Having Everything to be Thankful For

How did your thanksgiving go? For my wife and I,  it was a holiday reunion with my younger son Christopher and his wife Jennifer. In a sense, I feel guilty for trying to start a little family feud with my daughter-in-law Jennifer. She was magnificent, not trying to take me on with her beliefs as a Republican. Actually, it all started at her home, and mostly it was light-hearted talk about Democrats verses Republicans. Having the opportunity to write this blog, I may sometimes get melodramatic at times, because I feel so passionate about my beliefs, and what is happening in the country today.
Then the talks continued at my home. My daughter-in-law and son Christopher were very gracious, making the Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings, then traveling over 50 miles with all the food in the later part of the evening to spend the holiday with me and my wife Virginia. My wife originally was at work, on a 12 hour shift, then expecting a long drive to my sons place, but she was surprised to see everyone at our house when she arrived from work. I was out in the driveway waiting, but until she walked into the house, she really didn't realize that we were going to eat our Thanksgiving Feast at our home. My older son Michael and his beautiful fiancée were spending their Thanksgiving night at her mom's home to celebrate, so unfortunately we did not get to see them.

All in all, I am thankful for what I have. Recently, my wife and I have had so much to be thankful for. We moved into our brand new home, filled it up with everything we need to be very comfortable. Our puppy Samantha seems to be happier, especially since she now has her own back yard.

The thanksgiving feast was magnificent, thanks to Jennifer. The turkey with all of the trimmings were great. The deserts were different, but cool. I'm not into too much sweets these days, but that grasshopper pie surely was very rich and sweet.
Sometimes, I really don't know what gets over me as I just had to jib a little more by bringing up politics at the table. The night went so fast, I really don't know what all was said, but what I can distinctly remember is that my daughter-in-law who is very passionate in her beliefs, elected to not challenge me when it came to politics. In a sense, she deflated my ego, and the night rolled on and turned out to be a fairly quiet night, with the four of us just happy that we were together. It was by far one of the better nights I've had with family in many years. Regretfully, I was sad not to have my older son with us for the holiday this year.
Even though my son Michael and his fiancée were not with us this year to celebrate, they are about to bring me an early Christmas gift this year. His fiancée is expecting to have her baby (my grandson) and I an anxious to finally become a grandfather. I really didn't think how much that would mean to me until I heard that my son Michael was going to become a father. This made all the trial and tribulations between us at least for me to now be irrelevant. I pray that our family becomes closer to one another than it has in the past.
There is still so much more for me to be thankful for. My young and beautiful Filipina wife Virginia finally landed a full-time job working at Baylor Hospital in Garland Texas. She begins her new job on Monday as a full-time employee. So yes, we have so much to be thankful for. Just one year ago, my wife and I were cramped up in a small apartment, wondering if we would ever be free, dreaming to live in a home of our own. Now it's thanksgiving, and less than one year later our dream has become a reality, and we are celebrating the holidays in our brand new home. Thanksgiving is already gone, and it's already time for Christmas. Our tree has been up and lit already for the last two weeks. Just two weeks ago, we were blessed again, as we welcomed our first company to stay with us in our new home. We had a wonderful time. It was super special. A couple of acquaintances of Virgina, Father Jerry Gomez, a Catholic Filipino priest from New Jersey and a wonderful lady by the name of Jennette Cruz from Toronto Canada came to stay with us for a very special occasion. In a sense, it was Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving, as Father Jerry blessed our new home, while celebrating the mass and sharing his blessing and happiness amongst the people who attended. It will be something that I will soon never forget. Father Jerry, a Filipino priest, is such a down-to-earth man, and somehow in my heart, I felt that I've known him forever. Janette, the sweet Filipina from Toronto Canada was also so gracious and both of them made it feel as if they were part of our family. They will be always welcome in our home. We experienced so many happy times during their visit. We celebrated with so much good food, and the initiation of my new barbecue grill in the back yard. It couldn't have been a better day in November, with temperatures running upwards to 85 degrees, and not a drop of rain from the sky.
So for me, I have so much to be thankful for. Of course the night didn't go on without me thinking about my mom, dad and sister who all have passed. If I could have done anything to have them here with me to celebrate, I would have done it in a heartbeat. But their destinies have been fulfilled and hopefully mine will continue to grow with my wife, my two sons and the people special in their lives around us.

