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If you ask the 89 year old legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas it seems she would almost certainly say they are the same. At least it appeared that this might be Helen Thomas’s view during the Jewish Heritage American History Month celebration that took place on May 27th at the White House. The video with Thomas in her own words can be found at both Yahoo and RabbiLive.com, which was aired a full week after the incident.
During the celebration Rabbi David Nesenhoff approached Helen Thomas with the idea of asking for her views on Israel. During the impromptu interview Thomas stated flatly that Israel should get the hell out of Palestine and that the Palestinian people are occupied. She went on to further say that Israeli’s should return to their homes in Poland, Germany, and oh yeah…..America, indicating that the people and the Jewish state have no place in the Middle East.
Apparently Helen Thomas either didn’t know that the Jews and Israel have both been in that very region for as long as there have been other races there. It also seems to me that Thomas has no idea of the history of the Jews in Israel such as the fact that they were also an occupied people. Over the course of history Israel was occupied by Rome who ruled the Jewish people for hundreds of years. I also believe that Helen Thomas forgot the more than 6 Million Jews were murdered in Germany and Poland.
Now I have to tell you that I am a big supporter of both the Constitution and its 1st amendment. I not only fervently defend the right of individuals to freely express their personal views without persecution I also defend the same right for those in the press that is what the 1st amendment is all about. However what I will not defend is someone who is anti-semitic or racist. I am not sure if Helen Thomas is either one of these, but her comments definitely need to be scrutinized closely.
Since her controversial comments, Helen Thomas has resigned from Hearst Newspapers. Thomas has also repeatedly apologized for her comments and admits that they were offensive. The board of the White House Press Corps has not yet announced what actions they will take with regard to Thomas’s front row center seat in the White House briefing room. The board has also issued a statement that they do not police the speech of members or colleagues.
What ever else may happen to Helen Thomas because of her comments, there is this lesson to be learned. Those in the media should realize that while they may have the right to freely express their views and opinions, they would do well to remember that they will also have to deal with the consequences of their actions, for which they are solely responsible. This is often an expensive lesson to learn and all you have to do is look at the now disgraced Helen Thomas to see the cost.
That is all for now from Simple Man Politics. I hope you all have a marvelous day and I will be back again soon, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
I know I haven’t really tackled this issue on its own and I have only addressed it generally when discussing Obama’s other plans, but today I am going to address this issue as its own subject on Simple Man Politics. The reason being that it is about to go to the senate and ultimately get voted on very soon, and that's healthcare.
I will tell you that most of the people I know are very much against this idea. However there are a couple of people whose opinions I highly value who have so far said nothing to me about it and they are medical professionals as well. Since one of these individuals is also an Obama supporter I am very curious about that opinion in particular.
Healthcare was a topic that was touched upon by both John McCain and Barack Obama during their campaigns to get into the White House. John McCain had the idea of taxing people’s health benefits as part of his healthcare plan. Barack Obama said that healthcare was an important issue for him, but gave no indications to how he would deal with it.
Of course now President Obama has presented his version of a healthcare plan to both houses of congress for approval and passage. Just like all of his other programs, it requires enlarging government and trillions of American tax payer dollars. It also appears to have been built on a model similar to that of our Canadian brother’s healthcare plan.
Considering the fact that the Canadian healthcare system has proven to be an abject failure I find it hard to believe that our government will go in that direction. The horror stories that have come out of Canada about long waits, lack of treatment, lack of healthcare professionals, and bureaucratic red tape I cringe at the prospect.
As usual the White House and congress are looking at how they are going to pay for this cumbersome and unwieldy monstrosity they call their healthcare plan, and have decided to once again tax the wealthy to pay for it. The reason being is that the wealthy can afford it and should pay for everyone who doesn’t have insurance rather they can afford it or not.
There are also congress persons who believe that you should be forced to either pay for your own healthcare plan or take the nationalized plan and if you don’t then be fined and they want a provision that forces all hospitals to perform abortions. Obama himself wants total control over how much Medicare will reimburse hospitals and healthcare providers.
Organizations including the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) and the GAO (Governmental Accounting Office) have said that there will be no financial relief for the American tax payer in this plan just more of an already unrecoverable tax burden. They also state that this will drive many healthcare providers into bankruptcy.
Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports a pollster is the latest in his profession to come out with the latest polling data and a new poll that shows that the vast majority of Americans are against the Obama plan. Data has also been introduced that shows Obama and Democratic Party approval ratings continue to slide with this issue.
