California Gay Laws

On May 8, 2012 I heard that California (CA) may ban Gay teen’s conversion therapy. SB 1172 would only apply to minors and require the parents to sign a release form that states that the counseling is ineffectual and possibly dangerous. Proponents of the law say it’s necessary because the therapy is ineffective and can do harm; the treatments can lead to suicide as young people struggle with the enormous burden of guilt and shame as they continue to struggle with their homosexual desires. The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality called the bill a piece of social engineering masquerading as a solution to a clinical problem. In other words, the association takes the position that banning conversion therapy amounts to social programming (if that’s the case, then isn’t the therapy programming). Conversion therapy gained media attention over the last few years along with a widened interest in the practice. CA’s Exodus International, the world's largest Christian referral network dealing with homosexuality, now steers people to 260 groups across the country, up from about 100 a decade ago. Mainstream mental health organizations, including the American Psychological Association (APA), say people should steer clear of conversion therapy; it cited numerous empirically-validated studies which show that efforts to produce the sexual orientation change could lead to depression and suicidal tendencies and stated that no solid evidence exists that such change is possible. Psychiatry used to view homosexuality as a form of mental illness but changed its outlook well over 30 years ago (In 1973 the APA decided to delist homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Opponents of the decision say activists established a committee targeting researchers to ensure perpetual sanctity for the APA action - No research papers would again arise to confirm initial therapy success rates of 30% to 60%; they set peer review standards mandating pre-ordained thesis, approved research designs, suitable human data points and enchanting statistical enhancements; persistent activism enabled ever-present infiltration of academia resulting in social alchemy and psychology and psychiatry chose to abandon scientific rigor in exchange for popular societal and political acclaim). SB1172 passed the CA Senate on May 30 with a 23-13 vote and as of July 30, 2012 it has been sitting in the Assembly (was amended on July 5). The logic of opponents is that a molested boy will be Gay without the therapy; this is as foolish as saying every women raped will become a Lesbian.

On July 14, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 48 (one of 8 school sexual indoctrination laws) which updates the CA Education Code to prohibit discriminatory instruction and materials against certain categories of people from being adopted by the State Board of Education. In other words, the bill ensures that the contributions of Gays and Gay rights are included in school textbooks. However, a group called Stop SB 48 has filed paperwork with the state to start a petition drive for a ballot measure to repeal it and they’ve created a website and a Facebook page. These people want to stop the contributions of people such as Sally Ride, the first US female in space, from entering the history books because she happened to be a Lesbian. 

The California Senate May 31 with a 23-11 vote approved SB 1140 that clarifies the religious freedom of clergy members in California. Senate Bill 1140 reaffirms the separation of church and state and clarifies under state law that no member of clergy will be required to perform a marriage that is contrary to his or her faith. SB 1140 also protects churches from losing their tax-exempt status if they refuse to perform a marriage that is contrary to their faith. On June 19 the General Assembly Judiciary Committee passed SB 1140 with a 7-1 vote. (This bill is similar to SB 906 which passed the Legislature but was vetoed by then-Governor Schwarzenegger because of a provision that has been revised in the current bill).

SB 1476 is an act to amend Sections 3040, 7601, and 7612 of, and to add Section 4052.5 to, the Family Code. The Sacramento Bee’s Jim Sanders wrote July 2, 2012: SB 1476 stemmed from an appellate court case last year involving a child’s biological mother, her same sex partner, and a man who had an affair with the biological mother while she was temporarily separated from her partner. The grassroots consequences of the legislation would be welcomed by anyone who has ever, under any circumstances, had the responsibility of parenting children who legally "belonged" to someone else. SB 1476 which passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly is not meant to expand the definition of who can qualify as a parent but only to eliminate the limit of 2 per child. Leno’s bill; it would apply equally to men or women and to straight or gay couples. Examples of 3 parent relations could include: 1) A family in which a man began dating a woman while she was pregnant, then raised that child with her for 7 years and the youth also had a parental relationship with the biological father; 2) A same sex couple who asked a close male friend to help them conceive and it’s decided that all 3 would raise the child; and 3) A divorce in which the parent and second spouse were the legal parents of a child and the biological (divorced) parent maintained close ties as well.

Religious fanatics are objecting to all of these bills; saying they’re Trojan horses. Now I’ll get back to the point of the federal government and Gay rights.  

More on Gays

When a ship returns home it’s tradition for sailors to get a kiss; because Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, on December 23, 2011 a kiss between 2 women was shown on TV. In January 2012, JC Penny took flack because they announced Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. Ellen via JC Penny and others have been helping schools and average Americans – this should be commended, not ridiculed. (On May 4 ABC picked Ellen as their person of the week; 15 years ago on her sitcom she told the nation she was Gay; Oprah got crap for being the show’s psychiatrist and advertisers like JC Penney dropped their ads; there were death threats and the religious right condemned her; her mother continues to give her support saying she’s a good person; because of Ellen other shows have dared to have Gay parts and she’s #31 on Forbes’ list of the most powerful celebrities; her talk show has now been on for 10 years.) Because Cynthia Nixon of Sex in the City said she’s been straight and she’s been Gay and chooses to be Gay - it brought out some outrage and confusion among Americans. I wrote a lot about Gays in my December 16-22, 2011 - blogs (False Prophets - Gays and the Government).  

On February 7 the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals by a 2 to 1 vote overturned California’s Proposition 8. On June 5 MercuryNews.com reported - In a brief order the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reconsider its ruling this year that struck down Proposition 8, finding the 2008 law unconstitutional because it stripped gay and lesbian couples of the right to marry. The appeals court denied a request from Proposition 8 backers for a rehearing before a special 11-judge panel. Under the court's order, same-sex couples will not be allowed to marry during the 90 days Proposition 8 supporters have to appeal to the Supreme Court. That next step is inevitable. Andy Pugno, general counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, the measure's sponsor, vowed to "promptly" file the petition, saying supporters look forward to a "positive outcome" in the Supreme Court. As a result, the Supreme Court would jump headlong into the national debate over gay marriage in its next term which will begin on the eve of the November presidential election. The 9th Circuit's order comes less than a week after a federal appeals court in Boston found the federal government's 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional (the 9th Circuit is expected to hear a similar DOMA case in the fall) heightening the prospect the Supreme Court may be forced to consider both state and federal gay marriage restrictions. (On May 8 North Carolina voters passed legislation which defines marriage as strictly between a man and a woman.) If the justices take up the California legal battle they would be expected to hear arguments early next year and rule by June 2013.