Again, I wish everyone who read this article a very happy and wonderful Thanksgiving, and the best Christmas and the greatest New Year to come!

James
Editor of the 'Obama in the White House' blog

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A Patient Observance of the Iran Deal for the Meantime

As mentioned in my last article, I was pretty animate that personally I did not totally agree to the deal that was made with Iran, that would open up their nuclear program for the first time in more than a decade. This would open up the Iranian nuclear program to U.N. inspectors but only for the next six months. Is this enough time to get their nuclear program under control? I highly doubt it.  The main reason was to slow nuclear production down in Iran. It also specifically required that specific parts of their nuclear program would halt for 6 months in exchange for some relief from sanctions. The deal came about after five days of talks in Geneva between world powers over Tehran's nuclear program and Iran itself.  Again, this sounds good, but I feel that it is fairly dangerous. President Obama today made his case in a speech outlining the benefits of the deal with Iran. As a writer, interested in what is right, regardless of political stature, I am willing to accept this deal for the moment, even though I do not have any faith that something will come out of this. In the short run, these steps may have reverted war for the time being, as I feel that Iran has just been a time bomb and has been very closely scrutinized by the U.S. and other world powers.
The liberal media and the liberal newspapers, i.e. the Washington Post who has been fairly critical and openly against such tactics with Iran, is in favor of it for the time being and calls it "a worthy interim step" and "preferable to the military action" and "the prudent course is to give diplomacy its chance."
Ok, I get it. Regardless of who doesn't like this deal, i.e. Israel, it is now a reality, and just maybe the President may just have something here. Maybe these small steps may lead into deeper negotiations that will lead to a permanent withdrawal from nuclear weapons by Iran. For the moment, I can unequivicabally say that I believe that Iran would never have in its interests the idea to a total rid of nuclear weapons. I believe that if the United States feels that there is a chance of a total and complete stopage of actions by Iran in its nuclear program, just has to be a fantasy at this point. Again, it is just too early to tell, but if we must play child games at this time with Iran to satisfy this administration and other world powers, I guess that this would be better than an all out war. The one thing that President Obama would not like to have happen under his watch is to start a war with Iran. The President's credibility has been damaged as of late due to the Obamacare fiasco, so it would be best for him not to try and start a war with Iran, rather than to deal with the idea that everyone stands to benefit from the negotiations.

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Is the Agreement with Iran a Mistake?

The latest world news political in nature is the agreement that several nations, including the U.S., made with the country of Iran. Sactions are being eased and the U.S. is releasing at least 7 million dollars to Iran for the agreement.
One of the main talking points of the last general election was that of Iran, moving forward in its ability to enrich Uranium. Every nation has agreed up until now that Iran would have to stop all ability to enrich Uranium. The United States, along with several other countries now agree to allow just a slow decrease in processes but Israel, namely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters. "It's not made the world a safer place. He is totally against the agreement, and for this matter, personally I agree with him.
Personally, I believe that this agreement is a mistake. Yes, it is a historic agreement, but what was President Obama thinking when he agreed with Teheran over their nuclear ambitions? Why would the United States even for one moment trust Iran to follow through with disarmament concerning nuclear weapons? The President's approval rating is now at an all-time low in his presidency, and polls show that the President cannot be trusted, and that he does not tell the truth. Yes, these are tough times for the President, and making such a bold move such as this, to be part of actually pardoning Iran in a sense, as the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei unleashed another volley last week in Tehran. Khamenei said Israeli officials "cannot be even called humans" and referred to Netanyahu as "the rabid dog of the region." What is the sense in straining relations with Israel over a country like Iran that has radial leaders such as this? Yes, they now have a new leader, but he has less power and influence in the country than Khamenei does. I was under the impression that the stiff sanctions were working, and if they were, why would any country ease up on them unless Iran truly gave up on ALL nuclear ambitions?
Since starting this blog during Obama's bid the the White House the first time, I have literally been in agreement to all of his policies and have agreed with him on just about everything. But for the first time, I am in total disagreement with the policy just instituted by several nations, including the United States with Iran.
I can only be hopeful that this agreement will lead towards further reduction of nuclear activity in Iran, although I believe that this agreement will surely prolong actual reduction, as Iran now will be under less pressure to do so. The only quick way would be to sanction them as much as possible until they finally realized that they have to stop their process of enriching Uranium. The United States in a sense have given Iran a license to do just that, to slow their process of eliminating Uranium enrichment.

