One of the more flatoutious ideas has been that the Organization of American States to admit Cuba to membership provided that Cuba adhere to the priciples of human rights. Cuba, after consulting Castro,declined the offer.
Why is this fatuitous? Recall the "dirty war" in Mexico where thousands of leftists disappeared. Recall the missing in Argentina...
Recall Chile iand the assination of Salvador Allende and the end to legally elected democratic government. Recall the invasions of Grendada and elsewhere..
Recall the Patriot Act of the USA that allows "terrists" to to held indefinitely without trial, without right of appeal and unable to confront witnesses becuse they are "secret". The US Congress has not reformed or done away with this--only the Supreme Court has Acted.
This is a Goverment that has no problem indicting Eliot Spritzer or Rod Blagadoch, but wimpes out at prosecuting waterbordists on the grounds that "we want to put the past behind us". Surely that meens one standard for Democrats, and another for Republicans. And this is a goverment who at the end of World War 2 executed people for waterboarding as a war crime.
For more see "Flickering Lights" London Ecomonist June 6,2009. Economist.com
Kofi ana once defined "terrorism" as "being aything that move goverments or non govermental units towards a goal by violent Means". And the Arab world declined to endose this view for solidarity reasons with Palestinians, and that it would prevent wars of liberation.
Iran adopted this refusal. So now it is ironic that Iran is now calling protesters terrorists because they want to have an honest count at least it the recent elections.
Obama has refused to be drwn in to this . And it is unlikely that talks will proceed any time soon on weaponization issues, which is just as well beause Netaqnyahu has embarked on a "linkage" beteeen progress in Iran and the West Bank settlements.
But this linkage can turn out badly for Isreal if the Iranians choose to play the card right back. Why,they can ask, should Isreal have nuclear weapons but not Iran? If the oblject is a nuclear free Middle East is a goal, why not make Isreal declare and then give up is nuclear weapons?
This is not the debate Obama wants to have. More over as the recent article on "avoiding a Nuclear Crowd" in Policy Review (no 155 June-july 2009) Henry Sokoliki raises the issue of the Fissille material Cutoff Treaty, which would ban fissile materials that could be made into weapons raises the definite ojection that "Obvisly Eypt, Pakistan and others will be loathto give up their rights until Isreal gives up its nuclear weapons and India no longer poses a significant nuclear threat"
And what further complicates things is the US India treaty which gives India the right to weaponize matrial from eith nuclear power plants. According to testimony before the House Committee on Internation Relations bucommittee on Terrorism and Non Prolieration, India already has enough fissile material to make over 2,000 crude weapons. It will be hard to argue that the US should be obeyed in face of this, since India has previously threated Pakistan with nuclear weapons where Iran has not-at least at this point.
Now there are some critics who arue that APresident Ahmajiden threaten Isreal. But, read the speech itself. Now where was Isreal mentioned. The closest statement was "the regeme that controls Jerulsam". It was the Iraian Press office statement that actually mentioned Isreal.
Obama faces an even tougher task now in proposing a new round of sactions because the very people the sanctions will hurt will be the emerging middle class who voted for more open ss and freedom. By provoking an artifial recession, hard won middle class gains will be lost, and hardliners will further be in control.
Is Obama up to the task? He has only a few days left to decide. Two months of delay will be too late, and only allow more reprecessing with wout consquences. Time is running out and Isreal will not wait.
We here at Democratic Financial World have never believed Obama's Change You Can Believe in slogan, though we believe in the man. Obama has thrived with ciourage and grace confronting challenges that would disinhearten lesser folk.
But his slogan is simply too much...
Now that both Chysler and Eneral Motors are in bankrucy we can say niether has learned any lessons, judging from impatial newsmedia sources. Consider the Business Week June 8 2009 report that Cadillac and Chevorelt will get $1.3 billion in marketing money"Double the existing budget and pretty close to what Toyota spends on Lexus"....
Where we ask is the cash for hybrid vehicles? Where is the stepped up paced for the electric cars? Where are the new fuel effecient vhehicles?
