President Elect-Obama and his ecomonic team, should take learn alittle something from the expample set by Rudy Giuliani.
When Giuliani took office, he started with a lot of quality of life changes. At the time they seemed meaningless to a lot of people, but gettting rid of panhandlers and increasing a visible police presence helped everyone believe he was making real and lasting change.
Please take a page from Rudy's book and start with making sure every American feels change where they need it most...in their wallets. The ecomonic bail out, right now is a joke. Companies with their hands out is just sick. Fortune 500 companies telling their vendors, and I swear this is a true statemtent, "the money we owe you for this year, we intend to pay, but the money we have not paid from last year...forget about it...we are not going to talk about it". These are the people you are bailing out.
Business 101, if a business is failing because they have no money coming in to pay their bills, then bailing them out does not change the fact that they have no money coming in to their coffers.The bail out money has already been used to bolster wasteful expenditures and mergers.
Here is my great point. Force all the banks and the newly formed banks and any financial institution that takes bailout money, including foreign enities; to create new Debt Management Departments, that will be required to help current and new customers repair their debt. The new customers will be required to open accounts and the deposit money with the institution and the Debt Management department will consolidate the customers debt and place the customer on a spending plan and provide education that will result in a customer with a higher credit score and lower debt.
What is the upside for the bank? They will consolidate debt at a prearranged rate, sugguest consolidation loans and facilliate payback through the customer's accounts. The bank ends up with good debt customers that are extremely valuable and loyal customers that can now apply for car loans, mortgages, education loans etc.
reposted from myspace, thursday, september 4th
last night's RNC speeches by giuliani and palin were, in my opinion, rather disappointing... not surprizing but disappointing nonetheless. the ceaseless attacks and insults on/of obama's good work and his character were off-putting and, frankly, quite disgusting... and the lies were incessant and blatant, besides!?!does anyone else find it alarming, distasteful, offensive and/or even creepy to see buttons and signage regarding sarah palin such as, "Hoosier's for the Hot Chick!" and "The Hottest VP from the Coolest State!"i typically have a pretty good sense of humor, but for some reason this seems more debasing than amusing to me... sigh...i am a woman. i am a mother. i am a humanist. i understand and appreciate the power and importance of community, of being a contributing member of society, of being a citizen of the world. i am an obama mama, all the way!
I orginally sent this to my friends and family the day after Rudy Giuliani's RNC speech:
Since Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin don't understand what Barack did as a community organizer 24 years ago, I've included a short list of other community organizers: Sam Adams Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Clara Barton (founder of the Red Cross) Cesar Chavez Martin Luther Martin Luther King Jr. St. Francis of Assisi Ghandi Jesus of Nazareth If you're not convinced, please read on: I hate being strident or sanctimonious about politics, but this year there is too much at stake to just sit on my hands. I've NEVER volunteered for a political campaign, but this year I can volunteer for Obama without violating my professional ethics because I'm working in non-fiction TV, but not news. Last night Rudy Giuliani -- whose career was in the toilet before 9/11 -- might as well have told the crowd, "We hate poor people. Let's mock them." While there were many inaccuracies and lies in his speech, it was his mocking of Sen. Obama's work as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago (when Barack was 23) that had me yelling at the TV. . Giuliani and Palin both ridiculed the work that Obama did in his mid-20's in Chicago. Palin made it seem as if he was doing this just a few years ago when, in fact, it was in the '80s around the same time she was a beauty queen. When he could have been making big bucks in Manhattan, Obama chose to take a low-paying job helping the unemployed and at-risk youth. He was working for a faith-based, mainly Catholic organizations. Giuliani may have no respect for non-profit community organizers, but he sure as hell knows what they do. These are the people who help average folks fight city hall. Giuliani picked fights with cab drivers and street vendors, fretted about artwork at a Brooklyn museum because if offended his Catholic sensibilities (cheating on his 2nd wife apparently did not), tried to block protests against police brutality (a Federal court had to force him to allow these protests, declaring his actions unconstitutional), has no respect for the 1st Amendment (Free Speech/Right to Assemble), 2nd Amendment (Right to Bear Arms (weird for a Republican), 4th Amendment (Privacy), 5th and 6th (self incrimination, right to an attorney) --- why would he have any respect for someone trying to help average, working people have a voice in city government? In New York, Giuliani only wanted one voice - his own! Furthermore, a side by side comparison of Palin's resume and Obama shows that there is no comparison. She's much less accomplished. McCain picked a small state governor with a thin resume to be a heart beat (or one more skin cancer diagnosis) away from the presidency. Obama chose a strong, experienced Senator with an international reputation. As they say, " 'A' people surround themselves with 'A' people. 'B' people surround themselves with 'C' people." Just my view... Anyway, Gov. Palin applied for her first passport in 2007!!!! Apparently she wasn't even curious about visiting another country until last year, let alone having any foreign policy experience. This doesn't say a lot for Palin's intellectual curiosity. She was Governor of Alaska before she had a passport? C'mon. I could go line by line picking out the lies about the Obama tax policy, his legislative record, etc, but I've been ranting long enough.