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Why the 'Nuclear Option' was Voted On

Why do you think the Democrats elected to vote on the nuclear option? The answer is simple. GOP obstructionism. Now you might say that it is not a secret now-a-days that the Republicans want to stop all Democratic legislation in its tracks, especially if it benefits Barack Obama. When they (Republicans) became familiar with all the downfalls of the ObamaCare website at HeathCare.gov, they couldn't be more happy. Instead of assisting the Democrats with the fix of the website, they constantly have opposed it, hoping day-by-day that it will just fail. But, let's get to the issue at hand, why the Democrats had to run with what is called the 'Nuclear Option'.
There have been Judicial and Executive branch filibusters since the sixties, but under the watch of Barack Obama, there have been at least 10 times more filibusters for judicial nominees for U.S. Circuit Courts than the last president George W. Bush. What is happening right now is apparently a new thing, as Republicans seem to have saved this obstruction for the current President Barack Obama. One of the reasons why the Republicans are doing this is because of their majority of Supreme Court Justices, and they will do everything in their power not to loose that control in the Supreme Court. But they learned just recently when ObamaCare rang up the latter to the Supreme Court that one of their very own Conservative judges named Roberts, voted for the ObamaCare bill to allow it to become law.
In a recent Texas abortion ruling for example, out of a total of 9 judges, 5 of them voted to close the clinics and 4 voted to keep them open, so now even if it is legal in the United States to have an abortion, it is not legal in the state of Texas. Can you guess which political affiliation the judges are? You would be right in saying that the 5 that supported closing the clinics were Republicans, and the 4 that voted to keep the clinics open were Democrats.
This past week, the Republicans tried another variance of their blocking nominations of Barack Obama to Federal Courts. But they are especially critical and do their best to make sure that President Obama gets none of his nominees to the 'Appeals' court in Washington D.C..  This court votes on the constitutionality of laws and rules by the Federal government. Presently, there are 3 vacancies in the 'Appeals' court, and one of them happens to be one of the seats that was vacated by Justice 'John Roberts' when he became a member of the Supreme Court. The Republicans again will do everything they can to make sure that President Obama does not put one of his nominees on this court. Recently, the Republicans now want the 3 vacancies not to exist, just so that President Obama cannot appoint any Democrats or people of his liking to that court. By doing this, the court will stay conservative and their problems would be solved.


One of the most fundamental things that presidents do is to nominate judges. Normally what happens, the President in power chooses people normally from his party for vacant seats in Federal courts. But for this president, the Republicans are doing everything they can so that this president is not allowed to put anyone on the bench.

The three blocked judicial nominees by the GOP were Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard, and Robert L. Wilkins by filibustering in the vote on these same nominees. When this happened, the Democrats finally had enough. The Democrats called for an appeal on a parliamentary ruling on the floor of the Senate by majority vote, as they overturned the parliamentary ruling so that politicians cannot block any U.S. judges anymore. They can be blocked on an up or down vote, a simple majority, and no filibuster vote needed, just that majority.

In short, the Republicans must have lost their minds about this. What I mean is that they never thought that the Democrats would ever pass a bill to do exactly just that. In matter of fact, they were challenged by the Republicans, saying that they would never do this. The Republicans mis-calculated. The Democrats previously told the Republicans that they would pull the trigger on this if this obstruction kept happening, and when they blocked the 3 nominations for the D.C. Court, that was the last straw and the Democrats reacted, in the dismay of the Republicans. Mitch McConnell(Republican) said that it would not happen. He said that the Democrats would never follow through on this.

