Reflecting on a Few Issues

I know it has been a while and much has gone down and I have only blogged once for the July 4th holiday since June 24th. I was going to post, but realized I needed a blog break and still do. I will be posting on ‘feel like it’ as oppose to posting on ‘work to do’  for the time being.

The Supreme Court decision on Obamacare being upheld as a tax was a shocker. I am reading so many columns and blog posts coming down on the entire Supreme enclave. Chief Justice Roberts deserves the criticism he is getting and it should have been no surprise that Justices, Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer, and  Ginsberg would uphold this health care law, but Chief Justice Roberts came out of left field on this one.

Many thought Justice Kennedy would give a decision in favor of the law, but he was against it along with Justices Thomas, Alito and Scalia. These Justices who opposed Obamacare in any way are not to be put in the same category with pro law Justices in all the disdaining reactions.

Since the health care ruling, I have notice a decline of links and posts among my conservative Facebook friends (FB). I also play Farmville and now my home page has far more Farmville posts and links with a few conservative news links and post in between. It use to be the complete opposite. This is an indication to me that on the conservative side, some folks are going through a disheartening time. Please come out of it and get back into the battle. Vote Republican this November for president and then for congressional representatives and senators. At least if Pres. Obama wins (and yes he can still win), it will be interesting watching him deal with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress.

Of course, I do continue to get the news links and posts of anti-Romney, Republican and conservative photos and banners from a few of my liberal/lefty Democratic FB Friends. One leftist FB friend has been particularly rabid in her postings since the health care law was upheld. Chief Justice Roberts has really ignited many on the left.

Besides all the other stuff that has happen, such as Attorney General Holder being cited in contempt of Congress, the hoopla over Mitt Romney speaking at the NAACP is just pushing it. Well to start with, the organisation invited Mitt Romney. He did not just show up. He accepted the invitation and presented his position on the issues. He knew he would get an adverse reaction to parts of his speech.

The booing to what he would do with Obmacare was all over the media. The standing ovation Romney received over his pro traditional family comments is hard to find, except for Fox News. Although a few black conservatives felt he kind of blew it in enticing some black voters, I liked Romney’s speech. But then, he has my vote. I am not voting for Barack Obama.

In conclusion, I want to express some corrective and personal views on the NAACP. I spent a little time on a conservative FB friend’s page replying to a comment about the organization being all black. The NAACP has white and other non-black membership. Some are unaware that there are local offices of the organization headed by non-blacks, such as J. David Alcantara in New Jersey.

I feel the NAACP is still dealing with issues like it is 1942 when this civil rights organization was absolutely relevant. They are in 1942 heaven with the voter suppression controversy. As I stated in a previous post, I do feel there is a problem for some of the elderly in obtaining a voter ID in states that have new voter ID laws.

The problem primarily is obtaining a birth certificate as a requirement for the ID. Some of the older folks like my late father who were not born in hospitals and were able do things (with no need for a passport) in life during a time when a birth certificate was not required  for much. The NAACP is making this racial which not really the case.

Responding to an Al Sharpton Post and Where He is Now at MSNBC

I continue to get views and comments on my July 27th blog post,  MSNBC’s Higher Ratings with Al Sharpton every few weeks or so. This was a wait and see post, but a few folks went off the deep end, because I did not bash Mr. Sharpton’s racial politicking and social angst. Then there were responses in support of Mr. Sharpton. I am not one of his supporters and take issues with most of his dispositions, but I am not a hater on anyone and that includes Mr. Sharpton. I do listen often (Currently listening to some segments of Neil Boortz in Atlanta through the computer) to conservative/libertarian and liberal leftist talk radio to hear the arguments from differing political view points. Since the liberal leftist side is far less represented in talk radio, the local urban talk radio station is where I go to hear the liberal leftist arguments.

