Raoul Roach's Blog

The Dissappoinment

raoulroach — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:10:15 EST

It is sad to see the small cloud at the interior of our very large blue lining. The fact that ballot measures passed restricting Gay rights in four states is such a negative mark on our continuing struggle for equal rights in this country. To know that Gay Americans overwhelmingly supported Obama, the nation's first black president and the first black president of any major western power is testimony to the goodwill of people in general. It hurts my heart to hear that Proposition 8 in California passed narrowly with the help of 78% of African Americans in that state's electorate.

How did this happen? Our sons and our family have friends who are gay couples who have adopted or had surrogate pregnancies or sperm donors. These families are wonderful loving Americans who we should all see as a natural part of human diversity. As a heterosexual Christian family my wife and I don't see the differences in these families. Except, in our case, we see them as being more functional than dysfunctional in terms of their relationship to each other as family. We know plenty of hetero families that are broken, abusive and misguided in our circle of friends and our children's playmates but none, so far, of the Gay ones.

Obama has stated he is not against Gay marriage, but supports federalizing partnership rights, and leaving Gay marriage as a state's right issue. I couldn't more firmly disagree and with him being a constitutional law professor don't understand his reasoning. The preamble talks of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, how can being denied a right to marry into a stable and functional relationship, a core unit of a stable and functioning society, qualify under these words?

The Constitution also demands equal protection under the law and an implied separation of church and state by barring the promotion and establishment of any religion. Surely both of these argue in favor of Gay marriage. Should a state be able to abrogate the constitution in these fundamental areas as well? If your standard for barring Gay marriage is based on moral grounds, what is moral about discrimination and bigotry? If for religious reasons, then these referendums are unconstitutional on their face!

As an African American family, we don't understand African Americans who are amazed and inspired by Obama's win and could at the same time vote for erecting a new set of barriers for a subset of Americans. It seems fear has prevailed and many think they are buying a ticket to Heaven by acting on a religious litmus test. It is time we reject the Christianity of judgement and act on the commission of Christ to love as being the greatest of Christian Acts. Denying others the right to love in the way they choose, to form relationships and functional families in a secular state, is not love. This fundamental freedom of choice is every child of God's divine right.

To think of all the Gay Americans who supported and voted for Obama to help us all be better Americans, better people, only to see Gay Americans rejected as part of that American family that stood up Nov. 4th is painful. The world can no longer legitimately see Black Americans as "less than" with Obama's ascension to the most powerful office in the free world. Can't we see others in our own country in the same way? As we celebrate this great barrier falling we should look to ourselves and see the beam in our own eyes, it is this that will continue to hold us back as a unified and free American people.

I voted for change, this is one change I never expected to see. We can't go backwards, we must push forward to include and support our Gay friends and family.

Let's Send Sen. Kyl A Message

raoulroach — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:04:39 EST

http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/othercities/phoenix/stories/2008/11/03/daily77.html

Today Jon Kyl of Arizona issued a threat to President-elect Obama on his Supreme Court Nominees. Lets send him a message that change has come to America and we will campaign against him to remove from office. We came close to taking Arizona. Obama will probably nominate Sonia Sotomayor, judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, possibly to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Write Senator Kyl and let him know how you feel about his obstructionist speech to the Federalist Society. Here is the contact info for an online submission to Sen. Kyl. Please pass this on to your network.

http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Today I Wept...

raoulroach — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:49:58 EST

This morning I awoke to a new world!

A world, not just my country, the world that has been transformed.

I woke up at 5AM and went to the computer to see this new world my sons inherited this day and I saw... rejoicing!

I soon found a picture of a celebration in Japan, JAPAN!!!

Then, I wept, I wept and said to my wife who was holding me by then... "I always thought they hated us, I always thought they hated us"... We black Americans, we n-----s, today we are no longer that! My sons are no longer that! In the eyes of the whole world that matters, they have nothing to prove to anyone except themselves!

As a nation, as a planet, we are all human beings and so much more. As I surfed through the Internet pictures from Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia... China... yes China! flashed across the screen. all with a collective exult that the dream, the American dream, is still alive and will thrive, "that all men are created equal" and there are a majority of people of good will in the world who know this in this age!

Humanity spoke last night and spoke to the ancient African slave and one of Rome's greatest poet's words, 'Nothing human is foreign to me'.

A global scream of the words spoke by Martin Luther King, that we demand that we be "judged by the content of ...(our) character."

Obama speaks to our humanity -- a humanity that can no longer be constrained by fifteenth century social and racial constructs. The age of race is dead!

LONG LIVE THE.... THE AGE OF THE HUMAN RACE!!!

SPEECHLESS

raoulroach — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:04:39 EST

What can one say at such a profound moment?

Words fail,.........

The Choice

raoulroach — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:06:25 EDT

Here is America's choice you can give a person with a private jet, eight houses and 13 cars a tax break or you give struggling middle class Americans a bigger tax break and give the rich guy the same tax he was paying under Bill Clinton!

AP Reports Palin Guarantees Win!

raoulroach — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:54:19 EDT

Okay people when teams do this to other teams it is posted on a wall in the locker room to motivate the team and piss them off at the arrogance of the trash talker. LET'S SEND PALIN, TODD AND THE BROOD BACK TO ALASKA ON A SNOW MACHINE THEY CAN KEEP ALL THE CLOTHES FOR CONCILATION PRIZES!!!

By DAN NEPHIN, Associated Press Writer Dan Nephin, Associated Press Writer – AP –

Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin shakes hands with members of the Beaver Area …

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin set aside Joe the Plumber for Joe the Quarterback — as in Joe Namath — and told supporters at a rally near where Namath grew up that she and John McCain are still in the game and they're going to win.

"In the biggest game of his life, all the experts had Joe Namath and the Jets written off to defeat. They were up against the elite team that had all the money and they were held in awe by the media.

"And Broadway Joe replied, 'We're going to win the game, I guarantee it.' And they won," she said of Namath's guarantee before New York defeated the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

"Pennsylvania, with your help, we're going to win this state, I guarantee," Palin told more than 1,000 supporters who packed a chilly Beaver Area High School football stadium, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, on Thursday night.