September 4, 2008
Dear Rudy,
I am an independent voter, someone like you, a middle-aged man who has often crossed party lines. I am writing to congratulate you on your warm up speech for Governor Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention last night. Boy, you really had us with you, especially when you laughed about Obama being a community organizer and when you told us Obama had passed “no major legislation to speak of”…
To tell you the truth, Rudy, you are a smart guy, so you have probably already figured out I am faking it. Mind you, not the independent voter part. I am registered with no party, and I vote in every election, but I am not very happy about the speech you gave. It was entertaining. I’ll give you that. A real bell-ringer. But as far as I am concerned it was a hit job. …no, that could be taken as ethnically insensitive, and after last night I know you are a sensitive guy, so I’ll use a phrase that’s less prejudicial and more to the point. It was a hockey check – and not some youth league nudge that could be shrugged off. It was a body slam into the boards intended to split someone’s lip, take out some teeth, leave a little blood on the ice. That was your job. You did well. The timing was perfect, and you made the hit, with a gleaming smile and a glimmer in your eye. The crowd lapped it up. <p>So, just what parts of the speech got me so heated, Rudy? I’m glad you asked. It was your snide dismissal of community organizing and of Obama’s legislative accomplishments. I’ll take them one at a time.
Hockey check #1: You went out of your way … and I mean obviously out of your way by departing from the script, adding a few words, and working the pause until the audience filled in the subtext of your argument. They didn’t get it right away, but on the second go, you had them, and the crowd began to laugh and chant “USA, USA!” But why do I care? What does it matter if you are adept at innuendo and timing? Well, it’s because you went out of your way to stretch a term – organizer – in order to give just a whiff of the old Red-scare (and that’s all that was needed given the hysterical rumors about Obama being a Koran toting socialist). And, it’s because you went out of your way to ridicule people who work long hours, often at great personal sacrifice, to serve democracy. Remember, it was the community organizers who gave us the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950’s and 60’s great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez worked alongside hundreds of community organizers to register voters and to offer a helping hand to those in need. In the Freedom Summer of 1964, four community organizers were killed, four more were critically wounded, and 80 were severely beaten. All because they volunteered their summer to help poor folks in the South learn about their Constitutional rights. Others suffered that summer as well. All together, 1,000 people were arrested and more than 60 African American homes, businesses and churches were bombed or burned. If you think I am pushing the limit by talking about community organizing in the South, I’m going to suggest you call up a person who was there and ask what he thinks about your speech. Robert Parris Moses saw things up close because he was the chief organizer of the Freedom Summer project. Back then he was a young school teacher, fresh out of Harvard, who gave up a good job to become a community organizer. Today he is still teaching and organizing. And he is easy to find. He is the founder of the highly successful Algebra Project that, according to their website, is a “national, nonprofit organization that uses mathematics as an organizing tool to ensure quality public school education for every child in America.” Darn, there is that word again, organizing. Well, on second thought, you might not want to talk to Bob Moses. He is after all, a mere “organizer.” He also bears an uncanny resemblance to that other man you so blithely disparaged on national TV last night.
But as bad as that was, Rudy, hockey check #2, this time on Senator Obama’s Congressional record, was probably worse. Here is why. You are the 9-11 man. America’s Mayor. The man who stood shoulder to shoulder along side New York’s finest and helped our nation find hope in one of its darkest hours. You were unwavering on 9-11, and I believed you. But after last night I’m not so sure about all that. I have deep reservations. You see, I have been reading the newspapers for a long time, and I remember a rather important piece of legislation that made a big splash back in the early 1990’s shortly after the fall of the USSR. I am sure you know about it. Your candidate, Senator John McCain, was a strong supporter of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program of 1992, a crucially important act, the purpose of which was to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction and their associated infrastructure in former Soviet Union states.” Senator McCain was also a strong advocate of a more recent, closely related bill, the Lugar-Obama Nonproliferation Legislation of 2007 which helps “other nations find and eliminate conventional weapons that have been used against our own soldiers in Iraq and sought by terrorists all over the world.” You knew about that legislation as well. You had to. You ran for president as the 9-11 Man. You gave secret testimony about national security and nuclear non-proliferation before the 9-11 Commission. But when it came time to look voters in the eye and tell them the truth, you failed. I’ll give you this. When you spoke those words, you lost your smile. Check the tape. You knew it was a lie. You knew Obama had labored along side Republican Senator Dick Lugar to craft and pass this legislation that would prevent terrorists from buying weapons to use against our troops in Iraq or from setting off a dirty bomb on American soil. National security is your specialty. Remember? You also knew Obama had reached across the aisle to work with Republican Senator Tom Coburn. Together they passed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, better known as Coburn-Obama. The bill calls for the creation of “a single searchable website, accessible by the public at no cost,” to help voters keep tabs on their elected officials. Your candidate, John McCain was a co-sponsor of Coburn-Obama, not an author, mind you, a co-sponsor. But clearly, neither of those bills was “worth mentioning,” were they?
You know, Rudy, most voters do not have the time to check these things out for themselves. Most of us work long hours, go to bed tired, and get up early. So we trust guys like you to tell us the truth. Oh, we know you are going to shine the apple some times – like when you made goofy over Sarah Palin being “a…. mayor!” We expect that. But on the bread and butter issues, the hard core matters like national security and government transparency, we expect you to tell us the truth. Like I said, most of us are too busy to get to the bottom of this stuff – too busy wondering how we are going to pay our mortgages to contemplate the peculiar ironies of Rudy Giuliani shading the truth about national security… or using fatuous oratory to accuse an articulate opponent of being full of hot air.
You were the right guy for the job, Rudy. You cut your teeth in New York courtrooms. You became a forensic wizard; a smiling, nattily appointed attorney who earned a national reputation for slicing and dicing Wall Street cheats and mafia bosses and serving them up in front of the cameras to grand juries. You were the guy who needed to make the hit. You have the requisite rhetorical skills, and you are (were?) the embodiment of credibility on national security. To be fair, I am sure you justified it to yourself. Sometimes a guy has to do a little dirty work to serve the greater good, doesn’t he? I will close with two comments. First of all, though you could not know this – I am not typically an angry person, and I am not prone to writing letters to prominent people. I wrote because I am truly disappointed. Second, although you spoke in front of a very large audience last night, you may have been forgetting one viewer. History was watching as well. It has a strange way of remembering ugly moments like this. And if you ever wake up at night and reflect upon life…. and history. I hope you think about community organizing and non-proliferation. And repent.