Chevy and Cadillac don't have either. But let's move on with Biz Week's breathless report:"With lower costs GM will have more money to spend on Buick and GMC which were long starved of new vehicles",writes Biz Week. Yet almost every analist has pointed out GM needs fewer, not more car brands.. GM's new production boss Tom G Stephens doesn't get it.
We can read between the lines: government funding for proven patterns of failure. This is change we can't believe in.
We have said before the Deocratic party should not run ib on the "We Saved Cadillc" platform. That belongs to the other party-the party of gas guzzles.
While Chrysler offers hope of small cars from Fiat as a part of it's alliance, we can not be confident of a turnaround. European management --Volkswagon,Dailer and others ran Chryster into the ground where it is today. American were never impressed with German engineering, and Fiat offers more of the same.
Fiat is sports cars in the puclic mind in the US, but the biggest and richest market is family vehicles--which is why SUV's are still popular- but tarnished because of low gas milage.
If fact,if it were not for fuel economy they would still be wildly popular.
Detroit's problem is not design; it is efficiency.It makes too many cars with little regard to markets. We recall when Auto Nation did a computer analysis of what sold three years ago-including every bell and whislte-and noted Detroit lacked specific detail of exactly who their customer was..
How could Gm and Chrystler have so many outlets between them and not have such basic data? One cannot imagine Proctor and Gamble , Hp or Dell not knowing who their costomers were.
We wonder too about the post bailout debt load forcast by Business Week. Chrysler's barely moves from $22.7 Billion to 21 billion. Yet, Gm's moves from $69 Billion to 10-20 billion. The pupose of bankrutcy is to erase debt, and re-emerege- yet, Chysler's barely changes.
So we have to ask what kind of deal did the Obama Administration cut with Chrylser to allow a bare nick?
We also note the German governments money for GM Europe-specfifically for Opel. Yet this stuff isn't even included in the GM plan. Will GM-europe profits be bought back to GM-assuming there are profits.
We're sorry, but this is not change we can believe in--
--it makes no new efforts toward fuel effecient cars, or even makes them a priority..
--it still favors gas guzzelers over electric or hybrid vehicles, and lays out no roadmap for change...
-- it makes no claim of technological advancement No joint planning for electic waystation of reueling and no integration with highway planning or electrical grid restructiong for smoothing the change over.
The Democratic Party shioulod not mortgage it's futuree to a post brankrucy rescue operation unless there is a clear road map for change in the car industry from its addiction to oil.
The American Independent party founders-a group McCain VP candidate has been with over the years-has professed his 'hatred for the American government" and cursed the American flage as our 'damn flag' during a 1991 interview as part of an oaral histor project in the Rassmussen library in Fairbanks Alaska.
This is the gruop that has had as its platform Alaska suceeding from the union.
This comes to us coutesy of CBS news www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/02/pdfs/ in a oct 6 story which we invite you to read and reder thoughts
Yes,1991 you say. But as infomercials say-there's more.
The Manchester Guardian a united kingdom newspaper has on its website a vidoe of Gov Palinspeaking to the American indepedent Party as Governor of Alaska during the closing ceremonies of the American Independt conventiopn. If she is a Republican,why is she speaking to a grup she supposedly left?
AS the CBS story quotes the founder sayng "the fires of hell are glaciers compared to my hatred of the Ameican government"
Compare the AIP slogan "Alaska First,Alaska Always" with the mcCain -Palin slogan "Country First'
The CBS story also quoted a current leader (remember Todd palin, Sarah's husband was secretary of the AIP for awhile) as being a "states rights party".
This calls to mind the Strom Thurmonds of old,segregationists, never never giving up, and still a hundred years later wanting tio fly the Confederate flag above the capitol in South Carolina,
It must be asked; is Sarah Palin a loyal American when she joined a party seeking diunity of our nation? She is a woman we are told who goes into things eyes wide open--so if so she must have known the founder's anti-government philosophy from the first. And the video shows she has not broken her ties with the sucessioist movement, but continues them to this very day
I ran across this post on Crooks and Liars today and couldn't resist quoting it at length. It seems that not a few Europeans are scratching their heads too about how well McCain is doing in the polls.