MCCAIN SPOKE AT ACORN EVENT

raoulroach — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:19:30 EDT

Monday, October 13, 2008Sticks, stones, and ACORNsPosted by Dick Polman @ 12:08 PMPhildelphia Inquirer

There once was a time when the McCain campaign and its Republican allies insisted on a daily basis that the greatest danger to this nation was al Qaeda. But now, apparently, they think it’s ACORN.

My email in-box runneth over. Here’s a weekend sampling of the message headlines from the McCain and Republican camps: “Conference call on Barack Obama’s Ties to ACORN.” “ACORN Dropped Thousands of Bad Registrations.” “State GOP Leaders Accuse ACORN of Vote Fraud” “State of Indiana Seeks Voter Fraud Probe” “FBI Looking Into Suspect New Mexico Voter Registrations” “On Obama, ACORN, and Voter Registrations” “ACORN Vote Fraud Witness in Ohio”...

…And any second, I was expecting to receive a statement from John McCain, vowing to pursue ACORN to the gates of hell.

Two thoughts: (1) It is absolutely beyond dispute that some canvassers employed by ACORN – that’s the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – have filed phony voter registration cards in key states such as Nevada and Missouri, and that ACORN at times has suffered from a lack of quality control, and (2) It is absolutely preposterous to think that McCain, in his growing desperation, can gain any serious traction in this presidential campaign by linking Obama to ACORN, or by painting ACORN as a clear and present danger to the republic.

Indeed, the sudden focus on ACORN is proof that the Republicans are running low on effective weaponry. They have lost control of the overarching campaign narrative; as the newly-released ABC News-Washington Post poll again demonstrates, Obama is widely viewed as more credible on the number-one issue, the economic crisis. That’s no surprise, given the McCain camp’s mixed messages. Yesterday, McCain insider Lindsey Graham told CBS News that McCain this week would unveil “a very comprehensive approach to jump start the economy” – only to be contradicted later by a McCain spokesman who said, “We do not have any immediate plans to announce any policy proposals.” Meanwhile, the McCain camp isn’t even in sync with its allies; on ABC News yesterday, McCain’s proposal to have the U.S. Treasury buy up troubled mortgages was assailed as an unfair burden on taxpayers…by Roy Blunt, the number-two House Republican leader.

So McCain, increasingly bereft of effective weaponry, is apparently reduced to throwing sticks, stones, and tufts of grass. On the potency scale, ACORN ranks somewhere between sticks and tufts.

ACORN, during its 38-year history, has long rankled the Republicans, and no doubt the base voters are still sufficiently inflamed to denounce the group at McCain-Palin rallies. But to prevail on election day, McCain needs to capture most of the undecided voters, along with a healthy share of those now leaning towards Obama. Demonizing ACORN - and seeking to link Obama to a group that relatively few people have even heard of - simply won’t do the trick.

For starters – and I know this will shock you – the McCain people can’t even get their facts straight. In a Friday conference call, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said that Obama, as an attorney, once represented ACORN in a lawsuit “against the state of Illinois and the federal government.” (Thereby implying, of course, that Obama was in cahoots with anti-government law-breakers.) But Davis’ dark fantasies collide with factual reality. Obama did indeed represent ACORN in a lawsuit, back in 1995 – working on the same side as the federal government. ACORN and the feds, along with radical plaintiffs such as the League of Women Voters, went to court to compel the state of Illinois to implement a new “motor voter” law that was designed to make it easier for citizens to enroll as voters. They won.

Davis also noted that the Obama camp paid $800,000 last February to a consulting firm affiliated with ACORN, and that the Obama camp didn’t tell the Federal Election Commission, until it filed an amended report in August, that the money was intended for get-out-the-vote drives. But the FEC says that amended filings happen all the time, and ACORN says that only 10 percent of the Obama payment wound up in the ACORN coffers. Meanwhile, the McCain camp, still working the Obama link, pointed out that Obama had once done training sessions for ACORN workers. It turned out that his total time as a trainer was two hours.

ACORN is hardly pure as the driven snow. Canvassers in some locales have been kicked out for filing phony voter registration cards; some have been prosecuted. ACORN says it has fired 80 New Mexico canvassers since last December, for submitting potentially fraudulent registrations. ACORN humorists in Nevada reportedly have been caught filing multiple voter registration cards carrying the names of football stars Terrell Owens and Tony Romo. ACORN has acknowledged those incidents; the Nevada chapter says in a statement, “While the vast majority of our voter registration canvassers do a great job, there have been several times over the past 10 months that our Las Vegas Quality Control program has identified a canvasser who appears to have knowingly submitted a fake or duplicate application in order to pad his or her hours.”

The problem for the McCain people, however, is that they have oversold their case. What they are calling “voter fraud” is actually “voter registration fraud,” which is very different. The latter is much easier to accomplish than the former. Even if state election officials fail to screen out all the phony voter registrants (and apparently their screening processes are quite good), people typically don’t show up at the polls with phony identification, seeking to cast bogus ballots. Are we to believe that thousands of Nevadans will show up claiming that they are Terrell Owens? As election-law specialist Rick Hasen of Loyola University reportedly said the other day, “these claims of voter impersonation fraud are just not credible.” Indeed, in a 2005 study of recent Ohio elections co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters, a grand total of four fradulent ballots were unearthed...out of nine million ballots cast in 2002 and 2004.

Savvy Republicans recognize that, as a campaign strategy, the ACORN story will get them nowhere. But something else is going on here. By targeting ACORN (and, by implication, all the Obama-friendly voter registration drives), the McCain camp is trying to pre-spin a November defeat, by framing in advance the argument that an Obama victory would be illegitimate. It’s like that famous scene in Citizen Kane, when the headline writers at Kane’s sycophantic newspaper prepared two announcements for election day. If the boss won his gubernatorial race, the headline would be, “Kane Elected!” If he lost, the headline would be, “Fraud at Polls!”

