This is not a glowing endorsement of Reid, but a reality check on Angle. Reid has channeled over a billion dollars our way since the economic crisis began because of his clout in the Senate. Sharron will not do the same. She has a history of trying to dismantle government and voting and has all but said she not get us one thin dime from Washington. This is no time for a “throw the baby out with the bath” mindset. We need solutions that infuse our state with the resources we need to build our education system so we will have the skilled work force necessary to grow our economy. And we need tax breaks for small businesses and moratoriums on mortgage foreclosures. Harry Reid has been passing legislation to do just that. Check his web page for recent accomplishments. Angle has little to show in legislative accomplishments. While she lives on the dole and takes funds from the Rove she seeks to improve her own situation with her own federal paycheck and a “Cadillac” benefits package.

Getting Partisan Clouds Out of the Picture So We Can See Clearly

Here in Nevada, we have two big elections in November, Governor (our current governor lost in the primary) and U.S. Senator (seat currently held by Harry Reid). To make it more interesting, the Democratic candidate for governor is Harry's son Rory. For me it is not about the personalities or the political parties of Sharron Angle or Harry Reid. Like many Nevadans I don’t vote along party lines. Even if I disagree with some of their ideas I generally prefer to vote for an independent thinker who honestly thinks they are doing their best for their constituents and their country. I was hoping that Sharron was an independent thinker. But the partisan rhetoric of her supporters and her recent website makeover are of deep concern. Has Sharron drunk the Kool Aid? Will she now be told what to say and do by the RNC machine just to get their money? Sharron is taking very few local interviews, only national interviews to build her war chest and this will make her forever indebted to the political powers that got her there. That is a big problem that many of us have with Harry Reid. He has a huge war chest from the DSCC but Angle according to her web site, she reached over a million last week and is well on her way to another million this week. I doubt most of this is Nevada money but it will have a profound effect on this election.

I wish we could get the partisan politics out of the way and Americans would consistently think about our country first. Unlike what bloggers say on Angle's Facebook page, it is irresponsible to blame Nevada’s financial mess on Obama; it makes no sense to take factoids out of context and to blame this immense financial crisis on one's political enemies. This is like the Nazis blaming their failed economy on the Jews. Millions of Americans were complicit in our financial meltdown. Know anybody who was into flipping houses? Every Nevadan who faked their paperwork on a financial application, or lender or appraiser who hedged their numbers on a house loan contributed to the fiasco. It was like looters during a riot. Just because everybody was doing it didn’t make it right. Where is sense of personal accountability?

In my opinion Governor Jim Gibbons (beginning when he was a State Assemblyman) contributed to the anti-tax fervor in this state which has led to a failing state economy. Every state in the union is strapped, but most are not failing. Tax revolts were justified in states with immense tax burdens (income tax, property tax, sales tax, excise tax). Our tax base has never been a burden; now it is insufficient to support essential services. Our state’s economic numbers are the worst in the country because Nevadans have relied on the kindness of strangers to come here and give us buckets of money, pan handlers if you will. One might predict that people who have not been accountable for how they have used other people’s money would blame their national leaders for not fixing their mess fast enough, but it doesn’t wash here any better than it did in the former Soviet Union. Note that they are a “former” socialist state. No accountability for individual actions has to be factored into their demise.

As for our national unemployment numbers, read the data: http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=CES0000000001&output_view=net_1mth.
The data clearly indicate that under President Bush our economy was way off the tracks, with unemployment numbers in free fall. The worst month was the month President Obama took office (1/09). Were some Americans asleep the week in September ‘08 when McCain said the economy was strong and then the following week tried to stop the campaign to go back to DC and help solve the economic crisis? Remember the bipartisan meeting with Bush, Obama and McCain and leaders in Congress and Senate at a very long table, and a series of other meetings and hearings with leaders of the FED, Secretary of Treasury Paulsen and other financial leaders? I remember grave voices, gray faces and dire predictions all the way around? Obama was cognizant of the issues and worked hard with Bush and his administration and both sides of Congress to develop strategies to put into place to save us from a Depression. McCain just sat there like a lump on a log and said nothing. That is when McCain’s campaign really crumbled. The first week of October a bipartisan Congress passed TARP, the first stimulus package backed by Bush, McCain and Obama, the Fed and most of Congress (Democrats and Republicans). But it was insufficient to stop the bleeding. President Obama was left with stark choices and had to do some things that seemed quite radical to all of us. Congress, both sides of the aisle, for the most part, held their noses and supported the stimulus package.