Here are a couple more interesting tidbits of information for you all. Apparently when it is all said and done only about 10% of uninsured Americans will wind up with healthcare. Oh yeah and 12 million illegal immigrants will get healthcare too and we will have to pay for them also.
I don’t know what you all have done about this yourselves, but I have emailed both of my Senators and all of Arizona’s congresspersons telling them to vote no for this bill or I will vote no for them in their next elections. I do agree that healthcare is an important issue, but I do not agree that this particular plan will address and solve the problem.
That is all we have for you today here at Simple Man Politics, but we will be back again soon with more of what is important in the world of politics. Have a marvelous day my friends and CIAO4NOW!!!!!
Expensive trips and private jets, outrageously expensive employee resort retreats, obscene financial waste and excess in the workplace, You would think that I was talking about AIG, the Big Three automakers, or Wall Street CEO’s right? Well you would be wrong I am talking about our own government and sadly I am not the least bit surprised.
How can I be surprised by anything this government does considering all of the spending and waste that has occurred since the last national election where the Dem’s took total control of the White House and both houses of congress as well? My god VP Joe Biden actually believes we need to spend even more money to stay out of bankruptcy.
Well true to Joe “The Gaffe’” Biden’s prophesy there are two more governmental agencies that seem to believe in the democratic dogma of spend, spend, and spend. Now granted in the grand scheme of monstrous government and out of control spending this will seem rather innocuous, but it still prescribes to the disease rather than the cure.
Recently the Social Security Administration spent approximately $700,000 dollars for their agents at a posh Phoenix Arizona resort under the guise of taking care of Social Security business. That price does not even include travel costs incurred by the agency to fly these reps to Arizona.
It is my understanding that all of this business could have been conducted by internet video conferencing, which would have been a lot less expensive. I also understand that this particular resort gave the Social Security Administration the lowest bid for the business but it is still more government waste.
Then there are my favorite financial wizards over at the Fed who have just hired a whole slew of cartoonists to help raise moral and lessen stress in their workplace. I wonder who the genius was that thought up this ridiculously wasteful and useless idea. I know a lot of people in stressful jobs and they all say this won’t work.
You almost have to wonder what’s next don’t you? Maybe it will be a court jester czar for the Barry and the White House staff. Or maybe it will be a stand up comedian for the senate because Al “The Weenie” Franken hasn’t been funny since they invented fire and the wheel. Whatever it is I am sure that it will provide comic relief for the tax payer.
That’s it for now from Simple Man Politics my friends. I think I’m going to call it a day and go watch the Wiggles with my son because I am sure it will relieve my stress and provide me with some comic relief. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend CIAO4NOW!!!!!
Well here is another chance for me to say I told you so. It now appears that independent voters are deserting Obama both nationally and in key swing states as well according to recent polling data. While this cannot be good news for the President and the White House they are playing it down right now.
Polling organizations such as Gallup, Quinnipiac University, and Rasmussen have all reported these downward trends regarding independents, Obama, and the Democratic Party. However while some data indicates this trend as recent there is some data that shows this trend occurring almost from inauguration day.
What makes the possibility of losing the independent voter support a problem for both the White House and the democratically controlled Congress is the almost total loss of bi-partisanship. Once the Republicans in both houses realized that they could not work across the aisle the quit trying and instead went back to their own ideological platforms and beliefs.
It seems that the main reason that the independent voter is now jumping ship on the Democrats and leaning more to the right and the Republicans has a lot to do with the economy, out of control spending programs, and an ever increasing government presence in the private sector. Unfortunately for the Democrats they have come to far in those directions that it would be admitting they were wrong if they were to turn back now.
The Republicans are of course now reveling in their role of being the underdog champions for the average American. It also appears that they will not be giving up one inch of ground to the Democrats without a fight either. They are now attacking everything that the Dem’s and Obama have on their agenda. Their favorite targets at this time appear to be healthcare, climate change, Sonia Sotomayor, and now a second stimulus.
Out of all of this news pertaining to independent voter confidence and their apparent retreat from Obama and the Democrats is the fact that even though Obama’s approval ratings have slipped amongst independents he still remains at about 56% in those ratings. This is obviously a testament to his personal and charismatic ability to remain likable even when those that like him don’t agree with him.
With all of this new evidence on the independent voter, as well as the obvious Republican dislike of the Obama, the White House, and the Democrat-controlled Senate and Congress I have to wonder what the mid-term elections will look like. I imagine I will find out soon enough since the mid-terms are little more than a year away. What ever happens then I am sure it will be at the least interesting.
Thanks for stopping by Simple Man Politics today but that is all for now. However as you all know I will be back again very soon so have a fantastic day and CIAO4NOW!!!!!