I have sat back and watched the opposition to President Obama command the dialogue in the media regarding his plans. Whether it is about the stimulus plan or foreign policy (think the former VP!), the administration has been pushed around for the last week! The grass roots movement that helped push President Obama into the White House needs to rise up and fight on his behalf!!! We need to follow up and not just expect him to fight all our battles. WE WANTED A VOICE IN GOVERNMENT, SO LET'S USE IT!!!!
We need to write our congressmen and women, our local newspapers, and the television news media outlets and tell them that we want President Obama's plan to have a chance!!!! We had tax cuts and other policies from the Republicans for the last 8 years and it didn't work out. In fact, it has contributed to our debt, hurt job creation, and reduced services that are needed now. Changes are needed in the stimulus and senators appear willing to take some spending out, and that's great. We need to focus on strong job creation that will be around now and in the future.
President Obama HAS compromised and tried to find some conservative policy to use in the stimulus, but Republicans are just ignoring the outreach and simply biting the President's hand. It's time we bite back!!!!
Write your elected officials and tell them we are watching and will hold them accountable in the coming near term election if basic compromise is not found! We will hold accountable those people who played politics when Americans were losing their jobs. We will fight in the next election to get rid of old politicians who are not living up to the Change this country voted for in 2008!!!!
Spread the word to your family and friends to start writing as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Raul Dominguez
Obama Supporter
Torrance, CA
The grassroots movement that helped elect Barack Obama President needs to start writing letters to the editor of their papers, their local elected officials and members of the Senate to stop the gridlock in passing a stimulus package. When Republicans simply vote no on a bill because they want to stop some part of it, means that nothing gets accomplished. When Rush Limbaugh says he just wants "Obama's policies to fail", he's still advocating the country to fail because the administration is Obama's. I don't care if policies are conservative or liberal, if they help get Americans working, improve our economy, and stimulate the beginning of a global financial rally, then that's fine!!!
We need to work together. If Judd Gregg (R) comes over as Commerce Secretary, I hope a Republican is put in his Senate seat so pundits don't say the move was simply to get the Dems a full majority. We need serious people now to solve serious problems.
Please comment and send your thoughts to your contacts. Thanks, Raul
[Cross-Posted at Library Grape.]
As to the Bush administration's illegal excesses over the last eight years, there are a few salient options: (1) let bygones be bygones; (2) sic prosecutors after the lawbreakers; or (3) form up a South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
I am starting to lean toward option three. It would have the benefit of partially muting the "Witch hunt!" wing of the naysayers and, above all else, have the power to bring to light all of the illegal things that have been done in our name over the last eight years.
Here's where the action comes in. Representative John Conyers has introduced legislation to create a Truth Commission:
There is established the National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "Commission") to investigate the broad range of policies of the Administration of President George W. Bush that were undertaken under claims of unreviewable war powers, including detention by the United States Armed Forces and the intelligence community, the use by the United States Armed Forces or the intelligence community of enhanced interrogation techniques or interrogation techniques not authorized by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, "ghosting" or other policies intended to conceal the fact that an individual has been captured or detained, extraordinary rendition, domestic warrantless electronic surveillance, and other policies that the Commission may determine to be relevant to its investigation (hereinafter in this Act referred to as "the activities").
To date, Conyers' bill has only received 12 co-sponsors. We need to get the word out to Congress that Conyers' bill is important and has our support. If you have a few minutes, please write or call your Congressperson today to express your support for the Conyers bill: H.R. 104.
Fred and I have worked very hard for the past eleven months. For the last three weeks of the election, we were a canvass-staging location, transforming our home into an outlying headquarters with training, refreshments and debriefing for local and out-of-state volunteers, with local candidates detailing their platforms. Our efforts were rewarded and we are delighted with the national and local outcomes.
We realize that most members of our families and friends do not agree with us or the new administration and that’s perfectly fine. Any society must have room for disagreement. However, Fred and I are compelled to avidly work toward the actualization of our beliefs. We now support a non-conservative agenda and will continue to work tirelessly for those who have little or no voice in our democratic process.
Anytime you wish to visit, you are certainly most welcome but please remember this is now a liberal household and we certainly intend to keep it that way. We are a volunteer headquarters. You may encounter members of the Black Caucus, Gay Pride, Si Se Puede, Asian/American Caucus, Grassroots Coalition for Change or Western Atheists for Obama (which Suzie founded). We will be hosting and attending meetings with any and all of these caucuses, working very hard to further the spirit of volunteerism, brotherhood and patriotism that President-Elect Barack Obama has fostered in all of us.
Some of our immediate plans include teaching English to Mexican immigrants so they can take the citizenship test, the repeal of Proposition 8 in our neighboring state of California, assuring reproductive rights, and finding new ways to help the homeless here in Las Vegas, where rampant foreclosures and a high percentage of unemployment are hindering efforts to return these families to a mainstream lifestyle centered on work and reward. We are also supporting the Sierra Club, which promotes awareness of endangered Western and Alaskan wildlife, including mountain lions, wolves and polar bears, which are faced with the deterioration of their habitats due to global warming and human encroachment. In addition, veterans’ services must be expanded and enhanced to meet the needs of our service members and their families. And most important of all, we demand government funding for embryonic stem cell research in hopes of a cure for Fred.