After wards I think Republicans realized that Obama would get credit for turning around the economy they decided to vote against everything proposed by the Democrats. They developed a strategy of defeating Democrats in the midterms no matter what the cost was to the American people. It is a well established fact that they opposed health care reform, including opposing ideas that they had initiated, even though it will save us trillions on health care in the long run. Republican leaders even spun dangerous lies, like the totally fictitious granny death panels, to kill the bill. The irony is how many grannies die from poor health care.
The deficit is due to greed and corruption throughout the banking sector and throughout America, but also it is due to financing a misled and mismanaged war policy. Recall how President Bush took his eye off the Afghan ball and lied to us about WMDs. At least one member of the VP's staff was convicted (pardoned by Bush) for betraying an American spy who could counter the lies. The majority of troops were transferred from Afghanistan to Iraq beginning at the end of March 2003. Then on May 1, 2003 Bush made his did his infamous "mission accomplished” stunt while in fact he had just committed us to two protracted war fronts which allowed the Taliban to revive their terrorist activities in Afghanistan which has cost us dearly in more American lives and money.

Remember that virtually all Democrats and Republicans voted in lock step to support the war in Iraq; Obama was one of the few who had the foresight and character to vote no to the war in Iraq. We are now paying for that profound mistake with human lives and cost overruns today. It is questionable whether Americans will have the stomach to support these protracted wars to their safe conclusions for Americans. A protracted Afghan war contributed to the downfall of the former Soviet Union. So far the war in Iraq has cost us over 4700 American lives and over $730 billion. Afghanistan so far has cost over 1900 American lives and $280 billion. We are now spending $5.5 billion month in Afghanistan to help them build their government and military and lot of it is going to warlords who do or easily could back the Taliban. We need accountability for our investment and the media and well informed citizens need us to keep our elected officials' feet to the fire. I would like to know Sharron Angle’s and Harry Reid’s positions on both of these war fronts.

Back here in Nevada, we don’t have sufficient industry in Nevada to provide a revenue stream to support our citizens. Parts of the "north valleys" of Reno/Sparks have become post apocalyptic wastelands of foreclosures and rental signs. There are “for lease” signs all over the Truckee Meadows with no new ideas in sight to help us. Blaming our financial woes on Obama is a total cop out? Our state’s numbers are the worst in the nation because of state’s panhandling economy is based on waiting for everyone else’s numbers to improve so that visitors will return to Nevada. If they don’t, our economy is in the tank. We should be sucking it up, attracting new industries to create new revenue streams, opening our minds to new technologies, and improving our skilled work force by strengthening our education system. That is the only responsible way to come out of this crisis ahead of the game.

Unfortunately, Governor Gibbons has led the way to drastically gut our education budgets. Our schools are failing. Teachers and administrators are struggling to cover the basics and candidate Brian Sandoval appears to have dusted off Gibbon's education plan and put it forward as his own: privatize schools, cut tenure, punish failing schools, empower parents to make the decisions. We’ve already “dumbed down” our exit exams through the "leave no child behind" legislation which has created an exam-based social promotion strategy that has pushed the problem down the line. As a college professor I can tell you it is easy to create an exam that all students can pass. An outrageous number of our so-called millennial scholars are entering college and placing into remedial math and English because they don’t have basic college entry level skills. In Nevada we long ago cut art, music and physical education from our K-12 curriculum. Regardless of the simplicity of the curriculum and the exit exams, Nevada is dead last in our high school graduation rate nationwide. A contributing factor is that we are number one in the nation for teenage pregnancy. So how on earth would we Nevadans benefit from having 24 year old dropouts dictating our school curriculum? We cannot attract new industries without a skilled work force.