Sincerely,
A former admirer
No, not abortions rights. The choice. Not McCain's and not even Obama's inspiring speech. The speech, even more hateful than Giuliani's.
Yes, it's all about Palin': the scandals, the children, her legs, hunting, and inexperience with national and international issues.
Speaking of the speech, if as implied by Palin, years of brutal incarceration is sufficient qualification for POTUS , then how about the MIA's that McCain repeatedly blocked searching for; wouldn't they have made even better presidents if he'd ever tried to get them back from Korea and Vietnam? And how about the felon survivors of our own brutal prison system, some of whom are innocent? Oh, yeah, I forgot: they can't even vote!
Others have covered the Palin' pick far better than I can at this time (started a new job a couple of days ago after a weeks vacation). For a linguists take on The Plain Choice, check out George Lakoff's analyis: http://files.tikkun.org/current/article.php?story=20080904070242463 If video is your cup of red meat, this one neatly sumarizes Palin, the pick and the past: http://tinyurl.com/heartbeatawayohno
Obama needs our support, now, and more than ever!
Henry M
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/print_gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html
Palin trips up on her facts, and Giuliani and Huckabee have their own stumbles on Night 3 of the Republican confab.SummarySarah Palin’s much-awaited speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night may have shown she could play the role of attack dog, but it also showed her to be short on facts when it came to touting her own record and going after Obama’s. We found Rudy Giuliani, who introduced her, to be as factually challenged as he sometimes was back when he was in the race. But Mike Huckabee may have laid the biggest egg of all.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was a hit with the party faithful at the GOP convention, but some of her claims were amiss. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also delivered a few faulty remarks.
A Bridge Too Far
Palin claimed to have stood up to Congress on the subject of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” the Gravina Island bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska, about which we wrote last November.
Palin: I told the Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks," on that bridge to nowhere.
This is not the first time Palin has cited her choice to kill the bridge in 2007 as an example of her anti-waste stance. It’s true that she did eventually nix the project. But the bridge was nearly dead already – Congress had removed the earmark, giving the requested money to the state but not marking it for any specific use. Palin unplugged its life support, declaring in 2007 that the funds would not be used for the Gravina bridge.
When she was running for governor, however, Palin expressed a different position. In 2006, the Ketchikan Daily News quoted her expressing optimism and support for the bridge at a Ketchikan campaign stop.
Palin, 2006: "People across the nation struggle with the idea of building a bridge because they’ve been under these misperceptions about the bridge and the purpose,” said Palin, who described the link as the Ketchikan area’s potential for expansion and growth. … Palin said Alaska’s congressional delegation worked hard to obtain funding for the bridge as part of a package deal and that she “would not stand in the way of the progress toward that bridge.”
Palin also answered "yes" to an Anchorage Daily News poll question about whether she would continue to support state funding for the Gravina Island bridge if elected governor. "The window is now," she wrote, "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist." It was only after she won the governorship that Palin shifted her position. And even then, it’s inaccurate to say that she “told the Congress ‘thanks, but no thanks.’” Palin accepted non-earmarked money from Congress that could have been used for the bridge if she so desired. That she opted to use it for other state transportation purposes doesn’t qualify as standing up to Congress.
The bridge reversal is not the only matter throwing doubt on Palin’s credentials as a government waste reformer. Watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has reported that the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, which had not previously received significant federal funds, hauled in almost $27 million in earmarks while Palin was mayor. (McCain has explicitly criticized several of the Wasilla earmarks in recent years.) To help obtain these earmarks, Palin had hired Steven Silver, the former chief of staff for recently indicted Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, as Wasilla’s lobbyist.
And Palin continued to solicit federal funds as governor. A request form on Stevens’ Web site shows that she requested $160.5 million in earmarks for the state in 2008, and almost $198 million for 2009.
Tough Grader
Palin disparaged Obama’s legislative record, both in Illinois and in Washington:
Palin: But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state Senate.
Of course, we can’t say what Palin considers “major.” But if Palin’s own ethics reforms in Alaska were important enough to highlight in her convention address, then it’s only fair to credit Obama’s efforts on that topic. In 1998 in the Illinois Senate, Obama cosponsored an ethics overhaul that bars elected officials from using their campaign funds for personal use and and was called the the first major overhaul of Illinois campaign and ethics laws in 25 years. It also bans fundraisers in the state Capitol during legislative sessions. Obama’s Republican cosponsor Kirk Dillard even appeared in an Obama ad last summer describing Obama’s skills working with members of both parties to get legislation passed.
In Washington, Obama was instrumental in helping to craft the 2007 ethics reform law that ended gifts and meals from lobbyists, cut off subsidized jet travel for members of Congress, required lobbyists to disclose contributions they “bundle” to candidates, and put the brakes on other, similar common practices.
In addition, we already noted in a recent article Obama’s efforts with Republican senators to help detect and secure weapons of mass destruction and to destroy conventional weapons stockpiles around the world, and to create a publicly searchable database on federal spending.
Overburdened?
One area where we note improvement is the way Palin attacked Obama's tax proposals – as a burden "on the American economy" rather than, as McCain has been falsely claiming, a direct tax increase on middle-income workers:
Palin: And let me be specific: The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, and raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes, and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. ... How are you – how are you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the American economy?