It seems incredible, but as the Democrats gather in Denver to anoint Barack Obama, America could be on course to re-elect a Republican as their President. Not just any Republican either, but a belligerent 71-year-old who can’t remember how many houses he owns, would happily nuke Iran and whose answer to global warming is to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas off the coast of America which don’t even have much oil. But according to the polls, John McCain is drawing level with Barack Obama, and even pulling ahead.Really, America is a strange, strange country. After a disastrous and illegal war, in which 4000 American soldiers have died, in the middle of an economic crisis largely caused by the investment houses that finance the Republican party, you would have thought it almost inconceivable that the Republicans could be re-elected. Could any political brand be more toxic? Has any party in history deserved to be thrown out at an election more than the Republicans in 2008?… Yet enough American voters believe that John McCain might have the answers for him to become a serious contender. Which is scary. McCain is not an unknown quantity - he is a highly excitable politician with a notoriously short temper, who would bring his impetuous and confrontational style into American foreign policy. With the world entering a global economic slump, and old enmities raging in Europe, John McCain as President would be like a flamethrower in a fireworks factory.
It seems incredible, but as the Democrats gather in Denver to anoint Barack Obama, America could be on course to re-elect a Republican as their President. Not just any Republican either, but a belligerent 71-year-old who can’t remember how many houses he owns, would happily nuke Iran and whose answer to global warming is to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas off the coast of America which don’t even have much oil. But according to the polls, John McCain is drawing level with Barack Obama, and even pulling ahead.
Really, America is a strange, strange country. After a disastrous and illegal war, in which 4000 American soldiers have died, in the middle of an economic crisis largely caused by the investment houses that finance the Republican party, you would have thought it almost inconceivable that the Republicans could be re-elected. Could any political brand be more toxic? Has any party in history deserved to be thrown out at an election more than the Republicans in 2008?
… Yet enough American voters believe that John McCain might have the answers for him to become a serious contender. Which is scary. McCain is not an unknown quantity - he is a highly excitable politician with a notoriously short temper, who would bring his impetuous and confrontational style into American foreign policy. With the world entering a global economic slump, and old enmities raging in Europe, John McCain as President would be like a flamethrower in a fireworks factory.
That last line is priceless isn't it?
Take a look at this latest video by Brave New Films. It it one of us, a middle class American, describes her experiences as she and her family lost their house to foreclosure. Juxtaposed against that is a series of clips which highlight (1) John McCain's complete lack of empathy and (2) the fact (one systematically ignored by the traditional media) that he and his wife own 6 houses and a corporate jet. If you saw McCain at Saddleback Church this weekend you saw that he thinks that to be rich in America you need to make something like $5 million a year! Now I don't know if that is too much, or too little, I do know however that in this whole country less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the people earn that much money in a year. In the America I grew up in and the one I think we need to move back to being, the rich constitute a bit more than .001 of the population.
Can someone tell me what the Summer of Love, which occurred over 40 years ago, has to do with life in America in 2008? I just saw the McCain ad which starts off with grainy footage of hippies frolicking in the mud in someplace like Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I mean I know it is a shot at Obama for being a liberal but come on, Hippies?! I think it is a ridiculous ad and if by some miracle (for Republicans that is) this campaign turns into a referendum on which side was right in the 1960s culture wars, I’m giving up on politics of any kind, for the rest of my life. Come on with all that is going on in America today the best McCain can come up with is DFHs vs. the Silent Majority?
I have been stewing the last few days as this whole habeas issue has swirled around. I just don't get why people don't understand that fundamental to our justice system is the idea that you are innocent until proven guilty, beyond a shadow of a doubt. This post captured it nicely -- under our system the punishment, when you are convicted, is proportionate to the crime. You rob a store you go to jail, you kill someone while robbing a store you might get the death penalty. Persons accused of these crimes are both presumed innocent, and entitled to due process throughout all the proceedings. An accused murdered doesn't waive the right against self-incrimination because the crime he is charged with is heinous. You don't get to beat a confession out of one and not the other.