As an example as to what sparked this, as of Nov. 20, 2013 here are the totals of Federal judges. There are exactly 390 Democratic and 390 Republican Federal judges on the bench as of November 1, 2013. President Obama was trying to add 3 more Democratic nominees to that list, but the Republicans said 'NO'. They have no objections of these judges as people, but it's just they do not want any appointed by Barack Obama and do not want the Democrats to gain a majority.   Presently, there are 93 vacancies on the Federal bench, and nominees, especially by this President are being blocked. The Democrats just had enough and needed to put the record straight. They were not joking when they would fix the problem of the GOP obstructionism. For their stubborn thinking, if they could have just given on on those 3 nominees to become Federal judges, the Democrats most likely would have never acted and passed the 'Nuclear Option'. But now that it is passed, the three nominees will surely become Federal judges, and the vacancies will now drop to 90, and the Republicans can no longer stop the Presidents nominations to the Federal Court. The GOP actions caused the law to be changed, and now the 90 seats that are vacant can be filled by Barack Obama. There is absolutely no reason why he should not fill them. This new law also applies to Executive branch nominations. An example, the Republicans filibusters a candidate for Secretary of Defense, and they did it in a time of war, but eventually the nominee was elected. They didn't care what could be affected by not having a Secretary of Defense, just that they did not want Barack Obama to be credited for the nomination. The vote to stop the filibuster in the U.S. Senate was huge, and the Republicans vow that the tide will turn someday when they gain power in the Senate and keep the House. When likely will that happen. I'm here to say that it will never happen in my life time, and I'm age 61. The next President, most likely to be a Democrat, will not change the laws, and in fact will continue to nominate Federal court appointees.
Maybe this is a wakeup call for the Republicans, but it just may be too late for them to do anything constructive to gain a majority in the Executive Branch to do anything concrete as far as 'Conservatism' in the U.S. Congress, especially if they loose the House, which is a very good possibility, considering how the members of the GOP continue to act against the will of the American People and work against Federal laws that are in force today.
Chock up another victory for the Democrats, and the Republicans will just have to watch democracy work as it is supposed to in Washington D.C. for a change, with no chance of obstructing anything with their negative votes.

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Senate Passes 'Nuclear Option'

An option that the Senate took today which had the support of President Obama is the so called 'nuclear option'. The bill was passed today in the Senate with a vote of 52-48, which ended the ability of minority Republicans to continue using filibusters to block some of President Barack Obama's judicial and executive nominations. Of course the Republicans strongly objected to the measure. As soon as the law took effect, the Democrats in the Senate acted by ending a filibuster against one of Obama's nominees for a federal appeals court. The President initiated the move because the Congress has been using the filibuster on just about everything President Obama wants passed, in an attempt to show that he is not effective enough to pass the laws that he wants passed.
The President blames the Republicans for what he calls "an unprecedented matter of obstruction in Congress". The President in a speech sited that the Republicans deliberately try to obstruct everything, regardless of merits just because they do not like the outcome of the last Presidential election.
The "nuclear option" merely changes Senate rules which enables executive and judicial nominees to be confirmed with just 51 votes instead of 60.
You may ask why the President has taken such a bold move without the support of the Republicans. So far the Republicans in the Senate only confirmed a single nominee to the Court of Appeals in D.C. The
Republicans also have blocked at least three appointees but also held up an endless number of other nominations to other important posts. Because of the lack of bipartisanship, and the Republicans functioning as anti-Obama hard-noses, and until they gain the Senate majority, they will never be able to change that. But you can bet if the Republicans ever gain the majority in the U.S. Senate, they will do the same to the minority Democrats.
Is what the Senate done considered a good thing? In theory, it is a very good thing, as the filibuster rule is way overpowering. A simple majority vote on the issues in the Senate is all that should be needed to pass bills. But the downturn here is that the nominations must also go to the Republican controlled House, and there they most likely will fail, as the majority of Republicans most always will defeat any Obama bill. Still, when this happens, the heat will be turned up on the House, and the microscope of criticism will continue to shine on this branch of Congress, which is never a good thing.

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Options for Insurance besides Obamacare.gov

President Obama may be caught in more crossfire from the Republicans, as it has just been made known by CNN White House Producer Kevin Leptak that even if the fix of the website is successful by November 30th, there still would be approximately 20% of people that would need to enroll in Obamacare by other means.
Failsafe measures have been put in place to assist people with registering, even if the website does not work. The laws of the heath care bill are in many senses so complicated, that it is impossible to do every transaction on-line. Here are a few examples....

