Congratulations to President Barack Obama in honor of the Nobel Peace Prize...at his acceptance speech, he humbly stated he was undeserving of the honor, but I beg to differ...the prize of accomplishing the office of Presidency in America by a man of Black African heritage, is a testament to his life, all Americans of vision and African Americans in particular. The Prize is the paramount national and global vision that our President embodies.....and if anyone is concerned about the economy, with all the speculation, lies and projection of ideologies, the President's presence has undoubtedly spurred talk show hosts, pundits, and any other "wish i knew what the hell i was talking about"opportunists, to generate monies from the paymaster.........the election of President Barack Obama was achieved through a peaceful and bloodless process that some still try to invoke the ugliness of the base of human nature.....but, global life of peace, justice and happiness is the Prize of the Prize.
Dear Family,We are 1,000 strong and growing every day. The New Movement in Tampa Bay is gaining strength with the support of each and every one of you. To date our campaign has more supporters than any other in this race. Your trust and support means so much to me. It is by the efforts of all of us that our community will see real improvement to the quality of our lives. And, as your State Representative in District 60, I will always support legislation that will improve the quality of life for everyone in the district. As a taxpayer you face a choice in the coming election. Who do you want to represent you in Tallahassee?Florida faces critical decisions on healthcare, education, and energy reform. With a budget shortfall looming in the billions, who is it that you want making these critical decisions? Someone who has faced the same trials and tribulations you have or someone who has not? The status quo of doing business in Tallahassee is no longer acceptable. We need progressive and fresh ideas to get Florida through the current crisis. We can no longer have leaders representing us that spend irresponsibly, and then give breaks to special interests, while we the taxpayers foot the bill.As a community we will head to the ballot booths in August and November of next year and let it be known that we want progress. We will let it be known that we will not accept business as usual. Business is not good and it is we who are suffering because of the decisions made by a select few. We will stand up, we will organize, and we will let them know there is a New Movement in Tampa Bay. This movement is something special, and each of you has a role to play in it. Spread the word to your friends and neighbors. Let them know that we have the opportunity to have a leader that represents us.This is our time Tampa Bay. This next election is our chance to lay the strong foundation upon which we will build a better Florida for us all. We will work to support healthcare reform so all will have a right to life. We will work to ensure our children have a world-class education to compete in the global economy. And, we will work to ensure that our environment is preserved for generations to come while our dependence on fossil fuels is changed forever. The opportunity for new revenue streams and an end to special interests gaining a free ride on the taxpayers’ backs is what we will work for to see a more economically stable Florida.These real improvements to our lives will not happen without hard work and dedication. So I ask each and every one of you to do your part. You can start today by inviting 10 friends to join our campaign. This will see an exponential growth in our movement and show those who wish only for the status quo that we want progress. This is your movement Tampa Bay and this is our time. Thank you for your continued to support.-ChrisP.S. Our campaign needs the support of each and every one of you. If each of you could donate $10.00 by September 25, 2009, our campaign will be in the driver’s seat for this election. Visit www.CANO460.com and contribute today!
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© 2009 Christopher Cano Campaign. All rights reserved.Political advertisement paid for and approved by Christopher Cano Democrat for State House District 60
As an American who descends from a long line of proud and hardworking people, I possess a perspective with which many of you can identify. I grew up and was raised in the city of my birth, Tampa, Florida. My home has been a city in flux my entire life. Moving from the Cigar City of America in the first half of the twentieth century to the third largest media market in America has not been an easy transition. Many people in this city have either had to develop new skills or move elsewhere. Some fields have been made obsolete by technology in their entirety. Yet, the small town that once was the City of Tampa has grown exponentially. This is now the world renowned I-4 corridor. The pulse of our nation's politics and trends alike. Just as this country could not retreat back within its borders following World War I without costing the world greatly, we as a people are not afforded the opportunity to retreat back to the small town days of our fair city. Thus, we stand at a precipice. Do we keep things in our city as they are and work to attempt to return to outdated times, or do we progress as a people and push forwarded to reach a greater destiny?
Many of us yearn for a nostalgic era where our streets were not so crowded and everyone knew their neighbors. Where the street cars took you anywhere you needed to get to in town. These are ideas we cannot return to, yet we can build upon. We can progress by engaging in our communities, organizing as citizens, and providing input in the civics of our fair city. We can progress by electing officials who support a mass transit plan which will alleviate traffic and get us across this metropolis we still call home. We can progress by ensuring our officials support the allocation of resources necessary for creating jobs. Progress is not made overnight. It is made by the sweat of our brows and the strength of our backs. We are going to have to work hard and work together to achieve a more prosperous future for us all.
We live in a republic which is based on representative democracy. Therefore our progress as a nation is tied directly to those leaders we elect to represent us. So you must ask yourself what you wish...do you want world peace? Do you want a long and healthy life? Do you want economic prosperity in the hands of all or a few? Do you want a world class education for you and your children? Do you want the taxes you pay to support special interests or social services?