On March 17 Dharun Ravi, the Rutgers student who posted the video of his roommate having a Gay encounter which led to his suicide on September 22, 2010, was found guilty on all counts; New Jersey Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman gave him 30 days in jail, ordered 3 years probation, 300 hours of community service, undergo counseling, pay a $10,000 fine that will go to an organization providing assistance to victims of bias crimes, and recommended that he not be deported. On April 20 students across America took a vow of silence for the day, some taping their mouths, to show support of Gays and Lesbians having to keep silent when bullied. On May 6 it was reported that an Indianapolis, Indiana mother gave her Gay son a stun gun to protect himself from bullies - said it was constant and intimidating and the school did nothing to stop the bullies; he used the stun gun one time when 6 students surrounded him and he felt threatened; he held it in the air and fired (never used it on someone) and the guys backed up and he went on to class; the principal said – if he dresses flamboyantly “kids are going to say whatever it is they want to say”; it’s against school policy to have a stun gun at school and the boy was arrested, immediately suspended and then expelled. Indianapolis WISH-TV reported May 14: After media reports on his expulsion Darnell ‘Dynasty’ Young ran into more trouble last weekend at the Circle Center Mall when a man recognized and attacked him. According to court documents, Khyran Delay, 34, accosted the teen in the food court while he was on break from work; Delay faces a charge of battery, a Class A misdemeanor. (The Indiana Youth Group held a silent rally at the Indianapolis Public Schools board meeting on May 15 in response to the expulsion of Young.)

In May the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) released its yearly assessment of hate violence against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected (LGBTQH) and though rates of violence declined by 16% in 2011, the number of murders increased to 30, the highest total ever documented. Countering homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in laws, police forces, and communities at large can help reduce the risk factors for this community. On June 7 the NCAVP reported 1 murder and 16 incidents in May and is concerned by the violence impacting the LGBTQH communities across the US (incidents were reported in the media in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

This discussion is not over but I’m going to side step to what’s been going on in California. 

Sununu's - How 2B an American

On July 17, 2012 Grace Wyler of the Business Insider said: In a media blitz this morning, John Sununu proved once again that he is willing to say just about anything to attack President Barack Obama, including suggesting that the President is a felon and that he doesn't understand America because of the years he spent in Hawaii and Indonesia. Here are the most remarkable quotes from today's Sununu's rants:

From an appearance on Fox News: "He has no idea how the American system functions, and we shouldn’t be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure." On a Romney campaign conference call: "I wish this president would learn how to be an American." From an interview with New Hampshire talk radio: " He introduced the word felon into the discourse — can you imagine how not bright it is of him to do? In Chicago, felon and politician are almost synonymous."

On July 17 USA Today said - Romney surrogate John Sununu apologized today for saying he wished President Obama "would learn to be an American." "I made a mistake. I shouldn't have used those words," the former New Hampshire governor said in an interview on CNN. Sununu said he was trying to make a point that Obama doesn't understand how jobs are created in America and that he doesn't give credit to entrepreneurs. "The president has to stop denigrating American values," Sununu said on CNN. Sununu's original comment, made during a conference call with reporters, drew fire from the Obama campaign that Romney's team has "gone off the deep end." Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for Obama for America, denounced Sununu's remarks as a "meltdown" aimed at changing the subject from Mitt Romney's at Bain Capital. "The Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end," Smith said. "The question is what else they'll pull to avoid answering serious questions about Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and investments in foreign tax havens and offshore accounts. This meltdown and over-the-top rhetoric won't make things better — it only calls attention to how desperate they are to change the conversation."

In the morning conference call with reporters, Sununu sought to clarify his comment about Obama's American identity by putting it into context of the jobs debate. "What I thought I said ... The president has to learn the American formula for creating business," Sununu said. "The American formula for creating business is not to have government creating business." Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, a Romney campaign co-chairman, said on MSNBC that it was "appropriate" for Sununu to try to walk back his remarks. "The governor has a knack for colorful language and can be very informative and entertaining. This one, he admitted perhaps he wasn't as clear as he should have been and issued a clarification," Pawlenty said.

It wasn’t just the Republicans taking jabs at the President; businesses did too. But this doesn’t surprise me. Yes, business owners make sacrifices but they are not the only ones. Every parent does to in order to put food on the table and try to keep up with the increases in prices. It’s not as it was years ago when only one parent had to work to meet these demands; today the majority of families have 2 parents working. 

Terry Savage at www.creators.com gives you her opinion on keeping tax cuts for the rich in her Why Hiking Taxes on the "Rich" Doesn't Work article. A March 27, 2012 New York Times article The Case for Raising Top Tax Rates by Eduardo Porter totally disagrees with Savage. So I checked out several sites that compared Reagan’s record with that of Clinton’s and http://www.paulkienitz.net/reagan-vs-clinton.html gave an easy to read explanation. My favorite part: The one thing he did that most offended the Republicans was pass what Bob Dole liked to call “the largest tax increase in our nations’ history”, pushing upper bracket rates part of the way back to pre-Reagan levels. Compromising with Republicans in congress, he worked out budget cuts that were broad and balanced, instead of trying to gut particular sectors that he was ideologically opposed to. The bottom line was that because he increased the taxes on the wealthy Americans he was able to reduce unemployment, poverty, crime and the deficit…In short, everybody is better off.

I believe that what Clinton did is what Obama is trying to do and why Republicans and many businessmen are afraid. If the Republican way actually worked the deficit wouldn’t be what it is (see October 21, 2011 blog - Social Security and the Budget; the debt quadrupled during the Reagan/Bush era and Reagan raised the debt limit 18 times). I don’t understand why the 98% isn’t supporting the Wall Street protesters and are choosing to listen to the foolishness of the 2%.

More people need to do the research and form their own opinions instead of joining radical groups or just siding with the opposition party because things do not look good right now; change could make things worse.

Ryan's Rant re: Obama Business Comment

On July 17, 2012 the Business Insider said: Paul Ryan went on an epic rant over Obama's comment about business. The Wisconsin Republican …absolutely tore into the president in a chat I (James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute) had with him earlier today. Among the highlights:

“Every now and then, President Obama pierces the veil. He’s usually pretty coy about his ideology, but he lets the veil slip from time to time.” … His straw man argument is this ridiculous caricature where he’s trying to say if you want any security in life, you stick with me. If you go with these Republicans, they’re going to feed you to the wolves because they believe in some Hobbesian state of nature, and it’s one or the other which is complete bunk, absolutely ridiculous. But it seems to be the only way he thinks he can make his case. He’s deluded himself into thinking that his so-called enemies are these crazy individualists who believe in some dog-eat-dog society when what he’s really doing is basically attacking people like entrepreneurs and stacking up a list of scapegoats to blame for his failures.” “The idea that these entrepreneurs owe all their success to some government bureaucrat or some centralized planner just defies reality.” How does building roads and bridges justify Obamacare? If you like the GI Bill therefore we must go along with socialized medicine. It’s a strange leap that he takes. … To me it’s the laziest form of a debate to affix views to your opponent that they do not have so you can demonize them and defeat them and win the debate by default. “His comments seem to derive from a naive vision of a government-centered society and a government-directed economy. It stems from an idea that the nucleus of society and the economy is government not the people. … It is antithetical to the American idea. “We believe in free communities and this is a statist attack on free communities.” “As all of his big government spending programs fail to restore jobs and growth, he seems to be retreating into a statist vision of government direction and control of a free society that looks backward to the failed ideologies of the 20th century.” I think he believes America was on the right path until Reagan came along and Reagan got us going in the wrong direction. And, “He wants to be as transformational as Reagan by undoing the entire Reagan revolution.”… I think he sees himself as bringing about this wave of progressivism, and the only thing stopping him are these meddling conservatives who believe in these founding principles so he has to caricature them in the ugliest light possible to win the argument. This is not a Bill Clinton Democrat. He’s got this very government-centric, old 20th century collectivist philosophy which negates the American experiment which is people living in communities, supporting one another, having government stick to its limits so it can do its job really well …“Those of us who are conservative believe in government, we just believe government has limits. We want government to do what it does well and respect its limits so civil society and families can flourish on their own and do well and achieve their potential.”