So what happens if Osama Bin-Laden was captured? In the America I was raised in he is put on an airplane, brought to America and put in a cell in Alexandria, VA. He has access to a lawyer, he has a hearing where he pleads guilty or not-guilty, he can review the evidence against him and produce exculpatory evidence in his defense. Presumably if he petitioned for a Writ of Habeas Corpus he would have a hearing and since the government has lots of evidence against him for a variety of crimes, his petition would be denied because his detention while awaiting trial is warranted. His trial would be an international media circus but it would proceed just like any other trial. Again, assuming that the evidence against him is overwhelming and persuasive, he would be found guilty and in all liklihood sentenced to death. He would live out his days in a federal penitentury and at some indeterminate future date when any appeals were exhausted he would be executed for his crimes. We did it to Timothy McVeigh we could do it to Bin-laden.
Take away. . . America's criminal justice system works, we can deal with terrorism and be true our founding principles so maybe not all that much really changed on 9/11. The way I see it dealing with terrorist acts is more like "Law and Order" than "24."
We spent the morning cleaning up the western bank of the Miississippi River. Thank you for all the volunteers for spending time on a Saturday morning. Spending a day cleaning up it made me realize that I should bring the coffee mug to the coffee shop and have that filled up instead of getting the disposable cup. Also either drinking water from the tap or getting the gallon spring water instead of buying small plastic bottles. As I continue to see if all of us make small changes in our lifestyle, we can make a big impact on our world's eco system.
I talked to someone who lives near and walks this area every day and said that the area was like night and day over the past week of cleaning up the river. May we be good stewards of the great gift called earth.
Peace,Carl
(link below) Check out NEW article about Pasadena: Please e-mail suggestions or whatever YOU can do for our first Community Kickoff Event!: Press Release help, AV for the day, cooking and crafts onsite, etc.
'Running for president? Quick, build an online network' The major candidates hope to employ the Internet, but will MySpace and Facebook visitors actually knock on doors? - By Scott Martelle, Times Staff Writer, March 26 2007, The handful of people who have gathered on the patio of a Pasadena coffeehouse are either the answer, or the big question mark, in the upcoming presidential election.
> The complete article can be viewed at: Link Visit latimes.com at Link out our event announcement so far and let us know how you can help this group in your community!
3/31/07 'Hope. Action. Change.' - PUBLIC Community Kickoff Event - PasadenaForObama.org - Freethinkers & Friends For Obama CA (March 31 Kickoff Event)
Sign Up Now!! PUBLIC Positive Community Gathering & PasadenForObama.org KickOff Event:
FORGET THE 'STAY AT HOME' MENTALITY :- ) Let's All LISTEN and LEARN from Barack together LIVE in Pasadena, CA! Come to Hopkins Village, On the Corner of Lake & Howard: An open place to discuss and share about Barack Obama's ideas. A PUBLIC PotLuck Event...
Barack is LIVE via Phone, Web, DVD, YouTube @ 1p PT - For More Details: visit www.pasadenaforobama.org - Show Up Early! 1541 - 1549 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Send me an e-mail, we can all get discounted goods for our Community Kickoff Events. We should order now, especially since the money goes straight to Barack...no issues.
$25.00 - 10 lapel stickers, 3 buttons, 5 bumper stickers, one t-shirt for YOU!
A BIG shoutout to Paul Provost & Carl Holmquist for their great interview!
Southwest residents organize state campaign for Obama By Jake Weyer
Grassroots campaign kicked off in recent weeks
Two Southwest residents have taken the lead on statewide campaigning for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Paul Provost of Lyndale and Carl Holmquist of CARAG have spent the last several months organizing a local push for Obama's election in 2008. The progressive senator announced his candidacy officially in February. If elected, he would be the first black president of the United States.
Many Obama support groups sprang up in Minnesota after the senator decided to run, but few existed prior to his candidacy announcement. Provost and Holmquist started searching for supporters in December through networking website meetup.com. They have since become state leaders of a volunteer, grassroots effort to usher Obama into the Oval Office.