We have an opportunity to engage our leaders everyday by writing, calling, and using the internet’s social media tools to let them know how we want to be represented. What’s more, we can engage our leaders every two years when election time comes around. We can engage our leaders by electing candidates that represent us. We can show our elected officials that we want our values and goals represented in the legislation they support. We can ensure we are represented by each citizen doing their part in the community at large. In the end our future is dependent upon no one but each other.
America was founded by blacksmiths and farmers, by lawyers and doctors, by laborers and scientists. This nation was founded by teachers and statesmen, by natives and immigrants alike. If three million can band together to rise up against the largest colonial power in the world to found a free nation, then what can 300 million do to overcome a world in economic, social, and environmental crisis?
We, the people, face a time and era where we must come together to overcome the challenges before us. Our nation is at war with an enemy many of us have only seen on television. Our economy has been weakened by the greed and irresponsibility of a few. Our healthcare is too costly due to the failure to regulate favorably in the interest of the American people and rather in the interest of insurance giants. American lives now hang in the balance of whether people can afford healthcare, not whether doctors can save them. Our education we provide the American school child is subpar due to insufficient funding on the part of legislators. And, we are having a division over whether it is ethical for the American President to call on our children to be better students.
Have we lost perspective on what it means to lead? A majority of this nation elected a man named Barack Hussein Obama II to lead us in our affairs. We entrusted him with the reigns of our nation in order to lead us out of the state we are facing. Do we have so little faith in each other that when we disagree we must divide rather than come together?
I had a president once address me as a student. President George H.W. Bush asked me as an American student to take an interest in math and science. It shaped me as student to understand the issues that I would one day face as a future legislator. I understand that we can no longer support an energy policy which damages our planet and strengthens our enemies. I understand that we cannot continue to cut revenue and not spending. I understand that when a special interest is advanced in contrast to the best interest of the people, it is the people who lose out. And, I understand that Americans cannot afford to continue to elect officials who wish to keep these issues status quo.
Many may wonder how the President addressing the nation’s young people relates to the current state of affairs we face. The fact is that American Presidents are role models that show kids what they can and cannot be. You can be someone who creates a dialogue with your opposition rather than ignore them. You can be someone who asks the hard questions some of us fear to answer. You cannot be someone who chooses to keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. You cannot be someone who chooses to do business as normal when business is bad. Therefore I put it to the nation to hear our President out on his address to our nation’s youth. To engage him in healthy debate, rather than ignore what he is saying.
Progress is preferable to stagnation. Nature favors those who can evolve rather than remain stuck in their ways. Knowledge is gained by those who learn from mistakes. But, one must make mistakes to learn. We as a nation have evolved over the last 233 years by learning from our mistakes, by progressing rather than remaining status quo. We must choose to build on our better history and learn from our mistakes. So I ask you, is it a mistake to ignore what a President has to say because it does not fall in line with your ideology?
Ask your children what they think of what the President is saying and asking of them. In the end, it will be them who carry the future of our nation and not us. Let us hope they will be better than us. Let us hope they will accept that many of our current ways are folly. And, that many of our ideas will one day bear the fruit of prosperity. This nation has not advanced to its current status because we chose to do things the easy way or chose leisure over hard work. We have been at the forefront of human innovation since Reconstruction. Let us work together to progress, to be better than what we are. That is the essence of what it means to be human, to rise above what you are to be something greater. That spark of divinity in man, regardless of your individual faith or lack thereof, is universal. Each of us possesses it, and we must nurture it. We must nurture it in ourselves and our children.
To motivate through conversation and engagement, rather than ignorance and cynicism is a lesson that this nation can take from this address. I hope that it does. I hope we as a people come together in solidarity with the essence of the American Experiment in Democracy. Many say that American Republicanism and Biblical Traditions are being stifled by socialists. I would put to you that our Republican and Biblical values are being trampled by our Individualism. Selfishness, greed, and the defense of them as being a freedom are destroying our values. Let us hope we can re-examine what it means to be a good American and a good human being. Perhaps then we might come to the consensus that it is a right to life at the core of the American healthcare reform debate. Perhaps then we will see that cutting funding for education serves to only hinder progress and endanger our children. Perhaps then we will see that hearing the message, rather than crucifying someone because we disagree it is the more rational course. We have too much history from which we can choose to learn. We do not have to remain in our current state, but rather than build for a better one.
Therefore I challenge us all to progress as a nation rather than choose to cling to outdated ideas. I challenge us to choose to be better than remain status quo. Our city, our state, and our nation must be better if we are to have a future worth living on our planet. And, if you do not care for your future then I beseech you to look deep within your own humanity. The future of us all is at stake. So are you going to choose progress or remain status quo?