We love our family very much but also want to be very clear. We are happy that our lifestyle and our home have changed from complacency to idealism and activism. If you are uncomfortable in a diverse group with conversation promoting liberal ideals, please stay elsewhere during your visit but you are always welcome and we’d love to see you. If you would like to know more about our activities, we can provide information in print, on the Internet, or with volunteers in your city. We welcome your help and invite you to join with us in any or all of our goals – there is much work to be done if we Americans are to take back our country.
When we are in YOUR homes, we will refrain from discussing controversial beliefs or other insensitive behavior. Please afford us the same respect. If we don’t make this mutual promise, we will remain estranged.
We sincerely want to put our differences aside. We hope Barack Obama’s Presidency brings us common understanding, allowing each of us to pursue our chosen paths, and that we can work together to create something better, something bigger than ourselves, for all the children of our Earth.
Dear Friends,
During the last weeks before election, I noticed none of you were posting comments to my messages, so I figured everyone was too busy doing something else. I decided to send a private group of emails to friends and "foes" of Obama to correct the lies spread by McCain people, complete with verifyable sites and didn't copy them also to this site. I have just found out that a number of them said they were energized by my emails to get going with discussions with other reluctant friends and family and were as pleased as I was with the ultimate results.
In the last few days I have emailed a couple of suggestions directly to the new site set up by the campaign, change.gov. Perhaps we can share those ideas here and with change.gov to do our part to help with making meaningful changes. As Barack said, it's up to us to help. This is not the end. It's the beginning.
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/M/P/2/corporate-welfare.jpg
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/A/R/2/plan-b-tmdho081030.jpg
McCain, Oct. 12, 2000: [W]e feel, obviously, that wealthy people can afford more.....And I think middle-income Americans, working Americans ... all of the taxes that working Americans pay, I think they – you would think that they also deserve significant relief, in my view....[H]ere's what I really believe, that when you are – reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.
In fact, the system would remain progressive under McCain's tax plan. His argument with Obama isn't about whether to "spread the wealth," but by how much.Also, as we now know, Joe the Plumber would almost certainly be entitled to a tax cut if Obama's plan were implemented – and a larger one than he'd get under McCain's.
-------------- Forwarded Message: -------------- Subject: History Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:40:26 +0000 -------Original Message------- THREE PRESIDENTSThe people that are in Washington, tell us they cannot deport 12 million illegals? We probably need to vote all of them out of office and send them back to school to learn history! We pay more to illegals in welfare than it would cost to deport then! Our career politicians need to work for the voters and the good of the United States of America, not the lobbyist and big business. HOOVER, TRUMAN AND EISENHOWERHere is something that should be of great interest for you to pass around.I didn't know of this until it was pointed out to me. But, back during The Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover ordered the deportation of ALL illegal aliens in order to make jobs available to American cit izens that desperately needed wor k. Harry Truman deported over two million Illegal's after WWII to create jobs for returning veterans. And then again in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower deported 13 million Mexican nationals! The program was called 'Operation Wetback' so that American WWII and Korean veterans had a better chance at jobs. It took 2 Years, but they deported them! Now, if they could deport the illegals back then, they can sure do it today!!If you have doubts about the veracity of this information, enter Operation Wetback into your favorite search engine and confirm it for yourself. Reminder. Don't forget to pay your taxes... 12 million Illegal Aliens are depending on you
Check Out This clip from the 1960s Batman Tv series. It has such Uncanny similarities to the recent events of this years election campaign its actually SCARY!!
MONTEREY -- An Arizona businessman, with help from Sen. John McCain's office, paid the federal government a mere fraction of the market value when he bought a Fort Ord land parcel in 1999, an Army appraisal obtained by The Monterey Herald shows.
Donald R. Diamond, an 80-year-old real estate developer, lobbyist and top fundraiser for McCain's presidential campaign, bought the land for $250,000, though it was valued at $7.2 million, according to Pentagon appraisals made three years before the sale.
He held on to the parcel for a little more than two years before selling it and the buildings on it for an estimated profit of more than $18 million.
Maybe I am obsessive compulsive. But I really want to win, and I just want to know that we could do it. Can We Do It?
John Mccain Is going to have some new tricks up his sleeve this week. He is going to make some New economic proposals.
Read:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-campaign13-2008oct13,0,5228014.story
And he's suppose to be making some new attacks against Obama, arueing Obama is too confident etc. Its going to be much nastier and more focus according to this article
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSTRE49A0P720081013
McCain also declares that he is going to whip Obama's ass in this next and final debate. While I am confident we will win this election, I need some reassurance. Are we ready for this week? This is the most important week of the entire election we cannot let Mccain gain any ground. in fact we should widen our margin and not allow him to close the gap.
Are we ready? thats all I want to know, Are we ready?
Does the Obama Campaign realize that the Republicans might be trying to disenfranchise thousands of voters with this ACORN investigation?