Which is why Obama can ill afford to win narrowly. Only a decisive victory would render the “fraud” argument moot, and send McCain’s assembled team of litigators back to their law firms.

And one last observation: ACORN is involved in all kinds of issues, including immigration reform. For instance, ACORN sponsored a big community meeting on immigration reform back on Feb. 20, 2006, at a college in Miami. Care to guess who validated ACORN by showing up to speak at its event?

John McCain.

Watch as Obama Predicts McCain Palin Tactics

raoulroach — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:01:48 EDT

VOTE FOR THAT ONE! THE SMART GUY THIS TIME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH2iufUU1f4

ISRAELIS FOR OBAMA

raoulroach — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:01:12 EDT

It makes you want to cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VFRt5W4FM

REAL HOPE FOR PEACE!

Palin Equals Bush The Video... OMG

raoulroach — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:34:18 EDT

Olbermann nails Sarah Palin with side by side talking points of Bush 2000 and Sarah clips from the debate! Another must see video. Make it viral pass it on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXPMn99a7nQ

GREAT SPEECH ON OBAMA AND RACISM

raoulroach — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:43:14 EDT

MUST SEE VIDEO! PASS IT ON!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50

OR SAME VIDEO AT

http://vodpod.com/watch/1051178-afl-cios-richard-trumka-on-racism-and-obama

THREE CHEERS FOR TRUMKA!!!

This is what OBAMA has been saying! Fox News, the McCain/Palin campaign , Limbaugh et al, don't get it, this is not about Obama this is about us!

A campaign accountable to the voters who paid for it!

America wake up, Obama is us! All of us, he isn't black or white he is both! and neither, his perspective is different because his life allows him to step outside of himself and see all of us and know what matters, our needs and dreams.

Trumka is right, it is time to put down the divisions, do what is right for your neighbor and yourself. America can't aford to be divided now. We are competing with the world that we can either lead or let come against us. Let us lead by example and defeat fear and tyranny here and abroad through the strength of our example!!!

Plan To Steal Election Through Voting Machines

raoulroach — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:16:54 EDT

SPOONAMORE REVEALS THE PLAN TO STEAL THE NEXT ELECTION Here, in this shattering new interview, Stephen Spoonamore goes into harrowing detail about the Bush regime's election fraud, past, present and--if we don't spread the word right now--to come. Since he's the only whistle-blower out there who knows the perps themselves, and how they operate, we have to send this new piece far and wide.
Here Spoon tells us that McBush's team--i.e., Karl Rove and his henchpersons-- have their plan in place to steal this next election: by 51.2% of the popular vote, and three electoral votes.
He also talks about the major role played by the Christianist far right in the electronic rigging of the vote.
And he defines our electronic voting system as a major threat to US national security, calling for it to be junked ASAP, in favor of hand-counted paper ballots.
Since Spoon is a Republican and erstwhile McCain supporter, as well as a noted specialist in nosing out computer fraud, his testimony is essential--not only for its expertise, but, no less, for the impact that his views will surely have on those Republicans who have been loath to see what Bush & Co. has done to our election system.

That whole story's just about to break. In fact, tomorrow there will be a number of articles appearing, on a recent breakthrough in the lawsuit that Spoon's testimony has enabled, and on other aspects of that all-important case.
MCM
9/26/08: New Spoonamore Interview - E-voting Machines are a National Security Threat
Last week, VR interviewed GOP Cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore about the upcoming election and his testimony in the new Ohio litigation to take depositions of Karl Rove and others.

The video is posted in full below with ten short clips for You Tube viewing. This interview is so important and explosive that we urge everyone to watch it.
Spoonamore says that the GOP wanted e-voting to steal elections but now foreign governments will be hacking and the winner will be determined by the best hackers. He says that if the GOP wins the hacking competition, McCain will win 51.2 percent with three electoral votes over Obama, and it will be a stolen election.
Spoon also makes a crucial point about the people who have been implicated in much of the election theft: "They are religious extremists." He names those who know about stolen elections, and he insists that the only way to protect this election is with paper ballots, hand-counted.

Check out this extraordinary interview here.
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/images/SpoonIntvw3.wmvhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyByZx5GEaw It's a network, people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YadsHqxid8I Electronic voting machines are a national security threat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbxuXC4QlMk The genie is out of the bottleŠ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOHkY7sJ4ZI Fifty ways to steal an election.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1--KHOo8tkM Mike Connell: Bush IT Guru
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJHmuG8d2bQ The Rapp Family: Ohio election cover-up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z7DK3LgiOA Evangelicals and voting machines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WTe8ppEIic Paper ballots please.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lrFkRHrRDI McCain/Palin will win by theft.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s07oi2G_K4c People should doubt the vote, it's being stolen.

How McCain Wins

raoulroach — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:25:40 EDT

Re: William Kristol NYT Op Ed, How McCain Wins

http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2008/09/29/opinion/29kristol.html

This from the man who brought us the Iraq war. Little Billy is a nasty piece of work. He is not a patriot but a partisan. The problem is his candidate, John McCain is touting "Country First" and his article is saying do anything, no matter how despicable, to win first! Cultural issues divide the nation and divert from the needs of struggling working families.

Trying to use Obama's book, "Dreams of My Father" as fodder for an argument against Obama might increase interest in a great book that will help Obama. The "middleclassness" Obama spoke of is the one that rejects public service for a "strivers" mentality in the black community. It is the notion that the only path to upward mobility in the black community is to acquire the material trappings of the middle class and leave a struggling community behind. Both Barack and Michelle (and Joe Biden as an analogy in the working lower middleclass ethnic white community)rejected this form of "middleclassness" for a career in public service by making a positive difference in the lives of others for the greater good of all.

McCain on the other hand, it can be argued, has spent a life doing the polar opposite. He never rejected "middleclassness" because he's never known it, he ran away from it. He has always been an "elite" and when he decided to leave the military legacy he inherited and had the chance to make the personal moral choice of staying with his commitment to his family, getting a job and working, he chose instead to be cavalier and marry the boss's daughter from which all his "class" choices have stemmed. From that point on he has steadfastly hewed to the patterns and lifestyle only an elite class can live, well heeled associates, private jets and public charity. His policy choices reflect that elite class and so have the economic scandals those choices have engendered. No wonder he rarely mentions the middle class, it's apparent he can't feel their pain because their the "economic fundamentals" and are strong, they work hard for the rich.