By Christopher C. Cano
Candidate for State Representative District 60
Senator Ted Kennedy extended his life beyond his family and friends to share as a public servant for all Americans. His championed work can be manifested in the application of justice and equality for all Americans. Many of us are sadden of his passing though he was persistent to brave the challenge to mold an ideal society till his last days. JFK, onced coined: " Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." If we can remove our mentality from a self serving and vain society of individuals, we can see the profound message that those who stood and stand for a prosperous and healthy nation for all this nations citizens, is we are bound as one people. We are all Americans destined to champion humanity's imperfections or are we just another failed experiment of intellectual, social and economic governance of humanity?
A claim to fame as the greatest civilization on the Planet Earth, The United States of America...lined with golden rules of humanity, civility and intellect unmatched by any nation has unmasked a deep contradiction through some of its misinformed and prejudicial citizens.
You would think a great debate and outrage would be over the billion dollar child pornography business or child abuse...or the billions of dollars ripped off by likes of Madoff and Wallstreet tycoons of investors, 401K, stocks, etc... merging and dismantling of corporations (shipping jobs overseas)to avoid domestic employment, health and retirement benefits for American workers...deaths of brave American men and women troops who fight unsubstantiated wars, but fight as a duty,...pollution, crime, uneducated masses, credit gouging......no outrage on any of the above issues mentioned during these past years ...immediately after Presidential election there is a need for outrage and where is the outrage?....healthcare reform for all Americans! A political ploy, masked as a cost factor. How can the Statue of Liberty ask for the tired, poor and etc. at the gateway to America, as some American citizens show rage and disrespect towards its own elected officials and fellow Americans over HEALTH! Complete hypocrisy and utter stupidity!
Distraction is quite an attraction, isn't it??? Chrysler/GM in and out of brief bankruptcy and on the road to solvency. Weak stock market hit 7,000 level under former administration and now over 9,000. Announcement made that some troops are on their way home from one of the unjustified wars this year. The entire planet loves America again because of President Obama, but not for long when they see the ugly face of racism emerge. Healthcare system on positive path to improvement since health insurance cost will no doubt keep rising with a shrunken work force, who must pay for risk. Downward sliding economy hits brakes and positions to regroup. Yet, all that is heard from the media and undermining politicians and pundits is President mispoke and should apologize about Professor's arrest(can you say trespassing when i.d. has been established?). Privacy Act?
The only one that needs to apologize are those who constantly harp on some fantasy of never being wrong even about slavery, jim crow, segregation, lynching.....shall i go on. The media has taken advantage of President Obama's promise of transparency and keeps him in the publics eye hoping that the population will grow weary, but yet always have a story of interest because it makes America seem as though all racism has been extracted, please. The whole world is watching and is not fooled by this bullsh**. If the President operates from behind closed doors and no longer gives you easy access to his staff, workers or himself then you'll cry foul, but without a doubt project another image and spin to thrust on the people. Learn to live and report as a genuine multi-cultured nation or brace yourself for a rude awakening....
We stand at a point in time where many jobs have gone overseas...and wonder what happened to the economy....Health coverage and payroll has always been the biggest liability for most companies, that's why the jobs went overseas. Profits, board members, and CEO pay had to be the ultimate measure at the end of the day. But, when there are less workers due to relocating jobs overseas and mergers, then there is less input to both accumulate national wealth and spread the risk factor for health coverage, thus health insurance cost increased.
Even huge pay differences between sectors of the population could not curtail the inevitable, there must be balance......Now the free market capitalists and lobbyists will scream "no higher taxes, socialism, and blah, blah, blah", the fact remains that when there is a denial of access to production, whether it is discrimination by race or economic stature, the whole gross national product is ultimately effected. There is no reason to debate whether denial of access for equality existed or exists, because at this point with an unprecedented economic demise, everyone pretty much feels the heat....what do we do about it now?
We work harder as one nation of people for the wellbeing of us all or continue to see the spiral down effect of mismanaged and discriminatory practices. We have perhaps, the greatest minds on the planet, here in America, yet face a dire, near catastrophic crisis from years of greed and selfishness. These minds must become a force for resolution. You can't have it both ways, as the saying goes," You can only serve one master". I'm afraid the master for America had been the DOLLAR, the ultimate prize, yet we claim to be a Christian nation, whatever that means. Because it damn sure doesn't mean abiding by the original laws of the Bible which banned usury(making profit from money) in the first place. This ethical and moral law was to be followed for a reason, mainly to avoid corruption and the craving for the DOLLAR in one's heart. Its too late to implement another monetary system, but is it too late to implement a genuine national brotherhood? If there is still national pride then now is the time to embrace each other in justice or witness the (Fall of Rome) before our very eyes...