Her tax remarks still cry out for context. Obama proposes to cut taxes for most individuals (81.3 percent of all households would get a tax cut), while raising them only for a relative few at the top, which she did not mention. But she avoided the false claims that McCain continues to make, most recently in a TV ad that wrongly accuses Obama of planning "painful tax increases on working American families." Instead, Palin spoke of the effect of an overall tax increase on jobs and the economy.It's quite true that Obama's plan would increase taxes overall, by a total of $627 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Economists may debate how large or small an effect such an increase would have on jobs and businesses; it's certainly a topic open for discussion in a political campaign.
Riffing Wrongly
In attacking Obama, Palin reeled off a few statements that had a nice cadence, but were light on facts.
Palin: America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it. Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions. Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights.
We have factual problems with three of these statements.
In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in June, Obama elaborated, saying that he would take an aggressive diplomatic approach – carefully preparing for such meetings, setting a clear agenda, coordinating with U.S. allies, and not conducting the meetings at all unless they were clearly in the U.S. interest. He also stressed he would "do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."
In recent months, the Bush Administration has been more open to beginning a dialogue with the same nations that it once referred to as the “axis of evil.” In July, the president sent a high-level official to Geneva to sit in on nuclear talks with Iran and authorized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to speak with North Korean diplomats about ending that country’s nuclear weapons program. Reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times noted the stark contrast between the administration’s current position about meeting with “foes” and its attitude several years ago.Further, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in May that we should "sit down and talk" with Iran. So did former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in March. As did Sen. Dick Lugar, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as far back as 2006.
In recent months, the Bush Administration has been more open to beginning a dialogue with the same nations that it once referred to as the “axis of evil.” In July, the president sent a high-level official to Geneva to sit in on nuclear talks with Iran and authorized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to speak with North Korean diplomats about ending that country’s nuclear weapons program. Reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times noted the stark contrast between the administration’s current position about meeting with “foes” and its attitude several years ago.
Further, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in May that we should "sit down and talk" with Iran. So did former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in March. As did Sen. Dick Lugar, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as far back as 2006.
Cookin' with Gas
Palin talked about standing up to oil companies and oil lobbyists, citing her work on getting a gas pipeline built in Alaska:
Palin: I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
Actually, construction hasn’t begun on the pipeline, and the project isn't quite a done deal. Palin signed legislation just last week that authorizes the state to give a license in 90 days to TransCanada to start developing the project. The state also can provide $500 million as seed money. She gets credit for moving the pipeline closer to realization after many years of talks. Palin pushed for legislation that would allow a private company to build the 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline, instead of oil companies, which she said were moving too slowly on the issue.In an Aug. 27 press release, Palin indicated that there was still work to be done before the project would become a reality:
Palin, press release, Aug. 27: After dreaming of a natural gas pipeline for more than 30 years, Alaskans have now created the framework for the project to advance. This legislation brings us closer than we’ve ever been to building a gas pipeline and finally accessing our gas that has been languishing for so many decades on the North Slope.
Washington Post energy correspondent Steven Mufson wrote that the major oil companies have opposed the pipeline project, saying it wasn’t economically feasible. Yet, ConocoPhillips and BP have proposed their own gas pipeline that would compete with the state-backed project. TransCanada estimates it will take 10 years to finish the pipeline, according to its application to the state, and it will cost about $26.5 billion – not $40 billion as Palin said. As for Palin having “stood up to ... the Big Oil companies,” as she said in her speech, she has on this issue, not on others. Oil is, after all, incredibly important to Alaska’s economy. About 80 percent of the state budget comes from oil and gas taxes and royalties. Palin is in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore areas, a position she shares with oil companies.
Obama, Aug. 8: …the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
McCain, Aug. 8: The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course.
Naked Gun
Giuliani also bungled a reference to McCain's Navy record:
Giuliani: And being a "Top Gun" kind of guy, he became a fighter pilot.
Actually, McCain wasn't a fighter pilot at all, much less "top gun" among that very specialized group. McCain was a bomber pilot, and he himself makes this clear on page 173 of his book "Faith of my Fathers": "I trained exclusively in the A-4 Skyhawk, the small bomber that I would soon fly in combat missions." The aircraft is formally called a "Light Attack Bomber" by Boeing, successor to McDonnell-Douglas, the company that made it. It's true that a few A-4s were flown by the Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar, California – but they played the role of "bogies," which the fighter pilots in training were supposed to intercept and shoot down.
Giuliani might be forgiven for his mistake, as he never served in the military himself.
Too Good to Check?
