President John F. Kennedy: Cuban Missile Crisis Speech: 10/22/1962

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Erik Schneider

Cuban Missile Crisis
Source:FRS FreeState

What President Kennedy showed during this crisis was to show that his National Security Council was on top of the situation from the beginning. And the question which was a huge question, was what to do about it to prevent missiles from being launched at the United States. President Kennedy, obviously did not want to go to war with another superpower and risk destroying the world in the process. Which might have happened had the United States gone to war with the Soviet Union. Trying to invade the Communist Republic of Cuba with Russian ships in the area was not going to happen without some war. Which meant that the Kennedy Administration, was going to need a negotiated settlement with Russia.

Russia, was literally able to stick their own nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba. Just ninety miles from Miami, Florida. With enough power to eliminate the East Coast of the United States. So President Kennedy and his National Security Council knew they had to get those weapons out of Cuba. They also knew that going to war with a country the size and that was as powerful militarily as the Soviet Union, probably wasn’t an option at all. So they were going to have to work this out diplomatically. To get the weapons out of Cuba, America was going to have to give Russia something they wanted as well.

What prevented World War III during the Cuba Missile Crisis was Russia agreeing to pull their weapons out of Cuba. In return for America pulling their weapons out of Turkey. America, didn’t pass new economic sanctions on Russia hoping that Russia would eventually take the weapons out of Cuba. As well as hoping they would never use them, or give them to Cuba. And America didn’t go to war with Russia and try to settle it that way. Both countries had something that the other wanted and wanted something that the other had. And both were smart and sane enough to settle the crisis diplomatically.

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Brookings Institution: Ron Haskins: America’s Welfare Transformation

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Ederik Schneider

Ron HaskinsSource:FreeState Now

In 1996, a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton made Welfare to Work the law of the country. Requiring people who are collecting Welfare Insurance to prepare themselves to go to work, go to school, go back to school, get job training. Get help with job placement and in return would be subsidized for these activities. With child care and continue support that they were getting on public assistance. But the idea was that they would go to work and not collect public assistance indefinitely. And that states would get some flexibility in how they run their Welfare program. So we could see what’s working and not working. And as a result as well as with the economic boom of the 1990s, we saw millions of people get off of public assistance and out of poverty. And into the workforce.

When you subsidize success, work and self-sufficiency, you get more of it. When you subsidize dependency, which is what we did with the old Welfare system pre-1997, you get more of that. Which is what we saw where nothing was expected in the old Welfare system. And people could literally sit at home and collect public assistance checks indefinitely and not be expected to be working. You get more of that and what we did with Welfare Insurance, is exactly what we should be doing with Unemployment Insurance as well.

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David Von Pein: 1964 Interview With Karen Carlin: An Employee Of Jack Ruby’s

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Erik Schneider

Karen Carlin

Source: The Daily Press

Perhaps one of the most famous nightclub employees of all time. I don’t know much about Karen Carlin and maybe that is because that there isn’t much to know about her. But what I get is that she was an attractive women who worked for Jack Ruby at Jack Ruby’s nightclub The Carousel in Dallas. And worked there simply because she needed the money. But that she’s not someone who has much if any information about Jack Ruby. Other than Ruby might have shot Lee Harvey Oswald the assassin of President John F. Kennedy. She simply worked for the man and only worked there because she needed the money. Because he husband had a hard time holding a good job.

You have to know that this whole story had to do with the assassination of an American President. John F. Kennedy who was President of the United States. This was so very new to most people in the country and the first presidential assassination that was covered in the electronic age with network TV and network news. And any person that might of had some connection to someone who was a big part of this story was automatically seen as suspect, or at least as a potential suspect. Karen Carlin, not only knew Jack Ruby the killer of Lee Oswald who assassinated the President, but she worked for him. Which meant that people automatically assumed that she must know something important about this story.

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Divinity: Martin L. King: ‘I Have Been to the Mountaintop Full’

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Derik Schneider
Dr. MLK & Rev. Ralph Abernathy

Dr. MLK & Rev. Ralph Abernathy

Source:The Daily Journal

I don’t believe there are many people perhaps in the history of the world, but certainly in the history of the United States who had better timing than Martin L. King. And I say that for a few reasons, but just take when Reverend King gave this speech and when he died. Which was the next day in 1968 and then look at, or listen to what Reverend King said in this speech and what was in it and what he had to say. Which I at least believe was vision for what the civil rights movement was all about.

And what it meant to be an American no matter your race in a liberal democracy such as the United States. Where we all under the United States Constitution are to be treated equally under law with the same constitutional rights and freedoms as any other American. That we aren’t supposed to be treated better, or worse by law in this country. And that’s just one reason why the way African-Americans were treated in America prior to the civil rights laws of the 1960s was simply unconstitutional. Because African-Americans were treated worse than Caucasian-Americans under law in this country.

What Reverend King was saying in this speech was that he’s seen the mountaintop of where all Americans were being treated equally under law. That this vision is real where no American has to live in poverty. Without the basic necessities and skills to be able to live well in life. That we aren’t there yet and you might not see him there with you, but this vision is real and we can get there together as a people. If we keep moving forward as a people and a country to build this society where no race of people is treated worse under law simply based on their race.