Senator Ensign has stated there is no economic crisis in Nevada, that we should tighten our belts; how can you tell a starving man to tighten his belt? Angle has not said much of anything about economic issues until today, relying on RNC fact-free spin. Last week Sharron Angle is quoted as saying it is "not the responsibility of a U.S. Senator to create jobs" and then suddenly in the last few days she rolled out an ominous music-based ad which blames Harry Reid for our unemployment with the tag line "help is on the way." Still there is no policy statement about how she intends to bring jobs to Nevada on her web page, none whatsoever. All she mentions at all is making Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent. Trickle-down economics dried up long ago in the heat of the Nevada desert.

Sharron Angle's Energy Issues page on her website looks like it is out of the 1980s and does not take into account any of Nevada’s natural resources or the new clean technologies that we’ve begun to develop here in Nevada over the last several years. Ever since Senator Reid has been the Senate leader he has been funneling millions of dollars to Nevada to support these new technologies. I want to think our next governor and senator will continue the push for clean energy technologies. We can’t afford another period of stagnation.

We need new ideas for revenue stream and ideas to improve education in our state to stay afloat. I am looking to candidates for governor and legislators at the state and federal level for ideas. I’ve had enough of the tired closed minded partisan politics and biased historical factoids on both sides of the aisle. We should take the good of both parties and discard the failed policies of the past. Partisan politics aside, which candidate has the best comprehensive plan to help lead Nevada and the U.S. to a more prosperous future? Check their web pages:
U.S. Senator Harry Reid (http://reid.senate.gov/)
U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle (http://sharronangle.com/)
Nevada Gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid (http://www.roryreid.com/
Nevada Gubernatorial Brian Sandoval (http://www.briansandoval.com/).

Fishing for an Angler

In Nevada we have a significant senatorial election approaching. Senate Leader Harry Reid is currently about 10 points behind the Republican challenger Sharron Angle. Although this new darling of the Tea Party (and now the RNC) has been in local and state politics for over a decade and has some clear ultraconservative ideas, ever since the primary the RNC has been trying to makeover her image so she will be more palatable to the mainstream. For example, there is much ado about whether Sharron Angle is for or against ending Social Security. Here is the actual quote from “Fox and Friends” (6/14/10): Steve Doocy: “Perhaps it's a misinformation or mischaracterization, but some have said that you are out to get rid of Social Security. That's not true right?" Sharron Angle:”Well that's nonsense. I have always said that we need to make the lock box a lock box. Put the money in there for our senior citizens. They came here in good faith, paying into a system that Harry Reid has put an IOU in. For 24 years, he has been raiding Social Security, and what we need to do is personalize Social Security and Medicare, so that the government can no longer raid it” (http://video.foxnews.com/v/4238236/fox--friends-exclusive).

Ok, now here are two concerns: First, nobody really and truly knows what "personalize Social Security" means but most of us think it is code for privatize. Note that this interview is after the RNC makeover. She now has professionals "handling" her and making sure she avoids saying something considered too “out there” for the mainstream; hence the extreme soft peddled leading question of Doocy: "that's not true, right?" Second, in her pre-makeover interview with Jon Ralston of the LV Sun (5/25/10), she said in reference to Social Security that "going forward we need to phase it out" (http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2010/may/25/3974/). FYI, in both of these links the actual quotes are at about 4:00 minutes into the interview.

As of 6/27/10 the latter quote is consistent to what is posted on the “issues” page of her official webpage where she talks about transitioning out of Social Security: “Social Security and its attendant Medicare are broken and bankrupt systems because we, as voting citizens, have allowed congress to transform these systems from insurance programs to and entitlement programs. The government must continue to keep its contract with seniors, who entered into the system on good faith and now are depending on that contract. Free market alternatives, which offer retirement choices to employees and employers, must be developed and offered to those still in their wage earning years, as the Social Security system is transitioned out. Young workers must be encouraged to investigate personal retirement account options (http://www.sharronangle.com/issues/).

Now I don't think it is slamming her to look at these actual quotes. I think some, perhaps many, of her original supporters agree with eliminating Social Security and Medicare, so there is no reason to sanitize this or mislead people on this issue. But that is what the RNC wants to do. I totally support her desire to make the Social Security/Medicare "lock box" a real "lock box" but I am equally opposed to phasing out or privatizing Social Security or Medicare.