I watched the 42:25 July 13 YouTube-SolelyByRequest video on Obama’s speech in Roanoke, Virginia to hear for myself what was said. About 32 minutes into the video the President said – The government can’t solve every problem. If people don’t want to be helped you can’t always help them. (33:40) If you’ve been successful you didn’t get there on your own (34:00)…if you were successful somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges, if somebody’s got a business you didn’t build that…Somebody else made that happen. The internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the internet so that all the companies could make money off the internet. The point is when we succeed it’s because of our own individual initiative and because we do things together. There’s some things like fighting fires that we don’t do on our own. …So we say to ourselves ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are just some things we do better together…That’s how we funded the GI bill, that’s how we created the middle class, that’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam, that’s how we invented the internet, that’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people… (35:30) Your not on your own, we’re in this together… (35:50) How do we help working class people, strivers, doers – how do we help them succeed, how do we make sure their hard work pays off. (end: 36 minutes)

The President said he was taken out of context. On May 15, I heard the President say JPMorgan is one of the better managed banks but even if you’re smart you can make mistakes which is why they passed Wall Street Reform – banks are insured by the taxpayers and we don’t want them taking risks so they have to be bailed out again – if we get the rules that were proposed/passed by Congress implemented it shouldn’t happen again – there are still those fighting it; he feels our banks should invest in small businesses and homeowners and not risky investment deals. This doesn’t sound like a man who has no respect for business. You should listen to the video yourself as I tend to agree with him. In my opinion, no one makes it in business alone – they have employees, customers, and even more people that support them; the government does give grants and do research. I’ll tell you about the Reagan versus Clinton record tomorrow after I go into Republican John Sununu’s comments. 

US Immigration Law History

In an August 18, 2011 Washington Reuters article - Republicans have said that if passed the DREAM Act would effectively constitute amnesty and encourage illegal immigration and criticized the idea that the administration should implement similar policies on its own. "Every amnesty encourages more illegal immigration, costs taxpayers who pay for government benefits and displaces American workers," Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said of the DREAM Act. I remembered that Reagan had initiated an amnesty program so I looked up the US history on immigration.

When the US was in World War II Mexican migrant labor began to look like a good idea (as it did in 1929) and the US and Mexican officials agreed to the 1943 Bracero Program which allowed temporary guest workers to labor in the US without any of the labor protections extended to American workers; corporations loved the program. President Reagan with the bipartisan proposed Immigration Reform and Control Act enacted November 6, 1986 granted amnesty to 3 million undocumented Mexican-American workers. The Act required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants, granted amnesty to certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants and granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the US before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously. But corporations still wanted undocumented laborers and the government was willing to look the other way so low-income Mexicans still immigrated to the United States under this arrangement.

The Legal Immigration and the Immigration Act of 1990 enacted by President George HW Bush on November 29, 1990 constituted a major revision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 which had remained the basic immigration law. Its primary focus was the numerical limits and preference system regulating permanent legal immigration. Besides legal immigration, the eight-title Act dealt with immigration law ranging from non-immigrants to criminal aliens to naturalization. As a response to criticism of employer sanctions it expanded anti-discrimination provisions and increased the penalties for unlawful discrimination.

President Clinton enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and immigration bills were passed annually through 2001. During George W. Bush’s tenure there was a lot of talk of a comprehensive immigration bill but he could never get one passed. Bush did on November 15, 2002 use an Executive Order to deal with undocumented aliens in the Caribbean Region (such as setting up a facility at Guantanamo Bay or any other appropriate location). January 12, 2004 he used a Proclamation to Suspend Entry to Immigrants or Non-Immigrants of Persons Engaged in or Benefiting from Corruption. October 18, 2005 he signed the Homeland Security Appropriation Act for 2006 and on October 26, 2006 he signed the Secure Fence Act. The Border Protection, Anti terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (HR 4437) was seen by many as the catalyst for the 2006 US immigration reform protests and it along with others bills failed to pass. As such Congress has not passed an immigration reform bill since 2001. 

The US Supreme Court on June 16, 2008 ruled (5–4) "that someone who is here illegally may withdraw his voluntarily agreement to depart and continue to try to get approval to remain in the United States." The lawsuit is about 2 seemingly contradictory provisions of immigration law. One prevents deportation by voluntary departure from the country; the other section allows immigrants who are here illegally but whose circumstances changed, to remain in the US and build their case to immigration officials. The case was in regard to Samson Dada, a Nigerian citizen who overstayed beyond the expiration of his tourist visa in 1998 and immigration authorities ordered him to leave the country as he had agreed to leave voluntarily.

The Department of Homeland Security reported the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the US in January 2010 was 10.8 million—the same as in January 2009—but down from 11.8 million in January 2007 (39% entered in 2000 or later and 62% were from Mexico). Reuters on February 2, 2011 reported - US Census Bureau data noted the number of illegal immigrants in the workforce remained steady at around 8 million. A senior demographer at PEW Research told Reuters "What we have seen in the past is that the flow of unauthorized immigrants, particularly from Mexico, has been very closely tied to the state of the US economy. We've seen large drops in the inflows when the US went into a recession and large increases when the US economy was booming.

The US government is finding itself in the same situation it was in back in 1929, 1943, 1986 and 1990 (3 of the 4 had Republican presidents) - with corporations dependent on Mexican migrant labor. The newly elected Mexican President said he’ll focus on making their streets safer and work to grow their economy so there shouldn’t be as many people coming from Mexico if he succeeds. It’s bad enough the weather is ruining our crops but Americans need to get off their duff. And, Congress needs to end its 11 year drought on immigration reform. 

Recent Immigration Issues

On November 29 & 30, 2011, I gave you my opinion on illegal immigration (see Our Borders & Illegal Immigration and the Immigration Reform blogs). On December 24 I heard that a federal judge ruled that an Arizona Sheriff cannot detain people solely based on the suspicion that they’re in the country illegally as this sets the stage for a possible racial profiling trial; on January 17, 2012 the Arizona Sherriff appealed the judge’s ruling and on March 1 a judge blocked part of Arizona’s immigration law. On April 28 we hear that immigration officials plan to ease up on suspected illegal immigrants charged with minor traffic violations. May 9 it was reported that there is a new Border Patrol strategy that targets repeat crossers. May 10 it’s said that federal prosecutors are to sue an Arizona Sheriff for civil rights violations. On June 25 the Supreme Court although it struck down parts of Arizona’s immigration law did uphold that law enforcement during a routine stop can ask for proof that you belong here legally – the ruling was that states can assist in enforcing existing federal law but can’t make it a state crime to be in the country illegally or get a job – Arizona will have to turn suspects over to the federal government for a decision on deportation. This decision should prevent the feds from suing the Sheriff. Romney said during the primary debates that he saw a model in the Arizona immigration law and Obama did nothing and was leaving it to the states; on June 26 he avoided the issue.  