Make no mistake, an intrique or manuevering unit within our national governing body's only goal is to be counterproductive to President Obama's agenda, that's politics. President Obama has health coverage already, he's trying to get it for YOU. Yeah, they'll throw out bait of all kinds, like: "spending our grandchildrens budget"....yet, there was no problem spending money (an estimate trillion dollars over 10 years) to enter a foreign country(Iraq) looking for some type of weapons and all that were found were 6 fighter jets(5 buried in the sand) and 3 battleships(inoperable). Iraq had a 2/3 no-fly zone already imposed on it, how were these "mysterious weapons" going to become mobile anyway, camel or horse and wagon? That's called wasteful or unintelligent spending. Politics is strange....this nation was gun-ho about financing a war against Iraq and Afghanistan which was the beginning of our economic demise, but for the health and wellbeing of its own citizens, no way, which is the beginning of economic growth. Could it be some politicians have a stake in the sale of military weapons, a deadly truth? Interest in oil? Guess what, still no Osama, only the killings of combatants who choose to fight and die against invaders and Coalition soldiers fighting as ordered. If i recall it was reported 15 of the 9/11 plane hi-jackers were Saudi renegade citizens and we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, huh??? Not that we should be at war with the Saudis, but what's really going on???? OIL. Another story.....
The current President's predecessor, Bush stated "the fundamentals of the economy are sound(strong)", several times, yet passed a stimulus package to bail the "sound economy" out of the throes of devastastion before leaving office. But, the agenda of the former President is not the issue as far as our solution, but is an issue as far as the problem. You see, there's an element within our governing body that doesn't want our current Presidents agendas to succeed even if it means blind siding the very people President Obama and they also swore to uphold in their best interest and livelihood.
President Obama was given the keys to a remarkable vehicle (national economy), by the former driver, Bush, who explained, "I thought the engine was running fine, but it needs a tune-up. So, i borrowed some money to have it repaired." A minor miscalculation accompanied the keys, yesterdays budget forecast has come and gone, welcome new day Trillions of dollar economy. Upon receiving the keys the current President and everybody riding in this remarkable vehicle realized, the engine is going out, we'll need a new engine or a new vehicle sooner than later(national economy and banking system). In the mean time there are some passengers who've gotten ill and can't receive care because the vehicle is puttering and stalling, yet, an element of those who make decisions about the operation of this remarkable vehicle tell those who are ill, it's a little costly to fix, so try to hang in there while we bs(govern). Those ill sometimes lose their homes, jobs, health and ultimately their lives as the remarkable vehicle waits on crucial decision makers.
Some politician's only sense of governing is to influence the minds of this nations citizens (passengers) that the remarkable vehicle isn't working properly because of who now has the keys, hoping the people won't see the truth of politics, deadly truth.
I have been dismayed that many of President Obama's supporters, expecting miracles & wanting all they voted for to be passed like yesterday, are criticizing him.
I ask that everyone just remember what the last eight years were like & what things are like now - OMG!
Both the President & First Lady have restored our moral compass in the world.
He has passed a lot of remarkable legislation already with a ton more to come IF we, his supporters, don't turn our backs on him - he NEEDS our support! The other side does quite a nice (!) job of stabbing him in the back at every turn without his supporters adding to the noise!
Moreover, included in the US measure is the highest ratio of defense spending to GNP of any advanced nation. This means that excluding defense, we have by far the smallest public sector plus transfer system, in relation to GNP, in the developed world. Moreover our public sector has grown more slowly than that of any other developed nation. Could it be that many of our problems arise because our government is spending too little, in relation to GNP, rather than too much? Can we really manage the problems of a modern economy with less government participation than other nations require? Our social and economic statistics do not paint an encouraging picture.These issues call for analysis and interpretation. Yet in public political discussion it is all too commonly assumed that government spending must be reduced further. However, recent studies have provided evidence that public investment in education, R&D and infrastructure will add more to future GNP than private spending, and further is likely to stimulate private productive investment. Far from trying to curb or cut government spending, the Clinton Administration needs to do just what Professor Friedman apparently fears—"…deliver…little if any deficit reduction, but instead [provide us with] a big increase in domestic spending, financed by a combination of new taxes and defense cuts…"
Moreover, included in the US measure is the highest ratio of defense spending to GNP of any advanced nation. This means that excluding defense, we have by far the smallest public sector plus transfer system, in relation to GNP, in the developed world. Moreover our public sector has grown more slowly than that of any other developed nation. Could it be that many of our problems arise because our government is spending too little, in relation to GNP, rather than too much? Can we really manage the problems of a modern economy with less government participation than other nations require? Our social and economic statistics do not paint an encouraging picture.