The biggest whopper of the night may have come from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who charged that Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.” It may sound like a great line, but it’s not true – not even close. Palin garnered 651 votes in 1996 and 909 votes in 1999 in her two races for mayor of Wasilla, according to the city. Biden, despite withdrawing from the race after the Iowa caucus, got 79,754 votes in the Democratic primaries.– by Viveca Novak, with Brooks Jackson, Jess Henig, Lori Robertson and D'Angelo Gore
SourcesBowlen, Scott. "Palin: It's about service to people." Ketchikan Daily News. 9 Aug. 2006.Anchorage Daily News. "Where they stand; Running for Governor 2006." 22 Oct. 2006.Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Wasilla, Alaska Benefited from Nearly $27 Million in Earmarks from 1996 to 2002." 2 Sep. 2008.Hamburger, Tom, Richard Simon and Janet Hook. "McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin." The Los Angeles Times. 3 Sep. 2008.Hamburger, Tom. "Palin relied on earmark system she now opposes." The Los Angeles Times. 1 Sep. 2008.Long, Ray and Christi Parsons, “Campaign Finance Reform not Without Its Loopholes; Edgar calls Ethics Legislation ‘Significant Step’”. Chicago Tribune, 13 Aug. 1998.Cooper, Helen. “A New Openness to Talks With That ‘Axis of Evil’.” The New York Times, 22 July 2008Eggen, Dan. “U.S. Talks With Iran Exemplify Bush's New Approaches.” The Washington Post, 20 July 2008 Sciolino, Elaine and Steven Lee Myers. “Policy Shift Seen in U.S. Decision on Iran Talks.” The New York Times, 17 July 2008Obama, Barack. “Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: AIPAC Policy Conference.” Barackobama.com, 4 June 2008, accessed 4 Sept. 2008 The New York Times. “Transcript: Fourth Democratic Debate,” 4 June 2007 Yen, Hope. "Two Senators Say U.S. Should Pursue Nuclear Talks with Tehran." Associated Press, 17 April 2006.Bender, Michael. "Obama Would Consider Off-Shore Drilling as Part of Comprehensive Energy Plan," Palm Beach Post, 1 Aug. 2008.DeYoung, Karen. "Gates: U.S. Should Engage Iran With Incentives, Pressure," The Washington Post." 15 May 2008.Hall, Camilla and Mike Schneider. "Kissinger Backs Direct U.S. Negotiations With Iran." Bloomberg.com. 14 March 2008.McCain, John and Salter, Mark, "Faith of my Fathers," Random House 1999; 173. Williams, Roberton and Gleckman, Howard. “An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans." Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, 15 Aug 2008. Boeing Corp. "A4D/A-4 Skyhawk Light Attack Bomber," Web page giving description and brief history of A-4 Skyhawk, accessed 4 Sep 2008. The Skyhawk Association, "Navy Fighter Weapons School, 'TOP GUN'" Web page accessed 4 Sep 2008.Application for License, Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. Project Cost Estimate. TransCanada, 30 Nov. 2007.“Palin Signs AGIA License Bill,” press release. State of Alaska Governor’s Office, 27 Aug. 2008.Ordonez, Isabel and Cassandra Sweet. “Conoco Proceeds With Alaska Gas Pipeline; Wants Exxon To Join.” Dow Jones Newswires, 8 Aug. 2008.Mufson, Steve. “Sarah Palin and Big Oil.” Energy Wire, PostGlobal, washingtonpost.com, 30 Aug. 2008.Sutton, Anne. “Alaska gov. backs license for natural gas pipeline.” The Associated Press, 23 May 2008.1996 Election Results. City of Wasilla, Alaska. Cityofwasilla.com, accessed 4 Sept. 2008.1999 Election Results. City of Wasilla, Alaska. Cityofwasilla.com, accessed 4 Sept. 2008.2008 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses and Conventions. Democratic Convention. The Green Papers, accessed 4 Sept. 2008.Vock, Daniel C. "Obama's record in the Illinois Senate." Stateline.org, 25 Aug 2008.Vock, Daniel C. "Obama; He puts ethics on the agenda." Illinois Issues Online, Feb 2007.
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GOP Convention SpinLieberman and Thompson make misleading claims about Obama on Day Two of the party in St. Paul.
With the steady nerves of a surgeon, Sarah Palin, wielding her scalpel of derogatory remarks, sliced open the wounds of division and hostility which have characterized the Bush/Cheney years and turned Americans against Americans.
She values aggression. She is proud that, as she put it, lipstick is the only difference between her, as a hockey mom, and a pit bull.
The audience loved her hostile remarks about “liberals,” the “elite media,” the “Washington elite,” and the “permanent political establishment.” They loved it best when she ridiculed community organizers--they don’t, she said, with a curl of her lip, have “actual responsibilities.”
Palin claims, for herself and those who share her viewpoint, Americanism. She is, she says, from a small town, where people “do some of the hardest work in America…grow our food…run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country in good times and bad, and they’re always proud of America.” She is, as an RNC attendee told a TV interviewer the next day, “one of the normal Americans like us.”
“Like us.”
It is this division of Americans into “us” and “them” that politicians and talk show hosts who engage in hostility and derision actively work to maintain.
If we’re not Palin’s—or Giuliani’s, or Huckaby’s, or Romney’s, or Bush’s, or Cheney’s, or McCain’s-- “us,” -- if if we differ-- we’re “them.
I call on Palin's "better angel" to study this line from her speech: "No one expects us all to agree on everything, but we are expected to govern with integrity, and goodwill..."
To dissect a candidate’s political record is one thing, and is of course fair in a political race, but to mock a persons past profession is disgraceful. Especially when that profession is an honorable one. At just 23 Barak Obama was director of the Developing Communities Project, a non-profit, church-based community organization who’s sole purpose was to give low-income residents of Chicago’s south side a voice in their government, and an outlet for their concerns. Some of Mr. Obama’s accomplishments in those three years of his young life included ensuring asbestos removal in Altgeld Gardens public housing development, setting up a job training and a college preparatory tutoring program. He even pressed local officials to fill potholes, an undertaking I imagine even his biggest opponents on the streets of D.C. can appreciate. It is unimaginable that in his 6 years as Mayor of the largest City in the Country, Rudolph Giuliani, has no idea of the importance of a Community Organizer to the citizens he governed. I also found it funny that Sarah Palin belittled Barak Obama’s work as a Community Organizer then touted her own past as a member of the PTA, which for her information is a Community Organization. Gov. Palin also owes not only her right to vote, but her ability to hold public office to Community Organizers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. I feel the Republican Party disgraced the memory of the hundreds of Civil Leaders of the past who sparked such things as The American Civil and Woman’s Rights Movements, and countless Urban and Rural Development Organizations, as well as insulted current Community Organizers working to bring a better quality of life to their neighbors.