In other Supreme Court cases: Vartelas v. Holder the issue was: The 1996 immigration act stripped some green-card holders of the right to travel abroad briefly and be guaranteed re-entry. Can the act apply retroactively to a green-card holder who pleaded guilty before 1996 and traveled abroad thereafter? (After Panagis Vartelas became a permanent resident in 1989 he pleaded guilty to a crime. Returning from a one week 2003 trip to Greece, he was ordered deported and he filed a motion to reopen the case on the retroactivity question.) The BIA refused to hear the case as did the 2nd Circuit. On March 28, 2012 with a 6-3 vote the Court reversed and remanded the case holding that the enforcement of a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 was applied retroactively to Panagis Vartelas and was thus unconstitutional. And in Holder v. Gutierrez et al (linked with Holder v. Sawyers as it raised the same questions) the issue was: Noncitizens facing deportation can remain in the US by proving they lived here for 7 straight years and were lawful permanent residents for no less than 5. If a noncitizen lived with a parent as a minor can he count the parent’s lawful years as his own? The 9th Circuit said yes and ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to reconsider the case of Carlos Gutierrez a Mexican citizen. The government appealed. On May 21, 2012 with a 9-0 vote the Court reversed and remanded the case thus deciding in favor of Attorney General Holder and holding that the BIA reasonably concluded that an alien must independently meet the statutory requirements of 8 USC § 1229b(a) to be eligible to obtain relief from the Attorney General from being deported out of the United States and may not impute the time during which his/her parent lawfully resided in the United States.   

January we heard the Obama administration planned a change in immigration rules so that time is reduced for illegal immigrants being away from their US citizen relatives while awaiting legal status. In June the President issued an Executive Order to allow a deportation reprieve of about 800,000 16-30 year old illegal immigrants if they’ve been in the US 5 years and have committed no crime; they also must be in school, a high school graduate, have served in the military and/or apply for a work permit and be recertified every 2 years; he said it’s not amnesty or immunity; Homeland Security said it was a law enforcement decision so that they could focus their manpower on criminals and terrorists; critics say the Order is unconstitutional; this action conflicts with what Obama said to Univision in March 2011; Neil Munro heckled the President during his announcement saying the President was choosing foreigners over Americans; the President responded with it was the right thing to do for the American people; radio host Glenn Beck said the move was like that of a dictator; Romney didn’t disagree with the President but did say he has a plan of his own (remember Romney’s approach during the January debates). On June 18 Marco Rubio a potential Romney Vice President candidate said the President should have worked with Congress to deal with immigration, he said he has his own version of the Dream Act and no one in Washington has contacted him (Rubio’s plan is not the same as Romney’s); his message is that they come for a better life for their children (I hope this is what Americans want for their children also). On June 26 when Romney was asked on Face the Nation about the June 15 Obama announcement, Romney only said that he’d look at it. You would think 11 days would have been enough to know if he’d repeal it or leave it alone.

On July 4 the President presided over the Naturalized Citizens ceremony where 25 military foreign born personnel became citizens.

As immigration is still a hot button, I’ll go into this issue more tomorrow. 

US Tariff & Chinese Solar Panels

On March 21, 2012 we heard that the US would be placing a tariff on Chinese solar panels. In the May 18 LA Times it was reported that a 31% tariff was requested. Tony Clifford, chief executive of Standard Solar, a solar developer and installer in Rockville, Md. said “US imports of cheaper Chinese solar panels had provided the catalyst for an overall dramatic price reduction in the last 2 years that has made solar installations more affordable for homes and businesses; the cost of outfitting a typical home today with solar panels runs about $20,000, half of what it did 2 to 3 years ago.” Customers also benefit from a 30% tax credit until 2016. Such US firms decried the anti-dumping duties saying that they risked a trade war with China and threatened to slow or halt the momentum of solar installations in the US. This action is one of the strongest by the Obama administration in addressing complaints of unfair Chinese trade and economic practices — an area that has made Obama a target of criticism from Republicans who say he's too soft. Earlier this year, Obama established a new trade enforcement unit to crack down on violators, specifically naming China as a potential target, as part of an overall strategy to boost domestic manufacturing, exports and jobs. But it isn't clear what the Commerce Department ruling will mean for US employment. Some domestic solar makers have shut down or cut employment, partly because of weaker growth in places such as Europe, there have been significant job gains at US businesses developing and installing solar panels. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington think tank said that even if the US solar energy industry loses some workers in the short run (like Solyndra) "That is never a reason for turning a blind eye to mercantilist trade practices". Of about 100,000 people employed in the industry last year, a little more than 50% were involved in solar installation, about 25% worked in manufacturing and the rest in sales and distribution, according to a Solar Foundation study.

A July 12 Washington (Platts) article said - Despite the Obama administration's imposition of tariffs on Chinese solar cells and panels US imports of the products increased 76% in May compared with April, according to data from the US Department of Commerce. The US imported $124.1 million in Chinese solar products in May, compared with $70.7 million in April. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), a group of US companies that had filed a trade complaint against China that led to the tariffs, said that the tariffs are having an impact; citing that May imports were 45% below the $225.8 million imported in May 2011. "This significant decline in year-over-year totals reflects the market's rising recognition of the costs, risks and uncertainties associated with importing Chinese solar cells and panels" CASM said. For the first 5 months of 2012 the US imported $1.21 billion, up 22% from the $993.2 million in the same period last year. Commerce in March announced tariffs ranging from 2.9% to 4.73% on Chinese cells and panels to counteract China's subsidies for its domestic manufacturers; saying those subsidies are illegal under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The May figures do not yet reflect Commerce's decision in late May to impose additional duties on Chinese solar products, CASM said. Commerce said it would impose tariffs ranging from 31% to 250% for China's alleged "dumping" of solar panels in the US at below-market costs. China in late May filed a WTO complaint challenging the US tariffs.