The question is not when Obama "changed direction" but when is McCain going to see the middleclass is not below a net worth of five million. That as a patriot he begin to see the policies that set people towards the creation, and elevation of a larger middleclass are best for our nation. These same policies McCain and conservatives have rejected time and time again in favor of total free market solutions and unregulated capitalism that earlier in the 20th century created problems for our nation, and it appears has done the same for our nation at the beginning of the 21st century.

McCain's Press Pass

raoulroach — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:34:04 EDT

Obama has incredible grace. I, for one, think racism is very prevalent in the campaign and so is sexism.

If Obama had McCain's negative background he would be done for. So here is the list that would disqualify Obama,

1. graduated 5th from bottom of class.
2. crashed 5 planes never washed out because of Admiralty nepotism
3. gave in to torture to blame his country
4. left wife after horrible auto accident (had affair while married)
5. never held a job except the one father in law gave him
6. wife stole drugs and was never charged with a crime
7. ensnared and escaped the savings and loan corruption prosecution
8. had cancer 3 times
9. made series of sexist off color jokes
10. serious temperment problem
11. flip flopped on confederate flag, taxes, immigration

12. has a gambling problem
13. lies again and again see: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/325.html

and the sexim is clear Hillary was vilified for her fabrications in a war theater McSame gets a pass (see link above)

Sarah’s Own Words: “I Don’t Do Black Guys.”

raoulroach — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:53:33 EDT

Sarah’s Own Words: “I Don’t Do Black Guys.” Long before Gregory Charles Royal became a judge on America’s Hot Musician, a talent competition airing in 200 US television markets, he was a hot, young jazz trombonist. Today, he remains a great musician but, more important, is another person confirming from first-hand experience that Palin has always been racist as alleged by numerous sources in my original article on her, Alaskans Speak: Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive and Mean.

And he’s willing to be quoted by name.

Royal is incredibly talented. He received formal trombone training when he was 11 in the DC Youth Orchestra Program while simultaneously playing in Washington clubs with Roscoe Bowie's Message Band and Show. He also received principal trombone honors in the First American Festival of Youth Orchestras and, at 15, was the youngest member of the Howard University Jazz Ensemble. He toured with Al Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Slide Hampton and His World of Trombones and starred on Broadway as an on-stage musician in Five Guys Named Moe, which was nominated for two Tony awards. Along the way, Royal wrote and acted in It’s a Hardbop Life, the first play featuring an entire cast of jazz musicians, which debuted at the 2004 New York Jazz Festival.

He also performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for 10 years, from 1989 to 1999. In May, 1990, the orchestra was touring Alaska and played in Anchorage. While there, the 28-year old Royal and a small group of other musicians from the orchestra went into a fast food joint near the airport for a bite to eat.

“I saw a great looking young lady and, as lots of travelling musicians do, I struck up a conversation with her,” Royal recounted to me after my original piece on Palin was published. “She told me her name was Sarah.”

Royal admits he was hitting on her, a regular activity for most musicians, especially when on the road. The reason this particular conversation stuck in his mind is because she said that while she wasn’t much into jazz, she played the flute.

“This is why I remembered talking with her,” Royal states.

He told Sarah about talking about the Modern jazz Quartet as an example of not strictly jazz style music but could still be cool. “I was trying to keep the conversation going,” Royal says, “so I mentioned some of the musicians, including Percy Heath.

“She quickly let me know that Heath was her name too,” Royal recounts.

Royal claims that she mentioned going to school in Hawaii but did not say anything about being married or being pregnant. “I would remember that. Anyway, it was May 1990 and she was just a couple of months pregnant and wouldn’t have shown.”

Royal felt he was making progress with Sarah Heath and when a couple of his musician friends approached, he waved them off. “But she saw them and got weird.

“Sarah asked me if they were with me. I asked her what was up because she was obviously a little weird after seeing them,” states Royal, who has Native American blood in his ancestry, is fairly light skinned while his buddies were much darker.

"I don't mean any harm,” Royal says Sarah told him which is exactly what she meant, “but I don't do black guys."

“I said ‘I'm Black,’” Royal relates, to which Sarah replied with, “Well, you aren't really black. You’re like …"

Royal remembers her voice trailed off as if not knowing what to say next as the reality of the situation sunk in on her. “Then she got real confused and the conversation ended rather quickly and uncomfortably.

So how did this long-ago, failed pick-up come back to Royal’s mind some 18 years later?

“I followed the conventions but never connected Sarah Palin to the Sarah Heath I hit on,” he says, “because there was no physical resemblance and the last name was different. It was from watching an MSNBC story on her that I saw the photos and learned her family name.”

When the now-Sarah Palin uttered the immortal words, “So Sambo beat the bitch” to the hearty laugher of her luncheon companions during the primaries, it was merely an extension of what appears to be her lifelong views on race. When she thought Greg Royal was white, she seemed more than eager to make the beast with two backs with him; in an instant of learning he was actually black, she fumbled for words, and fled into the streets ‘lest she catch something from him.

At least we know she fits in naturally with the racist right wingnuts that infest the Republican Party, unlike her running mate who says whatever he needs to say at the moment to fit in with them. For whatever that’s worth. Posted by Charley James - The Progressive Curmudgeon at 12:37 PM

The Gramm-McCain Financial Crisis

raoulroach — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:07:23 EDT

John McCain has as his economic advisor Senator Phil Gramm and according to Think Progress are some very, very disturbing facts which calls into judgment, McCain’s judgment.

For everyone who has lost a home due to foreclosure, this is what you should know of McCain’s economic advisor who called those who complained of their economic standing “A nation of whiners”

“As recently as December 31 of last year, still working for Swiss bankers, specifically to help kill the Emergency Home Ownership And Mortgage Equity Protection Act and the Helping Families Save Their Homes and Bankruptcy Act, a bill that would have let bankruptcy judges adjust mortgages terms so American families facing foreclosure could repay their loans and keep their homes.”

