The Tribune Online, Page 6

Politicians and Wrong-Headed Decisions

I preface this article by saying I did not vote for the Republican ticket that now controls the destiny of the state of Virginia for the next four years, albeit I am a resident and will either benefit or suffer the consequences of their decisions.

Healthcare Reform passed this Sunday and well on its way to becoming the law of the land and the state's Attorney General is gearing up to battle the law in the courts.

This takes me back to a case that took place in the state of Alabama during my younger years of growing up there, entitled the "Birdie Mae Davis" case. If memory serves me correctly, the case surrounded the effort on the part of the Mobile County School District wanting to not desegregate the schools by busing a black student to white schools. Mind you, this is some ten or fifteen years after Brown v Board of Education's Federal decision outlawing educational discrimination. Yet, the school district of Mobile and I believed backed by the state, spent a ton of resources in fighting the decision...ultimately to no avail.

The reason for desegregation was because states did not want to spend the money making the black schools equal to white schools, which meant upgraded facilities, modern text books instead of "ten year too late pass me downs" from those same white schools, comparable pay for the black teachers, etc., etc., etc. The resources the state used in trying to fight the issue could have been better used to upgrade the system on both sides of town increasing the benefit of a more educated populus, thus the state's attractiveness for companies wanting to come to do business. This however, eventually came to be almost two generations later, which is why I considered short of Mississippi, Alabama as one of the most stump-jumping dumb states in America.

Consequently, Mr. Cuccinelli, who is VA's Attorney General, and I as a taxpayer ask, could you not find an alternative to your desire to battle the Federal Government over health care, such as using said resources as subsidies for better health care within our state?

The problem with right wingers...

The news out of Virginia is not only the flap of honoring the nation's greatest traitors, the Confederates, but now the self-righteous, conservative AG Cuccinelli's effort to cover the breast of the goddess featured on the state's flag with a similar symbolic flap...like some ignorant little kid on the school's playground, in the face of the need for better education for our kids. Not only was this silly and sophomoric but as stupid as the Gov's desire to celebrate the memory of the South's sedition. However, what should have been more noticeable in all of this stupidity effused by VA's current leadership is the Latin quote at the bottom of the state's flag" Sic Semper Tyrannis"...the same quote voiced by the assassin Booth's in the murder of one of America's greatest Presidents...Lincoln;  a result of this violent sedition by the Confederates. There was and still might be an award called the "fickled finger of fate... for stupidity" and McDonnell and Cuccinelli have done more than enough to see that VA gets hers with these jackass moves. 

Obama saves face for VA and AL 

The President announces the drilling off the Atlantic Coast near Virginia, something I don't think the state of Virginia could have gotten by itself under its state's Republican leadership. You can probably thank VA's Democratic Senators Webb and Warner for this hookup. Likewise, the "Tanker Bid" for the Air Force's refueling fleet has shown some hope of Alabama getting back into the game, but no thanks to its state's likewise Republican leadership of Sessions and Shelby, but the urging of France's President Sarkozy.This should be a lesson well learned as to "who's the man"! Thank God for your Democratic insiders or else you would otherwise receive the "pits only" in these two peaches of a deal by a democratically controlled white house.

The Right Calls For Civil Disobedience?

Led by Gingrich, Limbaugh, Levin, Palin, Cheney, Hannity, and Savage, the right wingers and tea baggers are calling for civil disobedience as if they are being denied civil rights as blacks were in the 50's and 60's; instead, it was not referred to by the right then as civil rights but communist-inspired anarchy. Just consider former Alabama Governor George Wallace and current Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. My, my, my what political cry babies. The request for either of these self-righteous creeps to actually run for the Presidency has been side-stepped by especially the book writing, talk show hosts over and over again; of which I simply classify them as "wayward political souls" with no stones with the exception of one...the den mother from Alaska. Seems she's making a pretty good living off these street-sign carrying rabble-rousers. Who knows, maybe the goverment might consider breaking out the firehoses and letting go of the "German shepherds" the next time they invade the Capitol? After all what's good for the gander should be good for those getting goosed by the right wing charlatans.      

When Nut Jobs of Iran and Zimbabwe Meet...

I may have mentioned that while owning a community publication in Mobile, AL I featured an article on then what might have been considered a "sane" Robert Mugabe. Not only was he pleased, I am told by his Foreign Minister in DC, but I received an invitation to visit the beautiful country in my desire to view Victoria Falls. Also, I received a beautiful post card with a photo of the country's native flower as well as a Zimbabwean note. I think I still have both somewhere in my personal archives. This was prior to the release of Mr. Nelson Mandela of South Africa, of which I also did an article about the uprising in Soweto. 

I truly thought Mugabe might be the light of freedom for a nation that had broken the shackles of apartheid, although with armed revolution as opposed to waiting for the effects of sanctions as did South Africa. However, as time went on Mugabe morphed from saviour and guiding angel to the devil incarnate...a tyrant lusting for personal power in his new black regime, a return to old African tribalism. He evolved into a mad man leading his country to eventual destruction...possibly with his living long enough to see the curse of his rule.

So, the world has two" sociopaths" with the destiny of two great nations in their clutches...at least for the time being. As simply an objective observer...will these nations become hell on earth for their citizens, or will one of their own see them for the destructive beings they are and get rid of the maniacal duo, as Italy did with Mussolini or will an outside force have to do what they are too "enslaved" to do as was with Hitler, but only after a terrible, terrible price was paid?