1) Persons having health or financial situations that are too complex for the website.

2) People unwilling to make such a transaction on-line via computer, i.e. people not willing to share credit card information over a computer

3) Those stymied by healthcare.gov technical problems.

So what would their options be if they couldn't use the Obamacare website? First, there are call centers and health care exchanges that will discuss personally one-on-one with you, your options along with costs that go with the options you choose. You can ask questions on-line and receive answers by email, or correspond with a representative directly via email or phone on a particular medical condition that you are not certain Obamacare would cover.
Low income applicants can also receive a subsidy to help cover the cost of their insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act. There are certain qualifications that must be met to receive the subsidies. Regardless, the idea here is for all to have insurance, and at the moment, issues are being worked out so that eventually everyone will be covered under a plan that they can afford. The burden of not having insurance coverage hopefully will be a thing of the past.

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John Boehner - A terminal disease in the House of Representatives

John Boehner, the leader in the House of Representatives, continues to block bills from being voted on, especially if there are enough votes to pass the legislation and he or his conservative friends don't want it to pass.

The first example is the Employee Non-Discrimination Bill, Senate Bill 615, that passed in the Senate by a vote of 64 to 32 along with 10 Republican senators. But the fact is that it will never become law as long as John Boehner will not allow it to be voted on in the House. He says that is his decision, not that I agree with it, but it is up to one man, Mr. Boehner to allow a vote in the House, and he just refuses to go along with the status quo. If it were to come up for a vote in the house, it most certainly would pass. It is a very popular thing, as 73% of Americans favor a law protecting gay people against work place discrimination. Along with this, 89% of Democrats support it, along with 75% of Independents and even at 60% amongst John Boehner's Republicans, but guess what? He and Republicans in Congress will not let the bill come up to a vote.
The second example is on immigration reform. John Boehner claims that he will not allow a vote on this bill, that is certain to pass in the House if brought to a vote. Immigration reform is super popular. It passed in the U.S. Senate with 14 Republican senators voting for it with a vote of 68 in favor of immigration reform to 32 not in favor of it. It voted in favor in the Senate with a 2 to 1 margin, a huge majority voting for it. Overall, 87% of Americans support Immigration reform. It is a most non-controversial bill, but still John Boehner and his friends will not allow a vote to happen, because they know it will certainly pass. 86% of Democrats support it, 88% of Independents support it, and even a wide majority of Republicans at 86% support immigration reform, but guess what? It's not going to happen because John Boehner will not allow a vote in the House. Even a majority in Republican swing districts support it, at 76%. John Boehner is completely against public opinion on this issue, even against the public opinion of Republicans.
The third example, John Boehner and his Republican friends are also completely against public opinion of raising the minimum wage. Overall, 76% of the people claim that they support raising the minimum wage. The Democrats and Independents massively support it at 91% and 76% respectively. Even the Republicans support the idea of raising the minimum wage at 58%. But Republicans in Congress will not let the vote happen, lead by the good for nothing John Boehner.
The forth example, background checks for guns, 81% of all Americans support the checks. Democrats support support background checks at 83%, Independents at 80% and even the Republicans support it at 81%. Even NRA members at 74% support background checks along with Non-NRA members at 87%. But the Republicans in Congress say 'NO' They will never let such legislation to come to a vote, which only supports their own personal agenda, and not the will of the people or any group of people anywhere.
How can such a fumble in our voting system happen?
How about the Buffet rule, which states that billionaires should not pay lower tax rates than their secretaries? Democrats, Republicans and Independents support the Buffet rule, but the Republicans in the House do not support it, and will not allow any such bill come to a vote, knowing that billionaires would have to pay more taxes if the bill passed.
How long will the American people, the voters of this country continue to allow this to happen in Congress? Will 2016 be a year that the Democrats regain the majority in the House? If people do not forget what the do-nothing Congress has done, or what they haven done while in office, then maybe the Senators that will not go along with the will of the people will get overthrown and permanently out of office. Only time will tell, but the Republicans you can be sure will continue their antics of not support what the majority of people want in this country. Now, 2016 is just a little over 2 years away. I highly doubt that the Republicans are smart enough to turn around and do something right before then, so most likely there will be a strong vote for a line of Democrats during the Presidential election year.