“If they were to call anyone, they would call us,” Provost said referring to Obama's Chicago-based campaign headquarters, with which he has recently communicated. “If they're looking to do something in Minnesota.”
Provost is a stout Republican-turned-Democrat whose campaign experience includes promoting former Gov. Arnie Carlson. He runs a commercial cleaning business for a living, but this year, he's spent 25-30 hours a week campaigning for Obama, he said. The Illinois senator is the first politician in about a decade to inspire him, he said.
“I hadn't felt motivated enough about a candidate to get up off the couch and do anything until Barack Obama,” he said.
Provost said he thinks Obama can unite a polarized America.
Holmquist, who has been involved in the recent campaigns of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. and Minneapolis City Council Member Ralph Remington (10th Ward), shares that view. The active CARAG resident also campaigned for 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean, former Democratic governor of Vermont.
Holmquist's day job is operating a home improvement business, but he has kept busy with the Obama campaign this year.
He and Provost host monthly meetings with supporters, help organize campaigns in other Minnesota cities, plan events and update several online networks for Obama backers including the meetup.com site and a blog called Obama Minnesota at barackobama.com. They also direct the Minnesota chapter of draftobama.com, a campaign site used by thousands of supporters throughout the nation.
Provost said he didn't expect the movement to grow so rapidly. When he created the meetup.com site, it was the only local Obama support group he was aware of. It wasn't long before he and Holmquist were packing Southwest coffeehouses with eager volunteers from throughout the state.
“It's amazing how hungry people are for information,” Provost said.
At a recent meeting at Urban Bean Coffeehouse, 2717 Hennepin Ave. S., more than 60 people gathered to share their thoughts on Obama and discuss campaign tactics. The grassroots movement is a “bottom-up” approach that allows supporters to campaign pretty much however they want, as long as it helps the cause, Holmquist said.
If someone wants an Obama sign, for instance, they should make one. Or if they want to organize an event, they should do it. No higher power is dolling out the rules.
“Use your own personal initiative,” Holmquist said at the meeting. “That's what grassroots is all about.”
Mayor R.T. Rybak, who vocalized his support for Obama this year along with Council Member Remington, attended the meeting at Urban Bean. Rybak touted the effectiveness of grassroots campaigning - calling the Obama campaign “a giant political Tupperware party.”
Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the Republicans have the upper hand in grassroots campaigning. Their nationally organized use of profiling technology to locate potential voters in Democratic strongholds worked well in 2004, he said.
But in 2008, it's anyone's race, Jacobs said.
He said no particular candidate in either party is a clear primary winner. And because Minnesota has a late primary (scheduled for early March), the race could be decided before the state has its say.
Even though the Minnesota primary is nearly a year away, campaigners are behind if they haven't started, Jacobs said. “We may be on the verge of the most massive mobilization of people we've seen in years.”
Southwest GOP activist Tracy Eberly said Southwest is one of the weakest areas in Minnesota for Republicans, but he thinks Obama is beatable on a state and national level. However, he said the Illinois senator is a stronger candidate than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, and will make a worthy adversary.
Eberly said he would like to get a local campaign going for Republican candidate Rudolph Giuliani, former governor of New York. He said the GOP will likely campaign using a hybrid of grassroots efforts and national coordination this year.
He said it's early in the campaign season and the groundwork for a local GOP campaign has yet to be laid.
Provost also recognizes it's early and said he's been careful not to tire volunteers.
“We're trying to limit communication so we don't burn people out,” he said.
But he expects the campaign to gain momentum in the coming months.
“I think people still want to get information about the candidates,” he said. “People are still waiting to see who they are going to support.”
Reach Jake Weyer at 436-4367 or jweyer@mnpubs.com.
Barack Obama 28.1%
John Edwards 24.6%
Other (mostly Gore) 12.4%
Dennis Kucinich 10.3%
Hillary Clinton 8.7%
Bill Richardson 7.6%
Undecided 4.9%
Joseph Biden 1.9%
Christopher Dodd 0.5%
Read and Be Rewarded! Come to any Community Kickoff Event and Barack Obama will speak LIVE to you. Power To The People! There are so many exciting community activities right around you. Anyone can get involved. Get Up, Stand Up! No Day But Today!