This whole craze of privatization, in my opinion, has been a disaster. It has led to layers upon layers of federal bureaucratic regulators monitoring the private sector. Most local agencies and non profits are drowning in federal paperwork and oversight so that they have little time left to do what they are supposed to be doing with the money. Meanwhile many big fat cat no bid private contractors manage to keep one step ahead so they can steal us blind. Just look at the overruns in Iraq and what private contractors stole from us and ask the troops on the ground what a joke these contractors are.

I am in my mid-fifties and I certainly want the SSI fund that I have paid into all of my adult life to be there when I retire. I love the idea of a “lock box” to keep the dirty paws of Harry, Sharron, or whoever off my hard earned Social Security and Medicare checks. Let the private contractors go somewhere besides the federal government for a bailout. If we take the private sector middlemen out of the picture and have government employees do the necessary work, we can drastically reduce the size of the federal government. I don’t want to be phased out just when I am nearing my phase in.

Runaway Quitter for President?

Stanley McChrystal is an arrogant bum, another quitter who will not go away. I read the magazine article (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236). Recall that he was the architect of the Pat Tilman cover up and he oversaw abuse and torture of detainees in Camp Nama in Iraq. In the magazine he says Genghis Khan was the only person who succeeded in Afghanistan because he wasn't hampered by things like "human rights", he apparently has a long term drinking problem and his fictional writings about assassinating the President are downright scary. So who needs another Alexander Haig? It was obviously this meglomaniac's plan was to get fired by Obama and then become the sweetheart of the talk shows and Fauxnews and then run for President. It is a career move, not heroic, but self serving. Guess who his running mate will be. Will Republicans vote for these Runaway Quitters? We will see.

Energy Wake-up Call

President Obama has been criticized for the feds “slow” response to the oil spill; meanwhile BP has downplayed the disaster. Cheney let oil execs redraft the regulations; now we must clean up yet another Bush administration mess. BP paid $22 million in fines for hazardous waste dumping in Alaska (1990s), $303 million in fines for propane price fixing (October, 2007), and was fined $137 million for 800+ safety violations after a Texas oil refinery explosion (2005).

Obama says he erred in believing BP had their acts together for a worst case scenario. The Obama administration has now: 1) suspended planned exploration of two locations off the coast of Alaska; 2) canceled pending lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and proposed lease sales off Virginia coast; 3) extended existing moratoriums and suspended new permits for deepwater wells for six months; and 4) suspended action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently in the Gulf of Mexico.

Obama says oil will be part of our energy mix, but this tragedy is a “wake-up call” that our dependence on oil is not sustainable; we must focus our resources on renewable energy that will not only protect our environment, but will also “create a new, homegrown, American industry that can lead to countless new businesses and new jobs.” America, with our ingenuity, "know how" and "can do" spirit, can lead the world in renewable energy technologies. And Nevada, with our wide open spaces, can be a national leader, but we must invest now in education and retrain and diversify our workforce. Enough of this “no new taxes/drill baby/anti regulation” nonsense. Let’s clean up this mess and get to work.

Where the stimulus money is going.

The stimulus money is earmarked for programs not unlike the WPA programs (after the Great Depression), except this time we are releasing it not as large government work programs, but as a means for jobs and training. Some funds has gone to what have been coined "shovel ready" programs. There is also a lot of money going to educational and training programs from K-12 to college and vocational training programs. Some of that money is going to private companies who partner with a government entity and some is going to state and local employees. In fact it is keeping our fellow Nevadans at work in basic industries such as police, fire, teachers, and highway construction workers. We should be grateful that Senator Reid has provided opportunities (not earmarks) for us to apply for grants to help stabilize the economic situation in Nevada.

As a long term Nevadan, I care about the future of our state. I have dedicated the last 15 years of my life "giving back" by teaching at our local community college. For the last 6 months I have also assisted our school's external funding and grants office so I know something about the stimulus funding.

The grants are very competitive. The process is rigorous not because of the difficulty of writing the grants, but because of the complexity of filling out government applications and because the turn around time is typically no more that a few weeks. This means organizations that don't have a full time grant writer have little chance of winning these funds. That's why I'm helping our college grant writer at this critical and urgent time.