Tonight we witnessed an enormous lack of responsibility from the Republican Party as Rudy Giuliani stood up at the podium and incited the chant from the audience “drill, baby, drill.” This viewpoint was also backed up shortly after by Sarah Palin, and it shows the stance of these politicians to be one of instant gratification instead of a carefully thought out plan for the future of America. Clearly they have not looked into the long term effects of their destructive and pointless actions, and really, how can they? They live so deeply within the pockets of the oil industry and its lobbyists, it is quite obvious very little light or intelligence filters in.
The deficit of conscientiousness among Palin and Giuliani in their speeches tonight was truly saddening. Palin and Giuliani have shown a complete lack of compassion for America, her beautiful lands, wild animals, and the legacy of leaving something for our children and their children to enjoy. Instead of focusing attention on current technologies and sources of alternative energies they go with the same old tired oil drilling approach. It has been widely acknowledged that drilling offshore will not gain us anything for over 20 years! Yes, I agree that we should be doing something, but in 20 years do we really still want to be completely dependent on oil? We should be pouring those drilling resources and monies into alternative sources that will help out now, like solar and wind powers. These forms of energy are unlimited, available, and ready for clean consumption right now!
The corruption runs rampant among Republicans who want to see the wealthy oil executives steal even more from the American people and destroy the few areas of untouched natural beauty left. It is wrong, it is disgusting, and it needs to be stopped. The only hope we have for the future is in Barack Obama who doesn’t owe dirty oil anything and can finally move us forward as a nation. I have great faith in the American people and I know when Obama is President of the United States, we will re-emerge as the global leader in alternative energy for a very bright, clean, and ethically responsible future.
I decided to watch Gov. Sara Palin’s speech last night at the RNC because other than the fact that she is a “hockey mom,” is a former mayor of the very small town of Wasilla, is the current governor of Alaska, and an evangelical who supports pro-life policies and teaching creationism in public schools, I really don’t know anything about her, the policies she has endorsed (besides the ones listed), or anything about her political career. What foreign policy experience does she have? What are her views about national security and healthcare? None of these questions were answered unfortunately but the speech was entertaining (and that about all it was). Before I talk about her speech though I wanted to discuss the speech Rudy Giuliani made before she came out.
In its entirety Giuliani’s speech was laughable. Is a speech with any substance from the Republican Party too much to ask for these days? It’s really astounding that a former mayor would belittle the work of community organizers across the nation by trying to make Obama’s work as a community organizer a humorous fact. Obama was 24 when he first became a community organizer and turned down high paying jobs to be one. Giuliani spat in the faces of people who are trying to make a difference and it is really sad that he would do so.
And what was the deal with the chant: “Drill baby drill?” Are they serious? They make it seem that this is the only direction that the Republican Party wants to take to solve our energy problems. They mention other options every once in a while like building more nuclear plants but fail to give any specifics about where the money would come from to build these plants, what would be done with all of the nuclear waste, and how these plants would be kept safe so they wouldn’t pose a risk to national security.
Gov. Palin’s speech although very thoughtful and well given also contained little insight into what she has done as a governor and what real foreign policy experience she has. I’ve been looking for any instances were she would have been involved in foreign affairs since I heard that she would be the VP on McCain’s ticket and I still haven’t found anything. And being governor of a state that’s close to Russia is not foreign policy experience.
She went through all of the main (And utterly tiring) political stump speech points. Obama is risky! Obama will destroy your family! Obama raise your taxes (Completely ridiculous and untrue). It sounded like one of McCain’s fear-Obama commercials. The time when she mentioned how Obama would raise taxes really got on my nerves because right after she said that she immediately said, “Let me be more specific,” and then instead of actually talking about Obama’s complex and comprehensive plans just listed different types of taxes that he would raise, “income tax, social security tax, death tax,…etc,” which is not specific at all. In actuality most of us know that Obama’s tax plan only affects family whose annual income exceeds $250,000 a year (roughly the top 1% of the nation’s population). Her entire speech was insightful only in the way that it showed how out of touch the Republican Party is. The nation better not fall for the same tricks as it did in 2000 and 2004. Nothing good will come of it.
I've remained relatively quiet about my political preferences lately. Mostly out of necessity and politeness because my fiancee is in the military and most of the officer's wives I socialize with blindly support their husband's "Commander in Chief" and his party. I try not to engage people in political debate during otherwise genial social activities. When politics isn't on the table to begin with, I think it's inappropriate to ignite the fire sometimes.
This silence of mine, however, is about to change. Last night I watched the Republican National Convention in horror. Politician after politician stood up and spewed blatant lies about Obama and his campaign. Whether it was the person encouraging the crowd to chant, "ZERO! ZERO!" in reference to the experience of Obama and Biden, or Guiliani spewing insult after insult, I was completely disgusted.
It was actually hilarious to watch many of the Republicans bite their tongues in TV interviews when asked about Sarah Palin. You could tell they were thinking: "This is a trainwreck, but I have to bullshit my way out of this interview and seem supportive."
On the topic of Palin, her VP nomination was perhaps the most disgusting part of the convention. Yesterday, NPR's Fresh Air addressed several important issues about Palin's record that reinforces my belief that McCain's advisers failed to properly research her background and ended up with a last-minute "Hail Mary" when Lieberman and others that McCain preferred fell through. Palin is adamant, as is McCain, in her opposition to "earmarking" but the fact is that Palin earmarked nearly $11 million for her own town. When some of that funding was deemed unnecessary for the specific project it was requested for, did Palin give the money back? No. She found other ways to use our taxpayer dollars to her own advantage. Furthermore, what kind of message does it send that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant? No. It is NOT "okay" as many Republican figures have commented. Just because her daughter followed Palin's party line and refused an abortion does not mean that being completely irresponsible and uneducated about birth control and pregnancy prevention is "OKAY". In this day and age when pregnancy is glorified by celebrities and the media, now it's being glorified by the potential vice president??? We already have enough deadbeat parents running around in this country, raising children with no moral compass nor a sense of direction. We don't need our country's daughters to see anymore examples of people allowing or supporting young women to have children when they have their whole lives ahead of them.
