Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The GOP POTUS New Hampshire debate. Be afraid, be really afraid.

The declared GOP POTUS candidates met for the first 2012 debate.

All of the gentlemen were well dressed and articulate.
Michelle Bachmann looked elegant and beautiful. She announced she is in the race.

Mitt was at the center podium. But the energy force from the others kept pulling him to the political right.

I watched the first half, mostly devoted to domestic issues.

The mantra on stage was right-wing populism. They all want to save us from Obama’s big government. All want to unleash what they believe is a shackled private sector. All want to privatize, or voucherize, the big entitlements- SS, and M & M. With the possible exception of Mitt, all of these candidates will throw the entitlements into the trash.

They all want to devolve tremendous power to the 50 states.
We fought a civil war over this issue.
Their states-rights position would have preserved the Southern Jim Crow apartheid system.

All of the candidates appeared to have signed Grover Norquist’s pledge to reduce the federal government to a size that it “could be drowned in a bathtub..”

None of these candidates believe health care is a right. All of them would vacate, or sign an appeal of Obamacare (ACA).
All of them would watch the 50 states slowly evolve their own health care policies, if they do it at all.

As a liberal-progressive, I am afraid…really afraid.
Eugene Robinson has a good column on Mitt and Tim Pawlenty:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/w...

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Mitt Romney declares for POTUS

Mitt Romney declares for POTUS

Mitt Romney declared for POTUS yesterday, using New Hampshire as the launging site.

In terms of executive experience, he is perhaps the most qualified of the GOP lineup.
Ron Paul is on the fringe.
Tim Pawlenty has the executive experience, but is devoid of charisma.
Herman Cain is not viable in the GOP primaries. He is articulate, as a good black American preacher.
And Bachmann and Palin are jokes. This is not said as sexist.
Gingrich is smart as a whip, but he scares the children.
Santorum? Who's he?

The economic reports issued this morning are not very good. The economy is still sluggish, and there is still the real danger of a double dip recession.
Like Japan, we could be dwelling in a decade-long big slog.

The economy is the issue, and Romney is the strongest GOP candidate to do battle on this issue.

Romneycare has not been a failure, and the recent NYT editorial outlining the successes of Romneycare is strong. Link 1.

Romney wants to repeal Obamacare, and leave it to the 50 states to experiment.
If so, he should be asked about the recent Vermont law, signed by the Dem. Gov., to move to a universal single-payer model. Link 2.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/opinio...

http://www.vermontforsinglepayer.org/

A cold-blooded killer, or is it Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

Is Casey Anthony (CA) a cold-blooded killer, or a girl-child who has displayed symptoms of PTSD?

If CA was indeed sexually abused by her father and/or brother, she would have lived her life by suppressing the trauma, and concocting a different reality. Or at least, that can be one psychological symptom.
http://www.healing-arts.org/tir/n-r-roth...

And if her daughter, Caylee, did drown, she would have suppressed that trauma, and created a spin of lies, an alternative reality.

I really doubt she was sexually abused by her father. Would she allow him to be alone with Caylee?
Her brother is another matter.
And who can believe anything this girl-child says?

I expect she will be found guilty, likely of aggravated manslaughter. And no death penalty.

If I was on the jury (and I never would have been allowed), and all the evidence pointed to a cold-blooded premediated murder, I would still demur on the penalties the State is asking.
I would argue that neither the death penalty, or life w/o parole are reasonable penalities.

The South Carolina jury gave Susan Smith a 30-yr. sentence, with possibility of parole.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/01/opinio...

There are already several grounds for vacating the jury decisions on appeal.

She was not “Mirandaized” early on. You can hate this girl-child, but she has protected Constitutional rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_war...

In the Universal room meeting, she faced a tirade by Detective Yuri Melich. It was very rough language. Melich also was later reprimanded for blogging on this case, and defense attorney Baez tried to raise this issue in Court.
http://www.justicequest.net/forums/showt...

By any reasonable measure, she was a suspect and should have been Mirandaized.
She was put in a police car “cage”, and questioned. She was a suspect, and could not have opened the cage from the inside.

Judge Perry has also made several decisions that stretch forensic evidence standards.
Hair banding has no scientific consensus on its’ validity; and has also never been allowed as evidence in Court.
Ditto air-samples.
Extra ditto on cadaver dogs testifying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_dog

I cannot get my head around the “death smelling” Firebird car.
If CA is a cold-blooded murderer, she would have made plans on disposing of the body quickly.
If it was, in fact, a drowning with coverup, then having her dead daughter in the trunk would be part of an alternative reality, of keeping her daughter close to her.

PTSD will, no doubt, be used in the penalty phase, with it being used as the most important mitigating factor against the death penalty.

As I have watched some of the trial proceedings, it is clear that this girl-child should be in a metal facility, not prison.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-s...