As I write this, I watch the inaugeration day events with awe, pride, and hope for our future. Like me, Barack Obama is a mutt. He is not African American (not that there is anything wrong with that). But like me, he is the product of the melting pot of America. We are not of one thing, like the rest of the population of America, we reflect our motto, "E Pluribus Unum" - Of the many, One. While some among us don't know or remember their heritage as immigrants to this country, we do. As I looked at the faces of the crowds, like the ones at Grant Park, it reflected America! White, black, brown, yellow, red, old young, religious or not, gay or straight, we are America. Our promise is now. Our opportunity is now. Our responsibility is now.
Our job as American's didn't end with the election. The messages I take away from Obama's campaign and election words are that this administration is a facilitator. It will lead us, but we must share the work. This continues to be a government of the people. We must pay attention. We must stay involved. We must fulfill our responsibility to our elected officials to get and stay involved with the governing process.
For too long we've been sold the concept that we just need to elect people, and they will watch out for us. We've been convinced that what is good for business is good for all the people. Some times it is, other times, not so much. Many have replaced the flag with a dollar bill, believing that it is the only measure of a person's life or success. But it's not. The ideal that is America lives in the quiet lives of people trying to survive, love and care for their families. We must trade our couch potatoe mentality with involvement. We need to use our hours watching the people we elect, rather than tv.
This is our country. We elect officials to represent us, not replace us. My call to action is this. Find ways to stay involved in your communities. Volunteer with political and non-political organizations that will make a difference in the quality of life of Americans. I can feel a brand new day.
Yes we can. Yes we did. Yes we will!
Election Day starts today.
You can One-Stop Early Vote now.
It's the easiest and surest way to make sure your vote counts.
You can even register and vote all at the same time. It's easy, even if you have never voted before.
Visit voteforchange.com to find a polling location in your county.
In John McCain's most recent attack ad "The One," he closes with the question: "He may be the one, but is he ready to lead?"
So let's take a moment to answer that question.
http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/4016/32/
Source: Atlantic Free Press
Author: Stephen Lendman
Yassin Aref is a 37 year old Albany, New York resident and one of many Muslim victims of police state justice in post-9/11 America. They've been hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, restricted in their right to counsel, tried on secret evidence and trumped-up charges, then incarcerated as political prisoners or deported to where they face possible arrest and torture.
Because of his faith and ethnicity, Aref was victimized by US "justice" in a post-9/11 climate of fear. He's an Iraqi Kurd who emigrated to the US as a UN refugee in 1999 with his wife and three young children. He's now in federal prison but committed no crime. He's also the author of a poignant memoir/autobiography titled "Son of Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect." He wrote it in custody at Troy, New York's Rensselaer County Jail after his wrongful conviction in October 2006.
Are you going to let a terrorist tell you how to vote?
John McCain thinks you should.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/96760D5C-448D-46A0-BB99-91D3A2546AA9.htm
By Sarah Brown in Philadelphia
Source: Al Jazeera
As the US city of Philadelphia prepares for its most closely watched political primary in generations one significant part of the population seems to have already picked their man.
Muslim-American community leaders, activists and voters in the city of brotherly love, as Philadelphia is known, say Barack Obama is by far their preferred candidate.
Philadelphia's Muslim community is one of the most significant, in terms of size and in terms of prominence, of all US cities.
There's a real chance that incumbent Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry will lose his primary...which will give us a golden opportunity to pick up another House seat in November.
He's being charged (and rightfully so) by his opponent with endangering the lives of American soldiers in Iraq by posting a video on YouTube that revealed our positions and may have led to the death of American soldiers.
Here's a link to the tv ad that his opponent is running:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LNsXaXCVg0
And here's a link to a good description of the issue and how to challenge him on it:
http://bluenc.com/an-open-letter-calling-for-the-investigation-of-congressman-patrick-mchenry
Please spread this around and talk it up with your Republican friends (I know you have them!). Opportunities to unseat an incumbent are few and far between.
Let's go for it!
Thanks to John Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo ( http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/188674.php ), we have the video.
Here's the link to his magnificent response to Clinton and McCain attacking him on his "people are bitter" comment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc9PepjyDow
Q: How do you get to 100 years in Iraq?
A: 6 months at a time!
New MoveOn.org ad:
The Acton Institute is a conservative think tank with the goal of “Integrating Judeo-Christian Truths with Free Market Principles (see http://www.acton.org/about/principles.php )
Professor Anthony Bradley (Assistant Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, Covenant Theological Seminary) is a research fellow at the Institute and is a favorite of Glenn Beck and other Fox flunkies (HNN video with Beck here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hv1ShidiN2g )
Bradley is the one most likely to be quoted when someone tells you that Wright’s religion is anti-white and anti-American. So that makes it especially powerful for us to cite back to them Bradley’s statement below that Obama does not believe in what Reverend Wright preaches. It will also help with that “he sat there for 20 years so he must believe it” argument.
Here's a Fox News interview with a (white) Catholic priest who supports Rev. Wright by comparing him to Jesus. What if we took 30-second film clips of Jesus overturning tables in the temple? Or saying you must hate your parents in order to love me? We would have thought him a crazy man.
Well worth watching and spreading:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?videoId=1fd1c0cf-5c80-4d75-996f-bd53b2461ae0&sMPlaylistID
(Added bonus: He goes on to compare Wright's patriotism to Bill O'Reilly's!)
My wife and I spent the afternoon registering voters outside the WalMart in Morganton. We weren't allowed to wear buttons or show any campaign material, so shoppers didn't know for sure who we supported.
We did ok registering new voters (maybe 30 in 3 hours). But the problem was the unsolicited response we got from way too many registered voters: "There's no good choices this time."
To be fair, I had no idea what their party affiliation was, but my gut feeling was that this was code for "I won't vote for a woman or an African-American."
First question: Are other people getting this kind of reaction?
Second question: Is it widespread?
Third question: If the answers to the first 2 questions are "yes," then what on earth are we going to do about it?
Hillary sent out an e-mail this morning asking supporters to pose questions that she will answer. Let's bombard her site with the tough ones, like:
Why have you attacked Obama in a way that gives McCain ammunition if Obama is our candidate?
What will it take to convince you that you have lost?
Do you agree that it is essential to have a Democrat in the White House, even if it isn't you?
And that's just for starters!
Here's the link:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/ncask/?sc=2412
Let her know what's really on our minds!
Here's the link to a blog I posted on Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/5/11512/74004/537/490684
Please go over there now and recommend it!