These issues call for analysis and interpretation. Yet in public political discussion it is all too commonly assumed that government spending must be reduced further. However, recent studies have provided evidence that public investment in education, R&D and infrastructure will add more to future GNP than private spending, and further is likely to stimulate private productive investment. Far from trying to curb or cut government spending, the Clinton Administration needs to do just what Professor Friedman apparently fears—"…deliver…little if any deficit reduction, but instead [provide us with] a big increase in domestic spending, financed by a combination of new taxes and defense cuts…"
DR. FREIDMAN RESPONDED:
I supported President Clinton's deficit reduction package (indeed, I argued in these pages for a more aggressive program than the President's) not merely because I believe increased investment is essential to achieving productivity growth and with it a rising standard of living but also, and importantly, because I share the President's assessment that on average the US economy will be near to full employment during the period in question.For example, I suggested in Day of Reckoning that President Reagan's tax cuts and greater military spending not only did not crowd out US private investment during the high-unemployment years of 1981–1984 but probably crowded in some investment by increasing overall economic activity and hence people's incomes and their demand for many products. In the end, I was therefore pleased that Congress passed the President's program. No one likes paying higher taxes, of course, or doing without the programs curtailed by cuts in government spending. But I believe that reducing the government's borrowing, and so increasing our country's investment, is the surest way we know to begin to correct the dual problem of declining average living standards and widening inequalities about which I have previously written here.
I supported President Clinton's deficit reduction package (indeed, I argued in these pages for a more aggressive program than the President's) not merely because I believe increased investment is essential to achieving productivity growth and with it a rising standard of living but also, and importantly, because I share the President's assessment that on average the US economy will be near to full employment during the period in question.
For example, I suggested in Day of Reckoning that President Reagan's tax cuts and greater military spending not only did not crowd out US private investment during the high-unemployment years of 1981–1984 but probably crowded in some investment by increasing overall economic activity and hence people's incomes and their demand for many products.
The answer is... not to stop government spending but to stop government borrowing, and reign in the government bureaucracy, which the Bush-Republicans created. They sold out our nation, our nest egg's and our children inheritance to foreign banks and foreign countries, and placed our overall security on the most untenable ground ever.
What President Obama needs to do is stop government borrowing to attack the deficit, and pay off the foreign debt, ASAP. President Obama must continue his full court press and pass the twin reform of both the energy and health sectors and achieve the economies of scale and energy indepence that are so large a part of our present and future GNP. President Obama must continue to invest heavily, and even take a more aggressive approach to implementing the public investment in education, R&D and infrastructure that will add more to future GNP than private spending will ever accomplish on its own, and which is further likely to stimulate private productive investment well into our childrens future.
The most demoralizing threat to any country is the destabilizing influence of terrorism, and its unlawful coercive intimidating force. The most de-humanizing factor people experience in a country beset by terrorism is the unbridled fear of the unlawful use of that force to threaten the extermination of any country’s existence by radical partisan elements within or outside of its borders.
Force, at a more basic level is divided as a force unto life and a force unto death, and devoid of the forces of theology, ideology, or philosophy the force of biology concludes a premium of life over death. The force of annihilation exerted against the force for life creates a push and pull natural of all life and death struggles and when terrorism leads the charge for death anywhere and everywhere, the “Force for Life” can build a framework where there is a shared understanding and definition of terrorism and where we can begin an exchange of ideas and open a channel of communication that prevents death and our wholesale extermination.
Force for Life can become the framework for where living secure, healthy, and prosperous lives in congruence with our environment, our societies, and cultures is based on our mutual existence. Force for Life requires us to exist and prosper, and to live out a natural course of life, and in living that natural course of life we discover a present necessity to establish an equilibrium that involves interdependence for co-existing to achieve the self-preservation, self-determination and autonomy innate to the Force for Life.
The framework for security in the Middle East and hence the world begins with accepting the premise of the Force for Life; here the world community agrees to the eradication of terrorism everywhere and anywhere. Where the world community also agrees on a Consensus of Nations of 12 signatory countries, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Iraq to chartering a Military Tribunal on Terrorism similar to the “Tribunal” at Nuremburg, “…for the just and prompt trial and punishment of…” major world terrorists, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda and the Taliban got their start, to be known as the Kandahar Tribunal. Furthermore as part of the reconstruction of Afghanistan a construction of a super maximum prison for the detaining and imprisonment of convicted terrorists will be built.
Under the Consensus of Nations, a Kandahar Treatise for Security would be drafted to establish first a viable security for the region, to promote the common good, to establish social stability, and to secure, self-governing states of Lebanon and Palestine.
Whereas, the Consensus of Nations recognizes the new nations of Lebanon and Palestine, but will also provides significant assistance, in the promotion, of regional security, to weaker states.
Whereas, Lebanon establishes its current borders, and Palestine and Israel sign a 50/50 compromise forming a parallel that starts at the Jordan Border and passes through Jericho following highway 1 as it extends to the Armistice of Agreement Line of 1949 just north of Jerusalem.
Whereas, the new Palestine State would inhabit all the lands north of that demarcation ceding and vacating the southern cities to Israel and thereby requiring Israel to halt, vacate all Israeli settlements in the new Palestine state.
Whereas, requiring the new Palestine state to halt, vacate all Palestinian settlements south of the new southern border of the Palestine state.
Whereas, the Consensus of Nations would raise the capital, and resources necessary from the world community, to facilitate the move and repatriation of people and lands between Israel and the new nation of Palestinian.