And to think that our rights to choose as women could be threatened by a woman who has such disregard for her special needs child that she is willing to run for VP of the United States, a role that will demand ALL of her time??? I know many people with Down's Syndrome children and it is NOT a part-time job. These babies need special attention 24-7.
Obama is my choice now more than ever. I am PROUD to support him and to PROUD to oppose the Republican party that is clearly so full of HATE, desperation, greediness, and selfishness. Shame on you Giuliani. Shame on you John McCain for letting people stand up and mock others so unabashedly.
C.
Night Three of the Republication National Convention...
Is it just me or are there like barely any people of color at the Republican Convention? Or maybe that phrase to them means brunette. Seriously, Carly Fiorina had to darken down to back up Meg Whitman or it would have been non-stop blondes.Anyway, not that there's anything wrong with being rich. I just can't stand rich people whining the trickle down mantra. Hey, they got to their positions somehow--so can you. But the government shouldn't help you. Nope. And they're pretty upfront about if the rich folk's taxes go up, they'll just pass that burden along to everyone else...isn't that what they've done during the Bush and Reagan years anyway? Hypocrisy. The GOP ruins the economy and the surplus and then gripes about paying their fair share. It's okay for Bush to leave this country in tatters but don't expect anyone to pick up the pieces. You're on your own, as Barack and others have said.Well, as an American, I find that self-righteous attitude disgusting. They back up their personal luck stories with tales of the valiant folk who've fought and died for our country. As if only Republicans have served their country. My ancestors were here before the Revolutionary War and many served along the way. And being a tortured war hero doesn't mean you're automatically qualified to serve as president. Between Mitt Romney, Huck Finn Huckabee and blood-blathering Rudi Giuliani, it's getting pretty moist in the xCel center. Now, he's denigrating Obama for having worked as a community organizer.
Now it's a circus. Drunk people are turning beet red under their straw hats guffawing for the "nice" mayor who has tried to milk 9/11 for all its worth. "Change is not a destination, just like hope is not a strategy," he says. What does he know about improving the economy? The GOP is only about pillaging. Oh...and now he's complaining about the Dems not talking about Islamic terrorism. He's pushing his constituency for a Holy War. The idiot. Now he's saying Democrats have given up on Iraq and, therefore, have given up on America. Hello...W went to the wrong country! It wasn't Iraq that attacked us, it was Al Quaeda in Afghanistan.Giuliani is good at propaganda. You have to give him that.Oh, and now Governor Palin is on the stage. The cutaway shot is to the boy making eye-contact with his future mother-in-law...looks like he's about to cry. Talk about being able to deliver. I hope her daughter actually likes him. I wonder what Hillary Clinton is doing right now. This Palin woman is slick. She's a true believer. (Note to self...reread Eric Hoffer's book.) She's a threat and the Dems are going to need to make their case. Oh my...the audience is eating her up. There she goes telling the world her son's exact deployment date...why is that necessary? Oh...because it's 9/11. Duh.
Now she's addressing special needs families. "You will have a friend, an advocate in the White House." Great, but who's going to give us coverage for health insurance? She's definitely a politician. And just happens to mention hubby's 1/144th Yu'pik Inuit ancestry but says "eskimo".
Oh my...she grew up with the people who "are always proud of America." I wonder why, then, her husband was/is a member of the secessionist movement in Alaska? Oh, and now the baby is on the littlest daughter's lap. HAng on to him while daddy takes his bow."Being a small town mayor is like a community organizer except that you have actual responsibilities." A real zinger, Sarah. May I call you Sarah? Oh and a bunch of muscle men in suits are dragging a woman up the stairs...did she not clap enough for Princess Sarah? Oh my, she's gonna be a tough one to beat. Oh...and she's going to have a "servant's heart and carry (her)self in that spirit as vice president." Mmmmmmkay. Why the dis on community organizing though? Snarky.She's slick...kinda like Willy. She's lying about not wanting the bridge to nowhere. First she wanted it and when the Feds cut off funding, that's when she said, "thanks but no thanks" and kept the money!
Now she's talking about ravaging the North Slope of Alaska. And she's picking up the alternative fuels football. And she's really dissing Obama. Nasty.She's quite the cheerleader. I wonder how she debates. She's got those lies on her sleeve. Boy, if I could speak so quickly, I'd want to tell the truth, not obfuscate. She's got a real smarmy tone. Now she's rah-rah-ing the fact that John McCain is the only one to have served in the armed forces. See...guns matter.McCain might be smart. He picked a daughter-like shadow. Smart move on her part taking the baby in her arms after her family joining them onstage. And now there's John Mccain...he's seems pleasantly surprised. Okay, so if they win who's going to give him his Ritalin in the White House?
Rudy Giuliani, in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," made the claim that Sarah Palin would have been ready for 9/11.
In an interview Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Giuliani was asked, "If she were the president on 9/11, you would have been confident?" Giuliani responded: "I'd be confident that she'd be able to handle it. She's been a governor of a state, she's been mayor of a city."
In an interview Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Giuliani was asked, "If she were the president on 9/11, you would have been confident?"
Giuliani responded: "I'd be confident that she'd be able to handle it. She's been a governor of a state, she's been mayor of a city."
