Red Hog Diary

FISA Vote Breaks My Heart.

Christopher Wilcox — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:44:33 EDT

I won't go so far as to say I feel a sense of betrayal but giving into Bush on domestic spying seems completely contradictory to that which drew me to support Obama back in February of 2007.

I'm still on the team... let's face it what other choice do we have, but this vote hurt. The fact that this vote was so damaging to my faith about what kind of leader Obama would be can not be written off as a single issue blip. This issue speaks to the core message of the reformation and change that I so depeneded upon Obama to bring. I guess it just comes back to the old adage...If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Show Hillary Who The Real Front Runner Is!

Christopher Wilcox — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:43:53 EDT

The Clinton Campaign is seeking $5 donations from all of their supporters hoping to hail the number of donors in the morning signifying her campaign is still alive. Wouldn't it be great if Obama could come on TV and report that it was great people are motivated and participating and that Hillary received X number of donations? And then he could say, "But Obama supporters contributed 2X number of donations and 3X the dollars!!!!

Donate $15 tonight or as soon as you read this and then send this message on to all of the friends on your list! Let's show the Hillary people who is the real front runner!

Yes we can! No "she" can't!

Clinton Backers Warn Pelosi On Super Delegate Rift

Christopher Wilcox — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:12:43 EDT

If you are looking for something to differentiate Obama and Clinton, other than his prolific gift for oration and her prolific gift for hyperbole you need look no further than who is supporting each candidate and how they are expressing that support. You all have heard about Obama’s million plus contributors, the tens of thousands of who show up for Obama rallies or the millions of new participants into the political process and how that contrasts with Hillary’s PAC and lobbyist funded campaign. You have heard how Obama’s received substantially more money than Hillary and how his contributions are coming from people of modest means in the form of $25 and $50 gifts. And we are all aware that Hillary’s campaign is concerned because her short list of wealthy contributors have maxed out on legal contributions and she even had to infuse $5 million of her own money into her campaign. But perhaps the nature of the motivation behind these two candidates’ contributors can best be summed up by a letter that Nancy Pelosi recently received from 20 of the most prominent insider party activists. Nancy Pelosi had recently stated that super delegates should support whoever emerges from the primaries with the most delegates. Such a statement shows an unflinching understanding of how Democracy is supposed to work but Clinton supporters will have none of that. "This is an untenable position that runs counter to the party's intent in establishing super delegates in 1984," the letter from the wealthy Clinton backers said. “Super delegates, like all delegates, have an obligation to make an informed, individual decision about whom to support and who would be the party's strongest nominee," said the letter signed by some of Clinton's biggest fund raisers. And there lies the rub. Super delegates by their nature in this particular contest wield an excessive amount of power to undermine the will of the electorate in this campaign. And the wealthy Clinton donors feel entitled to all of the power that their prominent status of super delegate appears to bestow. And then there are millions of us regular shmo’s out here who have been working hard to get out the vote, chipping in when we can and feeling like we really do have a voice this time around. We felt like we could make a difference and we were showing up in numbers like never before because we believed the America we love was within our grasp. So Nancy Pelosi if you never do another thing right in your life do not retract your statement. Do not bow to status quo of politics as usual and abandon those of us out here in the real world who want so desperately to believe that this is our country and this is our time. To be sure your stand with the people will take all of the courage and conviction that a position such of yours commands. Among the signees of the letter were prominent Democrats and Clinton supporters like Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television; Bernard Schwartz, former chairman of Loral Space and Communications; and venture capitalist Steven Rattner. In what qualifies as extortion by any definition the signees of the letter went on to remind Pelosi of their support for the party's House campaign committee and said "therefore" she should "reflect in your comments a more open view" about super delegates. I might remind Nancy that the support offered by those 20 millionaire insiders who will demand recompense for their loyalty would offer scant detriment to her future endeavors such as the wrath of millions of disenfranchised citizens who actually bring the votes to the ballot box.