The July 13 USA Weekly via China Daily said - JA Solar products (solar cells and modules) which are imported from China to the US would be subject to the tariffs. According to analytics firm HIS Inc exports of such equipment from China to the US could drop by half this year due to the tariffs. Solar installations jumped 109% last year according to the Solar Energy Industries Association and they expect that to double in 2012 although tariffs could slow the rate of growth in 2013. Shyam Mehta, an analyst with Boston-based GTM Research, estimates that the new tariffs could increase the cost of installing solar panels on a US house by 10%. The US is the world's 4^th biggest market for solar-energy equipment according to GTM. The US share of the global market could double by 2016. To avoid the US tariffs some companies are working to establish alternative manufacturing supply lines. In late May the Portland-based Oregonian newspaper reported that JA Solar was scouting Oregon and other western US states for potential factory sites; the company is also evaluating manufacturing options in other low-cost regions of Asia as "We already have supply lines in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Taiwan through our manufacturing partners. At this stage we are evaluating the business cases, making sure we fully understand the market opportunities so that we can provide the best options to support our customers." JA Solar is projecting a 10% increase in global sales this year due to strong demand in China and rapid growth in Japan since it moved to replace nuclear power following last year's tsunami-related disaster. China's solar market saw impressive 470% growth in panel installations last year. With growth prospects bright in the US and China JA Solar said "There are a lot of ways in which the US can help China and for China to help the US. We must not get distracted or discouraged by these tariffs.”

What I got from these articles is that other foreign owned companies have been successful with manufacturing in the US (e.g. Toyota) and even though Solyndra failed, US jobs can still be achieved.   

Electric Cars & Batteries

On February 7, 2012 we heard Fisker Automotive, maker of an electric car that received $500 million in government funds (from the Department of Energy’s 2009 Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program), was forced to lay off workers. On June 22 Fisker announced that its international expansion continues with a growing dealer network and customer delivery of their cars across Europe. On this same date Advertising Age said – the company founded in 2007 has had its share of criticism: 240 Karmas were recalled due to faulty batteries late last year (Fisker abandoned its deal for A123 batteries) and another 19 were recalled earlier this month because defective hose clamps from its suppliers. The demo Consumer Reports was driving broke down and their report prompted a number of complaints from other Fisker drivers. On the other hand, Motor Trend gave the car a mostly positive review. Roger Ormisher, director of global PR for Fisker, said “There are always critics and skeptics of any new project, especially one that’s been in the political spotlight. But this is underlining what we achieved.” Karma which is the only Fisker car on the market (they did announce that the Atlantic is expected to come out in the next couple years) has sold 1,000 units in the first quarter, tallying $100 million in sales. In February Fisker began working with eMaxx to develop marketing strategy and help the carmaker choose agencies to suit its needs. In May Fisker started working with Mono a creative agency (they expect more such relationships this year). Fisker executives as of July 2 include former executives from Ford, Volvo and Chrysler. On July 3 Fisker and Leonardo DiCaprio announced they will work together to promote Global Sustainability.

On June 24 Tesla Motors released its first electric car; it’s the fastest electric car and it goes 300 miles before needing to be recharged (estimated cost about $280 a year). Tesla tested various batteries and the only thing I could find out is that the non-toxic battery pack in the Tesla Roadster is built at Tesla’s Headquarters in Northern California and is the result of innovative systems engineering and 20 years of advances in Lithium-ion cell technology (one sight speculated that they use Panasonic [Japanese] cells). I’ve focused on the car batteries because of what happened with Ener1 and the difficulty they present to the electric vehicle.

On July 13 Statesman.com said: Plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) prices have dropped and the number of models has mushroomed over the past 18 months, but full-electric cars (FECs) still make up less than 1% of total vehicle sales. Cost and range anxiety continue to plague FECs and by extension the lithium-ion battery makers. "The technology of the lithium battery has reached a fairly mature stage," said John Goodenough, an engineering professor at the University of Texas and the godfather of lithium-ion battery technology. "But they have to get the cost down and capacity up so people can have a longer driving range." The idea that you might run out of power halfway home has pushed many people toward hybrids which are cheaper and still clean enough to salve most consumers' environmental conscience (most hybrids use a different type of battery technology). In 2011 fewer than 18,000 PEVs were sold in the US said Dave Hurst, Pike Research senior analyst; he projects about 48,000 PEVs to sell in the US this year, compared with a forecast for 13.3 million cars and light trucks overall. For FECs the battery remains the single most costly component. In April, Ford said the battery pack for the Focus costs between $12,000 and $15,000 (the car starts at around $40,000). A recent McKinsey & Company report suggested that battery costs could fall from $600 per kilowatt hour to about $200 by 2020. But to date, sales of lithium-ion batteries for FECs and other industrial applications such as large-scale electricity storage haven't produced the volumes many in the industry hoped for or expected, said Brittany Gibson, an analyst at Pike Research; making matters more difficult, the big Asian competitors such as Sony, Sanyo and Samsung are large and more diversified so they "can weather the period they're in now as they wait for a lot of commercial projects to take off." As cars such as the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt are becoming recognizable brands, 2 of the country's top lithium-ion battery makers are teetering on the brink of insolvency. Austin-based Valence Technology Inc. (launched in 1989) announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was negotiating a new source of funding that would boost its working capital and allow it to continue operating. The announcement came less than a week after Massachusetts-based A123 Systems Inc. told investors that it had about 5 months of cash remaining for its operations and would move to raise more funding in the interim. Once a company works through the engineering manufacturing quality issues, it still needs a market that can buy enough battery systems to start paying off those costs. Barring that, it needs subsidies (A123 raised $378 million through an initial public offering in 2009 and hauled in a $249 million grant from the Obama administration and said it was raising $39 million to handle its pending cash crunch) or investors who have a lot of money and a long-term view which is what Valence got in California billionaire Carl Berg (chairman and the holder of about 44% of the company's stock). Valence said that the Nasdaq exchange had suspended trading of its stock and noted that it currently owes Berg and his companies $69.1 million in loans. If Valence's 23 years of experience and the size of the PEV market offer a sign of what's to come, both US battery makers will need a lot more cash and time before their income can support their expenses. 

Major Energy Failure

In my November 19, 2011 - So-called Energy Failures blog I addressed what I knew at the time regarding US attempts at curtailing global warming. The January 26, 2012 Washington Post said - Ener1 is the third company to seek bankruptcy protection among those the Energy Department backed as part of the president’s signature program to invest in clean energy. Solyndra, a California solar-panel maker, and Beacon Power, a Massachusetts energy-storage firm, entered bankruptcy court proceedings in the fall, after having received taxpayer-guaranteed loans of $535 million and $43 million, respectively. One of Ener1’s key struggles has been its reliance on one financially troubled customer, Think; the Norwegian carmaker filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2010. In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Obama foreshadowed the bad news by saying that he remained proud of his administration’s $80 billion commitment to clean-energy projects and companies, despite periodic failures. “Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail,” Obama said. “But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.” House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who has led the congressional investigation into Solyndra’s loan, called Ener1 part of the “growing list of failed companies that went belly up” with taxpayer money. Ener1’s application for stimulus money had bipartisan support among Indiana lawmakers. The company received $10.5 million in grants and contracts under the George W. Bush administration. An Energy Department spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said “While it’s unfortunate that Ener1, the parent company, has entered a restructuring process, the new infusion of $80 million in private capital demonstrates that the technology has merit”.