Special Grassroots Discount: Order Directly from Barack! Go to link: Link let me know if you have questions!
Listen to what People Are Saying!:
Subject: Discount Prices with Direct Donation to Barack!
Send me an e-mail, we can all get discounted goods for our Community Kickoff Events in three weeks. We should order now, especially since the money goes straight to Barack...no worries. Normally a t-shirt is about $20, but for just $25, you get a shirt, 5 bumber stickers ($15 value), 3 buttons ($15 value), 10 lapel stickers. We will look great at Zephyr and all our community service events. Together we are so cool! Many thanks to the campaign for rewarding early grassroots supporters and organizers with the loyalty bonus! $25.00 - 10 lapel stickers, 3 buttons, 5 bumper stickers, one t-shirt for YOU!
It has been an interesting past couple of days with my father's health problems. It makes you realize how fragile life is and sometimes how we get wrapped up in things. Thankfully my father is feeling better. I must admit in the past week with Obama and work that I forgot about my aging parents. Sometimes a wake up call is needed and Wednesday morning was that for me. I want to thank everyone for your notes and calls wondering how my father is doing. I felt community in that support and it was greatly appreciated. I am also sorry that I did not get back to some of you out there.
It also made me aware that we need to share in the work of this grassroots movement and need to create ways for this too happen. It is not about Paul, RT, Tammara, Pams, Wendi, Ross, Bill, Yolanda .... or me ... or event Barack Obama. It is about all of us supporting each other and creating a movement that changes how politics is done in this country. My hope is that we create a "big tent" movement where all are welcome that uses the talents of all volunteers while sharing a core mission around politics of inclusiveness instead of politics of divide. Where we can openly share our thoughts and disagree while having empathy and respecting someone else's opinion. For me that is what Barack is all about. That is what changing what is happening in Washington is all about.
Carl Holmquist - One of the Obama Minnesota Organizers
The first meeting of the The Audactiy of Hope Book Club like all first meetings of people you wonder who is going to show up and the awkwardness of meeting many people for the first time. Yet we have come together to learn something about this man, Barack Obama, and maybe start discussing how us as citizens can change how politics is done in this country. There was a mixture of hope and unsure if we can believe that it will really change and will Barack live up to this. We also talked about honest conversation about sensitive issues (race, politics, spirituality) and that we censure ourselves or society censures us from discussing what we really think. You can't be always afraid of offending someone else. Yet we talked about empathy (putting yourself in someone else's shoes) and how can you balance talking about what you believe yet not offend or have to be so darn politically correct. We talked a little about the politics of divide and how it pervades our society (black vs white vs brown, straight vs gay, pro life vs pro choice, pro war vs anti war, Republican vs Democrat vs Independent vs Green) and how there should be a different way. We discussed what binds or not binds us together as Americans. I think this is a topic of discussion that will continue to guide this group and we continue to need to have this discussion with our neighbor, our relatives, and all people.
It reminds me of talking with a very conservative Republican this summer when I went canoeing. He was owner and driver of the canoe rental place. I knew he was a conservative Republican because he had very anit-global warming articles about Al Gore on his board. We started talking and found out he was retired Army logistics sergeant who had recently served two duties in Iraq. My friend was oh watch out we are in for a political argument and will maybe left in the the woods without a canoe to paddle. I started out by thanking him for serving and asked him what he thought about Iraq. His first response was that "damn Rumsfeld". Common ground!!! His opinion was not enough troops and too much focus on weaponry in the military. Even though I thought that we never should have been in Iraq and after a while told him, I agreed with him about the troops issue. Ultimately I had one of my best conversations about the Iraq war in the last four years and learned a great deal about Iraq. Finding common ground and respecting each other's opinion. We did not agree on all aspects but we were able to have a respectful while not always agreeing conversation.
This is what I found about Thursday night, we talked about difficult issues and had different opinions. Yet we respected each others opinions and hopefully learned from each other. Thats what it should be all about.
Carl - Book Club Organizer
