NOT THE ECONOMY STUPID!

Those that think that the 2012 election is about the American economy as the sole overarching issues of import are not only blind to the political reality but show their self-possessed issue orientated careless civic responsibility.

Never before has America’s Constitution been more under siege.

Never before has the Country’s debt been more burdensome on posterity.

Never before has half the Country’s population been non-taxpaying.

Never before has the Country’s law enforcement agencies openly admitted
spying on Americans on social network sites.

Never before has the Country gone this long without passing a Federal budget.

Never before has the Country seen an administration so hostile to both foreign allied countries and its own citizens on the opposing political fence.

Never before has the Country experienced an administration that openly mocks the power of Congress by making cabinet appointment without Senate consent.

Never before has the Country seen its Justice Department complicit in arming drug thugs in another country for the political purpose of undermining the 2nd Amendment.

Never before has the Country seen a federal government with a cadre of Czars not answerable to Congress or the people.

Never before has the Country experienced a Healthcare and Financial Bill that contains so many tentacles of regulatory power that it threatens the whole notion of private enterprise.

Never before has the Country experienced an edict by a President that openly challenges their 1st Amendment rights of free exercise of religion.

Never before has the Country experienced an entrenched media bias that wishes to propagandize for the President while American citizens are purposefully misled.

Never before has the Country seen a president in the White House that openly preaches distorted truth, re-writes the historic meaning of our founded Republic, disparages America while in foreign countries and is a pathological ideologue.

This election is not about the economy and the unemployment numbers.

This election is about America’s survival as a financially solvent, constitutionally sound and intact Republic currently under siege by the President and his Democratic Party minions.

All Americans regardless of whether they call themselves Independent, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian should clearly see that the future of our Nation is at stake.

There should be no excuses that you did not know. There should be no claims of special interest rationale. There should be no mistaking that this election is the crossroad for the future of America.

What did you do for your Country? How did you vote for your Country? What America did you leave your children? Did you leave them a Country that you were proud to hand over to them?

LET THEM PLAY IT OUT!

The conservative battleground in the primary has been playing out like a football playoff game. Anybody who regularly watches the NFL is aware that the Pittsburg Steelers were favored to beat the Denver Broncos in the first round of the AFC title playoff game.


Moreover in the NFC the top seated Green Bay Packers were considered a shoe in to be in the Super Bowl. Yet, despite these teams being better on paper than their opponents they went on to defeat rather than victory.

Only the New England Patriots survived their top seated placement in the AFC surprising their loyal fan base that worries then and now about a shaky defense can’t hold a close game lead. It is arguable that the Baltimore Ravens lost their opportunity to beat the Patriots not just because of the inexcusable missed punt but because they fail to make the plays they needed to win.

Romney has been talked up as the frontrunner in the primary by all the pundits declaring that he and he alone will be able to beat Obama and win a plurality of delegates both in the primary and in the general election.

Gingrich was thought to be the underdog that would be forced to drop out long before Perry, Cain and Bachman because of a laundry list of reasons.

Like those picking odds in football the quarterbacks, player matchups and coaching are all analyzed by the sports world to make one team the favorite and the other team the underdog in the Super Bowl.

Green Bay, New Orleans and Pittsburg were all favorites yet they all lost showing once again that no matter how expert and logical may be your opinion you never know who wins until the game is played.

There are just four GOP candidates left to battle in the States vying for 2488 delegates. To date prior to the Florida primary a total of only 58 delegates have been parsed out among the candidates. The Primary will essentially be called when any candidate receives 1,144 or more to claim a victory.

Florida has 50 delegates up for grabs and if Romney had won Iowa and South Carolina a number of political pundits were surprisingly suggesting that he would be crowned not only the front runner but all other candidates should concede.

Once again the so-called expert odd makers are as wrong about elections as football. Romney not only lost South Carolina to Gingrich he lost Iowa to Santorum. New Hampshire has 10 delegates; Iowa has 24 and South Carolina 23 with some states being awarded bonus delegates for a number of reasons such as voting for a Republican governor last election.

However the delegate award is different in different States with some States like Florida being a winner takes all while other States are splitting their delegates. The point being Romney is currently not the front runner and even if he wins Florida he will still be far from a delegate count that presumes him victory.

Sports odd makers and analysts make their living talking about teams and making their picks to win a game based on their knowledge yet unlike political pundits they know that ultimately their expertise means nothing.

The game must be played on the field.

Political pundits however are far more arrogant and infective of the primary process when they spew their predictions. They are trying to influence the vote, discourage the upset, peddle their choice to the public and manipulate the electorate’s desire to vote for a winner.

The South Carolina primary was dispositive of three major changes in the “Party politics as usual” that tries to corral the public into the pen of the Party’s choice for a nominee.

One, it simply did not work. Their so-called “electable” candidate was soundly rejected by Carolinians. Two, the GOP pundits had help from an equally corrupt political influence peddler, the liberal press that threw old dirt in the air on Gingrich days before the ballot. South Carolinian’s said “who cares?”

Three, one of the biggest changes that the Tea Party Movement has made in the political world has been in educating the voter. This electorate is smarter, savvier and refuses to be told whom to support and whom to reject by the GOP, the Press or even each other.

The public understands that in the primary this is their only opportunity prior to the general election to support and vote for their candidate. They are rightfully ignoring the electability pessimism prediction.

Romney has not received the most delegates so far but has received the most endorsements by GOP party elites. Endorsements have always been debated as to their effectiveness in winning over voters. They seem to be of dubious value when coming from outsiders not running and have only marginal success from those who drop out early in a race.