On April 8 the Chicago Tribune said – The company tapped the country's top scientists at Argonne National Lab in Illinois, US taxpayers pledged up to $118 million in federal funds and $80 million in state and local incentives (were committed) to help Ener1 produce cutting-edge battery technology for electric cars and the US military. Vice President Joe Biden said in a January 2011 speech (at Ener1’s facility in Indiana) "This is about the future. And the question is which nation is going to seize the future. Some nation is going to grab it by the throat. One of the nations of the world is going to lead the world in green energy and technology." That nation, it turns out, is Russia. The company's technology is owned outright by Boris Zingarevich, a Russian businessman with ties to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a fact that concerns some technology experts in the US. Zingarevich acquired Ener1 out of bankruptcy March 30 with an agreement to infuse $81 million in financing, giving him a sophisticated line of batteries that can power electric cars, store electricity for power grids and supply portable power for soldiers. The deal for Ener1 shows how the global economy can blur the lines between private business and national interest. While there have been instances of Russian nationals accused of using illegal means to acquire US technology, US government said there is no law that bans transferring technology paid for by US taxpayers to foreigners. Wealthy Russians are major investors in the US, owning stakes in companies such as Facebook and Twitter, and Zingarevich was Ener1's largest shareholder from the beginning in 2002. Yet there is a big difference between being a shareholder and gaining control of a company. "In a company whose ownership is connected to Medvedev, you have a golden opportunity for a military technology transfer and perhaps civil transfer from the US to Russia at no cost" said Stephen Blank, an expert on Russia and a research professor of national security affairs for the Strategic Studies Institute at the United States Army War College. Russia is second only to China in trying to gain high-tech information related to military uses, energy generation and manufacturing, according to the US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. In the case of Ener1, neither the Department of Energy nor the Navy checked on foreign ownership before awarding the company grants and research and development contracts. The Army, which also awarded contracts, said individual employees underwent routine background checks as contractors but scrutinizing the company's ownership structure was not part of its purview. The Department of Energy, in an email, said it was only interested in whether the company could successfully produce and sell its batteries. The Navy said it didn't place restrictions on foreign access to the company's work on unmanned aerial vehicles, a highly sought-after technology, according to the intelligence community, or to battery technology that could be used to track US military personnel. Citing national security concerns, US Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, is seeking internal documents from the White House, Department of Energy, Ener1 and its EnerDel battery unit. "There is definitely a growing concern about a foreign-controlled or owned company attempting to gain a foothold into our supply chain in the United States," said Stearns, whose subcommittee held a hearing March 27 about such threats. "We need to make sure the federal government isn't an unwitting accomplice to the theft of our own national secrets by providing them with multimillion-dollar government grants,'' he said in a statement, referring to battery technology produced in concert with US scientists.

Green technology (causing fewer pollutants) is the future and our public and private sector didn’t step up. It’s discerning that I didn’t hear about this in the news. 

Climate Change

On December 12, 2011, it was reported that the leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference couldn’t agree on carbon emission cuts. On January 3, 2012 we heard that scientists discovered that outside Australia 2 species of shark have combined to make a super shark that can withstand both hot and cold waters. January 5 a rare Orca (killer whale) sighting was made off the Orange County, California coast (it’s said that they’re 300 miles off course because of global warming). January 18 scientists estimated nearly 6 million bats were killed by a fungal ailment in 16 states and Canada. On January 24, 2012 we heard 36 stranded whales were dead, dozens of others were threatened off the coast of New Zealand; 2 more dolphins were stranded off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. February 1 a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the crazy weather world-wide is due to human generated causes and they can prove it (a 12’ crack in an Antarctic glacier was found). February 4 it’s said that in the past few weeks 116 dolphins beached themselves on the shores of Cape Cod, 81 died; a group went to Congress and asked for help with NOAA’s best scientists to try and figure out why it’s happening. February 15 scientists discovered a new species (a cousin of the chameleon, one inch long that doesn’t change color) in the rain forests of Madagascar. February 22 scientists discover a new family of legless amphibians in India. March 5 a massive chunk of a glacier fell in an Argentina lake; it’s been 4 years since such an event has occurred. Hawaii’s big island volcano erupted, spilling lava on a sparsely occupied suburb; the volcano has been erupting for decades but it’s become more active recently. March 11 a freak hailstorm and tornado hit Hawaii. March 29 a UN report came out saying all nations should prepare for costly weather related disasters. March 31 the citrus disease that killed million of trees in Florida and Brazil is now found in California. April 18 a new shrimp-like species was found in a New Mexico cave. April 23 an albino Orca was spotted off the Russian coast. May 17 Texas had a rare 4.3 earthquake. May 25 it’s reported that butterflies moved north because of climate change. July 17 on my local NBC station I heard that next year Harvard scientists want to fly a hot air balloon over New Mexico and at 80,000 feet spray sun reflecting chemicals (consistent with those released by volcanoes) into the air; other scientists said wide spread use of the chemicals could have a negative effect on global warming. On July 18 it’s said an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan breaks off a Greenland glacier.

Back in November 2011 I did a couple of blogs that related to this issue (17^th - Global Warming, 18^th – Energy) because the Republican candidates were denying it. And, on January 31 on the View I heard that Fox News accused the Muppets of being anti-oil in their new movie; the Muppets response: Kermit said - if we had a problem with oil why would we have spent so much time driving around in a gas guzzling Rolls Royce; Miss Piggy said that would be like accusing Fox News of being news. June 23 it was said that the earth’s rotation is slowing and one second was added to the day; this didn’t affect the weather but some computers all over the world couldn’t handle the one second add on.

On July 10 the US government backed the newly released annual State of the Climate Report made by hundreds of scientists in 48 countries. The scientists have tested the earth’s natural greenhouse gases and found they haven’t risen so global warming and recent bad weather is the result of manmade causes (carbon dioxide, methane and nitric-oxide increases). Glaciers and sea ice around the world continue to shrink (30 times faster than expected), temperatures on land and sea are rising, over the past 100 years oceans have risen 10 inches and they’re predicting they will rise 12 inches more by 2050 (less than 40 years). We’re not at the tipping point yet but if we don’t start making changes it will come sooner than expected.

All of the odd things listed here along with the erratic weather (record breaking temperatures, floods and drought) has increased feed costs for the animals as well as destroyed many crops and it’s all because of global warming. In January we heard this along with an increase in exports (up 11% last year) there isn’t enough beef cattle to go around and the price of beef has gone up 24% in the last 5 years and it’s expected to jump another 8% this year.

We need a President that believes we can do something to slow down global warming and keep jobs and food here in the US; not someone who believes exporters should get tax credits. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the US attempts made to curtail global warming.  

Information Leaks

On April 6, 2012 we heard a former CIA officer was charged with leaking confidential information to journalists. And let’s not forget about Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, who in January 2012 was charged with disclosing more than 260,000 diplomatic cables, more than 90,000 intelligence reports on the war in Afghanistan and one video of a military helicopter attack (much of it classified) to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

On June 9 the US Attorney General said he was going after those leaking government secrets (we can’t have countries not willing to work with us). The Baltimore Sun on June 13 said: Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and the other leaders of Congress' intelligence committees this week issued a strong, bi-partisan statement of condemnation for recent leaks of classified information about America's clandestine operations abroad, including its cyber-warfare against Iran and drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen. Republicans have also criticized the administration for disclosing details of the Navy SEAL team that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid on his Pakistan hideout last year. They promised new legislation to clamp down on leaks that they say can endanger Americans.