This eye-opening yet sickening piece also reported of Gramm, “Gramm’s deregulation [as a senator] help set the stage for an explosion of banks slicing up subprime mortgages, bundling them with other mortgage slices, to hide the credit risks, and selling mortgage stew to other investment firms. That gave lenders powerful incentive to make as many loans as possible, regardless of risk.”

The most chilling words are a regardless of risk. We are only speaking of the financial meltdown that occurred the other day, yet there are other risks in this dangerous world. I think we as Americans have a right to question his judgment on a whole host of issues and not only this one.

In a wonderful piece called The Real American Traitors by William Rivers Pitt, you will simply be blown away as you read, “During his administration, Clinton offered legislation that would give the Treasury Secretary broad powers to ban foreign nations and banks from accessing American financial markets unless they cooperated with money-laundering investigations that would expose and terminate terrorist cash flows.” Concerning this legislation put forth by former President Clinton, Phil Gramm killed this all important piece of legislation and he even had the audacity to say, “I was right then and I am right now. The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and kill them."

Yes, you kill terrorists, but you must also cut off their funding. This is also a risk factor we must all think about especially when McCain surrounds himself with advisors in Senator Phil Gramm. I would like to know if the family members left behind on 9/11 in which the terrorists could have been stopped financially would be called “whiners” by Gramm in seeking justice for them.

You may contact the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

Stuck On Stupid

raoulroach — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:41:52 EDT

"Sooner or later, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is going to have to come up with a different plan than the one he's currently following: trying not to let the passengers of the Good Ship USA notice that his plan to bail out all of the sickly financial organizations isn't working. Sooner or later, whoever's in charge is going to have to let the economy hit bottom.

You think voters are mad now? You haven't seen anything. And Bush and Cheney know that.

So I think the Bush administration is hoping to keep the markets stable until November 4. They're hoping the passengers won't push the current crew off the side of the Titanic and elect a new crew from the ship's passenger list. They're hoping that if they keep lighting up the sky with firecrackers over THERE or THERE or HERE -- we won't notice the way the ship is listing to the side, the way the water is pouring in the gaping holes just at the water line.

In other words, they're counting on us being Stuck On Stupid."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-denlinger/secret-memo-from-bush-don_b_126326.html

A GOOD READ

raoulroach — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:30:12 EDT

White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Sat, 09/13/2008 - 3:44pm. Guest Contribution
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

raoulroach — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:44:15 EDT

DO NOT BE DISCOURAGE!!!

KEEP YOUR FOCUS! THERE IS NO TIME FOR HAND WRINGING!

ITS GOING TO BE CLOSE! DONATE! REGISTER! GET OUT THE VOTE!

HERE IS A REASON FOR OPTIMISM!!!

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=10

WE WILL WIN BECAUSE WE MUST WIN!!!

McCain's speech

raoulroach — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:17:16 EDT

I found this speech to be so illuminating, as McSame pivots towards the general election and moderation his rabid republicans won't follow.

I could feel it through my TV. When he mentioned areas around diversity, reaching out to Democrats, that the Republican party failed when they had a monopoly of power, especially when he mentioned the child of an "immigrant worker", the crowd's silent disapproval was deafening!

Wow! on all of the points that independents, like myself are watching for that he tried to mention they fell flat on the audience. This party and their minions don't desrve four more years. These idealogues don't want four more years of Bush/Cheney, they are much too liberal for them on most issues except war and oil!

So here is what Obama should hammer home, as we have seen in the election John has not led! He, because of ambition or true belief, has appeased the worst people of his party at the convention and the campaign. He is a hostage of the far right, saying and maybe believing one thing, but doing whatever it takes to win! We can't get change from people who never believed they are wrong!

How To Punch A Woman In The Face!

raoulroach — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:18:07 EDT

I am a feminist! That said I believe in the equality of women on every level and therefore the light touch everybody wants to approach Sarah Palin with is insufficient. Why should we be scared to go after her in terms of responding to her attacks? It is sexist not to!

We are free to go after her as an extremist right wing fundamentalist! The evidence is in, a member of Pat Buchanan's pitchfork brigade, who doesn't believe in science, wants creationism taught as science in public schools?, believes global warming is not caused by humans, didn't reform government or stand up to big oil, and is in terms of reproductive rights she is a chimera, with the hidden internal DNA of her party greedy, bigoted and sexist!

Now of course my provocative blog title was meant to incite, I don't advocate violence against humans, animals or the planet but we must not hesitate in calling this person what she is. A devotee of all the policies that have brought America to the precipice of either continuing our devolution into one of the world's worst actors or being an example and force for positive change in the world.

We have railed against the evils in the world and some very ugly Americans decided people like Sarah Palin through evil acts can defeat evil. She is not my sister in the crisis facing our nation, the world or the next generations. She is a evil throwback in the vein of Dick Cheney except without any skills or certainly the introspective analysis of an Obama or other great statesman.

She is idealogical in the extreme and deserves our harshest light in terms of criticism. So lets get at her and McCain. We have a tough election ahead I am in it for the FIGHT!!! I've signed up at mybarackobama.com and have committed calling 25 people for this movement. I am going further and trying to call or canvass 25 people everyday from now until election day, 62 DAYS LEFT NOW IS OUR TIME! IF NOT NOW WHEN!

Here is your chance right now to fight and fight everyday, go to www.mybarackobama.com/n2n, get your list of voters to call and canvass, reach out to your neighbors make sure they are registered and correctly! THIS IS OUR TIME TO FIGHT BACK. From mybarackobama.com you can send automated emails to editors and station managers of local radio, TV and newspapers, use this tool! Barack had it designed so you become the community organizer from your keyboard we need these tools to win!

LET'S BRING IT TO THEM!!!

Straight Talk becomes "Straight Script"

raoulroach — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:35:17 EDT

It is shameful they are knowingly using this woman to get media attention and evangelical right wing support but don't want us to know about her and run her through the crucible of public scruntiny!

