I have just watched one of the most amazing speeches that directly addresses one of my big concerns - people not willing to vote for a black man. Take a look and spread this video around -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50
Greetings friends,
I have a confession to make. I have never been afraid of President Bush. I have been mad, disappointed, amused, but never afraid. I am afraid of President Palin. After reading the following article on the front page of the Saturday edition of the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I felt the cold chill of fear. After seeing the following video, I am, frankly, terrified -
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/53172-john-mccain-s-health-records-must-be-released
Please release your medical records Joe. Time to put pressure on Senator McCain to do the same.
I hope and pray someone close to our candidates will tell them to stop saying nice things about the Messiah from the North, or Caribou Barbie as my friends call her. I just finished watching Joe on Meet the Press and he said WHAT?!?!?!? He said that Caribou Barbie is a talented politician?
Look, here is the deal, I have been writing blogs all over the place, making calls, calling my Republican friends on the carpet, and have donated $600 to this campaign so far (and believe me, I don't have $600 bucks to give). I am busting my a$$... so DON'T SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT OUR OPPONENT! No more! Gloves OFF! From here on out you only say how they are insane, pathological liars (which isn't an exaggeration) and then talk about YOUR SOLUTIONS FOR AMERICA!!!
The time for niceties is past. Time to bring some guns to this knife fight. Start calling these wing nuts on their lies. Start pointing out their hypocrisies EVERYWHERE! They are NOT going to get to the white house on a white horse but we think we are?
My Republican friends like to say that "Barack Obama is a tax and spend Democrat hell bent on increasing the size of the Federal government." To some degree, this is true. Barack Obama is going to raise taxes and spend the earnings on getting us off foreign oil in 10 years, putting health care within reach of all Americans, and investing in our educational systems. Ok... twist my arm.
But what, exactly, are the Republicans for? They will reduce taxes and reduce the size of the Federal government. Puh-leeeeze! They decreased taxes alright. They also oversaw one of the biggest expansions of the federal government in the history of... well... history! They oversaw the massive expansion of the military (let's not forget that this too is part of the government). They oversaw the implementation of Homeland Security. They oversaw the creation of the TSA. Will any of these things result in long term financial prosperity?
Due to massive deregulation of the financial markets, the Republicans have now decimated our economy. The result? The federal government ended up funding the purchase of Bear Stearns. They blew a huge wad of cash on rebates with questionable results. Now they have nationalized Freddie Mac and Fannie May!
Heading in to the nationalization of these two troubled financial institutions, we were in debt by 10 trillion dollars. The entire US only produces 14 trillion annually. Freddie Mac and Fannie May secure 52 trillion dollars in debt. Guess what folks, now you and I now secure 52 trillion dollars in debt. Add that to the 10 trillion dollars and we are now on the hook for 62 trillion dollars in debt to banks far and wide.
Will any of this result in long term financial prosperity? No, it won't. The staggering amount of cash we have blown under Dubya will result in... A RETURN TO MORE REGULATIONS AND A MASSIVE EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!!!
John McCain is going to reduce taxes even further but has not talked about reducing spending to keep up with those cuts. Nor has he talked about how he will realign government spending to address the economic realities. Meanwhile, we are staring down the barrel of a Social Security crisis (an institution he wants to commercialize), the destruction of wealth in all sectors of the economy, and an energy policy the will send our hard earned cash to the people that bombed us (the Saudis) and the people that would bomb us if they could (Hugo Chavez).
Thanks, but no thanks John McCain. Oh, and you can keep your 169 lobbyists too.
I have been completely unable to watch the Republican National Convention. My wife, on the other hand, insists on watching for the sheer entertainment value. So, we have an agreement. Whenever I walk through the bedroom, she hits mute. On repeated trips through the bedroom, I brought myself to look up at the silent spectacle a few times.
After about four times of this, I looked at my wife and said "my goodness that is a lot of white people." During the Democratic National Convention, CNN was running statistics on how many people from various minorities were in attendance. They even had statistics on how many gay/lesbian people were in attendance. After Obama's speech in front of 84,000 people I saw people from all walks of life crying like babies.
Compare this to the RNC. I did not see ANY statistics addressing diversity. Just watching for a few minutes at a time (all I could stomach) I saw an ocean of white. Meanwhile, a group of gay/lesbian Republicans (obviously a confused lot) were trying to tell the Republicans that they were on the wrong side of history.
I wish someone way more important that me would talk about this a bit. I think you could put together some pretty reliable statistics by sampling the crowds shown on TV. If it is something other than 95% white folks between the ages of 40 and 110 I would be shocked.
Fellow Obama Fans,
Now that we are in to the general, I am trying to think of weak spots that John McSame will go after. One big blind spot I am particularly worried about is guns in general and specifically hand guns. I have looked and looked and can't get a straight answer on Senator Obama's position. I have searched this site and found nothing.
I personally own and carry firearms and so have insight in to the American culture of guns and the NRA. For those of you that are not familiar with the NRA, they are one of the most organized groups I have ever known. I have been very impressed with Senator Obama's web presence, but understand that the NRA has been doing similar things on the web for far longer and are even more sophisticated. They can mobilize thousands in the blink of an eye to respond their battle cries.