Sen. John McCain went further, alleging that the Obama administration has engaged in a double standard on leaking; aggressively prosecuting low-level leakers while tolerating or even encouraging high-level leaks of information that could bolster the president's re-election prospects. "Our intelligence people say this is the worst breach they've ever seen," Senator John McCain, senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "It's very clear that this information had to come from this administration. It couldn't have come from anywhere else," McCain said. "This needs a special counsel - someone who is highly independent of the Justice Department."

There is no doubt that the White House's attitude about leaking classified material during this administration and others has been selective. President Obama, who promised transparency when running for office, has prosecuted more leakers than all of his predecessors combined. But his administration has also disclosed details of drone strikes on al-Qaida operatives, even though they are run under classified CIA programs. The Bush administration likewise leaked intelligence information that bolstered its case for war in Iraq. Later, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was convicted for his role in outing covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, another leak that served a political purpose. Classified information should not be used as a political tool.

On the June 12 NPR.com website it said - Last week's assignment of two federal prosecutors to investigate disclosures of national security information might have been the first shot in a new war on leaks. The director of national intelligence is expected soon to announce new measures to fight unauthorized disclosures, and some members of Congress say it could be time for new anti-leaking laws.

The moves are motivated by a concern that recent revelations about the successful penetration of an al-Qaida cell in Yemen, U.S. policies regarding drone aircraft strikes, and a White House-authorized cyber attack against Iran have jeopardized U.S. national security. But advocates of open government fear an overreaction. "Members of Congress in both parties have adopted an extreme knee-jerk position that presumes any and all disclosure of classified information is always wrong," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. "That just doesn't fit the experience of those of us who gather or consume news." Not all leaks of classified information are criminal. A successful prosecution for disclosing secrets has to prove violation of the 1917 Espionage Act and show that the leaker realized it could harm the United States or help a foreign government. "Classified information [may be] disclosed not only to undermine or challenge policy, but to explain it, to defend it and to interpret it for the public," Aftergood says and he is worried. "If Congress were to assert a hard line that each and every disclosure of classified information must be punished, a lot of the news-gathering and news-production process as we have known it would have to shut down," he says.

Congress passed just such a law in 2000, only to have it vetoed by President Clinton. In a statement Clinton said he objected to a "badly flawed" provision that would have made the unauthorized disclosure of classified information a felony. Clinton said that though well-intentioned, the provision is "overbroad and may unnecessarily chill legitimate activities that are at the heart of a democracy."

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, after a closed-door hearing on July 19, California Republican Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the House Armed Services Committee Chairman, said he’s convinced the leaks didn’t come from the Pentagon.

I believe this was just another loud mouth attempt by the Republicans to discredit the President. 

Fast and Furious Mission

On December 1, 2011 it was reported that another drug tunnel was found between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California (1800 feet long). The tunnel that connected warehouses in both cities was equipped with electric rail cars; $53 million in marijuana had been confiscated. December 26 the Mexican army captured the security head of the Sinaloa cartel. January 5, 2012 a Mexican drug cartel kingpin pled guilty in a US court. February 1 Police nabbed a Mexican drug boat just north of Los Angeles, California. February 10 the US warned Americans to stay out of most of Mexico due to the war between police and drug cartels (last year 120 Americans were killed in Mexico). March 22 a drug lord hunted by ATF was discovered to be an FBI informant. July 12 DEA found a major drug tunnel (over 600’ long, 6’ High and 4’ Wide) 50 feet underground in Arizona – Mexico; the tunnel was complete with lighting and ventilation and allowed drugs to flow into the US while cash and guns flow into Mexico. Our efforts with drug cartels will probably be slowed as the newly elected Mexican President said he’ll focus on making their streets safer and work to grow their economy so children won’t want to work for the drug cartels; he’s not as concerned about the drugs coming over the US border.

All drug missions are not successful. On February 2, 2012 it was reported that the family of a slain border patrol agent is suing the Justice Department. Progress on this was kept quiet until June. At this time we hear that border agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 while on a mission called Fast and Furious that began in 2009. Fast and Furious allowed criminals to buy guns so the government could trace/track Mexican drug cartels but the agents lost track of hundreds and they started showing up at crime scenes. The Justice Department disbanded the operation in 2011 but a Congressional investigation was initiated. On June 9 we heard Fast and Furious will be holding Grand Jury type investigations, using FBI agents and subpoenaing journalist and government officials. During the investigation, we heard that this was the first time the President exerted executive privilege to shield documents from Congress; that every email or communications between officials is not the business of Congress. On June 20 Republicans said the lack of transparency is sickening and using executive privilege to maintain the vow of secrecy is even more sickening. On June 28 the House approved a resolution holding the US Attorney General in criminal contempt of Congress.

On July 9 it’s reported that the FBI is looking for 4 men in the Fast and Furious government mission that killed Border Agent Brian Terry and a reward of $1 million each is being offered. The details of Terry’s operation are now being revealed. On December 14, 2010 at about 11pm Terry and his team were about 10 miles from the Arizona/Mexico border looking for drug runners when an electronic sensor told them that someone was coming their way. It turned out that while the Border Agents were firing bean bags the criminals that rob drug runners were using live bullets. The robbers were using weapons that had been disbursed by the US government to low level gun runners hoping they would lead to cartel leaders. I don’t know what the Agencies’ plans were for tracking the guns but apparently, the gun runners sold the weapons to the highest bidders instead and Terry got killed in the process.

This is not the only failed mission the US government has had. I am not amused by Republicans publicly overreacting to a situation and feel that they did so solely to discredit the President and not for the safety of the people. 

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the Republicans claim that the Obama Administration is exerting too much transparency. They really need to make up their minds or get to work making the line clearer. But, right now I wish they’d spend more time working on job creation. 

No Child Left Behind

On February 9, 2012 it was said that the President is to waive the No Child Left Behind requirement for 10 states. Per a July 6, 2012 Huffington Post article 26 states have now received permission to work around No Child Left Behind law (Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.) Washington's waiver is conditioned on the state finalizing its teacher and principal evaluations, in addition to crafting its school accountability system. Before the state can fully get out of the law, the US Education Department will have to approve those two facets. Until then, the state will revise its performance targets, and instead of looking to hit absolute targets, will seek to halve the percentage of students who aren't proficient within 6 years. Six states did not complete the entire waiver process and one got a one-year freeze: Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine and West Virginia. The applications of 10 states and Washington, DC are still being reviewed.