Whereas, the Consensus of Nations would establish a binding, equitable “Treatise on Water” by establishing equitable rates and agreed distribution of water resources between regional signatory countries of the Consensus of Nations.
Whereas, the Consensus of Nations would halt the proliferation of Nuclear Arms and Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East Region, and plan for a progressive timetable for the elimination and dismantling of existing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, Asia and around the world.
Whereas, the Consensus of Nations would use the structure of the “Treatise on Water” to further review, enhance, and facilitate trade between member nations, and the world at a specific time and date.
President O’s First Major Flip-Inside the Bubble
May 13, 2009 Tampa, Fl
We are seeing the full effect of the Bubble. Where are all the President’s advisors on this and who has his ear, let alone his mind, and heart? Today’s White House news conference stated that the President O. seeks to review and delay the eminent exposure of the pentagon’s file on pictures of torture, based on National Security reasons.
It goes against the courts approval to release the in-famous torture pictures, and smells of Bush era smoke screen tactics, but moreover his delay screams of power (his corrupting Presidential power) the same power he campaigned against, which opposses honest law and due process.
It raises immediately these questions: The president is impinging First Amendment rights by not abiding by the courts decision by raising a legal position outside of the original FOIA rules, thwarting First Amendment rights which prohibits against government intervention in FOIA approved releases?
What is different now as opposed to when the Abu Ghraib pictures were released? Where we actually made less safe when those pictures were released or were we made more aware of the damming injustice of torture? No, we were not made less safe! The war raged on.
But we were alerted to injustice! Again, the real questions are: Who is President Obama listening to and who made him flip on the issue, and why? The President’s Flip on the issue resembles Bush tactics to skirt the law and impinge our constitutional rights for unknown or vague National Security Interests.
The President’s release of this change of position raised more questions, created more doubt, and made people more leery of his Presidency, and wasted a considerable amount valuable political trust/capital from his contract with the American People. Was it worth it?
The report of our own soldiers killing their own out of rage and post traumatic stress disorder has marked the immediacy of ending an unwarranted war, but also marks the importance of coming clean with our sins against humanity and our selves.
Since transparency is more about being honest and forthcoming his White House press conference May 13, 2009 created big sink holes in his promise of transparency, honesty, and integrity by being vague, and incoherent, by ineptly using borderline statements that seemed to skirt the issue.
Whether the release of the pictures makes it less probable or more probable for future picture taking is irrelevant of the main verity of being transparent with the American Public.
As a matter of opinion video graphing and picture taking should be codified as a requirement in the interrogation process across every level of government, including the CIA, FBI, and destruction of those tapes should be made a federal offense punishable by federal law because it keeps everyone honest.
Giving President O the Benefit of the Doubt
“Pragmatic” is President O.’s new middle name, but how it is delivered to the American Public is in serious need of review and it is now remanded and relegated to the President to fill in the craters he and his staff have created. First it must be made clear to the American’s why the President chose to “Flip” on this issue, and it must be advocated from a point of responsibility.
“Discretion is the better part of valor”, and according to wise counsel of Proverbs: “It is good to be brave, but it is also good to be careful.; If you are careful, you will not get into situations that require you to be brave.”
First, be honest with the American people by making it clear that this is not a political ploy or a play to rouse partisan bickering, but an honest and careful examination under our moral and legal standards.
It must be made clear that he is not playing cat and mouse politics with the Constitution against the veil of National Security agency to avoid the serious scrutiny and impact these pictures represent to the moral psyche and healing of the American conscious. He must release them, and tell the country when he will.
It is also not clear how National Security would be negatively impacted by the release of these pictures, as compared to the release of the Abu Ghraib pictures. But moreover it must be made clear that he is not stepping in the way of legal justice by using a seemingly arbitrary decision to tact the delay of the release of the Pentagon’s pictures of torture through a legal ploy.
Second on that basis the President should advocate that he felt it would be inappropriate to release the pictures on Memorial Day, and give our service men and women a black eye when it should be a day of reconciliation and honor to fallen heroes of all branches of service and security.
Third, and most importantly he must uphold and honor the value of the constitutional First Amendment without abdicating our country’s sins by using National Security as a convenient veil to hide the truth, of the injustice of torture.
Anything intended to be transparent or anything that “hems and haws” or that seems illicit or anything that falls into a casting shadow of doubt becomes obscure and un-transparent, and loses all the effect of honesty.
Take counsel from Frederick Douglas:
“He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins” Frederic Douglas
“He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins”
Frederic Douglas
I know i am not alone as i balance rent, buying food, utilities, medicine and auto insurance at a seemingly impossible approach....yet i am thankful....the spirit and drive to be a positive person of integrity is rewarding in itself, something I learned from at the time, Senator Obama while he campaigned .............now I observe President Obama and Michelle travel
Europe and the MidEast with masterful intelligence and display the better part of their hearts in style, which should give all Americans pride....some will argue for argue sake...."he's no messiah, he reads scripts, wants to spend money" no he's not a messiah, but to utilize intelligence and speak from a good heart will defer one from being foolish...and foolish is what we've experienced as a nation that brought us to this point economically, intellectually, socially, globally and many other ....ly. Spending money isn't and wasn't the problem, foolishly spending and mismanaging money is the problem. There are no tele-promps in closed meetings with heads of States,......minds and hearts are present, key things that hadn't been used in awhile from former administrations....