That we can accomplish this and get there together if we keep up the fight and struggle for equal and human rights in this country until we finally reach the mountaintop. And finally accomplish what we’ve struggled for all of these years. Thats what this speech was about as far as I’m concern at least and what Reverend King was telling his supporters. That even if you don’t see him there with you, he’s already seen the vision of what we are fighting for. And know we can get there if we keep on moving the ball forward until we get there.

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RFK Must Die: RFK Campaign For President 1968 Ad- The Environment

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Derik Schneider

RFK

Source:The Daily Journal

The environmental movement in the late 1960s, which was just becoming big to the point today and perhaps even twenty-years ago that national Democrats at least couldn’t win without them. Especially if they were running for president, but they couldn’t win in Congress without the environmental community unless they represented a very rural state, or district that was heavily dependent on oil, gas and coal. States like West Virginia, to use as an example. America changed a lot politically in the 1960s where the Democratic Party started truly becoming the liberal or progressive party and the Republican Party starting to become the conservative party. With both parties still have moderate factions in them, but just not as big as they use to be.

Senator Kennedy, made the environment a big part of his 1968 presidential campaign. But it was more about regulations of energy industries and not so much about his own national energy policy. And had he been elected president in 1968, we probably get an EPA and perhaps an Energy Department as well. Instead of President Richard Nixon creating the EPA and President Jimmy Carter creating the Energy Department. It was also President Nixon that pushed for the idea of a national energy policy and getting off of foreign oil and gas. President Gerald Ford and President Carter, wanted to do the same thing, but differently at least in President Carter’s case. But making the environment a real issue was still very new when Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968.
RFK Must Die: RFK Campaign Ad 1968

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Michelle Rodriguez & Vin Diesel: The Fast and The Furious (2001) Hot Dom & Letty

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Ederik Schneider

Warrior 922_ The Fast and The Furious (2001) Hot Dom & Letty (1)

Source:Warrior 922– sizzling Dom and Letty.

Source:Real Life Journal

“The Fast and The Furious – Hot (Dom&Letty) NEW THING TO DO in the ‘BRING BACK LETTY’ campagne!”

Source:Warrior 922

This photo is from that same video from The Fast and The Furious (2001) with Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez. But that video is not currently available online right now.

Vin & Michelle

Source:Warrior 922– hot Dom and Letty.

The Fast and The Furious is not one of my favorite movies. It is not even one of my favorite movies of this century so far. Which is saying something, because most of the top movies of this era at least in popularity are based on style, what is considered hot, awesome, OMG or whatever. I think you get the idea and special effects as well.

And movies like that which aren’t based on writing, acting and plot, don’t tend to impress me. But I do like Michelle Rodriguez, not just physically as a gorgeous baby-faced adorable sexy woman, but as an actress as well. And I like Vin Diesel purely as an actor and these two characters and how they relate in this movie are really the only thing that impresses me about this movie. And they look great together and communicate very well together. They simply go well together as you see in this scene.

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Sandra B: Leather Model

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Ederik Schneider

Source:Real Life Journal

A classic and yet still an incredible sexy look. A beautiful women wearing a simple white t-shirt and skinny denim jeans in cowgirl boots. I call them cowgirl boots if they are worn by sexy women. This look is classic and why is it classic? And if you answer because it has been around a long time, you would be correct and also guilty of stating the obvious. But the better question would why has it been around a long time? And if you answer because it is classic, then you would be guilty of being a smartass. The real reason why this look has been around so long, the second edition now ten-years after the first edition in the late 1970s and 1980s, is because it is a great way for sexy attractive women to show off their legs. Really the whole point of skinny jeans both denim and leather and of course the long boots and putting the jeans in the boots. Showing people, I imagine especially men what kind of legs and butt that you have.
Snow Angel

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Helmer Reenberg: President John F. Kennedy’s 51st Press Conference (March 6, 1963)

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Erik Schneider

Source:FRS FreeState

John F. Kennedy, when he became President of The United States in 1961 wanted to do a few things as it relates to economic policy. Go further in social insurance so more people could have access to affordable health care, especially senior citizens. In the areas of health insurance, but also more hospitals and health care professionals. But also in tax reform, lowering marginal tax rates where back in the early 1960s income tax rates ranged from 25-90%. Which was a drag on our economic growth, because Americans weren’t seeing much benefit from their success and production.

So President Kennedy, wanted to lower taxes rates, because the Federal Government got a big chunk of what Americans were making. Which is why President Kennedy wanted to cut tax rates across the board. See more money in the economy, more take home pay for Americans to spend that money to see more economic growth. And these tax cuts served as an inspiration for the tax cutters on the Right in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That led to tax cuts at the state levels in the late 1970s and of course President Reagan’s Economic Recovery Act of 1981.