Philly’s urban talk radio has Al Sharpton on from 1:00-4:00 p. m. weekdays. I do not listen to his radio program in its entirety, but I do catch segments. That also goes for his weekday 6:00 p. m. TV program. Folks in my household who feel where he is coming from is not represented enough on TV are happy with the fact that he has TV program, but they never turn it on. I think they are representative in part of many out there on the liberal/left side. I say in part, because one family member is just too use to watching local news and the national nightly news during the 6 p. m. hour. But many on the liberal/left side just are not into watching news programming.

Al Sharpton started out getting decent ratings as a substitute host. The viewer ratings starved MSNBC jumped on the ratings boost right away by putting Mr. Sharpton on and dumping Cenk Uygur who had only been in the early evening time slot for only 6 months. Mr. Sharpton’s viewer ratings went down,  but he stills pulls in higher ratings than CNN’s John King every other day or so. Now if someone subbing gets better ratings than Mr. Sharpton, he will be gone too! But then, maybe his situation would get a different handling. See the ratings for Thursday and Friday cable news programming here and here.

I think MSNBC also gave Al Sharpton a program, because of the criticism of the cable news station being pro liberal and pro minority, but did not have any people of color hosting in the evening line up. The cable news station would see some damaging publicity and reactions if they dumped Mr. Sharpton and replace him with a non black: thus,  Professors, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry are probably the possibilities if Al Sharpton ever gets the heave-ho.

Taking a Blogging Break

I am taking some days off from blogging. If you are new to my blog, I have a vast archive of interesting posts and you can find interesting headlines in the political, cultural and spiritual realms in my twitter feed in one of the left sidebars. I will also start sharing the thoughts behind the comments I make to family members and liberal and lefty Facebook friends that drive them to distraction. I will return to blogging late August/early September. Thank you for stopping by Right Cogency.

The Reading of the U. S. Constitution

With the Republicans taking over the House portion of Congress, they have put new rules into place. One of them is having the Constitution read in full on Jan 6, after the 112th Congress convenes. Okay, you may feel that this is just ceremonial and has no real deep significance. But those behind this new rule say the goal is “to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress – and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating.” It is not just to remind the Democrats, but also the Republicans who in the past have lost their way when it came to limited government. I think it is a good idea. Read more from here.

Let’s face it, many of us do not know what is really in the Constitution. For example, we blame presidents for spending when if we truly knew  the Constitution, we would know that the blame is misplaced. The President cannot spend without the authorization from Congress. Remember a Democratic Congress authorized the spending in the last 2 years of Pres. Bush. That is in article 1, Section 8, which also stipulates that Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, not the President.

I finally received my pocket-sized Constitution and Declaration of Independence from the Heritage Foundation. It is free. Go here to get one of your own so that you can have it on hand for discussions and arguments on the Constitution and constitutional related subjects or just for your own knowledge.

Well, this post is supposed to be just an announcement, but I ended up blogging anyway. So the announcement is from this point on I am taking a few days of this Christmas week off from blogging. See you in the New Year.

Addendum: But please check in to see interesting headlines of choice in my Titter feed in one of the left sidebar columns.

Thankful for Free Speech: The Good and the Bad

I do not like the personal attacks I see coming from all sides in the political realm. Being on the conservative side, puts me against Pres. Obama politically, but not personally. I tend to view far more personal attacks on him and the First Lady from blogs, Internet columns, and on social networks such as Facebook than I see arguments against his policies. The same goes for politicians in general whether they be Republican or Democrat.

Nancy Pelosi vocalized viewpoints  such as “Abstinence is Harmful” and promoted legislation that me and many others were definitely not in agreement. But to call her pejorative female names, goes beyond the decency that was part of my upbringing and makes me who I am today. I can’t say that I am unhappy that she and the House Democrats got their walking papers. They were pushing the country through legislation that ignored lessening the growing deficit.

As much as I abhor the insulting juvenile verbal behavior of adults, I know it is part of our free speech rights, which I treasure.  Because of where I have come to stand politically, I get some personal attacks, but they do nothing to silence my free speech.  I am thankful to be able to say what I want to say on this blog. I can express that Pres. Obama and his administration are wrong in relation to any subject or legislation he is pushing through Congress without what happened to this blogger, happening to me, even if I chose to be personally insulting.