This is more of the same, with Steve Schmidt at the helm McCain is no longer "straight talk" he is "straight script".

Limiting press and treating them in a controlling matter is classic Bush/Rove.

Remember Bush/Cheney caught "major league asshole" in speaking of a NYT reporter, that should have warned us of what was to come from Bush/Cheney.

McCain is promising a weekly press conference if elected, how can he promise that and act this way now? He has become belligerent and nasty toward the press when he is questioned on any issue he is offended by. This is just more of the same!!!

MCAIN'S IMPRUDENT RECKLESSNESS MAKES HIM UNFIT

raoulroach — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:12:17 EDT

From the honest look at McCain in the NYT that the right lambasted the NYT for, this is the truth of it all. It is a through line in his character from the recklessness of his piloting (he still won't release his military record to the public, why? He is running on it) to his VP choice McCain is unfit to be president.

“He is essentially an honorable person,” said William P. Cheshire, a friend of Mr. McCain who as editorial page editor of The Arizona Republic defended him during the Keating Five scandal. “But he can be imprudent.”
Mr. Cheshire added, “That imprudence or recklessness may be part of why he was not more astute about the risks he was running with this shady operator,” Charles Keating, whose ties to Mr. McCain and four other lawmakers tainted their reputations in the savings and loan debacle.

(Quoted from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html )

This is the point that article made about Vicki Iseman. He acts without thinking and carefully calibrating people's response. He uses his honor as a weapon to defend what other people might rightfully question as appearing improper or questionable. He admits this was a source of his reputation as a belligerent kid and others note his raging temper as an adult. This is a troubling and very debilitating trait for a leader. No matter the outcome it smacks of the hubris of the Bush administration only it doubles down on the "damn the American people I know what is best" attitude of Bush /Cheney.

Can you imagine a reporter asking President McCain about his decision to go to war with Iran although polls show the American people overwhelmingly against it and his response being a longer winded version of Cheney's "so!".

This "recklessness" that his friends describe is on full display in his choice of someone he barely knows as the person a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Whatever her ability, which is suspect and still being vetted, she is a reckless choice, He doesn't know her yet again he is daring those around him and the American people to question his judgement.

"Mr. McCain promised, for example, never to fly directly from Washington to Phoenix, his hometown, to avoid the impression of self-interest because he sponsored a law that opened the route nearly a decade ago. But like other lawmakers, he often flew on the corporate jets of business executives seeking his support, including the media moguls Rupert Murdoch, Michael R. Bloomberg and Lowell W. Paxson, Ms. Iseman’s client. (Last year he voted to end the practice.)
Mr. McCain helped found a nonprofit group to promote his personal battle for tighter campaign finance rules. But he later resigned as its chairman after news reports disclosed that the group was tapping the same kinds of unlimited corporate contributions he opposed, including those from companies seeking his favor. He has criticized the cozy ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, but is relying on corporate lobbyists to donate their time running his presidential race and recently hired a lobbyist to run his Senate office." (Op. Cit.)

He admits this was a source of his reputation as a belligerent kid and others note as well his raging temper as an adult. This is a troubling and very debilitating trait for a leader. No matter the outcome it smacks of the hubris of the Bush administration only it doubles down on the "damn the American people I know what is best" attitude of Bush /Cheney.

So we are left with, to quote Obama, a "big election" and as usual we and the press are being diverted with a campaign by the Republicans about "small things". This tendency for recklessness is the threshold that a Presidential candidate must pass and McCain falls far short.

RUSSIA AND MCCAIN

raoulroach — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:18:54 EDT

WHAT DECEITFUL IDIOTS!!! RUSSIA WASN'T A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT FOR TWELVE YEARS AND THE END OF THE COLD WAR!!! NOT UNTIL BUSH, DICK CHENEY AND JOHN MCCAIN STARTED MUCKING AROUND WITH RUSSIA BECAUSE OF OIL!!!

THIS PARTY CAME INTO POWER IGNORING RICHARD CLARKE WHO TOLD THEM POINT BLANK WARNING THEM AL QUEDA WAS THE MOST SERIOUS NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT!

INSTEAD "CONCEALSLEEZA" RICE, A RUSSIAN EXPERT , SCOFFED AND DROPPED THE BALL AS BUSH, CHENEY, MCCAIN ET AL TARGETED IRAQ AND HUSSEIN. THEN 911, THE BIGGEST NATIONAL SECURITY FAILURE SINCE PEARL HARBOR ON THEIR WATCH!

JOHN MCCAIN HEADS THE CORPORATE ADVOCACY GROUP THAT PRECEDED THE OFFSHOOT GROUP PNAC WHICH IS AN OFFSHOOT LOBBY OF OIL COMPANY THINK TANK FUNDED NEO-CONSERVATIVES! THE ARCHITECTS OF THE IRAQ WAR!!!

RUSSIA IS NOW A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT BECAUSE THESE BACKWARD LOOKING GROUPS WITH JOHN MCCAIN AS THERE MOST ARDENT ADVOCATE IN THE SENATE, INVADED IRAQ, PROPOSED THE EXPANSION OF NATO MEMBERSHIP INTO EASTERN EUROPE, PLAYED GEO-OIL POLITICS SUPPORTING CORRUPT DICTATORS IN THE KHAZAK SEA REGION, PLACING MISSLES IN POLAND. AND FINALLY PLACING THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA AS A PAWN IN THE PETROL WARS.

RANDY SCHEUNEMANN IS THE MAIN SURROGATE FROM THIS MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL CABAL, A LOBBYIST FOR GEORGIA IS THE LEADING FOREIGN POLICY ADIVISOR TO THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN. WHY WAS SOUTH OSSETIA ATTACKED WHILE THE PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA WAS OUT OF TOWN AND MAJOR FIGURES FROM DICK CHENEY'S OFFICE IN GEORGIA SUPPOSEDLY DOING ADVANCE WORK FOR THE VP?