Man had not matured as a spiritual or thinking being when deadly weapons were created...now still not spiritually mature in the 21st Century, we struggle with the consequence and the price of wars, in particular two wars that have crippled our economy and stressed our population to react with mass murders on a weekly scale, fear of job or home loss, anxiety of ample food, medication, etc. War is not the answer and as we now realize, it is costly in not just lives but livelihoods .... we have yet to learn, collectively we can either bless up this planet or mess up this planet, choice is ours....
First I admit I'm a smoker. I made that choice many years ago to smoke. I made that choice like many people make unhealthy choices such as drinking or eating fatty foods, etc. There are lots of unhealthy things and in fact the world is just an unhealthy place in general. I don't personally care what people do since I am pro-choice when it comes to an individual deciding what they can live with, what they choose to live with. I don't and wouldn't walk up to a person eating McDonalds fatty food and telling them, "That's going to kill you." but I have had people feel that it is their right to walk up and tell me that about cigarettes (as if I didn't know that information and it isn't telecasted and plastered on the side of my cigarette pack). Maybe we should just put a warning lable on everything because everything is a hazard? Or maybe people should tend to their own nasty affairs and not give free advice as if it was their privilaged place and job. If everyone told everybody what they thought, what they should and shouldn't do there would be a world of offended people. Somehow society has planted the notion that it's okay to offend people who chose to smoke.
Now aside from that I am just going to throw this out as well. I do want and hope for universal health care BUT I have a bone to pick concerning the cigarette tax going to pay for other people's offsprings health care. What about people who NEVER have children, who make a conscious choice to not have them? Why should those people pay for someone elses choice or lack of choice in having children that they can't afford health care for? What about older adults who have grown adult children? Should they have to pay for someone elses childs health care? What bother's me is the inequity in the cigarette tax paying for someone elses child. What do smoker's get out of it. Forget social conscious since people are rude to smokers and lack the conscious to mind their business. Forget that everyone actually cares for every child because they don't.
There are plenty of unwanted children that people have spawned for multitudes of reasons. Plenty of churches support pro-life but NEVER support the unwed mothers financially over the years as they struggle financially to take care of the child. Society has no rules concerning how many babies people can randomly spawn and have the system pay out for them and believe me I have seen plenty of women in my area who know full well that by having that extra child they can raise their income through programs. You wanna talk about irresponsible behavior vs cigarette smoking. How is it that it's okay for people who cannot afford children to demand that society take care of their children rather than use BIRTH CONTROL. Every health department will hand out bag fulls of free condoms to those who can't afford them. I am offended that people can make the unhealthy choice of spawning babies like rabbits, who take no responsibility as to how they intend to pay for those children and it falls upon society to figure it out. I suggest that there should be a limit on how many children people can have based upon income and if they are currently recieving any type of government assistance for the current children they have they should be told that if they have more than those children that they will not recieve assistance for any further pregnancies.
I've heard the idea that raising cigarette tax may make people quit smoking. Well maybe if people knew that they weren't going to get further assistance for having extra babies they'd quit having them. I'm not so socially concerned that I am just dying to take care of other people's choice to have children that they cannot afford medical care for. Frankly I am offended when I made the personal choice to have ONE and only one child because I knew I couldn't afford more than that one but there were no rewards for that choice. Have you ever noticed that the right choices never reap reward? No one is paying for my bad habit, and I'm not asking for help to pay for it. I chose to smoke, I pay for those cigarettes and I know that I can die. In truth, there are moments that I am content to chose my poison I'm fine dying since I am going to die anyway. Even the job I have being a convenience store clerk puts me in danger of death from robbers who could shoot me down in a heartbeat. If I get in a car I could die. Realistically I'm headed that way and I personally don't care about the last ten years of my life since they will likely be a burden on society and my family since those years lack quality and generally demand a lot of health care.
Here's my question - What do I get out of paying that tax? As a person who no longer has any small children and won't have any small children, what is my gain? Don't give me the social goody two shoes talk because I frankly don't care about other people's children that they chose to have and chose to support. Oh and the notion that it will make people quit smoking is kind of inane because think about this, if they all quit smoking then where will the money come from to pay for all those children's health care. People should be thanking smokers for doing their part as American citizens and smoking their lungs out for all the little kiddies who don't have health care. We smokers should be recieving some kind of reward for doing our part and giving back or maybe when all the smokers quit the government will pick on your habit and make you pay out the ass to take care of someone elses problem child.