But a Kennedy tax cut and a Barack Obama tax cut, are very different from a Reagan tax cut, or a George W. Bush tax cut. President Kennedy, didn’t have this idea that tax cuts automatically paid for them self. And unlike supply siders he believed that deficits mattered. And that if you cut taxes, you should do that by paying for them. And he did that by cutting wasteful loopholes in the Federal tax code. Jack Kennedy, wasn’t a Conservative as some on the Right like to suggest. And he wasn’t a big welfare state Social Democrat that today’s so-called Progressives like to believe he was. He was a Liberal in the true sense. Not anti-government, but believed a limited government could help people who needed it help them self.

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Intelligent Channel-KRON-TV: Alex Cherian: U.S. Senator and Future Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1967

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Derik Schneider

RFK

Source: The Daily Journal

This video is the exact reason why I wish former U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone was still alive. And had he lived I believe he not only would’ve been reelected to the Senate, but would’ve pushed what Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin L. King called the Poor People’s Campaign and tour from the late 1960s. But Senator Wellstone would’ve started this campaign the 21st Century once he returned to the U.S. Senate. And back to the next Congress he would’ve served in 2003-04 that he had already started pushing while he was still alive.

Because not many people were talking about poverty in America back then at least not many public officials at the Federal level. And not many public people who were at, or near the height of Martin King were talking about. Poverty and yes that it actually existed back then in a country that was then and now the richest country in the World. And yet we have 1-5 or 1-4 then Americans living in poverty. In Appalachia, the Delta in Mississippi, inner-city ghettos like in big cities like Detroit and Los Angeles, Baltimore and so-forth. That how can a country that’s as rich as ours have so many people who don’t have enough to live a good life.

Another thing that I respect about Senator Kennedy’s campaign was that it came right after the so-called War on Poverty was announced by President Lyndon Johnson. Because that so-called war really didn’t go far enough and I’m not talking about money. But what Senator Kennedy was looking at were not only the what people in poverty go through and their living conditions, but also how to help these people move out of poverty and make a good life for themselves. Where the so-called War on Poverty was more about how to do we prevent these people from starving. Going homeless, without clothes and healthcare and so-forth.

The War on Poverty, didn’t take the next step and building off of a system that prevents people from essentially dying. But how we do we empower them so they don’t have to live in poverty at all. Which I believe had Bobby Kennedy had lived, we would’ve seen those ideas come from him later on. This is just one example of why RFK’s assassination was so tragic, because of the attention and the focus to these issues he would’ve brought. And why we need people with that type of power to focus people on these issues today since we are still dealing with the same issues. That we were talking about as a country forty-five years ago. And be able to finally focus on how we actually solve these problems. Instead of just talking about them.

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The Phil Donahue Show: Milton Friedman: Why Capitalism is Best

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Rik Schneider
Classical Liberal

Source: Commonsense Capitalism – Professor Milton Fridman, on Phil Donahue in 1979

Source: The FreeState

This is an interesting debate to have, because when you are talking about capitalism, it depends on what version of capitalism you are talking about. Because there are several versions of capitalism. Like socialism, there are many versions of it. And another thing about capitalism is that it’s not a political philosophy, but an economic idea that private enterprise is best over state enterprise and state ownership, at least generally speaking. Thats what it is this idea that individuals are better off making out of life what they do themselves economically.

Instead of government trying to make their economic decisions for them and trying to run the economy for them. Thats Capitalism in its basic form. So when you are talking about capitalism, or debating capitalism, unless you are discussing, or comparing capitalism with state ownership, meaning government owns the means and production of society, you should know what type of capitalism you are talking about, because again there are several versions of it.

To know how there are several different versions of capitalism in the world, but also in America as well. Just look at Europe, which for the most part made up of social democracies, or socialist republics. But they all have private enterprise systems where the majority of the people in those countries work for private companies and organizations. But the difference being that they have democratic socialist systems. Where yes the economy and enterprise is private for the most part, but where the state meaning the Federal Government there plays a big role in providing human services.

Human services that Social Democrats and even some Euro Conservatives don’t trust the private sector to provide. Things like health care, health insurance, but most of the countries also have private hospitals and clinics as well. Plus private health insurers, take Germany which has a private health care system. And where there health care system costs half of ours, but where the state also has a role in providing these services. Education, pension, childcare to use as other examples.

So this is not a debate about capitalism vs socialism, but different forms of capitalism and which are better than the others. Or capitalism vs state enterprise and its real hard to make the case that state enterprise is better than capitalism. Take North Korea to use as an example. But a better debate is whether democratic socialism like you see in Europe is better than economic liberalism, or economic conservatism that we have in America.

Where we tax and spend a lot less, but where we also regulate like in Europe and where we also have a safety net. Both private and public to help the people who fall through the cracks of the private sector. And where we also have a public education and public infrastructure system so products that are created by private enterprise as well as their workers can move around in a timely and affordable way. But then you also have state capitalism like you see in China and now in Cuba a mixture of private and state enterprise.

The American economic system is not perfect and needs to be improved. But myself as a Liberal like the notion that individuals can make out of life what they put into it and be able to collect the rewards of their production. And deal with the consequences of their bad decisions with a system that promotes economic and job growth and success. With a good public education system,a good infrastructure system, a national energy policy that promotes and utilizes all of our natural resources and a safety net that empowers people who fall down so they can get back up on their own.
Commonsense Cap: Milton Friedman- Why Capitalism is Best

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