Don't Let Them Take Our Voice Away!!
Watching John McCain stagger and stumble through last night's debate was hard to do. I found it curious that he seemed stuck on stupid with an "earmarks" rant about Senator Obama having approved money for a "$3 million dollar projector".
When I hear the word "projector" it brings to mind the AV projectors that aides wheel into my classroom weekly. I had no idea what McCain was talking about, and promptly forgot about it as the debate moved on towards the conclusion.
This morning, while reading through the roundups of articles on the debate, and other commentary on the campaign, I headed over to the NYT to read their editorial Politics of Attack and afterwards, I decided to read and recommend comments, and post one of my own.
Much to my surprise I found this comment, which I recommended as did many other readers. I hope the Editorial Board will make it one of their featured selections.
I am an Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Chicago (the University that today has added yet another Nobel Prize winner in the sciences for the US). I would like to comment on Sen. McCain's statement during the today's debate that Sen. Obama has earmarked "$3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Ill. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?"The way Sen. McCain has phrased it suggests that Sen. Obama approved spending $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment (overhead projector). The 3 million is actually for an upgrade of the SkyTheater - a full dome projection system, which is probably the main attraction of the Adler Planetarium and is quite sophisticated and impressive piece of equipment.I find it appalling that Sen. McCain would call a science education tool for public (largely children) for a historic planetarium with millions of visitors a year a wasteful earmark. The planetarium's focus, as stated on their website (http://adlerplanetarium.org) is "on inspiring young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in science." Is an investment in such public facility at the time when US competitiveness in math and sciences is a constant source of alarm a waste?"American's ability to compete in a 21st Century economy rests on our continued investments in math and science education," said Rep. Brian Baird, Chairman of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee in Congress, after the passage of The 21st Century Competitiveness Act of 2007.Considering such investments "wasteful earmarks" today, even in the face of the financial crisis, will severely cripple US economic competitiveness in the increasingly high-tech world down the road. — Andrey Kravtsov, Chicago, IL
I am an Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Chicago (the University that today has added yet another Nobel Prize winner in the sciences for the US). I would like to comment on Sen. McCain's statement during the today's debate that Sen. Obama has earmarked "$3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Ill. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?"
The way Sen. McCain has phrased it suggests that Sen. Obama approved spending $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment (overhead projector). The 3 million is actually for an upgrade of the SkyTheater - a full dome projection system, which is probably the main attraction of the Adler Planetarium and is quite sophisticated and impressive piece of equipment.
I find it appalling that Sen. McCain would call a science education tool for public (largely children) for a historic planetarium with millions of visitors a year a wasteful earmark. The planetarium's focus, as stated on their website (http://adlerplanetarium.org) is "on inspiring young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in science." Is an investment in such public facility at the time when US competitiveness in math and sciences is a constant source of alarm a waste?
"American's ability to compete in a 21st Century economy rests on our continued investments in math and science education," said Rep. Brian Baird, Chairman of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee in Congress, after the passage of The 21st Century Competitiveness Act of 2007.
Considering such investments "wasteful earmarks" today, even in the face of the financial crisis, will severely cripple US economic competitiveness in the increasingly high-tech world down the road. — Andrey Kravtsov, Chicago, IL
http://community.nytimes.com/...
Shame on McCain - again, for misrepresentation and distortion (read "lying").
Curious I went to visit the Adler Planetarium website, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring their exhibits.
The latest issue of Rolling Stone Tells the truth about The supposed war heros war record and how he is blatantly lying to the american people about everything!
By TIM DICKINSON
At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.
McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.
There's a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a "confession" to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn't survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service's highest distinctions. McCain would later hail him as "one of the toughest guys I've ever met."
On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.
"I'm going to the Middle East," Dramesi says. "Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran."
"Why are you going to the Middle East?" McCain asks, dismissively.
"It's a place we're probably going to have some problems," Dramesi says.
"Why? Where are you going to, John?"
"Oh, I'm going to Rio."
"What the hell are you going to Rio for?"
McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.
"I got a better chance of getting laid."
Dramesi, who went on to serve as chief war planner for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and commander of a wing of the Strategic Air Command, was not surprised. "McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man," Dramesi says today. "But he's still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in."
McCAIN FIRST
This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.
In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.
In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.
The article is one of 10 pages, You could read the entire article here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain
If you would like to puchase a copy of the magazine, you need to know that they use an old cover from a 1973 issue of the magazine to cover up the real cover of a charachature of john McCain flyin an airplane.
I am retired, on about $1000 per month after the mortgage payment and the health insurance deductions. That pays the bills and allows me to eat out once or twice a month too. I have good credit because I try not to use it. Now after I saw that the RNC has over $185 million to spend on their campaign and the DNC has less than $15 million, I've donated another $50 to Obama, bring my total to $200.
The way I figure is with Obama, I'll have more discretionary income than I have now, and I am certain that with McCain, I'll probably soon qualify for food stamps.
This election is my last best chance at a comfortable and secure retirement.