If each American got a share of that initial total it would have been a little over $2500 ea. vs. saving someone's job or giving them the training they need to get a job. Teach a person to fish. I vote we stay the course. To see where stimulus funds are going in Nevada or any state go to: http://www.recovery.gov

Coffee Party's first blogger: Annabel

It doesn't matter now what Annabel's background is or is not. The Coffee Party Movement is bigger than that now and our American political grassroots quest for political action is much, much bigger bigger than that.

The vast majority of Americans are profoundly unhappy with the two status quo political parties and together we are searching. Some Americans seem to have found their voice in the Tea Party, but many of us find that party too sheepishly conservative seeming to follow the dictates of Fox news broadcasters. The Coffee Party is a response to that with an emphasis on civil discourse and for some a more centrist agenda. Meanwhile, may recent veterans are restarting the Whig Party. Their politics appear to lie somewhere between Coffee and Tea in temperament.

One thing for sure, we are tired of the business as usual model of the current two party system. The Democrats and Republicans have let us down, proving to be, more often than not, led by people who suffer from some or all of the proverbial deadly sins.

Most of us don't yet know whether the Tea Party or the Coffee Party or the Whig party or yet another party will earn our support in the months ahead. We do we are tired of being manipulated by corporate media and the two majority parties and it is time for us to reclaim our rights and responsibilities and to participate more directly in the governance of our nation.

Simple Bipartisan Plan to Reform American Healthcare

My proposal is simple: Mandatory reporting of medical errors for health care institutions and health care providers PAIRED with a $250K cap on each malpractice lawsuit. Rationale: Medical error is the 7th leading cause of death in U.S. With mandatory reporting and public assess to this data base, there will be a radical change in health care. No longer will bad health care providers be protected by a veil of secrecy. In 2007 then Senators Clinton and Obama proposed mandatory reporting of medical errors but their bill was blocked by Republicans who insisted on putting a $250K cap on malpractice law suits. I say let the Republicans have that. Even with a $250 cap on law suits, how many hits could a doctor or hospital survive before losing their license given a publicly accessible database? Give us a real choice of providers and we will have quality care. By improving quality of care through true oversight by consumers, we can drastically improve the quality of health care and dramatically decrease the cost of health care. Plus with a cap on malpractice law suits, good doctors and hospitals will no longer have to pay premiums to support the bad. Its a win, win, win. The cost of this plan is nominal, the benefits priceless.

How that Hopey-Changey Thing is Working out for U.S.

How that Hopey-Changey Thing is Working Out for U.S.:


http://my.barackobama.com/page/m/55c106b2/504db18c/fef1e531/11886ceb/127712909/VEsH/

An Open Letter to President Obama and All Americans Who Care About Health Care

I listened to Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell this morning (1/24/10)on Meet the Press and first I have to compliment David Gregory for making Senator McConnell stay on track. When asked for the top three items for Republicans on health care reform and his list included the following four: 1) Put the CSPAN cameras in the room; 2) Junk lawsuits for doctors and hospitals (translation tort reform); 3) interstate competition among insurance companies; and 4) Equalize the tax code so that insurance is tax deductible for individuals just as it is for corporations.

Meanwhile the Democrats talk about: 5) universal coverage (i.e. strategies such as a public option, Medicare buy-in, and an insurance coop); and 6) coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. Listening to independent voters I would suggest they would add 7) no changes to benefits or cost for exiting Medicare recipients and 8) no death panels.

So here’s a brief discussion of the Partisan lists:

