Show of Power Needed in Ukraine (Updated)

The situation in Ukraine is fairly bad. After rejecting Putin puppet, Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine is threatened by Russia. Russian soldiers have taken over airports, parliament and government buildings in the ethnic Russian dominated Ukrainian border with Russia, Crimea. Like they did with Georgia when they invaded in the summer of 2008, they are distributing passports to anti government militia and will use the excuse of protecting their citizens for an invasion.

Thoughts on My Brother's Keeper.

Today with all the fanfare, splendor, pomp and pulpit of the presidency , President Barack Obama launched his new initiative, My Brother's keeper, designed to help young men of color and reduce the opportunity gap between them and their caucasian peers. I am traveling so this will be brief so pardon the hurriedness.

Is Executive Action, the Solution to Second Term Blues?

The president will be delivering his fifth State of the Union address to Congress tomorrow, his people have given some hints that, to be honest, I found boring except for one. Floated by Jay Carney, of all people, is the idea that the presidency is getting ready to bypass congress and use executive orders to further his economic goals like income inequality and minimum wage. It's interesting because maybe it is telling us how the president plans to finish his last term in public office.

HealthCare.gov's small step in the right direction.

If you have an internet connection and you live in the United States of America, you have read the awful coverage that the Affordable Care Act has been getting. Most of the coverage was geared towards the faulty and very malfunctioning website, people were unable to sign up or pick plans, the site froze and generally was awful. That coverage of the glitches was giving the entire law a very negative image, and was reviving the Republican party that had been pretty decimated by the debt ceiling showdown. With his approval ratings in free fall and the threat of the Democrats losing the Senate in 2014, President Obama and his administration announced that they had given themselves a November 30th deadline for the website to be close to fully functioning.

The shut down is looming.

So on Monday if there is no spending bill passed by the Congress the government will shutdown. What does the shut down mean? It means that millions of government workers will go without pay, public parks and buildings will be closed, and the marketS will fall down. Of course those government workers who will be struggling to pay their bills will not include the members of Congress who are really at the origin of this mess.

So Obama called Rouhani

It was the phone call heard around the word, president Barack Obama of the United States gave a call to Hassan Rouhani, the newly elected Iranian president. It's the first time in 34 years that both head of states of those two country have spoken directly to each other. The Obama administration is obviously trying to work some diplomacy as John Kerry was busy meeting with the Iranian foreign minister Javad Zariv in New York today and more talk scheduled in early October in Geneva. For the United States the idea is to make Iran stop making nuclear weapons and for Iran to get those severe economical sanctions lifted.

Hassan Rouhani ran on a very moderate platform and won hugely, even against Jalili (Ahmadinejad previous nuclear negotiator) who seemed to be backed by the Ayatollah. His platform sounds reasonable, attractive to both the extreme liberal in Iran and the moderate conservatives. I should be more excited about this, but really Rouhani is just a smoking screen, the ultimate power concerning matters of nuclear power is Khamenei and I don't believe his stance have changed. Him and the Revolutionary guard are very conservative and anti american that no progress will really be made. Talking to Rouhani while a good thing, is giving legitimacy to the whole Iranian establishment and establishment that isn't too keen on chance.

However, the president and John Kerry might have more tangible proof that maybe Rouhani has the authority to make some changes. Ahmadinejad always seemed like a Khamenei puppet to me, and I really expect no less of Rouhani despite his talks of change. So Good look to Obama and Kerry, I will be observing this process with skeptical eyes.

The State of the Republican Party

This is one of my favorite subjects right now and it is fitting to post it as my first post. After the 2012 election in which Barack Obama won, the consensus was that it was all about demographics. After all, Obama lost the independents but nonetheless he won the election. It was as clear as water that the GOP had a demographic problem and that needed to be dealt with before the 2014 midterms. Here we are in less than a year away and has the GOP made inroads to solve their problems?

Immigration was supposed to be the biggest deal. After all that was a deciding issue in swaying the Latino vote. Romney’s draconian positions on Immigration in the primary (see self-deportation) and the party whole immigration platform, made him lose the vote 27% to 71%. As the fastest growing minority in the country, those were devastating numbers and surely the GOP would try to change something after the election? The initial chatter immediately was that yes, the GOP needed to change its platform, support the DREAM act and some way of giving proper documentation to those who were already in the country illegally. Most people, me included were thinking that immigration would be among the first things that would be tackled by the new congress. How wrong were we all proven! After initial attempts, the senate could not come close to a deal and everything looked dead in the house. The bill that was passed in early July was unsatisfactory to both sides. But the Senate republicans, to their credits (Mostly McCain, Corker, Rubio and Co.) understood that it would be very hard to win national elections without a hefty slice of the Latino vote. Their counterparts in the house however, do not seem to have that foresight. As most of them are backed by strong majority of whites in their conservative districts, they have nothing to gain and everything to lose by endorsing immigration, being primaried being their chief fear, so they all cling to the old platform. John Boehner (R), Speaker of the House, however can see that it will be difficult to ever win a national election again without an immigration bill, but his own internal problems are stopping his action. Were he to immediately bring the senate bill to the floor, I am sure it would pass with the vote of all democrats and republicans in moderate districts. But due to his fear of his own caucus, the speaker will not bring up the bill until it has a majority of republicans (his own words), which is pretty much impossible. So essentially, the GOP is trapped between a rock and a hard place. Marco Rubio and his failure to lead on that issue deserves his own essay.

Women’s issues were also a big deal in the election. In 2010 as in 2012 the majority of Governor’s mansion and state legislatures are held by the Republican Party. In 2011 and early 2012 despite being voted in on the basis of jobs, jobs,jobs, they passed bills with limits and restrictions on abortion, the de-funding of planned parenthood, because that is what the base of the party was clamoring for. While the very base of the party will turn out more than casual voters or supporters in the mid-terms, the general public tends to only focus on the presidential elections. The base that skyrocketed the republicans in the Governors’ mansions, state legislatures and the House was very pleased with those policies; however the General public being always on the moderate side was generally spooked by such measures. That coupled with the Democrats already strong record on women’s issues increased the margins with which Obama won (55% to 44%). So of course you would expect that the stance of the party would soften as to be able to level the field so the GOP could compete with those women vote with the Democrats. But no after such disasters like Todd Akin and Richard Murdock costing the GOP a Senate majority, republican led states are still passing basically the same laws restricting birth control access and abortions! That might keep them in power in the states and in the House of Representative but what about the national election of 2016? Will those women who voted solely democratic on the basis of their rights and health issues suddenly switch to a party that hasn’t changed its platform and ideals? With the independent voters’ hold on deciding victory dwindling is that something that the GOP can afford to do? I don’t think so.