Read the Headlines:
The New York Times Reports:
Obama Tries to Rally Nation to His AgendaBy PETER BAKERPublished: March 24, 2009 WASHINGTON — President Obama tried to rally the nation behind his ambitious agenda Tuesday night, hoping to channel outrage at Wall Street excess into support for changes in tax, health care and energy policy that face skepticism even within his own party in Congress.
Obama Tries to Rally Nation to His Agenda
By PETER BAKER
Published: March 24, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama tried to rally the nation behind his ambitious agenda Tuesday night, hoping to channel outrage at Wall Street excess into support for changes in tax, health care and energy policy that face skepticism even within his own party in Congress.
The Washington Post Reports
President Pleads For Patience on Recovery EffortsHe Points to 'Signs of Progress'By Michael D. Shear and Scott WilsonWashington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, March 25, 2009; Page A01President Obama asked the American people for patience last night as his administration struggles to balance a surge of populist anger at Wall Street against the need to assist some of the financial institutions that helped create the economic crisis
President Pleads For Patience on Recovery Efforts
He Points to 'Signs of Progress'
By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, March 25, 2009; Page A01
President Obama asked the American people for patience last night as his administration struggles to balance a surge of populist anger at Wall Street against the need to assist some of the financial institutions that helped create the economic crisis
Reasons for Failure: Not all Lost, but Need to Re-Double Efforts:
1.Opponents sidetracked the President Obama’s budget with noise from AIG bonuses in the News-Cycle, and LOST “PUBLIC SENTIMENT” FOR HIS BUDGET!
2. Re-emphasize and re-establish a clean break from problems of previous administration; name out President BUSH, and signal the BUDGET AS A NEW BEGINNING to tackle those problems.
3. The Public are not accustomed to an open discussion about the Budget.
a. Make the Budget discussion like bread and butter, life and death, kitchen table issues.
4. The White House Public Affairs Office (PAO) is operating and slumping in business as usual.
5. PAO has no clear focus for an Offensive.
a. Break up PAO slumping by bringing in mentality of the campaign.
b. “Everything is a Campaign in the White House”
c. IF PAO is Limited use OFA to launch joint AD campaign with DCCC.
d. Team up to inform public and engage their “Public Sentiment.” with PSA's.
6. The Message has not been made in clear and beneficial specific terms to the public.
a. Break down the consequences to the public even further.
b. Paint the picture of what will happen if these reforms are not passed.
c. Give affirming details of where our country can be with or without this budget. Make it
personal to arouse “Public Sentiment”
d. Paint a picture in words.
e. Create the demand for budget.
f. PAO needs to become “Disney Imagineers” and promote the President’s Agenda.
7. Public has no “Public Sentiment” what is missing President Obama’s media blitz?
a. Establish Media-Ad Blitz Offensive.
b. Public does not see how impacting this Budget can be.
1. Explain what Lobby Controlled Legislators want to tear out of the Budget.
2. Identify Publicly Democrat or Republican influenced by Lobbyist money
3. Line up Publicly those opposed to the Budget and those For it
4. Campaign vigorously for Moderates
c. Create the Demand for the Budget through Traditional TV and Radio Commercials
1. Set Radio campaigns by influential well known “Einstein Type” scholars.
2. TV Campaigns Create MTV type ad saying:
“I want my Education,” “I want my Healthcare,” “I want New Energy,” “I want to be Out of Debt!”
3. Use Congresspersons and Senators to promote his Budget
4. Use More Analysts on All News shows to promote this Budget.
5. Send Out Mailers
8. The Political Hawks sense the President is on the Defense. The Pres. Is “Pleading” Congress.
He should be demanding it From Congress with the voice of Public Sentiment.
a. Why does he sound like he is begging? He does not have the full wind at his back
—There is NO PUBLIC OUT CRY for this
He does not have full “Public Sentiment.” Got it! (forgive my repitition and simple mind).
b. Big business is using all lobbying leverage on Moderate and Conservative Democrats
– They are pulling their money strings to rip (R.I.P.) apart and initiate Bills/Laws to destroy
his Budget.
c. Political hacks are crying louder and are taking the wind out the President’s proverbial sails.
d. Big Business/Washington Status Quo/ are banning together to divide the Democratic caucus.
e. Listen to Lincoln’s Loud words in his “House Divided Speech
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free
f. Obama government will not endure if the Democrats are divided.
g. AGAIN – arouse “Public Sentiment” for His Budget
h. Reid and Pelosi must work hard to keep Democratic Caucus United.
9. Reframe the Argument as a Public Demand based on “Public Sentiment!" with a MEDIA BLAST
a. Then President Obama and staff must re-double efforts about his Budget.
b. He alone can not win Public Sentiment. Everyone must rally and be a part in this effort.
"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed." - Abraham Lincoln
- Abraham Lincoln
ADD your reasons, offer your solutions and pass it on.