NOW THE IDIOTS ARE ADVOCATING AND BELIEVING THIS SARAH PALIN, A RUBE AND A PAWN IS ON THE BORDER OF RUSSIA AND IT IS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT? NO! IT IS A THREAT BECAUSE IT IS A COMPETITOR FOR THE $35 TRILLION WORTH OF OIL FLOWING FROM THE KHAZAK SEA REGION INTO EUROPE AND ASIA, USING PIPELINES PROPOSED THROUGH ITS OWN TERRITORY, PAKISTAN AND IRAN INSTEAD OF GEORGIA AND AFGHANISTAN.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!! WE ARE, AND FOR THE PAST EIGHT YEARS HAVE BEEN, USED AND MANIPULATED BY BIG OIL!!! OUR BLOOD AND TREASURE ARE BEING WASTED FOR A NARROW GROUP OF SPECIAL INTERESTS!!! THESE CALLOUS MULTINATIONALS ARE MANIPULATING THE ELECTORATE TO ELECT A MAN AND NOW A WOMAN TO CONTINUE TO DO THEIR BIDDING!

THEY FOUND THEIR CANDIDATE, A PTSD SUFFERER, WHO IS STILL FIGHTING THE COLD WAR IN HIS MIND. A BELLIGERENT WARRIOR WHO HAS ONE EYE ON IRAN THE OTHER ON RUSSIA AND SHARES THE SAME TARGET LIST AS BIG OIL!!!

Sarah Palin?

raoulroach — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:12:23 EDT

Republican pundits are saying Sarah Palin is a "brilliant choice for VP"?

That is the problem with Republicans it is all ideology, tribalism and group think. Mitt Romney an excellent executive (even if he is a sleazy pol) was passed over because he was a Mormon even though he is qualified as an executive, It is becuase of the religous bigotry by the right that he was excluded. This woman has never been tested, ever, on a national or even a global stage. Pawlenty, who made his case through his grasp of the issues and ideas and his executive experience as well as his take on the isues in a very forward looking way.

Sarah Palin seems to have been vetted by Monica Goodling! This is what we can expect from a McCain Presidency? More of the same imperious idealogical near do wells running and ruining our government. The justice department was the model for this Rovian experiment in a Republican Reich. This is NOT "Country First", this is absolutely more of the same.

Obama earned his way through his ten year long legislative governmental experience and the crucible of running a sucesssful 300 million dollar campaign garnering over 18 million votes along the way winning the nomination by the force of his intellect, policies, vision and organizational brilliance.

38 million Americans watched his acceptance speech, probaly tens of millions more globally. He has captured the imagination of untold millions around the world through his ideas and what he represents for an America that people thought they knew before George W. Bush, flawed but still the greatest hope for the free world.

Could Sarah Palin do that right now? Seriously, could she grasp the reins of the McCain multi -million dollar national campaign, lead the men and women within it and run it at this very moment? Could she mount a credible campaign for national office herself? If you don't know the answer to these questions. How can you answer whether or not she is ready to be leader of the free world?

WOW!!!!

raoulroach — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:13:00 EDT

It feels so good to be alive and well and living in America! I am so proud of my country and its promise. I am so proud of Barack! This man makes me feel true hope and possibility! We can win WE WILL WIN!!!

As a citizen of the world as well I am going on line to see what the world thinks of us now!

I LOVE EVERYBODY TONIGHT!

JOHN MCCAIN IS A RACIST!

raoulroach — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:37:53 EDT

MCCAIN IS A RACIST!

I do not know if he is a bigot, but he is definitely a racist. By racist I mean a person who supports a system that holds one set of people superior and another inferior because of the color of their skin.

This is a prime example of him being political and trying to make up for supporting racist legislation like the affirmative action ballot iniative in his home state this year, and the MLK holiday designation and repeal.

The fact is black business people aren't flying on the lobbyist's jets or his own for that matter. Affirmative action is necessary to make sure people who are excluded socially from competing for goverment and private sector contracts and the like are given a shot because of the circumstances under which they have to compete.

The FACT is no white person or student EVER was denied access to a college or job because of affirmative action! They just might not have gotten the college or job of their choice. Because with all the advantages they had they could not compete with those with similiar advantages, period!

Just 75,000 students a year got a shot at competing on a level playing field in higher education before the repeal of AA standards! White people like McCAIN don't feel they have to share at all.

Why? Because it is difficult for them to empathize! Went to a bad school? So! Neighborhood a war zone hard to live ? So! Don't have health care or a job? So! and on and on. MCCAIN was very transparent at the forum on Saturday. He thinks poor Americans can be rich just by loving their families and having a roof over their heads.

He still doesn't understand the advantages he was born with, including his skin color! $5 million is rich? Yeah if you have, $100 million. He cannot relate to ordinary American's and their economic pain. He feels just like Gramm, we are a nation of whiners. "You blacks have welfare a warm toilet and tight shoes. What more do you want? Be happy, stop doing drugs (even though whites use more and are penalized and imprisoned far less)".

Pull yourselves up (historically many of these problems are legacies of discrimination and yes, SLAVERY not of our own doing)"

That is racism. Barack won't say it. Probably would disagree, but I am sure all Americans of goodwill will see the more we share the greater we are as a nation. The nation as a village is reality. How do we compete with the world when we deny getting ALL of our talent as a nation on the playing field?

MCCAIN'S IMPRUDENT HELP WITH SHADY DEALS

raoulroach — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:19:09 EDT

Donald R. Diamond, a wealthy Arizona real estate developer, was racing to snap up a stretch of virgin California coast freed by the closing of an Army base a decade ago when he turned to an old friend, Senator John McCain.

When Mr. Diamond wanted to buy land at the base, Fort Ord, Mr. McCain assigned an aide who set up a meeting at the Pentagon and later stepped in again to help speed up the sale, according to people involved and a deposition Mr. Diamond gave for a related lawsuit. When he appealed to a nearby city for the right to develop other property at the former base, Mr. Diamond submitted Mr. McCain’s endorsement as “a close personal friend.”

Writing to officials in the city, Seaside, Calif., the senator said, “You will find him as honorable and committed as I have.”