This is a huge hole, as I see it. The NRA alone could zap hundreds of thousands of votes based on hearsay and rumor. I encourage Senator Obama to meet with Wayne Lapier, the leader of the NRA and then post his position in his issues list. Mr Lapier is a very respectful, level headed man.
Thoughts?
I am completely disgusted with the DNC after their mind boggling decision today concerning Floriday and Michigan. In fact, I was so disgustd I wrote the following letter to the DNC (click here to write your own):
To whom it may concern,I cannot believe that the DNC rules and bylaws committee gave the Florida and Michigan primaries ANY legitimacy!Senator Clinton walked in to Florida as the only known candidate! At the time of the Florida primary Senator Obama was still relatively unknown and had no time to get to know Florida voters. He spent no money on ads and spent no time pounding the pavement, both things being his MO for winning! Senator Clinton had her brand name - FREE ADVERTISING! OF COURSE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO VOTE FOR THE ONLY KNOWN CANDIDATE!In Michigan, it was the same tune EXCEPT, Senator Obama wasn't even on the ballot! Senator Clinton was the ONLY candidate! WHO ELSE WERE PEOPLE GOING TO VOTE FOR IN ORDER TO REGISTER THEIR DISPLEASURE WITH PRESIDENT BUSH!?!?!?!?I fully recognize that the Democratic party has absolutely NO desire to demonstrate ANY kind of leadership. They are going to leave that to the Republicans, despite the fact that their leadership is TERRIBLE! At LEAST it is leadership no matter how misguided.
Finally, to all you undecided Super Delegates, your very existence represents the complete LACK of leadership by the DNC, HAS IT OCCURRED TO YOU THAT SENATOR CLINTON HAS ALREADY STARTED DIVIDING THE COUNTRY JUST LIKE EVERYONE SAID SHE WOULD?!?!?!?!?I am completely bewildered. If Senator Clinton continues to game the system to win the nomination, I'm going to become a mouth frothing Ditto Head!!!!!!!Sincerely,Christopher CreelFormerly a Blue Dog Democrat
A recent author by the name of Frans Johansson wrote a book for the Harvard Business Review called "The Medici Effect." The pemise of this book is that big innovations occur at the intersections of completely different industries, cultures, and fields of study. The most obvious example is new kinds of music emerging from the intersection of music from different cultures and styles. The most earth shaking examples include the use of the Cherokee language to break the German Enigma encryption machine from World War II. Most paradigm changing innovations combines an unlikely mix of ingredients.
It occurred to me that Barack Obama represents a kind of political Medici effect. What an incredibly odd combination of ingredients make up the man an his campaign. He had a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother. He grew up with an odd name by mid-western standards. The ingredients he chose for his campaign are decidedly different than anything anyone has tried for a long time or ever. Finally, he is so dedicated to his principles that I have often wondered aloud whether he is really willing to lose this race on his own terms than win it on someone else's. So far, that appears to be the case that he will stick to his guns.
Frankly, I can understand why many Americans are dubious when they hear Senator Obama talk about remaking Washington politics. How politicians have said the same thing and delivered nothing or worse? However, at the heart of his argument are some of the most powerful forces behind paradigm shifting innovation. In this case, we are talking about political innovation which, frankly, we haven't really seen much of in recent years (perhaps decades).
If we were to stop this entire process today and take an inventory of the innovations the Obama campaign has brought the political process, the list would be impressive. One of the biggest, of course, is the democratization of the campaign financing process. How can we possibly roll back the influence of lobbyists and special interests? Intersect American Idol style hyper-democracy and campaign funding to cut these corrosive forces off from the process entirely.
Senator Clinton, and especially Senator McCain, represent a model that will not create innovation but will instead attempt to drill the same tired, old wells.
A reader of one of my Blog posts on the FEC charges against Hillary Clinton commented that Senator Clinton will be on Larry King Live the NIGHT BEFORE THE PA PRIMARY!
Here is our chance to get Larry Kng to ask the tough questions! Send him your questions for Senator Clinton by following this link
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.lkl.html
I have been scanning the Huffington Post lately and stumbled on a rather odd entry about a lawsuit involving Senator Clinton that is about to get under way. Apparently her treasurer has been playing fast and loose with the truth concerning conations that helped land Senator Clinton in the Senate.
Here is an excerpt:
"The FEC has formally determined that Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign treasurer, Andrew Grossman is legally responsible for the three false FEC reports that Hillary's finance director, David Rosen, was criminally charged and tried for in mid-2005. Mr. Grossman signed a "Conciliation Agreement" with the FEC on December 13, 2005, admitting his culpability, and agreeing to pay a civil fine and amend his false reports to reflect the $721,000 that he failed to report since October, 2000."
This name of the case is "Paul v Hilllary R. Clinton et al: Holding Hillary Clinton Accountable Under Oath For the Fraud That Elected her to the US Senate."
This trial apparently starts on April 25 (conveniently after the PA primary). Does anyone else know about this? How do we get media coverage on it?
Hillary Clinton quoted Senator Obama as saying that "he's getting tired of the campaign." You can see the quote for yourself by going to:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/01/democrats.pa/index.html
I haven't heard Senator Obama say this? Has anyone else or is this another Bosnia Hail Mary from our former first lady?