The Dark Side of Hillary

Christopher Wilcox — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:29:49 EDT

On my blog RedHogDiary.com I have a commenter who has normally been a frustration when I advocate my progressive patriotic positions but we seem to be in agreement on one thing. Hillary Clinton. There is a side to Hillary that has been ignored in this campaign that needs some serious light. I thought it appropriate to share this conservative’s comment:

“Consider this from Dee Dee Myers in an ABC interview: Anybody that stood up and tried to say this was a bad idea was, you know, smashed down and belittled, very personally,” Myers revealed. “And I mean where I said the president didn’t really attack people personally, Mrs. Clinton sometimes did.” The one-time Clinton spokeswoman said that White House staffers lived in fear of the first lady because her attacks sometimes wouldn’t end when her temper tantrums subsided. White House counsel Abner Mikva was so incensed over Mrs. Clinton’s conduct that he resigned after one profanity-laced upbraiding by the first lady. Another Clinton biographer, Gail Sheehy — who has spent hours with the first lady since the 1992 campaign — wrote that Clinton seemed to be “in a perpetual state of suspended anger.” Once Hillary even tried to kick an Arkansas state trooper bodyguard who got in her way, according to Clinton biographer Christopher Andersen. And one-time White House FBI agent Gary Aldrich reported in 1996 that junior White House staffers were ordered not to make eye contact with the first lady lest they anger her."

And the disconnect in that documented behavior is that if Hillary has historically shown contempt for White House staff and subordinates how much compassion can she really have for what she describes as “voiceless Americans.” You don’t treat the people around you like crap and suddenly find compassion for faceless strangers. That just doesn’t make sense.

If I Have To Explain It,,, You Woudn't Understand

Christopher Wilcox — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:00:07 EDT

If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand is an old Harley adage you see on T-shirts and bumper stikers all the time. With that in mind the level of comitmment demonstrated by actually putting a sticker on a Harley... Well that just means, I BELIEVE!

I recently accepted a postion as precinct captain for Clinton Township in Linn County, IA. I will be riding my Harley door to door, okay maybe driveway to driveway, to spread the Good News about Obama! The Iowa Caucus will be here before you know it. Let's "Get 'er done!"

Blue Sky's and Green Lights!

“You cannot fly like an eagle with wings of a wren.” William James.

Christopher Wilcox — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:49:28 EDT

In 1963 the population of the American bald eagle fell to an all time low of 417 mating pairs. Confronted with the very real possibility of seeing our national bird becoming extinct the Federal Government put the magnificent raptors on the endangered species list. Since that time, changing hunting laws and restrictions on pesticides have resulted in a rebound in the population of the mighty symbol of American freedom to nearly 10,000 mating pairs that can be found in 48 states. As a result of the bald eagle resurgence the government took the bald eagle off of the endangered species list on Thursday. While the bird may be flourishing the very freedom it has come to represent has a more ambiguous status. As long as the “haves” continue to wage their war on the “have not’s” in this country and as long as politicians are available to be purchased to wage that war the significance of the bald eagle as a mighty American icon is in jeopardy.

Barack Obama has proposed the most sweeping ethics reform in history and understands we need to change the way our government works. Obama said this week, “These cynical partisan maneuverings on ethics reform are exactly what allows the lobbyists and special interests to stand in the way of progress on the issues that matter to the American people. This is why the oil industry continues to hold sway over energy policy and the drug industry has blocked reform that would lower prices for Americans. It is time for Congress to finally pass the strongest possible ethics reforms as soon as possible so that the voices of average Americans are heard in Washington once more.” In a recent year big industry lobbied YOUR CONGRESS in the amount of $4.3 million for every member of Congress. I ask you, how are you going to get your Representatives attention with regard to legislation that is important to you when you are competing with those kinds of numbers? How are you going to tell your Congressman that gas prices or perscriptions or medical procedures are oppressive when oil and health lobbyists are putting millions into the reelection coiffers of YOUR REPRESENTATIVE? Barack Obama will end that way of government. I’m tellin’ ya’’ll…this guy looks like a keeper! Watch the video below and tell me what you think!

Bring it on!

Christopher Wilcox — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:58:38 EST

The Democratic National Committee wasted little time jumping on John McCain after he said, in reference to casualties in Iraq, "We wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives over there" on David Letterman’s “Late Show” Wednesday night. Karen Finney, a DNC spokeswoman quickly released an official DNC rebuke and said "Senator McCain should apologize immediately for his callous comments. How is it that John McCain now believes American lives are being wasted, yet he so stubbornly supports the president's plan to escalate the war in Iraq and put more American lives in harms way?"