1) Transparency with television cameras in the room during negotiations
2) Tort reform. This argument was made when then Senators Obama and Clinton tried to pass mandatory reporting of medical errors (the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S.). The Repubs and the health care industry fought back saying they would only support the mandatory reporting with a $250K cap on malpractice lawsuits. I say give it to them. Pair tort reform/paired with mandatory health care reporting (for health care givers and institutions to a transparent registry that the public can access. That will serve to police the health care industry, increase our ability to choose higher quality health care providers and drive down the costs and save lives by improving the quality of health care.
3) Interstate competition among insurance companies…why not? Increase the pool, improve the cost
4) Tax deductions for individuals…again, why not? Dems might be afraid it will justify corporations throwing their employees under the train, but they are doing that anyway. I live in Nevada where there is talk about gutting the health care benefits for state employees. As a college professor in a state college, this would cost me a lot.
5) Universal coverage: I’m an advocate of the public option, but I have accepted the fact that Congress doesn’t have the balls to pass it. The coops have not yet been tested; there have been no objective third party studies to determine if they are an effective method. I think the solution is the 55 year old buy in to Medicare with emphasis on buy-in. They pay their way so there is an infusion of case from younger recipients paying into the system. Perhaps we can cap it for people making less than $25,000 so it’s not a huge magnet for everyone who could afford an alternative private policy. Plus it will be a money maker because of the infusion of cash from the younger recipients who are paying into the system.
6) Coverage for people with preexisting conditions: I understand even the insurance industry has now come to table on this one…done
7) No change in benefits or costs for those already covered by Medicare; let’s cap this at folks making $250K so the rich don’t get a free ride here.

To sum, here below is a list that would fix Health Care as a BIPARTISAN solution:

1. Transparent and televised coverage of negotiations
2. Tort Reform (cap to $250K per malpractice lawsuit) PAIRED with mandatory reporting of medical errors for health care providers and institutions to a publicly accessible registry.
3. Interstate competition among insurance companies
4. Equalize tax code: allow individuals to deduct insurance premiums like corporations do
5. Medicare buy-in for 55 year olds making less than $25K
6. Coverage for those with preexisting conditions.
7. No increases in cost or reduction of coverage to existing Medicare beneficiaries making less than $200K.

I urge President Obama to give the Republicans, Democrats and Independents what they want, put it on TV and see what happens.

Sue Lowden: More of the Same?

Two themes emerge in the posts on the Facebook page for Sue Lowden's campaign: strong dislike for Reid and a lack of knowledge about Lowden by her supporters. I’ve met both of them, Lowden is way more personable, but neither is very forthcoming about their backgrounds or (oftentimes) their positions on key issues. When they do provide statements it is typically sanitized political party line talking points.

Much of Reid’s background is Nevada history and lore, but Lowden’s own bio on her webpage is missing some key pieces of info. She says she is a philanthropist, so where did she get her money? Before I throw my support behind any candidate, I “Google” them. When I researched Sue Lowden, I found her business affiliations with her husband Paul at Archon. Then I Googled “Paul Lowden and Harry Reid” I found some provocative links. I’m sure some are fabrications, but all should be critically evaluated. I sent Sue Lowden’s campaign a query asking them to clarify between Argent and Archon Corporations and to please provide statements about various articles’ alleged ties between the Reid, the Lowdens, and the mob. So far I have received no response.

I consider myself very patriotic and I want what is best for my country. I am not wed or beholden to any political party and I believe it is my civic duty to be an informed voter. I wish both major parties would stop exploiting their loyal bases to advance the agendas of whoever might be their favored sons or daughters of the day, sometimes at the expense of what is good for the future of our country.

I would encourage all citizens to fight back against the ignorance and blind loyalty that the Republican and Democrat parties are promoting. Stop following Fox on the right and CNN and MSNBS on the left for political commentary. Network news is obliged to big money corporate interests, not the viewers. Strive to find more independent sources of news. Push the media to practice due diligence, but don’t rely others to do all your research. We now have the internet at our fingertips, the most powerful research tool ever devised.

As Americans I believe we have a responsibility to voraciously pursue accurate sources of information, to make politicians and government agencies more accountable and transparent by forcing them to put critical statements and documents on the record. And we should find and support the best political candidates, those who truly represent our views and values. In my opinion it is short-sighted, perhaps self destructive, to set the bar at “anyone but Harry.” We owe it to our country and ourselves to demand more. Perhaps that is Sue Lowden. But shouldn’t we demand to know?