To wiggle out of No Child Left Behind's rigorous test requirements the states are required to adopt the Obama administration's education agenda instead. More than half the states have now won exemptions from the 2002 law (a signature initiative of George W. Bush's presidency) that expired in 2007 that required standardized testing of students and a system of punishments based on the test scores. While advocates credit the law for exposing test score gaps between different groups of students, even the law's original cheerleaders acknowledge its "failing" schools label is too broad, the tutoring remedies it mandates rarely boost student achievement, and the 2014 goal that 100 percent of US students be deemed "proficient" in science and math is unrealistic.

Despite a few attempts, Congress has failed to rewrite it. After Congress missed President Obama's fall deadline for overhauling the law, the administration began offering states relief waivers from the law's toughest parts. In exchange for the waivers, states had to agree to parts of the Obama education agenda, which includes a "college and career-ready" standards and grading teachers, in part, in accordance with students' standardized test scores. And instead of subjecting all schools to potential punishments, only 15 percent of each state's lowest-performing schools would be affected. Minnesota is transitioning to new school accountability systems and when Minnesota uploaded its new education database last month, the number of schools identified as needing improvement dropped suddenly to 127 from 1,056 the previous year, wrote Charlie Weaver, executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune last month. "Either a thousand elementary, middle and high schools suddenly and collectively erased stubborn achievement gaps and radically upped test scores in the last 12 months or someone is getting cute with the numbers," Weaver wrote. The new system grades schools for students' improvement, not competence -- a switch advocates say is fairer to teachers. But Weaver asserted that the new method "makes it appear that Minnesota schools are doing better than they actually are."

A survey by consulting firm Whiteboard Advisors revealed that the controversy surrounding the process is broader. Late last month, the "education influentials" who responded to Whiteboard's survey (questions answered anonymously by White House, Education Department and congressional staffers) showed limited confidence in the waiver process. "The waivers are a complete disaster and will weaken accountability in ways that will be felt for years, if not decades," one respondent complained. "The Washington education policy world has completely looked the other way while all this has happened -- largely because they are mostly Democrats who could not bring themselves to oppose Obama’s US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan." Duncan said “It is a remarkable milestone that in only five months, more than half of the states in the country have adopted state-developed, next-generation education reforms to improve student learning and classroom instruction, while ensuring that resources are targeted to the students that need them most”.

The waiver process has resulted in a flurry of criticism from Republicans who say the administration is abusing its power and exerting too strong a federal role in education.

On July 18 it’s reported that the President wants to spend $1 billion on a group of teachers (each would get a $20,000 bonus per year) to make our students more competitive in the world in math and science; Congress has to approve the money so it probably will not happen.

Okay let’s be real. Bush made a good attempt to improve our education system but 43 states and Washington DC have had difficulty meeting the No Child Left Behind law; it expired in 2007 and Congress failed to rewrite it. Instead of having the states punished the Obama Administration came up with something that requires the states to make improvements – although not perfect, it’s better than nothing – which is what Congress did. The Republicans need to quit yapping and start doing something.  

Romney Issues: July 10-17

On an Iowa radio show of July 10, 2012 Romney said “My investments have been held by a blind trust and are managed by a trustee. I don’t manage them and don’t even know where they are.” Boy was this dumb. He wants you to believe that he can handle the country’s finances when he doesn’t handle his own. July 11 Romney was booed at an NAACP gathering; Rush Limbaugh took shots at Obama for sending Vice President (VP) Biden (he had a scheduling conflict); Romney said the reaction was expected but he wasn’t changing his message; others said he should speak to his audience like John McCain did. Talk about someone out of touch with the people.

July 13 Romney said he left Bain in February 1999 and worked on the 2002 Olympics but the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) papers show him as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Bain until 2002 (did he commit a felony by not participating in the company). Bain did outsource and offshore jobs in the early 2000s when his name was listed on the SEC papers. On July 10 it was reported that the US  Olympic team will be wearing opening ceremony uniforms by Ralph Lauren that were made in China; everything from head to toe was made overseas; if the clothing and mementos were made here a billion dollars (of private funding) would have been kept is the US; Congress got upset and a bill was introduced on July 16 to have all future uniforms made in America; the American people said they could do it for this year and on July 13 ABC News emailed the names of the companies to both the Olympic Committee and Ralph Lauren; Lauren said there was no time to order new uniforms for this year but will have them made in America for the 2014 Winter Olympics and thereafter (China was upset with our reaction and Russia said it wants American clothes). When asked whether or not he thought the Olympic uniforms should be made in America – Romney said he wasn’t going to weigh in on that. The ladies on the View weighed in on this subject on their July 16^th show and a good point was made – Governors should know what factories are empty in their states and the people available for work, why doesn’t the government or businesses identify what we need in this country and use the empty buildings and unemployed to get things made in the US. We heard such a thing on March 22 - CEO billionaire Lynn Tilton of Patriarch Partners had revitalized Gorham, New Hampshire by converting a paper mill into a tissue factory. It seems everyone but Romney weighed in on this issue. I hope the American people want a President that cares enough to answer such a simple question. But perhaps it’s because the uniforms worn in the 2002 Olympics were made in Burma. 

July 14 in response to the Obama ads regarding his work at Bain, Romney did a lot of interviews and said he wants an apology from the President – he said its Chicago style politics at its worst, he ought to disavow it and reign in these people that are running out of control. Of course Obama is not giving an apology – I guess the truth hurts. On this same date it’s mentioned that Condoleezza Rice might be considered a potential VP candidate although earlier she said she wouldn’t consider the position. Romney said Rice has been helpful to him and his campaign in regard to foreign policy issues. The Times of Israel reported on July 15 that this would upset the Jewish community because she was a strong Palestine supporter and others said she’s a pro-choice supporter. Back in June it was said that Marco Rubio wasn’t a Romney pick for VP (he hadn’t submitted any of the questionnaires or other paperwork) and Romney said he was being considered. Rubio has different ideas about immigration than Romney and although Rubio was baptized a Mormon he steered his family back to Catholicism. It seems to me that the media is looking for a minority person to help bring in votes.

On July 15 it’s said that the Obama campaign has spent $100 million in ads. On July 16 it’s reported that economists are growing pessimistic about the country’s slow growth. On July 17 a report came out predicting that 2 million American jobs will be lost if Congress fails to resolve last year’s budget issues and the automatic cuts go into place.

Here’s what I have to say. If Romney can’t take the heat of the Obama ads then he sure can’t handle the pressure of the presidency. I’m tired of hearing of Romney’s tax returns. Because he filed for an extension he’s had all this time to address the issues brought up in the ads so his 2011 return when completed could be erroneous; it’s just another legal thing that he did that I don’t think sets a good example for the people of America. As far as economists go, I think they’re as bad as Wall Street speculators who have just added fuel to an existing fire. And Congress needs to get to work on the budget as the deadline is just a couple of weeks away.

Tomorrow I start talking about all the things that the Republicans have tossed a cookie on (No Child Left Behind, Fast and Furious, information leaks, the clean energy program and immigration) that I feel they have overreacted on just to get a candidate in the White House and keep the tax credits they don’t deserve.