The DNC response upset me for a lot of reasons; the least of which is not the practice of shallow partisan hackery that I normally like to attribute to the Dark Side, the RNC. If the Democrats are looking to take lessons from the Republican political machine I would hope that we could skip the lessons in the Swift Boat chapter. I understand that all of us have a responsibility to choose our words carefully so as to not offend the families who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. It is also apparent that Senator McCain’s words were taken out of context. If we are so offended by this unfortunate choice of language why has it been repeated ad-nauseam in an attempt to gain political advantage? Repetition of the faux-pau undermines the credibility of the original objection.

In February, Barack Obama had a similar problem when he described the lives of troops in Iraq as having been wasted. "We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and on which we've now spent $400 billion, and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted," Later, in an interview with a newspaper reporter, Obama said: "I was actually upset with myself when I said that, because I never use that term." "Their sacrifices are never wasted," he said. John McCain also regretted using the word “wasted” to describe the now more than 3,100 U.S. lives lost in the Iraq war. “I should have used the word ‘sacrificed,’ as I have in the past,” We know what you meant guys. You weren’t any too smart in the way you said it but we know what you meant.

What upset me the most about the reaction by the Democratic National Committee is that I perceived a hidden agenda in their criticism of McCain. Obama has seen a surge of support in the few short weeks after his official announcement as a candidate for 08. Hillary Clinton has seen her lead in polls among likely primary and caucus voters fall from 41 percent to 36 percent while Obama has seen his numbers climb from 17 to 24 percent in the early stages of the campaign. There is no disputing that the Clintons are well entrenched with the old money and power of the established Democratic leadership. Unless the established power core of the party was hoping to stifle the democratic process of letting the people choose their candidate they should have never attacked McCain for something that the rising star of the Democratic party had done only weeks before.

This was not the first example of the Clinton campaign flexing their political muscle in a bullying fashion against Obama. On February 22nd the Clinton campaign attacked Obama for comments made by David Geffen, a supporter not in any way officially connected with the campaign, when he said that Sen. Clinton was ambitious and polarizing. Until this recent attack on McCain by the DNC I was leaning towards Obama but remained very open minded about the Clinton campaign. My willingness to adopt a wait and see attitude is becoming more difficult to maintain as stories such as these continue to emerge. It might be an interesting primary season if the old guard Democrats believe they can disregard the voice of progressive Democrats.

Remembering More Glorious Times

Christopher Wilcox — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:43:40 EST

Hardliner Blog has a video from a British reporter that shows some very graphic video of the results of the violence occurring in Iraq. The 49 minute story goes into detail about the inability of the press to show us what is really going on there, of our inability to know what the real people who live there think. I would recommend you watch the video. It was posted as the February 16th entry. The video evoked some strong reactions in the comment section but one stood out from the rest. I tried to learn more about the author who has their own blog, ibloggle, and I was surprised to find that there is very little political commentary on the relatively new site. Here is the gist: There are great differences in Bush 41 and Bush 43. I loved this country when Bush Senior said, “This will not stand!” after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Bush Senior built a coalition of 52 nations and decreed, “No nation shall invade another nation.” Countries large and small, strong and relatively weak united in arms to protect a smaller nation from the aggressions of a neighborhood heavyweight. Together these 52 nations, much to the credit of the United States, made short work in ousting the Iraqi invaders from the sovereign nation of Kuwait. In the days following that intervention it was not uncommon for Americans to travel the world and have flowers thrown at their feet. The resultant good will from the actions of Bush Senior and our military resulted in the world watching our back, alerting us to threats, investing in our markets, and trading in dollars. Now as a result of Bush Junior’s atrocities we have only a few friends willing to stand by our side in armed conflict. Instead of welcome investment we are now forced to sell our capital to fund this ever more expensive war. Even South Korea, whom we have continually defended, is converting over to the Euro. Other nations are getting the truth about what is happening in Iraq as evidenced in the video. In America we are not even allowed to see our own soldiers coming home in flag draped coffins. I love America and have cried over what is being done to it and what is being done in our name. Let’s not fix the blame. Let’s fix the problem. It is time to turn to diplomacy and fairness in the way we treat our neighbors. Let us try a carrot and lay down our stick. When Ronald Reagan was president and we were in the middle of the cold war with the United States and Russia aiming more and more missiles at each other diplomacy won the day. The first time Reagan and Gorbachev met Reagan offered a friendly joke that went like this: “Mr. Gorbachev, anybody who wants can come to the White House lawn, and shout at the top of their lungs that Mr. Reagan is a no good rotten bum, I bet you can’t do that in Russia? Reagan still speaking but in the third person said, “and Mr. Gorbachev replied, “That is not true, anyone who wants can come to the Kremlin, and shout at the top of their lungs that Mr. Reagan is a no good rotten bum.” Both leaders broke out in laughter that became the beginnings of a trust that would come in handy in the near future. When President Reagan went to the Berlin Wall in Germany, against the advice of his speech writers and advisors, Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The relationship that had developed among many other factors resulted in the reunification of Germany. That is the America I am proud of. That is the America that everyone is willing to stand up and defend. In comparison, how can we consider what our leaders are doing now as patriotic? How are we going to train Iraqi soldiers to do what the best trained and best equipped fighting force on the planet can not do; beat down an insurgency that is desperate to be free from an occupying force.