Guantanamo Bay: Gitmo (or less)

A Brief History of Indigenous and European dynamics in Cuba and the United States. In the beginning human occupation of the Caribbean there were indigenous groups including Tainos, Arawaks and Caribs. The history and “pre” history of these peoples is not well known or understood. There is archaeological evidence that the ancient Cubans participated in the Pre-Columbian ball court system which involved ritual and sacrifice around a ball game that is also poorly understood. But this evidence does seem to indicate a broader participation in contemporary spheres of influence related to reigning dynasties and empires including Aztecans, Mayans and Toltecans. From what archaeologists and historians have pieced together the Caribs may have been a more aggressive folk who raided other groups for women and goods. Some scholars think the Tainos and Arawaks spoke related languages or even dialects, but all of this is subjective based on fragmented strands of early documents perceived and written by colonial invaders. It is tempting to characterize the Tainos as a more artisan race subjected to perhaps the violent proclivities of a more raucous people the Caribs, in a sociopolitical dance such as that between Mesoamerican empires to the western mainland and perhaps even the faraway island cultures of the Minoans and Mycenaeans in the Mediterranean some 2500 years earlier. Both stories share the outcome of an invasion by sea faring people. In both cases not much is left of these ancient cultures but remnants, relics, a fragmented history.

The solid history begins with the European invaders, who were expanding their empires by British, Spaniards, French, Dutch, Portuguese and others. Today the Caribbean reflects this multivocality of languages and ethnicities. According to Richard Gott, on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed Baracoa, which is now in the province of Guantanamo, Cuba and claimed it for Spain.

The sordid genocidal and ethnocidal histories of Spaniard Conquistadors and other European invaders with their brutalities of forced enslavement, religious persecution, plundering mayhem, and vast introduction of diseases and plagues is a long tortuous chapter in the history of the Americas. Because of Cuba’s proximity to the North American continent and its large land mass, it became a political and economic focal point of interest and soon because a thriving colony for the trade of slave and lumber, the manufacture of rum and a significant source of revenue for the Spanish crown and a key locus for the infamous “middle passage” of legend and lore.

By the 1500s the French and the Spaniards were warring over nearby Florida. In 1565 the Spaniards establish St. Augustine which is now on record as the longest continuously occupied European city in the continental United States. As English colonists increased their hold to the north is what had come to been known as the Carolinas, runaway slaves and persecuted indigenous people (i.e. Creek, Yuchi, Choctaw, Chickasaw and many others) fled south, eventually creating the Seminole nation in the Florida sometime in the 18th century.

In the early 1800s, Irish Protestant Andrew Jackson invaded Florida on behalf of the U.S. and made his name by warring against Spaniards and Indian groups in what came to be known as the Creek War and the First Seminole War. Jackson also defeated a British attempt to lay claim to Florida in 1814. The U.S. acquired Florida from Spain through treaty in 1821. The indigenous people withdrew to the swamps and made their homes on pillars deep in the Everglades. In 1828 Jackson was elected President and in 1830 through the Indian Removal Act forced thousands of the remaining indigenous people in the Southeastern U.S. to move to Oklahoma territory part of the lands obtained through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 from the French, in what has become known as the “Trail of Tears”.

Many indigenous nations of what is now known as the Southeastern U.S. have transcended into myth and legend, much as the indigenous nations of Cuba did. But the Seminole tribe has thrived economically, first through raising cattle, and later through tourism, gambling, and tobacco sells. In 2006 they purchased the “Hard Rock Café” Chain for $965,000,000.00.

Back to Cuba, various European forces continue to compete for various islands and resources throughout the Caribbean as the Americans continue their continental expansion westward with significant influxes of immigrants from failing or impoverished European states. The Americans’ conflict with the Spaniards culminated in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Afterwards, the U.S. granted Cuba their independence because of its size and economic potential and proximity to the U.S. On the other hand the U.S. made Puerto Rico a protectorate because of its smaller size and distance from the continental U.S.

In 1902 the Platt Amendment reserved the right for the United States to occupy Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. In 1930 Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy helped ease U.S. /Cuba relations. This began a time of economic partnerships between American and Cuban financial interests and Cuba thrived as a resort destination place for well heeled Americans who fancied this tropical paradise and had the money to indulge. But throughout the first half of the 1900s a socialistic working class movement was brewing worldwide, and this class war led to several national revolutions, most notably in Russia (1905-1907 and 1917), Mexico (1910-1920) and Cuba (1953-1959).