Courting local officials and potential partners, Mr. Diamond’s team promised that he could “help get through some of the red tape in dealing with the Department of the Army” because Mr. Diamond “has been very active with Senator McCain,” a partner said in a deposition.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

raoulroach — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:14:49 EDT

As far as Barack's blackness is concerned, I don't believe he was given a choice. Blackness is defined on the idea that one has negroid features and hair and dark skin. It is a racist idea that defines this peculiar institution called race. Some hispanics, South Asians and in particular Asian Indians reject the notion of obvious physical attributes and call themselves "caucasians". Face it there is a stigma, especially in this country, attached to "blackness' and slave descendency.

I doubt if Obama, while driving in a white neighborhood at night ,would not be stopped by police and racially profiled, if he met a description of a 'black" suspect he would also be questioned. So he is defined, in large part, by other's perception. If you were to ask him, and any thinking person, of course he is genetically both therefore neither. Unfortunately that is not his reality when people everyday both black and white react to him in a way that is primarily based on his appearance.

That is why he is so unique, he is like a Rosetta Stone, raised by whites as an almost first generation African immigrant, without the slave history. His African American experience seen through his eyes as the brilliant son of an anthropologist is nothing short of conscience shifting. His vantage point from history to empirical experience sees the best and the worst of us as a nation. His reluctant speech on race was a window on that consciousness and I suspect it is much, much deeper.

As far as Afirmative Action goes, I take Colin Powell's opinion as guidance. How can a people blessed with so much be so selfish? According to reports only 75,000 students a year benefit from affirmative action. There is no evidence that any white student was ever denied a quality higher education because a black student kept them out of school. In particular cases, white students were denied access to their school of choice, but only because considering their advantages, they didn't compete with students with similar advantages.

Admission programs should and in many cases have considered social and economic circumstances to weight their decisions more evenly with the race factor and that is why the Supreme Court is right in saying race can be one of many factors in determining how a college or university chooses to serve the community and this nation through diversity. They are playing a vital role in the education, stability and social mobility of the citizens of this nation.

As far as business and government goes, until racism and bigotry no longer form the basis upon which some people make decisions in this area in whatever percentage, then a vigorous enforcement needs to happen to continue to integrate traditionally excluded minorities into the mainstream.

Business and government contracts continue to flow to the well networked persons. A cultural barrier to that network still exists, some of this is attributable to bigotry and/or racism, some is just institutional sluggishness. Whatever the cause it is continuing the legacy of economic and social deprivation started in the slave trade, institutionalized by state, local and Federal goverments, private social organizations and businesses through Jim Crow laws and social mores. This is what affirmative action, with shifting modifications based on empirical evidence, should address as we perfect our union.

The Commander In Chief Test

raoulroach — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:11:49 EDT

BARACK OBAMA:

PASSED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he wrote that speech in 2002, he was right!

PASSED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he wanted to withdraw troops on a timetable NOW the Iraqis are insisting on us doing that very thing.

PASSED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he focused rightly on Afghanistan as the central front on terror.

PASSED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he said strikes in Pakistan were preferable responses to nothing when good intelligence and bad faith partners in

Pakistan weren't taking the fight to the Taliban and Al Queda!

John McCain:

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he stood with the man most responsible for enabling the lies and excuses of a bad policy,the traitor and convicted

bank swindler Ahmed Chalabi.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he walked in lock step with Bush and Cheney and the BIG LIEs to the American people about a war that they all said,

was to remove weapons of mass destruction

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he agreed the war would cost $50 billion, when the costS are now estimated if we withdrew now to be

$1,000,000,000,000 (ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!!!)

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he supported a blank check for the Bush and Cheney war policies without accountability.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he stood by and allowed the generals who wanted a larger force (The Powell Doctrine) to be fired.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he stood by while the wisdom of Generals in the mold of Colin Powell, who knew this was a mistaken policy to be

continually removed, while "yes men" were promoted.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he supported sending our troops to war without the proper equipment and armour.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST where he agreed we would be greeted as liberators.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he said we were not going to be occuppiers and could "win".

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he allowed our armed forces to reach a breaking point.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he sent our troops on forced stop loss deployments.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he trumpeted a new tactic "the surge" over a good policy (withdrawal and redeployment to Afghanistan)

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he jumped in front of the parade of the surge to take credit for a dubious tactic that came after the Sunni awakening

(really bribery, paying the same men who killed our troops)

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he used Iraq as a campaign photo op all the while not knowing the Shia from Sunni players in the region.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he is trumpeting militarism over diplomacy.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST when he jumped in front of the sitting President to announce foreign policy from the campaign trail on the sensitive

situation in the Georgian Republic.

FAILED THE COMMANDER AND CHIEF TEST when LIEberman is his wingman tying his hands in trying to reach a honestly brokered peace in the Middle East.

FAILED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF TEST by promising MORE WARS! and FOUR MORE YEARS OF FAILED BUSH/CHENEY FOREIGN POLICY!

MCCAIN ANTOINETTE

raoulroach — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:04:34 EDT

John McCain's idealogical performance at Rick Warren's church of "more of the same" exposed a fundamental problem the American people and the mainstream media missed. When he was asked to define what is rich, his first response was that he believed rich was defined by something other than money.

Now philosophically everyone understands that there are more important things than the material, but underlying that point of view in the mind of a conservative rich legacy who has never known poverty or real want in America. It is the philosophy of someone closer to the ideology of Marie Antoinette.

How can McCain say to Americans who are suffering under the weight of losing their shot at the American dream to "be happy without". The material and financial security that John McCain was born into and married into leaves him blind to that dream that is becoming dimmer and dimmer to those hard working Americans not blessed with his fortune.

It is easy for him to say people don't need money to be happy and billionaires are some of the most unhappy people. What about the people losing homes? Yes, they love their families, should they be happy if they have no health care, no job, and no home? His policies betray his care for American workers and support his top economic advisers who say we are "a nation of whiners" and the fundamentals of the economy are sound.

It sounds too familiar, it sounds like "let them eat cake".