Endorsements seem only to have success when the primary tightens up and a popular candidate decides to drop out and throw their support to the current leader. We are far from any concession speeches by any of the four remaining candidates.

Romney, Gingrich, Santorum and Paul have yet to win or lose anything close to a right to claim victory or a need to concede. Even after the Florida winner- take- all 50 delegates primary that will change the current leader board whoever wins cannot claim anything more than being 50 delegates richer.

The remaining primary candidates have many States races to win and many other hurdles such as fund raising and organizational issues to contend with but electability is not among those obstacles. All four candidates are as electable as they continue to gather delegates or not.

Obama was never considered the frontrunner early on in the Democratic
primary race of 2008 instead Hillary Clinton was the presumptive candidate to beat and we all know how that expert political pundit prediction turned out.

SEXUAL CHARGES IN SHAM OR SHAME

The sexual harassment claims by women are serious running the gamut from stalkers to the casting couch. Many women’s lives have been turned upside-down by the hostile threats posed by unwanted sexual advance to the quid pro quo of sex for career advancement. These legitimate harassment cases brought by women against men and employers should never be taken lightly or minimized for the psychological and emotional effects it can cause a true victim who has been violated.


Indeed there once was a silence to this abuse by a combination of sexism and chauvinism in our social past that helped disguise and excuse indecent proposals. Today however, much like racism it exists but rightfully no longer condoned by social acceptance and no longer widespread. It is hard to find many males that still hold chauvinistic views or would dare express them publically if they do.

Therefore, all women have been freed from not just the miscreant mind of the lone male letch but an old boy network mindset that would snicker and do little to defend the honor of the woman being harassed. When a society knows better it does better and those that fought to bring better harassment and stalking laws to public awareness should be commended.

Yet, like all trail blazing activism when do you accept you have achieved success and stop pulling the rope to create an imbalance in the opposite direction? There is a good argument that our society has changed from being racists and sexist to colorblind and workplace neutered. Why then are there those activists still claiming racism and pushing for new laws? Why are they those still active in claiming sexism and pushing for more laws?

If the goal is to completely wipe out every racist and every sexist male in our society then I charge those activists with dumb naivety. It would be like passing laws to stop poverty, or homelessness. There will always be the fringe element that will violate the right of another for their own exploitive desire and all the laws in the world will not abate their debased character.

If the goal is to be vigilant that we continue on the positive path of liberated respect for one another in society then I call out these activists as fomenting the opposite. Charging innocent people with racism or sexism makes society view the finger pointers as the harassers in a role reversal that actually diminishes real genuine victims. Those that cry out sexism for every off color joke or gesture diminish the gravity of harassment because they equate the imprudent miss-steppers with actual misogynist culprits.

Moreover, the intellectual dishonesty of those that seek anonymity while asserting a charge years after the so-called events of their harassment while not so concerned about trashing the reputation of the accused. The fact that they did not file suit at the time for fear of damaging their reputation or not wanting to create a stir is acceptable as a choice they have right to make but not arbitrary to then un-make and only after the alleged wrongdoer has a public profile.

There are ethics that sometimes get lost when society tries to write laws to protect the more subjective behavior and reaction of human interaction. We know that there are some people that are highly sensitive while others have duck feathered backs and might be unaware that they are even being slighted.

Even If we were to take these women at their word none of what has been alleged rises to the legal definition of harassment or stalking laws. Regarding the charge by Bialek that Cain grabbed and groped her, that is a sexual assault charge not a harassment charge and yet she did nothing about the so-called incident. She claims to have told her boyfriend at the time but without any details? That for me does not pass the smell test.

The ability to judge the veracity between the “he said, she said” finger pointing is as impossible on its own. Therefore, the past history of the accused and the accusers then becomes distilled for cracks in credibility. If more than one accuser surfaces then the accused seems less credible but in this case what is Cain being charged with by these woman?

Is it quid pro quo sexual harassment: no? Is it creating a sexual hostile work environment ; no. Is it sexual assault; possibly yet even the victim (Bialek) and her attorney Allred are not claiming sexual assault.

I find it interesting that if you look back to the era before sexual harassment laws and society’s ingrained chauvinistic days we forget that chivalry was the counterbalance to men’s disrespect of women. Those Sir Walter Raleigh days of gallantry are gone because defending a woman’s honor has been deemed chauvinistic and patronizing.

Yet what father back in those days before the liberation of women did not teach their sons to treat women with respect reminding them that their mother was in fact a woman? Equally, what mother today doesn’t teach her son to exercise extreme caution about making comments that might embroil them in a tainted charge of harassment? We have seen five year old little boys suspended from school because they hugged a female classmate.

Serious sexually assault, serious stalking, and verifiable casting couch evidence must be produced in court before the accuser’s reputation is red-lettered. Yet we all know that the mere accusation leveled against anyone is today sufficient to destroy their reputation forever.

I don’t profess to know the truth anymore than anyone else looking from the outside, in, at these allegations against Herman Cain. What I do know is this; what we were suppose to have learned through the Spanish Inquisition to the Salem Witch hunts was that allegations are not evidence of guilt. That innocence should always be presumed until proven guilty as our standard. But sadly just like being called a devil worshipper or a witch, when charged with being a sexual predator on any level your reputation receives a stain that regardless of innocence never can be wiped clean again.

I think Cain deserves at the very least to have my presumption of innocence to his character remain until evidence not allegation comes forward.