We can do better. We have to do better. As the war continues and casualties continue to climb many of the more moderate Iraqi’s, those people who are more like you and I, who went to school or work everyday, who used to go shopping and visit their friends are beginning to tire of occupation. It is time that we begin to consider that our presence is only exacerbating the divisions among Sunni, Shiite and Kurd.

The proponents of the military industrial complex are quick to suggest that redeployment deadlines will only lead to more violence or that it will lead to false security that will result in unforeseen bloodshed after our departure. Nobody would suggest that those results would be anything we could stand by and watch. Until we attempt that strategy, until we set deadlines and are willing to vacate to a point just over the horizon where we could return swiftly if needed; we will never know. If our leaders would show the courage to put such a policy in place I would suggest that you divest your Halliburton stock. We may be in for a lasting peace.

The Audacity of Hope

Christopher Wilcox — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:38:20 EST

It seems we have quit listening to each other and as a result we have become all too willing to adopt sound bites as the basis for convictions we are all but willing to die for. It is as if we have made conclusions about how the world is and no amount of advocacy of a divergent point of view can be entertained. Many of us have subscribed to a "that's the way the world works" belief and have accepted that there are things that we can not change.
I would suppose that man chooses to limit himself out of a sense of laziness or convenience as Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Austrian diplomat, said in the 17th century, "Religion, morality, legislation, economy, politics, administration, all have become common and accessible to everyone. Knowledge seems to come by inspiration; experience has no value for the presumptuous man; faith is nothing to him; he substitutes for it a pretended individual conviction, and to arrive at this conviction dispenses with all inquiry and with all study; for these means appear too trivial to a mind which believes itself strong enough to embrace at one glance all questions and all facts. Laws have no value for him, because he has not contributed to make them, and it would be beneath a man of his parts to recognize the limits traced by rude and ignorant generations." My God, it is as if he were our contemporary as those words ring so true today.
Run Suskind, in an October 2004 edition of the New York Times Magazine reported that a high level White House Aide told him, "Judicious study of discernible reality is not the way the world really works anymore. We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're histories actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." That is the reality that the Bush Administration would have us believe but we can change the things in the world that need changing. All we need to see that change is hope. Augustine said, "Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
Perhaps there is no better time for hope than now. Barack Obama, in a speech June 4, 2005 said, "The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams." Such is the audacity of hope. I heard on the radio the other day, "Too many people in this country have been born on third base and believe they have hit a triple". We can change that. We can make this a country where we all have a chance to round third base and hit the proverbial home run that is the American Dream.
To do that we will need to take that challenge from the Bush administration and judiciously seek out and support a leader who can make a difference, a leader who will be responsive to all Americans. "There is not a liberal America, there is not a conservative America, there is a United States of America." Barack Obama. Barack is that leader.