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Showing posts from October, 2009

Does the Republican Party care about minority voters?

Recently, a question was asked on Yahoo Answers about whether the Republicans are ignoring the fact that there are significantly more African Americans registered as voters than ever before. Here is my answer: The mere fact that someone raises the question indicates that whatever the Republicans are doing, it's not effective. The fact is, the Republicans are not ignoring the fact that there are more black voters than before. However, as the question indicates, the efforts being made by the Republicans to address this are not working. Furthermore, the Republicans are somewhat hindered in those efforts by the vitriolic conservative talk show hosts. The result is that unless something dramatic happens we will probably see minorities like the Hispanics community and the African American community continuing to support President Obama in large numbers in the next election. Fact - the Republican Party has tried to address the issue of race with the voters. After the last election, th

Say it ain't so Rush!

Rush Limbaugh got fooled by an internet scam but his handling of the matter afterwards concerns me. Rush was fooled into thinking that a phony document on the internet was President Obama's college thesis. What concerns me is how Rush handled the matter after learning the truth. For someone who was badly treated due to internet lies, Rush apparently did not do unto others as he wanted done unto him. Apparently Rush Limbaugh got hold of a document that was on the internet which supposedly was President Obama's college thesis. The President's College thesis was never released by the Obama campaign and seems to have disappeared. The paper and the mysterious circumstances around it were things many conservative talk show people spent a lot of time discussing. After receiving the document alleging to be the President's thesis, Rush Limbaugh read the document on the air and spent time analyzing it. Later Rush Limbaugh found out that the documents were fakes. Hey that h

From the "So What" Department

Conservative talk show hosts usually raise good points but occasionally they raise issues that just make me say "So What." This includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and others. The issues to which I refer are things that make them sound like whiners or like goofy people. They really need to get a grip on reality and not try to criticize everything President Obama does. Example #1 - Lou Dobbs raising the issue of whether President Obama is an American citizen. Lou said he has no doubt the President is but asked why doesn't the President just release his Birth Certificate and put all this to rest. This is an issue raised by some people who are just looney so why give it any credence. Example #2 - The President goes to Denmark to try to help Chicago win the Olympic games and some conservative commentators go bonkers. My answer - so what! Chicago is an American city - it is also the President's home town. Winning the Olympics would have been a big deal

Insurance companies and anti-trust

I saw a question on Yahoo Answers about Insurance companies benefitting from being exempt from anti-trust laws. Until I saw that question and some of the subsequent discussion, I was not aware that this was an issue in the health care debate. Actually, the anti-trust exemption has little or no impact on health care, so I did some research and provided an answer. I am reprinting that below. I also debunked comments suggesting Republicans are against capitalism - presumably because Republicans are in favor of the anti-trust exemption. Here is a shortened version of my answer: A summary of my answer is 1) insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust for valid reasons; 2) the exemption is not relevant to health insurance because coverage is not always been written by insurance companies; 3) historical facts say Republicans were the "good guys" and the Democrats were the "bad guys." 1. History of the Exemption In 1869, the US Supreme Court ruled that insurance was