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Obama and his Signature Bill under Attack by Republicans

President Obama's signature bill, the Affordable HealthCare Act known as Obamacare, has been under attack by the Republicans since its inception. But it's not just a change in healthcare that the Republicans do not like. It happens to be everything that President Obama represents. In all of my years of living, I don't remember witnessing such an outright hatred for a U.S. President by members of the oposite party.
Yes, it is true that Obamacare has run into a few glitches. Yes, it is true that President Obama may have stated that if you want to keep your insurance, that you can. We all know know that what he said originally was not true. He did not intentionally try to lie to the people, but many argue that he just had to know that many polices that people had were going to be cancelled for the mere fact that they did not meet the minimum standards of Obamacare. The President claims that he is not perfect, and now has publically stated that people who have already had their insurance cancelled can now keep their existing policy for another year. He also met with insurance carriers at the White House in an attempt to get everyone on the same page. A process to re-instate cancelled policies needed to be worked out.
We know that he is paying the price politically. What was not clear was the fact that you could only keep your insurance if the policy that you had, met the minimum standards of Obamacare. Many policies known as 'junk policies' do not provide benefits that are within reason as far as cost and protection, and will never be enough when the policy holder needs to benefit from his policy. 
On Thursday, the President has stated that people will now be able to keep their policies for the next year, even if they do not keep within the basic standards with Obamacare. People who have sub-standard policies can now keep them for a year. The immediate problem that some face is the fact that many of these policies have been cancelled by the insurance companies, because they know that they haven't provided the minimum coverages needed to keep their insurance policies in force. Now the challenge is to get these policies reinstated for another year, but the cost may change. Another requirement by the President is that the insurance companies that re-instate their so called 'junk policies' must show a comparison from their plan verses the Obamacare plan. This is an attempt to show the policy holder what is lacking in their present policy. But what most likely will happen is that the insurance company will no longer issue their 'junk policy' as originally given to the policy holder. Instead, they will up the ante by introducing more benefits, which will make their policies look better than before, but will be at a higher price.
No one said that it would be easy when Obamacare came into force, but many people, namely the representatives in Congress from the right, are doing everything in their power to make sure that Obamacare fails. The president will do everything in his power to keep his signature bill in force. There has been less than 120,000 people that have signed up within the 1st month of the Obamacare offering, but it surely will pick up speed within the next few months. The President has vowed that the website issues that plague Obamacare and has affected President Obama's credibility will be running allot smoother by the end of November.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senators in the House have sided with the Republicans to introduce a bill to modify Obamacare. This certainly will not make it past the President's desk, as a veto by President Obama will surely become reality. No doubt that the people in the House that hate President Obama will attempt to chance things in his bill that he would not approve of.
The fact is at the moment, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. The Republicans can do whatever they like as far as making amendments to the bill, but the final outcome of the modifications will have to be approved by the President himself, and the Republicans after almost 6 years of this Democratic president still do not know how to communicate with the White House in a way to get things done.
What is happening now to the President surely will help define his presidency. Obamacare must work, and the president knows it. Still with all the outright dissention of his bill, he has vowed to continue to make Obamacare work. His goal as it was from the beginning was to make sure that all people of the United States have health insurance. He may have been blinded at first, not knowing what opposition to his bill would be uncovered, but the president is now as determined as ever to see it through.
Republican opposition to President Obama and what he represents is not the only thing that the Republicans in Congress attack. They also reject bills that have an overall majority of approval from members of both parties in Congress and the American people but Republicans including the House leader John Boehner will not even let the bills come to a vote. My next article here will highlight some of the bills that the Congress should be voting on, but they are not because of some Republican member agendas that only exist because they benefit themselves personally. They are not concerned as to what the majority of Congress wants, nor what is right. Hopefully during the next election in
2016, besides another Democratic president will be the re-birth of a Democratically lead House of Representatives. If the Republicans continue to act as they have in Congress, the chances of another gavel change in the House is imminent. Witness to this recently has been the election of a few Democratic governors in a recent election.

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