In 1959 the top blew off the “good neighbor” relations when revolutionary Fidel Castro overthrew U.S. back President Fulgencio Batista and Castro assumed power. Remember this was at the end of the fierce McCarthy jingoistic demagogic anti-communistic decade in the United States and the proletariat was on the move many places in the world. Initially 200,000 affluent Cuban immigrants moved to the U.S., mostly to Florida, many with jewels and coins sewn into their clothing.

By the early 1960s we were in the midst of the significant Cold War standoff between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, first during the “Bay of Pigs” incident when Kennedy tried to use covert CIA forces to overthrow Castro in 1961 and the next year, when the Soviets tried to place armed missiles just off our coast in Cuba in what has become known as the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” Afterwards Cuba ceased to be a major battleground for the Cold War and its primary theaters moved back to Asia, setting the scene for the Vietnam War (1959-1975) and the Soviet War in Afghanistan (1979-1989). Between 1962 and 1965, 30,000 more refugees came via private planes, boats, rafts, and other makeshift vessels. Between 1965 and 1973, the Cuban government permitted two daily flights and another 300,000 Cubans immigrated to the United States.

In 1980 the so-called Freedom Flotilla allowed 124,000 Cubans to leave their homeland and they were granted asylum by President Carter. Unfortunately Castro used the opportunity to unload prison inmates and addicts. Although they were a minority of the new emigrants, most were still detained in Mariel, Florida in 1987 until their issues could be sorted out. They became known as the “Marielitos” and the stigma was not easily erased.

In 1990 Castro lowered the legal age for leaving Cuba to visit the U.S. from 60 to 20 years old, bringing about a new wave of immigrants of suspected backgrounds. In 1994, 24,000 Cuban refugees detained at Guantanamo Station until U.S. acceptance in April, 1995.

To sum up this movement of people, in 1960 there were about 79,000 Cubans-Americans in the United States. By 1990 there were over a million.

The Newest Chapter in Poor Relations: In 2002 the Naval Base at Guantanamo became the detainment prison for over 500 suspected terrorists labeled “unlawful enemy combatants” by the Bush administration. The Bush administration and their representatives have been accused of violations of the Geneva Convention including torture.

Most of the detainees have now been released to various countries throughout the world. So the land of multicultural roots, continues to send out seeds. Most were found to be not guilty of any crimes except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now about 220 remain. President Obama is trying to close the detention center, but weak-kneed members of Congress have refused to fund their transfer to Maximum Security Prisons in the United States. Apparently there is insufficient evidence to charge and try them for crimes or the evidence has been so badly tainted by unethical practices that it is not useable in a court of law. While members of Congress cry not in their back yard, every red blooded American knows that any detainees unlucky enough to escape (something never done from a max security prison in the U.S.) will be hunted down by every gun toting American from sea to shining sea.

The irony is that it now appears most of these detainees should never have been detained. A good number have probably turned against the U.S. by virtue of their inhumane detention. Some of these detainees have included children and ethnic minorities who fled China to because of religious persecution. If remaining bad guys are really bad, then locking them away in a maximum security prison is a sensible idea. It certainly makes good economic sense. Keeping the albatross of the Guantanamo Penal colony makes no sense. Its closure is one of the very few issues that McCain and Obama agreed upon. Whether we should even occupy Cuba remains another question for history, but closing the penal colony is a no brainer. But our ability, to do the right thing in Cuba for the first time in over a century, is blocked by chicken livered yellow bellied Democrats on one side of the aisle and obstructionist greedy and corrupt Republicans on the other. Let history decide which is more unpatriotic, the coward or the crook. If President Obama is unable to “deliver” on this campaign promise it is not because of the primary resident of the White House, but because of the self-serving crooked and cowardly dogs the house at the end of the mall.

Sources: Much of this is gleaned from various encyclopedic sources, Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” and ancient lecture notes from the late 1990s-early 2000s from my course ANTH/SOC 205: Ethnic Groups in Contemporary Societies. Therefore, it should be taken for face value, and nothing more. Virtually none of it is from primary research or first-hand knowledge.