How many more republican surrogates have to say that this campaign is about fun in defense of the McCain commercials until somebody comes up with an ad that puts their statements in contrast to how Americans are suffering?
Just seen and heard it again with Giuliani...now who is out of touch with the American people...?
Giuliani failed to make interoperable communications between the NYC Fire and Police Departments a reality after the 1993 WTC bombing. This failure was probably responsible for several hundred deaths of our firefighters on 9/11/2001. Mayor Bloomberg has made it happen, one of the many reasons why I believe Mayor Mike is the one to hammer the Department of Homeland Security into a workable, effective, accountable government agency. (I still cannot believe people are voting for Giuliani for FEMA or DHS (or anything else) at our separate website for cabinet nominations at http://puredem.wordpress.com as recently reported by A.D.)
Great news! Today's NYTimes reports that, not only are the Fire and Police department fully interoperable, but
"Emergency medical workers can now contact the police directly via radio. Fire officials use information beamed down from police helicopters. Law enforcement officers and emergency service agencies hold joint drills at high-rise buildings, jails and the city’s tunnels. Seven years after the harsh lessons of the Sept. 11 attacks, New York City has improved the ability of its Police and Fire Departments to operate together. On Wednesday, these and other advances were enumerated before the Federal Communications Commission at a public hearing in Brooklyn on improving public safety through better communications among government and emergency agencies. Speakers at the hearing focused on the lack of a national broadband public safety network, noting that some cities, including New York, Washington and Philadelphia, had improved agencies’ ability to talk to one another on their local networks, while others had lagged behind. ..."
Speakers at the hearing focused on the lack of a national broadband public safety network, noting that some cities, including New York, Washington and Philadelphia, had improved agencies’ ability to talk to one another on their local networks, while others had lagged behind. ..."
below or at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/nyregion/31comm.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
In Republican circles here in Los Angeles a funk has set in, like a heavy fog that's rolled into Long Beach and squatted there on a gray, damp day. The name of this particular nebula is John McCain and the Right seems resigned to their November fate. I have many Republican friends and I can say in all honesty I cannot think of a single one that can even feign excitement regarding their odd choice in such a hot year.
There was a time when John McCain was a maverick. There's no doubt about that in my mind. I once respected the Senator, especially during times of hardship for him. I recall the 2000 primary season when Bush, aided by the rabid Rove, quietly trotted out disgusting 'whisper' campaigns about McCain's certain senility. His black, illegitimate daughter. His temper tantrums. Okay, that last one was probably true. But where, oh where did John McCain go? The maverick seems to have rode off into the sunset just in time for this year's general election. After courting, then dumping the religious nutballs of the right (see Hagee Hears A Whore), becoming enamored with the tax cuts for the rich he once railed against, not even showing up for Webb's GI bill vote and being surrounded at every turn by lobbyists within his camp, we're left with this husk of a man who could once claim greatness.
Back to my Republican friends: They're suicidal. They've lost the will to fight. After Giuliani, Romney and Huckabee, all they're left with is this tired, deflated, lost old man. I know the Obama camp wants to stay far away from that meme, but come on - the first Senate job McCain ever held was plunging a knife into Julius Caesar.
My friends are sad. And that makes me sad. Not that much. Not sad enough that I would ever wish them to win in November. But sad. I know they cry a lot when they're alone. But I have a cure for them. It won't be an easy pill to swallow. No, it's not Paxil. It's not even Xanax. It's a little something I call Obama. It's a cure filled with hope and change and the good news is that it's a one-time dosage, taken in November.
(Disclaimer: Obama may cause giddiness and swelling of the hope gland. Obama should not be taken by people with terminal hopelessness, downerism or batshit crazy pastors. If you experience a rapid acceleration of hopefulness while considering Obama, this is normal and the effects should even out eventually. If not, those considering Obama should DONATE money to offset the major effects of too much hopeful future thinking.)
As Hillary Clinton continues to lose ground to Barack Obama in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, the tone of her campaign continues to darken. Increasingly, it seems, Clinton is attempting to battle confidence and hope with cynicism and fear; and in doing so increasingly echoes scare tactics used by the Republicans against all Democrats, including Clinton herself. In the lead-up to the March 4 primaries in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont, Clinton has injected a new element of fear into the race with a new TV campaign ad clearly designed to play on voters' fears of terrorism, and to convince "security moms" in particular that Hillary is the only safe choice for President of the United States. With the images of sleeping children and the ominous ringing of a telephone in the background, the ad is reminiscent of those used by Mr. 9/11 himself, former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani:
"It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call, whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military - someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"
I want Barack Obama answering the phone. The tactics Clinton is attempting to use against Obama are tactics from the era of Bush, Cheney, and the Patriot Act - the era of 9/11, an era which is thankfully passing into history, though not without leaving us with quite a big mess to clean up. The beginning of the end for that era came on November 7, 2006, when the Democrats won control of Congress and began their campaign to win the White House. An ad like Clinton's would have worked well for Bush/Cheney in 2004; today it is a joke.
Today, in fact, it is Clinton herself who most has reason to fear: New poll numbers today indicate that, while Obama's lead in Texas has increased from 4 percentage points to 6 since yesterday, Clinton's lead in Ohio has slipped from 5 percentage points to 2 since Monday. The latest national polls, meanwhile, show Obama beating Clinton for the Democratic nomination by at least 3 and as many as 16 percentage points; and head-to-head polls consistently show Obama the favorite to beat John McCain in November. Events are quickly slipping out of Clinton's control and leaving her behind, while she tries desperately to hold them back. History demonstrates, however, that this is usually a loser's game.
The AP is reporting that Rudy Giuliani's campaign has asked staffers to go without pay in order to focus financial resources on Florida.
